The Accountant

What do you get when you bring Batfleck more into the realm of The Big Short? Well, The Accountant, apparently. This movie is all over the place in terms of thematic stability, with way too much attempted dynamism plaguing every character. Is it really necessary for the autistic mathematical super-genius to also be trained in martial arts and heavy weaponry? Probably not. It's a mess, but at least it's a hot mess.

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is an on-the-spectrum savant working as an accountant for some of the baddest bads in the crime world. As a treasury agent (J.K. Simmons) starts searching out his identity, Christian takes on a legitimate client in a robotics  company with conveniently way too much to hide. Obviously, this creates room for an emotional connection with the company's lowly assistant Dana (Anna Kendrick), because what would an action-thriller be without a love interest? Oh, and there's a hitman (Jon Bernthal) chasing him, but don't worry too much about that.

The Accountant plays with a lot, and sadly, it does not do so delicately. From the opening scenes, we are heavily handed a bunch of disjointed plot stories that we spend the majority of the film trying to reconnect. Jarring flashbacks and out of place monologues are apparently the way to go to create 'character depth' these days. Every character has some motivations or back story that are supposed to make us think "Hey, maybe he's not a bad guy, maybe he's just misunderstood". Sadly, this moral ambiguity seems to lose its punch when applied to every single character in the movie.

While his introduction and validation are a bit abrupt, Christian Wolff springs to life through Affleck, who comfortably portrays the mannerisms of autism in a subtle yet effective way. Affleck seems to do all he can with a clunky and overloaded character. It's probably best to blame the writers for this one if you dislike his performance. The real standout as far as acting is concerned is Jon Bernthal's Brax, who is sadly underutilisied and seemingly forgotten as the plot unfolds. And Anna Kendrick just plays Anna Kendrick. 

While the movie is fun, it is definitely hindered by its drive to tick all the boxes. It is hard to strive to be a message movie for people with autism when you also make the lead character a kickass sharpshooter and martial arts expert. The Accountant could have bypassed the guns and fight scenes completely and just had a detailed, dialogue-driven, A Beautiful Mind-esque drama. But instead, we are left with this identity crisis of an action flick. While it surely is cool to see an autistic character explored on-screen as a bit of a badass, is this really the best way to go about representing people with disabilities? This may not be the movie people with autism deserve, but until that one arrives, at least it's a bit of fun. 

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates

Foul-mouthed comedies can be a bit hit and miss. There is a very delicate balance act going on where too much can make it unbearable (case in point; 2013's Movie 43) and not enough makes it just bland. But Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates benefits not only from a strong script of non-stop jokes that all work really well, it also has a cast made up entirely of comic performers that all know how comedy works.

Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave Stangle (Zac Efron) are two brothers who think they are the life of every party. But in reality, it is a very different story. The antics they think they get up to in their heads is very different to the chaos and destruction that actually happens, which is why their father Burt (Stephen Root) has adamantly put his foot down and demanded they bring dates to their younger sister's wedding in Hawaii. Thinking it's the classiest thing to do, they put an ad up on the website Craigslist (generally not a good idea for anything) and soon become a viral hit. This gets the attention of friends Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick), who decide to act respectable in an attempt to impress the guys, but this doesn't last long.

Now I know what you're probably thinking, you've seen the trailer, so you already know what's going to happen. And yes the plot of the movie is very basic, but that's a good thing in this case because there's no complex plot to distract from the jokes. Those are what you're going to see Mike and Dave for and there are a lot of them, with all of them landing. However, these jokes range from walking in on your little sister having an unorthodox orgasm to getting high in front of family members, so if those aren't up your alley, it's probably not for you.

The strongest part of the movie is it's experienced comic cast. Adam DeVine and Zac Efron have an amazing chemistry together and Efron is really benefitting from his recent turn into comedy. DeVine is getting really strong at his loveable goofball too. Aubrey Plaza plays the same dry, acerbic character and at first I found her a bit grating, but she definitely has her moments. The most amazing casting I thought was of Anna Kendrick. She's been in comedies before, but never as a wacky and desperate character and she pulled it off. The standouts in the supporting cast were Stephen Root, who is never as you've seen him before as Mike and Dave's extremely obscene father, and Lavell Crawford, but I'll laugh at him no matter what.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is a shorter movie than you realise, but the whole time it's non-stop laughter, despite the low-brow nature of the jokes. The best thing about it though, is that you can just switch off and have a good time while watching, which is something that not a lot of movies allow you to do these days.

Into The Woods

Stephen Sondheim's award-winning Broadway musical seems like it would be perfect for a big screen adaptation. The scope of the stage production with it's big sets, many characters and magical elements would make a stage feel packed, like there was too much action going. But somehow, on the screen this story seems like it's spread a little too thin.

The story combines all of the most famous fairy tales into one big adventure and gives origin to some of the more popular ones. A childless baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) want to have a family, but are unable to do so due to a curse laid upon the house by the witch (Meryl Streep), who lives next door. She is willing to reverse the curse if they retrieve four items for her; a milky white cow, a blood red cape, a golden slipper and some blonde hair. These of course are all items belong to Jack (Daniel Huddlestone), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) and Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy).

With this being a musical, there is more singing than actual dialogue. However, most of these songs are mostly forgettable besides from a couple. The Wolf (played by Johnny Depp) sings an incredibly predatory song to Little Red Riding Hood, which implies that he wishes to do something entirely than eating her. The Charming princes (Chris Pine and Billy Magnusson) have a rather humourous song where they try to one-up each other in the pain that they feel by not having their respective fairytale romances. Chris Pine has another fun song where he seduces Emily Blunt. Sadly, three songs do not make up for the number of songs that I don't even remember.

The majority of the leads give solid performances. James Corden's singing experience carries him along nicely and Emily Blunt is a partner in their duets. Anna Kendrick also brings her experience from the Pitch Perfect movies. Both Daniel Huddlestone and Lilla Crawford are great young actors who will go places. Chris Pine offers some much needed comic relief. It is with Meryl Streep that I have the most problems. Her character isn't seen too much (thankfully) and when she is on the screen, she tries to steal the scenes from the other actors, all who are much more capable than her.

Verdict: While it has it's charms, Into The Woods proves to be forgettable in the department it will rely most heavily upon: it's music.