Fast and Furious 7

It’s a Friday so it must be time for yet another entry in the Fast and Furious franchise. This is the seventh outing for Vin Diesel and cohorts and, if you think that’s seven films too many already, you won’t find much here to fire your engine. For cineastes (stay with me here) the main (well only) intrigue is solid Aussie horror helmer James Wan taking the directors chair. For the ghoulish there’s how the film coped with the death of actor Paul Walker half-way through (body doubles, stunt doubles and CGI since you ask). For the rest, it’s as you were. Plot-wise we have the retired crew coming back online when they’re threatened by a relation (hello Jason Statham!) of the bad bod they defeated last time out. It’s mainly loud and noisy nonsense with some plot points beyond suspension of disbelief (at one point a massive is bomb is sent via the normal post from Japan to the US!). The odd thing is though is that Wan appears to have directed this all with a straight face. That aside it’s still entertaining, albeit in a pure throw away manner. You can understand Wan wanting to do something outside of his comfort zone, but an over reliance on dodgy CGI suggests this isn’t really his bag. It’s also far too long, the casual misogyny prevalent throughout the whole series is still present and (in)correct and the breaking of the fourth wall homage to Walker at the end of the film is somewhat clunky. Anyway, even if you don’t enjoy this, part eight will probably be out next Friday. Rating: 6/10.

Foxcatcher

The last time director Bennett Miller made a film based on true events he gave us the first-rate Moneyball. Obviously dramatic licence was taken for that film and Bennett applies the same approach here, but the result this time is an oddly flat film, not helped by the fact that the real life events surrounding John du Pont are arguably more “entertaining” that what is delivered here on screen. du Pont (Steve Carell) was a multimillionaire who, in the mid 1980’s, recruited Olympic gold medalist wrestling brothers Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) to help train wrestlers at his private estate (the “Foxcatcher” of the title – Basil Brush, relax). To say anymore about what happened would be a spoiler, but you’ll probably have already gathered from the moody marketing and trailer that this doesn’t end up with smiles all round. The main problem the film has is that it largely evolves around du Pont, but Miller decides to keep him as an enigma throughout and his actions are left to audience interpretation, rather than direction. For example at one point, when du Pont couldn’t appear to be happier, for no apparent reason he offers Mark cocaine – you can guess the rest, but why would du Pont sabotage his happiness in such a way? Such areas are never fully analysed. On the plus side, Carell (unrecognisable if you didn’t know it was him) gives a great performance as the ever unraveling du Pont. His casting though sums up the films muddled thinking, as Miller has been quoted as saying that he didn’t want to hire an actor who you might presuppose was capable of heinous acts – so if hiring Carell was partly behind that decision, why then cover him in prosthetics and makeup which makes him look like he’s capable of such things? In terms of the brothers, Ruffalo gives another strong turn, but Tatum reverts back to his moody ape face which doesn’t help anyone. There’s some good moments here (look for the painful scene where du Pont struggles to teach a group of his students the basics in front of his over-bearing mother), but Miller’s film is too slow and unengaging to demand further viewings. Rating: 6/10.