Iron Man 3 sees Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) facing off against the The Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley), as Shane Black takes over directing duties from Jon Favreau…
Wednesday, June 17
Gangster Squad: Review
Gangster Squad stretches its true story status as wide as Sean Penn’s rubber face…
A soldier who has returned from World War II to serve in the Los Angeles police force, questioning the changes in the world he fought to defend as he interrogates suspects and gets into gun fights and car chases? Anyone who has played the videogame L.A. Noire will recognise the themes in Gangster Squad.
Yet Will Beall’s (TV’s Castle) screenplay is actually based on Paul Lieberman’s series of articles entitled Tales From The Gangster Squad. This ‘true life’ story, set in Los Angeles in 1949, follows Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen’s (Sean Penn) attempt to take over the town. With judges, politicians and the police in his pocket, plus a ruthless policy of killing or intimidating witnesses, it seems nothing can stop him.
That’s until Nick Nolte’s police chief asks Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) to create a rogue outfit of cops willing to do whatever it takes to break up Cohen’s operation. It’s not long before he’s rounded up the wise-cracking slacker (Ryan Gosling), the tough black beat cop (Anthony Mackie), the sharp shooter (Robert Patrick), the brain (Giovanni Ribisi) and the sidekick (Michael Peña).
It’s a cracking set up that somehow never reaches its full potential. Penn’s turn as Cohen doesn’t help, gurned so much his rubber face wouldn’t have looked out of place amongst the puppets on Spitting Image.
The only thing stopping Penn’s performance as a sneering Cohen from being criticised more heavily is Nolte. Whether he knew he was in the movie or not – and anyone who has seen his red carpet experience might ask – is questionable. And the actor hasn’t just let himself go, he’s ballooned to the point where he’d be in the running to play the Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters: The Musical. It’s a sad sight to see.
Any hope of deeper character explorations for the Squad themselves, as they wonder if what they’re doing is really right, are also lost along the way as their throwaway psychoanalysis barely has time to be heard between stylised action sequences. Wider themes looking at how a society deals with the return of a well-trained mass of killers from active service also get short shrift.
Despite all of those concerns, Gangster Squad is actually very entertaining. Some genuine humour early on lightens the tone, the film is stylishly shot by Oscar-winning director of photography Dion Beebe and the real life locations make you want to book that flight out of grey old Britain right now.
For once even the dreaded word ‘reshoots’ – which usually suggests the first cut wasn’t strong enough – is not an issue. A scene showing a shoot-out in a cinema was deemed to be too heavy going for the audience, given the real life theatre shootings that happened during a Dark Knight Rises screening in Aurora.
Gangster Squad hasn’t lost any of its bite because of that omission. It’s not easy to accuse a film of skimping on the violence when it starts with a man in chains between two revving cars and segues into a bloody fight against multiple opponents.
VERDICT: 6/10
Midnight Son: Review
Sun-dodging, sex and sanguination in a moody vamp horror from the director of The Blair Witch Project…
Whatever happened to movie monsters the good guys love to kill? Creatures of the night used to bring whole communities together, carrying torches and waving pitchforks, yet there’s no such nimby attitude these days. Whereas women used to run screaming from vampires, they are now more likely to jump on anything without a pulse. Perhaps this is the true, lasting legacy of Twilight, a series of films that saw its female lead debate whether to date a werewolf or a bloodsucker. It was restaurant silver service rather than silver bullets, steak tartine rather than stake through the heart. With zombie love story Warm Bodies on the way, things are only going to get worse.
It’s therefore disarming to find out that Midnight Son was shot in 2007 – a year before Twilight’s release – with principle photography taking place over 22 nights in Los Angeles and a few scenes being added years later. Had Scott Leberecht’s (The Blair Witch Project) film been released six years ago, its decision to ask the audience to feel sympathy for someone who stalks the night(shift) would have seemed much fresher.
The story follows Jacob (Zak Kilberg), an overnight security guard who had a normal childhood until a rare skin condition forced him to seek shelter during daylight. A joke from his junkie girlfriend Mary (Maya Parish) and a sudden change in his health – where no amount of eating can satisfy his hunger – has him renting vampire flicks and checking out his teeth in the mirror to see if he might be on the change.
Midnight Son uses its low budget to great effect. Vérité-style camerawork gives it a raw – if not quite bleeding – edge, witnessed in the handheld back and forth of a street conversation or the extreme close-ups of its insatiable lead character. Kilberg is RPattz without the sparkle, all tortured looks and glaring appetites.
Writer/director/producer Leberecht’s artistic input, meanwhile, even extends to the painted pictures of sunrises and sunsets Jacob obsessively crafts. Moody, mean and with a glimpse of LA’s darker side, it’s just a shame his film didn’t see sunlight for so long.
VERDICT: 8/10
Midnight Son opens in cinemas in key UK cities on 11 January 2013.
- Like this movie? Check out the season eight Supernatural episode Bitten to see an awesome found footage take on what it’s like to become a werewolf.
Argo: Review
“This would be one of the worst films ever made if it wasn’t a true story,” Ben Affleck admits in a press interview for Argo, and he’s right.
This pottiest of pot boilers sees six US Embassy staff escape into Tehran when a crowd breaches their secure complex and takes everyone else hostage. Fearing for their lives if they are caught by the Iranian hardliners, their possible escape routes sit squarely between a rock and a hard place.
That’s until CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a crazy plan to shoot a made-up sci-fi film in Iran, sneaking the six out as Canadian filmmakers once they’ve scouted possible locations. Cue the creation of a fake studio, the interest of a known director and the search for a suitable script. The premise is bonkers – but given that it is true, also fascinating.
Affleck doubles up on directing duty and manages to pull off a difficult task in that area. Mixing the very real fear of execution with some genuine humour and sly digs at the LA film industry is a difficult juggling act, but for the most part it hangs together. He gives Argo the pace and attitude of a heist movie, the weird vibe of Star Wars and even occasionally throws in the swagger of Anchorman as part of his ’70s setting. Some of the taches are so luscious it’s a wonder part of the ticket price isn’t being handed over to charity for Movember.
His cast also do him proud. Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane and Christoper Denham excel as the bickering Embassy staff unsure of whether to trust Mendez or not. Meanwhile, John Goodman (glib as hell as real-life make-up artist John Chambers) and Alan Arkin (on his best grumpy form) handle the Hollywood (or should that be ‘LLYWO D’ as the sign read in those days) side of things with aplomb. Bryan Cranston also continues an excellent run as Mendez’s boss, proving it’s almost impossible to pigeonhole him.
In fact, the only real weak link is Affleck himself. Directing, producing and starring is a tough gig and perhaps it took its toll, as it’s his character that rises least to the challenges facing all those involved. Waking up in what looks like Tracey Emin’s bed and chatting to his 10-year-old son on the phone feel like lazy attempts to fill out Mendez’s backstory. And while, admittedly, he’s supposed to be the cool and professional one of the group, we never really get the sense that he feels the danger or the pressure of the situation – despite the inclusion of the inevitable fuck-you scene as he argues with his superiors.
As for Affleck’s quote, about Argo being one of the worst films ever made had it not been true? It easily avoids that thanks to its effective period recreations, fine character acting, some truly gripping moments and a plot that really does defy belief.
VERDICT: 8/10
Argo was released in US cinemas on 12 October 2012 and is in UK cinemas 7 November 2012.
Excision: Review
We need to talk about Pauline…
Ticking off the plot points in director Richard Bates Jr’s Excision should be an exercise in eye-rolling. Teen misfit? Check. Dull suburban setting? You bet. Sexual urges on the path to womanhood? Of course. Overbearing parent? And then some.
Given the number of times audiences have been bombarded with all of those concepts, the big surprise is that first time feature director Bates is able to wring so much blood from such an old corpse. He takes his mission to bring fresh horror to these stale elements very seriously and the well-worn cliches of a nice family home, nagging parents and awkward teen exchanges become a suburban landscape so weird it is no surprise when a resident of Twin Peaks shows up (Leland Palmer – aka actor Ray Wise, playing the school headmaster).
The story follows Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord), a delusional teenage outcast who spends her time browsing surgical equipment on eBay and bunking off school to read medical books in the local library. This unhealthy anatomical obsession is not helped by the fact that her sister Grace (Modern Family’s Ariel Winter) has cystic fibrosis and may need a serious operation to save her life.
Pauline’s blossoming sexual awakening also brings with it the kind of erotic dreams Ken Russell (The Devils) would have loved, full of semi-naked, writhing extras with a fetish for blood. It is clear from the very first frame of Excision that Pauline is heavily aroused by these nighttime visions, and they become more intense as her mental state deteriorates.
While the world inside Pauline’s head is disturbed, the one outside it isn’t much better. Family dinners provide endless drama as she battles a repressive, disapproving mother (ex-adult film star Traci Lords), who dotes on the younger, sickly daughter. Meanwhile, at school her classmates view her with suspicion and disgust, the word “Gross” already hanging in the air before they speak it aloud. Her social standing isn’t helped by her boyish, spotty looks. The one time she does properly scrub up, it’s a real transformation.
However, Pauline is not a powerless victim to her circumstances. McCord plays her as an angry outsider, full of rage and dark thoughts. Bates adapted Excision from his highly-praised short film of the same name, which picked up 24 awards from more than 50 film festivals – including Austin Fantastic Fest and the Sundance Film Festival. His snappy dialogue in this extended version provides Pauline with plenty of zingers that lift the humour up from those murky depths, her quick wit and outspoken remarks leaving other characters stunned.
Excision is released in UK cinemas on 2 November 2012, with the DVD and Blu-ray arriving in shops just 10 days later. Bonus features include the film’s original theatrical trailer and a feature commentary with director Bates and star McCord.
Extras aside, this is one to buy for the genuine laughs Bates manages to create from such taboo material. Be warned though, this is humour so dark you’ll want to check there are candles in the house before pressing play.
Verdict: 8/10
Excision is released in UK cinemas on 2 November 2012, and on DVD and Blu-ray on 12 November 2012.
Looper: Review
Matt Chapman finds that watching Jo Gordon-Levitt become Bruce Willis is time very well spent…
“This decade’s The Matrix,” says the UK’s second biggest film mag*. “I respectfully disagree,” says Thatfilmthing’s screening buddy, “I’d call it ‘this year’s The Omen’.”
He’s got a point. But the bigger surprise is that Looper is, basically, every time travel movie you’ve ever seen. And you’ll still come out at the end and think it’s a cracker.
Where some films would be afraid to dip their toes in the already murky waters of previous time-bending flicks, Looper practically drowns itself. It manages to – we have to assume consciously – allude to so many other works in this genre that it is almost more of a mash up than a gentle homage.
The plot sees Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the man crush continues) as a heartless killer, blowing away people sent back in time by future mobsters who are finding it a little difficult to get rid of bodies. Only problem is this gig has a life expectancy and when the loop is closed the assassin kills his future self and gets a big payoff – all in the knowledge he’ll be sent back in 30 years’ time as a victim of his own gun. Understandably, Bruce Willis (the older version of Gordon-Levitt) is unhappy with this turn of events and decides to do a runner.
Willis himself must feel the familiar turf beneath his boots as he plays a man from a messed up future stepping back into a past he’s not sure he can save (a la 12 Monkeys). Even the diner he chows down in with his younger incarnation recalls The Kid, when a younger Willis met the older version of himself and was appalled at what he saw. It all sounds very familiar.
Throw in the fact that one of the actors tracking down Willis and Gordon-Levitt is Garret Dillahunt, who played The Terminator in the short-lived TV series, and the knowing winks are starting to look like someone having a stroke.
If all that sounds like you won’t see anything new in Looper, think again. While it borrows some of the well-worn plotting of previous time-twisters it still has plenty of fresh ideas of its own. One of those – and we won’t say which but trust us you’ll know when you see it – is one of the best uses of time travel we’ve ever seen.
And that’s all we’re going to say. Because this is one of those films it is much better to see not knowing where the twists in the road lead. We’re thinking about your future here people – and we don’t want to kill it.
Verdict: 9/10
* Although weirdly this quote doesn’t actually appear in the Looper film review itself.
Review: The Sweeney
Thatfilmthing asked genuine Cockney geezer, Mark Gillman, to jump in the classic Ford Granada and screech down to the multiplex to review The Sweeney. Where’s the popcorn, you slaaaaags?!?!
As I take my seat in the cinema waiting for the sixth instalment of a Nick Love feature film, I feel a sense of endearment. It’s somewhat similar to what a teenage girl has for Hello Kitty. You see, Nick Love and myself have a long history. My jack the lad character and dress sense has long drawn comparisons with the film director. It’s something that my film colleagues have also noticed.
Following Nick’s career has had its problems, as I often find myself defending him to my peers. But what people seem to forget (but somehow love Kevin Smith for), is Nick Love sticks to what he knows best. For those that don’t know: sex, drugs, cockney slang, foul language, football, designer clothing and violence are his chosen film vices.
No one can deny his success though. For low budget film making of usually the £2m-£3m million mark, Nick’s films often reach the one million mark in DVD sales alone. Nick’s scripts have attracted the cream of British actors, including Danny Dyer, Sean Bean, Bob Hoskins, Frank Harper, Tamer Hassan and Ray Winstone. Cunting legends the lot of ’em!
I prepared myself for the film by decking out in my best Stone Island clobber and came tooled up with a bag of penny sweets from the corner shop that my bird smuggled in her handbag. Fackin’ cinema prices total rip off. I’m just glad me bird loves an Orange Wednesday and a fumble in the car park after.
Having not seen any episodes of the previous Sweeney TV series (too young), I take to this film with fresh eyes and perspective. The look of the film is a classic Nick Love budget trick of using desaturated colour to illustrate a grey and gloomyLondon.
Ray Winstone cast as Regan was a good choice as he is a dab hand at playing a miserable nasty cunt and the term ‘you slaaaaaag’ rolls off the tip of his tongue. Ben Drew/Plan B as Carter was a daring move and shows Nick isn’t shy of innovative casting and giving someone a chance. The fella’s good, but the little chav has a lot to learn if he wants to take Dyer’s throne.
The best scenes are by far the driving chases and the gun fight in Trafalgar Square.The plot is strong and action packed and hits all the right sensors that us young males crave. Hayley Atwell – who playsNancy- is a bit of a sort too. Even has that fit bird from Eastenders in it, Kara Tointon. The film consists of everything it would say on the Nick Love tin. It’s one of Nick’s better movies but is not a patch on his greatest movie to date, The Business!
The Brits love nothing more than an underdog and the underdog has done it yet again with news that The Sweeney is top of the UKfilm charts. Nick Love is the Marmite of British film. You either love him or hate him. Me? Fackin’ spread that all over me bread all day mate! The Sweeney is definitely worth seeing at the cinema for an Ayrton Senna (tenner).
Verdict: 7 out of 10
Want The Gillman to report back on more Cockney gems? Leave him a comment below…
Starship Troopers: Review
Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers has the Reich stuff…