In an unforeseen move, a gap in the blockbuster schedule appears to have brought us exactly the kind of filler usually reserved for the graveyard-shifts in March and October. No matter, this film's set on a sunny tropical island, and it is currently Summer round my way, so break out the Hawaiian shirts and Margaritas, it's time to go and be obnoxious at somebody's wedding!
Yes, Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates*1 follows the titular brothers, notorious within their family circle for ruining parties and get-togethers, as they're ordered by their parents to find dates for their younger sister's wedding in the hopes that this will calm them down and avoid embarrassment. After they advertise their requirements on Craigslist - including the free holiday to Hawaii where the wedding is to be held - they end up attracting the kind of guests who are even more badly behaved than they are. And thus the comedy arises…
When the film is running through its genre-standard gags and set-pieces (booze, slapstick and dick-jokes), it's amusing enough. However, the moments of ill-judged (and ill-executed) characterisation are where the cracks really start to appear. The harder the film tries - whether it's raising the gross-out stakes or being brazenly, self-indulgently sappy - the closer it edges to failure. And while Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Devine and Zac Effron are all likeable screen-presences, they do little to gel together and are largely on autopilot here. Kendrick and Plaza come out of the whole thing better than their male counterparts (even though the former looks visibly out of her depth on several occasions), but there's the feeling throughout that the principal quartet are capable of so much better.
The main story's Hawaii setting underlines that this is very much the white-trash cousin of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and other than the apparently quasi-biographical aspect, this movie could have been made at any point in the last 30 years, with any cast, and had ultimately the same effect. This will be perfectly fine for a night in with some friends, but it's nothing you probably haven't seen elsewhere. As provocative as Mike And Dave tries to be, it's ultimately harmless, if potty-mouthed, fluff.
Ninety-eight minutes of drunken shouting and embarrassment. Generally speaking I identified with that, but I'm deducting a point for the mortifying finale-performance of This Is How We Do It and for the closing credits gag-reel of improvised out-takes, each one succinctly demonstrating why it didn't make the final edit.
If you're with friends and you're going to have a few drinks before or after, sure.
Then again, you could wait three months and have just as enjoyable time doing that at home.
Not as much as it thinks it does.
No.
Probably not.
No, but that eagie-screech is in there.
Level 2: This movie stars Adam Devine, who provided voice-work for Ice Age: Collision Course alongside Simon 'Dengar/Plutt' Pegg.
*1 And fair fucking play to the powers-that-be for naming this film "Mike And Dave…" rather than "Mike & Dave…". Punctuation breaks hashtags, and movie-titles featuring ampersands are a recurring bugbear of mine. At least this way people can tweet about the film properly. Yes, it's the little things that make me happy.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
The cynic in me (and as regular readers will attest, that's who holds the majority-sway in my psyche) would perhaps wonder if Disney's current programme of retooling older animated content as sumptuous live-action holiday-bait means they're finally running out of ideas. But even the cynic shut the hell up less than five minutes into Pete's Dragon and just went on the ride. Because when they're making them this good, who cares?
A complete restructuring of the older movie, the 2016 version sees five-year old Pete suddenly orphaned and alone in dense woodland when he befriends the dragon he names Elliot, after a character in a storybook he has with him. For six years, the two survive as companions until their makeshift home is disrupted by deforestation/construction works. The film then follows the 11yr-old boy's rehabilitation into a civilised world he barely remembers, as well as the separation-anxiety for both Pete and Elliot, and of course the builders' reaction to an actual live dragon. Herein lies adventure...
Of course, being Disney, this film is pro-level Twee™ and is so preachy that's the screenwriters have hand-carved their own pulpit. Yet it's still thoroughly charming for all that, in a way which only The House Of Mouse can make look effortless. The wistful sunsets and easy-listening soundtrack threaten to get a little heavy-handed from time to time, but both suit the tone of the film perfectly.
Set in a nondescript time-frame (no mobiles, no laptops, little in the way of TV although the kids have got BMXs), the film lifts some of the more memorable beats from E.T. and Jurassic Park while never feeling like it's really stealing them. In fact, it seems to be the case that director David Lowery is more Spielbergian that even Spielberg himself can manage, these days. That said, there's also a dash of Predator thrown into the mix*1, which was a nice surprise.
Pete's Dragon turns out to be everything that The BFG should have been (and The Jungle Book, come to think of it). Although in common with those films, once again the best performances come from the young lead actor and a CGI counterpart. Oakes Fegely is fantastic as young Pete, and while his role is a lot more lighthearted than Jacob Tremlay's in Room, there's a dynamic to both the character and performance which makes it comparable.
As much as I enjoyed this, I know it'll be too saccharine for some audiences. Under the normal run of things, it probably would have been for me, too, but something just clicked the first time the gurning, grunting Elliot appeared on camera.
I had smiles, I had goosebumps, and on at least one occasion I might have had something in my eye. Pete's Dragon is another great example of a magical story told with absolute sincerity, and being all the better for it.
Despite what I've said there, The BFG, and probably Disney's live-action Cinderella, too.
You could do far worse during the Summer holidays, if your padawans are pestering you to go out and do something.
It does.
It'll be the high-watermark which director David Lowery and lead actor Oakes Fegely will be judged against.
Certainly around these parts, anyway.
Nope.
There isn't.
Level 2: This movie's got that Robert Redford in it, who we saw in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, of course, playing opposite Mace Windu himself, Sam Jackson.
*1 Not only can Elliot the dragon make himself go invisible to evade his enemies, he's also got a broken tusk like Dachande from Steve Perry's Aliens vs Predator novels (a look which was also directly referenced in AVP: Requiem, one of the only cool things about that movie). Hang on, I'm not the only person who sees an adorable green furry dragon and thinks of Predator, am I?
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Nerve (SPOILERS: BIG. SPOILERS.)
Cert: 15 / 96 mins / Dir. Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman / Trailer
It must have been a horrifically boring and humid Friday afternoon at Lionsgate when they agreed to distribute this movie shortly before banging off down the pub. We've all been there, and I'm sure the Monday morning catchup meeting consisted of assurances that it would probably all pan out alright in the end. After all, Nerve might hinge on a thoroughly unworkable premise but it's based on a novel. And when has that ever gone wrong?
The story revolves around the shy, introverted Vee*1 as she steps out of her comfort-zone to play a cult online game, Nerve, where players vie to complete an escalating series of crowd-sourced dares to win prize money accumulated from the massive audience who are paying to watch it all pan out. When Vee quickly becomes paired up with fellow player Ian*2 by the game, it turns out that this is no chance meeting, and there's more at play than cheap kicks…
The 'dare' format allows for some nicely constructed set-pieces (riding a motorcycle up to 60mph in traffic through New York, blindfolded, for example), and it's clear that some of the ideas which worked well on the page translate to the screen with even more urgency. The subtext is the problem, though. Lying behind the story-mechanics is an interweaving commentary on social-media, online gambling and cyber-bullying. And it's not that any of this is misjudged in concept, just in execution.
I see no reason to hold back; Nerve is, ultimately, pretty crap. It's not completely awful, but I spent an inordinate amount of time massaging my temples throughout this film. The core-premise is that the game is A Secret™; some shadowy-underworld which normal civilians don't even know exists. Except that narrative necessity dictates that there are hundreds of thousands of 'watchers', ie paying subscribers, which couldn't possibly go un-noticed by some authority on some level. Particularly since in the story, the game has been running for at least a year*3. That said, the screenplay also waves the words "dark web" around like some Get Out Of Jail Free card, hoping wildly that the audience will just accept the things which aren't properly explained (cf, disrupting databases with the programming language of databases). Particularly prevalent is the assumption that in 2016, All Of The Youth have a constant high-speed mobile data connections and apparently infinite battery life. As far as the film's own target audience is concerned, this is definitely fiction (and that's without getting into the technicalities of prize-money being deposited in a bank account, the details of which were apparently gleaned from social media, given that Vee wasn't seen to enter them upon application*4).
Nerve mixes the mob-mentality or The Purge with the techno-paranoia of Unfriended, set against the nihilistic, neon-lit nightscapes of Drive. If only the film had the visual or narrative originality of any of those. The mix is muddied further as the story telegraphs every single reveal at least one act in advance, and then uses its third act to bring out the twin-guns of deus ex machina with a)Vee petulantly lecturing hundreds of assembled anarchists on the morality of online-anonymity and b) her best friend basically turning round and saying "Yeah, I suppose me and my elite-hacker buddies in our secret New York bunker could just re-write the game's code. I mean, it's not like the collective of programmers who made this game could possibly have thought of that in advance, or that anyone else has attempted to do so previously. I'm amazed the idea didn't occur to us before, frankly, what with us being so philosophically responsible an'all."
And by the time we get to the climax and Vee being shot with blanks (complete with fake-blood), I just expected her to give Ian a Hot Fuzz, ketchup-fuelled "ta-daa!". It was at that point I burst out laughing, much to the amusement of the patron next to me.
• On the plus-side, the principal cast (Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Emily Meade and Miles Heizer) do all this with poker-faces which are awards-worthy in themselves. But those are the only awards likely to be won, here. Nerve isn't even bad enough to qualify for the Razzies.
• On the minus-side, the film has the sheer audacity to visually reference both The Lost BoysandThe Empire Strikes Back in the construction-crane scenes, without earning the right to even mention either. Shameful.
Not so much a cutting-edge digital morality play, more a big-screen adaptation of a Daily Mail article where technology is inherently evil in its peer-controlled, unregulated form.
Nerve is every bit as grubby and exploitative as the people it claims to satirise, and treats social-networking in the same way Lawnmower Man presented virtual-reality. Which is to say laughably, at least. I suppose we should be thankful they didn't re-title it 'N3RVE'…
That line in Bastille Day when he says "...the hashtags will tip them over!".
Oh, why not?
If this really is your bag, then either go big or go home, yeah..
…make people stop and think about the line between their online and meat-space actions and personas?
Not likely.
Well, the directorial-duo also brought us Paranormal Activity 3and4, so quite possibly…
Level 2: This film features Ms Juliette Lewis (now apparently relegated into "clueless mother of lead character" roles), who starred in 1988's My Stepmother is an Alien alongside Seth 'Todo 360' Green.
*1 Oh, you know the type. The shy, introverted girl who's attractive, intelligent, creative and hangs out with all the cool, popular kids. Yes that's right, like no-one, ever.
*2 No, seriously. Yes, I laughed out loud as well.
*3 The characters also refer to "last year's game", implying that Nerve is some sort of annual crescendo. But in the story we watch, Vee joins the game at around 4pm on the last day and still manages to make it into the final round later that night. As a central plot-point, this is magnificently unfeasible.
*4 And also that the game - apparently - deposits money in the player's account as dares are completed, but if that player 'fails or bails' on the tasks, then has the authority to remove the money, too. As if players couldn't have an accomplice systematically moving the payments to another account in order to prevent this. Oh no, I forgot: the game's code is open-source, so there's little/nothing preventing malicious hackers from just pocketing all the 'watcher' fees in the first place, leaving nothing for the prize-money. Silly me.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Suicide Squad (2D / SPOILER-FREE)
Cert: 15 / 123 mins / Dir. David Ayer / Trailer
A Preface:
As regular readers will be aware, I'm not a DC-geek in any way shape or form. If anything, I bat for the other side. There's no agenda behind that, it's just the way my childhood/adolescence panned out, and that's the universe I'm at home in. As a result, I'm not familiar with the principle characters in this latest DC ensemble-flick. I know The Joker, of course, and I'm aware of Harley Quinn in the same way that a movie-goer who's never seen Star Wars still has a rough handle on who Darth Vader is*1. But the other members of the team and their assorted handlers, and hangers-on? Not a clue. I'll be honest, it's all I can do to ignore the fact that I'm quite looking forward to a movie that stars both Will Smith and Jai Courtney. That doesn't feel right.
So, with all this in mind, I decided to forego any frantic background reading/viewing in the run-up to Suicide Squad*2, since I believe a movie this early-on in the franchise should be introducing its characters properly to a civilian audience anyway. Also, I did read the faintly disappointing lead-in comic, Suicide Blonde, then decided the film could speak for itself ;)
As usual with a movie of this prominence and audience, my first review will be free of plot-spoilers. If the film really impresses me, we can get into picking apart the story another time…
A Review:
And so, after the queue for much needed coffee-at-midnight, the ads, the trailers, and not one but two post-trailer ads, the BBFC card displayed the words Suicide Squad, and the very respectably-sized audience in Screen 5 exhaled, their (our) wait over.
DC's chronological - if not tonal - follow-up to Dawn of Justice finally swings into our cinemas with all the swagger of unwanted party-guests, but also with the reassuring fun that it's not your party they're trashing. In fact let's be fair: the party needed livening up a little. But I know what you're thinking: 'yeah, what music do they use to open the film though, eh?'
Well, what with House of the Rising Sun, You Don't Own Me and Sympathy for the Devil all making an appearance in the film's first five minutes, it soon becomes clear that all non-orchestrated soundtrack here is going to be the cinematic equivalent of a needy child repeatedly tugging on your sleeve as you try to concentrate on the movie. Ironically, the problem is made worse the more familiar you are with the songs being used, as the connection between on-screen events and the tongue-in-cheek audio accompaniment feels even more tenuous and threatens to pull you out of the film each time*3.
Jukebox aside, with the twin barrels of Viola Davis' narration and stylised flashbacks, the members of Task Force X are individually introduced with sequences whose length correllates almost exactly with the billing position of the actor in question. Will Smith's Deadshot and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn each get around three minutes of character-building exposition, Adam Beach's Slipknot gets a hurried four-word aside as he walks on-camera. Everyone else is on the sliding-scale between the two, their intro-scenes being a good indicator of how much attention the script is going to pay them.
But of course, the question on everybody's lips is how is Jared Leto's Joker? A mixed bag, frankly. Leto certainly brings a dangerous unpredictability to the character, but I'm not convinced that's what Joker really needs. He's less the scheming maniac here, and more an ADHD Godfather. The best moments with the clown-prince are his quieter ones; unfortunately, they're also the moments when he evokes The Spirit of Ledger. There's also been some concern online as to his share of screen-time. A fair way of putting it would be to say that Mista J is a recurring character here, but not a central one. This is his introduction to the timeline, it's not 'his film'.
And as much as Harley Quinn tries desperately to steal the show (completely in line with the film's marketing focus, to be fair), the most interesting characters here are Cara Delevingne's Enchantress and Jay Hernandez's Diablo. Both go some way towards developing throughout the film*4, both have backstories and motivations which aren't fully fleshed out, and both pay the price of trying to fight for screen-time with a cast this expansive.
Although the plot-mechanics of Suicide Squad are sketchy at best, and the central conceit makes little-to-no sense*5, the film is quite fun. It finally feels like DC are starting to feel comfortable playing by their own rules in the timeline (although the shadow of the Bat looms comfortingly over proceedings, too).
All in all, Suicide Squad is rather good. Although without the pop-soundtrack and misguided one-liners, it would be rather great...
A Post-Script:
Hang around at the end as there's a mid-credits scene, but there's no after-credits, so once the names start rolling up the screen you can make your way to the exits.
If comic-book movies being big and loud is your bag, yes.
In light of the cinematically turbulent time DC's had of late and of the reported reshoots for Suicide Squad, I think it probably does.
No, but that only means the best could be yet to come.
No.
I think there's one buried in the subway-scene, yeah.
Level 2: It's not too long ago that Margot Robbie appeared in About Time alongside old General Hux himself, Domhnall Gleeson.
*1 Not the best analogy, obviously, as the most direct comparison to Vader from an outsider's point of view would be The Joker, not Harley Quinn, but you get the idea. Some characters manage to seep into the mainstream (or at least, wider geekdom) consciousness by force of personality alone; others are General Madine.
*2 Partly because previous comics, cartoons etc wouldn't gel with the continuity of this movie so would probably just make things worse; partly because I've got a lot on at the moment and I just haven't had the time.
3 It's not like these are tracks that the characters can hear in-movie. Most seem to just be there because someone in the mixing department wanted to win a bet; a prime example being "$15 says I can get Eminem's vocally-heavy 'Look Who's Back' laid right over some dialogue!"
4 As much as I enjoyed Suicide Squad, there's little in the way of actual character development here. The film serves to introduce (some of) its players well, but by the time the closing credits appear, most are basically where they were to begin with. Literally, in some cases. It's basically stalling until Justice League comes along. Entertaining stalling, but stalling.
5 Because if you were putting together a black-ops task force designed to have the prowess to "stop a bad-Superman", why would you have it comprising of people who a) don't want to do what you tell them, b) are basically uncontrollable and c) are situated in a completely different timezone? It's hardly rapid-response, is it? Any evil-alien worth their salt will have gleefully committed genocide by the time these cats are scrambled to the chopper. You'd almost think it was a wafer-thin excuse to make a movie consisting largely of loveable villains since DC's heroes tend to be largely uninteresting…
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
