THE BUTLER DOES IT

MOVIE
Angel Has Fallen
Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman
Director Ric Roman Waugh
Review Ray Chan


THE third in the "Fallen” franchise has hit the screens, indicating there’s an audience out there for the adventures of White House presidents constantly trying to avoid assassination.
    The “angel” in the title refers to the American leader’s guardian angel, Secret Service agent Mike Banning, played as always by Scottish slugger Gerard Butler, with his best American accent.
    This time around, the plot concerns an attack on Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), who’s become POTUS after serving as speaker and vice-pres in the first two chapters.
    After a well-staged hit kills off an entire presidential defence team except Banning, he is charged with the attempted murder of Trumbull, who is left in a coma.
    On the lam from the law and pursued by a private security firm led by his best friend Wade Jennings (Danny Huston), Banning turns to the one person he can trust — his estranged father (played by veteran Nick Nolte), who lives off the grid among tall timber.
    The renewed relationship is a high point of the movie, suffusing some emotional punch and light-hearted moments, particularly when Banning Snr blows away the enemy by setting off of a chain of strategic explosions around his remote home.
    That scene is just one of several impressive action sequences, along with the initial drone attack on Trumbull, a nocturnal chase scene through the woods with an 18-wheeler, and a shootout between opposing forces in a high rise complex.
    But while Butler is competent enough as the rugged main character, the movie, if anything, suffers from predictability: it seems as if the identities of the people who have framed Banning have been telegraphed from the start, and it comes as no real surprise when they are revealed.
    Freeman plays the leader of the free world with suitable gravitas and nobility, no doubt making some wish the scenario were true in real life.
    Based on the strength of this film, we should be seeing more of Trumbull and Banning — at least until the box office has fallen, of course.


@buzzmarketing #angelhasfallen

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

MOVIE
Once Upon A Time ... In Hollywood
Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt
Director Quentin Tarantino
Review Ray Chan

Most of Tarantino’s films are like exaggerated Jerry Seinfeld sitcoms on a grand scale: random observations of the madness of life's idiosyncrasies within various settings, but grittier and in the end connecting with each other even if you have to work a little to discover how.
    His latest offering follows the same groove, and is certainly aptly named, recounting as it does the days in the life of a fading TV star in the flower power era of 1969, half a century ago.
    But while some have chosen the occasion to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing or commemorate Woodstock, Tarantino chooses to spend the summer of 2019 revisiting the Charles Manson killings, a crime that shook the show business community in Los Angeles.
    Indeed, the theme of violence recurs throughout, with many of the sundry characters glorifying bloodshed and brutality, and allying it to the culture in which they were brought up to “love that stuff—y’know, the killing” on TV (a line Al Pacino, as promoter Marvin Schwartz, says in a great nod to Scarface); or in the case of actors, reciting the lines written for them in these productions. When a scripted gunslinger in a Western reminisces at one point that “people died that day,” for example, his cowpoke companion replies, “but we had a good time”.
    And it’s this American affection for ammunition which also provides the spark for the movie’s climax, with the Manson clan planning the mass murder of the cinematic stars who taught them how to kill.
    For Rick Dalton, the fallen idol played by Leonardo DiCaprio, the assumption that viewers enjoy witnessing sudden, painful death is the foundation on which he based his career, gaining fame as he did in cancelled TV series Bounty Law, in which the manhunter he portrayed preferred “dead” to “alive”, and encouraged the audience’s agreement with a cheeky wink to the camera.
    The irony here is that that while Tarantino reflects on a general American desire to be entertained by slaughter, it also shows up his own role in satisfying that appetite in all his movies to date.
    In Once Upon a Time, the director gradually ratchets up impending carnage and then releases the tension in a gorefest of stabbing, shooting, gnashing, bashing, and even charbroiling, in the best tradition of a slap-up Machete-esque massacre.
    Sharing the spotlight with Rick is his stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who’s anything but a double though: he’s an easy-going gofer, chauffeur, handy jack-of-all-trades, confident and confidant in one, and as rough and tough as Rick is soft, emotional and an alcoholic, his weaknesses evinced in a slight stammer, a hacking cough, forgetfulness about his lines, and an aptitude for furniture-smashing bouts of self-pity.
    Cliff doesn’t give a damn about pleasing anybody, and even upstages an arrogant Bruce Lee on the set of the Green Hornet.
    He eventually ends up visiting the Manson family at the abandoned movie and television ranch they’ve taken over, some of whom, in the Tarantino world of cosmic coincidences, end up intruding Rick’s house several months later.
    Rick’s next-door neighbour is the sweet and innocent Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), who resides in the abode with director Roman Polanski and celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring.
    Both Tate and Sebring were real-life victims of the Manson atrocity, and Tarantino keeps the suspense up as he leaves viewers on tenterhooks wondering if and when the killings will start.
    Tate’s murder was widely seen as signifying the USA’s death of innocence and the end of the peaceful swinging ‘60s, and in the movie, Tarantino fully embraces her iconography and cultural importance, while amplifying her generosity, talent, joy, and integrity; and ultimately, her shining unfulfilled promise.
    Make no mistake, the moviemaker’s rep and pulling power remain stellar, attested to by the number of name actors in the cast.
    What’s not so certain is the reason for an apparent foot fetish which pervades the film, bare-soled, shoe-coutured, or otherwise.
    Is there attempted symbolism here? Bare feet have come to represent innocence, while footwear was considered a sign of power: both themes which are featured to the fore.
    Or maybe Tarantino’s just being Tarantino, and saying that when you see all those shots of feet, think of who’s being stepped on.
    All in all, as the film’s title implies, the movie functions as a fairy tale, and a compelling, entertaining one that ranks among his best; it's a wistful tribute to a bygone era and a loving testament to a period in which men like Rick and Cliff are about to be swept aside by a future they can’t comprehend.
    As Mick Jagger sings as the final act begins, “baby, baby, baby, you’re out of time”.

@SonyPicturesAus #onceuponatimeinhollywood

WORTH STAYING UP FOR

MOVIE
Late Night
Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling
Director Nisha Ganatra
Review Ray Chan


James Corden must be wondering whether this is how US viewers perceive him.  
  Playing a haughty British late night host who scoffs at lesser mortals from her podium of privilege, Emma Thompson is Katherine Newbury, a woman whose show is a television fixture that has been on the decline for a decade, and the poor ratings show it, forcing the network to consider a replacement.
    Blindly led by an apathetic assortment of white male writers on autopilot, Katherine caves in to criticism that there are no women staff members, demanding that a female is employed to inject new life.
    Cue Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling), a young Indian-American chemical plant worker with aspirations to be a comedienne but without experience in network television, who gets fortuitously hired because the indolent chief writer can’t be bothered to interview anyone else.
    Somewhat predictably, Molly imbues fresh ideas which succeed, including getting Katherine to become more social-media savvy, and forcing the peremptory presenter to get over her dislike of leaving the studio — resulting in one particularly hilarious segment called White Savior, in which she braves the streets and hails cabs for black guys, whether they need them or not.
    In doing so, the format gets past the setup-punchline structure of the monologue joke that is a staple of talk shows, American or elsewhere.
    Who knows, it may even plant a seed in the writing rooms of the real TV programmers, encouraging them to go beyond the tightly-scripted speeches, because in all honesty, are they ever really funny?
    There are many other twists and turns to the story, of course, but the winning factor here is the chemistry between Thompson and Kaling, which makes them a lovable pair as they conspire, clash and come together to help restore Katherine’s popularity.
    As a woman of colour and herself a victim of sexism in the workforce, Kaling excels as the wide-eyed admirer who will do anything to help her childhood idol, yet who is also determined enough to stand for herself in a male-dominated world.
    Thompson, for her part, sparkles with her condescension and coldness, but with a surety that ensures her performance doesn’t descend into farce or caricature.
    And indeed, while her co-star supplies the kindling, it’s the veteran actress, flitting between arrogance and affection, who bellows the flames of the movie into something that’s slightly more than just an average sitcom.


#latenightmovie  #latenight #buzzmarketing