Review #997: 'The Night Before' (2015)

The premise of Seth Rogen's latest man-child comedy The Night Before, along with the casting of three of mainstream cinemas most likeable actors, may seem like catnip to fans of Rogen's previous hits Knocked Up, Superbad (both 2007) and 50/50 (2011). Yet while his best films cleverly and carefully toe the line between dick-jokes and genuine sweetness, The Night Before contains plenty of the former but previous little of the latter. It also falls at the first comedy hurdle by simply not being very funny despite some chemistry between its leads.

Best friends Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Isaac (Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) have got together every Christmas Eve to follow a ritual and party hard, initially started as a way to help Ethan get over the death of his parents. Only now, with Isaac expecting his first child with wife Betsy (Jillian Bell) and Chris enjoying late superstardom in the NFL, they decide that this Christmas will be their last. While his friends seem to be happy and maturing, Ethan seems to sleep-walking through life, earning money from a degrading job and heartbroken following his recent split with long-term girlfriend Diana (Lizzy Caplan).

The most frustrating aspect of The Night Before are the frequent hints at the much better movie this could have been. The tender relationship between Chris and his mother, along with an expletive-laden selfie rant by a drug-addled Isaac freaking out at the imminent arrival of his child, prove only fleeting moments of sentiment and laugh-out-loud hilarity. Isaac and Chris both have potentially complex obstacles to overcome, but the movie deals with them routinely and thoughtlessly. And Ethan, admittedly played with an earnestness by Gordon-Levitt, makes for drippy company. Only the scenes between him and Diana provide any hint of spark to his character as the naturalistic back-and-forth between the pair make for a believable and likeable recently-broken-up-couple-who-still-love-each-other.

So without the charm of Knocked Up, the awkward brotherly bonding of Superbad or the heart of 50/50, The Night Before is reduced to little more than dirty jokes, drug-taking and celebrity cameos. The final destination for the trio is the illusive Nutcracker Ball, for which Ethan has snagged tickets. When they get there, its hard to see what the fuss is all about, and appearances from James Franco and Miley Cyrus - appearing as themselves and mocking their own tabloid personas - feel unnecessary and forced. An extended role for Michael Shannon, popping up every now and then as pot dealer Mr Green, is easily the best character in the film, but even his impact is reduced when director Jonathan Levine tries to over-explain him and introduce a fantastical element into the story. You can pull it completely apart, but the films main crime is that is simply isn't funny enough.


Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie, Jillian Bell, Lizzy Caplan, Michael Shannon, Mindy Kaling
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #896: 'The Interview' (2014)

The alleged attack on Sony by North Korean cyber-hackers in protest over The Interview's depiction of their divine ruler, Kim Jong-un, did nothing but wonders for the film. Scandalising a film does little more than promote it to a wider audience, so directors Evan Goldberg and Seth Green must have been rubbing their hands together when Sony hit the panic button. It raised questions over the futility of censorship and led to a wonderful middle-finger salute on IMDb, with the average user rating bumped to a perfect 10 before it had even been released. Now that the furore has died down, The Interview can be seen for what it is: a scattershot comedy that raises a few laughs but ultimately lacks the balls required to make a decent satire.

TV producer Aaron Rapaport (Rogen) starts to question his body of work after receiving a dressing down from a former school friend, who is now working on the highly respected 60 Minutes. Aaron works on Skylark Tonight, a glossy chat-show in which his friend Dave Skylark (James Franco) interviews various celebrities about a variety of shallow topics (when rumours break that Matthew McConaughey has been caught having sex with a goat, Dave demands that they get the goat). Dave hears a rumour that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (Randall Park), who is threatening the U.S. with a nuclear attack, is a big fan of the show, so Aaron sees this as the perfect opportunity to cover some serious news and travels to rural China in the hope of arranging a historic interview.

When the two are approached by CIA Agent Lacey (Lizzy Caplan) to assassinate the chubby dictator, an air-tight plan is set in motion that only these two idiots could possibly screw up. A hand plaster containing a deadly ricin strip is all that it will take, but as seen when Dave lets loose a sneeze during a rehearsal, things most likely won't go to plan. The scene is set for comedy set-pieces aplenty, but the film only occasionally hits its mark. Whether this is down to the growing trend of using improvisation for laughs, the over-reliance on dick jokes, or the inclusion of yet another manifestation of the familiar Seth Rogen persona, The Interview rarely rises above amusing. Personally, I find James Franco's crazy-eyed lunacy both hilarious and quite intense at times, but here even the most hardcore Franco fans may have their patience stretched by his over-acting.

Yet, when it's good, it's very good. When Dave is waltzed away for a night of drinking, womanising, bromanctic heart-to-heart's, and listening to Katy Perry in a huge tank, Franco and Park have great chemistry and Park clearly has a fun time with his character, to the point that it becomes difficult to hate Kim even though it becomes clear that he is a master manipulator. It's a perfectly enjoyable experience for the most part, but is too blighted by haphazard plotting and toothless satire to be the film that Goldberg and Rogen are really capable of. Perhaps some more time spent on the script and less time making it up as they went along would have tightened their grip, and some real courage and ambition may have put it in the same league one of cinema's greatest on-the-nose satires, Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), which left a certain floppy-haired anti-Semite seething


Directed by: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Starring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

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 #23: '127 Hours' (2010)

It was a wonder what direction Danny Boyle would take after the phenomenal success, both critically and commercially, of 2008's Slumdog Millionaire. He has always been a independent director, and even when taking on larger projects such as Sunshine (2007) and The Beach (2000), he has always maintained that low-budget feel. I always look forward to anything Boyle does, and even though I have an almost resentful attitude toward Slumdog due to it's overrated success, I was pleased to hear that he had decided to stick to what he does best and make relatively low-key film that is practically a one-man show. It is also nice that 127 Hours is one of his best.

In 2003, reckless thrill-seeker Aron Ralston went rock-climbing and hiking in the canyons of Utah without telling anyone where he was. He meets a couple of female hikers who he takes to a hidden pool and has a bit of fun with before departing to wander the plains on his own. In a bizarre accident, Ralston slips on a loose boulder and falls into a canyon, the boulder falling with him and landing on his arm, completely trapping him. It takes some time for the gravity of the situation to hit Ralston after some initial confusion. He must work out how to escape his predicament or accept his fate, with only a few tools including a blunt pen knife, and very little water for company. It will be of no surprise to know that Aron Ralston does survive the ordeal, and famously had to cut off his own arm with said pen knife in order to escape. The skill of Boyle as a director, and the acting ability of James Franco as our hero, combine to make the film as exciting and nail-biting as a story can be when we already know the outcome.

It must have been an ordeal to figure out how to make a 90-minute film about one man stuck in one place for over five days. Kudos goes to editor Jon Harris and cinematographers Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle for using all the tricks in the book to make the visuals consistently interesting and never allowing the action to drag. As Ralston begins to hallucinate as his water rationing begins to take it's toll, a combination of split-screens, distorted colours and inserts from pop culture allow us to be placed into the character's damaged state. The camerwork and editing is fast and flashy, much like the character of Aron Ralston himself - always living fast, sometimes too fast for his own good. It's obvious that Danny Boyle is in a deft hand when directing his films this way. It's evident in the fantastic Trainspotting (1996), as Ewan McGregor's Renton goes cold turkey on his heroin addiction, and in the first hour of Slumdog, as he depicts the madness and colour of the slums. It would be difficult to see imagine another director taking on such as challenge with so much confidence and flair.

Which moves us to James Franco's Oscar-nominated lead performance. If this film is a reliable source, and due to the fact it has received Ralston's stamp of authenticity I imagine it is, Aron Ralston is a complete nob head, and is exactly the type of person I would avoid in real life. He is careless, arrogant and cocky, and is only interested in fulfilling his own desires. Franco manages to convince of this totally, and yet I found myself rooting for him as his situation worsens. It's a staggering performance, and from the other I've seen in the Best Actor category (Jeff Bridges and Jesse Eisenberg), he is my favourite. It's a performance of maturity, and in some scenes he is reminiscent of a young Robert De Niro. It's not mean feat to carry a 90 minute film almost completely by yourself, and it hasn't been done so well since Tom Hanks did it in the underrated Cast Away (2000). The scene in which Ralston stages a pretend game-show into his video camera with himself as both host and guest, Franco delivers both shame and over-the-top insanity as Ralston reflects on his attitudes and his recklessness. It's a fantastic scene for Franco, and deserves to win him the Oscar alone.

Not to say that their aren't problems with the film. Towards the end it begins to get unnecessarily sentimental as Ralston starts to think of his family, who he has constantly neglected, watching over him. And when the 'long-awaited' arm removal scene comes, I didn't know what to make of it. Boyle uses sound effects and quick editing which renders the scene easier to watch, and I wasn't sure whether to see this as a cop-out or not. I felt that it is something Ralston went through and it would only be right to show it how it happened, but on the other hand it is more tastefully done. It could have been exploitative in the hands of a poorer director, and I suppose it heightens the absurdity of his circumstance. Given the height of disillusionment and dehydration he was in at the time, he probably didn't experience it in a regular way anyway.

A solid survival flick, and a refreshingly stylish take on it. It deserves to be seen for Franco's performance alone, who I assume will prosper from this to become a highly-sought after leading man.


Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Treat Williams, Clémence Poésy, Lizzy Caplan
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie