Movie review - "The Lost City" (2022) **

 I love the concept and the stars and the support cast, was in the mood for a Romancing the Stone throwback but the film didn't quite seem tow woek. Do cover models really go on tour with authors? It feels like there were studio notes to introduce everyone early - Dan Radcliffe, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt. So there's no time to get to know characters.

Sandra Bullock, an all time great star, has no character to play - what's her angle? Bitter? Romantic? Tired of love? Warm? Her plastic surgery is annoying and she has nil chemistry with Tatum who also has no character to play. A bit snaggy, bit dumb... Why not just make it simple - have her sick of love, cynical about it, have him as a romantic. Or something else. Pick a lane!

Radcliffe is fine. The film lacks a Danny de Vito. People try. Underwhelming action sequences too much CGI. No life, no energy. Some pretty scenery and clever treasure twists. But it misses.

Movie review - "Ocean's 8" (2018) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The trailer for this was fantastic - bright, fun, with a knock out cast, funky music and great one liners. It looked like it was going to be a great time in the cinema.

But it was curiously flat. It never had the energy or pizzaz of the trailer. The cast are all there doing their thing - you can't say any of them are bad. Sandra Bullock holds the lead with her star power, Cate Blanchett is a useful sidekick, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway are fun in the showiest parts. I wish Mindy Kaling and Rhinanna had been given more to do. I wasn't sure what Sarah Paulsen's role in the heist was which is a shame since she was set up so promisingly.

The film lacks a romantic interest. There's the guy Bullock is getting revenge on - but nothing moving forward. It just would've been fun. Maybe use the James Corden character - expand that out. But they don't.

The last fifteen minutes things perk up when Hathaway comes more involved and so you see the film for what it could be. But it's really... ordinary. Some nice clothes.

Movie review - "Bird Box" (2018) ***1/2

Very well done - Eric Hessiner is an exellecnt write, Suzanne Bier a very good director and Sandra Bullock a terrific star. At the end of the day it pretty much just is an episode of The Walking Dead. A very well done episode but it's not terribly fresh. There is a different angle with the creatures turning people insane if you see it... it offers potential into stories about the power of sight, etc... a little like Day of the Triffids.... but that's not really dealt with. At the end they stumble upon the blind community but that's it... I felt like that should be act two.

You've got the opening attack then a cross section of people holed up in a house, and various conflicts. So many scenes feel awfully familiar - a visit to a shopping center to loot supplies, people sacrificing themselves for the group. The actors include John Malkovich, Jackie Weaver and Sarah Paulsen... it's all well done. The journey on the river is very pretty. I liked it... I just kind of wish it had used the blind stuff more.

Movie review - "This Thing Called Love" (1992) **1/2

An odd sort of a movie - part romance, part ensemble piece about friendship, part musical, part star vehicle for Samantha Mathis. It's not hard to see why it wasn't a big hit - on the other hand you can see too why some people would like it a lot. It's got a good heart and features one of River Phoenix's last performances, plus one of Sandra Bullock's first, and occasionally manages to be something sweet and interesting.

It starts off clunkily, with Mathis arriving in Nashville to make it as a singer-songwriter, with what seems to be very rudimentary direction and some really awkward scenes. But it gets better as it goes along (or maybe I got more used to what the director was trying to do) - those long takes Bogdanovich likes to do were particularly effective, and I wish the whole movie had been full of them.

The other movie of the director's this reminded me most of was They All Laughed - the easy banter and sense of camraderie amongst the characters (Howard Hawks influenced no doubt), the unexpected warmth from strangers (the policeman who pitches his songs, the person crashed into by Dermot Mulroney who is excited for Mulroney to hear his song on the radio, the girls watching River Phoenix propose), the use of country music.

Maybe at times he was going for a Last Picture Show vibe as well but the characters aren't as strong - Mathis basically plays a good girl, Phoenix a brooding bad boy who is kind of good, Bullock a warm comic relief, Mulroney a nice guy who likes to drink... Either these characters could have been fleshed out more, or we could have done with a few more characters (They All Laughed had one or two more).

Also I felt Mathis wasn't quite strong enough to carry the movie. I had a crush on her in the early 90s as did a lot of people who saw her in Pump Up the Volume - but she doesn't have the warmth and charm of Bullock. I'm nor surprised she got a leading role after Volume - on the other hand, I'm not surprised she wasn't offered too many more. (Though it should be said that attractive male actors get more chances than female).

Oh and I wasn't wild about the music. But still, it's a charming tale in it's own way.

Movie review - "Gravity" (2013) *****

I've gone off going to the multiplex in recent years because its such an unpleasant experience most of the time, far too expensive, and the movies are often dumb. But this has helped revive my faith in Hollywood - a smart big budget special effects flick with stars and an awesome story.

Visually this is incredible - I kept wondering "how did they do that?" Alfonso Cuaron's tendency for long takes works brilliantly - it all works brilliantly - creating genuine white knuckle suspense. I'm sure boffins could poke holes in the science of it all, but I believed it.

Sandra Bullock is excellent in the lead - her plastic surgery wasn't too distracting as she spends most of the movie in a helmet, and looks splendid in astronaut underwear. It's such a tremendous role - I understand Angelina Jolie decided not to do it over money; if that's true, she was a fool: Cuaron is one of the best directors working in the world today. George Clooney was born to play an astronaut, too.

So many excellent moments: the opening "attack", the discovery of the fate of the Shuttle crew, Bullock's third act turning point. A wonderful film.

Movie review – “Infamous” (2006) **1/2

The poor bastard of the year award would have to go to Douglas McGrath and the makers of this movie, which was pipped at the post by “the other Capote film”, Capote. Not only did it deal with the famous writer, it too concentrated on the one specific incident of his career – the writing of In Cold Blood. This one has a cult for being better but it isn’t really – it has extra glimpses of New York high life, but does that really matter since we don’t get to see much of it? (If it had been a film about the Black and White Ball, that might have been different.) The other Capote also feels more authentic – this one has clunky scenes like Capote turning up to the police station where there’s a press conference and making sweeping statements; and it’s not particularly well directed either (eg all those Woody Allen-type long shots and talking to camera). Toby Young’s Capote is fine; Sandra Bullock is excellent as Harper Lee but the actor who plays Paley is dreadful and actor-ish.

Movie review - "Crash" (2006) ****1/2

There's a joke a black comedian once told about walking along the street with his black friend and a white couple cross the road to avoid them, and the punchline is "we were so insulted, we went ahead and robbed them". I was reminded of that when watching this powerful tale, about race and other things in LA. Excellently done, it's the sort of film you get the impression they tried to make with Magnolia but didn't quite get to. It's also reminiscent of La Ronde without the sex - we see how person A interacts with B then B with C and so on. It's not so much a plea for tolerance as for politeness - most of the horrible things happen because people lose their temper and yell, causing misunderstandings. Several moments in particular are outstanding - one moment involving a little girl made me gasp, another sequence involving a person trapped in a car is heart-pounding. Excellent acting (Sandra Bullock is frighteningly believable; Ryan Phillippe is again better than you'd think but again not so good as to not make you wish a better actor had played the part). Does William Goldman consider Haggis deciding not to kill the girl an example of "Hollywood horse-sh*t"? Probably.