Film Review: YOUTH IN REVOLT (2009)

Director: Miguel Arteta
Running time: 90 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
UK release date 5th February 2010

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 6th February 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I was in two minds about watching this one but I had heard a couple of good things about it so I took the plunge. There were some good things about it but there was also a lot that I found very average. More of my thoughts later, here’s a brief summary first (summary haters please invent an alter-ego for yourselves while I write the next paragraph).

Nick Twisp lives with his mother, Estelle, and her current boyfriend, Jerry. For reasons I won’t go into now, they find themselves having to go and stay in a trailer park for a few weeks. Nick is into things like Sinatra LP’s and Fellini films, you know, he’s not your mainstream kind of guy. Of course this makes it very hard for him to meet girls, and being a teenager; of course he likes girls… a lot! Anyway, whilst there he meets Sheeni Saunders who has a lot of the same interests as he does. They begin to get to know each other but eventually Nick has to leave. Determined to see her again, he invents an alter-ego for himself, a suave sophisticated character called Francois Dillinger. He can say and do all the things that Nick can’t and this allows him to, not only, get his father, George, to move nearer to Sheeni, but also get his mother, and new boyfriend Lance Wescott, to send him to live with his father. This is only the start of the trouble for Nick, you see, he had to commit a crime in order to live with his father and now the cops are after him! From here on it gets a little complicated, so I won’t say any more.

First of all, what I liked; I liked the use of slow motion at the beginning of the film and the little animated segments. These were good. Also good were the scenes that included the ‘Francois Dillinger’ character, that was also good… And that about wraps up the good parts. Unfortunately Michael Cera can only play Michael Cera so many times before you ask yourself, is there anything else he can do? Well, he can play Francois Dillinger who I found much more interesting than Michael Cera, sorry, Nick Twisp. I guess I should give honourable mentions to other members of the cast… It’s not all about Cera after all… So, honourable mentions go to; Portia Doubleday as Sheeni Saunders, Jean Smart as Estelle Twisp, Zach Galifianakis (I still don’t think he’s funny) as Jerry, Adhir Kalyan as Vijay Joshi, Steve Buscemi as George Twisp, Fred Willard as Mr. Ferguson and Ray Liotta as Lance Wescott.

So, I’ve mentioned the good things and I’ve talked about Michael Cera playing Michael Cera one time too many for me. I guess the rest of it I found a little predictable and, for a comedy, not very funny. There was only one ‘laugh out loud’ moment for me in the entire film. So, over all, no great comedy, but bearable enough with the scenes featuring ‘Francois Dillinger’ being a highlight. Worth seeing for that alone, but don’t put too a high priority on it.

My score: 6.4/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0403702/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/youth_in_revolt/
Official Site: http://youthinrevolt-themovie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3181839385/

Film Review: SCOTT PILGRIM vs. THE WORLD (2010)

Co-Writer/Director: Edgar Wright
Running time: 112 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

UK Release date: 25th August 2010

Watched at the cinema Saturday 28th August 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I heard many good things about this movie before I went to see it. Even so, I didn’t go in with too many expectations… I wasn’t disappointed. This was probably the most enjoyable movie I’ve seen so far this year. I walked out of the cinema with a smile on my face and there was even a spring in my step as I went over the preceding 112 minutes in my mind.

Scott Pilgrim is a 22 year-old living in Toronto, Canada with his gay flatmate, Wallace Wells. Scott plays bass in a band called Sex Bob-Omb which consists of Scott (of course), Kim Pine on drums, Stephen Stills on lead vocals and guitar and Young Neil as hanger-on. The band has ambitions to be famous and so have a gig coming up at a Battle of the Bands show. At the start of the film he is dating a seventeen year old schoolgirl called Knives Chau. Things seem to be going along quite well until Scott has a vision of a girl called Ramona Flowers. He becomes besotted by her and they end up hanging out together and eventually dating. Unfortunately Scott soon learns that if he wants to date Ramona he must first defeat her seven evil exe’s! Can Scott defeat these evil exe’s and win Ramona? What will Knives think of his infidelity? All these questions and many more remain to be answered… until you’ve seen the film of course.

As I said at the beginning, this was probably the most enjoyable film I’ve watched so far this year. I found the quirky mix of live action with comic book elements quite refreshing and it gave the film an interesting look and feel that I liked a lot! Great performances all round, especially from Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, Alison Pill as Kim Pine and Ellen Wong as Knives Chau.

This will most certainly feature in my best of the year awards in December. It did start to lose me a bit towards the end, but I won’t hold that against it. A really well made film which deserves the praise it has got (IMO). Well worth the entrance fee and very highly recommended.

My score: 8.3/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/
Official Site: http://www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1217070617/

Film Review: YEAR ONE (2009)

Director: Harold Ramis
Running time: 97 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

UK release date: 26th June 2009

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 8th August 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

First of all I must admit I only watched this because Michael Cera is in it. I’ve liked his work ever since I first saw him in Juno (2007); he has a great future ahead of him, if he chooses his roles wisely. But I digress, here’s a little flavour of the plot before I tell you what I really think.

Zed and Oh live in a village where Zed is a hunter, not a very good one, and Oh is a gatherer. Both have women they like but never seem to be able to get. One day Zed has had enough of being disrespected and, taking Oh with him, goes into the forest where he eats the fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge. As a result the pair is banished from the village. After much travel they come across two brothers fighting, Cain and Abel… I think that’s enough of the plot, you can probably see it’s going to go downhill from here.

Although it’s had quite a lot of money spent on it, and there a few well known names in the cast, this one misses the mark by quite a long way. I will say though that the scenes with Michael Cera as Oh were the high points for me. He had all the best lines and delivered them in that dead-pan style of his perfectly. On the other hand, Jack Black as Zed was his usual gross-out self. It seems he can only play comedy in one way and we’ve all seen it too many times already. As far as the rest of the cast goes, honourable mentions go to Oliver Platt as the High Priest, David Cross as Cain, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Isaac, Vinnie Jones as Sargon, Hank Azaria as Abraham and Juno Temple as Eema.

Over all, it’s a pretty bad comedy that, if it wasn’t for Michael Cera, I would not have bothered to see. I can only hope he chooses better scripts in future. Most definitely NOT recommended… unless you’re a huge Michael Cera fan.

My score: 3.7/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1045778/
Official Site: http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/yearone/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi812778265/

Film Review: NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST (2008)

Director: Peter Sollett
Running time: 86 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12

UK Release Date: 30th January 2009

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 27th March 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I remember back about a year ago I stumbled upon a film called Juno, one of the stars of which was Michael Cera. Now, one of the many things I really liked that film was the understated performance of said Mr Cera. And so we come to ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’, a really bad title IMHO. It’s not a bad film, there’s a lot to admire, it just fell slightly short of the mark for me. But more of that later, let me tell you a little of the rather complicated plot…

Nick is depressed, he’s been dating Tris for a while and she’s dumped him. He spends his time making mix CDs for her and generally feeling sorry for himself. Oh, and he’s a huge fan of a band called ‘Where’s Fluffy’. Anyway, he is in a band himself, and the other band members, Thom and Dev, who are gay by the way, decide to take him out into New York, where they have a gig. Meanwhile, Norah and her best friend, Caroline, are also planning a night out in the Big Apple. They know Tris from school and Norah has been listening to, and liking, Nick’s CDs that Tris has thrown away. Nick’s band is playing in a club when Tris walks in with her new boyfriend. Of course Nick is distracted by this. Caroline has got drunk and Norah is left alone. When Tris comes up to her and asks her who she’s with, she says she’s with her boyfriend and proceeds to go and kiss Nick, who she’s never met before. (Complicated enough so far?) Deciding to help Norah take Caroline home, Nick helps them to his car but before they can leave, the rest of the band decide Nick and Norah should get together and offer to take Caroline home so the couple can go and find where ‘Fluffy’ is playing that night (it’s a secret). From here there are adventures, love, hate, kidnapping and a whole bunch of stuff you’re better off finding out by watching it yourselves (he said, wanting to keep the spoiler count to a minimum).

I found it quite an engaging film for the most part, with a really good soundtrack and some good performances. The budget was obviously not the biggest, but I thought they production team did a great job despite this. So, good performances from Michael Cera as Nick, Kat Dennings as Norah, Aaron Yoo as Thom, Rafi Gavron as Dev, Ari Graynor as Caroline and Alexis Dziena as Tris.

It’s a nice gentle teen comedy with some really great moments in it, but, for me, it kind of lost its way towards the end. When I felt the story should be building to a big finish, it all kind of fell flat. Nothing to do with the performances, I think the writers must have just run out of ideas. For all that, it’s a pretty nice watch and I kind of recommend the first three quarters… but you’ll watch all of it, I know you will.

My score: 6.2/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0981227/
Official Site: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/nickandnorah/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1681326873/