Film Review: Batman Forever

As a kid, back in 1995 when it was released, I was all over Batman Forever. Of course, I had seen the first two, but this was the one I really latched onto. I loved it, not knowing much about anything film wise(I may not have realized it was a different guy playing Batman) and I ended up with the toys and all sorts, even a Batmobile!

But it's been a long old time since I last watched it. And having recently purchased the Blu Ray box set of the first four Batman movies, I finally revisited it, honestly expecting to not think much of it at all (after all, it was Joel Schumacer's first Bat-Movie, and we all know what happened with the second.)

To be honest, Batman Forever (at the time) was exactly what the franchise needed. The previous film, 'Batman Returns' was fantastic (and, in my opinion the best of the first four films), but it really let Tim Burton go off in his own direction and the result of that was dark. Very dark. So much so, in fact, that it probably warped a lot of the kiddies that went to see it (Me, being brought up on a steady diet of violent 80s Arnie classics, was made of harder stuff than that!), and the only possible way the studio could go with it was to just lighten things up a bit (of course they could have got darker, perhaps roping in Paul Verhoeven or David Lynch for another installment.)

Tim Burton stayed on in a producing role, with the aforementioned Joel Schumacer taking the directors chair, and Val Kilmer replacing Michael Keaton as Batman, and none of the blame for the films inadequacies lie at his feet, Kilmer is perfectly fine as The Dark Knight and his alter ego Bruce Wayne.

The movie kicks off with Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones, scenery chewing) already set up as the bad guy, in a set piece featuring some still impressive action (although the guy who has the small role as a security guard was pretty dreadful), and we don't get a whole lot of back story about him, other than he was former District Attorney Harvey Dent, and a mobster threw acid into his face during a trial, also affecting his brain, causing him to go off the deep end (look out for a small appearance from Drew Barrymore as one of Two Face's 'Molls'!)

And things are mostly fine with Tommy Lee Jones (although his character does deviate away from the comic books a bit), and the special effects and action sequences are great, but it's just not enough.

A big problem with the film is Jim Carrey. At the time, it all seemed great, Carrey was fresh in everyones minds from The Mask and Ace Ventura, but for the role of Edward Nygma/The Riddler he just recycles the exact same performance. Now, 16 years later (!), with hindsight, the whole performance really grated on my nerves.

Batman Forever also introduced the character of Robin (Chris O' Donnell), after attempts were made in Batman and Batman Returns to shoehorn him in, but the ideas were ultimately scrapped. And, to be fair, they should have stayed that way. While O' Donnell is watchable as Dick Grayson and Robin, and his story slots in with the main plot, it takes almost 40 minutes to introduce him and he does seem kind of superfluous throughout. The Tim Burton (and later the Christopher Nolan) films prove that the best Batman films are the ones sans the 'Boy Wonder'.

A 'kind of' famous Nicole Kidman shows up as the movies love interest, Dr. Chase Meridian (I know, right?) and half the performance is her just throwing herself at Batman (and I mean her character leaves her dignity at the door several times) before she realizes that she really loves the man behind the Bat. If you told me then (and as I was only a kid, I probably wouldn't have cared) that she was going to end up being on of the most famous actresses in the world, I wouldn't have believed you based on what I saw. But you can only work with what you are given I guess!

While the series certainly needed some light moments, the whole thing probably went too far. With Carrey's frankly ridiculous performance, a more jokey atmosphere (Faithful butler Alfred, played again by Michael Gough, gets many one liners this time round) and the horrific leather buttock shot (Yep, Batman Forever got one before Batman And Robin), it's all just a bit too much.

Of course, things were set to get a lot worse in 1997 with Batman And Robin, but it's interesting to see this bridge between the two films, you really get a sense now, in hindsight, of where things would end up. And if I find anything new to say about Batman And Robin, see you back here. Same Bat-Time. Same Bat-Place.

**1/2
After the dark, gothic tone of Batman Returns things did need to lighten up. Probably not this much though! Great action saves the film from OTT performances, and a campy, silly vibe that was soon to be turned up to 11...

Film Review: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part Two

As I start to type this review, this film has already grossed $168.55 million dollars, beating The Dark Knight's opening, and making it the highest grossing weekend ever. That's in the U.S. of course, and not being funny, that's the only figure that matters. These kind of things are not contested on U.K. money making.

I found the first part of the Deathly Hallows to be the weakest so far (and as this is the first time I have reviewed a Potter film on this blog, I should point out that I have never read the books and judge the films as exactly that - films), with things being dragged out to almost unbearable lengths. At times the whole thing seemed like an advert  for camping in a forest. None of this was helped by the smallest amount of screen time yet for the adult members of the cast, which really showed how weak the acting of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint really was.

My expectations for this second part were high though. It simply had to kick off, and remain in that position for the entire running time (mercifully the shortest in the entire series at just over 2 hours), but that still wasn't to be.

We join the film as we left Part One, with Harry (Radcliffe), Hermione (Watson) and Ron (Grint) in search of the remaining Horcruxes, leading to a final confrontation with Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) who has now secured the Elder Wand, after the death of Dumbledore (Michael Gambon).

Things start promisingly enough, that is after quite a long and drawn out mission to get another Horcrux which involves a Goblin, a Indy style mine car ride and a dragon. After that we get whisked to Hogwarts, where it is clear it will all go down. But once there there are still quite a few superfluous and dragging scenes where not much actually happens. 

When the action does finally kick off, it's great. The attack on Hogwart's is superbly executed, although the deaths of a couple of key characters seems totally glossed over, like there was a missing scene or two somewhere. For characters who have been in several of the films, to not even see their demise seems a bit of a cop out.

I also had a bit of an issue with the final Potter-Voldemort battle. As I said earlier, I haven't read the books, but without giving too much away it all comes down to getting the final Horcrux destroyed, and how that happens was a total "Erm...really?" moment from this writer.

And that's not even mentioning the unintentionally hilarious '19 Years Later' coda that ended the film. Again, don't want to spoil anything but look out for some brilliantly bad facial hair.

But the positives. The action sequences, as stated, are superb. And I really enjoyed seeing the old faces back again, such as Maggie Smith and Jim Broadbent as Professors McGonagall and Slughorn respectively, although the latter was consigned to just making scared faces a bit, with scarce dialogue.

Talking of scare dialogue, I was also glad to see the bare minimum of lines and screen time given to Helena Bonham Carter. I know these are kids films and you can't raise the acting quality bar THAT high but she has consistently sucked in the Harry Potter series and really brought several scenes throughout down a peg or two (although worst performance in the series still goes to David Tennant and his dreadful mugging in Goblet Of Fire, that shit was painful).

Overall though, for a series of films to go this long and not produce any absolute stinkers is a credit to all involved. Things did take a downturn in these last two though, and you can't exactly question why they split them up (money, for those who need telling), but you have to think how much more of an effective film (film, that is, not adaptation) it would have been all in one sitting. Yeah, it would have touched three hours but I think it would have got away with it.

As a late comer to the series (my first cinema Potter was only Deathly Hallows Part One!), I won't miss its cinema presence like I did with say, Lord Of The Rings, but it will leave a gap to be filled, no doubt, by adaptations of other (probably inferior) material. Question is, will J.K. Rowling ever write another Potter book? I hope not. The series is definitely wrapped up now, and anything else (either pre or post the aforementioned coda) would be pretty bad, it has to be said. To be fair, Rowling could scrawl what she had for breakfast in the morning on her toilet wall in her own faeces and it would make her another million, so it's not like she needs the money.

***

Superb action sequences, and a long awaited (by me) shorter running time, but still dragged down a bit with poor acting from the kids (a problem I never really noticed in the earlier films where there was an adult cast supporting them) and some overlong or pointless scenes. Not the ending I hoped for, but a decent enough cap on the franchise.

Film Review: Battle: Los Angeles

This isn't going to be a long review. Sometimes you get a film that just seems like it can review itself, there's not really a whole hell of a lot to say about it. Battle: Los Angeles is a prime example. You can't really slate the generic action movie acting, or the cliched dialogue or the constant battle scenes because...well, what did you expect?

Aaron Eckhardt heads up a team of Marines who are sent to reclaim Los Angeles after an alien invasion. Eckhardt's character, of course is a few days from retirement, and the rest of the cast are the correct ethnic mix as is the norm in these films. We get a bit of plot introducing them, then we are flung into a huge firefight, then have a rest for a bit of talking, then we get another massive battle as the platoon tries to take down the alien craft controlling many drones.

For a film that is pretty much 90% action sequences, you kinda hope they are good, and they are, no disappointments there. It looks and sounds superb, the special effects are great, and for a film called Battle: Los Angeles, you can't really ask for much more than that. Even if we have seen the same film more times than you can count.

***
Told you it wouldn't be a long review. Cliched, generic stuff but with some brilliant action sequences, and for that it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Film Review: Bridesmaids

On an initial look at Bridesmaids, the comparisons seem clear. "It's the female version of The Hangover!", I'm sure many a lazy reviewer will write and as usual with the comparison game, it's quite a bit off the mark.

Kristen Wiig (who also co-wrote the film along with first-time movie scribe Annie Mumolo) stars as Annie, seemingly suffering an early mid life crisis that already includes a sex only relationship with massive sleazebag Ted (played with relish by an uncredited Jon Hamm), a room mate (Matt Lucas) who has moved his horrendous sister (Rebel Wilson)in without even asking, and a oddball Mother (Jill Clayburgh) who attends AA meetings even though she's never touched a drop. This is all worsened by the news her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is getting married and wants her to be the maid of honour.

What seems like a great (no pun intended) honour is soon diminished after meeting Lillian's other close friend Helen (Rose Byrne) who is a bit overbearing to put it mildly. Things soon go from bad to worse at engagement parties, bachelorette parties, dress fittings and bridal showers as Annie looks set to totally unravel.

It's all an engaging enough premise, and there are some great performances all around. In particular Melissa McCarthy as the butch bridesmaid Megan is a great comedy creation, and pretty much steals every scene she is in. I was slightly less sure about Matt Lucas' presence in the film, and bar his first appearance doesn't really add anything. Likewise was The IT Crowd's Chris O' Dowd as Annie's new love interest Nathan Rhodes, seemingly the only police officer in the all of Milwaukee.

The main problem I had with the film was it never really settled on what it wanted to be. One minute we have some Hangover-like tastelessness in a hilarious dress fitting scene which ends in all manner of bodily fluids flying. Then there's the Larry David style cringe worthy stuff, the greatest example of which is probably the best scene in the film for me, an excruciating microphone war between Annie and Helen.

Then the entire last act in the film is a heart warming story of true friendship, complete with sing-a-longs and puppies in bow ties. Everything seems completely at odds with everything else in the film. Don't get me wrong, everything is enjoyable enough, it all just clashed too much for this reviewers taste. If you must have a Hangover comparison - at least that stayed pretty tasteless throughout, whereas Bridesmaids flits between comedy styles way too much.

And while the film creeps very close to that "to long for a comedy" running time at 125 minutes, it's great to see Kristen Wiig finally get a top billing film that will do well. I enjoyed her work in Macgruber and The Brothers Solomon (even if other critics mauled the films), and I hope she will enjoy the success reached by her fellow Saturday Night Live alumni Tina Fey. Just stick to a style next time!

***
Legitimately funny throughout, but there are too many different styles of comedy in the mix and a few characters that just don't work. If you can get past that, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of Bridesmaids. 

Film Review: Transformers: Dark Of The Moon

It's hard being a Transformers fan since Michael Bay made the first film in 2007. The film was good, a entertaining starting block, and more importantly we finally saw Optimus Prime et al on the big screen. Things were promising for the sequel now the scene had been set.

We all know what a train wreck Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen was. Just check out Mark Kermode's now infamous review of it (I actually am saving watching his review of this second sequel till I finish writing this), things were bad.

But for Dark Of The Moon we were promised the comedy would be dialed back, and it would be very dark. At one point a comparison to Black Hawk Down was made (which, in hindsight, is hilarious), but still I wasn't exactly filled with hope but wanted to see it regardless. How could it be any worse than Revenge Of The Fallen?

The answer to that? Easily. The film is so bad that about ten more minutes of it's overblown running time and I would have not been a fan of Transformers anymore, and that says a lot coming from me.

To get the plot out of the way - the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing was a front for a secret mission to recover a craft that landed on the Moon, sent from the soon to be devastated Cybertron by the Autobots. This leads Decepticon leader Megatron to find out that the human race now owns one of the parts which can assist in bringing former Autobot leader Sentinel Prime back to life (in one of the few good moments,  Sentinel is voiced by Leonard Nimoy as he did in the 1984 animated movie.)

Sadly the hyper annoying human characters remain. Sam Witwicky (the increasingly awful Shia Labeouf) has a new girlfriend in Carly (British model Rosie Huntingdon-Whitely, who is fucking diabolical. In a movie full of bad acting, she takes things to a new depth) and he's looking for a job and he gets one working for Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich) and then Ken Jeong from The Hangover turns up, playing the same role seemingly and...I'm sorry I'm out. The human element is dreadful, dreadful shit and ruins the entire film.

Let's start with Ken Jeong as he was the thing I mentioned last. It's like Michael Bay just watched The Hangover the night before and decided to shoehorn him in. In fact the entire situation with Sam looking for a job doesn't even need to be in the film. If they insist on having a pointless storyline like this at least make it have some kind of payoff at some point. Malkovich is last seen (and I'm not making this up) being TICKLED by Bumblebee. Meanwhile Carly's boss (Patrick Dempsey) is the (rather obvious) human bad guy (and Sam could have got a job with him), and it takes forever for the film to get there.

Sams parents are back too. For no reason whatsoever. And John Tuturro's Agent Simmons returns, also for no reason other than to chat up Frances McDormand's Mearing. And her character serves no purpose other than to appear a bit bitchy for a few minutes, then instantly soften, then vanish for ages.

The makers of this must have driven up the houses of Frances McDormand, John Turturro and John Malkovich with so much money to do this. It's probably the lowest point on all their CVs combined.

Near the start, though I was quite interested in the Moon stuff, although why they kept needing to have presidential impersonators on screen I don't know, and pretty much everything with the Autobots and Decepticons kept me watching. Except the little comedy pair of Autobots, who are essentially replacing the annoying pair from the last film!

Ah yes, the comedy. Let me just go off on a tangent here. It isn't dialed back, and it isn't funny unless you have suffered some serious blow to the head. It just all misses the mark by a long, long shot.

"But it's a kids film!" I hear you cry. You could have fooled me! Opening with a gratuitous arse shot of Carly, repeated strong language and several instances of people being literally blown apart, a lot of this is not suitable for kids. And to be fair, Bay is probably not the best choice for someone to direct a kids film.

But anyway, I tried to keep interested in the parts of the film that actually contained Transformers, but it was a losing battle, every time something interesting happened, we went back to check on Sam, or some other annoying/superfluous character. The absolute nadir of this came when a climatic fight started between Optimus Prime and Sentinel Prime, and we had an instant cut away to Sam. I don't want to see what Shia LaBeouf is up to, it's probably just stepping out of a car with that weird constipated looking on his face! Nor do I want to see his balloon lipped girlfriend stand there pouting in slow motion FOR NO REASON. I want to see robots kick the ever loving shit out of each other!

By this point I didn't care about any of it, I really didn't. I'm pretty sick of the franchise and if we get another one there needs to be some serious changes. The first few are covered, Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf are not returning, this is good. But we really don't need humans with love interests and sub plots, we just need the robots (who can talk, by the way, so they can explain the story without the need for actors to do it again, but I guess the only people who will get any enjoyment out of this were dropped on their heads at birth) and the army guys (rumour has it Jason Statham may end up in the 4th movie, he would be perfect as an army guy) but we will see.

As it stands now, the whole franchise can just go away and never return. It says a lot that after 3 attempts, the cheesy as hell animated movie is still the strongest in the series. Go check that out.

*
One star is being generous to this absolute turd. Every time it starts to get vaguely interesting, pointless, annoying characters are shoehorned in to keep the idiot public happy. Fucking terrible, but the 3D was good. The one star can be for that.

Strange Days: Thom's House Of Words at London Film And Comic Con 2011

Like a glutton for geeky punishment, and based on the very impressive array of guests announced, I decided to make the trek to London again for another convention. This time the London Film And Comic Con at Earls Court 2, which was to feature big name stars like Christopher Lloyd, Tom Sizemore, Christopher Lambert and for the kids/big kids some big Doctor Who names in Karen Gillan (The Doctors current assisstant, I was reliably informed), and Alex Kingston (Who I knew as "her out of E.R.")

As I was unsure when others I was to be meeting up with would be arriving, I made the fairly insane plan to get the 630am train out of Norwich to London, and getting in Early Bird entry. Which was just about worth it with the 'virtual queuing' system they have there (Basically, you take a ticket for a person you want to meet and come back when your number is up. Doesn't sound too hard, but it did seem to cause confusion for quite a few people.)

But, after grabbing the tickets I realised I was on my own at the convention, so quickly went outside for a spell, couldn't take the almost radioactive levels of geekery on my own.

After everyone arrived we went to get everything signed. First up was Christopher Lloyd, who already had a huge 'virtual queue' number, but we were lucky enough to get in. He was a nice guy, but quite slow with the signing, which in the end meant a lot of people went away empty handed. But it was great to meet him and get my Back To The Future Blu Ray boxset signed.



After that we went to meet Tom Sizemore. Now, I wasn't 100% sure whether I wanted to meet him, but I decided to and opted to get my Heat DVD signed (which had already been signed by Val Kilmer back in 2005) and I was so glad I did. To say he was a character was an understatement!

My friend John took his 8 year old son Indiana up first, as Indy likes to meet the people from the films a lot too, and out of nowhere, Tom Sizemore lays down this bizarre rant on how to fight. It went a little something like this "This is how you fuck people up, BOOM! Just beat the shit out of them, fuck them up. Like the World Trade Centre. No one saw it coming, everyone died, BOOM!", as the cigarette he had behind his ear went flying. It was probably one of the most surreal moments of my life.

When he met me, he noticed Val Kilmer had signed the DVD, and he started going on about how Val was in a bad way, weighed over 300 pounds now, and how much of a close friend he was to him. It was strange days indeed, as the title of one of his films goes. Don't get me wrong though, he was the friendliest guy we met all day.





We also met Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who was in License To Kill, Pearl Harbour, Mortal Kombat, and others. I got him to sign Showdown In Little Tokyo, a personal favourite. He was a nice guy, and we were to run into him again later...



Meeting Robert Knepper was amazing. I'm currently immersed in the fourth season of Prison Break, so it was a very timely meeting. Took the opportunity to tell him how awesome, the show, his character and his appearance in Breakout Kings was. He told me I was in for a treat with the rest of Prison Break, I don't doubt him! He was a lovely guy, really was.



Corey Feldman was an odd one. I met him back in 2004, I think and he was really cool. Now it seems he is riding on the 'success' of the Lost Boys sequels a bit, and possibly appearing recently in a Katy Perry music video, as he was surrounded by an entourage and kept taking repeated breaks. So we took a wander instead and ran into a stall which had Richard Brooker sitting there! Richard, of course, played Jason in the third Friday The 13th film and as I had my Friday the 13th boxset for Corey to sign, I got him to sign it too! We commented on how we didn't know he was going to be there, his response was "Neither did I", nice guy though.



We finally returned to Corey and he was alright, even with 3 different items for 3 different people to sign. He's been cool when I've met him, but sometimes I guess you lose yourself in it all, I probably would!



John and I also bumped into Sean Clark, who worked on the epic Elm Street documentary 'Never Sleep Again', as well as other ones for Friday The 13th, Halloween and more (including an unreleased Texas Chainsaw Massacre one), and as we found out responsible for getting a lot of the guests over. One name in particular that he is trying to convince to come over would probably bankrupt me. He was a great guy though, hope to meet him again at a future one.

After John met Highlander star Christopher Lambert (£35 for a signature was a bit too much for me), my final meet of the day was Lea Thompson. Best known for her role as Marty McFlys Mum in Back To The Future, I opted to get the John Hughes classic 'Some Kind Of Wonderful' signed instead. She was really nice also, and got me the only posed photo of the day with her. It seems that Showmasters (who run these things) would rather you pay for a signature, pay for a photo session, pay for a talk...it's just a big money generating machine these days.



As we walked around again, we bumped into Cary Takawa again and had a chat with him about Showdown In Little Tokyo, and what Brandon Lee was like to work with. Cary is such a nice guy, and he posed for a photo with Indiana which was very cool of him.

Just before we left, we noticed Tom Sizemore was doing a (free) talk. After earlier, we had to check it out and we heard some great stories about what it was like working for Michael Bay, making Black Hawk Down,  how he found the character of Scagnetti in Natural Born Killers and how he is enjoying his second chance at a career after his legal problems of the last few years. And then he let slip he will be in The Expendables 2. Great news to see him back on the big screen.

It was a great day all in all. I'm not a massive fan of the weirdos dressed up like Manga characters, or Kick Ass or Scott Pilgrim (one of which had a shirt on with a piece of paper taped to it, the words 'Scott Pilgrim' daubed on it in permanent marker, nice effort) but it's always a pleasure to meet the people you've seen on the big or small screen for years and tell them how much you dig their work.

I'm sure I'll be back in October to meet Alex Winter!

Here are some quick links to what I got signed...

Heat DVD signed by Tom Sizemore:  http://bit.ly/n8ARe4

Back To The Future Blu Ray set signed by Christopher Lloyd:  http://bit.ly/r2YNlw

Friday The 13th boxset signed by Richard Brooker and Corey Feldman: http://bit.ly/npyYIc

Some Kind Of Wonderful DVD signed by Lea Thompson:  http://bit.ly/q8TXps

Prison Break boxset signed by Robert Knepper: http://bit.ly/qqQSLN

Showdown In Little Tokyo DVD signed by Cary-Hiroyuki Takawa:  http://bit.ly/qlxF80

Film Review: Super

The problem with a film as unique as Kick Ass is that every film even slightly similar that follows it, whether it was shot first or not will be compared to it. When Kick Ass was released and became a big success other films were rush released, most notably Defendor with Woody Harrelson, and the box art for the DVD was very Kick Ass inspired.

Another will which is bound to be called 'This Years Kick Ass' by a slew of lazy reviewers who can't be bothered to sell the film on it's own merits, is Super. The only comparison between the films is that the films main character decides to become a super hero even though they possess no powers.

Super is the story of Frank D'Arbo (Rainn Wilson) who decides to become The Crimson Bolt after his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) leaves him for drug pusher and all around nasty piece of work Jacques (Kevin Bacon). Not possessing any powers, he decides to just use a wrench instead, and along the way picks up a peppy sidekick
Libby, super hero name Boltie (Ellen Page) and together they fight crime (when it comes along) before a final confrontation with Jacques and his henchmen.

For the most part Super is a slightly surreal quirky comedy with some moments of black humour. At times its quite realistic, but other times (such as a dream sequence when Frank is visited by TV evangelist The Holy Avenger, played brilliantly by Nathan Fillion, where Frank 'bestowed powers' by some kind of tentacled monster) it's quite strange.

But it all balances quite well against everything else. Even the over the top violence (and things to get quite brutal in places) seems appropriate for the (mostly) realistic plot. At one point a cinema queue jumper (and his  girlfriend) are taken out by the wrench wielding Crimson Bolt. Again, quite realistic but some twisted humour to be had in the situation.

But it's the last act (not even that really, more the last 20 minutes) that things get really dark. It just stops being a comedy, and ends up being quite moving by the end. It's a real curve ball to throw at something that had mostly been a fun watch. But it really works. Although there was one element to it I had to question, but there we have quite a large spoiler, so allow me just to say - I wish they hadn't.

Overall Super is a great film, with a fantastic performance from Rainn Wilson. Not just relying on his usual 'weirdo outsider' shtick as seen in the US Office and Six Feet Under, he does add a layer of empathy for the character, even when he is hammering the crap out of someone with a wrench!

****
A brilliant film, although quite disturbing in places. And ultimately nothing like Kick Ass. Catch it if you can.