Review #1,337: 'The Other Guys' (2010)

The comedy pairing of writer and director Adam McKay and actor Will Ferrell turned their attention towards the buddy action movie for their fourth feature, The Other Guys. Their familiar see-what-sticks attitude and encouragement of improvisation often produces mixed to plain bad results (see Talladega Nights: The Story of Ricky Bobby), but every now and then gold can be struck, with the huge following that was generated in the wake of cult favourite Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy being the most obvious example. The Other Guys falls easily into the second category, with the sheer volume of belly laughs inspired by a fast-paced first hour going some way to gloss over the disappointment of the stretched-out, action-heavy final 50 minutes.

The NYPD prides itself on its two superstar cops, Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson), who regularly cause millions of dollars worth of damages on the city streets while chasing down low-level criminals, but doing so in style. When their own arrogance and plain stupidity puts them out of action, partners Gamble (Ferrell) and Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg), one a goofy desk jockey and the other a neurotic short-fuse (I'm sure you can guess which is which) must step up to keep the city safe. While investigating a scaffolding permit violation by billionaire businessman Sir David Ershon (Steve Coogan), the pair stumble upon a conspiracy involving mass fraud that goes all the way to the very top. They are met with resistance by a group of heavies led by Australian Roger Wesley (Ray Stevenson), and from their very own bosses and co-workers, but must get past their own personality clashes to bring the culprit to justice.

It's a shame that The Other Guys runs out of steam long before the closing credits, as there is real chemistry between the two leads. The film eventually falls back on a montage of shoot-outs and car chases to become the very thing it started out satirising, but Ferrell and Wahlberg have fun while it lasts. Wahlberg makes for a hilarious straight-man and the perfect foil for Ferrell to bounce his goofball ad-libs off, before the latter turns up the weirdness and decibel levels up to intolerable levels. The big joke is that Gamble is incredibly plain, but inexplicably attracts gorgeous women, including his 'bland' wife played by Eva Mendes. Hoitz's reaction to meeting the woman his partner describes as a 'big old gal' provides the film's funniest moment. There's great support from Michael Keaton, who gets to flex his comedy muscles after a long stint out of the game, but the meathead rival partners played by Damon Wayans Jr. and Rob Riggle are irritating from the get-go. A mixed bag for sure, but one of the better efforts from Ferrell and his posse.


Directed by: Adam McKay
Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Ray Stevenson, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,292: 'Neds' (2010)

After spending much of the 1990's making a name for himself as an intense character actor in the likes of Trainspotting and My Name Is Joe, Peter Mullan announced himself as a director to watch with 1998's Cousins. He followed that four years later with the powerful The Magdalene Sisters, but didn't make another film until eight years later with his most personal project to date, Neds. His tough upbringing in a rough area of Glasgow meant that his talents in front of the camera would normally be employed in tough, intimidating roles, and Mullan drew upon his experiences as a young man for Neds, a social realist drama depicting an academically promising young boy's descent into gang culture and into the footsteps of his notorious older brother.

'Neds' stands for Non-Educated Delinquents, a term I heard often during my time living in Edinburgh, and one applied to the sort of tracksuit-wearing hooligans also labelled as 'scallies' or 'chavs', depending on which area of the UK you're from. The 'ned' here is John McGill, played by Greg Forrest as a youngster growing up in 70's Glasgow who hopes to use his intelligence to make something of himself, but finds himself pulled onto the streets due to a number of factors: from his disinterested, cane-happy teachers to the pressure of living up to his brother's reputation. He grows taller and broader (to be played by Conor McCarron) and quickly makes a name for himself, participating in petty crime and street fights, and rebelling against his school education. His home isn't a happy one, and the family live under the tyrannical rule of John's father (played by Mullan). Mr. McGill isn't much to look at, but he has a presence terrifying enough to silence a room when he enters, and a tendency to come home drunk and bawl abuse at his long-suffering wife.

Mullan has a real talent for staging tense situations, with some of the events played out in Neds no doubt taken directly from real experiences. A booze-fuelled neighbourhood party quickly deteriorates into smashed windows and a mass brawl, with the thugs brandishing the ugliest of weapons designed to cause maximum harm. There's heart and humour too, and Mullan manages to keep John sympathetic throughout, despite his questionable behaviour. Despite his concentration, Mullan drags the film out longer than is needed, and a number of the climactic scenes are suited to be the film's final moment. A swerve into drug-fuelled surrealist territory is well-intended but doesn't really work when wedged into the film's ultra-realist aesthetic, and the scene feels out-of-place and unintentionally amusing. Still, this is raw, unflinching film-making from a director clearly hoping to draw attention to the plight of youngsters growing up in such grim working-class surroundings, where respect is earned through brutality and allegiances are decided by which side of the bridge you live on.


Directed by: Peter Mullan
Starring: Conor McCarron, Greg Forrest, Joe Szula, Mhairi Anderson, Peter Mullan
Country: UK/France/Italy

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,154: 'The Wolfman' (2010)

To say that The Wolfman had a troublesome journey from page to screen would be an understatement, with director-swaps, re-shoots and a release date that kept getting pushed back plaguing the production of Universal's attempt to reboot one of the horror franchises they laid their foundations with back in the 1930s and 40s. The cracks and desperate stitching together are plain to see in the resulting movie, which limped into cinemas only to quickly disappear from memory. One part an earnest attempt to bring an age-old tale to modern audiences with a heavy tip-of-the-hat to the Lon Chaney original, and one part a bungled and rushed attempt to blend a serious psychological study with gruesome mainstream thrills, screenwriters Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) and David Self (Road to Perdition) must have been wondering where their hard work went.

Shakespearean actor Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) leaves the comforts of London life for his childhood home of Blackmoor after he learns of the disappearance of his brother Ben (Simon Merrells). There waiting for him is his father Sir John (Anthony Hopkins), who greets his wayward son in typical horror fashion, from the top of the dark staircase of his once-spectacular mansion. When Ben shows up dead and apparently mangled by some vicious beast, Lawrence consoles his brother's beautiful fiancee Gwen (Emily Blunt). During an attack on the village by a bloodthirsty werewolf, Lawrence is bitten and is cursed to transform into a murderous monster every full moon. Faced with his developing fondness for Gwen and his uncontrollable, animalistic urges, Lawrence is forced to confront the beast within, as Scotland Yard Inspector Aberline (Hugo Weaving) is called in as the body count rises.

Given my love for the old Universal horror movies, I appreciated The Wolfman's respect for the original and the occasional success in bringing those foggy English moors to life again. The film also thrives during the few brutal attacks, with no punches being pulled in the gore stakes as spines are raked and limbs go flying. Sadly, this is just about all Joe Johnston's movie has going for it, and the director shapes the film with the same lack of singular vision that plagued Jurassic Park III (2001) and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). One moment it is rushing to deliver the CGI-fuelled thrills to the undemanding audience, and the next it is brooding and deep, or delivering a confusing moment of exposition in what becomes an unnecessarily complicated plot. I don't recall the likes of Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi stumbling their way through a convoluted story for 2 long hours, so why would it be needed here?


Directed by: Joe Johnston
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #853: 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' (2010)

Super Mario Bros. (1993). Street Fighter (1994). Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). Resident Evil (2002). The list of movies adapted from video games that make you want to tear the skin from your own face goes on and on. Still, without a notable exception to the rule, producers keep greenlighting these films, and stars still line up to appear in them. If any producer was capable of bucking the trend, it's action connoisseur Jerry Bruckheimer, who somehow managed to turn a theme park ride that centred around cinema's most floppable subject (pirates), and turned it into a billion-dollar, Oscar-nominated franchise.

While Prince of Persia underperformed commercially and didn't end up on any critics' annual top 10 lists, it's the best video game adaptation I've seen (although that isn't saying much). The plot centres around prince Dastan (a six-packed Jake Gyllenhaal), who after being plucked from the street as a child after the King (Ronald Pickup) was impressed by his moxie, now fights and laughs alongside his adopted father's blood sons, Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell). He is at the front of an attack on Alamut, who Dastan's uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) has accused of selling weapons to their enemies. After taking the city, he meets the beautiful princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), but soon finds himself on the run, wrongly accused of his father's murder and in possession of a magic dagger able to control time.

Director Mike Newell is quite the opposite of what you would call an auteur. He's a sort of jack-of-all-trades, directing movies of all genres and of varying quality, from the awful, foppish comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), to the impressive gangster flick Donnie Brasco (1997), and he even had a dabble in the most successful film series of all time with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), one of the best of the franchise. His erratic's rub off on Prince of Persia. Writers Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard are wise enough to deliver an actual story rather than simply trying to replicate the charms of the video game, and the chest-pumping antics of the brothers' strained relationship keep things intriguing enough, even though we're stuck with the drippy (but undeniably sexy) Tamina for the most part.

It suffers when trying to deliver a breakneck, or even fathomable, action scene. Though Gyllenhaal nails the part - he brings a cocky, Errol Flynn-esque charm to the role - his dust-up's are confusing and messy. The sandy streets of Persia and the scorched deserts surrounding it are lavish, and touches of CGI can make the screen light up. It sometimes it achieves this, but overuses it to the point where the visuals become bloated and unreal. I've only seen the game played once or twice, but I could see why the series is so popular, and while the film certainly catches the look of the game and provides a few wink-wink in-jokes for the gamers, it lacks the games breathlessness. Things picks up slightly when comic relief Alfred Molina and his racing ostrich's show up, and it often feels swashbuckling in the old-fashioned sense, but this is formulaic, instantly forgettable stuff.


Directed by: Mike Newell
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Steve Toussaint, Richard Coyle, Toby Kebbell
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #770: 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1' (2010)

And so here it is finally. After nine years watching the prepubescent speccy wizard grow into a chiselled speccy wizard, the long, long climax is here. Kicking off what has become a fad in novel adaptations aimed mainly at screaming teenage girls (Twilight, The Hunger Games), Deathly Hallows splits the final novel into two 120-plus films. Whether this is to avoid condensing a mammoth, multi-character into one rushed, incoherent stand-alone movie, or to take full advantage of a multi-billion franchise that is soon to finally end, is up for debate (although a sneaky feeling tells me it's the latter). What is for certain is that a huge, dragging chunk of Part 1 could have easily been wavered. It's like director David Yates forgot that this series is supposed to be fun.

This time around, there's no Hogwarts, and there's almost nothing recognisable about the franchise whatsoever. Beginning with an exciting broomstick battle over London which sees surviving members of the Order don Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) face in an attempt to elude the lurking Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), things soon turn gloomy as Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are forced to go solo in the countryside in search of the Dark Lord's remaining Horcruxes. If that word perplexes you at this point of the series, you may as well leave early, as quite rightly, the film has no time for catch-up.

With the novel going into much-needed detail in terms of character, background and plot (such is the benefit of literature), the decision to split the film into two parts means Part 1 can breathe easy and take it's time before the final smackdown at Hogwarts in Part 2. This means we spend more time with the three leads as the weight of possible doom lingers heavy on their backs. The absence of the usual stellar adult ensemble is damaging, as Radcliffe, Grint and Watson struggle to hold the film on their own, given their limited acting ability and their character's lack of any real dimension. Grint is easily the best of the three, but Ron is shackled with a jealousy sub-plot (again) which means he gets to mope a lot and storm off.

Yates is the safe choice at this point to end the series. He lacks the cuddly obviousness of Chris Columbus and the more visionary efforts of Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell, and apart from a nice little animated sequence near the middle, the film just goes through the motions. There's a nice little dance number, but it's the only recognisable touch from the director. "These are dark times, there's no denying it," warns Rufus Scrimgeour (Bill Nighy), the new minister of magic, in the film's opening scene. Dark and grainy times they are, and oddly joyless, Part 1 feels like an extended advertisement for the real end, Part 2, squeezing it's dedicated fans for all they're worth.


Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, Tom Felton
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #729: 'Inception' (2010)

Inception wasn't the only time English writer-director Christopher Nolan has blown our minds with a big-budget summer blockbuster - two years before, he made The Dark Knight, which destroyed most people's pre-conceptions of what superhero movies should be made of, and showed you that movies designed to make a lot of money can work your brain as much as your heart-rate. Inception also blows the minds of it's characters, themselves barely able to keep up with the multi-level dream universe they create. It's a film that revels in it's own heavy exposition; finding visual thrills in discovering the possibilities of consciously walking through a dream, or showing you the beautiful art of dream-stealing.

It follows Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an exiled criminal who makes his money from corporate espionage jobs bankrolled by rich CEO's. Only, Cobb applies his craft by entering people's dreams, extracting information left over by the dreamer's subconscious, usually within a locked safe or protected by projections of that subconscious. After a botched job, Cobb's target Saito (Ken Watanabe) offers him the chance to redeem himself and to go home, only the task is not to steal information, but to implant it, known as 'inception'. Saito wants Cobb to implant an idea into the head of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the heir to an energy conglomerate. Cobb alone has ever achieved inception, but it is a near impossible task, especially with the psychopathic projection of his dead wife (Marion Cotillard) stalking his subconscious.

It's a dangerous and bold thing for a mainstream director to have confidence in it's audiences intelligence. If there's a main problem with Inception, it is probably that things get a little too baffling at times, as the crew delve deeper and deeper into the levels of the dream, and new rules start to apply. There is a lot of information to process here, and the film spends nearly its duration trying to explain it to us. But Nolan is a fantastic writer, and most directors would lose the audience without such expert storytelling ability and great dialogue. Thankfully, Ariadne (Ellen Page), an architecture student recommended to Cobb to design the dream world, plays as a proxy for the audience, learning as we learn.

Ariadne is one of a bunch of experts lined up for the job - Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is Cobb's right-hand man and the brains behind the job, Eames (Tom Hardy) is a skilled in-dream impersonator, and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) is a chemist who provides a knockout drug so powerful that the dreamers cannot be shaken awake. There's also Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and Pete Postlethwaite in the mix, making this a huge ensemble. As expected, Nolan keeps tabs on them all, never allowing you to forget about anyone or about what the role they have to play. It's a miracle he even managed to line up such an impressive group of actors, let alone make sure no-one gets lost amongst the thick plot.

Although the climax gets a little too over-crowded in the final half an hour, and Nolan places us in the pretty dull setting of a snowy mountain, this is still innovative, stylish and exciting action cinema. It still abides by all the standard rules of the genre, but it dares to toy with them and to keep the action moving with intriguing sub-plots or simply delivering an exceptional set-piece (Arthur's no-gravity hallway fight comes to mind). It bends the mind as much as it bends the rules, and this is much about the strangeness of dreams and what it means to dream them. Nolan went on to deliver an ever better movie two years later with The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and I'm eagerly awaiting his upcoming Interstellar (2014). He alone has reawakened my faith in the 'big' movie, proving that films can deliver brains as well as bang for your buck.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #688: 'A Serbian Film' (2010)

If you like your horror movies extreme, then chances are you would have heard of, or seen, Srdjan Spasojevic's A Serbian Film. Pushing boundaries of taboo to their very extremities, the movie features rape, paedophilia, necrophilia, and all manners of degrading acts, mainly towards women. It also features a scene where a women gives birth to a baby, only to hand it to a man who then rapes it. They call it 'newborn porn'. The most terrible thing abut A Serbian Film is the way it tries to disguise its cheap exploitation tactics as some kind of social allegory of life in Serbia.

Retired porn star Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) is a man that knows little apart from how to please a girl, and audiences, on screen. Bored with his life, but happy with his wife and child, he is drawn into a mysterious new film by a whopping pay cheque. The movie's eccentric director, Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic), keeps the production close to the chest, promising it to be a piece of high art and something that its audience is crying out for. Filming begins at an abandoned children's orphanage, and things take a downward turn from there as it becomes apparent that Milos has been drawn into a snuff movie.

I can appreciate the film's themes, certainly. With the availability of the internet and its most popular asset, porn (as well as other mediums of humiliation such as Youtube), has become so accessible that society has become obsessed with masochism and degradation. A Serbian Film attempts to challenge our desires by showing the most repulsive things that its director can come up with. So, we get to see a man raping his own six year-old son and the blood spattering from his anus and down his legs. How exactly is this repulsive imagery supposed to make us reflect? Perhaps if the cheap tactics weren't so laughably obvious and exploitative, this may have been a powerful message.

Even more disturbingly, A Serbian Film looks very nice. The cinematography, lighting, and even the acting is akin to your standard A-grade movie, so the film occasionally achieves a hint of atmosphere. But ultimately, this is from the Hostel School of Torture Porn, and revels too much in its own misery and blood-shed to take seriously. This is simply unpleasant viewing, which is fine, as long as it's relevant. I simply don't see how knocking a woman's teeth out and then choking her to death on an erect penis serves as a metaphor for Serbian society. I just don't buy it.


Directed by: Srdjan Spasojevic
Starring: Srdjan Todorovic, Sergej Trifunovic, Jelena Gavrilovic
Country: Serbia

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #670: 'Jonah Hex' (2010)

Jonah Hex is a project that seemed doomed from the start. It has all the ingredients for a great movie - a too-cool-to-be-true premise, an extraordinary cast, a rarely seen (in the comic book universe) Wild West setting, and a cult following thanks to DC Comics' graphic novels. But if you look at other movies of its kind - Constantine (2005), Ghost Rider (2007) etc. - it was never going to work. The studio system or just plain bad writing always seems to get in the way. And Jonah Hex is quite possibly the most terrible of them all. Josh Brolin snarls and grunts his way through a solid performance, but he does not manage to save this absolute mess of a movie.

Jonah Hex served as a Confederate solider during the American Civil War. We learn through a fast-tracking prologue that shortly after the war, the evil Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) murdered Jonah's entire family, and branded his face with a terrible wound that leaves him disfigured. He is left for dead but nursed back to health by some native Americans, that somehow leave him with the ability to talk to the dead. Believing Turnbull burned to a crisp in a hotel fire, Jonah turns to bounty hunting to earn his living, proving highly efficient at the job. But when Turnbull re-emerges with his mad Irish cronie Burke (Michael Fassbender) and the threat of a terrorist attack, President Grant (Aidan Quinn) hires Jonah to take him out and save the day.

After the quick-fire introduction that zips through Jonah Hex's backstory so fast that you simply cannot care about him, we are introduced to the familiar hooker-with-a-heart Lilah (Megan Fox), who is inexplicably in love with Jonah. They share one scene together with no hint as to why these two characters even like each other (although I'm sure I know why Jonah enjoys visiting Lilah), and are not reunited until the climax when we are expected to give a damn about these two making it through the explosions and gunfire. Writers Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine (who like to refer to themselves as simply Taylor/Neveldine - oh, please) don't seem to have heard of character-building or pacing, but when you look at their back catalogue then this can hardly be a surprise.

The most depressing thing is that the actors do their best and are largely successful with their cardboard characters, which makes it even more confusing as to how this was screwed up so badly. Nothing is explained properly - how did Turnbull escape the fire that apparently killed him/why do we only see Jonah revive the dead twice/why is Turnbull so pissed at the government? - and the fact that we are simply expected to accept this is offensive. I know, I know, this is a comic-book movie, but the action is so dull and ridiculous (dynamite guns!) that the aspect that we expect to be at least not bad is not there in order for us to forgive its many flaws. If there's one good thing to say about the film, it's that Jonah Hex's prosthetics are good, but the fact that I'm praising the make-up department shows how badly I'm clutching at straws.


Directed by: Jimmy Hayward
Starring: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, Wes Bentley, Aidan Quinn
Country: USA

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie

Review #652: 'The Killer Inside Me' (2010)

The Killer Inside Me, a brutally violent neo-noir from British director Michael Winterbottom, raised hell at Sundance, sending audiences into frenzies of disbelief and light-headedness. Of course, as usual with premature festival outrage, the film is really not as appalling as the uproar would have led you to believe. There is one truly sickening scene - as gut-wrenching as any burst of violence I've seen on screen - but, the real tragedy is that this insistence on portraying it so graphically actually takes the focus away from what is a very stylish, if tonally uneven, pulp thriller. Although Winterbottom has juggled genres and styles with relative ease in his previous work, mainly to positive results, perhaps his inexperience with tackling a project so deeply rooted in Americana leads to the film's downfall.

Small-town deputy sheriff Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) is sent to warn off prostitute Joyce (Jessica Alba), who is having a dangerous affair with the son of construction tycoon Chester Conway (Ned Beatty). After realising they have the same violent sexual tastes, they begin a love affair and devise a plan to extort $10,000 from Conway, as Lou believes Conway to be responsible for the death of his brother. Unbeknownst to Joyce, Lou, despite his pleasant demeanour, is a violent sociopath, and after Lou beats Joyce to death with his bare hands and runs with the money, county attorney Howard Hendricks (Simon Baker) is called in to investigate. So Lou is forced to cover his tracks while he dotes on his fiancee Amy (Kate Hudson).

Pulp writer Jim Thompson was possibly the grimmest writer of his ilk, and The Killer Inside Me is widely thought of as his best work. I have not read the novel, so I am unaware as to how Lou Ford is written, but here he is a blank but undeniably fascinating character. He is a character that always seems in control, even when he seems surprised at just what he is capable of. Yet for someone seemingly so clinical at killing, he's not very good at it. His extortion plan is full of holes that could lead back to him, and it doesn't take long for Hendricks to figure him out. Often a glance or a word will make you wonder if he even understands himself or anything he is doing. Casey Affleck is a fine actor, and his Lou Ford is intimidating. Even though he's slightly built and his voice is a high-pitched drawl, he is a scary character to spend 90 minutes with, and he even surpasses his performance in The Assassination of Jessie James By the Coward Robert Ford (2007), of which I felt he was robbed of an Oscar.

Winterbottom wisely steers away from any psychological analysing of Ford, only hinting at childhood abuse (but not the way you would think), and glimpses of his intellect. Instead it makes you ponder this hideous character, and stay with him (but not necessarily root for) throughout the duration of the film. But it's Winterbottom's approach that is the problem here, blending a mixture of styles that causes the film to seem contrasting and haphazard. There are moments of pure noir - headlights approaching in the dust, characters sat in empty diners, cynical narration - and these scenes are at ease with the sleaze of the film's focus, but often it will kick in with some banjos at inappropriate moments that caused me to wonder whether I should be taking the film seriously. When it does take itself seriously, it's often inspired, but the final scene is so badly handled that I did wonder if a different director with more experience in the field would have made a much better film.


Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Ned Beatty, Elias Koteas, Tom Bower, Simon Baker, Bill Pullman
Country: USA/Sweden/UK/Canada

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #635: 'Tangled' (2010)

The past decade has seen the giant corporation that is the House of Mouse, Disney, struggle somewhat with their output, never managing to recapture the magic of the early classics, nor the rich comedy and iconic music of their 90's re-emergence. They've now bought Pixar, who are still making movies that are very much their own, and the rights to the Star Wars franchise, so money-making is still a dead cert. But in a quest to re-discover their old magic, they went back to the tried-and-tested, and admittedly dated, tradition of the fairytale, and by combining this with the visual humour of Dreamworks' output (but funnier) and some truly dazzling CGI/hand-drawn animation, they've managed to create arguably their first success in years with Tangled, a re-imagination of the Rapunzel fairytale.

After discovering that a magic flower has the ability to temporarily restore her youth, Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) lives for centuries until a king steals the flower to heal with deathly ill and pregnant queen. She lives, and gives birth to Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), whose hair seems to possess the same magical powers as the flower. Gothel kidnaps the baby and takes her back to a high tower, where she grows up to be a bubbly, but lonely teenager. Because cutting her hair causes the lock to lose its magical power, Mother Gothel forbids Rapunzel to cut her hair, which by her eighteenth birthday, is about fifty feet long. After Gothel is out one day, the thief Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), after the stealing the queen's crown, escapes his pursuers into Rapunzel's tower.

My main issue with Tangled is something that plagues most, if not all, of today's musicals, and that is that the songs are simply not up to scratch. It's gotten so bad that we don't even get a bad but annoyingly catchy soundtrack by a pop star has-been (I'm looking at you, Phil Collins!), and we are forced to sit through many instantly forgettable musical numbers. But where it did surprise me, is the romance between Rapunzel and Flynn, where I found myself actually caring about their relationship, which is delicately handled and involves two easily likeable characters. It certainly doesn't break any ground, but this at least feels like Disney again, even peppering the film with moments of menace that evoke Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940). And the chameleon Pascal is one the best animal characters Disney have ever created.


Directed by: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
Voices: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Ron Perlman
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #616: 'Iron Man 2' (2010)

Set a mere six months after the events of 2008's Iron Man, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has almost single-handedly achieved world peace. Only he is now facing opposition from Senator Stern (Garry Shandling), who is demanding he hand his weaponry over to the government, and, unbeknownst to others, is slowly dying from the palladium core in his chest designed to keep him alive. In Russia, Ivan Danko (Mickey Rourke), son of engineering genius Anton Vanko, who worked with Tony Stark's father, seeks revenge against the Stark family who caused his father's exile many years ago. He develops an arc reactor similar to Stark's, and publicly attacks him at the Circuit de Monaco, getting arrested in the process. Facing deportation and years in prison, Danko is approached by rival weapons expert Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who wants Danko to help him destroy Stark's legacy, and secure military funding.

The first Iron Man was so successful mainly due to the success it brought to Tony Stark's transformation into the big red and gold suit, anchored by Downey Jr.'s magnetic central performance. Number 2 sadly does not step up the proceedings a la X2 (2003) or Spider-Man 2 (2004), which both developed the central story even further, as well as adding better characters/villains and amping up the action. Iron Man 2 disappoints on all of these fronts. Stark's gradual 'maturing' throughout the course of the first film was relatively perfect in terms of pacing and execution, but this is replaced here by Stark dealing with some dull daddy issues (although Howard Stark is played by Mad Men scene-stealer John Slattery), and Stark's concerns about his poisoning, which confuse above all else.

Of the three new main additions, only Rourke's Whiplash is remotely successful, yet is kept oddly muted throughout the movie as he sets up shop in Hammer's workshop, carefully engineering a not-very-surprising attack at the upcoming Stark Expo. Hammer's over-the-top sliminess fits in with the shift in tone, moving away from the grounded feel of the first, and entering the more supernatural realm of the Avengers' world, where we have to accept intergalactic journeys and a character like Thor. Scarlett Johansson's Nastasha Romanoff does little apart from looking good in Lycra and bringing Stark into S.H.I.E.L.D., which heralds the return of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in what is nothing more than an extended cameo,

So we are ultimately left with James 'Rhodey' Rhodes, this time played by Don Cheadle, who came in to replace Terrence Howard. Their relationship forms the best aspect of the film, and also leads to the best moment in the film when Rhodey finally dons a Stark suit (becoming a premature War Machine), and attempts to restrain a drunken Stark, dressed as Iron Man. It's the only scene with any real heart. Still, it's still quite fun overall, and it's interesting to watch Marvel's big plan slowly move closer together, with glimpses of Captain America's shield, the Hulk ripping it up on a news report, and Thor's hammer. When the credits rolled, I felt like I'd been slightly ripped-off by the climax, which pales in comparison even when compared to the first film. But it still left me wanting more, which can't be a bad thing.


Directed by: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #587: 'How to Train Your Dragon' (2010)

In the Viking village of Berk, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the young, idiotic son of the village chieftain Stoick (Gerard Butler), longs to follow in his father Stoick's (Gerard Butler) footsteps and become a famous dragon warrior. When their village is ambushed by dragons, Hiccup shoots down the most notorious dragon of all, known as Night Wing, who's penetrating scream is all that can be heard before a flash of light and the inevitable destruction. Of course, nobody believes him, and when he finds the wounded dragon, Hiccup realises he cannot bring himself to kill it. He instead invents a contraption that will help it's damaged wing, and after earning it's trust by bringing it food, begins to ride it. But while on a flight trying to impress his potential girlfriend Astrid (America Ferrera), the Night Wing is swept into the dragon nest, where an even bigger threat to the village is laying dormant.

For a Dreamworks animated effort, How To Train Your Dragon holds up refreshingly well when compared to the likes of Pixar, and to the rest of Dreamworks' rather shoddy past output. What works best is directors' Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois desire to keep things more grown up. This is a film more for the Lord of the Rings audience than those who somehow enjoyed the Shrek sequels and Madagascar (2005), with its execution rooted in fantasy and folklore. There are many different types of dragons in the film, each with a different 'power' and level of danger it brings with it, keeping the whole dragon mythology refreshing amidst a flurry of post-Rings fantasy efforts involving the giant fire-breathers. The opening battle scene is an explosion of action and comedy, an exciting way to discover the world these characters inhabit and witness Hiccup's ineptitude compared to his father's unrivalled prowess.

This being Dreamworks, it then decides to pander to the much younger audience, by introducing the (admittedly cute) Night Wing, whom Hiccup renames Toothless, and the younger inhabitants of the village (voiced by the likes of Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse). It was at this point where I asked myself why the elder villagers all have Scottish accents, while the younger ones sound pre-pubescent Americans in a mall. Obviously, it's a way of helping the younger (American) audience to relate to these characters, but to me it's just damn lazy and often quite annoying given Baruchel's weakling protagonist who sounds like only one ball has dropped. And with this comes the inevitable and familiar messages of acceptance and friendship. But ultimately, How to Train Your Dragon is a highly entertaining film, full of clever ideas, lovely, fluid aerial animation, and an exciting final battle with the giant dragon Red Death.


Directed by: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
Voices: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #447: 'I Saw the Devil' (2010)

Continuing in a wave of ultra-violent revenge films from South Korea, - crystallised in Chan-wook Park's excellent Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)) - I Saw the Devil takes the genre into brutal, kinetic, and near-to-the-knuckle gornography. Oldboy's Min-sik Choi plays a serial killer, Kyung-chul, who kills Joo-yeon (San-ha Oh) in her car in the opening of the film. She is the girlfriend of secret agent Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee), who then embarks on a no-holds-barred mission to find and kill the man who killed her.

It's your standard revenge film, filled with over the top grand guignol-like moments of gore, as heads are particularly targeted for tense battering, aided by the frenzied camera. But what makes these moments far more ferocious is the fact that between these contained flourishes of violence are connected with the more serene, delicate moments - it can become jarring. However, the use of this technique is an easy trick, and this is the issue with most films by Jee-woon Kim. Kim has that post-MTV generation paradox, - with its influence of short cuts fast camera movements, and stylisation - the content is largely left behind in favour of style. Since the 1980's, a film's look has often been more important than a message, or at least string narrative cinema.

The fact that Kim, and writer Hoon-jung Park have imbued the film with it's knowledge of the serial killer movie into the revenge film is a nice touch, but it is still thematically no different than any other revenge film. In bold strokes, I Saw the Devil, simplistically relates to the themes of the duality of mankind, as the agent digs deeper into an encompassing psychology of hatred, effecting all around him. To catch the killer, Kim Soo-hyeon has to become the killer, bringing him to the same level of depravity. It's a very stylish film, and the filmic touches are often stunning. However, with a rather long running time for this type of film, it does become increasingly nasty, and the beating, stabbings, and torture almost become the entire film, missing an opportunity to explore in an interesting and complex duality of the lead killer/agent.


Directed by: Jee-Woon Kim
Starring: Byung-Hun Lee, Min-Sik Choi, San-Ha Oh
Country: South Korea

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy

Review #416: 'Hot Tub Time Machine' (2010)

The 1980's, it would seem, is back with a bang. Modern music is filled with synthesised melodies and dodgy outfits, fashion brought back leg-warmers (albeit briefly), big sunglasses, and tight jeans, and films have recently been taking a sentimental look back at a time when teen comedies, gory horrors and oiled-up muscle men action films ruled the roost. Yet it is a decade looked back at with as much disdain as it is warmth, pointed out by John Cusack's character Adam in Hot Tub Time Machine, as although he recognises it as the best time of his life, he states that "we had Reagan and AIDS," and exclaims "I fuckin' hated this decade!".

It seems almost pointless to draw out the plot given the film's to-the-point title, but it tells the story of three friends, Adam, who has just seen his girlfriend leave him, Lou (Rob Corddry), an alcoholic who is in hospital after an accidental suicide attempt, and Nick (Craig Robinson), who is harbouring the knowledge that his wife has cheated, and is busy pulling car keys out of dog's arses for his job. Returning to their favourite place as teenagers, the Kodiac Valley Ski Resort, with Adam's nerd nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), they find the place desolate and far from the place they remember. After a wild night of drinking in the hot tub, they wake up to find themselves transported back to the 1980's and realise they have the chance to remedy the pains from the past, as well as party like they did years ago.

In a world that releases gross-out comedies by the barrel, Hot Tub Time Machine manages to include both the sweetness of the Judd Apatow comedies of late, as well as the misogynist, bad taste teen comedies of the 1980's that saw a revival in the early 2000's thanks to American Pie (1999). Although the film wasn't quite as funny as I was hoping it to be, it does make up for this by having several appallingly distasteful, yet very funny, set-pieces, including one that sees one the group having to face performing fellatio on his friend. We would like to think that we have moved on from the homophobic, racist and sexist humour of the 80's and that we have developed a more politically correct outlook on life, but we haven't really - it's still very funny (when done right).

Chocked full of references and homages to everything 80's, this will obviously appeal more to people growing up in the era. Although my pubescent days were spent in the 90's, I still grew up around the movies, which were then still relatively modern, so I did feel a slight tinge of nostalgia (genre legends Chevy Chase - looking old as fuck - and the ever-entertaining Crispin Glover make appearances here). The movie is slightly held back by some predictable plotting, a plot twist you can see a mile away, and some gags that fail to hit the mark, but the film is well aware of its ridiculousness, embracing it's silly plot and thankfully not dwelling on the details. This is simply an excuse to have some 80's fun, and fun it certainly is.


Directed by: Steve Pink
Starring: John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Crispin Glover, Chevy Chase, Lizzy Caplan
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #399: 'The Expendables' (2010)

Following the recent re-vists of two of his most iconic characters, John Rambo and Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone continued his oddly touching nostalgia trip to the heydey of his career with this homage to the glory days of the action film, the 1980's and the early 1990's. It was a time where anything from a kidnapped daughter to the overhauling of a military dictator could be solved by removing your upper clothes, adding a touch of oil, and finding the biggest guns you can get your hands on, and possibly the only era that would have ever allowed the likes of Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris to become movie stars. Of course, Stallone was one of the big three that formed Planet Hollywood (along with Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger) and was one of the undisputed stars of the time, but with the problem of age (and lack of acting ability) creeping up with him, Stallone's roles have become thin of late. It seemed the perfect time to remind us just why people loved him, by directing this balls-out love love letter to carnage, and, like Rocky Balboa (2006), it's actually pretty good.

The Expendables, a group of bikers and mercenaries, are sent by the mysterious 'Mr. Church' (Bruce Willis) to overthrow the dictator of Vilena. The groups' leader, Barney Ross (Stallone), and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) travel for research, and discover that the country's dictator, General Garza (David Zayas) is merely a controlled figurehead for ex-CIA operative James Munroe (Eric Roberts). Things quickly get out of hand, but the two manage to escape amidst an array of explosions. Falling for their informer Sandra (Gisele Itie), who also happens to be Garza's daughter, Ross decides to return to finish the job, and this time taking martial artist Yin Yang (Jet Li), gun-nut Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), and bomb expert Toll Road (Randy Couture). But ex-Expendable Gunnar (Dolph Lundgren) - recently dispensed for almost hanging a captive on a previous mission and for drug use - travels to Vilena to work for Munroe.

Anyone going into this film wanting or expecting an engrossing storyline, a witty script, or anything resembling character development, will be sorely disappointed. This is 100% dedicated to gun porn, explosions, and homoerotic exchanges, precisely the thing that the early films of Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme were known and loved for. What it does have however, is a lot of heart. Stallone is undoubtedly a romantic, and he has formed a cast full of old-school action stars (Mickey Rourke has en extended cameo as Tool, and Schwarzenegger briefly appears in a scene that made me oddly giddy), as well as some of the new faces of straight-to-video, sorry, DVD (wrestler Steve Austin also appears as Munroe's head grunt Paine).

However, The Expendables seems to suffer most from the thing that noticeably plagues modern action films, and that is badly filmed and confusing action scenes. Rather than actually showing the fighting (and there are many here that deserve better, namely Jet Li), they fill the screen with a mixture of blurs, shaky hand-held camerawork, and rapid editing. It seems that Stallone thinks that as long as the audiences' eyes are busy, regardless as to whether they know what it happening, then they will be happy. And a lot of the macho talk gets quite tiresome quickly, and as token black guy Hale Caesar talks about his gun like it is a girl in that "hell ye-ha!" sort-of-way, the film came across as nothing more than a walking erection.

Yet with a film put together with such genuine heart, I found it impossible not to like, and it certainly transported me back to my childhood when the action wave was still in full flow, and I was obsessed with the likes of Commando (1985). I'm pleased that a sequel is also not far off, and the added casting of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris, as well as an extended role for Schwarzenegger (who now has time for acting given his political career has thankfully ended), has me obviously excited.


Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, Giselle Itié, Randy Couture, David Zayas, Mickey Rourke, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Bruce Willis
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #394: 'Super' (2010)

"Don't molest little boys!" shouts Super's mentally unstable protagonist Frank (Rainn Wilson) after splitting a paedophile's head open with a wrench. After recent 'superhero' films Watchmen (2009) and Kick-Ass (2010) explored the mentality behind the superhero/vigilante idea to various degress of seriousness, Super arrived in 2010 with yet another take on it, again with a different tone. While Watchmen held a mirror to the audience and created a vast and complex alternative world that portrayed its 'superheros' as as pornographic as they are borderline psychopathic, and Kick-Ass revelled in it's bloodshed and questioned audiences' enjoyement of the slaughter, Super does both but is more interested in its emotionally damaged and extremely lonely main character who thoroughly believes that his actions are justified.

Frank is a short-order cook whose recovering drug-addict wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) disappears from their apartment taking all her belongings with her. She seems to have disappeared with her sleazy club owner boss Jacques (Kevin Bacon), who is on the verge of a large heroin deal. After seeing a crappy low-budget Christian message television programme where superhero the Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion) teaches Christian values to tempted high-school kids, Frank makes himself a costume and dubs himself the Crimson Bolt, taking out bad guys with a pipe wrench. He becomes a cult vigilante, and the object of comic book store owner's Libby's (Ellen Page) curiosity. The two form a partnership, but Libby's hyperactivie personality and eagnerness for bloodshed becomes a problem.

The film's main problem is the uneveness of its tone, which switches from dark indie drama to cartoonish comedy violence to disturbing character study. Like Kick-Ass, the film is extemely violent, yet Super is set in a murky, grainy reality as opposed to Kick-Ass's very colourful, comic-book world. This, for me, made the film more of an entertaining curiosity rather than the film it perhaps could have been. I cannot deny that the film is entertaining though. Opening with a nicely animated credit sequence, the film moves quickly and is anchored by an impressive performance by Wilson, who juggles comedy with a dark intensity. Page almost steals the show as his sidekick who is as sexy as she is bat-shit crazy. After all the carnage, the film is wrapped up nicely with a sweet and really quite moving ending. Whatever you think of the film, it will no doubt make you want to shout "shut up, crime!" whenever someone next pisses you off.


Directed by: James Gunn
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Gregg Henry, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #391: 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' (2010)

In 1994, three speleologists discovered a cave in Vallon-Pont-d'Arc which is now considered one of the most important archaeological and artistic discoveries in history. Inside the cave, the walls were covered with the earliest known cave paintings yet to be discovered. Pictures of animals and one of a woman date back as far as 30,000-32,000 years ago, and due to a landslide that sealed the cave, has remained untouched until its re-discovery. Naturally, the cave intrigued film-maker and pioneer of the eccentric Werner Herzog, who was given special permission to explore and film inside the cave. He and two assistants take us throughout the cave and show us the beautiful art, as well as some preserved child footprints and skulls of now-extinct cave bears.

Herzog has made many fine features in his time (his most notable work involves Klaus Kinski), yet it is always his documentaries that get me excited, as no-one seems to be able to tackle a subject matter with the same kind of fascination and unorthodox approach as the great German. He does not disappoint here, as Cave of Forgotten Dreams contains his trademark unusual narration, as well as interviews with some eccentrics. The first section of the film focuses mainly on Herzog's visit of the cave, as we are shown the strict rules the visitors must abide by such as not touching anything and staying on the 2-foot wide walkway that has been created through the cave. Considering he didn't have the space for a large camera, Herzog and his crew do magnificently in capturing the beauty and mysticism of the cave. He also filmed in 3-D, which I would imagine would be quite exceptional, but unfortunately I only saw it in 2-D.

Herzog tries to paint a larger picture (no pun intended) than just the cave itself, interviewing scientists, art historians, archaeologists, and even a master perfumer, who tries to sniff out other collapsed caves in the surrounding areas. Whether Herzog brings it out in them, or he simply bends the truth for artistic purposes, a lot of the people in the film seem just as strange as Herzog himself. This is common in his films, notably Grizzly Man (2005) and Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1998), but he is not fooling the audience, he is simply allowing them to share his vision. The film does go off focus a little at the end, as it seems to jump to different subjects in a haphazard manner, but this is fascinating and beautiful nonetheless. Not quite as moving and tragic as Grizzly Man, or as visually poetic as Encounters At the End of the World (2007), but this is essential viewing for fans of Herzog, history and art alike.


Directed by: Werner Herzog
Country: Canada/USA/France/Germany/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie