Gold

This review is going to venture into spoiler territory. I really tried not to, but a lot of Matthew McConaughey's good acting comes into play about ten minutes from the end of the film.

Matthew McConaughey has had a good run over the last five years. He has successfully rebranded himself as a serious actor who is able to handle fare that is outside the surf-rom-com flicks that made him famous. Because of this turnaround, I think that there is a lot of unwarranted pressure for every performance he gives to be bigger and better than the last. While the performance in Gold isn't his best, the character he plays is very captivating and surprisingly original (only partly original, but I'll get to that).

Kenny Wells (McConaughey) is an unlucky businessman whose family has been in the prospecting business for four generations. After his family business fails, he finds himself working out of a small bar in Reno, Nevada, trying to get backers on potential mining claims with little to no assurance that the sites he has chosen have any real mineral deposits. One night, he has a drunken dream about a geologist he once met and a potential claim in Indonesia. Pawning all the gold he has, Wells hopes on a plane to Indonesia to hunt down Michael Acosta (Édgar Ramírez), the geologist from his dream. Together they journey into the jungles of Borneo and and stumble across the biggest gold find of the decade.

It really made me happy that Gold was pretty original. While it is based on an actual tale that happened in Indonesia in the early 90s, only key elements are really taken from that and even then things have been changed. The first half of the movie is definitely the strongest part. It is a fun jungle adventure with hints of Apocalypse Now, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park. It is as if director plucked the essence of the jungle scenes that appear in those movies and used it to lay a familiar setting that we can feel comfortable with. The other good part comes at the end of the film, where it turns out that there was no gold claim at all and Acosta just faked the fact that there was a deposit where he said there was. He did this through a con called salting (it's pretty cool). Not only is this twist and the end of the film pretty awesome (the whole time we're assured that there is gold), but McConaughey is amazing as a man who has just been betrayed by someone who he thought was his best friend. The movie starts out with what we think is narration by Wells, but we learn at the end is actually an FBI interview to see if he is guilty of fraud.

Gold really struggles during the middle and lead up to the twist reveal. It switches from not quite adventure movie to slow business drama. There's a lot of talking about who to sell the gold to and people taking advantage of Wells. It becomes really quite boring. There is an imitation of The Wolf of Wall Street as we see Wells claw his way back to the top, but we've seen that in countless movies before and since then and this doesn't add anything new. There are countless supporting characters who get lost in the mix and it's quite disappointing considering the fact that they are played by well known actors like Stacy Keach and Corey Stoll. These actors are wasted talents in this movie, especially Bruce Greenwood, who at least tries to stick out with a decent South African accent, but is hampered by having only three scenes in the movie. I will praise Toby Kebbell however, for his tiny role as the sympathetic FBI agent.

While Gold has some good elements, it focuses on all the boring parts of the story. The relationship between Wells and Acosta gets buried by focusing too much on the business side of things, which while helpful in setting up the twist, is a tiring time to get through. Stellar performances from the three leads (McConaughey, Howard, Ramírez) are cancelled out by the many mediocre ones.

Ben-Hur

The biblical epic is a genre that belongs to a specific time and place in history and that place is Hollywood of the 1950s and 60s, a time when movies could go for over three hours and people would lap it up because you had nothing better to do. Movies like The Ten Commandments, Spartacus and the original Ben-Hur are all classics that really do stand the test of time. Which is why it feels unnecessary to go back and "have another try at the story". That would only be justified if you did it better. That's not the case here.

Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a Jewish prince living a comfortable life in Jerusalem with his family. He has an adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), who was a Roman orphan before being taken in by the Hur family. One day, he decides to leave and join the Roman Army to prove his worth as a wife for Judah's sister Tirzah (Sofia Black D'Elia). He returns however, to quell rebels who wish to overthrow the Romans and make Judea free. After an attempt on Governor Pontius Pilate's (Pilou Asbæk) life, Judah is accused by Messala of harbouring zealots and sentenced to labour on a Roman galley. During a battle, his ship is destroyed and he is set adrift, only to be found by Sheik Ilderim (Morgan Freeman), who agrees to free him for help with his chariot horses. After hearing his story, the Sheik agrees to help Judah get his revenge against Messala.

This movie really feels like a bare bones remake of the classic 1959 film. The basic story structure is there, but none of the details that made that movie "classic" are there. From the very start of the movie we know that we are building to the ultimate chariot race showdown between the two brothers, which takes away any of the suspense or surprise at the story that is to come. While the story tries to be epic in its scope, it seems to be on the lesser end because not as many events take place in this movie, which seems counter intuitive. Another big departure from the classic version is the extended presence of Jesus. In the older movie he was limited to the "Drink up, Judah Ben-Hur" scene. (That line is not said in either movies, but a quote from "A Star Is Burns (see below)).

A representation for all those who don't want to watch the clip from the actual movie

While the scene happens almost exactly as it did in the original, it isn't the first time we see Jesus. In fact, his first appearance is pretty laughable. Judah and his wife Esther (played by Nazanin Boniadi) are talking about violent removal of the Romans and he starts to talk about peace in the background, whilst doing some carpentry. It's very on the nose. Apparently the reason he was added was due to the negative reactions from Christians about 2014's Noah. I have to say that the casting of Rodrigo Santoro was an inspired touch. Now he has played the baddest of bads (Xerxes in 300) and the goodest of goods (Jesus).

Rodrigo Santoro is pretty much the only good casting decision of this film. Except for maybe Toby Kebbell as Messala. This had more to do with the fact that Messala was a somewhat sympathetic character. Before leaving for the Roman Army, he is shunned by his adoptive mother and other Romans, so he is just trying to prove his worth throughout the movie. Jack Huston is supposed to be the star of this movie (and also have the weight that Charlton Heston had), but he is outshone by his costars, especially Morgan Freeman. Danish actor Pilou Asbæk seemed like a bit of a wildcard decision.

Ben-Hur is trying to live up to something it will never achieve, which is the case with most remakes. Its lacklustre story that tries too hard to whittle it down to a manageable story feels hollow and in the era of CGI, the stakes are incredibly low in the final chariot race. If you really feel like you need to watch this story, go back and watch the original one with a great performance from Charlton Heston.

Fantastic Four

I think we can all be in agreement now that a Fantastic Four movie will never work. This is the fourth attempt (you think the symbolism of that number would be lucky) and it just didn't work on any level. Even director Josh Trank doesn't like it.

In 1997, new childhood friends Reed Richards (Owen Judge) and Ben Grimm (Evan Hannemann) work on Reed's teleporter. Seven years later, Reed (Miles Teller) and Ben (Jamie Bell) present their science project to their science teacher to a lukewarm reception. They do get the attention of Dr Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his daughter Sue (Kate Mara), who are working on the same project: interdimensional travel. They bring Reed to work on their project with the help of Franklin's renegade son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) and reclusive scientist Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). Once they complete the project, Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor recklessly use the machine to go to the other dimension, where an accident occurs leaving Victor for dead and the other three with their respective powers. Sue gets hers when trying to bring them back.

What I have just told you is more than half the movie. If you think that that is spoiler-y, let me tell you, there is nothing to ruin about this movie. The climax of this movie happened so suddenly and so soon, that I turned to my friend and said "I think it's finishing". That's because this movie has a big problem with time. Both the shortness of the film itself (it's only 99 minutes) and what it does with that run time. It is about an hour of build up to when the characters get their powers, barely any time to develop the characters, first appearance of the villain (surprise it's Doctor Doom) and then death of main villain. All up I think there are two major action sequences and they don't last very long.

Despite the lack of character and action, the design of the film is pretty nice to look at. All four have a great design in their post accident bodies, but particularly that of Ben Grimm. In the last movies, he was just Michael Chiklis in a rubber suit, so making the character CGI is a big improvement. Also Doctor Doom's design is pretty cool (he has been fused with his spacesuit). While we're on the subject of Doctor Doom, why do all the film iterations try to give him the same origin of powers as the others. He's a witch doctor from Latveria (although they do make an attempt to hint at that).

The actors in this movie don't really get time to develop much of a character at all. Miles Teller disappears for a large chunk of the film, Kate Mara acts rather moody and Michael B. Jordan tries hard (but I feel his best stuff probably ended up on the cutting room floor). Pre transformation Jamie Bell is quite good, but then his performance is lost in the CGI. Toby Kebbell is the same, as he usually gives quite nuanced performances. Reg E. Cathey however will never live up to his character of Martin Querns on Oz though.

Basically just a tease at what could have been a rich exploration into what might have been, Fantastic Four falls dramatically short of any semblance of a good superhero movie.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The Planet of the Apes franchise has had a bit of a checkered history. It is generally agreed upon that Tim Burton's remake of the original 1968 classic was terrible, but prior to that there was a short series of films that directly followed the original, these being Beneath, Escape, Conquest and Battle (all with the of the Planet of the Apes suffix). Of these movies, only Escape from the Planet of the Apes was good. So I think we're kind of lucky that 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a success, especially after the franchise had died two times over.

Dawn begins a decade after Rise which ended with the hint of a virus which only affected humans was about to spread. Well this 'simian flu' (as it's called in this movie) spread and wiped out the majority of mankind. Caesar and the apes from the first film are living in a colony outside San Francisco. A group of humans led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke) stumble upon this group while trying to find a hydroelectric dam in the area and become the first humans to contact the colony. This contact, combined with distrust between the two groups, eventually leads to violence.

The evolution of the world between the last movie and this one is really amazing. The fall of human society while the ape one flourishes is a fantastic contrast. The humans don't want to return to the time just after the fall of society because they were no better than animals, while all that the apes want is a safe community where they can live.

Again there are references to previous Apes films. The opening scene is one of the apes hunting some deer. These techniques are the exact same that they will use to hunt humans in the original film. They now have horses, which is their preferred mode of transport in the original. Also the name of Caesar's wife(?) is called Cornelia, a homage to Cornelius the chimpanzee who helped Taylor the lost astronaut. There is however, no sign of the eventual status quo that we know the planet will eventually fall into, with the orang-utans as the leaders.

This cast almost reads as a who's who of my favourite actors. Aussie Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) leads the human cast superbly and his relationship with Gary Oldman pulled at my heartstrings at times. Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirk Acevedo (my all time favourite actor) round out the human cast.

But the most praise has to go to the actors who play the apes. Motion capture technology has come so far in my lifetime and it's only going to get better. Andy Serkis (Caesar) is so good at this now, it's second nature to him. His performance is unbelievable in this movie as are the others. Toby Kebbell (RocknRolla) and Judy Greer (Arrested Development) are also great, especially being the first time they've both done this.

Verdict: A great follow up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the series can only get better from here.

The Counselor

The works of Cormac McCarthy have always served as interesting fodder for film adaptations. Indeed both No Country for Old Men and The Road translated his vision perfectly to the screen. However, The Counselor is an entirely original script from him and when you couple that with an immensely visual director, such as Ridley Scott, you get a beautiful film that also has extreme depth and meaning just underneath the surface.

The film is set in the southern United States and it follows The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) as he descends into the drug fuelled world of the Mexican cartels. After a shipment that he had a stake in is stolen, he ends up going on the run, as the cartel behind the other half of the investment believes he is responsible.

The film has many themes and they all seem to be complementary of one another. The largest ones are those of greed and actions and consequences. The Counselor is driven to do many of the things that he wants, primarily by greed. What he wants most is to please his girlfriend Laura (Penelope Cruz) and we can only assume that she is the reason he has driven himself toward this path. That greed also goes hand in hand with the consequences that are a direct result of the actions that he has taken.

All this depth and meaning stems from a superb script from McCarthy. Unlike the other adaptations that I mentioned earlier, whose screenplays had been written by other writers, The Counselor has the unique voice of McCarthy, who has written some wonderfully cryptic dialogue scenes that also appear in his literature.

This film is also spectacular to look at as well and that is largely due to Ridley Scott's amazing vision as a director. The landscapes in the film are amazing, showcasing Mexico and Texas on an intimate scale that I really appreciated.

Finally, the cast of this film is not be forgotten. I know looking at the poster, all you see are the big names and just think it's going to be an empty film. But all the actors are fantastic. I especially want to give praise to Cameron Diaz, as I have not seen her reach a level such as this since Being John Malkovich in 1999. There is also a scene that has cameos from Dean Norris (Hank in Breaking Bad) and John Leguizamo (Luigi in Super Mario Bros., and a ton of other stuff) that I found humourous for some reason.

Verdict: An intense and compelling crime drama that is sure to make you scared of cheetahs and girls on Ferraris.