The Inbetweeners 2 / The Expendables 3

Sequels time again, this time with a couple of films that already have a following based on a standard template, so you'll be unsurprised to hear that things don't vary far from the norm with either of these productions. Starting off with teenage exploits, it was more by chance rather than preparation for watching The Inbetweeners 2 that I recently happened to catch the first film again. I wasn’t overly impressed first time I watched it, but this further viewing made me shift my opinion slightly so perhaps I had already been influenced pre-review by the below average third series and the terrible conversion rate of British TV comedies to the big screen. This time though there can be no mistake. The Inbetweeners 2 scrapes the bottom of the comedy barrel and only die hard fans need apply. The storyline is basically exactly the same as last time, but this time just substitute Malia for Australia. The main problem is that the crudeness has been increased to lowest common denominator levels and far too many one liners are leader than the leadest of balloons. Though the suggestions from some commentators that the film is misogynistic is laughable - they're fictional characters you bumders! However, I think it says something that the funniest gag from the whole thing ("Fire wankers!") comes from the teaser trailer and isn't even in the final film. Rumour was that 50% of the main cast didn't even want to do this film and that the series creators (Damon Beesley and Iain Morris) weren't keen on stepping up to directorial duties, which goes some way to explaining the by the numbers final output. Moving on, the protagonists of The Expendables 3 have more to worry about than getting their end away, what with a new motley collection of baddies intent on removing them from the face of the planet via various violent means. Having said that, this is the first film in the series where series overlord Sylvester Stallone and his producers have made the conscious decision to tone down the violence in order to get better footfall. It hasn't worked as the box-office has been poor and the film itself just looks badly edited. Patrick Hughes is the director here and he's clearly just a man for hire and badly out of his depth (a great shame as his debut feature was the excellent, though little seen, low budget modern western Red Hill).You don't need the plot for an Expendables film as you already know what you're going to get, i.e. lots of explosions, bad dialogue and thoughts of “Blimey, he really is getting on a bit”. They have tried to mix things up here as well though with the introduction of a new younger group of Expendables (i.e. basically going against the idea of the whole franchise), but almost everything is ruined by the total over-reliance on CGI. Virtually every explosion, shot of a helicopter et al. is digital and it just looks awful. Things also aren't helped by Stallone (hardly known for his sense of irony) taking the whole thing far too seriously (the script has Arnie saying a version of “Get to da chopper” twice, with no hint of contrariness). On the plus side the start of the film begins with a stupendous performance from Wesley Snipes (yes, you’re reading that correctly), but unfortunately his character is soon just relegated back into the cluster of also-rans. I think the fact that I fell asleep halfway through watching this but, within a minute of waking up, had already worked out what I had missed pretty much tells you this ain't Shakespeare, baby. Rating (both films): 4/10.

Frank

Despite sounding like a rejected member of ABBA, Lenny Abrahamson is an Irish director whose previous low budget films have been generally well received. He steps up a level here with a larger pot to play with and some major names within the cast. The plot is simple mind: Jon (Domhnall Gleeson), an aspiring young musician, joins a band ("You play C, F and G?", "Yeah", "You're in"), travels to Ireland with them to record an album and attempts to raise their profile via social media. However the band is full of eccentric characters meaning Jon and his band "mates" spend as much time arguing as they do putting down tracks. For British fans of surrealist comedy the main draw here will be the sight of band leader Frank (Michael Fassbender) wearing a papier-mache head for the majority of the film a la Chris Sievey's Frank Sidebottom character. However, apart from that striking visual, Abrahamson's film has little connection to Sievey's invention. In fact, what Abrahamson is actually aiming for is slightly unclear as he throws in so many themes (some of them contradictory) the film never quite settles in a sufficient fashion to be narratively coherent. The tone is a bit all over the place at times as well (there's a blackly comic moment where one of the main characters brutally stabs another), but Abrahamson just about pulls the film off by making it oddly endearing throughout. There's some nice digs at the pretentiousness of the music scene and the people who inhabit it (the band are so dysfunctional they don’t even know how to pronounce their own name) and we also get the best ashes gag since The Big Lebowski. If you can't stand indie quirk (cinematically or musically) then this won't be for you, but if you've got Captain Beefheart hidden away somewhere on your iPod then I suspect you'll enjoy this more than the average cinema goer. Rating: 6/10.

Lucy / A Million Ways To Die In The West

Time for a couple of disappointments from Luc Besson and Seth MacFarlane, though with Besson these days would you expect any different? Actually, when I was settling down to watch Lucy, I was thinking its been twenty years since Luc Besson made a decent film and though (in any art) if someone has produced credible past works we tend to forgive their crimes of the present, Leon seems a long time ago now. In fact, for anyone that's seen anything from Besson since that 1994 high point, you'll be unsurprised to hear that Lucy doesn't address the standard Besson stumbling blocks; that of poor acting, incomprehensible scripts and an over-abundance on (usually) poor special effects. What's doubly disappointing about Lucy though is that the first twenty minutes are a riot, what with Scarlett Johansson's innocent worker abroad being caught up in a drug deal and forced to become a mule by having a bag of synthetic drugs sewn into her abdomen. However when the bag bursts her body absorbs such a large quantity of the drug she begins to develop almost supernatural abilities. It's as silly as it sounds and Besson's films always require some serious suspension of disbelief in order to fully enjoy them, but Besson makes the foolish error of playing the whole thing straight faced meaning it becomes inanely nonsensical very quickly and then somehow just gets worse. There was a kernel of an idea in here somewhere, but it would take someone with significantly better skills that Besson to microwave it into something edible. To wit: Besson himself stated that it took ten years for him to get this to the result he put before us. Ten years and this rubbish was the final outcome? At least it's a short film, whereas Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways To Die In The West starts outstaying it's welcome about twenty minutes in...and there's still another 100 minutes to go. MacFarlane is an acquired taste no doubt, but even his biggest fan would be hard pressed to defend this over long mess of egotistical nonsense camouflaged as a film. For his second feature as director MacFarlane has settled on taking the star role himself, portraying a sheep farmer with a yellow streak a mile wide in late nineteenth century Arizona. Plot machinations mean he becomes involved with the wife (Charlize Theron) of a notorious outlaw (Liam Neeson), whilst also pining after his ex (Amanda Seyfried). MacFarlane throws as many gags (both verbal and visual) at the audience as he can, but virtually none of them find the target. It's not overly offensive (it's as juvenile as you'd expect from MacFarlane). It's just drastically unfunny. There is the very occasional chuckle and Neil Patrick Harris has some fun as a foppish toff, but each problematic road leads back to MacFarlane himself, all starting with the fact that he can't act for toffee and is horribly bland as the leading man. Perhaps its the years of doing voice work having got to him, but this is a horrible misjudgement from MacFarlane, not helped by his terrible direction. Scenes of improvisation, which any director worth his salt would have trimmed in the edit, drag on and on and the whole film suffers from MacFarlane's unfocused leadership and scratchy plot. A number of bizarre cameo's (Ryan Reynolds and Ewan McGregor among them) do little to suggest that this isn't just a jolly for MacFarlane and chums, and whilst it may have looked funny on paper, everyone here should be giving themselves a good talking too. Rating (for both): 3/10.

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Unless you're a real comic aficionado you probably haven't heard of Guardians of the Galaxy, which would go some way to explaining the two vastly different trailers I saw for it. The first portrayed James Gunn's new film as a dry take on the superhero genre, whereas the follow up suggested a more standard family space adventure. Unsurprisingly it turns out to be a mixture of the two, but it raises its head above the waterline by leaning more towards the former, which is a blessed relief in this era of comic book films just for the sake of it (looking at you Marvel - though, irony ahoy, this is actually from Marvel as well). Storyline wise it's a fairly basic space standard, that of a group of misfits thrown together by circumstances beyond their control who team up to defeat evil forces. If you feel you've seen that all before well, you have, but Gunn's direction coupled with his and Nicole Perlman's smart screenplay overcome that by producing a film which is just pure entertainment - in a completely bonkers type way. Gunn is best known for the low-key cult favourites Slither and Super, both films that took a sardonic approach to their specific genres. So it's no surprise then that he was hand picked to provide a light hearted touch to a field that needs to stop taking itself too seriously. The film itself is still epic in scope mind, with a nice blend of practical effects, motion capture and CGI which crucially still lend it an "earthly" feel, though the acting of some of the protagonists is lost amongst the pixels that represent them. The aforementioned misfits are "led" by Chris Pratt, who gives a great performance anchoring the whole film with a routine of heart and comedy. Pratt pitched Quill as a mix of Han Solo and Marty McFly, and that's pretty much what he delivers. On the minus side the plot does get a bit over-stuffed at times and the ending makes little sense, but what with Guardians being one of the more obscure parts of Marvel's back catalogue you don't have time to worry about such things, and if a film can pull off one of the biggest laughs I've heard from an audience this year based on a tree smiling you know you're onto a winner. Perhaps the most impressive thing of all though is that Gunn and co have managed to pull off an almost unbelievable human emotion come the films finale. They've given us a Marvel film where you actually want to see a sequel to it. Rating: 8/10.

Into The Storm

Director Steven Quale's last film was the surprisingly enjoyable Final Destination 5 but, whilst his new film is also about death and destruction, it's a lower certificate outing following a bunch of storm chasers (professional and amateur) documenting a series of tornadoes as they ravage a small US town. The lack of edge is a problem as despite some decent special effects the whole package can't shake the feel of a TV film, not helped by a selection of US small screen stars from such varied shows as Prison Break, The Walking Dead and Veep. There's a family element thrown in in the shape of Richard Armitage's strict dad and the relationship with his sons, but its the carnage we've come to watch, right? The film utilises the now basic staple of telling a large portion of the story from the characters own camera's, smart phones etc, but like most films that do this there isn't really any exact science behind it. Talking of science, there isn't much background or explanation to the storms which might annoy some, but in a film that's only 90 minutes long it really doesn't make much sense to dwell on things you can read about on-line in five minutes. The lower certificate means more mild peril than blood and terror (apart from the only real on-screen death which is somewhat disturbing and I suspect will give the youngest members of the audience a few nightmares), though the safety message seems to be somewhat lost in the mix as at no point do any of the characters shown much respect to the destructive power that tornado's can bring. On that note there's a problem at the end of the film where, after watching death and destruction for ninety minutes in the form of entertainment, we're shown some real news clips of devastated US towns and the effect on its residents. This doesn't really sit very well. Have the producers of this film given any of the revenue over to such causes? I doubt it. Apart from the impressive effects (Unmanned flying 747's! Though why a one horse town in the middle of Oklahoma has what appears to be an international airport in it needs a bit of explanation) there's not much here. Don't worry though Twister fans as, yes, there is a flying cow. Rating: 5/10.

The Babadook

The trailer to Jennifer Kent's low budget The Babadook is as mis-leading as it gets, portraying what appears to be a balls to the wall horror film where a mother and her young son get terrorised by a mysterious creature called Mister Babadook. Obviously from a marketing point of view the film had to be advertised in such a way, but there are actually very few moments of terror throughout the running time, so I can understand how scare veterans have been a bit miffed by being wrong-footed when watching this. However, what the The Babadook (or Baba-duk as the Aussie intonations on show here would have it) is, is a breath of fresh air in these times of constant cinematic gore and jump shocks. The plot concerns widower Amelia (Essie Davis) and her attempts to control her son Samuel's (Noah Wiseman) erratic behaviour following their reading of bedtime book Mister Babadook. It soon becomes a stand-off between the two; Samuel is convinced that Mister Babadook is real and is out to get them. Amelia tries to suppress his outbursts, especially in terms of limiting embarrassment when around her family. However, it isn't long before Amelia herself begins to experience odd events that can't be explained. To say anything more is to give the game away, but though the ending is ambiguous, it becomes fairly clear around halfway through what is really going on. It spoils the film slightly, but it does mean you'll want to go back for a further viewing just to confirm the theory. I always like to give the benefit of the doubt to debut directors and Kent knows what she's doing here in manipulating abiding suburban anxiety in which the hint of supernatural gives voice to the real fears and anxieties of an individuals psyche. The actual "horror" in the film comes from Kent's script where she addresses the unfeeling side of human nature from adults who haven't experienced bereavement of a loved one not understanding why people "just can't get on with things" to some of the worst verbal taunting that children spit at each other. Though there's also some moments of high comedy, particularly when social services come round to check on Samuel's well being. Davis and Wiseman are both great in the lead roles, their love for each other shining through, even in some of the film's most disturbing moments. Overall this won't be for everyone and the ending is a bit limp. However, if you're after a film that contains a scene involving the most unsettling pop up book you'll ever see then this is for you. Oh yeah and clear your throat as well. All together now: "Ba Ba Doooooooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkkk...". Rating: 8/10.

Begin Again

John Carney is the writer director of the much admired Once, so it's no surprise that Begin Again (wisely ditching its clunky original title of Can A Song Save Your Life?) shares plenty of DNA with that effort but, despite a larger budget and more starry cast, it doesn't lose the charm of his debut feature. When boozed up, down on his luck music exec Dan (Mark Ruffalo) stumbles upon female singer songwriter (no wait, come back!) Greta (Keira Knightly – again, keep with me) in a New York bar, they eventually agree to collaborate on an album of songs to be recorded out in the open air of the Big Apple.  Told partially in flashback we also have a story strand that follows Greta’s arrival in NYC with rising crooner boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine of Maroon 5 fame – of course I knew that) up to how she ended up on said night out that leads to the two main protagonists meeting up. Some things don’t work (especially Dan’s interactions with his estranged wife and daughter), but there’s lots to enjoy here, from a scene where Dan first spies Greta playing in a bar and envisions her with a back up band represented by instruments playing by themselves to the script which has a few cracking zingers (at one point Greta says her cat enjoys her songs because it purrs, to which Dan responds “Maybe it's booing”). The songs dotted throughout the film also hit home and, even if soft rock isn’t your thing, you’ll do well to not tap your foot along to a cracking New York roof top jam towards the end. On the performance front Knightly has been a punch bag for virtually everything she's ever done (usually justifiably), but here she's excellent and can certainly hold a note. Ruffalo is well case as the shabby, but enthusiastic Dan, and James Cordon is good fun in a small supporting part as one of Greta’s best friends. Not so great is Levine, who can play the rock star quite well (natch), but doesn't have much depth beyond that and the less said about the moronic Cee Lo Green popping up as a rapper client of Dan’s the better. I would say his performance is ironically mockful, but that would be being kind. The “sticking it to the man” ending is a bit naff, but when a film based around music makes you want to pick up an instrument and / or listen to your MP3 as soon as you get home, you know it’s done a good job. Rating: 8/10.

Black Coal, Thin Ice / The Keeper Of Lost Causes / Betibu / The Golden Bug

Somewhat falling behind again (as usual) with the reviews so time for a quick round up of four foreign language productions that have recently graced our shores, starting off with Diao Yinan’s Golden Bear bothering Black Coal, Thin Ice. This has a great start what with the discovery of human body parts at numerous different coal factories, a police arrest which is botched by the sudden appearance of a hidden gun (a brilliant piece of direction by Yinan, going from 0 to 100mph in just a few seconds) and a great tracking shot that moves us from the POV of a car to a motorcycle, whilst also indicating the passing of five years. It falls apart very quickly though after that as any intrigue and detective work is jettisoned for following ex-cop Zhang (Liao Fan) and his mooching (well obsessive mooching…and not the good kind either) after pretty laundrette employee Wu (Gwei Lun-Mei), who may or may not be tied into the whole nasty business. There’s some other sumptuous shots (particularly in many of the cold and snowy outdoor scenes), but it’s all too slow and the outcome to the mystery makes little sense with the final scene trying to peak interest which you will have long since lost (though it does explain the films Chinese title of Daylight Fireworks at least). Moving on we have a couple of films that may have had cinema releases despite the fact they would probably work best on the small screen. A couple of years ago you couldn’t throw a Danish Blue at a cinema screen without hitting a Scandinavian thriller or drama, but things have trailed off a little since then. So it’s good to see that The Keeper Of Lost Causes carries on where others have left off with this solid (though not spectacular) policer. When Danish policeman Morck (played by familiar BBC4 face Nikolaj Lie Kass) bungles an operation he is re-assigned to solving cold cases and given a new partner in the shape of coffee loving Assad (Fares Fares - not a typo). All the standards are here (awkward relationship with son, cultural differences between the partners, badges revoked etc.), but it still holds the attention due to the intriguing case they investigate concerning the disappearance of a politician from a passenger ferry. Director Mikkel Norgard moves things along briskly enough and though there are the pre-requisite shots of the cold and murky unforgiving Danish countryside, this isn't really cinematic enough to convince it wouldn't work better on the small screen. That's by the by though as the follow up has already been filmed, which will at least be interesting to see if it moves into something a little less formulaic. Plus, lets hope the poster for the new film will make a bit more sense than this one, which has the protagonists standing on a scrapheap looking like two well dressed relatives of Stig of The Dump. Also struggling to persuade that the cinema is it's optimum premium is the Argentinian release Betibu. It's billed as being from the producers of The Secret In Their Eyes (arguably the greatest film of the last five years), but this is a long way off that masterpiece. When a successful businessman is found dead in an upmarket neighbourhood, two local journos and a well known novelist team up to get to the bottom of things, but before long other bodies begin to pile up. The mystery part of the film works well, but the script is quite disheartening in its portrayal of how the two sexes get on and the ending goes around in circles with it's grubby depiction of virtually everyone being corrupt and untrustworthy. Finally we have the crushingly unfunny The Golden Bug. Not to be too harsh on (what appears to be) a first time director's effort, there's a difference between making a film for a wider audience and one that only you and your mates will find entertaining. The latter is what we have here when an Argentinian film crew attempt to subvert a European film production by sneakily moving the production to a location where they believe there is buried treasure. Even taking the unwritten filmic suspension of disbelief into account, the premise is ludicrous (why don't the Europeans just do a simple search on the internet to see they're being taken for a ride?). There probably was a decent film to be found in here somewhere, but something has clearly got lost in the translation of this joint Argentinian-Danish-Swedish effort and the cheap production values coupled with the same gags every five minutes just make for a hugely disappointing experience. There’s a chance of course that the whole film could redeem itself with some sort of Planet of the Apes-esque shock twist at the end. Not that I could tell you though, as I (along with many others) had already left by then. Black Coal Rating: 5/10. Causes Rating: 6/10. Betibu Rating: 6/10. The Golden Bug Rating: 2/10.