What If Review
The Plot
When recently single Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) he feels an instant connection. However, when she reveals she has a boyfriend, Wallace agrees to just be friends. But can a boy and girl really stay just friends…?
The Good
It’s been 3 years since the Harry Potter franchise ended but to most fans, Daniel Radcliffe will always be the Boy Who Lived in their eyes. What if being his third film since Deathly Hallows Part 2 (after The Woman In Black and Kill Your Darlings) it seems to be quite clear that Radcliffe wants us to know that he is more than just a one hit wonder. Well more than an eight movie mega franchise hit wonder. With horror and thriller safely under his belt, Radcliffe’s latest gives him the chance to show his talent in the romantic comedy genre. And he does not disappoint.
A lot of the success in this is due to the great chemistry between not only Wallace and his best friend Allan (Adam Driver), but also the Sally to Wallace’s Harry, Chantry (Zoe Kazan). Driver brings the goofy side of the romantic comedy effortlessly whether by his excitement over post-coital nachos or his clearly thought out advice for Wallace. Kazan on the other hand helps bring a fantastic friendship to life as she and Radcliffe own the screen together. The element that works best in What If is easily the script. The dialogue flows throughout the film naturally, never leaving a dull moment.
Although the basic premise of What If is superficially similar to films like When Harry Met Sally or Friends With Benefits, it actually does a fine job at striving to avoid overly familiar cliches and delivers something fresh,funny and sweetly sincere.
The Bad
There’s nothing particularly awful that can be said about What If, though despite it’s best efforts, ultimately it can’t entirely escape rom-com familiarity and inevitable comparisons to timeless classic When Harry Met Sally. Dealing with the dilemma of maintaining purely platonic friendships between men and women, the film reaches predictable if satisfying conclusions.
The Ugly Truth
What If is a When Harry Met Sally for the new generation of romance. With a great chemistry running between the cast and plenty of chuckles to be had, it’s certainly not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. It delivers something fresh and satisfying, making it easily one of the very best recent additions to the rom-com genre.
Daniel Radcliffe in depth interview below from the What if Premiere press conference in London:
The Inbetweeners 2 Review
The Plot
Simon Bird, James Buckley, Joe Thomas and Blake Harrison return in the inevitable but much anticipated sequel to their 2011 big screen debut in The Inbetweeners 2. When Neil (Harrison) gets an email from Jay (Buckley) telling him about his lavish lifestyle in Australia, Will and Simon decide to tag along and surprise him for a summer holiday. Cue hilarity as the boys get into all sorts of usual bother down under.
The Good
Since the first film took over £41 million in the UK box office alone and achieved official status as the most commercially successful British comedy ever made, it was inevitable that The Inbetweeners would return to the silver screen soon enough. With the boys just 6 months older but most definitely not wiser or more experienced, The Inbetweeners 2 is certainly bigger. But is it better?
There are plenty of laughs to be had as the boys ill-advisedly venture to the land down under. The film start with a fantastically funny glimpse into the filthy fantasy world of the ever boastful and untruthful Jay. The shameless exaggerations of his sweet life as a superstar DJ and ‘Aussie clunge magnet’ seems too good to be true as he talks Neil through a day in the life of his mental Australian Gap Year. As always it’s a cringe-worthy treat to see the Inbetweeners most deluded member set himself and the rest of the gang up for inevitable humiliation and mostly deserved shameful suffering.
The hapless lads all remain entertainingly unevolved. Will willingly abandons common sense and his snobbish pretentious at the first sign of hope a pretty girl might actually like him. Simon has an abusive psycho girlfriend he’s too wimpy to dump. While Neil remains utterly clueless with an unfortunate knack of covering most situations with a disgusting variety of bodily fluids. There is still a certain charm in their lack of charm and a more malicious satisfaction is seeing their misguided best intentions end in utter disaster.
The film boasts some memorable set pieces in particular, with dolphin abuse, irritable bowels and ill-advised outback survival techniques among the worst of the depraved antics. It should please long term fans of the original show and entertain or disgust in equal measure.
The Bad
The Inbetweeners 2 offers fans plenty of the same humour that made the previous film such a guilty pleasure, however it veers towards being a little more cruel and dark, particularly during it’s latter stages. While the first film felt vaguely euphoric as a jubilant send off for mostly likable characters, writers Damon Beesley & Iain Morris seem determined to be less kind this time round. The plot quickly undoes any sense of progress made over the previous series and first film, pushing each of the lads toward being an even more pathetic caricature of adolescent obnoxiousness. This does makes it harder to ever laugh with them, but perhaps a little easier to laugh at them.
This sequel was understandably inevitable given the astonishing box office success of the first film. It at least serves as a gratuitous encore and a thank you to a devoted fan base. Though record breaking box office hauls will no doubt tempt the writers and cast to return for a third time, in truth it’s difficult to see exactly where they could take the characters.
The Ugly Truth
The Inbetweeners 2 could have easily been just a lazy ploy to greedily cash in on the huge success of it’s predecessor, but it has enough genuine laugh out loud moments to prove that the writers did work hard on producing something fans will enjoy. A slightly less effective and downbeat final act prevents the film flowing as well as the last, but for the most part, The Inbetweeners 2 is an enjoyable comedy which will keep fans satisfied.
Interviews below with stars James Buckley & Blake Harrison:
Hercules Review
The Plot
Brett Ratner and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson bring a new version of half-man half-God all muscle Hercules to the big screen. With his stories being spread across the land, Hercules (Johnson) is hired by Lord Cotys (John Hurt) to bring down King Eurystheus (Joseph Fiennes) with a small army of men and his loyal companions.
The Good
Brett Ratner is known mostly these days for directing the third and what most fans perceive as the worst instalment of the original X-Men Trilogy, The Last Stand. His work on Tower Heist and Movie 43 certainly didn’t help people forget this. With Hercules though, he seems to be going in the right direction. Ratner could very well have the beginnings of a franchise on his hands if Hercules does well, and at parts it deserves to do well.
The casting of Dwayne Johnson as the titular hero is a fantastic decision and Johnson proves it within the opening segment. Coming face to face with a lion, Johnson gives us a reason to believe he was born to play Hercules. And his humungous muscles certainly help. The most interesting part of Ratners new take on the old tale is the way in which he manages to dissect it and turn it into something completely different in a way. Instead of simply labelling Hercules as a God, Ryan Condal and Evan Siliotopoulos’ script brings an air of mystery surrounding the character. Is he a God or are his collection of heroic stories simply there to impress his fans and scare his foes?
A supporting cast of Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolso Berdal and Reece Ritchie turns Hercules from a one man hero into a team of renegades who band together to create the legend of Hercules and both characters and actors seem to have no problems with him being the main attraction. For while McShane’s character Amphiaraus in particular has some stand out moments, it really is Johnsons film.
Plenty of action makes sure that you won’t get too bored with Hercules even if his adversaries don’t really stand a chance against him.
The Bad
Humanizing Hercules in a way lowers the character at points. The demi-god lie teeters a touch too much on the human side eventually, leaving the air of mystery surrounding his past to disappear slowly along with some interest in the character. The film tries to counter-act this at one point by attempting to send the message that anyone can be a hero and using Hercules as their example. Which is all well and good except for the tiny niggling fact that Dwayne Johnson has something the average cinemagoer will probably not. Put any other person in the same situations that Johnson faces throughout the film and their lack of muscles will most definitely hinder them slightly. After all Dwayne Johnson wasn’t called the Rock ironically!
The Ugly Truth
Brett Ratner is definitely making eager strides to redeem himself from being simply known as the man who nearly ruined X-Men with Hercules. With a neat twist on the old tale and enough humour, action and Dwayne Johnson to keep audiences entertained, a sequel/franchise is definitely not the worst idea…
The Rover Review
The Plot
Guy Pierce and Robert Pattinson star in this post apocalyptic crime drama. When Eric’s (Pierce) car is stolen by three crooks, he sets out to retrieve it by any means necessary. But after coming across one of the thieves brother Rey (Pattinson), his search becomes both easier and harder as he struggles to cope with Rey’s company.
The Good
There’s one simple yet utterly bizzare way to sum up The Rover which really does give a slight idea as to what you’ll be getting yourself in for if you see it. It’s essentially an artsy post apocalyptic Dude, Where’s My Car? With the smallest hint of Rain Man.
Now, while this sounds crazy, for the most part The Rover does work surprisingly well. Guy Pierce holds the opening spectacularly, with the lack of instant dialogue giving an air of anticipation. As Eric takes his time to slowly remove his thieves old pickup truck from it’s stuck position to catch up with them, he seems to take joy in showing his power in the situation by driving as close as possible and then falling back, yet barely expresses it. The sequence works incredibly well and Pierce proves that he could easily handle the film with perfect ease on his own.
That said, when Robert Pattinson finally enters the story, he gives just as good as a performance. His role as simple and naïve Rey is quite unlike anything he’s done before and soon enough, he proves he is good enough to get equal billing with Pierce.
Accompanied by an extremely well fitting score and a simple yet full script, of which it seems Joel Edgerton shares story credit, The Rover does it’s job well.
The Bad
If you look back over Robert Pattinsons career so far (The Twilight franchise, Remember Me etc.) it’s easy to conclude that one of his main acting traits has become his ability to express himself through the cunning use of broody stares mainly. His role in The Rover gives him the opportunity to work with more dialogue than usual. Although it’s an interesting twist on the RPattz we’ve all come to know and love, most of what he gets to say is rather pointless and will surely end up annoying viewers as much as it seems to annoy his co-star.
Just as the film is starting to head towards it’s conclusion a completely out of place entry to the otherwise decent soundtrack utterly distracts from the mood of the film, making it a struggle to get back to where it was. It’s only one throwaway scene which you will no doubt know when you see it, and it unfortunately damages what was otherwise a well performed, well written and well directed film.
One last point to make is in regards to the films ambiguous title. It does become clear eventually why it’s called The Rover but the makers really did miss a trick when they didn’t make Erics car, one of the main driving pieces of the story (no pun intended) a Rover…
The Ugly Truth
David Michod’s follow-up to his Oscar nominated debut feature Animal Kingdom is a definitely worth a watch at least for Guy Pierce. While it loses it’s way towards the final act, The Rover is still a chilling and tension-filled simplistic story which will entertain. Mostly.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Review
The Plot
Eight years after the events of Rise, ape leader Caesar has built a well maintained community in the redwoods just outside the city of Los Angeles. But when two young apes encounter the first human they’ve seen in two years, events are set in motion that will change both ape and human lives forever.
The Good
When Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released in 2011, it came with plenty of warning signs and low expectations. Thanks to Tim Burton’s failed attempt at a remake ten years earlier. After the success of the film, and the news that both Andy Serkis and visual effects company Weta – undoubtedly the two things that truly made the film a success – were back on board, it’s safe to say that the worries for Dawn were much less so. And it seems that even the slight worries fans and critics had were definitely unnecessary.
With Serkis being given his rightful place at the top of the credits this time around, he proves that he is quite simply, a god among actors. His ability to completely embrace the character of Caesar is nothing short of perfection. As is Weta’s ability to bring such lifelike CGI to the screen that it will make you completely forget that these are actually humans and not apes. Weta have really outdone themselves this time around, having much more of a challenge on their hands with director Matt Reeves’ decision to film on location as much as possible. This of course brings all sorts of problems to the visual effects company, one in particular being the weather. But Weta seem to be able to battle these problems effortlessly.
Without giving the storyline away, Dawn is a 130 minute thrill ride of domino effect after domino effect which lead to an inevitable finale which is both satisfying and painful to watch. As ape and man begin to work together, all seems to be going well. Enter the stunning Toby Kebbel as Koba. Kebbel gives Serkis a run for his money as the troubled ape who fans of the previous installment will no doubt remember. Having only experienced the bad side of humans, Koba has some sympathy surrounding his character, however his actions soon make cross lines that challenge those sympathies. He also brings about a scene which is so shocking that it surpasses the shock of Caesar’s infamous ‘NO!’ moment in Rise.
Although the main highlight of Dawn is surely the titular apes, Gary Oldman and Jason Clarke bring some equally interesting human characters into the mix. Clarke plays Malcom, a family man trying to keep what’s left of his family together in this post apocalyptic world as he tries to find an alternative fuel source for the small band of surviving humans. He is essentially the human version of Caesar, wanting to keep the peace between human and apes. Oldman provides the other side of the spectrum of human nature, serving as an antagonistic human counterpart to Koba in his ominous plans for a future.
All this plays along to a beautiful score by Lost composer Michael Giacchino which matches the perfection seen on screen. If you haven’t yet, do check out the score for yourself which also boasts some of the best ape puns you’ll ever see in it’s track list.
The Bad
The only real criticism that Dawn deserves is, the comparison between the actors and actresses. Judy Greer plays Caesar’s wife, Cornelia in the film and has next to nothing to do throughout the films storyline. As too does Jason Clarke’s on screen wife, Keri Russell. Other than these two, there isn’t really much female representation in Dawn which is a big shame.
The Ugly Truth
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is bigger than Rise and surprisingly better. Andy Serkis is again the franchises biggest asset along with the talented animators at Weta, with Toby Kebbel easily catching up to very nearly steal the show. Whilst the lack of female characters is somewhat worrying, the massively expanded storyline certainly makes up for it, along with Michael Giacchino’s moving score.