Rush Review

Ron Howard’s Racing Dilemma

Released : September 13th 2013

Certificate : 15

Director : Ron Howard

Cast : Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde, Natalie Dormer, Daniel Brühl, Alexandra Maria Lara

Plot : The true story of the rivalry between Formula 1 racing drivers James Hunt (Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Brühl).

This was a, pleasant sounds like the wrong word, more like a, ranchos surprise, and an aptly named rush. Ron Howard has redeemed himself after the also aptly named (but for the wrong reason) dilemma. And has has come back with a reckoning, no M. Night. Shamala story here. And we are very happy to have him back, as I have never seen such excellence and excitement derived from a film about racing.

Now a part of me thinks this is because I was not familiar with the incredible true story, but luckily this is not the case. As its equally enjoyable to watch whether or not you know the true story, due to enthralling directing, well cast suited performances, and entertaining script, also the film contains in certain section a slight Michael Bay vibe, for better or for worse depending on where you stand.

The performances from Hemsworth and Brühl create the perfect chemistry to reflect the story’s real life character, whilst at the same time make for entertaining dialog. The casting choices for the leads were perfect and both well known actors delivered well, feeding of each others performances, to make it a sport rivalry that’s believable and moving, even to a extent where it questions to true meaning of a arch enemy and what that provokes. This effect provides the audience with the interest and completion, in order to care how wins the races.

And this is where the really comes into its stride, with Howard making you hold your breath as much in a F1 car as he did in a spaceship. For this film provides some of the most exciting and tense senesce of any racing film, certainly the best in the area of F1 due to the lack of detail this has been explored in through motion picture. With tie blow outs, overtakes, spin outs, and crashes, Howard brilliant orchestrates all the aspects of the races to produce a multilayered, clear representation of what’s happening round the bends. Whilst keeping us on the edge of our seats , with a good rationing of slow-mo footage where needed and brutally realistic crashes. Ron Howard can prove that in the drivers seat he can still deliver intensely vibrate films, despite what vehicle it is. One can only wonder what the next will be, Premium Rush 2 hopefully.

Verdict : One of the most entertaining and enthralling racing films ever made.

Verdict : 4/5

Quote : “Hunt, rhymes with c*nt, a word that would describe you perfectly “

The Quiet Ones Review

More Stuff Goes Bumb In The Night 

Released : April 10th 2014

Certificate : 15

Director : John Pogue

Cast : Jared Harris, Sam Claflin, Olivia Cooke, Erin Richard The Quiet Ones

Plot : A team of paranormal researchers at Oxford carry out some experiments on Jane Harper (Cooke), who has said to have been possessed from a young age. The results and findings of the experiments are captured on camera.

Another installment from the legendary horror production company ‘Hammer Horror’. The most recent work if which beside this was a triumphant horror that has a sequel (based on another book) in the making already, the first post Harry Potter role for Daniel Radcliffe, it was The Woman In Black. A film that did stood tall next to both the book and play. So how did the productions next venture fare, to summaries, The Quite Ones, was effective but largely made out of recycling.

The 21st century has been awash with cheap pathetic horror films, with not enough great of even memorable ones to stand out, and like many this film will not be remember for very long by anyone, and those who will remember it have turned a blind eye to the modern horror style, and has been living in a hole for 14 years.

Despite having good performance for the most part, and skilfully building suspense for certain parts of the film. Overall this film is just simply old hat, the only success this film will find is on streaming sites suited to the audience of teenagers in the middle of the night. Unlike The Women In Black, which gained box office success to match its good reviews.

The film was just piggy backing off the boring tools of horror of some any films like it before, and did not execute them with enough skill for the film to be worth while. Examples of this include, a large part of the film being directed by the style of hand held cameras,  scary little boys, scary dolls, sitting around a table in the dark, being set in the 60′s, and worst of all, being a ‘true story’.

Now in the right hands this can really keep you awake at night (hands such as James Wan), but if not blended correctly will unfortunately amount to little and because of the mass production of this sort of film will just be aggregating and boring. Whilst having strong performances from Jared Harris and Sam Claflin, also featuring a strong ending, the rest of the film was background noise, and will only be found scary by light weights of the genre, or people wit bad taste in storytelling.

Verdict : Nothing we haven’t seen before, which wouldn’t be a problem if it was up to Hammers resent standards, but unfortunately its not, only offering some predictable jump scares.

Verdict : 2/5

Quote : “I hope you don’t scare easily”

Only God Forgives Mini Review

We All Prayed For Something Better

Released : December 2nd 2013

Certificate : 18

Director :  Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast : Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Tom Burke

Plot : Julian (Gosling) runs a boxing club as cover for his family’s drug business. When his brother (Burke) is killed by a local policeman to avenge the murder of a prostitute, Julian is forced by his mother (Thomas) to seek revenge, but the policeman responsible for the execution is rumored to have supernatural abilities.

This was one of the most anticipated films of the year, and anyone who has Drive would understand why. The blend of Ryan Gosling quite, cool visceral performance, with Nicolas Winding Refn  stylish, violent, enthralling presentation, Drive was well revived and will not befit gotten soon.

So this follow up collaboration between actor and director had a lot riding on its shoulders. The film has revived mixed reviews, an has become very much a marmite film. But all things considered, this is not only a disappointing second effort from the duo, but also a simple boring film, that just doesn’t keep you tense and eager in the same way that Drive. This films pace is subdued, even in the action scenes, due to directing is just to relaxed to evoke any reactions from the audience.

Despite having the same stylish vibe and well directed scenery, and even Gosling to a certain extent being able to retain his effective passive style of performing. The over all pace and story does not translate into the same emotional entertaining ultra violent film that we would even come close to the standees of Drive.

Verdict : 2/5

Quote : “Wanna fight”

Noah Review

OMG

Released : April 4th 2014

Certificate : 12A

Director : Darren Aronofsky

Cast : Russell Crowe, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Antony Hopkins, Emma Watson  

Plot : The Biblical story of Noah and the Ark.

Sitting down to see this film in sure many people were worried about how good it would be, simply because its a religious epic. And being a religious epic, there are plenty of potholes for a film like this to encounter. So with this type of film no matter what there was always going to be the negative opinions on it, and depending entirely on your religious standing will depict how much you enjoy or derive from the film.

As an epic it’s self, ignoring its religious storyline, is holds everyone should do and more, but in being so vast in story, you might find some parts of the film rushed, or not explored in the detail it deserves. I found this at the start and up to the beginning of ark construction.  But it covers all the ingredients of a epic, love, conflict, life, death and big sets, notable the set of the arc. But it’s a epic with a real heart and soul delivered well through its performances (despite Antony Hopkins un-deliberately amusing character)  directing and cinematography.

From a religious point of view, the only problem is the appearance of ‘the watchers’, which despite being explained, needed for the story and are actually referenced to in the Bible, it is an area of the film many could disagree or struggle with. ‘The watchers’ are angles stuck on heaven after trying to aid humans, long story short they are giant rock monsters who build arc and kill Ray Winston soldiers. The appearance of giant rock people fighting in a religious epic is what most would be critical about for obvious reasons. But I did not find them distasteful, as it worked within this frame of a big screen epic, to make the story more appealing to a wider audience.

Also this apparent flaw is easily  made up for by its courage to get its hands dirty by making it more religious then most would have anticipate. This made the film a lot more interesting to watch and though provoking, and ultimate the best aspect of film. This side of film is at its strongest during he arc voyage and is delivered well by the cast.

So rather than the Australian Noah that many were expecting to be disappointed by, it’s big scale, layered story, good performances and good structure as a epic skilfully avoiding many of the holes a religious based film could fall into, bar a few monsters, make this a pleasantly surprising beautiful film.While its handling of the story will not appeal to a lot, is a real treat to the select few, and as a film is a role model to future epics.

Verdict : A brilliant epic, that gives the story the perfect level of harsh truth in order for it to be enjoyable refreshing and entertaining.

Verdict :  4/5

Quote : “Death by water”

 

Review: Frank

Released: 9^th May

Certificate: 15

Director: Lenny Abrahamson

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy

The overnight social media breakout is becoming ubiquitous in music, and many artists from the Arctic Monkeys to Justin Bieber owe their success in part due to sites such as Twitter, YouTube and (in ye olde times) MySpace. It’s refreshing, then, to see a movie which takes what is fast becoming a trope and turns it on its giant paper maché head, resulting in a satisfying tale of ambition, identity and control.

Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) is a wannabe singer-songwriter whose only problems are his meagre forty followers on Twitter and his inability to come up with any original songs. After a chance encounter with the bizarre and deliberately unpronounceable Soronprfbs, Jon finds himself on stage with them playing the keyboard. When their actual keyboardist is sectioned after a suicide attempt, Jon accompanies them to Ireland to record their upcoming album, where he takes it upon himself to promote the Soronprfbs on social media.

At the centre of the Soronprfbs is fake head-wearing singer Frank (Michael Fassbender), who is charismatic and enigmatic in equal measure. Fassbender elegantly surpasses the problems of not being able to utilise facial expressions by developing Frank’s complex and distinctive physicality and voice. It is a testament to his performance that you never feel that it could have just been anybody beneath the head. But though Fassbender may pick up most of the publicity for the film, Gleeson’s performance is a masterclass. Jon is ostensibly an everyman character, but Gleeson twists the cliché, making the most of the sharp script to inject him with just the right amount of greed and ambition barely veiled by his obsequious manner. His naïveté –we hear him wishing for the creative inspiration a stint in a mental institution would bring- is by turns sweet and sinister.

During the recording sessions, Jon finds himself butting heads with the band’s acerbic synth player, Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Gyllenhaal plays Clara ramrod-straight with a steely countenance, and her relationships with both Jon and Frank are at the core of Frank. It is clear that Clara distrusts Jon’s intentions and sees him as a threat both to Frank and the integrity of the band, which feeds in to a wider meditation on what belonging and success really mean. Jon’s scramble to build the band’s social media following is at odds with their unpronounceable name and niche sound. Is Jon, then, a ‘good’ band-mate because he tries to bring them success? Or is it Clara who, while seemingly determined to keep the Soronprfbs in obscurity, may truly understand what they need to be happy? Clara and Jon serve as the proverbial angel and Devil sitting on Frank’s shoulders, but the film is deliciously coy in the first two acts about who is which.

The quality of the acting owes much to the cohesive script. The principle characters are well drawn and themes of ambition and control are fully played out, offering a welcome anecdote to the rags-to-riches trope. McNairy and the rest of the band all perform well, rounding out the ensemble without appearing as filler characters. If criticism can be made it is that the handling of the films more tragic themes, among them suicide and mental illness, sometimes sits uneasily with humour which at times can feel more callous than sensitive.

Verdict: 4/5

Review: Bad Neighbours

Released: 3^rd May

Certificate: 15

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Cast: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne team up as Mac and Kelly, new parents plunged into crisis mode when they manage to start a war with the noisy frat house next door and its president, Teddy (Zac Efron).

Despite its crude humour, Bad Neighbours has some important themes at its heart. Both sets of neighbours are seeking distraction from more mundane problems: Teddy is top dog in the frat house, but his prospects after college are uncertain; Mac has suddenly found himself ‘the oldest guy at the party’ and Kelly is embarrassed to find that caring for a young child is just a bit, well, dull. This self-awareness makes the heightened reality of house-breaking and airbag based pranks seem more believable, and watching the outrageous behaviour of people who really should know better is a surprisingly cathartic experience.

The gender politics are also marginally less uneven than in couple-based comedies: Mac and Kelly dive into the fray with equal fervour. Possible chances for homophobic humour are also neatly sidestepped. This makes an unpleasant streak of casual racism (two uses of the ‘n-word’ in jest by a white character) all the more baffling, showing that even comedies which attempt to be even-handed still find it hard to not rely on social taboo for shock humour.

Although littered with some extremely funny moments (Lisa Kudrow’s cameo as headline-obsessed Dean of the university is sublime) the over-reliance on improvisation and toilet humour prevent Bad Neighbours from offering anything truly remarkable.

Verdict: 2.5/5