Searching

Official Australian release date: 13/9/18. Viewed: 6/10/18.

Director: Aneesh Chaganty

Actors: John Cho, Debra Messing, Michelle La, Joseph Lee

Genre: Drama / Mystery

Rating: M

   

‘Searching’ is very much a film of the times – an inventive concept of always being viewed through a screen –computer, phone, FaceTime, YouTube, TV, etc. It’s directed by first-time director Chaganty, who’s only 27, and does make you realise how much screen-time occupies our lives these days. Thankfully, rather than a film with just this gimmick, it’s actually a well-made mystery/thriller.

David (Cho) is struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Margot (La), after his wife passes away (nice montage to start the film). As I imagine most teenagers do these days, she mostly communicates with him by text, so once he hasn’t heard from her for more than a day, he starts to get worried. Detective Vick (Messing) and Peter (Lee), his brother, get involved in trying to find out who her friends were, via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

The film does well to lead you along David’s logic as he’s trying to find his daughter and Cho is good at showing his anguish. There’s a few good twists and some nice tension at times. Great final 15min – the entire film’s well-paced and keeps you on the hook throughout.

Overall: Interesting and unique mystery.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Venom

Official Australian release date: 4/10/18. Viewed: 4/10/18.

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Actors: Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating: M

   

From the director of ‘Zombieland’ comes ‘Venom’, a non-Marvel Cinematic Universe film, featuring Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis – but no Spider-Man (who’s over in the MCU). Since it’s a movie about an alien (“symbiote”) turning Eddie Brock (Hardy) into a superhero/antihero, you should suspend disbelief and expectations at the start. The symbiote is brought to Earth by Drake (Ahmed), a Branson/Musk-type who wants to colonize space. He’s obviously evil.

Anne (Williams) is Eddie’s ex and has some scenes, as does Skirth (Slate), who’s experimenting on the symbiotes. We finally get to see Venom about 50min in, after quite a bit of unnecessary build-up, and all hell essentially breaks loose. There’s a pretty good car chase – we’re obviously in San Francisco so the cars can get plenty of air – and some solid action/fight scenes.

While it’s all quite daft, and some of the scenes have the camera moving way too fast, overall it’s Hardy, his charisma, and how he interacts with Venom that make it enjoyable and not totally stupid. The CGI’s quite good and it’s fun to see some of his powers. There’s a few jokes – but definitely don’t expect another ‘Deadpool’.

Overall: Fun enough, but not spectacular.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

The Predator

Official Australian release date: 13/9/18. Viewed: 20/9/18.

Director: Shane Black

Actors: Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating: MA

   

‘The Predator’ is the fourth film (we don’t count the two ‘Alien Vs Predator’ films) in the series and does exactly what it should – has Predators killing people, soldiers killing people, lots of explosions, some jungle, and some humour. The pretty-thin plot is – an “upgraded” Predator is sent to Earth to hunt down a rogue Predator. Stick around to the end to see the silly reasoning.

McKenna (Holbrook, from ‘Narcos’) is the hero, with his son Rory (Tremblay) having a key part to play. Casey (Munn) is somehow an evolutionary biologist and the rest of the cast is a ragtag crew of mentally-unstable soldiers – Nebraska (Rhodes), Coyle (Key), Baxley (Jane), Nettles (Aguilera) & Lynch (Allen). They all have just enough to do to make them interesting – and bump-up the body count. Traeger (Brown) is the typical government agent/bad guy.

It takes about 20min to get going, but once it does, the pace is good, there’s plenty of action and fighting, but also a lot of stupid moments, which are also counteracted with some genuine laughs – e.g. why it’s called “the Predator”. Sufficient amounts of gore and blood. Not better or worse than ‘Predator 2’ or ‘Predators’, which is good.

Overall: Fun foray back to the Predator-galaxy.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Crazy Rich Asians

Official Australian release date: 30/8/18. Viewed: 26/8/18.

Director: Jon Chu

Actors: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina

Genre: Comedy / Romance

Rating: PG

   

‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is both very simple and subtly intricate, for a romantic comedy. The plot is pretty straightforward – Nick (Golding) & his girlfriend Rachel (Wu), live in New York and are visiting Singapore for Nick’s friend’s wedding. The trouble comes from Nick’s mother, Eleanor (Yeoh) and the fact that he hasn’t disclosed that he comes from an obscenely rich family and that everyone’s going to be judging Rachel.

There’s plenty of things going on – mummy issues, historical Asian family traditions, culture vs modernity, being set almost exclusively in Singapore, rather than America – but it mostly boils down to the old adage of it’s what’s on the inside that counts. While there is some drama, family politics and serious moments – mostly with Eleanor, Astrid (Chan) & Michael (Png) – they’re offset by the varied cast, with some great comedic moments from Peik Lin (Awkwafina), who steals the show in her scenes, Bernard (Yang), Eddie (Chieng) & Wye (Jeong).

It’s probably a little long at two hours, but the Singaporean/Malaysian scenery is great to see, as is the soundtrack, with Chinese versions of popular English songs. Both Golding and Wu are likeable leads, with good chemistry. Overall, it’s a well-made & balanced film – not too stupid, not too sappy, not too unrealistic.

Overall: Assured, mostly-fun rom-com

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Happytime Murders

Official Australian release date: 23/8/18. Viewed: 24/8/18.

Director: Brian Henson

Actors: Bill Baretta, Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Elizabeth Banks

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

   

‘The Happytime Murders’ tries to do what ‘Team America’ did – mixing puppets and adult humour – but ultimately fails. Sure, there’s some credibility being that it’s directed by Jim Henson’s son, but while the puppets all look like ‘Muppets’ knock-offs, there’s no Muppet joy or sense of fun. The plot is that Phil (Baretta – the voice of Pepé from the Muppets) has to work with his ex-cop-partner, Edwards (McCarthy) to solve the murders of the former stars of “Happytime” TV show.

The cast is good – Bubbles (Rudolph), Phil’s the secretary, jerk FBI Agent Campbell (McHale), the Lieutenant (Baker) & Phil’s ex-girlfriend Jenny (Banks) – but mostly underutilised. The main issue is the writing – there’s some jokes, but just not many funny ones, unfortunately. A lot of the humour resorts to the puppets swearing or doing something gross, which isn’t shocking anymore – not after ‘Sausage Party’!   

Melissa McCarthy’s OK, but doesn’t really have that much to do, the actual murders they’re solving are very predictable, so it ends up not working as a cop film or a comedy. There’s some message in there about sugar being the worst drug of all, but it’s glossed over. Since I didn’t laugh more than a couple of times throughout it’s very short runtime, I can’t rate this very highly, since that’s it’s main job – to make me laugh.

Overall: Failed attempt at subversion

Gav's Rating: 2 stars.

The Meg

Official Australian release date: 16/8/18. Viewed: 11/8/18.

Director: Jon Turteltaub

Actors: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Cliff Curtis, Rainn Wilson

Genre: Action

Rating: M

   

From the director of ‘Cool Runnings’, ‘Phenomenon’ and ‘Last Vegas’ (diverse filmography, Turteltaub!) comes ‘The Meg’, a film about a really big shark. So big (25m!), in fact, that it’s a prehistoric Megalodon. It’s pretty much the same premise as ‘Piranha’ – which begs the question – why did this film require three writers?!? Needless to say, there’s not much plot, other than Jonas (Statham) trying to save people from sunken submersibles, that keep getting attacked by the “Meg”.

Now, for such a ridiculous idea, it’s played quite earnestly throughout, especially with romantic interest Suyin (Li), her Dad (Chao), Jonas’ friend Mac (Curtis), and to a lesser degree, Morris (Wilson), the billionaire who’s bankrolling the oilrig-turned-marine-science-lab. Definitely could’ve done with more tongue-in-cheek-ness – although Suyin’s daughter Meiying (Cai) steals all her scenes. Ruby Rose, Jessica McNamee and Page Kennedy are mostly wasted.

Main gripe – needed more deaths! If you’re watching a film about a giant shark (which doesn’t appear for first 30min), you want to see 20+ people getting eaten. Not sure it even cracks 10… All that being said, there’s a few jumps, some laughs and it definitely doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Not as kitchy as it could’ve been, but certainly no ‘Jaws’ or ‘Deep Blue Sea’.

Overall: Average Statham-saves-the-day film, with shark.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings

Official Australian release date: 26/7/18. Viewed: 28/7/18.

Director: Hark Tsui

Actors: Mark Chao, Shaofeng Feng, Kenny Lin, Sichun Ma

Genre: Action

Rating: MA

   

‘Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings’ is the third in this series of Chinese kung fu films, after the original ‘Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame’ back in 2010 and ‘Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon’ (2013). The plot follows Dee (Chao) as he leads an ancient FBI and his friendship/rivalry with Yuchi (Feng) and mentorship of Shatuo (Lin), as they try to protect/hide the Dragon Taming Mace, which has powers (like Excalibur).

Despite the four ‘heavenly kings’ of the title, they barely make an appearance or have an impact on the story. Rather, it’s all about sorcery and a clan (the “Wind Warriors”) who want to topple the dynasty. The sorcery aspect means there’s plenty of special effects, most of it really well done. The dragon and the battle at the end are exceptional. Even the “illusionists”, including Water Moon (Ma), are pretty cool.

There’s still some mystery and police work for Dee to solve, but it’s also merged well with the sorcery and political intrigue with the Empress and Emperor. It’s well paced, not too long, with some funny moments and, obviously has excellent stunts and fight-scene choreography that’s more than worth the price of admission. It all adds up to a fun ride!

Overall: Another enjoyable piece of foreign cinema.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.