Saving Mr Banks

(PG) ★★★★

Director: John Lee Hancock.

Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Annie Rose Buckley.

Quite frankly, Walt was embarrassing himself.

PEOPLE in the filmmaking business love to make films about making films.

On the one hand, it's like the old writer's adage "write what you know", but on the other hand it's a way to let audiences peek behind the curtain and see how hard it is to a shoot a movie. In the case of Saving Mr Banks - the story behind the beloved 1964 musical Mary Poppins - it's not even about the difficulties of filming, but rather the problems that can arise before that stage, such as trying to acquire the rights to a book.

Emma Thompson plays PL Travers, the cranky old cow who created Poppins and spent 20 years resisting the advances of Walt Disney (Hanks), who was desperate to bring the flying nanny to the big screen (supposedly to fulfill a promise to his daughters). 

Disney lures Travers from her London home to California to have input on the screenwriting process and to try and gain her approval for his cinematic vision.

Meanwhile, we learn about Travers' tough upbringing in Australia, her relationship with her father (Farrell), and how that ties in with the Mary Poppins stories.

As a result, Saving Mr Banks is two films in one, wonderfully edited together, to create an enjoyable and intriguing biopic. The '60s-set segment in California is like a rom-com but without the rom - Disney's wooing of Travers has all the charms, story beats and personality clashes you would expect in a Taming Of The Shrew-style romance.

The Australian section, set in rural Queensland circa 1906, gently unfolds its sadness and dark clouds and is deftly handled. A particular highlight is Farrell's performance, who delivers the duality of Travers' father beautifully.

His is one of many performances that make Saving Mr Banks an attention-holder in the face of a running time that threatens to be too long (125 minutes). Hanks and Thompson make a great pair - Thompson totally nails the need for Travers to be a sympathetic character despite being a grumpy nay-sayer, while Hanks is old-school smoothness personified as Disney.

On the side, there are wonderful bit parts from Giamatti as Travers' driver in LA, Jason Schwartzman and BJ Novak as Disney songwriting duo The Sherman Brothers, and Bradley Whitford as Mary Poppins screenwriter Don DaGradi.

There are some frustrating questions left unanswered by the film - minor things really - and you can't help but feel the whole thing is a little bit corny and probably hugely exaggerated.

But that's Disney after all. For many decades, the House of Mouse has been associated with good-natured sweetness, all-American charm, and happy endings, and Saving Mr Banks unsurprisingly ticks all of those boxes. Of course, people forget the mild moments of darkness, but that's just good storytelling - Old Walt knew Snow White had to have a witch, Pinocchio needed a scary whale, and that bad things had to happen to Bambi's mum.

As such, Saving Mr Banks is perfectly gauged to suit its subject matter - the light touch of Disney and the toughness of Travers, the slickness of Hollywood and the roughness of the Aussie outback, all rolled together into one story with broad appeal.

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013)

(PG) ★★★

Director: Ben Stiller.

Cast: Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, Kathryn Hahn, Patton Oswalt.

Let's play a game called "Who's Dressed Inappropriately?"

FROM Reality Bites to Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller makes intriguing and varied films whenever he sits down in the director's chair.

But no one probably expected something quite so adventurous as this take on James Thurber's renowned short story, which was famously filmed in the '40s as a Danny Kaye vehicle directed by Norman Z McLeod.

Stiller's version bears as little resemblance to Thurber's story as the McLeod version did - all that remains is the name and the fact that Mitty (played here by Stiller) is a man who "zones out" of his dull life, daydreaming amazing and heroic achievements to make up for the ordinariness of his everyday existence.

In this iteration, Mitty works at Life magazine as a clerk in the photography department and is charged with handing over the image for the final cover - a "quintessence"-capturing shot from acclaimed snapper Sean O'Connell (Penn). But when the negative can't be found, Mitty must finally break out of his work-a-day drudgery and do something noteworthy.

It's an ambitious film from Stiller and its $90 million budget is evident on the screen in some stunning set-pieces straight out of Mitty's imagination, such as a flying leap into an exploding building and a rolling streetfight through New York traffic.

This ambition and excitement keep the enjoyment level rolling along through the dull patches. The movie comes crashing back to earth each time Mitty returns to reality, which is obviously the plan, but even when Mitty finally takes off on his big adventure, the film struggles to keep a consistent pace or tone.

While initially touted as awards bait, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty doesn't get to that level. It aims to be profound but its central message and theme - that Mitty needs to get a life - is hammered home with all the subtlety of a helicopter to the face. Mitty works at Life, the magazine's "meaning of life" motto is trotted out about a dozen times ... yeah, we get it.

But you still have to admire the film. It's fun and inventive, and Stiller tries to tap into his inner Michel Gondry, with inventive visuals that bring the imaginary world crashing into the real one, even if it lacks the high levels of quirk found in Gondry films.

It's also one of the better Stiller performances we've seen to date, while Scott is wonderfully obnoxious as the manager in charge of shutting down Life magazine, Oswalt is funny as an eHarmony technician, and Penn is nicely restrained as rogue photographer O'Connell.

The plot itself is both frustrating and rewarding. I'm terrible at predicting twists, but a major plot point about the missing negative almost had me screaming at the screen for an hour. Despite this, the film still managed to resolve in a satisfactory manner.

It's this kind of up-and-down nature that sums up The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. As adventurous as it is, it still feels very safe. As charming as it is, it's also very frustrating. And as much as it has a lot of warmth and heart to it, it comes off as obvious and a bit superficial.

Thankfully it's fun and predominantly enjoyable, making it definitely worth a look. Stiller has aimed high, and even if he hasn't made it to the top, the view is still pretty good from where he ended up.

Frozen

(PG) ★★★★

Director: Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee.

Cast: (voices of) Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana.

Everyone agreed the snowman was weird and freaking them out.

DISNEY and princesses go hand in hand like New Year's Day and hangovers.

In fact, it was princess-starring Tangled - the 2010 computer-animated reworking of Rapunzel - that finally gave the House of Mouse a much-needed hit worthy of "Walt Disney Animated Classics" title after a bit of a dry spell.

That was followed by the ingenious video game story Wreck-It Ralph, but Disney has returned to what it knows best with another princess tale in Frozen, giving the animation studio its third winner in a row.

According to the credits, Frozen is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, although any resemblance between this film and that fairytale is vague at best.

Frozen follows two sisters - Elsa (Menzel), a princess born with the power to create and manipulate ice and snow, and Anna (Bell), her non-magical younger sibling - as they grow up in the Scandanavian-like kingdom of Arendelle.

After a childhood accident involving Elsa's powers, the family is warned that Elsa should be kept isolated in case her powers should cause more trouble, but this becomes impossible when she is forced to take over the throne.

What's intriguing about Frozen, making it unlike most fairy tales, is that there is no real villain. The story doesn't lack anything because of this though. In fact, it yields intriguing and well-rounded characters, who seem to be unwilling to harm Elsa and instead are trying to help her deal with her ice problem (which makes me wonder - is this whole film some strange kind of drug addiction parable? Probably not but I'm sure I won't be the only critic to raise that analogy).

Frozen is great fun for all ages, bouncing along at such a great pace that not even the songs can slow it down.

Yep, that's right - there are songs here. This is a return to the grand old days of Disney princesses who burst into song at the drop of a glass slipper, but thankfully the tunes are pretty good.

There are also plenty of laughs, thanks largely to the presence of Olaf The Snowman, voiced perfectly by Gad, whose presence is inexplicable but welcome thanks to the humour he injects into the film.

Aside from the set-up feeling slightly forced, Frozen is fun from start to finish. The set-pieces look amazing, the voice work is great (despite the selective use of Scandanavian accents), the comedy is strong and all-ages, and the story rolls along nicely.

This is definitely one for the whole family to chill out with on a hot Aussie summer's day.

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug

This is a version of a review that aired on ABC Ballarat in January, 2014.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Peter Jackson.

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Luke Evans.

Bilbo had found more chocolate coins than you could poke an Easter bunny at.

WE'RE five films into Peter Jackson's journey through Middle Earth and it's bleedingly obvious he could lead the way with his eyes closed.

The Kiwi director deftly navigates a path between the dark perils of JRR Tolkien's fantasy world and the necessary jokey lighter moments. He knows the landscape, the history and the races probably better than his native New Zealand, and he understands the stories of Middle Earth on both the small scale and the large. Because of this, The Hobbit Part II is a walk in the park for him, albeit a park filled with shapeshifting bear-men, large spiders and an even larger dragon.

The flaws of it are the same as those of the first film, but the peaks and strengths are the same as we have seen throughout the rest of the acclaimed Middle Earth movies - in fact, these are things we've come to take for granted.

So as hobbit "burglar" Bilbo Baggins (Freeman), venerable wizard Gandalf (McKellan) and the 13 dwarves continue their journey towards the Lonely Mountain to reclaim the dwarves' home and wealth, we are again treated to a film that looks amazing, is well performed, and is immensely enjoyable.

The biggest issue coming into each instalment of Jackson's Middle Earth films is managing our own expectations - we've been so spoilt with the previous works, plus so many people are so familiar with the source material, all of which works to set the bar pretty high. With The Desolation Of Smaug, Jackson clears the bar with ease.

Two of the key components of this section of the story - a wild barrel ride down an Elvish river and the introduction of the toothsome firebreather Smaug himself - are triumphs of the film, with the former turned into an epic and impressive running battle, and the latter a wonder of CG animation and given voice through Benedict Cumberbatch and some impressive audio trickery.

The liberties taken with the original text, such as the introduction of new character Tauriel (Lilly) and the expansion of Gandalf's side adventure, serve to make the tone of story sit closer to The Lord Of The Rings, rather than the kiddishness of Tolkien's book, and drawing more out of the simplistic tale.

The flipside of this is the biggest flaw of the two Hobbit films so far - trying to stretch such a slight book into a trilogy means that there is a bit of excess padding. There are no songs this time around, but Jackson takes his sweet time with every character and every plot point, which is not totally a bad thing and the padding is less obvious in part two, but the pacing does slow to a crawl every so often.

It's a minor quibble and let's face it - Jackson's Middle Earth is a pretty cool cinematic universe to hang out in and kill some time, largely because of the director's insane attention to detail, particularly evident in the art design and set creation involved in bringing Lake Town to life.

Amid all the epic fantasy, it's easy to overlook the performances, but again they are solid. Freeman continues to prove an inspired piece of casting, McKellan's Gandalf is once again outstanding, Armitage leads the dwarves admirably, while the additions of Lilly as Tauriel and Luke Evans as Bard are welcome. Strangely, it's only Orlando Bloom - a veteran of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy - who doesn't quite seem at home, as if he's wondering what he's doing back in Middle Earth.

There are other issues, such as the fact radiant heat seems to be non-existent in Middle Earth (particularly evident in the final showdown with Smaug) but it feels silly arguing about physics in a movie with a huge dragon and a man who can turn into a bear.

If you've been enjoying Jackson's ride through Middle Earth, you won't be disappointed with The Desolation Of Smaug.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

(M)  ★★★

Director: Adam McKay.

Cast: Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Kristen Wiig, Meagan Good, Christina Applegate, James Marsden, Dylan Baker.

Godzilla didn't look that scary.

It may come as a surprise, but the first Anchorman movie was not an immediate box-office smash.

It wasn't until the DVD audience latched on to it that the adventures of Ron Burgundy and co became one of the most quoted movies of all time, resulting in lines such as "I love lamp", "Boy, that escalated quickly", and "60 per cent of the time, it works every time" regularly invading conversations and the internet.

Maybe that's why it has taken nine years for a sequel to emerge - the first film was still building momentum for a lot of that time.

For Anchorman 2, the plot - and I use the word 'plot' very, very loosely - focuses on Ferrell's moustachioed newsreader Burgundy hitting rock bottom and attempting to claw his way back to the top courtesy of fledgling TV network GNN.

GNN, led by fiery award-winning producer Linda Jackson (Good), is the first 24-hour news network, and Burgundy and his team - daft weatherman Brick Tamland (Carell), insane sports reporter Champ Kind (Koechner) and lothario journalist Brian Fantana (Rudd) - are along for the ride.

There are also some subplots about Burgundy attempting to repair relationships with his wife Veronica (Applegate) and his son Walter (Judah Nelson), a rivalry between Burgundy and handsome fellow anchorman Jack Lime (Marsden), Brick's office romance with equally odd receptionist Chani (Wiig), and some mostly pointless waffle about Aussie network owner and media tycoon Kench Allenby (Josh Lawson).

But Anchorman 2's success doesn't hinge on its storyline, which is fortunate because it ranges from the bizarre to the bland, such as Burgundy and his son raising a shark called Doby (bizarre), and anything involving Lawson's Allenby (bland).

This film is about the laughs and the antics. There are certain things fans are probably expecting in the sequel - a bit of jazz flute, Brick's nutty non-sequiturs, a large-scale news team battle royale - and they're all here, plus the laughs come in sporadic but frequent-enough waves.

In this sense, the sequel is a success. The dialogue is quotable, the gags hit more than they miss, Brick's idiocy is a highlight (particularly his encounters with green screen and a funeral), and the cameo-heavy fight at the end is worth the ticket price alone.

Is it as good as the first one? The short answer is no.

The longer answer is that while much of the humour and situations feel interchangeable, the first film moved at a steadier pace and with a better winning-joke ratio, whereas Anchorman 2 suddenly grinds to a halt in the latter half and features a lot more jokes that miss their mark. A particularly wasted opportunity is Lawson's Allenby, who looks like Richard Branson but acts like Rupert Murdoch and had the potential to be an interesting character but who just becomes part of the film's applaudable moral about the importance of the news and what the media should be doing in our society. Surely "our Josh" deserves better.

The cast are at ease returning to their roles, and Carell gets more screen time, his star having risen in the period between films. The reliance on improvisation is unfortunately more obvious this time, evident in the far-from-seamless editing within scenes.

But no one who goes to see this film cares about that stuff, do they? They just want to laugh at Burgundy's ego-driven idiocy and Brick's endless stream of 'what the?' moments.

With that in mind, it's perhaps easiest to simply say this - if you love Anchorman, you'll love Anchorman 2.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2

(G) ★★

Director: Cody Cameron & Kris Pearn.

Cast: (voices of) Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Terry Crews, Kristen Schaal.

Animals you can eat? What will they think of next?

THE first Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was zany with more than a chance of becoming a favourite for fans of quality CG animation.

It was a feast for the eyes, with its wacky food-gone-crazy antics mashed onto a disaster-movie base to create a tasty new treat that was very different to the offerings served up by Pixar, Blue Sky, Dreamworks or any other major animation house.

Naturally, Sony Animation had to go back for seconds, but the latest helping of this story is a bit like eating chocolate cake - sure the first piece is good, but the more you eat, the less enjoyable it becomes.

Cloudy 2 picks up where the first film left off, with Flint Lockwood (Hader) and his friends saving the day from his invention that turns water into food, which ran amok and turned their island of Swallow Falls into something that resembles the floor under the kids table after Christmas dinner.

Just as they're celebrating shutting down Flint's FLDSMDFR (yes, that's what the invention is called), famed inventor Chester V arrives at Swallow Falls to lead the clean-up operation, ushering residents off the island and recruiting Flint to work at his company.

But all is not as it seems, and soon Flint and his friends are heading back to Swallow Falls, which has become a menagerie of "foodimals" that could threaten to takeover the world.

These "foodimals" are both the best and worst thing about Cloudy 2. While they are visually impressive and make for an interesting plot device at times, they ultimately become a tiresome parade of bad puns - their portmanteau names like "shrimpanzees", "watermelephants" and "flamangoes" are increasingly groan-inducing, yet it seems this is the bulk of the film's humour.

They're a good example of the kids-only gags that have replaced the all-ages laughs of the first film, with only the background antics of Flint's monkey Steve saving the day.

As a children-only adventure, Cloudy 2 works reasonably well. It's a frenetic barrage of colour and action, with plenty of bizarre set-pieces to keep the attention of a young audience. It revels in its "mysterious island" setting, the plot isn't too bad, and it does a good job of maintaining momentum, mostly by ditching things such as character development, any deeper themes, or any kind of emotional investment.

On the other hand, the teens and adults will be left hungry for something more substantial. The inventiveness of the first installment seems reduced to a one-ingredient dish, the themes are so subtle as to be almost non-existent, and its difficult to find much of a care-factor for Flint and his friends because they're not meaty characters.

This is where the difference between these two servings of Meatballs lies. The original was a well-cooked smorgasbord for the whole family, while the sequel is like a kids' dessert menu - all sweets, no substance.

If you think the food metaphors and similes I've whipped up in this review became increasingly tiresome and childish, then that perhaps is the best analogy of all for describing Cloudy 2.

Thor: The Dark World

(M) ★★★

Director: Alan Taylor.

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård.

When shooting boy band publicity shots, never look at the camera.

WITH its sequel to Thor, the eighth movie in Marvel's Cinematic Universe, the comic book company's film arm is proving to be not unlike Thor himself - pretty much bomb-proof and unstoppable.

Even Iron Man 2, the runt of the MCU litter, made a mint, but if you're looking at Thor 2 and expecting a turkey or a flop, keep looking.

It's far from perfect - The Dark World has got some serious script issues - but even these can't detract from the fun and spectacle on display.

But be warned - the MCU is becoming an increasingly tangled web of stories and newcomers are less welcome with each new film. References to past events from the series fly by faster than Thor's hammer so prior reading is expected. If you haven't seen the first Thor or even The Avengers, this sequel is not the place to dive into these tales of superheroes, gods, and their growing mythology.

The big baddies this time around are the Dark Elves, a scary bunch of hi-tech ancient ones led by the dead-eyed Malekith (Eccleston), who looks like a pointy-eared shark with a ponytail.

He's seeking vengeance for a past defeat, which he hopes to pull off with a universe-destroying MacGuffin known as the Aether. Naturally, Thor and his hammer are out to stop him.

There are some surprising plot holes in the early stage of the film that don't feel like mistakes, but more like the film has been slightly trimmed to cut down the running time, leaving the audience to fill in some mildly annoying gaps along the way.

Despite this - or maybe as a result of this - the plot moves along at a good pace, dotted with impressive fight sequences, good gags, and a few jaw-dropping CG sequences.

Amid the carnage are good characters and some great performances. Hemsworth seems more at home than ever as Thor, more confident than cocky this time around, while Hiddleston's Loki is again a highlight. Their relationship is central, as it was in the previous Thor film, but has evolved into something new and intriguing this time around.

It's these returning characters - and the development and relationships given to them by the writers and actors - that are a highlight of the film, bringing depth amid the bombast and explosions. The connections between Loki and Thor, Loki and his parents Frigga (Rene Russo) and Odin (Hopkins), Odin and Thor, and Thor and love interest Jane (Portman) that make this a healthy melodrama somewhere between Shakespeare and soap opera. The return of Skarsgård's Erik Selvig is also hilariously welcome.

The humour really is a highlight - it could be argued this is the funniest Marvel movie to date, even outpacing the typically Whedon repartee of The Avengers. Some bit players are there only for gags, such as Kat Dennings' Darcy, Chris O'Dowd's Richard and the otherwise unneccessary Ian the intern, but it is Loki who is again a scene-stealer, delivering moodbreakers and withering putdowns with humourous ease.

The humour does ride on a knife-edge though. It's a necessary foil to the po-faced business of Norse gods flying between realms and saving the universe, but it almost goes too far into self-ridicule (and some fans might find the hilarity hard to stomach).

Take for instance the ending, which is great - it's wildly inventive and hilarious. But it teeters on the edge of wackiness, balancing precariously over a chasm of plot-holes that are filled in with technobabble so as to be less obvious. If you can laugh along and still be gripped, it's a spectacular finale.

Thor was seen as being a risk for Marvel first time round, but they pulled it off with casual ease. It seems to be a trickier world to manage on a second outing, but fans will still be pleased.