BACK TO THE FUTURE

MOVIE
Terminator: Dark Fate
Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Director Tim Miller
Review Ray Chan

The classic Terminator franchise graces our screens once again, bringing along with it the premise from the first chapter, in which sentient, almost invulnerable machines take over the Earth but find resistance in the human rebellion that is led effectively by an enigmatic leader. 
    The solution the robots devise is for them to send a ‘terminator’ back in time to ensure the saviour is never born, by killing the person believed to be the mother: a young human woman named Dani (Natalia Reyes).

    This sequel – the sixth instalment after three ill-received forays into a rebooted universe – rehashes the concept, but while the story might seem familiar, it’s not tired nor stale.
    This time round, in the machine-ruled future, a new powerful shape-changing automaton, the Rev-9 (played by Gabriel Luna), has been dispatched to the past to carry out the assassination.
    Not to be undone, the humans have their secret weapon in the form of the mechanically enhanced Grace (a lean and lithe Mackenzie Davis), who is also relayed to the present day to keep Dani alive.
    In trying to avoid capture, they encounter legendary Terminator-eliminator Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), no longer a damsel in distress; she's now older and irritable, greyer and grimmer, but just as kick-ass fantastic.
    Indeed, Hamilton steals the show with a magical performance as the unflappable, determined wonder warrior, who’s become as iconic a female protagonist as Sigourney Weaver in Aliens or Jamie Lee Curtis in the Halloween series.
    The tenacious trooper even appropriates – and owns – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s immortal line, “I’ll be back”.
    And speaking of Arnie, he IS back: as a model T-800 Terminator who has surprisingly developed a human conscience, been living a normal life with a family, and started a drapery business.
    The sheer absurdity of such a scenario ensures that Arnie gets most of the good lines and provides unexpected comic value amidst all the bloodletting of the first hour.
    Cal, as he is named, teams up with the female triumvirate to hunt down the Rev-9, despite Connor’s revulsion at working with the enemy.
    Slowly and surely, Cal appears to win her over with his demeanour, contrition, and signs of humanity. In a poignant moment, as the cyborg anticipates impending doom while contemplating putting on his trademark sunnies, he tells his partner and son: “I WON’T be back”.
    Of course, all-out battle between the opposing forces has been a staple of all Terminator films, and in that regard, Dark Fate‘s action scenes don’t disappoint. In this age of CGI though, you’d expect nothing less.

    Yet even though they are well crafted, at times it does feel as if there are too many unnecessary sequences, such as a prolonged underwater skirmish.

    In any case, they aren’t the main reason to see the movie.
    It really is all about Hamilton, reprising the role that helped make her career, and who delivers a grizzled action movie heroine unlike anything we've ever seen before.
    This contrasts perfectly with Schwarzenegger, who brings a warmth and oddball charm to his T-800 persona.
    The chemistry between the two is dynamite, and reminds us why they made such a lasting impression when they first appeared together almost 30 years ago.



#terminatordarkfate 

BRAINLESS FUN

MOVIE
Zombieland: Double Tap
Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone
Director Ruben Fleischer
Review Ray Chan

IT’S hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since the original Zombieland broke new ground with a hilarious jaunt through the undead apocalypse.
    Remarkably, the four principal cast members return for the sequel looking hardly worse for wear, but they’re certainly wiser, having accrued either Oscar nominations or, in Stone's case, winning the coveted award itself in the intervening decade.
    With such a stellar group, it’s not surprising to see that the palpable chemistry within the fearsome and funny foursome has remained, although with Breslin’s Little Rock character excised from the group for most of the film, it sometimes feels like a vital part of the recipe is missing.
    Thankfully, you don’t need to have seen the forerunner – or if you’ve forgotten what transpired – to understand the basic premise of Eisenberg’s nerdy Columbus, Harrelson’s redneck Tallahasee and Stone (Wichita) and Breslin’s sister act banding together in a world infected with zombies.
    The creatures, it turns out, have evolved over time: now there are slow, stumbling corpses dubbed “Homers,” slightly more cunning flesh-eaters referred to as “Hawkings” (after Stephen), and hardier, almost invulnerable ones named after Terminator androids.
    Once again, the proceedings are narrated by Columbus, who acknowledges the passing of time by quipping “back for seconds?”
    His prodigious list of survival rules has become longer, often playfully emblazoned in the background, and the “zombie kill of the week” cutaways are still intact.
    It’s definitely a sequel that revives all the hits, but one that is embellished by two new additions: a chirpy blonde named Madison (Zoey Deutch) who’s been waiting out the “acropolis” in a walk-in freezer at a deserted shopping mall, and Rosario Dawson’s Nevada, the whiskey-drinking proprietor of an Elvis-themed hotel, who is as smart and savvy as Madison is dumb and ditzy.
    Indeed, Madison is such an annoyance for Tallahassee (Harrelson), that he proclaims “she’s still alive because zombies eat brains, and she doesn’t have any”.
    The storyline focuses on the group’s cross-country trip to find Little Rock, who ventures out on her own after meeting guitar-playing, Kumbaya-singing Berkeley (Avan Joglia).
    As if the notion of hearing that the girl he treats as his daughter has embarked on a romantic journey wasn’t terrible enough, the discovery that Berkeley is both a musician and a pacifist is enough to send Tallahassee into a rage, a performance capped off by Harrelson’s wonderful facial expressions.
    The climax takes place in a hippie peace-loving commune called Babylon, where weapons and survival skills are traded in for drum circles, patchouli, and bags of weed, and where Little Rock and Berkeley have sought sanctuary.
    When the enclave is attacked on by hordes of zombies, there’s no paucity of carnage in the ensuing free-for-all – nor in fact, throughout the entire movie – with plenty of Matrix-esque slo-mo gunplay, rotting dead walkers and multiple exploding heads aimed at raising the mirth level.
    And therein lies perhaps a moral conundrum: is it right to so blatantly slam the peaceniks while glorifying, and enjoying, the violence championed by Tallahassee? Can society just passively sit back and accept an attitude that makes light of such extreme aggression?
    But then again, people who don't appreciate the over-the-top scenes of brutality and bloodshed for the exaggerated caricatures that they are, probably won’t be lining up at the cinema for this anyway.
    If you do go, make sure you stay till the very end (and that means during and after the credits) for a call-back to the first chapter that’ll probably send you home grinning from ear to ear.


#zombieland2  @sonypicturesaus

NO LAUGHING MATTER

MOVIE
Joker
Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro
Director Todd Phillips
Review Ray Chan

WHILE the focus of this movie is on a jokester, it is in essence one of the most depressing of the year.
    The writer who brings us this masquerade, Todd Phillips, uses the fact that little is known of the iconic Batman villain’s origins to fashion a grim and compelling story about the making of a monster - one in which, much like the clown’s own garish make-up, a mask of angst, anxiety and a liberal dose of ambiguity covers the narrative.
    The central character is Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a struggling comedian beset by some inner demons and a Tourette’s-level compulsion to laugh at random moments, and who lives with his infirm mother Penny (Frances Conroy) in a Gotham City wracked by crime, class warfare and increasing dissatisfaction with the law: in short, pretty much the same sort of desolate metropolis that has been shown over the decades in the theatres and comic books.
    During the day, Arthur ekes out a living as a rent-a-clown at an agency where one of his peers loans him a handgun for protection.
    When he is assaulted by a group of drunk men on the subway, the firearm is employed in defence, empowering him and enabling his dark alter ego to emerge.
    The rage behind the epiphanous moment is fuelled as misfortune upon misfortune falls upon him through no fault of his own, including discovering that he may be the illegitimate, abandoned son of wealthy businessman Thomas Wayne (who, of course, is father of Bruce, AKA Batman himself); a possibility denounced by the tycoon, who claims Penny was deranged.
    The metamorphosis into madman is complete after Arthur is invited onto late night TV host Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro)’s show as a guest, during which he liberates his pent-up frustrations of the system to full effect, making him a champion of protesting and angry disenfrachised communities.
    Confusingly, many of the revelations in the film are initially shown to be the product of Arthur’s delusion, but then later details suggest he may not have been making them all up after all.
    Arthur strikes up an apparent relationship with his neighbour Sophie (Zazie Beetz), but viewers are eventually shown each scene she’s been in with her presence removed, indicating that they were all imaginary.
    Sophie’s final fate also remains unclear. After Arthur breaks into her apartment and confronts her, what happens next, again, is open to interpretation, as the line between fact and fancy continues to be obfuscated.
    Similarly, when Arthur is told that Penny was herself mentally unsound, we see her young version being interrogated in Arkham Asylum, where she is accused of neglecting her adopted son.
    And yet, as if to tease the viewers, Phillips shows Arthur looking at an old photo of Penny that’s been signed affectionately by one “TW”, leaving the door open for the tantalising possibility that the Bat and his arch-nemesis are indeed half-brothers.
    By leaving so many questions unanswered, Joker undermines its own chance at making a statement.
    In a movie about less fortunate people being ignored by society, surely it would have been more poignant to reveal with certainty that its impoverished main character was a billionaire’s son.
    The film doesn’t gain anything by leaving this possibility, or Sophie’s destiny, unclarified. And indeed, there is the same element of doubt over the closing scenes before the fade to black.
    That exchange between hitting the audience over the head and withdrawing completely doesn’t provide any sense of enrichment, but instead opens up too many loose ends, neglecting to bring them all to a conclusion.
    Indeed, could it all have just been a dream, mirroring the vague climax of, perhaps intentionally, De Niro's Taxi Driver, upon which Phillips had based his screenplay?
    We can’t leave the review without mentioning Phoenix, of course.
    It’s no exaggeration to claim this as a career-defining performance, by one of the best character actors of his generation.
    The actor never flinches, as he brings Arthur to life via contortions and convulsions in a nuanced dance that flits through humanity to a state of virtuoso insanity.
    As mentioned at the start, this is not a feel-good cinematic experience. But any discomfort or objections to the film may be tempered by the uncomfortable realisation, that most people, under provocation, are capable of some pretty terrible things.


#joker# #buzzmarketing#

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE

MOVIE
Gemini Man
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Benedict Wong
Director Ang Lee
Review Ray Chan


THE script for Gemini Man was first bandied around in 1997, when the likes of Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise were touted as possible leads.
    And the fact that it’s taken so long for a movie to materialise turns out to be a blessing, for it allows the story to be told using the most advanced 3D technology available, transforming this action/adventure offering into an almighty visual spectacle.
    Gemini Man casts Will Smith as two characters: Henry Brogan, a retired hitman who just wants to spend the rest of his days in a sleepy fishing village, and Junior, a younger clone of himself who has been tasked with hunting him down and killing him after his assassin agency turns against him.
    The whole novelty of the movie revolves round the two versions of the same actor, who are so equally matched that their fight scenes together end up being brutal stalemates.
    But can you imagine how poorly this would have looked if it had been filmed two decades ago? The current special effects repository available to director Ang Lee ensures that the clone looks truly like a genuine fresh prince from Bel-Aire, while the high frame rates employed make the action scenes shine in all their glory.
    Everything is clear and incandescent, whether it’s a rooftop shootout, spectacularly choreographed parkour ballets or a motorcycle chase in broad daylight, or a savage brawl in skull-lined catacombs lit only by the flashlight on a gun.
    Groundbreaking graphics aside, Smith plays the older and wiser protagonist well, reinforcing his status as a more-than-capable A-list actor, while benefiting from strong supporting roles by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong.
    The let-down is the script in general, which is composed of oft-risible dialogue, cursory characterisation, and tired international espionage plots: while the premise may have been fresh in the 90s, it's now weary to see yet another adventure of a once-decorated hero pursued by his former government employers.
    Still, it’s a fun bit of popcorn entertainment, with the storyline pretty much conveyed in a linear style that doesn’t shoot off into various tangents that require the viewer to work hard in piecing them together.
    The tricks and tech make this movie worth the price of admission alone, even if the substance doesn’t quite approach the grandeur of the style.

#geminiman  #nrccommunications

BRAD ASTRA

MOVIE
Ad Astra
Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones
Director James Gray
Review Ray Chan

THIS is not merely a movie in which Brad Pitt is the lead - it's virtually the Brad Pitt show from start to end. He’s featured in just about every scene and gets most of the dialogue, delivered in a curious whispery monotone that apparently reflects what a cool, composed guy he is.
    The actor – whose star (pun intended) seems to be ascending again after his role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - plays Major Roy McBride, an astronaut extraordinaire who is so good at everything he can probably pilot a space craft blindfolded while juggling balls in anti-gravity. Which is pretty close to what he ends up doing in the film.
    Sombre, pensive and thoughtful, Roy has a pulse rate that never goes above 70 beats per minute, not even in the opening sequence when he’s knocked off a vertiginous sky-high antenna by a mysterious power surge and plummets to Earth.
    Later, after Roy survives the plunge in best James Bond fashion, it’s revealed to him that the waves of energy – which have caused the loss of more than 40,000 lives across Earth – were likely caused by cosmic rays emanating from Neptune, specifically an exploratory station run by Roy’s long-lost father and decorated pioneer H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), whose original mission was to seek out new life and civilisations and literally go where no man has gone before.
    Officials believe that he is alive, gone rogue, and causing the power bursts, and so assign his son to locate him by traveling ad astra: “to the stars”.
    Roy is at first reticent because of abandonment issues, but he learns to overcome his fears as he traverses the solar system to find his father, opening up ever so slightly into his persona with each new person he encounters.
    The story is set in the “near future”, when travel to the moon and Mars from Earth is commonplace, and evidently the journey to the far reaches of the Milky Way only takes a few weeks.
    To get to the Mars launch pad from where his vessel will take him to Neptune, Roy takes a commercial trip to the moon, flight stewardesses and all, where he will transit to a ship bound for the red planet.
    But the route there is across hostile territory, and Roy’s ATV is attacked by resource pirates who have built a base on the colonised satellite.
    The ensuing chase and action scenes are well-staged, particularly when his dune buggy careens into an open crater and takes an eternity to spiral down to the bottom, thanks to the lower gravity.
    This sequence, together with a later incident in which Roy helps to rescue a stranded craft, only to confront a hostile cargo of experimental subjects gone wild, get the first half of the movie off to a rollicking start, but from there, the tone shifts to a less frenetic pace as we follow our hero across the dark emptiness of space.
    Suffice it to say he ends up travelling to Neptune all by himself, eventually confronting his father, who sheds not an ounce of emotion at the reunion.
    Metaphorically, the message seems to be that the farther Roy moves away from life, the more desolate he becomes, with the people he loves, such as his long-suffering wife, quickly moving out of his orbit, just like he escapes Neptune’s.
    There’s hardly any sign of any sort of bonding between the two McBrides, which seems to be somewhat of an anticlimax given that most of the movie’s running time has been used up getting to this point.
    Roy convinces his old man to return to Earth, but as they begin the spacewalk to the ship, McBride Snr begs for the safety tether connecting the two men to be severed, no doubt symbolising the cutting of the umbilical cord which kept any semblance of a relationship between them alive.
    Watching the movie on a big screen is wonderful though, as the cinematography and effects are brilliant, taking viewers on a stunning visual tour of the planets, stars, rings, comets and assorted celestial bodies in between.
    Unfortunately, the spectacle doesn't translate as well to the storyline. If you’re looking for a big emotional payoff, well, you might find a bit of a black hole instead.

#adastra #kinnandco

SAD CLOWN FACE

MOVIE
IT: Chapter Two
Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy
Director Andrew Muschietti
Review Ray Chan

Writer Stephen King makes a cameo here, as he so often does in movie adaptations of his stories.

    Playing an antique shop owner, he turns down an offer by now grown-up and well-known author Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) to autograph one of his own books, pointing out that he didn’t like the ending.
    It’s also part of a running gag employed throughout in which Bill can’t seem to come up with satisfactory conclusions to his novels, a common criticism of King’s own efforts.
    The comment seems an intentional reference from King as to how he expects audiences to react, but there’s certainly a degree of accuracy about it, summarising as it does the feelings of many viewers who have to endure almost three hours of a film that doesn’t really solve the riddle of who or what the titular clownish monster is.
    Do you need to have watched the first instalment to understand Chapter Two? You probably do, for despite the many recaps that are shown, it’s still hard going for a newcomer to catch up with what has gone before.
    In short, the movie occurs 27 years after seven kids who call themselves the Losers Club banded together in the small Maine town of Derry in 1989, to defeat an evil supernatural force named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), which primarily takes the form of a pernicious Punchinello and gobbles up small children.
    The story opens with an uncomfortably prolonged sequence focusing on a brutal hate crime that goes unpunished, setting off a chain of events leading to the reappearance of Pennywise, ready to again feed his blood lust after almost three decades' absence.
    Of the original club, only Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) has remained in the town, precisely because he anticipated the creepy clown’s return, and who – with Pennywise now having announced his return – calls on his former childhood friends to return home to battle this evil anew.
    As well as leader Bill, each of the Losers is apparently a winner in life: Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) is a fashion designer; Ben Hanscom (played by Kiwi Jay Ryan) an architect, who has shed his baby fat for washboard abs; Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) a stand-up comedian; Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) a risk analyst; and Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) is fabulously wealthy.
    All but one of them make it back to Derry, with their reunion triggering a return of the memories they had long suppressed.
    Mike, who has done some research involving Indian shamans, reveals to his peers that he knows how exactly Pennywise can be killed, but not before they must all confront their own past experiences with the horrific harlequin.
    The movie is replete with digital effects that show off scores of monstrous beings of various shapes and sizes, but audiences these days are so indifferent to such overkill that the only truly frightening effects are realised through well-placed jump scares.
    In fact, in the attempt to bedazzle the viewer, this sequel misses out on the nuances and finer details, in particular the symbolism and character development that made the first chapter ultimately a more well-rounded product.
    Despite seeming to run on interminably, none of those extraneous minutes are employed in the service of themes such as the power of friendship, reconciling with the past, and, at the heart of the narrative, standing up to one’s fears and phobias.
    The movie is not a full-on disappointment, but the talents of such a stellar cast seems wasted in a production that's more a case of the flesh being willing whilst the spirit is weak. Send in the frowns.

#ittheend #itchaptertwo #buzzmarketing#

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

AWW, AWE AND UH-OH

MOVIE
The Lion King
Chiwetel Ejiofor, James Earl Jones, Donald Glover
Director Jon Favreau
Review Ray Chan

Oh, if we could turn back time.
    If this photorealistic version of The Lion King had been the original, replete with all its beautiful songs, it would surely have been lauded as one of the most innovative movies ever made, a David Attenborough documentary set to music with a cluster of crooning critters.
    As it is though, it’s essentially an almost direct copy of the animated classic, retelling the film and making it look as lifelike as possible while keeping the story and soundtrack relatively the same.
    It’s director Jon Favreau’s second anthropomorphic attempt, having first supervised 2016’s The Jungle Book, bringing to life the animal antics of Rudyard Kipling’s story.
    But while there were points of difference in that adaptation, with much of the music missing, for the most part The Lion King is a faithful facsimile, with many of the scenes being recreated line for line, albeit with a couple of new melodies.
    In short, it seems as if Disney just wanted to create a visually realistic version … and that in itself isn’t a bad thing.
    The movie starts off magnificently. Little Simba is such an adorable cuddly cub that audiences will surely warm to him, and the visual spectacle of all the jungle inhabitants congregating in tribute is gloriously breathtaking, taking the viewers from “Aww” to awe in a matter of moments.
    From there though, there is a distinct dissonance that makes the film difficult to relate to.
    The problem is that the facial expressions of “real” animals don’t convey emotions as much as cartoons do. Can you really tell the difference between a pair of giraffes? Or wildebeest, elephants and lions?
    Yet you wouldn't want to have the animals smile, cry or yell out in anger, for that would only look creepy. On the other hand, the same stoic features are seen whether it's Mufasa lolling about lovingly with Simba, or the evil Scar plotting vengeance with a pack of hyenas.
    Certainly, the dialogue can easily convey a character’s emotions, but they all basically come out from an expressionless animal’s mouth.
    It’s definitely worth catching the movie to satisfy the curiosity of seeing the various characters like Timon, Pumbaa, Zazu, Rafiki and of course the pride of lions, brought to life, as it were.
    However, maybe some might feel that they’d be better off just watching the original.
    The “live action” Lion King demands that we suspend our disbelief at the same time that it tries to convince us that we don’t have to, with the resulting discord so hard to reconcile that one forgets how special this story once felt.

#lionking  #disney

SHROUDED IN MYSTERIO

MOVIE
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal
Director Jon Watts
Review Ray Chan

After the cataclysmic repercussions of Avengers: Endgame, where does the Marvel Universe go to next?
    Fortunately for the studio, with a character such as the immature and somewhat naive teenage Spider-Man, it has the perfect vehicle to create a follow-up that offers much-needed relief, being lighter in tone and much less cosmos-shaking.
    Tom Holland dons his costume for another solo outing, and continues his story from Homecoming, albeit set five years later after the time-altering chaos from Endgame.
    As Peter Parker, he goes on a European class trip with his peers from Midtown High, and it could not have come at a better time for the affable adolescent, as he really needs to take a vacation from the duties of the spider-suit after his Avenging adventures.
    Peter just wants to enjoy being a kid in high school and pursue his crush on MJ (Zendaya) and maybe get to hang out with his best buddy Ned (Jacob Batalon).
    But inevitably, where Peter goes, danger beckons, and inexplicably, colossal elemental monsters (earth, wind, fire, air) begin appearing in Europe just as the kids arrive for their vacation.
    Even more curious is the emergence of a new super hero who claims he's from another world (Jake Gyllenhaal), who along with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), plan to attack this planetary threat head on, subsequently enlisting the help of the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, who finds that the late Tony Stark has entrusted him with a fancy gizmo that comes with its own sophisticated Suri voice tech.
    The fish-bowl-headed alien, alias Quentin Beck but dubbed Mysterio, is a slightly different take on the classic Spidey character, although there is a link to his modus operandi which comic fans are familiar with.
    Beck and Peter become strong allies and forge an on-screen relationship that is a delight to watch, but, quite literally, nothing is as it seems with the character, whose specialty is the use of illusions.
    Interestingly, there’s no appearance of characters such as the Shocker or the Scorpion, minor adversaries who were shown momentarily in Homecoming in scenes that appeared to foreshadow their imminent appearance in a sequel. But that works in the movie’s favour, as the spotlight focuses on the main antagonist without any unnecessary sidetracks.
    Jon Favreau also turns up and reprises his role as Tony Stark’s right hand man Happy Hogan, who has always had a fun, annoyed avuncular vibe with Peter.
    In a nice twist to the tale, that expands even further in this film towards unexpected yet enjoyable territory.
    MJ’s character, meanwhile, has developed further in this instalment, and Zendaya carries the role well. However, it’s Holland who shines brightest as he threads the needle between heartbreak and hilarity for the entire film.
    All in all, Spider-Man: Far From Home succeeds by avoiding a retread of the original, while also forging ahead with a fresh approach.
    It emulates the style of movies like DC’s Shazam!, packing itself with genuine laughs yet taking it seriously when it needs to, but also remaining faithful to the coming-of-age humour that made its predecessor so enjoyable.
    As the film winds down, audiences will be sitting back in their seats smiling from this less exacting, wonderfully entertaining ride.
    But then, in keeping with the smoke and mirrors theme, the clouds concealing the apparent happy ending dispel. Make sure you stay to the absolute end for two of the best and most exciting post-credit cliffhangers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in quite some time.
    They provide the perfect cappers to a film that serves as a great bookend to the first era of the MCU, and a superb start of the next chapter.


#sonypicturesaus #spidermanfarfromhome