Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

We're at the stage now when a new Jurassic Park movie no longer inspires the awe and excitement it used to. That started when it became Jurassic World, but each subsequent instalment since the first movie has felt like diminishing returns as various directors have tried to recapture the magic of the original. I actually enjoyed Jurassic World Dominion, which many disliked, so I was someone especially miffed by the idea of them attempting to reboot the series yet again.

Anyway, let's cut to the chase. You don't need too many plot details. A group of people head to an island full of dinosaurs to collect some stuff. Things don't go well. There's also a family caught up in the dino crisis, and viewers will know that everything will lead to a finale that makes use of the biggest and baddest beasties around. All accompanied by a score from Alexandre Desplat that knows it needs to work with the familiar motif established by John Williams.

Starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Jurassic World: Rebirth is a strange mess of a film, unable to give us anyone to truly root for while also under-delivering on the expected dinosaur spectacle. Director Gareth Edwards does well behind the camera, quite rightly avoiding the coy approach to big monsters that he has used in previous movies, but he's saddled with a David Koepp script that doesn't quite do enough to fill out the 133-minute runtime. It doesn't help that the plot is perfunctory videogame stuff, with people having to collect samples of creatures from land, sea, and air, and one big set-piece completely works as well as intended . . . thanks to our old friend, the tyrannosaurus rex. 

Johansson seems to go through the motions with minimal effort, Friend is quite shiny and smug, and Bailey tries to exude charm throughout, but it's only Ali who feels like an actual star happy to have fun in a silly blockbuster. Which makes it a great shame that he feels relatively underused. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is locked in to his "concerned father" role, with nothing else to define him, and Luna Blaise, David Iacono, and Audrina Miranda do okay with what they're given, even if they're not given the greatest material to work with.

I guess it's difficult, at this stage, to deliver something truly unique and fresh in the Jurassic movies. So maybe they should stop making them.  If I'm feeling generous, I'll give credit to two exciting sequences here, both set on water. Again, as mentioned earlier, that's not enough for something with this runtime. Maybe newcomers will get more from it, but they would still get even more from first checking out the earlier films in the franchise. 

5/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)

I cannot say that I am overly familiar with SpongeBob SquarePants, but I know enough about him to enjoy this movie. He lives in Bikini Bottom. He works at an underwater diner named the Krusty Krab. And he has a loyal friend named Patrick. I have somehow absorbed all of this information without ever having watched a full episode of the TV show, as far as I am aware. I have watched this movie before though, but I remembered nothing about it.

There are a number of enjoyable diversions here, but the core of the plot concerns SpongeBob and Patrick embarking on a long and dangerous journey to reclaim and return Neptune’s crown. Succeeding in this quest will save the life of their boss, Eugene Krabs, and foil the scheme of the nefarious Plankton, who also gets busy turning the residents of Bikini Bottom into mindless zombies (not the full-on horror type, just devoid of their own willpower and easily controlled by Plankton).

Bookended by scenes that show a rowdy gang of pirates hoping to enjoy the animated feature, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie is just about as much fun as you could expect it to be. It seems to keep the essence of the show and characters, increases the scale just enough to make it feel worth adapting into a movie, and delivers plenty of surreal hilarity in both rhe visuals and the dialogue.

Directed and co-written by SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg, with many others helping to knock the script into shape (and Mark Osborne credited for the live-action sequences), this feels like the kind of brilliant anarchy that you only get from someone who has negotiated their way to a place where they get to protect their vision with a final say on anything that will be delivered to the viewing public. Maybe that is exactly what happened, or maybe it is just a coincidence that Hillenburg had turned down numerous requests to turn his show into a movie before finally helming something that moved from the small screen to the big screen with such apparent ease.

The cast are mainly familiar to those who enjoy the show. Tom Kenny is SpongeBob, Bill Faggerbakke is Patrick, Rodger Bumpass is Squidward, Clancy Brown is Mr. Krab, and Mr. Lawrence is Plankton. All of them are superb, and they are joined by Jeffrey Tambor and Scarlett Johansson (playing Neptune and his daughter, respectively), Carolyn Lawrence and Jill Talley (both also reprising characters from the show), Alec Baldwin, and even the world’s most famous TV lifeguard, who pops up for a hilarious cameo that allows him to steal a couple of scenes.

I cannot think of anything here I would fault. While it may not make me rush off to watch every episode of the show, that is only because of me having only so many hours in each day. I will certainly be aiming to watch the other movies, at the very least, and I hope they come close to being as much fun as this one, which had me laughing pretty heartily from start to finish. I know that the silliness here isn’t for everyone, but I am certainly happy to be a goofy goober.

9/10

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Noir-vember: The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

A film I haven’t seen since I picked it up on VHS when it was first released, I was very keen to revisit The Man Who Wasn’t There, a film that arguably remains the most overlooked title in the filmography of the Coen brothers (certainly from the past couple of decades anyway).

Billy Bob Thornton plays the main character, Ed Crane. He runs a barbershop with his brother, Frank (Michael Badalucco), and plods along in his marriage to Doris (Frances McDormand). A chance encounter with a customer (Jon Polito) who has a grand business plan leads to Ed setting out to blackmail Big Dave Brewster (James Gandolfini). He knows that Dave and Doris have been having an affair, but this perceived opportunity for success could lead to disaster. And death.

Shot in beautiful black and white (courtesy of the great Roger Deakins), The Man Who Wasn’t There may not be as sharp as other Coen brothers movies, and it may run too closely to some of their best works, but it remains a fantastic slice of straightforward noir. The brothers don’t want to twist things too much here, they just want to tell a story well worth telling.

The cast are almost all perfect, with Thornton at his laconic best in the lead role. He has rarely been an actor who exaggerates his mannerisms or catches your eye with histrionics (the excellent Sling Blade aside), making him an ideal choice to carry a film with this title. McDormand is as good as ever, playing a flawed woman who clearly still has love there for her husband. Gandolfini and Polito both make a strong impression with more limited screentime and Tony Shalhoub has one of his best movie roles, playing an expensive lawyer who believes himself unable to lose a court case. There are also enjoyable turns from Badalucco, Richard Jenkins, and Scarlett Johansson, with the latter representing a fresh start, optimism, and purity in the mind of Thornton’s character.

It would be wrong to try and convince anyone that this is one of the very best movies from the Coen brothers. That isn’t true. But it would also be wrong to leave it languishing in the forgotten limbo it seems to have been cast into over the past twenty years. It may not be a masterpiece, and it isn’t out to feel fresh or full of surprises, but it is a lovingly crafted piece of drama, using a top-notch cast to draw you into a tale of love, death, and greed for a couple of hours.

8/10

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Black Widow (2021)

A solo, and some might say long overdue, outing for the one female who made up part of the original Avengers movie line-up, Black Widow should have been a chance to right some wrongs. Considering how the character has been used in the movies, and her final main sequence in Avengers: Endgame, allowing her to just have the full spotlight and kick ass without being filtered through the male gaze should have been an easy "win" for the film-makers. Yes, I have repeatedly used the words "should have" here.

Set just after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) ends up travelling to yet another foreign city, this time looking to meet up with her sorta-sister, Yelena (Florence Pugh). Yelena has managed to get hold of an antidote to the brainwashing drugs that have allowed a powerful figure named Dreykov (Ray Winstone) to create what essentially amounts to an army of Black Widows. Enlisting the help of the people who acted as their main father and mother figures (Alexei, played by David Harbour, and Melina, played by Rachel Weisz), Natasha and Yelena aim to access a top-secret base and thwart Dreykov's grand plan.

Written by Eric Pearson, no stranger to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (having worked on Thor: Ragnarok and some of the enjoyable "one-shots", amongst other projects), and directed by Cate Shortland, who IS a newcomer to this kind of movie, Black Widow feels like a film shaped by far too many people who didn't have to put their name to the main credits. Although the main story is as described above, and there's a decent core exploration of what it means to become a family unit, it's also an obvious and clumsy set-up for Pugh to become a part of the MCU. And any scenes that show a female being controlled by a dangerous man just calls to mind the far superior Jessica Jones show, which debuted over five years ago. This makes Black Widow feel a bit irrelevant when some better writing and direction could have avoided that, because consent/control is a theme that I think will remain depressingly relevant for many years to come.

The other thing working against the movie is the fact that Shortland seems to be directing from a number of notes handed over by men. That's the only reason I can think of for the amount of shots that have the camera sitting low and looking up to focus on the backsides of either Johansson or Pugh. 

And then you have the accents. Johansson and Pugh do okay, with the latter struggling more at times. Harbour focuses more on fun than consistency, Weisz tries her best throughout, and Winstone . . . well, Winstone clearly gives up after his earliest scenes, settling on a blend of Russian and Cockney for the rest of his screentime. Aside from the accents, everyone works hard to lift up a script that is beneath them. It's difficult to imagine a superhero movie making effective jokes about the "superhero landing" after Deadpool already did it so well, but they try it here. It falls flat, especially when they then have characters DO the superhero landing without giving them good enough reason to do it. William Hurt makes a welcome return, once again playing Secretary Ross, and Olga Kurylenko fans will be disappointed to find that she's only visible onscreen for about a minute.

There are a couple of good action sequences, but none of them feel close to the quality of some of the superb action set-pieces that we have seen in these movies. That would be absolutely fine if this was a small-scale movie looking to keep things minimal and low-key. It's not. The stakes may seem smaller, in a way, but the big action moments throw far too much around the main characters, whether they are battling multiple enemies in close-range combat, evading a huge tank-like vehicle, using a helicopter to attempt a prison break, or plummeting through the air as they avoid, and use, the debris from a huge explosion.

I've seen people complain about the mishandling of a character named Taskmaster. Not being familiar with this character before this movie, I'd still have to agree. Taskmaster is an impressive foe in the first half of the film, and enjoyably unstoppable, but the third act reveal is surprisingly disappointing, leading to a finale that it's hard to really care about.

There's still a level of polish and professionalism here that makes it easy entertainment, and the music by Lorne Balfe deserves a mention, but this never once felt like an essential big-screen experience. And that's not something you can usually say about any MCU release. I'll end up buying it, the completist in me will demand that I do, but it's not one I will be in a hurry to revisit.

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: Marriage Story (2019)

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story is the tale of Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver), a married couple who are also parents to one young son, Henry (Azhy Robertson). Marriage Story sounds much nicer than Divorce Story, but the latter title would be a better  description. This is, in many ways, a Kramer Vs. Kramer for the 21st century, showing how the most well-intentioned journey from marriage to amicable divorce can lead to ugliness, point-scoring, and a feeling akin to being scraped away, layer by layer, like the walls in an old house that are having years of different wallpapers removed. It cuts down to the bone at times, mainly because who can hurt you best more effectively than someone who once loved you the most? That hurt doesn't have to be intentional, it can come from watching your partner manage to get up and go about a normal day with you no longer in it, it isn't even always intended when it comes out in the form of some hateful speech vomited out by someone lashing out while feeling backed further into a corner.

Driver and Johansson are both superb in their roles here, and I would have been happy to see both of them showered with awards for their performances. Both have moments that will reverberate with anyone who has been in, or close to, the painful circumstances on display. And I would say that Driver has one moment of raw, childish, rage, both thoughtless and yet constructed to cause maximum damage, that holds up as a small movie moment that will be seared into your memory. Alan Alda and Ray Liotta are two very different types of lawyers who end up helping Driver, and both do excellent work, and Laura Dern is the formidable lawyer hired by Johansson, a role she clearly sets about with relish from her very first appearance in the movie. Small roles for Julie Hagerty and Wallace Shawn help to lighten the material, with Hagerty a real delight as the mother-in-law who cannot just put an end to a friendship with her son-in-law, despite what her daughter would prefer.

This isn't a review in which I feel the need to go on about the score, camerawork, production design, etc. Baumbach puts everything in the right place, allowing the main characters to feel like real people in our world, but the material feels like it could work just as easily in play form, with the focus always on the dialogue and the acting above any potential cinematic flourishes.

This is not an easy watch. What may seem slick and out of touch with most people (Driver is a successful director of stage plays, Johansson is an actress, these are not your everyday working class folk trying to navigate these waters) actually contains a lot of honest moments that many will be able to identify with, whether that's good or bad. Considering the timing of my viewing, I don't think I'll be rushing to watch it again. But, trust me, that is just a testament to how much it gets right.

9/10

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Based on a novel by Christine Leunens, Jojo Rabbit is another film written and directed by Taika Waititi, and another great mix of humour and emotion. It may not be his best film, and it's easy to initially view it as his weakest, but I suspect that it will grow on most people, over time.

Roman Griffin Davis is Jojo, a young boy living in Germany towards the end of WWII. Every child has an imaginary friend at some stage, Jojo has Hitler (Waititi). He also has a real friend in the shape of Yorki (Archie Yates), a loving mother (Rosie, played by Scarlett Johansson), and lessons in the best way to serve Germany from the likes of Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) and Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson). Jojo's worldview is challenged when he discovers that his mother has been hiding a young Jewish girl (Elsa, played by Thomasin McKenzie) in their home.

I've seen some criticisms of Jojo Rabbit that seem to want to boil it down to "be nice to Nazis, because not all Nazis are bad" and I've seen comments being critical of opinions on the film that seem simplistic and naive. Both of these things are true, to some extent, and that stems from the way in which Waititi has wrangled his message of hope and optimism into a fun satire that is itself wrapped up in a layer of wide-eyed childish innocence and absorption. It may not be as simple as it seems, at first glance, but none of the more complex thoughts undo the central ideas of always maintaining the capability of love destroying hate.

Davis is superb in the main role, which will come as no surprise to anyone used to Waititi's knack for picking absolutely wonderful child stars for his project. Although not in it as much as I would have liked him to be, Yates is quite hilarious as the friend who isn't going to strain himself by thinking of the world events unfolding around him. Johansson is a solid anchor, and a pivot around which everything, and everyone, revolves. McKenzie is easily on par with Davis in her role, and the comedic turns from Rockwell and Wilson help, even underlining a couple of very serious moments in the third act. Alfie Allen does well in a small role, Stephen Merchant is very funny in his one main scene, and Waititi plays his sprung-from-the-mind-of-a-child version of Hitler very much like a version of him sprung from the mind of a child.

With the mix of quirky characters, the shot composition, and specific soundtrack choices, fans of Wes Anderson may occasionally forget that this is a Waititi film. It's been given a layer of artificiality that helps to create just enough distance between what we know of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and what we're being shown onscreen. The whole thing is a tightrope-walk, of course, but Waititi is up to the task. I can even see his reasoning behind some of the decisions made that I don't entirely agree with.

Imperfect and odd, Jojo Rabbit manages to do what it sets out to do. It makes you laugh, it provides some immensely powerful moments, and it sends you onward with a sense that there is always hope for humanity while individuals continue to hold on to their natural ability to, against some major odds, do the right thing.

7/10

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Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Here we go with another Marvel blockbuster and another superhero ensemble, this time the much-anticipated feature that finally pits our familiar heroes against the mighty Thanos (Josh Brolin, in motion captured form). Things look bleak from the start, with Thanos having control of two of the infinity stones, placed in his gauntlet, within the first ten minutes. And viewers are under no illusion that everything will get worse before it gets better. Earth is a target, other planets have already been decimated, and nobody has anything approaching a proper plan to stop Thanos in his tracks.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, the men who did such great work with the second and third Captain America movies, Avengers: Infinity War is a LOT of fun. It's all about great power, great battles, and the ultimate stakes. And all of it is elevated by the cast, including, but not limited to, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Mackie, and Peter Dinklage. They are all perfect in their roles, as anyone who has seen any of the previous Marvel movies will already know.

Which is why it's a shame that the script, by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, doesn't always treat them as well as they deserve. The writers deserve credit for the plotting, for trying to make something that will please fans and also allow relative newcomers to enjoy everything, and for somehow making sure that every single character has at least one great line, despite the crowded cast. They also deserve credit for a couple of the choices made, but let's not rush to highlight anything here as particularly unpredictable or brave. Considering the elements in place, the grand finale didn't resonate with me as it seems to have resonated with some others. But I started this paragraph about to criticise the writers for their treatment of the characters and I should really finish that thought. One or two examples aside, mainly from the Guardians Of The Galaxy, most of these characters feel either a bit too removed from what they used to be, or just a bit too convenient in their geography and timing. I do understand that they've all been through a lot in recent years, which would change anyone, but these don't feel like natural developments. They feel like the writers forgot the essence of the characters at times, sometimes within the runtime of this very film. And don't even start me on how the opening scenes of this film spoil the end of a certain other superhero movie (not going to name it, watch and you'll see what I mean).

That isn't the only problem that the film has. First of all, things are now TOO big. The threat, the scope, the runtime, this is a film that may will certainly be held up as a prime example by anyone who wants to show how superhero movie fatigue is a rot that has been developing in multiplexes over the past decade or so. I am not one of those people, but even I was starting to feel a bit weary by just the end of the first act.

It's also a shame that the Russo brothers don't keep the action as smooth and satisfying as it was in their previous two movies. I assume that has to do with the increase in size, leading to more stunts and effects and a need for more editing in most of the main action sequences. The most satisfying set-piece for me was one set in the streets of Edinburgh, but that is just because I live here (rather than the quality of the action itself). When even the fluidity and grace of Black Panther is turned into something looking clumsy and erratic you have to think that something is a bit off with the way the fights were filmed.

Despite my criticisms here, the good far outweighs the bad, and I don't want the above thoughts to make anyone think that I disliked it. I definitely liked it. I REALLY liked it. Mainly because of the cast being so effortlessly brillant, but there are also plenty of fun lines of dialogue, some great exchanges, a very real sense of danger throughout, and satisfying callbacks to previous adventures and connections. The special effects are fantastic, with Thanos looking a lot better here than he did in the trailers for the movie, and the lengthy 149-minute runtime goes by quickly enough (although it could have certainly been trimmed in at least one or two places). Oh, and there's the inevitable post-credits sequence. Just the one, but worth sticking around for.

8/10

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The Prestige (2006)

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

The Prestige is another sumptuous Christopher Nolan film in a fine line of sumptuous Christopher Nolan films, co-written by himself and his brother Jonathan, based on the novel by Christopher Priest, and arguably more intriguing and intimate than anything else he has directed since he reached the level of success earned by Batman Begins. That's not to say that this is better than any of his other films since then. It's just nice to see him work on something of a smaller scale, something that doesn't need to warp cityscapes or throw you headlong into grand moments seemingly designed to look best in IMAX.

After a stage trick goes horribly wrong, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) find themselves growing more obsessed with each other. Each wants to outdo the other, but Borden seems to have the upper hand when he achieves great success with his "transported man" illusion. Angier grows more and more desperate to learn the secret of the trick, unaware of what it will end up costing both men if he continues on his self-destructive path.

The Prestige is very much constructed like a magic trick, and very much in line with the quote above. But while this could have seemed a bit precious and self-congratulatory, with the Nolans spelling out the structure of the film and trying to trick viewers on the way to the finale, it instead comes over as something that has simply been crafted with great attention to detail and an aim to entertain. The twists in the plot are enjoyable enough, but rewatching the film emphasises just how unimportant they are when it comes to the quality of the tale. You can know how a card trick is done, but that doesn't stop you enjoying it being done by a slick showman who also tells you an entertaining story while he's trying to keep everyone else from figuring out his secrets.

Jackman and Bale are both great, although Bale's accent does occasionally veer a little bit towards parody cockney territory, and they both get their share of excellent moments throughout. Michael Caine is also very good, helping both men out at different times in their lives. Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, and Scarlett Johansson all play women who are adversely affected by the obsessions of these men. They're not given as much to work with, at all, but all do a good enough job, with Hall giving a surprisingly effective and moving performance that sits up there with the best I have seen from her. David Bowie plays Tesla, which allows him to yet again be effortlessly cool in a much smaller role that absolutely works for him, and both Andy Serkis and the magical Ricky Jay do well with their brief amount of screentime, Jay is a cameo you could easily miss.

The music by David Julyan is very good, the production design and composition of every scene is gorgeous, and the editing allows for lots of nice foreshadowing and reveals on the way to . . . The Prestige.

All too often overlooked nowadays, which is understandable considering the impressive body of work that Nolan has built up, The Prestige is definitely worth a watch/rewatch. It's a film for fans of Nolan, for fans of the cast, for fans of magic, and for fans of great film-making.

8/10

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Rough Night (2017)

2017 ended up being the year in which we had two big cinema releases focusing on women getting together and letting their hair down. But where Girls Trip may have tried to play the premise with a surprising emphasis on some more dramatic moments, Rough Night is content to just go for the laughs, with fleeting emotional moments doled out as and when the character development needs to be prodded to the next point.

Scarlett Johansson plays Jess, a young woman about to get married. She's also hoping to become an elected official, although this is in doubt as too many members of the public don't find her that appealing. She is behind the polls to a man who accidentally sent out a dick pic. He apologised, but only while sending out another dick pic that was obviously intended to go out the first time around. So it's no wonder that Jess is looking forward to some fun with her friends, played by Jillian Bell, Zoe Kravitz, Ilana Glazer, and Kate McKinnon (playing an Australian who is unfamiliar with the rest of the group). Unfortunately, it doesn't take that long for someone to go and accidentally kill the male stripper who was hired as entertainment. Which means the fun plans have to be altered to body disposal plans. And hilarity ensues. Perhaps.

With a plot that seems to mix Bridesmaids and Very Bad Things (without the spiralling chain of deaths), Rough Night isn't going to claim any points for originality. Everyone involved seems to know this, with every main sequence played out almost exactly as you'd expect, but that's not a bad thing when the aim is always to simply amuse and entertain viewers.

Director Lucia Aniello, who co-wrote the screenplay with Paul W. Downs (also starring as Johansson's husband-to-be), makes her feature debut, and shows that she's a safe pair of hands for this kind of material. Keeping the whole thing at just about 100 minutes, Aniello and Downs know just how to pitch the elements that could seem distasteful in clumsier hands (the main death, a plot point that hinges on someone getting themselves involved with a pair of swingers, even the ongoing strand that shows Downs driving across the country, wired on energy drinks and wearing an adult diaper, as he frets that his fiance may no longer love him), and they give

Glazer and Kravitz may be the weakest of the leads, although it's safe to say that they're not given very much to work with at all, but that doesn't matter when you have Bell and McKinnon bickering at one another fine style, and Johansson trying to remain calm and level-headed throughout the escalating madness. Downs is also very good in his scenes, given some fun support from Bo Burnham in a cameo role, and Ty Burrell and Demi Moore have fun in the couple of scenes they're given.

It's not great, it's entirely predictable (seriously, if you can't see how the third act is going to pan out then I assume you have avoided every mainstream cinema release since the mid-1970s), but it still manages to be funny enough to make it a decent prospect to accompany some snacks and the beverage of your choice.

6/10

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Bonus Review: Chef (2014)

It's hard to think of anything that's really wrong with Chef. I tried, I really did, but I just ended up realising that it was almost a perfect little gem of a film. Okay, there's maybe an ending that feels both too tidy and also a bit rushed, but that's about it.

Jon Favreau, who wrote and directed the film, stars as Carl Casper, a chef who has a major meltdown when he locks horns with a food critic/blogger (Oliver Platt). This leads to him reassessing his values, which in turn leads to him getting a van and making the kind of simple, tasty food that he thinks other people will enjoy as much as he does. He takes his son (Emjay Anthony) along with him, and also benefits from the help of his colleague, Martin (John Leguizamo). Perhaps this simpler set-up can help the chef to remember what he loved about cooking in the first place.

Alright, I guess predictability is another flaw I could mention. If I wanted to. Yet I'm not going to. Chef is comfort food, much like the creations made by Carl when he gets his van rolling. The whole movie feels like a perfect blend of form and content, in the same way as The Wolf Of Wall Street, despite the two movies being worlds apart in many other ways. Favreau has spent some time delivering huge, glossy, blockbusters, and with no small amount of success, so it's hard not to see his move back to a smaller, more intimate, movie as an obvious parallel between the man he is behind the camera and the character he portrays onscreen.

The cast are all pretty perfect, and seem to be enjoying the whole experience from start to finish. Favreau is believable and earnest, without ever being far too innocent and wholesome, while Leguizao has one of his best roles in a long, long time. Young Emjay Anthony is a likable kid, and if you can tell me a single occasion when Platt hasn't been worth watching then I will call you a liar and blow raspberries at you. It's just a shame that he doesn't get more screentime here. Sofia Vergara is yet another delight, in a movie full of them, as Casper's ex-wife, and the mother of his son. She still has his best interests at heart because when he does well then it makes life better for their son. But she also just wants him to recapture what used to make him so happy. Bobby Cannavale does well playing a character who could have been all too easy to dislike, and there are small roles for Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr, with the latter on fine form during the entirety of his cameo appearance.

There's a wonderful soundtrack accompanying many scenes, a solid script, so many shots of tasty food that you'll be hungry by the time the credits roll, and lots of sunshine ensuring that this is a light film, in almost every sense of the word. It has a little something for everyone, and I highly recommend it. And chefs, it goes without saying, will probably LOVE it.

9/10

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Sci-Fi September: Under The Skin (2013)

Like many movies, Under The Skin is based on a book (this one by William Faber) that I haven't read. Unlike many movies, it's an uncomfortable, horrifying experience that also comes damn close to being a masterpiece.

Director Jonathan Glazer, who also adapted the book to screen with the help of Walter Campbell, excels at this kind of thing, although this may remain his finest hour for some time to come. Sexy Beast had moments to make you wriggle in your seat, and Birth was also difficult to watch at times, but neither of those will prepare you for the experience of this sci-fi horror.

Scarlett Johansson stars as a woman who drives around Glasgow and picks up various men. Once she gets them back to her place, alone and expecting a good time, she closes the trap that she has in place. Yet, as this cycle continues, she starts to find herself conflicted, especially when meeting someone (Adam Pearson) who seems sweeter than most.

Under The Skin is stunning. There's no other word I want to use to describe it. Some sections are a bit repetitive, which is why it falls just short of perfection, but the movie is haunting, thoughtful, and uniquely beautiful in a way that lets it stand out from almost any other sci-fi movie that I can think of from the past few decades.

All of the performances are solid, with a number of the males on camera actually being people unwittingly entering the world of the film (secret cameras were used at some points, and everything was explained and cleared after scenes had been filmed), but Johansson deserves a hell of a lot of praise for a performance that always shows her to be slightly out of alignment with the world around her. Just watch her charming men one minute, all smiles and attentiveness, and then letting her face return to a prone state when her interest wanes. She's never less than mesmerising, and this film sits atop of a filmography that currently posits her as the most interesting American actress of recent years. Hell, this even made me forgive her for Lucy (a film I disliked, although she was the best thing about it).

The performances are essential to the film, no doubt about that, but it would be remiss not to heap an equal amount of praise upon Glazer, who seems to have created an atmosphere of trust and intimacy offscreen that allows the onscreen events to play out in such an effective, and affecting, way. The script may have minimal dialogue, and often poses more questions than answers, but it makes enough available to the viewer to allow anyone to keep up. Sort of.

The visuals are another major bonus. The film starts off with some small, impressive moments before moving from one memorable set-piece to the next. This is the stuff of sci-fi nightmares, with disturbing imagery appearing in almost every main sequence.

Slow, ambiguous, terrifying, this is a film that most will either love or hate. I absolutely loved it. I hope that, however you end up feeling about it, you at least give it some of your time. It may just get under your skin, appropriately enough, as it did with me.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Skin-Blu-ray-Scarlett-Johansson/dp/B00K0MM4AM/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1408891449&sr=1-2&keywords=under+the+skin

Got enough movie reviews to read? Of course you have. Everyone's a critic, and that's never been more correct than in this interwebby-tastic age. But a few pounds/dollars spent on my book allows me to keep my movie schedule packed, and subsequently throw at least one main review down on this here blog.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Don Jon (2013)

When a film is both written, and directed, by the lead actor then I'd say that it's acceptable to have some hesitation about just what you're letting yourself in for. Thankfully, when the main man is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who seems to exude natural cool ever since he stopped being just the little guy in comedy roles, then that hesitation is unwarranted. It may be his feature directorial debut, but you wouldn't know it from the end result.

Don Jon isn't really what you might expect if you've already seen the trailer. Gordon-Levitt plays Jon, a man who can get with a different girl every night thanks to his charm and good looks. He's also addicted to porn. That becomes a problem when he falls for the gorgeous Barbara (Scarlett Johansson). Can he change his ways and become a better man?

Okay, by describing the movie in the way I have, I've just done it the same disservice as the trailer. So many people, myself included, thought that this was a movie about a man addicted to porn. That's part of it, but it's actually not the main part, even when it seems to be.

Don Jon is about sex and love. It's actually, underneath the porn clips and excessive masturbation, a standard rom-com for guys. Every box is ticked: family tensions, class issues, personal development, good friends, a need for guidance. As well as that standard stuff, the film looks at the hypocrisy of those who view good sex (or porn) as something sinful. Whether it's the church, doling out punishments that somehow don't seem to fit "the crime", or the whole environment surrounding the main character, bombarding him with advertising images that appeal to the part of him that leads to him turning on his computer and getting his computer to turn him on.

Gordon-Levitt is great in the lead role, all about the pleasures of the flesh with little seeming to go on in his mind. Some may find his performance irritating, but I warmed to him after the first few scenes. Johansson puts in a good performance. It's far from her best, although she's entirely believable as a damn sexy woman who makes a man want to change his ways for the better. Julianne Moore is another main character, despite not appearing until almost halfway through the movie. She's pretty good, but her performance feels a lot like a medley of her previous "greatest hits". Elsewhere, Tony Danza and Glenne Headly are wonderful as Jon's parents, Brie Larson plays a character who spends most of her time texting on her phone, but makes an impact with her one main moment of clarity, and Rob Brown and Jeremy Luke are lively and fun as friends of the main character, appropriately disappointed when he takes himself off the market and stops joining them for their big nights out.

It may be far from perfect, but Gordon-Levitt shows a lot of skill while wearing a number of different hats (and, dammit, I bet he could even do that literally - the man is just THAT cool). I've always tended to enjoy his acting performances, but now I will watch with interest to see what he decides to write and/or direct next. And I hope others do the same.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Don-Jon-Blu-ray-DVD-Digital/dp/B00FRILRYS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409084862&sr=8-2&keywords=don+jon

You can help me to convince my loved ones that I don't spend all of my time online looking at porn by investing in my bargain movie guide. Ohhhhhhhhh yes.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Lucy (2014)

Luc Besson wrote and directed a movie back in 2005 called Angel-A. It was pretty damn great. As slick and visually stylish as his other work, with a kickass female character, and one or two interesting ideas embedded in the tale. Nobody watched it, as far as I can tell. Which made it completely unsurprising when Besson went back to his more comfortable stomping ground, producing a number of generic, yet also enjoyable, action movies that fit comfortably in the dumb fun section of any movie collection.

Fast forward almost a decade, ironically enough (considering certain plot elements of this film), and it seems that Besson has tried something different once again. Something that, this time, has managed to find an audience. Whether or not that audience will be there after a strong opening remains to be seen. Lucy has been marketed to many as a sci-fi action flick when it attempts to be something more interesting and thought-provoking than that. Sadly, it's also pretty bad. In fact, there are many times when it's just downright laughable.

Scarlett Johansson is the titular character, a woman who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She ends up being put to sleep, and wakes up to discover that she's had a bag of drugs placed inside her body - making her a perfect mule. But when this bag is ruptured, the drugs enter Lucy's system and start to change her. Instead of only using 10% of her brain (yes, yes, it's that old chestnut), she starts to use more and more, becoming more aware and powerful with each stage of ultrafast evolution. Knowing what this is all leading up to, she tries to track down Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), and also the other drug mules, all now carrying a drug that she may well need to survive. A cop (Amr Waked) tries to apprehend her, but soon realises that he doesn't stand much chance, so ends up helping her instead.

Mining similar ground to Limitless, but going off on a very different tangent, Lucy stumbles from the very beginning, then starts to fall down completely, in between fleeting moments of great entertainment. People have been getting angrier lately at the regurgitation of the whole "we only use 10-20% of our brain" myth, but it's not something I've ever been bothered by, as a plot device. Admittedly, I used to think it was true, but even nowadays I think it's a fun idea, as long as you buy into it in the name of fun fun fun. But Lucy isn't content to provide you with fun. It wants to have depth, it wants to make you think. And that's when it falls down.

Don't get me wrong. Dumb fun can be great. Smart entertainment can be great. Smart dumb hits me right in the funny bone. But when a movie really seems to think it's smart, despite throwing dumb moment after dumb moment at the audience, then it becomes difficult to like. Besson shows his hand early - clumsily editing a sequence in which Lucy is asked to meet some men with wildlife footage showing a predator chase down some prey (because she's put in the position of the prey - get it? GET IT??) - and continues to use the same tricks again and again, as he shows the evolution of Lucy once the drugs begin to work on her.

The frustrating thing here is that Lucy IS a potentially great character, with Johansson effortlessly exuding cool confidence once she's really able to kick ass and manipulate her environment. Freeman may be Mr. Exposition, but does perfectly well in his role, and Waked moves through the whole thing with an amusing expression of fear and awe. Choi Min-Sik is the main villain, the man responsible for the state in which Lucy finds herself, but he pales in significance when compared to how the woman is struggling inside her own mind and body.

All of the failings here are caused by Besson, whether it's his inane script (and, believe me, there's a reference in the final scenes that may well cause a few fans of true, classic sci-fi to cry out in disgust - Kubrick would not be impressed) or his horrible, slapdash approach to the half-baked material. The editing choices, the gaping plot holes, the groan-inducing lack of anything approaching logic (not REAL logic, obviously, but even simpler movie logic), the poor CGI, the aspects of Kabbalism mixed in. Besson, as writer and director, can take the blame for all of it.

But, hey, it's already a bit of a hit at the box office. Although, just perhaps, that may say more about our own evolution than anything in the movie itself.

4/10

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The Island (2005)

When The Island was released back in 2005 it quickly became the excuse that everyone needed to give director Michael Bay a bit of a kicking. It was a big-budget sci-fi action movie that didn't perform half as well as it was expected to, it pretty much led to (or certainly contributed to) the end of the Dreamworks SKG studio as it was established at that time and there were cries of plagiarism from anyone who had seen The Clonus Horror (a film that I've yet to see, but the fact that Robert S. Fiveson was able to bring a copyright infringement suit to court and have Dreamworks settle before the case could go to trial would seem to suggest that there was certainly a fair bit of common ground). There was also the strange idea to show a 45 minute preview of the movie at Cannes, which was almost like slapping numerous film critics in the face with a wet cod. The marketing maching rolled on and on and the movie went out into the wild with two good names in the leads and some interesting ideas but it was all far too late. Every interview seemed to become a minefield for anyone trying to avoid being quoted out of context and the knives were well and truly out.

I like The Island and I think it was unfairly treated when it first came out. In fact, I know a number of people who have since seen it on DVD or TV and grudgingly admitted that they thought it a damn sight better than a number of other Michael Bay movies that made lots more money.

The story is all about clones Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson). They don't realise that they're clones, nor do any of the other clones around them. Every day it's a similiar routine - wake up, eat whatever nutrients are recommended, dress from their unvarying wardrobe, work on a number of tasks and just wait until the lottery announcements are made. The lottery is the highlight for everyone, the winner gets to head off to The Island. But does the island even exist? Lincoln Six Echo starts to have serious doubts and when Jordan Two Delta actually wins the lottery there's no time to find out more so he takes her and they go on the run, opening up a whole can of worms in the process.

Mixing in action and thrills with some very interesting ethical food for thought, The Island perhaps tries a bit too hard to please the action fans while also pleasing those who like more thoughtful fare and maybe that's yet another reason why it didn't perform as well as expected. There are a number of potentially horrifying moments here and there throughout the movie but they lose their impact slightly by the time things move on to yet another typical upward-pointing 360 shot from Bay.

The script is pretty good, although a couple of characters could have been better developed (Michael Clarke Duncan should have bagged a bit more screentime and Djimon Honsou is let down by the writing in the final 20 minutes or so), and the direction is as you'd expect from Bay. I happen to think he's usually okay with anything that includes a bit of bang for your buck. Yes, he makes some bad choices like the harsh, harsh overediting of what should have been a fantastic car chase in The Rock, for example, but he can oversee some BIG set-pieces and put it all together in a glossy and entertaining package.

Last, but by no means least, we come to discuss the acting in The Island. This was also criticised by many people but I don't see anything wrong with it, really. Ewan McGregor, for most of the movie, has a strange American accent but who's to say that he was actually supposed to be getting it spot on anyway - he's a clone, actually only a few years old, and we don't know what influences he was exposed to in his formative period. Scarlett Johansson doesn't have any accent to put on but she does just as well as McGregor when it comes to playing up the innocence and vulnerability of their characters. Steve Buscemi is a delight for every minute of his limited screentime and Sean Bean oversees everything in a role that feels like a rerun of his role in Equilibrium. As already mentioned, Michael Clarke Duncan should have been in the movie more and Djimon Hounsou does well with what he's given. There's decent support from Kim Coates, Ethan Phillips and Brian Stepanek and Glenn Morshower also puts in a very brief, but very funny, appearance.

The Island is a very good slice of sci-fi action that I'd recommend to most people. There is, of course, a chance that you do end up disliking it and thinking that it deserved to perform as poorly at the box office as it did but I hope that's not the case. Mind you, if you absolutely loathe everything that Michael Bay does then this isn't going to win you over. If you can tolerate his style and are curious to see him do something that's a bit different from his normal output then you may just find this film as enjoyable as I do.

7/10

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Avengers Assemble (2012)

And so it appears at last (albeit with an annoying title change so that we easily confused Brits don't think Steed and Emma Peel are coming back to the big screen this year), the  film that looks set to be the mightiest of superhero movies, the royal rumble of the Marvel cinematic universe, the geekgasm for comic book fans. With Joss Whedon directing (and co-writing the script with Zak Penn), Avengers Assemble actually manages to be all of this and more.

For anyone adjusting to the sunlight and the sights around them after coming out of some decade-long hibernation, here is the plot. Loki (Tom Hiddleston), last seen causing major trouble for Thor (Chris Hemsworth), has managed to get himself to Earth with a device that can run on self-sustaining energy and grow more and more powerful. Loki hopes to use this device to bring a warring alien race to Earth, cause mayhem and chaos, and then lord it over all he surveys. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) really doesn't want this to happen so he enlists the help of the superheroes that he knows and thinks up to the task. Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor, Dr. Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo in both forms), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and, hopefully, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). The biggest problem is that these characters don't play well together, something that Loki soon realises as he puts strain upon strain on their relationships (even completely taking over one or two characters to do his bidding). There's also the ever-dependable Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders).

Most of the cast here have already grown into their characters in a previous movie (with Robert Downey Jr. perfecting his great patter in two enjoyable Iron Man films) but viewers may be most surprised to find that the person who comes near to stealing every scene here is Mark Ruffalo, arguably the best onscreen interpretation yet of the man who fears his own uncontrollable strength and rage. In a script full of great one-liners he also comes close to bagging two of the top five spots (though the absolutely greatest retort comes from Loki in a comment so funny that the cinema audience I saw the film with was laughing hard for the next full minute). But the best, and most impressive, thing about Avengers Assemble is just how everyone gets their share of great moments without the movie feeling overlong or bloated in any way. You may go into this film with a favourite that you're looking forward to seeing but I guarantee that you come out of it loving the entire group and struggling to pick an outright favourite moment. Which all goes to show just how much praise Tom Hiddleston also deserves for making Loki such a memorable and worthy villain, a perfect mix of camp and menace and scheming (his outburst to Black Widow in one particular scene ranks up there with some of the very best rants by cinematic baddies ever).

The writing is as sharp as you would expect. Okay, this isn't necessarily a film for complete newcomers (if there ARE any) but it sketches out enough details to keep most people happy and it does a great job of following major plot strands through a whole cat's cradle of different sub-strings. There are also at least four great action set-pieces, just as important to a film of this type, and the barnstorming finale features a superb mix of CGI, witticisms and sheer spectacle.

As you would expect from Whedon, he knows what fans want. I think that most people will be like myself, eager to like the film even before the opening titles come up. But with great anticipation comes, of course, the chance for great disappointment. Thankfully, there's absolutely nothing to worry about here. Whedon shows in almost every sequence that he knows just what audiences want, the action may be fast and frantic on many occasions but there are many times when the camera is pulled back and viewers are allowed to revel in a moment of sheer fan-pleasing awesomeness (be it simple joy at the scale of the action or an extended shot of Hulk having a smashing time).

2012 is already shaping up to be a great year for BIG cinematic spectacle (I am also drooling with anticipation at the thought of going to see Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises) and Avengers Assemble has already set a very high bar for blockbuster quality. Did I want to go back and watch it again as soon as the credits rolled? Yes. Am I looking forward to reliving the whole thing on shiny disc format? Yes. Am I already very, VERY eager for a sequel? I think you know the answer to that one.

9/10

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