Now You See Me 2

Coming into this movie with very low expectations, I left pleasantly surprised and actually felt the $17.50 movie ticket was worth it in comparison to some other films I’ve seen this month. Also, being a big fan of the first film, I’ll try to keep my opinions as unbiased as possible. Try.

Now You See Me 2 (a.k.a Now You See Me: The Second Act) is the sequel to the 2013 film, you guessed it, Now You See Me. The film once again reunites us with the Four Horsemen, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), with replacement 4^th member Lula (Lizzie Caplan) stepping in in the wake of Isla Fisher’s exit. In their latest adventure, the Horseman find themselves thrown into a new game and a new city, in which lies Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe) who forcibly recruits them to help steal a profitable piece of technology from a rival company. After a year in hiding and doubting their overlords The Eye’s plans for them, the group are itching to have a chance at the limelight once more, however as always with magic tricks, things are not always as they appear to be.

The positives: Above everything, this film was fun to watch as the franchise has learned not to take itself too seriously. The storyline is full of twists and turns that helps to keep the audience engaged and entertained, as well as helping to stop it becoming a carbon copy of the last film, and definitely has its humorous moments that help break the tension. The film also addresses Fisher’s character Henley’s exit, rather than simply taking the easy route and sweeping it under the rug. There are also lots of nail biting scenes involving many new and improved tricks, including one inside a vault that really impressed me and that audiences will have fun with. All acting is essentially as it was in the first film, with Caplans’ ‘Lula’ adding a fun, flirtatious element that helps to contrast her with the rest of the mostly male cast and is the source of most of the humour. I also enjoyed seeing more of Mark Ruffalo’s character, FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes, acting like the son of a magician, i.e. doing magic tricks and understanding magic history.

The negatives: The bottom line is, if you didn’t enjoy the first film, you won’t enjoy this one. Although there are a lot of improvements between this and the 2013 release, the general atmosphere is the same. Some minor plot holes leave you with a bit of confusion once the credits roll. The ‘magic’ does lead to some unrealistic scenarios, just as in the first film, that the audiences are expected to gloss over because, well, magic. As well as this, I felt the ending was a little overdone and I would’ve been happier if the film ended 10 minutes before it did. Most annoyingly, the film attempts to address some issues surrounding sexism in a few scenes using Lula, only to completely negate their progress in the next by adhering to some pretty standard female tropes which was a bit of a let down and may be a little jarring for people who grew fond of the snarkier Henley compared to the fun-loving Lula.

Overall the film was a fun time that fans of the franchise will enjoy. The dazzling magic effects, entertaining characters and engaging plot do draw you in and make you remember why you enjoyed magic as a kid. If you’re looking for something in-depth and gritty, you won’t enjoy this film. But for a fun adventure movie, it has a lot to offer.

Youth

Paolo Sorrentino's third film Youth ruminates on the qualities of a long life lived, much like his last film The Great Beauty. In fact, you could say that this film is just a straight remake for an English language audience. Despite this, Sorrentino uses a new cast of actors in a new location deftly enough to make an extremely memorable film.

Retired composer Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is taking a vacation in the Swiss Alps with his old friend and director Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), who is there with a team of writers trying to work on his next film. Also staying at the hotel is young actor Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano) who is getting ready for his next role and famous former football star the South American (Roy Serrano), a thinly veiled allusion to Diego Maradona. During his vacation, Fred is forced to reflect on his life, fame and regret over not being a good father to his daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz).

Once again, Sorrentino is able to create characters who have a lot of depth that don't leave me wanting to know more. It could be anyone from Fred to the masseuse (Luna Zimic Mijovic) and I have all I need about them, sometimes through as little exposition as possible. What he does like to do though is have heavy monologue and dialogue scenes that come out of nowhere. The fantastic dialogues between Fred and Queen Elizabeth's emissary (Alex Macqueen) and a show stopping sequence between Mick and actress Brenda Morel (Jane Fonda) are amazingly indulgent, but it is an emotional monologue from Rachel Weisz early in the film that caught my attention and reaffirmed for me why she is such a superb actor.

Sorrentino's regular cinematographer Luca Bigazzi returns for a third time and does just a spectacular job making the film beautiful. Where The Great Beauty used the streetscapes of Rome as it setting, the breathtaking vistas of the Swiss Alps are the focus and Bigazzi does an amazing job at showing off these views. Another thing I love about Sorrentino's films are the cutaways he uses between sequences. This time they focused largely on the nightly entertainment for the guests, the bizarre habits of some of the residents and even the scratchy violin practice of a young boy.

Ultimately though, this film is a pretty solid reimagining of The Great Beauty, but made more accessible for an English-speaking audience. This isn't a bad thing however, although I have a feeling a lot of people might see this film and think it is a mash-up of The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Lobster.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Matthew Vaughn has achieved critical and commercial accolades in recent years for his entertaining adaptations of cult comics and graphic novels. His previous efforts, X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass, are smart, often employ good humour, build upon pop-culture knowledge and contain good action buoyed by heavy CGI use. The violence used in Vaughn's films is prominent, and his approach is extra-ordinary, so much so that it's brutality can clearly be considered an integral part of his style. This is perhaps the main feature that will separate Kingsman from it's contemporaries in the soon-to-be crowded spy-comedy sub-genre.

In recent years adaptations of comics like Kingsman: The Secret Service have become commonplace, mind-numbingly so. There are the success stories and cult hits like Men In Black, Road to Perdition, Kick-Ass, Sin City, Scott Pilgrim, 300, but more often are the forgotten and ill-conceived such as The Losers, 30 Days of Night, Wanted, Surrogates, Red, The Rundown. But Kingsman will be remembered for some time. It's smart, sweary, violent, and loyally devoted to modernising and stylising classic spy films, particularly Bond, of course, with a an eye for comedy and reference. Vaughn has stated that he was influenced by the manner Indiana Jones was made for modern audiences and hoped to achieve a similar effect.

Gary "Eggsy" Unwin is a young cocky troublemaker living with his Mum and her gangster boyfriend in a poor flat complex in London. After getting into trouble with the police, he uses a code and phone number imprinted on his medallion, the only memento from his father who died mysteriously when Eggsy was a toddler, to bail himself out. Doing so Eggsy unintentionally summons Harry Hart, a.k.a Galahad, a smartly dressed man who declares himself to be a tailor and informs Eggsy that his father saved his life. Hart then recruits Eggsy into the Kingsman program, a modern day melding of the Knights of the Round Table with the flair and resources of Ian Fleming's famous espionage firm. Meanwhile, an eccentric billionaire communications mogul and his assistant (sporting sword-like leg prostethics) begin to kidnap prominent scientists and world leaders while simultaneously unveiling a new free mobile and network, which draws the attention of the Kingsman.

Kingsman is a shockingly violent film, containing extended set pieces resplendent with glassing, gun violence, bone-breaking and limb dismemberment, and in the first 10 minutes even a head-to-toe dissection. Funnily enough, and in contrast to recent bouts of extreme violence in unexpected films such as The Interview, Kingsman is largely bloodless. Obviously this is likely a combination of the wider production trend of adding CGI blood effects during post-production (see The Expendables series) and used to appeal to censors for a more commericially viable rating, but this appears in contrast to the unrestrained take on language used by Eggsy and Galahad. Though the language fits more into the films broader commentary on gentlemently dignity and behaviour that is the source of much of the comedy. In either case, the action is well-staged, Colin Firth and the stunt team of Kingsman really steal the show from Taron Edgerton's Eggsy. Firth performs much of his own stunts, though often he and the camera go beyond their usual capabilities. Firth morphs first into a CGI rendering of himself and then into one of his stunt doubles and back, whereas the camera performs zooms and digital edits that do help the flow and dynamism of the fights, particularly the pub and church fights. The use of POV shots during gunfights, Gazelle's prosthetic sword-legs and the trippy and artful method of eradicating Valentine's henchmen army in a single fell swoop also add oodles of flair to the well-choreographed action.

For all its flash and folly, Kingsman is ultimately as much of a homage to the spy films of old as Austin Powers is. Numerous direct and indirect references to the Bond and Bourne films as well as the influence of both plain on the film's style, with Jackson and Firth are the main offenders through their near constant references and mentions, though slightly more subtle aspects like the interior design of Valentine's secret base being similar to the one in You Only Live Twice, or the scope Valentine's attack being as grand as in Moonraker. At the risk of spoiling the final act, Kingsman's villainous plan fits in appropriately with contemporary society. Instead of a simple threat of terror and attack, Valentine's plan is to aggressively combat climate change by forcibly culling the population through the use of a signal emanating from his company's mobile phone that forces the aggression centre of a persons brain into overdrive. It's a brilliant tactic and affect as the film depicts mass carnage in a 28 Days Later-style effect, and the combination of mobile technology and environmental awareness really cements the time period.. Unfortunately, the Kingsman have little reason to stop it aside from a lot of people dying, and there's very little debate. It's also during these scenes it becomss clear that Kingsman has problems with it's female characters. Earlier in the film, Eggsy's Mum, Roxy and the assassin Gazelle are all strong, yet underwritten characters, but during the finale a shift occurs with the former two. Eggsy's Mum has a few shots dedicated to her and her baby in an attempt to personalise the plight of Valentine's rage-inducing attack and Roxy's role in the finale is reduced to riding a balloon into the upper atmosphere, where Mark Strong's Merlin activates a missile on her behalf from her rig that's attached to the balloon, then she promptly parachutes back to Earth and rings Eggsy's Mum. During that time Eggsy, who is not a member of the Kingsman fights an army of henchmen, Gazelle and Valentine and ultimately saves the world. Seeing Eggsy's heroic actions intercut woth Roxy standing in one spot and talking on a phone emphasises the creeping feeling that these two female roles were after-thoughts shot after principal photography ended. It's really very grating to see two of the main female voices in this film written into these corners, especially when Roxy has a great set-up. But the most baffling and repugnant treatment is saved for the immediate aftermath of Valentine's defeat, which is played for comedy, but makes the Moonraker "I think he's attempting re-entry, sir!" moment look regal by comparison.

Smart, funny, and inventive with it's action and violence, Kingsman moves well beyond it's basic existence as Alex Rider: Stormbreaker meets Kick-Ass. It has plenty of flaws, but has enough fun and flair to impress.

Interstellar

I have to hand it to Christopher Nolan, time and time again he takes on diverse and interesting projects and makes them his own, especially when scripting with his brother, Jonathan. Their latest endeavour, Interstellar sees the siblings flex their creative muscles, and certainly stretches far beyond the reach of its trailer.

In a grim future, where blight and famine have pushed humanity to the breaking point, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former pilot and engineer that now works as a corn-farmer, one of the few crops that still grows. His son, Tom (Timothée Chalamet) has been assigned a future in farming and his daughter, Murph (Mackenzie Foy) is adventurous, yet stubborn. After investigating an anomaly which provides a message, that Cooper interprets as co-ordinates, he and Murph go to investigate.

What they discover is a secret project run by what is left of NASA, led by Cooper's old mentor Dr. Brand (Michael Caine). They aim to send a crew through a wormhole near Saturn, in the hopes of discovering an inhabitable planet that would serve as a new home for the human race, as their old one is slowly dying. Cooper joins the crew - against the wishes of Murph - along with Brand's daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway), Romilly (David Gyasi) and Doyle (Wes Bentley). The mission will be perilous and with no knowledge when and if they will return, Cooper hopes that he will both be able to save his family, as well as return to see them again.

As with most of Nolan's films, Interstellar will likely require multiple viewings to fully comprehend. It explores, not just the wonder of space travel, but the perils of venturing into the ominous darkness of the unknown. I found that the whole post-apocalyptic scenario where our future as a civilisation rests somewhere in the stars, made for a truly thought-provoking and surprisingly emotional narrative. Yes, some of the intimacy is lost in the vastness of the cosmos, but the noble sacrifices of the crew can be incredibly poignant, especially during the low times, when they just want to go home. Some will find Interstellar quite fantastical, but in many ways, that's what lies at the heart of a great Sci-Fi film, and here with the familiar thematic use of time weaving into the complex and generally intriguing story, it proves a much more compelling tale than Gravity, which I personally found a bit average. At nearly three hours though, it could possibly have done without some scenes, especially at the beginning, though it manages to cover a spectacular amount of material in the time that its given.

 Matthew McConaughey is undoubtedly a talented actor, yet after his string of appearances around the last awards season, on top of True Detective, I walked into this fully expecting to be sick of him by now. Though this was definitely not the case. He brings the vehemence and humanity to the screen that this role really requires. Both Hathaway and Jessica Chastain of Zero Dark Thirty fame, also provide very strong performances, but for me it was Mackenzie Foy who really shined and showed incredible promise for a young actor. All the main roles are certainly helped along by a strong supporting cast, including Casey Affleck, John Lithgow, Matt Damon, and Michael Caine (It wouldn't be a Christopher Nolan film without Michael Caine am I right?).

I'm sorry to constantly rattle on about 2001: A Space Odyssey on this blog, but Nolan has undeniably gained influence from the classic here. From the simplistic yet hyper-real visuals, the eerie moments of silence, uses of classical music, even down to the design of some of the spaceships. Hoyte van Hoytema (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Her) was cinematographer here, and he has certainly done a stellar job, thanks in part to Nolan's love affair with IMAX cameras. The special effects are low-key but nothing short of stunning, and during the tense scenes, the outstanding sound design had me on the edge of my seat. Also the robots that support the crew are simultaneously one of the coolest and wackiest designs I've yet encountered in a Sci-Fi film.

Interstellar is likely to divide audiences at the cinema, just as most thought-provoking films do. Indeed I feel its difficult to properly judge it with just one viewing. But despite some plot issues, Nolan has once again created a captivating piece that is full of action, adventure and emotion. It's a visceral experience.