Wes Anderson helms this one, with his extraordinary ability to indulge in both disarming emotional drama and extreme cuteness. He is surrounded by his usual suspects: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson (credited as a co-writer) and Ben Stiller in a standout role.
The Tenenbaum children are all prodigies, achieving farcical success at young ages (Chas, for example, is a math and business genius, selling real estate at age ten). As adults, they are finding less success, and have all been separated from each other for many years. Their father, Royal Tenenbaum, fakes a cancer diagnosis in reflexive retaliation to his ex-wife impending re-marriage.
Due to this, the whole family congregates once more under the same roof – typical Wes Anderson dialogue and sketches ensue. What better way to celebrate #BRWC10?
What is really great about this film are the themes of growing up. Chas has two younger sons and this comically overprotective of them, however we learn the compulsion stems from his wife’s untimely death. He is desperate to keep his children innocent and protect them from the hard life outside bubble wrap.
The family comes together in what can only be described as a benign explosion of temperament and discord. The humour comes through the dialogue dripping in wit, with the actors’ timing perfectly suiting the stilted storytelling. One of Wes Anderson’s early films that showed the world what he was capable of – and he shows us what this family is capable of with a little shoplifting, tennis playing and some fucked up family dinners.
The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. The film stars Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson. Ostensibly based on a non-existent novel, and told with a narrative influenced by the literature of J.D. Salinger, the story follows the lives of three gifted siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure in adulthood. The children’s eccentric father Royal Tenenbaum (Hackman) leaves them in their adolescent years, returning to them after they have grown, and falsely claiming to have a terminal illness. Long after he was shunned by his family, Royal gradually reconciles with his children and ex-wife (Huston).
So, this is what we’ve come to is it? Is Hollywood really so starved of ideas that even original films just copy what’s come before them? Skyscraper follows that oddly familiar trend now of being a film that feels simultaneously nostalgic and of the time. The story to it isn’t worth mentioning really. Outside of having the heroic character being a physically disabled man, we’ve seen everything in here before. It’s the story of Die Hard with more than a sprinkling of Towering Inferno thrown in for good measure. That’s where most of the nostalgia comes from. The more of the time elements come from the casting of Dwayne Johnson and the film’s setting being in China.
To be fair to Skyscraper, it is a solidly made and entertaining blockbuster. The acting around the board was good. Johnson and Neve Campbell – who I haven’t seen since Scream 4, which I think is a shame – do stand out as the better actors in this film. They have very good chemistry with each other. It’s nothing special, but they do come off as a legitimate couple. We also have some cartoonish villains, although the more entertaining of which are hardly in the film – such as a Dutch hacker and an Asian feme-fatal assassin – mores the pity.
On top of that, director Rawson Marshall Thurber – who mostly specialises in comedies, such as the hilarious Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Central Intelligence and We’re the Millers (the last one I don’t like, but it was a hit anyway) – does very well with his action too. Moments of genuine suspense are far and few between, but the action is well set-up. It’s well shot and choreographed. All the action builds on the last one, making things quickly move from silly to ridiculous as it goes on. There is genuine comedy here, although it is used sparingly throughout. All of this is what most people will be wanting to see. If you saw the trailer and thought that it looked fun, then that’s exactly what you will get from this.
But we do still have the issue of the film being absolutely nothing new. And I mean that completely. We have indeed seen absolutely every little point in this film somewhere else. The burning building where people have to beat the flames to reach the building’s top? Towering Inferno. Terrorists taking a building in order to steal something the building’s owner has? Die Hard. To top that we have some villains who look like henchmen from John Wick. There’s the colossal buildings from Dredd, numerous anime and Bladerunner to a lesser extent. We even have a hologram room like in Ender’s Game. Does anyone even remember that film?
While it is fun, nothing is explored or new. There’s a scene when Johnson has to find a switch to override the locks on a vault door and finds that the switch is hidden behind a fan, which was clearly set up to be for this scene. He say’s something along the lines of, of course it’s there. That is the perfect sum up of this film. Traitors are easy to spot and when we are introduced to the numerous rooms and wonders of the skyscraper, we can all assume that they will be the centre-piece of another action scene.
Skyscraper is a perfect example of blockbusters today. It’s well-made and fun, with a likable cast and some note-worthy moments. It’s also unoriginal, unchallenging, hollow and just plain forgettable. I’m already forgetting about it. It’s something that will be fun to watch on a smaller screen – it’s the kind of film I’d put on when I’m ironing or eating a meal at home. That’s the kind of film that keeps on coming onto our screens. I can’t say how long that will continue for, but if Skyscraper is the film that sums it up, then I can safely say that we’ve all watched a lot worse.
What was going on? Where was Ant-Man when Thanos had the world wondering whether they’d survive the week? Why didn’t they call on Marvel’s most lovable & tiny hero or even Ant Man to come help save the world? Well thanks to Ant-Man and The Wasp (AMTW) we now have an answer…they were looking for The Wasps’ long lost Mum! Oh…and Ant-Man was being a good Dad as well… so some pretty important stuff actually.
Although Ant-Man and The Wasp may never go down in Marvel history as a crucial part of the story, what AMTW provides is a much needed break from the chaos, death and world ending peril of the Avengers series. Much like Thor:Ragnorok, AMTW is trying to do its own thing, create its own story and its own vibes, and for me it does it well. The villain known as The Ghost is an interesting character, and her predicament leaves an interesting moral dilemma of sacrificing one life for another. I was personally left wondering whether Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) were potentially more heartless than the villain. If you see it, let me know what you think in the comments.
Ant-Man & The Wasp
The relationship between Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and The Wasp not being what it once was is for me this films only drawback. I am a little tired of seeing love stories being repeated and sequels requiring couples to re-ignite the peripheral spark for the sake of romantic interest. Jurassic World did this in the worst way, and with much less expectation that the latest edition of Ant-Man. Fortunately, AMTW gets itself back on track quickly and rides the trope well. Although not as funny as the first Ant-Man due to recycled jokes and methods (although not done nearly as badly as Deadpool 2) AMTW is what is is, and it is a good film. It may be pointless within the plotline, with the story bridging content really only being in the end credit sequence, but I really enjoyed it. Paul Rudd remains excellent and Evangeline Lilly always steals the screen for me. The jokes are still funny and Hannah John-Kamen is excellent as The Ghost.
Ant-Mat and The Wasp is not a world breaker. It won’t be as successful as Black Panther and the Avengers series won’t be affected if you don’t see this film. But it is good, it is fun and it was a superhero should be, about them, and not about everyone else. Plus, Ant-Man is undoubtedly the best ex-con father figure I’ve ever seen in cinema…so..yeah!
Reposted from the archives, to help celebrate #BRWC10.
This film has all the tropes you would come to expect from a modern zombie movie. It has an unexpected, and largely unexplained, outbreak early on, it has an enclosed space as it’s main location which results in many survival complications, it has a group of strangers as it’s protagonists who have their differences but must come together for survival, the list goes on. So with all these cliches in place then why does this standout as one of the best zombie films we have seen in years???
The answer, in my opinion, is that this is a film driven by human relationships and it just so happens to have zombies in it. By the time the carnage commences on the titular train, and it does commence in a big bad way, we have met a Father who has thrown everything he has into his career. He is a successful fund manager and he provides for his mother and young daughter by giving them everything they need except his time. We have met his precocious daughter who is a sensitive soul and as a result of her Father’s absence has nothing but time for others.
We have also met a couple who are expecting their first child. The expecting father, who is a mountain of a man and a proud and protective figure, watches over his wife like a hawk and she both welcomes his protection and is perturbed by the sheer extent of it. We have also met a high school baseball team, about 10 strong, and specifically spent time with one batsman who has the affection of the team’s cheerleader only he is embarrassed by her public displays and struggles to show her how he feels in a way that respects her and gets his team off his back. We also meet a couple of sisters who are late in life and are still wonderfully close despite a complicated upbringing and many particular hardships along the way. We also have met a multitude of train attendants, drivers and conductors, all with their own backstory and motivations, and I believe at this stage you can see my point. These are not carbon copy characters and I genuinely cared and hoped for their survival.
As great as the character development is, I mustn’t forget to talk about the actual zombie side of things. This is top level stuff! The zombies are fast, jittery, unpredictable and actually scary! The makeup artists and motion actors do a superb job and some of the movements these zombies make are incredible! More than a few times I found myself thinking “That must have hurt so much!!!”. Another thing to mention is how high-end the visual effects are. There are some truly stunning set pieces along this 2 hour train journey and they are all breathtaking. Whether it is huge waves of zombies crashing through sheets of glass or explosions lifting train carriages into the air in slow motion with people flying around inside, everything looks immaculate!
I have thus far neglected to mention that this is a Korean film directed by Sang-ho Yeon, who I have not been familiar with until now. He has also directed an animated zombie film last year entitled “Seoul Station” which is getting a lot of praise as well so he will certainly be on my radar from now on.
Shark films from Hollywood are just like actual shark attacks really. They’re extremely rare, all things considered, but when they happen they’re all over the place. There’s been this strange tradition with Shark films – barring Deep Blue Sea and arguably Jaws 3D, the big budget films are often treated seriously, whereas the low-budget ones take a sillier approach. So, it’s nice to see that with The Meg, the tongue appears to be firmly imbedded in the cheek.
The Meg is based off of the book, Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten – which I have read and found to be very enjoyable, despite and indeed because of the ridiculousness of the book. The story follows Jonas Taylor, a deep-sea rescue diver, who encountered a creature living at the deepest depths of the ocean. He’s called back into the fray when a million-dollar sub and its crew are lost at the bottom of an ocean trench. He goes down to the rescue, but in doing so he releases something monstrous – a seventy-five-foot prehistoric shark. Megalodon! Now back from extinction, and insatiably hungry in a world of new and innumerable prey.
Nobody will have seen this trailer or the posters and thought that they were about to see high-art. Nobody came to admire the performances, or be blown away by a stellar script, or see a director work to make the film of their career. We all came to see some dumb, thrilling, gory fun. In this The Meg delivers at times and doesn’t really at others. The first act in particular is a little slow – we get a lot of technical jargon that doesn’t really get us anywhere. It thinks it’s more interesting than it is, which does bog it down a little. It’s also tame at times, which surprised me, though not in a good way.
Luckily the second and especially the third act make up for this little short coming. The shark action hits, and it’s constantly entertaining. It feels a lot like Deep Blue Sea and has echoes of Piranha (the original, not that trash with Kelly Brook) – those being very entertaining films in their own right. The Meg’s story is full of logical errors and many plot conveniences, but that doesn’t really take away from the film. That’s mostly because it’s very evident that the plot is not the point. The point is to see a gigantic shark cause complete and utter chaos. I love the set up to these action scenes. The beach scene from the trailers – which I’ll warn now is at the end of the film – was a good deal of fun and a perfect note to end on.
The actors did perfectly fine jobs with what they were given. Jason Statham feels like a modern-day Arnold Schwarzenegger – in that he’s a terrible actor but is endearing for it. He plays the part of Jason Statham fighting a shark. That’s it. It’s not very creative, but it’s also part of what people came to see. The other actors, again, are fine in their roles. Cliff Curtis and Li Bingbing play their roles with what dignity was needed and are having a bit of fun with the material. Ruby Rose is fun, as is Robert Taylor. The show stealer is Rainn Wilson, from the American Office and Super, as a fun yet out-of-touch billionaire. He gives some of the best moments of the film, knowing exactly what he’s starring in and wanting to keep the audience on board with it. All these actors manage to play very likable, if cliched characters. You’ll be able to guess who’ll make it come the end, but it’s a good bit of fun watching them bounce off each other too.
My only real problem with this film is how tame it is. Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching them lately, but the pacing of this film reminded me a bit of the George A. Romero zombie films. We have our slow start, then we build the action but still keep things at an even pace, only for things to go crazy come the end. It was always either going to be that way or just relentless violence, like in Snakes on a Plane. Either would work. But the key to those is that they are gory! The 12a rating is a sad hindrance to the film. What action is here is good, but a good splatter of blood and some comical close-ups would have gone a long way. I hear that the original director for the film was Eli Roth – director of Cabin Fever and Hostel. While I don’t think he’s a great director, I do think his style of unapologetic gore and offensive humour would have gone a long way. I also have a feeling that this is why he didn’t make the film in the end.
I’ll admit it, I liked The Meg. I really enjoyed it for what it was, even if at times it didn’t know what it was. A scene that made me laugh was when someone tries to make that speech of the follies of mankind – how it’s all our fault and that we should be punished…only for Rainn Wilson to moan irritably! Moments like this make me wonder if the film was in on its own joke – that it did know exactly what it was but pretended that it didn’t. It’s not quite Deep Blue Sea or Snakes on a Plane, but The Meg is a fun little romp. I really recommend it if you enjoy this kind of thing. It doesn’t take itself seriously, it doesn’t try to do anything other than entertain you and it does it a lot better than most these days. Get to the cinema and chomp on this!
