Darkest Hour (2017)

Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill during his early days as UK Prime Minister during World War II.

It’s brilliantly acted but poorly filmed. The overuse of shadows and light by director Joe Wright in pretty much every scene becomes wearing, and quickly feels clichéd, as does the naff music. In fact it’s quite “flat” all round. 

Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James are strong in supporting roles as Churchill's wife and secretary respectively. Oldman is superb and the film is worth seeing (once) if only for him.

The Scarlet Letter (1995)

Ludicrous adaptation of the classic 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. You can virtually hear him turning in his grave.

Demi Moore is wildly miscast as Hester Prynne, who begins an affair with the Reverend Dimsdale (Gary Oldman) in a small settlers community in 1667 Massachusetts. Hester believes her cruel and abusive husband is dead – until he shows up (in the form of Robert Duvall). 

The film unnecessarily adds a plot about a war between the settlers and natives. It also adds a quite dodgy montage scene when the couple first consummate their relationship. Moore is absolutely out of her depth as an actor.

The DVD box has some weird marketing messages on it. Two of the quotes refer to "fun". The film is many things, but fun isn't one of them.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Cold War spy thriller adapted from the 1974 novel by John Le Carre. 

Gary Oldman is George Smiley, leading an all-star cast that also includes Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones and Mark Strong. 

The plot follows Smiley’s efforts to track down a double agent within the British secret service. I found it often too complicated to follow. I also got annoyed with the unrelenting greys and the deliberately grim visuals. Most of the “drama” comes from flashbacks or reported speech, making it less than compelling. I could appreciate that it was an expertly made film but it was too focused on mood and style to ever pull me in.

The Fifth Element (1997)

I hated this film. I don’t think it’s rubbish, necessarily (I’m sure it turned out the way director Luc Besson intended), but I hated it. It’s irritating on so many levels: the aesthetic is ugly, the characters are completely uninteresting and even the sci-fi elements lack the all-important “wow” factor. Bruce Willis runs around in a vest, shooting a lot and looking like he’d rather be in a different sort of film. Gary Oldman hams it up as a daft villain. And Milla Jovovich plays a sort of super-human “perfect” woman with orange hair. 

It has some of the pantomime silliness of Flash Gordon, but absolutely none of the charm. And it steals from Blade Runner (there’s Vangelis-like music at one point, and Jovovich seems modelled on Daryl Hannah’s Pris at others), but it has none of that film’s vision or innovation. It’s played for comedy, but it’s never funny. It falls flat. The crass talk-show host Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) is just embarrassing – possibly the most annoying film character I’ve ever encountered. 

Absolutely nothing about this film appeals.

Air Force One (1997)

Edge-of-the-seat thriller in which Harrison Ford plays the US president. His plane is hijacked by a Russian baddie (Gary Oldman). Ford appears to make a break for safety in an escape pod. But of course he chooses to stay on board to save his family, his crew and democracy itself.

Meanwhile the vice president (a reasonably convincing Glenn Close) leads the operation from the White House and there are some interesting discussions of protocol, i.e., are the president’s instructions legally binding if he is incapacitated? What if you don’t know whether he’s incapacitated?

The film maintains the tension expertly and Ford is as watchable as ever. There are only two corny lines (“Get off my plane” being one of them) and it’s to the film’s credit that the villain is well developed as a character.

There’s lots of shooting, and the violence seems real and painful rather than cartoonish. You know the good guys will win, of course, but it’s exciting to find out how they go about it.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Despite the confusing title, this is the second film in the rebooted series. It’s incredibly intense. Ten years have passed and human civilisation has been decimated by the Simian Flu. The apes are living in the forest outside San Francisco in an advanced civilisation beyond that of cavemen, with buildings, developed relationships and basic language. Inevitably, this fragile human/ape coexistence is threatened when the humans intrude on the apes’ living space in their quest to restore a local power source at a hydroelectric dam. Before you know it, there’s all-out war.

As with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the CGI is remarkably convincing. There are hefty themes about war, peace, trust, power, politics and social organisation. And there’s a lot of shooting. The film challenges the usual monsters-are-bad logic by letting the apes and humans be equally complex, with factions of both species intent on seeking conflict and peace. It’s gripping throughout, as well as strangely moving.