What’s Your Number? *

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Posted: 29/09/2011

It’s the magic number some of us like to keep secret and others like to brag about, and it’s the subject of Anna Faris’ new rom-com What’s Your Number? that she also exec produces. Multi-tasking seems to be the key here, as Faris who stars in the film has to do much of the leg work, both on and off screen, to get any of this film’s scenes off the ground – even then that’s a tall feat.

Faris plays Ally Darling who is on a quest to find her best ‘ex’, after she reads a magazine article warning people who have more than 20 past relationships that they’ve probably missed their chance of true love and marriage. After another disastrous date and being fired from her marketing job, plus her younger sister, Daisy (Ari Graynor), getting married soon, Ally knows it’s time to get her life sorted out, with a little help from hunky neighbour and playboy Colin (Chris Evans).

Faris is forever bubbly and endearing in any role she’s in and does have great comic timing. She also has a wardrobe to die for in this that will please fashionistas and SATC fans – and the film appears more concerned with threads and bodies beautiful than sharp wit. However, with such a smart but dizzy character like Ally, Faris needs a strong romantic male lead to bounce off some of that energy.

Evans has all the physical credentials for such a role, however lacks any emotional depth or edge to Colin – we’re just left with cockiness without much charisma, and Evans as wooden as Ally’s puppets. The rom-com spark simply isn’t there between the pair, which results in a couple of characters’ large egos interplaying. And Evans looking forlorn in the latter half like a pining puppy just doesn’t fill the gaping romance void either.

The plot is incredibly predictable, which isn’t a surprise given the genre, and following on from the evolution of such contemporary offerings, the new rom-com women are all independent, smart and cynical – in fact it’s a wonder how any of them hook up at all. The plausibility of Ally and Colin doing just that seems miles off because of the lack of chemistry and meaningful scenes together, and their defining moment of unity at someone else’s wedding has been seen and done better and less awkwardly in many other films, missing that crucial end buzz and feel-good high that it’s all working towards.

2/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Drive ****

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Posted: 22/09/2011

Beginning like an updated version of Gone in Sixty Seconds, Bronson director Nicolas Winding Refn’s new action drama Drive puts its slick wheels in motion for a supposed heist flick, but settles into a dark ride of disturbing but exhilarating control.

Driver (Ryan Gosling) is a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman for hire. After getting to know his neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan), whose husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is later released from jail, Driver soon discovers that a contract has been put on him after one last heist with Standard to pay off a debt goes horribly wrong.

Drive is a juggernaut of emotion that tentatively and unknowingly builds up speed then knocks you for six with some uncompromising and ultra-violent scenes – much like the level of violence witnessed in Winding Refn’s acclaimed Bronson. Drive has its foot on full throttle without you knowing it as Winding Refn controls the pace with long deliberate pauses to allow his characters’ development and emotions to dominate the majority of the film. It’s complete with a powerhouse performance from Gosling, sexy and evoking car rides, and a cracking 80s-styled soundtrack that adds to any petrol head’s thrill at watching this.

Drive’s lead Gosling plays the mysterious Driver to perfection, adding to the bad boy appeal, with the actor putting on his best poker face, but still allowing us to warm to his character when there is very little dialogue to rely on, especially as Driver develops his relationship with Irene and shows his deep respect for garage owner Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Driver’s actions are gentle and thoughtful, done more out of protection than aggression, like some dark avenging angel, which is why when his back is against the wall, and the level of violent is so extreme, we’ve been broken in gently for big shocks that follow.

Mulligan as Irene is a surprise casting in such a supporting ‘gangster’s moll’ type of role. But she does bring an element of determination, respect and realism to young mother Irene, with her trademark defiance and absorbing vulnerability, in a role that could have been left wanting and without any worthy impact in the story, opposite the strong silent Driver. The only questionable pairing is Mulligan opposite Isaac as her jailbird husband that seems oddly matched and slightly unbelievable as the married couple.

Winding Refn’s Drive is an ode to a modern-day love tragedy, where violence goes hand in hand with burning passion, complete with oozing sex appeal and beautiful metal machines to ogle. Gosling captures the imagination in this like a latter-day Steve McQueen behind the wheel, and sets temperatures racing in one of the most intimately intense roles he’s played.

4/5 stars

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Tucker & Dale Vs Evil ****

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Posted: 22/09/2011

Debut feature director Eli Craig’s take on the comedy-horror genre is a glorious homage to all the townie-meets-country shlock horrors over the years, like an hilarious study of all the gory clichés turned on their heads. It still racks up the body count for genre fans and demonises the local White trash population, but cleverly manipulates the inevitable misunderstandings and miscommunications with expert comic timing and chilling pose.

Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are two country boys planning on spending a break doing up Tucker’s ‘holiday shack’ in the woods. However, their plans are scuppered by the arrival of a bunch of townie college folks who naturally fear the worst after one of their friends, Allison (Katrina Bowden), has an accident and goes missing.

Craig delivers the same characters, settings and familiar scenarios, but recreates a wildly unique film as the normal bogeymen are given a voice and a conscience that puts both groups on an equal par, turning the woodland into a battle of wills and body parts. He toys with our stereotypes at first, especially when the hillbillies meet the visitors at a gas station in an awkward and inarticulate exchange, and mocks our ingrained expectations and prejudices. As the film progresses, this light-hearted jesting materialises in even bloodier set-pieces caused by one misunderstanding after another, fuelling the farcical comedy.

Tucker and Dale are the film’s unlikely anti-heroes with great big, daft hearts – like the Laurel and Hardy of the wilderness, willing to converse with the hysterical youngsters hell-bent on revenge and explain their side of the story. However, in a flip role for the genre, they find their civil façade under attack and do whatever is necessary to survive the onslaught. Tudyk and Labine as the two best friends have a delightful and understated comic timing, balancing the idiocy with the wisdom and emotion to form some of the most rounded and memorable horror genre characters in recent years, and possibly placing Tucker and Dale in the realms of contemporary cult hero status.

As with every woodland-based slasher, the attractive characters are ‘punished’ for being so and in the wrong place at the wrong time, meeting their maker like expendable pawns on the game board of errors, but not without some very big laughs at their folly. That said Allison becomes the bridge between the two ‘cultures’, and Craig even ribs this fanciful attempt at DIY psychology in the film, making her seem totally ridiculous in her efforts to appease the two factions over a pot of tea, and resulting in Bowden hamming up her role to a treat.

Every horror needs its evil entity alongside its victims, and Chad (Jesse Moss) is highlighted from the start as the rogue player with his manipulation tactics and general disregard, making for an intriguing character arc and end reveal that’s fairly obvious from the initial flashbacks to a previous group’s bloody demise in the woods. Moss plays testosterone-fuelled Chad as both pathetic and frighteningly unhinged, but never forgets the winks to previous horror baddies, and injects as much panto humour into proceedings as the tenser moments will allow him to, but without losing the nail-biting impact.

Craig’s first feature film fully demonstrates his aptitude and passion for the horror genre in this topsy-turvy hoot, delivering a grim and confident fiasco full of clever contradictions and a couple of likeable champions of the hour in Tucker and Dale, while amusingly flying the flag for misinterpreted hillbillies everywhere.

4/5 stars

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Killer Elite **

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Posted: 22/09/2011

The promise of a thriller with a sexy, all-star cast of Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro is enough to whet the appetite for a trip to the cinema. Debut writer-director Gary McKendry’s adaptation of Ranulph Fiennes’ novel, The Feather Men, should be the action man’s version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy this week. The big names are all present in Killer Elite, as are the dramatic stunts and action sequences, but all within an overly complex, erratic thriller framework that has moments of viable tension, but others of dramatic silliness.

When Danny’s (Statham) mentor Hunter (De Niro) is taken captive by a Sheik in Oman, the retired member of Britain’s Elite SAS is forced into action to free him by taking the lives of three assassins. But Danny’s mission is not to run smoothly, especially with an equally skilled killer, Spike (Owen), on his tail.

There’s no doubt that Statham, Owen and De Niro perform as expected in roles we have seen them in before, and you can happily get your fill watching them do what they do best in a testosterone-fuelled explosion of bullet-riddled mayhem that is pure old-school. Witnessing Statham meeting Owen head to head – once while tied to a chair – is what action sequences are made for, and there is a nice Paris Metro chase scene involving De Niro, too. Indeed, to add to the thrills and claret spills, Dominic Purcell as ‘gun for hire’ playboy Davies also raunchily captures the chauvinistic and on-the-edge nature of a trained killer for hire in the decadent 80s. The film’s mix is a gritty one of extreme violence with smatterings of ironic humour.

However, even with the reassuring ‘based on a true story’ line at the start and the rather topical element of a corrupt Arab leader settling personal grudges, McKendry’s stab at the genre is left more than unintentionally comical at times, mainly due to some poor script writing – one example being Spike’s meetings with a bunch of old secret service men that roll out every clichéd line in the thriller handbook. Another is the Indiana Jones-styled desert chase scenes and others involving the Sheik in his lair.

McKendry’s plot is riddled with holes and often lacks explanation while it jumps around so much that the only thing you can engage with are the set-pieces of daring action. Even some of these are borderline gratuitous, rather than adding to the tension created when killers come after killers. The whole affair smacks of film-making inexperience, which is a shame considering the wealth of the source material and talent.

At the very least, McKendry allows us to revel in and be entertained by his star cast – the only advantage of this woefully under-developed exploitation action-thriller. The tragic thing is thinking just how much better it could have been in more experienced hands.

2/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****

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Posted: 14/09/2011

Tomas Alfredson came to attention in 2008 after his atmospheric thriller, the acclaimed Let The Right One In, about a young boy who befriends a vampire. The Swedish director now takes his chills-making expertise and coolly applies it to a John le Carré spy thriller adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and adds a spectacular cast of seasoned actors at the peak of their careers, including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong and Ciarán Hinds, to produce a powerhouse spectacle of acting prowess.

Set in the bleak days of the Cold War (1970s), espionage veteran George Smiley (Oldman) is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6’s echelons, known as the Circle. There are four possible suspects who may be the mole that is leaking secrets to the Soviets. Can Smiley discover the culprit before he realises Smiley is hunting him down and destroys the evidence?

Alfredson’s film requires the viewer’s full and undivided attention if it’s to succeed. With this in place, it’s film plot gold, with only a smattering of action sequences of the traditional, film noir-style ‘shoot-them-up’ kind, rather than all-out excess that often peppers contemporary spy thrillers. More a character study within a traditional thriller mould, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy matures at its own deliberate pace in a marvellous recreation of sharp 70s style and growing anxiety, fitting of Le Carre’s work.

That said the captivating elements of the film are not necessarily the spy story itself that builds the tension beautifully as almost a sub-context, but watching the riveting screen exchanges between some of the finest British actors today, in settings that are worthy of capturing as a photograph or painting at any one instant; each scene is superbly crafted.

Oldman’s man-of-few-words Smiley is a force of reflective menace, sumptuously underacted but utterly domineering in any exchange he finds his character in, and surely worthy of Awards recognition. Firth is naturally at home in the British corridors of espionage power, almost typecast in a sense, in a boisterous and outspoken part as suspect spy Bill Haydon, a role that befits his eloquent tones and flamboyant air. Jones, Hinds and Swedish star David Dencik as the other possible moles on Control’s (Hurt) chess board all give stellar performances that alternate between conceited highs to cowardly lows. Hurt makes his own mark at the start as the linchpin of the operation, callously set up and brushed aside, but forever the film’s looming conscience.

Two younger actors, though, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch, deserve special recognition for their more ambitious moments that involve a lot of the film’s action sequences, placing them on a par with acting stalwart Strong in injecting the film’s nail-biting set-pieces as Smiley’s dig for clues escalates, especially Hardy as Ricki Tarr who delivers his reveals with pose and purpose.

Alfredson’s screen version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an acquired taste, a return to cinema of the 40/50s that requires cerebral input and facts recollection, even though some might guess the culprit long before the coldly calculated end reveal that might possibly diffuse the mounting intrigue and suspicion. Nevertheless, for those who do, the prize is being proven right, adding a whole different, but still exciting dimension to the riddle. As said this film is more a platform of acting greatness that defines British cinema and novel writing as world class. It is a nostalgic tour de force that demands due diligence.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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The Change-Up **

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Posted: 14/09/2011

From the beginning projectile poop moment to the end urinating ‘solution’, The Change-Up has got Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin’s goofy, juvenile stamp all over it, complete with two watchable actors of the moment at the helm, Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, trying to deal with life after hitting adulthood.

Top lawyer Dave Lockwood (Bateman) has it all: great job, great wife (Leslie Mann), great kids and a great house, but still feels like he’s missed out. His best mate from childhood, Mitch Planko (Reynolds), has the carefree, playboy lifestyle he secretly craves a piece of, without all the adult worries and responsibilities, but with other headaches to contend with. After one boozy night out and relieving themselves in the local fountain, the two find themselves switched in each other’s bodies after wishing them could have each other’s life. The trouble is, once they get what they wish for, can they ever go back?

Body-swapping films are aplenty, from Vice Versa to Big to Freaky Friday, and this age-old formula of screwing up each other’s existence in the inhabited body then ‘discovering’ the missing elements of one’s personality is a well-trodden and patronising path. Dobkin’s film is no different, a lot cruder and definitely aimed at the adult market, but over contrived to a tee in a furnished, affluent setting that Nancy Meyers would be proud of. With its bodily functions relied on to grab the majority laughs, the main joke is on Bateman and Reynolds for considering to appear in such an infantile copycat version.

That said Bateman lets loose in this, and is perhaps the best factor of the whole affair, shaking off his deadpan stance and having some liberated, verbal – if profane – fun, playing Dave in Mitch’s body. Reynolds once more plays on the fact that his toned physique is better known than a lot of his previous work in Hollywood as the pretty boy with a big heart that the on/off-screen female population can swoon over. He does cheekily send up Mitch to a degree, reminding us not to take things too seriously.

However, the gags spell déjà vu and lack any unique imagination, and the ending is the same old, same old happy one – the question is, what’s on the guys’ journey to reaching it? Indeed, there are enough set-pieces to keep you mildly entertained – even if the punch lines can be seen a mile off. Perhaps the most disturbing thing that sets you off on an uneven footing is the animatronics babies used at the very start.

This film does employ a lot of shock tactics to trigger the required revulsion, without fair warning at times. It’s very much like a body-swapping Hall Pass with hormonally-charged/debilitated, marriage-fearing grown men wanting that one last fling at adolescence, as getting hitched is the same as giving up your identity, it seems. For this reason, either sex of a certain age can relate to the hidden martial and relationship fears of monogamy and ‘the forever’. And like a responsible adult who comes of age, Dobkin makes sure the record is set straight at the end to appease us and tell us it’s going to be all right.

The Change-up comes with dirty diapers, dirty ladies and even dirtier gags, so if man-child humour delivered by the likes of Bateman and Reynolds is on the menu, this is a dish served with extra relish – even if it’s a tired old one underneath the Noughties presentation.

2/5 stars

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30 Minutes Or Less ***

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Posted: 14/09/2011

After Zombieland, director Ruben Fleischer was always going to have big boots to fill with his next film. He remains very much in the same comedy adventure genre, only taps into the Apatow school of idiocy with puerile, often chauvinistic man-child humour. The redeemable feature, however, is Fleischer doesn’t dwell too long on the visual gags, and although not as sharply-written homage to past movie greats as in Zombieland, 30 Minutes Or Less flies along at its own screwball pace and sharp-fire tongue, once the bank job is in progress.

Pizza boy Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) finds himself delivering in the wrong place at the wrong time, and becomes the unwilling player in a dangerous assassination game thought up by spoilt brat Dwayne (Danny McBride) to rid him of his Forces-trained and overbearing father who’s worth a few million. Nick must rob a bank to get the cash to pay the assassin, or else risk being blown up by a bomb strapped to his chest if he doesn’t comply. With best mate Chet (Aziz Ansari), Nick only has hours to save his own skin.

Fleischer’s film takes its time to brew, and things only get interesting after the long, wordy and drawn-out male bonding sessions of best buddies Nick and Chet, and Dwayne and goofy Travis (Nick Swardson) that initially feel like you’re watching two different films stuck together actually end. In fact, rather than the script directing proceedings, it’s as if Fleischer has left the stage to Eisenberg and McBride to ad lib their way to the heist – but the former requires great dialogue to really shine in the straight act, while the latter is an acquired taste, and since Apatow’s mixed-bag Pineapple Express, McBride plays each idiotic brat role so under the comic radar that it’s hard to say whether he’s brilliantly ironic or just isn’t all that funny.

It’s Eisenberg and McBride’s co-partners in comedy crime, Ansari and Swardson, who actually steal the scenes in this, along with a brief couple of moments from Michael Peña as Chango the hit man. Once you get used to Ansari’s squeaky chipmunk vocals, his animated rants and dripping sarcasm are incredibly funny. Indeed Swardson sends up the film’s mockery of incompetence and immaturity to a treat, supplying the nods to show all are fully aware of the very dark humour flowing through of some of the sensitive subject matter, however disconcerting and un-politically incorrect it may be.

Once the action unfolds, the film snowballs at an enjoyable rate of catastrophe after farcical catastrophe, making the 80+ minutes fly by. The poignant lines from all – and Fleischer gives each character a glory moment to shine – are never overstated for effect or gag purposes, but register just enough when events get out of control to keep things interesting and witty, even though there may be a lot of expletives for some to stomach.

30 Minutes Or Less is less of a laugh-out-loud caper, but more an intriguingly quirky collision of bruised male egos that happens to be bolstered by some set-pieces and below-the-belt antics that some may or may not find funny – but it does try to be consistently amusing with some memorable one-liners. Fleischer’s film has a comic-book feel to some events too, which might appeal. Although the director gives nods to more classic films in this as he did in Zombieland, such as Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, the cleverer subtleties of 2009 film are missing, while relying purely on sick shenanigans that go to reduce all actors to the same level of maturity, without us necessarily getting the full effect of the bromances that Apatow films have become infamous for cultivating. 30 Minutes Or Less is enjoyable enough in a naughty schoolboy fashion, but fairly unremarkable long term.

3/5 stars

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Friends With Benefits ****

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Posted: 10/09/2011

After his lacklustre comedic performance opposite old flame Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher, Justin Timberlake, who stars opposite his alleged new romantic fling, Mila Kunis, in Will Gluck’s new rom-com, Friends With Benefits, may well have redeemed himself, and found a compatible niche that his army of fans want to see him in – the romantic lead.

The story follows two attractive and super-talented professionals in Manhattan who decide on a no-strings-attached relationship. But while trying to avoid the clichés of Hollywood romantic comedies that they mock, Dylan (Timberlake) and Jamie (Kunis) soon discover that ‘the sex part’ in a friendship does lead to complications.

Although a predictable one that attempts to mock the rom-com genre, but in turn, fully embraces it, Gluck has given us a story with a really smart and sassy burst of contemporary relationship strife that stealthily draws you into the Timberland-Kunis magnetism, and supplies more than one memorable line in the process. It has some latter-day hallmarks of the iconic and groundbreaking When Harry Met Sally…, but suffers from déjà vu episodes because the whole NYC stomping ground of romantic obstacles has been well worn and over explored before.

There is the initial rapid rapport at the start, mostly engineered by Kunis’ character in the script that takes some getting on board with and adjusting to. It’s as though Jamie has a nervous disposition, or Gluck is desperately making sure she comes across as quick-witted from the get-go, as so not to fall into the rom-com clichés he is so keen to avoid. It also has the East Coast verses West Coast rivalry that US audiences might relate to better.

That said Kunis delivers some knockout banter that translates in any culture and endears herself in the self-depreciating set-pieces, plus portrays Jamie as a ballsy New Yorker confident with her sexuality – true girl power of the Noughties, rather than some daft, soppy member of the fairer sex. Timberlake spends most of the time batting back Kunis/Jamie’s comments in an efficient and self-assured manner, resulting in the Dylan-Jamie battle of the sexes settling down into one acutely witty one, full of great moments.

Fans of both will get to see a lot more of their heroes’ toned physiques than usual, and there is some immodest suggestions that the pair know ‘they’re the bomb’ and seriously hot property. In fact there are some chemically explosive scenes in the bedroom, all acted out with the same ‘fully-clothed’ self-assurance – and in parts, with a little running commentary, too.

As for supporting gems, Woody Harrelson is utterly hilarious as the macho gay sports jock, Tommy, and just doesn’t seem to get enough screen-time, to be honest, as his contribution is worth its weight in gold in this. Patricia Clarkson who plays Jamie’s free-spirited mother puts the hippie cool back into the original 60s’ love child in this, but although provides an insight into why Jamie has commitment issues, also steps up to the mark in providing advice when it’s requested. Jenna Elfman, star of the unforgettable 2000 NYC-based rom-com Keeping The Faith – where she plays the romantic lead as an equally sassy version of Jamie – is ‘big sis’ to Dylan, and although has a brief appearance, still relays that naturally funny intelligence as Annie while dealing with their Alzheimer’s-inflicted father, played by Richard Jenkins.

Friends With Benefits is a standard rom-com by any other name, regardless of its flagrant patronage of others – as when the couple watches scenes from a cheesy spoof rom-com (starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones), and vow not to copy the daft pitfalls of love. However, like many contemporary films in the genre, the writers are concentrating on sharper dialogue and funnier observations, and with some great direction, Gluck showcases his exciting lead actors in the best light.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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Troll Hunter ****

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Posted: 10/09/2011

There’s nothing more appealing than a horror steeped with folklore that manages to question our sanity. This is precisely what foreign-based fantasies like Norwegian writer-director André Øvredal’s Troll Hunter achieve for the non-Nordic audience out there, desperate for mysteries such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster to have a touch of authenticity about them.

Students discover that government officials have been less than honest about recent human disappearances and supposed bear killings, and track down the whereabouts of a mysterious troll hunter who has been tasked with keeping the various troll populations in the scenic Norwegian fjords under control and out of public sight. The anxious film crew are allowed to follow trolljegeren Hans (Otto Jespersen) on his quest and learn about magical beings far more dangerous than your average bear lurking in the woods.

To call Øvredal’s latest mockumentary yet another Blair Witch 2011 incarnation may have an ounce of truth to it -– many horrors since are choosing to go down the ‘captured on camera/CCTV’ root to up the thrills, like the Paranormal Activity series. But what makes Troll Hunter different is its chameleon nature, moving from pseudo-documentary to action adventure, all with a stoic comedic heart beating at its core and a huge amount of charm and wonderment to boot. It’s like an adult bedtime story with a modest hero at its helm. It also mixes up ‘documented’ camera footage with dreamlike landscapes.

Øvredal also offers a variety of troll species in the film, like some kind of Attenborough nature programme, which in turn, gives not only each troll group a believable personality, but also the film itself. The scenes with the cave-dwelling ‘Honey Monsters’ for instance create a riveting and terrifyingly disorientating moment in the film – like a bunch of nature explorers stumbling on hostile territory.

As with all nature programmes, there are a few lagging moments that follow a nice build-up of tension and potential end activity. But these are few and far between as the majority of the film is like one eccentric science project with a more bizarre collection of humans involved in troll control than beasts.

Some of the most striking and equally outlandish scenes come at the end of the film with the daddy of all trolls making his presence known in some of the hairiest fantasy chase scenes witnessed in the genre. Øvredal does not forget to place his tongue firmly in his cheek either, particularly at this point, with his own ridicule of religion very much apparent throughout in not only provoking but, neutralising the question of faith.

Finding something different to rattle the fantasy appetite is a tall feat. But Øvredal’s Troll Hunter delivers an earnest fantasy adventure bathed in Nordic spirit and folklore that captures the heart, as well as the imagination.

4/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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