Author: Alton Williams

Date Night ****

Last month the awful Jennifer Aniston/Gerard Butler starrer The Bounty Hunter attempted to combine aspects from the romance, comedy and action genres. Suffice to say, despite solid credentials from its cast and director, the attempt was a complete disaster with the film failing to provide anything of value as either a romance, a comedy or an actioner. Now, another film is attempting something similar but Date Night is no repeat of the awfulness of The Bounty Hunter. For starters, the credentials of those involved are quite a bit more impressive. Say what you like about director Shawn Levy but, while he has never made anything especially memorable, he has a fairly consistent track record of delivering comedies that entertain with films like Cheaper By The Dozen, The Pink Panther and Night at the Museum showing that he is very capable of delivering crowd pleasing humour. More importantly perhaps are stars Steve Carell and Tina Fey, who are two of the hottest properties in American comedy right now, each having conquered both the television (Carell with his leading role in the American version of The Office and Fey for creating, writing and starring in the Emmy award winning 30 Rock) and film (Carell has starred in hit comedies such as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Evan Almighty and Get Smart while Fey wrote and co-starred in Mean Girls and was also the star of Baby Mama) mediums. On top of that, the film also boasts a rather impressive supporting cast featuring the likes of Taraji P. Henson, Ray Liotta, William Fichtner, Leighton Meester, Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg. All in all, quite impressive credentials and, coupled with a simple yet fantastic concept with lots of potential for hilarity, this is a film with the makings of a hit and one that really deserves to be successful.

Claire Foster (Tina Fey) and her husband Phil (Steve Carell) are a suburban couple who slog through their daily lives and try to make the best of their marriage. Even their regular ‘date nights’ of dinner and a movie have become just another routine. In an attempt to reignite the marital spark, they visit a trendy Manhattan bistro, but fail to get a table. In desperation, they pretend to be another couple – the Trippelhorns – who haven’t turned up. This turns out to be a big mistake when two scary gangsters (Jimmi Simpson and Common) turn up looking for the Trippelhorns, intending to retrieve something that has been stolen from crime boss Joe Miletto (Ray Liotta). Suddenly, Claire and Phil find themselves running for their lives and attempting to track down the real Trippelhorns – Taste (James Franco) and Whippit (Mila Kunis) – along the way getting help from private security expert Holbrooke (Mark Wahlberg) and police Detective Arroyo (Taraji P. Henson). As their date becomes a night they’ll never forget, Claire and Phil take an unexpected walk on the wild side, and begin to remember what made them so special together in the first place.

If it had been made with anyone other than Steve Carell and Tina Fey in the leading roles, Date Night would have been average and forgettable. The writing and gags, while providing a few laughs, are largely not much to speak of, lacking the sharp wit of any of Fey’s self-written stuff, e.g. 30 Rock and Mean Girls, and generally being predictable and not laugh out loud funny. On their own the gags may be nothing special but coupled with the perfect comic timing of Carell and Fey they prove very funny. It is a testament to the strengths of Carell and Fey as comic performers that even with sub-par material they are still able to deliver something that is genuinely funny and that provides plenty of laugh out loud moments. Much of this can be attributed to their improvisational skills as it is clear that they haven’t just read the script and spoken their lines but have rather have done a substantial amount of ad-libbing, their improvisation really raising the comic qualities of the overall film. Scenes that could be completely devoid of humour in the hands of anyone else, here are transformed into scenes that will have (some of) you on the edge of your seat with laughter. It really is hard to imagine anyone other than Carell and Fey playing the roles. And it isn’t just in the humour regard that they deliver. We really can buy them as a married couple because they have such a convincing married couple dynamic, one that I suspect many married people may be able to relate to, particularly the monotony of routine that can arise in a marriage and the desire for more excitement, two things which are major elements in the story of the film. And when the action gets started, sparks really fly between them, their chemistry becoming truly electric. Simply put, on every level, they are perfect together. And thanks to them, this film provides one hilarious scene after another, including plenty of physical comedy as well as word play and what just may be one of the funniest car chases ever seen in a film. Despite boasting such an impressive supporting cast, the other performers generally fail to stand out, many of them having little more than cameo appearances and, unlike Carell and Fey, failing afoul of the flaws in the writing, but there is at least a very amusing turn from Mark Wahlberg in what is perhaps one of his best roles in a while. The absence of strength or screen time from other performers isn’t really a problem though as the majority of the film is focused entirely on Carell and Fey and they truly are fantastic, completely carrying the movie all on their own. So, if you are a fan of the zany comic stylings of Steve Carell and Tina Fey you are sure to love Date Night. In spite of shortcomings behind the camera, it is extremely funny and a great film to watch if you are out on your date night.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

The Joneses ***

It has been estimated that the average person sees 20,000 adverts in a single year. Marketing is a key part of everyday life that, try as you might, cannot be avoided, with advertising appearing pretty much everywhere – on television, in cinemas, in magazines and newspapers, on buses and bus stops, on bilboards, and the list goes on. All this, however, is just the marketing we are actually aware of. Companies will go to great lengths to ensure that we buy their products, with undercover – or stealth – marketing being quite popular with companies determined to get hands on our cash. This usually involves the company paying an actor to use a certain product openly in an area where the target cosumers congreate. Such is the central theme of The Joneses, a satirical comedy based around a seemingly perfect American family who are not as they appear – they aren’t just living the American Dream, they are selling it. Will you be keeping up with The Joneses?

Kate Jones (Demi Moore) and her husband Steve (David Duchovny) are a seemingly perfect couple who, along with their equally blemish-free teenagers Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth), move into a beautiful house in a well-to-do community. Everything about the Joneses is fresh, exciting and up-to-the-minute, and they quickly charm their new neighbours. But the Joneses are not a family. They work for a stealth marketing organisation, Kate is Steve’s boss, and their job is to make the public want the things they’ve got. From clothes and food to golf clubs and beauty products, The Joneses are walking, talking advertisements for the lot. Everything goes according to plan until Steve begins to develop real feelings for Kate – and to question their life of luxurious deception…

There is something extremely ironic about The Joneses. Filmmakers often receive a lot of flack for the inclusion of product placement in their films yet here, in a film that satirises consumerism and everything that comes with it, products (at least some, if not all of which are real – in the first few minutes there is a HTC phone which I saw an advert for on a bus stop only a few days ago) are flaunted left, right and centre. For all we know, this film itself could a piece of stealth marketing, one that is masquerading as satirical commentary. The products may well be intended as satire but if the products are very much real then so may the plugs they receive. When the film is attempting satire, it presents a pretty interesting picture and says quite a few things about conformity and the need to fit in the things we all want but don’t really need. However, the film is only semi-successful in this regard. First time writer/director Derrick Borte does quite well in examining the surface of the issues he is exploring but simply does not dig enough, with the true potential of the concept simply not being exploited and many of the issues not being examined with enough conviction. The greater problem is that the satire too often makes way for the other elements of the storyline, especially Steve’s disenchantment with his life, which often seems to have priority over the satire and isn’t nearly as interesting. When the film is dealing with family drama it occasionally verges on soap opera territory with events surrounding the film’s central characters sometimes at odds with the satirical aspirations of the storyline, and the result is a film that is interesting but is never as much so as it has the potential to be. Additionally, while the film is subtly humourous on occasions, it fails to provide any laugh out loud moments or any particular funny observations – a problem considering this is part comedy after all and disappointing considering the distinct potential of the concept. Consequently, while this film may make you think it may not make you laugh, particularly if you are not very susceptible to more subtle humour. Despite many of the flaws in the writing and execution department the film is at least carried by two very strong leading performances from Demi Moore and David Duchovny, who share a chemistry that is very believable and each work well on their own too, with Duchovy in particular having charisma to spare. Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth are somewhat underwhelming by comparison but do a competent job nonetheless. Overall, The Joneses manages to be a semi-interesting satire that will certainly make you think about the nature of products and how they are sold to us but so much more really could have been made of it all. So, to answer the question, you may not be all that bothered about keeping up with The Joneses.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

Dear John **½

Adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels are just the kind of films that separate most film critics from the average moviegoer. Past Sparks adaptations such as A Walk to Remember, The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe proved relatively successful at the box office but were derided by critics who considered them unsophisticated Hollywood fluff. And the same is true of the latest Sparks story to be brought to the big screen, Dear John. As expected, on its release in America critics responded with a collective yawn, but at cinemas it proved to be one of the most popular Sparks adaptations yet, almost doubling expectations on its opening weekend, even if less than spectacular legs in the following weeks suggest that cinemagoers too may not have been all that impressed by this one. So, how good is Dear John really? After all, star Channing Tatum is not exactly known for being either a convincing or charismatic actor, and director Lasse Hallström’s track record has been somewhat hit and miss as of late, his last film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale lacking in several key areas.

A young soldier, John Tyree (Channing Tatum) is home on leave when he has a chance encounter with idealistic college student Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried). When Savannah’s bag falls from a pier into the sea, John impulsively jumps after it. Touched by John’s chivalry, and intrigued by his brooding good looks, Savannah finds herself falling passionately in love over the course of two magical weeks and also gets to know John’s lonesome father (Richard Jenkins). When John is shipped overseas for his next tour of duty, Savannah writes asking him to tell her everything that happens to him: “That way we’ll be with each other all the time”. Over the next seven tumultuous years, the couple is separated by John’s increasingly dangerous deployments. While meeting only sporadically, they stay in touch by sending a continuous stream of love letters overseas – correspondence that eventually triggers fateful consequences.

Dear John is a film that boasts one truly excellent performance, not from either of the leads but from Richard Jenkins who, as John’s Autistic father who is incapable of showing emotion, completely convinces in a truly sincere and believable performance of a character with Autism that is much more restrained than some of the more over the top portrayals of characters with the condition that have been seen in other films. It’s really saying something that Jenkins playing a character who cannot show emotion still shows more emotion that leading man Channing Tatum. Tatum is woefully miscast as John, his miscasting virtually ruining what could have a pretty good emotional drama. His ‘acting’ ability is a vacuum of emotion and charisma with him displaying the same virtually blank stare throughout the entire film and it is rather to see how anyone, especially Savannah, could be so easily charmed by his character. Of course, the target audience – teen girls – won’t care too much about Tatum’s inadequacies as an actor, they will probably just be happy that he gets his shirt off several times. Clearly, Tatum’s casting is more for purposes of eye candy than acting ability. He may look the part as a soldier but looking the part does not make for a good performance. Unfortunately, the lack of emotion on Tatum’s part virtually destroys any chemistry that could have existed between the characters of John and Savannah which, in turn, makes for many scenes that seem dull and lifeless. It’s a real shame as Amanda Seyfried is really quite delightful and gets all the emotions just right. Sadly, a one sided chemistry is no chemistry at all and no sparks (sorry, couldn’t resist) fly between her and Tatum at all. In addition to this lack of chemistry, another major flaw of the film is that Tatum gets far more screen time than either of his co-stars, thus robbing of the performances that are actually good for substantial amounts of screen time. When the focus is purely on John it is really hard to care much about what is actually happening. While Tatum is the thing that really ruins the film, though, the inferiorities of the overall product cannot be blamed entirely on him. At times the film is too dull to really engage the attention and events do seem to drag in some segments, notably the ones where the focus is only on John. The writing is decent but doesn’t really spark (sorry, last time) with quite a sweet and moving story being let down by an absence of memorable dialogue, a feeling of disjointment and a strong degree of predictability, even if the plot does veer off in some slightly unexpected directions late on. On a positive note, however, the characters are mostly quite well developed and the way the film tackles the issue of Autism is sensitive without seeming preachy or out of place. Additionally, the inclusion of a 9/11 element within the story doesn’t detract from the main focus of the film and ultimately feels more natural in its inclusion than in a certain other film that was in cinemas recently. The overall execution of the film, though, is decidely average, with this being far from Lasse Hallström’s best work and the overall product being rather forgettable. So, all in all, Dear John is a romantic drama that is not without promise but the miscasting of Tatum in the lead role combined with merely satisfactory direction from Hallström makes for a film that could have been great but is instead mediocre.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

Cemetery Junction ****

The second directorial effort from Ricky Gervais is not a Ricky Gervais movie per se. His new film Cemetery Junction, which sees him writing and directing alongside long time writing partner Stephen Merchant, does not feature Gervais as its star, with him only playing quite a small role and Merchant only appearing in a cameo. Instead, this coming of age tale set in 1970s Reading boasts a cast made up mostly of young up and coming stars, (although a few bigger names do feature as well). Also, while many people will likely go into this film expecting a comedy in the vein of Gervais’s past work, what we get here is rather a drama that happens to feature a few (or should I say lots of) funny moments.

It’s the glam rock-era of 1970s England and the small city of Reading feels about as far as you can possibly get from where the action is. But for Freddie Taylor (Christian Cooke) and his two best friends Bruce Pearson (Tom Hughes) and Snork (Jack Doolan), this is all they’ve ever known. As they spend their days joking, drinking, chasing girls, fighting and running afoul of police officers Sgt.Wyn Davies (Steve Speirs) and Renwick (Burn Gorman), Freddie can’t help wondering if they’re wasting their lives. Desiring to avoid being stuck there his whole life, working in a factory every day but never having anything to show for it like his father Len (Ricky Gervais), he yearns to leave their cosy-but-blinkered environment and see what the rest of the world has to offer – but cool, charismatic Bruce and lovable loser Snork are happy with life the way it is, or so they claim to be, as Bruce has long talked about leaving but never gets around to doing so. When Freddie gets a new job working as a door to door insurance salesman for Mr Kendrick (Ralph Fiennes) and bumps into his former school sweetheart Julie (Felicity Jones), who is engaged to Freddie’s colleague Mike Ramsay (Matthew Goode), the gang are forced to face up to the future and make some difficult choices.

From a technical standpoint, no one can deny that Cemetery Junction is a very well made film. A sort of passion project for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (it is based on their own real life experiences growing up and Freddie’s family is inspired by Gervais’ real life family), it is clear that they have put a lot of effort into creating a truly authentic feel of what it was like to live in a small British town during the 1970s with the look and feel of the period being captured perfectly and period Reading being lovingly recreated in authentic detail with every facet – costume design, set design, locations, props, cars, dialogue and even character attitudes towards race, etc. – that features in the film really capturing the essence of 1970s Britain. There is a distinct sense of realism in everything that we see, the 1970s setting not being used so much to portray the culture of the period but rather as a window into the monotony of existence in a place where you feel you cannot escape. This proves to be the perfect setting for the coming of age tale that is told here, the realistic elements allowing for characters and situations that many will be able to relate to, even today. While the film is realistic, it also manages to be somewhat escapist as well. Stephen Merchant said in a recent interview that what the film shows is “a slightly more romanticized vision of how we remember growing up” and this is a pretty good summisation of what is shown here, with the film reflecting the wonder of youth rather than all out gritty realism but still having enough of a sense of reality for everything that happens to be completely believable. The film is a drama first and foremost and in this regard it really does deliver but it has plenty of laugh out loud moments as well and it is in this regard that the film may divide moviegoers. This being a film by Ricky Gervais you will likely know already whether or not this will be a film for you as the kind of humour we get here will be appreciated by some but not by others, just as is the case with any film by Gervais. A considerable amount of humour is extremely crude – thus, anyone who is easily offended probably won’t appreciate it – and based around heavy profanities but there is something refreshingly honest about it that means it doesn’t seem too obscene or gratuitous. The film provides lots of very funny and very true observations about life and what it means to really live and this is what really drives the film – a truthful, honest and no holds barred representation of real people trying to find happiness in their lives, whether it be by finding a way out of the dead end place where they live or by discovering that what they really need or want has been right there all along. All this is put across very well thanks to the combined writing skills of Gervais and Merchant who deliver a script that delivers on most levels. The dialogue is snappy, humourous and sounds authentic. The characters are all extremely well developed, each with their own individual quirks. And the story is engaging, combining aspects of tragedy and comedy with expert precision. The film also delivers on the acting front with every member of the cast, old or young, big name or rising star, delivering strong, believable performances and perfectly capturing the dialect. Bigger stars such as Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson (as Mrs Kendrick), Steve Speirs, Burn Gorman, Julia Davis (as Freddie’s mother), Anne Reid (as Freddie’s grandmother) and Ricky Gervais deliver exactly the standard we expect of them but the spotlight is really stolen by the younger cast members. The friendship dynamic shared between Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes and Jack Doolan is absolutely spot on perfect, their friendship seeming completely real, even when their lives seem headed in different directions. The real revelations, though, are Cooke and Felicity Jones, who not only share a fantastic chemistry but also deliver superbly on their own terms, both having charisma and emotion to spare. Both are definitely stars to watch out for in the future. Overall, Cemetery Junction is a well made and, charming very enjoyable coming of age tale that won’t be appreciated by everyone but is definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of Ricky Gervais or like films that provide a fond look at the past of Great Britain.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)