In Bruges: Movie Review

In Bruges: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jordan Prentice
Director: Martin McDonagh
Ah, the trip abroad.
Always a time for people to experience the culture of another city, sample the joie de vivre of the residents and rue the fact they even left home in the first place.
In Bruges is the tale of two hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson).
The pair are despatched to Bruges after a hit goes slightly wrong and their employer Harry (Ralph Fiennes) decides they need to lay low for a while.
So, on an enforced break, the duo await a call from Harry about what to do next.
But their time in Bruges becomes an escalatingly surreal experience for both - Ray stumbles upon the filming of a European art film which stars a dwarf (Jordan Prentice) and falls for one of the local girls; Ken, on the other hand, just wants to take in the culture and the scenery.
Their impromptu vacation is thrown into turmoil when the call from Harry finally comes and a chain of events is set in place which can only end in violence...
In Bruges is a curio - at times, it's an Odd Couple film set in Belgium with both Farrell and Gleeson starring in the character piece about two hitmen; by turns, it's dark, funny and witty - through flashbacks, we learn the pair have only just started working together.
It appears their time in the city changes their perspective on life, with both Ray and Ken becoming more concerned they've made the wrong career choice.
The real weak link in the film is Ralph Fiennes as Harry - his (I'm assuming) East End gangster accent is nothing short of yet another linguistic crime against humanity (almost on a par with Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins) and his so called menacing front stems simply from sneering and smashing things.
Director and writer Martin McDonagh does a reasonable job and pulls out some pretty solid performances from his actors; it's probably the first time I've ever enjoyed a role Farrell portrayed on the big screen - he has some very funny moments and carries most of the black humour; Gleeson is as dependable as ever as the avuncular Ken.

Ultimately though, In Bruges just shoots off the target - which is a real shame - but hey, don't enforced holidays normally disappoint you?

Choke: Movie Review

Choke: Movie Review

Rating 7/10
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly MacDonald, Brad William Henke
Director : Clark Gregg

A film about a sex-addicted con man is never going to be an easy sell.
But if you were to dismiss Choke simply for that fact, you'd probably be doing it a disservice.
It's an adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk book (he's the writer who was behind the Brad Pitt/ Edward Norton "Fight Club")
Sam Rockwell puts in a brilliant turn as anti-hero Victor Mancini; the first time we meet Mancini, he's engaging in a little "extra-curricular activity" while supposedly attending a sex addiction class.
Mancini spends his day working in a colonial theme park, doing his best to avoid the ire of those in charge by his occasional insistence in bringing the 21st century into work.
By night though, he's out at the nursing home, caring for his elderly mother Ida (Anjelica Huston) who's suffering from Alzheimer's.
However, he scams the money he needs from hospital bills by pretending to choke in restaurants and getting the cash from those who prevent him dying.
The film pivots on the relationship between Huston's Ida and Rockwell's Mancini - she barely remembers him and he's trying to recover details about his past - including his parentage - before his mother loses her fight.
Through flashbacks, we see the pair's younger relationship and the scams his mum helps him pull; we learn why Mancini is how he is - but not necessarily who he is.
Rockwell gives another stirling performance - he manages to turn what on paper would be a distinctly unlikeable character into one which elicits our sympathy.
This role once again really shows why he's one of the (vastly under-rated) character actors of this generation; his best friend and colonial co-worker Denny (played by Brad William Henke) also throws in a good performance; and Kelly MacDonald (who plays Ida's nurse) is also engaging.
It's fair to say Choke is probably going to be an acquired taste for some - it's occasionally bawdy, lewd and at times endearing and touching - but it's definitely not a film for all the family.
However, it has enough of an odd-beat flavour to it that if you're looking for something off the beaten cinematic track, you will be leaving the cinema feeling contented.

Nights in Rodanthe: Movie Review

Nights in Rodanthe: Movie Review

Rating 5/10 for unromantic ladies and gents, 7/10 for the more romantic of you who want to cuddle up in the cinema
Cast: Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Scott Glenn, James Franco, Christopher Meloni
Director: George C Wolfe
The cinematic pairing of Richard Gere and Diane Lane is a very popular one.
Their chemistry first melted the screens back in 1984's Cotton Club and then again in 2002's Unfaithful which saw Lane nominated for a best actress Oscar.
So it's no surprise to report they make a good couple in this film version of Nicholas Sparks' book.
(Sparks himself is no stranger to the romantic genre having reduced many to blubbering wrecks with The Notebook.)
Lane plays Adrienne Willis, an estranged mum of two, who offers to look after a friend's beachside B&B in Rodanthe, while contemplating a desperate plea from her husband (TV's SVU star Meloni) to let him return home.
There is only one guest booked in 4 days - Richard Gere's Dr Paul Flanner.
But Dr Flanner's in Rodanthe looking for redemption - not only from a local (Scott Glenn) but also to try and work out what to do to improve his relationship with his son (James Franco)
So with a hurricane forecast to hit the B&B, the pair batten down the hatches and prepare to weather out the storm.
What they're not prepared for though (but everyone else watching is) is how a couple of days - and one hurricane - will change their lives&.forever.
As you can probably tell from the rating of this film, it's very easy to dismiss it as romantic and sentimental film making, which tugs at the heart strings and is usually summed up by the adjective "Schmaltzy."
Gere and Lane make a good pairing again on screen with easy chemistry - however, Diane Lane gives the stronger performance of the two and is slightly more plausible in her redemptive arc.
But the film itself is nothing different from the usual formulaic romantic material (although you sense the stars, director and writer don't expect it to be)
The plot contrivances are there for reasons and glide you along the story toward its (inevitable) outcome.
The ending is fairly well sign posted and will reduce some to quivering messes as they leave the cinema (so best be prepared with some hankies).
The best way to judge if this is a film for you is this example from Nights in Rodanthe - if you find letter writing romantic and scenes of Diane Lane gazing wistfully into the distance, hiding letters from her teen daughter appealing, then it's your cinematic choice for the weekend.

If you wonder why she's not sat in front of a computer reading e-mails in this modern day and age rather than relying on the postie, then you're possibly better off avoiding it and joining the rest of the cynical masses.

Pineapple Express: Movie Review

Pineapple Express: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Amber Heard
Director: David Gordon Green
Just what is it with actor Seth Rogen and producer Judd Apatow?
The pair have formed a pretty solid cinematic relationship - albeit one which barely sees Rogen transcending the puerile.
Many of Rogen's recent big screen forays have seen him portray a man child who is being pulled into adulthood, kicking and screaming.
In some ways, Pineapple Express is a slight re-tread of that character.
Seth Rogen is dead end Dale Denton, a process server by the day and pothead by, erm, day too. He goes from one banal serving to another, enlivened only by a toke as well as a creative way to serve notice on his unwilling victims.
Then one day after picking up some of the finest (and unique) weed around from his dealer Saul (a great performance from James Franco), his life is changed when he witnesses a gang hit - carried out by Gary Cole's Ted Jones and Rosie Perez's Carol the cop.
Terrified, he drops his smoked dope and drives off - but Jones realises where the dope's come from and the chase begins&.
Pineapple Express is a bit of a curio of genres - there is the stoner comedy mix supplied by Rogen and Franco (they decide to flee but only after they have taken enough snacks for the journey); the action violence (Cole's character is waging a gang war complete with multiple explosions and smatterings of violence) as well as the romantic relationship (Rogen's romancing Amber Heard's Angie Anderson school girl character) which is stuck in an uncertain rut.
And the opening, which serves as a kind of prequel, sees a US soldier tested for the effects of dope throws everyone off the scent.
It's almost as if director David Gordon Green and Rogen (who co-wrote the screenplay) have set out to subvert all the different trappings and expectations of film genres and muddied the waters.
Rogen is good - but he's blown off the screen by his partner in crime James Franco whose performance is just brilliant and is worth the price of admission alone.

Pineapple Express isn't a bad film - you'll probably leave the cinema having had a few laughs but in a bit of a haze about what exactly you've seen.

Young@Heart: Movie Review

Young@Heart: Movie Review

Rating: 9/10
Cast: The Young@Heart song chorus, Bob Cilman (chorus director)
Director: Stephen Walker
If I were to tell you that I had spent an evening with a group of septagenarians and octagenarians, you may raise an eyebrow.
If I were to expand on that and tell you that those 20 octagenarians had reduced me to near tears and wide grins with their singing, you'd maybe think I'd gone a bit nuts.
So let me explain - set in America, this film tells the story of the Young@Heart chorus, a group of 20 or so New England retirees who spend their spare time performing on stage.
There's nothing unusual about that, but this group spends their evenings giving us their unique take on pop songs from the likes of James Brown, The Clash, Coldplay, Talking Heads and in a slightly surreal decision, Sonic Youth.
The doco from Stephen Walker follows the group as, seven weeks out, they prepare for a new tour, ironically named "Alive and Well tour", under the tutelage of chorus director and musical manager Bob Cilman.
And that's all there is to it really.
Except for the fact, this is probably one of the most endearing and uplifting documentaries I have seen in a very long time; at turns, amusing and funny and then when you least expect it, heartbreaking and capable of reducing you to tears.
Throughout, we watch Bob Cilman try to coax the gang into getting their heads round the new songs he wants them to perform.
We see one soloist struggle through rehearsals to remember two crucial lines of James Brown's "I Feel Good" (which leads to tension on show night), the heartbreak of a duet of Coldplay's "Fix U" plagued by ill health - and while all this is going on, the doco is interspersed with music videos the Young@Heart Chorus has made (including Talking Heads' "Road to Nowhere", and the Bee Gees "Staying Alive" - the irony of which isn't lost on anyone watching this)
These pensioners have more life in them than you've ever seen - when their director increases the number of rehearsals, they grumble and gripe like kids but just get on with it such is their joie de vivre.
Their enthusiasm is infectious - from the opening moments when a 92-year old woman sings The Clash's anthem "Should I Stay or Go?", I was hooked and moved by the journey the group goes on; not only do these singers have to worry about dying on stage, off stage it's a very real concern for them.
This is easily a contender for one of the films of the year as far as I'm concerned.

It has heart, soul and sadness in equal measures - and if you go to see it and it doesn't touch you at all, then I'm afraid you must have a heart of stone.

Burn After Reading: Movie Review

Burn After Reading: Movie Review

Rating: 7/10
Cast: George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt
Director: Ethan and Joel Coen
After the praise heaped on No Country for Old Men and its clean sweep of the Oscars, it'll be no surprise to some that the Coen brothers have returned to the familiar territory of screwball.
Burn After Reading is a film about various people working in the Intelligence spy sector who, to be blunt, seem to be severely lacking on the, erm, intelligence front.
At the film's beginning, John Malkovich's CIA analyst Osbourne Cox is being fired from the department he works in because of his drinking problems. As revenge, Cox plans to write a tell all memoir which would embarrass the CIA.
However, things aren't looking good for Cox - his wife's planning to divorce him to run off with her lover Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) and steals a copy of his memoir as part of the divorce case.
But as ever, things don't run smoothly.
The disc winds up in the hands of Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) who works at the local gym along with Chad (Brad Pitt).
Litzke's a desperate woman - turned down for funding for cosmetic surgery, she decides the only way to change her life is to blackmail Cox with the disc and so she enlists Chad's help.
To give away much more would ruin the world the Coens have once again created.
They're masters at bringing characters to life and exaggerating some of their crazier tics so that they seem perfectly plausible.

Pitt's Chad character is slightly detached from reality and when it comes to meeting Cox to blackmail him, he turns up in a suit - on his bicycle. Clooney's Pfarrer is convinced there is someone following him and Malkovich's Cox spends most of his time wandering about in a dressing gown and getting angrier.
There are some moments of violence in Burn After Reading which really do shock - having been put at ease with the idiocy of some of the cast throughout the film, the Coens' dose of brutal reality stuns you when it bursts onto the screen.

The one weak link in this cast is Tilda Swinton as Cox's wife - she is underused in the other woman role - but that gripe aside, Burn After Reading is silly, dramatic fun.
It's up there with some of their finer farces - O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Fargo and the much under-appreciated Hudsucker Proxy.
It also has a last line which will either frustrate you if you've not enjoyed the film - or will make you nod your head in agreement at the absurdity of what you've just witnessed.

Max Payne: Movie Review

Max Payne: Movie Review

Rating: 5/10
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Beau Bridges, Mila Kunis, Ludacris, Chris O'Donnell, Amaury Nolasco
Director: John Moore
The pantheon of small screen computer games adapted for the movies is littered with relative failures.
From the likes of Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Lara Croft, Silent Hill, BloodRayne, Hitman and Super Mario Bros, many have failed to ease the transition to the big screen.
The latest addition to the genre is Max Payne.
Based on the infamous and quite violent computer game, the film adaptation of Max Payne (played by Mark Wahlberg) centres around one man's quest to track down those who are responsible for the murder of his wife and baby.
Made to look like a robbery and without any substantial evidence, the murder investigation was soon shut down and its lead detective (Payne) assigned to the Cold Case desk.
But Payne's never given up and a mysterious death of a woman (forthcoming Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) reignites the case as a series of leads involving a new drug, pushes Payne back on the quest for vengeance for his slain family.
Joining Payne on his journey are Mona Sax (Mila Kunis) out to avenge her murdered sister, and BB Hensley (Beau Bridges) Payne's wife's former boss.
However, as Payne continues his investigation deeper into the project and company his wife used to work for, he delves deeper into a murkier and spookier world which threatens to engulf him.
Max Payne, the film version, is a curious beast - in some aspects, the film works brilliantly; its visuals such as the realisation of Valkyrie warriors floating in the sky over some of the drug addled characters are stunning and spooky at the same time.
Then, by the same token, some of the dialogue and acting is unbelievably wooden (Prison Break's Amaury Nolasco seems to do little but drip sweat and leer) - and some scenes play out as if they were cut scenes in a computer game, there to provide exposition and break up the action while the next segment loads up.
The shoot outs when Payne is trying to escape various evil-doers intent on bringing him down are violent, bloody and very similar to levels on a computer game (dodge the bullets, seize the incriminating file and shoot the door down as you escape)
Sometimes this plays to the film's strength; but on several occasions, it's simply there to showcase the amount of pyrotechnics the crew and its director Moore (who previously helmed the remake of the Omen in 2006) were clearly able to get their hands on with slow slots of various items exploding around the cast.
If you're a fan of the game, you may well get a little more out of it than I did - and given the ending, there does appear to be the possibility a sequel may be made.

Ultimately, as far as I am concerned Max Payne just misses the mark - it left me frustrated some of the more supernatural elements (such as the Valkyrie demons and ongoing references to Norse mythology) were sidelined in favour of a slightly weaker revenge driven plot.