This is the End

This is the End (2013)

Predicted Rating: 2 Stars

Directed by: Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg (Directorial Debut). Starring Seth Rogan (Pineapple Express), Jonah Hill (Superbad) and Jay Baruchel (She's Out of Your League)

During a party at James Franco's house that includes such celebrities as Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Michael Cera, Aziz Ansari, Emma Watson and Rihanna, the world unexpectedly ends causing most of the celebrities to be sucked into an abyss to hell. Remaining after the mayhem are Franco, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson and Jonah Hill. After deciding the best course of action is to remain inside Franco's house and ration out the food, including one very desirable Milky Way. When the group wakes up to finds that their supplies have been mostly consumed by an unaware Danny McBride, tensions build in the house.

Well, that was actually a pleasant surprise. The act of self parody is a very hard genre to pull off in cinema but it was done perfectly in This is the End. Most of the time movies that explore the self parody genre seem cocky. The lead actors usually act as if look at us, we are so famous we can play ourselves and the cameos are put in so the makers of the film can say look who we have got to appear and they are even playing themselves! This is the End is essentially the opposite. It makes proper fun of the actors playing themselves and it essentially feels like they are playing characters of themselves rather than themselves, if you catch my drift. A better way to put it would be that they are playing who they want to be rather than who they actually are. The other cameos are far from tacky either. This is probably due to how ridiculous they are. I mean come on, Michael Cera is surely not a sex crazed coke addict and I assume Emma Watson is the nicest person on the planet and would not hold you to ransom with an axe.

Once you get past the actors playing themselves, the story is very well written. The jokes are plentiful and don't dry up as the movie progresses, something that plagues many comedies. This is the film The Watch should have been. Rogen and Goldberg have written some good movies but also some very bad ones. I am going as far to say that it is the best Rogen/Goldberg movie since Superbad. It was also quite nostalgic to see the three main guys from Superbad chatting nicely then Michael Cera unexpectedly blow cocaine in Christopher Mintz-Plasse's face. This was definitely the funniest movie so far this year.

I am going to end with this (excuse the pun), the ending is one of the best in recent memory and will have people who grew up in the 90's frothing at the mouth

Final Rating: One of the funniest movies released over the last few years that manages to effectively nail the hard genre of self-parody. 4 stars

The Conjuring

The Conjuring (2013)

Predicted Rating: 2.5 Stars

Directed by: James Wan (Saw). Starring: Patrick Wilson (Watchmen), Ron Livingston (Office Space)

Loosely based on a true story, The Conjuring sees a family of seven move into an old house in a small country town in Rhode Island. Increasingly suspicious bumps in the night prompt the family to call veteran paranormal investigators Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine Warren. The investigators unravel a series of tales associated with the house that will potentially lead to the downfall of the family. 

Sigh, another film that features an exorcism as a main plot device. When will the writers realise that an exorcism has lost its flair because one has been featured in almost every horror movie released recently! Well that might be a slight exaggeration but you catch my drift. The Exorcist (1973) nailed the exorcism scene perfectly creating a lasting impression in the horror genre however, many writers and directors have thought they could improve on this but have failed miserably. I am not sure whether it is because there is an exorcism scene or they are just terrible movies in general but there have been some really bad films made recently that involve exorcisms. I am talking about The Devil Inside and The Last Exorcism. Even though I know it won't happen, I would be a happy man if there was never to be another exorcism in cinema. Just acknowledge you can't better The Exorcist and leave it at that people!

Even though the film is superbly directed (I will discuss this later), it does suffer from some writing flaws. The ending was somewhat a let down after there was a terrific build up of suspense. I thought of what I think is a terrific ending where the camera pans into the case that once housed the doll now houses the Warren's daughter. However, the movie sort of just rolled into the credits. I was maybe hoping for more of an involvement from the doll and the daughter as they seemed to be billed as significant plot devices but really didn't do much. I was also hoping for more of a focus on the daughters of the family. As someone who has delved into the world of paranormal investigation, a significant number of hauntings and possessions are centred around teenage girls. This has been mainly associated with changing hormones from hitting puberty but it would have been good if the movie explored this phenomenon.

As I mentioned before, The Conjuring is fantastically directed. James Wan is the master of using camera angles, lighting and sound to create a huge amount of tension. He then might throw in a jump out of your seat scare or create a false fright that builds even more suspense for the next fright. I think he did a better job of this in Insidious as I was far more scared in that than in The Conjuring. However, that is not to say the Conjuring isn't scary.

Oh I almost forgot, there was one more thing that really annoyed me about this film that is replicated in almost every film, not just in horror films. The best parts are in the trailer! The clap game was a fantastic idea but was essentially shown in full in the trailer and when it appeared in the film it lost it's magic. I would have much preferred to see it for the first time on the big screen. The same thing goes for a lot of comedies where the funniest lines are said in the trailer without any context. I think all movies should take a leaf out of the Paranormal Activity book where what is in the trailer essentially explains what the movie is but doesn't actually show any of the movie.

Final Rating: A fairly scary movie that fails to learn from the lessons of previous under-performing horror films 2.5 Stars.

Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim (2013)

Predicted Rating: 3 Stars

Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). Starring: Charlie Hunnam (Green Street Hooligans), Idris Elba (American Gangster) and Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia)

After an interdimentional rift opens up deep in the Pacific Ocean in the not to distant future, massive monsters known as Kaiju begin periodically attacking the planet. After the third attack, every nation bands together to initiate the Jaeger program, the building of giant human controlled robots to destroy the Kaiju. It was proven that one person cannot control the Jaeger by themselves, but must mind meld with another individual to control the robot simultaneously. Seven years after the rift is open, Raleigh Beckett (Hunnam) is fighting a Kaiju when his co-pilot and brother is killed, forcing him to leave the Jaeger program. Five years later, the governments of the world have decided to close the Jaeger program and focus on building a wall around the Pacific Ocean. The research department of Dr. Newton Geizler (Day) and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) discover that the Kaiju attacks are occurring at an accelerated rate and will lead to the destruction of the human race. It is up to Beckett to return and lead the Jaeger program in order to close the rift.

The engineer in me thinks that the Jaeger program could have been done more efficiently whilst the movie critic applauds del Toro for creating a more humane side of a disaster film. I am of course referencing the need for two pilots to drive the Jaeger. As an engineer I thought the piloting system could have been done in a much more logical way by using a simple control system that completely eliminates the strain on the pilot. Hey why even have a pilot on board, you could control the Jaegers remotely. Then again do they even need to be giant robots, could we initiate some sort of air based attack or even just a giant net? Thinking from the other side, the introduction of the two pilot system adds a humane touch to what could have been, excuse the pun, a robotic movie. In the mist of dark twisted American summer movies, such as Man of Steel, needing the pilots to work together brightens the mood and adds something different to the film. Also, as the majority of the pilot combos are family members, it brings in the theme of family values and the spiritual connection between the members. A poor engineering choice in my mind but a solid film choice.

Something that is unique in this disaster film is picking it up well down the track after the initial attack. I am not sure whether I am sold on this idea. My favourite alien attack movies, such as Independance Day, are the ones that start before the beginning of the attack. This way you get to see how everyone reacts to the aliens and you live through the discovery of how to destroy them. With Pacific Rim, how to destroy the aliens has already been set and you are living the final moments of stopping the Kaiju. I think the already established attack worked for District 9 but it would have been cool to see how the Jaeger program was initiated in more detail. Maybe a prequel is on the cards... wait, was that Cloverfield?.. J.J Abrams conspiracy theories for the win!

Aside from big monsters fighting bigger monsters, my favourite aspect of the film was the performances of Charlie Day and Burn Gorman. They served as the comic relief in the film. A lot of the time in these type of films, the comic relief is annoying and you wish they weren't there so you can watch more robots fighting big monsters. However, these two, with their unnecessary conflict, add a bit of spice to the film. Also, as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of my favourite TV shows, I can't help seeing Day as his character, Charlie, from the show. For any other fans of It's Always Sunny, how awesome would it be for Charlie, of all people, to save the world from aliens! I read that del Toro casted Day purely based on his "rat stick" monologue from It's Always Sunny so it was awesome to see some of Charlie come across in the Newton character.

Overall: An alien attack film with a human touch. What a Power Ranger's movie would be with a $200 million budget. 3.5 Stars

Thumbs Up: Go and watch this movie