All The Money In The World, Hostiles, Brad's Status The Film Review

withdrawal from the Australian Open,

after Serena Williams announced she

wouldn't be competing in Melbourne.

That's all in FA Cup sports day at

6:30pm, but now it's time for The

Film Review.

Hello and welcome to

The Film Review on BBC News.

To take us through this week's

cinema releases is Jason Solomons.

What have you been watching?

This

week, we find out what happened when

Christopher Plummer replaced Kevin

Spacey as John Paul Getty. That

isn't them, actually. That's the

next film, Hostiles, with Christian

Bale and Rosamund Pike, the ways of

the west revived oral revised. We'll

be looking at Ben Stiller as well,

checking into a midlife crisis in

Brad's Status, taking his son on a

tour of college campuses and

reminiscing about his own life and

where it's all gone wrong for him.

But let's start with All The Money

In The World. I am reeling from the

fact that Christopher Plummer is 88,

because he looks astonishing.

That

is what you can do with all that

money, a lot of CGI! John Paul

Getty, who Spacey was playing, and

the film has got rid of him and

replaced him with Christopher

plummy, the very feat that is what

marks this note out a footnote in

film history. Extraordinary from

Ridley Scott to reshape his film

around a new performance in

Christopher Plummer. We watch the

film now, especially in this

climate, trying to see the join, to

see if there was a ready break glow

of CGI inserts from Christopher

Plummer. Can we spot a bit Kevin

Spacey, you can't, it's seamless,

it's well done and Christopher

Plummer is fabulous as John Paul

Getty. I think they would have been

a different... Ridley Scott talked

about how Christopher Plummer is a

twinkle in his eye, whereas Kevin

Spacey had a more cold look, and

that marks the film apart. We pity

John Getty for being the richest man

ever in the world

and his grandson

is kidnapped, and that's the

essence.

It was a huge media case in

the 1970s, it gripped the world, as

John Paul Getty refused to pay the

ransom, $17 million, which was quite

a lot of money! The point was that

it became this kind of case and he

refused to budge and I think we are

supposed to see John Paul Getty as a

curmudgeon and Scrooge, but

Christopher Plummer gives it a real

edge. There is a fabulous speech

about him not trusting people, only

objects, of which he amasses a huge

amount. They don't give him grief.

But the rest of the film is going

on, Michelle Williams Golden Globe

nominated, and we will find out the

results from LA on Monday for the B

film has been nominated for I guess

the feet of Scott getting it

together. Christopher Plummer is

nominated and Michelle Williams is

nominated, and here she is wandering

into the media storm.

HUBBUB OF VOICES.

My son, Paul, must be very

frightened right now.

I know I'm frightened for him.

So, to the people who

took him, I don't care

why you did this, but I ask as

a mother that you think of your own

children or the child that you once

were and set my boy free.

Thank you.

Her son's disappeared.

A mother should cry for her son.

Enough.

Let the lady through.

Let's go!

HUBBUB OF VOICES.

Miss Getty, I'm Corvo.

I'm the lead investigator.

Would you please follow us.

Grazie.

HUBBUB OF VOICES.

Tell us more.

You said you had the money.

HUBBUB OF VOICES.

I'm a big fan of Michelle Williams,

and he sure spoken quite nicely

about how she felt Ridley Scott was

trying to really show this

horrendous story of the kidnap of a

child through the mother 's eyes.

Does that come through western mock

it does come through. -- does that

come through? She reminded me of

Catherine Hepburn with that accent.

The story between Kevin Spacey and

Christopher Plummer deflected a lot,

and it's quite a hammy role, as John

Paul Getty. And then you've got

some, -- be son, played by Charlie

Plummer, no relation, kidnapped and

held hostage in Calabria by the

Italian Mafia. So you never quite

know what the centre of the story

is. For me, it became about

Christopher Plummer, and it kind of

eclipses Michelle Williams, who is

very good, and the film looks good

in a classic Ridley Scott smooth the

way. It didn't get to the of the

matter. Your heart went out to what

it must be like to being the richest

man in the world. It's something

I've been contemplating!

Is the next film going to be brutal?

I have heard lots about it but not

seen it, Hostiles.

There is room for

one or two westerns per year now. It

is to be what Hollywood and America

was made on. But now Hostiles, I

think we can tell there is irony in

the title. It's what American army

is called the Army, but American

cowboys and soldiers used to call

the Native Americans, Indians they

were known as. We're not allowed to

call them that now. When you have a

film that revises that, what do you

do about the brutality of the old

west? This film opens with Rosamund

Pike and her entire family wiped out

by Comanche Indians, so you are

already thinking, I don't see where

the balance is with a new look at

the west, where we expect white

America to be slightly kind of

apologetic for the way Native

Americans were treated. This film

doesn't do that, which is quite

brave of it. Rest in bail is the

Army man who has to escort a posse

of Cheyenne Indians back to their

natural homeland, and they come

under attack from Comanche Indians.

Nobody comes out of it particularly

well. It is quite brutal and bleak.

But I think that is what it was

like. So that realism, that

revisionism of what the Giroux is,

going back to believe the kid, or

dances with wolves with Kevin

Costner. -- of what they hear row

is.

Quite tough to watch?

Yes, and

you don't get the payoff you usually

do with a hero emerging.

A bit more

uplift in our third choice, I say

with some hope?

It's a comedy, but a

maudlin one, about Ben Stiller

experiencing a midlife crisis. I

thought it was very funny, directed

by Mike Whyte, who people might know

as the director of School Of Rock

for jet black. This is about Ben

Stiller having to take his son,

Troy, on a tour of colleges.

Americans do this, flying off to see

which colleges they want to get

into, one of which is harboured --

Harvard. It sparks reminiscences by

Ben Stiller of his childhood chums

and how much they have done better.

I couldn't help but wonder, when was

the last time Craig Fisher flew in

economy? Probably not in decades.

Yes, thank you.

I know Jason

Hadfield has his own private plane.

Never has to fly commercial at all.

Nick probably flies private, too.

Must be nice to always have PCs part

for you. -- the seas parting for

you. Nothing out of reach,

everything an option. It must be

like a drug, all of this being

important and special. Better than

all the adventures, the exotic

destinations.

So does everybody leave the cinema

feeling inadequate?

A first world

problems. The MPs his son and his

friends, but then he goes, pull

yourself together, you just live in

Sacramento. It's about assessing

those things, and I thought it was

painfully smart and funny, well done

and well performed by Ben Stiller,

we think that they, the former doing

his blue steel look, but he does

this well and he gets good midlife

crisis very well, but perhaps it's a

bit close to home for me, not that

my son is at college yet.

Let's talk about something lovely.

I

think having to 2 is not just the

best out but one of the best of last

year. It is still doing great box

office and I think he is adorable.

-- Paddington 2. I have seen it

twice. I will happily go again. If I

was the richest man in the world,

I'd go and see Paddington 2

everyday.

For anybody who wants to

stay in...

I would get the DVD of

Houthi, in east end set in melodrama

starring bill nicely, a wonderful

performance from Olivia Cooke, and

it's about murders going on, a sort

of Jack the Ripper style thriller

set in the East End in all that

time, all of the London fog and

people going it's like Oliver

creatures and coming out, but there

was a grisly murder at the bottom of

it, and it captures that Gothic

horror very well. Interesting and

well done.

Award season is nearly upon us, so

we'll be talking plenty in the

coming weeks. Thank you very much

for now, Jason Solomons. That is a

taster on what is on offer this

click -- this week.

A quick reminder before

we go that week.

You'll find more film news

and reviews from across the BBC

online at bbc.co.uk/mark kermode.

And you can find all our previous

programmes on the BBC iPlayer.

That's it for this week though.

Thanks for watching.

Goodbye.