Whatever Works

Day 8/192-Whatever Works: Starring Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood

Whatever Works was on my radar for a good while. I love Larry David even though I haven't seen a huge amount of Curb and the two Woody Allen films I have seen (Annie Hall and Vicky Cristina Barcelona) were terrific. When I first saw the trailers for this film I was very excited indeed. And it wasn't half bad.

But it certainly wasn't great either.

Whatever Works centres on Boris Yellnikoff (David) an obsessed and panic stricken genius with a very low opinion of the human race and the world in general. Occasionally stopping to talk to the camera, most of the screentime is filled with his rants and put-downs. His life changes when a young runaway named Melody (Wood) comes up to his home for some food and ends up staying a while.

Melody starts to fall for Boris despite their remarkable differences and she settles into life in New York, getting a job and becoming a permanent fixture in Boris's house. Boris begins to warm to her after his initial concerns and soon enough they are married.

The film is great up until Melody's mother arrives on the scene and the focus is taken away from the main characters. Before that though, Boris's sheer contempt for the world becomes a little grating as he continues to insult Melody, who is too sweet to hold it against him. He is at times very funny though, particularly in the scenes where he is teaching chess lessons, but overall it can be a bit much.



In the end the film diverts from any of the initial interest for a good 30 minutes and reverts back just to tie everything up. A side-story involving Melody's dad is jammed in with no real relevance.

Evan Rachel Wood is fantastic though as she breathes life into a character who just serves as fodder to Boris's put-downs. The way she manages to keep her patience with him as well as smiling and keeping interested in learning from him, despite his arrogance, is charming. She is so removed from it all at times she reminds me of Amy Adams in Enchanted.



So Whatever Works is funny and does echo of earlier Woody Allen but is lacking in certain areas. Perhaps the script is more dated than it seems on the surface (having been around for about 33 years) though most of the cast do a great job, but the plot jerks around too much in the last 40 minutes so much that by the end we have lost all interest.

6/10

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus

Day 7/192- Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus: Starring a Mega Shark and a Giant Octopus

I am a little bit lost for words having seen this film. Looking through the highly valuable service that is Sky Anytime for films to watch I came across Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, I thought to myself, "isn't that that film where a Mega Shark eats the Golden Gate Bridge?" It is.

What I think happened is this: a team of scientists went looking for something in the ocean, but they went off course and accidentally uncovered two prehistoric behemoths. A really big shark and an octopus, which was quite large as well.

By now you are probably thinking: "how bad is it?" "Is it funny while being bad?" "Who wins?" And "Why would anyone pay money for Sky Anytime?" I have the answers for most of those questions.



To be honest, it is hilarious. The acting is beyond dreadful, it features some of the best one-liners since the days of Arnold Schwarzeneger and the special effects are probably the worst I have ever seen. Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus was only made last year but it instantly looked about 20 years out of date.

At 90 minutes long, it will probably test your patience and it is by no means worth your while to hang around to see the final 'clash' which is just pathetic. In fact, and this seems a bit redundant, but once you have seen the Mega Shark jump 40,000 feet into the air to eat a plane, you have pretty much seen it all.



I say watch it, switch your brain off and enjoy it for what it is, one of the worst movies ever made. In all seriousness, it should be applauded for the powerful environmental message contained as Emma McNeil declares that a plane-eating shark and a ship-destroying octopus are our "comeuppance for melting the polar ice-caps."

It doesn't even look as though anyone involved is aware of the film that they are in and that just makes it even better, and the straight face that grey-haired scientist keeps as he says "they finally finished what they started...18 million years ago" makes it all worthwile.

And who does win? Well I'll let you sit through that one to find out.

4/10

Gentlemen Broncos

Day 6/192-Gentlemen Broncos: Starring Jemaine Clement and Michael Angarano

The films of Jared Hess should be viewed as the perfect example of the law of diminishing returns. First of all we had Napoleon Dynamite: a quirky, surreal comedy that gave us a new kind of hero and caught us all off-guard. Second we had Nacho Libre, which showed signs that Hess's approach to film was becoming tired. Now, fresh from the brain of that same man, we have Gentlemen Broncos, which save for a hilarious performance from Jemaine Clement, is a complete and utter mess.


It is in no way absurd to ask how this film was even made. Gentlemen Broncos is self-aware, pretentious, it tries too hard to be unconventional and is not only unfunny, but very nearly unwatchable.

So, Gentlemen Broncos is about Benjamin(Angarano), a young science-fiction writer who travels to attend Cletus Fest in an effort to meet his all-time hero, Chevalier(Clement). Chevalier invites all of the students at the festival to submit their entries for a competition he is running for emerging young writers. But when Chevalier finds out that his last book has been rejected by the publishers, he comes across Benjamin's entry "Yeast Lords" and steals it for himself.



I would probably recommend this film if it was ten minutes long and just featured all of the parts with Chevalier, but as it is the film is littered with plenty of completely abhorrent characters and feels about nine hours long.

Gentlemen Broncos manages to fit in jokes about excrement, vomit, testicles and transsexuals and is at times as disgusting as it is lacking in humour. Incredibly childish when it goes for laughs directly and when trying to sandwich them in without you noticing, it seems as if Hess has just forgotten what it was that was funny about Napoleon Dynamite and has gone for a 'hit and hope' approach to comedy and it is very clear that this has not paid off.

In the other world segments that feature Sam Rockwell as Bronco, depicting Benjamin's novel "Yeast Lords", it begins to look promising but that is quickly removed by nonsensical mutterings and downright awful direction.



I think I may now be ready to give up on Jared Hess as a filmmaker and it astounds me that so many of his supporters are still calling this a good film. It is definitely in the top five worst films I have seen this year and it could be a potential Wolfman beater for the number one spot. Awful.

2/10

Lilya 4-Ever

Day 5/192-Lilya 4-Ever: Starring Oksana Akinshina and Artyom Bogucharsky.

My friend and colleague, Daryn Shepherd suggested that in this quest of 192 films, it was time for a foreign film to enter the fray. So here we have the Swedish film Lilya 4-Ever, a feel-good romp about teenagers in Estonia.

In actual fact, this is just about the most bleak, depressing, harsh and unyielding piece of film I have ever seen. Which makes me feel slightly sadistic for enjoying it as much as I did.

Lilya is a 16 year old tearaway, a petulant girl who becomes a nuisance at school and at home, mostly because as we learn in the first five minutes, she is leaving for America with her parents and is quite intent on burning all her bridges in Estonia. Very quickly it all begins to go wrong for Lilya: her parents decide to go to the States without her and then kick her out of her home.

Now if you are thinking at this stage: "Oh my god how horrible!" I suggest you avoid this film because that is just the beginning for Lilya. Lilya 4-Ever is regularly featured on "Top 10 Most Depressing Movies Ever" lists and it is not at all difficult to see why.



This film has pitched everything at just the right level. The performances of the two leads are incredible. Oksana Akinshina has got Lilya just right, her desire to get on with life despite the horrible things that happen to her is admirable and it makes it so hard to take as an audience when things go from bad to worse. She is arrogant and confident, but still funny and charming.

Volodya's plight is even harder to watch at times, it becomes obvious after a point that Lilya and he both have never experienced any sort of affection in their lives and when they become friends, Volodya places everything he has emotionally into their friendship. With someone as unstable as Lilya that is never going to end well.

The soundtrack is fantastic as well, providing a stark contrast to the gritty, realistic events of the film, it hammers along and tugs at the heartstrings equally, particularly towards the end.


Director, Lukas Moodysson, has made a film that manages to take an incredibly fragile subject and portrays it with the sensitivity and just the right level of explicit imagery, that the characters are allowed to soar, guided by the performances of two very gifted young actors.

Nothing that happens feels out of place, every reaction is warranted, every plot turn is well motivated and that just adds to the realistic feel of the film, which makes it all the more difficult to watch as this story is apparently not too far from certain examples of the truth.

Lilya 4-Ever is not for the faint-hearted, it's not a film to watch with the family on a Sunday afternoon and it certainly won't cheer you up any. But it is a fantastic film and very much worth the emotionally draining journey required to get to the other side.

9/10

Shrek Forever After

Day 4/192-Shrek Forever After: Starring Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy

Did you ever hear the rumours that they were well into the planning stages of Titanic 2? Obviously that was a terrible idea, but probably just as plausible as a continuation of the Shrek story. Shrek was married, had children and so were most of the supporting cast. So how do you do a sequel to a film that's run it's course. You do a Lost and start an alternate timeline.

Some had called Revolutionary Road the natural sequel to Titanic, as in what would have happened to Kate and Leo once the fairytale drama had ended? A life of drudgery and resentment. And so we have Shrek Forever After. Shrek has grown tired of his monotonous life as a father and husband, missing the days where he was the most feared creature in Far Far Away.

After storming out of a birthday party, Shrek meets Rumpelstiltskin, who offers him a chance to be an ogre again for just one more day, but when the day begins everything has changed and soon Shrek has a job on his hands.



Shrek Forever After sometimes veers down the wrong path for laughs but I would say I was pleasantly surprised by the love and effort that has gone into making this film. It is infinitely better than Shrek the Third and I would say just as good as if not a slight improvement on Shrek 2.

The concept was certainly interesting, using the Shrek signature brand of bringing a modern touch to fantasy worlds, getting to see what happens after a fairytale ends is quite refreshing.

Clichéd as it is there are plenty of jokes for adults that kids won't quite understand and plenty of breakdancing witches for the kids to enjoy and the balance is just about right. At times it echoed of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and showed a good example of what was missing from that film: Fun.

There are some niggles though. There are a couple of plotholes that are impossible to reveal without spoilers but one involves a doll. There is absolutely nowhere near enough Eddie Murphy but that is a criticism that can be levelled at most films. Also the 3D brings nothing to this film, so save your pennies if you're thinking about going.



Final thoughts: this is a film that is definitely worth seeing. It is far closer in terms of quality to Shrek than any of his inferior sequels. Nothing can match the original because of the vast avenues open to it but Shrek Forever After cannot be accused of being a lazy cash-in, though a cash in it most undeniably is.

7/10

Get Him to the Greek

Day 3/192-Get Him to the Greek: Starring Russell Brand and Jonah Hill

Tonight I went to the cinema with my friend Craig to see Get Him to the Greek. The cinema was packed and we thought to ourselves if this film is funny, now is the perfect time to see it.

And funny it most certainly was.

Here we have a film that WILL make you laugh. Aside from a few scenes that fall flat, Get Him to the Greek rarely allows you to stop for breath. But this definitely comes at the expense of any real plot.

If any of you have seen the trailer, you will know that P Diddy tells Jonah Hill's character, Aaron Green, that Russell Brand's character, Aldous Snow, has agreed to play a comeback concert in the Greek Theater in LA and it is his job to go to London, collect him, and bring him to LA within 72 hours. If you can at all imagine what that would turn out like, then that is pretty much exactly what happens. There are a few things going on outwith that debacle, but nothing that will keep you too concerned.

The film basically follows the formula of any road movie whereby they are continually thrown off course by their own stupidity, while a deadline set by a fearsome boss (in this case P Diddy) looms over their head. Along the way there are some hilarious cameos, some amazing gags and the banter between Jonah Hill and Russell Brand is exactly why this film was made, and consequently, is very funny.


The good work of the first hour is almost undone as the film attempts to inject some sentimentality a little too late, and one scene in particular is excruciating to watch. Aldous Snow who has been a totally inconsiderate menace throughout the film suddenly feels sad and Aaron Green who galavants away from his doctor girlfriend because she wants to be a doctor is supposed to be forgiven and none of it is even warranted in terms of storytelling.

Apart from all that, and believe it or not it isn't a huge concern, this is an utterly hilarious movie. I can't remember laughing as much in the cinema for a good while. If you are willing to forgive a slight(or massive) absence of plot and just enjoy an hour and a half of cracking jokes and superb banter, and you should, Get Him to the Greek will not disappoint.

7/10

Monsters, Inc.

Day 2/192-Monsters Inc.

Starring John Goodman and Billy Crystal

Just sneaking into IMDB.com's top 250 films of all-time (at number 245) Monsters, Inc. is ranked below no less than 8 other Pixar films: Wall-E, Up, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Toy Story 1, 2 and now 3 all occupy a higher place in their relatively accurate ranking system-only Cars doesn't get a place. Does this mean that Monsters, Inc. is lacking in something of the magic that makes those films so great? I would say no.

Monsters, Inc. is set in an alternate universe where monsters of all shapes and sizes live and work and generally go about their lives. Some are chefs, some are green-grossers (that's right) and some climb through portals into the closets of children and terrify them in order to harness their screams; which are pure energy in Monstropolis.

That is where we meet Sulley (Goodman) the highest scoring scarer in the history of Monsters, Inc. and his wise-cracking sidekick Mike Wazowski (Crystal) who are going about a normal day at work, when a freak accident results in a child coming back through the portal into Monstropolis, which is a serious risk to the wellbeing of all monsterkind.



I am finding it hard to imagine where I will make the space to fit in everything positive I would like to say about Monsters, Inc. but I will try.

The relationship between Sulley and Boo is uniquely touching and concerning. With the knowledge in the back of your mind throughout the movie that there really is no way for it to end well, it makes you anxious as you realise the film is coming to a conclusion, and that is all thanks to Pixar's excellent character development, not to mention the downright cuteness of Boo.

Mike Wazowski is hilarious and every one of his mannerisms is perfectly animated and ably-performed by the excellent Billy Crystal, and is fantastic as comedy foil to the serious yet lovable Sulley.

There are no end to the "monster gags" in the film which get better and better, and a particular highlight comes early on in the scene where Mike and Sulley decide to walk to work. It is a film that crams so much in it is rewarded with careful and possibly repeat viewing as you will definitely miss things first time around.

Negatives? I would say that it is a film with a very well thought-out plot, based on an excellent concept. It contains a huge array of wonderfully inventive cameo monsters and the main trio are, in my opinion, just as good as, if not better than anything Pixar has done before. I would say however that the film jars slightly in the blizzard section and the villains are slightly one-dimensional.



That aside, it will make you laugh, it will make you smile and it could very well make you cry but it is well worth your trouble and with a rumoured sequel on the way (possibly this year) there is no better time to give it a look!

9/10

Face/Off

There are 192 days left in the year. I am going to watch one film in every one of those days, review them and share my thoughts on here. I had attempted to watch one for all 365 days of the year but it got away from me, so I am cutting my losses and starting a new challenge.

Anyway! Movie 1/192-Face/Off: Starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta.



I imagine on another day in another universe I might have hated this film. As it stands the film has caught me in the right frame of mind and I loved every minute.

So, for anyone who doesn't know, the story sees Sean Archer(Travolta) finally catch his long-time nemesis Castor Troy(Cage) but, in doing so, finds out that there is one last terrorist plot left to deal with. The only person that knows the details of the forthcoming atrocities is Troy's brother, Pollux, who won't talk to anyone but the man himself.

With Troy in a coma, using a state-of-the-art surgical procedure, John Travolta becomes Nicolas Cage and infiltrates a maximum security prison, and Castor Troy's world, in order to get the details and save the day.

This is a completely overblown and over the top action movie but some key things make it stand out from the rest.

For one, everyone involved commits fully to the film and there are no moments of winking at the camera or general self-awareness. Also, there are some interesting characters. Castor Troy is such a bad, bad man but is impossible to hate, through his charisma and utter madness. Sean Archer is a boring, straight-laced action hero, but his pain and suffering earn him a place in our hearts.


The facial swap is key and the initial hilarity of watching Nicolas Cage trying to act like John Travolta trying to act like Nicolas Cage is undeniable. Travolta has his moments but it is Cage who steals the show here.

The film never lets up in the action stakes and continues to make us laugh in the humour stakes. From start to finish it is hilarious, ridiculous, concerning and interesting. Between the explosion of a plane in the first ten minutes and the high-speed boat chase at the last we meet and care for a series of characters and are delivered a satisfying and entertaining movie, both in spite of and thanks to its obvious flaws.

I could understand why someone would hate this film but I imagine it impossible to have middling feelings for this movie, and I personally loved it, in the way that I loved Kung-Fu Hustle and Battle Royale.

9/10