Big Hero 6, Inherent Vice & Trash – Richards Reckons Reviews

An inflatable personal healthcare assistant, a near-permanently stoned private detective and three young Brazilian boys are all in cinemas this week. What a crazy world it is beyond that big silver window.

Let’s start with Big Hero 6.

Big Hero 6 is the latest fruit to blossom from the acquisition of Marvel properties by the big dogs at Disney (they’re not literally dogs. Well, I don’t think so anyway – that said I’ve never seen them and dogs in the same room at the same time…). Based on a Marvel comic book series (but NOT part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Big Hero 6 follows a young man from San Fransokyo called Hiro (Ryan Potter), a gifted child prodigy who graduated high school at 13. Since then, he’s been making money illegal bot fighting in the backstreets. His brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) introduces him to his university robotics lab, as well as his friends Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jnr), Fred (TJ Miller), GoGo (Jamie Chung) and Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez). He also introduces him to his invention; a personal healthcare companion designated to helping and healing people named Baymax (Scott Adsit). After Hiro witnesses his microbot inventions being used for evil after he thought he lost them forever, he and Baymax assemble a team together (as well as creating several “upgrades” along the way) to try to get them back.

Big Hero 6 is the latest movie from Disney and the successor to the insanely popular (and in my opinion massively overrated but that’s just me) Frozen, so it has big ol’ chilly boots to fill. And, in my opinion, it’s an absolutely resounding success in doing so. When I saw Big Hero 6 for the second time, I decided to buy a little cup with Baymax on the top of it. When strolling back home afterwards, kids would point at it and identified who it was right away, asking their guardians to get their own bits of merchandise. This is after the movie had been out for LESS THAN A WEEK. Mark my words, Baymax and co. will be everywhere soon, and for good reason.

Firstly, the colourful characters are all wonderful – each of them have their own distinct personality traits that makes them all gel together nicely as well as differ enough to become instantly recognisable. Each member of the Big Hero 6 team is loveable and fun in their own way, from catchphrases (GoGo’s “woman up!” spin on the classic phrase is particularly fantastic) to later powers. But special kudos goes to Hiro and Baymax for being such a great team – and despite the fact that one of them is a robot, they both have real growth and real character arcs.

In fact, in some respects that I obviously cannot go into, the film itself can actually be heartbreaking. Especially towards its climax, where it contains some of the most touching moments I’ve seen for a long time in animation. Any film that can conjure up these emotions in a 23 year old man (even if I am a bit of a softie) deserves emotional plaudits really. But don’t be fooled by that; the script is bubbling over with witty dialogue and jokes, as well as brilliantly timed physical comedy (the sight of Baymax walking in his armour is among the most hilarious in the film itself).

I mean, sure, the plot is contrived within an inch of its life, has twists which are pretty easily foreseeable and it doesn’t seem original – but it’s such a touching, dynamically told version of a super-heroic team up narrative that you just don’t mind that. Tears will be shed in the cinema, both from laughing and crying, but it’s such a fun adventure to go on that it’s well worth your eyes leaking. Directors Don Hall and Chris Williams have done a fantastic job here in crafting such a lovely movie that’s fun and dazzling along the way. A truly enjoyable experience.

Also I really want to visit San Fransokyo. It looks amazing.

Onto Inherent Vice.

Right, where do I start with THIS plot summary. Bear with me here. So, Inherent Vice follows Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), a private detective living in Los Angeles in 1970 who also happens to be a near permanently stoned hippie. One day, he is visited by his rather floaty ex-girlfriend Shasta (Katherine Waterston). She explains that she has a new lover by the name of Mickey Wolfman (Eric Roberts) and how his wife supposedly has a plot to get him abducted and committed to an asylum. He also seems to be hired by a character played by Michael K. Williams to find somebody he was in prison with. And then also by an ex-heroin addict played by Jena Malone to find her husband who she fears is dead (played by Owen Wilson). Oh and also Josh Brolin is in there as his supposed nemesis. And Benicio Del Toro appears as… I’m not even sure. And Reese Witherspoon is a deputy DA who is having an affair with Doc who appears in the film in about two scenes. There’s also some dentists and a gang called the “Golden Fang”.

So, yes, as you can tell from that, the plot of Inherent Vice isn’t really there – it just trundles and wanders through its own chaotic narrative much like Doc wanders through everything. The narrative is like smoke – thick, marijuana-tinged smoke which is disorientating and delirious. All of this sounds like a good description of a thrilling, hallucinogenic cinema ride, but it isn’t.

It’s incredibly annoying and tedious.

From reading reviews by critics that I for the most part normally agree with, I thought I was in the wrong here somehow (well, as far as having your own opinion CAN be wrong). But it’s not just me; audiences all over the country have apparently been walking out of the movie before it’s finished – a phenomena that, especially in the economic climate with cinema prices the way they are, just doesn’t happen very often anymore. Walking out partway through a film is not something that I personally agree with but I can totally see why they did it too – there’s no sense of resolve or continuity to the film whatsoever, and that’s what is so frustrating about it. The characters mumble their dialogue at an irritatingly slow pace, making pointless scenes feel like they drag on even longer. Paul Thomas Anderson feels like he is trying to create a sort of psuedo-comedic, bohemian stoner thriller but it moves at such a slow pace and is so frankly badly told that it sets the audience against it after a while and wears them down, down, deeper and down until they want it to end. Or so it seems, anyway.

There are a couple of good sequences in here, and Joaquin Phoenix plays the role of Doc very well with a very dazed touch with a surprising amount of physical comedy, but overall for me Inherent Vice felt like an aesthetically pretty but far too long, drawn out, and pretentious mess which is far from a joy to watch. There are a range of characters played by a range of different and talented actors but too many of them feel one-note and dropped in purely for the sake of being convoluted. There’s an interesting critic/audience divide here it seems (with some very condescending, “aw-bless-you-don’t-like-it-because-you-don’t-understand-it” reactions from the former to the latter), but on this one I side with the audience.

Now onto Trash.

Trash is the tale written by Richard Curtis of three Brazilian street kids named Raphael, Gardo and Rato (Rickson Tevez, Eduardo Luis and Gabriel Weinstein). They sort through heaps of rubbish every day in order to find anything valuable to help them out. One day, they find a wallet which apparently contains more than they bargained for – setting them on a collision course conspiracy against the corrupt Rio de Janeiro police force and political powers. They’re helped on their quest for the truth by aid workers Father Juliard (Martin Sheen) and Sister Olivia (Rooney Mara – no, this character has NO dragon tattoo). But can they escape the brutal police force and get justice before they get caught?

Trash is mostly in Portuguese, with English only appearing occasionally almost as a courtesy – I’m glad that it is mostly in Portuguese as it adds to the authenticity of the film. It’s one of those films where it’s so well established and so well performed by the young cast that you feel like you’re there with them – director Stephen Daltrey makes an amazing job of transferring you to the action alongside these three young boys, making you root for them even harder. It may be marketed like Slumdog Millionaire but this is a much grittier affair, with a real sense of mortal danger for these kids no matter where they go.

The three central performances are fantastic and really do steal the show away from Rooney Mara and Martin Sheen. The only weakness in the film’s bow is its somewhat strange ending which doesn’t quite tie everything up as well as it could do. However, the ride to get there is dark yet strangely exhilarating, especially in some of its on-foot chase segments from the big bad policemen through favelas and train stations. An exciting and aspirational story of escaping the gutter and taking on oppression and corruption.

Lucy, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For & Let’s Be Cops – Richards Reckons Review(s!)

I’ve been a bit naughty recently and not given you any reviews, so I thought I’d give you THREE AT ONCE, BABY – Lucy, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and Let’s Be Cops. Kicking off with Lucy.

Lucy in the Sky with…. er… cops and killers?

Lucy is a new action science fiction motion picture from French writer/director Luc Besson, who has given us Leon: The Professional, Taken and The Fifth Element. Here’s the pee to the ell oh tee – Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is a New Yorker student (as in she’s a student from New York, she’s not doing a BA in the Big Apple) living in China, who is coerced by her boyfriend into delivering a case to a dodgy looking group of Chinese mafia-types. She is then turned into drugs mule, having bags of new drug CPH4 (which look surprisingly like bubblegum flavoured millions sweets, actually) into her stomach. She is then kicked in the tummy, causing the bag to burst – the drugs then rush through her body and make the capacity of her brainpower usage rocket upward from the regular 10%, giving her hyperintelligence, as well as some surprising powers, which she uses to get her revenge…

If alarm bells are ringing in your brain (then I suggest you take them out of there – it’s unhygienic and unsafe) and a feeling of deja vu comes over you, that’s because, on the surface of it, the premise is a bit familiar to another film called Limitless with Bradley Cooper. Limitless takes the “using more than only 10% of the brain” myth and takes it in a direction to do with the ability to retain intelligence and have a photographic memory, and how you can use this intelligence to conquer the modern world if you so choose. Lucy, however, does take this direction – but only for a few minutes. Instead, it’s safe to say, that Lucy goes batsh*t insane with this concept.

It’s no spoiler to say that Lucy gains a few powers along the way, and they rise and evolve very quickly indeed – and her humanity depletes along the way, just as quickly. In fact, her humanity is almost cut off at the jugular literally as soon as the drugs react inside her ScarJo tummy – she becomes robotic on some level (in a Terminator way rather than a Stepford Wives way), without regard for pain, guilt or any human feelings. Scarlett Johansson is actually very good at playing around with levels of perceived humanity as we’ve seen before in Under the Skin (down where it’s wetter) and Her earlier on this year; however, it would have been nice for her humanity to noticeable dwindle as apposed to be cut off straight away like the end of a parsnip.

The editing is choppy and fast paced, and make no mistake; Besson is like Thorpe Park in that he knows how to construct a hell of a ride. With Lucy’s smorgasbord of powers, while it’s in the revenge-thriller stage, it’s certainly gripping and interesting enough to keep you. However, I believe that it will differ with many people, but everybody will have a cut off point with Lucy with which they say “no, I’m sorry, stop, this is just ridiculous now”. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously for the most part, so you can be on board with her frankly at times ridiculous level of power, but there comes a point where it all becomes a bit… divine and high & mighty and the film suddenly takes itself ultra seriously – this is where I for one had that previous thought. It’s a shame because it tarnishes the rest of the film. There’s also a couple of scenes that feel like they are purely for the sake of it – including THAT kiss, and a chase scene in which Lucy needlessly causes the death of many people. 

There were parts I liked of Lucy, really there were, such as ScarJo herself and some of the action scenes, but it feels a bit like a Frankenstein’s monster comprised of some limbs and morsels that I enjoyed, and conversely some that really turned me right off. Some will really like this film but plenty more will hate it and be turned off by the concept that starts up fun, but then swallows itself up by its own grandiose goals. 

Next, it’s onto The Adventures of SinSin – or, rather, Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For.

So, Sin City 2 allows us to plunge our faces (literally, it’s in 3 dimensions!) back into the immersive, grimy world of Basin City – where physics don’t quite make sense and it’s difficult to find a woman who isn’t a stripper or a prostitute. The Sin City movies are anthology moviefilms, so they don’t just have one plot but many; in this one, we have the gambler Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who wants to make some cold hard cash in poker games; private detective Dwight (Josh Brolin) who falls back into his old ways due to temptress Ava (Eva Green) manipulating him pretty much with the power of breasts; Nancy (Jessica Alba) who wants to avenge her lover’s death. Killing machine Marv (Mickey Rourke) is also present throughout all of these stories, with his gravelly voice and love of coats. 

Now, I bloody loved the first Sin City (bloody being the operative word) – it was brutal, dark fun absolutely dripping with noir cool, memorable shades-of-grey characters, striking stories and beautiful, rich black and white visuals with streaks of colour; it influenced my own writing at the time massively. So when, a whole NINE YEARS LATER, I heard the second one was being released, I was tremendously excited (along with a bit of trepidation), fearing previously it might never happen. All the ingredients were there for it to be great again – Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez helming the script and directorial duties, the same cast (mostly) returning for more, along with the same aesthetic and tone that separated the first movie from everything else.

Sin City 2 is more of the same – and on the surface, that’s a good thing. Seeing the characters again and visiting Basin City is exactly what you want from the sequel. However, A Dame To Kill For is significantly more underwhelming than its (significantly) older brother. It’s quite hard to place quite why this is; the performances are good, the visuals just as stunning as the first one. It, of course, lacks the same punch the first one had for being quite so starkly different, but the root canal of this problem is that the stories in this one that are far less interesting than its predecessor. Sequels are traditionally more bold and audacious than the movies they follow, but this isn’t the case here – the stories aren’t as bold, dark or exciting really. 

The performances, as I’ve said, are good on the whole but aren’t spectacular – a special mention however goes to Eva Green as Ava Lord for being quite such a manipulative, cold yet seductive character all at the same time. She’s rarely ever fully clothed and uses her mammary glands as her main weapons – whether or not you consider this a good thing is, I suppose, in the eye of the beholder. Jessica Alba also plays a haunted Nancy very well too. The film lacks any massive emotional beats but that isn’t really what you look for in a Sin City movie as they’re more hard boiled than the eggs my soldiers are dipped into. 

The lack of any engrossing stories in Sin City 2 is what makes it so disappointing, as well as the enthusiasm being less than it should be considering how long we had to wait (NINE YEARS!). If you enjoyed the first Sin City, or if you like your noir dark and violent (with a little bit of silly), seek out Sin City 2, but don’t expect anything near as spectacular as the first one.

Anywho, finally, to the other side of the law (sort of) – Let’s Be Cops.

Let’s Be Cops is the story of two best friends, games designer Justin (Damon Wayans Jr) and unemployed ex-football player Ryan (Jake Johnson), who go to a college reunion party in fancy dress with two police uniforms Justin has for promotional reasons. They notice and realise the (for some reason) massive adoration and power they have with these uniforms, and so abuse it. While doing so, they seem to cross the mafia, and things go on from there… with hilarious results.

Well, that was the plan anyway…

Let’s Be Cops is a bit of an odd one – the trailer didn’t spark absolute joy in me, nor most other people in the cinemas I’ve seen it in. In its TV spot it even had the voiceover quotes saying things like “hilarious!” and “go see this movie” without any actual publication name to attribute it to – as if it was literally just the opinion of the man in the voiceover booth who, of course, had no vested interest whatsoever. My expectation for this film was that it was going to be dreadful and very, very scarce on laughs. 

Truth be told is that, actually, it isn’t anywhere near that level of bad. For me, the film passed the 8 laugh comedy test, but not by much – it has some quite good comedic beats in it, including a line to do with looking like someone has been “slapped in the face with Lil Wayne”, quite an amusing pastiche of the gaming industry, and a wonderfully timed musical beat with Miley Vyrus’ (no, that isn’t a spelling mistake) Wrecking Ball. Strangely enough, it actually improves as the run time goes along, the second half of the film being better than the first, though there is a lot of deadweight, and jokes that miss far more than hit. 

Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jnr have a good chemistry between them, as seen in New Girl, and their comedic shorthand really does gel very well, however sometimes the characters can somewhat grate on you; sometimes it feels like Ryan is literally just set on “loud” mode, because if you shout things it’s funnier, apparently. We get hints of a backstory of the two lead characters and their failure acting as motivation for their behaviour, but it’s never really fleshed out enough to be interesting. James D’Arcy plays a convincing enough, hammed-up bad guy, who does actually feel somewhat dangerous, but the character nor performance are particularly memorable enough.  

All in all (you’re just another brick in the wall), Let’s Be Cops isn’t a film I’d recommend anybody to go out of their way to see, but I’ve certainly seen worse comedy films in my time on this earth as there are certainly a few laughs to be had. It’s one to catch when it ends up on Netflix on a particularly dull day.

ANYWHO, thanks for reading – reviews of As Above, So Below, Million Dollar Arm, If I Stay and Sex Tape (not MY sex tape, that’s not leaked yet, the film Sex Tape) to come on the blog in the next week. Aren’t you lucky?