Latest Films

Saw a preview of Mr Holmes at the weekend.

A very different take, and much more slow and reflective than what has gone before both in film and TV versions, but still enjoyable and worth seeing if you are a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories - although that assessment was no doubt helped by the fact that the tickets were free!

The Connection. Saw this last night in a 90% empty cinema. Enjoyed it a lot. French film covering the same sort of ground as the French connection, set in the seventies/early eighties. Period detail and music excellent, the story told from the point of view of the magistrate trying to clear up the drugs trade in Marseille. Very good leads, though the subtitles were a bit clunky and unenglish at the start of the film. Recommend this one. 7.5/10.

Old now but just watch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Didn't think I would like it but thought it was superb. The effects are great and even though you are watching a lot of CGI it's still gripping and touching.

It's just come out on Sky Movies.

Cant wait to see (will be released in the UK 10 July), "Love and Mercy", the biopic film about the life of the great Brian Wilson.

Weegie Addick said:

Not sure when it is on general release, but watch out for The Legend of Barney Thomson. Black comedy set in Glasgow. Robert Carlysle 's directorial debut and he also plays the lead role - a barber who accidentally becomes a serial killer. Superb cast including Ray Winstone, Ashley Jensen, Tom Courtenay and the showstealer: Emma Thompson as Barney's Mum - a hard as nails East End Glasgow wifey.

Still available to buy for distribution in the UK @Weegie Addick ! Make sure you catch The Wolfpack this week in Edinburgh - one of ours and released in August later this year - it's TRULY brilliant!

Local cinema re-released The Terminator for one night only. I never got to see it the first time around (what with not having been born at that point!) but it holds up really surprisingly well. The special effects are a bit dodgy on the big screen by today's standards but the atmosphere is terrific and the plot does actually make sense instead of just being an excuse to string stunts together. Arnie is never going to be the most nuanced and skilled actor but what he does he does very well, in this film especially - easy to say 'he's acting as an emotionless robot' but he does convey something genuinely creepy and unnatural even before the reveal.

This might be one of my favourite film reviews ever.

Mark Kermode on Entourage.

I thought it was an interesting film because of the way it was made, but I agree with you. It left me a bit cold.

So recently I have taken in

Taken 3 - Liam Neeson taking names and killing people in imaginative ways. No suprises and good fun

Interstellar - fantastic, missus thought it was dire, I thought it was fascinating

The theory of everything - not usually my thing but very glad I watched it. Eddie Redmayne thoroughly deserved his Oscar for this and I don't know but I hope the girl who played his wife won something too. Very touching and suprisingly funny in patches

So.. Terminator: Genisys. Forgive me, this is going to be a bit ranty.

Where to start...

The tone of T3 was all mixed up. Comedy beats and such. T4 was serious, but without a heart. I was hoping for the seriousness of 4, with the quality of 2.

The tone of this one.... is best summed up by a scene about 60 minutes in. Arnie and the gang are with the cops and they get their criminal mugshots taken.... to the tune of "bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do..."

It's the greatest nadir of any big franchise movie. It doesn't get more wrong than this. It makes Pierce Brosnan's waterskiing look like 2001.

It's a cynical reboot that somehow manages to be a love letter to the first movie, while managing to piss all over it with a grin and a fistful of cash. It's cynical. It's studio filmmaking at its very worst.

The plot is mental. Totally stupid. It's so bad most of the characters spend the duration explaining the events to each other (and us).

The casting is atrocious. She's a TV actress, nothing more. Jai Courtney truly is the most vacuous leading man currently available (along with Sam Worthington, funnily enough). Jason Clarke is more interesting, but largely delivers moronic one-liners. Arnie is utterly embarrassing.

There are some half-interesting action sequences, but for the most part there's no tension. You don't expect anyone to actually get hurt. If a Terminator attacks someone, one of four things are going to happen; 1) The character finds a random gun on the floor 2) Someone comes in from off-screen and shoots it, 3) the terminator gets hit by a long metal pole 4) A giant magnet gets switched on.

So assuming any one of those things will happen will remove all tension. The one thing the Terminator cannot do: Kill anybody. Anybody at all.

Structurally it's all over the place. Halfway through the movie, there isn't a Terminator to escape from. There's a social media undercurrent that's cringe inducing. Skynet is going to kill us when it takes over our iPads.

The line "I know now why you cry, but it is something I can never do," from T2 partly sums up why this film is so bad; Arnie wants to cry in it. He doesn't want to be a machine, he wants to give it subtle comedy or feeling. They basically ignore the fact that he's a robot when it suits. It's fan fiction. It's like a Terminator sequel written by 14 year olds. I honestly believe we could have written a better plot on this thread between us.

If I hadn't seen Jupiter Ascending on Monday, then T5 would be the worst big-budget Hollywood film I'd seen this century. But as I paid for my ticket for a change, I chose to not walk out. But that mugshot scene...

Both Nightcrawler and Take Shelter are really engaging watches. I do think Gyllenhaal is fantastic. I hear his new film - Southpaw - is really good.

If you see The Pledge on TV or Netflix anywhere, and you haven't seen it obviously, give it a shot. Like Take Shelter it's one of those little-seen hidden gem dramas.