VOD: Beyond Skyline (dir: Liam O'Donnell, 2017)

"Oh, my God!  This is really happening!"

This unexpected and largely unwanted sidequel/sequel has two immediate selling points in the casting of excellent action stars Frank Grillo and Iko Uwais, which instantly invests this film with a level of talent lacked by the first film.  It is a game of two halves, as the first part takes an alternative story set during the first film in America, and then picks up from that movie's jaw-droppingly dopey ending and moves the action to Asia for a big final man vs. aliens battle.  The story is - if possible - even dafter but has more content and is more engaging, a Grillo/Uwais smackdown has to be worth the price of admission, and the variable effects are again mostly ambitious, but ultimately this is more 'beyond silly' than 'beyond skyline'.

VOD: Death Note (dir: Adam Wingard, 2017)

"Shall we begin?"

The central concept of the original manga/anime is wonderful in its simplicity, but this American live-action adaptation does not really hit the mark.  It starts off as an overly-camp Final Destination (with some very full-on gore moments), but for the most part it plays out as a flat police drama.  Although there are some very effective CG effects, the creature is not especially well-realised and lacks a true sense of malevolence.  With casting that does not feel particularly strong, it is more a case of (thin) style over substance and disappointingly this is Adam Wingard's least interesting movie so far.

FILM: The Greatest Showman (dir: Michael Gracey, 2017)

"Walking the tightrope...."

To get straight to the point, The Greatest Showman is not quite up there with La La Land - it curiously does not hit the same level of emotional connection with the viewer - but overall it is an immensely effective and well-staged movie musical.  It is a curious mix of typical Broadway narrative and musical tropes with an excellent (if anachronistic) modern score and bravura technical use of cinema that enables some pleasingly ambitious choreography in the musical numbers and some impressive transitions of time and place.  The ridiculously attractive lead cast is terrific: Hugh Jackman's superb musical theatre skills are employed to the max here, Michelle Williams and Rebecca Ferguson are (as usual) magnificent whenever on screen, Zac Efron shows that he can shine when given decent material, and Zendaya again proves to be one of the breakout stars of 2017 with another engaging performance.  This story is stagily but sumptuously mounted and extremely well-delivered, and Never Enough is likely to become female auditionees' new Let It Go.

VOD: The Babysitter (dir: McG, 2017)

"I don't yell at you, I just speak in all-caps!"

This gleefully demented movie is a riotous love-letter to horror fans, who will find it massively enjoyable and great fun.  Any pretence at subtlety is thrown out very early on, as the pedal-to-the-metal pace, spirited gore-gags, whip-sharp script and relentless knowing silliness is sugar-rush enjoyable.  Director McG unusually directs with a consistent energy, inventiveness and style, and the very game actors milk the script for all it is worth.  For a genre film of this type, The Babysitter is extremely well-crafted and thus delivers its glorious madness in a hugely entertaining manner.

VOD: Bright (dir: David Ayer, 2017)

"There's no version of you walking out of here with life as you know it intact."

Unashamedly sold by all concerned as police procedural meets The Lord Of The Rings, Bright delivers on that promise and is oddly entertaining.  The world-building is very effective from the outset in what is effectively a gritty update of Alien Nation, even if here the issues of race are handled bluntly and the narrative holds no real surprises within its genre-bound mismatched cops scenario.  The effects are solid, but what sells this Netflix production is an on-form Will Smith and a wonderfully-handled performance by Joel Edgerton underneath the prosthetics as the force's first Orc policeman.  Ayer may be on familiar territory here, but Bright is delivered much more effectively than his Suicide Squad, and whilst not world-changing it is entertaining enough.

FILM: Jumanji - Welcome To the Jungle (dir: Jake Kasdan, 2017)

"Board games?  Who plays board games?"

Very much leaning on the original, this belated and semi-updated sequel has the fabled game adapting itself to a 1990s console game that is then unearthed by four modern-day stereotyped teenagers (i.e. geek, princess, jock, loner) in detention and sucks them into the game world just like Tron.  For a run-time of nearly two hours, the actual story is surprisingly thin, relying mostly on the enjoyable banter between four established stars (Johnson, Hart, Gillan, Black - all fine here) who play the teens' oppositional-character avatars in the game world. Location scenery looks great, the messages and resolution are simple but effective, and overall this take on Jumanji is innocuous and mildly entertaining.

FILM: Pitch Perfect 3 (dir: Trish Sie, 2017)

"Sir!  Step away from the Bella!"

Like the Twilight series, the purpose and content of the Pitch Perfect franchise makes little sense to anyone except teenage girls, and this third entry exists only owing to the previous film's alarming profitability and the less-than-artistic reason that the cast have such a great time making these movies.  This third episode again pretty much retreads previous ground - here, entertaining the troops is the excuse for a mini-tour of glamorous European cities - but it is slightly better than Pitch Perfect 2 as it has a frantic pace, a few funny lines and some self-mocking humour.  However, these elements serve to minimise the meagre individual character stories, instead relying on a barrage of scenes that play almost like sketches and a number of studio-smooth renditions of familiar pop hits to perk up proceedings.  The hapless commentators again steal the show, John Lithgow provides a truly bizarre Australian accent (via London's East End and South Africa), and Anna Kendrick reminds us why she is so adorably watchable. Plenty of behind-the-scenes and rehearsal footage peppers the end credits, and ultimately this third entry appears to be an adequate closer to this pop-phenomenon trilogy.

FILM: Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi IMAX 3D (dir: Rian Johnson, 2017)

"Happy beeps!"

A film of this length that has so much going on requires far more unpacking than this one-paragraph review, but suffice to say The Last Jedi starts with an absolute bang and is absolutely rollicking entertainment, and as expected the trailer played with expectations by means of clever editing and in the movie things certainly 'are not going to go the way you think'.  Rian Johnson - an edgier director with whom Lucasfilm stuck but who understands Star Wars yet is brave enough to make some very distinct choices here - gives the series some new visual ideas, some delightful throwaway humour, some unexpected character development that feels freshly ambivalent and a series of bold set pieces that absolutely deliver.  It is certainly darker (relatively) than Episode VII, but it is story-driven and puts the characters in situations where choices have consequences.  Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac deliver the strongest performances here, and Carrie Fisher is majestic in her final bitter-sweet appearance.  No doubt the diehards who complained that The Force Awakens stayed too close to A New Hope will now say this film is too modern and not light-fantasy enough, but these are precisely the two main reasons that make The Last Jedi not only interesting but also a franchise progression.  It would be nitpicking to say that one plot strand gets a bit familiarly Battlestar Galactica at points, and there is a bit of a mid-point lull, but overall The Last Jedi is genuinely entertaining, and whether or not Abrams continues in this new vein or reverts to safer ground for the trilogy-closer, the next film is left with real potential to explore this 'new' Star Wars universe.

VOD: Beach Rats (dir: Eliza Hittman, 2017)

"What year is this?"

Another of 2017's festival mainstays has many strengths but it is a fairly  unadventurous coming-of-age movie.  Writer/director Eliza Hittman scores well in both departments, with some strong use of framing to create relationships and  deliberate male objectification giving a grounded, credible feel to the movie as a whole.  Brit Harris Dickinson provides an intelligent performance as the conflicted and aimless teen at the heart of the movie, and Madeline Weinstein works well on screen as his budding girlfriend.  The central metaphor used to represent the passion and beautiful rage of teenhood leads to a bleakly blunt but affecting ending, and even if the movie hardly covers original territory, this one of the more considered and thoughtful indie efforts in this sub-genre.

FILM: The Man Who Invented Christmas (dir: Bharat Nalluri, 2017)

"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past!  Follow!"
"Not bloody likely...."

This enjoyable piece of whimsy manages to concoct a reasonable fiction of the creation of A Christmas Carol, presenting the  Dickens phenomenon as the 1840s equivalent of J.K. Rowling's modern-day Potter success (which of course the author was).  Desperate for a hit and for money to support his lavish new lifestyle and ever-expanding family, this film takes an interesting  Pirandello-style approach to the creative process and newly-emerging characters coming to life and challenging their writer as Dickens also comes to terms with his own past and looks to the future.  There are three main threads that are almost integrated effectively: Dickens the man and writer, his relationship with his father and of course the writing of one of his most-loved titles.  Dan Stevens proves yet again to be a wonderfully versatile and precise actor in the lead role, Christopher Plummer is cast magnificently as Scrooge (who challenges and hectors his creator in true character manner), Morfydd Clark does some lovely work as the author's patient wife, and a load of recognisable Brit character actors thesp away hammily.  Fans of Dickens, period films and, well, Christmas will enjoy this pleasant and well-made piece of light seasonal fayre.