Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

After being disappointed with Episode 8, there was sense that I was going to be disappointed with the final instalment in this trilogy. The set for the film is that Rey and the other are going to hunt down the Emperor who somehow managed to survive after the events of Episode 6.

There is a lot to like about this film. Firstly I thought that the plot was much stronger than in the last film. It hit the ground running and never really stopped. The plot gave Rey, Finn and Poe enough to do and my main issue with Episode 8 was that it felt like Finn were being side-lined with the casino stuff. The plot is this film never felt like it was stalling, during episode eight the whole casino scene just felt tacked on and in this film the plot felt like some thought had been given to it.

Bringing back the Emperor seemed like a clever way of getting round the fact that Snode was killed in the previous film despite being pushed as the new Emperor. I thought that the Emperor was very good in this although his plan was slightly rehashed from Episode 6. The sight at the beginning where all the battle ships are in the air and there is thunder and lightning was a brilliant shot and it was just as good when it was shown again towards the end. The big scene between Rey and the Emperor was quite good and it was done in a way that got rid of the emperor by Rey’s hands but not an act of murder which is what the Emperor wanted.

This whole film seems like J.J. Abrams was trying to make us forget episode eight and its understandable. With the exception of Luke and Snode, there is very little reference to the last film. The character of Rose who seemed to be destined for a bigger role after episode eight, gets relegated to looking at computer screens. I thought the character was irritating in the last film and its not the fault of Kelly Marie Tran but more of Rian Johnson who seemed incapable of making her less whiny.

I thought they did a great job of dealing with Leia. Carrie Fisher passed away just before Episode 8 came out and she was involved enough in the story to feel like she wasn’t being side-lined but when the time came she got a dignified exit. I also thought that bringing Han Solo back for his brief cameo was a great idea.

There are a few issues with the film. I thought that the revelation that Rey was the granddaughter of the Emperor was a bit disappointing. I think that she should have been related to either Luke or Leia but then people might have really gone negative with that but I just think that being the grand daughter seemed like a bit of a cop-out in narrative terms. Also there is one effects shot where they do a mini-flashback where we see a young Luke Skywalker and a young Leia in training and it just looks bad but thankfully its not on screen for very long.

Rise of Skywalker is much better than The Last Jedi but I don’t it’s quite as good as Force Awakens. This film does a great job of telling its own story and let it wraps up the saga perfectly. The running time was perfect and I cant really pick any faults with the film. It was nice to walk out the cinema and feel that it was as good as I hoped it would be. I don’t know what the future holds for the Star Wars franchise but if this was the end of it then I would be ok with that but I suspect Disney have plans for more but just not yet.

Cats (2019)

Cats was a film that had a lot of notoriety before I even saw this film because it was apparently terrible and it had a 2.7/10 on IMDB. Its directed by Tom Hooper who is a director I like. I think The Damned United is a brilliant film and The Kings Speech is also brilliant. I haven’t seen Les Mis but its meant to be good so it was quite surprising that Cats got the negative reaction that it did but recently it seems that people are quite quick to give a film a kicking.

Plot is a group of cats are trying to get picked to have another life which is given to them by Judi Dench and Idris Elba captures the other contenders so he is the only one that gets picked. I’m not a huge fan of musicals and think that only the old ones like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins. The film wastes no time in starting the songs. As the film progresses we are introduced to certain people who are going to be chosen but we are of course introduced to them via song. James Corden and Rebel Wilson were clearly there to be comic relief and I normally find Corden to be irritating but I actually thought that he was one of the best things in it. He’s actually quite funny and Rebel Wilson is also funny. 

The problem with this film is that the songs get in the way. There was no breathing space between the songs. They would get a couple of lines in before they burst into song so the plot never really gets going and we know everything we know through song. 

Cats isn’t as terrible as the 2.7 would suggest but its not much better. This version I saw was slightly different to what originally came out as they worked on the special effects and if they did then they did it well because I was quite impressed with the effects. As I said a musicals fan so I cant give this film a big thumbs up but I think that it was a brave attempt by Tom Hooper which ultimately didn’t work out.

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Doctor Sleep is the sequel to The Shining. I’ve not read The Shining or Doctor Sleep but I went into the film slightly hesitant because I really like The Shining and felt that this film could only disappoint.

There are problems with this film. Firstly it takes too long to get to the Overlook Hotel. It’s clear that this is where the film will end up and yet it takes its time to arrive. The first 10-15 minutes do plod along and it doesn’t seem to know how it wants to start but once it does then its fine. However my biggest issue with this film is that they go to the trouble of referencing The Shining even though Stephen King doesn’t like it yet they recast Jack, Dan & Shelley instead of animating them from The Shining and dropping them into the film. Technology allows actors to be de-aged and yet they somehow recast which did slightly ruin it for me. Also there were characters that were bought in yet didn’t really service the plot. I though Snakebite Andi’s role could easily have been wiped out of the story. Also Abra’s mother is sort of forgotten about, she leaves for some reason (which explained) and then doesn’t turn up until towards the end and the father is really also there just to get killed.

The performances are really good. Ewan McGregor is very good as grown up Dan and its probably one of his best performance I have seen him give. Dan is trying to get as far away from his past as he can and he’s a recovering alcoholic and there is a nice vulnerability to him. Rebecca Ferguson is a very good villain as Rose The Hat, every scene she’s in is great. Child actors are normally irritating but not in this film. Kyliegh Curran plays Abra who becomes friends with Dan and she more than holds her own. She might be a bit too cocky at times but overall she more than holds her own against Rebecca Ferguson and Ewan McGregor. Also I thought that Alex Essoe does a superb impression of Wendy Torrance and you easily forget that it wasn’t Shelley Duvall.

The directing of this film is rather good. Mike Flanagan does a good job of keeping the story going and also resorting to clichés and jump scares. There was one jump scare that got me and it was just a light coming on but that was ok and I think that Flanagan is a good director because I quite like another film of his called Hush which also manages to maintain the story. He keeps the nostalgia to the final act and the shot where the camera is over the lake like at the beginning of The Shining was very cool and all the scenes in the hotel were mysterious and atmospheric.

I liked Doctor Sleep. I think that it’s an enjoyable if slightly flawed film. If you go in expecting this film to be better than The Shining then you will be disappointed but if you in not expecting it to be as good then you will enjoy it. The film is two and a half hours long and I actually thought that it was the right amount of time.

It Chapter Two (2019)

IT Chapter 2 takes place 27 years after the events of the first movie. This doesn’t mean like I thought that it would just feature the losers as adults but there would be a mixture of the two. It’s a strange start to the film because within 10 minutes we have had a homophobic attack and a domestic violence attack. 

There are problems with this film and its largely narrative. Its 35 minutes longer than chapter one and yet there is very little reason for it. Overall these films run to 5 hours and 4 minutes which is about two hours longer than the 1990 version. Ok the 1990 is meant to be terrible (minus Tim Curry) but we spend five hours doing what could have been done in three. We have to spend an age seeing the losers as adults and they all react differently. It felt at times like they were padding things out to hold off the final act for as long as possible. There are a couple of moments where someone wants to leave and gets talked out of it.

It really doesn’t get going until they arrive at the chinese restaurant. Then what happens from that moment are a series of moments which are done well but then there is a gag that undermines it a little bit. Its first noticeable in the restaurant and then happens a few times. I’m not sure whether they felt it needed a bit of humour but I found it distracting. Also there a moment where young Eddie is covered in black goo and play Angel in the Morning for no reason. There are also a couple of moments which caused laughter in the screening I was in and I cant say that I was surprised or bothered. It was hard to take them seriously at times.

There are good things and they are largely the cast. I thought that all the people in this are on top for and I believe they are the same character that they were in the first film. I’m not the biggest James McAvoy fan and yet actually found him to be quite good. Jessica Chastain was equally as good as the grown up the Beverly. However everyone is overshadowed by Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. I thought that he was really good in the first one and is equally as good in this one. Some people have commented that when he is out in daylight then he loses his menace but I disagree. I thought that every time that he was on screen he was scary and chilling.

The jump scares were quite good. The one scare with the giant statue man with the axe did make pretty much everyone in the screening I was in jump (including myself). Normally they are quite forgettable two seconds after they appear, but on this occasion they are well done. Also the fact that they have managed to degage the younger cast was done quite well. For a while I thought they must have filmed it during the first one but then I thought they can make people look younger like they did in the Avengers film and most of the time the de-aging effect is well done. There are a few moments where its quite obvious but overall its done well.

I don’t think that Chapter 2 is as good as the first. But its not terrible and bearing in mind I was worried that this film was going to disappoint me, thankfully it didn’t and that was a relief.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

So this is the third film in the ‘monsterverse’ which follows on from 2014’s Godzilla (which I quite liked) and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island (which I also quite liked) and this film is directed by Michael Dougherty who directed 2015’s Krampus and this film has a lot to live up to and in my opinion it doesn’t quite live up to it.

There are some good things in this film. Bradley Whitford is in this film although I didn’t recognise him (still think of him from his West Wing days) and he does provide some comedy moments. Then there are some cool shots with the monsters but I cant remember the names of monsters and what they were doing but there were some good shots. Millie Bobby Brown is also quite good as Madison who despite having a mother who does things for stupid reasons and a father who would rather take pictures of wolfs eating than spending time with his daughter. Whilst she has to do her own share of stupid things, I thought she was one of the better characters in the film. Plus I like Stranger Things so she would have to be terrible for me to put her in the negative column.

The main problem with the film is where Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island there is a lot of build up and it feels like time is being spent building things up whereas this film does feel like its very generic in terms of blockbusters. Characters aren’t given time to develop and just say their bit and move on and it just doesn’t work for me. Charles Dance is wasted here. When I saw him I just wanted to him to be like he was in Game of Thrones yet here its like he’s not even trying. I don’t think its his fault entirely but the story needs a baddie and cant quite decide who the baddie is.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is ultimately a missed opportunity with too many monsters and too many characters. It’s a shame really because as Marvel have shown, it is possible to have loads of characters providing you know what to do with them. This is more like Age of Ultron than Avengers Assemble.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

I cant recall a film having higher expectations than this film. I saw the film two weeks after the film came out when I knew the buzz would have died down but when I went to see it, the Box office takings had crossed the $2billion line and James Cameron sent a half-hearted tweet congratulating Marvel for surpassing Titanic. 

So basically the plot is that the remaining Avengers go back in time to get the stones and stop Thanos from collecting them. It’s a simple enough idea which is handled well and doesn’t feel like its dragging its feet to much although I personally thought that it was about 30 minutes too long. All the stuff with them back in time trying to get the stones went on a bit too long but apart from that the film worked very well. Bearing in mind that its 181 minutes (not including the trailers they stick on at the beginning), it didn’t feel like a 3 hour film. So much happens and you are never allowed to really stop and think about what is happening.

There are a few MECU films that I haven’t seen like Black Panther and the Ant-man films so I found Ant-man to be useful to the story but I just found him to be the least important of the characters.

I’m sorry but I still find Brie Larson rather smug. She is less smug in this but I just find her to think she’s above everyone even though this is only her second film in the MECU. I’m glad she’s not in it for very long but when she does come in towards the end its like she’s saying to everyone ‘You can rest now, I’m here to save the day’. It makes everyone look silly and asks why we should care about them if Captain Marvel can save the day in two seconds.

I liked how they came up with a line that allows them to go back in time but doesn’t screw with the films that came before it and doesn’t say to you that you wasted your time in watching them because they still happened. They use the line that just because you go back in time and change whats happened, doesn’t mean that it changes the future. What did slightly ruin the discussion for me is when they mention films and TV that deal with time travel that they didn’t mention Doctor Who. This film has a former Doctor Who companion in it FFS and yet it didn’t get mentioned. Oh well. Another thing I was very impressed with what how they managed to make Michael Douglas look about 40 years younger and Chris Evans look 40 years old. Both effects were very well done and show that this sort of thing will be happening more and more in films.

Despite having so much riding on it and having to achieve so much, the thing that most impresses me about this film is how it works. It wraps up 20+ films and still manages to start threads for new films. It says thankyou to those that came before whilst putting over the new stars. Credit has to go to the Russo Brothers for directing a film that does so much. The final scene where all the Avengers return and Thanos realises that he is in trouble is one of the best moments I have felt in a cinema since The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when the wall at Helm’s Deep blows up. Seeing everyone charging is a great sight and does what its suppose to do in a film and that is deliver a moment that cinemagoers can cheer on and enjoy and boy does it achieve that.

I think that this is the point that I am bowing out of the Marvel films. I have enjoyed them but figure that now is the time to stop going to the cinema to watch them unless something stands out but as it looks like Brie Larson is going to be the spearhead from the next generation, I don’t think I will be watching.

Stan & Ollie (2018)

Laurel & Hardy are two of the finest double acts ever. This tells the story of their visit to the UK in the latter stages of their careers when the golden era is long gone.  Steve Coogan plays Stan Laurel & John C. Reilly plays Oliver Hardy and I really like Coogan and have mixed feelings about Reilly although his recent outing in Kong: Skull Island shows he can still deliver a solid performance. The story moves to 1953 in Newcastle however where they shot this is in Dudley where I live so it was the rare instance where I was taken out of the location filming. That’s not a criticism that most people are going to have because they have never been there or will go there but it was one of two times I spotted areas of The Black Country Living Museum and it was fun to see.

Like Laurel & Hardy, Steve Coogan & John C. Reilly have very good chemistry together. Despite being a big fan of Alan Partridge and thinking that this is his best ever role, I enjoyed Coogan as Stan Laurel. He brings out the creativity of Stan and how he was in a way the brains of the team. John C. Reilly is under impressive prosthetics that makes Hardy warm and physically fragile. Both Coogan and Reilly look like Laurel & Hardy and along with their mannerisms you totally buy into the fact that these aren't impressions but performances that feel like they are paying homage to the real people. 

The attention to detail and nods to their greatest hits is quite good. The recreation of their dance in Way Out West is impressive and that's within the first few minutes of the film. Then there is a nod to The Music Box where they are moving a trunk up the train station steps and it falls to the bottom. There are plenty more there but I would be here forever but they are done in such a way that will please people who have seen the films and not be left out of funny moments. You are left to enjoy them and appreciate them which is the balance that the whole film took and got right.

As you would expect from a film that takes place during their final years, there is a hint of sadness. They aren't the Laurel & Hardy from their heyday and when they have their truthful discussion it was one of the more sad moments of a film that is generally filled with a lot of humour. Sadly the final part of the film has Hardy’s health deteriorating and even though they plough on and go to Ireland, there is always a hint of sadness with their performance.

I really enjoyed this film. Yes there is a lot of sadness but one thing that gets you through is the lovely heartfelt performances from Coogan and Reilly. The attention to detail is really impressive and the film looks stunning. I think if you are a Laurel & Hardy fan then you should go and see it but even if like me you haven't really seen any of their work then it is still worth your time because it's great to see this story told.