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Jeremy Renner stars in the 2014 thriller 'Kill The Messenger'
- news.com.au
- 29 Oct 2014
ANNABELLE (MA15+)
Sometime evil will take its doll, US, 98 min
The breakout star of last year’s smash-hit chiller The Conjuring gets her own movie. If you are unfamiliar with her work, let’s just say Annabelle is a creepy-looking vintage doll that just happens to be a paranormally active trouble-magnet for anyone unlucky enough to own her. A basic origin-story premise winds back the clock to 1971, a period where Annabelle was yet to turn pro as a full-on freaker-outer of men, women and children. Especially children. After a slow start, the movie generates a respectable number of scares once the self-arranging furniture and self-slamming doors get going. The production overall only really disappoints when compared to the far-superior The Conjuring. It looks a darn sight cheaper - so much so that it sometime breaks the menacing mood at hand - and definitely lacks the shrewd scripting of its predecessor. **1/2
Bright Sparks ... Luke Bracey and Liana Liberato in The Best of Me Source: Supplied
THE BEST OF ME (M)
Just another episode of Sparks and recreation, US, 116 min
The latest movie based on the best-selling sob stories of Nicholas ‘The Notebook’ Sparks is here to mist you and mess you up. James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan play Dawson and Amanda, long separated by an unnecessary misunderstanding. They used to go out in their teens. Then something bad happened that - deep breaths, everyone - meant they had to part company. Amanda went on to marry elsewhere. Dawson never dated again. Now they have been brought together once more, by the will of an old dead friend. So what happened in their past? And what of what their future? Make it through the kisses in the rain, the candlelit confessionals and the sudden appearance of ripped male torsos, and all will be revealed. Sparks’ devoted following knows what it wants, and The Best of Me does not relent until it has delivered every last longing look, lovelorn lunge and lachrymose loss of luck.
**
Cold psychological thriller ... Force Majeure. Source: Supplied
FORCE MAJEURE (M)
Everything went white, then everything went wrong, Sweden 118 min
An icy cold psychological drama that will chill you to the bone. A family on holiday at an elite French ski resort is seated at a balcony restaurant table. A mini-avalanche strikes without warning. The mother stays with her children, and braces for the worst. The father grabs his phone and makes a run for it. The fallout from this incident is imperceptible at first, then amplifies in magnitude as those involved try and process what has happened. Driven by well-chosen words and random bursts of emotion, this gripping affair could function equally well as a stage play. However, the role that the setting takes in proceedings is unsettlingly cinematic. A challenging piece of work no-one will be forgetting in a hurry, try as they might.
****
Brutal ... Brad Pitt leads an ensemble cast in Fury. Source: AP
FURY (MA15+)
Tanks for everything, US, 134 min
All that can be said of Fury is that it is what is: a brutally basic war picture. If you like your military combat cut through with outlandish humour (Inglorious Basterds) or historically verified heroics (Saving Private Ryan), you’ve come to the wrong place. This is just five men cooped up inside the one artillery tank, trying to survive what little is left of WW2 as the Allies advance across Germany in 1945. Brad Pitt stars as tank commander Don Collier, the sole reason his close-knit team has survived a hellish odyssey all the way from north Africa. Though much takes place within the tank, it is what could happen outside at any moment that defines a vicious, visceral screen experience. No German citizen can be trusted. The Americans have a licence to kill, and are compelled to use it. These narrow storytelling parameters give Fury a near-biblical simplicity that goes quaintly, yet bravely against the grain of a majority of today’s war movies. ***1/2
Believe nothing ... Ben Affleck in a scene from film Gone Girl. Source: Supplied
GONE GIRL (MA15+)
A lady vanishes. The mysteries multiply., US, 149 min
Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s sensational 2012 best-seller, this malevolently mischievous movie is one of the best films that will be released in 2014. There is just one proviso to guarantee maximum impact : Gone Girl must be seen ‘cold’. Too much advance knowledge changes the game played here in the wrong way. Nick (Ben Affleck) has arrived home to discover that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has disappeared. The front door is ajar. A glass table in the living room is smashed to smithereens. Oddly, Nick doesn’t seem all that flustered. Nevertheless, he calls the cops. Nick’s measured responses to the ensuing investigation (and the finger-pointing fury of a baying US media) form one half of the narrative voice of Gone Girl. The other half comes from Amy herself, via a diary she had been keeping. Under the aggressively deceptive direction of David Fincher (The Social Network), Gone Girl is an entertainingly provocative film, bound to set tongues wagging and minds racing for some time to come.
****1/2
The trite stuff ... Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike in Hector and the Search for Happiness Source: Supplied
HECTOR & THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS (M)
Enlightening doesn’t strike twice, UK, 119 min
Just last summer, there was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. That was the movie where Ben Stiller played a buttoned-down workaholic who roams the globe to learn there is more to life than being chained to a job. Now it’s the turn of Simon Pegg to do almost the exact same thing. He plays the title role, an emotionally repressed psychologist travelling on a fact-finding mission to discover the secret to everlasting joy. What follows is a trite traipse through far-flung locales such as China, the Himalayas and Kenya. Mostly due to Pegg’s awkward performance - he’s a side man, not a solo leading man - Hector can be a bit of dope some of the time, and a bit of a condescending prat the rest of the time. Looking for happiness? Keep searching. Nothing to be found here. Not even with Rosamund ‘Gone Girl’ Pike high up in the credits.
*1/2
Dogged ... Keanu Reeves as John Wick in the film of the same name. Source: AP
JOHN WICK (MA15+)
No wife + no wheels + no hound = no rules, US, 96 min
Meet John Wick. He is played by Keanu Reeves, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that John Wick is having a bloody tough time of it. His beloved wife, a real babe, has just died. His beloved car, a classic 1969 Mustang, has just been stolen. His beloved pet, a late-model adorable puppy, has just been assassinated. While an incurable disease was responsible for the first tragic event, the same set of Russian mobsters is to blame for the next two. Guess who’s gonna get mad, get even and get his rocks off doing so? Though defiantly trashy in nature, this is actually one of the best-crafted action films of the year. Some inspired fight choreography and innovative camera work infuse the pulpy proceedings with a controlled aggression that grabs a viewer and simply never lets go.
***
Solid courtroom drama ... Jeremy Strong, Robert Downey Jr and Vincent D’Onofrio in The Judge. Source: Warner
THE JUDGE (M)
A life of sentencing comes to a full stop, US, 141min
There hasn’t been a good, meaty courtroom drama hit the big screen in many years. While The Judge is by no means a classic, it is still presents a solid, enjoyable and engrossing legal stoush that will please traditional devotees of the genre. The great Robert Duvall plays Joseph, a veteran small-town judge facing a murder charge in his own court after a tragic hit-run incident. Joseph cannot recall the accident, and his only chance of beating certain jail time is to reluctantly hand over his defence to his estranged son Hank (Robert Downey Jr.). Ethics are not the calling card of this hotshot Chicago lawyer, who has serious misgivings about both returning home and his father’s culpability. Though overly long, this old-fashioned affair exerts a strong grip thanks to worthy writing and performances. Duvall and Downey Jr. are actors of the highest calibre, and the manner in which they alternately widen and shorten the disconnect between their characters is tremendously involving.
***
Crusading journo ... Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jeremy Renner in Kill the Messenger Source: Supplied
KILL THE MESSENGER (M)
One man’s words are one nation’s poison, US, 112 min
If you want to be a whistle blower, you can expect to be a pariah shortly thereafter. So goes the lesson outlined by Kill the Messenger, a no-frills conspiracy thriller based on a true story. Jeremy Renner stars as Gary Webb, a crusading journalist with a small-time newspaper who broke one of the biggest political exposés of the 1990s. It was Webb that located the missing links in a chain of information that connected the CIA to a complex network of drug dealers in Central America. If Kill the Messenger faces one tough obstacle, it is overcoming the in-built indifference of an audience to its worthy subject matter. Renner continually works to make that happen with a staunchly committed performance.
***
Running man ... Dylan O'Brien in The Maze Runner. Source: AP
THE MAZE RUNNER (M)
One way in, no way out US, 117 min
Imagine, if you can, a latter-day Lord of the Flies fused with a discarded plotline from TV’s Lost. Like the sound of that? Then this is bound to get you in. There will be no escape, either. Not at least until all four entries in author James Dashner’s hit series of young-adult novels are in the can. This punchy first instalment does not waste any time putting its easy-to-follow premise through some serious paces. A tribe of a teenage boys is trapped inside a walled field. Outside is a complex maze that changes configuration every day, and hosts a collection of vicious creatures every night. This is a fascinating set-up that lives up to most of the potential promised. Upon the arrival of the newcomer Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), the entrenched tribal laws are challenged for the first time. While the filmmakers delay any deep exploration of the maze and its sinister, shape-shifting properties, the wait is indeed worth it.
***1/2
Warm hearted ... Freddie Fox, Dominic West and Joseph Gilgun in Pride. Source: Supplied
PRIDE (M)
Nothing in common, but sure to become coal friends, UK, 118 min
The British film industry has a proud tradition of cranking out winning feelgood fare that is both socially aware and emotionally astute. Though Pride will never be mentioned in the same breath as The Full Monty and Billy Elliot, it stands as a worthy addition to the canon. The year is 1984, and with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher hounding her nation’s mining workforce to the brink of extinction, the lads down the pits could use some support. In one small town in Wales, solidarity arrives in the unlikely form of a colour bunch of gay activists from London. While you can spot the coming culture clashes from the moon, you won’t notice this funny, vibrant affair sneaking its way into your affections with ease. Stars Paddy Considine, Dominic West, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton.
***
Low joke ratio ... Susan Sarandon and Melissa McCarthy in Tammy. Source: Warner
TAMMY (MA15+)
Laid on thick, spread too thin, US 97 min
A winning support effort in the 2011 smash hit Bridesmaids was the perfect showcase for Melissa McCarthy’s innate ability to appall as she amuses. However, when at the wheel of her own star vehicles (The Heat, Identity Thief), McCarthy seems incapable of finding a way to the funny. If only they made GPS systems for senses of humour. The title role has McCarthy taking her alcoholic granny (Susan Sarandon) on a reckless road trip, where jet-skis will be crashed, livers will be trashed and a father-and-son farmer duo (Gary Cole and Mark Duplass) will be pashed. The joke-to-laugh ratio is low at best, and a flat zero during some ill-advised scenes. *1/2
Solid work ... Tina Fey and Jason Bateman are the best things about This Is Where I Leave You. Source: Warner
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU (M)
The family that stays together, frays together, US, 103 min
A fine cast is almost ground down by some average material here. This is one of those broad ensemble displays forged from a familiar narrative template: the cracked family unit temporarily re-glued together after the death of a loved one. Imagine a better-behaved, white-collar journey into August: Osage County territory. Jane Fonda plays Hilary, a domineering matriarch using her late husband’s recent passing as a power play on her grown-up kids. Though their dead dad was hardly the religious type, they are forced by Hilary to observe a ritual where they must remain at her side for a week. It doesn’t take long for the clan to divide into the same factions - and rail against the same ructions - that drove them all apart in the first place. Co-stars Jason Bateman and Tina Fey are the only resistors to a slowly advancing blandness.
**1/2
Hard man ... Liam Neeson in A Walk Among the Tombstones Source: Supplied
A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (MA15+)
Fifty shades of grave, US 114 min
Though hard-boiled crime author Lawrence Block has penned a stack of well-received books, the movies are yet to properly make his acquaintance. This disconnect may finally end witha gritty, greyed-out film noir featuring Block’s most enduring creation, lone-wolf New York private eye Matthew Scudder. At this point, it should be mentioned the role of Scudder, a lifelong alcoholic perpetually hovering between recovery and relapse, is played by Liam Neeson. This could be a deal breaker for many potential viewers. For many years, Neeson has been flooding the market with formulaic fare that has positioned him as a mature-age Mr Vengeance. No need to worry here : this very strong thriller is the best thing Neeson has been involved with for ages.
***1/2
Best film of the year so far ... J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller in Whiplash. Source: Supplied
WHIPLASH (MA15+)
The beat goes on. The beaten are forgotten., US, 106 min
Name any movie where a hot talent and a burning ambition are yet to combust. The same question will invariably be asked of the protagonist. Do you have what it takes? This astonishing make-it-or-break-it drama isn’t having any of that. The question it will ask is far more interesting. Do you want back what it took? By the time you get to the extraordinary answer, you will already have experienced one of the best films of this year. A basic plot synopsis does not make Whiplash seem all that inviting. A promising drummer, Andrew (Miles Teller), gains entry to an exclusive music conservatory. His main instructor, Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) immediately takes an active interest in Andrew’s development, while also displaying a blatant dislike of the young hopeful. So far, so familiar, huh? Well, Whiplash will soon give you pause to reconsider that position, by virtue of the incisive way it drills down into the cores of these two very different, very motivated characters.
****1/2
Whimsical journey ... Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter in The Young & Prodigious TS Spivet. Source: Supplied
THE YOUNG & PRODIGIOUS T.S. SPIVET (M)
Little kid takes a big trip, US, 105 min
A wacky, yet wistful tale of one of America’s finest scientific minds does not sound all that promising, does it? But what if that unprecedented genius was lodged inside the head of a 10-year-old child? Yep, that’ll do nicely. Farm-raised boy T.S. Spivet (impressive newcomer Kyle Catlett) has been awarded a prestigious prize for inventing a radical new perpetual motion machine. Neglected by a distracted family, T.S. takes off on a solo trek across the US to claim his rightful reward. What follows is an epic odyssey by campervan, train and foot which will take young T.S. all the way from the open prairies of Montana to the big smoke of Chicago. The famously flamboyant and creative French filmmaker Jean-Perre Jeunet (Amelie) is in inspired form with the visual design of this movie. Co-stars Helena Bonham Carter.
***
Originally published as The Complete Movie Guide
