Magic in the Moonlight: Blu Ray Review

Magic in the Moonlight: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Director Woody Allen stays in Europe for his latest outing.

This time it's 1920s France, where famous illusionist (and monstrous man) Wei Ling Soo aka Stanley (an unlikeable Colin Firth) has been called in by his friend Howard (Rev star Simon McBurney) to debunk a clairvoyant Sophie (Emma Stone), who could be part of a scam.

Famously outspoken against clairvoyants, Stanley's determined to remove Sophie from the scene but his plans are derailed when she stuns him with the depth of her knowledge and apparent insight into the spirit world.

And his world view is thrown further into disarray when he starts to spend more time with Sophie.

Magic In the Moonlight follows a typical formula of a man being set up for a fall; with bluster and strong self belief, the skeptic Stanley goes through the motions of vehemently not believing, suddenly believing and then ultimately not believing again as he tries to negotiate his own questions of life beyond the pale.

Brash, abrasive, and generally grumpy, Firth's Stanley is a difficult man to get behind in this piece from Allen, that's about as light and unchallenging as anything he's recently put out. Add to that though, the fact that this Allen flick is as lifeless as one of the spirits Sophie's trying to channel throughout and Magic In the Moonlight starts to lose some of its real shine.

Allen's trademark talkiness is still in play, but the dialogue doesn't sparkle at all; none of the repartie or banter has any hidden levels or revelling in any kind of joy; most of Firth's renunciations and retorts are laced with a cruelty and harshness that means you fail to generate any empathy for what's transpiring. And over time, while the continual digs provide a scoffing from the audience, the overall effect is one of tedium, not medium. Even Stone feels downplayed a little as the waif-like Sophie, the psychic unable to really channel anything other than unfortunately feeling slightly miscast and out of place.

Allen uses the gorgeous setting of southern France to maximum effect but he demonstrates an over-reliance on jazz tunes to segue each scene; it's not enough to lift Magic In the Moonlight in ways you'd be hoping for; a final sequence adds in a clever use of a motif demonstrated early on and offers one delight, but an abrupt ending is shorn of any emotion or pull, with Allen leaving you with the feeling of a rushed screenplay and resolution.

Questions and ruminations on a life after may have been the thrust for this, with even potential discussions and viewpoints of cynicism and vehement denial forming more of a drive for any verbal jousting between Stanley, Sophie and even Howard, but Allen eschews all of that in favour of plenty of scenes of Stanley merely musing out loud.

All in all, Magic In the Moonlight is a film that has no real lasting magic once the lights have gone up even if it is pleasant enough - albeit frustrating - to watch transpire in parts.
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Still Alice: Film Review

Still Alice: Film Review

Cast: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth
Director: Richard Glatzer

With Golden Globe success for Julianne Moore and a warning that Still Alice was likely to crumble even the hardest of facades, the adaptation of Lisa Genova's book had a lot to live upto.

Sadly, it plays out like a TV Movie of the week with every emotional mawkish moment milked for effect.

Moore plays Alice Howland, a renowned linguistics professor who finds she's forgetting words during a presentation and teaching. Perturbed by this turn of events, Alice visits a neurologist who surmises that she has early onset Alzheimers and in a tragic turn of events, this disease is a rare familial strain that can be passed on.

As Alice struggles to deal with this and the implications, her family try to come to terms with what's playing out before them - and the inevitability of what lies ahead.

Still Alice has an impressive performance from Moore, whose Alice is really a study in understatement and whose fight is subtly and effectively brought to light and life by the simplest of deliveries.

But the problem is that Still Alice isn't content with letting the true tragedy of what's ahead shape the outcome; it needs to push, prod and provoke through an overly bombastic piano soundtrack that feels formulaic, as well as guilty of pulling on your heart strings.

In Moore's finest moment, the actress is supposed to be extolling the virtues of living with a debilitating disease but the tide of emotion which is intended to sweep you off your feet is derailed by a torrent of piano music twinkling and swelling underneath, leaving you feeling manipulated and hollow.

Equally, some of the more fascinating elements of the film are underdeveloped; potential tension with her husband (solidly played by Baldwin) becomes easily melodramatic - and the fact one daughter chooses to go ahead with a birth despite there being a high chance the disease could be passed on is swept under the carpet, a dramatic morsel left to wither and die by the wayside.

While Still Alice brings out the best in Moore and gives her predicament a relatability that's dire and devastating, the formulaic beats and predictable patter of the movie leaves you feeling very little (regardless of how cynical you may be), derails Moore's work by grounding it in the overtly simplistic and sentimental and that you've simply seen a TV movie up on the big screen.

Rating:


 

The Maze Runner: Blu Ray Review

The Maze Runner: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by 20th Century Fox Home Ent

Mixing up Ender's Game, Survivor, The Village and hints of Lord of The Flies, The Maze Runner is the latest Young Adult slice of entertainment to be served up at the cinema - and it's overall a rather superlative one.

Dylan O'Brien is Thomas, who finds himself deposited into The Glade, an enclosure of a community of boys trapped within a maze. With no memory of who he is, why he's there or how to escape, Thomas tries to fit in with the "Gladers" as they're known - but before long, he's desperate to escape the mysteries of the Maze and get out.

However, Thomas' arrival into this post-apocalyptic world stirs up more than just a few disgruntled issues and rivalries within this utopian dystopia. And that's not the only problem he faces - outside of the walls, the Maze is patrolled by mysterious creatures called Grievers which will kill them if they try to escape.

Things get even more complicated when a girl called Teresa (Kaya Scodelerio) arrives and Thomas begins to get flashes of memory of a life before the Glade...

The Maze Runner is a largely effective thriller that serves up suspense, tension and thrills as director Ball etches out the novel's mysteries with a dollop of portentous talk and ever-lurking danger.

The boys group and their dynamic works exceptionally well and the set up of the world within the Glade is brilliantly and concisely espoused so that it all feels so natural. Likewise, O'Brien's bond with the rest of the group - including the friction with Poulter's edgy Gally, who's fearful of the world that Thomas has brought with him.

It leads to some tense situations, including a thrilling Maze showdown with a nightmarish Griever (a mechanically mounted spider bug like creature) that crackles with edge of your seat nerves. Plus, the divide and rift that opens up with Teresa's arrival is nicely handled.

But, by dragging out the mysteries for the majority of the run time in the first of this trilogy, there's an inevitable price to be paid - and that comes in the final 15 minutes of the movie as a mass of garbled exposition is spouted and not all answers are revealed. It requires a few leaps of faith and some logic holes to be traversed as the story plays out. And a bond with one of the others in the group is a predictable trip to disaster, that lacks originality.

Equally, some of the fight sequences are choreographed too confusingly and shot too darkly leading to a sense of bewilderment and potentially emotionally charged moments to be dramatically squandered.

But all in all, The Maze Runner is a thrilling start to the series - it's worth getting lost in this maze, because from what transpires in the first segment, the journey's likely to be an interestingly intriguing one.
Rating:

Newstalk ZB Review - Wild and Foxcatcher

Newstalk ZB Review - Wild and Foxcatcher

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-wild-and-foxcatcher/

The Boxtrolls: Blu Ray Review

The Boxtrolls: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG
Released by Universal Home Ent

Laika has already produced two fine pieces of stop-motion animation; the wondrous Coraline and the spooky Paranorman. Now they can add the equally impressive The Boxtrolls to their list.

Based on the book "Here Be Monsters" by Alan Snow, this Dickensian tale of social standing and lost children is parts Jeunet and Caro (even down to the Delicatessen like playing of the saw) and parts nightmarish fable, all whirled up with a hint of whimsical silliness and warmth of heart.

Newcomer Isaac Hempstead-Wright plays an orphan Eggs, raised underground by the Boxtrolls, who are seen by those above as trash-collecting thieves and subsequently hunted for it. The Pied-Piper like Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley in a vocal revelation of a role)has promised to rid the town of the vermin in exchange for a white hat (a sign of social standing) and entry to the cheese tasting halls (despite major allergies to the dairy product). When the Boxtrolls are facing extinction, Eggs suddenly has to make a choice and wander into a world he's previously avoided.

The Boxtrolls is an utter delight, a mix of both childish wonder and dark nightmarish moments which tap into childish fears of what lies below. Underneath the gorgeous and painstaking stop-motion animation of these Gollum-gibberish spouting Gremlins, there's also a melancholy tale seeded throughout - social standing, abandonment and rich questions over morality are thrown in for the adults but never at the expense of the children who are along for the ride.

While the world-class animation impresses, the vocal cast soars; from Ben Kingsley's almost Child-Catcher like cruelty as the monstrous Snatcher (who's haunted by a twisted desire to be accepted into this cheese-obsessed society) to Hempstead-Wright's subtle turn as the boy who has to face his fears, there's plenty of rich resonance on show here.

Laika never loses track of the gags though - from a Mr Creosote inspired moment to some truly cheesy puns and outright slapstick, there are laughs for all ages. Visually resplendent and a fable for all ages, there's no denying The Boxtrolls is a school holiday treat.

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Mortdecai: Film Review

Mortdecai: Film Review

Cast: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Olivia Munn
Director: David Koepp

Already rated as one of the worst films of 2015 and a low note on Johnny Depp's CV, Mortdecai arrives with hardly much expectation hanging on its shoulders.

Depp is Charlie Mortdecai, a moustachioed eccentric, art dealer and rogueish cad who, along with his manservant Jock (played with bit-of-rough charm by Paul Bettany) is forced to investigate the theft of a painting by the police. With no choice but to investigate thanks to an 8 million pound debt to Queen and country, Mortdecai is sent on a global chase to find the painting before time runs out and it falls into the wrong hands.

Mixing heist caper, Terry Thomas style speech and Rowley Birkin QC gibberish, Depp's OTT performance stands at odds with everyone else around him as he preens and pirhouettes his way through the story which has elements of Gambit within. The problem is while his manchild antics are the central turn with stupidity being more his MO, everyone else around him is taking it terribly seriously with their best plummy British accents on show for all to see.

Bettany fares well as a put upon man servant in the vein of Kato amidst Mortdecai's bumbling and to be frank, the whole affair zips along with a pace that belies its weak script and hammy lead performance.

Depp's character spends a lot of the film asking if it "will be all right in the end"; and you can't help but wonder if that's a meta touch and comment on his own career which seems to be spindling and circling the plug hole after a row of bombs belying some of the great work he did early on. You can see why he was attracted to the bounder role; a chance to riff on the English aristocracy and the art world, but the end result is such a mess that the ongoing joke about a gag reflex every time his wife kisses him soon becomes an involuntary audience reaction to large parts of what transpires on screen.

Rating:

New Terminator: Genisys trailer drops

New Terminator: Genisys trailer drops

The first new Terminator: Genisys trailer has dropped ahead of the Superbowl.