Film Guide

I try to be a glass half full kinda person. Like when my dog died, I was gutted, but at least my house doesn’t smell anymore. Or when an old flame dumped me, I was sad, but then I realized I could make space in my brain to remember my mum’s phone number, rather than his. The same we for ‘Abduction’. I tried to see the silver lining, the bright side, the half full glass but…Wow!

The film open with the bad sound effect of a car and Nathan Harper AKA Steven Price (Taylor Lautner) attempting to pull off the same stunt as seen in ‘Death Proof’ (although it’s so much better when Zoe Bell does it). And it’s all downhill from there. Nathan has always felt as if he’s living someone else’s life, like something’s not quite right. He finds out why he’s got this feeling when he’s paired with his crush (Lily Collins) in a Social Science project. While researching together, they come across a photo of him as a young boy on a missing persons website. He starts questioning his life. Was he abducted? Who are his real parents? Why did his ‘parents’ never tell him? As he starts to figure it all out, some badass Russians turn up and start shooting everyone. He gets all confused and stops trusting almost everyone, including the CIA, who have been tracking him. He and Karen, his crush, decide to run and are helped by his therapist (Sigourney Weaver). As they run, he tries to figure out who his real family are, and starts to realize that he’s a lot like both his biological and adoptive father when he decides to take matters into his own hands.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s incredible how the BBC constantly manages to produce documentary series’ that are not only interesting, but visually spectacular. In How Earth Made Us we follow geologist Professor Iain Stewart as he crosses the globe visiting exotic and virtually unknown locations to show us a major force in our history that is seldom taught or recognised. Split into five themed episodes; Water, Deep, Earth, Wind, Fire and Human Planet, Stewart uses he knowledge, charisma and locations to show us how these elements have been the biggest factor in how our planet, and our history, has changed since the advent of man.

You’ll witness geological phenomena that you never would have dreamed could exist, such as a crystal cave in Mexico, deep underground, where the crystals are so big, Stewart looks positively lilliputian.

Stewart will take you down claustrophobic well shafts to show you how water has dictated the rise and fall of civilizations, and you’ll crawl through soft sticky mud to reach caves lined with salt that have aided our consumption of oil.

But as spectacular as the natural forces are, the final episode, Human Planet warns us of our over assertion on this fragile planet. We have become the biggest force in planetary change that Earth has ever endured, and if we’re not careful, our future will be very dark indeed.  Read the rest of this entry »

Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) was an honest cop. Now he’s in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Desperate, he seizes the first chance to escape. Hours later, he is freshly shaven in an expensive suit, standing on a window ledge high above New York City. As a crowd gathers below, police cordon off the area and agree to Nick’s request to speak with pretty police negotiator Lydia Anderson (Elizabeth Banks). But Lydia doesn’t know that she is part of his grand plan, a plan that could give them both a second chance.

Speaking quietly into a lapel microphone, Nick coordinates the high-tech theft of a $30 million diamond-the same diamond he was convicted of stealing. It’s the only way he can prove his innocence, but he needs Lydia’s help-and he’s running out of time. When his identity is exposed, a SWAT team positions itself on the roof, read to take him out. Lydia isn’t sure he’s telling the truth, but if he really was set up for the diamond heist, it had to be an inside job, which means at least one of the cops on the scene wants Nick dead. With SWAT about to move, cops destroying the evidence that could save him and nowhere to go but down, Nick’s chances of survival are getting slimmer by the minute.

Filled with clever twists, MAN ON A LEDGE is a smart, pulse-pounding thriller about a man determined to clear his name, exact revenge and get the girl…if he can just stay one step ahead of the men who put him behind bars.

I have seen the original Arthur, and I think I quite enjoyed it. It was, however, too long ago for me to actually remember much about the film. Lets just say that I have fond memories of it, so much so that when I discovered that a re-make was in the works and Russell Brand was taking the role of Arthur Bach, made famous by Dudley Moore, I let out an audible groan. What, I wondered in not-so-quiet exasperation, do people see in Russell Brand? Adding insult to injury was the inclusion of Jennifer Garner, whose only enjoyable role was in that old TV show Alias, although not having liked anything she’s been in since leaves me wondering if she was any good in that, or if it was just the creative juices of now urber-producer JJ Abrams that carried her poor performance.

Seeing as my memory of the original is misty at best, I won’t attempt a blow by blow run down of what is different, but suffice to say that the main concept is the same.

Billionaire heir Arthur Bach is a drunken playboy living in constant state of debauchery, indulging himself in alcohol fueled sexual adventures and embracing his childhood fantasies with fanboy fantasies along the lines of racing through the streets of Manhattan in the Batmobile wearing the Batsuit. In short he’s a 30 year old boy, who has a nanny to do everything for him, including cleaning up the mess he leaves in his wake, including half naked women.  Read the rest of this entry »

How do you save a city in only 8 minutes? You repeat them over and over again until you get what you need. That’s right, it’s Groundhog Day! Well, more like Groundhog 8 minutes really. One man’s journey into another man’s ‘consciousness’ spiralling him back onto himself, Duncan Jones’ thoroughly enjoyable second outing Source code stands as a unique film whilst exploring similar themes to the director’s critically lauded first feature Moon (2009). Like a mad chemist’s fusion of Groundhog Day and The Butterfly Effect,with a twist or five of 80s sci-fi television show Quantum Leap for good measure.

The city in need of saving is Chicago and Source Code’s Bill Murray figure is a more intense and less humorous Jake Gyllenhaal playing US army chopper pilot Cpt Colter Stevens. Cpt Stevens wakes on a Chicago bound train with no memory of how he got there or who he is with; his last memory is of flying a mission in Afghanistan. The mystery slowly begins to unravel both for us the viewer as it does for Cpt Stevens but I won’t spoil anything by giving more away.

Taking writer Ben’s Ripley’s not-nearly-as-smart-as-it-thinks-it-is script, Jones and co. turn out a film that is as tightly framed and put together as the plot is wound. Sure, the story twists and turns, like a twisty-turny thing, but it does so in a very knowing, nose tapping kind of way. However, with its incredibly limited grasp of the science it is purporting to frame its story upon (uncertainty principle, many-worlds interpretation etc), Source Code’s story/screenplay sometimes comes off as unjustifiably smug and self assured. Considering half of writer Ben Ripley’s (extremely limited) previous experience includes two of the latter Species sequels this is perhaps unsurprising (I know – there’s more than one?!) It is a credit to Jones and his team that they lift this middling script to an above average piece of cinema.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Jason Statham has pretty much made a name for himself as an action star. After playing Bacon in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, it took him about 4 years and a handful of films before The Transporter made him a household name. Since then he’s had a pretty stable reputation with only a couple of bad moves (Dungeon Siege & Crank: High Voltage), and even though his most recent films don’t seem to have made it to cinemas in New Zealand, Blitz is an enjoyable vehicle for Statham’s charm and fighting skills. Even better is that it’s based in his old stomping grounds, in London.

It’s a predictable story, Statham plays the role of Detective Sergeant Tom Brant, a British cop whose gone a wee bit rogue, getting in trouble for beating up suspects rather than arresting him. Seems like he would rather dispense old school justice and not have to worry about the paperwork.

His approach comes in handy however when a serial killer starts targeting cops in his own precinct, though he has to team up with Porter Nash who gets brought in the head up the investigation, a role that should have gone to Brant.

As predictable as it is, Blitz has a few pleasing twists and the story keeps moving at a reasonable clip with some nice action pieces and a scene that will make you never want to use a hammer ever again.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a dangerous game we play when we decide to watch a film based on the fact that it was directed by the same director who directed one of you favourite films. I’ve been stung by similar promises in the past and all it ends up proving is that it takes more than just one person to make a great film.

But essentially this was the sole reason I decided to give Fair Game a go. It wasn’t convinced that the pairing of Naomi Watts and Sean Penn would amount to much, and the film’s tag line, “Wife. Mother. Spy.” didn’t exactly scream “you must watch this film.”

So it was down to the fact that Bourne director Doug Liman was directing that I sat down recently and watched the true story of a covert CIA operative getting burnt by her own government as payback for her husband’s anti-wat stance.

The story is based on true events, and is a very believable story, even though it’s hard to prove with various people claiming different parts to be true or misleading. The important thing is that it’s a film that makes the whole affair believable, and in a riveting, must watch kind of way.

Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are, despite my concerns, perfectly cast in this tale of a couple pushed past the point of breaking. Watts plays the role of the tow the line, patriotic CIA employee, whilst Penn plays the polar opposite, we’ll fight for the truth no matter what type guy.  Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t often watch romantic comedies. If I want comedy, I’ll watch something with Will Ferrell and if I want romantic, I’ll re-watch Romeo & Juliet – again. But ‘Midnight in Paris’ had a bit of a different stance on the ol’ rom-com genre. (It also has Owen Wilson as the lead. He’s always in Wes Anderson films, which are also on my ‘comedy’ list)

‘Midnight in Paris’ is set in modern day, well…Paris. Gil (Owen Wilson) and his fiancée, Inez (Rachel McAdams), are on holiday with Inez’s wealthy, conservative parents, who can’t really stand the food, art or anything else about France, a view completely opposite to Gil’s. Gil, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, is using his time in Paris to work on his first book, a novel about a man who works in a nostalgia shop. He’s inspired by the romanticism of Paris and wishes more than anything, that he could have lived there in the 20s. Inez shares his love of the art in Paris, but it ends there. And to top it off, she’d rather spend her time being told about said art by Paul (Michael Sheen), a wannabe intellectual who pretends to know what he’s talking about, but actually knows next-to-nothing (we all know someone like Paul). One night, Inez goes out dancing with Paul and his wife, while Gil get’s drunk and lost on the streets. He sits down to figure it all out when an old 20s car pulls up, with none other than Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Gil finally gets his dream of being in Paris in the 20s, where he encounters greats such as Picasso, Hemingway, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker and Gertrude Stein. He continues to return to the same spot each night to be transported to a world that teaches him about living in the present and difference between fantasy and reality.  Read the rest of this entry »