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Action & Adventure

Gemini Man (2019) Movie Review By D.M Anderson

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Gemini Man ReviewDirector: Ang Lee
Writers: David Benioff (screenplay), Billy Ray (screenplay)
Stars: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen

Ultimately, Gemini Man might have been partially undone by its own trailer, which spills the beans that Will Smith is a retiring government assassin forced to square-off against his younger self, an equally-skilled clone developed by his own people. But even though I think this is a dish that would have been best-served cold, it’s also a pricey, high-concept action picture and one would be hard-pressed to create any kind of promotional campaign that didn’t tease the viewer with two Will Smiths.

The problem is the way the narrative actually unfolds. Henry Brogan (Smith) is betrayed by the DIA after learning his last kill was not the terrorist he was led to believe, but a scientist working for the DIA on a black-ops project called ‘Gemini,’ headed by its nefarious director, Clay Varris (Clive Owen). Varris sends his best assassin to track-down and kill Brogan. Up to this point, Gemini Man is a watchable-but-unremarkable thriller featuring solid performances by Smith and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the latter of whom who is a tough, resourceful DIA agent originally assigned to keep an eye on him, but ends up a target herself.

Neither learns who’s actually hunting them until well-into the second act and is obviously intended to be the story’s big revelation. But since the audience is privy to all of this from the get-go, instead of being pleasantly surprised by the sudden plot twist, we spend the first hour waiting for Brogan to figure out what we already know. The remainder of the film plays itself out in predictable fashion and is certainly watchable, but I suspect viewers going into this completely cold would have a lot more fun with it.

Elsewhere, Gemini Man works best when director Ang Lee briefly returns to his comfort zone, which is exploring the internal conflict of both Brogan and “Junior,” the latter of whom is also played by Smith through motion capture and CGI. Speaking of which, the ballyhooed “de-aging” of Smith works about as well as it has in other recent films like The Irishman and Endgame: Not entirely convincing, but less of a distraction once we acclimate ourselves. The action itself ranges from exciting to ridiculous. A close-quarters fight in the catacombs of Budapest is impressive, but a CGI-heavy motorcycle chase earlier in the film plays more like a Grand Theft Auto mission. The climax itself has our protagonists surrounded by dozens of Gemini super-soldiers, yet they’re collectively worse shots than Imperial Stormtroopers and are little more than canon fodder.

But again, Gemini Man is ultimately more of a marketing mistake than a failure as a film. The characters and performances are enjoyable and even the action is kind-of fun, like an exciting video game. However, the overall narrative is hampered by waiting so long to reveal what we already know without really expanding on such an inherently intriguing concept any further.

Horror

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Movie Review by John Walsh

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10 CLOVERFIELD

Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Writers: Josh Campbell (story),  Matthew Stuecken (story)
Stars: John Goodman,  Mary Elizabeth Winstead,  John Gallagher Jr.

A taut and thrilling, psychological horror acting as a sequel to and sharing the same universe as Cloverfield (2008), from then feature film debutant Dan Trachtenberg. It follows the claustrophobic and intense experience of three people inside a doomsday bunker. Howard (John Goodman), the owner and architect behind its design, has been preparing for a potential armageddon style attack for years and, with the help of his neighbour Emmett (John Gallagher Jr), has created quite the cosy, little retreat, complete with air locked doors, a filtration system and plentiful supplies of food. Despite his apparent generosity in saving their lives, doubts remain throughout regarding his motives and whether he’s being entirely truthful or not.

Opening with the frantic and distraught Louisiana native, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packing her bags after an argument with her husband and driving out into the night. The shrieking score from Bear McCreary builds to a crescendo, as she’s harassed on the phone by her partner, before hitting a skid on the road (or is she forced off?), flying down an embankment and losing consciousness. When she awakes, it’s not in her overturned car, but a strange, dinky, breeze block decorated room, on a painfully thin bed that my Labrador would turn it’s nose up at. Chained to a wall, she soon meets Howard, who slides a plate full of food her way, before reassuring her that the chain is for her safety, merely temporary and that he saved her life. He then breaks the terrible news that the she won’t be able to get a signal on her phone, she’s trying at this point, as there’s been an attack above and everyone is more than likely dead. Appearing a little disbelieving at this news, and who could blame her, she tries pleading with Howard, but he soon leaves her to ponder on her predicament again, after a crashing noise is heard outside the room.

Shortly afterwards, Michelle is introduced to Emmett, who has seems to have an unwavering belief in Howard’s attack theory, and the three are soon sat down at dinner. The dark side of the latter’ personality is quickly highlighted in this tense, awkward, introductory scene between the three as he angrily berates Michelle for appearing to get a little too cosy with Emmett. This isn’t helped any when she attacks him and attempts to escape, grabbing his keys and making a dash for the door. What she witnesses at the entrance gives her second thoughts however and she despondently returns to safety below. The film then enters an extended middle act in which the three seem to live away amiably for a reasonable amount of time, reading books, playing games and doing jigsaw puzzles to help pass away the tedious wait for the air to clear, this interrupted intermittently by the occasional rumbling from above, some minor emergencies below or a sporadic bout of rage from Howard. Despite his hospitality and even rare moments of kindness, doubts continue to gnaw away at the other two, who’ve bonded and developed a strong friendship by this stage.

These appear to be vindicated when Michelle discovers a message scratched into another escape hatch, whilst being tasked with restarting the air filtration system. This along with two earrings belonging to a girl who disappeared a couple of years earlier, causes the pair to try and manufacture a way of escaping their now seemingly deluded and potentially deranged captor. Ultimately, as you’d expect, this leads to a confrontation with Howard, with Emmett taking the blame for everything, making a tragic sacrifice to save Michelle. This sparks the film into a fairly chaotic final act as the latter, who has made a rudimentary gas mask and suit attempts to escape the clutch of the determined Howard, and upon doing so, makes a startling discovery. The final ten to fifteen minutes of this film are so different to the rest that it almost feels like a different genre at the end, but thankfully it’s cleverly handled (it could have been disastrous in the wrong hands) and the visuals, which are pretty special for different reasons throughout, are on point to provide a fitting end. I say fitting because Michelle seems almost relieved to be away from the psychological powder-keg below, this despite the horrors above the ground being the very definition of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ and it perfectly marries with the more sci-fi setting of Cloverfield.

John Goodman is immense in this film. He’s a fantastic character actor and he plays the part of the villainous and lamentable Howard to perfection. His unpredictable mood swings added some real anxiety to the proceedings as you just never knew how he was going to react in a given situation. This was perfectly encapsulated when the trio were playing an innocent game together and the tension was almost unbearable. Winstead was fantastic too as Michelle, sharing the leading role with Goodman to real effect and perfectly showcasing the characters keen intelligence, quick thinking and determination, grabbing the bull by the horns in the final act and turning into a full blown Sarah Connor-esque heroine. Gallagher Jr as Emmett added a different flavour to the dynamic between the trio and despite having less screen time or effect on the story as a whole, his too was a pretty decent performance. I really can’t fault any of them here.

I’ve been meaning to get round to watching this film, though for some reason I kept putting it off, but I’m so glad I finally got round to it. It was a thoroughly enjoyable watch and my attention never really dipped at any stage, which is a real testament to the writers; Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken and Damian Chazelle who produced an engrossing, tense story, not to mention the beautiful, smooth visuals from Jeff Cutter and some excellent direction by Trachtenberg. Highly recommended viewing from me.

Comedy

Swiss Army Man (2016) Movie Review by John Walsh

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SWISS ARMY MAN

 

Directors: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Writers: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Stars: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Daniel Kwan has created probably the most bizarre, mind-bending film I’ve seen in years with Swiss Army Man. It follows Hank (Paul Dano) who’s marooned alone on an island. That is until Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) comes along or should I say ‘washes up’ on the beach at the most opportune moment and whisks the two on a surreal journey.

It would be fair to say Hank is not in the best of mental states when we first meet him, which is pretty prophetic given the revelations to be had later. He is emaciated, depressed and on the verge of suicide. Stood on a paradisiacal beach, he slips his head into a handmade noose, tip toeing unsteadily on a box and humming unintelligibly away to himself.

Things look to be over before they even begin; that is until he spots the shape of a man (Daniel Radcliffe) on the beach ahead. In his excitement to rush out and meet the stranger, however, he inadvertently falls off the box and almost hangs himself. Thankfully for Hank the rope snaps under his weight. Upon reaching the man, it becomes abundantly clear that he’s long dead. His skin a pale bluish-white whilst his body is limp and lifeless.

To make matters worse, Hank causes the corpse to begin farting violently when he administers CPR. Seemingly repulsed by the continual farting, he dejectedly stalks away, before quickly returning, wrought with guilt, as the flatulent corpse begins washing back out. What follows is possibly the strangest scene that I have ever seen. Hank begins riding the corpse through the waves, using its farts as propulsion. There’s time for a few unnecessary close shots of bare cheeks before the propulsion seems to stops and he ends up under the waves.

When he awakes on another beach it’s perhaps forgivable then that he and the audience thought the whole thing was a dream or hallucination. A packet of cheese crisps tells Hank otherwise, though the rationale observer will still have their doubts, and sure enough the corpse is a short distance away. The two of them have managed to somehow make it back to the mainland, though the lack of signal on the dead mans phone makes it clear that he’s still far from society. The pair then go on an interesting journey together forming quite the budding, little friendship along the way. The corpse who later goes by the name of Manny, begins talking to Hank and showcasing a plethora of different talents that help them along the way. From a source of water and means of starting a fire to a GPS erection compass.

“Manny, I think your penis is guiding us home!” is definitely up there as one of the more memorable quotes in the film. Hank becomes a mentor like figure to the man-child corpse who’s thirst for knowledge is unquenchable; teaching him about societal norms, relationships, sex, masturbation, morality and everything in between. He even goes to the extremes of dressing in drag to appease Manny, who by this point is fixated on the girl in his phones wallpaper and seems to be mentally developing at a rate of knots. He appears desperate to remember her name with the hope that it’ll jolt memories of his life back and help lead them home.

It soon becomes apparent that Sarah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the girl in the wallpaper and one of the main instigators of the aforementioned erection compass, is really the main driving point of the story. Despite all the absurdity of fart jokes, erections and other immature nonsense floating around on the surface of this film, there’s definitely a serious message being put forward by Kwan and Scheinert here.

The film is narrated by Hank and viewed solely from his perspective, which obviously given the nature of what’s happening throughout with the talking corpse and what not, would lend some validity to theories of it all being a hallucination. The true meaning of the film is deliberately left ambiguous, but it was pretty clear to me from the drag, playacting, inside the makeshift bus onwards that Hank was projecting an imaginary world. This view was only solidified when it became apparent he was hiding out in the woods behind the girls house. My initials thoughts were that he’d actually died in the suicide attempt and everything afterwards was a weird purgatory like world, but the ending fully turned me onto the schizophrenic, split personality disorder theory.

Daniel Radcliffe is the absolute star in a film that’s about as far from Hogwarts as you’re likely to get. It couldn’t have been easy playing a dead man for an entire film and the way he maintained control of his facial expressions, not to mention his body, even as it was contorted into all sorts of awkward shapes, was extremely impressive. Manny, rather strangely for a dead character, was also the more developed of the two leads. Effectively growing from a toddler in mental terms to an adolescent adult and Radcliffe absolutely excelled in portraying this evolution.

Paul Dano also delivered a strong performance as Hank; the lonely, troubled, socially awkward outsider who in his imaginary world at least is looking for a reason to live. It was enjoyable watching both Hank and Manny’s friendship grow as the film progressed and the two actors had bundles of chemistry.

Musically, the score was incredible. Hull and McDowell do a fantastic job of making it seem like the music is actually taking place within Hank and Manny’s minds. It features orchestral arrangements seamlessly blending in with the actors humming to different tunes throughout, including the Jurassic Park theme. I really enjoyed the score in this film and I’m very surprised it hasn’t received any Oscar recognition. It certainly deserves it.

I feel like this film would definitely divide opinion. Superficially, it’s got immature humour in spades, which has the potential to put a lot of people off, but if you give it a chance then it develops into an interesting story. It has the bromance buddy elements between the two leads and underneath is a more serious message about mental health, loneliness and the dangers of modern society’s indifference. Of course, given the highly ambiguous nature of the film, it’s very possible that someone else could watch it and have a completely different theory as to what’s going on. Which is why I have to recommend it.