Ben-Hibburd

After last year's critical flop Suicide Squad, director David Ayer and Will Smith once again team up for what's essentially a modernised retelling of 1988s Alien Nation. Written by Max Landis the film tells the story of an alternate earth where Orcs, Fairies, Elves all co-exist with man, set in a modern day L.A. Will Smith stars as a beat cop Daryl Ward who's forced to work with a rookie Orc cop Nick Jakoby played by Joel Edgerton, the first of his race to be accepted into the police force. Together they stumble into a plot of deceit, murder and betrayal as a mystical wand that can grant wishes and stop a dark lord is fought over by gangsters, fellow officers and Eleves.

On the surface level the film is a fairly entertaining buddy cop film. Will Smith is essentially playing a sweary version of himself, and whilst it's not his most challenging role he still retains his unmistakable level of charm and charisma. Joel Edgerton also does a good job in his role as the inexperienced rookie learning on the job. Again it's nothing out of his wheelhouse but he helps carry the film alongside Will Smith convincingly.

The action and mystical elements are well done in this film. David Ayer also does a great job of building a world where elements such as Orcs and Elves living in L.A could've felt ridiculous. However they were nicely integrated into the story. David Ayer's dilapidated urban grimy visual motifs also help to sell the world the characters live in.

Where my main issue comes into play is in the films subtext and dialogue. I get that this wants to send a deep message of racism, inclusion, poverty etc, but at times it was so on the nose and forced it felt rather clumsy. Where-as a film like Alien Nation shows you injustice and bigotry visually, this film has the characters stop and tell each other every few minutes which at times had me rolling my eyes with cringe.

Other then that issue, and a slightly overlong runtime Bright is a solid buddy cop film with an added twist of fantasy, that manages to tick all the boxes it needed too. Whilst it might not be the most original or intelligent film, the backlash against it from the critics has been rather harsh. Bright is a film worth watching especially if you have Netflix.

I didn't really want to review this film as there's not a great deal to say about it that people haven't already. Darren Aronofsky's debut film is a bizarre, surreal, intelligent, paranoia fuelled film about a mathematician who's trying to uncover the patterns of the universe.

The main reason I wanted to talk about this film, is that Clint Mansell's incredible score is in my opinion one of the best scores I've heard in any film. It's an expertly constructed piece of work that helps to elevate every aspect of this film. The score is perfectly intertwined with the central character of the film, and works as his inner monologue to reflect his different mental states throughout the film. From being eerie to panic ridden to sheer mania it's a bold piece of work. That when I found myself drifting from the film it was the score that kept sucking me back in with it's intoxicating atmosphere.

The film on the whole is pretty good, but without the score I don't think this film would've worked nearly as well as it did. I would recommend watching this film for the soundtrack alone.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Gibson a wondering mercenary living in the remnants of a post-apocalyptic New York. Whilst traversing through the wastes of New York, he stumbles across a cyborg who's carrying vital information about a cure for the plague that's ravaged the Earth. He takes decides to escort her to Atlanta to deliver the cure, whilst being chased down by a marauding gang of crazed bandits, in-which Gibson has had past encounters with.

Cyborg is a flat out terrible film. As I write this review i'm really struggling to find a single positive aspect from the film. This film doesn't contain one redeeming quality, going into the film I was hoping for a 'It's so bad, it's good' scenario, but this film couldn't even manage that. Every single aspect of this film is poorly executed. Whilst the film is a direct-to-video B movie, it doesn't excuse the sheer sloppy craftsmanship that's present on screen.

The action scenes were woefully choreographed. And the stunt work was some of the worst I've seen in a film. However this is further exacerbated by terrible shot compositions. At the best of times the action was half in frame, with the rest of the action set-pieces focused on the bland set design. The editing is utterly atrocious which made the half of a fight scene I could see, totally incoherent.

The films score? Soundtrack? I don't know what the fuck it was, but it wasn't music. Seriously a four year old using saucepans as drums would've been more audibly pleasurable. The films music was so tonally jarring I felt like I was watching a 90's daytime soap mixed with bad porno music.

All the actors in the film were abysmal. Jean-Claude was bad, but he at-least tried with his severely limited range. The main villain came across like a pound store Arnie. And whilst the script was giving none of the actors anything to work with, they were still boring and insipid and unable to bring a distinct characterisation to their roles.

This is easily one of the worst films I've seen this year. This film made me break my one rule I have when watching films, which is to not fall asleep. Three hours later, it's taken me longer to watch an 85 minute 'action film' then it took for me to watch Doctor Zhivago, I think that sums up this dumpster fire of a film.