Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie – Movie Review

Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie (2014)

Cast: Brendan O’Carroll, Jennifer Gibney, Eilish O’Carroll, Danny O’Carroll, Fiona O’Carroll, Paddy Houlihan, Gary Hollywood, Jimmy Gibney, Dermot O’Neill, Pat Shields, Amanda Woods, Dermot Crowley, Robert Bathurst & Simon Delaney

Writer: Brendan O’Carroll

Director: Ben Kellett

Viewed: Saturday 09 August 2014 @ Event Cinemas Glendale, Newcastle.

Since premiering in 2011, the (newer) Mrs. Brown’s Boys TV show has rocketed in popularity. Three seasons, Christmas specials and a sell-out international live show tour later and we find ourselves with the inevitable film. Being a big fan and having seen all the aforementioned editions in the Mrs. Brown saga, I was looking forward to this big screen adventure. How foolish I was.

D’Poster

Agnes Brown’s (Brendan O’Carroll, Agnes Browne – a completely unrelated movie from 1999 directed by and starring Angelica Huston based on a novel written by O’Carroll) family has been running a market fruit stall on Dublin’s Moore Street for two centuries, but that is threatened when a local politician/businessman (Dermot Crowley, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) teams up with the Russian mob to close down all the stalls and develop a shopping center on the site. Mrs. Brown doesn’t intend to go down without a fight, but the realisation that she may owe millions in unpaid taxes makes the fight that much harder. With the help of her family and friends Mrs Brown attempts to prove her innocence and save the markets.

I don’t have many positives to say about this. It’s a pretty miserable experience. It starts off well enough. There’s an amusing voiceover from Mrs Brown before the film commences welcoming the audience which is followed by a fun scene involving an alarm clock and Grandad Brown (Dermot O’Neill) that feels very much like the TV show we know and love. After this though there is a scene where Mrs. Brown leaves her house to head to her market stall, walking out the front door on to an obvious set (so far, so usual), but then she pulls down the backdrop to reveal a real location shot proclaiming “This shouldn’t be here, it’s D’Movie!” It’s from then on that everything that makes the TV show so great is completely missing.

Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie tries too hard to be too big and falls flat on its face. It tries. It tries hard to be funny but fails miserably. There are a couple of chuckles stretched over its 90 minute run time but no real laughs. The closest it gets is during outtakes over the end credits. It’s a sad, sad thing when your credits are more enjoyable than your movie. It, inexplicably, tries really hard to be racist. There’s a character named Rab Patel (Raj Ghatak, Birthday Girl) who is repeatedly referred to as being Jamaican and an Asian ninja instructor named Mr Cheng played by….Brendan O’Carroll squinting his eyes and swapping his L’s and R’s. It’s the most racist thing I’ve seen in a movie in a looooooooong time. It’s embarrassing. Towards the end of the proceedings O’Carroll’s script tries hard to add some of the sentiment that is so often present in the TV show, but everything that has come before has been so tedious, or mean, or such a new development (when has a market stall ever been mentioned before?) that we can’t suddenly just be asked to feel for these characters.

The Mrs. Brown’s Boys formula is obviously not suited for the movie treatment. On TV it is a small show with small sets, a small cast and big heart. In cinemas it is a big show with big sets, a HUGE cast and no heart at all. O’Carroll has completely missed the mark on what millions of people around the world love about his character. I don’t understand how he could have gotten it so horribly wrong. For all these reasons I give Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie 1 Rant and Rave point.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – Movie Review

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillian, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reiley, Benicio Del Toro & Glenn Close

Writers: James Gunn & Nicole Perlman

Director: James Gunn

Viewed: Friday 01 August 2014 @ Event Cinemas Glendale, Newcastle.

“Comic book movies” are taking over the cinematic world. With major studies locking in multiple release dates per year for their money-printing commodities up to 2019, barely three months seems to go by before we are back at the cinemas seeing a superhero (or two, or five) on the screen. Up until now though, it’s mainly been the reliable, well-known heroes being brought back again and again. That changes with Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel is taking a gamble with a set of characters many of us have never heard of, and it’s one that pays off in spades.

What a bunch of A-holes

When Peter Quill (Chris Pratt, Delivery Man), who was taken from Earth as a boy and raised by a gang of space scavengers, comes into possession of a mysterious MacGuffin orb, he unwittingly becomes the target of the evil Ronan (Lee Pace, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) who needs to trade the orb with Thanos (Josh Brolin, No Country for Old Men) for the destruction of a planet against which Ronan wants revenge, as well as Ronan’s minion (and Thanos’ adopted daughter) Gamora (Zoe Saldana, Star Trek Into Darkness) who might not be exactly what she seems, and a couple of bounty hunters, Rocket the raccoon (Bradley Cooper, American Hustle) and Groot the tree (Vin Diesel, Pitch Black). When Quill, Gamora, Rocket and Groot end up in prison together they form an uneasy alliance, along with Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista, Riddick) to escape and sell the orb to The Collector (Benicio Del Toro, Sin City). As the newly formed team travel across the galaxy they attempt to keep the orb, and themselves, from the clutches of evil all while learning that sometimes you find family in the most unlikely of places .

It’s officially. 2014 is the year of Marvel Studios. With the release of their two greatest movies to date, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and now Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel is smashing the competition out of the park. Everything about this film is fantastic. Amazing. Is it Marvel’s BEST movie though? In its own way, definitely. It’s certainly the funniest. It has the best soundtrack. It has the best character development. It has the most evil villain. It has the most heart. Everything seems to have been executed exactly as it should have been. There wasn’t a moment when I thought something should or could have been done differently. It also works at a tremendous pace. Savour the opening five minutes on Earth because they are the calmest (and most solemn). You’ll spend the next two hours blasting through space and blasting through storyline. From the opening credits the laughs and the action never let up. So much happens and it’s all great stuff. Pratt’s introduction as Star-Lord, the scene where the four main characters first meet, the escape from prison, the establishing of Ronan as a formidable enemy, the tying in to the greater Marvel Universe including our first, small sample of Brolin as Thanos, the feat of bringing different worlds and species across the galaxy to life, the pop-culture references which are already dated so they’ll never seem dated, the moments of beauty and heart (especially towards the end, such as when Groot’s true talents shine). It’s all perfectly done.

Director/writer James Gunn (Super) and co-writer Nicole Perlman have truly worked magic in the way they have taken these characters I, and many others I’m sure, didn’t know and were very unsure of (come on, a tree?!) when hearing about this movie and created my favourite Marvel film of them all so far. If I’m completely honest I think I’m more excited about seeing these guys in another adventure than I am about seeing The Avengers assemble again. That’s saying something. For all these reasons I give Guardians of the Galaxy 5 Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) – Movie Review

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Cast: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell & Kodi Smit-McPhee

Writers: Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver

Director: Matt Reeves

Viewed: Monday 21 August 2014 @ Event Cinemas Glendale, Newcastle.

The Planet of the Apes franchise has a long and checkered history. The original 1968 movie is a classic but, as is often the case, each subsequent sequel got worse and worse. The 2001 reboot/remake by Tim Burton is universally reviled (rightly so) and better off forgotten. Then 2011 brought us yet another reboot in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and we finally got the first film worth of carrying on the legacy started over four decades previously. Now the second reboot gets a sequel. Will it find itself associated with the more positive entries in the Apes series, or just another entry on the seemingly endless list of forgettable entries?

Is whiteface still racist on a monkey?

Ten years after the events of Rise, the “Alzheimer’s cure”, now know as the simian flu, that escaped the labs of Gen-Sys has wiped out most of the human population on Earth (some rather nifty opening credits depict this). Apes however, led by Caesar (Andy Serkis, King Kong), have prospered and made a home for themselves in the woods outside San Francisco (we get no clues as to how apes from anywhere else in the world are doing) where they have been developing their language skills, becoming more educated, raising families and becoming a tight-knit community. Meanwhile, a group of genetically immune, human survivors, including leader, Dreyfus (Gary Oldman, The Dark Knight), Malcolm (Jason Clark, Zero Dark Thirty), Ellie (Kerri Russell, Mission Impossible III) and Malcolm’s son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Let Me In) are holed up inside San Francisco but on the verge of running out of the fuel that feeds their power source, so they need to repair the local dam…which just happens to be located inside the Apes’ domain. Now the humans and apes must learn to trust each other to avoid a war, which could end in the extinction of either or both species.

I’ve read that Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is being described as the Empire Strike’s Back of the franchise. This is simply not true. It’s a decent movie, certainly the best sequel the series has seen, but I don’t think it’s better than Rise in any way. First of all there’s the leading man. I’m all for Aussie’s making it big in Hollywood, but Shane Clark is no James Franco. In fact all the human characters are pretty dull and underdeveloped. Gary Oldman is always dependable but he only has a handful of scenes and does little more than, annoyingly, yell into a megaphone. As for Keri Russell, her character could have almost been completely cut without making much of an impact on the final film. I understand that the main draw of this movie is supposed to be seeing how the apes have progressed since everything that happened in Rise, be we still need interesting human characters we can relate to. They’re not present here. Instead we’re given cliché characters with a throwaway line or two about each of their past lives that is supposed to make us care about them. It doesn’t work.

Then there are the apes, who are thankfully given much more development as we spend much more time with them (all the important players are also given individual external markings that are handy when trying to distinguish who is who, like Caesar’s son Blue Eyes who gets some large scars across his chest in the opening scene, his wife Cornelia (Judy Greer, Carrie) who wears a headpiece and his right-hand-ape Koba (Toby Kebbell, RocknRolla) who you’ll remember from Rise as the one-eyed, menacing lab-chimp who first releases the virus). The 10 year jump works well in that we get to see them in a place where they have evolved enough to speak occasionally (they communicate amongst themselves mostly using sign language, at the beginning of the movie anyway. Their speech seems to improve considerably towards the end), build what is essentially an ape city and creating their own set of laws to live by in an attempt not to become too much like the humans who treated them (mostly), and each other so badly and ultimately created a virus that led to their own demise. This without them having yet completely evolved into the half man/half ape beings of the original movies. The film is at its most interesting when we are spending time with the apes without any human interference. The big problem with the apes is that the CGI is often so bad that they often look as bad as those half man/half ape beings from the 1960’s. That might be an over exaggeration but they’re certainly a step down from Rise. Perhaps because there are just so many of them now and so many CGI shots needed that the budget wasn’t sufficient. There is a scene where a baby chimp is climbing over a couple of the human actors and it is so terribly fake they may as well have just left the tennis ball on a stick that the actors were so obviously actually interacting with in the shot.

None of this means I didn’t enjoy the movie. I did. I just didn’t find it to be the cinematic masterpiece that some seem to be lauding it as. The story it tells is an interesting one and feels like a natural next step after Rise. There are a few LOL moments, a few genuinely tense moments and a few naaawww cute moments. It just has its flaws and is very uneven. A small example of this is during the climatic battle where the tension of hundreds of apes advancing on the human compound is quickly replaced with ridiculouslessness as we witness Koba on a galloping horse maniacally wielding two machine guns. It’s misplaced silliness in what is an otherwise mostly serious movie. Oh, and the 3D is utterly pointless (there is not a single instance where it is warranted. Save yourself the extra $ and stick to 2D). Still, I am looking forward to a few years time when we get Mid-Morning, or Brunch or High Noon of the Planet of the Apes. For all these reasons I give Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 3 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Be sure to head over and read my friend Doctor Ry’s review here.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

 

The Fault in Our Stars (2014) – Movie Review

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Nat Wolfe & Willem Dafoe

Writers: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Director: Josh Boone

Viewed: Wednesday 16 July 2014 @ Event Cinemas Glendale, Newcastle.

The Fault in Our Stars instantly became a favourite book of mine as soon as I read it last year. Great characters, great dialogue and great writing (something that is sorely lacking from much of popular literature these days) and a lack of supernatural creatures made it stand out among the over-abundance of “young adult” fiction that has been hitting the shelves over the last few years. Author, John Green truly created something special. The combination of my love for its source, how impressed I was with Ansel Elgort in the otherwise mediocre Carrie remake last year (you can read me gush about him here), and my interest in seeing Shailene Woodley and Elgort go from playing siblings to lovers in movies released just months apart, made this film one of my most anticipated of 2014. I couldn’t wait. It stands to reason then that university exams, illness and moving to a different State meant I didn’t get to see it until its final day of screening at my new local cinema.

#foreheadbreathing

When Hazel (Woodley, Divergent), suffering thyroid cancer and needing to be constantly fed oxygen through nose tubes, meets Gus (Elgort), in remission from osteosarcoma after having a leg amputated, at a cancer support group, there is an instant attraction between the two teenagers who share a tendency for using big words and a sharp wit. When Hazel introduces Gus to her favourite book “An Imperial Affliction” they soon share a passion for the story and a burning desire to know more about the characters from one-hit-wonder-author, Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe, The Grand Budapest Hotel). The two are soon inseparable, bound for Amsterdam, and set to experience love, disappointment, heartbreak…and maybe even oblivion.

What can I say? This is the film adaptation all book lovers ask for. It’s extremely faithful to its source with all your favourite characters and scenes jumping for the page to the screen. Time is taken to develop the characters and the acting is stellar throughout, with special mentions to Laura Dern (Jurassic Park) as Hazel’s mum and Nat Wolff (New Year’s Eve, though I’m trying not to hold that against him, a guy’s gotta eat, right?) as fellow cancer sufferer, Isaac. The two leads have great chemistry and their love is convincing (to quote the popular internet meme: Still a better love story than Twilight). The ending is inevitable, yet tragic and real. I have a lot of praise for this one and only one criticism, just a small one: the dialogue doesn’t work as well on the big screen as it does on the written page. It’s not as if it is clunky or terrible, it’s just that the way these teenagers speak isn’t what you generally hear in real life and somehow their thoughts, feelings and comments work better when you’re reading them than when you are hearing them. It in no way sullied my enjoyment of watching the movie though.

If you love a romance, or a comedy, or a tearjerker, or a feel-good story, then this one is for you. It has a bit of everything for everyone. It is surprisingly funny, something you might not expect from a movie where the two leads have cancer. You’ll LOL, you’ll TUM (Tear Up Majorly. Start using it. It’s the next big thing, I promise). It is also surprisingly uplifting. You’ll leave with red eyes, but also a smile on your face. For all these reasons I give The Fault in our Stars 4 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Last Vegas (2013) – Movie Review

Last Vegas (2013)

Cast: Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen, Jerry Ferrara, Romany Malco, Roger Bart, Joanna Gleason, Michael Ealy

Writer: Dan Fogelman

Director: Jon Turteltaub

Viewed: Wednesday 19 February 2014 @ Event Cinemas Myer Centre, Brisbane.

Well colour me surprised. Recently, gathering a group of “big name” stars for a comedy hasn’t always meant great results (I’m talking about you Valentine’s Day & New Year’s Eve). Then there is the fact that De Niro has been in some truly terrible films over the last few years, Freeman spent most of 2013 phoning in his performances, and I can’t remember the last time I saw Douglas or Kline in anything, let alone something good (yes, I know Douglas has Behind the Candelabra, but I haven’t seen it so my statement stands). Understandably, I had low expectations heading in to Last Vegas, and I was pleased beyond belief to have them greatly exceeded.

Legend…wait for it…

When Billy (Douglas, The Game) proposes to his less-than-half-his-age girlfriend (Bre Blair, Quarintine 2: Terminal) while delivering a eulogy at a friend’s funeral, his best friends of the last 60 years decide to throw him a bachelor weekend in Vegas. There are some long simmering tensions in the group but Sam (Kline, Wild Wild West) wants to escape his wife (Gleason, Sex and the City) who he is bored with, Archie (Freeman, The Shawshank Redemption) wants to escape his overbearing son (Ealy, Underworld: Awakening), and Paddy (De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook) wants to escape his empty apartment after the death of his wife a year earlier, so they all end up in the city of sin. There they meet lounge singer Diana (Steenburgen, Step Brothers), confront issues from the past and present, and “party like it’s 1959”.

Ok, yes, Last Vegas is as cliché as they come. Everything you think would happen in a “fish out of water” story of a group of 70 year olds partying it up in Vegas certainly does. People laugh at them, they try to get in to clubs, they ogle big breasts, they declare that they must take naps. You’ll also know exactly how the movie is going to end in the first 20 minutes. The thing is, it’s still so much more than that. It’s genuinely funny for one. There was only a small audience in the theatre but everyone was LOLing very often. The comic timing and delivery of the leads is perfect (Morgan Freeman drunk on Red Bull Vodkas comes straight to mind). I actually can’t remember a joke that didn’t work. It’s also extremely moving in a number of places. De Niro doesn’t do vulnerable very often, but he should. Paddy’s anger at Billy and subsequent softening towards him is some of his best work in my recent memory. Billy’s inevitable epiphany towards the end of the movie that he hasn’t been as good a friend as he could and he’s not as young as he used to be also caused a tear to well in my eye. Freeman and Kline get their chance to shine too.

There are a couple of very small negatives. There’s an odd cameo from LMFAOs Redfoo that doesn’t really work (though I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they explained to De Niro what would be happening to him during this scene). A later, smaller cameo hits a better note. A storyline involving Sam and a cross-dressing Roger Bart (The Stepford Wives) doesn’t really evolve into anything (I think it’s supposed to show Sam that “odd couples” can work, but we don’t know enough about he and his wife for this to really resonate). Finally, Billy and Sam aren’t always the most sympathetic of characters. Both of these guys have women at home but are in Vegas acting like single men. Again though, these are all minor and don’t affect the enjoyment of the movie.

This was clearly a very fun movie to make. It’s obvious throughout the entire viewing. There are great performances all round with a couple of the leads even going some way towards mending past transgressions in my mind. The film’s conclusion is rife with sequel opportunities but that’s something I definitely hope doesn’t happen. It works as it is and needs to stay as a standalone (remember how much you loved The Hangover? Remember how fast it went downhill with the sequels? In fact there have been a lot of comparisons between this and The Hangover but the two are completely different brands of comedy). Comedies are hard to judge because everybody has a different sense of humor but I had a great time watching this. For all these reasons I give Last Vegas 4 Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – Movie Review

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Cast: Leonardo DeCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Matthew McConaughey

Writer: Terence Winter

Director: Martin Scorsese

Viewed: Wednesday 22 January 2014 @ Event Cinemas Indooroopilly, Brisbane.

Arguably the most hotly anticipated, non-sequel (Desolation of Smaug, Catching Fire) release of late 2013/early 2014, The Wolf of Wall Street has finally arrived. The internet has been buzzing for more than a year about this movie, with stories of 4-hour running times, issues with ratings, setting records for the use of profanities, extreme drug use, sex and nudity, and glorifying the life of its criminal protagonist, Jordan Belfort, and this was before it was nominated for a slew of Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay). It is not an exaggeration that The Wolf of Wall Street had a lot of hype to live up to. Could it ever possibly have a chance of meeting such high expectations?

Insert high-pitched howl here.

After learning the “true” ways of Wall Street and becoming a licenced stockbroker under the tutelage of Mark Hanna (McConaughey, Mud), Jordan Belfort (DeCaprio, Django Unchained) has soon created his own company, consisting of a group of his friends in an old garage, selling useless “penny stocks” to unsuspecting fools. The scam takes off successfully and soon Belfort and his best friend/partner, Donnie Azoff (Hill, This is the End), have a large office full of workers, are millionaires and are living a high life of sex, drugs, yachts, mansions, and money smuggling. Things begin to come undone for Belfort when an FBI agent (Chandler, Super 8) starts investigating him, but it is ultimately Belfort’s own arrogance that is his true downfall.

Well, expectations met. This movie is great fun. Scorsese has created a world and characters you will love to hate. Belfort is a douche-y as they come, but DeCaprio is so energetic and mesmerising in his performance that you can’t help but understand how the real-life Belfort was easily able to suck so many people in to his schemes. Really, the whole cast has this effect. It’s perfect. McConaughey, in what amounts to a small cameo role, leaves an impression that lasts through the entire film. Hill is just going from strength to strength in Hollywood. Both he and DeCaprio deserve the Oscars they have been nominated for. Margot Robbie (About Time), wow, all of Australia should be proud of the girl from Ramsey Street as she holds her own against some of America’s most famous stars. Her role could have so easily become a caricature, but Robbie keeps that from happening. There just isn’t a single mistake made in the casting process.

If there is anything stopping The Wolf of Wall Street receiving a perfect score, it’s its running time. Three hours isn’t too long for a movie by any means, it’s just that the first two acts are so fast-paced and engrossing that you barely realise they are passing. In the third act, however, when things begin to unravel for Belfort, the film slows down ever so slightly, but it’s enough to make you start checking you watch. Cuts could have been made (well, more cuts anyway, since considerable cuts have already been made to reach the current run time). That is a very small criticism though. It’s not as if you’ll be sighing in relief when the credits start to roll. Possibly quite the opposite because you will be wanting to spend more time with DeCaprio in the role of his career.

It’s impossible to deny that Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas) is a brilliant filmmaker and The Wolf of Wall Street continues his legacy. Plus, who doesn’t love a Scorsese/DeCaprio collaboration (the two of them appear to be working to undo the record kept by Burton and Depp). All his signature techniques are present here, the New York setting, the slow motion, beginning the movie with a scene from further along the storyline. The difference between Scorsese and other directors’ techniques (J.J. Abrams’ lens-flares for example) is that Scorsese never over uses them or makes them feel forced down our throats. In a movie where the subject matter and characters are so horrid and offensive (I can’t imagine any other situation where I would laugh so hard after hearing the words cerebral palsy), he manages to create a perfect balance so you have no choice but to find yourself entertained by what you are experiencing. For all these reasons I give The Wold of Wall Street 4 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Saving Mr. Banks (2013) – Movie Review

Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Ruth Wilson, Annie Rose Buckley, Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitford, B.J. Novak, Jason Schwartzman, Rachel Griffiths

Writers: Kelly Marcel & Sue Smith

Director: John Lee Hancock

Viewed: Friday 17 January 2014 @ Event Cinemas Indooroopilly, Brisbane.

A quick Wikipedia search on the woman who penned the Mary Poppins books makes for a compelling read and the life of P.L. Travers would certainly make for an interesting film. Apparently though, Hollywood was not so interested. That is until it was decided to focus on the production of the Mary Poppins movie. And so we have Saving Mr. Banks, a dramatisation of Travers’ time as a part of the wonderful world of Disney.

Perhaps one of the best movie posters in recent memory.

It’s the early 1960’s and Pamela Travers (Thompson, Love Actually) is running out of money. Walt Disney (Hanks, Cast Away) has been chasing the rights to Mary Poppins for 20 years now and, against her better judgment, Travers relents and decides to meet with Disney and his team, including scriptwriter Don DaGradi (Whitford, The Cabin in the Woods) and songwriters Robert (Novak, Inglourious Basterds) and Richard (Schwartzman, Moonrise Kingdom) Sherman, in L.A.. Travers, however, insists on complete creative control over the film and proceeds to make life extremely difficult for everyone involved in the project. Travers’ time in Los Angeles is intercut with flashbacks to her childhood in Australia were her father (Farrell, Fright Night) struggles with alcoholism, her mother (Wilson, The Lone Ranger) with depression and the young Helen “Ginty” Goff (Travers’ birth name) meets the real-life inspiration for the magical Nanny.

People are saying that Tom Hanks has been “robbed” by not receiving an Oscars nomination for his portrayal as Disney, but it is Thompson who has truly been robbed (although, admittedly, Cate Blanchet deserves the win for Blue Jasmine). As the stern and harshly blunt Travers, Thompson delivers every eye roll, every sigh, every criticism and demand with absolute perfection. The whole cast is indeed in excellent form (Colin Farrell, particularly, delivers his best performance since In Bruges), but this is definitely Thompson’s film and she carries it brilliantly. Don’t get me wrong, Hanks is great too, but not Oscars great.

Other standouts are the set and costume designs, which will have you believing you’ve been transported back to the 60’s. From downtown L.A. to Disneyland, from Disney’s offices to modes of travel, everything looks legit. The scenes in early 1900’s Australia are also well done. They work. Flashbacks aren’t always everybody’s cup of tea but the story being told in these add to the overall narrative of the film and are edited into the main story in such a way that they are never distracting, in fact I found myself waiting for them to find out what would happen next. Annie Rose Buckley, in her first role besides one episode of Home and Away, proves herself extremely capable as the young Travers and has great chemistry with Farrell.

“Based on a true story” films always need to be taken with a grain of salt, and this one probably needs to be taken with a teaspoon on salt (see what I did there?). It has obviously been Disney-fied to the extreme. Travers was not a nice person and almost certainly never softened towards the Mary Poppins movie or the team behind it in the way it is presented for us here. It’s hard to imagine the same woman who demands the exclusion of any songs (along with the colour red) from the movie dancing around the room with the Sherman brothers to on one of the musical inclusions in a matter of a couple of weeks in their company. Making Travers a little more sympathetic than she was in real-life is understandable though. The film wouldn’t work quite was well if she was just an absolute bitch the whole time. As dishonest as it may be, it is a brilliantly made, acted and entertaining movie. For all these reasons I give Saving Mr. Banks 4 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2013) – Movie Review

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2013)

Cast: Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh, Keira Knightly

Writers: Adam Cozad & David Koepp

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Viewed: Thursday 16 January 2014 @ Event Cinemas Myer Center, Brisbane.

Well this was inevitable. I had been having such a good run of seeing great movies that something had to come along to ruin it all. A movie so bad it would finally let me have a good rant. A movie so bad you wonder how the name Kenneth Branagh could be listed in the credits as an actor let alone as the director! A movie so bad you wonder how anyone involved in its production could have ever been taking it seriously. A movie so bad you feel the  company and people responsible for it should be paying you to suffer through it instead of the other way around. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is that movie.

The best thing about this movie: the poster

The movie opens, inexplicably (maybe this is covered in the books but it is certainly given no explanation here) with Jack Ryan (Pine, Star Trek) studying in London. He sees coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on a television and in the next scene is in the military serving in Afghanistan. In a sequence so ridiculously edited you have absolutely no chance of deciphering what is happening a missile hits the helicopter Jack is travelling in and he is horrifically injured. Now he’s in an army hospital learning to walk again and “flirting” with Cathy (Knightly, Atonement), the med student responsible for his rehab. While he’s there Jack is creepily being watched by Thomas Harper (Costner, Waterworld) who may or may not work for the CIA and thinks some reports Jack wrote back in his Afghanistan days were good enough to warrant him becoming a CIA analyst. This is all enough for Jack to really want to walk again. Ten years flash by and Jack and Cathy are together and Jack is, indeed, an analyst for the CIA who works undercover in banks uncovering terrorist financial activities. There’s some suspicious stuff going on with some Russian associates of the bank and, of course, nobody but Ryan is suitable to travel to Moscow and meet with the (possibly) Russian terrorist, Viktor (Brenagh, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Soon Ryan is killing people, Cathy is assisting in CIA sting operations and Russians are trying to start “the next great depression”.

Where do I even start with this garbage? Well, I certainly have nothing positive to say so I’ll jump straight in to the negative. Firstly, every casting decision is terrible. Pine does not at all convince as Ryan and Knightly is flat and boring. Put them both together on screen and there is zero chemistry. It’s like they don’t even know each other when they have supposed to have been together for years. Brenagh as the Russian bad guy? Please. It’s probably his worst performance ever. Costner comes off the best of the bunch, but that isn’t saying much. The script is awful. Events occur simply to progress the “storyline” and rules are established and then broken as soon as it’s convenient. There is never any tension established. You never care for any of the characters or about anything taking place. The direction? Oh dear. There is not a single flourish or shot of originality. There is no love engrained in any of it. No care. It’s lazy, pedestrian work on Branagh’s part and it’s severely disappointing.

“Let’s reboot the Jack Ryan franchise!” they said. “It’ll be great!” they said. They were so very, very wrong. Instead, it’s a piece of shit. There is absolutely nothing to recommend this movie. It’s not worth the price of admission to the cinema and it won’t be worth the price of renting or buying it when it is released on bluray. Hell, it isn’t even worth the time or space it would take up on your computer to illegally download it (not that I would ever condone such a thing). For all these reasons I give Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit 0 Rant and Rave points.

Read my good friend, Doctor Ry’s review here.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

The Book Thief (2013) – Movie Review

The Book Thief (2013)

Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Ben Schnetzer, Sophie Nelisse, Nico Liersch, Roger Allam

Writer: Michael Petroni

Director: Brian Percival

Viewed: Sunday 12 January 2014 @ Event Cinemas Indooroopilly, Brisbane.

The 2006 novel The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak, is a superbly written story. The concept of Death narrating the life events of a small girl he encounters during Nazi Germany is so brilliant, and so wonderfully done, that the book is a pretty perfect entity in itself, making, in my humble (yet all-important) opinion, a film adaptation completely unnecessary. Nethertheless here it is. So how does the story of The Book Thief stand up on the big screen?

That there’s some terrible CGI fire.

After the death of her little brother and abandonment by her Communist mother, Liesel Meminger (Nelisse, Pawn Sacrifice) is taken to live with Hans (Rush, The King’s Speech) and Rosa (Watson, Red Dragon) Hubermann during the rise of Hitler in Germany. In between stealing books whenever the opportunity presents itself, Liesel develops relationships with her “new parents”, the neighbour-boy, Rudy (Liersch, Afrika Ruft Nach Dir), the wife of the Mayor (Barbara Auer, The Weekend), and a Jew named Max (Schnetzer, Ben’s Plan), who has a connection to Hans’ past and shows up on their doorstep one night seeking refuge. Through these friendships Liesel begins to understand the world she is growing up in and that “sometimes when life robs you, you have to rob it back.”

I freely admit it is hard for me not to compare the book and the movie. I really do love the book. That being said though, the movie is pretty damn good too. Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson are both perfectly cast as the Humbermann’s, in fact the whole cast is impressive (the child actors, which can so often ruin a movie, are great); the friendship between Liesel and Max is developed well (the two of them together have some great chemistry and generate most of the movie’s LOL moments); the young love between Liesel and Rudy is sweet, innocent and believable; and the whole town and community of small-town Molching, Germany during WWII is beautifully realised on screen. The film left almost as much of an impression on me as the book (if you don’t have tears in your eyes during the film’s final few minutes there’s every chance you might be missing a small part of your soul).

Sure, some sub-plots from the book have been exercised, but that is necessary and expected. Much of Death’s witty, hauntingly accurate narration has been lost, but again you can’t have everything. Overall it’s still a great story being told, and told well. When watching book adaptations I always wonder: would the author be happy with this? In this case I can’t see how Zusak couldn’t be. For all these reasons I give The Book Thief 4 Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) – Movie Review

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

Cast: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Shirley MacLaine, Sean Penn

Writer: Steve Conrad

Director: Ben Stiller

Viewed: Wednesday 08 January 2014 @ Event Cinemas Indoorooilly, Brisbane.

Going to see Ben Stiller star in a movie can be a big of a gamble. For every Zoolander there is a Little Fockers. For every There’s Something About Mary there’s a Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Going to see a movie that Ben Stiller directed and starred in however, is usually a pretty good investment.  That trend continues with his latest (and easily best) effort, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Sweet dreams are made of this…

Walter (Stiller) is the type of guy who, if this were a Marvel movie, by the one-hour mark would have been injected with some kind of super serum or bitten by a radioactive centipede and developed some crazy powers. He’s the quiet, reserved type who spends his days daydreaming about how his life could be more interesting and pining for the woman (Wiig, Bridesmaids) he doesn’t think could ever even notice him. Having worked at Life magazine for 16 years Walter’s job is suddenly in jeopardy when the publication is bought out and the film negative for the cover photo of the final print edition, for which he is responsible, can’t be found. Clues from other negatives sent in by the photographer, Sean O’Connell (Penn, The Game) lead Walter on an adventure to not only find the missing photo, but also maybe himself.

I didn’t really know what to expect walking in to this movie. The trailer didn’t really give too much away and I have never seen the original 1947 movie or read the short story on which it is based. I hadn’t even heard about the “developmental hell” in which this remake has apparently been stuck in for years. All I know is I was blown away by what I experienced. Walter Mitty is a spectacular work of art. It is shot after shot of beauty. From scene transitions, to landscapes, to the soundtrack (including perhaps the best use of David Bowie’s Space Oddity ever), everything combines perfectly to create something exquisite to watch. The funny, LOL occasions work with moments of heart to create an equilibrium that so few movies successfully achieve. I could not be happier that this was the first movie I saw on the big screen in 2014.

Any negatives I felt while viewing this were only very minor. Sure, there isn’t a great deal of depth to the storyline. It’s very simple. A put-upon guy embarks on a life-changing adventure. It’s been done many times before, but not with so much style. There are a couple of scenes which seem a little OTT, like Walter’s encounter with a shark and a Benjamin Button fantasy sequence, but they still generate laughs so I can’t judge them too harshly. Overall, Stiller has outdone himself here and created something I’ll remember for a long time. I couldn’t recommend it more. For all these reasons I give The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 4 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) – Movie Review

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch

Writers: Fran Walsh, Philipa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro

Director: Peter Jackson

Viewed: Sunday 29 December 2013 @ Event Cinemas Indooroopilly, Brisbane.

Here we go again. Another Boxing Day brings us another bloated piece of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy puzzle. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Part One (looking back at my review I was surprised to find I was rather generous in giving it 3 Rant and Rave points), but early buzz about Part Two was that it was more exciting, more action orientated, and generally just more entertaining. So…is it?

Best. Lighter. Ever.

Bilbo (Freeman, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) continues his unexpected journey to help Thorin (Armitage, Captain America) and the rest of the dwarfs reclaim their homeland of Erebor from the dragon, Smaug. Along the way they encounter a skin shifter, lots of elves, lots of giant spiders, lots of orcs, lots of men and lots of water. Meanwhile, Gandalf (McKellan, X2) goes off to meet up with Radagast (Sylvester McCoy, Doctor Who) and investigate the return of an enemy from the past.

The main problem with this whole NEW trilogy is still glaringly present in that it is trying so damn hard to be so much like the OLD trilogy. There are too many occasions to count while watching Desolation where you find yourself thinking: This is just like what happened in insert name of one of the original The Lord of the Rings trilogy! I’ve never read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but I have it on good authority that there are many, many inclusions to these movies that aren’t in the written version at all, and important events from the books are rushed through or completely missing from the movies. You would think having three long movies to adapt one short book would mean that everything could be included, but Jackson and Co. appear more interested in remaking The Lord of the Rings.

All that being said, Desolation is definitely better than Journey. In many ways. Not only for the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph, which are indeed true, but also because there is finally some progression to the overall story. While Journey was just an unnecessarily long introduction, Desolation actually has something to tell. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment in Desolation though is Smaug the dragon. This is easily the best dragon ever depicted on film. The design is flawless and Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness) is perfect. You can tell there was A LOT of time and effort put in to bringing this beast to life and it was well worth it. I also viewed this in the higher frame rate (I didn’t bother seeing Journey in 48fps) and was pleasantly surprised. I had heard many negative opinions on Jackson’s decision to present these films like this, but I loved it. Everything was so sharp and clear, even in 3D. I hope more directors embrace this in the future.

In the end it doesn’t really matter what is said about these movies. At this point Peter Jackson could probably film a short person with hairy feet taking a three hour dump in some random, lush New Zealand (which is practically a character too. There are some amazingly beautiful landscapes shown here) field and people would flock to see it. The Box Office takings for these films speaks for itself. He’s unarguably a great storyteller though, and he has certainly learned how to create a cliffhanger! Unlike last year, this time around I am absolutely looking forward to the next (and final) installment of The Hobbit trilogy. For all these reasons I give The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug 4 Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Frozen (2013) – Movie Review

Frozen (2013)

Cast: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk

Writer: Jennifer Lee

Directors: Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee

Viewed: Sunday 15 December 2013 @ Event Cinemas Indooroopilly, Brisbane.

Peter Pan, The Sword in the Stone, The Rescuers & The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, A Goofy Movie, Pocahontas, the Toy Story trilogy, Hercules, Mulan, A Bug’s Life, Dinosaur, The Emperor’s New Groove, Monsters Inc., Lilo & Stitch, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Up, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and now….Frozen. Looking back on my list of all-time favourite animated (there are many, many more live-action) Disney movies is looking back on some of my best memories, and I’m sure it must be the same for a lot of people. Disney is (hopefully) a part of every childhood and, as my list shows, adulthood as well. While my favourites might lean more heavily towards the Disney “classics” of the past, it is also clear that they have not lost their magic in more recent years. Their latest release, Frozen, is even more proof of this.

Winter is coming.

As young children, Anna (Bell, Burlesque) and Elsa (Menzel, Rent), Princesses of the Kingdom of Arendelle, are inseparable. That is until Elsa’s magical power to create ice and snow almost kills Anna and Elsa begins a self-imposed exile behind her bedroom’s closed doors. When both their parents die (because it wouldn’t be a Disney movie without a missing parent or two) and Elsa comes of age, the castle gates are opened for the first time in years to celebrate Elsa’s coronation. It is then, caused by a series of unfortunate events including Anna falling instantly in love with Prince Hans (Fontana, The Importance of Being Earnest), that Elsa looses control of her powers and plunges the kingdom into an ever-lasting winter. More self-exile ensues. Anna must now go on a quest, joined by mountain man Kristoff (Groff, Taking Woodstock) who just wants his ice selling business to be booming again, and hilarious snowman Olaf (Gad, Jobs) who dreams of experiencing a summer, to bring Elsa back to Arendelle and, hopefully, an end to the winter.

Everything about this movie is an absolute joy. From the opening moments of individual, intricate snowflakes forming on screen, to the sensational soundtrack, to the endless LOL moments throughout the entire film, the smile never left my face. There also may have been some tears welling in the eyes on a couple of occasions. The animation is top-notch, the voice work is outstanding, every song is catchy (you’ll almost definitely be singing your way out of the cinema as you exit), it’s funny for all ages, instead of “Good Vs Evil” it’s a story of family sticking together, and there was an audible gasp throughout the whole audience in the screening I attended when a big twist is revealed. What more could you ask for from Disney?

Frozen is a triumph. Disney has well and truly done it again. It’s their latest in a long line of masterpieces. If you have kids you NEED to take them to see this movie. If you don’t have kids you just need to go see it for yourself. You won’t be disappointed. I certainly wasn’t. For all these reasons I give Frozen 5 Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Related articles

• Review: Frozen is classic Disney, in the best sense (kcci.com)
• Theater Time: Frozen (2013) (ivejustseenafilm.wordpress.com)
• Movie Review: Frozen (ecscourierandnest.wordpress.com)
• Frozen (2013) – Film Review (jpatreviews.wordpress.com)
• Frozen (hakunamatata42.wordpress.com)
• Another Great Disney Movie: “Frozen” (themoviebuffs.wordpress.com)
• Frozen (mnmentertainment.wordpress.com)

Carrie (2013) – Movie Review

Carrie (2013)

Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday, Alex Russell, Ansel Elgort, Judy Greer

Writers: Lawrence D. Cohen & Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Director: Kimberley Peirce

Viewed: Thursday 28 November 2013 @ Event Cinemas Indooroopilly, Brisbane.

I’ve only ever seen the original 1976 Carrie film once, when I was pretty young, and I don’t remember it too fondly. I recall it as slow, boring, having very little payoff in its finale and being a very horror-less horror movie. Nether the less it has earned its status as a “Classic” and so, as is the current trend, a reboot was inevitable. I went in to this “new” version with no expectations and found myself confused by the results.

The lady in red is dancing with me….

Carrie (Moretz, Kick-Ass) is a social pariah at school. Shy, quiet and awkward, she spends her day walking around with her head down and sitting alone at lunch. Things aren’t any better at home with her religious-nut mother (Moore, Hannibal) who is both physically and emotionally abusive to the extreme. When Carrie experiences her first period at school in the gym shower, the other girls, led by super-bitch Chris (Doubleday, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son) taunt, film on their cell phones and throw tampons at her. Chris’s BFF Sue starts to feel bad for her part in the teasing and becomes sympathetic toward Carrie, going so far as sacrificing her perfect night at Prom with her athletic boyfriend Tommy (Elgort, Divergent) and asking him to take Carrie instead. Chris, banned from Prom and suspended from school after rebelling against the punishment set out by Ms. Desjardin (Greer, Suddenly 30), rallies her bad-ass boyfriend, Billy (Russell, Bait) and a few of her still loyal mean girl friends to play a cruel prank on Carrie. Carrie, meanwhile, has started to learn she has telekinetic abilities. A skill she gets to put to good use on Prom night.

New Carrie is, in many ways, much the same as old Carrie. Expect for some slight modernisations such as the use of phones and the internet there is nothing to distinguish that this is all taking place in the present day rather than the 70’s. So, what makes the 2013 Carrie slightly more enjoyable than the 1976 Carrie? Two things really: the improvement in special effects in the past 40 years, and the cast. Moretz is fantastic. As both the shy, naïve, downtrodden version and the snapped, driven over the edge, revenge-fueled version of Carrie, she completely nails it. Moore is talented enough to handle the insanity of Margaret White without going too over the top. Margaret is certainly crazy, but Moore makes her believably crazy. Ansel Egort though is the absolute standout. In his first acting role he is ridiculously perfect as Tommy, the dumb jock, great boyfriend and sweet Prom date. Hell even I practically fell in love with the guy! Everything Elgort does here just makes me all the more excited for the The Fault in our Stars movie coming in 2014. The book is a favourite of mine and I now believe he’ll be just as perfect as Augustus there as he is as Tommy here. The only negatives in the character pool are perhaps Chris and Billy, and it’s in no way the fault of Doubleday and Russell (who are great), but the script. Chris is way OTT bitchy throughout the entire movie, and at the end both her and Billy practically become Bond villains with the lengths they are willing to go. These are high school kids! It’s supposed to make you cheer that little bit more when you see both of their slow-mo, violent and graphic death scenes (which are, admittedly, awesome), but it is just taken too far.

The very existence of this reboot is bizarre. It’s well known that, unless Frank Darabont is at the helm, films adapted from Stephen King stories are usually pretty shitty, so why are people still trying? Plus, there are so many unadapted King books out there, why choose one that has already been done? 2013 has also been a pretty good year for horror, and Carrie is marketed as a horror, but for most of its running time it is more of a drama. There are very few thrills so it has no chance of standing out against the likes of Evil Dead and The Conjuring. While this was a movie I did enjoy watching, it was mainly because of the stellar cast (and a few nice deaths at the end), and very little to do with the movie itself. For all these reasons I give Carrie 2 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Related articles

• Carrie (2013) (tenstarsorless.wordpress.com)
• Watch Carrie Online Movie Review 2013 (movieboxoffices.wordpress.com)
• Howl-oween Series – Part II: Carrie vs. Carrie (grtfilm.wordpress.com)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) – Movie Review

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsowrth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz

Writers: Simon Beaufoy & Michael Arndt

Director: Francis Lawrence

Viewed: Saturday 23 November 2013 @ Event Cinemas Indooroopilly, Brisbane.

This is what I’ve been waiting for. It’s no exaggeration to say that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was THE movie I have been eagerly anticipating in 2013. I had extremely high expectations and, for once, the were actually met. Exceeded even! While I’m a fan of the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy, the second, which this film is based on, was disappointing (don’t even get me started on the third which is just a horrible mess). It’s badly written, the dialog is terrible, and far too many pages are turned before the contestants finally enter the arena. This arena (and, to a lesser extent, the conspiracy reveal at the end) is the book’s saving grace. It’s an inventive labyrinth of horrors and I couldn’t wait to see it realised on the screen.

And we’re gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn…

Since surviving the 74^th Hunger Games, Katniss (Lawrence, X-Men: First Class) and Peeta (Hutcherson, Zathura) have been moved into cushy new digs inside District 12 and are richer than they ever could have imagined. Outside District 12 however, their defiance against the Capitol in the arena has caused unrest among the citizen of Panem (viva la revolution!) and angered President Snow (Sutherland, The Best Offer), who figures the best way to regain peace is to kill Katniss. Luckily this year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Games and a Quarter Quell, allowing for Snow to force Katniss back in to the Games to fight for her life yet again, only this time against Champions who have all  won the Games previously.

There have been criticisms that Catching Fire has much the same story line of The Hunger Games. There is no denying this. Yes, Katniss still lives in an oppressive society ruled by an evil Dictator. Yes, Katniss and Peeta find themselves back in the Games. Yes, Haymitch is still an alcoholic. This doesn’t mean though that this sequel is just a repeat of the original. The first half of the movie deals with the fall-out from the controversial end to the last games, doing a great job of continuing the story and pushing it forward. The stakes this time are also much higher. Katniss isn’t just fighting for herself and Peeta in the Games, but for everyone she knows and loves (and, really, for all of Panem). Lawrence (and the script) does a great job expressing this to the audience. You can practically feel the weight on her shoulders. The Game itself in this movie is also very different. Much more time is spent with other Tributes and the arena is way more complex, visually appealing and more entertaining to watch. Oh, and the overabundance of shaky-cam is gone. It wasn’t disastrous in the last film but it’s disappearance is a welcome relief. Thanks, Francis Lawrence!

This movie has more than you could ever ask for in a sequel to The Hunger Games. More Hemsworth, more Sutherland, more Tucci, more Banks (there’s more Kravitz too, but you can’t win them all). The Twilight-inspired love triangle is fleshed out more convincingly while not detracting from the larger story. There are more tear-in-your-eyes moments. The new supporting characters are more interesting and have personality. Peeta’s hair has even been improved. Everything about this film is better than the first and it’s definitely better than the book. How often do you ever get to say that about ANY movie? For all these reasons I give The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 4 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page

Related articles

• Hunger Games: Catching Fire (fabianestrada.wordpress.com)
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (filmsaccordingtolo.wordpress.com)
• Catching Fire – The Movie (bookjourney.wordpress.com)
• ‘Catching Fire’: Ten Thumbs Up! (themovieclubbers.wordpress.com)

Live, Love, Laugh – An Update

So I’ve been SUPER busy taking the inspirational advice of all those signs I see everywhere and living, loving, laughing. I have therefore fallen a teen, tiny bit behind on my writing. I have, thank God I hear you all sigh with relief, still found time for watching so I thought I better give some quick thoughts on the movies I have seen since my last post.

Please hold

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Rene Russo, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard

Writers: Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely

Director: Alan Taylor

Look. I REALLY want to be able to say great things about Thor: TDW, but the best I can come up with is: it was fun. I mean, half the movie doesn’t even make sense, and not in the sorta-Gods-fighting-aliens-on-Earth “doesn’t make sense”, but in the the-plot-doesn’t-make-any-sense “doesn’t-make-sense”.

Lightning crashes, a new mother cries…

Like, why does Malekith want to return the universe to darkness again? I mean, he wipes out pretty much his entire race at the start of the movie so I don’t see what his motivation is. And why didn’t Odin’s dad go after Malekith after the big battle of the prologue? Couldn’t be bothered? Figured he’s stay vanquished? Saw the ship go invisible and just thought “well, that’s going to be hard to track, best leave it for some furture generations to deal with”? And why is Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) phoning it in so terribly? I thought Natalie Portman (Garden State) was the one who wanted out of her contract! And how was the bifrost bridge thingy repaired? Destroying it seemed like a pretty big deal in the first movie. I know they skipped over this in The Avengers too but it kinda should have been addressed here (plus The Avengers was WAY more awesome than T:TDW, so is WAY more easily forgiven). And how do those sticks in the ground create portals to the other realms? I think Stellan Skarsgard (Deep Blue Sea) explained it to Stan Lee in the psych hospital scene but I don’t really think it was legit. And why oh why is Chris Hemsworth (Rush) shirtless only once and for such a short amount of time? So many questions, so few answers.

The good parts included: Rene Russo (The Thomas Crown Affair) getting to do more than just stand around like she did in the first film, realising more Kat Dennings (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), who is perfection in everything she does, is always a good things and performing re-shoots to accommodate this, Tom Hiddleston (War Horse) who is yet another example of perfection, an awesome cameo from another Avenger, and some fantastic action scenes which were bigger and better than anything seen in Thor.

I can’t deny it was entertaining, there were many LOL moments and the special effects were amazing, but there was also a lot wrong with it. 3 Rant and Rave points.

The Heat (2013)

What the hell have they done to Melissa McCarthy’s face?

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Marlon Wayans, Michael Rapaport

Writer: Katie Dippold

Director: Paul Feig

I don’t get what the deal is with making Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) a foul-mouthed slob in movies. Looking back on her career and she has never been funnier than she is playing (relatively) normal characters in Mike & Molly and yes, even Gilmore Girls. Why do directors insist on grossing her up? Maybe it’s just me. Anyway, The Heat is still funny even if it is a clichéd as they come. Straight, by the books cop has to team up with crazy, anything goes cop to catch the bad guy. Will these two polar opposites learn to accept and rely on each other by the end of the movie while learning a few life lessons along the way? SPOLIER ALERT! Yes. Yes they will. 3 ½ Rant and Rave points.

Monsters University (2013)

Cast: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren

Writers: Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird & Dan Scanlon

Director: Dan Scanlon

They did the mash…

I’ve always had this idea that at the end of Monsters Inc., when Mike and Sulley repair the door to Boo’s bedroom and peek inside, it would be great to see that Boo is now a grown up woman and is in there tucking her own daughter in to bed. She turns, sees the monsters, and has the same look of surprise and happiness that they have on their faces as the movie fades to black. I’ve just always wanted to know what they see! I’m as big a fan as an Inception ambiguous ending as the next person, just not in my Disney movies! Anyway, I tell you this as some kind of crazy explanation as to why I believe a SEquel to Monsters Inc. probably would have worked so much better than this PREquel.

There’s just something missing in Monsters University, and I’m pretty sure it’s Boo. Not only was she funny and ridiculously adorable, but she was the human element for us to connect to in a world of monsters. She’s sorely missed. Now that we know that children’s screams are less powerful than laughter, it seems pointless to make a movie about monsters learning all the different techniques to make kids scream. And “Scare Games”? Just, pfft. Also, as with almost all prequels, the stakes aren’t quite as high when you know the eventual outcome.

Having said all this I am obviously not the target audience for this kind of movie and I wasn’t sitting through the whole thing wishing for it to be over. 2 ½ Rant and Rave points.

The Wolverine (2013)

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sananda, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Brian Tee, Hal Yamanouchi, Famke Janssen

I could totes have abs like that too if I wanted…I just don’t wanna

Writers: Mark Bomback & Scott Frank

Director: James Mangold

I have to admit, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this one. Call me a Movie Racist if you will but I’m just not a fan of “samurai movies”. I don’t go out of my way to see them. Wolverine in Japan? It didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t even bother seeing this in cinemas, but a 14 hour flight is the perfect opportunity to catch up on these things. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s great to see Wolverine finally get his own, decent movie. Now we can all pretend that Origins things doesn’t even exist (though I think many fans out there were already doing that). Good storyline (oh no! Logan isn’t healing), good characters (only one or two b-grade mutants to keep track of instead of the usual ten thousand), good action (blades! arrows! claws!). Things do go a little off the rails at the end when Logan is fighting a giant, adamantium samurai (why couldn’t it just be human sized? Theoretically it would be just as powerful) but it isn’t so bad as to ruin the whole movie. 3 ½ Rant and Rave points.

The Lone Ranger (2013)

Nothing about this poster makes any kind of sense. And check out the creepy midgets behind Helena Bonham Carter!

Cast: Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter , James Badge Dale

Writers: Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio

Director: Gore Verbinski

It’s been pretty much impossible to avoid all the negativity that has been surrounding The Lone Ranger since its release. While it’s no Fried Green Tomatoes (i.e. cinematic masterpiece), I don’t think it’s anywhere near as bad as we have been led to believe. It’s long. WAY long. Noticeably long, which is probably it’s biggest negative. There are so many aspects of the storyline that could have been tightened to shorten the running time. It’s an entertaining story though. The presentation of the narration is particularly interesting. There’s a good cast. Depp (Sleepy Hollow) is great, as always. He has this sort of thing down pat. Hammer (The Social Network) works as the title character. The special effects and action scenes are enjoyable, even if there are often long stretches in between them. All in all it’s an enjoyable movie, just not one you ever find yourself captivated in or on the edge of your seat. 3 Rant and Rave points.

The Best Offer (2013)

Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks, Donald Sutherland

Writers: Giuseppe Tornatore

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

Bizarre movie. Strange story. Peculiar characters. A slow-burner with a great payoff at the end. Stick with it through the absurdity and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Nothing more to say really. 4 Rant and Rave points.

The Conjuring (2013)

Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston

Writers: Chad Hayes & Carey Hayes

Director: James Wan

Oh, James Wan (Saw), you so scary! Even without Leigh Whannell (Insidious). What though, is your obsession with freaky, scary dolls? Do you just coincidently happen to know my kryptonite? And poor Lily Taylor (Public Enemies). That poor bitch puts herself through some hell for her parts (see The Haunting and Six Feet Under). And finally, Ron Livingston (Parkland). I’m sorry, Ron but you’ll always be Burger to me and I’ll never be able to forgive you for being such a dick to Carrie on Sex and the City.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, The Conjuring is pretty damn good. Plenty of Boo! moments. Some great makeup effects. Patrick Wilson (Little Children), who I love. Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), who I love. Horror, which I love. A family living in a haunted house that do smart things like all sleep together in the lounge and chain creepy, banging doors closed. They even realise they need paranormal investigators pretty quickly. They do, of course, do some dumb things (the least of which being not wearing a freakin’ condom! How many kids do these people want?), but not enough of them that you’re rooting for them to be killed like in oh so many horror movies these days. 4 Rant and Rave points.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Please comment below or email rantandravereviews@gmail.com

Show your support for Rant and Rave reviews by clicking the Follow button at the top of the page