Film Review: The Last Exorcism

The Last Exorcism. Rated MA 15+ (strong horror themes and violence). 87 minutes. Directed by Daniel Stamm. Screenplay by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland.

It’s eleven years since the game-changing The Blair Witch Project (1999) – in which the filmmakers’ hand-held camera swooped about in a seemingly entirely random fashion. Blair Witch also set the precedent for ‘mockumentary’ cinematic storytelling – a story told through the experiences of people making a movie about their ill-fated trip into the haunted woods near Burkittesville, Maryland. Unscripted, improvised and featuring the famous video diary sequence from the terrified ‘camper’ Heather Donahue, Blair Witch also delivered an ending of such sickening and heart-stopping terror, that horror movie fans the world over rightly celebrated a new milestone in their beloved genre.

In 2008, Matt Reeves delivered his masterstroke Cloverfield, in which the science-fiction and horror genres were brilliantly welded to the hand-held camerawork. As a group of desperate young New Yorker’s find themselves in a cat-and-mouse game of survival with a marauding alien/monster invader and its offspring, Cloverfield’s compelling narrative was captured and provoked by the brilliant idea of having the video camera carried throughout the apocalyptic events by the archetypal nerdy best-friend ‘Hud’ (TJ Miller). Like Blair Witch, Cloverfield delivered an ending of utter hopelessness in the face of the might of a military hell-bent on annihilation of the monstrous enemy invader.

In 1973, director William Friedkin delivered the genre-defining The Exorcist. William Peter Blatty’s screenplay (adapted from his novel), provided Friedkin and his outstanding cast (including the late Jason Miller as Father Karras and Max von Sydow as the exorcist, Father Merrin) with the perfect showcase for a chilling and unforgettable story of the possession of the innocent Regan (Linda Blair) and the efforts of her increasingly desperate mother Chris (Ellen Burstyn). Still the most talked-about and revered movie of its kind, The Exorcist arguably owes a debt (in structure and tone, at least) to Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Writer Ira Levin worked brilliantly on our primal fears (and increasing incomprehension) as the optimistic world of young Rosemary (Mia Farrow) was influenced by evil, supernatural forces seeking to control the destiny of her unborn child.

Watching any (or all) of the movies I’ve discussed in this review on DVD would be preferable to sitting through The Last Exorcism – the most unoriginal and derivative movie of the year, complete with the worst ending of any movie from this complex, fascinating and celebrated genre.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Wild Target

Wild Target. Rated M (Violence and infrequent coarse language). 98 minutes. Directed by Jonathan Lynn. Screenplay by Lucinda Coxon. Based on the French film Cible émouvante (1993), written and directed by Pierre Salvadori.

As quirky, British comedies go, Wild Target is a diverting little gem – thanks mostly to the charming performances of its leads Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint who, both individually and together, light up the screen with truck-loads of charisma.

Victor Maynard (Mr Nighy) is a professional hitman who finds himself increasingly captivated by his latest target – con-woman Rose (Ms Blunt). When it becomes obvious that Victor has no intention of carrying out the ‘hit’, another hitman, Hector Dixon (Martin Freeman), is sent to do the job instead. With young stoner Tony (Mr Grint) along for the ride, Victor and Rose escape to Victor’s country estate to hide and work out how they can resolve their major life-and-death problem.

Jonathan Lynn (perhaps better known as the writer and creator of the acclaimed British television series Yes, Minister, and Yes, Prime Minister), has the good sense to leave his actors alone and they never let him down. While it occasionally feels a little too conveniently contrived, Ms Coxon’s English-language version of the French original is pretty much a case of more hits than misses, and Nighy’s perfect comedic timing is absolutely delightful to behold.

Ms Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, the unfortunate The Wolfman, the soon-to-be-released Gulliver's Travels) is fabulous as the feisty ‘wild’ target, while Mr Grint (currently also onscreen in his continuing role as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1) is totally endearing as the orphaned young apprentice who Victor takes under his wing (to tutor, yet again) in the hope that he might one day take his place in the ‘family business’. Dame Eileen Atkins absolutely revels in her wonderfully offbeat cameo as Victor’s not-to-be-trifled-with mother, Louisa.

While Wild Target occasionally drags its heels as far as pace and action is concerned, it is a perfectly entertaining distraction from the mayhem that signifies this time of year.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Skyline

Skyline. Rated M (Science fiction violence and infrequent coarse language). 93 minutes. Directed by Colin Strause and Greg Strause. Written by Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell.

Yes folks, it’s finally here: the worst movie of 2010 – and the only thing that kept me sitting in my seat was wanting to see just how much worse it could get. And my distinctly morbid curiousity was extremely well-rewarded: Skyline is an absolute dud.

It all starts promisingly enough, with a group of friends and business acquaintances recovering from a big night partying in a Los Angeles apartment (cue first distracting thought; ‘Oh, I must watch Cloverfield on DVD for the 100th time’).

As shafts of blue light descending from the clouds announce the arrival of a hostile alien force, our cast (including TV ‘actors’ Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel, Crystal Reed, David Zayas and Donald Faison) test the boundaries of ineptitude in order to survive the invasion.

They don’t stand a chance – and it’s not because (as you might have imagined) the fearsome aliens have superior firepower. No, it’s because our dreary, dopey ‘actors’ insist on running around in broad daylight, trying to drive away (cars vs aliens just never ends well), going on to the rooftop of the apartment building (yes, great idea guys), running around in the garden (very sensible) and constantly talking about trying to get to the marina where they will be able to get into a boat and sail away!

‘Why is it so terrible?’ you might well ask? The directors (who were also jointly responsible for 2007’s regrettable AVPR: Aliens vs Predator – Requiem) are primarily special effects gurus. Through their FX company – Hydraulx – they have designed and supervised the visual effects departments on a collection of the most FX-intensive films in recent memory (including Avatar, 2012, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Jumper).

Skyline (filmed almost entirely in Greg’s apartment complex and entirely financed by the brothers themselves, presumably because no studio was interested), represents nothing more than a laughable demo reel to showcase their negligible film-making skills – independent of people who really know what they’re doing. And with the exception of one sequence where the inhabitants of LA are ‘hoovered’ up into an alien spacecraft, there is absolutely nothing else to redeem this film. Unless, of course, you want to go along and be amazed at just how cringe-makingly bad a film script (and the acting of it) can be.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Red

Red. Rated M (Action violence and infrequent coarse language). 111 minutes. Directed by Robert Schwentke. Screenplay by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber. Based on the graphic novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired ‘black-ops’ (covert operations) CIA Agent, living alone in peaceful, if relatively boring, seclusion. He passes the time by flirting on the telephone with Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker) who works in the agency’s Kansas City-based pension department. When Frank’s life is interrupted by the arrival of a hit-squad of assassins, he realises that he has become a target – and after kidnapping Ms Ross for her own safety, reassembles his crack team of retired colleagues to take on the CIA at their own game.

Much like playing Solitaire on your computer, Red has its moments of distracting charm. John Malkovich (Burn After Reading), Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Morgan Freeman (Invictus) as Frank’s colleagues bring a certain megawattage of star power to the proceedings – even if they mostly appear to be simply going through their paces, while William Cooper (as über-baddie CIA operative Karl Urban) does a mean line in vein-popping frustration. Ms Parker (perhaps best-known for her work in the television series Weeds), is totally engaging as the wide-eyed, stunned and amazed Sarah who gradually begins to relish the unpredictable excitement these dedicated has-beens have brought into her previously tedious life.

But in spite of the glittering cast (which also includes Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Cox and 93-year-old Ernest Borgnine) and lots of good intentions, the end result is a film that absolutely fails to equal the sum of its parts. Mr Willis (who has done some brilliant work over the years including the Die Hard franchise, Hostage, The Sixth Sense, The Fifth Element and the unforgettable Moonlighting), never gets anything to really sink his teeth into and is, like the rest of the cast, acted off the screen by Mr Malkovich’s marvellously paranoid and deluded ‘Marvin’. Apart from lacking any sense of originality, the Hoebers’ muddled but occasionally humourous script doesn’t stand up to too much interrogation – which is probably just as well because Mr Schwentke’s join-the-dots direction doesn’t ask very much of it. Sadly, it all ends up feeling a little more like Try Hard than Die Hard.

Pictured: Bruce Willis having a "how the hell did it all go so horribly wrong" moment in Red.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Social Network

The Social Network. Rated M (coarse language). 120 minutes. Directed by David Fincher. Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Based on the novel The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.

When contemplating the game-changing social-networking website ‘Facebook’, the statistics are staggering. Consider, for example, the following: more than 500 million active users; 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day; and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

And while the debate rages regarding the extent of The Social Network’s authenticity, you can’t take anything away from the film as a sensational piece of cinematic story-telling. Fincher (Alien 3, Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Sorkin (The West Wing, Sports Night, A Few Good Men) have absolutely nailed the complexity of what just may have happened behind the scenes as the behemoth website was created.

The Social Network boasts the most brilliant performances from an exceptional young ensemble, with Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland) and Andrew Garfield (Boy A), in particular, superb as Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin respectively. Justin Timberlake proves he can, in fact, do anything with a fantastic turn as Napster founder and Facebook interloper Sean Parker.

But anyone familiar with Sorkin’s uncanny ability to write in often surprising detail about the intricacy of human interaction, will recognise the rich layering of emotion that gives much of The Social Network its cinematic torque – all spun masterfully from the simple premise of the extent to which Zuckerberg has to defend the proprietary rights over his much-loved creation.

With flawless cinematography from Jeff Cronenweth (Fight Club), pace-perfect editing from long-time Fincher collaborator Angus Wall and Sydney-born Kirk Baxter (… Benjamin Button), and a brilliant original score from Atticus Ross (The Book of Eli) and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), The Social Network powers along for every one of its 120 minutes – never looking or feeling like anything less than a monumental labour of love for everyone concerned – resulting in one of the most perfect films of the year.

Pictured: Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.