The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! ***

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Posted: 31/03/2012

There is an unquestionable deep respect for our British creative institution Aardman Animations, and eager anticipation for their next project. Don’t be put off by the fact that its geniuses have teamed up with Sony and added 3D – The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists! is a quintessentially Aardman affair, bursting with fine detail that you can’t possibly take in, in one viewing. In fact, it could be argued that this detracts from the plot, which has its lagging moments, if being totally honest – Aardman magic aside.

Pirate Captain (voiced with expert comic timing by Hugh Grant) is tired of not having any booty and being the butt of other captains’ jokes. Revered by his faithful crew, he sets out to win the coveted Pirate of the year Award – defeating flash rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven, voiced) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek, voiced) in the process. However, a brush with a sea-faring Charles Darwin (David Tennant, voiced) and a scientific discovery of an ornithological kind sets Pirate Captain and his band of merry misfits on a different path to raise the bounty, a quest that takes him to Victorian London and into the territory of pirate-loathing Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton, voiced).

Co-directors, Aardman guru Peter Lord and Chicken Run’s Jeff Newitt can be rightly satisfied in knowing that their swashbuckling creation is still a huge fan pleaser and as ‘tactile-looking’ as the trademark plasticine characters, Wallace and Gromit. The new 3D technology is actually only a small factor in the overall production value, adding depth of field rather than an immersive experience; each set and character has been painstakingly crafted in the traditional fashion. In fact, as with anything 3D at the moment, it could be argued that the film would be as enjoyable in 2D. The 3D merely feels like an Aardman experimentation that thankfully pays off. There is no Pirate Captain double vision.

Once known, all the stars who lend their voices are gleefully and instantly recognisable, such as the hearty vocals of Brian Blessed as Pirate King, Martin Freeman recreating his weary Tim Canterbury tones from The Office as Pirate Captain’s right-hand man, Pirate with Scarf, and a shrill Staunton going slowly barmy as Queen Vic, like her many comedy roles of past. What isn’t fully expected is exactly where the plot will go, and there is a bizarre and quite disturbing reveal for younger viewers concerning Queenie and her visiting dignitaries that is positively inhumane. However, with hindsight, it’s not too far from the fate of other animals in the Aardman feature-film collection, and this film is based on the first two books in the Pirates! series by author – and screenwriter – Gideon Defoe.

The Pirates! has so much loving attention invested in it, and there is a lot of naughty fun to be had. The downside is too much of a good thing – and too much information in a scene – can overload the whole experience, resulting in restless young kiddies at times. Still, visually, it’s an awesome Aardman romp of plundering proportions.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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The Hunger Games ***

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Posted: 24/03/2012

Forget 2012; finally, the games have arrived. Author Suzanne Collins’s post-apocalyptic world is projected for all to watch on the big screen. The obvious parallels between the existence we are introduced to in The Hunger Games and the possible collision course we are on are eerily not lost – it’s just a shame that the film for the uninitiated book reader results in more questions than satisfying answers. If it weren’t for such a powerful central lead by Winter’s Bone actress Jennifer Lawrence, we probably wouldn’t be half as captivated.

North America in a not-to-distant future is gone, and all that remains is Panem, controlled by the elitist, pampered Capitol that forces its surrounding impoverished twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl – or ‘tribute’ – to compete in the Hunger Games each year. Each tribute is selected as a warped punishment for a past uprising, and must fight to the death until one survivor remains standing. When 16-year-old Katniss’s (Lawrence) younger sister, Prim (Willow Shields), is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

Like some Dickensian rural backdrop, director Gary Ross captures the glum, desperate living conditions of the District 12 inhabitants, ironically surrounded by nature’s beauty, and keeps the intrigue brewing right up until the Reaping – where the tributes are selected by a ‘lucky’ draw. We are also given a clear overview of how strong a character our heroine is, mainly due to Lawrence’s defiant poise and striking features that Ross could be guilty of over-captialising on throughout, with lots of close-up camerawork. In this sense, he does try to visualise Collins’s word by suggesting this is a Katniss-led story adaptation – plus the author was part of the scriptwriting team.

However, condensing all the psychology and social concepts of the time satisfactorily into a film time frame is where important detail gets lost in translation from page to screen. As functional as the film is in relation to the book, there is not sufficient background into why the tributes seem to accept their fate so readily; how they really feel about competing in an unfair world; plus the significance of the bread, defiant hand signals and Katniss’s nurturing nature toward young Rue (Amandla Stenberg), a fellow tribute and component. Instead, the comparisons to The Twilight Saga lie with Ross’s focus on the potential love interest between Katniss and Peeta. In this respect, Hutcherson is aptly cast opposite Lawrence as the ‘weaker’ Peeta. That said both remain curiously guarded, which is what fuels our intrigue as to any true motive – hopefully to be further explored in a sequel, especially as there are ripples of rebellion in the midst.

To get the 12A rating, a lot of the brutality is portrayed as hurried, choppy close-up sequences, conveniently sanitised to suggest bloodshed, but without triggering the obvious nightmares associated with seeing kids killing kids. Some might argue that making it an 18 would have better served to depict the horrifying reality of surviving in this makeshift world. Whatever the case, you long for a sense of the bigger picture and wider visual setting of the virtual forest that the tributes hunt each other in, in addition to seeing Seneca Crane’s (Wes Bentley) staff designing it from their privileged high tower.

There are other memorable appearances too; Stanley Tucci as purple-coiffured game-show host Caesar Flickerman; Elizabeth Banks as the prissy and eccentric Effie Trinket opposite Woody Harrelson as brash lush Haymitch Abernathy who make up the District 12 tribute training committee. As conscience seems to be non-existent among the Captiol’s residents who treat the Hunger Games as compulsive Saturday night viewing – a frightening acceleration of our reality TV diet, Abernathy is as close to an empathy barometer as is possible. However, even his back-story remains a mystery as such, resulting in the non-read viewer filling in the blanks with possible reasons.

The positives to The Hunger Games are largely thanks to Lawrence in the lead. The rest of the Running Man/Lost-styled film relies heavily on the filmmakers’ falling on the side of ambiguity or stoicism to fuel any mystery, which without any further insight into or challenge to the ‘bigger picture’ only leaves inevitable frustration in its wake and some lagging parts. That said the seed of interest has been sown, and this survival story has more guts (and gore) to it than Twilight could ever wish for, and more winning formula than 2012 can muster, harnessing that gladiatorial fascination that seems inherent to us.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Wild Bill ****

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Posted: 24/03/2012

Shot in the heartland of London 2012, actor-turned-director Dexter Fletcher’s new gritty Brit drama Wild Bill could be set anywhere, if it wasn’t for the occasional skyline prompt. But unlike the gloomy, award-winning Junkhearts that follows a similar ‘deprived London’ vein – and was released at the same time as Fletcher’s directorial debut at last year’s London Film Festival, Wild Bill has a more genuine heart to it for those of us who know the London Borough of Newham area, and it’s not obsessed with trying to hit rock bottom to provide grim reality portrayals. Wild Bill may well be guilty of depicting council-estate wows but it has a dry sense of humour bubbling through it that anyone with local knowledge will pick up on and relish, making it highly entertaining.
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Out on parole after eight years inside ‘Wild’ Bill Hayward (Charlie Creed-Miles) returns home to find his now 11 and 15 year old sons, Jimmy and Dean – played by Sammy Williams and Son of Rambow’s Will Poulter – abandoned by their mother and fending for themselves. Unwilling to play Dad, an uncaring Bill is determined to move on. Although Dean has a labouring job on the Olympic site and is doing his best to be a father to his younger brother, the arrival of Bill has brought them to the attention of social services. With the danger of being put into care looming, Dean forces his feckless Dad to stay by threatening to grass him up for dealing. If there’s one thing Bill doesn’t want it’s to go back to prison. He reluctantly agrees to stay for a week to help fool social services that the boys are being cared for. Having never really grown up himself Bill quickly connects with Jimmy and through this new bond starts to realise what he’s been missing – he has a family and a place in the world. He is a father. However, their happy family set-up is short-lived when Jimmy gets into trouble dealing for Bill’s dangerous old cohorts. To sort it out would breach the terms of his license and risk sending him back to jail.
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There is a commendable honesty and personal element to the way Fletcher has co-written and directed his new film that shines through, elevating it out of the humdrum, paint-by-numbers gangland estate piece. In fact, it’s more a story about strained family relationships set in hardship than the latter, with an intriguing all-male cast battling it out on screen. It does suffer from contrived banter at times, especially between the boys, but the performances are so earnest and convincing that this compensates for the latter.
Among the hustle and bustle of certain moments, the film has warm, lighter, reflective ones, with the icing on the top being Wild Bill’s rooftop heart-to-heart with his younger son, and one defining moment when a paper aeroplane is launched off the building edge that encapsulates all kinds of thoughts and emotions played out at that time in the film; it’s cinematically beautiful for such a debut piece.
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Indeed, Creed-Miles could have his career-defining moment on his hands in this, moving effortlessly in character between hard man and doting dad to showcase his impressive acting skillset. As obvious as his character arc is, there is an enjoyable ‘coming of age’ and simultaneous healing process to witness, as the actor navigates through the highs and lows of the story.
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Wild Bill succumbs to the odd, slightly incredible moment – and its trailer smacks of Guy Ritchie tones, but it wears its lion heart firmly on its sleeve with bouts of good humour and sense, making it impossible not to be drawn into its rugged charm. Fletcher also shows exciting promise behind the camera too – something to be further encouraged by going to see this.
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4/5 stars
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By @FilmGazer
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Contraband ****

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Posted: 15/03/2012

Chris Farraday in Contraband is another “made for Mark Wahlberg” part, the kind that allows this Boston-born star the chance to tap into his own tough upbringing experiences of being on the wrong side of the law, while showing a softie side. Although perfectly cast in the likes of Four Brothers, The Departed and The Fighter, like his comical Terry Hoitz role in The Other Guys, Contraband is not all grit but has some surprising hidden wit, complete with a running joke threaded through for the audience’s amusement in a tale of corruption, deception and good ol’ family values that excuses all the bad behaviour.

Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) long ago abandoned his life of crime, but after his brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris is forced back into doing what he does best – running contraband-to settle Andy’s debt. Chris is a legendary smuggler and quickly assembles a crew with the help of his best friend, Sebastian (Ben Foster), for one final run to Panama and back, hoping to return with millions in counterfeit bills. Things quickly fall apart and with only hours to reach the cash, Chris must use his rusty skills to successfully navigate a treacherous criminal network of brutal drug lords, cops and hit men before his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and sons become their target.

Seasick-inducing, handheld camerawork aside at the start, Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s Contraband settles down to gradually become an adrenaline-throbbing heist that doesn’t drop the intensity ball for one second, complete with a corrupt New Orleans setting and stellar cast fit for purpose. From Wahlberg to Foster to Ribisi, each actor embodies the kind of role we’ve seen them play time again, naturally making the status quo believable. The only initial oddity to get used to is Ribisi’s chipmunk voice, but his violent, weasel ways soon put to bed any giggles that arise. As a Brit, a bedrangled-looking Beckinsale is also fully convincing as Farraday’s suffering wife, getting the accent and battle-harden characteristics down to a tee as a tough mother prepared to defend, whatever the costs.

Like a less slick Ocean’s flick, most of the detail of the heist in Contraband – including lots of different and intriguing ways of smuggling onboard a larger container ship – is as paramount to the makeup of the plot as the big-screen action. It doesn’t disappoint on the thrills and spills either, allowing hard man Wahlberg the arena to shine in the best way he knows how. Making a mockery of the law and authority provides escapist moments of pleasure too, demonstrating the lighter side of the dangerous work, while playing to our sense of deviance. It’s the potent Robin Hood mentality at play again, with loveable rogues just righting the injustices in life, without necessarily changing their own spots.

As familiar and generic as some of the happenings in Contraband actually are, Kormákur’s thriller sets sail with enough puff, dynamics and intrigue to see it safely dock at the end of its voyage, complete with devilish humour and an expert lead at the helm in Wahlberg to tie up all the loose ends. It’s as physical as its environment of tough shipping and hardened personalities, and uses these features to set it aside from the standard heist movie, making for a solid, gutsy and realistic watch.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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John Carter ***

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Posted: 10/03/2012

Writer-director Andrew Stanton tries his hand at live action this time, putting some of his fun Pixar magic from the likes of award-winning Finding Nemo and Wall-E into John Carter, an other-worldly adventure staged on Mars – or Barsoom, as adapted from Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs’s work, A Princess of Mars. Whatever faults this film has, it does something that the dull Cowboys and Aliens from last year tried and failed to do; marry Western and sci-fi genres and the analogies between American civil war history between cowboys and Indians far better, opening up the Barsoom landscape that looks like Arizonan plains to a wider audience.

The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including green-skinned Tharks led by Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the Heliumians and their science-loving and beautiful Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse after a warring faction led by a Zodanga fighter named Sab Than (Dominic West), controlled by immortal, shape-shifting Therns, led by Matai Shang (Mark Strong), fight with the Heliumians, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

John Carter, solidly depicted by virtual unknown this side of the Atlantic, Tarzan-looking Friday Night Lights TV star Kitsch, is an all-American anti-hero turned hero that you want to rally behind. The plot of a stubborn, greedy man ‘coming of age and wisdom’ is an all too familiar one that still has mileage here for the non-Burroughs fan, while satisfying our curiosity about Man’s voyage and hopeful life discoveries on another planet in our solar system.

John Carter is also beautifully visual and creative in its scenery enough to capture and distract you from the fairly thin premise and weakly portrayed passions of why the factions are at war. Naturally, the lack of water seems to be the only key issue that both planet and Martian has, and the story leaves the door open for a further solar system exploration into this. But even this major problem isn’t necessarily clear until cone-headed Shang mentions it. And yes, the environmentalists out there will smile at the filmmakers’ sense of purpose at highlighting our own planetary dangers in this respect.

Kitsch and Collins are both Amazonianly striking in this with a playful banter, teasing enough for adults to know the presence of sexual chemistry, and for children to find entertaining. Stanton injects a camp element into the whole affair too, allowing you to forgive its singularly B-movie overtones. However, much this film rips off classic sci-fi elements from Star Wars, Star Trek, Xena: Warrior Princess and the recent Avatar films, with the Tharks long-limbed appearance, there is nothing but fun and fantasy to be hand here in equal 3D measure – but nothing fresh on the Barsoom horizon either. And a medallion discovery that serves as the porthole between worlds is hardly imaginative either, even if we soon delight in drawn-out moments for laughs of watching Carter first leap and bound over the Barsoom terrain, mimicking an Earthling spaceman minus his suit.

John Carter the film has the unenviable task of filling in the back-story of the Barsoom history while keeping a sense of adventure burning in the run-time. What it fails to do with any real substance with the latter it makes up for in the former as you cannot deny wanting to explore more of the new world you are transported in and the origins of its beings. In this sense, Stanton and co have created the structure of another intriguing universe and history, but unlike Cameron’s Pandora, Barsoom has been let down by the filmmakers’ flimsy concepts in this that feel underdeveloped in favour of fleshing out the main players, and there is no real sense of connection between human and alien – like between the Na’vi and Jake Sully – that would have pulled John Carter out of the grandiose B-movie league.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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This Means War ****

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Posted: 03/03/2012

This week’s ‘date movie’, director McG’s This Means War, is wrapped in an action blanket from the start for romcom lovers weary of lovelorn, sugary angst from the start. Thankfully, it doesn’t start in an idyllic Manhattan suburb either. It comes crashing into fun focus, James Bond style, in the oddly intriguing pairing of Tom Hardy and Chris Pine – yes, Bane and Kirk unite. It shamelessly tries to hook the male/tomboy viewer in with a blast of guns blazing to set the scene for what is effectively a wickedly entertaining love triangle, headed by the bubbly Reese Witherspoon as the object of the two studs’ desire.

FDR Foster (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy) have been best friends and top CIA operatives for a long time, enjoying the job and its perks. After a failed relationship, Tuck decides he’ll try Internet dating, and meets up on a date with attractive Lauren (Witherspoon). As fate would have it, after the date ends, FDR happens upon Lauren too. The friends then wage an epic battle against one another after they discover they are dating the same woman, using their CIA arsenal for the job.

Incredulous scenario aside, it is possible to buy into the premise this film offers that two agents would get away with bugging and effectively stalking a young woman for their own gain, however uncomfortable – and frankly creepy – that idea sounds. And it’s the devilish part of the whole affair that you are actually condoning what is a very serious crime by guiltily enjoying the shenanigans. But it’s probably more due to the exciting trio of Reese, Hardy and Pine delivering some riotous chemistry, and the chalk-and-cheese fascination of watching Hardy in his first romcom role and forehead-challenged Pine (with a an even bigger quiff than normal) on screen having a ball playing bad lads.

Hardy still gets to be the tough guy – but with the soft centre – so it’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination to accept him in this role, and coupled with Tuck’s British self-depreciating nature in his personal life, Hardy sets him up to be the man who needs rescuing by the right woman. There is also an obvious self-mockery laced throughout the whole affair and the performances that keeps things all very tongue-firmly-in-cheek. Once you appreciate that, and combined with some thrilling self-destruction nature, it’s easy to invest in and thoroughly enjoy this.

Like every romcom, the eye candy is abundant and pristinely turned out, and Witherspoon is still very much a sweetheart to treasure in such a role at the ‘ripe old age of 36’ in romcom territory. Blessed with eternally youthful good looks, she still fits the part perfectly – unlike Jen Aniston who is getting a tad long in the tooth. Witherspoon brings her own brand of witty retorts and comical facial expressions to this part, and there is a hilarious scene when Lauren goes on an action-packed date with Tuck at a paint-balling park, allowing the actress to sum up how her date’s going with one gurn.

Sadly, thanks to a blatant pointer near the start with ‘doting dad’ Tuck showing some regret at a relationship lost, it’s plain to see how things are going to end – even if there is a moment of doubt at the end, which could have left the boys hanging (making a far better ending than the silly, overly contrived one).

That said this is the start of a new breed of sexy romcom that takes the genre out of its cosy, often urban environment, and adds a little zest to the mix – and yes, it does try hard to be appealing to more than the usual romcom fan by adding another angle to keep the genre interesting. This Means War is easily consumable, puerile entertainment with some devilish giggles to be had; the action romantic’s must-see in a sense.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Project X ****

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Posted: 03/03/2012

Imagine throwing the party you’ve always dreamed of in a venue primed for purpose – pesky neighbours and law enforcement aside. Imagine all the coolest people attending and dancing to some kick-ass tunes. It’s the stuff of decadent dreams that this out-of-control juggernaut feeds off, tapping into a real deep-rooted deviance from our days of youthful carefree living. After all, someone else can pay later; it’s all about tonight and now. And for The Hangover fans – director Todd Phillips produces this time – there is an even greater sense of the party boys being plunged into the virtual unknown that’s vibrant to watch. It’s also a stark lesson in the perils of social media – phone hacking aside.

Three ‘invisible’ High School seniors, Thomas, Costa and JB – acting unknowns Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown respectably – get Thomas’s family home to themselves for a weekend while his parents are away. They plan to celebrate Thomas’s 17th birthday in style with a ‘few’ people over. Trouble is no one knows (or cares) that they really exist – expect perhaps Thomas’s female childhood friend, Kirby (Kirby Bliss Blanton). Cocksure Costa decides to spread the word around the school, all caught on first-person camera by mysterious operator Dax (played by Dax Flame who we hear rather than see for most of he film). However, what starts out as a few people turns into an absolute riot as things spiral out of control and word of the party spreads, the likes of which the quiet, family suburb of Pasadena has never seen before.

If you enter into this film’s environment shirking all grown-up inhibitions and mundane responsibilities at the door you’ll get the most out of it. Curiously, as a result, there is a nagging sense of conscience that develops as things escalate. Birthday boy Thomas is our prompter of this throughout the film and our link with some form of order, before he’s sucked into the chaos that grows. Project X does start out like any other high school ‘loser’ flick where we’re expected to rally behind the misfits – however misogynistic and revolting they may appear, purely because everyone likes an underdog to triumph and gain popularity.

Like a YouTube video that can be watched only once for full, fresh effect, Project X is a collective experience, and is not trying to be another American Pie or Superbad, contrary to critics: There are no clever gags from the latter or slapstick, coming-of-age set-pieces. This film attempts to deliver a feasible self-documenting style favoured by a lot of cult films at the moment – like Chronicle, adding plausible scenarios to the mix like a rampant party virus. Thankfully, there is no migraine inducing 88-minutes worth of shaky hand-held footage either for those still reeling from their Cloverfield experience.

It’s abundantly clear to see debut feature director Nima Nourizadeh’s pedigree in pop videos and commercials from its style, with some scenes of nubile young ladies jigging up and down in slow-mo like on some continuous MTV rap-video playlist – and bad boy Eminen plays out the end credits. Nourizadeh actually mixes and matches a variety of filmic styles to portray different emotions within a first-person view. As for plot, it attempts at mini subplots and does suffer from the unavoidable genre clichés. There is also a gnawing sense of what’s happened to the rest of the neighbourhood; have they all gone deaf when the law fails to curb the revellers’ enthusiasm after an earlier warning? The film also has its token nutty oddballs, like a security measure.

That said Mann, Cooper and Brown are excellent as newcomers in different ways: Cooper is blessed with great comic delivery sure to get him noticed by the extended Apatow gang for future projects. Mann is reminiscent of some vulnerable, gangly, guilt-ridden Michael Cera or Jesse Eisenberg, but devoid of clever retorts in this and simply tasked with ‘playing your average naïve kid’ in an escalating situation.

As for the music, any clubber will be downloading the soundtrack as soon as it becomes available, as true to his music video roots, Nourizadeh makes sure the visuals match the tracks, and the beat like some war cry for a ‘forgotten generation’ carries on pulsing like a life force, growing in size and fearlessness. This dramatically energises events more, and is a big part of the film’s impact.

Overall Project X is one guilty pleasure, mindless escapism that offers some mixed – and some unexpected – messages at the end that make for alarming but intriguing post-viewing debate. Naturally, some will question the responsibility of the filmmakers themselves. Not sure if the ‘what happens next’ histories are necessary, as well as the soggy ‘after-party’ souvenir. But you’ll be glad you got the invite and had the time of your life – without suffering the hangover from hell – watching a film that will divide opinion.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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LFF 2011: Hunky Dory **

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Posted: 03/03/2012

Welsh director Marc Evans (Patagonia, My Little Eye) returns with a nostalgic take on growing up in small-town Wales in 1976 in the midst of the summer heat and raging hormones. Schooldays films are ten-a-penny and ever enticing as we get to reminisce at a safe distance at the thrills and fears of our teenage years. Indeed, what this promises is a healthy inject of 1970s glam rock for David Bowie fans – much like a 70s Glee. For admirers of the ever-fearless Minnie Driver, the actress plays an attractive, inspirational drama teacher who (surprise, surprise) stirs more than a few notes. However, aside from a noteworthy performance from swooning, rising star Aneurin Barnard as well, that’s pretty much all Hunky Dory has to offer. It’s surprisingly forgetful for the most part.

In the sweltering summer heat of 1976, keen drama teacher Vivienne (Driver) fights general teenage apathy and frayed tempers to put on an end-of-year, glam rock music version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, with all kinds of departmental and student obstacles thrown up in her path. Will she succeed in rallying the easily distracted troops for one last performance they will never forget while tackling institutionally ingrained traditionalism?

Sadly, it’s glaringly obvious just how flimsy the script and plot are, with very little attempt at shaping convincing back-stories to pinpoint the origins of the brewing teen angst – expect that everyone’s getting increasingly hot under the collar from the balmy weather. As much as Evans relies on the feisty nature of his embattled lead actor, Driver, who comes to the role of Vivienne with as much gusto as you would expect from her, and with a half-decent Welsh accent in tow, the film really is precariously held together by one musical episode after another. Thankfully, it does all accumulate in a catchy and strikingly shot finale with Adam Ant look-alike Barnard as Davey perched like a messianic pop icon of the period belting out his biggest number yet while melting a few hearts in the process.

[SPOILER] An intriguing Notes On A Scandal style sub-plot between teacher and pupil is intentionally set up as soon as ‘tortured’ Davey gets dumped by ‘school bike’ Stella (commendably played by Danielle Branch) and wakes up to the singing charms of the older woman. The misguided young fool even orchestrates spending the night at Vivienne’s country sanctuary, in the hope of seducing her with some free loving. But as tenderly awkward as Evans tries to frame this, without going into tricky territory, its overall result is a rather disappointing damp squib for something peddled out with so much promise. At the end of the day, the only real passion felt in Hunky Dory lies in the impressive ensemble of the real-life Welsh band/choir from Ty Cerdd.

One of the film’s main flaws is introducing too many characters to interact with progressive Vivienne – who ironically is a die-hard traditional thespian at heart – as this invariably dilutes the individual significance and outcome on the impressionable young minds she is charged with. Although she should be a driving factor of the plot, she also loses her own way and potency, with the musical numbers piping up to save the day: If nothing else, Barnard alone always has a secure future in West End musical theatre after this – having already demonstrated his singing talent in the lead role in the London stage version of Spring Awakening. Cynically, Driver gets to flatter her own ego with stylish costume design and a couple of singing solos of her own, as well as become the object of teenage desire. It’s true cougar fantasy material.

That said, as much as Evans can rely on an active interest in popular Glee and High School Musical productions, his biggest hurdle is engaging such an audience with the 1970s music the film relies on. Unless its marketing garners the appeal of the young and talented Barnard and Branch, with less than days left to its nationwide release and relatively low-key promotion, everything will not be quite so Hunky Dory at the box office has it blends into the background of serviceable low-budget Brit flicks.

2/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Safe House ***

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Posted: 25/02/2012

It’s safe to say that any film starring the charismatic Denzel Washington is placed on the box office map long before it’s even had a chance of a good run and further scrutiny. Although both the Training Day star and Safe House director Daniel Espinosa – steering his first English-language project here – were against labelling the film ‘an action thriller’ in London recently, it is in effect such, so will naturally come under the inevitable Bourne benchmark scrutiny.

Ryan Reynolds stars opposite Washington in this as young CIA agent Matt Weston who is tasked with looking after fugitive and rogue ex-agent Tobin Frost (Washington) in a safe house in Cape Town. However, the safe house is attacked, and Weston finds himself on the run with his charge from a yet indistinguishable enemy bent on destroying Frost – and him.

On the whole, Safe House provides Reynolds with the opportunity to prove his worth and very much hold his own opposite such a distinguished action-role guru in Washington. It also places the Canadian actor in the edgier, grittier roles he is best in, away from the rom-com slush and Green Lantern debacle. This relentless, often exhausting but electrifying race for survival does mean Reynolds called on to do less acting and more reacting than the acclaimed Buried – both of which claim to be psychological offerings. That said Reynolds is incredibly watchable in this, fighting off his fair share of attacks like a seasoned action-man pro while not forgetting his character’s inner motivation and sensitivities. His physical pinnacle in this is the end scene opposite Joel Kinnaman as Keller that causes pause for breath.

Naturally, Washington does not fail to delight once more in yet another older, wiser anti-mentor role, but with a less clear agenda than normal. His character Frost’s dynamic with Weston is what galvanises the thrill ride across the South African city. But without Reynolds in tandem, Washington’s performance is somewhat complacent in nature, playing his same moves out all over again. Even though the actor defines Frost as a ‘sociopath’, both superior acting and empathetic when he needs to be, as soon as the cat’s out of the bag as to why he’s on the run, the reasons for the chase itself lessens in impact. It is purely enjoying watching the ease with which the Reynolds-Washington screen match works that makes Safe House more entertaining than it ought to be. But it’s no South African Bourne.

Its villains at the heart of power also seem too under developed and one dimensional to really be worthy opponents in the field when the chips fall. We have witnessed too many military-style ‘main control’ rooms in our time with the very latest hum of technology that we can be forgiven for becoming a little blasé about it all. As most of the fight from this side is centred within this environment – admittedly with a couple of decent hand-to-hand and rooftop-to-rooftop chase and combat scenes thrown in that smack of Bourne (well, there is a large contingent of the crew who worked on both films), by the time the real enemy is revealed we are vaguely fazed by the inevitable standoff. It all boils down once more to the talents of both Reynolds and Washington for the majority of the time – and surprisingly more so the former.

Safe House is an easy-on-the-brain – but not necessarily always on the eye with some of the whizzy editing – action flick, pure and simple, with two highly attractive cast members doing the very best out of the situation and managing to hold your attention throughout the flimsy scenario. The fact that Washington admitted to not liking the script one bit when he first came on board, and subsequently helped rewrite it over several months, is very telling as to the original draft. But what is even more intriguing is how dangerously convincing Washington – like Frost – is that he saw this as a manipulation exercise in itself, which is more exciting a premise to contemplate than we should be giving credit to ‘sociopath’ Frost in this. Less of the juggernaut that was Unstoppable, but still a highly digestible Washington affair, if white-knuckle ride scenes with a temporary lack of oxygen to the lungs are on the agenda, you could do far worse in the company of lesser actors.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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