Ford v Ferrari

Official Australian release date: 14/11/19. Viewed: 20/11/19.

Director: James Mangold

Actors: Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Jon Bernthal, Josh Lucas

Genre: Action / Drama

Rating: M

  

‘Ford v Ferrari’ – underwhelming title, but exceptionally put-together sports biopic about the 24-hour endurance Le Mans motor race in 1966. If that puts you off, the good news is that the film’s not all about racing – probably only ~30% – with much of the focus on Shelby (Damon), Miles (Bale) and Miles’ wife, Mollie (Balfe) and son, Peter (Jupe). There’s also the tension with Ferrari, where Ford executives Iacocca (Bernthal), Beebe (Lucas) and Ford (Letts) are trying to take the racing crown from Ferrari (Girone) and Agnelli (Cirfiera)

It’s nice to hear Bale using something close to his actual accent and the rapport he has with Damon carries the film. All the actors are good, but their relationship is what has you caring about what happens, rather than just the cars. The pacing is quick and it feels faster (pardon the pun) than 2.5 hours. This would be as good as, if not better than, ‘Rush’ and ‘Senna’.

Great directing from Mangold (coming off ‘Logan’) throughout, with a nice balance of family time, racing scenes and the car politics. The fact the 24-hour race is condensed to less than 20min and feels both quick and like it’s been a marathon is a true feat. If you don’t know the story, don’t Google it and let the ending be a surprise. There’s good editing, cinematography, authentic 60s cars and soundtrack throughout.

Overall: Well-made and enjoyable racing biopic.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Terminator: Dark Fate

Official Australian release date: 31/10/19. Viewed: 2/11/19.

Director: Tim Miller

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Natalia Reyes, Mackenzie Davis

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: MA

  

‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ is the sixth film in the franchise, but effectively acts as a direct sequel to ‘Judgement Day’ and ignores everything that happened in ‘Rise of the Machines’, ‘Salvation’ and ‘Genisys’. Since it’s pretending those timelines never happened, it borrows ideas from each of them. Unfortunately, this film’s first few minutes also taint the whole point of T2.

It’s good to see Sarah Connor (Hamilton) back, and (eventually) Arnie as “Carl”. However, the main characters this time are Dani (Reyes) and Grace (Davis). Grace is an augmented human, sent back from the future to protect Dani, a Mexican factory worker. They’re hunted by a Rev-9 (Luna), a Terminator that can separate it’s nanites from its skeleton. Looks cool, but not revolutionary after ‘Genisys’. It’s essentially one big car/helicopter/plane chase.

Since this if from Miller (‘Deadpool’ director), there’s no real humour or fun, which is a shame. Plenty of explosions and good fight scenes, and both David and Reyes are solid, but Arnie has far too little screen time, the film has way too many clunky explanations for what’s happened to the future – pesky time travel! – but the biggest let down is how unoriginal most of it feels and how the Sarah/John Connor storyline that was set up in the other five films seems to be betrayed.

Overall: Good action, but not up to Terminator standards.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

Zombieland: Double Tap

Official Australian release date: 17/10/19. Viewed: 19/10/19.

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Actors: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Genre: Comedy / Horror

Rating: MA

  

‘Zombieland: Double Tap’ is perhaps an unasked-for sequel, but since it’s been 10 years and has the entire cast back, it doesn’t feel too forced. One of the opening scenes, in slow-motion with Metallica’s ‘Master of puppets’ playing is a great re-introduction, as is Columbus (Eisenberg)’s narration of the “evolved” zombies. He, Tallahassee (Harrelson), Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin) are now living comfortably in the White House, but things get too comfortable and a road trip ensues.

This is good, because it means new characters are introduced – the ditzy Madison (Deutch), the under-used Nevada (Dawson), and the almost-doppelgangers of Albuquerque (Wilson) and Flagstaff (Middleditch), which provide a great middle act. The stakes and horror/zombie levels aren’t really too high until the final act.

Still plenty of funny moments, new “rules” and tongue-poking at the zombie genre, while also holding true to lots of zombie-isms. Nothing too serious or groundbreaking happens, but it’s a solid, mostly-fun watch throughout – and almost worth it to see Harrelson dressed as Elvis! Also, an excellent mid-credit scene too.

Overall: Not as great as original, but still good fun.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Joker

Official Australian release date: 3/10/19. Viewed: 4/10/19.

Director: Todd Phillips

Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy

Genre: Drama

Rating: MA

  

‘Joker’ is definitely not a comic book film – don’t expect Batman, any good guy/bad guy battles, CGI or falling into a vat of chemicals. This film is 100% focused on Arthur (Phoenix)’s transformation from misunderstood clown and comedian into the psychopathic killer that is the Joker. The only Batman connections are via Thomas Wayne (Cullen), two scenes with ~10-year-old Bruce Wayne (Pereira-Olson) and a few mentions of Gotham.

Phoenix is the fourth live-action film Joker, with each seeming to be of their time. This is the opposite of Nicholson’s Joker and an extension of Ledger’s Joker. The difference is that both Nicholson & Ledger only had ~30min of screen time, whereas Phoenix is in almost every second of this film’s 2 hours – and is mesmerising throughout. Especially his weight loss and how his ribs show, and how he uses that awkwardness in his dancing and movements.

It looks great, the score and soundtrack are solid. It’s not overly violent until the final 25min and Arthur/Joker doesn’t always make sense, which is the point. It’s a bit slow in parts and doesn’t fully utilise De Niro (a Letterman-like TV host). The "laughing" that Phoenix does looks physically painful, but is a bit too convenient as a plot point. Does a great job of being the outcast though.

Overall: Different and sometimes difficult take on the villain’s origin.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Ad Astra

Official Australian release date: 19/9/19. Viewed: 29/9/19.

Director: James Gray

Actors: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler

Genre: Sci-Fi / Drama

Rating: M

  

‘Ad Astra’ is another very solid entry into the semi-realistic space films of the past few years – ‘The Wandering Earth’, ‘Interstellar’, ‘Gravity’ – and is conveniently set in the “near future”, meaning some of the potentially questionable physics can be explained away. Major Roy McBride (Pitt) follows in his father’s – Clifford McBride (Jones) – astronaut footsteps. Clifford’s either dead or stranded around Neptune, so Roy sets off to rescue/recover him.

Firstly, it’s amazing that Jones is only 17 years older than Pitt – he looks about 30 years older! Good to see him again, but he has very little screen time – as does Eve (Tyler), Helen (Negga) & Pruitt (Sutherland). Basically, this is Pitt’s journey and most of the film is him on his mission from Earth -> Moon -> Mars - > Neptune. Thankfully, Pitt brings a great earnestness and honesty to the role  and is easily watchable.

As well as being visually spectacular, with all the planets (including Earth and the Moon) and the spaceships looking excellent, the score’s good and the colour motifs are superb, especially on Mars and around Neptune. It’s also great to see a futuristic Moon, with a few winks to ‘Total Recall’. The father/son relationship is pivotal and well-handled – it never gets too overbearing, but is still logical. The isolation of space is very well depicted.

Overall: A very well-made space journey.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Good Boys

Official Australian release date: 19/9/19. Viewed: 21/9/19.

Director: Gene Stupnitsky

Actors: Jacob Tremblay, Brady Noon, Keith L. Williams, Molly Gordon

Genre: Comedy

Rating: MA

  

‘Good Boys’ is almost a prequel to ‘Superbad’ and ‘Pineapple Express’ (both of which are better), but this time around, there’s three of them & they’re in grade 6, not grade 12. The three “tweens” call themselves the “beanbag boys” – Max (Tremblay), Thor (Noon) and Lucas (Williams) and they do everything together, including the main plot point – trying to get to a spin-the-bottle party.

Needless to say, as a Seth Rogen-produced film, there’s plenty of language, drugs and crude sex references. Plenty goes wrong and they end up on a low-stakes adventure, trying to replace a drone, even though they end up in a cat-and-mouse game with Hannah (Gordon) and Lily (Francis), two college-aged women who they’ve accidentally stolen drugs from.

There’s lots of winks and ‘adults-only’ jokes as the three boys mess up terminology or misinterpret things. Some good physical comedy and a fair few laugh-out-loud moments. Plenty of stupidity too, but in the end, they are genuinely boys trying to be good and not intentionally bad – the underlying story of friendships and how they change resonates.  

Overall: Quick & simple with enough laughs.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

It: Chapter Two

Official Australian release date: 5/9/19. Viewed: 5/9/19.

Director: Andy Muschietti

Actors: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Bill Skarsgard

Genre: Horror / Drama

Rating: MA

  

‘It: Chapter Two’ is the sequel to ‘It’ from only two years ago, but this is now the prophesized “27 years later”, with Pennywise (Skarsgard) back to wreak havoc on Derry. The seven teens from ‘It’ come home as adults to fulfill their oath of stopping Pennywise. This time, they’re: Bev (Chastain), Bill (McAvoy), Richie (Hader), Ben (Ryan), Mike (Mustafa), Eddie (Ransone) & Stanley (Bean). Don’t worry – there’s plenty of flashbacks so you can recall who’s who.

Thankfully, there’s some humour, thanks to Hader and Ransone, but the others seem to kind of coast through – no one’s bad in this, but no one stands out either. Unfortunately, for a film based around his psycho-killer-clown, Pennywise has very little screen time until the final 30min and you kind of forget what his motivation is. Being released so close to the first one, not sure we need so many prompts/reminders. That’s the main problem with the film – it’s almost an hour too long at 2 hours 50 minutes.

The second act where they have to each get a totem could’ve been done in a 10min montage, not a 45min drawn-out mini-mission for each character. There’s a few good CGI bits, some jumps, some gross moments, but nothing truly terrifying. Still, wouldn’t want to be watching this is I was under 12. Considering how tongue-in-cheek the film is with it’s references to Stephen King and crappy endings, I’m not sure if the ridiculous ending is supposed to be meta, or is just poor.

Overall: Better than the 1990 version, not quite as good as the 2017 one.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.