filmsExaminer

Loosely based on the true story of PT Barnum, this is an original and extravagant musical that celebrates the birth of 'show business'.  This tells the rags to riches story of a pioneer who rose from nothing to create a circus of oddities that became a worldwide sensation. Hugh Jackman plays the circus pioneer, and follows his life from boy to businessman. His poor background drives him to success through some very risky business ventures directly following the loss of his job. Hugh convinces Zac Efron to quit his highly paid luxurious life to become his apprentice ringmaster. Along the way Zac falls in love with the ethnic trapese artist Zendaya played by Anne Wheeler. Michelle Williams plays his wife. Rebecca Ferguson plays the talented opera singer Jenny Lind.  There are many great catchy musical sequences, with lyrics from the composers of La La Land, the most memorable being "This Is Me" sung by Keala Settle as the Bearded Lady. Great costumes. Great acting. The

This is a film about exploration, about class structure, about being able to fit in, and about success and failure. The protagonist (Percy Fawcett) has a tainted reputation due to his father being a drunk and a gambler. Percy is a military officer who is offered an assignment to chart the Amazon and particularly the area around Bolivia where rubber production was the most lucrative industry, we learn there was a dispute over the position of the border, charting the area would avert a war between the rubber producers. He accepts the mission in an attempt to repair his family name and restore some reputation.  This film challenges the belief that Western Civilisation was the first to be established. Percy flits between jolly 'Old Blighty' and the Amazon several times to continue his obsessive search for this civilisation. It's hard to believe that he leaves his wife pregnant before leaving for every 3-4 year long expedition, she shows an incredible level of personal sacrifice

Kristen Stewart plays the grief stricken Maureen, she is a spiritual medium and the personal shopper to a super star, they currently live in Paris and we see her zipping around on her Vespa buying the 'must haves' for her millionaire employer. Her brother had recently died of a heart condition, he was also a medium and we learn that Maureen has the same heart condition. Consequently they made a promise to each other that whoever should die first would send a 'message' to the survivor. She hopes to connect with his spirit. During the middle of the film Maureen starts receiving a very long series of text messages from an unknown 'stalker'. Her employer is murdered in her hotel room and we are left wondering who did it. Kristen gave a fine performance but a negative for my wife was that she couldn't help thinking Kristen really needed to wash her grungy hair. A positive for me was that Kirsten finds a number of opportunities to get topless and reveal her 'A

his is a comedy (though that's being extremely generous) Musical The film immediately starts with a weird action sequence, which turns out to be a flash back from the end of the film. The Bellas are grown up but all going through a rough patch, they reunite and are invited to a military concert but not to perform, just to watch. However one of them has a connection to the military and they managed to crowbar a singing competition into the already thin plot. We also see a ridiculous subplot involving Fat Amy and her estranged father. This film is for a female audience based on a busy cinema full of young girls. The first two films were charming films but this is totally unnecessary, the best bits are Rebel Wilson's improvised humor and the out-takes while the credits roll. 3/10.

Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal are looking for 'black powder' in China and find themselves by chance in the middle of a massive battle between the elite Chinese army and an endless supply of unstoppable monster creatures that could have come straight out of Lord of the Rings. There is so much wrong with this film, I really don't know where to start, but I'll give it a stab.  The plot is rubbish, the dialogue is garbage, the acting is wooden, and I didn't really care for any characters in this film, that's just to start with! It was like watching a computer game made from a weird Chinese fable. I imagine this is what Cirque Du Soleil does when not performing on stage. I appreciate that the producers needed a big name on the poster to draw an audience but why on earth did 'Jason Bourne' agree to make this garbage. Pedro Pascal's character is reasonably fun, which is why I gave 1 star. With a few tweaks, this could have been a comedy spoof and it would

Animated film from DreamWorks.  The film follows a family with a young son who have another baby (Boss Baby!). The baby takes attention away the son which results in some friction. The son hears the baby talking on the phone, and discovers he's on a mission to stop puppies taking away love, but unfortunately it just doesn't work. The plot is ridiculous, the real plot should be about how a brother copes with a new baby brother, but that's not emphasised enough. The first 15 minutes are funny with interesting ideas, the rest takes an enormous dive, and the plot falls completely flat, the rest is complete nonsense. This film might not be designed for an adult audience but neither was 'Inside Out' or 'Toy Story'. If you want to see a cartoon about family and friendship then see one of these superior alternatives again. Anyone older than 8 years will be bored in no time.  I've already forgotten all about this film. 3/10.

Fantasy Sci-fi adventure, which picks up directly from where 'The Force Awakens' ends. The film starts with the distinctive, unmistakable screen crawl and straight into a space battle action sequence.  Starring Daisy Ridley (Rey) and Adam Driver (Kylo). Made special by the last ever performance from Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), who gets more lines and more screen time than in 'The Force Awakens', although it would be impossible for him to get any less. Rey is in search of Luke Skywalker, the Jedi master. She wants training in the ways of the force. However, Luke is a damaged man, he is reluctant to start with but agrees to provide three lessons, and that appears to be all it takes to be a Jedi Master. The middle (quite lengthy section) is slow with many interweaving plots, some come together at the end, some fail. At the end Luke reunites with the rebels and faces Kylo. Luke however is revealed to be a hologram projection, which kills

This is the little known true story of three women who worked behind the scenes for NASA at a time in the early 1960's when Russia and USA were in the midst of a space race.  This is a biographical drama starring three strong Afro-American women, who were employed to calculate the mathematical risks related to sending an astronaut into orbit. These women were either engineers or effectively human computers. Each were obviously being held back in their careers because of the institutional racism that existed at NASA at the time. Each of the women presented solid characters, who had their own individual challenges, but also had great collective chemistry.  The film demonstrated racism, sexism and segregation themes while we see the girls very effectively overcome their diversity and maintain their dignity. It was interesting to notice how Kevin Costner's character was obviously blind to the racism around him at NASA until he is directly confronted with it, but we also see that he

This is an ultra-violent action thriller sequel, and a genuine adrenaline rush. From the opening scene this is non-stop action. Starring Keanu Reeves as the protagonist John Wick (the hit-man who just cannot seem to retire). Wick is part of the underworld of assassins who are governed by a strict code of conduct, he is a killing machine and goes about this craft with quiet precision. The plot is very thin, but compensated by the high body-count, which is probably the reason you'll decide to view. So, basically the king pin villain has a 'marker' to cash in, he has a proposal for John Wick. John is the only person capable of completing an impossible mission. The rules surrounding the 'marker' means he cannot refuse, and he is forced to accept, especially after his home is reduced to ashes! And so off to Italy he goes, no surprise, Wick completes the mission but not before the villain puts out another contract on him! In the end it seems the whole world is after Wick

Independent comedy, a film based on a true story about the making of 'The Room', a bad film made in 2003, a totally incompetent film, in fact the worst film ever made. Starring James and Dave Franco as Tommy and Greg. Tommy is a larger than life character, he has an indistinguishable accent, unknown origin, unknown age and with a seemingly bottomless pit of money. He meets Greg at drama class, and we follow their journey into the LA film industry. The Disaster Artist is a human story about the pursuit of a dream. Tommy took risks when he decided to make 'The Room' his own way and fans respect him for doing that. A film for both devoted fans and also anyone unfamiliar with the origin film. 8/10.

Drama, a true story based on the book written by Jeff Bauman on personal experience, this is about the tragic loss of both his legs as a results of The Boston Marathon terrorist attack in 2013. Jeff is an 'everyman', he has a constant on-off (but mainly off) relationship with his girlfriend, Erin. Jeff learns that Erin is running the Boston marathon the next day, so he decides to try winning her back yet again by holding a large homemade 'congratulations' sign as she crosses the finish line. Unfortunately, this is the year that a terrorist lets off a powerful nail bomb at the finish line just yards from Jeff, we see both his legs are grotesquely blown off above the knee. It's obvious that Jeff's family hold Erin responsible for Jeff's situation, there's a constant atmosphere of blame whenever Erin calls round. However, Erin commits to supporting Jeff, she falls in love again and becomes pregnant. I can't image the pain and trauma Jeff must have s

This is the rags to riches to further mega riches true story of Ray Kroc, a documentary drama starring America's most famous restaurant chain and Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton plays the part of Ray Kroc, a struggling travelling salesman, his door to door appointments often ended in rejection. One day he checks into the office and is told of an order for 6 machines! He believes this is a mistake so checks the order and travels across America to visit the McDonalds brothers, while there he is offered a tour of the kitchen. There it takes 30 seconds to assemble a completely uniform burger, Ray realises the carefully choreographed kitchen efficiency is so amazing that he wants to franchise this revolutionary idea and puts himself in charge of this. At first you really want Ray to succeed but soon learn that his devious, cut-throat methods make him an unlikable character. He is completely driven by greed, and it's obvious that he cares about no one but himself. The brothers' dr

Stars Minnesota Johnson as the submissive girlfriend and Jamie Doorknob, as the dominant, controlling boyfriend. This is soft-core porn for girls and I noticed that the screening I attended was almost entirely a female audience. Though be aware that the erotic scenes are not the kind of sex girls want to see or probably enjoy. I didn't care about the lead actors, who had very little chemistry in between the sex scenes and even those were pretty dull, the elevator scene is a good example of what I mean. The plot is poor, the drama is rubbish, the acting is wooden, and the dialogue is laughable rubbish. The film is unintentionally funny when supposed to be serious, and boring when supposed to be sexy. Although sexier than the original film (my wife tells me) not as graphically sexy as the book. I sat through the pain of this and at the end felt glad I wasn't Christian Grey, though being a billionaire is always very appealing. So in summary, this is a rubbish sequel to the origi

This is a spin-off film with lots of tongue in cheek humour, which features a great combination; one of the most popular superheroes with the world's most popular toy. An action packed, high energy, brightly coloured animated film, that is spectacular from the word go. The film kicks off with a cliché black screen where Batman's dramatic voice-over advises of the 'really serious' film to come. Batman works alone and so has a hard time with the adoption of Richard Grayson (Robin) and the relationship that develops with (Miss) Commissioner Gordon, you see Batman doesn't do 'ships'. Batman also has a strange hate / hate relationship with 'The Joker'. Batman breaks the Joker's heart, when telling him he isn't committed to fighting just him, he 'fights around'. There are jokes for kids and innuendos for adults (for instance look out for the Bat-mobile's numberplate). These jokes are rapid and just keep coming from every corner of the s

An uplifting story, set in Victorian England about the inspiration behind the classic novel 'A Christmas Carol'. Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) is a successful author both in England and America. Unfortunately his last 3 novels (since Oliver Twist) have been flops. Charles needs to urgently overcome a period of writers block so that he can compose a new novel and find a way out of growing financial difficulties. The film provides some background into the author's early life and family. One evening he overhears his children's nanny telling his children a ghost story and this inspires him to create the characters and develop his own ghost story. Charles's book character details are directly influenced by several real life characters that he meets along the way, Christopher Plummer is excellent as Scrooge and we see Charles regularly discussing the developing plot with 'Scrooge' (in his imagination) while writing the book. The book is finished and published on 1

This is a racial harmony drama, based on a true story about Mildred (Ruth Negga) and Richard (Joel Edgerton). Richard is a labourer who is pulled along as the reluctant protagonist. Set in the 1950's. They were married in Washington but arrested when returning home to Virginia. Interracial marriage was illegal in Virginia and the judge demanded that they left the state for 25 years, shocked by his ruling Mildred writes to R. Kennedy and this sparked off an important legal case which became a media story. Richard was a quiet, private man who just wanted to love his wife and remain isolated from the media, it's obvious that he really didn't want the story to go public. A magazine photo article, created more public interest in the story and the case escalated all the way to the Supreme Court and ultimately altered the constitution of the USA. There were some emotional scenes and sensitive performances, but I just found the film was lacking sufficient emotional drama, maybe som

Very loosely based on a true story of a gold miner in the pursuit of striking gold in Indonesia. This film is set in 1988 and stars Matthew McConaughey as the protagonist Kenny Wells, whose driving ambition is to strike gold in a big way. He has a dream, but not just in terms of determination, he actually has a dream and decides 'I must follow that dream at any cost!' He discovered the largest gold find of the decade, his wealth is unimaginable. Then it all starts going wrong. It turns out that his geologist partner was 'salting' the extracted rock samples to give the impression of a great gold find. The rock analysis results could not be recreated, and so the FBI is called in. The FBI extensively question Kenny for fraud over several days, but eventually release him due to lack of evidence. However, you're left wondering whether he was always in on it, especially when he gets a cheque for half the $164,000,000 swindled money. But then you can't help wondering h

An emotional film adapted from a best-selling novel. This is about a child called August 'Auggie' with medical issues and a rare facial disfigurement. He has undergone many surgical procedures in order to help him and to help him fit into normal society. He has extremely supportive parents. A cool dad, a loving mum, and a sister, who feels largely neglected because of the extra attention Auggie's medical conditions demand. Auggie's parents decide that it is time for him to enter mainstream education, he has been home schooled up to this point and his exclusion makes him feel extremely nervous of the prospects of fitting in. His first day is an emotional roller-coaster, we see how the other children either react to his deformity, some with stares and how others bully because they do not know any better! We see how he needs to handle all the various other children he encounters. It is probable that we all knew (or were) an 'Auggie' at school, the child who was pic

Directed by Danny Boyle, who also directed the original. The first film was released way back in 1996 and was the film that launched Ewan McGregor's career, this sequel has been made in the same vein (PUN). A Cert 18 has been awarded due to the violence, sex and especially drug content.  The original cast are reunited and we get to see what has happened to the 4 lads, who in the original didn't care about their futures, who are now 20 years older and now men regretting their past. With plenty of references to the original film, this doesn't have the impact of the first film, but is still a very gritty emotional drama that very cleverly integrates some iconic flashback scenes from the first film. The most memorable scene for me was the Ewan McGregor 'Choose life' monologue scene (Brilliant!).  Spud steals every scene he appears in. At various times we hear him quote lines he has scrawled on numerous dog-eared pads. "First there was an opportunity, then there was

Documentary drama, a tribute film based on actual events leading to the Yarnell wild fire tragedy in 2013, which resulted in the death of 19 fire-fighters.  The beginning shows the human side of the fire-fighters as they unite, are in training, are being assessed and go about their emergency procedures. They pass examination and become "The Granite Mountain Hotshots", a new elite crew of fire-fighters. Towards the end, the major Yarnell wildfire arrives and the team do their best to fight the fire. Unfortunately almost all the team are trapped and die.  The film is a tribute to their dedication and ultimate sacrifice. 7/10.

Sports documentary drama, a true story set in 1973. The premise was that women were no match for men in the world of tennis and as such the men's prize money was generally 8x the women's. Billie Jean King questions this but is faced with resistance to make it the same, she decides to form her own Women's Tennis Association. Bobby Riggs is a hustler, he challenges BJK to a match with mega prize money. This is Women's lib vs. male chauvinism match. The film sensitively explores each of their personal lives, Bobby Riggs is a hustler and gambling addict, BJK questions her own sexuality and has a lesbian affair with her hairdresser. Time for a quick observational rant … what do you think might happen if the world number 1 female tennis star at the time, at peak fitness and with total determination was to play a retired male former champ, who was out of shape, twice her age and with personal issues on his mind? I won't let this influence how I felt about the fil

Set in 1950's USA, Suburbicon is designed to be the ideal suburban community. Featuring two simultaneous but totally unrelated plots, one is a murder mystery gone terribly out of control, featuring the Lodge family. The other plot involves an educated black family who have recently moved into the area, next door to the Lodge family. The atmosphere in the community is immediately affected as we see the white residents do everything they can to let the black family know how unwelcome they are, they are relentlessly terrorised.  Matt Damon plays the Lodge family father figure, he appears to owe money to the mafia. Two henchmen visit late one night demanding money, they kill Mrs. Lodge and the plot develops into an insurance fraud scam. Enter Oscar Isaac as the insurance investigator, he is truly fantastic but unfortunately only gets limited screen time. Either plot would have been better had they focused more detail into either, although the black family's story is the direction w

This film is based on actual events, films based on a true story are by far my favourite.  Made by BBC Films (you know you're in safe hands). This film follows the court case that David Irving brought against professor Deborah Lipstadt. She accused him of being a Holocaust denier, her evidence showed that he persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence to suit his book. Irving intended to stop Lipstadt saying he was falsifying the truth. She was confident of the "truth" and needed to prove what happened in Auschwitz.  Lipstadt hired a legal team to defend her in the British courts where they put the burden on the defendant to prove the "truth.", this legal team traveled to Auschwitz to conduct research and gather evidence, these scenes were particularly moving. Lipstadt and the survivors were not allowed to testify since this would have resulted in their experience being questioned and ultimately this was not the reason the c

The story is of optimism and of the strength of the human spirit. Andrew Garfield plays the wartime hero Desmond Doss. Although he was a contentious objector, he also wanted to serve his country and to save lives, and so joined the military to become a field medic. The first half of the film explores his childhood and family dynamics. The 16 year flashback explain where his strict religious beliefs and attitude to (not) killing came from. Unfortunately his attitude were at odds with standard military protocol, and since he would not kill (he would not even touch a gun) this leads us into the second half of the film. The second half describes how his attitude put him in conflict with his senior officers and the rest of the platoon, his basic training was particularly tough, with frequent beatings and a potential court martial. The second half also follows the intense war scenes at Hacksaw Ridge (Okinawa), this was particularly important since taking the Ridge could completely change th