Loved

The Infiltrator

“A U.S. Customs official uncovers a money laundering scheme involving Pablo Escobar.” (IMDB)

Bryan Cranston is one of my favorite actors of all time. Team him up with John Leguizamo who is yet another favourite and chances were this was going to be a winner even if the script is terrible.. but it wasn’t terrible. It was great. I loved everything about it. It felt slightly like a bit more upmarket version of Donnie Brasco.

The costumes, the lighting, the amazing homes on occasion contrasted with the reality of the lives of those undercover. Underneath it all there was this great tension, like at any minute everything could go very wrong indeed, and now and then things did go very wrong.

This movie did receive some mixed reviews elsewhere. Diane Kruger was impossibly gorgeous, Benjamin Bratt appears in a very silver foxy role – and silver suits him – Juliet Aubrey was great as the long suffering wife of an undercover agent and Olympia Dukakis has a small but effortlessly fabulous part especially delightful for those of us who have loved her since the mid 80’s.

I do feel the need to read the book this was based on now.

Liked

Life

“A photographer for Life Magazine is assigned to shoot pictures of James Dean.” (IMDB)

Dane DeHaan and Robert Pattinson together on screen. I should have been literally glued to my chair, laptop lid closed, watching this. I’ve been fans of both of these guys for years now. Sadly the movie did not grab me. I found the runaround that James Dean gave Dennis Stock far too annoying. In fact the way he treated everyone deeply irritated me.

I think the truth is, Dane was doing way too good a job here of almost inhabiting the skin of James Dean and I just did not like that guy. It probably does not help that I know almost nothing about him and have never seen any of his movies. I am sure if you are a James Dean fan perhaps you would have enjoyed this movie far more than I did.

The one time this movie did grab me was when James went to a dance at his old high school. On that occasion he was charming and lovely to the people there. If this movie had been about that guy I saw in that moment, I probably would have loved this. But by all accounts, that is not who James Dean was at all.

Robert Pattinson has a habit of choosing not great projects. I sat through a couple of really deeply terrible movies just because he was in them. I mean, hello, The Rover. This one was ok and he was ok in it. But not ok enough to keep my laptop closed for the entire movie.

The costumes were pretty great, as were the locations. In general this movie was very well done. It is just a shame the person it was all about was so annoying.

Disliked

Patriots Day

“The story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists responsible.” IMDB

Obviously as this is based on a real event where people were injured and killed, his movie is NOT for anyone who can’t deal with gory images. I understand they are kinda sorta telling the story of what happened but I think they could have gone a little lighter on showing the injuries.

Also I think if you are going to put an actor as well known as John Goodman into heavy makeup and dark eyebrows to resemble someone else, that is a Not Great idea. Every time I heard his voice I was freaked out by what he looked like. It also has Kevin Bacon which is never a bad thing.

Mark Wahlberg is pretty incredible in his role, but I am a fan of his. If you don’t like him you are probably not going to enjoy this movie, because his character is central to everything that happened – and it is a completely fictional character. There was no one police officer involved in almost every aspect of the bombing and aftermath. There were many wonderful people who did not have their part of the story told here.

That is where the film falls down for me – it is impossible to suspend my disbelief. I would have preferred a version with the “real” police officers played by actors, but then it would not have been so Wahlberg-esque. This is an important story and I feel it would have been better to stick to facts not make up a convenient character for “movie” reasons.

I was quite horrified at what they did with the “interrogation” of the wife, especially holding up a printed out photo of her dead husband which I do suspect may have been the real image, I never saw it myself though so I can’t be certain. That was unexpected and quite gory and unnecessary.

On the plus side, I did think J.K. Simmons was amazing as Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese especially in the Watertown shootout scenes. Alex Wolff as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Themo Melikidze as Tamerlan Tsarnaev did some amazing work in tough roles as the terrorist brothers. Jimmy O. Yang was incredible as Dun Meng and that particular aspect of the story is one many are unaware of.

Would I recommend it as a movie to watch? That is such a difficult question. Probably not and that is a shame. This was a missed opportunity to tell the real story of what happened, not some half-real half-fake version.

All of these movies are older movies from 2015 and 2016. They would now be available on DVD as well as via various movie streaming services. 

Loved

The Siege of Jadotville

“Irish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during the early 1960s.” IMDB

Unknown to a lot of the world, Jamie Dornan is in fact an excellent actor. If you’d seen any of the Fifty Shades shiznit you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. If you’d seen The Fall, the Irish series in which Jamie plays a serial killer you would know how excellent he is. If they give him some good material and allow him to use his Irish accent the results are sure to be fantastic.

There is a quite a bit of swearing in this movie. It is understandable given the situation the characters are placed in. I felt a bit like swearing just watching it. I did not know anything about this historical event and this is exactly the reason why movies like this are made.

The rest of the cast truly stepped up to the plate, in particular Conor MacNeill and Sam Keeley were stand outs. It was so wonderful that they could include the grandson of Pat Quinlan in the cast.

What an incredible – and surprisingly uplifting – story – none of which I will spoil for you – and it is told extremely well. I think this might be one of the best movies I am likely to see this year. We will see!

Death Comes To Pemberley

“Elizabeth and Darcy, now six years married, are preparing for their annual ball when festivities are brought to an abrupt halt. “ IMDB

Technically this is a 3 part mini-series, not a movie. This was made in 2013. I saw it back then and loved it but a recent read of the book inspired a rewatch.

Some members of the cast who were unknown to me on first viewing have gone on to significant careers – in particular Matthew Rhys appeared in The Americans, Matthew Goode appeared in decent roles in The Good Wife and Downton Abbey just after making this, Jenna Coleman has gone on to a huge starring role in Victoria, Eleanor Tomlinson went on to a fantastic role in Poldark and James Norton next appeared in War and Peace and Happy Valley.

Essentially this little mini series packs a huge punch not just in star power but also in excellence overall – the production quality is incredibly high, the locations are gorgeous, the costumes are very well done. It is everything great about British television in one beautiful package and I highly recommend you find it and watch it. While Colin Firth will always be my favourite Mr Darcy, I think Matthew Rhys did an excellent job here, and his sideburns were very impressive indeed.

Liked

Z for Zachariah

“In the wake of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization, two men and a young woman find themselves in an emotionally charged love triangle as the last known survivors.” IMDB

I loved this book growing up, it is one that I borrowed many times from the library but I never owned it. It has been a long time since I read the book. I enjoyed this movie because Chiwetel Ejiofor is an incredible actor – I have loved him since Kinky Boots. Margot Robbie was great.

But then The Eyebrows AKA Chris Pine showed up. I’d forgotten he was in the movie. This took the movie from loved to liked for me. Your mileage may vary. Maybe you like The Eyebrows. :)

The Whole Truth

“A defense attorney works to get his teenage client acquitted of murdering his wealthy father.” IMDB

This is a courtroom drama with Keanu Reeves and Renee Zellweger. It should have been excellent. The whole truth is, the storylines were terrible. I get the concept the writer was going for, to try and have all these possible truths and only one whole truth, but one of the possible truths they went with was just plain cringeworthy to say the least.

The idea of having the person on trial flat out refusing to speak to their lawyer or anyone else at all felt quite ridiculous. If you are a fan of Keanu or Renee, you may enjoy this even despite the bad storylines. Even though I enjoyed their performances enough to put this film in the liked category, I would not recommend this film to anyone else.

Disliked

Fifty Shades Darker

“While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her.” IMDB

I liked the first movie and I am a big fan of both Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson but boy did the director really screw this up. Or maybe it is all the fault of E L James herself. Maybe the only reason the first movie was semi-good was because the director worked and fought hard to get her own vision on the screen and not the vision of the book author.

Though why the vision of any author or any director would have Anastasia running around in her underwear and yet Christian wears track pants in the gym.. that will forever remain a mystery. I have never seen a man have so much sex with his clothes on as Christian Grey does.

I’ll watch the last one but only because I like completion and I like the two main stars. It was the same director for the final two movies and they were filmed all at once so I expect Freed to be just as dismal.

The Intern

“70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker has discovered that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin.” IMDB

I thought this was going to be great but wow, what a waste of a great cast. I would have said you can’t really take Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro and create a stinker of a movie but boy they sure accomplished that. This was bad. Very very bad. If you are looking for a great “workplace” movie, my suggestion is Morning Glory, track that down and give this one a big miss.