Just a quick mid-week film review as I caught Disney Pixar‘s Up tonight with Tracey in Bradford.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: grumpy old man decides to get away from it all by inflating a bazillion balloons and floating his house to South America. A young “wilderness scout” accidentally tags along. Adventure ensues.
I won’t wax lyrical about the visuals. Typically of Pixar they’re simply superb with every tiny detail adding to the depth of the film – moreso if you watch it in 3D, I assume. To give you a level of the attention to detail, watch the bad guy’s eye twitch when Russel slides past his airship.
What makes Up stand out from other Pixar movies is the depth of information about the characters, and how emotionally involved the storyline is. If you thought that Nemo being torn away from his father was tear-jerking, just you wait till Russell tries to explain about his father. Or when “grumpy” Carl rewards hi mat the end.
Topping the bill, though, is a 5-minute introduction to Carl Fredricksen. The movie opens with a sequence lasting a couple of minutes with Carl as a young boy and then moves onto what could be a short film in itself. This absolutely enchanting five-or-so minutes is played purely to music and takes us through Carl’s life up until the point where the film proper starts. And if your eyes don’t moisten by the end of it, you’re a cruel monster.
I’d not rank Up as being quite as entertaining as the likes of Cars or Monsters Inc. However, as an actual film is beats anything else they’ve done hands down, purely due to the emotional involvement.
Great as that is, however, the kids will still be asking for Finding Nemo to be shoved on repeat on the DVD player rather than this one come the middle of next year.
Due to unforeseen technical hiccups (i.e. Cineworld’s web site lying to me) there are only three films reviewed today. I was also hoping to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs but the performance I scheduled into my little planner didn’t exist. Grr.
A film with titles being displayed to the backing music of Metallica’s For Whom The Bell Tolls obviously has something going for it. When those titles are put together with imagination and a touch of humour, as well as some nice little technical bits’n’bobs you do feel your in the hands of a good film-maker.
And such is Zombieland.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Man eats burger with mutant strain of mad cow in it and starts zombie plague. Lone teenager hooks up with mad psycho to travel cross country. Bonding and blood-letting occur.
This is a rare film these days. One that’s actually even better than the trailer suggests. There’s an added depth to it, particularly towards the end, that isn’t even hinted at in the previews. My one disappointment is that some of the gags are *BAM* slapstick and if you’ve seen those trailers then it does spoil a little of the humour.
There’s an awesome cameo about two thirds in and some lovely grisly moments. The CGI does look a little CGI-ish – the blood spurts and so forth are very recognisable as effects – but it works on a cartoony level, which is ideal for this film. I also loved the use of computer graphics over the film at points, detailing the rules of surviving the apocalypse.
If you can handle gore, then this is definitely worth the entry money.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this one, though I originally thought the trailer was for a film version of the video game Dead Space. It has that feel to it. However, it turned out to be a mix of horror, sci-fi and thriller.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Two crew members wake up on a seemingly uninhabited space ship. Where are the rest of the crew? What are they supposed to be doing? Why is the place falling apart?
Pandorum falls into a few stereotypical pit-traps of this genre. The most annoying is using loud screeching noises to induce trouser-browning jumps. OK, that’s just me because I’m a wuss. Towards the end as the plot starts to come together and characters are revealed, the director has also gone a little ape with the effects and causes a few strained eye muscles. Sometimes less is more!
The plot isn’t that bad, either. I didn’t think it would stretch beyond a poor man’s Alien, but an extra depth is found and it works quite well. A small cast (barring monsters – yes, there are monsters… no spoiler) and some nicely claustrophobic moments keep the movie plot-focussed. Any action sequences are generally tense rather than overblown.
Although hardly mind-taxing, it’s a good enough film and – like Zombieland – better than I was expecting. I gather some reviews are slating it which is a shame. It’s in a genre that has had a handful of classics and a lot of crap. To its credit, Pandorum does look down on the crap from a fair height.
Creation
Not so much banned in the US as finding it hard to get a distributor due to the fact it’s about a man who said that God didn’t exist, this is a classy piece part-made by the BBC.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: This is the story of one Charles Darwin, author of On The Origin of Species. Go read some books and learn something, kids. And not that one the men in church try to force on you.
The thing is, the film doesn’t exactly rock any boats. Nor does it say that Darwin was right or wrong. It’s focusses on Darwin as a person and the effects that his writing and the death of his daughter had on him and his family. It speaks volumes that distributors in America are scared of the reaction of religious nutjobs to such a harmless piece of film-making.
It is lovingly made, however, and the acting is simply superb. Costume drama with out the overacting that sometimes engenders this genre. Paul Bettany is simply superb in the lead role and even the children are amongst the best you’ll see in cinema.
Rather than being a 108-minute crusade against the church, it is a carefully structured piece about a family. At the core of it, it’s a superb example of how a family can go through some incredibly trying times and yet still hold together. Were it about anyone who hadn’t upset them, churches would likely be citing it as perfect non-offensive entertainment.
Friday this week as it suited the workload a little better. The downside is that Friday was a holiday in Glasgow so the cinema was rammed more than it usually would be. Added to the fact that only two people were selling tickets when I got there, this meant that I was going to miss almost 15 minutes of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, so I skipped it for another time.
The Firm
First up, then, was this cinematic remake of an old made-for-tv movie by writer and director Nick Love. It’s low budget, rough’n’ready (like its subject matter) and hair-raising in places.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Teenager Dominic decides that the local West Ham “firm” of football thugs is more interesting than his mates, so he decides to join up.
The film looks like it was made in the 80’s, let alone being set during the period – and I mean this as a compliment. It’s like a big, grown-up, violent episode of Grange Hill. Complete with mouthfuls of filth and more slang and colloquial language than an Irvine Welsh novel. Unless you were raised in London, you really just have to roll with it and make guesses at the dialogue at times.
The film is a complete story, and a fairly simple one. Most striking are the street fight scenes which do look pretty nasty although the sound effects are a pinch too overblown. Watching them is like seeing old news footage from the era, uncomfortably so at times.
In an interesting take, Love also takes the story into the home of one of the ringleaders showing a completely different side to the character. It’s still fairly shallow, though, and there are no real surprises as the story unfolds.
Worth a watch, and at least it’s not basically a stepping stone for The Firm 2 which would be the case with a US-made feature.
Surrogates
Bruce Willis is back in this quirky near-future thriller which relies more on plot than effects.
That plot-in-a-nutshell: In a world where nobody leaves their home any more, instead mentally controlling human-like “surrogates”, someone has found a way to kill the humans via this safety net.
Willis’ character is an FBI agent in this future world where crime has been reduced by 99% simply by people failing to leave their houses. How they don’t all turn into fat freaks isn’t adequately explained, but the surrogates to look a bit fitter than the real people – if a little more plasticcy.
There is, of course, a rebellious group of luddites who have issues with the whole surrogate thing so the finger of blame initially falls on them but the case isn’t quite so clear cut. There’s also the man who invented the surrogates who was sacked by the company who make them. And an FBI conspiracy.
It sounds impressive, but in honesty it’s all pretty much run-of-the-mill. The surrogate idea itself is a good one, but underneath it’s just another by-the-numbers whodunnit which you can piece together half an hour in.
Still, it’s better than Die Hard 4. But then, so is self-inflicted colonic irrigation.
Fame
It was a tossup between this and Creation as they both had similar start times, but I plumped for the dancey one as I would be seeing another drama next. In honesty, my hopes were moderately high after how much I enjoyed Bandslam recently. It also has a great pedigree… or a lot to live up to depending on your view of the original 80’s version.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: teenagers go through the audition process to get into the most prestigious Performing Arts school in New York, go through, and graduate. All in 137 minutes.
I’ll sum up at the start: Fame is awful. It could have been so much only it tries too hard and fails to cram a TV series’ worth of characters and storyline into 2 1/4 hours. It is, simply, a mess. To begin with, it’s promising as the lead characters go through their auditions with varying degrees of success.
Then *pow* we get the big musical number. It’s like showing the monster from the horror film in the second reel. After this, the whole film goes into one sloppy decline. Each “year in the life” is given what feels like 20 minutes of screen time which simply isn’t enough. What should be major events are breezed over and you’re left waiting for the repercussions… of which there are none.
Full credit must be given to the cast, from the older generation to the younger. There’s an incredible array of talent on show here. The direction and choreography are also lovely. Just such a shame that they’re all wasted on this dog’s dinner of a script.
The Soloist
Final film of the evening (I couldn’t be bothered staying till 23:30 to watch the re-release of John Carpenter‘s The Thing) was this adaptation of a book by one of the central characters.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr) is an LA journalist who writes little stories about life in the city. One day he encounters a down-and-out, Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), who turns out to be an incredibly talented musician. The story follows their journey together as Lopez tries to “help” Ayers make the most of his talents.
This is definitely the kind of film that wins OSCARs. However, I don’t think The Soloist is quite good enough to do it. Certainly, the performances are superb. Downey brings in the sarcastic wit and superb timing he employed in Iron Man while Foxx plays the “character with a disability” card in his aim for another award. They certainly both put on amazing performances, and the supporting actors can’t be criticised either.
However, the film just seems to lack something. For every moment of genius there’s something just a little too bland or stereotypical. There’s a beautiful scene during a musical performance where Ayers closes his eyes and we see a display of colour – visualising what he’s seeing. Amazing.
If only the rest of the film could have measured up.
Still definitely worth seeing, if only for a short dose of Downey Jr before Iron Man 2 hits the cinemas.
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!
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.
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.
Oops. I never did get round to posting this on time. Right, at present I get Thursdays as a “personal study day”. As I study over the weekend instead, I give myself this as a day off and make full use of my cinema card. Last week I managed to cram three films in around a quick lunch and a leisurely hour in McD’s using the free wifi.
First up is Kathryn Bigelow‘s newest effort. I’m amazed this isn’t on in the “smaller” Cineworld cinemas such as Dundee on the basis that it has a big budget, a name director and a recognised cast. What else do you need to not be classed as a “minority interest” film? What really annoys me is that it’s bloody brilliant and fewer people are getting a chance to see it as a result.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Men in Iraq defuse booby-trap bombs. Usually. Only you don’t know when they’ll fail, regardless of the grade of actor playing them.
Bigelow has managed to shoehorn more tension into this film than in any three modern schlock horror films. There’s enough tension to make a steel cable snap.
Not just the bomb defusing scenes are taught. There’s a superb quarter hour where our main characters (plus a couple of incidentals) are pinned down by sniper fire.
Then there’s the fact that some of the events aren’t preceded by “will-he-won’t-he” moments. They just *BAM* happen.
I can’t point you at them right now, but I read quite a few comments on reviews before I saw this. A handful were from people who’d served in Iraq and Afghanistan and they heaped praise on the realism of the film.
Highly recommended if you have the nerve to sit through it.
Being “presented by” someone – even Peter Jackson – is often a death knell for a film. Or am I just thinking of how awful the Tarantino-presented Killing Zoe was? Maybe. However, Neill Blomkamp has done a decent job on this sci-fi effort although it’s still not perfect.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Aliens arrive, seemingly by mistake, and hover over Johannesburg. They end up corralled into a slum (the titular District 9) and treated like second-class beings until something goes wrong as they’re being moved away from the city.
The cast is – as far as I can tell – pretty much made up of utter unknowns. There isn’t a bad one in the bunch, though. Obviously, focus is on the central character of Wikus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley), who is very good but did bring back memories of Derek from Bad Taste.
It begins  as some kind of docu-drama but rapidly becomes a mixture of this format and regular filming which does jar somewhat. Either make it all look like it’s from news camera footage or don’t bother. To offset this, the effects are simply superb. There’s a great blending of CGI and traditional “man in a rubber suit” work for the “Prawns” which works very well.
There’s no denying the “wouldn’t be more obvious if it kicked you in the crotch” allegory of people of a different appearance being kept in shanty towns in South Africa. It’s a point that sadly still needs to be made and when you consider that the film was made in that country it’s perhaps a little brave for them to basically be pointing out their own flaws.
This aside, it’s a very entertaining sci-fi flick. It wasn’t as good as I was hoping – the plot gets rather linear after the halfway point – but you do start to care more about the Prawns once this mark is reached and you learn more about them.
Worth a watch, but don’t believe the hype. I only hope they don’t go the obvious path and release District 10 but I fear it’s inevitable.
(500) Days of Summer
Yes, a rom-com. No, I’ve not gone soft. Well. No more than usual. I had a natural aversion to the film as it features Zooey Deschanel. While I’m aware that she is bloody attractive, she was also in the atrocious Hitchiker’s Guide To the Galaxy movie and thus will be tainted evermore.
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl. Erm. Sort of. Only it jumps back and forth like a cross between Memento, Pulp Fiction and When Harry Met Sally.
This jumping about could have been such a headache, but it’s handled superbly well with careful use of graphic set pieces and a modicum of narration.
The story itself isn’t a hugely original one. It is, however, told in a novel way and with a great line of humour running through it. I don’t want to give too much away, but the ending isn’t what you’d expect. My only problem with it was that it mirrored a very recent relationship of mine far too closely for my liking. Don’t worry, I’m not going to sue them for ripping off my life. I do believe in coincidence.
Much as I did enjoy this, more because I wasn’t expecting to, I’d still rate Bandslam as a better rom-com. And it has better music. But still – this is very entertaining and a good date movie if your other half has a sense of humour.
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