The Brown Note Movie Review

Everything its unasked for predecessor wasn't. Continually laugh-out-loud funny, very self aware, witty, far less anemic and one of the best straight comedies of the decade. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum shine far brighter the second time around and Ice Cube is the perfect angry foil.

Dare I say this critically trashed box office poison is my favorite Arnie starring film since Terminator 2. For fans of both the grimiest, most violent Southern-pot-boiler/corrupt cop films, this should be pure cat-nip. The film is brutal and has a remarkably unsentimental and unlikable cast, topped by a horrifying turn from Mireille Enos. The Agatha Christie style story is way above what this kind of fare usually offers and it has no problems getting its hands very dirty. The Training Day alumni of (here director) David Ayers and Antoine Fuqua continue to fascinate me even in failure. A should be cult classic.

Director David Mackenzie may have floundered slightly with his last film, the seemingly little seen Outlaw King, but he sure followed up on the promise of this superb British prison drama with Hell or High Water. The excellent firebrand actor Jack O'Connell has yet to crossover like less talented UK peers (looking at you Tom Holland) but is on fire here and backed by the always welcome Ben Mendlesohn.

Out of a superb, uncommonly thoughtful and intelligent Sci-Fi trilogy, arguably the least great entry. Smaller in scope than the opening and closing films but still with a lot to recommend, especially the king-of-CGI, Andy Serkis, again shining as Caesar.

A uniformly strong follow-up to the unexpectedly great reboot of the X-Men franchise, with the superb work from McAvoy and Fassbender but a messy, indistinct and repetitive denouement points to a terrible future.

Director Jonathan Glazer has one of the most elliptical careers in filmmaking and this uniquely challenging proposition ended up one of the decade's most memorable films, one I liked even more than here on subsequent viewings. Scarlett Johansson shines unforgettably and Mica Levi creates arguably ground zero for a movie decade dominated by stunning avant-electronic soundtracks.

Director James Gray continues to fascinate me but more often than not fail to completely deliver. This worthy, well acted, beautifully shot, classy period pic is great in so many areas of craft but not great as an actual film.

Another plank in the fabulously uneven and disparate filmography of Go, Swingers and The Bourne Identity, director, Doug Liman. Tom Cruise yet again proves how valuable an asset he is when he, rarely these days, steps away from the Mission Impossible franchise and Emily Blunt is given an early chance to shine and she does. For a mega-budget, original concept, Sci-Fi, its an unqualified success.

I failed to get on the now Oscar precedent breaking Korean director, Bong Joon-ho, bandwagon with the overrated The Host but was blown away but this modern Sci-Fi marvel, exhibiting his trademark originality and social commentary. Ironically this and his followups, Okja and Parasite would all by my second favorite films of their respective years.

This superb David Gordon directed Southern pot-boiler (a genre for which I am uniquely predisposed) show that not only is Nicholas Cage a brilliant actor with the right material, it's everything the monumental let-down, Mud, should have been.