Thursday film roundup – on time for a change – Mosher'sUnimaginativelyEntitledBlog

A bumper crop this week as I managed to cram in four films today. I’m certainly getting my moneys-worth out of this cinema pass! As I’m not a student (though still don’t have a flipping union card – it should be in the post shortly) I have to increase the number of films I catch each month to make the card pay for itself. What a shame!

Adventureland

First film of the day was this new coming-of-age teen drama comedy thing. Greg Mottolla wrote and directed Superbad which, for some reason, was a huge hit despite being rubbish. This is similarly themed, but thankfully much better.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Boy wants to go on holiday and to college. Dad loses job. Boy must get dead-end summer job in amusement park. Boy “grows up” over summer.

The cast are really good and the comedy kept at a much lower tone than in Superbad, both factors that make this film far more watchable and believable. There is the inevitable character who you’d just want to punch in the face if you knew him in real life, but unlike the earlier movie he’s one of the supporting cast rather than a major piece.

It’s quite a gentle film, but you can generally see where it’s going from beginning to end so no major surprises. However, it’s good fun and has a few genuinely funny moments. It would actually make a good date movie.

Miss March

From one easy-going comedy to a road trip bad-taste-a-thon. It’s not had great reviews, but if you can drop your mind down to gutter level I think you’ll enjoy it.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Nice guy is ready to sleep with his girlfriend on prom night. Loser/idiot friend gets him drunk. Nice guy falls down stairs and is in coma for four years, wakes up and finds his other half is now a Playboy model. The guys go on a road trip to find her.

I don’t understand why so many films pair up a sensible character with one who’s such a moron. The aforementioned Superbad was guilty of it and the same relationship ruined Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. You just don’t get relationships like that in real life. If the smart guy’s so smart, he’d ditch the idiot after the first time he almost gets killed, maimed, loses a girl, has his house burned down or whatever.

Anyway.

I kinda of enjoyed this one. Maybe I was in the right frame of mind, but it had some decent silly scenes. The “idiot” guy (played by Trevor Moore) definitely seems to be trying to be a young Jim Carrey, though. Same floppy hair and Ace Ventura style Hawaiian shirts.

If you’re after something in pretty bad taste, with some grim visuals, silly story, cringe-making slapstick and a really bad cameo by Hugh Hefner then this is worth a watch.

Gamer

This was my big film of the day, one I’d been looking forward to since I saw the trailers full of amazing action sequences.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Prisoners on death row get conscripted into a televised war game where they are controlled by remote “gamers”. If they survive 30 matches, they get freed. Only there’s something dodgy going on…

So far, so Death Race. It is a little different, but borrows heavily from the premise of the older film as well as utilising a high gore content like the remake. Gerard Butler is suitably buff as Kable, the central character while Michael C. Hall (from TV’s Dexter) is superb as Castle, the mega-rich madman behind everything.

Sadly, though, the plot’s a bit naff. The way the film’s cut is also very MTV with some sequences almost triggering epilepsy due to the speed with which cuts are performed. There are only a couple of action sequences and a lot of the best footage has been seen in the trailers already. I was really hoping for a massive amount of action and a bit of plot, but the balance isn’t quite right.

It’s also a little hard to follow, I found. Or maybe that was due to the (I forget how many) pints I had the night before. From the off, you’re dropped into this new world and it’s almost like you’re expected to know all about it already. Things are referred to as if they have already been explained.

A shame as Butler is good and the action sequences lovely and bloodthirsty. Like Quantum of Solace, though, spoiled by an over-zealous director and editor. Too many camera tricks and cuts.

Whiteout

Final film of the day and one based on a comic book (or graphic novel if you want to get all anal). I’d seen a trailer for it, but other than that I hadn’t heard much about it.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Murders begin to occur at the international research station in the Antarctic. A US Marshall (with a troubled past, naturally) has to find out whodunnit while avoiding the killer’s ice axe herself.

The setting’s fairly original and the exterior shots are gorgeous. There is an opening sequence involving a plane crash which is obviously low-tech CGI, but other than that it’s visually well shot. If you like snow.

It’s not a bad film, but the plot is rather thing. The small number of characters who make any major appearance does mean it doesn’t take long to suss out who’s involved. The “troubled past” thing also flags up an obvious plot point which potentially ruins the “twist” ending. I also wasn’t too impressed with the leaps of logic the characters made when trying to piece things together. On more than one occasion I was let thinking “how did you know?”

One major highlight is the make-up and the like. The corpses and injuries are nicely gory!

Overall, not a bad way to spend ninety minutes but very much a run-of-the-mill thriller with no real surprises to offer.