Dredd 3D (2012)

Dir: Pete Travis

Starring: Karl Urban, Olivia Thrilby, Lena Headey

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbCfqGsXu3M

                2000 A.D’s most famous lawman returns in a welcome reboot, written by Alex Garland.

                Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is Judge, Jury and Executioner on the crime ridden streets of Mega City One. He is given the job of testing Psychic Judge Anderson in her final exam to become a Judge. They respond to a murder at the Peach Trees tower block which houses the manufacture and base of operations for new drug, Slo-Mo, and violent drug dealer Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). She locks down the building and puts out a death order on the judges and it’s left to Dredd and Anderson to fight their way out.

                Dredd is a lot of fun. It has plenty of action and gore to satisfy the paying Action movie and comic book crowds. The insides of the Peach Tree’s building look suitably grimy and stained giving a real feeling of a packed dangerous apartment block.  The criminals and Judge’s are as violent and aggressive as they should be in Mega City One and the violence stays to true the comic book. Karl Urban has the chin and grimace to make a good Dredd, Olivia Thrilby is fine as the inexperienced rookie thrown into the thick of things and Lea Headey convinces as the unforgiving and violent Ma-Ma.

The film does fall foul of some cliché’s. It unfortunately shares exactly the same story as The Raid which was released earlier this year, and it’s good guys trapped behind enemy lines has been storyline which has been seen several times before.

                The film may not be hugely original but it does manage to stick in some good ideas. One particularly good scene sees Judge Anderson using her psychic powers to find out information from a suspect through a battle of sickening thoughts. It also manages to use 3D in an interesting way. The Slo-Mo sections are bathed in golden colour and are beautiful despite some of the gory images on screen. Glittering glass falls around you, water slowly flies through the air, all to the sound of Ethereal voices. It is the best use of 3D that I have seen since the form has become popular.

                Dredd deserves a bigger budget and unfortunately its low cost does show through. Mega City One doesn’t look as futuristic as it should do; it just looks like Johannesburg, where it was actually filmed, with a bit of CGI plumping. The Judges’ bikes just look like normal motorbikes with a bit of metal stuck to the front. It would be good for them to be handed a bigger budget so we can get out of one setting and find out a bit more about Mega City One and the world Dredd inhabits.

                A fun and entertaining action film that does something interesting with 3D. A sequel will be something to look forward to.

3 and a half Buttons out of 5

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

Dir: Peter Strickland

Starring: Toby Jones, Cosimo Fusco, Susanna Cappellaro

                Gilderoy (Toby Jones) is a sheltered English sound engineer who is brought over to Italy to work on a horror film. He arrives into the hostile environment of the sound studio and slowly becomes affected by the violent images of the film, The Equestrian Vortex.

                Berberian Sound Studio isn’t your usual horror film. It features no violent or gory images but still manages to create an unsettling atmosphere. It uses sound to create this. Gilderoy is working on the sound effects and sound track for a typically violent and gory Italian Giallo film. Though we don’t see them, we hear all the sounds, the screams, the squelch and mash of vegetables being chopped to recreate the sound of bodies, of the violent images in the film they are sound tracking. Instead of bodily gore we get close up shots of the mashed and rotting vegetables in the studio. We don’t see anyone get killed but we get close up shots of the actor’s faces and eyes as they recreate the screams of their characters in the soundbooth for the soundtrack to the fake film. We see the images through Gilderoy’s disturbed facial expressions. It’s left to us to imagine what’s happening on screen. Berberian Sound Studio deserves the Oscar for best sound which unfortunately it will never win.

                Gilderoy is our guide through the film. We are as confused about the Italian characters around him as he is. They are hostile towards him without clear reason and it’s only slowly through the film do we understand the difficulties and tensions surrounding the creation of The Equestrian Vortex. Toby Jones gives a great performance, brilliantly conveying the sheltered Gilderoy slowly changing whilst having to watch violence over and over.

                Though it’s at heart a horror film, Berberian Sound Studio is also partly a documentary of a Foley studio, one of the most important yet mostly overlooked and misunderstood aspects of film making. Set almost entirely in the fake sound studio of the film’s title, in the 70’s, it gives you an interesting insight into what went in to creating the right sounds for a film and also makes for an interesting and original setting.

                Unfortunately the film never quite does anything with the unsettling atmosphere and the tension it builds. Its third act goes a bit too far, folding in on itself. This doesn’t spoil your experience of the film; it just doesn’t push it to the next level.

                Part documentary, part historical horror film, Berberian Sound Studio is an unusual, original and very unsettling film with some great performances. The antidote to over the top gore horror.

4 out of 5 Buttons

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Dir: Tony Gilroy

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton

Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdtUdEoE-Q4

                The studio milks its cash cow for a few more dollars in this fourth instalment of the Bourne franchise but without Bourne.

                Set during The Bourne Ultimatum, we are introduced to fellow Bourne programme member Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner). Anticipating the fallout from one of their black ops programmes being revealed to the public, a CIA team, led by Eric Byer (Edward Norton), decide to dismantle the programme which includes killing everyone involved in it, including the scientists, one of which is Dr Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). Cross goes on the run, taking Marta Shearing with him, to get the medicine which he was given as part of the programme and has run out of.

                When this film was first announced everyone asked, what’s the point? The answer unfortunately is there isn’t really. The film only has tenuous links to the Bourne trilogy. As you probably know it doesn’t feature Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and his name and names of other characters and organisations from the previous films are mentioned which attempts to link the films. The film is just a generic, and overly long, action film with quite a few action moments but nothing memorable or which stand out. Neither is the action as inventive as the previous Bourne films, no one gets killed with a biro or a rolled up magazine. A lack of originality mars the film. Things go bang, and people get punched which is fine but never really exhilarating.

                Aaron Cross is never as good a character as Jason Bourne, despite the likability of Jeremy Renner. With Bourne we had more than just a man surviving. Bourne was trying to find out who he is, what happened to him, what his back story was. With Cross, all he’s doing is trying to stay alive and that doesn’t give us enough to hold on to.The film has good actors, trying their best with what little they are given.

                The film also never really goes anywhere. It starts fairly slowly and then is just a fairly uninteresting chase for an hour and then it just ends. The film doesn’t wrap things up to a satisfying conclusion and pretty much just sets the path for another lacklustre sequel.

                A solid Saturday night action offering with only very loose ties to the original Bourne films. Competently made and acted but it doesn’t deserve to be a part of the franchise. You won’t remember it after a couple of months. Should have stuck at three.

2 out of 5 Buttons

Brave (2012)

Dir: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell

Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEHWDA_6e3M

                Pixar has become the studio for quality animation, making films for all ages. This time they travel to Scotland for a tale of magic and legend.

                Merida (Kelly Macdonald) is a Scottish princess who is going to be married off to one of three potential suitors. Wanting her freedom and taking her life in to her own hands, Merida breaks tradition and humiliates the suitors and runs off. Meeting a witch she makes a deal involving her mother which leads to terrible circumstances.

                As is usual with Pixar, the film looks beautiful. They’ve captured the majestic natural beauty of the Scottish lands perfectly and Merida’s curly red locks flow and spring realistically. Pixar have always managed to push the boundaries with their animation, whether it is the individual strands of hair in the coats of Sully from Monsters inc. and Lotsohuggin’ bear in Toy Story 3, or the twinkling beauty of space in Wall.e, and they continue here. Pixar should be applauded for choosing a quite unusual setting for a children’s film and using it so well.

                What makes Pixar so great is that there is always more to their films than just the beautiful surface, they always have heart. In this case that comes in the relationship between Merida and her mother Elinor (Emma Thompson). Merida is a teenage girl who has been raised by her mother to be a lady and to marry for the good of the country while she is still young but Merida wants to be free and live her life how she wants. It is good to see the relationship between a mother and daughter as the core of a film rather than the typical romance of the male hero and the beautiful heroine. It's this relationship which is at the front of the film rather than anything to do with the three young suitors. It is a film about family and learning to love each other. However, the film never hits the emotional heights of Wall.e or the incredible first ten minutes of Up.

                The film has jokes for both the youngsters in the audience and their parents but it is never as funny as some previous Pixar films. Wall.e managed to make us laugh and fall in love with a robot who barely spoke and Up made us root for a grumpy pensioner, mining comedy from such tough ingredients, but Brave raises chuckles rather than full on laughs.

                A solid effort from Pixar which sits in the middle of Pixar’s roster in terms of quality. Good looking and fun but not enough to stick with you for much longer afterwards.

3 out of 5 Buttons

Dark Shadows (2012)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isjg9O7ifwM

Dir: Tim Burton

Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green

                Tim Burton teams up with Johnny Depp again to give us a big screen adaptation of a little known American television series.

                Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is cursed by a witch (Eva Green), who is in love with him, to be a vampire. He is buried by the angry townsfolk. Almost two hundred years later, his coffin is unearthed and Barnabas goes about reinstating the Collins family name. Unfortunately the witch Angelique is still about.

                As you’ve probably guessed from the trailer, the film has the typical Tim Burton style and quirky characters in it. The style isn’t jarring and it fits with the slightly camp and Gothic subject matter but after so many films with the same style to them, it’s starting to get a bit dull. The most you can say about the film is that it is fine. You won’t hate having come to watch it but you won’t remember much about it once you’ve reached home. It feels more like a fun personal project for Depp and Burton rather than a particularly interesting film for a mass audience.

                The film never really knows what it wants to be. It has a fair amount of jokes, the best being Barnabas’ misunderstanding of Alice Cooper, in it but it’s not the comedy that the trailer makes it out to be. A lot of the humour comes from the fish out of water situation of Barnabas, but luckily the whole of the film doesn’t rely on this as it could become quite monotonous. It actually has a fair amount of Gothic violence in it which sits at odds with its playful almost camp nature. The film is quite meandering, without much of a solid plot to hold on to. The main thrust of it seems to be making the Collins’ rich again and defeating the evil witch, one of which happens but is then unspooled to no real conclusion. The ending is wholly unsatisfactory as it throws in random plot twists, which seem to only be there because they were in the television series, and action which doesn’t lead to anything decent and just sets up an, at the moment, unwanted sequel.

                An entirely tolerable film but there’s nothing here which will really stick with you. Makes you hope that Burton and Depp will doing something really different together next time.

2 out of 5 Buttons

American Reunion (2012)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7qq0iJGSu0
 

Dir: John Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg

Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Sean William Scott, Eugene Levy

                The American Pie franchise gets milked for another go with the seventh, yes seventh, entry into the franchise.

                The gang are all grown up and they decide to go home and get together for their thirteenth high school reunion. Hijinks ensue.

There is a moment in the film where Jason Bigg’s character Jim tells Stifler (Sean William Scott) that things have changed. Unfortunately, they really haven’t. The film is filled with everything you would expect from an American Pie film. The characters are all pretty much the same as they were in 1999 and the same gross out, sex comedy is all present as expected. Then only reason the film is even in cinemas, rather than being the fourth direct to DVD instalment, is because they have managed to get the entire original cast back together. Jim, Stifler, Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Vicky (Tara Reid), Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), Heather (Mena Suvari) and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and more all return for one last pay check.

It is nice to see them all together on screen again as even old favourite supporting characters pop up, but a film can’t rely entirely on nostalgia. The film even brings up old jokes from the first couple of movies like a now fading friend going ‘hey, remember this. That was funny wasn’t it? We had some good funny times’ and desperately trying to hold onto a friendship long past its best. Jim’s dad mentions the pie, Jim mentions a flute, Jim and Stifler get trapped in someone’s bedroom. Remember when we all laughed then? The jokes have evolved with time about as well as the assembled cast’s movie careers. I found myself sitting there thinking ‘it’s been thirteen years. I’ve changed since then, why hasn’t any of this?’ The only thing that seems to have changed is what they can get away with in a 15 rated film. This time the sex is a bit more graphic and you actually get to see a penis along with the gratuitous breast and ass shots.

The film is exactly as you expect it to be. It’s the same old stuff for the people who were teens in 1999 and sex and bodily fluids for the teens now. If you’ve always been a fan of the American Pie franchise and are just looking for more of the same then you’ll find much to enjoy here and you’ll probably get a kick from seeing the old gang back together. If you’re looking for something genuinely funny, different and original then just keep on walking. If you want to see a man shit in a cooler and boobs then this if the film for you.

At the end of the film Jim says ‘We should do this every year.’ Hopefully they won’t. This really should be the last piece of the pie that went off long ago.

2 out of 5 Button