The Gift: Blu Ray Review

The Gift: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

Bypassing cinema release here, this drama written and directed by Aussie Joel Edgerton is quite the surprise.

Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall star as Simon and Robyn a couple who are buying a new home in Simon's home town. When they get there, they re-encounter one of Simon's old high school friends Gordo (Edgerton) and find him imposing on their lives with gifts and unexpected visits. Shaken by the unwarranted attention, Robyn starts to dig around over why he's sniffing about....

The Gift does suspense well and aims to provoke with its unsettling nature; at its core, Edgerton works well behind the camera as he keeps you guessing and Bateman impresses with a more serious turn proving that he really does have the great dramatic chops when he needs to.

The darker seedier edge of an apparently perfect life may not exactly be a new idea, but the trio sell it with considerable aplomb and a twist of an icky ending gives more power to the Blumhouse productions desire to unsettle you.

While parts could have done with being a little tighter, and a slight trim would have lost some of the fat but none of the atmosphere, The Gift is well worth a watch - and a sign that Edgerton continues to rise and rightly so.

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials: DVD Review

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials: DVD Review

Whereas the first Maze Runner film served up a potent cocktail of intrigue, mystery, Lord of The Flies, Survivor and Ender's Game, the second,The Scorch Trials favours a rather more action-led thrill-ride in a post-apocalyptic dystopia.

Picking up from where The Maze Runner ended, the second YA outing concentrates purely onDylan O'Brien's Thomas and his ragtag group of survivors from the Glade. Whisked away to a compound at the end of the first film by a mysterious organisation known as WCKD, Thomas and his fellow Gladers find their mistrust of the bigwigs thrust squarely into focus when not everything appears to add up.

So, leading the charge, Thomas et al bust out of the WCKD complex and away from their shadowy leader Janson (a smarmy Gillen) to head to the Mountain Ranges of the devastated outside world aka the Scorch in the hope of getting some answers and surviving.

Whereas the first Maze Runner was all about the character and establishing the trust/  mistrust elements (specifically a youth mistrust of adult intentions), The Scorch Trials eschews all of that character element and explanation in favour of a series of reasonably taut and exciting action sequences that simply segue from moment to moment and are usually preceded by Thomas shouting variations of the word "Run!".

That's not to deny that large portions of said action sequences are anything but thrilling and it's great to see a YA finally revel in those trappings rather than simply wallow in yet more moping. But it comes in place of people forwarding the script, which is frustrating - particularly given the work done with some of the characters in the Glade, the majority of whom this time around are simply given piecemeal screen time.

By varying quite considerably from the book,The Scorch Trials is its own beast - even if it relies on some unevenly executed CGI style zombies to bring the menace and jump scares. But by opening up the world and introducing a raft of new characters, there are only a few newbies who stand the transition. If anything, this film is Dylan O'Brien's to shoulder and he doesn't quite have the charisma to fully pull it off this time around and Scodelario makes scant use of what time she has, even if her arc is sign-posted early on. It misses the character bonding and determined resolution of the group of the Glade that pulled us in and had us in these characters' corner as it all transpired.

Problems persist with parts of the internal logic, with WCKD chasing the group and then backing off without any reason, other than for it to serve the wider narrative. Thankfully, some of those concerns are waylaid by the majority of the action scenes, which are tautly executed and guarantee you in parts to be on the edge of your seat. Unlike the second part of the Divergent series, this is a film that ups the action ante, even if the explanations of what is going on are put on the back burner.

However, there are moments that feel misplaced and could have been jettisoned; in one sequence, both Thomas and an escapee end up at some kind of drunken Bacchanalian party - it's an odd excursion and one that really should have ended up on the cutting room floor (even if it serves up a great Alan Tudyk in guy-liner).

The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is not a bad second serving, but it doesn't exactly build on the work on the first in quite the rounded way that you'd perhaps expect it to. It certainly in parts feels like an extended tease,dangling answers near you and plucking them away just because it can.

A weaker cliffhanger also doesn't serve to build as much anticipation into a conclusion as you'd hope, but Wes Ball has certainly made the dystopian as destructive as possible with a packed film of action - even if you do feel at times like you're being distracted from an ultimate resolution.

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Mr Holmes: DVD Review

Mr Holmes: DVD Review 

As the argument rages over copyright infringement between the studios and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's estate, it's down to Sir Ian McKellen and a prosthetic nose to carry off this tale based on A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin.

Playing an aged and retired Holmes in 1947, the great detective is now living out his twilight years in a Sussex village, under the house leadership of Mrs Munro (Linney). Dividing his time between keeping bees and little else, Holmes finds his failing memory jolted by Munro's son, Roger to try and solve one last unsolved case that's haunted him for 50 years.

The case is that of a beautiful woman....and only fragments of it remain as Holmes juggles the memories of that, a trip abroad to secure a plant for his illness and the impending visit from the Grim Reaper.
A fascinating character study of a man so reliant on his wits and his powers (Holmes is urged several times to 'Do the thing' by one youngster where he demonstrates his powers of deduction) now facing ruin thanks to the ravages of time and the onset of dementia.

McKellen pulls off Holmes (and being in his 90s) with considerable aplomb, mixing humanity, frailty and frustration in equal measure; he's perfect as the aged great detective, playing it heartbreakingly as the end nears and slightly more agile in 2 flashbacks set after the marriage of Watson (who curiously only appears in blurred shadow and is frequently referred to as having heavily fictionalised Holmes' escapades).

But nipping back and forth in time is also the film's weaker point as it juggles three narratives, all feeling like they need fleshing out with some more dramatic worth as the tapestry is drawn. Though, it has to be argued, I would happily indulge myself in watching McKellen do a series of Holmes in his elder years.

Linney is underused as the housekeeper and there's a feeling she could have played more than a cuckold, as she faces the dilemma of what to do next. McKellen gels well with Parker, the youngster Roger who is in awe of Holmes and his reputation with a bond that feels natural and relateable, as well as serving the inquisitive assistant nobly. (Fans of Sherlock Holmes' various incarnations will be delighted to see the Young Sherlock putting an appearance in)

But it is without a doubt, McKellen's film and he delivers definitively on the mystery within a mystery premise that's been set up. Riffing on the legend of Holmes with deer stalkers and the dashing wit, Mr Holmes remains an enigmatic film, a vessel that feels like it's lacking in some parts - but thanks to the central performance, it presents a tantalising glimpse for a direction that the detective could go once everyone tires of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes.

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Turbo Kid: DVD Review

Turbo Kid: DVD Review

Set in a post-apocalyptic world of 1997, it's the story of the Kid (Munro Chambers in a sweetly powerful role), a vulnerable yet capable loner in the wastelands who spends his time reading the comic book Turbo Raider and looking for bits and bobs to trade to get by.

It's a world ruled by evil overlord Zeus (Michael Ironside, keeping it on the right side of malevolent and OTT), and one where water is scarce and a commodity worth dying for. When the Kid inadvertently finds Apple, a pink-haired, blue-eyed hyper annoying girl, she latches onto him and becomes his puppy-dog companion. A loner by nature, the Kid isn't best pleased by this, but takes her under his wing - a move that proves to be specially prescient given that BMX-mounted goons roam the wastelands - and soon the Kid and Apple are on a collision course with Zeus.

There's an endearing sweetness to Turbo Kid which is infectious.

Sure, it's got a fair amount of gore and splatter within, but beneath the blood, there's a huge beating heart and a tender love story bursting to get out.

It helps that the Kid is so eminently likeable, with a back-story that's admittedly predictable but the set-up of the film and the world around him is so accessible that this retro-thrill's innocence can't fail to win you over.

The design makes the most of the settings and the synth-heavy OST by Le Mathos is a real stand-out, perfectly encapsulating the kids action adventure series of Saturday mornings of yore. There are a few crowd-pleasing moments of retribution doled out to the bad guys and some inventively silly takes on the slice/dice mentality gel well and get the requisite laughs.

But it's the characters which make Turbo Kid work and elevate it through the tender pastiche of cheesiness and fun that surrounds it. Chambers works well as the Kid, bringing a new take on a guy in a red suit saving the world, Laurence Leboeuf's Apple is enthusiastic, yet never annoying, a smart savvy take on the buddy of the piece and Ironside brings the required menace as the bad guy, Zeus, but never overplays his hand, snarling when he needs to do and delivering his lines with bloody relish; but the real hero of the piece is a mute baddie and Zeus' sidekick, Skeletron.

Under just a metal mask, with a shock of hair and a buzzsaw weapon attachment, Edwin Wright's nervy and spiky energetic baddie is a cult icon in waiting, delivering the kills from the crossbars of the bike and giving the audience a villain to boo at but also to love. Underneath TURBO KID's splatter and gore lies a big beating heart that commands your genre love

Ultimately Turbo Kid is a retro-infused blast of nostalgia-tinged cinema; a good time box office piece, with a conclusion that hints at more options to explore this Mad Max with BMX bikes world - and thanks to its warmth and earnest heart, I'd be happy to visit again.

Trainwreck: DVD Review

Trainwreck: DVD Review

Rating: M

Current It comedian Amy Schumer makes the leap to the big screen in Trainwreck, the latest dramedy to get the treatment from Judd Apatow, which began with 2009's Funny People and continued with This Is 40.

In this fairly autobiographical piece, Schumer plays Amy, a commitment-phobe serial one-night-stander and magazine contributor whose life's been shaped by her father's insistence that monogamy is not normal. When she ends up putting him in a home because his MS has got too bad, she finds her life upended - partially due to that and also due to the fact she meets sports Dr Aaron Conners (Bill Hader) who she ends up having feelings for.

In many ways, Trainwreck is a traditional rom-com that's bathed in an acerbic light thanks to the current pop culture icon that is Amy Schumer.

Complete with a lot of female identifiable comedy and a spunk that's all-encompassing, Schumer makes a relatively good fist of this - both as a writer and as an actor.

The eulogy she delivers for her father is both powerful and painfully truthful, a fact that Schumer's brand of occasionally foul-mouthed comedy is particularly fond of embracing. But there's also a good deal of honesty and heart in the story too; the bond between her and the relatively straight Hader feels realistic, as does the relationship with her sister (played by Short Term 12's Brie Larson) and the one with her father.

And the broad brush strokes of reality (albeit exaggerated at times) and self-effacing touches that she covers herself in means that a large chunk of the female audience will identify with this depiction of a woman on Hollywood's canvas - there's a confidence to Schumer that's infectious and that's laugh-out-loud contagious, despite the occasional depths of vulgarity that she mines.

While the plethora of sports faces will mean that this resonates more with US audiences, there's a vicarious thrill to seeing LeBron James doing the conventionally / unconventional as a version of himself who loves Downton Abbey and delivering some deadpan lines; equally a barely recognisable Tilda Swinton as a Catherine Tate version of a magazine editor has a blast - and John Cena, Marisa Tomei, Matthew Broderick and Daniel Radcliffe all prove game too.

It's fair to say that the usual Apatow formula in these films is strictly adhered to and means there are a lot of scenes where there's close to free-form babbling and ad-libbing that occasionally misses the point and there's certainly a feeling that an expeditious edit could have trimmed some of the bloat from the ragged edges of Trainwreck.

However, there's no denying that Trainwreck is squarely Amy Schumer's vehicle (certainly the closing sequence makes the price of admission worth it alone), a take on an old-fashioned film that may surprise and occasionally apall some in equal measure.

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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.

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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.

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