The Spirit: Movie Review

The Spirit: Movie Review

Rating 4/10
Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johannson, Kevin's Dad from the Wonder Years, Louis Lombardi
Director: Frank Miller
"Toilets are always funny"
Four words I would never have expected to start a review with - but as Samuel L Jackson utters them at one point early on, I feel obliged to mention them.
The Spirit is a different kettle of fish; based on the 1940s Will Eisner strip, it's another Frank Miller flick based on the graphic novel genre (after of course, the brilliant Sin City and the ab rippling 300)
In an homage to 40s and 50s film noir, The Spirit (Gabriel Macht resplendent in a dark suit and mask, but with a billowing red tie) patrols the streets of "his city", desperately trying to track the Empire of the evil crime kingpin, The Octopus (played with distinct OTT tendencies by Samuel L Jackson.)
As the film opens in a Saul Bass style with The Spirit powering over rooftops, he's tracking a heist after a tip off from a cop.
Once on the scene, he's thrown into conflict with the Octopus in a opening extended fight scene. The Octopus is trying to steal one of two boxes which in turn were being stolen by Eva Mendes' Sand Saref (The Spirit's childhood sweetheart).
All of their paths cross again when Sand Saref's quest for a mythical object clashes with the Octopus' hunt for an elixir of life which in turn will turn him immortal and give him world domination.
And that's it really except to say after 300 and Sin City, this is Miller's first major mis-step.
While the film excellently evokes the whole noir image of the 40s, some of the dialogue is clunky beyond belief; whether that's the script writer's fault or the original comic's tone, I'm not 100% sure.
The violence in the start of the film is certainly cartoonish beyond belief, recalling at times Looney Tunes at its ACME best both The Spirit and Octopus have a fairly brutal fight but neither show any cuts or bruises, or even the slightest sign of blood. While that hyper-reality is explained in the plot, it makes the scenes of violence irrelevant and an extreme distraction.
The Spirit is a womanizer and he certainly has his pick of the women in this film; from Eva Mendes' Sand Saref to Scarlett Johannson's Silken Floss via long suffering MD Eileen Dolan (Sarah Paulson) and Paz Vega's Plaster of Paris, it's easy to see why the Spirit doesn't really believe in the idea of monogamy.
I think the problem with The Spirit is one of tone while Macht plays it straight and acquits himself well despite some horrific dialogue, he's paired off with Samuel L Jackson who seems to chew every piece of scenery around him while plotting his evil machinations. That juxtaposition just doesn't work at all - and leaves the viewer unsure of the overall tone of the film.
The city itself looks stunning and Louis Lombardi (poor CTU schlub Edgar Stiles from TV's 24) does a great job playing the cloned sidekick character. Eva Mendes is slinky and sultry as Sand Saref, a tragic anti-heroine whose life has been shaped by a fateful moment with a criminal.
There's a hint of Pulp Fiction when the contents of the box are unveiled by Sand Saref (remember the Golden Glow from the suitcase?) but those deeper moments are countered with moments like Samuel L Jackson's Octopus' character vaporizing a cute kitten while wearing a Nazi uniform, which admittedly is supposed to be funny but just ends up feeling wrong.
Ultimately, given the promise demonstrated by the initial trailers for The Spirit, this full length film is a disappointment; too much of a mish mash in tone and too dis-Spiriting an experience for the viewer at times.

Despite the open ending lending itself to a sequel, it's hard to gauge whether there'll be enough interest at the box office to merit it.

Let The Right One In: Movie Review

Let The Right One In: Movie Review

Rating 8/10
Starring: Kare Hederbrant, Lina Leandersson
Director: Tomas Alfredson
A Swedish subtitled vampire film may not be to everyone's taste.
But if you're hankering for an alternative to the tween vampire phenomenon that is Twilight, I can't recommend this highly enough.
This (at times highly bleak) film is the tale of 12-year-old Oskar, a bullied school kid who plots revenge against his tormentors. He suffers in silence and becomes more introverted and angry as he tries to decide how best to dispatch those who make his life a daily misery.
Oskar's life is changed when he meets Eli, the young girl who moves into the apartment block next to his.
As he gradually opens up to her, he starts to realize there's something not quite right about her. Despite that, the pair grow closer.
And as their tale unfolds, there is a serial killer murdering children and taking their blood for reasons which should be fairly obvious to any fans of the vampire genre.
Let The Right One In is a great start to the arthouse circuit for 2009 its themes of adolescence, revenge and love are universal and are predominantly the driving force for this slow burning drama.
Alfredson has captured the gloom (and beauty) of a Swedish village in the depths of winter and shots of blood staining the white snow are infinitely more effective here than they were in the abysmally disappointing 30 Days of Night .

Equally his take on the vampire oeuvre is one which doesn't skip the gory details - Eli's life is no worse than a rat's as she struggles to survive and finds her nature and vampiric desires often overcoming her wish to be normal.
But the success of this film lies solely with the two young leads as the bullied Oskar, Hederbrant is a simmering mixture of fear and anger waiting to explode in violence; whereas Leandersson is subtly beguiling as the young vampire Eli, whose life is more about trying to exist and cope with what tragedy life's dealt her.

Let the Right One In (based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist) is perhaps one of the freshest additions to the vampire genre. It won't be to everyone's taste but if you fancy a non-Hollywood take and film directing masterclass, you can't find a better way to spend time in the cinema.

Bolt: Movie Review

Bolt: Movie Review

Voices: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell.
Director:Bryon Howard, Chris Williams
Rating:6/10 (8/10 if you watch it in 3D)
Disney's latest offering to the world of animation is the solid, if unspectacular, Bolt.
John Travolta lends his voice as the eponymous hero Bolt who is the star in an all-action children's TV programme, regularly saving his owner Penny (Cyrus) from the evil clutches of Dr Calico (McDowell).
He uses super-dog powers to protect Penny; the only problem is he believes that he actually IS a super-dog and not just an actor in a show. The producers and other actors, including Penny, conspire to make Bolt believe he can perform all the heroics.
The problems start when Bolt escapes from his studio and winds up thousands of miles from Hollywood.
There he takes a cat for hostage (as cats are in league with Dr Calico and, of course, are mortal enemies of dogs) and attempts to find Penny and his home.
This is a fairly standard Disney fare featuring a hero who isn't really one, who realises after a while he is just like everyone else, has doubts about himself and his place in the world but ends up saving the day and becoming the hero in a true sense of the word...original this isn't.
The film opens with a brilliant piece of action animation as we are transported into the "fake" world of Bolt but sadly the brakes are applied too quickly to the story line after that as Bolt goes on his voyage of self discovery. This is very much a movie for the kids and some adults may be stifling yawns in parts.
Things pick up significantly by the introduction of Rhino the hamster (Walton) who is Bolt's number one fan. He believes that Bolt is the real thing and as such is in awe of him. Rhino also gets the best lines in the movie.

Overall it's a good movie but I would highly recommend watching it on 3D if possible. The technology used is very impressive and should keep even the most impatient child happy.

Frost/Nixon: Movie Review

Frost/Nixon: Movie Review

Rating: 9/10

Cast: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen, Rebecca Hall

Director: Ron Howard


There's no greater battlefield than politics.

In 1977, a disgraced Richard Nixon agreed to a fluff piece with British talk-show host David Frost. Nixon's aids viewed the interview as a potential inroad back into American hearts and politics after the Watergate scandal.

Frost seemed the most unlikely of journalists to tackle 'tricky Dicky'. A man more accustomed to interviewing pop stars, Frost initially chased the interview with hopes of securing high television ratings.

Naturally his priorities changed, and Frost found himself in the unenviable position of putting one of America's most corrupt leaders on trial on television screens worldwide.

Frost/Nixon is released in cinemas at the perfect time: as the world waits for a much maligned Republican president to exit office, the story of a former leader being held accountable for questionable decisions hits the theatres.

Fortunately Ron Howard has redeemed himself for the 'hiccup' that was The Da Vinci Code .

Frost/Nixon retains many facets of the successful stage production: playwright Peter Morgan adapted his script for the screen, and lead actors Frank Langella and Michael Sheen reprise their roles as Nixon and Frost respectively (Langella won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon).

Neither are particularly prolific actors, and obviously their experience was valued over notoriety. It's a wise move: Frost/Nixon would be lost without their chemistry.

The two are ably supported by Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Matthew Macfadyen and Rebecca Hall.

But this is really Langella and Sheen's film. The two manage to turn a homely 1970s lounge into a battleground. They take turns playing the hunter and the hunted. Yet the climax of this battle avoids cliché and sentimentality: has the winner really won? Would he regard this as a victory?

This is a refreshing change from Howard, a man fond of romanticising achievement (as seen in Apollo 13 and Cinderella Man ).

Multiplexes are crowded with films that increasingly rely on special effects and brute force to showcase conflict. Frost/Nixon marks a refreshing change: two guys using nothing but words to outwit the opponent.
Go see it - now.

Australia: Movie Review

Australia: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters, Bryan Brown, David Wenham
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Oh crikey.
So it's finally here - the much anticipated, ever so slightly mocked for being a gratuitous ad for Tourism, director Baz Luhrmann's Australia.
Set in 1939, at the beginning of World War 2, in the Northern Territories, English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (a very prim Nicole Kidman) inherits a cattle station. But with the rivalry over an army contract between the Carney company and any other would be stock seller, she soon realizes it's a cut throat business.
Teaming up with Hugh Jackman's Drover and Brandon Walters who plays native boy Nullah (the heart and soul of the story), they drive 2000 cattle across the countryside to Darwin.
But a bigger threat than petty cattle rivalries await them in Darwin, when the Japanese come calling after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
Where to start with critiquing Australia? Baz Luhrmann was always probably the best choice to do this film - his eye for the epic and flamboyant put him squarely in the frame for this one.
Yes, it is at times, a long tribute to the land of Australia with plenty of panoramic, sweeping sky shots over the majesty of the countryside.
But it's also never shy in pointing out the racism, inherent in the country with their treatment of Aborigine - albeit sometimes in a naïve way.
While Jackman's Drover and Kidman's Ashley are perhaps stereotypes (Jackman's the rough man of the country, who washes from a bucket when out on the range - although it does give him a slow mo moment when the water washes over his toned body; whereas Kidman's the typically uptight English lady who's horrified at how uncouth people can be in Australia), it's Walters' turn as Nullah which is perhaps the best of the film, chanelling the beauty of the native race and the belligerence and wisdom of youth.
There are humourous moments which cut through the promos for Australia itself - one such moment finds Kidman's Lady Foster marvelling at the kangaroos jumping alongside their vehicle - a moment which screams "Where the Bloody Hell are ya?" - only to have the idyllic scene shattered when one of the creatures is shot and dumped on their car.
But there are also some atrocities committed against dialogue and stereotypes a plenty which bring the story down - Jackman's character is prone to outbursts of Steve Irwinism when under pressure (Oh crikey) and David Wenham's diabolical Neil Fletcher is simply missing a handlebar moustache to twirl as he goes about his evil machinations.
Let's be clear Australia is no Gone With the Wind - it's long, and the shoe horning in of the war seems to make it a film of two distinct extremes; Luhrmann's clearly gone for a crowd pleasing film (as demonstrated in the distinctly saccharine ending of the film) and to be fair, he easily showcases the best of Australia's countryside.
But what he has failed to do is provide some stronger characters which could have pulled the film out of cliché here and there.

Make no mistake, Australia needs to be seen on the big screen; a big sprawling sweeping film - but with a bit more restraint, this film could have been the epic they wanted it to be.

Twilight: Movie Review

Twilight: Movie Review

Rating: 9/10 for the emo kids; 7/10 for all others
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
There's nothing like seeing the first part of a cinematic juggernaut make it to the screen.
From the phenomenally successful Twilight series of novels by author Stephenie Meyer, this is the first of the books.
And as such, it's difficult to rate - it'll stand or fall on how the later episodes of the books are brought to the big screen.
The first of any trilogy, quadrilogy (whatever) is inherently about setting the scene - and Twilight is no different.
Kristen Stewart is (Isa)Bella Swan, a teenager suffering from the usual teenage alienation. Uprooted from her Phoenix community (where she never really fitted in as she never went with the rest of the gang) Bella comes to the little town of Forks in Washington to live with her father, the local law enforcement.
She's enrolled as a junior in the local school and immediately finds herself (thanks to her battered old ute) part of the slightly offbeat clique. And yet, she doesn't really fit in there either.
Her world is torn upside down, though, when she meets Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), part of the ethereal (and pasty - almost deathly - white) Cullen family who are definite the outsiders of the school community.
When Edward is forced to sit near Bella in lab, he almost gags and has to run away - because apparently her stench is over-powering.
Somehow, though, a friendship is begun - thanks to Edward saying to Bella early on "I won't be your friend" (always the sign of someone who's more interested than they make out) and when Edward stops an out of control truck from slamming Bella into early oblivion, she soon realizes there's more to him than meets the eye.
Bella's introduced to the Cullen clan; a kind of vampire moment akin to Meet the Parents - and finds as vampires, they're vegetarian and have trained themselves to no longer devour human blood.
Life for Bella will never be the same; as she fights her attraction to Edward (and he fights his natural urges - both teen and vampiric) the situation becomes dangerous when a new tribe of killers enter town - and have Bella on their menu&.
It's hard to know exactly how to judge Twilight - it's clearly aimed at its audience; from the emo overtones with the music and moping, it's evident the adaptation's going to hit all the right chords with the teen girls and boys.
But for others, it's all been done before - Edward is yet another variant of the James Dean outsider (even right down to the iconic hair) and Bella is your average teen girl.
And it has to be said that the threat of being devoured by the new arrivals in town feels tacked on towards the end of the film and suffers from a rushed denouement.
Yet the film is extraordinarily long - and at times had me wanting to scream at the main players - Cheer Up Emo Kids!- as they espoused some bon mots as "I've been dying since I was born"&.There are plenty of humorous moments scattered throughout as well - one finds Edward wishing to meet Bella's father as he cleans his police rifle.
It covers off every horror of the American teen years - the feeling of abandonment as a child's shuttled between divorced parents; the awkwardness of the prom and who to invite and what to wear as well as having a relationship with someone thought of as the black sheep of the town.

However, every generation needs its Lost Boys and Twilight adequately fulfills that space in the 2000s teens' hearts; there's plenty of foreshadowing of doom to come in future films (Bella's involved in a prophecy; the vampires seem to be wary of the native American Indians) and plenty of scope for this vampire genre to be around for a long time to come.

The Visitor: Movie Review

The Visitor: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Slieman, Danai Gurira
Director: Tom McCarthy
Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) plays a directionless college economics professor, Walter Vale, plodding away in suburban Conneticut in the latest from the team who brought us The Station Agent.
Reluctantly agreeing to stand in for a colleague at a New York City conference, Vale discovers a young couple named Tarek and Zainab have been scammed into illegally renting out his NY flat.
After initially turfing them out, he rescinds when he realizes the pair have nowhere to go.

Tarek warms to Walter and the pair form a friendship which is based in the first place on music.
So much so that Walter accompanies Tarek on one of his many drumming sessions.
However, on returning home, Tarek is stopped by the subway police and arrested under the flimsiest of reasons.
Matters are made worse when it becomes clear Tarek is an illegal immigrant and is taken to a detention centre - Walter is the only one who can visit him during his time inside - and along with Tarek's mother, they struggle to deal with the reality of the immigration system in America.
The Visitor will annoy some who view its take on politics as being somewhat naïve - while no-one's condoning Tarek's treatment in a post 9/11 world, the sad reality of the situation is that he is an illegal immigrant who's had his bid for asylum rejected.
But that would be to easily dismiss the film which has a warmth and heart to it - Richard Jenkins delivers another mesmerizing performance (and makes it easy to understand why this film's been so embraced on the festival circuit)
His aimless widower professor's been teaching the same course for years now, preferring to overwrite the papers each year rather than develop a new course; his passion and awakening (as played out via his djembe drumming) are beautifully realized and a natural progression of his frustration at trying to play the piano.

He's the heart and soul of the film and just about rescues it from mawkish politicking.