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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 09 July 2014

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes picks up ten “winters” after the 2011 reboot.  Human society has collapsed.  A man-made virus wiped out half the planet and for the remainder, it’s summed up best by a television interviewee – “those not killed by the virus will be killed by the fighting.”  Governments have been shut down and martial law has been declared in 28 countries.

As for the super-intelligent apes, they’ve fared much better.  They’ve forged their own civilisation in a secluded forest just outside of San Francisco.  They can hunt, ride horses, make weapons and build shelter.  They have even come up with a simple set of laws by which they can live.  First and foremost, apes cannot kill other apes.

While they’d prefer to steer clear, the apes soon find themselves thrust back into the human world.  A small pocket of survivors, who were genetically immune to the virus, have made a new home for themselves amongst the overgrown ruins of San Francisco.

In search of an energy source, the humans are looking to restart an electricity-generating dam which just so happens to be close to the apes’ home.  We get to see things from both perspectives.  The leader of the apes, Caesar (Serkis), wants to trust the humans and allow them to operate the dam… but some of his offsiders believe that they’re up to no good.  The humans also have division within the ranks.  Some want to negotiate… but others want to use their military strength to obliterate the apes before they become too strong.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the original reboot but Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes reeled me in quickly and held me right through to the action finale.  I was surprised at how political it was (don’t let that be a turn off).  It’s not a simple ape versus human storyline.  On both sides, there’s intense debate about the best course of action and the answers aren’t always that clear.

You’d be hard pressed to find another film so far in 2014 that asks more of the special effects artists.  The visuals were created by Weta Digital (the same company behind The Lord Of The Rings movies) and the apes could not look more real, more realistic.  When you look closely at the wet fur and their bloody scratches, you’ll see the ridiculous attention to detail.  The background images also deserve attention.  The ruined streets and buildings of San Francisco are both eerie and beautiful.

The focus of this film is on the apes (that’s obvious right from the start) but I still a little disappointed with the way the humans disappeared from the story in the final half hour.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense and it’s my only qualm in what is one of the year’s strongest, most thought-provoking action releases.  Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) deserves a big wrap.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 01 July 2014

Based on the Tony Award winning musical that has been performed across the globe, Jersey Boys chronicles the life of the iconic pop band, the Four Seasons.  It begins in 1951 when Frankie Valli (Young) was a just young guy working in a barber shop in New Jersey.  He knew there were only three ways to get out of town – join the Army, join the mob or get famous.

Valli decided to go with options 2 and 3.  He befriended a mob boss (Walken) and teamed up with good friend Tommy DeVito (Piazza) to start a small band.  It was nothing big at first.  They simply performed in front of a few dozen people in small clubs.  It wasn’t until 10 years later and the arrival of a talented singer-songwriter named Bob Gaudio (Bergen), that the doors finally burst open.

Over a ridiculously fruitful 5-year stretch, they recorded a string of hits including “Sherry”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like A Man”, “Rag Doll” and “Bye, Bye, Baby”.  However, that’s not the reason why their story has been adapted for the big screen.  There were a string of bands in that era (headlined by The Beatles) who were equally, if not more, successful.

What makes the tale of The Four Seasons so compelling are the numerous backstories.  Frankie struggled to come to grips with his overnight stardom and his family life back in New Jersey took a back seat.  Tommy battled a huge gambling addiction and became indebted to the mob.  Bob wanted to step away from the stage and devote himself solely to song writing.  The more successful they became, the harder it was to stick together.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see the stage show on two occasions – on London’s West End back in 2010 and here in Brisbane in 2012.  It’s immensely entertaining – devoting just the right amount of time between the dialogue-driven narrative and their ever popular music.  I can still remember the crowd in London.  Old women were on their feet and joyously signing along to the final song “Oh, What A Night”.

This cinematic version, directed by 84-year-old Clint Eastwood, isn’t quite as engaging.  For starters, I don’t really know if it can be classed as a “musical”.  Writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, who were also responsible for the stage show, have trimmed the songs to go with something more dramatic, more dialogue-heavy.  It’s not the right approach.  The film culminates with a huge musical number (during the closing credits) and my first thought was – “that’s what that whole film should have been like.”

Despite the lack of pizzazz, the terrific performances from the cast give the film a much needed boost.  Vincent Piazza (Rocket Science) is sensational as Tommy DeVito – the band’s controlling leader who slowly starts to lose his grip.  John Lloyd Young is also superb… but that’s to be expected.  He played Valli in the original Broadway show back in 2005 and won a Tony Award for his efforts.  The most recognisable name amongst the cast is Christopher Walken who has fun with his role as a powerful mobster.

I’d always take the live stage show if given a choice but if you’re a fan of The Four Seasons, there’s probably nothing I can say that’ll stop you from seeing this.  You’ll like it too.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 July 2014

In the city of Mumbai, India, you’ll find a lunch delivery system that is both intricate and incredible.  The wife cooks the lunch in the morning, it is picked up by a guy known as a “dabbawala”, and it is transported directly to the desk of her husband at work.  Roughly 250,000 lunches are delivered each day via a mix of foot, road and rail.  Oh, and the term “dabbawala” is translated to “one who carries a box.”

It’s a cool concept that also makes for a very cool premise to a movie.  Saajan (Khan) is a widowed husband who is about to retire from the same government job that he’s held for 35 years.  He lives alone and generally keeps to himself.  He’s not looking to make new friends.  He’s not looking for a new romance.  Saajan does miss good food though.  Not much of cook, his evening meal is usually something he’s taken out of the packet and heated up in the microwave.

One day at work, Saajan is delivered a lunchbox.  It’s a mistake.  His lunches are supposed to come from a dodgy café that puts too much cauliflower in everything.  This one is different.  It’s a scrumptious, spicy curry (that’s just a touch salty) complete with ample amounts of naan bread.  He licks the bowls clean, repackages the lunchbox, and waits for it to be picked up by the dabbawalas and returned home.

It’s a scenario that is repeated the next day and the two people involved, finally start to catch on.  The person at the other end of the chain is Ila (Kaur) – a wife who seldom sees her workaholic, unresponsive husband.  She too realises her lunches are being misdelivered when her husband starts complaining (he’s getting the stuff from the café with too much cauliflower).  She writes a letter, slips it under the naan bread, and leaves it in her next lunch for the recipient to discover.

When I grew up, I remember having a pen pal.  I didn’t have a computer, the internet or a mobile phone.  The only way I could communicate with this person on the other side of the planet was to put pen to paper and craft a hand-written letter.  We often forget this is how we communicated for centuries.  It’s a nice touch to see The Lunchbox tapping into that fact.  Over the course of a few weeks, Saajan and Ila write letters back and forth (all of them concealed in the green lunchbox).  They each open up about their problems and they slowly get to know each other a little better. 

Written and directed by Ritesh Batra, this is a sweet, heartfelt romantic drama about two people looking to connect with someone new.  It’s hard not to feel for both characters thanks to the superb performances of both Irrfan Khan (The Namesake) and Nimrat Kaur (Peddlers).  The film also makes effective use of the location.  We are shown the sights and sounds of India – from the busy, chaotic streets to the quiet, regimented workplaces.  It’s just a shame we can’t smell the food!

The film drags a little in the later stages (where Ila’s husband is pushed into the background) but all in all, this is an enlightening, feel-good movie that will almost certainly win you over.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 June 2014

There are times in life when it is critically important to follow a strict formula.  If I need someone to build my dream home, the construction workers need to be millimetre-perfect with their measurements.  If I need someone to produce a drug for my nasty flu, I need the chemist to be precise with the mix of ingredients.  If I need to borrow money for my start-up enterprise, I need the bank manager to calculate the correct amount of interest for the repayment schedule.

It’s not often I use the terms “millimetre-perfect”, “precise” and “correct” when describing the work of a filmmaker.  This is because the world of cinema is a hugely creative medium.  Every director needs to put a finished product up on the big screen… but how they get there is completely up them (or perhaps a meddling producer).

The concern I have with Transformers: Age Of Extinction is that it’s all so tiringly unoriginal.  Aside from the stellar efforts from the visual effects team (who must have received the majority of the film’s $165m budget), it feels like an amalgamation of action clichés.  It’s so extreme, so over-the-top that it makes The Fast & The Furious franchise look like an episode of the Golden Girls.

To set the scene, Age Of Extinction is a mini-reboot in the sense that it’s dumped the original cast (Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson) and gone with a clean slate.  The story is set five years after Dark Of The Moon (released back in 2011) and shows the world to be a very different place.  A top-secret, heavily funded government department, that doesn’t even report to the U.S. President, has taken it upon themselves to rid the world of the friendly Transformers – known as the “autobots”.

Why would they do this?  It turns out the department’s head, played a laughably “sinister” Kelsey Grammer, has grandiose plans.  He wants to use the Transformers technology to create an army of robots that will forever defend the United States from its growing list of adversaries.  It’s not just a power trip though.  He’s also got shares in the company (run by Stanley Tucci) so stands to make tens of millions of dollars.  I guess he forgot to note that in his “conflicts of interest” register.

The only person (seemingly) who can save the day is Cade Yeager (Wahlberg) – a penniless technician who can’t catch a break.  He’s six months behind on his mortgage payments and the bank is about to foreclose.  His 17-year-old daughter (Peltz), who somehow has enough money for beauty products, has missed out on a college scholarship and now sees her future in doubt.  Oh, and there’s the issue of her 20-year-old, racing car driver boyfriend (Reynor).  Cade has been crafted as an over-over-overbearing father and so screenwriter Ehren Kruger uses it to insert a tiring number of jokes where he and the boyfriend antagonise each other.

The film clocks in at an unnecessarily long running time of 165 minutes.  It’s surprising how little story there is given the length.  It doesn’t have the complexity or nuance of a top-notch superhero flick.  There’s no blurry line between good and evil.  Transformers: Age Of Extinction provides action with zero tension.  That’s it.  You’ll see exploding cars, exploding boats, exploding buildings – complete with actors running in slow-motion away and some really cheesy dialogue.

If they’d have taken the 22 Jump Street approach and designed this more as a spoof, I’d have been much more agreeable.  Instead, director Michael Bay has created an overly serious piece that wins points for its sheer spectacle… but not much else.

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 July 2014

Father James (Gleeson) opens the confessional window.  On the other side is an unknown man who reveals that he was repeatedly molested by a priest, when he was just 7 years old.  Father James asks what he can do to help but the man isn’t interested in suggestions.  While the priest involved has since passed away, this man is looking to send a very strong message to the Catholic Church.  He reveals that he intends to kill Father James in one week’s time.  He’s only providing advance notice so that Father James can get his affairs in order.

It’s an explosive opening scene.  This all takes place before the opening titles have had their chance to impress.  If that was all I told you though, you may expect this to be some kind of “whodunit” thriller.  Trust me, it’s not.  Father James isn’t trying to track down the identity of the soon-to-be assassin.  While it’s not revealed to the audience, he knows exactly who it is.

So what is this film about then?  In essence, we follow Father James as he interacts with an assortment of folk in his small Irish town.  It’s a rather odd place.  Everyone acts like they’re hiding something.  They also seem intent on putting Father James to the test.  They bombard him with questions about God and hope that he’ll slip up and say the wrong thing.  He’s too good for that though.  He’s a sharp, experienced individual who knows when to answer… and when to not.

Over the course of the week, he tries to make peace with his middle-aged daughter (Reilly), who he knows he hasn’t spent enough time with.  He administers the last rights to a French man on the verge of death after a terrible car accident.  He talks to an unrepentant prisoner serving a life sentence for a series of murders.  He investigates a domestic disturbance that has left one of his parishioners with a black eye.

This may sound a contradiction but Calvary is a wonderfully uncomfortable film.  Despite the heavy subject matter, there are clearly moments where writer-director John Michael McDonough is looking for laughs.  This is a black comedy with heavy emphasis on the word “black”.  There some moments during my preview screening that were greeted with a mix of stunned silence and shocked laughter.

McDonough was response for one of my top 10 films of 2011 – The Guard.  It too starred Brendan Gleeson and was the comedic tale of a disenchanted Irish police officer forced to team up with an American FBI agent to solve a murder.  This isn’t quite on the same level but it’s still a very good thought provoker.  You’ll have to work hard to get inside the head of each character.  I’m keen to see it again.