film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Category: REVIEWS

Here is where you would find our film reviews on BRWC.  We look at on trailers, shorts, indies and mainstream.  We love movies!

  • Eddie The Eagle: The BRWC Review

    Eddie The Eagle: The BRWC Review

    Besides a certain Jamaican Bobsleigh team, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta are best remembered for one, plucky competitor. A man who faced near insurmountable odds, under the harshest conditions in one of the most dangerous sports in order to break British Ski Jumping records, and come last place in both the 70m and 90m events. That man was Michael “Eddie The Eagle” Edwards, and for a brief moment, he stood as a shining example of an Olympian who teetered on the edges of respect and ridicule.

    Directed by Dexter Fletcher and produced by Matthew Vaughn, there is a uniquely celebratory tone to this underdog tale that could have only blossomed in the hearts and minds of British storytellers. Entirely lacking in cynicism or sneer, Eddie The Eagle is about as uplifting and jubilant as a sporting feature should dare to be. Although comedic in tone, the dramatic tension offers an angle one rarely considers when remembering one of sports most memorable losers.

    In a chameleon-like turn, Kingsman’s Taron Egerton utterly becomes the titular legend. From his physical mannerisms and accent, right down to his vocal cadence, we see this representation of a determined spirit manifest. The beauty of both the performance and the screenplay is that the humour never pokes fun at Eddie; more applauds his will and single-mindedness. This is a film that (at the very least) will keep you smiling throughout its 105-minute runtime, interspersed with laughs, gasps and perhaps even a tear or two in its final moments. I struggle to remember a motion picture that champions the pure of heart as much as Eddie The Eagle does.

    As for the jumps themselves, the seamless marriage of 2nd Unit photography, stunt-work and visual effects blur the technical lines so one is never blatantly aware of one trick or another. The strength of this is that the audience becomes invested in the visual storytelling, instead of an awareness of optical “slight of hand”.

    Eddie The Eagle is an unashamedly feel-good movie with a cracking cast and outstanding soundtrack, featuring a wealth of retro classics and songs created especially for the film from the likes of Heaven 17, Howard Jones, Marc Almond, Kim Wilde, Tony Hadley and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Holly Johnson. See it in cinemas, bop along to the songs (curated by Gary Barlow) and eventually watch it at home along with Cool Runnings for that ultimate Winter Olympics ’88 underdog double-bill!

    Eddie The Eagle opens in the UK on March 28th

  • BRWC Reviews: 3 Days In Auschwitz

    BRWC Reviews: 3 Days In Auschwitz

    Directed by Phillipe Mora, 3 Days in Auschwitz is an incredibly personal film detailing Mora’s 3 visits to Auschwitz between 2010 and 2014 as he tries to answer the question…why?

    A survivor of the atrocities of Auschwitz by one day, Mora’s mother is the inspiration for this film and the losses his family suffer only compound his curiosity. As we join Mora on his quest we’re taken on a personal journey that begins by mapping out by Mora’s own artistic creations before a series of family interviews transition into him finally reaching Auschwitz.

    Displaying Mora’s soul and his art seems to be at the heart of this movie with very little focus on the events or even Auschwitz itself. The physical 3 days he spends in Auschwitz are very short, likely compounded by Mora not receiving permission to film on the site. Nonetheless, ultately I was left wanting for a little more information. It’s very difficult to be negative about such a personal film, but for me it didn’t work as a documentary and I was left a little bemused. Not only did I learn very little about the events that are being discussed, but I didn’t learn much about Mora or his family either. This piece appears to be focused on the confusion, doubt and conflicting emotions that grow from having family that suffered through these atrocities, but I found there to be more of a selfish influence on the film than a personal touch and I didn’t find it overly interesting. The most interesting portion of the film discusses an interview with a convicted Nazi official, but is short and itself doesn’t fit within the scope of the film.

    In essence this looked and felt like a home movie. The expertly crafted soundtrack, even with the aid of Eric Clapton couldn’t rescue it for me. I’m sure Mora’s family will be filled with pride when watching this film, but unfortunately it didn’t translate into something that others will enjoy.

    Hard to criticise for either its motivation or subject, but overall this isn’t a feature film for me, and although a true portrayal of Mora’s art and soul, its not very interesting to watch.

  • Thirty Batman/Superman Movies, Ranked: Part 3

    Thirty Batman/Superman Movies, Ranked: Part 3

    By Last Caress.

    Holy Top Ten, BRWC! Concluding our rundown of thirty Batman/Superman movies, ranked in order from worst to first (Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE):

    10. Batman Returns (Burton, 1992)

    The outstanding picture of the Burton/Schumacher cycle sees Danny DeVito hit all of the tragic, comic and terrifying notes in his performance as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin which were absent from the performances of either Jack Nicholson as The Joker in the preceding movie or Jim Carrey as The Riddler in the succeeding one. Michelle Pfeiffer matches Batman’s broken psyche pound for pound as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Michael Keaton continues his fine work as Bruce Wayne and Christopher Walken steals every scene he’s in, as he always does. With its festive backdrop it also qualifies as a Christmas mainstay, certainly in my house. Terrific theme song from the wonderful Siouxsie & the Banshees, too.

    9. Batman: Assault on Arkham (Spaulding/Oliva, 2014)

    In Batman: Assault on Arkham, The Caped Crusader plays a mere supporting role while The Suicide Squad – starring in their own live-action feature in 2016 – take centre stage. Ruthless government agent Amanda Waller coerces Black Spider (played by Breaking Bad‘s Giancarlo Esposito, who also plays Ra’s al Ghul in Son of Batman), Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, KGBeast, Killer Frost and King Shark into taking on a covert mission to break into Arkham and assassinate The Riddler. The Caped Crusader frequently takes a back seat to other characters in his animated features but here, it’s in a good cause.

    8. Batman: Under the Red Hood (Vietti, 2010)

    Robin. He’s the Scrappy-Doo of the Superhero world. I’ve never liked him. I only warmed to Dick Grayson once he became Nightwing. Jason Todd though… f*ck him. Most irritating Robin ever. What can be done with him? Kill him off? Make an asset of his petulance and reinvent him as a villain we’d love to see get his comeuppance? How about both? Of course, Todd was always such a bellend, there’s no way he could serve as a capable antagonist for The Dark Knight. But in Batman: Under the Red Hood, that’s exactly what transpires. It’s as though the bitterness and resentment of the character is borne not only from Jason’s experiences within the fictional framework of his universe, but also as the inevitable reaction to the years of disdain poured upon him from our side of the comic pages or the silver screen. The results are fantastic, though; it’s Jason’s finest hour. Coincidentally, Scrappy-Doo was also reinvented as the chief antagonist in the second live-action Scooby-Doo feature, Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (Gosnell, 2004). That film remained a pile of old bumwank, however.

    7. Man of Steel (Snyder, 2013)

    ManOfSteel

    Kicking off the DC Cinematic Universe comes this origin story for Kal-El, last son of Krypton. Falls apart a little towards the end when it devolves into a big boss fight ‘twixt Supes and General Zod (an impressive turn from Boardwalk Empire‘s Michael Shannon) but Man of Steel actually has a lot of heart, mostly coming from Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman and from Kevin Costner in excellent form as Clark’s human adoptive father Jonathan. Director Zack Snyder tends to polarize opinion but I’m a fan; I even liked Sucker Punch (2011). What I’m also a fan of, is Batman. At no.7, Man Of Steel represents the highest position on this chart for a Superman picture. It’s all Gotham from here on in.

    6. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Radomski/Timm, 1993)

    Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was the cinematically-released spin-off movie from the hugely successful TV show Batman: The Animated Series. A tragic love story as much as anything else, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has a dark, violent tone which was still considered a sizeable break from the norm for a superhero animation in 1993. Kevin Conroy, not especially well-known for his live-action roles, plays Batman here as he did in the TV show, and he went on to play Batman in many other shows and movies within the DC Animated Universe, so many in fact that he’s played Batman more than any other actor on the planet and is considered by many fans to be the definitive version of the character. Also reprising his role from the TV show is Mark Hamill (Star Wars) as The Joker in another performance many consider to be definitive.

    5. Batman: Year One (Liu/Montgomery, 2011)

    In 1986 DC published Frank Miller’s stunning take on the end of Batman’s career in The Dark Knight Returns. A year later, Miller took on the origins of The Caped Crusader and of his relationship with James Gordon, one of the only honest cops left in Gotham in a in a strip entitled Batman: Year One. Almost a quarter of a century later, DC made Batman: Year One the twelfth in their DC Universe Animated Original Movies sequence and, given the movie’s relative brevity, it’s a remarkably faithful retelling of that hugely popular tale, in which Bruce Wayne has just returned to Gotham after years away training to fight criminals, Jim Gordon has just been transferred to the city from Chicago and the pair of them team up to take on the corrupt police force and local mob kingpin Carmine Falcone. Voice talent for this instalment includes Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) as Jim Gordon, Eliza Dushku (Tru Calling) as Selina Kyle and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) as Sarah Essen, Gordon’s future bride.

    4. Batman: Gotham Knight (Various, 2008)

    A Batman anime? Yes, please! Batman: Gotham Knight takes an Animatrix (2003) approach, being made up of six smaller stories all by different writers and drawn by different artists. Supposedly set specifically between the events of live action pictures Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005) and The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008), the segments in Batman: Gotham Knight are in truth standalone enough to fit anywhere and nowhere in the Batman Canon. The wildly differing animation styles can initially be jarring for some but ultimately, Batman: Gotham Knight is one of the best superhero pictures out there, animated or otherwise.

    3. Batman Begins (Nolan, 2005)

    With the releases of Bryan Singer’s first two X-Men pictures and of Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man movies, faith in the superhero genre was at an all-time high in the mid-noughties. Faith in Batman as a live-action property… well, that wasn’t so high. In fact following on from the critical disaster of the Joel Schumacher pics Batman Forever (1995) and particularly Batman and Robin (1997), Batman’s stock was as low as it had ever been in movies. Still, the character remained hugely popular, having gone from strength to strength throughout the 90s/00s in comic and animated form, so he was always going to be worth one more crack, at least. That crack was taken by Christopher Nolan, director of the critically acclaimed Memento (2000), the result was Batman Begins, and it immediately placed The Dark Knight back amongst the biggest names in cinema with its dark and realistic vision of Gotham and of Batman, played with a singular ferocity by Christian Bale and surrounded by gravity-lending luminaries such as Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon.

    2. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Oliva, 2012/2013)

    Released in two parts, Kill Bill-style, Jay Oliva’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s classic story represents what may be an unbeatable high water mark for Superhero animation cinema. And since The Dark Knight Returns is a high water mark for superhero literature, it’s only right that the movie does it justice. Set ten years after Batman’s retirement with Gotham overrun by a gang called The Mutants, Bruce Wayne (Peter Weller, Robocop) is prompted back into service – along with a new Robin (Ariel Winter, Modern Family) – following Harvey Dent’s release from Arkham, immediately upon which he disappears. The first part of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns largely deals with Batman’s struggles against The Mutants and a resurgent Harvey Dent whilst simultaneously waging a futile, losing battle against his gravest nemesis yet: His own impending old age. But Batman’s not the only veteran about to stage a comeback. Following years in a catatonic state, The Joker has just woken up, and Part Two of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sees these two greatest of enemies find one another for one more dance, and last time pays for all. Not everyone is too pleased to see the caped crusader though; his endeavours have inspired the people of Gotham to turn the tide against the criminals, which causes embarrassment to the Government, who are failing nationally in a war being taken head on by a middle-aged vigilante in what was the worst city in the country. The government decide Batman needs to be shut down for good before he causes a national uprising, so they send their lapdog to carry out the task: Superman…

    1. The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008)

    “You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.”
    “Criminals aren’t complicated, Alfred. Just have to figure out what he’s after.”
    “With respect Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man that you don’t fully understand, either.”

    If Batman, The Joker and (eventually) Harvey Dent/Two Face weren’t the hyper-theatrical freaks of their society and the hyper-stylized icons of ours which mark The Dark Knight out not only as a superhero picture but as the greatest superhero picture ever made, and instead they were just three relatively regular guys on either side of the law, The Dark Knight would still be one of the all-time great crime thrillers. The heavyweight stellar ensemble from the first picture in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Batman Begins (2005) – Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman – return and are augmented by Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and by Maggie Gylenhaal as Bruce’s lost love and Harvey’s current squeeze Rachel Dawes (a massive, massive upgrade on Katie Holmes in the same role on the earlier picture). But, as mouth-watering as that cast is, nothing could prepare anyone for the terrifying performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker. Kept entirely free of backstory, openly contradicting himself with tall tales, half-truths and bald-faced lies about his past, present and future, here was a foe on whom Batman couldn’t get a bead with all of the resources in his arsenal. He doesn’t want money, or power, or revenge. He’s as suicidal as he is homicidal, he’s the smartest man in the room and although he might be a genius, he might also be insane.

    Some men just want to watch the world burn.

  • Thirty Batman/Superman Movies, Ranked: Part 2

    Thirty Batman/Superman Movies, Ranked: Part 2

    Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Last Caress, continuing our BRWC rundown of thirty Batman/Superman movies, ranked in order from worst to first (Part 1 HERE) :

    20. Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (Geda, 2003)

    Falling squarely into the good-not-great bin of mediocrity, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman sees Batman and Robin attempting to apprehend a new vigilante – Batwoman – before she can kill Penguin, Bane and other assorted nefarious Gotham lowlifes. And look here, Bruce Wayne has a new lady in his life: Mob boss daughter Kathy Duquesne. So who’s this Batwoman, anyway? It’s a real mystery, isn’t it? Actually, the answer’s not quite as obvious as I’ve telegraphed it there but it’s not much more perplexing either.

    19. Superman: Unbound (Tucker, 2013)

    Based on the comic book story Superman: Brainiac, Superman: Unbound is crisply animated and high octane but, concerned as it is with Superman and Supergirl’s battle to stop the demented cyborg Brainiac from destroying Earth whilst also attempting to retrieve the miniaturised Kryptonian city of Kandor from Brainiac’s ship, Superman: Unbound largely takes place off-planet, which means lots of dull metal panel spaceship locations or typically “alien” cityscape backdrops, leaving the movie feeling like a thousand generic kid’s cartoon shows. That’s a little unfair on the material which is fairly interesting for the most part and absolutely cracking from time to time but there we are. Those with a keen ear for voices might recognise that of Stephen Root (King of the Hill, Dodgeball) in the role of Zor-El, Superman’s uncle and Supergirl’s dad.

    18. Superman Returns (Singer, 2006)

    Fresh from his successes in bringing Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men to the big screen in 2000 and 2003 respectively, Bryan Singer – not particularly a fan of comic books, by the way – wanted a crack at rebooting Superman at the cinema, with an idea he’d had for a film which would ignore the events of Superman III (Lester, 1983) and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (Furie, 1987) and follow on more-or-less directly from Superman II (Lester, 1980). He pitched the idea to Warner Bros and the result was Superman Returns, a movie which, whilst chocked with ideas, is also WAY too long, too plodding when there isn’t an action set piece happening, and hampered by one or two questionable casting decisions; Brandon Routh is okay and he certainly looks like Christopher Reeve, but there needs to be more than just a physical similarity. The late, great movie critic Roger Ebert wondered if that was the only reason Routh was cast, and he may have a point. Kate Bosworth was immediately forgettable as Lois Lane, too. In its favour though, Kevin Spacey was excellent as Lex Luthor, a villain to whom I’ve never really taken.

    17. Batman: Bad Blood (Oliva, 2016)

    “This is the story of two nut-jobs. Bruce Wayne, and Talia Al Ghul. These are the Waynes. And these, are the Al Ghuls. And this is… Gotham.”
    If you’re not old and decrepit enough to recognize the above reference to Soap, the wacky sitcom about a large Connecticut family of screwballs and oddbods, you have my sympathies. You missed out. Still, don’t despair; you’ve got your own wacky family shenanigans to laugh and cry along to now! Batman takes a step back from the spotlight yet again, this time yielding mostly to Dick Grayson/Nightwing, covering for the grounded Dark Knight, and to Batwoman, a newcomer to the Bat family in the “DC Universe Animated Original Movies” sequence of films, although the character guest starred in 2003’s Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (Geda, 2003), a movie spin-off of the nineties TV show The New Batman Adventures. But Damian Wayne’s back on Robin duties (though he’s less irritating here than in the previous two movies) and we get to say howdy to Batwing, too! Cripes, it’s like the bloody Slaters on EastEnders, isn’t it?

    16. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Liu, 2009)

    Utilizing the well-worn concept of multiple heroes registering and working within the framework of the government, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies sadly doesn’t explore the implications of that scenario with any real depth, instead using it as no more than a means for Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown) – who has incredibly and rather bizarrely been elected president of the USA – to take another stab at bringing down his nemesis, the Son of Krypton, by framing him and Batman for a crime they didn’t commit, setting all the other heroes – plus a shedload of bounty-hunting villains – after the pair. And if that’s not enough, a Kryptonite meteor is set to collide with Earth in seven days! Bugger. Terrific multi-character mashup but the Luthor-as-President premise is a hell of a reach. Captain Atom was the inspiration for Watchmen‘s Dr. Manhattan. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies features the character Amanda Waller who also appears in Batman: Assault on Arkham and will be played by Viola Davis in the upcoming movie Suicide Squad (Ayer, 2016). Black Lightning is portrayed here by Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton.

    15. All Star Superman (Liu, 2011)

    I’ve never read the 12-part comic story but I’m led to understand that, in many ways, All-Star Superman is the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns of Superman literature. Sadly, while All Star Superman (the movie) is an interesting enough self-contained picture concerning Superman dealing with his mortality and impending death, the delivery gives the material no more gravity than a run-of-the-mill Saturday morning cartoon. The animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s pounding adieu to Gotham managed to retain the emotion of the comic book; All Star Superman didn’t, it would seem. Indeed, a popular complaint of the movie by fans of the book is that the movie rushed through the story. Still, it’s made me eager to check out the source material. Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks features as Lois Lane, as does the great Ed Asner (Up) as Perry White.

    14. Superman: Doomsday (Montgomery/Timm, 2007)

    In this loose adaptation of the successful comic book story arc The Death of Superman, Superman (Adam Baldwin) “dies” fighting Doomsday before being replaced by the first of what’s intended to be an army of Superman clones created by Lex Luthor. Superman: Doomsday was the first of the “DC Universe Animated Original Movies”, and although it lacked the gravity the story deserved (in the same way All Star Superman would four years later) it was a decent if unchallenging start. Antagonist Doomsday will feature in the upcoming movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Snyder, 2016).

    13. Superman II (Lester, 1980)

    I don’t know, you wait all day for a Kryptonian supervillain and then, all of a sudden, three show up at once! Undoubtedly the best of the Christopher Reeve-era Superman pics, Superman II sees the Man of Steel up against Ursa, Non and their leader General Zod (Terence Stamp), the insurgents locked up by Jor-El in the previous film, who arrive for a spot of world domination just as Supes has rescinded his powers in order to live a mortal, human life with Lois Lane. Always the way, isn’t it?

    12. Batman: The Movie (Martinson, 1966)

    “Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”
    Of course we all like our Dark Knight to be… well, dark. And of course the 1966 TV show could very well have sunk Batman as a credible literary icon forever. But Batman (the TV show) was so gleefully silly, it forced a sappy grin from everyone who tuned in, which was a lot of people. I can’t think of too many other shows I enjoyed as a kid and then enjoyed again as an adult for entirely different reasons. The Muppet Show maybe, and I guess The Simpsons had that same layered quality, once. Anyway, the Crown Jewel of the Adam West era was Batman: The Movie, basically a 105-minute extended episode featuring not one, not two, not three but ALL FOUR of The Caped Crusader’s arch enemies: Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman and The Joker. All at once! Holy Foursome! And if that wasn’t enough, we see The Dynamic Duo scramble the Bat-Boat, the Bat-Copter AND the Bat-Bike as well as the Batmobile (for my money, still the definitive incarnation of Batman’s ride and the greatest automobile ever captured on film). And we haven’t even mentioned Batman’s epic demonstration of the early extreme sport “Punch the Shark” whilst clinging to a rope ladder, or the quite incredibly handy can of “Shark Repellent” bat-spray which finished the hapless fish for good. I never leave the house without mine.

    11. Superman vs The Elite (Chang, 2012)

    How would people with genuine superpowers go about solving complex world crises like the Middle East, Pakistan/India, Korea, Russia in the Crimea, the slowly re-emerging Cold War? And once these superheroes have decided who’s right and who’s wrong, how far is too far in achieving their goals? Some pretty heavy sh*t right there for a Superman cartoon, but that’s what Superman vs The Elite attempts to tackle as Superman finds himself aided by a very able but maybe too willing band of assistants, against the backdrop of global political unrest and imminent military action. “Look Supes, when we take down the baddies, they stay down,” says Manchester Black to the Man of Steel, in a stance similar to that which Frank Castle takes opposing Matt Murdock in the second season of Daredevil on Netflix. Superman vs The Elite‘s bold, simplistic animation doesn’t do justice to its thought-provoking storyline though, which is a shame because many will likely dismiss the movie as a result.

    Our rundown concludes with part 3 HERE.

  • 10 Cloverfield Lane: The BRWC Review

    10 Cloverfield Lane: The BRWC Review

    Imagine you woke up in an underground bunker, injured, dazed and handcuffed to the wall. Then a strange man comes in and tells you that the world as you know it is over and he has saved you from the apocalypse. By now you’d probably be freaking out. This is the dilemma that Michelle faces, played by the impressive Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Her capturer is John Goodman, who plays the grizzled Howard and the other ‘guest’ in  the bunker is Emmett played by John Gallagher, Jr.

    Howard is a survivalist, that’s right, one of those crazy people who actually prepares for the end of the world, but he’s laughing now, well not really laughing more just saying he told you so.  Howard doesn’t want Michelle to leave, he believes the outside air is toxic, and even though she is wary of his claims she has no choice but to stay. Together they form a sort of dysfunctional family, with Howard the daddy to his little girl and Emmett the nice but dim-witted brother to Michelle.

    The film started as a spec script written by Josh Campbell and Matthew Stucken but when it was picked up by Bad Robot productions it became the sort-of sequel to Matt Reeves’ sci-fi hit Cloverfield.  The film is not really a sci-fi though; rather it is an intimate character study. Mary Winstead is brilliant as the resourceful Michelle. She never becomes the victim her character could so easily have been; instead she’s always planning her next move, fighting for survival. This is John Goodman’s film though, by far his best performance in years. He adeptly flits between menacing and sympathetic. You never know when he might snap and you never truly feel comfortable when he’s around.

    Reminiscent at times of Signs, this horror focuses on real psychological fear. It revels in the fear of the unknown — never truly knowing what is on the other side of the door. This is a grounded horror film, deriving its scares from a twisty plot that never delves into melodrama. If this is the future of Hollywood sequels then I am excited. Great writing and great acting make for a great film. It’s that simple. And 10 Cloverfield Lane nails them both.