Geostorm (2017)

Disaster film. 

The world has been saved from environmental disaster by a hi-tech space station (the actual science isn’t explained), but when it malfunctions extreme weather takes a deadly hit on Earth. It turns out that the tech has been sabotaged – with suspicion going all the way up to the US President – and it takes the station’s creator Jake (Gerard Butler) to save the world from total climate meltdown. 

The film is utterly ludicrous but quite entertaining if you don’t ask any questions. Jim Sturgess is laughable as Jake’s sweaty, anxious brother Max, who has family “issues” (and looks a bit like Chris de Burgh). Abbie Cornish plays his tough, secret-service girlfriend. Alexandra Maria Lara is the sensitive and appealing space station commander who becomes Jake’s love interest. Ed Harris is the U.S. Secretary of State serving the president, who is played by Andy Garcia. 

The script is wooden and the plotting is entirely predictable. But the CGI scenes of extreme weather are exciting and the action rattles along so quickly that you don’t have time to assess whether any of it makes sense.

Black Rain (1989)

Directed by Ridley Scott, this has something of that director's classic Blade Runner about it – in terms of the visuals, at least. But whereas that was a hugely imaginative sci-fi crime masterpiece, this is merely a reasonably OK thriller.

Michael Douglas plays a New York cop assigned to escort a Japanese assassin back to Japan. When that ruthless killer outwits him, he’s plunged into the criminal underworld.

Andy Garcia has a certain charm as his colleague, and he should have been featured more prominently. Douglas himself looks unwell and it’s unclear whether he’s just being “method” about the character or whether the actor himself is going through a difficult patch. The charisma is unchanged, however – Douglas always has a certain presence, whatever the film. 

The film is arguably quite racist, peddling quite a few clichés about Japanese culture.

Confidence (2003)

Thriller about a group of con artists (led by Edward Burns) who get mixed up with a creepy crime boss called The King (Dustin Hoffman) and plan an elaborate banking scam. 

James Foley’s direction is flashy and a little tricksy, but the story – although complex – is a good one. Also, the acting is uniformly strong. Paul Giamatti and Rachel Weisz are both effective as members of the con team, while Andy García is convincing-but-underused as Special Agent Gunther Butan. 

The plotting can be difficult to keep up with, but it just about holds together if you don’t ask too many “But what if…” questions about timing and motivation.

When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)

Meg Ryan plays a mother of two who descends into the horror of alcohol addiction. Andy Garcia plays the loving airline-pilot husband who wants to save her but ends up stifling her in the process.

It’s an extremely well-written drama that avoids cliché. Cleverly, it evolves from a film about a drink problem into a film about a marital problem. And it presents the couple’s situation from multiple angles so that it’s difficult to “take sides”.

The two child roles are brilliantly acted by Tina Majorino and Mae Whitman, revealing real sensitivity in their restrained but heartbreaking performances. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a friend from Alcoholics Anonymous, who oddly drops out of the narrative without explanation – the only real flaw.

The songs on the soundtrack can be a little intrusive, but they don’t spoil the film. I was fearing a simplistic “happy” or “sad” ending, but it wisely avoids that and finds its way to a more satisfying conclusion. It’s emotional and powerful.

The Untouchables (1987)

Brian De Palma’s historical crime drama is set in 1930 in Chicago, where gangster Al Capone (Robert De Niro) is running various illegal rackets during Prohibition. The cops are in on them, too. But federal treasury officer Eliot Ness (a handsome Kevin Costner) forms a tiny group of men he can trust (played by Sean Connery, Andy Garcia and Charles Martin Smith) to take on and stamp out corruption. 

It’s an engaging story, but a few flaws stop it being remarkable:

1. The very “1980s” music by Ennio Morricone is impressive in places, but is sometimes used jarringly. For example, a crucial encounter at the Canadian border is accompanied by “adventure” music that completely undercuts any dramatic tension that has been built up. I think of this as “Steven Spielberg syndrome” – see Jaws.

2. There are points at which it seems like an episode of The A-Team in the slightly sentimental way it assembles a gang of diverse “good guys against the world” – even though this apparently really did happen, albeit with a slightly larger gang. The fact that one of them is a nerdy accountant who conveniently happens to be handy with a shotgun makes it a little harder to take seriously. 

3. There’s something awkward and not-quite-right about Patricia Clarkson as Kevin Costner’s wife. Or maybe her role is just underwritten. Plus, the way the script (by David Mamet) focuses on Eliot’s loyalty to his wife and daughter leads you to think they will end up playing a greater part in the story (kidnapped or murdered) than they ever do. 

4. The motivation of Jimmy Malone (Connery) is unclear. Why does he risk everything to help Costner? Why is he so morally upstanding when all the other policemen are crooked? And what’s going on with his Irish-Scottish-American accent?

These points aside, it’s highly enjoyable. De Niro is reassuringly nasty as Capone, gaining weight especially for the role, and Kevin Costner surprises by being highly watchable. Plus, there’s a particularly dynamic scene set in Union Station that involves a mother with a pram being caught in a crossfire.

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Completely unbelievable casino heist thriller. Some of the 11 criminals are caricatures, while Brad Pitt just eats during every scene. There are too many things in the plot that simply couldn’t happen, such as when they need to create a power cut and so steal a big piece of scientific equipment to release an electromagnet pulse that plunges all of Las Vegas into darkness. The guy with the English cockney accent is plain embarrassing. Why do American films and TV shows so often completely misjudge how English people speak? 

George Clooney is charming as Danny Ocean and Andy Garcia is convincingly nasty as the evil casino owner, but it’s too visually stylised and self-conscious to let you ever become fully engrossed in the story. 

Would I watch it again? No.