Trailer Trash - 29 November 2010

I’ve decided to expand slightly in this blog and actually cover some news etc to supplement the reviews I’ve been churning out recently. This was motivated to a large degree by the fact that there are some awesome movies in the pipeline and I want to share this info with the world (a.k.a. my two followers). This is mostly based on trailers I’ve seen and some of the buzz around these movies on the net.

Green Lantern sounds like something your grandma has in her living room, but it is actually a comic book superhero movie, and it’s looking like it’s going to be totally badass. With action star Ryan Reynolds taking over the responsibility of wearing the alien ring that gives him super powers, it looks like it could be a fun summer action movie. Due to be released in June 2011 it stars Blake Lively (of Gossip Girl fame), Peter Sarsgaard and Mark Strong, with director Martin Campbell behind the camera. You may know him from movies such as Casino Royale and GoldenEye.

Source Code is a new flick with Jake Gyllenhaal and the story, from what I could tell, is based around a new technology that allows people to travel back in time and take control of another person for 8 minutes. The government is using this technology to transport one of their best agents aboard a train that is due to be blown up by terrorists. Our protagonist has 8 minutes to find the culprit and prevent future attacks, while trying to not fall for the cute girl on the train. Duncan Jones is a relative newcomer, but his previous film, Moon, with Sam Rockwell was very enjoyable and I’m curious to see how he handles action material. Anything involving trains, explosions and hot girls (Michelle Monaghan) or dudes depending on what floats your boat, should be fairly successful in the box office. Look out for this in April 2011.

The Other Guys

Those of you familiar with Saturday Night Live would have been enjoying Will Ferrell’s antics long before he became one of the funniest people on the big screen. His breakout performances in Old School and Zoolander soon lead to one of his greatest movies, and possibly one of the funniest movies ever made – Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. This movie was to become the first of many collaborations between the actor and director/screenwriter Adam McKay. The pair’s back catalogue includes Talladega Nights, Step Brothers and the recent action comedy The Other Guys.

Will Ferrell is undoubtedly a very funny man, however his brand of comedy divides the crowds and people tend to either love him, or hate him. Even his fans admit that for every brilliant film, there are one or two stinkers in his career. It really makes you wonder about the lack of good comedy scripts, or whatever money-draining habit Will Ferrell is feeding that makes him accept some truly awful films. His recent dip in form saw him make the likes of Land of the Lost and Semi-Pro, which made me wonder if he was ever going to get back to making genuinely funny movies. The good news is this movie is a step in the right direction.

The story is fairly simple and it follows unlikely police officer partners Allen and Terry as they are forced to work together to uncover a devious Wall Street scam. The NYPD loses two of their finest cops, (awesome cameos by The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson) and our heroes attempt to fill their shoes by becoming the hottest cops in town. Will Ferrell plays the dorky accountant Allen, a Pruis-driving desk jockey who’s happy to never have to leave the office and do any real police work. This is very much Ferrell’s comfort zone, mixing elements of Ron Burgundy and Ricky Bobby into this role, whch works very well for him. Mark Wahlberg shines as Terry, the disgruntled detectrive with severe anger management issues. Marky Mark is not generally recognized for his comedic efforts, but he deserves a lot of credit here as he’s the perfect partner for Will Ferrell, and the chemistry between the two is what really makes this movie work.

The supporting cast includes great performances from Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton and the brilliant Steve Coogan, who is finally getting some Hollywood recognition. The first hour of the film is definitely stronger than the rest, and it does run out of steam a little towards the end. However there are enough great jokes throughout the film to keep the audiences entertained, and it’s well worth the DVD rental.

Rating 3.5/5

The Social Network

When I first heard that the story of Facebook was being turned into a movie, my first reaction was to view this project as a shameless cash-in on the recent internet phenomenon. I didn’t expect to be even mildly interested in watching it. However news broke that it’s being directed by David Fincher, who happens to be one my favourite directors and the awesome screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, my levels of expectation for this movie rose exponentially. Between the two of them, they are responsible for the likes of Fight Club, Se7en, A Few Good Men and TV’s West Wing. When Jessie Eisenberg was cast to play the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, I was counting down the days.

The plot of the movie is based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” and loosely follows the events surrounding the early days of Facebook, from Mark’s first attempts at creating a social network at Harvard to becoming the world’s youngest billionaire.  The events in the movie zigzag between the recent legal battles that Mark Zuckerberg was involved in, and the early Harvard days during which Facebook was invented. The legal scenes are extremely well written and showcase Sorkin’s incredible talent at writing exciting and witty dialogue. The two depositions shown in the film frame the story nicely, and are memorable and pacy, without taking over the story. One of the movie’s biggest strengths is that it lets you make up your own mind about whether Mark is a hero or a villain.  We get presented with the alleged facts and then encouraged to draw our own conclusions about the motivation of various people and the though process behind some of the key decisions they make.

Jessie Eisenberg is absolutely outstanding as Mark Zuckerberg and really nails the personality of a socially inept, yet somehow likeable geek. Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake (yes, that’s right, he’s a serious actor now) also give excellent performances in their supporting roles. Garfield is supposed to be the next “big thing” in Hollywood, having been cast as the new Spider-Man, while Timberlake has already proved in Alpha Dog that he has some serious talent when it comes to acting and that he isn’t just another singer trying to ride his fame (yes Mariah Carey, stick to singing!) Fincher is usually known for being technically very sophisticated and masterful, and while he keeps things fairly simple here, he captures the mood of the film perfectly.

If you like Fincher’s movies, and don’t mind the slightly slower build up, you will love this film. I would surprised if the academy don’t give this one a nod at the next Oscars as this is truly one of the best dramas of the year. I can’t fault this movie in any way, and I would recommend this to anyone, from movie aficionados to people that just want to find out how Facebook came about.

Rating: 5/5

Piranha 3D Review

 

This movie was always going to be a guilty pleasure, a throwback to the simpler times when action / horror movies could be mindless, yet incredibly fun at the same time. However the element of nostalgia that drives people towards revisiting older movies and franchises is somewhat lost in this remake of this 80’s “classic”.

The story here is very predictable and revolves around deadly prehistoric fish wreaking havoc during Spring Break. For an action movie the story usually doesn’t have to be very sophisticated, but they have taken this to a new low with the lack of actual story development, which is pretty much nonexistent. The clichés and plot holes are plentiful in this film, and it’s best to leave your mind behind when trying to sit through this film.

I admit that I have not watched this in 3D, which may have taken away something from this movie, but I seriously doubt it would have made it THAT much better. For me the biggest draw was seeing piranhas wreaking havoc on unsuspecting spring break victims, and the amount of time I had to wait, and sit through scenes where bad pornstars tried their best to “act” without actually showing that much skin was just painful. Most action scene setups could be seen from a mile away, and the over-the-top gore was nowhere near as satisfying as I hoped it would be.

The movie’s stars include Elizabeth Shue and Ving Rhames, both of whom are clearly just there to pay their bills. It’s painful to see Christopher Lloyd having to stoop this low and make a cameo appearance (most of which can be seen in the trailer) – I guess he’s hit some pretty hard times to need cash this bad. Jessica Szohr of Gossip Girl fame provides some nice eye candy, and Kelly Brook reminds us that you don’t have to know how to act if you look as good as she does in a bikini.

There are a handful of scenes in this movie that did make me crack up. Most notably there is a genitalia-related incident, some boob-slicing action and nude parasailing gone horribly wrong, but these don’t make up for the overall disappointment this movie ultimately delivers. With an 18 rating it misses out on what would have been their key demographic – teenage kids who like nudity and action. However for anyone who’s old enough to remember the original, or appreciate 80’s action flicks, it misses the mark by quite some distance and falls squarely in no-man’s land of mediocrity.

Rating: 1/5

A Solitary Man Review

I came across a review of Solitary Man in Empire magazine after this movie came out on DVD without making much of a splash in the box office. Given both the cast and the directors involved in this project I would have expected this movie to do better, but this in no way takes away from the quality of this picture.

This was written and directed by the creative duo of Brian Koppelman and David Levien, whose previous work included some decent efforts such as poker themed Rounders and Tilt, as well as a turkey in the shape of Ocean’s 13. Had I seen a trailer for this that said “from the creators of Ocean’s 13” I would have had no inclination to get anywhere near this film. Luckily this indie-flavoured effort is pure class.

It’s difficult to talk about the plot of this movie without giving away too much. Michael Douglas managed to play a highly unlikeable guy on paper in a very charismatic way. His character, Ben Kalmen, is a scam artist, lousy father, absent grandfather and an adulterous husband and boyfriend. The way this guy behaves makes you want to hate him, but Douglas manages to somehow make us root for this douchebag anyway. The story follows Ben as he tries desperately to get his life back on track and fight fires along the way.

This is a very slow paced movie, filled with long, lingering shots of Douglas, interesting monologues and not nearly enough screen time for the excellent supporting cast which includes Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Jessie Eisenberg and Mary-Louise Parker to name but a few. It’s more of an observation, a narrative of a time in life of a character, with no real story development, more a character study. However Douglas’ screen presence makes it all worthwhile and this is a delightful way to spend 90 minutes.

Rating: 4.5/5

RED Review

I honestly didn’t know what to expect from RED, the new movie from Robert Schwentke, whose previous work didn’t inspire much confidence. The only moderately enjoyable film he’s done to date was Flightplan, and even then it won’t make my all time top 100. I’ve read some reviews online which suggested it wasn’t very good, but you can’t always trust reviews. I went into this with lowered expectations and an open mind.

The premise of RED is pretty straightforward, and almost cliché. In case you’re wondering RED actually stands for Retired and Extremely Dangerous, which kind of gives away the main theme of this movie. A retired CIA agent gets forced back into action to defend his honour (and save his life) with the help of his OAP buddies. I’m not one to give spoilers out so I’ll leave it at that. Overall the story is pretty easy to follow, and there aren’t too many plot holes or complicated twists.

The movie was cast very well, with Bruce Willis taking the lead as the retired agent, who is like a down-to-earth James Bond, with a much better sense of humour. The film doesn’t make him reprise any throwbacks to his John McLane days, and this character is probably closer to Jimmy from the Whole Nine Yards. The supporting cast includes the excellent Mary-Louise Parker as his love interest, and his ex-CIA fellow retirees – Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman. They all play their part, but sadly don’t get enough screen time for my liking.   Malkovich is especially excellent, as the paranoid agent who’s spent the better part of his adult life taking government-issue LSD, without his knowledge.

The action is fast paced, the dialogue is witty and at time quite funny and overall it’s a pretty enjoyable film. However my biggest problem was that at no point did I feel like anything was going to happen to the main cast. Everyone was walking around seemingly invincible, and I still don’t buy that CIA and Secret Service can’t hit the target EVER, even if they are shooting at someone who’s well into their 60’s and doesn’t have the catlike reflexes (and flexibility) to dodge all the bullets.

For a movie based on a comic book, this is a very decent attempt, and I would recommend this for anyone after a no-brainer action movie with some good comedic moments thrown in for good measure. 

Rating: 3/5