Yule Love It: Last Christmas (2019)

It's an odd thing to make a movie out of, right? George Michael songs? And using a cheesy Wham hit to inspire the whole thing? It's weird. But we're kind of living in peak weird. Okay, that's not true, I don't want to tempt fate here, but we certainly seem to be living in a time that rewards strange films that seem ripe for dismissal, yet build up an appreciative and loyal fanbase. I'd point towards the likes of the Mamma Mia! movies, The Greatest Showman, and Bohemian Rhapsody as prime examples. Although not all musicals, the music used is a vital part of their appeal.

Emilia Clarke plays Kate, a young woman who seems to spend her time being selfish and making one bad decision after another. That's when she's not spending her time being elfish, due to working in a Christmas store, run by a woman who goes by the name of Santa (Michelle Yeoh). Kate wants to fulfil her dream of being a great singer, and she cares more about her auditions than anything else, including her concerned mother (Emma Thompson). But she also finds herself caring for a handsome, quirky, stranger named Tom (Henry Golding). Tom might just be the person to help her start living her life again without flying off the rails, and it could all work out well just in time for Christmas.

Directed by Paul Feig, the big draw here is the script, co-written by Emma Thompson and Byrony Kimmings (based on the story by Thompson and her husband, Greg Wise). I've enjoyed all of Feig's movies over the past decade, don't get me wrong, but I forgot that he was the director here until I saw his name in the opening credits. That's because, for me, I developed blinkers when I heard of Thompson's involvement, and just immediately figured this would be more interesting for her involvement. And it is.

It's also lifted by the involvement of the other three leads. I couldn't be happier to finally see a movie role for Emilia Clarke which finally lets her be as likeable as she so often is offscreen. I may have missed some others, considering I've only seen her sci-fi blockbusters (so that is on me), but I had a fear that Clarke would languish for a while after Game Of Thrones finished, before finally fading into obscurity. That looks less likely now, and rightly so. Clarke is able to keep you on her side even as she moves from one mistake/bad decision to the next, and the third act rewards viewers for sticking with her, of course. Yeoh and Golding will continue to win over fans who enjoyed their performances in Crazy Rich Asians. Yeoh is a lot of fun as the tough, but soft-centred, boss, and Golding will put every guy in the shade with his positive attitude and romantic gestures. He may have to play things a bit too quirky at times (I saw someone mention, rightly, that he's the male version of the "manic pixie girl" rom-com trope) but he's also able to take a breath and take a moment with Clarke whenever things need to settle into something a bit more serious. Thompson gives herself an accent (the family moved to the UK from the former Yugoslavia when Kate was young), and also gives herself a couple of the best lines, while Lydia Leonard does well with the hard role of the sister who is fed up with her sibling being able to get away with whatever she likes. Boris Isakovic does just as well, playing Kate's father, saying enough with what he doesn't add to conversations that have people reminding others of what he gave up to settle his family in the UK.

Feig directs capably enough, having shown with both this and A Simple Favour that he's moved away slightly from presenting every film as a box-ticking "Paul Feig film". And, despite his vocal critics, he often seems to know what will please audiences. He has faith (no pun intended) in the material, which pays off for anyone wanting to snuggle up and watch something fairly cosy and predictable.

What Last Christmas gets right is all of the stuff that some will hate. The Christmassy cheer, the cheesy love story, the collection of characters that feel like they're all waiting for their own spin-off sit-com, the mix of jokes ranging from sweet to just rude enough to prompt a guffaw from your eternally-well-manicured Aunt Helen. But it's not without some wrong choices, in my opinion. There's an indirect, and direct, positioning of the movie just around the time of the Brexit referendum. Part of me understands what it adds to the texture of the story, part of me thinks the film could have done without it (or could have done something with it without making it SO focused on the actual referendum result itself). The other wrong choice . . . well, it's the use of George Michael songs. Fans of the singer will be delighted, and I know that is part of the crossover appeal here, but the soundtrack felt like every song choice was shoehorned in there, just to ensure that fans heard his voice every five minutes. I love the way the titular song is used, I just didn't think the rest worked that well, with one notable exception that had me hiding my watery eyes.

Last Christmas is good. It's solid seasonal fare, and a delightful rom-com. But if they had set it in the late '80s or early '90s, had Kate trying to make something successful out of a pipe dream, and perhaps ended at some big concert event, it could have been a bit better. You could have still had the moments of xenophobia, you would have had more reason to use all of the featured songs, and the ending could be very similar. But that is why I write movie reviews and not movies.

7/10

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Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Here it is. The Star Wars spin-off/prequel that we were all excited about when Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (the masters of making unlikely hits) were attached. That excitement started to fade when they parted ways from the project, the safe "creative differences" was the excuse given. And then there were expensive reshoots. And then the film was released, going on to achieve some fairly disappointing numbers at the box office.

I didn't rush to see it, and I didn't hear from too many people who did. It felt like something lacking the spectacle and magic of the main movie series (which even includes those much-criticised prequels, I hasten to add). It felt a bit, dare I say it, pointless.

The mess that led to this film underperforming and being viewed as a big mistake in the ongoing development of the Star Wars cinematic universe is a bit of a shame, because the film itself is a fun sci-fi adventure that benefits from some great lead performances and an enjoyable backstory for a beloved cinematic icon. Okay, we never needed that backstory, I agree, but the writers here - Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan - at least make it a fun one.

I'm not going to cover the plot details here. It's enough to say that the film follows young Han (played by Alden Ehrenreich) as he sets out to make a name for himself, gets involved with someone who taches him a valuable lesson or two, befriends a large Wookie, meets Lando Calrissian (owner of the Millennium Falcon), and ends up flying through the Kessel Run.

I can't emphasise enough how much this film is lifted by the casting of Ehrenreich in the main role. Some may disagree, and my wife numbers among them, but I think he has just the perfect mix of what young Han should be, in terms of both looks and attitude. I first enjoyed Ehrenreich's acting, like so many other viewers, when I caught him in Hail, Caesar! and I hope that he just keeps going on to bigger and better things (and I would have liked to see him in another Solo movie, but that seems unlikely now). The other three people who easily hold the screen alongside Ehrenreich are Woody Harrelson (as Beckett, a criminal type who becomes a bit of a mentor), Joonas Suotamo playing Chewbacca, and Donald Glover as Lando. All of them are fantastic, but it's Glover who would steal the movie if it wasn't full of so many great little moments for everyone. Emilia Clarke, playing the woman who inavdvertently set Han on his path through life, is better here than she has been in some other movie roles, Paul Bettany gives a fine performance as a crime boss that you should never cross, and Thandie Newton, Jon Favreau (his voice anyway), and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (also a vocal performance) all do solid work. Waller-Bridge has the most fun, which makes it a shame that her character wasn't onscreen for a bit longer.

Ron Howard is the man who ended up in the director's chair. He does the perfectly competent job that you would expect him to do. It's not up there with his best work, and it's not up there with the best of the Star Wars movies, but it's a genuinely good time for viewers wanting to sit back, relax, and spend a couple of hours in the company of a reluctant hero they can find out a little bit more about. The script drops a number of lovely little details throughout, fleshing out a few of the main characters in scenes that entertain without ever betraying their essence (although it's quite easy when you keep things so simple - e.g. Lando is a charming rogue).

There are some touches that feel a bit forced, especially in the third act, but the pleasant surprise is just how much the film feels like Han at every turn. The music by John Powell aside (it never hits the heights that viewers might expect), this feels effortless and charming. It's one that I can see myself revisiting often, which is all down to how much I enjoyed spending time with these characters.

8/10

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Terminator Genisys (2015)

I DID say the hiatus may be temporary. While there definitely won't be a review here every day, my recent EIFF 2015 attendance spurred me back into some enjoyable writing.

Terminator Genisys didn't seem to have much going for it. There's that title for starters. A horrible mess that seems like nothing more than an attempt to blend in with the cool kids. And it was coming along after Terminator Salvation. I like Terminator Salvation. I am, however, aware that my positive view of the film (and my equal enjoyment of Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines) puts me firmly in a minority. And then we had that spoiler-filled trailer, which actually puts it on a par with Terminator 2: Judgment Day in the "potentially great twists ruined by the need to market to a wider audience" stakes.

Despite the fact that you may have already had plenty spoiled for you, I'll try to surmise the plot without giving anything major away. Jai Courtney plays Kyle Reese this time, and he's sent back (as we all know) in time by John Connor (Jason Clarke). But instead of finding a frightened and vulnerable Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) he finds a woman all-too-prepared for the battle that will affect the future of the planet. This is mainly due to the fact that she's had her own terminator (Schwarzenegger) serving as a protector for many years. She even calls him Pops. With everything so different, our leads hope to prove that the future is not set in stone, and that judgment day can be averted.

Let's cut to the chase here. Nostalgia. That's what proves to be the best thing about this movie, and also proves to be the worst. This is a film, arguably more than any other franchise instalment I can think of in recent years, that is reliant on the nostalgia of fans to carry viewers through a number of weak scenes. Newcomers are brought up to speed quickly enough, and will enjoy seeing everything unfold, but it is the older fans who will get the most from this. Scenes are either replicated from the first two movies or they are inverted in ways that writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier clearly think are clever. They're not. Every Terminator movie has had paradox problems (indeed, it's almost that way with every time travel movie, period), but this would seem to be the first movie in the series to take the paradox and just heap more and more complications on top of everything until viewers realise that this is one knot destined to never be undone. There's no satisfying explanation for that first major plot twist, which would surely already be known to everyone if the script wasn't cheating, and then we have Kyle Reese and his "impossible memories", people careening into the lives of others without any more notable ripples of cause and effect, and also a surprising lack of any sense of real threat while everyone moves from set-piece to set-piece.

Arnie makes it all worthwhile. Some will view him as Conan, some will always think of him fighting against the Predator, but he'll always BE The Terminator to me. Showing him as an older model here is the best idea that the film has (and the explanation doesn't entirely suck). Occasionally pitting him against the younger version of himself provides the best moments in the film, simply because the CGI doesn't feel overused or overly familiar in those moments. Jason Clarke is a decent John Connor, but that is the best I can say about the leads. Emilia Clarke isn't necessarily bad, she's just not believable as a tough woman who has been primed for her role as warrior and potential saviour of the planet. And how the hell Jai Courtney keeps getting work is a mystery that even Scooby Doo and co. couldn't get to the bottom of. I charitably mentioned to others that he wasn't as bad as usual here, but then I remembered that he was supposed to be portraying Kyle Reese. No. No, no, no, no. He doesn't work, which is pretty much how you could sum up his performance in every movie he's starred in. J. K. Simmons does well with a character who doesn't need to be in the film at all, and Lee Byung-Hun deserves more than the small amount of screentime that he's given.

Director Alan Taylor feels as if he's playing things very safe, allowing himself to be led by the script, and the movies that have come along beforehand, instead of putting any kind of personal stamp on the material. It's a savvy move, I guess. This instalment will inevitably make money so why take risks? Yet it's hard to stop thinking about just how much better things could have been if everyone involved had attempted to move slightly off the beaten path. How much more enjoyable could the action scenes have been if they didn't feel so familiar to scenes from the first two films, especially when they suffer in comparison? The FX work here varies in quality, and nothing delivers that impact that most of us felt when we first saw Terminator 2: Judgment Day (which was almost twenty five years ago now - a quarter of a century). And don't even get me started on just how lame the entire finale is. The writer in me wanted to think of a better word than "lame", the realist in me knew that it was the most appropriate adjective.

Although I've already seen a wide range of opinions on this movie already, from the outright hating of it to the pleasantly surprised, I have to say that I think most people will at least enjoy parts of it. Despite the many complaints I have about different aspects of the movie, I was entertained for most of the runtime, and a few of the action beats were very enjoyable. It's just a shame that this is the blandest and safest Terminator movie yet. AND it has Jai Courtney in it.

6/10

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