David R. Walker

Archive for September, 2024

Transformers One

Director: Josh Cooley

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Jon Hamm, Laurence Fishburne, Keegan-Michael Key

Running Time: 1 hour and 44 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Please note this film is animated and created with CGI

A host of stars get some much needed voice work as voice overs in the new Transformers One film directed by Josh Cooley, which is a first fully CGI created animated feature film with dazzling visual effects and an entertaining origin story, which acts more like a prequel for the Transformers before they land on earth. The action takes place on Cybertron.

Chris Hemsworth, Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story, JoJo Rabbit) and Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway) voice the three main lead bots – Orion Pax, Elita 1 and D-16. Orion Pax and D-16 are lowly miner bots in the Cybertron hierarchy and when they don’t follow protocol they land up on a heroic adventure along with the smart Elita 1 to discover what the seemingly benign Sentinel Prime expertly voiced by Jon Hamm is really up to.

As the trio leave Cybertron and go to the planet’s surface, they meet the talkative B127 voiced by the excellent Keegan-Michael Key (Wonka) and soon discover that Sentinel Prime is using the lowly non-transformative bots to do mining for a more sinister force.

As Orion Pax and his friends discover the truth about their world they encounter Alpha Trion, voiced by Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne (What’s Love Got To Do With It) who gives them their transformation cog back allowing them to expertly transform into the multi-functional robots they are meant to be.

Soon Orion, Elita 1 and the gang confront the evil Sentinel Prime who has doubled the amount of mining on Cybertron and then much to Orion’s surprise his best friend transforms once his real power is restored.

Since live action versions of Transformers have all but been exhausted, it was a smart move to release an animated and completed computer generated version of Transformers One, a humorous and colourful origin story fit for a younger audience which will entice them to watch the earlier films.

Its 17 years since the first live action Transformers film was released back in 2007 which launched the careers of Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel and there is still lot in this Hasbro toy inspired franchise to explore and develop.

While it was fascinating to watch the superb animation, which this film deserves to be recognized for, it is equally interesting to identify the different voices of the famous cast members.

The visual effects and production design of Transformers One is amazing and as animated film, this serves as a worthy addition to stand deservedly alongside the multiple Live action versions.

Transformers One is entertaining, humorous and filled with moral lessons about leadership, corruption and deception.

Take the kids to watch Transformers One and discover the origin story of the rise of Optimus Prime. Transformers One gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is recommended viewing. The talented voice cast expertly compliment the incredible visuals on screen.

Kneecap

Director: Rich Peppiatt

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Josie Walker, Jessica Reynolds, Simone Kirby, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, DJ Próvaí

Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Language: Irish with English Subtitles

Festivals: European Film Festival / Sundance Film Festival / South by South West Film Festival

Warning: This film has rude lyrics and portrays copious amounts of drug taking.

Director Rich Peppiatt’s first full length narrative film Kneecap which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and is an official entry for Ireland’s submission for Best Foreign Language film at the 2025 Oscars is certainly worth seeing. A frenetic film about the rise of the influential and detrimental Irish hip hop band Kneecap in which the band members play themselves in this fast paced quirky film about the rise of Irish hip hop on the streets of Belfast and is almost like Trainspotting but set in Northern Ireland.

Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, DJ Próvaí all play themselves as the tyrannical trio who preach the significance of hip hop in the Irish language, a form of subversive behaviour against the British and general normative society.

Luckily the film’s band members are supported by screen actors including a superb appearance by Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs) as Arlo O Cairealláin, the mysterious father of Naoise. Simone Kirby plays the agoraphobic mother of Naoise, Dolores Ó Cairealláin who rallies her son’s interest through the hairdressing network in Belfast.

Set in West Belfast in the later 2010’s, Kneecap is an explosive and foul-mouthed portrayal of renegade lads whose drug induced rise to fame helped with huge doses of MDMA, ketamine along with other snorting substances.

Kneecap is anti-establishment and captured the zeitgeist of a generation of young Irish youths who wanted to stamp their own Irish identity on a country which is effectively still being governed by England.

Besides the misbehaviour and the rude lyrics, Kneecap is about the authentic rap music, which was always a style of music which was subversive, counter-culture and aimed at the underdog ready to attract the lunatic fringe.

With great performances by all the bandmembers and a stunning supporting role by Fassbender who is channelling all the Irish side of his German-Irish heritage, Kneecap is an insanely entertaining film about the rise of Irish language hip hop, the politicization of indigenous languages and how fame often immortalizes the miscreants of society.

Rich Peppiatt’s thoroughly entertaining and a visually impressive film, hugely inspired by Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Kneecap is a must see film. Energetic and absolutely boisterous, Kneecap gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing.

The Other Way Around

Director: Jonas Trueba

Cast: Itsaso Arana, Vito Sanz, Fernando Trueba

Running Time: 112 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10  

Language: Spanish with English Subtitles

Festivals: Cannes Film Festival, European Film Festival

Madrid based film director Jonas Trueba presents an unconventional romantic drama The Other Way Around set in the Spanish capital. This slightly bizarre, self-reflexive film focuses on a hip young couple who work in the film industry who decide that it’s time to separate after being together for 15 years, a sort of conscious uncoupling, a term celebrity couple Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love) and Coldplay Lead singer Chris Martin used when they parted company.

The couple are Ale played by Itasso Arana and Alex played by Vito Sanz who not only tell all their family and friends that they are separating on the last day of the European summer, 22^nd September to be precise, but that in preparation for this event they are throwing a massive party. This would be an event celebrating their separation as opposed to them getting together.

Director Jonas Trueba presents a thoroughly bizarre comedy with lots of rapid fire Spanish dialogue in which both man and woman have almost an existential crisis in their relationship, the types of relationships so brilliantly portrayed in some of Woody Allen’s earlier films like Husbands and Wives.

While Ale and Alex prepare for their separation much to the horror of their friends and family, they inadvertently fall back in love with each other.

The Other Way Round is filled with European film references, however as a film which is nearly two hours long, the story doesn’t achieve any form of cathartic release and there is no sense of a neatly tied up plot, instead ending in a strange montage of what their separation party at Ale’s father’s house would have looked like.

Director Jonas Trueba’s film which was presented at the 2024 Cannes directors’ fortnight seems strange and slightly repetitive which was perhaps the point of the film, given the couple’s philosophical inclinations and their preoccupation with Danish philosopher Kierkegaard’s 1843 book Repetition.

The Other Way Around is a strange romantic comedy about how a couple decided sensibly to uncouple.

With a distinctly Spanish style, The Other Way Around is recommended viewing for those that like obscure European cinema.

The Other Way Around gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is a fascinating film, except when the self-reflexivity detracts from the narrative.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: 2024

Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera, Danny deVito, Willem Dafoe

Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

To make a sequel 36 years after the original film is always a risk. Tom Cruise pulled it off but Michael Keaton doesn’t.  

In this case, director Tim Burton returns to direct Beetlejuice: 2024 with Michael Keaton returning as the pesky phantom Beetlejuice along with Oscar nominee Winona Ryder (The Age of Innocence) as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara as the hilarious Delia.

Beetlejuice 2024 is a simulacrum of all previous Gothic fantasy films laced with dark humour and serves as a fitting tribute to the highly successful Addams Family films.

When Lydia’s teenage daughter Astrid, superbly played by rising star Jenny Ortega gets taken to the underworld by a mysteriously creepy young man, Lydia has to summon up the crazy Beetlejuice to enlist his help in tracking her down before she boards the soul train, with the last stop being the Pearly Gates.

Meanwhile down in the underworld, Beetlejuice’s crazy ex-wife Delores wildly played by Italian actress Monica Bellucci (Spectre) in a role which pays tribute to Anjelica Huston, is a member of a soul sucking death cult and is out to exact revenge and plans to kill Beetlejuice.

Oscar nominee Michael Keaton (Birdman) must have been offered a substantial sum to return as Beetlejuice yet one thinks it was more a cinematic opportunity to reunite with Tim Burton who directed Keaton in the original Batman film way back when Jack Nicholson played the Joker in 1989. To put that in perspective it was when I was a teenager.

Filled with lots of 1980’s nuances and some fantastic scenes including the Soul Train dance number, Beetlejuice 2024 starts off really promising with some great supporting actors including Justin Theroux (The Girl on the Train) as Lydia’s slimy producer fiancée Rory and Catherine O’Hara making the most of her recent fame as Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek as she reprises the role of the eccentric Delia. Soon Beetlejuice turns literally into a nightmare trip of pastiche and unoriginality as Tim Burton rips off recent films like Dune while paying homage to older more memorable films like Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby.

Unfortunately, the story of Beetlejuice 2024 is chaotic nonsense and despite the odd laugh and garish ghoul, the film comes off as a desperate attempt to reclaim the original success of the 1988 version.

While the makeup is brilliant, the storyline gets derailed by some truly bizarre dream sequences which feature a mash up of A Nightmare Before Christmas and Addams Family Values.

The idea was there, but the execution failed in every sense, except for Monica Bellucci and Jenna Ortega the rest of the cast did not look happy to reprise their roles which should have stayed buried at the end of the 1980’s.

Sometimes the original film is enough without having to make a sequel so long afterwards. For all its craziness, Beetlejuice 2024 failed to impress and gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10. Infantile and slightly inane.

Blink Twice

Director: Zoe Kravitz

Cast: Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Levon Hawke

Running Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

The best decision that first time director Zoe Kravitz did, was change the title of this first time feature directorial from Pussy Island to Blink Twice.

Imagine trying to market a film called Pussy Island?

Actress turned director Zoe Kravitz casts Channing Tatum as mysterious tech billionaire Slater King in Blink Twice opposite an amazing Naomi Ackie (I Wanna Dance with Somebody) as Frida, a struggling Los Angeles waitress who along with her friend Jess played by Alia Shawkat are invited to his private island in an unknown location.

Like in director Mike Mylod’s The Menu, the audience knows that something terrifying is about to happen, but not sure what. Blink Twice is no different except lacking the charisma of Ralph Fiennes, this is a mystery horror thriller starring a host of ensemble actors including Christian Slater (True Romance, Interview with a Vampire) as Vic, Simon Rex as Cody, Oscar winner Geena Davis (The Accidental Tourist) as Stacy and Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet, Dune) as Rich. There is also a fiery Adria Arjona (Hitman) as Sarah along with Levon Hawke as Lucas.

Frida and Slater and a host of guests arrive via private jet at the sumptuous yet creepy estate, a red villa amidst lush greenery seeping with poisonous snakes and shifty servants.

Blink Twice takes a while to get going, but the intensity of the narrative is held together by some inventive colour saturation and gaudy production design by Roberto Bonelli, which frames the anguish of the characters against stark primary colours as their social anxiety heightens. Zoe Kravitz’s decision to film most of the characters in Extreme Close Up adds to the psychological trauma of what is really occurring.

Amidst the lavish dinners and decadent pool parties, with all the ladies in white and the men looking lecherous, Frida’s friend Jess suddenly goes missing and soon all the luxury of their plush surroundings vanish when Frida tries to piece together what is really happening polaroid style.

Channing Tatum plays the sinister billionaire and steps out of his comfort zone as a quasi-villain. Blink Twice really belongs to Naomi Ackie and Adria Arjona as they soon discover that their drug induced dinners served an entirely nefarious purpose. The nasty characters get horribly messy very quickly amidst the pink mimosas and the champagne cocktails on this private island in which the men are catching more than just fish.

As a directorial debut Zoe Kravitz’s film Blink Twice is slightly challenging in places, yet the narrative doesn’t quite hold together and some of the extra characters are wasted. Fortunately for all its garish quirks, Blink Twice has a fascinating twist at the end.

Not for sensitive viewers, Blink Twice is a psychological thriller for the Instagram generation which gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. If you enjoyed Saltburn and The Menu, then watch Blink Twice.