Review #1,285: 'Kingsman: The Golden Circle' (2017)

Having directed no fewer than three comic-book adaptations with Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class and Kingsman: The Secret Service, it's a wonder director Matthew Vaughn has taken so long to deliver a sequel. Kingsman took over 400 million at the box-office and was one of the surprise successes of 2014, and with critical and audience responses both overwhelmingly positive for the My Fair Lady-meets-James Bond spy comedy, a sequel was always going to be on the cards. With The Golden Circle, Vaughn and returning screenwriter Jane Goldman have taken the route of most sequels and made everything bigger, but not necessarily better. The Golden Circle may please some fans of the original with its lashings of ultra-violence and colourful language, but I suspect many will become sickly with the film's desire to throw everything at the screen to see what sticks.

A year on from preventing Samuel L. Jackson's plan to wipe out the majority of the world's population using mania-inducing SIM cards, and Eggsy (Taron Egerton) has settled well within the ranks of the Kingsman and has shacked up with Princess Tilde of Sweden (Hanna Alstrom). One night he is attacked by a former foe he had long thought dead: Charlie Hesketh (Edward Holcroft), the failed Kingsman applicant believed to have perished in the head-exploding finale of the previous film. Charlie is alive and well, and has been fitted with a hi-tech bionic arm capable of brute strength. Eggsy manages to overcome Charlie, but the severed arm hacks its way into the Kingsman's computer system. Soon enough, the majority of Britain's finest secret service has been taken out by long-range missiles. Along with Merlin (Mark Strong), Eggsy travels to the U.S. to investigate a clue left in the agency's Doomsday protocol, and discover a sister agency named the Statesman led by the gruff Champagne (Jeff Daniels).

The Statesman are like the Kingsman, only instead of bespoke suits and good table manners, they dress like cowboys and have nicknames based on alcoholic beverages. Channing Tatum's Tequila is first to greet them, and is understandably suspicious of this shadowy agency operating without their knowledge. There's also Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), and Merlin-equivalent tech genius Ginger Ale (Halle Berry). The bad guy this time around is Poppy (Julianne Moore), a Martha Stewart-like drug baron hiding out in Cambodia. Her master plan is to infect all users of her various drugs with a toxin that will soon cause their deaths unless the U.S. President puts an end to the War on Drugs. Poppy's outlandish plan, which would seem to damage Poppy's trade if successful or offer the President a chance to rid the world of drug abusers and Poppy's customers, is one of many problems with The Golden Circle. Armed with robot dogs and a kidnapped Elton John in an appearance that goes way beyond mere cameo, Vaughn and Goldman seem happy to suck out all sense of reality for this sequel, and with it have considerably lowered the stakes.

The movie's most glaring problem, however, is the return of Colin Firth's Harry Hart. Most of us were shocked and saddened when he received a bullet to the face from Samuel L. Jackson following the original's most spectacular scene, but to bring him back feels cheap, removing any sense of peril in the process. The action scenes, which involve everything from an electric whip to a man-chomping meat-grinder, rely heavily on CGI. The Secret Service did this too, but it also used practical effects to retain a sense of physicality when Harry was hacking, shooting and burning his way through a Church full of bigoted psychopaths. The newcomers all do well despite being left in the background for the majority of the running-time, with Tatum especially barely registering before he is placed into a coma. Highlights include Egerton's beautiful jaw-line and Strong's deadpan Merlin, but there is little resembling the freshness of the first film, which also managed to keep its outrageous ambitions in check by structuring the plot around Eggsy's Kingsman training. The Golden Circle is by no means the disaster many critics have cited, but by striding to take things to the next level, Vaughn has made Kingsman both cringe-inducingly silly and plain boring.


Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Mark Strong, Pedro Pascal, Halle Berry, Elton John, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges
Country: UK/USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,278: 'Logan Lucky' (2017)

When Steven Soderbergh announced four years ago that he was giving up the director's gig to focus on TV, did anyone actually believe him? There was a cry of sadness from critics and audiences alike, but nothing about his announcement felt like it would last for very long. How could a man so prolific in recent years and as equally comfortable tackling a star-studded major release as he is with low-budget indies distract himself away from the temptation of the director's chair? As expected, Soderbergh is back for his first film since 2013's Behind the Candelabra, with a heist comedy described as Ocean's Eleven for the NASCAR crowd, and more amusingly, Ocean's 7-11. Logan Lucky doesn't find the director on unfamiliar ground, but it's a welcome reminder of how fine a storyteller he is.

The Logan family curse stretches back as far as the remaining members can recall, and things look to be heading downhill for Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) when he is sacked from his construction job and informed by his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) that she plans to take their daughter and her new husband miles away to Lynchburg. Jimmy's brother Clyde (Adam Driver) has returned from Iraq minus an arm and a sense of humour, and only hairdresser sister Mellie (Riley Keough) appears to have dodged the curse. Enough is enough for the once-promising footballer Jimmy, who plans to end the curse once and for all by robbing the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Key to the success of the job is colourful safe-cracker Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), but he currently sits in jail five months away from his release. With a few tricks of his own up his sleeve - and a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts stuck to his fridge - Jimmy aims to break Joe out, pull off the heist, and return him to his cell before anyone notices he's gone.

With fantastic performances all round from a hugely talented cast and a witty, pacy script by Rebecca Blunt, Logan Lucky is one of the most effortlessly watchable movies of 2017. The film is predictably stolen by an off-the-leash Daniel Craig who, with a buzz-cut of peroxide-blonde hair and a drawl so ridiculous it actually works in favour of the character, seems happy to be free of the high-octane stunts and extensive promotion tours that come with the role of James Bond. There are also nice smaller turns from the likes of Katherine Waterston as a good-natured nurse and former schoolmate of Jimmy, Dwight Yoakam as a prison warden eager to avoid any bad publicity, Sebastian Stan as a disgruntled, yoga-freak NASCAR driver, and Hilary Swank as a shrewd FBI agent. There are bad performances too, namely from Joe's idiotic brothers (played by Brian Gleeson and Jack Quaid) who aren't nearly as funny as the film believes they are, and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane donning a distracting English accent and even more distracting hair-and-moustache combo.

It's fun, breezy and confidant in all the ways Ocean's Eleven was, only here the characters are more dim-witted and less easy on the eye. It's happy to dabble in the kind of stereotype dreamt up by outsiders, and while this helps with the appeal of Craig's larger-than-life lunatic, it also means that much of the comedy is derived from people saying and doing stupid things. Every now and then however, Soderbergh reminds us why he has been so missed, even when he's dishing out mid-table fare like Logan Lucky. Few directors can bring a heist to life with such detail and excitement - he doesn't let you in on the plan, so we have no idea just how this will pan out - and even fewer could make the site of a prosthetic arm being sucked up into a huge vacuum quite so hilarious. But the movie's high-point comes when Jimmy arrives at the last minute to witness his daughter sing John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' to an enamoured pageant audience, and heart-strings are unexpectedly tugged. It's a shame that more of the movie can't quite live up to that scene's standards and helped to gloss over the other flaws, but for now it's certainly a "welcome back, Steven Soderbergh."


Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough, Seth MacFarlane, Katherine Waterston, Hilary Swank, Dwight Yoakam, Katie Holmes
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,137: 'Magic Mike XXL' (2015)

After the cult success of Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike (2012) - a loose adaptation of star Channing Tatum's experiences as a stripper (or male entertainer) early on in his career - it was of little surprise when a follow-up was announced. What made the first movie such a surprising success was the way it mixed the flashy dance moves with genuine character development, making for a touching and oddly sweet experience that also touched on themes such as the economy and the American Dream. For XXL, the focus seems to be solely on giving the audience what they want, and that means more abs, biceps and bulges.

However, this all means a half-arsed story-line that quickly finds a way to get 'Magic' Mike (Tatum) back with his gyrating buddies. The end of the first film saw Mike abandon the life he was never truly happy with and realising his dream of starting his own company selling custom-made furniture. The company is either struggling or about to take off, but it's clear that Mike is still unfulfilled, and when he receives a phone message from Tarzan (Kevin Nash), he is soon enough on the road to a stripper convention with 'Big Dick' Richie (Joe Manganiello), Ken (Matt Bomer), Tito (Adam Rodriguez) and Tobias (Gabriel Inglesias). That's generally it. Magic Mike XXL's main issue is that the story seems to fumble around trying to come up with interesting places to take its characters.

Very much a road movie at heart, the group find themselves encountering new characters along the way. With Cody Horn not returning (her disappearance is rather unconvincingly explained,) the love interest this time around is Zoe (Amber Heard), a gorgeous bohemian-type who doesn't seem to be put of by Mike's distinctly douchebag-y dress sense. There's also Andie MacDowell as a horny Southern lady who, along with her wine-guzzling friends, indulge in a private party. Mike also hooks up with his old friend/lover/colleague Rome (Jada Pinkett Smith), a sort-of stripper madame who hosts a house to entertain the ladies, and whose employees include the smooth-talking Andre (future young Lando Calrissian Donald Glover). There is sadly no return for Matthew McConaughey as Dallas or Alex Pettyfer as The Kid, who have apparently both eloped to Europe chasing a lucrative stripping deal. Gregory Jacobs also replaces Soderbergh as director.

The new characters provide to be little more than a distraction from the meandering plot, which forces Mike and his pals into a few moments of utter tedium. When the film stays with the guys and just allows them to shoot the shit, it's actually very funny, and leads to the best scene of both movies by letting a pilled-up Richie loose on a grumpy-looking gas station clerk. By trying to do more by giving each character their own emotional arc, it actually holds back a film that would be better served giving the audience even more of what they really came for, stripping. Even for a straight male, the dance scenes are electrifying, with the climax delivering an all-out dance-a-thon that allows each character their moment to shine. It made me smile between the dull moments, but this is ultimately forgettable stuff.


Directed by: Gregory Jacobs
Starring: Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Amber Heard, Adam Rodriguez, Kevin Nash, Jada Pinkett Smith, Donald Glover, Andie MacDowell
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,037: 'Hail, Caesar!' (2016)

When a film-maker builds up such a formidable body of work, it's all the more crushing when their next project falls somewhat flat. The Coen brothers Joel and Ethan have been churning out genre-bending masterpieces ever since 1984 with Blood Simple, and maintained a healthy independent spirit until they were eventually noticed by mainstream Hollywood with 1996's Fargo. Ever since, despite still serving up great work such as No Country for Old Men (2007) and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), their filmography has been occasionally blighted by bewildering misfires such as the double-whammy of Intolerable Cruelty (2003) and The Ladykillers (2004). Sadly, they've done it again with Hail, Caesar!.

It's obvious that the Coens hold a keen interest in the old Hollywood system of the 1940's and 50's. They were satirising the world they view with a certain curiosity and perhaps a little disdain back in 1991 with the outstanding Barton Fink. Yet while that film portrayed a bleak, subdued world full of madness and loneliness as John Turturro's titular script-writer struggled with his work and his own demons, Hail, Caesar! is the glitzy, garish world of big-budget biblical epics and movie stars with everything to hide. Studio head Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is the man to try and hold it all together, from having to shield his actors' shady pasts from pesky twin journalists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both Tilda Swinton) to handling an organisation of academic-type communists who have kidnapped his biggest star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney).

Working almost like a series of loosely-connected vignettes, the Coens also weave numerous sub-plots into the mix. Mannix must also deal with the issue that one of his leading ladies, DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johnansson) is unmarried but with child and can no longer fit into her mermaid costume. Singing cowboy actor Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich), a pretty face more accustomed to strumming the guitar and riding horseback, is thrown into a drama role at the last minute, much to the frustration of sophisticated director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes). There are smaller roles also for Channing Tatum, Frances McDormand and Jonah Hill in what is an unnecessarily bulky ensemble that the Coens struggle to keep a grasp of. With no real sense of direction, Hail, Caesar! often feels like a collection of clips from separate, better movies.

Despite the narrative flaws, there's still plenty to savour. Those distinctly 'Coen-eque' moments are peppered throughout, with Hobie's awkward first day on set and Channing Tatum's musical tap-dance being particular standouts. Although Brolin excels and Clooney makes for a very convincing wimp, Ehrenreich is the one who steals the movie as the extremely likeable dimwit who may actually be the only one paying attention. He demonstrates great comic timing and all the charm of the western idols his character is paying homage to, and he seems the perfect fit for a young Han Solo in Disney's as-yet untitled origin story. The film may have even worked better as a whole with Hobie as the lead and doing away with several side-stories. Instead, it is an unfocused splurge of good ideas rather toothlessly executed but wonderfully performed. Definitely lower-league Coen.


Directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Channing Tatum, Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill
Country: UK/USA/Japan

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #891: 'Jupiter Ascending' (2015)

Ever since 1999's The Matrix have people been waiting for the Wachowski siblings to live up their potential. Although it can be said that their breakthrough hit borrowed heavily from other sources, it was without question unlike anything before seen in mainstream cinema, weaving philosophy and mysticism into a sci-fi loaded with gunplay and kung-fu. Four critical (and two financial) flops later, and we're still waiting. Their latest, Jupiter Ascending, is an intriguing tale of a young Earthling girl caught up in a tug-of-war between three intergalactic royals, but once again the Wachowskis have sacrificed everything in favour of aesthetic, creating a film so devoid of character and logic that you have to wonder if any producer will put faith in them again.

Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) is a young Russian girl living in America, who scrubs the toilets of her wealthy neighbours for a living. We feel sorry for her because her father was killed before she was born, and she is currently living in the same house as her stereotypical Russian family. Whilst undergoing an operation to remove her eggs to make some quick cash in a money-making scheme with her brother, she is attacked by a group of extra-terrestrial's called 'Keepers'. However, she is saved by the hulking half-man half-wolf soldier Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), who whisks her away to safety and takes her to the home of his former comrade Stinger Apini (Sean Bean).

Stinger informs Jupiter that she is indeed royalty, and that she shares the exact genetic make-up of a long-dead matriarch of the powerful Abrasax alien dynasty. Her existence has three siblings - Balem (Eddie Redmayne), Titus (Douglas Booth) and Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) - squabbling over Jupiter, as she unwittingly holds the rights to a huge chunk of space real estate that each of the three feel is their birthright. Earth happens to be a pot of gold to the Abrasax's, as the planet has reached overpopulation and the human race is ripe for harvesting in order to extract a powerful elixir that prolongs the lives of the elite class.

For a film that spends so much time delivering exposition, the movie fails to explain itself very well. From start to finish, it feels as if the Wachowski's are spoon-feeding us the hardly complicated plot while building up the familiar messiah subtext and delivering extended CGI action scenes. It's also strange that the two director's, who are capable of writing strong female roles (see 1996's Bound), have written their female protagonist as existing solely to be sent screaming off a cliff, into outer space etc., only to be rescued at the last minute by Wise, the goatee'd, pointy-eared superhero. This happens time and time again to the point that it became laughable, especially in today's age.

The cast try their best. Bean somehow comes out of it completely unscathed, and Redmayne - Oscar-winner for The Theory of Everything (2014) - at least stands out, hamming it up to quite ludicrous levels and delivering his sinister lines with a whisper. Tatum is clearly capable of more, but is given little to work with, but Kunis is completely miscast. Her heroine is terribly written, but she looks awkward as a leading lady and unconvincing as a 'chosen one'. It's an empty, boring experience, with the Wachowski's demonstrating little care with the script ("Bee's don't lie," - one character says with a straight face), and even less with avoiding lazy plot-holes (it takes one crashed ship to bring down a planetary base?). It will take something special for the Wachowski's to recover from their work over the last 16 years.


Directed by: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Starring: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton
Country: USA/UK

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #839: 'Foxcatcher' (2014)

When it comes to depicting a real figure caught up in real events, the one aspect that movie's struggle with is really getting to the heart of it's character. Commonly, these characters are larger than life, and it takes a truly talented actor to bring them to life and an intelligent script to dig beneath their skin. Director Bennett Miller seem to have the magic touch. His three features have all been based on true-life stories. Philip Seymour Hoffman brought Truman Capote to life in Capote (2005), to the point where you believed the strange voice coming out of him wasn't a mere impersonation, but an embodiment. His second feature, Moneyball (2011) was a solid depiction of underdog coach Billy Bean (Brad Pitt), who changed baseball forever with his use of statistical analysis.

He's done it again with Foxcatcher, the shocking true tale of one man's madness amidst the quest for Olympic gold. Like with Moneyball, we are taken behind the scenes (or beyond the mat) of the sporting world, and the screen is flooded with the same damp, autumn colours as it was in Capote. It is melancholic but unsettling, as if slowly pumping up a balloon and waiting for it to burst. We first meet Olympic gold medallist Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), scraping twenty bucks together by appearing in his brother's absence at a school to teach kids the values required to achieve a gold medal. He goes home and eats microwave noodles, and then it's back to the practice mat in preparation for the next tournament.

His luck seems on the rise when he is contacted by the mysterious John du Pont (Steve Carell), the head of a vastly wealthy dynasty who lives at his huge, beautiful Foxcatcher Farm. Curious, Mark goes to meet him and learns of du Pont's plans to make his farm the breeding ground of American wrestling. He instantly signs up, and Mark is given his own cabin and top-notch training facility. He is also given lots of cocaine, and soon submits to du Pont, at one point seen crouching in front of du Pont on his porch, like a well-trained guard dog. But du Pont is not satisfied with Mark alone - he wants his brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo), also an gold medallist - at Foxcatcher too. Only Dave has settled with his wife (Sienna Miller) and children in the suburbs and, as Mark points out, can't be bought. Du Pont cannot process this.

If you don't know the bizarre news story that came out of this arrangement, then it's best not to know. The film's foreboding is creeping. The introduction of John du Pont doesn't portray him as the strange, uncharismatic, and increasingly deranged man that he was; instead we see him at a distance, muttering pleasantries and looking down that huge nose of his. He doesn't convince as a wrestling coach, but Mark laps up the attention and luxury like any young man in his position would. When Dave eventually arrives, he sees du Pont for what he is - a man-child who inherited wealth, buying tanks to add to his military paraphernalia and living in fear of his reclusive mother (played by Vanessa Redgrave), wishing himself a leader of men without possessing any of the necessary skills required to be so. Only at this point, Mark has seen it too, but he also resents the success of his brother.

Miller and screenwriters E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman take all of this and makes it an analogy of modern America, where wealth inherited rather than earned still looms large over a country sworn to pursuing the dream and democracy. The performances are terrific. Carell and Ruffalo earned the Oscar nominations, but Tatum more than holds his own. In a scene just after a lost bout, Mark paces his room like a cage animal, suddenly bursting with rage and destroying a mirror with his head. Considering this was improvised on the spot by a dedicated Tatum, it really takes the breath away. Like the recent work of David Fincher, I believe that in the years to come, Foxcatcher will be studied as a window into our times and will be viewed as one of the finest American films of it's era.


Directed by: Bennett Miller
Starring: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #828: 'Magic Mike' (2012)

Magic Mike opens in a bright but subtly sleazy nightclub, with Matthew McConaughey's (following his dark turn in 2011's Killer Joe and continuing his recent career renaissance) strip-club owner Dallas, dressed in leather and a cowboy hat, stroking his private area and asking the ladies in the audience "can you touch this? No, no, no, no." But Magic Mike, loosely based on lead actor Channing Tatum's experiences as a stripper aged 18, shows that the ladies certainly can touch it, giving us a fascinating and slightly intoxicating insight into a male fantasy life, warts and all, and the lack of substance that comes with it.

Dallas's main attraction at his Xquisite Strip Club is 'Magic' Mike Lane (Tatum), who when he is not packing the club with screaming ladies, has threesome's with his kind-of girlfriend Joanna (Olivia Munn) and takes construction work to help fund his entrepreneurial aspirations. He meets college drop-out Adam (Alex Pettyfer) and calls in a favour after he helps Adam into a club one night, promising him paid work if he helps backstage while the men perform on it. Mike and Dallas eventually throw him on stage, and the ladies love him. But Adam has his demons, and his sister Brooke (Cody Horn), makes Mike promise to look out for him.

Although the film is primarily about Mike, the first third of the film mainly focuses on Adam, giving us a wide-eyed view-point into this seductive world of admiring women, endless parties, and all the uppers you could pray for. Mike seems custom made for this world and he embraces the g-strings, body oil, and all the superficialities that come with the job. But as he witnesses Adam's head-first plunge into self-destruction, he begins to wonder if the benefits of the job outweigh the ultimate cost. Director Steven Soderbergh manages to capture these moments with a sickly sordidness.

It also has a brighter side, with Tatum once again bringing a likeability to the all-American jock type. It's the first male stripper film since The Full Monty (1997) of any note, and the strip scenes are infused with an energy and a playfulness that is funny without mocking the industry. The dance routines are increasingly ridiculous, one in which has 'Big Dick' Richie (True Blood's Joe Manganiello) end his routine with the unveiling of his not-so-secret weapon, and Tatum busting some genuinely impressive moves. The romance that develops between Mike and Brooke is predictable but sweet, mainly thanks to Horn's performance, and it's about 20 minutes too long, but ultimately Magic Mike is an engaging and sometimes unconventional experience.


Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Cody Horn, Matthew McConaughey, Olivia Munn, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #802: '22 Jump Street' (2014)

"I want you to do exactly what you did last time!" bawls Captain Dickson (Ice Cube). No-one really expected 21 Jump Street (2012), a re-boot of a long-dead TV show, to be a hit. But it was, and a hit spells sequel in Hollywood. And so returning directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, fresh off the colossal success of The Lego Movie (2014), use 22 Jump Street as a canvas to riff-on the idea of sequels. Actually, to label it as a canvas is not doing it justice - Lord and Miller, two of the wackiest and most inventive directors of our time, stretch it out, beat it with a hammer, and make a strange yet loveable mess out of it.

Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) do exactly what their captain says and head to college, going undercover to bust yet another drug ring. The film embraces repetition wholeheartedly, all the with a winning wink to camera, so we have a Vietnamese Jesus (as opposed to Korean), a suspicious teacher, explosive action-movie car chases, homoerotic bonding, an accidental drug intake, and plenty of scantily-clad ladies. It's a formula that has worked once already - the first film was a hoot and Tatum truly excelled - so the director's laugh at their own willingness to bend to demand and their audience's willingness to lap it up, but never in an offensive way. Lord and Miller make sure you're in on the joke.

But simply acknowledging the cliché doesn't necessarily mean that it makes for entirely satisfying viewing. The jokes are clever, yes, but it still means that we have to sit through a very similar film as we did the first. This is where Lord and Miller's energy really becomes important, as the visual pizazz and the sheer momentum of the one-liners and zippy editing prove an easy distraction from what could have ultimately been a one-joke movie. In one inspired scene, Schmidt and Jenko trip on Why-Phy (the new drug), with Schmidt having a bummer and Jenko euphoric. They share a split screen, each in their own weird little world, as Schmidt tries to break the barrier into Jenko's more colourful trip. It's a crazy scene, especially for a widespread release, but delivered with such commitment that it proves a ballsy move.

It's a shame that the action scenes get in the way, offering plenty of gunshots and explosions but never really rise above the kind of thing we've been given before in the old action movies it's lampooning. Other aspects also don't quite work  - Schmidt's relationship with the gorgeous Maya (Amber Stevens) just feels unrealistic, Queen Latifah's appearance as Dickson's wife spawns a few jokes that simply don't work, and the whole thing feels over-long. But when it sticks with it's heroes, the film is consistently laugh-out-loud funny, and Tatum again delivers a performance that will leave many scratching their heads in disbelief at the idea that this is indeed the same person as the pouting, dead-eyed twat from Step Up (2006).


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Amber Stevens, Jillian Bell
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #418: '21 Jump Street' (2012)

Did anyone really want a modern update of 21 Jump Street, a cancelled TV show that ran between 1987 and 1991, a show that is only really remembered for being Johnny Depp's big break? The answer is, tragically, yes, it's the same people that watch tripe such as the recent remakes of Hawaii Five-O and Charlie's Angels, lapping up its generic story lines and unchallenging episodic structure. Thankfully, we're not going to have to watch two failed movie actors accepting a career in television (in the case of Hawaii 5-O), as 21 Jump Street has been given a full-blown movie, and rather than following the same tone and style as its predecessor, Jonah Hill and Michael Bacall have written as an absurd action-comedy, taking a giant gamble and casting heart-throb Channing Tatum, an actor that has looked more comfortable in recent years in action films and romantic comedies.

Schmidt (Hill) and Jenko (Tatum) are two recent police graduates who became best friends in helping each through their own difficulties during the police examinations. In high school, just seven years earlier, Schmidt was a nerd who dressed as Eminem ("not-so-Slim Shady"), and Jenko was the long-haired popular jock. After a failed drug bust, the two are assigned to a recently re-instated program that was cancelled in the 80's (get it?), and are shipped off to 21 Jump Street to play undercover at a local high school that has seen an influx of a new hallucinogenic drug. To their surprise, they find that the politics of high school have changed, and now the nerds rule, and the jocks are the ones that don't fit in (Jenko blames recent TV shows, "fuck you, Glee!"). With Schmidt seeing his new popularity as a way to re-live his high school days the way he would have wanted, his friendship with Jenko suffers, as does their drug operation.

Given the recent comedy disappointments that have starred the likes of Jonah Hill and his posse, I wasn't expecting much more than a few titters from 21 Jump Street. To my surprise, the film is actually hilarious, thanks to a witty, smut-filled script, some fast-paced action scenes, and real chemistry between the two leads. It also plays out like a love-letter to the 1980's, where mismatched-buddy action comedies seemed to be out every other week, and is wise enough to be well aware of this, embracing the cliches of the genre (during a high speed chase, there is a nice running joke about vehicles not exploding as they would usually in movies, and Ice Cube plays the obligatory angry black captain - "I'm black, and occasionally I get angry!").

Hill, love him or hate him (I tend to be in the former category) gives the performance you would expect - nervous, foul-mouthed, and wasting no opportunity to make a clever pop culture reference - and it's interesting how he makes the audience almost despise the nerd when we are so used to them being the sympathetic character. Tatum is the film's trump card, proving a brilliant comedy actor, and does not simply play the straight man to Hill's funny man. Jenko is big, handsome and stupid (in the opening calamitous drug bust he forgets the Miranda rights -"you have the right to... suck my dick, motherfucker!), yet he has a big heart, bonding with some science nerds to both infiltrate a dealer and to learn about science.

The jokes are about as crude and as vulgar as I've heard for a while. There are as many cock jokes than there are sight gags, often blending the two together- a funny scene sees Jenko childishly doing ridiculous sex positions with a toy giraffe on Schmidt as he talks to his potential girlfriend on the phone. But if you can stomach the smut and would find the lead characters tripping their balls off on drugs funny, then there's plenty of fun to be had here, as at its core there is a lot of heart. Fans of the original show are in for a treat too, as there is an inspired revelation at the end, as well as homages and references to the series and the era in general ("I look like Fred Savage in the Wonder Years, only naked!"). A film that proves that taking an old idea and re-doing it can work, as long as your wise enough to make it seem fresh.


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, Ice Cube
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie