Avengers: Infinity War

Official Australian release date: 25/4/18. Viewed: 25/4/18.

Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

   

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ is the third Avengers film and the 19^th Marvel Cinematic Universe film overall, serving as a culmination of the last 10 years. While not a full-stop (Avengers 4 comes out next year), it does a great job of bringing the much-teased infinity stones/Thanos storyline together. Lots of knowledge of the previous MCU films is assumed, especially the two most recent films which lead directly in to this film – ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and ‘Black Panther’. It might make some sense if you haven’t seen the others, but probably not too much.

The stakes are certainly high, with a number of deaths of key characters throughout (no spoilers) and the opening scene literally taking no prisoners. The vital part of this film is the villain, Thanos (Brolin) who – despite being large, ugly & purple – gets enough backstory and shows adequate ethos to almost empathise with his reasoning for wanting to destroy half the universe (via the infinity stones). While there’s some deaths and plenty of tension/darkness in parts, there’s still lots of laughs, mostly thanks to Thor (Hemsworth), Starlord (Pratt), Rocket (Cooper) and Drax (Bautista).

The CGI is fantastic the entire film, with plenty of scenes in space and on new planets, which is always great to see – as is Iron Man (Downey Jr.)’s inevitable new suit. The way the team-ups are handled is done really well, with Dr Strange (Cumberbatch), the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man (Holland), Black Panther (Boseman) and the Avengers all split up, so there’s always different scenes moving things along at a good pace. The third act battle is not predictable and the ending is hugely shocking – certainly no cop-out.

Overall: Near-flawless action/space epic.

Gav's Rating: 4.5 stars.

I Feel Pretty

Official Australian release date: 19/4/18. Viewed: 18/4/18.

Directors: Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein

Actors: Amy Schumer, Rory Scovel, Busy Phillips, Aidy Bryant

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M

   

‘I Feel Pretty’ is a mostly-straightforward romantic comedy from the writers of ‘Never Been Kissed’, ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ and ‘How To Be Single’, so it’s safe to assume you know pretty much what to expect. There’s also a nice twist on the tried-and-tested body-switch plot – Renee (Schumer) hits her head and believes she has achieved her dream of becoming beautiful.

Renee believing she’s the hottest woman alive is where a lot of the humour comes from, but also some of the missteps – since Renee and her two friends, Jane (Phillips) and Vivian (Bryant), are not actually ugly. It’s also where most of the sincere moments come from – it’s not all about what you look like, but the confidence you have in yourself, highlighted in a rousing speech by Schumer near the end. She’s (mostly) not too over-the-top and is (mostly) easy to cheer for.

While not focusing solely on girl-meets-boy/falls-in-love/separate/get-back-together, it still manages to fit that all in, with Ethan (Scovel) a decent foil to Schumer. It’s annoying that the backdrop to a film that’s actually about not worrying about looks is centered around a make-up company, run by Avery (Williams) and Grant (Hopper) – both mostly pointless. Overall, it’s not as good as ‘Trainwreck’, but nor is it a totally vapid “chick flick”.

Overall: Slightly above-average romantic comedy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Isle of Dogs

Official Australian release date: 12/4/18. Viewed: 14/4/18.

Director: Wes Anderson

Actors: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Koyu Rankin, Bill Murray

Genre: Comedy / Adventure

Rating: PG

  

‘Isle of Dogs’ is another animated/puppet Wes Anderson film, a la ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ and his 9^th film overall. Needless to say, it’s quirky and offbeat. The plot is quite simple: Megasaki in Japan is divided into dog-haters and dog-lovers, and the mayor exiles all dogs to an island/dump across the bay. Atari (Rankin), a 12-year-old boy, then sets off to rescue his dog, Spots (Schreiber). The main characters are a pack of talking dogs – Chief (Cranston), Rex (Norton), Boss (Murray), Duke (Goldblum) and King (Balaban).

Even though it’s stop-motion animation/puppetry, it’s not really a kids film. It must have just scraped a PG instead of an M. There’s certainly some rather grim moments and gallows humour. It takes a while to build momentum and fully immerse you in the story – the final third is much better than the rest of the film. There’s probably too much drumming in the score – it becomes distracting, as does the lack of subtitles for the bits spoken in Japanese.

It’s certainly not a bad film, but nowhere near as fun as ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ or ‘Moonrise Kingdom’. The puppetry is pretty amazing, even though they sometimes look like action figures in close up, but the animation and some of the landscape shots are expertly done. There’s a million cuts, as is Anderson’s style, and too many characters, so no one gets a true chance to shire.

Overall: OK, but missing Anderson’s typical whimsy.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

A Quiet Place

Official Australian release date: 5/4/18. Viewed: 7/4/18.

Director: John Krasinski

Actors: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe

Genre: Thriller / Horror

Rating: M

  

‘A Quiet Place’ is a really well-made thriller, which is interesting since Krasinski (yes, the guy from the American ‘The Office’) is the director, co-writer, producer and star. It’s not necessarily a horror film (hence the ‘M’ rating), but is certainly packed full of tension and suspense and has plenty of jumpy moments. The film makes a bold choice early on and does a good job of setting the scene, while not revealing too much.

This is true of the monsters/creatures – we’re not told where they’re from, how many there is or what’s going on in the wider world. The whole focus is on the one family – Lee (Krasinski), Evelyn (Blunt), and their three kids, Regan (Simmonds), Marcus (Jupe) and Beau (Woodward). The use of sound is exceptional and the lack of speaking very unique. There’s sign language and subtitles, but it’s hardly needed, thanks to the superb score.

‘A Quiet Place’ is similar to last year’s ‘It Comes At Night’ in concept, but better executed. It doesn’t overstay welcome (90 min) and fully delivers on both building pressure and having plenty of legitimate scares by making you ask “what would I do in this situation?” Krasinski and the kids are good, but Blunt is excellent and shows all her emotions excellently. Also has a solid ending.

Overall: Great character-focused thriller.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

The Death of Stalin

Official Australian release date: 29/3/18. Viewed: 2/4/18.

Director: Armando Iannucci

Actors: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Adrian McLoughlin, Jeffrey Tambor

Genre: Comedy / War

Rating: MA

  

‘The Death of Stalin’ is a satirical look at 1950’s USSR (from the director of ‘In The Loop’ a hilarious look at British politics, who’s also the creator of ‘Veep’). This is similar to ‘In The Loop’, if not quite as good, with mostly British actors playing Russians and not changing their accents, making for a refreshing and playful tone. Even though the majority are British – including Beria (Russell Beale), Molotov (Palin), Zhuov (Isaacs) & Stalin (McLoughlin) – two of the main actors are American: Krushchev (Buscemi) and Malenkov (Tambor).

The film is basically about Beria, head of NKVD (Internal Affairs) and Krushchev, First Secretary, scheming and plotting to run Russia after Stalin dies – even though it’s technically Malenkov, who’s basically a puppet. There’s plenty of fun digs at how inept the Soviets were, but also some commentary on how bad things were during the Cold War. Main problem with the film is the lack of backstory – obviously based somewhat on facts, but a lot of creative license taken – but things happen so fast that it takes a while to figure out who’s who, etc.

There’s a few laughs, but no real hilarious moments, expect maybe when Buscemi tries to swap places with Tambor. There’s plenty to like, and all the actors are good, especially Buscemi, Kurylenko and Russell Beale – and always good to see a Python on screen with Palin. However, I felt it lacked something to make it a truly great comedy.

Overall: Enjoyable historical/political satire.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.