Men in Black 3 Review (Kirk Haviland)

Men In Black 3 (2012)

Starring Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, Alice Eve and Emma Thompson.

Written by Etan Cohen

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

Will Smith returns after a decade to the role that cemented him as a mega-star, that of Agent J in Men In Black. Having come out a year after Independence Day, it was Men in Black with its fun and charming story of a brash young agent in training and the stoic and stubborn partner training him so he could retire, that started Smith onto a string of hits that would make him the most bankable star in Hollywood.  Well, its 15 years later and Smith’s J is still as wise cracking as ever and K is still not retired after being brought out of retirement in the dismal Men In Black 2. What antics will they get up to this time?

Men in Black 3 starts with one of the most unique jailbreak sequences I’ve ever seen. Boris the Animal (Clement) is in maximum security in the most clandestine and impenetrable prison imaginable, built specifically for him, because of Boris’ unique capabilities. After the jailbreak we discover that “K” (Jones) has a unique history with Boris; K was responsible for putting  Boris away and preventing a full scale invasion of earth from his people, a vicious alien race that has become extinct because of K’s actions. Boris tracks down the one man who can help him, the son of the man who invents the now banned Time Jump device, and goes back in time and kills K. With the universe split into a different reality because of this and J (Smith) apparently the only one who remembers that K is supposed to still be alive, the long delayed invasion begins.  The new director of MIB, “O” (Thompson), figures out what J is saying is true and sends him back in time to fix the damage before it can start all over again. Once J returns to 1969, he tracks the clues to a spree of killings that the Boris of 1969 commits and uses those to track him down. He of course bumps into the 1969 K (Brolin), and a 1969 O (Eve), and they set forth to find Boris and save the day.

Men in Black 3 is 4/5th’s of the fun time at the theater you are hoping for. Unfortunately it’s the last 5th of the movie that gets completely preposterous and runs the film right off the rails.  The chemistry that launched the series between Smith and Jones is still there and works, but the chemistry between Smith and Brolin as the young K may even be better. Smith and Jones deliver exactly what you think they will; they know these characters inside and out and don’t hit a sour note until the script lets them down at the end. Brolin has a lot of fun with his K – it’s one of the reason’s to watch the film. The main reason though has to be fantastic work here by Clement. The former Flight of the Concords member is nearly unrecognizable with all the prostheses his Boris has to wear, but he chews scenery left and right. His Boris is as strong a villain as the original film’s Edgar, and way better than the villain in MIB 2, and quite possibly just as creepy. Thompson and Eve both seen to be enjoying  the hell out of being in a MIB film, yet most of the jokes given to Thompson fall very flat.

The story behind the production is that they started shooting before they finished the script; this unfortunately becomes very obvious towards the end of the film. Men in Black 3 is a much better film than the 2nd entry in the series, but lags well behind the fun of the original. I give MIB 3 a very mild recommend, because the end just ruins it so much for me. The first 4/5th’s of the film would get a decent recommend without the final 5th.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto

Chernobyl Diaries Review (Kirk Haviland)

Chernobyl Diaries (2012)

Staring Devin Kelley, Jonathan Sadowski, Jesse McCartney, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Dimitri Diatchenko, Nathan Phillips and Ingrid Bloso Berdal.

Written by Oren Peli, Shane Van Dyke and Carey Van Dyke

Directed by Bradley Parker

Back in 2007 writer/director/producer Oren Peli scared up massive box office returns and multiple sequels with his creepy little found-footage epic Paranormal Activity. Chernobyl Diaries marks the first post-Paranormal project we get from Peli, though for his next directorial effort we’ll have to wait for Area 51, due later this year. The question remains, will Paranormal Activity be the launching of a new talent, or will Peli’s name go down with the likes of M. Night Shyamalan – the once promising now mocked director of the Sixth Sense.

Chernobyl Diaries starts with a found-footage style montage of Chris (McCartney), his girlfriend Natalie (Dudley), and their friend Amanda (Kelley) as they make their way across Europe, the next destination being Kiev to stay with Chris’ semi-reliable brother Paul (Sadowski). Upon arriving we learn Chris plans to pop the question to Natalie once they hit Moscow, a trip Paul has been tapped to plan out for the group because he lives in the country and has learned the language. After a drunken night out on the town and a near miss with a couple of Russian hooligans impressed with the girls, the group goes for breakfast, but Paul has not met them there as planned. Soon after Paul comes barreling in all excited and ready to lay his plan on the table. Sometime between the previous late night and breakfast (?), Paul has met Uri (Diatchenko), owner of Uri’s Extreme Tours. The two of them have arranged for the group to join a tour to Pripyat, the closest you can safely get to Chernobyl itself, and a town abandoned when the nuclear reactor melted down. Against Chris’ wishes to simply go straight to Moscow, Paul manages to convince the girls, luring shutterbug Amanda with the photo opportunities, to go on the tour and they head for Uri’s offices. The group meets Uri and two other travellers joining the tour, Micheal (Phillips) and Zoe (Berdal), a young couple who are very attached to each other. Uri takes the intrepid group to Pripyat and shows them around the abandoned city. When they return to the van they find it’s has been tampered with, and they are stuck after dark without help in Pripyat. That’s when they find out if they are truly alone out there.

Chernobyl Diaries, while having found-footage aspects included, is not a found-footage film. It’s something completely different than Peli’s previous outing, yet unlike Paranormal, it takes a familiar formula and seems content to just hit the same notes as its predecessors. The film does possess one fantastic sequence involving some unexpected local wildlife, but other than that most of this film is familiar territory. McCartney and Dudley are fine as the “practically married” couple, as Paul describes them – the voice of Theodore (McCartney) from Alvin and the Chipmunks (yes you read that right) puts in some unexpectedly decent work here. Kelley and Phillips also come off pretty well, yet my favorite performance of the film goes to Diatchenko as Uri. Uri can be menacing, dangerous, playful and harmless all in a matter of mere moments. It’s a fun performance. Unfortunately Berdal’s Zoe becomes grating with her having to take on the whiny girl persona for much of the film. And the real issue here is the awful performance of Sadowski, grating is not a strong enough word for the amount of detest I have for the performance and character. Never is there a moment where you side and with him and his smugness at the beginning of the film makes whatever emotional heft that he is supposed to deliver late ring with faker than a $20 Rolex.  He really took me out of the film in many parts.

Chernobyl Diaries is a passable piece of horror that doesn’t make any effort to further the genre; it just wants to exist in it. Hardly the worst film I’ve seen this year, but disturbingly content to simply paint by familiar numbers. Chernobyl is fun enough for a very mild recommend, but the only thing that has managed to stick with me a day later is Sadowski’s performance, and this is not a good thing. As for Peli, the verdict is still out, but if Area 51 turns out to be his “The Village” then M. Night will have some company.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto

ChickFlicking – Hysteria Review (Nadia Sandhu)

Hysteria (2011)

Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy and Jonathan Pryce

Directed by Tanya Wexler

Until the late nineteenth century hysteria was a medical catch-all for ailments particular to women and thought to be caused by disturbances of the uterus.

Indeed, hysteria is “a plague of our times”, insists Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) upon learning that his new mentee, Dr. Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) is not familiar with the ailment.  Apparently half the women in London are suffering from this mysterious disease as our story begins.

Director Tanya Wexler and screenwriters Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer deserve some real credit here.  They have woven together a light-hearted tale that manages to include love, social history, vibrators and women’s rights in this delightfully wicked Victorian sex comedy.

Yes, you read that right.  Imagine prim, proper Victorians and Jane Austen-esque dialogue as our good doctors administer the agreed upon treatment for hysteria- the “vulvular massage”,  intended to bring on an “hysterical paroxysm” and relieve the symptoms, returning the uterus to its proper place.

Dr. Granville becomes quiet adept at the procedure but he also comes down with a serious case of carpel tunnel as a result,  jeopardizing his career.  As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention and with a little help from his wealthy, technologically forward friend Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett), the vibrator is born.

If that wasn’t all, set against this backdrop of what amounts to medical masturbation, is an honest to goodness blossoming romantic attraction between Dr. Granville and his mentor’s wayward rebel of a daughter, Ms. Charlotte Dalrymple (played Maggie Gyllenhaal with a posh Kate Middleton inspired accent).

While the film itself is, pardon the pun, hysterical, the medical diagnosis and consequences of the same were no laughing matter and the film deftly handles weighty issues of sexuality and gender equality in a forthright and remarkably non-preachy manner.

A great film to kick off the summer movie season with.

Like Entertainment Maven on Facebook

INSIDE OUT 2012 (Toronto) – Bullhead (Rundskop) Review (Paolo Kagaoan)

INSIDE OUT 2012 (Toronto)

Bullhead (2011)

Directed by Michaël R. Roskam

Out of all the movies that were nominees or contenders from last year’s Best Foreign Picture Oscars, Michael R. Roskam’s Bullhead is my ‘holdout’. I use that word because there have been waves of those movies being released starting with TIFF and after that, the Oscar season. It never seemed to have gotten a proper release here in Toronto until a one-night engagement at this year’s Inside Out. And The Grid’s Jason Anderson called it ‘the second-weirdest contender for the Oscar for best foreign film in recent years,’ and calling a movie ‘weird’ is a sure fire way of getting my butt into a seat.

Unless he used the word to mean that it was undeserving of the nomination, or that I’m desensitized and difficult to shock, the movie isn’t weird at all. Sure there’s a lot of body transformation here, as we watch protagonist Jacky Vanmarsenille (Mattias Schoenaerts) transform within four different physical selves. He’s a stocky herder; his faded clothes making his facial features stick out to the rival farmers whom he’s intimidating. He also handles the finer side of his business or goes to nightclubs, the civilized, tightly tailored clothes restraining his rage. A naked muscle god who doesn’t shy from injecting testosterone into himself, the camera making his arms look shorter, making him look like one of the cows in his barn. Lastly he’s the skinny, curious kid in his pre-teens, the person he really is despite of his bulk and his anger. Those effects aren’t weird but nifty, the movie cautiously negotiating between his clashing self-hoods.

The movie is a series of complementary opposites. It’s dirty and tactile, using the rural setting as a starting point to make way for the soiled luxury cars, garages and barns where the characters lurk. It has that sleekness of recent Northern European cinema. I see this belonging with the likes of Black Swan, Drive, Shame, Pariah and Rampart, all these belonging with each other as they all, in their own way, face questions of body horror, sexual ambiguity and contemporary sexual repression, and the neon-lit aesthetic of the places where these characters escape. It also has the kind of pacing that isn’t for audiences who want their nudity and violence through meditative solitude. But I do understand the movie’s aims and I champion it for its sense of purpose.

Hailing from Limburg, within the Dutch half of Belgium, Jacky bellows his anxieties about his business and his dealings with illegal hormone dealers, especially with the murder of a police officer investigating the ‘hormone mafia,’ the mafia including some scary suited men and their comic-relief counterparts. What’s more, there’s a banshee-like middle-management female officer convinced that he’s behind the killing. She assigns Diederik, a quasi-closeted homosexual, to infiltrate his circle. Diederik is Jacky’s childhood best friend, their relationship ending when a Francophone bully named Bruno attacks Jacky in one of the most violent scenes ever depicted on film. And this isn’t a flashback movie without Jacky searching for his bully and his beautiful sister, the latter two having little recollection of who he is.

As much as this movie effectively mixes understated visuals and complex storytelling, it also showcases Schoenaerts’ kinetic performance, exposing his character’s courage and vulnerability. His international recognition has its beginnings here and can hopefully continue with the release of this year’s Cannes favourite, Rust and Bone. Bullhead will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 26.

Follow me on Twitter @paolocase

Like Entertainment Maven on Facebook

Little Terrors 9 – Altered Reality Review at the Projection Booth in Toronto (Kirk Haviland)

Little Terrors 9 – Altered Reality

May 12th 2012, Projection Booth, Toronto

For the ninth edition of Justin McConnell’s Little Terrors series, Justin had a much harder time getting the night of genre shorts to the screen. Justin had some issues with clearance and ratings from the Film Board that needed to be sorted out before they could continue along. Once all the issues had been settled and the announcements made I very happily made the familiar jaunt down to the Projection Booth for the programme, on a rare Saturday night this time out, but I was still able to meet up with and converse with all the regulars. Also, fellow blogger over at The Horror Section, Jay Clarke, was going to debut his short ‘Orange’ this evening as well. Supporting another blogger’s project was a another great reason to attend.

Justin managed to put together another great programme this evening. The standouts were the Ryan Levin penned, from Some Guy Who Kills People fame, T is for Tantrum, a hilariously demented tale of a boy losing his first tooth. Walter is a tale of a possibly deluded (or maybe not) young man who believes he is the 3rd son of god sent to earth, his job to decide the fate of everyone he meets. In Chambers is a brilliantly shot, atmospheric little mystery from Norway that features some great performances and one hell of an ending. Jay Clarke’s Orange is a fun little piece featuring real-life couple Jeff Sinasac (from previous Little Terrors short Skhiz) and Tonya Dodds as people who meet on a park bench, but is it a harmless encounter or something else? And the great Zomblies from the UK, where the UK has been divided Escape from New York style after a Zombie infestation and a military squadron sent behind the wall. Most of the squad believes they are there only to rescue another group who lost contact behind the wall, but others are on a secret mission as well. Featuring some great chase sequences and homages to films like The Great Escape, Zomblies was a great capper to the evening.

After the programme finished Justin informed us that he will be bringing back the short Familiar (from the Fright Nights Battle Royale presentation, review here) for the first selection of Little Terrors 10 next month. This is a great opportunity to see the incomparable Robert Nolan in action, so please do yourself a favor and don’t miss it. Little Terrors 10 is scheduled for June 19th, back to Tuesdays, for all information updates on the lineup make sure to follow the Little Terrors page on Facebook.

After the films a group of us headed out to the pub for a lively discussion on many topics including the night’s festivities. A good time was had by all, and I’m sure next month we will all have a great time again.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films and festivals in Toronto.

Follow me on twitter @moviejunkieto