The Box: Movie Review

The Box: Movie Review

The Box
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella
Director: Richard Kelly
Following on from Donnie Darko and the flop that was Southland Tales, Richard Kelly heads to Twilight Zone territory with this new film showing at the World Cinema Showcase nationwide.
Based on an episode of the show called "Button, Button" Diaz and Marsden star as a couple just getting by in 1970s Conneticut. One day the doorbell rings early in the morning and the pair find a box on their doorstep along with the message that Mr Steward will visit at 5pm.
When the time comes, Mr Steward (Langella) shows up on their door - and with the offer that if they press the button, they will get one million dollars. However, if they do take the offer, someone unconnected to them will die.
As if that wasn't bad enough, he gives them 24 hours to mull over what they'll do before the offer is rescinded.
So moral dilemmas abound as the situation begins to spiral out of control...
The Box is frustrating, infuriating and to be honest, brilliant in places. There's a Twin Peaks/ David Lynch style running throughout which gives the whole story an edge of insanity which sees it work.
Langella and Diaz are very good in their roles; Marsden is not quite upto par - but it's Kelly who sees a return to form after the critical drivel that was Southland Tales. Complete with trademark water effects, nosebleeds and Arthur C Clarke, the whole film has a haunting and eerie feel which will guarantee it cult hit status.

Iron Man 2: Movie Review

Iron Man 2: Movie Review

Iron Man 2
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johannson, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle, Garry Shandling
Director: Jon Favreau
Iron Man's back - and so is Robert Downey Jr.
Downey Jr stars as Tony Stark, the billionaire weapons manufacturer/ playboy in this sequel which carries on 6 months from the end of the first (which saw Stark reveal to the world he was the man in the mask).
However, that declaration's irritated Russian Ivan Vanko (a heavily tattooed Mickey Rourke) who believes Stark stole the design for the Iron Man suit from his father. So with that in mind, Vanko sets out for revenge.
But Vanko's not the only one who's got designs on Stark - rival Justin Hammer (a brilliant Sam Rockwell) is out to usurp Stark on the business front; a senate enquiry (headed by Garry Shandling nonetheless) is out to strip Stark of the Iron Man suit; and the army's got designs on the suit - for national safety naturally.
And Stark's got even bigger problems because it appears the power source he's using to keep himself alive is fading - and soon, with time running out, both Stark and Iron Man could be no more....
Iron Man 2 boasts some great action sequences and has some pretty impressive gadget tech within Stark's laboratory; that coupled with some scenes of War Machine and Iron Man fighting side by side mean it's destined to become a fan favourite. In fact Favreau's ploughed everything into the action scenes and they're excellently executed - right down to Scarlett Johannson's very impressively choreographed fight scenes.
Downey Jr once again owns the role of Stark - and some sparky scenes with long time love and Stark Industries cohort Pepper Potts (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) really manages to convey an excellent relationship between the pair. There's also a fair amount of humour scattered throughout and in places, the script crackles with great dialogue.
But despite Downey Jr's cocksure swagger, he's nearly eclipsed by Sam Rockwell's brilliant performance as Hammer and a menacing Mickey Rourke who lumbers in the background as Whiplash.

It's just unfortunate that at times, this feels a little crowded and suffers from the Boys and their toys affliction with guns everywhere, explosions and so on. What it leaves you feeling is a little underwhelmed - that said, Iron Man 2 is a good solid action flick, which while sadly lacking in emotional depth at times (and is not as much fun as the first) won't stop you lapping up this blockbuster.

Anything For Her: Movie Review

Anything For Her: Movie Review

Anything For Her
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Diane Kruger, Vincent Lindon
Director: Fred Cavaye
This French drama centres around Lisa (Kruger) and Julien (Lindon), a simple couple whose happy life revolves around their son Oscar.
But their world is ripped asunder when police burst her into their home one day, arresting Lisa for murder. Despite her apparent innocence, she's given 20 years and sent to jail.
Julien's distraught - and despite trying to appeal and heading down the legal track, he soon discovers there's nothing he can do in the face of such insurmountable evidence against his wife.
However, he has an unswerving belief she's innocent and when Lisa attempts suicide, he realizes he has to do anything he can to free her...
Anything For Her is a good solid - if at times, formulaic, drama; a little slow to get going but you gradually get hooked in as Julien works out his plan to get his wife out.
Thanks to Lindon's increasingly desperate performance, it's understandable how he would do anything for his wife and as he grows more frustrated, then that's where the tension really cranks up. Yet Lindon's performance remains plausible as he works out what he can do to ensure his wife lives the rest of her days as a free woman.
It's the final third of this film which comes alive - and it's a shame that it takes too long to explode because when it does, it's a mesmerizing watch. Both the leads are watchable although the direction's a little heavy handed at times and doesn't do anything to rise out of the ordinary. Fred Cavaye does well in some early parts of the film, establishing situations but in others, he loses it using stock shots and flashbacks which are unoriginal.
However, that said, Anything for Her remains a compelling look at what someone would do for love; it steers out of the implausible by offering up sensible solutions for Julien to achieve his goals. It's about courage and having the grit to fight on for your belief.

Just be grateful after watching this, you don't feel you'd have to go to the same lengths to free your loved one...

Big River Man: DVD Review

Big River Man: DVD Review

Big River Man
Rating: M
Released by Vendetta Films
Big River Man is the endurance story you have to see to believe - because in places, it's simply nuts.

This doco is the story of the most insane endurance swimmer I have ever seen - hard drinking, hard living Martin Strel, a Slovenian man in his fifties who takes on the Amazon.

Despite advice to maybe tone down some of the excesses while on the swim, Strel decides he knows best and tackles the 3274 mile swim in his own indomitable style.

The eventual results which are filmed by his son, follows him as he basically descends into some kind of madness - I actually didn't think a film like this would be as gripping as it is - but Strel Jr manages to capture the sprial down in an at times hallucinogenic way as both of them negotiate the Amazon.
I can't recommend this film enough - on the small screen, it really is captivating and terrifying in equal amounts.

If you ever thought the kind of people who take up endurance sports are a bit nuts, this may make you reconsider your opinion. Big River Man is gripping and surprising in many ways.

Extras: Q&A at Sydney 2009 film festival and trailer

Rating: 8/10 

Dear John: Movie Review

Dear John: Movie Review

Rating: 5/10
Cast: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
After the Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe and the Last Song, another Nicholas Sparks book makes its way to the big screen.
This time, it's 2001 - Tatum is John, a US military man on leave, who, one day meets Amanda Seyfried's Savannah in one of those spring break coincidences that can only happen in the movies or romantic fiction.
The pair begin an easy and intimate 2 week long romance which is cut short by Savannah's return to school and John's return to the theatre of war.
But pledging their love to each other, the duo promise to write and keep their love alive.
However, life has a habit of getting in the way and the romance doesn't turn out quite like it should.
Dear John is going to appeal to the romantic among you; it's not that I'm not romantic (honest) it's just that this film failed to register any kind of emotion in me at all. I was curiously unmoved by the whole thing. Sure clichés abound (one girl says of another boy -'I'm not his type, he just doesn't know it yet') and there's sentiment flying left, right and centre in this formulaic film.
Half the problem lies with the leads; while Seyfried's enough to carry off the role of the conservative college student who falls hard for John, it's Tatum's performance as John which barely seems to register any emotion at all (save for one scene with his father) - his army man is a stereotype, who in one scene resorts to fisticuffs because he's angry. Oh and he has daddy issues too. (Although given his autistic father is so wonderfully played by the ever great Richard Jenkins, you almost forgive him.)
While you can't blame the actors for this (I'm guessing it's part of the screenplay), it just makes the film feel predictable and disappointing.

The spectre of 9/11 hangs nicely over the relationship and gives the film a welcome touch of reality; but Dear John, complete with its music video style scenes of letters being written, posted and shots of mail travelling and being delivered, offers nothing new to the romantic drama genre.

Hot Tub Time Machine: Movie Review

Hot Tub Time Machine: Movie Review

Rating: 5/10
Cast: John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Rob Corddry, Crispin Glover, Chevy Chase
Director: Steve Pink
Let's face it, you're not heading to Hot Tub Time Machine for witty erudite discussions.
It's the story of a group of guys who've got various issues - John Cusack's Adam's just been dumped; Craig Robinson's Nick has an unfaithful wife and a job that involves him sticking his hand in dog's bottoms; Clark Duke is a teen who's going nowhere and Rob Corddry's Lou has just tried to commit suicide.
Spurred into action by the suicide attempt, the quartet head to one of their haunts from their past to live it up. But when they get there, they find the party resort has gone down the dumps - and deciding to get drunk, the guys head to the hot tub to party.
After a night's decadence - and a shoe horned in plot device, they awake to find themselves back in the 1980s and as younger versions of themselves at Winterfest 1986.
That entails of course - the birth of MTV, leg warmers, fears the Russians are about to invade and Ronald Reagan.
As they try and work out how to get back to 2010, all four of them must confront mistakes from their past and ensure nothing's changed.
What can be said about this? The film finds its level in the first few moments as Craig Robinson's failed musician pulls out a pair of car keys from a dog's backside and throws them straight to its owner&subtle it ain't.
Also, sadly, it's not as funny as it could be - unless you're a teen who wants to see plenty of bare breasts, vomit and toilet humour. Granted you know Hot Tub Time Machine isn't going to be anything other than a variant of the gross out comedy, but with a bit more effort in the script, this could have played out a little less predictably.
Despite some sweet moments involving the eternal issues of people growing up and a relatively amusing ongoing gag about Crispin Glover's one armed bell boy being about to lose his arm, there are more gross out moments than anything else.
And it's a shame as most of the cast seem up for this; Cusack is as cool as ever and injects sad loser Adam with a bit of a warmth; and I even had some sympathy and laughs with Craig Robinson's character.

Hot Tub Time Machine was a great disposable concept - sadly the execution leaves you with a hangover without all the fun - and a feeling that you're glad the eighties are firmly in the past.

Daybreakers: Movie Review

Daybreakers: Movie Review

Rating: 6/10
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas, Claudia Karvan
Director: The Spierig Brothers
Vampires are all the rage these days and with a plethora of blood suckers out there, you'd have to wonder what story is left to be told - and how well it will do in the wake of the Twilight box office juggernaut.
This latest entry into the vampire genre is set in 2019 and sees the world swept with the vampire pandemic. With pretty much everyone overtaken by the desire and necessity to consume blood, real stocks of the red stuff are in short supply.
Enter Ethan Hawke's Edward Dalton, a haematologist working for Sam Neill's Charles Bromley. Bromley owns a human farm which is keeping the vamp population in blood - but it's running low and Dalton's desperately trying to find a substitute for human blood.
However, when Dalton literally runs into one of the last surviving groups of humans, he finds out from Willem Dafoe's Elvis that there is a cure for vampirism and one which could free them all from their misery.
But will he get that cure out into the population - or will forces stop him from giving every last vampire the chance of survival they need?
Daybreakers is an intriguing entry into the vampire genre with a solid central premise - the idea of vampirism being a condition which is parasitic and debilitating was explored in Let The Right One In. So in terms of bringing something new to the table, Daybreakers doesn't quite make it on that front - but what it does manage to do with its pale sharp colours is create a Blade Runneresque world with a tinge of Nightwatch about it.
All of the cast do a solid job with Ethan Hawke conveying the moral struggle well - and Willem Dafoe providing the out there elements required for his character.
There's also a fair amount of gore too - when the vamps are experimented on, they bubble and sizzle before exploding. The creature effects aren't too bad either - the vamps that have suffered from a lack of blood and mutated will give a few nightmares here and there.
Sure, there's an allegory for corporate greed with Sam Neill's Charles Bromley character doing everything he can to bleed the population dry and keep the company afloat; but overall there's not too much subtlety on show here; with explosions, chases, and shooting, it follows the predictable plot path of films of its type.

With Daybreakers, it feels like a case of missed opportunity - had the Spierig brothers pulled back a little and eased up on the explosions and gore, it could have been a really interesting entry into the genre. As it stands, it's a fairly disposable piece of Friday night entertainment.