THE
DUKE
Film Reviews by Jordan Adcock
FILM OF THE MONTH - Star Rating: 4/5
The Duke is the increasingly rare film that’s comfortable being a breezy 90 minutes long. That might not sound like great praise. However, this film was director Roger Michell’s (Notting Hill) last before his untimely death last year and while The Duke isn’t destined to live on as a ground-breaking classic, it’s a sweet comedy drama that (a couple of aspects aside) isn’t indulgent, tells a quintessentially quirky British true story and reliably excellent performances from seasoned British actors (plus more swearing than usual for a 12A-rated film!). In this film, it’s evergreen character actor Jim Broadbent as Kempton Bunton, the jovial aspiring script-writer from Newcastle who’s well-read and outspoken, especially about making TV licences free for pensioners. He’s not impressed when in 1961 the nation buys Francisco Goya’s portrait of the
Duke of Wellington for £140,000. One visit to London later, the painting goes missing and Bunton’s red-handed (or is he?). Broadbent is perfect for the lead role which suiting his unassuming, gently comical onscreen presence, and ensures that Bunton’s likeable despite his motormouth and overall stubbornness, including physically removing the means to receive the BBC on his own TV to not pay the licence (spoiler alert: it doesn’t work). Mirren is equally welcome as Bunton’s wife Dorothy, who’s grown weary not just of his refusal to pay their own TV licence or give up his seemingly hopeless campaigns, but also working through their shared, unresolved trauma of their daughter’s death. Her character, particularly her interactions with Kempton and their spirited son Jackie (Fionn Whitehead), helps ground the film from ever lurching into outright triviality. ✪
THE BATMAN
LUCA
Star Rating: 2.5/5
MORTAL KOMBAT
Star Rating: 2.5/5
Star Rating: 1.5/5
When a character’s as lucrative as Batman, reboot after reboot is only inevitable. Director Matt Reeves’ new take, starring a worthy turn by Robert Pattinson as an especially moody and troubled Batman, certainly puts the ‘dark’ in ‘dark knight’. Namely, its impressively gloomy atmosphere in Gotham that rains almost every night and the Riddler (Paul Dano), here reworked as an unnerving internet-dwelling killer eliminating the city’s corrupt elite. The film gets sloppier the further it drags on with certain plot points introduced right as they’re paid off, which is less forgivable given the three-hour runtime and how it continually extends shots and scenes longer than necessary. It’s not up there with Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight films but mercifully much better than Warner Bros.’s rushed universe-building featuring Ben Affleck as Batman. ✪
Luca is the latest Pixar film sent straight to streaming on Disney+ (and later Blu-ray/ DVD), presumably for mid-pandemic business reasons rather than artistic ones. Still, if this isn’t Pixar’s worst film it might well be their slightest. Luca the young sea creature discovers one day that he turns human when out of water (literally “fish out of water”?) and makes friends with Alberto and Giulia, though is forced to hide his true self from the seaside town that fears his kind. Too much of the story, and themes of friendship overcoming fear and suspicion, have already been done in other animated films with more imagination and depth, including by Pixar in Monsters, Inc. The attention to detail of its Italian riviera setting and the sweet character relationships aren’t enough. ✪
Released last year and now available to stream, this is Hollywood’s second stab at filming the very violent beat-em-up video game series. Whereas the 1990s Mortal Kombat films remain very poor adaptations but are very silly and funny regardless, this one’s a better adaptation with fight scenes that are better choreographed and blood and gore closer resembling the games. Yet, despite its main cast including someone who gains robotic arms, an ice-wielding assassin and a foul-mouthed brawny Australian, the film’s determined to mostly focus on its bland-as-anything ‘Chosen One’ protagonist, with his motivations to protect his family even blander than his dialogue. Thank goodness this film’s main stakes are in its realm-hopping, magic-powered martial arts. ✪
Speaking of video game adaptations, adventure film Uncharted is much closer to the typical Hollywood butchering they’ve subjected to series like Tomb Raider, Warcraft, etc. The film stars Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, despite them not at all resembling the original game characters Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, professional thieves who form an uneasy partnership to find hidden gold before the powerful Moncada family does. The lead pair coast on their honed screen charm (Holland’s performance is essentially him as Peter Parker again), because the script certainly gives them nothing to work with. The action’s ridiculous, the plot and logic even more so, and Antonio Banderas gets wasted; Uncharted chases gold but this film’s treasure is eye-rolling rather than dazzling. ✪
Star Rating: 3/5
UNCHARTERED
You can follow Jordan on Twitter (@JordanReview) and read his blog at www.reviewsreflections.wordpress.com For the latest local news visit www.mkpulse.co.uk | MK Pulse Magazine | April 2022
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