Produced by: Nicolas Cage, Mike Nilon, Kristin Burr p.g.a., Kevin Turen
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alesssandra, Mastronardi, Jacod Scipio, Lily Sheen, with Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish.
‘You’re a fucking movie star and don’t you forget it.’
Massive talent is a clever movie because it has all the humour of the Nick Cage swagger, yet layered with Nick as Nick, then Nick writing a script about the movie that is Nick, which is an, ‘adult drama’ about the friendship of two men, that is to say Nick being invited to the house of Javi (Pedro Pascal), a supposed murderous weapons dealer, in Mallorca for his birthday.
For $1 million Nick hopes the request isn’t for anything more than a party invite.
Turns out Javi has a script he wants Nick to read.
He’s a huge fan.
They get along.
It’s like kids hanging out that click and know they’re going to be best friends.
It’s good fun with some decent belly laughs along with the clever fold of story over the actor that is Nick. He evens has an alter ego of himself as young Nick – ‘Never shit on yourself.’
There is more to the story of the film then the Cage-factor with kidnapping and cartels set on the coast of Spain.
Family drama gets involved with the ever suffering, thank-god-she’s-in-my-life ex-wife, Olivia (Sharon Horgan) with daughter Addy (Lily Sheen), ‘she thought Humphrey Bogart was a porn star.’
There’s some great dialogue here and Nick’s little flicks of the head and self-obsession in therapy with said family is gold. As is the sincerity of Javi’s fandom seen in his wide-eyed star-struck regard of Nick.
I felt like the film goes on a bit at the end (a bit like this review, but never shit on yourself ; ) and the soundtrack gets jaunty, letting down the tone down at times. But a good entertainer with some clever thrown in that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Writers: Brian Kehoe & Jim Kehoe, Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg, Eben Russell
Produced by: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, Chris Fenton
Executive Producers: Nathan Kahane, Joseph Drake, Josh Fagen, Chris Cowles, Dave Stassen, Jonathan McCoy
Stars: Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz, John Cena, Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Indira Viswanathan, Gideon Adlan.
The latest in a long and never-ending line of American teen comedies, this film follows three parents, played by Mann, Cena and Barinholtz, who discover their teenaged daughters have made a pact to lose their virginity on prom night, and try to stop this from occurring. The film was originally titled “The Pact” but was later changed to Blockers with a silhouette of a rooster preceding it, thus inferring “Cock Blockers”.
One reviewer thought this film was “empowering” because it “shows girls flourishing on their own terms, surrounded by supportive friends and nice boys and well-meaning parents.” While this may be true, it isn’t the message one will take away from viewing this film. What lingers is the enthusiastic way teens seize on any opportunity to get totally drunk, and how easily they mislead their well-meaning yet clueless parents.
I expected this film to be composed of wall-to-wall crass humour (based on the trailer) and yes, there was a lot of vulgarity, but there were also some sweet moments between the parents and their children that helped to establish close bonds between them from their first day at school right through to their prom, which explained the parents’ over-protectiveness. In many ways the children seemed more savvy and worldly-wise than their parents, whose similarly rebellious acts during their youth appeared tame in comparison.
A theme running through the film concerned the undeclared sexual preference of one daughter, which I wasn’t expecting to see in this type of film. Her father’s desire to prevent her from bowing to peer pressure was actually quite thought-provoking and mature in a film mainly devoted to depicting drunkenness and vomiting. It was also amusing yet touching how the object of this daughter’s desire was usually photographed in heroic slow-motion, recalling a super hero.
The three male dates for the prom were not depicted as stereotypical brainless hunks with only sex on their minds, with one of them having an enterprising side line in recreational chemicals. While the boys did behave like teenagers, they were also shown to be capable of courtesy and consideration, and were so good humoured about the train wreck unfolding around them that they seemed too good to be true.
The parents were less endearing, with former pro wrestler John Cena probably the weakest link as he overacted like He-Man and his delivery of dialogue was often hampered by poor sound quality or possibly just his enunciation. Lesley Mann reprised her scatter-brained, slightly dippy depiction of a mother who was scared of change. Ike Barinholtz as the outcast father had some touching moments trying to set the record straight while mostly being ignored.
The funniest moment for me was when the three parents snuck into the house of another couple who were into role playing, with amusing results as the three intruders got caught up unintentionally in the other couple’s shenanigans.
So while it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, with some funny moments, it was just another one of those juvenile American movies with lots of swearing instead of witty dialogue, numerous drunken escapades by teenagers and adults alike, and all that rites of passage stuff (getting drunk, trying to lose one’s virginity on prom night, etc.).
If you enjoyed the Bad Moms movies you’ll probably like this one as well. But if you prefer your humour to be more sophisticated and subtle, then this isn’t the movie for you, being just another unoriginal comedy, with predicable situations and largely two dimensional characters.
Starring: Will Smith, Jimenez Fitzsimons, Ike Barinholtz, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Cara Delevingne, Jai Caurtney, Joel Kimaman, Adewale Akinnuoge-Agbaje, Viola Davis, Ben Affleck, James McGowan, Jim Parrack, Ezra Miller; Jay Hernandez.
With such a huge amount of hype my expectations were duly high for Suicide Squad.
Was I impressed?
It comes down to the entertainment factor for me. Without a doubt, I was entertained.
Suicide Squad is an inverse to the usual superhero movie, where the bad guys are good and the humans, particularly Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), have become the devil incarnate to keep the human race feeling safe.
It’s a time of fear where mere mortals are faced with the idea of being over-powered. What would happen if Superman decided to take the President and drop him from the sky? No one would have been able to stop him.
To protect the human race, Amanda Waller puts together a squad of super-villains. Those with superpower but those locked away for being, well, bad. And now an Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), a genie let out of the proverbial bottle, has come to take over the world.
There are a lot of big names here, the stand outs for me: Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith as Deadshot. I’m not always a fan of the Smith, but he played Deadshot well, managing to give the character warmth and depth. There’s also a chemistry between Margot Robbie and Will Smith that works and appears genuine on film.
I have to say I was let down by the Joker (Jared Leto) after so much hype. The Joker in a film full of big characters felt crowded, but the twisted love story with Harley Quinn was a nice twist to the usual superhero love story.
The editing was conducted so even a second was counted. A couple of jolts at the beginning and the rest of the film was seamless. To fit so much and still give air to the story and characters, director and writer David Ayer is to be commended. And the rock’n soundtrack gave a great pace to the film.
A few gaps have to mentioned. If you don’t have prior knowledge of Suicide Squad or included characters, some of the backstory was a bit thin. How a psychiatrist becomes a marital arts expert because she’s suddenly crazy was a stretch. And I would have liked more heart from Katana. But more backstory of some characters would have meant cutting others.
Suicide Squad isn’t just a superhero movie, there are elements of fantasy (which I thoroughly enjoyed) put together with fun characters, a great soundtrack and a story held together enough for the film to be entertaining.
