Masterminds

Jared Hess has had a mixed bag of comedies over the years, with nothing yet able to match his opening foray into features, Napoleon Dynamite. This time he teams up with Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Owen Wilson with Masterminds.

David Scott Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis) is an armoured-truck driver for Loomis Fargo. His life consists of maintaining his Barry Gibb haircut, relinquishing himself to his bizarre fiancée Jandice (Kate McKinnon) and dreaming about his co-worker Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig). After Kelly gets herself fired, her sinister friend Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) suggests they plan a heist of Loomis Fargo, and use Ghantt’s affliction for Kelly to set him up as a pawn.

The plan is to have Ghantt complete the robbery, hand over the $17 million to Chambers and hightail it to Mexico, where Chambers will drip-feed Ghantt with enough money to live until it all dies-down and he can return to take his fair share. However, elements of the heist are botched by Ghantt, and FBI Agent Scanlon (Leslie Jones) starts to put the pieces together and track him down.

I have to admit I went into Masterminds with fairly low expectations. This comedy troupe - whether together or apart - produces both hits and misses, but I left pleasantly surprised. It’s not a great film by any long shot but it stands head-and-shoulders above some of the comedies we’ve seen recently. Considering how heavily-saturated the genre is, that could be considered a compliment. The actual comedy is predictably unstable, riding a sine wave of effectiveness. Early moments like David and Jandice’s wedding photography scene with Enya’s ‘Only Time’ blazing, or the robbery sequence keep you watching where other jokes pass by with not a murmur.

Since the film is based on an actual event – the 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery – Masterminds doesn’t really have any crazy, outlandish sequences, which is probably its strongest asset. It relies more on standard slapstick and screwball comedy where others would stage a huge comedy-action sequence. It’s by no means a subtle film, yet in a genre where everybody’s jumping on the shock-train and trying to outdo each other, a film that’s even slightly understated like this is a breath of fresh air.

Galifianakis plays Ghantt as a bumbling idiot which might be exaggerated but it works, although half his performance can be attributed to his hair. McKinnon has just the right amount of involvement, with just a few well-rounded scenes – considering that she’s effectively playing a creepy doll-like character, somewhat reminiscent of Pris from Bladerunner, any more screen time for Jandice would have been a mistake. However both Wilson and Wiig were more of a let-down. Wilson doesn’t really escape from his ‘I’m Owen Wilson’ shoes but manages to whinge a hell of a lot, and Wiig’s Kelly is sidelined for a lot of the film, only really there to further Ghantt’s story. By far the best character in Masterminds however, is Jason Sudeikis’ Mike the assassin. With just the right mix of psychopathic and weirdly genteel, he outclasses the other secondary characters with a minimal amount of screen time.

Masterminds is by no means going to top the list of best comedies of the year, and it will probably be exiled to a life of occasional Netflix viewings. However, its comparatively toned-down approach is a relief point in an increasingly excessive genre.

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.