The Expendables 2

I remember a couple of years ago reviewing the first Expendables film and, amazingly, thinking that not only was it a piss poor film but that it failed to deliver on what it originally promised. To hell with the likes of Statham, Li, Crews, Couture and Hemsworth, I want to see all the action stars of my youth blowing everything to kingdom come! I wouldn't have cared how bad it was, I just wanted to see Sly, Arnold, Bruce, Jean-Claude, Steven, Dolph, Weathers etc sharing the screen and bringing home the glory. Alas it was not to be and the first Expendables film was more than a let down. So comes the sequel and my eyes roll once more...

In what roughly resembles a plot, Barney Ross (Stallone) and co are sent into hostile territory to recover lost maps which lead to unused Soviet nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, in the dastardly European role once reserved for Jeremy Irons or Alan Rickman, Jean-Claude Van Damne and his mates find them first and what proceeds is a brutal and epic battle full of violence, swearing and some nicely timed puns and references to past glories.

Hats off to Stallone for still trying to compete with the Bournes, Drives, latter day Bonds of the 21st Century action genre. He and the majority of the cast in this film are part of a by-gone era of films which, even in the 80s, are rarely done well anymore - one of the very few modern exceptions being 2012's The Raid. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean they don't have the ability to raise a huge nostalgic smile when they're attempted by the men who made them famous.

With The Expendables 2, Stallone has seen the error of his ways and given the audience what they originally wanted. And that's much more of Arnie - it's like he was never away. More Bruce - yippie! Less Statham - even better! And even added the aforementioned Van Damne and, quite possibly the star of the whole film, one Mr Chuck Norris, playing an exact replica of the caricature of the cult Internet phenomenon he has become over the last decade. With rumours of Steven Segal, Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford for the third, there may be a place yet for this sorry saga of past action heroes who can't grow old gracefully.

The action is loud, gory and very satisfying. The dialouge was hilarious when it was trying to be serious, and serious when it was trying to be hilarious. Actually, truth be told, the best parts were when the likes of Arnie, Sly and Bruce etc were essentially ripping the piss out of each other's past films. There's more than a few nods to Rambo, Terminator, Die Hard, Rocky, Good Guys Wear Black amongst other. Yet unfortunately none to JCVD's Coors Light adverts. You could make a decent drinking game out of how many times Arnold makes reference to his iconic phrase, "I'll be back."

Final Thoughts
Absolutely awful and completely bloody essential. Though vastly superior to the original and surely a money-making hit with anyone over the age of 21, I can't even pretend to suggest The Expendables 2 is a good film. It's not even the best film I've seen this week never mind this year. However I'd be lying if I said people of a certain age won't find some sort of nostalgic delight out of seeing Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Norris, Van Damme etc blowing each other straight to hell...and the bargain bin of Tesco's DVD section.

2/5

The Expendables 2 is in cinemas everywhere now.

Brave

Pixar's Brave is quite a departure from the near untouchable animation company's recent output. For a start it's the first since Up that wasn't a sequel. More significant perhaps was the film marked their first exploration into the fairytale genre made so famous by their parent company Walt Disney Animation featuring ancient fantasy and the customary princess heroine. But as always with Pixar, there has to be some sort of twist right? Eh, right?

Brave tells the tale of Celtic Scottish princess Merida (Kelly MacDonald), a free spirit with a love for archery and the maddest hair you'll see on a animated princess possibly ever - bare in mind Disney only gave the world Rapunzel early last year. Her world is turned a little upside down when her meddling mother (Emma Thompson) and father (Billy Connolly) decides to wed her off to the first born princes of the neighbouring kingdoms. Objecting to this she encounters a witch (Julie Walters) - if Shakespeare taught us anything, never trust a Scottish witch or witches - who agrees to change her mother in an attempt to change her world. And of course this doesn't go quite to plan, setting Merida off on an adventure of peril, comedic buffoonery and wonder.

The voice acting had perhaps the most impressive ensemble of A-Listers Pixar has put together since they first gave the world Toy Story. Kelly MacDonald is about as Scottish as they come, even when she's trying to be Irish in Boardwalk Empire. Nevertheless her princess was full of heart, innocence, quick witted, occasionally cheeky and extremely relatable to any girl who has ever had a clash with their mother, and this is where the film rises to the heights of Pixar's best.

Strip away the fantastical settings and mystical characters, as well as the stunning Scottish highland renderings (the Scottish Tourist board really got their money's worth from the co-financing of the feature), the film is a moving tale about the bond between a child and their parent. For every fight and petulant tantrum, there's laughter, warm embrace and forgiveness. There's good times and bad. And sooner or later, especially for the parent, the realisation you have to let your children go and live for themselves, even if it's not the road you set for them.

You'd be forgiven for thinking Pixar have maybe taken one too many cues from their Disney partners or Dreamworks competitors and not stuck to their guns with their own traditions of pushing the boundaries of storytelling better than anyone in their field. However only purists would begrudge them this as a criticism as the film is a fine tribute to the House of Mouse where the majority of these animators probably fell in love with the medium in the first place and perhaps most telling is the film pays homage to the budding working friendship Pixar has with its Japanese counterparts, Studio Ghibli. The film's story doesn't have the epic scale or imagination of Princess Mononoke but the influence is evident throughout.

The score by Patrick Doyle (who wrote the score for Mavel's Thor last year) is what you expect from a film set in ancient Scotland, it's very heavy on the Celtic folk overtones and beautifully performed if you're into that sort of thing. However the way the actual songs, performed by Julie Fowlis and not any of the characters themselves ala Disney, are placed throughout the film hits all the right notes in for their catchy hooks, pulling the heartstrings and raising the smiles.

Final Thoughts
Some say Pixar's Brave wasn't brave enough in carrying the high traditions and standards the company have set in their all too brief lifespan. But not me. See it as a tribute to past greats of Disney & Ghibli, see it as Pixar doing a traditional fairytale animation the only way they can; masterfully. Its animation is beautiful, its humour is honest and innocent, its supporting characters endearing and likeable, its heroine heroic, bold and sweet, its emotion powerful, its end result simply; a Pixar film.

4.5/5

Oh and if this doesn't convince you, its worth the price of admission alone for the customary and genuinely fantastic short film before the feature rolls, La Luna (5/5).

Brave is in cinemas everywhere throughout the UK now. 

360

If you were to look at the film poster above, you would be forgiven for thinking 360 was some tense, against the clock thriller. Which makes the shock of the type of film it actually is all the more baffling. Especially when you consider Fernando Meirelles' previous work, most notably one of the best films of the last 10 years, City of God.

360 tells the tales of several people stretched across the globe; from London, to Vienna, to Paris, to Colorado, to briefly Meirelles' homeland of Brazil. It strives to get across the idea that we're all connected to each other in some way, shape or form. Furthermore it shows the impact this domino effect has on our lives, along with the relationships towards the people close to us. Sadly for 360 a lot of it felt a bit too familiar, not a million miles removed from the basic concept of the Richard Curtis cheese-fest, Love Actually. Or the star-studded features like New York, I Love You and its sister movie, Paris, Je T'aime.

Where it comes into its own however is in its more mature, darker tone along with several compelling performances, including Jude Law, Rachel Weisz and a personal favourite of mine Jarnel Debbouze (probably best known for his supporting role in the modern French classic, Amelie). The best example of this interconnectedness was Ben Foster's newly rehabilitated sex offender from Colorado caught in a compromising position with Brazil's Maria Flor's wandering traveller after a chance encounter in an airport. Much praise must also go to Anthony Hopkins journey as recovering alcoholic who is dealing with the pains of grief and regret and how it can become a choke hold on your life.

That's not to say the film is all doom and gloom as it has some rather sweet moments, while not being detestably cringe worthy like the aforementioned Love Actually. One stand out moment involves the utterly bonkers situation of a mob thug encountering the charming, educated sister of a prostitute and both deciding on a whim to ride off into the sunset together.

360's main problem however, or perhaps just my problem with these types of films, is it felt like Meirelles had several potentially brilliant stories that he just couldn't decide which one to make first. So he clumsily mashes them all together and hopes for the best. To his credit sometimes it worked, others might leave the audience thinking it's a bit too rosy or ridiculously convoluted. Nevertheless the dialogue was well scripted - jumping seamlessly between the adult subjects covered, while still allowing itself to be slightly whimsical and optimistic - and beautifully shot at times. But then you'd expect nothing less from the man who made City of God.

Final Thoughts
While the performances are mostly compelling and the presentation was tidy, when the credits eventually role  on 360 you'll be left thinking you've seen it all before. The darker and more mature themes makes it stand out against its like minded features but ultimately 360 is a mostly forgettable experience. But sadly like the film's core theme it's a genre which will come full circle time and time again.

3/5

360 is in selected cinemas across the UK now. Belfast readers can see it in the Queens Film Theatre from Friday August 10th, 2012. 

The Dark Knight Rises

"You don't owe these people anymore. You've given them everything." "Not everything, not yet..."

The quote above applies to this film on so many levels. At whatever angle you come from with this film, it just has that sense of finality about it. After plunging fear into Gotham's criminal underbelly in Batman Begins, and saving the city from the unhinged chaos of a madman in The Dark Knight, Batman himself owes it to the cinematic world to go out with a bang and book himself in the pantheon of great cinematic trilogies. Furthermore the saga's visionary director, Christopher Nolan owes it to himself to end the story he so magnificently started in 2005. It's the most anticipated film of the year. It's the film fans have been waiting for since they walked out of seeing its predecessor in 2008. So the question, quite rightly, is; does it live up to its phenomenal hype? 

The story picks up eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the Batman has vanished and Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) now a recluse after taking the fall for the crimes of Harvey Dent and in turn Gotham has become a much more peaceful place because of it. Of course this is only the calm before the storm as a new evil force named Bane (Tom Hardy) arrives in Gotham along with the mysterious Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), forcing Batman out of retirement, hellbent on dragging the city down into the tenth level of hell. 

Christian Bale's portrayal of Batman has probably been parodied to death over the years for the ostentatious voice in dire need of a cough drop. Nevertheless his journey as Bruce Wayne has been nothing short of cinematic brilliance, and in TDKR he gives arguably his greatest bow as the estranged billionaire. Channelling Wayne's old wounds from the past two films on top of the suffering he faces over the course of the final film, especially in the mesmerising second act, Bale's tender moments he shared with Michael Caine's Alfred were every bit as wonderful to watch as the heart to hearts with Hardy's monstrous Bane.

One does perhaps wonder how Nolan's vision for the final film would've differed had the late, great Heath Ledger had still been with us (he was contracted to appear in The Dark Knight Rises in some capacity), and though his unforgettable turn as The Joker is never referenced, his ghost looms large over the feature with the sense of dread and spirit for complete anarchy he invoked so often previously. 

Which brings us nicely to the main antagonist of the feature, Bane. Tom Hardy encapsulates the character that was grossly misrepresented in Batman & Robin as one of the few of The Dark Knight's rouge gallery who can match him on both a mental and a physical level. Like Bale's Batman voice, Hardy's muffled sinister voice will be a source of great amusement to many YouTube videos, but it doesn't matter as his actions speak far more coherently and with much more impact than any of his speeches ever would.  

Anne Hathaway's Catwoman is probably the best version of the character ever seen on screen and at times steals the show away from both Bale and Hardy. It's the first version to fully understand the multiple shades of grey Selina Kyle has beneath her catsuit, without the supernatural nonsense of Batman Returns and whatever the hell that was Halle Berry was trying to pull off in her redundant spin-off film. In TDKRs Catwoman is a beautifully realised femme fatale, sexy and deadly, hero and villain and both friend and foe to Batman.

The supporting roles were littered with probably the greatest ensemble of actors I've seen on film since, well probably Christopher Nolan's Inception. Gary Oldman's tired and jaded journey as Commissioner James Gordon is the definitive version of the character, Michael Caine shines bright and will make audiences shed tears as Alfred Pennyworth, Morgan Freeman lends his cool class as Bat-gadget supremo Lucius Fox while newcomers Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's only reaffirm the conclusion that Christopher Nolan can assemble any actor he so chooses. There are also a few cameos from past characters of the film's series to help it come full circle, but those reveals won't be spoiled in this review.

Was it perfect though? Truthfully - and please no death threats - its story was too guilty of doing what many final chapters of the great cinematic sagas are often accused of doing and that's cramming far more than was entirely necessary resulting in at times a messy story and slightly muddled character development. It maybe could have benefited from losing 15 minutes off its running time, but then when you've got near three hours of the biggest Batman film ever attempted, yeah you'd forgive these shortcomings. And for every time I want to roll my eyes, I found myself smiling more and more or my emotions heightening to the brink of tears

Christopher Nolan's evolution since his first Batman film and his eye for the grand spectacle came to its pinnacle with TDKR, perhaps just eclipsing the heights he reached with Inception. The opening scene of the film itself, which felt partially influenced by the opening scene of the previous Batman film, where the audience is introduced to Hardy's Bane is worth the admission fee alone, especially when you realise how little CGI is used in the creation of it.

Invoking the fear of a post 9/11 world, along with the extreme right wing reaction to it in the fallout, in his previous two Batman films, Nolan goes to great lengths to set his dark, gritty, mature finale to the Batman saga in a financially ravaged, occupy Wall Street-esque hell. Making his Batman films not only the best, but also one of the true cinematic sagas of our time and generation. And in stark contrast making Marvel's Avengers universe look like a feeble cosplay exercise in comparison. Shame the same can't be said for the rest of DC's characters on the big screen these days.

Final Thoughts
Despite its obvious shortcomings, Christopher Nolan delivers a grandiose finish full of spectacle, emotion and near Oscar-worthy performances from many of its cast. Where Warner Bros decides to take Batman next on the big screen is a thought for another day, for now just bask in knowing a superhero, a comic book adaptation is now recognised as one of the great cinematic trilogies and one of the biggest, in every sense of the word, blockbusters of all time. The Dark Knight Rises. The Dark Knight Rules.

4/5

The Dark Knight Rises is in cinemas everywhere now. And yes I know you've probably already seen it when this review goes live. 

Dr Seuss' The Lorax

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

- Dr Seuss

Hollywood hasn't been overly faithful to the timeless works of Dr Seuss in recent years. After the tragic failings witnessed in the live action adaptations of The Cat in The Hat and How The Grinch Stole Christmas, avid Seuss enthusiasts would be right in thinking the great American story-teller is probably spinning in his grave. Things weren't necessarily helped by the CGI adaptation of Horton Hears A Who, but at least as a stand alone film it's both entertaining and infectious in its overall enjoyment. Following in the footsteps of Horton comes The Lorax, Seuss' environmentally aware parable about the extinction of trees and the countless warnings from the story's title character which precedes it. 

It's not impossible to make a great film out of such short children's books. Spike Jonze proved as much when he fantastically brought to life the late Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are to the big screen. The Lorax nearly does such a job, but rather frustratingly the screenwriters Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul blink first and get too bogged down in modernising the story with needless pop culture references, I imagine most kids aren't going to be particularly bothered about, and a ham fisted teenage love story it simply didn't need. Which is a true shame, especially when you compare it to Pixar's like-minded and infinitely superior environmentally weary tale, Wall-e.  

Nevertheless it would be harsh to say it wasn't entertaining, at times genuinely funny and even quite heartfelt when it eventually got round to it core message. The film features some gorgeous animation staying true to the vivid, unique vision of Seuss' source material and even features some terrific vocal performances from its cast. 

Danny Devito was particularly marvellous as the title character, typically what you'd expect from the cranky, brutally honest, now institutional actor. In fact the moments featuring the Lorax himself was where the film shined its brightest. One particular scene, not originally in the source material, where he appears for the first time and, along with the rest of the animals of the forest, mourns the first tree chopped down was a beautifully constructed moment the film should have strived for more often. 

Ed Helms was good fun as The Once-ler; delivering a nice blend of comedy, innocence and gormless buffoonery while having a terrific chemistry when it came to bantering with Devito's Lorax and Zac Efron's faceless protagonist. Personally though the film's comedy was at its best amongst the crazy movements of the animals which populate the forest The Once-ler inevitably destroys. Particularly the bears. The chipmunk voiced fish I could probably take or leave, but hey the kids will enjoy it. I think...

The musical numbers were well written and in the more tender and sombre moments the great John Powell delivered a trademark grandiose score - if you haven't heard his Oscar nominated work on Dreamworks' rather brilliant How To Train Your Dragon I seriously suggest you do so as soon as possible.  However it's sad and a bit of an injustice to Seuss' incredible writing that more of his playful, at times sheer mental, dialouge and poetry wasn't scattered throughout. The most notable was the quote placed at the beginning of this review. All involved might want to read that quote another couple of times before tackling the CGI Cat in the Hat adaptation they have planned next - but to be fair it can't be any worse than the awful Mike Myers version. 

Final Thoughts

If you're a parent and looking for something to grab your kids' attention for 90 minutes, The Lorax performs its duties as well as any animated tale you'll see in the cinema this Summer. Despite its loose and liberal tribute to the source material this version of The Lorax is still full of slapstick antics, well timed dialouge and some entertaining performances from its voice cast. However where it loses marks and will continually do so in most modern Seuss adaptations is in its nonchalant attitude and lack of ambition to reach out to its wider audience and tackle the story's biggest themes. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot...

3/5

The Lorax is in cinemas across the UK on Friday July 27th, 2012.