filmsExaminer

This is a fantasy adventure. Batman is assembling an alliance of superheroes to fight a cosmic threat, which he believes is coming to Earth soon. The approaching villain character is 'Steppenwolf', who is in search of three mystical 'mother boxes.' These boxes are currently in the possession of the Amazons, Atlanteans and humans and are hidden in secret locations around the world. The boxes hold great power but need to be located and then combined. The hero characters all have good chemistry, in their banter with each other and their high action battles scenes. I generally enjoyed this film though there was very heavy use of CGI, so much so it resembled a computer video game. There was some humour, but would have benefited with more. Stay in your seats to see the customary post-credits scene, this time where Flash and Superman decide to race to the Pacific coast. 7/10.

Comedy (though that's being extremely generous) Bad Moms Christmas follows the Moms from the original film preparing for Christmas, however in this film the moms have their own moms stay with them for the few days preceding Christmas day with chaotic moments (None of the female characters are likable). I'm not the target audience, demonstrated by the fact that I was in my local busy cinema attended by only 5 blokes (incl. me). There is soooo much wrong with this film, where do I start?! Badly written, rubbish acting, revolting dialogue! Hardly starts being funny and you quickly stop caring what happens next! Child actors using the F-word (of which there was plenty) is never funny! Racist in places There's every type of lazy humour including overdone sex and clichéd jokes! If your idea of funny is frequent and unnecessary F-Bombs then this film is definitely for you. It seemed like every scene contained the 'F' word, after a while this wears thin and then you begin t

This film is based on actual events and follows the 7 days following the assassination of JFK. Jackie Kennedy was an elegant woman, an American style icon and probably the first media celebrity. The film begins with Jackie being interviewed by a reporter from 'Life' magazine, he is exploring life in The Whitehouse and a minute by minute account of the assassination. The film is a character study, it compares Jackie 'The First Lady' vs Jackie 'the woman/wife'. It doesn't focus on the assassination but more on the way Jackie deals with the consequences and the public reaction. One scene that really stuck in my mind was where Jackie is travelling in the hearse, she is speaking to the driver, she names other presidents who were also assassinated and she asks what they remember about their achievements. Jackie realises her husband hadn't achieved very much during his half term, so she decides that she needs to desperately create an important legacy! My wife s

This disappointing film stars James McAvoy, who I must admit is excellent in 23 contrasting roles, he has a personality disorder and these are the main characters that live in him. He kidnaps 3 girls and holds them hostage in a strange and strong underground maintenance area. He intends to feed the girls to the "The Beast", his 24th personality. His characters regularly visit a psychologist and depending on who is speaking they are said to be 'taking the light'. The plot is total nonsense, if you want to see young girls in their underwear with jiggly boobs then this film is definitely for you. I can't believe James McAvoy decided to get involved with this rubbish. Though I've given a low mark, all my marks are for JM's acting contribution which creates the tension, where there is any. Best = James McAvoy. Worst = Everything else. Conclusion = Don't waste your time or money. 3/10.

This film is an emotional true story set in the mid 1980's, based on the novel "A long way home". Staring Sonny Pawar as a 5 year old boy "Saroo" from a destitute Indian village. He and his older brother scratch a living selling stolen coal, their mother is a labourer, their lives are extremely tough. One evening the boys are out looking for work, but they're separated and Saroo falls asleep on a decommissioned train, the train travels without stopping. 2 days later he's 1200 miles from home. The first part of the film follows young Saroo as he tries to survive his new life on the streets. An orphanage rescue him from begging, scrounging, and living rough. He's adopted by an Australian couple, his new life couldn't be more of a contrast to his original poverty. The scene jumps 20 years forwards to almost present day, the adult Saroo is now played by Dev Patel, his ambition is to work in hotel management. While studying he learns about a new techn

This is a sequel with some slapstick comedy. The co-duds want to give their kids the perfect Christmas so they decide to celebrate together in one household (hooray!). The surprise is the grandfathers (Tough Mel Gibson & Sensitive John Lithgow) both arrive to join in the fun (hooray!). They all decide to go on a holiday to resolve the problem of whose house to have Christmas dinner at. The film had moments of humour and I found myself laughing here and there, but I have an IQ of 30 and found it mainly boring. Be aware that most of the best jokes were shown in the trailers (booooo!) It's a Christmas nonsense film (that time of year). No out-takes! (Really?!) 3/10. O.M.G. Please stay away

Based on a true story, this biographical drama follows the romance between a younger man, Peter Turner played by Jamie Bell, and 1950's black and white former A-list Hollywood star, now aging actress Gloria Grahame, played by Annette Benning. Set between 1978 – 1981 in Liverpool and USA. The lead actors meet and there is an immediate chemistry, Grahame is diagnosed with cancer and she turns to the Bell family for comfort in Liverpool, where she is welcomed. She wanted to build her strength and recuperate, although the cancer has taken hold and obviously progressed too far. Their romance only lasts for a few years, we see how this develops into a deep passion through some very clever and well done flashback sequences. This is a very emotional love story. Jamie Bell provides a standout, convincing award winning performance. Highly recommended. 7/10.

Produced by B.F.I. a documentary drama that paints a perfect picture of life from the outside but dig a little to reveal a slice of disadvantaged lives and the damaged environment from the inside. This is an authentic social awareness documentary about the the poor community that lives just outside Disney World, the focus is the rundown motel being used as low income housing. Willem Defoe is the very likable motel manager struggling to keep control and order but has affection for the tenants, he maintains great chemistry with all the tenants but particularly the latchkey child character 'Moonie' played by unknown actor Brooklyn Prince, who has little adventures and is always getting into trouble and her mother character 'Hayley' played by unknown actor Bria Vinaite, who represents the under life in Florida – single mum, young, poor, heavily tattooed. She takes odd jobs, including sex work to pay bills from week to week. Hayley is a real disgrace and clearly not ready fo

I love a good gangster film, especially when Scorsese is directing (this one isn't). Set in the prohibition era of Boston, stars and is directed by Ben Afflek. His character is a small time bank robber who has a secret affair with one of the Irish mafia boss's girlfriend played by Sienna Miller. The girlfriend dies in a staged car accident, Afflek is wrongly imprisoned for the murder of a police officer – he vows to seek revenge and forms an allegiance with the Italian mafia. He rises the ranks and is transferred to Florida to run a bootlegging syndicate. While there he starts an interracial romance with Zoe Saldana's character. This is where the main plot and sub-plots become a little confused. Afflek finds himself in the middle of several simultaneous hostile situations, between The KKK, a religious movement and his growing empire. The film isn't all bad, the main plot is interesting, although jumps around the sub plots too much. The film would have been better if it

An every-man deals with issues - What's special about that! I'll be honest, the trailer didn't inspire but the very high ratings made me curious, and I'm always willing to give a film a chance. The premise had great promise, the tragedy of loss, redemption and finding a purpose. Unfortunately the film just couldn't deliver IMO. I didn't really care about the main character, although the situations he finds himself in made him empty of emotions, it was like watching an every-man struggling to deal with issues, the kind of issues that many people might face at points in their lives. I didn't really care about any of the other characters either, they seemed mundane and selfish, with dull dialogue. They all irritated me for NOT getting on with their lives. This looked like an average low budget made for TV drama, and that's being generous. You could count the significant moments on one hand, but these seemed to drag on for an uncomfortable 138 minutes. Th

I'm not a big fan of musicals, this genre is probably my least favourite film type, and consequently I was not looking forward to seeing this. So this describes my initial attitude. The film opens with a huge musical number, the scene is set at an enormous traffic jam where the drivers begin singing and dancing on bonnets, everyone eventually joins in. My heart sank at this point because this is NOT what happens when you're stuck in a traffic jam, not at least for me. I didn't need to worry, from there on the one third music blends very well with the two thirds standard dialogue. Stars Ryan Gosling, a struggling jazz pianist and Emma Stone a struggling actress. Both actors' characters have ambitions. Both are following their dreams. Both sing and dance (Ryan learns to play the jazz piano) – both are extremely competent, and they both have great chemistry. There are many memorable scenes and a reoccurring theme tune, used to drive the narrative. For instance, Emma's

This is a CGI animated film sequel of the charming bear character called Paddington, the bear who always looks for the good in people. In this film we see that one year on from the original film Paddington has really become part of the Brown family and very much part of the local community. Paddington is looking for the perfect present for his Auntie Lucy's 100th birthday, he sees a pop-up book in an antique shop, but it's very expensive (£500). None-the-less, he decides to buy it as his Auntie only ever wanted to see London, so this seems perfect. Paddington needs to do a string of different odd jobs to earn the necessary money to buy the book, all with disastrous slap-stick comedy consequences. The book also provides clues to the location of some treasure. Late one night Paddington witnesses the book being stolen from the shop, he chases the villain but he escapes. The police arrive on the scene and have no alternative but to convict Paddington, the Brown family need to clear

A three hour epic from Martin Scorsese, starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, and Liam Neeson. The film is set in 17th century Japan where Christianity is outlawed and Liam Neeson's character is a priest, preaching the Catholic faith. The film starts with Liam Neesan's character, witnessing scenes of local Christian people suffering graphic torture, these scenes are typical Scorseses and difficult to watch. We appreciate that Liam Neeson's character is already struggling with his conscience and his faith. When he goes missing two of his Portugese students, Garfield and Driver travel to Japan in search of him and also to continue preaching. On arriving Garfield and Driver must denounce Christianity and must conduct Mass in secret, at night. Their Apostasy is demonstrated by stepping onto a tile with the imprint of Christ, easier for Garfield than Driver, they both refuse spitting on a cross. These characters engage in long periods of dialogue and this gives them a Shakespea

First film viewed in 2017, starring Lewis MacDougall as Conner the boy, Felicity Jones as the mother, Sigourney Weaver as the very strict grandmother, Toby Kebbell as the absent father and Liam Neeson as the voice of the Tree Monster. Connor is a 12 year old, he needs to deal with several heavy emotional situations simultaneously. His mother is dying from cancer, he is being viciously bullied at school, his father lives in USA and has been absent for the majority of his life but makes a rare visit. The Tree Monster is originally a creation from his mum's imagination. Towards the end of the film we see an old artist's pad where she had previously sketched the Monster and other fairy tale scenes. The Monster visits Connor every night at precisely 12:07, the Monster wants to tell him three stories and hear one in return. The three stories are from his mum's imagination, represented by the fairy tale sketches she leaves. These stories help Connor deal with his feelings of anger

Based on the Agatha Christie 'who done it' classic novel, set in 1930's. Staring a magnificent moustache, and co-staring / directed by Kenneth Branagh who plays the genius detective Hercule Poirot. Set in the limited space of a lavish, luxury train with some really long tracking shots that illustrates the confined atmosphere. At the beginning the passengers slowly assemble at the station, there's a period of character building similar to the film 'Titanic'. The train sets off, we realise that Hercule just wants to take a holiday but there's a murder on the train and he's unable to switch off from being the master detective. Unfortunately the train is stuck by an avalanche and this gives Hercule the opportunity to piece together the evidence. Everyone's a suspect and it turns out have a connected motive. During Hercule's interviewing we learn that everyone' circumstances are connected as well. The avalanche is cleared and the train reach

Brian Cranston is the traditional father who struggles to bond with his daughter's boyfriend, James Franco is the boyfriend, a Tech millionaire who wants to win him over in order to marry his daughter. There's frequent forced humour sequences, with particularly lots of bathroom humour. This film drops the 'F' bomb frequently (too frequently for me anyway!). The audience had a few laughs, I think I remember laughing 2 or 3 times. The trailer showcased the very few 'funny' scenes and makes this look like a much funnier film than it really is. If your idea of funny is frequent swearing then (unfortunately) this film is definitely for you. Overuse of the 'F' word soon wears thin, makes you realise it was used instead of clever humour. Please don't waste your time and money supporting this nonsense or they will make 'Why Him Again'. In summary, poor plot which has been done better previously, boring, gross and vulgar. I wouldn't recommen

The plot follows the spaceship 'Avalon' travelling through deep space to colonise another world called Homestead2. This ship is only 30 years into its 120 year journey when a large meteorite strikes and causes a malfunction to one of its hibernation pods, the pod opens prematurely and 'wakes' Jim Preston (Chris Pratt). Jim explores the ship and realises he's isolated, his only companion appears to be a warm and delightful bar-tender droid 'Arthur' (Martin Sheen) – he realises that he's still 90 years from the destination and that he'll be dead by the time the ship reaches Homestead2. He can only be alone for so long, until he ultimately desires another human companion. Jim finds and reads Aurora Lane's (Jennifer Lawrence) profile and falls in love. Now Jim's has a moral dilemma, whether to wake her up. Well … he wakes her up, they fall in love and he decides to keep his decision to wake a secret from her. The ship suffers some more malf

Homosexual, coming of age, erotic drama. A film about sexual awakening and sexual discovery. Set in Italy, in the summer of 1983. The father figure is a history professor who always takes an annual summer-time intern. The son, Elio, played by Tim Chalamet is the 17 year old son, who spends his days playing classical music and reading. The intern, Oliver, played by Armie Hammer is the charming 20 something, intellectual intern who lives with the family to help with the professor's research. Elio and Oliver have truly great chemistry and slowly grow closer, frustration turns into infatuation which turns into love. Elio and Oliver have several very emotional, romantic scenes until Oliver inevitably returns home and emotions boil over. Look out for the very best scene in the film towards the end where the father discussed the prior few week's emotional events with Elio during an extended dialogue scene (a master-class in parenting). If Moonlight can win the 'Best Picture'

Comedy, horror drama. The heroine played by Jessica Rothe is murdered at the end of her birthday! The murderer is disguised by a 'baby face' mask, and she immediately wakes up at the beginning of the same day, over and over and over again. She now knows what will happen during the course of the repeating day and we then see her murdered again, each time in a different manner. Every time she wakes we see that she has suffered some injury relevant to the murder, and these accumulate over the passing days. Her urgent need is to slowly piece together the evidence in the course of each repeating day until she can determine who the killer is. Every morning her frustration grows but at least she slowly progresses towards knowing who the killer is. Every morning we see her realise that reliving the same day gives her the opportunity to slowly learn how to be a better person. Comparison with 'Ground Hog Day' and 'Edge of Tomorrow' are inevitable – GHD is even referenced

This is the first standalone film in the series franchise, though with familiar 'Star Wars' references. Rogue One is about a group of rebel spies who band together in order to steal the plans to the Death Start from the Galactic Empire. This is the story just prior to the original 1977 Star Wars 'A New Hope'. Anyone who remembers the original 'crawl' at the beginning will appreciate that Rogue One owes its premise to a single line from that opening crawl. Rogue One is designed to fill the gap and explains why the Death Star had such an exploitable weakness. I found the film to be very similar to the 2016 'Magnificent 7' remake, where a diverse set of mercenaries unite, bond and head into action. Rogue One starts well with good scenery and effective 3d depth. I found the middle draged a little but then picks up again during the battle heavy sequences, which I found to resemble a modern computer war game. There's an emotional scene towards the end wher

This very short animated featurette was shown as the introduction to Moana. To be fair I missed the 1st minute or so whilst buying popcorn, but quickly caught up with the premise. The two main characters here are the "brain" and "heart" of an office employee who we follow during their walk to work every day. The journey is filled with diversions, all with humorous consequences. The 'head' is practical and sensible, but the 'heart' is carefree and cheerful. The job is monotonous and boring, and I have a lot of sympathy with this character's struggle to balance his working and fun-loving life, this is a challenge facing everyone to varying degrees. Comparison with Pixar's "Inside Out" cannot be dismissed, though this time we're looking at an older generation. The film is absolutely brilliant, the questions it poses and the way it deals with these matters are perfectly genius. 10/10.

This is a musical animation, featuring a young girl who learns to follow her dream (that's the message). Very much like a pantomime this has a 'good winning over evil' theme with some memorable songs. There's a memorable 'stupid chicken' nutcase character, which I quite liked. We went with our 6 year old granddaughter, who looks just like Moana in so many ways. Although the film couldn't keep her full attention for very long. We saw it in 3D format but that didn't add much depth, so you could easily get away with seeing the 2D version. I imagine this won't have the success of earlier films such as 'Frozen'. 6/10.

This is the third standalone Marvel 'Thor' film, a swashbuckling superhero fantasy that continues directly after where 'The Dark World' ends. The premise is that Asgard is in peril, Thor's objective is to prevent the destruction of his home planet. This film introduces the villain 'Hela', she is the Goddess of Death, she is also Thor's sister, who has been in exile for many years and appears to be a very powerful character, possibly more powerful than Thor! During a particularly colourful action sequence, Thor is transported to a remote 'dump' of a world, on the other side of the Universe, this planet is full of rubbish and discarded people and is ruled by the weirdo 'Grandmaster' outstandingly played by Jeff Goldblum. In order for Thor to get back, he first needs to beat the champion gladiator, who happens to be the 'HULK'. This is also the point where we're introduced to another excellent show stealing character, 'Korg&#

Produced by BBC Films & B.F.I. - This is the directional debut from Andy Serkis (better known for acting (Gollum for instance), this is starting to sound like a real treat. Based on the true story of Robin Cavendish, who contracts polio at age 28 years and is paralysed from the neck down.  *** Weepie alert *** He is confined to his hospital bed with no hope for any real quality of life. Under these circumstances with no prospect for improvement Robin mouths the words "I want to die". This devastating disability comes soon after he gets married and after learning that his wife is pregnant. His devoted wife continues to be very supportive and demonstrates the unconditional love she has for him. Soon his wife's desire is to get Robin out and back home to give him as normal a life as possible. Fortunately Robin had many bright and capable friends, one of which invents a wheelchair that incorporates a portable respirator. The film then show Robin slowly getting to know h

I like true stories and films based on fact. This is a fairly standard boxing documentary, but the difference here is the determination depicted. The premise follows a period in a boxer's life towards the end of their run, an inspirational story that defines the word "determination". Right at the beginning we see our hero Vinny Pazienza at a weigh-in but subsequently loses the fight in the next scene. The loss leads him to be put in touch with a washed up trainer. After being convinced to moves up 2 weight categories he trains, and wins. The story outside the ring is the majority of the drama, especially the near fatal car accident where he brakes 2 neck vertebrae and is told that not only would he never box again, he might not even walk again. The doctor fits him with a "halo" (basically, a metal neck and head brace). Only 5 days after the accident, and wearing the "halo", he starts secretly training, bench pressing, and weight training in his basemen

This is a true story of an airbus which takes off and is hit by a flock of geese and need to perform a water landing into the Hudson River due to simultaneous engine failure, both engines are disabled at a lower altitude than any other in history! Tom Hanks plays Sully, a focused, very professional and very experienced pilot, he has a 42 year unblemished flying record but his career is being judged on this 208 second flight. The Film opens with the plane crashing into a building, we see Hanks wake and we immediately discover this is a nightmare and only another possible conclusion, not what actually happened. The investigation after the accident is where most of the drama occurs. All 155 passengers survive but the airplane is lost and the film depicts the investigation and the hearing where they try to prove that Sully was the cause of the accident to avoid insurance losses. Several computer simulations indicate that Sully could have returned safely to the airport. Needless to say Sull