Solo

Official Australian release date: 24/5/18. Viewed: 25/5/18.

Director: Ron Howard

Actors: Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover

Genre: Action / Adventure

Rating: M

   

‘Solo’ is the second ‘Star Wars’ spin-off film – after ‘Rogue One’ – and like that film, does a good job of filling in backstory and providing an entertaining film, without become essential ‘Star Wars’ viewing. ‘Solo’ is set about halfway between ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘A New Hope’, meaning we get Han (Ehrenreich) in his mid-20s. I think Ehrenreich does a good job of some of Harrison Ford’s mannerisms and is a passable younger version. The film starts excellently, with a great car chase – well, land-speeders to be exact – on Han’s home-world of Corellia.

We meet Qi’ra (“Kira”, Clarke – always good to see Daenerys) and establish how Han winds up in the Empire, trying to get back to her. There’s lots of great connections/throw-backs – we see how Han meets and frees Chewbacca from slavery; how they become smugglers, with mentoring from Beckett (Harrelson - excellent); how they meet Lando (Glover) & the Millennium Falcon; and how they “made the Kessel run in 12 parsecs”. The support cast are good, but Val (Newton), Dryden Voss (Bettany), L3 (Waller-Bridge) & Rio (Favreau) don’t really get that much screen time – and I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more of Chewie’s backstory too.

The film does a good job of setting the stakes in their need to rob some hyperspace fuel and how they go about it. It doesn’t always feel ‘Star Wars’-y, since there’s no Jedi or big space battles, but when you start to forget, the aliens & John Williams’ typically great score bring you back in and remind you. I’m sure some people won’t like it, and it does lack a little bit of heart, but there’s plenty to like throughout.

Overall: An above-average addition to Star Wars cannon.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Deadpool 2

Official Australian release date: 16/5/18. Viewed: 16/5/18.

Director: David Leitch

Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison

Genre: Action / Comedy

Rating: MA

   

‘Deadpool 2’ comes only two years after the original and has just as many wisecracks, deaths, action scenes, pop-culture jokes and swear words as the first. Deadpool/Wade (Reynolds) is back as the “merc with a mouth” and the film kicks plenty of action as he takes down a syndicate, but also sets up the plot with something he has to atone for – and why he wants to try to save Russell (Dennison). Also, the Bond-rip off titles are excellent.

The support cast is excellent, with Vanessa (Baccarin), Dopinder (Soni), Colossus (Kapicic), Negasonic (Hildebrand), Weasel (Miller) and Blind Al (Uggams) all back. The additions of X-Force are pretty hilarious – especially Peter (Delaney) – but Domino (Beetz) steals the show, with her “lucky” superpower. There’s some great cameos, which I won’t spoil, but they all bring laughs of recognition. Cable (Brolin) is a great tough guy, who’s motivations are slowly revealed, but not in any great detail.

While still a very fun film with plenty of laughs throughout, sometimes it’s hard to keep up, since the pace is unrelenting. There does also seem to be a bit more darkness underneath (which is also poked fun at) which is why it maybe doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first film. It’s probably slightly too long & tries to fit a bit too much in. Stay for the credits scenes – some excellent call-backs/”alterations”!

Overall: More fun, fights & comic book jests.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Avengers: Infinity War

Official Australian release date: 25/4/18. Viewed: 25/4/18.

Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

   

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is the third Avengers film and the 19^th Marvel Cinematic Universe film overall, serving as a culmination of the last 10 years. While not a full-stop (Avengers 4 comes out next year), it does a great job of bringing the much-teased infinity stones/Thanos storyline together. Lots of knowledge of the previous MCU films is assumed, especially the two most recent films which lead directly in to this film – ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and ‘Black Panther’. It might make some sense if you haven’t seen the others, but probably not too much.

The stakes are certainly high, with a number of deaths of key characters throughout (no spoilers) and the opening scene literally taking no prisoners. The vital part of this film is the villain, Thanos (Brolin) who – despite being large, ugly & purple – gets enough backstory and shows adequate ethos to almost empathise with his reasoning for wanting to destroy half the universe (via the infinity stones). While there’s some deaths and plenty of tension/darkness in parts, there’s still lots of laughs, mostly thanks to Thor (Hemsworth), Starlord (Pratt), Rocket (Cooper) and Drax (Bautista).

The CGI is fantastic the entire film, with plenty of scenes in space and on new planets, which is always great to see – as is Iron Man (Downey Jr.)’s inevitable new suit. The way the team-ups are handled is done really well, with Dr Strange (Cumberbatch), the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man (Holland), Black Panther (Boseman) and the Avengers all split up, so there’s always different scenes moving things along at a good pace. The third act battle is not predictable and the ending is hugely shocking – certainly no cop-out.

Overall: Near-flawless action/space epic.

Gav's Rating: 4.5 stars.

I Feel Pretty

Official Australian release date: 19/4/18. Viewed: 18/4/18.

Directors: Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein

Actors: Amy Schumer, Rory Scovel, Busy Phillips, Aidy Bryant

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

   

‘I Feel Pretty’ is a mostly-straightforward romantic comedy from the writers of ‘Never Been Kissed’, ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ and ‘How To Be Single’, so it’s safe to assume you know pretty much what to expect. There’s also a nice twist on the tried-and-tested body-switch plot – Renee (Schumer) hits her head and believes she has achieved her dream of becoming beautiful.

Renee believing she’s the hottest woman alive is where a lot of the humour comes from, but also some of the missteps – since Renee and her two friends, Jane (Phillips) and Vivian (Bryant), are not actually ugly. It’s also where most of the sincere moments come from – it’s not all about what you look like, but the confidence you have in yourself, highlighted in a rousing speech by Schumer near the end. She’s (mostly) not too over-the-top and is (mostly) easy to cheer for.

While not focusing solely on girl-meets-boy/falls-in-love/separate/get-back-together, it still manages to fit that all in, with Ethan (Scovel) a decent foil to Schumer. It’s annoying that the backdrop to a film that’s actually about not worrying about looks is centered around a make-up company, run by Avery (Williams) and Grant (Hopper) – both mostly pointless. Overall, it’s not as good as ‘Trainwreck’, but nor is it a totally vapid “chick flick”.

Overall: Slightly above-average romantic comedy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Isle of Dogs

Official Australian release date: 12/4/18. Viewed: 14/4/18.

Director: Wes Anderson

Actors: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Koyu Rankin, Bill Murray

Genre: Comedy / Adventure

Rating: PG

  

‘Isle of Dogs’ is another animated/puppet Wes Anderson film, a la ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ and his 9^th film overall. Needless to say, it’s quirky and offbeat. The plot is quite simple: Megasaki in Japan is divided into dog-haters and dog-lovers, and the mayor exiles all dogs to an island/dump across the bay. Atari (Rankin), a 12-year-old boy, then sets off to rescue his dog, Spots (Schreiber). The main characters are a pack of talking dogs – Chief (Cranston), Rex (Norton), Boss (Murray), Duke (Goldblum) and King (Balaban).

Even though it’s stop-motion animation/puppetry, it’s not really a kids film. It must have just scraped a PG instead of an M. There’s certainly some rather grim moments and gallows humour. It takes a while to build momentum and fully immerse you in the story – the final third is much better than the rest of the film. There’s probably too much drumming in the score – it becomes distracting, as does the lack of subtitles for the bits spoken in Japanese.

It’s certainly not a bad film, but nowhere near as fun as ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ or ‘Moonrise Kingdom’. The puppetry is pretty amazing, even though they sometimes look like action figures in close up, but the animation and some of the landscape shots are expertly done. There’s a million cuts, as is Anderson’s style, and too many characters, so no one gets a true chance to shire.

Overall: OK, but missing Anderson’s typical whimsy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

A Quiet Place

Official Australian release date: 5/4/18. Viewed: 7/4/18.

Director: John Krasinski

Actors: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe

Genre: Thriller / Horror

Rating: M

  

‘A Quiet Place’ is a really well-made thriller, which is interesting since Krasinski (yes, the guy from the American ‘The Office’) is the director, co-writer, producer and star. It’s not necessarily a horror film (hence the ‘M’ rating), but is certainly packed full of tension and suspense and has plenty of jumpy moments. The film makes a bold choice early on and does a good job of setting the scene, while not revealing too much.

This is true of the monsters/creatures – we’re not told where they’re from, how many there is or what’s going on in the wider world. The whole focus is on the one family – Lee (Krasinski), Evelyn (Blunt), and their three kids, Regan (Simmonds), Marcus (Jupe) and Beau (Woodward). The use of sound is exceptional and the lack of speaking very unique. There’s sign language and subtitles, but it’s hardly needed, thanks to the superb score.

‘A Quiet Place’ is similar to last year’s ‘It Comes At Night’ in concept, but better executed. It doesn’t overstay welcome (90 min) and fully delivers on both building pressure and having plenty of legitimate scares by making you ask “what would I do in this situation?” Krasinski and the kids are good, but Blunt is excellent and shows all her emotions excellently. Also has a solid ending.

Overall: Great character-focused thriller.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

The Death of Stalin

Official Australian release date: 29/3/18. Viewed: 2/4/18.

Director: Armando Iannucci

Actors: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Adrian McLoughlin, Jeffrey Tambor

Genre: Comedy / War

Rating: MA

  

‘The Death of Stalin’ is a satirical look at 1950’s USSR (from the director of ‘In The Loop’ a hilarious look at British politics, who’s also the creator of ‘Veep’). This is similar to ‘In The Loop’, if not quite as good, with mostly British actors playing Russians and not changing their accents, making for a refreshing and playful tone. Even though the majority are British – including Beria (Russell Beale), Molotov (Palin), Zhuov (Isaacs) & Stalin (McLoughlin) – two of the main actors are American: Krushchev (Buscemi) and Malenkov (Tambor).

The film is basically about Beria, head of NKVD (Internal Affairs) and Krushchev, First Secretary, scheming and plotting to run Russia after Stalin dies – even though it’s technically Malenkov, who’s basically a puppet. There’s plenty of fun digs at how inept the Soviets were, but also some commentary on how bad things were during the Cold War. Main problem with the film is the lack of backstory – obviously based somewhat on facts, but a lot of creative license taken – but things happen so fast that it takes a while to figure out who’s who, etc.

There’s a few laughs, but no real hilarious moments, expect maybe when Buscemi tries to swap places with Tambor. There’s plenty to like, and all the actors are good, especially Buscemi, Kurylenko and Russell Beale – and always good to see a Python on screen with Palin. However, I felt it lacked something to make it a truly great comedy.

Overall: Enjoyable historical/political satire.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.