Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I’ll happily admit to not having seen the original Wall Street. I Sky+ed it in preperation for this film but never got round to watching it. And when I finally did see this film it was amidst a flurry of negative reviews, reviews that specifically focused on it’s inadequacy in the shadow of it’s predecessor. So it was with a certain amount of psychological influence and movie-going tredidation that I went to see Money Never Sleeps.

And I enjoyed it. Michael Douglas is clearly the linchpin of the thing, superb in reprising his role as corporate demon Gordan Gekko. I’m not a Shia LaBeouf hater, but I can see why this frustratingly ‘relaxed’ performance has acted as a lightning conductor for criticism. The rest of the cast don’t get so much screen time, but there are no howlers. Carey Mulligan is a shoe in for the title role when they make a live action, human version of ‘Bambi’. Frank Langella and Eli Wallach are the vets who who die and survive respectively. The final billboard name, Susan Sarandon, appears in a blink and you’ll miss it/completely pointless role.

It’s the filmmaking that’s at fault. It feels seriously dated, like Stone is still working on the first film. Graphic tricks that may have seemed ‘snazzy’ twenty years look out of place here. And….every….scene….is….too…long. Just a couple of minutes, but it means that what could have been snappy financial dialogue seems dull and plodding. The only exception to this is when Douglas is in flowing Gekko mode.

Michael Douglas reminds us what a good and important actor he can be, whilst Shia LaBoeuf continues to frustrate his critics. A long way for perfect but both enjoyable and interesting. A long way from a disaster.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Common wisdom says that ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ is better than it’s sequel. With regards to the books I would agree no end. But with regards to the films, I think that this sequel(which cuts out a lot of the psycho sexual violence of the first movie) is actually the superior piece of film making. The fact that the book itself is little more than a corporate/state thriller at this point serves to underline how well made the film is.

That said I will never understand the appeal of Noomi Rapace. Everyone seems to fawn over her and, indeed, she has been cast in Sherlock Holmes 2. I didn’t like the character in the books and I don’t like her on screen. That said I do LIKE Rooney Mara and so I hope she doesn’t butcher her good looks in order to fill the part. As for Michael Nyqvist (in the role of Blomkvist which is much more to my liking) you can see why Daniel Craig has been cast in Hollywood Dragon- they share the same weathered by appealing faces.

There are elements of the plot that are skimmed over, as was necessary given the size of the original text, but for me that’s not much of a problem. The film is certainly no advertisement for Sweden- the tourist board surely didn’t approve the grey, featureless landscape of the film. As for Paulo Roberto, well, he manages to round off the weirdest metafictional sequence in modern literature/cinema. He plays a fictionalised version of himself in the film, based on the fictionalised version of himself in the novel. Weird.

A decent movie and better that ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’. I’ll probably skip ‘Hornet’s Nest’ and wait for the Hollywood version, which I’m confident, will be better ‘films’ than their Swedish counterparts.

The Other Guys

Will Ferrell is an actor who burns very hot and cold. He was red hot in Anchorman but ice cold in Kicking and Screaming. He was pretty warm in Talladega Nights but pretty chilly in Blades of Glory. He was at a slightly higher temperature than lukewarm in The Wedding Crashers, but…well, you get the point. The easiest film to group The Other Guys in with is Talladega Nights, and whilst it’s not quite as funny, it’s a short step up from Step Brothers.

The trouble is is that all the best gags take place in the first 45 minutes. The earlier jokes focus on Mark Wahlberg’s slightly rogue cop who is transferred to a glum desk job after he shoots Yankees legend Derek Jeter. On top of this Will Ferrell is at his best as the intelligent, polite but socially inept forensic accountant with whom Wahlberg is partnered. Think Brick Tamland meets Rain Man and you’re some of the way there. The trouble is is that these are two gag jokes (the hot women Ferrell scores, the wooden gun that Ferrell uses, the fact that Michael Keaton quotes TLC songs) and after that limit expires the film starts to die.

Add to this a woefully miscast Steve Coogan (a real waste of his talent) and massive endless car chases and it looks like it’s gone down the toilet. But the two leads performances are suitably winning to rescue the film from total failure and they ensure that all in all it is funny. That said it also contains the most unusual and incongruous credits sequence that I’ve ever seen. It’s strange to see a movie like this with such an overt political agenda.

Funny to begin with it loses it’s way a bit. But the winning bromance at the centre of the film means that the gag rate stays fairly high. More could have been acheived but this is by no means a ‘The Love Guru’.

Made In Dagenham

Despite the lack of make up, flaming bras and inconvenient handcuffings usually assosciated with feminism ‘Made In Dagenham’ is in fact lighter than a balloon. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the movie should be approached with the expectation of whimsy, rather than with Oscar worth meat. All the same it’s a well constructed and well acted film and therefore shouldn’t be dismissed as anything other than the nice British movie that it is.

The film focuses on Rita the woman who becomes the unlikely leader of the women’s strike at the Dagenham Ford motor plant. Rita is played by Sally Hawkins. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think that Sally Hawkins is a very fine actress and I think that she gives a convincing performance in this movie. However I have yet to be convinced that she has truly graduated from supporting actress to leading light and I’m afraid that this movie might only support my theory. Yes she’s good but she doesn’t have the on screen magnetism of Rosamund Pike, Andrea Riseborough or even Jaime Winstone. All that said she is still an excellent actress and one who is thoroughly deserving of roles in large films.

As for the film as a whole it is very nice, but also very formulaic. There is the customary third act crisis (in this case the death of one husband and disagreements with her own played by Daniel Mays) and the ending will surprise entirely no one. But all the same this is ‘Calender Girls’ set amidst the greyly beautiful backdrop of 60’s Dagenham and so should appeal to a very specific audience demographic.

Sweet and simple, Sally Hawkins does a good job with her character, but the focus should be on the excellent work of the British ensemble cast. This is the sort of movie that will be missed with the demise of the UK Film Council.

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Buried

To some people ‘Buried’ might seem like a 90 minute commercial for Blackberry. Others might like to point out that exposing a naked flame in a coffin with diminishing levels of Oxygen is not the most sensible thing to do. But in order to make the basic premise of ‘Buried’ work the script had to require the audience to suspend their disbelief. Mainly because otherwise the entire film would have been in pitch darkness.

But if you accept and embrace these slightly fantastical elements then what you are left with is an extremely tense plot, a beautifully crafted and original piece of filmmaking and a remarkably strong lead performance. Ryan Reynolds is more familiar to people as Van Wilder or ‘the guy’ from The Proposal, but for those sixteen of us who actually saw The Nines, well, the kid can act. And here he is charged with carrying the film to an even greater extent that performances like Tom Hanks in Cast Away or Will Smith in I Am Legend. Suffice it to say that he nails the part, happily avoiding making the film either ludicrous or unengaging.

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes, along with his mainly Spanish production team, has great fun playing with how you can shoot a movie that takes place entirely in a coffin. The whole thing is terribly cleverly put together, film making buffs will marvel and wonder at how exactly the film was made when the camera travels at seemingly impossible angles. It is this manipulation of the space that means that the film does not ever become boring, something that with more static cameras could easily have happened.

Despite slightly preposterous elements to the basic story, the film is a gripping, tense and extremely effective suspense thriller. Even though it takes place entirely in a box underground it is as global and exciting a film as you’ll see this year.

Going the Distance

There are romantic comedies like The Proposal, The Break Up and Valentine’s Day which are essential romances with the comedy part tacked on to encourage husbands and boyfriends. Then there are real romantic comedies like Knocked Up, (500) Days of Summer and, yes, Going the Distance. This long distance relationship movie is the best rom-com of the year so far and a showcase for two very talented actors.

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are both eminently likeable. You can’t imagine anyone thinking that Drew Barrymore is a bitch, and almost everyone would like to have a laugh with Justin Long. And this immediate friendliness makes for good ol’ fashioned comfortable viewing. Sure, the plot veers towards predictable and even has an (admittedly undramatic) second act crisis, but unlike the formulaic modern romances this is honest, funny and more than a little bawdy.

It’s cast firmly in the vein of the Apatow set with bumbling support characters for the likeable guy and a bitch sister for the girl (this time Christina Applegate who specialises in this sort of role). Likewise the characters talk openly and honestly about oral sex and drugs and whatever life holds for thirty something year old New Yorkers. This is an endearing quality and whilst the story won’t hold any surprises it manages to avoid whimsy, but also remain easy going, upbeat and modern.

An honest and open portrait of twenty first century coupledom with two excellent leading performances from actors who seem to like one another (they’re occasional off screen lovers) and who want to make the audience like them too.

Tamara Drewe

Gemma Arterton has been considered, for, perhaps, the last sixteen months, to be the darling of British cinema. So much so that she was given a (small) part in the Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Here the Bond girl swaps martinis for cider in taking the part of former comic strip girl Tamara Drewe. The interesting question that must have been raised when pitching the movie was how can we transfer a, slight, graphic novel into an interesting big screen feature?

And that question seems to have never been answered. Sure, they managed to rope is Miss Arterton, but even she can’t really transform the beautiful, but evtremely vain, Tamara Drewe into an interesting screen presense. Sitting alongside her are an assortment of characters, perhaps less animated than their graphic novel counterparts, the best of which are Roger Allam’s lecherous novelist and Tamsin Greig as his beleagered wife.

The biggest problem the film has is it’s pace. It is extremely slow. Which is remarkable as it has an attractice looking protagonist who stirs up the affections of every in the village. Romps in the countryside should be more fun than this, which is as dreary as the town in which it is set is supposed to be. With this as evidence the comic strip must have been God awful- with weeks where nothing happens other than the occasional muted sex scene with Dominic Cooper’s unconvincing rock star.

Not a terrible piece of filmmaking, after all Stephen Frears is extremely accomplished. But somewhere along the line quality control missed the fact that this movie is slower than an obese five year old. Not a terribly impressive film.

The Town

Ben Affleck is a better director than he ever was actor. Perhaps this is why The Town is not quite as good as it’s predecessor, Gone Baby Gone, but all the same it’s in a different league from Armageddon and Pearl Harbour and the sort of dirge that Affleck used to ‘act’ in. Indeed it’s as successful a police procedural as we’ve seen in the cinema for years. All you have to do is suspend your disbelief that Ben Affleck could be a working class bank robber and you’re half way there.

In addition to the director stepping in front of his own lens a very strong supporting cast bolster the movie. Jeremy Renner is excellent as the No.2 and best friend of the main character, an explosive, violent and unpredictable man, but also the antihero of the film. You’ll have no problem believing that Renner comes from the wrong side of Boston- he is a badass looking guy. Jon Hamm is the sexy FBI man, a role that is not very well fleshed out (or believable), but which is a slick nod to old fashioned crime movies. Despite having Don Draper on their team, you’ll still want to side with the criminals.

Rebecca Hall and Blake Lively add some much needed oestrogen to the mix. The former is the object of Affleck’s affection after a bank robbery has some surprising consequences, and whilst she doesn’t have much to do she is an increasingly appealing screen presence. As a massive Gossip Girl fan I find it hard not to picture Blake Lively as Serena Van der Woodsen, but for those who don’t know the show it’s an excellent performance. Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite (who despite having an unintelligible repertoire of accents is getting good business at the moment) come and go in brief cameos.

The photography is excellent, a true ode to the home town that he clearly loves. Unlike Gone Baby Gone however the film is determinedly cinematic, rather than going for the filmic look. This is also it’s greatest failing and one that almost, but not quite, manages to defeat all the good work on and off the camera. I wonder how aware Affleck was of the clichés he began to slip into. The finale was reminiscent of The Naked Gun in terms of a ludicrous final act setting, and the last voice over sentiment could’ve been almost directly lifted from Gladiator.

Don’t let this put you off. The film is fun, packed with attractive people acting well- two vital components to any good film. Affleck is still in his comfort zone as he takes lessons learnt from his début and exhibits them to, I’m sure, much greater commercial success.

The Last Exorcism

I enjoy a somewhat mixed relationship with horror movies. On the one hand I have a great deal of affection for films like The Shining, The Ring and What Lies Beneath: in other words ‘suspense horror’. On the other hand I have little to no love for the recent ‘torture porn’ flicks like Hostel and the Saw franchise. So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I ventured to see this Eli Roth (he of Hostel infamy) produced Exorcism venture.

The film sits firmly in the first category. It works through the use of supposed found footage, much in the same way as the Blair Witch Project or more recent ventures like Cloverfield. This is an interesting concept for horror and one that is increasingly popular (see the spectacular over performance of Paranormal Activity) and it works really well for about 85 minutes of it’s 95 minute run time. A superb couple of lead performances add charm and threat to the fraud exorcist who’s documenting the dangers and manipulations of professional exorcisms, and the innocent young girl who is in the grip of a satanic possession.

There are problems. I was never genuinely terrified, but this may reflect more on my steely disposition than the film in general; for once, I’m not sure. There’s also the last ten minutes which will divide people who see the film, but which didn’t work for me. Throughout the film there’s a doubt about whether paranormal activities are really taking place, but the finale plants it firmly on one side, which I won’t reveal (durrrr….). But these are superficial problems in a convincing and appealing spin on the subject of exorcism.

The Last Exorcism is well put together, presenting itself in a plausible found footage scenario. It’s an interesting behind the scenes look at the work of exorcists boosted by winning and chilling performances. Worth a look, especially with the impending threat of Saw VI.