Films round-up
Jan. 6th, 2016 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoBridge of Spies - An excellent Spielberg spy thriller starring Tom Hanks as a lawyer conscripted to defend a Soviet spy. There's no real mystery going on, but it's a great Cold War political drama with lots of strong performances. Spielberg has definitely still got it. Worth the hype.
The Good Dinosaur - After the wonderful Inside Out, this was a huge let-down and possibly Pixar's weakest film yet. It tries very hard to be The Lion King with dinosaurs, but fails miserably on every level. Don't bother.
Victor Frankenstein - This isn't going to win any awards and got terrible reviews, but it worked for me. James MacAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe both turn in strong performances as the titular doctor and his assistant Igor (not appearing in the novel but, hey, it's not like Frankenstein films often stick to the original source material). There's good chemistry between the leads and, although it's quite silly, it's also a surprisingly good character piece. It's more about the man; the monster barely appears.
Black Mass - Johnny Depp gets to be nasty in this true story about James "Whitey" Bulger, gangster turned informant (for his own ends, of course) and his hate-hate relationship with the FBI and other mafia types. Benedict Cumberbatch is strangely miscast as Depp's brother.
Krampus - This gets massive points for feeling like an old-fashioned, anarchic '80s Christmas film, with shades of Gremlins at times as a bunch of unpleasant in-laws get picked off one-by-one by Krampus's little helpers. It gets extra bonus points for a brilliant Calvin & Hobbes reference. Unfortunately it then loses a load of points for bearing very little resemblance to any idea of who/what Krampus is that I've ever come across, and loses even more for having an awful cliched ending. So it works out about average overall.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Disappointingly derivative, but hey, it's still Star Wars and it's still enormous fun with some great moments. Harrison Ford steals the show but the new characters have a lot of promise too. Full review here.
The Danish Girl - Based loosely on the story of Lili Elbe, one of the first women to undergo transgender surgery. The pioneering historical nature of the story is background, though, as it's mostly a story of how Einar (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda (Alicia Vikander) Wegener come to understand and deal with the realisation that "he" is a "she" and the impact this has on their marriage. It's well told, although Gerda comes across as a far more sympathetic character than Lili.
The Good Dinosaur - After the wonderful Inside Out, this was a huge let-down and possibly Pixar's weakest film yet. It tries very hard to be The Lion King with dinosaurs, but fails miserably on every level. Don't bother.
Victor Frankenstein - This isn't going to win any awards and got terrible reviews, but it worked for me. James MacAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe both turn in strong performances as the titular doctor and his assistant Igor (not appearing in the novel but, hey, it's not like Frankenstein films often stick to the original source material). There's good chemistry between the leads and, although it's quite silly, it's also a surprisingly good character piece. It's more about the man; the monster barely appears.
Black Mass - Johnny Depp gets to be nasty in this true story about James "Whitey" Bulger, gangster turned informant (for his own ends, of course) and his hate-hate relationship with the FBI and other mafia types. Benedict Cumberbatch is strangely miscast as Depp's brother.
Krampus - This gets massive points for feeling like an old-fashioned, anarchic '80s Christmas film, with shades of Gremlins at times as a bunch of unpleasant in-laws get picked off one-by-one by Krampus's little helpers. It gets extra bonus points for a brilliant Calvin & Hobbes reference. Unfortunately it then loses a load of points for bearing very little resemblance to any idea of who/what Krampus is that I've ever come across, and loses even more for having an awful cliched ending. So it works out about average overall.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Disappointingly derivative, but hey, it's still Star Wars and it's still enormous fun with some great moments. Harrison Ford steals the show but the new characters have a lot of promise too. Full review here.
The Danish Girl - Based loosely on the story of Lili Elbe, one of the first women to undergo transgender surgery. The pioneering historical nature of the story is background, though, as it's mostly a story of how Einar (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda (Alicia Vikander) Wegener come to understand and deal with the realisation that "he" is a "she" and the impact this has on their marriage. It's well told, although Gerda comes across as a far more sympathetic character than Lili.
