The East

Zal Batmanglij’s last film was Sound of My Voice, a low budget thriller concerning a cult and starring Brit Marling. With a bit more budget he now follows up with The East, a thriller concerning a cult (of sorts) and starring, er, Brit Marling. Batmanglij and Marling wrote the script based on their experience of joining an underground activist group. Based on what they’ve come up with here the stereotypical views of rough sleeping and minimal washing don’t look far from the truth. However Batmanglij and Marling struggle to transpose their experiences onto the screen as their script has too many ideas going on. Anarchy, eco-terrorism, multi-nationals, corruption, fraud, love, friendship and sex all battle for position meaning the film struggles to get its message across. That isn’t to say this isn’t thrilling in parts, but once you get past the halfway point it loses its momentum before the somewhat cop-out ending. Marling takes the lead role, though after now seeing her in a few films I’m not sure she has much range beyond her bland facial expressions and she never convinces here that at one point she was former FBI Agent. Still this film does offer plenty of food for thought though, whatever your politics, seeing this is only going to reinforce whatever side of the line you already fall on. Pub Quiz Fact: Batmanglij’s younger brother is the pianist in Vampire Weekend! Rating: 6/10.

Despicable Me 2 / Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2

Some more double reviewing needing here, this time in the form of animated sequels to films that made a nice return at the box office a few years back. The difference being that whilst Despicable Me racked up a huge profit it was years behind Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs in terms of plot, jokes and overall enjoyment. However, the law of follow-ups is still accurately adhered to as both films are well below the quality level of the original production and for Despicable Me 2 that’s bad news indeed. Frankly I’m not sure I actually even need to do a review of this film and will basically do a bit of plagiarising (from my review of the original film) where I wrote “Kids will enjoy this more than adults, as the emphasis is on slapstick as opposed to anything more cutting edge or satirical”. That more than applies here, but things are even more puerile then before as fart gags begin to take centre stage. With the trailer already giving away the few funny jokes there are, adults will find this a serious chore to sit through. However, if you’ve got kids, thanks to Universal Pictures cynical / understandable marketing of those lovable minions, you’ll be dragged to this anyway. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was one of the sleeper hits of 2009 and one of those films you saw at the cinema and immediately felt like you were part of a special club that only had (in relative terms of cinema-goers) a few other members. It hardly warranted a sequel mind, but hey, here we are. This time round Flint Lockwood and the rest of the inhabitants of Swallow Falls have been relocated whilst a clean-up job occurs on their island. However the FLDSMDFR (unless you’ve seen the first film that will make little sense to you, but it’s still one of the best repeatable gags for many a year) bursts back into life, but this time starts producing food / animal hybrids (foodimals!) which appear to have a taste for humans. The problem the film has is that the brains behind the original (writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller) have moved to executive producer positions this time, but from the final output on show it appears their input has been fairly minimal. Despite the silly premise of the original film it also had a slant towards the more mature side of the audience, but this mixture of pleasing both sections of the crowd has gone here as we’ve gone into mainly child pleasing territory (though ironically, I would think some of the more nasty looking foodimals on show would give some tiny tots a few nightmares). Clearly the production team have had great fun dreaming up the foodimals (tacodile, anyone?), but apart from that, there’s very little originality on show. There’s the basic plot line of not letting your family and friends down and the new villain of the piece looks like he was thought up during a lunch hour. Though any film that can get a laugh out of a “There’s a leek in the boat” gag can’t be all bad. On a side issue, prior to the film’s release Sony Pictures teamed up with a number of companies to help send a huge amount of food to families in need. Obviously the theme of the film was partly a driver for this, but it rightly puts other animated films marketing approaches (i.e. cuddly toys et al) into their shameful place. Despicable Rating: 3/10. Meatballs Rating: 5/10.

Taşkafa: Stories of the Street / 11.6

Though these films have nothing in common, I’m throwing them together as they’ve only appeared on the festival circuit so far and it’s unlikely either of them is going to see a mainstream release. That’s almost certainly the case for Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s Taşkafa: Stories of the Street, what with it being a documentary film about the street dogs of Istanbul and with a run time at just over an hour. That isn’t to say this isn’t a great watch though as Zimmerman’s charming story mainly focuses on the relationship between human and animal. It’s hardly subtle on the political side of things, but hope is addressed through Zimmerman showing various elements of society and their selfless actions towards the dogs. Some people do it because of their religion. Some because of an innate love for animals. Some have just given up on humans altogether. Zimmerman’s use of a voice over reading a poem to juxtapose the story being told doesn’t really work, but you can’t deny Zimmerman didn’t put her whole life into this for it took nine years from inception to hit the screen during which she lived in Istanbul and learnt Turkish. Long term preparation is also the key to Philippe Godeau’s 11.6, however in this case it’s in the shape of the main character Toni Musulin (François Cluzet), a driver in an armoured car delivery firm who plans to pilfer many a note during a low key non-violent bank robbery. Godeau’s film is only 40 minutes longer than Zimmerman’s, but feels double that. This is a slow-burner that burns very slowly indeed. The film has two problems that render it a frustrating watch. One is that the build-up to the robbery drags and drags and when it finally does occur it’s quite dull. Secondly, the film is actually a fairly accurate portrayal of a real life incident and a substation unresolved issue from the robbery is similarly portrayed in the film meaning unless Musulin (currently enjoying some cell time) spills the beans in real life (or the police sharpen their act up a bit) there is no closure. Apart from a nice reveal towards the end which explains the film’s title, there’s little here to suggest you should watch this as opposed to just reading the story in the press. Taşkafa Rating: 7/10, 11.6 Rating: 4/10.

Now You See Me

Films revolving around magic and illusions are usually hit and miss. For every The Prestige there’s a Magicians. With Now You See Me being helmed by Louis Leterrier you’d assume this will be the cinematic equivalent of actually accidently sawing the woman in half, but Leterrier’s film is entertaining enough, though suspension of belief is a 100% requirement before, during and after watching. Four street magicians (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco) are bought together by a mystery benefactor (in a scene reminiscent of something resembling a kiddies version of Saw) in order to become one of the top draws on the magic circuit. Things take a turn for the surreal however when a trick involving money being stolen from a Parisian bank turns out not to be a trick at all. FBI agent Mark Ruffalo is assigned the seemingly implausible case. Implausible being the operative word here as the script has many silly twists and turns and some scenes are outright ridiculous (a fight involving “magic”!). However, if you just go with it it’s a bit of fun that passes the time, aided by a script that moves things along and some throwaway laughs. This is arguably Leterrier’s best film (though the competition was hardly stiff), but he does little to suggest he’ll ever be an actor’s director as everyone just plays to type. With so many names in the cast (Morgan Freeman Michael Caine and Melanie Laurent are all also involved) it’s hardly a surprise that screen time for all is uneven and Fisher and Franco, despite being part of the main group, barely register. The big twist at the end is fair enough, but with a sequel already in the works, hopefully things will be a bit more coherently explained next time. Rating: 7/10.

After Earth

Ah, there hasn’t been an opportunity to bash M. Night Shyamalan for a few years so the old chap has been back to well of mediocrity and emerged with After Earth. Though star Will Smith is as much to blame for anyone for this mess, what with him having a hand in the script, production, direction and the casting. Ah yes, the casting. I’ll come on to that shortly. Set 1000 years hence, the storyline has a military father (Smith) and his son Cypher (Jaden Smith) crash land on the now abandoned Earth (so, being pedantic, not actually after Earth at all then), where Cypher has to battle through the hostile terrain in order to do something or other (I can’t remember anymore) in order to help save his injured and dying father. It sounds mildly entertaining, but the execution is dull and the script clichéd throughout. Many brickbats have come Smith’s way for casting his own son in what is basically the lead role, but the nepotism thing doesn’t bother me too much as it happens all the time (see Apatow / Mann, Burton / Bonham-Carter, Sheen / Estevez and so on). However, the difference between those examples and this, is that those people are talented. Jaden Smith can’t act to save his own life, let alone that of his father’s in a film. Stuck with a facial range of either “constipated” or “not constipated”, every time he appears on screen his performance is so wooden it’s like an impromptu carpentry lesson has broken out. Smith Snr and M. Night need to carry the can for this snooze fest, though you’d have to squint hard to discover that this is actually a Shyamalan production at all as Sony Pictures marketing campaign swept him under the carpet (for obvious reasons). So he’s not totally to blame here, but this does nothing to suggest Shyamalan will ever get back to the dizzy heights of his earlier work. Some impressive special effects in respect of the sharpness of the images aside, this is a vanity project that should never have made it beyond the pitching stage. Rating: 3/10.

The Purge

James DeMonaco has penned a few scripts over the last few years and he also picks up the screenplay credit here as well as picking up the megaphone for the first time. This isn’t a great debut, but I always give first timers the benefit of the doubt and DeMonaco delivers quite a lot from a small budget. The problem the film has is that from its nice central premise it doesn’t know where to go and ends up a mixture of genres with it eventually just tailing off into plain silliness. Set in 2022, the United States has become a nation with low crime rates due to the introduction of an annual purge during which all citizens have free reign to commit any crimes they want without reprisal. Ethan Hawke stars as a rich salesman who has made a living from selling home security systems who suddenly finds his own house under attack during the purge when (irony ahoy!) his own defence set up reveals itself to be not as solid as he thought. As a social allegory it’s as subtle as a knife in the ribs (plenty of that in this film by the way), but DeMonaco’s screenplay doesn’t even attempt to address this further and the film turns into a standard home invasion thriller. However there is a decent moral dilemma plot wise thrown into the mix at the halfway point, but the increasing levels of violence as the film goes on just highlights the well of ideas running dry. Rating: 5/10.     

The Great Gatsby

I’ve never quite got Baz Luhrmann and this awful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel hardly helps matters. If there’s a worse directed opening of a film this year I’ll eat a pair of 3D glasses. In fact for the opening 20 minutes read the entire film. Where to begin? The overload of special effects making the film resemble an imaginary world? (if you claim Luhrmann did that on purpose pass me another pair of those 3D specs). Tobey Maguire’s goofy performance? Carey Mulligan’s blandness? (seriously, how does she keep winning all these parts?). Actually let’s stop listing things and get to the root of the problem, mainly that Luhrmann appears to have not understood Fitzgerald’s source material in the slightest. How else to explain his decision to modernise everything from the fashions to the dire soundtrack. Forget the Roaring Twenties setting when there’s merchandising coin to be made, huh? The only plus points are Leonardo DiCaprio as the mysterious Gatsby (though his catchphrase of “Old Sport” will leave you gritting your teeth by the time you hear it for the fiftieth time) and Joel Edgerton gives good edginess and is virtually the only decent example of a character who has some development in the film. Basically Luhrmann couldn’t have been a worse choice to develop a novel that is short in length and delicate in its prose. Lehmann delivers 2 hours 20 minutes of bright images and not much else. Finally, perhaps someone should have pointed out that for one of the quintessential novels about New York and its suburbs, it was probably a good idea not to shoot it in bloody Sydney. Rating: 3/10.