Film Guide

The Savages is a great example of the Hollywood marketing machine going totally wrong. The film and it’s trailer are total polar opposites, which sets the film up for failure. You go into it expecting a funny, outrageous action flick, and instead you get a cunning action romp that has more twists in it than the Nurburgring and is driven by it’s characters, who to be honest, make the film what it is.

The film is about a couple of laid back American boys who discover how to cultivate the perfect bit of weed and are enjoying the good life Laguna Beach with their shared girlfriend Ophelia.

But one day a Mexican cartel takes an interest in their business and wants in on the game, the boys decide to cash up and leave town with Ophelia an lay low on some Indonesian beach for a year or so. The Mexican’s of course realise this and snatch Ophelia, using her as leverage to get the boys to play ball. The trouble is, one of the boys, Chon, is an ex-Navy SEAL with some good ex-SEAL friends, and won’t roll over and play nice.

The real magic of the film is seeing Del Toro play the role of Mexican enforcer in a way that can only be called disturbingly evil, seemingly relishing the opportunities to be sadistic towards his victims. The other standout role is played by Salma Hayek as the slightly on edge, but very focused Cartel head, who ultimately calls the shots and leads the film on it’s fucked up journey.  Read the rest of this entry »

The words, inspired by a true story, are enough to send many film fans scattering for cover based on some very shady movies that have abused the moniker. The Sapphires however, as their name implies, shines, and how closely o the truth the film follows, you won’t care. This is after-all a feel good movie that does just that, makes you feel good. The film looks at the early life of four young and talented Australian Aboriginal girls from the back of beyond. Raised in a racist society, it’s not until a drunk, has been Irish music manager recognises their talent, that the girls get their break: entertaining the troops in Vietnam.

The film tackles all the usual themes; racism, love, infighting and of course, the war. But it doesn’t shy away from one of Australia’s darkest hours – the stolen generation.

The film would have been just another formula movie if it weren’t for two things. The first being Chris O’Dowd’s injection of humour as the drunken Irish manager, and the second being the infectious nature of the four soul sisters. A truly magical journey that will life anyone’s spirits.  Read the rest of this entry »

Technology is dangerous, according to a strict Mormon family, the focal point for first time writer/director Rebecca Thomas’s Electrick Children. The only form of technology for these rural Utah residents – living in isolation on their own ranch – is a very old, portable tape deck, used for the recording of testimonies. But when free-spirited fifteen year old Rachel sneaks out of her room one night to go have a closer look at this magical piece of technology, she finds an illicit tape of rock music, hidden by her mother who is still holding on to a secret past.

Whilst listening to a cover of Blondies ‘Hanging On A Telephone,’ Rachel has a religious experience, and three months later this virgin Mormon finds herself pregnant. Her brother, Mr Will is blamed and is told he has to leave the compound in the morning, whilst Rachel is told a suitable marriage is being arranged.

That night however, Rachel and Mr Will escape to the bright lights of Vegas. For Rachel it’s a journey to find the father of her child, for Mr Will, it’s all about getting Rachel to record a testimony that will prove his innocence.

Falling in with a group of wanna be rockstars/skaters the two sheltered Mormon kids soon find that there is more to life that a rigid, male-centric religion.  Read the rest of this entry »

V/H/S is a film that I had contemplated watching at last years New Zealand Film Festival, but just couldn’t get it to fit my schedule. Outside of Zombie films I don’t usually rack up that many horror films as I find most of them lacking, the exception being The Descent which would have to be my favourite non-Zombie horror film. I generally avoid found footage horrors like the plague because they generally end up like Chernobyl.

But V/H/S had in interesting premise, so I decided to give this seemingly original found footage horror a go.

The story goes a little like this: A group of petty criminals who have a penchant for taking video cameras on their crime sprees are employed to break into an old house and steal a video cassette. On arriving at the house, they find most rooms empty, except for the one with the dead body watching a bank of TV’s that are only showing static.

Surrounding these TV’s are a scattering of VHS tapes. Not knowing which is the tape they are required to steal, the guys decided to watch them.

Whilst this may be a nice way of trying to tie the concept together, this dated approach only serves to magnify a gaping g plot hole. Most if not all of the stories that the guys find on VHS tape are recorded on digital devices, and as such would be unlikely to find their way onto a dead man’s VHS collection. To make the concept really work, all the stories should have been told from the same historical POV.

Whilst this could be a minor issue that is easy to overcome, it soon becomes obvious that it’s only the beginning of what’s to come.  Read the rest of this entry »

One of my favourite zombie films is [REC] so when I discovered that [REC] director Jaume Balagueró had a new film out on DVD I just had to give it a go. Departing from the Zombies of [REC] we instead get to see life through the eyes of a Barcelona apartment building doorman, named Cesar.

Cesar’s dreary day job is made better by his obsession with Clara, a happy single lady who lives on the top floor. We’re not quite sure what Cesar’s true plans are or how far he’s willing to go, but things become clear over time as Jaume reveals the depth of Cesar’s depraved mind slowly as the film progresses.

From the way Sleep Tight was promoted I had been expecting a bit more of a horror outing, but it was decidedly more of a slow build thriller. Whilst the lack of horror (though some will say it was horrific in parts) was initially a disappointment, as the story plays out – and I really can’t tell you anything of the story for fear of ruining it – you begin to see just how fucked up Cesar really is.

Sleep Tight is a beautifully crafted film that never really lets on what’s about to happen and will have you on edge from time to time, and those with a lesser constitution will be repulsed at some of Cesar’s actions.  Read the rest of this entry »

Luc Besson has had his hand in some on my favourite action films, and with Guy Pearce fronting the show, I was willing to look past my doubts and give Lockout a go.

It’s a pretty clichéd story that sees a falsely convicted ex-government agent Snow (Pearce) being given a shot at obtaining freedom by way of an impossible mission to rescue the President’s daughter Emilie (Grace) who is hostage on an outer space maximum-security prison. Yep, I’ve got a feeling I’ve seen this film a thousand times before.

Lockout was given a US$20 Million dollar budget, and after paying Pearce that didn’t leave much for the special effects, which is why it surprised me that the police chase at the beginning of the film wasn’t kept at a straight foot chase. It would have had the same feel and the same result, but more importantly it wouldn’t have shown just how stretched the budget was in the CGI department.

But that’s a minor point. Lockout has everything you’d expect from this type of film, from the crooked politicians to the twist at the end. The film is good at throwing obstacles in front of our two main characters, Snow and Emilie and providing plenty of room for action.  Read the rest of this entry »

I picked up Jo Nesbo’s Jackpot without knowing much about it. I had assumed I was in for a smart, well written, serous crime thriller along the lines of The Killing or The Bridge. What I hadn’t been expecting was a Tarentino style shoot up in a porn shop opening the film. The sole survivor of the shootout is found by police under the body of an exotic dancer holding a shot gun.

It looks like a pretty open and shut case for the Police. That is until Oscar, the survivor with the shot gun begins to tell his story, and his story begins to check out.

We jump back in time and meet Oscar at work, in a Christmas Tree factory that uses ex-cons to make trees out of recycled materials. Three of these ex-cons persuade their boss Oscar to go in with them on a sure bet, betting on the football. The bet pays off and the guys are 1.7 million Kroner richer.

Of course, 1.7 million split four ways isn’t as nice as 1.7 million split three ways, or two ways.  Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a fan of April from ‘Parks and Recreation’ and/or Nick from ‘New Girl’, stop wasting your time reading this review and ride through red lights to your nearest DVD store and buy ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’. If you’re not a fan, my questions are, “Why?” and “Wanna Fight?” For the rest of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, here’s my attempt to review a film that now comfortably sits in my top 10 films of all time.

Darius (Aubrey Plaza) is a cynical college grad interning at Seattle magazine. Jeff (Jake Johnson) is a conceited writer at the same magazine. And Kenneth (Mark Duplass) is a 30-something paranoid grocery clerk who put the following ad in the newspaper classifieds:

Wanted: Someone to back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.

With this ad at the crux of the story, Jeff is sent on assignment, with interns Darius and Amau (Karan Soni), an archetypal nerd studying biology and interning in the hopes of diversifying his resumé, to Ocean View, WA, to investigate the man who wrote the ad.

After Jeff’s failed attempts to get Kenneth to talk about his time-machine, we soon realize that Jeff is more interested in reuniting with his high school flame, Liz (Jenica Bergere), than finding out wether Doc Brown and Marty McFly could have ever been right. This leaves Darius seeing if she can use her womanly charm to get Kenneth to talk.

While practicing target shooting, hiding from supposed government agents, and inventing reasons why she wants to go back to the past, Darius realizes that she’s no longer pretending, she’s falling. Falling for Kenneth. She finds herself opening up to this bizarre and outlandish man, and her self-protective shell starts to crack. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll be honest with you, The Devil’s Double didn’t live up to my expectations. But that isn’t to say it was disappointing. Far from it. I had for some reason been expecting a fast moving action flick but Lee Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double is more a dramatic tale based on an incident – or string of incidents that actually happened.

The film is set in the late 80′s and early 90′s and follows the dramatic shift in the life of Latif Yahia, a lieutenant in the Iraqi Army and unfortunately the spitting image of Saddam Hussein’s younger son Uday. Well, apart from the teeth, but teeth are easy to fix. Unfortunate because Uday needed a double to be his public presence whenever there was a risk of assassination.

The flip side of course is that Latif would share in Uday’s gangster style life, given access to the lifestyle that only the son of Saddam Hussein could even dream of.

Latif of course initially wants no part of it, but is coerced into the role, though he never really embraces it. The film covers some of the very unsavory aspects of Uday’s life, including his penchant for young school girls. The story on it’s own would make The Devil’s Double a watchable experience, but it’s Dominic Cooper’s twin roles as the mentally imbalanced Uday and the troubled Latif that really make this film a must see.  Read the rest of this entry »

Danish writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn kicked off his career in 1996 with Pusher, a film that follows a harrowing week in the life of a Copenhagen dealer who finds the screws being relentlessly screwed tighter on his life, and sanity. This London based 2012 remake sees us following the highs and lows of Frank (Richard Coyle), whose life is spiraling out o control with his addiction to his own product and a deepening debt to his Serbian Mob boss supplier.

The film is a burst of frenetic energy that drags us screaming through several layers of London’s nightlife, the upbeat if overbearing noise of the nightclubs to the strip bars and on to the poor addicted bastard running a pathetic pet shop in his twilight years.

It’s like Frank is experiencing the worst week of his life, where nothing seems to go his way, and as he struggles to stay in control of his life and his sanity he strays far from the person he thought he was, beating his own best friend senseless.  Read the rest of this entry »