The Grand Budapest Hotel (April 2014)

Official Australian release date: 10/4/14. Viewed: 19/4/14.

Director: Wes Anderson

Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

I’m not sure I can say much more about Wes Anderson that hasn’t already been said – he’s definitely one of the most singular filmmakers of our generation. Needless to say, if you liked ‘The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou’, ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ and ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ (which I did), then you’ll enjoy ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’. It’s got a huge ensemble cast, but the usual faces (Murray, Schwartzman, Norton, Wilson) are only given bit parts, with Gustave (Fiennes) the undisputed central character here.

Even though it’s named after the hotel, only about half the film takes place there – and when it does, it looks fantastic, with the colour and framing. They do a great job of telling the film as a back story, allowing Zero (Revolori/Abraham) to be our eyes and ears into the hotel’s – and Gustave’s – past. It’s a fascinating story, with plenty of laughs, but also a decent murder-mystery/chase film packed in there. This is aided immensely by Adrien Brody & Willem Dafoe playing the “badguys”.

Everything flows nicely, there’s precise dialogue (as always), a great score and great set/costume design. Goldblum’s great as the lawyer and used really effectively. I can’t really say much more – it’s a really well-made and enjoyable film!

Overall: Another exceptional addition to Anderson’s cannon.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

The Lego Movie (April 2014)

Official Australian release date: 3/4/14. Viewed: 19/4/14.

Directors: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller

Actors: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman

Genre: Animation / Comedy / Adventure
Rating: PG

‘The Lego Movie’ is exactly what you expect, but also at the same time, something unexpected. It’s a bright, fast-paced, well-intentioned kids’ film, but it also has quite a few genuine laughs and touching moments – not that they’re out of place, just that they add some levity to the story, which sometimes does get a little too “meta” for it’s own good.

The storyline is quite straightforward – ordinary guy gets thrust into an adventure to save the Universe, defeat the bad guy (Ferrell) and find love, even though he’s “normal” – obviously, it turns out everyone’s “Special”/unique, not just those that are prominent. What makes it stand out is how they’ve taken something we all know & love – I doubt anyone born in the last 40 years hasn’t played with Lego as a kid – and translated it to a living world. We get to see this through Emmet (Pratt)’s eyes and it’s pretty funny how they integrate corporate America - coffee, music & TV shows - into this Lego world. And it’s great how the Lego looks real and only animated to move facial effects – and the animated water is great. My favourite bit was seeing Ben the ‘generic 80’s astronaut’ (Charlie Day) – and his enthusiasm for building spaceships – who even had an authentic helmet crack where the chin strap always broke! I remember building weird spaceships for him.

One of my main issues is that they’ve gone to such great effort to animate this world, but then they fly through most of it so quickly that you don’t actually get a chance to appreciate it all! Thanks to being a Warner Brothers film, we get the benefit of seeing DC characters – Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Lantern (a great sub-plot with these two!), and especially, Batman. The casting of Will Arnett as Batman is genius – his gravelly voice perfectly suited, as well as his comic timing. The ending – combining live action with the animation actually works – is pretty good and wraps everything up nicely, while also making you care for some of these characters, even if they’re little yellow blocks!

Overall: Everything is (relatively) awesome.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (April 2014)

Official Australian release date: 17/4/14. Viewed: 16/4/14.

Directors: Marc Webb

Actors: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx

Genre: Action / Adventure
Rating: M

The debate still probably continues as to the necessity of this second trilogy of Spider-Man films so shortly after the first, but to me – based on the first two so far – they are far superior. Sure, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ is not as good as its predecessor from two years ago, but it is still very enjoyable. The film does well linking back to the first film, while also laying some back story for the next one.

The storyline starts off quite simple – Peter & Gwen are in still in love, but he’s conflicted because of the promise he made to her Dad, so there’s a bit of “will they, won’t they?” But at least we have Garfield & Stone – both just plain better actors than Maguire & Dunst. They introduce Max/Electro (Foxx) quite well, but Harry Osborn (DeHaan) a little less so. And I wish they’d saved the Stan Lee cameo for later on! Still, it’s mostly faithful for the comics – with the exception of Giamatti as The Rhino (almost unrecognisable!), although it makes sense he’d be in metal armour, rather than rubber!

I feel they went a little too close to the original trilogy by focusing on Osborn/Green Goblin/Oscorp and not enough on Electro as the main villain & Gwen as the love interest. When you see how powerful Electro becomes (I don’t recall him being as strong/capable in the comics), it makes you question why/how Spider-Man would actually be fighting him – seems like a job for the Fantastic Four or The Avengers! It’s probably a little too long at 2 hours 20min, but still, there’s some rousing speeches (thanks Aunt May & Gwen), some very funny moments and plenty of great action. It just seemed to (please forgive me for this pun) lack a little spark!

Overall: A solid action movie and addition to the Marvel film universe, but it (please forgive me for this pun) just seemed to lack a little spark!

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 2014)

Official Australian release date: 3/4/14. Viewed: 2/4/14.

Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Actors: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie

Genre: Action / Adventure
Rating: M

This was so much better than I was expecting! Sure, I liked the first Captain America film, but in reality, he’s not Marvel’s strongest character – just their version of Superman, but he CAN die from a bullet. However, they were smart with this one, bringing in a strong cast to back Cap up – with familiar faces Black Widow (Johansson), Nick Fury (Jackson), Maria Hill (Smulders), Jasper Sitwell (Hernández) and Senator Stern (Shandling) all in at least one of the other films or the TV show – plus Falcon (Mackie) and Senator Pierce (Redford) as the new additions. The biggest mystery – if you haven’t read the comics – is who the Winter Soldier is, and it does a pretty good job of the reveal (no spoilers here!). The whole film flows on nicely from the ‘The First Avenger’ and ‘The Avengers’.

I was really happy with the pacing – it does a great job of reintroducing the familiar characters and bringing in the new ones and then there’s plenty of action and great set-pieces – most on a scale I didn’t believe Captain America could/would accommodate. And there’s plenty of humour too, even when the characters are in dire straits. It also works well for the first 90min or so as a pretty great mystery, with plenty of curve-balls and “did that really happen?” moments. This is really fun to watch, as you get to see more of Steve Rogers as a character, rather than Captain America, the warrior. It’s also nice to see Cap and Black Widow spending time together not fighting enemies – although I’m biased, because I would watch Scarlett Johansson in anything! But the best parts are still the action sequences – they’ve given Cap some great moves and it’s just plain fun to watch him and how they’ve filmed it.

The Stan Lee cameo/one-liner is great and links in nicely with an earlier scene and Danny Pudi from Community even gets a pretty funny scene. It’s also nice to see Fury play a more pivotal role, rather than one or two small scenes. The plot gets a little absurd near the end, but it gives Cap, Black Window and Falcon a mission and sets up a huge battle in the final 20min. There’s sure to be some repercussions from the events of this film, and I’m interested to see if any show up in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, or if we have to wait until ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ next year. Either way, I can’t wait! And we only have to wait two years until the next Captain America film, which is a good thing, seeing how well made this one was. As always, stay until after the end titles for a very revealing scene!

Overall: An excellent action/Superhero film. It’s fun, but also serious and engaging enough to make I interesting for the entire runtime, with some great action sequences.

Gav's Rating: 4.5 stars.