Netflix And Chill: Burnt (2015)

Do you remember when Chef was released back in 2014? It was a delightful little film about someone rediscovering their passion for the thing they do best, and it seemed to have been made by someone rediscovering their passion for the thing they do best. There were moments of fiery anger, and moments of frustration, but it delighted many viewers because it was, at heart, a very sweet and optimistic tale about reconnecting with loved ones, and the world at large, via a passion for food.

Burnt came out a year later. Whatever the intention, and I may be a bit kinder towards it now that I know Steven Knight is one of two people who helped to co-write the screenplay, it feels like a cynical and soulless attempt to rework Chef. If that film was the comforting plate of Cubanos, this is a more expensive plate throwing various ingredients together in a way that simply doesn't make you salivate. There's probably some infused foam on the side.

Bradley Cooper plays Adam Jones, a chef who once had the world at his feet. He disappeared though, after burning many bridges with his addiction issues and his bad behaviour. Now he's back. That doesn't mean that everyone will forgive him, and he still has some debts to pay, but he wants to put a team together good enough to help him get a third Michelin star. Looked at favourably, this is a film about someone figuring out how his behaviour affects others, and how everyone needs to help one another on a journey for perfection. But it's really just about a chef who spectacularly ruined his reputation and career now believing that he deserves to be crowned as one of the very best of the best.

Knight and Michael Kalesniko get a lot of the kitchen chatter right, and they mix in enough mildly interesting characters to help the 101-minute runtime pass by quickly enough. They falter when it comes to the passion though. One or two moments try to remind us of why great chefs love to cook, but they don't work. It's much more believable to simply view Cooper's character as a bloody-minded and hyper-focused narcissist who is ready to throw a tantrum any time things don't go perfectly for him.

It's notable, although perhaps entirely coincidental, that this is the last feature film directed by John Wells, who has spent most of the last decade helming episodes of some fantastic TV shows (including the highly-praised The Pitt). Maybe he also wanted some time enjoying meals made with love instead of meals made to boost someone's ego. Again, it may just be entirely coincidental.

Cooper is fine in the role of Jones, I guess, but is unable to soften him enough to make him a central character that you really care about. Things will either go well or not. Either way, it never feels as if he is the one with the most to lose. Sienna Miller plays a very capable chef, Helene, who suffers throughout the movie by becoming more and more like our lead. Other chefs are played by Omar Sy (who is pretty great), Sam Keeley (who doesn't get enough to do), and Matthew Rhys (playing a discontented rival). Daniel Brühl is good in the role of Tony, the man who ends up bank-rolling the latest restaurant and team of staff, but he allows himself to be far too easily used by someone he should have said good riddance to a long time ago. Uma Thurman is sorely underused, as is Emma Thompson, Alicia Vikander, and Lily James, and, perhaps worst of all, none of the featured dishes ever look like stars in their own right. 

The famous saying goes that "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen", but Burnt proves that you may want to stay out of that area if you also can't stand anything lukewarm and lacking any real flavour. The supporting cast all try hard enough to save this from being a complete waste of your time, but they can't overcome the problem of such an uninteresting core premise and central character. Chef made me hungry for both the food and the passion on display throughout. Burnt made me want to avoid over-priced and over-complicated menus made by narcissistic technicians who often forget simple pleasures in their pursuit of what they perceive to be greatness. 

4/10

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All About Steve (2009)

Yet another film that I only became aware of due to the Razzies, All About Steve is a notorious stinker (allegedly) that I always wanted to see because of Sandra Bullock having the good grace and humour to turn up at the ceremony "rewarding" it and doing her best to entertainingly defend it. And, hey, maybe it wouldn't be THAT bad.

All About Steve really IS that bad. Sandra Bullock plays Mary Horowitz, a young woman who creates crossword puzzle for a newspaper. She then goes on one date with Steve (Bradley Cooper), a news cameraman, and becomes absolutely obsessed with him. This leads to her pursuing him across the country, much to the amusement of his colleagues. Mary has a way with people around her though, thanks to her good nature and eccentricity that people respond to. Apparently.

Writer Kim Barker has three projects to their name. This is the second. Director Phil Traill, on the other hand, has managed to create a body of work that provided much more distance between himself and this travesty. And it is a travesty, although it's hard to figure out what else it is meant to be. If it's a twisted rom-com then it lacks both the rom and the com. If it's a dark comedy then it lacks both the darkness and the comedy. If it's supposed to be some commentary on what happens when people without a filter are thrown into the middle of the general population, presenting some kind of "idiot savant" able to teach others a la Being There and Forrest Gump, then it also fails in that regard. No good points are made here, and we're left with a character study of people who are poorly-written and completely uninteresting, once you get beyond the "quirkiness" of someone who is actually on the spectrum of autism.

As unlikely as it seems, there may have been some way to make this a good movie. I think the screenplay would have needed a complete overhaul though, with Bullock and Cooper constantly thrown together more by coincidence than any scheming. It might also have benefited from different leads.

I really like Bullock. I would consider myself a full member of the Sandra Bullock fan club. How dedicated am I to her career? Well . . . I just watched All About Steve. This is easily one of the worst performances I have seen from her though, and the way she portrays Mary is almost offensively bad. There are times when she's only a couple of steps away from being the female equivalent of Simple Jack (see Tropic Thunder for that reference point). Cooper can do cocky and smarmy, but he doesn't have the extra softness required to offset the mean side of his character. At least there's some fun to be had with Thomas Haden Church (a smug TV reporter), Ken Jeong, DJ Qualls, Katy Mixon Greer, M. C. Gainey, Holmes Osborne, and, as Mary's parents, Beth Grant and Howard Hesseman.

Despite my overwhelming criticism of this movie, I will say that it's almost saved by the supporting cast and the third act moments that try hard to show some kind of closure for both Mary and Steve. Some lessons are learned, I think, and it would work in a standard movie way if viewers had grown to care about the central character. Very few will care though, which kind of undermines the ending.

Like so many similarly maligned films, this is far from the worst of the worst. It's also deserving of a lot of the mockery and disdain it has received though. 

3/10

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Netflix And Chill: Maestro (2023)

There's a joke that I vaguely remember, featured in at least one sitcom (but perhaps not unique), about someone spending so much time obsessing over something, a skill they want to perfect or a mammoth task that they want to complete, only to then see their achievement completely surpassed by someone who seemed to do better in a way that also felt quite effortless. The character was obviously devastated, regretting all of the time and energy that now seemed wasted. I suspect Bradley Cooper may feel the same way if, as I suspect may happen, Maestro goes through the busy awards season without adding too many paperweights to his trophy cabinet.

Although this is all about the life of celebrated conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper), with a strong focus on how he was supported by his wife, Felicia (Carey Mulligan), it's a strange and cold experience that allows Cooper to create a parallel between himself and his subject. As the end credits rolled, I found myself wondering whether or not Bernstein had lived a life that seemed worth turning into a 2+ hour movie. With the greatest of respect to his fans and loved ones, I don't think he did.

From the use of Bernstein's music throughout to the unnecessary directorial flourishes, from the black and white sequences that lead in to the colour of the second half, everything here signifies a star seeking approval. "Look at all of my great work," Cooper seems to be crying. "Look at the make-up on my face to make me look more like Bernstein and honestly not intended to offend people". "Look at what I can do to make this story as cinematic as possible." "Look at how I handle this complex character." It's desperate, and it's not enough to distract from the fact that the film just doesn't really work.

While both Cooper and Mulligan have been on the publicity trail, they have both been at pains to frame the film as being just as much about Felicia as Leonard. They might believe that, and they might believe that Felicia was strong and supportive to a husband who needed her in his life, but the film doesn't quite convey the relationship as well as intended. Leonard Bernstein was a selfish man who spent a lot of time having his cake and eating it, all while gaslighting a woman who seemed to put up with him because the circumstances sometimes suited her.

None of these failings would seem as bad if the lead performances were good enough, but they're not. It doesn't give me any pleasure to say that, having enjoyed Cooper and (particularly) Mulligan in numerous other films, but their performing here feels more like caricature than anything else. The film doesn't know this though, staying focused on them for almost the entirety of the tiring runtime, which is the fault of Cooper the director, working from a script co-written by Cooper and Josh Singer. The supporting cast are all wasted, which makes you wonder why Cooper even bothered casting Matt Bomer, Sarah Silverman (who tries admirably to make the most of her limited role), and Maya Hawke as extra flotsam and jetsam left bobbing in the wake of Leonard Bernstein's callous carelessness.

A lot of people will enjoy this for what it is. It's an old-fashioned film that has the benefit of being able to pluck various tunes from the many works of Bernstein. It's a shame that Cooper tried to show everyone that he was delivering the greatest work of his life, both behind and in front of the camera. I was bored, sometimes angered, and never once happy to be learning about a manipulative narcissist who I would prefer to always identify through the fine body of musical work that he left behind.

3/10

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Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

It took a while, a span of time that saw writer-director James Gunn move from Marvel to DC and then back again, and then back AGAIN to accept a very senior role at DC, but we got there eventually. The third, and final (at least in this incarnation), adventure for the Guardians Of The Galaxy. A lot of people are happy, most seem to think that Gunn managed to stick the landing. I am not in agreement with those people.

Our main group aren’t in a great place when the film starts, with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) spending time drunk and sad while the others are unable to snap him out of his funk. Everything gets much worse when Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) turns up, picks a fight with our gang, and then leaves after being seriously wounded. He isn’t the only casualty though. Rocket (Bradley Cooper) ends up in critical condition, and the fact that he has some kind of killswitch inside him makes it impossible to immediately heal him. The guardians have to figure out how to bypass the killswitch, which means they have to find out more about Rocket’s past, putting them on a headlong path towards someone known as The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). Well, we find out about Rocket’s past as we see many flashbacks showing us everything that the Guardians may or may not find out about at a later stage.

While I am not going to say that this is the worst Marvel movie since Thor: Love And Thunder, there are a lot of the same problems dragging this down from the great ending it could have been. Much like Waititi being encouraged to further indulge himself with his second Thor movie, Gunn seems to have been given free rein to cut loose and go crazy for the final instalment of this trilogy. With the exception of The High Evolutionary, who is a fantastic main villain, almost everyone now speaks in banter and gags. There are very few instances without an abundance of jokes. I get that these movies have been full of humour throughout the previous instalments, but it’s all overdone here in a way that jars with the more serious moments. And, hooo boy, are there some serious moments here. The whole backstory for Rocket is an upsetting and emotional look at animal vivisection, and the third act feels even more callous than some of the other Marvel movies, when you fully consider the impact of the large-scale destruction. So I can see that Gunn would have wanted plenty of humour to offset these moments, but it just doesn’t work well enough, mainly due to him twisting other characters too far away from how they used to be. Even a surprising Groot (still voiced by Vin Diesel) moment feels a bit disappointing and at odds with the charm of his essence.

The production design is wild throughout, and that also feels as if it has gone too far. Gunn wants every scene crammed full of alien species and strange environments, but too much of everything just has you wishing for a moment or two of something refreshingly normal. And then there’s the soundtrack, which people have once again marked as a highlight. No. This is a selection of obtrusive needle-drops that simply don’t work as well as by soundtrack choices from the first two movies. I love most of the songs used here, but they rarely felt like a natural fit for the scenes they were shoehorned into.

The cast generally do a good job, working well with what they are given. If you enjoyed Pratt, Cooper, Diesel, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, and Sean Gunn in the previous movies then you should enjoy them here. Poulter is sadly wasted in his role, as is Elizabeth Debicki (playing his “mother”), Maria Bakalova provides the voice of Cosmo, another fairly wasted character, and I am sure fans of Gunn’s work will enjoy seeing a small role for Nathan Fillion. Iwuji would steal the film though, were it not for the fact that many of his scenes involve him interacting with a super-cute, younger version of Rocket. His genuinely threatening and cruel villain is good enough to lift the whole film up a notch or two.

It’s hard to stay angry or disappointed with Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 though, knowing that everyone involved really wanted to come back and do their best to ensure a fitting end to this particular chapter in their cinematic incarnation, but it’s not one I will be revisiting, as opposed to the previous two adventures. Not only is the main storyline surprisingly predictable, it’s also surprisingly unsatisfying. One moment near the very end had me thinking that Gunn was actually committed to making the most of this opportunity to provide a properly emotional ending for this ragtag bunch of reluctant heroes, but it was soon undercut by one of the many easier options available in his storytelling toolbox. And it's also worth noting the most egregious and unnecessary "f-bomb" I can think of, seemingly just to take full advantage of the 12A rating here in the UK.

There are still moments here to enjoy, and many other people found less to be critical of than I did, but I was disappointed, and it feels like yet more proof that Marvel will struggle to get back to the consistent greatness they made seem so effortless as they built everything towards the cinematic conclusion of the Infinity Saga.

5/10

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Licorice Pizza (2021)

I am usually an easy mark for Paul Thomas Anderson movies. He makes amazing movies that I tend to love, thanks to his technique often being accompanied by great performances from the people he casts in main roles. Licorice Pizza still has his technique on display, but the strangely unsatisfying script isn’t helped by young leads who aren’t up to the usual high standard of acting seen in other Anderson works. Also, to be flippant, this feels like a Richard Linklater film directed by a stand-in.

Cooper Hoffman plays Gary, a child actor who is struggling to find the right roles now he is an older teen. He can no longer get away with the cheeky antics he used to, he can no longer get by on cute and adorable, but he cannot just go back to a normal life. So he spends his time being an entrepreneurial businessman, looking to profit from whatever the latest fad might be, from water beds to videogames and pinball. Gary also, from the very start of the film, falls for the older Alana (played by Alana Haim). In her mid-20s, Alana scoffs at the idea of a relationship with Gary, but he’s certainly interesting and charismatic enough to make her interested in his life. And so begins a friendship that may or may not develop into something more.

Part period piece, part ode to the bittersweet intensity of that first BIG crush, Licorice Pizza isn’t a film to dismiss. I don’t think I would ever say that about any film from Anderson. It is, however, his least interesting and least successful work to date (in terms of translating ideas from script to screen). 

Taking on his usual writer-director role, Anderson can at least be thankful for the talented people he works with. The production design here is wonderful, as expected. The wardrobe and make up departments do equally good work. The biggest problems here stem from the script and the casting.

Hoffman is great in his role, giving a performance that shows him as an actor who could easily follow in the daunting footsteps of his late father. Haim isn’t so good. I am not sure how much of that is down to her and how much of that is down to the script, with that age gap making things inherently a bit odd and icky, so I won’t spend too much time complaining about her. Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn, on the other hand, can both take some extra criticism. They clearly saw that they could have some fun with their roles, but both of them quickly teeter too far over into performances that are too silly. This may have been in service to the material, but neither of their performances fit well in a movie that otherwise wrings humour from a nice selection of references, time stamps, and winks to viewers, although let’s just not mention the scenes featuring John Michael Higgins. Mainly because I cannot decide on whether they are awful or amazing. The other person worth mentioning is Mary Elizabeth Ellis, very good in her small amount of screentime as the mother of Gary.

I have seen a lot of love for this, and some fans of Anderson rank it just as highly as some of his other works (and, in my view, he has delivered more than one cinematic masterpiece already, with a number of other movies from him coming very close to that status). It just didn’t work for me.  Many of the performances worked against the better elements, and the better elements felt like moments I could find in other, more enjoyable, movies. This isn’t one I think I will ever want to revisit, which is the first time I have said that about any Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

5/10

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Nightmare Alley (2021)

When I finally got around to watching the 1947 film version of Nightmare Alley, it became a firm favourite. It's not a film easily forgotten by those who have seen it, a noir that skirts very close to horror as we watch a man on a journey that eventually takes him to . . . well, that would be telling.

I am not automatically averse to remakes, and Nightmare Alley has a story that you can see being attractive to others. It's also very much of a time and a place though, and it's already good enough that you have to wonder what others think they can do to improve upon, or just equal, it. At least you can start to feel optimistic when one of the people involved is director Guillermo del Toro. If there's one thing that Del Toro can do it's craft an onscreen love with style, beauty, and a wonderful attention to detail. He can also assemble a great cast.

Bradley Cooper is Stanton Carlisle, a shady character who ends up joining a travelling carnival. Once there, he starts to learn some of the tricks of the trade. He is especially interested in the feats of mentalism performed by Pete (David Strathairn), a fragile man cared for by Zeena (Toni Collette). Learning enough to believe he can make a name for himself, Stanton heads off with Molly (Rooney Mara) and performs for bigger and bigger crowds. This eventually leads to him crossing paths with Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), and Dr. Ritter might be able to provide information that could lead to a huge payday.

If you like the selection of names just mentioned then you may be pleased to hear that this film also features roles for Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, Holt McCallany, and Tim Blake Nelson. Don't get too excited though, a number of the cast members are either miscast or disappointingly underused. Cooper, likeable leading man that he is, doesn't feel right for the central role. Blanchett feels like the most wasted in her supporting role, and wasting Blanchett in your film should be a crime. It's the smaller roles that provide more of the treats, with highlights being Dafoe, Jenkins, and any scenes involving Strathairn and/or Collette.

Adapting the same source material as the original movie, a novel by William Lindsay Gresham, the screenplay by Del Toro and Kim Morgan seems to lose sight of what made the story so mesmerising and powerful. You still have a good story here, and it's supported by a smattering of very good performances, but the power is diluted by a) too many moments dwelling on the pretty visuals, and b) an ending that I feel lacks the full bittersweet resonance of the 1947 adaptation.

As good as a director as he can be, and as fired up about his chance to helm this remake, Del Toro feels as miscast in his role as Cooper. He aims for some style and grace that actively pulls the material away from that "down 'n' dirty" feel that the material has running through it. These characters are allowed to create wings and fly close to the sun, but it would be more appropriate to see them simply being allowed to bathe in warm water in between constant trips back to the sewer.

Undeniably enjoyable in places, and a visual treat throughout, it's a real shame that there's such a disconnect between the content and the form. It's a divide that I couldn't easily overlook, despite the many positives (such as the cinematography by Dan Laustsen or the wonderfully old-fashioned music from Nathan Johnson). I know a lot of people enjoyed it a lot more than I did. See it for yourself and let me know if you agree or disagree with me.

6/10

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My Little Eye (2002)

Directed by Marc Evans, My Little Eye is an oft-forgotten horror movie that holds up surprisingly well today, and could be argued as one of the better “found footage” films of the past two decades.

The plot is simple enough. Five individuals are selected for a competition. If they all stay in an isolated house for six months then they get a big cash prize. But if one person leaves then nobody gets anything. As time creeps towards the end date, things start to happen that freak out the contestants. Are they being toyed with by someone who has stalked them to their location, or is it the company running the competition trying to get someone to leave, and therefore saving them a lot of money?

The house has cameras everywhere, with the easy explanation being that the house occupants also have their lives broadcast over the internet for the duration of their stay, and that provides the “found footage” style, as if certain shots are being selected by someone watching the events unfold through a website. It doesn’t stay true to that format, but even editing choices and effects can be explained by the idea of someone working on the shots before presenting it to the website subscribers.

Each character onscreen is eventually able to stand out from the others, and the cast works perfectly. Sean Cw Johnson is Matt, a sort of sensitive Jock type, Stephen O’Reilly is the potentially mentally fragile Danny, Laura Regan is a young woman, Emma, with a history that she worries may end up catching up to her, Jennifer Sky is the fame-seeking Charlie, and Kris Lemche is the smart and sardonic Rex. The group dynamic shifts and changes believably enough, and there is always a good enough reason for those potentially in peril to try riding things out until the proper end is in sight.

The script, by David Hilton and James Watkins, does a great job of creeping further and further away from the initial “Big Brother” premise to something much more sinister, bringing in an extra character (played by Bradley Cooper) at just the right time and turning the screws tighter and tighter in the third act.

Some viewers may have issues with the pacing and the style of the film, but it really doesn’t do much wrong for what is being presented. Evans may not have many features to his credit, spending more time on TV work (although a number of those are TV movies), but he shows major talent here and I wish he would dive fully back into the horror genre one day. 

8 /10

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Netflix And Chill: Case 39 (2009)

A high point in the filmographies of both director Christian Alvart and writer Ray Wright, Case 39 is a slick and enjoyable, and quite ridiculous, mainstream horror movie that takes some familiar faces and unapologetically keeps them grounded in circumstances that keep getting more and more outrageous.

Renée Zellweger is Emily Jenkins, a social worker who finds her spidey-sense tingling when she is handed the file for her 39th "live" case, that of young Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland). It looks as if Lilith is being threatened by her parents (played by Callum Keith Rennie and Kerry O'Malley), and Emily wants to get her to a safe space, helped by her boss (Wayne, played by Adrian Lester), a psychologist friend (Doug, played by Bradley Cooper), and a detective (Ian McShane). But things star to occur that make Emily think she has misread the situation. Were people trying to harm Lilith? Or were they trying to protect themselves from something else?

I first watched Case 39 a few years ago. It was never high on my list of priorities, and I basically dismissed it as a very standard horror movie, with twists and turns easily spotted by those with even the most cursory interest in the horror genre. That was probably a little bit unfair. Although full of moments that you've seen before, Case 39 also has a few really good set-pieces and tries to plot everything out with a passing nod to some kind of reality. 

Alvart directs it well enough, making good use of some decent CGI and not shying away from some of the bloodier moments (one or two should make you wince). Wright clearly knows that he's walking a tightrope between something nasty and something quite silly, and he shows that in a number of scenes in the third act that allow for some more playful interactions between Emily and Lilith, with a more truthful picture exposed and the two characters testing one another.

Zellweger is very good in her lead role, whether she's a concerned worker or someone who ends up at the end of her rope. McShane puts in another of the many great performances he has been delivering over the past few decades, Lester and Cooper are both very good (with the latter getting what I would say are the two best scenes in the movie), Rennie and O'Malley get interesting character arcs, and Ferland has a lot of fun in her role. Everyone pitches their performance at just the right level, which helps enormously, especially as things hurtle towards an enjoyably entertaining ending.

Still not a title I would suggest people prioritise over many other viewing options, Case 39 does at least deliver a fun time for those after some undemanding horror. And it's a nice riff on the many "bad seed" movies we have seen over the years. It's also a reminder to check out the wonderful cosplays that Ferland does nowadays (check her out on Instagram at . . . @jodellecosplays).

6/10

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Prime Time: The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)

Having explored the highs and lows of a developing and unraveling relationship in the superb Blue Valentine, director Derek Cianfrance followed it up with this exploration of parenthood, and the decisions that have repercussions for future generations. This doesn't have the weight of the preceding film, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, but it's still very good.

Ryan Gosling plays Luke, a carnival stunt bike rider who struggles to figure out the best way to move forward when he finds out that he is the father of a child after hooking up with a woman named Romina (Eva Mendes). He somehow, thanks to some none-too-indirect nudging from a man named Robin (Ben Mendelsohn), decides that he can provide best for his son by robbing banks and using the ill-gotten gains to provide for those he loves, even if Romina is now with another man (Kofi, played by Mahershala Ali). Crashing into this scenario comes relatively new cop, Avery (Bradley Cooper). Lives will be irrevocably changed, and the plot starts to writhe and wind towards a melodramatic finale.

A film about people doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, or the right thing for the wrong reasons, or just generally making mistakes that can lead to consequences more serious than they could ever have envisioned, The Place Beyond The Pines is a film that will resonate with anyone who has tried to be responsible for a loved one, whether you managed it or felt you let them down.

Written by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder, this is all as effective as it is simplistic. It could easily have become soap opera stuff, or just downright tedious by the time viewers waited over two hours to get to the expectedly convergent climax, but the cast, and the assured direction, make it very much worthy of your time.

Everyone I've already mentioned does great work, often sitting alongside their very best, but there's no small amount of pleasure to be derived from a cast of supporting players that includes Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Harris Yulin, Bruce Greenwood, and both Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan, the last two playing two children who end up connecting in a way that you just know is going to bring some things to a head.

If you've seen the trailer for this movie then you may already think you know where it's going. Gosling hurtling through woods on his dirt bike. Cooper as the good cop. Clouds of tragedy hanging over the main characters. You'd probably be right with a lot of your guesses, but there are one or two interesting developments that will also keep you on your toes. And being able to stay a step ahead of the plotting, for the majority of the movie, doesn't take anything away from the impact of what's being shown.

7/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

American Sniper (2014)

American Sniper is a tough movie to review. I'm going to start here by making things easier on myself. I'm NOT going to delve into the politics of the movie. That's an entirely different conversation, and one that will no doubt come up between friends or loved ones who go along together to see the film in cinemas. I'm also not going to try to pin down the REAL character of Chris Kyle, the man portrayed here by Bradley Cooper. The movie plays out in the style of "print the legend" so let's just leave it at that.

Cooper is the man who turns out to be a bloody good shot, leading to him heading off on multiple tours of Iraq. He has a lovely wife (Sienna Miller) waiting for him at home, but civilian life is hard to adjust to when his natural state has seen him poised with a rifle for so many hours. He shoots lots of bad people, of course, and becomes a bit famous, but not in a good way. No, the baddies put a price on his head because he's causing them so many problems. And . . . . . . . well, that's it.

Written by Jason Hall, who was adapting the tale as told in the book written by Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim Defelice, this is surprisingly shallow stuff. It's also riveting at times. That's the nature of this material. One man with his finger on a trigger, waiting to make the right call every time he sees a potential threat. It's just a shame that nothing else is added to the content. We see Kyle as a sniper. We see him as a husband. Each scene, whether he's in the former role or latter, seems to be little more than a repeat of the previous one, with the exception of the opening flashbacks that show how he got to his current position.

Director Clint Eastwood should have been able to lift this up, to look at the central subject from all angles and create a number of more interesting moments, but he doesn't. Whether he was playing it safe to ensure no disrespect to his central subject or whether he just didn't put in enough effort, either reason doesn't make up for this being such a disappointment.

Cooper is great in the lead role, bulked up and happiest while looking down the barrel of his gun. It's a good job too, because only Sienna Miller makes an impression alongside him. Everyone else is either a fellow soldier or an enemy fighter, with scarcely enough detailing to differentiate any individuals on either side of the battle.

So, as it turns out, American Sniper is, when everything else is set aside, not such a tough movie to review. It's just a shame that everything I've set aside here was also set aside by Hall and Eastwood, effectively neutering what could have been a great character study.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/American-Sniper-Blu-ray-Digital-UltraViolet/dp/B00RGZ915C/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1421342459&sr=1-2&keywords=american+sniper

You know how you can show your appreciation for bloggers? If you share and share then every additional reader helps. Connect through Google or Blogger or any way you can, and rest easy in the knowledge that you've made little ol' me a very happy man.

And/or you could also buy my e-book, that has almost every review I've written over the past 5 years. It's very reasonably priced for the sheer amount of content.

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.

Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)

Guardians Of The Galaxy is a rare thing indeed. A blockbuster that exceeds expectations, a slick slice of comic-book entertainment that perfectly blends heart, humour, thrills, and action (and some great songs). It's like a flipped upside-down version of The Avengers, while also serving as a perfect companion piece to that ensemble piece. So let me get the plot description out of the way, and then I can start the drooling words of praise.

Chris Pratt (having a great year, thanks to both this and The Lego Movie) stars as Peter Quill. Well, he'd prefer everyone to call him Star Lord, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Peter gets himself in some trouble when he tries to steal a mysterious orb. It's wanted by a big baddie named Ronan (Lee Pace), who is working for the evil Thanos (Josh Brolin). That's why a deadly assassin named Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is sent to deal with Peter. And that's why there's a bounty on his head, that ends up interesting Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel). There's a big fight which lands the four individuals in prison, where they meet the vengeance-seeking Drax (Dave Bautista). Unbeknownst to them, they are about to work together as a team on an adventure that will start off with them looking for riches, or vengeance, in the case of Drax, and end up with them finding . . . . . . . . . . . . . well, something else.

Worthy of the name Star Lord?

There's SO much in this movie that's just pretty perfect, it will have many viewers with a big grin on their face as the end credits roll, and repeat viewings won't dampen its appeal. It may run for about 120 minutes, but that just flies by. Very few scenes are completely extraneous, with almost every line of dialogue and every action fleshing out the motley team onscreen, showing their motivation, their fears, their courage, their humour, their very entitlement to be main characters in this big-budget film.

The script, co-written by director James Gunn and Nicole Perlman, deftly balances everything that I've already mentioned. The action beats aren't ever forgotten, but the real draw here is the fact that we can spend time with such great characters, and see them grow into their roles. And, yes, the fact that Groot basically says nothing but "I am Groot" makes for both a nice running joke and also a surprisingly effective way of establishing his closeness with Rocket, a raccoon with a sharp mind, smart mouth, and penchant for building potent weaponry at short notice.

Gunn takes the script and overlays it with assured, slick direction. He may have already gotten used to the big chair, with the likes of Slither and Super, but this is a massive step up, and viewers never once see any signs of nerves or insecurity. Which is as it should be. Gunn's instincts have been steering him right for years (yes, yes I do also love Tromeo & Juliet - his first movie as a writer - so sue me) and it seems that audiences might finally be completely receptive to his output. Okay, it's the Marvel name being sold, but it's Gunn who takes this gamble and makes it into an outright winner.

He's helped immensely by a cast full of people all on top form. Pratt, as mentioned above, is due to make 2014 HIS year. His performance here is wonderful, and I've no doubt that he'll win over lots of new fans with this role. Saldana gets another chance to be tough and sexy, and she can do that with ease, even with green skin. Cooper and Diesel may be providing voices only, and the latter may only be mostly saddled with the one sentence, but don't underestimate the great work that they do. And Dave Bautista is surprisingly good as the angry brute who has a habit of taking figures of speech literally. Pace is good enough, yet his character is a bit weak, especially when compared to other villains from the Marvel universe,and ESPECIALLY compared to big bad Thanos. I shouldn't have to check the name of the villain at IMDb while writing this review, but that's what I had to do.

"I am Groot"

The other bonus here is the supporting cast, with Gunn giving viewers an embarrassment of riches in that department. Michael Rooker is blue-skinned Yondu, the man who took Peter away from Earth when he was just a young boy, Karen Gillan is blue, bald Nebula, a woman who wants to help Ronan cause some major destruction, Benicio Del Toro is The Collector, and there are worthwhile moments for Djimon Hounsou, Glenn Close, John C. Reilly, Peter Serafinowicz, Gregg Henry, and Ophelia Lovibond. It's easy to spot the Stan Lee cameo, and there's also the usual Lloyd Kaufman cameo that we've come to expect from Mr. Gunn.

Oh, and there's that soundtrack. If you've seen any of the trailers for this movie then you'll already suspect that it has a few good tunes on the soundtrack. It does. More than that, however, is the way in which the soundtrack is almost a character in its own right. The songs are a link to the past for Peter Quill, and his precious Walkman and mix tape both hold just as much importance as the orb that so many people want to get their hands on.

I could go on and on: about how surprisingly tight the structuring is, about how many moments managed to sneak up on me and make me unexpectedly emotional (including a moment with a raccoon - yes, the damn raccoon almost gave me a lump in my throat), about the flawless visual effects throughout, about the one great gag that will fly over the heads of kids while parents laugh their asses off, about the post-credits surprise.

This is a film full of many surprising delights, with one of the best being just how many people have decided to go with the flow and help it achieve some stellar results at the box office.

9/10

Trust me, you'll want to buy this - http://www.amazon.com/Guardians-Galaxy-Blu-ray-Chris-Pratt/dp/B009NNM95Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1406851090&sr=1-1&keywords=guardians+of+the+galaxy&dpPl=1