Directed by Thomas Vinterberg, Kursk is a historical drama about the 2000 K-141 Kursk submarine disaster and the governmental negligence that followed.
Colin Firth, Matthias Schoenaerts and Léa Seydoux star.
The trailer makes me eager to watch Kursk because of Schoenaerts, Firth and Seydoux. I’m only slightly hesitant because I feel as though it’s going to make me mad. You know, on account of all the reasons the ending won’t be as happy.
Michael Nyqvist, August Diehl, Steven Waddington, Zlatko Buric, Matthias Schweighöfer and Joel Basman also star.
Kingsman – The Golden Circle (2017), Taron Egerton, Mark Strong
This isprobably unsurprising since Kingsman – The Golden Circleis a sequel but I did not enjoy this movie as much as the original. In director Matthew Vaughn’s sequel, the Kingsman head offices are blown up and the kingsmen must team up with an allied spy organisation in the US.
Not that Kingsman – The Secret Service (2014)was super realistic, but something about this follow-up felt quite ridiculous. Starting with the opening scene; somehow it just didn’t feel as thrilling as I’d ordinarily expect.
Part of the problem is that I found myself immediately disappointed with the story’s choice of villain, the one we meet in the first few minutes. There’s also the fact that everything happened so suddenly, and so quickly, whereas I somehow wanted or perhaps expected to be eased into the action, as odd as that may sound.
This movie has one or two fight sequences that hearkened back to the first film. These scenes played a little too ‘the same’, for my liking. In this way they reminded me of part of the reason why Quantum Of Solace (2008) was such a terrible follow-up to the brilliant Casino Royale (2006). It tried too hard to almost repeat so much of what worked so very well in the first movie.
As for the matter of the main villain of vaughn’s movie, let’s just say that I have officially found a Julianne Moore performance I do not like. In the role of the villain, I did not fully buy into her evil, which begs the question, is her face simply far too angelic for the kind of moral turpitude required? Maybe. What I know for sure is that I didn’t see it in her eyes or feel it through her words and I needed to.
Luckily, there is some good news here; namely the beautifully executed ‘singing scene’ towards the end. I was moved. Overall though, my favourite scene in this film has to be the ‘infiltration’ of Poppy’s compound. That’s the moment I saw a fight scene that truly felt as though it belonged to Kingsman – The Golden Circle. Rather than something borrowed from Kingsman – The Secret Service and as a result, proved tedious.
The Mercy is the story of Yachtsman Donald Crowhurst, whose disastrous attempt to win the 1968 Golden Globe Race ends up with him creating an outrageous account of traveling the world alone by sea.
I’ll be watching to learn more about the kind of ‘madness’ that drives one to leave their wife and young children behind, to go on a dangerous solo adventure with a 50/50 chance of survival. Particularly, an adventure that doesn’t appear to be of benefit to the family left behind.
I, of course, also want to know about how far Crowhurst took the lies he started telling about his progress.
Kingsman – The Golden Circle (2017), Taron Egerton
In Kingsman – The Golden Circle, the Kingsman headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage.
Upon discovering an allied spy organisation in the US. The two elite secret organisations must work together to defeat a common enemy.
Before the first Kingsman movie, Kingsman – The Secret Service, I mostly knew the film’s director, Matthew Vaughn, as an excellent producer to one of my favourite British directors, Guy Ritchie. But look at him now! I can’t wait to see what appears to be yet another very welcome and thrilling festival of style, action and adventure.
I don’t actually recall how things were left with Sofia Boutella’s very cool ‘Gazelle’ character in the first movie, but my hope is that this new instalment will be so good that I barely miss her, if at all.
Rene Zellweger’s British accent is impressive, and I absolutely adored watching Hugh Grant in a role where he isn’t playing, for want of a better phrase, ‘a lovable dithering idiot’ – the kind of role he’d played in Four Weddings & A Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999) and Mickey blue Eyes (1999). Grant’s role for the first two Bridget Jones movies can be described as a well-dressed publishing bad boy named Daniel Cleaver.
The first bit of bad news for me about Bridget Jone’s Baby is that Hugh Grant isn’t in it. I kind of missed his character’s humour but I do understand the need for difference with the third instalment.
Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016), Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey
The second bit of bad news is I don’t consider Bridget Jone’s Baby as a good movie. Reason being, it’s odd, awkward and overfilled with dated and obvious music. I particularly dislike the first 40 or so minutes whereeverything just doesn’t flow well. One of the lowest points for me is the following line and its cringingly awkward delivery.
‘Oh God! I’ve just slept with a complete stranger! I’m nothing but a feckless prostitute!’
Terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE! This is the point at which it dawned on me that all the Bridget Jones character traits that were once charming, humorous and certainly better written have now morphed into the opposite of all of that and become straight annoying.
There were one or two lines I loved and both happened to be delivered by the ever wonderful Emma Thompson, an actress whose comic timing is sharp as can be. I also enjoyed Patrick Dempsey’s role and welcomed his character’s newness. Overall though, I found myself less than invested in the film’s central love story; something I blame on the writing and that particular aspect of the film feeling ‘so very 12 – 14 years ago (when the first two movies were released)’.
Watch this movie if you absolutely must. Just know that the first two are a hell of a lot more fun.
The Movie My Life 