Film Review: The Other Guys

Director: Adam McKay

Directed and co-written Adam McKay who was behind Anchorman and the less funny Talladega Nights. Apart from starring Ferrell and Wahlberg it also features Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton and Steve Coogan in the cast.

Detective Allan Gamble (Will Ferrell with his best performance in a long time) is a forensic accountant who is happy pushing paper in the New York Police Department and is the butt of many jokes from his co-workers. Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) is his partner due to a mistake when he shot Derek Jeter during the World Series thinking he was trespassing onto the field at Yankee stadium. Hoitz tries to convince Gamble to go out and solve real crimes so they can impress their boss and win back credibility with the force which seems them go up against billionaire David Ershon (Steve Coogan) and many criminals from around the world.

Detective Allan Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg)

First thing you notice is how much Will Ferrell has been reigned in during this movie for the most part, he is much more subdued and not completely over-the-top in his acting like many other movies. This makes him much funnier as an actor and works better with Wahlberg who is also impressive in a comedic role (surely lead to him getting the lead in Ted). Some of the running jokes throughout the film are quite random but really work especially the on-going gag about Captain Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton) quoting TLC song's apparently without realising it.

The plot doesn't always work but that is secondary to the humour mostly which works, Wahlberg's character does become a bit tiresome with his constant complaining whilst the characters of Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson could have been used to greater effect but were impressive when they were around.

3/4 well-pitched random humour lifts this above many of its kind

Film Preview: The Impossible

It was only a matter of time before somebody took the tragic events of the tsunami that swept Asia in 2004 from the Indian Ocean. It happened on Boxing Day of that year and was a devastating event that was covered endlessly by the new media at the time with millions of people donating to charity to help the cause. The film stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts as a couple caught up in the disaster, this is their second collaboration after the 2005 movie Stay. The film was released at the Toronto Film Festival in September of this year.

Movie Poster

The movie is based around one family's true story of survival during and after the tsunami that hits most of Asia in 2004. The couple end up split up and unknowing of each others fates so search through the wreckage that is left to find each other and reunite as a family.

The Impossible is released in the UK on 2nd January 2013 and the trailer is embedded below:

Film Review: Gomorrah

Director: Matteo Garrone

Based on the book of the same name by Robert Saviano, who actually worked for the Camorra crime syndicate unloading illegal deliveries at the dockyard as part of his research. The book isn't an easy book to read through but the stories of corruption through wide spread business in Naples is truly shocking. The film is as bleak as the book with the added feel of authenticity with Italian being the spoken language.

Don Ciro with the enemy in the Scampia Feud

The film follows five different storylines of people involved with the mafia in very different ways that are all linked by the on-going feud between DiLauro crime syndicate and the scissionisti or separatists. There is Don Ciro, a timid man who distributes money to families of imprisoned clan members, who is caught in the middle of the war as he is threatened. Totó who is a 13 year old grocery delivery boy who joins the scissionisti after he returns some guns and a bag of drugs after they are ditched by clan member being chased down by the police. Roberto who is a waste management graduate who ends up working for Franco who makes money by illegally dumping toxic waste in abandoned quarries with dangerous results. Pasquale who is haute couture tailor who works for the Camorra but also has a night job working with a rival Chinese garment factory and finally Marco and Ciro, nicknamed Sweet Pea, two out of control wannabe gangsters who steal mafia guns to play with and rob places with but end up on the wrong side of infamous Camorra.

Marco and Sweet Pea fire off the guns they stole

With many mafia films out of America showing the world as glamorous and full of men in fine suits, this is the ground level in Naples. Even the men with money don't wear anything flashy to avoid drawing attention to themselves in a city with big money to be made with the biggest shipping port in Europe and pushes the highest amount of drugs out of any city in the world. The whole film has a dingy and bleak feel to it, even out in the countryside around the city still feels tainted and ugly based on what you have seen. It leaves you in doubt that every facet of the economy in the city has the mob involved and not just at a local level.

The film cuts out a lot of the tit for tat killings of the turf war as well as much of the torture and shocking deaths that are described in the book, being shot in the back of the head when you weren't expecting it is a sign of respect that your death was purely down to business and nothing personal. If you had disrespected someone personally then you could expect a much more prolonged and painful death. The characters all feel trapped in some way, as if life outside Naples is not worth living which means it feels claustrophobic around the tenements.

3/4 Depressing look at the far reaches of the mafia in Naples

Film Preview: Promised Land

Gus van Sant reunites with Matt Damon, who also co-wrote the film with fellow actor John Krasinski, many years after the success of Good Will Hunting in 1998. It was filmed around the metropolitan area of Pittsburgh whilst the small Pennsylvanian town of Apollo served as the town for the film. The residents of the town of Apollo protested against the film's anti-drilling stance towards oil as the producers had apparently promied a balanced view throughout the film.

Movie Poster

The film tells the story of Steve Butler (Matt Damon) who works as a salesman for an oil company that looks to buy drilling rights for distressed communities across America. Residents are usually happy to sign at reduced rates due to the funds involved without a thought for the reduction in their quality of life caused by the drilling. In one town he comes up against Dustin Noble (John Krasinksi) who refuse to sell and looks to change his opinion.

Promised Land doesn't have an official release date in the UK yet but is expected to be released in early 2013. The trailer is embedded below:

Film Review: Arbitrage

Director: Nicholas Jarecki

Financial turmoil is a hot topic in the world at the moment as the big economies try to drag themselves out of recession and the movie industry has suddenly sprung a number of films based around financial meltdowns including Margin Call and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. In the case of Arbitrage it's slightly different as the meltdown of Robert Miller's (Richard Gere) hedge fund takes a back-seat for large parts of the movie as he deals with the fact he left the scene of an accident where his mistress (Laetitia Casta) was killed when he fell asleep at the wheel.

For years Miller cooked the books at his hedge fund to escape a $400 million loss due to a failed investment so his hoping to sell his company to recoup the losses and avoid being arrested for fraud whilst avoiding the rap for involuntary manslaughter as he is pursued vigorously by Detective Bryer (Tim Roth, star performer). The manslaughter story doesn't add a whole lot to the film, it's just a side show that takes over the core story of the film to pad out time.

Robert Miller (Gere) with his daughter Brooke (Brit Marling) who also works for him

The manslaughter story doesn't add a whole lot to the film, it's just a side show that takes over the core story of the film to pad out time. It felt like this story was given much more time to develop to avoid delving too deeply into the financial crisis that is developing at the hedge fund meaning that the more interesting story was ignored. I understand they probably didn't want to make the storyline too complicated but much of the story is just settled in one sentence as to how things happened meaning important parts were rushed whilst less important events dragged on.

Richard Gere is generally someone I despise which made him ideal for playing billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Miller who is rather stereotypically a man only out for himself, at no point does he really consider anyone else. The film's central theme is corruption which is at the heart of everyone's motives out of the key characters, everyone is willing to bend the rules for their own benefit.

2/4 Often distracted plot interlinks two stories that don't successfully meet.

This week's releases

Ruby Sparks: From the directors of Little Miss Sunshine (meaning I will definitely hate it), a comedy romance which tells the story of a novelist whose stories come to life to make up for writers block. Calvin (Paul Dano) creates Ruby Sparks who comes to life and he realises that he's falling in love with her.

Pusher: Based on the novel by Nicholas Winding Refn (Director of Drive), Pusher charts a week in the life of drug pusher in London. We see run-ins with the law and enemy gang members all inside a climactic 7 days. Starring Richard Coyle and Bronson Webb.

On the Road: Garrett Hedlund stars as Dean and Sam Riley as his travelling buddy Sal in this road movie through post-war America. They find true liberation and re-define an entire generation all over the course of one journey.

Hotel Transylvania: Adam Sandler just can't be kept away from the big screen, this time lending his voice to this children's animated comedy about Dracula. Also pitching in for the cause are Andy Samberg, Kevin James and Steve Buscemi.

Taken 3?

After the huge success on opening weekend for Taken 2 starring Liam Neeson, it appears FOX are requesting another film to be made to keep the franchise alive. Their motives are clearly financial as they stated that they ''looked at the numbers'' and thought another sequel would be a good idea. Neeson already stated over the weekend that he didn't think a third would happen and that this was the first and only sequel to the cult hero that was the first movie.

Neeson to return as Bryan Mills for a third time?

The issue with looking at the numbers for the second film is that people will always give it a chance after the first film became so popular, I'm not sure that is the case after the second movie that has opened to pretty poor reviews. I certainly won't feel compelled to go and see a third movie after the second was so laughably bad. The screenwriters said that a third movie would see a completely different format from the first two as that plot has gone as far as it possibly can, to be honest the whole franchise has gone as far as it can. The second film seemed like a cynical film only made to plump up the bank accounts of everyone involved.