What might have been an interesting romantic comedy becomes a deliberately absurd slapstick caper. The actors are all strong (Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie also star) but the script just isn’t funny enough and their talents are wasted on something half-baked and crudely forgettable.
Like most Streisand films, it’s a rich source of material for anyone wishing to psychoanalyse her. There’s lots about her childhood, her relationships with her parents (Lauren Bacall plays Rose’s stern mother), and her body image.
It’s flawed but fairly entertaining – especially if you’re already a Babs fan.
Philip (Pierce Brosnan) is a hard-hearted businessman. Ida (Trine Dyrholm) is a hairdresser recovering from cancer treatment. They pair meet when their children are due to marry in Italy, and they fall in love despite various obstacles.
Contrary to what the generic title and packaging might suggest, it’s surprisingly enjoyable and subtle, with some nice observations about the way families behave.
In the weeks following the US Civil War, Colonel Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson) and a team of men attempt to hunt down a man he wants to kill (Pierce Brosnan).
Both leads are excellent. It’s probably the most actual acting Brosnan has ever done.
There’s a relentless quality as they survive a sequence of grim fates, but unlike its spiritual cousin Revenant it doesn’t become ridiculous or unbelievable.
The story concerns five friends, who – encouraged by Gary King (Simon Pegg) – return to their hometown to take part in a nostalgic pub crawl. Unfortunately, Newton Haven has been taken over by blue-blooded aliens.
Once again, there’s an obsession with small English towns and the way people behave in them.
The usual team of Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Julia Deakin, Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy all appear, alongside Rosamund Pike and Pierce Brosnan.
It’s not quite as strong as the first two films, perhaps because you know what to expect already. But the performances are all first-rate and there are many funny lines.
It’s possibly the weirdest film I’ve ever seen.
The flimsy “plot” is simple: a girl called Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is getting married and wants to invite her father. But she’s unsure which of three possible contenders he is. So she invites them all to the Greek island hotel owned by her mother in order to find out.
Meryl Streep is surprisingly good in the main role, and sings pretty well. Pierce Brosnan comes across oddly and sings badly. Colin Firth is likeable but given little to go on in terms of the script.
Most notable are the visuals. The lighting doesn’t look real and I don’t think it’s even meant to. It creates a kind of multi-coloured hyper-reality of its own. Some of the casting is peculiar, too. Julie Walters seems an odd choice for one of Streep’s best friends, and her “fun-loving” character is coarse and difficult to endure. Even worse is Sky (Dominic Cooper), Sophie’s unappealing fiancé.
I spent most of the film in shock, unsure what I was meant to be thinking or feeling. The Abba songs are great, of course, but did they need to be used to soundtrack a fairly banal romantic comedy?
It’s extremely odd. Parts of it are unintentionally funny. McGregor has a cockney accent and at times sounds like a young Michael Caine, but beyond that isn’t given any personality at all. Brosnan also speaks oddly, and his usual natural quality is absent. The two women in the ex-PM’s life (Kim Cattrall as Olivia Williams) are both played in a hammy, overwrought fashion. Cattrall has few lines and little to do. The set is also strange: a peculiar designer house on an island just off the US mainland. The Martha's Vineyard area is meant to be attractive – sought after by a wealthy elite – but it looks like a remote, unloved stretch of the Suffolk coastline. You think the fancy "Bond villain" house is going to have a significance, but that never arrives, so the flashy location ends up being a distraction that has nothing whatsoever to do with the story.
It’s an exceedingly well-made action thriller that never lets up. There are some harrowing sequences and I will never forget the scene in which Jack – moments from being shot with his family and faced with an impossible choice – has to hurl his children between two buildings.
Pierce Brosnan is excellent as the British intelligence agent who helps the Dwyers. He exudes charisma and charm, even with a silly London accent that makes him sound Australian.
Director John Erick Dowdle favours jerky, semi-documentary edits that give the scenes a sense of urgency – although the effect may be overused.
Critics complained that the film is xenophobic, but it's deliberately positioned from the Americans' perspective and as such conveys how terrifying such a situation might have seemed to them.
The plot is fairly similar, although Crown’s playful crimes take place with valuable paintings instead of him orchestrating a bank robbery.
Brosnan is perfect for the role: a sort of clinical charm. He’s better here than he was as James Bond, perhaps simply because the script is superior. Russo also gets it spot-on as the insurance investigator who slowly begins to fall for the man she should be incriminating. She’s stylish, sharp and sexy, always just one step behind him in their perpetual cat-and-mouse game.
As a neat little reference to the original, Faye Dunaway returns – but as Thomas Crown’s shrink. The only problem is that the film gives no inkling as to why a man so supremely confident and perfectly accomplished might need a shrink in the first place. Denis Leary is also impressive as the Detective Michael McCann, and the progression of his relationship with Russo’s character is developed nicely.
Whereas the original has a slightly impressionistic element, this version is crisp and precise – tightly plotted and excellently done all round. Probably the best remake I have seen.
