A
true story is in the foreground of this survival movie which
is situated in the midst of the treacherous waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The movie, ‘Adrift’ is originally set on the island
of Tahiti in 1983. Tahiti is a paradise
island below the equator, which was the setting for the 18th century
maritime adventure which became well known as the ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’.
‘Adrift’ features the story of a Californian girl,
Tami who is touring the world alone, and working her way through the South
Pacific islands. She meets a young
English man, Richard, who is sailing his way to his destiny in the same
region. When they meet up, they find a
kindred spirit in each other, and love happens.
The young lovers set out on a boat through the wild
ocean, but neither envisaged the hell of a trip that awaited them. Unfortunately for them, they encountered one
of the worst hurricanes ever recorded.
Tami awoke to find Richard first missing, and then
seriously injured. She had to work to
save both their lives in a boat that was barely afloat and adrift.
Tami is played by Shailene Woodley and Richard is
played by Sam Clafin. Shailene is also
producer of the movie which has a claustrophobic feel to it, due to much of it
being set on the adrift boat, in the middle of the great ocean. The strength of the waves were very vivid in
the storm scene, and the general look of the movie was shown beautifully.
The performances of both main actors were exemplary,
particularly Shailene Woodley’s.
Shailene gave great depth to the part of Tami, which came across very
natural.
There are certain to be awards at the different
ceremonies next year for this feature, writes
David Flynn, and one definite will be for cinematography, and it’s hard to
see another feature between now and then beating ‘Adrift’.
Some
of cinema’s top female stars appear here as would-be jewel thieves in a robbery
worth no less than $150,000,000.
‘Ocean’s Eight’ is a spin-off of the successful 2000s trilogy, which
starred some of the top male stars of the time.
This new movie begins with Debbie Ocean (Sandra
Bullock) getting out of prison after doing time for fraud. Debbie is the sister of Danny Ocean, the
leader of the lads in the original productions.
Danny was played by George Clooney in the earlier movies.
However it is now more than ten years since an
Oceans movie and Danny is now dead, and after Debbie gets out of prison she
plans a caper, the likes of which would have made her late brother proud.
Glamour is the order of the day in ‘Ocean’s Eight’ and it
features Debbie re-joining with her old partner in crime, Lou, played by Cate
Blanchett. Lou is living off a scheme of
watering down vodka when she reunites with Debbie (they did some bingo scams
together in their youth), and the duo engineer a new scam to steal a museum’s
Royal jewels.
The ladies they assemble include Helena
Bonham-Carter as a tax criminal and successful 1990s fashion designer, and also
Sarah Paulsen as fence turned homemaker, Tammy.
Movie star Daphne is the key to putting the whole
plan together, she was played by the brilliant Anne Hathaway. Rihanna is in there as well on the team, and
there are special appearances from two of the Kardashian girls and Olivia Munn
and Katie Holmes. Popular veteran
actor, Elliot Gould from the other Oceans movies makes a guest appearance.
There are a couple of laughs in the movie, and it’s
a mind-candy feature. Despite it having
three Oscar winners on board in the acting stakes, it won’t win any Oscars, but
it’s a bit of fun, and you could see far worse writes David Flynn.
Returning
to a movie franchise which is now 25 years old can be exciting for those who
grew up with the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.
Here we have the fifth move in the series, and the
remaining dinosaurs are living out their existence on a volcanic island. The governments of the world are in talks
about whether they should save the dinosaurs or let them die.
This new movie is set three years after the last one, ‘Jurassic
World’, and the animal expert couple, Clair and Owen return, although they are
now estranged.
An invalid industrialist, Benjamin Lockwood (played
by James Cromwell), who was an associate of the founder of Jurassic Park, which
was original home of the dinosaurs gets Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her
former love, Owen (Chris Pratt) to return to the island and save the
dinosaurs. Owen has the further interest
of finding his own favourite dinosaur, Blue, and along the way he discovers
that they will have more battles to save the dinosaurs than they originally thought.
It begins like a traditional movie, with the elderly
billionaire offering the young folk the opportunity to save the dinosaurs, but the
storyline gets lost along the way, although it does manage to throw in a few surprises. The CGI of the dinosaurs is still great to
see, but somehow it was more effective in the early 1990s when audiences hadn’t
seen as much of these types of movies.
Jeff Goldblum returns as Dr. Ian Malcolm to give a
philosophical perspective on the whole plan of dinosaurs living in the world
with man, writes David Flynn
It’s a moral story, which shows some respect for
animals, and it’s an interesting episode of the series. However producers will want to come up with
some new and adventurous ideas for the next Jurassic feature.
People
of the 1990s will probably remember the story about the US figure skater Tonya
Harding. Now, a long-awaited bio-pic has come to
cinemas, and it’s far from soap opera variety.
Tonya Harding was a champion figure skater who was accused
of being involved in an attack on her skating rival, Nancy Kerrigan. It was January 1994, and the internet wasn’t
even a word in the mainstream vocabulary, but it was the early days of 24 hour
news stations. International news was
becoming more commonly known because of most televisions having the SKY news
channel.
Tonya was born to a low-income family in Portland,
Oregon, but her obsessive mother, LaVona started her daughter figure skating at
age 5 years. Tonya made it up the ranks
through her teenage years, but was never fully accepted by the figure skating
world, because she lacked what they saw as a sense of grace in her skating
style, and there seemed to be snobbery among the community.
Tonya got married young to Jeff, who was later found
guilty of organising the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. Tonya too was deemed guilty of involvement.
‘I, Tonya’ tells the story from the side of Tonya
Harding, but not without warts. She was a
victim of physical abuse, first from her mother, and later from her
husband. The movie doesn’t pull any
punches with these abuses, and viewing is not for the faint hearted.
The cast are brilliant in their portrayals of the
real people, especially the three leads.
Allison Janney has won the Oscar, BAFTA award,
and Golden Globe Award, for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Tonya’s
mother, LaVona. She is a compelling
figure to watch, and Allison brought a chilling performance to the fore with
the role, writes David Flynn.
Margot Robbie, in interviews admitted that she had
never heard the Tonya Harding story.
However she got in behind the role, and re-created the life of Tonya
from early teens to her marriage and becoming a world champion Figure Skater.
Sebastian Stan as the bad guy in the piece – Tonya’s
husband, Jeff, was very real in his portrayal.
The movie is told in documentary style, and the
viewer can’t help but feel part of the world of these difficult people.
It was worth the wait to see the background to the
Tonya Harding story. While it may not all
be believable, it’s certainly an insight that hasn’t been shown for almost 25
years.
A
bit of everything is the crux of this particular movie.
It’s set in the cold war era at a secret scientific
base in Baltimore, USA., during the JFK years.
A mute woman who works as a cleaner at the facility discovers
a humanoid sea creature stored there.
The woman, Elisa, lives a lonely life, with her only friend being her
equally lonely artist neighbour, Giles.
Elisa and her co-worker, Zelda find themselves
working in the laboratory where the creature is held. Elisa builds a relationship with the creature
which slowly grows from fascination to something more intense. When she learns that her boss, Strickland
(played by Michael Shannon) doesn’t have the creature’s best interests at
heart, she decides to act in ways that will change her existence forever.
The movie is nominated for 13 Academy Awards, and has
already won two Golden Globes and three Baftas. It didn’t win the major awards, but writer/director
Guillermo del Toro has won two of the awards for Best Director, which is a good
omen going into the Oscars.
Sally Hawkins gave a beautiful performance as the
silent Elisa. Richard Jenkins also does
well playing the gay artist, Giles.
Zelda was played by Octavia Spencer, who as per usual in her acting brought
some much needed humour with her role.
Spencer is a good tip to win Best Supporting Actress, which would add to
her win for The Help in 2012.
The skin design of the creature and the special
effects are magnificent, as is definitely the direction, and the story, which
is traditional in ways, but is told in a most unique way, writes David Flynn.
The setting of 1962 America is excellent to look at,
and the look of everything from ice-cream parlours to US streets is a picturesque
trip back in time.
The creature is played beautifully by Doug Jones,
and it took some stagecraft or possibly some experience with mime, for the
actor to create such a role.
The action, the violence, the lovemaking – all of it
makes up one of the top movies of the year, and it’s still only late February!
An old fashioned Hollywood musical is currently on general release telling the story of Mr. PT Barnum, who was the originator of popular showbusiness. Barnum was incredibly ambitious but also perpetually broke, and he came from the poor side of America’s streets in the middle of the 19th century. He has a childhood sweetheart, Charity, from the wealthy side of life, and he clashes angrily with her father. Barnum has ambition to provide circus entertainment for the masses featuring unusual characters. He takes many risks with many ups and down to achieve this ambition and also to continue true love with Charity. Along the way he meets two people, young writer, Phillip Carlyle, played by Zac Ephron and opera singer, Jennie Lind played by Rebecca Ferguson, who will help him change the world of entertainment.
The movie, ‘The Greatest Showman’ is colourful with a lot of singing and dancing around the lavish sets that were specially built to depict new theatre in 19th century America, and is now showing in Athlone IMC. The movie had a stage feel throughout, and it didn’t leave that aside. The music is so-so, but the Oscar nominated song, ‘This Is Me’, is of good quality, writes David Flynn.
The movie is reminiscent, but not as lavish as Moulin Rouge in 2002, or as cinematic as La La Land in 2017.
Hugh Jackman was excellent in the role, and proved that despite pushing 50, he could play Barnum at all stages of his interesting life. It was good to see Michelle Williams (Charity) back in a good role. Zac Ephron was a surprise star as Carlyle, and proved he’s capable of producing a good performance with an interesting role. Rebecca Ferguson is a star who is only beginning to peak, and should have many good roles ahead of her in the future.
The Greatest Showman’s a very watchable movie, due to the visually pleasing sets and also the talented supporting cast, ie Sam Humphrey as Tom Thumb, Keala Settle as Lettie Lutz and Zendaya as Anne Wheeler. However there could be more depth in the story of the life and works of PT Barnum. The set is the real focus of the feature, and it’s a relaxing feature to watch.
The
order of the day in ‘The Post’ is a step back to a place and time when the
White House in the Vietnam War era, and the national media were all wrestling
with their own consciences.
Most know the gist of the Watergate story, ie
burglars with links to the Nixon (Republican) White House were caught robbing
the Watergate building, which was the Democratic Party headquarters. However this motion picture, directed by
Steven Spielberg tells a story that predates the 1972 burglary.
An employee of the American military, Daniel
Ellsberg, played by Matthew Rhys discovers a major government cover-up
concerning Vietnam, which dated back to the 1950s. Ellsberg copies the documents, and passes some
of them to the New York Times, who publishes them as a major scoop.
Welsh actor, Rhys is currently starring in
the Cold War US tv drama, ‘The Americans’.
The Washington Post editor and management are livid
with missing the story, but after a period of cat and mouse, the Post
eventually manages to get a full copy of the report, which gives a damning to
previous US governments. Court and
judges comes into the equation, and huge battles begin between, government,
court, editor and journalists, and the Washington Post’s owner.
In the movie, ‘The Post’, the set of the major US
newspaper is almost a direct copy of the one in the brilliant 1976 Watergate movie,
‘All the President’s Men’, and the two movies could be looked at as
companions.
‘The Post’ gives a terrific insight into how things
used to be done before mobile phones, and digital this and that. Here it’s all telephones and typewriters, and
pure sweat, blood and tears in smoke-filled rooms. It’s also interesting to watch the true depiction
of the 1971 US lifestyle, ie many people smoking everywhere.
Meryl Streep is nominated for an Oscar as Katherine
Graham, and while she delivers a good performance, it is no better than any she
has done before. The role wasn’t her
most challenging, like when she played Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’ in
2012, and deservedly won the Oscar.
Tom Hank’s role was challenging as editor Ben
Bradlee – a strong character, who was played by Jason Robards in the 1976
Watergate movie
There are great supporting performances from the
likes of Sarah Paulson as Bradlee’s wife, Bradley Whitford, Allison Brie and
Bruce Greenwood.
The movie is palatable, and is one to savour. They don’t tell many strongly told stories
like this anymore, writes David Flynn.
