From recent rentals to recent cinema viewings, this entry will go from one extreme to the other. You'll see what I mean in a second.
Burning Man
Showing in only one cinema (from what I can see anyway) in the whole of Queensland means that Burning Man will probably be seen by about 12 people, which is a real shame as I think it's currently one of the best films of the year.
Staring Matthew Goode, who has achieved some fame for appearing in the likes of Watchmen and A Single Man, this Australian film begins with a series of unrelated sequences which, for about half an hour, leaves you feeling completely lost. Once everything comes together though it's clear that the the impact intended was for the viewers sense of confusion and disorientation to mimic the same frame of mind the central character was going through after suffering personal tragedy.
Once the nature of his situation is revealed, which I wont get into as I think the movie will work best if you don't know, it then begins on his emotionally draining yet very moving story, moving back and forward in the time line to before, during and after the incident. The performances are all brilliant, and the heartbreaking story has some good dark humour mixed in as well to lift the otherwise sombre mood. Beautifully shot with incredible attention to detail, this is an amazing achievement. I'm leaving my prejudice against Australian movies behind for good.
***** out of *****
Immortals
A Greek mythology themed action movie filmed in a style inspired by 300? Yeah, I didn't have much interest in seeing this, however I got invited by my mate Dayle so I thought I'd go and check it out, as I stand by the notion that every movie deserves a chance. The story is pretty basic Greek mythology stuff, which will hold your interest just enough between the many over the top and bloody action scenes. I still maintain that if you're not going to bother too much with character, plot or dialogue in an action film then you need to make the action scenes as over the top as possible to compensate, and that is indeed what is on display here. If a thought provoking drama is what you're after look elsewhere, but if you have a desire to see blood spilt in numerous different ways over and over and over again then, Immortals will suit you down to the bone.
*** out of *****
Jack and Jill
Ok, to explain how I ended up seeing this film. Me and my buddy Ben were trying to figure out what move to see. He wanted to see Moneyball, however as I'd already seen it I was less than enthusiastic, however would have been willing to see it again. Whilst going through the session times of possible movies we could see Jack and Jill came up. I said there was no Chance we were going to see that, however Ben then planted the idea in my mind that seeing it could provide for an amusing experience if we could enjoy lauging at how bad it was. I mulled the idea over in my head, and when we got to the cinema he let me decide; Moneyball or Jack and Jill. I think he was pretty angry with my decision....
If you're unfamiliar with Jack and Jill, it is Adam Sandler's new movie where he plays the normal Adam Sander character PLUS his own annoying twin sister. Yep, it's as bad as it sounds and much worse. Not only is there not one funny line in the entire film, but we have to sit through endless amounts of blatant product placement, celebrities embarrassing themselves by appearing in cameos, cheap last minute attempts at sentimentality, and, perhaps worst of all, the sad realisation that Al Pacino's career is now reduced to appearing as an insane version of himself in this bullocks.
I'm half convinced that Adam Sandler is just playing a big practical joke on everyone and doing a kind of parody of himself, because there mere notion that any human would find this film even mildly appealing is a massive insult to all mankind. I'm not even one of Adam Sander's many haters, and usually enjoy his movies, but this, UGH, what more can I say. It's puerile and certainly not worth wasting anymore time talking about.
No Stars
Thursday 22 December 2011
Wednesday 21 December 2011
Recent Rentals
As promised, just took me a while.
Fast & Furious 5
The fifth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise is the first one I've seen. I haven't bothered with any of the others as I'm not even close to being what you would call a car enthusiast, plus Vin Diesel is a bit of a tool. I had no plans to see this one either, however after reading good reviews and hearing that they had shifted the foucs of the film from car racing to instead being a heist film I decided to check it out.
The story seems to sort of follow from the previous films, not that I would know, with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker's characters on the run from the law for some reason. They end up in Brazil and decide to do "one last job" or someother such cliced nonsense and rip off this rich business guy. The business due is completely evil and corrupt though, so it's ok. This then leads to them recruiting a team, and at this point you pretty much know what kind of movie you've got. You know, one of those "We're putting a team togeather to achieve such and such a goal, you in?" If these shennanigans weren't enough, they also have The Rock AKA Dwayne Johnso relentless cop character on their tail.
Despite this movie being nothing new it was actually pretty enjoyable. The characters were all adequetly fleshed out, the action set pieces were suitablly over the top and exciting and The Rock's performance as a bad arse never say die cop was great. Looks like they'll probably be a sequel, so as long as they keep going in the same vain as this film we could be looking at a successful re-boot of sorts taking the franchise in a new direction.
***1/2 out of *****
Green Lantern
I skipped this one when it was at the cinemas as I thought it was going to be a bit of a disaster. Not being familar with the comics I only had the trailer to guide my expectations, and that made it look like a kids movie set in a bizarre world of green and purple aliens, and the special effects didn't do much to win me over either. Upon viewing the film these inital concerns were confirmed, and the film also sufferes from sub par script and a romantic subplot involving Blake Lively that had about as much life to it as a crematorium. Despite this, Ryan Reynolds brings his usual charasima to the titular superhero character which helps keep the film from sinking, and there are enough action scenes to keep us entertained. I also enjoyed the story of a regular everyday guy suddenly finding himself completely out of his depth and in a position of immense importance, but I think I'm a bit of a sucker for those kind of storylines. In summary, it was better than I thought it would be.
*** out of *****
Sleeping Beauty
No, not the Disney animated classic, but rather an Australian arthouse film that screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year. In fact, I'd be horrified if the former movie's target audidence saw even a moment of this film, which focuses on a young lady in need of money and the lengths she will go to get it.
Sleeping Beauty takes the "less is more" approach to storytelling, which if done correctly can make for a very natural and satisfying expierence, however here it makes for a dull and completely pointless one. It appears the director doesn't understand the difference between subtle character development and revealing absolutely nothing so we can't connect to and care about the events unfoding at all. The two main elements that the film appears to be trying to explore are the aforementioned lengths a person will go to for money and the hidden sexual desires that men keep buried well beneath the surface, yet it does it in such a cold and detached manner that they left no impact whatsoever.
While I admired the cinematorgragy and apprecited the fact that the film was offering something original, it was ultimately a boring, pretentious and soulless mess. Don't bother with this epic waste of time.
* out of *****
Battle: Los Angeles
Aliens are invading and the army has to stop them. That's all you need to about Battle: Los Angeles as that's all there is to it. Doesn't sound very satisfying? That's probably because it's not. So how could this festering turd pile actually have worked?
Well perhaps give the lead character some sort of story arc. Perhaps he has a son that he's trying to get home to. Maybe this could be his last mission before going home to his son for good. Maybe then he finds out that the government had known about the possibility of aliens attacking for ages but kept it so top secret that nothing was done about it, which makes him super angry Our hero could even have a strained relationship with his son, and he ends up sacrificing himself to save the day, which earns his son's eternal love and respect after a tearful good bye. You could even throw some social commentary about the aliens being no worse than humans when they've invaded or colonised countires etc. If it sounds familar that's because it's the same storyline always used for these sort of films, and usually it works. It wouldn't have been a great movie but lets face it, this wasn never going to be. It would have at least been passable. What did we get instead?
Introduce a few stock standard characters who all seem to be a carbon copy of each other for about 20 minutes, followed by "We've got some meteores coming." "What, they're aliens?" BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG "Generic war speech" BANG BANG BANG BANG "I don't know if this guy has what it takes" BANG BANG BANG BANG - THE END. Ugh. Even if they had delivered the action in carefully choreographed set pieces rather than just endless chaos the lack of any soild storytelling could be excused. Some of the special effects and action scenes are OKAY but that's it. A simply awful example of flim making.
1/2* out of *****
Fast & Furious 5
The fifth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise is the first one I've seen. I haven't bothered with any of the others as I'm not even close to being what you would call a car enthusiast, plus Vin Diesel is a bit of a tool. I had no plans to see this one either, however after reading good reviews and hearing that they had shifted the foucs of the film from car racing to instead being a heist film I decided to check it out.
The story seems to sort of follow from the previous films, not that I would know, with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker's characters on the run from the law for some reason. They end up in Brazil and decide to do "one last job" or someother such cliced nonsense and rip off this rich business guy. The business due is completely evil and corrupt though, so it's ok. This then leads to them recruiting a team, and at this point you pretty much know what kind of movie you've got. You know, one of those "We're putting a team togeather to achieve such and such a goal, you in?" If these shennanigans weren't enough, they also have The Rock AKA Dwayne Johnso relentless cop character on their tail.
Despite this movie being nothing new it was actually pretty enjoyable. The characters were all adequetly fleshed out, the action set pieces were suitablly over the top and exciting and The Rock's performance as a bad arse never say die cop was great. Looks like they'll probably be a sequel, so as long as they keep going in the same vain as this film we could be looking at a successful re-boot of sorts taking the franchise in a new direction.
***1/2 out of *****
Green Lantern
I skipped this one when it was at the cinemas as I thought it was going to be a bit of a disaster. Not being familar with the comics I only had the trailer to guide my expectations, and that made it look like a kids movie set in a bizarre world of green and purple aliens, and the special effects didn't do much to win me over either. Upon viewing the film these inital concerns were confirmed, and the film also sufferes from sub par script and a romantic subplot involving Blake Lively that had about as much life to it as a crematorium. Despite this, Ryan Reynolds brings his usual charasima to the titular superhero character which helps keep the film from sinking, and there are enough action scenes to keep us entertained. I also enjoyed the story of a regular everyday guy suddenly finding himself completely out of his depth and in a position of immense importance, but I think I'm a bit of a sucker for those kind of storylines. In summary, it was better than I thought it would be.
*** out of *****
Sleeping Beauty
No, not the Disney animated classic, but rather an Australian arthouse film that screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year. In fact, I'd be horrified if the former movie's target audidence saw even a moment of this film, which focuses on a young lady in need of money and the lengths she will go to get it.
Sleeping Beauty takes the "less is more" approach to storytelling, which if done correctly can make for a very natural and satisfying expierence, however here it makes for a dull and completely pointless one. It appears the director doesn't understand the difference between subtle character development and revealing absolutely nothing so we can't connect to and care about the events unfoding at all. The two main elements that the film appears to be trying to explore are the aforementioned lengths a person will go to for money and the hidden sexual desires that men keep buried well beneath the surface, yet it does it in such a cold and detached manner that they left no impact whatsoever.
While I admired the cinematorgragy and apprecited the fact that the film was offering something original, it was ultimately a boring, pretentious and soulless mess. Don't bother with this epic waste of time.
* out of *****
Battle: Los Angeles
Aliens are invading and the army has to stop them. That's all you need to about Battle: Los Angeles as that's all there is to it. Doesn't sound very satisfying? That's probably because it's not. So how could this festering turd pile actually have worked?
Well perhaps give the lead character some sort of story arc. Perhaps he has a son that he's trying to get home to. Maybe this could be his last mission before going home to his son for good. Maybe then he finds out that the government had known about the possibility of aliens attacking for ages but kept it so top secret that nothing was done about it, which makes him super angry Our hero could even have a strained relationship with his son, and he ends up sacrificing himself to save the day, which earns his son's eternal love and respect after a tearful good bye. You could even throw some social commentary about the aliens being no worse than humans when they've invaded or colonised countires etc. If it sounds familar that's because it's the same storyline always used for these sort of films, and usually it works. It wouldn't have been a great movie but lets face it, this wasn never going to be. It would have at least been passable. What did we get instead?
Introduce a few stock standard characters who all seem to be a carbon copy of each other for about 20 minutes, followed by "We've got some meteores coming." "What, they're aliens?" BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG "Generic war speech" BANG BANG BANG BANG "I don't know if this guy has what it takes" BANG BANG BANG BANG - THE END. Ugh. Even if they had delivered the action in carefully choreographed set pieces rather than just endless chaos the lack of any soild storytelling could be excused. Some of the special effects and action scenes are OKAY but that's it. A simply awful example of flim making.
1/2* out of *****
Tuesday 6 December 2011
New stuff
Yep, here we go again. I've got too many to get to so these reviews are going to be short and lazily written, but really what's new there (BURN.... myself?) Anyway...
Moneyball
I'll just come right and out and say that this film kicked all kinds of arse, but with Aaron Sorkin as the scriptwriter (who of course wrote The Social Network) what more what one expect. Based on a true story, Brad Pitt's character (I really can't be stuffed with character's names) is the manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball and employs a fellow working with another team, who is played by Jonah Hill, who has a theory about recruiting players based purely on their stats, thus saving money going after the marquee players and being able to compete with the much richer clubs such as a the New York Yankees.
And that is the basic plot in a nutshell. Where the movie works so well is of course in the script, which is Aaron Sorkin's usual mix of intelligent dialogue and humour, the performances (I think this is probably the best performance I've seen Jonah Hill give) and the character study of Billy Beane (fine I looked the name up.) While it's a sports movie the movie is more concerned with what goes on behind the scenes, and you could say it's a sports movie for people who don't like sport.
I'd almost go as far as to say this is the Social Network of 2011, not because they have the same scriptwriter, but because both films focus on a man obsessed with an idea. While Mark Zuckerburg was obsessed with the technology and the changes in the way people related to and communicated with each other, Billy Beane was obsessed with changing the way the game of baseball was played. It doesn't have quite the same depth of storytelling as The Social Network, but the added touch of Billy's relationship with his daughter and her final message to him; stop obsessing, "Just enjoy the show" put the icing on one very enjoyable ride.
****1/2 out of *****
The Ides of March
The new directorial effort directed by and staring George Clooney is about two politicians competing to become the Democrats Candidate for an upcoming election. George Clooney falls on the more on the left side of politics while his opponent is more conservatively minded. Ryan Gosling is working on Clooney's campaign, and is wide eyed, optimistic and believes in what he's doing, and you'd be guessing correctly if you thought that didn't attitude didn't last for the whole film.
The film starts at a steady pace but somewhere along the line plats the pedal to the floor and never really lets up to the end. We follow a series of twists, allegiances and betrayals which, along with the loss of innocence of the main character makes this feel less like your average political drama and more like The Godfather, minus the people being whacked of course. I've read a few negative things about this film, mainly over at the cess pit of humanity known as the IMDB message board, and I can't really understand why. This is an intelligently written, edge of your seat style drama, with another brilliant performance from Ryan Gosling and a protagonist that takes us on a journey that may spew forth cynicism regarding politics, but at the same time may be a little closer to reality than we would like to believe.
****1/2 out of *****
Midnight in Paris
I keep hearing that Woody Allen's new films are no good and that he's lost the plot recently, however I must keep seeing the right movies almost all the newer Woody Allen films I've seen have been gold, including this one. It has all the usual Woody Allen charming dialogue, interesting characters and unpredictable plot turns, and plenty of beautiful shots and scenery of central Paris. Midnight in Paris has Owen Wilson playing the typical Woody Allen character, as he continually goes back in time at Midnight (whilst being in Paris - GET IT!) and meets several famous artists from the past such as Pablo Picasso and F Scott Fitzgerald, and gets tips on his writing from Ernest Hemingway. At the same time his fiance, played by Rachel McAdams, seems more taken with a wannabe intellectual friend of hers with a ten foot poll up his arse.
Even though Owen Wilson is just playing Owen Wilson, like he usually does, for some reason he just fits the Woody Allen character so well. The Woody Allen movie that this probably resembles the most would be the Purple Rose of Cairo, due to the fantasy elements of both movies, and considering the quality of that movie I think that comparison is a good thing. In Roger Ebert's review he said he considers Allen to be a treasure of the cinema and I couldn't agree more. There's so much whimsical fun to be had here and I hope he never stops making movies, until he, you know, dies.
**** out of *****
Attack the Block
An unusual choice to open the Brisbane International Film Festival this year, this British film sci-fi action film centres around a street gang attempting to stop an alien invasion. Errr... yeah. Don't expect an Independence Dayesque film that's for sure. The aliens look pretty cool and it's a pretty fun action film with the usual British wit mixed in, however the film seems to be trying to elevate itself further by looking at the social problems surrounding street gangs, although I'm not sure this is fully explored enough and kinda doesn't work for me. However, that aside, I enjoyed this alot. And that's all I have to say on this one.
***1/2 out of *****
Inside Man
A Spike Lee film, or "Joint", from a few years ago that's been sitting in my DVD collection for ages and I finally got around to watching, Inside Man is about bank robbers who've taken a group of people hostage. The main bank robber is Clive Owen. Denzel Washington is the cop assigned to negotiate with the robbers. Jodie Foster is a woman hired to protect the interests of the bank manager, who is hiding a dark secret. Willem Dafoe is in there somewhere too. So it's got a good cast, and it moves at a frenetic pace with enough twists to keep the viewer entertained and intrigued. At the same time it attempts to offer social commentary and explore questions of morality, although like the above film these feel a bit tacked on and not like an natural extension of the storyline. Well worth checking out though.
***1/2 out of *****
Limitless
Alright, almost there. The central character is Limitless is played by Bradley Cooper, who has found himself in a bit of a funk until he comes across a drug that allows people to unleash their full potential and his life completely turns around. A cool concept however the full extent to which someone could utilise such a drug is never fully realised, and it descends into a bit of a standard action fare at the end. You could say the film is LIMITED (HAHAHAHAHA!) in it's execution. On the plus side it has Robert De Niro in it.
*** out of *****
Sanctum
Based on a true story about a bunch of adventurers stuck in a cave, who end up yelling at each other with every cliched line in the book. I guess the moral of the story is not to go into caves? Had it's moments, but ultimately was a waste of time.
** out of *****
And that's that. I currently have Green Lantern, Fast & Furious Five, Battle: Los Angleas and Sleeping Beauty on rental, so those reviews will be up..... sometime.
Moneyball
I'll just come right and out and say that this film kicked all kinds of arse, but with Aaron Sorkin as the scriptwriter (who of course wrote The Social Network) what more what one expect. Based on a true story, Brad Pitt's character (I really can't be stuffed with character's names) is the manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball and employs a fellow working with another team, who is played by Jonah Hill, who has a theory about recruiting players based purely on their stats, thus saving money going after the marquee players and being able to compete with the much richer clubs such as a the New York Yankees.
And that is the basic plot in a nutshell. Where the movie works so well is of course in the script, which is Aaron Sorkin's usual mix of intelligent dialogue and humour, the performances (I think this is probably the best performance I've seen Jonah Hill give) and the character study of Billy Beane (fine I looked the name up.) While it's a sports movie the movie is more concerned with what goes on behind the scenes, and you could say it's a sports movie for people who don't like sport.
I'd almost go as far as to say this is the Social Network of 2011, not because they have the same scriptwriter, but because both films focus on a man obsessed with an idea. While Mark Zuckerburg was obsessed with the technology and the changes in the way people related to and communicated with each other, Billy Beane was obsessed with changing the way the game of baseball was played. It doesn't have quite the same depth of storytelling as The Social Network, but the added touch of Billy's relationship with his daughter and her final message to him; stop obsessing, "Just enjoy the show" put the icing on one very enjoyable ride.
****1/2 out of *****
The Ides of March
The new directorial effort directed by and staring George Clooney is about two politicians competing to become the Democrats Candidate for an upcoming election. George Clooney falls on the more on the left side of politics while his opponent is more conservatively minded. Ryan Gosling is working on Clooney's campaign, and is wide eyed, optimistic and believes in what he's doing, and you'd be guessing correctly if you thought that didn't attitude didn't last for the whole film.
The film starts at a steady pace but somewhere along the line plats the pedal to the floor and never really lets up to the end. We follow a series of twists, allegiances and betrayals which, along with the loss of innocence of the main character makes this feel less like your average political drama and more like The Godfather, minus the people being whacked of course. I've read a few negative things about this film, mainly over at the cess pit of humanity known as the IMDB message board, and I can't really understand why. This is an intelligently written, edge of your seat style drama, with another brilliant performance from Ryan Gosling and a protagonist that takes us on a journey that may spew forth cynicism regarding politics, but at the same time may be a little closer to reality than we would like to believe.
****1/2 out of *****
Midnight in Paris
I keep hearing that Woody Allen's new films are no good and that he's lost the plot recently, however I must keep seeing the right movies almost all the newer Woody Allen films I've seen have been gold, including this one. It has all the usual Woody Allen charming dialogue, interesting characters and unpredictable plot turns, and plenty of beautiful shots and scenery of central Paris. Midnight in Paris has Owen Wilson playing the typical Woody Allen character, as he continually goes back in time at Midnight (whilst being in Paris - GET IT!) and meets several famous artists from the past such as Pablo Picasso and F Scott Fitzgerald, and gets tips on his writing from Ernest Hemingway. At the same time his fiance, played by Rachel McAdams, seems more taken with a wannabe intellectual friend of hers with a ten foot poll up his arse.
Even though Owen Wilson is just playing Owen Wilson, like he usually does, for some reason he just fits the Woody Allen character so well. The Woody Allen movie that this probably resembles the most would be the Purple Rose of Cairo, due to the fantasy elements of both movies, and considering the quality of that movie I think that comparison is a good thing. In Roger Ebert's review he said he considers Allen to be a treasure of the cinema and I couldn't agree more. There's so much whimsical fun to be had here and I hope he never stops making movies, until he, you know, dies.
**** out of *****
Attack the Block
An unusual choice to open the Brisbane International Film Festival this year, this British film sci-fi action film centres around a street gang attempting to stop an alien invasion. Errr... yeah. Don't expect an Independence Dayesque film that's for sure. The aliens look pretty cool and it's a pretty fun action film with the usual British wit mixed in, however the film seems to be trying to elevate itself further by looking at the social problems surrounding street gangs, although I'm not sure this is fully explored enough and kinda doesn't work for me. However, that aside, I enjoyed this alot. And that's all I have to say on this one.
***1/2 out of *****
Inside Man
A Spike Lee film, or "Joint", from a few years ago that's been sitting in my DVD collection for ages and I finally got around to watching, Inside Man is about bank robbers who've taken a group of people hostage. The main bank robber is Clive Owen. Denzel Washington is the cop assigned to negotiate with the robbers. Jodie Foster is a woman hired to protect the interests of the bank manager, who is hiding a dark secret. Willem Dafoe is in there somewhere too. So it's got a good cast, and it moves at a frenetic pace with enough twists to keep the viewer entertained and intrigued. At the same time it attempts to offer social commentary and explore questions of morality, although like the above film these feel a bit tacked on and not like an natural extension of the storyline. Well worth checking out though.
***1/2 out of *****
Limitless
Alright, almost there. The central character is Limitless is played by Bradley Cooper, who has found himself in a bit of a funk until he comes across a drug that allows people to unleash their full potential and his life completely turns around. A cool concept however the full extent to which someone could utilise such a drug is never fully realised, and it descends into a bit of a standard action fare at the end. You could say the film is LIMITED (HAHAHAHAHA!) in it's execution. On the plus side it has Robert De Niro in it.
*** out of *****
Sanctum
Based on a true story about a bunch of adventurers stuck in a cave, who end up yelling at each other with every cliched line in the book. I guess the moral of the story is not to go into caves? Had it's moments, but ultimately was a waste of time.
** out of *****
And that's that. I currently have Green Lantern, Fast & Furious Five, Battle: Los Angleas and Sleeping Beauty on rental, so those reviews will be up..... sometime.
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