The Inbetweeners Movie (2011)

WARNING

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS THEN DON'T READ THE BITS WRITTEN IN RED.

OTHER THAN THIS BIT, OBVIOUSLY.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

I was hooked on the Inbetweeners television series from the start. I tuned into the first episode back in 2008 expecting very little. The early TV trailers made it look like a forced, low brow comedy made to cater to E4's 'trendy youth' target audience. Thankfully I was wrong. It only took the show four minutes for force a laugh from my begrudging innards, the use of the term briefcase wanker granting me access to a slew of non stop seemingly juvenile but actually quite clever comedic one liners that would become a staple of the show during it's three season run.

The Inbetweeners never really had a bad episode, sure there are some that are funnier than others but Damon Beesley and Iain Morris's writing was so spot on for the show that it never felt like a chore to sit through. It's one of the UK's best produced comedy shows of the 2000's and deserves every bit of high praise that it receives.

That being said the story wrapped up very well at the end of the third and final season so when it came to the run up for The Inbetweeners Movie, I wasn't quite sure if it would pay off. Remembering how tragically bad Kevin And Perry Go Large was and considering how close this films plot and background was to that film I went in expecting the worst. Luckily, The Inbetweeners proved me wrong a second time.

The story is simple. Will, Simon, Jay and Neil all go on holiday to Malia, Crete in order to escape the mundanity and depressing nature of their sad pathetic little lives. Their aim, in true teen comedy fashion is to party hard, get shitfaced and have as much sex as humanly possible. Obviously, their plan is doomed from the start and one bad turn begets another, providing much amusement.

As I said, the story has been done before to varying degrees of success. On the whole the story works quite well, the genre has been well explored in the past but it doesn't feel stale here. For the films entire ninety minute running time, The Inbetweeners Movie is fun and energetic with plenty of comedy set pieces to keep the audience entertained. With that being said the plot is extremely generic and forces the film to stop dead every time it begins to pick up speed in order to further itself and the characters development. The reason for this happening is that this is a film and not a TV show and it's this factoid that winds up doing the most damage to the film.

Part of what made the TV show so fun was it's pacing and timing. The humour in The Inbetweeners show was predominantly dialogue driven with plots that lead to a climactic scene designed to cause the characters a major embarrassment. This was usually pulled off trough the shows expert writing and a brisk delivery style crafted by the actors, directors and editors. The problem with doing a motion picture is that this style will not translate. You can't keep adding layer upon layer of jokes in a lead up to a spectacular climactic moment for a full 90 minutes without the film becoming exhausting or losing steam. So in order to remedy this, writers Morris and Beesley have created a script that works like a collection of three back to back episodes with a forced generic plot that strings the entire thing together. Now I can't stress enough that the problem this film has isn't the writers fault, its the fault of how cinema works. I honestly feel that they did the best job they could have done, given the circumstances. That's not to say that they couldn't have embellished a little more in some of the shows stronger aspects in order to downplay the restrictions brought upon by the rules of cinema.

My favourite aspect of the TV show was the adults. The parents, Mr Gilbert and any other adult characters that inhabited the world of the four leads often had a major part to play in many of the shows best moments. It's their reactions to what the boys get up to and their inherent childishness that made them the perfect foils to the boys adventures. The film however, barely feature the adults, only showcasing their talents during the films opening scenes. The reason this was done, no doubt, was to allow the boys to go and adventure on their own, but personally, I think this was a mistake. If it were me, I'd have written the script so that the parents followed the boys to their holiday destination in order to check on how they were doing and what they got up to. It would have been played out in the background of the story in a way that made the boys unaware of their presence and would've allowed the film to climax with a scene where it all comes out into the open in the same manor the TV show always closed, with an outright embarrassment. Sadly however, I was forced to mourn the loss of these characters and wound up feeling that the film was lacking much of what I dug so much about the show.

On the up side the cast were, as in the TV show, outstanding. By this point Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison inhabit their characters so fully that it's become almost impossible to remember that these four teenagers don't actually exist. Will, Simon, Jay and Neil all act in ways that feel completely natural to the characters, making them fun, likeable and at times sympathised with in a way that supports the film perfectly. Between them they carried the entire film with apparent ease and turned what would have been a lacklustre cinematic experience into a memorable fun night out. It's a shame that this is the last time I'll get to see these four actors again but at least they've gone out on a high.

The direction was as good as to be expected. Ben Palmer, who directed the majority of the TV shows, recaptured the feel of the TV show and helmed this project with style. The Inbetweeners Movie looks good and plays well. If a new director, unrelated to the project had come in in order to direct the show for the big screen I'm in no doubt that it would have turned out to be a mess. The way film was done doesn't feel like a sell out affair which it so easily could have, and I'm in no doubt that this is thanks to Palmers work on the film.

My final piece of praise has to go to the written stylings of Morris and Beesley. Unavoidable plot issues aside the script was funny, had an original voice and made me laugh multiple times. The dialogue, as it always did in the TV show, feels natural and is uncannily reminiscent of how me and my friends talked when we were that age. There are plenty of gross out and cringe worthy moments to be found within The Inbetweeners Movie with the occasional intelligent, witty one liners that were sadly lost on the audience I watched the film with, but I enjoyed them and thats all that matters.

To wrap this up then I'm going to say that I enjoyed The Inbetweeners Movie on the whole. It was funny, it didn't go all Kevin and Perry and the cast were great fun. On the downside the rules of modern day cinema held the film back from becoming truly amazing, something which makes the big screen adventures of the inbetweeners a far less enjoyable piece of comedy than the TV show which spawned it.

The Inbetweeners Movie gets...

3 out of 5

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)

WARNING

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS THEN DON'T READ THE BITS WRITTEN IN RED.

OTHER THAN THIS BIT, OBVIOUSLY.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

And so it has come to this. Forty three years since the arrival of Planet Of The Apes, after numerous terrible sequels and a totally pointless remake, we have all arrived at the only logical final step for this franchise, a reboot. This isn't your average reboot though, not only does it succeed in rebooting a long dead franchise, but it also works as a prequel to the original 1968 film and as a loose remake to the series fourth installment COTPOTA.

For the few of you with a high enough IQ to be able to cast your minds back to four days ago, you'll remember that I quite enjoyed COTPOTA. My favourite aspects of that film being the lead characters dark evolution throughout the flick and the slightly unsettling 'we're all fucked' ending.

The story this time revolves around James Franco raising an ape by himself after his Animal testing lab has been shut down. The baby ape (named Caesar) has a much higher than expected IQ on account of him being born of a mother who had been used to test a drug that had the potential to cure Alzheimer's by regenerating dead brain cells, thusly making a healthy brain more intelligent. Caeser soon grows up to become as smart if not smarter than many of his human cohorts which eventually lands him into some trouble, getting him locked up in some kind of ape prison. I'll allow you work out the rest of the plot based on either the title or the films over revealing trailer.

The aforementioned trailer for Rise really does do a good job of giving away much of the films third act. It also misleads the audience into expecting a big, hollywood blockbuster action film when in actual fact the film is a deliberately paced drama, something which makes Rise a much better film than the trailer advertises.

As any regular movie goer will know, two major keys to a successful drama is good acting and good direction. The acting side of this film relying almost entirely on the shoulders of Andy Serkis's mo'cap performance as the films leading ape. Serkis, now becoming a veteran of motion capture acting, delivers a performance here that is emotionally engaging, tense, enjoyable, fun and menacing all at the same time. The performance, unlike Serkis's live action attempts, is remarkably subtle, relying entirely on facial expression rather than vocal work. At the time being, it's hands down my favourite performance of this year. Sadly the same can't really be said for the human actors.

The downside to the film being told from an apes perspective is that we don't get to spend much time with the human beings in the film, leading to many of them coming across as one dimensional plot requirements rather than fully fledged characters. Playing Will Rodman is James Franco who does his usual decent job, making the somewhat ridiculous story believable while supporting the performace of Serkis's Caesar. The trouble is though that by the films end we still don't know very much about Will. Same can be said about John Lithgow who does a great job of portraying Will's dementia suffering father, only to drop out of the story during the films second act. Freida Pinto, a great actress in other movies, also suffers by playing a one dimensional, typical girlfriend role who, as far as I'm aware, only exists in order to prevent the film from becoming a proverbial sausage fest'. It is worth noting however that the human characters aren't very important to Rise's story and had they been featured more heavily then, no doubt, the film would have suffered in terms of pacing, something which Rise gets spot on.

There is very little writing going on in Rise, not that this is a bad thing. What dialogue there is, doesn't come across too badly with the exception of that inevitable moment when they quote Heston in very much the same way the writers did in Tim Burtons film. As I have already said, Rise follows the story from Caesars point of view which ensures very little talking seeing as the ape doesn't possess the power of speech. What this means is that the film rely's more heavily on its actors and director rather than the power of the written work, but for what its worth, the writing is on the whole solid and serves the film well, albeit in more of a supporting role.    

At the head of the Rise project is relatively unknown director Rupert Wyatt, a man who's previous credits include a small budget brit' flick called The Escapist and a few episodes of Hollyoaks. After reading that kind of resumé you'd be forgiven for expecting the direction of Rise to be akin to that of the Titanic's maiden voyage when in fact the end result is much closer to the experience of watching a toddler fellate a horse, namely captivating and oddly pleasing in a non sexual way. The films tone, pacing, atmosphere and dramatic weight are all top notch. Rupert Wyatt's work levelling that of many other, more experienced directors. His control over the films dramatic first two acts is wonderful, as is his visual flair during the all action closing moments. His work in Rise as a whole comes across as fresh and original, something which I feel should make him a dead cert' when it comes to hiring for Rise's inevitable and in my opinion much needed sequel.

I think its pretty obvious by now that I'm going to award Rise fairly well. I enjoyed pretty much every aspect of the film, only being drawn back when it came to the handling of the human characters. I can only hope that the writers have something more in store for Franco and company in When The Apes Have Just Taken Over And Plan To Lead The World Down The Wrong Path, Turning Humans Into Lesser Beings And Loosing Their Way On An Emotional Level While Trying To Live Happily On The Planet Of The Apes, or whatever they plan to call it.  

It will probably be this years best big budget Hollywood blockbuster. It also supplies 1968's Planet Of The Apes with its 'prime' mate. (Thats the last one, I promise. I just couldn't resist one last chance to monkey around!)

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes gets...

                              

4 out of 5

X-Men: First Class

***COMING SOON*** 

A NEW WEBSITE CALLED 'THE EXPOSITIONIST'

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MYSELF AND THE FORMER OPTIMIST

***COMING SOON***

***WARNING***

THE FOLLOWING POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS AND CONTRADICTIONS THEREFORE IT MAYBE UNSUITABLE FOR SOME FUCKS, MUCH LIKE CYANIDE, BUT DON'T LET ME OR ANYONE ELSE STOP YOU FROM TRYING IT...

 ***YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***

Here it is, finally, the prequel to the X-Men trilogy and Wolverine. Hands up all of those who are excited about this... Brian Singer put your hand down... OK that leaves no excited people and I can fully understand why.

The X-Men trilogy got off to a very promising start. Brain Singer (like him or hate him) understood what to do with a film adaptation of the X-Men comic book. X-Men and X-Men 2 both focused primarily on the social outcast themes that make the comic book stand out from its brethren. Both films were exciting, interesting and very well made, its also worth noting that the first installment pretty much sparked off the current 'comic book movie' trend which we still reside in to this day. Part three was a step backwards, originally Matthew Vaughn was slated to direct it, then negotiations fell through and Rush Hours, Bret Ratner took the wheel. He then proceeded to drive the franchise into a ditch where it lay for a while until X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out and the franchise slipped from the ditch and into the sewer system. All hopes for the X-Men movie franchise were lost, or at least until Marvel would buy the property back and predictably reboot it.

This didn't happen though, instead Fox pushed forward, in fear of loosing a profitable franchise and set the wheels in motion to produce X-Men: First Class, a dubiously titled and foul smelling prequel. This time very much on board is Matthew Vaughn, a risky move seeing as his directorial career is still very much in the throws of acceptance but an acceptable risk in my opinion because, with X-Men: First Class, he kicked the franchises fucking arse like it was a one legged man in an arse kicking contest.

X-Men: First Class is a prequel to the first two X-Men movies only. It completely ignores the last two installments and rightly so. Based in the 1960's and in the mist of the Cuban missile crisis, we follow the stories of young Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, detailing the time when they first meet and their inevitably doomed friendship. Together they are recruited by the CIA to form a team of mutants in order to take on the evil Hellfire Club.

Cast wise its a winner through and through. James McAvoy's portrayal of a young and naive Xavier is both entertaining and believable and quite a pleasure to take in. He's not a patch on Michael Fassbender though, who plays Lensherr as if he was the hero of the story, making it even more poignant when he turns to the darker side in the films climactic moments. Jennifer Lawrence makes for a very good Mystique, displaying both touching and dramatic nuances in her performance and carrying the emotional dilemma of her character with apparent ease. Kevin Bacon seems to enjoy the bad guy role and as a result is very entertaining. Even Vaughn's good luck charm Jason Flemyng does a decent job as the slightly creepy Azazel. The only negative point in terms of casting lies upon the stunning figure of January Jones who is visually flawless while lacking any real substance.

Direction wise Vaughn proves his worth once again. Performing all the tricks he's learned over the years since splitting with Guy Ritchie to put together one hell of an entertaining movie. The tone and the pacing is perfect. Instead of playing the film out in the comic book movie industry standard, Vaughn has gone for an early James Bond vibe. In fact tone wise it reminded me very much of the first few Sean Connery, Bond films from the 60's, the exact era when this film is set. Something which I'm sure in no coincidence. Vaughn's also shifted the focus back onto the social outcast theme again, something which X3 and Wolverine did away with and something which those movies both desperately needed. Its also worth noting that with its bright colour pallets and imaginative composition this is the first X-Men movie that actually looks like an X-Men movie, the other films being relatively dull and lifeless in comparison.

Script wise its a strong movie. The characters are all well realized and have rather good and interesting arcs. The time setting fits into the story perfectly and really grounds the action. Its not exactly a script worthy of any awards but when pitted against its comic book movie competition, it fares very well. Its more adult in its themes than the likes of Thor, has better structure than both Iron Man movies and doesn't try to outdo its competition in the same way Spiderman 3 did. The script is both serious and intelligent enough to be intriguing while being fun and respectable of where it came from. 

To sum up X-Men: First Class, is a game changing installment to this previously dead franchise. It takes all of the first two's best features and turns them up to eleven. The action sequences aren't too in your face and are all clever enough to keep you entertained. The film has retained the level of intelligence that the source material demands while embracing the films comic book origin a lot more that Brain Singers installments ever did. The film is 132 minutes long but it doesn't feel like it. When the closing credits started to roll I found myself wondering if the film had come in shorter than advertised and was indeed quite surprised to find out that I'd been sat in one place for over two hours without noticing that my arse had gone numb.

I know its really rather boring when I enjoy a film and write only good things about it but despite the title and January Jones's performance I really don't have a bad ting to say about First Class. As it stands I would rank this well up on my list of best Comic Book movies. Its not as good as Spider-man 2, but for my money its better than Dark Knight, a film that I personally hold in very high regard. Its true folks, X-Men: First Class is THAT good. Get the fuck off of my blog and see it.

X-Men: First Class gets...

4.5 out of 5

The Year that was 2010

Lets take a gander at the top ten highest grossing films of 2010 (correct as of December 15th 2010)

1. Toy Story 3                                                       with $1,063,143,492

2. Alice In Wonderland                                         with $1,024,299,722

3. Inception                                                            with $825,189,522

4. Specky Twat and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1  with $780,572,721

5. Shrek Forever After                                           with $737,433,086

6. The Twiglet Saga: Eclipse                                 with $693,303,852

7. Iron Man 2                                                         with $621,751,988

8. Despicable Me                                                   with $538,752,285

9. Clash Of The Titans                                          with $493,214,993

10. How To Train Your Dragon                           with $493,202,818

Obviously the year isn't over yet and there are two films contained within that list that may jump around a bit more. Specky Twat is not long out so I would not be surprised if he jumps up a place or two. Dispicable Me is also still in cinema's so could possibly take Iron Man 2 although this is doubtful. These things aside this list does not reflect this years best filmic qualities. What follows is my opinion of the films contained within the list.

Its of no secret now that I am in love with Toy Story 3 and without a doubt its my favorite film of 2010, it deserves the top spot on the list, I'm happy to see it there and seeing Specky Twat take that top spot would make me so angry that even God herself would have to board up the windows in fear of the shit storm that would follow.
Toy Story 3 gets

                                                                                                                                   4.999999999 out of 5

Inception is the only other film contained within that I would shout out props to. It was original, gripping and made me think quite a bit which is not something I've come to expect from a big summer blockbuster action movie. I do feel however that it wont have that much replay value.
Inception gets

                                                                                                                                                      3 out of 5

If i were a fair critic I would admit that I have not seen 'Dragon' or 'Despicable' and therefor they could also be good films, but I'm not and the fact I have not seen them makes them less than noteworthy. The rest of that list is a sham.

Alice In Wonderland, like almost everything Tim Buttons excretes was a huge steaming pile of shit.
In fact Alice in 3DCG land gets

                                                                                                                                     1 out of 5, I hated it.

Shrek Forever After should be forever forgotten as far as I'm concerned, along with the two prior sequels both of which were about as funny and Michael Winners Left shoe lace.

Shrek's Final Coffin Nail gets

                                                                                                                                                   1.5 out of 5

Iron Man 2 was a major let down for me, I enjoyed the first installment quite a bit but this was actually kinda dull and lifeless despite Mr Jr's best efforts.

Iron Man 2 gets

                                                                                                                                                   1.5 out of 5

Clash of the tits would have been much better if it were indeed a clash of some tits but what it was, was more like watching The Clash..... full stop.

Clash Of The Titans gets

                                                                                                                                                      1 out of 5

I wont bother commenting on Specky Twats or Twiglets. Their time will come soon enough. Now lets delve into the rest of the year.

My first enjoyable cinema experience this year was 'Kick-Ass'. Yet another comic book adaptation only this time based on a comic book that had yet to be released and funded independently rather than the usual big corporate funding these kind of films tend to see. The end result being that Matthew Vaughn got to make the film exactly the way he intended and that makes for the most refreshing and enjoyably dark comic book movies in years. The action is smart and silly at the same time and as an overall package 'Kick-Ass' really is something worth witnessing. 

Kick-Ass gets 

                                                                                                                                                   3.5 out of 5

The next film I took in was much more of a mixed bag. Great acting, fantastic imagery and a timeless adventure made for one of my years most boring and as a result confusing cinematic experiences. I am referring to Ridley Scrowe's latest collaboration in the action epic that was Robin Hood. A prime example that bringing together some of the worlds most talented and forward thinking bodies in Hollywood does not a good movie make. Its also incorrectly titled as the titular character does not show up until the final minute of the film. It should have been called "Ten more reasons to fall in love with Mark Strong".   

Robin Hood gets

                                                                                                                                                      2 out of 5

I then saw Four Lions. I refuse to grade it and refuse to review it. I do think everybody should see it though.

I followed up Four Lions with Cop Out. I am and have been for years a massive fan of all things Kevin Smith. The mans back catalogue is something I have seen through numerous times and with every viewing I get and enjoy more of what I find. I know he is far from the worlds best director, but I honestly don't care because Kevin's writing and character focused comedy always makes me feel good and makes me laugh. A lot. Cop Out however is not written by Smith, he is simply its director. And surprise, surprise it tanked. It wasn't funny, it wasn't enjoyable and failed on every level. Dare I say it Kevin Smith maybe partly to blame for this being such a mess, Cop Out is meant to be a send up of classic 80's buddy cop features (like the later and more successful 'The Other Guys'). It doesn't work as a send up because its not implemented or referenced correctly. In other words the film fails to put across its amazingly simple premise, and it does this mainly through its lack of cinematic direction. This is why Smith should only direct what he himself has written as he clearly doesn't have a clue when camped outside his comfort zone. 

Cop Out Gets

0.5 out of 5

   

I followed up my despair with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Toy Story 3 and Inception. Three completely different but all fantastic films. I then went to break my run of enjoyable films with the in-taking of The A-Team. Black becomes white, up becomes down, Timothy Spall becomes talented and The A-Team turns out to be a very enjoyable film. The action was ridiculous, the script was cumbersome and the story was almost non-existent, in other words everything this film should have been. I watched, I laughed, I missed a bit, I didn't care. The A-Team was a great watch and is without a doubt  the years best 'for shits and giggles' movie.

The A-Team gets

3 out of 5. Somehow.

After a while of being perplexed I took in Buried. As referenced before this is a fantastical film. The entire thing takes place in a box underground without leaving for even so much as a flashback. Ryan Reynolds is great in this film and adds yet more proof to the rule that comedic actors do the best work with dramatic roles. On paper Buried really shouldn't work but it does and it does so in spades. I know a few people who were disappointed by the films lack of action, to those people I say see my above recommendation of The A-Team but bare in mind that you may need to concentrate quite hard to understand it, maybe best to take your crayons in case its too much for you to handle.

Buried gets

4 out of 5

This soon led onto Jackass 3d and as it turns out the end of my cinema adventures for 2010. Jackass was great, see below.

For many of the past years my overall take on a year in film has been somewhat miffed due to the lack of enjoyable movies contained within it. Todays world of film has been overrun by remakes, sequels, increasingly obscure comic book adaptations and in some cases all of the above. This year has been no exception, however when I look back on the year that is soon to be, I look back and think I have enjoyed myself.

Here is my top 10 of 2010

1. Toy Story 3 (4.999999999 out of 5)

2. Jackass 3D (4.5 out of 5)

3. Buried (4 out of 5)

4. Kick-Ass (3.5 out of 5)

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (3 out of 5)

6. Four Lions

7. Inception (3 out of 5)

8. The A-Team (3 out of 5)

9. The Other Guys (2.5 out of 5)

10. The Expendables (2.5 out of 5)

See you next year folks.........................................