Spectre – Even Bond looks bored

I’m not a fan of Bond, never have been and unfortunately now it looks like I never will be. I was hoping Spectre would change that with the rave reviews (mostly from the UK *cough*) and a decent cast, but unfortunately just like Skyfall its manufactured hype with little substance. When it premiered in the UK last week only invited film critics, i.e. friends, were allowed to review it, allowing the film to be praised in early press and setting off a ripple effect that will hopefully be broken. Spectre isn’t terrible, at its worst it’s still watchable, but did this really cost $300 million to make? The script can’t have cost more than 20 quid so where’d the rest go? If you liked Skyfall you’ll like Spectre, but if you liked Sykfall good cinema is wasted on you.

James Bond (Daniel Craig) has gone rogue in Mexico much to the disapproval of his peers in London who demand he be tracked at all times. As we’d expect Bond has a few moves up his sleeve and manages to elude them in order to traverse the globe in pursuit of the mysterious Franz Oberhauser (Christopher Waltz) the mastermind behind evil organisation Spectre, intent on dictating a new world order. On the way he encounters women, as Bond does, has a few drinks and gets in a couple of fights.

The action is ok, with some promising set pieces, particularly one on-board a train being entertaining enough, but others are wasted opportunities such as the excellently setup Day of the Dead pursuit in Mexico which culminates in a disappointingly dull way. Director Sam Mendes makes the film look lovely but it can’t hide the clunky script which basically brings Bond from one location, finds a clue to bring him to another location, repeat. Also in 2015 can Bond girls still legally be so bad? Monica Belluci does what she can with a small role but Léa Seydoux is absolutely awful as a former nemesis’s daughter. Her dialogue is bad to begin with, but her acting doesn’t help it either.

There’s not a lot to save this film, even Craig has expressed discontent with playing the character who is just plain dull. The credit sequences just look silly too, evolve Mr Bond. The series needs a new writer and a new director, but given their profitability the hype machine is working so maybe the budget is going into PR.

2 out of 5

Sicario – Zero Dark Mexico

Thanks to Breaking Bad even the crazy old man on the street knows the Mexico side of the US border is no place to live a peaceful life. Cities like Juárez have received an almost celebrity like status for their death count, but as always nothing gets better. In both cinema and real-life more people get killed each year caught in a brutal cartel turf war. Sicario is nothing new, it’s a story we’ve all seen before, but at least it tries to add some commentary to the guilty entertainment of watching a horrific way of life we are all so safely distanced from.

FBI Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) makes a horrific discovery during a kidnapping raid in Arizona. Left shook but somewhat brave she is enlisted by a sketchy CIA officer Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) to a special operation to take down some very scary Mexican cartel members alongside Alejandro Gillick (Benico del Toro). Out of her comfort zone with both the situations and morals at play, Kate may not be the hero she hoped to be.

Director Denis Villeneuve handles a fairly patchy script excellently, gives some form of rhythm and flow to a story that on paper doesn’t really have any. He manages to get some great performances from the cast even when they descend into some clichéd moments. A set piece during a traffic jam is as tense and interesting as cinema gets, with the director expertly keeping the action low key.

Blunt does well, considering she’s basically there to make sure the audience keeps up. Much has been made of del Toro’s excellent turn as the mysterious man with the past but in my books Brolin steals the show, giving the spoilt but crafty Graver a curiosity we want to know more about.

It delves into some overdone clichés and the dialogue is at times poor, but overall this is a great film about a horrific situation that does not shy from the intricacies involved.

4 out of 5

The Martian – the red planet in all its entertaining glory

Ridley Scott may be playing it safe with The Martian but that might not be a bad thing. After an erratic array of films over the past decade he appears to be sitting back and not trying too hard to say too much and instead just making good old fashioned popcorn entertainment. It’s all surface, and in no way an Oscar contender but The Martian is as entertaining as cinema gets.

In the near future man is finally on Mars, just about. This isn’t Star Trek with warp speed it’s still a hell of a long journey to get there with technology that’s always at risk of breaking. After a storm hits them unexpectedly, the Ares III manned mission, led by Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain) makes an early departure from the planet. Unfortunately botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) has been struck by debris and presumed dead by Commander Lewis, reluctant to search for his body given the risks involved to her crew. As they set off on their home voyage the injured but very alive Wateny embarks on a mission to keep himself fed and heated until help can be sent to rescue him.

It is Gravity mixed with 127 Hours, but without the in depth psychology of either, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The film keeps moving and its insistence on not dwelling on things like weight loss or family are a reflection of Damon’s Watney, a man who pushes himself into a fix and move on routine in order to keep sane and get home. Dwelling just isn’t in his nature. After the clunky dialogue in Gravity where characters explain their own backstory in space it’s refreshing that this is barely a factor in The Martian. Again it reflects on the attitude of Watney and even if it means we don’t care for him as much as we could it keeps the film moving and never bogged down by a man looking at himself in the mirror and crying for five minutes.

Issues arise back in Earth, where the rescue teams at NASA and further afield are fleshed out even if they have little to do. Sean Bean and Donald Glover are perfectly fine as a mission director and astronomer respectively, but do they both need to be in the film? Surely their minor additions to the plot could have been given to someone else and kept the film ten minutes shorter. It’s excess without addition but fortunately we’re never there too long and the excellent Benedict Wong as a spacecraft designer is one of the films highlights.

As for the crew floating back to Earth in the middle of all this, they get their five minutes of fame but not much else, which again is fine it means the film never slows down as we go from Mars to Earth to space.

A perfectly entertaining piece of cinema, worth seeing it on a big screen for all the glory of Mars. Fun and exciting, you can’t go wrong with The Martian.

4 out of 5