Life, Power Rangers,The Lost City of Z The Film Review

cars are that much faster in Formula 1 and we have a look at the state of

sport in our special report, but now we have the Film Review.

Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.

To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.

We have Life, science fiction with Jake Gyllenhaal. Power Rangers, they

are still morphing, but are they mighty? And The Lost City of Z,

real-life tale of exploration. Life, could be anything, but this is set

on the International Space Station. This is a sci-fi horror hybrid, a

soil sample from Mars is sent back from Mars to the International Space

Station and the crew opened it and they find in the soil a single cell

organism. They are delighted because this is proof of life on Mars, and

it starts growing and everyone is very excited, and then it becomes

dormant. They decide against the advice of the entire audience to

give the organism and electric shock and see what that does, this is a

clip. LAUGHTER Every single cell is a muscle

cell and a nerve cell. Can I make a suggestion,

can I just go in there and get him? Because the main

thing is quarantine. You get the general idea. I was

laughing before, but not now. It has a great cast. Rebecca Ferguson. Jake

Gyllenhaal. The organism picks them off one by one and becomes bigger

and more agile. It starts out like gravity and then it turns into Alien

and then it is like life force and then it goes a bit event horizon

before going back to being Alien and then turning back into gravity with

a bit of planet of the apes. It doesn't have any originality in it

at all, there is not one single idea that is original, but what it does,

it tells a story that you know, but it tells it with a degree of wit and

Vim. It is 104 minutes long and it feels like 85 and it zips along and

it looks terrific. The way the film looks is very impressive, and all

the characters are best described as thumbnail sketches, you could go,

he's a scientist, he's the one with the kids, and then it does exactly

what you would expect, and it is interesting. When you look back at

Alien, it was drawing on a series of other horror movies but with a

sudden twist in terms of the design of the alien and the direction from

Ridley Scott, but there is nothing here that you haven't seen before.

Is the thing, I thought this was meant to be a horror film or sci-fi,

and I have noticed a smile playing on your lips for the entire

description of this film. There are things in this which are creepy and

a bit yucky, and I enjoyed it because I like sci-fi... But you are

not a horror fan. This is tension, rather than glory Tom and Alien,

there is a famous moment in that which is a lot more revolting than

this. Yes, OK. But largely when we saw that in Alien for the first time

no one had ever seen that done before. It is fun and disposable,

popcorn movie, and I enjoyed it, but there is not a single original

thought in its head. Which brings us to... Power Rangers, do they still

exist? Who knew? You have got the 70s and 80s TV franchises, so you

reboot it for the big screen with a 12 certificate and a lot of CGI. The

Power Rangers TV Syriza was cutting Japanese footage with new American

footage, and now what you have is that rebooted in what is basically

the breakfast club as superhero movie. With the collection of young

kids who are going to become the Power Rangers, the film addresses

some issues, albeit in a very flimsy fashion, but that is the modern bit.

It has a 12 A certificate which has caused great annoyance because much

of the target audience for the Power Rangers is people younger than 12

and they have always said that wealth means 12 and the bottom ages

eight and I've already had messages from people who say, I've got a

four-year-old, can I take them to see this? Well, no. It's a strange

film, it has a certain degree of post-Transformers crudity, and a

certain amount of violence because it is mighty morphing Power Rangers

and they hit people. It is less leering than Transformers and less

fun than real steel and it is too long and nonsense and it makes no

sense, but it wasn't terrible. It was just kind of, OK, that's what

mighty morphing Power Rangers looks like if it gets up on the big screen

and do that to it. It is totally innocuous and surprisingly

unremarkable. I love it when you tell me something which can go on a

poster, this week, it is, it's not terrible. It's not great either. The

Lost City of Z, this is the next film. Yes, true story, British

explorer, Percy Fawcett, early 20th-century explorations of the

Amazon, Charlie Hunnam is Percy Fawcett, and he wants to make his

family name good and he's told if he goes on this first mission, that

will indeed restore his great family name. The more he explores, the more

you discover that this is is calling on what he wants to do with his

life, but where he is travelling to is dangerous and also surprising.

This is a clip. # We're soldiers

of the Queen, my lads # In the fight for

England's glory, lads # The England's soldiers

of the Queen #. Does that help them, the singing?

Yes, it does, there are moments which are very strange. Robin pandas

and is in this and he is terrific, and the film is directed by James

Gray and it is beautifully direct that Robert Pattinson. It is our

fleet in its core, -- it is strangely elliptical, and they are

individual moments which are very striking, there are moments when

they come across a musical being mounted in the jungle which reminds

me of a one Herzog film, and there are bits which reminds me of Conrad

and Coppola. What I like about click -- like about it, it is five days

since I've seen it and it has lingered in my mind, they are images

which are very beautiful and arresting. Terrific performance on

Sienna Miller, as his wife, a thankless role, but she make

something of it. The toughest character on screen. And although it

is a flawed film, it aims high and I would rather see something aim high

and fail in certain areas then something which is franchise fodder,

and it didn't feel like that at all, it is strangely old-fashioned. There

are moments, there is a dream sequence which is reminiscent of the

end of 2001 which is not something you would expect from a film like

this, and so it is a very unusual and flawed, but very interesting.

The best ad? Get Out, you have got to see this. -- the best out. If you

think of the writings of irony than who wrote Rosemary 's baby -- Ira

Levin. The smiles of the families hide something very creepy, it is a

satire on a post-racial, liberal America, it has great depth and is

sharp and scary when it needs to be. I know you are not a horror film

fan, but it is a thriller. It is not a horror film, although it is, but

it is a thriller, you will enjoy it. If you want to stay in, we have A

United Kingdom. I love this. We have the heir to the throne of Botswana

planned and his relationship with a white British woman. Like all of her

films it takes the personal and political and it takes them and that

is then together which is understandable and enjoyable and

telling an important story. Thanks very much, Mark.

A quick reminder before we go that 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.