Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the films I was most looking forward to because…..well it’s a Martin Scorsese film and we haven't had one of those since 2019’s The Irishman. That was a Netflix film and now one of the greatest living directors is still having to rely on streaming services to get films made and this does bug me but that's a discussion for another day.

The story sees Leonardo DiCaprio play Ernest Burkhart as he becomes involved with Mollie (Lily Gladstone) as Robert De Niro’s William Hale is trying to get his hands on the oil that the Osage people live on and the land they own. As the film starts the Osage people are murdered one by one and the film focuses on DiCaprio and Gladstone over the course of 3 and half hours. The running time is the biggest issue that I had with this movie. I went to the cinema to see this and thought that if the film had been 40-45 minutes shorter then it might have been better. The plot and pacing did not warrant the running time because Oppenheimer was roughly the same length and that was the best film of the year. I am prepared to watch the film again because the running time is the only criticism that I have and I think being in comfier surroundings will probably help me appreciate things a bit more. 

The performances are really good. Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone are superb and I hadn't heard of Gladstone before this film but will be looking out for her films in the future. There is a quite determination in her performance which makes her instantly likeable and in the face of what DiCaprio’s Ernest does throughout the film. 

This is another very good film from perhaps one of the greatest living directors around. Whilst I have issues with the running time (which is a similar complaint to The Irishman) but I think that the performances and characters are much stronger than in The Irishman.

The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

If this didnt have anything to do with the original exorcist film then I would have enjoyed this film a lot but under the weight and expectations of being in The Exorcist series it faulters quite epically. Its not as bad as Dominion or the Prequel and not as bad (or as fun) as the second one but it lacks any tension or horror that the first and third ones had.

I thought it was quite boring until Ellen Burstyn appeared and then it picked up but that quite a bit into the film. The last shot was quite nice to see but the worst part is that this is the first of a trilogy and I cant see where they can go that could improve the situation.

Not bad as it could have been but not as good as it should have been. 

The Creator (2023)

Having been a fan of Gareth Edwards since seeing 2010’s ‘Monsters’, I was keen to see what he would do in his first film since 2016’s Rogue One. I liked that film a lot more than most people seemed to.  The budget of this film is the story of my review because it cost a reported $80 million dollars and yet it looks like it cost $200million. It looks more expensive than some of the most recent Marvel films and tv shows. There is a similar style to Rogue One which might put some people off but I found it worked in the films’ favour.

Admittedly the plot isn’t the greatest and it did feel like it was buckling under the pressure of justifying the visuals. Normally I would baulk at the phrase style over substance but I think that it’s true for this film. I love this film and think it should be seen by everyone on the biggest screen possible but I would be lying if i said i loved the plot because it doesn't work quite as well as it could have done. I think that John David Washington does a good job as Joshua and through his performance I ended up rooting for his character. I always like Allison Janney in whatever she is in and normally she is playing the goodie but in this movie she is the villain and she is having a lot of fun with it.  

This isn’t the best Gareth Edwards film that there is but i think what is most impressive about it and the reason why people should watch it is that it shows that you don’t have to spend $200 million to make something look spectacular. It shouldn’t come as a surprise as ‘Monsters’ was done on a shoestring budget and looked better than a lot of films out at that time with 10 times the budget. If Edwards could get a story that did his visuals justice then he would easily be one of the best directors around.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

I have been a huge fan of Kenneth Branagh’s version of Poirot since the first film. Murder on the Orient Express is a great film that is stunning to look at (more of that later). Death on the Nile was ok but I think it was hurt by some of the cast being a distraction for different reasons. I was looking forward to this film because it was based on a Agatha Christie story I wasn't aware of and the trailers made it look interesting. It’s also worth pointing out that I saw this at Showcase Cinema’s XPlus screening and I was the only person there. From times to time, seeing a film at the beginning of the day on Saturday does yield this result. I think the last time this happened was when I went to see Babylon.

The set up of the film that it is 1947 and Poirot is now retired but people keep trying to get him back into the investigating game but it is Tina Fey’s Ariadne that convinces him to attend a party where at the end of it a seance is going to occur and Ariadne wants Poirot to either debunk medium  Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) or support her. It’s a this stage that it seems like this is going to be a different type of Poirot story but then Reynolds is killed and then Dr Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dorian) is killed and this is where this film starts to feel like a traditional Poirot movie/story.

There are many things I like about this film. Firstly its a great story that appeared in the trailer to have a supernatural vibe to it and that vibe is in the plot but it is explained away in such a manner that it feels like it doesn't betray the film. Poirot is seeing and hearing things not because he believes in them and has betrayed his regimental way of thinking but it is in fact because he has been drugged. There are multiple mysteries, what happened to the daughter as well as the deaths and the supernatural angle and yet the film deals with them in a good way and everything is wrapped up in a nice little bow by the time the film ends.

The performances are all really good. Kenneth Branagh is great as Poirot and whilst his moustache isn’t as over the top as it was in Orient Express, its still part of his character and Branagh clearly enjoys playing him. Hopefully there will be more films in the future. Tina Fey is rather good as effectively the sidekick although her motives aren’t always the most helpful to Poirot and it feels like she has let Poirot down by the end of the movie. I haven’t seen many Tina Fey performances but this has to be one of the better ones. Jamie Dorian is very good as the mentally broken Ferrier. He has some lovely moments with his son Leo (played by Jude Hill). Michelle Yeoh was clearly the big name of the supporting cast having won her Oscar earlier this year and she was also very good in this but I would have liked her to be in it more. The rest of the supporting cast is very good and there isn’t really a weak performance.

Another thing I liked about this film was how beautiful it looked. Despite it taking place largely at night, the film looks stunning. It looks as stunning as Murder on the Orient Express. I don’t remember Death on the Nile looking stunning and in fact thought it looked a bit cheap but every shot in the film looks stunning. The singular setting is used well because despite largely taking place in the one house, it's so big that it can move into several huge rooms and yet feel like they are isolated. The resolution of the murders was also creative and I thought that the clues dropped into the story were well done and it all added up to make for a satisfying conclusion

After the (ever so slightly) disappointing Death on the Nile, it feels like a return to form for Poirot. There is potential for many more Poirot films with Kenneth Branagh at the helm and he directs these films with a style that might seem striking at first but seems confident and the pace is kept at a steady pace so it never feels like it plodding along and I was never bored. Very much in my top 10 of the year so far. 

The Equalizer 3 (2023)

I’ll admit that I came to the Equalizer films late. They never seemed to appeal to me when the first two came out and no one that I knew or any YouTube channels seemed to be highlighting these films as a must see. I thought I would take a chance with the first one and I quite enjoyed it, the second one was ok but nowhere near as good. The beauty of this third film is that you don’t really need to have seen the first two to understand Denzel Washington’s character of the style of the film. It’s based on the TV series of the same name that aired from 1985 to 1989 and in this film, Robert is in Sicily and after getting shot by a scared kid, he ends up in a picture postcard and takes on the local mafia. 

The plot is straight forward although they introduced a sub plot which seems to me to have been introduced to show people that the film could be more than just a standard shoot em up. The introduction of Dakota Fanning as Emma seemed a bit pointless as she didn’t really do very much and when its revealed that she is the daughter of Sarah from the first two films which I saw coming and I don’t normally see these things coming but you could see it coming a mile away. If you took out Emma then the course of this film would have happened exactly the same way. This film is the 2023 equivalent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

I loved the setting for this film. No real justification to set in in Sicily but I am glad they did every shot of the town was beautiful to look at and at no point during the 1 hour and 45 minute run time was I ever bored or felt like nothing was happening. Antoine Fuqua wasn’t a director I thought very highly of but after these films and the 2016 Magnificent Seven reboot, my opinion of him has changed. He keeps the action going but allows time for the heartfelt moments to take centre stage without them feeling too soppy. 

I think that as good as this series is, it is slightly inferior version of the John Wick films. Those films are fun to watch but don’t take themselves too seriously whereas The Equalizer films have a bit more of a straight face to them. The film has a very thin plot but you watch these films to see Denzel Washington beat up bad people. The film has some really good action scenes and Washington has become the better version of what Liam Neeson’s character in Taken was. The film ends with Robert getting the pension money that a couple were robbed of and were about to leave their home. The film leaves the path open for a fourth Equalizer and hopefully there is another one because Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua are a good double act and as long as the films don’t get too convoluted then people will keep seeing them for years to come although with Washington nearly 69, its hard to see how many more there could be. If there aren’t anymore then this trilogy of movies will belong in any argument about good trilogies. 

The Equalizer 3 is a good film that and should be seen.

Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

I went to see Meg 2 on National Cinema Day here in the UK. Basically all tickets for most if not all films in the cinema on September 2nd would be £3 instead of the usual £11 that I would normally pay. I was going to see The Equalizer 3 but put idea on hold so I could go and see a film that I wanted to see but didn't want to pay £11 to see. I didn't mind wasting £3 on Meg 2.

First of all the screening was quite busy as it seemed that people had the same idea as me. What I did find surprising was that there seemed a lot of kids who were under the 12 age limit for this 12A film. (NOTE: The BBFC say that anyone under the age of 12 can see a 12 certificated film as long as they are accompanied by an adult who thinks they can cope with the subject matter. Or at least that's my understanding of it.) 

There is something quite fun about a film where Jason Statham takes on a giant shark or whatever its suppose to be. I found this film to be far more fun to watch that the first one. The film is stupid but the charm of the film is that it knows that it is stupid and doesn't really try to hide that. There is also something that seems to be have been ripped off from Jurassic World where Chris Pratt's character can communicate with the raptors with a clicker and we get the same sort of thing here but its used more as a way of being part of the finale.

The film isn't perfect (not a shocker I know) but I thought that the villain(s) were not particularly relevant to the plot. The woman who seemed to be masterminding the plan was rather bland, the woman who was working for the base and is revealed to be the traitor was a bit predictable and there wasn't much the actress could do to make her seem interesting and the guy that Jason Statham's character put in jail was the most effective villain but was never treated as anything other than a lackey. The lack of a credible villain hurt the film and I would go so far as to say that it hindered the flow of the film because all we wanted to go and see this film for was seeing Jason Statham do what he does quite well. Act badly and beat people/animals up. There was one moment where I thought that I was over thinking this film and its when they are using the helicopter to escape and it has no fuel and when they fill it up the dial goes from empty to full in no time at all and I found myself saying (in my head) 'HANG ON....THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!!! Yes I have become one of those people.

The film was worth the £3 so I am probably being more generous to it than if I had paid £11 but I thought the film was fun. It was directed in a good way with Ben 'In the Earth' Wheatley who manages to somehow elevate the rather B-Movie plot and premise to something that could be enjoyed. Not sure whether there needs to be a third Meg film but I suppose there didn't need to be a second one and here we are.

Blue Beetle (2023)

You know when you come across something and its getting such a kicking that you feel sorry for it? Well that's how I felt about Blue Beetle. The film seems to be getting such a negative reaction that its doomed to fail. I wanted to see this film because I think that the current crop of DC films have been hugely disappointing. 

The film is a more straight forward and traditional superhero movie which is a blessed relief after Marvel seem to have got most people think that they need convoluted and increasing number of plot strands. This has Jamie get given a burger box by Jenny and is told not to open the box but of course the film wouldn't happen and so he opens the box and is given the super powers. It seems like this is how superhero movies use to be but has fallen out of style for some reason. The thing that gets me annoyed is when the family has a go at Jenny for what has happened to Jaime when Jenny told him NOT TO OPEN THE BOX!!!! 

Susan Sarandon is ok in the film. She doesn't quite have the menace that the character needed and came across as a weak villain. I like Sarandon and happy that she is employed but she seemed miscast in this. Bruna Marquezine was hampered by a character that seemed like a spoilt brat that wasn't listened to even though she had good ideas to Jaime's love interest in the second act. It's not Marquezine's fault but more with the fact that the script didn't seem to allow her to be anything else.

The response to the trailer seemed to doom it to its fate. At the end of the trailer the line is uttered "Batman's a fascist". I saw this trailer before The Flash and thought that it may not have been a good idea to have a trailer playing which said that the character in the film we are about to see is a fascist but I was prepared to hold off on judgement until I saw the line in context and in context the line is more comedic than anything else. This is because George Lopez's character is the comic relief for the film and so anything he says apart from the heartfelt moments are not to be taken too seriously so the 'Batman is a fascist' line is something that could be taken as a joke at the very least. The director didn't seem to help himself when it seemed like he was overjoyed when people were getting cross with that line.

 
George Lopez was for most of the film the best thing about the family but then Nana came into the story in a way I did not see coming. At first I wondered what the point of the character was as Rudy seemed to be playing the comic relief quite well and Nana was just there in the background of a scene like a lamp or a plotted plant but when the story kicks into top gear she is revealed to be this kick ass former soldier who knows how to handle the weapon and I loved the film from this moment on. I thought that Xolo Maridueña was good as the lead and if there were to have been more Blue Beetle films then I could see the character become stronger and more confident but in this 'first' film he doesn't quite have those character traits that a superhero character needs.
Blue Beetle is fine. It's not terrible and its not great. It seems a waste of time to get worked up about a film that probably wont have any impact on James Gunn's DCU plans. It works on its own terms and is the most enjoyable/best DCU film of 2023 which isn't the compliment that I wish it would be.