Reviews

The third entry in Brosnan's tenure as 007 is action packed with plenty to enjoy but somehow lacks the sheer excitement and scale of the previous two films.

Robert Carlyle and Sophie Marceau have fun as the main villains and Judi Dench is ever solid as M but Denise Richards really wasn't a great bit of casting. She feels constantly out of place in the James Bond world, and thoroughly one dimensionally written as a follow on from the excellent Michelle Yeoh in TND. All the writers can think to do with her is make her the literal butt of the most juvenile jokes and the obvious age gap with Brosnan just does not work. They have absolutely zero chemistry whereas Brosnan and Marceau do.

Great to see Robbie Coltrane back one more time (he has the best line in the film!) and nice M16 world building with the return of Tanner from Goldeneye and Robinson from Tomorrow Never Dies. They lend a wonderfully British spirit to proceedings and act as glue for the world of 90s Bond. Just a shame not to have Joe Don Baker back as Wade!

Not at all terrible but not amazing either!

This isn't so much a film with a driven story or narrative, but more a brooding introspection on American manifest destiny and greed. I'll always remember the first time I saw Dances With Wolves, in particular the scene where they encounter the buffalo killed only for their hides. Butcher's Crossing essentially takes that scene and runs with it.

While Cage plays a singular character, he's more an embodiment of a particular point in American history; brutal and bloody but ultimately fleeting and pointless. It's a powerful performance from him, not over the top or off the wall as he often can be, but quiet, introspective and with a malice and rage burning below the surface.

It could be said that the central characters lacked a defining narrative but that's not hugely important here. I think this film was much more about mood and capturing the futility of exploiting a commodity until there is nothing left, not because it must be done but simply because it can be done.

Some stunning cinematography and an important theme make Butcher's Crossing well worth a watch and it most certainly deserves more than the 5.7 out of 10 it's currently getting on IMDB!

Peter Weir creates a masterful feeling of oppression and claustrophobia here, from the hostile terrain and animals to the pervasive sense of extreme heat coming off everything. The beautiful flute heavy score accentuates the stunning landscapes while instilling a sense of ever pervading dread.

Perhaps the film's greatest quality is the lack of resolution to the central mystery, something which enraged critics of the time but imparts the finished film with a far greater scope. So much is left to the imagination that you can infer your own theories as to what happened. Lots of references to Poe and dreams within dreams give this a similar feeling to some of David Lynch's work, Miranda being an almost proto-Laura Palmer, albeit in the Victorian era.

Beguiling, beautiful and wonderfully mysterious, Picnic at Hanging Rock is an excellent and very unique thriller!

The Neverending Story may seem like a simple 1980s fantasy film but its powerful underlying themes of growing up and the loss of childlike innocence run deeply within the narrative.

The sequence with Artax in the swamp of despair has traumatised many a child over the years but the real kicker of the film is the Rock Biter's speech about his hands. Fantasia may seem to be saved in the end, but this is an illusion. A memory of a world that can no longer be that exists now only in nostalgic remembrance, the perfect metaphor for the loss of Bastian's mother in the real world.

Like Watership Down before it, this is dark children's fantasy with real depth, superbly brought to life by Wolfgang Peterson.

Personally, I found this one a rather polarising affair. On the plus side there were some rather good moments of tension and an excellent electronic score that felt reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's work on William Friedkin's Sorcerer. Given both film's explosive narratives I'm thinking this was intentional.

Whereas Sorcerer sets up its characters first and then pushes them into a claustrophobic story, this film begins that way but gradually intercuts between the present timeline and flashbacks to the characters to accentuate and often prolong the tension in the main plot. This works well the first time but becomes a bit repetitive as a narrative device.

Where the film falls apart for me is in its central message. The characters show little to no concern for their actions, with only one thinking to contemplate what their plan will do to normal people that they will impact. Had there been a more balanced set of consequences for the characters they might have come across less arrogant and wilfully vengeful in their actions.

I got major John Carpenter vibes in lots of scenes so was stoked to see that director Juel Taylor cites They Live as a huge influence. This film definitely shares the Sci-Fi buddy element, this time a trio, with a script that is consistently funny and intelligently written. I'm sure it will offend some people but is presented in such a way as to be obviously satirical, but in the best possible way.

The lead trio of John Boyega, Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx have a superb comedic chemistry and there's even a bit of fun support from Kiefer Sutherland!

Hilarious and excellently paced, this is a slick debut from Taylor and I'm really looking forward to seeing more.

There's a certain magic to The Fabelmans that makes it instantly feel like a classic Spielberg film. This is obviously helped no end by the fact he is essentially making a film about himself and his family growing up but it none the less stands head and shoulders above anything in his output of the last 25 years.

Gabriel LaBelle gives a nuanced and often very funny performance in the lead and in certain scenes he really does look uncannily like a young Spielberg. The scene where he shows his mother the film is fantastically acted by both Labelle and Michelle Williams and really shows that he will be a talent to watch in the future.

The scenes of Sammy's early forays into filmmaking are also a joy to watch, capturing the magic of cinema and the carefree nature of being young. Paul Dano is superb as the father and there's a wonderful cameo from David Lynch playing John Ford to top things off!

A powerful and triumphant return to form for Spielberg!

Even after almost 40 years, watching the original 'trilogy' of Indiana Jones films is still a joyous experience. The sheer craft of every part of the production is awe inspiring and everything great escapist cinema is supposed to be. The whole genre of the action serial that Indiana Jones' character so brilliantly rejuvenated is celebrated in every frame.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a mess, and this was particularly sad because the original triumvirate of Spielberg, Lucas and Ford were all there. Save for a couple of scenes it did little more then affirm that things should have ended with Last Crusade.

Where do you go from there?

Well, we now have our answer with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. To put it simply, if you've ever wondered if it would be possible to make a worse Indiana Jones film than Crystal Skull, then you need wonder no more. It is possible, they have made it and it's in cinemas now.

The opening prologue with a de-aged Harrison Ford does its best to mimic the classic films and at least has a good pacing. The second act of the film drags like an anchor and the last act just loses it completely in awful CGI and plot. The villains are utterly wasted and carry no menace at all, and worst of all, the main character that we are paying to see is boring, grumpy and written like he's a footnote in his own franchise.

Then we come to the sticky issue of Mutt Williams. I hated the character but this does not mean I agree with his unceremonious removal from the franchise by the writers.

Writing Mutt out completely must have seemed to the writers like a wonderful idea that they thought fans would love but erasing a bad character isn't nearly as clever as rehabilitating one and making people appreciate them more. Shia LaBeouf is a very different actor now to the one he was 15 years ago, and I think he should have got a shot. Hell, even if they had recast him it would have been better than what we got.

It's also staggering to me that Ke Huy Quan wasn't involved, especially after his Oscars win. What an amazing story we could have had with Indiana Jones and a grown up Short Round searching for an MIA Mutt in Vietnam, and encountering some ancient relic along the way. But alas, that is not to be!

So to sum up, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade truly are wonderful films.

Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny is not a wonderful film. It's damned awful.

And Crystal Skull, an overlooked and unfairly maligned masterpiece? Hell no, it's still an absolute turkey. It's just no longer the biggest!

An utterly terrible and ridiculously stupid film that makes a mockery of the remarkable true events.

I find it positively extraordinary that the film makers had such an amazing true story to adapt, and yet felt the need to add so many nonsenical subplots and so much added peril. Like being on a plane with a dead pilot isn't pretty much as bad as it gets!

About as accurate as this film gets is that there was a guy called Doug who landed a plane, everything else is just unecessary. It's a shame as Dennis Quaid seemed like a good bit of casting but he can't breathe life into this mess.

Avoid unless you fancy a laugh and treat yourself to a listen of the real ATC conversations of the real Doug landing the real plane. They are on Youtube and a far better use of time than watching this trash!