1917

1917                                                                                                                                                       

January 13, 2020

This movie is like the Brits, slow excitement. The movie does reach a crescendo, but early notes are muted. This is a story of a heroic journey akin to the race to Marathon. A soldier is tasked to deliver an urgent message across enemy lines to avert the slaughter of hundreds British troops from an ambush laid by the Huns (stop the spoiler hate mail, this plot point was in the coming attractions) . 

The journey is fraught with perils and with every advancement the tempo picks up. Sometimes heroic movies are uncomplicated, it is overcoming the obstacles along the way that make them interesting.

The lead actor is George MacKay who almost carries the entire film. He displays steely determination to complete his mission overcoming daunting obstacles and life threatening situations. The battlefield is littered with dead bodies, dead horses and poodle sized rats. MacKay’s physicality is an essential part of his acting. He never stops, he is never deterred. He forges rivered littered with dead bodies and out runs a crashing biplane.

To American audiences MacKay may not be well known (speaking for myself). However, there are big named stars in the movie: Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Strong. Regrettably each actor was given less than a few minutes screen time.

The cinematography was impressive giving full force to sweeping action scenes. Much is made of the so called one continuous shot, which actually was computer manipulated. This technique heightened the sense of urgency for MacKay to complete his mission.  The war torn landscape rendered by CG gave a palpable sense of death and carnage.

This film is a noble addition to the catalogue of war movies.

Kingsmen: The Golden Circle

Kingsmen: The Golden Circle                                                                       September 30, 2017

The first Kingsmen film was a sleeper hit racking up $414m in worldwide box office; a sure formula for a sequel. The original film was a fantastical secret agent film. This film goes further and is more cartoonish. The villain, Julianne Moore, has a 1960 replica “Happy Days” village in Cambodia complete with a diner and bowling alley. She dispatches a henchman into a meat grinder and makes hamburgers, something Wile e Coyote would do.  

The basic story line is that the Kingsman’s headquarters in London is destroyed. Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) go to Kentucky to get help from their American counter parts, the Statemen, who are cowboys headquartered is a whisky distillery. Code names for the Kingsmen are derived from Knights of the Round Table and their American cousins are named after liquors; Whisky, Tequila, Jack Danial’s. Jeff Bridges code name is Champagne, a name eliciting more chuckles than fear.

The marque actors: Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum and Michael Gambon have basically extended cameos.  The coming attractions oversells them. The exception is Halle Berry, Ginger Ale, the Statemen’s techie, who has a more featured role. Her character is drab and unglamorous and she has the most hideous hairdo. Her sex appeal is peeled away.

Julianne Moore plays Poppy Adams the drug lord, who infects narcotics users worldwide with a fatal poison. The role is kinder to Moore than to Halle Berry, showcasing Moore’s glowing Ivory Snow looks and bright smile. Unfortunately, her hands betray her age and are best kept out of frame.

Elton John is in the movie and mercifully plays himself. He is in full regalia with rainbow feathers, sliver platform shoes and rhinestone glasses. He is a bit overweight, as we all are, but he can still bang out the piano. In a farce, such as this film, acting is not a requirement.

A major subplot of the film is the resurrection of Harry Hart, Colin Firth, who was shot in the face point blank in the first movie. I will not say how he was revived but clearly the writers are devoid of any medical knowledge.

If you are a fan of the Kingsman or Elton John, by all means see this film. Otherwise rent the first one.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service

This is a very entertaining movie. I had reservations about Colin Firth playing an action figure.  The Brigitte Jones’ Diary and The King’s Speech are not boot camps for action roles. However, he does an excellent job while impeccably dressed (for a Brit that is) wielding an umbrella as a weapon.  The movie is a mélange of genres. There is homage to the 1960’s TV show The Avengers where John Steed the upper class agent battled villains with his bowler hat and cane. Kingsman uses elements of cartoon to render some horrific scenes more palatable. Some fight scenes could have come off the drawing table of cartoonist Tex Avery. The gadgetry is swiped directly from James Bond sans Q. All the parts work. This makes the movie interesting; you do not think it will work, but they do.

Before going on too far this is definitely a guy movie, but no one should be put off. It is not just a movie about body count (although there is a lot), the plot is interesting. There is no gratuities sex in the move except for one in the end. A key sub plot is the recruitment of Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) into the Kingsman. Unwin is East End rather than Eaton and needs more than a new suit to cover his rough hide. The recruitment tests are clever and raise the movie a notch above the usual fair. Egerton plays the role with the naiveté which you expect from a recruit but his confidence and skills grow with experience. Firth and Egerton play the roles of mentor and mentee and a strong bond grows.

The villain is Samuel L. Jackson with an insufferable lisp. He is a billionaire industrialist who has a deadly plan to solve global warning. He wears a hip-hop designer baseball cap with a bespoke tailor made suit. He is wacky and mad. His tools of destruction are a sublime appeal to the consumer culture. Again this is an interesting combination of Dr. Evil and Blofeld (Bond bad guy) but it works.

The most intriguing character is Sophie Boutella who plays Gazelle. She has prostatic legs with deadly sharp blades for feet accented with killer spiked steel high heels (I Googled her and mercifully she has legs, nice ones too). She used her blades to slice and dice the Brits. It is very interesting seeing her bouncing like a sexy pogo stick. This is definably a movie for Oscar Pistorious to watch.

Two other characters of note are Michael Cain and Mark Strong. Cain plays the head of Kingsman and is an old upper crust wretch. Mark Strong plays the task master who monitors the recruitment tests and is the side kick. Strong usually plays the heavy so it was refreshing to see him play the good guy.

Stay to watch the credits!