Trailers Week 67: 18/10/15

Lost In The Sun

Josh Duhamel seems to think that he can turn himself into a creepier Timothy Olyphant. I don't think it will work, especially not if he wants to use some kid as a getaway driver. Also starring Josh Wiggins.

#Horror

I get that they're trying to make a Scream for the current crop of teens that are all obsessed with selfies and social media-ing, but no one is seriously going to see a movie that has a hashtag in the title. Surely. Starring Chloë Sevigny, Taryn Manning, Natasha Lyonne and Balthazar Getty.

Ratchet & Clank

I didn't even know they were making these video games, let alone that they were popular enough to warrant a movie. Anyway, this movie ties in with the release of a remake of the original game. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Rosario Dawson, Bella Thorne and John Goodman.

Freaks of Nature (NSFW)

Supernatural comedies are really starting to annoy me now. Ever since Zombieland came along in 2009, everyone has been trying to capitalise on it's formula with no success. This time they're throwing zombies, vampires and aliens at us all at once. Starring Denis Leary, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt and Keegan-Michael Key.

Bleeding Heart

If you had just found out your long lost sister was a stripper/prostitute, would you really go to these weird lengths to "protect" her. Starring Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet.

Julia

Just another rape revenge flick. These movies never bring something new to the table. 

Race

I guess a biopic about Jesse Owens could be interesting, but it's probably going to be full of historical inaccuracies. Starring Stephen James and Jason Sudeikis.

Black Mass

South Boston, or 'Southie', has been the subject of many a crime film over the past decade and a half. Movies like The Town, Southie, The Departed and even Good Will Hunting have striven to accurately portray one of the roughest neighbourhoods in the United States. But one notorious figure has yet to be portrayed on film; that of James 'Whitey' Bulger (Okay so not necessarily true, Martin Scorsese's The Departed was based on his crimes).

Bulger (Johnny Depp) is the leader of the Winter Hill Gang in South Boston during the mid-1970s. He is well known in the community as both a gangster and a pillar of the community. His brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), a state senator, is contacted by their childhood friend John Connelly (Joel Edgerton), who is now a FBI agent who has been tasked with reducing Mafia activity in Boston. He sees Bulger as the key to bringing down this stranglehold they have. So Bulger becomes an informant, all the while continuing his own criminal activity.

This success of this film hinges entirely on whether or not you find Depp's performance as Bulger convincing. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't convinced. Yes, he is unnerving, but I wasn't scared by him, which is the whole point. I think that they were relying on his makeup and new look to add to the performance but it did nothing for me. Outside of this, there isn't too much going on. At a stretch you could say that the intrigue surrounding Bulger's manipulation of the FBI is interesting, but not enough to be exciting.

In fact the film seems like it purposefully goes out of its way to be obtuse. There is a whole subplot involving who owns World Jai-Alai, a sport the movie even admits no one knows what it is (unless you're like me and you do know what it is (I lie, I have no idea what they're doing)). I also feel like this film is needlessly violent. I know Whitey Bulger was an incredibly psychotic film, but you don't need to show every single murder he committed. Sometimes implied violence is just as effective. I also feel like the movie dropped the ball with the ending. It is a well known fact that Bulger was apprehended in 2011, yet the film ends in 1995 with an epilogue about his capture.

Because Depp's performance is so dominant here that the others don't really get a look in. Joel Edgerton's is the only one that is on par with Depp, but it isn't very good. Everyone else is really in the background which is disappointing considering the cast. Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott and Rory Cochrane are all fantastic actors, and while they are in a lot of scenes, they aren't the focus of any of them. Corey Stoll is the only minor performance given any notice, which is good because he carries those scenes. Women are hugely under represented with Dakota Johnson and Julianne Nicholson given barely any screen time.

A hugely disappointing and largely unnecessary biopic. It is not at all engaging, so if you want to see a better film about Whitey Bulger, go rewatch The Departed.

Trailers Week 66: 11/10/15

Triple 9 (NSFW)

A gang of criminals and corrupt cops plan to commit one of the biggest heists ever. This all star cast includes Aaron Paul, Casey Affleck, Kate Winslet, Teresa Palmer, Norman Reedus, Anthony Mackie, Gal Gadot, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Woody Harrelson.

Hail, Caesar!

The Coen Brothers return to Big Lebowski territory with this film about a big studio actor getting kidnapped in the 50s and the team of actors and directors who try and find him. Starring Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, Scarlet Johansson, Jonah Hill, Tilda Swinton and George Clooney.

Shelter

A woman becomes homeless and falls in love with another homeless man, but is hiding a secret. Starring Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Mackie and Amy Hargreaves.

Experimenter

This movie is about the Milgram experiment of the early 60s to show whether people blindly followed orders when directed by an authority figure. Starring Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder, Jim Gaffigan, Kellan Lutz, Taryn Manning and John Lequizamo.

Bone Tomahawk

I love a western that is really hopeless and desolate with no chance of a happy ending, so this looks absolutely perfect. When a woman is kidnapped from a town, a mismatched group hunt down the kidnappers. Starring Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Patrick Wilson and Richard Jenkins.

The Martian

    "I'm Mark Watney and I'm still alive...obviously"

The red sands of Mars have settled following a forceful storm, the sky is a healthy red, the Sun bearing down on the rocky mesa's of the Martian landscape. One certain mound of sand is disturbed by the twitching movements of a man laying prone, waking from unconsciousness. His orange-and-white space-suit is both punctured and sealed by a small piece of debris shallowly embedded in his stomach. The debris, leftover from a destroyed long-range communications satellite, is not the only problem the astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) now has to face as he scans the nearby arid landscape. Close by is the habitat Mark and his team have occupied on the planet for the eighteen days preceding the storm and the remains of the launch pad of the team's only rocket back home, which has long since departed with Mark's colleagues believing him dead. Alone on Mars with no communications and limited food, Watney resolves to sustain himself, to communicate, to survive, or as he puts it to "science the shit outta this."

The Martian, Ridley Scott's latest, distances itself from the last decade of epics from the prolific director (Robin Hood, Prometheus, Exodus: Gods and Kings and Kingdom of Heaven) and also, perhaps especially so, from the recent survival dramas of Everest, All Is Lost, Interstellar and the powerhouse Gravity, most notably through the solid writing from Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods, World War Z, Cloverfield, Daredevil). Goddard's writing of the characters in the Martian is a blend of Aaron Sorkin's jargon-fuelled relentlessness and Joss Whedon's comical perfection and wit, which has a wonderful effect on the film's tone. Unlike Gravity's direct minimalism, Everest's biopic cliches and Interstellar's cold, Doctor-Who-eyness, The Martian thankfully manages to keep a keen sense of humour to balance out the drama and despair. And this is sold by an ensemble cast of both dramatic actors and practiced comedians including Damon and Jessica Chastain of Interstellar, Benedict Wong of Prometheus, and Kate Mara, Michael Pena, Sebastian Stan, Jeff Daniels, Donald Glover, Kirsten Wiig and Sean Bean (who delivers a silly and charming Lord of the Rings gag).

                        "Every human being has a basic instinct: to help each other out."

Visually, The Martian is pretty, even with it's occasionally questionable computer effects and over-use of Go-Pro footage. The production design is obviously (and smartly) adapted from Prometheus and at times the score the soaring French horns of that score threaten to burst onto the soundscape here. The obligatory Chinese pandering scenes of The Martian are perhaps even more contrived than those in Trans4mers, and even the Chinese Space Agency exterior is the same as the Chinese corporate headquarters in Age of Extinction. But in summation, The Martian is a sci-fi survival story that is slightly more fun than it is tense, but with a strong ensemble, capable lead, balanced writing and solid production. It all comes together to make NASA's perfectl, pretty and impeccably fashioned geek army and the film's two-and-a-half-hour run-time downright fun.

Macbeth

Shakespeare has been a fixture of adaptation since the birth of cinema. Whilst there have been many attempts to modernise his works, the best adaptations have come when they make a straight adaptation (two great examples that come to mind are Oliver Parker's Othello and Ralph Fiennes Coriolanus). Australian director Justin Kurzel's latest film Macbeth follows this strong tradition.

In the closing battle of a bloody civil war in Scotland, Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) proves his loyalty to King Duncan (David Thewlis) by killing the treacherous MacDonwald (Hilton McRae). After the battle, Macbeth and his friend Banquo (Paddy Considine) come across three witches who tell Macbeth that he will be king and that Banquo's children will be kings. Macbeth is lured into killing Duncan by his wife Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard) so that he can become king, but only after Duncan's son Malcolm (Jack Reynor) flees to England. Once Macbeth becomes king, Duncan's closest ally Macduff (Sean Harris) begins to suspect Macbeth's involvement in the old king's death. At the same time, Macbeth is haunted by what he has done and descends into madness.

It is very hard to fault one of these adaptations on its story. There is little you can do to make the story better than what has been written. So therefore they must be judged on the performances and technical aspects. Luckily this film excels in both areas and that is largely due to the fantastic direction of Justin Kurzel.

The most important part of this film is its performances. You really need to be able to cast the right actors for the roles because people know the characters so well. Choosing Michael Fassbender was a genius move. He has the physicality to carry the battle scenes as well as the vulnerability for the madness scenes to be genuine. Marion Cotillard was good, but I felt as though she didn't have enough of a villainous attitude. Sean Harris is amazingly scary and brutal as Macduff. While both Paddy Considine and David Thewlis have rather short roles they both have a great screen presence. Elizabeth Debicki does a great job with her small role as Lady Macduff and Jack Reynor does the same. The problem that a lot of people are going to have getting into this movie is the thickness of the Scottish accents. This combined with the language of Shakespeare can make for some tough viewing.

Technically, this film is a masterpiece. The locations chosen in the Scottish Highlands are beautiful as is Bamburgh Castle on Northumberland coast. Kurzel employs a lot of frame rate experimentation with this movie as well, which gives it an almost ethereal quality. The battle sequences are all shot in super slow motion which heightens not only the tension and action, but also visceral emotion in the scenes. He also uses time lapse in a great scene when Macbeth is descending into madness, wandering around his chambers.

Even if you're not a fan or unfamiliar with the works of Shakespeare this is a great entry point, despite the fact that it can be a little difficult to follow at times. It's an even better if you do like the play, but it's not at all a prerequisite.

The Intern

Nancy Meyers has had a string of box-office successes since her debut with The Parent Trap seventeen years ago. Her films have found her an audience that admire her entertaining, generally safe stories. Now she's back after a six year break with The Intern starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro. 

Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway) finds herself at the helm of an increasingly difficult to manage position. She's the founder and CEO of an e-commerce startup fashion label which has rapidly grown from it's humble beginnings to a staff of hundreds. The company is about to trial a community outreach program that offers internships to seniors. Ben Whitaker (Robert De Niro) is a widower who once used to preside over a phone directory company but has since retired.

As a way to deal with his spare time, and to get away from some not-so-desirable admirers, Ben decides to apply for the internship. After an unnecessarily awkward interview process Ben is given a position and assigned to work with Jules. This position sees Ben attempt to use new-fangled technology such as Facebook. Forced hilarity ensues. After taking a more suitable role of chauffeur, Ben becomes a sort-of pseudo-sensei for Jules. Will their relationship prosper? Will the old ways beat the new? Will Ben get off with the in-house masseuse? These are all questions the film practically begs you to ask.

It's taken me a week to finally write this review, not because The Intern was shockingly bad, but because it left me with a resounding feeling of indifference. On the one hand it manages to pull off some mildly entertaining dialogue but it backs this humor up with thinly-veiled condescending assumptions about the technological ability of older generations. The film seemingly promises to address this stigma, but is ultimately happy enough to just go along with it, under the guise of a "the old way is best" attitude. Meyers is proficient enough to avoid the seemingly obvious ending, but it's too small a band-aid for a resoundingly bland film.

The performances are generally fine, but nothing special. Character development across the board is divided into various stereotypes (think contemporary nerd, new-age business etc) that bring little interest to the film's story. However De Niro and Hathaway manage to pull The Intern out of the dark depths of pre-awards season filler with an on-screen chemistry that far surpasses the reach of their individual characters. The two experienced actors are able to bring a charm to the screen that is lacking in all other aspects of the film, but is it enough to warrant seeing the film? Unless you can tell off the bat that The Intern is pandering to your demographic, probably not.

I can't call The Intern a total failure because I'm certain its occasional spark of wit and strong lead performances will find its intended audience, but sadly that isn't me. A truly forgettable experience.

Trailers Week 65: 04/10/15

The Revenant:

We got a teaser earlier in the year, but now the official first trailer has landed. The Revenant sees Alejandro Iñárritu team up once more with DoP Emmanuel Lubezki for what looks like a beautiful film. But this is just a trailer...

Daft Punk Unchained:

This documentary promises to finally reveal the men behind the masks of Daft Punk. I think there'll be a nether-gate to a demon infested ultra-dimension under there, but it could also be another mask.

Hell and Back:

This film has some great animation and also looks incredibly stupid. Hell and Back stars Mila Kunis, Bob Odenkirk and T.J Miller:

Asthma:

I'm not sure if this is a film about a psychopath in a relationship, or some thinly-veiled exploration of the world of Yoga. Starring Benedict Samuel, Krysten Ritter, Iggy Pop, Rosanna Arquette and Nick Nolte:

Man Up:

It's that time of year again, another Simon Pegg romantic comedy. Man Up stars Simon Pegg and Lake Bell:

The Forest:

Do you like weird supernatural shit? Then this movie's probably for you. The Forest stars Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney:

Spectre:
I know this is the second trailer for the upcoming Bond instalment, but I couldn't help myself! There are a few new bits of information to glean from this, but it's mainly to get you pumped up.