Rev Stan's film blog

Reviews, reviews, reviews: Ted, Take This Waltz & Bourne Legacy

Ted

On paper Ted shouldn't work - a boy wishes his teddy bear was real, gets his wish and grows up with said bear still as his best friend but the trailer convinced me that it might actually be funny.

And it is, laugh out loud funny but there is still something just a little bit awkward about the story. It almost feels extraneous to the funny bits where the grown man is hanging out with his pot-smoking, drinking, womanising soft toy. His girlfriend basically wants him to grow up, take responsibility for his life and not be so influenced by Ted but can the two friends be parted? 

In balance, the funny wins so I am going to give it 64%. On IMDb it gets 76% with a metascore of 62% while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 70% with 80% of site visitors giving it 3.5 stars or higher.

Take This Waltz

Was really looking forward to this as it has the wonderful Michelle Williams in it. It's about a happy couple Margot (Williams) and Lou (Seth Rogen) who's relationship is challenged by the arrival of neighbour Daniel (Luke Kirby) who falls for Margot. As Margot examines her feelings for Daniel, from a distance, it make her assess her relationship and what she has with Lou.

It is a nicely subtle, gentle film, human in that is resists extremes - none of the characters do anything particularly wrong  and are all likeable - but that's about it. It was  well acted, pleasant, interesting and mildly engaging, slightly long but that is about it. It didn't blow me away, it didn't quite tug on the emotions as it could have but it was nice to watch for a bit.

So I'm going to give it 59%. On IMDb it's got 66% with a metascore of 68% while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 78% and 63% of site visitors gave it 3.5 stars or higher.

Bourne Legacy

What can I say? It's more Bourne but with a different Bourne - Jeremy Renner. The story is essentially the same, those that created him are now out to get him and this time he picks up a female side kick in the form of scientist Rachel Weiss along the way.

If you are happy with the concept and sitting back, disengaging brain and watching the action unfold then you'll enjoy it. If you are expecting anything different or a development of the idea, plot twists etc then you'll be disappointed. It's more of the same and I liked the same so it worked perfectly for a wet Saturday afternoon. 

I'm going to give it 60% based on entertainment value although it would get 20% for originality. On IMDb it's got 71% with a metascore of 61%, while on Rotten Tomatoes is has got 55% with 58% of site visitors rating it 3.5 stars or higher.

Review round up: Salmon Fishing In The Yemen and Jeff Who Lives At Home

Salmon Fishing In The Yemen

Haven't read the book so didn't have any preconceived ideas about this. And, I also wasn't planning to see it but ended up buying a ticket on a whim. But I'm really glad I did because it's a nice gentle rom com. Funny and warm, if a little predictable it worked for me. A pleasant couple of hours in the cinema and so I'm giving it 73%. 

On IMDb it has 69% and a Metascore of 58% while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 68% and 72% of site visitors gave it three and half stars or higher.

Jeff Who Lives At Home

From the trailer this could have gone one of two ways: quirkily funny or just irritating. It's about Jeff who is too old to be still living at home and sits around smoking dope and generally not doing anything useful. He believes that everything is a sign, that fate will lead you down the right path and in the process of following 'a sign' one day he ends up on a voyage of self-discovery.

And it worked. It is nicely quirky with some laugh out loud moments. Susan Sarandon as Jeff's mum is particularly good and the Porsche scene still makes me chuckle.

I'm giving it 73% while on IMDb it has 70% with a Metacritic score of 60%. On Rotten Tomatoes it has 77% and 74% of site visitors gave it three and half stars or more.

Reviews round up: Subtle flaws of Albert Nobbs & disappointing Dark Shadows

Albert Nobbs

This film seemed to be getting everyone excited a while back but now it's out in the UK it feels like it's been forgotten about. Almost like the reverse of the eponymous character played by Glenn Close. Posing as a man in order to get a job at a hotel in late 19th century Dublin Albert gets adept at blending in, almost melting into the background then when shown the possibilities of the life he could lead becomes a little bolder. Just a little.

It is a brilliantly subtle performance from Close. Albert doesn't say a great deal verbally but there is so much going on in the eyes. Janet McTeer, fellow cross dresser, too puts in a wonderful performance. The re-frocking scene is particularly superb and shows just how much of a male demeanor these two woman have taken on.

There is a superb supporting cast too with the likes of Brendan Gleeson, Pauline Collins, Mia Wasikowska and Aaron Johnson but there is something stopping this from being a five star movie, it's ironic flaw. The problem, you see, is that because Albert is so much in the background and so secretive and quiet that you never really get the measure of him. Central to the plot are Albert's plans to open his own shop and get married however there is a big question mark over his motives. Does Albert want to marry a woman as a man or as a woman?

Albert Nobbs is still a very well made, engrossing and deeply moving film but this question hanging over the central narrative thread left an unsatisfying taste in my mouth.

It's getting 79% from me. On IMDb it has 66% from critics and a Metacritic rating of 57% while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 55% from critics and 49% of visitors gave it three and half stars or more.

Dark Shadows

I'm getting a bit worried about Johnny Depp. I can't remember the last time I saw him in a really great film, probably the first Pirates of the Caribbean. He used to be an actor I'd run out and see whatever he was in but the pull is starting to wain even if he does remain drop dead gorgeous.

It's not that Dark Shadow is a bad film it just isn't great. First there isn't much in his performance that you haven't already seen - heavy doses of Edward Scissorhands for example. The biggest problem is that it isn't really much of anything. It's not funny enough to be a comedy despite a potentially amusing premise (18th century vampire is unwittingly released from his coffin prison in 1971). There is not quite enough horror to make it satisfying as a film of that genre and not quite enough family drama to be, well, a family drama. 

Of course with Tim Burton at the helm it is beautifully gothic and has his style stamped all over it and there is much to admire there. It also has some brilliant effects (love the china doll effect of baddie Angelique) but his pairing with Mr Depp and small role for long time beau/mother of his children Helen Bonham Carter is just starting to feel a bit cliquey and like it is running out of steam.

And I confess that I did get a bit bored at times. It's just not enough of anything and it's a shame because there is much promise within it.

I'm giving it 59%. On IMDb it's got 67% and a Metacritic score of 56% while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 42% from critics and 55% of visitors gave it three and a half stars or more.

Reviews round up: This Must Be the Place & Avengers Assemble

This Must Be The Place

Sean Penn doesn't half like to mix up his roles and admire him greatly for that because so few that have reach his level of success do. Here channelling Robert Smith he plays a bored, retired rock star who, on the death of his estranged father, decides to go in search of a man who was a guard at his concentration camp during the second world war.

On the one hand it's deliciously quirky but on the other hand there is there the holocaust/revenge plot and I'm not sure the two sat comfortably together. 

Penn is superb as you can imagine and so is Frances McDormand who plays his wife, although I'd have liked a bit more of her. But Penn's odd and quirky character and how bored he's become with his life just felt trivial against the concentration camp storyline although I was curious as to whether he had got it in him to mete out his revenge.

I'm giving it 65%. On IMDB it has 67% and no Metacritic score while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 69% from critics and 60% of visitors gave it three and a half stars or higher.

Avengers Assemble

In my mind this film is called Avengers Ensemble for reason known only to my small brain but anyway, I loved it. And what made me love it was the humour, it didn't take itself too seriously - it is about comic book heroes after all. I laughed out loud several times. There is one particularly funny moment between The Hulk and baddy Loki which had me giggling for quite a while, but I won't spoilt it.

And I think the fact that the characters had a bit of depth helped tremendously. Much of the humour is derived from a clash of personalities of our assembled super heroes working together for the first time. 

Robert Downey Jr does steal it a little as Iron Man but then I love the Iron Man films and wasn't overly fond of Captain America. (And I haven't seen the rest).

There is going to be a sequel which is predictable and I wonder if they can recreate the humour when there isn't that element of 'meeting fellow super hero for the first time'. I'll still go and see though.

Funny and good fun and I managed to see it in 2D - hurrah. I'm giving it 82%.

On IMDB it's got 88% with a Metacritic score of 69% while on Rotten Tomatoes it 93% from critics and 96% of site visitors have given it three and a half stars or higher.

Reviews round up: Street Dance 2 and The Kid With A Bike

Slightly contrasting films but a) I have an eclectic taste and b) I just realised I'm five reviews behind so these will be short and sweet:

Street Dance 2

I like the dancing and there is no other reason to see this. The plot is not only thinner than Dr Evil's pate but also pretty much identical to Street Dance 1, this time there is a latin influence to the dancing (and 'plot'). But I like the dancing (and the male dancers are generally easy on the eye) so it was a fun 90 minutes or so.

It's getting one star for plot and five for dancing which I'm equating to 50%. On IMDb it's got 58% and on Rotten Tomatoes it has 46%

The Kid With A Bike

This is lovely, moving little film about a boy who is abandoned by his father and living in state run home. He strikes up a friendship with a woman who agrees to look after him at weekends but he can't let go of the fact that his father doesn't want to bring him up. 

A bag of confused emotions he becomes obsessed with tracking down his father convinced that their separation is only temporary.

Very well observed and brilliantly acted by the young lead it is a touching story.

I'm giving it 80% on IMDB it's got 74% with a Metacritic score of 78% while on Rotten Tomatoes it has a critics rating of 96% and 77% of site visitors gave it three and half stars or higher.

Review round up: The disturbing subtlety of Michael

Nearly forgot about this one, or is it a case of trying to forget? It's not that it is a bad film, it is more that it is a difficult film to watch. 

It's the story of a seemingly ordinary, boring man who has a darker side which is that he keeps a boy locked in his basement which he's specially kitted out for the purpose.

Not the lightest of subjects on which to base a film. The abuse is only alluded, happening off screen and thus leaving the awfulness to your own imagination. But what is all the more disturbing is the ordinaryness with which the man is painted. The writer/director Markus Schleinzer has purposely chosen to show him in this light rather than portraying him as an obvious deviant.

Yes he is abhorrant but had he been presented in some sort of monster it would have made it much easier to distance myself from what he is and what he is doing.  

His regular, boring, insurance clerk persona is far more affecting and disturbing. The tension is an underlying revulsion building to dramatic denouement, but dramatic in a way that you don't expect.

I didn't like Michael, like is the wrong word but I thought it was well done so it's getting 73% from me. On IMDB is has 75% with a Metacritic score of 64%, while on Rotten Tomatoes it has 72% from critics and 82% of visitors gave it three and a half stars or more.

 

Review round up: Martha Marcy May Marlene

I'm going to stop apologising for being behind with reviews. I'm over it.

Saw MMMM when it first came out a few weeks back. Story of a girl, who after disappearing for a long time calls her sister and asks to be picked up. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that she's been living with a cult but she won't talk about it/can't talk about it. She's obviously been institutionalised/brain washed/traumatised by the experience and her reliability as the story teller is in doubt.

Nonetheless there is a beautifully executed creeping tension and fear. What did happen and will the past catch up, what will happen if it does?

It's very subtlely done, brilliantly acted and the sort of indy cinema I love with one caveat which I can't explain for fear of spoiling it but the ending was just a little unsatisfactory for me but that might me more me than the film.

It's getting 77% from me. On IMDB its got a score of 72% and a Metacritic rating of 76%. While on Rotten Tomatoes it has 92% thumbs up from critics and 72% of visitors gave it three and a half stars or higher.

 

Chronicle - the other film I've liked recently

I've been through a run of 'meh' films recently (and I've also been very lax at writing up the reviews which I'm in the process of addressing) but this is one of two goodies - the other was the Woman in Black.

It's another low budget sci-fi about three high school kids, naturally one is the bullied outcast, who discover  they have special powers after an encounter with a mysterious power source.  They have to learn how to use their new powers and explore their different skills, moving large objects, making things float, flying, that sort of thing, having a bit of fun along the way. 

But soon mistakes are made and they begin to question what is right and what is wrong to use their new found skills for.

And I really liked it. It is very human in its approach. If you found out you could move a car just by thinking about it you so would move the car a woman had just parked at the supermarket and then wait for her reaction when she returned to find it was in a different bay.

Yes there is a message there about with great power comes great responsibility but it doesn't feel over-egged and is nicely handled. And OK the special effects aren't the best in the world but they are more than adequate creating some quite dramatic set pieces.

Chronicle is a good fun, 90 minute movie. Hurray for low budget, independent film I say.

It's getting 70% from me, over on IMDB it's got 75% and Metacritic score of 69%. While on Rotten Tomatoes it has 84% and 76% from audiences.

 

Colin Morgan turns junkie in Parked (or whoops the post I forgot to publish)

Finally got to see Parked last weekend and must admit I was feeling slightly 'meh' about it for the first 20 minutes. It seemed to be heading dangerously one-way down cliche cul-de-sac but thank goodness it managed to find a way out.

It's basically about two men who have ended up living in their cars and form an unlikely friendship. Ok I can feel some of you cringing. There is a little bit more to it than that.

Colm Meaney plays Fred who has returned to Ireland after drifting from job to job in England. He is stuck in a housing catch 22. He can't go on the waiting list for social housing unless he has a permanent abode and he can't get a permanent abode until he gets social housing. 

Little Colin Morgan plays Cathal (Cal) who's left or been chucked out of his father's house after his mother died. He's a heroine addict who owes money to his dealer.

Cal, is an experienced car-dweller and sort of takes Fred under his wing, showing where he can shower and helping him with the welfare department. Fred meanwhile becomes a protective friend, a genuine friend among Cal's associates of smack-heads and dealers.

There is a little romance thrown in as Fred catches the eye of a woman he meets at the swimming baths and Cal helps engineer a meeting.

Meaney and Morgan both put in great, contrasting performances the former understated and the latter all twitches and ticks. It's great to see Colin stretching his acting muscles outside Merlin. 

Parked is a nice film delicately balancing the twee with some of the more brutal reality of drugs and homelessness which saves the day. It doesn't go down the cul de sac which is also a saving grace. It's not going to win any awards from me but is a nicely moving film.

I'm going to give it 70% on IMDB it has 67% from users and on Rotten Tomatoes is has got an audience rating of 88%. No critics consensus yet.

 

The disappointing Sleeping Beauty

It held so much promise. An intriguing sounding indie flick about a young woman Lucy (Emily Browning) who in order to fund her way through college starts working for a mysterious organisation that can best be described as offering alternative titillation services.

This isn't prostitution in the traditional sense, this is an art flick after all. At first Lucy has to serve at a dinner party where all the female waiting staff are bare-bosomed or in stockings and basques. Then she graduates to a service where she is drugged into an unconscious state and men - all at the older age range - can do whatever they want with her naked body except penetration and with the proviso they don't leave any marks.

The film's blurb concentrates on the fact that she becomes curious about what the men do while she is in her drug-induced sleep and so sets up a secret camera. However, the film takes an awful long time to get that point and it is something that is concluded very quickly.

Ultimately it is unnecessarily arty, self-consciously so, with lots of lingering shots and people not saying very much either with or without words. You don't get to know very much about Lucy and how she really feels about what she is doing and what impact it is having on her.

She visits a man with whom she seems close who spends most of his time in bed but who he is or what the relationship is, isn't explained. Towards the end of the film she gets into a relationship with a fellow student but again the impact of her job on this isn't explored.  

There is much that could be delved into in this film but just isn't. It just feels risque for risque sake rather than having any real depth.  I left the cinema feeling only disappointment and a little bit cross that that it failed to deliver on any its promises. 

I'm going to give it 25% and if you are thinking of seeing it, save your money. On IMDb it has got 56% from users and 54% from Metacritic. On Rotten Tomatoes there isn't a consensus from critics but only 26% of visitors gave it three stars or more.