Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 1/1/18. Viewed: 29/12/17.

Director: Martin McDonagh

Actors: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones

Genre: Mystery/Drama/Comedy

Rating: MA

  

‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is the third film from writer/director McDonagh (of ‘In Bruges’ & ‘Seven Psychopaths’ fame), and continues his themes of taking something quite bleak/violent (in this case the murder of a woman’s daughter) and building situations with characters around it that can still be funny. Mildred (McDormand) is the focus here, and she rents three billboards from Red (Landry Jones) to call out the police for not finding her daughter’s murderer, so Chief Willoughby (Harrelson) is put in a tight spot.

Dixon (Rockwell) is one of his cops and has a great part as the dimwitted, slightly-bigoted younger cop. McDormand is exceptional as the ultra-focused and hard-nosed grieving mother, with a few layers. Harrelson is also good, but Cornish as his wife has the weirdest Australian/Southern accent mash-up I’ve ever heard! And the age-gap there is hard to comprehend… The only shame is Dinklage doesn’t get more screen time, but still good seeing him.

It’s odd that it was all filmed in North Carolina, not Missouri, as there’s some beautiful scenery shots that definitely don’t look like St Louis! Also worth noting that Ebbing’s not a real place. The mystery and investigation is handled quite well and realistically, but the attention here is on anger – misplaced or otherwise – and how it can consume people and create a destructive cycle.  Not the best use of music and not quite a perfect ending, but a very solid film.

Overall: Part funny, part bleak, all quite well done.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Coco (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/12/17. Viewed: 27/12/17.

Directors: Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina

Actors: Anthony Gonzalez, Benjamin Bratt, Gael Garcia Bernal, Renee Victor

Genre: Adventure/Comedy

Rating: PG

  

‘Coco’ is another Disney-Pixar animation instant-classic, with an excellent, touching story, good music, in testing characters and great visuals. It’s also something a bit different – set in Mexico and following Miguel (Gonzalez), a boy who is accidently trapped in the Land of the Dead as he tries to escape. Even though all the spirits are depicted as skeletons, it’s not as sinister as it sounds – still very suitable for kids.

Miguel gets transported to the Land of the Dead on “Dia de Muertos” (“Day of the Dead”, when Mexicans honour their ancestors), after trying to learn more about his great-great grandfather (Coco’s dad), who was a famous musician – De La Cruz (Bratt – has a hilarious death). With him for the journey is Dante the dog, who provides a lot of the laughs. It’s great to see Miguel meeting and interacting with his great uncles and great aunties, who he’s only heard about. Plenty of colour, movement and imagination went into the Land of the Dead and it looks great – basically a tiered seaside village. Miguel is helped on his journey to find De La Cruz by Hector (Bernal), who’s trying to visit the Land of the Living, as he’s afraid he’s being forgotten and will soon cease to exist.

If you don’t have tears in your eyes at some point, then you’re probably dead and already in the Land of the Dead! The final 30min is exceptional, with a great twist and plenty of heartwarming moments. This is almost as good as ‘Up’ – huge praise from me! There’s some laughs, some songs, lots of fun, but most importantly the film really highlights the importance of family and honouring those who have come before you – extremely touching at times.

Overall: An extremely enjoyable film.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Pitch Perfect 3 (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 1/1/18. Viewed: 22/12/17.

Director: Trish Sie

Actors: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

  

‘Pitch Perfect 3’ is quite similar to the first two films, revolving around the “Bellas” a cappella group – although this time they’re out of college and dealing with being grown-ups. So when the chance to reunite for one last set of shows arises, playing to US troops in Europe, they all jump at it. Not much more to the plot than that, except for a slight detour with Amy’s Dad (Lithgow), which doesn’t add a whole lot, except him doing a horrible Aussie accent.

There’s some crap songs and a few decent ones, but they always make them interesting to watch/listen to and the film always has plenty to keep it’s momentum up – Beca (Kendrick) obviously getting the most screen time and a satisfying conclusion. Amy (Wilson) has a good number of funny lines and Chloe (Snow) has a bit more to do, and the other seven each get a few moments to shine.

I still wish there was more of Elizabeth Banks & John Michael Higgins as the commentators/documentary-makers, but they’re still great in every scene they’re in. It’s all predictable, but nonetheless uplifting and all about being there for your friends and following your dreams, while still being fun enough.

Overall: Fitting finale.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 14/12/17. Viewed: 14/12/17.

Director: Rian Johnson

Actors: Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

  

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ (Episode VIII) has a big challenge – live up to the original trilogy and build upon the solid foundation laid by ‘The Force Awakens’. It achieves both in parts, but probably not overall. If Episode VII was reminiscent of ‘A New Hope’, Episode VIII doesn’t really emulate ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ too much. It starts with a pretty good space battle between The Resistance and the First Order, with Poe Dameron (Issac) and General Hux (Gleeson) the main players. Poe’s a great character, but probably needed more of him. The characters are all in different locations, so the film spends a bit of time hopping between them – Luke (Hamill) and Rey (Ridley) are on Ahch-To; Leia (Fisher) is with Poe on a ship being chased by Hux & her son, Kylo Ren (Driver); Finn (Boyega) is on a mission with Rose (Tran) at Canto Bight, a casino planet.

Unlike the original and prequel trilogies, ‘The Last Jedi’ doesn’t pick up a few years later – it’s almost the next day. Some of my main issues with the film are because of this – The First Order had their massive “Starkiller Base” (and seemingly thousands of soldiers) destroyed at the end of Episode VII, so how do they suddenly have two of the biggest spaceships ever seen? Where are all their resources coming from? My other gripes are that’s it’s probably a little too long (2 hours 30min), we don’t learn where Snoke came from or how/why he’s so powerful/in charge, Laura Dern is not really needed, Benicio Del Toro’s character could’ve been done much better and we don’t see nearly enough of R2-D2, C-3PO, or Chewbacca. The film spends too much time in the space stand-off between Leia and Ren and is a bit disjointed cutting between what’s happening.

In saying all that, there’s plenty of positives, with Rey being the shining light in this new trilogy, and Ren continues to remain an interesting character. It’s good to see Luke have more screen time, even if he’s still brooding over his failure of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. The Porgs were funny and cute, not annoying as I thought they might be, Chewie finally gets a hug from Leia (something that annoyed me at the end of Episode VII) and there’s a few good lightsaber duels, and the final act with the AT-AT’s/sky-speeders is very well done.

Overall: Not the best of the franchise, but does enough to keep the momentum going for Episode IX.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Disaster Artist (December 2017)

Official Australian release date: 7/12/17. Viewed: 8/12/17.

Director: James Franco

Actors: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Alison Brie

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

  

‘The Disaster Artist’ is a homage/satire of the making of ‘The Room’, one of the so-called “worst movies ever”. Full disclosure: I’ve never seen ‘The Room’, as I’m not sure there’s such a thing as “so bad it’s good”… It obviously made enough of an impact for James Franco, who decided to imitate his muse – Tommy Wiseau – by producing, starring in and directing this film. Franco didn’t write it though – it’s based on the book by Greg Sestero, Tommy’s best friend, played by Franco’s brother, Dave. One of the film’s strong points is watching them onscreen together.

There’s an exceptional backing cast – Seth Rogen as a script editor, Alison Brie (Dave Fracno’s actual wife), as Greg’s girlfriend, Ari Graynor as the female co-star, Jacki Weaver, Zac Efron, Paul Scheer, Megan Mullally, Jason Mantzoukas, Hannibal Buress, Sharon Stone, Judd Apatow, Bob Odenkirk. But the film is really carried by the Franco brothers – at least one of them is in every scene. The main revelation is how much James Franco looks like Tommy and the final 5min show a shot-by-shot comparison of some scenes, and it’s uncanny how close they got some of the diction and body language.

This is basically a film about making a film – an actual behind-the-scenes documentary might have been just as good. Not a whole lot happens really, and you know how it’s going to end. There’s plenty of funny moments, but I feel like it might be funnier if you’re familiar with ‘The Room’. Bit disappointed they didn’t actually resolve the mysteries of his age, place of birth & where his money comes from!

Overall: Mostly funny semi-parody.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Justice League (November 2017)

Official Australian release date: 16/11/17. Viewed: 16/11/17.

Director: Zack Snyder

Actors: Ben Affleck, Gal Godot, Henry Cavill, Ezra Miller

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

  

‘Justice League’ is the 5^th film in the DC Extended Universe and, after ‘Wonder Woman’, is their best attempt to compete with Marvel – even going as far as bringing in ‘The Avengers’ director, Joss Whedon, to write the screenplay. The director, Snyder (who also directed ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Batman V Superman’) is only given a “story by” credit. If you haven’t seen any of those three films, I suggest you do, as this film starts with Clark/Superman (Cavill) already dead and Batman/Bruce (Affleck) and Wonder Woman/Diana (Godot) pulling together a super-team to fight off some impending doom.

There’s the obligatory hour of introductions to each of the five main characters: Arthur/Aquaman (Momoa), Victor/Cyborg (Fisher), Barry/Flash (Miller, the best new character) – plus more screen time for Lois Lane (Adams), Martha Kent (Lane), Commissioner Gordon (Simmons) and Alfred (Irons), who are all kind of wasted. The plot is that they have to fight off an alien bent on destroying Earth, with his army of zombie-grasshoppers – directly ripped off from ‘Star Wars: Attack of the Clones’. It’s an odd choice, since this should technically be aimed at kids, but I’m not sure if I’d let anyone younger than 10 watch this…

But that’s part of the problem with the DCEU so far – it’s still trying to be dark and unforgiving, attempting to reach Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but not hitting any of the marks. Something’s just missing that doesn’t hold it all together as well as a Marvel film. And, odd as it may sound, there’s probably too much CGI here. Not a spoiler: obviously Superman comes back and helps save the day, but it begs the question – isn’t everyone a bit suspicious that Clark Kent is now somehow walking around? There’s some decent quips and a few funny moments, mostly thanks to Flash and some OK battle scenes. Plenty of enjoyable moments, but not quite a fully-formed faction film.

Overall: Not bad, not great, but a decent platform.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Thor: Ragnarok (October 2017)

Official Australian release date: 26/10/17. Viewed: 25/10/17.

Director: Taika Waititi

Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson

Genre: Action / Comedy

Rating: M

‘Thor: Ragnarok’ is the best ‘Thor’ film so far, and one of Marvel’s best overall – up there with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ for laughter and excitement. Thor (Hemsworth) has full licence from director Waititi (‘Boy’, ‘Hunt For The Wilderpeople’) to unleash all his humour and charm, which starts very early on, but still allowing big action/battle scenes to unfurl. Loki (Hiddleston) & Odin (Hopkins) are back, but so is their sister, Hela (Blanchett), Goddess of Death, intent on unleashing “Ragnarok” on Asgard – the end of days.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as Thor and Loki get trapped on a literal dump-planet, where we meet the Grandmaster (Goldblum) – basically an eccentric Roman emperor, who hosts Gladiator duels. Goldblum gets some great lines and steals almost every scene he’s in. This is where Hulk (Ruffalo) comes in and is apparently where he’s been since ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. Some great moments shared between Hulk and Thor, as Thor is trying to escape so he can rescue the people of Asgard from Hela. He’s helped by a fallen Valkyrie (Thompson), who eventually comes around.

The score is great, and while 80s-synth-ish, is mostly understated. What does stand out is the colour and vibrancy of almost every set – plenty to catch the eye in every shot. But what sets this film apart is it’s humour and pacing. Korg, a rock-monster (voiced by Waititi himself) has some great moments, especially since his Kiwi accent stands out so strongly against the rest of the cast. There’s a strong Antipodean slant to proceedings, with Waititi, Hemsworth, Blanchett, Karl Urban, Rachel House and Sam Neill all having an impact. A great fight scene at the end, but still plenty of quips and slapstick thrown in. End credit scene sets up ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ nicely.

Overall: Fun, fast and mostly light-hearted – really enjoyable.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Blade Runner 2049 (October 2017)

Official Australian release date: 5/10/17. Viewed: 6/10/17.

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Actors: Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Harrison Ford

Genre: Sci-Fi / Mystery

Rating: MA

‘Blade Runner 2049’ comes 35 years after the original – and you have to ask, “why?” Directed by Villeneuve (‘Arrival’) and only produced by Ridley Scott (why is he involved in his own sequel, but not directing?), it doesn’t even attempt to answer the main question of the first film – is Deckard (Ford) a replicant? Why is it always raining? Why do Ford & Leto only have a total of about four scenes between them? Why does it go for over 2 & a half hours?

There is some plot, with K (Gosling) being a replicant Blade Runner, tasked by Joshi (Wright) to track down runaway replicants, which leads to uncovering a mystery surrounding Deckard & Rachael. It takes 100min for Ford to even appear. In the meantime, Hans Zimmer tries to recreate the original’s iconic score, but not as synth-y and sometimes a bit too overwrought. There’s a lot of K interacting with Joi (de Armas), his ‘Her’-like holographic maid. Most of this is handled quite well, with the CGI of Joi interacting with the light and her surroundings done excellently. But, it doesn’t help move the film along at all.

There is occasional bits of action/violence, mostly thanks to Luv (Hoeks), but not enough to sustain the first two hours, with the clues slowly unravelling and not much excitement. It does pick up in the final 45min and has a passable ending, but mostly I’m left with the feeling of “it looks cool, but why do I care?” Good to see heaps more of the flying cars, and like ‘Star Wars’, everything looks realistic and “lived-in”, but most of the concepts have now been explored better by ‘Terminator’ and ‘Mad Max’.    

Overall: Visually stunning, but too long/slow, with not much emotional impact.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

The Lego Ninjago Movie (September 2017)

Official Australian release date: 21/9/17. Viewed: 24/9/17.

Directors: Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan

Actors: Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Jackie Chan, Michael Pena  

Genre: Animation / Comedy / Adventure

Rating: PG

‘The Lego Ninjago Movie’ is the third Lego film and while still good silly fun, it’s not as good as 2014’s original ‘The Lego Movie’. It’s definitely not bad, but seems to lack a little something – possibly due to their being three directors and nine(!) writers. Not sure why a straightforward kids’ movie needs so many cooks… I should also say that I’ve never watched the TV show, so have no background, other than having played with ninja Legos as a kid! Plot’s simple – Garmadon (Theroux) keeps trying to take over their island, so a group of ninjas fight him to protect it.

The ‘twist’ is that Garmadon’s estranged son, Lloyd (Franco) is the green ninja, leader of the Secret Ninjago Force. Along with fire ninja (Pena), ice ninja (Woods), lightning ninja (Nanjiani), earth ninja (Armisen) & water ninja (Jacobson), the six of them are trained by Master Wu (Chan). The all have awesome robot-things to fight Garmadon’s army (hilarious to see the actual Lego sharks that used to come with pirate sets!), but when a ‘monster’ is let loose in the city, they have to go on a journey of self discovery to save the island.

Obviously some father–son moments, but Jackie Chan is great as the narrator and Mr Miyagi figure. As with the other two Lego films, the best bits are the adult-oriented quips that go over the kids heads – the goat bit springs to mind! The best gag is a recurring one where Garmadon refers to his son as “La-loyd” – great point, why is there two ‘L’s in Lloyd? Really poor pop soundtrack and it did drag for a bit in the middle, but a satisfactory ending, with enough colour, action and jokes to make it enjoyable.

Overall: Fun & great for kids, but not earth-shattering.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (September 2017)

Official Australian release date: 21/9/17. Viewed: 23/9/17.

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Actors: Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Julianne Moore

Genre: Action / Comedy

Rating: MA

‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ is a more-than-adequate sequel to 2015’s ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’. It has as much – or possibly more – action, gun battles, explosions and spinning-camera shots. The star is, once again, Eggsy (Egerton), who’s the still humble but now more sophisticated secret agent, and his trusty sidekick, Merlin (Strong) who brings plenty of class and exposition. This time, the ‘baddie’ is Poppy (Moore), a drug kingpin who blackmails the US President to make all drugs legal so she can become legitimately rich and famous – she has fun with it & is almost as over-the-top as Samuel L Jackson was!

There’s still plenty of Bond elements – suits, jet-setting, martini’s, spy gadgets – but it’s all done 75% more hyper and with 100% more tongue-in-cheek. Forced on the run from the UK, Eggsy & Merlin seek refuge with “Statesman”, their US counterpart, where Champ (Bridges), Ginger (Berry), Whiskey (Pascal) & Tequila (Tatum) come into it. Bridges, Berry & Tatum barely have five scenes between them, but Pascal is good and Harry (Firth) is reintroduced here (through very dubious means!) Elton John has more scenes and is hilarious – an excellent cameo choice, and a fight set to ‘Saturday Night’s All Right For Fighting’ is superb. Tilde (Alstrom) is back as the girlfriend and gets a few good moments.

There’s plenty of humour and jokes throughout, and I found myself smiling more often than not. It’s probably a bit longer than necessary (140min) and has some slow points – and lots of dumb/unbelievable scenarios – but that’s half the fun! The action and comedy are balanced well again – still in for the third film!

Overall: Another enjoyable spy romp.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

It (September 2017)

Official Australian release date: 7/9/17. Viewed: 10/9/17.

Director: Andy Muschietti

Actors: Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Bill Skarsgard

Genre: Horror / Drama

Rating: MA

‘It’ is the “killer clown” horror film, based on Stephen King’s novel. It’s set in Derry, Maine in 1989, and kids keep going missing – including Bill (Lieberher)’s brother, Georgie (Scott). Bill and his “loser” friends – Richie (Wolfhand), Eddie (Grazer), Stanley (Oleff), Mike (Jacobs) & Ben (Taylor) – go searching for Georgie in their summer break, thinking he might be in the sewers. Of course, we’re introduced to Pennywise the clown (Skarsgard) before the titles, so we know what happened to Georgie.

If you don’t like clowns – this films not going to cure that! However, I didn’t find it really frightening, with some jumps (mostly thanks to the score), but not too much that it truly horrific or ultra-creepy. Sure, there’s some blood, some teeth, plenty of shadows and things popping up, but it never really felt to me like the kids were in too much danger. What is excellently conveyed is the apathy and “off”-ness of the adults, meaning it’s all up to Bill & the gang to figure out.

Ben figures out the “every 27 years” connection and Beth (Lillis) gets involved, after they’ve each encountered their worst fears and Pennywise. The film’s a great ode to friendship and sticking together – I just feel like it’s done better in ‘Stranger Things’, which is why it’s a shame Wolfhand is in both. This film is probably a bit longer than necessary, but has a good late-80s soundtrack and is better than the 1990 version. I’d say watch it – so long as you’re over 13…

Overall: Above-average horror/thriller.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Wind River (September 2017)

fficial Australian release date: 10/8/17. Viewed: 9/9/17.

Director: Taylor Sheridan

Actors: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene, Kelsey Asbille

Genre: Mystery / Drama

Rating: MA

‘Wind River’ is from the writer of ‘Sicario’ & ‘Hell or High Water’, but is only Sheridan’s second directorial effort, which makes it all the more impressive. It’s a really simple plot – a Native American teenager is found dead, by Lambert (Renner) in the Wind River reservation and Banner (Olsen) is the FBI agent assigned to solve the case. Lambert is a tracker and hunter ad knows the terrain, so helps local cop Ben (Greene) and Banner in the snowy mountains.

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis bring their sparse, ‘Skeleton Tree’-like sounds to the score and soundtrack, and it definitely helps set the mood and highlight the sparseness of the northern Winter (or Spring, technically). The film moves along quite rapidly, with the investigation never boring, but still time to build plenty of backstory for Lambert and the reservation.

The final 20min or so is handled really well, with a few surprises thrown in. Similar to the Australian-set ‘Goldstone’ in some ways. It all looks beautiful (odd that it was filmed in Utah, not in the real-life reservation in Wyoming), with plenty of nice scenic and animal shots, but also plenty of sadness. Renner and Olsen carry the film with nuanced performances, and there’s thankfully no romantic distractions. It’s just a great, straightforward crime-solving scenario, done right.

Overall: Really well-made murder mystery.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard (September 2017)

Official Australian release date: 31/8/17. Viewed: 2/9/17.

Director: Patrick Hughes

Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Oldman, Elodie Yung

Genre: Action / Comedy

Rating: MA

‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ has been marketed as a parody of Costner/Houston’s ‘The Bodyguard’ from 25 years ago – but having never seen that, I can’t compare. It is a pretty straightforward action/comedy, probably more like ‘RED’. Plot is very simple – a Belarusian dictator (Oldman) is being tried at The Hague and Interpol need evidence from a hitman he tried to hire, Kincaid (Jackson). Thanks to Agent Roussel (Yung), Bryce (Reynolds) is assigned with getting him safely from England to Holland.

There’s a bit of unnecessary backstory about Bryce’s bodyguard business, and some serious moment with him & Roussel, but the film’s at its best when it’s just Reynolds & Jackson on screen, bantering back and forth with at each other. Sure, there’s plenty of gunfights, explosions, some Bourne-like stunts and actually a surprisingly high body count, but you never feel like much is at stake and wish they’d focused more on the humour than the action.

It’s clear Jackson is having a ball and it’s great to see him laugh genuinely. Reynolds is serviceable, but plays the straight guy, and it’s always fun to watch Oldman as the villain. Great cameo from Hayek too. This might almost set the record for the most Jackson “mother-f***er”s uttered in a film too! Nothing new, no truly hilarious moments, but fun enough.

Overall: Passable shoot-em-up comedy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (August 2017)

Official Australian release date: 10/8/17. Viewed: 13/8/17.

Director: Luc Besson

Actors: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Sam Spruell, Clive Owen

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating: M

‘Valerian & the City of a Thousand Planets’ is director Besson’s return to science fiction, after ‘The Fifth Element’ (classic – now 20 years ago!) and ‘Lucy’ – which this is thankfully better than. ‘Valerian’ obviously doesn’t quite live up to the bar set by ‘The Fifth Element’, and while it has a few similarities, it’s sufficiently different to be it’s own entity. I haven’t read any of the graphic novels, so I went in just expecting a big space adventure – and that’s pretty much what you get.

Valerian (DeHaan) and Laureline (Delevingne) are two agents in the galactic federation (sort-of in love – they have a fun chemistry) and are called on to protect the General (Spruell) and the Commander (Owen) of Alpha, which is the so-called “City of a Thousand Planets”. The start of the film – set to Bowie, always a plus – does a great job of introducing how Alpha came about and what it stands for, and letting us know that we’re ~700 years in the future – as well as making the titles go by faster! We’re also introduced to the ‘Avatar’-like species from Mül, who link in to the plot later on.

There’s not really a whole lot you need to know, and it’s a bit ‘Star Wars’-lite at times, but there’s certainly plenty of aliens, robots and action scenes to see. A few odd cameos (Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer, Rihanna as a pole-dancer!?), but it’s really all about Valerian and Laureline trying to save the space station. While not really having anything groundbreaking or revolutionary, ‘Valerian’ has moments of humour, some great action scenes, plenty of colour and is an above average film.

Overall: Enjoyable, fun sci-fi adventure.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Big Sick (August 2017)

Official Australian release date: 3/8/17. Viewed: 12/8/17.

Director: Michael Showalter

Actors: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

‘The Big Sick’ is a rom-com, but not of the usual formulaic variety, with no clichés, due to it being based on Kumail (Nanjiani, from ‘Silicon Valley’) & Emily (Kazan, from ‘Ruby Sparks’)’s real-life story. Directed by Showalter (‘Wet Hot American Summer’) and produced by Apatow (every comedy from the last 10 years), the film starts as a simple boy-meets-girl story – he’s a stand-up comic in Chicago, she’s studying to become a therapist. They steadily fall in love – it’s nice & unforced.

Because this is a true story and not a fictional “everyone’s happy” tale, Emily gets an infection and has to be put into a coma. Kumail then meets her parents, Terry (Romano) & Beth (Hunter), who are cold at first, as he wouldn’t even tell his traditional Pakistani parents about Emily. The film handles the time at the hospital and dealing with strangers that all care for a common person very well.

There’s plenty of laughs, and heaps of heart, with both the leads being charming and coming across as normal and relatable. The parents are great, with all the actors being in fine form. It’s possibly a tiny bit long, but even though it has some sad moments, it has a good ending and leaves you feeling happy.

Overall: Great comedy about love.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

War for the Planet of the Apes (July 2017)

Official Australian release date: 27/7/17. Viewed: 30/7/17.

Director: Matt Reeves

Actors: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary

Genre: Action / Drama

Rating: M

‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ is the eighth film in the franchise and does a great job of concluding the ‘Rise’/‘Dawn’/‘War’ trilogy of prequels, as well as linking this back to the original 1968 ‘Planet of the Apes’, via Caesar’s son being called Cornelius. Like ‘Dawn’, humans are almost secondary characters here, and when they are shown, they definitely make you back the apes, who have more humanity and compassion than the surviving humans.

The CGI is now so believable, it’s almost impossible to discern if there’s any real apes in among the CGI ones! Caesar (Serkis) is so realistic in close-ups, you’re basically looking at Serkis. He’s great, and it’s nice to see the added (digital) touch of grey to his coat. Caesar still has his three trusted right-hand apes with him, Maurice (Konoval), Rocket (Notary) and Luca (Adamthwaite). After the humans that have not been wiped out by the Simian flu, led by the Colonel (Harrelson), decide to attack the apes in the Californian forest, Caesar has to fight back to save all of ape-kind.

There’s a nice subplot with Nova (Miller), a young girl they protect, but the overall thrust is that the humans still think they’re better than the evolved apes and treat them like slaves. There’s a massive battle at the end and plenty of great action throughout. The overall pace is good, with it feeling a lot faster than 2 & ¼ hours. The addition of Bad Ape (Zahn) as some comedic relief is a masterstroke, but the film is so meaningful thanks to Caesar’s love for his kin and his determination for them to survive.

Overall: Very fitting finale to an underappreciated trilogy.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.