mattjames1973

This is a gloriously mad film from beginning to end.

Personally I laughed a lot and really enjoyed it, but it will definitely leave many people cold. There's no point to it, you won't be enriched, the plot never really becomes clear, and none of the characters is really sympathetic.

It felt very like a Monty Python film to me - absurdism, unexpected shifts, weird motifs, and recurrent dream sequences highly reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's cartoon interludes. And it's almost as silly.

An incredible cast of actors is reduced to a series of bit-part cameos, which should be annoying, but I couldn't help thinking that it was probably enormous fun to make. And Bill Murray as God is without doubt one of my favourite ever bits of casting. The Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston double act is a total hoot.

So I certainly can't recommend it to everyone, but I will definitely recommend it to people who I think will get it. And l'll probably be wrong. The world needs more weirdness like this, to counterbalance the weirdness that matters. Enjoy.

I'm a big fan of Brad Pitt as an actor. People make too much of his looks and celebrity, and ignore the tremendous range and skill that he has brought to some iconic and some very overlooked roles. I could list a dozen of his films that I've loved. So it's both surprising and disappointing that in War Machine his performance is properly awful. He acts this role like a kid in a school play - do a stylised walk, do a stylised voice and facial expression, don't bother with any nuance or, you know, acting. The sort of thing you get when you tell a 14yr old that Richard III's defining characteristic was a limp.

The result is that at no time did I build any empathy or emotional engagement at all with the character of General Glen McMahon. I didn't care whether he succeeded or failed, because neither did Brad. There was nothing to like, nothing to admire, and nothing particularly to hate either. I was mainly noticing the lack of acting, which isn't good. The main supporting cast did not help much.

More broadly, this is either a comedy that isn't funny, or a drama that isn't dramatic. It's hard to tell. But it's not worth spending any time worrying about. Or watching. This is mostly a talking movie, not a war movie, certainly not an action movie. It doesn't have the charm, wit or humanity of a film like Charlie Wilson's War. It has none of the heroism and struggle expected of a war movie. When it does eventually move into the theatre of conflict it is wholly underwhelming - small scale and very low-budget. And again, we simply haven't built any empathy with the marines being sent to the front line, so any attempted emotional resonance is lost.

Oh, alright, l'll end on a positive. Scoot McNairy is in it, and he's always watchable. You're welcome.

It's hard to sell anybody who is not a fan of the genre, including me, on the idea that a post-apocalyptic zombie horror story can be subtle, beautiful and magnificent, but this is.

The joy of any science fiction, including zombie horrors (and yes, I know that technically this is not a zombie horror, but it is definitely part of that genre, so let's move on) is that the writers can use extreme situations to explore the edges of human existence and emotion, raising and answering the great "what if?" questions of how we might react, live, learn and love in the most testing and unfamiliar of circumstances.

The Last of Us is a genuinely great example. Its largely episodic structure dives deep into the situations of various characters that our protagonists Ellie and Joel encounter along their journey (this is also a road story). Every episode is both beautiful and tragic, as we see the real love that drives people to survive in what are ultimately hopeless and doomed circumstances. Episode 3 in particular is really moving, while barely advancing the main plot - it's a character study.

Of course, the first audience for the Last of Us will be fans of the game, and their expectations will be more than met. This is a near-perfect realisation. Most of the sets, situations and characters from the game are instantly recognisable and true to their source, without in any way compromising the quality of the television experience. Both the broadest vistas and most claustrophobic and intense experiences are brought vividly to life. Unusually for an adaptation of a game, it doesn't matter a jot if you have played it - the show will stand entirely on its own, and if you didn't know it was a game adaptation you probably wouldn't guess. Even the rare good examples of other game adaptations usually show their roots much more. Of course, it helps hugely that the Last of Us was so loved and respected as a game precisely for the strength of its story and characters.

For all the credit due to the game's creators, the writers of the adaptation, the director and others behind the scenes, even more must go to Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay. They are both perfect in these roles. Ramsay has extraordinary depth and lightness of touch, and a huge career ahead of her. Pedro Pascal is of course already well known, but it still amazes me he went almost completely under the radar until about 10 years ago (Game of Thrones, Narcos etc).

Do watch this. It's excellent. Yes, it's gory and scary at times, sometimes intensely so. But it's the human stories that will really stay with you.