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Suicide Squad (2016)
Pale imitation of Guardians of the Galaxy!
So lets go through the main factors of this film one at a time. We'll start with the cast. They were brilliant. The saving grace of this film. The main reason I'm not giving it lower than a 5. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn is exceptional. And I greatly look forward to seeing her in action in the future. Will Smith plays Deadshot well (despite the fact that the writers clearly don't know who Deadshot is). Jared Leto plays a great (if unfortunately useless) Joker. So the film was cast perfectly. Unfortunately not every character gets an appropriate amount of screen time. The majority of this film is dull, sappy scenes with Deadshot and Harley Quinn which pry deeper into the emotions of their characters than it should. I'm all for breaking into new areas of classic characters. But not in a way that detracts from the enjoyment of these characters. Deadshot is never fun in this film. He's supposed to be a heartless, psychopath who will kill anyone for money. Yet in this film he's a sweet, caring, goody. That's the main problem I have with this film. What they've done to the characters. They've taken some of the greatest, evilest DC characters and turned them into heroes. Now I understand that's the premise of the film, 'the badguys save the day'. And I like that idea. But they need to be badguys. And for the most part they're not. Talk about underwhelming characters. Say hello to the Joker. My favourite villain of all time. Who does LITERALLY nothing in this film. He's absolutely useless. If he wasn't in this film it would play out exactly the same way. He's only here to con people into buying a ticket. I think the director (David Ayer) was trying to channel Guardians of the Galaxy, but for DC, and unfortunately failed. Its nowhere near as funny, has boring action scenes. And where GOTG actually had heart, this film tries to hard to do the same. Which doesn't work with these characters! I've written quite a bit and its time I went to sleep, I was going to talk about the plot but since its so stupid, and uninspired I'd better not. I'm still trying to figure out these characters intentions. Please try and look past beyond the acting, and the explosions when you see this movie. Think about it.
Sicario (2015)
Terrific acting and a brutal story make this a haunting film.
I've never really thought greatly of Emily Blunt until I saw this film. I've seen a few of her other films, Edge of Tomorrow for instance. And whilst she's definitely been good. I've never been captivated by her performance. That is until now. Unfortunately her character lacks a little strength that would otherwise make her not only a good FBI agent, but a powerful heroine. In a lot of scenes she's sort of just there. Not really doing much besides complaining. Which is understandable since she has virtually no clue what's happening. At the same time that's part of the fun of this film. We the audience are just like her. We're lost, confused, and quite scared. One 10 second shot, which I'll definitely remember, is when she and the other agents are driving through a slum in Mexico and they see four naked mutilated corpses hanging in plain view under an overpass. This is the kind of world Kate Macy (Emily Blunt) has entered. Its grim, bloody, and no one but the children care for one another. Its a world where I wouldn't want to spend even a second. Filled with gunfire, explosions, drugs, and death. The two strong points of this film are easily Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro's performances. They're exact opposites. Blunt is in deep water, afraid yet still moral. Whereas Del Toro is swimming gracefully through this film, controlling everyone and everything along with the help of his 'friends' who will forever remain in the shade. In short, this is a good film, filled with powerful, shivering scenes and gripping performances. I just wish Emily Blunt had more to do.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
The ending needs work.
Tom Cruise always brings his best in any action role he plays, and this is no exception. This is the start of a great franchise. Unfortunately the final act is more than disappointing, its ridiculous. It ruins the entire tone of the film. It involves far too many betrayals, randomly appearing skin masks, and an over-the- top, unsatisfying action sequence. Like all action films it ends with a fight scene. But this one just doesn't have enough weight to be enjoyable. It involves a helicopter following a train through the tunnel connecting Britain to France. How a pilot would ever be able to avoid crashing is god's work. And overall the way Ethan Hunt (Cruise) deals with the bad guys is annoyingly too linear. He sticks a 'chewing gum bomb' onto the front of the helicopter jumps towards the train before it blows up, propelling him safely on board whilst his enemies burn to a crisp behind him. I wish the film had a more intelligent ending. Because despite the bewilderingly convoluted story it is a clever film. Mine (and most peoples) favourite scene, has Cruise suspending from a wire, whilst breaking into the most highly guarded building in Langley, Virginia (guess which place that is). That scene has everything, tension, humour, ingenuity and strong performances. There's two reasons I didn't give this film I higher score, 1. The ending is, by definition, impossible (maybe that's what they were going for, but I still find it a mistake), and 2. The plot is overly complicated (which trying to make intelligent) ends up being rather stupid. However, its still an enjoyable 110 minutes.
Ran (1985)
Absolutely brilliant on every level!
The German artist Caspar David Friedrich once said that "The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself." That is exactly what Director Akira Kurosawa has done with Ran. The story of a 70 year old warlord in feudal Japan who hastily decided's to split his thrown into three and leave it to his sons. Kurosawa was 76 when he directed this film, and shares many similarities with the central character Hidetora. The eldest Taro receives the first castle and becomes leader of the Ichimonji clan. The other sons Jiro, and Saburo are given castle's two and three. As I'm sure you can imagine things start to rapidly go downhill as Taro and Jiro's motives are soon shown crystal clear. Their greed is ultimately what led to chaos sinking its blooded teeth into the land. And soon Saburo who is cast out by his father raises an army in the hopes of securing peace across Japan. One excellent thing I noticed in this film is the subtle foreshadowing implemented into many scenes. There's an early scene where Saburo (who I initially thought would be the bad egg) insults two of Hidetora's subjects. After he's embarrassed his family the brothers get up and leave, but not before Saburo cuts down some bushes and uses them as shade for his sleeping father. That tiny detail cements his love and respect for Hidetora. The central theme to this film is 'chaos'. The word Ran even means chaos. And there's lots of intelligent scenes which foreshadow the oncoming mayhem. Such as short cuts of clouds ever growing larger until they've become uncontrollable storms. I really cannot say enough good things about this film. But this review has stretched on, so I'll leave it with this. Ran, is without a doubt the best Shakespeare adaptation ever put to screen, and in my personal opinion the greatest Kurosawa film there is.
Carol (2015)
A sweet and thoughtful look at 'hidden love' in the 50's.
For me the one scene that can be used to describe the situation that Therese (Rooney Mara) is in, is when she's talking to her 'sort-of' boyfriend Richard (Jake Lacy) about homosexuality. She asks him "Have you ever been in love with a boy." His reaction is not offensive or cruel, its just how most people behaved 60 years ago. Of course he says no, and tells her he's 'heard of people who do things like that, but don't know any'. He does now. On the surface Therese is a walled off, stoic shopkeeper with a passion for photography. She lives alone, is undecided about Richard, and seeks something she doesn't understand just yet. This is until Carol (Cate Blanchett) walks into her shop. They fit together like a puzzle of a bird ready for flight, and in little time are on the road together fleeing their old lives. Most of the time Carol works perfectly. The love between them feels real, and organic. You can see why they need each other. The performances are superb with Cate Blanchett, at times, giving a blissful show, and other times a distressing exhibition of how trapped her character is. One of the best directed films of 2015. And probably the best film their is about lesbianism.