Author: Alton Williams

Defendor (DVD review) ****

A superhero movie that you haven’t even heard of? Heck, a superhero movie that even this critic hadn’t heard of until I saw it on the DVD shelf at ASDA. That is how under the radar a film Defendor is. Unlike the majority of superhero fare, this is a film that hasn’t been graced with a cinema release, rather going the straight to DVD route, but this doesn’t make it a film any less worth checking out than any other superhero flick.
Being the directorial debut of unknown Peter Stebbings, who also wrote this film, Defendor is perhaps the most different and most realistic superhero movie to be made to date. I know what you’re thinking – wasn’t that Kick-Ass? Well, comparisons to that film are inevitable but what you get here is even more realistic than that film and perhaps provides the freshest, most unique take on the superhero genre seen in a good while.

During the day, Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson) is a normal, if slightly naive, man who works in the construction industry and whose only friend in colleague Paul Carter (Michael Kelley), whose son Arthur saved years earlier. During the night time, he transforms into his alter-ego, Defendor, protecting the streets from thugs. The city he lives in has a problem with crime but nobody is prepared to stand up and fight for themselves. The police are slow to catch the wrongdoers but Arthur has a huge willpower to do what he can to help the people, utilizing his arsenal of homemade weapons that includes a trench club, marbles, jars of wasps, flares and a slingshot. He helps Kat (Kat Dennings) one night from corrupt cop Dooney (Elias Koteas) little realising that she is a hooker and doesn’t need help. Despite their huge differences, a friendship forms between Arthur and Kat and it isn’t long before she is helping him in his mission to track down the mythical Captain Industry, who he has been searching for all his life after his mother died at his hands. Arthur comes to believe that Captain Industry is in fact a Serbian crime boss who Dooney is working for and he sets out to stop him once and for all. Meanwhile, his grasp on reality seems to be suffering and his relationships with those close to him are being threatened as he must not only contend with the bad guys but also the law who, following a psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Ellen Park (Sandra Oh), believe him to be delusional. What others think doesn’t matter to Arthur though and he is determined to stop the bad guys and prove that one person really can make a difference whatever the cost to himself.

If Kick-Ass is not your average superhero movie then Defendor is a positively abnormal one. Clearly made on a low budget that makes even Kick-Ass’s budget look huge by comparison, it is a very low key and small scale superhero movie (which perhaps explains why the film received a straight to DVD release as opposed to a theatrical one). There are no big effects set pieces to be found here and the film is largely lacking in the action department, the action mostly consisting of unsophisticated brawls that see the hero take beatings as frequently as he dishes them out. This film is not driven by action, however, but purely by character, the protagonist here being so thoroughly developed and engaging character that, even if we can’t quite relate to him, we certainly can give a damn about who he is and what happens to him. Flashforwards to Arthur’s meeting with the psychiatrist along with flashbacks to his childhood give us clear insights into why he thinks the way he does and has turned out to be such a decent, if delusional, person and how a simple misunderstanding hast turned into a personal mission for him. These things really allow us to get into Arthur’s mind and understand why he does what he does, and the fact that, unlike in Kick-Ass, this film portrays superheroics as being extremely undesirable only makes the character all the more sympathetic. THIS is what a superhero would be like if they were to exist in real life. It wouldn’t be some comic book obsessed teenager going out to fight crime for the fun of it, it would be some delusional middle age man who believes he is a superhero going out and fighting street thugs with nothing more than the most basic of tools at his disposal (even the basic gear possessed by Kick-Ass is more advanced) and a costume that is nothing more than a ‘mask’ painted onto his face, a turtleneck with a D logo taped on with duct tape and a helmet with a light and camera that records his adventures into a VHS tape in it. While being billed as a comedy, this film does tend to lean towards the tragic rather than the comedic with the story being more sad than it is funny but this isn’t to say that the film doesn’t boast some funny moments as well. The dialogue has a tendency to be pretty bad but almost deliberately so and in fact being good at the same time because it is from stuff like this that the humour emerges. “Who writes your dialogue? Superman?”, one character asks of Defendor, to which he replies “No, I write it myself.” Most of Defendor’s one liners are indeed very cheesy but given what we learn about the character and that the character does seem to have something of an obsession with comic books, which has fed into his delusional view of the world, the dialogue actually works well. Rather than the writing by Peter Stebbings – which is actually pretty good for the most part, even if the plot isn’t especially original – what really makes the delivery of these lines work is the central performance by Woody Harrelson, who is perfectly cast. As Arthur, Harrelson is totally nuts but also very convincing, delivering lots of emotion and truly making us believe in him as a character whose grasp on reality may be a bit out of whack but only has the best of intentions in his heart. The supporting characters are also solid with the wonderfully odd Kat Dennings, who is proving to be quite a versatile actress, convincing as a streetwise hooker and the relationship that develops between her character and Arthur proves to be bizarre yet very sweet. Elsewhere in the cast, Elias Koteas is suitably tough and brutal as the corrupt cop who really is the main villain rather than the man he is working for but Sandra Oh is rather underused. All in all, Defendor is a superhero movie that proves to be very different for its focus on the central character instead of big action set pieces. It certainly won’t be to everyone’s tastes – people looking for all out comedy will be disappointed to find that this is more a drama with some moments of humour than a full on laugh fest and those who like their superhero movies action packed will be disappointed by the more character driven approach here – but if you like your superhero movies to be based around an engaging central character who themselves are the focus of the film rather than their adventures then you will find a lot to like here. The good message at its heart – anyone can be a hero, all it takes is kindness and doing a simply good deed – may not be the most insightful ever but it is certainly a poignant one and something that may just leave you with a sense of good will after seeing this film.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

The Other Guys ****

Will Ferrell is, in this critic’s opinion, one of the funniest men in America. When it comes to choosing projects to star in, however, he often doesn’t pick the ones that show this the best, his films being very hit and miss in terms of both quality and popularity, ones like Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby setting the box office alight (in the states at least – here in the UK Will Ferrell is something of a non factor) and winning rave reviews while others like Land of the Lost are commercial failures and critical duds







(this critic seems to be one of the very few who actually liked that film). The Will Ferrell starring vehicles that tend to receive the most positive reviews are those that see him team up with director Adam McKay, their previous collaborations including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, the aforementioned Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of any of these films, considering them to be good but hardly the amazing comedies that many make them out to be. Even I, however, had great anticipation for Ferrell and McKay’s latest effort ahead of its release – a spoof (the good kind not the atrociously awful Disaster Movie kind) of Hollywood buddy cop action movies entitled The Other Guys – and can honestly that the film does live up to the hype, perhaps being one of Will Ferrell’s funniest films yet.

Danson (Dwayne Johnson) and Highsmith (Samuel L Jackson) are a pair of intrepid cops who are living the law-enforcement dream. The criminals fear them, while their colleagues and the community revere them. They’re the heroes of the New York Police Department – achingly cool from top to toe, with women and criminals alike falling at their feet. Then there are detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) – they’re ‘the other guys’, the lowly desk jockeys that just get in the way of glory boys like Danson and Highsmith. But when a chase goes wrong claiming the lives of New York’s top cops, there is a new opening for the position of the heroes within the Police Department. For Hoitz it is the perfect opportunity to get away from his desk and see some action but his partner Gamble is only interested in doing paperwork and staying away from trouble. When a fairly innocuous-looking case turns up, it’s left to Gamble and Hoitz to take the reins. Investigating the rich and powerful David Ershon (Steve Coogan) against the orders of their superior Captain Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton), they discover what first appears to be nothing but begins to unravel and reveals the city’s biggest crime yet. But do these guys have what it takes to bring in the bad guys?

Unlike many spoofs that make fun of the very films that they are parodying, The Other Guys is a film that pays respectful homage to its inspirations and one that can certainly be classed as an equal alongside the likes of Lethal Weapon, 48 Hrs., Starsky & Hutch and Hot Fuzz (itself a spoof/homage of the buddy cop movie), in fact being less a spoof of and more a loving homage to the subgenre. It is this respectfulness that sets the film apart from other similar movies – in particular this year’s Cop Out – with Adam McKay bringing a degree of smartness to a film that is inherently silly in many ways and playing heavily on the excesses that often feature in Hollywood action movies – in particular the manner in which the heroes always walk away from explosions unscathed, something that doesn’t happen in one of this film’s funniest scenes – but doing so in a way that seems witty and clever rather than cheap and crude as is the case in many recent spoof movies. McKay, who both writes and directs, brings on the laughs in everything from the dialogue to the action sequences with random improvised banter between characters, such as an argument about who would win in a fight between a lion and a tuna, proving to be absolutely hilarious, the witty insults they throw at each other being sublime, funny twists on classic cop movie staples, such as good cop-bad cop being replaced by bad cop-bad cop due to a misunderstanding, featuring frequently and the well executed action sequences, in particular the opening chase sequence through the streets of New York, being as funny as they are thrilling. In spite of the occasional conversation that may seem a tad gross, McKay has perhaps made his funniest movie yet here. This might all be for nowt, however, if it weren’t for the comedy prowess of the leads. Will Ferrell is on top form as always, delivering one laugh out loud moment after another – little surprise there – but the real revelation is Mark Wahlberg who, with this and his brief role in this year’s Date Night, has found a niche for himself as a comedy star and effortlessly keeps up with Ferrell in bringing on the funny moments. As with any buddy cop movie what really makes the pairing work, however, is the fact that their characters are completely mismatched. In the grand tradition of buddy cops and following in the footsteps of Murtaugh and Riggs, Cates and Hammond, Starsky and Hutch, and Angel and Butterman, the partnership of Gamble and Hoitz is one that couldn’t seem more mismatched, Gamble being a cop who lives for paperwork and who just wants to stay out of the way of the action while Hoitz wants nothing more than to be right in the midst of the action and come face to face with a bit of danger. The two characters couldn’t be more different and the way they played by Ferrell and Wahlberg makes for a pairing that delivers a very high hit rate of laughs while also managing to pull on the heartstrings occasionally as each of the character’s darker sides emerge thanks to some strong character development and revealing flashbacks that help to build them as characters and make them characters who aren’t just funny but also sympathetic, thus allowing us to care about them as well as laugh at their antics. It isn’t just Ferrell and Wahlberg who deliver funny performances either with Michael Keaton getting a fair share of laughs as the Captain who also works a second job at Bed Bath and Beyond and who repeatedly references TLC, Steve Coogan being very funny as the sort of villain whose tactic of dealing with unwanted interference from cops is a bizarrely successful – and very funny – method of bribery and Eva Mendes, who amuses as the most unlikely of romantic interests for Gamble. A number of other recognisable performers are present among the cast as well with Rob Riggle and Damon Wayans Jr. playing rival cops to Gamble and Hoitz but the show is really stolen by the duo of Dwayne Johnson (who it is great to see back in an action role after being involved a few too many kiddie flicks) and Samuel L. Jackson, whose roles may be just prolonged cameos but nonetheless prove to be truly hilarious and getting the film off to a very funny start even before Ferrell and Wahlberg appear on the scene. All in all, The Other Guys is a truly hilarious action comedy that delivers both laughs and thrills in plentiful supply, making for a perfect piece of popcorn entertainment and easily making up for any misses that Ferrell may have had in recent years. Don’t see any of the other movies that are on release right now, see this one instead.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

Devil **½

“From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan”. These words, which have adorned all the marketing materials for Devil, may well be the death knell for the film in terms of attracting an audience. Shyamalan, who was once regarded as a visionary filmmaker and whose name equalled must see movie, has come to be regarded as a self righteous hack, a director who makes bad movies yet acts as if he has made great ones – case in point, The Last Airbender, a
film that had all the necessary ingredients for a fun popcorn blockbuster yet still ended up being mind numbingly tedious to sit through – and whose name is now more likely to inspire boos of discontent than awes of amazement. Never before has such a great filmmaker fallen as far as Shyamalan has. Many, inspired by Shyamalan’s recent disaster, will no doubt have decided to steer clear of this film and you could be forgiven for doing so. There’s just one thing though – while the marketing says “From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan” (something that the marketing department at Universal Pictures may come to regret), this is NOT an M. Night Shyamalan film. Rather Devil is a film produced as part of The Night Chronicles, a production entity focused on creating a series of supernatural thrillers. The projects they develop are to be based on original ideas by M. Night Shyamalan (he does have some pretty good ideas after all, he just doesn’t seem to know how to execute them properly) but will neither be written or directed by him, rather up and coming filmmakers who will work with some collaboration from Shyamalan (whose involvement is mainly in a producing capacity). In the case of Devil, the director’s chair has gone to John Erick Dowdle, who previously wrote and directed the 2008 scare flick Quarantine and his brother Drew Dowdle, who co-wrote that film and is making his directorial debut with this one. The job of writing the screenplay, meanwhile, has gone to Brian Nelson, whose previous credits include 2006’s Hard Candy and 2007’s 30 Days of Night. As you can tell, M. Night Shyamalan’s creative influence over the film is fairly minimal, the story behind the film being his but, despite collaboration from him, the film really belonging to the Brothers Dowdle and Brian Nelson. How much difference does this really make to the quality of the film though? Based on Devil not all that much apparently.

The fates of five complete strangers – a salesman (Geoffrey Arend), an old woman (Jenny O’Hara), a young woman (Bojana Novakovic), a security guard (Bokeem Woodbine) and a mechanic (Logan Marshall-Green) – are sealed from the minute they step into the same lift in an inner-city office block. None of them could ever have imagined that the seemingly small decisions that brought them to this moment were likely to be the last they ever made. All, that is, except one of them – the Devil, who is pulling sinister strings to make terrifying events unfold. As the lift grinds to a standstill, the group begins to suspect that something is definitely amiss. As lights flicker on and off and strange things reach out of the darkness, hysteria sets in and four of the five strangers must fight for their lives as those on the outside – troubled cop Detective Bowden (Chris Messina), religious security guard Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) and his colleague Lustig (Matt Craven) – can do little but look on in horror as the terrifying events unfold. But which of these characters is the Devil? And what can the others possibly do to save themselves from this desperate situation?

If you can ignore the ridiculousness of the premise – the concept of a group of strangers being trapped together in an elevator and one of them not being who they seem is solid but the idea of one of them being the Devil is rather absurd (this isn’t one of Shyamalan’s better ideas) – you will find that Devil is a film that strives to be different from the many horror movies that you are used to seeing come out of Hollywood. This is a film that really tries hard to mess with your head rather than falling back on tired scare tactics by opting not to make you jump out of your seat with unimaginative jump scares and instead seeking to unnerve you, managing to establish a sense of unease before the characters have even set foot in the elevator by having establishing shots of New York City presented upside down (courtesy of some very good and quite chilling cinematography), creating a sense of disorientation that carries through much of the duration. And, when the characters do enter the elevator, the confined setting proves suitably claustrophobic, making for a perfect setting for the film’s events. Within the confined environment of the lift, simple things such as lights flickering and creaking noises – effective use of sounds being particularly important as a lot of what happens happens in the dark – become effective tools as menace with the knowledge that every moment that something like it happens it may well be the final moment of one of the character’s lives. Through these simple, non gimmicky techniques plenty of chilling scares are dished up and, consequently, the events that unfold are almost as uneasy to watch as they are for the characters to experience. The scare factor is aided considerably thanks to the performances from the cast members with almost everyone being excellent, the reactions of each of the characters seeming all the more convincing as a result and, thus, making us truly believe that they are scared for their lives, something which also heightens the tension for us as a viewers. This also makes guessing which one of them is the Devil all the more difficult as does the fact that we know nothing about any of the characters prior to them entering the elevator, meaning that there are no obvious indicators as to which one it is – although you have a 1 in 5 chance of guessing correctly. The lack of knowledge about the characters also proves to be a flaw, however, as, while it allows us to believe that it could be any one of them, it also makes it harder to really care about the characters as they get picked off one by one because we don’t really know who they are or what they are like. Additionally, the characters each seem to serve a particular stereotypical purpose – the salesman is funny and a bit perverted, the old woman is the natural sympathetic character, the young woman is the one who seems to be stirring things up, the guard is claustrophobic and the mechanic seems shifty – meaning that originality isn’t really something present among the characters. This does not reflect on the performances but rather the writing and this is isn’t the only problem in that department either. The plot is really lacking and not as engaging as it could be, many revelations come after you have probably figured them out for yourself already and the final twist and reveal of the Devil is just lame, having very little impact and almost diminishing the effectiveness of the film up to that point. So, while the film clearly does try to be a bit different and succeeds to an extent, a very poor twist in the tale and lack of a truly engrossing plot make for a film that is merely average rather than great as it could potentially have been (perhaps without the supernatural element?). Were Devil written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, it would be considered yet another dud on his behalf but instead it is an underwhelming follow up to Quarantine for the Brothers Dowdle. Nonetheless, however, if you do see it you may not want to step in an elevator again afterwards.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)