Sunshine review

 Number 997 on the top 1000 films of all time is Danny Boyle's 2007 science-fiction film 'Sunshine.'

The year is 2057. With the sun dying, the only hope for mankind is to send a team of astronauts and scientists to detonate a bomb in the core of the sun. The team consists of physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy,) Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) engineer Mace (Chris Evans) navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh,) pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne,) Doctor Searle (Cliff Curtis) and comms/first officer Harvey (Troy Garrity.) Chipo Chung and Mark Strong also star.

There is a lot of good about this film, so let's get the bad stuff out the way first. Notably the accents. To reflect the international nature of space missions, Danny Boyle chose a deliberately international cast. Cillian Murphy is Irish, Hiroyuki Sanada is Japanese, Michelle Yeoh is Malayasian, Benedict Wong is Chinese, Cliff Curtis is Maori, Chipo Chung is Zimbabwean, Mark Strong is English, and Australia is also represented with Rose Byrne.

You have this internationally diverse cast, so why were Murphy, Byrne, Curtis and Chung all doing American accents. And why was Mark Strong doing a South African accent? One of the producers said it was to appeal more to an American audience, so why were Yeoh and Wong not included in this? Either have all the characters do American accents or none of them. It was a strange choice.

Pinbacker definitely could have used some more fleshing out as a villain. We quickly understand that he has lost his sanity, but little else beyond that. Sunrise was written by Alex Garland who had originally included strong themes of religion which were edited out. Elements of this remained in Pinbacker's character, but he remained largely undeveloped and two-dimensional.

Harvey's character was also the least developed among the crew. It wasn't really until the halfway point where Garland realised he had a scene with no conflict, and so he had Harvey commit a random villainous act that completely came out of nowhere.

But these criticisms aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Sunrise. Unlike sci-fi *cough cough* Space odyssey, it doesn't prioritise its big themes over its characters. The aforementioned characters aside, the remaining cast was well-characterised. These were complimented by some good performances. I thought Benedict Wong gave a standout performance. But this isn't to discredit the rest of the cast either.

For a big ensemble cast, I was surprised to find myself caring about most of the characters even if Garland didn't really know what to do with Cassie.

Visually, the film looked stunning. There were so many lens flares I thought I was watching a J.J Abrams film, but otherwise the CGI was gorgeous. I am, of course, excluding the final section, which looked like it had been shot and edited by a group of teenagers. Way too much shaky-cam and distortion. Also how did Cassie and Pinback end up on the same part of the ship that Capa needed to get to?

Yes, Sunshine is pure hokum, scientifically speaking, but the film's technical advisor Dr Brian Cox said that some inconsistencies are to be expected. This is a film and not a documentary after all.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sunshine. It's a great example of sci-fi done right.

Beverly Hills Cop review

 Number 996 on the top 1000 films of all time is the buddy cop action drama 'Beverly Hills Cop.'

Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) is a street-smart Detroit cop whose childhood best friend is mysteriously killed. Aiming to uncover the mystery, Foley travels to Beverly Hills where he comes up against formidable art gallery owner Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff.)

Eddie Murphy was a great comedy actor. He really carried this film and made it something more than your average buddy cop film. He easily displayed his versatility through his physical and verbal comedy. Axel Foley was a likeable and charismatic protagonist. A smart-talking cop is hardly a new trope, but Murphy kept the role nice and fresh. This was a fun and a light-hearted watch.

But Eddie Murphy wasn't the only actor in this, as the rest of the cast were also great. While in Beverly Hills, he receives help from police detective Billy (Judge Reinhold) and police sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton.) These two actors worked well together helping to provide a lot of the film's humour, but also a lot of heart. Initially, they begin as adversaries of Axel, with instructions from their superiors to keep him out of the way, but eventually they become allies. Both of them receive strict dressing-downs from their lieutenant, but this doesn't stop them from doing the right thing.

And Steven Berkoff as the villainous Victor Maitland also shone. He was very convincing as the villain. As I guess would be the standard of the buddy cop films of the time, this was definitely a bit of a boy's film. Consequently some of the female characters like Jenny (Lisa Eilbacher) - another old friend of Axel's - felt very short-changed.

Finally, we have to mention the film's brilliant soundtrack. Populated with the best of eighties music, it deservingly won the Grammy for best score. Of course, it also featured the Axel F song itself which went onto become one of the most annoyingly catchy songs of the 2000's.

This film appears very far down on the list. It was definitely good for what it was - a heartfelt, but very funny buddy cop drama with a great score, but I can understand why it was so low-placed. Beverly Hills Cop might have laid the groundwork, but I think it's been surpassed by many other films.