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.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Official Australian release date: 2/8/18. Viewed: 27/7/18.

Director: Chris McQuarrie

Actors: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg

Genre: Action

Rating: M

   

‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ (MI6) follows on closely from ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’, with the IMF trying to round up the Syndicate/Apostles. This leads them to chasing some stolen nuclear bombs – always good when the stakes are high! Most of the gang are back – Ethan (Cruise), Benji (Pegg), Luther (Rhames), Ilsa (Ferguson), Julia (Monaghan) & Hunley (Baldwin) – but no Renner, with Lane (Harris) still the main bad guy controlling the bad guys. Walker (Cavill) is the new guy – a CIA agent sent to watch over the team after they initially lose the plutonium.

As always, the highlight is the action – there’s some exceptional fight scenes here (especially the best bathroom fight since ‘True Lies’) and some excellent car/motorbike chases. There’s also the classic M:I masks and possibly a quadruple-cross? I lost count, but it certainly makes things intriguing.

The stunts are stunning – and very impressive, given Cruise is now 56 – and kudos to the director for leaving in the building-jump where Cruise breaks his ankle: it looks great & is so realistic! The helicopter scenes are exceptional and, as always, there’s plenty of Cruise running. The scenery – Norway & New Zealand filling in for Kashmir, plus Paris and London – adds another layer to the action. Six films in 23 years seems right – not overload, but enough to keep you interested (there’s been eight Bond films, by comparison). Very enjoyable spy thriller.

Overall: Best one yet?

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Occupation

Official Australian release date: 12/7/18. Viewed: 13/7/18.

Director: Luke Sparke

Actors: Dan Ewing, Temuera Morrison, Stephany Jacobsen, Charles Terrier

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

   

‘Occupation’ is an Australian indie film, which happens to be a sci-fi invasion film with lots of special effects. It’s essentially a cross between ‘Tomorrow, When The War Began’/‘Red Dawn’ and ‘Monsters’ – and unfortunately isn’t as good as any of them. Its not all bad, but you can tell it’s a low budget film with not the best actors.

Part of the problem is too many characters – 10 main ones. Why not just focus on four or five? The main stars are Matt (Ewing), Peter (Morrison), Amelia (Jacobsen) and Jackson (Terrier). Other major gripes: why would aliens invade Murwillumbah, population 10,000? Why would they be playing Australian Rules and not Rugby League? Why do aliens always have to be humanoid & approximately human-sized? Why do they need to have such large eyes? That being said, it’s nice to see Aussie scenery & hear our accent for a change and the filmmakers certainly tried.

There’s probably a bit too much shaky-cam and gun battles, but the main concern is that a lot of it comes across as too corny and/or earnest. Could’ve done with a bit more humour/tongue-in-cheekness. Some good explosions and fight scenes, and doesn’t take too long to get going.

Overall: Unpolished, but valiant alien flick.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.