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New Zealand Film reviews
Archive reviews of films and DVDs showing in New Zealand
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Mr Bean's Holiday
Disaster has a passport. Well I wish he had lost it and been stopped at the New Zealand border. I have been a long time supporter of Rowan Atkinson but Mr Bean in movie form has now passed his sell by date.
There are a couple of great scenes - Bean's market busking scene was one of them and his lip-synching operatic aria brought applause from the village market which was well deserved. The other scene was Bean coping with a fruits de mer/seafood platter with a wonderful cameo from Jean Rochefort.
But 10 minutes of fun does not a movie make and this was a big let down. Those in the audience under 10 seemed to find the whole movie quite funny and that seems to be where it was pitched - very much at a slapstick/pantomime level. In fact the final scenes where the Cannes audience is totally bored at Willem Dafoe's personal love fest movie could have been filmed in the cinema I was in - watching a Bean disaster.
There was a good performance from Max Baldry as the young boy that Bean "adopts" along the way and Emma de Caunes as Bean's love interest (in the same way that you "love" a pet hamster) added some light.
Rowan Atkinson says this could be the end of Mr Bean - I think he may have seen the movie before us.
Only for die hard Bean fans
A generous 3/10
James Cozens
The Good German
Never one to turn down a free screening (hell I'd see Norbit if it was for free) when Rialto offered their Film Club the chance to see The Good German a day early I wasn't going to turn it down! For those of you who have been wondering just what the hell Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Oceans 11) has been up to lately The Good German is the answer. In a true homage to classical 1940's Hollywood Soderbergh's latest outing is a noir murder mystery in the spirit of films like Casablanca and The Third Man. In a remarkable move Soderbergh elected to film his homage using only techniques available to 1940's filmmakers. Some people will call this arrogance. I call it a filmlovers wet dream.
If you like your movies action packed with frenetic editing and gravity defying stunts you're in the wrong place. If however you recognise names such as Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich and know Casablanca for reasons other than it being at the top of Africa then I have a feeling you will dig the movie as much as I did.
Set in Berlin at the end of World War II we meet Jake Geismer (George Clooney, having no problems with looking like a 40's movie star) who is here to cover the Potsdam Peace Conference. His driver Tully (Tobey Maguire - not so successful) is a typical product of the war, making the best of his situation by playing both enemies against each other and making money at every opportunity. We soon meet Tully's girlfriend Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett - another amazing performance) who as the wife to an SS secretary is highly desired by both sides. When Tully claims he can bring the Russians her husband and ends up in the river with 100 grand on him and a bullet in the chest the film launches headfirst into a noir murder mystery of the highest order. Both sides want the whole thing to be forgotten but Jake is determined to get to the bottom of it, regardless of the cost.
The movie is, for the most part, a great homage to the 1940's noir and romance stories that characterised the golden age of Hollywood. The performances are solid - especially Blanchett as Lena Brandt, backing up an equally impressive performance in Notes on a Scandal. She is one of the few working actresses who have that classical beauty of the 40's and would have been right at home with the likes of Bergman and Dietrich. Soderbergh also uses Blanchett to remind us just how alluring black and white film can be. Clooney is very good too although his star status does make it a bit harder to maintain the illusion that we are watching a typical 40's film. Maguire was adequate but in my opinion it was a bad bit of casting, especially given the timing - Spiderman 3 comes out in May, making his spidey persona even harder to ignore.
The script doesn't help either - swear words which screenwriters of the time wouldn't have even dreamt of getting past the production code pop up far too often. This incessant swearing forced me out of the period illusion. Along with the swearing, the other major problem I had with the film was the sexual explicitness - which for most audiences probably won't matter as it is no worse than your typical Hollywood movie. However this is NOT your standard Hollywood movie and if you are trying to maintain the illusion of a 40's noir it would have helped to stick to the production code. Half of what made these films so great was the innuendo that you were bombarded with. With a far worse form of censorship than today, the Hays Production Code meant that screenwriters had to be increasingly cheeky and clever in getting across the same message without actually showing it on screen. When we see Tully giving it to Lena somehow the film loses just a bit of it's magic.
The Good German is not everyone’s cup of tea and if your film appreciation has a timespan that ends in the mid 80's you will find the pacing dull, the effects unrealistic, some of the acting melodramatic and the story increasingly hard to follow. For the rest of you - give it a chance, you might just discover the beauty of golden age Hollywood - believe me it gets much better than this one. And for the true filmlovers, you owe it to yourself to see this. After all unless you're very lucky it's the closest you will ever get to seeing Casablanca on the silver screen.
A tentative 8/10.
Andrew Cozens
Little Miss Sunshine
For those of you who missed out on one of the best movies of 2006 at the cinemas now is your chance to see it, Little Miss Sunshine is out on DVD to rent February 21 st . Before I heap a whole load of praise on this little gem I have to acknowledge that for the first 20minutes I was questioning all the hype this film has been getting since Sundance. I will go into my initial ambivalence later but in the end all that matters is that Little Miss Sunshine may well be one of the funniest and most endearing films of the year.
The film begins with an extended montage introducing us to the different members of the Hoover family, complete with all their eccentricities. We have the cranky grandfather with a penchant for heroin, the suicidal uncle who has just been released from hospital, a Nietzsche reading depressive teenager vowed to silence, an overbearing father determined to live his life by a yet-to-be published generic self help mantra, the beauty pageant obsessed Olive and a mother who is desperate to hold this dysfunctional family together. If that ain't a dysfunctional family then I don't know what is.
I know dysfunctional families are becoming a bit of a cliché in indie movies nowadays but this one really works. After the brief introduction setting up the characters the film launches us on a 700-mile road-trip to California where Olive will compete in the 'Little Miss Sunshine' beauty pageant. Olive won the regional under-10 pageant after the original winner had to pull out, only there is no one to take her. The family cannot afford to leave Frank on his own when he is meant to be on 24/7 suicide watch but at the same time Olive has been wanting this dream too much to not let her follow it. Naturally the whole family crams into their bright yellow VW and heads to California. Over the course of this 700-mile road-trip the Hoover family will go through a whole host of trials and tribulations, from a stolen corpse and a hilarious encounter with the law to multiple emotional breakdowns, a desperate scooter journey in the middle of the night and a VW that is stuck in 3rd and 4th gear (cue a hilarious running joke). To say this movie is offbeat is an understatement.
The acting is uniformly excellent. Steve Carell proves he is more than just a comic actor, showing his dramatic range and getting laughs without reverting to his more familiar persona. Alen Arkin's comic timing is excellent and steals almost every scene he is in. Abigail Breslin gives us one of the best child performances in many years, achieving that elusive goal of being utterly charming without that saccharine cuteness that seems to plague many young starlets. Paul Dano makes the most of a role which gives him little dialogue, communicating everything through his body posture and facial expressions. As the parents of this dysfunctional family both Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette give strong performances, determined to keep this family unit together.
The soundtrack has been largely composed by Devotchka, whose song 'How It Ends' featured on the trailer of Everything Is Illuminated . 'Till The End of Time' fits the movies offbeat wandering core to a tea while contributions by Sufjan Stevens, Rick James, Score and Tony Tisdale round out what will surely be one of the best soundtracks of the year. If the Hollywood studios have any sense I would expect to see Devotchka popping up a lot more in the future.
Offbeat indie movies have a tendency to be a bit hit and miss, with some episodic scenes falling out of place with the overall tone of the movie. This is what I was thinking during the beginning of the film and is one of the only problems I have with it. The scenes at the Hoover household felt a bit mis-matched and set up an off-putting disjointed tone to the movie. In retrospect though, by the end of the film it is obvious that these early scenes are always working towards setting up the hilarious and heartfelt crescendo of the final act.
When the Hoover family finally get to California they are greeted with something that far outweighs anything they have had to put up with on the long road to get there. As the movie satirically points out, for all their dysfunctions the Hoover family is starkingly ordinary in relation to the image obsessed families of these beauty pageants who are little more than dressed up barbies.
I don't want to spoil the ending for you because it is best experienced without prior knowledge but let me just say that it turns this disturbing sexualisation on its head in one of the most hilarious and satirical final acts I have seen in recent memory. As you leave the cinema you just try not walking out with a grin from ear to ear, safe in the knowledge that perhaps being perfect isn't all it's made out to be. In a society obsessed with winning it is important to remember that it is our peculiarities and dysfunctions that truly bind us together.
Final Verdict: A solid 8/10. It is rare to find a movie these days that manages to be hilariously funny yet without sacrificing the deeper issues that surround the film.
Andrew Cozens
The Good Shepherd
is the second effort from Robert De Niro as director (his first being 1993's A Bronx Tale ). Combined with a talented screenwriter (Eric Roth; Munich , Ali) and an awe-inspiring cast including Matt Damon, William Hurt, Michael Gambon, John Turturro, Alec Baldwin, Angelina Jolie and even Joe Pesci in his first appearance on screen in eight long years the film announces its lofty intentions early on.
The movie opens in 1961 just after the Bay of Pigs fiasco where we meet Edward Wilson (Damon), a high ranking official of the CIA which was set up after World War 2 to do what the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) did in wartime. The movie is framed from 1961, taking us frequently back through Edwards past, from his formative years as a talented poetry undergraduate at Yale to his recruitment into the Skull and Bones secret society and then from there to working as a secret service agent for the OSS . Most of the movie is viewed through Edwards’s eyes, as we see his experiences working as a secret agent and the effects it has on his family, forcing him to make great personal sacrifices in order to serve his country. Damon gives another solid performance, capping off his excellent turn a few months ago in The Departed . His character Edward is the perfect spy - 'a serious S.O.B with no sense of humor' and it is his determined isolation from any real emotion that makes him so valuable to the C.I.A even if it means sacrificing his relationship with lovers, his wife and even his son.
At 167 minutes the film certainly isn't lightweight and while I never really felt the running time drag out I don't think that will be the case for everyone. It's a slow burning thriller without the frenetic pacing of other spy movies. Those going into the movie expecting massive pyrotechnics and grandiose action sequences will be disappointed as the movie is much more in the vein of a cold war spy novel with double crossings and cat and mouse games at every turn.
Another disappointment is for all the big name cast half of them might not have even bothered to turn up. Joe Pesci, in his first screen role since Lethal Weapon 4 gets one scene, and it's only a couple of minutes long. Call me greedy but I wanted to see more from the guy who gave us the infamous 'Funny how?' in Goodfellas . De Niro too only gives himself a few minutes but then I don't begrudge that considering he was directing it. Angelina Jolie does an adequate job but she doesn't really have much to do either, just mope and whinge about her husband never being there (He leaves for London one week after their marriage and comes back 6 years later) At least William Hurt (on form as usual) and John Turturro (such an underrated actor) get decent supporting roles.
If you can get past the hefty running time and don't go in with the wrong expectations - (no Angelina Jolie is not going to get her kit off no matter how alluring she might be) then you will enjoy it. There are some great performances, even if some characters didn't get as much screentime as I would have liked. Overall The Good Shepherd is a decent thriller worth watching, although I wouldn't rush to the cinema to see it. Perhaps leave it for a lazy Sunday afternoon on DVD.
7/10
Andrew Cozens
Casino Royale
It would be kind of hard for me to write a review of Casino Royale without mentioning my undying love (borderline obsession) for everything Bond. The cars, the gadgets, the smoking hot girls, and the innuendo - what’s not to like about Bond?
Well moviegoers vote with their feet and it was clear that even this winning formula had been getting tired, especially in a post 9/11 world where Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne reign supreme. In fact since Goldeneye the 007 franchise had been seriously out of touch with its audience – invisible cars and kite surfing tsunami sized waves anyone?
Thankfully Casino Royale is worlds apart from the latest efforts and grounded in a far more realistic reality. Bond actually gets hurt in this one and I’m not talking about the cartoon violence of the old Bonds but real ‘wincing-in-recognition’ kind of hurt – seriously pushing the M rating. What Christopher Nolan did to the Batman franchise with 2005’s Batman Begins kiwi director Martin Campbell has done with Bond.
It was obvious some things would have to go in a re-rub so some staples of old are no longer here (Q, Moneypenny, scantily clag dancing girls in the pre-credit sequence to name a few) and while it’s a shame its more a feeling of nostalgia than anything else. Getting rid of these excesses was a good decision.
The plot is similar to every other Bond in that he travels through various exotic locales, shags a couple of gorgeous women and ends up taking on a maniacal villain in a high stakes poker match in Montenegro . Mads Mikkelsen who plays Le Chiffre does a good job and doesn’t give off that campness that many other villains have – his plans are a little more down to earth.
The Bond girls are stunning as always and while one is typically underdeveloped (Caterina Murino as Solange) Eve Green’s Vesper Lynd is by far and away the best Bond girl to grace our screens – equal parts smarts and beauty. She can comfortably hold her own against Bond – just watch the verbal interplay between them in their first meeting. It’s a refreshing change to have a Bond girl that isn’t 2 dimensional. The only disappointment with her character is the tagged on ending after the poker match which did little to advance the plot and ends up bogging the movie down for its last 30 minutes. The additional 30 minutes are understandable though as they give pretext to Bonds subsequent indifference and cold-heartedness towards the fairer sex but it easily could have been worked into the main storyline.
Judi Dench benefits from the changes; her character has a lot more spunk and gets more than her fair share of the laughs – there is a great chemistry between her and Daniel Craig that seems to work a lot better than her relationship with Brosnan. Daniel Craig as Bond proves all the naysayers wrong delivering the best representation of Bond since Connery’s efforts in the 60’s. He succeeds where Brosnan, Lazenby , Moore and Dalton all failed – making Bond a human character. One capable of getting hurt and being shaken up after a kill. He also has a far greater physicality to him and certain scenes in Casino Royale wouldn’t have been possible if someone like Moore was still around. You can’t imagine the 58yo Moore from 1985’s A View To A Kill taking on a ball tickler scene!
I have already mentioned the major flaw – being the fact it’s 30 minutes too long but I have one more quibble I’d like to get off my chest. The theme song sucks. Nowhere near as good as ones like Tina Turners contribution for Goldeneye or even Madonna’s song for Die Another Day . Overall though it’s a solid picture and marks a return to form for the Bond franchise, back on level pegging with messrs Bauer and Bourne. The key elements are still here and the ones that were dragging it down are gone. Bravo Martin Campbell, I look forward to Daniel Craig’s second outing with baited breath.
8.5/10
Andrew Cozens
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