The Green Hornet

My first official film of 2011 was The Green Hornet, a superhero movie based on a 1930s radio serial (not a comic book as many would think, myself included). Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is your typical playboy son of a millionaire newspaper tycoon, partying his life away. However, after his father's unexpected death, Reid finds himself in a position of responsibility and through a convoluted series of events, finds himself teaming up with Chinese tech genius/martial arts expert Kato (Jay Chou) to take on the Los Angeles underworld as a masked vigilante named the Green Hornet.

I quite enjoyed The Green Hornet - there are plenty of laughs, Rogen and Chou play off each other well, the action scenes are well-executed, and the film is nicely paced. There are however a few issues. Firstly, it really doesn't seem to be able to work out if it wants to be a true superhero action film or a flat-out comedy, and haphazardly veers between the two genres throughout.

Then there is the fact that, frankly, the film should actually be called Kato, seeing as he is the one with all the brains and skill. The Green Hornet himself hardly ever actually does anything truly heroic and more often than not just gets himself or others into trouble. On top of that, the character of Britt Reid is somewhat of a jerk and doesn't show much in the way of growth by the time the credits roll. I suspect that much of this comes down to the casting of Seth Rogen in the part (he co-wrote the script as well) - he was never going to have much credibility as an action star, no matter how much weight he lost, but by leaving Jay Chou to do all the heavy lifting the film just about gets away with it.

Christoph Waltz was good fun as the slightly psychotic villain of the piece, but was clearly channelling his Oscar-winning Inglourious Basterds role. Cameron Diaz on the other hand was pretty much only there to provide a female presence and contributed nothing to the proceedings. Michel Gondry's direction rarely showed the creativity of his masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and on the odd occasion he did add a bit of stylistic flair I'm not convinced it worked that well. Nonetheless, The Green Hornet was an enjoyable two hours in the cinema and I'd be willing to watch a sequel.

VERDICT: Uneven but entertaining, a pleasant start to 2011.

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Black Swan

This is going to be quite a difficult review for me to write because, to be completely honest, I still don't know exactly what to think of Black Swan. Having been intrigued, but not necessarily convinced by the trailers, I was ultimately swayed by the near-universal critical praise and awards attention. I'm certainly glad I saw it, but at the same time I'm not convinced that I would recommend it either.

Anyway, let's get the plot out the way first. Natalie Portman plays a young ballerina who wins the coveted dual roles of the White and Black Swan in her ballet company's production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Although her wide-eyed innocence is perfect for the role of the White Swan, her efforts to embody the evil Black Swan (and simultaneously prevent a rival dancer from usurping her) result in fear, paranoia and the beginnings of a complete psychotic break. And then there are the weird scratches that start appearing on her back...

Watching Black Swan was almost certainly the most uncomfortable cinema-going experience of my life. At no point is it possible to relax as the overwhelming sense of foreboding and constant stream of increasingly strange, dark, twisted and flat-out creepy plot developments keep you squirming in your seat. This is a film that can invoke genuine uneasiness at simply watching a character trim their fingernails. And in the sense that this is director's intention, the film is a resounding success. There is much to appreciate here: Darren Aranofsky's direction is excellent, as is Natalie Portman's highly-dedicated performance; the art direction, costumes and make-up are all superb; and Clint Mansell's reworkings of the Swan Lake score set the mood perfectly. Even the grainy Super-16mm cinematography, while not particularly aesthetically pleasing, is undoubtedly a key component in setting the film's tone.

Unfortunately, despite all this, the fact remains that I simply didn't enjoy watching Black Swan. In general I'm a fan of dark, weird films but when the viewing experience is that arduous it becomes difficult to justify the effort. Having browsed through various film websites and forums I get the impression that I am very much in the minority with this viewpoint, which does make me wonder if there's something I'm missing. And yet, the five other people I watched it with all shared my opinions. Either way, this is certainly not the kind of film that I would expect to make lots of money or attract major awards attention, and the fact that it's managing both simply makes it all the more bizarre.

VERDICT: Honestly? I don't know. It's probably worth seeing, but don't expect to have any fun doing so...

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The King's Speech

No Oscar season is complete with a British period biopic, and this year's contender is The King's Speech. On paper, the plot doesn't sound like much - it is after all ultimately just an account of King George VI's struggles to overcome his stammer - but once you factor in the death of his father, his brother's affair with a divorced woman and subsequent abdication, and the impending war against Germany, you realise that framing the story round his speech impediment is quite an effective idea. By overcoming his stammer, George VI successfully banished his childhood insecurities and rose to the unwanted challenge of leading the country through a turbulent period.

The film certainly ticks all the Oscar-bait boxes - a fine cast turning in excellent performances (Colin Firth is superb in the lead role); a well-written script that hits all the right dramatic notes; strong attention to period detail. Crucially however, The King's Speech is in fact genuinely entertaining and surprisingly good fun. The back-and-forth banter between the king and his Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) never fails to bring a smile to your face and some of the more outrageous moments in their therapy sessions are laugh-out-loud funny. The best of these is a scene where the king unleashes an hilarious stream of profanity after realising that he never stammers while swearing - quite how the film got away with a 12A rating, I don't know...

So, clearly I liked the film. I would not, however, name it as one of the best films of the year and I certainly wouldn't give it a Best Picture Oscar. Nevertheless, it does now seem to have established itself as The Social Network's closest competition in that particular race (last night's win at the Producer's Guild Awards has certainly shaken things up). And if it were to win? Well, there have certainly been worse films to manage it...

VERDICT: An entertaining and rewarding film, well worth seeing.

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Top 10 Films of 2010

And so I finally get around to my end-of-year wrap-up. All in all I'd say that 2010 has been a fairly average year for films - there have been a few superb efforts but the majority have been fairly uninspiring, which is a shame. On the other hand, this year's crop of Oscar films appear to be unusually strong, so with any luck the next couple of months should be a more enjoyable time at the cinema for me.

As with last year, it's probably worth pointing out that my definition of "best" is vague to say the least. Generally I tend more towards "entertainment" rather than "artistic merit" but there are always exceptions (see this year's No. 6). Additionally, I have once again based this on UK release dates, hence the presence of Up in the Air (which incidentally would have placed in my top 10 for "official" 2009 releases as well).

And so to the list:

1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3. Kick-Ass
4. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
5. Up in the Air
6. The Road
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
8. How to Train Your Dragon
9. Love and Other Drugs
10. The American

Honourable Mention: Tron: Legacy, which despite its silliness was a hugely fun cinema experience (especially on IMAX).

No surprises what my No. 1 turned out to be. It was also evidently a good year for graphic novel adaptations. I did unfortunately miss quite a few important films and certainly didn't see enough foreign or arthouse cinema - I hope to change that this year.

And while I'm at it, my 5 Worst Films of 2010:

1. Prince of Persia
2. Skyline
3. Alice in Wonderland
4. Splice
5. The Expendables

To be fair, I tend not to go to films that I expect to be bad so calling these the worst films of the year is probably a bit harsh. Only Prince of Persia is genuinely terrible, the others were either just a bit rubbish, boring or disappointing.

Now let's see how 2011 turns out...

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Other Films of 2010

Now that I've finally written my final two reviews of 2010 cinema releases, I thought that I may as well add a quick summary of the various films from last year that I managed to catch up with on DVD/Blu-Ray:

Daybreakers - A stylish and enjoyable vampire film with a twist, albeit one let down by an average script.

Exam - An intriguing, Cube-inspired low-budget British psychological thriller that holds the attention well despite the single-room setting. Unfortunately the ending isn't handled very well. Still worth a look.

The Lovely Bones - Peter Jackson's adaptation of the best-selling novel is visually striking and well acted, but ultimately the story just never seems to go anywhere and the tone seems wildly misjudged at times.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - A very well-made, entertaining thriller that I enjoyed a lot, but perhaps not quite worthy of all the hype that seems to have surrounded the franchise. I actually believe that David Fincher's remake could be just as good if not better.

How to Train Your Dragon - I was genuinely surprised at just how good this film was - funny, exciting, wonderfully animated and genuinely touching, this is my favourite animated film of the year and easily better than the mysteriously overrated Toy Story 3.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed - Excellent performances and a twisty plot keep you interested in this intricate, small-scale kidnap thriller featuring just 3 characters in its entire running time. Gemma Arterton displays genuine acting talent that seems to have vanished from her Hollywood efforts.

Bad Lieutenant - Nicolas Cage gets another chance to play a crazy man, this time as a drug-addicted New Orleans cop on the verge of a psychotic break. His superb performance aside, this bizarre film is perhaps not quite worthy of the high praise it seems to have gotten from the critics.

Black Dynamite - I saw this hilarious film at the EIFF in 2009 (read my review here), but it finally got a cinema release last September.

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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Love and Other Drugs

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

After the comparative box office failure of Prince Caspian, Disney unceremoniously dumped the franchise and allowed 20th Century Fox to pick it up instead. Unfortunately it may not have been the wisest move, considering that the latest film in the series has been even more underwhelming in terms of its grosses. And I can see why; much like the first two films, Dawn Treader is absolutely unremarkable in every way. It's reasonably entertaining and passes the time well enough but everything about it seems unoriginal and derivative of any other fantasy film. Add in some sledgehammer-subtle Christian allegories and possibly the single most obnoxious child character I've ever seen in a film (in the form of the Pevensie children's cousin Eustace), and I think it's fair to say that I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again.

VERDICT: A Christmas TV time-killer, nothing more.

Love and Other Drugs

A romantic comedy-drama loosely inspired by the true story of a pharmaceutical rep working for Pfizer in the mid-90s, Ed Zwick's latest film features Jake Gyllenhaal as the lady-killer drug rep in question and Anne Hathaway as the beautiful, free-spirited artist he falls for. So far, so generic. What sets this apart from the average rom-com is the fact that Hathaway's character suffers from early onset Parkinson's disease, the effects of which have a huge impact upon their relationship.

I really enjoyed Love and Other Drugs. It's genuinely funny, the acting is excellent (Hathaway in particular), and as someone who has personally had family members afflicted by Parkinson's and similar degenerative diseases, the more serious moments of the film hit home quite hard for me. At the end of the day, despite the standard romantic comedy plot structure, I thought this was among the better films of 2010.

VERDICT: Entertaining and moving, a very good film.

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