Sunday, 10 November 2013

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013, Dir. Jeff Tremaine, USA) (Cert: 15/R) **

Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Greg Harris

With his wife (Catherine Keener) now passed on, eighty-six year old Irving Zisman (Knoxville) is looking forward to finally having a good time, only to be saddled with his grandson, Billy (Nicoll). Given the task of taking Billy to his selfish and criminal father (Harris), Irving and Billy go on a road trip and have many misadventures along the way.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of American pop-culture of the last twenty years, is at least somewhat familiar with the Jackass brand. Starting out as a show on MTV, Jackass's trademark is stunts that emphasise personal injury or creating a nuisance amongst the general public, usually the former more than the latter. Bad Grandpa places more of an emphasis on pranks than stunts and has an intriguing concept of framing a fictitious narrative around these pranks. However, for all its originality, Bad Grandpa is not going to please everyone.

It should go without saying at this point that the Jackass crew have their humour at a pretty low-brow level. That's fine for those who like that sort of thing (and humour is ultimately subjective, people don't have too much choice in what they find funny) but non-fans will probably have to look elsewhere for a laugh. As far as the execution if the pranks go, there's an uncomfortable element that presents itself and it's not hard to feel sympathy for the unsuspecting "victims", although this is slightly remedied by their reactions in the credits when Knoxville reveals his face (odd that so many fall for it, considering the not entirely convincing makeup). If you're a Jackass fan, then this is possibly worth checking out but its slightly ambitious concept doesn't surpass its crudity that can leave the unconverted with a bad taste in their mouths.

Next time, Chris Hemsworth returns to save the world once more in Thor: The Dark World.

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Philomena (2013, Dir. Stephen Frears, UK/USA/France) (Cert: 15/R) ****

Starring: Dame Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Sean Mahon

Having recently lost his job as a government spin doctor following a political snafu, Martin Sixsmith (Coogan) tries to return to his journalistic roots. At a party, he hears about a woman named Philomena Lee (Dench) an Irish woman and forced to give up her child for adoption from the convent where she lived to America. Martin and Philomena travel Ireland and America to learn about what happened to the child.

Directed by the acclaimed Steven Frears (whose previous work includes The Queen (2006) and High Fidelity (2000) and partly written and produced by cast member Steve Coogan, Philomena is a witty, warm and touching true tale of a woman exploring a life she had lost and her relationship with her faith. In the lead roles, Coogan and Dame Judi Dench both give strong and dignified performances with Coogan's particular flair as a writer for nuanced characters shining through. Martin Sixsmith is obnoxious but principled whilst Philomena has dramatic depth but also comedic warmth, which Dench ably supplies.

The film depicts both the Catholic church and the mass media in a critical manner, where a more complex argument could've served a better purpose whilst the film's plot is set up in such a manner that remarkable last-minute coincidences spring up with such frequency, it challenges how much of the story the audience can believe, but these are only minor pitfalls in an otherwise beautiful film.

Next time, recently widowed and not afraid to shock, Irving Zisman (played by Johnny Knoxville) takes to the road with grandson, Billy (Jackson Niccol) and pulling stunts on unsuspecting members of the public as they go in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.

Sunday, 3 November 2013

Ender's Game (2013, Dir. Gavin Hood, USA) (Cert: 12a/PG-13) ***

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld

Fifty years after the human race survived a war with an alien army, there are still military forces being trained for future defence, with an emphasis on child recruits who are easier to train effectively. Ender (Butterfield) shows particular promise and his prodigious skills push him to the forefront of a forthcoming conflict.

Being that the science-fiction genre often deals with rather lofty concepts, writers often bering their own political and social ideologies into their work. As such, Orson Scott Card and his series of books from which Ender's Game is adapted are an anomaly. In a genre where the viewpoints are often very progressive (take, for example, Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling in Star Trek and The Twilight Zone respectively as examples) Card has been the voice of conservatism and, resultantly, controversy. 

As a film, Ender's Game tip-toes around these ideas, prodding them in curiosity but maintaining a safe distance. Given the martial themes,  with child soldiers no less, the filmmakers have gone on record as distancing themselves from Card's views and the film mostly swerves around the contentious issues, to its credit.The casting features a number of talented young actors who have been acclaimed in other work; Asa Butterfield from Hugo (2011), Hailee Steinfeld from the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit (2011) and Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Harrison Ford doesn't contribute anything revolutionary, but his presence in a film like this just feels right. Butterfield, for his confidence, is not quite believable enough as a prodigious leader of men, but this is more a fault of the problematic screenplay (which gives lines such as "it's basic rocket science") than anything else.

For the fact that it's flawed, Ender's Game will probably never become an enduring sci-fi classic; and unless the film does very well at the box office, I'm not sure if a sequel will be in the offing. Still, the film is tactfully, and at times impressively, executed,

Next time, Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan star in a real-life drama of a woman searching for her adopted son in Philomena.

Friday, 1 November 2013

Escape Plan (2013, Dir. Mikåel Hafström, USA) (Cert: 15/R) ***

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel

Ray Breslin (Stallone) is a man with a gift. A gift to go into some of the most secure prisons and discover a way out. As part of his job, he goes undercover in these prisons and is contracted for a new secret prison used only for the most dangerous criminals. However, as his job begins, he is drugged and held captive in the prison, whilst those in charge seek to make him suffer.

To a certain extent, you could look at Escape Plan as Shawshank Redemption (1994) re-imagined as an over-the-top and brainless action movie. Whilst that does sound spectacularly promising, Escape Plan is no Shawshank but it is very entertaining. Much of the appeal of the film largely comes from the two leads in Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger (although Arnie takes a while to show up) two hulking icons of 80's action cinema, now getting a little long in the tooth but still game to run around blowing stuff up. Jim Caviezel meanwhile plays the prison warden, seemingly borrowing a few lessons in villainy from Christopher Walken (specifically, the off-beat intonation, subtle as Caviezel does it) although the soft-spoken schtick does tire as he seems particularly more like unrealistic action genre cliche than the other characters (again, this is a film that features Stallone and Schwarzenegger, so it's quite the cliche).The supporting cast also features the likes of Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Vincent D'onofrio, who add detail but disappear for large amounts of the run-time and at times seem unnecessary. 

On a design level, the film is intriguing, bringing to mind more of that early-90's action movie aesthetic, with the prison scenes bringing comparisons to both TRON (1982) and Face/Off (1997) but the plot makes no sense (the prison seems both a government installation and at the same time, against the government. How does that work?  of the prisoners are Islamic fundamentalists who are seen praying, but how do they know, or even guess, which direction to pray in if they don't know where they are?). Were it made just five or ten years ago, this would've been straight-to-DVD but with films like The Expendables (2010) and RED (2010) being as popular as they are, this is getting wider exposure and there's something to be said for the benefit. It's dumb trash, but it's mostly fun dumb trash.

Next time, Asa Butterfield plays a young boy who becomes the subject of a new line of defence for humanity in the adaptation Orson Scott Card's sci-fi novel, Ender's Game.