Movieblaze

Starring: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac, Brandon McGibbon

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Writer(s): Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant

Cinematography: Tetsuo Nagata

Original Score: Cyrille Aufort

Running Time: 104 Mins.

Very few truly original horror film’s find their way out of the Hollywood studios, so it comes as some surprise to see that Joel Silver’s production company Dark Castle have picked up Splice to unleash on the movie-going public especially in America as this is fundamentally a very European/Canadian influenced horror film, the kind Cronenberg crafted in his heyday with The Fly and Videodrome, it is at once disturbing and awkwardly funny, gory and tender and deals with issues of sexual and parental love, not an easy mix to swallow and less easy to watch despite being eminently watchable.

That the lead characters are called Elsa and Clive (Sarah Polley and Adrian Brody, Polley as fractured a performance as ever while Brody redeems himself  well after his Predators mess-up) should give any Horror film fan worth his salt some indication of where Splice is going and which film it is riffing on, for those not quite that geeky we are well and truly in Frankenstein territory, taking the bare bones of Mary Shelley’s novel and updating it for the genetic age in a plot that see’s a couple (in professional and personal life). Clive and Elsa, experimenting with gene splicing to create a being that, while resembling a giant slug crossed with a newborn mouse, has the handy side-effect of containing within its genetic make-up the cure for a number of diseases and potentially cancer.

While this concept on its own is setup enough for an interesting plot Elsa pushes to splice in a human gene with the animal genes, seemingly to prove she can do it over anything else, Clive is more wary but goes along with Elsa’s plan all of which results in Dren, a human/animal hybrid, a creature which starts out looking animal like and over the course of the film developes first into something resembling a little girl then a fully grown woman, albeit with a lethal tail and (on occasion) wings. Dropping the science in favour of a story that deals with the Elsa and Clive’s relationship with Dren makes for a compelling, and possibly, the most twisted family story ever.

Hurtling along at a non-stop pace means you have little time to consider the actions of the central pair, both seem arrogant as is the will of a scientist, but Elsa is deeply reckless and clearly harbours some twisted secrets in both her own past and with the creation, Dren. It will come as little surprise to see Elsa mothering Dren as if it were her own daughter but events take a much more twisted turn when the action moves to an old barn in the middle of nowhere and that root of much evil, jealousy, comes into play.

To reveal any more of the plot machinations would be to rob you of the shock, but suffice to say the film never falls into the trap of generic horror, and even in a stalk and slash sequence there is a twisted conclusion that means it never seems run-of-the-mill. I would love to see more exploration of the scientific side and ideas behind using Dren as a vessel for curing cancer but Splice is not a film concerned with such clinical reasons, director and writer has, and likely always will be, more concerned with the human response to situations beyond our control.

VERDICT

While not great Splice is, like its central being, a curiosity that presents something truly unique in a genre stuffed full of cliché, you could loosely classify it as an update on the Frankenstein story with as much focus on the horror of human emotion as there is on body horror.

Starring (the voices of): Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Timothy Dalton, Michael keaton, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles

Director: Lee Unkrich

Writer(s): Michael Arndt, John Lasseter

Cinematography: N/A

Original Score: Randy Newman

Running Time: 103 Mins.

To think Toy Story 3 could reach the dizzying heights of its forebears would be a foolish expectation, one thing to bear in mind however is the quality of Pixar’s output thus far being immaculate as it is with each film bearing the mark of quality and greatness year on year with only 1 or 2 weaker efforts (Cars and A Bugs Life) , though it is important to note that even those are better than most other animation houses can dream of in almost every aspect. So with this swaying will it/wont it live up to expectations feeling Toy Story 3 approached us like an old friend you always thought was great and hope hasn’t changed over time for the worse, on which note I can happily confirm that Toy Story 3 manages the rather amazing feat of very nearly being as good as Toy Story 2 and concludes the trilogy in the most satisfying way.

The beauty of Toy Story 3 is that it retains all that made us love the franchise in the first place, which is largely the characters we know and love, Woody, Buzz, Potato Head, Slinky, the thing is they are a few of a very dwindled down group which brings the focus to the core characters while making a rather poignant point, this is Toy Story…10/15 Years later. This means Andy is now grown up and heading off to college leaving his remaining toys unused in a chest, Woody remains loyal to Andy while the others realise he has grown up and want to move on themselves. What follows, in true Toy Story fashion, is a series of events that sees the gang left in a Nursery where a new bunch of Toys are introduced, friendly at first events then take a sinister turn, all of which takes us to the main thrust of the plot…Toy Story 3 is Pixar’s very of prison film.

What is great about this concept is that, as is Pixar’s genius, the film works on so many levels and I don’t just mean the basic “as enjoyable for adults as it is for kids” but also the idea that toys will eventually get old and be discarded, the subtext is there for those that wish to find it, and the deeper you wish to go the more rewarded you will likely be but for those that just want pure entertainment with a whole lot of heart it is here to be found in abundance. In the space of second you will experience so many emotions, fun, sadness, happiness, hope, joy all bases are touched and wrapped up in such a genius concept (in truth the idea of toys as characters always was), but this time around the narrative thrust of knowing this is the conclusion means that it is a sequel that furthers the characters we all know, different sides are seen to Woody, Buzz (quite literally in his case), yes, it’s inevitable some characters are slightly sidelined (Slinky for example) but it never seems that way.

As much as old favourites are welcomed as your best of friends when they are onscreen it is always nice to see the newbies, and they are plentiful here, some only getting a scene or two (the sad clown and Timothy Dalton’s genius Mr. Pricklepants) with which they make the very most of their screen time proving to be as memorable as anyone else, but the bigger parts here are the more sinister ones, the villain this time around is a wonderfully realised as a Strawberry scented bear that is as fluffy as he is bad taking the place of the prison warden with a talking phone as the “old-timer” and a symbol monkey as the supervisor. I could comb over each part, but it is pitched perfectly and is as good a conclusion we could have asked for.

There is a burning feeling that I would crave more of the toys, and would welcome another episode but you really can have too much of a good thing which makes me more inclined to side with those who see this as the most fitting end to a classic film trilogy that has remained consistently excellent to the very end, something which cannot be said about any film trilogy, hell even the Godfather and Star Wars couldn’t go out with this kind of bang.

VERDICT

Toy Story 3 is as good as anyone could hope for, and then some, best of all this works as a perfect film in its own right and well as concluding as perfect a trilogy as anyone could ask for.

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Dakota Fanning, Peter Facinelli 

Director: David Slade

Writer(s): Melissa Rosenberg

Cinematography: Javier Aguirresarobe

Original Score: Howard Shore

Running Time: 124 Mins.

Thus far the self-titled “Twilight Saga” has offered us up a number of things, firstly a rejuvenated interest in all things vampire (True Blood, Daybreakers, Vampire Diaries et al), secondly not one, not two, but three iconic and ridiculously popular young actors in Pattinson, Lautner and to a lesser degree Stewart, and least significantly two mediocre film adaptations of books that by rights shouldn’t really grace the screen given there endless pages covering either moping over teenage love and/or long and drawn out speeches describing feelings to one another.

As such the adaptations have been admirable in the respect that they have made rather boring and stilted ream’s of dialogue mildly entertaining, all the more amazing given the workman-like approach to the material by two directors with little in the way of visual flair or having worked within a similar genre. So it comes as a nice surprise to learn that for the third installment of the saga we have an actual horror director (30 Days of Night)  in David Slade who has also had experience in directing a film to deal with troubled teens in the excellent, yet disturbing, Hard Candy.

Both of these beats work well within the confines of the Twilight world, shot with flair which helps give the film a more distinguished look to start with we are thrust into a very tense and most importantly scary sequence that sees a man stalked through the rainy streets of Seattle. It’s a good start and suggests a more plot led film over the lingering and endless conversations of past efforts, alas what follows is as packed full of such exchanges but this time they are tinged with both a sense of humour that takes the edge off all the melodrama and the sense that the actors now have grown with confidence into their respective roles, and each other.

Exchanges between Edward and Bella are tedious in there seriousness but it is nice to see other characters who have spent two films stood in the background taking on a substantial and key roles, with two or three even offered bookstores to compliment their likeable characters, something which allows you to invest in the film a little more. Sadly the constraints of making sure Eclipse stays within the 12 certificate means that Slade is hampered from pushing the horror beats too far, which is a same as you can’t help but feel he wants too, especially during the bloodless battles.

Other plus points though come in the form of much tighter pacing, a real sense of foreboding and dread which makes for an interesting film and some much improved effects, no doubt thanks to a higher budget. The main benefit of this comes in the shape of the wolves and general effects of the vampire movement which went from laughably bad in Twilight, passable in New Moon to actually rather good here, however it would seem the sections of the film that work best are those that are either breezed over or not actually in the novels, a telling sign of the brand actually proving better theory than execution.

interestingly all that is good here seems to come from Slade’s influence as a director familiar with the appropriate genre’s, meaning that the choice of director (Bill Condon, director of Dreamgirls and Kinsey) for film 4, Breaking Dawn, (parts one and two) is made all the more baffling.

VERDICT

Eclipse is by far the best of the Twilight films, yet still retains the same weaknesses, stilted dialogue, endless pontless converstaions, thankfully it is made more interesting through the implemantation of an actual interesting plot, married with a sense of dread and finally…some kind of horror film sensibility.

Starring: Arien Brody, Topher Grace, Lawrence Fishburne, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov 

Director: Nimrod Antal

Writer(s): Alex Litvak, Michael Finch

Cinematography: Gyula Pados

Original Score: John Debney

Running Time: 107 Mins.

A sequel to a hugely famous franchise that hasn’t really seen anything good from it in well over a decade, from Robert Rodriguez and his production company Troublemaker Studios, the director behind last years rather weak Armored and starring a man who won an Oscar for playing a Jew during the Holocaust alongside a sitcom stalwart, someone from lost and the briefest of appearances by the (usually) dependable Laurence Fishburne, as well as a Rodriguez regular in Danny Trejo…lets be honest expectations are mixed, even if the anticipation is high.

Predators really should be a no-brainer with Rodriguez overseeing if not directing, he is after all the master of trashy ( in the best possible way) gory, testosterone fuelled, and stylised film-making, one only needs to see a couple of his films to see why Fox would give the rights over to Rodriguez to reboot one of their (potentially) bigger franchises, the guy has Sin City, Desperado and From Dusk til’ Dawn under his belt, all of which would suggest perfect elements for a kick-ass predator experience. Sadly he decided to pass the reigns to Nimrod Antal, a man with little experience behind the lens and a complete lack of anything approaching film-making prowess.

Predators acts as a direct sequel to the 1987 Arnie starring original, Predator, whilst forgetting Predator 2 and even more wisely the Alien vs. Predator films, we are thrust back into the jungle setting of Predator, with a set-up that sees a band of mis-matched victims (all predators themselves, of the human species) set down on an alien planet for the titular baddies to hunt them down, what follows is largely a remake of the first film even harking back so overtly as to have a hulking great commando with an even bigger rail gun and a finale that sees the “hero” shirtless and caked in mud.

This almost retelling isn’t such a problem as the rest of the film’s gaping flaws, primary of these is the complete and utter sparsity of action scenes, from the open we are thrust headlong into the story but from then on in it slows to a crawl as what feels like hours is spent setting up characters who become no less forgettable as the film progresses leaving me wondering why characterisation was done at all, I’d rather see more action than lame acting in a film called Predators! But given the cast u may think this will make for interesting viewing, alas, there is a mixture of total weakness (Goggins and Braga) married alongside one of the most woefully ill-conceived casting choices ever (Brody) who is adequately pumped up but really is no Schwarzenneger, and the less said about Fishburne’s thankfully brief, and horrendously over-acted, cameo the better.

Amidst the film are glimmers of what could have been a balls out and stylish action fest, and when the fights with the predators come they are mildly diverting and teeter on the edge of being good but even in the weak attempts to humanize the human characters no time is spent on the predators themselves with things suggested but never made fruitful, such as adaptations in technology, the idea that there are strong and weaker strains and the suggestion that they are hunting other alien forms, but alas these are merely snippets that are discarded almost immediately in favour of the tedious band of mercenaries.

It really is a mystery how such an iconic creature has been mishandled so badly over the years with no-one seemingly able to get a handle on why they are so iconic through a film as a whole, all of which means like the Alien vs. predator films before it, Predators is at its best when the focus is on the aliens themselves but when we switch back to those we are supposedly meant to sympathise with there is nothing but boredom apparent, something which Predators sadly spend the majority of its time doing.

VERDICT

Yet another weak effort in a franchise that has been mishandled at every turn, spending most of the film with dull and miscast actors/characters and very little with the very thing we have paid to see means that save for two of three scenes Predators is a missed opportunity once again.

Starring (the voices of): Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Walt Dohm

Director: Mike Mitchell

Writer(s): Josh Klausner, Darren Lemke

Cinematography: Yong Duk Jhun

Original Score: Harry Gregson-Williams

Running Time: 93 Mins.

It has taken almost 10 years, 4 films, one Christmas special for Shrek to finally come to its long over-due conclusion proving to be a franchise that has run itself well and truly into the ground upon its third entry which took in a tired road movie style plot and desperately through endless pop-culture jokes at the screen which even now seem hugely outdated. So it was with great trepidation I approached this fourth, and allegedly final, part to the series, with little in the way of expectations I can safely say they were just about succeeded and almost all the flaws of number 3 banished in favour of a stream-lined back to basics story that harks back to the very first film’s riffing on the fairy tales themselves, an obvious hook but a mildly successful one never-the-less.

As with the past entries this sees Shrek having to learn a lesson, so while the traditional fairy-tale structure was adhered to, albeit in a skewed manner, in the original and its subsequent sequels throwing the body-swap story arc and issues of responsibility into the mix this time we have the alternate reality spin, engineered by a villainous Rumpelstiltskin (the best villain since John Lithgow’s Lord Farquaad) that sees Shrek relive a day in his live where he is once again a scary ogre minus the family and friends he has gained but no longer the tourist attraction we discover he has become in the films open…all of which means that predictably Shrek must learn another valuable lesson, so far so meh…

What piques Shrek Forever After above the banality of the plotting is the breezy pot-shots it takes at fairy-tales once more, pop culture references are largely left to a minimum with more time spent of character and with those we have  become endeared to over the last 10 years, so that means more singing from donkey, a slightly out of shape Puss in Boots and extra screen time for the likes of Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man. So it’s hardly going to break the mould but is entertaining none-the-less, on the downside Fiona is as boring and bland as ever thanks to Cameron Diaz’s flat delivery and as Shrek Mike Myers faux Scotch accent has become simply unfunny and rather old for lack of a better word.

Oddly as the villain steals most of the funniest and most enjoyable scenes you realise that Shrek as a franchise ran out of steam many moons ago, it is telling that spending time with unknown characters is simply more fun than those that we should have grown to love more and more, a la Woody and Buzz whose exploits are keenly awaited in the coming weeks you are likely to wish Shrek and co. had called it a happily ever after long ago, something which simply goes to prove that you can’t get by on jokes alone.

So while this is, hopefully, likely the last we see of Shrek rest assured that the once great franchise will live on through a spin-off starring Puss in Boots, a prospect that proves much more welcome given the apparently different approach that will take in western sensibilities. A fresh and intriguing spin on the CGI animated film that suggests maybe Shrek should have veered a little further from its comfort zone in order to have a continued and cherished success, but alas we are left with two great films, a terrible third and some sense of redemption and finality in Shrek Forever After.

VERDICT

A mildly entertaning diversion and a fitting close to a franchise that has run out of steam and goodwill, some of the old magic is there but it is telling that it largely comes from the new characters, Dreamworks Animation Studios has moved on to bigger and better things, heres hoping Shrek really is now Shrek Foever After.

Starring: Josh Stewart, Michael Reilly Burke, Andrea Roth, Juan Fernandez

Director: Marcus Dunstan

Writer(s): Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan

Cinematography: Brandon Cox

Original Score: Jerome Dillon

Running Time: 90 Mins.

Knowing that The Collector is from the minds that brought us the later Saw sequels will either fill you with glee or certain dread, especially considering the heights that the franchise started at and have now been reduced to in an annual gore=fest bereft of any kind of ingenuity, but fear not The Collector is everything the first Saw film was, intense, hard to watch, brutal, terrifying, nasty and well acted to boot, everything a great horror film needs to succeed. Whatever Dunstan and Melton took from their work on said franchise it wasn’t the lack of originality their sequels possessed.

Not that The Collector is a giant leap for cinema, or horror for that matter, rather it is a gritty nasty little film that plays out like Home Alone with added death, imagine a house booby trapped to the hilt with all manner of sharp and acidic objects and a tormentor (the Collector of the title) who has taken a family hostage with a man who sought to rob them left to try to save them. The Collector pulls two trump cards, one is having the hero a villain (in a sense) and secondly  choosing to leave at least some of the nastier bits to your imagination (which is ALWAYS more terrifying), that isn’t to say gore-hounds will be left disappointed for a fair amount of blood is shed.

Josh Stewart makes for a great anti-hero, an everyman who is thrust into a harrowing  situation and faced with a number of dilemma’s, we learn about him as a person inside and out, something which can’t really be said of the other victims which is where The Collector begins to show a few cracks in the inital excellence. Largely a faceless family, no time is spent on them meaning they are merely there to be maimed or killed, par for the course in a  slasher film but I couldn’t help feeling that in reaching that little bit further with characterisation we would have cared more for the victims in the same way we do for Stewart.

This alone though is a minor flaw in a tight, taught filmic experience, however as the intensity builds and we enter the finale The Collector slips into Halloween territory and at once admirably avoids going all “Saw” on us by having some grand and twisting scheme to unveil but frustratingly it does the opposite and leaves the killer as a cipher, with literally no explanation as to why he does what he does. mystery and the fear of the unknown are powerful tools in the horror genre, witness the original Halloween before we knew anything about “The Shape” as Michael Myers was known then, but when you have a pre credits scene that sets up the killers trademark ( collecting his victims in boxes) and comments as to his motives (” you will only live if he wants to collect you”) there needs to be a conclusion, some kind of suggestion at the very least as to who this man is and what his motives maybe beyond just a creepy, yes, but ultimately faceless monster/man.

There were two thoughts left in my mind as I left the cinema, firstly how good the film was at being scary and secondly how badly a great deal of my goodwill was squandered in the face of an obvious set-up to what looks likely to be a Saw-esque series, though I could be wrong…The Collector might just be the new Michael Myers, a faceless shape with the creepiest eyes in horror…

VERDICT

A tense and scary horror film,what more could you ask for… until it decides to either cop-out with a lacklustre ending or leave us hanging for a sequel with far too much left unexplained, either way The Collector loses a grade for this woeful mistake.

Starring: Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Rose Byrne, Colm Meaney, Sean “P Diddy” Combs

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Writer(s): Nicholas Stoller

Cinematography: Robert D. Yeoman

Original Score: Timothy Andrew Edwards, Lyle Workman

Running Time: 109 Mins.

Two things you should know about Get Him to The Greek, firstly it is Russell Brand’s first starring role and secondly it serves as a spin-off to the rather brilliant Forgetting Sarah Marshall, sharing a the same director and writer as that film in Nicholas Stoller. However it is important to note that the co-writer of said comedy Jason Segel is present only as executive producer on this particular outing, a fact which marks Get Him to the Greek out as something of a disappointment and yet another film to add to that ever-growing list of the “weak spin-off film”.

That said it is not all bad, how could it be with this much talent involved, more it is a collection of parts, some of which work and some of which fail badly, it would seem Segel provided the consistency to hold these elements together and form something special. There is little doubt that Brand was a highlight in Sarah Marshall, Aldous Snow being a great case of a comedian pretty much playing himself with a dash of the Mick Jagger’s about him, as a support player bouncing off Segel we were admittedly left craving more, though sometimes cravings should be left as just that for the best…

Tasked with retrieving and escorting Snow back to LA for an anniversary concert at the Greek theatre is Jonah Hill’s Aaron Green, (the straight man and a record company lackey) and as with any road movie all does not go to plan, cue a patchwork of scenes that see the mis-matched couple get high, drunk, or both under various circumstances and that is pretty much it…until the final third where Stoller seeks to instill the film with an emotional thread that is just too forced and late in the day to have and resonance and more importantly add anything to the film, failing to inject any heart or further the characters.

On the plus side, the sheer number of mishaps that occur along the way can’t fail to raise a few laughs with the Vegas set hotel room high experienced by all and sundry wringing laughs from a clichéd and overused setup, while it’s nice to see Hill veer slightly from his usual character type finding a sweetness in his role as a loving but confused boyfriend in a subplot that again adds little to the overall story but helps wring a few more laughs. Brand though is largely left embellishing in what was an excellent one joke character spread far too thin.

Attempts at back story all reek of having seen it all before done much better, the long-lost dad, the rejecting but beautiful ex, an estranged child, falling off the wagon, self-discovery, it reads like a checklist and views like one too which is a great shame as I have no doubt that given a great script Brand is capable of comedic ingenuity even if he is riffing on his own persona, something which Sean “P Diddy” Combs does to great effect here in a minimal role, heres hoping he doesn’t get a spin off as well!

VERDICT

Something of a letdown, Get Him To The Greek is sporadically funny but not nearly enough given the credentials, Brand is as good as the material he is given and here it is mediocre at best.