Film Review: Iron Man 3

Superhero sequels abound but Iron Man has still got it.

Genre: Action

Rated: M

What’s It All About? This time around Iron Man has more than ever to contend with; domestic discord, anxiety attacks and count ‘em, two villains hell bent on destruction.

The Verdict: Still witty, still visually spectacular, the Iron Man franchise hasn’t lost its mojo.

3.5/5.0 from me, Margaret.

Superhero films are a dime a dozen and this year is no exception. So when a third entry in a superhero franchise (the fourth if you count last year’s The Avengers) hits the screens you can’t be blamed for expecting the quality to decrease along with the creativity.

"Iron Man 3 doesn’t shake its successful formula up too much but what it does it still does with panache; exhilarating action, plenty of humour and a terrific leading man in Downey Jr."

 

Thankfully, Iron Man mostly avoids those pitfalls to deliver another bout of exciting popcorn entertainment.



Downey Jr was less than impressed with his new bodyguard



We meet Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) a.k.a Iron Man again in the aftermath of The Avenger’s epic alien battle that wounded New York and Stark himself. He’s been rattled by the showdown with anxiety attacks and domestic discord with his Stark Industries CEO squeeze Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) the result.

But an easy distraction is his tinkering and this time around Stark has developed more mechanised suits than ever. He’s going to need them if he’s got any chance against two villains hell bent on destruction; Osama Bin Laden-esque The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and the slick, dastardly inventor Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), one of whom isn’t what they seem.



Double Trouble

Iron Man 3 doesn’t shake its successful formula up too much but what it does it still does with panache; exhilarating action, plenty of humour and a terrific leading man in Downey Jr who imbues Iron Man with a still irresistible charisma, still capable of a withering putdown - even to a child.



Damned if I'm a damsel in distress

 The support cast are all good; Paltrow gets a much bigger piece of the action this time round, Pearce who proved so chilling as the villain in last year’s Lawless again revels in being the bad boy and Kingsley shows a comic side we too rarely see.

With this instalment having raked in over $600 million and counting and an Avengers sequel on the way, we haven’t seen the last of Iron Man yet. Luckily there’s still fuel in the tank.

 

Film Review: Oblivion

In space no one dares to dream as slick sci-fi gives way to deja vu.

Genre: Science Fiction

Rated: M
Out: Now

What’s it all about? In the desolate wastelands of future earth a drone repairman discovers his very existence is not at all what it seems.

The Verdict: Oblivion looks a treat but nods to every seminal sci-fi flick makes it feel like Groundhog Day in space.

3.0/5.0 from me, David.

Is it too much these days to hope for a truly original sci-fi movie? Perhaps it is if Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster attempt is anything to go by.

In Oblivion, he plays Jack Harper a drone repairman in the final stage of a mission to extract the earth’s remaining resources. He lives as idyllic a life as you can when your planet has been stripped to desolation after years of war with ‘alien’ species the Scavs. He patrols the skies in a chic bubble space craft or on a turbo charged motorbike on land and mixes business with pleasure with Victoria (Andrea Riseborough, Brighton Rock) his co-worker stationed back at his hovering skytower.



Come here often?

But when a stranger drops out of the sky - quite literally - in the form of the mysterious Julia (Olga Kurylenko, Quantum of Solace), everything Jack knows about his existence will be turned on its head as his memories of her in a still-in-tact New York City grow stronger.

"The official site for Oblivion describes it as “original” and “groundbreaking”. Not so; the line between reverence and plagiarism becomes blurry."

 

Oblivion, which borders on soap-opera-in-space, prides itself on its plot twists and turns. I won’t spoil them here except to say they unfortunately amount to moments that are less jaw dropping and more underwhelming of the 'Time-for-Tom-to-save-mankind' kind. One highlight though is a fight scene where Cruise in form fitting white padded leather gets a leg up (and over) on.... let’s just say someone VERY recognisable.

The official site for Oblivion describes it as “original” and “groundbreaking”. Not so. Let’s be pragmatic, probably all films have reference points – ‘Everything old is new’, ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ and all that – but play ‘Spot the sci-fi reference’ and the line between reverence and plagiarism becomes blurry; from 2001: A Space Odyssey (a familiar, omniscient malevolent presence) to Star Wars (a thrilling spacecraft chase through rocky chasms), Alien (“Back off you son of a bitch!” warns Jack) and even Predator.  



Space Chic



It’s confusing sci-fi-by-numbers but what Oblivion does , it does well. Helmed by presumed sci-fi aficionado Joseph Kosinski  (TRON: Legacy) and based on his unpublished graphic novel, the movie excels with a spectacular space-chic look and seamless, stunning action sequences. CGI desolation - which often has that misty, appropriated look - looks better than most aided by filming (in part) in some spectacular Icelandic locales.



Hands off the narration Morgan. It's mine I tell you, all mine.



The cast all do serviceable jobs including Morgan Freeman whose role as a mysterious lair dweller with steam punk glasses amounts to little more than an extended cameo. (At least he doesn’t slip into his well worn shoes as narrator, that's reserved for Mr Cruise).

But it’s Cruise who’s least surprising here. It’s an action heavy, scenery-chewing role that he could do in his sleep, one that hardly stretches him. We’ve seen that before too.

Film Review: Trance

Look into my eyes...... Look into my eyes. And strap yourself in for a mind-bending ride.

 

What’s It All About?

When an art heist goes awry, a London art auctioneer with amnesia and an angry crime lord putting the squeeze on employ a hypnotist to help uncover the missing piece.

The Verdict: It can border on the ludicrous but sit back and suspend belief and Trance is quite the engrossing, sexy mind bender.

3.5/5.0 from me, Margaret

Just how powerful is hypnotism? Very, if you believe this serpentine thriller, the latest from the equally shifty – genre wise at least – director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later).

In the aftermath of a central London art heist, auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy, The Last King of Scotland) finds himself in hospital with a blow to the head. He realises he’s party to the heist just not why and more pressingly, where the missing Goya is.

"You'll either come away wondering what the hell just happened or you'll want to see it again to piece the puzzle together."

"Mention Mr Tumnus and you're toast."

The heist orchestrator, crime king pin Franck (Vincent Cassel, Irreversible) and his band of henchmen want to know its whereabouts – yesterday – and readily apply some fingernail twitching torture to Simon to get him talking. But when Franck realises Simon really is suffering amnesia it’s time for a visit to high street hypnotist Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson, Seven Pounds) to uncover the truth.

And what a truth it is or should that be ‘What is the truth?’. Like mind-bending movies that have come before it (Memento, Shutter Island) you become unsure quite what’s a manifestation of the mind and where a character sits on the good-to-bad meter.




"Ok, Ok one question about Tumnus"

 

That’s the draw and distraction of the screenplay written by Joe Ahern (who wrote the 2001 telemovie the film is based on) and John Hodge (Trainspotting). It constantly plays with your expectations, flashing forward and back, showing shards of the story to keep you guessing. I wondered every now and then if it was trying to be a little too clever, wearing it’s manipulation a little too much on it’s sleeve.



Vincent realised he'd been framed

And you do need to suspend belief with a lot of the story’s potency relying on just how tangible a power you believe hypnotherapy to be and how fractured a person’s memory and personality can become.

Still, it’s all done with gritty determination and style with the film’s look resembling some kind of shiny, fervently primary coloured dream.

There’s sharp performances too from the three leads; McAvoy is charismatic and disturbing, Dawson evokes an intriguingly atypical yet sexy femme fatale and Cassel is suitably mercurial. Boyle meanwhile continues to prove his diversity (he shot Trance in the lead up to his celebrated masterminding of the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony).

Ultimately, Trance engages for the most part. You'll either come away wondering what the hell just happened or you'll want to see it again to piece the puzzle together. Or both.



Film Review: The Host (0.5/5.0)

The Lowdown: This inane adaptation of the lesser known creation from Stephenie Meyer has at least one thing in common with her Twilight vampires - It too sucks.

Beware the cache of a name, even a monumentally money spinning one such as Stephenie Meyer, creator of the Twilight saga. When the filmmakers landed the screen rights to her lesser known creation The Host they must have been salivating; here was a property with a presumably immeasurable built-in teen audience positively gagging for more Meyer material on screen.

Maybe, but how disappointed even the most die hard of Twihards will be with this indisputably silly clunker which makes the Twilight series look like a bona fide masterpiece.

"When considering seeing this indisputably silly clunker it’s best to take heed of one of The Host's many silly lines; 'This is not a good idea.' ”

In The Host, an alien race known as the Souls is colonising the galaxy as prolifically as Starbucks, the earth their latest acquisition. They slip their glowing insect-like souls into humans, erasing their memories and controlling them one by one for a purpose that’s murky apart from, well, control.

Confused much?

That is until they meet their match in teenager Melanie (Saoirse Ronan, Atonement). She’s not about to be usurped without a fight - her body may have been overtaken by the flaky and confused soul known as Wanderer but Melanie's very discordant teen voice can always be cringingly heard calling the shots. 

She leads Wanderer, soon to be known as Wanda, to a hidden resistance of humans in the desert including her Uncle Jeb (William Hurt), Aunt Maggie, (Frances Fisher, Titanic) boyfriend Jared (Max Irons, Red Riding Hood), future love interest Ian (Jake Abel, I Am Number Four) and little brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) with misguided blonde baddie and procurer of human hosts, Seeker (Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds) on their trail.



Ronan realised she needed her head read for accepting the role



Yes, the whole scenario is as confused as it is preposterous. Ronan, an accomplished young actress tries her best in her dual role but can only do so much; Kruger, Irons (son of Jeremy) and Abel are soulless and wooden; Hurt, presumably involved purely for the pay packet, struggles to hide his disdain for the cruddy material.



Hurt 'Chose to Take the Money and Run'

Director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca) – normally a skilled go-to sci-fi helmer – must shoulder the bulk of the blame here. Sure he’s got the sci-fi sheen down pat but that in no way makes up for his stinker of a screenplay. The handling of Melanie/Wanderer/Wanda’s internal conflict – like some unbearable after school special in inane role playing - is lazy and ridiculous to the point of guffawing from the audience. And the cheesy love scenes are just as derision-inducing.

 

So all in all, when considering seeing The Host it’s best to take heed of one of the film’s many silly lines; “This is not a good idea.”

Film: 0.5/5.0 stars

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, William Hurt, Frances Fisher, Diane Kruger, Max Irons.

Director: Andrew Niccol.

Written By: Andrew Niccol, based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer.

Rated: M.

Genre: Teen Sci-fi/Romance

Year: 2013

Run Time: 95 minutes.

Out: Now.

TV Review: Easy A

The Lowdown: With some of Easy A’s comedy falling flat it’s no The Breakfast Club but it does have moments that sparkle with edginess in an enjoyable teen comedy with a brain.

It’s funny how a good movie trailer can reel you in, in this case a snappy package that promises snappy dialogue and performances in a teen comedy with a brain. Easy A doesn’t quite deliver but it has fun trying.

In the sunny, buttoned up community of Ojai, California, Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone, The Help) is by no means an ‘IT Girl’ at school but when she tells a saucy white lie, rumour spreads like wildfire through the social networking superhighway that she’s lost her “V card” (that’s virginity to you and I) and more. In short, the lady’s a tramp and Olive isn’t about to spurn her new found popularity, instead embracing the lie complete with “whore couture” emblazoned with the letter of shame, just like the condemned Hester Prynne of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter which she happens to be studying in class.

The ruse has side benefits. In exchange for gift cards to her favourite stores, Olive allows the school’s nerds to spread the word that she’s “fake rocked” their world. Things quickly get out of control as the lie starts to have adverse effects with a backlash of lynch mob proportions. Fanning the moral outrage is the patronising god-botherer Marianne (Amanda Bynes, Hairspray) who spread the rumour in the first place -“Jesus tells us to love everyone,” she preaches. “Even the whores and homosexuals.”

You lookin' at me?

You have to wonder why a gal, one that hardly looks like she’d be an outcast, should have to resort to being a faux hoe to gain popularity. Even so it’s entertaining to watch her try. A scene where Olive and tortured, gay Brandon (Cougar Town’s terrifically sardonic Dan Byrd) fake a romp of ecstasy is Easy A’s funniest and most beautifully played. It’s a shame that that’s the er….climax of what this comedy could have been.

It seems that writer Bert V. Royal and director Will Gluck (Friends With Benefits) are aiming for a sophisticated John Hughesian teen comedy like The Breakfast Club for the naughties and they have mixed success. Some of the comedy falls flat while other times it sparkles with edginess. There’s a fair whiff of Dawson’s Creek Syndrome too – that is, teens sprouting eloquence and witticisms way beyond theirs or anyone’s years and it can be a little too smug, smart and self aware. Literary references from Hawthorne to Silvia Plath and Mark Twain are poured on thick. While this reviewer welcomes some raunch and profanity, here the mix doesn’t quite gel with the result a little too much resembling a female American Pie. That’s saying something given no one really gets laid.



Who you calling Easy?

Easy A earns good grades for some impressive performances (bar Lisa Kudrow who pretty much phones it in, regurgitating her kooky Phoebe Friends shtick as a Counsellor). Stone proves a caustic and fearless talent while Cairo Time’s Patricia Clarkson (making a rare foray into the mainstream) and The Devil Wears Prada’s Stanley Tucci as Olive’s off-kilter non-judgmental parents are charming and have a lot of fun with their roles.

The filmmakers have made nice work of highlighting the fight between a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach with all the puritanical outrage and infamy that follows, versus that of standing up and being yourself. No prizes for guessing which approach wins - it’s hammered home and resolved in much too neat a bow - but then this is Hollywood. It’s a film not quite worthy of an easy A but we’ll give it an E for Effort.

Easy A airs tonight on Go! at 9pm.

This review first appeared online on Trespass Magazine, September 2010.

TV Review: The Adjustment Bureau

The Lowdown: A major mainstream Hollywood film that succeeds in being both entertaining and thought provoking.

We’ve all watched as taxi after taxi pass us by or (more commonly) fumed as reception suddenly drops out on our mobile phones. What if these experiences weren’t just simply part of the humdrum of everyday life? What if they happened for a reason, orchestrated by something or someone pulling at the strings of destiny?

Meeting - seemingly by chance -  beautiful dancer Elise (The Devil Wears Prada’s Emily Blunt), up-and-coming New York Senate candidate David Norris (Matt Damon) is instantly smitten, certain she’s the woman for him. But then strange occurrences begin to collude against his desired fate, thanks to the mysterious workings of The Adjustment Bureau. This covert operation of sharply tailored men in hats (including Mad Men’s John Slattery and Priscilla Queen of the Desert’s Terrence Stamp) makes sure that every moment of a person’s life happens to the plan the Bureau has set out for them, right down to when and how you spill your takeaway coffee.

For reasons not immediately apparent, the Bureau will stop at nothing to keep David and Elise apart. David soon realises he’ll have to outsmart them if Elise is to remain in his life and so begins a thrilling, almost fantastical chase through New York City in a race against time.


You can leave your hat on.....

The concept may sound obscure – it’s based on a short story by much adapted sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick – and with its peculiar mix of thriller, sci-fi and romance genres, it is. That’s the film’s biggest challenge – it requires the audience to suspend disbelief and join the ride. But in the capable hands of debut feature director George Nolfi (screenwriter of The Bourne Ultimatum) who directs with panache, two compelling leads and a strong supporting cast (including The Hurt Locker’s Anthony Mackie who impresses as a sympathetic Bureau agent) it largely works.

Damon is dependably good and Blunt, such a natural performer, positively oozes magnetic charisma and charm. The chemistry between the pair is right off the Richter scale and believable to boot.


Come to the Gents often?

The production design is also effective with the ‘men in hats’ looking as if they’ve just stepped out of Mad Men’s ad agency and their powers and methodologies – futuristic, telepathic and old fashioned – a quaint mix.

The Adjustment Bureau poses existential questions of destiny, chance and the consequences of free will. It’s a major mainstream Hollywood film that succeeds in being both entertaining and thought provoking, complex yet deceivingly simple in its creative concepts.

Some viewers may find the film’s denouement less than satisfying. But taken as a whole, if you allow yourself to take a leap of faith The Adjustment Bureau is an intriguing, engrossing experience. At the very least, it just might be the perfect date movie.

Originally published online at Trespass Magazine, March 2011.

Film Review: Broken City (4.0/5.0)

The lowdown: Broken City is a taut, intriguing and hard-boiled thriller that has much to say about big city corruption. 4.0/5.0 stars.

Given the talent attached it’s surprising that this thriller comes to our screens with so little fanfare almost slipping under the radar in the afterglow of the Oscars (even star Russell Crowe has expressed his disappointment on Twitter at the apparent limited publicity). It’s a shame because Broken City is well worthy of attention.

The ‘Broken City’ of the title refers to the Big Apple and it’s a fruit rotten to the core if snaky Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Crowe) is anything to go by. But with an election looming, his immediate concerns turn closer to home; he suspects his wife Kathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is having an affair and he hires hard-bitten disgraced former cop cum detective Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) to investigate.

What seems like an open shut case of infidelity in New York’s upper echelons unravels into something much more scandalous as Billy digs deeper into what will prove a far reaching conspiracy. To say much more would be giving too much away but it’s safe to say that money, power and vengeance are constant bookends.

Co-producer Wahlberg said recently in an allegedly drunken interview (watch an excerpt here) that he wanted Broken City to recall some seminal American character driven films of the 70 ‘s – films like Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. While that’s setting a lofty goal, Broken City does invoke the genre nicely with its own gritty panache while bringing currency by mining current political events as its backdrop. It’s a film wryly in touch with its NYC setting (an irony given that some of the film was shot in New Orleans) with a hard boiled honesty, jarringly salty and un-PC dialogue, raw violence and a plot seething with underhanded political manoeuvrings and turning tables of power.



Rusty takes his pulse taking VERY seriously

Crowe is formidable, positively lapping up his role as the cocky, intimidating (and strangely orange-hued) Mayor prepared to do whatever it takes to stay in the hot seat. Wahlberg proves a worthy macho match as his sparring opponent in this cat and mouse game and Zeta-Jones is suitably sultry, almost purring as a possible femme fatale. There’s top notch support from character actors Jeffrey Wright (Casino Royale), Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan) and Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights ) too.

What’s more, the sharp screenplay with its serpentine twists aided and abetted by polished direction by Allen Hughes ( The Book of Eli ) keeps the intrigue bubbling away in what amounts to a taut, hard-boiled thriller that has much to say about big city corruption.

Film: 4.0/5.0 stars

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper, and Kyle Chandler.

Director: Allen Hughes.

Written By: Brian Tucker.

Rated: MA 15+

Genre: Drama

Year: 2013

Run Time: 109 minutes.

Out: March 7, 2013.

Film Review: This Is 40 (3.5/5.0)

Barely has this latest film from enfant terrible Judd Apatow begun and his real-life wife Leslie Mann is telling ‘the big 4-0’ exactly where to go; it can suck an appendage she doesn’t have. You get the drift. We are in Apatow-land where a point is often conveyed with a crude slap in the face and where nothing is sacred.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

And so we revisit Debbie (Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) some five years after we first met them as the sister and brother-in-law of Katherine Heigl’s reluctant mum-to-be in Apatow’s Knocked Up.

In this ‘sort of’ sequel – there’s no mention of Heigl or Seth Rogen’s charcters from the original – Debbie and Pete both happen to be turning 40 in the same week. Debbie is in denial, insisting she’s actually turning 38 while Pete seems resigned to impending middle age, for now.

Much like many parents, they’re finding raising their children somewhat of a combat zone - Sadie (Maude Apatow) is now a raging teen, youngest Charlotte (Iris Apatow) is full of cheek – and the generational gap only illuminates their lack of hipness. Meanwhile both Debbie and Pete’s respective businesses are struggling, they’re living beyond their means and their fathers' (Albert Brooks and John Lithgow adding some veteran comic flair) are each a source of tension.

So the stage is set for what is a very humorous look at what it means to arrive at middle age. And nothing’s off limits; from Viagra to turn-your-head-and-cough physicals, mammograms, anal abnormalities, the perky breasts of youth and the elastic effect of childbirth.

No, This Is 40 is not a subtle film but it does wring many laugh-out-loud moments out of its protagonists’ coming to terms with aging and some blackly comic observations about parenthood (loving and hating your kids all at once) and marriage (Pete and Debbie divulge graphically how they'd like to kill each other). There’s some great, very knowing dialogue with Apatow seemingly funneling his own insight of family life straight from the source, all with his trademark cutting sense of humour.

Mann has said she and Apatow wanted to represent a relationship as it truly is, unfurnished with Hollywood clichés. They almost succeed. This Is 40 with its dual mid life crisis writ large is undoubtedly honest - blisteringly so - but it can’t escape it’s Hollywood roots with sentimentality creeping through, another Apatowian trait.

And This Is 40 isn’t exactly “everyone’s story” as it purports to be in the film’s trailer. After all, Mann and Rudd are two mighty good looking specimens who look as if they should have nothing to complain about, at least not physically. But that’s also part of the gag perhaps. As Bridesmaid’s Melissa McCarthy, playing a rabid parent in a school spat with Debbie and Pete points out “They look like they’re in a bank commercial”.

We’re soon reminded they’re not perfect, far from it. But it is nice to be reunited with these characters again - as obscene and unlikeable as they can be - because they’re played so well by Mann and Rudd, two great complimentary comedic foils with their chemistry still strong.

They’re well bolstered by supporting players including Bridesmaid’s Chris O’Dowd and McCarthy, Megan Fox (Friends With Kids) and Jason Segel who returns as Jason, a stoner in Knocked Up now transformed as a perky personal trainer.

'This Is 40' doesn’t really break any new ground but in its exploration of aging, relationships and parenthood, it makes for a knowing, naughty and side-splitting interlude.

Film: 3.5/5.0 stars

Starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Chris O’Dowd. 

Director: Judd Apatow.

Written By: Judd Apatow.

Rated: MA 15+

Genre: Comedy

Year: 2012

Run Time: 134 minutes.

Out: Now.