Tag: Drama

Legend (2015) – Review

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Everyone loves a gangster flick. The Americans have a plethora to choose from. It’s debatable if Goodfellas bests The Godfather, or maybe Scarface is more your thing. British efforts are a bit more wide boy and in your face. So what happens if you take a real life British gangster crime story and turn it into a movie?

If you choose to dabble with the most famous of all British gangsters you are dealing with the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie. The film you’ll end you with is The Krays from 1990. Hold yer horses, guv. What if we want to make the Krays fit into an Americanised biopic? Ah, should have said. Then you’ll end up 2015’s Legend.

Director Brian Helgeland is better known for his writing credits (L.A. Confidential) but did direct Payback (you may have missed that corker). He has taken the history of the most notorious London criminals and decided the truth shouldn’t get in the way of a good story. Unfortunately, the story of The Krays is good enough. Instead, his fictionalised version of events lacks direction and purpose.

Key moments, like the murders that eventually convicted the twins, are shoehorned into a story narrated by Emily Browning’s Frances Shea. Yeah, that’s right folks, the story is told from the perspective of a ghost whose real life interactions vary depending on which person’s account you believe.

It’s a shame to degrade her input when Browning’s performance is so strong. That is a running theme of the film, cracking performances hidden in a below average flick.

Christopher Eccleston, as always, proves what a versatile actor he is. His hunting as Scotland Yard’s Nipper Read deserved more screen time.

The true star of the show is Tom Hardy. So powerful and diverse are his turns as both twins, it has you believing two separate actors are playing the roles. His appearance here further underlines his place as one of the best performers of this generation.

If only the script could have given Hardy the platform he richly deserved. Instead the movie labours through cockney narration plastered onto a disingenuous wannabe Hollywood background. The result is something that could easily drift to TV movie, if not for the star power on display.

The story only charts the peak years of The Krays’ rule, from cutting deals with Las Vegas bosses to ruling London without opposition. Their downfall was portrayed as an inward problem rather than being taken bested.

Sadly, that sums up the film. It should have been the peak of the boys on camera, an all-star cast and decent budget. Instead it moves them into mediocrity. Often gangster films are criticised for glamorising the lifestyle. No such problem here. It looked pretty mundane through the eyes of Brian Helgeland.

Worth watching to enjoy Tom Hardy, but have a crossword puzzle or a Sudoku on the go for (the many) sections where the film stutters along.

5/10

The Leftovers – Season 2 – Episode 8

Daniel SimmsLeave a comment

So Kevin took the magic potion and fell down the rabbit hole. Watching Michael Murphy drag him away at the end of episode 7 looked like the ultimate betrayal. Virgil had then taken the “easy way out” and blew his own head off.

But wait…maybe he did it to ensure he was there on the other side to assist Kevin. We find him in a purgatory of sorts. Fans of Lost cringe. I never had a problem with that particular show and understood what happened on the island (many still don’t). Despite what naysayers spout, Lost was pretty simple and clearly laid out by the end.

The same can’t be said by this turn of events in The Leftovers. The eagle-eyed viewer will have been picking up on clues. Like the guy reported in Australia that can’t be killed. Where’s Kevin’s dad again? Oh, and he pops up in this episode through some mystic TV channelling.

Kevin dons a hitman outfit and plays this persona to assassinate a version of Patti that is the leader of a large political Guilty Remnants movement. To do so will free him. Her bodyguard is the spiritual leader Wayne, from season one.

He’s told to avoid drinking the water in the purgatory hotel they occupy. This leads to questions of metaphor. Will he pass over forever with his acceptance of thirst? Is this a flash dream before death really occurs?

The answers are being drip-fed as the questions stack up.

The end of this episode is shocking and further demonstrates Justin Theroux’s acting ability.

Some may not like this turn used by the writers, I have zero complaints. It has made a great season become a classic.

9/10

Maggie – Review

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It’s great to see Arnold Schwarzenegger back in movies. It’s even better to see he’s willing to step out of his comfort zone and assume different roles. On the face of it Maggie, a zombie horror, shouldn’t be too much of a change. But this isn’t a rehashed action flick for the goth generation. At its heart it’s a drama. But does it work?

In the movie’s early sequence we see Arnie bash a zombie to death, at this point you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a disguised action flick. That soon peters out and director Henry Hobson enters indie flick territory.

It gives the story a chance for scene setting. Zombies are actually infected with the necroambulist virus. It gives those unfortunate enough to have it a period of grace. There’s no bite from the undead and quick trip to zombieville. In fact, the zombies are kind of portrayed as crazy, mindless cannibals. That are, well, just like zombies.

Arnie knows his daughter, the title of the movie, played by Abigail Breslin, is on borrowed time. So he intends to saviour every last moment. Unfortunately for the viewer, the director also wants to saviour every last moment. And so he drags out her final days as if we are living them with her. Those days feel like years.

Arnie has the option of handing her over when the time is drawing close, placing someone in quarantine removes the danger they possess. Or he can finish the job himself. Obviously neither of these appeal to the devoted father.

What follows is his desire to hang on to someone that is inevitably going to die. These moments are touching, and really well acted by the former Mr Universe. Expressing the sort of range he’ll need now his action days are (should) be nearing their end.

Breslin for her part is faultless. She knows she’s doomed and his horrified when stepmother Joey Richardson isn’t cooking downstairs but she smells food. It’s the stepmother that smells like fresh meat.

There’s a scene with a former crush of sorts that helps fill in some of the backstory around the virus and why the camps are so bad but by this point you’re hoping Arnie gets the job done and puts Maggie to rest.

Indie films are great and give makers a chance to explore outside of mainstream requirements. Here, we had a great concept and fine performances. But a film about dying needed an injection of life. Arnie will be back, hopefully next time the story will be better.

5/10

The Leftovers – Season 2 – Episode 7

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In a show where the main character is hanging by a thread, eventually things will become unhinged. After Kevin’s soul bearing admission to Nora that he can see Patti, he finds she has left him. Nora is, and as we’ve witnessed throughout the entire story, a survivor. He’s viewed as a danger, so she ups and leaves with the baby and her sister-in-law.

This leaves Kevin with an angry daughter and an unwelcome offer. The latter comes by way of Michael’s grandfather Virgil, the guy that has touched kids inappropriately. Not the first choice a man should go to for salvation. He refuses – storms away, in fact – when Virgil says he has to face Patti in death.

By chance, Kevin gets a call from the troopers that his wife Laurie is at the gate requesting his presence. Handy that a psychiatrist pops into his life when he needs it. For the second time in two episodes he tells a woman he’s going crazy. This one agrees, and says she’ll help nurse him back.

Then we get a turn of events and a twist (so stop reading before you hit spoilers).

Kevin has a heartfelt conversation over the phone with the estranged Nora. She agrees to return if he is 100% fixed. So a long path to recovery with the professional help on hand, right? Nope. A trip back to Virgil and a jug of poison.

What follows will have you reaffirming that you should never trust a paedophile.

9/10

The Leftovers – Season 2 – Episode 6

Daniel SimmsLeave a comment

The sixth episode of the season throws us back into the main plot. Everything that has been back-flashed and filled in, all the new arcs set in motion, begin their final ascent – or should that be descent?

After the appearance of the Guilty Remnants in previous instalments, we now get the researchers making a return. It was thanks to the scientific study Nora came away $3m. This time they bring her only aggravation.

Along with this they have a theory. That certain people act as a “lens.” These potential lenses cause people within close proximity to vanish. Not a great suggestion to a woman who lost her entire family. A scientific explanation would be something people would search for after a rapture with the same intensity that religious folks would look to God.

The oddness here, is Nora is later told the lenses over the phone, about the spiritual connection. It could be this group are separate from the main scientific movement. Clearly the script writers have given themselves room for manoeuvre regarding cause and consequence.

The peak of the episode, and potentially the season, is a conversation between Erika and Nora. It takes place in the Murphy household after Erika has an outburst at a town meeting, assembled for the missing girls. While there, Nora robs a new version of the questionnaire used to determine the validity of sudden departures.

Both actresses build tangible tension and its possibly the most charged scene ever witnessed in a television show.

This would have made for a perfect episode, but after this scene Kev drops his bombshell to Nora. His acceptance and admission he is going crazy (or is he?) should have been a season peak but it was overshadowed by the previous scene. Instead it felt flat.

Still, worthy of its rating.

9/10