Mini Reviews: The Driftless Area (2016), Mojave (2016) & Central Intelligence (2016)

As the middle of the year got closer, I was able to catch up on 2016 releases that I'd missed at the cinema. Some were great, others not so, and a select few were just plain 'meh'. I find an odd sense of pleasure writing a review about a movie I hated, but movies that fall into that middle ground are harder to write about, so today I present a Mini Reviews special for those!

The Driftless Area (2016)

What even is this movie?! It felt like it was trying to be two very different things. On one side, it was a dramatic romance, with what I think is a huge plot twist I won’t mention, but it’s so glaringly obvious I’m not even sure if it’s meant to be a twist. On the other side, it’s a thrilling cat and mouse chase, full of danger. The Driftless Area (2016) could have been either of these, and done it reasonably well, but it failed by being both. I watched this solely for the cast, whom I love, but I was left pretty disappointed. I expected more from Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel and Aubrey Plaza, they are some of my favourite faces! An interesting watch, but forgettable.

Mojave (2016)

I spotted Mojave (2016 here in the UK) on a VOD platform, mainly because of the beautiful Oscar Isaac’s face. It was tempting to watch it there and then, but I checked out the plot summary at least before I made up my mind. IMDB describes this as ‘A suicidal artist goes into the desert, where he finds his doppelganger, a homicidal drifter’. Um, what? I spent 50% of the time watching this raging about the fact that Tom (Garrett Hedlund) looks nothing at all like his ‘doppelganger’, until I looked it up and realised the word has two different meanings. The other 50% I was cringing every time Oscar Isaac said the word ‘brother’ in that accent. Ugh.

Central Intelligence (2016)

Comedies are always hit and miss, but I was hoping to enjoy Central Intelligence (2016) more than I did. It was decent, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart have great chemistry together, but the plot fell a little short. In fact, it felt like the exact same plot from another comedy I can’t recall right now. I’d like to see these guys pair up again, though! It was nice to see some of my other favourite faces, although *spoiler alert* because his reappearance was the plot twist, Aaron Paul saying ‘bitch’ made me laugh and cringe at the same time.

Review: Star Trek Beyond (2016)

My husband (awww!!) and I made right fools of ourselves at the cinema. It’s not very often that we see a movie in 3D, but we thought we’d make an exception for Star Trek Beyond. It looked stunning in the trailers, after all. We scoffed some dinner after work, I grabbed our 3D glasses out of the cupboard, and we raced off to the cinema (to catch a few Pokemon before the trailers of course). Mistake number 1. I’d stuffed our 3D glasses into my handbag. My very lovely Loungefly Stormtrooper handbag. Mistake number 2. My husband was wearing his favourite Darth Vader shirt. Mistake number 3. Those 3D glasses? They’re special edition Star Wars ones. I swear, the staff didn’t know whether we were being trolls or just plain stupid. Haha!! Star Wars junkies turning up to see Star Trek...why don't I know this story! We didn't look very cool taking those glasses to see Suicide Squad either...

Anyway, Star Trek Beyond is the third installment of the rebooted franchise, and in this movie we find the Enterprise’s crew 3 years into their 5 year mission. Captain James Kirk (Chris Pine) is questioning his commitment, and Spock (Zachary Quinto) is also considering leaving for personal reasons. The two agree to talk just before a distress call comes in, which turns out to be a trap.

Oh boy. That alien attack on the Enterprise inside the nebula was absolutely stunning. It honestly felt like the finale to the movie rather than the introduction. That was the moment I was glad to have shelled out for 3D. That scene was my favourite from the whole movie, actually. You know how it goes in these flicks, the heroes are facing certain doom but you just know they’ll make it out okay in the end. I was honestly fearing for everyone’s lives at that point, it was so well written, acted and shot. The sight of the Enterprise hurtling through space to crash was so sad.  I loved this scene and it did feel like the end of the movie, I am glad however that I didn't watch it in 3D...my god...I thought  I was going to spew countless times.  The spinning, oh god the spinning - I felt actual nausea....urgh!  Had i seen it in 3D I would not have gotten through it without being reintroduced to my earlier Nandos! You went to Nandos without me?! I'm hurt.

Speaking of sad, there I was clutching my pack of tissues ready for Chekov’s (Anton Yelchin) scenes, when I forgot all about Leonard Nemoy! There were a few touching tributes to him, both in the movie itself and the credits. I wasn’t expecting Chekov to have such a big role in this movie, which was bittersweet in a way. As much as I wanted to see him, I couldn’t help but feel a bit gutted. I don’t know if it was done deliberately (I don’t know how if it was) but there’s a bit right at the end when a toast is made to ‘friends no longer with us’ and I swear the camera was focused on Chekov. Sob… It actually did and I think it was done on purpose, that what I read anyway, it was on the internet so it must be true...right?!

I was fully prepared to be all emotional, I shed a few tears at both the tributes to Leonard Nemoy and Anton Yelchin but I waited for the credits and that got me!  I was blubbing like a baby, oh man!  My Dad was seriously embarrassed to be seen with me!

Cool action and touching tributes aside, I didn’t enjoy Star Trek Beyond as much as I hoped I would. It was a solid movie, but I loved the other 2 so much it would take nothing short of perfection for me to gush about this installment. It was just lacking something, and I’m not sure what. I didn’t understand the lead villain Krall (Idris Elba) very well for a start. It’s only in the final action sequence that you learn who he really is, and at that point I’d kind of stopped caring. That sounds harsher than I mean it to, actually. He was no Khan, let’s face it!  You were never going to like any bad guy as much as Khan, you are a biased source!!  I actually liked Krall as a bad guy and loved the story behind his bad-guy-ness!! My biggest issue is that I hadn't done much research into the cast beforehand and spent most of the film trying to work out who the bloody actor was! 

When I found out Justin Lin was taking over the director role and after I saw the trailer, I was genuinely concerned that it would be all action and fire power and no story.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The story was great and there was just the right amount of action, I loved the hints of comedy that we have come to love from this franchise.  

The Spock and Bones (Karl Urban) team up was a great choice, I could listen to the two of them bicker at each other for ages, but they were the only ones providing the laughs this time. That said, I really enjoyed the new character, Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) and her appreciation for loud music. A solid movie all round, but just not quite as good as I was hoping. The 3D was definitely worth it!

This didn't quite match up to the first two but it was entertaining enough to stop me fidgeting and there was a good mix of comedy, action and sentimentality.

Review: Experimenter (2015)

When I was in college, I studied Psychology for a year. I’d have gone on to do a second, but I failed quite spectacularly in the exams. My written work in class was excellent, but for some reason I just blew it in exams. Regardless, I loved my psychology class. I’m fascinated by how the mind works, and I still remember a lot about all the studies I learnt about, although names and dates have been discarded to my memory dump.

That said, when I stumbled across a movie called Experimenter, a Biography about social psychologist Stanley Milgram and his obedience studies, I knew I had to watch it!

In 1961, Stanley Milgram (Peter Sarsgaard) designs a psychology experiment to see how people react when acting as a teacher, giving electric shocks to a learner to teach them memory techniques. Each time the learner got a word pair wrong, the teacher would give them an electric shock, with the voltage going up each time. The voltage of the shocks went up to deadly levels. The twist on the experiment was that the learner was a part of Milgram’s team, and wasn’t actually receiving shocks.

Milgram was shocked to find that 65% of his subjects went all the way with the experiment, and despite showing their discomfort with the situation, when told by an authoritative figure to continue, they did. 

Let me get back to the movie, as I’ve already learnt I have no talent in psychology essay writing. The format of the movie is a documentary, but a little different. Stanley Milgram himself tells us his story, and the movie itself is shot to look like it was filmed in the 60s or 70s too, with terrible green screens. I’m not sure I enjoyed that element, I’d have prefered some sort of narrator, but it was something different, at least.

One element I really enjoyed was the story of how Stanley Milgram met his wife, Sasha (Winona Ryder), and how she became fascinated with his work. Having only learnt about his work, it was interesting to hear more about the man himself.

If you have an interest in the subject anyway, Experimenter will be a fascinating watch for you. I wouldn’t describe it as entertaining per se, but it was a compelling watch for me, and reignited that interest I had years ago. 

Review: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

The other night I really felt like a Tom Hiddleston film, and I’d heard a lot of good things about Only Lovers Left Alive. I think what intrigued me the most was that it was a romantic vampire film which couldn’t be further away from Twilight. I was forced to watch this one alone, my other half wanted to nothing to do with this!

Only Lovers Left Alive tells the story of Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), two married vampires. They currently live apart, and Adam is suffering terribly from depression. Eve comes to visit him, and life gets better again for Adam, until Eve’s sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) comes to visit un-invited. In fact, this is the whole plot line, when you actually sit and try to explain it, not an awful lot actually happens in this film!

Adam is a famous musician who lives in a flat, trying to keep himself to himself. He has just one friend, Chekov Ian (sorry) who is nothing but loyal and runs all sorts of errands for Adam, who he admires. Adam is extremely talented, but only leaves home to visit a dirty doctor to get a blood supply from him. It’s incredibly sad watching Tom Hiddleston play this character, I really felt the depression that Adam was suffering. His wife Eve couldn't be more different, she seems to find joy in everything around her. The contrast is clear enough on it’s own but it’s also reflected through their clothing. Adam is always in very dark outfits whereas Eve is normally wearing white.

Although I enjoyed Adam & Eve’s reunion, the story started to slow until Eve’s sister, Ava was introduced. She brought in a lot of noise to an otherwise quiet film, but she definitely needed a slap! As much as her character was unlikeable, I loved watching her and I’m really impressed with Mia Wasikowska as an actress. One thing I really loved about the film was the soundtrack, which fit perfectly. I had Adam’s song stuck in my head for hours after watching it, and I’m humming it to myself now as I type this.

I wasn’t certain how the film would end, I had a gut feeling that there wouldn’t be a conclusive finish but I wasn’t expecting the actual ending. It was quite simple in itself, but haunting when you really think about it. It was perfect, actually.

Only Lovers Left Alive is a film like nothing else I've seen before. It met my expectations and more, although I just wish there was a more detailed plot.