What I'm watching

#447/#164 The Recruit

(Rewatch)

MIT graduate James Clayton (Colin Farrell) is recruited by instructor Walter Burk (Al Pacino) to become a CIA operative. Beginning training at ‘The Farm’, Clayton meets Layla (Bridget Moynahan) and forms a connection before seemingly washing out. Did he though, or was this merely the beginning of his real mission? Is there more to all of this than what there seems to be on the surface?

I saw this film several years ago and I remember it being a lot better than it actually is. It starts off strong with the actual recruiting part and all of the interesting psychological warfare elements on the farm, but by about the halfway point it loses any sort of traction. It looked like it was building to some clever spy based drama and some intrigue surrounding James’ possibly CIA NOC operative dad who died when James was young, but instead it ignores all this for a boring infiltration mission followed by a pretty standard twist. Similarly, Layla looked like she was going to be an interesting character and then suddenly she’s just the love interest.

It’s an easily watchable film but there’s just a lot of wasted potential and some fairly uninspired performances from actors you know can produce better. 2/5

#428/#145 Horrible Bosses

Nick (Jason Bateman), Dale (Charlie Day) and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) hate their bosses. Nick’s boss Harkin (Kevin Spacey) is a sadist who uses Nick for his own gains, Dale’s boss Julia (Jennifer Aniston) sexual harasses him despite his recent engagement and Kurt’s boss Bobby (Colin Farrell) is a coked-out tool bleeding his late father’s company dry. When Kurt drunkenly suggests all of their lives would be better if they killed their bosses, things quickly escalate till the trio are actually looking into ways to do it.

This is a pretty funny comedy. Usually in this situation there would be one main guy and the other two would be his sidekicks, but in this film all three of the employees get to be the comedic lead. You can’t pick between them who gets the better deal as they all share equal levels of screentime and they all get a handful of great lines.

From the bosses, things are a little more skewed towards Spacey but each of them get their moments to shine. Spacey is just perfect as the insane prick of a boss. He’s a caricature, sure, but you can see elements of reality in his performance. Farrell probably gets the least attention in the film but he plays it really well regardless. Finally Aniston is the best I’ve seen her in a movie role for a while and is definitely the funniest of the bosses. You get why Day’s character has a problem with her but, like his two friends, you don’t feel a lot of sympathy for him given just how hot she is in this.

It’s a bit raunchy and it’s a bit silly in places but there was some solid writing and funny jokes. Overall I had a good time with it. 3.5/5

#410/#127 Total Recall (2012)

Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) is a factory worker looking for a little more out of life. Living in the slums of the Colony (formally Australia) and commuting, via a giant gravity lift through the centre of the planet, to the super rich United Federation of Britain day in and day out isn’t what he imagined for himself. Deciding to have a little fun he visits Rekall, a company which can give you any memory you want. There however, he seemingly trips some dormant memory to a hidden past life as a government spy turned traitor and quickly finds himself being hunted down by the authorities, the woman he thought was his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and a woman (Jessica Biel) he’s been having mysterious dreams about recently.

I have seen the 1990 version of Total Recall but I have no real attachment to it personally. It’s a fun Arnold Schwarzenegger film with an interesting sci-fi premise but it was never a film I felt the need to see more than once or over analysis past that initial viewing. I honestly couldn’t remember a great deal of it coming into this remake. It’s enjoyable enough but I’ve no knee-jerk reaction against the 2012 movie just for existing the way some will have.

I thought this was a fairly well done remake. It pays tribute to the original and the source material from Philip K Dick, but it manages to put its own take on the story. Farrell’s a believably out of place regular guy as Quaid and it’s enjoyable to watch his progress through these series of events. Beckinsale is also in top form, playing one of her better roles, and pulls off the dedicated uber assassin really well. Biel was also fine but could have been played by anyone.The CGI, set dressing, costumes, stunts and effects were all also top notch helping to bring this world to life.

That all said, there’s nothing really which stands out about this film. It’s an enjoyable action sci-fi romp but it’s not going to have any lasting impact. It’s a little generic overall and it pulls from a lot of other greater sci-fi franchises. I’ve seen other reviewers saying they got a little bored after a while and, while I personally felt I got my money’s worth, I can see where they could be coming from.

It’s a perfectly enjoyable movie and a fine companion to the 1990 film, but I don’t see it blowing anyone’s mind. 3.5/5

#389/#106 Fright Night (2011)

Charley (Anton Yelchin) has recently gotten himself a hot girlfriend (Imogen Poots), gotten away from his geeky past and ditched his former best friend Evil Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Things are looking on the up and up for Charley until Ed comes to him with information on Charley’s new neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell). Namely that he’s a vampire. At first unbelieving but quickly accepting this to be true, Charley has to fight Jerry while trying to keep his family safe and track down the supposed vampire expert Peter Vincent (David Tennant) for help.

Having only seen the original Fright Night last December (review here), I had no real trepidation going into this film. Often there is a knee-jerk reaction to remakes of fairly recent films but I thought this one did the original justice while being its own endeavour. The broad strokes of the original are there but they are acted out in different ways, giving the movie its own flavour. Think Karate Kid remake rather than Psycho remake.

Yelchin is a solid lead, acting as our everyman and, like the original, only really questioning the validity of vampires in the real world for a short time before going into survival mode. Mintz-Plasse, although probably type cast by this point, plays the geeky Ed really well, even managing to give the character a little bit of heart. Eons better than the original movie’s Ed. The film belongs to Tennant and Farrell though.

Farrell provides a really enjoyable turn as the vampire Jerry, being both seductive, comedic and menacing in equal measure. His disdain and almost boredom with the events as they transpire really sells the feeling that he’s lived for hundreds of years and none of this is really all that new or interesting to him. Tennant plays a very different Peter Vincent from Roddy McDowall’s original role but it’s equally as enjoyable. His role is pretty much a mix of the Doctor, Chris Angel and Russell Brand with the biggest arc of the film and most of the comedic moments. He’s a good actor and I’d like to see him in more mainstream films.

The only thing I think was rather weak in this was the CGI and effects. The original has some truly great monster effects and a really interesting look but the ones in this are really goofy looking. The CGI effects for the vampire transformations look like they’re already a couple of years behind current tech and break the immersion somewhat.

This is a solid action/horror flick and one of the better vampire films post twilight neutering of the genre. 4/5

#74 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Dr Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is a 1000 year old monk with a mirror which allows you into his mind. Once there, you are given the choice between giving into your base needs or reaching enlightenment. Parnassus is in a bet with the Devil (Tom Waits) over his daughter (Lily Cole). Parnassus need to save 5 souls before the Devil to win her freedom. Help may comes in the mysterious Tony (Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law) or perhaps this mysterious stranger is not all he seems to be.

I’ll get the good out the way first. All of the actors involved played their parts well. No one was really better than the other. The visual style was really nice if you like that sort of thing and even then it was slightly pulled back from the usual Terry Gilliam style.

Other than this though I didn’t really care for it. I expected this however because I rarely do for any of Gilliam’s works. I was mainly watching it for the same reason I imagine most were; because it was the final film Heath Ledger was in before his death and I wanted to see how they were going to incorporate Depp, Law and Farrell in to the film. In that respect it worked really well, blending with the story line and never really feeling like they were cutting around footage of Ledger to make it work.

Ledger himself in the role was fine but you could tell he’d just come of playing the Joker in the Dark Knight. There were a couple of sections where it used the angry “hit me” bark to his voice. There were also a couple of bits when he became an Australian Joker. That was kinda funny.

So as I say, not my cup of tea, but all the parts seem to work well enough. 2/5