Picking up some months after the events of the first movie; Catching Fire finds our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, back in her home district and re-kindling, perhaps, her nascent romance with Gale (who was somewhat pushed to the sidelines of the first instalment) while struggling to walk a fine line of conformity and performance in her new, dangerously high-profile existence.
Incoming helmer Francis Lawrence, with relatively little big-budget movie experience, directs with a steady hand, keeping the look and tone consistent with the first movie. The opening act here is particularly strong, laced with political manoeuvring, surreptitiously tightening the screws and gently deepening even some of the more seemingly garish characters (the delirious Effie Trinket is particularly well-served this time round). This slow-burning first-half also allows Jennifer Lawrence, once again, to remind us all why she is one of the finest upcoming young actors of her generation, delivering duct-troubling eulogies from even the most threadbare material.
Things do however take a minor turn for the ho-hum once the new games get underway. Co-champion Peeta gets less to do this time and mostly just follows in Katniss's footsteps, which is a shame after his stronger showing the first time around and further undermines the love-triangle backdrop theoretically still being toyed with. More problematic though is the amount of repetition and familiarity, with many of the same beats being played as we experienced in the previous competition. For a near two-and-a-half hour movie, Catching Fire rather struggles to do what it says on the tin, taking rather too long to find its way out of the pitfalls of having to play out another set of games with a more-or-less matching dramatic arc to the first. Until, when finally the first really startling new development hits.... the credits role.
Reputation has it that the third and final book (being adapted, a-la Harry Potter, into two upcoming movies) is the weakest of the three, and so, while this central episode is a mostly solid outing that doesn't significantly squander the good work done by the first, it is nonetheless something of a concern then that it does have a touch of a holding pattern about it, teasing us that all the real fireworks are being held back till next year.
Rating: 3/5
Monday 25 November 2013
Tuesday 19 November 2013
The Crazies (2010)
Immediate full disclosure: I have not seen the 1973 version, considered, I understand, to be something of a cult classic. But this remake, co-written and exec. produced by the originals' director, and zombie supremo, George A. Romero, is a bland and lacklustre b-movie which is unlikely to be remembered by anyone for long.
In one of those friendly neighbourhood mid-west hicksville towns, locals start acting all strange and a bit zombie-like. Some people mutter something about mysterious military activity, good sheriff Timothy Olyphant does a fine Clint Eastwood pose on a deserted main street, and the local dodgy mayor gives a speech about water supplies that simply exchanges "Ogden Marsh" for "Amity" and "crops" for "summer dollars".
At best, a just barely competent, run-of-the-mill chiller, The Crazies is wholly underwhelming. Clichéd, derivative, dumb, and most damningly, NOT even slightly scary.
Rating: 2/5
In one of those friendly neighbourhood mid-west hicksville towns, locals start acting all strange and a bit zombie-like. Some people mutter something about mysterious military activity, good sheriff Timothy Olyphant does a fine Clint Eastwood pose on a deserted main street, and the local dodgy mayor gives a speech about water supplies that simply exchanges "Ogden Marsh" for "Amity" and "crops" for "summer dollars".
At best, a just barely competent, run-of-the-mill chiller, The Crazies is wholly underwhelming. Clichéd, derivative, dumb, and most damningly, NOT even slightly scary.
Rating: 2/5
Monday 18 November 2013
Chronicle (2012)
A smart, indie-spirited superhero movie that asks the question (admittedly not for the first time), what would really happen if ordinary people developed superpowers, but handles the result with more wit and emotional punch than the premise might suggest.
Three teenagers, after an unexplained encounter with something...well, something, find themselves in possession of some form of telekinetic ability which manifests mildly at first, and is the cause of much entertaining japery, but soon develops into something with far more alarming strength.
The three leads all perform extremely well with what are largely archetypes; the bullied loner and the popular cool kid for example, and build an engaging relatable friendship that goes beyond high school movie cliché, even while the movie indulges in some of that genres most well-worn tropes (school hall bullies, problem fathers, trying to get laid at parties). What feels at first to be rather over-familiar works as an effective piece of audience wrong-footing, as the movie then makes a lurch into darker, more dramatic, and genuinely original territory.
The conceit of all this playing out through selfie home video footage is a somewhat peculiar choice, becoming an unnecessary millstone to the production as the third act requires every police officer and bystander alike to be blessed with Roger Deakins levels of camera control. But this oddity aside, Chronicle is a breeze. Moving from charming hijinx to an efficiently devastating finale in less running time than it takes for Bilbo to get all those dwarfs out of the kitchen.
Rating: 4/5
Three teenagers, after an unexplained encounter with something...well, something, find themselves in possession of some form of telekinetic ability which manifests mildly at first, and is the cause of much entertaining japery, but soon develops into something with far more alarming strength.
The three leads all perform extremely well with what are largely archetypes; the bullied loner and the popular cool kid for example, and build an engaging relatable friendship that goes beyond high school movie cliché, even while the movie indulges in some of that genres most well-worn tropes (school hall bullies, problem fathers, trying to get laid at parties). What feels at first to be rather over-familiar works as an effective piece of audience wrong-footing, as the movie then makes a lurch into darker, more dramatic, and genuinely original territory.
The conceit of all this playing out through selfie home video footage is a somewhat peculiar choice, becoming an unnecessary millstone to the production as the third act requires every police officer and bystander alike to be blessed with Roger Deakins levels of camera control. But this oddity aside, Chronicle is a breeze. Moving from charming hijinx to an efficiently devastating finale in less running time than it takes for Bilbo to get all those dwarfs out of the kitchen.
Rating: 4/5
Saturday 16 November 2013
Gravity (2013)
A masterful, lean, and utterly gripping action-thriller. Alfonso Cuarón further proves himself to be one of the most exciting and innovative directors working today. Sandra Bullock knocks it out of the park with a long-overdue starring role worthy of her talents, and 3D reaches a new zenith in a totally mesmerising, immersive and staggeringly beautiful FX tour-de-force. It is, ultimately, popcorn. But it's Michelin three-star popcorn.
Rating: 5/5
Rating: 5/5
Wednesday 6 November 2013
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Well, one saw Thor. Or rather one saw Thor Two. I don't mean one saw Thor too, as one was one for Thor Two, not two. But one once saw Thor One, so one sure saw Thor Two too... Phew.
Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Sunday 3 November 2013
Hijacking Double-Bill: A Hijacking (Kapringen) (2012) and Captain Phillips (2013)
Pirates. Everyone loves a pirate, and 2013 has given us a generous double helping of the romantic swashbuckling... oh wait.
The first out of the gates (technically a 2012 film but making its UK debut in early 2013) was Kapringen. I missed this Danish drama on its limited theatrical release, but with Captain Phillips now in the cinemas this seemed an opportune moment to catch up and see how the two compare.
A Hijacking presents an entirely fictional, but highly convincing siege scenario, and concentrates heavily on the emotional stresses for those involved. Eschewing any temptations to sensationalism we aren't even shown the moments of the hijackers getting on board; learning of it instead, as one of the central characters in the movie does, by a hurriedly whispered message in a prosaic office setting thousands of miles away from the action. This character, Peter Ludvigsen, an executive on the board of the company that owns the hijacked vessel, is introduced to us in a scene that sets him up as a shrewd and hard-nosed businessman and tough negotiator. We believe we can see how this is going to pan out, but writer / director Tobias Lindholm is playing a canny game here, and rather than a cliché who will drive the plot along, we soon become deeply invested in this man's struggle to control and cope with the terrible responsibility he takes on as he chooses, against advice, to handle the negotiations himself.
Peter is one part of a superb three-hander. The other two are the ships' cook, Mikkel, who, as the film's principle lead at sea, becomes our entry point to the drama taking place there, and the mysterious Omar, who claims to be simply a translator and under as much threat as anyone else, but may perhaps be a whole lot more.
The occupation and negotiations drag on, weeks turn into months. The mental and physical state of those involved deteriorate, while an occasional sense of edgy truce possibly allows some tentative alliances to form or perhaps merely some more complex manipulation to take place.
Meanwhile, Tobais cuts back and forth between the wretched conditions in the bowels of the ship, and the stuffy, claustrophobic atmosphere of secretive meetings in closed rooms in the company HQ. Scenes are performed and shot with docu-drama verisimilitude, and the tension is effectively sustained throughout. A smart, believable and quietly powerful tale.
Captain Phillips arrived some months later, with all the fanfare one would expect of a Tom Hanks starring movie, based on a recent and remarkable true story that was major news in the USA. It soon becomes apparent that this movie will be a much more visceral affair, with a thrilling sequence of the hijackers boarding the gigantic container ship under Phillips' command, and later seat-gripping standoffs with the US military just two of the stand-out sequences. However, this is a Paul Greengrass joint, and by stating the above I do not mean to suggest by any means that this is an attempt to sensationalise or trivialise the truth of the events that took place off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
In the opening scenes, Greengrass takes much the same approach as he did with the stunning United 93, introducing us at the outset to two entirely alien groups of people who are preparing for journeys which will soon see their lives and fates thrown together. We are shown just enough background of the antagonists to draw us into their harsh lives without seeking to either excuse or condemn. Meanwhile we get a brief home-life snapshot of the insular, somewhat dour Phillips, a capable captain maybe, but not an easy man to get to know or like.
From the ramshackle group of hijackers soon emerges a de-facto leader, Muse, a tragically young skeleton of a man, played with stunning authority by total newcomer Barkhad Abdi. Once he bursts into the bridge and announces with focussed intent "I'm the captain now" to a stunned Hanks (who he has literally just met, Greengrass intentionally keeping the actors apart during the production till the day of filming this pivotal scene) the movie plays out largely as a two-hander between this young first-timer and the highly seasoned star. To say that Abdi easily holds his own in such illustrious company is even more of a compliment than it would already sound because this may well also be the finest performance Tom Hanks has ever delivered.
By now we are perhaps all too familiar with the easy, natural charm that Hanks exudes on and off screen, and it can perhaps be tempting to underestimate the skill of his craft. He is a past master of essaying likeable, capable, motivational leaders of men at all levels: From commanding Apollo 13, to leading a small company of soldiers in Saving Private Ryan, to simply getting the packages moved on time in Castaway. But, presumably on the basis of true accounts of the man himself and those around him. Phillips is not that sort of charismatic leader, and Hanks dials it right back. Distant, insular, sometimes a touch aggressive. Effective yes, but hardly engaging or inspiring. He does the right thing when he can, but this is no heroic portrait. Phillips is a man under phenomenal stress, terrified and just trying to cling on to self-control long enough to make it out alive. Hanks keeps an iron grip on his performance, and when, finally, the moment comes for the emotions to show, it's a desperate, almost wordless, and absolutely heartrending scene, somewhat reminiscent of the masterful sustained final shot on Bob Hoskins at the end of The Long Good Friday. Yes: That good.
So, two excellent dramas that complement each other very well without treading on each other's toes. Both are serious, believable, and very tense. But, rather like Jeff Goldblum explaining chaos theory to Laura Dern by running drops of water off the back of her hand, they take initially near identical starting points, and then follow very different paths.
A Hijacking: Rating: 4/5
Captain Phillips: Rating 4/5
The first out of the gates (technically a 2012 film but making its UK debut in early 2013) was Kapringen. I missed this Danish drama on its limited theatrical release, but with Captain Phillips now in the cinemas this seemed an opportune moment to catch up and see how the two compare.
A Hijacking presents an entirely fictional, but highly convincing siege scenario, and concentrates heavily on the emotional stresses for those involved. Eschewing any temptations to sensationalism we aren't even shown the moments of the hijackers getting on board; learning of it instead, as one of the central characters in the movie does, by a hurriedly whispered message in a prosaic office setting thousands of miles away from the action. This character, Peter Ludvigsen, an executive on the board of the company that owns the hijacked vessel, is introduced to us in a scene that sets him up as a shrewd and hard-nosed businessman and tough negotiator. We believe we can see how this is going to pan out, but writer / director Tobias Lindholm is playing a canny game here, and rather than a cliché who will drive the plot along, we soon become deeply invested in this man's struggle to control and cope with the terrible responsibility he takes on as he chooses, against advice, to handle the negotiations himself.
Peter is one part of a superb three-hander. The other two are the ships' cook, Mikkel, who, as the film's principle lead at sea, becomes our entry point to the drama taking place there, and the mysterious Omar, who claims to be simply a translator and under as much threat as anyone else, but may perhaps be a whole lot more.
The occupation and negotiations drag on, weeks turn into months. The mental and physical state of those involved deteriorate, while an occasional sense of edgy truce possibly allows some tentative alliances to form or perhaps merely some more complex manipulation to take place.
Meanwhile, Tobais cuts back and forth between the wretched conditions in the bowels of the ship, and the stuffy, claustrophobic atmosphere of secretive meetings in closed rooms in the company HQ. Scenes are performed and shot with docu-drama verisimilitude, and the tension is effectively sustained throughout. A smart, believable and quietly powerful tale.
Captain Phillips arrived some months later, with all the fanfare one would expect of a Tom Hanks starring movie, based on a recent and remarkable true story that was major news in the USA. It soon becomes apparent that this movie will be a much more visceral affair, with a thrilling sequence of the hijackers boarding the gigantic container ship under Phillips' command, and later seat-gripping standoffs with the US military just two of the stand-out sequences. However, this is a Paul Greengrass joint, and by stating the above I do not mean to suggest by any means that this is an attempt to sensationalise or trivialise the truth of the events that took place off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
In the opening scenes, Greengrass takes much the same approach as he did with the stunning United 93, introducing us at the outset to two entirely alien groups of people who are preparing for journeys which will soon see their lives and fates thrown together. We are shown just enough background of the antagonists to draw us into their harsh lives without seeking to either excuse or condemn. Meanwhile we get a brief home-life snapshot of the insular, somewhat dour Phillips, a capable captain maybe, but not an easy man to get to know or like.
From the ramshackle group of hijackers soon emerges a de-facto leader, Muse, a tragically young skeleton of a man, played with stunning authority by total newcomer Barkhad Abdi. Once he bursts into the bridge and announces with focussed intent "I'm the captain now" to a stunned Hanks (who he has literally just met, Greengrass intentionally keeping the actors apart during the production till the day of filming this pivotal scene) the movie plays out largely as a two-hander between this young first-timer and the highly seasoned star. To say that Abdi easily holds his own in such illustrious company is even more of a compliment than it would already sound because this may well also be the finest performance Tom Hanks has ever delivered.
By now we are perhaps all too familiar with the easy, natural charm that Hanks exudes on and off screen, and it can perhaps be tempting to underestimate the skill of his craft. He is a past master of essaying likeable, capable, motivational leaders of men at all levels: From commanding Apollo 13, to leading a small company of soldiers in Saving Private Ryan, to simply getting the packages moved on time in Castaway. But, presumably on the basis of true accounts of the man himself and those around him. Phillips is not that sort of charismatic leader, and Hanks dials it right back. Distant, insular, sometimes a touch aggressive. Effective yes, but hardly engaging or inspiring. He does the right thing when he can, but this is no heroic portrait. Phillips is a man under phenomenal stress, terrified and just trying to cling on to self-control long enough to make it out alive. Hanks keeps an iron grip on his performance, and when, finally, the moment comes for the emotions to show, it's a desperate, almost wordless, and absolutely heartrending scene, somewhat reminiscent of the masterful sustained final shot on Bob Hoskins at the end of The Long Good Friday. Yes: That good.
So, two excellent dramas that complement each other very well without treading on each other's toes. Both are serious, believable, and very tense. But, rather like Jeff Goldblum explaining chaos theory to Laura Dern by running drops of water off the back of her hand, they take initially near identical starting points, and then follow very different paths.
A Hijacking: Rating: 4/5
Captain Phillips: Rating 4/5
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