Letters To Juliet

Letters to Juliet director Gary Winick also directed Bride Wars. If you’re still reading at this point, well done you. You can’t be blamed though for at least approaching Winick’s latest film with some caution following the abomination to cinema that was Bride Wars. Happily enough that film soon becomes a distant memory as Winick deftly tells us the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who on a pre-honeymoon holiday to Verona, discovers the house where Juliet Capulet was inferred to have lived and the letters that numerous people leave daily at “Juliet’s wall” telling her about their love lives, good or bad. I won’t say too much else but Sophie soon becomes involved in the collection of these letters leading to a meeting with stuffy Englishman Charlie (Chris Egan) and his grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave). With Sophie’s chef fiancé (played with delight by Gael Garcia Bernal) more interested in investigating Italian food and drink, she finds herself spending more time with Charlie, despite them not getting on. If you can’t work out what happens next, this must be the first film of this kind you’ve ever seen. However, despite the standard formula it all plays out OK, as the performances are good, there’s a fair few laughs sprinkled about and the dramatic scenes resonate. Make no mistake though, this is utter fluff and there are some minus points. The stereotypes of nationalities is pretty teeth grinding, especially Charlie’s first scene in which he bounds in speaking with a clipped English accent not heard since the Movietone News reels of the 1930’s. It’s utterly embarrassing. In addition, the fact that Sophie working as a fact checker for the New York magazine, some of the most clued up and feared people in the publishing world, hasn’t even heard of the famous Juliet Letter phenomenon in Verona is somewhat lacking in credibility. Overall, if this isn’t you cup of tea (or glass of wine in this instance) you won’t touch this with a barge pole to start with, but if you’re a fan this ticks all the right boxes for this kind of genre.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Light as they come, but some good performance’s and more than one belly laugh make for a decent night out. Rating: 7/10.

The Brothers Bloom

Rian Johnson’s much anticipated follow up to his excellent Brick calling card has finally arrived in the cinema. So has it been worth the lengthy wait? The Brothers Bloom is actually a tricky film to review as it’s storyline of con artists and cons means it’s difficult to say too much without giving the game away. This is somewhat ironic as at times during the film you may actually be wanting someone to whisper in your ear just what is happening at certain points. Johnson is a talent no doubt, and he gets decent performances from Mark Ruffalo and Adrian Brody who convince as the eponymous brothers. This is crucial as though the screenplay is written for stings, the overriding story is that of the relationship between the two brothers. However, despite Ruffalo and Brody’s efforts the film suffers as, even though their family bond is well portrayed, their actual characters fail to engage the viewer. Help arrives on this front with the introduction of Penelope (played by Rachel Weisz), but her part is formulaic of con films and despite her strong performance it still comes across as a plot device. This could have been a further cult classic of Johnson’s but the screenplay twists in too many directions leading to frustration rather than retrospective admiration. The curse of the difficult second “album” strikes again.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
You won’t feel like you’ve been conned per se, but you will feel disappointed. Rating: 5/10.

The Killer Inside Me

Michael Winterbottom churns out films at such a rate it’s hardly surprising that the quality control can take a battering at times. However, for his adaptation of Jim Thompsons’s novel, The Killer Inside Me, things go totally off the scale as Winterbottom gives us his poorest film for some time, and possibly ever. The gist of the story is that Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) is a Deputy Sheriff of a small Texan town who starts to have recurrences of his old “sickness”; that of being a serial killer. This is a slow moving film however, which just doesn’t grip and has lost the plot long before it's implausible ending. Whilst most of the violence is off screen or just spoken of, there’s two scenes that have caused uproar. Both of them concern vicious and prolonged attacks on women, with the first being particularly unpleasant to watch. You may argue that these scenes are necessary to show just how disturbed Affleck’s character is, but this goes way over the top and feels exploitive. It’s a shame really as Winterbottom’s film does capture a nice noir mood, but that won’t be the talking point as you leave the cinema. A brutal mistake by Winterbottom, you could say.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
This would have a low rating anyway, but the aforementioned stomach churning violence shown against women pushes this much lower. Rating: 2/10.

She's Out Of My League

The best way to describe She’s Out Of My League would be something like Annie Hall meets There’s Something About Mary. Relationship paranoia meets sweetness and smut. The good news is that though there isn’t anything too original here, it scores well in all areas. The paranoia in this case is caused when average airport employee Kirk (Jay Baruchel) does a good turn for stunning passenger Molly (Alice Eve) leading to Molly asking him out and them eventually becoming a couple. Kirk, and his friends and family, find it hard to believe such a woman would ever be interested in a guy such as himself. This leads to many standard comic scenes (some work, some don’t), including the now obligatory watch through your fingers set ups when the couple meet the respective parents (Eve’s are played by her real life parents, quiz fans). After usually being on the sidelines Baruchel eases into the leading role man with ease and the supporting players all offer good support (especially Jason Siegel/Jon Heder lookalike T J Miller). On the downside some of the screenplay, when delivered by the laid back Baruchel, is so dry it’s hard to know whether to laugh or not and Eve can’t do much with Molly, who at times feels more of a plot device than a main character. Overall, though some vulgarity may put some off, director Jim Field Smith gets the sweet tone right, there’s a few laugh out loud moments and a rockin’ soundtrack to boot.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
A nice effort this and whether it’s through the romance or the comedy you’ll be smiling come the end. Rating: 7/10

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans

Though there are a number of similarities, this Bad Lieutenant film bares little resemblance to Abel Ferrara’s 1992 production. Not that that would appease Ferrara though, who has been fairly scathing about this new take by Werner Herzog. Herzog’s himself has responded by saying “I’ve never seen a film by him. I have no idea who he is”. A statement by Herzog so dry you could almost towel yourself off with it after a shower. Speaking of water, Bad Lieutenant is set during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and the chaos of that storm is a neat metaphor for the chaos that is Terrence McDonagh’s (Nicolas Cage) life. Herzog loves ambiguity, and whilst there’s no doubt McDonagh is a Bad Lieutenant, just how bad is he really? You’re left to decide yourself, but in a film where McDonagh steals, threatens, blackmails, gambles and takes drugs, the fact you still feel sympathy for him shows what a great job Herzog and Cage have done. Of course, this definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste, but Herzog does his best to underscore McDonough’s worst excesses as best he can. For example, McDonagh is only a drug addict in the first place due to an early act of heroism. A classic Herzog paradox if ever there was one. Despite a decent support cast, this is Cage’s vehicle all the way and easily one of his best performances ever. He totally inhabits McDonagh, even to the point it’s painful for us just to watch him walk. Of course, being a Herzog film there are a few completely bonkers moments (the iguana-cam moment seems to have already gone down in film folk law) and anyway, this is Herzog and Cage together, how could it not be mad? Most impressively of all, despite the at times grim subject matter, this film has a good sprinkling of humour (mostly black you’ll be unsurprised to hear). Herzog can be a difficult film maker to get your head round at times, but this is the cherry on the cake of his recent strong outings. Plus of course, you don’t get Harvey Keitel dangly bits in this one.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
This is high quality film making which should improve with future viewings. Cage is fantastic, Herzog seems to be having a ball and the denouement is both smart and moving. Oh yeah, did I mention the iguanas? Rating: 8/10

Street Dance 3D

When a street dance crew lose their star performer and their rehearsal space, their chances of winning the Street Dance Championships look slimmer than a ballerina’s waist. However, hope is at hand when local ballet teacher Helena (Charlotte Rampling) tells newly promoted crew leader Carly (Nichola Burley) that they can rehearse in her privileged dance school in exchange for livening up her ballet class. As you do! There’s no point in trying to take this seriously really and that’s before you even take into account the stereotypes on show. The rude French teacher. The stiff upped lipped head of school. The urban kidz. The tally-ho ballet dancers. Yep, they’re all present and correct. In addition, the comparisons and similarities blurted out by Rampling between the two types of dance are pretty flimsy, but it’s the portrayal of the ballet dancers as wimps compared to the street crew which is worst of all. Training to be a ballet dancer is as tough as it gets (even a certain Mr JCVD has said he never did any tougher training than what he endured in ballet). However, despite all this cheese and silliness it somehow works. Burley provides the requisite sass as the crew leader and the dance scenes are original and fun (though you may be distracted by Burley somehow looking about 10 years younger than she did in Donkey Punch). This is actually a step up on, err, Step Up, as the scenes in-between the dances are just about bearable, though that’s not to say that some aren’t full of wooden acting. Overall, the target audience should have some fun watching this, but it’s unlikely to convert any nonbelievers. As for the 3D? Abysmal.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
There’s no leeway with this kind of genre really. If you dislike you won’t be going in the first place, but if you’re a fan you’ll enjoy it enough to have a spring in your step when you leave the cinema. Rating: 6/10