An air traffic controller starts to believe that the same events are repeating themselves as a warning from the past. A love story with bits of Groundhog Day, Pushing Tin and 12 Monkeys thrown in; the complex backstory and the resolution don’t work.
Tag: eamonn’s reviews
Canaries (2017, dir. Peter Stray)
A New Years’ party in Wales is the centre of an alien invasion. Low-budget SF/horror/comedy with some oddly irrelevant production values and an overly-complex backstory. Not great at all, but there are a couple of good moments.
Skyfall (2012, dir. Sam Mendes)
Bond battles a former MI:6 agent intent on revenge on M. Superior series entry with lots to recommend it, not least a back-to-basics siege third act. A couple of wobbly moments (beware the oddly-empty tube car), but apart from those, this is superior genre entertainment.
Star Wars [AKA Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope] (1977, dir. George Lucas)
![Star Wars [AKA Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope] (1977, dir. George Lucas)](https://255review.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/star_wars_ukquad3-1.jpg?w=1200)
An orphaned farmhand finds he is the chosen one to lead an intergalactic rebellion. Splendid and modest SF/fairy story hybrid, unfairly weighed down by later expectations. In its own terms, a sprightly and successful adventure, nothing more.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017, dir. Matthew Vaughn)
Kingsmen join with their American equivalent to battle a virus-wielding drug lord. Gleeful but over-stuffed, overlong and indulgent sequel, magnifying the first film’s good points and its issues. Some fun to be had, tho, and Mark Strong gets a crowning moment of awesome.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973, dir. Alan Gibson)
In modern-day London, Dracula is behind an establishment conspiracy to unleash a plague epidemic. Modish late series entry, with loads of ideas, and an approach drawing on SF and a Bond villain plot. Fun, within its limitations, and impeccably played.
Roman J Israel, Esq (2017, dir. Dan Gilroy)
A socially-awkward lawyer faces troubles when he has to engage with the wider legal world. Though it doesn’t quite work as drama, there’s a lot to appreciate here, not least fine playing from its leads, and a bag of perhaps-unfashionable ideas about social justice.
