Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (September 2014)

Official Australian release date: 18/9/14. Viewed: 18/9/14.

Directors: Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez

Actors: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Genre: Action / Adventure

Rating: MA

‘Sin City: A Dame To Kill For’ is a quality sequel to an exceptional, unique film. I gave ‘Sin City’ 4.5 stars and this film doesn’t quite match the first film’s graphic violence or pure originality. Having said that, however, there’s still plenty to love about ‘Sin City 2’ – it’s genuinely funny in parts, has the same great comic book-feel, with fantastic use of black & white, shadows and splashes of vivid colour to highlight certain aspects of a scene. The use of animation blends superbly with the actual actors and the score keeps everything moving.

Returning from the first ‘Sin City’ film are Marv (Rourke), Nancy (Alba), Roark (Boothe), Gail (Dawson), Dwight (now Brolin, not Owen), Miho (now Chung, not Aoki), Manute (now Haysbert, not Clarke Duncan, due to obvious reasons) and Hartigan (Willis, in flashbacks). The characters don’t get confusing or overwhelming, since the film’s basically split into three inter-connected parts. There’s Johnny (Gordon-Levitt) and his poker battles with the corrupt Senator Roark, then Ava (Green, who spends 50% of her screen-time naked – not a bad thing!) & Dwight’s ill-fated romance, and finally Marv & Nancy’s decision to do something about Roark. Almost each of the three parts has overlap with 3–5 characters from the other parts, all handled very well. There’s also plenty of great supporting cast – Meloni, Piven, Lloyd, Liotta, Temple.

I really enjoy how it looks like a comic book, but it could easily be the back streets of New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. There’s some nice tie-ins back to the first film, still plenty of guns, swords and fighting – Marv/Rourke does remind me of Hellboy/Perlman a lot! – all done quickly (less than 100min) and stylishly.

Overall: Another fun, gritty, violence-fuelled ride through Sin City.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars. 

Wish I Was Here (September 2014)

Official Australian release date: 18/9/14. Viewed: 3/9/14.

Director: Zach Braff

Actors: Zach Braff, Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad

Genre: Drama

Rating: M

‘Wish I Was Here’ is a very touching film. My best advice is don’t go in expecting a hilarious comedy, but nor is it a dour/depressing drama. Braff is steadily becoming an accomplished director, knowing when to lighten the mood, but importantly, when to keep it real and meaningful. In fact, I probably liked ‘Wish I Was Here’ more than ‘Garden State’…

The film basically follows Aidan (Braff) and his family as they struggle to live their lives in Los Angeles – he’s an out-of-work actor, wife Sarah (Hudson) is in a dull admin job, they can’t afford to keep the kids in expensive Jewish school, his brother’s an ambitionless drop-out, and to top it all off, his dad has lung cancer. Sounds bad? That’s the basic premise – how does the human heart overcome such adversity?

Once again, a fantastic soundtrack – featuring Bon Iver, The Shins & Paul Simon – with plenty of lovely moments, whether it’s a sight gag (pamphlet container) or a simple explanation of something odd (the contact lenses). There’s definitely some funny moments, mostly thanks to the youngest kid, Tucker (Gagnon, from ‘Looper’ & ‘Extant’) trying to understand what he’s being told. Oh, and Turk from Scrubs turns up briefly! Sure, it gets a bit dramatic in parts and perhaps doesn’t have the strongest ending.

But, that being said, Grace (King), Gabe (Patinkin) & Noah (Gad) all have some scenes that seriously pull at the heart strings/tear ducts! The delicate moments are handled exceptionally and there’s plenty of overt and concealed meanings in most of the scenes.

Overall: Emotive, life-affirming, moving film about love and family.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Boyhood (September 2014)

Official Australian release date: 4/9/14. Viewed: 1/9/14.

Director: Richard Linklater

Actors: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater

Genre: Drama

Rating: M

The premise of ‘Boyhood’ is at once really simple and spectacularly innovate and unique – film a kid growing up through primary and high school. Sounds quite unexciting, but it has literally never been done before – Mason (Coltrane) is show growing from age 7 until 18 (and so is Samantha, director Linklater’s actual daughter), filmed at various stages of his adolescence over 12 years. There’s no subtitles for what year/season it is – it’s up to you to determine at what stage of his life he’s at, but the scenes manage to flow quite easily, even though he ages multiple months/hairstyles each time.

The soundtrack to the film is fantastic and a trip down memory lane itself – Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ opens the film, before Blink 182’s ‘Anthem Part Two’ and Weezer’s ‘Island In The Sun’ instantly date the year as 2001. There was plenty of great/likeable songs throughout – 2002 has The Hives 'Hate to Say I Told You So' and The Flaming Lips ‘Do You Realize’, 2008 has Vampire Weekend’s ‘One (Blake's Got a New Face)’ and Foo Fighters ‘Let It Die’, 2010 has The Black Keys ‘She’s Long Gone’ & Kings of Leon’s ‘Radioactive’ and 2011 has Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’, as well as plenty of others. There’s also a splash of his Dad’s (Hawke) influences, with Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney & George Harrison songs appearing for old time’s sake. One of the best scenes to me was when he gives Mason a compilation of post-Beatles recordings and passionately explains how/why it’s important!

So, is this Oscar bait? Perhaps. Sure, it’s long (2 hours 40min), but it takes you on such a journey that by the time Mason’s in the final  years of high school, you’ve almost forgotten that you first met him as a 7 year old! With a budget of less than $3 million, it’s truly astounding the commitment the four main actors (Arquette is very believable as the mum), the director and production staff put in over 12 years. I can only imagine how long editing has taken!

At its heart, ‘Boyhood’ is a family drama – with lots of laughs thrown in, don’t worry! – that tells a very realistic and well-imagined story of finding who and what you want to be in the world. It will be interesting to see if Coltrane continues acting now. The film’s whole point is essentially asking – how do you recall the formative years – both the highs & lows – that shaped you?

Overall: An astounding odyssey through one boy/man’s life – needs to be seen to be truly appreciated.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars. 

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (August 2014)

Official Australian release date: 21/8/14. Viewed: 26/8/14.

Director: Felix Herngren

Actors: Robert Gustafsson, Mia Skäringer, Johan Rheborg, Alan Ford

Genre: Comedy / Adventure

Rating: M

The ridiculously-long-winded title ‘The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared’ thankfully does not represent the film – it’s a simple fish-out-of-water comedy, that just happens to be set in Sweden & featuring a centenarian. In reality, the main character – Allan Karlsson – is played by Gustafsson, who’s only 49! However, the title does accurately describe the first 15min of the film, but what happens after that needs to be seen to be believed!

One serendipitous incident leads to another and the script (or rather, the screenplay of the novel, which I haven’t read) is so well written that as they get more absurd & hilarious, they still somehow seem plausible within the story. It starts off in Sweden (English subtitles, but with Karlsson’s spoken inner-monologue in English), but by telling his life’s back story, takes in quite a few countries and eras – Spain, America, Russia, WWII – quite ‘Forrest Gump’-like in parts, which is a good thing!

The three main supporting actors are great characters and add to the story and it should be warned that some of the humour is a little black, but it all done with so much zest that you can’t help but laugh! A good ending, fun soundtrack and excellent pacing make this a foreign/indie film well worth seeing!

Overall: Hilarious odd-ball foreign comedy.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars. 

The Hundred-Foot Journey (August 2014)

Official Australian release date: 14/8/14. Viewed: 17/8/14.

Director: Lasse Hallström

Actors: Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon, Helen Mirren, Om Puri

Genre: Drama / Comedy

Rating: PG

‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ was a little like ‘Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ for me – I had quite low expectations as I thought it was going to be an “old lady movie”. Thankfully, I was proven wrong and instead was treated to a nice little film about following your dreams.

The premise is simple – an Indian family move to London, get sick of the cold/rain (who wouldn’t!) and travel to continental Europe to find a new place to settle and start a restaurant. This place happens to be a picturesque little village in Southern France – however, their new restaurant happens to be next to a Michelin-rated French restaurant, and a rivalry ensues.

The performances from Puri as the Dad and Mirren as the French restaurant owner are great and quite nuanced, with Hassan (Daval) and Marguerite (the huge-eyed Le Bon) playing the young love interests/competing chefs. It’s great to see how their friendship evolves as Hassan goes on his food journey. Some parts of this feel like a cooking show, but not enough to put you off. It has funny moments, touching moments and a nice ending – plenty of messages about openness and accepting other cultures, and generally giving something/someone a chance.

Overall: Sweet story of family, food and discovery.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Lucy (August 2014)

Official Australian release date: 31/7/14. Viewed: 5/8/14.

Director: Luc Besson

Actors: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-shik, Amr Waked

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: MA

How best to explain ‘Lucy’? I’m not really sure – my best bet is ‘Limitless’ crossed with ‘The Matrix’, but without the best bits from either! Basically, Lucy (Johansson) gets involved in a drug ring in Taipei and it just so happens the drugs ‘unlock’ the full potential of her brain. The biggest flaw of the film is right there – it’s based on the urban myth that humans only use 10% of their brain power. We may not always use 100%, but we certainly use more than 10% for the majority of the time!

The best bits are the amazing car scene in Paris, the intercut footage (cheetahs, dinosaurs and other bits of nature) and Morgan Freeman. Unfortunately, that’s more than counterbalanced by the fact that the film struggles to make 90min, has a lack of actual action/excitement has a huge cop-out ending and Johansson acts like a robot, which is apparently what a hyper-evolved human would be like?!?

Considering Besson made ‘The Fifth Element’ – one of the more fun, inventive Sci-Fi films of the last 20 years – it’s a shame this film is neither fun, nor original. I definitely think the filmmakers thought they were being far more philosophical than they actually ended up being.

Overall: Not horrible, but certainly not a memorable sci-fi film.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars. 

Guardians of the Galaxy (August 2014)

Official Australian release date: 7/8/14. Viewed: 2/8/14.

Director: James Gunn

Actors: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action / Comedy

Rating: M

Firstly, you don’t need to be a huge comics fan or know anything about the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ going in to this to enjoy it. Even though I’m a pretty big Marvel fan, I still knew very little about the Guardians, but had heaps of fun with the film anyway. It’s a pretty simple concept – a boy, Peter Quill (Pratt) is taken from Earth by one of the spacefaring races that exist in the Marvel Universe, grows up as a Han Solo-esque outlaw calling himself ‘Star Lord’ travelling/thieving around the galaxy. He steals the wrong thing (an orb) and gets involved in a galactic power struggle which forces him to work together with Gamora (Saldana), Rocket (Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel in his best role ever!) and Drax (Bautista). Action and adventure ensue!

The bad guy, Ronan (Pace), is a Kree that wants to wipe out the plant Xandar – no real reason why he hates the Xandarians, he just does! – and Thanos (who we saw at the end of ‘The Avengers’) is going to help him, once he gets the orb. It sounds complicated – and we haven’t seen any Skrulls or Shi’ar yet! – but the film doesn’t really get too bogged down in galactic politics or grudges. However, it sets up the potential for a huge ‘The Avengers 3’ or the new ‘Fantastic Four’.

One of the best bits is that Quill was abducted in 1988, so the only cassette he has is full of 70’s & 80’s music, meaning he knows nothing else and the film does a great job of throwing in catchy, but not necessarily huge, pop songs throughout – Bowie, 10cc, Blue Swede, Joan Jett, Marvin Gaye… The audio makes everything fun and provides a nice contrast to the aliens/space battles going on in the visuals!

So, when Quill and his team of misfits – so many ‘Star Wars’ comparisons (a good thing!), including Thanos appearing as a hologram to Ronan – decide to do something good with their lives and join forces with the Xandarian “Nova Corps” (although, no sign of Nova the character) to stop Ronan. There’s a huge/exciting battle and final scene.

Plenty of laughs throughout, mostly thanks to Pratt & Cooper and the film never gets bogged down in too much seriousness, or the darkness/evil of the villains. Loads of eye-popping action and lots of cameos/support actors adding to the overall “big galaxy” feel. The Groot scene near the end is spectacular and the post end credits scene is a pretty great inside joke.

Overall: Fun and frantic – with a fantastic soundtrack – and “I am Groot”!

Gav's Rating: 4.5 stars.