Get Hard (March 2015)

Official Australian release date: 26/3/15. Viewed: 31/3/15.

Director: Etan Cohen

Actors: Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Alison Brie, Craig T. Nelson

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

‘Get Hard’ is a straightforward comedy film – rich white guy gets sentenced to jail for fraud, asks black associate to help him prepare for prison life, hijinks ensue. Obviously, it helps when you have two great comedic leads – Ferrell as James, the meek banker, and Hart as Darnell, the car-wash operator trying to support his family. Hart’s on a bit of a roll, film-wise, but this was not quite as enjoyable as ‘The Wedding Ringer’, but much better than ‘Ride Along’.

The two stars work so well together, with ultra-short Hart’s hyper-energy toned down a little and ultra-tall Ferrell playing a meek, polite man-child. It’s not too crass, but there is a bit of swearing as Ferrell tries to learn ‘smack talk’, which is hilarious. Also – too much of his butt, but that’s why it’s funny I guess! It’s at least counter-balanced by Brie (Annie from ‘Community’) looking great in a corset.

Plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as the 30-day countdown until his imprisonment proceeds, with some nice play on stereotypes throughout. A decent support cast – needed more Ron Funches! – not too long and just ridiculous enough to not get too stupid. Not the best comedy you’ll ever see, but far from the worst.

Overall: Enjoyable, simple comedy.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Chappie (March 2015)

Official Australian release date: 12/3/15. Viewed: 14/3/15.

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Actors: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Yo-Landi Visser

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: MA

‘Chappie’ is Blomkamp’s third film, after ‘District 9’ and ‘Elysium’ and easily sits between them in terms of quality. It’s a near-future tale of artificial intelligence and how this could play out on a small and large scale. It’s nothing new (‘Terminator’, ‘Short Circuit’), but it is done in an interesting way. Deon (Patel) develops “scouts” (basically literal robocops), which Vincent (Jackman) wants to supersede with his mech-warriors. When Deon creates an AI “conscious”, Chappie is “born”.

Unfortunately for Chappie, his “parents” are Ninja & Yo-Landi from ‘Die Antwoord’, a South African rap-rave “band” (thanks Wikipedia. If you haven’t heard them before, don’t bother!) I can only assume Blomkamp loves their music (god knows how) and asked them to be in this as a favour. Their faux-gangster act forces Chappie into doing things he doesn’t want to and disaster ensues. Jackman is adequately douchey as the Aussie-redneck, Sigourney Weaver is massively underutilised, Patel is solid and Copley is great as the South African-accented voice of Chappie, providing most of the laughs due to his interpretation of sayings.

The visual effects – particularly of Chappie and the other scouts - is superb. There’s not too much philosophising on the impacts AI could have on humans/the world. The ending was a little drawn-out and obvious – not necessarily good or bad.

Overall: Good robot coming-of-age story.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Top Five (March 2015)

Official Australian release date: 12/3/15. Viewed: 13/3/15.

Director: Chris Rock

Actors: Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, JB Smoove, Gabrielle Union

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

‘Top Five’ is Chris Rock’s third directorial effort – and it is better than ‘Head of State’! I love Rock as a stand-up comedian, but I feel like he still hasn’t quite got it all together in terms of acting/directing. This is by no means a bad film – it’s just not his, or anyone involved, best work. It’s partially-autobiographical: comedian turns actor, cashes in on simple family-friendly films, gets pigeon-holed, tries to branch out into ‘serious’ films, flops. In reality, it’s almost an Eddie Murphy biopic – hugely successful comedian, drug/alcohol issues, simple family-friendly films (‘The Nutty Professor’, ‘Doctor Dolittle’, ‘Shrek’), then ‘serious’ films (‘Dreamgirls’, ‘A Thousand Words’).

Andre (Rock) starts off as an unlikeable, self-obsessed celebrity, engaged to an even more unlikable reality-TV “star” (Union), but is interviewed by Chelsea (Dawson) for an article and lets his guard down. The two of them conversing are some of the better scenes, as Dawson is such a great disarming actress – impossible to not love. You get some (hopefully not based too much on reality) anecdotes and a few funny moments. There’s room for plenty of good actors/friends-of-Rock’s – Smoove, Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer, Romany Malco, Kevin Hart, Adam Sandler & Jerry Seinfeld – but none of them get enough time to do anything too funny/great.

The eponymous “top five” is the question Rock asks others to see who their favourite rappers are – purportedly to ‘test’ their credibility. I wish Rock has focussed a little more on his top five attributes – being funny, multiplied by five! The film has a decent romantic angle and a good ending, but it not great, nor poor.

Overall: Adequate “com”, with some “rom”.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.