Australian Penthouse

The Change-Up

Director: David Dobkin
Cast: Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin
Universal

While The Change-Up might not win any awards for original narrative devices—body switching is, nowadays, a comedy staple—the potential for laughs from the cast alone is extremely potent. Jason Bateman has proven himself as a skilled comedian on both TV (Arrested Development) and film (Smokin’ Aces), and Ryan Reynolds has done the exact same thing on the small screen (Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place) and the big screen (Blade: Trinity).

So with their comedic powers combined, along with their ability to convey believable drama, The Change-Up should have been a contender for comedy of the year. But the execution is ultimately not so much the sum of its parts as much as it is a confused mess sporadically broken up with a shotgun approach to humour; only some of which works.

Dave Lockwood (Bateman) is stuck in the rut of day-to-day married life. He’s working hard to make partner at a law firm, while his wife Jamie (Mann) is on his case about lack of communication in their marriage. Between his wife, the late-night wake-ups of crying children, and the crush he has on work colleague Sabrina McArdle (Wilde), Dave is not happy with life.

When he catches up for a boy’s night with childhood buddy Mitch Planko (Reynolds), whose only worries are his strained relationship with his serial marrier dad (Arkin) and securing new hot ladies to have sex with, Dave envies Mitch’s carefree lifestyle and Mitch yearns for the security of Dave’s routine. Too much alcohol and a mutual verbalisation of how much they want the other’s life later and the friends have switched bodies.

From here, the story arc is predictable and plays out by the numbers: after some initial tensions, Mitch starts to learn to be responsible in Dave’s body, while Dave learns to unwind as Mitch and appreciate the value of his family. But a by-the-numbers plotline doesn’t matter if the comedy is up to scratch.

The Change-Up starts strong, even if some of the jokes are of the gross-out or extreme variety. Bateman and Reynolds are shrewd enough comedians to garner some quality belly laughs from the audience, and when they switch roles, they have a lot of fun with taking the mickey out of the other. But the further the characters get into each other’s lives, the more the film tries to evolve into a drama with a much lesser emphasis on comedy. As with Due Date, the dramatic scenes feel out of place and destroy any comedic momentum that has built up, essentially resetting the ‘laugh clock’ to zero.

Ultimately, The Change-Up is far too formulaic to be given credit on its disjointed attempts at dramatic moments, and it’s not funny enough in the middle to be praised solely for its comedy. Through an attempt at pleasing a wider audience with a shotgun approach to laughs and out-of-place dramatic scenes, The Change-Up, unfortunately, disappoints on its epic comedic potential and defines itself as yet another film that could have been a whole lot funnier with a little more focus one way or the other.

THE CHANGE-UP OPENS TODAY.

Review: Nathan Lawrence

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo, Brian Cox, Andy Serkis
20th Century Fox

ORIGIN stories and prequels seem to have an unfortunate tendency of wasting precious viewing minutes before jumping into the crux of the story, despite the audience knowing the direction of the narrative. Thankfully, Rise of the Planet of the Apes does not conform to this mould. A shrewdness of apes is rounded up and shipped off to a not-so-local American research facility whereby the latest wonder drug is trialled on them in the hopes of advancing to human trials.

Scientist Will Rodman (Franco) is trying hard to impress his boss Steven Jacobs (Oyelowo) and a board of investors with a drug that shows promise as a cure to Alzheimer’s disease. After the presentation goes horribly awry, all test apes are euthanised with the exception of newborn Caesar (brought to life with motion capture work from the ever-nimble Andy ‘Gollum’ Serkis). Will takes young Caesar home for a temporary stint of care that becomes more permanent when his father, Charles (Lithgow), who suffers from Alzheimer’s, takes a shining to the infant ape.

As time passes, it becomes clear that the wonder drug has been passed genetically to Caesar and his intelligence readings are off the charts. When Jacobs tries to shut down Rodman’s research, he uses his father as a test subject with impressive initial results. More time passes and Caesar struggles to assimilate into the human world, ultimately leading to his imprisonment and the beginnings of an ape revolution.

The biggest problem with creating prequels to familiar material is how difficult it is to create an overall sense of tension. After all, any cinemagoer with a loose understanding of the original films will know how the ultimate story arc ends for this chapter. Despite this, the film is brimming with humour, cleverness and a lot more heart than your average popcorn film.

Thankfully, Rise of the Planet of the Apes swings away from cliché territory by avoiding the trap of populating the film with evil humans to justify Caesar’s plight. While there are some bad eggs, the majority of the human characters that Caesar interacts with portray our better, redeemable qualities, resulting in a layered and satisfying core narrative.

John Lithgow is the standout performance that, unfortunately, gets far too little screen time as he infuses empathy and frustration into the role of the Alzheimer’s-ridden Charles. The rest of the cast do a solid job of carrying the film from A to B, but not in any particular form that makes their performances particularly memorable.

The action sequences may be a bit sparse but they are sufficiently epic, particularly towards the end; even if the apes do suffer from a politically correct sense of ‘militant pacifism’. Caesar’s okay with revolting, but apparently has major issues with taking human lives, which is just plain weird. Couple this with the at times confused soundtrack cues that make it difficult to know who the audience should be rooting for—humans or apes—and some of the more visually impressive action sequences lose momentum.

On the topic of visually impressive sequences, the all-CGI ape contingent of the film are Weta Workshop’s (of Lord of the Rings fame) best work to date. Considering the sub-$100-million budget for the film, Weta continues to show they’re at the top of their game, infusing the ape characters with rich personalities and conveying believable emotion.

While it may be difficult to fully engage with a storyline whose ending is already predetermined, Rise of the Planet of the Apes still manages to impress for the most part, injecting heart and intelligence into what could have easily have been just another popcorn film.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes opens August 4

Review: Nathan Lawrence

Cowboys & Aliens

Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Paul Dano
Paramount Pictures

Hollywood is no stranger to genre blending. In fact, short of the usual fair of reboots, remakes and sequels, it seems to be one of the few vestiges for originality. Case in point, Cowboys & Aliens. An epic collection of Hollywood heavy hitters—from the new and old school—have put their weight behind this seemingly simple mash up: the Old West meets the alien-infested science-fiction genre.

With established bad-asses Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford as leading men and Hollywood hottie Olivia Wilde as eye candy, the on-screen potential is well on the way. Couple this with the behind-camera collective talents of director Jon Favreau (Iron Man), executive producer Steven Spielberg, producer Ron Howard and writing/producer duo Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and you’d think that Cowboys & Aliens would be a sure thing. But you’d be wrong. Well, half wrong.

The film kicks off with Jake Lonergan (Craig) coming to in a desert with no memory and a strange sci-fi bracelet stuck to his arm. It’s not long before the local not-so-friendly posse rolls around to help Jake prove that he hasn’t forgotten how to kick arse, then it’s off to the local town of Absolution to get acquainted with the locals.

After being patched up by the local preacher (Brown), Jake gets himself into strife with the son (Dano) of the big man in town, Woodrow Dolarhyde (Ford). Forgetful Jake is noticed as a wanted criminal, incapacitated by Ella Swenson (Wilde) and thrown in the back of a prison coach. Dolarhyde wants to exert his own brand of Old West justice on Jake’s hide but before he can, the unthinkable happens: aliens attack.

Of course, this is the premise of the film, but Favreau seems to have a hard time making the western and sci-fi genres gel. Westerns that are done right are all about simple stories, an emphasis on a core character arc and a slow burn with a couple of shoot-outs thrown in for good measure to maintain audience interest until the final showdown. Whereas great sci-fi films of the alien invasion variety are generally fast-paced affairs with plenty of action and an epic fight at the end. Short of the similar end result, these two film genres are worlds apart.

Cowboys & Aliens uses the western genre as the foundation for its pacing, which means that whenever sci-fi conventions are thrown into the mix, it feels a little ‘off’. That’s not to say that the action set pieces are boring; far from it. In fact, the action and cinematography are two of the film’s best elements. It’s a really well-shot film.

Craig and Ford have the right amount of brooding chemistry, taking turns at showing who has the biggest balls and letting the audience know that they’re capable of carrying a film. Olivia Wilde’s character, on the other hand, is mostly forgettable in the first half and, ultimately, serving only as an audience exposition character past the halfway point. At two hours the film feels 20 minutes too long—this could have been remedied easily by removing Wilde’s character altogether without detriment to the film.

Most of all, Cowboys & Aliens suffers under the burden of implied expectation. With such an impressive team of talent on both sides of the camera, it makes you wonder how a novel merging of two established genres could end up all over the place. While Cowboys & Aliens doesn’t come close to being a contender for some of the worst films of 2011, it is unfortunately one of the most disappointing.

Cowboys & Aliens opens August 18

Review: Nathan lawrence

Captain America: The First Avenger

Director: Joe Johnston
Stars: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci
Paramount Pictures

AFTER the disjointed mess of The Wolfman, comic fans had understandable reservations about Joe Johnston helming this tale of the origin of the first Avenger. The hit and miss director was well within his element in the same vein as one of his earliest films, (and perhaps most fondly remembered) The Rocketeer. Captain America has a similar set up. An unlikely hero battling a Nazi menace, stunningly proportioned co-stars and a suitably dastardly villain obsessed with world domination.

Mild and meek Steve Rogers (Chris Evans – Scott Pilgrim, Street Kings) just wants to serve his country and take it to ze Germans, or as he calls them “bullies” of WWII. Repeated failed enlistment attempts coupled with the vast shadow cast by his best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) leave him pondering his future until a defecting German scientist, played beautifully by Stanley Tucci, sees beyond Rogers’ measly frame to the strength and determination behind it and admits him to a secret government program designed to genetically engineer a super soldier.

After an amazing transformation, Rogers becomes the icon known as Captain America and is under-utilised as a cash cow for the war effort until news of Bucky’s capture springs him into action and comic book history. More than a simple figurehead Cap and Bucky take it to the Krauts leading to a showdown against the evil and twisted Red Skull.

Full credit must go to Joe Johnston for wonderfully handling this project. The film is beautifully shot with particular and respectful attention to Cap’s canon and the use of his indestructible shield. There’s a rare sensitivity to Rogers’ story. The character development is believable, he distils solid all around performances from the cast and is surprisingly restrained on the patriotism angle.

Chris Evans is immensely likeable as Steve Rogers, leaving his usual cockiness at the door in the lead role. His physical metamorphosis is astounding, on par with Will Smith’s massive increase in muscle mass for Ali. The special effects used to meld his face on a significantly slighter body for the first section of the film are impossible to detect and seamless. His alter ego, The Red Skull, is menacingly played by Hugo Weaving, providing the perfect counterpoint to Cap’s wholesomeness. This is not Weaving playing a variation of V or Agent Smith emulating past roles. The Red Skull feels fresh, terrifying and moves with unrelenting purpose. You couldn’t ask for a better hero/villain combination.

Make sure to stick around after the credits for a sneak peek at the upcoming super powered extravaganza The Avengers. With cinemas overflowing with comic book adaptations, Captain America is a rare gem. Exciting, entertaining and heartfelt, it is bested only by Christopher Nolan’s comic book origins-to-movie efforts. Kudos to Marvel Studios, you’re doing it right.

Captain America: The First Avenger opens today.

Review: Dave Kozicki

Beginners

Director: Mike Mills
Stars: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Mary Page Keller
Hopscotch Films

THERE are often parallels in behaviour between children and parents that provide fertile ground for exploring in entertainment mediums such as cinema. This is exactly what writer/director Mike Mills has done with his upcoming film, Beginners. Having read the distributor-provided backstory of the film, it was interesting to discover that the events featured within closely resemble those that happened in Mills’ life with his father.

Beginners begins with Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor) in the throes of the sad task of choosing what to keep and remove of his father’s existence. A collection of books makes the ‘keep’ box, while handfuls of prescribed medication are flushed down the toilet. The chronology of the film constantly jumps around from the outset, showing the present-day Oliver trying to come to terms of what life means to him as a middle-aged orphan. To compound matters, he meets Anna (Mélanie Laurent) shortly after his father’s passing and, together, they quickly realise how similar they are with regard to the many failed relationships they’ve left in their respective wakes.

But Oliver’s chance party encounter with Anna dredges memories of his father and mother (Mary Page Keller) and the distance that existed in their relationship while Oliver was young and impressionable. Almost all of Oliver’s flashbacks about his mother are exclusively with her (father, Hal, is consistently absent) and it’s obvious that there’s something missing in their marriage .

Years later, when his wife dies, Hal makes the surprise announcement to Oliver and the world that he is, and has been for a long time, gay. Not content to explore the predicable tension that would ensue with a father coming out of the closet to his son, Mills chooses, instead, to highlight how even Oliver’s instantaneous acceptance of his father’s new lifestyle isn’t without consequence.

Hal begins to completely rebrand himself as he discovers what it means to be a 75-year-old man who’s only just come out of the closet after 45 years of heterosexual marriage. He changes his wardrobe, heads out to clubs, puts a very direct classified advertisement in the papers with hope of meeting men and finding a boyfriend (Goran Visnjic).

Oliver struggles to come to terms with the selfishness his father embodies in the last four years of his life, particularly when he starts to act more like a son to Oliver, who is more responsible. As may be expected from such a film, Beginners is a slow-paced human drama that bounces between some genuinely funny comedic moments and well thought out dramatic beats. Although clearly based on intensely personal subject matter, Mills keeps the film accessible, never allowing the storyline slip too far into subjectivity.

Sometimes draining, mostly when the world is seen through Oliver’s melancholy eyes, Beginners may not be a film that gels with every audience, but it does offer an interesting and unique take on the father/son relationship, bolstered by unsurprisingly solid performances from its two male leads. If you’re after a quirky and engaging family drama, Beginners is well worth discovering.

BEGINNERS is in cinemas August 25

Review: Nathan Lawrence

Hanna

Director: Joe Wright
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander
Universal Pictures

SAOIRSE Ronan is making a name for herself in Hollywood with engaging recent performances in Peter Jackson’s divisive afterlife flick, The Lovely Bones, and as the only gal among the guys in Peter Weir’s epic escape film, The Way Back. In her latest film, Hanna, Ronan takes on the titular role of an impressionable girl who’s been brainwashed and conditioned since birth to be an assassin.

Erik (Eric Bana), Hanna’s father, spends every waking moment teaching his daughter to hone her survival instincts and push herself to be faster, stronger and ever-aware of her surroundings. They hide out in an icy forest in order to avoid detection, but Hanna quickly shows that she is ready to take on the big bad world, despite contrasting bouts of childlike näivety when faced with anything beyond being an extremely proficient hunter.

Hanna activates a homing beacon that notifies the CIA of their location while Erik bids goodbye to his daughter. The CIA team brings Hanna in for questioning where Marissa (Cate Blanchett) takes a particular interest in her interrogation. It’s not long before Hanna ditches her maiden-in-distress routine to showcase her hand as a deft assassin/survival expert. Marissa sets off in pursuit of Erik but not before employing the torture-loving services of the delightfully nuts, Isaacs (Tom Hollander), to hunt Hanna.

As Hanna makes her way across the world towards her destination (Germany), she encounters a life-loving road-tripping family that show her some of the finer, less stabby points of the world around her. But it doesn’t take long for Isaacs to catch up with her and for Hanna’s true self to kick in.

Hanna is essentially a chase film, made more interesting by the fact that the pursuer is a 16-year old girl who shows constantly that she’s not to be messed with. Ronan injects the titular role with a fascinating balance between über-näivety and extreme prejudice in a way that doesn’t come across as bipolar. Bana and Blanchett sink their acting dentures into their respective roles as ‘good assassin, bad assassin’, while Hollander steals the show with his take on a depraved German ‘cleaner’ who, unfortunately, doesn’t get enough screen time.

The pace and exploration of Hanna’s character are tight and engrossing until the ill-fitting attempt at a third-act reveal falls short to taint the otherwise grounded believability of the film and threaten to push it into comic-book land. This also, unfortunately, affects the build and momentum of the film’s final 20 minutes; particularly when symbolism is pushed to extremes.

But such end-of-film stumbles don’t destroy the often clever and very human exploration of the ‘nature versus nurture’ theme. The  action is well handled and the soundtrack, by UK act Chemical Brothers, is a great fit for the tone and speed of the film. Despite those few issues in the film’s final quarter, Hanna remains well worth its admission price.

HANNA is released July 28

Review: Nathan Lawrence

Win Win

Director: Thomas McCarthy
Stars: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor, Bobby Cannavale, Burt Young, Alex Shaffer
20th Century Fox

FOX Searchlight Pictures has a history of sniffing out and backing quality projects. With notable films over the years such as the Danny Boyle-directed Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours to Darren Aronofsky’s lcritically and commercially well-received Black Swan, its list of accolades speaks for itself.

Win Win is an attractive prospect on paper: an offbeat dramedy with the always-solid Paul Giamatti in the lead role. Unfortunately, the execution is less satisfying than its potential.

Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) is a lawyer who’s struggling to make ends meet. In order to stay afloat, Mike takes advantage of one of his clients, Leo Poplar (Young), to score an attractive monthly salary. Mike becomes the legal guardian for Leo, lying to the judge that this will keep the elderly man living in his home, but, instead, puts Leo in a retirement home while Mike banks the easy money.

Unfortunately for Mike, matters quickly complicate as Leo starts asking questions, Mike’s wife Jackie (Ryan) senses that something is not right and Leo’s grandson, Kyle (Shaffer), turns up unexpectedly looking to live with his grandfather. Mike’s already stressful existence is made a whole lot worse when Kyle ends up temporarily living with him and his struggling family.

Mike moonlights as a wrestling coach with Stephen Vigman (Tambor) for a team of losers. But when Mike and his best friend, Terry, Delfino (Cannavale) stumble across the dormant wrestling potential of Kyle, they both discover an outlet for their respective life stresses: Mike with his money woes and Terry with his divorce.

This all sounds like a solid foundation for an engaging dramedy plotline but, unfortunately, a lot of it falls short. First and foremost, Giamatti is often pushed to the straight-man benches in Win Win when he’s proven that he has comedic chops in the past (Shoot ‘Em Up and The Negotiator spring to mind).

Jeffrey Tambor of Arrested Development fame is underutilised, which means that the all-important comedy aspect of this particular dramedy is shared between the often emasculating issue resolution process of Jackie and the ex-wife-stalking antics of Terry.

This makes the laughs few and far between, leaving just the dramatic elements to carry the film forward. But these elements are rather formulaic as Mike’s expanding layercake of lies becomes predictable in an ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong’ kind of way. The main unpredictable dramatic element is the somewhat convenient yet strangely illogical ultimate resolution to Mike’s collection of lies.

Win Win doesn’t fall so far as to be a lose-lose experience, but it does fall flat in the dramatic and comedic elements that are crucial for any film in the dramedy genre to gain and, more importantly, maintain attention. The standout performance of the film, surprisingly, comes from newcomer Kyle Shaffer, who plays disinterested teenager to a T, has the most interesting storyline of the film and kicks arse as a wrestling prodigy. It’s a shame to see what works well as a premise not realised in the end result.

WIN WIN is in cinemas August 18

Review: Nathan Lawrence

Bad Teacher

Director: Jake Kasdan
Stars: Cameron Diaz, Lucy Punch, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, John Michael Higgins
Sony Pictures

WHEN it comes to Hollywood comedies, there are two main varieties: Type A is the kind that attempts to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, hedging its bets with safe humour and inoffensive jokes to attract everyone from kids to grandparents and maximise the potential for high returns; whereas Type B is directed at adults of the not-too-old and none-too-young varieties. Such comedies include a wide range of humour and often try to push the boundaries of an audience’s comfortability in order to reap laughs. They offer a broader palette of comic material to work with because they aren’t restricted by petty concerns such as lower ratings, that can render a comedy impotent and otherwise deny its true potential.

Paradoxically, Bad Teacher attempts to strike a middle ground between these two core archetypes. Even Australia’s Classification Board seems to be confused how to classify this film, giving what would normally fall under an MA15+-type comedy a lower M15 rating (usually reserved for Type A comedies), despite the presence of drugs, boobs, sex and plenty of good ol’ fashioned f-bombs.

Cameron Diaz takes a foul-mouthed turn as Elizabeth Halsey, a junior high teacher who does the bare minimum to get through the day. When her opera-loving fiancé dumps her, Elizabeth is forced back to the teaching job that she loathes. From here, her plan is simple: save enough cash to get a boob job and score herself a wealthy beau so she can spend his money and never work again. When new teacher Scott Delacorte (Justin Timberlake) arrives at her school, Elizabeth has to compete for his attention with goody two-shoes nemesis Amy Squirrel (Lucy Punch), while shooting down the advances of gym teacher Russell Gettis (Jason Segel).

The premise alone is ripe with comedic potential, but the execution is more awkward than hilarious, with a constant shift in tone between Type A and B comedy types. The major problem with this is that Type A comedies are usually resolved by some form of redemption for ‘bad egg’ characters. Although predictable, the better comedies from this category dedicate a decent chunk of screen time to this inevitability so that the protagonist’s character arc doesn’t feel forced, rushed or otherwise out of place.

Type B comedies can swing wildly with the intent of reaping laughs from anywhere and everywhere don’t necessarily need such endings. The moments where Bad Teacher falls apart were when the storyline opened doors to subplots that weren’t resolved, leaving the overall ending to the film rushed and more confusing than satisfying.

While the trailer seemed to boast the lion’s share of comedic moments—as well as funnier alternate takes—thankfully, a fair share of gags do work. When Elizabeth is at her worst, Diaz owns the character in a pleasant turn that shows she has more comedic skill than simply playing the sweet and innocent ‘straight man’. Timberlake and Segel also do a great job with what they’re given, but have little screen time between them and fewer gags than the two female nemeses of Bad Teacher. Unfortunately, Diaz’s counterpoint, Punch, takes on an absurdist persona for Amy Squirrel that’s eerily familiar to her ex-girlfriend routine in Dinner for Schmucks—she had me cringing more than laughing at her over-the-top performance.

The biggest disappointment with Bad Teacher is how confused the collective talent appears to be with the overall direction of the film. If Bad Teacher had trod a mature, Apatow-like path with its funny premise and the tone hinted at in the trailer—instead of trying to jump between two different comedy archetypes—the end result would have been a whole lot funnier and less bipolar.

BAD TEACHER is in cinemas July 21

Review: Nathan Lawrence