FILM: Kingsman The Golden Circle IMAX (dir: Matthew Vaughn, 2017)

"Like toast...but British!"

Kingsman The Golden Circle is a solid sequel to the unexpectedly loveable first film.  The story is tightly linked to the first film, but also makes some bold choices along the way.  Visually, it looks terrific (especially in IMAX), and the leads - Egerton, Strong, Firth - are all fine, and Julianne Moore makes for an acceptably mad villain.  It inevitably lacks the delightful street-boy vs. gentleman-spy arc of the first film, and it is surprising that more is not made of the fish-out-of-water scenario, or the U.S. characters, when the action moves to America.  Content feels a little thin for a running time of over two hours, but the action sequences are excellent - fast, imaginative and often pleasingly daft.  If the franchise gets its proposed trilogy closer, the series can now move forward with a fairly clean slate to really let loose, but for now, The Golden Circle, is an entertaining follow-up.

FILM: mother! (dir: Darren Aronofsky, 2017)

"Good luck."

mother! makes Black Swan look like Paddington.  You spend most of the film in a state of intrigued puzzlement at what seems to set itself up as a bizarre psycho-sexual home-invasion movie, a defining moment seems to clarify what it is about and when you think you 'get it' it becomes a bold and very clever movie indeed.  The final act is completely (and I mean completely) bonkers with one truly harrowing trademark Aronofsky moment, leading to a smart ending.  Aranovsky uses camera and sound to tell the story from Jennifer Lawrence's point of view most effectively, and Javier Bardem is beguilingly precise in his performance, whilst Michelle Pfeiffer clearly relishes having decent material and a great director.  There are plenty of red herrings and dead ends, with some bits that do not quite gel, and it is metaphors-a-go-go throughout that are mostly sledgehammer-subtle.  There is no question: mother! is a demanding, assaulting and patience-testing movie that will divide audiences hugely, but there are many rewards within that go with it.

FILM: American Assassin (dir: Michael Cuesta, 2017)

"By the way, I've heard good things about you.  I'm excited to see what you've got."

The dynamic trailer was promising, and the film turns out be quite reasonable.  The opening catalysing event is great and well put together, but the film then becomes a bit too talky and fragmented as we go down a well-worn 'rebellious recruit to a covert CIA group goes through training' routine.  The globe-trotting looks good on screen and the film is surprisingly light on action, even though the action sequences are frenetic and efficient.  This is Dylan O'Brien's John Wick (to an extent), and he literally throws himself into it to create a reasonably effective protagonist, with Michael Keaton reliable as his handler.   The money is spent on a high-stakes finale which delivers quite well, but overall American Assassin falls a little awkwardly between old-school spy thrillers and modern sub-Bourne action.

VOD: Mindhorn (dir: Sean Foley, 2017)

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY TO MY BLOG!

"All the world's a stage -"
"- No, it isn't!"

Mindhorn is a very British comedy in the vein of Alan Partridge, but it is nowhere near as accomplished as the Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa movie.  The cast play it suitably straight, Julian Barratt does a very good job of creating the self-absorbed and deluded ex-TV detective drawn into an actual murder case, and the 80s stylings are carefully referenced and recreated.  The film occasionally raises a smile, but it is such a gentle and thinly-written exercise that it leaves a fairly muted impression overall.

FILM: IT 4DX (dir: Andy Muschietti, 2017)

"Ain't nothing like a little fear to make a paper man crumble."

It becomes clear right from the outset that this new adaptation of the Steven King classic is very strong and artfully made, and it comes as a very pleasant surprise to find that this standard is maintained throughout the movie.  The 2017 IT is by far one of the best King film adaptations, largely because it is faithful to the source material but with sensible refinements for the big screen, but also it genuinely sounds and feels like Steven King (which is certainly not always the case in adaptations of his work).  This 'childhood' section of the novel is here set in the 1980s (when the novel was first published), which gives it that essential nostalgia feel that was a feature of the classic King novels and also enables some great fun references, from the fun use of NKOTB to the bathroom fountain-of-blood puberty metaphor that echoes the first Elm Street movie.  Direction and editing are creative and tight as a drum, sound placement and score are excellent, and the young cast is excellent, led by an impressive and truly engaging central performance by Jaeden Lieberher.  The Pennywise here is perhaps less villainous than Tim Curry's version but more creepily unpredictable.  As with most modern horror films, it is not particularly scary, but what the film evokes wonderfully is an enveloping sense of dread and the true horror of issues such as bullying, grief and physical/sexual/mental abuse.  This is a robust, thoughtfully-made and immensely enjoyable movie - it can only be hoped that audiences respond strongly enough for the 'second chapter' (set 27 years later when the now-adult gang return to Derry to defeat Pennywise's next reign of terror) to be made, preferably with Muschietti returning as director.

VOD: Guardians (dir: Sarik Andreasyan, 2017)

"So, I have two weeks to search the entire Soviet world to assemble a team of superheroes, a team to stop a supervillain?"

Following its lively and interesting action-filled trailer, Russia's answer to The Avengers/X-Men movies turns out to be more Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. than the MCU.  An interesting but frenetic story-setting opening involving scientists, super-solders, etc. is followed by a lengthy, er, assembling of the team of superheroes (a Sue Storm-alike, The Hulk-but-as-a-bear, a Flash/Nightcrawler with cool swords, and the one who can mind-control bits of rock) and a reasonably lively showdown at the end.  It looks a lot cheaper than it probably was and the CGI is not always effective, but there are some ambitious effects - the CGI works particularly well on Khan's introduction and the Ostankino Tower sequences.  Compared to Hollywood's extravaganzas, Guardians seems like a very tame and laboured affair, and the mostly serious acting style can feel mis-matched, but there is genuine attempt to create something of scale and appropriately of the genre.

FILM: The Hitman's Bodyguard (dir: Patrick Hughes, 2017)

"It's my job to keep you out of harm's way."
"Motherf***er, I AM harm's way!"

This remarkably daft enterprise is essentially a throwback buddy action/comedy which apparently had a late retooling from a somewhat harder and straighter script, and it struggles to maintain its less serious tone/style over the relentlessly long runtime.  Atli Örvarsson's soundtrack is the one element that has the right edge of pastiche that the actual film often lacks, and Salma Hayek is terrific but under-used as Jackson's foul-mouthed ultra-aggressive wife, otherwise Samuel L Jackson is reliably badass with the mediocre material and Ryan Reynolds, well, is, and there are a small number of competent action sequences.  There are moments when the style gels and flies, particularly in the final act, but there are also plenty of times when it misses the mark, making The Hitman's Bodyguard a moderate but disposable experience.

FILM: American Made (dir: Doug Liman, 2017)

"You trust me?"
"NO!"

The duality of this film is interesting.  On the one hand, it generates a dazzling rise-and-fall 'true' story of Barry Seal playing off South American druglords and the CIA to his own profit, and on the other it is clearly an acutely Hollywood-ised treatment of events, most notably with the lead casting of Tom Cruise (giving a truly effective performance that ranks amongst his best in an ideal role) as the anti-hero.  The period (late 1970s/early 80s) is evoked well through attention to detail and the slightly grainy over-saturated use of colour, and the storytelling is whip-sharp through an array of on-screen techniques and brisk pacing that mirrors the snowballing situation, right down to the well-chosen soundtrack - the choice of tune that accompanies the montage when the scale of the money flooding in becomes impossibly insane will raise a smile.  The story is very much of the you-couldn't-make-it-up variety with the harsh edges well and truly smoothed off, but it is told with such verve, confidence and wit that makes American Made a hugely engaging and entertaining ride.