Star Trek: Movie Review

Star Trek: Movie Review

Cast: Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, Leonard Nimoy

Director: JJ Abrams

Rating: 9/10

"Set phasers on fun"
JJ Abrams has done it! The man who confused the world with Lost and destroyed New York with Cloverfield has managed the impossible - he has made a Star Trek movie which will satisfy the fans, as well as bring a whole new generation of Trekkies to the franchise.
Quite simply he has made a bloody brilliant movie! Going back to the original characters of Kirk, Spock and Bones and introducing them as they meet for the first time at Starfleet was a huge gamble.
Would fans accept seeing different actors playing the iconic roles? Was there any life in a franchise which had wilted on TV and film? Would a new generation of cinema goers know or care about the history of the Trek universe?
Well fans and non-fans can rest assured that thanks to a tight script from Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Mission Impossible 3, Transformers), top notch special effects and a cast that are clearly relishing their roles, Star Trek brings fun to the big screen - a welcome relief from the moody fantasy movies like The Dark Knight and Watchmen.
Abrams is quoted as saying he looked at the second movie in the series The Wrath of Khan for inspiration and it is clear he has taken basic elements from that movie.
Often regarded as the best of the previous 10 Trek outings, it featured a wronged protagonist (a fantastic Ricardo Montalban) out for revenge against the Federation. Much like the 1982 movie, the main bad guy in the 2009 version is not some general overlord out for world domination but rather a man who has lost everything but his sense of betrayal.
Eric Bana shines as Nero, a Romulan who has justifiably got the hump after watching his home world obliterated. With his own planet destroying device on board his mining vessel, Nero is out for some serious ass-kicking.
Bana is not the only one having fun with his character, the same can be said for the rest of the cast.

The big revelation is Chris Pine as the young Kirk. There is not a lot in his CV to suggest he would be suitable to fill William Shatner's boots from the original series. A starring role opposite Lindsay Lohan in Just My Luck and a small role in the indie hit Smokin' Aces are about as good as it gets.
But he blitzes the screen as the cocky, arrogant Kirk who never backs down from a fight. He doesn't play the future captain with the same mannerisms as Shatner, however it is fun to watch him throw in the odd Shatner-isms every now and them.
The original series relied heavily on the friendship between Kirk and Spock and thankfully Pine and Zachery Quinto handle the relationship on the big screen well - starting out as enemies before warming to each other's idiosyncrasies. Quinto (Sylar in TV's Heroes) nails the characteristics of Spock, an outsider on his home planet of Vulcan due to his mixed heritage.
Kudos to our own Karl Urban too for stepping into the shoes of DeForest Kelley to play the grumpy doctor Bones and he even gets to say one of his famous lines "I'm a doctor Jim... not a physicist".
John Cho as Sulu and Zoe Saldana as Uhura also shine, the latter even getting an unexpected romantic plot line, and Simon Pegg almost steals the show late on as engineer Scotty.
The gap between the original series and the latest update is bridged by the introduction of the "old Spock" Leonard Nimoy - who steps easily back into the role which made his name. Nimoy brings gravitas and in essence hands the reigns onto the new actors to continue the adventures of the Enterprise.
The movie is not without its faults - the device for Kirk to meet the old Spock stretches credibility to the limit and Anton Yelchin's Chekov starts off as amusing before quickly turning annoying, but these do not detract from the overall movie.

This is a big, fun film, obviously made with a lot of love which will see the Enterprise boldly going for more years to come.

Fast & Furious: Movie Review

Fast & Furious: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10

Cast: Vin Diesel - and his muscles, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster

Director: Justin Lin

Make no mistake - The Fast and the Furious has not been re-released. This is indeed the fourth instalment in a franchise that seems to share Police Academy's predilection for sequels (yes there is another one on the way).
Fast & Furious is a high-octaned muscle fest with all the elements to make a boy racer salivate: shiny toys, nos, gadgets, car races through populated streets and tunnels. Muscle cars race Japanese imports and there's plenty of lesbian action too.
The original crew signed on for the film, though one of the core cast is dispatched early in the piece. This character's demise sets the wheels in motion (pardon the pun) for the inevitable reunion between estranged mates Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker).
Dom is still pretty miffed that Brian turned out to be an undercover cop, while Brian feels pretty guilty about deceiving Dom, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and true love Mia (Jordana Brewster) about his true background.
Dom and Brian go head to head in a street race that would leave Tauranga residents seething. They arrive at the finish line to realise they share a common enemy and both are determined to bring the man down, no matter what the cost.
The franchise has been criticised for the blatant and at times comical use of CGI. Fast & Furious manages to dodge this issue through the use of fast cuts and editing. The action is so fast that at times it's dizzying.
The car chases are impressive, particularly one where the boys race across the Mexican desert and through a maze of tunnels with drug barons in hot pursuit. Hell, Dom didn't even break a sweat.
The acting is uneven but hey, the cast almost play second fiddle to the cars. As the tortured and conflicted Dom, Vin Diesel seems happy to let his forehead do the acting.

Diesel has been keeping a low profile of late and I can tell you exactly where he's been - at the gym, buffing up to fill in the cable knit sweaters in this film. His muscles are so big they are almost a distraction - and he makes the pretty buff Paul Walker look weedy in comparison.

But Fast & Furious ticks all the boxes, it's fast, it's bloody, it's shiny like a new coin. And if it's not your gig think of it this way - it'll keep those boy racers off the streets for a couple of hours.

The Boat That Rocked: Movie Review

The Boat That Rocked: Movie Review

Cast: Tom Sturridge, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, Bill Nighy
Director: Richard Curtis

Rating: 6/10 (7/10 if you're mainly going for the soundtrack)
Sex, drugs and rock n' roll. Welcome to the sixties.
Richard Curtis has returned to the silver screen once again to write and direct The Boat That Rocked; a story about the British government trying to stop the growth of the devilishly putrid rock music (as they see it) from reaching the innocent ears of the people. For a commercial station to fight the monopoly of BBC Radio, which only plays 45 minutes of rock music a day, the station must be offshore and thus, Radio Rock is born.
The film is a nod in the direction of the influential Radio Caroline, which reshaped the industry in that period and the rebellious nature of the DJs, who live truly hedonistic lives, reflects the era and exactly what the music of that time promoted. The notion that people were carefree and intrinsically, if subtly, rebellious is made abundantly clear throughout the film with the great British people tuning in to listen to their favourite voices from Radio Rock.
For the first hour of the film the style is fun and funky, as the newcomer, Carl (Tom Sturridge) gets to know the irrepressible members on the boat. Were it not for the strength of some of the core cast, it would have been very easy for the film to completely lose its way as the narrative begins to lose shape and the sub-plots confuse us all.
Curtis' strength has been romantic comedy and even though he tries to enter some of that into the film, the character engagement with Carl is never strong enough for the audience to truly empathise with him.

He has major storylines throughout the film, finding love and discovering more about his family history, yet they seem to be small scenes randomly thrown in rather than the character taking us on an emotional journey while he's on the boat.

On the face of it, the story is really about Carl, yet just as we're getting to know him we suddenly cut away to another random sub-plot and never really resolve Carl's issues, or at least, if they are covered they are quickly glossed over. Tom Sturridge's performance was commanding when he had screen time but there wasn't enough of him on screen for the audience to really care about him.
Also, the performances from the rest of the cast were so strong, and their sub-plots so superficial, that his storylines were drowned out anyway. Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Count was his usual brilliant self, taking charge when it counted and being the one character that really showed a genuine passion for music and a deep care for his 'limey' friends.

Bill Nighy was, well, Bill Nighy. His dry wit that he has really perfected into an art form was very much at the fore and the perfect foil for Kenneth Brannagh, who became better as the film went on to the point of really being a genuinely evil character, rather than the caricature he seemed to be at the start of the film.
Sad to say, the two Rhys' (Ifans and Darby) were not great. The Kiwi star had his moments but at the end of the film we were finding out what sort of character he was by others telling us, rather than him getting to really show what he can do. Even Dave (Nick Frost) is confusing; he tries to help Carl but then subsequently betrays him, and then they're still great mates. Does anybody care about anything in this film?
The Titanic-style ending was nothing short of awfulness mixed with huge doses of cliché. Despite the criticisms of the characters, some of the dialogue has been brilliantly written and delivered with a lot of laughs emanating from the audience and when the romantic situations started to develop, some of Curtis' talents could really be seen coming through, yet the disjointed characters and storylines gave an odd sense of enjoying the film as a whole, probably due to the significance of pirate radio in the era, but with about as much care for the characters as those DJs had for the government. Not a lot.

For those who love music from that era, the soundtrack will not disappoint and for those who lived through that era (especially if living in the UK at the time) the Radio Caroline memories will return, but that's not enough to make a great film, just a good one.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls: Movie Review

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls: Movie Review

Rating 7/10
Cast: Jools Topp, Lynda Topp, John Clarke, Helen Clark, Don McGlashan
Director: Leanne Pooley
"On paper, it shouldn't work"
Early on in Leanne Pooley's documentary those very words are uttered by a comedy writer about the two Kiwi icons.
And it's easy to see what exactly he means - Jools and Lynda Topp have become a bastion of Kiwiana, icons in their own lifetime.
But if you were to analyse exactly why that was, you'd pretty much expect the yodeling twins with their affinity for country and western, characters and political activism just wouldn't add up.
However, over 85 minutes, it soon becomes clear why the Topp Twins as an act does work - as well as just how much they've infiltrated the New Zealand way of life.
Ostensibly, this is supposed to be a documentary about Jools and Lynda, but it's really a snapshot of the New Zealand way of life during the last 50 years or so as the doco demonstrates just how steeped in the zeitgeist the twins have become.
Against the backdrop of Waikato dairy farming, we see the montage of the twins' lives before being introduced to some of their many characters - Camp Mother and Camp Leader, Ken and Ken, The Bowling Ladies and The Posh Socialites.
What's good about this is the way it simply slips into the pair's characters and morphs them back in - some of the anecdotes about how they've been taken into people's lives are just priceless - particularly the one involving Ken and the lapdancers.
Essentially the film doesn't really become about the two of them until very near the end when we see Jools' fight against breast cancer.
It's here we see the real love the Twins have for each other - and how devastated they'd be if anything happened to either of them.
Director Leanne Pooley's handling of these darkest moments of the Topp Twins' lives isn't mawkish or intrusive - and it shows just how low people can get when fighting this cancer.
Through the rest of the film, it's interesting to observe to what effect the duo have permeated our everyday lives and how at key moments in the country's history (Bastion Point, the Springboks tour) they've been involved in some form or other.

And that's The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls' greatest triumph - the narrative weaves the Twins' lives with major social events - and effortlessly shows how these icons have become a Kiwi heritage property.

Monsters Vs Aliens: Movie Review

Monsters Vs Aliens: Movie Review

Rating: 5/10 for adults, 7/10 for kids.
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie and Keifer Sutherland.
Directors: Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon.

Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is getting ready for her wedding when she is hit by a meteorite infused with alien energy. Shortly after she turns into a giant woman 15 metres tall, bursting through the roof of the chapel and causing her guests to run in terror.
Now a monster, Susan is quickly captured by General W.R. Monger (Keifer Sutherland) and taken to the government's classified building in Area Fifty-something.
Dubbed "Ginormica," she joins four other monsters also seized over the years: Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist whose attempt to give himself the survival skills of a roach had unintended side-effects; B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) a gooey brainless blob created from a genetic engineering experiment gone wrong; The Missing Link (Will Arnett), an amphibious lizard-man; and Insectosaurus, an enormous giant bug herded around by bright lights.

The five monsters remain locked up until alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) arrives on Earth to retrieve the meteor's transforming energy and take over the world. After a military attack against Gallaxhar fails, General W.R. Monger and The President (Stephen Colbert) decide the only course of action is to deploy the five monsters to defeat Gallaxhar's robot probe and his army of clones. The gang are released and set out on a journey of self discovery and laughs as they band together to save the world.
Excited by attending a 3D Dreamworks movie, there was a moment of panic when I arrived and was handed the 3D specs. Smaller than the head-enveloping IMAX frames, it was uncertain that they would fit over my everyday glasses. Thank goodness for rectangular frames - if I had owned hipster horn-rimmed glasses there would have been 90 minutes of blurry screen action instead of the crystal-clear special effects I enjoyed.
(Mental note: when attending a 3D screening make sure to put contacts in.)
Monsters vs Aliens opens with an amazing view of the universe, packing a powerful 3D punch, and the special effects novelty stays around long enough for Susan's hair to be somewhat more captivating than normal. After this the effects settle down somewhat - there are a few moments of 3D for 3D's sake, including a pingpong ball - but the kids had such a lot of fun with it there's no point in being picky.
As an adult, the fun mainly lies with the references to the creatures from 1950s horror movies. Susan is clearly the 50 Foot Woman (or rather in her case, the 49 foot, 11 inch woman), B.O.B is the BLOB, and The Missing Link is uncannily similar to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Unsurpisingly, this novelty wears off fairly quickly, leaving you desperate for the odd pop culture reference. I laughed out loud twice, which was a disappointing result when you consider the fun of another Dreamworks production, Shrek.
On the other hand the kids in the audience seemed captivated from the get-go. This may have been due more to the 3D effects than the storyline, but at least they weren't bored. Before the feature started the cinema was full of chatter, kicking seats, and calls for mum to sit in the middle. Once the lights went down there was complete silence, apart from an irresistable need at the beginning to name the planets - "Look there's Saturn!"
Gallaxher starts off as a comedic bad guy, but it's worth mentioning that in the second half of the movie he becomes slightly more menacing. Still, there weren't any really scary bits, and only one child was overwhelmed (three times). If your child is likely to cry at a friendly looking evil alien it might be best to stay away, but in terms of octopus-formed bad guys, Gallaxher doesn't come close to the truly terrifying Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Monsters vs Aliens has all the ingredients of a good kids' flick- a band of misfits finding themselves, a scary bad guy who isn't too scary, a moral (your true friends will accept you for who you are) and a nod to Axle F. However as an adult, be prepared for the slightly unengaging characters and a predictable plot.

The Wrestler: Movie Review

The Wrestler: Movie Review

Rating: 7/10
Cast: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
Director: Darren Aronofsky

A fading wrestler, battered by his time in the ring, looking for one last final big fight aka Randy "The Ram" Robinson.
An actor, battered by his time in the spotlight, looking for a return to fame and peer acceptance aka Mickey Rourke.
Yes, the parallels in Darren Aronofsky's latest between the titular character and Mickey Rourke are far too obvious.
Back in the 1980s, Randy The Ram Robinson was a big player in the wrestling scene - his nemesis in the ring was the Ayatollah but these days The Ram plays smaller venues and is struggling to get by.
He wears a hearing aid in one ear; his body wracked by the use of steroids, muscle boosters and the beatings he's taken in the ring over the years.
But the Ram is old school; he still loves to put on a show for the fans so much so that he'll use a razor blade in the ring to cut his own head, allowing the blood to mingle with his blond overlong trestles.
However, life outside the ring is not going great for Randy.
His futile attempts to rebuild some of the destroyed bridges with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) whom he abandoned in his early years and his push to form a closer bond with stripper Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) are pushing him ever further to the edge of desperation.
A heart attack after a particularly gruesome smackdown forces him to re-evaluate his life and as he wrestles with the possibility of his life being over, he tries one last time to put his life in order and quell the demons of the past.
The Wrestler mixes documentary and drama - in effect, at times, it feels like a doco about a Wrestler's twilight years, as he adjusts to life outside the ring, a life where he's always struggling to get by and where he feels alienated.
However, it's Rourke's performance in this film which is so compelling even if the route Aronofsky takes is somewhat predictable (what will happen between estranged daughter/ father as they pursue a second chance; what could happen when he takes a role at the local deli counter; will he grow closer to Cassidy), it's Rourke's turn which makes it plausible, raw and emotive.
His every move after a fight is a struggle; his very core is mangled by the lack of emotional connection with his daily life he is a character who is fighting to move on and deny the reality of what hes created over the years.
Even when The Rams beavering away behind the deli counter, he's essentially putting on a show for the customers, struggling to break away from the persona he's become over the years.
At the Wrestler's emotional core is an existential conflict between living life because you have to and denying who you are.
Both The Ram and Cassidy realize this as they try to make ends meet.
(Minor spoiler warning!)
And when The Ram gives his final speech in the ring about how he's going to keep doing this for the fans and will only quit when they tell him to, you can't help but wonder how cathartic that must have felt for Rourke, as an actor who spent many years in the wilderness.
There are some great moments in The Wrestler - such as the camera following The Ram as he negotiates the back corridors in the supermarket to the front counter which parallel his entrance to the ring but at times, Aronofsky is a little hard handed in delivering them choosing to sledge hammer them home rather than rely on a more subtle approach.

The open to interpretation ending of the film may infuriate some, and some of the formulaic way in which the plot unfolds may irritate purists but at the end of the day, The Wrestler is a tour de force; an emotionally draining journey and one which will leave you feeling like you've experienced the Ram Jam smack down Robinson's character is famous for in the ring as you step outside. 

Transporter 3: Movie Review

Transporter 3: Movie Review

Rating 4/10 - 9/10- if you like exploding things, car chases and lots of slow mo shots
Cast: Jason Statham, Robert Knepper
Director: Luc Besson
Frank Martin is back.
Actually, I don't recall asking for his return - but nevertheless, the courier man who always has a plan has returned for a third outing.
This time, it's pure adrenaline filled nonsense.
Martin's approached for a job when a car carrying a colleague of his - along with a kidnapped Ukranian girl - smashes through his wall at home.
But as his pal's carried away in an ambulance, he explodes knocking Martin out.
When Martin wakes up, he finds he's got a few problems - on his wrist is a device which will cause him to blow up if he deviates on what the bad guys want.
So along with the Ukranian girl, he's back on the road in his trusty car - and determined to untangle himself from the web he's become ensnared in.
The twist (a la Speed) with this one is that if he's too far away from his car and his cargo, the wrist bracelet will explode - and that'll be the end of him.
What can I say about Transporter 3?
At times, it's like watching an overlong commercial for a car with plenty of slo-mo shots/ cut shots/ shots of the gears being wrenched and so on.
There is plenty of car chases - some of them appear to have been sped up in the edit suite which produces an odd effect.
There's also a lorry jackknifing on a narrow road mid -pursuit.
Things blow up - from many angles.
There's a pumping soundtrack - and to be fair, a very amusing chase on a BMX bike as Martin desperately tries to catch up with his car after it's stolen.
There's a gubbins plot about an eco-terrorist kidnapping a petulant Ukranian girl to hold her eco-minister father to ransom.
And there's our Frank Martin (a gruff growling Jason Statham) facing off against multiple bad guys who have guns/ knives etc - and armed at times with only his jacket top and easily shreddable shirt.
Whereas in the past, all the bad guys in action films were either English or Arabian, now every hero is menaced by Robert Knepper (the odious T-Bag in TV's Prison Break) - who's in danger of being brutally typecast in playing the same bad guy roles - even down to the slight chewing on his own tongue.
Basically if you like the previous films, you won't need me to expand on why Transporter 3 works in its respective genre and with its respective audience.

Sadly though, it's nothing new, original - or in places coherent.