LE MANS 66 (AKA FORD VS FERRARI) 2019 D- James Mangold
In 1964, someone persuades Henry Ford II that it would be good for sales if he could build a car to win the famous Le Mans 24 hour endurance race and thereby end the hegemony of Ferrari, who have dominated the race for years. Ford calls upon Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), a man who has established himself as a winner (though not in Europe) and he in turn asks a friend, Jeff Miles (Christian Bale) to help him build it and, even more important, drive it.
But Miles is a ‘difficult’ man, whose face doesn’t fit, and the Ford hierarchy would squeeze him out of the plan. But Shelby is a man used to getting his way...
This film has a lot going for it. Directed by James Mangold, whose last film was Logan, easily the best of the X men series, and featuring strong performances from the lead players, it is both thrilling and insightful. My only criticism is the lack of strong female roles, with the exception of Caitriona Balfe as Miles’s wife, but even there her contribution is peripheral. Definitely a man’s film then, though women have praised it too, among them my own wife.
THE IRISHMAN 2019 D- Martin Scorsese
“Do you paint houses?” An Irishman (Robert deNiro) is asked. “Yes”, he responds, “And I do my own carpentry too.” It would seem this is Mafia code for “Do you murder people for money?” And “And I clean up afterwards” respectively. And there you have it. For this is the story, and for Scorsese a very well worn path I think you’ll agree, of a hitman and his hits. Some way into the film we meet Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino, who for my money steals the show), leader of the immensely powerful Teamster’s Union and “the second most powerful man in America”, who befriends deNiro and uses him as minder-in-chief. Of course everyone knows that Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and his body has never been found...
When it comes to portraying the shady, violent world of the Italian Mafia, nobody has done it better than Scorsese. His Goodfellas was perhaps the definitive gangster movie. And in this film, produced by Netflix, he has the advantage of some remarkable technology with which has been able to ‘de-age’ the main characters, including a Jo Pesci, who when left ungraphiced clearly is in more need of this technology than any of the others. But in this reviewer’s opinion, this is only a gimmick, a piece of wizardry which doesn’t really add much to the movie. And like Le Mans 66, there is a distressing paucity of women’s roles. In Goodfellas we had the estimable Lorraine Bracco. In this, women stay well in the background.
LITTLE MONSTERS (2019) D- Abe Forsythe
In a rural township in Australia, a primary school teacher (Lupita Nyong’o) takes her class on an outing to a local theme park, well it’s more a farm that’s been done up as a petting zoo. Whatever. On the way there we meet no-hoper Josh Gad who manages to persuade teach to let him act as chaperone in place of a parent who has dropped out. She’s not entirely sure about him, and she may be right to be so, but in the event he proves an invaluable ally when the farm is attacked by a huge gang of marauding, wait for it, zombies.
For yes, this is a zombie flick, Ozzie style. This is in fact a very tight little movie, well acted and directed, with not too much gore but plenty of laughs as well as nastier moments. I understand Mark Kermode, world’s biggest fan of horror movies, didn’t rate it, but maybe all that blood and guts have jaded his palate. The fact is, I did.
THE IRISHMAN 2019 D- Martin Scorsese
“Do you paint houses?” An Irishman (Robert deNiro) is asked. “Yes”, he responds, “And I do my own carpentry too.” It would seem this is Mafia code for “Do you murder people for money?” And “And I clean up afterwards” respectively. And there you have it. For this is the story, and for Scorsese a very well worn path I think you’ll agree, of a hitman and his hits. Some way into the film we meet Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino, who for my money steals the show), leader of the immensely powerful Teamster’s Union and “the second most powerful man in America”, who befriends deNiro and uses him as minder-in-chief. Of course everyone knows that Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and his body has never been found...
When it comes to portraying the shady, violent world of the Italian Mafia, nobody has done it better than Scorsese. His Goodfellas was perhaps the definitive gangster movie. And in this film, produced by Netflix, he has the advantage of some remarkable technology with which has been able to ‘de-age’ the main characters, including a Jo Pesci, who when left ungraphiced clearly is in more need of this technology than any of the others. But in this reviewer’s opinion, this is only a gimmick, a piece of wizardry which doesn’t really add much to the movie. And like Le Mans 66, there is a distressing paucity of women’s roles. In Goodfellas we had the estimable Lorraine Bracco. In this, women stay well in the background.
LITTLE MONSTERS (2019) D- Abe Forsythe
In a rural township in Australia, a primary school teacher (Lupita Nyong’o) takes her class on an outing to a local theme park, well it’s more a farm that’s been done up as a petting zoo. Whatever. On the way there we meet no-hoper Josh Gad who manages to persuade teach to let him act as chaperone in place of a parent who has dropped out. She’s not entirely sure about him, and she may be right to be so, but in the event he proves an invaluable ally when the farm is attacked by a huge gang of marauding, wait for it, zombies.
For yes, this is a zombie flick, Ozzie style. This is in fact a very tight little movie, well acted and directed, with not too much gore but plenty of laughs as well as nastier moments. I understand Mark Kermode, world’s biggest fan of horror movies, didn’t rate it, but maybe all that blood and guts have jaded his palate. The fact is, I did.
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