Woman In Gold

(M) ★★★½

Director: Simon Curtis.

Cast: Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Bruhl, Tatiana Maslany, Katie Holmes, Antje Traue.

The preview screenings for Deadpool were a hit.

FILMMAKERS will never stop making films about World War II and this is a good thing.

Firstly, lest we forget, and secondly, that dark hour of human history has a near-endless number of surprising and fascinating stories that should be told.

Case in point is Woman In Gold, another unexpected tale looking at an oft-forgotten ramification of the war.

It's based on the true story of Maria Altmann (Mirren), a Jewish woman keen to regain ownership of a portrait of her aunt, which was stolen from her family by the Nazis during WWII. Unfortunately for Maria, that painting happens to be an iconic Austrian artwork and one of the most valuable paintings in the world - Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I aka Woman In Gold.

With the help of down-on-his-luck lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Reynolds) - also of Austrian descent - the pair embark on a typically David-vs-Goliath struggle against the Austrian government.

While this story has probably been better and more accurately told in at least three documentaries (Stealing Klimt, Adele's Wish, and The Rape Of Europa), none of those retellings had the marvellous Mirren.

Whether she's playing Elizabeth II in The Queen or toting machine guns in RED, Mirren is rarely short of perfection, and her turn in Woman In Gold is no exception.

She imbues Altmann with the necessary mix of resilience and regret, of strength and sadness that comes with living through tragedy, but adds a welcome touch of humour and a deep sense of honour. It's not a flashy performance, nor is it the kind that turns award-givers' heads - it's just good solid craft from an actor who's still at the top of her game.

Reynolds, who seems to be maligned more for his bad choices than his performances (see The Green Lantern, RIPD, and The Change-Up), is a great foil for Mirren here, dialing down the smarm and putting in the charm as Schoenberg. It's more than that though - he brings the requisite amount of emotion and reminds us again how underrated he is (see Buried, Adventureland, and The Voices).

It's these performances, as well as a thankless turn from Bruhl as an Austrian reporter, and a neat cameo from Jonathan Pryce as a chief justice, that elevate Woman In Gold.

The story clunks a bit, either as a result of some unnecessary over-scripting or slightly-off editing, and although the film generally juggles its two time periods reasonably well, occasionally the transition is jarring.

It's also a very moving film, but occasionally pushily so. Curtis, who mined historical gold previously with My Week With Marilyn, throws in a few slow zooms straight out of an afternoon soapie and turns up the sombre strings when he really should just let the story and the performances speak for themselves. Because, after all, it's the fascinating real-life underdog story (as predictable as it is) and the pairing of Mirren and Reynolds that are the focus here.

Woman In Gold is not exactly a work of art, but it's worth the price of admission.

Mad Max: Fury Road

(MA15+) ★★★★

Director: George Miller.

Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne.

Bathurst was off the hook this year.

WHEN Tina Turner sang We Don't Need Another Hero in Beyond Thunderdome it sounded like an effective sign-off for the Mad Max series. And despite the fact we didn't need another Max Max movie, we have one.

Thankfully it's awesome, combining the best elements of all three previous films - the ominous atmosphere of the first movie, the exhilarating and intense action of the second one, and the larger world-building and end-of-days ramifications of Beyond Thunderdome.

At its core, Fury Road is basically a two-hour-long stunt-heavy chase sequence, with small amounts of plot and a bare minimum of character development eked out along the way.

We're reintroduced to Max (with Tom Hardy more than adequately filling Mel Gibson's dust-covered boots) in the post-apocalyptic desert, haunted by his past and those he couldn't save.

Captured by the despotic warlord Immortan Joe (Keays-Byrne), Max is forced into servitude as a "blood bag" for one of his warriors (Hoult) and sent off into battle to hunt Furiosa (Theron), who has fled with five of Joe's wives.

What follows is the very definition of an action movie. It's white-knuckle, edge-of-your-seat, strap-in-and-feel-the-Gs film-making that whirs by refreshingly quick in a blur of dirt, flame, and flying car parts.

There's a fear that such an endeavour could become repetitive, given that it's chase after chase after chase, but somehow it doesn't. The strange relationship (which is largely unspoken) between Furiosa and Max helps build some effective quiet moments, without ever letting the intensity slide.

In these lulls we also get a greater understanding of the dead future Miller has been hinting at since Max first fired up the Pursuit Special in 1979 - it's an apocalypse that makes the one in The Road look like a holiday park.

Miller reportedly didn't bother with a script first and instead just made a bunch of storyboards, which shows. The film is not big on dialogue but manages to say a lot without saying much, which is refreshing (although some will complain that we don't get enough of an idea about the characters).

Fury Road is largely about the visuals - of stunningly designed Franken-vehicles, of mind-blowing practical stunts, of blown-out colours and slowed-down frame rates that accentuate the incredibly staged set-pieces.

There are some strange moments, such as the way the truck noises disappear during some conversations or how the accents are all over the shop (isn't this set in Australia?), and admittedly this is not going to be to all tastes, nor is it terribly cerebral film-making.

But this will surely please action aficionados and fans of the previous films, and it could be the best non-superhero action movie of the past decade.

Pitch Perfect 2

(M) ★★★

Director: Elizabeth Banks.

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam DeVine, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins.

The Bellas embraced their new roles as sneaker salespeople.

IF you needed to study the formula for sequel-making, look no further than Pitch Perfect 2.

All the rules are adhered to - the characters have been brought down to a new low after the high of the previous film's climax, the stakes have been upped, the villains are tougher to defeat, and there's the requisite new character on board.

On top of this you have to ensure the vibe and tone of the film is the same, while striving to be bigger and hopefully better.

Pitch Perfect 2 certainly hits all those notes without being better than the charmingly funny and enjoyable original, but it gets a pass by being reasonably amusing and bursting with great musical performances.

This time around all-girl collegiate a cappella group The Bella Bardens find themselves in danger of being permanently shut down after a wardrobe malfunction at a Presidential event that would have even Janet Jackson blushing.

Their only hope of earning re-instatement is winning an international a capella contest, which would mean defeating the hot favourites from Germany, Das Sound Machine. To do that, The Bellas need to re-discover their sound, overcome their fears, and realise that college can't last forever.

So much of the first film's success hinged on its humour and its harmonies, and while not as fresh second time around, those ingredients are still present. Kendrick's charm and Wilson's comedic skills are once again a plus, as are the snarky commentary duo of Banks (making her directorial debut too) and Higgins, who get all the best (and most inappropriate) lines.

There's enough goodwill from the first film to roll over and carry along this so-so sequel and help overcome its bum notes, largest of which is the way the middle section drags. In the second act we follow the Bellas through an underground a cappella competition (which benefits from a David Cross cameo and some great tunes), a team-building retreat, plus subplots for Kendrick's Beca and Wilson's Fat Amy thrown in for good measure too, and it's all a bit much as it slows the film and makes it longer than it needs to be.

A more streamlined script might have helped, but at least the pay-off is worthwhile - as in the previous film, the crescendo is a real showstopper. On top of the closing number, the aforementioned underground a cappella battle is a highlight, as is Das Sound Machine's impressive cover of Muse' Uprising.

Inevitably, a third film is in the works and it almost feels like Steinfeld's character was introduced merely so there was someone to carry the torch into another sequel after all The Bellas graduate.


But for all its flaws, Pitch Perfect 2 does all it needs to do to entertain those who enjoyed the original.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron

(M) ★★★★

Director: Joss Whedon.

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany.

Super-awesome friends fistbump!

THE Marvel Cinematic Universe has come a long way since Robert Downey Jr first strapped on the Iron Man suit in 2008.

Through an interweaving web of 10 films we've seen Norse gods, super-soldiers, alien attacks, a mono-syllabic tree and a gun-toting raccoon, with the high watermark being 2012's The Avengers, which brought most of these things together for the third-biggest grossing film of all time.

It was the culmination of what is now called a "mega-franchise" - something comic book rivals DC are desperately and hurriedly trying to mimic - but it set the bar impossibly high for every MCU film that followed.

It's a bar that the 11th film, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, can't quite reach, but that doesn't stop it from being an action-packed rollercoaster punctuated by some cool character moments and ruled by a great villain.

After some individual adventures (Iron Man 3, Captain America 2 and Thor 2), the Avengers re-assemble to track down Loki's sceptre - a left-over MacGuffin from their first team-up.

But Iron Man longs for a time when he doesn't have to strap on his battle armour, so he and Bruce Banner (Ruffalo) set about using the staff to create a super-smart super-suit to protect the entire world from intergalactic threats.

The result is Ultron (Spader), a robot who sees the world's biggest threat as coming not from space, but from humanity itself.

Whedon's wit and way with words, such a highlight in The Avengers, are back in full force for Age Of Ultron and are particularly evident in the titular robot, where Spader's delicious delivery (and some motion-capture wizardry) help create an android with attitude that's unlike any we've seen before.

The character of Ultron also sets up some interesting themes about gods and evolution - there's some intriguing science-meets-spirituality ideas at play here, but nothing too heavy as Whedon's humour ensures a nice mix of levity and gravity.

In fact it's the script's talky moments that are the real highlight, perhaps more so than the bash-and-crash spectacle. Most notable is a scene where the Avengers just hang out and play a party game of "Try to Lift Thor's Hammer" - it's this kind of stuff that sticks in the memory more than most of the action.

Not that the action is bad though. There is a tendency for it to whiz by in too-quick edits and blurs of CG imagery, but some parts are outstanding, such as a single-take opening shot and the much-previewed Hulk vs Iron Man showdown.

Another highlight, especially for the fans, is the introduction of new characters. We get the super-powered Maximoff twins (Taylor-Johnson and Olsen), the aforementioned Ultron, and The Vision (Bettany), with the latter being a fascinating prospect for future films. There are also a few "hey it's that guy" moments for some returning characters.

Where the film struggles is juggling such a big cast evenly. It seemed a Herculean task in The Avengers with six characters (one that Whedon pulled off amazingly well) but here we're up to at least 10 characters and it's near impossible to keep track of them when they split up for the final battle. They each get their moment to shine, but it's occasionally too many balls to juggle in the editing suite.

Even less successful is a seemingly out-of-nowhere romance between two characters, and a few strange plot points, including one which is best described as "Thor goes for a swim". These elements stick out as "huh?" moments but are not enough to drag the film down.

After all, this is a comic book movie, and there is a fair amount of comic book insanity and MacGuffin mumbo jumbo involving alien technology and "computer magic", so the best idea is to just strap in for the ride because it's a fun one, filled with plenty of laughs, great spectacle, and more cool characters than you can poke Loki's sceptre at.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

(PG) ★½

Director: Andy Fickman.

Cast: Kevin James, Neal McDonough, Raini Rodriguez, Eduardo Verastegui, Daniella Alonso.

Andre Rieu had let himself go.

THE fact this film exists is baffling.

Yes, the 2009 original made a surprising amount of money - about seven times its budget - but who was clamouring six years on to see the further adventures of this overly passionate and unfunnily disillusioned security guard?

In fact, who clamours to see anything starring Kevin James, an actor whose primary skills involve falling over and not being funny?

If you're thinking "I do!" then you're in luck, because Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 is full of James falling over and not being funny.

James returns as the moustachioed mall cop, who was riding high on his segway at the end of the first film, having saved the day and got the girl.

At the start of the sequel, he's lost the girl and the glory of his heroism has faded.

But when he attends a security guard conference in Las Vegas, Blart stumbles upon a team of thieves stealing priceless artworks from one of the casinos and an opportunity to be a hero once more.

There are three, maybe four laughs across the 90 minutes of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, most of which are in the final half hour, so you could almost say the film gets up a head of steam in the home straight. Almost.

Conversely this leaves long stretches without much to chuckle about, and given that the film is supposed to be a comedy (because we're sure as hell not in it for the tantalisingly plot twists, superlative performances or thought-provoking subject matter) it's not unfair to call this a near-total failure.

As a result, when a joke actually lands successfully you get not so much a feeling of mirth, but of surprise.

In trying to find pluses for this film, aside from the three or four "LOLs" in the last half hour, the best that can be said is there's a fight sequence toward the end that's done pretty well and Raini Rodriguez is admirably plucky in her performance as Blart's daughter Maya.

Another plus is that it's better than some of the other titles in the Kevin James back catalogue, namely Grown Ups and Zookeeper, but that's like saying one bout of syphilis was better than another bout of syphilis - the fact remains you still had syphilis.

The Longest Ride

(M) ★★½

Director: George Tillman Jr.

Cast: Britt Robertson, Scott Eastwood, Alan Alda, Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin.

"You're laugh now, but seriously, I've seen the mosquitoes here carry away a small child."

WHEN the name "Nicholas Sparks" appears on a movie poster, you know what you're in for.

It's going to be a romance. It's going to feature bad dialogue being said by incredibly attractive people destined to fall for each other. Its themes will involve love enduring against the odds. And there will more than likely be a scene where the main characters kiss in either the rain or a lake. Or both.

The only question that remains is where on the Sparks adaptation scale the film sits. Is it up there with the so-so Nights In Rodanthe, or in the middle with the highly over-rated and morally bankrupt The Notebook, or is it somewhere down the bottom near the abysmal The Best Of Me?

The Longest Ride is probably in that middle range. It's certainly not as bad as The Best Of Me and it shares some similarities with The Notebook.

But in terms of quality, it's more like Safe Haven in reverse. Safe Haven starts well and wins you over before ruining everything with the dumbest final act twist ever committed to celluloid - The Longest Ride starts poorly but slowly grows on you somewhat as its two stories intertwine, with the affection you'll feel for the stronger story slowly bleeding into the lesser one.

That lesser story involves rodeo star Luke (Scott "Son Of Clint" Eastwood) falling for bookish art student Sophia (Robertson). He's recently back in the saddle after a serious injury so he can save the family ranch; she's leaving for New York in two months and doesn't have time for a rural romance.

But during their first date they cross paths with Ira Levinson (Alda), an old man who recollects his relationship with his wife Ruth.


The hokey start is hard to get past, despite the best efforts of Robertson and Eastwood. We get a heavy dose of rodeo, bootscooting, cowboy hats and that terrible plastic type of country music as Sophia and Luke make doe eyes at each other and fumble with small talk.

Even as their relationship blossoms it's still not compelling viewing. "Every girl wants a cowboy," intones one character, and even as the reality of that situation - they have absolutely nothing in common and want completely different things in life - sinks in and the problems arise, the storyline is, to quote Lisa Simpson, kind of "meh".

It's the relationship between Ira and Ruth that is the saving grace of the film. As it unwinds in the '40s and '50s, the emotion and drama in that story actually makes Sophia and Luke's tale become more interesting by association, as well as giving the movie a serious helping of heart.

Alda's presence adds gravitas, the film is beautifully shot, and Eastwood is probably destined for stardom, but that's not enough to truly redeem The Longest Ride, possibly because the moral within, while not as bad as The Notebook's, is not very good.

As much as the movie is trying to tell us that true love endures and that it can overcome pretty much anything, its ending inadvertently adds the tag "... if you've got lots of money".

What the hell kind of romantic message is that?

Fast & Furious 7

(M) ★★★

Director: James Wan.

Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel.

"But there's only six of us....?"

DESPITE what Vin Diesel thinks, Fast & Furious 7 is not going to win next year's Oscar for best film.

The fact that Diesel said such a thing in an interview is indicative of what this film means to him and his fellow cast and crew.

For them, this is more than just another instalment in the astoundingly popular series that began in 2001 as a movie based on an article about illegal street racing and somehow morphed into a high-octane heist-action franchise. This is their eulogy, farewell, and tribute to late co-star Paul Walker, who played the likeable hero Brian O'Conner in all-bar-one of the films and who died in a car crash mid-way through production of F&F7.

Walker's passing certainly haunts the movie. There will be a slightly morbid fascination for many, intrigued by how the franchise deals with his death. There is also the subconscious game of "Spot The Stand-In/CG Face" that you can't help but play from time to time.

All of this weighs heavily on the film, which stirs up the emotions a couple of times when Paul Walker's reality seeps into the Brian O'Conner's reality.

But no, sorry Mr Diesel, F&F7 is not going to win the best film Oscar.

However if there was an Academy Award for the film with the most preposterous, impossible, implausible, illogical and insane moments in it, then F&F7 would totally be in the running.

This time Toretto (Diesel) and his team are being hunted by Deckard Shaw (Statham, whose presence was teased at the end of F&F6), who is seeking revenge for what happened to his brother Owen (Luke Evans) in the previous film.

Meanwhile a shadowy government agent known as Mr Nobody (a scene-stealing Russell) offers Toretto and co the means to take out Shaw if they retrieve a kidnapped hacker (Emmanuel) from a group of terrorists.

The series has slowly evolved from its surprisingly humble beginnings into something equivalent to a nitrous-fuelled, roided-up motorised (read: American) version of the Bond franchise, with its exotic locales, insane villains, hot girls, covert operations, insane action sequences, and cool cars.

All of that is on show and, in typical franchise fashion, F&F7 attempts to up-the-ante on the previous films' stunts, such as the bank vault drag from #5 and the longest runway in the world in #6.

So here we get the utterly bonkers parachute drop seen in the trailer and a CG-heavy sequence involving a trio of Abu Dhabi skyscrapers, both of which have to be seen to be believed (or rather disbelieved because they defy physics, logic and reason).

This level of insanity is not an issue - this is what you sign up for when you purchase a ticket to a Fast & Furious movie.

What is an issue is the on-going soap opera elements - the amnesia, the various secrets - that just feel clunky and awkward as the script struggles to find anything close to character development amid the car crashes and explosions. There's also a near-death recovery in here that ranks as one of the dumbest ever committed to film, and the old "it's all about family" theme which has been a part of the last four films gets wheeled out again (although ironically the good guys are fighting a bad guy who is after revenge for what happened to his family).

But it's hard to write-off F&F7 because it does what it says on the box - big, dumb car-based action, although this time it's infused with some genuine heart as it pays its respects to Walker.

Be warned though. "Over-the-top" doesn't cut it as a descriptor for these movies any more - there needs to be an adjective for whatever is above "over-the-top", because that's what F&F7 is.