Review: Eddie the Eagle (2016)

* * *
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman

There are two ways of looking at the story of Michael "Eddie the Eagle" Edwards. One is as a heartwarming tale of someone whose spirit is so pure that it doesn't matter to him whether he finishes first or last, just so long as he's able to participate and compete. To a certain degree, that's what the Olympics are supposed to be about: the love of sport for the sake of sport. The other is as a slightly more cynical story about someone seeking to bask in the glory of the greatest athletic competition in the world and who discovers a loophole that he can use to his advantage in order to get there, who doesn't care if he finishes first or last because his passion isn't for any sport in particular, but for the idea of being part of the "Olympics." This being a film, and being very much in the grand tradition of uplifting sport movies, Eddie the Eagle opts for the first kind of story, and that's just fine. It's a very good film for the kind of film that it is - it's funny, warm, and feelgood - but it never strays outside the confines of the playbook.

Review: Chappie (2015)

* *
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Starring: Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman

Neill Blomkamp is a great filmmaker in terms of creating on screen worlds that look lived-in and complete (even if they do all tend to follow the same basic pattern of a society divided into two factions, one of which is in a state of advanced infrastructural decay). This bodes well for his upcoming take on the Alien franchise. What doesn't bode well is the difficulty that Blomkamp seems to have in filling those worlds with coherent and well-thought out ideas. This isn't to say that Blomkamp doesn't have plenty of ideas that he tries to cram into his movies; just that the ideas don't always work and even when they do they can sometimes be problematic (see District 9). In the end, though, the ideas won't matter any way because the third act will push them all aside in its rush to devote all its energy to brainless, cookie cutter action. As the glow fades from Blomkamp's breakthrough film, the weaknesses in his style begin to become clearer, and have never been more so than in the confused muddle that is Chappie.

Review: Prisoners (2013)

* * * 1/2
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal

Prisoners begins with a prayer and, in a sense, ends with one as well. It's that sense of quiet and stillness that bookend the story (revisited, sporadically, throughout the film in a series of beautiful, silent shots) that allows what might otherwise be a conventional thriller to burrow deep and leave a lasting mark. Soaked in atmosphere, this dark and gripping drama is a beautifully rendered piece of work, a triumph of technical craft even if, on a narrative level, it verges on the preposterous. As the best part of the movie watching season gets underway, Prisoners makes for an excellent primer.

Review: Les Miserables (2012)

* * 1/2
Director: Tom Hooper
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried

Les Miserables is going to make a lot of money. It's going to get nominated for a bunch of Oscars including, I'm certain, Best Picture. It's going to be loved by a lot of people. There's a lot of good news for Les Miserables. The bad news is that it's actually not a very good film. It has its moments, it is sometimes entertaining, sometimes even moving, but its flaws are so prominent and so distracting that the elements of value are almost buried beneath them.