REVIEW: Dad's Army (PG)

Welcome to 2016... the year of revamps and remakes and the recycling of old ideas.  Actually, the truth is, I guess the world is running out of inspiration for the time being. However, in a world where superhero movies and political correctness are running rife, you may be one of those people who are pining for the past. If that is the case (and it may well be judging by the recent resurgence and popularity of retro gaming) then Dad’s Army might be for you. Based on the classic British TV show (not to be confused with M.A.S.H) Dad’s Army is a remake for the next generation using the previous generation and the generation before that. I have to say, as a neutral supporter, I have never seen the original show (I know, what a travesty!) but I watched this without prejudice. But, brace yourself. There is more to come in the old-tv-shows-being-revived situation as I hear they are remaking Porridge, Open All Hours and more for the small screen and remaking Ghostbusters (due out this year) and Dirty Dancing among others on the silver screen.

So the movie then? It’s definitely pointing in the direction of comedy, but sadly it wasn’t my cup of tea. I could see where the funny parts were supposed to be and, admittedly, there were a couple of sniggers. However, the whole movie felt like a 30 minute show stretched out to last its elongated run time. Maybe as a show it would have felt more complete, but as it is it felt like it was running out of steam. The best way I could describe it would be as a baker who was rolling out some dough but stretched it far too much than was needed and causing it to become thin and holey and therefore doesn’t quite bake to perfection. A bit more dough, then, and it would probably have been a decent enough pie.

The cast is astounding though, covering the great and the good of British acting. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen such a strong British ensemble cast (maybe Love Actually was the last one – Harry Potter doesn’t count as the main actors didn’t have established careers before then) and as people entered the scenes you were like – “oh, that’s so and so out of whatsit”. You have a nice mix of actors too – Michael “Dumbledore” Gambon, Toby “Dr. Arnim Zola” Jones and Bill “Davey Jones” Nighy are just some of the great talent on show here.

Toby Jones plays Captain Mainwaring with Bill Nighy as his second-in-command Sergeant Wilson, backed up with a slew of other British acting talent. Blake Harrison (Neil from The Inbetweeners) plays Private Pike, the youngest of the group and nephew to Sergeant Wilson. Catherine Zeta-Jones provides the glam as the love interest for, well, most of the main characters. However most of the main characters have wives and these are also featured. This female cast also includes the actress who plays Lynne in Alan Partridge as a particularly matriarchal leader of the ladies force and wife to Captain Mainwaring.

As the Home Guard are assigned to patrol an army base near the White Cliffs of Dover, the soldiers discover that a spy has infiltrated their small town and must find out who it is. They go through the motions and, as suspicions go on, they realise that it could be anyone from the general public to someone in their own ranks. Meanwhile, the men are falling head over heels for the new girl in town, the sophisticated vamp Rose Winters (who works as a journalist chronicling the Home Guard). Will they find out the true identity of the spy or will it be too late?

I’ve built up the movie like it would be an exciting build up, but most of it is spent watching married men bumble over the attractive Catherine Zeta-Jones. Although she is a very pretty lady, this way forward gets old really quickly and seems to be stretched out into infinity. This makes the characters seem a bit dastardly and I also feel sorry for the wives in the tale, who seem to be strong female characters but seemingly (and deliberately) far from sexy or attractive in comparison to CZ-J. The film itself is amusing but I didn’t find it funny enough to laugh out loud. I’m told there is some cameos from the original surviving cast in this movie too. When the movie concludes the iconic theme tune is played, but not until then. Also there’s a small sequence of CGI at the start to represent London in WWII, but it’s really rather poor. Most of the other effects are more physical and real, so it looked really out of place.

Overall, it was a decent stab at a remake but it could have been so much better. Two types of people will go to see this film, I think. Those are fans of the original series (who I think I think might be disappointed) and those who are impressed by the famous names to see how they get on (I’m in this second set). It’s not exactly Bad Army but more distinctly average.

POPSCORE: 6/10

What am I talking about? Dad's Army (2016) movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.dadsarmymovie.co.uk/
If you liked this try: The original TV series, Dad's Army, the movie Dad's Army (the original one), M.A.S.H, Hot Fuzz.

REVIEW: Mad Max: Fury Road (15)

George Miller, the septuagenarian director, returns with his latest Mad Max movie - Mad Max: Fury Road. No Mel Gibson here, but replaced by the ladies favourite, Tom Hardy. Also featuring a few other well known names including South Africa’s finest, Charlize Theron, Mad Max takes it forward for the next generation.

Using a dazzling array of amazing stunts (here’s to the old school) and minimal computer aided special effects, Mad Max features a dystopian world where everything seems to be miles away, and the people are all a bit strange.

The world in which they live is one I would never like to live in, but it draws you in with its dystopian vibe and barren landscape. Tom Hardy grunts his way through the movie, and for all that he plays the titular character, the main character, it could be argued, that Furiosa (Theron) is the main hero(ine?).

The bad guys are suitably clownish and crazy with a side order of sinister and evil. The movie is pretty much a road trip from one place to another – then they turn around and come back again. Although light on story, the movie is a dazzling array of stunts and explosions and there is an awesome guitarist with flames coming out of his guitar which pretty much plays for the entire movie as the soundtrack.

The cars (sorry, I think I would be better placed saying vehicles) are characters unto themselves and are often garishly made. Imagine The Fast and the Furious cars with horns and pipes and spikes and a jaded paint job and you wouldn’t be too far from this movie.

The movie is really quite good and I enjoyed it even though it was light on story and heavy on action. But, when a movie is this gripping, you can forgive such fallacies.

There are a couple of points about the movie I want to raise though – this includes the fact that Mad Max doesn’t really feature in this movie as much as he should have, and there was not a lot of dialogue or work for Hardy to do – apart from being tied up and being grumpy. Nicholas Holt’s character Nux, was suitable crazy and helped keep up the frenetic tempo we would expect the film to be. He also gets the best line: “Oh what a day, what a lovely day!”  Theron does a good turn as the heroine taking the slave girls away from the antagonist, and trying to save them. She is suitably kick ass and is a strong independent woman.

The movie overall is a good one, and there is talk of a few sequels too – hopefully Max will be featured more in it, but if not, maybe there’s more scope for a Mad Maxine or something. Who knows?

Mad Max: Fury Road is available on DVD, Blu Ray and download/streaming now.

POPSCORE: 8/10 

What am I talking about? Mad Max: Fury Road

Where can I find out more? http://www.madmaxmovie.com/

If you like this try: The original Mad Max movies, Fast And the Furious (if you like the road trip/car racing part), The Book of Eli, I Am Legend (both of these if you like the apocalyptic loner thing)

REVIEW: The Fantastic Four (or Fant4stic)

Never has a film caused so much of a stir as Josh Trank’s “offering” Fantastic Four. Rocked by controversy and even Twitter updates from the director before release, this film had everything going against it. Stan Lee doesn’t cameo in it and even the trailers looked lack lustre. My blog, as you may have read, celebrates all things geeky, movies, music and more. I should have been excited for this, I should have been chomping at the bit just like I was for Avengers: Age of Ultron. But you know what? I was quite happy to pass it by.

However, I didn’t and watched the movie – and I’m sorely disappointed.

Josh Trank had a great run with the ever-so-popular Chronicle – so he knows how to make a good movie. Although Chronicle was a decent enough movie (not that I particularly thought it was the best myself), his credentials suggest he was capable of stepping up and making a mark with a superhero movie in the mainstream. I was excited at first, but then saw what he wanted to do. He changed the race of Johnny Storm and was starting to make other changes too. I questioned the casting – yes, Kate Mara is a very pretty girl – but was unsure of her Sue Storm. Aside from the whole Human Torch debate, Jamie Bell cast as Ben Grimm/The Thing was another issue for me. I have nothing against Jamie Bell as an actor – and he even hails from the same town as me - but I didn’t think he was the best choice for the role. Miles Teller – who puts in good performances in Divergent and Whiplash was cast as Mr Fantastic too – but again, he wouldn’t be my choice for Reed Richards. However, I have been wrong before – I wasn’t happy with the casting of Daniel Craig as James Bond and Chris Evans as Captain America at the start – but they both were, and still are, excellent actors (and nice guys) and won me over because they are world class actors and made the role theirs. The key point here is that they convinced me that they were the characters that they played.

So onto Fantastic Four. The runtime is around 1 hour and 30 minutes and this is disconcerting for a reboot. I’m not sure how much stuff you can get into a movie that length – especially if it’s not an animation or kids movie. However what I experienced was that, yeah, you can’t get much into it.

Fantastic Four is a reboot of Marvel’s First Family and the truth is – it was my first exposure to Marvel and comics I had followed by Spiderman. I have a soft spot for them and I appreciated the previous movies even though they are generally described as bad. However, this movie takes us back to the days when they were not sure about superhero movies and not the awesome blockbusters we are used to now.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The movie starts with a young Reed Richards in school saying he will do great things at the ridicule of others. Fast forward a few years later (7 actually) and he’s at a Science Fayre where he is selling his wares and inexplicably Franklyn Storm and his adopted daughter, Susan, give Richards a chance to make his idea a reality. Teaming up with Victor Von Doom (who is stereotypically goateed and grumpy) and Sue they set to work on his idea. Meanwhile Johnny Storm is doing a Fast & Furious racing and when he prangs his dad’s car he is kind of grounded and gets forced to work on the project by his dad with the others. After a montage of working lots and about 30 minutes of run time (or more) Ben Grimm gets a phone call to ask if he fancies popping by to have a go at this new device they reckon can get them to another dimension called Planet Zero. Ben, of course, thinks this is an awesome idea and turns up and off they go. Disaster ensues when they visit - they get some powers and leave Doom behind as they think he’s bought the farm. They return a bit injured and, we now at around 50 mins into the film they are tested upon by the government.

Right now we are nearly two thirds through the film and really nothing much has happened. The last 30 minutes is condensed into – oh Dooms alive let’s bring him home, I’m home now I want to go back, let’s go back and fight, the end.

END OF SPOILER

Considering the movie is 1 hour and 30 minutes and it takes nearly 2/3rds of that to get going, this is a massive opportunity wasted for Marvel’s First Family. The characters are bland and uninteresting – it’s as if the writer is thinking “we all know who they are …let’s just get on with it” and then hasn’t a clue what to do with them. Sue Storm spends most of the movie rapping computers and when she does get powers spends most of her time holding her breath and flying around in force bubbles. The Thing doesn’t even have blue eyes (another change which I was not happy about), is completely naked (for the love of Mike, why!?) and spends most of his Thing state begging Reed Richards to help him. Reed himself is a flimsy geek stereotype and not the strong leader we know and love in the comics – he even naffs off for some of the movie and leaves the others behind. No real role stands out except for Reg E. Cathey’s Franklyn Storm who has the deepest voice known to man and comes out with some nice thought provoking statements.

It’s hard to say what exactly went wrong with Fantastic Four without mentioning – well pretty much everything. The casting was suspect, the story makes no sense at all (complete with major plot holes) and the changes the director opted for just doesn’t work. It might have been a decent movie if it wasn’t the Fantastic Four and a bit more of an awareness with continuity and sense but as a Fantastic Four movie it’s just terrible. I’ve never seen such an awful adaption since 1996’s The Avengers (which was based on the 60’s spy series of the same name). The movie is confusing and slow and it’s a massive wasted opportunity. I would love to see what Marvel would do with this franchise if they had control of it – and I’m sure it would be awesome, but as it stands it’s really, really bad.

POPSCORE: 4/10