Taken 2

12, 2012, Directed by Olivier Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Serbedzija  

Kudos to whoever thought that Liam Neeson could play Bryan Mills, an ex-bodyguard with a particular set of skills; skills that have launched him in to something of a later-in-life action hero.  2008’s Taken was by no means a boundary-pusher, but an unexpected sleeper hit whose popularity grew with its violence (originally handed a 15-certificate, the film was amped up to an 18 for the Extended DVD cut.) An oft-quoted, undeniably epic mantra for Neeson later, which has arguably opened up the actor’s recognition to a generation who were unaware of Oskar Schindler or didn’t take to Love Actually, and has led to a slew of similar roles in Unknown (Taken with amnesia) and Battleship (the less said the better,) Pierre Morel’s out-and-out action flick has spawned the unlikeliest of highly-anticipated sequels.

There is no pretence that Taken 2 is going to deliver something different from before in the sense of genre, but a savvy spin on the original’s plot sees, not the antagonised, innocent and strangely likeable daughter Kim (LOST’s Maggie Grace) er, taken…but rather mummy and daddy, leaving the honour to Kim of equipping herself with a gun and nonchalantly throwing grenades around Istanbul. More intriguingly, the fact that the captor is the father to one of the hundreds of casually dispatched Albanians from the original adds, dare it be said, a sense of realism to proceedings. Not to mention that Neeson is on legendary form, clearly having the most fun he's possibly ever had on celluloid. But that’s where the credit runs dry. Because Taken 2, quite unfortunately, becomes the mess Taken just about managed to evade. 

Less than halfway into the face-punching and arse-kicking, and just after you wonder whether you've wandered into some kind of Mills-family sitcom, it's plain to see there is nothing new to add here. Potential standout scenes fall grossly short of the mark with brilliantly-named director Olivier Megaton solely relying on Neeson's delivery of Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen's downright dodgy script. Even the action misfires with the frenetic fights and chaotic car chases edited in such a way that to concentrate could be guilty of inducing a headache... Shameful for an action film. For a sequel to such a guilty pleasure? Disappointing.

 If taken more seriously and treated like less of a mock-up of itself, Taken 2 could have caught on as a belter. One can’t help but wonder if Megaton refused the almost bloodless 12A route, and instead embraced the opportunity to whet fans' appetites at the thought of a third film whether this could have been the unlikeliest of highly-anticipated sequels... superior to its predecessor. 

Instead, he's found it...and he has killed it.

2/5

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Lawless

2012, 18, Directed by John Hillcoat
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain

 

The negative traits in re-teaming for a big-screen project after receiving such critical acclaim for your previous effort is that all eyes flicker upon your latest attempt filled with a bucket load of expectation. The 'team' in question here consists of Aussie director John Hillcoat and musician/screenwriter Nick Cave (minus his Bad Seeds) whose 2005 Aussie-set western The Proposition turned heads with inspired moments correlated with show-stopping performances. This highly-anticipated next offering pitches the factual story of the Bondurant brothers, bootleggers who refuse to co-operate with a new lawman in town in Depression-era rural Virginia, and is adapted from novel The Wettest Country in the World - written by Matt Bondurant, grandson to these characters.

The cast, an impressive blend of talents, purport this to be something special, what with man-of-the-moment Tom Hardy shoulder-to-shoulder with character actors Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and Jessica Chastain. Hardy plays eldest Bondurant Forrest, growling his way through the running time in a captivating manner. Here is an actor fast showing he is one for the ages, one who embodies every being he portrays, one who could be in danger of embodying one character too many. Youngest Bondurant Jack is played with an endearingly witty innocence by Shia LaBeouf who, one hopes, will relish this opportunity to shed his Transformers feathers. Investment in Cave's script relies heavily upon the viewpoint of his character, with LaBeouf bravely proving he can stand up to the occasion alongside Hardy, an underused Oldman (back to his unpredictable self post-Tinker Tailor Oscar nomination) and Pearce - who, as Chicago special agent Rakes, provides the film with a forceful figure of hate.

Hillcoat's skillful mastery of the camera has splashes of genius (one or two scenes are captured with pure beauty that will no doubt bone day e analysed in lecture rooms,) but it's as if the filmmaker lacks conviction in his abilities, instead opting to depict the worn-down cliches Cave's screenplay withholds in predictable manners (an almost-romantic sub-plot involving Frank and Jessica Chastain's Maggie being the main culprit here.) Amidst the alarming action and (at times) gape-inducing brutal violence that shockingly convinces, a sour taste is left in the mouth: once the final shot has left the screen, you will realise that tase is disappointment.

If only Hillcoat had taken the law into his own hands and veered from the rulebook a little more, Lawless could well have been flawless. As it stands, a strangely-classy enjoyable watch that won't demand another.

3/5

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The Imposter

2012, 15, Directed by Bart Layton

Nicholas Barclay disappeared when he was 13 years old. Four years later, the boy is found...only the boy, as the director of this mesmerising documentary pits to us from the offset, wasn't Barclay - but a 23-year-old imposter named Frédéric Bourdin. A plot twist perhaps more suited to the high-octane third act of an art-house indie flick, but here is brandished in the audience's face and smeared with the knowledge that these events are true-to-life, barely after the film has commenced. So with no scriptwriter placing words in actor's mouths, Layton is tasked with something he adapts to with sheer skill: he places his subjects on screen and, with unadulterated bravery, gets them to talk. What emerges just so happens to be even more gripping, tantalising and chilling than what even the most noted screenwriter could conjure.

To talk more of the real life case at the forefront of The Imposter would be to tarnish the suspense that is maintained for almost the entire running time. Suffice to say, all the questions are addressed: why did Bourdin decided to 'become' Barclay? How did Barclay’s family come to welcome Bourdin into their home? Through editing, manipulation of the sound track, archive footage and the controversial Crimewatch-esque recreation scenes, an uneasy sense of dread is no doubt present off the back of these points. Once all the strands are placed together, and slotted into their place - when the proverbial penny drops - your breath will have long been taken from you and will not be given back until the film reaches its strangely unresolved climax.

This is one you'll want to talk about.

5/5

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Brave

PG, 2012, Directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Kevin McKidd

  Toys, Monsters, Superheroes, Cars, Waste-collecting robots; the Pixar list goes on, and will continue to do so as long as Pixar effortlessly manage to sustain their excellence, amidst some signs of - not so much stalling, than slowing down (the critical derision of Cars 2 from everybody bar 8-year old boys forms the integrity of that statement.) Fresh ideas may be sapping, with their last original offering being 2009’s Up - as well as two more sequels in the works - but with Pixar, (emphasis on the word 'but',) there’ll never be any empirical reason to lose faith.

 

Their latest, however, faces challenges: people have become content revisiting beloved characters, whether it’s Woody, Buzz or Lightning McQueen. Somewhat interestingly, one common link between the entire Pixar back-catalogue is that female leads are pretty scarce. So perhaps in an attempt to prove they are still the leading animated classic-churner in the movie kingdom, head honchos unveil Brave: an original fairytale about a Princess. Set in Scotland. It is fair to say excitement has been lower on the league table than with previous outings - with production troubles meaning female director Brenda Chapman and title The Bear and the Bow departed the shoot, paving the way for Mark Andrews to take the reigns - but it is very probable this may have worked in its advantage. After a solid opening proves that there is no fear in making the younger audience members fly off seats in fright, it grows ever apparent that Pixar still defy fear to transcend what is expected of them. Using their princess protagonist as a tool, Merida is a force to be reckoned with. Enduring her expectant day-to-day princess rituals, she showcases her desire for adventure through narration and visual spectacle that further prove Pixar can deprive you of breath easier than CG-driven live action set-pieces. Voiced by Kelly Macdonald, she is the heart and soul of the piece, with reliance on the audience taking to this character to embrace the end product. If at first you are put off by the talky folklore dialogue and Merida’s reckless attitude, by the film’s end you will more than likely have accepted her, not just down to the fire-haired teenage princess’s trajectory. The support surrounding her each select their attempts to show-steal; Billy Connolly’s King Fergus, a peg-legged booze-guzzler, or even Emma Thompson’s Queen Elinor, who gets embroiled into the film’s overarching plot in a way one genuinely might not expect via Julie Walters' bizarrly-concepted witch. 

Strip everything back however, and Brave – whether you like it or not – falls short of the mark. Perhaps this is due to the instant-classic nature of the studio’s previous, downright braver, efforts. But Brave’s most noble element is its insistence on not trying to better what has come before, instead opting to provide something on a smaller-scale than what no doubt will come next (Monsters, Inc. gets the prequel treatment next summer in Monsters University.) Meaning it's easier to embrace the film’s redeeming qualities, threatening to glow even brighter with a re-watch – if Brave even lingers long enough in your brain to warrant another.

The world sits even tighter for the return of Sully and Wazowski.

3.5/5

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The Dark Knight Rises

12, 2012, Directed by Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman

When Christopher Nolan unveiled his incarnation of the caped crusader upon the unsuspecting world in 2005’s Batman Begins, it is doubtful that anybody – let’s craftily include Warner Bros in that – anticipated the extent to which Nolan’s talents would enthral the globe. The Dark Knight followed in 2008, resetting the precedent to a seemingly-insurmountable height (not solely due to the late Heath Ledger’s unforgettable Academy Award-winning turn as The Joker); and now The Dark Knight Rises, the final part of Nolan’s ‘planned’ trilogy of Batman films, providing closure on an epic scale to a series of films, that has already edged its way into the history books (record-breaking sales for the BFI Imax – days before release.) It may be easy to assume that this is going to be a showstopper...but the question remains, is it much cop?

Four words: Of course it is.

The beauty of the trilogy is that these have not merely been Batman films, but Chris Nolan films, a true filmmaker in the purest sense. This guy, in an industry progressively growing more obsessed with 3D, refreshingly sets out to craft standalone flicks as they were always meant to be seen. Not to say The Dark Knight Rises stands on its own two feet, mind; if Begins was the prologue that moulded Bruce Wayne into more than just a billionaire playboy that dons a batsuit, but something the past entries in the sparse Bat universe have somewhat lacked: a character, then The Dark Knight took Wayne’s ideals and, through The Joker, pushed them to the very edge of what he believed in most. This means Rises is the (164 minute) epilogue, profiling the conclusion to Bruce Wayne’s story, concluding where the previous left off but coming full circle also to tie up loose ends you never imagined required tying.

From the offset, the feeling of finality feels imminent with every new scene. This is helped largely, perhaps, by the big bad at the centre of the piece: Bane. Churning out dialogue behind a horrifying-looking mask that only Nolan would be brave enough to put on a central villain in the most anticipated film of the year, Tom Hardy does all that is needed using his voice over expression. Yes, it might be difficult to hear what he’s bleedin’ saying sometimes, but you can tell from the reactions of peripheral characters that it probably isn’t nice. And all the more reason for a re-watch, to catch what you might not have heard before. An element depicted to near-perfection here is the overwhelming danger surrounding Bruce Wayne; it is staggeringly difficult to recall the last film witnessed where you truly fear for the hero’s safety as unrelentingly as you do here. Bane is a monster, a monster that wants – and probably could – break the Batman. Here, an unstoppable force seriously does meet an immovable object.

Welcome returns from Michael Caine's loyal and emotionally-invested butler Alfred providing much of the film’s (at times) overwhelming emotion, an enlarged role for Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox (handed one of the film's best lines), not to mention Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon, haunted by the lie he covered up to protect the name of Harvey Dent. But of the mix-bag of new characters introduced, the standout - and surprisingly, yet savvily most underused - is awarded to Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle. Crucially never once referred to as Catwoman, she is - as you’d expect from Nolan’s Gotham - grounded with a form of rationality, a feisty, charismatic thief who sets the screen alight and successfully saves the comic tone for when it is needed. But be under no allusion - this film is dark. Mention to Nolan-alumni Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as good, young cop John Blake) and Marion Cotillard (love and business interest, Miranda Tate) who both slot into proceedings well, regardless of fear of one too many new characters being introduced. These characters, at times, both aid Bruce in reminding him what his father taught him: why do we fall?

'So we can learn to pick ourselves up’. Or, in other words, Rise.

And when Bale’s Dark Knight Rises, he soars. The action is ramped up, with Nolan further proving he can shoot an on-location fistfight between a thousand extras as fluidly as he can shoot a conversation between two - without losing momentum, either. It is the merging of these two elements that have shaped these series of films into the phenomenon they are, with every viewer hanging on every word the brothers Nolan put into their script, co-written with David S. Goyer; Rises is an episode fans have been waiting on for four years.

When all is said and done, the trilogy's conclusion must sadly draw to its inevitable close before outstaying its welcome. Once the film's visually emotive and resonant final climax transpires in an ending (kind of) not dissimilar to that of Inception, with Hans Zimmer’s two-note Batman motif bursting from the speakers consequently leaving all hairs on the back of your neck on end – only then will it hit you with the force of Bane’s fist: Nolan has not only reinvented a franchise, but a genre – and with it, crafted what will endure as the defining trilogy of our generation.

5/5 

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The Woman in Black

2012, 12, Directed by James Watkins

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer, Roger Allam

For anyone who has seen the stage play of Susan Hill’s chiller, you will be certain that The Woman in Black requires a great amount of courage to witness without peeking through your fingers, but also a lead with enough scope and credible chops to make cautiously opening doors and being genuinely terrified seem fresh with every scene. Step forward, erm, Daniel Radcliffe, ready to prove he isn’t just the scar-bearing Boy Who Lived, but lawyer Arthur Kipps, a widowed father tasked with sorting out the belongings of Alice Drablow in a house where things don’t just go bump in the night, but a whole lot more.

Let’s get this out the way: Radcliffe is good. He charges his way through the film with grace amongst the chaos that will undoubtedly make you jump, but quite bluntly will either petrify you or bore you. He carries the film – although any more heavy lifting thrown his way, and the struggle may have been effervescent. Kipps has lost his wife to childbirth and is a loyal father to his sole son (who you will be forgiven for thinking looks more suited to be his  younger brother). Yes, you care for the character, and yes, you fear for his safety. Commendation then to Jane Goldman, who has again proved she can write effective screenplays from respected source material (and can make a rocking chair the single spookiest thing on earth.)

But by the time the film’s divisive climax comes about, whether you’ll remember much about the whole affair long afterwards is somewhat debatable.Still, after becoming the most successful British horror flick in 20 years, and with a sequel already in the works, The Woman in Black evidently has a huge audience that will continue to lap up the antics. It's fair to say that there is a lot to sink your teeth into, but could do with more to chew on.

3/5

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Young Adult

2011, 15, Directed by Jason Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt, Elizabeth Reaser

Jason Reitman’s latest is quite similar to his previous forays into filmmaking, which has established him as somebody who likes to select an actor, then brandish them on screen for pretty much the entire running time. Aaron Eckhart in Thank You for Smoking; George Clooney in Up in the Air; he even went so far as to carve a star out of Ellen Page in Juno, the latter in which he teamed up with credible oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody to churn out an ever-quotable tale about teen pregnancy. Re-teaming with Cody, Reitman’s Young Adult has much of the same appeal, but with a hint of tragedy. The person to take centre stage here is Charlize Theron, delivering yet another performance that could be branded ‘career best’. Here, she plays Mavis Gary, a thirty-something young adult novelist who ventures back to her hometown in Minnesota upon hearing that her childhood sweetheart, Buddy (Patrick Wilson) is now happily married with a child. For someone who carries the film, Mavis’ redeeming qualities are hard to come by; if she’s not fast-food scoffing or coke-guzzling, she’s necking shots or poking fun at a crippled man she barely remembers from her school days (a role with which comedian Patton Oswalt provides unlikely heart and soul in a film largely lacking in optimism.) Tasking herself with basically wrecking the happiness of somebody she still believes she loves, the embarrassing futility of her situation eventually pays off when, in what one could assume is a perfectly nuanced scene from Reitman, Cody and everybody in front of the camera, you realise how deeply scarred our protagonist actually is. It is to Cody’s credit that she ditches the Hollywood detox of unhappiness usually required to ensure an upbeat ending. Instead, as Reitman draws the film to a close with no fear of outstaying its welcome, the overarching feeling of pessimism may come out of nowhere to slap you in the face, luckily with Theron’s performance shining brighter than you ever could imagine. 

4/5 

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