The latest effort from the Coen brother is an irreverent and comedic look at Hollywood in the 1950’s with the usual array of stars gathering together to intertwine numerous tales into a work of fiction but one that you are constantly cross referencing with actual movies, events and people from the era.

Josh Brolin is the centre point as Eddie Mannix a studio fixer, based on a real life character, who’s job it is to ensure that all aspects of the lot run smoothly from day to day while dealing with all manner of curve balls that a gang of primadonna film stars can muster up. His primary issue in this movie is when the studios main star Blair Whitlock, played by George Clooney, goes missing during the middle of a film shoot. A ransom note follows shortly afterwards and Mannix has to juggle the various parties around the studio lot into ensuring that nobody knows they have a kidnapped star on their hands, all the while trying to deal with his own personal issues outside of work and a lucrative new job offer which has been put on the table.

Clooney once again superbly plays an idiot character in a Coen movie, he’s attired in a Roman Centurion costume and haircut for the whole movie and cluelessly plays his role without ever realising he’s the central figure. But, aside from Brolin, stealing the show in the movie is Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle the crooner cowboy star who the film studio want transform into a star of the new era but with his Southern drawl and John Wayne like mannerisms it is never going to be a runner. Once scene in particular where Hobie is being directed by the thespian like Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) but poor Hobie can neither get his head around the confusing name or the equally confusing, to him anyway, scene he is being asked to perform, is a moment of comedy genius.

The rest of the cast come and go and while the performances are all good it felt as though they sometimes were added on to increase the movies star power rather than developing the storyline. Shot as a movie about making movies each moment whether looking at an on screen movie take or not still feels like you are watching an on screen movie take so I kept expecting the camera to pull back to show that the whole thing was one big movie set but that would be too obvious for the Coens so while not as good as some their other classics it’s as clever as you would expect, the acting is excellent as always and the script as ludicrous as ever for one of their comedy movies.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 out of 10

George Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham a man with no friends, no ties and essentially no home. He enjoys the anonymity of hotel rooms, airports and the lack of interaction his job gives him. Go in, fire people, never see them again. He lives for his life on the road and his goal of reaching the milestone of ten million frequent flyer miles while developing his motivational speeches called What’s In Your Backpack? Where he suggests unburdening yourself from all the emotional baggage in your life that other people bring.

His interactions are all snapshots and moments but his world changes twofold when he first meets a like minded individual in Alex Goran played by Vera Farmiga while in a hotel one evening who appears to be a female version of himself. There’s an initial spark between them so they decide that they can continue to play their friends with benefits game when work scheduling will allow. Secondly, his company decide a change is required and thanks to a radical new approach devised by an young, eager employee Natalie Keener, played by Anna Kendrick, Clooney’s job will now be done via conference calls rather than in person. Clooney takes offence to this so he convinces his boss to allow him bring Kendrick on the road with him for a month in order to show her the value of the face to face work he does.

It then becomes a road movie of sorts as Clooney and Kendrick start to bond despite his best efforts and he almost becomes a father figure for her, these interactions are intertwined by an upcoming wedding which Clooney is obliged to attend despite it being the last place on earth he actually wants to be and Clooneys developing relationship with Farmiga despite it going against all his principals.

Its a movie that’s hard to classify, part comedy, part drama, part road trip but it all comes together to show how life can teach an old dog new tricks and despite any effort you may take to distance yourself, it’s impossible to go through life alone as you are inevitable dragged into situations which require interaction with others and human nature will always nudge you in that direction. Clooney is excellent as Bingham, believable in all facets of his actions, awkward moments and emotional turmoil. There also a clever use of duality with the title that can be interpreted as alluding to both the main characters time spent in flight and the fact that he is brought in to tie up loose ends when companies are downsizing coupled with the representation of the two female leads as Clooney’s alter egos in different stages of his life.

Overall an entertaining movie, even if you are left feeling a little empty afterwards, assisted by great acting from the three main leads. It’s not going to change your world now but I can understand how it would have hit home back in 2009 when America was going through the turmoil of a major recession.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 out of 10

 

A late night train gets stuck in a black spot out in the middle of the countryside and when the commuters realise there is something stalking them they must band together to try and survive the night. All sounds like a typical standard B-movie horror right? Well you are correct but Howl is directed by Paul Hyett, who has previously worked on the cult classic horror movies Dog Soldiers, Attack The Block and The Descent and his talents coupled with some good editing at the right time give this standard B-Movie a boost to above it’s station.

On the down side there is a lack of back story as to how Werewolves happen to be roaming the countryside in that area, there is a mention to a similar incident back in 1963 where a similar occurrence took place so it would have been nice to see how the Werewolves have kept themselves hidden for 50 years and could have been an interesting plot thread to be explored and while it was great to see Sean Petwee on screen again, the blink and you’ll miss him role he’s given was disappointing.

Laced with black humour, sporting a believable lead in Ed Speelers and with some terrific make-up effects this movie had a lot going for it. Yes, there are the usual cliched characters that are picked off one by one  and some of the dialogue is a bit sketchy but for a low budget, straight to DVD film it wasn’t bad however there was a sense of been there done about the whole thing.

Better that expected I would suggest having a look if you like movies in the genre but Howl is a far reach from the heights of Dog Soldiers or An American Werewolf in London.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 out of 10

Downton Abbey meets Day Of The Dead in an adaptation of the books which in itself was a parody of the Jane Austin novel. The concept is good, the material promising but there’s  something missing which I think stems from the premise that zombies can think and act normally as long as they don’t feast on human flesh which, while novel, makes a mockery of every concept of what we have traditionally believed a zombie is.

Even if it does feel a bit like a BBC drama piece, the performances are good, Lily James as Elizabeth Bennett, sells her warrior princess role well and is ably assisted by Sam Riley as Mr.Darcy zombie hunter who’s dry demeanour suits his grim purpose to ensure the all of the dead are wiped from the country but the most memorable character is Matt Smith as clergyman Mr.Collins, which is a little strange as his character has the least interaction with the zombies of all.

While starting well with a nice premise and purpose the movie becomes a bit predictable half way through, zombie incident followed by some period drama followed by some zombie incident and so on. It’s not a terrible thing but suffers from the drama undermining the horror and vice versa. Also, while there are zombies galore the gore level never really gets turned up and there no real sense of dread even from a hoard of zombies as every character is armed and trained to deal with the dead.

I have to assume that director Burr Steers was going for a horror comedy but unfortunately the horror is not forceful enough and the comedy misses more than it fails and during the finale it tries to go all end of the world but you never feel that the pending doom of the apocalypse is having any major effect on the characters. It’s not a bad movie it just can’t stand up to Zombieland or the even better Shaun of The Dead in terms of entertainment value.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 out of 10

 

 

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who decrypted German intelligence codes for the British government during World War II and this movie is based around his efforts to decode the Enigma machine developed by the Nazis for use during the war. Cumberbatch plays the arrogant but socially awkward mathematician brilliantly without ever feeling like he is playing such a similar character to Sherlock that they could be intertwined in parts. He is ably supported by Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke who bonds with Cumberbatch since both are playing central roles with hidden traits, Turing through his sexuality and Clarke as a woman in a man world where sexism is unheard of as yet.

Very reminiscent of A Beautiful Mind in parts both in terms of the plot and the feel of the movie. The flashbacks to Turings time in Boarding school, while trying to give come backstory into the development of the man, took away from the pacing of the movie and while playing up his sexuality the fact that the movie shows no real inkling of this in Turing’s adult life makes it a bit of a moot point. Also the script felt like it was trying to be a bit over clever with the use of Mark Strong as the MI6 agent Stewart Menzies throwing twist and double twist at Turing throughout the film which, with so many of the best brains in the country in the room, was a bit of a stretch to fathom that nobody else may have been on the same playing field as him.

While it should not stop you watching, or enjoying the movie, all the focus is on the attempts to break the code with very little on the private life of Turing who potentially saved millions of lives with the work his team carried out but who was also vilified for his homosexual activity leading to a jail conviction which was only avoided by agreeing to undergo chemical castration through the use of Diethylstilbestrol to cure his ‘condition’ which lead to him committing suicide in 1954. All of this was hidden as classified information for almost fifty years before he was pardoned by the Queen in 2013. It would have been nice to find out a bit more about the man as much as it focused on his legacy.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 out of 10