Finding Dory

(G) ★★★★

Director: Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane.

Cast: (voices of) Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy.

Dory's friends were tiring of her whale impersonations.

OUTSIDE of the brilliant Toy Story trilogy, Pixar has been underwhelming with its prequels and sequels to date.

Cars 2 was largely panned by critics and is rightly regarded as the worst Pixar film to date. Monsters University was a so-so effort that failed to recapture the charm and pathos of Monsters Inc.

Given that Pixar’s calendar is brimming with sequels – Cars 3, The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4 are all on the way – you could be forgiven for wondering if the computer animation studios near-bulletproof reputation was wearing thin. Maybe the well is running dry.

Sure, they released Inside Out last year and it just so happened to be the best film of 2015, but do we really need a sequel to Finding Nemo and could it possibly be any good?

The answers to those questions, thankfully, are yes and yes.

A year after Dory (DeGeneres) helped Marlin (Brooks) find his son Nemo (Rolence), Dory goes off in search of her own parents after fragments of memories pop up in her frazzled brain. This sparks a cross-Pacific journey – with Marlin and Nemo in tow – to the marine park where Dory grew up.

Finding Dory takes an interesting tack, not just by making Dory the main character but by re-examining who she is – in a sense, the title is a spiritual one as much as it’s about a physical quest.

Dory (voiced wonderfully yet again by DeGeneres) was the humour and heart of the 2003 original, but her goldfish-style memory was played purely for laughs. This time around, her memory is examined in the context of a disability, and much like Nemo’s under-sized flipper in the original, plays a central part in the film and its all-abilities subtext, which is just one of the beautiful pieces to this well-rounded Pixar puzzle.

Like all Pixar movies (except Cars 2), this has some golden moments that hit you right in the feels. While it’s not in same league as Up, the introduction to Finding Dory could have you "trying to get something out of your eye", and the movie’s emotional crescendo will do likewise.

In one sense, this is the same movie as Finding Nemo – a fish searches for its family, colourful characters help along the way, disabilities are overcome, and lessons are learnt. But while it may match a few plot points, Finding Dory also matches the spirit and tone of its predecessor in wonderful new ways, which makes it a joy to behold.

It’s as funny and as heartwarming as the first film. It does go way over the top towards the end in an effort to jump the impossible plot hurdles the script keeps putting in front of Dory and co, but all ages will love this for the feelgood family fun that it is.

****

PS. On a side note, the short at the beginning of the film is called Piper and it’s beautiful and cute, so make sure you get there on time. And also, stick around until after the credits for a great additional scene. Bizarrely, despite watching Finding Dory in a full cinema, I was the only person who bothered to wait until the end of the credits. Everyone else’s loss.

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Warcraft

(M) ★★★

Director: Duncan Jones.

Cast: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper,Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Daniel Wu.

Boy, there sure are some ugly actors in this film.

THE great soothsayers of Hollywood predicted that a hoodoo would be lifted this year.

They spoke of a time in 2016 when the curse of the video game movie would be lifted, and critics and gamers could finally be as one in enjoying a film that had sprung from console or computer.

The prophets pointed to two great white hopes to banish the hex – Duncan Jones’ Warcraft and the forthcoming Assassin’s Creed.

Sadly, Warcraft is not the cinematic saviour the gamer brigade hoped it would be. While it scrapes by as “okay” in my book, very few critics are treating it even that kindly.

The film is based on the franchise that began in 1994 as a real-time strategy game but has grown into a massive empire of online gaming, novels, comics and more.

This cinematic adaptation finds the fantasy realm of Azeroth on the brink of war – a horde of orcs driven by an evil magic has arrived in the lands of the humans, and they haven’t come by to borrow a cup of sugar.

On the human side is the bold but weary knight Anduin Lothar (played by Aussie Fimmel), lapsed mage Khadgar (Schnetzer), the supposedly all-powerful Guardian (Foster) and a rather underwhelming king (Cooper).

On the orcish side is Durotan (brought to life by a motion-captured Kebbell and a small army of computer wizards), who is unsure whether their magic-wielding leader Gul’dan (Wu) is all he’s cracked up to be.

And caught in the middle is Garona (Patton), a half-human, half-orc, who looks exactly like an attractive human woman but with pointy ears, fangs and a greenish tinge.

Warcraft is visually impressive – downright stunning in places, in fact – and its digital characters look amazing. Several of the orcs are even better actors and evoke more empathy than their human counterparts.

But at its heart, Warcraft is a confused film. Like so many movies these days, it suffers from franchise-itis (franchitis?) – it’s even ambitiously subtitled The Beginning in some territories. It has one eye on what’s going on, but the other eye is already looking for the next movie, and the one after that. It’s fine to sprinkle hints of what comes next throughout – à la the Marvel Cinematic Universe – but the trick is to make sure each movie is a good self-contained movie in the first place.

Warcraft leaves a number of major plots dangling (and ends one way too abruptly) in the hopes of bringing everyone back for Part 2, but forgets to give the audience a satisfactory conclusion or real sense of resolution.

It can’t avoid the video game movie curse (and there are plenty of references to the games), but it does its best to try and avoid the “all fantasy worlds are the same” curse. It breaks some tropes (not all orcs evil) and its magic system is cool (if very computer-gamey), and it has some nice ideas, all the while avoiding any prophecies, lost kings, or chosen ones.

Unfortunately Azeroth comes across as an unlived-in world – it feels fake and intangible. As much as Warcraft wants to be the next Lord Of The Rings, it lacks the immersive qualities of the world Peter Jackson created from Tolkien’s novels. As a result, we never really get a sense of the peril Azeroth is supposedly in – the danger always seems distant.

The characters are a mixed bag too. Durotan and his offsider Ogrim (Kazinksy) have intriguing arcs and complexities, while Anduin and Khadgar have their moments, even if their banter doesn’t quite click (much of the humour is hit and miss). But Foster is oddly off-the-mark in a role that could’ve been the most memorable of the film, and Patton gets the short end of the stick with a poorly written character that seems to have been forced into the script to give teenage boys something to ogle. The film’s ending almost redeems her, but not quite.

It’s unfortunate that the film only really sings when it’s throwing its pixels around. A couple of orc-on-orc battles are enjoyably savage, and the big melees are a highlight.

Warcraft is not a total disaster and certainly looks a million bucks (or $160 million to be precise) but misses the mark as much as it hits it. For every cool moment, a dumb one follows, there are as many great characters as naff ones, and the good ideas are hamstrung by a lack of tension and a holographic setting.

The curse of the video game movie continues.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows

(M) ★★

Director: Dave Green

Cast: Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Megan Fox,Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, Brian Tee, Tyler Perry, Laura Linney. 

Is this the queue for nose jobs?

THE longevity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is kind of amazing.

Despite starting as comic book that was intended as a joke (hence the absurd title), the heroes in a halfshell have spawned four animated TV series, countless video games and toys, and now six feature films.

Nothing has been able to stop the turtles, not even the previous film, which drew the ire of fans for changing the looks of the characters and the disdain of critics who slated it for its over-edited action sequences and the presence of Megan Fox.

This sequel to that reboot is neither better or worse. On the plus side it embraces some of the cartoonish qualities of the various animated series but on the downside it still has Megan Fox in it.

Picking up a year after the previous film, it opens with Fox’s April O’Neil (still the worst movie journalist ever) on the trail of scientist Baxter Stockman (Perry), who she suspects is working to free the imprisoned Big Bad of the series Shredder (Tee).

O’Neil calls in the turtles, who are still in hiding despite saving New York a year ago, but they are unable to stop Ol’ Shredhead getting loose. They’re also unable to stop him teaming up with interdimensional villain Krang (voiced by Brad Garrett) on his plan to bring the Technodrome war machine to Earth.

Once again, the turtles are the best thing in the movie. Their interactions, and in particular Michelangelo’s humour, are saving graces and perversely the most human part of the film. When the actual humans are on screen – the dire Fox, the sadly superfluous Will Arnett, and the unfortunate Stephen Amell as the poorly written Casey Jones – the movie suffers, and so does the audience.

Many of the same criticisms from the previous film can be levelled at this one. Worst of all is the hyper-editing of the all-important action sequences, which is most evident in the introduction and the final fight, with the latter looking more like a computer game cut scene than an actual movie. It’s a shame because the turtles themselves are impressives pieces of pixelwork. It’s just a shame we don’t get to see them in action in a clearly visible way very often.

It’s feels pointless to criticise the inner story logic of a film about mutated sewer turtles proficient in the art of ninjutsu, but I’m going to anyway because although there is a certain amount of technobabble leeway that comes with the territory of comic book movies, this takes it to frustratingly idiotic new heights. Time and time again, the plot is only advanced by Donatello or Baxter Stockman explaining some technical impossibility and it happens so often you feel certain the screenwriters stopped trying at some point. Also the MacGuffins are piled so high in this movie that almost every sequence is basically “catch the MacGuffin”, one after the other. But like I said, such criticisms are probably pointless because no one is going to see this film for its deft screenplay.

This won’t go down as one of the best comic book movies of all time. It will be remembered for its CG renderings of such classic TMNT characters as Bebop, Rocksteady and Krang, but it won’t further the legacy of the turtles in any serious way.

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Money Monster

(M) ★★★

Director: Jodie Foster.

Cast: George Clooney, Jack O'Connell, Jodie Foster, Dominic West, Caitriona Balfe, Christopher Denham, Giancarlo Esposito, Lenny Venito.

"I promise I'll never go near another superhero franchise ever again."

YOU know who it’s cool to hate right now? Those fat cats on Wall Street.

It certainly feels like that at the moment. After The Big Short and The Wolf Of Wall Street, and with the spectre of the real-life Global Financial Crisis still haunting our recent past, it seems the bankers are ripe for a kicking.

They’re not a new target, obviously. From Gordon Gecko telling us that “greed … is good” in Wall Street, to the likes of Boiler Room, Margin Call, and Rogue Trader, or docos like Enron and Inside Job – all these films hit upon the varying methods of exploring the haves, the have-nots, and disliking the people who help decide the difference between those two categories.

Money Monster takes us once again to the theatre of Wall Street and although it doesn’t have anything new to say, it at least gives the audience a new scenario in an increasingly familiar setting.

Jack O’Connell plays Kyle, a disgruntled investor who loses everything when a company’s computer glitch wipes $800 million off its stock value overnight.

Rather than take the news lying down, Kyle lashes out at TV money pundit Lee Gates (Clooney) – a gaudy, cynical showman who said the company was a sure thing just weeks before it crashed – by taking Lee hostage at gunpoint on live television.

It’s a great set-up that hits at the heart of the anger that still bubbles, particularly in the US, in the wake of the GFC. But don’t expect any great truths or insights to be unveiled. Money Monster is merely a neat thriller played out against a very “now” backdrop that we’ll likely forget about sooner rather than later, unlike The Big Short and The Wolf Of Wall Street, which people will probably still be talking about for years to come.

Foster’s direction is competent and the movie is tight and tense when it needs to be. It also manages some nice surprises along the way – a heartfelt plea for public support from Gates and a live-to-air phone call from Kyle’s pregnant girlfriend are two key passages that give the narrative a much-needed jolt.

But the film is lacking in a few places. It has more to say about the media than the morality of Wall Street, leaving the whole thing feeling like a missed opportunity for something bigger thematically.

Money Monster is also a rare example of miscasting – rare because the casting choice in question is George Clooney. He’s too damned likeable and while he sells Gates’ hostage-induced change of heart, he’s not believable as the pre-peril jerk he’s supposed to be. Money Monster would be a better film if we hated Gates more at the start, but Clooney can’t make us do that.

Meanwhile Roberts is wasted but good in the thankless role of Gates’ director Patty, leaving it up to O’Connell to own the show, which he does. He makes Kyle by turns intense, sympathetic and pathetic, and does a great job as the heart and soul of the film.

This won’t go down as one of the great Wall Street movies, nor will it end up in the lists of the best things Clooney, Roberts or Foster have done, but it’s a good-enough thriller that has some nice moves occasionally.

Unlike Clooney, who’s dancing in this movie leaves a lot to be desired. Some people may see this as a selling point though, so take that as you will.

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The Nice Guys

(MA15+) ★★★★

Director: Shane Black.

Cast: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Keith David, Kim Basinger.

Russell really wanted to be at home because the Rabbitohs were playing.

SOMEWHERE in between writing the script for Lethal Weapon and directing Iron Man 3, Shane Black wrote and directed a film called Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Initially a flop, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang became a cult favourite because of its offbeat take on the crime noir genre and its inspired comedy pairing of a back-in-the-game Robert Downey Jr and an on-the-way-out Val Kilmer.

The Nice Guys is a very similar proposition from writer-director Black with exactly the same strengths – an offbeat take on the crime noir genre and a surprisingly effective comedy pairing of a still-hot-right-now Ryan Gosling and a probably-on-the-way-out Russell Crowe.

Crowe plays Jackson Healy, a thug who wonders whether he should become a private eye and try to do something good with his life. Gosling is Holland March, a private eye who rarely bothers to do anything good with his life, except provide for his daughter (wonderfully precocious Aussie teen Angourie Rice).

The pair’s paths cross thanks to a girl named Amelia (Qualley), whom lots of people are keen to get hold of for various nefarious reasons, as she may prove to be the key in not only a couple of murders, but maybe also a larger conspiracy.

The story’s multiple red herrings and hard-boiled antics lead around in circles that harken back to the classic noir novels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler and a ‘70s setting adds fresh spice to the genre, along with some outrageous costumes, cool production design and a funky soundtrack featuring the likes of Kool & The Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Black has great fun with the era, the conventions of the crime story, and in Gosling and Crowe he has a dynamic duo to deliver his delicious dialogue. There are plenty of laughs, and while no one will be suggesting Crowe focus purely on comedic roles from now on, he handles the humour well.

Both he and Gosling give great performances that help smooth out the bumps in the way their characters are written, which is one of the few prominent flaws of the film. Healy goes from being a hard man with no compunctions about killing someone to being sick at the sight of a dead body, while March’s alcoholic widower walks a weird line between smart and dumb.

The supporting cast that weaves in and out of the story is solid, but Rice is a scene-stealer. Her biggest claim to fame prior to this was the little-seen Aussie end-of-days thriller These Final Hours but you can guarantee she is a star in the making on the strength of her performance here.

Overall, The Nice Guys is a cool little neo-noir gem. The plot feels like it’s wandering, but it works (if you take into account how inept/corrupt the police in this film must be) and provides more laughs than a lot of out-and-out “comedies” being pumped out of Hollywood in recent years.

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X-Men: Apocalypse

(M) ★★★½

Director: Bryan Singer.

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee.

"Just because you're a mutant, it doesn't mean you're too good for a seatbelt."

WHILE walking out of a cinema screening of Return Of The Jedi, a character in X-Men: Apocalypse quips that the third part of a trilogy is always the worst.

It’s a particularly meta and self-insulating moment in the third film of the second X-Men trilogy, which is indeed the worst of this trilogy, but in this case ‘worst’ doesn’t mean ‘terrible’.

Bloated, yes, over-the-top, yes, but not bad. X-Men: The Last Stand – the third film of the original trilogy – was bad, but Apocalypse, while not reaching the lofty heights of its predecessors First Class and Days Of Future Past, is still pretty good.

Apocalypse is largely set in the 1980s, 10 years after the events of Days Of Future Past. Professor Charles Xavier (McAvoy) is running his school for gifted children (aka super-powered mutants), occasional villain Magneto (Fassbender) is in hiding, and Mystique (Lawrence) is behind the Iron Curtain rescuing fellow mutants from some kind of mutant fight club.

But a new power is rising. A long dormant mutant named En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse (Isaac) has awoken and is gathering powerful followers to his side as part of his quest to wipe the world clean and start again. Naturally it’s up to the X-Men to stop him.

Unlike many of the previous X-Men films, which have thrived on the mutants-as-hated/feared-minority analogy, Apocalypse ditches any kind of theme that might get in the way of its computer-generated world-wrecking. This is X-Men Gone Global – for the first time in the series, the threat is against all of humanity and director Singer has the FX budget to do it.

Those looking for the more cerebral edge amid the mutant throwdowns will be disappointed, as any cerebral edges have been buffered off, but at least Singer still knows how to handle his mutant throwdowns. A cameoing old favourite is a highlight, Quicksilver (Peters) once again gets a great scene to hang his goggles on, Nightcrawler’s powers are cool, and an angry Magneto is always a watchable Magneto.

In terms of spectacle and fun, Apocalypse delivers. It also juggles a lot of characters and a handful of intersecting stories reasonably well, but as is always the case with such an ensemble, some players get little to do beyond wield their powers in a timely fashion.

It is a shame there isn’t more depth here as it may have masked some of the sillier moments. Fassbender almost pulls off some terribly overwrought lines because he’s so damned good, and so does McAvoy. But you get the feeling everyone is sniggering off-camera about how damned ridiculous Apocalypse looks, which makes it hard to take the Big Bad too seriously.

It seems petulant to poke fun at the over-the-top nature of a film where a main character is an immortal mutant trying to destroy the world. First Class and Days Of Future Past were brilliant at remaining grounded in the face of absurdity (which is also an excellent trait of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first two Nolan Batman movies) but Apocalypse struggles to contain itself. The opening sequence in ancient Egypt is overstuffed with digital bells and whistles, as is the chaotic final battlefield. It makes you long for a time when Singer didn’t have nearly a quarter of a billion dollars at his disposal.

The most impressive thing about the X-Men series is the way it has reinvented itself. Via Days Of Future Past, the film has managed to double-back on its own timeline to give itself a renewed vigour and cast. Apocalypse allows us to meet a new Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Angel, and Storm in a way that is not jarring. It also mean the producers can have a crack at plotlines they fumbled first time around, such as the Dark Phoenix saga, which is hinted at here, setting up for a new trilogy filled with its fresh new faces.

However, it’s going to be hard for a new trilogy to top Singer’s past three X-films. Apocalypse isn’t the perfect note to end on, but its an enjoyable enough conclusion to the trilogy.

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Mother's Day

(M) ★★½

Director: Garry Marshall.

Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Jason Sudeikis, Britt Robertson, Timothy Olyphant, Héctor Elizondo, Jack Whitehall, Sarah Chalke, Aasif Mandvi.

There's "agreeing to be in a bad movie", and then there's "agreeing to be in a bad movie wearing a bad wig".

FIRST there was Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve, and now Happy Days creator and Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall has plucked Mother’s Day off the wall calendar where he gets his movie titles from.

As with his past two films, this one has plenty of star wattage, a cheesy balance of rom and com, and an excess of intertwining stories, some of which work and some of which misfire worse than a poorly chosen Mother’s Day present.

There are four key narratives here. Single mum Sandy (Aniston) is struggling to come to terms with her ex-husband’s new 20-something bride and having to share her kids with a step-mum, sisters Jesse (Hudson) and Gabi (Chalke) have hidden their respective interracial and lesbian relationships from their bigoted white trash parents for too long, Bradley (Sudeikis) is trying to raise his two daughters after the death of his wife, and Kristin (Robertson) refuses to marry the father of her child (Whitehall). Somewhere among all this, Julia Roberts flits around as shopping channel guru Miranda.

As with Marshall’s previous two films, all the issues of all the characters build to a climax on one day – here it’s Mother’s Day, obviously – where everyone learns a lesson about the importance of family and how amazing and versatile mums are.

It’s a noble and worthy theme to hang a movie on, but unfortunately some of these character arcs are more effective than others. Two work well – Aniston’s chapters are well thought-out and examine interesting facets of modern family dynamics, while Sudeikis’ story has plenty of heart and emotional punch to it, even if it is a little underdone.

But as with many of these rom-com anthologies, proceedings get dragged down by the weaker stories. Hudson and Chalke’s section had the potential to be the most interesting as it grappled with prejudices tearing a family apart, however this part of the film ends up devolving into a mess of slapstick and cheesy epiphanies. Where a note of truth rings out in the two aforementioned stories, this one is full of sitcom artifice.

The Robertson/Whitehall tale is also a swing and a miss, partly because it feels tacked on and partly because it’s poorly realised, even though Whitehall's stand-up routines within the film are pretty good.

Marshall and his editors get credit for weaving the threads together well in the final act, and the stars all do a decent job, particularly Aniston and Sudeikis.

But too much of this is patchy and awkward, like it’s four TV pilots stuck together, or four film ideas no one was game to turn into full movies on their own.

There are a couple of laughs here and some nice sentiments, but ultimately Mother’s Day is a 50/50 proposition, like cooking dinner for your mum but making her do the dishes.

PS. Does anyone want to take bets on what day of the year Marshall will use for his next movie? Surely the smart money is on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

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