SAVAGES

THE SAVAGES is a day-glo bright, tawdry, energetic mess. Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch play unlikely friends and wholesale drug manufacturers - the former an earnest hippie who has perfected killer strength drugs, the latter a war vet who cares more about money and getting the job done. The two share a ditzy blonde chick played by Blake Lively. The plot, such as it is, sees the trio under threat from a Mexican drug cartel (Salma Hayek and enforcer Benicio del Toro) and entrapped by a corrupt narc (John Travolta).

The lurid colours and kinetic force of the film are attractive but are not enough to compensate for the alienating characters.  Ultimately, it's hard to care about the fate of Lively's character in the movie's more serious second act, when her persecutor is playing a drug baroness a la Cruella deVil. Moreover, the satisfyingly tricksy plot is ultimately undone by an entirely fatuous epilogue. 

SAVAGES opened earlier this year in Canada, the USA, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Portugal. It opens this week in Argentina, New Zealand, Russia and Vietnam. It opens on September 20th in Singapore, Ireland and the UK and on September 26th in France, Chile, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland, Poland and Spain. It opens on October 3rd in Belgium, Hungary, Brazil and Lithuania. It opens on October 12th in Denmark, Germany, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It opens on October 18th in Australia and on October 25th in Greece and Italy.

Random DVD Round-Up 1 - FROM PARIS WITH LOVE

To my mind, the greatest tragedy of the Bush presidency was that the image America projected of itself was a crude caricature of all that was great in the idea of America. A country founded on lofty principles had descended into populist, xenophobic, knee-jerk foreign policy, and with figures like Sarah Palin and media outlets such as Fox News, was portraying itself as a country that gloried in its own ignorance - where a stubborn refusal to see the complexity of an issue was lauded as homespun wisdom.

The problem with playing with such caricatures (as I am sure many of the more savvy in Washington were consciously doing) is that others may take you at face value. And for every American who thinks of the French as cheese-eating surrender monkeys, and the average Pakistani as a terrorist-harbouring rag-head, there's a Frenchman and a Pakistani who believes that Americans are basically coming straight out of TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE with a cultural chauvinism and gun-totin' agenda that is as abhorrent as it is (I hope) mistaken.

If cinema reflects the times in which we live, FROM PARIS WITH LOVE is, then, a fascinating cultural artefact. A movie financed by a US studio, starring a major US movie star, in which a US secret agent comes to Paris to chase down a Pakistani terrorist cell that is pushing coke to launder money. (Presumably they have never heard of Liechtenstein). The French are impotent, bereaucratic fools; the Chinese are drug-dealers; the Pakistanis are terrorists; and the brave heroic Yanks are there to save the day, with their Jack-Bauer-inspired brand of summary justice. In a scene that could come from a Glenn Beck wet-dream, at the end of the film, the Ivy-League-educated protagonist, James Reece, overcomes his squeamishness about killing people to join up with his buddy Charlie Wax in a campaign of killing "bad guys".

And so, ladies and gentlemen, we have stepped through the looking glass. A Frenchman, Luc Besson, is peddling back to American mainstream cinema a vision of American chauvinism. I can't decide whether this is particularly insidious or just brilliant business.

The basic mechanics of the movie are the same as in most other Luc Besson-penned movies. As in TAKEN, a hard-ass American (John Travolta) comes to Paris to kick some Muslim terrorist ass. As in the TRANSPORTER movies, there will be a lot of driving really really fast through busy streets and some loud explosions. There will also be a lot of swearing and the occasional line that's trying to be as iconic as Arnie in TERMINATOR. (Is there any reason for John Travolta's character to be called Charlie Wax except to allow a lame KARATE KID joke? And for that matter, did they only cast John Travolta so that they could reference a Royale with Cheese?)

Still, for all that, I can't deny that FROM PARIS WITH LOVE zipped along at a pace, and wasn't as painfully shit as Besson's ANGEL-A. The stunts are fine; the car chases through the streets of Paris exhilarating; and John Travolta chews up the scenery. I even liked Jonathan Rhys Meyers as his square side-kick, Reece. In the one scene where Meyers gets to act - when he sees himself in a mirror covered in blood and his to react to his new life - he actually looks pretty convincing. The key point is that this movie is firmly in the B-grade of action flicks. It's treading well-worn ground and dripping in faintly offensive cliché. That they're being peddled by a Frenchman is about the most interesting thing about the whole enterprise.

FROM PARIS WITH LOVE was released in Spring 2010 and is available on DVD and on iTunes.

Additional tags: Frederic Thoraval, David Buckley, Richard Durden, Kasia Smutniak

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (2009) - full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

For all its hi-fi sets, frenetic chase scenes, shouted ultimatums and heavyweight cast, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 is a movie that fails to engage. It's like the TRANSFORMERS 2 of heist movies - so full of high-voltage action shots that plot, character and audience empathy are flushed down the toilet. Are we surprised? After all, the movie has been remade by the ultimate Lads Mag Director, Tony Scott, of TOP GUN fame and DOMINO and DEJA VU mediocrity. But maybe I am a bit surprised to find that this utterly predictable movie was written by the man who wrote LA CONFIDENTIAL. Essentially, the movie is about a psychopath (John Travolta chewing up the scenery) who boards a New York metro train, takes the passengers hostage and demands a bunch of money. He forms a weird relationship with a rail dispatcher with a shady past (Denzel Washington), and spurns the attentions of the cops (John Turturro) and the Mayor (James Gandolfini). The movie could've been so much better - a fracked up psychological cat-and-mouse game between hostage-taker and dispatcher - a discourse on the corruption of politicians and the police. On a technical level, it should've evoked the claustrophobia of the hijacked metro-cab and the wider menace of The City. In the end, it's all just a convenient hook to hang a chase scene on. Weak, weak, weak. Go watch INSIDE MAN instead.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 is on release in the USA, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Singapore, South Korea, UAE, Canada, the Philippines, Taiwan and Argentina. It opens in the final week of July in the UK, Greece, Malaysia, Austria, Spain, Belgium, France, Morocco, Switzerland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Finland and Lithuania. It opens on August 6th in Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Romania. It opens on August 13th in the Czech Republic. It opens on September 4th in Slovakia, Brazil, Japan and Mexico. It opens on September 11th in Bulgaria; on September 17th in Cyprus, Portugal and Italy.

BOLT 3D - old school

BOLT is a 3D CGI animated adventure for kids, produced by the Disney Animation Studio newly under the direction of John Lasseter of Pixar fame. Lasseter is the director behind TOY STORY and CARS and he's clearly the big brand name in the marketing of this film, rather than debutant directors Byron Howard and Chris Williams.

The first thing to say is that while Disney has bought Pixar, the animation departments are separate. And while Lasseter claims to have fired the execs and put the control back in the hands of the creative guys, BOLT feels like a conservative and conventional Disney movie compared to Pixar classics like WALL-E and RATATOUILLE. Yes, BOLT follows the Lasseter code in having comedy driven by character and situation rather than pop-cultural references, Dreamworks style. But for all that, it seems a rather mediocre, though still enjoyable, effort. As for the 3D, Lasseter is not one of those guys who designs a film specifically to give opportunities for stuff to fly out of the screen at the audience, as in JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH or MONSTER HOUSE. Rather, he thinks the point of 3D is to immerse the audience in the experience. Maybe, Lasseter's right - maybe that's how 3D should best be used. But for all that, I couldn't help but be disappointed at how unshowy the use of 3D was in BOLT.

Anyways, as I said, BOLT is harmless if unmemorable fun. John Travolta voices a cute dog called Bolt who stars in a prime time TV show that's a little like Inspector Gadget. Every week he saves the life of his friend Penny (Miley Cyrus) and defeats the evil Dr Calico (Malcolm McDowell). Bolt really thinks he has superpowers because the TV producers keep him in isolation between shows to get "real" performances, TRUMAN stylee. But when Bolt thinks Penny's been kidnapped and escapes to find her, he realises that in the real world he's just another dog. It's up to his new found friends Mittens (Susie Essman) and Rhino (Mark Walton), to show him that he can be a hero regardless.

Earnest moralising aside, BOLT is a good laugh. Mark Walton steals the show as the TV obsessed hamster Rhino, but I also loved James Lipton's cameo as The Director. The downside is that the movie has been hijacked as a vehicle for Miley Cyrus. Moreover, it doesn't have the audacity of WALL-E or the visual richness of RATATOUILLE. To that extent, it's a bit of a disappointment.

BOLT 3D was released in 2008 in the US, Canada, the Philippines, Russia, Italy, Poland, Indonesia, Singapore, Israel, Spain, Venezuela, Portugal, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Mexico, Taiwan, Chile, Peru, Iceland, Turkey, China and South Korea. It is currently on release in Australia, Brazil, Egypt and Croatia. It opens on January 22nd in Argentina, Germany and Hong Kong. It opens on January 29th in Hungary and Estonia and on February 6th in France, Greece, Sweden and the UK. It opens on February 12th in Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland. It opens on February 19th in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and in Japan on August 1st.

LONELY HEARTS - everything THE BLACK DAHLIA should've been

LONELY HEARTS is a beautifully put together, well-cast, engaging crime thriller based on gruesome crimes that took place in 1940s America. In fact, it’s everything the fiasco that was THE BLACK DAHLIA should have been.

Jared Leto plays real-life con-man, Ray Fernandez, who charms lonely divorcees and women out of their money. He’s mean but not menacing. He hooks up with Salma Hayek’s psychotic nymphomaniac, Martha Beck, whose jealous temper leads them into a truly twisted relationship. She murders one of their marks in a fit of pique and goads him into other murders. It’s a convincing and petrifying psychological portrait: Leto and Hayek really sell the notion that they are two “crazy lovebirds” – in fact, this may be Hayek’s career-defining performance, second only to her role as Frida Kahlo. The second plot strand sees John Travolta and James Gandolfini play the rozzers on the killers’ tail. Travolta gives a rare and appropriately introverted performance as a man whose conscientiousness a cop drove his wife to suicide. Gandolfini, however, does not move beyond his wise guy persona, and Laura Dern, as Travolta’s new lover, has too little to do. Scott Caan, however, has a nice smaller role. Performances aside, the movie looks fantastic – with all the costumes, locations and incidental details adding to the authenticity. I also love the matter-of-factness of the violence. The opening credits are a case in point. Absolutely class. All in all, despite, the limited release and under-the-radar marketing, LONELY HEARTS is definitely worth checking out.

LONELY HEARTS went on release in the US, Taiwan, Denmark, Finland, Israel and Norway in 2006 and in the Netherlands, Serbia & Montenegro, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Greece, France, Spain and Egypt earlier this year. It is currently on release in Mexico and the UK and opens in Argentina on October 4th. It is also available on Region 1 DVD.

HAIRSPRAY (2006) - so much fun!

HAIRSPRAY is about as much fun as you're going to have at the cinema this summer - joint-equal with DIE HARD 4.0. This movie-musical adaptation of the cult-classic John Waters flick had me laughing, crying, tapping my feet and bursting with energy. It's a movie so chock-full of energy, good-feelings and right-thinking I just don't know how anyone can object to it. And all the negatives I can think of, aren't really negatives at all - rather, the fact that film-makers didn't have time to do more!

John Waters is famous a trash film-maker - as the man who filmed obese drag-queen Divine eating dog-shit. And HAIRSPRAY also revels in human detritus, with it's close-ups of rain-streaked Baltimore suburbia, rats running among the garbage bags, and Waters himself taking a cameo as the friendly neighbourhood flasher. Water's philosophy has never been a Candide-like delusion about how grim life really is. Rather, he wants us to embrace the shittiness of life and our strange differences. Come through smiling - come through fabulous! This is why I've always found Waters' films perversely uplifting. After all, his misfits - gays, ethnic minorities, over-weight people, cinephiles - have always triumphed over the uptight world that tried to hold them down. His message has always been that differences are beautiful. Or to quote the demonstraters in the original HAIRSPRAY - "Segregation never: integration now!"

Adam Shankman's new adaptation of the musical based on Water's original film is true to the spirit of the original. It opens with obese but perky teenager Tracy Turnblad waking up in shitty 1960s Baltimore. It's an era of racial segregation and WASP conformity. She sings and dances her way to school happy in her own physical appearance and determined to become a dancer on the wildly popular Corny Collins TV show. The opening number sets the pace for the rest of the film. The lyrics are witty, the tunes are catchy and lead actress, Nikki Blonsky, is captivating. The rest of the musical sees her over-come a string of prejudices. She helps her mother regain her confidence; helps her best-friend escape from her prejudiced mother and date a coloured boy; and successfully integrates the Corny Collins Show. Oh yes, and she wins the heart of the dream-boat boyfriend of the Waspy blonde.

There's nothing not to like in-front of or behind the camera. The costume design is cracking - especially regarding Michelle Pfeiffer's shiny, spiky outfits. She's like a Size Zero, frosted version of Dolores Umbridge. All the actors and absolutely superb, including a surprisingly moving performance by John Travolta behind the latex as Edna. Perhaps most surprising on the up-side - purely because I haven't seen him in much - is James Marsden proving his gift for comedy as Corny Collins. Most disappointing was the lack of screen-time for Amanda Bynes and the lack of song and dance time for the genius that is Christopher Walken. But absolutely everyone is upstaged by a tiny cameo from Alison Janney as Penny Pingleton's religious zealot mother. Definitely the funniest role in the film. And if you want pure gut-wrenching emotion, check out Queen Latifah's anti-racism anthem, which Shankman is sensitive enough to shoot in a relatively straightforward style.

HAIRSPRAY is on release in the UK and US. It opens in Israel next week. It opens in Argentina, Italy, Russia, Denmark, France, Singapore, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands in August and in Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia, Iceland, Spain and Brazil in September. It opens in Japan and Turkey in late October.

WILD HOGS isn't well-judged but it is funny

WILD HOGS is an alpha-gamma Big Studio Comedy. The plot is ropey, the character development non-existent, the jokes occasionally homophobic, and the Kyle Gass cameo redundant. In fact, it's everything you expect from the Hollywood production line. But I can't deny that when it works it really works, and as Doctor007 and I had at least a dozen laugh-out loud-moments, I have to give it a qualified thumbs-up.

D'apres CITY SLICKERS, the basic premise is that four middle-aged guys (William H Macy, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen) get off the suburban treadmill and take a road-trip on their motorcycles to rediscover their youth. The early comedy successfully spoofs the Born-to-be-wild myth of easy riders, but John C McGinley of SCRUBS fame is saddled with an uncomfortably homophobic cameo that sours the mood. Pretty soon though, the movie is back on track. The WILD HOGS manage to piss off some hard-core bikers. (Hard-core, within the context of a Disney movie, mind you.) The denoument sees them in a stand-off, defending a bunch of innocent townsfolk, A-team stylee.

There's nothing big or clever here. For the most part, the humour consists in guys slapping cattle, getting hit in the crotch with baseballs and William H Macy in a Snoopy-as-the-Red-Baron helmet. But after a seriously hard day crunching numbers, this was exactly what the Doctor ordered. Plus, the script was surprisingly witty - surprising that is, until I realised that it was penned by the guy behind ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and MY NAME IS EARL - two shows I love. The Brucey Bonus is a neat spoof of EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION at the end.

So, WILD HOGS may not be clever or even consistently well-judged, but it is a bunch of fun, and while I entered the cinema stressed-out and pre-occupied I left with a smile on my face.

WILD HOGS is on release in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Russia. It opens in Estonia and Iceland this weekend and in Belgium, Argentina, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Spain and the UK on April 13th. It opens in the Philippines, Austria, Germay, Hungary, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Italy, Latvia and Sweden on April 20th. It opens in Turkey on April 27th and in France on June 13th.