Author: Joel Fisher

Kathryn Upside Down is a feel-good comedy directed, written by and starring Allie Loukas as Kathryn, a woman in her twenties whose life is going nowhere and she still acts like she did when she was a teenager. Then one day when a stranger visits Kathryn’s life is well and truly turned upside down.

Realising that this stranger, Bob (Christopher M. Walsh) is in fact her biological father, Kathryn has a lot of questions and after a conversation with her mother, Elizabeth (Kim DeJesus) she reluctantly agrees to try and get to know Bob better – and what better way than on a road trip? It says a lot about a writer/director to star in their own film as well but what sets Loukas’ directorial debut apart from other actors is that Kathryn is a pretty unlikeable character right from the start.

Kathryn smokes, drinks too much and has the sarcastic wit of a teenage girl so unless the audience already knows somebody like her then they may find her character a little grating. It’s good to know then that Loukas knows exactly what she’s doing with Kathryn as her performance has enough funny one-liners and a somewhat relatable attitude that the audience does start to wonder if there’s a little more to her character than her first bad impression.

The movie is predictable but I think that’s part of the charm of the film. Kathryn surely cannot stay the way that she is throughout the movie so to see her progression and her character arc is pleasing for the audience as they really want a happy ending for this young woman who has such a hard surface. Walsh is also great to watch and the uneasy chemistry between him and Loukas is endearing, particularly when they start to get to know each other better.

His character of the kind-hearted man who discovers he has a daughter is an interesting spin on the films where he would usually be a deadbeat and learns responsibility through getting to know his offspring and he plays it well. There are a couple of characters who I felt were a little out of place due to their sudden appearance (and disappearance) and one which whose character twist I didn’t fully understand but it may just be me. However, I can’t really think of anything else that I had as much of a problem with and I think that says a lot about a film from a first-time writer/director.

The writing, acting and direction is confident and its self-proclaimed John Hughes influences weren’t just a boast as the film starts to feel like something Hughes would have written himself with nods to his work throughout. It left me feeling good and the story seemed like something new and original and yet warm and familiar at the same time. It makes me think that with this much talent and the right people around her, Loukas’ film career could take off much further than the movie’s Illinois setting.

Destination: Dewsbury is a comedy about getting older, friendship and coming to terms with what life has handed out to you. Peter (Matt Sheahan) is a teacher. He’s tired of his job, his wife has thrown him out and to top it all off the father of his childhood friend, Frankie (Michael Kinsey) has told him that Frankie is dying of cancer. So, Peter goes about getting his old friends back together for one last road trip to Dewsbury to see their old friend.

Gaz (Dan Shelton), Adam (David J. Keogh) and Smithy (Tom Gilling) all have their reasons for getting away for a little while so after a few pints to catch up, they head off on the road.

However, things don’t go exactly as they planned. Destination: Dewsbury is a film that proudly wears its heart on its sleeve as well as a lot of the influences that went into making the film. The kinds of movies about gangs of friends have been seen from City Slickers, American Pie and more recently The Inbetweeners Movie however some of the humour in Destination: Dewsbury works better than others.

It was a good start for the film with Peter’s dry wit voiceover telling the audience about his life since school but unfortunately after that it descends into the more juvenile, gross out humour that I didn’t think fit with the tone of the rest of the movie. The two-dimensional central characters didn’t help either and the Russian gangster subplot was entirely unnecessary. The second act plays like a string of jokes that had been seen in movies aimed at a much younger audience and I feel that its target audience would have seen a lot of them before when they were much younger themselves. I even get the feeling that the people who the film is aimed at probably wouldn’t appreciate them now as much as they did back then.

However, when it came time to speak about the heart behind the film then I am glad to say that it fully gave its emotional punch and it was very affective.

The bonding between the friends really helped to pull them together and the speeches about cancer seemed to come from a very real and heartfelt place. No doubt inspired by the film’s dedication. Destination: Dewsbury did make me laugh and hit all the right notes when it mattered, but like its protagonists when telling their touching story it benefits more when it starts acting its age.

Liam Neeson’s back. He’s out for revenge and this time it’s… fictional. Neeson plays Nels Coxman, a snow plough driver and has just been awarded citizen of the year in the ski resort town of Kehoe, Colorado. Then one day Nels and his wife, Grace (Laura Dern) learn that their son has died of a heroin overdose. Grace is overcome with grief but Nels is convinced that there’s something darker going on and is determined to uncover the truth behind his son’s death. Armed only with a snow plough, a sawn-off shot gun and a relentless drive to do whatever it takes, Nils doesn’t have a particular set of skills but his quest soon takes him to exactly where he needs to be.

Based on the original Norwegian film, Kraftidioten (English title – In Order of Disappearance), Cold Pursuit is once again directed by Norwegian director Hans Peter Molland. The original movie was a big hit in Norway and so sure enough an American remake was in the works, and what a waste of time that was. Cold Pursuit is funniest if you’ve never seen anything Quentin Tarantino has ever written, never seen Fargo and never seen any of the revenge action movies that Liam Neeson has done in the past 10 years. Although the comedy spin is an original take on this Neeson subgenre, the movie suffers because of its associations and probably because the general public has already made better jokes about Neeson’s sudden career move into the action genre than there are in the movie. The movie also does a lot of things that the original already did so for those willing to read for two hours the remake is all but pointless.

The cast of quirky characters fleshed out by out of contextual conversations is amusing and unusual for the genre but, for audiences who have a wider knowledge of cinema, these kinds of scenes evoke the best of Tarantino and its snowy, sleepy town aesthetic constantly reminds them of Fargo – or rather it makes them wish they were watching that instead. Also, the dark, dry sense of humour and the array of quirky characters doesn’t really disguise the plot, or lack thereof.  Even the little moments that bring a wry smile to the audience start to wear thin as they realise that they’re just watching the same thing that Neeson has been doing for quite a while now – just with added jokes.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were a hugely successful double act of the silver screen during the late 1920’s and 30’s. Put together by Hal Roach (the producer of many of their movies) the duo was a big hit due to their immaculate comedy timing, timeless jokes and a chemistry that defied science. Even today they are well loved and have influenced many double acts, from Abbot and Costello to The Chuckle Brothers. Not bad for a couple of actors who were put together simply because one was fat and the other was thin.

Twenty years after it seemed that their best days were behind them, Stan (Steve Coogan) and Ollie (John C. Reilly) find themselves overseas in England to do a series of live shows to raise money for a movie that Stan is excited to be writing – their first in a very long time. So, the famous pair are welcomed to England, although the welcome that they are given is not quite up to the standard that they were expecting. Their entertainment manager Bernard Delfont (Rufus Jones) assures them that they will be treated in the manner that they deserve. However, they soon start to suspect that they’re not being told the full story.

Stan & Ollie is a biopic of arguably Hollywood’s most well-known comedy double act. Both Coogan and Reilly clearly come across as big fans of the pair and their performances lovingly recreate the personas of the two men as if they were still alive. The chemistry between the two actors also mirrors that of the people they are portraying, helping to bring them back to life for the die-hard fans and for those who may only having a passing knowledge of the Laurel and Hardy legacy. Also, the film brings back some of the partnership’s most famous routines that Coogan and Reilly perform with as much precision and careful thought as when they were conceived all those years ago.

The supporting cast are excellent as well, Jones brings a devious charm to Delfont’s sleazy agent and most surprisingly is the addition of Stan and Ollie’s wives who join their husbands on tour and perhaps even to spoil their good time. Stan’s wife, Ida (Nina Arianda) and Ollie’s wife Lucille (Shirley Henderson) are probably the biggest surprise of the film and are a most welcome distraction from a story that may have gone stale if there wasn’t something to build up the rising tension. As Delfont says, the film gives the audience two double acts for the price of one and that addition to the script is inspired, further fleshing out the lives of the aging comedy couple.

Stan & Ollie is a heart-warming, crowd pleasing and uplifting biopic. For a movie about two actors that made some of the funniest films in cinema history, the source material would speak for itself and still entertain as it did all those years ago. But to be able to lovingly put their lives back on the silver screen whilst being so honest, loyal and respectful of the lives of Laurel and Hardy is a joy to see for both ardent fans and those who will discover their on screen magic for the first time.

A young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) was once a petty thief who worked for Lady Proxima (Linda Hunt), a Grindalid crime lord working in the slums of Corellia’s Coronet City. After a job that went wrong, Han faces the wrath of Lady Proxima and goes on the run with his girlfriend, Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). Unfortunately, Qi’ra and Han got separated, and in a rush to escape, Han joins the Empire as a pilot (something he’s always wanted to be). From that point on, Han Solo is born and his new life will take him on an adventure the likes of which he had never dreamt of having.

Along the way he meets Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) who is the leader of his own criminal gang, much smaller than Lady Proxima’s but Solo sees an opportunity and so along with his new friend, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) they go on their next adventure which leads Solo back into familiar territory. The plan is to retrieve a large shipment of coaxium (unknown McGuffin material) from a train but with Han and Chewie being new to the crew, Beckett’s well-oiled criminal machine has a spanner in the works as things go wrong, leading Solo to answer to the man that they failed – Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).

Admittedly, my expectations remained high for Solo: A Star Wars Story despite Phil Lord and Chris Miller being replace in the director’s chair by Ron Howard because I like Howard’s work as a director. However, I felt that the resulting movie may have been an altogether safer, more bankable direction, giving the audience what they’d expect rather than anything less conventional and possibly more creative and unique. Unfortunately, I was right. The backstory of Han Solo is not really a very memorable one and despite the years of speculation about how the space pirate got to be the way that he is, the result seems to be a rushed and generic depiction of a man who could be anyone if not for the Star Wars label. Ehrenreich’s performance is impressive and he shows a real talent for mimicry but the fact still remains that he is taking on a massive role which has been played by the same actor for over 40 years so even after his best efforts, the audience is still thinking about Harrison Ford. As well as being slightly generic, the script shoehorns in some references to Solo’s future life as well as showing things happening that are referred to in later movies in the franchise. Some of these are nice little nods but overall the audience gets the feeling that in this case, show don’t tell is not always the better path in storytelling.

The supporting cast are of a varying quality too, Paul Bettany puts in a suitably maniacal and overblown performance that Star Wars fans are used to from its villains but it feels like Woody Harrelson may be phoning in his performance as he counts the zeros in his paycheque, although Woody Harrelson phoning it in is still better than most actors on their best day. Thandie Newton’s Val is built up but ultimately wasted (literally) which I thought was a shame. Emilia Clarke is also there. Her character is all but defunct in this story, despite her built up part she only serves as a love interest that the audience never cares about (where’s Leia?) and the plot twist in her character only serves as a way to force (no pun intended) in a character whose appearance may confuse the majority of the audience.

However, for all the bad I must say that I found L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) to be an amusing and quite different kind of droid, one that may annoy more of the old school Star Wars fans but considering the role I found her connection to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) to be genuine, funny and warm, making the character’s end to be believable and heartfelt in Lando’s reaction. Then there is Lando himself, proclaimed to be the coolest man in the galaxy by the fans so there was only ever one man (in the character’s age range) that could have played him. Donald Glover puts in a fine performance even though his chemistry with Ehrenreich does not gel as well as it did between Billy Dee Williams and Harrison Ford. Fleshed out, Lando becomes a rich philanthropist, playboy and fashionista, spending his days seeking the finest that money can buy and it may seem that the picture that many fans had in their minds may be broken a little but I for one would have liked to have seen how Solo and Calrissian’s friendship could have evolved with the two respective actors. Although perhaps my eagerness came from what the script was lacking.

In the end, Solo: A Star Wars Story is not an essential watch for the fans but does give moments of excitement and delivers on the feeling of a classic Star Wars story. However, if the title wasn’t prefaced by Solo then it may have been just any old Star Wars story from any other character. Since the release of the film, Disney has pared back its planned Star Wars prequels and since The Last Jedi the fans may be finally finding franchise fatigue. Pity really, that Wicket origin story has been something I have been dreaming about for years – only kidding.