Review: Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool

Firstly, I know very little of Jazz. I've always loved the sound of it. But I've invested time to properly delve into the history of it and listen to the big pioneers of this genre on heavy rotation. But one name I do that many see as the greatest jazz musician not all-time, is Miles Davis.

I know his career has spanned many decades. But I don't think I've ever knowingly heard one of his songs.

After now seeing this fully biographical documentary, it certainly made me want to at least dip my toe into his back catalogue, as I felt this to be very entertaining and highly engaging throughout.

For me, it perfectly portrayed his genius, his unique approach to a new project, his flaws, his arrogance, his no-nonsense style of humour and his power-hungry style with his colleagues.
It was interesting seeing how the music of jazz reacted to the changing of the times and also how Davis was never afraid to evolve and work with a younger generation of musicians.

The people being interviewed during the film that worked closely with him enhanced certain stories really well and made it highly amusing but also heart-breaking.

This felt to be the perfect crash-course to non-fans of Miles Davis and will still entertain the hardcore fans. I didn't feel it went into a lot of depth, which made the experience not as impactful as I feel it could've been. But it remained a highly satisfying watch.
Jazz is certainly a genre of music that everyone should experience and seeing  the this aboutdocumentary best in the business certainly convinced me.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Joker

The hype surrounding this particular project has been polarising to say the least.
The initial announcement of this certainly had me not really interested as Jared Leto's portrayal of the titular character in Suicide Squad was still fresh in the mind of many people. Plus, any Joker performance after Heath Ledger's award-winning and iconic performance in 2009 will probably never be topped.

But with the trailers suggesting a new approach to the character, and a surprising win of the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, that's when it got me thinking "maybe this is as much of a masterpiece as the hype is suggesting it is".
With the anticipation well over boiling-point for so many, I was definitely up for this checking this out.

What I got was something was definitely refreshing in its tone as well as a strong leading performance. The structure, pacing and tone was more like watching one a hard-boiled 1970's feature or one of Martin Scorsese's earlier films such as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and most notably King Of Comedy.
I liked how it covered several topics such as mental disability and the class system and even bringing in some nods to the source material that will please the comic book fans.

But it's first and foremost a character study, and the way it developed it to a strong finale with one particular scene that was wonderfully engaging and unsettling at the same time made it for a satisfying experience.

Joaquin Phoenix really transforms himself in more ways than one into one of the most iconic movie and comic book villains. He's not quite a full-on method actor. But when the occasion calls for it, he can become a totally new person and commit to it.
Despite his character portraying a villian, you can feel sympathy and empathy towards him and find a lot of relatable aspects that I feel a lot of demographics will see as well.
I'm not sure if I would personally give him an Oscar nomination just yet. But I wouldn't complain if he did when the major awards season arrives.

I know a lot of people may find the level of violence unsettling and upsetting. While I do agree with the former, I was never upset by it as the execution and timing of it felt right in the moment. It definitely shocked me. But I admired that it never felt afraid to hold back in order to help develop the story and the character.

I'm really pleased that director Todd Phillips and his crew set out on to do something different and all of it coming together into a very strong piece of work.
I may not be in the 'masterpiece' bracket of rating this film. But I am probably the next one down. It's a very good watch, has strong rewatchability and Phoenix's performance was worth it for all the hard work. I can't quite see it make my top 10 of the year. But it's certainly a film like I would like to own and watch again and again.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Ad Astra

I feel this film had a rather strange build-up to its release.

Any sci-fi film that has a plot synopsis that looks to be more of a thinking-mans sci-fi with heavy themes on existence and the human condition has me instantly booking a ticket.

However, I felt there was little buzz surrounding this and its September release date had me somewhat worried as this felt like it was more of a summer release. Especially with Brad Pitt in the leading role.

It's also directed by James Gray, who despite beginning his career with crime films and a couple of romantic dramas gave us the massively under-rated biographical epic The Lost City Of Z.
So if everyone involved can bring their A-game to this project, this has the potential to be one of the years best.

For me, it ended up being a bit of a missed opportunity. I know James Gray usually has a slow-burning style, and it worked for the most part in this film. But for a film that's about 2hrs long, there were moments where it dragged. I think that came down to the content. While it did cover the themes I expected it to, the film felt like it was a lot more physical then it actually is. It never felt it either went into enough depth or was just not executed well as well as it has done by similar films.
I don't even think the performances were that exceptional. There was nothing wrong with them. But when Brad Pitt's character felt similar to Will Smith's character in After Earth, you know it's not going to work with audiences. If you've seen After Earth, you'll know what I mean.

Now onto the good stuff. It's shot beautifully, the colour palette worked very well with its environment, the visual effects just enhanced the imagery so well and the dreamy score fitted well with the tone.

So from a technical standpoint, it's high-quality. The story didn't quite work. You can feel there's a good story in there. But not everything quite fitted into place.
If you want the better version of this tory, then you might as well watch Event Horizon. It's almost identical, and it's execution felt fully utilised.

While there was enough positive aspects to give this a respectable rating, there are still a number of noticeable drawbacks.
I would still recommend it as I know it has found an audience that have rated it highly. Not quite with me on the whole. But I wouldn't say no to a second viewing in a few years time and I might find something the execution of the story and characters that I can get on board with.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Ready Or Not

This film had been in my 'maybe' category ever since I heard of this. On paper, it just sounded like a middle of the round horror thriller that won't go anywhere critically or financially.

However, my curiosity got the better of me. Especially it was getting polarising reviews from critics and audiences. The positive ones were glowing and the rest were saying it was silly. That was enough for me to check this out living in hope that I would be part of the positive reviews and have a fun viewing experience.

I think this could end up being the most fun film of the year for me.

Right from the very start, you could feel from the tone that the people that made us are here to entertain you. I already got a surprising sense of comedy to the story, which I welcomed. Then once we've been introduced to the various characters and the concept has been explained, I was ready for some fun.
I liked how they played around the concept, the environment our characters were in and even how over-the-top it got at the very end. Then the icing on the cake was the films final line, which just summed this film up beautifully.

I think everyone played their part well. Especially, Samara Weaving as the lead. She showed great physical work, felt believable as someone who could kick some ass and was easy to root for.
All the various protagonists did their job well. It was particularly great to not only see Andie McDowell in a film again, but as someone that is complete outside of the regular charcher arch she portrays.

The dialogue was noticeable funny and sharp. I was surprised that it ended up being more like a black comedy horror and the strength of the writing managed to make even the most gruesome moment seem hilarious. Whilst blood was being splattered everywhere and various body parts being decapitated, there was always a quip of some kind to somewhat deflect away from the heavy violence.

If I rated this film based on how much I had, easily a 10. However, I feel the simplicity of the story and surface level depth the characters had this film lacking depth and from a critical point of view, it's nothing then a crowd-pleasing popcorn film.
But sometimes, you get films that are just pure fun and that's always a good thing. It might not be anywhere near my top 10 list of the year. But it would certainly be one of the first films I would watch again.
It's got a great concept, they play around with it and the characters they create give them many memorable situations. The duration is a snappy 95 mins. So it gets out at the right time.
I would strongly recommend you check this out, especially with a group of people that are up for a laugh with a good amount of violence.

Rating: 7/10

Review: It: Chapter Two

I was happy to see the 'It' do well financially as it a mainstream horror that was not about jump scares. The story was interesting, I liked the characters and the scares were more about disturbing imagery then a loud noise, which is easily more effective.

Having the 90's TV mini-series version, I am aware that chapter two doesn't match the quality of chapter one. But I remained confident going into this, that they could do something interesting with this final installment and give us something that was worth making.

It ended up being a hard one to fully get on board with. The introduction and build-up to our characters reuniting was nice. There were some well executed horror sequences in the chapter's most iconic scene, which I was happy to see.
Then after that, it was a series of solid individual scenes that never felt part of one story. Then once we got to the finale, I felt a bit exhausted. That wasn't helped with the unnecessary duration of 2hrs 49mins. It had no right to be that length and that ended up being the films biggest negative.

Another drawback was I wasn't that into the forced bits of comedy being the end-note of almost every moment of horror. It either felt forced to lighten the mood or to make the most of the actor delivering those lines as he is seen more as a comedic actor.

I honestly didn't think the performances were that great except for Bill Skarsgard, who continues to show his impressive transformation into his iconic character. I didn't feel the major casting chocies of Jessica Chastain and/or James McAvoy elevated the level of acting. The use of the kid actors from chapter one were much more endearing then the adults.
There was nothing bad about the acting. There was very little to shout about. It ended up being rather ordrinary.

While there were a good amount of noticeable drawbacks to grind my enjoyment down, there was also enough creativity in the horror sequences that made me enjoy enough of it to make this a good enough feature.
If they were a bit more active in the editing in certain aspects, this could have been 2hr film with much more fluid pacing and less moments of drag.
But with the original and past portrayals never matching the content of the first chapter, I guess I'll settle with what we got.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood

Our first Quentin Tarantino film for four years and our Leonardi DiCaprio acting appearance since in four years where he finally won his first Oscar award.

Seeing these two cinematic juggernauts not only return, but together in a project was enough to go and check this out with much anticipation.

I know Tarantino can be an acquired taste. But you cannot deny his talent and passion for film-making. I will still  never forget my first Tarantino experience, which was Kill Bill Vol. 1. It certainly introduced me to my next step in film watching and discover more mature films. Oh, and of course with a little bit of heavy violence along the way.

As for his latest project, I really enjoyed it. But the path that got me to that conclusion was one that I don't often take as it gradually snuck up on me.
From the get go, I could already feel Tarantino's hand-prints all over this. It was shot immaculately, the time period looked incredibly authentic, the choice of music in the soundtrack and use of the radio in a lot of scenes really felt you had been transported to Hollywood in the late 1960's. Plus, the Tarantino style of dialogue continues to be alive and well and very effective in many memorable scenes.

One thing that was missing from me to match the rest of the other high-quality aspects, was the story. There definitely was a story in there. It just got lost in the many strong individual scenes that did not quite help develop the main story.
While a lot of those scenes were really good and vintage Tarantino, not many of them seemed to connect and feel like one story with a beginning, middle and end.
It didn't help that there was a sub-plot going on that felt unnecessary and a waste of time if I was brutally honest. With the duration being 2hrs 40mins, that sub-plot amongst other things could have made the film flow much better at a more suitable 2hr duration.

The performances on the whole were very good. It was great seeing Leonardo DiCaprio back in the saddle and boy did he give a strong performance. If you remember the fire he showed in his character in Django Unchained, it's more of the same and it was glorious to watch.
Same goes for Brad Pitt as his smooth talking bad-assery felt like an enhanced of his character from Inglourious Basterds.
For Margot Robbie, while her performance was perfectly fine, it was her story that was the aforementioned sub-plot that I would happily to get rid of. Her character sadly did not seem necessary to the story.
It was great seeing Emile Hirsch and Timothy Olyphant be part of a Tarantino film and they both did a good job, especially Olyphant as he has a terrific segment with DiCaprio at one point.
It was also a wonderful surprise seeing Dakota Fanning, who I only remember as a kid in War Of The Worlds. Her performance was surprisingly chilling and it showed me a much different side to the younger of the Fanning sisters.
Despite there also being other big names such as Al Pacino, Damian Lewis, I didn't feel they needed to be there except for maybe just to say that they have now been in a Tarantino film.

I feel that despite its clear problems, there was plenty in there to make it a highly enjoyable experience and really liking the film on the whole.
I wasn't sure what to make of it for the most part. But as the film went on, the world that Tarantino replicated of Hollywod in the late 1960's gradually absorbed into me. Once it completely got me, I was just loving seeing this time period with the soundtrack in the background and making me feel like I was cruising down Sunset Boulevard, with the top down and embracing the California sunshine.

I can't see this pleasing the majority of general audiences. It might divide fans of Tarantino. I feel the hardcore ones like myself will love this. The casual fans might see this as a bit of slog but ending with a memorable final scene that contains many aspects that reminds of why they love Tarantino.
But I feel whether you end up liking this or not, the best experience possible is on the big screen.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Yesterday

The first things I heard of this was the concept. It sounded totally bonkers to me.
But then hearing it was being directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, it got me in.

Boyle is a strong director, and Curtis' writing in the past has made me discover some of my favourite rom-coms and worked for even the strangest of stories.

Everything about this was pretty solid and enjoyable from start to finish. It moves along like many solid and successful British comedies. The characters were introduced and developed well and were very easy to relate to. Also, I liked how they played around with the concept by expanding to what was being billed in the marketing.

Himesh Patel played the lead really well despite 99% of his back catalogue being television based. I always love seeing Lily James and her screen presence really enhanced my experience of seeing this and she supported Patel really well.
Joel Fry did a solid job as the comedic relief. It's not as strong as some of Richard Curtis' past scene-stealing supporting characters in the past, but there were enough laughs for Fry's character to be essential enough.
There are also a couple of celebrity cameos playing themselves and thankfully I felt their involvement never devalued the quality of the film.

I think it's only negative aspect for me was the ending. It wasn't bad. It just seemed to lose its way a bit, went a bit generic at times and felt unclear how it wanted to conclude the story.

Overall, I had a good time with this. Nothing about it was great, but everything about was solid at worst and my enjoyment level never really budged throughout the runtime.
There are enough laughs, British tropes that managed to still feel refreshing and have many feel-good moments which was helped by the choice of songs for the film.
I feel this will be a good crowd-pleaser for many demographics and could be a good way for the younger generation to discover classic rock 'n' roll.

Rating: 7/10