Jason Bourne

The last movie in this series The Bourne Legacy was considered to be a disappointment by some fans due to the fact that despite his name being in the title, the movie distinctly lacked everyone's favourite amnesiac super weapon. There's no such confusion with this movie however, as you can't name it Jason Bourne and not have Matt Damon front and centre. This return to the character we know and love is all well and good, but it still follows the exact same formula that we saw in the original three movies.

Jason Bourne (Damon) has finally recovered from his amnesia, but is trying to live a quiet life under the radar. He is forced out of hiding however, after his old ally Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) has hacked into the CIA database, taking files about all the black op programs that the Agency has run in the past and ones they will run in the future. A team is assembled to hunt for Parsons and, by association, Bourne and is led by Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), a young agent working in the Cyber Ops Division. She is overseen by the new Agency head Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), who is keen to protect his new Iron Hand program, even if that means sending an assassin (Vincent Cassel) to kill indiscriminately.

This is the first film in the series in which Tony Gilroy has not been involved in the writing process, but unless you know what to look for, the story doesn't seem like it has changed much. It does take into account the new world in which we live and while Bourne isn't trying to expose anything, he does get caught up in a new program which involves tracking everyone's social media posts and looks at the argument of giving up privacy for security. This storyline does take a back seat and while it is interesting, there isn't a lot of time given to it.

The action is everything we've come to expect in a Paul Greengrass movie. Lots of short choppy hand to hand combat, something that Bourne is an expert with. However, some shots of the action felt a bit off. There is a scene where Bourne falls off a rooftop and is aided with some CGI. This feels really out of place in a movie series that is reliant on all the action being done for real. The car chase at the end of the movie went way over the top too, for the level of plausibility we've come to expect. While the movie does talk about emergent technologies that can help in the intelligence field, the ones they take for granted seem extremely advanced. It's not that easy to gain access to a Berlin CCTV system from all the way in the US, but this movie shows us that anything is possible if you tap at a keyboard.

The characters were interesting enough for me, but again they were following in the footsteps of the same characters we've seen before. Control room woman backed by shady older man in charge of ruthless agent who tries to stop Bourne. While Vikander and Jones played their parts well, it just seemed like a paint by numbers. I will say however that Vincent Cassel was a standout as the ruthless assassin, but only because he seems like he does that as a side job (that or the professional thief that he was in Ocean's Twelve). I will say that Riz Ahmed was a standout in this movie, not just because his character was new or topical, but because he was very believable as the tech company head that he was playing.

So, is Jason Bourne worth seeing? I know that I have just gone on and on about how it's the same movie we've seen before, but it's still very good. The action sequences are beautifully choreographed (yes, they can be even when the camera is bouncing around) and the spy stuff feels genuine enough. It's a great two hours to sit down and try to make sense of the story (it's not that confusing) as Bourne retraces yet more steps to discover more of his past.

Trailers Week 108: 31/07/16

Rough Stuff

First off this week, we take a look at some rough and tumble comedy set in the Australian bush. You know, some good old larrakin fun.

T2: Trainspotting 2

Even such a small little hint at this upcoming sequel is enough to get people super exciting to dive back into the world of Scottish heroin junkies.

Office Christmas Party

Let's get the ball rolling on this year's Christmas movies and so far they seem to be for adults only. I've been to some good office parties, but this one looks like it would be top notch. It also seems to me that Jason Bateman and T.J. Miller would not get along.

Bad Santa 2

Oh yeah, and Billy Bob doesn't like being Santa still.

Masterminds

This movie just feels like a who's who in comedy. But seriously robbing a bank in the 90s mustn't have been too hard. I'm surprised it didn't happen more.

Split

Okay, so this M. Night Shymalan movie isn't quite a comedy, but something about James McAvoy's performance looks like it will make me laugh. I mean it's not like he's never worn a dress before. Let's hope he's actually made a good movie this time round.

The Accountant

A closer look at Ben Affleck's autistic accountant who launders cash for all the bad guys of the world. What I'm more focused with in this trailer is that I'm getting J.K. Simmons and Jeffrey Tambor mixed up. That or they've morphed into one person.

The Great Wall

Meanwhile, Ben's best friend Matt Damon has gone back to ancient China to be the only white guy to help fight the dragons.

Hacksaw Ridge

Lastly this week, let's wrap up with the movie about the pacifist war hero.

Classic Movie Review: Battle Royale (2000)

Way before The Hunger Games came along, this highly controversial Japanese movie had teenagers killing each other in much more brutal and graphic ways. While it is commonly believed that this movie was banned in the West for it's depiction of teen on teen violence, that's just not the case and it is a cult classic that lots of people enjoy, including everyone's favourite director Quentin Tarantino, who used actress Chiaki Kuriyama in his Kill Bill movies.

In the future, the unemployment rates have soared to new highs and violent crime is rampant on the streets. In order to lower the population, the government has started the Battle Royale Act, in which once a year, a class of students is sent to a remote location where they must fight one another to the death and only one can survive. This year it is given to the class of Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujihara). It is administered by their old teacher Sensei Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano). Very soon, groups are formed around who is friends with who at school and old grudges are brought up. Meanwhile, transfer student Shôgo Kawada (Tarô Yamamoto) knows a way out of the game and needs help achieving this.

This differs from what we're used to in many ways (not just that it's a Japanese movie). First off, we're not given an awful lot of backstory to the world that the characters are from. We're told how it is and we have to deal with it. That's a good thing because they allow us to focus more on the characters. The backgrounds of the main characters are fleshed out and we're told people have crushes on and who's being bullied by the other kids. Now, I know this isn't a high school movie so what's the point of knowing all this information. Well, we're a lot more connected to the characters, so there is an actual emotional response when someone is killed and you end up rooting for some kids to survive. We're also not given background information on those couple of kids who are actually enjoy the murdering, so seeing them on screen actually fills you with fear of what they're going to do.

And what that is is probably something horrific. Sure, you could shoot your best friend with a gun, but why do that when you could maim them with a samurai sword. The violence in the movie isn't so bad as it seems. The movie was shot on a relatively small budget and they get around things quite nicely, by not showing all the deaths on screen, but rather when people are killed we hear it through the loudspeaker, from Takeshi, or a countdown on the screen. I should mention that although we don't see Takeshi Kitano a lot in this movie, he is definitely one of the best parts of it. He is known more as a comedian and there are parts of this movie where he is quite funny despite the circumstances. It doesn't really add humour to the film, but rather gives it an unsettling tone, especially when he's on screen.

What makes this a classic is it's very straightforward approach. There's no getting bogged down in the political world that exists, it just focuses on what's important. Killing each other and escaping a death island. If violent movies aren't for you, I wouldn't recommend it, but if you're after something new and original, definitely check out Battle Royale.

Lights Out

Based off of the short film of the same name by David F. Sandberg and Lotta Losten (the link to which I will provide at the bottom) the latest James Wan-produced horror release ‘Lights Out’ is finally here, riding the coat tails of ‘The Conjuring 2’ and bringing us another classic story. When a strange figure begins to haunt the halls of his family home soon after the death of his father, Martin (Gabriel Bateman) recruits the help of his older step-sister Rebecca to help him cope with their reclusive and depressed mother Sophie (Maria Bello). Experiencing the same events during her own childhood when her father left, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) has since become detached from her family, believing the figure to be a hoax manifested by her mother’s mental illness. Joined by her boyfriend Bret (Alexander DiPersia), she reluctantly decides to help her mother for Martin’s sake, as he has become paranoid about the dark. As the mysterious circumstances surrounding the figure begin to unravel, the group is left with one question: Who is Diana? 

The positives: This film wastes no time in getting right into the action and building tension, and doesn’t stop until the film ends, keeping that atmosphere that Wan’s films are becoming known for. Sandberg has done excellent work in keeping his simple premise as effective for a feature length film as possible. The performances were on the whole good with the standouts definitely being Gabriel Bateman who provides a foil for Rebecca and helps the viewers remember what it was like being afraid of the dark as a child, as well as Maria Bello’s caring yet unstable Sophie. I was also pleasantly surprised by DiPersia’s character Bret: it was nice to see a boyfriend in a horror film that wasn’t, for lack of a better word, an asshole. I enjoyed the ways that the film played on a fear within all of us: the fear of the unknown, the fear of the dark spaces in our houses we subconsciously avoid, and the fear of being abandoned. The premise of staying in the light is a relatively new take on this idea and was very entertaining.

The negatives: A common theme in a lot of the films I’ve seen of late, the most glaring issue for ‘Lights Out’ is pacing. At a mere 81 minutes, this film flies through much of the plot and character development, leaving the viewer looking for more of an explanation and having them make leaps in order to connect the dots. Perhaps this was done because there is currently a sequel in the works, but it still felt as though the film was incomplete. Because of its fast pace, it becomes harder to form an attachment with the characters and they tend to fall into some horror movie clichés (like making stupid decisions for seemingly no reason and painting Rebecca as the ‘rebellious young adult with equally rebellious boyfriend’), which was a bit of a let down.

On the whole, this movie is good for a scary night in and definitely brings a good old fashioned spook, but isn’t too revolutionary. The acting was decent and the plot was interesting, but I’m hoping that the sequel provides us with the answers the audience is looking for and a more solid, well paced story. If you’re a horror fan, its definitely worth a watch.

Lights Out (A Short Horror Film)

Star Trek Beyond

After the darkness that was the last Star Trek movie, the franchise has taken a much lighter turn. This can only be expected when you team up Justin Lin, director of the Fast & Furious movies, and Simon Pegg, who wrote the script. This tongue in cheek approach is a much needed thing in the current Hollywood climate, but is also a step away from the general nature of Star Trek which might upset long time fans.

The crew of the Enterprise are more than halfway through their five-year voyage through space and have stopped at deep space station Yorktown for some much needed respite. James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is questioning his place as captain and applies to be the Vice Admiral of Yorktown. But that process is stalled when an escape pod drifts into the Yorktown space and the survivor on board claims that her ship was attacked in a nebula and are being held on a remote planet. Kirk and his crew go to the planet only to be attacked themselves. It turns out that the alien Krall (Idris Elba) was after a part of a superweapon that Kirk has. Luckily, another alien prisoner Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) is able to help figure out how to save the day.

What made this movie really work for me was the simplicity of the plot. It's a very basic rescue mission/escape movie. Pegg has written a script that really allows for focusing on the characters rather than getting bogged down in a story that is steeped in Star Trek lore. This also means that we get to see characters grow in and develop in this new universe. Simon Pegg also infuses the movie with plenty of humour that pleases both fans Pegg and these movies. One such example is when they use the Beastie Boys 'Sabotage' to save the day and refer to it as classical music. Justin Lin is also very adept at filming action and there is a lot more on the ground action than spaceship fighting, but that's what he does so well.

Due to Pegg's familiarity with his castmates, he has written a script that definitely plays to their strengths. One of these recipients is Karl Urban, which is good because Bones is definitely my favourite character. Also the character of Sulu is padded out a little more, as he given a husband and a daughter. While there has been an outcry against this, it doesn't harm the story at all and actually made me feel more a character who has been relegated to the background in the other two movies. There was a point where I was listening to Krall speak, and I wondered whether it was Idris Elba. No, I thought, he's not in this. Turns out he is, but still his performance isn't up there with some of the ones he's given in the past. Newcomer Sophia Boutella makes the character Jaylah very likeable.

In our current world of gritty reboots, Star Trek Beyond is a fun, bubbly adventure. Sure, it is part of a series that historically has taken itself very seriously, but this time round it's just a lot of fun to watch Captain Kirk and his pals wisecrack their way through the action. Also, the massive inside out planet that is Yorktown is really a wonder to see.

Trailers Week 107: 24/07/16

The Magnificent Seven

This new trailer for Antoine Fuqua's remake seems to just highlight the fact that the new characters are only archetypes that have particular skills. Like videogame characters.

In a Valley of Violence

I think the moral here is that if you do any time travelling to the old west, don't harass the quiet guy sitting alone in the saloon. He'll surely come back to bite you.

xXx: The Return of Xander Cage

Is the point of xXx to be a more hardcore version of Point Break except with more saving the world than bank robbing? It seems it. And for some reason Ruby Rose's accent really sticks out like a sore thumb for me. Then again anyone sticks out next to Vin.

Skiptrace

Oh boy, Jackie Chan teaming up with another American comedian. Surely this'll be a hoot. In all seriousness though, I'm just here for the martial arts.

Hands of Stone

Édgar Ramírez isn't someone you'd want to go up against any day of the week. So imagine what he's like when he's playing a boxer.

Kong: Skull Island

Brie Larson and the Hiddleston star in this reimagining of King Kong in a modern setting. That actually sounds and looks pretty amazing.

Blair Witch

There's so much to say about this movie. It's been 17 years since the original movie came out, so will the target demographic have even seen that one. Also this is a far cry from the psychological horror of the first one. The witch wasn't an actual thing, just a presence. That's all I got.

Before I Wake

I can't believe that the cute kid that is Jacob Tremblay would have nightmares as dark as these.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

Guy Ritchie's take on the Arthur myth looks more like London gangsters and con artists than grand army fighting. Looks like a lot of fun if you ask me.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Jon Voight and jazz goblins. I'm serious about those goblins, they look like they were at a party all hopped up on the reefer. And who made Colin Farrell so evil?

Suicide Squad

Let's start of this week's allotted superhero space with some Comic-Con trailers. First we have a synchronised Suicide Squad.

Wonder Woman

Then we get a look at Wonder Woman's World War origin story, with plenty of female ass-kicking action.

Justice League

Our first look at DC's team movie and Ezra Miller looks like he's going to infuse this universe with what it really needs; light humour.

The Lego Batman Movie

Finally we get to measure Will Arnett's Batman against Ben Affleck's. I'm leaning slightly more toward Arnett.

Sausage Party (NSFW)

From one animated movie to another, except this one is definitely not for kids.

Operation Avalanche

No, this isn't a documentary about the recording of The Avalanches long awaited second album, although that would be an amazing title for that. It's actually an alternate history mockumentary about how the moon landings were faked.

The Girl on the Train

This thriller looks pretty confusing right now, but I'm sure it'll make complete sense when we see it.

A Tale of Love and Darkness

Natalie Portman delivers her directorial debut about trying to survive in 1940s Jerusalem.

Snowden

The more trailers I see for this movie, the more glad I am that I saw the documentary Citizenfour. I mean what is with Jo Go-Lev and doing weird accents. I'm sure people would be okay if he just spoke normally.

Luke Cage

Yes, this is a movie blog and we don't focus on TV too much, but this trailer for Marvel's new Netflix show may be the most perfect trailer ever made. It teases the characters and story enough to let us know what it's about. It uses a song that goes well with that character. It just sets up what every trailer should do with out going over the top. It's perfect. And I'm definitely going to watch it.

Classic Movie Review: Spaceballs (1987)

Mel Brooks is undeniably the king of parody and his science fiction spoof is definitely his best. In it, he makes fun of everything from Stars Wars and Alien to Planet of the Apes and The Wizard of Oz. This was the first comedy I remember seeing and after all these years, the fourth wall breaking and excellent comedic performances still make me laugh.

Planet Spaceball is facing a crisis from the lack of available oxygen and President Skroob (Mel Brooks) has sent the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) to kidnap Druish Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga). His plan is to hold her hostage and get the ransom of Druidia's clean air supply. King Roland (Dick Van Patten) enlists the rogue Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) to rescue her and save the day. It's actually a very simple plot that even Dark Helmet thinks doesn't really need further explanation.

The lead for me with this movie is more the fact that it breaks the fourth wall so regularly rather than the actual parody element of it. There are constant references to the fact that they know they are in a movie, such as when the bad guys get the videotape of Spaceballs to find out where Lone Starr is or the accidental maiming of a crew member during the final "lightsaber" battle (they use rings). That's not to say that the references aren't funny at all, but in true Mel Brooks style, there's a lot of them. Being a Star Wars parody, the majority of the story revolves around desert planets and huge spaceships and even the Schwartz, it even has specific shots straight out of Star Wars (I mean A New Hope but I'm not going to call it that), but the movie also references so many others and not just sci-fi stuff. Brooks' own Jewish heritage is made fun of more here than in any of his other movies, and while they may have been funny 29 years ago, today only about half of them hit.

The movie's cast is undoubtedly made up of some of the funniest performers of the time. John Candy, Joan Rivers and Mel Brooks are all just fantastic comedy actors and they are just a joy to watch. Especially Brooks as he has the dual role of Skroob and Yogurt (no prizes for guessing who that's a parody of). Long before Bill Pullman was giving famous speeches on the Fourth of July, he was hilarious as a idiotic Han Solo and he really has great comedic chemistry with the legend that was John Candy, but then again Candy worked well with everyone. There are also three cameos that are unforgettable. Dom DeLuise was a veteran of TV and film and was well known for working with Burt Reynolds in many of his movies, but here he lends his voice to the terrific character of Pizza the Hutt. King of sound effects Michael Winslow returns with his magic voice and John Hurt reprises his role from Alien only to be killed all over again.

Spaceballs won't be winning any competitions for it's greatness, but it is a hilarious movie. It's script even led George Lucas to lend a hand with some of the special effects. Don't let his involvement turn you off though, this was before he'd made any bad decisions with his career. Aside from that, it's a great movie to go back and revisit like I did or look at for the first time if you are a fan of sci-fi because there's just so much to look out for.

Our Kind of Traitor

For a movie written by Hossein Amini (he also wrote everyone's favourite movie, Drive), based on a novel by spymaster John le Carré and with a cast of stars that should be impeccable, this thriller ends up being a laborious adventure in mediocrity. It probably has to do with the director Susanna White's first time attempt attempt at a thriller and the insanely distracting camera work.

Perry (Ewan McGregor) and his wife Gail (Naomie Harris) are having a holiday in Marrakech in order to reconnect after some specified bad blood between the two. One night, Perry meets Dima (Stellan Skårsgard), a Russian oligarch who soon reveals that he has previously worked for the Russian Mafia and has information he would like to exchange for he and his family's safety. Once back in London, Perry gets in contact with MI6 agent Hector (Damian Lewis), who deems the information Dima holds to be of value. However, he is unable to convince his superiors of the value and must embark on an unsanctioned mission with the help of Perry and Gail.

Despite being a relatively good story, there are a few points when the script gets sticky. Early on, there is a scene in which Dima meets with Hector for the first time and while it plays out like an amazing game of cat and mouse, it happens way too early in the story. This really affects some similar scenes that happen later on. The climax of the film also falls flat as well. It is something that you can see a mile away, but then when it happens, there's no real emotional response. I suppose one of the biggest distractions for me however, was Ewan McGregor's line readings. Whenever he said anything, it felt like he'd looked at the script for the first time and gone, "woah, I get to say that?"

But it's not as though the rest of the cast is this bad. Naomie Harris is a splendid performer and I really felt like she cared for the family they were trying to save. She didn't really have a chemistry with McGregor, but I'm guessing that's kind of the point. Stellan Skårsgard is always great at playing either the reserved quiet type or the over the top criminal. Here he straddles the middle ground quite nicely. It's good to see Damian Lewis returning to his natural accent because the American accent he does in the TV show Billions is quite grating. The only reason I bring that up is because this is how Susanna White must have got this job because she's a director on that show.

Finally, the camera work. I don't know where to begin. It's just so distracting. During the opening sequence, there was a highly stylised glittery thing going on that had me thinking, "Oh this is only for the intro, it'll settle down." But it didn't. The amount of reflective surfaces that they sparkled lights off was unbelievable. And then they decide to shoot it from some new and unusual angles. The result ended up being a disorienting mess. Some of the time, I didn't even know where we were supposed to be in the room.

The slowness of this movie made it nowhere near as enjoyable as it should have been. The story had all the intrigue that a spy movie should have, but it also just felt like a lighter version of 2014's A Most Wanted Man, also a le Carré adaptation. In fact the endings of both films are slightly similar, just this one feels a little more resolved. It just needed more excitement.

Ghostbusters

The new take on the Ghostbusters, the film that every fanboy has loved to hate since its inception and the most disliked trailer on youtube (really guys?), has finally landed and it’s definitely a mixed bag that, as a massive fan of the original (who isn’t?) left me ultimately feeling a mix of nostalgia and conflict. Ghostbusters (a.k.a. Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) is directed by Paul Feig and stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as the new face of the busting crew. After a falling out in their teenage years, Abby Yates (McCarthy) and Erin Gilbert (Wiig) reunite to investigate a haunting at a local historic house that, in turn, leads to the pair combining forces with Jillian Holtzman (McKinnon), Abby’s kooky and slightly unstable assistant, with Patty Tolan (Jones) joining them along the way. From here, the group must attempt to stop a full-scale spook-pocalypse from descending on New York before its too late.

The positives: As a person who (unpopular opinion!) had no problem with a female-lead Ghostbusters cast, I really enjoyed the character’s relationships and the quick, witty banter between them was well written (nice to see a film with a lot of positive female friendship that didn’t involve someone getting jealous about a guy). Standouts by far were Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon who brought the thunder for this movie and ultimately gave us the most entertaining characters, which is ironic as I was expecting that from the big names of Wiig and McCarthy. There were definitely a few chuckles here and there, and more than a few homages and cameos from the original cast that pop up when you least expect them to, which was a nice touch. The special effects were well done and the spooks were much, much scarier this time around. I particular loved how the film took jabs at the fact that it had such a negative reception from die-hards fans, especially those who had a problem with the fact that they were women, and doesn’t try to take itself too seriously. As a side note, the new ghost-busting equipment is also seriously badass.

The negatives: One of the big issues that I had with this film had to be the villain. Although I understood the premise of why he was written i.e. to be a foil against the Ghostbusting group, he essentially could have been played by anyone and was overall pretty bland. The final end standoff that we saw in the trailer was really the only time he shone. While the film was on the whole funny, some of the humour lost its flavour by being taken that one step too far, for example with their receptionist Kevin (played by Chris Hemsworth). We know he’s a bit of an idiot (okay, a lot of an idiot) within the first few moments of his character’s arrival, and I liked that he was a parody of some of the ridiculous characters women get cast as in order to be eye-candy, but Kevin’s cartoonish actions can only entertain an audience for so long before it starts to get old and I’m not entirely convinced Hemsworth was the right casting choice. My last concern has to do with the pacing in this film: it tended to lose its momentum in places and lose my attention, however when I tuned back in not much had happened, which isn’t the best sign for such a highly anticipated film.

The film is ultimately nowhere near as bad as people were wanting it to be, but also not nearly as good as I was hoping it would be, and would possibly have been better as an homage in itself to Ghostbusters rather than a fully fledged ‘busters movie. It had its funny moments and I loved the whole girl power aspect (I’m sure there will be many tiny Ghostbusters this Halloween) but there was definitely room for revision and improvement and I wish that it had been able to stand on its own a little more. On the plus side, the kids are gonna love it and let’s face it, its no longer about our childhood, its about theirs.  

Demolition

Demolition is the latest film from Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild) and stars Jake Gyllenhaal in another of his roles as a dejected man who seems incapable of feeling emotions, a bit like how I felt at the end of this film.

Davis (Jake Gyllenhaal) works in investment banking for his father-in-law Phil (Chris Cooper). Davis and his wife Julia (Heather Lind) are involved in a serious car-crash, and whilst she’s killed, he suffers only minor injuries. Wandering the wings of the hospital afterwards, he has an encounter with a dodgy vending machine and writes a complaint letter to the company that owns it, explaining his troubles for context in a unique form of grief that could only belong to a Gyllenhaal character. However, things take an interesting turn for Davis when he receives a response from customer service representative Karen (Naomi Watts). What follows is one of the most leisurely paced, unprofound, waffling films that we’ve seen so far this year.

Demolition starts off promisingly - a car-crash that will undoubtedly send Davis into a cinematic spiral of insanity - but what follows is...well, tedious. There’s always a couple each year, the films that could be brilliant but end up a conceited mess. Think Words and Pictures. Demolition is one of those. I’m not one to dismiss character-centric dramas, in fact I tend to take a high-horse attitude and think that if you judge a film solely on its supposed ‘lack of plot’, you’re most likely a toddler who hasn’t learnt to think for themselves - bloody plebs, am I right?. But the characters in Demolition are either unrelatable or just plain unlikable, which doesn’t leave much of interest to draw you in.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Throughout there are these little references to 9/11, and whether intentional or not it felt as if it’s was pushing a not-so-subtle message toward how grief has evolved in a post-9/11 America. It also keeps drawing weird linkages between Davis’s dejection and how it could be cured by embracing his inner child. Whilst normally these would be buried deep into our subconscious viewing of the film, in Demolition there’s not a lot more to focus on and so they stand out like a sore thumb. It starts to skate the thin line between intellectual cinema and ‘art for art's sake’.

You also get the impression that detail is important to Davis, and so little close-up montages are scattered throughout. They work but only to a certain point, even though the editing is one of the better takeaways from this. Don’t get me wrong, there are other positives as well. There’s a scene right at the end with a carousel which was about the only time I felt something in the nearly two-hour run time, is that a positive? There’s certainly a handful of funny moments but it’s not laugh-out-loud. A lot of Yves Bélanger’s cinematography is well-constructed and interesting, even if the film isn’t. You can tell that both Gyllenhaal and Watts are invested in crafting good performances but that never really happens because of deeply flawed character writing/direction.

In the early stages of Davis’s downfall, you see him meticulously take things apart, but never put them back together. This film feels a bit like that, a series of scenes that should have some sort of coherence as a whole, but just don’t. It’s not awful, just frustrating, tedious, a waste of talent and of your time.

Trailers Week 106: 17/07/16

Tallulah

This movie is a heartbreaking look at homelessness, motherhood and family. It's also the kind of thing people should be expecting to see more of Netflix.

Loving

This is Jeff Nichols' second movie of the year and it couldn't be more different than Midnight Special. It follows the Supreme Court case about interracial marriage in the United States.

La-La Land

Another long anticipated movie, this time from Whiplash director Damien Chazelle. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone team up yet again to do some song and dance numbers.

A Monster Calls

This kids movie looks both terrifying and sad. It also has a monster cast; Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Liam Neeson, Toby Kebbell. I take it back, this doesn't look like a movie for kids at all.

The Hollars

John Krasinski's latest comedy sports one of the funniest groups of people, including Margo Martindale, Charlie Day, Sharlto Copley and Randall Park.

The Edge of Seventeen (NSFW)

This dark-ish comedy looks at all those things that seems like such a big deal when you're a teenager. You know, like your best friend dating your brother. At least she has a cool teacher to go to.

Rules Don't Apply

Veteran Warren Beatty is playing Howard Hughes in his new wacky comedy and dare I say, he looks like he's done a better job than Leo.

Boo! A Madea Halloween

Look, you can hate on Madea all you want, but I think she's pretty funny.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I know this isn't a trailer, but we get to see new footage. So that's pretty cool.

Swiss Army Man

Like many who’ve been to see Swiss Army Man - a film by Daniels - I left with a big smile on my face and absolutely no conceivable way to explain why. So reviewing this film could be kind of challenging. At first glance, it seems just like any other farting corpse movie, but it’s oh so much more.

Hank (Paul Dano) has been stuck on a deserted island for so long that he’s finally decided to end it all. Standing on an esky beneath a grotto and with his head in a noose, his death is interrupted by a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) that washes ashore. A farting corpse. Hank rides the corpse across the ocean, powered by flatulence, to a beach surrounded by wilderness. He’s closer to home but still has a long way to go. Then everything changes when he finds out that the corpse can talk. It also has a name; Manny, and Manny wants to learn about all the things he’s been missing out on as a dead man. What follows is 90 minutes of magical boners, Paul Dano in a wig, Daniel Radcliffe’s arsehole, many many more farts and one of the best films of the year thus far.

It’s difficult to say much more about Swiss Army Man, other than that it’s one of the most unique cinematic experiences in recent memory, and deserves huge credit for managing to do that and still be entertaining and accessible to most people. In an era where films are funded based on commercial viability and how much fan service they can pack in, original content like this is frustratingly difficult to come by.

At its heart, it’s a buddy comedy, and one of the better ones in recent years, but it also has a surprisingly profound message about just being who you want to be, no matter what others think. It’s short but sweet and doesn’t purposefully try to overreach the limits naturally imposed on it by genre. Yet it’s so much more nuanced and entertaining than most other films that rely on this sort of crude humor, thanks to the way that it flips it on its head. The lead performances are both fantastic, and whilst I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t cast an already dead actor, I’m in agreement with many in saying that this is Radcliffe’s best performance to date. Especially when you consider just how challenging the role would have been.

Staying on that train of thought, if you have any experience or knowledge of film-making you’d understand some of the unique challenges involved with certain scenes in Swiss Army Man, and full credit to cinematographer Larkin Seiple, because it looks great and is complimented with some astoundingly well executed editing. It also has a beautifully (here comes that word again) original soundtrack that actually interacts with the film in a really (and here’s the other) unique and interesting way.

It’s a movie that by the filmmaker’s own description tries to make you laugh at the first fart, cry with the last; and in a weird way it kind of achieves that. If I had to nitpick, I think the beginning could give people the wrong impression, and could explain some of the disrespectful walkouts it’s supposedly received, and whilst I’m so glad they didn’t choose the cop-out option that I had feared, the ending could probably have been stronger. But there’s really not a lot to complain about here. To sum it up in one word, majestic.

There’s no other way to put it, I loved Swiss Army Man. It’s sharp, funny, clever and original in every sense of the word. I don’t expect everybody who sees it to love it but if you’re even remotely interested then you should absolutely check it out, otherwise what the hell is the point of trying to make original movies. F*ck the sequels/remakes/reboots, embrace the farting corpse!

Classic Movie Review: The Phantom (1996)

Long before the current wave of superhero movies, but after Batman had appeared on our screens, there was The Phantom. Based on one of the oldest masked heroes in comic book history, this movie is fun mix of action and adventure. It's also one of the most 90s-ist (that's a real word) movies out there.

In the 1500s, a merchant vessel is attacked by the Sengh Brotherhood and the only survivor is a young boy who is raised by natives on the island of Bengalla. Four hundred years later, that boy survives as the Phantom (Billy Zane), a masked avenger who is seemingly immortal. Just kidding, the role is passed down from father to son, but don't tell the bad guys that. Quill (James Remar) is one of these bad guys, working for the evil Xander Drax (Treat Williams), and has been sent to Bengalla to retrieve one of the Skulls of Togunda. Whoever owns all three will become an immortal force. Along with the Phantom, comes Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson) who is investigating Drax, as well as being the ex-girlfriend of the Phantom's alter ego, Kit Walker.

Now I'm going to be completely honest with you. I didn't pick The Phantom because it's a good movie. I picked it because it is a fun, incredibly cheesy action adventure flick. It almost plays out like a mixture between an Indiana Jones and a Robin Hood movie, with plenty of swords and gunplay. In fact the opening sequence is taken right out of Temple of Doom, with a rickety bridge being destroyed. The only difference is that this one is full of that awfully fantastic 90s CGI. The whole story of the skulls and the ancient pirate brotherhood is the sort of exciting story that sends chills down my spine. As for the Phantom himself, he's got enough exciting backstory told, but not so much that he still isn't mysterious by the end of the movie.

The performances in this movie are pretty cheesy, especially Billy Zane. His way of fighting people seems to be to flash his pearly whites and then shoot them, but it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's one of the best things. Treat Williams' Drax is such an over the top bad guy that it absolutely believable that he would have actually existed in 1930s New York. Catherine Zeta Jones' Sala is one of those old stereotypical femme fatales and she plays it so well. And as for James Remar, well he's Indiana Jones' evil twin brother.

This superhero is more Indiana Jones than Iron Man, but that doesn't stop it from being a more interesting one than anything that Marvel or DC are bringing out over the next couple of years. Why is that? It's just so 90s!

The Legend of Tarzan

Before I watched this movie, I had myself thinking that I had never seen a Tarzan movie. But then I remembered Disney's Tarzan and it's TV spinoff, the parody George of the Jungle, the comedy Jungle 2 Jungle and even listened to Baltimora's 1985 hit Tarzan Boy (here's a fun challenge, give that one a listen while you read this). But all of those had a fairly upbeat tone to them. How does the one hundred year old character hold up in this era of gritty reboots? Not as well as it should have.

In 1890, Belgian envoy Léon Rom (Christoph Waltz) has been sent to the Congo in an attempt to make some money for the bankrupt king. He comes across Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou), who promises him a lot of diamonds in exchange for the jungle man Tarzan, who killed his son. In England, Tarzan is reformed as Lord Greystoke (Alexander Skårsgard) and has received an invitation to return to the Congo to tour for some publicity. He is initially hesitant to visit, but American spy George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) convinces him to go after hearing rumours of slavery taking place. Tarzan's wife Jane (Margot Robbie) also tags along, but this ends up being a mistake after she is kidnapped by Rom. Of course Tarzan is there to the rescue.

Tarzan suffers from some pretty bland plot problems. After a really interesting hint at some politics and great introduction to Léon Rom, the film just kicks into regular action/adventure tropes that follows perfectly in line with, well, the legend of Tarzan. And while it's not the generic discovery of Tarzan, the return of Tarzan isn't much more interesting. Another thing I found very distracting was the behaviours of some of the animals. Everyone knows that gorillas don't swing from vines and I thought it was really stupid that Tarzan would learn this from them. I would be fine with him developing this technique on his own. There is a heavily proliferation of CGI animals at work here and while it's not as bad as The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we really don't need a cameo from a group of poorly rendered elephants.

The characterisation is at least good. Tarzan is introduced with a shot of disfigured knuckles, a remnant of running around on all fours and although Skårsgard's accent is a bit shaky, his diet of raw eggs and whiskey is something we should all aspire to (take that Rocky). Margot Robbie's Jane offers a lot more than a damsel who's nice to look at. She works well in a sticky situation and her relationship with the African tribes proves invaluable. While I said that Christoph Waltz had an intriguing intro, he ends up being a bit of a generic villain, a thing that he has become lately. Of course, Samuel L. Jackson is there to be the good sidekick as always.

While The Legend of Tarzan promised to give us a different look at the famous jungle man, it ends up being the same old story, with all the elements of his adventure we've come to expect. The only thing missing was his chimpanzee buddy Cheeta.