The Mummy Review

It's the summer blockbuster season and Hollywood has treated us to a brand new reboot, of a reboot, of what also could possibly be considered a reboot. Directed by Alex Kurtzman, he of angering fan boy fame after writing the poorly received Star Trek Into Darkness and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Universal Studios bring us their first film in what we're reliably informed is set to start their own cinematic universe 'The Dark Universe' which will feature all the classic horror characters they own the rights to. So The Mummy holds the weight of

an entire movie universe on its shoulders, success is essential.

The Mummy stars Tom Cruise as Nick Morton, a US military officer who along with 'comic' sidekick Chris (Jake Johnson) and archaeologist Jennifer (Annabelle Wallis) discovers the tomb of ancient Egyptian Mummy Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella). Needless to say they awaken Ahmanet and she sets out to find Nick, stab him with an ancient dagger, which in the process will unleash the evil God Set into a human form who Ahmanet owes a debt to for giving her powers in the first place, simple enough.

There are plenty of things to like about this film, the first of which is that with its 15 rating it is really effectively creepy in many places, it should labour on the gothic in more places but there are some mildly frightening jump scares. Performance wise it's also quite strong, Cruise makes this sort of fare look easy, and following on from Jack Reacher and Edge of Tomorrow it is interesting to see him play another largely unlikeable character. Anabelle Wallis gives it her all but she is lumped with an extremely poor character, even by Hollywood's usual standards she is given next to nothing to do. Sofia Boutella could have been the most exciting thing about this film, gender swapping the main antagonist could have been a bold move and Boutella really is stunning in the role, but what they've done with the character is deeply infuriating and borderline offensive. Instead of Ahmanet being a fearsome foe, she's made completely subservient to a greater male God, which through narrative quirks means that Ahmanet is infatuated with Tom Cruise's character. It also leads to a third act conclusion which plays out in a manner which makes for deeply uncomfortable viewing.

There's no way of getting around the fact that the moment that you pause for any semblance of thought, this entire film falls apart, but if you avoid fighting against it and ride the wave of stupidity, there are some base level pleasures to be taken from it. Kurtzman draws heavily from Raiders of the Lost Ark, An American Werewolf in London and the previous The Mummy films in all their forms, but it's never as fun or as original as them, but without them the film wouldn't be any good at all, because whilst your watching moments that remind you of those films it at least momentarily gives you joy at the thought of watching those far superior films when you get home.

The greatest sin that this film commits begins in the opening titles of the film, the moment we see Universal's 'Dark Universe' logo and we realise this is all a part of something bigger. Attempting to set up this new universe is so detrimental to this film as an individual picture, its script becomes unnecessarily clunky and baggy, and it also means that it has to introduce Russell Crowe in to what is surely the most stupid and laughable scene you'll see this year. It puts the cart before the horse and the lack of patience on the studios part will only be to their loss.

No sugar coating it, this has absolutely died at the box office, the universe hasn't yet ended before its begun though, too many wheels are in motion and Johnny Depp is signed up for The Invisible Man and Javier Bardem is on board as Frankenstein's Monster, but no matter the stars or the subject matter, if the films continue to be as disappointing as this and lose as much money as this, then the 'Dark Universe' could become a whole lot darker.

(High 2 Stars)     

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge Review

Many moons ago, 14 years ago to be exact, a film based on a theme park ride seemed like an absurd prospect. Yet, here we are all these years later after 4 films and a few billion at the box office we arrive at the 5th, and quite possibly the last film in the series.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge (given the much better title across the pond of Dead Men Tell No Tales) see's the young Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) set out on a quest to find the trident of Poseidon in order to break the curse that keeps his father (Orlando Bloom) bound to ship The Flying Dutchman. To find it he requires the help of his fathers old friend Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Along the way they enlist the help of a spirited young woman and astronomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario). Meanwhile Captain Salazar and his band of ghost pirates are out for revenge against Jack who as a young man bound them to their ghostly torment in the devils triangle, in short, there's a lot going on in this film.

The original trilogy was helmed by the weird and wonderful Gore Verbinski, however overlong and bloated the films felt, Verbinski's set pieces always had a unique offbeat energy and feel to them. This latest outing sees Fast & Furious, but its only the final act that really begins to lose you in its ridiculousness.

the directing duo of Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg take the helm, and although it often feels Verbinski-lite there is still a lot of pleasure in their set pieces, particularly a hilarious visual joke featuring a guillotine. There is also a very impressive opening set piece which features the first attack from Salazar and his crew which is effectively gothic and a little creepy. There is a sense of the ridiculous in many parts, with set pieces featuring zombie sharks and pirates doing

The new young'uns in the cast are entirely forgettable, its not necessarily their fault as both actors have been better in better things, but their characters are a bit one note and poorly formed. Geoffrey Rush returns as Captain Barbosa, a character who always gets extra brownie points for actually sounding like a traditional Pirate. Many of Barbosa's character beats seem forced and a particular revelation towards the end is so monumentally rushed that it barely registers. Bardem is quite menacing as Salazar, but again his character is poorly drawn, his entire motivation is meant to be explained in one flashback but it isn't enough to sufficiently explain his rage, there's more there to his character we just never get a chance to see it.

And so it comes to Captain Jack Sparrow, a character who is now so intertwined with the actor playing him that its' hard to see where one ends and the other begins. One has to remember that Johnny Depp was Oscar nominated for his performance in the first film, and though there are those who hate the character its hard to disagree that its Captain Jack who has carried this film series, his idiosyncrasies and scene stealing are always watchable when the films have perhaps been less so. The problem that becomes apparent here is that the makers of this outing have completely forgot who Jack Sparrow is. In the original films, Captain Jack for all his bumbling and chaos was a very capable pirate who just happened to have a bit of a problem with drink, but there was also a certain menace and melancholy to him that made him so compelling. Salazar's Revenge gives us a Captain Jack with no nuance or subtlety, he is unquestionably and absolute fucking moron. The saddest part is that he's not funny either, the writing for Jack has become too bawdy and on the nose, Johnny Depp still is 100% Captain Jack Sparrow, but not the one you fell in love with 14 years ago.

Post credits sting aside this really needs to be the last outing for Captain Jack, each outing has seen the law of diminishing returns in full effect. This is going to make Disney money, but with so much creativity out there it would be nice to see them take a risk on something new like they did 14 years ago on a film about a theme park ride.

(2 Stars)

John Wick Chapter 2 Review

It feels like its a very difficult thing to create a solid action character that can support sequels over a franchise. The problem is that companies try and force sequels out of a character who isn't anywhere near as interesting as they think they are, who exist in worlds that barely have enough material to support one film, case in point the seemingly never ending amount of times Liam Neeson's Brian Mills has things Taken from him. Fortunately 2015 saw the introduction of Keanu Reeves as John Wick, finally an action character who you feel could kick John McClane's ass and still have enough energy to beat the bad guy. The first John Wick film also established an interesting underground assassin world which had so much more it could explore, and now in John Wick Chapter 2 it does.

John is getting ready to settle back down to his normal life after his one man rampage saw him take revenge on those that wronged him. Word has got out that he has come out of retirement and he is paid a visit by an old 'friend' Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio). John is indebted to Santino and Santino needs John to kill someone for him. John assures Santino that he is still retired, but things aren't that easy.

As with the first film the strength of this is Keanu Reeves commitment to the cause, unlike most actors you are entirely aware that Reeves can do the stuff that John Wick does because the camera pulls back and you're able to watch him do it. There's no need for editing to cut around stunt men jumping in and out of place for the star because Reeves can shoot like an expert marksman and can perform intricate martial arts, and in the major set pieces of the film it is an absolute beauty to witness. Occasionally it feels as though some sequences are going on slightly too long, but its a fleeting feeling before something else comes along to change it up.

Action set pieces on their own do not a good film make, and fortunately this has much more to it. The plot of the actual film is a fairly simplistic one of John Wick killing people then people coming to kill John Wick, but the effort that has gone into the films world building is what makes the difference. There's so much fun to be had watching the inner workings of this underground assassin world, there are rules enforced by hotel patron Winston (Ian McShane), there are blood debts and unique currencies, a sommelier who deals specially in weapons (played brilliantly by Peter Serafinowicz), and there's a sort of interesting style to how things are run with women operating old fashioned switchboards and typing up bounty's for assassins, there are small moments where this begins to emulate something akin to Gilliam's world building, which to have in a mainstream action film is absolutely fascinating. There's also a small decision that it makes with a particular characters death that really changes the tone of a scene and gives it a considerably more interesting angle.

Chapter 2 leaves John Wick in a very interesting place, who knows how far they can go with this world and this character, but two films into the adventures of John Wick and there is a genuine intrigue and desire for a second sequel, and that is as big a pleasure as it is a surprise.

(High 4 Stars)   

T2 Trainspotting Review

There are films which have such an impact with its audience that that question of a sequel never really goes away. Danny Boyle's Trainspotting was a cultural phenomenon, it defined an entire generation, it became the film of the 1990's and was a film riding the wave of 'Cool Britannia', so how on earth do you follow that? The answer appears to be to wait a while.

It's now 20 years on from Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) stitching up his mates and leaving with all £20,000 of the cash they scored from a drug deal, Mark, now in his 40s, is living in Amsterdam, after a health scare he thinks it's time to pay a visit home to see how things have gone for everyone else and possibly make amends with his 3 mates. Upon returning he falls back into old habits of dodgy deals and substance abuse with best friend Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson (Jonny Lee Miller), with lovable friend Spud (Ewen Bremner) trying to get his life back on track and psychopath Francis Begbie (Robert Carlyle) out for revenge against Mark.

Time really has played a major part in making this sequel feel so intriguing. To make a sequel only a couple of years after the original would have meant placing the same characters into similar situations whilst never reaching the dizzying originality they achieved first time out. T2  is the same characters, but 20 years on they're different people in many ways, and much the same in many others. There is a rich sense of nostalgia and a melancholy for a time gone past. It's sensitive to how we view our lives at an older age and think more fondly of times we've had before. It's been 20 years since these actors have played these characters, but you don't think that for a second, it almost feels that they are these characters, they've never left them.

The sense of nostalgia and looking back never entirely overwhelms the film of being something of itself. It obviously doesn't have the same power as the original and it definitely isn't going to resonate as big culturally speaking, but it reminds you that Danny Boyle is still an outrageously cool director. Boyle is constantly looking to provide something different and new to keep the energy flowing through the film, and for the most part he achieves it, 20 years later he is still just as inventive.

The thing that everyone remembers about the original is the soundtrack, it was the thing that tied the film so well to its young audience. The soundtrack here is also very impressive, it's a little more mixed as it blends together some classic pop with more contemporary pieces, the best example of this is the remixed and pumped up version of 'Lust for life' which was the score to the famous opening of the 90s original.

Ultimately this isn't Trainspotting and it also very much is Trainspotting, its like looking at your dad really, he's the same person as he was when he was in his 20's, he's fun now but in a different way, he's matured but you know that he used to tear it up 20 years ago, he's not as cool but he's more warm and good spirited. Although your dad probably doesn't take anywhere near as much heroin.

(High 4 Stars)   

Get Out Review

Horror cinema feels like its picking back up, it had become so monumentally generic and stale, Hollywood had seen it as the easiest genre to make a cheap buck in and would give formulaic scripts to workmanlike directors. Thankfully, in the last couple of years or so there has been a revival, the horror output has gotten better and new voices have been found in the likes of Corin Hardy, Robert Eggers, Jeremy Saulnier, Fede Alvarez and David Robert Mitchell. You can also add another name to that list, because with Get Out Jordan Peele has become a very big player.

Get Out focuses on Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) a talented photographer who is in a relationship with Rose (Allison Williams). It's finally time for Chris to meet Rose's parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener), only Chris is worried that because he is black and Rose is white that they wont approve. This leads to a weekend spent in Chris' worst nightmare, the lone black man in a mass of middle class white Americans. After an awkward but polite start, things start to deteriorate and not everything may be as it appears.

Jordan Peele is mostly known in America for his work as a comedian as part of a writing and acting duo with Keegan-Michael Key, and has co -starred and co-written a very successful sketch show is the US. This might seem like a complete change of pace for Peele but what is evident in Get Out is how much the boundaries between comedy and horror are blurred. Peele's script is incredibly smart, every sentence seems to have underlining meanings, people are saying one thing that might seem innocent, but upon second viewing you realise the far more sinister connotations. Event's in Get Out do eventually deteriorate into a great cathartic violent climax, but everything done before that is so subtle and smart it earns that ending.

The tone of Peel's writing is matched fantastically by a collection of wonderful performances, Daniel Kaluuya is brilliant as Chris, the way he speaks and holds himself in front of certain people and the register he adopts with others is important in identifying the race divide in the film. Whitford and Keener are the standouts in the cast of racists, the racism developed in this film is actually a more important one than is more often depicted in cinema, liberal racism is rife in this film as it is in American society, Whitford's Father character is excited to tell Chris how much he loved Obama because he feels it's something that shows how not racist he is. In a party sequence the liberal racism is depicted in full force as Chris is introduced to various elderly white people who panic and try to name all the black sports stars they like. If this film does only one important thing it will be to show people that you don't have to wear a hood and burn crosses to be racist.

Jump scares are all well and good in horror and Peele isn't adverse to deploying them here either, but what really makes a horror is creating a tone of unease and a sense of dread that stays with people long after they've left the theatre. In his debut film Jordan Peele has created something that is as funny as it is horrific, as smart as it is fun, he might not necessarily stay in the horror genre going forward, but he'd definitely be welcome back to it at any time.


(5 Stars)  

Moonlight Review

Sometimes in an effort to sum up a film you can completely strip away everything that makes it so powerful. When describing Barry Jenkins' Moonlight one might say that its a film about the troubles of a poor black man with a crack addicted mother coming to terms with his own sexuality. However, with the characters the film features, Moonlight is so much more than that.

The film follows the life of Chiron, a young man growing up in Liberty City, Miami. The first chapter follows his life as young boy, and the relationship he has with his drug addicted mother (Naomi Harris) and the relationship he forms with his mothers drug dealer (Mahershala Ali). The second chapter sees Chiron as a teenager, thrown into hormonal adolescence his sexuality and his feelings come more to the fore. The final chapter is Chiron as a grown man, things have changed drastically for him yet much also remains the same.

Chiron is played by 3 different actors and its a testament to their performances that you never once feel like they aren't the same person. All three have a strong screen presence and a sensitivity that always makes Chiron's character immensely endearing. Out of the 3, Trevante Rhodes is the most impressive, in the final chapter Chiron has bulked up to an intimidating size, his muscular physique fills the frame, what's so amazing about Rhodes performance is how he manages to maintain the sensitivity established in the first two chapters, despite his physicality being completely different. The supporting cast is also incredibly strong, Naomi Harris does so much in the scenes she's given, she is an incredibly damaged woman and it would be so easy to hate her, yet there's something that Harris gives the character that by the end there is a swell of sympathy for her. Mahershala Ali took home best supporting actor for his role as Juan, and there can be no argument that he didn't deserve it. He completely undercuts every stereotype and preconception we think we know about drug dealers in poor black neighbourhoods. He offers Chiron a father figure when he doesn't have one, gives him guidance and teaches him to be who he wants to be, and yet there's always this dichotomy that Juan is also responsible in some part for the poor parenting he's receiving elsewhere.

Barry Jenkins is surely going to be a major player going forward, his style is the perfect compliment to his actors performances. Its subtle and unimposing yet also wonderfully expressive, similar somewhat to Steve McQueen, Jenkins is seemingly able to blend both formalism and realism into a perfect cocktail. Moonlight offers so much about the notion of identity and how we define ourselves, characters are complex, they are more than whatever labels can be attributed to them, at the end of it all, Jenkins hasn't just created characters, he's created fully formed people.

This may feel to some like nothing actually happens, and plot wise it is incredibly laid back. But what its depicting is real drama, complex emotions and day to day issues. It's a film that feels personal to Jenkins and writer of the original play Tarell Alvin McCraney, more importantly than anything is that it feels honest. It's confused winning of the best picture Oscar will take most of the headlines for this film, but the headline should really be that for the first time in a while a truly fantastic film made on a small budget has won the biggest honour in Hollywood.

(5 Stars)