Last Vegas (February 2014)

Official Australian release date: 6/2/14. Viewed: 27/2/14.

Director: Jon Turtletaub

Actors: Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline

Genre: Comedy
Rating: M

From the director of ‘3 Ninjas’ and ‘Cool Runnings’ comes ‘Last Vegas’! Those may or may not sound like good pedigree (I’m ignoring ‘National Treasure’ on purpose), but it doesn’t really matter how good a director you are when you have an all-star cast of Douglas, De Niro, Freeman, Kline & Steenburgen. Even Ferrara (“Turtle”) & Malco are good in supporting roles. Needless to say, ‘Last Vegas’ is, to a degree, ‘The Hangover’ for old people.

It has funny moments throughout, with some great laughs in places, but there’s also a fair bit of time spent wasted with parties, girls in bikini’s (it is Las Vegas, after all) and some drama between De Niro’s & Douglas’ that wasn’t really necessary. My main gripe would be that these sentimental moments add on an unnecessary 20min to the movie.

The story is very simple and quite predictable, but what you can’t quantify is the way the four lead actors just work well together. I think special mention must go to Kline who has some of the best lines and laughs, but the four of them together, quipping and joking at/with each other, is great to watch.

Overall: A solid comedy film – enough laughs, but could’ve been made better by some judicious editing.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Lone Survivor (February 2014)

Official Australian release date: 20/2/14. Viewed: 17/2/14.

Director: Peter Berg

Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Foster, Emile Hirsch

Genre: War / Action / True Story
Rating: MA

‘Lone Survivor’ is a very well-made and fast paced war film. It helps that it’s a true story out of Afghanistan and does a great job of setting the scene and characters in the first half hour, before putting you right in amongst the action for the final 90min. I really liked how some of the camerawork was frantic in the right moments and slow/steady in the other moments. Let me just say that when they ‘descend’ the hillside, you really feel it!

Is ‘Lone Survivor’ as good as ‘Saving Private Ryan’? That’s debatable, but it’s certainly better than ‘Black Hawk Down’ in my books, as far as modern war films go. There’s no politics involved, just survival, and this has plenty of teeth-gritting moments! It helps that there’s only really the four characters on their own in the wilderness – does a great job of showing the isolation.

There’s a fair bit of blood and violence, but nothing too grisly and it all looks very realistic – there’s no cohesion to what the soldiers (Navy SEALs, rather) do, they’re literally fighting for their lives as best they can. The photos at the end compared with the actors are good, although Peter Gabriel’s cover of “Heroes” would’ve been better served if it was the David Bowie original. Otherwise, a great score.

Overall: Excellent cinematography, score, acting and story make this a superb war film where you do care about the characters you’re watching.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

RoboCop (February 2014)

Official Australian release date: 6/2/14. Viewed: 6/2/14.

Director: José Padilha

Actors: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

I went into the ‘RoboCop’ reboot with fond, but not very vivid, memories of the original, seeing as it came out when I was 2! I do remember having a RoboCop figurine that I used to play with as a kid. And this new film does a good job of making him look both new and futuristic, but also similar enough to the original that old fans won’t be disappointed – he’s silver for about a third of the film and black for the rest.

In terms of story, it’s pretty straight forward – Detective Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) is almost killed, is turned into a cyborg and then tracks down the bad guys in Detroit. Sure, there’s a little more to it than that – is he more man, or machine? Does he still have a conscience/soul? And does it matter if he’s good at his job?

There’s some decent action, but a lot of shaky/fast camera work that doesn’t always help the action scenes. It feels longer than it should and doesn’t have the best ending. Oldman and Keaton are good, but it’s hard to feel any real connection to Murphy and his wife (Cornish), as you never spend any real time with them.

Overall: Nothing new, but a decent action film. I just wish Samuel L. Jackson wasn’t beeped in the final scene!

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.