Moana (December 2016)

Official Australian release date: 26/12/16. Viewed: 30/12/16.

Director: Ron Clements

Actors: Auli’I Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison

Genre: Adventure/Comedy

Rating: PG

‘Moana’ is a near-flawless family film from Disney. It’s got pretty much everything: comedy (mostly from a chicken!), pathos, a good journey with some adversity to overcome, some self-discovery, a great sidekick, some songs, the death of a loved one (the Grandma [House]) and heaps of great animation/scenery.

The Chief (Morrison/Jango Fett), doesn’t want Moana (Cravalho) to leave their Pacific island, for fear of the big ocean, but she has to follow her destiny and find Maui (Johnson) to restore the heart of Te Fiti and restore balance to the islands. Maui obviously starts out as a bit of a jerk, but he endears himself to us with his well-meaning ways and hilarious moving-tattoos. The lava monster’s cool, but not too scary – definitely OK for kids over 3.

It’s great to see/hear Polynesian actors, songs (particularly the tribal drums) and ancestral art/tattoos. There’s a great voice cast – the Grandma is touching – and Clement (Flight of the Conchords) is hilarious as the giant/evil crab. However, it’s Moana’s film and she’s charismatic, feisty and respectful, depending on the situation (helps that they chose a 14-year-old Hawaiian to play her!). She probably sings a few too many songs for me (think there’s about seven in the film), and they definitely could’ve done without The Rock’s song! It all ends happily, with her people voyaging again.

Overall: Great looking and sounding ocean adventure.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars. 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (December 2016)

Official Australian release date: 15/12/16. Viewed: 15/12/16.

Director: Gareth Edwards

Actors: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure

Rating: M

‘Rogue One’ (or “Star Wars Episode 3.5”) is the first standalone Star Wars film (excluding 2008’s CGI ‘The Clone Wars’ film), which is both its strong point and part of it’s burden. It’s hard to write a review objectively, since Star Wars is one of my favourite things ever, and almost every second scene is a reference to something from the Star Wars universe, so it’s hard to imagine it from a context of someone coming in not having seen anything else Star Wars. And frankly, if you haven’t seen the original trilogy, you need a good hard look at your priorities in life!

I say this is like episode 3.5, but it’s actually more like episode 3.9, with the ending leading directly into ‘A New Hope’. The film centres on how the Rebel Alliance obtained the Death Star plans, that allows Luke Skywalker to blow it up. The introduction of Krennic (Mendelsohn), Galen Erso (Mikkelsen) and his daughter, Jyn (Jones) is done well, but there’s not that much backstory. Basically, Galen’s forced to build the Death Star, explain why there’s a clear design flaw, and the rebels are sent on a frantic chase to steal the plans and get them to Princess Leia in time.

There’s a decent cast, with Yen & Jiang probably the best (even though I’m not sure you learn their names?), Rook (Ahmed) as the Imperial defector who grows in importance, Cassian (Luna) the rebel pilot who’s had to do plenty of unpleasant deeds, and the droid K-2SO (Tudyk), who steals almost every scene he’s in. Saw (Whitaker), Mon Mothma (O’Reilly), Bail Organa (Smits) and the CGI Tarkin don’t have that much to do. There’s obviously a few cameos, with Darth Vader getting two scenes. I did like the film, but I probably wanted to like it more than I did. It tries hard, but it’s hard to connect with the characters, especially as we know how it’s going to end. The best bits by far are seeing the new planets, the Death Star in action, the set-design/feel of Yavin 4 and the rebel fleet, and the space battle at the end.

Overall: Solid Star Wars film – not mind-blowing, but doesn’t detract from the originals.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Office Christmas Party (December 2016)

Official Australian release date: 08/12/16. Viewed: 07/12/16.

Director: Josh Gordon & Will Speck

Actors: Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller, Olivia Munn, Jennifer Aniston

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

‘Office Christmas Party’ does what it says on the box – it’s a comedy revolving around a workplace Christmas Party in Chicago. It used to be a family business, but now Clay (Miller) runs the office and his sister Carol (Aniston) is trying to shut him down. Josh (Bateman) is the CTO and Tracey (Munn) his IT head/love interest. To boost morale, Clay, Josh & Tracey decide to have a huge Christmas Party – and the debauchery ensues.

The support cast is pretty great – Mary from HR (McKinnon, in a terrible Xmas jumper), Jeremy from Customer Relations (Corddry, always funny), Fred from Accounts (Park, with his weird fetish) and Nate from IT (Soni, almost his same cab-driver character from ‘Deadpool’, great to watch), plus a crazy pimp (Bell). The plot is pretty thin and padded with a car chase and the typical “rave to some techno” scenes. The “love story” between Josh & Tracey is almost non-existent.

It’s the same directors that bought us ‘The Switch’ with Bateman and Aniston, but it’s nowhere near as fun or inventive as ‘Horrible Bosses’, or last year’s ‘The Night Before’ – and as far as “adult” Christmas films go, not even close to ‘Bad Santa’. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments, and a few good jokes thrown in, but often it seems like it’s being crude or stupid for no reason.

Overall: Decent throw-away Christmas comedy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.