A Haunting In Venice

Official Australian release date: 14/9/23. Viewed: 14/10/23.
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Reilly
Genre: Drama / Mystery
Rating: M

 

‘A Haunting in Venice’ is the third (and maybe final?) film in the Agatha Christie series directed by Kenneth Branagh, and starring him as genius detective Hercule Poirot, after ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and ‘Death on the Nile’. This time, 1947 Venice is the setting, with the Italian canals and rooftops adding to the overall vibe. Poirot is coxed out of retirement by Ariadne (Fey) to come to a Halloween party and séance to disprove a medium, Reynolds (Yeoh).

Obviously, someone is murdered and Poirot is back on the case. The plot is thickened, as Rowena (Reilly)’s daughter mysteriously died in the past year, and we’re not sure how it’s connected. There’s a fine-line tread between ghosts/spirits here and Poirot’s scepticism/logic. All is eventually revealed. Once the murder occurs, there are 10 suspects left in the palazzo – including a Doctor (Dornan), bodyguard (Portfoglio), ex-boyfriend Maxim (Allen) and housekeeper (Cottin) – and Poirot goes about collecting their stories and alibis.

This film is shorter than previous two films, but does seem a bit scattershot for the first 30min, with lots of odd cuts and camera angles, mostly trying to put us of the scent of what’s actually happening. But I did feel that Poirot felt a little tired and lacked some verve. Might just be that Branagh is now in his 60s! Since it’s set in the early hours of Halloween in an old building in the 40s, there’s a lot of darkness/candle-lighting, so it’s sometimes hard to see what’s going on. The culprit is a bit of a surprise, and the reasoning just makes sense.

Overall: Still a good mystery, but not my favourite of the 3

Gav's Rating: 3 stars

The Creator

Official Australian release date: 28/9/23. Viewed: 27/9/23.
Director: Gareth Edwards
Actors: John David Washington, Madeline Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘The Creator’ is a new take on a trusted sci-fi trope of humanity vs “the other”. In this case, we have an almost Skynet-like rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots – set 50 years in the future – but then the film takes a bit of a turn, as we predominantly follow Joshua (Washington), Maya (Chan) and Alphie (Voyles) and their struggle between survival and doing the right thing. Probably Edwards’ best film since ‘Monsters’.

This is definitely not an outright sci-fi war film, like ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, and is not a Star Wars rip-off, but does take elements of both. There’s also elements of ‘Chappie’, ‘Elysium’, ‘Westworld’, but it’s all very focused on the humans vs AI struggle and the greyness of what’s right/best for the future, and that age-old sci-fi question: what does it mean to be human?

The cinematography is excellent, Washington and Voyles are great, Janney as the Colonel plays well against type, we get Watanabe as a wise robot and the final set-piece is pretty impressive, based around the NOMAD ship. Sometimes the tone/pace is a little off, and none of the reveals are particularly shocking, but it does add up to a pretty coherent, plausible and satisfying whole.

Overall: Good addition to the humans v robots record.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Official Australian release date: 7/9/23. Viewed: 3/9/23.
Directors: Jeff Rowe & Kyler Spears
Actors: Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Brady Noon, Shamon Brown Jr.
Genre: Action / Adventure         
Rating: PG

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‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ may be the 8^th TMNT film, but it’s clearly the best so far – even better than the 1990 original that most of us grew up with! While this is a predominantly-animated reboot, it doesn’t diss or tarnish anything from the original films of the 1990s cartoon, but rather remain faithful to them, while building a new interesting world with accurate takes on the teenagers. Here brothers Leonardo (Cantu), Michelangelo (Brown Jr), Raphael (Noon) and Donatello (Abbey) are likeable outcasts who yearn to be normal teenagers in the human world.

That all changes when a new villain emerges, who was created by the same radioactive ooze: Superfly (Ice Cube). The brothers find an ally in April O’Neil (Edebiri), who helps them set out to take down Superfly without Master Splinter (Chan) finding out. While there’s some obvious plot points, there’s also a lot of levity and self-aware jokes made. The banter between the boys is genuinely funny and realistic throughout, especially Donny.

Written & produced by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, with one of the directors of ‘The Mitchells vs the Machines’ this was always going to be handled with care and look unique – the animation and lighting throughout is superb for a cartoon, almost as good as the ‘Spider-Verse’ films. And what a voice cast – Jackie Chan, Maya Rudolph, Ice Cue, Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Giancarlo Esposito, Hannibal Buress! The score is by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, outside their comfort zone, and the soundtrack is suitably modern with some old hip-hop and fun choices. All done in 100min!

Overall: Fun new take on everyone’s favourite green brothers!

Gav's Rating: 4 stars

BlackBerry

Official Australian release date: 17/8/23. Viewed: 26/8/23.
Director: Matt Johnson
Actors: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Cary Elwes
Genre: Drama / Biopic         
Rating: M

‘BlackBerry’ is another mostly-non-fiction cautionary business origin film, along the lines of ‘The Founder’ and ‘The Social Network’, as well as this year’s ‘Air’ and ‘Tetris’. We follow friends Mike (Baruchel), the tech whiz & Doug, the morale-booster (Johnson, also the director) who have formed start-up Research In Motion in Canada in the 90s, focusing on making modems and have a patent for a handheld email device. They come across ruthless businessman Jim (Howerton), who turns their idea into a reality.

The film probably sensationalises a lot of things, but does well to focus on some of the personal drama, especially the balancing act between Mike & Jim. But I would’ve liked to have seen more of the Mike/Doug dynamic and their early-RIM friends/employees doing the development. The acting is good all-round, with Baruchel playing someone different for him, Howerton is a great bastard and Johnson is fun, basically the TJ Miller character form ‘Silicon Valley’. There’s some laughs, but a lot more focus on the progress of the business.

BlackBerry had a good 6 years from 2002–2007, somewhat thanks to Mike becoming more like Jim, as well as hiring slave-driver Charles (Ironside) and the things that Jim has to do to fend off the takeover by Carl (Elwes) and Palm. BlackBerry was ultimately doomed to fail when Android OS became the standard for mobile phones, as well as the marketing behind the iPhone. Big shame for me, as I think I was one of the few in Australia who still owned a BlackBerry in 2010! Well-paced and under 2 hours, with an OK-digital-style score.

Overall: Somewhat bittersweet, but engaging story

Gav's Rating: 3 stars

Oppenheimer

Official Australian release date: 20/7/23. Viewed: 14/8/23.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Actors: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon
Genre: Drama / Biopic         
Rating: MA

‘Oppenheimer’ sounds like it could be boring – a film about a theoretical physicist in the early 20^th century. This could not be further from reality – I’d have to rate this up there with Nolan’s best work, almost better than ‘Inception’ and ‘The Prestige’. Time will tell. Cillian Murphy is excellent as Robert Oppenheimer, who leads America’s “Manhattan Project” during 1942–1945 in the race to develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis and end World War II.

While some creative licence may have been taken at times, the film does well to capture enough of the history, players and importance of the what, why and how. While no other actor outshines Murphy, there’s great support from wife Kitty (Blunt), his post-WWII boss Strauss (Downey Jr), first girlfriend Jean (Pugh), Einstein (Conti), Lawrence (Hartnett), Teller (Safdie), Rabi (Krumholz) and General Groves (Damon). There’s about 30 other familiar faces who pop up, either in Los Alamos or the hearings afterwards. While mostly linear, the time-swaps and black-and-white footage interspersed in the final act add an element of suspense to the post-WWII years.

Even though the run-time is 3 hours, the first hour flies by at breakneck speed, setting the scene, then the detail and problem-solving of the Manhattan Project almost make you forget what’s at stake – before the final act hammers home the moral and emotional toll the bomb had on Oppenheimer. The score is really great and adds plenty to the context – including the lack of score for the bomb test detonation, which has excellent practical special effects. There’s personal drama for Oppenheimer and his colleagues, and the film does well not to turn into a war (or anti-war) film, but stay focused on the scientific achievements. The court-room-type scenes are superbly done. You feel justified, fulfilled and sombre by the end.

Overall: An exceptional film in all respects

Gav's Rating: 4.5 stars

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part I

Official Australian release date: 8/7/23. Viewed: 8/7/23.
Director: Chris McQuarrie
Actors: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg  
Genre: Action / Adventure         
Rating: M

‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part I' (M:I7) is another strong entry in the action/spy series, with Ethan (Cruise) looking slightly older, but not less determined to save the world. I believe the sequel to this film will be his last outing – but we’ll see. This time, there’s some Skynet-like sentient-AI that’s manipulating nefarious types to take over the world, so the IMF team are out to get the two halves of key that can stop it.

Isla (Ferguson), Benji (Pegg) and Luther (Rhames) are back, as well as CIA boss Kittridge (Czerny), with Grace (Atwell), a thief, being the newcomer. The bad guys that keep thwarting them are Gabriel (Morales) from Ethan’s past, and Paris (Klementieff). The consistency of having McQuarrie as director of the two previous films helps, with everything feeling assured and this working as a really solid follow-up to ‘Fallout’.

There’s some funny moments, some sincere ones, and some of Ethan running, as contractually-obliged. The whole final scene on the train is excellent, with so many things happening, but there’s plenty of good set-pieces throughout, including a good car chase. However, the piece-de-resistance is the motorbike off the cliff into a BASE jump is something else. The fact Cruise did it for real, multiple times, is crazy and inspiring.

Overall: Can’t wait until the next (final?) one!

Gav's Rating: 4 stars

 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Official Australian release date: 29/6/23. Viewed: 2/7/23.
Director: James Mangold
Actors: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Ethan Isidore  
Genre: Action / Adventure         
Rating: M

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ (or Indiana Jones 5) comes 42 years after the original, and while not in the same league as ‘Raiders’ or ‘Last Crusade’, it is up there with ‘Temple of Doom’. This film is directed by Mangold (‘Logan’ and ‘Ford v Ferrari’), who knows how to film a car/train chase. This time, it’s 1969 and we have an older Indy (Ford) trying to find the eponymous “dial” (more like an ancient ballerina box) with his goddaughter, Helena (Waller-Bridge).

She brings some good humour and a nice presence to balance Indy, as well as another pre-teen offsider, Teddy (Ididore), while Voller (Mikkelsen) and Klaber (Holbrook) are good as the modern-day Nazi bad guys. There’s a few slow moments early on (aside from the opening train scene), but the film really hits it’s stride in the 2^nd & 3^rd acts.

As with most Indiana Jones films, you have to suspend a bit of disbelief, but the plot-point for the final act is pretty dumb. There’s a few cameos, the iconic score from John Williams, some good wise-cracks and a mostly-satisfying ending. Mostly though, it feels comfortable and a mostly-exciting adventure film, as it should be.

Overall: Solid farewell to an icon

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars