Run All Night (2015) REVIEW

“Taken 4 beats the previous two instalments.”

SPOILER FREE “Oh no! Not another Liam Neeson thriller.” ‘Schindler’s List’ is really what got him known, I just wish he’d do more projects like that. I actually thought the trailer was for ‘Taken 4’, which immediately filled me with dread; although despite my joy when finding out that it wasn’t, still didn’t give me enough drive to make me feel excited to see ‘Run All Night’.

The film begins rather well, introducing us to a few characters that will be taking the story forward – and thankfully they have some relative depth unlike the horrible ‘Taken 3’. The tone of the film is an unrelenting grimy and dirty one. From planting its flagpole within the first 5 seconds, it certainly has a ‘like it or lump it’ feel to it. I’ve always had issues with films being unnecessarily grimy and depressing for only its own sake, but I was rather willing to give the film a try since it opened rather well. It’s similarities with other thrillers starring Liam Neeson such as ‘Taken’, ‘The Walk Among The Tombstones’, ‘Unknown’ and ‘Non-Stop’ are blatant and as subtle as a brick through a window – but once again, entertaining nonetheless. ‘Road To Perdition’ is certainly another influence that cannot be excused. I commemorate the film’s ability to be compelling, interesting and well performed by its cast – but its glaring errors of being so ghastly unoriginal can by no means be overlooked.

Although not established enough as he should have been, Ed Harris does a fine job at portraying the lead antagonist as Shawn Maguire, former boss to deadbeat Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson). What I liked most about ‘Run All Night’ apart from its ability to be rip-roaringly entertaining, was the relationship between Jimmy and his son Mike (Joel Kinnaman). We find out as the film progresses, why their relationship is so awful, but you generally start to care for their wellbeing. Throughout all of the gunfights and car chases, I felt desperate for the two to succeed in their efforts, and for that reason I would say for the most part that ‘Run All Night’ is partially successful.

With glaring holes so large that it would be impossible to read the script, ‘Run All Night’ fails at being an original thriller – but succeeds at being interesting, entertaining and surprisingly strong in its ability to make the audience care for its characters. Liam Neeson may have done too many films with the same plot, but we shouldn’t be done with him just yet.

★★★

Chappie (2015) REVIEW

“Depressingly grimy and with no strong characters – Neill Blomkamp’s latest is very disappointing.”

SPOILER FREE I must have watched the trailer about 20 times and just listened to it another 20. Being a fan of District 9 and appreciating the subjective view that Neill Blomkamp CAN direct science-fiction – although after viewing ‘Chappie’ it may be best to leave this fantastical genre to the pros. To say that I was looking forward to this film would be an understatement – by being a huge fan of Neill Blomkamp and science-fiction (especially those with an exploration of artificial intelligence) it seemed like a dream come true – it was only when the movie was being shown that the light at the end of the tunnel was actually just the train. I was ready for something powerful, something so engaging and beautiful that showed an extraordinary connection between Chappie and his creator; as well as everybody else – only to have my expectations being shown the door.

We’re back in District 9 territory in terms of the film’s style – with fake archival news footage and characters hanging around grimy parts of the US, it was easy for Blomkamp to give us the illusion that we were right at home. After being presented with a new breed of Police Robots, We’re then introduced to Deon Wilson who’s played by Dev Patel, of whom I like very much; it’s then revealed that Deon has managed to create a robot (at this point, only theoretically) which can think and feel. It’s at this moment where the film begins to go severely downhill. The balance between Deon’s world of science and artificial intelligence and the life of the gang members is both irritating and sloppy portrayed. After the gang members abduct Deon and take his creation away from him, Chappie has to learn how to survive like a child; and on the one hand you have Deon who is trying to teach Chappie how to be good, and then you have the gang members that only want Chappie because of personal gain.

One of ‘Chappie’s most overwhelming problems is that it has no interesting characters. There are moments throughout the film’s duration that try and encourage an emotional response from the audience based on characters that aren’t well developed enough. The gang members that abduct Chappie are seen mostly as the antagonists and although the actors do a good enough job of convincing us of their vulgarity; there is nothing particularly interesting about them. I wanted to see so much more of the relationship between Deon and Chappie, and although Deon was a likeable enough character, there wasn’t enough about him that we were introduced to that make him particularly engaging.

I was reminded of District 9’s griminess as I watched ‘Chappie’ and even though the film has grounds to be difficult to watch because of its tough subject matter; it was overwhelmingly depressing. District 9 is similar and in my opinion was let down because of it – Chappie is as negative as it is flawed, and I hoped for much better. Just because a film tackles tough subject matter doesn’t mean that it necessarily has to be depressing or negative – Chappie lacked any kind of heart or sentiment that is often so vital in science-fiction. When an audience is presented with an idea that is out of this world, we need some way into the characters and the situations – something that we would recognise. Unfortunately ‘Chappie’ ditches a lot of the good things that science-fiction has presented for many years.

You can’t deny that the cinematography is well done, as are the performances by most of the unknown actors. But with gaping holes in the story and a real lack of heart, ‘Chappie’ inspires little sympathy and teaches none that we don’t already know. Can this new ‘Alien’ project that’s starring Sigourney Weaver please just go back to Ridley Scott or James Cameron please? They knew what they were doing – or just leave it alone, that would be cool.

★★

Still Alice (2014) REVIEW

“‘Still Alice’ is both moving and powerful; mainly down to a stunning performance by Julianne Moore.”

SPOILER FREE After having its world premiere at Toronto Film Festival on September 8th and then a US release on December 5th 2014, you could say that I was looking forward to see whether the film was going to be as amazing as all the hype led it to be. As soon as the first scene found its way onto the cinema screen, I can truly say that I was hooked into the Birthday dinner conversation between Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) and her immediate family. Since the film is delving into tricky subject matter, it’s stance on characterisation needs to be one of great accuracy.

‘Still Alice’ completely succeeds on making every character and situation as real as it can possibly be. Every film needs to be believable enough in order for the audience to fully engage in their own escapism, but ‘Still Alice’ has to try extra hard; only because of how real its subject matter is to so many people. It’s certainly not a bad thing for a film to dread on dangerous territory, but sensitivity is so important – although when the credits roll; ‘Still Alice’ only wants you to stand up and clap for achieving an outstanding goal, and trust me it deserves it. When Alice is first diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, she seems to discover so many different things about how it affects her. The genius of this storytelling is that its completely synchronised with our discovery. The film is as compelling as it is strong in its portrayal of family struggles and on-off relationships. ‘Still Alice’ succeeds in being entertaining, even though its subject matter is tough to deal with. By no means does it every become dark or depressing, but only real to the core of how you believe people to act in a situation such as hers.

After winning her Academy Award for Best Actress; the hype surrounding the film was large, but its only when you see Julianne Moore in action that you really begin to understand how much she deserved it. The film takes you on a journey that feels extremely real, but strong in its efforts to convince you of it. Julianne Moore shines in this by being very believable which is exactly what the film needed. It’s entertaining, devastating; but also rather wonderful.

★★★★

Appropriate Behaviour (2014) REVIEW

“Not without flaws, but interesting, funny and rather engaging.”

SPOILER FREE Whilst knowing very little about the film before I went to see it, I was immediately thrown back when introduced to the lead protagonist – Shirin (Desiree Akhavan) is a young woman struggling to come to terms with all of her identities. From growing up in a strict Islamic background; she often uses to humour to enlighten even the darkest of situations. The film examines her and all of her relationships to a degree of great interest.

After coming to terms that Shirin is in fact bisexual; she then starts a relationship with girl Maxine – whilst at the same time hiding it from her parents. As the film starts with their relationship ending; it then proceeds to bounce back and forth between the past and the present. It was sometimes difficult for me to establish exactly where we were when each scene began, but I soon realised that it didn’t really matter. As Shirin discovered more and more about herself, I also realised that it didn’t completely matter where in her timeline we were. The film is completely focused on her and the best thing about that is; is that she is a very likeable character. It’s clear from the get-go that she has both masculine and feminine traits; neither of which her parents really claim to acknowledge. Throughout all of the jokes that Shirin tells to lessen the effect of serious situations – the film is rather tragic when we get closer to her and her parents. It’s evident that she is really struggling to have any kind of relationship with them at all because of the barriers of their religion. The film in no way disgraces Islam – but allows an interesting insight into perhaps how a daughter of faith would be coming to terms with her sexuality.

It’s definitely engaging, and funny along the way. What really works about ‘Appropriate Behaviour’ is that we spend time in one girl’s presence all the way through the film; and we want to! She’s a very likeable and interesting character that we actually just want to see more of. On the downside; I wasn’t completely convinced by all of her sexual exploits, one involving a threesome; and whether they were all realistic. I thought the film was enjoyable – but perhaps more room for improvement there. It’s not without any flaws, but all in all; rather engaging, funny – all told with strong performances.

★★★

Unfinished Business (2015) REVIEW

“Like slamming your hand in the car door again and again; repetitive, stupid, pointless and painful.”

SPOILER FREE If the tagline didn’t say it enough – this review, rather than just analyse the film, will actually be about how much I hated it. Vince Vaughn has always been surrounded by weak unfunny comedies, and even by his abysmal standard – this is a new all time low. After being introduced to Daniel Trunkman (Vince Vaughn), we’re then presented with this idea that he and 2 others are going to go on a business trip to get a handshake and therefore a business deal that will take his business to the next level. Just from the bio, the film doesn’t sound so bad; it’s only when you see how the film plays out that makes you want to jump into a blender.

What struck me almost instantly was by how unfunny the film really was. You could tell when the characters were trying to make us laugh, but it just backfired every time. There was nothing remotely funny about any of the situations, nor any of the dialogue. At the same time we’re on the trip with the 3 morons, there’s this sloppy balance between Daniel’s work life and his home life where his overweight son is being bullied and his sister struggling academically at school. It’s modern cliches muddled with unoriginal but also unrealistic work meetings and situations. Each cast member, even Vince Vaughn could be doing so much better – it was of course, sad to see Nick Frost going to such a new low. Ever since seeing him in the outstanding show ‘Spaced’ and then further in Edgar Wright’s work with ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ he’s always been a strong actors, very versatile. Fortunately, even though the film cost $35 million to make, it’s only so far taken $8.3 million. Let this be a lesson…

With no interesting characters, events, situations or themes – ‘Unfinished Business’ is crass, stupid, vulgar and by far one of the most hateful comedies I’ve seen in years. Failing at every attempt to be funny, ‘Unfinished Business’ deserves to be seen by absolutely no-one. The dialogue is unrealistically coarse, the acting; basic at best and the story as unoriginal as it can possibly be. I haven’t been this bored by a film that I came out hating in a very long time… Oh hang on… ‘Nativity 3’ now where were we?…

★

It Follows (2014) REVIEW

“It scares, shocks and stuns – powerful modern-day horror.”

SPOILER FREE I was so excited to be watching a horror film that was already critically acclaimed – in modern day this never seems to happen. I was instantly struck by the film’s opening scene in which the camera just seemed to not get close to a particular character, just observing from a-far – and throughout the film’s entire duration, I was struck by Mike Gioulakis’ gorgeous cinematography. Only coming in close to the characters when we need to – it was constantly like we, the audience were a spectator from far away just there to be a voyeur.

The majority of modern day horror films make the mistake of exchanging scares for exploitive violence – somebody just needs to say to Hollywood that violence doesn’t make a film scary. The tone, reactions of characters well performed by the actors and music are strong contenders of what makes a horror film effective. ‘It Follows’ instantly introduces us to a group of characters that are each interesting in their own right – I sort of got the feeling that once I was introduced to them, that I would be in their presence for all of the film’s running time, and for the most part I wasn’t wrong. Jay (Maika Monroe) goes on a date with a new boyfriend and after having sex with him, is drugged and tied to a chair – it is then revealed to her that through sex, he has passed on a curse to her that will be in the shape of another person; and at all times, something will be following her.

The job of cinema is to successfully transport you into a world in which you’re so involved, there’s no escape until the film’s time is over – this is pure escapism. ‘It Follows’ completely succeeded to grip me and never let me go. Through strong performances and characters that were actually very interesting and involving; the film made me fascinated by all of its ideas and concepts. It was through this success that the film became more and more frightening. Lead protagonist: Jay was a very well developed character that was both relatable and interesting – everything she felt and experienced seemed to be all that I felt too.

It’s modern-day horror that really really works. The acting was fantastic and really made you feel like you were among the characters and their emotions. As well as having some terrifying moments, it was hugely enjoyable and beautifully shot. It may borrow a lot of its charm and scares from old classics such as John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ but for the first time in years, it’s a horror film that I’ll have no problem seeing again and again…

★★★★

The Boy Next Door (2015) REVIEW

“Jennifer Lopez shines through the mess of a technically shoddy and poorly written thriller.”

SPOILER FREE Not ‘The Girl Next Door’ as I referred to it once, being some bizarre spin-off about Mary Jane Watson finding herself as Spider-Man’s girlfriend in NYC. Although I would have much preferred that to what ‘The Boy Next Door’ had to offer which is few and far between. It’s grossed near ten times the $4 million dollar budget, but received a fairly negative reception both from critics and audiences – I wonder why? I think it’s easy to go into the screening of the film ready to hate it because of Jennifer Lopez on the front cover. Thankfully after careful analysis I’ve made up my mind that Jennifer Lopez isn’t actually the problem with the film. The film is the problem with the film.

Thrown instantly into some really dodgy editing depicting a marital separation, we’re presented to Claire (Jennifer Lopez), her son and ex-cheating husband who is still on the scene and a hunky next door neighbour. Despite the director (Rob Cohen) doing some rather popular work in the past such as ‘Dragonheart’, ‘The Fast and the Furious’ and ‘xXx’, I was thinking rather frequently of how the film managed to make its way to theatres. The quality was obviously rather amateur and seemed to fit a straight-to-DVD structure much better, but I guess Jennifer Lopez and the director’s previous work probably pulled most of the leeway.

After creepy, psycho next-door neighbour Noah (Ryan Guzman) seduces and has sex with Claire, he becomes noticeably more persistent at attracting her attention through harassment. As much as I think the film was rather badly directed with weak performances and stupid dialogue that could have been written by a schoolgirl; I really think Jennifer Lopez kept the film going! Her character was surprising appealing and interesting, and she was certainly believable. The film borders between thriller/horror without going one way or the other – in other words, the film has no idea exactly what it is trying to be. Different scenes are totally different genres and the film doesn’t have enough strong characters to keep us interested in everything that we’re meant to be paying attention to.

There’s no doubting that ‘The Boy Next Door’ is rather a mess, but having said that; I do commemorate Jennifer Lopez’s performance. It could have been completely hit or miss, and for a script that was badly written, she was the only thing that shined. The element of threat carried throughout; although completely unoriginal and something that many will have experienced before, was believable enough. All in all, it’s worth a miss – but if you ever stumble across it, take a look at Jennifer Lopez’s performance…Not bad.

★★

Focus (2015) REVIEW

“Small moments of interest, but we’ve seen it all before.”

SPOILER FREE Another con movie. Really? The only people actually being conned are the ones who are paying to see it without reading the film’s reception. I viewed the trailer at least a month before the film’s release and didn’t think it looked particularly impressive then, although after seeing Margot Robbie’s terrific performance in Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, I was very interested in seeing her again. I like Will Smith as much as the next crowd, but I was more intrigued in seeing him in something a bit more out of his comfort zone – as opposed to the quiet, ‘looking around the room and speaking only when needing to’ type. We’ve seen him play similar characters in ‘I Am Legend’, I, Robot and ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’ – although he’s rather good at playing the insecure husband/father.

As charismatic as Will Smith’s performance is, the film really starts to go downhill after the first 10 minutes – we’re quickly introduced to Nicky (Will Smith) and Jess (Margot Robbie) – a relationship which appears to be rather strong but with little depth at the centre. Nicky is obviously a very talented and skilled thief, and the film did well in explaining that. Through the film’s glaring inaccuracies and misfires, it’s certainly entertaining witnessing everything that Nicky and his crime gang can do; and with that, teaches mostly everything he knows to Jess. As mildly entertaining the film is; unfortunately it never showed me anything particularly new. It seemed that every scene was an imitation of previous films that had a better outlook on crime and wild living.

The film progresses from slightly enjoyable to rather boring throughout the duration. ‘Focus’s biggest problem apart from its lack of originality is that it doesn’t have any interesting characters. Even though we’re introduced to the two leads rather quickly, there isn’t a lot to latch on to. Their relationship is rather irritating and unrealistic, with the only thing coming to mind of ‘that would never work’ or ‘they’re not going to last long’ – is it a surprise that their relationship is so up and down when it appears to be so early on? ‘Focus’s attempt at being interesting doesn’t completely fail – I thought the scenes of Nicky teaching Jess how to be a criminal were satisfactory and the story certainly had moments that took me by surprise… Although, because it’s a film about con-men, I was ready for there to be twist after twist, and I was right… The greatest irony is that the twist is something that you never expect; however with ‘Focus’, I was shocked at the content of the twist but not the fact that the film had several of them. For strong fans of crime films, maybe you’ll want to see how ‘Focus’ misses almost everything that is good about the genre – other than that, you’re only conning yourself.

★★

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) REVIEW

“Unnecessary sequel proves to be rather strong, sweet and interesting.”

SPOILER FREE After seeing the first film and be adamant about it being rather satisfactory and nothing more – I was rather surprised that a sequel was being released since the reception of the original wasn’t outstanding. But even with the British Film Industry, money needs to be made, and I’m sure that the sequel will take just as much, perhaps even more at the box office – even if the film is mostly aimed at the couples, the middle-aged and the elderly.

Sonny (Dev Patel) is behind the idea of the hotels stretching all across India, and has a vision of many people enjoying Indian hospitality. The charm of the first film still lingers across this instalment as we’re introduced to some familiar faces – a cracking cast featuring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Richard Gere and many more. It was a complete surprise to me how sweet and interesting the film was turning out to be – I went into the screening with the mindset that it was just going to be another film added to an extremely long list of unnecessary sequels; and as much as I still believe that it doesn’t add a lot more to make it worthy, it’s touching nonetheless. What I like about both instalments is that all of the characters seem to be rather well developed. It plays a dangerous game on introducing the audience to a lot of characters, but none ever seem to slip beneath the cracks and become unknown or unnecessary.

I was ready to dislike many aspects of ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ based firmly on the principal of unnecessary sequels, but I have to say that the film rather won me over. It’s not life changing by any means, but it has a real heart and it does it without being preachy or overbearing. I realise that I’m not the target audience; but it’s difficult to not to enjoy beautifully shot and choreographed dancing, and a large list of characters that still don’t seem to overstay their welcome. As much as I think that the film overstayed its welcome slightly on the duration, the love story between Sonny and his fiancé Sunaina could have been better developed and more interactive – it’s rather good. Fans of the first one will claim it’s the best thing since sliced bread and others… well! It may win you over too! I rather enjoyed it.

★★★

The Wedding Ringer (2015) REVIEW

“A typically stupid, dumb and brainless comedy.”

SPOILER FREE I have to be honest, when I first saw the trailer for ‘The Wedding Ringer’ it made me completely lose my mind – mainly for realising that this was going to be a film that I would have to eventually see. I had in my mind that “it’s your typical trashy, unfunny and stupid American comedy” and I was certainly not disappointed in this regard. The first so-called ‘gag’ is the lead protagonist Doug falling through a glass table as he leans backward – nobody in the cinema, including myself laughed at this; and thus set the tone for the entire film. As much as there are some American comedies that I still like to this day, much of it seems to be all about repetition. The reason why so many of these comedies get negative reception is not just because the characters are undeveloped, the scripts are badly written and the actors are badly directed (although all of these may be true) – it’s because the film is NOT funny!

Throughout the film’s duration, we get to know the characters of Doug and Jimmy better, and how they’re going to pull the wedding off with the fake best man and groomsmen – whilst trying to fool everybody else including the bride that it’s all genuine. Of course; the groomsmen provided by the best man are a bunch of crazy misfits, including a man that has a serious stammer – they play the same joke of this guy not being able to get his words out about 6 times.

In the film’s defence, there were a couple lines of dialogue that made me snigger quietly for a few seconds, it’s the stupid and loud jokes that don’t work. It made me think back to ‘The Inbetweeners 2’ and how they didn’t get it completely right with all the jokes. The funniest thing about ‘The Inbetweeners’ were the excellently written lines of dialogue that were delivered in hilarious ways that only forced you to laugh at the characters. The stupidly ridiculous ‘monkey humour’ (as I call it) that ‘The Wedding Ringer’s cursed with, requires no intellect or cleverness in understanding what is supposed to be ‘funny’.

It’s a really dumb film, although not as hateful as I was expecting it to be – 95% of it is stupid, crass and boring, but there were some small moments that were either funny or interesting. All round, it’s a really stupid piece of work that makes you look to Hollywood and say “really?… this again?!”

★