Spies In Disguise

Star Wars : The Rise Of Skywalker

And last but not least..? 

Star Wars : The Last Jedi

Actually that wasn't as bad as I remember.. 

Star Wars : The Force Awakens

The third one is gonna have a tough job beating this one.. 

Knives Out

Jumanji: The Next Level

Le Mans 66

Doctor Sleep

Joker

Terminator Dark Fate

Gemini Man

Zombieland : Double Tap

Ad Astra (2nd viewing IMAX)

That was better.. 

Ad Astra

Rambo:Last Blood

Hustlers

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Angel Has Fallen

The Lion King

Fast and Furious : Hobbs and Shaw

The Matrix: 20th Anniversary

Spider-man Far From Home

Seems legit..

Yesterday

Toy Story 4

MIB:International

X-Men:Dark Phoenix

Godzilla:King Of The Monsters

John Wick 3

Avengers : Endgame (2nd viewing)

Avengers Endgame

Avengers Infinity War (6th showing)

Round one of tonights double.. 

Hellboy (2019)

Ok, so here's the reboot we've all been erm.. waiting for? 

Shazam (2nd viewing)

Shazam

Us

I remember 'Get Out' with fondness.. Granted, it took me a little longer to see it than everyone else, probably down to my general fear of the horror movie genre but I was glad I did.

Captain Marvel

As Blockbuster season slowly lumbers into view like a routinely wounded Optimus Prime in, frankly ANY of Michael Bay's eye-bleedingly bad Transformers movies (except perhaps the first one), I find myself teetering on the precipice of, not only the first 'Midnight showing' of the year but more importantly the first MARVEL movie of the year.. In a year which will see Spider-Man head to Europe and the X-Men.. erm, do their x-men thing (in two movies), and let's not forget Avengers:Endgame (more about that later) and Captain Marvel has been tasked with starting off the box-office, billion dollar, unstoppable juggernaut.. so to speak.. 

No pressure then.

This one is from Marvels back catalogue and basically an origin story. I think IMDb summed it up best when they said 'Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races.' (yep, that pretty well nails it)

Brie Larson plays the aforementioned Carol Danvers and yes, as has been mentioned everywhere the dialogue is rubbish.  But that's like saying the dialogue in Predator or Rambo II is rubbish, it doesn't really matter.  So long as the action... erm.. speaks louder.. And here it "sort of" does..

The problem is Marvels fault. They've set their own bar very high..

That's not to say it's a bad film.. Far from it. Even a "bad" Marvel film is streets ahead of most 'Blockbuster' fodder.. Maybe its down to the fact that its 3.00am and really nothing looks good this time of the morning when I've got to get up in 3 hours..

Ok then I'll give it a solid ***1/2 stars. Needs a second, sociable hour viewing to be sure..

Alita Battle Angel (2nd viewing)

The Kid Who Would Be King

The timing of this showing was an early one, considering I didn't finish work till 12.30, and I made it just in time..

This is Joe Cornishs take on the Arthurian legend and was predominantly a children's movie. Acted by kids, its target audience are kids and if I was a 12 year old I'd have loved it..


But I'm not.
That being said it wasn't without its merits..  The acting was good, particularly young Merlin (Angus Imrie) who managed to integrate a crazed, medieval loon into modern day secondary school with ease.. The main adult contributors consist of Rebecca Ferguson (playing evil), Patrick Stewart and a nice cameo from Joes other half Adam Buxton as a tour guide. The plot zips along at a nice pace and the special effects are up there with most of todays movies.

Overall nothing special, but an entertaining hour and a half all the same. ***1/2

Wild Rose

Tonight's Screen Unseen turned out to be Wild Rose. As IMDb would say 'A musician from Glasgow dreams of becoming a Nashville star.' 

To be fair that's grossly underplaying it. It should be 'an angry, ex-offender, negligent single mum of two .. from Glasgow dreams of becoming a Nashville star.'

When this film first started, I went along with it. First thing I'd do when I got out of prison would be straight round to the Mrs for a shag.. and THEN home to see the kids.. Obviously.. Ok, we get it, shes a bad mum..

Lands a job cleaning at a posh house.. And as soon as the owner pop's out she raids the drinks cabinet.. Ok, we get it, she's a bad employee.. So far, so cliché..

And you know how the rest of it goes.. 

Julie Walters is excellent (as usual) playing Rose-Lynn's (Jessie Buckley) mum and M/s Buckley really demonstrates her singing skills as the lead..

Did I enjoy it? It was ok. The problem is I'm getting fed up with these 'gritty, real life dramas' Odeon keeps churning out for the Unseens.. Where's the Arrivals and The Shape Of Waters? Or even Baby Driver and It Follows..?

Any way, I don't want to waste any more of my time.. 
It's a *** movie..

The Lego Movie 2

This was an earlier than usual showing for me. Normally, with the 'child friendly' films I'll wait till the novelty wears off and the screens aren't packed with bawling kids. Plus I always feel a bit uncomfortable as a 50 year old man going in to see a kids film, on my own..
Anyway, I braved the hoards and burning pitchforks and settled down for the 1.00pm showing..
I missed the first minute but basically, what I could gather was that it had been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens of Legoland are facing a huge new threat: Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild (cheers IMDB)
It's a Mad Max, dystopian nightmare type scenario to stark with and Chris Pratts 'Emmett' is still cheerful and optimistic. 

Alita:Battle Angel

"An action-packed story of one young woman's journey to discover the truth of who she is and her fight to change the world.." as Twentieth Century Fox once said.

This one's set in the 26th century and comes with all the baggage you'd expect from a future 500 years from now.  You know, hover bikes, cyborgs, floating cities for the privileged , dirt etc (didn't notice any flying cars in this one though..).. Alita (Rosa Salazar) is found, (well her head and upper torso) by Dr Ido (Christoph Waltz) whilst he's out scavenging through a junk yard. He takes her back to his lab and she's re-assembled using other bits he's acquired.  Any how, it turns out she's not your basic cyborg..

I was looking forward to this one. So much so, I may have even considered a midnight showing if they'd have put one on..  As is usually the case, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. And I don't know why ? All the ingredients where there: James Cameron producing, Robert Rodriguez directing, Cool source material (Yukito Kishiro's series of manga books) and a $200 budget (give or take)

That being said, it wasn't all bad. The special effects are superb, as is the case on most modern blockbusters.  Is it a good thing that you don't notice what's an effect and what isn't though.?

The actors were an interesting collection. All playing their part, but when you're up against CGi of this caliber you got to really chew the scenery. It was nice to see Ed Skrein (well, his face at least) playing another bad guy.  Also, am I the only one who's noticed Christoph Waltz in another film involving big eyes ?

The ending let it down in my opinion.. Too many loose ends. They've obviously set it up for the start of a franchise and hopefully, providing people ignore the current Rotten Tomato rating, that will be the case.

All in all though, it was a solid 3 1/2 star movie.  

Given time I may try and catch it again

And I have to agree with them there.

If Beale Street Could Talk

Here's an interesting one.. Tonights Screen Unseen was 'If Beale Street Could Talk'.

Now, I did a bit of research on this one for once.. You know, tried to decipher the clues. One major pointer was that Cineworld were showing it as an Unlimited special screening... tonight.. Plus the general buzz on Twitter was ".. Beale Street." and Clue 4. This is no East Ender? Really? come on..

Now I'm not a fan of Moonlight, Barry Jenkins other snore fest character study. I was subjected to that one almost 2 years to the day (another screen unseen too).  So I decided if it was this, I'm not going to hang around and put myself through another, well acted, Oscar nominated, superb cinematography, but ultimately boring movie.

Just because broccoli is good for you, doesn't mean its tastes good.  Tonight I just didn't fancy sitting through a 2 hour movie, however nutritious it was..

This goes against the grain for me.. I've only ever once walked out of a movie and that was Frantic, 31 years ago..(I can't even remember why..!?).  As I get older I find I'm getting less tolerant of the Manchester By The Sea's, I, Daniel Blakes and The Florida Projects.. The gritty, human stories that film critics in general tend to enjoy.. I'm leaning more towards movies that provide escapism and awe..

So I can't give a review on this one as I didn't see it..

(must remember to knock it off the total at the end of the year..)

The Mule

It's a Monday and I'm at the cinema.. 

Which can only mean one thing... it's Screen Unseen night.

But first I thought I'd get in Clint Eastwood's latest, The Mule.

As IMDB would (loosely) say, it's a story about 90-year-old horticulturist and Korean War veteran (Clint) who transports millions worth of cocaine through Illinois for a Mexican drug cartel. And yes, it's based on a true story 

I'd heard mixed opinions on this one (70% on Rotten Tomatoes) so I wasn't quite sure what to expect..

Initially it reminded me of Robert Redfords previous, The Old Man and The Gun, but really that's a lazy comparison, just because both films have grizzled nonagenarian leads.. 

It had more in common with the Transporter franchise if anything.  I could imagine a 90 year old Jason Statham in Transporter XXII saying to himself  'don't look in the package.'

Clint reminded me of my late Grandad and that's probably why I enjoyed it.  He looked old and tired, but still had a certain glint in his eye. Bradley Cooper and Michael Pena were also good support as the DEA officers in opposition. 

Overall a decent 3 1/2 star movie..

Glass

Ok, here we are with M. Night. Shamalangadingdongs final piece in his Eastrail 177 trilogy..  Me and 'M' have had our ups and downs over the years (The Lady In The Water being one of the worst films I've EVER seen.. and I've seen some crap..) 

So, as you can imagine I went into this film wanting it to be Unbreakable, but prepared for TLITW..

And as it turns out I was pleasantly surprised (and secretly relieved!) If you're not familiar with 'M' s back catalogue, this follows on from Split(2016) and Unbreakable(2000) and how three of the characters end up in a mental asylum.. 

James Mcavoy was the standout for me. He's as crazy as a box of frogs, and once you accept his multiple personalities he's worth the entry fee alone..

Vice

Second film of the year and the first Odeon Screen Unseen..

After chatting to a member of staff on Saturday, the general rumour going around was that it was going to be 'Vice'.

This is Christian Bales latest 'shot at an Oscar', playing an overweight Dick Cheney (vice president to George W Bush Jr). 

Bale is the new 'De Niro' when it comes to method acting, and to be fair the transformation is quite dramatic. Where Gary Oldman was mainly prosthetic for his Churchill performance, here it appears to be all cake. 

There's good support too. Amy Adams is always excellent and I think this may be the only film I've seen Sam Rockwell not dance in..

As I'm not to up on the US political system, I struggled to keep up a bit at certain points (very similar to another Christian Bale flick 'The Big Short')

All in all though, the film was entertaining. 

***1/2 

Stan And Ollie

It's January the 12th and this is the first film I've seen.. 

To be fair I've been in no fit state to sit in a dark cinema for 2 hours.. Man-flu is a terrible illness to have to endure (you ask any man), but endure it I did..

And this film turned out to be an ideal remedy.  Focusing on the last years of Laurel and Hardy's careers, in particular their theatre tour of Britain in 1953.

Steve Cogan and John C. Reilly had Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy down to a tee, they really were excellent.  It reminded me of when we used to watch the old movies at my grandparents.  

Ultimately though, it was a sad movie.. I enjoyed it, but it was sad..

A decent ***1/2 star start to the year.

Review Of 2018

That '2018' eh? What a year..

And not necessarily in a good way..
Somehow I managed to see 62 movies this year (61 if you count the fact that I missed the end of both Bohemian Rhapsody and the first viewing of Spider-man into the spider-verse)
That's the lowest number since 2012

There was the usual plethora of Super Hero movies.. Some good (Infinity War, Deadpool 2 and Spider-man into the spider-verse) and some not so good (Venom and Aquaman)..
That being said, Venom and Aquaman weren't the worse films of the year.. That honour went to Downsizing and A Wrinkle In Time.. Both were pretty rubbish to be honest.. If only I could have Downsized A Wrinkle In Time and saved myself some precious life hours..

January was the best month quality wise.. I finally got to see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing and I really enjoyed it. To be fair, all the Oscar fodder were good, ie The Post, The Shape Of Water and The Darkest Hour (Downsizing bought January's average down!)

Comedy wise, there was no standouts.. Deadpool 2 probably being the funniest..

Once again, the Screen Unseens offered some of the highlights of the year for me. I, Tonya and American Animals were particular standouts..

I think what stuck with me this year was the disappointments..
The Predator, Fantastic Beasts 2 and First Man all didn't come up to what I was expecting.. With hindsight, perhaps I should have given First Man another go..

All in all my heart wasn't in it this year.. Let's hope 2019 is better..