Movie review - "The Fall Guy" (2024) ***

 Fun, irreverent, a good time. Maybe too much up its arse with film injokes and 80s power ballads. Also Emily Blunt's character is passive until the last 30 minutes. I'm just throwing theories here.

Movie review - "If" (2024) ** (warning spoilers)

 A bright idea - imaginary friends need a home - and some lovely moments (a dance to 'Better Be Good to Me', reuniting imaginary friends with adults) but it doesn't quite work. The rules of the world feel so arbitrary (sometimes you can see "if"s, sometimes you can't; what triggers recognition?), it's needlessly confusing (what is John Krasinsky in hospital for, why not spell out things - I read on wikipedia he was in for heart surgery but it's not clear in the film where it always looks like he's just visiting).

They may as well have said up front that Ryan Reynolds was the girl's "if" - sure it's a nice reveal but not knowing it just feels weird why he was helping this girl. Some irritating things like Krasinski and Reynolds look alike, and the flashbacks to home movies, we often see the three of them, who is holding the camera?

The lead girl gives a professional performance -there was something "I've been acting since I was two" about it. That's unfair I know it's how I felt.

I think Krasinsky needed a co writer on this. A Quiet Place worked because writers had given him a great script.

Movie review - "Oppenheimer" (2023) ****1/2

 I loved it. Big, bold, long, tackles huge issues, shoves in stars. Oh, it's Remi Malek. Oh, it's Gary Oldman as Truman. Puts in a few Florence Pugh nude scenes to break things up. And some special effects. Doesn't leave Oppenheimer's POV except in key bits.

Very well cast. Emily Blunt does excellent in a not much part. Everyone is good. Lots of nerds.

Plays with expectations. Like a sports film - getting the team together, building a bomb. Creates sympathy for Downer Jnr then flips it.

Movie review - "Jungle Cruise" (2021) ***

 Pleasant enough family adventure based on the family ride with some attractive movie stars and production values and a plot cribbed from Pirate of the Caribbean. Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson don't really have characters to play - I think the model was The African Queen but the character edges have been so shaded down, she's just feisty and he makes bad jokes, nd they don't seem into each other at all, but it's cheerful and bubbles along.

Script review - "Girl on the Train" by Erin Cressida Wilson (warning: spoilers)

Excellently written script by Wilson, who I'm now a big fan of - the big print is a pleasure to read, the structure tight, the dialogue engaging. Everything in it has been seen before but the combination of it keeps it fresh - someone observing on a train, alcoholic hero who doesn't know if she killed someone, cheating man, unreliable narrator, cheating shrink, infertility and loss of a baby. It's really well done.

Script review - "A Quiet Place" by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck

This was an original version of the script - I haven't seen the film yet. Clocks in at 69 pages - apparently it was changed because John Krasinski put his name on it as author, and considering he directed it, that would be a lot of changes... and you wonder why because this script is brilliant. Tight, emotive, scary.

It's also a treat to read - the writers do things like change the size of the font, devote a page to one word or sentence, replicate a game of monopoly which becomes an important plot point.

It's not an inherently super cheap film - there are only four main cast and a few bit players in flashback, and a few locations, but there is an alien and a slam bang finale involving a wheat silo.

But it's gripping, clever, tough. It's really great.

Script review - "Sicario" by Taylor Sheridan (warning: spoilers)

Tough fighting-the-drug-cartel actioner which has as leads two types of people normally on the sideline - a female cop, and a Columbian enforcer. Both extremely good roles - as is the part of Matt, the DEA guy, who loves the contest.

I loved the friendship between Kate and Reggie, her partner, who helps her pick up guys and looks out for her. Alejandro is a great bad ass film. The movie does seem to endorse killing people as the best solution to a problem.

It's tough but not super bleak because Kate lives, as does Alejandro, and he gets his revenge.

Move review - "The Edge of Tomorrow" (2014) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

This feels like they grabbed a whole lot of movies, put them in a blender and see what they came up with: Source Code, Saving Private Ryan, Starship Troopers, Groundhog Day, video games. Having said that it I enjoyed this - at least the story progressed and it did keep me guessing, Tom Cruise remains a movie star (he's aging, it's a role anyone could have played, but he's still our Cruiser), Emily Blunt is spot on as a hard arse warrior (I never would have guessed she had it in her but she's outstanding), the production values are impressive (it's one of those movies worth seeing on the big screen).

Normally I'm wary of movies set in the near future about fictitious international forces where people wear coloured berets (eg Streetfighter) and the World War Two overtones feels weird (would Europe really be entirely wiped out and yet England mostly untouched; would they really have to advertise for enlistment when the human race was under attack)... and now I'm being picky there were some logic problems (eg how did Emily Blunt know she couldn't die anymore times? How does Tom come back at the end to the earlier day), and the human race doesn't particularly seem worth saving in this movie, with its very sloppy, dimwitted army (none of the grunts in Cruiser's squad are particularly likeable).

Also some of the emotional drama felt undercooked, especially the love story between Cruise and Blunt (why not give them one night together), and the effects of dying a couple of hundred times. Still it was there, and there's plenty of action, really scary alien visitors, and standout work from Emily Blunt.

Movie review - "The Five Year Engagement" (2012) **

The team that made Forgetting Sarah Marshall fail to come up with something as good, despite a very talented cast, including two charming leads, and some very effective moments, including the use of one of my favourite songs, "Sweet Thing" by Van Morrison. 

The main problem is the story, which is based on a weak concept that doesn't improve on execution. Knocked Up or Sarah Marshall was based upon strong conflict (pregnancy, going on holiday and finding your ex there) but in this case the only reason the characters can't get married is because, well, they're reluctant to do so. Instead of just driving to Vegas or a registrar they hum and haw, and it drags on and on and does feel like a long engagement.

This wouldn't matter if we really got into the characters, in the matter of say Two for the Road, which I occasionally got the impression this was trying to go for, but we don't. (Two for the Road had more story than this.) There are some lovely bits of observation, and insight into being a couple, but there's too much schtick for it too work as a drama-dy. (The finale feels as though it's straight out of How I Met Your Mother, which is a good show, it just feels too broad and not realistic, and thus out of the tone of the rest of it). Supporting actors come on and do their comic turns (as opposed to playing real people), there's lots of "business", some really dull complications (they breaks up and she goes for Rhys Ifans),  and it goes on and on.

It's really frustrating because there is a good movie inside here - Emily Blunt and Jason Segel are movies stars who we like, and Mindy Kalin gives a stand out supporting performance. Maybe this needed to be more snapshots in their whole relationship, like Two for the Road, or maybe it needed more in-built conflict like she can't get married because of paperwork or something. I don't know, but the film doesn't work.

And what is it with Hollywood's current obsession with food vans? Happy Endings, What to Expect When You're Expecting, this...

Movie review - "Looper" (2012) ****1/2

Very clever, entertaining science fiction thriller that would have been even better with excellent actors - like say Ryan Gosling, de Niro or Sean Penn. Okay maybe that's harsh - Joseph Gordon Levitt and Brue Willis are strong actors it's just these roles are so great (hit men who are tormented by love, angst, drugs, the past, revenge, etc) I feel they aren't really given justice, even with Levitt's make up work.

Emily Blunt shines in a part that is better than the typical girl role (that part is taken by the admittedly sexy Piper Perabo who is a stripper single mother); the kid who plays Blunt's kid is brilliantly creepy; top turns by Royal Dano but not Jeff Daniels who keeps popping up in parts that require real strength. I know Daniels is a good actor but sometimes that's not enough. There are two coincidences which jarred for me - the involvement of Piper and an appearance at the end by a semi villain.

That's all the gripes out of the way. Now for praise: superbly done, combining emotion with imagination, good action sequences, a very believable depiction of the future (grimy, class riddled, drug affected, in thrall to China). Really excellent movie.

Movie review – “The Wolfman” (2010) ***

It took me a while to warm up to this remake of the 1941 classic, but once I did, I started to enjoy it. Benicio del Toro isn't quite as moving or tragic as Lon Chaney Jnr, Anthony Hopkins is mean spirited in the Claude Rains role and Emily Blunt very pretty in a not-much part. Impressive production design and special effects: the wolf man really cuts loose in this one, running riot through the fields and in London. He takes out a fair few innocent people - the death toll is high - so he does lack sympathy. The expressionistic, trippy sequences work well.

Movie review – “Jane Austen Book Club” (2008) **1/2

Good natured “chatty women” movie which passes the time well enough, even though I’m not really the demographic. It has the benefit of an outstanding cast all in good form. Some of this is “yeah, yeah, seen it before” eg Jimmy Smits dumping poor old Amy Brennan, pushing forward the idea that if your partner reads Jane Austen he will really like it – but it throws in the occasional surprise, like Emily Blunt’s mean treatment of her jock husband is shown to be mean. The Maria Bello romance plot is a bit of a one-note samba. Solid acting across the board and the genuine rejoicing in literature and community make this a hard film to dislike.

Movie review – “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2007) ***1/2

A fascinating episode of history, particularly in light of recent events, makes for an entertaining movie which is frustratingly never as good as if could have been. Tom Hanks is a fine actor and you can’t really fault his performance – but he’s just plain miscast. The role of Charlie Wilson is a gift, a womanizing hawkish good old boy who was nonetheless pro choice and ERA – a natural for, say, Tommy Lee Jones or John Travolta or someone like that. Tom Hanks simply struggles to convey amiable hedonism, and it makes the film frustrating. The other debit is Mike Nichol’s direction – it’s clean and precise, etc, but it felt as though it needed more energy: the camera to move around, or more music, or snappier editing or something.

Aaron Sorkin isn’t always the easiest writer to direct and his excellent script really isn’t given the treatment it deserves. Fine work from Julia Roberts and (especially) Philip Seymour Hoffman; Amy Adams is fun, too, as Hanks’ assistant (Sorkin loves writing scenes between men and their female secretaries) and Emily Blunt very sexy in a small role.

Movie review - "The Devil Wears Prada" (2006) ***1/2

One of a series of bright, reasonably budgeted movies released in 2006 that made film fans rejoice that maybe Hollywood hadn't lost the knack of producing solid, entertaining fare. Anne Hathaway is very likeable in a role that Lindsay Lohan must be gnashing her teeth over missing - a journo student who works for a bitch from hell.
The latter role is also one of the best roles for a 50 plus female actor in Hollywood in recent years and Meryl Streep makes the most of it: stylish, a bitch, but cool, never Joan Crawford, never losing her humanity, obviously very good at her job (she has a marvellous monologue about one of Hathaway's daggy sweaters, some excellent writing there) but never losing the fact that she isn't a very nice person.
Stanley Tucci also brings freshness to what could have been a stock role, the gay designer, although I found Adam Greiner a little irritating.
Watching the film in a cinema was a little odd because they would make a joke about fashion every now and then and only women would laugh - i'ts not often I feel out of the loop in a Hollywood film. You can still enjoy it.
The film has fashion porn up to its eyeballs with some terrific montages. Incidentally, I didn't think that Hathaway's "betrayal" of her co worker Emily (played by Emily Blunt, a real find) was the same as Streep's betrayal of Tucci - Tucci is a nice person, a friend, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, whereas Emily is a bitch who his horrible to Hathaway and it is an annual thing she misses out on.