Genre: Action
Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: 4th September 2015
Runtime: 96 minutes
Director: Camille Delamarre
Writer: Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Luc Besson
Starring: Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol, Ray Stevenson, Gabriella Wright, Radivoje Bukvić, Wenxia Yu, Tatjana Pajković
Synopsis: A mercenary now working as a shady delivery driver finds himself thrust into violence on the trail of a trafficker.

Few would argue with the statement that Jason Statham is one of the most recognisable action movie stars of the modern era. From the stylised insanity of the Crank films to his brutal villain in Fast & Furious 7, Statham has become an indelible figure in the world of punching people in the face and firing a gun whilst grunting one-liners. One of his most successful franchises, The Transporter, has now been rebooted, with Game of Thrones star Ed Skrein stepping into Statham’s arse-kicking shoes… and distinctly failing to fill them.

Frank Martin (Skrein) transports packages for people, without asking questions about who they are or what the package is. One day, he is hired by prostitute Anna (Loan Chabanol) and her friends who orchestrate a bank robbery. They later kidnap Frank’s father (Ray Stevenson) in order to coerce Frank into helping them bring down the trafficker (Radivoje Bukvić) who forced them into sex work.

The Transporter Refuelled is probably the most boring film of the year. If anyone was ever in any doubt that it was the presence of Jason Statham that made the franchise work, that doubt would have been extinguished within about ten minutes of the film starting. It’s the epitome of bland, emotionally empty action cinema and, on release, it formed a depressing double whammy of noisy gunplay with Hitman: Agent 47.

| "That was the old days. Now we hold grudges and get revenge."

At the centre of it all is Ed Skrein. It’s unclear how much of the character is his fault and how much is down to direction, but Skrein comes across as a charisma-free Statham impersonator, who delivers every line in a monotone growl, without even the merest flicker of emotion, aggression or personality on his face. And, despite that, he is still somehow the most charismatic character in the entirety of the film.

Everything around Skrein is simply a shifting landscape of disposable characters and bland action sequences. The fights in The Transporter Refuelled are tightly choreographed, but suffer given the complete lack of empathy created for any of the characters. It isn’t until you watch something like this that you realise just how impressive Statham’s grasp of movie violence is and really start to miss him and his balletic methods of punching people in the face.

The plot, too, lacks any sort of impetus for the audience to care about the characters, navigating a basic pathway of double crosses, rug pulls and action scenes. There’s also a liberal helping of women in lingerie and fast cars slamming into each other, but without the casual winking to the audience that just about allows the Fast & Furious films to get away with it. Here, it just feels leery.

| "You think this is the first time someone’s held a gun to my head?"

If the goal with The Transporter Refuelled was to give the franchise a new lease of life, then this goes down as a clear and catastrophic failure. Not only has the movie been savaged by critics and however many audience members managed to stay awake until the end, but it limped to only $30m at the worldwide box office. That puts it way behind the Jason Statham era of the franchise and should, if there’s any justice, prevent the franchise returning for, as Vin Diesel would no doubt say, one last ride.

Pop or Poop?

The Transporter Refuelled is a formulaic action movie of the worst kind, handing soulless, empty fight scenes to an actor firing on no cylinders and with nothing more than a thumbnail of a character.

This franchise’s clip just ran out and there’s no ammo left to reload.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

Ahead of the release of SPECTRE this month, the Bond Reloaded series takes a look back at each film in the iconic James Bond franchise. This time, Bond squares off with a manipulative businesswoman in The World is Not Enough.

After the impressive double whammy of GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, Pierce Brosnan was riding high in the iconic tuxedo of James Bond. With a new director in the chair, in the shape of Michael Apted, and an ambitious script in the can, The World is Not Enough looked set to be a solid Bond film to bridge the gap between the 20th and 21st century for the franchise.

Brosnan was joined in this film by an impressive cast, including Sophie Marceau, who had wowed audiences in Braveheart a few years before, and Robert Carlyle, who had become a household name after Trainspotting and his BAFTA for The Full Monty. With Apted, the acclaimed director of the Up documentary series, on board, the recipe was complete.

Unfortunately, all of those elements failed to a coalesce into something special, leaving The World is Not Enough as the start of Brosnan’s decline in the Bond role. That decline would be sealed a few years later with something that turned out to be truly disastrous.

Bad news for Bond

The opening of The World is Not Enough is deeply impressive, with the longest pre-credits sequence of the franchise taking Bond from the office of a Swiss banker to a thrilling boat chase along the Thames. Bond is then dispatched to watch over Elektra King (Marceau), who has inherited from her murdered father an oil pipeline in the Caspian Sea. She had previously been kidnapped by the terrorist Renard (Carlyle) and M (Judi Dench) has intelligence that suggests he may be poised to attack her again.

Initially, The World is Not Enough builds an intriguing mystery around the apparently separate worlds of the crazed terrorist stealing a nuclear weapon and the savvy businesswoman who appears to be in his crosshairs. Marceau’s performance is deeply enigmatic and it’s never clear how exactly she feels towards Bond. Unfortunately, once the mask slips and Elektra’s villainous intentions are made clear, Marceau becomes deeply unconvincing. She doesn’t have the necessary darkness to sell the role.

“There’s no point living, if you can’t feel alive.”

Marceau, however, is practically perfect as a Bond villain in comparison to Robert Carlyle’s desperately bland Renard. Anyone who has been subjected to the exquisite psychopathy of Begbie in Trainspotting would think that Carlyle would make an ideal Bond villain. However, Renard is a deeply forgettable character, who feels like a spare part throughout the entire movie, especially once it is revealed that Elektra is pulling the strings. With that in mind, it’s a bizarre decision to kill Elektra first, in undramatic fashion, saving the grandstanding death for Renard – a glorified henchman.

The World is Not Enough is full of ideas that should have worked, but were executed in terribly ham-fisted fashion. The prime example of this is perhaps the involvement in the action of Judi Dench’s M, who is captured as a result of her personal attachment to Elektra. This attempt to bring M out from behind her desk, which would be done far more convincingly in Skyfall, falls flat on its face and never really bears fruit.

Equally, The World is Not Enough gets more than a little lost in its own plot, tying itself up in knots. Brosnan himself has since admitted that he himself had no idea what was going on and there’s a lot of contrivance at play. For instance, there’s absolutely no reason for Robbie Coltrane to return as Valentin Zukovsky, who is shoehorned in presumably as a result of strong reaction to his fun turn in GoldenEye.

Torture for everyone

The film is on surer ground with its action sequences, which are very ably put together by Apted. In particular, the opening boat chase is delightfully inventive and there’s an early skiing sequence that feels like vintage Bond. However, the action falls apart in distinctly unimpressive fashion during the third act once the focus lands on Renard. It’s at times like these that it’s impossible not to miss Ken Adam’s insane set design from the films of the 60s and 70s.

Of course, it’s impossible to talk about The World is Not Enough without mentioning the absolute disaster that is Denise Richards as nuclear physicist Christmas Jones. Despite her incredible intelligence, her role in the film was to run around after Bond wearing a tank top and hot pants. It says a lot about how truly horrific the character was that her defining moment is an excruciatingly seedy one-liner that somehow makes the “attempting re-entry” line from Moonraker look progressive.

“Revenge is not hard to fathom for a man who believes in nothing.”

Jones is an abysmal character and one who feels out of placed alongside Brosnan’s Bond, who previously sat in the tonal middle ground between Moore and Dalton. In The World is Not Enough, he has Denise Richards at his side dressed like a Moore-era Bond girl and is scripted to deliver the kind of hideous, Christmas cracker one-liners that his winkier predecessor would have given some deadpan gravitas.

It’s even sadder that The World is Not Enough is such a mediocre Bond film given that it represents the final appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Q – in his 17th Bond film. Llewelyn was killed in a car accident soon after the premiere of The World is Not Enough, but the film very much felt like his swansong. John Cleese was introduced as a replacement and his final speech to Bond felt like a fond goodbye. Llewelyn’s irascible gadget man was a true icon of the 007 franchise, so it was sad to see him bow out in such a sub-par film.

The box office is not enough?

The film opened in November 1999 and rocketed to the top of the US box office in its first week. It eventually earned $361m worldwide – a record for the franchise at the time. Pierce Brosnan won the Empire Award for Best Actor, bizarrely, for the film and, more plausibly, Denise Richards became the first performer in Bond history to win a Razzie for her absolutely awful performance.

Roger Ebert was broadly positive about The World is Not Enough and called it a “splendid comic thriller”. He also praised the plot for linking its action sequences together with logic and had plenty of good things to say about Carlyle’s turn as Renard. It’s not often that I disagree with Ebert, but I honestly think he must have seen a different film.

In the years since its release, The World is Not Enough has earned a reputation as one of the worst films in the Bond franchise. Entertainment Weekly called it the worst of the franchise, whilst also criticising Richards as one of the worst Bond girls ever. Although reviews of the film on its initial release were mixed, the response since then has been decidedly negative as the film has dated in really quite horrible fashion.

“You wanna put that in English for those of us who don’t speak Spy?”

Despite initial promise, The World is Not Enough is a Bond film that ultimately falls apart and marks the beginning of the decline that eventually led Pierce Brosnan to run for the emergency exit. It has problems throughout and suffers from one of the worst female characters in the history of the Bond franchise… which is really saying something.

Next time, nostalgia… and tonnes of CGI arrives in the Bond franchise with Die Another Day.

What do you think of The World is Not Enough? How does Brosnan compare to his predecessors in the role? Let me know in the comments section.

You can read my look back at Tomorrow Never Dies here and find other Bond Reloaded articles here.

Genre: Crime
Certificate: 18
UK Release Date: 9th September 2015
Runtime: 131 minutes
Director: Brian Helgeland
Writer: Brian Helgeland
Starring: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Taron Egerton, Colin Morgan, Sam Spruell
Synopsis: An examination of the rise to power of the Kray Twins in London’s criminal underworld, through the eyes of one of their wives.

The Kray twins are perhaps the most well known criminal figures in British history. They have been depicted on film before, by Gary and Martin Kemp in Peter Medak’s The Krays. This time around, though, the lion’s share of the publicity for the film focused on the fact that both Krays would be portrayed by Tom Hardy, in a technologically seamless double performance similar to the portrayal of the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network. The film is solid, but never really lives up to that degree of hype.

Reggie Kray (Hardy) struggles to control the increasingly psychotic behaviour of his brother Ronnie (Hardy) as they try to build themselves as the kingpins of a criminal empire in London under the guidance of business manager Leslie (David Thewlis). Reggie meets local girl Francis (Emily Browning) and eventually marries her, despite the protests of her family. Meanwhile, police detective Nipper (Christopher Eccleston) pursues the Krays in an attempt to bring them to justice.

The dichotomy that always greets films such as Legend is how to balance the vile horror of the criminal acts committed by their subjects with the inherent glamour of their celebrity. That’s a conflict that Legend never quite manages to reconcile, with Emily Browning’s ripe voiceover dubbing the Krays “princes of the East End” and casting them as figures of esteem in their local communities, despite their rapidly expanding criminal empire.

| "What are you gonna do with that rolling pin? You gonna bake me a cake?"

That’s not to say that Brian Helgeland shies away from the dark side of the Krays, depicting in several explosions of shocking violence the sheer ruthlessness of the brothers. In one bravura scene near the middle of Legend, which emerges as one of the film’s highlights, Hardy actually engages in a bloody, chaotic fistfight with himself as the two brothers scrap. Unfortunately, these explosions of violence are often juxtaposed with moments of groan-worthy geezery comedy that leave parts of the film feeling a little like a sweary EastEnders. Danny Dyer would be right at home here.

Hardy, throughout, is on top form. He does an excellent job of navigating not only the differences between the two twins, but the subtle changes in each of them as the narrative progresses. Legend is structured around how Emily Browning’s character perceives the twins, which shifts and alters as their true nature becomes clear to her. It’s a beautifully nuanced touch to the script that makes it even more depressing that so much of the rest of the film is simply a blunt instrument.

Few of the problems with Legend are a result of its talented British cast. The performers are solid across the board, although many are underused and don’t get the exploration they deserve. Taron Egerton, in particular, as a young gay man attached to Ronnie, intrigues the audience more than he obviously intrigued the writers in Christopher Eccleston’s cop never feels like much of a threat to the boys. Helgeland’s script is so enamoured with his two protagonists that it never scratches the surface of the world around them.

| "My loyalty to my brother is how I measure myself."

Perhaps appropriately given its title, Legend has the slightly naff quality of a campfire myth. It tells the story of these two very real men, who were evil, murderous criminals, using a bubblegum hyper-reality that, despite the occasional brutality, largely sugar coats the Krays and the world in which they lived. Legend is a film about gangsters that’s desperate to be the British version of Goodfellas, but finds itself desperately in need of edge.

Pop or Poop?

Legend is a workmanlike, solid gangster movie, but is lifted by Tom Hardy’s powerhouse double performance, which is a marvel of technical abilities and acting in equal measure.

Unfortunately, the rest of Brian Helgeland’s film is a little too bright and frothy to accurately convey the brutal criminality of his leads. Helgeland isn’t giving us the truth here; he’s definitely printing the legend.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

Ahead of the release of SPECTRE this month, the Bond Reloaded series takes a look back at each film in the iconic James Bond franchise. This time, in Die Another Day, Bond meets a new foe – CGI waves.

The release of Die Another Day in 2002 marked the fortieth anniversary of the James Bond franchise, as well as the twentieth film in the series. New director Lee Tamahori, who had previously helmed James Patterson crime adaptation Along Came a Spider, stepped into the series for Die Another Day, in which Bond battles a corrupt diamond tycoon and finds trouble greeting him when he is dispatched to North Korea.

Whilst Pierce Brosnan returned to the role of James Bond, it was all change elsewhere for the franchise, with computer generated imagery making a big entrance. Nostalgia was also on the menu, with nods to every single other film in the series littered throughout Tamahori’s film, scripted by The World is Not Enough writing duo Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

Despite the promise of Die Another Day, the resulting film was something of an ugly mess. It has since gone down as perhaps the worst film in the history of the James Bond character and was almost solely responsible for the series taking a hiatus until the Daniel Craig-led Casino Royale rebooted the chronology in 2006. Looking back on it with modern eyes, it’s perhaps even worse than critical opinion would suggest.

An icy welcome

The film sees Bond captured and tortured by a North Korean general, before being released in a prisoner exchange for Korean terrorist Zao (Rick Yune). He is then forced to go rogue in order to track down Zao and tracks him to a plastic surgery clinic, where he meets US agent Jinx (Halle Berry). The trail leads them to suave, arrogant diamond entrepreneur Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) and his mysterious assistant Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike). He invites Bond to a product launch at an immaculate ice palace, but things soon take a rather destructive turn.

There are myriad problems in Die Another Day, starting with the ludicrous plot, which brings back the weirdest elements of the physical transformations in Diamonds Are Forever, which were questionable even in the 70s. The twists and turns are ridiculous, particularly once you factor in the slightly too nasty portrayal of the early torture sequences. The torture is presented alongside Madonna’s theme tune, which is a sensible choice given the frankly excruciating song the artist recorded.

"He did you? I didn’t know he was that desperate."

Matters aren’t helped by Toby Stephens’ over-the-top villain. As soon as we first meet Graves, it’s clear that he’s a bland character and this isn’t helped by the fact that he spends the final act of the film speaking Korean and wearing a strange robotic suit. His diamond-faced henchman Zao is far more compelling, trading quips with Bond in one fight scene. However, his big moment is taken from him by the real villain of Die Another Day – an over-reliance on unconvincing and ridiculous CGI.

One of the major action set pieces of Die Another Day is a car chase between Bond and Zao, with the villain’s Jaguar boasting many of the signature weapons that have graced Bond’s cars over the years. Bond, himself, drives his new Aston Martin Vanquish – complete with the bizarre ability to render itself invisible at the owner’s will. This infuriating CGI trick is far too sci-fi for Bond and renders aspects of the car chase irritating, when they should be gripping. Bond’s car chases have always been gritty, visceral and noisy, but Die Another Day transforms them into something glossy, sanitised and pretty dull.

The CGI usage gets worse. The entire final act of the film features dozens of mad special effects sequences, including the attacks carried out by Graves’ Icarus satellite, rendered in the kind of style that is now available to just about anyone with a video editing package. It isn’t the use of CGI in Die Another Day that makes it terrible, but the slapdash way in which it is used.

A jinx on Bond?

Things are no better for the pair of Bond girls in Die Another Day – both of whom have thankfully gone on to do much better things. First up, Halle Berry, who appeared in Die Another Day only months after scooping the Best Actress award at the Oscars for her role in Monster’s Ball. Jinx, however, is a cardboard cutout of a character, first introduced in an homage to Ursula Andress’ arrival in Dr. No. She joins a long line of Bond girls who are secret service agents, but are still written as inferior to Bond.

Elsewhere, Rosamund Pike – years before wowing critics and audiences as Amy in Gone Girl – is given very little to do as Miranda Frost. Introduced as Graves’ assistant, Frost is very quickly revealed to be an MI6 colleague of Bond’s on her own undercover mission within Graves’ organisation. Frost’s main role in the narrative of Die Another Day is to flip allegiance constantly, never allowing the character to showcase anything in the way of depth.

"You can’t kill my dreams. But my dreams can kill you."

It doesn’t help that Die Another Day also butchers the fragile equilibrium of the MI6 setup that had been such a crucial part of the franchise throughout the previous four decades. John Cleese, as talented a performer as he demonstrably is, simply isn’t Q in the same way that Desmond Llewelyn was and the transformation of Samantha Bond’s Moneypenny into a sex-crazed Bond stalker is an unforgivable departure from her character. This aspect of the story was clearly not a priority for the writers and, as such, it feels played entirely for comedy to a disturbing degree.

Die Another Day is such a catastrophic failure on every level that it’s difficult to understand why director Lee Tamahori was not pushed more into line by the big movers at Eon. His movie is entirely out of step with the Bond franchise and, instead of proving an exciting vehicle for the nostalgic references it packs in to previous films, it instead uses that nostalgia as a get out of jail free card for its major departures from the tried and tested formula.

Blast from the past?

Die Another Day premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2002 at an event attended by the Queen and Prince Phillip. This marked the first time a Bond premiere had featured the royals as guests since You Only Live Twice back in 1967. If only they had picked a better one to see. The film made in excess of $400m worldwide, becoming the highest grossing film in the franchise at the time, when not adjusted for inflation.

Bizarrely, critical reception for Die Another Day at the time of the release was reasonably positive. In the New York Times, the film was lauded as being the best of the Bonds since The Spy Who Loved Me and Entertainment Weekly praised Tamahori as a “true filmmaker”. Roger Ebert called the film utterly absurd “in a slightly more understated way” than usual in his positive review.

Since its release, reaction to Die Another Day has veered more towards the film’s true status as something of a cinematic trainwreck. James Berardinelli accused the film of throwing the 40 years of Bond history down the toilet and former Bond Roger Moore said that even he, the first Bond in space, felt that the sci-fi elements of the film pushed things a little too far.

"I know all about you – sex for dinner, death for breakfast."

Best forgotten, Die Another Day brings Pierce Brosnan’s career as James Bond to an end with far more of a whimper than a bang. A duo of intriguing Bond girl performances are squandered on the way to a poorly plotted story, which falls apart under the weight of some utterly terrible CGI. It’s no surprise that Bond went considerably darker when it returned a few years later…

Next time, Daniel Craig brings Bond up to date with the gritty Casino Royale.

What do you think of Die Another Day? Was this the right time for Brosnan to leave Bond behind? Let me know in the comments section.

You can read my look back at The World is Not Enough here and find other Bond Reloaded articles here.

Ahead of the release of SPECTRE this month, the Bond Reloaded series takes a look back at each film in the iconic James Bond franchise. This time, Daniel Craig gives the franchise a new, hard edge in Casino Royale.

After the career of Pierce Brosnan in the signature tux of James Bond began to wane, Eon noted that the franchise was in pretty bad health. After 40 years of constant action and quips, the series needed a slightly darker edge. As a reaction to the popularity of the Bourne franchise, Bond was taken down a route into grit and brutality.

For that, they needed a new man to wield the weaponry and deliver the one-liners. Brosnan announced that he was stepping down in 2004, which led to a massive hunt for the new Bond. Many people who would go on to become big names were considered for the role, including Dougray Scott, Sam Worthington and future Superman Henry Cavill. The latter only missed out on the role as a result of his age.

Daniel Craig, best known at the time for his role in Layer Cake, initially turned down the role, feeling that the series had descended into formula. However, when he read Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis’ script for Casino Royale, he decided to step into the role that was set to make him a household name. Looking back, it couldn’t really have been anyone else.

Back to black

Casino Royale was a reboot of sorts for the Bond franchise, resetting the chronology with Bond earning his stripes as a 00 agent in the pre-credits sequence, shot in gorgeous black and white. From the very beginning, there’s a definite sense that this is something completely different for Bond. The film even holds the signature gun barrel sequence until the end of the pre-credits action – marking the moment Bond earns his stripes as an agent.

The film opens with a jaw-dropping parkour chase, in which Bond runs down and ultimately kills a bomb maker. This action sequence holds up even today as one of the best in the history of the Bond franchise, proving to be the perfect illustration of effects supervisor Chris Corbould’s desire to return the world of Bond to practical effects after the CGI focus of Die Another Day. It’s a perfect sequence, which does a great job of establishing Craig’s Bond as a blunt instrument, who doesn’t care about doing things elegantly.

"Why is it that people who can’t take advice always insist on giving it?"

From there, Casino Royale is divided into three clear acts. The first sees Bond tackle a small-time member of an organisation seemingly led by Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), averting a bomb attack at an airport. The second segment has Bond battle Le Chiffre in a high stakes poker game, with Treasury official Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) overseeing him. Finally, the third act covers the aftermath of the game, as Le Chiffre pursues Bond to try to recover the prize money that was supposed to rescue him from a debt to some fellow criminals.

Director Martin Campbell, returning to the franchise after delivering a great opener for Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye, is on top form once again. The action is tight, throughout, focusing on close quarters fight scenes in which every blow leaves a mark. By the time Bond flips his Aston Martin DBS in the third act and an entire Venetian building collapses into a canal, Casino Royale has cemented itself as a defining moment in the way Bond action sequences work.

It helps that Daniel Craig looks born to play the role of James Bond. He slots into Bond’s skin as if it was made for him, imbuing the character with an icy cool and a smug confidence. Craig’s Bond is immediately a considerable degree more intense than even Timothy Dalton’s ruthless incarnation, which makes it all the more remarkable when he becomes the first Bond since George Lazenby to fall head over heels in love.

An ace in the pack

Normally, the prospect of Bond falling in love would be as unconvincing as Jaws’ relationship at the end of Moonraker. However, Craig’s Bond immediately meets his emotional and intellectual match in the shape of Eva Green’s accountant Vesper Lynd. From the very first scene in which we meet Vesper, verbally sparring with Bond as he attempts to flirt on a train, it’s clear that she is a complex human being with layers of mystery hidden below her attractive exterior. By the time those mysteries pay off at the climax, she has cemented herself as one of the best Bond girls ever written.

The scene in which she first softens to Bond, when he comforts her in the shower after she witnesses his brutal killing of two armed henchmen, is one of the few occasions in which a James Bond movie pauses to explore the consequences of violence. Eva Green does a great job of playing the scene in a sort of homage to Lady Macbeth. It’s a scene in which plenty is said without a single line of dialogue and we learn more about Bond’s relationship than we have perhaps since his wedding in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Bond’s walls are high, so it takes quite the woman to break them down.

"Sometimes we’re so focused on our enemies we forget to watch our friends."

But in order for the new Bond to succeed, he needed a ruthless villain. Casino Royale delivers, with future Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen conjuring up a sinister amalgam of Bond villains past. There are few things more sinister than a man who regularly weeps blood, but Mikkelsen somehow manages to make that the least terrifying aspect of the character. The scene in which he brutally tortures Bond with a rope to the testicles is one of the most uncomfortable and violent scenes in Bond history and cements Le Chiffre as an iconic bad guy.

It’s also nice to occasionally see a Bond film that doesn’t just press the reset button when the credits roll. Casino Royale started an ongoing story thread for the Daniel Craig Bond films that runs through even to SPECTRE. Whilst the self-contained adventures of Bond’s past were entertaining, it’s nice occasionally to see Bond’s actions have wide-ranging consequences and to take a look at the bigger picture.

And that’s Casino Royale’s legacy in a nutshell. It was one of the first films to truly explore the consequences of what James Bond does when he pulls the trigger, whether it was with Vesper shuddering at the horror she had just witnessed or the fact that the central thread of the movie extended out into the future. For the first time, audiences got the sense that Bond did not operate in a vacuum. Like all of us, he is part of a wider world and, in the era of shared universes and sequel fever, this was the perfect time to drop that bombshell.

Rolling the dice…

Just as with Die Another Day four years earlier, the premiere of Casino Royale was attended by the Queen and Prince Phillip. The film also became the first Bond to be shown in Chinese cinemas, albeit with some small edits to a mention of the Cold War and additional dialogue to explain the rules of Texas hold ‘em poker. The film soared to almost $600m at the global box office, becoming the biggest box office hit of any film in the Bond franchise, until it was surpassed by Skyfall in 2012.

Casino Royale was also a hit with critics, receiving near universal acclaim on its release. It still bears a near perfect 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the film a perfect score and described Daniel Craig as “bloody damned great” in the role. He also praised director Campbell and the writers for stepping outside the usual conventions of Bond films. Entertainment Weekly ranked it as the fifth best movie in the entire Bond canon. Negative reviews were rare, but The Observer’s Tim Adams criticised the film for timeframe confusion and for being tonally unsure.

"I hope our little game isn’t causing you to perspire."

For my money, Casino Royale is one of the best films in the Bond franchise and remains a prime example of a major creative risk that paid off. It’s now almost impossible to imagine Craig being anything other than excellent as 007 himself and Vesper Lynd has entered into the pantheon of classic Bond women, with far more to do than be ogled by Bond. On top of that, the action scenes were the best they have ever been and the plot really motors, despite the bum-numbing runtime. This is vintage Bond.

Next time, Daniel Craig tries to get to the bottom of the wider conspiracy in Quantum of Solace.

What do you think of Casino Royale? Did Daniel Craig banish the memories of Brosnan’s later films? Let me know in the comments section.

You can read my look back at Die Another Day here and find other Bond Reloaded articles here.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: 10th September 2015
Runtime: 131 minutes
Director: Wes Ball
Writer: TS Nowlin
Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aidan Gillen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Dexter Darden, Alexander Flores, Rosa Salazar, Patricia Clarkson
Synopsis: A band of friends must once again evade the clutches of WCKD in order to uncover the secrets of their world.

Another week, another dystopian young adult novel to join the swelling subgenre. The Scorch Trials is the sequel to the surprisingly decent 2014 effort The Maze Runner, with returning director Wes Ball this time expanding his world outside of the restrictive environment of the first film’s titular labyrinth to thrilling effect. Unfortunately, despite plenty of visual invention, the plot doesn’t quite shape up.

After their escape from the maze, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) and their friends are being shielded from the evil WCKD by Janson (Aidan Gillen) in a secure desert facility. However, when it becomes clear that Janson is in fact working alongside WCKD, the Gladers must go on the run once again. With the help of rebel girl Brenda (Rosa Salazar), they head out in search of the Right Arm – shadowy leaders of the anti-WCKD resistance.

If ever a film could be described as having middle movie syndrome, The Scorch Trials is that film. It largely avoids recapping the plot in any way, simply dropping the audience where they left off a year ago. From that moment until the final credits, Ball barely lifts his foot from the gas pedal, catapulting the film through myriad action set pieces, chases and shouted exposition. As rollicking and fast-paced as the film is, you need a degree in the franchise’s mythology to have even the first clue what is happening a lot of the time.

| "Wait here. No need playing bumper cars with the dead folks again."

Thankfully, Ball is emerging as a stellar action director and is able to paper over the story’s narrative gaps with terrific set pieces that balance aspects of action cinema with some genuinely frightening horror iconography. The “cranks” – humans turned into zombie-like creatures by a deadly virus – are straight from the playbook of Romero. They push the boundaries of the film’s 12A certificate to its limit with their misshapen bodies and desire for human blood. It’s through these threats that Ball manages to create a kinetic urgency to The Scorch Trials.

All of this running and chasing and zombie fighting comes at a price though, and The Scorch Trials largely puts aside the intriguing mystery and character development of the first film. Occasional revelations allow Dylan O’Brien and Kaya Scodelario to dust off their “and on that bombshell…” faces, but these rug pulls never feel like they have any material impact on the plot. Shorn of any character depth, the performances lose their edge and the peripheral characters become entirely unmemorable ciphers.

For a large part of its running time, The Scorch Trials is an utter mess. The episodic wandering never really feels like it’s going anywhere and Aidan Gillen gets little chance to flex the villain muscles he has perfected as Machiavellian genius Littlefinger in Game of Thrones. By the time revelations start to pile on in the final act, it’s difficult to care. The film would’ve been far more entertaining if it had spent more time with the zombies.

| "Hope is a dangerous thing."

It’s clear that the Maze Runner franchise is never going to hit the high watermark set by The Hunger Games, but it remains one of the more intriguing and entertaining young adult franchises. Wes Ball’s direction ensures that the series maintains one clear voice and, with a longer gap ahead of trilogy-closing finale The Death Cure, it’s worth being excited for the conclusion of what remains a promising piece of work.

Pop or Poop?

Director Wes Ball is the undisputed star of the Maze Runner franchise and continues to stamp his impression on the series with The Scorch Trials.

Unfortunately, the film is something of an unwieldy mess that pretty much discards any hope of helping the audience through the complex world of James Dashner’s novels.

If you just sit back and enjoy the action, though, this remains one of the better entries in the YA canon.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

Ahead of the release of SPECTRE this month, the Bond Reloaded series takes a look back at each film in the iconic James Bond franchise. This time, Daniel Craig’s 007 tries to avenge the death of Vesper Lynd in Quantum of Solace.

It’s always difficult to follow a major success. Thus, after Casino Royale delighted fans and critics with its gritty feel and harsher tone, the Bond franchise found itself with a tough mountain to climb. The fan appetite was high for another home run and all criticisms of Daniel Craig in the lead role had been pretty much banished.

Producer Michael G Wilson came up with a basic idea for the next Bond film, which would later become Quantum of Solace, during the shooting of Casino Royale. However, in 2007, the Writers’ Guild of America announced strike action, which caused star Daniel Craig and incoming director Marc Forster to be shunted into the role of rewriters for many key sequences. The result is something of an ugly, under-written mess of a movie.

Looking back, Quantum of Solace perhaps didn’t deserve the savaging it got on first release. There’s no doubt, though, that this wasn’t what everyone involved signed up for after the successes of Craig’s debut turn. Somewhere, Quantum of Solace went off the rails and never managed to find its way again.

Wild goose chase

Much was made in the run-up to Quantum of Solace of the fact that it was set to be the first Bond film that was a direct sequel to its predecessor. The film does at least follow through on that, opening as Bond delivers Mr White (Jesper Christensen) to M (Judi Dench), having apprehended him in the final moments of Casino Royale. However, the thread of Bond avenging the death of Vesper Lynd and exploring the organisation for whom she worked is largely tossed to one side by the inconsistent script, which instead focuses on Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) and his bland criminal plot.

Greene’s plot is an unclear one,  involving the facilitation of a Bolivian coup and securing the country’s water supply in order to control the political landscape in the region… or something. It’s a bland scheme and one that pretty much reflects Amalric’s performance – confused, not particularly sinister and almost entirely unmemorable. He doesn’t have a single defining moment and barely even gets to meet with Bond, sharing only one fight sequence – in the midst of some unconvincingly glossy flames, before shuffling off into the desert to die off screen – the ultimate disrespect to a villain.

"There is something horribly efficient about you."

Many of the problems with Quantum of Solace can be traced back to its script, with its various authors. Too often, the film resorts to cliché rather than invention in order to get the job done. The dialogue between Bond and Bolivian agent Camille (Olga Kurylenko) never feels natural and boils down the complex revenge narrative set up by the climax of Casino Royale to a scene in which the two agents fire insincere platitudes at each other. Given the level of intrigue built around the concept of exploring Bond and Vesper a little more, it’s a shame to see that given such short shrift.

There’s something about Quantum of Solace that just feels as if everyone is firing on about 50%. Daniel Craig, although still impressive as 007, has nothing to get his teeth into and seems to be cruising his way through the film on auto-pilot. It doesn’t help that the action sequences have a glossy feel to them that wasn’t present in the grittier, darker environs of Casino Royale. Although a lot of the action was done for real, in-camera, there’s a post-production sheen to it all that creates an oddly clinical visual style, free of suspense.

Not quite black gold

There are flashes of brilliance in Quantum of Solace that suggest there was once something worth seeing in its story. The use of a crowded opera house as the venue for a secret criminal meeting is a compelling touch and the notion of environmentalism versus commerce was a timely conflict that didn’t get nearly enough screen time. There’s also the looming dilemma in this film of the Americans actually siding with the movie’s villain, but that is resolved far too neatly and never comes to fruition.

Similarly, the character of Fields, played by then unknown Gemma Arterton is one that never reaches its potential. Fields is initially a compelling intellectual match for Bond, but she is immediately catapulted into bed with him and soon appears covered in oil. This is a lazy homage to Goldfinger and one that feels like fan service – given how little of a role oil actually plays in the film outside of that moment – rather than an organic part of the story.

Olga Kurylenko, too, is dramatically underused by the filmmakers. Despite an intriguing back story that has her on a revenge mission parallel to Bond’s, it never feels like we get under the surface of her character. It’s gratifying that the final third has her fighting her own battles rather than relying on Bond to save her, but there’s never any dramatic weight to this conflict – just an unpleasant whiff of lurking sexual violence that is really out of place.

"They say you’re judged by the strength of your enemies."

The film is also keen to make use of the horrendously over-played narrative of Bond going rogue against MI6 and the government. There are minor hints of a story that would explore Bond’s over-active trigger finger and its consequences, but this is something the film never bothers to discuss in much detail.

In the face of the alarmingly mediocre performances and the poor writing, Quantum of Solace never really stood a chance. Director Marc Forster, who would later go on to make impressive zombie yarn World War Z, is never given the chance to spread his directorial wings and is largely lumbered with action set pieces that the film moves between with the slightest thread of inert plot possible. This was a rush job and one that probably should never have made it to cinema screens.

On top of the world?

Royalty once again attended a Bond premiere for Quantum of Solace with Prince William and his brother Prince Harry both in attendance at the Leicester Square event, which raised money for British armed forces charities. The film broke the record for a UK opening weekend at the box office on its release, but ultimately grossed slightly less than its predecessor, with $586m worldwide.

Reviewers were decidedly mixed in their assessment of the film. The Sunday Times savaged the film, calling the story “incomprehensible” and the casting a “mess”. Roger Ebert, meanwhile, criticised the decision to morph Bond from a spy into something of an action hero, running around in hails of machine gun fire. Ebert wrote that violence was a mere “annoyance” for Bond – something that was a necessary evil of his lifestyle.

Some critics, however, were considerably more positive. Empire Magazine’s Kim Newman wrote a four-star review in which he called the film “pacy and visually imaginative” whilst also praising the shorter runtime than previous Bond adventures. Tim Robey, writing for the Telegraph in 2013, added that the film was intelligent in its treatment of the Vesper subplot.

"It’d be a pretty cold bastard who didn’t want revenge for the death of someone he loved."

Looking back on Quantum of Solace, it’s perhaps not as bad as it seemed on initial release and certainly doesn’t pile up sins in the same way as previous disasters like Die Another Day and Octopussy. It was a victim of its circumstances rather than a total creative misfire and does pack in some ideas that a more opportune release window might have allowed to fly. Thankfully, Daniel Craig’s Bond would soon find his masterpiece…

Next time, Daniel Craig battles with a face from M’s past in Skyfall.

What do you think of Quantum of Solace? Did Daniel Craig banish the memories of Brosnan’s later films? Let me know in the comments section.

You can read my look back at Casino Royale here and find other Bond Reloaded articles here.

Ahead of the release of SPECTRE this month, the Bond Reloaded series takes a look back at each film in the iconic James Bond franchise. This time, Daniel Craig shields M from a face from her past in Skyfall.

The Bond franchise was, yet again, in dire straits after Quantum of Solace came out in 2008. Financial difficulties were ravaging studio MGM and these put the latest Bond movie on hiatus for the entirety of 2010. Fortunately, Eon already had American Beauty director Sam Mendes in place to direct the saga’s next film, with Daniel Craig returning to the lead role for the third time. In 2011, production resumed in earnest and Skyfall was born.

Given that the franchise had almost entirely reinvented itself with Casino Royale only six years earlier, it was remarkable to see that Skyfall was yet another completely different beast. For the first time ever, there was no real evil plot on the scale of world domination – just a madman turning his ire towards MI6 and, specifically, Judi Dench’s M in her final appearance.

Skyfall is an exquisitely written Bond movie and probably the franchise’s high watermark outside of the classic Goldfinger. It was Bond as drama more than high-octane thriller, but aided by terrific performances, well-done action scenes and one of the best villains in the history of the franchise.

Look to the past

Skyfall opens with the kind of sequence that has become a pre-credits classic – the apparent death of 007. This time around, it’s a poorly aimed gunshot from fellow agent Eve (Naomie Harris) that puts an end to Bond, leading into Adele’s distinctly Shirley Bassey-esque theme song. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bond isn’t dead and soon returns to the fold after a cyber-terror attack targets MI6. Via an encounter with mysterious Severine (Bérénice Marlohe), Bond finds himself meeting Silva (Javier Bardem) – a former agent with a serious grudge against M.

Right from the pre-credits chase, which is perhaps the best Bond opening to date, the approach of Skyfall is clear. This is the rugged, blunt instrument agent who we saw in Casino Royale, rather than the glossy action man of Quantum of Solace. Mendes brought a real world sensibility to Bond with this film, whilst calmly nodding to the past in the franchise’s 50th anniversary year and assembling a new generation of MI6 staff, with Harris becoming iconic secretary Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw appearing as a brand new incarnation of Q.

"All this jumping and fighting – it’s exhausting. Relax."

Skyfall is incredibly brave in that it is not structured at all like a Bond film after its halfway point. Initially, the globe-trotting action and breadcrumb trail of clues is vintage 007, but then Silva is apprehended on his private island and a curveball is thrown. The rest of the film sees Bond on the run as he tries to protect M from Silva’s complex and devilishly intelligent plan. It’s an interesting change in dynamic that bears real dramatic fruit. The shift in narrative style also slows down the pace, which was absolutely breakneck in Casino Royale, but here gives the more personal story the necessary breathing room.

Judi Dench and Daniel Craig make the absolute best of that breathing room, delivering the two best dramatic performances in the history of the Bond franchise, particularly as M succumbs to her death on the floor of a Scottish chapel. It’s in that moment that the icy relationship between 007 and his boss pays off in an outpouring of, not quite emotion, but overwhelming respect. It’s fitting that the most popular M ever should get a proper, on screen send-off and Mendes’ risk pays dividends in allowing the film a more solemn finale than the usual romp in a field.

Pursuing Dench across the UK with ruthless forward planning, Javier Bardem is a genuinely hissable villain. Silva’s cyber-terrorism gives him an interesting angle, but even more intriguing is the homo-erotic dimension to his relationship with Bond. Silva is not only Bond’s equal, but someone who flies in direct opposition to his hyper-masculine perception of the spy game. On top of this, Silva has a classic Bond villain feel, aided by his grotesque true appearance and the sense of his always being one step ahead. Bardem’s performance is maniacal in calm and measured style, particularly in the final, fiery assault on Bond’s ancestral home.

MI6 under fire

The secondary plotline of Skyfall sees MI6 itself threatened, following the accidental leak of the secret identities of dozens of agents embedded in criminal organisations worldwide. This, in a topical evocation of the Leveson Inquiry, pits Dench’s M in a battle of wits against her own government, forced to prove the value of her work in a modern age. If what we know thus far about Andrew Scott’s C in SPECTRE is anything to go on, the notion of MI6’s place in the world will continue to be a major theme of the Craig era.

Mendes puts together an intense array of action sequences for Bond to face, including a fistfight in a Shanghai casino which brings Craig face to face with a fearsome komodo dragon. The final assault on Skyfall sees Bond stripped of his innovative gadgetry and relying solely on improvised weaponry and his own wits to protect M. It’s a tremendous sequence, shot beautifully by ace DOP Roger Deakins, that sees Craig’s Bond at his best and Bardem on villainous form.

"Well, I like to do some things the old-fashioned way."

Alongside working as a dramatic action film in its own right, Skyfall does a solid job of assembling the new MI6 staff like an Ikea flat-pack. Naomie Harris proves to be a flirtatious and interesting Moneypenny, given a modicum more depth than simply being in love with Bond. Meanwhile, Ben Whishaw is one of the film’s standout performers as the new Q, bringing a youth to the role that meshes nicely with a more technologically aware era. His initial exchange with Bond is one of great wit and a battle of old versus new, showcasing these two men as the intellectual equals they have always been.

By the time the credits roll on Skyfall, a whole new MI6 has been established, ready for Bond to embark on its second 50 years as a definitive series in the canon of British cinema. It’s remarkable what the film manages to achieve in terms of planning for the future and nodding to the past, as well as delivering an efficient and wildly entertaining action movie. With Sam Mendes back in the director’s chair for SPECTRE, there could be yet another Bond hit on the cards.

World-beating finances?

Arriving at a premiere attended by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla in November 2012, Skyfall almost immediately became the biggest financial hit in Bond history. It eventually made its way to in excess of $1bn at the worldwide box office, including being the first film to make more than £100m in the UK alone. At the time of writing, Skyfall remains the thirteenth highest grossing film of all time globally.

Reviews for Skyfall were overwhelmingly positive. Roger Ebert gave the film the perfect four stars, calling it “invigorating” and praising it for being “a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon”. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter dubbed the film a “fresh blend” of an old vintage, whilst Kim Newman in Empire Magazine lauded the film as being everything audiences could want from a Bond in the 21st century.

Even the more negative stances on the film were wrapped up in generally laudatory reviews. Xan Brooks, writing in The Guardian, said that the film “allows sentimentality to cloud its judgment” and criticised its “touchy-feely indulgence”. Daniel Krupa, over at IGN, was critical of some of the supporting performances, singling out Harris’ “awkward” Moneypenny for having very little chemistry with Daniel Craig.

"I can do more damage on my laptop sitting in my pyjamas, before my first cup of Earl Grey, than you can do in a year."

Reinvigorating the Bond franchise with a shot of adrenaline to its heart, Skyfall is one of the best British movies of recent years. It marries elaborate action sequences and a contemporary take on supervillainy with an intense, character-based drama that brings Bond firmly into the modern era. SPECTRE has a lot to live up to, but with the Mendes/Craig duo at its heart, it’s tough to see how it could fail.

That’s the end of the Bond Reloaded series. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. See you in the cinema for SPECTRE.

What do you think of Skyfall? Did Daniel Craig produce his best turn as Bond? Let me know in the comments section.

You can read my look back at Quantum of Solace here and find other Bond Reloaded articles here.

Genre: Drama
Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: 11th September 2015
Runtime: 95 minutes
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, Jamie Blackley
Synopsis: An enigmatic, introverted philosophy professor forms a romantic relationship with one of his students and contemplates whether it’s ever morally right to commit murder.

At this stage of his career, Woody Allen’s ouevre is rather hit and miss. He delivered one of his best films a few years ago with Midnight in Paris and led Cate Blanchett to a Best Actress Oscar with Blue Jasmine, but underwhelmed with last year’s rather lightweight Magic in the Moonlight. This year, he reunites with Moonlight star Emma Stone for Irrational Man, which is a wordy drama about philosophy, inappropriate power relationships and the complex morality of murder.

Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) arrives at a new university as philosophy professor, in the midst of a crisis about whether his life is worth anything. His cynical perspective on life strikes a chord with student Jill (Stone), who becomes infatuated with Abe. This causes friction with her boyfriend Roy (Jamie Blackley) and Abe’s lustful colleague Rita (Parker Posey), which only intensifies when Abe decides to murder a corrupt judge.

Irrational Man is a wildly inconsistent film. At times, it’s an eloquent piece of work that recalls Allen’s best, but more often, it’s an unwieldy, overly verbose tale that feels more like a university lecture than a work of narrative cinema. It’s tough to point the finger of blame at anything other than Allen’s script, which is essentially a dissertation on morality as opposed to a big screen story. Allen is more interested in discussing his central thesis than creating compelling, even remotely believable, characters.

| "I wanted to be a world changer and I’ve ended up a passive intellectual who can’t fuck."

The central performances, from Phoenix and Stone, are a little awkward and offbeat. Whether this is by design or not, the result is a slightly stagey feel to proceedings and a total lack of chemistry between the performers. Phoenix looks bored of his own role and a miscast Stone fails to lift Irrational Man with her typical brand of wide-eyed quirk. The standout, in fact, is Parker Posey as Abe’s colleague and occasional lover, who is the first to smell a rat regarding the high-profile murder case dominating media in the area.

Murder itself is treated oddly by Allen in Irrational Man. There’s some intrigue in how Abe almost immediately begins to enjoy life again after poisoning the judge, but this soon unfolds into a fairly generic murder mystery narrative. Abe’s eventual disintegration is completely unbelievable and feels out of place for his character, particularly given his constant moral lectures about the nature of philosophy.

It’s this lack of levity that makes Irrational Man something of a chore to get through at times. The early part of the movie works through a standard late period Allen romance at a pedestrian pace before the slightly more intriguing mechanics of the thriller story get moving. It’s unusual to see Allen move so defiantly away from comedy and it’s not something that pays off here given the overly serious tone of what should have been a light confection.

| "So much of philosophy is just verbal masturbation."

When it comes down to it, Irrational Man is just too talky and pedestrian to make its narrative work. The performances are distinctly underwhelming and the story never hits the heights that its intriguing central conceit should have reached. It’s not essential Woody Allen by any means, but the director’s fans will likely find plenty to enjoy.

Pop or Poop?

Woody Allen has really dropped the ball with Irrational Man, which is a distinctly hit-and-miss tale of philosophy and murder, with two awkward performances at its centre.

The early, funny ones seem like a long time ago.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

Genre: Horror
Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: 11th September 2015
Runtime: 94 minutes
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Writer: M Night Shyamalan
Starring: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn, Patch Darragh
Synopsis: Two precocious children visit their estranged grandparents for the first time and discover that there’s something very weird indeed about their unusual, elderly relatives.

Few filmmakers are as divisive as M Night Shyamalan. Since he hit gold with The Sixth Sense back in the 90s, his reliance on plot twists and bizarre creative decisions has left him with a dubious reputation as a hack who got lucky. His last film – dismal Jaden Smith vehicle After Earth – didn’t exactly help stem the tide of ridicule and vitriol. However, Shyamalan has made his return to low-budget horror cinema with The Visit, which is an efficiently creepy tale.

Siblings Rebecca (Olivia DeJonge) and Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), in a move designed to give their totally exhausted mother (Kathryn Hahn) a break, are sent to spend a week with their grandparents, whom they have never previously met. Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) initially seem to be perfectly normal, genial old folk. However, when the kids flout their 9:30pm bedtime, they discover that there’s something odd going on in the house.

The joy of The Visit is in how well Shyamalan manages its deeply unusual tone, which is positioned somewhere between the standard found footage horror format and black comedy. There’s a refreshing sense of fun to the film and it takes great pleasure in subverting the usual expectations for such a genre picture. The script walks the awkwardly wavy line between comedy and horror to great effect, with Deanna Dunagan in particular given a difficult balancing act to work with.

| "There’s something wrong with Nana and Pop Pop."

In the early stages, The Visit creaks under the weight of the dozens of crappy found footage horror films that have been released in the last few years. The gimmick is tired and old hat, which is why it’s all the more remarkable that The Visit still manages to find plenty of scares. Deanna Dunagan’s late night wanderings are genuinely creepy and, aside from a few obvious jump scares, they largely help to build tension rather than diminish it with cheap jolts.

It helps that the central young duo are entertaining. DeJonge does a solid job as the film-obsessed know-it-all, whilst Oxenbould gets plenty of mileage out of his role as a live-action Bart Simpson. The scenes in which he showcases his naively misogynistic freestyle raps are horrendously awkward, but funny as a result of the star’s sheer commitment.

As with so many of Shyamalan’s films, The Visit turns on a sixpence in its final third with a plot twist that unlocks the narrative. Here, the twist is delivered in delightfully unexpected fashion – even if the turn itself isn’t entirely unpredictable – and sets into motion a third act that goes full-tilt barmy and is incredibly entertaining as a result. Put it this way: Yahtzee was a perfect game, friendly for all of the family, right up until it was used in The Visit.

| "Would you mind getting inside the oven to clean it?"

The success of The Visit comes down to the fact that it is Shyamalan working within the kind of limitations that funnel his creativity into the right things. The direction is exuberant, the fairytale nods are playful and the scares are pretty solid. If it weren’t for the found footage crutch, this could’ve been one of the best horror films of the year.

Pop or Poop?

M Night Shyamalan returns to some sort of form with The Visit, which is a film that brings fun, dark wit and a degree of much-needed originality to the tired found footage subgenre.

The performances are solid, particularly from the terrifying Deanna Dunagan, and the scares come thick and fast along with the comedy. It’s deeply flawed, but considering the variable quality of the director’s oeuvre, there is plenty to enjoy.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

The following is a guest post by Tom Duggans – a self-proclaimed Bond aficionado and lover of all things 007. He also thinks people were a little too harsh toward Quantum of Solace but let’s not open that can of worms.

The wait is finally over for Spectre. Bond 24 has already landed in the UK and will arrive in US cinemas this week, and it might just be the most hyped Bond film to date. Daniel Craig has developed an extremely passionate following among younger Bond fans, and if you add that to the generations of people who have always loved the franchise, it’s fair to suggest that James Bond is bigger than ever.

Early reviews for Spectre are largely positive, but of course each fan will need to decide for him/herself how it stacks up against the recent Craig efforts and the series as a whole. And in case you’ve missed some of the news and trailers leading up to the film, here are all of the major details you should know heading into the release, from the new Bond girls to 007’s latest ride.

The Girls

No Bond film is complete without a few stunning and mysterious actresses to capture 007’s interests and attractions. This time around, there are two or three of them. Lea Seydoux is getting most of the recognition as the defining "Bond girl" of Spectre, though in a way she’s fighting that very label. Seydoux has made it clear that she’s not a typical Bond girl, and that she didn’t want to take the role if it ended up being just another sexual conquest of 007’s.

That sounds a lot more like Eva Green‘s Vesper Lynd character from Casino Royale than the typical Bond girl, and most fans will agree that’s a great sign. Monica Bellucci will also star in the film, and Naomie Harris will embody Eve Moneypenny once again. Although, fans will recall this version of Moneypenny has some genuine sexual tension with Bond as well.

The Cars

Aston Martin has something of a modern monopoly on the very concept of a signature Bond car, and that won’t be changing in Spectre. However, it’s also worth noting that this film will apparently rope in a few additional impressive vehicles to serve various purposes (and hopefully some good old-fashioned chase scenes).

There will be four featured cars in Spectre, with most of the attention going to a stunning new Aston Martin DB10 that will likely be Bond’s main ride. However, we’ll also see a Range Rover Sport SVR and a modified Land Rover Defender Bigfoot, and the villain (played by Christoph Waltz) will drive a Jaguar C-X75 that could rival the Aston Martin as the headline vehicle of the film.

MI6

Just as a refresher, fans should be prepared for a new-look MI6 in Spectre The transition occurred in Skyfall, but with the wonderful Judi Dench still featuring prominently as M, it was almost hard to take note of the MI6 overhaul. In Spectre a newer and largely younger crew will be in place. Ralph Fiennes takes over as M, with the aforementioned Naomie Harris continuing her turn as Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw returning as Q. It’s an edgier group for Craig’s edgier Bond.

The Villains

Usually a Bond film has a signature villain who gets the most screen time and develops into a direct nemesis for 007 to take down. But more often than not there are also one or two additional villains, either thuggish cronies who serve as obstacle "boss fights" for Bond en route to taking down the main villain, or wealthy, mysterious backers playing the primary villain like a puppet. There’s no telling exactly how many significant bad guys will pop up in Spectre, but what we know heading in is interesting.

Christoph Waltz is playing a character named Oberhauser, evidently the head of the evil Spectre organisation and a character from Bond’s past. But we also know that Mr. White is coming back. Played by Jesper Christensen in both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, White is a bizarre case. He was once the sort of rich crime backer previously mentioned, and now, judging by trailers, a down-on-his-luck, tormented character who may even assist Bond.

The Video Games

Not every Bond film gets a video game, but because Goldeneye 007 is one of the most iconic games of all time, fans are always looking for possible video game adaptations. It doesn’t have to do with the actual film of course, but it’s part of the process of a new Bond release. As it happened, there’s no specific Spectre game in the works. There’s at least an interesting "From Monte Carlo With Love" bonus game featured in a collection of online casino games as a clear nod to the new Bond film.

The game offers players the chance to "earn a trip to Double-O Heaven," and invokes a certain Bond-esque spirit even if it’s not a traditional action or shooter experience. There was also an app called James Bond: World Of Espionage released for Android earlier this year. This also isn’t a specific Spectre accompaniment, though Daniel Craig’s imag e is used and the game itself — it’s a social mystery progression in which you deploy and control secret agents on missions — is pretty enjoyable.

The Plot

There are a lot of theories and half-constructed synopses out there, but all we really know for sure (at least those of us who haven’t caught early screenings or read spoilers) is that a cryptic message from Bond’s past leads him on a journey that ultimately sees him uncovering the Spectre organisation.

It certainly appears that the so-called missions this time around will be somewhat more independent for Bond, operating at least to some extent on his own, rather than as directed by MI6.

And there’s your Spectre preparation cheat sheet. There’s a whole lot more to this film than this, but these are some of the crucial elements to expect.

Genre: Comedy
Certificate: PG
UK Release Date: 18th September 2015
Runtime: 94 minutes
Director: Richard Bracewell
Writer: Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond
Starring: Mathew Baynton, Ben Willbond, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Simon Farnaby, Helen McCrory, Damian Lewis
Synopsis: Untalented lute player Bill Shakespeare makes his way to London in order to seek his fortune as a playwright.

The success of the Horrible Histories comedy troupe in Britain has been nothing short of remarkable. In 2010, the show became the first children’s programme to win a British Comedy Award, beating the likes of The Armstrong & Miller Show and Harry & Paul to the sketch show gong. The team behind that show have now made their way to the big screen, with the delightfully British comedy Bill – based on a fictional imagining of Shakespeare’s lost years.

Bill Shakespeare (Mathew Baynton) decides to pursue fame and leave behind his wife Anne (Martha Howe-Douglas) to travel to London. There, he meets Christopher Marlowe (Jim Howick), who shows him the ropes and helps him to adjust to life in the capital, Meanwhile, King Philip II of Spain (Ben Willbond) enlists the treacherous Earl of Croydon (Simon Farnaby) to help him assassinate Queen Elizabeth II (Helen McCrory) during the maiden performance of a play in her honour.

The first thing to note about Bill is that it maintains the anarchic spirit of the TV show in abundance. There’s a sense of real collaboration to the film, with silly gags ricocheting around the walls of the script. Fortunately for the film, most of these jokes work, whether they’re grounded in snappy wordplay, scatological simplicity or the really quite terrific slapstick prowess of Ben Willbond’s Spanish king.

| "Saying things in a short snappy way instead of a long drawn-out way is the soul of wit."

Willbond is by far the film’s standout, affecting a foreign dialect of Pythonesque absurdity as the Machiavellian Philip. His pratfalls and plotting are the dark heart of Bill and prove to be a far more compelling story thread than the travails of Shakespeare himself. Although the Bard is played amiably enough by Mathew Baynton, he simply isn’t given much in the way of real character and Martha Howe-Douglas is woefully underwritten as Anne.

Outside of the central roster of characters, and the gleefully over-the-top Helen McCrory as Queen Liz, the sheer oddity of Bill is sometimes a problem. Co-writer Laurence Rickard’s spymaster Walsingham is a deeply bizarre character, with Rickard on far better form here when in the guise of supporting roles. The same is true of Howick, who is on surer footing as Willbond’s flamboyant right-hand man Gabriel than he is as Marlowe.

The fact that this troupe are accustomed to short-form television is inescapable in Bill, which often feels artificially stretched to fit the needs of the feature format. There just isn’t enough comedic steam to keep the film’s madcap train running all the way to the station and it runs out of steam a long time before the credits roll, turning in a blandly action-packed final third.

| "They plan to use the play to kill the Queen."

There’s a lot to enjoy in Bill, which bravely wears its British zaniness on its sleeve. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but there’s enough silly charm to the writing that the missteps are forgivable. On top of that, anything that stands a chance of getting kids interested in Shakespeare deserves praise, particularly when it involves him wandering around London dressed as a tomato.

Pop or Poop?

The Horrible Histories team have made a successful cinematic jaunt with Bill, which channels their anarchic charm into a charming, funny take on the lost years of William Shakespeare.

The performances are somewhat variable and there are peaks and troughs in the narrative momentum, but there’s so much to enjoy in Bill that it feels wrong to dwell on its drawbacks.

Ben Willbond’s Spanish accent alone is worth the price of admission.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

Genre: Drama
Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: 18th September 2015
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Writer: William Nicholson, Simon Beaufoy
Starring: Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Blunt, Keira Knightley, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly
Synopsis: Two companies mount expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest, but a string of unfortunate events creates an ultimately tragic disaster.

Countless books have been written about the events of the 10th and 11th of May 1996, in which eight people died on Mount Everest after being caught up in a blizzard during their attempt to summit the world’s highest peak. The story, which remains contentious to this day, is now recounted on the big screen in spectacular fashion with Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur’s Everest.

Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), head of mountain climbing company Adventure Consultants, is concerned by the number of people attempting to reach the summit of Everest, including Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) and mailman Doug (John Hawkes). Rival adventure guide Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) is also mounting an expedition of his own. As the teams attempt to climb, under the guidance of base camp manager Helen (Emily Watson), a blizzard strikes and a string of minor failings creates a terrible tragedy.

In its earliest moments, Everest looks set to become something of an unwieldy and stodgy film. A large amount of screen time is required simply to introduce the huge ensemble cast, who are sketched rather thinly in most cases. However, the film comes alive once the mountain comes into view – there’s a reason the movie is called Everest. When it arrives in the Himalayas, DoP Salvatore Totino really flexes his muscles to produce images of genuinely jaw-dropping beauty.

| "Human beings simply aren’t built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747."

For all of its visual prowess, Everest has constant issues with juggling its ensemble cast. The historical events covered by the film are so complex that the script leaves very little room to actually develop the characters. Most of the eight characters who ultimately perish are wafer-thin and there’s very little attempt to create emotion for them. The shining beacon of light is Emily Watson as the base camp manager, who holds the film together whenever it takes a step from the summit in its final hour.

Jason Clarke, however, gets plenty to do as the leader of the central group of adventurers. The presence of a nicely understated Keira Knightley as his wife, staying back home in New Zealand, gives the film an emotional arc worth caring about, which is all the more important given the lack of sympathy for so many of the characters. Everest would almost certainly have been better as a study of Clarke’s character rather than a muddled ensemble piece.

Despite their effect on the narrative, these criticisms don’t stop Everest from being one of the most impressive examples of pure cinematic spectacle this year. Kormákur’s direction is solid and, but for the rather difficult task of picking out individual characters based on their coats in the blizzard, he keeps a pretty good handle on the set pieces. In fact, the film is often at its best when the camera sweeps out of the maelstrom of snow to pause for a beat and study the events. The balance just isn’t quite right.

| "You, my friends, are following in the very footsteps of history."

There’s no doubt that Everest will go down as one of the most ambitious films of 2015, even though it emerges with more than its fair share of flaws and a rather wasted ensemble cast. The visuals, though, are utterly remarkable and the film does a hell of a job of depicting the inescapable, unbridled fury of Mother Nature as a vicious force.

Pop or Poop?

A heavyweight cast is squandered in favour of a near 9,000 foot tall protagonist in Baltasar Kormákur’s devastating account of true events in Everest.

Jason Clarke is the pick of the bunch in a cast filled with amazing performers struggling with meagre material, though Emily Watson merits a mention for her role as narrative glue.

The pictures are the star here.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

The return of an enormous young adult franchise dominates multiplex screens in November as the steady stream of awards candidates continues unabated. In between Spectre and Star Wars, it’s possible that The Hunger Games finale might struggle to find purchase at the box office, but there’s plenty for cinemagoers to see elsewhere.

Counter-programming in the autumnal blockbuster period presents a charming British comedy, a series of weighty dramas with major Oscar pedigree and the bizarre spectacle of Nicholas Hoult pissing on James Corden.

Here are ten films you should head out and see this month in UK cinemas.

10. Kill Your Friends (Nov 6)

Nicholas Hoult raised plenty of eyebrows this year with his terrific portrayal of pale warboy Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road. He’s raising them again with a dark role in John Niven adaptation Kill Your Friends, in which he plays a music biz A&R man with a rather sociopathic glint in his eye.

Hoult is Steven Stelfox – a man barrelling his way through the Britpop scene largely by chance and with a choice barrage of expletives.  Once the boom period begins to wane, though, he is forced down even darker paths in order to preserve his lifestyle of success and excess.

The film has received rather mixed reviews from critics, but Hoult has been singled out for praise for his ferocious performance. At a time of year when glossy biopics fill cinemas, something with a significantly harder edge is definitely there to be welcomed.

9. The Hallow (Nov 13)

On the strength of debut film The Hallow – which is out in limited UK cinemas this month – director Corin Hardy is about to start work behind the camera of the remake of The Crow. With such a big name project handed to a relative newcomer, it’s fair to say that there must be something in The Hallow.

Dealing with Irish folklore, the film follows a family of English conservationists who move to a small home in an Irish forest. Despite the warnings of locals, including Michael Smiley, the family find themselves being plagued by beasties and demonic forces.

Arriving slightly too late for the Halloween crowd, The Hallow is likely to struggle for box office numbers in UK cinemas. However, it could win itself an audience on DVD, particularly as the director’s star continues to ascend.

8. The Lady in the Van (Nov 13)

Few things are more British than the work of Alan Bennett. One of those things is the oeuvre of Maggie Smith, who is the epitome of a national treasure. The combination of these two for The Lady in the Van produces a uniquely British confection that is dry, sweet and often exceptionally funny.

Smith plays the cantankerous Miss Shepherd – a homeless woman who ends up parking her van on Bennett’s (Alex Jennings) driveway. She ends up staying for 15 years as Bennett contemplates whether to write about her, arguing with himself in a witty device that enables two versions of the playwright to appear.

The Lady in the Van is a sweet, good-natured film that’s as comfortable and charming as a cup of tea. It’s not going to change anyone’s life, but it’s a film that warms the soul and induces plenty of chuckles.

7. Black Mass (Nov 27)

Johnny Depp is in need of a major career rehabilitation after a disastrous string of poorly received high-profile roles in films like The Lone Ranger and Transcendence. He returns to form in solid fashion with the role of notorious gangster Whitey Bulger in crime drama Black Mass.

The film, from Out of the Furnace director Scott Cooper, explores Bulger’s relationship with FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). Connolly’s help allows Bulger to maintain a stranglehold over the Boston underworld, whilst his brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) makes waves as a senator.

Black Mass is a deeply interesting film, which eschews the blood and bluster of many crime thrillers in favour of operating as a drama and character study.

6. Bridge of Spies (Nov 27)

Steven Spielberg’s collaborations with Tom Hanks have produced some of the best films of the last few decades. The Beard has teamed with Hanks once again for tense drama Bridge of Spies, set at the height of the Cold War and boasting a script polished by the Coen Brothers.

Hanks plays a kind-hearted lawyer who is tasked with negotiating the release of a US pilot in exchange for Mark Rylance’s captive KGB operative. It’s an emotive story of distrust and paranoia, based on real events.

Bridge of Spies has received acclaim from critics since its American cinema release last month and looks poised to be a major player in the upcoming awards season scrum. With Hanks and Spielberg taking centre stage, it can’t fail.

5. Steve Jobs (Nov 13)

Steve Jobs has proved to be a popular subject for cinema since the tech icon and Apple co-founder passed away in 2011. Whether it’s documentaries from the likes of Alex Gibney or disastrous dramas starring Ashton Kutcher, Hollywood is fascinated with Jobs and the complex character he was.

In this latest drama, helmed by Danny Boyle from an Aaron Sorkin script that was first earmarked for David Fincher as director, Michael Fassbender plays Jobs over three of the memorable product launches that made the man a household name. Kate Winslet plays marketing exec Joanna, whilst Seth Rogen is Jobs’ co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Mixed reviews have greeted Steve Jobs, but the amount of talent on show both in front of the camera and behind it cannot be ignored. With Sorkin’s words and Fassbender’s delivery, this could be a high watermark of Jobs on the big screen.

4. The Good Dinosaur (Nov 27)

Things are going to be tough for The Good Dinosaur. Set to be released in the same year as Inside Out, which is being lauded as potentially Pixar’s best film ever, it could find itself as a bit of an also-ran in the studio’s impressive filmography. Hopefully that won’t be the case.

The film’s conceit is simple. What if the dinosaurs were never wiped out? Our central character, Arlo, is an Apatosaurus who befriends a young human child in an inversion of the usual human-pet relationship. Standard Pixar sweetness ensues as the two disparate species bond.

The Good Dinosaur has been delayed repeatedly as a result of story problems, but the finished product is receiving positive buzz from reviewers. It’s just sad that it will likely end up as not even the best Pixar film of the year.

3. Brooklyn (Nov 6)

Occasionally a film comes along that looks so set up to be awards bait that it’s a genuine surprise when it’s something considerably more than that. Heartfelt, nuanced drama Brooklyn is one of those films.

At the centre of the film is Irish girl Eilis, played by Saoirse Ronan, who leaves her homeland for the titular New York borough in the 1950s. She is helped with settling in by the Brando-esque Emory Cohen, but soon finds a tragic event tugging her back across the Atlantic where home comforts, and Domhnall Gleeson’s alternative lover, await.

Brooklyn is a film of remarkable simplicity that works as a result of its commitment to character and nuance. The central performances are excellent and there’s emotion on tap. If this doesn’t perform well at the Oscars, there’s something very wrong.

2. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (Nov 19)

It’s finally here. Harry Potter ended. Twilight finished. Now, their successor as the young adult juggernaut du jour – The Hunger Games – is set to come to a close as well. With an assault on the Capitol taking up the majority of this final entry, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 looks set to be a hell of a finale.

Jennifer Lawrence returns as Katniss, dealing with the fact that Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is a shell of his former self as a result of the Capitol’s brain-washing tactics. Under the command of Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss leads an onslaught on Snow and his regime, battling through the booby-trapped city.

Despite brutal subject matter and complex relationships, The Hunger Games has become a major box office sensation. It remains to be seen whether Mockingjay – Part 2 will succeed in the window between Spectre and Star Wars, but it should bring the franchise to a satisfying conclusion.

1. Carol (Nov 27)

After the Cannes Film Festival this year, one name was on just about everybody’s list – Carol. Todd Haynes’ drama about forbidden love has made a hell of an impact since it was first screened, leading to a massive amount of awards buzz ahead of the film’s UK release.

Cate Blanchett plays married Carol, who finds herself enamoured with modest shop girl Rooney Mara, with whom she starts a secret lesbian relationship. Their forbidden romance makes waves in both of their lives and complicates every facet of their existence.

Carol received a standing ovation when it screened at Cannes, before competing for the Palme d’Or and winning the Best Actress prize for Rooney Mara, shared with Emmanuelle Bercot for Mon Roi. It has received rapturous responses wherever it has travelled and should achieve the same when it finally arrives on these shores this month.

Which films are you planning to see in November 2015? Are there any I missed or any you will definitely be avoiding? Let me know in the comments section.

Genre: Thriller
Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: 25th September 2015
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Afonso Poyart
Writer: Peter Morgan, Sean Bailey
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Abbie Cornish, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Colin Farrell, Jose Pablo Cantillo
Synopsis: The FBI draws a psychic doctor out of retirement in an attempt to track down a serial killer who seems to be one step ahead of the cops.

In the early noughties, a story was mooted that was to be a sequel to David Fincher’s classic horror–thriller Se7en. After years in development hell, numerous script rejigs and a complete diversion from its original purpose, that film arrived this year as the distinctly uninspired and incredibly bland supernatural thriller Solace.

Joe (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Katherine (Abbie Cornish) are FBI agents investigating a string of bizarre murders in which painless methods have been used by the killer. They enlist an old friend of Joe’s – psychic doctor John (Anthony Hopkins) – in an attempt to get one step ahead of the killer. However, John soon becomes spooked when it transpires that the murderer appears to be a clairvoyant as well.

Solace has, on the face of it, quite an interesting central premise. The notion of a clairvoyant investigator butting heads with a criminal who possesses equal foresight is an intriguing one. This film completely squanders that premise, though, lumbering through an unwieldy plot without anything in the way of excitement, horror or surprise.

| "He’s just like me. He sees things. Only he’s a whole lot better."

Anthony Hopkins phones it in as the central clairvoyant, doing the same Hannibal Lecter stare he can presumably do in his sleep at this point. In fact, the most remarkable thing about him is his silver mullet, which remains impeccably styled for the entirety of Solace. Hopkins’ performance couldn’t be more uninspired, particularly in his scenes with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Their characters are supposed to be long-time friends, but there’s no sense of any real history between them. Abbie Cornish fares slightly better, but she’s no Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs.

Solace is a limping, ungainly movie that never creates any excitement for the viewer, despite its potentially interesting conceit. There are also baffling creative decisions aplenty, including the fact that Colin Farrell’s grumpy arrival is portrayed as a shock and a surprise – even though he was all over the trailers and given second billing behind Hopkins on every poster.

The major strength of Se7en was that it succeeded as both a horror movie and as a crime thriller. Solace doesn’t succeed in either of those genres, failing to be either scary or mysterious. The clairvoyance aspect of the story is never mined in the way that it should have been and the finale plays things arrow straight rather than going for a much-needed subversion.

| "I don’t hold an ounce of confidence in the paranormal."

There’s a sense throughout that Solace is a film that was abandoned and left in a bag at the side of a road by a studio whose best laid plans had fallen apart. Once the prospect of a Se7en sequel was binned, Solace lacked a raison d’être and was simply hurried quietly in and out of cinemas in an act of damage limitation.

Pop or Poop?

In a year that hasn’t exactly been the greatest for horror cinema, Solace is another deeply disappointing addition to the genre.

The performers largely phone it in and the plot never creates much in the way of surprise or suspense. This is a turkey and a half.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

Genre: Drama
Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: 25th September 2015
Runtime: 112 minutes
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Writer: Morwenna Banks
Starring: Toni Collette, Drew Barrymore, Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine
Synopsis: Two women find their life-long friendship pushed to the limit when one of them is diagnosed with aggressive cancer at the same time as the other’s life changes for the better.

Last year, John Green’s teen drama The Fault In Our Stars had audiences across the world weeping at the injustice of its heart-breaking cancer plotline. It’s the turn of the more adult crowd this year, with Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore starring in poignant dramedy Miss You Already as best friends put through major turmoil when one is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

Milly (Collette) and Jess (Barrymore) have been friends since childhood and their families are now close friends along with their respective husbands Kit (Dominic Cooper) and Jago (Paddy Considine). Milly discovers a lump on her breast, which is revealed to be a malignant tumour. Meanwhile, Jess and Jago’s attempts to have a baby finally come to fruition when Jess falls pregnant. She struggles, however, to tell her friend about her happiness.

On the surface, Miss You Already seems like the classic blueprint for a trite, saccharine drama designed solely to make the audience cry. However, that really sells short the charm of the film, which is populated by easily identifiable, recognisably human characters. The film is equal parts sentimental drama and sharp-tongued comedy, dealing as much in shockingly black humour as it does in emotional set pieces.

| "I didn’t have many pictures that Milly wasn’t in."

Toni Collette is terrific at the centre of it all as Milly. She’s a deeply flawed human being whose deficiencies are only highlighted and amplified once she is diagnosed with the illness. Far from becoming a saintly victim of a twist of fate, Milly becomes an intolerable, angry woman as a result of the cancer, creating a refreshingly real dynamic between her and Barrymore, who relishes the straight role and imbues it with real depth.

The true strength of Miss You Already, though, is in its willingness to laugh at its characters. Both Barrymore and Collette are frequently the butt of dark jokes and it makes their relationship all the more real. The fact is that friends do dig at each other in brutal fashion and Morwenna Banks’ script does not shy away from exploring that aspect of friendship, through the prism of the two tremendous central turns. Paddy Considine and Dominic Cooper are equally strong as the male characters in the background of it all.

Miss You Already has such mastery of its tone that it can be forgiven for its occasional lapses into generic weepie territory. Director Catherine Hardwicke’s work does a stellar job of navigating the murky waters between sentimental and saccharine, staying just the right side of that dichotomy. Sentimentality is often seen as something of a dirty word when critiquing films, but Miss You Already uses it as a tool to explore its characters and their world rather than shamelessly tugging at heartstrings.

| "I’m not dead yet, so let’s drink to that."

On the face of it, Miss You Already seems like the kind of film that will fly past many cinemagoers who may be put off by its very generic marketing that fails to sell the darkness and realism at the heart of the story. However, it’s far more than the sum of its parts and is, in fact, a very effective drama with clearly-defined characters at its heart.

Pop or Poop?

Dramas that focus on the effects of disease are often more about the illness than the person it affects. That is not the case in Miss You Already, which focuses squarely on Toni Collette and her tenderly balanced relationship with Drew Barrymore.

There’s laughter aplenty alongside the tears as the script showcases mastery of tone and an unflinching commitment to creating real people rather than maudlin caricatures.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

A trailer has arrived online for the UK release of murder mystery thriller Dark Places, directed by French filmmaker Gilles Paquet-Brenner and based on a novel by Gone Girl scribe Gillian Flynn.

The film, investigating a long-buried murder case, features a packed cast of Hollywood’s finest including Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult and Chloe Grace Moretz. Ant-Man villain Corey Stoll also pops up as the man originally locked up for the crime.

Dark Places was released in America earlier this year and is finally making its UK bow in February, with a DVD/Blu-ray release to follow in the same month alongside availability via VOD platforms.

Dark Places is coming in February 2016, courtesy of Entertainment One

The official synopsis for Dark Places reads as follows:

Based on Gillian Flynn’s New York Times best-selling novel, Dark Places follows the chilling story of Libby Day (Charlize Theron) who was only eight years old when her family were brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. Almost thirty years later, she agrees to revisit the crime and uncovers the heart-wrenching truths that led up to that tragic night, but what happens when you try to find light in dark places?

Genre: Sci-Fi
Certificate: 12
UK Release Date: 30th September 2015
Runtime: 141 minutes
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Drew Goddard
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, Sebastian Stan, Donald Glover
Synopsis: A talented astronaut is left stranded on Mars after a tragic accident on his space mission.

It’s not secret that the recent big screen work of Ridley Scott has been somewhat variable. Prometheus has an unfair reputation derived from unachievable expectations, but The Counsellor and Exodus: Gods and Kings were both bloated and almost entirely without enjoyment. Thankfully, in the shape of The Martian, Scott appears to have finally returned to his past form with one of the best sci-fi films of recent years.

Astronaut and botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) becomes lost in a dust storm in the midst of his team’s evacuation from Mars. Mission commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain) declares him dead and her team begin the journey home. However, Watney is alive and must learn how to survive on Mars whilst he waits for help to arrive from NASA director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) and Mars mission boss Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Matt Damon has spoken in interviews about his initial reluctance to star in The Martian, given that his last feature credit was as the cowardly, but similarly isolated, Dr Mann in Interstellar. However, watching The Martian, it’s clear what persuaded Damon to come on board – Drew Goddard’s script. Goddard, who co-wrote The Cabin in the Woods with Joss Whedon, brings much of that film’s playful, sharp wit to this sci-fi setting, turning Watney into a genuinely likeable screen protagonist.

| "I don’t want to come off as arrogant here, but I’m the greatest botanist on this planet."

Goddard wisely maintains much of the humour of Andy Weir’s original source novel, using the device of NASA’s internal log to get over the awkwardness of having a character essentially on his own for much of the movie. In order to avoid the potential irritation of solely focusing on one man for the entire runtime, the time is split between Watney, his former crew and the NASA bods watching him from Earth. This allows the film’s ensemble cast, packed with strength in depth, to make an impact. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jessica Chastain get plenty to do and indeed provide the film with something of a moral centre.

Damon’s performance is nothing short of terrific, selling the desperation of Watney as well as his determination to put on a brave, acerbic face. The comedy is the standout, but there’s raw emotion on show amidst the quips and cuss words. There is levity and heart here that Interstellar sorely lacked. Scott excels in directing Damon’s scenes, allowing the actor to take centre stage even as the dramatic locales around him demand the camera’s attention.

It is this that separates The Martian from many of Scott’s more recent endeavours. The focus is on the characters rather than the visuals, which makes the occasional flourish into the beautiful landscapes – with Wadi Rum in Jordan doubling for the Red Planet – all the more impactful. Scott is a visual storyteller first and foremost, but benefits here from that style meshing with a tightly-written script.

| "I admit it’s fatally dangerous, but I’d get to fly around like Iron Man."

In The Martian, every person involved either in front of the camera or behind it has found the ideal showcase for their talents. The comedy nearly always works, particularly when underscored by the delightfully anachronistic soundtrack of cheesy disco hits, and the space action is given real weight and meaning by the character work. It’s a film that works on almost every level and stands a decent chance as an awards season dark horse.

Pop or Poop?

Ridley Scott and Drew Goddard prove to be a match made in heaven with The Martian, which is Scott’s best film in a long time.

An amiably everyman Matt Damon leads a uniformly impressive ensemble cast in a film that is packed with witty, quotable dialogue and bolstered by a fun, quirky soundtrack.

It might not pack the scientific weight of Interstellar, but for sci-fi escapism, this is as good as it gets.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

Genre: Drama
Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: 2nd October 2015
Runtime: 110 minutes
Director: Justin Kurzel
Writer: Jacob Koskoff, Michael Lesslie, Todd Louiso
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, David Thewlis, Sean Harris, Paddy Considine, Jack Reynor
Synopsis: A Scottish noble murders his way to the throne when three witches promise him a life of glory.

Of all of William Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth is perhaps the one that has the deepest relationship with the silver screen. Filmmakers as varied and iconic as Akira Kurosawa, Roman Polanski and Orson Welles have taken on ‘The Scottish Play’ in cinematic form. The latest director to step up to the plate is Justin Kurzel, last seen at the helm of brutal Aussie thriller Snowtown and set to direct the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie. With the ever-reliable Michael Fassbender as his Macbeth, he takes the well-known story and covers it in mud, grit and gore.

Macbeth (Fassbender) is visited by three witches after winning a crucial battle for King Duncan (David Thewlis). The witches tell Macbeth that he will be King and that his friend Banquo (Paddy Considine) will father future monarchs. Macbeth’s devoted wife, Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard), encourages her husband to murder his way to the top and soon the couple must take increasingly drastic measures to maintain their elevated stature.

On paper, the Kurzel adaptation of Macbeth looked like it had assembled the perfect cast. Fassbender had the perfect intensity to play the title character and Cotillard’s wide-eyed appearance in trailers suggested that she was the perfect fit for the Machiavellian woman behind her husband’s rise to power. Thankfully, the cast delivers on its promise throughout, embodying Shakespeare’s creations in a way that makes them seem new once again.

| "I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none."

Fassbender, in particular, is nothing short of tremendous as the title character. His dense Scottish accent gives great intensity and weight to the dialogue, which is mostly faithful to the Shakespearean source. He convincingly sells his character’s descent into madness, contorting his physicality as he does so. Lady Macbeth is less of a success, given the script’s decision to abandon many of her most important scenes. In Kurzel’s Macbeth, the character is almost entirely responsible for his own actions, free of his wife’s influence.

That’s not to say that Cotillard’s performance is anything less than spell-binding. The star is magnetic throughout the film, even as her character is pushed further to the sidelines of the action. Kurzel seems fascinated by the men of the story, with Sean Harris playing Macduff as a hulking menace and Jack Reynor embodying youth as legitimate heir to the throne Malcolm. Humanity is supplied by the always impressive Paddy Considine as family man Banquo.

This is a film with palpable dirt under its fingernails. Kurzel is decidedly uninterested in fancy frocks and the royal lifestyle. Macbeth is a film stepped not only in blood, but in filth – both literal and metaphorical. Like Snowtown, the violence in Macbeth is the opposite of glamorous, focusing on realism and the impact of the swinging sword. Kurzel wisely eschews visual flourishes or stylised violence, save for the dramatic final face-off between Macbeth and Macduff, which is rendered as an almost mythical battle, giving it real weight and a unique sense of spectacle.

| "This is the very painting of your fear."

It’s not all plain sailing for the film, though, with a major drop-off in momentum during Macbeth’s descent into madness and the unforgivable sidelining of Cotillard. However, by the time Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane in all of its fiery glory, Kurzel has positioned his Macbeth as a worthy addition to the ranks of films based on one of the Bard’s best works.

Pop or Poop?

Justin Kurzel, with the perfect cast behind him, has produced a thoroughly modern take on Macbeth that doesn’t shy away from the bloodletting and brutality at the heart of the Shakespearean source.

Fassbender is terrific, Cotillard makes the most of her meagre screen time and Sean Harris makes an intense physical impact as Macduff.

It’s an imperfect film, but one that showcases a filmmaker with real visual mastery.

Do you agree with my review? Let me know in the comments section.

It’s December and that festive feeling is in the air. Alongside the chaos of Christmas shopping are a handful of seasonal offerings making their way into cinemas, complete with schmaltz… and goat-horned holiday demons.

Of course, there’s also the small matter of a little-known independent film called Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which a few people might decide to see. In all seriousness, Star Wars is going to dominate multiplexes for the next few months and it’s tough to write this article without simply ranting and raving about how exciting it is to be returning to a galaxy far, far away.

Here are ten films you should head out and see this month in UK cinemas. It’s not a spoiler to say that one of them is Star Wars. Frankly, all ten of them could have been.

10. By the Sea (Dec 11)

Hollywood power couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have not worked together on the big screen since they met on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith, which was released ten years ago. Jolie, in her new directorial guise, has opted to work with her husband once again for romantic drama By the Sea.

Pitt and Jolie play a married couple in the 1970s who seem to be growing apart until they reach a quiet seaside town in France. Whilst mingling with the locals and spending time together, they begin to rediscover the spark that had been lost from their relationship.

On paper, By the Sea doesn’t sound like the kind of heavyweight drama that could compete with the Star Wars juggernaut. However, Jolie has proven herself a solid director and her real life chemistry with Pitt could help this to become something special.

9. In the Heart of the Sea (Dec 26)

The final blockbuster of the year is Ron Howard’s take on the story of the whaling ship Essex, which was attacked by a sperm whale, leaving the crew shipwrecked. The real life events inspired author Herman Melville to pen the novel that would become all-time classic Moby Dick.

Chris Hemsworth stars as first mate Owen Chase, alongside Benjamin Walker’s captain. The story is told through a framing device, with Ben Whishaw as Melville being told of the events via Brendan Gleeson, playing the older version of new Spider-Man Tom Holland’s cabin boy.

The film looks like it’s aiming for the visual effects high points of something like Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and, if Howard can pull it off, it could be a great way to bring one of the biggest years in the history of cinema to a close.

8. The Night Before (Dec 4)

It seems remarkable that, until The Night Before, the stoner cabal of Seth Rogen and friends had never put together a festive movie. Admittedly, this time last year, they were a little busy bringing down civilisation with The Interview and its connected furore.

Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie star as a trio of friends who have an annual tradition of partying on Christmas Eve. Given that all three are now entering the grip of real, responsible adulthood, they decide to party one last time and aim to enter the secretive, near-mythological Nutcracker Ball.

This has all of the ingredients in place for a fun Christmas comedy that could be a decent, diverting festive watch. No one will go in expecting comedy gold, but there should be enough to carry the film through as a mild success.

7. Daddy’s Home (Dec 26)

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg last shared the big screen as comedy buddies in The Other Guys. They turn adversaries this year for Daddy’s Home, with Wahlberg playing the badass wildcard to Ferrell’s mild-mannered bloke.

Ferrell stars as radio exec Brad, who is stepfather to his wife’s kids from a previous marriage. Their fragile equilibrium is disrupted when Wahlberg arrives as the children’s biological father and the two men are forced to compete for the affections of the youngsters.

Trailers for Daddy’s Home promise Ferrell’s trademark amiable manchild shtick and Wahlberg as a muscular bad influence. It’s not going to be the most intelligent or original film of the festive period, but it might be the funniest.

6. Grandma (Dec 11)

In a stellar example of counter-programming, breezy dramedy Grandma opens less than a week before Star Wars rolls into town. The film, from American Pie co-creator Paul Weitz, is attracting rave reviews and potential awards recognition for its star, Lily Tomlin.

Tomlin plays a lesbian poet left reeling by the death of her long-term partner and reconnecting with her daughter. Over the course of a road trip, issues new and old cause friction.

Grandma seems to be an amiable and enjoyable comedy with an empathetic central performance from Tomlin. It’s not going to move mountains in a month dominated by outer space, but it’s got to be worth checking out if intergalactic fatigue sets in.

5. Victor Frankenstein (Dec 3)

It’s not exactly new for a filmmaker to mount a revisionist take on Mary Shelley’s iconic story Frankenstein. The latest to step up to the plate and take on the intimidating text is Sherlock helmer Paul McGuigan, with a script penned by Hollywood wunderkind Max Landis.

James McAvoy portrays the dangerous scientist, but the real focus is on Daniel Radcliffe as his assistant Igor. The story is told from Igor’s perspective, detailing the duo’s experiments and their issues with the authorities, personified in Andrew Scott’s Inspector Turpin.

Landis is a bit of a hit-and-miss writer, but he is something to behold when on form. Hopefully this will be more Chronicle than American Ultra…

4. Sisters (Dec 12)

Anyone who has ever seen Tina Fey and Amy Poehler share the screen knows that they are undisputed comedy gold as a double act. Alongside Amy Schumer, they are perhaps the funniest women in America right now.

In Sisters, the two women play siblings determined to hold a party in their childhood home, which their parents are aiming to sell. Fey plays the immature, childish sister to Poehler’s more jaded divorcee. Maya Rudolph and, brilliantly, WWE superstar John Cena also star.

Sisters has all of the comedic ingredients to be one of the year’s surprise packages. It could sneak under the radar in amongst the awards favourites and end of year blockbusters, but it should reward those who go along to see it.

3. Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie (Dec 21)

For those familiar with the Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy and Charlie Brown are iconic characters. They are perhaps less known to modern youngsters, but The Peanuts Movie, commemorating the 65th anniversary of the comic strip, could change that in a hurry.

The film traces Charlie Brown’s attempts to gain the attention of the Little Red-Haired Girl, with the help of his best friend and loyal pet Snoopy. On learning that she enjoys dancing, Charlie vows to learn to dance.

The Peanuts Movie seems likely to be the ideal Christmas night out for families with kids a little too young for Star Wars.

2. Krampus (Dec 4)

The darker side of Christmas has proven to be a hit for filmmakers over the years, with Gremlins perhaps the most notable example of horror taking place over the holiday period. It’s Joe Dante’s film that is the major touchstone for Krampus, which mines Austrian folklore for festive fright in a similar way to Finnish movie Rare Exports from 2010.

Newcomer Emjay Anthony plays a child who, still a believer in Santa and Christmas magic, becomes tired of his squabbling family. When he tears up his letter to Santa, he unwittingly summons Krampus, who soon terrorises his family in brutal fashion.

Krampus is a fun and inventive Christmas creepfest, anchored by strong comedic performances alongside the great creature effects. It isn’t perfect and there are better Christmas horror films out there. But, given the trite festive fare around this year, this is about as good as it gets.

1. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Dec 17)

What is there to say? After years of waiting, perhaps the most highly anticipated film of all time is finally here. JJ Abrams has left the Enterprise behind and replaced it with the Millennium Falcon, bringing back many of the original trilogy’s characters to join a whole new cast, including Attack the Block’s John Boyega and unknown Daisy Ridley.

Not all that much is known about the film’s plot, but it is known that the film will feature the villainous Kylo Ren, who seems to be in some way inspired by Darth Vader. He will be opposed by old characters as well as new in an attempt to once again bring peace to the galaxy.

It’s tough to contain the excitement about a new Star Wars film given that the hype train has been so relentless. Hopefully, memories of the prequels will be banished and there will be yet another classic sci-fi film for generations to enjoy and obsess over. May the force be with us all…

Which films are you planning to see in December 2015? Are there any I missed or any you will definitely be avoiding? Let me know in the comments section.