Spy

I am not a big fan of comedies and only see a handful of them in the cinema each year.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy laughing but the vast majority of comedies don’t appeal to me.  I like my comedy the way I like my tea – black and British and if those elements are missing then the film generally isn’t my cup…..erm…. of tea.

I had been quite content to carry on living my life ignoring the names Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy but something strange happened; the trailer for Spy made me giggle on more than one occasion.  This was a sign that I would have no choice but to give in and see my first comedy of the year.

PLOT:   After the CIA learn that terrorists are in the process of selling a nuclear bomb professional desk jockey Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) goes undercover to prevent the sale and save New York the world from disaster.  END PLOT

The plot of Spy follows a strict McGuffin formula and has Susan follow the breadcrumbs until she arrives at the nuclear bomb. The simplistic story doesn’t matter as Spy manages to be hilarious from start to finish.  I am not a fan of bodily function humour but even that worked and I am not ashamed to admit that defiling a corpse with vomit had me in stitches.  It is tempting to throw out the phrase “fish out of water” to describe the general theme of Spy but this isn’t the case as Susan (Melissa McCarthy) is always shown to be a completely capable and competent spy once she gets up from behind her desk.    

My only real experience of Melissa McCarthy is from catching the odd episode of Mike and Molly after the cat has fallen asleep on the remote and changed the channel.  I had no real opinion of McCarthy until today and I have immediately fallen in love with her.  McCarthy is effortlessly funny and commands our full attention every time she is on screen.  I think I may have to give in and watch Bridesmaids.

The supporting cast is made up of some of my favourite actresses including the ever amazing Allison Janney and the surprisingly hilarious Rose Byrne.  The film was so good that it was the first time I actually laughed at Miranda Hart which is probably the biggest compliment I can give to the film.  Jude Law and Peter Serafinowicz pop up as agents both of whom are entertaining in their own way.  It probably comes as no surprise that the best used actor was Jason Statham.  Statham’s over the top agent gave the audience some of the biggest laughs but his screen time was perfectly judged as it always left us wanting more.  Statham and McCarthy had great chemistry and now that the team of spies has been established it bodes well for the sequel.

The humour was strong throughout and although dropping frequent F bombs doesn’t count as clever comedy in my book Spy puts bad fucking language to good use and creates some hilarious moments and one liners that I am still giggling at now. 

McCarthy gave her all with the physical comedy and although the action sequences contained plenty of humour it never felt like parody.  Spy could have turned into an over the top mess but it never strayed too far into the realm of silliness.

My biggest worry with comedies is that the funniest moments are in the trailer but with Spy that proved not to be the case as I was laughing away from start to finish.  I had a great time.  Spy is well worth a look and is likely to make many appearances in movie nights to come.  It gets 8/10.  I think it is perhaps a smidgen too long but other than that I can have no complaints.  Paul Feig’s Ghostbuster’s has finally got my attention. 

*in the interest of full disclosure I owe a big thanks to Maynard for the Black and British line*

Side Effects

Side Effects appeared in the listings with next to no advertising.  Luckily a very convincing trailer had played in the cinema last week otherwise the film would have passed me by completely.

PLOT:  After her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) is released from prison Emily (Rooney Mara) spirals into a deep depression.   Emily agrees to take part in a clinical trial for a new pill Ablixa by her doctor, Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) however once on the medication she starts to suffer side effects which include sleep walking.  In her sleep walking state Emily stabs and kills her husband and is sent to a mental institution.  As Jonathan delves deeper into Emily’s medical history he realises that her reaction to the medication is not at all what it seems.  END PLOT

Side Effects is a very slow paced thriller but if you are prepared to settle in and allow the events to unfold you will be rewarded. The twist is cleverly executed and I will confess that I did not see it coming.

My main complaint in the storytelling was perhaps the lack of ambiguity at the end of the film.  There was nothing left to debate on the journey home as every plot thread had been neatly wrapped up.

Rooney Mara is excellent as the tortured Emily and given the nature of the plot twist it makes her performance at the beginning of the film stronger with hindsight.

Jude Law is the films true lead and although he is very capable Mara steals every scene they are in together.

The most likeable actors in Hollywood Channing Tatum and Catherine Zeta-Jones pop up in strong supporting roles.

The cinematography was gorgeous with the sweeping closing shot being one of the best moments in the film.

This is a ridiculously short review as the more I write the more inclined I am to spoil the film so I think it is best to quit while I am ahead not behind.

I have never been able to call myself a fan of Steven Soderberg but Side Effects proves that it’s time I seek out Soderberg’s back catalogue.  It is typical that the film that makes me sit up and take notice of a director is reportedly his last.  Side Effects deserves a 9/10 and is most definitely worth your time.  

Rise of the Guardians

 

Rise of the Guardians appeared with very little promotion but the knowledge that Hugh Jackman voices a rabbit is more than enough to get me to the cinema.  It is more out of formality than anything else that I would like to confirm, for the record, that I have not read the books the film is based upon.  It may be a different blog but I do enjoy singing the same tune.

PLOT:  Jack Frost (Chris Pine) wakes from his summer sleep and finds himself transported to the North Pole where he must help the Guardians - North (Alec Baldwin), Tooth (Isla Fisher), Bunny (Hugh Jackman) and Sandy to defeat the evil Pitch Black (Jude Law).  END PLOT

The plot of Rise of the Guardians plays out like an animated mash-up between The Bourne Identity and The Avengers although admittedly I wasn’t able to make these comparisons myself.  This is no bad thing as it puts a different spin on what is essentially a familiar coming of age storyline.

The voice work of the cast is excellent with Alec Baldwin’s Russian Santa and Hugh Jackman’s Australian Easter Bunny being the most memorable and entertaining of the bunch.  Jude Law does deserve a mention for his uber posh English villain Pitch Black.

There is plenty of humour mostly in the form of the idiotic elves or put-upon Yetis but as it transpires that I have a genuine affection for Rise of the Guardians I found the humour more entertaining than I probably should have.

Rise of the Guardians is a gorgeous film and the 3D version does add some depth to the animation.  Unfortunately the pop out moments never stray beyond a few snowflakes at the beginning and end of the film.  The film was enjoyable enough to look past this but if the option was there I would have chosen 2D.

Pixar has held the monopoly on animated films for years but they were easily knocked off their pedestal with How To Train Your Dragon.  While not quite up to the standard of How To Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians does show that the quality of Dreamworks animation is on the rise. 

Rise of the Guardians gets an 8/10 but poor box office returns means that we may not get any more films in the franchise which is a shame. 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Cinema died a slow and painful death in early December thanks to those sparkling vampires that shall not be named but luckily Santa came early and brought the Christmas blockbusters; the first of which being Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes as much as everyone else as it was an unexpectedly good film but the first time I viewed the trailer for the inevitable sequel it did absolutely nothing for me.  The trailer was a grower and I warmed to it enough to be excited for the second instalment, although it has to be said that this was my first cinema trip of month so I was also experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

PLOT:  Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Junior) takes time off from designing urban camouflage disguises in order to stop his new found arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) from starting a war between to nameless countries; suffice to say they speak both French and German.  Watson (Jude Law) is getting married and Sherlock interrupts his honeymoon trip to Brighton and drags him to Switzerland (which frankly looks like something out of Middle Earth) in order to stop an impending war.  Holmes and Watson are helped by Holmes’ older brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) and gypsy rebel Simza (Noomi Rapace).  The winner of the  two hour chess game is announced.  END PLOT??

For the first fifteen minutes of A Game of Shadows I was honestly worried as the pacing was ridiculously slow.  The entire opening sequence consisted of a sub-plot involving Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) which added nothing to the film.  Luckily the film perked up immediately after the Adler scenes ended. 

If you take a step back and look at the script of Sherlock Holmes it is extremely basic.  The films strength lies in its near perfect casting.

Once Holmes and Watson appeared on screen together the pacing of the film sped up, the rapport was better than the first film and the homoerotic subtext was hilariously yet purposely unsubtle.

RDJ manages to keep Holmes on the right side of ridiculous and Law deserves some sort of award for best drunken fall of the year.  The banter between the two allows for some decent laughs.  The line “I am so overt I am actually covert” has already been borrowed adopted stolen as my own.

The chemistry and the strength of the bromance is the big draw in Sherlock Holmes but credit has to be given to Jared Harris who is excellent as the intelligent villain Moriarty.  Harris and RDJ also have some zingy and fast paced scenes with the tension increasing with each meeting.

The battle of wits between Moriarty and Holmes stays that way and although there are some good set pieces the main show down is essentially a “Holmes Vision” construction of how a boxing brawl between the two will unfold.  The “Holmes Vision” is overused throughout the film but what stops the finale from becoming repetitive is the introduction of “Moriarty Vision” in which we also are shown Moriarty’s imagining of the pending fist fight which plays in tandem with Holmes’.

The action ranges from a very decent bar fight which has a wonderful Irish Jig playing on top of it to a machine gun blasting chase through a forest.

The forest chase was chock full of slow motion shots and explosions.  This set piece looked and indeed sounded amazing but the only place the scene will hold up is in the cinema itself unless I seriously upgrade my surround sound although if ever there was an excuse to do so....... 

The film clocks in at just over two hours and despite the very poor opening I got what I paid to see – the Holmes and Sherlock double act.  When the two were on screen together I could have sat on for hours.

The ending of the film was extremely predictable although can it really be considered predictable whenever you cannot actually see what (or who) it is you are looking for?  I think it was clever and perfectly in line with the cheeky tone of the film.

Sherlock Holmes:  A Game of Shadows won’t be to everyone’s taste, there are faults and it is not going to win any awards but I don’t care – it was great fun and it deserves a generously festive 8.5/10.  Expect the sequel to become a trilogy.