#79 SISTERS

#79 SISTERS

Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, John Cena, Maya Rudolph, John Leguizamo, James Brolin and Dianne Wiest. Written by Paula Pell, directed by Jason Moore. Running time 113 minutes, budget $30 million.

They're two of the funniest performers around, they were both leads in their own sitcoms, 30 Rock (Tina Fey) and Parks and Recreation (Amy Poehler) and they've also co-hosted the Golden Globes ceremonies three times. So expectations going in to Sisters, their third movie collaboration, were exceedingly high and so it's somewhat disappointing to say that although this film is funny (and it is) it's not better and that's a shame.

The plot is simplicity itself. Two middle-aged sisters, Maura and Kate Ellis discover their parents are selling the family home and decide to hold one last massive party to recapture their youth and much mayhem, hilarity and soul searching ensues. Maura (Amy Poehleer) is a recently divorced nurse with an obsessive desire to help everybody and a morbid fear of her parents dying, she's controlling and during her youth the designated 'party mom'. Tina Fey plays Kate - the polar opposite sister who shagged and roared her way through life but is now a homeless, failed hair-dresser and nail technician, who's also a single mom to an embarrassed college-aged daughter and for one night only the sisters swap their roles for the party.

They invite all their old friends, plus the handsome next-door neighbour, to the party and discover a few home truths while they indulge in an almost sex-free orgy of drugs, alcohol and wanton destruction of the family home. This is a film of three parts, Pre-Party, The Party and Post-Party. The Pre-Party is the funniest as we get to know the two sisters and they prepare for the party, the Party itself is funny but a tad flat as the stage is set for the final part, the Post-Party part, where the plot finally intrudes and valuable life lessons are learned, home-truths revealed and the whole family move forward for a peeked at better future.

This is a funny film, indeed a laugh out loud funny film, but it's a tad flat at times, the plot barging into the third act is annoying and the obligatory life lessons learned are cringe inducing and unnecessary. The humour is extremely coarse and half of the fun is seeing Fey and Poehler really cutting loose and not being afraid to go for it. And while male-lead comedy films become more and more pedestrian and generic, it seems the women are stepping up and showing how it should be done.

Here's hoping Poehler and Fey's next film project is one they write themselves, it would be awesome. 7/10

#78 DADDY'S HOME

 #78 DADDY'S HOME

Starring: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardelline and Thomas Haden Church. Script by Brian Burns, Sean Anders and John Morris. Directed by Sean Anders. 96 minutes long. Budget $50 million.

Hooray, it's another Will Ferrell movie, his second cinematic release of the year! And I for one am thrilled, particularly after the success of Get Hard – that non-hilarious, laughter-free movie about Will Ferrell being sent to prison for crimes against cinema, in it he played a bland, generic comedic actor forced to perform oral sex and suffer gang rape in a bid to land a role in a new film about a wall street Joe being sent to prison for insider dealing who ends up forced to perform oral sex and suffer gang rape. The film was absolutely devoid of laughter and so the prospect of seeing him in another film in the same year, this time teaming up once again with professional cardboard cut-out Marky Mark Mark Wall-berg was too much to ignore!

This time round, Hollywood's favourite comedic everyman, Will Ferret (replacing Steve Martin for the title) brings his patented genius 'everyman' personna to the role of a radio station executive and loving step-father to two movie brats thus ensuring that not much hilarity doth ensue, particularly when Wall-burg, the brat's real father, muscle rippling bad boy comes into town to steal the love and affection of the two children whose names I can't remember. Then it's a dad off as the two men go head to head in a series of set pieces to show the two children that money can buy love.

Adhering strictly to the 3 act structure so loved by Hollywood, this film remains implausible and ridiculous right up until the final act when Will Fennel is humiliated by Wallyborg and leaves home and Mark discovers that being a dad is hard work and that Will Fertile is actually a good dad, then it's a race to save the day for the female child actor at a daughter/father dance and watch as the boy child actor punches a 4th grade girl to the floor and kicks her squarely in the jewels, just so the dads can take part in a dance off that brings everybody together for the happy ending.

Actually it's only at the end does this film vaguely redeem itself and it manages to lift itself up from a score of 3 or 4 to one of 5 or 6. Cos, oddly enough the end where the two dads are now friends and everything is good is actually quite funny. Not very funny, but quite. You'll feel a twinge of warmth in your heart and will leave with a slight smile. Along the way, you'll laugh occasionally and maybe even chuckle once or twice.

This is by a country mile, the best Wilf Fecal film of the year and he's gone from a piffling 3/10 for Get Hard to a stellar 5/10, that's nearly double! Wow, well done Willy.

5/10

#77 CHRISTMAS WITH THE COOPERS

#77 CHRISTMAS WITH THE COOPERS

Starring John Goodman, Diane Keaton, Anthony Mackie, OliviaWilde, Marisa Tomei, Ed Helms, Alan Arkin, Amanda Seyfried, June Squibb and Jake Lacy. Written by Steven Rogers and directed by Jessie Nelson. Budget $34 million.

There's lots to love about Christmas, family, pressies, friends, good food and good will and it's safe to say that Christmas with the Coopers isn't one of them, indeed it's the very antithesis of Christmas, featuring as it does a multi-plot trawl through the four generations of the Coopers, a miserable bunch of shits (with the exception of Alan Arkin) who mope about stealing, divorcing, lying and generally being a bunch of tossers. Goodman and Keaton are the titular Coopers, and the rest either sons, daughters and who cares. They're all just there to offer us a fake scenario for Christmas and to see how it changes them. Along the way, the unseen narrator, one Steve Martin, gives us potted histories or stories about each of these characters and even some NPC ones.

This film is the very definition of bitter sweet. None on the stories have anything happy going for them, but then on the other hand, none of them are that particularly horrible. Jesus, i saw this 3 hours ago and I can barely remember it.

Oh, wait. I remember enough of it to warn you not to waste your time, it's just not worth it, it's too slight and twee to be worthwhile and you'll only find yourself frustrated and realising that you've already squandered two hours and some change of your Christmas break.

So, leave it and spend your time with your family, they're all far more fun than the Coopers.

3/10

#75 & 76 STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

#75 & 76 STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Starring (big breath) John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, Max von Sydow, Domhnall Gleeson, lupita Nyong'o and Kenny Baker.

Written by Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Budget $200 million dollars. Money taken since it opened three days ago - $250 million!

So here we are. 32.5 years since episode 6 comes Chapter 7, but the big question is 'was it worth the wait?'

It's been a long time since I've seen a film arrive with so much riding on it, with the expectations of so many hanging to its coat tails, and I cannot imagine the pressure that director JJ Abrams must have been living under to make it, nor of Disney who have invested a staggering 4.5 billion dollars into buying the franchise from Georgie boy, they're clearly in it for the long haul. So is it any good?

Well, normally I'd leave a score at the end but on this occasion I'm going to front end it, a little like this film's box office haul. In terms of entertainment, this film is a solid, unapologetic 8/10, no question of it. It's packed with relentless incident, top quality effects, more explosions than you could shake a stick at, some simply excellent characters, great acting and action, action with a capital A,C,T,I,O,N. Boy does it have action, indeed if action were spades and you were playing that great card game Chase The Bitch, then I have good news for you, play to win every hand of this round and you'll walk away, with a score of zero pts and your opponents cursing your name.
 
JJ Abrams knows what a modern audience wants, they want incident and action and the promise that nothing will stop, not even for an old lady crossing the road, because today, action is KING!

From the moment the classic recap caption slowly slides up the screen and ends and the camera tracks down to reveal the ubiquitous planet and a space ship slides into view we're off like a bloody rocket! From then on, characters run into view, shout, interact, shot something, while something explodes and we are dazzled by seamless special effects and ACTION.

Whatever you do don't hope for a quiet part for a quick toilet break, you won't get one, so go before you go, if you get my drift.

The new cast are, to a man, woman and round robot excellent and big thumbs up have to go to both Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, as our two heroes, Rey and Finn, who practically carry this movie as the main focus. But equally as good are the likes of Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
But despite all this I have a problem with the film, I wish it hadn't been so referential to the first three, at times the nods and homages to those movies drag you out of the moment, reminding you that you're watching a movie and it becomes a little frustrating ...
 
(THIS NEXT BIT CONTAINS A POSSIBLE SPOILER, ALTHOUGH IT'S UP THERE BIG ON THE POSTER AT THE TOP OF THIS LISTING, SO IF YOU'VE ALREADY LOOKED AT THAT POSTER THEN YOU MIGHT HAVE HAD THE FILM INADVERTENTLY SPOILED FOR YOU, IN WHICH CASE I CAN'T BE HELD RESPONSIBLE, BUT.)

 ... similarly are you telling me that the Empire, or First Order, if you will are so bereft of new ideas that they're going to build a third Death Star type, space-based weapon platform? I mean seriously, they're tried this trick twice before and it didn't work, are the Empire firm believers of the old adage, 'third time lucky'? Is this really the best they can come up with after 32 years? It's like the old Lex Luthor of the Superman movies, constantly obsessed with real estate schemes, try coming up with something new, guys. I mean just logistically speaking the cost of making these vast battle stations must be astronomical, all the rebellion has to do is wait for the Empire to bankrupt itself, a little like the US did with the old USSR in the Star Wars initiative of the 1980s and they'll win the war.

And if you are going to make one of these things then for goodness sake make sure you don't leave some little exhaust port exposed that if shot can cause your entire base to explode, you know armour it or protect it for goodness sake, spend a little of your build budget on defense or perhaps sack the architect and get someone new in.

(RANT OVER, NORMAL SERVICE HAS BEEN RESUMED.)

However this isn't a perfect film, there are things it gets wrong or things that don't work, there's an horrendous bit with some horrible CGI multiple tentacled monsters, and some characters who just disappear for long stretches and then return without explanation. But the main feeling is, and it grows as the film goes on that when all is said and done, this does feel, just a little like, well... well a remake of Star Wars. There I said it. I can't take it back. When all is said and done, this is a 21st century remake of Star Wars.

But I realise that this is the start of a new chapter in the life of Star Wars and as new starts goes, it's not a bad way of doing it. Let's just hope the next film in this new era, Star Wars: Rogue One, comes up with something more interesting than just another bloody Death Star.

Thoroughly entertaining, great fun, huge and exciting but still just a movie and not the second coming.

8/10

#74 VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

#74 VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown Findlay, Andrew Scott and Charles Dance.

Written by Max Landis. Directed by Paul McGaigan. 110 minutes. 45 million budget.

It's Fronkensteen for the 21st Century! The monster that just refuses to stay dead, after last year's utterly awful I, Frankenstein and the very good Penny Dreadful comes this, the latest in a never-ending list of films based on that book that no body reads, Frankenstein by Mary Shelly.

And naturally cos it is the 21st Century it's imperative that we have a back story for not just Frankie (James McAvoy) but also his sidekick, Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) originally known as Fritz in the Universal movie. In this throw of the dice, Igor is a circus hunchback/clown/circus-medic whom Frank and Beans rescues when he witnesses the deformed, lisping freak save the life of a trapeze artist following a nasty fall. Sadly the rescue sees the two men wanted for murder and introduces the third player in this saga, Inspector Turpin (Andrew Scott).

Then, once Prof X has cured the hump of Harry (the film's most gloriously disgusting scene), it's a race through the creation of the monster all set in Hollywood's vision of Victorian London - think huge steam powered machines, cobble streets and grime, lots and lots of it, while insanely Catholic inspector Turpin goes slowly insane and he hunts the two men.

Bringing nothing new to the table, this isn't a terrible film, it's alright, a bit silly if truth be told but not awful and certainly not nearly as terrible as I, Fronkenstein, which really was a monstrously awful film.

James McAvoy does his best and wins the day when it comes to acting chops and poor old Daniel Radcliffe struggles valiantly to overcome his handicaps, his little lisp and the fact he's just not a very good actor.

Not a bad film, but it is a 12A which means you can take kids, I did I took my 12A year old and he thought it was okay.

7/10

#73 BLACK MASS

#73 BLACK MASS

Starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sargaard and Juno Temple.

Written by Jez Butterworth and Mark Mallouk. Directed by Scott Cooper. 122 minutes long. Budget $53 million.

After a series of some seriously bad films dating back to 2004, Johnny Depp is back to prove he can act without a novelty hat opting for some staggering jarring electric blue contact lens in this hilarious, feel-good movie about a modern day American Robin Hood who despite being a bit of a rogue loved his mom and carried home the shopping of old ladies in the neighbourhood.

This is the bio-pic of James 'Whitey' Bulger the notorious American gangster who bludgeoned, butchered, and battered his way to the top of the criminal ladder with a little help from his former school-hood friend, as played by Joel Edgerton, who just so happens to be a member of the FBI and his brother, Benedict Cumberbatch, a US Senator.

This isn't an easy watch, Bulger is just an horrific character and his crimes so barbaric, particularly the brutal murder of a teenage prostitute that this becomes a grim and savage film to watch. Lacking the heart or skill of Good Fellas, which these seems to desperately be trying to be compared to, Black Mass is a film about a nasty man and despite the terrific performances and the skill of the film makers leaves a sour taste in the mouth, ultimately Bulger was and is a terrible human being and the attempts to humanise him feel a little grubby, it doesn't matter if he loved him mum or helped old ladies in his neighbourhood if he's chopping up the remains of men who've slighted him.

Depp is a revelation, but the contact lens were a step too far. You'll come for him, but leave feeling the need to have a shower.

8/10

#72 HUNGER GAMES: MOCKING JAY PART 2

#72 HUNGER GAMES: MOCKING JAY PART 2

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabether Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Syemour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Calflin, Jena Malone, Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland. Written by Peter Craig and Danny Strong.

Directed by Francis Lawrence. Budget 160 million. Running time 137 minutes long (2 hrs 17 minutes)

Bish bosh, job done! That's another YA masterpiece nailed, four films out of three books and Hollywood can sit back and count the coffers, which currently stands at about 1.4 billion dollars, so quids in then for the bean counters and money men, but what about us, the humble cinema fans, how have we fared?

So, this is the 2nd half of the last movie, based on the third book in the series and right off the bat I want to stress that this decision to cut the final book into two movies has nothing at all to do with the greed of those money men but a genuine artistic decision made by a band of artisans and craftsman and women who strive everyday for the purity of their art. And in no way did this decision sap any of the energy and excitement out of the series, no siree, I for one, thought the last film which consisted of mainly the main characters standing around in rubble mopping about waiting for the fourth film to start was excellent. No seriously excellent, I love the idea of an action free blockbuster.

So what of this one, well it certainly isn't cutting you, the viewer any slack that's for sure. With no recap or 'previously' we are literally thrown into the deep end and expected to run like fuck to keep up. Katnip has a nasty throat rash which might be a huge hickey or it might be where her creepy, stalky, off/on, 'boyfriend/beard', Pitta tried to throttle the life out of her. Then there's her other boyfriend the pouting, man-mountain called Gale who runs around pouting and being a man-moutain. After that there's lots of other male characters who have dicussons behind Katnip's back constantly deciding what she's going to do, so much of the plot of this film takes place off camera that what we're left with is Katnip just plodding from A-Z joining the dots to the end. Along the way we get some dramatic, well mounted action scenes, some as always superb acting from Jennifer Lawrence and a final look at the awesomeness of Philip Seymour Hoffman who really was a remarkably good actor. The action builds methodically till then end when Katniss decides to miss the actual capture of Donald Sutherland's President Snow and leave the win to someone else, which really sucks all the drama out of this and robs us of closure.

Obvs we then have a glimpse of what the future holds with a new president courtesy of Julianne Moore's Coin before a soapy happy ending and that's it.

So, worth it or not? Well the first two films were great, the second was exceedingly good but these last two have been a tad flat, well made for sure but just not that much cop, it would be wonderful think what could have been done if the last film had been stretched to three hours and made into one, I think it would have been a far better movie.

So, if you've watched the last three you might as well watch this one too, otherwise you'll never know how it ends (the goodies win the baddies don't).

Well made, glum, grim and gritty. 8/10