Film Review – Red Sparrow

Red Sparrow

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Certificate 15

What happens when a Russian ballet dancer with a sick mother suffers a career-ending injury?

She becomes a spy of course, thanks to her uncle, Ivan, who works in Russian intelligence.

That’s the career path chosen by Dominika Egorova, the ever watchable Jennifer Lawrence. For the first hour, her path from pirouettes to spy school and then out in the field is mostly intriguing.

Her ordeals suffered at spy school are pretty degrading as she learns the art of seduction under the tutelage of Charlotte Rampling’s emotionless expert.

She’s tasked with seducing American spy Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton); he’s tasked with gleaning information from her.

Following that promising first hour, I sit through another 100 minutes of torture porn; Jennifer and Joel facing eye-watering pain, and internecine shenanigans.

Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty booms over the speakers at one point. Aptly I fight to stay awake through the second act, and long before the finale, I’ve already considered walking out. Some cinema goers do; there are two of us left by the time the lights come up.

Red Sparrow is overly complicated, and wants to have the class of great John Le Carre, but it’s no Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It also feels like Atomic Blonde with all the fun removed.

Jennifer Lawrence is as mesmerising as ever, and retains her dignity even when the story demands her character has none.

It’s a pretty miserable experience with the score ramped up to deafening levels in the hope it adds class to a joyless thriller.

A split second before Ciaran Hinds appears on screen I guess he’ll turn up at some point because he plays good Russians in better films like The Sum of All Fears. And there he is, which is scant consolation as the film drags on.

Jeremy Irons shows up as another Russian VIP, and I’m also taken out of the moment with a bit part from Holby City’s Hugh Quarshie.

I’m no espionage expert, but I do know there is a gaping hole in the premise of sending a famous ballerina undercover as a spy. Any intelligence service worth their salt will run facial recognition software over a suspect’s photo on the off-chance she’s in their database.

Red Sparrow is an excruciating experience for the most part. No matter how slick or sexy the trailer is, it’s not reason enough to waste 140 minutes of your life.

Barge poles required.

4/10

Passengers (2016) – Film Review

The hook of new sci-fi film Passengers hangs on one simple moral dilemma: you’re the only person on a star ship and destined to die alone. Do you wake up one of 5,000 passengers, knowing you are sentencing them to death? 
That’s the bit the adverts gloss over, instead choosing to centre on the natural chemistry between stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. 

He’s likeable as James Preston, the blue collar tech guy who awakens from hyper sleep on a starship ferrying 5,000 passengers and 2,000 crew from Earth to an idyllic planet. It’s a 120-year journey and thanks to a meteor strike, the sleek ship is damaged 30 years into its trip. With 90 years left to go, Preston can’t return to sleep, and has only a robot bartender (Michael Sheen) for company. 

Like sitcom The Last Man on Earth, Preston grows a big bushy beard and samples the best facilities before loneliness and desperation gets the better of him. 

He happens upon Aurora (Lawrence), a beautiful blonde writer who’s a higher grade than him and looks like a dream companion. 

So he defrosts her, they fall in love and the rest is as formulaic as you can imagine. 

A bombshell is dropped; a disaster occurs; burnt bridges are rebuilt and the third act is edge-of-the-seat peril reminiscent of finales in Gravity and 2010. 

Pratt and Lawrence are a dream team. He’s as likeable as ever (less of a one-note character than Jurassic World thankfully); she’s sexy, smart, fun and still the most compelling actress of her generation. Few thesps react to shock more naturally, or manage to ground the most lightweight fantasy with greater skill. 

The movie looks terrific, though the sets look like countless Halo or Mass Effect games; all pristine, multi-level vistas with Red Dwarf-style cleaning droids attending to the humans’ whims. 

Yes, we’ve seen it all before, though the zero gravity bubble of water that threatens to drown Aurora is a fresh touch. 

There is a creepiness to half the film that is difficult to avoid. While Preston’s decision to wake Aurora is tantamount to murder, inevitably there’s a chance to redeem himself. In short it’s a classic ’boy meets girl; boy loses girl, boy attempts to save girl’ scenario. 

When Laurence Fishburne turns up half way through, alarm bells start ringing, echoes of Event Horizon and Predators remind me that ’Fishburne plus spaceships equals disaster’. And the fact Andy Garcia gets a screen credit after five seconds of screen time is remarkable. 

Passengers isn’t a perfect movie by any means. It does remind me of countless better films, including the aforementioned Gravity, but I follow it with the stunningly tedious, overblown fantasy epic Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (the perfect cure for insomnia). 

Pratt and Lawrence’s flawed vehicle is light years ahead of that JK Rowling yawnfest. 

30 Movies of 2016

The year got off to a terrific start with a wealth of affecting films vying for Oscar glory, settled into one of the worst summers for generic tent poles, and ended with one of the boldest entries in the Star Wars saga. 
Yes, it’s that time of year again when movies of the past 12 months are assessed, listed in order of merit then contested by you, dear reader, who wonders why certain films weren’t included. The simple answer is: I didn’t see them all. 

Here’s a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly of 2016. 

30 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Zack Snyder took the most anticipated franchise team-up in decades and turned it into an overlong video game cut scene. Mind bogglingly stupid, with Grand Canyon-sized plot holes; a third act twist which made no sense, and Wonder Woman watching trailers for upcoming DC movies on her laptop. And to top it all, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor winning my award for most annoying villain in any superhero movie franchise. Ever. 

29 Suicide Squad

Margot Robbie stole the show as Harley Quinn in David Ayer’s super villain ensemble. Despite a stunning trailer, the movie turned out to be a huge let down with Jared Leto’s horrible Joker on screen for a thankfully short running time, and the finale feeling like a woeful Ghostbusters remake. 

28 The Nice Guys

Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling were like oil and water in this mismatched buddy crime comedy. Shane Black’s witty script ran out of steam at the end. 

27 Warcraft: The Beginning. 

Duncan Jones’s ambitious big screen version of the mmorpg was bold but frustrating. A flop in the West, but did well in China so a sequel not entirely off the cards. 

26 The Girl on the Train
Emily Blunt could make an adaptation of the phone book work, but this adaptation suffered from a slow second act and proved far less compelling than the source novel. 

25 Ghostbusters 

Internet trolls ripped the movie apart the minute the trailer was released, so expectations were low. However, the movie was often very funny, with Kate McKinnon a standout as the obligatory zany scientist and Chris Hemsworth a hoot as the team’s gloriously stupid PA.   

24 High Rise 

The union of star Tom Hiddleston and director Ben Wheatley sounded like a movie made in Heaven. Alas, despite solid turns from Tom and Luke Evans, this was an unpleasant retro mess. Wrong on so many levels. 

23  X-Men Apocalypse

Bryan Singer’s CG-heavy fantasy saga rolled on with more top turns from James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. Cinematic candy floss with a couple of memorable scenes. 

22 Hail, Caesar!
The Coen brothers essentially made a pilot for a TV series, with two stand out moments: Ralph Fiennes’ “Would that it were so simple” scene (with future Han Solo Alden Ehrenreich), and Channing Tatum’s musical number were terrific. But the open ended finale was just annoying. 

21 A Streetcat Named Bob

Trainspotting with a feline saviour. Flawed but touching. 

20 Midnight Special

A snail-paced thriller with a good shock (as I was nodding off) and a finale that made it worthwhile. I never need to see it again, but it was bearable. Just. 

19 Star Trek Beyond

After JJ Abrams’ powerhouse rebooted Trek offerings, things slowed to impulse power as Kirk, Spock and company tackled another alien warlord who wrecked the Enterprise (again). It wasn’t bad. Sofia Boutella was a standout as the kick-ass heroine, but it failed to reach orbit. Better than The Final Frontier and Nemesis, but could have been something a lot more special. Wherever Beyond is, it fell way short. 

18 Jason Bourne 

Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon returned to the franchise with a lean, mean crowd pleaser that added little to the saga. There was an inevitable loss, a gruff Hollywood legend to rail against and some hard edged fight scenes and chases. Well crafted but formulaic. 

17 Jack Reacher – Never Go Back

Lee Child’s literary hero got a second chance at screen stardom as Tom Cruise helped clear the name of an endangered military type. Cobie Smulders was terrific, there was lots of running and some good fight scenes. That’s about it.

16 Sing Street

One of the best feelgood musical comedies of the year with great songs (Drive It Like You Stole It a standout) and some touching scenes. 

15. Captain America: Civil War

Franchise fatigue was starting to set in at the Marvel camp, with their beautifully crafted series of set-ups for The Avengers: Infinity War movies leaving some fans wishing they’d just get in with it. After the humdrum Winter Soldier, this sequel was essentially The Avengers 2.5 as Cap’s team of skilled heroes took on Iron Man’s opposition. A great airport battle was the standout, while Ant-Man and Spider-Man stole the show between them. 

14.  Doctor Strange 

Benedict Cumberbatch was a perfect fit as the arrogant New York surgeon who sought spiritual enlightenment and took on inter dimensional forces of evil. A fun Marvel diversion. 

13. Deadpool

Ryan Reynolds’ second turn as the resurrected mercenary (after X-Men Origins: Wolverine) was a foul-mouthed delight and one of the biggest surprise hits of the year.  

12. The Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarantino channelled Agatha Christie in a wintry Western shot in glorious 70mm. Cineworld didn’t show it, so it forced me to go elsewhere for what is essentially a stage play, but it was worth the diversion. A twisty turny masterpiece. 

11. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Tim Burton’s gloriously bizarre fantasy with a scene stealing Eva Green. An instant cult classic. 

10. 10 Cloverfield Lane

Mary Elizabeth Winstead wakes trapped in a room, and as the tale unfolds it turns out John Goodman’s unhinged character has either kidnapped her or is protecting her from something shocking. A three hander with a kicker of an ending helped make this a knockout sleeper hit from the JJ Abrams stable, with superb turns from Winstead and the ever reliable Goodman. And thankfully it had little in common with the shaky cam yawn fest, Cloverfield. 

9. Joy

And it was. After Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro and director David O Russell struck gold again with this tale of a woman selling a mop on QVC. On paper it sounds like commercial suicide, but Lawrence remains the most compelling actress of her generation and made this soar. 

8. The Revenant

Leo being savaged by a bear was not the greatest five minutes of film I’ve seen this year, but the epic tale of betrayal and revenge looked amazing, boasted a great cast and though overrated, was still a fine piece of work even if Tom Hardy took incoherence to new levels of Bane-like confusion. 

7. Zootroplis

Arguably the best mainstream ’toon of the year was a clever fable/mystery with interesting characters, terrific art direction and a solid story. Little wonder it sold a squillion tickets. 

6. The Finest Hours

An old fashioned tale of heroism at sea with Chris Pine on good form as the shy sailor who undertakes a death defying mission to rescue stranded crewmen on a stricken tanker.  

5. Anomalisa

A surreal stop motion spin on Being John Malkovich, and plenty of other Charlie Kaufman moments. If featured one of the most touching love scenes of recent years… with puppets. I can only imagine how long it took to make, but the end result was remarkable. 

4. Hell or High Water

Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and the writer of Sicario joined forces to make this splendid contemporary Western set in Texas (which aptly was where I saw it). 

3. Eddie the Eagle
Dexter Fletcher’s feelgood biopic of Eddie Edwards, the British downhill skier who overcame the odds to compete for Olympic gold. Sweet, touching and top turns from Tarin Egerton and Hugh Jackman helped make this soar. 

2. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Star Wars Episode 3.5 boasted a great cast, terrific effects and the best third act of the year. It was also the boldest movie of the franchise which added the weight of a star destroyer to a series which has thankfully recovered after those woeful prequels. 

1. Arrival

’What if Independence Day was an art house film?’ That’s perhaps the best pitch for this haunting tale of communication with one of the most affecting finales of the year. I was speechless by the twist. Top turns from Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, while the Johan Johansson score was wonderful. Can’t wait to see how director Denis Villeneuve handles Blade Runner 2049. 

X-Men: Apocalypse

Given the reviews for the sixth X-Men movie, you’d think it was on a par with Batman and Robin for badness. So as I settled in with a heavy heart, I’d expected a tsunami of awful to wash over me. 
What I didn’t expect was how good it would be. 

Okay, echoes of The Mummy (1999) resonated through the opening scenes (vast ancient Egyptian vistas, malevolent antagonist), but once we fast forward to 1983 and are reunited with Moira McTaggart (Rose Byrne from X-Men: First Class), things settle down well considering how many characters director Bryan Singer has to juggle. 

Returning cast James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence are all excellent, but only Evan Peters stands out among the generic supporting characters. His Sweet Dreams moment is a high point. 

Oscar Isaac is suitably menacing as the eponymous villain and the effects are pretty good. 

Okay, it’s not perfect. Sophie Lawrence seemed miscast as Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler needed someone with more depth than Kodi Smit McPhee, but its strengths were many. 

A scene in woods with Fassbender and his family and the destruction of a notorious death camp packed quite a punch. 

The series could do with a rest for a few years, but given the calibre of this movie, I imagine a 1993 offering is just a matter of time regardless. 

Joy – The Movie Review

  
The new film from David O Russell and star Jennifer Lawrence is a Joy by name and by nature. It’s a big film about one woman’s dream to create a mop. Yes, on paper it doesn’t sound like the most compelling subject matter; you can imagine the pitch to get the movie made was as difficult as the eponymous protagonist’s attempt to get a green light for her design and production. But it’s testament to the maker of Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle that he made this as absorbent as the strands in said cleaning device. 

Lawrence, as always, is superb. She has a screen presence so magnetic it’s a wonder the audience’s eyeballs weren’t sprayed with minute iron filings and an electromagnet turned on every time she’s on screen. 

Bradley Cooper is also on good form as the QVC executive who may or may not help her on the road the success, while Robert DeNiro gives another good turn as Joy’s dad. 

  
As the film unfolds, the camera follows Lawrence, a little in love with her as she strides with purpose; her drive ever apparent. It’s a sight to behold as the odd smirk transforms that doll-like face. 

The movie ticks over with twists and turns sustaining the attention throughout. 

The score underlines the drama without getting in the way and though it’s a big film about nothing, it’s also about everything – following dreams, overcoming problems and the power of loyalty. 

Oh, and if you want to see a Venezuealan Simon Le Bon lookalike, the movie has that too. 

Recommended.