Oppenheimer (2023)

I have been looking forward to this film for over a year. Ever since I heard about it I knew I wanted to see it and my main worry going into the screening was similar to the worry I had when I went to see 'Last Night in Soho' was whether it would live up to my expectations. Like 'Last Night in Soho' I am relieved to say that those worries were unfounded. Oppenheimer is a brilliant film and probably my favourite Nolan film since 'Insomnia' (I have to state that I haven't seem 'Memento'). 

The film follows Oppenheimer (played superbly by Cillian Murphy) as he helps create the atomic bomb but in a way the film is actually about the complexities of Oppenheimer. How his relationship with women wasnt normal and how he was basically picked on by the U.S government because he may have been a communist even though the film shows that he may have liked the ideas of the communist party he wasnt a member of the party even though everyone around him seems to have been. Even after the bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the film focuses its attention on the security briefing hearings and how the U.S. government were trying their best to screw Oppenheimer and there is a mystery at the beginning of the film about what Oppenheimer and Einstein said to each other which we dont hear and its finally revealed at the end and in the hands of a lesser director it would have been an anti-climax but with Nolan, it becomes a lovely moment and worth the nearly 2 and a half hour wait.

Cillian Murphy is excellent as Oppenheimer and even though he is always good in whatever he is in he is on another level here. Robert Downey Jr almost steels the show for me as he is so horrible to Oppenheimer and deceptive that he makes you forget he was ever Iron Man. Emily Blunt is very good as Kitty in a role which is really tough to deliver convincingly because Kitty was a very complex person and Florence Pugh does well with her brief role as Jean Tatlock.

The film has the highest number of big names in one place since Avengers Endgame (probably more). There is Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti, Josh Hartnett, Matt Damon, Jack Quaid, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, James Remar & Gary Oldman and all of them are very good. Matt Damon was according to IMDB trivia, on a break from acting as a promise to his wife and the only condition for this break was that he could return to acting if Christopher Nolan came calling which he obviously did and its a great performance from Damon. His best probably since the Jason Bourne films.

Nolan deserves a lot of praise for this film. I was really disappointed with Tenet because I felt like it was Nolan being way too smart for his own good. Inception was a smart film but Tenet made that film feel like it was for dummies. This is a massive return to form. I thought that at 3 hours it was going to drag but it never did. I was NEVER bored at any point and 90 minutes films have felt longer than Oppenheimer. This is because Nolan always ensures something interesting is happening. He has written a screenplay which has lot of science in it but makes it clear enough so everyone can understand it (to a point). He also has all these big names and gives them enough material to shine and show what they can do. 

Oppenheimer is currently my favourite film of the year. Its the first 5 star film since 'The Banshees of Inisherin' and if this isn't my film of the year by the time we go into 2024 then I am really looking forward to what is yet to come. There is a great documentary called 'To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb' (https://boxd.it/HqSy) which is an excellent companion piece to this movie and shows how good the attention to detail was in 'Oppenheimer'

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (2023)

The first Mission: Impossible film in 5 years starts off a two part adventure which sees Ethan Hunt (and team) try and get a key to destroy an AI force known as 'The Entity'. This first part is basically going to try and get the two parts of the key and that is essentially the single plot of the movie which I don't mind because it keeps things simple and allows the action to take centre stage and that's why we pay to see these films. 

Like other MI films, this film has settings all over the world and makes the story feel a lot more epic and important. The chase scene in Rome was very much (as all the action scenes are) but I was reminded of the chase in Indiana Jones 5 and how tame and dare I say it....dull it seems in comparison to this. All the action scenes are very well done and even the exposition scenes in between were done in such a way that were entertaining. 

Tom Cruise is the king of these films and possibly even the action genre. He might be in his 60's but he still has the energy of someone half his age. All the supporting cast were great and there wasn't a weak link in the chain. Hayley Atwell & Pom Klementieff seem to have moved away from the MCU effectively as Grace and Paris respectively and I thought that Klementieff played a role similar to Dave Bautista played in Skyfall and just as well in my opinion. If I had an issue with the film is that it is slightly too long. It loses a bit of pacing just before we get to the Orient Express but if they had cut 10-15 minutes out of it then I would have rated this a bit higher. It's 163 minutes and to say that it could only lose 10-15 minutes and be better shows how good the rest of the film is.

I enjoyed the film very much and looking forward to the second part.

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Let’s be honest, the Insidious series isn’t the greatest in movie history. The first one was ok, the second was not great and I don’t even remember the third one with the fourth one being interesting but only because it featured Lin Shayne in the lead role. This one returns to the main family with Patrick Wilson taking the helm behind the camera. The set up is that Dalton is off to college but his suppressed memories start to come back and his relationship with his dad Josh (Wilson) is somewhat strained.

The first half of the film is very boring. There was very little in the way of plot and it seemed like people moping around and Dalton being a dick to his dad and his dad not really sure what he should be doing. Once the plot does get going things get good but it takes a long time to get to this stage and not even jump scares make any difference. There is one jump scare that I thought was quite good and it was when Dalton was in the MRI scanner and the monster climbs towards him. 

It’s not the worst film in the series but it’s not the best. The first half really lets the film down because if I was reviewing the second half then this would be a pretty decent horror film but sadly he lack of action, the lack of any energy from the film or actors does the film no favours. I thought that Patrick Wilson does a good job in the directors chair but I think that the script lets him down. Ty Simpkins is the real star oft the film but doesn’t come across very well to begin with as he is horrible to pretty much everyone but does mellow out. 

The film does feature Rose Byrne at the beginning and at the end and she’s fine in that but to be honest I don’t think her limited involvement in the story was because of her availability but because there was little enough for Patrick Wilson to do that it would have been just as big a waste of Byrne if she were more involved in the film. 

I have a feeling that this film is not going to be the last in the series because like most Blum films they are cheap to make and will make way more than their budget back. I hope in the next instalment there is more thought put into the plot. 

On a side note, when I went to the cinema I had never seen so many people get up and down than during this screening. It was lunchtime on a Saturday so there was a decent number in the screening and yet people were getting up and down showing that people weren’t that engaged in the story. 

Rating - 2.5/5

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

It’s been about 12 years since i saw my last Transformers movie. I saw the first in 2007 and enjoyed it, the second one was such a depressing experience that I went home and watched the animated 1986 movie to remind myself what a good  Transformers movie was like, I watched the next one but gave up on the series because it became clear that Michael Bay was a hack director who was ruining the series. So because I knew Unicron was the baddie in this film, I thought that I would give the series another go.

The first thing I noticed about this film was that the plot was much better than the Michael Bay films. There was a bit too much establishing how tough things were for Noah and his family but I understand that they have to set the character up so that we cared but I personally could have done without that. Noah is a good character who is played well by Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback is always good and whilst this isnt the best performance she has given, I thought she was very good in this. There was a nice balance and dynamic between the two characters and they worked well together.

Inevitably the film has to be about robots hitting each other and it is done way better than in the Michael Bay films because you can actually see what is going on and as a result can get emotionally connected with it. Unicron is very well realised and his size means it cant get involved in the plot as much as most baddies could so the film comes up with Scourge who is an effective second villain.

The film is directed by Steven Caple Jr who directed the weakest in the Creed series (2) does a very good job of keeping things moving and interesting. In the hands of a lesser director, this would have been a mess but because of the care that Caple Jr put into the movie, I found myself caring about the humans and the robots and was able to follow what was going on. 

I very much enjoyed Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. This series is never going to be breaking into anyone’s Top 5 but i thought it did what it needed to and it did it very well and restored my faith in the series. Very much looking forward to 

Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny (2023)

Indiana Jones is a series that is much loved. Personally I think that Last Crusade is the best one of the original trilogy but i could accept peoples argument for the others being their favourite. The film sees Indy travelling with his god-daughter played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and get two pieces of a dial which Mads Mikkelsen’s Dr Juergen Voller is trying to get so he can go back in time to change the outcome of the Second World War.

Harrison Ford is as good as ever as Indy although the de-aging was slightly off pointing. It’s not that he didn’t look like 1980’s Indy but he didn't sound like 1980’s Indy so there was a mish-mash of two Indy’s which at first was off putting.

The main problem with the film is that Helena Shaw is clearing being set up as the new lead but she is so unlikeable that no one would really care about her. She actually admits that she is only looking for the dial because she wants the fame. This is what they want their strong female lead’s motivation to be. Her lack of connection is not helped by the fact that Phoebe Waller-Bridge is just terrible as Helena. I haven’t seen Fleabag but either she messed up what the character was suppose to be or the screenplay did but something went wrong because you need the character to be likeable to a certain extent and its well in the second hour of the film before she becomes more likeable but by that point no one really cares.

The less said about how stupid the time travel portion of the film, the better. I never thought that they could come up with a worse idea than aliens in a Indy film, but they managed it with this film and it was as this point the film went off the rails for me. Up until this point, the film at least (despite its flaws) came across as an Indy film but then it was like the writers threw their hands up in the air and admitted they didnt know what to do with the plot. That is where $300 million can get you. Remember that this film cost $300 million dollars ($350 million depending on other reports).

I like James Mangold as a director but to be honest can’t see what he was able to bring to the picture. Logan was a brilliant movie and arguably one of the best featuring a Marvel character but this was a massive disappointment and it’s a shame that it turned out the way it did. Dial of Destiny is not as bad as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but that was an easy bar to clear. But there is no way on earth that anyone involved in this film can say with their hand of their heart that this is the way that they wanted Indiana Jones to end. It’s clear that they were trying to make Helena Shaw the new Indy but this was such a bad attempt to spawn a spin-off that I doubt we will be seeing Helena in any films anytime soon. This film exists purely because….. I don’t actually know what. It has been 15 years since Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and no one was really itching to see an 81 Indiana Jones hobbling around and there didnt really seem to be much enthusiasm for this film other than the desire to bring out a recognisable franchise back to help Disney line their pockets because everything else seems to be failing (mainly at Marvel).

Goodbye Indy, at least we will have the trilogy to remember you by.

Rating - 3.5/5