Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 10 December 2014

Put yourself in the shoes of Mr Brown.  You’ve just stepped off a train and see a small talking bear waiting on the platform.  It turns out the bear is at the end of an incredibly long journey from “Darkest Peru” and is looking for somewhere to live in London.  Listening to the strong pleas of your wife and two children, you reluctantly agree to let the bear stay the night.

So what’s the first thing you do on getting home?  In the case of this Mr Brown, who just so happens to work as a risk assessor, he calls his insurance company.  He wants to make sure that he’s covered for any “bear related damage” in case the whole thing goes pear shaped.

The point I’m trying to make is that this is more than just a simple kids’ film about a cute coat-wearing bear.  Yes, there are scenes where the bear causes absolute mayhem which will leave most children laughing.  A moment where he uses Mr Brown’s toothbrush to clear the gunk from his ears springs to mind.  Just as importantly though, there’s enough humour for adults (evidenced by the insurance example) to keep them equally entertained.

The film opens with a short backstory.  We learn that Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) was raised by his loving aunt and uncle in a beautiful Peruvian forest.  Many years ago, they were visited by an English explorer who promised that if they ever came to London, he’d welcome them into his home.  That pretty much leads into the current day narrative.  Paddington is travelling alone as his uncle recently passed away and his aunt is quite frail.

The Brown family are doing their best to help Paddington track down the English explorer (no one knows his name) but a villain is thrown into the mix to make life more difficult.  A museum taxidermist (played by Nicole Kidman) is looking to get her hands on the bear so it can be killed and stuffed for her own private collection.

What struck me most about the film was the quality of animation.  I make this statement about so many animated features but the bar keeps being raised higher and higher.  Once you get caught up in the story, you’ll quickly forget that Paddington is the creation of the gifted animation team.  From his mannerisms to his thick fur, the attention to detail is incredible.

The storyline is sweet and simple – another positive if taking young children along.  The film’s weaker moments tend to revolve around Kidman as the villain.  She’s a silly, non-threatening character and it makes me wonder if Paul King and Hamish McColl were afraid of making something that might be too dark for the kids.

With Alexander & The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day released last Thursday here in Australia, it looks like there are plenty of decent offerings for children and their accompanying parents over the school holidays.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 25 November 2014

The way in which people connect has transformed significantly over the past decade.  That’s certainly a key theme in Men, Women & Children – the latest effort from writer-director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air).  There isn’t really a leading character.  Drawing from Chad Kultgen’s novel of the same name (first published in 2011), the film weaves a group of loosely related stories together.

Starting with the adults… Don (Sandler) is a middle-aged man who seems to be more interested in downloading pornography than sleeping with his wife.  Helen (DeWitt) is a married woman who has found a website designed for those looking to have an affair.  Patricia (Garner) is an overprotective mother who checks her teenage daughter’s internet use every day.  Kent (Norris) is a football-loving father who doesn’t understand why his son has lost interest in the sport.  Joan (Greer) is a single mum who is nurturing her daughter’s aspirations to become a reality television star. 

Moving on to the teenagers… Tim (Elgort) is a former football star who has reached out to a new group of friends through an online video game.  Allison (Kampouris) is a cheerleader who is using tips from an ill-informed “extreme dieting” website to lose weight.  Chris (Tope) is an introverted kid who has become addicted to a series of porn sites.  Hannah (Crocicchia) is a wanna-be actress who will do anything to achieve her goals.  Brandy (Dever) is a sheltered youngster who opens up about herself through a secret online blog.

There’s a lot of troubled characters and to the film’s credit, most of them are quite interesting.  The common link is that they’ve all turned to the internet in search of interaction – sometimes in a positive way, sometimes in a negative way.  People often lament about the “good old days” where you met people face-to-face or spoke to them over the phone.  Reitman’s film shows how much the world has changed through the advent of social media, dating apps, blogs, adult websites, and shared video games.  There’s plenty of food for thought here.

In terms of the performances, it’s the younger cast members that shine most brightly.  They deftly illustrate the complexities of finding friends, discovering love and exploring their sexuality in today’s age.  I wasn’t as enamoured by the adult storylines.  Jennifer Garner feels too over-the-top as a mother who essentially stalks her own children.  There are still some nice conversations though and an exchange between Judy Greer and Dean Norris in a restaurant springs to mind.

Much of the film’s hard work is undone by a weak finale.  Most of the characters go through a life-changing epiphany that doesn’t ring true.  It’s as if writers Jason Reitman and Erin Cressida Wilson are trying too hard to wrap everything up neatly for the audience’s satisfaction.  I’ve a hunch that if we revisited these characters in a year’s time, not all would be as happy and as stable as the conclusion suggests.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 December 2014

Released back in 2011, Horrible Bosses was a successful dark comedy that followed three guys of questionable intelligence who attempted to kill their respective bosses.  It didn’t go as planned but in the end, their problems were solved and they all escaped jail time.  It may sound like quite a sick premise but the film worked because (1) it was so ridiculously over-the-top that you couldn’t take it seriously, and (2) there was great comedic chemistry between the three leads – Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis.

This latest sequel reunites them under different circumstances.  Nick, Dale and Kurt no longer have to worry about evil, vindictive, overbearing bosses.  That’s because they’re working for themselves.  They’ve started their own company and are trying to sell a new type of shower head that they’ve named the “Shower Buddy” (after much debate).

After making a deal with a wealthy businessman (Waltz) to invest in the product, our illustrious trio take out a $500,000 loan and kick start production.  Unfortunately, they’ve been set up.  The businessman, Burt Hanson, reveals that no formal contract was signed.  He intends to renege on the deal, bankrupt their company, and take the Shower Buddy stock at a greatly reduced price.

Nick, Dale and Kurt have decided against murder as their revenge tool in this instance.  They’re branching out into something different – kidnapping.  Acting on the advice from an old criminal acquaintance (Foxx), they concoct an elaborate plan to kidnap Burt’s son, Rex (Pine), and demand a ransom of $500,000.  Just like the first film, it all degenerates into a complete farce with plenty of laughs.

Director Seth Gordon didn’t return for this sequel (he was off working on other projects).  Instead, Sean Anders steps into the hot seat as his replacement.  Anders’ resume wouldn’t exactly fill you with confidence (he was a writer on Hot Tub Time Machine, Mr Popper’s Penguins and That’s My Boy) but he’s preserved the spirit of the original and delivered a film worth your money.

In articulating my thoughts, I may as well do a “cut and paste” job from my review of the last movie.  The dynamic between the three leading actors makes the far-fetched premise work.  Jason Bateman plays the serious, logical guy.  Charlie Day plays the moronic goofball.  Jason Sudeikis fits somewhere in between.  The supporting players all make the most of their limited screen time.

The film also picks up points for its screenplay.  Comedic sequels often fall into the trap of sticking too closely to their predecessors but that’s not the case here.  Instead of more “boss killing”, the two-man writing team have crafted a fresh scenario that has room for returning cast members (Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey) as well as new recruits (Christoph Waltz, Chris Pine).

I wouldn’t say it’s better than the original… but it’s very close to being its equal.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 23 November 2014

Unemployed for quite some time, Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal) has found a new profession to sink his teeth into.  Using a police scanner and a cheap video camera, he drives the streets of Los Angeles at night and tries to capture exclusive video footage of “newsworthy” events such as fires and car crashes.  He can then sell the footage to television networks to use on their much-watched breakfast programs.

There’s an early sequence where Louis arrives at the scene of a brutal carjacking.  Paramedics are treating the victim who is covered in blood and in critical condition.  A rival cameraman (Paxton) is also in attendance and is capturing the events from a few metres away.  Perhaps this is out of respect for the driver.  Perhaps because he knows news stations don’t want footage that is too unsettling.

Louis seems to have a different view of things.  He jams the camera in the face of the victim and seems to be taking pleasure from the gory footage.  It’s a moment that sums up Louis.  He’s a strange, socially awkward guy who doesn’t seem to know the difference from right and wrong.

Adding to the film’s odd premise is the fact that Louis has an enabler.  Nina Romina (Russo) is the news director for a breakfast program that is struggling in the ratings battle and is keen to use Louis’s material.  She explains that the best stories are those that involve minority perpetrators and white, middle-class victims.  Her idea of the perfect footage would involve “a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut.”

Nightcrawler follows Louis as his moral compass goes further and further awry.  He tampers with a crime scene so as to get a better camera angle.  He sabotages his competition so as to increase his industry standing.  He uses his newfound power as a way of controlling Nina and a newly hired intern.  The fact that he’s become such a success is truly scary.

Written and directed by Dan Gilroy (a screenwriter on Real Steel and The Bourne Legacy), Nightcrawler does have something to say about the public’s fascination with certain types of news stories.  It comes back to the old adage – “if it bleeds, it leads.”  I wasn’t fully convinced by some of the behind-the-scenes newsroom stuff but thankfully, this isn’t the real focus of the film.  It’s more of a character study… and an unsettling one at that.

Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Brokeback Mountain) delivers a chilling performance as Louis Bloom.  He speaks in a robotic like manner and continually uses phrases which feel like they’re straight out of a self-help book.  When you throw in his passive aggressive personality, you’ve got one of the creepiest characters that we’ve seen on screen this year.  You don’t want this guy getting the upper hand on you!

An interesting piece of trivia about the film are the number of family connections.  Working behind the scenes are Dan Gilroy’s two brothers.  Tony Gilroy, who most will know as the Oscar nominated writer-director of Michael Clayton, is credited as a producer.  John Gilroy serves as the film’s editor (building on his resume which includes films such as Warrior and Pacific Rim).  In front of camera is Rene Russo (Get Shorty, The Thomas Crown Affair), Dan’s wife of more than 22 years.

The screenplay gets a little too far-fetched during the concluding stages but the positives clearly outweigh the negatives with Nightcrawler.  It’ll give you a good, hard shaking.

You can read my chat with writer-director Dan Gilroy by clicking here.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 November 2014

11-year-old Alexander Cooper (Oxenbould) has been having a bit of a bad run.  He tripped over and landed on his face when trying to impress a girl.  He set fire to a poster at school while conducting a science experiment.  Now, he’s just found out that a super-popular classmate has scheduled his 12^th birthday party for the same date and time as his own (meaning no one will come to his).

Alexander’s family aren’t offering a lot in the way of sympathy.  They’ve taken the optimistic view that “there’s no such a thing as a bad day, it’s all how you look at it.”  I guess it’s any easy philosophy to buy into when things are going well.  His dad (Carrell) is set to get a better job at a cool company, his mum (Garner) is up for a big promotion at work, his older brother (Minnette) is set to get his driver’s licence, and his older sister (Dorsey) is about to star in a high school play.

So as the clock reaches midnight and his 12^th birthday begins, Alexander makes a simple wish – that his fellow family members realise what it feels like to have a bad day.  Sure enough, it comes true in spectacular fashion.  The next few hours will see the cheerful Cooper family go through a wild assortment of dramas that provide a very different perspective on life.

This is a good, old-fashioned family comedy.  It reminds me of similar live-action films I enjoyed growing up in the early 1990s including Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and Jumanji.  Kids will have no trouble following the simple storyline.  Adults will be able to relate to the broad premise – let’s be honest, we’ve all had terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days at some point in our lives.

This may be a high-profile Walt Disney Studios production but the film’s star is Ed Oxenbould, a 13-year-old Aussie with limited acting experience.  He went through a raft of auditions and beat out more than 500 American youngsters to land the title role.  Director Miguel Arteta described him as a “real kid” who was “not too over-the-top and fake” and yes, I agree with him.  It’s a neat way of summing up what makes Oxenbould’s character so fun and likeable.

The movie is loosely based on the 32-page children’s book of the same name written by Judith Viorst (it was first published in 1972).  I’ve had a few people look at me quizzically when I’ve mentioned the title but I’m glad to see they’ve stuck with it here.  It’s catchy... and it also captures the film’s essence – something that’s fun, silly and crazy.  A great choice for the family as the Christmas school holidays kick off here in Australia.

You can read my chat with Aussie star Ed Oxenbould by clicking here.