Spectre (2015) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written October 31st, 2015*

"Some great Bondage"

After the insane standard that Skyfall set back in 2012, it was suspected that Spectre would never live up to its hype, but my god, Spectre was just 100% gravy, I loved every minute and I'm even torn between what I loved more, this Casino Royale or Skyfall.

Sam Mendes returns to the directors chair in a story that bring Bond head to head with a mysteries organisation called 'S.P.E.C.T.R.E.' that has links to his past and is run by mastermind Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz).

In many ways it feels like Spectre is a finale to Daniel Craig's run as Bond, it ties up and brings all his films full circle, even Quantum of Solace, although the film tries its hardest no to bring that up to much. It turns out that all on Craig's previous villains were part of Spectre. I saw some reviews saying it felt cheap and unearned, but I felt it worked.

Mendes once again delivers several excellent and memorable set-pieces. Opening with a gorgeous tracking shot in Mexico for Day of the Dead that is filmed to look like one long take, it was beautiful and certainly got Spectre off to an amazing start. The rest of the action scenes are great too, we get a brutal close-quarters fight between Bond and henchman Mr. Hinx on a train that reminded me of From Russia with Love and a fantastic car chase through the streets of Rome.

What helps Spectre a lot is its return to a slightly more lighter tone, while still maintaining its dark seriousness. Since Casino relaunched the series, people have complained about its tone. Casino started dark and brutal, showing how Bond become Bond, Quantum just derailed everything, Skyfall was a step closer to the Bond we know and Spectre feels like the first fully fledged Bond film in a long time. It relies heavily on the formula that makes Bond iconic, but still feels extremely fresh.

We still have the locations, the girls and the over the top villain who is played marvellously by an always amazing Christoph Waltz, he does his usual and lovable Waltz thing, but that makes him no less great and memorable. Dave Boutista was awesome too, bring a henchman that feels like a classic with his quite demeanour and menacing size, he even gets a gorgeous kill that involves eye gouging, which was extremely brutal, even by Bond's recent standard of violence.

Craig is as good as ever as James Bond, he really seems to have the role tied down now, brimming with the charm and charisma that is needed for the role, while still doing some really audacious and bone-breaking physical work.

Lea Seydoux was really great as the Bond girl, she felt like the most human of Craig's women since Casino Royale's Vesper, she had solid chemistry with Craig and felt fairly genuine that they would fall in love by the end, even leaving an open ending for them that could hopefully be resolved tragically at the beginning of the next film. I won't even mention Monica Belluci, as her role felt like a glorified cameo that barely rounded up to five minutes of screen-time, which was weird as she was heavily featured in the advertisement and posters leading up to the release. 

Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomi Harris all return as Bond's MI6 team. They were all great and each had there own moments to shine, the finale even felt like the recent Mission Impossible films where they all had a role to play and something to do.


If Spectre is Craig's last outing as Bond, then this was a damn satisfying way to do it, with a story that brings things full circle and completes the story while leaving the door open to more instalments. Filled with everything that makes Bond great, Spectre might just be the best of Craig's films and maybe even the best of the whole series. I just hope someone can fill the huge gap Mendes will leave now that he has said he won't be returning to direct the series anymore.

9/10 Dans

Spectre is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Defiance (2008) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written October 12th, 2017*

"Fuck Zwick"

While a solid war film, Zwick's clunky sentimentality and script gets in the way of what could have been a great war film. Daniel Craig is great as the lead, once you get past his accent. There is also some decent and visceral action, it's a shame it's ruined by some strange creative choices. There's a set-piece where the Jewish rebels have to steal medicine for their camp and it's done in this really strange slow-motion that made me think my disc might have been scratched. It was so out of place.

I did like the morality side of things. These rebels were portrayed in a very grey area, which is a risky move in a film about Jewish people fighting back in World War 2. They could have gone completely one sided, but it definitely helped the film by having these murky morals.

This script had some really cringey and bad lines too. At one point Daniel Craig's love interest tells him "You saved me", to which he responded "No. You saved me". Brutal. There's some more lines like that spread throughout, not that I remember much of it. 

Also, featured the obligatory "Lead actor is in an explosion, gets up and sees the chaos around him while the noise is droned out by ringing". Lame.  


I have a feeling revisiting Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai as an adult might be a bad idea at some point. Zwick is not a very good director. Defiance is still far from his godawful low point of a Jack Reacher sequel though.

6/10 Dans

Defiance is out now on Blu-ray and DVD
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Logan Lucky (2017) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written September 7th, 2017*

"Oceans 7/11"

Steven Soderbergh is a director I've never massively loved and his films have been very hit and miss for me. I must be honest though, he has a very varied and unique body of work, so I was interested to see him return to directing after his self-imposed and very brief retirement.

Logan Lucky follows three siblings who in financial straits, decide to rob a NASCAR race with the help of an incarcerated inmate and his two brothers. 

I'll get my brief problems with Logan Lucky out the way first. The heist itself is a bit convoluted and confusing at times. I wasn't entirely sure what everyone's role was and I had a hard time grasping a few of the twists at the end and how it all made sense. Seth MacFarlane was also woefully miscast as a British NASCAR driver. There's a bit of strange character choices too, the decision for the brothers to rob the speedway was also kinda just comes out of nowhere.

These were all things I could overlook however, because Logan Lucky is a blast. I love heist films and I'm so happy we have a new one from the director of Ocean's 11 (A trilogy I need to revisit soon). There's even a joke in the film referring to the heist as "Oceans 7/11". 

The cast are fantastic, filled with tons of memorable characters, even if the females of the film are very underused (Why was Katie Holmes even in this for such a thankless role?). I was worried by Daniel Craig in the trailer, I imagined he'd be the violent and unpredictable member of the team, but I was pleasantly surprised and he was one of my favourite things about it. His insane look and accent really stole the show. It's such a stretch from James Bond I couldn't believe it was him.

Adam Driver is also wonderful as the one-armed brother of Channing Tatum. Both of which deliver comedy extremely well. Tatum brings the heart of the film with the relationship with his daughter as he robs the speedway as he tries to get back in time for her performance at a beauty pageant. (On a side note, how fucking creepy are children's beauty pageants? There is nothing about them that doesn't make me want to vomit).

A lot of the comedy really lands here too. There was one excellent joke referencing George R.R. Martin and the Song of Ice and Fire book series that took me off guard. It's rare a joke about contemporary pop-culture actually works without feeling cringey and pandering. I also get the feeling Steven Soderbergh really hates smartphones and social media based on the constant references to how much Tatum's character hates it (I agree though). It was a Scottish setting away from being Ewan McGregor's "Choose Life" speech from T2 Trainspotting.

Soderbergh always keeps things moving and the film runs at a fast-pace while managing to keep every character likeable and easy to root for. The heist itself is a bit confusing like I mentioned, but it is a lot of fun and delivers some really cool and creative stuff. The idea itself to rob a speedway during NASCAR was very unique and was nice to see a heist film that wasn't just a bank. But like South Park taught me, NASCAR really is just for poor and stupid people.

It's a shame Logan Lucky did so poorly at the box-office, because I would have loved to have more adventures with these really memorable characters. Audiences complain about a lack of original films, but then they ignore films like this and only go see stuff like Marvel and DC. It's frustrating to say the least. Support original films if you want to see more of them!


Logan Lucky is a blast and a welcome return for Steven Soderbergh who delivers a fast, fun and extremely entertaining heist film with heart and a cast of interesting characters.

8/10 Dans

Logan Lucky is out now in cinemas in the UK
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Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written August 31st, 2017*

"Pure cheese"

I'm not going to defend Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and pretend it's great, or even good, but I will defend my childhood nostalgia I have for it. I've always been a big fan of the games (I've played all of them, bar a few) and I remember having this on DVD as a young child and watching it a lot. An 8 year old Dan may have proclaimed this as "The best film ever" at some point. 

While I am far removed from that opinion, I still think there is a lot of fun to be had with this. It's easily one of the best game to movie adaptations there has ever been, although that's not a hard thing to do. I'm hoping 2018's Tomb Raider film will be a genuinely good film, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

This 2001 film starring Angelina Jolie is a loose adaptation that kinda misses the point of the games. Which is weird to say as there is a lot here that makes the games great. You got an extremely sexy Jolie kicking-ass, raiding tombs and globetrotting, but all the plot is nonsense.

I'm not entirely sure what happened with the massively convoluted story, but I still had some fun with it. Simon West's direction includes some very fun, albeit cheesy action scenes. The CGI on display is abhorrent at worst, it reminded me a lot of a PS1 cutscene at times (Not an intentional reference to its source material I assume). There is some really entertaining choreography to the fights, an early scene where armed mercenaries storm the Croft mansion as Lara fights them  on a rope is pretty creative.

I was surprised at how great Jolie is as Lara Croft. She's sexy, smart and handles action scenes very well. She has the character down and even holds a decent British accent. 

It's the rest of the cast that falter. Iain Glenn is wasted as a very unimpressive villain who is instantly forgettable. Noah Taylor is absolutely horrific as the "comic relief" fuelling the with such cringe inducing lines that made me wanna vomit. Then we had Daniel Craig as the sort of love interest who carries a bizarre American accent. It makes no sense to me that they'd cast a Brit as an American when they could have just made the character British and not forced the audience to suffer through such a terrible accent.

The soundtrack was decent for the most part. With some very early 2000's sounding pieces of score for the action scenes and it's always nice to hear Basement Jaxx's 'Where's Your Head At' to close a film. 

It's worth noting that I also loved the Resident Evil movie when I was a kid too, but now I hate that, but I still like this, so that counts for something of the quality of Tomb Raider, right? I've always hated the sequel to this, but I'll be watching it again very soon, so see how that goes.


I don't have anything else to say. Tomb Raider is what it is, an early 2000's adaptation of a much better video game franchise, but if you grew up watching this, then I'm sure you can get something out of it. Plus, it's Angelina Jolie in tight clothes shooting people. What more do you want?

6/10 Dans

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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