The Siege of Jadotville (15A) - Movie Review

A story about soldiers, (most of whom were from the Irish midlands) caught up in a dangerous attack in Africa in 1961, is the premise of a new movie, ‘The Siege of Jadotville’, writes David Flynn.

The true story took place with ‘A Company’ of the 4^th Western Brigade of the Army.  The company commander was Comdt. Pat Quinlan, who lived in Athlone at the time. 

The company arrived to a very tense and uncertain time in the town of Elizabethville in the Belgian Congo in Africa.  Pat Quinlan and the company were sent about 70 miles away to Jadotville.  Their equipment, other than rifles was 2^nd World War stuff, and they had no great means of transport. A five day battle in Jadotville ensued between the Belgian Katangans and the Irish, who were only there as peacekeepers.  The Irish men of Jadotville got no help from their United Nations masters, so were left to their own devices.  The battle took place on the ground and in the air.

Most of ‘A Company’ had been based in Custume Barracks, Athlone, and for those who do not know the story, it is best to leave the plot description as stands.

The book the movie, ‘The Siege of Jadotville’ is based on was written by security analyst, Declan Power, and the man who lobbied governments for four decades on the Jadotville story is John Gorman, who was a 17 years old soldier in 1961.  John is played by a young actor, Ronan Rafferty.
Cmdt. Pat Quinlan is played by Irish star, Jamie Dornan from ’50 Shades of Grey’ and TV’s ‘The Fall’.  Jason O’Mara from TV’s ‘Love/Hate’ played Sgt. Jack Prendergast, and every story has a villain and in this case it was Conor Cruise O’Brien, who was played by Mark Strong.
O’Brien was an Irish UN official who is portrayed as being useless to the Jadotville soldiers.
It takes some time to get into the movie, but the performances of Dornan and Strong are excellent.
Cinematography is good, and the recreation of the world of the Irish in the Congo in 1961 is compelling to watch. 
Certainly for those who like war films, ‘The Siege of Jadotville’, is the genre at its best. 

Jason Bourne (12A) - Movie Review

This new action movie is a throwback to the times of the impossible screen excitements originally created in the novels of Robert Ludlum.  His mysterious creation, Jason Bourne is a busy hero, noted for jumping across East European buildings like they were steps of stairs. 
This is the fifth screen outing for Bourne, which started in 2002 with Matt Damon in the lead role.  (There was a minor television version with Richard Chamberlain in the 1980s.)  There was also a Damon less Bourne movie, ‘The Bourne Legacy’ in 2012, which didn’t light up the box office. 
‘Jason Bourne’ – the movie – features the return appearance of Matt Damon, who is also credited as producer.  ‘Jason Bourne’ is directed by Paul Greengrass, who looked after two of the former Bourne movies, which starred Damon. 
In this movie, Bourne is back from beyond the grid, showing that neither age nor the CIA has caught up with him.  However the CIA keep on trying, this time led by Robert Dewey, played by Oscar winner, Tommy Lee Jones.   
The movie also marks the return of the Nicky Parson, played by Julia Stiles.  Nicky finds Bourne living a day to day existence, and trying to forget his past in Greece.  Nicky brings Jason information on his past, involving his father, and also news of people trying to expose the work that he did with the shadowy group, Treadstone for the CIA in a different time.
Later on, Jason is befriended by rookie CIA agent, Heather Lee, played by Alicia Vikander, who plans to bring him home safely to the CIA with exoneration.  But Dewey has other ideas and plans.
There is much action in ‘Jason Bourne’, with locations from Greece, Europe, the UK and the USA.  There isn’t as much action jumping across tall buildings, but there are some hairy car-chases, with lives hanging in the balance.  Much of the modern world is highlighted in the movie such as talk about Edward Snowden and riots in Greece.
Matt Damon is his usual good self, but a better script would have got more out of Tommy Lee Jones, writes David Flynn.
Julia Stiles stole the early scenes that she appeared in from Matt Damon.
The storyline is not up to the standard of the earlier Bourne movies but it’s worth a watch anyway.

Star Trek: Beyond (12A)

A return to the future with the new Star Trek movie, which is about the 17^th movie in the franchise, and definitely the 3^rd movie in this rebooted franchise with the young cast, playing Kirk, Spock, Uhura and company.
It’s fifty years this year since the Star Trek trip to the stars began on US television, and it became a great classic which spawned four more television series from the 1980s onwards, and nearly a score of movies, writes David Flynn.
This version of the space saga began in 2009, and has been a huge success.  Star Trek: Beyond, begins during the third year of the crew’s five year mission to explore space.  Kirk, played by Chris Pine is feeling unsatisfied with his time in orbit, and is looking to hand over the reins to his second in command, Spock, played by Zachary Quinto.
Shades of the earlier tv series comes in when the Enterprise’s bosses, Starfleet, sends the crew to the aid of an alien girl whose family and crew is trapped in the farthest reaches of space.  But what they discover there attacks the Enterprise, and disperses Captain Kirk and his crew all over an inhospitable planet.   With scant resources the crew must work to get themselves safely back to Starfleet and to Earth.
In their way, is a being of mystery, as per usual in Star Trek.
Special effects are fantastic, but it’s hard to know nowadays whether it’s creations on a computer screen you are looking at, or something more spectacular.  But it all looks good.
The plot could be better, and tries to be throwback to the earlier decades of the Star Trek future.  It somewhat succeeds.

 

 

The Legend of Tarzan (12A)

It’s interesting to think that the Tarzan film franchise is continuing after almost ninety years of movies and tv series about the great jungle one, writes David Flynn.
There have been several versions, some good, most bad, and now over 25 years since Hollywood last filmed a Tarzan movie – a new one comes along, with the huge title – ‘The Legend of Tarzan’.
This movie is great to look at – it has got some of the most beautiful African scenes ever filmed, but sadly it lacks a plot, and yet it’s got a plot and a half.   The back story of Tarzan being raised by Apes, making friends and enemies, meeting and falling in love with Jane, and returning to his ancestral home in London under his birth name, John Clayton is told as having happened in the past.  Tarzan and Jane are played by actors Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie, both of which have done mostly tv series.  Both had great chemistry as the well-known characters.
The new movie takes up the story of he and Jane returning to Africa, along with a Dr. George Washington Williams, played effectively (obviously) by Samuel L. Jackson.  Dangerous times await them when they encounter Dr. Rom, (played well by Bond villain, Christopher Waltz) who captures Jane, and intends to bring Tarzan to the lair of an old enemy.
Unfortunately you get the feeling that you missed something in the movie, ie the prequel.  But there was no prequel.  This was it.  The whole story of Tarzan is clumsily told in this feature, which is a pity, because this movie is worth seeing, and its cinematography will certainly pick up an award next year at the Golden Globes, and be nominated for an Oscar.

 

THE REVENANT (18)

The American wilderness of the 1820s is the setting for this new survival movie with a difference.  The meaning of the title is: ‘one whom returns after a long period, especially from the dead’.
The movie features the immense mental and physical torture endured by the lead character – a frontier leader of a fur trading expedition, played by Leonardo Di Caprio. 
Hugh Glass (Di Caprio) is attacked by a bear in the wilderness, and left for dead, until he is rescued by his team.  However when his injured body becomes too much to be transported over the unforgiving wilderness, three stay behind with him, Fitzgerald, (Tom Hardy) and two boys, one of which is Glass’s son. 
Murder takes place, and Glass is left on a stretcher to survive the elements and the wilderness.  What takes place afterwards is a survival mission with a difference.
Seeing this story on the big screen is the only way to go, because of the mountains, the forest, and the waters of the wild.
At the beginning of the film, it becomes hard to study the plot, because of the different dialects used by the actors.  Their accents could have done with a bit of work.   But that’s a minor glitch, because the use of subtitles worked well. 
Watch out for a winter snow scene involving the lead character with a horse!
Di Caprio should take the Oscar, with Tom Hardy as Fitzgerald in line for Best Supporting Actor.  However Hardy will have tough competition from Sylvester Stallone for ‘Creed’.
‘The Revenant’ is a movie about the early days of America, which should help it get the Best Picture Oscar.  It has already done so at the Golden Globes, where Di Caprio also took his award.
‘The Revenant’ could be called an escapism movie, but it’s not ‘Grizzly Adams’ so it’s not for the faint-hearted.  However the story is honest, and portrayed in a believable way.  Apparently it’s loosely based on a true story.
Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson needs also to be mentioned as Capt. Henry.  It’s another fine performance from the young Gleeson, following on from his role in ‘Brooklyn’ and the new Star Wars movie.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12A)

The movie saga, which began in 1977, is back with its original three stars, in a massive new blockbuster movie, which takes up the story with a new generation of Jedi knights.
Light and dark and good and evil are still parts of the theme of the saga, and while this story is set thirty or so years after the movie ‘Return of the Jedi’, which was released in 1983, the plot must continue to be a guarded secret by those who have viewed the movie.   As much of the story as can be told is - a new Galactic war beckons with a group called the ‘The First Order’, which grew out of the ‘Empire’ from previous movies.  However some Resistance fighters are also on alert to the growth of the first order, writes David Flynn.
You could fall back in the cinema seat a couple of times with the flying galactic debris, thanks to the action as beautifully portrayed in 3D. 
This writer could see similarities between this ‘Episode 7’ of the saga, and the pilot episode of the television series, ‘Battlestar Galactica’ (1978).  Interestingly there was a court-case back in the day between that series and Star Wars with the latter claiming ideas were stolen.  Similarities are still there, but who knows who is to blame??
‘The Force Awakens’ is really interesting, and features newcomers to the saga, including, Domhnaill Gleeson as the First Order’s General Hux, and Daisy Ridley as Rey,(who was brilliant) and John Boyego as Finn.  It is also no secret that Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) returns for this episode.
It’s got a fine storyline carried throughout the action, and delivered well through good cinematic scenes.  No scenes are more beautiful than the scenery of Skellig Island, Co. Kerry, which is breathtakingly featured in a pivotal scene of ‘The Force Awakens’.
It’s the best of the Star Wars movies since ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ in 1980, and it’s great to see many of the old favourite characters again, including Chewbacca, C3PO and R2D2 in this galaxy far away, and long long ago. 

Brooklyn (12A)

The live and loves of a 1950s Irish emigrant girl between her native Ireland and New York is brought to life on film, in ‘Brooklyn’, from Colm Toibin’s longlisted Booker prize novel of the same name.

The movie, writes David Flynn has certainly brought to life the small-town Ireland of the 1950s, in a very unflattering light.  People queuing up in a small grocer shop, and taking the sarcasm of proprietor, Miss Kelly, played splendidly by Brid Brennan really brings home the lack of choice of customers without the big superstores of today.

Enniscorthy is the town in question, which is beautifully photographed throughout, as indeed is the whole ‘Brooklyn’ film, most especially the Irish beach scene, and the exteriors of 1950s New York.

Eilis, played by Irish star, Saoirse Ronan, is a girl living at home with her widowed mother and older sister.  She works in the grocery shop, but her sister wants a better life for her, and arranges safe passage for Eilis to emigrate to Brooklyn.  Vivid images of the boat over to America showed the sea sicknesses suffered, and the loneliness of the trip.

The early scenes of America show the loneliness and despair of living and working as an emigrant. However happiness happens for Eilis when she meets a boyfriend, but then news of Ireland brings her home again, where she faces much different challenges than were there before she emigrated.

The set dressings of ‘Brooklyn’ are oh so cosy, and the many different sets, ie Eilis's mother’s kitchen, the US landlady’s dining room, and also her private sitting room are displayed in a very warm setting of furnishings and other props. Well done to whoever was involved in that.

Acting by Saoirse Ronan puts her as a cert for the BAFTA, and in strong contention for the Oscars and Globe Globe.  Emory Cohen played the role of Tony, Eilis’s New York love interest, and Domhnall Gleeson plays Jim Farrell from back home in Enniscorthy.  Gleeson had the edge in the acting stakes, but while he wasn’t on screen as long, his part was also better written than the Tony part.

Mention has to go to Julie Walters for her increased cameo role as the landlady. 

Intense is the best way to describe Saoirse Ronan’s performance.  It tied in with the storyline of Eilis in Wexford and New York. 

The movie is good for youngsters to see what communications was like in an era of not so long ago.  It felt odd; watching people waiting in priest’s offices to phone loved ones across the world, telling them about the deaths from home.  No mobile phones or internet then.

The colour of ‘Brooklyn’ the movie is very vivid, and it’s a rare window to 1950s Ireland, with a great production that is ahead of the storyline.