FILM: Mile 22 (dir: Peter Berg, 2018)

"So, this is serious?"
"Oh, yes."

This well-worn concept (see 16 Blocks) is given a reasonably lively spin in this fourth Berg-Wahlberg collaboration,  Here a ghost Government squad has to transport a defector to an airstrip (hence the title) with a time limit, a countdowning self-destructing piece of software that will reveal the location of stolen radioactive materials, and a local team also after the defector all to contend with.  Depending on your point of view, Berg's rapid-fire huge-coverage style is either adrenalising or draining - here, it is tiringly relentless but thankfully the obstacles put in the ever-diminishing team's way is mostly fairly compelling.  Wahlberg presents an interesting and reasonably-played hyperactively intelligent action agent, Lauren Cohan commits fully to the action whilst saddled with an awkward divorce sub-plot, but both struggle to overcome the choppy editing style that leads to shouty quick-fire unsubtle performances in order to get their lines across.  The bonus for action fans is the wonderful Iko Uwais in his first major Hollywood film, with a couple of high-energy fight sequences which he does so well, especially one with him handcuffed to a hospital gurney.  Mile 22 is a breathless and very familiar tale with a good cast, so how much you enjoy it will really depend on how much of the director's style you can take.  The sequel-baiting ending is perhaps unnecessary and a bit presumptuous.

FILM: Night School (dir: Malcolm D. Lee, 2018)

"This is going to be a long semester..."

Previous films have shown that a little of Kevin Hart goes a long way, and here you get an awful lot of him.  Interestingly, he absolutely nails the more serious/dramatic beats, hinting at a potentially deeper film than ended up on screen.  However, Night School is largely undone by the curse of so many modern Hollywood comedies, namely a mostly weak and underwritten script which here included some jarringly misjudged moments.  With far too long on set-up, it seems to have been constructed as a series of set pieces which often fall short or go nowhere, with an astonishingly hurried ending as a result.  The film does however benefit from a potentially strong cast, with Tiffany Haddish an absolute comedic tour de force but who is underused here, and the wonderful Mary Lynn Rajskub proving for the most part that timing is everything even when the material is lame.  Instantly forgettable, Night School disappointingly lacks the freshness and sharpness that would make it stand up and stand out.

FILM: The Predator IMAX 3D (dir: Shane Black, 2018)

"Remember, gentlemen: they're lost, they're fast, and f**king you up is their idea of tourism!"

A number of critics seem to have been expecting something much sharper and witty from the pens of Shane Black and Fred Dekker, but The Predator is Black's self-proclaimed return to the films of his youth, and indeed what we get here is a lively (and sometimes very chaotic) big dumb action movie.  Like The Alien, there is little more that can actually be done with The Predator as a creature (although the Predators can actually use and translate language) that is essentially a killing machine, so here we have some new ideas thrown into the very standard mix (a boy with Asperger's, a kick-ass female scientist, an essentially unstable A-Team of sectioned war veterans, Predator dogs and a genetically-enhanced super-Predator).  Boyd Holbrook makes for a passable anti-hero who throws himself into the action wholeheartedly, and Olivia Munn holds her own in this uber-macho scenario.  Idiot Plot does make an appearance quite early on and hangs around for the rest of the movie, Henry Jackman's score is solid but contains some oddly ill-fitting superhero-type cues, and overall there is the occasional feel of a little snipping here and there to get a PG-13 rating.    This feels more like a Predator movie than the worthy but dour Predators; as long as you are looking for nothing more than a fun explosive action romp you will be satisfied.

FILM: Crazy Rich Asians (dir: Jon M. Chu, 2018)

"This is gold standard."

Following its major box-office success in the USA, Crazy Rich Asians proves to be an irresistibly and extremely entertaining contemporary romantic comedy.  It zips along with palpable sass and energy that is sustained right to the end, scoring a number of effective lines that had the cinema audience chuckling, but at its heart lies an utterly credible and charming central relationship, played delightfully by Constance Chu and Henry Golding.  The film ably overcomes usual unbelievable rom-com fantasy stylings by setting it upfront in the wildly rich upper echalons of Singapore society, providing a clear reason for the gorgeous and extravagant locations, clothes, cars and beautiful people on screen.  A number of subsidiary characters are surprisingly well fleshed out, notably including a sympathetically controlled performance by Gemma Chan, an engaging comedy turn from Awkwafina in the kooky best friend role, and as ever Michelle Yeoh's impeccable timing and delivery as the stern mother figure is knockout.  The fact that as a major Hollywood picture it has an all-Asian cast and has had massive mainstream success is noteworthy but more so, like Black Panther earlier this year, is to be celebrated for being a hugely enjoyable movie and a real leader in this often soft genre.

FILM: The House With A Clock In Its Walls IMAX (dir: Eli Roth, 2018)

CELEBRATING 9 YEARS OF THIS BLOG!

"What's wrong with weird?"

Yes, an Eli Roth-directed children's film!  You could be mistaken for it being directed by Chris Columbus, however, as it is pitched somewhere between classic Amblin and Harry Potter.  In spite of the minor involvement of Jack-o'-lanterns, it is not a Halloween film as such but it would provide ideal spooky entertainment for children around the time, and no doubt will in years to come.  Jack Black and Cate Blanchett make a great pairing as the bickering friends/neighbours, and young Owen Vaccaro gives a pleasing performance as the bereaved boy sent to live with his uncle, who happens to be a warlock (or as the youngster puts it, a "boy-witch").  Themes of grief and resurrection might prove a little dark for younger children, but the mise-en-scene is finely and sumptuously detailed, the story is sensitive and reasonably well developed, and the effects work is done well in this pleasantly entertaining film that is squarely aimed at the children's market.

FILM: The Nun 4DX (dir: Corin Hardy, 2018)

"What's the opposite of a miracle, Father?"

The Conjuring franchise hardly seems like material to sustain a 'Universe', but this spin-off is another example of giving an unnecessary backstory to an incidental jump-scare idea from bigger movies.  It starts promisingly in an unexpectedly grounded manner, but once generic supernatural nonsense creeps in the film becomes a lot less interesting and engaging.  The setting of a near-abandoned Romanian nunnery in 1952 is both atmospheric and well-realised, the film is clearly directed with care and the three leads are solid enough (and the stunt casting of Taissa Farmiga - younger sister of the main franchise's Vera -  as the novice nun pays off interestingly.)  It all gets very silly in the second half, one expects an appearance by the kitchen sink in the finale, and it manages an effective tie-in to the main series, but overall this origin-story movie is unnecessary, quite thinly-written and adds little to the franchise as a whole.  The set-pieces are showy rather than tension-building, thus making The Nun oddly less scary than her previous short appearances in the franchise!

VOD: Tau (dir: Federico D'Alessandro, 2018)

"This is bad.  What are you doing?"

After an intriguingly neon-soaked future noir opening, this latest Netflix Original very quickly becomes an almost one-set bottle show, as a young woman is kidnapped and imprisoned in a hi-tech apartment and subjected to human/AI experimentation by a scientist desperate to make his ideas work in order to meet a boardroom deadline. The reliable Ed Skrein is clearly playing an intelligent academic character because he wears glasses and makes frequent entrances looking serious, Maika Monroe does her best with fairly routine material as the captive, and Gary Oldman gives possibly the most human performance as the voice of the AI Tau.  The movie feels very familiar, the many genre references from 2001 to Demon Seed and a fairly routine plod along predictable and repetitive narrative lines giving it a lack of freshness, in spite of some nice graphics and the occasional lively idea.  Once it finishes, however, it does not linger in the mind.