mattjeanes Reviews

Little Joe (2019)

Invasion of the Body Triffids

[3/10 · 20 June 2020]

What a waste.. great design,. Potentially good cast, great cinematography..but what a bore... no real suspense, no horror.. whoever directed this made a complete hash of it,. The score was annoying,. The story was basically Invasion of the Body Snatchers.. Everything was just..a bore.. white noise with a colour scheme.

Cats (2019)

Not a CATastrophie.

[6/10 · 21 December 2019]

Well,. here goes.. CATS:The Movie,.It's certainly an experience unlike any other... Is that a good thing?,. I'd say (against ALL odds) Yes!. The show is basically 'an experience' no discernible plot,. a group of poems put to music and sung/danced as a burlesque of show numbers,. crowd claps,. goes home happy. What the director has done with the movie,. is linked together a narrative that tries to link (slightly) all of those elements from the show.. It LOOKS stunning,. from the first glimpse of the humanoid cats dodging car lights in a gloriously colourful version of London in neon. What the movie press have jumped on is the first trailer bandwagon (which wasn't good) and all the negative press,. "let's sink this puss".. without looking at the content.. The CONTENT IS CATS! Once you acclimatise to the look of the characters, (which have been improved since that first trailer), it's no more or less fantastical than AVATAR was. The lead three characters are wonderful together and each character song is performed and staged with glee and aplomb,. (Even James Cordon is bearable) Highlights for me are the new song (Beautiful Ghosts),. OLD DEUTERONMY introduces the character beautifully (Judi Dench and Ian McKellen almost steal the film),.SKIMBLESHANKS: The Railway Cat is a Tap dancing highlight,. MEMORY may not work as a listen too version on record but it plays beautifully in the film and Jennifer Hudson was so touching. Taylor Swift and Rebel Wilson all deliver in their Burlesque/humour moments. My biggest niggle was that the scale falters with Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser dancing with the lead where a ring or a necklace suddenly reduce the cats to mouse size. Seeing I never liked the show but appreciated it.., I can happily say I preferred the film and I LIKED it (the cinema was also packed!) If you can tolerate the far fetched antics and computer generated folderol of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN,. then two minutes in,. you should acclimatise to CATS,. Ignore the bad reviews.. make up your own mind for me today it was a Christmas treat!

Jersey Boys (2014)

Wrong Seasoning

[5/10 · 28 June 2014]

Why oh why can't Hollywood make a decent musical anymore? So many shows have so much potential, then it seems poor choices are made and we have a celluloid record of 'How NOT to make a musical'. The Summer graveyard slot is a good indication of a studio's distrust of their movie (See an equally miss judged 'Rock Of Ages' a few years back, re-tailored to Cruise and ruined by that.. It WAS FUN however). Here we have a prime awards candidate rushed into a JUNE slot. So what's happened to JERSEY BOYS.. It's basically forgotten the fact that it IS a musical. Eastwood has re-told it as a serious Bi-pic with music.. that music is still great but you get none of the buzz of the show.. IF the character can break the fourth wall to address the audience ( which they do) then WHY can't they sing to the audience as well.. and then let us all in on the party..As it stands it's a traditional old school bio pic that we watch and don't get involved in.. Until... The last production number.. played over the credits.. It's the one time the movie lets us in. Great design and good performances are wasted. Such a shame.. file with 'Mama Mia', 'Rock Of Ages' and 'Sweeney Todd' as missed opportunities. and a lost record of good shows on film.

Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie (2014)

D'pan

[2/10 · 28 June 2014]

Now, I LOVE Mrs Brown on TV, I think she is a classic TV creation and I love the way the action moves and never let's you forget they are filming it live, including the out takes as they happen. Where as most sitcom-movie transfers are usually really bad ( so many to name but recently Keith Lemon and Harry Hill) some manage it (the Inbetweeners, Alan Partridge) and I hoped that using that same TV savvy,, it may be OK.. To be fair it starts OK with a nice musical number getting everything set up.. But that's pretty much the end. The story tries to be serious, tries to be about 'home' and 'change' and 'acceptance ' but ends up not saying much at all.. It's a little bit racist if anything. The TV version has 25 minutes to pack in as many gags as it can.. This movie packs in the same amount of gags in 100 minutes.. I was bored. It also seemed they had sidelined a lot of the lead characters and most of them ended up with little or no dialogue at all. The other thing missing was the trick of the TV ,, the filmed and repeated miss-step. There are a couple in the movie,, but not enough and as usual the gag reel in the credits was funnier than the film. We also miss the live laughter track with a lot of the jokes not giving Mrs Brown her time to react. Shame.. But I suppose it's what I should have expected.. It's hard to break tradition.

Walking on Sunshine (2014)

Summer fun

[7/10 · 28 June 2014]

While this movie panders to all the clichés of 'a chicks night in musical' that's also what makes it good. Viewing it on a wet afternoon in summer with no holiday in sight it just made me happy and I left the cinema smiling and singing the songs from my youth. How many movies can you say that about these days. It was cleverly thought out, the dancing and staging was fun, the leads were appealing, the hot boys were hot. Downside was that the girl playing Maddy was hopelessly over the top as was Greg Wise,, but this was a pantomime musical generated for a few drinks and a hen night in the summer. Where as MamaMia was trying to convince (and never did) the bad acting, singing and dancing have at least been rectified here and you are laughing along for the right reasons. It works in most part from a lovely lead performance from Hannah Arterton proving she's a MUCH better actress than her over exposed sister (Gemma).. In the cold light of day this movie makes you feel like you've had a romance on holiday , fallen in love and then you go home, whether you re-visit will be up to you.. I will.

Maleficent (2014)

Magnificent

[9/10 · 28 June 2014]

This is, without doubt my movie of the summer, after disappointments like Godzilla, Jersey Boys , Mrs. Brown' s Boys ( I hoped!!) , this was an amazing breath of fresh air, amazing visuals, story telling and a staggering lead performance by Jolie make this my film choice of the year. Initial critical slamming has paved way for credit where credit is due with those critics who saw its worth now thumbing their noses at the ones who didn't. It has all the darkness and passion of a story told to you when you were a child,, but now we are adults it still has that magic to enthral.. A dark take with a cool message. I can't wait to see it again and judging by the repeat business world wide, I think this character will go down in movie history. Loved it