I normally use Amazon as my main site for renting films, but in recent weeks they have added a number of new films ready to watch for free for Prime members…
Starting with a pretty standard thriller called The Rental. Charlie and his partner Michelle invite his work colleague Mina and her partner Josh who is Charlie’s brother on a weekend away in a plush rental home. The weekend turns sour when secrets are exposed and all four of their lives seem to be in danger.
This is a hard bunch of people to like, all of then behave badly or in annoying way, so it is hard to care about their struggle to stay alive. However, first time director Dave Franco built up just enough tension to keep me watching and the presence of Dan Stevens and Alison Brie in the cast make it feel classier than it is. The ending though, is a damp squib that also doesn’t make much sense.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
In The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, teen Mark (Kyle Allen) finds himself living the same day over and over again. Groundhog Day is mentioned frequently in this film but it is not as good as that, or the more recent Happy Death Day. But the characters are engaging enough and this is reasonably entertaining in an undemanding way.
Rating: 6 out of 10
I’m sure that Owen Wilson was quite a big deal at one time and he was definitely someone I enjoyed watching. But his career seems to have been reduced to annoying sofa adverts and garbage like Bliss.
He plays a man at a low ebb after his divorce and firing. He meets a mysterious woman (Salma Hayek) who believes they are living in a computer simulation. I couldn’t achieve the necessary suspension of disbelief or care about anyone in the film. The washed our colour palette just added to the tedium.
Rating: 3 out of 10
French comedy Forte is a real mixed bag. A young woman, Nour, tried pole dancing in an attempt to be more feminine and gain the attention of men. The film gives out a confused mixed message, on the one hand presenting Nour as an intelligent, strong woman as she is, on the other prescribing to the idea that she will be happier is more conventionally attractive .
It has some amusing moments though and Melha Bedia in the lead role and Alison Wheeler as her best friend are pretty good.
Rating: 5 out of 10
By far the best of this Amazon prime crop is Greenland. A comet is on course to devastate the earth and the US government has selected certain people to take shelter on a large facility in Greenland. Because of his profession, structural engineer John Garrity (Gerard Butler) and his family are on the list. But as they make their way to the plane to take them to safety they encounter a series of perils that may stop them getting there.
Whilst this has the requisite action filled scenes that you would expect from a Butler movie, the emphasis is more on the character development and director Ric Roman Waugh generates real tension as the crises build up. Butler is as good as I have seen him and Morena Baccarin is excellent as his determined wife. Hopefully with this and last year’s silly but fun Skyfire, disaster movies are making a comeback.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Newly available to rent on Amazon is Persian Lessons. Nahuel Pérez Biscayart plays Gilles a Jewish man from Belgium captured by the Germans. To avoid execution in a concentration camp he pretends to be Persian because the camp commander, Klaus Koch (Lars Eidinger) wants to learn e Farsi so he can open a restaurant in Tehran after the war. Gilles has not only the task of inventing an entire language, he also has to remember all the words that he has created and their German translation.
The central story is really intriguing and both Biscayart and Erdinger are very good. However, there are a few issues elsewhere. Too much effort is spent trying to portray Koch as a fairly decent guy when he oversees mass murder and a subplot involving the relationship between 2 pf the camp guards is completely unnecessary. Why should we care about the love lives of 2 vicious Nazis? It also soft soaps the whole camp existence to a degree, So, whilst this is absorbing enough and it does not sink to the depths of the hideous Life is Beautiful, it also feels designed to appeal to Academy members in the same way.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Finally over to Netflix for Malcolm and Marie. Malcolm (John David Washington) is a film director and Marie (Zendaya) is his girlfriend. The film is set over the course of one late evening when the couple return from the premiere of Malcolm’s new film. Marie is upset with Malcolm for not thanking her in his pre screening speech, despite the movie being heavily based on her experiences.
This intense drama starts of really well as Marie tries to supress her anger and Malcolm is oblivious, buzzing with the way his movie was greeted. However, after the initial argument, and then a brilliantly written rant from Malcolm about film critics, there seems to be nowhere to go other than to rehash what we have previously seen.
Washington and Zendaya are terrific throughout though and Marcell Rév shoots is beautifully in black and white. Even so, this two hander may be more powerful if presented on stage.
Rating: 7 out of 10