Monkey Man (2024)

You should either be a big fan of Dev Patel by now or you should be underserving of his great talent. Patel has been delivering great acting performances for a while now, and he has just added another string to his bow with Monkey Man, a savage action movie that marries some astounding set-pieces to smart commentary on aspects of Indian culture (e.g. the caste system, the huge divide between the haves and the have-nots, and the treatment of the individuals who make up the Hijra community).

Patel plays a character simply credited as Kid (in lieu of a proper name), spending his time working at an underground fight club where he is usually given very little money to don a monkey mask and have his ass beaten for the entertainment of the crowd. Kid has something he is moving towards though: Revenge. He wants to get close enough to the corrupt police chief, Rana (Sikander Kher), who he witnessed raping and killing his mother. And he wants to get to the spiritual guru, Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), responsible for giving the orders to the police under his control. Unfortunately, Kid may not be as ready to complete his quest as he likes to think he is, but taking a step back, and being welcomed into the Hijra community, may help him clarify his vision and solidify his path ahead.

It feels like there's rarely a week that goes by nowadays without another film trying to rework/outdo John Wick, and Monkey Man is certainly in that wheelhouse (even overtly acknowledging the influence of that film when a gun seller refers to one particular model as, to paraphrase, "the John Wick gun". Unlike other attempts to use that simple template to deliver something with both incredible fights and a strong heartbeat, Monkey Man actually manages to put a lot of meat on the bones, using the pacing and choreography of the film to show the motivation and development of the central character.

Patel does an excellent job in the director's chair for this feature debut, and he also co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Angunawela and John Collee (two individuals who don't have any past work signifying that they could be such a good fit for this). It's a confident and stylish feature that allows Patel to basically punch film viewers in the face and underline his arrival as a huge talent who has been deserving of recognition for at least a full decade now. Is it too much to view the violence and energy of Monkey Man as a force fuelled by Patel's urge to break through the screen and smash up every obstacle put in the way of his ascent to fully-fledged movie star status? Maybe, but I'll view it that way anyway. The brutality here is jaw-dropping, the action inventive and intense, edited brilliantly in a way that allows things to feel punctuated without them feeling erratic, and the visuals (kudos to Sharone Meir for the cinematography) are accompanied by a fantastic selection of music by Jed Kurzel.

For as good as he is behind the camera, Patel dazzles in the lead role. He's very capable, very suave when he gets the chance, and a classic soulful hero that you want to see win out before the end credits roll. Kher is a solid villain, cocky and irredeemable, and Deshpande is good as the persuasive leader controlling the soldiers sent out to destroy innocent lives. Pitobash is a lot of fun in his supporting role, as is Sharlto Copley (playing the loathsome ringmaster who is happy to pay someone a meagre sum for a beating that will keep audiences happy), Sobhita Dhulipala is a ray of light in the darkness, Ashwini Kalsekar is a dangerous criminal queen, and Vipin Sharma comes along in the second half to make a hell of a strong impression in the role of Alpha.

There are moments here that are cool and cinematic, but there are just as many moments that are delivering a thought-provoking exploration of pain and societal issues. There are also numerous scenes in which someone fights for their life in a way that truly feels like that someone desperately trying to stay alive. The fact that each aspect continually intertwined and works as well as it should is testament to Patel’s skill. I cannot wait to see what he does next, and I will rewatch this numerous times until his next feature comes along.

9/10

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

Beast (2022)

A film is always in a bit of trouble if you end up thinking of other films you want to rewatch as soon as the end credits roll. Films that you think are better, or films that are just more comforting after you have endured something quite disappointing. I stayed focused on Beast for the full runtime, but a little voice in my head kept whispering “it’s been many years since you saw The Ghost & The Darkness”. So I think you can guess that I didn’t love this.

Idris Elba plays Dr. Nate Samuels, a man who has decided to take his two daughters on a trip to South Africa. The family will be shown around some of the local area by a good friend/expert guide named Martin (Sharlto Copley). Everything quickly takes a turn for the worse when the family end up being stalked by a rogue lion with a vendetta against humans. Having separated from a pride wiped out by poachers, this animal isn’t hunting for food. It’s out for revenge.

Writer Ryan Engle, fleshing out a story idea by Jaime Primak Sullivan, really drops the ball here, but is allowed to do so by a director, Baltasar Kormákur, who should know that more needs presented onscreen to cover up the weaknesses in the script. Most of us haven’t encountered a lion, for example, but I am sure we can all imagine how easily limbs would be torn and lost if we met one that was in a bad mood.

The CGI stays consistently good though, which is a big plus, and many scenes in the first half of the film work really well in a simplistic “it’s Jaws, but with a lion” way, so there’s enough to enjoy while the cracks start to appear. I also really enjoyed the score by Steven Price (I am listening to it right now while writing this review), a selection of music that evokes the right sense of geography and tension throughout without filing the soundtrack with every obvious and easiest choice. Although it is something I sometimes forget to mention, or speak of in the abstract rather than the specific, major kudos must go to those crafting the cinematography, especially for making the night scenes so dark and thrilling while also still keeping everything clear and visible enough.

The cast do what they can to help make this as watchable as possible. Elba has been a bona fire star for a good few years now, and if anyone can face off against an angry lion then I believe he can. Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries are good as his daughters, respectively, Meredith and Norah, with the latter being the older sister who tries to be more pro-active in some of the dangerous encounters. And Copley is as good as ever, despite the fact that he is saddled with delivering a lot of the exposition and then being voted “most likely to die” in any scene that features all four of the main characters together. Despite some other supporting turns, the film generally stays focused on the quartet vs the lion (which is the strongest aspect of the script).

Although not a terrible film, Beast ends up folding under the weight of one implausibility atop another, which leads to an ending that is hard to care for. In fact, it’s sadly laughable. If you think big cats don’t have decent eyesight, don’t have great hearing, and wouldn’t sniff out potential prey hiding just beside them then maybe you will enjoy this more than I did. You will also have to accept that people can be mauled by a lion, while punching back at it, and somehow not watch their arms and legs being moved meters away from their body.

If you don’t like Elba or Copley then this will have even less appeal. If you do like them though, well, this isn’t the worst way you could spend 90 minutes. It just ends up being dragged down to something average when the bad outweighs the good.

5/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Bonus Review: Maleficent (2014)

Maleficent, for those who may have forgotten, is the main villain in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, a film that remains an undeniable high point amongst so many animated classics from the House Of Mouse. This film is all about her, and allows people to see a different side to the famous baddie. Apparently, the story that we all thought we knew didn't play out quite as we were told. Maleficent changes that, giving viewers the other side of events. It is to Sleeping Beauty as Wicked is to The Wizard Of Oz, to make the obvious analogy.

I don't want to give too much away, as there are a number of pleasant surprises here in the way that the plot unfolds, so all I will say in my summation of the storyline is that Maleficent is introduced as a happy, winged fairy (played by Isobelle Molloy) and then experiences something that turns her into the scary adult that cursed a princess named Aurora. The scary adult version of Maleficent is played by Angelina Jolie, and the Aurora who is due to suffer on her sixteenth birthday is played by Elle Fanning.

Let me start with the positives here, because I liked a lot of aspects of Maleficent. The first, and main, ace up its sleeve is Angelina Jolie in the lead role. There may be scenes in which her cheekbones are far too distracting (no, really, I'm serious, I thought they were going to rip through her skin at some points), but her performance is almost perfect throughout. She puts on a decent British accent, looks superb in the costume and make-up, and manages to move from scary to funny to sad as the scenes demand. I know, I know, that's a basic requirement for many actors, although you wouldn't always know it, but she really dances through all of the mood changes with ease. The rest of the cast also do good work, although Sharlto Copley is left to go overboard as the distraught king/father who becomes obsessed with destroying Maleficent before any harm comes to his daughter. Fanning is very likable, and Sam Riley is an absolute standout as Diaval, a crow transformed into a man. Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, and Juno Temple are fine as fairies (although they are given far too many comedy moments that aren't really all that funny), and Brenton Thwaites is perfectly acceptable as the bland Prince Charming type, Prince Phillip, to be exact.

The production values, and the design of the world shown onscreen, are also excellent. There are often an over-abundance of FX shots in each sequence, but they're pretty gorgeous. This is eye candy, and it's eye candy that many will find most satisfying when things move from the sweetness and light of the opening scenes to the darker visual style of the next hour.

Unfortunately, that's about all I have in the way of compliments.

Director Robert Stromberg, enjoying his first time in the big chair, fumbles things from the very beginning. I have little doubt that many decisions were dictated to him, and I should have expected a final product like this from Disney (damn my eyes for letting the trailer deceive me), but the bright, colourful moments don't feel as if they belong in this movie. When things darken, however, they don't go dark enough. This isn't a twist on familiar material. This is an entire rewrite to make everything sweeter, which makes the movie lazy and clumsy when it should have been interesting and much more impressive.

Thankfully for Stromberg, he can quickly point a finger at screenwriter Linda Woolverton, because this is one stinker of a script. Oh, there are some great lines here and there, mostly made great thanks to the delivery by Jolie, but it's 95% awful, made worse by the fact that it's clearly meant to be clever and fun throughout. The voiceover narration, by Janet McTeer, is especially bad, often relating information that could have been shown onscreen. In fact, it's occasionally describing exactly what IS being shown onscreen. At the start of the movie I thought it was irritating, but acceptable, as a shorthand way to throw viewers into the world. But I soon wanted McTeer to just shut up, which she doesn't (okay, she does, but the narration keeps cropping up at various points throughout the movie).

This is a film made enjoyable by the sheer force of Jolie's adopted personality in the main role, and even she can't always do enough to improve the lines that she's given. That would take real magic, and there's none of that here.

5/10

Enjoy Maleficent's original appearance when this is released in the UK in a few days - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Beauty-Blu-ray-Ken-Anderson/dp/B00JGTSWBK/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1401307120&sr=1-2&keywords=sleeping+beauty

I WILL keep reminding people that every copy of my book sold gets a few pounds in my pocket, and gets you a good read (if I say so myself). So please feel free to remember me whenever you're visiting Amazon.

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.

Europa Report (2013)

Another day, another found footage movie, this one is a sci-fi horror about a manned expedition to Europa, Jupiter's fourth largest moon. Those who disliked Apollo 18 will want to avoid this one, but it has to be said that both films provide an equal end result in very different ways.

Embeth Davidtz plays the main person telling the full story to viewers, a story that is signposted from the very beginning. The crew heading to Europa - played by Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo, Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu and Karolina Wydra - are all hoping to gather some data that could potentially change the perception of our known universe, and to show the prospect of life existing somewhere other than on our own planet.

With a number of enjoyable details throughout, Europa Report somehow manages to hold viewer attention even during the many scenes in which nothing much is actually going on. Director Sebastian Cordero presents everything in a very matter-of-fact way, and the stylistic choices certainly help, but the main strength of the film lies in the script by Philip Gelatt, building up a very complete picture of the main characters and the strange situation that they find themselves in.

All of the cast do decent enough work, with Copley and Nyqvist being the best of the bunch, and they are eventually given enough to differentiate themselves from one another, just in time for the developments in the second half of the movie to have a bit more impact.

More of a valiant effort than a truly great sci-fi horror, Europa Report is one that I'd recommend giving your time to, but it's not necessarily one that will be appreciated by many fans of the blended genres. It does, however, have enough positives subtly mixed in to make it a quality piece of work. It's just a shame that it couldn't also be a bit more entertaining throughout.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Europa-Report-Christian-Camargo/dp/B00E0KWBAI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389611873&sr=8-2&keywords=europa+report