Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs arrives with very little fanfare and what advertising there is seems aimed at the younger audience. This is a shame as this is a very funny animated film which both adults and children alike will enjoy. Based on the book of the same name Cloudy concerns would be inventor Flint and his latest project, which, through an accident, ends up raining various food stuffs from the sky. As the chow thunders down we are treated to some excellent animation and visual gags. The first half of this film is very funny with some genuine laugh out loud moments. Though the humour is quite dry at times and some jokes will no doubt go over the little ones heads. However, they are compensated for in the films final act which reverts to classic chase / race against the clock animation standard. With a great vocal cast and some Pixar worthy scenes, and despite running out of steam towards the end, this is a bright, breezy and enjoyable film.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
A film of two half’s. The first for adults, the second for kids. Combined together they make a tasty treat. Rating: 7/10.

Zombieland

Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer is on record as saying that he was inspired to make this film by Shaun of the Dead. While his attempt falls well short of Edgar Wright’s and Simon Pegg’s calling card, it is still entertaining Friday night fare. Clocking in at only 80 minutes, Fleischer makes the right call in getting the action underway from the first minute, which includes an explanatory voice over from Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and a terrific zombiefied credits sequence. Shortly, Columbus meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) and then eventually Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). As with all zombie movies, the protagonists keep on the move the majority of the time until the Adventure Theme Park conclusion. During this time, Fleischer does his best to try to get us to emphasise with the characters, but it doesn’t really work (especially with Wichita and Little Rock). In addition, though this is bracketed in the horror comedy genre, real scares and gore are at a premium. Indeed, the entire middle third of the film is pretty much zombie free. This is counter balanced though by a hugely witty script, apparently touched up by screen writing veteran William Goldman. The gags come thick and fast, though the films celebrated joke involving Bill Murray seemed pretty telegraphed to me. Acting honours go to Harrelson who chews up the scenery as the Twinkie hunting, shotgun and banjo packing Tallahassee. Another nice touch is having Columbus’s rules for surviving Zombieland flash up on screen. So, horror? Not really. Comedy? Very much so. Entertaining? Definitely.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Despite first impressions this isn’t actually all that original, but it does have some smart moments, a great performance from Harrelson and, crucially, it’s very funny indeed. Rating: 7/10.

Dorian Gray

If you’ve yet to read Oscar Wilde’s novel here’s a quick surmise. Dorian Gray is an impressionable young man who, on meeting Lord Henry Wotton, undertakes a more and more hedonistic lifestyle, but at the expense of selling his soul so that he won’t physically age. However, the aging process is gradually shown on a picture of Gray painted by his friend Basil. Oliver Parker’s film Dorian Gray is fairly faithful to the source material, until it goes off on its own tangent towards the end. In the film Gray is played by Ben Barnes and Wotton by Colin Firth. Barnes, though he never totally convinces, has a decent crack at showing Gray’s slow descent into madness. Firth rarely gives a bad performance and doesn’t here either, though he does seem uncomfortable at times spouting some of Wilde’s pretentious dialogue. Where the film is let down is by Parker not moving the storyline along quickly enough and a hugely obtrusive score. I can only assume the “picture” of the title has been dropped as the actual picture in the film is hidden away for long periods and only raises its head with some ugly CGI later on. This is an error as the picture is meant to shown how Gray is aging and how his soul is decaying. Without this, watching Barnes cavorting around grows dull very quickly indeed. As for the score, it seriously needs to be toned down. Even simple actions like opening a door are met with a wailing and crashing crescendo of portentous intent. This is also the same MO used for a few admittedly decent jumps, but its overuse grates and is distracting. Overall this is neither hit nor miss, but a few nude scenes and a fair helping of gore make this a more adult film then you might expect.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
A little bit messy and drawn out, but there are a few neat little scares and the base material is still an intriguing story. Rating: 5/10.

The Soloist

The Soloist originally looked like being an Oscar baiting production. Joe Wright, hot from Atonement, directing two solid starts in a tale regarding mental illness. However, something’s gone wrong somewhere. All the above elements are correct and reporting for duty, but nothing seems to connect up and we’re left with a film with a sprawling narrative that goes nowhere slowly. Oh, so slowly. The two stars in question are Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx, as respectively, Steve Lopez, an LA journalist, who befriends homeless musician, Nathaniel Ayers. The film is based on the real life meeting between the two and Lopez's subsequent attempt to help Ayers off the street and into rehab. Ayers suffers from schizophrenia and the most successful scenes in the film are the short flashbacks which show him gradually succumbing to the illness. However, Foxx’s constant muttering and paranoia in the main sections of the film just irritate when they are supposed to illicit sympathy. Obviously this is a difficult subject to analysis at the best of times, but Wright never seems to get the tone right. In addition, Wright also stretches the running time with many unnecessary fancy shots, a few of which seem have been lifted straight from LA überlenser Michael Mann. Wright fares better with his portrayal of the Lamp Community centre in LA and the plight of the LA homeless. It’s no surprise to read that many of the “actors” in the film are homeless in reality. Which does pose the question why this film was made in the first place? The story of Ayers is an intriguing one, but not for a 2 hour long film. I’d suggest a real life documentary about Lamp and the homeless people portrayed in the film would have been money better spent and more worthy of our attention.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Hard to explain what happened here. The film just never gets going and tonally it’s all over the place. As opposed to being a sympathetic portrayal of mental illness, it ends up feeling preachy and even then you’re not too sure what about. Rating: 4/10.

Julie & Julia

Nora Ephron’s latest is an amalgamation of two books, My Life in France, a memoir by the cook Julia Child, and Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, by Julie Powell. Powell’s book is based on her blog, where she cooked the aforementioned number of recipes (by Child) in a year. The film itself is a two handed as we switch backwards and forwards between Child in 1940’s/50’s Paris and Powell in New York City in 2002. This device works well as, Meryl Streep as Julia Child, and Amy Adams as Julie Powell, both hold the screen when it is their vignette, but, for different reasons, each start to grate after more then 15 minutes. Streep’s performance is somewhat over the top, but apparently a pretty accurate portrayal of Child. As expected she dominates the film. Her hilarious mannerisms and one-liners give us many a laugh and her chemistry with Stanley Tucci is excellent. However, it is a relief when we swap back to New York as Child’s eccentricity gets a bit too much too quickly. Adams is perfectly fine as Powell, but her role quite simply doesn’t have enough emotional depth to engage us. She has a rubbish job (hey, who doesn’t?), wants a better flat (hey, who doesn’t?) and cooks (hey, who…well, you get the point). In reality the experiment caused major problems in her life, but in the film this is shown as a (totally unbelievable) argument with her husband. In addition, Paul Child’s grilling at the hands of a McCarthy interview board was probably harder to get over than a cuddle in bed. However, let’s not be too hard here. This isn’t a hard hitting drama, but pure light entertainment with some fun performances. In addition, there is some excellent attention to detail ranging from the eye catching Parisian sets to some smart camera tricks to make Streep look like the lanky 6’2’’ Child.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
As expected, very fluffy, but also very funny. Streep is hilarious at times, and yes, you will be hungry by the end of the film. Rating: 7/10.

Broken Embraces

Pedro Almodóvar is reunited with Penelope Cruz for Broken Embraces, his latest statement on people’s lives, loves and secrets. Mainly told in flashback (though 1994 onwards couldn’t look more 2009) we follow the history of blind writer Harry Caine and his liaison with Cruz. As always with Almodóvar things are not what they seem, but he spends too long with the set up and by the time of the films ending you would have worked out any twists long ago. The main problem is that while there are some good Hitchcockian touches here (and some De Palma), the storyline is too weak the last the over indulgent running time. There are also a few ambiguous scenes which will provide conversation at the end, but are also frustrating. Rumours of a three hour cut of the film mean that if that version ever sees the light of day we may get a clearer picture of what Almodóvar was trying to show us. In the meanwhile, whilst this film contains decent acting across the board, this can’t stop it from being a curious failure

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
A nice concept, but an uneven approach and a slow finish means this drags when it should intrigue. Rating: 5/10.

Surrogates

Jonathon Mostow’s latest, Surrogates, is a future set whodunit where humans live their lives by interacting through surrogate robots. Hardly an original idea, and the list of references and influences on the screenplay, and the look of the film, ranges from A.I. to The Matrix, via Minority Report, with a mix of cyberpunk authors Neal Stephenson and William Gibson thrown in for good measure. However, despite the feeling of deja-vu, this is still an entertaining film, with some decent effects and a couple of nice little twists. It’s been a while since Mostow gave us a half decent film and while he doesn’t pull up many trees here, he still provides a steady enough hand to guide us through the short running time. In fact, the short running time does mean that the film nips along at a fair pace and doesn’t lag at any point. This is actually a good thing for another reason as you don’t have time to think about the outrageous plot holes that litter the screenplay. These are actually the main detraction from the film (well, that and Bruce Willis’ outrageous rug). Nonetheless, if you like a bit of detective work with your sci-fi landscape, then you’ll get some enjoyment from this.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Unoriginal and instantly forgettable, but a short running time and a quick tempo provides balance to an enjoyable, if nonthreatening, slice of future hokum. Rating: 6/10.

Gamer

“It’s the worst film I’ve even seen!”. How often have you heard that statement or said it yourself? More than once I expect. However, for every utterance of said statement there is a whole lot worse you have yet to discover on straight to DVD films. Gamer should have been one of these straight to DVD films. Somehow (probably due to star Gerard Butler’s increasing popularity) it has got a mainstream cinema release. Instead of watching this film, I suggest you wait outside the screen and listen to peoples comments as they leave. It surely will only be a few seconds before you hear someone pronounce the above. It really is that bad. The storyline is a blatant rip off of the Running Man, mixed with a bit of Death Race and The Sims computer game. The twist here being that Kable (Butler) is controlled by a teenager who “plays” him in real life multi-player shoot em ups. Any plot there is soon disappears quicker than one of the hundreds of kinetic jump cuts, and has more holes than one of the many bullet ridden bodies that litter the streets of the “game” world that Kable plays in. The acting is atrocious from everyone, even the usually reliable Butler, who looks as confused as his character as to how on earth he’s ended up in this cinematic car crash. Everything about this film is appalling. It’s depressing to think something like this gets a green light, when there’s thousands of aspiring film makers out there struggling for finance. Writer/Directors Nevedline and Taylor were behind the silly but entertaining Crank, but that films follow up was a huge disappointment. This makes Crank: High Voltage look like Die Hard. Some people have also said that Nevedline and Taylor's films are misogynist. Well, I’m not saying anything either way, but this film is crammed with T & A totally superfluous to the storyline. One character at one point wears a t-shirt with a pair of breasts on it. I’d suggest a pair of testicles on the t-shirt would have given a more apt description to this cinematic nightmare.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
I honestly cannot think of a single positive thing about this. Just an utter mess from start to finish. Rating: 0/10.

Away We Go

After all the hype and publicity of Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes returns to the big screen sneaking Away We Go in under the radar. In the film we follow Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph), an unmarried couple who are shortly expecting the birth of their first child. Circumstances dictate they go on a road trip to find a new city in which to move too. In each city they meet up with friends or family and….errr….that’s pretty much it. This actually feels more like a stage play (each city is even introduced as it’s own “act” with the help of a title card), something which has been said before about Mendes’ films (though hardly surprising considering his background). There is some good acting going on in this “play” though, with a number of idiosyncratic characters introduced in each city, which provide a few laughs and have Burt and Verona scuttling off to the next city as soon as possible. However, this does raise a major problem with the film. Some of the individuals that Burt and Verona meet are pretty unlikeable, but Mendes’ message seems to be that Burt and Verona are superior to them. Why’s that then? Because they don’t live or raise their children the way Burt and Verona plan too? This smugness from the main two characters does detract from the film, which is a shame as, despite the bland structuring, there are some genuine moments of mirth and drama.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Very funny in parts, but it’s coating of self-righteousness will be a turn off for many. Rating: 6/10.