The Descendants (2011)

From the director of Sideways, comes a film about tragedy and isolation set on the beautiful island of Hawaii.

George Clooney plays a wealthy man called Matt, whose extended family own large amounts of land on Hawaii. Due to a clause, he must break up and sell this land within seven years, which will inevitably make his relatives extremely wealthy. Matt’s wife is in the hospital after a serious Jet Ski accident, where she lies in a coma, leaving him with his two daughters whom he feels disconnected from.

In true Alexander Payne style, the film takes a moving and sad approach to telling this tale, giving Clooney’s character a barrage of self-discovery as well as personal revelation, in which he explores the depressing nature of his life. This being said, the Payne style also does this in a remarkably engaging and compelling way, offering pathos and sympathy alongside large amounts of comedy. And while the story may be sad, there are moments where human kindness and affection enter, giving glimpses of humanity which save the film from being a depress-fest.

The film’s themes of heritage, isolation and family are well chosen, and grapple together well. Clooney’s performance is faultless, playing this serious/concerned land baron, who just wants to find out about his wife’s antics prior to the accident.

Not as good as Sideways, but worth a watch if you like black comedies, George Clooney, and spectacular tropical landscapes.

Immortals (2011)

Mythological fantasy set in ancient Greece, where a formidable King hopes to enslave humanity with a magic bow, and the resistance is led by a young warrior named Theseus, who has been chosen by the god of thunder, Zeus.

Greek mythology always presents a lot of problems when shunted onto the big screen (see the modern adaptation of Clash of the Titans), mostly due to the confusing array of Gods and characters which struggle for limelight. Immortals, whilst attempting to tell a simple story of one man’s journey to heroism, brings in too many facets of ancient Greece, and ends up feeling like a smorgasbord of Gods and fables.

The writers set out to put modern twists on old characters, like having gods like Zeus and Poseidon as young men, not old gents, which was an admirable goal, but the result feels cheap and childish. The gods in this film lack integrity and authenticity, seeming like superheroes without the fun-factor.

Whilst there are several criticisms readily available for this film, some of the highlights include decent fighting sequences which lean more towards a good film like 300, rather than Clash (thank the…gods), and also Mickey Rourke gives a solid performance as the barbarian King looking to pull the rug from under Greece’s foundations. But, the overall feeling of this film is flimsy at best, as it walks the tightrope between all the other movies, good, bad and ugly.

Better than Clash of the Titans, but not in the same league as 300, avoid if you want more from a film than just man-meat and special effects.

Man On A Ledge (2012)

Gripping action thriller starring Sam Worthington as a man standing on the ledge of a hotel, whose motive becomes increasingly complex.

After escaping from the authorities during his father’s funeral, convicted thief Nick Cassidy (Worthington) manages to elude the cops long enough to book into a hotel, and apparently throw himself off it (scratching head moment?). The usual bombardment of boys in blue arrive on the scene, as the crowds being to gather, most of whom have a rather gruesome disposition, wanting to see this man plummet to his inevitably bloody death. Once Nick starts making demands, he calls for a specific negotiator, played by Elizabeth Banks, whose reputation for botching these situations up precedes her (another scratching head moment?).

Alongside this main plot, we see Jamie Bell and his girlfriend breaking into a building on the other side of the road, and it soon becomes clear that the two events are linked.

A worthwhile thriller, the plot moves with insatiable pace, and the facts of the story are revealed with explosive techniques. Similar in style to a film like Phone Booth, there is plenty of tension and urban splendour.

None of the performances are particular moving, but this is a film founded upon the events, not people. Although, Banks gives the best portrayal as the cop who learns the secret.

Welcome To The Rileys (2010)

James Gandolfini plays a troubled man, who finds a new purpose in his life by becoming a father-figure to a teenage prostitute, played by Kristen Stewart.

Set mostly in the ravaged parts of New Orleans, Welcome To The Rileys is a bleak look at how lives can be affected by other people. Doug (Gandolfini) is a father who lost his daughter in a car accident, and has lost touch with his wife Lois (Melissa Leo), who has not been able to leave the house in the years since the accident.

During a business trip to New Orleans, Doug enters a strip club by accident, and meets Mallory (Stewart), a dancer with a wayward attitude towards life, who lives in a run-down house by herself. Doug begins to help and care for Mallory in different ways, like fixing up her house and buying her food, all the while maintaining a non-sexual relationship. As his bond with Mallory increases, more and more of her troubled story is revealed, and Lois becomes determined to reunite with her distant husband.

A moving drama, there is a great dynamic between these characters, with plenty of pathos swimming around. The dirty and grungy look is authentic, and reflective of the location and themes. The three main actors all give good performances, in particular Gandolfini, who brings depth to this damaged man. Stewart is worlds away from her usual style, offering up some foul-mouthed, lascivious lines that reveal the broken nature of her character.

The film touches largely upon the maternal and paternal bonds, exploring loss as well as redemption, and the underlying issues about shame in modern society, all of which make compelling viewing.

North By Northwest (1959)

Cary Grant stars in the classic Hitchcock movie about a man who must go on the run to survive, after he is mistaken for a government spy.

Grant’s character, Roger, is a wise-cracking advertising executive, who lives the bachelor’s life, after two divorces. However, during a meeting in a swanky hotel, he is abducted by armed goons, and taken to a large estate house, where he is questioned about his secret life as a spy…one which he doesn‘t live. All of Roger’s protests fall on deaf ears, and the goons decide to stage a “suicide” by forcing Roger to drink a bottle of Bourbon and then drive him off a cliff. However, Roger manages to regain enough composure in order to avoid his death, and then elude the baddies.

Appearing in court for drunk driving, our hero attempts to convince the police of the evil plot which has befallen him, which again falls on deaf ears. Once the cops do investigate Roger’s story, they find nothing to corroborate it. The country estate has been wiped clean off all evidence, and several inhabitants lie and claim to have seen Roger drive off drunk the night before.

Once on the run, from both the authorities and the baddies, Roger crosses paths with the beautiful Eve (Eva Marie Saint), who is on a train with him, and manages to hide him from the authorities. Together the two embark on a journey of peril and danger, with a bit of betrayal mixed in.

A wonderful action/comedy/romance, that ticks all the boxes and stands up to the test of time. Most Hitchcock films have an everlasting quality about them, and North By Northwest has it in abundance. The plot is gripping and complex, the characters bold and engaging, and there is plenty of stunts and mayhem to keep you entertained. The script is a little bit cheesy, but the comedic value of Grant’s dialogue with Eva Marie Saint is invaluable.

For those who want to dip their toe into the ocean of Hitchcock’s legacy, this is the perfect film. It has all the elements that make a classic: complexity, depth, and bucket loads of charm.

The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)

Awkward adolescent antics rule in this feature length film from one of television’s most beloved comedies of the past decade.

The gang are back: Will, Simon, Neil and the infamous gutter-mouth Jay, and they are going on a lads holiday in Greece. In similar style to Kevin and Perry Go Large (2000), this is a Britain’s-youth-on-holiday, whereby a group of socially inept youngsters experience a coming-of-age whilst in Europe, and all the humiliation which comes with it. The Inbetweeners fly to Malia, where they hope to shed their embarrassing identities from the south of England, and become cool, attractive party-goers.

In true Inbetweeners style though, the reality soon catches up with our four unlikely lads, and bites them hard in the groin. Simon, always the most demoralized of the group, is attempting to deal with heartache from his long-life-love Carli, who also happens to be in Malia. Neil, on holiday from his girlfriend back home, experiences multiple sexual conquests with a variety of colourful characters whilst in Greece, including some older ladies. Will is his usual brilliantly intelligent self, which sees him get into plenty of trouble, and we see a throwback to one of his famous scenes when he ends up insulting the disabled…again. Then there is Jay. The mouth with a thousand stories, who finds himself torn between his sculptured image of being a legend, and letting himself fall for a larger lady.

Anyone who has not seen the Inbetweeners (where the hell have you been???) should definitely watch the TV series first, this is not the best example of how funny these guys can be. Whilst the main elements are there, the plot is too stretched out in order to cover the run time, and the character arcs which are necessary to make a compelling movie almost ruin our feelings towards them. The music, in places is very funny (especially during Neil’s expert choreography), but overall relies too heavily upon modern dance tracks, which alienates large sections of the audience.

The movie also builds towards a ridiculously happy conclusion, one which is totally incredulous. This being said, it is another worthy chapter of the Inbetweeners franchise, if only so that we don’t quite have to say goodbye to them. The delicate moments of maturation which these guys experience are very relevant, and extremely funny in places, and there is still plenty of vomit-inducing hilarity to go round.

Big Fish (2003)

Tim Burton’s acclaimed fantasy drama, full of tall stories and fascinating characters.

Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor both play the character of Edward Bloom, a man who tells the most amazing stories about his life, regardless of fact or truth. Finney plays Bloom near the end of his life, dying of cancer, who wishes to reconcile with his son Will (Billy Crudup), whose aversion to his father’s tall tales caused him to leave years ago. When Will arrives at his family’s home, along with his pregnant wife (Marion Cotillard), he is drawn back into the fantasy of his father’s imagination, in order to find the truth behind his stories.

McGregor plays the younger Edward Bloom, during the outrageous adventures, which include a circus run by Danny DeVito, a giant played by Matthew McGrory, and Steve Buscemi as a bank robber. Oh, and in true Burton style, Helena Bonham Carter turns up as a witch. These legendary stories about Bloom make up his life, and reveal more about him than any real life account could.

One of the most enjoyable Burton films I have seen, Big Fish relies heavily on the wonderment of cinema, the immersive fantasy of storytelling. The characters are bold, creative figments of imagination, and they intertwine with compelling simplicity. Because the film is laid out as a chronicle of Edward Bloom’s life, there is a sense of inevitability about the plot, however, it could never be described as predictable.

The cinematography has a dream-like quality about it, moving through fantastical landscapes in a sweeping motion, allowing the audience to lose themselves within the narrative. Music is used to relate the era (such as some Buddy Holly), as well as enhance the emotion of the film, which becomes increasingly heavier towards the latter end of the movie.

A moving fantasy film, with plenty of imagination and pathos, Burton has captured the essence of brilliant storytelling with an A-star cast and some outstanding characters.

The Grey (2011)

A survival film about a group of oil workers, whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness, who attempt to find rescue but are hunted by a pack of territorial wolves.

Liam Neeson stars as the film’s protagonist, a man who at the beginning of the movie, attempts to kill himself with a rifle, only to find himself in a life-threatening situation. The group, after the crash, are left in chaos, with many of their fellow colleagues and the flight crew dead from the impact. They must find shelter from the punishing weather conditions, find any kind of provisions to keep them going, whilst searching for rescue. However, during the first night, wolves enter their crash site, and begin feeding on the dead, whilst intimidating those left alive.

Neeson’s character, a rifleman with a troubled back story, is the only one with survival training, and attempts to lead the surly group of oil workers to safety, only to find his decisions being undermined by the others, and occasionally leading them right into the path of these vicious wolves. Treacherous landscapes are in abundance as the group attempt to vacate the wolves’ hunting ground, and hope they don’t stumble into their den.

This type of movie will always divide opinion. Many viewers find survival stories to be one of the most engaging types of narrative, whilst some find the depressingly perilous nature of them to be uninteresting. The Grey is a film that takes a gruelling plot, places it within this baron, cold, uninviting landscape, and then offers very little consolation by the end. The setbacks keep coming with a vengeance, the characters are exposed and vulnerable, suffering a variety of wounds/deaths, and there is little time for much character development of the supporting players.

This being said, The Grey does also include a worthwhile performance from Neeson, who delivers a petrified-hero-with-a-few-scars very well, and whose character does benefit from a little development. The beautiful cinematography in this movie is also worth mentioning, as is the dedication to the filming - as most was done on location and the stunts look pretty impressive. Moments of sheer terror are delivered by the wolves, although slight similarities between them and those of the Twilight movies are painfully obvious.

If you like these types of movies, and are ok with a mostly bitter ending, then The Grey will offer you an engaging story filled with peril and danger. However, if you are easily depressed, averse to cold weather, or reluctant to watch animals being punched in the face by Liam Neeson with broken bottles on his hands, then The Grey will probably feel like a lesson in survival for you!

The Dinosaur Project

The found-footage film genre has been one of the most prolific developments in modern cinema, in particular, within horror. Dating back to the eighties, the found-footage film received a renaissance just over a decade ago, with 1999’s The Blair Witch Project. Since then, shaky Handy-Cams and minuscule budgeted horror films have blossomed, such as Cloverfield (2008) and the Paranormal Activity franchise. This latest release from Studio Canal sees another example of the found-footage movie being unleashed onto unsuspecting viewers, whereby a potentially “real” story is presented, and asks the audience to determine how much they believe to be true.
Set in the deepest, wildest throngs of the African jungle, The Dinosaur Project is an ambitious quest by a team of western explorers, hoping to find a water creature, whose origins are rooted in myth and fantasy amongst the indigenous people. The head of the expedition, an Indiana Jones look-a-like, has his plans for a successful trip spoiled though, after his helicopter is brought down by a flock of enormous birds (that look suspiciously dinosaurian) and to add to his troubles, he also has to look after his stowaway son, who has sneaked onto the trip.
Luke, the stowaway son, is the film’s main narrator; with an arsenal of personal cameras at his disposal, the young techno-geek captures every minute of this Project, which soon becomes a lesson in survival. The team quickly discover all is not well in this jungle, and encounter some extraordinary creatures, most of which civilization has presumed extinct for millennia!
Advertised as “Jurassic Park meets Cloverfield”, The Dinosaur Project is an excellent example of how a found-footage film should operate. The premise, whilst borderline ludicrous, stimulates a primal interest in audiences, whose appetite for dinosaurs and wild beasts can never be quenched, allowing them to immerse themselves within a “realistic fantasy”. Given the action-packed, adventurous nature of the plot, the movie also squeezes in some poignant character development between Luke and his father, examining their near-silent relationship with increasing pathos.
The film benefits from excellent editing, often the downfall of the found-footage genre, but rather than haphazard sequences stringed together clumsily, The Dinosaur Project maintains an traditional structure, seamlessly moving between the events in the film without distraction or misdirection. A cohesive storyline is put together, and the sequences seem smoother than typical ‘lost’ footage. Also, the camera work very rarely uses the infuriating technique of pointing the camera at the floor whilst the characters are fleeing a dangerous situation. Instead, the audience are given a better glimpse at the peril. In places, dead air is utilized superbly, where the camera cuts to black, with no sound, and the audience is left in limbo during a climactic point in the story.
Found-footage films do, however, hold several other pitfalls which sadly The Dinosaur Projects plummets straight into. First of all, the “realism” effect which is inevitably applied in these films means that the actors reek of low-grade acting, as if they are not actually performing for an audience. This, in essence, spoils the enjoyment of the film. The character of Luke in particular gives many nauseating video-diaries and self-interviews, where he theatrically pretends this is all really happening, however, the result seems like some atrocious you-tube broadcast by a borderline schizophrenic.
The golden crown of this film though, is the special effects. Moments where the creatures attack are genuinely frightening, and the perilous atmosphere maintained in this African jungle will keep you glued to the screen. Even with the messy script, the film should be applauded for its editing and camera work, which manages to seem contemporary even amongst the you-tube generation, and though the story is quite simple, it can be hugely immersive in places, sucking you into this treacherous landscape with some magnificent dinosaurs.

The Help (2011)

A sharp critique on American family life during the 1960s, where many affluent white families hired African American maids, and treated them appallingly.

Civil rights finds its roots in 1950s and 1960s American culture, where the disenfranchised minorities found a voice, and the momentum of that voice carried through changes which would see a fairer society. However, this era also carries with it a nostalgia for middle-class America, with the “baby boom” after the war, the movement from cities to suburbia, and the “White Picket Fence” dream that many Americans had. In this film from director Tate Taylor, we see these two incredible opposing notions come together.

Emma Stone plays aspiring writer Skeeter, a rich kid with a heart of gold, who sees the treatment of black maids as abhorrent, and attempts to document their stories in order to enable social change, as well as further her career. Skeeter searches out maids who would be willing to go on the record with their experiences, many of whom refuse for fear of losing their jobs or worse. One maid, Abilene (Viola Davis), accepts Skeeter’s invitation, and helps her document the relationship between her and her white employer.

Many important themes are raised by this story, such as the obvious ones like inequality and racism, but also an interesting notion that there was a significant amount of children, from rich backgrounds, who were essentially being raised by black women, especially when their white mothers failed to make a maternal bond with their children. Also, the film addresses the development of an idea into a rebellion, how a small act of defiance can lead to powerful idea.

Although The Help attempts to make some damning comments on the nature of American society during the 1960s, the film fails to go deep enough into the issues, and instead dwells on the surface, seemingly in order to not offend the audience. Furthermore, the points-of-view of men, both black and white, are almost completely ignored, in what is essentially a female story. We are offered no strong black male characters, and instead are only given whispers about the ones who beat their wives, and the rich white men are conspicuous in their absence.

Emma Stone does a great job as the stubborn writer, who seems unaware of the consequences of her actions, but Davis gives the best performance, adding a great deal of pathos to the drama.

One to watch for the witty banter, the period looks of American society, and the issues that are addressed, but viewers may feel a little short-changed on The Help’s unwillingness to get their hands dirty.