Spy ****

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Posted: 19/06/2015

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Melissa McCarthy is an acquired comedic taste. We got a brief insight into her secret service ways when she accosted an air marshal in Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids (2011), which brought her to public attention. There was more to come with McCarthy laying down the law in Feig’s The Heat (2013) as a foul-mouthed Boston cop opposite Sandra Bullock’s uptight FBI Special Agent character.

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Funnily enough, McCarthy tones it down her latest Feig collaboration, Spy, but only to begin with. She’s let lose again when she swaps desk work for field work as CIA analyst Susan Cooper. So expect all hell and McCarthy wrath to reign. Watch for her transformation into an American Dawn French lookalike too.

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To overlook Spy as yet another McCarthy comedic vehicle is to do it an injustice. It’s actually a very funny pastiche of every spy-action movie out there, sent up by none other than British hard man, ‘Mr Transporter’ himself, Jason Statham at the fore as accident-prone spy Rick Ford. In fact, Statham steals the show as he lets lose funny line after funny line, all delivered in his usual menacing growl, while making a complete ass of himself in the process.

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The pairing of McCarthy and Miranda Hart from BBC’s Miranda fame is a curious one. It feels a little stilted to start with, as though each funny lady is being too modest and polite about the other one taking the comedic lead. It’s only when the momentum gets going that each blossoms and their timing clicks into place.

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This is helped by another Bridesmaid veteran, Rose Byrne, who is stereotypical in character as the villainous vixen, Rayna Boyanov, in this but is equally hilarious. It’s another Feig show of female comedic ingenuity that, regardless of the rehash of spy comedy tropes, puts the women in charge. Just check out the fight scene between Cooper and Lia (Nargis Fakhri), reminiscent of Kill Bill.

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There are some entertaining performances from Jude Law as Bond-styled Bradley Fine, having a ball in a tux, while Peter Serafinowicz plays the most irritating continental spy, Aldo, with equal, gleeful campy affair. Feig certainly embraces the stereotype, which is why Statham’s Ford is a nice twist.

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Spy is an espionage hoot with lots of action, silliness and Bond-style antics. It’s easy on the brain, consumable comedy with strong female leads that’s always a breath of fresh air in Hollywood – something Feig is instrumental in pursuing.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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LFF 2014: Queen and Country ***

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Posted: 10/06/2015

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For such a patriotic title, writer-director-producer John Boorman’s new period drama, Queen and Country is quite the anti-establishment film set in post-war, Fifties Britain. It goes about this in a rather delinquent fashion, highlighting the pomposity of hierarchy through its varied characters’ experiences.

The sequel to Boorman’s semi-autobiographical Hope and Glory (1987), Queen and Country sees a grown-up Bill Rohan (Callum Turner) drafted into the Army, where he meets and becomes best mates with the eccentric and free-willed Percy (Caleb Landry Jones). To pass time during their conscription, they battle with their snooty superiors and traditions, while chasing girls and finding love for Bill in the mesmerizing shape of the mysterious and melancholy Ophelia (Tamsin Egerton).

There is a great sense of spirit and fun to this drama that interestingly focuses on the feelings of youth still coming out of the shadows of World War Two. However, conflict is always looming, what with drafting young Brits – to young to serve in WWII – for the Korean War. Through Bill and Percy, you completely relate to the frustration of young lives placed on the line for a far away hierarchy.

Boorman does touch on the grim effects of war, but this is more about the institutionalized antics of two maturing men in very different ways. It’s a coming-of-age film, first and foremost that relies on our investment in the boys characters to roll with it, greatly supported by some wonderfully enjoyable performances from David Thewlis as the by-the-book Sgt. Major Bradley, Richard E. Grant as the ever-bothered Major Cross, Brían F. O’Byrne as the barking-mad RSM Digby, and Pat Shortt as a Dad’s Army-styled joker, Private Redmond.

Quite honestly, without these characters – and the ‘missing mess clock’ gag, the film would feel rather flat, even though Turner and Landry Jones make a fine pair of cads, and Egerton looks divine with ease. It is very theatrical in style, egged on by its high spirits – very much stamping a Boorman presence – but often tonally uneven it what it’s trying to achieve, almost a touch of Carry On in places (cue another naughty nurse episode like Barbara Windsor’s Nurse Susan Ball).

Queen and Country is far from a harrowing piece of film period drama that some might come to expect and very much a mixed bag of surprises – though poignant – that will leave some fulfilled and others wanting. It will make you laugh at the lunacy of old-school British etiquette that is still alive and kicking in certain institutions today.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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San Andreas ***

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Posted: 10/06/2015

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If your world is crumbling around you, the one thing you want is a ‘rock’ of a man to come to the rescue. Enter Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, a man mountain who seems to grow in muscular stature in every new film he appears in. The earthquakes in San Andreas might be enormous, but Johnson seems to power his way to the heart of the problem, giving this rather silly but entertaining disaster film its natural arch enemies: Johnson verses the rock.

Johnson plays ex-Army-cum -rescue-chopper pilot Ray who makes it his mission to save hapless females in deadly situations, until the predicted – and long overdue – mega earthquake runs the full length of the San Andreas Fault line, causing havoc on West Coast America. He also has to find and save members of his estranged family in the carnage.

Johnson musters as much charm as possible to match is inherent reliability in this when the chips (or buildings) are down, and you can’t fault him for his efforts. He is more than watchable, but follows a predictable path of estranged husband who reunites his damaged family through disaster that’s been done countless times before.

What’s a little more interesting is not all the action scenes are reserved for him and his biceps; striking-looking Alexandra Daddario plays his college-bound older daughter Blake uses what survival skills she’s learnt from ‘daddy’ to rescue her own pair of Brit victims from the San Fran masses. It’s kind of like watching a ‘how to survive an earthquake’ video at times. Even mum, Emma (Carla Gugino), is not without a few action skills, managing to dodge damaged skyscrapers and maneuver a speed boat like a female Bond with ease.

There is a lot of CGI carnage to be thrilled by, without any blood-letting, hence humans defy falling debris without a scratch, much like in a video game. In fact, the film takes itself a little too seriously for a disaster flick, making it laughable in this respect. The only earnest character appears to be Paul Giamatti as world-renowned seismologist Lawrence who encounters the unfolding catastrophe personally at the very beginning, and gets to plead with everyone who’s listening to take heed.

Canadian director Brad Peyton – who worked with Johnson on Journey 2: The Mysterious Island in 2012 – certainly has gleeful fun carving up and flattening California in his film, acting like a prophet to remind current residents of the region of their impending doom with ‘The Big One’ due. Perhaps that’s the reason the film takes itself more seriously as the reality is there?

Whatever the reason, San Andreas may well be clichéd, predictable and rather daft sometimes, but its cast is easy on the eye and characters promote family values – with a little shake up of the earth beneath their feet. It’s an easily digestible flick that ultimately makes some of us relieved we aren’t living in the Sunshine State for once.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Man Up ***

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Posted: 08/06/2015

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The thought of Simon Pegg as a leading man in a romcom might make you hesitate before parting with cash at the box office, especially after the lacklustre Hector and the Search for Happiness. But you have to hand it to him – what with Kill Me Three Times, he’s certainly trying his hand at various the genres, so why make an exception with romcoms?

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To be honest, his leading lady, Lake Bell, makes a formidable, comedic partner-in-crime in this, matching Pegg’s usual heart-on-sleeve repertoire and often stealing his thunder.  Man Up refers to what both of their characters should be doing in this very modern-day London ‘romance’ tinged with cynicism and knowing experiences of ‘life after 30 in relationships’. However, it does descend into something resembling a less-padded Love Actually in the end.

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Bell plays Nancy, a thirtysomething Brit – with a flawless accent for an American – who has been less than successful in love. After another awkward ‘set-up’ at an engagement party, Nancy is on her way to her parents’ wedding anniversary party. She meets a girl on a train with a self-help book on Love. Deliberately leaving the book behind – with some much needed tips, Nancy races off the train after her, knowing she’ll be waiting under the clock in Waterloo station, armed with said book so her blind date can recognise her. Instead, Jack (Pegg) mistakes Nancy for his blind date, and she just runs with it, having promised herself she’ll become more adventurous in life. What transpires are deceit, brutal honesty, fun and budding romance.

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Man Up has some great, knowing moments and a script that allows Pegg and Lake to rift sublimely off each other – even if the latter gets the best lines. Theirs is played out more like a platonic relationship that’s got possibilities. Things do get a little rom-com gushy towards the end as the Love Actually factor kicks in, resulting in predictability, but not necessarily spelling old-fashioned ‘romance’ (cue end reconciliation). It’s the fun had getting to this point that is the film’s forte and when it does get too sincere or sentimental, that’s when it veers off mark.

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Pegg demonstrates he can do homegrown romcoms in a quirky sense, but only if his character is as self-depreciating as the female role traditionally is. Man Up may have its feminist ‘wobbles’ in parts – like the typical embittered ex-wife character (played by Olivia Williams) and Nancy’s vulnerable moments – but it is surprisingly contemporary, fresh and punchy in delivery. More so, we grow fond of Lake very early on that helps matters greatly.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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LFF 2014: The Goob ***

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Posted: 04/06/2015

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Norfolk gets its film outing at this year’s festival, portrayed in both a good and bad light in debut feature-film writer-director Guy Myhill’s The Goob. Apart from the sinister (and consistently impressive) Sean Harris as the star attraction, the other highlight is the Norfolk countryside, both alluring and achingly desolate, simultaneously.

Young Goob (newcomer Liam Walpole) celebrates his last day of school by dumping the uniform and going for a dip on a balmy summer’s day. However, his short-lived freedom ends when he returns home to his mother’s bleak roadside diner and reality sets in. His young mum Janet (Sienna Guillory) lives with boyfriend Gene Womack (Harris), a violent womaniser and wannabe stock-car racing professional who he detests. A prank involving Womack’s prized banger ends up with Goob’s older brother in hospital, and the kid put to work by Womack guarding the family’s pumpkin farm.

Goob’s insular world is challenged by two outsiders; camp, fun-lover Elliot (Oliver Kennedy) who enrages Womack with his frivolity, and eastern European summer worker Eva (Marama Corlett) who Womack leers at. Both give impressionable Goob a sense of a greater world outside his home county to explore, if only he could be free to do so.

It’s hard to say what Myhill’s goal for film is, apart placing Norfolk centre stage – near Swaffham in the west of the county to be precise. The cinematography by Simon Tindall has a gritty realism to it, much like that in the Andrea Arnold vein, breathing real life into the landscape that’s depicted at all times of day and making it as much a lead character as the others.

There is also a great sense of locality and hidden charm to the area, even with a sad, overwhelming feel of abandonment too, that the area’s glory days are long past, even with a strong agricultural presence attracting migrant workers today. Myhill’s local documentary pedigree is evident, especially the racing scenes that are a throwback to his TV film about the Swaffham Raceway.

The film presents a series of moving picture postcards of the area in fact, not an entirely coherent plot-line, but the combination is still a captivating one all the same. The glue is Goob and the dysfunctional family, a standard cliché, but the strong acting and technical quality balance the film’s lack of character development and directorial vagueness. The latter is perhaps deliberate but with too many subplots not satisfactorily concluded, it seems sloppy rather than purposefully poetic in an indie style.

Harris is typecast again, but being Norfolk-bred, you respect him for committing to the project and lending his trademark screen nastiness. It’s not a taxing role by any account, but Womack’s monstrous personality gets a full, ugly airing, and one that Harris must have relished playing.

Gangly Walpole makes a striking visual presence, producing a susceptible innocence pierced by authentic adolescent rage for a debut performer. A lot of his scenes are highly comparable to other such coming-of-age dramas of past, including the prerequisite motorised escape (moped, car etc). Nevertheless, here is actually a youngster who sticks to his family duty, which is refreshing, rather than scarpering at any thrill-seeking opportunity – either that, or Myhill suggests no-one really ‘escapes’ this scenery.

The Goob is an affecting debut film from Myhill, one fascinating for its rich regional persuasion. It’s also another treat for Sean Harris fans that can’t get enough of the actor’s natural knack for screen callousness. Indeed, Walpole and Kennedy (The Chemist), the other young actor who injects a buzz into the listless environment as Elliot, get to perfect their art in this and present exciting prospects to come. Even former S Club 7 star Hannah Spearritt makes a notable supporting contribution.

What The Goob’s plot needed was less rather than more distracting us from the central family nucleus which is powerful enough. That said there is a certain whimsical yearning for the characters’ undemanding lifestyle, the irony being it’s far from this working on the land. In that sense, Myhill’s proposal may be demonstrating the lure of why Goob stays put, in raising Norfolk’s appeal to the outsider too.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Mad Max: Fury Road ****

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Posted: 19/05/2015

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For sheer spectacle’s sake, a trip to the rebooted Mad Max for 2015 that’s Fury Road is worth the ticket price alone – even in 2D (which this press screening was). Although there are great planes of desert landscape, writer-director George Miller ‘confines’ us in an even more sinister world than before then attacks our senses on all fronts. As its name suggests, Fury Road like an angry virtual reality experience, a never-ending chase scene with no respite or ‘safe ground’ in sight, all post-apocalyptic terror, but even more frightening as there appears to be no destination in sight.

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Rebel Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy reprising Mel Gibson’s iconic role) is caught by the sickly War Boys of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and used by one, Nux (Nicholas Hoult), as his personal, portable blood bank. The War Boys’ world is one where petrol and water are vital currency. When one of their own, tanker driver Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) absconds with Joe’s wives – one of which is pregnant and expected to bear a healthy baby (played by Rosie Huntington Whiteley), the War Boys go after Furiosa and her load. Furiosa’s goal is reaching her former childhood home across the desert landscape, her route to survival, with lush greenery – and hope of civilisation.

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Fury Road uber-hypes all that is common to the other Mad Max films tenfold, from intense, thundering chase sequences and pure insanity (metallic face-painting moments) to a sense of paranoia and despair. Watching the War Boys in action is like watching Duracell bunnies in overdrive, a near exhausting but utterly fascinating choreography as they plough forward to catch their targets. This is all propelled by a heavy-metal presence on screen of a guitar player/flame-thrower and drummers as they go into battle. This power is a complete contradiction to the War Boys general malaise, all sickly white and tumour-ridden but still as tough as steel.

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In contrast, Theron as shaven-headed Furiosa – a determined, warrior/Terminator-like Alpha female similar to Ripley in Aliens – seems the healthiest of the bunch, as do the four ethereal wives that pose against the desert landscape, looking like a supermodel centrefold for Vogue beachwear. Theron steals the show, and there is some vague resemblance of character arcs as we go on their perilous journey with them.

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A gruff Hardy channels, physically and mentally, his Bronson and Bane characteristics into Max – especially the latter in the metal mask, grunting and sneering and using his bulk to depict his mood and needs. His Max isn’t as insane in the devilish sense as Gibson’s was, and he seems more solid and cumbersome. He also has a ‘transformation’ in spirit – complete with a tender but clumsy moment, though it’s hard to say whether this is character building or a moment of weakness.

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Hoult’s character Nux is also intriguing, like some present-day, impressionable, young jihadi wanting to reach paradise in Valhalla. The striking similarities to current events, including the fight over amenities like fuel is a chilling reminder to us all – if you can get past the head-thumping soundtrack and circus-styled action for a moment (there IS downtime, so breathe). There is so much going on, perhaps too much to process that any criticism lies in needing knowledge of the previous Mad Max saga and their existence to begin to piece together snippets of what kind of ‘human’ society remains on Joe’s rocky pad post Apocalypse.

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All in all, Mad Max: Fury Road is complete rush of the senses and has some of the most exhausting action pieces in a very long time, combined with some mind-blowing design and cinematography to keep you transfixed – or pinned – in your seat. Note: it’s not necessary to pay the 3D ticket price either. Fury Road is based on the original concept as the previous films – maybe decades later – but just uses more present-day cinematic trickery to put you firmly in the escaping driving seat. As a result, Mad Max the character becomes almost a sideshow to the film’s juggernaut momentum. If that’s still acceptable for fans, Fury Road will thrill the living daylights out of you.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Big Game **

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Posted: 14/05/2015

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Every kid’s fantasy at some point in their childhood is saving the day from the evils of the world, without necessarily donning the superhero cape. Big Game from Rare Exports director Jalmari Helander is a cheesy, old-fashioned action flick in the Die Hard vein aimed squarely at the younger audience. It also taps into traditional – in this case, Finnish – values that can get left behind in the tech-centric world of today’s youth.

The main issue with Big Game is it feels fairly lightweight when you cut out the action sequences, and with the price of a family cinema ticket today, this is a big cause for concern in recommending it. The irony is, what with Helander’s great sweeping vistas of ‘Finnish’ forest (filmed in Germany), it is designed to be watched on a big screen.

Samuel L Jackson plays the President of the United States onboard Air Force One on route to a G8 Summit. After terrorists shoot the plane from the sky, first disabling its defences with the help from an inside man, the President lands in an NASA-style escape pod in the snowy Finnish wilderness. He is found by young Finn, 13-year-old Oskari (Onni Tommila) who is on a rights-of-passage hunt to kill his first stag deer. Oskari doesn’t know who he’s rescued but agrees the get the President to safety. They soon find out that the inside man and the terrorists are hunting the President as a trophy. Undeterred, Oskari realises he has a new mission in coming of age.

Writer-director Helander has his tongue firmly in cheek here – no surprise after the more serious-natured Rare Exports, just having some fun with his miniature hero. Things are very black and white, good and bad, and dumbed down to the point of patronisation, only rescued by the like-ability – and quaint ignorance of wider world issues – of Oskari. There are the common coming-of-age themes that the teens will latch onto. Tommila is a convincing starlet with a stoic resolve as the mini action hero which you can’t fault him on.

Jackson earns one of his easiest pay-checks yet – albeit with a bit of physical exertion, with his President being the complete opposite to Harrison Ford’s have-a-go President Marshall in Air Force One. Jackson resigns himself to the elements and a small boy with a bow and local know-how. Admittedly, for the younger generation, this is an exhilarating though that a powerful adult figure is taking orders from them.

Even enjoyable turns from Brit actors Ray Stevenson and Jim Broadbent as US secret service personnel – the latter with oddest American accent going – fail to inject greater buzz, though German actor Mehmet Kurtulus makes quite a sinister baddie as terrorist Hazar.

There are some thrilling escape scenes on a knife edge too, like the use of a chest freezer as a getaway vehicle, and the President and Oskari have fun bonding then running, then repeating this. That’s about the long and short of the thin plot that sounds appealing on paper.

Big Game aims big in action and heart-felt fun but is lacking in anything else. It has solid values on offer and is a great advert for simple living and visiting Finland’s countryside for ‘the oldies’ watching. Whether it justifies a family cinema outing because it feels ‘half empty’ in substance is the big question. After all, today’s 13-year-old has a raft of superhero films with all kinds of layered theories and back stories at the box office to choose from, so its retro content may not be enough to fully satisfy.

2/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

Spooks: The Greater Good ***

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Posted: 14/05/2015

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Ol’ Harry (Peter Firth) is back in this film spin-off of the BBC TV series – a comfort factor for fans. Titled Spooks: The Greater Good, fans can also be reassured that the film is not trying to be a glossy version of its small-screen self, rather in-keeping in style and still ‘very British’ in manner. There are no Jason Bournes here.

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After a high-level threat, terrorist Qasim (Elyes Gabel) absconds from an MI5 escort in London in an elaborate rescue mission, the American Secret Service questions MI5’s future value, and the blame sits squarely with MI5 Intelligence Chief Harry. He smells a rat from upper brass and disappears off the radar – later thought to be in league with Qasim and co, revealing top-level information. The powers-that-be (played by  Tim McInnerny and Jennifer Ehle) hire decommissioned MI5 agent Will Holloway (Kit Harington) – Harry’s former protégé – to find the AWOL spook, and in turn, stop any more terror incidences happening in London.

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As it stands, The Greater Good is a perfectly serviceable piece of spy drama that revels in its London setting – never missing a beat to show off a London landmark. The UK’s love of CCTV paints part of the picture here too. Naturally, it still has to keep up with the Bournes of this world. The action sequences are less stylish (and less costly) though, with Harington jumping off facades around Southbank like a parkour fanatic, or going as far as Berlin with one lead.

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Firth is naturally thrilling in his deadpan delivery, crossing and double crossing every player, which is what keeps the storyline ticking along – that, and the editing and a sense of impending doom n’ gloom. The camp factor is injected by McInnerny as the agency’s chief who you expect to crack into Darling giggles at any second in his face-to-face confrontations. Ehle has little to play with, stuck mainly in a glass ‘cage’ making high-level decisions.

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At least the youngsters get out and about, with a determined Tuppence Middleton as spook June giving Harington’s Will a runaround for his money. Harington is sometimes deemed as a one-trick pony, but his (as of yet) ‘limited acting range’ seems to suit him admirably here, as he has to play his cards close to his chest as a frustrated Will in dealing with Harry.

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Spooks: The Greater Good is the ultimate extended TV episode, and though it’s bogged down by clunky scripting and overly forced dialogue, it has it’s delicious little gibes between characters, with Firth coming out the champion of the lot. It’s still early days to judge Harington in such a role but it’s by far a positive step in the right direction since Testament of Youth.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Unfriended ***

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Posted: 09/05/2015

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Making a 90-minute horror film set within the confines of a computer screen sounds like a challenge, especially one trying to replicate the tired ‘found footage’ theme and scare the living daylights out of you. Unfriended by director Levan Gabriadze and screenwriter Nelson Greaves does just this, not necessarily feeding off the visual chills its cluttered windows pop up to reveal, but that foreboding sense of lack of control in the online world, where innocent acts can turn ugly and destructive in a split second.

After attractive pupil Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman) gets drunk and passes out in an ungracious fashion, a video of her antics is posted online, triggering an online hate campaign that eventually ends in tragedy. Her school friends regularly meet in online chat room Skype, until a mystery caller enters their group chat one evening to haunt – and taunt – them through their dead friend’s account.

Unfriended plays to an online generation, many of who conduct their everyday lives through social media on a device screen – and it’s clever in this sense, placing a socially accepted existence in jeopardy using the horror genre. Another smart thing the film does is play out the dangers of putting everything online that may come back to haunt you. Whether this warning sticks with some after watching, long enough before that itch for some social media interaction is anyone’s guess, but there is a strong message of ‘be responsible’ for what you make public, without taking the moral high ground.

The film is like ‘The Digital Blair Witch Project’, using the standard distorted images of scared young faces, lit by torch light – or screen light here, and helpless screams of terror. What it also does to initially heighten tension is mix real-time pauses with frantic on-screen activity and mood music tracks to give a very genuine sense of the lead character’s emotional state at any one moment. Ironically, that lead is called ‘Blaire’ (commendably played by Shelley Hennig), perhaps in honour of the 1999 film, her fate predictably sealed last as we need her screen functioning for there to be a film.

Meanwhile, the course of Unfriended unfolds just like any other in the genre, with each caller picked off one by one. The only thrill is correct-guessing who’s next from each character’s fears, neurosises or unattractive traits. Indeed character richness is thin on the ground, and Unfriended fails prey to playing to type (the beauty, the jock and the nerd etc). However, the online activity is virtually non-stop and covers up this fact. There is also an engagement in watching exactly how to cope with each online threat that pops up – educational for those who aren’t social savvy.

Unfriended offers some half-decent scares inside a rather claustrophobic environment, with the usual sacrifice of attractive teens. Unsurprisingly, it’s not unique in that sense. What is noteworthy is taking the social media platforms’ functionality and accentuated sounds to trigger its suspense. In this respect, Unfriended grabs and retains our curiosity.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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