Archive | Film RSS feed for this section

Film review: Horrible Bosses

1 Aug

http://youtu.be/mh9cG5dzs-U

Three disgruntled and boss-bullied friends take their anxiety to the extreme in the Seth Gordon directed film Horrible Bosses. Engaged dental nurse Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) is routinely the object of unwanted crude approaches by Dr Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston). Finance staffer Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) suffers under the slave-driving undermining management of Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) and chemical company employee Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) is subject to the ridiculous cocaine-fuelled direction of Bobby, the son of his much-loved late boss Jack Pellitt (Donald Sutherland).

Eventually all three friends agree that their horrific working days should stop and decide to end their bosses careers and lives permanently. What follows is an amusing and mishap-laden adventure to carry out their plan. Jamie Foxx gives a star turn as their murder consultant. The bosses are skilfully played, especially Kevin Spacey as Harken. Dale Arbus is the most hilarious of the employees. Go along for constant chuckles as it’s a rare comedy that keeps you laughing throughout.

Tags: ,

Film review: Huge

7 Jul

Budding comedian Warren (Johnny Harris) is finding it hard to wow audiences with his stand-up routine. A challenge one night from nerdish audience member Clark (Noel Clarke) inspires him to propose a partnership. In Ben Miller’s first directorial movie, the two set off to crack the comedy circuit with depressing results. In one disastrous turn, they gate-crash the Comedy Awards and end up falling prey to a savvy media executive (Thandie Newton). The British movie switches between being mildly amusing and low-level pathos but ultimately doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Tags:

Film review: Attack the block

11 May

I have to give a sigh, not one of boredom and irritation but one of wonder and possibility. Out this week is a British movie that isn’t a costume drama, James Bond movie or gangster flick. It was a gritty tale of life in the big city – the UK does that kind of movie well – but in this case, we had some aliens and comedy thrown into it too.

Directed by Joe Cornish of Adam & Joe fame, we join a gang of South London teens who mug a nurse Sam (Jodie Whittaker) on her way home. A light shoots from the night sky as they are in their criminal act and suddenly a strange creature is in their midst. The gang, led by Moses (John Boyega), chase after the being and kill it, mistakenly bragging all the way. Unfortunately, that isn’t the end of it for them. More aliens, larger and more venomous follow and decide to hunt the gang down in their tower block.

The mainly teenage cast keep you with them though it was tricky to feel complete sympathy after they start out mugging Sam. She in the end joins forces with them to try to defeat the aliens. Though the comedy can sometimes be hit and miss, you’ll be taken along on an exciting ride and, like I said, it’s novel to have an alien in a South London tower block.

Tags:

Film review: Hanna

8 May

Child or teenage female assassins are all the rage at the moment. Remember Hit Girl in Kick-Ass? One of my personal favourites goes back before that with Buffy the Vampire Slayer but before I’m drawn down that road I will review the new film Hanna.

You shouldn’t really be thinking about the arresting icy landscapes when you first see Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) the trained teen killer, but you do. She shoots a stag with an arrow but she doesn’t quite hit the target – the heart. Her perfectionist father (Eric Bana) lets her know that it’s not quite good enough. He has trained her to kill in a snow-swept forest far from civilisation.

Everything explodes when Hanna is launched onto her solo mission to take out the CIA’s Marissa (Cate Blanchett) who has historical reasons for wanting Hanna and her father dead. Hanna travels around the world after fighting off the CIA. She’s a novice to modern technology – even electricity amazes her, but she can certainly handle a weapon or fight without one if necessary. On her journey, she also starts developing friendships by tagging along with a British family.

A booming soundtrack from the Chemical Brothers accompanies the action. Saoirse gives a polished performance, as does Eric. The ending’s a little weak and it’s not an earth-shattering plot but you’ll be involved and gripped throughout.

Tags:

Film review: Submarine

29 Apr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IVFfiv6wpY

There hasn’t been a huge amount of fanfare about the British comedy drama Submarine but you should try and catch it if you’re looking for amusement, convincing performances and to be entertained. No there aren’t any big name stars but don’t let this deter you from seeking it out at your cinema.

Directed by one of the IT Crowd’s leads Richard Ayoade, he who plays the nerd Maurice, and based on the book by Joe Dunthorne, the film covers a poignant time in the life of teenager Oliver (Craig Roberts). We see him embark on his first serious relationship with a challenging young girl called Jordana (Yasmin Paige) and watch him struggle through the break down of his parents’ marriage.

Oliver is a bit of a loner, trying to find ways to fit in at school, avoid being bullied and understand the complexities of love. You’re with him as he tries to defeat what seems like the inevitable attraction that his mother Jill (Sally Hawkins) has for a past boyfriend new age guru Graham (Paddy Considine) who moves in next door while simultaneously jeopardising his own chances with Jordana. He doesn’t communicate his fears or the reasons behind his own actions when Jordana’s also going through a tough time and needs to hear from him. It doesn’t sound like a comedy, but there are many amusing moments and trust me, you should have a fine experience, nurtured by a suitably melodious soundtrack by Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys.

Tags:

Film review: Source Code

14 Apr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMdBJ_W4wYE

If you loved Groundhog Day and you enjoy a bit of sci-fi, Source Code, directed by Duncan Jones, may be the perfect movie for you.

Captain Colter Stevens played by Jake Gyllenhaal is forced to go back in time numerous times with the help of source code, the language computer programs are written in, on the mission to find out who blew up a commuter train. He relives the same anxious eight minutes before the crash but in slightly different ways over and over again, getting closer to the truth while starting to fall for his fellow passenger Christina (Michelle Monaghan). Every time he takes the journey, you grow more affectionate to his character and his desperate attempts to save the people on the train.

The perfect companion for a film also featuring quantum physics is of course a physicist friend. However my friend and I plundered our physical sciences knowledge and came away baffled as to whether the explanations were plausible. However we enjoyed watching and found some pleasure in the sometimes clunky old-fashioned feel that this special effects movie had especially in the research laboratory.

Film review: Monsters

21 Dec

In British director Gareth Edwards’ budget feature film Monsters, part of Mexico is infected with alien life forms when a probe launched to collect evidence of their existence crash lands back on Earth. Several years later, photojournalist Andrew Kaulder played by Scoot McNairy is given the task of escorting his newspaper proprietor’s daughter Sam (Whitney Able)  back to the US border safely. However they end up having to cross Mexico’s infected zone. A road movie and evidence of a little romance starts up with the back drop of dangerous extra-terrestrials. What’s most amazing is the convincing acting skills of the ordinary Mexican people who are persuaded to act in the movie and also the computer-generated special effects for the monsters. The leads aren’t quite so fascinating though they keep us watching. I’m also perplexed as to why the monsters never really attack them. That shall remain a mystery.

Film review: The Runaways

20 Sep

Back in the seventies before the global hit I Love Rock n’ Roll, Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) started out in the all-girl rock band The Runaways with Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) as lead the singer. The girls were 15 with a passion for music. Managed by Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), the band, especially Cherie were encouraged to flaunt their age and sexuality to a potential fanbase to sell their growling, rebellious music.

The film follows the Runaways on tour indulging in a world of sex, drugs and of course rock and roll. Jett and Currie also fell for each other in the intense conditions they travelled in. But the lifestyle eventually took it’s toll on Cherie.

If you ever had a hankering to be a rock star, the film will reignite a little excitement. However at the end of the day, though the Twilight saga stars Stewart and Fanning kick ass you feel that Floria Sigismondi’s film based on Currie’s biography was a slight tale to bring to the screen. But it was good fun while it lasted.

Tags: , ,

Film review: Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky

5 Sep

You may expect, with a biographical movie about a fashion legend such as Chanel (Anna Mouglalis), to see much of her fashion but this isn’t the purpose of the movie directed by Jan Kounen. In this French production set in 1913, there are scenes that hint at her powerful place in fashion but this really looks firmly at the affair she had with the great composer Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelson).

The Russian composer is struggling financially and the affair starts when Chanel offers a home to him and his family, including his sick wife, at her villa just outside Paris. In Chanel’s gloriously stylish black and white decor home, he is able to make progress with the Rite of Spring, a ballet which controversially eventually causes a riot as some feel it is too modern for it’s time.

Chanel has a strong physical attraction for the composer and he for her. They embark on a sexual relationship with no boundaries and seemingly no conscience while Stravinsky’s wife (Elena Morozova) is but a few rooms away with her children.

We gain no real insight into what they feel for one another apart from a strong physicality but I took from it some hints. Psychologists say strong romantic relationships need to have a good mix of friendship, respect and the sexual side or else the partners will feel something is missing. With Chanel she seemed to eventually feel the respect was missing and maybe even the friendship – the result of rushing into an addictive physical interaction without even knowing how much they truly like each other as people. For Stravinsky he misses the friendship and support of his wife who understands his relationship to music more than anyone. You could argue that he may never have turned to Chanel if his wife hadn’t been ill. You feel most sorry for the wife who, though her husband still loved her, was turning to someone else for his intimate physical needs. This made her feel worthless, unattractive and isolated. Of course there was only so much of this that she could take and she felt driven to leave the situation – the rejection eventually being too much to bear no matter how much she loved him. The friendship and respect wasn’t enough to sustain her as it wouldn’t be for most. The affair itself was doomed and apparently only lasted a few months in reality.

However these are just my interpretations of their feelings and it certainly did make me think about the structure of relationships as I wrote this. What makes a happy balanced relationship? However, this is just guess-work as none of the insights were quite so direct in the film. This is one of the failings of the movie – that we have to guess and we really do not know what they felt so it makes us also feel a little dissatisfied though it is beautiful to look at and the acting is compelling.

Tags: , ,

Film review: Black Dynamite

19 Aug

Why did it take nearly a year for this film to reach cinemas on these shores? I knew nothing about it before my most film savvy friend suggested going to see it. Released originally around nine months ago in the US, the spoof blaxploitation picture Black Dynamite has it all – afros (tick); bushy moustaches (tick); outrageous seventies flared trouser suits accessorised with bare chests (tick) and a funky soundtrack (tick).

Supercool Black Dynamite, an ex CIA agent and Vietnam veteran is out to avenge his brother’s murder. Through a myriad of outfits, martial art fight scenes, witty dialogue and of course gorgeous women, you just know he’s going to get there. Played by Michael Jai White, you have to admire Dynamite – this man kicks ass in a very special way. You also have to love the authentic dated feel of the movie. However, my friend and I had to agree that though entertaining, there was a little something missing – maybe it was the edge to the humour that’s lacking in so many films. Despite that, there’s enough content to feel some soul and have a rollercoaster blast with Dynamite.

Tags:

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →