Sully - Movie Voodoo Review by Chris Hembury

Sully ****

In 2009 Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger became an overnight hero when his engines failed he landed a commercial airliner in the Hudson river saving every passenger on board. When Sullenberger wrote his book the film was almost certainly coming and come it has. 

Clint Eastwood is no stranger to directing real life stories after J.Edgar, Invictus, American Sniper it would appear Sully is good hands. 

The problem with taking on such a story is that the premise outcome is already public knowledge and still very fresh in our minds, but Eastwood focuses on the more unknown aspect of the tale. We see the investigation into Sully that focuses on the point of view that he didn't take the right course of action and did instead make a reckless choice that in danger every passenger on board. We see the private struggle between coping with instant celebrity, be celebrated a hero whilst struggling with self doubt and accusations. 

The pacing of the film is  a difficult one to get right. After all Clint's one big playing card is the actual landing itself that's the high point after that interest can sway. Eastwood knows this keeping this Ace up his sleeve for half the film then showing it a few times from different perspectives and at different points of the film with every time it being totally engaging.

It's hard to imagine anyone other that Hanks in the role of Sully. He captivates his Jimmy Stewart everyday guy to great effect whilst also capturing the characterisation of Sully. Hanks is lifetime competent actor to Sully's lifetime competent pilot and the two combinations truly complement each other.

As good as the performance is it can't be truly great as there isn't enough juicy dialogue for Hanks to have or to be able to more diagrammatically delivery as it would deject from the true life aspect of the tale which they seem to rigorously honour. For instance at the most exciting moment of the film during the landing scenes the filmmakers stick to the exact transcript of the real pilots which is extremely limited given the 280 seconds entirety of the event.

Most Hollywood films would have ignored that and sexed it up with Sully dodging buildings, ringing his Wife before impact, give a monologue over the meaning of life and then spend 20 minutes landing. No, not here what happened is what's on the screen and that integrity is what is refreshing earnest to see.    

In fact Hanks did say that the real Sully was often on set and set and lent glorious attention to detail about every aspect of the film for authenticity to real life even down to the pens in the rooms. With this said during one scene at the Marriott a pen and paper sits in the background by the lamp and I had a feeling that was the same one from 2009.

Creative licence has obviously been taken for the scenes that make up the movie's main theme which is the investigation over whether Sully was a hero or a dangerous fraud.  I'm not sure how much that was amped to give the movie some welly. After all if you're going to have a villain you might have as well make it the National Transportation Safety Board! 

The NTSB were naturally not impressed with their Pantomime villainy portrayal with a real life Investigator going as far to say it was "mean spirited dishonesty". This might explain with a film with so much authenticity they decided to change the names of the investigation team.

Other scenes that include back flashes to Sully's very early days of flying do show the scale of the man's career but don't feel tremendously needed and perhaps were stocking fillers to the script.

However this is a true life story which has a glorious feel good aspect to it showing us that once in while human beings are capable of conducting some glorious feats. A man who is by no means perfect after forty years experience engaged on a course of action over a mere 280 seconds that defined odds, saved lives and showed in modern times of daily depressing news that Miracles can still happen. 

And this one happened on the Hudson. 

By Chris Hembury

Silence Film Review by Job Done Media

*Rubbish ** Ok *** Good **** Very Good ***** Unmissable

Silence ***

The story set in the 1700's shows how Christianity who outlawed in Japan and very violent consequences bestowed anyone believing, preaching or supporting Christianity.  

Martin Scorsese directs this tale of two young priests who gone on a quest to find out what happened to their Christian mentor Liam Neeson who's apparently denounced God and gone missing in Japan. 

The story sounds intriguing and quickly gets into gear. The young priests head into dangerous Japan but the minute they arrive the story slows down to an incredible slow pace to the extent you feel you are now watching a very interesting documentary rather than a Hollywood cinematic outing. 

This is no accident as Scorsese purposely reigns in all his direction and refuses to use any of the modern temptations of film making today. Instead he uses extreme simplicity itself to direct this story, almost always using basic coverage in his direction conveying the message loud and clear that the story is the star here.   

All the cast give it their all both in performance and preparation. Especially Garfield who is nearly in every single scene of this film  and when the script at times fails to offer him the best dialogue he reverts to acting his with eyes instead of his mouth. All the Japanese cast including Yosuke Kubozuka, Shin'ya Tsukamoto are tremendous supporting and scene stealing cast members. 

There is a real feeling here that the cast are aware they are joining the ranks of something very special, the physical transformation in appearance is dedication alone with all involved shifting tremendous weight for authenticity. 

The story moves at it's own pace which is a very slow one and at times it will test the dedication of the audience. By it's own integrity it's destined not to be commercial Hollywood box office hit. It's far too heavy for the average cinema goer but terms of telling a story that is deserving of being told it has succeeded. 

It remains to be seen whether Scorsese's 25 year passion project will have the success of awards or commercial recuperation but the Director has succeeded in making his most personal film to date of a story that is built on passion and dedication by all involved including pay cuts.

Silence is a rarity in Hollywood. 

by Chris Hembury 

*Rubbish ** Ok *** Good **** Very Good ***** Unmissable

Passengers ** Cast Away in space

 

      In the future some of Earth's population have decided to relocate to another planet, so just hop into a tube then hibernate for about a 100 years and your there!
     Unless anything goes for some Hollywood heartthrobs passengers like Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence who wake up 90 years too early and no way to get back to sleep.... 

          The concept itself is intriguing, the special effects make the central location believable and the cast work hard to carry off the script, with extra pressure on them as they are basically the only ones on screen apart from a scene stealing Micheal Sheen as a Android Barman and a brief very welcomed appearance from Laurence Fishburne who both keep morale up for the passengers and audience. 

      However the story and the tone are muddled, it feels like we go through the five stages of grief (twice), the romance is so blindingly expected like putting two hamsters in a cage (hell if Pratt was replaced by John Candy after a few decades he'd look good to Jennifer), the big reason behind the awakening is well not really that big and we take a rather creepy tone at one point making Star Lord into Star Creep.

       The shame of passengers is it contains an abundance of missed opportunities, a creepy twist would have been much better delivered it we saw it as a back flash rather than watch every single plot point unfold at a snails pace .  An Divine reason behind the inciting event would have given depth and more purpose to our journey.

         Passengers is by no means a action film like perhaps it's marketed or even a mystery thriller like it's been hinted at. It's more fitting to a Psychological Drama set in space... now try and sell that to your 12A audience. 

        Passengers has a good concept and in the hands of a creative genius like Kubrick this could have perhaps been quite special but here it never pushes to evolve, to dare to be bigger or take risks and with a scope as big as the universe that's a real shame.