Seven (1995)

 "This guy's methodical, exacting and, worst of all, patient."

I'm not going to call it Se7en. That would be silly.

Anyway, wow. David Fincher has given us a deep, profound and truly great film that isn't widely appreciated enough because of the style, the (mainly conceptual rather than visual) gore, and the industrial aesthetic bookended by opening titles from the great Trent Reznor and closing titles from the even greater David Bowie, in his sublime '90s industrial phase which you probably haven't listened to but must do so, now, immediately. The style may be out of sync with the mainstream, but it's superb.

Furthermore, the performances are exquisite. Morgan Freeman is sublime as William Somerset, a Philip Marlowe figure- a grizzled and cynical cop who has seen it all, yet a man of culture, decency and humanity, a nuanced, real and decent man. He oozes charisma. Brad Pitt plays a character less obviously deep and interesting on the surface, being an unintellectual and naively impetuous everyman, yet his performance is no less sublime. And Kevin Spacey, whatever his deep moral failings in real life, is the perfect villain here.

This is overtly the gory tale of a killer who commits highly sadistic murders in the theme of the seven sins, as investigated with much cleverness by two contrasting detectives. Yet it's about much more than that. It's about the extreme danger of inflexibly religious "morality" and the obscenity of puritan obsession over the whole concept of "sin" to the point of blaming the housebound victims of extreme obesity or women made obsessed by society with body image for their nature while ignoring the fact that something- misogyny, abuse, whatever- made them what they are. Justice cannot exist withoiut sympathy and understanding. This is what Somerset has, for all his cynicism. Mills and John Doe do not.

This is sublime, and a defining film of the decade.

As an aside, it's very xennial of me to note that I saw this, at the pictures, in 1995, when I was eighteen and therefore an adult. Yet this is a world where police detectives have typewriters at their desks instead of PC's and research means libraries rather than Google. I am, nevertheless, young. Yes.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

“Gods, aliens, other dimensions- I’m just a man in a can.”

 I rather liked this film the first time I saw it. And this time around it still struck me as well-directed, very much so in fact, well acted and characterised with Downey and Paltrow as superb as ever. And perhaps this time around the identity of the “Mandarin” was less of a surprise. But the film seems to be lacking something.

Perhaps it’s the lack of a real supervillain. Perhaps it’s the deliberately small scale of the film (compared to Tony’s last outing, at least) with his anxiety attacks in the wake of the events of The Avengers- which is actually a good character point, Tony Stark bring the kind of rich, powerful, arrogant type who needs vulnerabilities to remain sympathetic, although Downey’s huge charisma does a huge job on its own. But ultimately the film feels entertaining but, well, insubstantial by MCU standards. And it never quite convinces how he gives up all the armour at the end.

There are some very good bits. The twist with the Mandarin is brilliant, and Ben Kingsley gives us a superb comic turn, and the Mandarin videos themselves are a superb visual riff on the iconography if the “War on Terror” which feels oddly retro six years later. Guy Pearce is ok as Killian, although his accent slips in places. Don Cheadle further cements himself as a mainstay. And there’s a lot of fun with armour, and various bits of it. But this film is unexpectedly inconsequential. Even the post-credits sequence is a bit of a damp squib.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

"If there's one thing I've proven, it's that you can count on me to pleasure myself."

I loved the first film. I love this one too. Not as much as the first film, but a lot.

Yes, the plot may meander a bit, and contain a predictable bit where the hero hits rock bottom, but it works. Robert Downey Jr is still born to play Tony Stark. Gwyneth Paltrow is a fine Pepper, yet again, and still has great charisma with Downey. And Don Cheadle is much better as Rhodey. We also get loads and loads and loads of Tony being charismatic and Iron Man action sequences. That gets us halfway there already. And then there’s the Elon Musk cameo...

The conceit works- Tony is dying from the very thing that keeps him alive, and so needs to develop things from his father’s past while Justin Hammer acts as antagonist and this time the baddie is a rather different variation on Whiplash. Plus we get a splendid big set piece at the Monaco Grand Prix, and a lot of world building; there’s a lot about Nick Fury’s Avengers Initiative, we meet Black Widow and discover a familiar-looking old shield. And the post-credits points it all toward to Thor. It’s positively nostalgic seeing all these early MCU films. But the film works on its own terms, carried along by strong characters and a superb cast even if the plot, while perfectly decent, doesn’t quite have the narrative flow if the first film. Three films in and the MCU is going strong.

Iron Man (2008)

“I’m just not the hero type. Clearly.”

 Obviously I've seen this film before. It's just that it was before the blog, and I didn't blog the two sequels at the time because I hadn't blogged the originals- incidentally, that's why I haven't yet blogged Captain America: Civil War. But now it's catch up time.

This is, of course, the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film. The fact that it was awesome has a lot to answer for. But awesome it is, largely because it's a solidly executed, scripted and realised action film. But there's more. To begin with, here's a triumphant piece of casting at its centre. This is the film that resurrected the career of ex-junkie Robert Downey Jr, returning him to A list status by giving him the role of Tony Stark, the part he was born to play.

It's also a rare example of a film making the correct choice in doing the origin story- usually a bad move for a superhero film, But Iron Man's origin is not too long-winded, full of action, and easily updated from Vietnam to Afghanistan. But mostly it's about Downey's perfect Tony Stark, the superb rock soundtrack, the solid storytelling. But it's more than that. This is a carefully constructed start to a cinematic universe, with SHIELD subtly introduced with Agent Coulson and, in the first MCU post-credits sequence, Nick Fury. And then there are the little things- Pepper, played by a major star; Happy; "Ten Rings", Jeff Bridges as an authentic Obadiah Stane. This is easily the best Marvel film up to this point- still one of the best- and the harbinger of great things to come.#

All this, and Stan as Hugh Hefner...

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

"Can't you just be a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man?"

Hmm. Well, let me first emphasise that I liked and enjoyed this. All Marvel Cinematic Universe films are fun, have a real wit and lightness of touch, and give a real sense of the wider universe. All of that was present this time and, for what it's worth, this is now my favourite Spider-Man film. But it doesn't quite reach the heights of Marvel's best.

Still, it's a bloody good film. Tom Holland is already cinema's best Spider-Man- a real and believable teenager, young and enthusiastic. Michael Keaton makes a magnificent villain as the Vulture, drawing out Adrian Tombs' depths as a genuinely nuanced character with some rather superb facial acting. Cinema's best Batman turns out to make a rather good baddie for the competition.

And then there's the plot, the script, and the excellent and highly relieving decision not to spend any time rehashing that bloody origin story again. We get only a brief mention of the spider bite and no mention at all of Peter's bloody Uncle Ben. Good. A Spider-Man film should start with ol' Web-Head up and swinging.

But I thought there were nevertheless a couple of misjudgements, not least that excessively Iron-Man-like suit which just isn't very Spidey. And then there's the use of Tony Stark as a mentor figure which gives the feeling that Spidey is a minor offshoot of a very Avengers-centric universe. This feels wrong, perhaps as a consequence of integral parts of the Marvel Universe having been deplorably and immorally pilfered by Fox; the Marvel Universe should not be Avengers-centric. It has no centre. But here we are constantly defining Spidey in terms of the Avengers, which we shouldn't be. It's nice to have a street level story, but the Avengers connections threaten to overwhelm. That's a shame, because the film is otherwise very good indeed.

A good film, then, although perhaps not without flaws. Still, it can surely boast the best Marvel post-credits sequence yet.

Hook (1991)

"When are you going to learn to stop acting like a child?"

"I am a child!"

It's rather obvious that the reason I'm blogging this film now is the sad passing of Robin Williams, so it's worth starting with a few words about a comedian and actor of great talent.

I've never been a great fan of Hollywood's popular comedies, which always have the main character learning some heartwarming lesson about family values rather than just, you know, being funny. Robin Williams may have been good at these, being both a superb comic actor and very capable of pathos, but for much of his career he was ill-served by film unworthy of his talents. There are, of course, a good number of quality films starring Williams but his best performance, for me, is a straight role in One Hour Photo.

Hook, although it somewhat fits the definition of a Hollywood comedy as defined above, is nonetheless quite a good film, if not brilliant, because of the spectacle, the sense of wonder that fantasy always brings, and a particularly sublime performance from Williams, who shines here, far outshining the pantomime villainy of Dustin Hoffman, who gets top billing for some reason.

The conceit- a sequel to Peter Pan in which J.M. Barrie simply passed of his neighbour's children's true stories of his own and Peter Pan eventually grows up and becomes a lifeless, Reagan-voting asset stripper who missed the '60s because he was an accountant- is a good one. Yes, he's a bad father as per many such scar actors in such Hollywood films, but the Peter Pan stuff actually makes this interesting. His fear of flying is a nice touch. And Robin Williams brings the role a real depth, far more than is in the script.

This isn't the greatest film ever, but it's fun and, indeed, bangarang. I love the montage with Peter getting his mojo back, and the late Bob Hoskins is great, far outshining Hoffman. Well worth a watch, and nostalgic to see some actual world-building spectacle from the days before widespread CGI.