Tammy (2014) 20/100

Posted on July 20, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 20/100 96 Min

Written by Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone, and directed by Falcone in his debut behind the camera, this features McCarthy as central character Tammy, whose life goes into meltdown and inspires her to go on a road trip with her alcoholic grandmother, played by Susan Sarandon. I think McCarthy is a great actor, but her balls out improvised approach to comedy is wayward from the start here, as she tries to set up the whole initial premise almost in one breath – we watch as Tammy quickly loses her job, her marriage and her head in the space of a couple of hours, setting her up as the traditional comedy screwup that we will nevertheless feel sorry for and root for. Unfortunately, it all has a nervous, awkward and amateurish quality to it, and it never really manages to be funny, with obvious and inevitable jibes at the protagonist’s expense, brief treatment of alcoholism, and a traditional, predictable and largely pointless outcome.

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2013) 60/100

Posted on July 20, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 60/100 114 Min

An adaptation of Jonas Jonasson’s 2009 debut novel of the same name that flits between English and Swedish, and has garnered a lot of praise from its domestic run and on the festival circuit, but my goodness does it take a long time to get going. The first forty to fifty minutes are so brain deadeningly dull that there are a couple jokes that might normally elicit a laugh or two, but your focus feels like it’s been hit by a sledgehammer so they don’t register at all.

The story follows the adventures of Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson), who is indeed one hundred years old and does climb out the bedroom window of his retirement home and effectively disappear as far as his carers are concerned, but we the audience witness him accidentally acquire a suitcase full of money from a gang of hardened criminals, who chase after him and his growing entourage of unlikely friends that accumulate throughout the movie as chapters of his eventful life are relived for us whilst they are on the run – a life which just so happens to have played an important role in several historically pivotal moments over the last century.

It has many, many similarities with lots of other films, most notably ‘Forrest Gump’ (94) and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ (08) and the works of Tarantino, but it also suffers from Allan in the current time frame looking rather like Johnny Knoxville under prosthetics in ‘Bad Grandpa‘. It constantly has the feeling of something derivative and a little in love with itself, but it eventually gets going and becomes more endearing and even funny on occasion, although not as often as director/writer Felix Herngren would like. It’s also quite frequently gory, for anyone put off by that kind of thing.

Chef (2014) 69/100

Posted on June 26, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 69/100 114 Min

Jon Favreau writes, directs and stars in this feel good film about a divorced chef experiencing creative restraints at work and trying to connect properly with his young son. A showdown with the biggest critic in town (played by Oliver Platt) leads him to embark upon a self employed adventure with his own food truck, where he bonds with his son (Emjay Anthony) by showing him some of the tricks of the trade as they travel from Miami to California.

Sumptuous shots of food being prepared feature heavily throughout – from the never to be underestimated classics like cheese on toast to dishes which, as far as I’m concerned, have no name, with meats and vegetables ranging from the common to the exotic, and a similar infectious passion for some of the locations shines through, especially Miami and New Orleans. It’s a convincing and enjoyable drama that, bar a couple of slightly contrived moments of confrontation, simply focuses on the story it’s trying to tell, with the acting and character interactions feeling grounded and real, and just enough moments of comedy thrown in for relish on top. With Dustin Hoffman, John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara and Favreau’s chums Robert Downey Jr. (at one point, during a brief father-son montage, we can tell from the sound effects that they are watching Iron Man at the cinema) and Scarlett Johansson in support.

22 Jump Street (2014) 66/100

Posted on June 7, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 66/100 112 Min

The sequel to 2012’s action comedy ’21 Jump Street’ (itself based on the late 80’s/early 90’s TV show, which helped launch the career of a certain Mr. Johnny Depp), again starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill and with plenty of in-jokes alluding to their increased budget this time around and the similar story – with the two cops returning undercover but graduating, figuratively, from impersonating high school students to becoming roommates in college. The returning central plot element is a new drug craze which has claimed at least one life on campus, and which of course allows the protagonists to accidentally try some for themselves.

Hill actually came up with the story, together with Michael Bacall (who has reportedly finished his script for the spin-off ‘Tropic Thunder’ film that is to centre on Tom Cruise’s scene stealing cameo character Les Grossman) and it is entertaining enough, with similar gags and action to the first one, though what it somehow manages to do quite well is play on the bromance between the leads, as one gets jealous of the other’s new college friends/social status and must deal with a resurgence of his feelings of isolation, and an ongoing lover’s quarrel ensues. Altogether, a slight improvement on its predecessor.

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) 63/100

Posted on May 31, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 63/100 116 Min

Seth MacFarlane’s second time at directing and writing a feature film (although he was joined by his usual collaborators Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild for the screenplay) after 2012’s ‘Ted’ takes us to the Old West of 1882, where he is about to be dumped by Amanda Seyfried and bemoan his misfortunes and the multitude of ways one can wind up dead in his middle of nowhere town, all before Charlize Theron meets and quickly falls in love with him. It’s a hard life really. The creator of ‘Family Guy’ is actually the thing that looks most out of place here, and although there are a few laughs it ultimately meanders around as light hearted entertainment that’s just as light on the, often toilet gag laden, comedy front. Where the film is actually quite successful is the chemistry between MacFarlane and Theron, who seem to share a few genuine laughs with each other onscreen, which is always nice to see. Elements of the story are closer to a stand up routine than a narrative in a comedy film, and there are certainly a lot of areas for MacFarlane to work on for his third film which must surely follow, but it does all right in the likeability factor come the end. With Liam Neeson in support and a host of brief cameo roles, including Ewan McGregor if you can spot him …

Blended (2014) 45/100

Posted on May 25, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 45/100 117 Min

Adam Sandler’s latest offering reunites him with one of his best co-stars from his long list of comedy hits and misses – Drew Barrymore, marking her third appearance in one of his films after the pretty great ‘The Wedding singer’ (98) and ’50 First Dates’ (04, which I haven’t seen). There is no denying their onscreen chemistry at times, but in this, those sparse incidents are obliterated by many, many cringe worthy moments and extremely lacklustre attempts at comedy. As usual, the human elements of Sandler’s films again work well here, it’s just a huge shame that he regularly doesn’t find writers that can utilise him and his fellow actors to full advantage, or indeed any advantage at all.

The story sees both leads as single parents trying to raise numerous children and the film opens with the pair of them on their first date since they each became single, but it doesn’t go well. Luckily, fate conspires to send them on the same romantic trip to South Africa though, where couples go to ‘blend’. If it was some sort of barbaric Hunger Games scenario whereby the least entertaining or romantically indulgent couple were actually blended together at the end then it might be worth watching. Alas, no such luck. The exploration of the coming of age agendas of the kids, and Sandler and Barrymore’s blossoming romance, do have some merit, just not enough to suffer through the rest of the film for. The discovery that the somewhat berserk character signing and dancing in an almost derogatory way about Africa at every opportunity after they arrive on the continent was played by action and ‘Expendables 2‘ star Terry Crews, was a shock to say the least.

I do love this photo of the main actors, you can see why they wanted to do another film together.

Frank (2014) 68/100

Posted on May 24, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 68/100 95 Min

This, to me, looked like a garish nightmare – some guy in a creepy head mask who used to be on TV sometimes (he was then Frank Sidebottom, comic persona of Chris Sievey, who sadly passed away a few years ago) – I never knew what the show was about, but I absolutely knew I didn’t want to watch it. However, the fact that Michael Fassbender was playing said guy in mask made me wonder … and actually it’s pretty good. The titular masked Frank is a mysterious, reclusive musician who never takes off the head – even when he’s in the shower. Him and his band, which includes Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy, are in need of a new keyboardist, which central character Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) sees as his big break, when he happens upon the event of their previous keyboardist trying to drown himself in the sea.

Gleeson was the perfect person for the role as his character begins as the sort of maudlin standard slightly posh ‘nice guy’, with a penchant for social media, that often populates British London centric films (this is a British-Irish film incidentally, directed by Irishman Lenny Abrahamson and largely set in Ireland), much as his character was in ‘About Time‘, but then it turns out he’s a total creep, which is not only a satisfying arc to follow, but it puts into wonderful perspective the other much more diverse and interesting characters, none more so than the delicate and passionate Frank.

An original film exploring the value of individualism and the old adage of not to judge a book by its cover, or in this case a person by their head. Some of the music they make is actually pretty good too.

Bad Neighbours (2014) 57/100

Posted on May 22, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 57/100 96 Min

American comedy focusing on two young parents, played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, dealing with the fallout from a fraternity house moving into the the neighbourhood right next door to their newly mortgaged home. Zac Efron, Dave Franco and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (of whom, not enough is made) are the more recognisable members of the outgoing party mad students, and things kick off after the police are called to deal with the noise, with no surprises as to who called them. War ensues.

Rogen and Byrne are pretty much the worst parents ever, having sex in front of their infant and leaving her unattended whilst they nip next door to indulge in whatever drugs are on the go, but ultimately the film just isn’t that funny. Many of the laughs seem to be improved, and on this occasion that hasn’t worked so well – the best gag was ruined by putting it in the trailer as per the usual marketing error, and the rest simply aren’t inventive or original enough to extract more than the occasional titter. A nice cast, but ultimately quite a missable film.

The Other Woman (2014) 17/100

Posted on May 21, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 17/100 109 Min

Nick Cassavetes (‘The Notebook’ 04) directs Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton in what is supposed to be a story of female friendship triumphing over all, in this case the man who had been cheating primarily on his wife, played by Mann, but also on his girlfriends played by the other two, ultimately though, it looks more like the director just pointed the camera at his actors and said ‘Ok, just make something up’. It’s completely terrible, without any moral fibre, decent laughs, believable characters or indeed stunts such as there are. At one point we see Diaz running barefoot along the beach trying to catch up with Upton, in order to rugby tackle her, but we can clearly see the sand is strewn with shells – lo and behold she stumbles and falls, but I would be very surprised if what we’re watching isn’t simply the performer cutting her feet open and they’ve used the take anyway. That’s the kind of level of thought and preparation applied throughout. Nicki Minaj makes a brief appearance in her first live action film role (it was only a matter of time really). Watch ‘The First Wives Club’ (96) instead, which essentially has the same premise but is also a really good film.

The Love Punch (2013) 30/100

Posted on May 17, 2014 by The Red Dragon

Rating : 30/100 94 Min

The title encapsulates the only striking or interesting thing about this film, in fact the whole thing plays out like a long winded joke with no punch line, told by a friend that you only listen to until the end out of politeness. It’s a comedy crime caper that sees a separated couple, played by Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson, forced to join forces again to try and recapture their financial loses after Brosnan’s company is bought over and then immediately liquidated, annihilating the family savings. This leads them on a jaunt to Paris and a life of crime as they opt to try and steal the money back any way they can, helped out by their mutual friends, played by Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie. Will the ex-lovers also manage to recapture their passions of yester-year?

Indeed.

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