Film Review: Men in Black 3

Men in Black 3. Rated M (science fiction violence). 106 minutes. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Screenplay by Etan Cohen.

Verdict: This very welcome return to form for the Men in Black team works on every level.

Based on Lowell Cunningham’s comic book series, Men in Black (1997) was a phenomenal success – winning an Academy Award for Rick Baker’s make-up. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family), Tommy Lee Jones’s Agent K and Will Smith’s Agent J would go on to become instantly recognisable and immensely popular characters. The sci-fi/comedy/espionage genre mashup worked perfectly, and thankfully (after 2002’s less-than-successful sequel), Mr Sonnenfield almost effortlessly escorts this latest instalment back to the inventive silliness that worked so well for the original.

When Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) escapes from prison, it is with the sole purpose of finding Agent K (Jones) and holding him to account for having shot off his arm before arresting him in 1969. When a space-time continuum reveals that K actually died in the confrontation, both Boris and Agent J (Smith) return to 1969 to rewrite the course of history – with J determined to destroy the evil Boris before he kills the 29-year-old Agent K (Josh Brolin).

Mr Cohen’s (Tropic Thunder) terrific screenplay balances the time-travel imperatives with a great affection for what worked so well in the original – a buddy movie with an alien twist. Mr Brolin is perfect as the younger version of Mr Jones’s K, and both he and Mr Smith make the most of every opportunity to play the script’s every intriguing twist and turn for all its worth. The final sequences (based around the launch of Apollo 11’s trip to the moon) are both expertly handled and surprisingly affecting.

Bill Pope’s (The Matrix, Spider-Man 2 and 3) cinematography stylishly captures Bo Welch’s (Thor, Edward Scissorhands) artful production design – adding to the film’s affectionate take on an era when aliens looked more like the people in colourful alien costumes than the frightful CGI creations they have become. Men in Black III works as well as it does because it fondly and respectfully recalls the early era of alien/space technology movies – which ends up being not only a masterstroke of storytelling, but also an immensely enjoyable and very welcome return to form for the Men in Black team.

Film Review: The Dictator

The Dictator. Rated MA15+ (strong crude humour, sexual references and nudity). 83 minutes. Directed by Larry Charles. Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer.

Verdict: This crass, patchy but good-looking affair will only please die-hard Cohen fans.

While it would be fair to say that Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedic creations (rapper Ali G, Borat and Brüno) are certainly an acquired taste, there are very few highlights in this latest, sloppy affair that veers violently from the grotesque and offensive to the only very occasional comedic flourishes.

When the oil rich Republic of Waadeya’s ruthless dictator Haffaz Alladeen (Baron Cohen) is summoned to the United Nations in New York to answer the concerns about his nuclear program, his uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) plots to have Alladeen tortured to death and replaced by a double who will sign an agreement opening up the republic’s oil fields for business.

But when Aladeen turns the tables on his executioner (John C. Reilly), he meets Zoey (Anna Farris) who he gradually falls in love with. Determined to outsmart his uncle and derail the signing of the agreement that will essentially democratise his country, he discovers Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), the former chief of Wadiya's nuclear weapons program, who is now living in exile in New York. Together, they hatch a plan to infiltrate the signing ceremony and take back control of the country.

While The Dictator starts promisingly enough and ends with an inspired punch, what makes up the rest of the long and prickly 83 minutes is patchy, laboured and, somewhat perversely, not very funny. Instead, it rests uncomfortably somewhere in between a forced and unlikely romantic comedy and strident political satire – ultimately failing to make any of it as satisfying as it might have been.

Mr Charles, who has directed Baron Cohen in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Brüno, works wonders to keep the rambling odyssey together, while Victor Kempster’s (JFK, Natural Born Killers, Any Given Sunday) lavish production design is both spot on and the best thing about the entire film.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows. Rated M (fantasy themes and violence). 113 minutes. Directed by Tim Burton. Written by Seth Grahame-Smith. Based on the television series created by Dan Curtis.

Verdict: Tim Burton respectfully pays a debt while the rest of us are left to wonder why.

Not having seen Dark Shadows – the American television series that inspired this latest collaboration between Mr Burton and his frequent collaborator Johnny Depp (they have made eight films together) – you may find yourself with a distinct disadvantage. Without any knowledge of the series Mr Burton adored as a young boy, we’re left to consider his Dark Shadows on its own merits – which, regrettably, are few and far between.

When Barnabas Collins (Mr Depp) spurns the romantic advances of the witch Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), she forces his lover Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote) to leap to her death from a clifftop before turning Barnabas into a vampire and burying him alive. Fast forward to 1972, and when an unfortunate group of construction workers inadvertently release Barnabas from his coffin, the ever-polite vampire returns to his family estate to restore it and his family name to their former glory. When Angelique discovers that Barnabas is free again, centuries old passions and tensions are rekindled – with calamitous consequences.

The laughs, such as they are, originate from Barnabas’s collision with production designer Rick Heinrichs’ picture-perfect recreation of the iconic 1970s and the superb, Burtonesque Collinwood Manor. The performances around Mr Depp’s masterfully understated posturing through the lead role are mostly uneven, a result of Mr Grahame-Smith’s script that fails to go the distance when it matters most. Instead, convoluted subplots (particularly the one involving Ms Heathcote’s reincarnated Josette) remain annoyingly weak, disconnected and unformed.

Visually, as we come to expect from Mr Burton, the film is brimming with grand, atmospheric flourishes and flair – all stylishly photographed by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Amelie). But even that is not really enough to help ease the slippery sense that this Dark Shadows somehow means more to those intimately involved in its creation than it could ever possibly hope to mean to its audience.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement. Rated MA15+ (strong sexual references and coarse language). 124 minutes. Directed by Nicholas Stoller. Written by Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel.

Verdict: A long, verbose and laboured one-note rom-com that takes itself far too seriously.

This long, verbose and laboured one-note rom-com boasts some excellent comedy pedigree behind the scenes. Producer Judd Apatow is responsible for Bridesmaids (2011), Get Him to the Greek (2010) and Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) to name just three. Mr Stoller directed Get Him to the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall and wrote the screenplays for The Muppets (2011) and the regrettable Gulliver's Travels (2010). Surprisingly, given the team’s track-record, the extent to which this tired old affair appeals will depend entirely on how much of fan you are of the leads Jason Segel (The Muppets, Bad Teacher) and Emily Blunt (Gulliver's Travels, The Wolfman, Wild Target).

When chef Tom (Segel) and psychology PhD graduate Violet (Blunt) first meet, they both realise that they are destined to be together forever. A year later, blissfully engaged and working hard to realise their personal goals, Violet is given the opportunity to move to Michigan to further her studies and Tom reluctantly goes with her – leaving his job in a prestigious restaurant behind. As Violet’s career blossoms, Tom becomes more and more disillusioned with his new life and the impact on their relationship becomes increasingly difficult to manage.

The sense that The Five-Year Engagement is trying to be more quirky and meaningful (1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral springs to mind) than hilarious and engaging is evident in the sombre pacing, and the fact that when the laughs eventually come, they are long overdue and barely worth the wait. The MA15+ rating is courtesy of some filthy language and some artless attempts to make the supporting characters risqué and contemporary that only succeeds in creating squirm-inducing discomfort.

Chris Pratt (Moneyball) has his moments as Tom’s nemesis and colleague Alex, while Oscar nominated Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) in her first Hollywood outing since that acclaimed performance is punching well below her weight as Violet’s mother Sylvia. But if the film belongs to anyone, it’s Alison Brie’s Suzie – whose brief speech at the early engagement party sequence is the only sign of true comedic flair we get.

Departures: 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist announced

The Trust Company, as Trustee, and the 2012 judges today announced the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin Literary Award, regarded as Australia's most prestigious literary prize. Announced at the State Library of New South Wales, the 2012 shortlist features five works of fiction and includes a mixture of well-established Australian authors and first time novelists.

Established by writer, Miles Franklin, to support and encourage authors of Australian literature, the Miles Franklin Literary Award is Australia's oldest and most prestigious literary prize. The winner of the award will receive $50,000 for the novel of the year judged to be of the highest literary merit which "must present Australian life in any of its phases".

For the first time this year the five person judging panel were formally authorised by the Trustee to use their discretion to modernise the interpretation of Australian life beyond geographical boundaries to include mindset, language, history and values.

The 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist is:

Tony Birch Blood University of Queensland Press

Anna Funder All That I Am Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Group Australia)

Gillian Mears Foal's Bread Allen & Unwin

Frank Moorhouse Cold Light Vintage (Random House Australia)

Favel Parrett Past the Shallows Hachette Australia (Hachette imprint)

Judging the 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award is Richard Neville, State Library of New South Wales Mitchell Librarian, Professor Gillian Whitlock, Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow at the University of Queensland, Murray Waldren, journalist and columnist at The Australian, Anna Low, a Sydney based bookseller and Dr Julianne Schultz AM, founding editor of Griffith REVIEW.

Speaking on behalf of the judging panel, Gillian Whitlock said: "This year we had a big longlist that made the judging panel reflect on the power of historical fiction, extending from the colonial period through to memories of the world wars and their aftermath. We see this reflected in the shortlisted fictions by Anna Funder and Frank Moorhouse.

"We also see more contemporary lives explored with a turn to trauma narratives and childhood, in the shortlisted novels by Tony Birch, Favel Parrett and Gillian Mears. The breadth of the shortlist includes well-known and loved Australian authors and includes the end of one of the great historical trilogies in Cold Light, as well as featuring two wonderful first time novelists. The Miles Franklin prize is now more than ever a national celebration of Australian writing," Ms Whitlock said.

John Atkin, CEO of The Trust Company, commended the five shortlisted authors on their challenging and evocative novels, "The Trust Company is extremely proud to be associated with the Miles Franklin Award and as Trustee we are constantly working to maintain and develop the legacy Miles Franklin entrusted us with for the advancement of Australian literature. As part of that role we have been looking at the ambiguity around "Australian life in any of its phases". It has been much cause for debate and there has been a traditionally conservative interpretation of the quote. I wrote to the judges authorising them to use their discretions to modernise the interpretation of "Australianess" beyond geographical boundaries to include mindset, language, history and values, as is in keeping with the current Australian literary landscape."

Each of the shortlisted authors will be awarded $5,000 prize money from Copyright Agency Limited's Cultural Fund, a long-term partner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

The shortlist events at National Library of Australia, Canberra on 29 May, also sponsored by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund include a public meet the author event. The winner will be announced in Brisbane on 20 June 2012 at the State Library of Queensland.