Semi Pro

Director: Kent Alterman
Starring: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson and Andre Benjamin

Semi Pro is the latest in a long line of sporting comedies and the line of such comedies that also star Will Ferrell is not a short line either. However, while possessing a few genuine laugh out loud moments, Semi Pro is the weakest film in both lines.

Will Ferrell stars as Jackie Moon, a former one hit wonder musician, who uses his fortune to buy a basketball team in the struggling ABA during the 70s. So great is his love of the team he insists on coaching, playing for and promoting the team but lacks much skill to succeed at any. When a merger between the ABA and the, more successful, NBA looms with only the top four ABA teams given the chance to survive, Jackie Moon must turn his team (worst in the league) into a top four contender. Cue Woody Harrelson's former NBA player with a temper and a series of outlandish game strategies and game promotions.

Will Ferrell is a funny guy, using his large frame and man child enthusiasm to generate laughs. However, he can only go so far this way and succeeds or fails depending on the strength of the script he's working with and the gags therein. Here is where Semi Pro falls down. While possessing some truly funny gags (Ferrel wrestling a bear to lure in crowds to games and moment of Russian Roulette are two highlights), many fall flat or lose momentum as the film moves to quieter character building moments that often relay too much on cliche like Andre Benjamin's talented superstar realising he needs more than flash if he's ever to truly make it to the NBA or Harrelson's character trying to woo back his ex. There just are not enough jokes in the first half and the script feels padded and lacking the wit that accompanies the sight gags of films such as Dodgeball or Talledega Nights.

The climax of the film does show some life, as while the ending is predictable, the gags start to come on thick and fast with more success with the film finally finding its rhythm (much like Ferrell's Jackie Moon and team finally do) but it comes a little late.

Overall, while not a bad comedy, Semi Pro fails to live up to its potential and is only mildly amusing. Maybe its time for Ferrell and the studios to ease of the sports comedies for a while before they drain it dry.

Rating: 2/5

Be Kind Rewind

Director: Michel Gondry

Starring: Jack Black, Mos Def & Danny Glover

Charming and incredibly inventive. This film takes an 80s-style plot (trying to save a dilapidated building in a run down area in a way that unites the community) with an inspiring level of creativity.

Mos Def and Jack Black star as Mike and Jerry, two friends who try to save Mike's adoptive fathers video store after a mistake erases all of it's tape. In a store and an area that's rundown and on the verge of demolition, their only affordable option to keep the business alive is to remake the films themselves using whatever, and whoever they can.

The film starts and ends in fairly 80s-ish family film style. A down-on-their-luck group of people on the verge of having what they have left taken from them by a big company wanting to tear everything down and redevelop the area in the name of bettering the community (despite the fact that doing so would involve forcing the community out). What happens shortly afterwards elevates the film beyond the plot with a genius level of visual creativity.

Jerry (Black) accidentally erases all the videotapes in the store Mike (Def) works in after a failed attempt to sabotage a power plant (in a hilarious OTT sequence) leaves Jerry magnetised. In an attempt to save the store while the owner is away, Mike and Jerry try to remake the films themselves only to find the results become more popular in the community than the original films. These re-made films (called 'sweded') are amazing and hold a ramshackle charm. Ghostbusters, Robocop, Men in Black, 2001 and more are just some of the films we see 'sweded' on screen with hairdryers, tin foil, pizzas and cardboard cutouts just some of the materials used to make them. These sequences win you over as much as they win over the people in the film.
The film changes direction a little towards the end as the film companies threaten to sue before enough money is made to save the store and building and their last chance is to make an original film of their own, involving the community, about a local musician. The result holds a special charm of its own, even though it lacks some of the laugh-out-loud inventiveness of the earlier remakes.

On the acting side, Jack Black buzzes with mania, Mos Def adds a dim-witted love ability to Mike and Danny Glover is touching as the old shop owner who hopes to ave his home and business despite being too naive and hopeful to see the world is leaving him behind. The rest of the cast is mostly filled out by unknowns, some good, some not but that adds a little to the believability of this small community.

Overall, it is the creativity of the director that saves this film from being merely predictable. The film feels like a love letter to independent film making and childlike optimism and in this it succeeds. I don't doubt that this film will spawn a craze of fans making their own 'sweded' films and that can only be a good thing for inspiring creativity in future generations of filmmakers.

Rating: 4/5

There Will Be Blood

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano & Ciaran Hinds.

Fantastic! This is a completely gripping drama about greed and corruption featuring a masterful performance by Daniel Day Lewis and deserving of all the critical acclaim it has recieved.

There Will Be Blood is a film that has it's look and it's thematic heart rooted firmly in cinema's Golden Age. It shares and studies themes of classic films like Citizen Kane and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as we follow the career of, opportunistic, and greedy oilman Daniel Plainview as he pursues wealth at whatever cost.

Daniel Day Lewis delivers another excellent performance as Plainview, a silver-tongued businessman with a heart darker than Day-Lewis' Bill the Butcher (Scorsese's Gangs of New York). Lewis gives Plainview an immense physical presence all swagger and intimidation while chewing on the rich script and spitting out lines with charm and venom. He is part John Huston, part Orson Welles and still feels like the most originl, memorable character that we'll see on screen this year.

So good is Day-Lewis' performance, it is hard to imagine anyone else in the cast being able to share the same breath but we are lucky to find Plainview's main antagonist in the film to be similarly well-cast. This antagonist is young Eli Sunday, a local priest, played by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine). Sunday is a character with similar desires to Plainview. Like Plainview he desires to be the most important person in his town, seeing himself as superior to everyone else. While Plainview uses his power and wealth as an oilman to impress and intimidate, Sunday uses his religion. Dano is very impressive in this film. In 'Little Miss Sunshine', his character was near mute, here he is a born talker delivering his sermon's with as much charm and manipulation as Plainview can muster yet without Plainview's physical presence, Sunday is more weasel-like. Manipulating the townsfolk under the guise of salvation to maintain his influence and undermine that which Plainview has built through promise of wealth.

The themes therefore are that capitalism and religion can both be corrupting influences when in competition and if that is true then the ending of the film seems to suggest that one will ulimately defeat the other with bloodshed in it's wake but is unlikely to fulfill anyone.

Of course this isn't a film that succeeds solely on its lead actors. The cinematography is impressive with stark landscapes showing the harshness of the environment and the depiction of the oilfields themselves and the dark dangers within both impressive and unsettling. Adding to tension building between Plainview and Sunday is a chilling score. The film begins in harsh, shrill tones as we witness the dangers and rewards of mining in an opening 20 minutes that is free of dialogue so the score sets the tone effectively while raising the tension in later scenes as confrontations occur.

Ultimately this is a film made with skill on the behalf of all those involved and it will hold up to the test of time and will, deservedly, join the ranks of cinema classics.

Rating: 5/5

The Bucket List

Director: Rob Reiner

Starring: Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman

Fun, sometimes touching but mostly predictable, with any other actors in the lead roles this would be a complete snooze-fest. It's to our benefit then that we have Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman.

Both Nicholson and Freeman are household names, one a famed party animal and the other the very image of wise old sage. Neither actor are playing against type here and, fatal illnesses aside, this could very well be just a film about them as themselves... bonding while travelling the world, proving they can still have fun and examining their own mortality.

The story revolves around Nicholson's business man and Freeman's mechanic sharing the same room at the hospital where they learn they only have 6 months to a year to live. Their common plight and their common desire to experience the things they'd always put off doing forms a bond between them and they go to live out their final days in style.

While some of the situations seem awfully forced (picturesque landscapes of every major city around the world and a skydiving sequence with some dodgy CGI), and their realisations about what matters most in their lives is predictable, the banter between the two actors and their natural charisma is more than enjoyable and makes you care about them more than you might have without Nicholson and Freeman.

So... while very predictable, and schmaltzy even, if you can't feel any sadness or loss after spending time with these two by the time the film ends and they meet their, unavoidable, fates then you must have a heart of stone.

Rating: 3/5

Jumper

Director: Doug Liman

Starring: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L Jackson, Jamie Bell & Rachel Bilson.

A really great premise but, unfortunately, only an average film and an obvious set up for sequels.

Using the premise of someone finding he has the ability to teleport (jump) to anyhere in the world and then finding there are others like him and that they are fighting against a group out to exterminate them sounds like great material for an action/adventure film. And it would be...
... However, Jumper isn't quite that film but it wants to be and sometimes it does come close.

The 'jumping' itself looks cool and is a more subtle but effective special effect and the action sequences use this to great effect (one character 'jumping' a bus into the desert to throw at an enemy and a free fall drop/chase off the Empire State Building are highlights).
It is let down though by a few flaws.

The first is that the film is too short. Clocking at only 90 minutes it barely has time to explore any of the ideas before something else comes in. The film starts with an extended sequence featuring the main character, David, in his teens and first discovering he can teleport. Having grown up in an abusive household (at least we assume this, David's father is a drunk but at no time do we see any abuse) David uses this power to leave and start a new life, one that can give him complete freedom. We then jump to 8 years later and in the space of 48 hours David finds he is being hunted, reconnects with his childhood sweetheart, whisks her away to Rome, meets another Jumper, learns about the war and convinces the other Jumper that now is the time to go after their enemy's leader.... phew!

Given time to breathe, to get to know the characters and let them get to know eachother then the film could be great but its just too much in too little time and everything feels rushed with some scenes feeling short-changed. The film 'jumps' too erratically.

Because the film is driven by plot and action is suffers because the characters suffer. We learn very little about Sam Jackson's Roland, the man hunting Jumpers, or his motivations. A few lines here and there drop hints but aren't explored but luckilly Jackson still manages to make Roland menacing. Rachel Bilson's Missy seems far too trusting and accepts David's return and actions a little too easily and therefore is little more than a damsel in distress.
David himself (played by Star Wars' Hayden Christensen) suffers the most. His character comes across as lazy, spoilt, shallow, using his abilities for years just for fun and ignoring the opportunities to help others (seeing people trapped by floods on TV, he just changes the channel). His turn from brat to fighter feels forced and we see very little in his character to root for.

A highlight though is Jamie Bell as the roguish Griffin. A jumper who has been on the run all his life and has been taking the fight back to the enemy (named Paladins) whenever he can. Bell manages to steal most scenes that he's in.

The last flaw in the film is that the ending of the film falls flat. A big build up to the face off between David, Roland and Griffin fizzles out with the obvious set up for a sequel or even a series of sequels. When the director, Doug Liman, made The Bourne Identity, it felt like a complete film despite it later getting two sequels. With Jumper though it feels like Liman, or at least the studios, are just setting things up for bigger films later on.

I hope another film is made and that it develops the story and characters in more detail because if not, Jumper is just a cool looking action film with little heart.

Rating: 3/5

Juno

Director: Jason Reitman

Writer: Diablo Cody

Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner & Jason Bateman.

Smart, funny, mature and heart-warming, these not only describe the film but Juno herself. If more teens were as smart and sassy as this one it could almost make teenage pregnancy acceptable! That is quite a feat in itself.

Ellen Page is an actress on the rise and one with considerable talent. Her performance here, following on from 2006's Hard Candy, proves she has as much smarts and confidence as the characters she portrays and if she keeps this up she might possibly become a talent that's actually WORTHY of being A-list. Her Juno is smart, very smart and certainly smart enough to know when she's in over her head and when to make the right choices rather than live up to expectation.

Juno discovers she's pregnant, after weighing up her options she chooses to have the baby, but rather than being a role model for anti-abortionists, she makes the decision because she feels its right not because others are telling her what she should do. She chooses to carry the baby but also to give it up for adoption finding a, seemingly, ideal couple in Mark and Vanessa.

While the characters in this film might seem a little 'too-good-to-be-true' (Juno's parents are funny and caring rather than chiding Juno for her mistakes), they still feel true, honest even and this is down to great casting. The couple of Mark and Vanessa are also impressive. Jennifer Garner adds much warmth and depth to Vanessa who seems a little controlling at first while Mark (Arrested Development's Jason Bateman) is charming and funny but shows that these attributes might not make an ideal father. Little seen, but nevertheless memorable, is Michael Cera (of Superbad fame) as the geeky Bleeker, father of Juno's child and unwitting love interest who is unsure how to respond to Juno's situation and is full of shy, quiet awkwardness.

What also stands out amongst the strong performances is the script. Screenwriter Diablo Cody makes her film writing debut here and crams the script with more wit and maturity than a year's worth of sitcom/dramas are usually capable of and while the odd line or catchphrase might feel forced, the rest entertain more than enough to make up for it... and then some. Her career, like Ellen Page's, will be one to pay attention to and I can only hope that they collaborate again in the future.

Overall, this is a great, and mature, comedy with an unlikely role-model/heroine in its star. Any critical acclaim or cult status that it will, no doubt, achieve will be deserved.

Rating: 4/5

Cloverfield

Director: Matt Reeves
Producer: J J Abrahms

An excellent and long overdue breath of life to the monster movie genre. This is Godzilla for the Youtube generation.

Cloverfield's marketing campaig began lo-key. A viral campaign on the internet with a photo here, a clip of blurry footage there. Its slow tease built up the hype far more effectively than revealing all the details would have accomplished. Does the film live up to the hype? Yes.

My recommendations for anyone going to see this is see it at the cinema, the effect will be more powerful and also prepare yourself for the physical impact this film may have on you. Warnings in cinemas about effects similar to those of motion sickness are not without merit as 85mins of furious, shaky-cam action certainly leaves you dizzy and as disorientated as the cast at times.

The method in which the film is presented is what makes this film so effective. A video-camera filming a leaving party for, main character, Rob becomes a chronicle of an attack on the city when an unknown force attacks the city midway through the party. The man-on-the-scene, from the ground perspective on events makes for a more realistic experience of the events. We see exaclty what our cast see. Half-caught glimpses of a creature moving between buildings, buildings being destroyed, armed forces moving in to defend. Cloverfield keeps you right in with the action rather than cutting away to show you events from a distance.

This technique, even plot, are not original. The technique taken straight from 'The Blair Witch Project' released 9 years ago (complete with a disclaimer at the beginning that the footage you are watching was 'found') and the story of an attack seen only from the our main cast's experiences as the cross into and out of the path of destruction was explored in 2005 in Spielberg's adaptation of 'War of the Worlds'. Cloverfield through still manages to feel fresh and powerful during your viewing of it and this is due in no small part (unfortunate as it may be) to us living in a climate post 9/11. The combination of all of these results in a film that will be as well remembered to our generation as the early King Kong films might have had to cinemagoers almost a century ago.

There are a few faults that stop this film from being perfect though and some lie with the same texhnique that makes the film a success such as... would you really stop to film the monster that much or would you run? There is also the cliche of people making life-threatening decisions that defy common sense (the lengths some characters go to to rescue someone trapped in a building ranks ap there with investigating strange noises in the dark in a horror film). Still... these are mere niggles in an otherwise excellent film.

So... go see this film! Its tense, distubing and it will no doubt have a major impact on how blockbuster films will be made in the future.

Rating: 4/5