Reviews

An aquatic creature is captured by the Americans during the Cold War and held at a secure facility. A cleaner at the facility, Elisa Esposito, played by Sally Hawkins, who is mute, connects with the creature and because he is being badly treated arranges for his escape. He stays in her apartment and they fall in love.

This was winner of Best Film at this years Oscars so it must be good right. Well yes and no. The film does look fantastic, just beautifully shot throughout, and the performances by the main characters is excellent but...well it just did not do it for me.

I actually watched this films in 2 parts. I started watching it and after half an hour was just not enjoying it switched it off. It is a rental Blu-Ray, so the next day, to get my moneys worth, I decided to give it a second chance starting from where I had finished. It grabbed me a bit more this time and I watched it to the end.

I can see why some people love this film and rate it highly. Beautifully shot as I said, good performances, and a nice story. But the dark fantasy vibe that the film is wrapped up in did not work for me and I found it slow and a bit boring.

Only watch if you are a Guillermo del Toro fan, or lover of this style of film.

Years ago I used to be a big comic fan, and I have enjoyed all the Marvel films I have seen in the past few years. I'm also a big fan of Tom Hardy, this therefore was a must see film, despite the fact that the reviews I had seen were not overly positive.

Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock an investigative journalist who through his work become 'infected' by an alien symbiote called Venom. He then seeks to save the world.

Whilst this film is not quite up the, admittedly high, standard of Dr Strange, Deadpool and Ant Man & the Wasp for me I really enjoyed it. Tom Hardy is up to his usual standard and there are some good action sequences. Eddies conversations with his Venom-self add a nice extra dimension to the character. All in all a must watch for Marvel, Super-Hero and comic fans. My partner and I did wonder if they should have taken Venom into the x-rated comedy zone occupied by Deadpool but it is no problem that they did not.

Apparently Tom Hardy has signed up for 2 more Venom films - great news! There is so much that can be done with this character I cannot wait.

Great fun and recommended for all except those with no love of comic/superhero films.

Michael Caine plays Anton Vincent, a dictator of a unnamed country, who is overthrown in a coup d'etat, escapes to America and secretly takes refuge in the home of his teenage pen-pal Tatiana (Odeya Rush) and her mother Darlene (Katie Holmes).

I came across this film by accident, was intrigued by its synopsis, so I decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised.

The film is not a blockbuster, it is low budget, and low on action, but it is well paced and enjoyable with good performances by its main stars. This is one to watch when you want a gentle film to fill an hour and a half of your time.

Not for everyone maybe, especially action lovers, but well worth a watch.

Mark Whalberg plays James Silva a top CIA operative leading an elite combat team tasked with transporting a CIA whistleblower, Li Noor (Iko Uwais), 22 miles from a USA embassy to an airfield for extraction.

In deciding to see this film I read a selection of reviews on IMDB. The reviews were mixed, although when is that actually not the case, but I decided to watch it on the basis that some reviews suggested it was a decent, fast moving, action film, and the Mark Whalberg films I have seen I have enjoyed. Well seeing it was a mistake and I got very close to walking out before the end. I do think there was a good action film there but they failed to make it.

The biggest downer for me was the cinematography and editing which I thought was pretty poor. Much of the film is filmed in close-up and there is a lot of fast cutting. So when you have a single person on screen all you get is a far too close close-up of their head. And for action scenes you completely lose the whole effect of the scene in a blur fast cut close up images. The film contains there are a couple of what look to be good fight scenes, but you cannot tell because you cannot really see what is happening. This was a real shame because Iko Uwaimdbis can obviously do this kind of fight scene as he did in The Raid.

The other downer of this film is that I just did not care about the characters. I just did not engage with Whalberg's character or his team, or they did not engage with me, and so I did not care whether they achieved their objective not.

Any good points? Well I thought the story was overall a good one, with a nice twist, and the film is fast moving, but not being able to appreciate the action, and not liking the characters meant that none of that mattered.

I did not enjoy the film and so unfortunately cannot recommend it.