Review: The Duke

A feel-good British release is a guarantee for solid box office in this country.

With it being based on a true event with two strong British actor that can carry any film, this on paper sounds like a pretty safe watch for guaranteed entertainment.

The tone and overall look is as you would expect. It has that vintage British working class grit in its production design and the 'stiff upper lip' in our main protagonists.

The story is easy to follow, the vibe is feel-good and crowd-pleasing and has enough comedy to make it an enjoyable experience. But there is also enough emotional drama in there to give our heroes of the story a good amount of deserved sympathy.

As expected, our two leads played by Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren utilise their experience well in this and carry the story to make it shine. There's some solid support by Fionn Whitehead who you might remember from Dunkirk. It was also nice seeing Matthew Goode, who is another safe pair of hands for playing a minor role in similar British dramas like this.

There's no real issues I had with this film. It moves along nicely and it does everything you would expect from this type of story.

This is an enjoyably charming watch that the British crowds will easily eat up. Yes it doesn't break any new ground. But not every film needs to. It's ok to go to the cinema and check out something that is safe, harmless and makes you proud to be from this country. I can happily check at least one of these types of films out every year.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Cyrano

From my point of view, the momentum this film has had prior to its release has been rather intriguing.

Initial buzz was that this was an Oscar contender. Then as the general release date got pushed back, the hype was gradually lowering.

With just one Oscar nomination in the end for its name for costume design, my thoughts for the film prior to seeing was possibly labelling it as 'Oscar-bait'.

That phrase is not always a bad thing for me. The trailers seemed interesting, the cast is very strong and it is going for the musical version of this classical tale. So despite some excitement levels being turned down a notch, I was still up for seeing this latest portrayal. Particularly as it is directed by Joe Wright, a film-maker that I heavily praised the majority of their previous work. Most notably Pride & Prejudice, Darkest Hour and Atonement.

It gets right into the story and honestly doesn't let up for the entire duration. It showcases some impressive costume and production design. Also the tone seemed light and breezy and it has welcoming swashbuckling sequences with a few modernisations in its dialogue that never took me out of the film.

I was certainly feeling the emotional weight of the story up to a point. But there were pieces of the story later on that for me just somewhat lost that gravitas.

Dinklage is great in this throughout. He oozes the required charisma, can do all the songs convincingly and you can believe in the struggles his character was facing. It's not the typical Cyrano look that we all know. But the difference in appearance worked really well I felt. Dinklage just comes off as the coolest guy imaginable.

Haley Bennett continues to show how talented she is. There is a strong screen presence, her singing is soft and confident and her chemistry with Dinklage has enough power to be the films stronghold.

I wasn't really that into the performance of Kelvin Harrison Jnr. I never felt the expected naivety in his character and he just seemed a bit bland for me sadly. It is most likely a personal thing as I have seen Harrison Jnr. give some memorable performances in 'Luce' and 'Waves' for example.

Ben Mendehlson played the antagonist to more of a pantomime style, which you can just about get away with inside this type of story. But other than the borderline over-the-top moments, I wasn't too fussed whenever he was on screen as I never felt any genuine threat from him.

Despite it not being a full-on musical, the songs still need to work for the story and I felt they did. They have a nice flow to them and they fitted to the tone really well. I'm not sure any will do well commercially though. I will have to wait and see on that.

So while I don't feel it was the complete package, I still had a fun time watching this. I like the energy it gives off, there is a lot of confidence coming out of the performances and it is just generally a very pleasant watch.

I think the main reason for not being more than just good was that I couldn't be on board with the chemistry between Dinklage and Harrison Jnr. It never felt authentic to me and just forced because this is how the classic story goes. So I was somewhat underwhelm by the film for that resaon.

I do fear this won't get the box office it deserves. I can see it being loved by the masses. But this is another film that was hit by the pandemic in some form, hence the delayed release date. I do hope I'm wrong though.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The Worst Person In The World

I have been excited to see this one for some time due to the amount of constant buzz coming from various festivals since its premier at Cannes back in the summer. Now, it is finally starting to get a number of general releases around the world.

Each year, there is usually that late release of a highly acclaimed international film that we manage to see before the major awards are complete. So with Joachim Trier's newest project being it, I was intrigued to see what we would be in store for.

I've liked a lot of Trier's previous works. I really liked 'Oslo, August 31st' and also found 'Thelma' and 'Louder Than Bombs' to be pretty good pieces of works as well.

His films usually cover very real topics such as loneliness, friendship and sometimes hinting towards romance. This is usually in the form of internal struggles within the main character. 

It's kind of more of the same, but not quite. There's a lot in this film that will feel relatable to a lot of people. Not just on how modern relationships are like. But also how certain generations behave nowadays. It shows how messy life is and that we can't have the best of both worlds.

I was intrigued that the film never really puts our characters into any particular categories. Deciding on the protagonists and antagonists I guess is up to the viewer. Depending on your views, past experiences etc., this is a pretty clever way on getting as many different opinions on what the viewer sees.

The script is very strong and probably the films biggest strength. Plenty of conversations we see with our main characters feel very real and to the point where it could almost be considered to be a documentary.

The way it is written gives every character a fair chance of being sympathetic and never feels we should judge anyone for their choices and actions. One thing is for sure, there are moments where the combination of the performances and script will be heart-breaking in the best way possible.

Speaking of performances, the cast were pretty strong across the board. Lead Renate Reinsve gives us a very modern character that while we might not agree with every decision they make, we can definitely relate and understand them. Regular Trier collaborator Anders Danielsen Lie is back and gives a very moving supporting role and is almost the heart of the film. He is given an emotional arch with rewarding results. Along with a solid authentic support by Herbert Nordrum, these three made the script fly off the pages.

Even some of the choices in the technical department played a part. The choices made in the camerawork and even sound design gave the film a very pleasing overall look and feel. It was always changing enough to never feel annoying. That was something that I was certainly not expecting to notice.

I have no major quarrels with the film. So it is just a matter how much I liked it.

It's not something I usually go nuts for. But I can see myself liking this more and more over the years. But for now, I will say that this is a strong piece of work. While it may not initially attract the masses, the topics it covers will work for a lot once they give it a chance.

It's a very human story that shows how successful we can be and also wasteful we are with our potential of making the most of the life that has been given to us. The performances and the script deserve recognition in some form and this could well be Trier's best work to date.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Uncharted

Before I begin my review, I must first state that I have never played any of the Uncharted games. So I am basing this review purely on the film.

The only thing I know about the Uncharted series is that it is adventure based and kind of a modern day Indiana Jones.

That alone should intrigue me and plenty of others. However with the film being based on a video game, you can't help but me naturally cautious due to the history of films of this genre.

Historically films based off a video game have done pretty badly both critically and financially. However, recent years have shown some promise with the likes of 'Warcraft: The Beginning', 'Pokemon: Detective Pikachu', 'Sonic The Hedgehog' and a few more doing surprisingly well. So I was going in with some excitement.

The introduction provided some intriguing set-up and character building that certainly gave me the feeling of a fun modern adventure story with historic connections. The structure was as you would expect with plots of this genre and the character chemistry had seeing a lot of potential with this.

However, there were clear issues that let itself down. The script is pretty poor. It felt very basic, not many of the comedic moments felt natural and it managed to downgrade a good amount of the performances.

But I think the general flow of the story and the creativity of the action sequences kept me engaged and gave me belief that there is a really good franchise in here.

Tom Holland was a solid. He continues to show that natural charisma he has and felt like a believable lead for this type of story. Mark Wahlberg was surprisingly disappointing. He did the usual Wahlberg shtick. But it felt like he was almost sleep-walking through his performance. It might be due to the script that I was unimpressed with, as the dialogue he was given was incredibly unmemorable. Sophia Ali was nice support with Holland and Wahlberg and gave us a nice little trinity of protagonists.

It was nice to see Antonio Banderas still get roles in major studio projects. But I think like with Wahlberg, he wasn't given much quality to work with.

The only other notable performance that I would like to mention is Tati Gabrielle. It was more of a physical performance for Gabrielle and showed some great promise for future projects.

From a technical side, I felt the visual effects blended in well with the multiple locations that the film was shot in. Plus, the general look of it felt perfectly fine and pleasing enough to never feel over digitalised which gave it a solid amount of authenticity.

Along with the script, another notable drawback was some the pacing. There was a lot of lingering in several scenes that felt awkward and ruined the flow of certain sequences.

So while there are clear issues with the finished product, I felt there was enough in there to be entertaining, something I would happily recommend and aspects to show that there can be a strong film within this world.

Holland is worthy of the lead role and continues to show great maturity within his film career. The foundations in this story kept my interest as it links real history and historians to its plot. It is clear that the source material is there to be fully utilised. But I don't think it was quite done in this one.

There is a mid-credits scene that I'm sure fans of the game will understand. But to me, it was just set-up for a hopeful sequel. So while I don't think it fulfilled its potential, I wouldn't say no to a sequel.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Death On The Nile (2022)

I'm still a bit unsure as to why Kenneth Branagh is re-making the Agatha Christie 'Hercule Poirot' novels. The stories are a bit old fashioned and I'm not sure if modern audiences need these type of films.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with these as I enjoyed Murder On The Orient Express. But I still don't feel like these need to be re-made.

With the success of Knives Out making the 'whodunnit' genre cool again, these feel a bit behind the times now.

That being said, any film by Kenneth Branagh with an strong ensemble cast is hard to ignore, and as ever my open mind approach to every film was still there.

The story goes at a gentle pace as you might expect with some interesting sequences that makes the most of the modern technology available. For the most part it does go as you would expect, which in this case is perfectly fine. However, there were a few unnecessary over-dramatic moments to hint at the audience that this is an important moment.

The production design instantly reminded me of Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' from a few years ago. Despite it being a period setting, the whole look of it is heavy in CGI. In my view, this did not need to be like a lot of blockbusters these days that have a sets packed with green screens to save money on doing the film on location and make the most of executing more sweeping camera shots that they could not do in the past. The digital look of it had me a little unsettled and I was almost coming to the point where it honestly made me want to go back and see the 1978 version again.

Even with the overall look of the film looking almost animated, I was still having an entertaining time. I am a sucker for these types of films and the character development is solid enough for you to get invested with a lot of them.

The cast all do a solid job and keeps you on your toes in trying to work out who the culprit is. Kenneth Branagh's charisma was infectious as ever. Armie Hammer and Gal Gadot were very believable together and had good chemistry with Emma Mackey's character that was integral to each of their own story archs.

Tom Bateman has a memorable screen presence along with on-screen mother Annette Benning who never fails.

It was strange seeing Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in a feature film that wasn't voice acting. But I feel they did a good job and I was happy they never took over the film with their brand of comedy. They played along with the tone and comedians continue to impress me at playing straight roles really well. I could mention more. But I would give the last mention to Russell Brand who like French and Saunders played straight really well. He never took you out of the film and certainly made me feel he could do a Jim Carrey and give masterful dramatic performances.

Despite my issues with the CGI heavy production design, it is a nice film to look at. With a lot major studios releases colour palette being almost grim looking. It was nice seeing something that was bright, clean and pristine. That made for a effective overall mood and tone.

Overall, I think it was a perfectly fine watch. The story is interesting enough and the performances really help the plot move along.

But if I was being brutally honest, it's not interesting enough to be rewatchable. While the old-fashioned style is refreshing up to a point. Being forced into typical mystery tropes and not feeling gripping enough to be memorable beyond the credits rolling makes it more of a middle-of-the-road experience. I'd prefer Murder On The Orient Express as I think their execution of the crucial reveals felt more impactful.

For a mystery, it is vital to having you caring on you attempting to work out who committed the crime. It does that up to a point. But there were moments where I was losing interest. That was mainly due to the somewhat slow pacing. The just over 2hrs duration probably should have been cut about 10-15 mins shorter. That I feel would have given the film a bit more of a flow and slick edge to it. It might have given it an almost sense of urgency to grip the audience.

It should still work for a mass audience. Particularly with the older demographic. It might do enough for a third installment and I think that might be enough for this re-make franchise.

Rating: 7/10

Nominees for the 7th annual 'DG Movies' Awards

Films eligible for these awards are simply films where according to IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base), they are considered to be a 2021 film, i.e. their first release anywhere around the world was in 2021.

For those of you unaware of these awards I do, I will be giving out 17 awards in total. Including a few you would not usually see in your regular film awards show. The winners will be announced during the same weekend of the Oscars (26-27th March).

Below is the full list of nominees

BEST EDITING:

Last Night In Soho

The Rescue

The Tragedy Of Macbeth

tick, tick...BOOM!

West Side Story

BEST COSTUME DESIGN & MAKEUP:

Coming 2 America

Cruella

Spencer

The Eyes Of Tammy Faye

The Last Duel

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

Dune

Nightmare Alley

Spencer

The French Dispatch

The Tragedy Of Macbeth

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

Belle: The Dragon And The Freckled Princess

Dune

Encanto

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Zack Snyder's Justice League

BEST SCORE & SOUNDTRACK:

Dune

In The Heights

The Green Knight

tick, tick...BOOM!

West Side Story

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Belfast

Boiling Point

Last Night In Soho

Spencer

West Side Story

BEST SCREENPLAY:

C'mon C'mon

Drive My Car

Judas And The Black Messiah

Mothering Sunday

The Mitchells vs the Machines

BEST POSTER:

Antlers

Cruella

Great Freedom

Malignant

The Mauritanian

BEST TRAILER:

Annette

Mortal Kombat

Summer Of Soul

The Green Knight

The Mitchells vs the Machines

BEST SCENE/MOMENT:

Night Shift - Help

Gabriel At The Police Station - Malignant

Flawless Victory - Mortal Kombat

Turn It Down Davey - Nobody

The Duel - The Last Duel

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE:
Belfast

Help

In The Heights

Last Night In Soho

West Side Story

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE:
Vinette Robinson - Boiling Point

Emma Thompson - Cruella

Anya Taylor-Joy - Last Night In Soho

Ann Dowd - Mass

Ariana DeBose - West Side Story

BEST SUPPORTING MALE:

Troy Kotsur - CODA

Daniel Kaluuya - Judas And The Black Messiah

Ryder Allen - Palmer

Timothy Spall - Spencer

Adam Driver - The Last Duel

BEST LEADING FEMALE:

Emma Stone - Cruella

Kristen Stewart - Spencer

Jessica Chastain - The Eyes Of Tammy Faye

Olivia Colman - The Lost Daughter

Rachel Zegler - West Side Story

BEST LEADING MALE:

Jude Hill - Belfast

Will Smith - King Richard

Nicolas Cage - Pig

Simon Rex - Red Rocket

Andrew Garfield - tick, tick...BOOM!

BEST DIRECTOR:

Edgar Wright - Last Night In Soho

Wes Anderson - The French Dispatch

David Lowery - The Green Knight

Joel Coen - The Tragedy Of Macbeth

Steven Spielberg - West Side Story

BEST FILM:

Boiling Point

CODA

Free Guy

Last Night In Soho

Summer Of Soul

The Alpinist

The Mitchells vs the Machines

The Rescue

Val

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Total list of nominations

7 - West Side Story

6 - Last Night In Soho

5 - Spencer

4 - Cruella

3 - Belfast

     Boiling Point

     Dune

     The Green Knight

     The Last Duel

     The Mitchells vs The Machines

     The Tragedy Of Macbeth

     tick, tick...BOOM!

2 - CODA

     Help

     In The Heights

     Judas And The Black Messiah

     Malignant

     Mortal Kombat

     Summer Of Soul

     The Eyes Of Tammy Faye

     The French Dispatch

     The Rescue

     Zack Snyder's Justice League

1 - Annette

     Antlers

     Belle: The Dragon And The Freckled Princess

     C'mon C'mon

     Coming 2 America

     Drive My Car

     Encanto

     Free Guy

     Great Freedom

     Mass

     Mothering Sunday

     Nightmare Alley

     Nobody

     Palmer

     Pig

     Red Rocket

     Spider-Man: No Way Home

     The Alpinist

     The Lost Daughter

     The Mauritanian

     Val

Review: Moonfall

Whenever I think of Roland Emmerich as a director these days, I just think about the majority of his releases during the late 90's and early 00's.

Back then, he made some pretty entertaining mainstream features. From the disaster blockbusters such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow to historical war epic The Patriot and the sci-fi spectacle of Stargate.

Nowadays, his more recent projects I feel are generally disappointing and lacking that fun value that we know Emmerich can create.

When I read the plot and saw the trailer for this, I was expecting more of the forgettable recent flicks. But I remained hopeful as if done right it could break out as a guilty pleasure for me.

From the word go, I was already seeing a rip-off mix of Gravity and The Martian. After that, it felt as if we were covering a lot of ground at an alarmingly rate.

The pacing in the plot and sub-plots was pretty insane. Beliefs being changed and people moving from various locations at an impossible speed strangely reminded me of the atrocious Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. But with a bigger budget.

In a film where gravity disappears, logic had quickly gone out the window long before that.

There's no real stand-out performances and with a pretty poor script given to them, I cannot really criticise the acting too much. I always feel Patrick Wilson is a safe a pair of hands and delivers and serviceable performance to the content that was given to him. John Bradley had decent moments of comedic relief and had believable chemistry with Wilson.

I was surprised to see Halle Berry be part of something like this and her performance went through the motions and was probably the least ridiculous part of the film.

Charlie Plummer was perfectly fine and gave enough energy to make the sub-plot feel important.

Was also shocked to see Michael Pena in a fairly small role.

With this being a disaster film, the visual effects need to work. While I wouldn't put them up there with the high quality CGI you see in most major studio releases, it was good enough to make the action sequences engaging.

I could go on forever on the issues I had with it. So all I'll say is that it's very stupid, silly and pretty dis-jointed with lazy writing. But it still managed to keep me somewhat entertained for it to not be a total disaster. I think it is saved by a budget that made it look like a major studio release. But in reality, it should be shown on the Horror Channel along with the Arachnoquake and the Megashark franchise.

It's definitely aimed at that type of audience that go to the cinema to switch off their brain and just be entertained. You'll certainly be entertained. But I'm not sure by what exactly.

Rating: 6/10

Review: Belle: The Dragon And The Freckled Princess

Anime is a genre that I have been loving more and more since my introduction to it over 10 years ago, when I discovered the breath-taking Spirited Away from the iconic Japanese studio 'Studio Ghibli'.

Since then, I have gone outside of the world of Hayao Miyazaki and found some other highly talented anime directors.

One in particular that can certainly match Ghibli for its drama and fantasy, is Mamoru Hosoda.

Over the past several years, I have seen the majority of his impressive back catalogue. From the thoroughly entertaining 'The Boy And The Beast', to the emotional and heartfelt 'Mirai', 'Wolf Children' and the imaginative 'Summer Wars' and 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time'.

Now his latest work managed to be a bit of all of those. From the very beginning, you get an absolute visual spectacle that only anime's can produce. Hosoda's has a real sense of scope in this one that was already there when I saw Summer Wars. Said film is the closest comparison to his previous works.

The majority of the story is a mix of those films involving virtual reality and social media, but mixing in a classic love story.

Then the final act suddenly hits your feelings by covering a very hard-hitting and sensitive topic that I feel Hosoda has been building towards in all of his other films.

Along with the striking visuals, the music plays a vital role and the soundtrack as a whole is worth a few listens.

The only negatives I have towards this is when comparing it to his other projects. I felt there wasn't enough as strong characters and the emotional impact of the finale didn't quite fully hit home for me to leave me totally satisfied.

But this shows how high of a pedestal Hosoda's has made himself. It is most definitely another strong piece of work that I felt completely engrossing and cinematic. While on paper it feels like a culmination of everything else he has made, it's not the masterpiece some have been saying. However, I am being very picky here.

The imagery gives the film great rewatchability as you'll never get tired of looking at every inch of the on-screen content along with hearing the moving songs. The use of the topics at the end were brave to use and pretty well executed. 

With Miyazaki virtually retired, Hosoda looks to be the next top anime director out there along with possibly Makoto Shinkai. I remain highly anticipated for any future feature's of his.

Rating: 8/10