Hunter Killer: Film Review

Hunter Killer: Film Review

Cast: Gerard Butler, Michael Nyqvist, Gary Oldman, Common, Linda Cardinelli
Director: Donovan Marsh

It's hard not to view Hunter Killer as the kind of film that wouldn't be out of place in the 1980s.

A mix of submarine thriller, shoot-em-ups and improbable rescue, Hunter Killer's B-Movie vibe is one of solid, yet unspectacular fare that spools out almost like a game of submarine movie cliche bingo.

Butler is unconventional commander Glass, who's given the command of a ship after a US Sub goes AWOL tracking a Russian sub in foreign waters. Whilst initially, it's a rescue mission for the sub, thanks to a Russian coup, it soon filters out into a further rescue mission to save the Russian President (yes, echoes of the "Has Fallen" film series spring easily to mind).

But if this mission should fail, World War 3 could break out...

Hunter Killer pulls the usual punches for the genre, though it's given a contemporary frisson with the Russians being the bad guys and the US facing off against them. In parts, it's the kind of film that US President Donald Trump could embrace in some ways.

To be honest though, Hunter Killer meshes Call of Duty, Lone Survivor, Has Fallen series and Hunt for Red October, and blends it all through a prism of army recruitment video. It's stock-standard fare that takes itself seriously, and ticks all the boxes.

Butler delivers his usual half-smirking performance, but there's an earnestness to his underwritten commander that's vaguely endearing. Nyqvist, in his final role, is utterly wasted, a sad farewell to a nuanced great.

The tension is largely missing throughout Hunter Killer, until a final act sequence brings together the inevitable consequences of everyone's actions and Marsh concentrates on delivering something solid, via repeated use of swirling cameras, cliches and military might.

Sure, there's a case to say the Americans are painted in a positive light, and those damned Russians are tricky foreigners determined to powerplays over diplomacy, but Hunter Killer cares not for your sneering approach.

Instead it charts a course through familiar and formulaic waters, with only one course in mind - but it comes close to sinking in 2018, when it potentially would have risen to the surface in the 1980s.

Mandy: Film Review

Mandy: Film Review

Placing the psycho among the psychotropic, Panos Cosmatos' Mandy is a curious beast, likely to satiate an Incredibly Strange audience, but unlikely to burst out of its cult bubble.

Starting with Nic Cage in full lumberjack mode felling a tree (not a euphemism), Cosmatos's under siege piece takes its 80s vibe and fully runs with it.

Cage is Red, who lives with Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) in a remote cabin. Their dream existence is granted a rude awakening when the Children of the New Dawn pass Mandy on a path one day, determining that she should be with them.

Their leader (Linus Roach, in full messianic mode) orders his followers to steal her away - needless to say Red ain't having that.

It's a case of 80s style over substance with Mandy, which is no bad thing if that's what you're looking for. Drenched in a Johann Johannsson score, the film's atmospherics hit every level they're intending to, but it's a case of genre style ahead of anything else in effect here.

Cosmatos makes his piece a masterclass in lighting, soaking many scenes in red and backlighting the fight scenes with spotlights - it's a visual lunacy that's worth embracing.

Mandy may drag a little in parts, a fever dream that's extended beyond need, but Cage's fans will be happy to see their hero, in his tighty-whiteys, doing what he does best - chewing up the scenery (and doing a large amount of cocaine at the end of one scene).

Mandy fulfills its exploitation vibe well, but beyond the deaths and gore it proffers up, it offers little more.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again: DVD Review

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again: DVD Review

Sometimes, it's pointless to rail against the cheese.

So it is with Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, the sequel to the 2008 Abba smash hit film that was low rent in terms of story, but was embraced as only some musicals can be.

In this latest, reeling from the loss of her mother Donna (Streep), Sophie Sheridan (Seyfried, in earnest heartfelt mode) is making final preparations to reopen her mother's Greek hotel.

Reflecting on Donna's past and trying to juggle the commitments of her present life, Sophie finds hardships in her own relationships as the tumult reaches overwhelming levels.

There's little point resisting Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.

Its overload of cheesiness and gusto is pretty much signalled early on with Seyfried's sitting in the Greek sun, looking at letters while softly muttering lyrics to Thank you for the music.

It's then kicked up a notch with Lily James' energetic and vibrant performance of When I Kissed The Teacher as a young Donna, its choreography and energy lighting up the screen, and no doubt leading to dancing in the aisles to ABBA's lesser known music. (It's to be said that James is the best thing in the sequel, an actress who throws herself headlong into the role with relish and a carefree attitude that's nothing short of contagious.)

While the structure of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is a bit of a mess (continual chopping into the past and present), those willing to go along with the ride, the corny one-liners and the all too familiar rom-com-drama storyline will be happy enough.

Kitsch mixed in with stars clearly more self-aware of what the first film's legacy was helps Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again a lot, but don't expect to be won over if you're of the cynical variety. This is pure and simple goofball film-making that's about licensing music and inserting it into the ongoing drama.

While that's no bad thing, there's no convincing any that this is high art - it's purely about trashy entertainment, about ensuring a good time is had by all, that ABBA's timeless disco hits live on and everyone else with the hint of a brain cell or good taste be damned. 

American Animals: Film Review

American Animals: Film Review

A sizzling and hyper-stylised drama that blends heist aesthetics and thrills with contemporary interviews, Bart Layton's American Animals is a slick film that grips and pulses from the outset.

Assembling a clutch of young actors (including American Horror Story alum Evan Peters and The Killing of a Sacred Deer's Barry Keoghan), it's the story of Spencer Reinhard (Keoghan) and his part in a library heist which took place at Transylvania University in Kentucky in 2004.

Despite the fact he has everything he needs in life, but bemoaning the fact that he's after some kind of life-altering experience to change him as an artist, Spencer forms a friendship with a hyper Warren Lipka (Peters).

Hitting on the idea to rob the library's rare book collection and its multi-million dollar haul, Warren and Spencer recruit two others to their plan - and start pulling together a heist.

Jumping between interviews of the real people involved and the drama, with moments of fourth wall breaking and unreliable narrators, American Animals' aesthetic and vibe seizes from the outset.

Layton assembles the pieces with the same kind of compelling bravura we witnessed in his doco The Imposter, but never loses sight of the two main leads in all the action.

Bringing the kind of tension that was missing from the recent Ocean's 8 film, the heist preparations excel - a swirling interplay of ideas executed in the head benefitting from taut editing and a pulsing soundtrack of music. It's a perfect insight into the minds of those involved over how it should play out, and for an audience, it's never less than gripping.

To say more about American Animals is to betray the sense of what plays out, a bastardisation of the American dream and a warning that nothing comes for free - even with talent. But Layton's less focussed on the themes of the piece, laying them out for subtle watchers to pick up on.

He's more interested in providing a film that thrills, in a format that makes the very best of docu-drama, with the emphasis on the drama. It helps the general idea of the heist is so audacious and the premise so compelling, but what American Animals also does is deliver two impressive turns in Keoghan and Peters.

Peters displays the intensity we've come to know from AHS but gives his Warren a kind of gleeful Joker style mania, the kind of guy you'd want to hang out with at a party. Keoghan, meanwhile, gives Spencer a feeling of being lost, an artist struggling to find their voice, and a would-be criminal struggling with his moral compass.

Throughout American Animals, the queasily compelling mix works incredibly well; the slick stylish piecing together of the elements of the drama and the documentary add much to what transpires - a portrait of the dispossessed and the bored - but it also gives the audience a thrill ride that has as much substance as it does style. 

Ideal Home: DVD Review

Ideal Home: DVD Review

An intriguing look at what family means in the 21st Century, Andrew Fleming's Ideal Home can be summed up by its last line.

Exhausted and perhaps a touch exasperated after all that comes to pass, Paul Rudd's character Paul can be heard flippantly shouting - "Oh great,a f***ing rainbow", before the credits roll, bringing up shots of same sex couples and their offspring.

It's a meshing of tones that never quite fully gels for Ideal Home, with the story of how bickering gay couple Erasmus (Coogan, in a flamboyant and camp mode) and Paul (Rudd, the relative centre and expert of the withering put down) end up with 10 year old Bill.

Jack Gore's Bill's told to go live with his grandfather Erasmus when the police bust his father in a motel - with tragedy in Bill's past, and with Erasmus not talking to his son, things are off to a tough start when he shows up unexpectedly.

Initially pushing back on the lack of boundaries set by Erasmus who caves to Bill's demands, Paul's more resistant, after initially not wanting a child in their relationship.

But as these films are wont to do, a bond between the three grows, and Erasmus and Paul learn from Bill being part of their life.

That's the thing with Ideal Home, it's not a new concept and it wears some of that influence without shame on its occasionally laugh-out-loud funny journey.

As mentioned previously, Rudd is the stand out here - as opposed to Coogan's somewhat flighty and flamboyant monster Erasmus. With a heart and humanity, Rudd anchors Paul as the centre of the family, while never losing out the chance to toss off a throwaway line when it's needed.

Unfortunately, Ideal Home unravels a little in its third and final act as a series of narrative speed bumps are introduced for nothing more than dramatic purpose, leading to the resolution feeling rushed and a little disjointed. Certainly the emotional edge that's meant to be inserted by proceedings feels a little flawed, despite everyone's efforts to the contrary.

Equally, some of Bill's initial antagonisms over living with Erasmus and Paul are glossed over, having been hinted at early on - and the social worker intervention (from Alison Pill's character) is put on the back burner in favour of some sight gags.

It's this uneasy mix of uncertainty which slightly cripples Ideal Home, and which thwarts its noble intentions and which means ultimately, in the final strait, the film fumbles its premise and promise.

Armageddon Expo - Day 2 highlights

Armageddon Expo - Day 2 highlights

The Armageddon expo continues in Auckland this weekend.

So head down to the ASB Showgrounds and take it all in.

Here are heaps of shots from Day 2 of the Armageddon Expo.