The Cabin In The Woods

Joss Whedon is on a roll, isn’t he?  Hot on the heels of The Avengers comes another piece he’s written:  The Cabin In The Woods, a typical horror show that…isn’t.

Five youths embark on a short vacation to the titular Cabin in the woods; a site unbeknownst to them as being under the control of an agency dedicated to engineering the cabin’s inhabitants to behave as decadently and cluelessly as is required for them to trigger their own demise at the hands of a set of monsters.  Their deaths are an apparently necessary blood sacrifice to appease “the Ancient Ones”, who will otherwise unleash some kind of hell to the rest of us on earth.

In an interview with TotalFilm.com, Mr Whedon explains that this film is “a serious critique of what we love and what we don’t about horror movies”.  With that in mind, it is joyous what he has done with the place.  He’s right, you know – with many modern horror franchises holding an unspoken competition to outdo themselves with spectacular gore, there is almost nothing particularly graphic about The Cabin In The Woods; its effectiveness still very much intact.  While a complete mockery of all the conventions we’ve come to expect from horror, the film cleverly, thrives on their very existence.

Brilliant as the idea is, this movie is not without its shortcomings (which should be expected really, given what’s in play).  Too often in the story, we find ourselves unsure of its genre – is it a serious horror piece?  A comedy?  A really bad homage?  A soap opera?  An admission of defeat?  The plot, insidious as it is, keeps shifting its tone, leaving me unable to fully grasp its intent and rather dissatisfied.

I noted, ultimately, CITW’s usefulness as a metaphor – on one level, its breakdown of horror stereotypes; on another, its questioning of what we really want or need as a horror audience; fans of marijuana will champion this on another; and on the same plane as the one where the “Ancient Ones” reside, any fan of The Vigilant Citizen website would have a field day drawing some conspiracy theories from this too.

Definitely worth a watch; the rest is up to you.

Director:  Drew Goddard
Producer:  Joss Whedon
Screenwriters:  Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon
Starring:  Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford

Rating:  

The Avengers

As a lifelong fan of comic books, I had quite a few reservations about how The Avengers was going to turn out:  Was Robert Downey Jr going to be portrayed as the primary character?  Was Hawkeye (my all-time fave Avenger) going to be merely a supporting member?  How would they use the Hulk?  How would Mark Ruffalo compare to Ed Norton?  How much action is Nick Fury going to get in on?  Is the pace going to be ridiculous?

One thing I was certain about:  when they announced Joss Whedon as the film’s director, I knew it was going to stay pretty clear above the water.

To my relief, the film took its time to establish everyone as equal members of the team.  They found ways to isolate the characters in twos, threes, or alone, to show us their developing dynamics.  I particularly enjoyed Black Widow’s interrogation scene, and the one where Stark and Banner were sizing each other up in their lab aboard the SHIELD aircraft.  Without room to introduce Hawkeye to an audience that has already seen what the other members can do in their respective films, I thought it was a clever plot device to have him under Loki’s control for the first half of the movie, killing two birds with one arrow.

The action was brilliant.  From the scuffle between Iron Man, Thor and Captain America to the team’s defense of New York City, we were not left wanting from any of the physical displays.  Quite the contrary, they were infused with masterfully comical dialogue, tastefully giving us more entertainment than we could’ve asked for.

This flick owes everything it is to Mr Whedon.  Having already been a fan of his work in Firefly and some comic books he’s contributed to, as well really enjoying a bunch of the films he’s written (Toy Story, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Speed, Waterworld, Titan A.E.), I was elated at his  appointment in this one.  Marvel Studios wouldn’t have allowed The Avengers to be a letdown after the great buildup across its previous efforts, but Whedon’s long-standing genius with scriptwriting, impeccable comic timing and genuine respect for the comic franchise has given this movie a soul that would’ve been unprecedented with any other director.  It seems like he knew all the strengths and weaknesses of his cast and played them up to perfection.

Acting-wise, above the talents of the whole cast, it was Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Ruffalo who stood out by a mile.  It’s as if Downey and Hiddleston were simply told to be themselves when reading lines, and Ruffalo – we’re never going to see him the same way again, are we?  He nailed it, everything; no matter how superbly Norton played Banner in his last movie, it’s all been forgotten after this one.

There are just 3 things I am dissatisfied with in The Avengers, and perhaps I express them more as a fanboy than as a film critic:  1)  Hawkeye sure could’ve used a more colourful costume  2)  I’m not sure I can get used to looking at Nick Fury and not imagining him screaming about snakes on planes, or quoting bible verses before committing murder, or wearing a purple fedora hat  3)  If The Hulk was established as being uncontrollable, why was he so cooperative in the final battle?  Yes he’s swayed between aggression and self-control in the comics, but that’s over longer periods of time and under different storylines; isn’t it a bit far-fetched that he could work as part of the team so well in this movie?

Nonetheless, this has clearly been one of the best – if not the best – Marvel comics films that’ve been released thus far.

Director:  Joss Whedon
Producer:  Kevin Feige
Screenwriter:  Joss Whedon
Starring:  Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, Samuel L Jackson

Rating:  

John Carter

Ah, John Carter.  It’s a story unlike any I’ve seen before.

Except the times I watched Atlantis, Avatar, Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, Pocahontas…is it a coincidence that Disney was behind 3 out of the 4 I mentioned?  As well as John Carter itself?  Nope.  There are probably loads more titles I could roll off, but I can’t be bothered.

What makes this one stand out from the rest?  Well.  Nothing much actually.  I’m getting tired of these white-man-goes-to-a-strange-land,-champions-the-natives-and-bangs-the-resident-hot-chick templates.  It’s been done to death, resurrected and then done to death again.  What makes it worse than its predecessors is a distinct laziness on the part of its director (Andrew Stanton).  It wasn’t just enough for him to construct an entire feature-length out of textbooks, he couldn’t even be arsed to patch up any of its plot-holes or add any kind of originality to it.  Unless you count an oversized white six-limbed ape as originality, although I’m certain you’ll find that somewhere else too.  Maybe throwing Mark Strong in there counts; I don’t think anyone’s done that before…oh wait.

I also feel that too much was made of the titular character’s obsession with being a maverick.  It’s a trait that was already established in the first act; we didn’t need the constant reminders in front of our faces throughout the entirety of the movie.  More than anything, it underminded Taylor Kitsch‘s performance, making the character a tiresome one.  There was too much imbalance to his abilities as well, making his easily-concluded fight scenes especially silly.  While the John Carter character in this sense reminds me a lot of Sam Worthington in Avatar, Worthington’s (while not exactly a hallmark in development) looked a lot better simply because he was held back more.

On the whole, this has been an exceptionally lame effort by Disney and Andrew Stanton to create and tout an epic adventure film.  Y’know what, I don’t regret watching it in IMAX, for the special effects were rendered beautifully.  The cast couldn’t be faulted for very much either.  I don’t regret having paid money to see it, but given Stanton’s failure to add any spirit to what would’ve otherwise been a very decent weekend movie, I do regret having coughed up that inflated IMAX ticket price.  More tellingly, I regret that movies like this – brimming with all the toppings but devoid of good-quality meat – are allowed to pass.  It’s robbery, and it’s ominous.

Director:  Andrew Stanton
Producers:  Jim Morris, Colin Wilson & Lindsey Collins
Screenwriters:   Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews & Michael Chabon
Starring:  Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Willem Dafoe, Dominic West, Mark Strong, Samantha Morton,  James Purefoy

Rating:  

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Man On A Ledge: two sides of the same coin

Last weekend, I watched Man On A Ledge, and I finally got round to watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as well.  (I’ve been distracted by The Walking Dead series lately)

It was amusing to note that both films had similar elements:  corrupt agents, betrayal, conspiracy…but each film took a polar opposite approach to its story.

I started with Tinker Tailor.  I was immediately struck by its very British style:  slower-paced; a humble approach to physicality; much more room for quiet dialogue.  I appreciated how its pace allowed the characters space to develop on their own and contrast each other, like the few otherwise unnecessary seconds where we observed how Smiley and Guilliam reacted to a fly in their vehicle.  I also enjoyed its camerawork:  subjects were often framed up with other objects in the foreground, and action sometimes filled up just a third of the screen as if to say the story is part of a larger framework of life.  Loved it.

In a movie with such an expansive cast and rich plot, it was important for each to have a bit of his own time for the benefit of the audience.  One of my favourite parts of this movie (and maybe all the movies I’ve watched in the last few months) was Gary Oldman‘s monologue as Smiley as he described, peering through thick spectacles straight at the camera, his encounter with his nemesis Karla.  It was mesmerising.

Perhaps ironically, it was later revealed that it was precisely an understanding of character that led to the strategies Karla adopted against Smiley.

Unfortunately, the ending of Tinker Tailor was a letdown.  After everything we’d been through in the story, all the heavy tension that each character had collected within us, the movie climaxed with just about the same intensity and suppression as the sniper rifle that was instrumental in it.

When the show was over I found myself wishing for a bit of the more fast-paced, bam-bam-bam-bam-WOW style of Hollywood action thrillers.  The next day I got my wish with Man On A Ledge, which was exactly all that with Genesis Rodriguez (and her hot-pink underwear) thrown in.

Nothing about Man On A Ledge was slow: the first ten minutes brought us to exactly what the title promised.  Despite the action being delivered in the quicker-cut style I was itching for, and the works were thrown in as far as stunts go.  The cameras played up their contrast to Tinker Tailor too – everything (and then some) was in our faces and wider-angle lenses roamed free.  I was happy to note that the details of exactly why he was on that ledge were revealed more comfortably; allowing each new turn of events to sit for a while before the next one.  That’s the thing though – the action had itself some breathing room, its players (all except the titular Man) didn’t.  I don’t have much else to say about this one; it didn’t do too much wrong but didn’t do itself any favours either.

As a whole, I have to say that in a battle of pace, it was slow and steady that won the race.  The time given for the audience to warm up to the characters of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was vital in creating a longer-lasting impression of the show; even though I had never read the books beforehand, I found myself drawn to and still wanting to find out more about the likes of Smiley and Guilliam and Haydon and Prideaux.  By contrast, Man On A Ledge made for very entertaining viewing, but I never cared much for Sam Worthington before and I still don’t now.  The movie never bothered much about its own characters (whose names I forget by now – see what I mean), so why should we?

The Chase

A solo 3D animation effort by Tomas Vergara, The Chase is a joy to watch.  A short story of a simple hitman job gone wrong, Tomas makes expert use of camera movements and lighting to frame his 12-minute crescendo of tension.  Perhaps the characters and their direction could have been better worked, but that takes nothing away from a very, very impressive and entertaining piece of work.

Watch “The Chase” here.

Director:  Tomas Vergara
Producer:  Tomas Vergara
Screenwriters:  Tomas Vergara & Ian Mery

Rating:  

Buried

As someone who works as a video editor and sometimes camera operator, the thought of a 90-minute screenplay filmed entirely with nothing else but one man in a box sounds really boring to film and challenging to edit.

Given that the film is a critically-acclaimed success, and one I definitely enjoyed, I’d say that’s one helluva job all round: by director Rodrigo Cortes (who also covered editing duties) and cinematographer Eduard Grau for finding fresh ways to frame their shots, by screenwriter Chris Sparling for having the vision, balls and talent to pull off a script of this nature and, of course, by its (almost) only actor Ryan Reynolds for carrying everything through.

Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, an American contract truck driver in Iraq.  He wakes up in a box buried underground, and gradually deduces that he’s been put there by local insurgents who attacked his convoy and killed some of his colleagues.  There is a cellphone in there, along with some other supplies he discovers over the course of the film (another clever story-building trick by Cortes and Sparling).  Through a series of phonecalls, he is able to alert his employers and the US authorities about his “situation” (as methodically referred to by all he spoke to), and eventually get into contact with an Iraq-based “hostage working group” for help, also reaching his wife’s answering machine several times in between.

The film-makers have much to say about several things via this movie, the forefront of which being frustration at the hands of telephone operators – a frustration compounded so much more in Paul Conroy’s case than any of us ever want to experience.  A distinct dehumanisation at the hands of the authorities he finally gets to is crystal clear in the way they handle his, as I mentioned, “situation”; almost business-like and why shouldn’t it be?  For the “hostage working groups” have jobs thanks to hostages in the first place.  Thoughts on America’s various involvements with the Middle East are provoked.  Digging a little deeper (pun intended) on the premise of an American buried in Iraqi soil?  I leave that up to you.

The film also raises the question: how much would you do to support the family you love?  For this, we don’t even need to look at Paul – his Iraqi captor’s own circumstance would suffice. Note that I say captor and not antagonist, for amongst the phone calls that populate Paul’s dialogue, it is never really clear whether he is antagonised more by the Iraqi or by the callous authorities whom he desperately seeks help from.  If there is a true villain in this film, it is Paul’s employers and their legal team, having informed him of the clauses they forced into effect to evade having to compensate him and his family monetarily.  In the eyes of big corporations, contractors like Paul are worth about as much as the dirt that surrounds him.

For all the horror and gore films I sit back and laugh to, the tension in Buried is so much more real; its torture, more cruel.  Yet unlike the best (or worst) of horror and gore, it did not take a disturbed mind on limited budget to concoct it.  It just took clever, perhaps slightly jaded, ones with nary a budget to care about.

Director:  Rodrigo Cortes
Producers:  Adrian Guerra & Peter Safran
Screenwriter:  Chris Sparling
Starring:  Ryan Reynolds

Rating:  

My 5 Least Favourite Films from 2011

Traditionally, I’d have released an “A Year In Film” post by now with my votes on the best and the worst of 2011′s releases.  Unfortunately, a quick peek at this round’s Academy Award nominees (as well as a good look around some bloggers’ picks) has shown that I have pretty much not seen most of the best that last year put out.

I’m gonna make do for now with a list of my 5 least favourite from last year – although even then, from some of the blogs I’ve read, it seems like I missed some of the worst of last year too.  I’m just going to take that as a compliment to my own taste at picking movies I think’d be worth my while.

Here goes…downwards.

#5  - Season of the Witch

I have seen just one Nicolas Cage film in my life in which I really enjoyed his performance:  The Rock.  Whether or not he deserves that credit I don’t know, as he had Sean Connery and Ed Harris to help him along, and I was too damn young back then to pay attention to bad acting anyway.  In every movie of his I’ve seen since, he’s been the same personality-less scallywag dragging himself (and the show) around in a half-panic.

So why should Season of the Witch have been any different?  Silly me, I hoped it would’ve been.  He couldn’t have gone too far bad with Ron Perlman as a sidekick, right?   Let’s just say, both actors did exactly what was expected of them:  In his support role (both within and without the script), Ron was decent. Hope for the movie existed in scenes that he was in.  Nicolas, on the other hand…you know where I’m going with this.  He wasn’t as idiotic as he was in Knowing, or as misfit as he was in Ghost Rider or as exasperating as he was in The Wicker Man, but Nicolas Cage was never going to save our season from no witch.

Is it fair to blame the troubles of this movie entirely on Nicolas Cage?  Of course it isn’t.  The script was shoddy to begin with.  The visuals, recycled.  The supporting cast was questionable.  Very few of its characters even made us care about them, let alone being worth being cared about.

And most tellingly, there was just one scene that I truly enjoyed:  the opening one, ergo, the one before everyone who’s anyone in the movie got involved.  No one in the movie should’ve.

#4  - Bad Teacher

It’s all in the name isn’t it?  The way this show was done, they took an idea which sounded entertaining and formed it with stock characters, stock actors, stock subplots, stock interactions and reactions, a stock carwash scene and Justin Timberlake.  I used to hate Justin Timberlake in his *NSYNC days, then gradually respected him when he went solo, but he hasn’t done himself any favours here.  As for Cameron Diaz, I like her.  In general.  Not so much in this one.  She looked great, as always, and probably tried her best, but it wasn’t enough.

#3  - Abduction

The shame about Abduction is that it had a strong supporting cast, and an interesting premise.  Unfortunately, it also had Taylor Lautner in a lead role that expected him to both perform action and carry some sort of depth about him, all the while keeping in mind that his character (just like he himself) is a teenager.  There was something very wrong about this whole affair; the kids were out of their league but like the most professional of professional wrestling matches, the experienced ones did their best to put them over.  Stick to Twilight and come back in a few years, Taylor.

#2  - The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

You already know my thoughts on this one from the review I did earlier on, but I’ll tell you again why it’s on this list:  the story is terrible.  With the amount of holes in the script, Van Helsing could very well have run his stake through it several dozen times for all we know.  My feelings towards the main characters hit the lowest out of all the films in the series, and that’s saying quite a lot.  It’s actually odd considering I noted that the lead actors themselves seem by now much more comfortable with each other than they were in the first flick, and in retrospect Kristen Stewart was actually alright as an actress, but for some reason, the character dynamics here were silly, bordering on soulless.

Terrible story, terrible characters, terrible takeaways, terrible film.

#1  - The Green Hornet

No, I couldn’t have imagined when 2011 began that I’d be voting for this as its biggest cinematic disaster.  Yet here we are.

The Green Hornet tv series of old was one that was genuinely thrilling and entertaining, two words that are as far as possible from its recent movie incarnation.  I’m not sure exactly what (un)inspired Michel Gondry to choose Seth Rogen and Jay Chou for this job, but it must have been a pretty trippy batch of it.  They stumbled through every scene, devoid of chemistry, know-how or even a clue of what was going on – I really cannot think of any on-screen pairing that has been any worse than this one.  It’s a shame Stephen Chow had to pull out; I’m certain he’d have made a reasonable difference.  Christoph Waltz was in there, an actor who’s been a firm favourite of mine ever since his opus in Inglorious Basterds, but he was ingloriously underutilised here.  By underutilised I mean turned into a fucking coat hanger with a cool gun.

I can’t even remember most of how the film went, so you’re probably trying to figure exactly what made this firmly the least lovable on my list.  Suffice to say that in a year where I watched Taylor Lautner play lead in two disastrous movies, saw the Pirates of the Caribbean incorporate a love story between a missionary and a mermaid, in a year where I had to sit through that God-awful sex scene in Breaking Dawn, in which I ran a Saw marathon and in which dammit I watched The Human Centipede, the worst, the absolute worst any film made me feel in 2011 was when I had to sit through that scene in The Green Hornet where Rogen and Chou wrestled each other around a living room and swimming pool like children at a sleepover squabbling about soft toys.  It was extensive, exhausting to watch and just too damn tragic.