Unfinished Business: Film Review

Unfinished Business: Film Review

Cast: Vince Vaughn, Dave Franco, Tom Wilkinson, Sienna Miller, Nick Frost, James Marsden
Director: Ken Scott

Re-teaming director Ken Scott with his star of Delivery Man Vince Vaughn isn't quite the magic touch you'd perhaps be expecting in this latest.

Vaughn is a brow-beaten Dan Trunkman, a minerals salesman who decides the plans of his boss Chuck (Miller) to restructure is a bridge too far and walks out. The problem is Trunkman needs a job and spotting two fellow ex-employees in the car park (Tim and Mike aka Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco), the group forms their own splinter company.

A year later, and Trunkman is chasing a deal which could see them beat their final boss - if they can just get some face-time with a big boss in Europe...

So the trio sets off to secure the handshake - despite the G8, a gay fetish event, Oktoberfest, and a marathon taking place at the same time in Berlin where the boys need to go.

Unfinished Business is a film whose title says it all.

The scrappy non-comedy cum drama reeks of inconclusive writing, an inability to know what it wants to be (Is it comedy? No, as there's not enough funny in it. Is it sentimental drama? Nope, because that side is under-cooked too) and a central trio of leads who just really don't have what it takes.

If you've ever wanted to see a film where Dave Franco plays dumb and gets off on seeing naked breasts or a flick where Tom Wilkinson demands to see more "titty" from an overweight sex maid that he ordered, makes a filthy Iron Man pun and does ecstasy, then this is the film for you. Equally, if you've ever wanted to see Nick Frost in a leather clad outfit doing business from a toilet cubicle, then rush off because this film clearly floats your boat.

The problem is that Unfinished Business could have actually made something of itself if it had decided what it wanted to be - you soon get tired of Wilkinson's overtly sexual banter and Franco's innate stupidity (it's never quite explored why he's as dumb as he is and it's frankly, embarrassing) and the raunch that the poster would promise is never remotely delivered. It's the tamest, lamest EuroTrip ever.

So, what are you left with?

Bizarrely and perhaps to its credit, Vaughn plays it all straight, with an air of a man about to crack in a mid-life crisis with his James Corden lookalike son being bullied and his family struggling for cash.

If it were a drama, then there could have been something of the sincerity that the father / family scenes strive for (even if they are a little after school special) and occasionally achieve. If it had been a look at the desperations and struggles of a man teetering on the edge in a society and work-force that's savage, then it would have hit something.

Instead, Unfinished Business is a film that squanders everything; it's an excruciatingly unfunny journey that hits none of the highs on its route and manages to rankle from its Jerry Maguire-esque beginnings right to its very end.

Rating:

Ping Pong Summer: DVD Review

Ping Pong Summer: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Mixing The Way Way Back's nostalgic summer idea and some awkward moments, Ping Pong Summer is yet another coming of age tale

Marcello Conte stars as an awkward kid whose loves of hip hop and break dancing don't translate into street cred. When forced on a family holiday with his parents and sister finds love in the form of drop out Stacy Summers but conflict with the local bullies at the fun hub arcade.

It all culminates in a table tennis showdown to help zzz regain some cred and possibly win the girl...

Long held camera shots squeeze out the awkwardness and the whole of ping pong summer feels like a mickey taking homage rather than an ode to the 80s. But thanks to all the aesthetics and nuances of the period, ping pong summer emerges as somewhat of a goofy endearing treat - even if it does take a while to warm to the characters and story

Newstalk ZB Movie Review: Focus, Seventh Son and A Walk Among the Tombstones

Newstalk ZB Movie Review: Focus, Seventh Son and A Walk Among the Tombstones

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-mornings-with-jack-tame/audio/darren-bevan-focus-seventh-son-walk-among-the-tombstones/

If I Stay: Blu Ray Review

If I Stay: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by 20th Century Fox Home Ent

Based on the Young Adult novel by Gayle Forman of the same name, Kickass' Chloe Grace Moretz stars as Mia, a kid growing up in a musical family.

Her mum and dad (Enos and Leonard) used to be in a local rocker band, her younger brother's into Iggy Pop, but Mia's more classically inclined, with a penchant for the cello which is encouraged not indulged by those around her.

When a snow day is called, the family heads out together for a road trip, but a road accident changes Mia's life - and her family's - forever. Trapped in a coma, Mia must decide whether to return to life or move on.

There's a mix of the quaver of notes and the quiver of hearts (as you'd expect) in this young adult outing as it follows the usual path of first love, obstacles and naivetes.
With its bon mot of "Life is what happens when you're making plans", it plunges into the traditional tropes of the genre but without any real emotion (outside of Grace-Moretz's occasionally vulnerable performance as the prodigy) and with a dollop of cheesiness and stereotyped characters sprinkled liberally within (and plucked from a range of other stories).

Grace-Moretz brings a sensitivity and tangible sense of a life on a precipice during her hospital set scenes, but the flashbacks charting her life as she waits to see if she's got into a prestigious musical college, works through the good and bad of her first relationship with soft-rocker Adam (Blakely) and generally reflects on what's gone occasionally bring the movie into a lull. She manages to channel the uncertainty of diving into any world naturalistically, but the Lovely Bones style framing starts to drag things down into a predictably syrupy mire.

That said, Cutler does relatively good work with the subject matter (pseudo sick lit perhaps) and doesn't ever let the horror of what's going on swamp the movie. But perhaps, that's also some of the real problem here - a lack of real connection and a trite fashion of dealing with a wildly sanitised approach.

While the family flashbacks have a warmth and a corny sense of life (witness a group singalong of Smashing Pumpkins' Today around a campfire in a moment Mia describes as perfect), there's little heart as the rest plays out. The one stand-out moment comes when Stacy Keach's distraught Gramps sits by Mia's bed and pours out all the pent up emotions and repressed sadness that comes in such situations, with his heartbreaking final words mustering all the emotional tone that's needed for the rest of the film. (Though, admittedly, that could send it over the edge into overly mawkish)

Along with the usual cliched lines that are made to make teens swoon, and given the success of The Fault in Our Stars, If I Stay will benefit from having an already in-built audience determined to cry their way through the oh-so recognisable and relatable issues of life and love; as a story of a teen facing her own mortality, thanks to some unoriginal imagery (lights outside of the hospital, a white light in the corridors, music on speakers around the ward), it feels too formulaic - despite Grace-Moretz's charismatic performance, If I Stay is just another sanitised dollop of teen / young adult fare.


Rating:

Victorian London comes to Auckland for the Order 1886 launch

Victorian London comes to Auckland for the Order 1886 launch

The Order 1886 has now launched, and to celebrate, Auckland got a taste of the Victorian...

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy release date revealed

Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy release date revealed

NIS America is announcing that the dungeon crawler RPG, Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, is arriving exclusively for PlayStation®Vita with a new release date June 4, 2015 for Australia and New Zealand. The title will be available as both a physical and digital release. Fight through the Abyss and battle against the Variants—but only if you dare!

About the game:

From the studio that made Demon Gaze comes Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy, a sci-fi dungeon crawler RPG set in a near future Tokyo. With the city under the constant threat of Variants—genetically engineered monsters—and the emergence of portals leading to a mysterious dimension called the Abyss, the government has established the Code Physics Agency to investigate these mysterious phenomena. The Xth Squad—a unique group of teens modified by the CPA’s Code technology—must evade traps, face down powerful monsters, and investigate the mystery behind the Abyss.

Key Features:

Robust Customization System

Recruit and train a unique group of six Xth members to venture into the Abyss. Customize each member from one of ten distinct Blood Codes. Each Xth member's appearance, class, personality, morality, and stats may be molded to the player's preference.

An Accessible, Yet Deep Dungeon Crawler

The labyrinthine dungeons of New Tokyo offer 40+ hours of dungeon crawling action with traps, secret doors, challenging enemies, and gorgeous art throughout.

A Unique Sci-Fi Story

Dive into the unique dungeon crawler setting of Operation Abyss and lose yourself in the gorgeous world, featuring real-life locations rendered by Tetsu Kurosawa and Oxijiyen. A gripping story blends heavy sci-fi elements with a setting to give the game a unique feel.

First NZIFF Titles For 2015 Announced

First NZIFF Titles For 2015 Announced

First NZIFF Titles For 2015 Announced

Yay! The time has come to announce the first NZIFF screenings of the year. NZIFF Autumn Events gets our year underway with premiere screenings of two major big-screen documentaries in April and May. The Ground We Won is a funny, unsentimental and often astoundingly beautiful account of a season in the lives of a New Zealand provincial rugby-team. It’s the new film from Auckland husband-and-wife team Chris Pryor and Miriam Smith whose NZIFF 2012 hit How Far Is Heaven, saw them embedded with the Sisters of Compassion at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River. Confessed “rugby-outsiders”, they spent a year in Reporoa to capture a cliché-free and remarkably candid portrait of 21st-century rural Kiwi manhood. That Sugar Film, already creating headlines in its native Australia, follows the self-endangering model created by Morgan “Super Size Me” Spurlock to investigate the impact of sugar on our health. Actor/director Damon Gameau turned the camera on himself to explore the impact of a 40-teaspoon a day diet, which he racked up eating only food purveyed as healthy. We saw both of these films taking major spots at NZIFF this winter, but the filmmakers had compelling reasons to agitate for the earlier Autumn Events spots. Chris and Miriam are keen to have their film on screens as a prelude to Rugby World Cup fever. And, judging from the number of enquiries we’ve fielded, there’s an audience already chomping at the bit for their Sugar Film fix. We’re very happy to have the big screens at our disposal to give them the splendid premieres they deserve and we’re delighted that the filmmakers will be present at the Auckland and Wellington screenings to answer our questions and yours. NZIFF Autumn Events screen at The Civic in Auckland, Paramount and Embassy in Wellington, Regent, Dunedin and Hoyts Riccarton in Christchurch. Auckland screenings of both films are on sale now, as are Wellington screenings of That Sugar Film. Schedules and on-sale dates for the other sessions are to be announced. Stand by too for the long awaited revelation of spectacular 2015 NZIFF Autumn Event Classic titles next week.