It’s been a busy month for cinema this month, but sadly not a great one, with a lot of mediocrity in there. Anyway…
Waz (actualy W Delta Z) is a fairly terrible film. Two stereotyped detectives (the hard-ass and the rookie) investigate a series of brutal murders that tie inexplicably into an old case. It could’ve been watchable, but what little original material that’s on show is badly fumbled. Instead we get a noir thriller with no snappy dialogue, poor acting, and cliche. By the time you find out why the killer is doing these things the will to care will be long gone. Avoid.
Will Ferrell films that are penned by someone outside of his immediate peers all suffer from the same problem: they’re fun, with some great moments, and generally work as decent comedies, but they pale in comparison to the genuine article. Semi-Pro is no exception. The poker scene, some of Jackie Moon’s show boating, and the fights are brilliantly pitched; the Woody Harrelson love interest sub-plot less so. It’s worth seeing if you’re after a light comedy that won’t necessarily make it as a classic.
While any film featuring both Scarlett Johanssen and Natalie Portman in corsets really doesn’t need anything else, The Other Boleyn Girl disappoints by not really delivering much. The performances are certainly good enough, but the handling of the characters was weak: pitching Anne Boleyn as manipulative and vengeful until the final scenes, and then trying to draw sympathy. Henry VIII’s life and his role in the the reformation becomes trivialised in the pursuit of simplistic cinema, and none of the central characters are interesting enough to garner either respect or pity. Plodding, and somewhat dull.
I’m something of a zombie film fan, so when the master of the genre releases another installment of his landmark series, I pay attention. Sadly, Diary of the Dead is a horrible mistake. It tries, in Romero’s usual style, to show the influence of continued media coverage and always being connected. In small parts, it works and it may have continued to work if it wasn’t dealt with in such a ham-fisted fashion. Instead we have a bunch of whiny twenty-somethings who are very aware of the terrible dialogue they’re saying. The direction, the acting, the message: they all lack the subtlety of earlier films, and the whole film suffers for it.
Saw defined its own little niche in the horror genre that several films recently have tried to dig into; Untraceable is one such effort. It’s terrible and over the top, but just about claws itself into the category of “bad enough to be entertaining”. You won’t care about the victims of the elaborate death machines, you won’t care about the protagonist, and, if you’re technically inclined, you’ll wince at the “hacking” references, but if you can completely switch off and laugh at how bad the film is, you’ll have some breezy entertainment.
After some fairly disappointing animated films lately, it’s a pleasure to watch Horton Hears a Who.Where Bee Movie failed, it manages to balance the light moralising we expect with a fairly entertaining story. The cast are excellent throughout, with both Carey and Carrell performing well, with some excellent gags propping up the film. Of particular note is an animé sequence which had me nearly in tears. Ok, it’s a kid’s film, but it’s also very entertaining. Go see.
In stark contrast to the lightness of the last film is the fairly dark Children of Glory: a Hungarian film about the undefeated water polo team at the time of the Hungarian uprising against Russia. It is at times brilliant, capturing the atmosphere of the time in an effortless manner. At other points, it leaves a lot to be desired, obviously put together on a low budget (not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself if the result works), and focussing too much on the polo at the end. While the team were very important to the Hungarian people, it doesn’t translate well, sapping the last half hour of any real drama. A shame, as there are some very promising moments throughout.
Lars and the Real Girl is a quiet film about a man who, after losing a lot in his life, becomes convinced a rubber doll he buys from the internet is a real person. His town are told that the best way to help is to buy into it and allow him to work it through. If from the synopsis you’re thinking comedy mishaps ensue, you’re largely wrong. While it does have comedy elements, it’s a lot more about the drama and tension around this man and his family. There’s too much dead space here, though, with the typical twee-indie film pace making the lack of weighty plot shine through. An utterly serious film along these lines would’ve faired better, but what we get is a merely ok tale.
Much has been made of the Guillermo Del Toro presented psychological horror film, The Orphanage. Sadly, everything about it is lacking the originality and freshness the genre so badly needs. Take any Japanese horror film (think The Ring, The Eye, The Grudge etc), set it in Spain, and slow the pace some, and you’ll end up with The Orphanage. Again, the pacing is far off where it should be (the medium scenes being particularly dull), and it fails to take advantage of the one great idea it has by recanting it for a more feel-good ending. Rent something scarier, like Poltergeist, before coming to this weak entry.
Finally, The Spiderwick Chronicles follows a bunch of fairly annoying and badly acted children as they embark on a fantastical adventure of monsters and magic. Yes, it’s that trite. Yes, it’s entirely forgettable. No, there’s nothing to redeem it (though the bird-munching Hogsqueal tries). Hopefully this will be forgotten and be buried before sequel talk starts, but I doubt that’ll happen. Not worth seeing.
And the winner? Well, there’s nothing that particularly grabs me this month. Of the 10 films viewed, most were mediocre at best. I think Semi-pro wins by default. While it’s no masterpiece, there’s enough good material here to warrant a repeat viewing at some point and I can’t honestly say that about any of the other films here.