Directed by Dexter Fletcher, Rocketman is the story of singer, pianist, and composer Elton John.
Starring Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden and Bryce Dallas Howard, Rocketman will show John’s life as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music, through to his enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.
Egerton isn’t exactly the first person I’d think of to play John, and so I’ll hopefully find out just how wrong I was for not thinking of him. I’m also looking forward to finding out something more interesting about John than ‘Reginald Kenneth Dwight’, the name his parents gave him.
Steven Mackintosh, Michel Alexandre Gonzalez, Gemma Jones and Kamil Lemieszewski also star.
The Robin Hood story of an audacious revolt against the corrupt English crown has been refreshed for a new outing.
Directed by Otto Bathurst; key cast includes Taron Egerton, Jamie Dornan, Jamie Foxx and Ben Mendelsohn.
Before I knew that Bathurst was in charge, I couldn’t help but think of Guy Ritchie as the director while this trailer played. I’m in to see Egerton have even more fun on screen.
Eve Hewson, Josh Herdman and Tim Minchin 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.
Besides the fun clips in the trailer, I found Sing to be, unfortunately, mostly forgettable. The story centres around the numerous characters involved in a singing competition; the success of which will give the organiser a chance to save his failing theatre.
I was moved and amused in parts, but I still didn’t thoroughly enjoy Sing because I didn’t find the story and most of the characters, especially, entertaining or interesting. I’m sure that how stereotypical most of them are has something to do with it.
Furthermore, I’m the person who usually doesn’t enjoy watching televised singing competitions. Yet, I wanted to see this because the trailer looked great. Admittedly, there’s also a part of me that didn’t buy into McConaughey’s voice and or his performance as the Koala.
Sing (2016), Matthew McConaughey
The main highlight about Sing, for me, has nothing to do with the music. I loved the mommy piggy (Reese Witherspoon) and her ingenuity when no one else was available to take care of her piglets. I also adore her performance partner, another cute piggy. You know, the one in the red sequinned leotard and gold sequinned sweatsuit that you fell in love with, in the trailers.
You’ll very likely have a better time watching Sing if you enjoy singing competitions. If you’re not that person, I hope you like it anyway, should you decide to tune in.
While telling the story of two of Britain’s most notorious criminals, the Kray twins, I can confirm that thanks to the combination of all the characters, dialogue, music and cinematography of 1960s London, Legend did an adequate job keeping me engaged.
Besides Tom Hardy who is, shocker-not shocker, just brilliant in his task of portraying both Reginald (Reggie) and Ronald (Ronnie) Kray, another big draw for me was the delightful Britishness of the humour in Legend.
Prior to this movie, my main experience of London’s East End gangster/criminal world was Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (1998). The pace and rhythm of that movie is one of the best things about it. In comparison to Legend, granted, the period in time is quite different, but I did find myself wanting for things to move along a tad quicker.
Each time the two brothers were on screen simultaneously, those were the most engaging moments, and not just because I was curious to see how well director Brian Helgeland handled the reality of Tom Hardy essentially ‘talking to himself.’
Ronnie and Reggie’s sibling bond and the dynamics of their relationship are the most interesting aspects of this story. We get to experience and witness this bond in Helgeland’s movie, but I’d have loved for more of the film to be dedicated to the story of the brothers, perhaps as young boys/ men. I wanted a clearer picture of what it took to create the reality that became their lives. Without a look back, the story felt incomplete.
In my fantasy of this movie, I’d say, either split the story of the Kray twins into two films, or forget about the relationship between Reggie and Francis, It’s boring – and instead focus on the most important love affair instead, the one between the two brothers. After all, it is the thing that ultimately decided their fate.
I don’t think that Legend is a bad film. It just simply left me wanting, more than I would have liked. Still, if you’re curious, watch it for the Tom Hardy excellence.
The Movie My Life 