Film Review: NOW IS GOOD (2012)

Director: Ol Parker
Writers: Jenny Downham (novel ‘Before I Die’), Ol Parker (screenplay)
Running time: 100 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Drama/Romance
UK Release date: 10^th September 2012

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 7^th July 2013.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Now I know this isn’t my usual fayre but I thought I’d take myself a little out of my comfort zone for a change. I opted for this one partly because I was intrigued by it and partly because it has such a good cast. What could go wrong I hear you say (okay, maybe not), but I have been stung before and so it was with fingers crossed that I hit ‘Play’. Well I survived and I’m happy to report it’s definitely not a dud and I’ll tell you why after this very brief summary.

The film tells the story of the last few months of the life of Tessa Scott (Dakota Fanning). You see, she has terminal cancer and has decided to come off chemotherapy so she has a chance to tick a few things off her ‘list’. She is aided by her best friend, Zoey (Kaya Scodelario), but things don’t quite go according to plan. Tessa lives with her father (Paddy Considine) and her little brother, Cal (Edgar Canham). Her mother (Olivia Williams) has separated and lives elsewhere. Her father is always hopeful of finding a cure whereas her mother cannot cope and is almost in denial. Tessa meets and eventually falls for the neighbour’s son, Adam (Jeremy Irvine), but as you can guess, it’s a doomed romance. I really don’t want to say any more, it’s one of those you are best watching for yourself.

At the start of the film I was relieved to see that one of the production companies involved was BBC Films. To me that’s always a mark of quality and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. At the centre of it is a quite brilliant performance from Dakota Fanning; she just gets better each time I see her on screen. She even got her English accent spot on! Also worthy of note were Paddy Considine and Jeremy Irvine, they both had challenging roles that they pulled of quite excellently. Yes, it’s all emotional but that only works if you care about the characters and that’s just why I found this one worked so well. All the characters were well rounded and you knew exactly how they fitted. A very well written script brings it all together. Add to that some great performances and you’re definitely on the right track. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but I for one have to say I really enjoyed this one despite the inevitable sad ending.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 7.6/10.

IMDb Score: 6.8/10 (based on 7,801 votes when this review was written).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1937264/

MetaScore: No Data: (Based on 0 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 56/100 (based on 25 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 64/100 (based on 1,774 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/now_is_good_2012/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/nowisgood/index.html
Trailer:

Film Review: CORALINE (2009)

Director: Henry Selick
Writers: Neil Gaiman (book), Henry Selick (screenplay)
Running time: 96 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): PG

Genre: Animation/Adventure/Fantasy
UK Release date: 8^th May 2009

Watched on DVD Sunday 25^th March 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is a film I have wanted to see for a long time. I’m a fan of animation, as some of you know, and this is one that, for one reason or another, always got pushed back in the viewing pile. Well, a window of opportunity finally opened this weekend and it got its long-awaited viewing. It was well worth the wait! I’ll give you my thoughts after this brief summary.

Coraline Jones lives with her parents in an old building that has been split into apartments. They have recently moved in and Coraline feels her parents have no time for her. She visits the, very eccentric, neighbours to relieve the boredom, but it is when a local boy, ‘Wybie’, gives her a doll he got from his grandmother that things really liven up for her. She finds a secret door behind the wallpaper that leads to another version of the building. There she has another mother and another father, but everyone has buttons for eyes. This does not seem to matter to Coraline as her ‘other’ parents have time to spend with her and they cook such wonderful meals! But nothing is ever quite what it seems… I will leave it there or the Spoiler Police (Animation Division) will be re-animating me (again).

Excellent stop-motion animation and a rather brilliant storyline are what I took from this film. I must admit I love the look and feel of it, so hats off to the designers and animators who put it together. I should give mention to the performances, although nobody really stood out, but honourable mentions go to the voice talents of; Dakota Fanning as Coraline Jones, Teri Hatcher as Mel Jones / Other Mother / Beldam, Jennifer Saunders as Miss April Spink / Other Spink, Dawn French as Miss Miriam Forcible / Other Forcible and Keith David as The Cat.

I really enjoyed this film; it may be a bit quirky for some, but I really liked the animation and the storytelling. This, combined with some great characters, makes for a very pleasurable experience. I was trying to think what it reminded me of, and the only thing I could think of was ‘Pans Labyrinth’, but only in a very superficial way. If you liked ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ then I’m sure you’ll love this!... Recommended.

My score: 8.5/10.

IMDb Score: 7.7/10 (based on 63,514 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0327597/

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 90/100 (based on 231 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 77/100 (based on 317,343 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coraline/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Wybie Lovat: I'm Wybie. Wybie Lovat.
Coraline Jones: Wybie?
Wybie Lovat: Short for Wyborn. Not my idea, of course. What'd you get saddled with?
Coraline Jones: I wasn't 'saddled' with anything. It's Coraline.
Wybie Lovat: Caroline what?
Coraline Jones: Coraline. Coraline Jones.
Wybie Lovat: Hm. It's not real scientific, but I heard an ordinary name like Caroline can lead people to have ordinary expectations about a person.

Coraline Jones: [blank] I almost fell down a well yesterday, Mom.
Mother: [typing] Uh-huh.
Coraline Jones: I would've died.
Mother: That's nice.

Other Mother: You know, you could stay forever, if you want to. There's one tiny thing we have to do first...

Coraline Jones: He's not drunk, Mom, he's just eccentric.

[last lines]
Coraline Jones: Welcome, Miss Lovat!
Wybie's Grandmother: Oh, hello.
Coraline Jones: I'm Coraline Jones. I've got so much to tell you.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://coraline.com/
Trailer:

Film Review: FRAGMENTS [A.K.A. WINGED CREATURES] (2008)

Director: Rowan Woods
Running time: 91 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Drama/Crime
UK Release date: 23rd June 2009 (Edinburgh Film Festival)

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 11th June 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is one of those stories where the lives of unrelated individuals are linked by a traumatic event. In this case it is a shooting at a diner in Los Angeles that links the survivors. The film examines how these events effected the lives of those involved. One thing that attracted me to this film was a very strong cast, but I know from bitter experience that this is no guarantee of the quality of the piece. Unfortunately I was less than satisfied with the film. No problem with the quality of the performances, that was a given, it was all very disjointed and ended up as a bit of a mess I’m afraid.

Here’s a bit about the characters: There’s a teenage girl who turns to religion and her friend, a boy who just clams up and won’t speak to anyone. There’s the waitress who neglects her baby because she feels she cannot connect with anyone any more. There’s a man who has medical problems and a gambling habit who takes off to a casino to try his luck, having survived. And then there’s the doctor who becomes obsessed with saving every patient, even if he has to make them sick in the first place. The film tells us about all of these characters and their friends and families and how they try to deal with the aftermath.

As I said there is a great cast; Kate Beckinsale is the waitress Carla Davenport, Forest Whitaker is the gambler, Charlie Archenault, Guy Pearce is the doctor, Bruce Laraby, Dakota Fanning is the teenager, Anne Hagen and Josh Hutcherson is her teenage friend, Jimmy Jaspersen. I think you can see why I might have been attracted to a movie with these actors involved.

The production was pretty good, although it did look like there was a bit of a tight budget. I get the impression that this story would probably work better on the page rather than on the screen. Either that, or something got terribly lost in translation! Unfortunately it all felt far too disjointed to me and the thread of the story got lost. It’s almost as if there were too many characters’ stories to tell and I felt that removing just one of them would have given the others more room to breathe. Sadly though, it is what it is and I have to give it my NOT recommended seal of (dis)approval.

My Score: 4.5/10

LINKS:
(RT=Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0948547/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1190811-fragments/
Trailer:

Film Review: PUSH (2009)

Director: Paul McGuigan
Running time: 107 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12
Released in the UK: 20th February 2009

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 21st February 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I didn’t know a lot about this movie before I watched it, just the write-up on Sky TV and the vague memory of a long distant TV review. I really wish I’d looked into it further before investing an hour and fifty minutes of my life to it, in fact even more to write this review. As you can guess, it’s not the best film I’ve ever seen, not the worst, but a long way short of the best.

Nick Gant lives in Hong Kong, where he’s hiding from a government agency called ‘Division’. You see Nick has an ability, he can move objects with his mind. This is just one of many abilities various people have developed over the years. Some can see a short time into the future, some can track everyone who has touched an object by smelling it and some can push thoughts into your mind. After a visit one day from some ‘sniffers’ from Division, Nick is visited by Cassie Holmes, a teenager who can see the future. She tells him that there is a suitcase with six million dollars in it and she needs his help to find it. Nick has gambling debts and so feels there’s nothing to lose. They set off to find the case but are soon confronted by a gang of locals, also with abilities, who are seeking the same case. The woman with the group has the same ability as Cassie, but seems better at it than her. They escape the attack and make their way to the waterfront, where they find Kira Hudson, who holds the key to the mystery. She has recently escaped from Division having been injected with a drug that enhances abilities, in her case; she can push thoughts into someone’s mind. During her escape, she grabbed a sample of the drug and hid it somewhere in Hong Kong. The trouble is her memory has been wiped. They are now in a race against time to find the case before the local gang or Henry Carver, from Division can get to it.

Two things struck me about this film, firstly, it’s a very complicated plot, and secondly, it’s very like the TV show, "Heroes". Unfortunately both of these things detracted from what should have been a quite enjoyable film. I felt the writers, directors, producers, etc. were trying to be a little too clever with the plot and not hitting the mark. It wasn’t all bad though, a half decent performance from Dakota Fanning as Cassie Holmes and Djimon Hounsou was pretty good as the bad guy Henry Carver. Not so good were Chris Evans as Nick Grant (good at getting beaten up, but not much else) and Camilla Belle as Kira Hudson.

Over all, a pretty lame attempt at something that’s done a lot better on TV. Some of the special effects were quite good, but nothing to write home about, just a shame the plot got in the way of what could have been a decent film. Not really recommended, but if you’re feeling bored…

My score: 5.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0465580/
Official Site: http://www.push-themovie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi2707750937/