More often than not, I have a hunch about a film before I watch it. Sometimes as I'm putting a DVD in the player, or am rushing from work to get to the cinema in time, I make a little bet with myself that I am going to enjoy a movie, just like when I bought my ticket for Shaun of the Dead at Kingston Odeon all those years ago. I just had a feeling. It's a double-edged sword though, because there are other occasions when I just know that something is going to offend me and really try my patience. The Holiday is the ultimate example of that. I just knew. I'm not saying that these hunches are always right, I thought I was going to love Sucker Punch and I was convinced that I was going to hate Notting Hill. It's this unpredictability that makes going to the flicks still a nugget of excitement. Having said this though, I don't think I've ever predicted a feeling of complete and utter indifference. That is until I decided to watch Date Night on Sky Movies. I didn't think I was going to like it particularly, but equally, I didn't think it would repulse me.....
At it turns out, my gut instinct was spot on.
It's a nice little idea. A married couple (Steve Carell and Tina Fey), constantly exhausted and frustrated with their lives working and looking after kids, try to keep the romance going and the spark alive by arranging date nights - a night when they go out, just the two of them, to remind themselves that there is a relationship in there somewhere. Only on this occasion, when struggling to get into a restaurant, they take someone else's reservation. Then through mistaken identity they are taken on an adventure involving the mafia, flashdrives, bribery, security experts, bent cops and criminals.
The first thing to say is how well it starts off. The 15 - 20 minute introduction to the Carell and Fey characters and their marriage is really well handled. There's some nice comedy as they are woken up at stupid o clock in the morning by rampaging kids when all they want is a day of kip. Then for them to get home and have to rouse themselves for date night is a super human feat in itself. Part of the appeal is that the couple seem so down to earth, all of us have got home from a meal with the girlfriend and felt a bit too 'gassy' for any nookie, but a lot of the credit goes to Carell and Fay themselves. Both are instantly likeable and inherently amusing, even when working with the subtle material provided to them at the beginning of the film. It's great to watch the two of them exchanging patter about other couples while sat eating dinner. However, this connection with the two leads is quickly lost when the film descends into the madness. The script attempts to go back to the stability of the relationship a couple of times during all of the action, and they should be commended for trying to keep the heart of the film there, but the truth is it feels tacked on and gets lost in the frenetic film that it is.
So, as we get teased with the promise of a decent study of married life, only to have it snatched away and morphed into an action/buddy movie, what is the rest of it like? Passable. No more than that I'm afraid. I never really bought the whole set-up, and if you haven't got that suspension of disbelief in place then we're in trouble. One second they're drunk over dinner, the next they're breaking into buildings and getting into car chases. Despite my issues with it, I must admit that the set pieces are well put together and the studio have obviously chucked a bit of cash at the film which does show. The car chase being a good example of a comedic action scene.
I just wish that I could say the same for the comedy set pieces. More often than not they miss the spot. For example, a scene where both Carell and Fey have to perform a pole dance is an attempt at slap stick comedy but doesn't come close. It was more awkward to watch, which through The Office we know is a type of comedy in itself, but I don't think that's what the intention was though. It was all a bit of a tumbleweed moment.
Cameo appearances are lobbed in there in an attempt to keep things fresh, Mark Wahlberg is his good old deadpan self, James Franco and Mila Kunis tickle but no more than that as a criminal couple, Mark Ruffalo has one scene, which involves proper acting, through which his quality shines. We also have Ray Liotta (who says he's type cast?) as the mafia boss and William Fichtner as the DA of New York City, both hamming it up as the roles require.
So, in short, there's some good stuff there (mostly in the first 15 minutes), there's some bad stuff there, and some ok stuff thrown in for good measure. All put together though, it doesn't really have any cohesion and is probably only just good enough to pass the time for an hour and a half. If you're trying to impress a girl on a date by putting on a DVD though, this is not the one.
About Me
- Ollie Miney
- Lover of all things film, ready to tell you what to avoid, and more importantly, what to seek out.
Showing posts with label Mila Kunis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mila Kunis. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Sunday, 23 January 2011
BLACK SWAN (2010)
I signed up for my Curzon membership in New Year's Day and since then I've been spoilt by the offerings released during January. First The King's Speech, then 127 Hours and now Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. Rarely do films live up to the hype quite as much as these three, but to have them all released within a fortnight of each other is incredible.
Thought of as a female companion piece to his last film The Wrestler, Black Swan is also the moment where Natalie Portman really steps up a level. Sure she has been in great films and impressed before, but this is a hell of a performance. At the beginning of the film, her Nina is a introverted, overly controlled, almost cowardly dancer who strives for perfection. The dancing is her personality, the be all and end all, nothing else. Portman is a big screen presence but she seems to almost shrink herself during the opening scenes. Her fragility is very convincing and makes her transformation and what comes after even more impressive.
Once she is cast as the Swan Queen in a huge production of Swan Lake the film really gets going. She is told by the sexual predatory artistic director of the production, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) that she must find the Black Swan within her in order to really make the part her own. What follows is a transformation in Nina's character that is at times terrifying, which tests her sanity leaving her constantly questioning what is reality. The duelling personalities and disturbing visions give Portman plenty to get her teeth into and she really excels. The story of the film has parallels to the story of Swan Lake and it very cleverly refers to the story in a lot of the developments.
The world of ballet gives Aronofsky a fantastic canvas to spread his genius across. Rivalry and insecurities are rife in a cut throat world that make it all the more believable that Nina's situation is as serious as a matter of life and death. The main rival (well apart from herself) is Lily, played by Mila Kunis, last seen being as exciting as scenery in The Book of Eli. She is much better on this occasion though, being everything that Nina is not. Confident, unpredictable, impulsive. She acts as the embodiment of the Black Swan that Nina must find in herself, only causing Nina to be even more unsure of herself.
My description so far makes it seem a little like a normal sport-type film, much like the wrestler in fact. Girl wants to succeed but must overcome barriers, blah, blah, blah. However, while The Wrestler is all gritty realism, and to be fair Black Swan does start very much grounded in reality, this film quickly takes a shift into fantasy - dream-like (well more nightmare-like) sequences represent Nina's sanity unravelling. And who better to handle these trips than Aronofsky? There are fantastic moments, involving mirrors, drug-induced visions, some are genuinely terrifying and jumpy, with some quite brutal violence thrown in for good measure. In fact at times it does resemble a horror film and is all the better for it.
Aronofsky also pays a lot attention to the detail of the dancing itself. You see muscles flexing under pressure, you hear bones and toes creak - I was really left under no illusion as to the strain these dancers put on their body. He also manages to put you in the thick of it, the camera twirls with the dancers, almost choreographed itself, the intensity of the performance passed onto the viewer. It's important that special mention goes to Portman's dancing. I've heard that she went through some very intense training, which included a broken rib, to make the performance scenes completely convincing, but it's all worth it as when she is dancing it's beautiful to watch. I'm almost tempted to go to the ballet......
The supporting cast are a mixed bag. Barbara Hersey is very good as Nina's overly controlling and pushy mother, adding to the claustrophobia of Nina's situation. Vincent Cassel does what he is asked to do well, but much of his dialogue is pervy innuendo, a bit Carry On Plie. It's good to see Winona Ryder back in something more fitting to her talent as a bitter, has-been performer. She gets possibly the scariest and most brutal scene which is still sitcking with me now 36 hours later.
Go and see it, I urge you. From the trailer you wouldn't expect it to be one that must be seen at the cinema, but I'm telling you it benefits hugely from the big screen. It won't be what you expect either, you are taken on a ride that you do not want to end. It's an epic piece of film-making, by a creative film-maker with a absolutely first class central performance. Much like 127 Hours then, and if it were up to me, the Best Director Oscar would be a two horse race between Aronofsky and Boyle.
Thought of as a female companion piece to his last film The Wrestler, Black Swan is also the moment where Natalie Portman really steps up a level. Sure she has been in great films and impressed before, but this is a hell of a performance. At the beginning of the film, her Nina is a introverted, overly controlled, almost cowardly dancer who strives for perfection. The dancing is her personality, the be all and end all, nothing else. Portman is a big screen presence but she seems to almost shrink herself during the opening scenes. Her fragility is very convincing and makes her transformation and what comes after even more impressive.
Once she is cast as the Swan Queen in a huge production of Swan Lake the film really gets going. She is told by the sexual predatory artistic director of the production, Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) that she must find the Black Swan within her in order to really make the part her own. What follows is a transformation in Nina's character that is at times terrifying, which tests her sanity leaving her constantly questioning what is reality. The duelling personalities and disturbing visions give Portman plenty to get her teeth into and she really excels. The story of the film has parallels to the story of Swan Lake and it very cleverly refers to the story in a lot of the developments.
The world of ballet gives Aronofsky a fantastic canvas to spread his genius across. Rivalry and insecurities are rife in a cut throat world that make it all the more believable that Nina's situation is as serious as a matter of life and death. The main rival (well apart from herself) is Lily, played by Mila Kunis, last seen being as exciting as scenery in The Book of Eli. She is much better on this occasion though, being everything that Nina is not. Confident, unpredictable, impulsive. She acts as the embodiment of the Black Swan that Nina must find in herself, only causing Nina to be even more unsure of herself.
My description so far makes it seem a little like a normal sport-type film, much like the wrestler in fact. Girl wants to succeed but must overcome barriers, blah, blah, blah. However, while The Wrestler is all gritty realism, and to be fair Black Swan does start very much grounded in reality, this film quickly takes a shift into fantasy - dream-like (well more nightmare-like) sequences represent Nina's sanity unravelling. And who better to handle these trips than Aronofsky? There are fantastic moments, involving mirrors, drug-induced visions, some are genuinely terrifying and jumpy, with some quite brutal violence thrown in for good measure. In fact at times it does resemble a horror film and is all the better for it.
Aronofsky also pays a lot attention to the detail of the dancing itself. You see muscles flexing under pressure, you hear bones and toes creak - I was really left under no illusion as to the strain these dancers put on their body. He also manages to put you in the thick of it, the camera twirls with the dancers, almost choreographed itself, the intensity of the performance passed onto the viewer. It's important that special mention goes to Portman's dancing. I've heard that she went through some very intense training, which included a broken rib, to make the performance scenes completely convincing, but it's all worth it as when she is dancing it's beautiful to watch. I'm almost tempted to go to the ballet......
The supporting cast are a mixed bag. Barbara Hersey is very good as Nina's overly controlling and pushy mother, adding to the claustrophobia of Nina's situation. Vincent Cassel does what he is asked to do well, but much of his dialogue is pervy innuendo, a bit Carry On Plie. It's good to see Winona Ryder back in something more fitting to her talent as a bitter, has-been performer. She gets possibly the scariest and most brutal scene which is still sitcking with me now 36 hours later.
Go and see it, I urge you. From the trailer you wouldn't expect it to be one that must be seen at the cinema, but I'm telling you it benefits hugely from the big screen. It won't be what you expect either, you are taken on a ride that you do not want to end. It's an epic piece of film-making, by a creative film-maker with a absolutely first class central performance. Much like 127 Hours then, and if it were up to me, the Best Director Oscar would be a two horse race between Aronofsky and Boyle.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
THE BOOK OF ELI (2010)
Everyone is seemingly obsessed with the end of the world at the moment. Emmerich is trying to make it into a theme park ride, John Hillcoat using it as a chance to ponder humanity, the Potter films have reached the point where the world is completely under threat and you can't swing a Mayan calendar now without coming across a zombie plague that will sweep the globe. And now even the Hughes Brothers have got good old Denzel Washington in the saddle for their own take on Armageddon.
They take the Cormac McCarthy approach and don't explain fully how we have arrived where we are, there is talk of a bright flash in the past and everyone wears sunglasses in this sandy, Mad Max-like world, so something 'Triffid' like is alluded to. Towns have the feel of those in a Western, looters and murderers line the roads, traps are set to snare you and steal your supplies. It's not as bleak as the situation in The Road, as there are more survivors, but you sense it's a lot more dangerous.
Denzel is the eponymous Eli, a lone introverted traveller who's only mission it seems is to 'Go West' (luckily to rescue the tone of the film The Hughes Brothers resist the temptation to have The Pet Shop Boys on the soundtrack). He is also carrying a book, and quite a significant book at that (there is one great visual nod to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code phenomenon), that seems to be at the root of his quest. Which brings us to the villain of the piece, Carnegie (Gary Oldman in true British bad buy fashion) who wants to get his hands on this book as he believes it holds great power and will aid his plan for ruling the people of his town and others that neighbour it.
The problem with the film for me is that is suffers an identity crisis, it doesn't know what it wants to be. One second its a very tense, well-executed thriller, with fine action sequences, splashes of gore, in fact, again, it's very Mad Max. But then there are ponderous moments where Denzel ramps up his acting and goes into whisper-mode and the film tries to explore religion and how it can be used to rule and the power of words and ideas, which are all very interesting themes, and to the film's credit, it does get you thinking, but it just doesn't sit right alongside all the fast paced action.
It's a shame because the film does a lot very well. The Hughes Brothers have created a great looking movie, the colour palette suits the sun drenched locations, they handle the action fantastically, notably a great gun fight featuring our hero and Michael Gambon (!) where the camera sweeps around the action putting you right into the thick of it. Denzel is, well Denzel. Always dependable, doing what he does best in these types of films. Gary Oldman hams it up as the baddie and clearly loves it, but then he can do that sort of thing with his eyes closed. As far as the cast goes, its only Mila Kunis as Eli's travel companion for the second half of the film, that fails to convince. Her performance felt a bit weak compared to all the heavy hitting going on around her. Oh and Malcolm McDowell turns up at the end which is always a treat.
So when it finished, I asked myself whether I enjoyed it, and the answer is I did. The trouble was the schizophrenia that the films suffers from. It's neither one thing nor the other. I thought that I should have been more upset and affected by the film's conclusion, which is I suspect down to this failing, the action detracting from the themes running through it. At the same time I wasn't as thrilled as I should have been by the action. I was gutted because I wanted to enjoy it, The Hughes Brothers make interesting films (Menace II Society, the great looking but flawed From Hell, but most of all the fantastic Dead Presidents) and they've done it again here (it is genuinely interesting) but it just doesn't quite hit the mark......
They take the Cormac McCarthy approach and don't explain fully how we have arrived where we are, there is talk of a bright flash in the past and everyone wears sunglasses in this sandy, Mad Max-like world, so something 'Triffid' like is alluded to. Towns have the feel of those in a Western, looters and murderers line the roads, traps are set to snare you and steal your supplies. It's not as bleak as the situation in The Road, as there are more survivors, but you sense it's a lot more dangerous.
Denzel is the eponymous Eli, a lone introverted traveller who's only mission it seems is to 'Go West' (luckily to rescue the tone of the film The Hughes Brothers resist the temptation to have The Pet Shop Boys on the soundtrack). He is also carrying a book, and quite a significant book at that (there is one great visual nod to Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code phenomenon), that seems to be at the root of his quest. Which brings us to the villain of the piece, Carnegie (Gary Oldman in true British bad buy fashion) who wants to get his hands on this book as he believes it holds great power and will aid his plan for ruling the people of his town and others that neighbour it.
The problem with the film for me is that is suffers an identity crisis, it doesn't know what it wants to be. One second its a very tense, well-executed thriller, with fine action sequences, splashes of gore, in fact, again, it's very Mad Max. But then there are ponderous moments where Denzel ramps up his acting and goes into whisper-mode and the film tries to explore religion and how it can be used to rule and the power of words and ideas, which are all very interesting themes, and to the film's credit, it does get you thinking, but it just doesn't sit right alongside all the fast paced action.
It's a shame because the film does a lot very well. The Hughes Brothers have created a great looking movie, the colour palette suits the sun drenched locations, they handle the action fantastically, notably a great gun fight featuring our hero and Michael Gambon (!) where the camera sweeps around the action putting you right into the thick of it. Denzel is, well Denzel. Always dependable, doing what he does best in these types of films. Gary Oldman hams it up as the baddie and clearly loves it, but then he can do that sort of thing with his eyes closed. As far as the cast goes, its only Mila Kunis as Eli's travel companion for the second half of the film, that fails to convince. Her performance felt a bit weak compared to all the heavy hitting going on around her. Oh and Malcolm McDowell turns up at the end which is always a treat.
So when it finished, I asked myself whether I enjoyed it, and the answer is I did. The trouble was the schizophrenia that the films suffers from. It's neither one thing nor the other. I thought that I should have been more upset and affected by the film's conclusion, which is I suspect down to this failing, the action detracting from the themes running through it. At the same time I wasn't as thrilled as I should have been by the action. I was gutted because I wanted to enjoy it, The Hughes Brothers make interesting films (Menace II Society, the great looking but flawed From Hell, but most of all the fantastic Dead Presidents) and they've done it again here (it is genuinely interesting) but it just doesn't quite hit the mark......
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