Showing posts with label James Franco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Franco. Show all posts

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Review of the Week: This Is The End

0 comments Posted by Katina at 8:00 PM

This Is The End (MA 15+)

NOW seemingly embedded into the consciousness of Generation Y is the sort of comedy to come from the mind of Seth Rogen and his comrades. An expectation of crass language and sexual innuendo hangs high over any of their material.

The success from a series of films that started with Judd Apatow’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin back in 2005 has rarely waned. Moviegoers have flocked to see their crazy, unrealistic-yet-still-relatable stories.

We’ve also been receptive to watching films about the end of the world - the threat of it or what happens afterwards. Cinema has been obsessed with the idea before the Mayan calendar’s 2012 prophecy, but this year we’ve received nothing less than a steamroll of ideas telling us how we might all go.

It’s no surprise that Rogen and regular partner in crime Evan Goldberg wanted to get in on the trend. They had already toyed with the idea on the short Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse (2007).

It should also be no surprise that Rogen’s success is enough to warrant a film about him and his friends. In this case, reacting to news of the apocalypse as comedic actors would - by locking themselves inside James Franco’s fortress of a Hollywood mansion.


Photo: media-feed.com
Jay Baruchel would much rather be in Hell to begin with. Dragged along to Franco’s house for a typical Hollywood party by Rogen, he feels removed from Rogen’s new set of friends, who also include Jonah Hill and Craig Robinson.

Danny McBride makes up the six who survive the panic and quickly manages to make himself the unpopular one as they fight for survival on rations of food, drugs and alcohol.
It seems nearly too... normal for much of the first half - the natural disaster, taking refuge in shelter, attempting to work out personality differences.

But of course, the comedy we expect rears its head as they ponder the chances details of the Bible’s Book of Revelations have come to pass.

It slips into ridiculousness with a supernatural villain and threats involving semen before the realisation that their end is based on basic human values.

The ability to parody oneself is admirable though, and Rogen and Goldberg stretch that successfully further by focusing on the relationships between the six men, particularly Rogen’s relationships with Baruchel and Franco.

The bromance is well and truly prominent, and while girl power gets a look in thanks to Emma Watson, this is another episode of The Boys Club. Thankfully, that’s not an alienating element. This unique look at the end of the world has enough laughs to sustain the story’s slow pace and proves for Rogen and co that playing their most comedic selves is most effective.

Rating: 3.5/5
*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 20/7/2013

MISSED THE LAST REVIEW? See what I thought of Pacific Rim.

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Saturday, March 09, 2013

Review of the Week: Oz the Great and Powerful

0 comments Posted by Katina at 8:00 PM

Oz the Great and Powerful (PG)

THE WIZARD of Oz, in print and on celluloid as well as the titular character himself, is for the most part an untouchable being. The story where the master plays second fiddle to one particular Dorothy has not been attempted again in an age of remakes and retellings. Instead, the wizard and other characters surrounding his kingdom have come into favour to keep the tale alive.

It’s hard to say what this homage to L Frank Baum’s creations is exactly; it presents itself as a re-imagining of the central characters and events, and reinterpretation where the great man is at the centre of the story - all wrapped up in what is seemingly a prequel to Dorothy’s tale. What Sam Raimi and screenwriters Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire show is that there’s a lot to be toyed with.
Raimi is no stranger to the effect of reworking stories and characters, falling victim to Hollywood’s impatience as his Spider-Man reign came to an end. Here, he’s the one setting the rules, among other things allowing liberties with character names so as not to confuse them with those from Oz interpretations like Wicked.
His choice to include a star from his work on Spider-Man as his protagonist is not surprising either; Raimi and James Franco work well as a team. On screen, Franco runs the show as Oz, a ruthless conman unable to move past performing a magician in a travelling circus with sidekick Frank (Zach Braff).

The most convenient way to get to Oz is by tornado, as we find the magician to be a predecessor to events The Wizard of Oz fans know. Raimi has no qualms about acknowledging that film, imitating its black and white opening before stumbling upon a wonderful land in Technicolor. The saturation of colour placed on today’s screens still results in eye-popping beauty.
 
To Oz, the women he stumbles upon in this foreign land are all beautiful. Luckily for him, women tend to fall for his charm. Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams) all have their moments, but they come to be the more influential as Oz’s table turns.
When Oz is asked to save the land and its people, he naturally freaks out; the moral story about finding the goodness in one’s heart and focusing on becoming a good person before greatness follows. It’s an obvious touch, but one integral to the characters many have grown to know and accessible to a wide audience.

As The Wizard of Oz fans will appreciate, the story has a dark side - while much of the classic film focuses on the Wicked Witch, here it concerns the underlying element of how Oz came to be great and powerful. The suggestion big white lies are OK for the greater good may not sit well with some of the key audience.
It’s an entertaining story where Franco particularly gets to have a lot of fun. His wizard is an eccentric one, but not as intentionally as he might think. Oz is one lucky conman to land the gig that he did. For something untouchable, this re-whatever-it's-meant-to-be has built a solid framework for any future spin-offs should people demand more content as they once did with the original story’s creator.
Rating: 4/5

*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 2/3/2013.

MISSED LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS? See what I thought of Side Effects and The Deer Hunter.

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