FILM: The Kid Who Would Be King (dir: Joe Cornish, 2019)

"It's really good when it works..."

...and The Kid Who Would Be King works consistently well.  As with Attack The Block, Joe Cornish delivers a deft mix of the mundane and the fantastic,  here mixing Arthurian legend and the life of a twelve-year-old schoolboy who (oddly) stumbles across Excalibur and pulls it from the stone on a local building site, thus setting him and three young allies on a journey to save Britain from the imminent resurrection of Morgana (a beautifully psychotic Rebecca Ferguson) from her underworld banishment.  Dialogue is well-written, the four child leads are very strong, effects work is good, and the rousing score adds much to the film.  Perfectly pitched for its young audience, this film is a thoughtful, lively and very well-delivered movie that is unusually ambitious and effective for a British children's film.

FILM: Instant Family (dir: Sean Anders, 2019)

"You're not terrible..."

Instant Family pretty much does what you expect from the trailer and the genre.  The in-your-face browbeating about adoption (especially in the first act) does often sit uncomfortably alongside the broad family-comedy tropes on display, but there are plenty of funny moments which land well.  Mark Wahlberg's easy charm and sincerity is tailor-made for this type of role (and his comic timing is very good here), Rose Byrne is unusually genuine here, and the three children - especially Isabela Moner as the older teen - work very well.  Also of note are performances from Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro as the duelling adoption counsellors, and the joy that is Julie Hagerty and a powerhouse performance by Margo Martindale as the two adoptive grandmothers.  Overall, this is a well-meaning film that offers little that is unexpected (there is even a Christmas morning scene in which the children prefer the cardboard boxes to the toys) but is well-made and entertains.

FILM: Happy Death Day 2U (dir: Christopher Landon, 2019)

"You've died enough, haven't you?"

Happy Death Day 2U is one of those films with which you will have a lot of fun if you saw and enjoyed the first film and be rather bemused if you missed it.  Expanding the idea from Tree (again wonderfully played by Jessica Rothe) repeatedly facing death in a horror time loop, the first film's high concept was gleefully daft and relatively clear in narrative terms, while the sequel takes the viewer on a hugely enjoyable wayward rollercoaster ride of unpredictability - not all of it quite works, but there are many smile-raising moments along the way, especially when hearkening back to the original movie.  There is bags of energy on display, the core cast are clearly having a whale of a time together, and this is again a great set of characters with which to spend time.  The only slight niggle is that it does not add much to the ideas shown in the first film, so a hinted-at trilogy-closer might need something fresh.  Nevertheless, leave your brain in the car park, strap yourself in and enjoy this silly but rollicking journey.  Note: there is a fun mid-credits scene.  

FILM: If Beale Street Could Talk (dir: Barry Jenkins, 2019)

"It's solid."

The follow-up by director/writer Barry Jenkins to the award-winning Moonlight has some similar qualities but tells a very different tale of black experience adapted from the James Baldwin novel.  Essentially a very sweet and genuine love story about a young black couple who find themselves expecting a child, the story takes darker turns by introducing elements such as (a shockingly abrupt moment of) domestic abuse and the effects of justice system on an old friend, before really challenging the couple with the man falsely accused of rape and incarcerated, seemingly through the machinations of a racist white police officer with whom the couple had a previous bad encounter.  At times there is an odd tension between melodrama and polemic and the pace makes it occasionally dreary, but Kiki Layne and Stephan James make a charming and beautifully-played couple who are completely captivating throughout, and the film is vibrantly lensed.

FILM: The Lego Movie 2 - The Second Part (dir: Mike Mitchell, 2019)

"Did you want to do this in, like, fifteen minutes?"
"Make it a quarter of an hour."

This sequel gives the viewer an even more dementedly breathless battering, never letting up for a moment as its gloriously candy-coloured  world is expanded and throws all manner of visual and verbal jokes at the screen with total abandon.  Indeed, the relatively careful plotting of the first film is abandoned for a hectic and seemingly random mish-mash of ideas that almost hangs together in the final act.  Inevitably, the freshness and the smart closing conceit of the first movie cannot apply here, but all you can do is revel in the mayhem and brace yourself for the onslaught.  It was interesting to note that the adults in the audience were chuckling more than the young children, but then any kids' animated film that can manage a reference to They Live in the first two minutes must be trying to appeal across the board!

FILM: Alita Battle Angel IMAX 3D (dir: Robert Rodriguez, 2019)

"I'm with her."

This huge-scale live-ish action 2019 realisation of Alita works much better than the recent adaptation of  another manga/anime classic, Ghost In The Shell.  The swift and efficient story-setting at the start is matched by excellent detailed visual world-building, and very quickly it becomes clear that the action/fight sequences are brutal, fast and very enjoyable, and also surprisingly violent for a 12A-rated film (no doubt the old 'fantasy violence' excuse comes into play).  Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali and Ed Skrein all deliver well, with Rosa Salazar engaging through the CGI as Alita and even Keean Johnson managing better than most in similar thankless floppy-haired-eyelash-heavy-boyfriend roles, but occasionally the story and motivations are a little fuzzy and underwritten, especially for the antagonists, but overall the writers have condensed the sprawling fiction into a lively and streamlined single movie.  The only other real problem the film has is the over-familiarity of its influences (Robocop, Rollerball, Blade Runner and so on) and products it has subsequently influenced, but it is all done with a lavish budget and state-of-the-art CG and 3D techniques.  It is remarkable to think of Robert Rodriguez's cinematic journey from the micro-budget El Mariachi to the FX-excesses of Alita, and even though this movie has James Cameron stamped all over it, surely this Rodriguez-directed version is a lot more fun and energetic than a full-on Cameron-fest might have been.  This is hard sci-fi that might not find a wider audience, but for fans of the genre, in spite of a couple of narrative hiccups, Alita delivers spectacularly.

FILM: How To Train Your Dragon 3 - The Hidden World (dir: Dean DeBlois, 2019)

REVIEW No. 950!

"I intend to finish what I started."

The trilogy closer of this delightful over-achieving children's animated franchise continues to deliver from the first two films and provides a strong conclusion.  Again, the animation is detailed, fluid and impressive, the characters remain focused and charming, and the coming-of-age stories for both (now Leader) Hiccup and his dragon Toothless are taken another step further.  Storytelling is simple but classic, and whilst it feels a little too long - the first act is surprisingly wordy, and occasional scenes outstay their welcome a little - the dialogue is generally pacy and the story keeps moving along.  This has been one of the more enjoyable children's animated franchises of recent times, and the ending wraps it up most effectively.

FILM: Green Book (dir: Peter Farrelly, 2019)

"Dignity always prevails."

Although the odd-couple pairing of Italian-American Tony hired to drive Dr Shirley - a star African-American pianist - on a tour of the Deep South in the early 1960s might seem to follow a rather obvious path, Green Book is an absolute treat to watch.  Not only does every department score highly - from music amazing set design to cinematography to script - but the two lead performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali are simply superb both as individuals but particularly together.  The film is far funnier than you might expect, again down to the leads but also the wry streak of humour that flows throughout, but the moments where racism comes to the fore are sharp and powerful.  Green Book makes strong points about its times, but it also a hugely enjoyable and heartwarming film to watch.