Red Dog: True Blue: Film Review

Red Dog: True Blue: Film Review

Cast: Jason Isaacs, Levi Miller
Director: Kriv Stenders

Five years ago, a truly Aussie shaggy dog story took the family box office by storm.

Red Dog, complete with its canine star and capturing of the ocker Aussie sensibility, managed to reel in audiences of animal lovers and family film lovers apiece with its tale of a dog uniting a township and getting to the heart of what it means to be an Aussie.

So, some five years later, it's no surprise that a sequel, nay a prequel that meshes the story within a story ethos is being dispatched on the family summertime box office as an antidote for the end of the year cynicism that hits.

Wrapped up in nostalgia, this is the story of Blue, the Kelpie, and Mick (Miller in flashbacks and Isaacs in current day, a father who's become work-obsessed and forgotten how to have fun). Sent to his grandfather's station in the Outback due to his mother being locked in a hospital, Mick struggles to find his place. But when a puppy literally falls from the sky after a cyclone hits, Mick's friendship with his dog grows.

However, when a girl called Betty (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) ends up at the station, upending all the boys' lives, Mick finds his own coming of age arriving quicker than expected.

Swathed in nostalgia and Aussie characters, Red Dog True Blue may lack the heart and emotional connection of the first film as it pursues its one boy and his dog's adventures ethos into Saturday matinee territory.

Complete with some truly stunning countryside shots from the Pilbara deserts, Red Dog True Blue is in many ways an old school film that's blessed by solid performances. Brown, as the grandfather, is the gruff heart of proceedings and generates more warmth and empathy than you'd expect - and Miller's solid, if unspectacular, as the young Mick struggling to avoid being upstaged by the dog.

With an episodic feel, some spiritual leanings thrown in and some bush fires for drama, this tale of love and coming of age down on the farm may lack some of the first's immediate charm, but there's no doubting it'll find a younger family audience to embrace, thanks to the antics of Blue.

It may not be a memorable family film in the way the first set hearts and box office alight, but Red Dog True Blue's warmth and fuzziness may prove to be the ideal antidote for those seeking a feelgood flick to start 2017 off with.

The Secret Life Of Pets: DVD Review

The Secret Life Of Pets: DVD Review

It's the eternal question of every pet owner - what do your animals do during the day while you're out?

While the reality is potentially a tad dull (clever money is on sleeping and eating), animation house Illumination's The Secret Life Of Pets posits the theory that they have great adventures.

Set in New York, it's the story of terrier Max (Louis CK), who believes he's the luckiest dog in the city, thanks to the bond he shares with his owner Katie. But when Katie brings home a new dog in the form of Duke (Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet), Max finds his world upended. Determined to be top dog, Max tries to lose Duke on the streets; however, it goes wrong when the duo lose their collars and end up in the grips of animal control...

Essentially as light and fluffy as the animals within, The Secret Life Of Pets is a fairly safe, solid bet for some family entertainment at the movies.

If you're after deep emotional connection with the furries on display here a la The Incredible Journey, then you're looking in the wrong place.

Packed full of sight gags, some cinematic references and a gratuitous plug for upcoming Illumination flick Sing (seriously, subtle is not the place for Illumination) The Secret Life Of Petsis a singular story stretched a little thin in parts across New York and Brooklyn, but still likely to amuse its core audience.

While the dogs have it ruff (sorry) in the film, and there are elements of Toy Story / only child syndrome at play here, the focus is solely on providing visual gags, some laughs and a degree of insight into pet owners and their pride and joy.

Leading large parts of the laughs is a psycho bunny Snowball (Kevin Hart) the leader of the Flushed Pets, a group of abandoned animals. For once Hart's OTT delivery and lunatic edges are perfectly suited to the white ball of fluff on the screen.

While some may cry there could have been a touch more innovation in the story (it's a tried and tested formula complete with tragic back-story for the abandoned animals) and that the film wears its influences on its sleeve (an Alien gag, a Lost World cracking windscreen, Puss in Boots cute eyes, some Looney Tunes moments), The Secret Life Of Pets proffers up as fun and fluffy a piece of entertainment as the cast of critters within.

Granted, it's instantly forgettable as it races through its zany pace and some of the best gags were spooled out in the trailer that showed the animals kicking back when the owners leave, but The Secret Life Of Pets is a furry family sized piece of entertainment that won't melt your heart with its emotional journey, but will see you leaving the cinema with a renewed fervour for your own animals.

Rogue One - A Star Wars Story - He Said She Said Review

Rogue One - A Star Wars Story - He Said She Said Review

Here's the very latest episode of He Said, She Said, as we take a look at Rogue One - A Star Wars Story!

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison Of Belief: DVD Review

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison Of Belief: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Madman Home Ent

Unlike Louis Theroux's recent My Scientology Movie, Alex Gibney's rich and rabbit-hole worthy extensive doco is very much a definitive look into the world of Scientology.

Clocking in at under 2 hours and still feeling like there's further echelons for it to explore, Gibney's approach is a lot of talking heads and talking to those directly affected by the Church's behaviour. Using testimonials, Gibney's knitted together a film that really does show the heart-breaking effect that some of the bullying and alienation techniques have had.

Using footage from their galas and a fairly damning expose of why Cruise is held in such high esteem by the Church, the film's ferocity is in its straight down the line, smart reporting. There's never a feeling that Gibney is following an agenda and a desire to take the Church down, and it's refreshing.

Ultimately, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison Of Belief is perhaps the perfect documentary; smart, intelligent and expertly crafted, it's hard to see anyone being anything other than horrified as it plays out.

Everybody Wants Some!!: DVD Review

Everybody Wants Some!!: DVD Review

If Linklater's Boyhood was the tortured route to adolescence made magnificent by its 150 minute canvas, Everybody Wants Some!! is the tonal antithesis, a tacit recognition that the good times do eventually come.

It's 1980s Austin and the weekend before college classes first begin. It's a time of infinite possibility, of freedom and as the very first scene sets out, of music.

The film follows freshman Jake (Blake Jenner) as he joins the baseball team ready for his first year of classes, boozing and bro-ing. Set over the first weekend before it all kicks in, it's a hedonistic 72 hours of trying to fit in, finding your place and falling in love, all against a nostalgic backdrop of disco bars, endless bongs and beers and typical jostling competitive jockeying chat.

But before you dismiss Richard Linklater's latest as just another variation of Dazed and Confused, soaked in the fashions and sounds of the time, don't. This paean to male bonding, to the competitive nature of the pack and of finding your place in the world after being a hotshot at school and placed in a world full of hotshots, is a pure blast of breeziness.

While the ensemble cast are good among their horrific moustaches and paisley decked fashion gear, it's Jenner and Glenn Powell as Finn who stand out. Jenner with his fresh-faced innocence is our everyman but he never plays it goofy; and Powell is the good-time, good guy who espouses advice and is the glue that holds them all together. Sure, we have the goofball power-crazed nut in the form of Juston Street's Niles, all terrible hair and red glasses, but even he's infused with a team ethos and a desire to fit in that his character quickly goes from Napoleon Dynamite caricature to one of the gang by the end of the weekend.

As the sole girl who's not one of the endless parade of women hit on by all the guys, Zoey Deutch as an arts student that Jake falls for is a breezy charm in an auburn haired package - sweet and disarming but with an innocence that college romances are made of, her presence is a welcome bookend and with Jake's confession to his bros that he "likes her", you know these two will be college sweethearts.

But in among the banter, the discussion over booze and bongs, it's Linklater whose eye for period detail stands out. 

Whether it's the spot-on music choices (opening with the Knack's My Sharona and an open road is inspired) or the accurate detail of the arcade from its KISS pinball to its Space Invaders, every detail of this era rings reminiscent and true. However, he also injects a geniality into his protagonists and casts a humanity over them that makes the 2 hours engaging and alive - and almost has you devastated when the weekend ends and the tedium of school begins.

Everybody Wants Some!! is veritable keg party of a film that speaks to freedom of youth; granted its light and breezy narrative and broad tone may feel slight to some, but it's a tacit admission to what makes growing up's experiences so important, an autobiographical film of growing up to fit in as a bookend to Boyhood, and a film soaked in such nostalgic hues that you can't fail to be moved into memory by its antics and its ethos of being on a team among the vitality of friends as you get ready for life's curveballs. 

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: DVD Review

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: DVD Review

Loosely based on the antics of real-life brothers Dave and Mike Stangle, who placed an online ad in Craigslist, this raunchy comedy knows exactly what it wants to do - and manages to achieve it without any level of class or originality.

Wedding Crashers for the next generation it may aspire to be - but be assured, it ain't.

Efron (straight-laced) and Devine (hyperactive, bordering on severely irritating) are Dave and Mike respectively, who have a habit of boorish behaviour and going too far damaging family celebrations. With their younger sister's marriage on the horizon, Mike and Dave are ordered to get respectable dates to the big day, to ensure everything goes to plan.

So placing an online ad, the duo meets plenty of prospective plus ones. But striking out, they come across Alice and Tatiana (Kendrick playing ditzy and Plaza playing trademark deadpan with an edge of sassiness) who appear on the surface to be nice safe girls.

However, it turns out the girls are even worse than the boys....will the big day go ahead?

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is the kind of raunchy, crass, brain-dead frat boy party antics flick that is the very definition of leaving your brain at the door and ensuring you have a skinful before you sit down to watch it.

It also comes with the caveat that you have to be puerile in your acceptance and outlook as well to fully appreciate and get on board with the humour.

While Efron and Kendrick downplay their respective roles after initially ratcheting up the goofy unlikeable factor early on, Devine threatens to derail the whole thing with an OTT turn that borders on severely irritating thanks to gurning, screeching and generally being as dumb as is humanly possible.

It's great to see Kendrick playing off type, and Plaza clearly has a deadpan blast, but none of these are unforgettable characters and while the bro-ing of all of them (is the female equivalent a bra-mance?) is a nice touch in terms of ladies can do it too, the whole thing feels dumber than a bag of spanners.

There's a kernel of a nice story waiting in the wings (one laments late on in the piece as the inevitable schmaltz sets in that they thought they were destined for great things but have never achieved anything) but it's sacrificed in favour of some relatively forgettable set pieces that linger as long as the lights are down in the cinema, before disappearing in the haze of reality.

Vulgarity is the order of the day and Szymanski never sets his sights above that, but what would you expect from the writers of the Bad Neighbours series? However, there are arguments that it doesn't go far enough.

There's an over-riding sense of repetition to get the point across, and while Kumail Nanjiani of Silicon Valley delivers some of the best moments of the film in a brief cameo, the obligatory out-takes show more fun was being had than what was being recorded.

All in all, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates does exactly what you'd expect.

But if you're looking for something that will be added to the pantheon of R-rated films like Bridesmaids and The Hangover for the millennials, this is totally forgettable, utterly disposable and ultimately a dimwit escapade that goes nowhere fast but will sadly satiate a portion of the box office audience.

(Oh, and is it now obligatory in any Zac Efron film that he needs to remove his shirt?) 

David Brent: Life On The Road: DVD Review

David Brent: Life On The Road: DVD Review

Over a decade after the conclusion of the UK version of The Office, David Brent remains a comic icon.

Mining both tragedy and pathos in equal measure, as well as rolling in the awkwardness plied on with a trowel at times, Ricky Gervais' hapless and hopeless office manager returns in another road movie mockumentary outing.

Now, Brent's still a rep, selling cleaning wares as well as tampons, and still harbouring a dream of making it in the rock'n'roll world. So, cashing in both his holiday and a selection of pensions, Brent pours his heart, soul and money into a tour with his band Foregone Conclusion, taking along with him some session musicians and a rapper Dom Johnson, his token black friend.

Following a patented formula of sideways awkward glances at the camera and walking the line between non-PC and a few moments too late self-censoring, Gervais' Brent has not changed much. And as such the film feels like another extended episode of the sitcom that goes on a little too long and has some of the cringe factor stretched a little too thin throughout, despite the obvious pathos lurking in the wings.

But mining deeper into Gervais' aspirations with Life On The Road (banal song lyrics aside, the toe tapping MOR tunes blasted out by Foregone Conclusion are annoyingly ear-worm worthy), it appears to be a portrait of mental illness and delusion writ large, with a few scenes painting a painful honesty and portrait of a sad and lonely man who just wants to be loved above all. With therapy and admissions of Profzac use, there are elements of the second series of Steve Coogan's I Am Alan Partridge here again to add the required level of tragedy to the character.

It has to be said though that Gervais proves winningly adept at slipping back into the role as the very English version of This Is Spinal Tap rolls out. By turning the spotlight solely on himself and eschewing the rest of the Office cronies, how you feel about David Brent will largely rest on whether you can take the cringe and awkwardness of the character and humiliations visited upon him. Gervais knows what he's doing and while another director may have reined in some of the indulgences and tightened things up, fans of The Office won't be disappointed.

Of the supporting characters, only Doc Brown's deadpan and would-rather-be-somewhere-else Dom Johnson is given any more depth to combat the incessant squirming but the rest get short shrift - without doubt this is Gervais' show and he's determined, like Brent, to get the most out of the spotlight.

In the final act, the sentiment's piled on as the veneer cracks and David Brent: Life On The Road ramshackles disappointingly into bittersweet sentiment, a frank admission and tacit nod to the British sitcoms that at the end of the day, we all just love the losers, that we don't want to see them unhappy and that if there's hope for them, then there's sure as hell hope for us.

Perhaps this at times scrappy affair is Gervais' final swansong as Brent, and while the meanness of a society that welcomes and then scorns its reality stars is occasionally touched upon, David Brent: Life On The Road is not perhaps the incisive laugh riot you'd want from such a beloved comedy character.

Less one louder and more muted comic fanfare of the commonly annoying man, this attempt at Brentertainment meanders where it could have been tighter and frustrates where it could have been sharper. 

dec 14th