298. The Intent; movie review

THE INTENT
Cert 15
101 mins
BBFC advice: Contains very strong language, strong violence, sex, drug misuse, torture

Bliss. It has been many months since everyfilm.co.uk was up-to-date to such an extent that I could write reviews ahead of movie releases but here we are.
So, Femi Oyeniran and Kalvadour Peterson's The Intent is not out until Friday but, thanks to an internet link sent to me by its PR company, I can give you an early verdict.
The film is a representation of what happens when power intoxicates in the world of London's gangs and the conflict of an uncover police office in trying to expose those who have, on the face of it, become his friends,
Dylan Duffus plays the aforementioned detective who becomes embroiled in a series of increasingly violent raids by a gang called the TIC, led by a loose cannon known Hoodz, portrayed by Tayo Jarrett, better known a 'grime' artist Scorcher.
Duffus and Scorcher provide the most potent aspect of The Intent, convincing in both language (it took me a good ten minutes to acclimatise to their street lingo) and expression.
I could sense a truth about the way in which tension ratchets up between rival gangs and how innocent bystanders become collateral damage.
It is also interesting to see how death affects the participants differently. The head of Hoodz is turned so much towards the prize (money, fast cars and women) that he has no conscience and cannot understand those that have one.
However, both Mrs W and I felt that its representation of the police was wooden and off the mark.
The point which particularly jarred to me was the way in which arrests were carried out, gung-ho and in public when most often operations are at dawn when the suspects are in bed and at their most vulnerable.
There are also scenes in interview and briefing rooms which feel strangely forced when compared to the much more natural acting in other arenas.
The Intent's makers should take credit for the fact that it does shock and it is thought-provoking and has a final twist which is particularly effectively handled.

Reasons to watch: the realistic representation of gang culture
Reasons to avoid: its off-the-mark portrayal of the police

Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: off-screen
Nudity: very briefly
Overall rating: 6/10

Star tweet

DJ IRONIK ‏@DJIronik  5h5 hours ago

Enjoyed the @theintentmovie film premiere last night. Wicked movie! Good to see @femioyeniran too bro, congrats!

297. Dirty Dancing; movie review

DIRTY DANCING
Cert 12A
96 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate sex references

This summer's Secret Cinema event gave mums a chance to catch up on one of their favourite films and possibly introduce new generations to it.
One pronounced on Twitter that she had watched Emile Ardolino's Dirty Dancing scores of times but it still made her cry.
Forgive me for not being carried away on the same tide of emotion.
I thought it was important that I didn't just present the view of a beer-swilling footy fan so I took in Dirty Dancing with Mrs W.
The old gal won't mind me stating that she isn't much of a romantic (who would be with a husband like me?) and I have to report that it failed to hit her tender spot.
Dirty Dancing was a phenomenon when it was released in 1987 and has continued to accrue fans over the following 29 years,
Surprisingly, it was brand new to us and we were agreed that, of the genre, Hairspray trounces it.
It's not that it is bad - the dance scenes are the epitome of lithe and Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze are screen eye candy.
My difficulty was that the movie's plot is thin - young girl (Grey) goes to summer retreat, falls for bad boy dancer (Swayze) who really has a heart of gold all along.
Once we have thrown in a well-meaning but misunderstanding dad (Jerry Orbach), a carelessly pregnant young woman (Cynthia Rhodes) and a belligerent big sister (Jane Brucker),  pretty much all of the parts are in place.
It throws up a clutch of moral dilemmas but they are far too easily resolved and I could not grasp why a movie set in 1963 should have a soundtrack which, albeit catchy, is so firmly set in the 1980s.
But it is light viewing and by its end we were singing along to Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes just as I imagine those who attended Secret Cinema did.

Reasons to watch: one of the most famous films of the 1980s
Reasons to avoid: struggles to pass the test of time

Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 6.5/10

Star tweet

Lindsey KelkVerified account ‏@LindseyKelk  Jul 18

Is it weird that my entire adult wardrobe is inspired by Baby Houseman and until today, I never realized? #DirtyDancing

296. The Sacrifice (Offret); movie review

THE SACRIFICE (OFFRET)
Cert 15
149 mins
BBFC advice: Contains brief female sexualised nudity

I am conflicted about whether to curse Artificial Eye for releasing an Andrei Tarkovsky retrospective or be happy that I am plugging a hole in my film knowledge.
Even his fans will appreciate that Tarkovsky is heavy going although I warmed to him after I watched Ivan's Childhood last week.
I would pitch The Sacrifice at the same level.  Arty to the point of surrealism at times but with an overall point which does provoke deep thought.
The problem for me is that viewing Tarkovsky is a little too much akin to being in a literature appreciation class at school or philosophy seminars while studying for my degree.
I remember how we used to have to try to raise the veil on French poets or work out what was going through an author's mind when they wrote a classic novel or understand the complex theories of the likes of Nietschke and Hegel.
It is, in my view, an impossible task because we can never really know what they were thinking at the time.
Even the opening conversation in The Sacrifice prompts the question: "what on earth are they talking about?"
The film is set on the birthday of its lead character, Alexander (Erland Josephson) who has a nasty habit of drifting into windy monologues about the meaning of life (he nearly loses his grandson during one).
Actually, the grandson (Tommy Kjellqvist), only named Little Man and mute until the film's final scenes, is central to the main plot of the film - which is the imminent threat of nuclear holocaust.
The latter is revealed when Alexander's family and best friend (Allan Edwall) are gathered to celebrate his birthday. Their extreme reactions following the announcement of doom are fascinating.
Of course, this prompts deeper thought about what anyone would do in similar circumstances. In the hands of Tarkovsky it is is strange yet effective.
One scene, in which his wife (Susan Fleetwood) seems to lose her mind in the face of death, is particularly memorable.
But, like all Tarkovsky films, it goes on and on and ends with a finale so baffling that I don't even think my philosophy lecturer could work it out,

Reasons to watch: deep and poetic 
Reasons to avoid: meanders far too much for me

Laughs: none
Jumps: one
Vomit: none
Nudity: yes
Overall rating: 6/10

Star tweet

Mark Oosterveen ‏@MarkOosterveen  Jul 15

Friday night treat - more Tarkovsky. Finally going to get round to watching The Sacrifice, his final masterpiece apparently.

295. Bo66y; movie review

BO66Y
Cert PG
95 mins
BBFC advice: Contains mild bad language

I am sitting in a hotel room in Germany writing about the moment, 50 years ago, that, for once, England held sway over the old enemy on the football pitch.
I have the very vaguest recollections that, when I was three years old, my parents and relatives watched the World Cup final while on holiday in Porthcawl.
But that's it - my first concrete memory of England playing football was the excitement of collecting Esso coins and a sticker album ahead of the 1970 tournament.
I still look back on that World Cup as the very best - even though England succumbed to what would be a familiar tale of disappointment against... guess who?
I digress. Matt Lorenzo, once a regular TV football presenter, co-produced this biopic of the 1966 World Cup captain, Bobby Moore, to coincide with this year's anniversary and I caught up with it on itunes.
In today's world of overblown celebrity it is hard to believe how the only player ever to have lifted the World Cup for England was allowed to drift from public consciousness.
But the fact that Lorenzo had to finance his film through crowd-funding is disappointingly apt.
Moore's story is told through current interviews with both his wives and his daughter, close friends and former team-mates. Unnecessarily, there are contributions from Wayne Rooney and Roy Hodgson - neither of whom would have been fit to lace Moore's proverbial boots.
Bo66y tells how Moore's career with West Ham unfolded before he was picked for England and, ultimately, became its captain.
It includes footage and memories of 1966 but is not just about that World Cup campaign.
And it reveals how Moore, who died in 1993, first fought cancer just over a year BEFORE winning the World Cup and how his team-mates didn't know.
All contributors agreed that he was a wonderful leader of men but the Football Association later snubbed him despite the failure of successive England managers and did not even use him as an ambassador.
There are some very personal contributions in which his battle with depression and, finally, terminal cancer are described.
Director Ron Scalpello tells a powerful story with a light touch but does use a persuasive hammer in making the point that Moore was the first celebrity footballer and one of the few who have actually deserved the tag.
Today's crop of England failures should watch this film. They would learn a lot.

Reasons to watch: the largely untold story of England's greatest football hero
Reasons to avoid: if you are not a football fan

Laughs: a couple of chuckles
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 8/10

Star tweet

Henry WinterVerified account ‏@henrywinter  2 Sep 2015

Crowd-funding starts Thursday for BO66Y THE MOVIE - The Bobby Moore documentary by Matthew Lorenzo http://kck.st/1N0ATWC  #whufc #eng

294. Bang Gang; movie review

BANG GANG
Cert 18
96 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong sex, nudity, sex references, drug use

I have heard a lot of talk about misspent youth and sexual teenage adventures and it makes me wonder why I spent my time playing Subbuteo in my mate's garage (no offence, Paul).
It seems that while we flicked to kick, others were getting their kits off and having a whale of a time.
Well, maybe not in 1979.
Worryingly, Eva Husson's Bang Gang is depicted as a 'modern love story' and, if that is the case, my children must have had the sort of social life of which no dad needs to know.
Or perhaps they should. One of the over-riding themes of the movie is how the young are being outrageous to kick against their parents.
The latter are portrayed as unfeeling or just plain ignorant as their offspring go on the inevitable voyage of exploration.
Bang Gang suggests that today's rite of passage is dominated by sort of free-love which was seen as glamorous in the late 1960s but dangerous in 2016.
It centres on two 16-year-olds (Marilyn Lima and Daisy Broom) who allow themselves to be used by the ego trip of two boys (Finnegan Oldfield and Fred Hotier).
Lima's character is spurned by Oldfield's after having sex with him so spontaneously creates a truth or dare game to which she gives the moniker Bang Gang.
As the summer progresses so these Bang Gangs become a more popular school extra-curricular activity than any sport could hope to be.
Meanwhile, regrets begin to abound and the real meaning of growing-up comes to the fore.
The elephant in the room is that there is a lot of sex and nudity in Bang Gang and I did wonder about the question of exploitation of young people and the sort of person who may be watching Husson's debut feature,
I have seen much praise for it across social media, particularly from feminists but it must have dawned on them that this could be seen as fodder for the dirty mac brigade.
Nevertheless, it is original and thought-provoking and does lead me to look forward to Husson's next film (in a good way).

Reasons to watch: a story of today with lots of beautiful people
Reasons to avoid: the age of the participants might churn the stomach

Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: yes
Overall rating: 6/10

Star tweet

evahusson ‏@evahusson  Jun 13

#BANGGANG is importantly abt the role that misspent youth has in shaping us all #ukrelease

293. The Legend Of Tarzan; movie review

THE LEGEND OF TARZAN
Cert 12A
110 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate action violence, threat, injury detail

I have to say that we painted the town a little redder than we intended in Hamburg and so we were a bit jaded when we arrived in Odense in Denmark - the latest leg on our mini European tour.
Therefore, we plumped for a nice meal and a walk to the Biocity complex for David Yates' The Legend Of Tarzan.
We wondered, as the cashier discussed our seating requirements in perfect English, just how many of his counterparts in the UK could have responded in Danish.
And then we took our places in front of rows of teenagers and feared the worst.
In England, there is no doubt that the demographic of this screening would have meant chatting, giggling and loud popcorn guzzling.
Not so, at Biocity. The audience were quiet as mice until Samuel L. Jackson cracked one of his many funnies and then they burst out laughing.
In other words, they respected the film and the rest of the audience and helped our enjoyment of another movie of which I had been apprehensive.
But I am pleased to report that, as with Ghostbusters a few days before, Mrs W and I were very pleasantly surprised by the retelling of an old story.
If I remember the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan correctly, this picture takes up where it left off, with Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) now acclimatised to life in London society.
However, he is lured back to the jungle by a missive from King Leopold of Belgium who wants to show off his developments in the Congo.
Actually, this is a ruse by the king's representative (Christoph Waltz) who has promised a tribal chief to bring him his sworn foe (Tarzan) in return for access to a rich seam of diamonds.
Against his better judgment, Tarzan returns with a comic American sidekick (Jackson) and his beautiful and feisty wife, Jane (Margot Robbie).
And within a minute, Skarsgård's shirt is off, revealing admirable muscle tone and Tarzan is swinging through the trees and talking to the animals like Doctor Doolittle.
It takes a little while before the familiar "Taaaaa.aaah...ahh" shout but once we hear it we know that good guys will prevail.
I heard an interview with the erudite Waltz a couple of weeks back and he justified yet another retelling of Tarzan by saying the story had been updated and he is right.
Johnny Weismuller, Ron Ely and even Christopher Lambert would not pass the test of 2016 but both Mrs W and I agreed that this version worked... for now.

Reasons to watch: its action - and SLJ's comic foil
Reasons to avoid: might be too cheesy for some

Laughs: three
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 8.5/10

Star tweet

Harry Knowles ‏@headgeek666  Jul 1

Well this life long Tarzan fan loved LEGEND OF TARZAN! Script by @MyBrewTube did not disappoint

292. The Hexecutioners; movie review

THE HEXECUTIONERS
Cert 15
93 mins
BBFC advice: Strong language, bloody violence horror

I have to accept that watching a movie, downloaded from itunes, in the passenger seat of a car trekking around Europe, is not a cinematic experience.
But I would not be able to review as many films as I do if I did not use my time in this way.
Thus, it struck me that I may not have gleaned the best shock effects from Jesse Thomas Cook's horror movie The Hexecutioners.
If I had seen it on the big screen I reckon I would have jumped at least twice more than I did but its cinema release was so limited I didn't have the opportunity.
Cook's film surrounds the premise that euthanasia has been legalised in the United States and unscrupulous companies could be given licences to carry out the 'closures'.
Malison McCourt (Liv Collins) has signed up for such a firm and soon discovers that all of the official training she has received goes out of the window when it comes to helping finish off her clients.
Actually, there is a bit of a grey area over who the clients are - is it those who are about to fall off the mortal coil or their families?
I digress, Her first experience of applying a lethal injection is not a good one so she is teamed up with a more experienced closure 'expert' in the shape of Olivia Bletcher (Sarah Power), a power-dressed, conscience-less killer.
But even Olivia is shaken by the expectations of the next bumping off which takes place in a scary mansion and involves rituals for which her firm has been paid $1 million.
To be fair, The Hexecutioners has an interesting, if convoluted, premise. But its problem is that its budget is not as big as its ambition.
Therefore, neither actress convinces in the lead roles and it tries to prompt its audience to jump with basic sound effects. Its finale is also in need of finesse.
But I reckon horror fans will approve and, as said, I think my own perspective needed to be better for it to have full effect.

Reasons to watch: it will make audiences jump
Reasons to avoid: obviously low budget

Laughs: none
Jumps: twice
Vomit: none
Nudity: yes
Overall rating: 6/10

Star tweet

John Jennings ‏@MangaArtGalway  Jul 10

#TheHexecutioners that is how you make a scary movie Excellent :)