Reviews

  • Godzilla (2014)

    Godzilla (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015) The American 1998 Godzilla film may be nearly two decades old, it’s still enough of a cautionary tale to lower expectations about the 2014 version.  Fortunately, this latest iteration of the character doesn’t need lowered expectations:  Ably helmed by director Gareth Edwards (making the jump to multi-million moviemaking right from the clever low-budget Monsters), Godzilla is an imperfect but satisfying take on the classic character, updated to the latest expectations but old-fashioned in its willingness to deliver the basics of a monster movie.  One of the best demonstrations of this film’s understanding of the Godzilla mythos is its explicit willingness to treat Godzilla as a force of nature, an anti-hero to be used against bigger threats rather than a threat in itself.  Relatively daring is the decision to keep Godzilla half-seen until late in the film, occasional glimpses of his bulk being enough to keep us satisfied until the climax.  Coming in late in the monster-movie game, Godzilla can also afford to skip over the expected parts, showing us the resulting destruction as a highlight news reel rather than the main sequence itself.  The way the mythology is explained is quite successful, instantly raising the credibility of the film with some entertaining confabulations.  The Japanese origins of the character are treated with respect (who better than Ken Watanabe to be the voice of reason?), and there are a number of small mythos winks (from 1954 to Mothra) to keep even casual fans entertained.  Where the film doesn’t do as well is with its human characters: While Aaron Taylor-Johnson isn’t bad as the protagonist (showing a far more respectable image than in the Kick-Ass films or Anna Karenina), he’s a bit underwritten, and that also goes for the other characters.  The fast-moving nature of the film offers few opportunities for credible character involvement, and some of the plot tricks get far-fetched after a while.  Still, let’s not be overly critical: This Godzilla is a pretty good treatment of the character, and it offers a steady succession of small thrills along the way.  Not bad at all.

  • They Came Together (2014)

    They Came Together (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015) If you can’t be bothered to watch yet another romantic comedy, then how about a romantic comedy parody?  They Came Together takes aim at rom-com clichés with a considerable amount of deadpan sarcastic silliness, using actors who have played those very same roles dozens of time before.  To its credit, writer/director David Wain doesn’t try to parody specific scenes or movies, but stick to the archetypical structure of romantic comedies as a clothesline on which to hang the gags.  (“Oh, and… Thanks.”) Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler ably anchor a large cast of familiar comic actors, which adds to the interest.  As the kind of comic film that embraces absurdity and is willing to try just about anything to get a laugh, They Came Together is definitely uneven: good jokes can be followed by dumb stuff, and the film is a bit too fond of the idea that some things are funnier the more often they are repeated.  (“Oh, and… Thanks.”)  The humor is a bit snarkier-than-thou –which is a way of saying that some will laugh a lot and others won’t see the point.  It may be a bit too clever for its own good at times, but I’ll take excessive cleverness over the kind of painfully unfunny stupidity that parodies have all-too-often become over the past two decades.  They Came Together is best seen without too many preconceptions, and funny enough to stock up a late evening.

  • Mama (2013)

    Mama (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015) Mama may not be a spectacular horror film, but it’s a remarkably good one, and the thrills it offers are a cut above the usual run-of-the-mill horror productions.  Focusing on orphaned children, long-lost secrets, flawed protagonists and a distinctive monster, Mama is heavy on atmosphere and has the merit to aim for chills and emotional investment rather than jump-scares and explicit gore.  Writer/director Andrés Muschietti knows what he’s doing, and while nothing in Mama is particularly original, he’s able to wring quite a bit of tension out of familiar elements.  The titular Mama is creepy enough, but it’s the complex interplay of parenthood issues (abandonment, fostering, hesitancy, and so on) that clearly lift the script above the average.  (There’s an element of the conclusion that feels almost daring in transgressing the kids-in-perils clichés.)  It helps that the main role belongs to the captivating Jessica Chastain (notwithstanding the unflattering haircut) and that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gets a role beyond Game of Thrones.  At a time where old-school horror is making a triumphant comeback, Mama may not be quite as good as Sinister, The Conjuring or Insidious, but it’s worthy to hang with the front-runners of the pack and remind us again that horror isn’t just about how much blood can fit on-screen.  Don’t expect anything startlingly new, though.

  • Gambit (2012)

    Gambit (2012)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015) The single biggest boon of trawling the schedule of specialized cable movie channels is discovering small unassuming gems that, for some reason, never made it big with popular audiences.  So this brings us to Gambit, a Coen-brothers-scripted heist comedy featuring hugely enjoyable actors such as Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman and Stanley Tucci.  The plot, adapted from a sixties film, concerns a disaffected art expert (Firth, both solid and hapless) trying to con his haughty employer out of millions in exchange for a fake painting.  When a Texas cowgirl (Diaz, hilariously unpretentious) is brought in to certify the authenticity of the fake, things get quite a bit off the initial plan.  While Gambit won’t win any awards, it’s a joy to watch largely due to a lighthearted script, some great comic set-pieces and a few actors doing what they know best.  The first ten minutes are hugely enjoyable; the rest is a bit more sedate but by no means unpleasant.  At a time where multiscreen cinema is all about spectacle, the natural resting place for those mid-budget comic caper movies is going to be found in alternate distribution channels.  So start looking at those cable TV listings closely –you may find unjustly-overlooked films like this one.

  • Changeling (2008)

    Changeling (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015)  I really should like Changeling.  It is, after all, an unusually fact-based film about historical Los Angeles, social injustice and sordid crime.  It’s written by J. Michael Straczynski (who has earned a permanent residency in my brain after writing most of Babylon-5), directed by Clint Eastwood and features both Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich in pivotal roles.  It starts slowly as a single-mother dramatic mystery, then gradually gets bigger and bigger until it sweeps the entire California judicial system.  The historical re-creation of 1930(ish) Los Angeles is fascinating, and even the small details of the film are worth a few wonders.  Alas, it feels interminable, and it tackles a subject, child endangerment, that I find unbearable these days.  Sticking close to the historical facts, Changeling is also forbidden from a conventionally satisfying conclusion: at best, it finds hope in a delusion and stops before the inevitable darkness comes back.  At times, watching the film felt like a singularly dull self-imposed ordeal, especially once it makes its way past the two-hour duration.  I’m certainly not saying that the film is bad –I am saying, however, that Changeling feels heavy and fit for a particular kind of viewer in a particular kind of mood.

  • Need for Speed (2014)

    Need for Speed (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015)  I’m not much of a car guy, but I will watch all car movies.  This being said, I’m left nonplussed by Need for Speed, and the way it doesn’t do much with everything it has at its disposal.  You can see some effort put in the film’s props, from exotic cars to practical stunts to bits and pieces of interest thrown in the mix.  And yet, once you take the entire film in, it just becomes an entirely average action film with few distinguishing features.  The film self-congratulates itself on being a car guy’s movie, but fails to draw in anyone who can’t be impressed by the rare cars on display.  Aaron Paul is almost entirely bland as the protagonist, but Michael Keaton is surprisingly hilarious as an off-the-wall millionaire sponsoring an illegal prestige race and having a blast from within his command centre.  The structure of the film is a bit of a mess with an overlong prologue that should have been handled in flashbacks; it doesn’t help that the film struggles with dull characters and a plot with numerous leaps of logic.  There is, simply put, very little fun in Need for Speed, and that (despite attempts to resist comparing) is really what makes it so inferior to the Fast and Furious series.  Somehow, it feels even worse to see so much effort squandered on-screen in the service on nothing much more than a forgettable attempt at a B-movie.  

  • Meet the Fockers (2004)

    Meet the Fockers (2004)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2015)  I really don’t have a soft spot for Meet the Parents, which relies far too much on humiliation comedy for my tastes.  I only saw the sequel because it was on my to-do list, not out of any particular desire.  The good news, I suppose, is that I don’t dislike Meet the Fockers as much as its prequel.  The not-so-good news are that I can’t really create any enthusiasm for the film: it is exactly what it wants to be: a mainstream comedy with occasional outbursts of fake outrageousness, featuring big-name stars in relatively undemanding roles.  Ben Stiller is duller than usual as the hapless straight-man-bumbler of the series, while Robert de Niro does himself not favours by riffing off once again on much better past performances.  This being said, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand are relatively sympathetic as the “other” set of parents and a few of the jokes land correctly, especially those revolving around the enormous RV that serves as one of the film’s set-pieces.  It all leads to a conclusion where misunderstandings and complications are all untangled, albeit not without truth-serum interrogation and a car chase.  For the end results, though, it doesn’t seem worthwhile to have brought together Hoffman and de Niro together for such inconsequential pap.  Ah well; at least it’s somehow not quite as distasteful as the first film in the series.

  • The Longest Yard (2005)

    The Longest Yard (2005)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, February 2015)  Surprisingly enough, this Adam Sandler film doesn’t feel all that much like an Adam Sandler film… largely, I suspect, because it’s a remake of a 1974 film.  Not having seen the original, I’m left wondering at the remake and how I’m pretty sure it has neutralized a lot of the original’s seventies realism in favor of more contemporary jokes.  Sandler isn’t particularly credible as a NFL-level football player, but he’s charming enough in the lead role, and allows the supporting characters to get their laughs.  Chris Rock has a good role as an inmate fixer and so do James Cromwell and William Fitchner on the prison staff side.  Not being a football fan, I found the film interminable during its far-too-long third act, set during a football game that never seems to end despite fairly preordained plot points.  But then again, I’m not really the target audience for this film: I suspect that The Longest Yard will appeal far more to those with an interest in football, prison machismo and Adam Sandler.  There are enough jokes to make much of the film pass by harmlessly.  Of note is the realization, seeing a French-dubbed version of the film, how much I’ve come to associate Chris Rock’s voice with his effectiveness as a comedian.

  • Bad Words (2013)

    Bad Words (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015)  Jason Bateman’s usual screen persona is usually that of the good guy, albeit often tempered with a bit of bad passive-aggressive behavior.  He rarely goes as full-shmuck as he does in Bad Words, where he undertakes a fairly difficult turn as a highly intelligent, but a just-as- belligerent middle-aged man who finds a way into the national spelling bee contest.  He’s out to prove something, and he doesn’t intend to let anyone stand in his way.  The result is one of the most strikingly unlikable protagonist in recent memory, one that doesn’t do much to earn audience sympathies and, in fact, such a repellant protagonist for so long that when his redemption comes (as it usually does in those films), it feels forced and not entirely convincing.  Still, it’s a strong performance and Bateman does even better as the director of the film, delivering the film’s laughs in an effective fashion.  Still, much of Bad Words is just an unbearable as its lead character: it’s deliberately offensive, rife with bad behavior and takes a long while to earn even a smidge of sympathy.  At least Bateman acquits himself honorably on both sides of the camera (few will be able to call this a vanity project given the unlikeability of his character), with able supporting performances by Kathryn Hahn (playing another character with a streak of depravity) and newcomer Rohan Chand.  Bad Words certainly is a specific kind of comedy that will find fans and haters alike.  Your reaction is likely to be based on your tolerance for the kind of antisocial behavior exhibited by the protagonist.

  • Shallow Hal (2001)

    Shallow Hal (2001)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2015)  There is a surprising strain of magical realism in mainstream movie comedies, where a seemingly unexplainable premise in a contemporary context is explored for laughs even though the film itself is never seen as belonging to the fantasy genre.  Shallow Hal is a good example of this, as it posits a man hypnotized to perceive the inner beauty of someone rather than their surface appearance.  This quickly leads our shallow protagonist to become romantically involved with a grossly obese woman who is perceived as… Gwyneth Paltrow.  Various gags revolve around the difference between reality and perception (or, more accurately, how physical reality strains to accommodate the protagonist’s delusion and how more objective observers also react), leading to a third act where reality finally sets in.  It’s, as you may expect from a mainstream comedy even in the gross-out late-stage, a relatively sweet film whose more outrageous moments are in the service of an unobjectionably “don’t judge by appearances” morality.  It feels serviceable and predictable at one welcome exception, where one ugly character makes it through our protagonist’s distorted perception… and is revealed to be beautiful but evil in reality.  It’s a good moment, and Shallow Hal certainly could have used more of those second-order extrapolations over much of the reheated pap it serves throughout the film.  Jack Black is OK in the lead role, Gwyneth Paltrow appealing as the object of his affections (less so in a fat suit but that’s the point of the film) and Tony Robbins makes a good cameo appearance.  The film’s third act is a bit duller as it goes for emotional significance over jokes, but that’s also something in the nature of comedies.  The final result has a few highlights that help it distinguish itself from so many other movies of the time.

  • Blended (2014)

    Blended (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2015) Low expectations are a powerful thing: Given my track record with Adam Sandler’s most recent comedies, my overall lack of affection for Drew Barrymore, my general exasperation at broad family comedies and the rather pointed criticism of Blended as a borderline racist comedy, I really wasn’t expecting much from the time.  But it turns out that once you’re willing to cut a pick of slack to the film, Blended work relatively well as your average Hollywood family comedy.  Sandler of late seems to be settling into an innocuous father-figure comic archetype, not particularly funny but more palatable than his younger angry man-child persona.  Barrymore is unremarkable and there is some truth to the racism accusations (still, signing Terry Crews is hilarious even in his thankless role), but the African scenery is spectacular, the feeling of being in a five-star resort is credibly rendered, and there are amusing character moments here and there.  It’s not much (and Blended does not end on a high note by stretching out its foregone conclusion past the resort experience) but with the power of lowered expectations it’s just enough to be entertaining.

  • Step Brothers (2008)

    Step Brothers (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Crackle streaming, February 2015)  I’ve been checking off a list of “unseen must-see movies” lately, and some of my least-favourite ones are those films belonging to the filmography of popular comic actors that I don’t find particularly funny… in this case: Will Ferrell.  (Also see; Adam Sandler)  Stupidity is celebrated here as two thirtysomething men with the EQ of unpleasant eight-year-olds are forced to live together when their parents remarry.  From afar, Step Brothers looks like the dumbest thing to have been filmed, and the actual film often feels like it, what with Ferrell and John C. Reilly doing their best impression of socially-retarded man-children.  I can’t deny that some of the sight gags can be amusing, but given my distaste for Ferrell’s typical overgrown-toddler shtick, Step Brothers was often an endurance exercise –especially given how often it relies on the kind of humiliation-comedy gags that I find unbearable.  Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins are particularly enjoyable, but their characters suffer the brunt of most of the film’s jokes.  A surprising amount of Step Brothers is mean-spirited on top of everything else, so it’s no surprise if my final reaction to the film really isn’t all on the positive side. 

  • Superbad (2007)

    Superbad (2007)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Crackle streaming, February 2015)  For some reason, I managed to miss this now-cornerstone of 2000s American comedy until now –I’m not a big fan of teen comedies (Proof: American Pie is still on my to-watch list) and Superbad seemed to be, what, redundant?  Michael Cera acting like a nerd, Jonah Hill like an over-caffeinated potty-mouth?  No surprise there.  But there’s such a thing as best-of-breed movies, and while Superbad doesn’t exactly break molds or revolutionize genre, it’s pretty much hitting all the cylinders that a contemporary teen sex comedy aims for.  It’s superficially crass and aggressive, but it doesn’t take too much tinkering to find the honest beating heart underneath, the paean to friendship and the curiously conventional values at the foundation of the film.  But it works relatively well despite a few lengths, and with a few years of retrospection, you can see not only Cera and Hill’s early-career prototypical roles, but also early good turns by Emma Stone and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.  The result may not be subtle nor unique (co-writers Rogen and Goldberg would go on to make an entire string of films about young-male friendship) but it works as it should.  More broadly, as a piece of significant filmmaking, Superbad fits perfectly in the rise of Judd Apatow as a comedy producing powerhouse. 

  • The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

    The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2015)  A particularly aggressive entry in the “inspirational drama showing the protagonist triumphing against nearly-impossible odds”, The Pursuit of Happyness gives a too-rare grown-up role to Will Smith as the father of a child who finds himself in desperate circumstances after losing his wife, his house, his savings and trying to take care of his son while chasing a near-impossible unpaid internship at a brokerage house.  Eking a meager living on the streets of 1980s San Francisco by night, giving the impression of being a serious stockbroker candidate by day, the story comes from real-life events from businessman Chris Gardner’s life, but dramatically softens some of the harsher edges of the truth.  (Sometimes in ways that don’t quite make sense: seeing a mother abandon her son is nigh-incomprehensible on film, but can be explained in the real story by the fact that he was the son from her husband’s affair.)  Still, this is the kind of film that has no shame in exploiting whatever sympathy we may have for its characters, their brutal setbacks and their tiny triumphs.  Smith is actually pretty good as a father trying to improve life for himself and his son –his performance feels free of his usual showboating tendencies, while allowing him enough opportunities to turn up the charm when necessary.  It may help that his son his played by his real-life son Jaden Smith.  The Pursuit of Happyness is occasionally asphyxiating in its desperation (the protagonist is so poor that every dollar counts) but fairly earns its final triumphs.  It’s definitively praise to point out that the film could have been far more mawkish or sentimental, and that by grounding its story into small and often painful details, it keeps the usual fanfare at bay.  It may not be pleasant viewing during most of its duration, but it amounts to a satisfying viewing experience.

  • RRRrrrr!!! (2004)

    RRRrrrr!!! (2004)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On DVD, February 2015)  Some movies are just stupid, and some movies are just stupid enough.  RRRrrrr!!! falls in the second category so perfectly that it’s not a stretch to say that it’s worth seeing because it’s so unashamedly bone-headed.  Taking place in prehistoric time, this French comedy film purports to tell the story of the first serial killer and the creation of the concept of criminal investigation.  What we do get along the way are a number of set-pieces built to evoke simple-minded silliness.  I caught myself laughing even when I didn’t want to, almost astonished at the film’s willingness to reach for the most ridiculous jokes available.  Director Alain Chabat is a veteran comic filmmaker, and he doesn’t miss a trick.  RRRrrrr!!! will either work or not; I found myself chuckling thirty seconds in at a cheap joke (“This isn’t their story.”) and never quite stopped, but I can see how other people may not react the same way.  One word of warning: The Region-1 DVD (Quebec) doesn’t have subtitles in any language, making it occasionally hard to follow unless you fluently understand idiomatic European French.