Reviews by Kyle Ellis

A beautifully done film, and a sweeping and spellbinding epic in every sense. The Last Samurai is exquisitely shot, with stunning locations, wonderful cinematography and well designed costumes. The music by the ever reliable Hans Zimmer is gorgeous, dramatic in the battle sequences, and poignant in the slower scenes. Speaking of the battle sequences they were extremely well staged and came across as spine tingling. The story is strong, and the performances and direction are too. I have never really liked Tom Cruise, but here he gives one of his better performances ever in this film, sometimes I forgot that it was him acting. Billy Connelly also handles his role well, though I usually associate him with comedy. However, it is indeed Ken Watanabe who captivates, and easily walks away with the acting honours. The script is well crafted, and while the Last Samurai is sometimes overly idealistic and a tad stereotypical, me and my brother cannot help deny this is a superbly shot and well performed film. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Although classical music and opera is more my cup of tea/forte, that has never stopped me from having always admired Elton John and loving most of his songs. "Your Song", "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", "I'm Still Standing" and pretty much all the songs in 'The Lion King' are especially great, one of the few exceptions being "Crocodile Rock". He is/was also a quite interesting man, both stage persona and personal life, and the period that is primarily focused on is a very compelling one and worthy of being told on film.

'Rocketman' was not a perfect film, but on the most part it was thoroughly enjoyable and at its best dazzlingly executed when seeing it in the cinema earlier this year. As far as films released in 2019 goes, 'Rocketman' is to me in the better half. Even if accuracy and the chronology can be called into question, it still makes John and his personal life, detailing his childhood, early career and how it came to be and the troubled period of his career, quite fascinating. As well as being worthy of a lot of admiration in its own right.

Not everything works. For my liking, the last twenty minutes or so are executed too tidily.

While John and Bernie Taupin are well rounded and fully realised characters, the other characters, despite being well acted by particularly Bryce Dallas Howard, felt like underdeveloped caricatures (i.e. the parents' cold behaviour towards Reggie not being explained).

However, 'Rocketman' has so many things working in its favour and more so than the bad. First and foremost, Taron Egerton. A totally committed and quite brilliant performance full of confidence, swagger, flair, subtlety and nuance, not to mention a great singing voice, treating John with respect without impersonating him. The scene where he opens up to his mother and his reaction to her cold response was heart-breaking in particular. Jamie Bell is the other performance worthy of note and the relationship between John and Taupin is handled beautifully, with the right amount of intensity but also taste. One can tell how well they clicked and feel their mutual affection and it really drives the film and at times the heart of it.

It looks great too, beautifully photographed and John's flamboyant costumes are a sight to behold, one of the bigger examples being that unlike-anything-you've-seen-before one in the therapy. The songs are as magnificent as one expects and staged with a lot of brio and confidence without being overblown. The very moving "Your Song", performance and the understated staging, being a big standout in this regard, another powerful part being with what is done with the opening of "Yellow Brick Road", done so truthfully and mirroring what is going on at that present moment without spelling it out too much and showing how much Taupin cares for John. Heck, the film even manages to make "Crocodile Rock" tolerable in one of the film's more exuberant moments.

The script manages to be both entertaining and sincere, underneath all the flashiness there is depth too. There may be conventional moments in the story (a lot of biopics though are like that), but the scenes showing off John's unique showmanship are difficult to look away from and the story detailing John's troubled personal life at the time is powerful. A great job is done showing who John is, what he is and how his mind worked when dealing with troubles and when he was writing and performing. Dexter Fletcher's direction is adept.

Summing up, a very, very good and often great film that just misses out on being brilliant. 8/10

What a movie. If I had to give away the term quintessential film noir to any film noir, Out of the Past could very well be it. The plot is complicated yet it is very engrossing, with plenty of effective scenes, especially that unforgettable ending. It is gorgeously shot, exceptionally directed, adeptly scripted and atmospherically scored, these are reasons enough to watch this film. But I can't write this review without praising the acting. Robert Mitchum is memorably languid as the ultra-hard-boiled former private detective, while Jane Greer is dangerously beautiful as the cold yet equally beautiful femme-fatale. Kirk Douglas is also brilliant as the soft-spoken yet truly Machiavellian gangster. Overall, Out of The Past is quite simply quintessential film noir. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Stalker may not be my favourite of Andrei Tarkovsky's films, that belongs to Andrei Rublev, which is from personal opinion the greatest Soviet film ever made. It's also not his most accessible(Ivan's Childhood), if anything only Solaris is more divisive. However Stalker is still an outstanding film, it loses momentum ever so slightly at the end but not enough for it to hurt the film.

As with all Tarkovsky films, Stalker is brilliantly made. It is grittier and more muted in colour than with his other films, but still maintains that hypnotic dream-like quality that the cinematography in his films have. The scenery is evocatively atmospheric, mundane but in a good way. Tarkovsky's direction again is nigh-on impeccable, showing a mastery of visuals and mood. Stalker is hauntingly scored but never in a too obvious way, while of all his films to me it was Stalker that had the most thought-provoking writing. Not all of it is easy to understand at first but a lot of the lines really makes one think a long while after. The story is not for everyone, with some finding the deliberate pacing too much for them but the storytelling is actually very suspenseful and there is a chilling atmosphere throughout, the film is slow but the suspense, atmosphere and cinematography kept this viewer glued to the seat. The acting's of the kind with the actors having times where they don't say a lot or anything but their body language, eyes and expressions communicate an awful lot, which is every bit as powerful as when speaking.

Overall, an outstanding film if not Tarkovsky's best or most accessible. If you are a fan of Tarkovsky, or at least familiar with him ,you shouldn't have too much trouble getting into Stalker. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox

Finally getting round to seeing the original Bourne film trilogy, after hearing nothing but good things, there hasn't been any regret watching them. Wasn't sure initially as to whether they'd be my cup of tea or not, hence why it took so long to see them, but that was not the case.

'The Bourne Identity' was a very pleasant surprise, giving a fairly well-worn genre a much needed freshness. It had its imperfections, but was a very solid and even very good film with much to recommend and introduced a cast-against-type Matt Damon in one of his best roles. 'The Bourne Supremacy' was an example of a sequel that was every bit as good as its predecessor, maybe lacking its freshness but also made a few improvements along the way. The original Bourne trilogy ends with 'The Bourne Ultimatum', which has been regarded often as the best of the three, cannot disagree.

Some of the hand-held shaky cam is used a little too excessively (epileptics be warned!) and the ending could have been a little less frenetic and confused and had more careful tying things together and explanation.

Visually, on the other hand, a vast majority of the time 'The Bourne Ultimatum' like its predecessors looks slick and stylish with even more breath-taking locations. There were many instances when the hand-held shaky cam did intensify the tense claustrophobia of the atmosphere and intensity to very good effect, never making things incomprehensible.

Like 'The Bourne Supremacy', the music score is even more dynamic, atmosphere enhancing and more layered this time round, while Paul Greengrass' drama-documentary style and background to his directing is used to full advantage. 'The Bourne Ultimatum' has the sharpest, most intelligent and subtle script of the three films, in a way that is just dazzling.

The story never lets go of its grip and never strains credibility or reality. It is a tense adrenaline rush throughout, with the best mix of exciting action, the best of it is absolutely thrilling, and meaty story-telling, with lots of emotion and characterisation meat, that develops Bourne the best of all three films. Paul Greengrass' directing style and his experience in drama-documentary is once again used to full advantage.

Matt Damon has really made the character of Bourne his own, at the time of 'The Bourne Identity' it was very much a cast-against-type role but now it is one of his best. Julia Stiles and particularly Joan Allen are marvellous, as is a suitably malevolent David Strathairn, and while the supporting cast are a little underused they all do uniformly sterling work (one would be very hard pressed to get a bad performance out of Albert Finney for example).

In conclusion, what a conclusion to the Bourne trilogy. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The first film was incredibly entertaining and a huge breath of fresh air. This sequel is not as bad as all that and there are far worse sequels about, in fact it is quite watchable, but compared to its predecessor it does fall well short. It's still slickly edited, the colours dazzle with no garishness or drabness, the costumes are still a lot of fun and the effects are incredible. The shaky cam while effective in some scenes was too much in others though. The music is breezy, adrenaline-pumping and catchy, if not quite as fitting as the soundtrack in the first. The witty, edgy humour and the (even more) violent, tense action sequences still remain and with little diminished impact, the climax is incredibly exciting. Admittedly some of it does get violent to the point of being too much to stomach for some, it wasn't a problem with me but parts could have toned down a tad. The dialogue is not as fresh as the first's but still quite witty and irreverent. It is the story where Kick Ass 2 falls down on most, it is lacking in the lively pace of the original, due to some overlong and draggy scenes, and there are a lot of tone shifts that are rather abrupt and awkwardly done, there is a bit of trying to do too much quality. The high school/trying to fit in subplot always is a nice idea but again very little fresh or interesting is done with it, it does drag the pace down with the most uninteresting scenes being to do with this particular subplot and it does feel out of sorts with the rest of the film. Of course there are enough fun, exciting and at times emotional moments but not enough to hide how problematic the story is. The supporting characters are colourful enough especially the main antagonist, Mother Russia and Colonel Stars and Stripes but the leads feel underdeveloped and not always easy to root for, certainly nowhere near as colourful, if anything while well played their personalities are bland. The acting is good enough, although John Leguizamo is very much wasted and Christopher Mintz-Plasse while fine as Chris over-compensates a little as the villain(I would say his name but the guidelines have a thing about prohibited words). Chloe Grace Moretz carried the film brilliantly though and Aaron Johnson is just as confident. Jim Carrey is also wonderfully refreshing and a more than pleasing presence. Overall, a watchable sequel but the first Kick Ass kicks ass much, much better. 5/10 Bethany Cox