Tag: Ryan Reynolds

Safe House

By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsHaving not been to the cinema for around 2 months, Gillian and I managed to get through enough work at the weekend to free up a couple of hours after we’d put Little Mister to bed. Checking the times, we plumped for:

Safe House

“Time’s a-wasting. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Spy comes in from the cold to a frosty reception

See it if you like: Very slow-boiling spy thrillers. VERY slow.

The quote above is very apt as the film really is a waste of time. Lots of it. Or at least so it seems after the opening 20 minutes or so. I actually thought it was nearer 2.5 hours long than the actual 2 hours when we left.

OK, so step back and what’s it about? Ryan Reynolds – man of the moment – plays Matt Weston, a new CIA employee. In the equivalent role of a filing clerk, he’s charged with looking after a “safe house“; a location that can be used to stash an agent or prisoner away from prying eyes without anyone knowing where they are. This particular safe house is in Johannesburg which acts as our main setting for the film.

The opening is very cloak and dagger as Denzel Washington‘s Tobin Frost sets the scene as the rogue agent with some kind of secret file that the bad guys want to get their hands on. He ends up in the hands of the CIA who place him in Weston’s safe house… which turns out not to be so safe after all.

The film never quite reaches “buddy buddy” status – Weston and Frost are on opposite sides of the table, so to speak – but Frost does spend his time alternating between treating Weston like crap and trying to convince him that his bosses are the bad guys. Thing is, it’s just so damn slow getting to the point.

Weston has a romance with a French girl who lives locally and if anyone can tell me what the film would be missing (other than about 15 minutes of footage) if she wasn’t in it, please let me know. I honestly can’t figure out why they bothered.

The set action pieces are quite good, though the car crashes (bar the initial daytime chase) actually get a little repetitive. The ending, without giving anything away, isn’t exactly a shock either. The plot has about as many twists and turns as a NASCAR track. You couldn’t see the “surprise” revelation of the evil mastermind more clearly in advance if it was spray-painted fluorescent pink and had a big sign above its head.

This may have been better if it ran for 90 minutes instead of 120, but the story would still have been dull.

Not one to scramble to see before it gets withdrawn from theatres for DVD release. In fact, skip the DVD as well.

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30 Minutes Or Less / The Change-Up

By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsA night of comedy for our first cinema trip in a fortnight. We toyed with catching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as well, but I was pooped and Gillian had work to do. So back-to-back comedies it was!

30 Minutes Or Less

“Sometimes fate pulls out its big ol’ cock and slaps you right in face.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Bad man wants to kill other bad man which means paying another bad man which means roping some other poor sap in to rob a bank.

See it if you like: the idea of Harold and Kumar Rob a Bank

Jesse Eisenberg returns to one of his more common roles as a bit of a layabout in this over-the-top comedy. He plays Nick, a pizza delivery guy whose job it is to get pizzas to customers within thirty minutes. Hence the title. Unfortunately, one one fateful delivery he finds himself trussed up, rigged with an explosive vest and ordered to rob a bank of $100,000 by madman Dwayne (Danny McBride) . Dwayne, you see, wants to off his dad and this will cost him a hundred G’s which he doesn’t have.

He teams up with his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari), and together they set out to try and save Nick’s body from vapourisation. There’s a little more undercurrent in that Nick is in love with Chet’s twin sister, and Chet isn’t really happy about this.

Everything ties together well. There are plenty of characters who are all mad at each other for one reason or another. This means plenty of shouting and insults, most of which are gutter-level. Perfect for a night when the brain just needs to be tickled.

There are plenty of laughs and the story runs along well, never getting tired. Eisenberg and Ansari play very well off each other. I’d really like to see them together in something else in the future.

Certainly not high-brow, but it is funny – something some comedies seem to be lacking these days.

The Change-Up

“You are not having sex with my wife.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: two life-long friends with very different lives swap bodies after pissing in a fountain together. As you do.

See it if you like: the idea of 17 Again, Vice Versa, Freaky Friday etc. with nob gags.

Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star as Mitch and Dave, two lifelong friends whose lives have gone in different directions. Mitch is a lazy “actor” who womanises and spends his days wasted. Dave is a lawyer pushing for partner with a hot wife (played by Leslie Mann) and three kids. After a few beers one night, they find themselves caught short in front of a fountain, syphon the python and – as they wish they each had the other’s life – something “magical” happens…

The two actors play each other’s characters very well indeed as Mitch tries to handle nappies and MENSA-level pre-teens, and Dave tries to remain faithful to his wife despite landing in Mitch’s bohemian life.

Of course, being an American movie it needs a dollop of schmaltz and life lessons. Thankfully these are handled well, with a good mixture of slapstick, low-brow humour, swearing and a handful of really very touching moments as our two heroes realise where they’re going wrong in their respective lives.

In the background is the search for the fountain, removed by workmen the morning after the incident – a quest reminiscent of Josh’s search for the Zoltar Speaks machine in Big. And what do they guys do when they finally find out where it is?

This is a really enjoyable film, and certainly better than the trailer made me think it would be. There’s a superb balance of giggles, awkward moments and pathos with the whole thing tying together well at the end.

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Stake Land / Green Lantern

By إبن البيطار (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsDespite my feeling somewhat under the weather, we managed to squeeze in two films this evening before I collapsed into a snot-soaked lump, coughing and feeling pitiful. Yes, it’s man-flu’… I sincerely hope I didn’t annoy the people near us too much. I did try to reserve my coughing and sneezing for the noisier segments of both films.

Stake Land

Plot-in-a-nutshell: A drifter adopts a young boy when his parents are killed by roaming vampires in a collapsed United States

See it if you like: bleak, post-apocalyptic movies without huge set pieces

Comparisons first of all. Stake Land is like a cross between The Road and Zombieland. It has more of the dark, depressing feel of the former, but the constantly stalking monsters of the latter – albeit vampires rather than zombies. It’s a good mixture as well. With the cast being relative unknowns (with the exception of a very well played part by Kelly McGillis – a far cry from her Top Gun days) you never know who’s going to get it in the neck – so to speak – next.

There’s no long drawn out introduction. We’re dropped right into the middle of the story, the US already in tatters and people trying to make for a mystical “new eden” in Canada. No explanation is ever given for the vampire rising, the closest we get to a back-story is the occasionally-glanced newspaper headline.

The vampires themselves are more like fast-moving zombies. In fact, I’d say they’re nearer the monsters from the 28 Days Later franchise with an added inability to face sunlight. Feral, unintelligent and all the more dangerous for it.

The never-otherwise-named “Mister” (Nick Damici) takes Martin (Connor Paolo) under his wing when the young boy’s parents are killed, and together they head north. Along the way they encounter nice people in townships which are holding out… and The Brotherhood, a collection of religious nutbags who believe the vampires have been sent by God as a means to cleanse the planet. Or somesuch.

Between these two sets of villains and the environment itself, the journey unfolds and the characters develop well. It’s not a fast-paced adventure, but neither is it as slow as the incredibly dull The Road, mentioned earlier. Certainly, we both enjoyed it and would happily recommend it. If you think it sounds like you’ll like it from what I’ve said, then you probably will.

Green Lantern

“Ring. Finger.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: jet pilot gets will-powered green ring from dying aliens and associated superpowers. Saves world (sorry if that’s a spoiler)

See it if you like: amusing superhero stories with decent special effects and tongue-in-cheek dialogue.

Green Lantern has never been a superhero I knew much about. He’s green. And he has some kind of magic (no, it’s not magic, sorry) ring which lets him fly and create stuff from the air. And his secret identity is Hal Jordan. That came in useful in a pub quiz once.

What I didn’t know is that there are 3600 Green Lanterns, one for each galactic sector. This means there are a lot of aliens in this film. Which means a lot of CGI and creativity. In fact, a fair few of the characters in the film are 100% CG constructs with the actors related to them just being vocal pieces – Michael Clarke Duncan as Kilowog and Geoffrey Rush as Tomar-Re being two examples.

The story is a typical “origins” one, being the obvious start for a franchise. I’m sure it will annoy a huge number of purists as they’ve taken many strands of Green Lantern history and interwoven them. For the layman ( that would be me), it’s resulted in a decent enough film that was worth going to see.

Ryan Reynolds is good enough in the lead, and Gillian’s main reason for going to see it especially as you see him dressed in nowt but boxers twice, and there’s a decent enough supporting cast. The effects are well done, the story decent enough and the dialogue never gets too cheesy. In fact, there are a handful of scenes with genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

A couple of points – and you could argue they’re spoiler-y but only to the tiniest amount:

1) Why do intelligent overlords always imprison evil beings instead of executing them? You’d think a group of all-wise immortals would have learned from the Zod episode that Superman went through in Superman II.

2) One moment Hal is saying “how do I know all this?” about the Green Lantern Corps (apparently the ring’s “higher functions” fill him with this background knowledge), and then three minutes later he’s having said background explained to him anyway by Tomar-Re? He already “knows” it, so what’s the point? Yes, I know the audience need to be filled in, so in that case drop the “higher function” thing and have hi know nothing at all.

Anyway.

Taken as it is – a silly superhero movie – it’s a pretty decent one. Certainly DC’s best effort outside of the Batman canon, and hopefully open to a sequel or two. In fact, hang around to the middle of the credits. Predictable though it is, that’s definitely an indicator that Green Lantern 2 may well be out in 2013.

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Buried and Takers

Ah, the joys of having afternoon CPD sessions. Not the greatest of fun last thing before the weekend, but it does place me near the local Cineworld. As such, as soon as the lecture was over I drove right along the road and picked up a ticket for…

Buried

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Man wakes up to find himself trapped in a wooden box. Time and air are running out.

Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is having a bad day. He’s just woken up trapped inside a wooden coffin, buried underground. The last thing he remembers is his convoy being attacked, his co-workers being shot… and then taking a blow to the head.

Oh, and he was in Iraq at the time.

Director Rodrigo Cortés has gone for the most claustrophobic film he could. Taking the single-scene premise of Phone Booth and pushing it to extremes, the entire film is located in this one dark location. Reynolds’ is the only face we see, the other characters only featuring as voices.

It’s a great idea for a film, and a brave one for mainstream cinema. It is well filmed with all angles of the box being seen constantly so you really get a feeling for  Conroy’s situation. Reynolds plays the part very well, for someone who apparently has made his way so far with comedy roles. Having said that, the best lines in the film are ones which did get the audience laughing.

It’s not a long film, but it does still feel padded in places. The ending is either superb or awful, depending in your viewpoint as well. I liked it, but one discerning (and loud) voice declared it “a load of *****” as the credits rolled at the end.

Certainly something different.

Takers

“We’re takers, gents. That’s what we do for a living. We take.”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: a gang of robbers push to do one huge job at the behest of a comrade who’s just got out of jail.

What at first looks like a heist movie turns out to be a pretty taught character-driven thriller with quite a few twists and some good back-story. The closest recent film is The Town, but on balance I think I preferred Takers.

As well as a great cast, there are some excellent set pieces including a wonderful near-final shoot out sequence where sound (or lack of it) has been put to excellent use. The central “job” is also very well done.

The sidelines leading off the central plot are perhaps a little fluffy (a detective’s family issues, gang member’s crackhead sister and so on) but they add depth to the characters without detracting too much from the story. They’re also woven into the plot so that they effect events without seeming like hugely improbable coincidences.

A lot of people might not like the fact that Paul Walker is in the film judging by comments I’ve seen about him since the Fast and Furious films. However, he’s more than acceptable in this. Matt Dillon is on the opposite side of the story playing one half of a detective duo (Jay Hernandez plays the other half). Even the cops aren’t all clean, however…

There’s enough meat on this film to fill a mini-series, yet it doesn’t seem to be too much to take in the running length. Definitely worth seeing.

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