Drag Me to Hell

Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long & Lorna Raver

Sam Raimi returns to the horror genre where he made his name with Drag Me to Hell, a highly enjoyable horror film filled with Raimi’s trademark humour and moments of gross-out gore.

Despite becoming an established name in Hollywood thank to the cult-success of the Evil Dead trilogy of films throughout the 1980s and early 90s, Sam Raimi has become even better known to audiences thanks to another trilogy of films that has seen far greater success, especially in Box Office takings, with the Spider-Man films. After Spider-Man 3 in 2007, the biggest film project of Raimi’s career, and spending six years on directing and producing the Spider-Man trilogy, Raimi has taken a much deserved break and has returned to the genre he loves and to a more comfortable production scale and budget with Drag Me to Hell. There is an almost palpable sense of relief throughout the film too as Raimi throws himself, and especially his lead actress, into the level of gore, scares and gags that Raimi has been unable to truly engage in for years. Whilst also managing to scare when needed, Drag Me to Hell is the most fun and funny horror film in years.

The story, which is fortunately timed in the midst of a global financial crisis, deals with a young loan officer Christine (Lohman). With ambitions to become the assistant manager at her bank, her momentary greed gets the better of her when Mrs Ganush (Raver), an elderly Gypsy woman who is looking for an extension on her mortgage is turned down by Christine with an eye to impressing her boss. With Mrs Ganush embarrassed by the incident after begging to Christine and being forcibly removed Mrs Ganush later attacks Christine and places a curse upon her. A demon will now taunt Christine for three days before taking her to hell as punishment for her sins. With the help of her supportive, yet highly sceptical, boyfriend Clay (Long) and of a local psychic Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), Christine tries to seek ways to rid herself of the curse before the demon finally takes her.

With this plot, Raimi allows himself to engage in all manner of scares. Many are cheap but effective (eerie shadows, slamming doors), some slightly too absurd to scare or amuse (a possessed handkerchief is perhaps too much) whilst the rest are expertly designed to illicit big laughs but also gruesome enough to make audience squirm and avert their eyes. Animal sacrifices, flying bodies, eyes and all manners of bodily fluids are inflicted upon, or by, Christine throughout the film. Raimi’s oral fixation in particular in the film is a source of much amusement and scares as things end up upon faces, in mouths or coming out of them yet, in between some of the funnier moments are also some genuine jumps and scares with a séance in particular managing to shock, amuse and then shock again with effective regularity. Whilst the occasional use of obvious CGI makes some scares less effective, the more old fashioned make up effects are more rewarding.

Raimi also enjoys a strong cast with Drag Me to Hell. As with his previous films whether they be Spider-Man or Evil Dead, Raimi likes to put his lead characters and actors through a lot of punishment and in Alison Lohman, like with Tobey Maguire or Bruce Campbell, she can take the punishment Raimi has to offer and give plenty back to her antagonists. Faced with the prospect of a horrible death and facing several vicious and gruesome attacks both by Mrs Ganush and by the demon stalking her, Christine who starts the film quite timid, reveals true stamina and strength when backed into a corner and Lohman’s transformation from a quiet and unassuming loan officer to a woman willing to kill and to even dig up graves is an effective and enjoyable one even though it is a transformation that, perhaps, make Christine somewhat more deserving of the fate awaiting her. With a supporting cast including Justin Long as Christine’s, almost unbelievably, supportive boyfriend; Lorna Raver as he initially sympathetic yet later frightening Mrs Ganush; Dileep Rao as a psychic trying to aid Christine and Reggie Lee as Christine’s slimy competition at the bank, Drag Me to Hell features several enjoyable, if undeveloped, characters and performances.

Overall, while possessing enough gore and enough jumps to qualify itself as a horror, Drag Me to Hell isn’t the scariest of horror films. What the film is though is much better; it’s an often hilarious and squeamishly enjoyable return to the horror genre by one of its legends. Raimi fans should love the film and horror fans whilst not getting the scares they may have expected should still find themselves entertained.

Rating: 4/5

Synecdoche, New York

Director: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton & Catherine Keener

A complex and rewarding drama sees Charlie Kaufman, writer of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, make his directorial debut with his most ambitious project to date.

After writing some of the most acclaimed and cerebral dramas of the past ten years, Charlie Kaufman finally makes his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York which, especially for a debut picture, is a far more ambitious story than any of Kaufman’s collaborations with Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry. As with his previous films, Synecdoche, New York is another film delving into the realms of the human mind and of human identity, both being obsessions of Kaufman’s. Where Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind sought to dive into the human mind and explore its workings (literally so in one case), Synecdoche, New York sees its protagonist project his mind outwards onto the largest stage in history as a play where his every word and action and those of the people in his life are rein-acted by performers as a way to understand himself, to find his true self.

Caden Cotard (Hoffman) is a theatre director who, while accomplished, feels unworthy in comparison to the success of his artist wife Adele (Keener) and his inability to create a play of his own that expresses something true about himself. When his wife leaves to start a new life in Berlin, taking their daughter with her and achieving even greater success abroad, Caden slips further into despair suffering with thoughts of him dying and of not having meaning. He starts a new, if temporary and initially unfulfilling, relationship with his assistant Hazel (Morton) whilst continuing to seek therapy from an uninterested therapist (Hope Davis). However, when Caden is awarded an artist’s grant allowing him unlimited funding to create a work of art he uses the funds to fulfil his goal of creating a play that speaks about him. Performing in an impossibly large warehouse, Caden begins casting players in the roles of people from his life and hundreds of background players making up the New York suburb they existed in. With each having a role to play and the story getting larger, so does the cast and the sets until a near scale model of New York is created with Caden beginning to cast himself and his assistant Hazel with actors (Tom Noonan and Emily Watson) who rein-act their day to day lives and even directing their own play within a play and becoming so true to their roles that they inform and direct their own real-life counterparts.

Kaufman explores many themes throughout Synecdoche, New York with the stage life of Caden’s world representing an almost dreamlike state which progresses to become more real that his old life and as time moves on in great jumps, many unnoticed by Caden, it is his real life that becomes more like a dream. As Caden’s play expands further to encompass plays within plays and multiple actors cast in similar roles and more time is spent within the performance we are left wondering how much of what we see is part of the play, is part of Caden’s dreamlike state or is actually happening off stage. Because of this, Synecdoche, New York warrants more attention and becomes more demanding of its audience to maintain comprehension so how rewarding the film becomes depends on the efforts of its audience to follow. However, where Synecdoche, New York compares less favourably with Kaufman’s previous films and what sometimes makes committing to the film’s story is a lack of warmth. Where some characters and performances come away more favourably (Morton’s Hazel, Noonan as Caden’s stage equivalent), many of the characters are too often cold and difficult to like though Kaufman still manages to make them sympathetic.

Synecdoche, New York also boasts an impressive cast. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a very watchable leading man who, despite Caden being a character lacking warmth, still gives a very sympathetic performance. Samantha Morton is particularly impressive as Hazel, Caden’s assistant with whom he shares a brief relationship which instead develops into a more rewarding partnership and Tom Noonan impresses as Sam, an actor hired to play Caden in his play who knows Caden better than he knows himself but demonstrates a charm that Caden realises he is not capable of. In other roles there are Hope Davis, as Caden’s distant therapist; Catherine Keener as Caden’s ex-wife; Michelle Williams as Caden’s stage wife and Dianne Wiest’s Ellen who, while initially being cast by Caden in a smaller role, becomes much more important to Caden’s life and his play than he could realise.

Overall, Synecdoche, New York is a very intelligent drama. The complexity of its plot and characters won’t appeal to all audiences nor will the seriousness of its tone but those that do give it the attention it requires will come away more satisfied although whilst more intellectually rewarding than Kaufman’s previous films, Synecdoche, New York is not quite as enjoyable as some of his previous efforts. It is still an impressive debut from one of cinema’s most unique talents.

Rating: 4/5

Angels & Demons

Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor & Ayelet Zurer

An entertaining drama and sequel to 2006’s The Da Vinci Code that, whilst overlong and suffering some flaws, is enjoyable and an improvement over its predecessor.

When Dan Brown’s bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code, was adapted into a film in 2006 it was, unsurprisingly, a big Box Office success. However, despite its popularity it suffered poor to average reviews with the film being overlong, filled with too much exposition and not enough tension. However, due to its Box Office success, a sequel based on the book’s prequel, Angels & Demons was inevitable and while the result is still overlong, still filled with a little too much exposition, and it does improve on its pacing and is a more enjoyable affair.

Rather than place events before those of The Da Vinci Code as there are in the novel, the events of the film Angels & Demons follow on from its preceding film. Following the death of the Pope whilst the Vatican are preparing to choose a successor, a murder at scientific facility that sees the theft of an Anti-Matter device along with the kidnapping of four candidates for Pope-hood forces the Vatican to enlist the help of Robert Langdon (Hanks), the symbologist whose work has frequently exposed the Vatican and the Church’s secrets and misdeeds. With a threat to murder a kidnapped victim every hour until midnight and then to detonate the Anti-Matter device which would consume the Vatican being made by a secret sect called the Illuminati, Langdon must decipher a series of clues buried in old texts and Vatican landmarks to find out where each victim will be killed, where the bomb is located and stop them from happening.

Angels & Demons improves on its predecessor by narrowing its events down to single evening and within a single location, Vatican City, where The Da Vinci Code was a more widespread, sprawling affair. With a threat that they have only hours to stop, Angels & Demons has a far greater sense of emergency which translates into a faster paced and more enjoyable affair and because of the time restraints within the plot the exposition with which Langdon explains the clues, the history surrounding them and what they mean, whilst present, is kept more to the point since our characters really don’t have the time to talk for too long. Angels & Demons does still run for too long, giving too much reverence to the pomp and tradition of the Vatican particularly to the events that surround the election of a new Pope where, perhaps, the film is better served by focusing more on the threat they face and the actions of Langdon to stop it and there are a few too many moments where the characters stop to either repeat how serious the situation is or to, yet again, rehash the differences between faith and science and between Langdon and the Vatican officers also investigating the threat. However, the running time does not feel as long as it could thanks to the injection of more tension, several enjoyable set-pieces and the exclusion of a few of the novel’s less necessary sub-plots.

In terms of performances, Angels & Demons mainly relies on two. Tom Hanks, reprising his role as Langdon, is suitably serious giving the role the intelligent, focused hero it requires without trying to make him too much of a man of action (no attempts at gunplay here) and, while nothing original or noteworthy, it’s a performance that still satisfies. More enjoyable is Ewan McGregor as the young priest McKenna, the adopted son of the former Pope given leadership of the Vatican whilst a successor is chosen. McGregor has the meatiest role within the film representing a man trying to save the Vatican, aid Langdon and overcome the restrictions of the Vatican’s many, centuries old traditions. Less well served are some of the supporting roles. Ayelet Zurer, cast as the scientist aiding Langdon to find and defuse the Anti-Matter device is decent but mostly forgettable with a role and performance that lacks the interest or impact of Audrey Tautou’s from The Da Vinci Code. Few of the officer’s aiding Langdon in the investigation leave much of an impression beyond Stellan Skarsgard’s gruff chief of the Swiss Guard and the assassin behind the kidnappings is likewise unmemorable as a villain. Fortunately, with the film more driven by its events than its performances beyond those of Hanks and McGregor, Angels & Demons is not harmed too much by its casting.

Overall, while still too long and suffering from a less impressive cast that its predecessor, Angels & Demons is still a more enjoyable affair than The Da Vinci Code and whilst not gripping enough to warrant repeat viewings is still decent.

Rating: 3/5

Star Trek

Director: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto & Eric Bana

An excellent sci-fi action movie that reinvigorates the Star Trek franchise for new audiences whilst managing to be respectful and appealing to established Star Trek fans.

After the lackluster performance of the pervious Star Trek film Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 and the disappointing performance cancellation of the previous Star Trek television series Enterprise in 2005, it seemed that the Star Trek franchise was struggling to remain interesting or relevant to viewers after an unbroken run of 18 years of Star Trek television series. After several years of developing new scripts and ideas for the franchise, J.J. Abrams (creator of TV series Alias, Lost and Fringe, director of the film Mission Impossible III and producer of films such as Cloverfield) has brought Star Trek back, and back to cinemas, by revisiting the early days of the original Star Trek crew and reintroducing the characters and universe to new and old audiences alike.

Whilst investigating an anomaly described as a “lightning storm in space”, the U.S.S. Kelvin comes under attack from an enemy ship emerging from the anomaly. The ship, coming from the future, destroys the U.S.S. Kelvin but not before its captain, one George Kirk, manages to save 800 crew members including his wife and new-born son Jim. Flashing forward we see Jim Kirk (Pine) grow up to be a rebel whilst Spock (Quinto), a half human/half Vulcan struggles with feelings of rebellion on his home planet where emotion is strictly controlled in favor of logic. With both joining Starfleet, an intergalactic space force dedicated to exploring space and other worlds, they are both forced to work together when Spock’s planet is threatened by the same ship that destroyed the U.S.S. Kelvin 25 years before, killing Kirk’s father. Using a clever time-traveling hook, Star Trek acknowledges the history established in the previous Star Trek series and films but has the actions of its villain Nero (Bana) alters history creating a new series of events and a new status for classic Star Trek characters like Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty and more. Still taking place in the character’s earlier years prior to the period covered in the original Star Trek series from 1966, the new Star Trek film takes a younger cast and the advantage of modern effects to create a new adventure that introduces the characters and the Star Trek franchise to new audiences in an accessible manner that, whilst not requiring familiarity with the continuity of 43 years of Star Trek, is still respectful of it and offers plenty of little in-jokes and references for more experienced fans of the franchise.

What J.J. Abrams also returns to the Star Trek franchise is a sense of fun. Whether it is humor at the expense of its character’s youthful mishaps and exuberance or pokes at long standing running gags within the franchise, Star Trek offers plenty of laughs without spoofing the franchise it is reviving. The humor, along with some impressive action sequences and special effects opens the franchise up to a bigger audience than most previous Star Trek films have been able to achieve. The cast in Star Trek is also impressive. Chris Pine steps into the shoes previously worn by William Shatner to play James T. Kirk and while demonstrating moments of Shatner-like charm, also adds his own mark to this character, one whose life takes a more rebellious course than Shatner’s original Kirk. Quinto (TV’s Heroes) steps into the role of Spock with ease giving the character the necessary cold, emotionless demeanor when needed whilst keeping just enough emotion bubbling underneath the surface as his character struggles with his more human emotions. Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings films) channels the spirit of Deforest Kelley in his performance as Dr. McCoy getting many of the best lines and being suitably grumpy and cynical throughout while Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, TVs Spaced) adds comic relief as the Scottish engineer Scotty. John Cho and Anton Yelchin are enjoyable as Sulu and Chekov and Zoe Saldana gets to develop her role of Uhura into a far more spirited character than the previous incarnation had been portrayed. The only weak link in the casting and in the film is in its villain. Nero, played dependably by Bana, is little seen and underdeveloped. With his motives merely spoken and not really developed and the focus more on the film’s heroes, Nero is an adequate villain whose threat depends more on his ship and his weaponry than on the character himself.

Overall, while the villain is a little disappointing, the rest of the cast of Star Trek are enjoyable as is the story, the humor, the effects and the action sequences. Star Trek is a very enjoyable film and the best Star Trek film in over a decade and certainly the most accessible film yet. An excellent Star Trek film and an excellent summer blockbuster.

Rating: 4/5

Coraline

Director: Henry Selick
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher & Keith David (voices of)

A very impressive stop-motion animated film from the director of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas adapting the novel by Neil Gaiman. Charming, funny with beautiful visuals, the film should entertain children and adults alike.

Sixteen years after bringing the stories and imagination of director Tim Burton to life in 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Henry Selick adapts Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline for the cinema screen. Despite having some limited success with an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach in 1996 and the critical and commercial failure of Selick’s live-action/stop motion hybrid Monkeybone in 2001, it might have seemed that Selick owed more to Tim Burton for the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas than on his own skills as a director. Now, with Coraline, Selick is back and demonstrates he is more than just a skilled stop motion animator but sheds the influence of Tim Burton and proves he is an adept filmmaker himself showing a strong grasp of storytelling and an impressive visual style of his own that will still entertain fans of Burton but feeling more fresh and original.

Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning), is a young girl relocated to a new home in Ashland, Oregon with her botanist parents. Away from her friends, living in a secluded house with unusual neighbors and parents who are too busy to find time for her, Coraline goes exploring. What she finds is a hidden door that leads her to an alternate home where her parents and neighbors are warm and exciting people, where imagination thrives though where everyone has buttons for eyes. Initially lured in by the warmth and charm of her “other” mother and father and their home, Coraline soon sees the cost when she is asked to stay and replace her own eyes for buttons. With a sinister side revealed to her other mother and her world, Coraline must find her way home and also save her real parents. Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, the author of Neverwhere, Stardust and the Sandman graphic novels, Coraline is a tale in the fashion of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland where a young girl finds a wonderful fantasy world that soon becomes a nightmare. At times quite scary and frequently funny (featuring some almost-inappropriate yet delightfully bawdy humor involving two elderly actresses living in the apartment below Coraline’s), Coraline is a fairytale in a classic sense. Confronting fears in a mature manner that does not underestimate the abilities of children to understand and enjoy the story’s message whilst also allowing Selick to let loose with a beautifully realized fantasy world that will delight audiences of all ages (a sequence in the garden of the other world is a highlight).

Selick also casts Coraline with some strong voice talent. Dakota Fanning voices Coraline herself, giving Coraline the intelligence and strength the character requires to face overwhelming odds and defeat them whilst Teri Hatcher (TV’s Desperate Housewives) voices both Coraline’s actual and “other” mothers impressively, with the “other” mother particularly well as she veers from warm and loving to frightening and evil. With talented actors voicing the roles of Coraline’s neighbors like Ian McShane (TV’s Deadwood and Lovejoy) as a Russian gymnast, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French as an elderly of former actresses and Keith David’s gravelly voice bringing the neighborhood cat to life within the fantasy world, Coraline has a strong crop of supporting performances to rely upon.

Overall, Coraline is very entertaining. Smart, funny, well performed and with some stunning visuals, Coraline is a classic family film in the making and proof that Selick is capable of directing as well as animating. An excellent film for any age.

Rating: 4/5

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber & Danny Huston

A disappointing solo-debut for the popular X-Men character that, whilst possessing some entertaining moments, relies on too many clichés and not enough focus on character.

In 2000, the X-Men graced the big screen with their first movie with enough success that a superior, and even more successful, sequel followed in 2003 with a third film in 2006. Like the comic books, the X-Men movie franchise has proved to be popular and also like the comic books, Wolverine quickly became the fan-favorite character in that franchise. After some production hiccups along the way, Wolverine now gets his own film, one that goes into his past and explaining his origins for film fans. The result has some very promising moments but, unfortunately, rarely makes enough use of them instead focusing more on blander, more clichéd material.

Starting with a very enjoyable, very impressive prologue and opening credits sequence beginning in 1845 and chronicling the adolescence of Logan, AKA Wolverine (Jackson) and his life through to the American Civil War, WWI, WWII and Vietnam alongside his brother Victor (Schreiber) to the 1970s, Wolverine starts off strong. It is an effective opening montage that manages to convey the differences between Logan and his brother, demonstrate the nature of their mutations whilst also being visually impressive. However, once the main story begins, Wolverine rarely shows as much depth from then on. An entertaining sequence where Logan and Victor are recruited into a team of super-powered mercenaries introduces some interesting characters like Ryan Reynolds wise-cracking Wade Wilson but ultimately results in actions that drive Logan to quit the team. Six years later, Logan is pulled out of retirement when it seems his brother is hunting down his former teammates and takes away the quiet life Logan has built for himself. Allowing his former boss Stryker (Huston) to give him the power to take down his brother in the form of an unbreakable skeleton, the film then becomes a series of fights scenes as Logan fights Victor, former teammates and Stryker too, who wishes to turn Logan into a weapon.

With the plot focusing more on action, character seems to suffer because of it. A love interest for Logan is introduced and removed far too briefly and an elderly couple, who help Logan, barely have time to register before the plot moves on. Even the motivations and characterizations of Logan and Victor, the central conflict and relationship within the film, are barely explored beyond saying that one embraces their animal side and the other resists. The action sequences on Wolverine too, except for the Logan vs helicopter sequence already revealed in trailers promoting the film, are not especially impressive lacking that intense, brutal feeling that made the Wolverine character’s fight sequences in the X-Men films so entertaining. There is also some obvious wire work and occasionally weak CGI (whenever a character is thrown, or when Logan first admires his Adamantium coated claws in a bathroom mirror) that stand out.

Regarding performances, Hugh Jackman is just fine, reprising the Logan/Wolverine role again. He remains watchable and suitably angry as the role requires yet the script this time around doesn’t give Jackman many moments to demonstrate humor. Schreiber is suitably intense and feral as Victor and Huston suitably slimy and calculating as Stryker though neither get much opportunity to give their characters much depth therefore playing just to the type the script requires. Ryan Reynolds makes the most of a brief appearance that entertains more than any other performance in the film whilst rapper Will.i.am and actors Daniel Henney and Taylor Kitsch put in fairly bland, unmemorable performances as the mutants Wraith, Agent Zero and Gambit respectively. Lynn Collins, as Logan’s love interest Kayla, also struggles to make a lasting impression in a role that is underdeveloped.

Overall, Wolverine is disappointing. Wolverine has a very strong beginning, an enjoyable cameo from Ryan Reynolds, an enjoyable performance from Jackman and a few entertaining scenes and action sequences, most in the first half of the film. However, with too many underwritten characters, a plot that falls into too many clichés and focusing more on action than on character and some poor effects, Wolverine ends up being less than satisfying and doesn’t reach the potential the character, or Hugh Jackman, possess.

Rating: 2/5

State of Play

Director: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck & Rachel McAdams

An excellent political thriller that adapts the BBC series to the U.S. and to the cinema screen admirably with a strong performance from Russell Crowe in the lead.

Originally an award winning, 6-part, 6 hour, BBC mini-series from 2003, State of Play adapts the plot of the original mini-series about a journalist’s investigation into the death of a woman linked, romantically, to an old friend who is now a politician from London, England to Washington, USA and also casting Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck (replacing the originally cast Brad Pitt and Edward Norton) in the roles originally performed by John Simm and David Morrissey in the BBC drama. Fortunately the cinematic adaptation succeeds very well in capturing the essential elements of the original story and presenting them in an intelligent and entertaining manner for the big screen.

Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) is an old school journalist, shunning the world of online reporting and the rising preferences of making scoops over actual investigative reporting, he is following the story of a thief murdered one evening that also left a witness to the incident in a coma. When a woman dies in a subway train accident and is suspected to be a suicide, McCaffrey is harassed by colleagues for information when the woman is revealed to have been working for McCaffrey’s old roommate, now a politician, Stephen Collins (Affleck). Initially reaching out to Collins as a friend rather than as a reporter and to his Collins wife Anne (Robin Wright Penn) especially when news that the dead woman had an affair with Collins, McCaffrey then gets involved in a larger story when the dead thief he was covering appears connected to the dead woman on the subway. Was the woman murdered like the thief? And what does it have to do with the investigation Collins is undertaking against a military contractor profiting from war? The investigation takes McCaffrey and an opportunistic young reporter named Della (McAdams) into a cover up of subterfuge, shady corporate dealings and tests McCaffrey’s friendship with Collins.

Despite having to suspend some disbelief to accept that Crowe’s McCaffrey could ever have been college roommates and friends with Collins when Collins is played by the much younger Affleck, State of Play manages to be a very gripping thriller. The occasional line of clichéd dialogue to remind you of what is at stake and a scene that reminds you that bad things happen in underground parking lots, especially in films, never really harms the enjoyment of the film. The plotline, while condensed down from the BBC series’ original 6 hour running time to 2 hours, manages to maintain the more important details and keeping some of the major themes of the series intact and, whilst also twisting and turning with the investigation taking McCaffrey, Della and Collins ever deeper also manages to avoid the usual plot holes and stretched logic that many films of this genre are plagued by. The script remains mostly intelligent thanks to the involvement of screenwriters such as Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) and Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) and the film is also helped by some strong performances by its cast.

Russell Crowe, all shaggy haired and disheveled in appearance, gives McCaffrey the sense of integrity and commitment that his character required. Confident and intelligent whenever he needs to be, charming when its required but also keeps McCaffrey believable when he’s faced with errors particularly the swift, and believable, change in manner Crowe portrays in a scene where McCaffrey knocks on the wrong door at the wrong time. Despite being too young for the role, Affleck manages to impress too, giving Collins the necessary amounts of earnestness and sympathy in spite of his character’s flaws whilst McAdams is likeable, perhaps too much, as the eager junior reporter out for a big story. Along with Helen Mirren as McCaffrey’s editor and Robin Wright Penn as Collins’ suffering wife, State of Play benefits from a strong cast of experienced actors.

Overall, despite the occasional cliché and the, perhaps, error in casting two actors with 9 years between them as long time friends in the lead roles, State of Play is nevertheless a gripping thriller. Smart, well acted and very enjoyable.

Rating: 4/5

Observe and Report

Director: Jody Hill
Starring: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris & Ray Liotta

A dark comedy that has some enjoyable moments but suffers from an uneven tone that affects its attempts at seriousness as well as its attempts at humor.

Coming soon after another mall-security guard comedy, Paul Blart, which was an altogether lighter and more mainstream comedy, Observe and Report arrives and is a far darker and adult approach to the same concept of mall-security guard trying to overcome personal problems and be successful. Starring Seth Rogen, starring after a string of recent hit-comedies such as Knocked Up and Pineapple Express, Observe and Report, on paper, appears to have the potential to be another hit. However, audiences expecting a comedy similar in tone to either Paul Blart or Rogen’s previous films may be surprised at the far darker, and certainly unpleasant, themes running throughout this film.

Ronnie Barnhardt (Rogen) is the head of mall security. Suffering from Bi-Polar depression, but possessing an over-inflated opinion of his own authority, Ronnie's main pre-occupation at his workplace is with Brandi (Faris), the girl working at the mall’s make up counter. After a flasher exposes himself to several women at the mall, including Brandi, and with Ronnie’s attempts to investigate undermined by Detective Harrison (Liotta), Ronnie finds himself driven to catch the flasher before the police and proving himself to Harrison and to Brandi. With no success in this, or in solving a string of burglaries, Ronnie is declared incompetent by Harrison. Ronnie then attempts to join the police force only to find he is psychologically unfit to be a police officer. Frustrated by his failures including attempts to form a relationship with Brandi, Ronnie begins to melt down.

Observe and Report does have some ambition, dealing with Ronnie’s psychological condition and a discernable lack of education and their effect on Ronnie. Ronnie sets himself unrealistic goals, fails to apply himself effectively to achieve them and blames others for his failures. Ronnie is portrayed as a loser, but rather than demonstrate any charm that might make him loveable to audiences anyway, he is portrayed more as a pitiable figure and, frequently, as an unlikable one. Observe and Report occasionally works as a black comedy, however its attempts to lighten some genuinely dark moments with humor, particularly crude humor (one scene in where Ronnie has sex with a near-comatose Brandi provokes slight laughs but very awkward ones) fall flat. One scene, where Harrison informs Ronnie that he won’t be a police officer is interrupted by Harrison’s partner who declares that he “thought this was gonna be funny but it’s actually sad” which captures the tone whenever Ronnie fails. However, Ronnie’s successes often succeed in being quite amusing such as his attempts to bust up a drug corner and the film’s finale when Ronnie finally confronts the flasher plaguing his mall.

Performances in Observe and Report are mixed. Seth Rogen does play down his more likeable character traits effectively to portray Ronnie as the struggling, unstable, individual he is though his handling of a voiceover during a scene seemingly inspired by Taxi Driver struggles to generate tension or humor and feels out of place. The rest of the cast of Observe and Report seem to, like with Rogen, involve them playing more unpleasant versions of character types they’ve played before. Anna Faris, known for playing somewhat shallow, yet likeable characters in comedies plays Brandi as far more cold and conceited while Liotta’s Detective Harrison is frequently vindictive and condescending. Only Collette Wolfe’s Nell, and employee at the mall’s coffee bar, is in any way likeable.

Overall, Observe and Report possesses some genuinely amusing scenes, several of them quite dark, and also handles some of its darker themes quite well but often the humor feels out of place, falling flat and added to characters who are frequently too unlikable to laugh at, Observe and Report frequently struggles to satisfy.

Rating: 2/5

I Love You, Man

Director: John Hamburg
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jason Segal & Rashida Jones

A funny and charming comedy about male bonding that, whilst playing it safe in terms of story and jokes, still entertains because of the likeability of its two stars Rudd and Segal.

Following a string of recent comedies dealing with male friendship and bonding, dubbed ‘bromance’, such as Superbad and Role Models comes I Love You, Man starring Judd Apatow production regulars Paul Rudd and Jason Segal. While the most direct, and mainstream, attempt to address the male friendship dynamic in recent years, I Love You, Man finds plenty of insights and humor to make the film enjoyable to male audiences.

Beginning with Peter Klaven (Rudd) proposing to his girlfriend Zooey (Jones), Zooey soon becomes concerned that, once the announcement is made and wedding goes into planning, that Peter has never had many male friends and no best friend with which to call a best man at the wedding. With the support of Zooey, his brother (Andy Samburg) and his parents (the enjoyable Jane Curtin and J.K. Simmons), Peter attempts to find himself a male friend whom he can call his best man involving a string of ‘man dates’ that fail in several, amusing, ways including the inevitable misinterpretation that the ‘man date’ is a sexual advance with one potential friend. Whilst running an open house in his day job as a real estate agent, Peter encounters Sydney (Segal), a likeable slacker looking to use open house days as a way to meet women. Hitting it off, Peter and Sydney meet up again and a friendship forms that whilst opening up the option to be honest to a male friend about his life also threatens to put a wedge between Peter and his fiancé Zooey.

Whilst generally playing it safe with its dialogue and situations and rarely attempting to approach the more risqué humor of a Judd Apatow production, I Love You, Man certainly manages to be consistently witty and charming thanks not only to its cast but also to the improvisational approach to the dialogue, particularly between Rudd and Segal, that leads to a lot of surprising humor that is frequently sharp and occasionally deliberately cringe-worthy such as Peter’s frequent attempts to sound cool in front of Sydney which often leaves him babbling nonsense. There are also plenty of effective scenes in which Peter recognizes the value of having a male friend, of realizing that there are things you never discuss with female friends or partners even if you always thought you were honest and also in being able to enjoy and share more male-orientated interests such as, in Peter’s case, playing guitar with Sydney but in also allowing yourself to embrace your more aggressive instincts which Peter avoids to the detriment of his career ambitions. The plot of I Love You, Man may take predictable turns with Peter and Sydney’s friendship affecting Peter’s relationship with his fiancé and also his career leading to break ups, arguments and the inevitable reconciliations and upbeat ending but the journey is nevertheless an enjoyable one.

A large part of what makes I Love You, Man enjoyable is its cast. With Paul Rudd and Jason Segal both recently progressing from a string of entertaining supporting roles in comedy films to lead status, Segal in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Rudd with Role Models, both are more than able to carry a film themselves and together they work very well with a natural chemistry on screen developed from working on several films together in the past. Rudd keeps Peter frequently witty but is also believably, and enjoyably, awkward and embarrassing when placed in uncomfortable situations. Peter’s failed attempts to sound cool when talking to Sydney in earlier scenes and a post-poker game drinking contest with Jon Favreau, playing the husband to one of Zooey’s friends, are highlights. Segal meanwhile makes Sydney completely loveable despite his character’s lack of ambitions later demonstrating his character’s loneliness as he’s sees his friends all moving ahead with their lives. Sydney’s embracing of his male instincts also leads to some entertaining physical confrontations particularly one with actor Lou Ferrigno (playing himself). Rashida Jones is very likeable as Rudd’s fiancé Zooey and Jane Curtin, J.K. Simmons and Andy Samburg are all entertaining in smaller roles as Peter’s family.

Overall, I Love You, Man is a very enjoyable film. There is plenty of appeal for male and female audiences but should be particularly enjoyable for the male audiences. The fairly safe nature of the plot and humor might not give the film the re-watch ability value of braver comedies but the Rudd and Segal make for an enjoyable pair and I Love You, Man should not fail to entertain.

Rating: 4/5

Crank: High Voltage

Director: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Starring: Jason Statham, Amy Smart & Dwight Yoakam

An entertaining sequel that takes the first film’s, already implausible, plotline and amplifies it considerably. It is louder with more action, more insanity though its weaknesses as well as strengths are exaggerated too.

Crank was an unlikely cult hit upon its release. Filmed on a low budget and based on premise that was implausible even for the action genre, it nevertheless entertained many fans of the genre in its unapologetic embrace of action films, coincidences, unstoppable heroes and ever growing action set pieces. However, since the first Crank did eventually end with its hero, Chev Chelios (Statham) dying after falling from a helicopter, it was assumed that there would be no room for a sequel featuring this character. Not so. With a maneuver that resurrects Chelios in its opening scenes that is more implausible than the first film in its entirety, Crank: High Voltage sets the standard for an action film where anything can, and does, happen.

How much enjoyment you get out of Crank: High Voltage depends upon how much realism you expect from your action film. If the answer is not much, of that it doesn’t matter if the action is entertaining, then the film will certainly entertain. Chev Chelios survives his ‘death’ at the end of the first film when Chinese gangsters replace his heart with an artificial model that requires and electrical charge to keep working whilst his own, original, heart being donated to aging kingpin. With the artificial heart only designed for temporary use, Chelios escapes capture and must now locate his heart before his replacement breaks down, a situation that can be delayed through regular electrical charges. This, of course, leads to many humorous moments where Chelios must attach cables from car batteries, power stations and electrical boxes to maintain his artificial heart and even resorting to the static electrical charge from rubbing himself against strangers or having sex with his girlfriend Eve (Smart) in a public place, yet again.

As humorous as some of these situations are, they are made more humorous by the absolute conviction with which Chelios accepts this reality and in the tongue-in-cheek jokes at the plot’s implausibility that is made by several of its other cast members (a TV News Reporter makes a few appearances to report on the events of the day with a wink to audiences). Crank: High Voltage even goes so far as to insert dream sequences and hallucinations experienced by Chelios while super-charged. A flashback to his youth, presented on a TV Talk Show, is extremely amusing by its casting of Chelios’ mother whilst one hallucination has Chelios sees himself fighting as giant in a power station that recalls battles from Godzilla films.

However, while the action sequences the bigger and more implausible, yet also entertaining, the weaknesses of the first Crank are also carried over and exaggerated in Crank: High Voltage too. Whilst the dialogue in Crank: High Voltage is not expected to be particularly insightful or original, it does rely on racial stereotyping and racist language far too often. Sometimes this language can be used playfully, generating a chuckle, it more often quite offensive. On top of the frequently offensive language is the, too frequent, reliance upon stereotypes, particularly racial stereotypes. One character, played by Bai Ling, is frequently annoying in her performance but more so by her dialogue which, aside from a funny joke involving Kevin Costner, stands out as enforcing an unpleasant stereotype. Crank: High Voltage also portrays women as little more than sexual eye candy (prostitutes, strippers and damsels in distress).

Overall, Crank: High Voltage is sufficiently entertaining in its embrace of its ridiculous premise with action sequences that entertain in their originality as well as in the humor that can be found in them, however now every crazy character or situation works and the frequently offensive stereotypes and dialogue threaten to distract from the film’s entertainment a little too frequently. Fans of the first Crank should enjoy the film, though it isn’t for the easily offended.

Rating: 3/5