Captain America: Civil War (April 2016)

Official Australian release date: 28/4/16. Viewed: 28/4/16.

Director: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Actors: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan

Genre: Action / Adventure

Rating: M   

‘Captain America 3’ is another great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This time, the film’s basically ‘Avengers 3’, as it features almost every superhero we’ve seen so far, plus a few new ones. Natasha/Black Widow (Johansson) continues her close association with Steve/Captain America (Evans) – which worked really well in the last film – but Cap also has Sam/Falcon (Mackie) as his right-hand man too. The premise is quite simple: the “Sokovia Accords” (instead of the “Superhuman Registration Act” from the 2006 Mark Millar comics the film’s based on) are new laws forced on the Avengers by Ross (Hurt), U.S. Secretary of State, as the U.N. wants to see the Avengers held accountable for their actions, since too many people died in (the fake country) Sokovia during the events of ‘Avengers 2’. Tony/Iron Man (Downey Jr.) is all for it, but Cap is not.

Bucky/Winter Soldier (Stan) then becomes involved and a massive man-hunt ensues (the film goes to more countries than a Bond film!) and the Avengers are divided (into an even six vs six): Iron Man, Black Widow, Rhodes/War Machine (Cheadle), T’Challa/Black Panther (Boseman), Vision (Bettany) and Peter/Spider-Man (Holland) vs Cap, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Wanda/Scarlet Witch (Olsen), Clint/Hawkeye (Renner) and Scott/Ant-Man (Rudd). The fight, about two-thirds in with only the Hulk and Thor missing, is epic – definitely something everyone wants to see. Some great quips too (mostly thanks to Ant-Man and Spider-Man – would love to see that team-up film!), as there’s no malevolence, just a group of superhero friends/acquaintances fighting for what (and who, as the film’s definitely Captain America v Iron Man at it’s heart) they think is right.

There could still be a little more done with Bucky’s backstory – which kind of get mixed in with Iron Man’s – but maybe I just need to re-watch ‘Captain America 1’ again, as it just seems like his & Cap’s chemistry isn’t quite there. Also needs to explore the Sharon Carter (VanCamp) storyline more. The introduction of Black Panther and Spider-Man is handled superbly, with Spider-Man only getting two scenes, but Holland nails them – the new Spider-Man films will be in good hands. And Boseman as Black Panther is fantastic, full of poise and just the right amount of anger – plus great fighting skills. Can’t wait for his film in a few years.

I thought it was better than ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, but not quite as good as ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. The ending probably dragged out a little and didn’t quite resolve everything, with Zemo (Bruhl)’s plot not being as interesting as it could’ve been. Still, some great action, some decent ethical questions and some truly inventive fight scenes.

Overall: Another strong Cap film. Bring on the Infinity War!

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.  

The Jungle Book (April 2016)

Official Australian release date: 7/4/16. Viewed: 8/4/16.

Director: Jon Favreau

Actors: Neel Sethi, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, Idris Elba

Genre: Adventure

Rating: PG    

‘The Jungle Book’ is the sixth (?) adaption of Kipling’s 120 year old story, probably best known to everyone from Disney’s 1960s version. This time it’s live-action – well, it’s not a cartoon, but has such great CGI animals you spend most of the time trying to figure out if they might be real! Pretty sure everyone knows the plot – a boy, Mowgli (Sethi) is abandoned in the jungle and raised by wolves/a panther, until a tiger comes to kill him. It’s a little longer and darker than the cartoon version, but it does do away with the nasty vultures.

It’s still a family/kids film at heart, but there’s definitely a few scares and proper tiger v bear/panther/wolves fights! Not sure I’d recommend anyone take a child under 8. The film does a great job of bringing the wolves – Raksha (Nyong’o) and Akela (Esposito) as Mowgli’s ‘mum’ & ‘dad’ – into the story more, as they’re his true family. Kingsley as Bagheera the panther is stately and perfectly cast – a great mentor for Mowgli. Like the cartoon, the main gripe I have is: where is this jungle? Africa? We see rhinos, armadillos and buffalo. India? Tigers and monkeys. South America? Panthers and pythons.

And then the bear – Baloo (Murray). Either way, Murray has some great lines, but seems a little underutilised… the one big letdown for me was the songs – the ‘Bare Necessities’ is sung nowhere near as well by Murray, and while Christopher Walken is suited to King Louie, he does a horrible version of ‘I Wanna Be Like You’. Regardless, the score is great, the scenery/CGI fantastic, Shere Khan (Elba) us very menacing and Favreau (coming off ‘Iron Man 2’ and ‘Chef’) keeps the pace up, while allowing some sentimental moments.

Overall: Enjoyable and good-looking family film

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 2016)

Official Australian release date: 24/3/16. Viewed: 25/3/16.

Director: Zack Snyder

Actors: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Gal Godot

Genre: Action / Fantasy

Rating: M     

‘Batman v Superman’s main aim is to set up the two Justice League films coming out in the next three years and combat Marvel’s dominance of superhero films. It has the tough job of reintroducing/shoehorning a new Batman (Affleck) into the ‘Man of Steel’ world (even though the tone’s darker, like Nolan’s Batman films), with Bruce Wayne driving around Metropolis during Superman (Cavill)’s big fight with General Zod from the previous film. Why? Not sure – he just appears reckless. We also have to see Batman’s parents die again – must be at least the third time on film…

The film tries to blend together two popular graphic novels – ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ from the late 80s and ‘The Death of Superman’ from the early 90s – with varying degrees of success. I wish it had more of the former, but it instead almost makes Lois (Adams) the main star and puts her in the middle of everything. There’s heaps of political manoeuvring and “is Superman a risk or not?” with Lex (Eisenberg) and a Senator Finch (Hunter), but it all takes 90min to set up and there’s finally a pay-off, but it leaves a lot of action that needs to be squeezed into the final hour.

I didn’t like that Gotham was right across the harbour from Metropolis (a la San Francisco & Oakland), rather than hundreds of kilometres distant as it’s supposed to be. Batman has a few too many dreams/visions for my liking… However, the score’s great, Irons was good as Alfred, but underused, as is Perry (Fishburne). FYI, there’s no after credit scene, so don’t bother sitting through the extra 5min! When they get to the big Doomsday battle at the end, and Wonder Woman (Godot) joins in, it is pretty exciting and eventful. A good film, just not spectacular.

Overall: Decent start to the Justice League franchise.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Hail, Caesar! (February 2016)

Official Australian release date: 25/2/16. Viewed: 27/2/16.

Director: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Actors: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Channing Tatum

Genre: Comedy

Rating: PG     

The premise for ‘Hail, Caesar!’ sounds more “meta” than it is – a film studio in the 1950’s making a Roman/Jesus epic called ‘Hail Caesar’ and starring Whitlock (Clooney), the biggest Hollywood star. The film works as a tribute to classic movie-making, with Brolin playing Mannix, the head of “Capitol Studios”, trying to keep his sometime wayward stars in check.

The film nails the choreography and massive scale the soundstages had, especially with Johansson’s mermaid scene and Tatum’s tap-dancing sailor scene. Surprise – he can also sing! Probably the funniest moment is new guy Doyle (Ehrenreich)’s cowboy scene and stunts. Unfortunately, there’s no real plot other than Clooney getting kidnapped by kind Communists – doesn’t really go anywhere.

Fiennes, Johansson, Hill, Tatum & McDormand all don’t have enough screen time. The score is good and there’s some jokes, although most of them are more like a sly wink to the audience – definitely not the Coen’s best work! The score’s good and Clooney and Tatum both ham it up, but I definitely felt underwhelmed afterwards.

Overall: OK – just not too much substance.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars. 

Deadpool (February 2016)

Official Australian release date: 11/2/16. Viewed: 11/2/16.

Director: Tim Miller

Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Ed Skrein, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller

Genre: Comedy / Action

Rating: MA     

‘Deadpool’ is this year’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ – a non-mainstream Marvel film with offbeat humour that’s really well made. And the soundtrack’s good, but not as excellent as the aforementioned film. Deadpool’s story is a simple one, really – mostly because it’s pretty much identical to Wolverine’s origin story: ex-soldier thinks he’s not a hero, even though he helps others, gets experimented on and turned into a freak, tries to win back his loved one. That being said – this is much better than ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, and even ‘The Wolverine’. Still, there’s a few throwbacks to the former, which featured Reynolds as a non-masked Deadpool, and a few nice winks to Hugh Jackman.

The film starts excellently, with a fantastic super slow-motion shot, and has the funniest titles sequence I think I’ve ever seen. The film then does a good job of flashing back to fill us in on how Wade Wilson (Reynolds) became Deadpool – helped by some appropriate fourth-wall breaking. We’re introduced to Vanessa (Baccarin – who looks a lot like Famke Janssen [Jean] from the original ‘X-Men’), the love of his life, and Weasel (Miller) his best friend. They both play good supporting parts, particularly some of Miller’s lines which are dryly hilarious. It’s also good to see Marvel try to take back some of their X-Men characters from Fox (which is acknowledged with tongue in cheek), with Colossus (Kapicic) being portrayed excellently – a naive Russian with a pure heart, trying to get Deadpool to join the X-Men. He’s helped by the new character, Negasonic (Hildebrand) – and the taxi-driver (Soni) in two great scenes.

The bad guys, Francis (Skrein) & Angel (Carano), are adequate and move the plot along. The ending’s good and I hope they make more, because the fight scenes are done excellently, the humour and jokes are 100% adult-only and totally fitting. Reynolds nails it as the ‘Merc with a mouth’, with great timing and nuance from under his mask, and he does a great job of not being the pretty-boy when needed. This film makes me hope they get around to doing a Gambit film at some stage – and I’m now interested to see how ‘Doctor Strange’ turns out later in the year…

Overall: Fun, bloody and funny – could be the Marvel film of the year!

Gav's Rating: 4 stars. 

Zoolander 2 (February 2016)

Official Australian release date: 11/2/16. Viewed: 7/2/16.

Director: Ben Stiller

Actors: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Penelope Cruz

Genre: Comedy

Rating: M     

‘Zoolander 2’ is the long (15 years!) anticipated sequel to the endlessly quotable original fashion satire. Derek (Stiller) has become a “hermit crab” recluse after a quickly-explained tragedy occurred in 2001. Likewise, Hansel (Wilson) is living a nomadic life with his 11-person harem-esque “orgy”. There’s plenty of sight gags & cameos right from the start. The film opens with a Bond-style car/foot chase through Rome, with the joke being that it’s Justin Bieber and there’s a criminal organisation going around killing pop stars. He’s a good sport, getting shot by literally 100’s of bullets! This brings Derek & Hansel to Rome to come out of their hibernation.

Valentina (Cruz) from Interpol steps in to protect them/find Derek’s long-lost son, Derek Jr (Arnold). She looks fantastic (@ 41) in her red leather suit and later in her swimsuit, lamenting her “annoying, plus-size naturals” that kept her from being a ‘proper’ model! After appearing in Alexanya Atoz (Wiig – looking likely what Miley Cyrus will look like in 15 years!) and Don Atari (Mooney – super annoying)’s fashion show and getting ridiculed, they uncover that Mugatu (Ferrell) is behind everything from his prison cell. It then turns into a bit of a Bond film, with a lava pit involved!

If you’re watching this hoping for some cerebral comedy, you’re in the wrong place. There’s heaps of dumb jokes (most involving mispronunciation), dozens of cameos (Zane, Sutherland, Cumerbatch, Armisen, Sarandon, Sting, Perry, Nelson, Moss, deGrasse Tyson) and plenty of Blue Steel/Magnum’s from everyone – but it is, at heart, a comedy lambasting the superficiality and stupidness of modelling and fashion. Definitely not as good as the original, but whenever Stiller, Wilson & Ferrell are on screen together, there’s going to be laughs. It’s really well-paced – never gets boring – and has consistent chuckles, with a few great moments.

Overall: Silly, easy fun.

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.   

The Hateful Eight (January 2016)

Official Australian release date: 21/1/16. Viewed: 21/1/16.

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Genre: Drama / Mystery

Rating: R    

Much like ‘Spotlight’ and ‘The Big Short’ will be linked, ‘The Hateful Eight’ and ‘The Revenant’ will be linked in my mind, due to the fact that they’re both set in 19th century wintry American Northwest (this time Wyoming), both nominated for Oscars (although 3 vs 12, with the only overlap being cinematography – probably have to go to ‘The Revenant’ instead) and both released in January. And while they’re similar – and both pretty good – neither is definitely better than the other, and neither is quite as great as it could have been.

This is, obviously, Tarantino’s 8th film, but it annoyed me that for the majority of the film, there’s nine people trapped in the cabin, even though the posters and title refer to the eight of them! O.B. (Parks – 4th Tarantino film), the stagecoach driver, doesn’t rate a mention? He has some of the funniest moments in the film! Only Tarantino can have a film starring ‘eight’ characters and end up with 14 bodies, with some characters still alive at the end! The eight main characters are:

     - Marquis Warren (Jackson – 6th Tarantino film), former Yankee Major, now bounty hunter;

     - John Ruth (Russell – 2nd Tarantino film), a bounty hunter with a great moustache;

     - Daisy Domergue (Jason Leigh – 1st Tarantino film), Ruth’s bounty he’s taking to hang;

     - Chris Mannix (Goggins – 2nd Tarantino film), the new Sheriff of Red Rock;

     - Oswaldo Mobray (Roth – 3rd Tarantino film), a British hangman;

     - Senor Bob (Bichir – 1st Tarantino film), the Mexican innkeeper;

     - Joe Gage (Madsen – 3rd Tarantino film), a raspy-voiced loner cowboy; and

     - Sandy Smithers (Dern – 2nd Tarantino film), former Confederate General.

Feels a little like Tarantino started with a joke: “a black war hero, a Mexican, an Englishman, a Kiwi and a racist walk into a bar...” and went from there! Once all eight are trapped in Minnie’s Haberdashery due to the blizzard, the mystery of who’s who – and where Minnie is – is slowly uncovered, with trust in short supply. Starts very slow – particularly the titles, with Tarantino using his classic colouring and sound to show everyone involved in the film before it can properly start. It’s long (2 hours 45min), but not ridiculously so – however, you could probably take out 30min from the start/middle and have a better-paced film. Morricone’s score is good, and the cinematography looks great when they’re out in the mountains and snow, but over 75% of the film is shot inside the cabin, where it’s dark!

Takes a while to really get going, but once it does, there’s plenty of blood (hence the R-rating), as the truth is uncovered. Jackson is great and the main star, while Russell does a fantastic John Wayne impersonation – his voice cadence and over-bearing attitude are spot on –  and Jason Leigh is fun to watch as the vile and racist criminal. The real stand-out, though, is Goggins as the seemingly inept Sheriff – he plays his part with clear relish and gets a few laughs and gets to show some heart underneath his racist exterior. While ‘The Hateful Eight’ is very enjoyable in parts, I didn’t enjoy it anywhere as much as ‘Django Unchained’ or ‘Inglorious Basterds’.

Overall: A little long and overwrought, but still a good Western/’whodunit’.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.