Iron Man 3 review

Tony Stark: You're not a man. You're nothing more than a maniac. I'm not afraid of you. No politics here: just good old fashioned revenge.

Director: Shane Black
(2013)

Regardless of the quality of the content, Marvels Phase One was a resounding commercial success. Initialised by Ironman (2008) and concluded by the spectacular yet hollow The Avengers, the 6 film series made 3.8 billion dollars across the world, Phase 2 was going to be a thing regardless of what anyone thought. In a move reminiscent of the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this next chapter also begins with another Ironman film with Robert Downey Junior reprising his role as the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. While there’s little doubt that box office receipts will reach hundreds of millions, it’s a crying shame that Ironman 3 isn’t the experience we were all hoping for.

After the events of The Avengers, Tony Stark is in a dark place. Racked with insomnia and suffering severe anxiety attacks, he spends most of his time tinkering with his creations. His obsession pushes the boundaries of girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is intent on leaving him. When Tony becomes embroiled with terrorist The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), he is left isolated and alone, struggling to protect those he loves and cares for. With the help of James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) he sets out to stop The Mandarin while getting caught up in a biological project run by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) known as ‘Extremis’.

The films biggest issue resides with its story, a dismal blend of underdeveloped arcs and telegraphed revelations. The vast majority of the films plot is given away in the film’s opening flashback, forcing us to wait for Stark to play catch-up for another 30 minutes before events can progress any further. Killian’s motives are weak, Guy Pearce’s best efforts simply can conceal how much a generic villain he truly is. What’s mishandled even more is both The Mandarin and the Extremis plot arc. Kingsley’s villain is an intimidating, fearful character to begin with, his untraceable terrorist attacks and TV hijackings paint him as a more cerebral man than an outright violent one. But soon he is nothing more than Osama Bin Laden minus a turban, committing televised crimes like a cheap Joker impersonator. Soon focus shifts away from Kingsley’s hard work back to Killian, making the film suffer dramatically with a terribly implemented plot twist.

Where the film also falters is in the action scenes, which strive to be functional instead of exciting. The climax to The Avengers would be difficult to top, so Black smartly sidesteps the issue, giving us a large scale conflict that is small enough to remain personal. While it’s initially a joy to see dozens of Ironman suits jetting through the sky, it soon becomes apparent that all we’re really witnessing is bright lights and searing explosions, the decision to shoot the finale in darkness (again) results in some muddled visuals by the folks over at Weta Digital. Instead of emphasising the unique roles of these additional suits, they’re instead used as cannon fodder for extremis aggressors, appearing in frame only to be obliterated just moments later.

Elsewhere the quality of the action is even more temperamental, sometimes beautiful but mostly messy thanks to some tight camerawork and choppy editing. The destruction of Starks house is a prime example of this, the personal devastation of the attack is lost in a sea of loud noises and smeary rubble. The second act set piece involving Starks rescue of passengers from a destroyed plane is more engrossing, primarily thanks to the fact that it was shot by an aerial stunt team.

Extremis is even worse, a facet of the plot that is wholly uninteresting and incredibly simplified, acting as nothing more than a way to avoid having Ironman fight more robotic foes after the suit heavy battles of the first 2 films. The result is a massive waste of Rebecca Hall’s talent, her part in the film is reduced to sexy scientist who spells out the plot for those incapable of putting 2 and together. In fact, it seems there was no point in casting Kingsley, Pearce or Hall outside of a handful of scenes, squandering potential seems to be what Ironman 3 does best.

Of course, these disappointments are alleviated slightly by Downey Junior’s Stark, a role that he wears like a second set of skin. While his comedic timing remains impeccable, the character’s humorous side is toned down significantly, a result of the PTSD that he suffered due to the climax of The Avengers. This additional depth to the character is a welcome one, seeing his massive ego reduced to nothing is a welcoming and strangely affecting, and portraying the fallibility of seemingly indestructible superheroes is the step in the right direction for the Marvel Cinematic universe as a whole. Yet beyond Starks advances, Ironman 3 is a severely unsatisfying experience, marred by a bad story and soulless action. The conclusion is limp, a defect that extends to the now famous after credits sequence which isn’t worth waiting for. Spending too much time reflecting on Phase One instead of paving new ground, this is undoubtedly the first big disappointment of the year. We can only pray that isn’t indicative of things to come.

Short review: Cave of Forgotten dreams

Director: Werner Herzog
(2011)

Considering the vast amount of critical acclaim he garners, my expectations for my first Werner Herzog documentary was reasonably high. Matching the supposed calibre of the director was the topic of the film, an examination of the oldest known cave drawings in the world.  While the cave itself-covered with calcium deposits and glorious paintings- is rather captivating, the rest of the doc isn’t. The beauty of the caves is soon abandoned for hideously dubbed scientists. Not that it matters as they mostly talk shit anyways, from one explaining how he searches for caves by smell (and how he’s president of a wine club?!) to another playing tunes on a replica flute. The film is stuffed with boring filler, right down to the 10 minute cave drawing montage we’ve already seen almost a dozen times. Should’ve been a 30 minute short instead of a full on film. Avoid.

Zombieland TV pilot review

Tallahassee: Oh, I am this close to losing every last bit of my shit. 

Director: Eli Craig
(2013)

The original Zombieland (2009) was something of a surprise when I first watched it with some friends a few years back. At the time I expected a cheap cash in on the rising popularity of media that features the undead, but turned out to be a genuinely entertaining, funny film. While we all anticipate a sequel, Amazon have created a TV show Pilot following the films characters which has been airing around the net for free. Taking cues from Netflix, the internet superstore have produced 8 comedy pilots where viewers will get to vote on their favourite, with the most popular evolving into fully fledged shows, most likely for distribution through Amazon instant video and Lovefilm. While it’s almost a certainty that Zombieland is going to get green lit, this isn’t necessarily based on the quality of this first episode.

The most alarming aspect of Zombieland is how poor the plot is in this sometimes hilarious first outing. Following a disembodied voice on the other end of a radio, Columbus (Tyler Ross), Wichita (Maiara Walsh), Tallahassee (Kirk Ward) and Little Rock (Izabela Vidovic) search for survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, an act so tedious it almost incites boredom. If these names seem familiar to you, it’s because they are, as these are the same characters returning from the film. The major differentiation is that Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin don’t reprise their roles, so these much loved characters are embodied with almost total unknowns. While the new meat does a decent job of things, it’s most unfortunate that Ward’s Tallahassee is nothing like how Harrelson portrays him in the film, the gunslinging badass has been reduced to a bumbling fool. It baffles the mind why writers Rhet Reese and Paul Wernick didn’t just create a new group to centre the show around instead of the recycling of old characters.

Looking beyond such absurdity is something of a challenge, but Reese and Wernick’s humour is solid stuff. Columbus’s awkward, rambling attitude causes cringe worthy comedy, while Tallahassee makes lines about killing the elderly with a fire poker oddly side-splitting. The rules to surviving Zombieland as well as the ‘zombie kill of the week’ are retained from the film, and while Columbus constantly droning on about his precious guidelines is grating, the zombie murdering antics could suit the episodic nature of the show exceedingly well.

While it makes for a largely inoffensive 30 minute watch, Zombieland TV is still plagued with a myriad of issues that really need to be ironed out when the first season goes into production. The CGI is poor, the narration is overbearing and the driving force behind the characters actions has no semblance of weight. The new cast have some gigantic boots to fill, with many fans of the film writing them off before they are given a chance to prove themselves. The internet’s love of zombies coupled with the disappearance of The Walking Dead until October all but guarantees Amazon will put their weight behind this project, the real question to ponder is if it’ll actually be worth watching?

The Descent Part 2 review

Director: Jon Harris
(2009)

As a general rule, I despise sequels. From a business perspective they’re absolute gold and in some cases are actually superior products to the first film, but said examples are few and far between. When you narrow this down to horror films, the genre that seems to crank out the most sequels- direct to DVD or otherwise-than any other, the chances of a follow-up to a decent film are almost microscopic. While we all wished that the Descent Part 2 was the series ‘Aliens’, it fails miserably, both as a standalone feature and as a lazy follow-up to a solid British horror.

The Descent Part 2 even manages to damage the quality of the original film by completely undermining the first films crowd pleasing ending. Instead of the climactic dream sequence of the preferred UK cut, Part 2 follows the generic US version, in which Sarah (Shauna McDonald) escapes the cave system and finds safety at a nearby road. She’s suffering from amnesia, although this serious medical condition doesn’t stop the local Sheriff Vaines (Gavan O'Herlihy) from forcing her to take a rescue party back into the caves to search for her friends.

 As purveyors of the first film know, Sarah is the lone survivor of the gruesome ordeal, although any potential drama or tension is dispersed by her loss of memory. Little makes sense in the 15 brief minutes set above ground, right down to the sloppy writing and weak acting. The use of amnesia reduces Sarah’s character to a one dimensional mute, a choice almost as baffling as doctors allowing her to leave mere days after the trauma she has endured. The first film spent plenty of time developing its characters, even if they were mostly fodder for the beasts that lurk in the darkness, but at least their deaths held some degree of impact. The descent (this time by elevator) down into the cave fails to mount the tension in any way, a failing that reverberates throughout the entire feature.

Once firmly underground, the contrived amnesia plot device is mercifully discarded and the attempts at fear begin. Only that exactly what they are, attempts. Every impactful shock of Marshals film are replicated here to a far lesser degree, Director Jon Harris simply can’t give the audience a frightening payoff when the films build-up has been so lax. Expect scenes involving night vision cameras, glowsticks, pools of liquid and rockslides to happen, lazy déjà vu of the strong moments that made the original film so nerve shattering and intense. Special mention should go to the utterly idiotic characters however, the ones who fire guns in tight spaces and handcuff themselves to another survivor to prevent them from running off, even as the group is hounded by the monstrous crawlers that call the cave home. The first film ruined the horror of its monsters by showing too much of them, diminishing their effectiveness. Harris is once again content on emulating, and even shows one of them dive-bombing into a pool of shit (yes really) to chase its prey.

And then Harris tries to hit you with a shocker ending in the same vein as the original that, for a brief few moments, actually works. The intriguing ambiguity is soon shattered though, as it dawns on you that the final scene makes no sense whatsoever. This is the final memory I have of this sloppy horror flick, one that sums up not only the disappointment of an unwarranted sequel, but also a needless twist bolted on to the end to replicate the far superior first film. This is simply a film worth avoiding, rewatch the first film instead and pray that they don’t make a third.

Short review: Trance

Director: Danny Boyle
(2013)

In his 19 years of making films, Trance, Danny Boyles latest, is the first that could be considered a complete let down. The premise of the film seems relatively simple, a botched art heist puts a criminal (Vincent Cassel) the amnesiac, double crossing thief (James McAvoy) and his hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) on a trippy, mind bending venture in order to uncover the hidden location of the painting. While the film possesses decent cinematography and performances, the narrative is a complete shambles; a mess of plot arcs and dream sequences bog the film down from the get go. It leaves the audiences head spinning aimlessly, a far cry from other, smarter crime thrillers in recent years (Shutter Island, Inception). The story twists and turns itself into the ground, Boyle simply doesn’t want events to make any sense. A couple of revelations resonate, but the end product is relatively poor.

The Hunt review

Director: Thomas Vinterberg
(2012)

Features like Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt aren’t the films that one would ever expect to be produced by any studio in Hollywood. And that’s because it’s not. Films with themes of potential child abuse and ignorant small town mentality are simply too bold and mature to be aimed at western audiences, so it’s up to the bold and adventurous European filmmakers to tackle such a thorny subject with grace and surgical precision. The Hunt is a somewhat unpleasant, unsettling watch, yet through some excellent directing and acting, it shines as one of the finest foreign films of 2012.

The victim of the alleged child molestation claims is a nursery school teacher by the name of Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen). He lives a solitary existence due to his wife limiting his access to his teenage son. He goes deer hunting frequently with his best friend Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen), a man who is also having relationship issues with his wife. Due to their excessive arguing, they neglect their daughter Klara (Annika Wedderkopp) who wanders off and gets lost, thankfully found by her nursery school teacher and family friend Lucas. Soon she develops a childish infatuation and kisses him, his response is to tell her “kisses on the lips are for mummies and daddies only”. This little girls search for a strong paternal figure turns bitter as she makes up an innocent lie, influenced by the porn that her brother showed her as a sick joke. This soon lie spirals out of control and acts as the catalyst to ruining Lucas’ life.

The most terrifying aspect of The Hunt is how devastating these accusations can really be to a man of such an upstanding reputation. He is well respected in his job and amongst his peers, begins to develop a relationship with a co-worker and finally gains more access to his son. Klara is even the daughter of his lifelong friend who instantly turns on him due to baseless accusation. Soon incompetent teachers and psychiatrists proliferate the hysteria, putting words and ideas into this impressionable girls head. At one point she even admits that Lucas is innocent and that she’s lying, but her parents insist she’s done the right thing by telling them and asserts she isn’t in trouble. Vinterberg treads delicate ground here by making sure the blame for this entire incident isn’t pinned solely on one person, and the results illustrate how such events can quickly snowball out of control.

Where Vinterberg isn’t so restrained is in his attitudes towards pinning the blame for the state of Lucas’ life almost completely on women. His ex-wife, boss, fair-weather girlfriend and Klara herself are rather bluntly behind the mess of a life he lives, this borderline misogyny is superfluous and underdeveloped when compared to the films other, refined themes. Elsewhere the director’s lack of subtlety is more of a benefit in the films more physical scenes of violence as the towns abuse of Lucas’ turns from verbal to physical in a brutal scene of violence. The scene is placed perfectly to act as a payoff for the mounting tension, the perfect release for the abundance of dialogue that makes up almost the entirety of the film.

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Mikkelsen takes this character broken by a lie and does wonders with it, carrying the audience through some of the films slower ebbs with apparent ease. It’s one of the underrated performances of 2012 as well as one that is bound to go unnoticed outside of a very small crowd of art-house cinemagoers. What’s even more revelatory is the films epilogue, a scene that is tonally perfect in every regard. Vinterberg does what many independent filmmakers seem to be incapable of recently by having his film end satisfactorily while being ambiguous enough to linger in the memory. Looking beyond the films more unpleasant stretches-of which there are many- The Hunt is a film that warrants watching; the second finest foreign film of the year, inches behind Amour.

Marble Hornets Season 2 review: Episodes 27 to 42

!!!!!!SEASON 1 AND 2 SPOILERS!!!!!!

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Short review: Alien 3

Director: David Fincher
(1992)

Even without prior knowledge, it’s easy to see that Alien 3 had suffered terribly during development. David Fincher’s directorial debut was unfairly ruined by an idiotic and interfering studio; the result is a weak link in a potentially brilliant trilogy. By killing off Newt and Hicks just minutes in, Alien 3 sours the taste in the mouth of fans of Aliens, and things don’t improve much from there. The writing and editing is all over the shop with a largely uninteresting plot and characters that disappear with no explanation. The film manages to be hideously boring at times too, rescued by some stellar art and set design that is amongst the series high points. Looking beyond the excitingly impractical climax, Alien 3 lacks the horror and suspense of the original film and the visceral gunplay of its sequel. The result? A total mess.

Go review

Simon Baines: He's a good guy.

Marcus: Oh, he's the good drug dealer.

 

Director: Doug Liman
(1999)

Coming out at the end of the 90’s, Go is a film that succinctly surmises the entire decade into a neat 90 minute package. The small budget, emphasis on dialogue and characters as well as the non chronological narrative, Go is the product of its decade. While it does wear its love of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction firmly on its sleeve (very few films didn’t at the time), it’s the hidden gem of 1999, sitting quietly at the back behind the behemoths of such a fantastic year for film.

The most entertaining aspect of Go is its interlocking 3 pronged narrative that shows the same event from the perspective of multiple characters. Beginning at the end of a 12 hour shift, we see a botched drug deal and illegal rave from the perspective of high school dropout Ronna (Sarah Polley) and Claire (Katie Holmes), the former desperately in need of money to avoid eviction from her flat. Her buyers are Adam (Scott Wolf) and Zack (Jay Mohr), 2 TV stars being forced into becoming temporary undercover cops. Ronna's story is presented first and is arguably the most integral of the tales, charting her progress from scoring 20 hits of Ecstasy from dealer Todd (Timothy Olyphant) to dealing and dodging cops makes for exhilarating viewing. Her journey concludes just 30 minutes into the film, a choice that’s both narratively satisfying as well as being ambiguously open ended. The real joy that comes from watching Go is seeing the links that lock the 3 acts together into an interrelated whole.

Act 2 follows Ronna's co worker Simon (Desmond Askew) as he parties in Las Vegas with some of his friends. Although Simon doesn’t have much of a physical presence in Ronna’s story, his actions and phone calls have severe consequences that reverberate through a multitude of other characters. This is the shallowest of the films chapters, but its lack of depth is more that covered by the excellent humour, a thrilling sense of urgency and unmatched sexiness on display; these 30 minutes feel like 10 by the time the story shifts perspective once again.

In contrast to Simons story, Adam and Zack’s feels like it’s far longer than it actually is, making the weak link in an otherwise entertainingly consistent film. Showing events from the final, unseen perspective certainly wraps up some of the films more interesting questions, but too much of this act is bogged down by William Fichtner’s Officer Burke. That's not saying that Fichtner gives a poor performance, it’s just his character almost singlehandedly kills the films snappy pacing with an overly extended dinner sequence which gives little in the way of payoff or relevance. The fact that both Adam and Zack are TV stars makes the decision to have them partaking in an undercover sting seem bewildering, one of the few instances of sloppy scripting that is so contrasting with the excellence that writer John August has crafted.

In a sense, Go gives us what we expect form an independent production; pure, inspired energy that pulses throughout the films strongest stretches. In this sense it’s the anti Magnolia; sharp and throbbing with velocity compared to P.T Andersons leisurely paced and overflowing love letter to Robert Altman. It loses this zip in the third act, but still remains a highlight in one of the greatest years for film in recent memory.

The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 16 Welcome to the Tombs

!!!!!!WARNING SEASON 2 AND 3 SPOILERS!!!!!!

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Short review: Searching for Sugarman

Director: Malik Bendjelloul
(2012)

From the gorgeous opening vistas of a South African coastline, Searching for Sugarman sets itself up to be a very special kind of documentary. Its sublime blend of animation, perfect cinematography and ‘8mm’ footage bestow such a riveting visual display for a film of its genre. Its brilliance reaches beyond its aesthetic with the engrossing story of Rodriguez; the phenomenal 1970’s singer who disappeared after his album flopped stateside. It charts his apparent suicide to his popularity in South Africa where his songs became a cultural phenomenon. And in the final third, Searching for Sugarman falls apart. The filmmakers interview Rodriguez’ friends and bosses in the present day, building up to finding the fabled singer, only to reveal they found him 13 years prior, when he toured South Africa, throwing the entire film out of context. A stunning story wrecked by manipulative and deceitful design.

Monsters Inc review

Mike: I think I have a plan here: using mainly spoons, we dig a tunnel under the city and release it into the wild.

Sulley: Spoons?

Mike: That's it, I'm out of ideas. We're closed. Hot air balloon? Too expensive. Giant slingshot? Too conspicuous. Enormous wooden horse? Too Greek.

Directors: Andrew Stanton, David Silverman, Lee Unkrich
(2001)

It’s an almost surreal experience being able to revisit Pixar films during their infancy after knowing just how successful the company’s streak would turn out. Almost singlehandedly responsible for the second golden age of animation with their pioneering piece of perfection that is Toy Story (1995) the studio has proliferated the use of computer animation to the point where no one does anything by hand anymore. Despite being universally adored by audiences of any age upon release, Monsters Inc critical reception was warm rather than blisteringly molten like Toy Story’s, and even to this day I find this baffling. In a near perfect run of films spanning more than a decade, Monsters Inc is one of the company’s absolute highlights.

Set in the monster populated Monstropolis, Monsters Inc follows Sully (John Goodman) and Mike (Billy Crystal), 2 best friends and employees at Monsters Inc, a factory that collects the scares from children in order to power everyday activities. The factory has doors that lead into children’s closets, allowing the monsters to infiltrate the human world to gather the required ‘scream’ energy that society has become so dependent upon. In a hilarious revelation, human children are considered to be poisonous, with a single touch being able to kill instantly. After a shift one day Sully finds a door left on the factories scare floor and accidently lets a human child called Boo (Mary Gibbs) into the monsters realm. This puts the duo on a crash course with the antagonistic Randall (Steve Buscemi) a malevolent camouflaged lizard who has bold ambitions about the future of the monsters world.

What makes the film work is its genius, high concept idea and precise, entertaining storytelling. The concept of another world inhabited solely by monsters whose way of life is powered by the screams of frightened children might sound like something out of an arthouse horror flick; the idea and its universe are developed sensationally by Pixar’s creative minds. The way the city of Monstropolis functions is so similar to ours, but is flipped on its head by the physical state of its creatively designed inhabitants. A janitor cleans up a trail of slime only to create another when he moves due to being a slug, a monsters tongue is so long it doubles up as a child’s skipping rope and deodorant is based upon foul smells (wet dog anyone?). These quirky aspects of an otherwise relatable society make for some tremendous laughs, as well as establishing just how original the film, and films in general, can truly be.

While both Toy Story’s and A Bugs Life are films that do an excellent job of catering to 2 broadly different audiences, it was with Monsters Inc that Pixar really began perfecting the art of pleasing such a varied audience. Mike and Celia go to a fancy restaurant called Harryhausens and Mike is put off by the idea of yellow snow cones (“they're lemon!”) while younger audiences will adore the slapstick humour and comedic violence. The written gags are razor sharp and are slanted more in favour of entertaining adults than they are of children, and this catering to such a diverse audience is executed flawlessly, making for a cohesive, well rounded feature.

Much like Toy Story 2, Pixar saves one of its strongest moments till last as Sully, Mike and Boo soar through the factory warehouse, using the door track line as a form of makeshift rollercoaster/getaway vehicle from the villainous Randall. Soon the characters are using the doors as portals, travelling to various locales around the world. The chase is visually stunning and totally exhilarating, culminating with an emotionally charged finale that could reduce a grown man to tears. The films flaws (obvious, cliché villain, the usual Pixar buddy comedy routine) are minor, the successes are astronomical. Watch it again on Blu Ray to remind yourself how the Cars films are minor lows in a company that’s only in the business of crafting phenomenal highs.

The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 15: This Sorrowful Life

!!!!!!WARNING SEASON 3 SPOILERS!!!!!!

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Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers review

Director: Nick Park
(1993)

There's only very little that needs to be said about Nick Parks Wallace and Gromit the Wrong Trousers, a short stop motion animation that's The Godfather of its genre. After renting out the spare room to an ambiguously sinister penguin, Gromit’s Techno Trousers are integral in the heist of a diamond by the malevolent bird. From start to finish Parks magnum opus is crammed with pitch perfect humour, genius gags and an astute sense of britishness. The low fi charm of Claymation is delightful that enhances every scene with such detail and ingenuity putting everything else similar to shame. And then there’s that climax, a chase on a miniature train track around Wallace’s home as Gromit lays down additional track as the locomotive barrels forward at an alarming and exhilarating rate. Quite possibly one of the greatest moments in the history of film, animation or otherwise.  A true masterpiece.