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.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Official Australian release date: 24/1/19. Viewed: 24/1/19.

Director: Tatsuya Nagamine

Actors: Sean Schemmel, Jason Douglas, Vic Mignogna, Christopher Sabat

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: PG

‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’ is a sequel/continuation/reboot of the ‘Dragon Ball’ TV series and the two most recent films, ‘Battle of Gods’ and ‘Resurrection F’. Like those, it’s like slipping back into comfy pajamas – Goku (Schemmel)’s still funny and righteous, Vegeta (Sabat)’s still got a chip on his shoulder and Frieza (Ayers) is still out for universal domination. Starts with a good backstory of the Saiyans on their planet and how/why Broly (Mignogna) and his father, Paragus (Clarke) are exiled.

Not much for secondary characters to do, but we still see Trunks, Bulma, Beerus and Piccolo. Once we’ve established Frieza’s hand in turning Broly bad and bringing them to Earth, it’s up to Goku and Vegeta to stop the ‘legendary Super Saiyan’. From there, it’s pretty much a massive battle scene for the final 30min.

As in the series and films, there animation is excellent, the soundtrack’s fast, there’s plenty of “powering-up” and close-ups and enough jokes thrown in to provide levity. It’s fun to see new levels of ‘Super Saiyan’ and their respective colours and the changes in fighting styles these bring. Nothing groundbreaking, but a good ending and decent story.

Overall: Enjoyable anime journey.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Glass

Official Australian release date: 17/1/19. Viewed: 19/1/19.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Actors: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson

Genre: Drama / Sci-Fi

Rating: M

     

‘Glass’ is the final film in the trilogy that started with ‘Unbreakable’ back in 2000, where we met reluctant hero, the indestructible David Dunn (Willis) and the evil mastermind with brittle bones, Elijah Price/Mr Glass (Jackson). Then, in ‘Split’, we met (most of) the 24 personalities of Kevin Crumb (McAvoy) – he deserves to be nominated for an Oscar for these roles. This film does well to bring together, by having them in a mental hospital being analysed by Dr Staple (Paulson), who thinks they have superhero delusions.

It’s a bit slow in parts, as we delve into the psychosis that may be affecting each of them, but there’s the inevitable break-out and final ‘battle’. Shyamalan does well to reference comic books and superheroes, whilst treading the line between homage and imitation. The colour motifs throughout are excellent and the soundtrack is good. Nice support from Casey (Taylor-Joy), Joseph (Clark) and Mrs Price (Woodard), all reprising their roles.

Fitting conclusion, with a not-totally-groundbreaking twist, but still something you’re unlikely to see coming. Final scene is great. While Willis is understated and Jackson doesn’t get too much actual screen time, the film belongs to McAvoy – he’s excellent as Patricia/Dennis/Hedwig/The Beast (as the main four personalities we see) and brings something different to each character he portrays.  

Overall: Solid comic book film without being over-the-top.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Official Australian release date: 13/12/18. Viewed: 14/1/19.

Directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Actors: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi

Rating: PG

     

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ doesn’t really fit into the MCU, but it doesn’t need to – it works as a stand-alone animated film, so long as you have some knowledge of the Spider-man world. That’s what this film does well – stay true to Spider-Man’s character, but have multiple versions fighting to save the world. It’s PG, but there’s not too much violence. There is, however, plenty of multi/parallel universe/reality issues, so be prepared to try to explain that to kids!

Basically, Miles (Moore) lives in a world where the Kingpin (Schreiber) kills Spider-Man while using a supercollider to try & bring his family back to life. The supercollider creates a rift in the space/time continuum, resulting in multiple Spider-people being taken from their universes – slightly-older Peter Parker (Johnson), Spider-Women/Gwen (Steinfeld), Spider-Ham (Mulaney), Spider-Man Noir (Cage) and a manga Peni Parker (Glenn). Miles has only just been bitten by a spider and is dealing with some family troubles with his Dad (Tyree Henry) and Uncle Aaron (Ali), when all this is trust upon him. It’s up to him to help the original Spider-Man and all the alternate Spider-people to get them home and defeat Kingpin and Dr Octopus (Hahn).

The film does a great job of bringing in familiar faces – Aunt May (Tomlin), Mary Jane (Kravitz), Gwen, Kingpin, Dr Ock, Green Goblin, Scorpion – and a very fitting final cameo from Stan Lee. All the other Spider-people are distinct and have their moments. There’s some excellent animation and a nice mixture of comic-book scenes and some nice emotional moments. Great ending & I’m glad there’s a female Spider-Woman and black Spider-man for kids to look up to now. Also a nice tribute to Spider-Man creators Stan Lee & Steve Ditko at the end – timely since they both passed in 2018. This film would’ve made them both proud.

Overall: A fun, different, great comic-book film.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Official Australian release date: 3/1/19. Viewed: 5/1/19.

Director: Dean DeBlois

Actors: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Kit Harington

Genre: Action / Fantasy

Rating: PG

     

‘How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’ is the third & final film in one of the best trilogies of recent memory – it lives up to the benchmark set by the first two films and has solid character development and a fantastic ending, rather than just rehashing the same motifs. There’s so much great CGI to watch – oceans, clouds, forests, caves, waterfalls, and obviously, hundreds of dragons! It’s all really colourful, fun and enjoyable

The plot is that now most of the dragons are living in their Norse village, pirates keep stealing them, so Hiccup (Baruchel), Astrid (Ferrera) , Eret (Harington), Snotlout (Hill), Fishlegs (Mintz-Plasse), Gobber (Ferguson), Ruffnut (Wiig) and Tuffnut (Miller) have to keep rescuing them. Since this is unsustainable, they try to find the hidden realm beyond the edge of the world where dragons originated from. In the meantime, Toothless is being hunted by the evil Grimmel (Abraham) who wants to destroy all Night Furies.

Even though it’s all fantasy and about dragons, there’s two great love stories in the film – Hiccup & Astrid and Toothless and the Light Fury. Along with love comes loss, and the film does a great job of portraying to kids that change is inevitable and is handled really well. There’s a few funny moments, lots of great action scenes and plenty of sweet moments. Almost had a tear in my eye at the end!

Overall: Delightful and uplifting fun, excellent conclusion.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.