Prime Time: Greatest Days (2023)

A feature adaptation of a popular musical, originally titled "The Band", Greatest Days is all about female friendship, the moments that take you away from one another as you move from childhood to adulthood, and the music of Take That (with the band represented here by generic boyband types just collectively referred to as The Boys). You may already know whether or not you want to see it, but I hope this review might sway those undecided. It Only Takes A Minute or two to read.

Aisling Bea plays Rachel, a nurse who ends up stunned when she finds out that she's won a competition. The prize is a trip to Athens to see The Boys reunion concert live. She's allowed to take a number of friends with her, and she knows exactly who will want to enjoy the experience with her. But that means talking to them all again. It's been a long time since she spoke to those who used to be her firm childhood friends, and who shared her love of The Boys, but maybe it's time to reconnect and move beyond whatever made them so happy to lose touch with one another. Moving between the past and the present, we see how Rachel, Heather, Zoe, Claire, and Debbie once had their Greatest Days all planned out ahead of them. But something happened to take the Shine off things. Can the women relight their fire? Everything will be revealed by the third act, and viewers will just need a little Patience as the plot unfolds.

Written by Tim Firth (who wrote the stage musical and has helped write a few different highlights of British cinema, mainly Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots), Greatest Days is predictable and emotionally manipulative stuff, and I'm not saying that as a criticism. Once you get used to the style of the film, the leads often slip into fantasy sequences in which The Boys sing and dance around them to help them escape their more depressing thoughts, it's easy to enjoy the characters, the dialogue, and the songs. Because, like them or not, Take That have a good selection of songs that people of a certain age will always have seared into their brains.

Director Coky Giedroyc has a large number of TV credits to her name, but she's no stranger to feature films. She does an excellent job here, having fun with the warmth and camaraderie of the characters, as well as nicely juxtaposing the song and dance moments with the more mundane reality being interrupted. There's a sprinkling of something special over the whole thing (Could It Be Magic?), helped by a winning cast who all seem to enjoy interacting with one another, even when the characters aren't staying on friendly terms.

The younger cast members have the better moments, helped by the fact that they aren't weighed down by the problems and responsibilities of adulthood, but there's no weak link in the chain. Bea and Lara McDonnell take on the lead role, the latter a highlight as the younger incarnation of the former, but Alice Lowe, Jayde Adams, Amaka Okafor, Carragon Guest, Nandi Hudson, Eliza Dobson, and Jessie Mae Alonzo are equally well-suited to their roles. Despite the film being focused on women, and the stronger bonds and strains of female friendship, it's a pleasant surprise that Marc Wootton gets to play arguably one of the nicest movie boyfriends ever. He makes a couple of mistakes, but generally tries to do what he thinks is best for the woman he loves, and it may be the first time I have actually liked Wootton onscreen for the entire duration of one particular performance.

I had heard some good reviews of this already, and I am always willing to watch Alice Lowe in anything, but this was much better than I expected it to be. I laughed, I was tapping my toes along to the tunes, and I even shed a tear or two before the end credits rolled. If I convince anyone to give this a try, and if they react as I did, then I only hope that they Never Forget where they get the best movie recommendations.

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share

Artemis Fowl (2020)

Of course I'd heard all of the bad reviews. Of course I was aware that not one person who watched Artemis Fowl ended up having a good thing to say about it. Of course I thought I might find at least some small bits to enjoy.

Of course I was wrong.

Artmeris Fowl has the might of Disney behind it, but it's hard to think of a more misjudged and messy piece of family entertainment. Nothing works as it should. Nothing.

Let's start with the plot. Ferdia Shaw is Artemis Fowl, a young boy who ends up alone, having to defend his home, when his father (Colin Farrell) is whisked away by some shady villain. Artemis finds out that there's a whole world around him that he doesn't know about, and there's an item, the Aculos, that many seem to want to get their hands on. This leads to Fowl Manor being besieged, where Artemis works to defend it with the magical Holly Short (Lara McDonnell) and Mulch Diggums (Josh Gad), "Dom" Butler (Nonso Anozie), and Dom's niece, Juliet Butler (Tamara Smart). You also get Judi Dench appearing as Commander Julius Root, determined to get in to Fowl Manor and retrieve the Aculos.

Based on the popular novel by Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl is written by Conor McPherson and Hamish McColl, which may be where the the problems begin. McColl has a background that would make him seem suited to this kind of material, perhaps, but McPherson doesn't, and the mix of the two leads to a film that feels inevitably ill-fitting, in terms of the various plot elements. Director Kenneth Branagh also doesn't really feel like the right person to be sitting in the big chair, but it would be unfair to rule him out immediately (considering some of his surprising successes). Sadly, it turns out that he ISN'T the right person to be sitting in the big chair. In fact, he doesn't seem to have spent much time in the chair at all. This feels like something not directed by anyone with any vision, or even a sense of effective film-making techniques.

Then we get to the cast. Shaw is horrible in the lead role. It's not really his fault. His character is annoying, almost from the very first frame, and he acts accordingly. Gad is pretty annoying, although he at least gets to show some of his personality, unlike the majority of the cast. McDonnell is the highlight, a plucky and tough fighter with good intentions, but Anozie is also very good as the talented protector/butler. Judie Dench looks suitably embarrassed every now and then, and Farrell has the good sense to take on a role with such little screentime that I'm sure he was handsomely rewarded for what amounted to a day of work, at most.

Artemis Fowl isn't as bad as you've heard. It's worse. Characters are generally awful and unappealing, the plot is slight and impossible to care about, and the action sequences wouldn't have impressed most viewers a decade ago. It's mind-boggling to think of how many decisions were made by people who all tried to go for the worst possible options. It's only the fact that it had enough money thrown at it that saves it from being among the very worst I have seen. It's definitely one of the very worst blockbusters of the 21st century though.

3/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews