Movies.ie

Death of a Superhero

• Currently 3/5 Stars.

DEATH OF A SUPERHERO (Germany/Ireland/15A/97mins)
Directed by Ian Fitzgibbon. Starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Andy Serkis, Jessica Schwarz, Ronan Rafferty, Sharon Horgan, Michael McElhatton, Aisling Loftus, Ned Dennehy.
THE PLOT: Determined to not just fade away, 15-year-old Dubliner Donald Clarke (Brodie-Sangster) is waging his own war on the leukemia that has left his parents (McElhatton and Horgan) visibly reeling - and sent the boy himself deeper into his comic strip hero drawings (beautifully realized here by Trixter, the German animation outfit). Being bald on top of being that little bit different means Donald doesn’t exactly see himself as the coolest kid in class. It’s a view seemingly not shared by troubled new arrival Shelly (Loftus), the sort of Goth chick who smokes in class. Also on his side is the reclusive, Starsky-cardigan-wearing, glasses-on-the-end-of-the-nose psychiatrist Adrian King (Serkis), a man who is battling his own demons…
THE VERDICT: Cinema doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to the old raging-against-the-dying-of-the-light genre. For every 50/50 (2011), there’s at least a dozen soppy offerings like Sweet November (a 2001 remake of a 1968 feelsick hit), A Walk To Remember (2002) and My Sister’s Keeper (2009). Thankfully, Ian Fitzgibbon’s Dublin-set drama is far closer in spirit and tone to Levitt and Rogen than it is to Theron and co, Death Of A Superhero – think Bad Will Hunting, or About A Dying Boy - finding the humour in the tragedy. And therefore making that tragedy all the more tragic. Young Thomas Brodie-Sangster (all grown up from being the little drummer boy in Love Actually) gives a truly touching performance, offering up a tangible sense of a boy caught between his first love and his last breath. RATING: 3/5

Review by P Byrne

Nativity! 2: Danger in the Manger

• Currently 1/5 Stars.

NATIVITY 2: DANGER IN THE MANGER (UK/18/105mins)
Directed by Debbie Isitt.
Starring David Tennant, Marc Wootton, Jason Watkins, Joanna Page, Ian McNeice, Jessica Hynes, Pam Ferris, Thomas Ainge.
THE PLOT: It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas at St. Bernadette’s primary school if nice-but-dim teaching assistant Mr. Poppy (Wootton) has his wish come true – he has entered the school into the national Song For Christmas competition. With a little reluctant help from supply teacher David (Tennant), the choir sets off from the Midlands to the Welsh venue – only the dastardly Oakmoor School have made sure their journey is far from straight and narrow. And so, before you can say Bear Grylls, the gang are fending their way across the wilds of Wales…
THE VERDICT: Jesus wept.

RATING: 1/5

Review by P Byrne

Silver Linings Playbook

• Currently 4/5 Stars.

MOVIES.IE’S ONE TO WATCH!
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (USA/15/117mins)
Directed by David O. Russell.
Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Wever, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, Matthew Russellm, Brea Bee.
THE PLOT: Having served his time in a mental hospital for attacking his wife’s lover, Pat Solitano (Cooper) is convinced that he can not only beat his bipolar disorder sans medication but, he can also win back the affections of his petrified spouse, Nikki (Bee). And when he finds an ally in the sleazy-going young widow Tiffany (Lawrence), Pat is even more convinced of his plan. Tiffany will get a secret message to Nikki. Only Nikki not only fails to do so, but she fakes a reply too. Oh, and just to add to the madness, Tiffany decides entering a dance competition will help keep her new man in check, something his dad (De Niro) fights, given that he firmly believes that having his son being at home helps his beloved football team win…
THE VERDICT: Okay, so that plot sounds a little bonkers, I grant you. And it is all held together by a man who has been known to be a little bonkers himself (Russell having even managed to ruffle George Clooney feathers). But, the surprising truth about this deliberately unconventional romantic comedy is that it’s truly romantic and truly funny – and all without ever once straying into Gerard Butler country. The smarts are actually smart here, as opposed to merely slick. It’s like David O. Russell took his 2004 offering I Heart Huckabees and made it likeable. And actually funny.
In pretty much the same way that he injected new life into the one-last-round boxer genre with The Fighter, here – with a script based on David Quick’s 2008 novel – Russell manages to reinvent another of cinema’s well-worn wheels. The key this time out – and perhaps even with The Fighter – is the simple underlining belief that, deep down and sometimes not so deep down, we’re all pretty much bonkers.

RATING: 4/5

Review by P Byrne

Gambit

• Currently 2/5 Stars.

GAMBIT (USA/12A/89mins)
Directed by Michael Hoffman.
Starring Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman, Alan Courtney, Stanley Tucci, Cloris Leachman.
THE PLOT: Having taken just about as much as he can from his boorish billionaire boss Lionel Shabandar (Rickman, in his element), art curator Harry Deane (Firth) has decided it’s time to turn. Enlisting the help of his forging friend The Major (Courtney), Harry hatches a plan. All he needs is a front – step forward Diaz’s hard-drinkin’ Texas rodeo queen – and a fake Monet. The plan being loads of Monet for loads of money, Harry walking away with millions whilst his media mogul boss is left standing with a fake. Only trouble is, when it comes to con artists, you never really know what you’re going to get...
THE VERDICT: What is it with the Coens? Whenever they take on a quirky comedy classic, it seems their own quirky simply cancels it out. Just like their painful 2004 revisit of Ealing’s The Ladykillers, here the brothers grin take on the eponymous swinging sixties hit (then led by Michael Caine and Shirley Maclaine) and, well, suck it dry of any true swing.
And it’s not like they didn’t have the cast for the job - although the always-likeable Diaz really needs to start embracing at least her mid-20s soon before she turns into Goldie Hawn’s bitter twin. Maybe it’s all the director’s fault, the man behind the 2009 Oscar contender The Last Station being a somewhat surreal choice here.
Try as you might, it’s hard to find much to salvage or chuckle at here, anything remotely wry, crisp and dry having been tightened up and edited into much sharper punchlines for the trailer

RATING: 2/5

Review by P Byrne

End of Watch

• Currently 4/5 Stars.

MOVIES.IE’S ONE TO WATCH!
END OF WATCH (USA/16/109mins)
Directed by David Ayer.
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Anna Kendrick, David Harbour, Frank Grillo, American Ferrera, Cle Sloan, Maurice Compte, Yahira ‘Flakiss’ Garcia.
THE PLOT: LA, South Central, and LAPD partners Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Pena) are plainly good at their job. To the extent that, when Zavala is challenged to go a few rounds with gang member Mr. Tre (Sloan) in the latter’s living room, the last-man-standing bout is strictly off the books. Respect!
But there’s trouble out on the streets, and it’s obvious that at least one hard rain is about to fall.
As part of an escalating turf war, one of Tre’s crew is gunned down by the Mexican Curbside gang, led by Big Evil (Compte) and La La (Garcia), whilst the random unearthing of some human trafficking quickly puts a price on Taylor – who’s keeping a video diary of his daily life on the beat - and Zavala’s heads…
THE VERDICT: It may be a buddy-buddy cop movie on the surface, but End Of Watch is more interested in the gritty truth than any loose cars, fast women and high-fivin’ shoot-outs. This is LA’s thin blue line through blood-tinted glasses, and the comparison to HBO’s The Wire are there pretty much from the start. And despite the buddy-buddy element, and another fine performance from Pena, this is really Gyllenhaal’s movie.
Having recently stated that witnessing a death during the early stages of research with the LAPD changed his life, young Jake has also now vowed to make only challenging movies from hereon in. Take that, Bruckheimer!
So, writer/director David Ayer (the South Central native who has so far concentrated largely on bad cops, writing the likes of Training Day and Harsh Times) has plainly gotten to his leading man here. And it’s easy to see why - even if End Of Watch isn’t quite Gyllenhaal’s Drive. Ayers is far too happy employing stereotypes here, and the odd 40-foot signpost for his subtle, underlying social commentary.
It doesn’t help that we’ve been here before, many times, from Colors to Training Day, from L.A. Confidential to Boyz n The Hood, not to mention last year’s Chinatown-esque Rampart. Still, End Of Watch works on its own terms, and if the mock-doc element makes about as much real sense as TV’s Modern Family, this is still a movie that leaves an aftertaste. 

RATING: 4/5

Review by P Byrne

The Master

• Currently 3/5 Stars.

THE MASTER (USA/16/144mins)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Jesse Piemons, Ambyr Childers, Rami Malek, Amy Ferguson.

THE PLOT: It’s the end of World War II, and Freddie Quell (Phoenix) is spending much of his time brewing up some literally lethal homebrew, as he and the rest of his US Navy buddies wait on a tropical island for their ticket home. A man with a temper, and a malicious streak, after a string of bust-ups and chases, Freddie wakes up as a stowaway on a yacht, where the wedding celebrations for the daughter of the enigmatic Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) are taking place. Dodd is currently working on his second book, charting his beliefs in alien ancestry and laying out the foundations for The Cause – his human-potential movement. Freddie is soon welcomed into this travelling circus, as they head out across America to spread the word and raise some funds…

THE VERDICT: Another beautifully crafted and breezily bonkers study of madness by Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master could almost be a companion piece to 2007’s There Will Be Blood. The real question is, did Joaquin Phoenix know they were making a movie? Maybe he thought this was a sequel to his own moc-doc. Called I’m Here Because I’m Not All There.

Which, of course, could be the motto of the Church of Scientology, the pseudo-religion that many will be thinking of as The Master explores the kind of people attracted to such cults, and the kind of people who start them. Then again, maybe it’s the founding of the Golden Globes? Either way, we know we’re witnessing the birth of a multi-million-dollar scam here.

Anderson has said that much of The Master was made up as they went along, which might explain the well-dressed, wide-eyed mania on offer here - and the sort of narrative that reflects more than a little madness both in front and behind the camera. It may also explain why the ending kinda… well, peters out.

The towering film critic David Thompson has questioned the inevitable critical praise foisted upon The Master (great actors waving it all about for a masterful filmmaker once again going down a psychological black hole), noting that in the US, the film has had a 25% walk-out rate. So, you know, be prepared. This is art house writ large. You can tell it’s art house because Philip Seymour Hoffman gets jerked off. You know where you are when Philip Seymour Hoffman pulls that face. RATING: 3/5

Review by Paul Byrne 

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

• Currently 2/5 Stars.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART TWO (USA/12A/115mins)

Directed by Bill Condon. Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz.

THE PLOT: More shit hits the fans, as proud parents Bella (Stewart) and Edward (Pattinson) have to rally their vampire clan to protect their half-human, half-vampire offspring, Renesmee, from the Volturi – the ruling council of the vampire world. Renesmee has been mistaken for an immortal child, and now, well, the Cullens have to gather some character witnesses. Who will testify before the Volturi that, hey, Renesmee is really one of them.

Who doesn’t want to see a fantasy adventure culminating in a fraught council meeting? George Lucas would be proud of such writing…

THE VERDICT: Hurrah! It’s the movie that brought us Jackson Rathbone! And Taylor Lautner! And Ashley Greene! God, this cast sucks.

Stewart has shown she has some kind of career outside of the Twilight franchise – largely playing variations on the theme of Little Girl Horny – but, given the string of flops he’s headed up outside of being Edward Cullen, poor Bobby Pattinson seems destined to become the next Mark Hamill.

This is, reportedly, the last of the Twilight films, although, I’m sure, once Meyer – aka Dan Brown In A Dress - struggles to have any other kind of success, that offspring could provide an offshoot. Either way, this particular film franchise is, of course, critic-proof. Dissing a Twilight film isn’t going to make a heap of difference. You might as well get up on your roof and tell the world that the new Justin Bieber record really isn’t all that rockin’.

Young and old tweens - and the bored housewives (Meyer’s 50 Shades Of Dull having actually inspired EL James) - will head out to this in their droves. Even those who know, deep down, that the Twilight movies make the Potter big-screen outings look like Heimat. In the US, this is expected to hit a franchise best opening weekend of $150m.

If you do go, be sure to avoid Mark Kermode, the ‘50s throwback having just come out, once again, as a major fan of the Cullen clan and their soul-sucking adventures. His main defense seems to be that, hey, this is a series catering to a major market, the teenage girl, and we should respect that. In truth, most people go simply because they’ve seen the others. I’ve met no sane person, young or old, smart or thick, who actually loves the Twilight movies.

But, hey, is it any good, I hear you yell. Well, it’s a little bit better than the last one. Which means it’s not actually that bad. If you’ve seen the others. And you’re a bit thick. RATING: 2/5

Review by Paul Byrne 

Grassroots

• Currently 2/5 Stars.

GRASSROOTS (USA/15/98mins)

Directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal. Starring Jason Biggs, Joel David Moore, Lauren Ambrose, Christopher McDonald, Cedric The Entertainer, Tom Arnold.

THE PLOT: Seattle, 2011, and brave music critic Grant Cogswell (Moore) has decided it’s time to run for local office – heck, if Screaming Lord Sutch can do it, why can’t he? And the ticket Grant is running on is, hey, when is this city finally going to have the kind of all-encompassing monorail it was promised? Helping run this, yep, grassroots campaign is another failed journalist, Phil Campbell (Biggs), the duo making surprisingly good headway as the media picks up on the unlikely people’s hero. It doesn’t help that the incumbent (Cedric) is one of the few sitting black politicians around. Still, Cogswell and Campbell decide that their amicable opponent is the Mayor Quimby of their story…

THE VERDICT: Based on the book Zioncheck For President (campaign chief Campbell’s insider account of this bizarre true-life event), pretty much like its protagonist, Grassroots promises much and delivers bugger all. Gyllenhaal (pop to Jake and Maggie, and a long-time filmmaker) had hoped to motivate America’s young into political action by touring Grassroots around college campuses there (his second wife, and co-producer here, Kathleen Man, by his side), but it’s unlikely this film inspired much beyond the occasional chuckle. And a few questions about Jake during the post-screening Q&A. It’s Milk without the calcium. It’s Dude, Where’s My Monorails, only not as stoner silly as that sounds. Go watch Marge Vs. The Monorail instead. RATING: 2/5

Review by P Byrne 

Alps

• Currently 4/5 Stars.

MOVIES.IE’S ONE TO WATCH!

ALPS (Greece/IFI/93mins)

Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos. Starring Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia, Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, Johnny Verkis, Erifili Stefanidou.

THE PLOT: Realising that the ties that bind can also trap, four individuals – a gymnast (Lebad), her strict coach (Vekris), a paramedic (Servetalis) and a nurse (Papoulia) – offer a unique service to the recently bereaved; they will pretend to be their dearly departed, wearing their clothes, speaking their words and generally living their lives for a few hours a week.

Such substitution comes at a price though, and not just for the clients, as the four struggle to affirm their own identities, not only within the harsh group – dubbed the Alps by the paramedic, seemingly their leader, because the name “in no way reveals what it is we do” – but also out in the big bad world…

THE VERDICT: As with Lanthimos’ previous offering, 2009’s Dogtooth (which centred around three teenage kids being completely cocooned from the outside world by their parents), Alps is an intoxicating mix of Loach and Lynch. The mundane rubs up against the melancholic madness, and you’re never quite sure where the truth lies. Everyone here, after all, is living a lie, including the clients.

Lanthimos is ultimately letting us know that, as Sight & Sound put it, something is rotten in the state of Greece. Just what it is – and what it means – well, you’re going to have to work that out for yourself. RATING: 4/5

Review by Paul Bynre 

People Like Us

• Currently 2/5 Stars.

PEOPLE LIKE US (USA/12A/114mins)

Directed by Alex Kurtzman. Starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Pfeiffer, Olivia Wilde, Michael Hall D’Addario, Mark Duplass, Philip Baker Hall.

THE PLOT: With his job as a corporate barterer on the line after a deal goes wrong, Sam (Pine) has to deal with some more bad news when he learns that his father has passed away. Reluctantly leaving New York and heading to LA for the funeral, soon after he arrives, Sam’s late father’s lawyer hands him a shaving bag with $150,000 inside. It’s for one Josh Davis, and when Sam tracks him down, he soon realizes that the kid’s mum (Banks) is his half-sister…

THE VERDICT: The directorial debut of Star Trek co-writer Kurtzman has gone through a name-change (having initially labored under the awkward moniker of Welcome To People) and, you suspect, quite a few test screenings, the resulting film oozing bland pleasantness. Which is hardly the stuff of box-office dynamite.

After a short visit to the big screen in the US back in June, People Like Us is already out there on DVD. Where it’s being largely ignored by a whole new swathe of people. And it’s unlikely to spark any riots at multiplexes here either. Shame, because the usually-reliable Pine was plainly doing his director a favour here. RATING: 2/5

Review by P Byrne 

Here Comes the Boom

• Currently 2/5 Stars.

HERE COMES THE BOOM (USA/12A/105mins)

Directed by Frank Coraci. Starring Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler, Greg Germann, Joe Rogan, Gary Valentine, Charice, Bas Rutten, Reggie Lee.

THE PLOT: He may have won Teacher Of The Year 10 years ago, but these days, 42-year old biology teacher Scott Voss (James, who co-wrote the script) is pretty low down the Christmas card list of Principal Betcher (Germann). But when Betcher announces that, in order to save $48,000, Wilkinson High School is cutting all extra-curricular activities, Voss suddenly finds a reason to get his act together. At the very least, it might impress fellow teach Bella Flores (Hayek). And that’s when Scott spots the fine art of Ultimate Fighting – where the loser can make a quick and bloody $10,000.

THE VERDICT: Not to be confused with the TV series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (think Springer meets Tantrums & Tiaras), there’s every chance that that particular little squealing pig of a beauty pageant kid and her bovine mum would love this movie. Or just about anything the amicable everyslob Kevin James has to offer.

I actually have a soft spot for James, his comic timing on his breakthrough TV sitcom The King Of Queens verging, at times, on Jackie Gleason good. Since hooking up with the equally amicable but equally spent Adam Sandler though, James has found himself in increasingly loud premises with increasingly whimpering results. The sort of comic premises that spark just about enough inspired moments to fill a decent trailer. Which, of course, is sometimes all you need to make a hit these days. Especially when you’re trying to lure Honey Boo Boo’s mum (you know, the woman who looks like a thumb) off the couch and into the cinema snack emporium. RATING: 2/5

Review by P Byrne 

Argo

• Currently 4/5 Stars.

MOVIES.IE’S ONE TO WATCH!

ARGO (USA/15A/120mins)

Directed by Ben Affleck. Starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Kyle Chandler.

THE PLOT: It’s November, 1979, and American foreign policy is sparking more hatred amongst the natives, this time in Iran. Determined to see their beloved Shah return from the US to become their dictator once again, a group of protestors storm the US embassy, taking 52 staff members hostage. Six manage to escape though, taking refuge in the Canadian embassy. And the CIA are struggling to come up with a way of getting the secret six back home. And that’s when exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with the plan of putting a fake Hollywood motion picture production into operation – complete with trade press ads – so they can use a supposed location scout in Tehran as a front to a rescue…

THE VERDICT: One of those quality mid-budget movies that Hollywood doesn’t tend to make anymore, the fact that Argo beat an admittedly weak spate of recent box-office fodder in the US to secure the no.1 spot makes Argo all the more enjoyable to watch. Who knows, maybe Hollywood will once again invest in small, smart, stylish, well-crafted movies like this? Argo cost $44.5m, and has already taken $78m in the US alone.

It helps, of course, that alongside all the smarts and the craftsmanship is a surprising amount of humour. As former box-office pin-up Affleck here proves that he’s growing constantly as a director (Gone Baby Gone and The Town both fine movies, of course), solid character actors such as Arkin, Goodman and Cranston all bring effortless acting chops and a wry smile to proceedings. Sweet.RATING: 4/5

Review by P Byrne