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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 29 May 2014

I’ve generally been a fan of Seth MacFarlane.  Family Guy has become an iconic animated series which is now in its 12^th season (although I admit that the earlier episodes are best).  The film Ted had some terrific one-liners and it’s easy to see why it grossed more than $500m at the international box-office.  He wasn’t the greatest Oscars host in 2013 (it’s always a tough gig) but a few of his jokes/barbs did hit the mark.

As for A Million Ways To Die In The West… it’s disappointing.  You’d think that you’d have plenty of room for good humour when trying to spoof the western genre, but MacFarlane falls back on the same childish material again and again.  Did we need 4 fart jokes in the opening 30 minutes?  Did we need another lengthy “character has chronic diarrhoea” scene?

I’m not against vulgar, politically incorrect comedies.  There’s Something About Mary and American Pie showed that you can use this style of humour effectively.  These films didn’t win the public over with simple fart jokes.  They created original gross-out moments that caught audiences off guard (testicles stuck in a zipper, a penis in pie) while also providing characters, as silly as they may be, who we can connect with.

Herein lies the biggest problem with A Million Ways To Die In The West.  Despite his best efforts, Seth MacFarlane cannot carry this film on his own.  There are lengthy set pieces where he’s trying to mock the western genre (such as the opening shoot out) but it feels more like a stand-up comedy routine.  The story is superfluous.  It doesn’t have the same wit and sophistication as what Mike Meyers was able to achieve with the Austin Powers franchise.

The thin premise sees Albert (MacFarlane) try to win back the heart of his long-time love interest, Louise (Seyfried).  How can I best describe Albert?  He’s like a not-so-funny version of Larry David.  He can’t keep his mouth shut, he overanalyses situations, and he does his best to offend every race and every religion.  It’s not hard to see why Louise dumped him and shacked up with the wealthy owner of the local “moustachery” (Harris).  I’d have done the same.

Helping Albert win back Louise’s affections will be a beautiful woman (Theron) who has arrived in town with her shabby-looking brother.  That is until a villainous, well-armed outlaw (Neeson) enters the picture.  It’s then time to cue the big action finale.

MacFarlane doesn’t ask much of his supporting cast.  They can hardly get a word in.  Sarah Silverman plays a popular prostitute and Giovanni Ribisi plays her boyfriend.  The running gag throughout the film is that she won’t sleep with him, despite the fact it’s what she does for a living.  It got a laugh out of me the first time but when you see the joke continually repeated throughout the film, you realise their characters have been wasted.  So too was my two hours.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 14 May 2014

A Godzilla movie doesn’t require a lot of explanation. You should know what to expect. In this adaptation, we learn that that the United States’ nuclear weapon testing program in the 1950s had nothing to do with the protection of its own borders. They were trying, unsuccessfully, to kill this giant creature that lives beneath the sea. The good news is that Godzilla disappeared after that. The world’s oceans are expansive and he decided to keep a low profile. Well, until now…

This film didn’t win me over with its human characters. Bryan Cranston is the guy who forecasts doom and gloom but no one will take him seriously. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a hero who keeps putting himself in harm’s way to save the day. Elizabeth Olsen is a mother trying to protect her young child. Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins are the scientists who have an explanation for everything. David Strathairn is the military guy who would prefer to use weapons as opposed to common sense.

These are characters we see continually in disaster movies. None of them are particularly charismatic, they all do what you’d expect, and you probably won’t care about their fate. That said, once you realise that the human characters aren’t the focus of the film, you can sit back and admire everything else.

In a similar vein to last year’s Pacific Rim, this is an epic “monster movie” and it’s been nicely shot by British director Gareth Edwards (Monsters). He teases the audiences with glimpses of the creature early on. You don’t get the expansive helicopter flyovers. We’re only seeing things from the perspective of the characters (or even from behind a mask in the case of Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s first full look).

The visual effects are impressive (a tsunami sequence is a highlight) but so too is the cinematography of Seamus McGarvey. You can tell that he’s trying to give this film style – from the use of camera angles, to the insertion of dust and flying debris. The score of Alexandre Desplat felt overbearing at times but you can the intention – to create something imposing, something epic.

One can argue that the film has some underlying messages too. Ken Watanabe’s character asks the question as to whether man controls nature or whether it is the other way around. Those going to see this film solely for its action sequences probably won’t care… but for others, you may be a surprised to find more depth than the trailers suggest.

The story needed more. I struggled to get up my head around the background material (how were they hiding the monster for so long in Japan?) and the attack plans didn’t seem all that logical (using trains then helicopters?). Still, there are enough positives in Godzilla to outweigh the negatives. It’s worth a look.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 May 2014

Two Scottish soldiers have returned to their home in Edinburgh after serving their country in Afghanistan. Ally (Guthrie) is keen to rekindle his relationship with his long-time girlfriend, Liz (Mavor). Davy (MacKay) finds himself smitten with a new love interest, Yvonne (Thomas). Rounded out the main are Rab (Mullan) and Jean (Horrocks), the parents to Davy and Liz and who are on the verge of their 25^th wedding anniversary.

This isn’t a war drama or a romantic comedy. This is a musical. Using the same concept from the ludicrously successful Mamma Mia, it has been created entirely from the songs of a popular group. If you’re not an ABBA fan, don’t stress. The two musicals aren’t that similar. However, if you’re not a fan of the British band The Proclaimers, you might want to give this a miss.

The narrative has been structured around 13 of The Proclaimers more popular songs. They include “Sunshine On Leith” (well, obviously), “Letter From America”, “I’m On My Way”, and “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”. It’s the creation of Stephen Greenhorn who wrote the stage musical (first performed in 2007) and has now adapted it for the big screen.

Directing the feature is Dexter Fletcher – who I most remember as Spike in the British television series Press Gang (which first aired back in 1989). He’s grown up, picked up a few more acting roles (Lock ,Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Kick-Ass), and is now transitioning to a life behind the camera.

To make a great musical, you need to have your audience hooked from the very start. You open with some of your better songs and you provide a story that can flow smoothly between them. That’s not really the case here. These tunes aren’t as catchy (perhaps because I didn’t know them previously) and the dialogue is clunky.

Things improve a little in the second half. The characters seem to go through mood swings every 5 minutes but we get to know them in more detail and understand what’s driving them. The film also takes a few dramatic turns (thankfully moving away from the dancing, happy-go-lucky stuff). There are several sequences that tug at the heartstrings.

Some subplots are woefully underdone (such as Rab’s relationship with his long-lost daughter) and while I’m not convinced that the story as a whole is all that interesting, lovers of musicals and/or The Proclaimers may find themselves overlooking the flaws and enjoying this film a lot more than me.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 12 May 2014

Child’s Pose is centred on a car accident. A young man, travelling down a freeway, changes lanes to overtake the car in front. His vision impaired by the other vehicle, he strikes a 14-year-old boy who was trying to run across the freeway. The boy is killed instantly.

Who’s to blame? Was the driver travelling at more than 140km/hr as suspected by the police? Did he have drugs or alcohol in his system? What about the driver of the car in front? Should he have slowed down to let the car behind overtake a little easier? Does the child bear some responsibility? Where were his parents? Why was he crossing a busy freeway?

Despite what you might think, this isn’t a “who did what” thriller. The camera’s attention isn’t focused on any of the abovementioned characters. Child’s Pose is told from the perspective of Cornelia (Gheorghiu) – the well-to-do mother of the car’s driver. She’s had a rocky relationship with her son for a number of years but is now trying to help him out in this time of need.

Cornelia is a tough character to get your head around… and that’s part of this film’s appeal. There’s a scene where her shaken son admits that he was driving 140km/hr, well above the speed limit, but she convinces him write down a significantly lower figure on his police statement. It’s her protective nature kicking in. She’s not concerned about guilt or innocence. She just wants to make sure, rightly or wrongly, her son stays out of jail.

That may sound rather sinister but how would you react in the same situation? What would you do if one of your children ran afoul of the law? How far would you go to support them? Cornelia implores with her son that pay his respects and attend the funeral of the deceased boy. Is her softer, compassionate side showing through? Or does she simply believe that showing empathy and attending the funeral will help her son’s chances if charges are laid?

Shot in Romania, Child’s Pose picked up the Golden Bear for the best feature in competition at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival. Luminita Gheorghiu (who I’d never heard of before) delivers a superb performance that earned her a nod for best actress at the 2013 European Film Awards – losing to Veerle Baetens in The Broken Circle Breakdown (which coincidentally is also released in Australia this week).

Exploring morality and forgiveness, mixed with a curious family dynamic, Child’s Pose is an involving piece of cinema.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 May 2014

Time can get away from you. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 14 years since director Bryan Singer launched one of cinema’s most successful superhero franchises. X-Men was released in July 2000 and the follow up, X2, was released three years later. That was it for Singer. He jumped off the fast-moving X-Men train and went in a different direction with a superhero reboot (Superman Returns), a WWII thriller (Valkyrie) and a fairy tale adaptation (Jack The Giant Slayer).

That is, until now. Singer is back in the director’s chair for X-Men: Days Of Future Past and he’s created an entertaining action flick with a predictable, yet still engaging, premise. It begins in the not-to-distant future where the planet has been all but obliterated by a series of highly sophisticated robots known as Sentinels. They were the creation of Dr Trask (Dinklage) – a military scientist trying to rid the world of mutants. Unfortunately, it all went pair shaped when the robots killed not just the mutants… but also the entire human population.

It’s a bleak opening. A flyover across New York City reveals to be a dark, depressing, uninhabited place. You might be wondering how the few surviving X-Men can get themselves out of this situation. Even if they could defeat the powerful Sentinels, what would be the point? The planet has already passed the point of repair.

The solution comes in the form of a familiar plot device – time travel. Shadowcat (Page) transports the Wolverine (Jackman) back to the 1970s where he will try to “end the war before it begins”. His task is to prevent the vengeful mutant Mystique (Lawrence) from killing Dr Trask at a peace summit in Paris. It was this event that kick started the Sentinel program and set the human race on a path from which it would not recover.

It’s a storyline that allows for a little creativity. We already know these characters… but now we have a chance to go back and time and conceive a new version of them. Wolverine has to find a way of uniting Professor X (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) despite the fact they are fierce enemies. It’s a cool approach and I’d best describe it as a subtle reboot (except with the same actors).

There’s also room for humour. 27-year-old Evan Peters (American Horror Story) steals the film with a 10-minute cameo as the mutant Quicksilver. With the ability to move as supersonic speeds, his skills are invaluable when Wolverine and Professor X try to break into the Pentagon. It’s the scene you’ll remember most.

Previous X-Men films have gone overboard with the number of characters but X-Men: Days Of Future Past has found the right balance. The focus is on the big four – Jackman, Lawrence, McAvoy and Fassbender. The other familiar names only pop up in “cameo” type roles (which is appropriate). My only qualm with the cast is that Peter Dinklage (Game Of Thrones) should have been given more to do as the film’s keynote villain.

The next step in the franchise is the unimaginatively titled X-Men: Apocalypse which is slated for release in 2016. We’ll do it again then.