Film Review: Magic Mike

Magic Mike. Rated MA 15+ (strong nudity, sexual references, coarse language and drug use). 110 minutes. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Screenplay by Reid Carolin.        

Verdict: A beefcake showcase that slowly reveals itself to be far more than it might, at first glance, seem.

While it’s certainly no The Full Monty (1997), in which an unlikely group of down-and-outers fight poverty with their striptease act, Magic Mike has a good deal going for it. At first glance, it’s an autobiographically-inspired showcase for the skills of the indefatigable Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, Dear John, The Vow), who started his career as a stripper. But with Carolin’s finely-balanced screenplay and the watchful and carefully-considered eye of Soderbergh (Contagion, Traffic, Erin Brockovich), Magic Mike gradually begins to delve into the dark and dangerously addictive side of ‘showbusiness’ – self-delusion, narcissism and a rampantly destructive drug-fuelled subculture.

Departures: Micromachina Aqua

As part of the South Australian Living Artists Festival (SALA) Festival, the South Australian Maritime Museum will host mixed media artist Scott Bain’s second solo exhibition, Micromachina Aqua – comprising of nine new works, and five works from the award-winning Micromachina exhibition. 

Micromachina was created as a social comment on humans' destructive and capitalist drive to control our planet. Money, profits and economic growth take precedence over environment, habitats and entire species. The self-destructive consumption of natural resources is showing no signs of slowing down. The first exhibition helped to create a worldwide talking point on the works – and hopefully the message.

Micromachina Aqua takes this inspiration to the high seas, highlighting the damage caused to an often unseen, large percentage of our planet. The destruction caused by overfishing, oil spills and now gas exploration are causing irreversible damage to fragile underwater ecosystems. If the exhibition encourages the viewer to think about the future of other species, then the art is doing its job. For those who are charmed by the painstakingly miniature, it is also a delightfully tongue in cheek look at cutting edge ‘maritime’ art.

Mr Bain won the award for Best Visual Art Emerging Artist for Micromachina at the 2011 Fringe Festival. His work has been profiled on the National Geographic and Discovery channels as well as in international visual art media.

More information on Scott and his work is available here.

Micromachina Aqua

3–26 August 2012

Launch: 9 August at 6pm

Visit the SA Maritime Museum’s website here.

Pictured: Micromachina – Urban Camouflage, 2011. Beetle, plastic figures, found objects, 15cm x 12.5cm (cased)

Film Review: The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises. Rated M (violence). 164 minutes. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan.        

Verdict: An overwhelmingly masterful experience of the perfect fusion between creative vision and cinematic storytelling.

With the final instalment to his Batman trilogy – Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008) – Nolan has delivered not only one of his finest films, but one of the best films of the year, if not the decade. From the extraordinary opening aerial sequences to the final five best movie minutes in recent memory, Nolan and his team immerse us – flawlessly – into an overwhelming experience of the perfect fusion between creative vision and cinematic storytelling. It is, in short, brilliant, masterful work.

With the Batman (Christian Bale) in retirement and nursing his physical and psychological wounds, the evil Bane (Tom Hardy, pictured) unleashes his dire plan for the domination of Gotham. When his mother’s precious pearl necklace is stolen by cat-burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), Batman finds himself forced back into defending the now entirely lawless Gotham from Bane’s destructive ambitions.

Film Review: Ted

Ted. Rated MA 15+ (strong sexual references, coarse language and drug use). 106 minutes. Directed by Seth MacFarlane. Screenplay by Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.

Verdict: This surprisingly witless affair never reaches the heights to which it constantly aspires.

You’d think that with three writers (who all work together on Family Guy – the successful TV series created by MacFarlane), they would have been able to come up with something less repetitive and less lavatory humour focussed. What we get, frustratingly, are torrents of the kind of base humour that is not only on the nose, but that gets in the way of this film taking the flight of fantasy it constantly threatens to.

Film Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man. Rated M (action violence). 136 minutes. Directed by Marc Webb. Screenplay by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves.

Verdict: Andrew Garfield brings Peter Parker to life in sensational form – and the film follows his lead beautifully.

If there’s one reason to see this intriguing reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, it is Andrew Garfield’s (Boy A, The Social Network) bravura performance in the title role. Garfield’s Peter Parker is no shy, bland, awkward geek. Instead, Garfield’s Peter is a twitchy, neurotic, damaged young man who is perpetually grieving for his lost parents who obviously meant the world to him. It’s a fascinating, complex performance from one of the finest young actors of his generation – and one that lends this particular take on the well-known and much-loved Spider-Man a source of deeply engaging heart and soul.

Garfield is well-supported by the charming Emma Stone (The Help) as Peter’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy, who also provides the film with a lightness of touch that is a delightful counterpoint to the film’s over-riding seriousness. Rhys Ifans (The Five-Year Engagement) makes a fantastic Dr Curt Connors/The Lizard, while Denis Leary as Gwen’s father and Martin Sheen (The West Wing) and Sally Field (Brothers and Sisters) as Peter’s aunt and uncle round out the fine ensemble.

Writers Vanderbilt (Zodiac), Kloves (who adapted the Harry Potter novels for the screen) and Sargent (who has worked on every Spider-Man script including Sam Raimi's memorable adventures with Tobey Maguire in the title role), have delivered a beautifully structured screenplay that neatly divides the story into two parts: the keenly-observed origins of Peter’s superpowers and the ultimate battle between Spider-Man and The Lizard for control of New York.

Webb (500 Days of Summer) wisely lets his outstanding ensemble do what they do best before cutting loose in spectacular fashion for the film’s monumental slap-down that echoes the climactic sequences of King Kong.

Editors Alan Edward Bell, Michael McCusker and Pietro Scalia keep the action moving along at a perfect pace – ensuring that the pace never once sags, and James Horner’s (Avatar, Titanic) score underscores every layer of the story perfectly.

John Schwartzman’s (The Green Hornet) superb cinematography beautifully accounts for the film’s many changes in mood and tone – with the night-time sequences high above the city, in particular, just stunning. Fans of the Marvel comics will note the stylish comic book framing of almost every shot – and will more than likely be grateful that Webb and his creative team have chosen to respect the comic book origins of the character with a fine, uncluttered visual aesthetic.

As we have come to expect, a short scene after the main credits at the end more than hints at a sequel – and it’s not that often that we welcome that thought. In this case, though, it’s welcome back and hurry back Spider-Man.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group and appeared in the print edition of The Geraldton Guardian (pictured below).

 

Film Review: Ice Age: Continental Drift

Ice Age: Continental Drift. Rated PG (Mild animated violence and coarse language). 92 minutes. Directed by Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier. Screenplay by Michael Berg and Jason Fuchs.

Verdict: The Ice Age gang are back in a virtuoso display of 3D action and adventure.

It’s hard to believe that it is ten years since the lovable characters in Ice Age (2002) burst onto the screen. The original’s mammoth success spawned two sequels – Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) – and now the gang are reunited in a virtuoso display of 3D action and adventure. The 3D format is so successful here in fact, that it makes the 3D version almost compulsory.

When Scrat the squirrel (Chris Wedge) decides to bury his beloved acorn in the ice, he inadvertently triggers a cataclysmic chain of events that reshapes the continents and separates Manny (Ray Romano) the mammoth from his partner Ellie (Queen Latifah) and their daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer). With the constant threat of environmental and ecological disaster inching ever closer, the characters must fight the elements (and some classic foes – including Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage’s marauding, swashbuckling pirate Captain Gutt) in their desperate race to be reunited.

Sid the sloth (pictured, voiced by the brilliant John Leguizamo) remains a masterpiece of character animation and voice work, while the debut of his Granny (Wanda Sykes), is nothing less than inspirational. Granny’s idiosyncratic zeal for life gives the film a much-needed thread of almost surreal absurdism – keeping it well away from The Lion King and Happy Feet 2 territory when it matters most.

What is obvious from the first frame of this fourth instalment in the Ice Age franchise, is the immense amount of skill and confidence behind the scenes – led by directors Martino (Horton Hears a Who!) and Thurmeier (Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs). The voice work – without exception – is spot on, while Renato Falcão’s (Rio) cinematography and James Palumbo (Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) and David Salter (Finding Nemo, Toy Story 2) editing are all faultless.

Environmental issues have been a constant feature of the recent Hollywood studio output for their young audiences, and if Mr Berg and Fuchs’s occasionally brooding and intense screenplay plays it with a capital D for Disaster, it also manages to offer an important sense of hopeful optimism. Integral to the film’s entertainment value, too, are the messages about the critical importance of family, great friends and the rightful place that life-changing adventures have to play in our lives.