Tomb Raider (2018)

The Tomb Raider video games are brilliant. I can remember playing them when I was growing up and there is a cheesiness to the Angelina Jolie movies that came out in the early 2000’s. Lara Croft underwent a change and she became a grittier searcher of ancient artifacts. Alicia Vikander takes on the role and is the ideal choice compared to the Lara Croft in the current video game series.

Lara at the start is acting like she is poor as she is in a boxing club and does not have the funds to pay but is doing courier work to pay the bills. The reason that she doesn't want to collect her inheritance is because she doesn't want to admit her father is dead even though he’s been gone for seven years. Lara is on a journey to discover the location of Himiko’s tomb. Himiko is the mythical Queen of Yamatai who is said to command the power over life and death

I do think that Vikander does make a good Lara Croft. She pulls off the action scenes very well and whilst she wouldn't have been my first choice to play the role, she more than proved the doubters wrong. Despite the weird way the character was written at the beginning, when she becomes the Lara we know then Vikander can show why she was the right choice. Credit has to go to Uthaug for making an action film whilst still remaining true (visually at least) to the source material. It did feel in several shots like they could have been lifted from the game.

The issue with the film though is that the first half of it is quite good but then the film just descends into a sort of film that we have seen many times before. There is a hint of Indiana Jones but it never felt like it was doing anything new or exciting. It was going through all the beats that we would expect from the Tomb Raider games but not delivering it in a way which felt fresh. I wanted to like this film far more than I actually did and despite the attention to detail to the game and how good Vikander was, it did feel like a missed opportunity and its difficult to say if there are going to be any more movies.

All the Money in the World (2017)

All the Money in the World is based on a true story but the more interesting news about this film is the fact that just six weeks before it was due to be released, Ridley Scott chose to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer so that the film would be released. The film tells the story of Jean-Paul Getty Jr who is kidnapped and held for a $17 million ransom but his grandfather Jean-Paul Getty who at this time is the richest man in the world wont pay a penny. Mark Wahlberg is tasked with finding him.

There’s a moment at the beginning of the film where Plummer tells a story about a Minotaur statue is worth $1.2 million but later on when Michelle Williams wants to sell it to raise some money realises that they are sold in a gift shop. This is quite a downbeat moment just when you think things are starting to go well. There is always a sense that Wahlberg and Williams are just one step behind finding Getty Jr. If I had one issue is that I think it drags on a little bit too long.

The performances are astonishing. I think that Christopher Plummer is the star of this film and bearing in mind how little time he had to prepare for this role, its amazing that the performances as the way it is. Imagine what he could have done if he had been given more time. I like the character because he is obsessed with money and there is a great scene where he is talking about how he spent an hour negotiating with some market trader just to save a couple of dollars. Mark Walhberg is one of those actors who has a rather chequered career. When he’s bad he is in films like The Happening and when he’s good, he is in films like this. Michelle Williams also deserves a lot of credit because she spends 80% of the movie being looking for her son so there aren’t any laughs to be had.

This isnt the sort of film you would expect Ridley Scott to direct really. Its very grounded in reality and when you think of Ridley Scott you think Alien or The Martian or something other worldly. Despite this being one of the most grounded films I think he has ever done, its still a brilliantly told story and Scott does a good job of increasing the tension as the film progresses. I would like to see the Kevin Spacey version just to see how different it would be but I think that the decision to replace Spacey was the right one so that the film could be released but also that Plummer was brilliant and made the film even better. This is a brilliant film and I think it might be one of Ridley Scott’s best films. Not quite on par with Alien but pretty close.

The Post (2018)

The Post tells the story of the Washington Post newspaper trying to publish a story about the pentagon papers. Meryl Streep play Kay who is the owner of the Washington Post and Tom Hanks as Ben who is the executive editor. The poster is simply those two which is perhaps all the marketing that you need and when you add Steven Spielberg to the mix then you have a film that naturally sells itself.

Even though this has a very impressive cast including Bob Odenkirk, Bradley Whitford and Bruce Greenwood just to name a few, the film and story really centre around Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. Streep’s performance of Kay is very similar to Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’, it was a little distracting at times but I did think it still a good performance as someone who wants to do the right think but is being told to squash the story for the sake of her paper. Tom Hanks’ Ben is someone that drives the story and is very excited with what is about to happen and is very confident in what the paper has to do so is the opposite of Kay.

The film is essentially people talking in rooms and the fact that Spielberg manages to make this work shows how good of a director he is. This film would be a great double feature with the 1976 film ‘All the Presidents Men’, this film enda at the point where All the Presidents Men starts and this was almost certainly by design.

The Post isn't the sort of film that you would think off when you say Steven Spielberg but that doesn't mean that its any less of a film than say the Indiana Jones film and yet The Post is a very well told story that isn't perhaps the most exciting story but is done in a way that is dramatic and at times quite tense. I enjoyed The Post and think its worth watching although it might not be in Spielberg’s top 10.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

After being very impressed with the Force Awakens and liking Rogue One, there were high hopes that Episode 8 would continue to good work but sadly this is a big disappointment and comes close to undoing all the great work that J.J. Abrams did in Episode Seven. The film sees Luke Skywalker return after his blink and you’ll miss it cameo at the end of the last film. He is basically living as a hermit on an island and Rey is trying to bring him back. It was good to have Mark Hamill back and was the best thing in this film. I thought that Skywalker’s reluctance to coming back was quite smart and helped build up to his big scene with Kylo Ren.

The main problem is the structure of the film. It feels like it is going at half speed. I thought that the whole casino scene was thrown in to give Poe something to do. Poe was one of the driving forces in Force Awakens but is given next to nothing to do. Then there is the Rose character who just seems such a wasted opportunity. She always seemed like a sulky teenager who whines quite a lot and is thrown into the centre of this story without really doing anything to deserve it. Also I thought that Snode was suppose to be the new Emperor and yet was killed off in this film which seems stupid to me.

This was the last film that Carrie Fisher did before she died. Episode Eight came out just a week or so before she passed and it gives her scenes a new meaning. There is one shot where she is floating through space and I know that some people would be annoyed by this anyway but even if she hadn’t passed away I would still like this scene because in this whole film I thought she was fantastic in the entire movie.

The Last Jedi is a disappointing film. I think that because Force Awakens was such a good film this seems quite dull in parts which for a Star Wars film is not a good thing. I think the fault of this has to lay at Rian Johnson’s door who has decided to pretty much do his own thing without paying any attention to what J.J. Abrams did in Force Awakens.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

I’ve never been a big fan of Agatha Christie or her work. It’s not that I think they are terrible but I’ve never read the books and only seen brief parts of mainly Poirot played in the UK by David Suchet. However a big screen version of Murder on the Orient Express was something that I needed to see.

The opening scene sees Poirot solving a crime and the way that he does it is very good and sprinkled with good humour. I think this does a good job of showing people new to the character what they can expect. It’s simple and brief. Soon the film progresses to the train where the lions share of the movie is set.

As Poirot, Kenneth Branagh is very good. He manages the humour and shows the characteristics that are part of the character but I was never aware that he had been in love. That moustache is outrageous and I spent quite a bit of time watching the moustache instead of paying attention to what was going on.

This film has an all star cast which is normally a dangerous thing but if you have ever seen the Poirot TV version, each episode usually has one or two big names or people that would go on to become big names. This was the first thing I saw Daisy Ridley in since Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In fact a month after this film was released, The Last Jedi was released in cinemas. She’s not the best person in this film but I thought there was a nice air of mystery surrounding her character. It was weird to see Johnny Depp in something other than a Pirates film. He’s gone off the boil in recent years but I thought that he was quite good in this despite meeting an unfortunate end early on in the film. Then there is Judi Dench and Olivia Coleman amongst others. Quite frankly, you could do a review just on the performances but I’m not going to do that. Just to say that all the big names deserve their place in the film and no one lets the side down.

As for the big reveal, I didn’t see it coming. As I said at the beginning of the review, I have never read the books and had never seen this story adapted on TV or film so had no idea and when I discovered it was pretty much everyone, I thought it was quite clever. The reason why they did it I thought was a bit convoluted and managing to get them all on the train had the same problem, but I didn’t mind and thought is still worked well. Poirot’s final speech as he is leaving the train was superbly done by Branagh and showed that even though they had got away with it, they hadn’t really go away with it as they would have to live with it forever.

It’s a beautifully looking film. From the very beginning, its clear that care and attention has been paid what we are seeing. Whilst the action is on the train, Branagh makes great use of a relatively confined space and when the story breaks out of the train on a few occasions, the snow surrounding the train is a great visual. There is one shot which is overhead and shows people going from one room to another and it worked really well and showed how you could keep momentum when you haven’t got much room.

The film ends with Poirot being needed on the Nile leading to another film which comes out at the end of 2020 and I am really looking forward to it. Murder on the Orient Express is a beautifully looking film with a great cast and a solid mystery. Even if you know who did it, you can still marvel in what you are seeing and that is the key to a good film. Murder on the Orient Express may not be everyones cup of tea but I think if you like a mystery then you should enjoy this.

IT (2017)

IT is one of those novels that people hold in quite high regard. Never read the book but only aware of it because of Tim Curry’s version of Pennywise the Clown from 1990. The film explores the group of friends known as the losers as they are haunted by a creepy looking clown. The film does a good job in establishing each of the kids with a fear. This is the way that Pennywise can get involved in their lives.

The bullies are all completely unlikeable as they should be. Most times they start off evil and over the course of the film either get their comeuppance from the good guys or they meet a grizzly ending but on this occasion they never get much comeuppance but that gets dealt with in part two but in 2017, there was no guarantee that this would have led to a sequel so it was a brave thing not to have the bullies meet a definitive end.

There are some good effects mainly the blood bathroom scene where Beth gets drenched in what appears to be blood. That scene looked incredible and the idea that her father cant see it and fair play to the actor for pretending that there is no blood. There are some other good effects but they mainly take place inside Pennywise’s lair.

The performances from the kids are quite good. I thought that they all worked well with each other although I thought Mike was the least fleshed out and I never really thought that he was as involved in the group as the others. I think that Mike has a greater role in the second one. Bill Skarsgård is really good as Pennywise. Of all the roles that you could take on, there are less daunting ones that Pennywise which is arguably one of the most well-known roles in horror. It reminds me of Jared Leto after Heath Ledger played the Joker, but Skarsgård manages to pull of the seemingly impossible. It’s a very different version of Pennywise to what Tim Curry did and yet its still creepy. There is more of a child-like vibe in his performance compared to Curry’s.

I really liked this film when I first saw it. Having watched it again, I don’t think it’s as good as I first thought. I still enjoyed it and think that its better than the second one but my opinion has changed in just a few years. The final act of the film was very good but that’s because everything went completely crazy and still holds up. Chapter One is the better film.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rogue One was the first of the spin off films made by Disney after it brought the rights and the warning signs for what was to happen in Solo were right here in the production. Gareth Edwards was chosen to be the director having done well with Godzilla but there were reports that there were some issues during editing and so it was amazing that this film turned out to be as good as it was. How would a film set in the Star Wars universe work without following the known narrative.

This tells us how the rebellion got the plans for the death star in Episode IV. Its funny how a single line spawned a movie. One of the things I liked about this film was that it tried really hard to tell its own story but doing enough to make sure it tied in with the events of Episode IV.

Guy Henry is used to help with the recreation of Governor Tarkin who was played by Peter Cushing. Henry has most recently been in a show called Holby City in the UK and its obvious as to why they chose him as his mannerisms are quite similar to Cushing’s. The effects used to recreate Peter Cushing isn’t always a success. They use the same technology to give us a younger Leia which does work but its only brief.

Mads Mikkelsen pops up at the beginning as Galen Erso. I liked the character because he is forced to design something evil and gets his own back on the Empire by building a flaw in it that will be used. Mikkelsen is always good in what he does and continues it here. Donnie Yen plays Chirrut Imwe and I think he’s really good in the Ip Man films. Despite Darth Vader being the most notable villain in this film, he’s not really the most interesting. I thought that Ben Mendelsohn was really good as Orson Krennic. He has ambition and is trying to impress the Emperor yet is almost butting heads with Tarkin.

Felicity Jones is the lead of this film and does very well. I think had her character not been so important to the overall story of the Rebellion then her death would have been the wrong way for her story to end but as it is the sight of her standing in the water just as the explosion blast is about to overwhelm her is the perfect way to end.

What makes this film stand out against Solo is that its more anchored into the Star Wars universe and features the Death Star and Darth Vader. Whilst its not a perfect film, I think there is a lot to like and a perfect addition to the Star Wars chronology. Its got good characters both on the good side and bad side of the force and its very well directed and shows that Gareth Edwards can handle big budgeted films just like he did with Godzilla although I think Godzilla is a better film.