Review: Welcome to the Punch

I went in looking for a stylish action crime caper. I got that, unfortunately I didn't get anything more.

Welcome to the Punch follows a grudge between a high priority criminal Jacob (Mark Strong) and a patriotic cop Max (James McAvoy). But when they are both targeted by a shadowy adversary, they have to join forces and help one another.

The most impressive part of the film is its intention to build atmosphere and to have good cinematography and a good soundtrack. It speaks less in words and more in action, a lot of the character development becoming moody, morose scenes instead of real exposition. The action is decent and well filmed; there's no shaky cam and the gun play is frequently slow motion when it feels required.

Its style is all that possibly save it.

Wouldn't it have been more unique had Mark Strong played the vigilant police officer and McAvoy played the criminal? As it stands the actors fall into by-the-numbers roles that we have seen them in before, and there isn't much to cling on to or be compelled by. Add to this a weak storyline that barely even fills the ninety minute run time. Both characters have significant others who are vulnerable: Strong has his son, McAvoy has his partner... I can't think what might happen to these characters. And with so few other characters to choose from, your "mysterious" villain is quite obvious.

I wanted there to be more to Welcome to the Punch; I didn't get the involving storyline or compelling characters that make good police thrillers work... I did get the style though. A modern, glossy yet gritty, blue-tinted shooter. At least I can appreciate this over the disgruntled, growling The Sweeney.

  

Review: The Lego Movie (3D)

Utter lunacy!

As if progressing from such experiences as Scott Pilgrim and Wreck-It Ralph, The Lego Movie fully embraces its decision to simple exist that what we get is magical, insane, inspiring, childish and so unbelievably happy. I had a stupid, stupid grin on my face constantly.

Emmett is a construction worker living in a world of regimented order, social control and live literally by the book (they have instruction manuals on how to live.) But when an evil tyrant called Lord Business looks to glue their world together, he discovers that a prophecy deems him “The Special” and will save the world from a fate worse than death.

What's incredible about The Lego Movie is how even critics like it. I'll be honest, perhaps a quarter of the way through I was asking myself: “What am I actually watching?? This is literally an insane concept! Stupid.” But those thoughts left as quickly as they came... A movie about Lego couldn't be (and shouldn't be) anything other than this!

This film is never on the rails; it is permanently unhinged and borderline surreal. We have wonderful animation techniques (CG stop-motion) that capture the plastic and printed nature of the toy, that looks charming up close and dissolves into absolute chaos when the bricks start flying! It becomes such a joy to watch, despite how airheaded and loopy it is.

You have tonnes of cameos too, Lego have rights to almost everything and here they do not pull their punches. Batman is a main character, Wonder Woman, Superman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lincoln, Gandalf, even Shaquille O'Neal, all feature.

That should be your inner child sated, kids will love it. But if I may delve a little further, this movie's theme actually speaks about Lego as a creative medium too! What's more devastating in a child's mind than someone  + gluing Lego pieces together?? That's terrible, and in terms of Lego plight that's as evil as it can be! The film goes further still, but I wouldn't want to tell you everything.

It is utter madness and there's a lot to be said about how it is a nonsense stitched together with a generic prophetic “zero-to-hero” storyline... But really, it says “The Lego Movie” on your ticket, this is what you should expect and, and a little bit more!

Also, the song “Everything is Awesome” is addictive as hell!

Review: RoboCop (2014)

Oh, Hollywood... please stop doing this.

Alex Murphy, police officer of Detroit, is fatally injured in a car bomb explosion and is remade as a cybernetic law enforcement robot. The company who made him, OMNICORP, create military robots to battle in the Middle East, but cannot bring such faceless enforcement into American cities without causing panic. RoboCop is their solution. But Alex's humanity starts to get in the way of their perfect designs...

If you follow Cinema Cocoa you already know how I feel about remakes, but I went to see this one in a hope that the character gets a bit more conviction than in previous installments (the original's sequels, to be exact.) What I get however is still a watered down, play-it-safe and emotionally depleted money spinner.

Let's get technical, shall we? In the original film Alex dies, and is rebuilt as a machine with human reflexes. The corporation who built him, built him to a specific standard, as a product, as an implement to be used for their purposes. But the film's theme is the power of human spirit to break free of corporate shackles; its a testament to human loyalty and inner strength.
In the reboot, Alex doesn't die, but is 99% replaced with robotic parts (I find this a little severe, bordering on laughable, considering he was burned and not shot to ribbons this time...) He is a man in a metal body first, he has all of his humanity. The conflict starts when OMNICORP realises having a human in combat isn't as efficient as a robot, and they slowly modify him with stricter coding. Wouldn't a corporation perhaps appreciate the human element before committing to a multi-million dollar project? This narrative makes OMNICORP not so much evil as just a bit... stupid.

I won't lie, having Alex's family involved here is a good move; the original films needed to play this up and have those emotional bonds, and this film finally does that. But the execution is so drab and dull in terms of characterisation. I didn't feel for any of the characters, not even Murphy himself, even before he becomes RoboCop his personality was wooden. His son doesn't react at all when he sees his dad come home as a towering superhero!

A lot of the film is talking. Dark Knight'ing it up big time. Want to know the pseudo-science behind RoboCop, want to know the business plans and corporate backlash from RoboCop's actions? I hope you do little under-twelve-year-old kiddy, or you're gonna be boooooooooooooored. Seriously studios, you make this a 12A so you can get the family/kiddy cash, then pad your movie with millions of boardroom chat scenes and science jargon? What? Or is this your panicked way of making a longer film without any of Paul Verhoeven's violence, satire or wit?

Oh yeah, there's no satire or wit. I was in a cinema full of mid-twenties to thirties men, I think there were two chuckles throughout the entire film. This isn't just my opinion, the film has nothing of the original's theatricality, brutality or satire. If you aren't twelve, you'll probably get bored fairly quickly.

How about the action? I've not touched on that
A lot of it is decent; the tech involved shows how RoboCop is so effective in combat; we see from his eyes enemies weaknesses etc, which does make it engaging. But unfortunately... for some reason... they made the final gun battle take place in the dark. Oh, great. So lots of strobe lighting and not being able to see what the hell is happening. SMELLS LIKE A 12A ACTION SEQUENCE!
 
Ugh. I had some hope too. Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton are great but even their combined efforts cannot save their monotonous scripts. I don't even mind the redesign of RoboCop or ED-209, the aesthetics are good, the CG isn't bad either, and the family aspect is good. But gah, its such a... such a safe, boring and money-grubbing remake of something that exists already!

You want a final good statement on this film?

It is better than RoboCop 3.

  
  

     

Review: The Heat

The Buddy Cop film gets a re-skin with two unorthodox female leads. It is more of a cartoon than a buddy cop comedy.

FBI agent Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) is an uptight, emotionally closed off woman looking for a promotion. Her opportunity comes from settling another case, a case already taken by an obnoxious, loud mouth local cop who will do anything to get her way.

I'd like to start by saying, I don't think The Heat is my sort of film. I was optimistic having seen parts of it, but I really found a lot of it to grate on me.
This film is more of a cartoon than anything else. Our two officers work with ridiculous impunity, or rather... Melissa McCarthy's Mullins character does. I know it is a comedy but she doesn't obey any laws, ANY laws, and I found it really mean spirited at times.
Particularly against Sandra Bullock's character, who seems to start out as the intelligent shut-in, but constantly gets slammed, insulted, turned down and offended by every other character, especially from Mullins. Mullins herself just spouts slander and curse words, overacting everything and chewing all the scenery.
What gets me most wound up is how hopeless Ashburn becomes. She never gets a time to shine, unlike Mullins who gets away with everything she wants; its like a spoiled child kicking a helpless puppy. There's no resolution either, at least not in a good way. Ashburn has to learn to respect local police officers (the rub of her personal conflict) yet Mullins is a genuinely unpleasant person, and should have someone like Ashburn to teach her restraint, but is instead hero worshiped by the film's narrative!

So the characters are unfortunately lost on me. But in my mind this film is a typical case of role-reversal. They don't overly act like women, at all, they act like men in a buddy cop movie (making the film a dad generic too) Every man in this film is reduced to a pathetic, whimpering idiot (or a clueless jerk) usually to provide Mullins with someone to scream abuse at. Now sure, many male dominated movies have women dumbed down, but usually there's one or two women who are on their level, someone to help, save or give them redemption. Not here. All the men are jerks, evil, idiots or just passives who get pushed aside by McCarthy's unending fury.

So... did I like anything?
The characters and the themes of the film I found awful, misguided and aggressive, but the comedy elements and scenarios included were funny. Early on we see Mullins chasing down a drug peddler, they arrive at a fruit stand and Mullins literally throws a huge watermelon at him, smashing him to the floor. The slapstick comedy here is far superior to the written comedy.

The music is good too.

God, I've fairly panned this film. Women will like this film (though not wanting to be a generalist or a hypocrite in saying so) as it is a cartoonishly over-proportioned fantasy. 
The Heat is a blotched buddy cop movie, at best it is a cartoon without consequences. As a male viewer, I can say I've seen better.