Review #1,203: 'The LEGO Batman Movie' (2017)

Nobody quite saw 2014's The Lego Movie coming. An animated family film based on a hugely popular range of toys sounds like the stuff of nightmares, and something that could tumble a big studio if it didn't find an audience. However, it was a resounding success, both critically and commercially, managing to deliver an exciting, colourful and hilariously funny adventure movie with a poignant message about corporate takeover and the loss of imagination. One of the most memorable supporting players to emerge from the ensemble of wacky characters was Will Arnett's Batman, who proved so popular that we get his spin-off before we get a sequel to The Lego Movie. But this is no bad thing, as while it may not contain the same element of surprise as its predecessor, The LEGO Batman Movie is a more straight-forward blast.

As the song goes, Batman is darkness and has no parents. After saving the city from an attack by the Joker (Zach Galifianakis) and his many cronies, the Dark Knight high-fives his adoring fans but returns to Wayne Island to microwave a lobster thermidor for one. While he may be awesome, he broods over pictures of his dead parents and isolates himself, although his trusted butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) is always on hand for advice. Newly-appointed police commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) announces that she hopes to restructure the force to handle crime without the assistance of Batman, much to the caped crusader's amusement. Meanwhile, the Joker, locked up in Arkham Asylum, plans to manipulate Batman into sending him into the Phantom Zone, where he will be free to gather an army of mega-villains to launch an attack of Gotham and prove once and for all that he is Batman's greatest nemesis.

Lego Batman is arguably a one-joke movie. It takes the character's persona from The Lego Movie - dark, broody and arrogant - and runs with it, building the entire plot around Batman's need to open up and allow other people to enter his life. Yet the film's kinetic energy and gorgeous animation mean that you won't care too much about the lack of a truly engaging story. Director Chris McKay was clearly enjoying himself having Batman's entire rogue gallery at his disposal, as well as members of other Warner Brothers franchises. Familiar villains such as Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Bane (riffing on Tom Hardy's take in The Dark Knight Rises) grace the screen, but we also get appearances from the more obscure Clock King, Kite Man and, most bizarrely, the Condiment King. Batman fans will lap it up, with references to his history in both comic-books and on the big screen, referring to the camp Adam West series from the 60s as "that weird one".

Although this is Batman's first solo movie in Lego form, this is the opposite of an origin story. We meet him already in a set routine. When he isn't effortlessly kicking the butt of crime, he spends his time jamming on the electric guitar, beat-boxing, pumping iron, chowing down on lobster, and laughing at Jerry Maguire. If anything, Batman is a bit too obnoxious, and Arnett does slightly grate at times, but this is eventually balanced out by the introduction of Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), a highly capable and doe-eyed orphan who will become the scantily-clad Robin. The two gradually form a bond that provides the movie's emotional core, which, after an hour or so of Batman's jock shtick, is most welcome. The frequent references to pop culture, which are both clever and tiresome, often make it feel like an extended episode of Robot Chicken, and I believe this is what will divide most of the audience. It's not perfect, and it certainly isn't at the level of The Lego Movie, but if anything, this is a very good Batman movie. And Lord knows it's been a while since there was one of those.


Directed by: Chris McKay
Voices: Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Zach Galifianakis, Jenny Slate, Jason Mantzoukas, Conan O'Brien
Country: USA/Denmark

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #991: 'The Hangover Part III' (2013)

Some film-makers form a trilogy to tell a tale, finding it a unique way to fashion a story and give the beginning, middle and end enough time and breathing space to flesh out on their own, forming stand-alone pieces that work just as well on their own in the process. Others, like The Hangover helmer Todd Phillips, use it to squeeze every drop of money out of a proven formula and fool an audience into thinking that, given the success of a previous instalment, they're in for a guaranteed good time. Only The Hangover Part II was terrible, and Part III is even worse, to the point where the franchise is barely recognisable from the hilarious and charming surprise it was back in 2009.

Ditching the formula that saw our three bumbling heroes wake up from a particularly heavy night in a variety of terrible states to find that one of their part is missing and no memory of what went down, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are instead roped into a plot involving an escaped-from-prison Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) and the gangster looking for him, Marshall (John Goodman). But also ditched is any sense of humour or even any actual jokes, and in its place comes cruelty and distastefulness. Opening with Alan towing a giraffe home on the back of a trailer, events take an expected unfunny turn as the animal is decapitated and Alan is convinced that he needs help. It's on their way to rehab that they find themselves confronted by Marshall and Black Doug (Mike Epps), the latter returning from the first film.

Conveniently brushing Doug (Justin Bartha) out of the way again as Marshall holds him captive so the threesome can try and generate some laughs, The Hangover Part III becomes a pedestrian bore; a series of set-pieces that quickly run out of steam. In an attempt to make up for the clear lack of inspiration, Chow's role has been beefed up even more, but Jeong's hyperactive and excruciatingly annoying shtick gets old very quickly. A scene near the end sees Chow parachuting through Las Vegas screaming obscenities, and I was left scratching my head at just how the sleeper-hit of 2009 ended up at this point. When there's a rare chuckle to be had, it comes from Galifianakis and franchise-newcomer Melissa McCarthy, who at least manage to lend a little heart to what is quite frankly an unpleasant 100 minutes.


Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, Melissa McCarthy
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #987: 'The Hangover Part II' (2011)

Todd Phillips' approach to part two of his surprise comedy smash The Hangover (2009) is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The original made bona fide stars out of its lead trio and grossed half a billion dollars in the process, so a sequel was always going to be on the cards. The simple formula of the hapless heroes waking up from a stag night of drink, drugs and debauchery to find the groom missing and a variety of clues lying around to help them work out just what the hell happened felt fresh, and the natural charisma of its stars, particularly Zach Galifianakis, made for a hilarious experience.

By sticking to the formula, Phillips has forced himself to a corner where the details have to bigger and more outlandish. Instead of Vegas, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Galifianakis) are in Thailand to celebrate Stu's upcoming wedding to Lauren (Jamie Chung). After a planned quiet night on the beach with a beer and marshmallows, they wake up in a grimy hotel room in Bangkok with no memory of the night before and inexplicably in the presence of gangster Mr. Chow (Ken Jeung) from the first film. When Chow seemingly overdoses on cocaine, they are left to piece things together themselves.

If this was a stand-alone movie without the existence of its predecessor, then this probably would have been a winner. While its frequently goes overboard with the crass humour, its consistently amusing without succeeding in being quite so laugh-out-loud as the first movie, thanks mainly again to Galifianakis, whose man-child Alan is the funniest aspect of the film. Yet while his naivety and plain stupidity was so endearing in the original, the sequel also takes Alan to increasingly dark places. Here, he is not so much social inept but dangerously insane to the point that he becomes occasionally outright unlikeable.

And this is the main issue - replacing charm and goofiness with extreme humour. Stu was missing a tooth in the first film, but this time he wakes up with a Mike Tyson tribal tattoo on his face. Rather than Tyson's tiger, we have a chain-smoking drug-mule monkey. Rather than finding Doug (Justin Bartha) vanished, they lose Lauren's prodigal younger brother Teddy (Mason Lee), to which the only clue to his participation is his severed finger. And having previously married a stripper, Stu discovers that - in the most uncomfortably unfunny scene - he has been sodomised by a ladyboy. Add to the mix a sub-plot involving gangster Kingsley (Paul Giamatti) and his search for Chow, the film spends too much time away from the hapless threesome's interplay in favour of watching their reactions to a variety of cruel situations.


Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #837: 'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)' (2014)

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu seems to have cheered up a bit since his reach-for-the-noose-depressing trilogy of 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006) and Biutiful (2010). The first two are excellent films (I haven't seen the third), telling honest and brutal human stories powerfully played by expert, distinguished actors, but show no signs of the kind of energy, wit and satire of his latest, Birdman, this year's Best Picture Oscar winner. We spend two hours inside the world of washed-up actor Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), who is having a later-than-midlife crisis trying to escape from his superstar days of being a costumed hero and trying to re-invent himself by writing, directing and starring in his own play.

For a film that spends so much time poking fun at the self-contained world of thespians and the empty yet highly-craved escapism of blockbuster cinema, Birdman manages to be, in it's own strange, unique way, a bit of both. When we first meet Riggan, he is meditating mid-air. He moves objects telekinetically, and his actions and decisions are criticised and mocked by his former alter-ego, Birdman himself. We are in and out of our protagonist's head, which is made even more delirious by the magnificent camerawork by Emmanuel Lubezki, one of the finest in the business. With the odd exception, for the most part Birdman appears edit-free. Day turns to night in the same shot and vice versa. But this is no mere gimmick.

We're on the cusp of the opening of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Riggan's stage adaptation of Raymond Carver's (very) short story. One of his actors is injured by a falling piece of equipment and is replaced last-minute by primadonna dick-head Mike Shiner (Edward Norton) whose girlfriend Lesley (Naomi Watts) is already working on the play; his daughter Sam (Emma Stone) is fresh out of rehab and is resentful of her father's late-in-life attempts at reconnection; his female lead Laura (Andrea Riseborough) is pregnant and tells Riggan it's his; and pompous art critic Tabitha (Lindsay Duncan) is determined to destroy the play before it's even played. It's a stressful time for Riggan to say the least, and with the illusion of watching one continuous shot, we feel right there with him. With the near-constant jazz score, we also feel every beat.

But the technical aspects of the movie do not overshadow the story, and it is played out by a gifted ensemble. With the loose, free-spiritedness of it all, Keaton breaks free and shines, excelling at the moments of comedy (Riggan's semi-naked dash through Times Square is a highlight), and moving us in the more tender moments involving his sympathetic ex-wife Sylvia (Amy Ryan). He's also as precious as his fellow actors, disgruntled that Woody Harrelson, Michael Fassbender and Jeremy Renner are unavailable due to working on their highly successful franchises, resentful at he fact that he wore a cape before capes were cool. It could have been a disorientating experience, instead it's exhilarating. It could have also trodden ground covered before, but it's so on-the-nose that it feels fresh. And it may not be the best film of the year as Oscar may have you believe (my heart lies firmly with The Grand Budapest Hotel), but Birdman is everything and nothing, just like Riggan himself.


Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan, Lindsay Duncan
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #618: 'The Hangover' (2009)

Three close friends and the groom's strange brother-in-law travel to Vegas for a bachelor party they will never forget. Teacher Phil (Bradley Cooper) is a womaniser with a wife and kids, Stu (Ed Helms) is in an unhappy marriage with an overbearing, abusive wife, Doug (Justin Bartha) is the groom hoping for a send-off to end all send-off's, and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), is a naive man-child hoping to make friends. When they wake up in the morning, they find their suite demolished, a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, and most worryingly of all, Doug is missing. They clean themselves up and set out to find Doug, and using the various clues lying around, they begin to piece together the night.

Of course, bachelor party movies are hardly hard to come by, and they have been a staple of the gross-out comedy circuit since the 1980's. The Hangover finds its originality in the fact that it focuses on the morning after, rather than the actual night itself, which we see none of. It also has a sense of believability, as if three of the characters have genuinely been friends for years, and are gradually accepting the increasingly strange Alan into their wolf-pack. After all, Alan is often unnervingly strange, but the group find him funny too, and why wouldn't they? Cult stand-up comedian Galifianakis has been around for years, starring in various failed pilots and never quite getting the attention he deserved, but he is by far the best thing in The Hangover, with the mixture of his quite sweet innocence and his random one-liners fitting in with the film's heartfelt moments.

It also keeps the gross humour thankfully down to a minimum. Sure it's often bad taste, but there's a noticeable lack of bare-breasted women and any jokes involving bodily fluids. This is still R-rated, but the humour is in the script and the performances, and doesn't resort to someone shitting themselves for desperate laughs. It's similar in many ways to 2007's Superbad, where the language was filthy, but the laughs were genuine, and the situations, however absurd, still felt somewhat real. And when the credits rolled, I was left with that unfamiliar desire to spend more time with these characters. Special mention must also go to Chinese gangster Mr. Chow (played by Ken Jeong, who simply needs to be in more films), who has one of the best comedy burn lines in history, "so long, gay boys!".


Directed by: Todd Phillips
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie