Mr Popper's Penguins: Movie Review

Mr Popper's Penguins: Movie Review

Mr Popper's Penguins
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Penguins - six of 'em
Director: John Davis
So, school holidays are under way and there's plenty of clamouring for the family dollar at the box office.
This time, Jim Carrey stars as Thomas Popper, a real estate buyer for a firm, who's a separated dad from his son and daughter.
Popper Senior spent most of his life travelling around the world and never being present for his son, so when pops pops his clogs, Popper Jr is left a crate, in which he assumes, is a stuffed penguin from his father's world trips.
Trouble is that penguin comes to life and starts wreaking havoc in Popper's house - and at a time when he's got job stresses and trying to secure a building from a cantankerous elderly buyer (Angela Lansbury), it's not exactly what Popper needs.
And things get worse, when another five penguins show - soon, Popper's personal life is on the up while his work life is taking a slide down...
Mr Popper's Penguins is fairly inoffensive family fare - with a message of holding onto your loved ones as tight as you can for as long as you can, it's clear what this at times predictable piece is trying to achieve.
Jim Carrey's got a nice vein of sadness running through his Popper and Carla Gugino makes an affable enough foil to his career obsessed business man ways.
It's probably pitched a little towards the younger end (Popper gets a football in the groin and head a couple of times) and there's some penguins with wind which threaten to turn it into Mr Pooper's Penguins at one point - but the smaller kids in the audience won't mind.
Mr Popper's Penguins isn't too bad - it's neither here nor there in terms of entertainment; there are a few moments which the kids will love (turning a museum do into a water slide scored the biggest laughs for the funny fowl and their followers in the audience) but the parents may find their patience is a little tested by this.

My Wedding and Other Secrets: DVD Review

My Wedding and Other Secrets: DVD Review

My Wedding and Other Secrets
Rating: PG
Released by South Pacific Pictures

In this rom com, Michelle Ang stars as Asian film student Emily Chu, a geek who's at odds with the world around her.

While her fellow film students are claiming their influences number the likes of Fellini, Emily's talking about how Star Wars turned her to the dark side of film making...

She's a bit of an oddball and that geeky goofy charm extends to the rest of her life

But it also puts her into conflict with her Hong Kong parents - she's seen one sister nearly disowned after she dated a boy her parents didn't approve of.

So, when she meets good ole Kiwi James ( Go Girls' Matt Whelan) and the two spark, she's well aware of the potential divisions it could cause.

However, Emily's a dreamer and follows her heart over her head.

My Wedding And Other Secrets is a charming and sweet culture clash romantic comedy. It has an innocence and character which will melt your heart.

Michelle Ang manages to bring an endearing charm to Emily and life to the story. She veers on the right side of compassionate to her eccentric spontaneity rather than irritating - and she also has sincerity for the part as she juggles her heart, what's right and the wishes of her family.

And she gels very well with Matt Whelan's awkward and nervy James.

A sweetly charming cultural rom com which perfectly matches the times we live in.

Extras: Behind the scenes, bloopers, commentary, trailer and short

Rating: 8/10 

Billy T: Te Movie: Movie Review

Billy T: Te Movie: Movie Review

Billy T : Te Movie
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Billy T James, a wealth of mates and colleagues
Director: Ian Mune
"His mark on comedy is like a pen mark on a shirt - by a Vivid pen - it's indelible."
So a doco about the irrepressible and much loved Kiwi comic icon Billy T James finally hits the cinema
Te Movie is more about Billy T's life and draws inevitable parallels with Leanne Pooley's Topp Twins Untouchable Girls in terms of how it's put together.
Using archive performance footage, past interviews and current day recollections and reconstructions from colleagues, friends but no immediate family, this piece by Ian Mune is a sensitive, relatively rounded portrait of the man who clearly set the standard for Kiwi comedy (and whose groundbreaking talent and natural showmanship have yet to be matched from what I can tell.)
I should hold up my hands here and confess that I'd never been exposed to Billy T before as it's from before my time in NZ and so while that gives me a better perspective on the film making, it possibly would have disadvantaged me on what Billy T brought to the 80s Kiwi world.
Thankfully, Ian Mune uses footage of him truly rocking the house and reducing everyone to laughter to show what a talent he was - and what a stellar performer he was once he overcame his initial shyness and found his stride in the Maori Volcanics group.
He's also wisely chosen to adopt a somewhat matey approach to interviewing friends and colleagues of Billy T - a trio of bros is interviewed in a field in Auckland, quite a few other mates are interviewed near a cowshed - there's a very uniquely Kiwi and casual approach to putting together this film. Contributions also come from long term Billy T cohort Peter Rowley as you'd expect.
But it's telling that there's no real comment - other than archival footage - from immediate family and that's the one real hole and glaring omission which truly stops this from feeling like a rounded and full portrait of the man who seems to have crossed Maori and Pakeha divides and trailblazed the way for comedy on television and the stage. However, you do get a feel for a man who was a musician, a singer and comedy performer.
As for the Billy T who emerges from this doco, well, what can I say? Clearly this guy had some real talent, a drive to succeed and a selflessness which led him to overworking and eventual ill health - you'll be agog at how he bounds around the stage after having had a heart transplant and at the same time, you'll feel a real sense of sadness that he never went onto more. There's one moment where Mune gets everyone to reflect on Billy's passing and it's the only real slightly creaky moment within the film - sure, I can understand his intentions, but it's a little heavy handed and feels somewhat intrusive. Though, that said, I understand a lot of those involved with Billy never got the closure they needed after his sad early demise so perhaps this goes some way to providing some kind of relief.
Ultimately, because of the lack of immediate family, Billy T: Te Movie falls just short of greatness; don't get me wrong - Ian Mune's pieced together a warmly fitting tribute to the man who made such a difference to entertainment and Maori/ Pakeha relations.

And quite frankly, decades on, Billy T still has what it takes to reduce audiences to laughter - no matter how old or young they are in this charming doco which will have you giggling like Billy T when the lights go up.

I Love You Phillip Morris: DVD Review

I Love You Phillip Morris: DVD Review

I Love You Phillip Morris
Rating: R16
Released by Roadshow

Jim Carrey stars as flamboyant conman Steven Russell in this film which is outrageous and fun at the same time.

Adopted at birth,Russell feels he's living a lie and suddenly decides everything must change-so he starts committing frauds left right and centre to pay for his life as a gay man and enjoy the extravagances.

But as ever, the law catches up with him and banged up, Russell finds Ewan McGregor's sweetly touching Phillip Morris and the two fall in love.

However, Russell's determined to get out of jail and does everything in his power to ensure Morris and he have a life together-but it doesn't run smoothly.

Light, frothy, funny and outrageous in equal measures,ILYPM is a hilarious and insanely fun ride with scenes which will shock and surprise you.

Carrey is very good as Russell but it's McGregor who's the best thing in this with his performance just endearing on many levels. OTT it may be, but it's a great piece of popcorn entertainment.

Extras: The Making of/ interviews

Rating: 7/10 

Conviction: Blu Ray review

Conviction: Blu Ray review

Conviction
Rating: M
Released by 20th Century Fox

Hilary Swank stars as Betty Ann Waters in this film which is based on a true story.

Waters is a drop out who's formed a close bond with her brother Kenny (the ever great Sam Rockwell) as they've been shunted from foster home to foster home in their childhoods.

But when Kenny's arrested for murder by Nancy Taylor (Melissa Leo)- and convicted two years after the crime's been committed- Betty Ann feels her life ripped from her

So, she resolves to put herself through law school with the sole aim of doing whatever it takes to exonerate her brother.

Conviction works okay as a TV movie, rather than a big screen outing.

All involved give great performances and it seems unfair to diminish the true story nature of this, but the problem is the film offers nothing new or original to many other similar stories of their ilk.

Granted, it's made perfectly adequately and sees the main duo of Swank and Rockwell acquit themselves decently - but the emotional core of the film appears to have gone AWOL from script to screen.

The moments where you'd expect your heart to leap are curiously flat and presented in a very matter of fact way; and some of the most potentially engaging drama (Waters' marriage falling apart being one) takes place off screen, robbing you of any real involvement. That and the fact that it's not explored that this woman's spent her entire life trying to save her brother and it's cost her everything and you just feel nothing but detachment from what transpires in front of you.

Extras: Conversation with the director and Betty Anne Waters offers a little insight.

Rating: 4/10 

Cowboys and Aliens: Movie Review

Cowboys and Aliens: Movie Review

Cowboys and Aliens
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Paul Dano
Director: Jon Favreau
In a dusty western desert setting, a man (Daniel Craig) wakes up with a jolt; bloodied and wearing an odd looking bracelet on his arm, he's got no idea who he is, where he is or what he's done.
Unfortunately, this man, Jake Lonergan, is a wanted outlaw and doesn't really have time to work it all out - he ends up in the small town of Absolution and is on a collision course with Harrison Ford's Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde, a cattleman and who seems to own most of the town in some form or another.
But the pair have to put aside their potential differences and work together when an other worldly presence attacks and abducts most of the townsfolk.
And Lonergan begins to find out he knows more about what's going on than he first thought&.leading him to be Absolution's one hope of salvation.
Cowboys and Aliens is the latest adaptation of a graphic novel and a mash up of sci fi and western (though the emphasis is more on Western than anything else.)
Daniel Craig brings his usual purse lipped steeliness to the role of the mysterious loner - though I think based on this, he'd do very well as a lead in a Western; Harrison Ford is his grumpy self as the rich cattleman who, surprise, surprise has a heart of gold underneath that very gruff exterior and Olivia Wilde continues to impress by underplaying the only real female on the screen Ella. Sam Rockwell is criminally underused in the role of bartender Doc (and is a real disappointment).
Jon Favreau also brings a level of skill to the direction of this - the start of which is very well crafted - and ends up essentially just directing a western which has touches of sci fi thrown in here and there - although 30 minutes from the end it simply becomes a fight the aliens and survive kind of flick.
As for the aliens themselves, they're nothing spectacular - early scenes bring a sense of menace to their presence but once these bipedal lizards start running around like apes, they lose a bit of their panache and simply become moving blobs.
Sure, there are some parallels of the westerners being threatened by the more advanced aliens which conjure up an allegory of how the native Americans must have felt, but it's all pretty broad brush strokes and left to your assumption.
It's half of the problem of Cowboys and Aliens - while I'm not exactly raving about the film, I wasn't underwhelmed either; I was simply left feeling a little lukewarm.

The meshing together of the story, genres and scowling grumpy characters simply didn't gel as well as it could have perhaps done; it's difficult to empathise with them; the classic western touches (a stranger rides into town, faces trouble and a threat before riding off into the sunset) are nicely integrated and the initial alien attack channels early Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind but this straight laced film just never kicks fully into gear - there's never really a wow moment which it needs to pull you out of a 2 hour lull.

Incendies - Movie Review

Incendies - Movie Review

Incendies
Rating: 8/10
Cast: Lubna Azabal, Melissa Desormeuax Poulin, Maxim Goudette
Director: Denis Villeneuve
It's rare for cinema to leave you speechless and a little numb by its power - Incendies is one of those films.
The Canadian French collaboration has a simple enough premise - when a pair of twins Jeanne and Simon attend the reading of their mother Nawal's will, they receive two envelopes - one for a father they never knew they had and another for a brother previously unheard of.
So Jeanne, being the more open of the two to the search into the past, heads to the Middle East to try and find out more of the family history and to try and trace the family tree which had become broken shattered. Eventually her twin brother Simon joins the search also.
However, what they find changes their lives forever.
Incendies is heart stopping cinema, and is quite frankly in places, not for the faint hearted.
An adaptation of a play by Wajdi Mouawad, it's a rich tapestry of shocks and twists - the final one of which is truly shocking by cinematic standards and really does render you stunned as the pieces of this intricate puzzle fit together.
It begins with a wailing Radiohead soundtrack as a young boy has his head shaved and stares right into the camera - it's a powerful opening which sets the pace for this tragic tale.
Both Poulin and Gaudette are mightily impressive Arab leads whose performances are so compelling throughout that you can't tear your eyes off the screen as it unfolds. Stares and silences along with lingering camera shots help build an atmosphere as their hunt unfolds.
Equally, the flashbacks into Nawal's life in an undefined Middle Eastern country are hypnotic and appalling too. Azabel gives great credence to Nawal's struggle and the horrors she faces as she's caught up in the maelstrom of a religious war.

One scene where a bus full of Muslims are held up by Christian soldiers is one of the most heart stopping scenes I've witnessed all year and the drama pulls you right in with sickening ramifications.

It's easy to see why Incendies was Oscar nominated (it lost to In A Better World) - thanks to a taut mystery and an intriguing premise, great performances and a foreboding moody story which appalls and grips in equal measures, it's one of the most impressive foreign films of the year which will haunt you from the moment you leave the cinema.