Review Category: Movie

MOOMINS ON THE RIVIERA

Moomins on the Riviera sees Moomin (Gummerus), his parents Moominpappa (Långbacka) and Moominmma (Sid) and a group of his friends take a trip to discover the delights of the French Riviera. However they soon find out that the reality is not as it looks in the glossy magazines they read at home, leading them to question whether the lifestyle of the rich and famous is all it’s cracked up to be.

The Moomins – the half hippopotamus/half troll-like creatures which inhabit an imaginary valley somewhere in, or near, Finland – have always been divisive where public opinion is concerned: you either love them or hate them, and there has never been much room for middle-ground. Anyone with their feet too firmly planted in reality will most likely not get them. To fully appreciate these imaginary creatures, and their wide circle of equally bizarre friends, you have to have a taste for the strange, as happy living in the realms of fantasy and make-believe as you are in the everyday world.

Saying that, even those who love them will often admit to finding them unsettling too – there’s a side to them that is just a little bit ‘creepy’. Which is what has made Moomintroll, his parents Moominpappa and Moominmamma, his girlfriend Snorkmaiden and their friends so appealing, since they first appeared in author Tove Jansson’s bestselling books in 1945. The best characters from children’s literature and those which stand the test of time often have an ‘edginess’ to them or the adventures in which they find themselves. The inhabitants of Moominvalley, where Jansson’s characters lived, were no exception, frequently at their strongest when facing dangers and everyday predicaments within the boundaries of their own wild and haunting homeland.

Which is why, and where, this new animated big screen adventure slips up. The strongest aspects of Moomins on the Riviera take place at the beginning and end of the film, bookending the slower and less imaginary middle segment which chronicles the family’s trip to the South of France. There is plenty of fun throughout the film; the humour, though clearly aimed at younger audiences, has a sophisticated enough undercurrent to appeal to older sensibilities as well; the characterisation of the snooty and arrogant individuals who people the Cote d’Azur is marvelously realised and, one feels, probably disturbingly true to real-life. However, the opening scenes, which – apart from introducing the impish character of Little My, who featured frequently in the Moomin adventures – seem to have little or nothing to do with the central story, are also the most intriguing and memorable, particularly for older viewers who may want to watch the film for purely nostalgic reasons.

Though the beautiful and sparsely-rendered animation by production companies Handle Productions, Pictak and Moomin Characters lends itself perfectly to the darker aspects of the story, overall Moomins on the Riviera is too true to life to capture the otherworldliness which made Jansson’s creations so magical.

INFO: MOOMINS ON THE RIVIERA / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: XAVIER PICARD, HANNA HEMILA / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: KRISTOFER GUMMERUS, MATS LANGBACKA, MARIA SID, ALMA POYSTI / RELEASE DATE: MAY 22ND 

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:
 

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

The title card may read Mad Max but Fury Road belongs to Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa. George Miller has decided not to dwell too much on Max Rockatansky in his return to the silver screen; after all, he has been the star of three, self-titled films and, perhaps wisely, Miller instead focuses more on the crazy characters and insane wasteland that surrounds Max. The film does begin with Max, alone and broken once again, haunted by the memories of those whose lives he’s tried and failed to save in the past. He’s devolved almost entirely into a creature focused on survival alone. Captured by a roaming gang of hunters, he’s taken to their home citadel and, thanks to his handy “universal donor” blood type, he’s designated a “living blood bank” to the irradiated War Boys of water despot Immortam Joe.

It’s not long before run down War Boy Nux (Hoult) literally drags Max and his “high octane crazy blood”, via the IV connecting the two, on a search for Theron’s bad-ass Imperator, formerly in Immortam Joe’s employ, now on the run in Joe’s loaded for bear “War-Rig” for unknown reasons.

Then… the chase begins… and well, it doesn’t really end. Miller has taken the tanker escape section from the 1981’s Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, the train chase from 1985’s Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and smashed them together in a brutal mix of metal and flesh, stretching the resultant paste into an entire film. The War-Rig rarely stops rolling for more than a few minutes, relentlessly pursued by Immortan Joe’s crew and new bunches of post-apocalyptic nutters every few miles, from places like The Gun Farm or Gas Town. Miller takes us on a demented tour of his cursed earth, very lightly sketching out how all these people survive, their politics and economy, using just the characters’ names and their tribes’ backgrounds, looks and distinctive speech. The pace is broken up at times by pit stops, but this is essentially once big long chase movie, which some may find wearing.

The battles are fantastic, with new methods of attacking/boarding/defending a big rig being attempted every few minutes, with losses and victories on both sides along the way. As usual the vehicles look fantastically demented (as do their occupants), and some of the dodgier looking CG elements from the trailers look a lot more polished here. There does seem to be a weird habit at times of speeding up the footage slightly, perhaps a choice emphasising the madness of Max and his world or a dodgy projector at the screening? The chases are lent a new air of bloody reality with CG bodies being thrown or falling from moving vehicles, still wriggling and scrabbling for life rather than the crash test dummies of previous films.

Tom Hardy grunts and mumbles his way through the first half of the film, having apparently been left alone with his ghosts in the wilds for too long. Theron on the other hand carries the film, purposeful, sympathetic without appearing weak, and she carries the emotion of the whole enterprise (along with her “charges”). Max is mostly one note, utterly focused on getting away, not daring to hope. Reintroducing the character through the eyes of others may turn out to be a good choice, and hopefully Hardy will have much more to do in the rumoured Mad Max: Furiosa and its three rumoured sequels. Maybe the original Max, Mel Gibson, could also turn up in a cameo there, because he certainly doesn’t here.

Max himself and some of the villains may be thinly sketched, but Fury Road is definitely worth the cost of gasoline to go and see.

INFO: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD / CERT:15 / DIRECTOR: GEORGE MILLER / SCREENPLAY: GEORGE MILLER, BRENDAN MCCARTHY, NICK LATHOURIS / STARRING: TOM HARDY, CHARLIZE THERON, NICHOLAS HOULT, HUGH KEAYS-BYRNE, ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY / RELEASE DATE: MAY 14TH

Expecting Rating: 9 out of 10

Actual Rating:
 

HEIR (Short)

Gordon (Nolan) is planning a meeting online with someone who he has been corresponding. The ‘play date’ that is could well be something innocent; parents often pair up their children to enjoy some quality time together. However, the look on Gordon’s face and his demeanour betray his intentions. And when we see his son as they are in the car on their road trip, he is clearly above the age of backyard games and playing with toys. They meet Gordon’s ‘friend’ in a diner, and Denis (Oberst, Jr.) is a creepy, ultra-sleazy chap, but he’s incredibly confident and controls the situation with ease. When they get back to Denis’ house, though he seems keen to get on with the intended arrangements; something which Gordon appears to be having second thoughts.

Reviewing short films is always difficult as one has to be mindful not to reveal so much that it ruins the viewing for the subsequent audience. What we will say is that Heir manages to subvert the expectation and deliver a powerful, sickening, yet fully absorbing film. The clear intention of the men is a disgusting one to contemplate, and that fear is what keeps the anxiety of the situation so riveting. The reality is something very outlandish, if equally as disturbing as the initial thoughts.

With a sparse score and impressive cinematography, not to mention some striking practical visual effects, Heir exudes an oppressive mood and – thanks in no small part to the outstanding acting of both Oberst Jr. (never has he been so repulsively compelling) and Nolan – frighteningly realistic (no mean feat considering a certain element).   

Fitting so much into a mere thirteen minute running time takes some skill, and Powell has successfully created an atmosphere of apprehension, terror and nausea that makers of many feature films would envy. The director has made quite an impact with his earlier shorts, Worm and Familiar, and Heir is likely to be a festival hit but is also going to be his short-form swan song, as full-length features beckon. We can’t wait to see the results.

INFO: CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: RICHARD POWELL / SCREENPLAY: RICHARD POWELL / STARRING: ROBERT NOLAN, BILL OBERST, JR., MATEO D’AVINO / RELEASE DATE: TBC

BIG GAME

Jalmari Helander made a bit of a splash with last film, 2010’s perverse Christmas horror fantasy Rare Exports. Now, with a bigger budget and a slightly starrier cast (but retaining Tommila, the juvenile lead of his earlier film) he’s clearly setting his sights on Hollywood as he merrily revisits the brash, silly adventure films of the 1980s with this unashamedly larger-than-life romp which mixes tongue-in-cheek comedy with high octane thrills and spectacular action. Pitching in at a tight and snappy ninety minutes, Big Game is breezy, audacious fun and marks Helander down as a director more than comfortable with the conventions of the genre and we’d not be surprised to see him at the helm of some massively budgeted Hollywood action franchise in the next few years. Big Game is one hell of a calling card…

The ever-reliable Samuel L. Jackson plays the “lame duck” US President who finds himself stranded in the wilderness of a Finland forest when Air Force One is shot down by terrorists as he’s travelling to a routine summit in Helsinki. Stalked across hostile terrain by his attackers – as well as his own double-crossing embittered bodyguard Morris (Stevenson) – the President teams up with thirteen-year-old Oskari (Tommila), let loose in the forest on a hunting mission to prove his manhood to his father and his townsfolk. But unfortunately Tommila’s a pretty inept survivalist and Morris, terrorist leader Hazar (Kurtulus) and his men are closing in fast and military help from America is still hours away…

Big Game is big and dumb and it knows it. The film rarely takes itself too seriously (although its occasionally uneven tone is one of its very slight drawbacks) and there are a plenty of sly laughs to be had in the knowing dialogue and thoroughly ludicrous scenario. And yet somehow it all hangs together and works. Jackson’s clearly having fun here, his President never quite as inept and clueless as he’s painted and his relationship with young Oskari develops quickly and naturally as their situation deteriorates and they both learn to trust one another in the direst of circumstances. Stevenson and Kurtulus are a bit one-note as the gun-toting baddies (the latter’s last-reel reference to the ‘war on terror’ is particularly jarring) and the constant cuts back to rescue efforts by the Deputy President (Garber) and his team (including Jim Broadbent sporting a comfy cardie and a fitfully-convincing American accent) tend to drag when we’d rather be spending more time out in the wild, spectacular Finnish landscape.

But generally Helander keeps the story pumping along, the tension rising as set piece follows set piece leading to a final confrontation aboard the half-sunken wreck of Air Force One as the President finally mans up and Oskari earns his manhood. Big Game is delightful fun, a glorious and unselfconscious throwback to the sort of zany, high-concept adventure films we thought no-one was capable of making any more. Big Game really is quite a big deal.

INFO: / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JALMARI HELANDER / STARRING: SAMUEL L. JACKSON, ONNI TOMMILA, RAY STEVENSON, VINCENT GARBER, JIM BROADBENT, FELICITY HUFFMAN, MEHMET KURTULUS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10
Actual Rating:

: THE GREATER GOOD

Last summer, former CTU agent/loose-cannon super spy Jack Bauer returned from a brief TV hiatus and brought his own particular brand of mayhem to the streets of London in the 24 miniseries Live Another Day. During one typically-eventful day Jack was shot at, beaten up, chased, beaten up again and, in one gloriously insane episode, attacked by redirected drone missiles as he raced through the capital’s streets shortly after an entire hospital had been blown up. British TV stalwart can offer is a brief punch-up, a car crash, couple of gunfights and a bit of running around. Bauer, Bond and Bourne have nothing to worry about.

When it debuted on UK TV screens in 2002 – its first series tag line was, memorably, MI5 Not 9 to 5 – : The Greater Good lacks.

This isn’t, by any means, a bad movie and fans of the TV series will be glad to be back in the cold, grey world of the fictional MI5 operating out of its gleaming computer-packed Grid Headquarters at Thames House. Here, we’re a few years on from the end of the TV series and formidable M15 head honcho Sir Harry Pearce (Firth) has become cold and remote since the death of true love Ruth Evershed in the last episode of the TV show. This may come as a surprise to many fans who might remember that Harry wasn’t exactly king of the one-liners in the TV series. Nevertheless, Harry is blamed when a dangerous terrorist named Adam Qasim is sprung during a routine prisoner handover. Suspecting insider involvement, Harry drops off the grid, fakes his own suicide and enlists the aide of decommissioned agent Will Holloway (Harrington) to discover the identity of the mole at MI5 and to find Qasim before he can unleash a terrorist atrocity upon the city.

The Greater Good is very much a slow-burn Cold War thriller rather than an action movie. The plot crackles with intrigue, subterfuge and double-crossing and whilst it never threatens to work up a real sweat the story is more than intriguing enough to maintain the interest and the climax, deep inside M15 itself, is tense and bloody stuff. TV series veteran director Nalluri makes full use of his London (and Berlin) locations and Kit Harington maintains the Spooks tradition of easy-on-the-eye hunky leading men, following in the footsteps of Matthew Macfadyen, Rupert Penry-Jones and Richard Armitage. But it’s Peter Firth’s brooding, troubled Harry Pearce who steals the show, as he always did in the TV series where he became very much the its lifeblood. Here he’s a man finally pushed right over the edge who, even when all hands are against him, takes terrible risks and does terrible things in the name of the greater good.

reinventing itself as reliable future feature film franchise.

INFO: : THE GREATER GOOD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: BHARAT NALLURI / SCREENPLAY: JONATHAN BRACKLEY, SAM VINCENT / STARRING: PETER FIRTH, KIT HARINGTON, TIM MCINNERNY, JENNIFER EHLE, TUPPENCE MIDDLETON, DAVID HAREWOOD, LARA PULVER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected  Rating: 8 out of 10
Actual Rating:

THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN LIVES: WHAT HAPPENED?

The story of the ill-fated 1998 feature film that was to star Nicolas Cage as Superman and be directed by Tim Burton makes for a fascinating documentary of what could have been one of the most surreal, mind blowing films in the Superman saga. Told through interviews with Burton, Kevin Smith, Dan Gilroy, Jon Peters, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and many other talented people that were involved with the project we discover everyone’s creative passion for the film and its ultimate demise at Warner Brothers.

Never-before-seen test footage of Cage as a nerdy, geek-like Clark Kent and the heroic Superman, designs and storyboards of Brainiac, whose head was enclosed in a bubble atop spindly, spider-like legs (with Christopher Walken in the role), as well as Kevin Spacey returning to play the evil Lex Luthor are just some of the visual treats you will experience in this documentary.

Producer Jon Peters shows his passion for the project, but his enthusiasm and energy sometimes backfire especially in a few of his strange ideas such as Superman’s guards (since when did Superman need guards?) which are two polar bears protecting his Fortress of Solitude and there should be no costume, no flying and Superman has to battle a giant spider and fight ninjas.

Director Tim Burton’s ideas and visual style would have made this film a classic in its own right. Clearly, he understood what the film needed giving it a jolt of energy to its franchise. Kevin Smith is always entertaining to listen to and is straightforward about his writing involvement, but it’s the technical creators that are the most interesting; seeing what they accomplished jumping through hoops and obstacles, creating a world that would have been visual eye candy. Special mention goes to costume designer Colleen Atwood who whose ingenious designs set the tone for the film and could have easily won an Academy Award for her work.

Though the film will never be made, this is like watching the best parts of the movie all rolled into ninety minutes of what could have been one of the greatest Superman movies in history. This is truly a wonderful documentary for any Superman fan or filmmaker, and will be playing at MCM London and Sci-Fi London, with Schnepp and Payne in attendance, towards the end of May.

Don’t miss it!

INFO: CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JON SCHNEPP / SCREENPLAY: JON SCHNEPP / STARRING: NICOLAS CAGE, TIM BURTON, KEVIN SMITH, DAN GILROY / RELEASE DATE: TBC
 

MOVIE REVIEW: THE ENCOUNTER / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: ROBERT CONWAY / SCREENPLAY: ROBERT CONWAY / STARRING: CLINT JAMES, OWEN CONWAY, MEGAN DRUST, ELIZA KISS / RELEASE DATE: TBC

The latest found-footage horror release, The Encounter starts with the aftermath of a supposed alien encounter in a forest that leaves one human survivor, Collin Bastrow. The film then immediately goes back to before the horrific events began with what started out as being a mundane camping trip with his fiancée and friends. Soon, an alien parasite lands near where they were staying for the night and starts picking off the rather disposable group one by one, which will inevitably leave Collin as the only survivor left to explain the unspeakable tale.

The Encounter has a very good idea at the heart of it, that is intriguing and has the potential for a great horror movie, but just like Chernobyl Diaries, the idea gets lost and ends up becoming somewhat disappointingly realised. It becomes the standard typical found footage horror movie that we’ve seen before with the typical young-adult characters becoming hysterical while bad things happen to them, as seen in films like Paranormal Activity. As far as the characters are concerned, it’s necessary to have some engagement or sympathy with the players in order for the horror-driven narratives to work. In this case, you do at least get some nice interactions between the four central characters, even if they do inevitably fall into the generic hysterical characters of horror-yore. The lead actors give decent performances, particularly Paulina Vallin who gets a moment to shine towards the end when she convincingly portrays genuine human fear in a moment of grave need.

However, the found footage genre has been ploughed to death by now to the point where you begin to question whether or not this filmmaking trope is for artistic benefits or if it’s really just for the sake of it. With The Blair Witch Project, the reason that became timeless was because it had an idea that was completely gripping, and despite how incredibly annoying the characters were, they did really interesting things within that format. In the case of this, there’s WAY too much of that going on, it seems very old-hat, and really didn’t need to be there at all. Even though it wasn’t scary at all, there were at least some chilling scenes, particularly a very disturbing, and quite gruesome, transformation that happens earlier on. The prosthetic appliances, as well as a convincing performance from Eliza Kiss, helped make those sequences memorable and impactful, even if the final monsters themselves look strangely similar to the Silence in Doctor Who.

In the end, whilst there are a few chilly scenes implemented here and there, some decent performances, and although the film has a very interesting idea at the heart of it, the film never gets off the ground and results in something that is all build-up but absolutely no pay-off. Plus, we’ve been yelled at constantly by that found footage genre for so long now that every time they release a film in that specific sub-genre, none of them has ever come up to the standard of Blair Witch or even .
Expected Rating: 7 out of 10
Actual Rating:

MOVIE REVIEW: THE FALLING / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CAROL MORLEY / SCREENPLAY: CAROL MORLEY / STARRING: MAISIE WILLIAMS, MAXINE PEAKE, FLORENCE PUGH, ANNA BURNETT, GRETA SCACCHI / RELEASE DATE: APRIL 24TH

Mass hysteria breaks out at a strict all-girls school in Carol Morley’s latest drama, The Falling. Is Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark to blame for making her peers collapse in fainting fits or is there something more powerful at work? Maisie Williams moves from playing Westeros’ last great hope for Stark family revenge, to a very different young woman altogether, but one who is equally powerful in her own determined way.

Based loosely on real events, The Falling tells the story of a girl’s school that in 1969 saw an epidemic of strange behaviour from its young female pupils (and even one of the staff members). The girls have begun to have fainting, shaking and twitching fits, which breaks out and spreads through the school. Williams plays Lydia, the best friend of Abigail (Pugh), and it is her who has the strongest and most immediate response to a sudden tragedy.

The film explores what exactly could be the cause of this strange phenomena. This reveals the rituals of the closed-off school and the relationship between its stern authority figures and a range of teen girls, but this gives way to the more compelling behaviour exhibited. The staff have their theories, as do the students, but nothing is clear and Morley is content to simply observe as the school is gripped by weirdness, rather than offering any definitive answers.

There are hints at a range of reasons, but most are mere passing mentions and are not given any serious consideration; a TV report talks of radioactivity, the girls briefly discuss the occult. More prominent is the suggestion that this is a form of peer group pressure but more subtle and subliminal than most of the girls are even aware of. As both writer and director, Morley has researched many instances of mass hysteria and is never casting blame on any of the girls, instead looking closely at their personal lives.

Williams is brilliant as a girl who strikes a perfect balance between attention seeking rebel, repressed child and almost revolutionary leader. Looking at her eyes, it is easy to see why she was cast as the girl who could be called the ringleader of such activities if anyone wishes to cast blame. Lydia is an interesting character; both completely in love with her friend Abigail, but strangely unable to show much in the way of emotions. While the first act lets the two girl’s differences and their sweet relationship develop, it is the aftermath that really intrigues. Finally, the film delves much more into Lydia’s family life for the last act, and it’s here where the film turns very much into an intimate drama, with some rather disturbing developments.

The Falling is an odd film about an odd phenomenon. There are moments that are almost comical as the girls begin to theatrically faint together. Williams reminds of Stephen King’s Carrie in some scenes, but Morley is not making a supernatural thriller. This is a restrained, poetic film with some gorgeous cinematography and poetic editing highlighting the beauty of nature, particularly the trees and the water next to the school. While some may wish for more answers, or something a little more chilling, The Falling is nevertheless a fascinating look inside a closed-off world quite possibly going quietly mad.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating: