When the Cheshire emerges...

Tonight's review has a bonus entree for those of you like me keeping warm and cosy on the couch on this Saturday night.

I'm now what I'd like to think a contributor proper to Movie Mezzanine with a second piece now published. Have a read and tell me what you think:

Here's @Katiinkaa on why next year's 'Fargo' series on FX warrants equal doses of skepticism and excitement. http://t.co/iPYTi9rPAH
— Movie Mezzanine (@MovieMezzanine) August 22, 2013

***

This week's film was rather disappointing.

Kick-Ass (MA 15+)

THE FIRST film about Dave Lizewski and his invention of Kick-Ass was a direct response to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy if nothing else. Twisting direct quotes and scenes, Matthew Vaughn's telling of this fanboy's fantasies was a punchy look at how superheroes in the real world could come to exist. And an 11-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz saying the 'c' word for good measure.

Three years later we see the return of Dave/Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy/Hit Girl (Moretz) in the time after the first film's events. The crime fighting has stopped but Dave wants back in. The thought of achieving success as Kick-Ass is an addiction, and with Mindy by his side as trainer and potential partner in crime Dave believes they could do great things.

This sequel in many ways is a repeat of its predecessor. The Spider-Man references/style continues, there's another bad reference from the little lady and a new superhero father figure emerges in Jim Carrey's Colonel Stars and Stripes.

More emphasis is placed on Mindy coming out of her shell as a 15-year-old. She is subject to bullying at school from the mean girls she tried to befriend and discovers how males can be seen as an object of desire. Secret fantasies are also a game changer for The Motherf----er (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), in dominatrix-inspired get-up as the world's first supervillain. He's out for Kick-Ass' blood to avenge the death of his father.

It becomes a battle of the supporters as both Kick-Ass and The Motherf----r have strength in numbers. The good team is an odd bunch, but all reveal good reasons for being there in the film's most poignant scene. The bad guys - well, that's where the film begins to spiral.

Photo: collider.com

John Leguizamo is the only sane one in the baddie camp as he tries to explain the political incorrectness of henchmen names like Genghis Carnage and Black Death. It doesn't work, and The Motherf----r steadily declines into a psychotic state. The film eventually hits rock bottom as it attempts to make a potential rape scene a point for laughter.
Taylor-Johnson may impress with his abs but not particularly with a whinier Dave, and Moretz, while the best thing about the film, still threatens to over-sexualise the now-not-completely-innocent Mindy.

Director Jeff Wadlow took over from Vaughn to create a similarly stylised affair. But gags best kept to the Batman series of the 60s somehow make their way into this hyper-violent world where they don't belong, and the film suffers as a painful return as it struggles to kick any butts or gain credibility.

Rating: 2/5

MISSED LAST WEEK'S REVIEW? See what I thought of Elysium.

I lost count of how many times this photo popped up on my Twitter feed today because of its ease at becoming viral, but wow.

Photo: canberratimes.com.au

Elysium (MA 15+)

WE all have a dream, something that we believe will justify the purpose of our creation as a human being. Some go on to win the Noble Prize, others become doting parents, and in one way or another we all get what's coming to us.

Death is one of a few certainties in life, suffering a possibility for many. Neill Blomkamp is, in the early stages of his directing career, expressing uneasiness about the level of suffering in our world.

Blomkamp's anticipated return to the big screen following his 2009 debut District 9 again deals with an unsettled Earth. This time he takes us into the year 2154 as he sees it, showing a Los Angeles littered with disease and chaos. The elite of human society have escaped to Elysium, a constructed living space outside the Earth's atmosphere. A place where sickness can be healed, it is a glimmer of hope just out of the world's reach.

Max (Matt Damon) never stops wondering. As a child, it was a beautiful star in the sky. A tainted view after life as a thief gives him little hope of achieving the dream of getting there. But it is desperation that finally gives Max his way out. He becomes an important part of criminal Spider's (Wagner Moura) plan to extract data that could allow any human onto Elysium.

Blomkamp's script is careful to remind us there can still be trouble in paradise. Perfection takes a stranglehold at Elysium, defence secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) particularly feeling the strain. Her actions in working with rogue agent Kruger (Sharlto Copley) are reckless, and the stability of the habitat is shaken with the advance of Spider and Max's plan.

Photo: thevipconcierge.com

It's a while before the story kicks into gear, but Blomkamp's script works in building up to the main event. Max's desperation for change is shown delicately through flashbacks to his childhood, remembering teachings from those who looked after him and the joy of being with his best friend Frey (Alice Braga) whom he still loves.

Regressing to a no less harder but simpler time as a youth is how Max deals with the pressures at hand. While taking Spider's job was initially for his own benefit, he comes to realise that helping others is an important addition to the deal. On that turn in the story, it becomes a story of planetary survival against the fittest.
This underdog story has similar post-apocalyptic themes to other films released throughout 2013, but its strength lies in its psyche of brutality. Humans fighting each other has already changed Earth more than once, but the sheer discomfort from Elysium residents of any diseased Earthling encroaching is enough to make you squirm with discontent at this developed class system.

Blomkamp balances flashbacks with multiple action sequences well, not adhering to a constant style to keep you on your toes. He gets good performances out of Damon and Foster, but his return to working with fellow South African Copley gives the film a creepily outlandish, near psychotic villain. It's for the film's benefit as the hopes and fears of Earth dwindle on a corrupt few on both sides of the coin.

Doing some weekend reading led me to the latest from the Eurozone crisis.

I was not surprised, but still extremely saddened to read that Greek unemployment has risen to a record 27.6 per cent.

That's more than one in four. Just thinking of it in those terms is scary enough. It's more than double the eurozone average of 12.1 per cent...

But then I read that 64.9 per cent of the 15-24 age group were unemployed. 64.9 per cent. That's mind-boggling. What hope does that give to a generation otherwise known for their "me, me, me" attitudes? They will be starved of growth, of well-being and of any confidence in being able to earn a solid living.

I've been looking for a new job for some time, and have been close on a few occasions only to be let down. Sometimes things just get put in perspective like a slap to the face though, don't they?

***

Everything in your life is a miracle to be cherished. A grain of sand, a bee on a flower, a sailboat, a cup of coffee, a wet diaper, a caterpillar, are all miracles. When you learn to view life and everything in it as a miracle, you soon see that complaining is a waste of the miracle that you are.

Loving relationships work because there is no work.

The only limits you have are limits you believe.

Photo: lensyoga.com

Other people are going to be exactly the way they are, independent of your opinion of them.

If you want to find a deeper meaning in your life, you can't find it in the opinions or beliefs that have been handed to you. You have to go to that place within yourself.

***
Why?

Now You See Me (M)

THE CLOSER you look, the less you see. A concept that plays on the perception we read too much into a situation, overthinking unnecessarily to solve a problem. It’s an interesting analogy applicable to many things in life, and as a running motif in this film from Louis Letterier becomes something of an epiphany.

The mystery of the unknown is something that enraptures humans as we believe there is something greater than our own existence. Much of that curiosity is satisfied in the simplest of ways by people who try to make us believe they can dance on the rope between what is real and fantastical.

We really want to reassure ourselves these people are the real deal. And some do take their act to a heightened level for your amazement. But there are those who exploit people for their own benefit, or perhaps for what they think is the greater good.

Daniel (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt (Woody Harrelson), Henley (Isla Fisher) and Jack (Dave Franco) don’t know what their greater good is. But from their work as street performers, they know believing is their best chance at success.

A year after they were brought together by an unknown enterprise, their game has reached Las Vegas as quartet The Four Horsemen. In front of a live audience at their first show, they rob the regular local bank of a Parisian tourist.

Photo: thedailycougar.com

Sceptic Thaddeus (Morgan Freeman) is in the crowd, and is called up by the FBI to help agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo). While he refuses to help them, Dylan is assisted by French Interpol agent Alma (Melanie Laurent). They find out along the way the first display was part of a bigger plan.\

The smart script by writers Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt continually raises doubt about who is trustworthy. Everyone is being played in the game of perfecting the big crime, just as when we watch a trick.

The story moves quickly as the team progress with their plan and the authorities fall behind in their attempts to catch them. It’s no surprise really, when they have, as they say, nothing up their sleeve to battle the likes of these guys.

Why the Four Horsemen do what they do is not explained as the plot thickens, and you can’t help but question whether their leap of faith is out of desperation. There are small instances where their bond from completing the task is evident, but otherwise the team come across as smooth operators.

Eisenberg plays the cunning ringleader with attitude similar to that in his breakthrough role in The Social Network. Harrelson is amusing as a mentalist with a bit of cheek, while Fisher and Franco are somewhat relegated to taking a backseat. Ruffalo has the most to contend with as Dylan faces opposition, uncertainty and unexpected romance.

Letterier presents the story well, handling the twists in the script with deft care. The magic continues to the final act, where all is neatly revealed. Or is it?

I wrote earlier this week about feeling as if I'm back in the film critic game.

But to cap a good week off, on top of now having my Daily Liberal reviews recognised on Rotten Tomatoes, I am now also a contributor to American film site Movie Mezzanine.

I'm one of a number of contributors from around the world, all of us I'm sure there to hopefully gain that little bit more exposure and continue crafting our film-writing talents.

Photo: tonedeaf.com

My first piece is on the big news out of the Australian entertainment industry this week, the change in US DVD cover for The Sapphires.

If you would like to have a read and share your love please do, and any comments are appreciated as always.

The idea is that I'll be an opinion/feature writer on the site and bring my views on news in the film industry from around the world.

***

Quality rather than appearance... ethics rather than rules... knowledge rather than achievement... integrity rather than determination... serenity rather than acquisitions.

Intention is the energy of your soul coming into contact with your physical reality.

Today marked the end of nearly five months of wonder and speculation.

I'm back on Rotten Tomatoes as an official critic!

I had been registered as a critic from my time at Moviedex (which is different to being a regular member/reviewer), but decided to make a go of putting my reviews from the Daily Liberal up.

There was a bit of a process. Then I never heard back about whether it had all be done.

Turns out on looking today, it had. WINNING.

You can see reviews new and old from me on Rotten Tomatoes whenever you like!

***

Try viewing everyone who comes into your life as a teacher.

In Zen they say, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." You've got to chop and carry. That's just part of the human condition.

Anything that bothers you is only a problem within. Only you can experience it, and only you can correct it.

Instead of judging others as people who should be behaving in certain ways, see them as reflecting a part of you, and ask yourself what it is you're ready to learn from them.

It's intelligent to have a plan, but neurotic to fall in love with it.

The World’s End (MA 15+)

SIMON Pegg and Edgar Wright rarely have a problem with letting go of the past. Their previous collaborations involve the struggles of renting, zombies and disgruntled police officers – stories in essence about where their life is headed, or what could be better.

The last film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (following Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) isn’t without those themes, but they play second fiddle to a central character that can’t move on from his younger days. They present a man who’s struggled to find his place in life because he felt he could never better his teenage self.

Gary King (Pegg) believed he was a ruler of Newton Haven during his school days. He loved his best friend Andy (Nick Frost), and other mates Peter (Eddie Marsan), Steven (Paddy Considine) and Oliver (Martin Freeman) and thought they were invincible.

An epic pub crawl along their town’s Golden Mile still plays on Gary’s mind 20 years on as he rues the fact he never reached pub number 12, The World’s End. With the boys back on board, his need for closure comes as they return to their hometown for one night of carnage.

The reunion is anything but rosy. Oliver, Peter, Steven and Andy are well-to-do adults with families and stable jobs, and don’t sit well with Gary’s carefree and selfish way of life. Andy hasn’t forgiven Gary for his involvement in a car accident, and refuses to take part in the way originally intended.

Let’s not forget the girl. There’s always one, and here it’s Oliver’s sister Sam (Rosamund Pike). An object of affection brings more mud to the surface as the pub crawl struggles to find its feet.

Photo: filmjournal.com

As fans of the trilogy’s previous films are aware though, there’s always something more sinister at play. Their home is not what it seems, and on learning an alien invasion is at hand, the group are torn on the decision on whether to continue their quest or retreat back to London.

Pegg and Frost never go without a fight, and the third time really is a charm. The tables turn for this final episode as Frost shows his serious side alongside Pegg’s… loser. Gary, as likeable as he is, really does show that being stuck in 1990 for 20 years doesn’t do well for one’s appearance.

It’s sad for anyone to see someone realise their life hasn’t worked out anything like what they wanted. A feeling of hopelessness exists between Gary’s brash attitude, as the story reveals finishing the Golden Mile is the only thing he believes he can accomplish.

The collaboration between co-writer Pegg and co-writer/director Wright works effortlessly well once again, the script frequently crossing the line into ridiculousness but maintaining a great mix of comedy and characters in a story about the end of the world as they know it.

Their tales of camaraderie among impossible situations is something to be admired, Pegg and Frost a perfectly average pair doing their best to get along with life and its dramas. Alcohol may not solve the problems of the world, but for these guys it’ll do nicely.

Rating: 4/5

MISSED LAST WEEK'S REVIEW? See what I thought of The Wolverine.

Guilt is an irresponsible choice. As long as you feel guilty about whatever you've done, then you don't have to do anything to correct it.

Happiness and success are inner processes that we bring to life's undertakings, rather than something we get from "out there". 

The body is a great healer. That magnificent, perfect creation is capable of healing itself in many, many instances.

Healthy thinking is a habit, just like neurotic thinking is a habit.

If you expect to be upset, then you'll seldom disappoint yourself.

Highly functioning people say, "Where I am is fine, but I can grow."