Hellboy

Official Australian release date: 11/4/19. Viewed: 13/4/19.

Director: Neil Marshall

Actors: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane

Genre: Action / Fantasy

Rating: R

‘Hellboy’ is a total reboot of the (great) 2004/2008 films by Guillermo del Toro – this time Hellboy is played by Harbour and still looks pretty great with this makeup & giant right fist. This time around is from the director of ‘Doomsday’ and ‘The Descent’, so it has much more of a horror/gore/supernatural leaning than the other films. To ensure the R-rating, on top of the all the blood and violence, there’s also plenty of (often needless) swearing.

Plot is somehow linked to King Arthur, Merlin and the Blood Queen (Jovovich), an ancient witch who’s resurrected to wreck havoc. Hellboy has to team up with Daimio (Dae Kim) from M11 and Alice (Lane), an old friend and clairvoyant, to stop “Nimue”. There’s giants, vampires, ghouls and all sorts of weird stuff, but the hardest to go along with is Gruagach (Graham), who is basically just Bebop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. McShane as Prof Bloom is good, but under-used, and Lane is solid, but the rest of the cast don’t really bring too much and go through the motions.  

There’s some great CGI, but also some creatures and shots that are a bit too gratuitous and don’t really add to the story, particularly in the final scenes. Harbour is OK as Hellboy, but is missing some of Perlman’s charm. In general, the film lacks the heart and humour of the original films – and sorely misses Liz & Abe Sapien.

Overall: Average attempt at a darker hero.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Shazam!

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

Directors: David F. Sandberg

Actors: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Jack Grazer, Asher Angel

Genre: Action / Comedy

Rating: M

‘Shazam!’ is the seventh DCEU film and is similar to ‘Aquaman’, in that it’s a standalone origin story, but could also easily link into future ‘Justice League’ films. It also has a similar tone, being a bit less serious in parts, thanks to the protagonists being teenagers – Billy (Angel) and Freddy (Grazer). It’s from the director of ‘Annabelle: Creation’ and ‘Lights Out’, which explains the bits of the film that are a bit darker – it is rated M, not PG, mostly due to how the “seven deadly sins” are portrayed. But it’s definitely not ‘Batman v Superman’ or ‘Suicide Squad’ darkness/quality.

It starts a little slow, as we follow a flashback of Thad (Strong) as a kid – why? He later reappears as the antagonist, and is always fun to watch him as the bad guy. The film does a solid job of introducing Billy and his backstory and why he’s a foster kid. The home life gives the story heart and meaning, with all five of the other kids having enough character development. Freddy gets the most screentime, and most of the film has you wishing he was the one who becomes Shazam/Captain Marvel (Levi), rather than Billy! Levi's good, even if his chest is so fake it distracts half the time!

When it finally does happen, it’s fun to see the “learn how to use superpowers” montage (set to Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Now’). There’s actually quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, as it takes a fairly tongue-in-cheek approach to comic book films – and it gets to reference Batman and Superman heaps, as this comes after the other three films they’re in. It’s a bit long at 130min, there’s some slow patches and some of the fight scenes are a little forced, but it holds together quite well and has more good moments than bad.

Overall: Fun, slightly different, comic book origin.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Us

Official Australian release date: 28/3/19. Viewed: 30/3/19.

Directors: Jordan Peele

Actors: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Joseph, Evan Alex

Genre: Horror / Thriller

Rating: MA

‘Us’ is the second film from Jordan Peele, after ‘Get Out’, and is similarly a psychological thriller, with moments of violence thrown in. It takes a little while to set everything up and provide some backstory (& rabbits!?), but then the doppelgangers show up and the film turns into a home invasion/survival film. The main cast – Mum Adelaide (Nyong’o), Dad Gabe (Duke), Daughter Zora (Joseph) and Son Jason (Alex) – are all great and clearly have a lot of fun playing their dual roles.

Josh (Heidecker) and Kitty (Moss) also have significant supporting roles, but it really comes down to how the family of four handles their terrible situation. No spoilers, but Peele does well with building tension, using a creepy girls-choir score, colour motifs and flashbacks. It’s not a typical horror film, but it certainly has scary moments.

There’s an almost Shyamalan-like twist at the end, but the whole thing’s probably 15min too long and runs out of steam a bit. There’s a lot of how/why questions left unanswered, but it’s still fun and smart enough, without being exceptional.

Overall: Solid and interesting thriller.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Captain Marvel

Official Australian release date: 7/3/19. Viewed: 9/3/19.

Directors: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck

Actors: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action

Rating: M

‘Captain Marvel’ builds the bridge between ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and does a good job of it. Most of the film works well as the standalone origin story of Carol Danvers (Larson), as she pieces together her past. Starting with her already on the Kree (the blue aliens, as seen in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’) home world is smart and saves dealing with the whole aliens on Earth thing. Vers is being trained by Yon-Rogg (Law) and has almost no memory her life on Earth, save some snippets of Lawson (Bening) and Maria (Lynch).

After Carol ends up back on Earth, she starts to unravel the mystery of who she is, with the help of Nick Fury (Jackson) and (to a lesser degree) Coulson (Gregg). She reunites with Maria and deciphers that they both used to be pilots – which leads to some good jet battles later on! The main plot though is that Carol is caught in the middle of an intergalactic war between the Kree and the Skrulls (the green aliens, shapeshifters). Talos (Mendelsohn) is a Skrull and does a great job – great to hear his Aussie accent when he’s in Skrull form! Ronan (Pace) is back for some scenes, but the other Kree offsiders don’t have that much to do.

There’s still a bit of jigsaw-piecing-together going on (stay for the end credit scene), but when Larson and Jackson are on screen, it’s a very solid action/adventure film. There was more laughs than I was expecting, especially with the “flerken”! It’s not ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, but the 90s film and music references are fun to see/hear. Great to watch Carol’s powers develop and the “twist” just after halfway through. It’s not too long and there’s under seven weeks until ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (likely to be the highest-grossing film ever) comes out!

Overall: Another well-made Marvel super-hero origin story.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

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.