The Big Short: Film Review

The Big Short: Film Review

Cast: Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell
Director: Adam McKay

It seems like the housing crisis and crash is Hollywood's topic du jour.

With the searing 99 Homes not far behind in the cinematic window, the director of Anchorman brings us the true story of what happened when four outsiders predicted the housing bubble bursting in the mid-2000s and used it to their advantage and to expose the banks' stupidity.

The first to see the flaw is Dr Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a Mastodon loving, bare-footed analyst who works for Scion Capital; but his plan to bet against the banks provides a few ripples thanks to a wrong number call to Steve Carell's Mark Baum. His group begin to make some enquiries and start to see Burry's idea has some legs and decide to buy in as well.

Based on The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, Adam McKay's film isn't afraid to engross you in the technical babble and the small print of the credit default swaps that precipitated the downfall.

It's also not afraid to realise that it's quite a dry and serious subject and so has its director use various conventions to shatter through the tedium. Chief among these is Ryan Gosling's character Jared Vennett whose breaking of the fourth wall invites an audience in and plays to the film's cocking a snook MO at the stuffiness of its material. Equally, when the story's about to get to some crucially excruciating techno-babble, McKay isn't afraid to cut away to the likes of Selena Gomez and Margot Robbie in a bubble-bath to provide the necessary explanations. It's a clever narrative touch that veers on being a little too smart early on and borders on treating its subject with irreverence, but McKay is fully aware that these moves ensure an audience pays attention to an ongoing issue that's still a problem.

Of the main cast, it's really only Carell as Mark Baum (who's based on Steve Eisman) who feels like they have an emotional connection for you to latch on to. Troubled by the suicide of his brother, and wrapped tighter than a coil in his anger and arrogance, Baum is the only one who feels like a real character and the only one to express an unease at the implications of their benefiting from the banks.

It's a fascinating edge that could have done with a little more exploration, given that the others are essentially anti-heroes who are truly more one dimensional cut-outs populating the picture.

There's an irony in the ever-so-slightly-overlong The Big Short over the way these guys rorted the system that was up for exposure and there are lessons to be learned, but perhaps the biggest message from this almost flashy stylish docu-drama is how much Adam McKay's underplayed his directorial hand. His execution of this film and its ensemble cast will ensure the message of concern over the banks and the housing bubble will get through to the masses - even if it occasionally teeters into didactic but well-needed territory.

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Quentin Tarantino to get Hateful in NZ

Quentin Tarantino to get Hateful in NZ

The director of The Hateful Eight is to hit New Zealand in 12 days time.

It's been announced this morning that Quentin Tarantino will attend the premiere of The Hateful Eight in Auckland on January 20th at Event Cinemas Newmarket.

Here's the full release:

Roadshow Films is pleased to announce that Academy Award® winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino will be taking flight to Auckland to attend the New Zealand premiere of his upcoming feature film THE
HATEFUL EIGHT.

Tarantino will walk the red carpet in Auckland on Wednesday, January 20 at Event Cinemas Broadway,Newmarket for the New Zealand premiere of the film.
He will be accompanied by Waiheke Island-raised stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell who stars in THE HATEFUL EIGHT and has featured in Tarantino’s past films including Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Death Proof and Inglorious Basterds. The cinematic legend will also conduct a press junket on Thursday, January 21.

In THE HATEFUL EIGHT, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his
fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice.

Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Demian Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…

THE HATEFUL EIGHT will release in New Zealand on January 21, 2016 in a wide digital release format.

We Are Your Friends: Blu Ray Review

We Are Your Friends: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M

Released by Sony Home Ent

"Sounds have soul"

Sadly, despite being uttered in the film, the same cannot be said for We Are Your Friends, a  movie that looks at one DJ wanting to break into the world of EDM and appears to have been written by committee.

Pretty boy Zac Efron plays Cole Carter, a Valley boy who didn't go to college, who's stuck with dead-end prospects and who spends his nights playing a club as and when he can while his friends promote the place.

By a very Hollywood style coincidence, he ends up under the wing of superstar DJ James Reese (Wes Bentley who enjoys his turn as the about-to-be-washed-up svengali) who tries to help him discover his music style - but Cole's equally as interested in James' PA / girlfriend Sophie (model Emily Ratjakowski)....

For a film that's all about music that sets the heart racing, We Are Your Friends lacks the euphoria of the club scene - despite a pumping EDM soundtrack guaranteed to occasionally have your toes tapping in the aisle.

The problem is that the whole film is soulless, a rote kind of film that harnesses all the beats of a good dance film but has trouble assembling them into some kind of coherence. And while Efron makes good on the vacuous vessel that is Cole, the writers do little to serve his character with anything other than cliche. Plus, it's hard to emote when you're sat in front of a computer trying to put together a killer track (something the film tries to show that the best music comes from the feelings within)

Equally, Cole's mates who really should be the emotional centre of the film and have provided more conflict for the character when he falls in with the DJ set are so poorly served that when stuff goes down for them, it feels so piecemeal and formulaic that it has no punch whatsoever.

Granted, the easy on the eye Ratjakowksi and charming Efron make a pretty couple, but the shallow feel of the film, coupled with Cole's continually earnest voiceover that all it takes is one track to break through, cripples the flick and denies it any of the credibility this underdog story is so clearly striving for.

While the dance music is pretty pumping and there's a nice sequence with Cole on drugs (albeit bizarrely, PCP) that sees paintings bleeding into the floor and overtaking him,  the overly earnestWe Are Your Friends feels so formulaic and lacking in heart that there's no cathartic moments to behold, and for a film that should be about living it up while you're young, that's nothing short of criminal.

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Spooks: The Greater Good: DVD Review

Spooks: The Greater Good: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

Spooks was a fantastic series.

A great mix of cold war thriller and ongoing espionage as well as some good strongly written characters it was a solidly reliable piece of TV that delivered week on week. In a weird way, the film is much the same, though is more suited to a TV audience than that of a big screen (possibly why it's had a straight to DVD release over here).

Very loosely, the plot sees legendary operative Harry Pearce (a solid Peter Firth) trying to tracking down a missing terrorist. But when Harry's forced undercover, he recruits Will Holloway (Game of Thrones' Jon Snow aka Kit Harington) to help. Soon, a global conspiracy is playing out....

Betrayal, a solid list of British actors (Tim McInnery, David Harewood, Jennifer Ehle) and a cliched spy plot all come together and make Spooks: The Greater Good a film that simply is the sum of its parts. Which sounds like a condemnation in a way. But it's solid fare rather than kind of thrilling film we've had with the likes of Bourne.

Essentially a TV movie writ larger, Spooks The Greater Good serves to remind you why the series was so popular and why in its pared back form, less is sometimes more.

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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