Aloha: DVD Review

Aloha: DVD Review

Rating: PG
Released by 20th Century Fox Home Ent

Hawai'i is a place for dreamers, so perhaps it's pertinent that Almost Famous director Cameron Crowe dreamed up this latest redemption flick and set it in the islands.

Assembling a multi-talented cast as well would appear to be the icing on the cake in this flick, which centres around Bradley Cooper's blue-eyed, lost at sea morally, defence contractor, Brian Gilcrest, who's brought to the islands to oversee negotiations of the blessing of a gateway for a new airfield.

However, when Brian heads back, he finds himself surrounded by his ex, Tracy (a woefully under-used and under-written McAdams) and under the charge of hotshot, star-in-ascendant Air Force pilot Alison Ng (a perky Emma Stone).Thrown into that mix is billionaire private sector contractor Carson Welch (Bill Murray) whom Brian is now working for and who may have slightly-less-than-altruistic reasons for being on the island - will Brian find the redemption he needs?

With dialogue that seems like it's written more for the page than to be spoken, Cameron Crowe's latest is somewhat of a muddle. Mixing Hawai'ian mysticism in as Gilcrest negotiates with the islanders (a series of scenes which seem to be ripped from a tourism video in an attempt for Crowe to Show me the mana rather than fully develop them) and domestic twaddle, Crowe's badly misfired with the heart and soul of this piece.

The problem is that the characters almost feel like caricatures for the most part, espousing dialogue that feels unnatural and is a perception of how relationships should be - particularly for Ng and Gilcrest whose future is never anything but assured.

Equally, McBride's character, Fingers, is so called because he twitches his fingers repeatedly, a bolted on quirk to little else; Baldwin's General is essentially a frustrated drill-sergeant; Murray is a weird presence lurking on the sidelines, Krasinski is near-silent (something that works to the story's advantage it has to be admitted) and McAdams is merely a plot device to enable Cooper's Gilcrest to his final moment of clarity.

An ongoing "is he the father" story element is fudged, glossed over and resolution shoe-horned in so much that it has re-write and re-shoot written all over it; just one of the scripted moments that should have emotion in but don't manage to do so.

In amongst the spiritual leanings of Aloha and the great soundtrack, there's nothing iconic or long-lasting in Crowe's story, the likes of which he has penned before; it's meandering fluff of the highest order that has glaring tonal lurches and "do the right thing" written all over it but it never feels like a journey, merely a formulaic path to a screen-writer's perception of an emotional arc.

No Aloha indeed.

Rating:

Vacation: DVD Review

Vacation: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

There's a moment in Vacation where the holidaying Griswold family, led by the put-upon dad of the group Rusty (Ed Helms) inadvertently bathe in raw sewage, mistaking the pools for a secret getaway.

It's something akin to how I felt at moments during the extremely patchy retake of the original Vacation film from the National Lampoon series.

The aforementioned Rusty is a pilot for low-rent air operator EconoAir - determined to shake his vacation time up after hearing his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) dismiss their continual trips to their holiday cabin, he rounds up his wife and two sons and bundles them in a car for a 2500 mile road trip to Walley World.

But, everything that can go wrong for Rusty and his clan does on the cross-country journey.

Vacation has its moments.

It's just that they are too few and far in between - and unfortunately, even though this has some nods to the original film, it's just not enough to carry them through and the punchlines are more often than not a weak denouement to the set up.

Both Helms and Applegate bring their all to the physical comedy elements of the script. Applegate herself excels at a scene at her former sorority where she's required to down a pitcher of beer and take on a Wipeout style course, and I won't deny there are laughs within, but the conclusion is similar to the air being let out of a balloon.

The dynamic between the bickering sons is nicely twisted, with the younger being more of a bully to the older bringing some meaner and welcome edges to the uneven script. But those in charge just don't seem to know what they want for the film and there's definitely a feeling that some of this potentially looked better on paper than in execution.

Certainly, Hemsworth's Southern drawl and six pack with prosthesis shows he's game as Rusty's brother in law, but the over-playing of that sequence suggests the kind of moment that's funny once, got a laugh and the directors decided to repeat the gag ad nauseum for no comic relief. More successful is Charlie Day's appearance as a white-water rafting guide, a sequence whose comic brevity speaks volumes to the ethos that punchy rather than paunchy comedy would have been the way to go.

And most embarrassingly, Chevy Chase's appearance at the end as the dad is nothing short of excruciatingly unfunny - it's painful to watch the comedy legend floundering around working a script that doesn't serve him well.

All in all, there just aren't enough laughs in Vacation, despite Helms' everyman touches and Applegate's willingness to humiliate herself, this is one cinematic holiday and road trip you should dread being dragged along on.

Rating:

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation: DVD Review

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Ent

Your mission - should you choose to accept it - is to allow a fifth film in the nearly 20 year old franchise starring Tom Cruise to force you to part with your hard-earned money.

This time around, with the IMF disavowed and disbanded thanks to Alec Baldwin's puffed up CIA boss getting his way, Ethan Hunt is a man on the run, believing a shadowy group known as The Syndicate is behind their demise.

Teaming up with Simon Pegg's comic relief Benji and trying to work out exactly who femme fatale Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) is working for, Ethan's got his work cut out.

Despite opening with the much-publicised stunt sequence that sees Cruise strapped to the outside of a plane, this latest Mission Impossible is surprisingly muted, preferring to concentrate on old school thrills (a line that was drawn in the sand in 2011's Ghost Protocol) and global set pieces rather than a coherently and fluidly running narrative.

It doesn't help that the head of the Syndicate Solomon Lane, played by Prometheus and 71 star Sean Harris, is a bit of a wet fish with hardly a jot of the menace needed for someone so detrimental to the IMF. Equally Baldwin's character goes too far the other way, decrying at one point that "Ethan Hunt is the manifestation of destiny", a line guaranteed to bring the guffaws and infamy in equal measure.

But when Reacher director McQuarrie concentrates on the group dynamic, it works reasonably well - and the mystery around Ilsa's character sustains a large part of the film, giving us a female lead that's as much about brains as it is beauty. By substantially beefing up Simon Pegg's tech wizz Benji to great dramatic effect, Cruise's Hunt has more of a partner than before. It's a shame to see that the latter part of the film lazily falls back on the comic relief role previously assigned to Pegg, derailing some of the dramatic work done and contributing to the tonal mis-match on display.

However, McQuarrie knows the old school reason for the Mission: Impossible films is in the gadgets and the stunts, and Rogue Nation is impressively mired in the retro touches and real world for its action sequences. From speeding around the streets of Casablanca, a fight at the Vienna Opera to a tense underwater sequence, this is not a film that relies on CGI thrills to pad the way and showcase its stars - if anything, Cruise's relatively sombre take on Hunt this time around is a sign that things are slightly more impossible than perhaps you would normally believe.

Which is why it's a shame that the story doesn't prop up the action perhaps in the way that you'd hope - it's there simply to help us globe trot from one sequence to the next and tonally, the film flips between action, overt comedy and covert caper with terrifying unease.

As a result, the tension in the central mystery just falls over and what emerges in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a solid entry into the series, but one that never fully thrills as much as it could.

Rating:

Southpaw: Blu Ray Review

Southpaw: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

A new contender squares up to the pantheon of pugilism in the form of Training Day director Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw.

But the problem with Southpaw is that it ends up being a coulda-been as it trips through the cliches of the genre and seems to be more concerned with ticking off the tropes rather than injecting something fresh into the blood, sweat and tears redemption story that most sports films fall prey to.

A buffed up and physically transformed Gyllenhaal plays bad-kid-done-good Billy Hope, a 43-0 volatile fighter whose calming heart and soul is his wife Maureen (a brief bright spot from a luminous Rachel McAdams) and daughter Leila (Lawrence).

But when Hope loses his wife in a charity scuffle that turns nasty, he finds himself on the way down. Stripped of his assets and thanks to the self-destructive grief of his daughter, Hope (get the subtle sledgehammering of his name?) finds himself facing either oblivion or a long road to redemption.

Falling in to a street gym run by former trainer Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker, in subdued mode but in full on Karate Kid Mr Miyagi mode), Hope begins his journey back to himself.

From the writer of the Sons of Anarchy series, Kurt Sutter, and originally slated for Eminem as a lead, Southpaw would appear to have the street-smarts and edge that it needs.

But what emerges is an overwrought, cliched hollow movie that's more interested in going through the motions rather than delivering a killer knock-out punch. Especially when you look at the emotive likes of Rocky and Raging Bull, both of which pack a presence years after they first appeared.

Fuqua's melodramatic film is functional at best, and soul-numbing at worst.

He appears to have little consideration toward developing the characters outside of Hope's immediate circle. Even a street kid called Hoppy that Hope forms a fledging friendship with at the gym is tossed casually aside like an unwanted rag-doll, denying what could have been a powerfully insightful side-story the emotional uppercut it needed.

Equally, broad brush story-telling strokes are thrown onto the ropes, dismissed as surplus to requirements.

Against the backdrop of the slow-mo boxing ring shots and obligatory training montages is an at times fiery Gyllenhaal but it appears his director's denied him the splashes of charisma needed to back this underdog. Outside of the ring, he's dour and downbeat, finding only his sizzle and energy in a few fight sequences (and only occasionally when Fuqua smartly get POV with his boxers) as if to signify this is where the simmering rage boils over and is the outlet to express it.

Mawkish, formulaic and riddled with all the boxing / underdog cliches you could imagine,Southpaw delivers more of an uppercut to itself than to the audience - it lacks heart and the story's denied the majesty it needed to transcend its been-there-seen-it-all-before ethos and it flails rather than punches above its weight.

It's an unsubtle sledgehammer in and out of the ring unfortunately, and despite Gyllenhaal's efforts, Southpaw remains firmly a contender rather than a knock out.

Rating:

Pan: Blu Ray Review

Pan: Blu Ray Review

Rating:

Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Joe "Atonement / Anna Karenina" Wright's Pan is rarely as good as its opening sequence.

It's one which puts the stuff of childhood playtimes and active little boys' imaginations into the world of reality / fantasy with pirate ships soaring through the skies as they are attacked by British planes in a bizarre dogfight.

But once the film heads to Neverland, it's almost as if some of the vivid imagination is ironically lost, even if the visual flair isn't.

The film's a prequel and as such deals with the abandonment of Peter (Levi Miller, all cockney kid fresh out of Mary Poppins school of character writing) and his dream of escaping the orphanage run with grisly gusto by Kathy Burke's evil nun. Convinced the boys are being taken in the night, Peter waits up one evening only to find his suspicions given form. Swept up in the theft and onto Blackbeard's pirate ships, Peter finds himself in a new world and facing ever more peril.

Mainly in the shape of a prophecy and a pirate Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman in pantomimey form) who believes that Peter will try to overthrow him...However, with the native princess Tigerlily (Mara) and
the rogueish Hook (Hedlund), Peter finds he has friends that he never expected in this battle.


Pan is a mix of so many other influences of film that it occasionally struggles to garner an identity of its own.

Hedlund's Hook is a melange of characters and by definition, not one of his own. Even though you know ultimately how it will turn out for him. By turns Indiana Jones style explorer / 30s B-movie pastiche and Han Solo / Leia romantic interaction with Mara's doe-eyed Tigerlily, Hedlund overplays his part and ends up being one of the memorable people in the cast for all the wrong reasons.

Likewise, Miller's plucky luv-a-duck youngster grates, giving this Pan the type of character you want to slap as much as you grimace when he comes out with lines like "Holy pudding!", as if lifted from the Dick van Dyke school of writing.

There's some depth to Jackman's Blackbeard and his first appearance with all the lost boys singing Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit adding to the oddness on show. But parts of his character are left without answer either, with one shot introducing a rejuvenator to keep him young and then ditching it with no explanation in favour of his Nazi-esque determination to wipe out the pixie race.

If anything, Wright's prequel will be justly remembered for its Irwin Allen-esque visuals as it creates the tribal territories land, filling them with the kind of wonder of a Sunday afternoon TV jaunt that fired the imagination.  In fact, it's the FX which help this film soar in the minds of kids, and the 3D brings much depth, as well as the obligatory duck from cannon-balls being fired toward you.

Mixing in Star Wars, Superman-esque flying in a fairy covered fortress of solitude, and some utterly bonkers ideas, this prequel will more likely fire with the kids than the adults. It becomes a sensory and silly overload that will keep many of them enthralled and will see them leaving with the biggest cinematic sugary hit ever. A little more work on the characters and this Pan prequel really could have flown as high as Peter believes he could.

Rating:

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 2: Blu Ray Review

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 2: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Sony Home Ent

Phil Coulson and the gang return for another run of the show that wobbled at the start of its first series before ultimately finding its feet and soaring.

Following the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D, Coulson and his group look to regain some trust and work with the reality of what's known as the Inhumans in the world. But assembling a smaller team, Coulson finds his job not as easy as he'd expect.

Mixing together the action you've come to find from the Marvel series in general, Season 2 ups the ante for action and also deepens the mythology while keeping the Marvel DNA intact.

Adding the bad guys in the shape of HYDRA also helps, but the series this time around feels a lot stronger and more confident.

Essential for anyone invested in the Marvel Universe and thrilling for others, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 2 represents a significant step up for the series - and an exciting jumping off point for the future.

Fat Princess Adventures: PS4 Review

Fat Princess Adventures: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Sony

Let them all eat cake takes a new dimension in the Fat Princess Adventures.

Blending humour and a degree of side-scrolling, the Fat Princess Adventures game is all about humour and killing - even if it is wrapped up in a degree of cute.

Focussing more on the action RPG elements of a game, it's all about the smash and grab and the fun with friends as the story goes on. But it all starts with its tongue firmly in its cheek and bothers not a jot with story.

Beginning with the customise menu, where you get to make yourself fabulous. From hair to eyes, it's all here for the pickings and all aimed at getting you into the fun and games of it all. Once you start, it's all about the hack and slash as you progress through levels and swathes of baddies using your weapon to bash into them and to kill them off.

Each fallen baddie usually ends up giving you some cake to replenish your health and to fire up your awesome sauce meter. And some provide things for you to throw at others, so there's certainly enough around to keep you from dying off too soon.

Mainly though, despite the cartoony graphics and cutesy feel (mixed in with the hack and slash gore), Fat Princess Adventures is at heart, nothing more than a pastiche of the Gauntlet game that swallowed so much of my youth.

In its co-op mode, it's primarily about working with friends to take on the hordes of bad guys and get through the levels while looking for replenishment (just like Gauntlet). Online or with friends, the co-op is where the game comes to life and where the fun is in this game which is slightly repetitive and not entirely challenging.

All in all, Fat Princess Adventures is much like a piece of cake.

It's good to look at, seems cute, fun and fluffy enough, but once you've scoffed it all, you want something a little more nutritious to satiate your gaming appetite.