About Time review

 Number 439 on the top 1000 films of all time is Richard Curtis' romantic-comedy with a science-fiction twist 'About Time.'

Tim Lake (Domnhall Gleeson) has just turned twenty-one. His father James (Bill Nighy) informs him that all the men in their family upon turning twenty-one develop the ability to change their past. Rather than using it to find fame or fortune, Tim uses it to find love working as a lawyer in London. Cue the beautiful American Mary (Rachel Mcadams.)

Richard Curtis is well-known for his romantic comedies from Notting Hill to Four Weddings and a Funeral to Love Actually - all starring the who's who of British acting royalty, as well as the odd American or two. In many ways, About Time retreads the familiar beats we would expect from romantic comedies: a naive, bumbling but ultimately good-hearted young man navigates the difficulties of love and life before finding his special one.

However, Richard Curtis kept things fresh by adding a sci-fi twist. Tim discovers he has the ability to change the past and like many of us he uses it to fix all his mistakes until he discovers that it's the mistakes that make us human. It's not the most revolutionary of revelations and the time travel mechanics aren't the clearest, but that's not really important.

Perhaps that's because the film had plenty of laughs from Tim's foot-in-mouth syndrome to his father James' foul-mouthed playwright friend Harry Chapman (Tom Hollander) to brilliant cameos from Richard Griffiths and Richard E. Grant. There were plenty of laughs to balance out all the sentimentality of which there was a lot. What else would you expect from a romantic comedy?

Domnhall Gleeson made a for a charming leading man. He fit the role of Tim well with all the requisite charisma, but also plenty of space to grow. Rachel Mcadams was also good as she continued her string of rom-com successes. I do wonder if that's why she went onto to star in True Detective as the emotionally damaged Antigone Bezzerides. But the true star was Bill Nighy. He was the source of much of the film's comedy and pathos.

If I were to criticise anything, it would be Margot Robbie's brief inclusion. She played, I think, an early English love interest of Tim. I say "I think," as her accent varied between her native Australian and an upper-class English. But this was early on in her career.

I really enjoyed About Time. Yes, it was overly-sentimental but it had a great cast and brilliantly used a sci-fi twist to keep everything fresh. 

Predator review

 Number 443 on the top 1000 films of all time is the action-thriller Predator

Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) leads a group of elite commandos as they attempt to rescue hostages from guerillas in the Central American rainforest. His group consists of mercenary Mac (Bill Duke,) explosives expert Poncho (Richard Chaves,) macho Blain (Jesse Ventura,) tracker Billy (Sonny Landham,) Dutch's commander Dillon (Carl Weathers) and wisecracking smart ass Hawkins (Shane Black.)

If you were to measure this film by an action-film standard, then it ticks every box in spades. You have the tough-as-nails soldiers, cheesy one-liners, undeveloped female characters, gunfire, explosions and Arnold Schwarzenegger. By that metric, Predator is a great film.

By any other metric, it is a load of rubbish. Of course it isn't pretending to be anything other than your average shoot-em-up, but shoot-em-ups can still make you care about their characters. Shoot-em-ups can still be entertaining.

I would say that the characterisations of Dutch and his men were paper-thin, but that's being generous. They were non-existent. They were nothing but your generic wise-cracking, vulgar soldiers. The only civillian and female character - the guerilla Anna (Elpidia Carillo) was similarly under-developed. At first it seems like she only speaks Spanish until she can suddenly speak fluent English. Why the change? Reasons.

The soldiers also didn't act like soldiers. They were so unrealistic from the whole group blindly following a million rounds into the jungle in an effort to kill the predator, to Dillon and Mac running off on their own to kill the predator, to Billy throwing down his gun to fight the predator with just a knife. Surprise surprise, he dies quickly. It just seemed like stupid characters doing stupid things for no reason but to advance the plot. If this were teenagers running away from Jason Vorhees, I'd get it, but fully-trained marines? Come on.

If you're going to watch Predator then manage your expectations. If you are expecting ground-breaking cinema, or at least entertaining cinema, you will be disappointed. But if you are after a popcorn-munching, octane-thriller, then Predator is the film for you. 

Ordinary People review

 Number 439 on the top 1000 films of all time is Robert Redford's 1976 directorial debut: Ordinary People.

The Jarretts are a wealthy upper-class family living in Chicago. However, mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) and father Calvin (Donald Sutherland) world is rocked after they lose one son in a boating accident and their other son Conrad (Timothy Hutton) tries and fails to take his own life. Despite help from therapist Tyrone Berger (Judd Hirsch) Conrad struggles to move on from the tragedy. The family slowly starts to disintegrate. 

This was always going to be a depressing film. That much was obvious from the film's summary. What made it so upsetting was its realness. The Jarretts can be substituted for any other family and the story would be the same. The tragedies that befall them could easily befall anyone. As the title would suggest, they are painfully ordinary people.

Ordinary People was Robert Redford's directorial debut. And it was a terrific debut, because he won the Best Directing Oscar. he did well in making the pain and the tragedy of the Jarrett family relatable for a general audience, regardless of how much wealth they hold.

Similar credit should be given to to the principle cast who were all Oscar-nominated except for Donald Sutherland. Moore and Hutton both won, with Hutton beating out his co-star Judd Hirsch. All this is while Donald Sutherland is generally regarded as one of the best actors to have never been Oscar-nominated, so his snubbing was no surprise. 

I do think if it was any other year Hirsch would have been beaten Hutton, but Hutton's considerable acting skills made him the youngest Best Supporting Actor Oscar in history - a record that stills stands to this day - at twenty. Of course, this isn't to disparage Hirsch. Therapists can tend to be played as cold and condescending, but this was not the case with Tyrone Berger. He was a warm and relatable man who soon becomes Conrad's most trusted confidante.

Yes, Ordinary People was a tragic film, but it was painfully relatable. Maybe that's why it was so sad.

Good Will Hunting review

 Number 159 on the top 1000 films of all time is the drama Good Will Hunting.

Will (Matt Damon) is an undiscovered genius with a troubled past. Instead of putting his genius to good use, he works as a janitor for MIT. That is until Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) recognises his potential and arranges for Will to have counselling with therapist Dr Sean Maguire (Robin Williams.) Ben Affleck co stars as Will's best friend Chuckie and Minnie Driver plays Will's love interest Skylar.

In 1994, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were struggling to break into the acting industry. They then decided to write and star in their own film. The rest as they say is history. Damon and Affleck went onto win Oscars for writing. Affleck has since gone onto win a Best Director Oscar for Argo. 

Yet the Oscars don't end there as you had the always terrific Robin Williams win Best Supporting Actor for his role as therapist Sean Maguire. Robin Williams is best known for his comedy roles but he is proven that he is equally adept at drama too. In this role, he played to both his comedic and dramatic strengths. One of the film's most famous scenes sees Maguire making Will dissolve into giggles by telling him a story about how his wife used to fart in her sleep. Matt Damon was laughing for real here as was the cameraman evidenced by how the camera shook. What made it so great was how it was unscripted.

Williams also had a great chemistry with Damon as we see Maguire become a mentor for the emotionally damaged Will. The two of them had many tender, heartfelt but also intense scenes together. Both of them were able to easily switch between comedy and drama.

Alas I cannot be so positive about Ben Affleck. I think it is very telling that he has won Oscars for writing and directing but NOT acting. I think this is because he is more wooden than your average tree. Chuckie was not an exception to this rule.

Although this is really just a minor blip in an otherwise very good film. It was funny yet dramatic with one of Robin Williams' finest performances 

Tangled review

Number 434 on the top 1000 films of all time is Disney’s animated fairy-tale film Tangled.

Based on the story of Rapunzel, we see the princess voiced by Mandy Moore kidnapped by the evil Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) who raises her as her own daughter. Rapunzel knows nothing about her true identity. However, her hair has magical qualities that can heal all wounds and stop the aging process. She is locked away in a remote tower knowing nothing about the outside world. That is until the lovable rogue Flynn (Zachary Levi) stumbles upon her tower and soon changes her life.

Tangled is based on a fairytale, so like many of Disney’s films, it is formulaic. What I saw here was little different to the Disney princess films of old. You have your princess locked away by a parental figure with sinister intentions. She then meets a prince charming initially disguised as a selfish rogue, but who becomes a better person as a result of the princess. Throw in some magic, colourful animation and funny animals for good measure.

Yes, it is all stuff we’ve seen before but when you do it as well as Disney does then who’s complaining. Granted, I don’t think this is one of their best films, but it was certainly an entertaining watch. Rapunzel had a nice mixture of wonderlust, star-eyed naivety, agency and inner strength. This helped to give us a Disney princess for the modern age.

Although Flynn’s arc from selfish coward to unlikely hero was predictable, it was still enjoyable to watch. The villainous Mother Gothel wasn’t quite on the same levels as the likes of Scar, Jafar or the various evil stepmothers, but she had some great lines, especially when she was expressing her thinly-veiled contempt of her supposedly beloved daughter.

There were plenty of funny moments like when Rapunzel goes into the tavern supposedly full of thugs but they are actually full of gentle giants with a share of unrealised dreams.

Compared to some other Disney films, I don’t think the soundtrack was particularly memorable. This was a little disappointing as the music is often the best part of Disney’s films: I’m thinking of the Lion King, Mulan or Aladdin. Even the god-awful Frozen had an inescapable soundtrack. Yet I can’t remember any of the songs from Tangled.

True, I don’t think Tangled brought anything new to the genre. Disney were certainly treading familiar ground when they brought this fairy-tale to life, but when they do it as well as they do, who’s complaining really?

Evil Dead II review

 Number 436 on the top 1000 films of all time is Sam Raimi’s 1987 horror-comedy Evil Dead II.

Ash (Bruce Campbell) and his girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) have just arrived at a remote wood cabin for a passionate weekend away together. Instead, they find a mysterious book which turns Linda into a zombie, possesses anything in the vicinity with evil spirits and torments, harasses and terrifies Ash.

I know this was supposed to be a comedy and it was supposed to be silly, but silly comedies only work if they make audiences laugh. Instead they made me roll my eyes and decry the annoying, tedious nature of the film. The dialogue was cheesy, the characterisations were paper-thin and the special effects were pure B-movie.

I’m being generous when I say the characterisations were paper-thin, they were non-existent especially the female characters. It seemed like the actresses had little direction other than to stand around and scream in terror. This all became rather monotonous at a point. They had little to no agency. Even at times when they could have dealt lethal blows to the zombies, they just screeched and snarled.

This is in comparison to Ash who did little else than growl, shout or say cheesy one-liner after cheesy one-liner. He was very much the only character with any agency, but he still had as much depth as the shallow end of a swimming pool. Although other than fighting away arbitrarily possessed objects and people, he really didn’t have much to do.

Not that he had much to do. There was barely any storyline. The film had a basic siege plot as the small band of heroes led by Ash desperately try to defend themselves against the zombies. That’s it. But don’t forget the constant lapses in logic like Ash using a shotgun in one scene but forgetting about it in the next and using an axe. The rest of the film focussed on stupid characters making stupid decisions for no other reason than to fuel the plot. All very frustrating.

As were the special effects. They were so over-the-top, they just bordered on the ridiculous. It all became an endless gorefest at one point.

The less said about the ending the better too. It was like Raimi had taken a leaf out of 2001:Space Odyssey by sending Ash through some time-travelling wormhole into the past where we see a completely bonkers ending that I don’t think even Raimi properly understood. Talk about jumping the shark.

I know this was a comedy and I shouldn’t take it seriously. There was no way I could never take it seriously as a drama/horror film, but there was no way I could never take it seriously as a comedy either.

The Day the Earth Stood still review

Number 437 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1956 science-fiction film – The Day the Earth Stood Still.

One fateful day in 1951 Washington DC, a mysterious UFO sets down. Out comes an alien called Kantu (Michael Rennie) along with his robot protector Gort. The alien has an important message to tell the people of Earth, but will they listen? Patricia Neal co-starred.

It is safe to say that ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ was a sleeper hit. Neal herself thought the film would just be another of these generic flying saucer films that were so popular during the 1950’s. She could barely stop herself from laughing while reading the supposedly clunky dialogue. I’m glad that Neal was wrong, as the Day the Earth Stood Still was a terrific film.

Sure, you could argue that it isn’t the most original or novel especially by modern-day standards. However, in the 1950’s, paranoia and suspicion were rife, as was our wonder for life beyond the stars. We were in the midst of the cold war where there was distrust all around the world. Screenwriter Edmund H North capitalised on these ideas in this low-spectacle, but thoroughly interesting film.

It helped that you had the relatively-unknown Michael Rennie in the lead role. He was deliberately picked because of his low profile at the time. Director Robert Wise didn’t want a recognisable actor as Kantu, because it would have been too distracting. It was a good call, as Rennie gave a calm and measured performance as the alien.

The Day the Earth Stood still also succeeded where most science-fiction films, as it told an interesting story alongside exploring interesting ideas. Plus, at ninety minutes, it was well-paced with nothing feeling rushed or stretched. Kantu wishes to reveal his important message only to the whole world as once. Yet the logistical difficulties of this felt all too painfully real. How do you get the whole world to agree to something? I’m not sure this would be any easier now than it would have been in the 1950’s.

*spoilers*

Kantu finally reveals his message to a select group of scientists. He implores humanity to do what his race has done and employ a group of omnipotent robots to police them. Disobeying the robots would result in instant obliteration. This has led to an obliteration of all lawlessness on his world.

 Kantu finishes by saying that if humanity doesn’t choose this path, then we will lead ourselves into our own extinction. He leaves saying that he waits for humanity’s response. Judging by the state of our world now, I’m doubtful we will be renouncing our evil ways anytime soon.