Review: Bohemian Rhapsody

I wouldn't call myself a music nut. But I am a huge fan of Queen and I firmly believe Freddie Mercury is the greatest front-man of all-time has the best sounding singing voice I have ever heard.

So despite its production problems and controversy with its director, I was still super-excited to see what they would conjure up. But for sure, I was nervous that this could go horribly wrong in the editing room like most films do with many production changes.

The first act does suggest that you will be distracted by all the hair and teeth on display with it being set in the 70's and 80's. But as the film moves along, you gradually ignore that and it comes just a natural part of the scenery. As for the rest of the opening content, my nerves seemed to heighten, as it seemed to be quickly brush-over various aspects of the bands origins.
But as the film went on, I could tell that there was a lot of ground to cover and they wanted to make sure they thoroughly covered the big parts of the bands development throughout its tenure. There are some cool sequences that certainly amazed me as to how some of their hits began.
Also, the live performances were an absolute joy. Actual Queen band-members Brian May and Roger Taylor did contribute to this film as producers and you can tell that they wanted to make it feel like you're attending a concert as the live show sequences are fantastic to watch and it made me appreciate how accurate they executed them from the archive footage.
I was also enjoying some of the sub-plots that developed that for me enhanced several songs and the band itself.
But the part that will stay for in your memories the longest is the finale. When you see the opening scene, you know where this story is building-up to and could be one of the best pay-offs this year.

The performances on the whole were pretty good with some nice surprises. Rami Malek's performance as Freddie Mercury is what everyone is waiting for, and it sells the entire film. He completely embodies Mercury whilst never making it look like an impression. Everything from his speech, look and mannerism's are all absolutely on point and it is almost reminded me when Ben Kingsley played Ghandi, where you feel you are seeing the man himself right in front of you.
I did have my suspicions of his casting as I really liked the initial choice of Sacha Baren Cohen. But you can tell that he put in the work to make sure it was right and boy did he pull this off. You can feel him at his best, his mostvulnerable and the random bursts of energy that Mercury was known for producing in their live shows is their for all to see on the big screen. Malek could not have done it any better. I would happily label this as a sure-fire Oscar contender.
Gwilym Lee as Brian May was perfect. The likeness was scary and the execution of his movement and voice felt like May just created a copy of himself. Ben Hardy had some cool and funny moments as Roger Taylor and I was surprised how charmed I was by his character when everyone naturally heads towards Mercury. Joseph Mazzello was also another top choice to play Roger Deacon and identical to the bands actual bass player.
I was so happy seeing Lucy Boynton after seeing her in Sing Street. Boynton did a solid job and some nice moments with Malek.
Despite not being given much to do, Tom Hollander did as well as you might expect from his experience. I also give the same sentiments to Allen Leech and Aaron McCusker.
There is one surprise minor role that took me a while to recognise who it was and the importance of this casting was beautifully executed from a self-referential standpoint. If you are aware of the history of the Bohemian Rhapsody song, then you will love this particular characters contributions to the film.

The technical side on the whole was pretty good. There were several great tracking shots that were mainly used in the live shows.
The sound design and sound editing was particularly noticeable. While it is clear to hear that in the singing parts, they use recordings of Mercury's voice. I managed to be fine with that, because none of it felt lip-synced, they managed to seamless fit it in and make great use of acapella versions of various song which made it work perfectly.
Some of the editing was quite cool as they did it to the beat some of the songs, especially in the final act which for me enhanced my emotions of the situation well.

It is sad to see the general consensus of the critics being rather sniffy. We could have another situation like last year with The Greatest Showman. That means that it's first and foremost a crowd-pleaser, rather than a deep character study with dark and controversial content that will please the critics more than the mainstream audience.
I can partly see where they're coming from as the story structure is very conventional for a biopic, the level of depth and the writing is all on a surface level and it could come across as a sugarcoated version of this bands story. Plus having May and Taylor contribute could also come across as them trying to protect their legacy.
I would have liked to have seen a story or sub-plot that would explore Mercury's personal life. But I can see that was never the direction they were going for. Instead, they showed enough of that part of his life to understand it and make you want to know more.
Pretty much all of its problems reminded me a lot of how Jersey Boys turned out.

But I felt that the strength of the positives made me not totally ignore its problems, but kind of let it off. It may all be portrayed on a surface level, but it was high-quality surface and that for me can still be one hell of an experience that I would happily watch numerous times.
As I said before Rami Malek's performance alone makes this a must-watch. At this point in the year, he deserves to be labelled as a major Oscar contender, and I hope the momentum continues well into the awards season.
The film shows why Queen appealed to both the masses and the outcasts, brought record audience figures to their live shows and why each band-member and them being together was so important to the creation of their many timeless hits.
It's an absolute blast to watch on the big screen and for the people who were brought up by them when they were still making music, it will most definitely roll back the years.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Halloween

As far as can think of, this is my first horror sequel that I went to see on the big screen, and for good reason.

Horror sequels, prequels, re-boots or re-makes do not fair well. There are very few successful ones or even cult favourites that fall into the horror genre.

This particular new release had a good amount of buzz after its screening at the Toronto Film Festival last month. Plus, the drive and passion female actor Jamie Lee Curtis was showing in the build-up to its release had many people pumped.
That was enough for me to check it out, as I really like the first Halloween. Most of my all-time favourite horror films are from this era of the late 70's and early 80's. So I was certainly going in for some of the same magic that made horror films from that time become so iconic.

This did that for the most part. I've never had the chance of seeing the 1978 original on the big screen. So it felt great hearing the original theme in this. The way it was used on a few occasions certainly enhanced the various situations that was happening on screen.
It starts pretty well, introduces to new character rather well and begins the development of characters we already know and gave us early hints of where we're going with this which excited me. This film was making Michael Myers scary again and it worked really well. It rejuvenated the mythology around Myers and they explore it in the film through various characters. There is one scene in particular as we heads towards the final which could make or break the film for some people. If you know which one I'm thinking of, then I think it was a cool way of exploring the obsession of wanting to know more about the reasoning of Myers' actions.
As the tension mounts, we are then given a pretty memorable finale with some well executed suspenseful scenes and climax.

I must mention that after seeing it, I made a strange comparison that actually makes sense. The story structure felt similar to that of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. When when you watch it, I hope you can also see that similarity as well.

All the performances were solid but never exceptional. That is except for Jamie Lee Curtis. I've always admired Curtis' general personality and characters in most of her films. She is most definitely a strong female actor and represents that in a lot of her characters.
The development her character was given felt right in moving it forward from the original along with Judy Greer and Andi Matichak's characters. While I like the content Greer was given, I don't think Matichak was completed. It started off well. But we never got a conclusion of any kind to her story.
To be honest, I could say for a fair amount of the supporting or minor characters stories. They all seemed to be incomplete or never fleshed out. It's as if they forgot to give a conclusion to their respective sub-plots.

As I'm mentioning negatives, I'll also mention other notable problem I had with the film. There were multiple flaws that are common place in horror films. But as it is a big trope within this genre, I did let them go up to a point. But it still prevented me from giving it an exceptional rating and just settling for a solid one instead.

Onto to the positives. I love it that it didn't hold back on the violence. It was well deserving of its 18 certificate as there are several gruesome sequences.
There were some nice nods to the original, some more obvious than others. They even inverted some moments from the original which felt inventive in its execution. All of its moments of paying homage never felt like they had to stop the film to do it. It all felt very seamless.
The cinematography was pretty good on the whole. I loved it that they had some cool tracking shots that again pay homage to the original.

I think I can safely say that this is definitely the best Halloween film since the original. But to be honest, it didn't need to much to accomplish that. But I'm glad they tried to do something effective with this latest imagining. I would also go out and say that it is one of the best horror sequels ever.
This would be a great watch on Halloween night at the cinema for sure. While it is obviously scary, it felt fun more than anything else. It's not the type of horror film where you will struggle to sleep afterwards. I feel most people will come out with a smile on their face feeling pretty satisfied with what they saw.

It may not be that original or radical . But it is certainly a very satisfying watch, it has that appeal to a popcorn audience and films like this keep me giving hope of what the horror genre can be when done right.

I must mention that there is not a post-credits scene. But there is something at the end of the credits. So as the credits are not that long, it wouldn't hurt waiting to see what it is.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Bad Times At The El Royale

It's been far too long since Drew Goddard's directorial debut in 2012 with the modern horror-comedy classic The Cabin In The Woods. Now six years later, we have finally another installment to add to his catalogue.

On paper, it sounded intriguing, the cast looked pretty impressive and varied and the buzz was pretty solid.

It opens up as you might expect if you have seen the trailers. We get introduced to the characters and their surroundings nice and early.

Once that's done, then as the main story gradually gets more mysterious and dark, it breaks off at times to let us know more about the characters various back stories. Whilst that did lose the momentum of the film on numerous occasions, the content remainded intriguing.
There are some nice twists and developments along the way with some tense and gripping set-pieces. The finale could well be the films strongest point and we see every character pretty well fleshed out by the end of it.

The performances were all pretty good and there were plenty of characters to learn about. The big stand-out was probably Cynthia Erivo. That was mainly due to her being relatively unknown in the movie world and so you naturally want to know more about her. Also, her character had many memorable moments. Erivo is certainly a potential star in the making.
Her chemistry with Jeff Bridges was a particular highlight, and Bridges himself gave one of his best recent performances.
Jon Hamm's character gave us some nice twists in the first half of the film and Chris Hemsworth certainly stole the show in the final act.
I was really happy to see Dakota Johnson do something that wasn't Fifty Shades. Her character was more of a femme fatale, which was nice to see for a change as it's a type of character that is a rare breed these days. I felt she did a good job with this and I was glad she proved to us that she can play characters that we don't naturally associate her with.

The concept is something that we probably see once every couple of years and it's always a type of story that I'm up for watching if its in the right hands. The premise felt like Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. But the style of it was closer to that of Quentin Tarantino. However, the style of writing and story-telling was not up to those high standards. However, there was still plenty to enjoy here.

There is a fair amount of mystery and some nice twists that were well executed. It goes down places in its themes that I was not expecting. That's probably down to the way it was marketed.
There are a lot of dialogue-driven scenes that are quite magnetic and the strong performances make you invested in almost every character on screen.
The general production design was also a big strength of the film. It's gorgeous to look at and certainly fitted that late 60's setting.

I did have a couple of notable problems with it. It's certainly did not need to be 2hrs 20mins. There were several scenes that could have easily been cut down or needed swifter editing.
Also, a minor negative was that it was tough to root for the characters as none of them have that natural protagonist label tagged onto them.

I could be cruel and say that there better films similar to this out there. But even with those problems, I felt this to be a very enjoyable thriller that is very well constructed and almost felt old-school in its execution. The characters all had their moments on screen and made solid use of it. I think the duration and pacing might lose some people. But I think if you're happy to be at the cinema for that long, then I think you would have a pretty good viewing experience.

Rating: 8/10

Review: First Man

There were so many reasons why I was excited to see this film.
I've always been fascinated by space, the space race and a successful space drama goes a long way with me.
Plus, with it being directed by Damien Chazelle who directed the brilliant Whiplash and the very enjoyable La La Land, you have to expect this to be another Oscar contender.

It's hard to know where to begin with this. For the most part, I was simply flawed by it. What I loved about this, was the approach to this story.
Naturally, you would expect to see high powered American's heavily involved in the story and we see how the space race develops at the high end of American society.
However, what we get is all from Neil Armstrong's perspective which was great to see. We understood more about his family and how he was taking in all the media attention. I was aware of Armstrong' humble personality and that anything he did in life was all done very professionally and he never came off as this larger than life character.
So it was totally refreshing to see this monumental human effort be shown in this way. It never felt sensationalized or sugar coated. It felt really grounded and made it more of a human story rather than about the moon landing.
What they also covered was the sacrifices people had made in the build-up to this final moment, and seeing all it just made the pay-off even stronger and more impactful. There is one tragedy that apparently is fairly well known to people who were around at that time. However, I had no idea, and seeing it happen on screen was just crushing to watch.

The performances from a solid ensemble cast all came to the party. While Ryan Gosling's performance is not trying to get attention, it was exactly as I expected as I am aware of Armstrong's very low-key persona. During the numerous terrifying space scenes when things were going wrong, Gosling showed Armstrong's professional and calm approach to situations perfectly. Those moments put the stamp of approval on that I was watching Neil Armstrong rather than Ryan Gosling. It just shows that in an age where Marvel and DC rule the cinemas at the moment, that heroes can come in all shapes and sizes.
Claire Foy was a really big surprise for me. Firstly, I had no idea she was in this so that initial shock of seeing her was nice. But as the film went on, her performance just continued to elevate. But there is one moment just as we went into the final act that was astonishing that could be the scene that gives her a chance of winning Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. I've seen enough of Foy in films and TV shows to know how she is probably the most exciting female actor to watch right now. But this supporting role caught me completely off guard as the role of the astronauts wife in previous films in usually rather one-note in its execution. But Foy made the most of her screen-time and did something very powerful with it.
It was really interesting to see how Buzz Aldrin was portrayed by Corey Stoll. If his performance is what Aldrin is really like, then it was fascinating to realise that. His personality of saying what you would think of but never talk about made him come off as a bit of a jerk and that was intriguing to find out.
There were other notable performances to speak of. Particularly Jason Clarke who had great chemistry with Gosling throughout his development and gave me another character to strongly care about. I also have to give props to the performances by Kyle Chandler and Olivia Hamilton.

There are lots other positives to speak. There were so many amazing sequences leading up to the event that we are all aware of. But the build-up to it was fantastic, and that just made the pay-off even more breath-taking.
Also during those sequences, it was really hard to tell what was CGI and what was practical. So if that's case then I guess that they did a brilliant job with the visual effects?
The cinematography was quite bold in its choice of camerawork. There is a fair amount of 'shaky-cam'. However, I think that was well suited with certain scenes. Don't worry, there is plenty of moments where there are some gorgeous wide shots for the moments that would be best utilised with those types of shots.

A big positive to mention is the way they executed the various missions. They really make you feel that you were in the cockpit and feeling the almost rickety spacecrafts that there inside of. You can feel the materials that are keeping them alive vigorously shaking about and the claustrophobic environment. All of that just showed how dangerous space travel is. All of those emotions reminded me of similar feelings I had when watching Gravity. While I love finding more about space, it always reminds us how terrifying it can be.
Also the noise in those scenes were terrific. I saw this in IMAX, and I would highly recommended spending that bit extra to see this film in that format. It really enhances the sound design that I think is a shoe-win for the Oscar win and the images we get were just made to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
While mentioning Gravity, the film also has one particular moment that is a clear homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Be sure to look out for that bit.

The closest thing to a negative is the very end. While the very final scene gives us a nice subtle emotional gut-punch, it did feel abrupt at the same time. But I think that was totally purposeful by Chazelle to make it unexpected. So I would only see it as a minor negative just for personal reasons rather than from a film-making perspective.

This film is quite the visceral experience. Chazelle is becoming quite the director. To do this after making two music-centred films finally shows us the variety he has in his arsenal of film-making. After this, I could see many different films being made by him and his team and for sure more Oscars are coming his way.
I love it that it became a character study and have that independent feel rather than an over-the-top blockbuster and be about the event. It was captivating, breath-taking and I was constant awe of it. I will be surprised if this is not in my top 10 films of the year by the time 2018 is done.

Rating: 8/10

Review: A Star Is Born

As soon as I heard this was being made, I knew instantly that this an Oscar contender.

This was mainly due to the history of this story. This is the third re-make of the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor which I really liked.
Sadly, I have yet to have seen the 1954 version with Judy Garland, or the 1976 version with Barbara Streisand. But I am aware that each version has garnered at least an Oscar nomination. It's nice that there is effectively a version of A Star Is Born for each generation.

When I saw that Lady Gaga was in the leading role this time, I could tell that they were going for the major awards. However, I was surprised to see Bradley Cooper not only take the leading male role, but also make his directorial debut which was certainly a bold move to make.

I think it's safe to say our first Oscar contender has dropped its hat into the ring. While the first half is predictable, the telling of it is still strong. It introduces the characters well and straight away shows off the talents of the two leads that we were all cautious about.
Cooper never looked like an actor not known for his singing trying to sing, and Gaga never looked like a non-actor trying to act. They both looked as if they'd be doing it for years and fair play to them for putting in the hard work in what seems to be a passion project for both of them.
The second half is where it gets more interesting as it explores the life of a musician in varying degrees that puts it in both a positive and negative light. Then it ends in such an impactful way that its execution made it even more memorable.

Both Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga give performances that will give both of them a great chance of winning an Oscar.
With Cooper not known for his singing, and Gaga her acting, seeing them both take on those aspects and come out looking even more amazing then they originally were has to be highly commended.
I've never been too bothered by Gaga's music. But I definitely appreciate her talent and she has made many top pop songs. The movie plays to her strengths beautifully. Any time she is performing in the film, you just get entranced by her voice and everything else around her just fades away.
While Cooper and Gaga are getting the plaudits, I think Sam Elliott's performance needs to be credited. So much so, that it might get a push for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. He is a terrific actor first and foremost and his contribution in this film gives us many emotional moments, especially with Cooper's character. Also, I have mention the performances by Andrew Dice Clay and Dave Chappelle as well.

There are lots of other positives to speak of. But quite possibly the biggest is its soundtrack. It is pretty much guaranteeing itself an Oscar for Best Original Song and maybe Best Original Score as almost all the songs in the film as far as I'm aware are all original, which is phenomenal as all of them I instantly wanted to hear again.
My personal favourite is probably the song that opens the film. It just gives you a perfect feel on how this story is going to go. I don't think this will be the song that the studio will be pushing for the Oscar. But it's certainly the one I will be playing the most.
A lot of the songs are played at concerts, and those scenes were impressive. The noise coming out of the speakers in my screening made it worthy of seeing it on the big screen. You do feel like you're right in the middle of a sold out music event.

For a directorial debut, it's hard to ignore the achievement Bradley Cooper has made with this. His style overall was pretty good. Various set-pieces were executed really well with enough impact in them to be instantly memorable.

Sadly my only negative could be in relation to Cooper's directing style. I wanted to mention some of the editing choices that were made. I'm not sure if this was Cooper's chosen style or his inexperience showed, but there were dramatic jumps to a next scene that was startling at first. I did catch up with what was going eventually. But every time this happened, it felt alienating.

That was a small dent in what is a very well-made movie with many strong positives coming out of it.
It has been a while since I saw the 1937 original, so it was nice to see this story again. I saw a lot of similarities to Begin Again, which if you liked this film, then I would recommended checking that out.

Sure this film might get complaints that we've seen this story before. But there's a reason why this is the fourth version of this story being made. That is because it's a great story that can play to the masses and when done right is awards worthy. In this case, it's the strong performances by Cooper and Gaga, the amazing soundtrack and the strong and appealing style of Cooper's directing.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Venom

When I hear of the character of Venom, I remember being scared as a kid when I watched episodes involving him in the Spider-Man 90's animated series.

The nightmarish sequences that Peter Parker was battling with Venom is still great to look at and still gives me goosebumps today.

That was my biggest hope going into this film that has had a fair few production problems.

All of the build-up going into its release has been very similar to that of almost every DC film in Josh Trank's Fantasitc Four a.k.a Fan4stic. That made me nervous and had me going in with low expectations.
But I remained hopeful as the character of Venom has great potential to be something memorable. Plus, Tom Hardy is playing the lead and I am big Hardy fan and would happily watch him in anything.

In a nutshell, I think this film is a hot mess. These types of films are usually the most talked about as you can see the potential of the story, but the product you end up seeing on screen never fully works. But for sure, hot messes or honorable failure get heavily discussed about.

It begins with some solid development and sets up the scene nicely and where we going. The reasoning for the addition of the Venom character is slowly being told and is making sense. Then once the bond is made between our two main character, that's when the fun begins.
Whether you like the chemistry or not between our main characters, I feel that you will not take your eyes off it. While all that is happening, the action was executed fairly well. There were some fight sequences that felt very similar to a recent low-budget sci-fi called Upgrade. If you have seen it, then you will know exactly what I mean.
As for the final act, this was probably by least enjoyable part of the film. It did get a bit ridiculous and over the top with the concept and some of the humor was not landing for me. That just left me frustrated as to what it could have been.
There is a line in that final act which I hear has been talked about a lot as it's in the trailer. I'm not a fan of it, and the screening I was in had people laughing just before it was said. You could feel that they could see it coming up and they just couldn't help themselves.

But thankfully, there is content that I either liked or saw great potential in.

I think I can be confident in saying that without Tom Hardy, this would have been a complete disaster. I think he did a good job as Eddie Brock and executed the psychological side of the story rather well and showed us the potential of how rich this character can be when done right on the big screen. Hardy shows a lot of energy in his performance and you can tell that he has done his research. This performance would have fitted in nicely with the tone of either of Tim Burton's Batman films.
I liked the chemistry he had with the Venom character which I did not realise until afterwards that it was Hardy doing the voice-work of Venom as well. As for the voice performance, it's down to a tee in what I remember the character being in the animated series.
The relationship and back-and-forth between the two almost comes off a buddy-cop style relationship which strangely worked for me for the most part.
Michelle Williams managed to be under-used, disappointing and mis-cast all at the same time. She's a quality actor and is rarely seen in mainstream films. I'm not sure if she felt comfortable doing this type of film and felt more like she accepted the role just to get a large paycheck.
It was nice to see Riz Ahmed in this as he is a great talent, and I felt he did a solid job in this.
Also, with it being a Marvel film, there is an expected cameo which got a nice cheer in my screening.

It's obvious to read this and see that not everything in this film works. However, I was never bored and it kept me engaged with some of the routes it went down.
I felt so much shame as there's a really good film in here. It covers some interesting topics that I expected to be explored with the Venom character. But it never quite fulfills those aspects.

The structure and dialogue reminded of the sub-standard or disappointing Marvel films of the early 2000's such as X-Men: The Last Stand, Daredevil and Spider-Man 3. That sentence alone might be enough to give you the best overview of the film.
It's not quite on a Catwoman or Superman IV: The Quest For Peace level of bad.

Despite hoping it to be more of a psychological horror, there is some comedy in this. Some of it does work, the rest is kind of awkward. When I mean awkward, I mean I could not tell if the people making this film was trying to make certain sequences funny or it was so bad, then it became laughable.

All of that being said, it wouldn't surprise if this becomes a guilty pleasure with many people. It has so many things going on in this, that whether you think it's good or bad, you can't take your eyes off it.

As mentioned before, I think going down a more psychological horror route and have Venom be something similar to Gollum might have been the more successful path to take in my opinion.

Despite the problems this film has, you should check this one out. I would happily see another installment as if its done right, there could be another classic for Marvel and the superhero genre.

I must mention some things that happens during the credits. It begins with something that I would like major releases to get back into doing and that is have a original song made for it like Men In Black, Space Jam, Wild Wild West or many others did. Eminem does it for this one.
Also, there are two scenes during the credits. The first one happens halfway through is just pure set-up for any possible future installments. It introduces a character that I was hoping to see in the actual film. It's nothing spectacular except for the nice surprise on who will be playing this character.
As for the second one, it happens at the very end and it's rather long for a credits scene. It's got nothing to do with the film. Instead, it's a nice little sequences of an upcoming Marvel film that might gain some major momentum once people have seen this.

Rating: 6/10

My Top 10: Jamie Foxx Films

While he may have only got into acting from his mid 20's, Jamie Foxx has become a well established as well whilst having a healthy singing career.

You might not usually see Foxx up there with the best. But he certainly has his fans and is never afraid to try anything new. Most people will probably associate him with being in action films. But he usually has been successful in some comedies, a bit of animation voicework and even a biopic and a western.

In terms of award recognition, there are two performances that got him some recognition and one of those got him an Oscar as well as a Golden Globe and a BAFTA.

One film that I will give an honourable mention that misses out in my top 10, is Law Abiding Citizen. This tense crime thriller surprised me on many levels. It sees Gerard Butler play a regular family man set out for justice and revenge not only on the people that killed his family, but the people supporting a corrupt criminal justice system. Foxx plays a rising district attorney that is a given an ultimatum by our central character.

Out of his 41 films, I have seen 26 of them. I will rank all of the films that I have seen, and then give a short review of each of my top 10:

26) Miami Vice
25) Stealth
24) Annie
23) Robin Hood
22) Toys
21) White House Down
20) The Amazing Spider-Man 2
19) Valentine's Day
18) Horrible Bosses 2

17) Horrible Bosses
16) The Kingdom
15) Project Power

14) They Cloned Tyrone

13) Rio
12) Due Date
11) Law Abiding Citizen

10) Jarhead - A slow-burning psychological war-drama that sees a marine group go through an operation through the eyes of their sniper soldier.

While some people may not get into the pacing, the beautiful cinematography and good performances will make this an effective watch.

With Jake Gyllenhaal playing the main character, Foxx plays a supporting staff sergeant.

9) Spider-Man: No Way Home - Foxx returns as Electro in this ensemble feature within the Spider-Man universe.

It sees Peter Parker ask Doctor Strange for help with Spider-Man's identity revealed. But when Strange's spell goes wrong, dangerous foes begin to appear.

It was great seeing Foxx return and expand the contribution he has given to this universe.

8) Just Mercy - Foxx's latest role where he plays a wrongfully convicted death row prisoner.

Based on a unreal true story, it sees a defense attorney choose to relocate to Alabama and find many citizens in death row convicted for crimes they didn't commit.

This is a powerful story told with great maturity and makes it effective viewing.

7) Dreamgirls - Winner of two Oscars, this impressive looking musical drama is a story inspired by the career of The Supremes.

It sees a the rise and fall of a female soul trio from the early 1960's all the way through to the mid 1970's.

With a strong cast and amazing music, this is a guaranteed good time. Foxx in this plays a ruthless and slick record executive.

6) Soul - Foxx's only voice acting work outside of the Rio films, and it's a Pixar feature.

It sees a musician fight for his chance to fulfill his chance of living out his dream.

With deep and mature themes, this is a passionate and moving piece of work with amazing animation styles.

Foxx's voicework as the lead gave us a memorable and relatable character.

5) Any Given Sunday - The film that saw Jamie Foxx become a much sought after actor.
While he had been in a few films before this. This intense sports drama saw Foxx turn many heads as this arrogant quarterback of a troubled American Football team.

While it does massively emphasize the life within this sport, it is a super entertaining watch with many memorable scenes and a top cast.

4) Collateral - A terrific thriller in which a cab driver gets a fare that will change his life.

When a regular lift becomes a hostage situation, it becomes an extremely tense, well written and beautifully shot thriller.

Not only is Foxx centre stage, Tom Cruise is right there with him and both feed off each other brilliantly.


3) Baby Driver - A perfectly directed comedy heist with a top accompanying soundtrack and one of the best films of the 2010's.

It centres on a gifted getaway chair working for a crime boss, whose latest heist was doomed to fail as his personal life gets in the way.

Foxx plays unpredictable criminal Bats and gives one of the best performances in quite a while.

2) Ray - The film that saw Foxx give the performance that got him his only Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA.

Foxx portrays legendary musician Ray Charles from his upbringing to his meteoric rise into stardom.

It's a gripping biographical drama and saw Foxx at his very best.

1) Django Unchained - An extremely enjoyable Western directed by Quentin Tarantino where Foxx plays the titular character.

It sees a freed slave looking to rescue his wife from a plantation owner with a help a bounty hunter.

It's fun, exciting and has the ingredients you expect from a Tarantino film.