DJ Speaks Movies

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

While all being a little bit Oirish, a superbly reserved performance by Saoirse Ronan and a cleverly well written screenplay by Nick Hornby escalate this movie into an enjoyable, if very basic, tale of emigration in the 1950’s and a young woman’s tribulations dealing with homesickness, love and the struggle of finding her place in a strange land.

Ronan is excellent as Eilis Lacey the wide eyed immigrant who starts as the quiet and reserved deer caught in the headlights. At a local dance she is approached by a local Italian man Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen) who she reluctantly (at least initially) develops a relationship with. However as Ronan blooms into a strong headstrong woman her relationship with Tony also grows and her memories of back home slowly fade until family tragedy necessitates a return visit. With her new found confidence she finds herself as a big fish in a small pond and is torn between her two, very different, lives.

The key to the movie is it’s simplicity, there are no shocking scenes and very little melodrama which in turn makes the film very believable. But it Ronan who, quite rightly, stays the focus of our attention and who dominates the screen through each frame with two small exceptions, Julie Walters as Ronans housekeeper Madge Kehoe (rumoured to be getting her own TV spin off) and young James DiGiacomo as Tony’s brother Frankie, who both steal the scenes they are in and it’s a little unfortunate that they don’t feature more centrally.

While it’s not quite up to the same standards of some of the movies is was partnered with for a best picture Oscar it is a heartfelt and entertaining story of life in the 1950’s told from both sides of the Atlantic.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 out of 10

Based on the real life tale of Chris Gardener, Will Smith plays a clever but unlucky father who, is extremely intelligent, especially with numbers, but who just cannot catch a break in life so he is trying to sell revolutionary new Bone Marrow scanners that, unfortunately, are not as revolutionary as Smith believes, while looking to lever his way into a brokerage firm. Eventually his persistence pays off and, thanks to a show of his mental acumen in quickly completing a Rubiks cube, he is offered an internship however this comes at a cost as there is no wage but the potential for a full time position is the dangling carrot and is one which Smith cannot turn down.

Smiths’ relationship with his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) is sparcely touched upon and she seems far too keen to leave with no obvious reasoning other then broken promises and dreams despite working long days in two poorly paid jobs which acts like a bit of a double negative. This leaves Smith to try and focus on his internship, his selling of the remaining scanners and keeping some form of roof over his and his sons head. This is where Smiths performance comes front and centre  as you feel each body blow received seemingly set Smith further and further back each time he gets anywhere close to reaching his goals. Sending him rapidly towards destitution, culminating in a night spent in the toilets of a subway station.

While the biological bond between father and son comes across well on screen the movie is saved by some great dramatic acting from Smith and the storyline that anybody can make it big in life once you stay true to yourself and overcome all obstacles thrown in your way may have worked back in 1981 when the movie is set, in todays cynical world its sorely outdated. This takes away from a good storyline of a man’s struggle to find his place in life which could have been cut by about twenty minutes as there is a lot of time wasted on showing Smith chasing people who have stolen one of his machines. This felt unnecessary as we already know how important the machines are to him and how far he will go to make his sales but overall it’s an average drama movie brought to another level by a terrific heart felt performance by Smith.

DJ Speaks rating: 5 out of 10