Amy - Film Review

Hooray I've got the week off work! So what plans did I have conjured up? Was it to get away from it all via the airport and chill out on a beautiful sandy beach? Unfortunately not. I was on a mission this week to try and find a screening of Amy. It was a pain in the backside but thankfully by going a little further afield, I managed to find somewhere. The reasons for the extra effort were simple, the buzz. It was universally acclaimed at Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year. It wasn't even heckled and booed which is amazing for that place to be honest. Quite clearly the classy establishment of Cannes is full of bloody hooligans. 

Amy is a documentary directed by Asif Kapadia and tells the story of the short life of Amy Winehouse through various outlets of footage using both unseen approved home footage by the star's friends and family as well as the national media's TV channels and paparazzi images. The film has a genuine, brutal honesty about Winehouse's struggles which was apparent not just through relentless media attention and the pressures that come with sudden fame and fortune but her problems through her childhood with depression and bulimia that sadly plagued her. The film has a continuous commentary style of narration by all of the people involved in Amy's life, her family and friends, boyfriends and the music company themselves. All the interviews are recorded by audio which plays on top of the superbly edited footage so that the focus is never diverted away from Amy herself. It's such a clever simplistic technique. 

What I particularity loved about Amy was the balance and the direction that the film took, reminding the audience of her highlights and what was so good about her life, her unique voice and her songwriting ability. It surprised me at how much the film focused on her downward spirals into constricting alcohol and drug addiction that led to her tragic demise which at times was physically hard to watch especially with all the flash photography in the clips of Winehouse's attempts of escaping the media circus that she never wanted to be apart of. The horrific truth of 21st century tabloid media. The documentary goes into intimate details about her relationships with her family and her ex-boyfriends, some such as her close friends and managers tried to point her on the correct path whilst others such as her father, used her fame and money for their own gain rather than for Amy's best interests. The family aka her dad has publicly expressed his anger at the film stating that:

"The film is representing me in a not very good way. There is no balance. It's portraying me and Amy in not a very good light. Half of me wants to say don't go see it. But then the other part of me is saying maybe go see the videos, put your headphones in and listen to Amy's music while they're watching the videos. It's the narrative that's the problem."

Funny coming from a man who authorised not only this film's production but created a reality TV show at the height of his daughter's fame without her permission. Hypocrisy at its finest. When you hear the other side of the story through an archived interview, you begin to realise that Mitch Winehouse really is a nasty piece of work. Amy explains in the interview that her father was never in her life through the toughest years in her childhood and that he wanted nothing to do with her. He fuels my anger unfortunately. Nothing more than a greedy talent-less money grabber......

OK I can breath now! I had to get that off my chest!


Amy is a magnificent piece of work from Asif Kapadia that is harrowing and heart-breaking to observe. You don't have to be a fan of her music to understand how difficult her life was and the cold realisation of how ultimately she fell so low to the point of becoming a regular punchline on comedy shows. A devastating look at how celebrity culture, media and drug addiction can grip hold of even the most talented of people. Brilliantly truthful and compelling.

9/10

Terminator Genisys - Film Review

Yes! After 12 years away, Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally back where he belongs! The T-800 might be looking like he's ready for the scrapheap but there is still life left in the old cybernetic organism. Set on a new mission in this new Terminator summer blockbuster, Genisys is the set up for a new line of Terminator sequels being released by Paramount within the next three years. Why such a quick turnaround in the demand for Terminator sequels? Have the fans been pounding the studio door down demanding this? Not really. Legendary director James Cameron will reacquire the rights from Paramount for the Terminator franchise in 2018 and as a result causing the studios to milk the cash cow, earning as much cash as possible before their adopted child gets reunited with daddy. Makes sense from a business point of view. But will they make enough effort and get their creativity in top gear to present a quality Terminator film, something which in my view hasn't been the case since Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Or in other words since James Cameron decided to quite literally jump ship and move on to make Titanic. However to my eye-opening surprise, Cameron did get me excited for this new sequel. In an interview with Yahoo he explained his opinion of the new film:


"I start to see things I recognise. It’s being very respectful of first two films. Then all of the sudden, it just swerves. And now I’m going on a journey. I feel like the franchise has been reinvigorated, like this is a renaissance."

High praise indeed from the man who created the first two Terminator films, timeless and original sci-fi/action classics. But even before I went to see the new film there was a problem. The trailer. It's possibly the most spoiler heavy trailer I've seen in a long time. Any plot twists or swerves in the story that were planned were obliterated carelessly by the marketing team. And that's such a shame and I don't think that's fair on director Alan Taylor who has publicly expressed his frustration at the marketing of the film. 

Terminator Genisys is situated in the timeline between the first two films in an attempt to freshen up and reinvent the franchise to create a new timeline specifically for these new sets of sequels. As in the first film a T800 terminator is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back by her son John Connor (Jason Clarke), the leader of the resistance to rescue her. However in a new twist to the story, Arnold's terminator has sent back earlier than previously explained and has trained Sarah Connor to be the ass kicking solider we know from Terminator 2 and this new team have to stop a billion dollar corporation from launching a new app "Genisys" which connects to everyone's electronic devices causing them to blow up and destroying all human life. That's the best way I can describe the plot without giving away any spoilers (unless you've seen the trailers).

The stand out in Terminator Genisys comes as no surprise, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was brilliant. He was the glue that held the film together. The quick one liners, the humour that he brings to the role and how he embraced his own age with an older terminator character was clever. I just can't imagine a Terminator film without him. There was plenty of well shot action scenes which entertained me and you can have plenty of fun whilst shoving popcorn in your face. The acting throughout is fine, it's not horrendous by any means. But fine is as far as the film goes.

I wouldn't try and attempt to follow the story of the film because it is so confusing and mind boggling hard to understand. Even when I got home I tried to piece together certain plot points and still it made no sense. How many times can Sarah and John Connor be in the same timeline?! Surely there must have been another event that occurred during the rise of Skynet and the destruction of mankind. Even when the actors are trying to explain the timeline changes that the film introduces, you can clearly tell they're concentrating hard to get to grips as to what they are actually saying. I don't think my brain has the capacity to explain that amount of ridiculous exposition. The mythology behind the new Terminator timeline is a mess and it lacks any feasible intelligence. I didn't think the actors were cast very well either. Jason Clarke isn't that military tough, gritty leader that John Connor is and he had to overact to the point of sounding like Christian Bale's Batman. Felt awkward. Emilia Clarke was serviceable as Sarah Connor even though at first I felt like she was doing a parody of Linda Hamilton but her character grew on me as you began to learn about her new rebooted past. Jai Courtney gets plenty of criticism for being a rubbish actor but I can't help but feel sorry for him especially because the script is so bland and boring. Safe and secure. And because of that the film won't be particularly memorable. Just another summer action film to pass the time on a rainy day. This shouldn't be the case because it's Terminator! 

Terminator Genisys is OK. It's neither a masterpiece nor a train wreck. You can enjoy having a mind numbing time watching it. However trying to make sense of the story is like a heavy session on the booze at the weekend. Mediocre isn't what Terminator should be about but the idea of having these new planned sequels was never about satisfying fans, only for Paramount Studios bank account. I think these new sequels have already found their level, average. It is disappointing but when a marketing team decides to spoiler 90% of the film in the trailer it's not a surprise either. Oh well, I'll always have the first two Terminator films at home with me. They'll never be forgotten about unlike this one.

5/10 

Maggie - Film Review

Ok so I'm having a bit of an Arnold Schwarzenegger film week. As a kid he was hilarious and now I'm a supposedly responsible adult, I still do. The man is my undisputed action hero. He's been a Greek god, a cybernetic organism four times (soon to be five), army major turned alien beater, police officer badass turned pre-school teacher, a swords and sandals dice and slicer named Conan, more recently a jail breaker and not to forget the iconic and utterly terrible Batman villain, Mr Freeze. Arnie's latest film Maggie however isn't quite the typical explosion, one liner extravaganza we're used to. Very different in fact.

Maggie is set in a post-apocalyptic world where people are being infected by virus which slowly turns them into zombies. Maggie (Abigail Breslin) unfortunately is one of these people to have been bitten so is quarantined by the local hospital. Doctors explain to her father Wade (Schwarzenegger) that he is able to take his daughter home until the virus progresses to the point that she has to be placed into quarantine with the rest of the infected population. With her condition worsening by the day and the mounting pressure from the authorities and his own family, Wade has the impossible choice of sending his sick daughter away to live with the rest of the infected in the unknown mysterious quarantine facility or ending her life at home by his hands. 

Having premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, Maggie has an intriguing fusion of a zombie horror blended with heartfelt father and daughter drama that has fantastic performances from all of the cast, in particular from Schwarzenegger. His over the top awesome antics have been substituted for a more delicate, heartwarming, caring and more importantly, a realistic father figure. In terms of an acting performance, this is Arnie's best. There are no "Arnoldisms" to be found. There's an incredible depth to his character, a father who is desperate to preserve his daughter's last moments of her human life. Perfectly subtle and relatable. I'm astounded at how good he was in this film. This performance is well assisted from Abigail Breslin who gives a excellent mature performance as Maggie, showing her emotions without going melodramatic and sticks to the realistic tone of the film. Towards the second act of the film it becomes Breslin's film, presenting her slow transformation from teenager into a zombie and it has plenty of emotional weight behind it, not just from her family but her loyal group of friends too. I loved the grounded sense of desperation that the characters have to endure without shoving the dramatic moments down your throat like a Nicholas Sparks adapted novel.

As strong as the performances are, the story doesn't have the qualities to reach the film to a higher level. It is a very slow burner especially for a 90 minute film which won't be for everybody and nothing notable in the story happens when certain avenues of the storyline could have been exploited further to enhance the film. To put it bluntly, the plot is pretty dull and the pace of the film plods along. I personally don't mind slow pacing if there's enough intriguing heart pounding drama to get invested in but Maggie sadly just hasn't got anything to pack a punch behind the ideas that the film tries to explore.

Maggie is a solid debut from director Henry Hobson. His unique take on a zombie film is worth the watch just for the sublime performances. Its painfully slow melancholic pacing might be an off putter but the emotional father-daughter relationship between Schwarzenegger and Breslin is magnificent. It's Arnie as you've never seen him before.

7/10 

UK Release Date - Friday 24th July