Love And Monsters

Chasing Aimee

Love And Monsters
USA/Canada/Australia 200
Directed by Michael Matthews
Paramount Pictures

Love And Monsters is a really cute little film which flirts with the sci-fi/horror genres but manages to retain a lot of humour and heart to still fall within the boundaries of romantic comedy at the same time. The film is set in Earth’s near future and tells the tale of Joel, played by Dylan O'Brien, who writes letters to his once girlfriend Aimee (played by Jessica Henwick) which never get posted but which we hear by way of his narrative voice over to apprise the audience of what they need to know in any given scene.

The reason why the letters never get posted is because, like many survivors in this post-apocalyptic time frame, he lives with just a handful of humans, hiding in an underground bunker. The film starts off with a brilliant, animated sequence filling us in on what’s happened, which is... in the near future, an asteroid named Agatha was due to collide with the Earth and kill us all. So the military sent a load of missiles to intercept it and, job well done, the asteroid was obliterated. However, the many chemicals from all those rockets fell back to Earth and started mutating all the cold blooded creatures... insects, fish. crabs etc... until they quickly became huge and started eating the humans on the planet. It took just a year for almost everyone to die and be left with various scattered outposts, like the underground bunker Joel hides in, as mankind’s last survivors. A place where they’ve now been for seven years. Although, he can still sometimes get radio contact with Aimee’s bunker on occasion.

Then, one day after a bunker breach in which another of his companions is eaten, the very scared and useless at survival Joel decides to go on a seven day trip across the surface so he can be reunited with Amiee. And that’s the main plot and I won’t spoil what happens for you but he does acquire a dog and make two other human friends, played by Michael Rooker and Ariana Greenblatt, who teach him survival techniques against the various monsters, along the way.

And the film is a total delight as we follow the antics of Joel and his new four legged companion Boy across the forest looking regions of the Earth (I’m guessing going through decimated cities would have been too big for the budget) and the various things he does to survive. And, like any quest, the end result isn’t necessarily what he was expecting to find but there are further adventures to be had when he finally reaches his destination, for sure.

The film is not especially interesting in the way the shots are designed, for the most part but, it’s very competently put together and never fails to be anything other than intense, suspenseful, charming and captivating throughout. O'Brien seems pretty good in the lead role and brings a certain warmth to proceedings. It even has a very moving sequence where he finds the last working ‘MAV1S’ robot, which he knows about but has never interacted with in person (he has a dead shell of one back in his bunker) and he shares her last 50 minutes of time with her before the power runs out on her... after which he buries her.

This one also had a nice score by Marco Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp, which really helps move the film along and which is even on CD (that’s one for this year’s Christmas list I think). It’s also edited very well and, despite some really quite scary and drawn out monster encounters, it actually takes a decision to stay away from the gore and is definitely in the ‘family adventure’ category, it seems to me. There are also some nice learning curves in the growth of the characters as we watch Joel go from scared witless to a responsible but daring survivor and possibly leader. There’s a beautiful moment when he’s face to face with a giant killer crab that’s about to eat him which really hammers home the point that the lead protagonist has evolved into someone more accepting and wise as his personal journey has educated him to a large degree.

And that’s all I’ve got to say, really, about Love And Monsters other than it’s an easy film to recommend and that it has a cool, joyful dog character to make sure the poor humans don’t get led too astray (played by two dogs in real life). This is a charming movie with a lot of heart and definitely worth seeking out if you can get an opportunity. Loved it.

The Invisible Woman

Kitty Woman

The Invisible Woman
USA 1940 Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
Universal  Blu Ray Zone B

Okay, so next in my list of classic Universal Horror/Monster movies is the third entry in The Invisible Man series... a set of films which I have a hard time of thinking of as either horror or monster movies, to be honest. Most of these are thrillers but there are exceptions and this one is, as it happens, one of those films in the franchise where, around this kind of time, Universal were making some brave and often lucrative choices in the direction they would take the various parts of their franchises. See upcoming reviews of The Mummy’s Tomb and Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman for further elaboration on that comment. Oh... and if you want to read my review of the next Universal Monsters movie after this, it’s been on the blog for a number of years now so, check the link at the bottom of this review.

But for now, lets get back to The Invisible Woman, which is a complete sea change for the franchise (not the last either) in that it’s a light and frothy romantic comedy, reminiscent of those screwball comedies of the 1930s, except with the highly successful invisibility element thrown into the mix. The film stars Virginia Bruce as the title character, Kitty Carroll and, here, she is joined by a number of popular actors such as John Barrymore (as the Professor who makes Kitty invisible), John Howard as the wealthy playboy love interest for the ‘common shop store fashion model’ Kitty and a young Oskar Homolka as Blackie, head of a Mexican crime syndicate who will, as humourously as possible, stop at nothing to get the secret behind the professor's invisibility machine. Also in the film is the Wicked Witch of the West herself, Margaret Hamilton (as the professor’s house keeper), Mary Gordon (who eagle eyed viewers may remember as Mrs Hudson in the Basil Rathbone series of Sherlock Holmes films) and Shemp Howard, famous for being one of the many iterations of The Three Stooges, as one of Homolka’s comedy hoodlums.

And, yeah, it’s quite entertaining. The film sees Kitty answering the professor’s advert for a volunteer to become invisible and comedy hijinks ensue as she falls for John Howard's character and we see the butler getting some terrible, cringe worthy but thoroughly entertaining lines and taking a heck of a lot of falls and trips which seem really dangerous, it has to be said. The dialogue writing is fast and furious and this is just bread and butter to a cast who deliver it in that breezy and larger than life way that was common for the period. Even with the raft of ‘Here kitty, kitty...’ jokes that pop up on occasion.

The invisibility effects are okay but not as well done, it seems to me, as in some of the previous movies in the series. When Kitty is walking around headless in a dress, for example, you can often see feint lines where the head actually was. Some of the other effects such as ‘invisible woman lays on a rug’ or ‘invisible woman sits in a chair’ are okay though and I guess I never really tire of seeing these old visual chestnuts run out time and again. Which probably says something about my age.

We also have a nice moral lesson thrown in for good measure. When the newly invisible Kitty sneaks into work to confront her vile and ruthless boss and gives him a good kicking for his troubles... telling him that she is the manifestation of his conscience... we see the character completely reform and introduce things like tea breaks and ‘not being fired for being ill’ into the job. Always nice to see object lessons taught on screen in this manner.

And, despite this one being one of the shortest reviews in the history of this blog... I really don’t have much else to say other than to note that... The Invisible Woman is the first of the ‘invisible’ films not to use the name Griffin in the story as a nod to H. G. Wells original character and... that this is a unique and thoroughly watchable entry in the series, if a little different in tone to the others (as is the next in the ‘invisible’ series). If you want to read my review of the next film in the Universal Horror franchise, the 1941 character starter The Wolfman, you can read my earlier review of it here, where I’ve coupled it with my review of the 2010 remake. And stay tuned for the review of the next Universal Monster movie coming soon. I love these movies and am going to probably burn through these fairly quickly over the coming months.

Yesterday

Star Gent’s Better Lone Key,
Part Dub, Fanned

Yesterday
UK/Russia/China
2019 Directed Danny Boyle
UK cinema release print

I should have seen this movie a lot sooner than I did, catching it now just on the last week or so of its cinema run. I’ve been listening to songs by The Beatles for most of my life now (well, around three quarters of it) and since their music plays such a huge part in this movie, I really should have got there sooner. Truth be told, I was kinda put off by the idea that this film was a romantic comedy... nothing against them, just not too many modern ones (post 1950s) done right. You get the odd couple per decade or two that are something special and, luckily for me this time around, this one is pretty good. Also, I had a slight accident recently so the day I had scheduled to go and see this was a day when, frankly, I wouldn’t have recovered enough to be able to walk to the cinema anyway.

But I got there in the end and this film was worth the wait. I find Danny Boyle a bit hit and miss as a director so I don’t go and see everything he does but this does have an almost unique premise so it was always going to make my ‘to see’ list at some point.

If you don’t already know the plot, Yesterday tells the story of main protagonist Jack, played by Himesh Patel, who is a struggling song writer/performer who, in spite of his brilliantly optimistic manager Ellie, played so well here by Lily James who kind of steals every scene she’s in, can’t make it big performing his own songs enough to get any interest and give up his job at a local supermarket and nor can he see the thing dangling right in front of his face... that he and Ellie are obviously attracted to each other but that he’s very late to the party in this regard. Then, one night when he has decided to call it quits and is riding home on his bike, the world experiences a phenomenon which causes all of the electricity everywhere to black out for about a minute. Because of this, a double decker bus hits Jack on his bike and he is knocked unconscious, waking in hospital with two big front teeth gone and lots of injuries which eventually heal. Now, the interpretation of what’s just happened here is left to the audience... did something happen to the world or did something just happen to him? Is there a religious intervention happening or did physics just slam the door. Did he even survive the bus? That’s all left up to you but, not long after he’s integrated back into his everyday life, he discovers that things have changed.

And the most prominent change to drive the plot is, nobody has heard of The Beatles or any of their songs. So, after some thinking, Jack starts ‘writing’ the hits of The Beatles and it’s not too long before he is on the road to what promises to be phenomenal world success. However, The Beatles aren’t the only things missing from the world as Jack remembers it and, it turns out, things which were once missing from our world are also now back in place... in a kind of changed way (no, don’t want to elaborate on that because it’s a bit of a spoiler).

And the film is brilliant, with some nice performances in addition to the two leads supplied by such wonderful character actors as Joel Fry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kate McKinnon  and some guy I saw in a Bridget Jones’ movie called Ed Sheeran who... well, frankly, I had no idea who he was when I saw that one and I still don’t really know but I’m guessing he’s some kind of modern pop star or some such. I’ve seen his face around somewhere.

Boyle keeps things nicely paced and there are some great comic moments which work in spite of the straight-laced delivery of Patel in the lead... or more than likely, work because of it. There are also some really nice little shout outs to The Beatles and I gave a chuckle when, for instance, one of the ‘post it’ notes with the titles to the songs that Jack is trying to remember, in a blink and you’ll miss it quick shot, is Revolution 9. Anybody who knows The White Album would tell you that this is an impossible track to cover. Not to mention the moment when Jack decides to launch his new album with a rooftop concert. There’s also a nice use of Beatles needle-drop, when the worldwide phenomenon that, effectively and depending on your interpretation, resets the world is just taking place... here the director uses the end build up from the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band track A Day In The Life to heighten the tension. I just wish Boyle had stuck with it because he really could have done with that sustained piano chord once Jack is hit by the bus.

There’s also a kind of sub plot in the movie when you worry just what is going to happen to Jack’s plan when two sinister looking people start following him around the world with the lurking realisation that... Jack might not be the only one who remembers The Beatles. The pay off to this build up is absolutely brilliant, it has to be said... the film was moving so fast that I actually didn’t see things coming. Which is always a good thing because movies are mostly so predictable these days.

My one minor criticism, if I had to have one, is Jack’s ‘final solution’ to the problem of the guilt he is suffering for finding fame from the back of the songs of The Beatles. It makes no sense whatsoever because nobody in the version of the world he has suddenly found himself in is getting hurt by his deception. On the contrary, people’s lives are richer for having these songs in their life. So, yeah... there’s no real logic to the end of the movie here but, hey, at least it made a heck of a lot more sense than Avengers - Endgame (reviewed here) so there’s that.

The other possible problem, for me, is that the songs that the film makers chose to use from The Beatles’ huge play list are, with the exception of All You Need Is Love, tracks I normally skip. All the truly great Beatles tracks (again, with the exception of the brilliant All You Need Is Love) such as Strawberry Fields Forever (mentioned but not used), Eleanor Rigby (almost used but alas, unremembered in terms of the lyrics by Jack), I Am The Walrus, Tomorrow Never Knows, I’m Only Sleeping, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite, Magical Mystery Tour etc, from the 1966 - 1967 period where the group were at their absolute best, seem strangely absent.

Still, even so, Yesterday is a really great little movie and, frankly, Himesh Patel plays the role in such an interesting, throw away manor, while Lily James is... just wow... that I really didn’t worry too much that many of my favourites weren’t included. Lily James needs to be in more stuff, methinks. It’s a good little movie about a surreal premise where, as it should in real life (and hopefully always does), love wins the day and makes things right again. I’d grab this one again on Blu Ray, for sure.

Bridget Jones' Baby

Apostrophe, Now

Bridget Jones' Baby
2016 Ireland/UK/France/USA
Directed by Sharon Maguire
UK cinema release print.

You know, I think it’s really irresponsible for a movie studio, after they were hopefully hauled over the coals for it when the first Bridget Jones movie came out, to continue to perpetrate the unbelievable crime against grammar/spelling/punctuation of the title of this movie that is seen on all the movie posters and tie-ins. It’s not a title I would reproduce here and I have removed the superfluous ‘S’ from the way it’s spelled so at least it doesn’t perpetuate the ignorance like a virus from this site... although I guess I’m forced to leave it on the pictures of the posters above (was tempted to just blur it out). I’ll stop going on now about this extremely important issue of mangling the English language and encouraging generations of students (and grown lecturers, believe it or not) to continue to spread this disease of no small concern but I won’t have it on my blog. Period (or full stop as it’s called over here).

I loved the first movie in this series, Bridget Jones’ Diary (see how easy it is to just ignore the bad punctuation?) but was fairly disappointed with the second. Also a little confused because my dim memory of that second one, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, is such that I thought she’d gotten together with Mark Darcy at the end and he’d proposed to her... or something similar. However, the story has obviously moved on quite a lot because, at the start of this one, Darcy is married and her other former lover, Daniel Cleaver, is lost and presumed dead (although I’m sure you can all guess how that one turns out).

Hugh Grant’s presence in this movie is confined to a few photos only but the incomparable Renée Zellweger and the always amazing Colin Firth are back to reprise their roles as Bridget and Darcy, for a third time. As are a lot of the wonderful supporting actors and actresses from the other two movies such as Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, Sally Philips, Shirley Henderson (somewhat wasted here as she’s a blindingly great talent) and James Callis (who was absolutely awesome as Baltar in the modern iteration of Battlestar Galactica and who is reprising his role here as Mr. One Hit Wonder of the pop scene). We also have a few new comers with Mark Darcy’s new rival Jack, played brilliantly by Patrick Dempsey (who I’m assured has a nice puppet) and Bridget’s news 'anchor woman' mate Miranda, played so entertainingly by Sarah Solemani, who I guess is at least partially responsible for getting Bridget into the dilemma she finds herself in for the remainder of the film.

Said dilemma lands in two parts when Bridget has six hours of passion with millionaire Jack by stumbling into the wrong tent at a music festival and then also, within the space of a few weeks, temporarily rekindles her passion with Mark Darcy. However, the condoms she is using are well past their use-by date and so, she finds herself pregnant and without any real clue as to who the father is. To make matters worse (aka funnier), she is half in love with both of them and, for a while, neither knows about the other... causing some awkward moments not just for her but for her doctor, played by the always watchable Emma Thompson, who also did double duty as a script doctor on this one too, I’m told.

So the big question in the movie on everybody’s lips is... who is the father of Bridget Jones’ Baby and... well you’ll be hanging on until the very last minute to find out. And if you want it clarified even a little further, you might want to stay for an easter egg in the form of a photograph which flashes up for a few seconds after the final end credits have played out.

Okay... so the film has its moments but, even with the same director as the first installment in the sequence on board, I have to say it’s no masterpiece. The first one was absolutely phenomenal but this one shares with the first sequel the feeling of a slightly missed opportunity and people just... well not milking the memory of the first one exactly but, maybe losing a few of the ingredients which made the original so special along the way. That being said, the adult edge to a lot of the humour is back in place and you can’t say the film isn’t gutsy in places. I personally didn’t find the movie all that funny this time around, it has to be said... but please don’t take me at my word on that one because I did observe that the audience were absolutely falling off their chairs with laughter during certain scenes so I think that, if anything, it’s definitely a crowd pleaser with, certainly, some of the most enthusiastic audience reaction I’ve seen all year.

Mind you, saying that, there were obviously some celebrity cameos in this movie made by people who I was obviously supposed to know and, I’m sorry but... I’d never heard of them. So I’m guessing a lot of the jokes just went over my head on this one. And, of course, even if you don’t find this one all that funny...  Renée Zellweger is such a perfect actress with impeccable comic timing that you can’t help but relate to the characters... especially when she’s supported by such a fantastic cast. I’ve always had a soft spot for Zellweger and, although this isn’t a film I was overly keen on, I did enjoy the presence and continuity she brought to the role here.

And that really is pretty much all I’ve got to say about Bridget Jones' Baby, I’m afraid. This is probably one of the shortest reviews I’ve written in a few years but there’s not much more I can add. Would I recommend the movie? Sure, Bridget Jones fans are bound to at least like it a little and, judging by the audience response, most of them will love it. I think it’s a tad of a stretch to hear people saying that this is the best of the three but, heck, I’m not entirely sure I'm a good judge of the subject matter in this case, to be honest. So I think I would just say that, if you didn't like either of the first two movies then I would err on the side of caution and not go. For everybody else I would say... it’s maybe worth a watch but don’t go in expecting the first movie or you will be disappointed.