Review: Climax

Some people may have not have heard of director Gaspar Noe.

To give you some aid, I would say Noe is a mix of Darren Aronofsky, Nicholas Winding Refn, Dario Argento with a touch of Stanley Kubrick.
In a nutshell, the Argentinian's style is closer to that of French cinema as he has lived most of his life there. His films are usually designed to unsettle you whilst making it looking very stylish.

While Noe's films are never perfect. He always makes interesting movies with a unique look to it.

The trailer certainly gives you an idea of the vibe and is probably one of the best put-together trailers of the year, as it does exactly what a trailer should be. It shows you some intriguing content without explaining what the story is about. It instantly got me excited even though I had no idea what it was about.

Firstly, it opens with something that a lot of films pre-1970's did and that is start with the credits. That was a nice touch and after seeing the film, it felt we were dipping our toes into a film where the structure is incorrectly pieced together.
Then obviously at the end, once the story is over, that's it and the lights fade back up.

There is an amazing opening dance scene that is brilliantly choreographed not just from the dancers but from the cinematographer as well. It's quite a way to begin our story. Book marking that is our best chance of finding out about our characters.
It's a tricky one with that particular aspect of the film. Whilst in the end, the characters are not that likable, I saw hints of sympathy towards them which was helped by a solid introduction to them in the first act as you notice their strong personalities. After that, there is little development to be had. It's more about the chaos that is happening in the second and third acts and the style that is taking priority. I must say, the descent into madness is quite something. At first, it is quite gradual. But once we see the first of many shocking moments, it just becomes one big nightmare that for some reason we just can't stop looking at.

Calling it Fame mixed in with Requiem For A Dream would be the simplest summary I could make and could well best way to describe it to general audiences. But there is so much to talk about with this one.

I think everyone did a fantastic job with the performances. Considering almost all of them are just dancers, it's amazing that Noe got so much out of them.
The only notable actor I noticed was the brilliant Sofia Boutella, who I think is one of the best physical actors right now after her work in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Atomic Blonde, Star Trek Beyond and was the best part of the disappointing The Mummy. Boutella has a fair few stand-out moments including one scene where her characters goes completely insane and it felt reminiscent of James McAvoy's almost out of body experience in Split.

I loved the way the camerawork by Benoit Debie. The long camera shots and that twist into all sorts of angles perfectly encapsulate our characters various stages of insanity build up. By the end of it, it is hard to fully see what is going on. But that never seems to be an annoyance as it maintains that nightmarish vibe from the second act.
Also, the soundtrack perfectly matched the tone and I would happily search for the songs used in this.

I don't really have any negatives to speak of. I think the lack of a strong story and character development  will prevent it from being in best of the year list as I feel that to be a far superior aspect in a film that what is concentrated more on in this.

However, what is fully utilised on screen is certainly something to experience on the big screen.

If you are not aware of Noe's style, then be prepared for this to be a tough and at times unpleasant viewing. But if you love a film that is never afraid to experiment in a unique style, then you will love the many routes this goes down.
I think Noe has done a great job with this. To make something that is both beautiful and horrific is quite a talent and he maintained that vibe throughout.
While it might not go into any depth at all with its story or characters, it certainly makes up for in its style, cinematography, shock value and many dance scenes.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Mile 22

When you hear director Peter Berg and actor Mar Wahlberg are back together with a new film, it is a must see.

It began with the brilliantly tense Lone Survivor, followed by the action-filled drama Deepwater Horizon and then the powerful and tense Patriots Day.
Whilst all of those have been based on recent true events, this fourth collaboration between them is a work of fiction.

With a promising including The Raid's very own superstar Iko Uwais, I was certainly for another white-knuckle ride.

It certainly starts really well. There is a super-tense action scene to begin proceedings. The action is really gritty I was already on the edge of my seat. The violence was brutal and times, and we were underway with a top opening.
After that, I was really struggling to understand what the story was being told. The way it was edited and structured made it unnecessarily incoherent. There are some non-linear and flashback moments that just further confused things and by then I was losing patience with the film.
Then every so often, there would be some great action sequences. But no matter how the jerky camerawork and over-editing tried to downgrade it, I could see the quality on show.
By the time I worked some sort of story, it was a bit of a let down. So in the end, I just relied on the action which prevented from being a total loss. By the time the credits roll, I felt really disappointed.

The performances like the film had good parts and bad parts.
Mark Wahlberg surprisingly ended up being rather annoying. Many people will know he's a very capable actor and has given us many top performances. But this one was quite shocking.
Firstly, he's talking at 100mph and you sometimes struggle as to what he's saying. Also, some of the stuff he says is quite unnecessarily cruel and nasty. Whether or not he was directed to be like that is irrelevant, this was not his finest hour.
It was great seeing Iko Uwais being cast. After his breakthrough success in The Raid franchise, Uwais for many people could be a huge action star for many future mainstream films. In this, the action is similar to The Raid which always a joy. Some of the improvisation he does in his fighting moments reminded me of Jackie Chan. In terms of the acting, it was fine but nothing special.
Also, I was happy to see the gorgeous Lauren Cohen involved. Famed for her work in The Walking Dead, it was nice to watch Cohen on the big screen instead. She did a solid job, never felt out of place with the gritty tone and really enhanced the tense moments for me.
I had mixed feelings seeing MMA fighter now turned wrestler Ronda Rousey's name on the cast list. It's safe to say her acting skills are still being developed. But I was positive that would make great use of her strengths in the action scenes. They did that up to a point and her acting is showing clear signs of improvement. I would happily see her be given more opportunities in minor roles in future action films.
John Malkovich is also in here in a minor role. He isn't given much to work with, but does what you expect of him.

As mentioned before, the action is really good and is by far the films biggest strength. It certainly is worthy of being an 18 rated film, it's brutal, tense and at time the choreography is top notch. That was mainly thanks to Uwais' contribution. But the bad camerawork just never utilised those scenes. The best fight scenes just have the camera fairly still, let the scene breathe and let us appreciate the skills put on show. As much as Uwais had many scene-stealing moments, this could have made the real start of the film.
Another positive is probably the look of it. It's fitted the tone well and further enhanced the action.

But I am gutted to find so many problems with this film. What was even worse is that they were all unforced errors. If they went for even a conventional approach to the look of the film, it would have been a good watch. But instead they went for the shaky-cam tactic, edited it to within an inch of its life and put in flashbacks and flash-forwards that almost felt purposeful to confuse us for some reason.
Also the writing wasn't great, especially the dialogue Wahlberg was given. It made him look like a very unlikable character and that is not a great help when he is the lead protagonist.

I was not expecting to say that this could well be my biggest disappointment of the year. With Berg's collaboration history with Wahlberg being so strong, you expect so much. What should have been an easy success ended up being a massively incoherent story with an erratic execution with some very good action that is over-edited. In the end, it becomes a somewhat hot-mess. There is some really good stuff in here, but the makers themselves just ruin it in the way it was shot, written and put together. Those are major aspects in any film that you need to get right, otherwise you're in trouble.

Rating: 6/10

Review: Crazy Rich Asians

On the face of it, this definitely sounded like the film I would instantly avoid. The title is trying to be wacky, and the plot andtrailer felt like a bog-standard rom-com flirting with the tone of Sex And The City or Entourage.

But after it receiving unprecedented box office sales and very positive reviews from critics in America, I felt compelled to be proven wrong and give this a chance.

The story structure is something we have seen before. But it was the comedy and character development that made me not care too much about that and just appreciate the films strengths.
It does play with tropes the you see from classic 90's rom-coms and even the screwball comedies of the 30's. But with the addition of Asian culture and a full Asian cast, it manages to have a refreshing quality to it that pushed my problems with it further away.
There are some nice segments in the first act that made great use of current technology and it was brilliantly portrayed on screen. It had a swift editing to it that instantly got me into the film.
In the film there is a major social event that everyone is building up, and it when it takes place on screen, it really is quite something that worth seeing on the big screen.
Even the final act goes down to routes we have countless times. But all that work director Jon Chu and his team made beforehand still made me feel all warm inside and happy how it ended.

The entire cast were brilliant and about 90% I had never heard of. The only ones I recognised were the always great Michelle Yeoh and Ken Jeong famed for his role in The Hangover trilogy. Yeoh really showed her experience and still shows us how good she still is. Whereas as Jeong was briefly seen in this film and thankfully never over did it like he has done in more notable roles.
Constance Wu and Henry Golding were great as the two leads. Their chemistry was very strong, the romance between the characters was very believable and they both have a wonderful screen presence that makes it easy to root for them.
I finally saw what all the fuss was all about with Awkwafina. I briefly saw her in Ocean's 8 earlier this year. But she totally shone in this, was a wonderful support with a few scene-stealing moments and was a nice change of pace to the story every time she appeared on screen. I could say exactly the same for Nico Santos' character. It could have been over-the-top and generic and his character is one you see in a lot of rom-coms. But it was performed to a high-quality level, never stole the thunder away from the leads and did not feel like a cheap gimmick.

As well as the writing in the characters and comedy being major strengths for me, there were a few other aspects that were worth mentioning.
I liked the choice of music that was played in certain scenes. There is a lot of famous swing music, but sung in the native language. That for me felt like a homage to the classic films, which made me think that the story structure was more intentional than expected.
This kind of a strength, but this film will also make you hungry as there is a lot of Asian food being made or eaten on screen and you just can't help but crave them afterwards.

So while it may play out like a classic rom-com, its fun and emotional tone and the modern themes made me care for what was happening on screen. The performances was great, I like the way it moved, it was consistently funny with many top gags and the general story was very well executed.

With a film having the words 'Crazy Rich' in the title, you expect a lot of lavish items on screen. I was cautious about reacting to this, as I was fearing it may go down the Sex And The City and have me thinking, 'Why should I care about this obscenely rich people?' That is when the writing comes into play and made me invest into these characters as that it was the story focuses on instead of the background noise. I can now see why this is doing extremely in the box office.

I must mention that there is a mid-credit scene that apparantly readers of the book series this film is based off will get. For other people like me, it's just a nice intriguing moment that opens the door for a sequel which I would happily check out.

Rating: 8/10

Review: The House With A Clock In Its Walls

For a director who is known for making grindhouse horror's such as The Hostel and Cabin Fever to then make a family film is surely intriguing.
I don't think I've ever thought Eli Roth has directed a good film yet. However, I have always seen the potential in them.

So with the trailer showing that potential, I felt checking it out as this may be Roth's calling card to success.
Early on, I was already seeing a mix of Goosebumps, Harry Potter, The Addams Family and even Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children. The film is mainly set in this spooky house and the set designs were pretty good as well as the design of the costumes.
The story and the development was interesting. But the pacing of it felt unbalanced and just felt ploddy. Also, the humor was a bit inconsistent. There is some fun and creative verbal digs between the main characters. However, there is some toilet humor that felt at times inappropriate and even took me out of the film.
I noticed in the second half a lot of very scary moments. I admired the bold moves made in regards to the horror aspect. It reminded of the family horrors from the 80's and 90's that pushed the boundaries.
For the rest of the film, I was seeing all the potential that could be explored. But every so often, I saw some mis-execution moments that just reminded me of every other Roth film and by the time credits rolled, I felt a little underwhelmed.

The performances were a mixed bag for me. Owen Vaccaro was ok for the most part, but also failed to deliver in other parts. He just felt like a poor man's Jacob Tremblay who if you don't know is probably the top child actor right now. Sadly Vaccaro never stood out for me. There were also some awkward moments of over-acting as well.
Jack Black and Cate Blanchett were the ones pulling this film along. Black is very capable of being in a kids film. He's always had those man-child qualities that fit nicely into family films, and he does more of the same here. Blanchett is always class and strolled through this with ease. It was not really a challenging role, never came out of first gear and was just a safe pair of hands. Together they had fun chemistry and brought out some laughs throughout. When the three main characters are together, I liked the family aspect that they had and one of the few things I was rooting for.
It was nice seeing Kyle MacLachlan have a small role in this as I have not seen him in a film for quite some time. People will know him mainly from Showgirls and/or The Flintstones.

As mentioned before, it has some nice imagination, lovely set and costume designs and solid visual effects from a practical and CGI aspect. That was certainly the films biggest strength.

Also, I liked that Roth made great use of his history with horror. When it gets scary, it gets quite scary. I think young kids will be petrified by it. I'm almost 30, and even I felt it to be creepy, unsettling, shocking and could see why it was rated 12. If it was made in the 80's or 90's, I probably would not have questioned some of the dark content. But seeing that today was weirdly refreshing.
However, there were few supposedly scary moments especially towards the end that felt just weird, strange and took me out of the film.

While there was a healthy amount of positives, the negatives and frustration I had with it manages to out-weigh the positives.
The pacing was weak and unbalanced. There did not feel any energy in its story-telling and it just plodded along. There was so much that could be explored with the house that our main characters were in. But it never fully utilised it.
Also, some of the acting was questionable, especially by some of the kids. You might say that's harsh as they're just kids. But over the decades we have seen many amazing performances from child actors. So to me, there's no excuse for a bad or sub-par performance whatever age you are.

In the end, I did feel somewhat disappointed by it. With a certain magical franchise still going strong, this one just lacks the wizardry and charm you expect these types of films to have. It has it in parts and shows great potential. But in the end, I left underwhelmed, disappointed and felt it to be a missed opportunity.
On a positive note, I think some older kids in the 7-12 range will get a kick out of this as well as the parents. So I think it wouldn't do any harm for families to check this one out. Especially as its a nice little taster before the Halloween period.

Rating: 6/10

Review: American Animals

I always try and go into films as cold as possible these days, as I get the most enjoyment out of seeing films in its entirety instead in snippets from trailers.

In regards to this particular film, I saw one trailer and heard a fair amount of buzz from the Sundance and South By Southwest Film Festival's. That was enough for me to seek this one out.

This is most certainly an interesting watch. The way it opens up was quite cool mixing in documentary and feature film styles. That as well as the strong character development in the first act hooked me in early on.
After that I was just loving how everything was building-up and the reasoning for everything happening covered some topics that felt very current.
With the humor working well and anticipation being quite high, I was expecting a white-knuckle ride of a final act.
But I was sadly mistaken. It took a turn that I was not expecting. But it also managed still keep my interest as it managed to still hold it together with its themes. By the end, the whole tone of it almost felt haunting, quite dark and sad. Nevertheless, it still felt as intriguing as the first two acts. Especially with some neat twists at the end.

The performances overall were pretty good. Evan Peters was an absolute star in this. After making a breakthrough by playing Quicksilver in the X-Men films, you can see the talent that this guy has. However, this felt like a career best for me as Peters showed real maturity and used his charm well with the strong script that he was given.
His chemistry with Barry Keoghan was for me the aspect that sucked me in and get heavily invested with this story. It has been quite a couple of years for Keoghan, as like Peters he is certainly making a name for himself. In this, he did a great job playing the co-lead with Peters, gave a lot of innocence to his character and certainly played to his strengths.
Blake Jenner and Jared Abrahamson also played their parts really well. I remember seeing Jenner as the main character in Everybody Wants Some, and he gave support and had a few nice shining moments in the second half. As for Abrahamson, while he was given the least to do out of the four main characters, he still did everything right when required.

While the performance were certainly a big strength to the film, the biggest for me was the structure. It was directed by Bart Layton, who is known more for his documentary film-making. What he does in this film is something I've never seen done in this way. Layton and his team manages to make this film-documentary hybrid. It's based on a true story and the way they use the people from the real life story was quite cool.
We have seen a documentary style used in small doses in various films in the past. But in this film both styles manage to walk hand-in-hand and still make a cohesive story. The closest I have seen this type of story-telling was in the brilliant sci-fi District 9. So in a way, this felt to me like a bit of a game-changer to genre film-making.

I don't really any negatvies to speak of. So it just a matter on how strong and effective its strengths are.

It has a solid amount of humor that never gets in the way of the main tone, and I liked the high energy it has in its pacing.
I also liked how it makes fun of the heist genre cliches. It also manages to mess with your perception of things happening on screen. Layton does have history of doing this. In his most known documentary The Imposter, it plays with your perspective on things and toys with your emotions. This film does exactly that, especially towards the end.

I think it's safe to say that I really liked this. The story is really interesting, goes over a lot of topics that are quite apt to cover at this time, the performances are great and of course the style of story-telling and the execution was very impressive. Even when the final act did not go the way I expected, it went down a route that I never thought of and just enhanced my views on the film.
Evan Peters is the big draw and I hope this gives him a lot more roles that could make him a future Oscar contender.
It will be interesting to see if other films try this type of story-structure in the next few years, or if it will just become a niche sub-genre.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Upgrade

Not much to say about this one, except that it hooked me from the buzz it from the South By Southwest Film Festival. With it also being a sci-fi, that was plenty of reasons for me to check this out.

Boy was this a lot of fun, and I can see why it the audience award at SXSW.
It has really well created three-act structure. But before the the first frame, it begins with the most unique introduction I've ever seen. That hooked me in straight away and that was a cool way to start the film.
As for the story itself, it starts of at a gentle pace, introduces us to this near-future world really well, shows some cool gadgets and we understand the characters.
Then some major developments occur in the second act turning the films speed up many notches, and every aspect just gets elevated for the better.
Once we've experienced some thoroughly enjoyable action scenes, the crescendo to the piece was quite satisfying with a predictable yet neatly executed twist.

The performances overall were solid. But it was all about Logan Marshall-Green. It was great to see him back on the big screen after his mainstream breakthrough in Prometheus. After that, he got badly treated and was basically labelled as a B-version of Tom Hardy.
But after his solid performance as a minor role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, that seemed enough for everyone to welcome him back.
Now he's the lead in his latest project, and more than holds his own in this.
I like the beliefs his character has and how it was incorporated into the main plot. That for me was well explored and was executed pretty well.

The rest of the performances were perfectly fine, but were never exceptional. The villains were never given as much development as Marshall-Green's character. So that lowered it down a bit. But thankfully, the performances by Benedict Hardie, Richard Cawthorne, Christopher Kirby and Harrison Gilbertson were all solid.

I always love how much directors and their respective teams can make with a low budget and manage to stretch it to its limits that put multi-million dollar budget films to shame.
That being said, the touch that director Leigh Whannell gives to this blends really nicely. It may have a low budget. But it certainly has that summer blockbuster feel to it and could fit this into many genres.
This has a nice mix of sci-fi, action and a bit of revenge horror. It also has some comedic moments that manages to stand out despite some of the graphic content its battling with. It also manages to pull at the emotional strings really well and at the right times.

Some of the camera movements during the action scenes was very inventive and almost reminded of parts of the comedy Game Night, which came out earlier this year. So great stuff by cinematographer Stefan Duscio.

There were a few small negatives to speak of. As mentioned before, the villains were not fleshed out enough and never gave us a strong antagonist to compete with the strong development Mrashall-Green's character was given.
Also, the general plot is very unorginal. It is definitely something we have seen before. But thankfully, it was made up for many small aspects to the story that almost revitalised this story structure.

So while the general plot and concept may be formulaic. It certainly takes some cool twists and turns along the way and has moments of depth that makes this above average at worst.
Plus, the imagination in the technology used in this was brilliant. It's amazing that even now with the amount of sci-fi films that have been made, you can still make some new types of technology in them.

I had a lot of fun with this and no part of it slowed my enjoyment down at any point. It felt like a mix of Robocop and John Wick and hearing that will appeal to many demographics.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Searching

The first I had heard of this film was only a few months ago. The trailers looked intriguing. But the concept of seeing the film from a computer screen had me feeling unsure as the horror franchise Unfriended never fully utilised it. So there was a part of me thinking that this film might not be totally engaging as the gimmick could wear thin.

However, the buzz coming from this looked rather promising. Also, I am a fan of John Cho and I was glad to see him have a sole leading role, after enjoying him in the Star Trek and Harold & Kumar films as well as his iconic cult moment in American Pie.

It seems I was right to react to the buzz. The opening scene gives you a wonderful introduction and backstory about the characters you are about to encounter. It had a similar construction to how the Pixar film 'Up' began, It felt like a brief summary, and then you are suddenly dropped to the middle of the part when it gets juicy.
From then on, it's a tense mystery thriller that gradually brews its way up to boiling point. When one more clue gets put into the mix, the mood just intensifies even more.
There was even a few scenes towards the end of the second act that made great awareness of how certain members of the younger generation are just desperate for media attention and will do anything just to get likes on various social media outlets.
By the end of it, you kind of expect it to end in a generic way. Then out of nowhere, a very well executed twist turns the story almost a complete 180 degrees turn. That ending for me is what is getting the buzz and strong word of mouth.

I was really happy to see John Cho make the most of this opportunity as he did great in the lead and totally kept the film moving. His intensity and sympathy his character produces were spot on throughout and you could feel the determination and I was constantly rooting for him.
I had no idea Debra Messing was part of this, and it was great to see her take a serious role and be out of her comfort zone. We know her more for TV sitcom's such as Will & Grace or rom-coms. Messing's inexperience did show at times. But on the whole, I think she did a really good job.

The computer screen concept is the most vital cog in the works. I think director Aneesh Chaganty did a great feature debut, and his team have shown what this emerging tactic in film-making is capable of. I think what I liked about it the most is that they make you noticed things on the computer screen that our main character discovers later on in the film. That was quite a fun little game to get ahead and was quite a clever move the film-makers created.

While I think they made good use of the concept. There were some moments that felt illogical to be done on a computer screen. But as the film-makers have committed to the film being solely on a computer screen, I guess you kind of have to let some things go like what I did with the first Cloverfield film who made great use of the found-footage genre.

All in all, I thought this was a rather enjoyable thriller. It moves a long nicely, there are clever ways they use the computer screen concept, it felt a bold and daring method of telling a story and the final act is pretty strong which contains a pretty cool twist. It was great to see a successful execution of this concept. When done well, this emerging sub-genre has the ability to be fantastic.
The performances all worked well and Cho was a more than capable lead and carried the film well.
I wouldn't quite call this a game-change to the genre. But in terms of tension and story-telling, it's certainly worth a watch. I don't think it will do well at the cinemas. However, it's home release sales should do rather well.

Rating: 7/10

Review: BlacKkKlansman

It's not exactly been a successful time in recent years for director Spike Lee and his films.
While he has been pretty active with his film-making, only a couple have been critical successes and it's fair to say none have been hits with the audience.

However, the buzz it has been getting since its initial release at this years Cannes Film Festival back in May has been pretty strong. With the trailer leaving a lot of

After now seeing it myself, it made it hard to get an instant reaction out of me, because it goes in so many different directions and is trying to cover multiple topics in both serious and comedic ways. For something that involves the Ku Klux Klan, that is a bold move to add some comedy into it.
For the most part, the mix of comedy and serious drama does work. You're introduced to the characters well and you get to grips with the tone early on and therefore expect more comedy the further we go into the story. It develops nicely with some tense and funny set-pieces and I could feel passion in the craft of this story. But in the final act, I think it started to get a bit disjointed in its tone and is trying to force its themes rather than just present them in an entertaining way.
It's a tough thing to accomplish. But thankfully, I feel he manages to pull it off nicely and I think Lee and his team did a good job with this.

The performances on the whole were pretty strong. There were a fair amount of roles that were very well executed and they all made the most of their moments on screen. John David Washington leads the way. A new face for many people. But being the son of the great Denzel Washington will already give him a bit of reputation to match. I must say he was great in this. He really channeled his dads style and carried the film so well with a smooth and clinical style.
Adam Driver was a wonderful choice and his growing chemistry with Washington was highly engaging and one of the films biggest strengths. That and a little bit of added support by Michael Buscemi made their scenes together rather memorable.
There was also a real coming-of-age performance by Laura Harrier. After showing much promise in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Harrier showed a lot of maturity in her latest role.
Other top supporting performances that are definitely worth mentioning are Corey Hawkins, Ryan Eggold, Paul Walter Hauser and especially Jasper Paakkonen and a career-changing performance by Topher Grace.

Another notable strength is Lee's juggling of the two polarizing tones. He is precise in its execution. The whole story brews up nicely and towards the second act, there is a really powerful scene in the build-up to the final act that sneaked up on me and in the end felt rather overwhelming.

But then after all hard work, the final act for me ends up being the films biggest negative. It manages to have a disappointing end to that build-up, slightly lose its way and almost takes me out of the film. But the shocking content at the very end did not detract my overall view on the film.

Despite the ending not matching the rest of the film, I think it's a well constructed piece of work that I think many others will enjoy mainly due to the topical aspects its covering.

It's definitely Spike Lee's best film since 2006's Inside Man. There are many strong performances, it is a movie that many will call important and I will not be surprised if it features in next years major awards.

As for me, I really appreciated the craft and it is a well-made piece of work. Lee mastered the balance of comedy and serious really well.
But while there are moments that will make you laugh. There is a part of you that will almost feel unsure how to feel due to the seriousness of themes.
Also, the let-down of the finale to the story prevented me from it being one of this years best on my list. It's almost there. But it will certainly be on a lot of others.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Alpha

The first I heard about this film was well over a year ago now. Then I remember this film being pushed back a few times.
This has ended up being just over a year of pushing this back. From what I can tell, the reason for these changes has been due to larger films being released around those previous dates that the studio feels would effect their box office.

All of that gradually reduced my confidence for this film, especially when the studio does not feel this could compete with expected box office hits and not be a sleeper hit.

Nevertheless, I still went and paid good money to not only watch it on the big screen, but in IMAX after receiving a few recommendations. That ended up being a good decision.
Right from the first scene, already the cinematography and landscapes felt captivating. The locations used and the way they're shot were gorgeous, ;ooked convincing for the time period and were totally fleshed out. The shots were like something you would normally see on the National Geographic Channel or in a David Attenborough programme. That alone made me feel entranced
As for the story, it moves at a solid pace has simple cohesion and perfectly fine development that is simple to follow.

Kodi Smit-McPhee is in the leading role, as does a good job. I remember seeing him in The Road, Let Me In and playing Nightcrawler in X-Men: Apocalypse. I felt he did enough to carry the film and had some nice chemistry with his supporting cast.
The only other performance I wanted to mention was from Johannes Haukur Johannesson. At first, I thought his role was being played by Pilou Asbaek from Game Of Thrones fame. But in the end I worked out that it wasn't. I felt his performance was committed, but sadly felt better suited in a TV series in something like Vikings. That's not a bad thing. It's just that when it comes to something being shown on the big screen, it needs to be taken to the next level of engagement.

As mentioned before, the visuals are its strongest aspect. But I'm afraid a film can only be good up to a point. The plot may end up being something that I was not expecting. But it's just not as engaging as it thinks it is. There was rarely a sense of urgency and it just plodded along. It also feels shorter than it should be. It almost feels like something is missing in the final act.

In a nutshell, it's like a poor man's The Revenant with a different motive for the main character, and a wolf.
But if I wanted to give it some justice, it's a decent survival/coming of age story with gorgeous locations used and beautiful visuals throughout. Plus, I thought the connection between our two main characters was sweet and reminded me of Dances With Wolves.

You can feel that a lot was given to the production. But I think the story not being strong enough and the lack of star-power will prevent it from being a success.
If you want to check it out, then you have to see it in IMAX for the visuals and locations. Plus, it's just over 90 minutes. So it shouldn't feel like a slog. But was the almost one year wait worth it? Not quite.

Just to warn you, there are subtitles in this. But if are not a fan of reading during the films, the films is mainly telling the story from its visuals. So there is not that much subtitled dialogue to deal with.

Review: 7/10

Review: The Equalizer 2

I remember really enjoying The Equalizer when it came out back in 2014. It was a fun action-thriller that also felt deep, moody and meaningful in its themes.
Plus, it just further proved that Denzel Washington gets the best out of Antoine Fuqua's works. He did it with Training Day, and now he's doing it with this. So much so, that we know now have a sequel. I believe this is Washington's first ever sequel. He is known for not doing them, and so it is hard not to ignore this and be intrigued as to what was it about the first one that made Washington come back.

The success and quality of the first installment was plenty for me to be excited for the sequel. That, and the fact that Washington and Fuqua would return.

Now that I've seen it, I felt pretty satisfied with what I saw. It's get into some fun action straight away, and already Washington's charisma has hooked me in.
After that, there is some nice development with a few little stories to keep your eye on and see develop throughout the film. One in particular I feel we stick with most audiences than others. But I feel all will never feel like a drawback or forgetful.
Then once the main story kicks in, it is just one fun action set-piece after another and a fun and exciting finale.

Washington continues to be one of those actors that I feel is incredibly consistent with their choices. Other examples would be Tom Cruise and Jake Gyllenhaal. For the most part, all of his films are solid with some exceptions which are incredible such as Training Day, Philadelphia and Remember The Titans and a few others.
Pedro Pascal did not do much that would make you talk about afterwards. But he does everything to a satsifactory standard.
However, Ashton Sanders did a really good job and has proved to all of us that he was not just a flash in the pan with his efforts in Moonlight last year.

Melissa Leo was good and certainly has one moment that is the best part of the film outside of Washington.

It was nice to see Bill Pullman in this, as I will never forget his role in Independence Day. However this latest project felt a bit wasted and under-used.

To begin with some positive remarks, it's certainly one of the best sequels in the last few years. I don't think it's as fun as the first one and the story does not feel as impactful. But they are all fractionally off its predecessor. So it is most certainly still a good watch and that mix of John Wick and Taxi Driver still works.

I like it that they kept with the low-key tone in terms of what Washington's character is doing. I liked the revenge factor, how it developed and especially how it concluded with an entertaining final act.

This will certainly please fans of Washington. The film depends so much on his charm and magnetic presence. He totally owns it and carries the film beautifully.

The story may be cliched and unoriginal. But it still kept my interest and I was definitely never bored. Fuqua's gritty style fits perfectly with this film as well as the execution of the dialogue.
There are a few sub-plots to keep an eye on. I was fine with that as if they concentrated on just one, it would have dragged massively. So it was nice to see numerous problems are character was facing.

My final thought could well be the decider to go and see this. Don't worry if you have not seen the first Equalizer. There is hardly anything connecting the two and you could get as much from it as people who have watched the first one.

Rating: 7/10