John Wick Sequel Starts Shooting

Thunder Road Pictures have confirmed that production is about to begin on the follow up to the surprisingly awesome action effort John Wick. Keanu Reeves made a stunning action return in the role as a ruthlessly efficient former hit man brought out of retirement to take down the crime family who very very very ill advisedly killed his dog.

Director Chad Stahelski returns as does Keanu, expect plenty of bullets, kung fu moves and dead bodies to accompany them.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Review

The Plot

Having escaped the maze, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow survivors seem to be  finally on their way to a safe haven with the help of the mysterious Janson (Aidan Gillen). But when his true intentions are revealed, escaping his clutches is the least of their problems…

The Good

Picking up immediately after the dramatic conclusion of the first film, Scorch Trials delivers an extremely strong opening half which matches or a times even surpasses competing young adult franchises like Divergent and The Hunger Games. This trilogy seems to be starting to hit it’s stride as it begins to explore a wider post-apocalyptic world, introduces interesting new characters and digs deeper into serious themes of morality and questioning authority.

The introduction of Aiden Gillen is a welcome addition to the series. Armed with a goatee and polo-necked jumper he makes the villainous Janson a convincingly  devious and dangerous threat. Likewise Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito is a scene stealing delight as Jorge, a cunning mercenary with complex motives and shifting allegiances.

Rounding out the adult cast, Patricia Clarkson returns as the cold and calculated WCKD leader Ava Paige. Though given significantly more screen time, she remains a mysterious presence. leaving plenty of room for big revelations in the final chapter.

The undeniable focus of the series remains the younger characters. Alexander Flores joins the cast as Aris, a boy from a separate maze (of which, it turns out there are many). Together with Ki Hong Li’s Minho, Kaya Scodelario’s Teresa and Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s Newt, the display of talent is impressive.

However, it’s Dylan O’Brien’s impressive skills of holding up the franchise that is most noteworthy. With two thirds of the trilogy now complete, O’Brien is as talented as ever, pulling off the conflicted determination of Thomas with ease.

The Bad

After a promising start, it’s somewhat disheartening to see that once the characters head out into the apocalyptic desert wasteland of ‘the scorch’, the story slips quickly into the overly familiar territory of a generic action thriller. The city ruins and zombie like monsters that awaits our young band of heroes could literally have been borrowed from countless recent blockbusters. There’s plenty of peril but little memorable originality to be found.

Unfortunately it’s also still impossible to avoid obvious and at times unflattering comparisons with the other post-apocalyptic themed young adult adaptations like Hunger Games and Divergent. While the Maze Runner series has it’s own identity and at least some distinctive elements, it may still feel like a band wagon riding afterthought for less enthusiastic audiences.

In particular  Kaya Scodelario’s Teresa could and should have been a major focal point for this film, as her character’s arc is a pivotal plot point for the trilogy. Unfortunately the talented Skins actress is given  little screen time to explore this potentially fascinating personal journey. Indeed she’s actually displaced for large portions of the film by Rosa Salazar’s  new ‘love interest’ Brenda. It would have been nice to see the film make the most of both it’s female leads.

The Ugly Truth

The Scorch Trials adds some seasoned stars, serious themes and a vastly expanded dystopian world to build upon the promise of the first film. A reliance on generic action means that at times the franchise stills struggles to entirely distinguish itself from similar genre series. Fans of the book will enjoy seeing the journey continue and it definitely sets up an intriguing conclusion.

Review by Johnny Ellis

Nina Forever Review

The Plot

After the sudden death of his girlfriend, Nina (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) leads him to attempt suicide, supermarket clerk Rob (Cian Barry) begins to start dating again with co-worker Holly (Abigail Hardingham). But even with Nina dead, she still lives on. And not just through memory…

The Good

For a film which tackles the devastation and despair of grief as one of its main themes, Nina Forever is perfect. With Fiona O’Shaughnessy giving an incredibly realistic and darkly hilarious performance as Nina. To call it realistic is somewhat odd given that she plays a recently deceased corpse throughout, but there’s no denying that her movements feel unnaturally natural as she crawls out through the bed while Rob and Holly try their best on focussing on being intimate while ignoring the blood stained bed sheets and Nina’s sarcastic commentary on the side.

It’s when the three interact that writer-directors Chris and Ben Blaine hit their stride though. the dialogue between the three are so well written that the first feelings of confusion as to whether Nina is actually with them in the room are quickly released and just like Rob and Holly, we’re allowed to simply accept that the bloodied reappearance of an ex girlfriends corpse is just commonplace during sex.

Praise must also go to cinematographer Oliver Russell for the beauty of the films shots and sequences. The pale white look of the film accompanied by the occasional but not overdone blood and gore mixes perfectly together. Obviously making a film which centres around grieving is tricky to do, especially when comical scenes are involved. However the Blaine Brothers manage to pull it off incredibly and more importantly respectably.

The Bad

The only real problem with Nina Forever ends up being its pace. At times, it begins to drag, especially during its opening half. However if you keep with it the reward will be worth it.

The Ugly Truth

Nina Forever is an incredibly acted drama which will undoubtedly burrow into your thoughts for a good while after. Thanks to the incredibly talented writing and directing of the Blaine brothers as well as the brilliant acting of its three main leads, even when it becomes slow moving it still stays intriguing enough.

Review by Johnny Ellis

Legend Review

The Plot

Tom Hardy tackles the role of the infamous Kray twins in this latest biopic which chronicles the rise and fall of East London’s most notorious gangsters.

The Good

Twenty-five years after two fifths of Spandau Ballet attempted it, the story of the Kray twins is brought back to the big screen with the help of writer-director Brian Helgeland (L.A Confidential). For the most part, Helgeland’s script is informative and entertaining enough to keep the pace going steady. With the beautiful backdrop of 1960s London and an exciting host of classic 60s rock anthems to accompany it, Legend looks and feels right.

Then there’s the cast. Most prominent of which is of course Tom Hardy, who as usual brings a phenomenal performance to the screen, especially while playing two characters. At no point do the Kray twins ever get mixed up along the way, due partly to the wonderful makeup used particularly on Ronnie, the self confessed uglier of the two brothers. This convincing distinction is also due to Hardy’s impressive acting skills. Though it’s a feat seen all over his career to date, to see a new role from Hardy is always a treat. To get double is pure bliss.

Legend is hardly a one man success in its acting however. A supporting cast which includes, among others Paul Bettany, Taron Egerton, David Thewlis, and Christopher Ecclestone, is  undeniably an impressive lineup of British talent. Helgeland’s script also manages to give Emily Browning a much meatier role as Reggie Kray’s suffering wife Frances, the film’s narrator. Frances has plenty to do trapped between Ronnie and Reggie’s constant bickering and at times carries the entire focus of the story herself.

On that note, the challenge  of having two Tom Hardy’s on the screen at the same time is barely noticeable even when trying to look out for the camera trickery needed to perform such a task. While they tend to share one half of the screen each when seen on screen together, it doesn’t feel as though it’s forced. In fact, in one particular scene the twins become entangled with each other for quite some time as they try to sort out their differences in the only way a pair of east end gangsters would, and the entire sequence looks flawless.

The Bad

Though the cast list is impressive, one particular member feels outright shunned for the entirety of the film. Christopher Ecclestone, who plays Nipper Read, the man determined to bring down the Krays and end their rule of London, feels like an important yet untold story. The prominence of Browning’s character is interesting but at times it feels like this is at the cost of perhaps better areas of the Kray’s history upon which Helgelands script could have focused. The pace is steady yes, but only just and at the price of obvious missed opportunities.

There is also the troubling issue of the way in which Legend manages to explore such a violent and dark era of East London history and yet remain surprisingly light-hearted. Though in its later stages the film reflects more prominently on the way in which the Kray’s difficult ‘career’ as gangsters affected  those closest to them, this doesn’t feel enough to warrant the previous two hours or so that had been spent almost gleefully tagging along with them.

Legend displays acting skill and technical accomplishment, but lacks true purpose. The film deliberately avoids entirely portraying the Krays as either irredeemably evil monsters or charming robin hood rogues. Unfortunately avoiding these perhaps overly familiar caricatures leaves audiences with only an ambivalent and indifferent account. Taking liberal artistic licence also severely undermines the film’s documentary credentials, doing surprisingly little to distinguish its from countless other accounts that have traded so easily on the Kray’s notoriety.  The film merely perpetuates the Kray ‘Legend’ rather than truly offering anything new on the subject.

The Ugly Truth

Tom Hardy leads the way admirably  in a shamelessly stylish look at a dark period of London’s notoriously violent history. Despite Hardy’s impressive and visceral dual role, overall the film misses considerable opportunities, sacrificing depth to focus on a simplified narrative.

Review by Johnny Ellis

Tom Hardy Legend Interview

Tom Hardy talks about laying gangster twines Reg and Ronnie Kray in the stylish new biopic Legend directed by Brian Helgeland and co-starring Emily Browning and Christopher Eccleston.

Q. When did you first hear about the Krays?

I think as a kid you see the books in the true crime section, at least I did anyway. I had a brief interest in true crime when I was about 15, going on holiday and grab a book or whatever. So that was when they first came across my horizon, they crossed me atmospherics then. But that’s about ti really. They’re about as familiar as a red telephone box in many aspects really. That was then and playing them was a question of going back to look at all the source materials that’s available. There’s a lot of source material on the Krays.

Q. Tom how did you get into the mind-set of Ronnie, particularly when it came to his sexuality?

You know I didn’t even think about it really. It’s just what it is really. I don’t think it needs playing. That’s that. Ronnie was Gay. Does that make sense? If I thought about it that would give me sorta pause to think and I had to do something. I had to get on with doing something which was my job. Ronnie’s gay, it’s all good. Does that make any sense? I think if you start playing anything then you kind of miss the point. I think what was complicated was that Reggie was also potentially.. we don’t know if he’s gay or not. So that’s where I had to look at Legend as its own separate entity. Within this Reggie is heterosexual, Ronnie is gay. Crack on. Does that make sense? Alright, cool.

Q. Does the connection between celebrity and organised crime still exist in that way?

Yeah you can access all areas of society in our job very easily. But the thing is we’re in the entertainment part of it and they’re not necessarily. They’re wired slightly differently.

Q. How did you research the roles?

There’s always a question about research isn’t there. It’s like have you done your homework. It’s like No, I didn’t know what I was doing. To a certain degree that’s true and let it be what it will be. But there is a plethora of research that one could do on the Krays. Right down to the fact I actually had Reggie’s watch which he died in on my wrist. We had various members of the world come out and talk. Private meetings like. There’s only one visual primary source of the Krays which is them speaking on the BBC for like a minute. But you can’t even tell much form that because they were on show, so you can’t tell if that’s their true voice or true mannerisms. There are lots of photos. Mainly it’s all legends and tales which are asinine. Usually told by people who didn’t know them. You get a lot of them come out. It forms patterns of stories and anecdotes that start to appeal a lot. I also had lots of diaries and some footage from a panorama documentary.

There you go I did loads of research. In the end I decide to not pay it any mind anyway, but only to answer that question.

Q. Tom you’ve been quoted as saying you were more drawn to playing to Ron than Reg, is that’s true why was it?

I mean that’s sort of paraphrased down but he truth of the fact is that just from a technical point of view Ron is predictably unpredictable. So just for a performer it’s fun to play because you have everything on the smorgasbord you can use, you have multiple options and you can pull the rug on anyone you want at any given time. So it’s a free ball character even if he wasn’t a Kray, it he was Idie Armine wit would be the same. Whether you’re going to naturalize that or going for a heightened reality of super surrealism. However you wanted to play it, that character is a free ball character. You can roam with him in any scene. Whereas Reggie has boundaries, he has the restrictions, he has to go a,b,c,d,e,f,g. That’s kinda boring for me in some way because I don’t want to go straight down the line. I want to make lateral choices and I want to have fun. I was drawn initially because I have a bit of a disco ball head to Ronnie. There’s some options there, with Reg I know he’s going that way even if I might want to take him another way.

Q. Tom where there any especially tricky shots playing two characters on screen at the same time?

No, not really. It was a question of how we were going to do it and it was pretty basic. There was no CGI or anything like that because there was no budget for it. It was back to old school basic drill. We were finding out how that stuff worked like split screen or talking to a text board. There had to be another actor there and someone who would take notes on what I was doing so that I could replicate it at the end of the day but also leave room so that I could change it. It was a mental puzzle that needed to be unpacked and then I could breathe life into it. At the same time you’ve got the rest of the cast there in real time trying to deal with the fact they’ve got a split dynamic in the room. So it was kinda mathematic in a strange sort of way. It was like stop, start. let the bitch breath. Then turn it all around and let the bitch breath again. It’s a mixture of sums, geometric shapes and maths with sort of a bit of creative stuff. The homework and more drugs for Nipper.

Q. How long was your turn around for changing between the brothers?

It was about an hour. We had wig, teeth, plumper up the nose. Aging stipple. So there was about an hours’ worth of makeup between Reg and Ronnie. But we couldn’t hang about we only had seven weeks to shoot it. So we had to move quickly. There was wedges in the shoes because Ronnie had to be a bit taller, then an extra layer of shirts because his shirt shad to look a bit bigger. Then a waistcoat and glasses. So there was a different silhouette between the two.

Q. Tom some people clearly admire the myth of the Krays or even see them as Robin Hood figures. What’s your view of them now having played them?

I just have a healthy indifference to be fair mate. It was sort of a thesis that I worked on for a little bit. That’s the subject and that’s my show and tell on it under the Legend banner. I spent a bit of time researching and working with them in fantasy and pretending. That’s where we leave ti mate at the end of the day. So I got to do a bit of research and schooling but I sort of have a healthy indifference to anything really so I can just invest in the next thing that comes along. Each experience is something under the belt to move forward with my training.