Category: Review

Limitless (preview screening)

Courtesy of Cineworld and Momentum Pictures, I managed to blag a free preview ticket to see Limitless this evening. A shame I couldn’t find anyone to join me as I had two tickets!

Limitless

“It’s FDA approved.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell – Down and out author starts taking mind improvement drugs and rockets in popularity… but with consequences.

You know a studio is confident about  film when they offer advance tickets to the buying public, in much the same way that you know a film’s going to stink more than one of my farts if they don’t even have a press screening in time for reviews to get out before the release date. Momentum have every right to be happy with Limitless. It’s very enjoyable indeed.

Bradley Cooper plays Eddie Morra (thankfully Shia LaBeouf had to drop out as he injured himself – a small price to pay to have him replaced), a struggling writer who’s view of deadlines is somewhat lackadaisical. Out wandering the streets one day, he bumps into his ex-wife’s brother (Johnny Whitworth) who used to deal drugs. He’s now on the straight and narrow, and offers Eddie a taster of a new “smart drug” which allows a person to harness every synapse in their brain.

Morra very quickly becomes quite a success with his new discovery, and seeks out more of the drug. However, the bro-in-law wasn’t quite as above-board as he claimed and our hero finds himself in quite a troubling situation… while at the same time riding high in the world of finance.

His boss in the office is played wonderfully by class-act Robert De Niro, while the girlfriend rôle is handled well by the rather pretty Abbie Cornish. Cooper himself is excellent as the alternately smart/snappy then down/knackered central character. The dialogue is quick in places and the story fairly original.

As well as a novel plot, the movie is filmed very well and sequences linking scenes are imaginatively done with some funky special effects that genuinely add to the experience. It’s also got a wonderful dark streak of humour running through it. One scene near the end had the woman next to me chewing her knuckles and very close to covering her eyes!

I can also say that this is the first film I’ve seen in a long time where I was disappointed when the credits rolled. Not because it was pants, but the exact opposite – I’d love to see what happened next. It ends well, but there was scope for the story to continue. It’s very rare for a movie to achieve what Limitless did. Leave the audience wanting more.

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Rango

Another cinema trip with the kids, so a rare munchkin-friendly outing with Industrial Light & Magic‘s new showcase piece.

Rango

“Stay in school, eat your veggies, and burn all the books that ain’t Shakespeare.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: A domesticated lizard finds himself lost in the desert and sheriff of a small frontier town.

ILM haven’t made a full length animated feature before. They’re better known for being one of the world’s premier special effects companies with more films to their credit than I’ve ever likely seen. They’ve gone all out with the technology and casting to make this impressive start (possibly) to a new wing of their business.

With Johnny Depp in the title rôle, it’s off to a good start. Add in the likes of Bill Nighy as an outlaw rattlesnake, Alfred Molina as an armadillo with a death-defying desire to cross the road, Ray Winstone as a cigar-chomping… something and Isla Fisher as the love interest and there’s been no skimping on the vocal talent. Hell, they’ve got Gore Verbinski (all the Pirates of the Caribbean films) to direct.

Depp rarely sounds like himself in this (does he ever?) but you can picture him playing the part in some scenes that seem written for his usual slightly off-kilter self. Rango himself is a strange character. Flung from a car in the opening minutes, he acts his way through the movie taking each event as a challenge and bluffing his way through. More by luck than judgement he ends up being a bit of a hero.

Now, I enjoyed the film although I thought it a teeny bit slow in places. Gill also enjoyed it. The two kids, however, weren’t so keen. It’s dark – not the bright, colourful explosion that appeals to most youngsters. The humour was quick and clever, but way over the heads with very little slapstick. The dialogue, also, was hard to follow in places. Very well acted, but the accents made it tricky for me in places. Younger audience members would surely struggle.

Visually, it’s superb. Absolutely on a plane of its own. The detail and movement make Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within look like a flip-book drawn in crayon. OK, that’s unfair on FF, but the whole look of the film really is incredible. You can tell a bunch of people with incredible mathematical brains have designed this film to show off their fluid dynamics and ray-tracing skills. Every bit of glass reflects and bends light, every grain of sand flows and drifts as realistically as it would in real life. Best of all, none of this takes away from the overall look of the film.

Definitely recommended for those who like their cartoon humour a little more subtle, and who appreciate when a lot of effort has been put into a production. Just hold out for the likes of Rio and that turtle film if  you’re going to be taking nippers with you.

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Battle: Los Angeles

Due to decorating and kiddie-related commitments, we only had the time for one film this Friday. Fortunately, we picked a corker out of all the new releases.

Battle: Los Angeles

“Retreat! Hell!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Aliens invade for no readily-explained reason, and a bunch of US Marines have to rescue some trapped civilians amongst a huge amount of gunfire, explosions and CGI. “Plot” may be overstating things.

Anyone watching the trailer will think this is just a rip-off of last year’s excruciatingly awful Skyline – a film which managed to be pretty much average for most of its length before ruining it with a ridiculously awful last few minutes. In essence, the plots (what they are) are very similar. Aliens invade with no notice at all and start killing people.

B:LA focuses on the military end of things whereas Skyline went for the civilians. Both begin in the thick of things for a coupe of minutes followed by a “24 hours earlier…” text frame and some backtracking. The newer film, however, has far better action sequences, some genuine tension, superior CGI, characters you actually give a crap about and an ending that doesn’t look like it was tagged on when someone suddenly noticed they had $100 and 2 days left to finish the filming.

To say that B:LA lacks originality is a little unfair given the current climate for remakes, sequels, adaptations and rehashes. It’s got elements of Black Hawk Down, Independence Day and umpteen other war and sci-fi films. What it lacks in originality it makes up for in bangs, explosions, bullets and action. It is almost non-stop warfare from the fifteenth minute and it’s a superb ride as a result.

The only real “name” actor in it is Aaron Eckhart who plays Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz, as central a character as there is. He’s an experienced soldier who, surprise, had a bit of a bad mission and is trying to seek retirement. Just as hands over his papers, those pesky aliens go and turn up. Typical.

Marine lifestyle and terminology is apparently fairly authentic. A unit local to the filming location (Louisiana) was drafted in to act as both consultants and extras.

Don’t expect to be blown away by the storyline, but it’s a tense military action film with a good mixture of set pieces played at the right pace. Pure popcorn entertainment of the highest level.

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Unknown

Time for a quick cinema trip after running a course for some other members of staff. And a nice sausage supper and chip butty on the way home!

Unknown

“Do you know what it feels like to become insane?”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Bio-chemist involved in car accident wakes after 4 days to find someone else has stolen his life.

First things first. If you’ve seen the trailer and have a memory more efficient than a small bowl-encapsulated piscean life form, then don’t spend your cash. On the other hand, if you don’t know much about what happens then it’s not a bad bit of entertainment.

Liam Neeson plays Dr Martin Harris, newly arrived in Berlin for a conference along with his wife (January Jones). He is involved in a car accident and drops into a coma, awakening four days later. He discharges himself from hospital to find his wife – who doesn’t recognise him. She’s with another Dr Martin Harris and “our” Harris is left out in the cold.

Now, let’s assume the trailer more or less left it there. That would be fine. Only it doesn’t. It shows at least three major plot moments taking us right  up until the final couple of minutes of the film. Hell, one character is effectively one of the movie’s twists – and the trailer shows them very much post-twist, totally spoiling around 30 minutes of the film if you’ve seen it.

OK, so I managed to guess the final events well before they happened even though the evil trailer didn’t show them. It’s not incredibly clever, but it is a decent thriller with some good twists – if you don’t already know about them.

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Ironclad / The Adjustment Bureau

Random choices for a Friday and a rarity in that I’d not seen a trailer for either film before we watched them. In fact, I’d not even heard of Ironclad before I checked out the performance times the day before.

Ironclad

“Hit them. Hard.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Mad king decides the Magna Carta doesn’t really suit him and decides to take England back. Can one small castle manned by 19 individuals stop him?

Ironclad is one of those excellent historical films that makes you want to go and look stuff up when you get home. Given my public school education (for American readers, this actually means “private school” in England – no, it makes no sense me either), my knowledge of English history is of course utterly abysmal. I didn’t even know, until last night, which king had actually signed it. I didn’t even know where it was signed (other than “at the bottom”).

The story is simple. King John, being a bit of a dick, has decided that the document which granted rights to the country’s population doesn’t really suit him. So he’s got the Pope to write it off and is about to start taking the country back under his iron – and rather nasty – rule. One castle stands in his way. He must control it to be able to begin his re-conquest.

A small party of Knights Templar get wind of this plan, and rustle up some support from a Baron, his men and a mercenary or two. They take the castle, recruiting its meagre population and prepare for the worst… an army of 1000 Norse warriors blackmailed by John into fighting for him on the promise that if he gets England back then the Pope will leave their country “un-Christian’d”.

So the film is essentially about the siege, and it’s incredibly gripping. Characters drop like flies, quotable dialogue flies around like a medieval Aaron Sorkin script, blood squirts and bones are crushed. It’s high in gore without focussing on it.

Although the cast across the board are very good indeed, I’m going to single out Paul Giamatti for his role as King John. Utterly mental and obviously a complete egotist, John hates it when things don’t go his way. He’s ruthless, greedy and vicious. No wonder the country wanted him gone. He also gets the best (and probably longest) speech in the film, all full of flailing limbs and frothing spit.

Gill thought the film dragged, and struggled to see some of the fight scenes as we were sat quite close to the screen so we lost the effect somewhat. She could be right on the latter, but I found the pace about right. Each intervening scene had enough being discussed and with such good use of language that I was entertained between all the grisly, exciting set pieces.

I tweeted as such right after the film and in reflection I’m still agreeing with myself. Up to now, this is the best film I’ve seen this year. In terms of pure enjoyment, I loved it. It’s never going to go down in history as a classic, I admit that. But I would go and see it again, and I can’t say that about anything else I’ve seen since January 1st.

The Adjustment Bureau

“What the hell is going on?”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Man finds himself stuck in the middle of a hiccup in “he above”‘s great scheme of things… and decides to do something about it.

Quick question – has anything Philip K. Dick wrote not been adapted for the screen yet? The Adjustment Bureau is based on his short story Adjustment Team and must rank as one of the best. Again,I  had no idea what it was about when I saw down to watch it, and that’s the way it should be with films of this ilk. Trailers can only take away half the fun.

Matt Damon is David Norris, a gifted young man running for public office and doing well at it. He bumps into Elise (Emily Blunt) by accident and she inspires a great speech. This is the only time Norris is “supposed” to meet Elise, but something goes wrong in the way the world works and mysterious men in hats are sent out to repair it.

It’s hard to describe it more than that without giving away any of the fun stuff so I’ll stop there.

There’s a definite romance story, some science fiction, a nasty bad guy, a hint of religion, some neat effects, and a back story of manipulation not dissimilar to the masterful Dark City. The best thing is that it doesn’t really mess with your head the way that Inception did (or at least tried to – was that film really so complicated?). It’s easy to watch as pure entertainment without having to strain any lobes.

The ending could have been a little better, in my opinion, though it did tie things up nicely.

A nice story of one person up against all the odds the world has to throw against them, with good performances across the board. Surprisingly enjoyable.

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