My God is bigger than your statistics (The 15:17 to Paris 2018)

 

 

 

180.

 The 15:17 to Paris

 

 

 

7/10

 

 

 

Clint Eastwood, once again, looks to add to his catalogue of movies that he has directed. This time, it is a biographical drama, based on the autobiography named, The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train and Three American Heroes, which is hell of a mouthful. I only know about the main events that took place within Paris, regarding the attacks, but nothing that these three men did to stop a further. The main interesting thing about this movie, is the fact that the three men that the story revolves around, actually play themselves. I didn't find this out until the end and all I could think about was how terrible their acting was. Let's get down to following this trio stop the train attack.

This movie starts with a build up to get to know the characters, firstly from a young age, where Spencer and Alek get to know each other at a Christian school and bond over their like of guns. Standard America. They are often sent to the Principal's offer after acting up and one time that we seem them sent, they meet with another kid, who too, is in trouble. He often misbehaves and he is an African-American kid named Anthony. The three quickly become friends and find out that Anthony has a range of pellet guns. Alek and Spencer are from single-mother homes and their mothers often arrive at school to stick up for their kids, often blaming the teachers for the troubles. Time soon moves on and we see Spencer working at a smoothie shop, where a Marine recruiter pops in. He is quickly fascinated by him and asks him loads of questions, enthralled by his speeches. Spencer decides to work out, too loose some extra weight and after a few months, in a montage for the viewers, he is clearly in much better shape. He even goes to enlist in the Air Force, hoping to get Pararescue.

After basic training, Spencer takes his exams for Pararescue but fails his depth perception and must choose another route, leaving him stationed abroad, and this was the exact moment that I knew there was something up with their acting. The speech seemed really awkward and forced, hardly ever flowing, with neither of them better than the other. Alek too has joined the Army and is deployed to the Middle East and with Anthony now in college, the three talk on Skype and this is where you can see their acting quality in one scene. Alek lets the lads know that he plans on meeting his girlfriend in Germany, so they should all meet up and have a European Vacation. They are all meant to meet in Venice, but Alek is late leaving so can't make this part but we follow Anthony and Spencer doing tourist things, before heading to Germany to meet Alek. We have already seen Alek there in a scene with his girlfriend and soon we are on the club soon with all the lads, before they wake up and decide on Amsterdam. Once again, they move on after a few days and next is Paris, where we know will be the main section of the movie. They get on the 15:17 from Amsterdam to Paris.

All seemed well on the train, until an American-born French guy noticed that someone had been occupying the 'shitter' a little too long. When he went to have a look, he was greeted by a topless fella with an assault rifle. He tries to wrestle the gun off him, winning, only to be thrown to the ground and shot in the back by a pistol. Other passengers begin to panic and run down the train, as the terrorist uses his rifle and shoots another person who had picked up the rifle. He eventually makes the next car, the car in which our trio are relaxing. The moment Spencer spots him, his instincts kick in and he runs to attack the terrorist, as the pistol is raised towards him, it jams out of sheer luck and he is tackled to the ground. Spencer disarms the man, as Alek, Spencer and other passengers help with the assault. Spencer's neck had been sliced at the back by a knife but the terrorist is knocked out and tied in all kinds of knots, as Spencer makes an attempt to save the American born man from dying, by plugging the exit wound. At the next station, police are waiting to assist, fully armed and upon finding that Spencer has subdued the terrorist, they all turn their attention to healing everyone's wounds. Moogalian, who had been shot, is taking to hospital and survives his wounds.

The movie draws to a close with a mix of filmed scenes and real-life recordings of these men and Moogalian, for their efforts aboard the train. The terrorist was carrying a ridiculous amount of ammo, with every thought on causing carnage on that train and where ever it ended. We can see all of the men awarded with medals on stage at a ceremony and these are the mixed scenes that I have already mentioned, with the French President handing out the awards.

I quite enjoyed this movie and although it took a little while to get going, it's not hard to understand why. There was never going to be any point in dragging out what happened on the train and instead, we got to learn about each of the men involved. With their trip and explanation as to why they were in Europe in the first place, such a thing would only help with the plot, although this plot was all a true story. It's very interesting that these men were asked to play themselves, with some maybe thinking that they wouldn't have wanted to relive those moments over and over again. Other views may be, that this holds the film back a little with its small awkwardness and lack of quality acting. This wasn't a massive problem for me and once I knew what was going on with it all, I can actually respect all parties for their choices. With my decision to go traveling around Europe, starting next week, it got me even more excited, seeing these guys do the same. When the time came for action, this movie didn't disappoint and who better to have co-ordinating the movements and the truth about what happened, than the guys who done it first-hand themselves. This may not win awards, but it was a good way to spend just under two hours.

I was loved for a minute, then i was hated. Then I was just a punch line. (I, Tonya 2018)

179.

I, Tonya

 

 

 

 
8/10

 

Yet another Odeon Screen Unseen advanced showing and yet another that was coming up for a few awards at the Oscars. I am surprised by how many bigger films they are showing in the advanced screening in the run up to awards season. This looks a pretty good film, which looks into the untold stories and what came out in the press regarding the controversy, which surround the American ice-skater Tonya Harding. With some quick paced trailers and musical score, the movie was made to look pretty good and after a review claiming that this was the 'Goodfellas of ice-skating', surely that can only be a good thing. Harding is played by Margot Robbie, with Sebastian Stan playing the boyfriend and Allison Janney picking up an Oscar for best supporting female for playing Harding's mother. It has all the potential to be very interested, so let's hope it doesn't fall though the ice.

The movie begins in a pretty fast motion, as we see the youth of Harding and at 3 years-old, she is forced to skate by her very abusive mother, who takes no shit from anyone. She is even removed from school in order to use all of her time training under her new coach, Diane Rawlinson. She quickly becomes one of the leading skaters in the US but cannot shake off her tag of being 'white trash'.
We watch closely as she grows older and starts dating Jeff Gillooly, played by Sebastian Stan, despite her mother's unwillingness for it all to happen. They even rush into a wedding, mainly so that she can move out of her mother's home and into Jeff's, but this soon turns sour as he starts to physically abuse her, as her mother blames her for putting up with it, but Tonya fights back with reasons of her mother raising her in a violent household. Some of these altercations even come with Harding chasing Jeff with a shotgun, as she looks at the camera and breaks the 'forth wall', claiming that, 'this never happened'. Under a new coach, Tonya becomes the first American female to land a certain set of jumps in competition and after getting to the Olympics, she tries it again and fails, returning home in fourth place and to a job working as a waitress. Her first trainer, Diane, meets her outside the restaurant and convinces her to train on the next Winter Olympics. With all of this playing on her mind, she sets off to see her mother for the first time in a while, and after seeking kindness from herm she gets nothing but an explanation that her mother made her a champion, knowing that her daughter would hate her for it.
Later on, after some more training scenes, Tonya receives a death threat and after seeing what it was doing to his wife, Jeff thought it would be a good idea to get someone to send the same to Harding's main rival, Nancy Kerrigan. This doesn't exactly turn out as planned, as Jeff's mate, Shawn, fancies himself as a bit of a lad and wants to get some notoriety. He, instead, hires two crooks with about as much use as the Chuckle Brothers, who end up bashing Nancy's knee in after he practice. They are both soon arrested and after Shawn starts bragging around town about his involvement, the FBI soon catch up with him too. He then points the finger at Jeff, who is horrified to find out what had actually happened. Tonya still qualifies for the Olympics, despite the controversy surrounding her. She knows that she will be found guilty, so tries to put the ball in her court as she goes to the FBI and tells them that it was Jeff and Shawn. Once they take Jeff in, you can imagine he is pretty pissed and he races to her house to lay the smackdown. Instead, she locks him out and escapes through a window, leaving him for the final time. Jeff heads back to the FBI and tells them that Harding knew about everything, all along.
The film draws to an end with Harding coming eight and Nancy making it to the final and winning the Silver medal. Back home, Tonya is greeted by a media circus, where she is asked all sorts of questions as they camp outside of her house. Her mother turns up for support and tells her that she is on her daughter's side, before asking if she was involved. Tonya knows her mother too well to think nothing is up and soon finds a tape recorder inside of her mother's coat. Jeff, Shawn and one half of The Chuckle Brothers are all sentenced to a couple of years and Tonya avoids jail but gets a lifetime ban from skating in competitions. She is distraught by this, demanding that she gets jail time rather than having the one thing that she loves, taken away from her. The sentence stands though and then we see Jeff watching the TV, knowing he has ruined her life. The movie finally ends with a kind of 'where-are-they-now', but each character still being played by the actor or actress. This had already been shown a little bit throughout the movie, with each person being made to look older. Jeff had changed his name and remarried, as Tonya has now become a boxer, using her notoriety to her advantage, whilst also looking after her two children.  
This movie, for being based around true events, 'famous' characters, if more so in America, was full of serious points and also brought some humour. Between the foul-mouthed rants, breaking the forth wall and mini, comedic fights, there was almost some moments where you could feel sympathy for most people involved. Being from the UK, doesn't really make these people household names, but for a skater, who actually won very little, for her to have a movie written about her and it to be tag lined as the 'Goodfellas of skating', it was also going to be worth a look. Each actor and actress brought something to the table, when most had actually met up with the people with were playing, in order to do their own research. This showed, as the mannerisms and speeches, gripped you by the balls and brought you into their crazy world. This may be a bizarre plot for many viewers, especially on this side of 'the pond', but this movie turned out to be a lot more than just tabloid trash.