Friday 13 March 2015

Triple Bill Mini Musings: Gaunt Gyllenhaal, Gone Godzilla, and Gross Gags...

Nightcrawler:
What's it about?
Lou Bloom, a jobless petty thief with a strict learning/work ethic, finds his strange calling when he witnesses a team of 'stringers' (guys with video cameras who record crime scenes etc for news broadcast) doing their work. Muscling his way into the business and learning as he goes, Lou finds an ally with news director Nina who takes a shine to his abilities. However, chasing the perfect footage - before anyone else gets it - leads him down a dangerous path.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Gaunt and wide-eyed, Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom with such determination that he disappears inside the character; no wonder there were many rumblings when he didn't get nominated for an Oscar. The film sinks us into a bizarre world that takes us behind the scenes of grizzly - even thrilling - crime/accident scene news footage, and does so with such a sense of style and drive that you begin to question the malleability of your own morality. The director put it best when he said that the movie was about a talented man being rewarded for his skills by a society that should really be punishing him for those same skills. This is a world that is at the same time familiar and alien, presented in such a way that is both troubling and exhilarating. Despite all of Lou's faults you can't help but admire his clearly focused sense of drive and ability to achieve his goals. Great.

Click "READ MORE" below for Godzilla 2014, and A Million Ways To Die In The West...

Godzilla:
What's it about?
Mankind's fate is thrown into the shadows and cities crumble as a giant beast rises from the depths of a nuclear slumber.
Who would I recognise in it?
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
From the director of the low-fi "Monsters" (which boasted subtle home-made CGI effects) comes this pretty faithful American adaptation of the classic Japanese franchise after the creatively bankrupt smash-em-up version from 1998 (which turned the iconic Godzilla into nothing more than a big dinosaur that didn't make the cut for Jurassic Park). The film divided audiences and it's easy to see why. On the one hand the emotional character stuff is welcome, but lacks a concise focus (so, essentially, the movie starts twice) - the set-up is effective, but lingers twice as long as it should. Furthermore, quite frankly you would be forgiven for thinking you'd walked into the wrong movie - there's precious little of the titular king of the monsters. What you do get is either frustratingly cut-short, or obscured by smoke or darkness or closing doors, or cast onto TV screens as 'news footage'. It's a conceit that works to an extent - but the continual lack of pay-off for the first two thirds of the movie is irksome. Indeed, it's practically an hour before we even get to see Godzilla properly - and even then it's a fleeting glimpse!

Pacific Rim spoiled us rotten with its "giant 'bots vs giant monsters" chaos, so by comparison Godzilla is a relatively coy affair. The final act showdown goes some way to make amends for the rest of the movie's reluctance to give the audience what it really wants, and some key themes do make for a satisfying climax. However, it does begin to get a tad daft when Taylor-Johnson's EOD specialist and his wider family seem to become monster magnets (everywhere they go monsters are sure to follow), and a few sequences have a tendency to sap the pace or feel awkward. This all said, by comparison to the 1998 movie, Godzilla 2014 is a superb effort, and by general standards it's a solid flick - but the almost persistent lack of the big boy himself is nothing short of a piss-take. Hopefully there will be a sequel - and hopefully it will feature an appropriate amount of Godzilla! On the cusp between good and alright.


A Million Ways To Die In The West:
What's it about?
Crude comedy set in 1882 in which softy sheep farmer Albert isn't exactly cut out for the harsh reality of the wild west, and to make matters worse his girlfriend has ditched him for an arrogant and mustachioed business owner. In steps a mysterious woman who takes Albert under her wing, teaching him not only how to shoot, but the value of self-confidence.
Who would I recognise in it?
Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Silverman, Liam Neeson, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
There's no denying that, visually speaking, AMWTDITW is a classy affair, doing far more than most American comedies at the moment to make a funny film that also looks the part. However, when it comes to the script - and the pacing - the film crumbles somewhat. Opening with a majestic, but painfully long-winded opening credits sequence, the set-up feels a little disorganised and takes a while to start firing on all cylinders. That said, even when it does get up to speed, there are numerous moments where it's clear they could have inserted a better gag (or any gag). It lacks the crass-but-fuzzy warmth of MacFarlane's previous effort Ted, but does maintain the sordid and scatological sensibilities that helped propel Ted to a laugh-filled infamy.

The theatrical cut is a hefty 116 minutes (the extended version a staggering 133 minutes), and as a result the film is overlong; a tighter script (and final edit) would have helped inject a little extra pizazz into proceedings. Gripes aside though, there's still plenty of chuckles to be had - even a few guffaws - and there's a variety of cameo appearances throughout, but it's undeniable that A Million Ways To Die In The West is decidedly in the shadow of Ted. In brief, if you're the sort who'll get a good laugh from seeing someone violently void their bowels into a hat, then this will be worth your time. On the cusp between Alright and Good.

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