MOVIE REVIEW - The November Man (2014)

 

One glance at Pierce Brosnan, you can tell the man was born to play James Bond. The actor was handsome, tough and extremely smooth. He also had something very few people in the industry have - screen presence. No other actor would look as cool as Pierce Brosnan when he entered that Hong Kong hotel in Die Another Day, unshaven and wearing an unbutton medical gown. Unfortunately a good actor is always at the mercy of the script and his James Bond films range from average to downright atrocious. It's always sad to watch his movies as I often wonder what could have been. What if Pierce Brosnan was actually given a good script and chance to actually use his acting chops?

The November Man can be viewed as a movie that comes from an alternative timeline where Pierce Brosnan got a serious, gritty James Bond film like the ones given to his predecessor Daniel Craig. It's hard not to draw parallels with James Bond, after all the film has a former James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and a former Bond girl (Olga Kurylenko) occupying the lead roles. Although I struggle to call this a James Bond clone since there's no gadgets and Pierce doesn't have sex with Olga. Also the tone is much darker than any Bond flick with plenty of blood and f-bombs to justify it's restricted rating.

 

The plot itself centres around an ex-CIA agent Peter Devereaux (Brosnan) being brought out of retirement to extract a witness with information on the war crimes of a Russian politic. Speaking any further about the plot would give away too much since this spy film has an emphasis on story over action.

There's been a lot of criticism directed towards The November Man over it's messy plot with some finding it difficult to follow. I disagree since the movie has no glaring plot holes and eventually presents a resolution before it's conclusion. Initially the film is very sparse with details and I found myself as confused as everyone else. But the more you watch the film, the more it reveals to the audience. This is a movie that rewards the viewer for paying attention and putting the pieces together. It's really refreshing to watch a movie with a non-linear approach to story telling and a spy film that's actually about spies. We don't even learn why Peter is called The November Man until the end of the film. Although it's never explained why Home And Away's Luke Bracey has lost his Australian accent and speaks like an American. He he he.

Personally, the real highlight of the film is Pierce Brosnan. We finally get to see a whole range of emotions from Pierce Brosnan and the rage, oh the rage on his face when he gets angry. Brosnan's character is the polar opposite of his James Bond. Dark, ruthless, he's the definition of a killer and a spy. The rest of the cast provide a solid performance, however the film's cheesy action pieces do feel out of place in this gritty film. But they still provide some "oh snap" moments, especially when Pierce grabs a beer keg with one hand and hits an assassin off his bike.

The November Man's dark tone and non-liner story telling is the breath of fresh air the spy genre needed. If you have become tired of James Bond or Jason Bourne, I will gladly steer you towards this film.

RATING - 4/5

MOVIE REVIEW - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

To be honest I was not expecting to enjoy Fury Road as much as I did, not because I don't like the old films, far from it. I'm a huge fan of the franchise and Mad Max 2 (or The Road Warrior as it's known in the America land) is one my favourite films of all time, heck I didn't even mind the black sheep, Beyond Thunderdome. I just expected Fury Road to follow the Mad Max template and trigger some nostalgia that left a smile on my face. It achieved this but gave me a few things I didn't expect, plot, story, characters and strong females. The latter is somehow bad according to a Men''s Rights Activist, which is a group that exists if you can believe it or not.

Mad Max Fury Road is a reboot and not a direct sequel to the old trilogy. So new comers can jump into this film without worrying about the lore, although it helps to understand that Max is a loner and is basically an empty shell of his former self. Which I guess can also describe Mel Gibson, who has handed the keys to the V8 Interceptor over to British actor, Tom Hardy who does an outstanding job of playing Max with more anger and brutality than Mel's performance in all three of his films combined. The rest of cast does an excellent job of portraying their crazy, insane persona that characterise this lawless world . Although some of the characters and their American accents (especially Theron's fake one) sticks out like a saw thumb amongst the mostly Australian cast.

Bearing in mind, the star of the film really isn't Tom Hardy or Max, it's actually Charlize Theron and five wives that Max must save from the clutches of the evil Immortal Joe (which, believe it or not is played by the same guy who portrayed Toecutter in the original 1979 film). According to some people this means George Miller was bullied by feminists to push their agenda by making a film that empowered women and have all the villains played by men. I disagree with this assumption, since this is still technically a bloke's films. Car chases, guns, explosions, heavy metal and by the end of the day, the women are still rescued by a man, Max of course. Heck this film is basically an anime harem and every man's dream, I mean most of the film is Max with six beautiful women. You still think this is a film for feminists and women? Heck it actually turns me on to see a middle age women whacking dudes with a gun like it's a baseball bat.

Now that we have established it's a bloke's film, let's continue the review. As I mentioned before I didn't expect the film to have decent charactersation, to make me feel when a character died or was suffering. Although like the old films, dialogue and plot is still kept to a minimum with the action taking centre stage and boy, what a ride it was. Just imagine the final tanker chase in Max Max 2 but now times hundred. Someone at University described the film as exhausting, not because it's boring but how much goes on, it's like a constant sugar rush that leaves you all jumpy and stuff. This film must have been a continuity nightmare with so much going on, even my brain had difficulty processing everything that was happening on screen. This is the most visually interesting film I have ever seen and can't praise the action enough.

It seems every scene has something that draws your attention, like the musician pictured above with a guitar that actually spurts out real flames with no CG trickery. This is the film's greatest accomplishment with 90% of the effects being real or practical. It makes the over the top action more organic and engaging to watch than other films that rely on computers to animate the stunts. The film's sound mix takes full advantage of all eleven channels with each explosion and gunshot filling the drums of both ears.

Mad Max Fury Road is definitely the biggest surprise of 2015. Not only did the film exceed my expectations but is a strong contender for the best film of 2015. Very few action movies achieve the same level of pacing as Fury Road while maintaining strong characterisation and I can not wait to watch it again when it comes out on Blu-Ray later this year.

RATING - 5/5

MOVIE REVIEW - Kung Fury (2015)

Film buffs tend to celebrate the 1980s as the golden era of action films and without hesitation I agree with that logic. No other era will ever have the same one liners, massive explosions or upbeat soundtracks that defined the 80s. David Sandberg, the director, writer and star of Kung Fury has captured all of these characteristics in one of the most entertaining films I've watched in years.

Kung Fury is a 31 minute short film available for free viewing on Youtube right now. Almost the entire film was shot with the actors in front of a green screen with the bulk of the film's $600,000 crowdfunding budget going towards creating digital backgrounds and special effects. At first it can be a bit jarring to look at the flat scenary but you eventually adjust to it and no doubt compliments the film's B-grade look.

  
The movie borrows a lot from 1980s culture and films, although the basic plot mirrors the 1994 film, Time Cop with the Kung Fury's titaluar character, a police office who time travels back to World War 2 Germany to fight Adolf Hilter, who apparently was Kung Fu master dubbed "Kung Führer". This is a film that gives the middle finger to logic, physics and just does what ever feels like. Never was there a moment I didn't smile and laugh at the film's ridiculous action. I would love to mention all my favourite scenes and one-liners but this would only spoil half the fun. Alongside Mad Max Fury Road, this one of the most visually interesting films of 2015.

There's also an amazing attention to detail when it comes to film's props and overall look. Power gloves, chunky computers and big phones will trigger feelings of nostalgia for anyone over the age of 40. You might be looking at the screenshots and think I screwed up the compression, but it's actually what the films look like. They have intentionally given the film a soft focus, dis-coloured look to mimic the experience of watching the film on VHS. Some may argue it's distracting and makes the film look ugly, but to be honest I love it and reminded me of the years I spent watching films on VHS back in the 90s.

The film's mixture of rock and pop with lots of synthesisers matches the 1980s look with David Hasslehoff's final song, True Survivor being the highlight of the entire sountrack.

Kung Fury is an amazing homage to the 1980s. Amazing music, memorable action and funny dialogue puts the film among the classics that defines the era that inspired this film. I honestly can't remember the last time I had this much fun watching a film and you owe it to yourself to watch it. Seriously, why are you still reading this review? You should be watching it right now on Youtube, why are you hesitating? Stop reading, watch it now!!

RATING - 5/5

MOVIE REVIEW - Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014)

 

The Roache-Turner brothers have definitely endured a tough road to complete their debut film, Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead. The film’s production stretches four years, hitting a brick wall when the brothers ran out of money but was kept alive by government funding and a small amount of cash raised through crowdfunding. Unfortunately the film’s limited cinema didn’t gross enough to make back its small $1 million budget with most people choosing to pirate the film and quickly earned the dubious honour of being the most pirated Australian film. This resulted in a very vocal statement from the director urging people to buy the film to help support the filmmakers with the tagline “You Watch. You Buy. We Eat”. If Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner are reading this review, they will be pleased to know I paid for my Blu-Ray copy of Wyrmwood. I also enjoyed it.

So what is Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead? Well as the director himself said, the film is a mixture of Mad Max and Dawn of the Dead. The zombies definitely mirror the likes we saw in Romero’s epic and some of the costumes wouldn’t be out of place in the wastelands of Mad Max. This is the film’s biggest problem since it does little to forge it’s own identity and borrows too many ideas from other’s people work (the steel blade Boomerang from Mad Max 2). Aside from the Australian accents and slang, there is little here to differentiate itself from the horde of zombie films that overcrowd the market.

 

However I’m not suggesting the film is bad, no the film does exactly what it says on the box. It promised me 98 minutes of low-budget, over the top, B-grade zombie goodness and that's exactly what I got.

The movie’s protagonist Barry finds himself in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and on a mission to rescue his kidnapped sister from a crazed scientist. Who is no doubt the highlight of the film for being absolutely mental. We need more crazy villains like this in movies.

The film’s low budget gives it a cheesy vibe that will have you laughing at the over the top violence with splashes of tomato sauce and the so-so obvious dummies being hit by cars. The film has no shortage of blood with almost everything being painted in a new shade of red. Cars, computers, people, walls, nothing is safe from the splash back of all this mayhem that earned it an MA15+ rating. Oh, did I mention there’s a scene with a guy dressed as Ned Kelly killing zombies and a car powered by zombie breathe instead of petrol? The film is full of bizarre shenanigans like this and all you can do is laugh at it. Although some of the shaky camera work can be a bit distracting at times.

 

Overall, Wyrmwood is an unoriginal, zombie film that doesn’t try to break the mould. It just wants you to have some fun and will appeal to people who love B-grade films with a touch of Australian flavour. Just don't forget to switch off your brain before pressing that play button.

RATING - 3/5