Dirty Grandpa: Film Review

Dirty Grandpa: Film Review

Cast: Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza, Julianne Hough, Jason Mantzoukas
Director: Dan Mazer

Have you ever wanted to see Academy Award winner and much revered actor Robert De Niro declare with deep gusto that he "just wants to f**k until my d**k falls off"?

Because if so, viagra comedy Dirty Grandpa will fulfill your dreams.

Ali G and Borat director Dan Mazer brings an energy and an eye for vulgarity to the fore in this raunchy Spring Break comedy starring Zac Efron as Jason, an uptight lawyer who's about to be married to his shrill fiancee, Meredith (Julianne Hough). But when Jason's grandma dies, he decides to try and reconnect with his estranged grandpa Dick (Robert De Niro) and the duo end up on a road trip in an attempt to recapture the bond they used to share.

However, Dick is after finding his second wind in life, claiming his former wife urged him to go live while on her death - bed and Jason is tricked into heading into Florida's Spring Break.

For all of its shortcomings and the feeling of repetition toward the end, coupled with a few saggy sentimental moments which really slow things down, there's something amusing about this energetic and at times, capable comedy that aims low, hits every target and then heads to pick even more low-hanging fruit.

Though that comes with the proviso that you must be into puerile material and of a disposition that finds copious swearing, genitals and prolonged jokes around sex and getting laid amusing.

Efron proves game and is interested in humiliating himself where necessary, (including showing off his physique once again) and De Niro goes for the shock factor by debasing his acting legacy as much as he can. Parks and Rec star Aubrey Plaza and Sleeping With Other People's Jason Mantzoukas are the real stars though, intially putting their trademark patter into full effect before starting to grate; Plaza's horny girl wanting to sleep with an old man gathers some laughs to start with and then starts to feel a little creepy.

Mistaken paedophilia, gay stereotyping, crude and crass all form parts of Dirty Grandpa, and while there's no denying there are moments which are laugh out loud funny, most of this film starts to grate and become repetitive very quickly.

Granted, it's the perfect antidote to the Oscar films which are out there now, but it's no long term comedy solution and while it will find its audience, the laughs aren't quite enough to see it push the envelope.

First look: Hunt for the Wilderpeople from Taika Waititi

First look: Hunt for the Wilderpeople from Taika Waititi

New Zealand audiences get their first look at Taika Waititi’s new feature film Hunt for the Wilderpeople today with the release of the films first teaser video.
 
This teaser introduces audiences to ‘real bad egg’ foster kid Ricky Baker played byJulian Dennison and his cantankerous Uncle Hec played by acting icon Sam Neill.  Local acting heavyweights Rhys Darby, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House andOscar Kightley star alongside Dennison and Neill in this loveable adventure comedy due for cinema release across New Zealand on March 31st 2016.

Based on the best selling book ‘Wild Pork and Watercress’ by kiwi literary legendBarry Crump, Hunt for the Wilderpeople tells the story of Ricky (Dennison), a defiant young city kid who finds himself on the run with his foster uncle (Neill) in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work together to survive in this hilarious and heartfelt adventure.
 
The release of the teaser video is fresh off the back of a sell-out international premiere at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival which has received rave reviews from industry bibles Screen Daily, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. 
 
Director Taika Waititi was thrilled by the reaction to the films premiere.
 
"We knew we had something special with Sam and Julian and were happy the audience felt the same way."
 
Producer Carthew Neal adds.
 
"The audience were in the palm of Taika, Sam, Julian and the rest of the cast’s hands. Laughing riotously and probably the odd tear too."

 

Spotlight: Film Review

Spotlight: Film Review

Cast: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci
Director: Tom McCarthy

Already showered in award nominations and wins, Tom McCarthy's powerhouse Spotlight is both an ode to the journalism of the past and a commentary on the present.

Against a backdrop of change, when a new editor Marty Baron (a relatively muted but engaging Liev Schreiber) enters the world of the Boston Globe newspaper, a small journalistic unit called the Spotlight team is given the job of investigating allegations of abuse from Catholic priests. But the further the team looks, the bigger the problem appears to be...

Meshing both procedural and montages of journalists at work, Spotlight is not a new story in many ways and both its subject material and execution are nothing new either - but it's gripping and masterfully acted by all involved, proving once and for all that a combination of perfectly paced story-telling and a gentle crafting of story are the keys to build any foundation on.

It's hard to single out any member of the ensemble for praise in this because they all deliver in many different textured ways; from Schreiber's quietly driven editor brought in to bring change and whose impetus propels the Spotlight team along to Tucci's nigh on impressive lawyer, this is a cast that are on the top of their game.

It helps largely that McCarthy's working off such a strong script, one that never stoops to preach its sins of the fathers storyline but one which also never sermonizes and talks down to its audience as well. It's a good solid film of good solid performances where less is more and where montages take the strain of a lot of the transitions.

Dashed through with moments of wry humour, the film does little to build its reporters and their backgrounds, but proffers tantalising hints of their lives outside the investigation. For some, that may be a mis-step but this film is more about the investigation and the politics thereof than the histrionics of personal lives and melodrama.

Spotlight works as it keeps a singular focus on story and narrative; it never deviates from that and becomes a film that quietly and mightily impresses from beginning to end.

Rating:

True Detective Season 2: Blu Ray Review

True Detective Season 2: Blu Ray Review

Rating:M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

If True Detective series one was anything, it was a trail blazer that reignited the McConnaissance and Woody Harrelson with sharp writing, dense plotting and philosophical themes in the marshlands.

True Detective season 2 is the antithesis; a dumbed down, straight and simple season which, in effect, betrays everything the first did.

Centring on a interweaving cop investigation into the death of a sleazy city manager, it may have attracted the likes of Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch and the prospect of Vince Vaughn in a straight role, but it does little to build on the proposition and promise of the first anthology series.

While it is a solid police procedural, the elegiac prose which elevated season one is elusive this time around. It's inevitable comparisons will follow, but the fact True Detective season 2 pales when held up to the first really serves to its detriment.

With a predictable plot and an element of drudgery, True Detective season 2 stands on its own two feet; and while a solid affair, it is unspectacular.

The Hateful Eight - interviewing Quentin Tarantino and Zoe Bell

The Hateful Eight - interviewing Quentin Tarantino and Zoe Bell

The Hateful Eight had a NZ premiere in Auckland yesterday and today, Mr Tarantino was chatting to journalists.

I was fortunate enough to get some time with Quentin to talk the film, his plans for the future and also who he'd like to see a film from at the moment. (With apols for editing mishaps at the start if you are listening to the audio)



And I was also fortunate to get some time with Zoe Bell on the red carpet at Newmarket during the event itself



Read below for a review of The Hateful Eight film

http://bit.ly/hateful-eight-review

The Hateful Eight: Film Review

The Hateful Eight: Film Review

Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Zoe Bell, Demian Bichir, Michael Madsen
Director: Quentin Tarantino

Cinema's enfant terrible returns with his eighth outing, a sprawling epic yet intimate film about justice, simmering tensions and life after the Civil War.

It's the story of bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his prisoner Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who are powering through the wintry Wyoming landscape in a stagecoach on their way to Daisy's appointment with the ultimate hangman.

But as the storm sets in deeper, Ruth finds two others on the road seeking shelter; one is former union soldier turned bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson in usual commanding form) and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) the soon-to-be new sheriff of Red Rock where both Ruth and Domergue are bound.

Holing up in a stopover cabin until the storm passes, the quartet find a bunch of new unexpected faces. Forced to seek shelter, Ruth begins to feel uneasy as the pot starts to boil over with mistrust...

Age has not diminished Tarantino's cinematic fire and The Hateful Eight is further proof that he intends to rattle the cage and polarise the audience for as long as he can.

This potboiler chamber piece, so beautifully shot with its evocative use of the Wyoming landscapes in the opening moments, rattles with as much Tarantino DNA as you'd expect - and indeed hope for.

With his trademark dialogue in full effect, this film feels like his most mature take on character and does much to build a world that's pretty much set in one place (in fact, great swathes of The Hateful Eight feel like a stage play painted on a bigger canvas).

But here's the kicker with The Hateful Eight - it appears that everybody lies and everybody is particularly nasty.

Whereas previous films have had edges that help you latch onto those you're watching in some way or other, The Hateful Eight has a delightful penchant for ripping your sympathies from asunder.

With the very briefest of back stories for some of the characters, Tarantino delights in presenting you with eight people who are only there to be hated and whose ultimate fates are all tangled up in the post-Civil War resentments that will linger for years to come.

Ultimately, as with most Tarantino flicks, the film becomes swathed in as much blood as there is raging bile below the surface of all of these men. They are antagonists more than anti-heroes in the truest sense, with each layer of nastiness revealing yet more below the surface of every single one of them. And as the story evolves over its six wryly dark chapters, it's clear Tarantino's desire is to subvert audience expectations and draw on various TV western genres to paint this tapestry with more than just blood, and instead infuse it with gallows humour.

As ever with Mr Tarantino, depending on your tolerance for violence and colourful language, The Hateful Eight will be as much a personal film for everyone watching it. It's quintessential Tarantino though as it pours all the ingredients into a pot, stirs them around and stands well back ready for the powderkeg to ignite.

Of the cast, Jackson provides his usual commanding presence as the Major and steals the scene with one story which may or may not be true, but is certainly likely to never be forgotten; Goggins and Dern gel in a generational way and give the Confederate conflict a face that's never likely to be forgotten, thanks to Goggins' hillbilly stylings. Tim Roth channels Terry Thomas with his turn as Red Rock's hangman. As the sole woman (for most of the film) Jennifer Jason Leigh impresses with a turn that is more about what's unsaid than actually said - and her final scenes give rise to the meshing of the western with traces of horror as she stands like a Carrie figure in your traditional cabin-in-the-snowy-woods.

Mixing mystery, Cluedo,  post Civil War politics, elements of The Thing (thanks to evocatively shot and lit exteriors in the wintry surrounds), a terrific Ennio Morricone score, some stunning cinematography courtesy of long time Tarantino aide Robert Richardson, a deeply verbose script which borders on shaggy dog story and teeters dangerously close to needing an edit at times, historical elements of justice on the frontier and post the War, and an ensemble which work incredibly well together, The Hateful Eight is nothing short of a seething experience that makes you work for its rich rewards.

Quentin Tarantino at the Hateful Eight NZ Premiere

Quentin Tarantino at the Hateful Eight NZ Premiere

Here are some shots of Quentin Tarantino at the Hateful Eight NZ Premiere last night in Auckland.