FILM: Jack The Giant Slayer 3D (dir: Bryan Singer, 2013)

REVIEW No. 350!

"Fear of heights?"
"Fear of falling."

If only Singer has shown this lightness of touch and sense of fun and adventure in Superman Returns.  The delayed Jack (now a Slayer rather an a more kid-unfriendly Killer) is far more enjoyable than most American reviews suggested.  The story has some nice spins on the original tales, and there is a real sense of adventure and epic fantasy (assisted hugely by well-used 3D).  The story romps along, with a well-structured screenplay and slick direction, with the serious approach to the material accompanied by some gently dark humour and a knowing script.  Largely populated by a stalwart British cast, Nicholas Hoult makes for a credible and engaging lead, and Ewan McGregor plays the stiff-upper-lip 'guardian' with relish.  The Giants are wonderful creations, another step closer to photorealism, especially in close-ups, but still not quite real enough to convince fully.  The highlight is the final battle - when the Giants come down to Earth - which throws everything into the mix in a lengthy, breathless and hugely entertaining sequence.  Jack The Giant Slayer is probably as close as big-budget blockbuster Hollywood will get to realising successfully a classic fairy tale (or legend, as the film would have it) on screen in the 21st Century.

FILM: Identity Thief (dir: Seth Gordon, 2013)

"You're diabolical!"
"Well, thanks."
"It's not a compliment."
"I know."

The premise of Identity Thief is promising, but as a comedy it falls rather flat.  Whilst not quite plumbing the depths of recent Adam Sandler movies, this overlong road-trip has a number of good set-ups but the script frequently fails to catch fire.  Jason Bateman does this beige everyman routine effortlessly, and Melissa McCarthy shows occasionally that she is a wonderful actress when she dials it down a notch, but here she has to spend a lot of time desperately grasping for laughs with - for the most part - a very unsympathetic character. What should have been a sprightly caper is in actuality quite a disappointing plod.

DVD: Silent Hill Revelation (dir: Michael J Bassett, 2012)

I want you to promise me that whatever happens, you'll never go there."

Take away the mobile phones and this belated sequel looks and feels like a weak 1980s horror movie.  There are some nice signature visuals, mostly replayed from the first film, but Revelation offers little else of interest.  The two way-too-old-for-students leads are not strong performers (Adelaide Clemens offers little variety, and Kit Harington appears to be completely lost), whilst Sean Bean and (very briefly) Radha Mitchell make sympathetic returns, but unfortunately Malcolm McDowell's cameo is pure panto.  The pace is glacial, with more aimless wandering around than an Extended Lord Of The Rings, sound effects are ramped up to the max to make up for deficiencies elsewhere, but it is nice to see Deborah Kara Unger and Carrie-Anne Moss in a movie.  The story wraps up purposefully here, and it should perhaps be left that way.

DVD: Twilight - Breaking Dawn Part 2 (dir: Bill Condon, 2012)

"Look, nothing ever made sense before - you, me, any of it.  And now I understand why."

It has been what feels like a very long cinematic road (and viewing experience) to reach what is, in fairness, a reasonable conclusion to this bizarrely successful franchise.  The first part of this concluding part is more of the same dull-soap drivel that has beset so much of the series; the mid-section is messy as it brings together the Cullen family's allies; but the finale's created-for-the-movie smackdown is lively and well-mounted on one of the fakest green-screen snowbound arenas imaginable, although the rug-pull inflicted on the viewer could be seen as either audacious or simply unforgivable.  It remains cynically profiteering that a franchise that has made so much money still fails to deliver on decent special effects, but then its fans do not buy into it for that reason.  Surprisingly, the strongest aspect of Part 2 is Kristen Stewart's performance - now a fully-fledged vampire, she actually gets to show some variety instead of just sullenly mooching around. The Twilight movie series may be embraced lovingly by its fans, but in cinematic terms it will be quickly forgotten.

FILM: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (dir: Don Scardino, 2013)

"He put a live dog in my pants!  No-one's ever done that to me before!
"I should hope not."

Burt Wonderstone is a gently enjoyable film but it is also infuriatingly inconsistent.  It fails to generate the full-on belly-laughs of an Anchorman, but the parody elements often sit awkwardly with some quite sincere dramatic moments, the latter often provided by Steve Carell at his strongest and the wonderful Alan Arkin.  It is great to see Steve Buscemi having fun, likewise Olivia Wilde and Jim Carrey; all are fine here, but they all feel somewhat underused overall.  The 'big trick' pay-off at the end is very nicely done, but with the inconsistent tone by then it is hard to work out quite how much the viewer is meant to like the characters or simply laugh at them.

FILM: The Paperboy (dir: Lee Daniels, 2013)

"This is a f**king circus."

This over-cooked sweaty Southern 60s-set melodrama tackles a lot of big themes in its period context, but also manages to weave a preposterously interesting tale of murder and sexual intrigue at the same time.  Director Daniels elicits terrific performances from the cast - Norton, McConaughey and particularly Kidman are all remarkable, and even Zac Efron does some effective work in what initially seems a superficial decorative role, but the fluid, grainy quasi-documentary style that worked for the director's Precious here fails to deliver quite the same emotional impact as that film, although one shock moment towards the end did draw a communal gasp from the entire cinema audience. The story may not always convince, but The Paperboy is never less than interesting, if only to see the stars handling some very unusual scenarios.

DVD: Taken 2 (dir: Olivier Megaton, 2012)

"Do you know how to shoot?"
"No."
"Then drive!"

Taken 2 is a truly disappointing sequel to an enjoyable action-thriller.  The premise is fine - this time it is Neeson and his wife who are 'taken' - but the straightforward revenge story provides such a thin narrative that very little actually happens, and what does occur is incredibly simplistic.  Liam Neeson and Famke Janssen try their very best to wring something from weak material, and Maggie Grace might have well have not turned up at all as she is given hardly anything to do.  The Far Eastern locations look good, but the action sequences are not particularly well executed or impressive, and this is another example of a film franchise chasing a younger (wider) audience and sacrificing the full-on effect that made it work in the first place.

DVD: Frankenweenie (dir: Tim Burton, 2012)

"You meet in the middle - everyone's happy."

Frankenweenie is undoubtedly a beautifully-crafted stop-motion animation, enhanced by gloriously crisp black-and-white, based around the simple emotional premise of a boy and his pet dog who meets a tragic accident.  There are some pitch-black comedy moments which provide some real laughs - although these are all too few, and the dramatic pathos of the central relationship comes across well, and yet...maybe it is over-familiarity with the original short from which the movie is expanded, Tim Burton's regular tropes and the none-too-subtle filmic references which perhaps make Frankenweenie a little less sparkling than expected, and this may be a case where the shorter original version works better than the expanded form.

FILM: Robot & Frank (dir: Jake Schreier, 2013)

"You two are really funny."

Robot & Frank is a delight.  Essentially a two-hander for the most part, it is easy to suspend disbelief for this near-future tale of a mis-matched buddy story that is by turns wry, daft, thought-provoking and heartbreaking.  The basic concept of highlighting issues such as old age,
memory, identity, parent-child relationships and the ever-encroaching loss of the pre-digital era through the juxtaposition of a toweringly human and genuine performance by Frank Langella and his newly-acquired 'helper' robot, who becomes not only his accomplice but also a surrogate child, is genuinely engaging.  James Marsden and Liv Tyler are fine as Frank's rather diametrically-opposite children (utilitarian and anti-robot respectively), as is Susan Sarandon in an intriguing role of the local librarian.  This is a confident, fresh and hugely appealing film, with an utterly wonderful performance by Langella at its heart.

FILM: Side Effects (dir: Steven Soderbergh, 2013)

"Everybody takes them."

One of the most enjoyable aspects of watching Side Effects is that the trailer misdirects the audience not only in narrative terms very cleverly but also with the kind of film to expect - this is no drug-industry Erin Brockovich, but a beautifully-constructed 80s-style thriller that packs many punches and surprises.  Rooney Mara portrays incredible fragility here, Catherine Zeta-Jones is gloriously icy, and Jude Law carries the film with a strong and considered performance.  Thomas Newman provides a superior music score, which complements the starkly chilling cinematography and Soderbergh's forensically-precise and controlled direction.  Plot twists keep coming right up to the end, and even if the tone can become a little one-note, Side Effects is an extremely entertaining and admirable adult thriller.

FILM: Oz - The Great And Powerful 3D (dir: Sam Raimi, 2013)

"THAT is The Wizard?"
"Is there a problem with that?"
"Yes."

Sam Raimi delivers a huge-scale and expensive-looking spectacle with this 2013 take on the Oz origin story.  Thankfully, the film gets much better as it goes along, which comes as a great relief, as the opening scenes in Kansas and then Oz do not play well.  The move from black-and-white to stylised, saturated widescreen colour works well, and throughout the use of 3D is quite stunning.  There are sufficient enjoyable well-placed nods to Victor Fleming's film, and as a prequel the film works very well.  As the sideshow conjuror Oz, James Franco plays James Franco, never an actor for displaying subtle shifts and detail, but here he manages the transition from conman to hero appropriately, and as for the three witches, Michelle Williams delights, Rachel Weisz oozes malevolence well, and Mila Kunis - with perhaps the biggest character arc of all - only misses the mark occasionally in her full transition to green-skinned revenger.  The China Girl is a fantastically-realised creation, the Zach Braff-voiced monkey sidekick is fun, and the film is visually rich and detailed.  Danny Elfman provides another superb score, and Raimi marshals both big and small-scale moments effectively.  Like the Star Wars prequels, this should be approached as a film for children (who, in the audience, laughed, cowered and seemed to enjoy the ride) and as such succeeds well, once its initial uncertainty is overcome.

FILM: The Guilt Trip (dir: Anne Fletcher, 2013)

"Just shut up!  Just shut up!"

The Guilt Trip is a somewhat subdued comedy-drama that has little to set the pulse racing.  The pairing of Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand works well, with Streisand again demonstrating her effortless comedic professionalism and Rogen taking his usual performance down a notch with a little unevenness of characterisation.  The road trip element keeps the film moving and provides some good use of typical American tourist sites.  The whole film comes across as deliberately low-key, and at times the relentless banter becomes wearing, but there are some good emotional pay-offs towards the end.

FILM: Stoker (dir: Park Chan-wook, 2013)

"Just as a flower does not choose its colour, we are not responsible for what we have come to be."


Park Chan-wook's long-awaited first English-language film is an absorbing, coolly-deranged melodrama that holds not only narrative surprises but also a very high level of visual control and creativity.  At its heart lies three terrific performances: Kidman reminds us of her nuance-playing at its best, Mia Wasikowska makes up for the memory of Alice with a hauntingly twisted portrayal of the bereaved daughter, and Matthew Goode makes Uncle Charlie a beguiling and compelling character.  Wentworth Miller's script is spare and wonderfully precise, and the level of directorial and performance control is at times breathtaking, even though occasionally it can come across as a little too self-conscious, especially the overt sexual 'openings' metaphors and double entendres.  It may play like Woody Allen's Interiors filtered through Michael Haneke, but Stoker has an unique identity in today's market.

FILM: Hansel and Gretel - Witch Hunters 3D IMAX (dir: Tommy Wirkola, 2013)

"The Curse of Hunger for Crawling Things - I f**king hate that one!"

Hansel and Gretel is nothing more than a daft, fun, empty-headed high-concept Friday-night popcorn flick, and on that level it delivers.  Constantly on the move, after a brief set-up of the fairy tale we all know and an excellent 3D-animated title montage, Renner and Arterton make for stoic leads (ridiculously straight-faced at times) as the grown-up witch hunters, and Famke Janssen chews the scenery wonderfully as their main adversary.    There is plenty of (3D) bang for your buck, only let down by some occasionally cheap-looking CG splatter. This incarnation of witches as Evil Dead-style possessed creatures works very well, and there are some neat twists on the traditional story - there is even some nice King Kong-inspired business with a troll.  The amount of violence meted out to Gretel is at times disturbing - at one point, Gretel suffers a real kicking at the hands of a group of men whilst Hansel gets off with a local girl in a pool!  In the hands of a Hollywood hack this film would have been dreadful, but thankfully Tommy Wirkola manages to imbue the film with some of the wit and energy that made Dead Snow so enjoyable, and he certainly proves here (more than once) that he can make a visceral and dynamic action scene way beyond those seen in most standard action films.