Stan & Ollie

Official Australian release date: 21/2/19. Viewed: 23/2/19.

Director: Jon S. Baird

Actors: John C. Reilly, Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Rating: PG

‘Stan & Ollie’ is a biopic of Stan Laurel (Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (Reilly), one of Hollywood’s most successful comedic duos in the 1930s & 1940s. It’s mostly set in 1953, as they undertake a British theatre tour and try to launch a comeback (even though in their 60s), but it turns into their swan-song. They spend most of the film trying to draw bigger crowds at Delfont’s (Jones) insistence and trying to get a ‘Robin Hood’ film off the ground.

There’s plenty of funny moments, but most of the film centres on the pair’s relationship and the dynamic between he four when their wives arrive in London – Ida Laurel (Arianda) and Lucille Hardy (Henderson). Both the wives have some great lines and scenes. Good to see how Laurel & Hardy would’ve come up with some of their jokes/routines. A lot of it is a bit dated for modern audiences, but it was the 50s.

Both Coogan and Reilly are good, but the fat-suit Reilly wears makes his acting even more impressive. You really end up caring for them as characters, so they’ve done their job. Good ending, with a nice insight into some classic comedians, Hollywood and theatre.

Overall: Well-made comedic historical biopic.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Alita: Battle Angel

Official Australian release date: 14/2/19. Viewed: 17/2/19.

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Actors: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Keean Johnson, Mahershala Ali

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

‘Alita: Battle Angel’ is set 500 years in the post-apocalyptic future and is based on the ‘Gunnm’ manga. Alita (Salazar) is an amnesiac human brain found by Dr Ido (Waltz) and put into a robot body. With the help of Hugo (Johnson), she then sets out to try and piece together her past, which obviously isn’t what it seems, as she’s a warrior cyborg.

The world-building is OK, but a bit too derivative – there’s the unseen “higher class” up on Zalem, a floating city, and everyone else on the ground is basically in the slums. All very reminiscent of ‘Ready Player One’, ‘Mortal Engines’ and ‘Blade Runner’. Vector (Ali) is the bad guy, but both he & Chiren (Connelly) are controlled by Nova (Norton). Some of the bounty hunter bits, especially Zapan (Skrein), seem pointless.

Overall, a lot of it looks good and Alita’s CGI fits in well to the rest of the world, but there’s a few too many convenient plot points (i.e. new body). It probably would’ve worked better as an MA-rated film, seeing as Rodriguez is the director, they get one F-word in and there’s a fair bit of violence. It makes me want to see the ‘Red Rising’ novels turned into films even more. The ending is a blatant set up for the sequel, making the whole film feel slightly undercooked.

Overall: OK, not great, futuristic robot film.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars. 

The Wandering Earth

Official Australian release date: 7/2/19. Viewed: 16/2/19.

Director: Frant Gwo

Actors: Chuxiao Qu, Jin Mai Jaho, Guangjie Li, Jing Wu

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

‘The Wandering Earth’ is one of China’s first forays into big-budget sci-fi – and it mostly works! The premise of the film hits close to home – severe drought, extreme weather, tsunamis pointing to the extinction of humans. Set in the near future, the more unrealistic part of the plot is that the sun is going to explode and devour the Milky Way, so all the Earth’s governments decide to move the planet to another solar system. Pretty far fetched, but they try to stick to some scientific principles, such as oceans freezing, temperatures plummeting, billions dying – but I’m not sure how plausible thousands of giant rocket boosters and underground cities would be. But it is science-FICTION.

While the special effects are good – although still funny to see Earth being driven through space like a spaceship – the film does well to focus on six main characters. These are Liu Qi (Qu), his sister Duoduo (Jaho), their dad Liu Peiqiang (Wu) trapped on the space station, their granddad Han (Ng), captain Lei (Li) and scientist Yiyi (Zhang), as they try to get a replacement engine to one of the rockets on the surface. Some of it is needlessly melodramatic, but in general the balance between humanity and CGI is well done.

It’s a nice mix of ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, ‘2012’ (but better than both) and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ – and thankfully much better than ‘The Great Wall’. I found the subtitles and action easy to read/follow. Nice score and there’s some humour in with the end-of-the-world-ness.

Overall: Fast and action-packed, strong addition to the sci-fi genre.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.