FILM: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 IMAX 3D (dir: James Gunn, 2017)

"Show time, a-holes!"

What a wonderfully enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. With its potent mix of space opera and soap opera, and starting with an awesome opening credits sequence that shows real scale and ambition as well as making everyone instantly fall in love with Baby Groot if the trailers had not done that already, Vol 2 hits the ground running with now fully-formed characters and a real sense of confidence.  If the first film was about bringing together this mis-matched crew, the second film is firmly about family, both literal and metaphorical, almost to an overwhelming point like the Fast & Furious franchise, but as the issues are largely central to the main plot they are effectively handled.  Visually, the film is gloriously epic and beautifully realised, and James Gunn continues to delight in always looking for the unexpected and hugely effective camera angle, move or framing.  The cast is simply a delight to watch (Drax and Rocket also benefit from better writing and exposure in this film), the funny banter excellently written and delivered superbly.  This is another Marvel winner: energetic, colourful, huge in scale and very entertaining.  (Stay to the very end of the credits for a handful of worthwhile short scenes scattered throughout).

FILM: Their Finest (dir: Lone Scherfig, 2017)

"Authenticity, optimism...and a dog!"

First, the script is an absolute delight, with a well-crafted mix of wit, straight-out humour, sharpness and poignancy, and treading a very fine line between seriousness and comedy.  After a start that is worryingly perhaps a little melodramatic and blunt, the film very quickly settles down to become a wonderfully warm, strongly-written and terrifically-played piece that not only entertains but also delivers more affecting moments on misogyny, the human impact of World War II, ageing and more.  The interplay between life-imitating-art within the movie and real-life propaganda works very effectively and sets up the moving finale well.  Gemma Arterton again proves to be simply a great screen actress, Sam Claflin surprises with excellent work which is by far his strongest character performance yet, and Bill Nighy absolutely nails both the comedic and dramatic aspects of his role. 

FILM: Table 19 (dir: Jeffrey Blitz, 2017)

"You are the President of Idiots!"
"You are the dummy who elected me to Office!"

This film seems to divide viewers strongly.  For me, it is clearly unable to decide whether it is a comedy (severely underpowered) or a drama (paper-thin characters and relentlessly predictable), making Table 19 a very underwhelming experience.  It has one good running gag (thank you, Lisa Kudrow) and one effective moment of character self-realisation (thank you, Wyatt Russell), but largely numbing pacing and tumbleweeds-a-rolling mean that the reasonable cast struggles - even the reliably emotionally-open Anna Kendrick at times finds it hard to land the emotion.  There is a neat concept here of trying to turn the spotlight on the seemingly least significant guests at a wedding, but by sticking too closely to broad or predictable stereotypes and a final confused 'message' that really is perplexing, Table 19 does not really engage.

FILM: Fast and Furious 8 (dir: F. Gary Gray, 2017)

"Rule Number One: know your audience."

How do you follow Number 7's one-and-a-half-billion dollar box office?  More of the same, but even bigger.  Starting off in a (great-looking) Havana with a straight race sequence that hearkens back to the earlier F&Fs, and ending with a Mission:Impossible/James Bond fever-dream, Number 8 does not veer much from the now-established structural template of the series and relies closely on the events and characters of the previous episode (although Number 7 turns out to be a much sharper and more cohesive film overall) and the preceding two films before that.  For a series whose raison d'etre  has become jumping the shark, the demented final act here manages to be entertainingly preposterous, although lacking the true jaw-dropping moments of previous entries and with an obviously heavy reliance on CGI, but it does give Statham the opportunity to enact a brilliantly silly homage to that sequence in Woo's Hard Boiled.  There are numerous fan-pleasing moments, a couple of brutal shocks, a couple of surprises and a lot of humour that oddly the cinema audience was not picking up.  As well as the insane action sequences, there is also some smart deconstruction of the concept of family and some reasonably interesting consideration of fate versus choice at play here.  The core crew of actors delivers admirably (interestingly, Brian and Mia are definitely missed as part of the team), Charlize Theron does a great cool villain, and as pure popcorn entertainment the film delivers very effectively overall.

FILM: Free Fire (dir: Ben Wheatley, 2017)

"Now we're cooking!"

One of the real pleasures of watching a Ben Wheatley film is the security created by his depth of craft and vision, and Free Fire is one of his most riotously entertaining films so far.  This time, the Wheatley/Jump partnership channel 70s exploitation and early Tarantino with a consistently chucklesome script of the darkest and silliest humour, ferociously bold camera coverage in what is essentially a bottle movie, and overall providing a very visceral and immediate experience.  The cast is fantastic and clearly having a great time with the material, including a notably strong performance from Armie Hammer and Sharlto Copley at his sharply-delivered hilarious best.  Quite simply, Free Fire is further proof that Wheatley is one of Britain's best film-makers today, and the film both impresses and entertains hugely.

FILM: The Boss Baby 3D (dirs: Hendel Butoy and Tom McGrath, 2017)

"Toodle-loo, toilet head!"

The promisingly amusing trailer makes way for a full-length animation that is very simple in terms of narrative, often too talky for its own good and is amiable enough but rarely rises above being pleasant.  In fact, plot-wise it is so threadbare that it really does not require the overlong scenes of exposition that fail to ignite, and much more could have been made of the visual and verbal humour inherent in the situation.  Aside from a couple of moments of unexpectedly ripe innuendo, there is little here that we haven not already seen in films like Toy Story (the street chase) and Despicable Me (the big rocket).  Alec Baldwin certainly knows how to deliver a line, but beyond that the film is mostly adequate.

FILM: Ghost In The Shell (dir: Rupert Sanders, 2017)

"Of course you have a past."

The spirit of William Gibson and those heady early days of cyberpunk live on in this bold attempt to bring the manga/anime classic stories into live action.  What emerges is a curiously old-fashioned-feeling movie that tells a now very-familiar story with a pleasing hi-tech CGI gloss, some decent action sequences but filmically at times it comes across as a bit more Johnny Mnemonic than The Matrix.  The whitewashing issue does jar more obviously beyond the Johansson casting (although she is fine in the role): why would an Asian company put Asian 'ghosts' into Western 'shells'?  The underperforming box-office probably at least delays even further the proposed live-action Akira, although a couple of later shots in this movie are a convincing steal from that classic.