Gone Girl

Directed by:

David Fincher

Starring:

 Ben Affleck

Rosamund Pike

Tyler Perry

Neil Patrick Harris

Carrie Coon

When you sit down to a movie starring Ben Affleck and with the word "girl" in the title, it is safe to say that you should not expect too much from the experience. You would be forgiven if you expected to sit through almost two hours of Affleck smouldering with that big square jaw and those bigger, squarer shoulders and generally being all handsome and wonderful. You would also be forgiven for making the assumption that you had just wasted almost €20 on tickets and extortionately priced cardboard imitation food - and that's assuming you go Dutch. You would be forgiven but you would also be very wrong.

Sure, the price is still high, the food is disgusting and the jaw is still ridiculously square but this is a different Affleck flick. This is definitely more The Town than Gigli and more Argo than Jersey Girl. Remember, this is the Affleck that is trying to win the hearts and minds of Batman fans. It is no coincidence that he has starred in darker roles as of late and will continue to until he stars as The Dark Knight.

Here, he plays Nick Dunne, a husband who comes home from work to find his wife Amy, played by Rosamund Pike, is missing and their house in a state of disarray. A marriage that outwardly appeared to be as close to perfect as one could idealistically suggest suddenly appears to be creakier than Betty White's hip.

Then unfolds a topsy-turvy whodunnit which transforms into a breath-taking and utterly captivating wasanythingevendone. Not since the early days of Homeland have we questioned whether or not the main star was a good guy or a bad guy in such detail. For every reason to like him there is an equal reason to doubt him.

Then there is the ultimate twist of all - is Affleck even the star? Amy is present throughout by means of flashbacks to her narrated journal writing, bringing a verisimilitude to the part that Nick himself must play; we are allowed to hear the innermost thoughts of Amy set to the backdrop of Nick needing to appear remorseful and sad at his doting wife's tragic disappearance. In fact, so good is Pike in her role that I felt compelled to glance through Jack Reacher, just to judge her eyes in a new light which stayed with me so long after seeing Gone Girl. I will never look at her the same again!

Make no assumptions with this movie, except the assumption that this movie is worth your time and spondulas. This film never lets you rest on your laurels because just when you think you have anyone or anything figured out, you are thrown yet another curve-ball. Christopher Nolan take note; you don't need three or so hours for a movie to perfectly depict drama.

At one point, Nick is in a police station in a poignant moment and you are left to wonder what the message is in the movie - how did two young affable, loving people get to this point in their lives? It is then that your eyes are drawn to the notice board in the station. Amidst the ocean grey walls and military grey features is a poster that boldly states "God Bless America". This is the point of the movie. These two people and their relationship have become perverted products of a bastardised society. Gone Girl is a searing indictment of modern America and the morals and standards it sets its citizens. It is a message that is very well said.

Gone Girl brings into question our very ideas of love, happiness, marriage and the inter-dependency of the traditional monogamous relationship. A slow-burner to start with, each twist is like a gear change and with each one, the movie accelerates at a rate that keeps you moving forward but in a very smooth manner.

For this movie, leaving the story exactly where they did is as fascinating as every intricate twist and it will be commendable to leave the story as it is. Slight curiosity aside, you won't know what happens next and you won't want to know!

Neil Patrick Harris was a welcome secondary character in the movie, playing the part of the creepy ex-boyfriend Desi Collings to a tee, a role far-removed form his goofy shenanigans in How I Met Your Mother. Unlike Topher Grace playing the bad guy in the awful Spiderman 3, Harris' change of persona is very welcome and proves that he should have a decent career on the big screen away from that piffling teen drama.

For Pike, this should prove to be a major turning point in her career - she is almost TOO good as Amy.

For Affleck, the future is dark and very, very bright.

Rating: ★★★★

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esGn-xKFZdU

Lucy

Directed by:

Luc Besson

Starring:

Scarlett Johansson

Morgan Freeman

Min Sik-Choi

Amr Waked

Lucy is a movie of two halves. Starring Scarlett Johansson as Lucy, it is a thrill ride for the first 50 to 60 minutes, after which it completely deteriorates. Let's start at the beginning...

Lucy is an unwilling runner for her scumbag boyfriend in Korea. Quiet, gentle and on a bit of an adventure, she somehow ends up with a new synthetic super-drug running through her veins. The drug opens up her mind to more of its potential, far above the 10% it is estimated that humans currently use, at which point she develops talents that are, for want of a better phrase, really cool! The point is that Lucy is super-human. Her abilities are fantastic and she copes splendidly with the knowledge, strength and responsibility she is given. Not only is she super-human, one of her unique abilities is that she knows just how powerful she is. Hark back to superhero movies, remember Superman struggling to understand what he could actually do here on earth, the hilarious moments when he picks up the car for the first time, not knowing whether or not he could actually do it? Remember the start of The Flash, when he runs to catch a bus and accidentally arrives miles down the road, seemingly completely unaware of his speed? This is where Lucy is different. Her power is her mind and while she has unbelievable physical abilities that belie her timid and frail appearance, she is fully aware of everything she can do. 

The first half of the movie is entertaining. Lucy out-muscles her aggressors and she effectively saves her friend's life by diagnosing her with a hug. Yes that seems silly but if you can believe that Scarlett Johansson can make her hair change colour and length at will, you will believe anything! It is around the halfway point, however, that you begin to ask questions? Why is she so mature? Increased capacity doesn't guarantee increased maturity. This is the timid little lady who couldn't speak to a hotel receptionist less than an hour ago and now here she is, stiff as a board, cool, calm and collected, facing down the barrel of a gun.

Another point on maturity - why is she completely void of bravado? In that pub conversation that is frequently had, intoxicated men often venture through the mental exercise of what they would do if they could become invisible. Often the answers range from "rob a bank" to "perv in the girls' locker room" - both equally childish yes but both very human and honest. Lucy knows what she can do - why isn't she doing anything fun?! What made Bruce Almighty so much fun was that he had god's powers for a week and went around the place having fun, fixing things in his own life just generally doing things that every person watching the film would love to do. Not Lucy - Lucy is transformed into this non-human entity, oblivious to everything she was, her hopes and fantasies seemingly non-existent. Another question - why does she shoot everyone? She has got the power to take bullets out of guns with her mind and to control other humans at will yet she resorts to shooting people...this made little sense.

There is one more pertinent question about the movie. Why did they cast Morgan Freeman as the scientist type guy, Professor Norman? He is completely wasted in the white coat. He's not even the B character in the film. He isn't allowed the screen time nor the lines to put his stamp on the part. They could have put anyone in that role and it would have made no difference. This isn't a knock on Freeman, this is a knock on the writers - if you're paying for Morgan Freeman, USE HIM! Have you never heard the man's voice? He could have used his gravely tones to bring down the heart-rate of the movie, before hitting us with more unlikely magic. Every valley accentuates every peak.

The relationship between Norman and Lucy could have developed over the course of the movie but that, like every other relationship in Lucy and every single character, remains as it was at the beginning. They could have been made closer; Lucy could have confided in him that she's afraid of what she has become and he could have become a father figure to her. She could even have turned on the professor after he criticised her murderous ways and abused her abilities, if they needed a twist. Alas - it wasn't to be. This is a movie for the type of audience that enjoy The Expendables franchise.

There is also a bad guy but he is so inconsequential that I have completely forgotten his name.

The first half of the movie played like the fantastic Hanna on LSD mixed with elements of Limitless, for obvious reasons. The second half was so unwatchable that you could have fast-forwarded to the ending and missed nothing in between. The ending itself is such a cop out that you'll appreciate the credits, just to terminate the experience, so you can move on and do something else with your evening. 

As an experiment, the idea is fun but in practice, it is poorly executed. Two fine actors, a great idea and fabulous special effects fail to save this movie from the WOMO file - Watch Once and Move On.

Rating: ★★★

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVt32qoyhi0



Remember, if you want anything reviewed from the past or if there's a film coming out and you want to know if it's worth the coin, email or comment below :-)

The Maze Runner

Directed by:

Wes Ball

Starring:

Dylan O'Brien

Will Poulter

Aml Ameen 

Ki Hong Lee 

Thomas Brodie-Sangster 

Kaya Scodelario
 

Directed by Wes Ball and starring Dylan O'Brien as the reluctant but very obvious saviour of the masses, The Maze Runner is one of those movies that you can just tell was a fantastic novel but the transfer to the big screen did not do it justice on such a small budget. First off, we need to establish that this is a movie for teenage boys, a more dynamic and interesting response to the one-dimensional Divergent. However, the step up from that chick-flick isn't all that great. Thomas arrives in this seemingly dystopian world in an elevator. He steps from the elevator, highly confused by his surroundings, immediately running away from the teenage boys around him who seem to revel in his confusion - all of the boys have no memory of who they were before arriving here. His running is halted when he realises that the world in which he has been thrust into is confined behind four high walls from which there is no escape - unless you tackle the maze - the only possible escape from their perpetual enclosure. 

The boys live their lives in relative comfort; it never rains, they all sleep outdoors, there is no disease and they eat what they grow. But it is here that the story becomes so obviously one-dimensional, leaving you with many questions about the boys and their lives. Why are there no bullies? In fact, safe for a few seconds towards the end, nobody portrays villainous traits whatsoever. Though this is a prison for boys, it's obviously a teenage version of Oz The Series? Obviously the extreme homo-eroticism of that show cannot be portrayed here but why go to the other extreme? The obvious long-term effects of captivity are not dealt with here at all. Why is everybody so nice? If this is a metaphor for an all-boys school, where are the bullies? Where is the guy that pushes you around just because he can? Where is the guy that waits until you have a plate of food prepared then shoves that to the floor? We are expected to believe that every boy that comes up that elevator is a charming boy with the social graces of a man 20 years his elder.

Perhaps the major flaw in this movie is the lack of vulnerability these boys show. Emotions in a teenage boy are at the fore - always! Yet there are effectively no fights between the lads and aside from one side character in a very short clip, none of these lads cry out for their parents. Some of them have been there over three years and not once in the movie were the absent members of their families wept over. I get that the boys are being made out to be mature beyond their years but at 30 years of age, I still miss my parents. If I missed my parents at 17 I would at least talk about it. The human side of the boys is lost in the obsession to focus on the maze itself. Every day, the "runners" go into the maze to try and find a way out before the doors close at night. They return with plans drawn in their heads of the pathways, they are the cartographers of the dystopian age.

For a time The Maze Runner came across as The Matrix meets The Goonies. We have the futuristic vibe, the chosen one and the questioning of reality, not to mention the gates being the blue pill. Then we have the teenage adventure, the gadgets, the search for treasure and there is even a small, jolly, fat kid called Chuck - that's waaay too close to Chunk for that to be a coincidence. However, it is only when the first girl comes up through the elevator that the theme becomes obvious. This movie is a metaphor for turning 18, of how afraid you are of escaping the walls of childhood, where your life has comfort, meaning and strata and yet you are so excited and curious to escape into the maze of adulthood, where you have only yourself to rely on, away from the annoying teenage girls that created divisions amongst the boys and into the unknown. It is then that this movie begins to shine. 

The hero slowly begins to take his place at the top of the food chain and it is then that we see the true emotions of the boys. Parents are mentioned, fears are divulged, tears are shed and there are even villainous deeds and death. In a rare cinematic occurrence, the movie grows with the boys. This is definitely a slow-burner but give it time and you will be rewarded with a fantastic ending and an open door for what promises to be an intriguing sequel.

Most of the actors in the movie are British which is not to detract from the talent. On the contrary, it is a compliment to how accomplished young British actors and the British film industry is in general. While Dylan O'Brien played the part of the handsome, reluctant hero very well, it is Will Poulter who was the star. This chap has a fine career ahead of him has a villain. His brow alone should see him trying to slay James Bond sometime down the line. 

The music of the movie is generic and though special effects are unnecessary in the majority of the film, slicker CGI would have been appreciated. There are plenty of terrible movie adaptations of novels out there but author James Dashner's is better than that. There are still perhaps too many questions, the biggest of all being left unanswered at the end. I shan't divulge what that is here for fear of spoiling the movie. (SPOILER ALERT!!) Let's just say this is more The Island than Oliver Twist. Still, look forward to the sequel, if only to quell your curiosity. Not a great movie but not a waste of time either. You get the feeling the book, read as a teenage boy, would be much better.

Rating - ✮✮✮½

Trailer -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64-iSYVmMVY