Jason Bourne

When The Bourne Identity was released to the world it was a genre changing film.  Similar to The Matrix, Rocky, Raiders of the Lost Ark and countless others throughout history, the film revisited a repetitious genre and gave it the boost it needed.  The sequels, Supremacy and Ultimatum only strengthened the hold that Jason Bourne had on the Action/Thriller genre.

Films like Taken and The Daniel Craig Bond Series were heavily influenced by Paul Greengrass and his film styles.  Several others tried to adopt this style and failed miserably (included in this list is The Bourne Legacy)

So 14 years after the first film was released, Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass (who previously said there would never be another Bourne) decided to make another Bourne film.  Excited by the team up, I was looking forward to a genre re-defining product,  Giving the genre another well boosted kick to launch the next series of copy cat films.

I think Mr Greengrass went down the route that my Dad takes with DIY, "If it's not broken, then why try fix it".  Admittedly, this is a reasonable stance to take, The Bourne films work, and they work well.   Some say that each of the original trilogy films just get better and better with each outing.  The action is intensified, the chase scenes are exhilarating and the constant cat and mouse feel is superb....but it has all been done before.

Jason Bourne is a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable film.  A worthy successor to the Bourne helm, and I left the cinema happy that I had witnessed this rip ride tour of Europe and America with Mr Damon and his almost mute anti-hero.  Alicia Vikander is superb (although her accent falters throughout) and it is always a delight to see Julia Stiles in any film

I was in similar thoughts to Jeremy from CinemaSins last year, and although I am happy that Jason Bourne was made, I think it is either time to leave the franchise as strong as it is or do something genre defining again in the future

Suicide Squad

Even after the DC Universe defining flop that was BvS:DoJ, I still had high hopes for The Suicide Squad.  Knowing DC's current "show all and everything" tactic in their continuous bombardment of trailers and TV spots I also decided that one trailer was enough and avoided everything the was subsequently released, I wanted to enjoy the film without knowing every plot point prior.

This was definitely the right approach for me.  Unfortunately, the reviews of the film were harder to ignore.  Negative critical reviews bombarded the interwebs and the berating of the DC franchise continued.  Always in competition with the brighter and more enjoyable Marvel Expended Universe, DC has a tall order ahead of them.

The Suicide Squads teams up a rogue gallery of villains from the DC universe, each with restrictive explosives embedded in their necks to avoid any insubordinate behaviour.  They must embark on a rescue mission and protect a city from annihilation against their will but using all their "meta-human" strengths and acquired skills.  Among the group are fan favourites, Harley Quinn, Dead Shot, Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang (ok, so the last one may not be a massive favourite).

This is more the Anti-Hero Movie were the good guys are not that good and the bad guys are really bad.  Margo Robbie is perfectly matched to Harleen Quinzell and perfectly embodies the role, Will Smith as DeadShot is basically Will Smith with all his usual charm and the supporting cast each have their moments.  The big let down for me was Jared Leto as The Joker, there was a lot of hype around his embodiment of the Clown Prince but the film could have achieved more without him.  Admittedly, he was enjoyable to watch, but it felt like his scenes where shoehorned in just to raise a little interest to the film, they felt superfluous to the actual narrative. A little cameo (there are a couple in the film already - no spoilers) would have sufficed.

It was great to see a full cinema on the opening night with almost all showings with limited availability.  It goes to show that the interest in the film, and not having a massive name on the title card, was there from the start.

Suicide Squad is a thoroughly entertaining, leave your brain at the door, film.  Some enjoyable characters (although the big bads were far from menacing...or interesting) and some great interactions with the bigger named actors.

The Shallows

A truly brilliant film where the main premise focuses on the terrorising of a small group by a formidable shark.  When the budget for the film cannot afford to spend too much time with the watery menace then the main goal is to create tension, atmosphere and build the characters into some of cinema's greatest.  Some scenes create a feeling of absolute isolation that it feels you are sat completely on your own listening to the tide, creaks and groans, waiting for the inevitable moment that the monstrous teeth will rise again from the shallow depths and fill us once more full of dread.  I think this films shows a true masterclass in character development and it will always hold a place in my personal top ten of films.

Enough about Jaws, The Shallows features Blake Lively as a surfer returning to her mum's isolated Mexican beach to ride the waves in her honour.  Whilst there a shark decides that she looks quite tasty and has a nibble on her leg.  Thankfully there is a low tide which reveals a previously submerged rocky surface.  Too far to swim to shore and with no other dry land available, she must try to survive, bleeding one her rocky solace whilst the black eyed predator circles waiting for the tide to rise once more.

Whilst occasionally enjoyable, The Shallows tries to focus on Blake's character, but she does not have that much to offer and as we spend 90% of the film with her, talking to herself and her newly adopted, shark-mauled, seagull, Steven (yes, he is named Steven Seagull...oh how I laughed!) the film seems to lack any development.

The shark in question is menacing enough, but the final scene is more ridiculous than anything from Jaws II, III, or even IV and this took away any previous malevolence that the predator had before. The seemingly tactical and persistent omnipresence that the toothed behemoth held for the majority of the film is whisked away for a few closing moments.  Personally, I think this film would have ended better without the Hollywood influence.

A Saturday night film with popcorn and treats, but then again, why not just watch Jaws!?

The Conjuring 2

Having always been a fan of the supernatural, when I heard that the next James Wan horror film would be set in the London town of Enfield focusing around the much publicized Enfield Project, I was a little excited.  Having recently spent an evening locked in a spooky establishment with poltergeist activity prevalent throughout the evening, anything that is due to send chills up my spine is always welcome.

I was happy with the first installment of the franchise, albeit the scarier moments were with the Annabelle side plot, but then the spin off film of the demonic doll was nowhere near as entertaining. Knowing more of the Enfield Project mainly down to my own personal interest, I was keen to know how the film would approach the undetermined amount of hoaxing and subsequent admissions to pranks from the young children to satisfy the active minds of the reporting teams.

I was not let down.  Reports of furniture moving were supported by police witnesses which is portrayed at the start, everything else was down to subjecture and the camera helps with this by always being just off centre to events.  There are a few overly fabricated and special effects heavy sections that took me out of the moment, but then I was dragged back in moments later with some creepy off screen movements.  It has a feel of The Exorcist, dealing with similar context, being of a similar era, but even down to the atmosphere created by the Friedkin film.

The film should have ended where the investigation ended, but that would not have been a Hollywood ending, we needed something bigger, louder and more flashy which was a real down point, but I am used to the fact that the horror genre is terrible at closing a film.  This is something that we now just have to accept, a horror film with a good ending is a real rarity.

To top my experience off perfectly, a few days later I was on a work field trip.  Meeting a couple of clients at our head office on a couple of days out of our Manchester Office.  The location of our meetings was no other than Enfield itself, Green Street only a matter of minutes away from the boardroom.  It felt completely fitting that I should don the running trainers and pay a visit to Mr Bill Wilkins and say "hello".  I was amazed and the mundane looking building, no one seemed ot be knowledgeable of the goings-on of this house, it was just another house on another street.  School children ran by without a care, I think I was looking for more of an ominous feel, but what I got was a sense of the mundane.

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Central Intelligence

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for president!

If you put The Rock into any film it seems to bring it up a few notches, well most films, Hercules was pretty far down the notch ladder to start with!  But Kevin Hart is a little of a fad for me, his recent escapades with Ice Cube in the Ride Along films were far from entertaining.  It feels like he is the same person in all his character portrayals, and they all feel a little 90's.

That being said, throw Mr Johnson into the mix and he suddenly become mildly more entertaining.

Central Intelligence is a 90's style buddy cop movie, nothing new, nothing adventurous, nothing out of the ordinary.  You will have seen this film 100 times before, the back and forth comedy has been done before, the plot has been done many many times before and the twist and turns are highly expected, but you know what, I enjoyed this outing thoroughly.  Now it is not one I would recommend parting with hard earned cash for, especially with the price of a cinema ticket now, but one that when it comes to Netflix or other streaming services that it is added to the queue of things to watch with beer in hand.

The banter between our two main protagonists is superb, a lot of it feels improvised between the two but that makes it more natural rather than scripted.  The adoption of the 90's style outtakes at the end emphasise this thought as well.

The is a nice little threat of ambiguity of The Rock's allegiance that has you questioning character choices and some nice little stunts thrown in for good measure.  A few laughs along the way and a good back story to each character.

Nothing new, nothing original but highly entertaining. Can we please have the Rock in more films please?

Independence Day: Resurgence

In 1996, Mr Roland Emmerich came into the lime light with the blockbuster smash, "Independence Day".  Aliens from far of reaches of space enter our atmosphere and decide to eviscerate monumental building and cities before trying to reduce the population of our planet to a count of 0.  This was followed with similar films such as 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, and Godzilla, each having the same set pieces of destruction and planetary threat (although Godzilla was basically New York but still big on the destruction of famous landmarks).

I was never really a fan of Independence Day, I felt it was lacking in something, long and convoluted, and more of a special effects promotion rather than a decent film.  The only saving grace was Captain Hiller, the charisma of Will Smith made the difference.  So 20 years later, when the sequel was announced I was hoping for his return.  Instead we get his son, who, as he was only young when his father passed, one can only assume the wit, humour and finesse was not something that had be prevalent in the relationship.  This kid has the charisma of a wet turnip, and a sultry one at that.

So removing the one saving grace and replacing it with a soul sucking counterpart is not a good start for me.  Throw in massive amounts of faceless destruction and big bashing CG/Green screen action and I am getting distracted by the thoughts of the day ahead and jobs that I need to do at home pretty quickly.

Thor's younger brother is entertaining in parts, and the reprising roles of Jeff Goldblum, Brett Spiner and Bill Pullman and nostalgically entertaining, but I could have really done without the return of Julius Levinson (Goldblum's Father)

The story is pretty much the same (non-evident) and the effects are as big and brash as ever.  The finale felt more like a video game boss battle with flashing weak spots and using the hive mind plot is always a cheap cop out.

I have since heard that a third installment is already planned for this franchise, which when you think that the second film took 20 years to finally get a script the team thought was worthwhile, at least a third script is being rushed through to capitalise on the current market.

Captain America: Civil War

Team Cap or Team Iron Man?

The year of the versus starts with our two favourite heroes of the Marvel franchises.  The guys that started the whole thing off (if you ignore the Hulk attempts).  The wit and banter of the brains in the suit against the charm and strength of the man behind the shield.

There is no other way of me saying this other than Civil War is the best of the Marvel films to date, in fact, it is the best Super Hero genre film in my opinion as well.  With more Avengers than The Avengers and introductions of new characters such as Black Panther and of course everyone's favourite neighbourhood spider, I was entertained from start to glorious finish.

Engaging story line with reasons to flip-flop to either side of the argument, I struggled to choose an over all winning side as both parties had feasible pro's and con's.  Throw in the collection of awesome side characters whose choices are questionable as well and the inevitable showdown is just delightful

When I saw the original trailer, I was impressed with the airport clips, what I was not expecting was the scale of this showdown.  A good 20 minutes of a visual spectacular, colourful, engaging, hilarious and threatening, just excellent in execution.

It didn't seem to slow down for the full duration and I wanted to know so much more about the new characters, thankfully I will not have to wait much longer for these films, and I am really excited about them. The Marvel Franchise is really strong at the moment (with exceptions of a few hiccups), and the future of the product is really promising with the introduction of the new crowd.  With trepidation towards another webslinging outing and another origin story, it looks like Spidy is in the right hands now, but only time will tell.

Very entertaining, exciting and enjoyable, this is a must for comic book film fans and pretty much anyone else.  Go and enjoy