Film Review: Fast and Furious 6

Fast and Furious 6. Rated M (action violence and infrequent coarse language).130 minutes. Directed by Justin Lin. Screenplay by Chris Morgan.

Verdict: The Fast and Furious franchise reaches top gear.

When a film can’t even make up its mind about what it has to be called, you know the people responsible are at the very pinnacle of a certain kind of success. Fast 6, Furious 6 (as it appears on screen in the opening title credit), or Fast and Furious 6, this is the latest instalment in a ridiculously successful franchise that has defied the laws of cinema. Or re-written them completely. Whichever it is depends entirely on your own point of view.

Beginning with The Fast and the Furious (2000), this series of films about fast cars, gangs, covert undercover operations and an international array of locations usually reserved for movies about that certain secret agent 007, the (arguably) niche market to which these films speak has embraced them wholeheartedly. And it is not that difficult to understand why. While they might not be works of art, they are superbly produced action films about the true spirit of comeraderie, and this instalment will have you staring at the screen with a certain amount of jaw-dropping awe.

The Fast and Furious ‘family’ have split up around the globe to enjoy the spoils of their bank heist in Fast and Furious 5. But when Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) brings Toretto (Vin Diesel) photographic evidence that the love of his life Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is still alive and working for an opposing gang, Toretto reunites the team to take the weapon-stealing gang on and bring Letty back to the fold.

It’s impossible to fault the acting on show here because there isn’t any. As any Fast and Furious Fan knows, it’s all about the car-related stunts, and Morgan’s screenplay – a brilliantly engineered piece of ‘let’s get the talk out of the way so we can get back to the car chases’ – is embraced by the cast, who share his aspirations without question.

The irony is that they’re absolutely right to do so. The big action set pieces are simply gob-smacking, and Lin (Fast 3) and his Australian-born cinematographer Stephen Windon (Fast 3, 5 and 6), nail them with breath-taking precision. The final sequence, which takes place on the longest airport runway known to mankind, is an instant classic, and the post-credits scene sets up Fast and Furious 7 with this series’ signature confidence. Just remember, as the film-makers wisely mention in a closing title screen, don’t try any of this at home.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Hangover Part III

The Hangover Part III. Rated MA 15+ (strong coarse language, nudity and crude humour). 100 minutes. Directed by Todd Phillips. Screenplay by Todd Phillips and Craig Mazin.

Verdict: The Hangover series limps over the finish line.

It often pays not to have high expectations for the cinematic delights a film promises to deliver. ‘The buzz’, such as it was, for this third and final instalment of Phillips’ Hangover trilogy, was keen anticipation for how the creators would farewell the characters we had come to know, love and instantly recognise within ourselves and people we know. Sadly, this vacant, somnambulic offering is not so much a finale, than it is a slowly deflating balloon that only ends up making you question how they got it so right the first (and arguably the second) time around.

When Alan (Zach Galifianakis) agrees to go into rehab, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) agree to drive him there. Travelling across country, they are run off the road by a gang of pig-mask-wearing thugs who are working for a gangster called Marshall (John Goodman). Marshall, who has had his gold bullion stolen by the irascible Mr Chow (Ken Jeong), takes Doug hostage until the guys can find Chow and the gold and bring them to him.

This flimsy premise simply doesn’t stand up to too much interrogation, and much of the time is spent waiting for Phillips and Co to go for broke. Jeong, who has always been the touchstone for the series’ appallingly bad taste, is catapulted into leading man territory here, and it just doesn’t work. Neither does the dramatic tenor of Phillips and Mazin’s pedestrian screenplay, which even with the presence of the brilliant but wasted Goodman, appears to have absolutely nothing further to add to the exploits of the first two films.

It is easy to imagine why the film-makers thought it might be an interesting idea to depart from the hugely-successful formula of the first two films. What they have replaced it with, however, is a kind of inert, soap-operatic dramedy that, with the exception of a fine funeral sequence early on, falls flat and never recovers. The final conceit is a post-credits scene that is the film we wish they’d made – and why they didn’t will forever have to remain an unforgivable mystery.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Snitch

Snitch. Rated M (drug use and violence). 112 minutes. Directed by Ric Roman Waugh. Screenplay by Justin Haythe and Ric Roman Waugh.

Verdict: A terrifically intense thriller about how far a father will go to save his son.

This tense and tight thriller about just how far a father will go to save the life of his imprisoned young son absolutely scorches across the screen – wasting no time whatsoever in taking us into the murky underworld of drug trafficking.

When construction company boss John Matthews’ (Dwayne Johnson) son Jason (Rafi Gavron) is imprisoned for trafficking drugs, John decides to help the law enforcement agencies – led by Susan Sarandon’s US Attorney Joanne Keeghan – snare bigger fish in return for having his son’s sentence reduced. With the help of one of his employees Daniel (Jon Bernthal), who has a conviction for trafficking narcotics, John risks everything he has and the lives of everyone he knows to right a terrible wrong.

With its heart on its sleeve and a truckload of moral dilemmas to resolve, Haythe and Waugh’s terrific and efficient screenplay plays with almost impossibly high stakes. Every character has something incredibly important to gain or lose, and the way in which Jason is in worse and worse shape when John regularly visits him in prison is an extremely powerful motivator.

Wrestler turned actor Johnson (aka The Rock) delivers a solid performance as the indefatigable John Matthews, but it is the supporting cast assembled around him that really delivers the goods. Bernthal (The Walking Dead), in particular, is outstanding as John’s co-conspirator and delivers one of the best and most interesting performances of the year so far. Gavron (The Cold Light of Day) is excellent as the young man struggling to hold it together in jail, and as we watch him slowly deteriorating as a result of relentless assaults, it is not difficult whatsoever to appreciate why his father is taking the terrible risks he is to save his son’s life.

Antonio Pinot’s (Love in the Time of Cholera, The Host) score constantly powers the increasing tension and becomes a critical part of the film’s overall effectiveness, while Dana Gonzales (Empire State) continues to build his reputation as a cinematographer with some fine work, beautifully accounting for the film’s many changes in mood and tone.

But ultimately, this is stuntman turned director Waugh’s film, and with a powerful screenplay and precise direction of his excellent cast, he has successfully marked himself as a director to watch out for.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby. Rated M (mature themes and violence). 142 minutes. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Screenplay by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. Based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Verdict: A magnificent achievement from start to finish.

It is curious to consider that F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing his seminal work The Great Gatsby to have been a failure. Only posthumously did his novel become considered as ‘the great American novel’ – such was the impact of the cracked mirror Fitzgerald held up to those in pursuit of unimaginable wealth and glamour, which is all too conveniently referred to as ‘the American dream’.

It is not quite as curious that it should be one of Australia’s big picture dreamers who takes the novel on. Luhrmann’s preposterous ambition for this film incises the novel’s grand themes of hope, optimism and the desolation of a life-long infatuation and lays the threads that both unite and divide us bare in scene after scene of artfully considered cinematic mastery. The finely-wrought screenplay, written with his constant collaborator Pearce, is flawless – and utterly enthralling for every one of its 142 minutes.

The production and costume design from Catherine Martin, Luhrmann’s creative soulmate and constant collaborator, is magnificent – recreating the 1920s with such an alarming level of dazzling, hyper-realistic creativity that it is, at times, simply overwhelming. Martin’s world for this film is both lovingly and carefully considered, and as true to the era as it is possible to imagine for people who never experienced it.

Leonardo DiCaprio, (who first worked with Luhrmann in Romeo and Juliet) delivers a beautiful performance as the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, whose obsession with winning back the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan (a perfect Carey Mulligan), leads him and everyone involved in his pyrotechnical life to the brink of emotional ruin.

Tobey Maguire is outstanding as the narrator Nick Carraway, delivering a performance of wide-eyed wonder in the face of the increasingly disconcerting influence of the obscenely privileged people that surround his innocent, uncomplicated existence. The standout performance, though, is that of Joel Edgerton, whose morally-bankrupt Tom Buchanan strides and procrastinates through the story like a raging bull from a bygone age. And as his self-righteousness suffocates everyone around him, the real sting in Fitzgerald’s tale becomes less about the perils of soul-less wealth and glamour but more about who it is in our lives who would prefer to see us absolutely fail than succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Departures: Save Kyneton's Bluestone Theatre

The Friends of the Bluestone Theatre are disturbed that of the $4 million allocated for new capital works expenditure for Recreation and Culture in the draft Macedon Ranges Shire Council 2013-14 Budget, the entire $4 million has been allocated to Recreation and absolutely nothing has been allocated to Culture.

The Friends are particularly concerned that nothing has been allocated for the restoration of Kyneton’s Bluestone Theatre which is an urgently needed community cultural resource that was allowed to deteriorate in recent years. This is a back-flip by the Council who at their meeting on 28 November, 2012, voted to allocate $90,000 to the Theatre in the 2013 budget.

The Friends of the Bluestone Theatre have set up an online petition that will be presented to the Council as part of their community campaign to have the funding decision reconsidered.
The nature of Macedon Ranges Shire is changing. Sport and recreation are important but they are no longer the sole pursuit of its citizens. This year Kyneton Football Club was unable to find enough players to field a senior team. On the other hand the Council boasts on its tourism website: “Per capita, the Macedon Ranges has more professional artists working in the arts than anywhere else in Victoria.“

The Bluestone Theatre is the only publicly available medium-size drama theatre in the shire. In the past it has been home to the Kyneton Theatre Company, who mount two musicals a year and other productions; to the Kyneton One-Act Play Festival, Victoria’s longest running drama festival, which brings entries from all over the state; and to the youth theatre group, Q’riosity, which performed an extremely valuable function in providing an outlet for the young people of the region and helping them to gain confidence and a sense of achievement. The Bluestone also hosted visiting productions from Melbourne and a local Drama School.

Action on the Bluestone is urgent. If action is not taken now, the Shire may loose an essential resource. The building is deteriorating each day and unless the Council acts immediately to stop the rot, the Shire may lose not only a valuable heritage-listed asset, but a theatre company, a festival and an important resource for the youth of the area.

The Friends of the Bluestone have been doing their bit with fundraising already by raising $8,000 and many more fund-raising activities are planned. They are also developing a business plan which will show how the Theatre will be utilised by the community for virtually all the year and generate income. It is up to the council to move with the times and start supporting culture as well as recreation in their capital works program.

Assuming that recreation and culture are equally valuable, one would expect roughly equal commitments to each. Some have questioned the appropriateness of the massive $1.615 million being committed to Hanging Rock in the Recreation and Culture capital works budget, but if we set that aside, and split the remaining $2.396 million in capital works fairly between culture and recreation then about $1.2 million should be spent on culture. The Bluestone Theatre needs only about 10% of this, or 0.6% of the total Shire Capital Works Budget, to become viable as a theatre again.

Multi award-winning actor and Kyneton resident Maggie Millar is horrified at the neglect of this heritage listed building. “I have played in theatres in the UK, Europe, New Zealand and Australia,” she said, “and the Bluestone is a real jewel. For the council to neglect such an asset to patrons and performers, in favour of sporting and recreational activities, shows a disturbing lack of understanding of the importance of such creative endeavours in our lives. I only hope they will see the light, reconsider their position, and follow through with the support they initially voted for.”

It’s not too much to ask.

Film Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness. Rated M (action violence). 132 minutes. Directed by J J Abrams. Screenplay by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof.

Verdict: A thrilling, big screen adventure.

With his magnificent reboot of the Star Trek film series in 2009, J J Abrams set the bar incredibly high for the two planned sequels, of which Star Trek Into Darkness is the first. Fortunately, everyone who collaborated with Abrams on Star Trek is back on deck for the sequel, and his spirited young cast – led by Chris Pine as James T Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock – all deliver fantastic performances of great depth and passion.

Star Trek Into Darkness begins with a stunning sequence in which the crew of the USS Enterprise are attempting to stop a volcanic eruption on Planet Nibiru that threatens to exterminate the population. When Spock’s life is at risk in the depths of the volcano, Kirk decides to break the rules and rescue him, revealing the Enterprise to the primitive inhabitants of Nibiru in the process. It’s not only a wonderfully adventurous way to begin the film, but one that sets the breath-draining pace for all that is to follow. Upon their return from the mission, Kirk is demoted for breaking ‘prime directives’ by revealing the Enterprise to other civilisations. But when Starfleet headquarters is ruthlessly attacked by a rogue agent John Harrison (a perfect Benedict Cumberbatch), the young and ambitious crew of the Enterprise – with Kirk back in charge – set out to find Harrison and hold him to account.

Abrams (Mission: Impossible 3, Star Trek, Super 8) is at his super-confident best here, with a screenplay that (for the most part) blends generous amounts of humour and intriguing moral dilemmas with lavish and brilliantly realised action set pieces. The only stumble is an anti-climactic punch-up between Spock and Harrison, which seems to belong to some other less visionary film rather than this fearless story about the clash of not only civilisations, but also generations.

Scott Chambliss’s (Cowboys & Aliens, Salt, Star Trek) production design is, once again, exemplary – with the first appearance of the Enterprise rising out of the ocean simply breathtaking. Dan Mindel’s (John Carter, Star Trek) cinematography is never less than superb, while Maryann Brandon (Star Trek, How to Train Your Dragon) and Mary Jo Markey’s (Star Trek, Super 8) masterful editing and Michael Giacchino’s (Cars 2, Super 8) thumpingly good score ensure that Star Trek Into Darkness is a thrilling adventure that demands to be seen on the big screen.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Drift

Drift. Rated M (drug use, coarse language, mature themes, violence and sexual references). 113 minutes. Directed by Ben Nott and Morgan O'Neill. Screenplay by Morgan O'Neill.

Verdict: Marvellously assured directorial debuts are a worthy cause for celebration.

Australian filmmakers making their feature length directorial debuts is a worthy cause for celebration – particularly while we are in the midst of a seemingly endless cycle of excessively violent, destruction-focussed, 3D, CGI-heavy slap downs from Hollywood.

With Drift, Nott and O’Neill make marvellously assured debuts as directors – particularly in the stunning opening sequence, shot in black and white, where Kat Kelly (Robyn Malcolm) and her young sons Jimmy and Andy flee their violently abusive home life. Leaving Sydney and heading west, the trio eventually arrive at Margaret River where Kat hopes to begin a new life for herself and her boys. As the film makes a wonderful transition to colour, Jimmy (Xavier Samuel) and Andy (Myles Pollard) have fully embraced the surf culture of their new home, and in a moment of divine inspiration, Andy decides to open a surf shop to service the burgeoning surf gear market up and down the west coast.

When it is not feeling as though it is padded out with clichéd and contrived conflict simply for the sake of it, O’Neill’s screenplay is fascinating. The storyline involving Aaron Glenane (The Black Balloon) as the brothers’ friend Gus who gradually sinks into a terrifying cycle of drug addiction is immensely powerful, and resolved with a stark, ritual brutality that is at odds with the freedom and abandonment with which many of the other characters exist in the world. Glenane’s is the best performance of the film, matched by Kelly’s perfect turn as the mum determined to do whatever it takes to ensure her boys are safe.

Sam Worthington delivers a fine performance as JB, a photographer who helps the Kelly brothers capture the essence of their surf-based world, while Lesley-Ann Brandt (TV’s Spartacus: Gods of the Arena) is perfect as JB’s travelling companion Lani, with whom both of the brothers fall in love.

The mighty Margaret River locations are beautifully photographed by cinematographer Geoffrey Hall (Chopper, Red Dog), while the abundance of fantastic wave action is superbly photographed by surf cinematographers Rick Rifici and Rick Jakovich. Editor Marcus D’Arcy (Tomorrow, When the War Began) ensures that the film moves at an immensely agreeable pace, while the production design from Clayton Jauncey (Beneath Hill 60) recreates the 1970s perfectly.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.