Film Review: Changeling

Director: Clint Eastwood

A 2008 drama film partly based on the 1928 "Wineville Chicken Coop" kidnapping and murder case in Los Angeles, California. The film was released during one of the best periods of Eastwood's work as a director with Gran Torino being released shortly after and Million Dollar Baby being released just a few years before. The film saw nominations for Angelina Jolie as the Best Leading Actress at the Oscars, BAFTA's and Golden Globes but she failed to win at any of these awards with Kate Winslet beating her for The Reader (god knows why, the whole film was abysmal) and at the Golden Globes where she won for Revolutionary Road. 

Los Angeles, 1928. Single mother Christine Collins (Jolie) returns home to discover her nine-year-old son, Walter (Griffith), is missing. After a long search over many months, the LAPD says they have found her son alive and well. Believing the positive publicity will negate recent criticism of the department, the LAPD organizes a public reunion. Although "Walter" (Conti) claims he is Christine's son, she says he is not. Captain J. J. Jones (Donovan), the head of the LAPD's Juvenile Division, insists the boy is Walter and pressures Christine into taking him home. Christine is still adamant that her son is still missing and gets into trouble as she pressures the LAPD to continue searching.

Christine with "Walter" after he disappeared

Angelina Jolie is incredibly impressive as the driven Christine who searches to find her real son against a tide of negativity from the LAPD. Jolie was at times weak and vulnerable as she reached her lowest ebbs and showed a different side to her acting abilities that I hadn't seen before. Arguably the films best feature is the impressive cast surrounding Jolie, especially John Malkovich and Jeffrey Donovan.

At the heart of this dark film is more than just a search for a missing boy, Changeling produces a scathing critique of big politics in the 1920's in the mold of Chinatown. The cover-ups produced at the top level of the police force and city government are monumental whilst it also portrays a time when women were still fighting to be treated as equal citizens even in America. Christine's fight for her son also leads to her being silenced and discredited because she is seen as a female threat in a male dominated society. A rich compelling film which is backed up by impressive acting performances.

3.5/4 Tense engrossing drama with a political edge.

Film Review: Edge of Tomorrow

Director: Doug Liman

This recently released science fiction movie is based a big budget version of the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The filming process was quite arduous especially for Emily Blunt as each of the battle suits weighed around 39kg which was hard to act in for long periods. Between takes, the actors would be suspended by chains from iron frames to take the weight of the suits off their shoulders. The films budget was $178 million.

For 5 years, humans have been at war with an alien species called Mimics. They have taken most of mainland Europe so the humans are planning an all out attack from the beaches in Northern France. Major Cage (Tom Cruise) is ordered to cover the battle on the beaches against his protests and he wakes up at Heathrow Airport ready to deploy the next day. But after landing on the beach and battling the mimics he dies then wakes up again at Heathrow Airport the day before, slowly realising that he has the power to continue living the same day.

Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) and Sergeant Rita Vratask (Emily Blunt)

Tom Cruise's latest Hollywood blockbuster is reasonably impressive, for an action movie it has an intelligent side and Emily Blunt adds a lot as his battle partner. For me this was a completely different change of direction for Emily Blunt as an actress but she more than pulls off the macho female Sergeant whose the human hero of the war. Aside from this the action is strong as you'd expect but there is a decent comedic element to the script as well.

Director Doug Liman produces impressively choreographed scenes with the gripping tension of his previous film The Bourne Identity. It avoids the pitfalls of many previous action movies with the usual clichés and a bloated running time, why most movies are needlessly over two hours still baffles me. Unfortunately the ending did become apparent before it was played on the screen before me but it still represented a fun and surprisingly good film.

2.5/4 Intelligent action movie is better than expected

Film Review: Godzilla

Director: Gareth Edwards

The recently released blockbuster is another re-booting of the famous monster franchise, this time it was British director Gareth Edwards who scored with his debut movie Monsters. An impressive cast was also pulled together with Ken Watanabe, Aaron Johnson and Bryan Cranston hot off the success of Breaking Bad. The film was produced on a budget of $160 million in the hope of turning a good profit and possibly setting up a a sequel.

In 1999, Project Monarch scientists Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins) investigate a strip mine in the Philippines where a colossal skeleton and two egg-shaped pods are discovered. One hatched and escaped to the sea. In Japan, plant supervisor Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) sends his wife Sandra and a team into the core to check the sensors after seismic activity. When the team is inside, an explosion occurs, threatening to release radiation to the outside. Sandra and her team are unable to escape, and the plant collapses into ruin. Fifteen years later and Joe is still trying to find answer as to what caused his wife's death.

The destruction caused in Hawaii

This was like a Hollywood blockbuster version of the cheap Syfy disaster movies that are often released, Mega Python V Gatoroid being just one example. But the redeeming feature of those movies is that they don't take themselves seriously which is more than can be said about this incarnation of Godzilla. The premise descends into farcical proportions by the end and with a script ridden with the usual corny cliché lines from these movies its hard to take it seriously at all.

Bryan Cranston does his best with what he has here and is helped able by an impressive cast who don't really do much wrong. But if you have a poor plot and script it doesn't matter who you get to star in your movie. The special effects do help to save this film with some impressive shots especially the scene where the troopers parachute into the city with the red flares. But beyond this the early promise drawn on by Joe Brody uncovering the mystery is washed away with a shockingly poor second half.

1/4 Reasonable opening act completely falls away into a farcical finale

Film Review: Captain America 2: The Winter Solider

Director: Anthony and Joe Russo

The latest instalment in the MARVEL comics franchise and the second in the Captain America series. After a slightly underwhelming first film we see an excellent bounce back film as Steve Rogers returns to face the latest threat to the planet that has been growing since his creation during the Second World War. Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson also reprise their roles with Robert Redford also making an appearance. The film is already a huge commercial success with profits over $500 million and a third film has already been commissioned with the Russo brothers returning to direct.

With the members of SHIELD at odds after Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) are sent on the same mission but with different tasks by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). In the midst of this lack of trust, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) ambushes Nick Fury as he goes to meet him someone and they realise they have a large threat within SHIELD to battle against.

The Winter Solider battles Captain America

As stated above, this was a very accomplished second film which certainly elevates the Captain America series to the level of Iron Man leaving Thor trailing in his wake. Admittedly Chris Evans is no Robert Downer Jr especially in the charisma department but he's more than strong enough here with the help of Scarlett Johansson and Anthony Mackie as Falcon. The story has a lot of well placed action with an intriguing story with the battle being against more than just a rogue villian in the Winter Soldier. Some plot elements are slightly predictable as the film develops but it still provides more than enough thrills to last the over two hour run time. The script is witty and sharp at times which elevates it from the rest in genre.

3/4 Impressive second instalment sets the tone for future sequels

This week's releases

22 Jump Street: Having moved from 21 Jump Street to 22 Jump Street, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill return as the bumbling undercover cops who this time are sent to college to fight crime.

Full preview here

Fruitvale Station: Why its taken nearly a year to officially release this gem of a film I don't know. Michael B. Jordan plays Oscar Grant whose life was tragically cut short on New Years Eve at Fruitvale BART station in San Francisco. This film follows the last 24 hours of his life.

My review is here

Film Preview: Foxcatcher

Released at this years Cannes Festival, it wowed critics with its dark tale of schizophrenia in the competitive world of Olympic Sports. Based on a true story, Bennett Miller won the Best Director Award at Cannes but the film itself was edged out by Winter Sleep which was an epic Turkish film. The film stars Steve Carell as John Eleuthère du Pont the trainer with Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo playing the brothers.

The story of Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum), who sees a way out from the shadow of his more celebrated wrestling brother Dave (Ruffalo) and a life of poverty when he is summoned by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont (Carell) to move onto his estate and train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Foxcatcher is released in the UK at the end of 2014 and trailer is embedded below:

Film Review: Divergent

Director: Neil Burger

A 2014 science fiction action film following in the footsteps of The Hunger Games in looking to a dystopian future with the world split into different factions by oppressive governments. The film is based on the series of books by Veronica Roth which was published in 2011. The sequel Insurgent has already been scheduled for release in March 2015.

The story takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic version of Chicago where people are divided into distinct factions based on human virtues. Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley) is warned that she is Divergent and thus will never fit into any one of the factions and soon learns that a sinister plot is brewing in her seemingly perfect society as she tries to learn to fit into one of the factions.

Beatrice (Woodley) with Four (Theo James)

The comparisons to Hunger Games were inevitable given the similarities in the lead actresses character and the bleak depiction of a future world controlled by governments. Unfortunately it doesn't compare favourably with plot feeling rather like a re-tread and with Shailene Woodley struggling to produce the strong yet caring lead performance you get from Jennifer Lawrence. Woodley and Theo James in particularly work hard with the tired script to stop the film being a complete washout but it doesn't reach the highs that you'd hope for.

The overall plot suffers as the focus is too narrow in blindly following the character of Beatrice rather than looking at the factions as a whole. So when the plot develops its hard to care for anyone but the main character, as her family are all sidelined very quickly for example. I'd be intrigued to know how faithful the film is to the novel but the early reports seem to be that it has pleased the fans of the books but for me it really lacked that killer punch.

1.5/4 Unremarkable and formulaic opening film