Hunger Games: Catching Fire ★★★ ½

Hunger Games: Catching fire feeds the multitude

Opens in Australia: 21st November, 2013
UK: 21^stNovember 2013 
USA: 22^ndNovember 2013

Other Countries: Release Information

   Okay everybody you can stop salivating and wishing the time away. Hunger Games: Catching Fire has arrived with a bang.  It topped the box office in Australia, ahead of its release in the USA with a staggering 65% increase from the first film’s result and the second biggest opening day for 2013 behind Iron Man 3.

Fans of Suzanne Collin’s dystopian series will not be disappointed. It follows the book closely, covering the politics and the lives of the love triangle of Katniss, Peeta and Gale. Directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine, Water for Elephants), reviewers and audiences are claiming it is better than the first film. The last book of the trilogy has been split into two films and will also be directed by Lawrence.

After winning the 74^th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) return to District 12 as victors.  Part of their job is to participate in the propaganda surrounding the Hunger Games, embarking on tours of the other Districts (think an Olympics homecoming but with a dour crowd).  Peeta and Katniss, who used the ruse of “being in love” to avoid being killed at the games, must continue to perpetrate the lie. On a visit to District 11, (young Rue’s district who was Katniss’ murdered friend in the first games) Katniss and Peter make the mistake of going off script and speaking from the heart. This incites the crowd to demonstrate their “hope” by whistling the notes Katniss used to contact Rue in the games, along with a three finger salute. As they travel through the districts the unrest continues, with the salute and the whistle its trademark.

With Katniss as its figurehead, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) views this demonstration of solidarity and hope as a threat to the supremacy of Pan Am. He devises a plan with the new gamesmaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to create a special games for the Quarter Quell (75 years of Hunger Games). The tributes will be chosen from the victors this time. Just when it seems Katniss will finally have a chance to be with Gale(Liam Hemsworth), she and other angry victors must return to an even more dangerous arena.

Stanley Tucci is a knockout as commentator Caesar Flickerman.  Elizabeth Banks is again fabulous as Effie Trinkett.  All the team are still there: Wood Harrelson as Haymitch, Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith along with new tributes.

It’s a dark drama, and even though an enjoyable watch, the first half of the film covering the politics does drag until the games begin. When they do, they pack a wallop with real edge of your seat thrills (if you call watching young people kill innocent others thrilling). Just like the first, it ends with the promise of the next film. These films are box office gold. The producers will certainly not be going hungry.

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"Marvel's" Thor The Dark World ★★★★

THE GODS ARE SMILING AND SO IS THE AUDIENCE

Opens in Australia: 31st October
USA: 8th November  UK: 30th October

Other Countries: Release Information

     Let’s face it, Thor (thanks to Chris Hemsworth) is the best looking hero of the Marvel film franchises, and the studio could just rest on that.  We girls would be happy.  However, not content to rest on a pretty face, they’ve taken the time to bring in the right crew to work on number two, Thor The Dark World. 
Christopher Yost (screenplay) has been head writer on many “Marvel” animations and contributed to the original Thor. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (screenplay) together wrote Captain America: The First Avenger and have just completed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and have also penned all three of The Narnia Chronicles.  Then you have Emmy®-winning director, Alan Taylor, who has worked on highly acclaimed shows like Sopranos, West Wing, Six Feet Under, Mad Men and, most recently, Game of Thrones.

Together, they’ve pulled off a worthy sequel, something very difficult to do in a franchise which has created such high expectations; achieving this by ensuring all the key ingredients from the origin story-humor, action, and realism while progressing the story line and character development.

We follow on from The Avengers’ “New York” conclusion where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has returned to Asgard and his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in tow, to imprison his adopted brother for his misbehavior on Earth.  But, dealing with his wayward son is the least of Odin’s problems. An alignment of the Nine Realms (occurring once every 5,000 years) is imminent, and it will open a portal between the worlds-Earth being one of them. 

Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is attempting to forget Thor, whom she hasn’t seen for two years. While investigating an anomaly, created by the impending alignment, she is dragged into the dark world where she inadvertently reignites a war, waged thousands of years previously, between one of Asgard’s greatest adversaries, Malekith.

As leader of the dark elves, Malekith was defeated by Odin’s Father, but he returns to take advantage of the realm’s alignment to take over Asgard and cause havoc throughout the universe.  Thor must create unlikely alliances and defy his father to defeat Malekith and restore peace to the Realms and, of course, once again save Earth.

The worlds are beautifully imagined and created, heightening the realism.  The director, Taylor, and filmmakers created this authenticity while filming scenes as much as possible on location and creating enormous, realistic sets; some taking months at a time to build.  Natalie Portman felt the scale of the sets harkened back to a different filmmaking era and commented, “It’s really like the old days of cinema. You walk on to the set and you think ‘Wow, we’re making a movie’.”

True to previous “Marvel” films, the story line is again interwoven between one franchise and another, following on from The Avengers and leaving the door open for the next. There are guest cameos from the first film's characters and other Marvel characters, including an extremely amusing spot from Dr Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård)—remember he the only one who understood the Tesseract weapon in The Avengers? Of course, fans of Loki will not be disappointed with his role.  He may not be quite as princely and beautiful as Thor (pretty close, though), but he delivers all the best lines. 

It’s an extremely entertaining blockbuster movie which serves, also, to whet the appetite for the next installment, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  If the “notorious” Marvel credits scene inserts (two: one in the middle and one at the very end, so make sure you stay) are anything to go by, there are many more films to come. The Gods and the fans will be pleased.

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Star Trek Into Darkness ★★★★

BOLDLY GOING WHERE IT’S GONE BEFORE

Opens in Australia: 9^th May 2013; USA 15^th May; UK 9^th May

Other Countries: Release Information  

 

In forty-seven years since the launch of the original three-season series, ‘Star Trek’ has sparked five television series including an animation, eleven motion pictures and a fan base that continues to grow.  

 I grew up a trekkie. As a child of the sixties it was one of my favorite  shows. Then, oh joy, oh bliss, came ‘Star Trek Next Generation’ and all the fabulous follow-on series after and then the series of eighties and nineties movies.  In my previous life the company I owned even sponsored the eleven p.m. Thursday night series of ‘Star Trek Voyager.’  It was pretty cheap to run ads at that time of night.  So, this reboot was always on my must see list. 

The 2009 J.J. Abrams first ‘Star Trek’ reboot film was a hoot and despite my concerns after Abram’s ‘Lost’ series finale letdown, he managed to deliver a great start to the new series.  Also, too, was the fun of watching the new younger versions step into their iconic sixties characters. That guy who plays Doc really looks like the original doesn’t he?  So, I was bouncing in my seat for ‘Into Darkness’. 

In this voyage we are immediately thrown into a mission going wrong when, in order to save Spock, the crew must expose their existence to the primitive inhabitants of a planet; a no, no on the prime directive.  This sets up the exploration of the complex friendship between Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto).

Subsequently, Kirk is relieved of his duty and demoted to first officer on another ship and Spock (Zachary Quinto) is also re-assigned.  However, during a Star Fleet headquarters meeting they are attacked by a new super nemesis, mysterious intergalactic terrorist John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch).  Kirk is re-commissioned by Star Fleet Admiral (Peter Weller) to gather his original crew to take off in pursuit of the terrorist who has wreaked havoc and killed some of the nearest and dearest of Star Fleet.  The truth they discover when they find Harrison is not what they are expecting.

Returning to The Enterprise is the crew that brought it so viscerally to life in the original, Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy, Simon Pegg as Chief Engineer “Scotty” Scott, Zoe Saldana as Communications Officer Uhura, John Cho as Helmsman Hikaru Sulu, Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov and Bruce Greenwood as Admiral Christopher Pike.

Whilst it is an enjoyable blockbuster, it didn’t beam me up as I’d hoped.  Some of it felt like a bunch of scenes we have seen before mashed together; one I think taken from the 1982 ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’ but with a reversal of characters.

Gene Rodenberry’s (the original creator of Star Trek) vision of the future was one of optimism and hope.  He created Star Trek to explore charged political topics such as racism, greed, and violence and as an exemplar of how much is achieved when we work together for the betterment of all and not just expansion of power. He had an unusual optimism of the future considering the cold-war, nuclear fearful era in which he lived.

I think it is the lack of optimism where the problem lies for me in ‘Into Darkness’.  Whilst there is much to enjoy here and most Trekkies and sci-fi buffs will revel in it, for me it is missing that special ingredient.  However, regardless it’s still a must see because let’s face it any Star Trek is better than no Star Trek. 

 Are you a trekkie and what do you think of the reboot franchise?

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MARVEL'S IRON MAN 3 ★★★★½

IRON-CLAD FUN

Australia: 24th April 2013; USA 5th May UK 25th April
Other Countries:  Release Information

“Nothings been the same since New York,” laments Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) referencing the thrilling final fight sequence in 2012 Marvel’s THE AVENGERS.  Iron Man fans could say the same thing.  There have been so few great entertainment movies since then we have become accustomed to settling for ‘not bad’ films as good.

Now with IRON MAN 3 we remember why going to the cinema is worth the effort and the expense.  A year after we thrilled to the adrenaline packed and oh-so-clever super hero love fest that was THE AVENGERS, finally IRON MAN 3 day has arrived and nobody should walk away disappointed. 

Sure you can point out plot-holes and yes, there are a couple of draggy bits but it is still 130 minutes of pure fun for anyone over the age of ten.  It’s got the mix of soul-searching and action just right—not an easy thing to do when you think of DARK KNIGHT RISES’ awkward pace.  The baddies are scary-unstoppable à la the original TERMINATOR and the conclusion has a satisfying emotional finale akin to ALIEN.

This one is a safe bet for the studios after the critically acclaimed “THE AVENGERS” set the all-time domestic three-day weekend box-office record at $207.4 million. The film went on to gross over $1.5 billion worldwide becoming Disney’s highest-grossing global and domestic release of all time.

“The exciting thing about IRON MAN 3 is not only is it the culmination of the first two films but it’s also a follow-up to ‘Marvel’s The Avengers,’” says producer Kevin Feige. “It’s one of the first situations where you have a movie that is the sequel to two different films.”

“Early on in the film you see Tony is wearing the Mark 42 and the last time we saw him he was in the Mark 7 and we quickly learn that Tony has been very busy between the time of THE AVENGERS and IRON MAN 3.”

The terrific fun begins from the opening scenes where we learn all is not well in the Stark world.  In 1999 during Tony’s partying days the mistake he makes in ignoring two brilliant scientists Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) have come back to haunt him, or should we say taunt him, in a dangerous way.

Tony also suffers from super-hero post-traumatic stress and Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is doing a darn fine job of running Stark Enterprises and maintaining the devotion of the world’s most popular hero is no longer laughing at his boyish humor.

Whilst Tony is off playing with his suits, the Government assures citizens James Rhodes aka “War Machine” (Don Cheadle) wearing a red, white and blue Iron Man suit offers the country protection without the character flaws.

Enter terrorist Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).  He likes blowing up things and creating chaos.  As he says in his supremely brilliant evil-overlord voice, “You will ‘neverrr’ see me coming” and, believe me, you won’t.

Taking terror to the highest degree, even the President’s plane is attacked creating a spectacular air rescue which involved, in its filming, sixty-two airplane loads and over 500 hidden parachute jumps by the Red Bull Skydiving Team.  After challenging the Mandarin our hero finds his world and all his toys destroyed including his suit.  He crash lands in a backwater town where he hunkers down to locate and identity the Mandarin.

One nuance of Kingsley’s Mandarin that remained a mystery until he arrived on set was the voice of the character. Kingsley came up with the voice in the same way he approaches all of his roles; letting things manifest organically. “The voice just came out of me one day when I was working.  I was upset and just rampaging around my hotel room,” explains Kingsley. “The front desk called my room because of the noise and I just came out with a few Mandarin expletives in response and they stuck.”

The rest of the film incorporates the twists and turns and the trademark off-beat humor franchise fans have come to love. There is a load of new technology and suits and some laugh-out-loud scenes with smart-ass kid Harley (twelve-year-old Ty Simpkins).

Next off the ramp in the Marvel franchises is THOR: DARK WORLD releasing October/November.  Ever since the first IRON MAN nothing has ever been the same on the big screen.  And we thank our lucky ‘Starks’ for that.  These Marvel films are entertainment that always lives up to the hype.

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THE HOST (fans of this genre ★★★★ Non-Fans ★★)

THE MIND GAMES

Australia: 28th March 2013; USA 29th March UK 29th MarchOther Countries:  Release Information 

Stephenie Meyer certainly loves romantic conflict. The author of the best-selling ‘Twilight Saga’ books has done for young female readers and their mothers what Harry Potter did for nine-year olds.  It brought them to read—no mean feat in this technology age where interacting with fantasy worlds with your thumbs is considered far more exciting than with words and imagination.

Whilst reviewers love to critique the quality of the 'Twilight' books and the film adaptations, her fans agree to disagree and continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on her products.

So, it was always a given that her other speculative fiction work, ‘The Host’ would become a film to fill the hole created with the conclusion of the ‘Twilight Saga’.

‘The Host’, directed and adapted by Andrew Niccol, along with a highly respected production team and multi-awarded cast including William Hurt, Frances Fisher, Diane Kruger in supporting roles for the young, relatively unknown leads, is not a film for the discerning film-goer who desires a deep, well-fashioned script with sub-plots that will leave them marvelling at the mastery of the film-makers. 

However, it isn’t made for us cinephiles.  It is for the young—and not so young, if my fellow soccer-mom friends are anything to go by—fans of the novel and this fantasy romance sub-genre.  There are millions of these consumers out there and they are prepared to pay to read these books and watch the films and we shouldn’t dissuade them.   They make the publishing and film industry go round.

Stephenie Meyer said she came upon the idea for the 2008 ‘The Host’ (which spent 26 weeks at No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list and 36 weeks on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list) whilst driving through the desert between Phoenix and Salt Lake City.   “I came on the idea of two personalities in one body. They are both in love with different people, which creates a great deal of conflict. I like messy relationships. They’re fun to work through.”

In this story, our heroine Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) is thrown into conflict when Earth is invaded by an alien race. The invaders do not arrive with laser guns and drones but instead gently place their souls inside their hosts, taking over their bodies.  They are ‘peaceful’ beings and create harmony and balance in the assumed human race.  For the record, because all aliens take over our planet because we “kill each other”, I would like to state I am not one of the violent ones, so surely I should be allowed to keep my body.

When Melanie, one of the last remaining humans, is captured and receives the soul of Wanderer (Wanda), she refuses to relinquish her body to the invader.  So begins a tussle of spirit (and voiceover).  Before her capture Melanie was on the run with her little brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury) and another survivor Jared Howe (Max Irons).  Jared and Melanie become lovers and it is this love, and her promise to Jamie that she will return to him, that imbues her with the strength to fight Wanda’s control. 

Wanda, though, finds that she cannot inhabit Melanie’s body and not be moved by her strong emotions and memories.  This desire causes them to set out on a dangerous journey to reunite with Melanie’s loved ones. What they find will not be the joyful reunion either imagined.

If you are not a fan of YA books and the fantasy genre, then this film is not for you.   However, there are a lot more like this on the way with three more ‘’Hunger Games’ adaptations, ‘Warm Bodies’, ‘Divergent’, and ‘Pure’ to name a few.  So get used to the idea of star-crossed supernatural romances; there is an invasion coming to a box-office near you and it will be hard to avoid.

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ★★★★

THE ADVENTURE OVERFLOWETHS

Australia: 26th December, 2012; USA 14th December UK 13th December
Other Countries: Release Dates

 

Its two hours and forty-sixminutes and, I suspect, therein lays the mixed reviews.  It’s a matter of patience.  My ten year old harsh critic commented positively on the slow beginning, filled with—perish the indulgence—character building, “It’s a three hour film they needed the time to warm up the story.”

Once warmed up though it takes off like a bat troll out of hell. And whether you are a LORD OF THE RINGS fan or, like me (having always thought the films were slightly geeky) not seen all the previous trilogy, this film will thrill both parties.

As the first feature film to utilize state-of-the-art digital cameras to record the action in 3D at 48 frames per second (fps) releasing in High Frame Rate 3D (HFR 3D), Director Peter Jackson has taken a leap into a new cinematic visual experience.  In some action sequences it truly felt like a roller-coaster ride with the crisp beautiful images.  And wait for the fabulous scene where Bilbo Baggins meets the big-eyed neurotic Gollum (Andy Serkis). It looks so real it is hard to believe there isn’t an agent out there for Gollum and mystical creatures.  As most of the trolls and orcs are English accented I imagined them at the pub moaning how the Troll and Magical Creatures Acting Union needed to strike during the next filming to negotiate more gold rings and quality rat meat.

Calling this film an epic adventure is akin to calling Mount Everest just a mountain.  Even the production notes for the film run to eighty-six pages.  But it’s the story that is enthralling, and it begins with elderly hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) recounting to his nephew Frodo  (Elijah Wood) an adventure, sixty years prior. It began with Wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) arriving at his door followed by thirteen dwarves invading his home and wolfing down his food as they plan how best to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug who has settled in nicely with all their gold.

Young Bilbo (Martin Freeman) is not an adventurous hobbit, personifying the average guy who doesn’t rush out with sword in hand the minute he hears there’s a troll about or fling himself hairy-footed into danger for fun.  Overcoming his trepidation, he joins the dwarves led by legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) whose Father had once been King of the dwarves until slain by an Orc war-chief.  Their plan is to return to Erebor believing that the dragon may have left. 

Along the way they face one daring encounter after another with all manner of magical creatures: Orcs, Trolls, Elves and more; all in incredible Middle Earth settings, brought to life convincingly by a team of roughly 350 people at Weta Digital.

Stone Street Studios, Peter Jackson’s production facilities in Miramar, New Zealand, has nearly tripled in size and capabilities since the days when he and his team made THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy in a converted paint factory. Building the world of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY took up the whole of the eight-acre site, encompassing six stages, including the two state-of-the-art stages built specifically for the new Trilogy. It would also involve the construction of nearly 100 sets, the fabrication of thousands of pieces of clothing, prosthetics, wigs, props, and weapons, and take the company from the soundstages in Miramar off to spectacular landscapes across both islands of NewZealand.
 

 

Jackson tells more of a story than was written in Tolkien’s beloved book which has been in print constantly for seventy-five years. The story has been fleshed out from the appendices of the final volume of The Lord of the Rings. “The Hobbit was almost a lifetime’s work for Tolkien,” Jackson attests.  “And a lot of the ideas he had for fleshing out the story—the environment and the politics of the time—are all there.  What became clear to us is that the story has the ability to expand yet still be The Hobbit that everybody knows and loves. So that's what we did, using his notes very much as our blueprint.”

Whether Peter Jackson has overstepped the boundaries with this much loved book will be judged at the box-office.  It wasn’t a film I looked forward to seeing and yet I find myself now counted amongst the fandom of Middle Earth.   It may be a slow warm up but once its boiling most will find that Jackson’s THE HOBBIT has a plot that overflows in an exhilarating way.
 

 

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Iron Man 3 Teaser Trailer Released

If this doesn’t have you foaming at the mouth, I don’t know what will…

          the first full length teaser trailer of Iron Man 3

 

 

 

Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, “Iron Man 3” is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce and Shane Black and is based on Marvel’s iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of “Tales of Suspense” (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with “The Invincible Iron Man” (#1) in May of 1968.
 

 

“Iron Man 3” is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures and DMG Entertainment. Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige is producing and Jon Favreau, Louis D'Esposito, Stephen Broussard, Victoria Alonso, Alan Fine, Charles Newirth, Stan Lee and Dan Mintz are executive producers. The film releases April 25, 2013, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

 

Marvel’s Iron Man 3 – Only at the Movies APRIL 25, 2013

Classification: CTC

 

 

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The Expendables 2 ★ ★ ★

Release Dates

Australia:  30th August, 2012; USA 17th August, 2012; UK16th October 2012
Other Countries: Release Dates

 

 

 BACK FOR A BIT OF FUN
 

Ex-action star and ex-Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, Trench, fills the screen, and utters the words, “I’m back”.   And, yes they are people.  Hollywood action stars don’t retire any more, they just get parts in ‘The Expendables’ where they can lampoon their previous career, have a laugh and remind cinemagoers who they once were. 

Who would have thought two years ago that the first, ‘The Expendables’, with a flimsy plot, a bunch of old action stars and reasonably small budget,  would become a box office hit, going on to make $US274 million worldwide? Probably only Sly Stallone since ‘The Expendables 2’ was on the drawing board even before the first one was released.

We should learn to never underestimate Stallone, with all his faults (and I’m referring to acting here) he somehow knows how to turn what shouldn’t work into a success. Never one to hop off the train he’s shoved into motion a number two was always going to happen.

This time the team of wrinkly, but surprisingly buff action heroes, of Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner (Dolph Lundgren), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews), Toll Road (Randy Couture) is joined by newcomers, Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth), an ex-army sniper and Maggie (Nan Yu), a combat proficient, computer whiz.  Church (Bruce Willis), who we are really uncertain is a good or a bad guy, sends Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and the gang to recover a package from a crashed plane in Bulgaria. 

There they encounter the very nasty, Jean Vilain, (Jean-Claude Van Damme).  During this meeting, amidst much chest beating, something goes wrong (I can’t say what or it will ruin the surprise) which turns the retrieval of the package from Vilain into a very personal vendetta for the group. 

Along the way, you will join the audience in solid laughter as each new action hero arrives on the scene, their characters written so that you will find yourself muttering the titles of eighties films and wracking your brain to remember which character had once said THAT line.

Of crafting the team of old-school mercenaries loved by audiences worldwide, Stallone has said that he was originally inspired by classic action films like The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch and Dogs of War – movies that were defined by hard-hitting action and by tough yet sympathetic characters, “These guys harken back to a time when our heroes were flesh & blood. They didn't have any extraordinary abilities other than the desire to survive and to be victorious, even at the expense of their own lives. There's something that is relatable about that.”

As expected, ‘The Expendables 2’ delivers much knuckle crunching fights, machine gun shooting and kick-boxing action and if you don’t find yourself laughing then it will only be because you are too young to take this trip down memory lane.  You will lose count of the dead bodies and the myriad of ways they die but that’s okay because you are not meant to remember this movie for long.  I couldn’t repeat the plot of the first one if you threatened my life with a tank.

Stallone reflects on the film, “Maybe it’s the beginning of a revival. Or, maybe it’s the end of an era. But one thing is for sure; we’ll never see this again. To get all of us together at one time is a minor miracle. It’s never happened before and it will never happen again.”

‘The Expendables 2’ provides enough tongue-in-cheek fun, action and nostalgia to score another box office hit and I seriously doubt ‘The Expendables’ “will never happen again.”  I imagine there is a script already sitting in Sly’s out tray and a few emails to buddies, beginning with, “I’m back.  If you’re not busy...”

 

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Hit & Run ★ ★ ★ ½

Release Dates
 

Australia:  6th September, 2012; USA 22nd August, 2012; UK12th October 2012
Other Countries: Release Dates

 

SWIFT & FUN

 

          The actors were clearly having a good time. The audience was laughing around me and I had the occasional giggle, so if you are looking for a bit of light fun with attractive leads, you won’t be disappointed with “Hit and Run”.

The film is written, co-produced and co-directed by the lead, Dax Shepard.  He does a great job playing the laid-back Charlie Bronson, hiding away in witness protection living idyllically with his soul mate Annie (Kristen Bell).   These two have a real chemistry on screen and it is not surprising as they are a real life couple.

Shepherd appears to have a penchant for rounding up mates and making films and it was whilst doing press for ‘Brother’s Justice’ (a mockumentary film with many of this same cast) that the idea for ‘Hit and Run’ was launched. “We kept getting asked what we were going to do next, and we just started saying we were going to do a car chase movie,” Shepard recalls. “We had no script or premise – we just knew we loved car chase movies.  And because we had said it, we knew we would have to deliver.”

The film, in fact, had no casting director. “We didn’t cast any strangers,” Co-Director David Palmer explains. “They all got paid SAG scale for a low budget movie – because they all love Dax. There’s a friendship and trust and sweetness about him that just brings everybody together.” Notes Shepard, “This was pro ably the worst work environment that most of these actors have had in years.  It was chaotic, but everyone really had a good time.”

In ‘Hit and Run’, Charlie Bronson (Dax Shepard), a get-away driver for a bank robber gang is in witness protection.  He places his life at risk when his girlfriend, Annie (Kristen Bell) is offered an interview for her dream job in LA.  He decides rather than losing her he will drive her to LA despite his case worker Marshall Randy Anderson (Tom Arnold) forbidding him to leave.  There is an ongoing joke involving Randy’s inability to control his gun and his car which works very well throughout the movie.  In fact, Tom Arnold’s Randy is a standout character.

Unfortunately, Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) the jealous ex-boyfriend alerts Charlie’s old gang leader, Alex Dmitri (Bradley Cooper) and the rest is a car pursuit that evokes shades of the classic 1977 Burt Reynolds ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ but in our current era’s ribald style humor. There are many well known actors in bit parts; Sean Hayes, Kristin Chenoweth, Beau Bridges, Jason Bateman to name a few.

Whilst ‘Hit and Run’, isn’t going to drive away with any awards, as my companion commented, "its good fun, good laughs and at the end you feel good."  And if I think back to my first viewing of ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, I think I felt much the same way.

 

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The Dark Knight Rises ★ ★ ★ ★

Big and weighty but it does rise


Release Dates
Australia: 19th July, 2012 USA 20th July, 2012 UK 20th July, 2012
Other Countries: Release Dates

           During the two hours and forty-four minutes of the ‘The Dark Night Rises’, in my head I wrote three different reviews.  The first review started with "Batman is beyond cool and Director Christopher Nolan’s dark vision is a lesson in creating fascinating well-drawn characters. And wow, Anne Hathaway is a fabulous Cat Woman."

Second review approximately an hour in: “Move it along Mr Nolan, enough already of the miserable Bruce Wayne wallowing in self-pity. Get him a psychologist and stop having your characters repeat themselves.  What an overblown monster film that sinks in the middle.  Now I know why it’s almost three hours long.”

Third review over the last hour: “Finally the Dark Knight does indeed rise and hits meteoric heights with a dramatic premise, a seemingly unstoppable villain and exhilarating chase scenes.”

This final film of Nolan’s trilogy is set eight years later and Nolan wants to explore every question raised in the first two films.  D.A. Harvey Dent’s elevation to idol after his death at Batman’s hands haunts Commissioner Gordon.   Only he knows that Dent died, not as a hero but as the vengeful Two-Face—and that Batman disappeared in the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good of Gotham City. 

Bruce Wayne now a reclusive, hobbling shadow of himself has no interest in the outside world until he encounters master thief Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway)—better known as Catwoman.  Despite her robbery of his own safe, he is intrigued by her and it is this curiosity that prompts his first steps back to life outside Wayne Manor.

Screenwriter Jonathan Nolan says, “Something about her morally ambiguous philosophy finally gives Batman someone he can relate to. The dynamic between them is so fresh—the playful way she kind of pokes fun at him—it sparks a connection between them and takes some of the somberness away from his character.”

Meanwhile it appears there is a new villain in the city, Bane (an unrecognizable mouth-manacled, Tom Hardy).  Malevolent and physically brutal he personifies evil and embarks on a master plan that is not clear.  One thing is clear is that only Batman can save Gotham from him. 

Batman is not alone in his fight, Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard), a wealthy philanthropist on the board of Wayne Enterprises, and police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) join him as enthusiastic allies in thwarting the latest threat.  Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) returns as the ultimate gadget man and Michael Caine gives his usual perfect performance as an Alfred who no longer wishes to stand by as his master risks his life and happiness. 

In all three Dark Knight films the characters are the central focus, even more than the action.  Producer Emma Thomas affirms, “Right from the start, Chris set out to make each of these films something that could not be categorized into any one genre.

With this film, Nolan completes the story arc he commenced with 2005’s “Batman Begins.” He recalls, “We felt a tremendous sense of responsibility to fulfill expectations based on the first two movies while giving the audience something they hadn’t seen before. It was a tricky balance.”

 “In deciding on who the next villain would be, it was imperative that it was someone completely different from the Joker—that he be a brute force.” 

In one compelling scene Batman and Bane endure a lengthy fist fight in which it seems Batman may not triumph.  “This scene required very intense preparation,” says Nolan.  “When it came time to shoot, Christian and Tom worked extremely well together. It was frighteningly real, and quite intimidating to see these iconic, larger-than-life characters really go at it. There are plenty of other large-scale action scenes in the film, but that face-to-face confrontation between these two adversaries was something I really felt was the centerpiece of the film.”

Arguably, Batman’s greatest assets are his vehicles and he finally goes “wheels up,” thanks to Lucius Fox’s latest contribution to his arsenal: The Bat. Nolan and production designer Nathan Crowley, collaborated on the design of the state-of-the-art airborne machine.  “There are a lot of moving parts: the cockpit opens; the aerial flaps all operate; and it has working rotors and lights. It’s nearly 30 feet long and 17 feet wide and weighs about 3,000 pounds; it’s a big piece of machinery.”

As the rise and fall, and rise again, of this last Dark Knight instalment draws to a close in the final scenes, there will be no disgruntled patrons in any cinema.  It may be a little long, it may be a little too dark, and it may be we’ve learnt a little more about Batman than we care to know.  However, there is enough greatness here to overcome the lag.  In an age where blockbusters are manufactured to please rather than provoke, most will forgive Nolan’s indulgences in this grandly imagined and passionately executed conclusion, which appears to leave more than a few doors open for another series.

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