Film Review: Hercules

Hercules. Rated M (violence, blood and infrequent coarse language). 98 minutes. Directed by Brett Ratner. Screenplay by Ryan Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos. Based on Radical Comics’ Hercules by Steve Moore.

Verdict: Radical Comics make a stupidly entertaining entry into big screen Comic Book universe.

There is more than one way to skin a lion, it would seem, as Radical Comics (after a piece of Marvel’s box office pie) make their high-impact entry into the world of big screen adaptations. And if this entertaining piece of big budget schlock is anything to go by, they are a welcome addition to the fold – if only for entirely different reasons. Hercules is a message- and moral-free zone, existing for one reason only, which is to entertain.

Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand) somehow manages channel the great Mel Brooks, Monty Python and his own peculiar taste for unhinged cinematic pandemonium into an irreverent sprint through the Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) fable. Johnson, who is re-writing the book of what you need to possess in order to have a lucrative acting career, is fantastic as Hercules. The camera cannot get enough of him, and he obliges with all kinds of face-pulling and posturing, while also handling the comedy and the high drama in thunderingly good form like the supremely entertaining showman he really is.

Veterans Ian McShane (as the weary ‘Seer’ Amphiaraus) and John Hurt (as the vengeful Lord Cotys) bring presence and entertainment value to the show in equal measure, with McShane working all the best laughs to his absolute advantage as he expects to die courtesy of a flaming arrow at any moment.

As our hero and his cohorts trample all over the place killing everyone and everything that gets in their way, it becomes impossible not to simply marvel at how wonderfully silly it all is. Silly, entertaining, and done and dusted in half the time. Marvellous.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Sex Tape

Sex Tape. Rated MA15+ (strong sex scenes, sexual references, coarse language and drug use). 94 minutes. Directed by Jake Kasdan. Screenplay by Kate Angelo, Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller.

Verdict: Apple® product placement reaches a new high.

Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel and Jake Kasdan first worked together on Bad Teacher (2011), the story of Diaz’s ‘bad’ teacher Elizabeth, who quits her job to marry her rich boyfriend, only to find herself back in the classroom again after he dumps her. Her mission to find another wealthy man to marry was one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable films of the season. Even though it has its moments, this outing for the trio is considerably less successful.

When parents Annie (Diaz) and Jay (Segel) try to rekindle their previously passionate sex life by making a sex tape, copies of the resulting video end up being shared amongst their friends on second-hand iPads that Jay gives them as gifts. When Annie’s future employer Hank (Rob Lowe) receives one of the iPads, Annie and Jay decide to go to whatever lengths are necessary to retrieve it before he has the chance to watch it.

Lowe is an odd choice for the role of Annie’s future boss, mostly because it is impossible to ignore the fact that he had his own infamous moment in the ‘sex tape’ sun way back 1989. Lowe has become a fine actor over the years, and his performance as the peculiar Hank is well below the standard he has set for himself in West Wing and Brothers and Sisters.

When it is not resembling an over-produced commercial for every Apple® product under the sun (Jay owns a ridiculous number of the company’s devices), the screenplay struggles to last the distance. While there are certainly some big laughs to be had (the scenes involving Jay and Hank’s German Shepherd guard dog are ridiculously over the top), it ultimately feels as though everyone is trying just that little bit too hard to get it over the line.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Rated M (violence and infrequent coarse language). 130 minutes. Directed by Matt Reeves. Screenplay by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.

Verdict: A compelling return to the rebooted Planet of the Apes.

This sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) has its problems, but under Reeves’ (Cloverfield) inspired direction, it manages to mask almost all of them.

Human survivors of the ALZ-113 plague are holed-up in what is left of San Francisco. In the mountains, the apes have established a civilised, self-sufficient community lead by Caesar (Andy Serkis). But when the two communities collide, a battle for supremacy erupts.

While the early sequences involving the apes, horses, a bear and a herd of wilder-beast are clunky, the motion capture technology comes into its own once the script begins to focus on character. Serkis, who is the technology’s human heart and soul (he played Gollum, King Kong and Caesar in Rise …), delivers another superb performance as Caesar. He is beautifully supported by Nick Thurston as his son, Blue Eyes. Our eyes are the windows to our soul, and these two bring great depth to the story with only their eyes.

Australian-born Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) is great as Malcolm, one of the leaders of the human community, and his complex struggle with the ethics of sacrificing peace for the sake of having access to electricity, is one of the scripts many involving storylines.

While the human-hating Koba (Toby Kebbell) feels too much like The Lion King’s Scar, the complexity of the different relationships that feed the story are entirely absorbing. As Reeves moves in for a spectacular close-up on Caesar’s eyes at the end of the film, it might be impossible to know who you will care about most in the impending battle that is to come.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Jersey Boys

Jersey Boys. Rated M (frequent coarse language). 134 minutes. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Screenplay by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.

Verdict: Clint Eastwood delivers the sensational Jersey Boys to the screen flawlessly.

Since its Broadway premiere in 2005, Brickman and Elice’s music theatre version of Jersey Boys has played to critical and public acclaim all over the world. Boasting the perfect rags-to-riches and back to rags again story about four boys from New Jersey who would achieve international fame as The Four Seasons, and a soundtrack to die for, this cinematic adaptation is simply perfection.

Eastwood (as he proved with Million Dollar Baby and Changeling to name just two of his directorial triumphs), understands the intimacy of human drama possibly better than any director working in cinema today. With his constant collaborators, cinematographer Tom Stern and production designer James Murakami, Eastwood painstakingly recreates the era to perfection, acknowledging the work’s origins with a lavish, multi-dimensional theatrical sensibility.

John Lloyd Young (who played Frankie Valli on Broadway) leads an exceptionally multi-talented ensemble, who embrace the material with consummate passion and skill. It’s not hard to see why Lloyd Young won practically every award going for his Broadway debut performance as Valli. Not only does he account for the performer’s powerful falsetto magnificently, Lloyd Young’s is an un-showy performance of immense musical and emotional depth.

Vincent Piazza (Boardwalk Empire) is equally good as the charismatic Tommy DeVito, whose determination to create a better life for himself and his friends would derail spectacularly as the group began to achieve its well-deserved recognition. Piazza brings the loveable rogue to the screen beautifully, and if it is impossible to dislike him for the role he plays in the group’s final years together, it’s because without him, they would never have existed.

It’s unlikely that nostalgia buffs will have a better time in the cinema this year than with this lovingly crafted film from a director who, somehow, just keeps getting better and better.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.