Author: Steve

0

Get Him To The Greek (2010) Review

Synopsis - We were first introduced to Russell Brand’s out-of-control rock star Aldous Snow in 2008’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where he hilariously appeared as the love rival to Jason Segel’s recently-dumped protagonist Peter. While Brand’s role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall was relatively small, and asked very little of him in the way of acting, writer/director team Segel and Nicholas Stoller give him centre stage in Get Him to the Greek, in this, less sequel, more spin-off, to the 2008 comedy. While my expectations of Brand were high after his handling of the role in Sarah Marshall, where he played a rather exaggerated version of himself, he generally failed to impress in this first attempt at a major role. Snow is a role suited to the flamboyant, ex-heroin and sex-addicted,  dandy from Essex, whose stand-up and Ponderland shows I absolutely adore, so it was disappointing when he overacted the part. After Brand bombing as host of the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, it is perhaps understandable that the movie’s producers were keen to edge away from his recognizable humour and mannerisms, but, to me, this fell short of the mark; Snow as a character is not far enough away from Brand himself to merit a response praising impressive acting, nor close enough to encourage the kind of hysterical laughter we are used to with his usual antics. In my opinion, Brand should stick to what he knows, and perhaps take a leaf out of one of our other national comical treasures, Ricky Gervais’, book, who has basically made a living out of constantly re-dressing David Brent. Similarly, the film as a whole seemed to be lacking something, which stopped it just short of being a fantastic comedy. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments that left me crying with laughter (see ‘Geoffrey and furry walls’ scene, and Snow’s snidey comeback to a certain heavy-metal drummer), but there was no consistency in the humour. It seemed to sit on the fence between cracking farcical comedy (a la The Hangover and Superbad), and sentimental, yet light-hearted drama. While rom-coms pull this off all the time, Get Him to the Greek just couldn’t get the mix right, and any attempt at tragedy or emotional engagement left me feeling rather flat with the whole experience. It wasn’t all bad, however, and the upsides included some fantastic cameos (of which P Diddy was NOT one) and an excellent selection of pop-culture references, some rather more obsure than others; see aforementioned drummer comment and the best introduction to prog supergroup The Mars Volta ever. Jonah ‘Superbad’ Hill also played his role of  the responsible record company chaperone being led astray by Snow down to a tee, not disappointing but not particularly shining either. In all, Get Him To The Greek is a fun, pretty harmless piece of entertainment, but don’t expect a laugh-a-minute, as you’ll have plenty of time to rest between the sporadic aisle-rolling hysteria. 6/10 Steve

0

Invictus review

Synopsis - Where to start with this film exactly then? I have to admit that I went into the movie with a few preconceptions of how I was going to feel about it. I'd heard good reviews and I'd heard terrible reviews, and I was more prone to take the latter on board. This is where you'd expect me to say I was pleasantly surprised and that the film turned out to be an inspiring piece of work, full of suspense and drama, with admirable performances from its stars, while drawing on an important political event. Well, you're wrong. Sort of, anyway. It was neither a great film, or an awful one. It sat between the two extremes, and not necessarily comfortably plodding along neutrally at half-pace, but zig-zagging forward and backward between the excellent and the down-right terrible. There are a couple of main points I feel I should tell you about this film. Firstly, this is a film about rugby. You can dress it up as a political and historical drama, but in the end, it is a sports film. Secondly (and I know I'm going to get a lot of stick for this), Freeman is terrible. There, I said it. To go back to the first point, this film is unashamedly about rugby. While I'm sure director Clint Eastwood would insist rugby is simply a device used to show how the problems of history and a country's guilt can always be reconciled, there's no denying that the sport itself holds the main impetus of the narrative and film as a whole. The final match goes on for around half an hour of the film for Christ's sake! Now I'm a massive rugby fan, and even though I was only eight at the time, I do remember the 1995 World Cup, and specifically the final, and therefore the way in which they created past events and the movie's attention to detail was very exciting for me. However, for anyone uninterested in the sport I can imagine the amount of screen time given to match sequences is simply far too long. As for the match sequences themselves, considering we are supposed to be watching the best teams in the world, the play looks incredibly sloppy. It looks almost like one of those bad video-recordings by a proud dad watching his 12-year-old son playing in Sunday league. Though rugby holds the centre stage of the film, I couldn't help feeling it was all a little watered down for the masses, as if the film felt the need to explain every little detail of the game to its audience. Also, I couldn't help laugh when South African captain Francois Pienaar, played by Matt Damon, in what was supposed to be an inspiring mid-match team-talk said "Forwards, you need to start scrumming!". WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? Some researcher somewhere obviously wasn't doing their job right. So, to go back to Freeman. I know he's treated as a rather holier-than-thou, untouchable, King Midas of an actor, but I honestly thought this was the worst performance I've ever seen him give. Granted, he looks like Mandela. And maybe he acts like Mandela. But that's all I can see. I don't see Mandela. I see Morgan Freeman trying to be Mandela. I know it was Mandela's personal request to have Freeman to play him in the film (hell, I'd probably do the same, right after Brad Pitt), but in all honesty, I think it was a mistake to cast such a recognisable face as the President. Freeman's depiction of Mandela generally consisted of him shuffling around, looking morose, which really started to grate on me. I understand both Freeman and Damon spent a considerable amount of time with their characters' real-life counterparts, so perhaps Freeman was doing an accurate job, but it just didn't work on screen for me. Freeman also brought a childlike innocence or naïvety to Mandela, which instead of appearing charming and peaceful, made the President appear more stupid and vulnerable. I know Mandela is a political legend, and an icon for a generation. His story definitely deserves telling too. However, if Freeman's representation of him is accurate, then maybe his personality just wasn't made for the screen. As for Damon, he was comparatively brilliant next to Freeman. I'll admit, I like Matt Damon anyway, and while it wasn't one of his best performances he didn't completely disgrace himself. His accent was passable and he was fairly believable as the Springbok captain. However, as I said for Freeman, perhaps it would have been better to see an unknown face playing such an icon, as it was rather amusing watching Jason Bourne (and Will Hunting for that matter) running around a rugby pitch. Aside from Freeman's performance, there was another huge problem for me in this movie, and that was that the first two hours were a complete snore-fest. It's a long film at the best of times, but when the action doesn't start picking up until after the two hour mark, time becomes a real problem. The drama only actually starts picking up as South Africa begin approaching the World Cup final, and like I've said before, all the action is rugby-based. I'll admit though, I really did enjoy the last half hour. The game footage really picked up pace and I found myself watching the match as if it was a real game. The only problem for me was that I knew the outcome, down to the drop-goal that secures the match. This is what the whole film hangs on, and when creating a historical drama such as this, you really need something else to build suspense other than the factual events themselves. I'm still really undecided about this one to be honest. I loved taking a trip down memory lane, seeing familiar faces like Pienaar, Williams, Stransky and Lomu, but Freeman's performance and the first two thirds of the film really hold it back. Obviously it's very Hollywood and over-produced (what else would you expect with Eastwood at the helm?), but I can't really use that as the overriding basis for criticism. That said, try not to cringe too much when the song Colorblind is played over a scene of Mandela majestically arriving at the Springboks' training ground by helicopter. All in all, go and see it if you enjoy rugby and don't mind a big-budget Hollywood cheese-fest. If you're after a realistic and inspiration tale of political struggle, maybe give this one a miss. 5/10 Steve

1

The Wave review

Synopsis - When I was first told about this German film I was a little dubious. It wasn't that the premise of a high school social experiment that soon gets out of control was not appealing, but I had a feeling that if it wasn't done well then it simply wouldn't work. I had visions of a cold, stripped-down documentary-style format that would leave me disengaged and unable to form any kind of emotional attachment. Luckily, I was in for a big surprise as this turned out to be a complete gem of a movie that was not only entertaining and full of suspense but also had a powerful message behind it. The 2008 film (Die Welle in its original German) loosely retells and, albeit heavily, dramatises an actual experiment called "The Third Wave", which was carried out in a California high school in the 1960s and used to teach the pupils about the dangers of an autocratic government. By moving the action to modern-day Germany, these warnings are put in a far more relevant context and the question of history repeating is put at the forefront. In what I feel was a brave move, the film openly discusses the impact of the Third Reich on Germany's youth of today, and their jaded attitudes towards a culture and education system that feels the need to constantly remind them of the atrocities committed during Nazi rule. The teenagers' gradual shift from apathy and cynicism to passion and enthusiasm towards "The Wave" - the autocratic movement instigated by teacher Rainer Wenger (Jürgen Vogel) - is worrying to watch, yet unsettlingly believable. We are presented with a classroom full of outsiders, each lonely in their own way, slowly coming together to form something they feel is great, without seeing the damage it is causing to those outside of it. Vogel really shines as Herr Wenger, who leaves us constantly questioning his own attitudes to The Wave as someone who is supposed to be in control of the 'experiment'. In one of the final scenes he is absolutely fantastic and bears more than a slight resemblance to history's arguably most famous German (well, Austrian if we're being picky) son when he makes an inspired speech to his student subjects. The teenage leads deserve a mentioning too, with Max Riemelt and Jennifer Ulrich both putting in strong performances as the high school sweethearts, Marco and Karo, torn apart by the movement. However it is Frederick Lau's portrayal of class misfit Tim Stoltefuss that really carries us towards the climax. I'll admit that at times, he is a little 'pantomime weirdo', but he just pulls it off so well that I'm willing to let him off. With regard to the finale, it was a little predictable and overdramatic (no such events happened in the real experiment in California), but I felt it was fitting and I saw no other way it could have ended. If we had been left with anything different I'm sure we would have been left feeling rather empty and unsatisfied. For those of you who tend to avoid foreign language films and generally stick to more mainstream stuff, I couldn't stress more that you should give this film a chance. There's already talks of a Hollywood remake, which is no surprise to me at all. I can see it being either reproduced in a The Faculty-esque pretty-boys-and-girls-in-trouble teen drama, or alternatively it would easily lend itself to a gritty British urban youth drama (see Kidulthood). Either way, this film holds a powerful and stark warning that is relevant both on the continent, over here and on the other side of the Atlantic. It opens up the unthought of possibility that Germany could allow itself to slip back into a dictatorship, and if it is possible there then the idea of it happening closer to home should maybe not be dismissed so easily. In a country where some are so disillusioned by the current state of affairs that they elect a racist party to represent us in Europe the lesson within this film couldn't be any more applicable. 8/10 Steve