Review Category: Movie

At one point in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Daniel Craig’s detective extraordinaire Benoit Blanc says, “It’s a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought for speaking the truth.” And my word does that feel like a timely statement now, then and likely for a long time to come. Writer/director Rian Johnson’s star-studded follow-up to his terrific Knives Out ironically enough really does get the knives out for our current climate, and the fools that keep popping up in the daily headlines nowadays. 

This film sees Blanc unexpectedly grouped in with a varied bunch of celebrities, social media stars, scientists and businessmen, as he is invited along with them to the Greek island private paradise of hailed creative billionaire genius Miles Bron (Edward Norton), for a murder mystery evening. However, as Bron has gathered some of his closest friends/associates, Blanc’s mysterious invite may well be a blessing in disguise, as this alcohol-fuelled themed party becomes very real indeed. 

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is just as fun as the marvellous first film, and cements Johnson’s Benoit Blanc whodunnit series as one that is most welcome to expand for as long as Daniel Craig wants to deliver the drawl. 

Brilliant, twisty and surprising, this sequel is the yang to the first film’s ying, bringing the genre to the modern age (where the last leaned into its traditions) and instead of showing how a nefarious deadly game was beaten by being a good, hard working, person, this takedown of the ultra rich and their unfair and preposterous systems shows how idiots bring themselves down eventually, even if their mind numbing stupidity can complicate the narrative. 

You may well have a few real world figures in mind while viewing this, and despite being delayed by COVID, Johnson’s film is still ferociously timely in its observations. Perhaps even more so after this year. Particularly its depiction of wealthy and social media amplified foolishness. As Blanc himself says in one of his many delightful exchanges, “it’s so dumb”, “it’s so dumb, it’s brilliant!” a character retorts, “No! It’s just dumb” Blanc responds. Bang on. 

Glass Onion takes audiences on the same journey as Blanc himself, misdirecting us beautifully and making you intentionally overthink the story, toying with your expectations for a clever mystery, when at heart, the nature of this particular mystery is something far more ridiculous. Its many turns peel back more compelling layers of an ingenious story, which really is part vindication tale and part whodunnit, but it’s all such an enjoyable experience.

Full of Johnson’s excellent direction and sharp writing, Glass Onion is marvellously funny and relevant but as intricate and stylish as those Miles Born sent invite boxes at the start of the film. And once more, his delicious ensemble cast are all up to the task at hand.

Craig and Janelle Monáe are particularly excellent, and rather dominate the head of the story, with Craig’s eccentric, witty and flamboyant detective being a constant source of excellence, and Monáe’s character being regularly surprising and her performance so very layered and impressive. Meanwhile the likes of Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn and Leslie Odom Jr. are having a ball in their parts, and it is brilliant to see. Much like the fun little cameos from some truly major names that are dotted throughout the film too.

Like the extravagant structure from which the unusual title attains its name, Johnson has constructed a well crafted and visually impressive film event for us all to take part in, but this structure has a most crazy core, which shows us just how powerful and convoluted silly people can be, but also how you can disrupt such a system built on folly.

Devilishly clever and worryingly truthful, Glass Onion is one of 2022’s most delightful and stylish movie cocktails. Come back soon Benoit!

Very often we get movies that come and go. Other times you get ones that remain. Every now and then you even get a film that comes along and shakes things up. Then you get an Avatar. Whatever your opinion on James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster, it is a film that not only attained legendary box office status, but one that ingrained itself into a modern generation’s cinema language. To the point that even those who haven’t seen it, know it fairly well. So, 13 years later, following up such a lightening in a bottle film Goliath would be no easy task.

It is somewhat crazy to call Avatar: The Way Of Water a risk, considering James Cameron’s legacy and results but that is precisely what it is. A mega budgeted, long awaited, sequel that has the unenviable task of following up a movie that many thought should have received a sequel far earlier and is one of the largest films ever made. Time will tell (probably quite quickly) if this film will recapture the box office magic, especially at a time when that is considerably harder to accomplish, but does the film itself manage to justify the return to this dazzling CGI world? 

Yes. It. Does. 

Catching up with Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), as they now have a family together and live as proud, fierce, Na’vi warriors and leaders. But the threat of humanity is returning and in a way that is far nastier, more deceptive and more deadly, as Jake’s family and Pandora itself, will be tested in far greater ways than they could ever imagine.

Avatar: The Way of Water is seriously spectacular on every conceivable level. So many doubted what we would see, and you might say we were foolish to doubt that James Cameron could do it all again…let alone do it bigger, deeper and better. After all Terminator 2 and Aliens are the sequel blueprints for a reason, are they not? 

This sequel improves upon the mighty first film in every single way, with recent Planet of the Apes trilogy scribes Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver’s fingerprints clearly felt on Cameron’s already ambitious screenplay. 

Thematically timely and powerful, The Way Of Water has a story that expands characters old and new, and in turn opens out this breathtaking world of Pandora. Fatherhood, grief, culture and companionship are all aspects to this story which play a vital part, amidst the prevailing eco-identity of this massive motion picture.

Using the latest tech to reconnect audiences with the power and joy of nature, The Way of Water is a very spiritual film, with a great big green heart beneath its gorgeous exterior and its comes with the biggest jump out of chair moment of comeuppance we can recall in quite some time onscreen. In a sequence clearly intended to call out mankind’s abuses of the sea and the intelligent creatures beneath the waves.

Meanwhile those above the waves onscreen very much standout too. The characters and cast are excellent, with the returning players being most welcome and more importantly necessary to many developing plot lines. While some of the fresh faces make a very important imprint on the franchise immediately and – fingers crossed – going forward. No spoilers here folks!

Visually never less than astounding and groundbreaking, you can see and more importantly feel where every cent has gone here, in this film’s painstaking decade plus construction. This is assuredly a 3D HFR showcase (boy is it) but even without the added dimension, it is an environmental blockbuster that sees a legendary filmmaker using technology unlike any other director out there.

This is a pure cinema experience, not to be missed, and Cameron never resists the urge to throw absolutely everything he has into this clear work of passion. As do all involved along with him. 

Avatar: The Way Of Water is emotional, exciting, immersive spectacle certainly, but with way more than just amazing audio-visual punch to wow you and connect with you.

The wait was worth it. Now breathe. And take it all in.

We have seen a great number of films based on the Tchaikovsky ballet, itself adapted from the E. T. A. Hoffmann short story. Some magical, some missable. But this latest animated feature from director Viktor Glukhushin is sadly one that falls into the latter category. 

This version sees ballet dancer Marie (Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld), on Christmas Eve, potentially forced to wed a despicable pawnbroker to save her family from financial ruin. When she makes a magical wish and is no sooner shrunken to doll size and goes on a journey to an otherworldly kingdom, where she must assist Nutcracker (who is really a prince) George (Dan Edwards) in stopping his wicked stepmother from attaining a magic flute to enslave humanity to rat-kind.

Faithful in some ways to the source material, one thing this Russian animated adaptation can be commended for is its classic fairytale nature (free of many modern adaptation’s painful attempts at “getting down with the kids”) but unfortunately this muddled festive film is an utter bore, that feels a good ten times longer than its brief running time.

It is somewhat cruel to give a Christmas kids film a kicking but it is hard to feel any sense of warmth for a feature that will likely struggle to make any kind of impact with audiences of any age. 

Blending Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe fantastical thrills with the classic story, this animated tale just feels awkward and stilted.

The animation is passable at best, while the ear-gratingly bland musical numbers just stumble into the plot here and there randomly and awkwardly like a drunken uncle at a family wedding, and despite featuring a cowardly Ostrich and Elvis-inspired Ram as animal sidekicks, this film just cannot get the energy levels to raise at all. No matter what it tries.

The characters and their story do not have any kind of memorable feel and when a sequence in a kitchen sees an angry chef get ready to cook some unlucky turkeys, it is hard for the viewer not to think that the biggest turkey is the film they are watching. 

Yes, we should obviously consider the target audience when looking at a film like this but it is hard to think that even the youngest of kids will be getting all excited over such a mundane offering. Especially when there are countless better alternatives available out there.

Far from magical.