The Bling Ring - 25th February 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night is taking a risk this week and branching off into unknown territory as we try to work out what this film choice is all about!

This week we watched;

The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring was a bit of an unknown quantity, apart from the casting of Emma Watson as one of the lead characters. The film is based not on a book, but on a Vanity Fair magazine article called; The Suspects Wore Louboutins, which details the brief infamy of a bunch of Californian kids who take upon themselves to steal from the homes of the rich and famous. What started out as a small adrenalin rush, quickly escalated into a $3,000,000 haul of money, accessories, shoes, jewellry and haute couture.

The film stars; Katie Chang as Rebecca, Israel Broussard as Marc, Emma Watson as Nicki, Claire Julien as Chloe, Taissa Farmiga as Sam and Georgia Rock as Emily. Chang and Broussard put in half decent performances as the leaders of the small gang. Emma Watson does pretty well as the slightly precocious and somewhat spoilt Nicki, although her attempt at an American accent was rather hit or miss.

Although the story is relatively interesting, there are no sub-plots or off topic threads and therefore this simplex approach makes for a slow, weak and linear plot. It is enhanced by some good editing, differing camera work and a hip-hop soundtrack, which aligns nicely with some of the action, although I use the word action very lightly.

The film starts with the end of the story and then does a flash back to a year ago to start the narration and concludes with inevitable capture of the gang. As an interesting aside; when did the word "burgularized" become acceptable within the English language? It is used several times within The Bling Ring. Clearly the Americans making up their owns words as they go along.

If we were to look more closely at the film and try to dissect some meaning from this needless desire to steal from another person, we could suggest that the film is dealing with the American fascination with celebrity, their constant desire to place these figures on pedestals, only to bring them toppling down again. Ally this with the kid's desire to dent the celebrity status of these Hollywood stars, by violating their property, security and sense of well-being. However, in doing so they they end up as minor celebrities themselves, lauded by their peers in a kind of modern day Bonnie & Clyde scenario. Thus perpetuating this obsession with status and celebrity.

Or indeed, you could just view it as a film about some miscreant kids, who get banged up for nicking stuff. With a cameo appearance from Paris Hilton.

At an hour and 30 minutes long, it's not an arduous slog to get through, but there are much better films out there. If you find nicking bling fascinating or you fancy a sneak peak into the Hollywood style homes then take a look at The Bling Ring, if not then avoid.

TNiFN Rating 51%

IMDB Link



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Ted - 18th February 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night is here again and this week we cuddled up with;

Ted

Well, what can you say about a film that is about a boy and his talking teddy bear?

What? You didn't know Ted was about a talking teddy bear?

Whoops.

We start the film as the young John Bennett receives a teddy bear for Christmas, a teddy so lovely that John wished he could be real and that they would be friends forever. Well you know, dreams can come true. What makes the start even better, is the superb and extremely funny narration by Patrick Stewart, but anyway to the film.

So John Bennett has a bear that actually comes to life and Ted grows up with John and although Ted initially has some notoriety and indeed some celebrity, in time this fades and he just becomes a good buddy to John, hanging out, drinking beer, smoking dope, that kind of thing. The issue is that John really needs to grow up and spend more time with his girlfriend of four years; Lori Collins. Lori is played by the absolutely gorgeous Mila Kunis who, for the record, looks so damn cute in glasses.

Moving on.

The thing that makes the film Ted so good, apart from Mila Kunis of course, is that it is a successful genre cross-over movie. It's a lad movie, a buddy picture, a romantic comedy, a fantasy reality adventure and a feel good film too. However, it's not just that it successfully mixes the genres, each individual genre element of the film is portrayed so well. And this is due in no small part to the fantastic writing of Seth MacFarlane, who not only supplies the fantastic story, but also brings to the screen his vocal talents as the voice of Ted. (Who in no way sounds at all like Peter Griffin).

Saying that Ted crosses over the boundaries of genres is one thing, however the one genre that you shouldn't place it in is a kid's movie. That cute, cuddly teddy bear may have a heart of stuffing, but he also has a gutter mouth! Which is a key point to make, MacFarlane takes the juxtaposition between the cute and cuddly teddy and crosses that with the laddish, foul mouthed humour and scores a winner. There are so, so many elements to this film that are retold afterwards, by which I mean; fans of the movie will repeat word for word many scenes, which smacks of classic memorable comedy.

Alongside the comedy, there are also interweaving sub-plots which in a lesser film would be declared as pure filler, but in Ted, the sub-plots and minor characters inject an extra dimension to the film which lifts it to an even higher level. We really shouldn't over praise it, but it does do everything that it sets out to do, it will make you laugh, it will also tug at your heart strings, with it's sadder parts. The comedy is sublime, with hearty laugh out loud moments, but if there were to be a downside, some comedic references were lost on us, as perhaps they were too American, but this is a very minor gripe.

So, to summarise; great film, full of laughs, unique in it's format, brilliant writing and Mila Kunis to boot.

And news just in; the promise of Ted 2 in the future. Sequel anyone?

TNiFN Rating  83%

IMDB Link

Lars and the Real Girl - 11th February 2014

Tuesday Night is Film Night has rolled around yet again and this week for our potentially momentous magical movie moment, we have the strange looking story of;

Lars and the Real Girl

My word, what a strange film!

Ryan Gosling stars in this bittersweet, melancholic, romantic, strange tale of love and delusion. Gosling is Lars Lindstrom a young small town man, who lives in the garage of the house, which he half owns with his brother; Gus. Gus (Paul Schneider) lives in the house with his newly pregnant wife Karin (Emily Mortimer). Lars is a shy and retiring character, who seems to be retreating into his shell more and more, until he finds a girlfriend.

Unfortunately, Lars' new girlfriend is a plastic, mail-order "love doll".

Let us just take a moment to take that all in.

That is the premise of the story, Lars becomes a delusional individual who comes to terms with his life by inventing a girlfriend, although the invention is not in his mind, she is real, plastic and came delivered in a large crate.

Gus and Karin are clearly perturbed by this creation, as Lars is convinced that Bianca (for that is her name) is real. The only way to get Lars to see a doctor is to take Bianca as the patient and this triggers off the bizarre notion that to treat Lars' issue, the people around him need to believe as well, that Bianca is real. And so, that is what happens. The whole town starts to play along with the fact that Bianca is real, but they only do this for Lars and to help him.

There are some more layers to story, which fill in some detail and background, but the basic story is just that; Lars and his "real girl".

I believe there are two sides to this story, or certainly two ways to look at the plot. You either go along with it or you simply dismiss totally as complete and utter drivel. It very much depends on how you dissect the story, if you are very matter of fact about it, then you can discard it as a whimsical tale with no real credibility. If however, you look at it as a way of examining mental illness, then there is a whole new aspect to it.

You can very easily dismiss mental illness as just that; an illness and not accept or understand the delusions that the person, in this case Lars, displays, but what if everybody accepted that although this is clearly not what we would class as the norm, it is normal for Lars, so let us be sympathetic to his problems and go along with it. How would that make him feel, how would he react, how would he cope, if what is clearly an inanimate object, is suddenly accepted as reality?

And this is what happens, although Bianca cannot walk or talk, she is included in the community and through Lars she lives her normal existence.

It is a totally bizarre film. It is funny, purely for the basic premise of trying to bring to life a plastic doll. However, it is also sad, as you see how the relationships between Lars and Bianca and Lars and his family change. You get this strange juxtaposition between reality and fantasy. For what is reality for Lars, is a fantasy for others, but this story turns that notion around. It certainly makes you think.

However unique though it is and although Ryan Gosling, Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer are superb acting their individual roles, it is a film you will either love or ignore. Taking it at base level, it is a dire film based on a bizarre notion. If you read into it a lot more you can get sucked into the different perceptions and try to psychoanalyse the plot and the characters and how sympathetic handling of an unfortunate illness can pay dividends in the long run.

The jury is out on this one.

TNiFN Rating: 43%

IMDB Link

The Hangover Part II - 4th February 2014

Good grief Penfold! It's February already. And what better way to celebrate, than to suffer (hopefully not);

The Hangover Part II

So after watching The Hangover (Part I) sometime last year, not as a Tuesday Night is Film Night film I hasten to add, we chance our arm with the second iteration of the story. The characters are the same and the premise of the story is just the same as well. For those of you who don't know or just need a reminding, here's a brief synopsis of the characters.

Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug

(Justin Bartha) are four friends who first suffered the consequences of The Hangover (2009) when they hit Las Vegas for Doug's stag party. A couple of years on and it is Stu's turn to get married. Stu is to marry  his fiance Lauren (Jamie Chung) in a quiet family ceremony in Thailand. However Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, followed by a quiet wedding goes seriously awry.

The film starts with the scene setting, re-establishing the characters and placing them within the current setting. Thus providing a springboard into the action. What essentially happens is that we fast forward to the aftermath, discover that they are totally wrecked and cannot remember a thing, then we wind back time and discover how they got there.

It's not an easy story to quantify without giving too much away. The premise is easy to follow, but it is how they get where they did that is the clincher. There is such a lot of detail that goes into the guys reverse engineering their hungover state, which takes them into the realms of the criminal underworld and the night life of Bangkok, which includes drug running monkeys and dalliances with Lady-boys!

Definitely a lads movie this one and a great deal of fun. As with the first movie Zach Galifianakis is fantastically funny as the idiotic Alan, who manages to get his Wolfpack buddies into trouble. Phil, is the cool character who tries to keep everyone together and Stu is the cry baby who seems to be ruining everything, especially his wedding. Doug doesn't seem to enter into the film at all, only as the sober one back at the wedding venue and as such didn't really add anything.

Mention must also go to the returning character of Mr Chow (Ken Jeong) who is also very funny and seems to add fuel to the lad's wild night. Another returning cameo appearance comes from boxing legend; Mike Tyson at the end of the movie and seems to be a bit superfluous and adds nothing to the film in itself, moreover it seems to be a blatant celebrity placement to endorse the movie. It only went to prove that Mike Tyson cannot sing.

That aside, the film is a great laugh. Even though it is a sequel the idea is still fresh and had sufficient fuel to carry it off, not so sure that Part III will do the same, watch this space. Also, it is one for multiple viewings as there will be jokes and visual gags that would be missed first time around.

To summarise; good film, lots of laughs, will watch again.

TNiFN Rating 73%

IMDB Link