goodsela Reviews

A Monster Calls (2016)

Not the monster film you might think

[7/10 · 28 December 2016]

I saw this film in preview yesterday and would like to warn people who have seen the trailer and think they would like to see an impressive monster film with the children.

WARNING: This is not a Christmas monster movie, neither is it a children's movie and it is certainly not a feel good movie.

The acting is first rate, the production values are excellent with a beautiful blend of cgi and painted animation, and the film is a good film. But the trailer suggests it might be a good old fashioned monster film and parents looking for a Christmas treat would be advised to steer clear. The theme is terminal illness, death and acceptance portrayed through the eyes of a young boy coming to terms with life's harsh reality.

This is not a fun film.

Django Unchained (2012)

isappointing (the D is silent)

[6/10 · 21 January 2013]

Many of us have grown up with Tarantino and in this film as others we can see he does some things well but in other areas he has not made any progress.

He is excellent at creating scenes of tension, in setting up a story where we see the main players with their conflicting interests and a genuine sense of tension. He did it back in Reservoir Dogs with an undercover cop, in Inglourious Basterds with a Jew-sheltering farmer and performs the same feat again in Django Unchained. What we have right up until the big reveal is a very good movie with a varied cast of individuals each with their own motivations. Lovely. But then it looks like Tarantino cannot get out of the knot he has tied himself. Maybe because he works alone he doesn't have the option of going to other scriptwriters to help him, and maybe there is no-one in the Tarantino camp who can be honest enough with him to tell him when it's not good enough, but right at the moment that Christoph Waltz shoots Leonardo Di Caprio the whole film falls apart.

It is almost as if Tarantino is saying "I can't think of a way out of this, I can't be bothered to work at an answer so here is an implausible gore-fest shootout to close the film."

The first half of the film is an 8, the second half is a 4. Quentin you need to get some people around you who are not in awe of you to the extent they can't tell you when bad is bad.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

The Roger Moore years

[6/10 · 27 December 2011]

An enjoyable ride? Certainly. But MI4 has lost a bit of edge that was already eroding in MI3. The franchise has pumped everything up again so that the set pieces require not just suspension of disbelief but downright expulsion. The action crosses the line and plants a foot firmly in cartoonville.

It reminds me of the Bond franchise in the Roger Moore years. The stunts became more ludicrous, the flippant one-liners more corny, and any tension that might have been there evaporated as a result.

Recently Bond has rebooted with more realism and more tension and still manages a couple of funny moments.

MI will lose its way if it goes any further down its current path.

Inception (2010)

Not as good as it thinks it is.

[7/10 · 20 July 2010]

Don't get me wrong. I am a big Christopher Nolan fan and would say that if anything lays down his genius it is Memento, but it is not Inception. True, the visuals are stunning, but today we can be very blasé about special effects because they come cheaply. I would have liked to see more of the flavour of being in a dream like the movie The Cell achieved (poor movie, great visuals), but there were two elements where Inception really fell down for me.

The first was that things were just TOO far fetched. I am happy to believe that we are several layers down in someone's dream-scape, that road bend and bridges create as you walk across them, all of that, but that a couch-potato chemist can suddenly drive like a secret service special agent whilst avoiding dozens of gun-toting trained security forces? It was too far and snapped me out of the film, and there were other instances too, you'll know if you saw the film.

The second was the lack of suspense when traversing the layers. It's been done before, most notably by The Matrix, and I didn't realise how well it was done there until Inception completely failed at communicating the tension between what's happening in one world and how it affects another.

Other than that the script is good, not too wordy (unlike The Matrix), the action is certainly driven and the cast all well chosen (except for Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

I assume the huge IMDb rating is because of the hype and because people haven't seen it twice yet. the film moves fast enough to make you miss the holes.

Four Lions (2010)

Chris Morris needs the discipline of movies

[27 May 2010]

You can read about this excellent film, and the plot and the humour in other reviews but I want to say this; Do you remember Monty Python? If you ever watched the TV shows it was in actuality several hours of screen time punctuated by a few gems of comedy. Sure there were plenty of comic ideas but very few laugh out loud moments. But when the Monty Python team were forced into writing a film with a restricted time limit and a specific theme they came up with gold (Life of Brian).

And so it is with Chris Morris. Take away the 6 hours of a TV series and variety of subject that the sketch show format forces you into and it has crystallised his humour into a very funny multi-layered original comedy that manages to explore its topic with depth, sophistication and slapstick all at once.

I just hope that Chris Morris stays in the movies and gives up TV.

Watchmen (2009)

Great - and terrible

[6/10 · 27 March 2009]

Watchmen looks at times like it might be THE comic book adaption, you know, the one which masters the transition from paper to screen without looking just 2-dimensional on second viewing and unwatchable on third viewing. Here how I break it down: After the first hour I was thinking "wow, this has powerful mise en scene, great visuals, intriguing plot and unexpected twists and turns. I am enjoying this ride" After the second hour I was thinking "Hey! When did this turn into the Fantastic Four 3?" (Not a good thing by the way).

After the third hour I was thinking "Wasn't this only meant to be 2.5 hours long? Now it's dragging too".

Never in my experience has a film fallen so far from initial potential to final frame. It's like they brought in a TV crew for the second half of the movie. The Smallville TV crew at that. Shame.

Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

Great movie - don't be put off by the "musical" tag

[8/10 · 22 March 2006]

John Turturro has created something very special here. Look at the cast list. The names alone make it a must-see for many cinema lovers, yet the description of musical might also put many off. Well don't worry. This film uses existing songs to enhance emotional statements at intervals throughout this gritty film. It mixes them with Brooklyn working life, some sex, lots of humour and pathos and fantastically it all works. The songs are used a la Dennis Potter and seep in and out of the narrative flow as easily as a gentle voice-over. Great performances by everyone but stunners from Kate Winslet (now that's a proper body), Elaine Stritch ("Every breath is a victory") and Christopher Walken, always riveting. James Gandolfini plays a slightly different Tony Soprano but that fits in just right. Quite simply a pleasure from first 'til last. Thank you John.