2015 Catch Up

In the 1960s CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavil) successfully helps Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) defect to West Germany despite opposition from the KGB's top agent, Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer). Later Napoleon, Illya and Gaby and the secret agencies of Russia and America find themselves working together in a mission to stop a criminal organization from using Gaby's father's scientific expertise to construct their own nuclear bomb. 

After a small slump and some critical and financial failures Guy Richie returned to form with two rather fun adaptations of the Sherlock Homes character, though the success of the two films was more down to the effective chemistry between Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law who played Holmes and Watson respectively. It's a similar thing with The Man from U.N.C.L.E where the chemistry between Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer is enough to make the film just a little boring rather than tortuously boring. It's shallow, superficial stuff and spends most of the time trying to burn into your mind the fact that Herny Cavill is irresistibly good looking which, to be honest, he is (he was nominated for a Cause Your Hot award which sounds spectacularly shallow, but I'm probably just bitter because I'd never win one of those...).

2/5

You all know the basic plot, four teens, played by adults, mess around with something they should not have messed around with and develop superpowers which include stretching, turning invisible, turning into a fireball, and turning into a giant rock. 

It's not often that audiences and film critics are in near universal agreement, but in the case of the recently rebooted Fantastic Four film they are. The reboot of Fantastic Four (don't remember many people actually asking for this) went through the torrid production which included numerous reshoots and rewrties which so distorted the finished product that director Josh Trank claimed that the final product wasn't even close to resembling his vision. It's is clear to see that studio interference helped create the disjointed, badly acted and poorly written film that Fantastic Four is.

The film certainly has the look of a film that has had too much input from producers who lack much in the way of imagination. They scuppered any chances of the film becoming any good by messing with the film so much that it lacked a storyline that didn't feel as though it was mashed into thousands of pieces and thrown haphazardly together. It doesn't help that the film is a humourless bore, devoid of any interesting ideas (unlike Chronicle, Tank's previous film) and if there was any attempts at humour the lines were so poorly delivered by the actors that they came across as cringe worthy rather than funny. It is this poor dialogue and the equally poor and uninterested delivery that results in complete lack of chemistry between the actors. It's an origins story whose story will probably never be finished judging by the dire Box Office returns.

1/5

In a zombie apocalypse, a father (Arnold Schwarzenegger) must care for his infected daughter (Abigail Breslin) until she eventually succumbs to her disease and has to be quarantined.

If one were to expect a zombie film where Arnie kicks zombie arse then they are going to be sorely disappointed as Maggie is a much slower, more emotional resonant piece of work. Unlike many previous zombie flicks, Maggie is a film that is very much focused on the affect of the zombie outbreak on the lives of a small family rather than looking at the affect on society as whole. Serving as metaphor for terminal illness, Maggie is a film that is often an emotional rich one that is powered by a strong performances by Abigail Breslin and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, though Schwarzenegger does struggle with some of the poorer dialogue. However, the film is a slow one, the pace does meander and the score is a little intrusive as it acts more of a cue to cry more than anything else, yet the film is a moving one and one that is driven by good performancse and an emotionally afflicting father-daughter relationship.

3/5

This sort of sequel, sort of reboot, sort of remake to the very popular National Lampoon's 1983 comedy Vacation follows pretty much the same plot at the 1983 film with Rusty (Ed Helms) and the rest of the Griswald family making a 2000 mile trip to Wally World. Vacation is pretty much on the same level as one of those similar road trip comedy vehicles like We Are the Millers and Identity Thief which doesn't really sing the film's praises. It's perfectly enjoyable as there are enough laughs along the way and the performances are perfectly fine but the film is very predictable and sometimes very puerile and many of the gags from the 1983 film were repeated here.

2.5/5

Joel Edgerton does a good job a sustaining a brilliant level of tension throughout the entire film, not only is his direction absolutely spot on his performance elicits terror, unease and sympathy for his character, you feel for him and understand what an arsehole Jason Bateman's Simon Callum is. This is an unnerving and compelling directorial debut by Edgerton who had the balls to draft up a quite shocking ending which is one of this year's most harrowing.

4.5/5

Adam Sandler's Pixels is a fun film but one that probably isn't best served by a 90 minute film but instead will feel more at home as a short film (as it once was). I enjoyed it for most part and thought Adam Sandler was quite good in it.

3/5