VOD: Moonlight (dir: Barry Jenkins, 2017)

"At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you wanna be."

In a year when any of three truly outstanding films could have walked away with the Best Picture Oscar (LaLa Land and Manchester By the Sea also fully deserving), Moonlight was (eventually!) announced the winner, and a superb film it is too.  It feels like an old-school low-budget indie (which of course it is), but it is simply so well made and performed in every aspect.  It also surprisingly echoes another recent Oscar-winner - Boyhood - with its harsh coming-of-age story told in three stages but here by three different actors, all of whom excel in conveying the very personal issues of black and gay identity with searing honesty and sympathy.   In supporting roles, Mahershala Ali (as the youngest Chiron's mentor) and Naomie Harris (Chiron's drug-addicted mother) give brilliant character performances that are an absolute joy to watch.  Director Barry Jenkins and cinematographer James Laxton work so hard to give the film its direct simplicity in construction and look that is frequently beautiful and powerful, and whilst primarily exploring important issues of ethnicity and sexuality, Moonlight manages to be universal and never forgets the importance of compelling character-building and storytelling, making this a truly memorable film.

FILM: Transformers - The Last Knight 3D IMAX (dir: Michael Bay, 2017)

"Now I welcome the End Of Days!"

You emerge from the cinema fearing that you have missed entire seasons by the time this fifth Transformers live-action movie comes to an end, and it feels like you have been watching it for even longer.  From the outset, this is another preposterously noisy, messy and huge-scale movie (aided well by native IMAX 3D shooting) by which the viewer is beaten senseless quite early on, meaning that by the time it reaches its insanely huge third act it almost loses sense and meaning.  The effect of the writers room approach shows clearly, written for action beats rather than narrative and emotional beats, but the dialogue is largely woeful almost to the point of self-parody, especially the dreadful and frequent attempts at humour that persistently fall flat, even with the introduction of more comedy sidekick robots that derailed the second movie.  Being UK-centred, there is a different look in evidence (especially the London and Oxford chase scenes, and the underwater/Stonehenge sequences at the end), with Anthony Hopkins giving a very knowing performance, Mark Wahlberg reliably trying to engage throughout and Laura Haddock getting a Megan Fox makeover.  Dark Of The Moon and (to a fair extent) Age Of Extinction showed a greater and more effective control of tone and structure; if you want the big-bang robots 'n' explosions, then The Last Knight delivers admirably, but - like Revenge Of The Fallen - it offers little more.

FILM: Gifted (dir: Marc Webb, 2017)

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"You drive like an old lady."
"It's Florida.  I'm fitting in."

Gifted takes director Marc Webb back to his pre-Amazing Spider-Man days of small, intimate human stories, and whilst there is little that is original about the story of Gifted (orphaned child maths prodigy ends up being battled over by her grounded carer/uncle and her ambitious grandmother), this film certainly demonstrates the old adage that you do not have to re-invent the wheel, just make a very, very good one.  Webb's skill as a director is highly evident on screen in this superbly crafted and handsome-looking film as well as in the performances he enables, and the key players - Chris Evans, Lindsay Duncan, Octavia Spencer and the young McKenna Grace - are all excellent, notably in the delightful on-screen relationship between Evans and Grace.  The film engages throughout, and it provides two movie-magic heartmelting moments and two emotional wallops in the second half.  By turns amusing, thoughtful and emotional, Gifted is a very well-made and well-performed film that always feels sincere.

DVD: Resident Evil - The Final Chapter (dir: Paul W.S. Anderson, 2017)

"You're fast, but you're not too smart."

Fifteen years after the unexpectedly solid first film comes the sixth and allegedly concluding chapter of this movie iteration of the Resident Evil franchise (with a reboot already in the planning).  Milla Jovovich again gives her all as the extremely unfortunate multi-cloned saviour-of-humanity action hero Alice, and the film itself is the usual mix of the good, the bad and the utterly predictable.  The inevitable final showdown return to The Hive in Racoon City affords the return of some fan favourites (human and non-human) as well as providing a couple of reasonable new twists courtesy of some deft early retro-fitting.  The Final Chapter is a middle-ranker as far as the overall franchise is concerned, but as always there are some insanely ambitious visuals, some lively action sequences and a real effort made to give this franchise a fitting send-off.

FILM: The Mummy 3D 4DX (dir: Alex Kurtzman, 2017)

"I can't unsee it."

The Mummy 2017 has a lot of elements that work very well but is an oddly unengaging experience.  As many critics have been quick to point out, it is designed as a Tom Cruise action vehicle  - and he is very good here, given opportunity to extend beyond his typical action persona - but the story is thin (at times insultingly dumb) and the dialogue often weak, which sit uncomfortably with the overblown but very enjoyable set pieces.  3D is used well,  the plane crash featured in trailers is excellent (and great fun augmented by 4DX) and there are some very dynamic fight sequences.  The money is all up on the screen, but the film does not really use the central concept to give it its own identity, certainly lacking the fun romp elements of the Brendan Fraser era,  and ends up being a typical efficient modern committee-created Studio blockbuster.

FILM: My Cousin Rachel (dir: Roger Michell, 2017)

"You're not the woman I hated."

This handsome du Maurier adaptation is a slow-burning and intriguing psychological period drama blended well with the more romantic elements.  It is beautifully shot (with more than a touch of TV's Poldark - even a scything scene) with masterful framing and composition throughout.  Rachel Weisz uses her characteristic precision very effectively here, and Sam Claflin carries the film extremely well.   The small scale of the action works well with the creation of focus and intimacy, aided by terrific use of lighting and set design.  Whilst the film is essentially an upgraded BBC Sunday night drama, it works very well indeed.

FILM: Wonder Woman 3D 4DX (dir: Patty Jenkins, 2017)

"I am...above average."

Not only does Wonder Woman provide the belated first female-superhero-led film of the current cycle, but it also turns out to be by far the best and most enjoyable of the new DC Extended Universe films.  The film is a strong and efficient origin story, with the opening act set on the hidden all-female island of Themyscira proving to be surprisingly nuanced and interesting, beautifully shot and with a couple of arresting action scenes, notably a beach battle that makes no compromises for younger viewers.  As Diana meets Chris Pine's charmingly smooth but tough American spy (with Pine ideally cast and effective here) and the action moves into 1918 London and on to the World War I trenches, the world of a century ago is realised wonderfully and a whole host of gender/political/ideological issues are cleverly touched upon with wit and sharpness largely through our (super)hero's initially naïve, honest and principled eyes.  Gal Gadot gives a remarkably good performance in the title role, proving to be an engaging and magnetic screen presence throughout, and Patty Jenkins direction uses pace and fluid camerawork extremely well.  The ending is a fairly generic superhero vs villain CGI slugfest (and why does DC always seem to set them at night?), but it is presented with greater impact and clarity than, for example, the frantic finale of Batman v Superman.  Wonder Woman establishes the character fully with a well-written arc in a strongly-made film, so we can only hope that this is evidence of lessons learned for the ongoing DCEU.

FILM: Diary Of A Wimpy Kid The Long Haul (dir: David Bowers, 2017)

"I knew we shouldn't have come here."

Five years on from the last entry, and retaining the franchise director Bowers but with a reboot cast, The Long Haul aptly describes this disappointingly bland movie.  By moving from the domestic setting to a very generic family road trip, the film loses the domestic dynamic and the interplay between Greg and his friends that were integral to the previous films.  Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick are sorely missed as the warring brothers, with Jason Drucker and Charlie Wright trying a little too hard as their substitutes here, and the extraordinary casting coup of Alicia Silverstone and Tom Everett Scott as the parents is largely wasted.  The Long Haul seems somewhat underpowered in comparison with the previous Wimpy Kid films, and oddly makes two pointed references to Mad Max and Psycho, great films but hardly appropriate touchstones for its intended young target audience.

FILM: Baywatch (dir: Seth Gordon, 2017)

"It was worth a try."

Of the two particular huge 80s TV properties - Dallas and Baywatch - that have languished in Development Hell for years while studios and writers have tried to nail the right tone to bring them to the big screen, Baywatch finally emerges without that issue having been fully resolved.  The template is clearly the money-spinning 21/22 Jump Street films, but this film is thinner on laughs (largely owing to the ridiculous two-hour runtime) and the script is surprisingly timid.  Take out a couple of deliberate gross-out scenes, and what remains is a bigger-budget, noisy, relatively straight update of the original TV show.  Johnson and Efron are both now very proficient at this kind of straight-faced comedy delivery and are well cast here, but the rest of the characters have little to do.  It is not the disaster that a lot of critics are saying, but the final impression is that if this film had purposefully gone for all-out comedy or a fully-serious take, a better film may have resulted instead of this version which curiously falls between the two.    

FILM: Pirates of the Caribbean 5 - Salazar's Revenge (US Title: Dead Men Tell No Tales) 3D (dir: Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, 2017)

"There's a witch!  And a pirate!  In my shop!"

Thankfully, much of the self-indulgent bloat of the previous sequels has been stripped away for this fifth entry, but the fundamental problem remains: there is nothing new for this franchise to offer.  Although the story, characters and beats sail perilously close to the original film which is the clear touchstone here, there is much to enjoy: 3D, physical and CG effects and use of camera are fine, there are some lively sequences (including a bank robbery that takes the concept to a whole new level and the ghost-sharks are good), Bardem is a reasonable villain, Scodelario and Thwaites - two strong young actors - are suitable Knightley/Bloom substitutes, and the third act is strong with a charming final scene.  Nevertheless, it is still overlong, a lot feels too familiar, and Jack Sparrow is no longer swaggering fun but simply dumb (although, like Jar Jar Binks, children love the character).  This is one of the more tolerable Pirates sequels, but do not go looking for anything startling or new.