ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : Tuesday 10th July 2018.

'ANT-MAN AND THE WASP' which I saw this week keeps the Marvel machine grinding forever onwards churning out superhero fare for us to spend our $20 or so on at the local multiplex. And so it is too with this sequel to 2015's 'Ant-Man', which off the back of a US$110M Budget grossed US$520M at the global Box Office, was generally well received by Critics and audiences alike, and picked up three award wins and another 33 nominations from around the circuit. This 20th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Directed by Peyton Reed once again, who came on board one month after the release of the first instalment. This film was released in the US last week too, but not in the UK until early August. Paul Rudd, who plays Ant-Man/Scott Lang also takes a Co-Writer credit this time around. The film cost US$162M to make, has so far grossed US$185M and has been generally well received. This is the first MCU film to have the name of a female Superhero protagonist in its title . . . . about time methinks!

Set two years following the events that unfolded with 'Captain America : Civil War' and prior to the events that came to pass just recently in 'Avengers : Infinity War' and now under house arrest (explaining his absence from 'Avengers : Infinity War') Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) struggles with balancing his choices as both a father to young Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) and a responsible superhero. Having had to put his mantle of 'Ant-Man' on ice for the last two years for being caught in the middle of the Avengers fight which was in violation of the Sokovia Accords, Lang is now only three days away from being able to step foot outside his own home. He has been patient, compliant and responsible, while Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) - a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, entomologist, and physicist who became the original Ant-Man way back when, have gone underground, are also in hiding and have cut all ties these past years with Lang.

Then one day, Hope and Pym are able to open a portal through to the Quantum Realm where Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) was lost back in 1987, has not been seen since and is presumed dead. At that same precise moment Lang has a vision of Janet with whom he became entangled when he himself was in the Quantum Realm two years earlier and from which he was able to successfully return. Lang calls Pym for the first time in two years to explain his vision, but gets Hank's voicemail. A short time later Hope kidnaps Lang, miniaturises them and sets a decoy back at his house so as not to arouse suspicion by the FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) that he has broken the terms of his house arrest.

Pym believes that Lang's vision was a message that Janet is still alive, albeit trapped within the Quantum Realm. Needing a piece of hi-tech equipment to create a stable tunnel through which to access the Quantum Realm, Hope meets with her 'supplier' - a black market arms trader named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins). But Burch has other plans for Hope when he realises the potential of what she is working on, and he wants in on the action. A fight breaks out between Hope, who by now has assumed the powers of her alter-ego 'The Wasp' and is able to thwart Burch and his goons, but not so with a mysterious figure come to be known as 'Ghost' (Hannah John-Kamen) for her power to be able to travel through solid matter.

In the fracas Ghost escapes with Pym's miniaturised laboratory causing him, Hope and Lang to visit the one man they think can help them retrieve it - Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburn), a former partner of Pym's but they fell out decades before and had not spoken in thirty years. Reluctantly, Foster helps Pym locate his lost laboratory at Ghosts place of residence. Gaining entry Ghost is able to easily overpower the threesome and reveals that her name is Ava Starr and she has suffered from molecular instability since she was a child when her father, also a former partner of Pym's, died in an explosion with her mother too, while conducting a Quantum experiment which resulted in Ava's unstable condition. Foster reveals that his is in cahoots with Ava and is in fact her guardian, and is determined to make Ava better by harnessing Janet's Quantum energy. But Pym will have none of this as he believes that this would kill Janet, and so they escape with the aid of some giants ants.

With their laboratory back Pym and Hope resume their plan to fire up the tunnel. They are able to contact Janet through Lang, who gives them detailed coordinates with which to locate her in the Quantum Realm. But time is of the essence and they only have a limited window of two hours before the opportunity is lost for a century or so. Burch meanwhile has reassembled his gang of goons and through Lang's security company 'X-Cons' and his partners Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (Tip 'T'.I.' Harris) and Kurt (David Dastmalchian) are able to locate Pym's lab. Burch calls an FBI Agent he has on the payroll, who in turns contacts Woo and alerts them to Lang's presence while supposedly under house arrest. Lang hot foots it back to his house just in time for Woo to walk in expecting to catch him out - but not so. However, with Ant-Man indisposed, the FBI converge on Pym's lab and arrest him and Hope leaving Ghost to once again steal the miniaturised lab.

Lang let off the hook by Woo, is able to come to the rescue of Pym and Hope and help them escape custody, and they locate the lab in a well executed and at times completely over the top car chase sequence through the streets of San Francisco as Ant-Man goes from being very little to very large. Lang and Hope divert Ava while Pym enters the Quantum Realm to retrieve Janet. Luis, Dave, and Kurt help apprehend Burch, so Lang and Hope can stop Ava who has already begun sapping Janet of her energy. Pym and Janet arrive back safe from the Quantum Realm, and Janet voluntarily grants some of her energy to Ava to temporarily stabilise her.

Lang returns home once again, just in time for a now suspicious Woo to unbuckle his ankle bracelet at the end of his house arrest period. Ava and Foster go into hiding, with Foster vowing to find a cure for her. Wait for the mid-credits sequence, which brings us right up to date, and naturally Stan Lee's obligatory laugh out loud one liner cameo.

It's good to see some levity arriving in the MCU in the form of 'Ant-Man and The Wasp' after the more depressing and distressing 'Captain America : Civil War' and 'Avengers : Infinity War' episodes. Here the more light handed approach works well with the storyline that is not overly complicated and delivers just the right amount of humour to keep it grounded. The action set pieces are well executed and work best when Ant-Man and The Wasp are reduced down to their insect size or conversely Ant-Man grows to be a towering giant of some sixty feet. Both Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly have settled well into their roles and despite their occasional verbal sparring, feel comfortable around each other and with their gifted super powers. Michelle Pfeiffer's role is a little under cooked, and Walton Goggins is half baked, but these are minor criticisms of a worthy and respectable sequel that is fast paced, good humoured, light hearted and still packs a punch.

'Ant-Man and The Wasp' merits four claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

TOMB RAIDER : Tuesday 20th March 2018.

I saw 'TOMB RAIDER' earlier in the week, and here we have a reboot of the 'Tomb Raider' franchise that launched into the cinematic world in 2001 from its video game origins dating back to 1993. That first outing starred Angelina Jolie as our titular action adventure heroine Lara Croft, with the film being Directed by Simon West for US$115M and grossing US$275M. On the strength of this, a second film was released in 2003 titled 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider : The Cradle of Life', with Jolie reprising her role but this time Directed by Jan de Bont for US$95M and raking in US$157M. Now fast forward fifteen years, and its reboot time for this film franchise, which as a video game has sold over 63 million copies worldwide, and has made Lara Croft one of the most recognisable and notable video game protagonists in existence. And so Norwegian Director Roar Uthaug has helmed this latest instalment based on the 2013 video game of the same name as worked up by game developer Crystal Dynamics. Costing US$90M to make, the film has so far grossed US$163M and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews.

And so in 2018 Alicia Vikander portrays the fiercely independent, free spirited, reckless and carefree action adventure loving Lara Croft who spends her life kick boxing at her local gym and in between time running food deliveries as a bicycle courier across London. She is the only daughter of eccentric archaeologist adventurer Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) who went missing some years previously, now believed to be dead. When she is arrested for a relatively minor infraction, involving her bicycle and a Police car, Richard's business partner Ana Miller (Kristen Scott Thomas) posts bail and advises her that if she does not claim her inheritance, her father's estate will be sold off. In flashback we see Lord Croft tearing himself away from his country estate and his young seven year old daughter Lara to go away on some purposeful adventure, and then doing so again at age fourteen . . . a journey he would not return from.

Reluctantly Lara, now in her early twenties, agrees to sign off on the inheritance papers, and in doing so uncovers a key contained in an old Japanese wooden puzzle wrapped up in a handwritten clue that gains her access to a secret office located in the bowels of the Croft estate. Rummaging around in her fathers office, she finds a camcorder with a recorded message to Lara that describes his years long search for the tomb of Himiko the mythical queen of Yumatai whom it is said was able to control the power of life over death. The parting message warns Lara to destroy all evidence of his search for Himiko - written notes, diaries, scribblings, voice and video recordings, lest they should fall into the wrong hands and unleash the power of Himiko upon an unsuspecting world with deadly consequences for all humanity.

Lara travels to Hong Kong in search of a boat owner that allegedly took her father to the island of Yumatai seven years previously aboard 'The Endurance'. After a run in with some local likely lads who steal Lara's satchel, which she retrieves successfully following a foot chase across various boats and junks on Hong Kong Harbour, she encounters Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) the drunken gambling owner of the boat. He explains that it would have been his father (also named Lu Ren) who was commissioned by Richard Croft to take him across 'The Devil's Sea' to the island of Yumatai - but Lu Ren Senior is now dead! However, the pair strike up a deal, and set sail. The ship gets caught up in a boiling sea just off the island and crashes into treacherous rocks and is smashed. Lara is tossed off the boat, and Lu Ren is presumed lost at sea. Washed ashore in the storm, Lara is knocked unconscious by a mystery figure.

The next morning Lara comes around face to face with Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) who has been on the island for seven years searching for Himiko's tomb with no success. He claims to have killed Lara's father all those years ago, but is grateful for his detailed research notes found in Lara's satchel that will help him locate the tomb once and for all. Vogel works for a secretive organisation called 'Trinity' that wants to harness the power of Himiko, and ultimately weaponise it. Vogel takes Lara prisoner and puts her to work with a whole bunch of other fishermen and shipwrecked sailor prisoners captured over the years, and Lu Ren, who survived the storm only to be captured himself too.

With the help of Lu Ren, Lara is able to stage a distraction and make an escape, but is chased through the dense jungle undergrowth by two of Vogel's henchmen. She successfully evades them, but gets into various death defying falls and bad scrapes along the way that see her lurch from one near death experience to another in quick succession. Finally, she is hanging from the canopy of an old parachute as it roughly glides her down towards the jungle floor through the trees to come to an abrupt crashing halt. She is injured and passes out from her wound.

Later that evening Lara is stirred by the sounds of someone or something lurking close by. She gets into a fight with one of Vogel's henchmen sent to track her down and retrieve her. She gains the upper hand and drowns him in the river. Her first kill, which distresses her. But this is short-lived when she spies a hooded figure looking on through the nighttime undergrowth. She gives chase but the figure disappears up the side of a cliff with the aid of a rope which is quickly hauled up. Lara climbs up without the aid of the rope into a cave, where the mystery figure is poking around at an open fire. The mystery figure is a heavily bearded Richard Croft. At first Ricard does not recognise his daughter, but she jogs his memory and they embrace. Richard treats Lara's wound, which she sleeps off until the next morning.

Despite Richard's protests Lara sets off to recover his research notes and a satellite phone from Vogel's camp. She and Lu Ren create a distraction so allowing him and the fishermen prisoners to escape amidst the chaos of gunfire and explosions in and around the camp site.

Meanwhile, Richard has ventured up to the uncovered entry to the tomb site, found by Vogel with the aid of his extensive research notes which were clearly not destroyed by Lara despite her father's very specific instructions to do so. He is joined by Lara and then Vogel. With Richard caught in the middle, with his daughter aiming a bow at Vogel and Vogel pointing a gun at Richard's head, something in this Mexican stand-off has to give. And it is Lara who buckles under the pressure, and agrees to open the tomb in lieu of saving her father, much to Richard's disdain. And so faced with various cogs and wheels built into the wall which must be unlocked in sequence in order to gain access to the tomb, Lara sets about her task . . . with relative ease it seems!

With access gained to the tomb, Vogel orders Lara to venture down first, then Richard and then several henchmen bringing up the rear. Needless to say the group is greeted by a number of booby traps and challenges through a labyrinth of tunnels and corridors that open out in to huge expanses of underground space. One of the henchmen perishes at the end of a giant spike, and there are several close calls along the way, but ultimately the group reach Himiko's sarcophagus.

Opening up the casket, two of Vogel's henchmen attempt to lift Himiko's corpse but are almost instantly infected by her power. Lara deduces that she was the carrier of a disease that was so powerful that physical contact alone triggers an immediate reaction whereby the body starts to progressively die and disintegrate. From the markings around the walls, she further deduces that Himiko voluntarily sealed herself in her tomb because she wanted to avoid spreading it, even though she had an immunity to the disease which she was carrying. Vogel shoots one of his infected henchmen, and from this decides that he cannot move the corpse as planned. Instead, he cuts off a finger tip and seals it in a plastic ziplock bag and drops it into his shirt breast pocket. One of the henchmen believed to be dead, rises up and attacks Richard, allowing Lara to make a getaway. In the ensuing gun fight between Richard and Vogel, Vogel is shot in the leg but manages to escape, while Richard fends off the henchmen killing him, but is himself infected by the henchman's touch.

Lara returns to the sarcophagus where Richard sits, the infection taking hold. He tells Lara to keep her distance, and explains that he proposes detonating several bombs to seal the tomb shut forever, prevent the worldwide spread of the disease and killing himself in the process. Lara backs away tearfully and gives chase to Vogel who is fleeing the cave as quickly as he can. The two meet and fight, with Lara ultimately force feeding Vogel the severed finger which he swallows inadvertently biting down on the bag. He stumbles backwards as the disease takes a rapid hold and falls down a deep ravine in the cave on to a bed of human skeletons. The explosion rips through the cave system, the blast destroying everything in its path and sealing the cave tightly shut under mounds of dust, debris and rubble. Lara escapes just in the nick of time, and is pulled out of the rubble at the mouth of the cave by Lu Ren. The two then commandeer an arriving Trinity helicopter to take them and the remaining fishermen prisoners back to the mainland.

Back in London at the headquarters of Croft Holdings, Lara signs her agreement to accept her fathers inheritance looked on by Ana Miller and Mr. Yaffe (Derek Jacobi) legal counsel for Croft Holdings. Once completed Yaffe hands Lara a portfolio of all the companies owned by Croft Holdings. Scrolling through the huge volume of individual business details, she notices a company name that she had seen before on Yumatai Island and deduces that this is a front company for Trinity. Investigating further, she begins to suspect that Ana Miller is not all she seems and that she manipulated Lara to signing over the day to day business operations of Croft Holdings. Knowing how ruthless Trinity is, Lara arms herself with two assault pistols procured from her local pawn shop owned and operated by Max (Nick Frost), ready for her next adventure.

'Tomb Raider' is a bit of a misnomer for this film really, considering that Lara Croft doesn't actually raid a tomb here, but is rather a reluctant bystander dragged along while someone else does the raiding. She's just the 'Joanna on the spot' left to clean up someone else's mess, pay the price and get the hell outta there before it all comes crashing down around her ears. And in casting the diminutive Alica Vikander in the role of our titular heroine she is far cry from the tall statuesque curvaceous arse kicking gun wielding Angelina Jolie that most resembles the video game character that the world has come to know and love. That doesn't make Vikander's performance any less, and she is reasonably convincing in the role but she does get beaten up and picked on aplenty by her male antagonists who are all worthless dispensable bad dudes anyway that we don't care about and ultimately get their comeuppance. In between the well choreographed action sequences the film plods a little, and really there is very little here that we haven't seen many times over in similar genre specific offerings - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'The Mummy', 'National Treasure' and the earlier 'Tomb Raider' franchises most notably. Clearly set up for further instalments, Lara Croft will need to lift her tomb raiding, gun toting, tough as nails approach if she is to succeed in this action adventure world.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE HATEFUL EIGHT : Saturday 30th January 2016.

Quentin Tarantino's 8th film - 'THE HATEFUL EIGHT' is set in Wyoming, in the depths of Winter around Christmastime, about ten miles or so from the town of Red Rock and for the most part in a little mountain stagecoach stopover called Minnie's Haberdashery. Plagued by some controversy early on this QT penned and Directed film was leaked to the media in script form in January 2014 having announced some months earlier that his next film had been written and it would be another Western, but not, as many had thought, a follow up to 'Django Unchained'. As a result QT cancelled the movie and let it be known in a lawsuit against those who leaked his screenplay, that they were to blame and that he was none too pleased! However, time is a great healer, and within a year, and after a successful live read of the script to a gathered audience in LA, filming began near Telluride in Colorado in early December 2014. Made for US$44M and so far raking in US$103M after its release in the US in late December, in the UK on 8th January and here in Australia on 21st January, the film has already scored 22 award wins and 70 nominations including three Oscar and three BAFTA nods still pending for Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Score and Best Cinematography.

With a running time of almost three hours, this is a long drawn out film, but rest assured your patience will be rewarded. Split into six distinct chapters and featuring frequent collaborators including Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Zoe Bell and James Parks, the first half of the film is a characters study where little happens other that learning about the characters back stories, what drives them, and how they all come to be together at Minnie's Haberdashery caught in a blizzard that prevents their onward journey. Set sometime in the mid 1870's this is post US Civil War - but only recently, and the scars of that war still run deep amongst those we are about to meet.

In a snow covered mountain landscape we are introduced first up to a six horse drawn stagecoach where driver O.B.Jackson (James Parks) is at the reins, with only John Ruth a.k.a 'The Hangman' (Kurt Russell) inside and he is shackled to Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who he intends to bring to justice at the end of the hangmans noose in Red Rock and collect his $10,000 bounty reward on her head. En route the Stage encounters Major Marquis Warren a.k.a. 'The Bounty Hunter' (Samuel L. Jackson) on the road having lost his horse but sitting atop three dead bodies he is taking to Red Rock to claim an $8,000 bounty reward. He negotiates with John Ruth to let him aboard to escape the bitter cold and continue the journey, and it turns out they share some history going back eight months or so to a dinner party.

As the three get acquainted along the way and exchange war stories and tales of bounty collection, because the two are in the same business after all, it turns out that Warren is the recipient of a personal letter from President Abraham Lincoln that instantly makes him a point of interest as a black man in a white mans world. Later on through some mishap involving the letter and Domergue, the Stage comes to an abrupt halt and they find themselves with another stray caught in the snow and a long way from home - Chris Mannix 'The Sheriff' (Walton Goggins), who is seeking a ride to Red Rock where he will be sworn in as the new Sheriff. Reluctantly Ruth agrees, and again further back story is revealed of Mannix's family history and his war time stance against the blacks, and despite his ill feeling toward Warren, he is grateful for the ride.

In time with the blizzard conditions worsening, the Stage draws up at Minnie's Haberdashery which is known to Warren, but not the others. Minnie is however, nowhere to be seen which raises the suspicions of Warren instantly, but he is accepting (for now) of the explanation of the man left in charge, Bob, a.k.a. 'The Mexican' (Demian Bichir). Whilst O.B. and Warren tend to the horses with Bob outside, Ruth and his hostage Domergue and Mannix take refuge inside. Here we are introduced to Englishman Oswaldo Mowbray a.k.a.'The Little Man' (Tim Roth), Joe Gage a.k.a 'The Cow Puncher' (Michael Madsen) and General Sanford Smithers a.k.a. 'The Confederate' (Bruce Dern). And now our eight, are assembled!

Again, our characters stories are explored and unfolded as pieces of the jigsaw puzzle come together and we learn more of the dynamic of these eight individuals thrown together by circumstance and chance. The slow burning unfolding storyline continues as Ruth sets his ground rules for bringing Domergue to justice at Red Rock. Mowbray we learn is the official hangman who will see Domergue swing in a few days time once the blizzard eases, by which time Mannix will be instituted as Sheriff of Red Rock to oversee the proceedings, and pay out the rewards owing to Ruth and Warren for their collective $18,000 for which the two have made their own pact to safeguard each other to protect their investments. Who can they all trust and are there hidden agendas amongst this bunch of miscreants thrust together?  Ruth is very untrusting of just about everyone, and Warren has his suspicions already with Minnie being absent from her beloved mountain Haberdashery - where ordinarily Mexican's are not allowed to tread, yet there is a Mexican in charge!

As we ease in to the second half of the film cowpoke Gage has been alienated by Ruth, Warren has fallen out with 'The Confederate' because they were on different sides of the field at the Battle of Baton Rouge during the Civil War, Mannix has a distrust for Warren because he's black and believes his letter from Lincoln is a forgery, Warren's suspicions of Mexican Bob grow deeper, and Domergue needles away at Ruth, Warren, Mannix and Mowbray because they all potentially have a hand in her upcoming hanging. As the tension rises, sides are taken, truths are revealed and personalities exposed so there is the first blood letting, but, in self defence, which makes it OK in such august law abiding upstanding company!

By now the tension is ramped up as the body count slowly but surely begins to rise and Warren's suspicions are confirmed over Mexican Bob, Gage and Mowbray but to what end he still does not know except that they all seem to be in that one place at that one time with Domergue, so who is she in cahoots with?

At this point after further bloodletting, we have to go back to earlier in the day with a voice over narrated by QT himself to plug in some story gaps and introduce us to several new characters. These too have a major part to play in the story that unfolds later that day and some of which we have already seen, but this time from a different perspective. Here as the Stagecoach rolls in to Minnie's with Six Horse Judy at the reins (Zoe Bell) complete with Kiwi accent which is quickly explained, and Jody Domingray (Channing Tatum) the agenda slots into place as does the connection with Domergue and those others in the Haberdashery that we have met already.  Here once more the tension mounts and the body count rises leaving just three standing (well, hardly, as they all have bullet wounds that in fact prevent them from standing!), but ultimately justice is served but not in the way that was originally intended, and an unlikely bond is forged, but, will it stand the test of time given the wounds inflicted . . . fade to black!

Once again QT has delivered a great story with razor sharp dialogue, quick wit, and strong performances from Russell who chews up the first half, giving way to Jackson who owns the second half. Each character is allowed the time to evolve and unfold as we become acquainted with their history, personalities, motivation and incentives, and each is as colourful and diverse as the next. Goggins as Mannix is your archetypal cowboy that he portrayed also in 'Django Unchained' and looked at ease in his role and delivers it with conviction, Madsen as Gage as is laid back as ever and plays the smiling assassin, and Roth grated on me a little and was trying too hard for my money to emulate 'Dr. King Schultz' - the Christoph Waltz character from 'Django Unchained' but with an English aristocratic accent and mannerisms, that I though was just too familiar! Jennifer Jason Leigh as Domergue spends the whole film chained to the arm of Ruth and is well & truly put thorough the wringer at his hands being punched, smashed with a rifle butt, scalded with a bowl of steaming hot stew, shot, and mostly blood soaked with either her own, or someone else's. Worthy of all the Best Supporting Actress nominations she has so far garnered - she plays it stoic, menacing and emotional all at once.

With Ennio Morricone's score (his first Western soundtrack in 35 years), stunning snow scenes, his trademark eye for detail, award worthy dialogue, a rich story, strong performances and believable characters, QT has crafted another great film that you should see on the big screen while you can. With two Westerns in the can, will he surprise and delight us with a third - this Reviewer certainly hopes so!

-Steve, at Odeon Online