A Million Ways To Die In The West (May 2014)

Official Australian release date: 29/5/14. Viewed: 31/5/14.

Director: Seth MacFarlane

Actors: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris

Genre: Comedy / Western

Rating: MA

‘A Million Ways to Die in the West’ certainly delivers on what the title promises! For a comedy, there’s a lot of death – so much so that it’s basically smashing the point over our heads. Set in 1882 Arizona, it’s a story about Albert (MacFarlane), wallowing in his sheep farming life on the “frontier”. It gets better when Anna (Theron) comes along, but there are complications when Clinch (Neeson) arrives. Basically, there’s a few Western elements – plenty of shorts of New Mexico/Utah filling in for old Arizona, some tumbleweed and gun duels – but the way MacFarlane talks and acts makes it feel modern (and sometimes as if you’re watching ‘Family Guy’).

There are some pretty funny/oddly short cameos – Christopher Lloyd, Ewan McGregor, Ryan Reynolds & Jamie Foxx – whether they add to the humour or detract is up for debate. There’s really not much to the story, and it’s pretty predictable, so it’s surprising that it goes for almost two hours. Plenty of toilet humour, which can be a good thing in small does, but probably goes a little overboard. The main problem is that while there’s plenty of good jokes, they’re too much like a sitcom and are unable to sustain the plot and sometimes fall flat.

‘A Million Ways to Die in the West’ is not a bad follow-up to ‘Ted’, but you can’t help but feel that MacFarlane bit off more than he could chew here, being star, writer, director and producer. Neil Patrick Harris just plays an unlikeable version of Barney, but the film’s main saving grace is Theron, who’s funny and charming, as well as Sarah Silverman & Giovanni Ribsi’s relationship.

Overall: A decent, if scattershot, comedy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past (May 2014)

Official Australian release date: 22/5/14. Viewed: 21/5/14.

Director: Bryan Singer

Actors: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Peter Dinklage

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ is the fifth X-Men film (let’s not include the Wolverine movies in this count) and does a good job of linking the original trilogy (2000-2006) to the 2011 prequel, ‘X-Men: First Class’. The story starts off in the not-too-distant future (i.e. a decade or so after ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’), where the Sentinels have almost hunted mutant-kind – and some of human-kind – to extinction. The plus side of this is that we get to see grown-up Professor X (Stewart), Magneto (McKellen), Wolverine (Jackman), Shadow Cat (Page), Storm (Berry), Iceman (Ashmore) & Colossus (Cudmore) – plus new additions Sunspot (Canto), Bishop (Sy), Warpath (Stewart) & Blink (Fan – who? Yeah, even I don’t know who Blink is – some sort of weird mix between Nightcrawler & Psylocke) – and how they’re living in the Terminator 4-esque future. The solution? Send Wolverine into the past to try to stop the Sentinels from being created. (I’m not sure how Shadow Cat’s phasing ability inexplicably lets her transport people to the past...)

This is where – in 1973 – we’re re-introduced to young Charles (McAvoy) & Eric (Fassbender). There’s some good moments as they meet Wolverine for the “first” time, including drafting in Quicksilver (Peters). I’m glad they hinted that Magneto is his father, but it’s a shame the same actor won’t be playing him in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’. We also meet Dr Trask (Dinklage, solid as ever), the creator of the Sentinel program and find out how Mystique (Lawrence) is out to assassinate him. I’m not sure why the films have so much focus on her, when she’s not really that interesting a character in the comics and certainly not as pivotal as the films make her. Beast (Hoult) is good and I’m glad they got one of the original five X-Men in there with Xavier (no sighting of Angel at all!). It all gets slightly confusing, as the “future” X-Men fight off Sentinels to stop Wolverine from coming back to the future (had to be said!), while the “past” X-Men fight Magneto, Mystique & Sentinels separately!

There’s some pretty massive set pieces at the end, with all the sets/costumes of the 70s looking great/realistic too (including Nixon!), but it all seemed just a little lacklustre to me. A few things don’t quite add up and I had higher expectations from the future battles, as well as from the young Professor X/Magneto dynamic. It felt to me like it was building to something massive and the pay-off wasn’t quite there. Sure, it’s an enjoyable ending (I’m still looking forward to ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’) and does a good enough job of linking the films/characters, but I think Fox bit off more than they could chew. It was a little slow in parts and Wolverine certainly seemed like a passenger with not much to do. There were certainly some fun scenes and some exciting scenes, but not enough to elevate this to ‘Avengers’ status.

Overall: A good effort, but I expected more from the original comic book movie franchise.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Godzilla (May 2014)

Official Australian release date: 15/5/14. Viewed: 15/5/14.

Director: Gareth Edwards

Actors: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, David Strathairn, Bryan Cranston

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

Did I like the new ‘Godzilla’ film, the first in 16 years? I really wanted to, but while there’s some good aspects, they’re counterbalanced by plenty of bad things. First, the “storyline” - two MUTO (“Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism”)’s are awakened (why now?) and converge on San Francisco (why there?). Godzilla shows up to fight them (why?).

It sounds like it could be a good version of ‘Pacific Rim’ - and while it’s cool to see the giant CGI monsters, you don’t actually get to see enough action/battle scenes. The major failing is the characters - you spend an hour with Taylor-Johnson & his Dad (Cranston) before you even see Godzilla! Despite that, there’s still very little character development and you just plain don’t care what happens to them or the other human characters. It definitely needed more of Watanabe. Also, there’s a ridiculous number of coincidences how Taylor-Johnson/Kick-Ass keeps showing up in the right/wrong place.

One of the major unexplained situations is where did Godzilla come from, and if they knew he existed, where has he been for 60 years? Hibernating on the ocean floor? And why does he want to battle the MUTO - for food? Apparently not! Therefore, what does he eat to sustain his giant bulk? The other major annoying thing for me was the stupidity of the humans - hey, these MUTO love nuclear energy, so let’s try to destroy them with a nuclear weapon! Or they can emit electromagnetic pulses - let’s keep flying planes & helicopters near them, surely they won’t crash! Anyway, on a positive note, you do see some of Godzilla for the final 30min (but not enough) and he does, thankfully, have flame-breath.

Overall: A decent reboot attempt, but not good enough to have me anticipating any potential sequels.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Fading Gigolo (May 2014)

Official Australian release date: 1/5/14. Viewed: 11/5/14.
Director: John Turturro
Actors: John Turturro, Woody Allen, Vanessa Paradis, Sharon Stone, Sofia Vergara
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Rating: M

Quite disappointing, really. ‘Fading Gigolo’ starts off promising, with some typical Allen wordplay, but it gets bogged down in an unnecessarily dramatic relationship that goes nowhere (with Paradis). There’s some weird Jewish fetishness at play – I’m not sure if it’s meant a tribute to Allen?

It’s definitely an interesting concept (ageing male prostitute and pimp), with plenty of comedic potential, but there's not too may laughs - Schreiber's wasted, Stone is boring and Turturro doesn't give himself much to do. Definitely need more Vergara!

Overall: Disappointing comedy from guys who should do better.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.

Bad Neighbours (May 2014)

Official Australian release date: 8/5/14. Viewed: 3/5/14.

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Actors: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

‘Bad Neighbours’ is a really enjoyable and well-made comedy. Plenty of laughs throughout, with a great cast and decent ending. Rogen plays his usual loveable buffoon and Byrne is surprisingly good as his wife, as she’s allowed to keep her Aussie accent, rather than doing a fake American one. But the way they act together, with their cute baby, is quite realistic and charming. The whole plot is really simple – a frat moves in, they don’t like it, so a battle to get rid of them escalates.

There’s an excellent support cast – Hannibal Buress as the cop (particularly the Garfield bit), Lisa Kudrow as the Dean & Jason Mantzoukas as the doctor all have some great lines. There’s some drawn-out fraternity/party scenes, but overall it’s well-paced, with constant jokes and funny moments throughout. Even the baby gets a few laughs, particularly during the calendar shoot!

Efron & (the younger) Franco do a good job as the frat-boys, but it’s pretty predictable – except for some of the pranks (& fights) they pull, which have heaps of laughs. It’s probably not as good as ‘Old School’, but still better than some of Rogen’s recent comedies.

Overall: Very fun Seth Rogen comedy.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.