Review: Atomic Blonde (UK Cert 15)

When an MI6 spy is murdered in Berlin and a list of active double agents stolen, fellow operative Lorraine Broughton must  retrieve it. Her contact in Berlin, David Percival, has gone native, enthralled to the sleazy, scuzzy side of the city. With days to go before the Berlin Wall comes down, it's a race against time to find the list and prevent it from falling into the hands of the Soviets. But there's a double agent- codenamed Satchel- who could throw a spanner in the works. 

Atomic Blonde is based on the graphic novel series The Coldest City by Antony Johnson and Sam Hart. Now, I went into the film knowing very little about it: I knew it had Charlize Theron in it, I knew it had a 1980s setting and... that was about it. 

It is true that, plot-wise, it's not the most original story- spy must retrieve (insert McGuffin here) but there's a double agent in the midst and so on. However, setting it in Berlin in the final days before the Wall came down is an inspired choice and there's an authentic feel to the fashion and the music to evoke the era. The film's style also marks it out; it's cool without trying to be cool and there's a gritty feel to the Berlin underground which I liked. 

Director David Leitch used to be a stuntman, so the fight scenes have been choreographed and shot really well. Whilst they are stylised, they're also absolutely brutal and, what's even better, is they show the combatants struggling to breathe and struggling to stand (as you would if you've had seven bells kicked out of you). They're not invincible super-soldiers; they're real flesh and blood people. There are several scenes of Lorraine sitting in an ice bath to help repair her battered body. 

Charfize Theron gives a truly kickass performance as Lorraine. Reminiscent in places of Angelina Jolie in Wanted, she owns every scene she's in. James McAvoy is great as Percival, a slippery and morally flexible guy who lives for the double-dealing and duplicity of the city. In some ways, Lorraine and Percival function as a rather dysfunctional buddy comedy- she the inexperienced newbie, he the grizzled old veteran- but that's just one side to a complex and complicated relationship.

There's able support from Toby Jones as Lorraine's MI6 superior who interviews her about Berlin; John Goodman shines as a CIA agent who has an interest in the case. Eddie Marsan is great as a former Stasi officer who wants to defect (and has memorised the list), plus there's nice turns by Bill Skarsgard as Lorraine's assistant Merkel, and Sofia Boutella as a seductive French agent. 

This has been a year of strong movie soundtracks and Atomic Blonde has one of the best I've heard this year: 'Blue Monday' by New Order, 'Cat People' by David Bowie, 'Father Figure' by George Michael, 'London Calling' by The Clash, 'Under Pressure' by Queen & David Bowie and '99 Luftballons' by Nena all play their part in creating the world of the film. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Atomic Blonde, and more so for the vast majority of the film being a surprise. Definitely worth watching. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (UK Cert 15)

Thirty years after Mel Gibson left the Thunderdome, Mad Max is back on screen, once again directed and written by franchise creator George Miller.

The apocalypse has hit. Max (Tom Hardy) is left in the wilderness and is captured by the War Boys, servants of the warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), and is used as a 'blood-bag' for the weaker War Boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Joe rules the wastelands, even controlling the water supply for his embattled subjects. Everything is based on trade and Joe sends a convoy of fuel out to another township. However, the convoy leader Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) has other ideas... with the War Boys in hot pursuit of Furiosa and her contraband cargo, Max is dragged into the chase.

What is essentially a two-hour car chase becomes something so much more thanks to some sumptuous visuals, some brilliant performances and a good dose of downright insanity. 

Furiosa is a brilliant character and played brilliantly by the ever-dependable Theron. She's not a damsel in distress (this is the kind of film where even the damsels in distress are not exactly your typical swooning female ciphers), she is the catalyst for the entire story and she certainly doesn't need Max to help her or save her. If anything, at the start, he's more of a hindrance. It's also refreshing that it doesn't lapse into a romantic relationship either. Furiosa is her own woman, from start to finish. The film has been accused of trying to sneak feminism in by the back door but, frankly, after the paper-thin insults that are the usual popcorn fodder idea of female characters (Michael Bay, I'm looking directly at you) I'm all for it. 

Hardy's performance as Max is decent enough, although his accent wanders something dreadful. Max is a solid, laconic figure, acted upon rather than acting. Hoult gives a great turn as War Boy Nux, desperate for Immortan Joe to notice him and praise him. He also forms a bond with one of Furiosa's associates that is oddly sweet. Keays-Byrne makes for a formidable enemy and it's not his first time at the rodeo- he played the villainouse Toecutter in the original Mad Max. 

The Namibian desert doubles for the apocalyptic wastelands of Australia and the visuals are just stunning. It's definitely worth seeing on the big screen (although not necessarily in 3D) as the desert vistas really have some scale from bleached white sunburnt sands to the cooler bluer shades of night. The convoy heading after Furiosa and her is immense and there's a really inspired (and crazy) decision to have a rig covered in drums with a guitarist- known as the Doof Warrior- to act as a kind of pace-keeper. Not only does it give rise to some of the best visuals in the entire film, it also adds a nice amount of diegetic music as the rig gets closer.

Whilst I enjoyed it a damn sight more than I expected to, I just wonder whether it needed to be a 'Mad Max' film. Max is such a peripheral character, almost a supporting character in his own film. It could have been any dystopic post-apocalyptic setting, put in a generic action hero in place of Max, retained the War Boys and the kick-ass Furiosa and had the same effect. Hell, it could have just been called 'George Miller's Fury Road'.

Despite this, it's a decent slice of entertainment with enough to satisfy the petrolheads as well as those in search of something a bit more substantial.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Review: A Million Ways to Die in the West (UK Cert: 15)

The difficult second album. Both critics and the public adore you, you’ve made a small fortune, then The Powers That Be want the same again. For every The Bends, Nevermind or Morning Glory there’s Second Coming (The Stone Roses), Room on Fire (The Strokes) and Neither Fish nor Flesh (Terence Trent D’Arby). The same thing has happened to Seth MacFarlane. Cashing in on the hype around Ted, MacFarlane follows up 2012’s ginormous hit with A Million Ways to Die in the West, MacFarlane now writer, star, and director. The bad news first:  Laugh-wise, A Million Ways to Die in the West doesn’t get close to the heady heights of Ted or even an average episode of Family Guy. On the plus side, it’s still a lot of fun.

The cast does a solid job. Seth MacFarlane has had plenty of criticism fired his way, which is unfair. While you can’t imagine MacFarlane playing Hamlet, he can deliver a deadpan one-liner and is an expert in comic timing, which is all you could want in a gross-out comedy. Charlize Theron is the star of the show here, making comedy look easy. Whilst watching MacFarlane’s latest, you forget this is the same actress who made her name hidden under heaps of make-up, playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster. Liam Neeson looks like he’s having a great time playing snarling gunman Clinch; he’s the straight guy to MacFarlane and Theron’s pranksters. How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris is scene-chewingly over-the-top as moustachioed toff, Foy, getting many of the film’s big laughs. Giovanni Ribisi and Sarah Silverman play a Christian couple who refuse to have sex until their wedding night; Silverman is a prostitute who, on a quiet day, will sleep with a dozen men. They’re the same joke repeated over-and-over, but their scenes are always funny.

While A Million Ways to die will have you chuckling throughout, there are very few roar with laughter moments. The moustache song, one of the best cameos in recent years, and MacFarlane going out of his mind on drugs are the only times where you’ll end up red-faced from laughing. There are no scene-after-scene, cry with laughter gags here. Unlike Ted, with its Patrick Stewart narration, Wahlberg reeling off white trash names, or Ted having a house party full of hookers, you’ll be sniggering like a kid at the back of the classroom for most of A Million Ways to Die’s two hours, but that’s about it.

A Million Ways to Die in the West is a decent enough comedy (there are far worse out there gathering dust on the shelves of CEX), and nowhere near as bad as the savage reviews suggest. The thing is, if someone who had never seen Family Guy or Ted gave A Million Ways to Die a go, they would struggle to work out what all the fuss is about with Seth MacFarlane.

3 out of 5

Matt

Programme 16 - Snow White And The Huntsman, Prometheus and Jaws

Programme 16 is now available (click here to view at VideoMajic.tv)!


We take a look at fairy-tale fantasy Snow White And The Huntsman, Tez finally gives his opinion on Prometheus and Rhys casts his eye over the re-issue of original summer blockbuster Jaws.


Podcast versions are here and here - podcast subscribers can also get not one, but two, exclusive chats - Rhys' review done straight after a midnight showing of Prometheus and an extended, geeky spoiler-y chat where we both discuss Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi.


Enjoy!

Review: Young Adult (UK cert 15)

Juno is a real Marmite film: you either love it or hate it. I think it’s going to be a similar case with Young Adult. Writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman re-team to tell a tale of a divorced writer of young adult fiction (Charlize Theron) who comes back to her home town in Minnesota with the express intention of winning back her old high-school flame, Buddy (Patrick Wilson). Only problem is, Buddy is happily married and his wife has just had a baby… but that’s not going to stop Mavis.

There’s no two ways about it: Mavis Gary is a total bitch. An arrested adolescent pouting and flouncing her way through life, with a self-absorbed and utterly selfish world view which (quite frankly) borders on the sociopathic at times. Despite a last-ditch attempt to soften the jagged edges with a big reveal of some painful secrets, Mavis remains fundamentally unlikeable throughout. So it’s kudos to Charlize Theron who takes the role of Mavis with both hands and inhabits it fully. It is the script that decides to humanise Mavis, not Theron. Lesser actors may try and find a way to mitigate or tone down Mavis’ utterly demented scheming. But not Theron. It’s a performance full of bile and fire and one of the most impressive I’ve seen on film so far this year.

Also great is Patton Oswalt (probably best known for voicing Remy the rat in Ratatouille) as a crippled former classmate of Mavis. A self-confessed ‘fat geek’ who was attacked by a bunch of jocks in high school and left with shattered legs (all for being gay, which he isn’t), he bizarrely ends up as confidante and moral compass for Mavis. It’s a wonderfully observed turn and he and Theron work well together. Patrick Wilson is a little bland but nonetheless likeable as the object of Mavis’ affection and delivers a devastating put-down towards the end during the big showdown scene.  Elizabeth Reaser is similarly good as Buddy’s wife Beth.

I had several issues with Juno, mostly surrounding the script. I felt it was trying very hard to be ‘cool’ and ‘quirky’ which ended up being incredibly grating after a while. So it’s good to see that the catchphrasy nature of Juno isn’t present in Young Adult. It’s a much more mature script by Diablo Cody (ironic, considering Mavis arguably acts more like a teenager than Juno McGuff did) and it’s nice to see the excesses toned down.

The humour is a little dark in places and Mavis’ truly selfish behaviour may not appeal to everyone, but there are stellar turns from Theron and Oswalt and a rocking soundtrack (from Teenage Fanclub and 4 Non Blondes amongst others). 

Rating: 3 out of 5


Tez