December 2017 movie review part two

PADDINGTON TWO (2017) D- Paul King
When everybody’s favourite CGI-rendered bear falls victim to false allegations of theft by evil (but delicious) Hugh Grant, he finds himself doing hard time. But his irrepressible nature wins the hearts of even the most hardened recidivists on the inside, and a prison break is planned so that he might clear his name. What’s not to like?
        Not a lot, apparently. The film followed on the critical and public success of the first Paddington movie, though some, like me, found it took a long time to get going, with too much emphasis on the perfect middle class existence of his adopted family. Still, as a foil to the unrelenting violence of John Wick 2, it’s hard to beat. Premier league Christmas movie fodder.

THE BEGUILED (1971) D- Don Siegel
THE BEGUILED (2017) D- Sophia Coppola
A wounded confederate soldier stumbles into a girl’s school where he is taken in and his wounds tended to. Soon the teachers and pupils begin to become beguiled (geddit?) by their unusual charge. Some of the older pupils fancy the hell out of him; the younger ones think he’s just great, while the teachers, well, they daren’t admit what they feel, even to themselves.
         I group these two films together because in many ways, the second is almost a shot-for- shot remake of the first. The Coppola version had the virtue of a much bigger budget, allowing it to have a remarkably authentic feel. Much of of the money went on the women’s costumes and general look, making them appear exactly like photos from that era. Both films convey a strange, claustrophobic atmosphere which certainly draws the viewer in but, I found myself asking, does the new film really add much to Siegel’s original? I don’t think so, and I think it a shame such a talented director as Sophia Coppola didn’t find an original project on which to exercise her abundant talent. Oh well...

LIFE (2017) D- Daniel Espinosa
The crew of the ISS discover the first evidence of life outside the Earth. Then it starts evolving at an alarming rate, from a single-called organism to something resembling a remarkably vindictive octopus in mere days. First one astronaut, then another is strangled, and they begin to think, screw the ground-breaking discovery aspect of this thing, we’ve just got to kill it. Which proves a lot harder than they might have hoped...
          You may remember Ivan Reitman’s hilarious film Evolution featuring David Ducovny. Well, with Life, just think that minus the laughs. Throw in a touch of Ridley Scott’s Alien and you’ve got the whole film, right there. Yes, it’s well made with sound performances, and yes, it is very scary, but I couldn’t help thinking, hey, it’s been done before. Try harder people! There’s no shortage of quality sci-fi novels out there waiting to be filmed.