Silence (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written January 1st, 2017*

"You gotta have faith"

I've always been a huge fan of Martin Scorsese, so my expectations for Silence were at an all-time high, and those expectations managed to be exceeded as Scorsese delivers one of the most intimate, personal and emotional films of his career.

This is a far cry from the fast-paced debauchery of Scorsese's previous film 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (Which I loved), Silence is instead a much quieter and personal film with spurts of tension and brutality.

As an Atheist, I wasn't entirely sure how I would feel about a film centred around Christian faith. While I find their beliefs utter nonsense, you have to feel sorry for the torture and hell these people were put through purely because of what they believe. The methods of the Japanese in this situation during the 1600's was absolutely barbaric, and Scorsese's precise direction captures the brutality of this perfectly. This was nearly 3 hours of pure harrowing horror.

It's shown extremely risky to create a faith based film that is actually good. The most popular example I can think of is the 'God's Not Dead' series, which is just cheap, offensive, misguided propaganda with a completely one-sided viewpoint. Silence does not suffer from any of the problems those disasterpieces do.

I felt very much the same way watching this as I did The Revenant. It's nearly 3 hours long, but perfectly paced, never boring and completely exhausting by the end of it. I can't imagine this is one I'd rewatch often.

In terms of performances, everyone was excellent. Andrew Garfield gets a lot of flack, but he is front and centre here, giving it his all. Giving us a heartfelt performance that captures his struggle of questioning his faith and questioning God when he sees the horrors of what goes on in Japan in his quest to find Liam Neeson's priest with Adam Driver after Neeson publicly denounces his faith.

While Andrew Garfield is clearly the lead with the most screen-time, the other two 'leads' do a great job. Adam Driver gives one of his best performances, while Liam Neeson makes every second count from his role that is nothing more than an extended cameo.

Even with the excellent performances, compelling story and emotional highs. Where Silence is at its best is with its visuals. Scorsese has crafted the best looking film of his career. Every shot is gorgeous. From its long lingering landscapes to its haunting final image that will stay with me, Scorsese has raised the bar for how beautiful films can be in 2017. Bravo.

Silence surpassed every expectation from me. Visually striking, haunting, intense and wonderfully acted. Another masterpiece from Scorsese in a long line of masterpieces. 2017 is shaping up to be a great year for films.

10/10 Dans

Silence is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK

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Hacksaw Ridge (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written July 16th, 2017*

"War is Hell"

Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge is certainly one of the better World War 2 films I've seen recently, but it's not without its problems. While Gibson delivers one of the most visceral war experiences on screen since Saving Private Ryan, he sadly blows his load on over the top, patriotic cheesy bullshit the film spent so long trying to avoid until its ludicrous final 5 minutes.

When I say Gibson delivers a visceral World War 2 experience, I mean it. Once the second half kicks in as we hit the battlefield, Hacksaw Ridge becomes one of the most disturbing, horrifying and grotesque visions of war I've ever seen. Gibson pulls no punches. Men are torn in half, burnt and turned into mushy puddles of flesh in a harrowing prolonged scene that introduces us to war. Gibson directs all the war imagery with the utmost precision I would expect from such a talented director.

Where the film faulters however is the first half before we get to the war. I'm not saying the first half is bad, it's just full of odd moments that are at odds with its second half and Andrew Garfield's lead character can be frustratingly annoying at times.

For the most part Andrew Garfield is very good, but a few times he slips into his mentally challenged portrayal of Peter Parker from the Amazing Spider-Man series. It feels weird to say, but it's true. He becomes weird, stuttery and a little slow. He also gets a little creepy around his love interest, despite some genuinely sweet scenes between them.

I know a lot of the film's themes surround faith and the compromises you need to make to help make a difference despite your beliefs, but Garfield's Desmond Doss annoyed me to a real extent. He's based on a real person, I understand, but the film hit breaking level points of my toleration for him. Doss refuses to even touch a weapon as he is a pacifist, which was just infuriating. He wants to be a medic and save people rather than take lives, but the way he goes about it with his overly humble sense of superiority made me want to punch him.

There are at least some more memorable characters that came off better. Vince Vaughn was surprisingly good as the hilarious commanding officer who stole every scene he was in, as was Hugo Weaving as Doss's alcoholic father who adds a lot to why Doss is why he is.

It's also a shame that Gibson decided to go full cringy "America, fuck yeah!" in the closing scenes, as the film avoided that for almost the entire runtime. The last scenes are a monstrosity of slow-motion American pandering and silly stuff like Garfield slapping a grenade in mid-air in slow-motion (I did not make that up) while the Japanese are easily defeated in a way I can only describe as "Gratuitous" and possibly offensive.

I feel like I'm talking pretty negatively about Hacksaw Ridge, but I actually liked it quite a lot. Mel Gibson is one of the few actors turned directors that can deliver excellent films with a gorgeous visual style and Andrew Garfield is a very good despite my complains. Hacksaw Ridge is one of the most graphic and visceral depictions of war made so far, I'd say it's worth checking out, especially if you're into war films.

8/10 Dans

Hacksaw Ridge is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written June 30th, 2017*

"Dead franchise on arrival" It's the best I had in my head.....

Well, I'm finally at the end of my series of Spider-Man reviews (Thank god) before the next reboot 'Homecoming' comes out in the week. It's been a long and interesting journey, with mostly lows, but a couple of high, it's just a shame that the series ends on this low note of shit.

Did Sony learn NOTHING from the failure of Spider-Man 3? Like, seriously? The reason Spider-Man 3 failed was because of too many villains, far too much plot and it was way too long. So they did it again. Are they fucking retarded? I'd honestly like to know if the people behind this mess had IQ's in the double digits, because I seriously doubt it.

There are some moments of good in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Ah, how I missed the simplicity of numbered sequels), but they are undercut by such cancerous awfulness. Everything feels off and is extremely underdeveloped. Electro and Rhino should have been scrapped right off the bat and this should have purely been about Peter Parker and Harry Osbourne. Eveything else was unnecessary filler.

It doesn't help by the lack of effort put in by the actors. Jamie Foxx is atrocious, hamming it up to 11, which could have been fun, but comes off as painful. The design is ugly and looks fake as hell. All his scenes are accompanied by this lame and cringy dubstep score. Dear god, I forgot how bad that shit was. Paul Giamatti amounted to 3 minutes of screentime, all his scenes were in the trailers. He is equally as embarassing to watch, complete with a hokey Russian accent. It's a shame to see such accomplished actors reduce themselves to this.

Dane DeHaan fares a bit better than the rest as Harry Osbourne/Green Goblin. He's pretty good at the problem child thing by now (He was much better in The Place Beyond the Pines though). His character falls apart once he becomes Green Goblin and becomes a fuck ugly mix of CGI and poor make-up. They at least attempt to build up Harry and Peter's relationship with a cringy montage.

Being an action-heavy superhero film, I am failing to recall any memorable action. Nothing was unique or stood out, The only thing my brain can recall is how ugly and cartoony the CGI looked in a lot of the scenes. I'd go as far as saying there's not even anything here as good as the school fight in the last film.

The positives I'd say out of this mess are Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone once again show genuine chemistry. Garfield also played Peter Parker as much less mentally challenged this time, which was good. I also much preferred the costume here than in the first one, it reminded me a lot more of Raimi's Spider-Man 2 costume.

They also take a huge risk by actually killing the love-interest at the end of the film in a surprisingly brutal way (Surprising if you haven't read the comics. Which I haven't). It was a ballsy move that would have been much more appreciated in a film that wasn't such a trainwreck. I would like to see more superhero films murdering lead characters and not bringing them back. Looking at you Batman v Superman.

Another big mistake this film makes is its obsession of trying expand its world rather than tell an interesting story. It introduces a retarded amount of subplots that were never answered or even asked for. Wanna know the mystery behind Parker's parents? Well... you're never gonna get that answer. 

Hell, we still never got the Uncle Ben stuff resolved from the last film. Don't get me started on all the Oscorp shit. Fuck me.... There was one scene that was just dying to be a launching pad for spin-off films, but the franchise died and is now shared with Marvel. So we'll see what happens with that.

That's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a complete mess, overstuffed, long, boring and forgettable, but never as offensive as the "Emo" scenes from Spider-Man 3, still painfull though. Your move, Disney, Save Spider-Man.

4/10 Dans

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written June 21st, 2017*

"With great power, comes a mediocre reboot"

The Amazing Spider-Man is something I remember enjoying when it was released, despite being a pissed off 15 year old who was annoyed we never got Raimi's Spider-Man 4. I never loved it, but I did enjoy it. Now, however, I found it to be the film equivalent of chewing gum for two hours that has lost its flavour.

I was never offended by this reboot, but it just walked a fine line of mediocrity during its entire, bloated 137 minute run-time. The biggest crime Marc Webb's film commits is probably being far too familiar and certainly unnecessary. 

Rather than do something new or interesting, we're once again given Spider-Man's origin story. It's far too similar to the first Sam Raimi film, despite being different. We see scenes we've seen before, Peter going after who killed Uncle Ben (Which is a subplot that is dropped and never mentioned again), him discovering his powers, a big villain who's the result of a science experiment gone wrong. It's all just really dull, despite flashes of something better that is potentially underneath the surface. Oh, they do the whole "Beam in the sky" finale here too... urgh.

Andrew Garlfield is better than I remember when he's actually Spider-Man (I love the look and design of the suit) and he has some genuine chemistry with an underused Emma Stone, but when he's Peter Parker, he acts like a mentally challenged and twitchy Marty McFly and it is weird, so weird. I feel it's meant to be charming, but it comes off as all wrong.

Rhys Ifans doesn't fare much better as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard. We were given hints of The Lizard throughout Raimi's trilogy and we sadly never got him, but here he's pretty wasted. He looks like a terrible cartoony CGI mess and plays it very hammy and over the top. I noticed a weird scene where he's shouting, but his mouth wasn't moving, which is a goof. Sure, whatever, but I expect better from a film that cost this much. Again, his character is far too similar to Spider-Man's Green Goblin, another science experiment gone wrong who gives the host split personality.

There are some decent bits of action spread throughout. I liked some of the POV shots of Spider-Man going around the city, which I remember being in the teaser trailer for the film. I just wish there was more creative stuff on display, like the most of the film, everything is just very forgettable and vanilla.

The Amazing Spider-Man is an instantly forgettable and mostly dull attempt at rebooting Spider-Man by rehashing a lot of stuff we've seen before.   

5/10 Dans

The Amazing Spider-Man is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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