The emotional shrapnel of a divorce scars a family of writers in ‘A Place for Me’. An acclaimed author (Greg Kinnear) and his teenage children (Lily Collins and Nat Wolff) are silently suffering after mum (Jennifer Connelly) leaves for another man.

Across three generations of writers, success seems to come easily and publishing deals are handed out like hotel biscuits. The main characters have an air of pompousness and talk like they’ve got all the right answers, but none of it seems genuine and it’s superficial. These are people with big houses and even bigger problems and it’s hard to feel sympathetic. Sure, the characters have the Hollywood flawed virtuoso gene, but they are always one wine glass swivel away from complete arrogance. There is no sense of the process for these characters to channel their anguish and everything is taken for granted behind a haze of entitlement. When debunking the myth that writing is easy, screenwriter/novelist William Goldman said, “the one thing we have, everyone who writes or paints or composes, is our pain – pain that we deal with by huddling away in our pits and getting through the best we can”.

The cast delivers tiny bites of charm, mainly in the form of Kinnear and a brief appearance from Logan Lermann as a love interest. Elsewhere, it’s mostly a mediocre walk through the breakdown of a marriage; dad can’t move on, the daughter avoids intimacy and the son does drugs. These are the obstacles that need to be overcome and the solutions stick out like bright flashing neon signs, pointing to the obvious, and thus making ‘A Place for Me’ as dysfunctional as its family of scribblers.

2/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

*The film was retitled for the release in Australia, it’s also known as ‘Stuck in Love’.

The Star Trek franchise has always been known for its thoughtfulness while being grounded in the human experience of scientific endeavors and exploration; the core of all great science fiction. Director JJ Abrams delivered a blockbuster with brainpower with his 2009 reboot ‘Star Trek’. The spectacle remains in the sequel ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ but the IQ takes a massive nose dive.

The crew of the Enterprise is sent to a hostile part of the universe to track down an individual who has declared war on the United Federation of Planets after a series of attacks on Federation buildings on Earth.

Abrams’ Trek universe is still a very cool place to be and the visuals are spectacular. The sleek Enterprise glides through beautiful solar systems and the vastness of space fills your mind with wonder of the endless possibilities. When on the bridge of any ship you just want to jump through the screen and press every button, take the ships for a spin and fire every laser. Abrams drops a massive payload of action into the film and you can almost time the frequency of phaser battles, spaceship dogfights and futuristic ninja moves to every 15-20 minutes. It’s relentless but thrilling.

The chemistry between the main cast is the strongest element of ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ and proves how crucial this ensemble is to the success of the new era of films. Watching Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) interact with each other is a joy. Everyone gets the perfect one-liner or moment to shine and there is character progression in all these little moments as we get to know our travel companions better. You feel it might pay off in later films if the series continues in its current form. On the flip side, the newbies don’t fare so well with Dr Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) showing up as the grating character with all the expositional dialogue whose only memorable contribution is a scene where she strips down to her underwear. Eve’s character shows that screenwriters Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof can’t seem to write more than one decent female character into the film beyond Uhura and resort to literally stripping down the character when they run out of exposition. The villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch brings intensity to the film but has barely anything decent to work with beyond the mundane intricacies of a vague revenge plot and “you killed my blah blah blah”. There are moments where Cumberbatch is so aggressive that his mouth moves furiously, while keeping his head still, and he looks like an old-fashioned ventriloquist dummy.

The story is where ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ almost goes supernova. The film’s overarching theme is the prospect of the Federation using its technology for peace or warfare. It’s almost like a commentary on the state of the Star Trek franchise itself, the peaceful futuristic vision of the series creator Gene Roddenberry verses the mindless action film muscle that hogs so much of the runtime to appeal to the widest possible audience. It’s a complete contradiction of itself when characters are condemning the fierce tactics of their enemies while our heroes are detonating anything with a fuel cell. There’s even a scene where Scotty points out that they’re supposed to be explorers, which is a valid point and with such a vast cosmos to discover, Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof can’t seem to cut the umbilical cord to Earth. For this reviewer the real pain came from Abrams and his screenwriters messing around with the newly created timeline (created from the time travelling exploits of the first film) to produce a few truly awkward moments that pillage from Trek film canon. If you’ve done your homework you’ll recognise the crimes while the uninitiated may enjoy forging their own lore as the franchise picks up new fans.

Abrams gets lazy throughout borrowing many similar scenes from the first film such as a cloud covered Enterprise, an extreme space skydiving sequence and a token Leonard Nimoy cameo (it was fun the first time but it just feels laboured now). Abrams even gets so lethargic that he relies on a scene with a ten second countdown to diffuse a bomb that comes right down to the wire. Of all the stars, in the vastness of space and with almost limitless technology, creativity is still stuck at “cut the red wire”.

‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ is a cosmic fireball of epic proportions. It’s fun to watch but it’s mostly just as empty as space dust.

3/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

When it comes to Australian surf safaris on film it’s a bit of a desert. Sure, on the documentary side there are lots of great surfing flicks, but for a country surrounded in water we just can’t nail a really good surfing drama but Drift has a pretty good crack at it.

Set in Western Australia in the 1970s, two brothers (Xavier Samuel and Myles Pollard) start up a surfing business specalising in making boards, wetsuits and clothing.

Working with the beautiful canvas of the coast of Western Australia, directors Ben Nott and Morgan O’Neill, with cinematography from Geoffrey Hall, manage to capture the majesty of the ocean with serene reflective sunsets, deep blue monster waves and the crisp whites of the perfect coastal break. Watching real surfers master the waves is a real thrill (a combination of the actors and stuntmen are used).

While it’s easy for Nott and O’Neill to find the best breaks, it’s not as simple when it comes to the plot. Samuel and Pollard are great playing the siblings and a lot of the film’s charm comes from their interactions, with a little spice added by a troubadour/photographer played by Sam Worthington, who is surprisingly good when given a role that allows for his native tongue. The biggest problem is that while the brothers are chasing the perfect work and surf balance, not much really happens, and instead the antagonists pile up in an attempt to kick-start a narrative. There are tough bikers, an evil bank manager and a drugged up employee. Throw in a last minute surfing competition to save everyone’s financial skin that feels ripped from the final act of a Mighty Ducks film and you’ve got a really lukewarm drama.

The 70s setting has a nice authenticity to it with the clothing, shaggy hair and music from the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, T-Rex and the Master Apprentices. Strangely though, a few modern music selections feel distinctly out of place and are not used expertly like the way the music of David Bowie and Queen is used in the medieval setting of A Knight’s Tale. There is a weird scene where a character pushes an 8 track cassette into a player and a song released in 2011 blasts from the speakers (The Jezabeles’ Endless Summer). This reviewer doesn’t remember anything in the film about time travelling surfboards?

Drift is a film that is superb on the water but a little wobbly on dry land.

2.5/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

The ideals of freedom, paradise and the American dream pulse in a neon coloured, bubble-gum scented descent into darkness in ‘Spring Breakers’, one of the most potent pieces of satire and filmmaking to hit the screen so far this year.

A group of college students rob a local restaurant to pay for a trip to Florida for a spring break vacation. While on holiday the girls (Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine) indulge in wild parties that puts them on crash course with a local rapper/drug dealer, Alien (James Franco).

Writer/director Harmony Korine opens the film with scenes that would make the citizens of Sodom blush. Rampant sexual gesticulation, lots of bare breasts and a gluttonous use of alcohol: this is spring break. From the oceanfront Korine suddenly cuts to quiet scenes at a college of students studying. The ideal of spring break is established as a form of escapism verses the clinical halls of knowledge they inhabit. We’re introduced to the four girls who seem to live in poor circumstances despite being able to afford college tuition and drugs. One can only assume these are serial parent moochers, a small hint at the themes prevalent in the film of a generation who wants all the fun without any of the hard work. Korine best showcases the girl’s mindset during a robbery sequence where the group shade themselves from any consequences by treating the situation like a videogame; the line between reality and fantasy is blurred and continues throughout the film. They fearlessly don balaclavas and enter the diner projecting aggression and threatening the customers with sledgehammers and water pistols that look like real guns. They aren’t emulating Robin Hood, but instead, it’s a case of robbing the poor to fulfill a selfish desire.

Once in the sunny climate of Florida, it’s disturbing watching the girls let go of their inhibitions and be brainwashed by the tacky surroundings on offer. It’s a manufactured form of paradise, pools, cheap grog and plastic people, that are personified by the artificial neon lighting that consumes the expertly crafted visuals of cinematographer Benoit Debie. Let’s not kid ourselves though, spring break is something that actually exists in our society as a rite of passage for many American college students and it appears in different forms around the world. To be shocked at the behaviour is to simply ignore that this is the kind of stupid activity young people pass off as fun, because stupidity is ingrained in the universal class 2013. It’s when the party becomes a chosen lifestyle that these girls become seriously jaded as they scream “spring break forever” and wish their lives could stay frozen in a drug fueled stupor. Korine does bog the film down in repetition as if to hammer the point harder with dialogue and indulgent scenes that run a little too long after they have done their job.

Gomez and Hudgens shred their Disney contracts and it’s clever casting from Korine to throw two wholesome faces to the wolves in Spring Breakers, but Gomez does retain a little purity with her character’s muddled Christian undertones. It’s Hudgens with the help of Benson and Rachel Korine who are a complete force of nature together that borders on a demonic coven of gun toting witches. The descent of the trio into the shadows is fascinating and gripping.

Franco’s Alien is a delusional incarnation of an American success story as well as showing the notoriety placed on people with zero talent chasing fame. Alien’s riches come from crime yet his indulgences in music and belief in the absurd rhymes that slither from his lips result in a false prophet born from garbage with a mouth full of metal in place of teeth. Franco is fantastic and a Britney Spears musical moment featuring Alien, a piano and a bit of ‘gun ballet’ is a sublime piece of satire of the trash tabloid culture that infects our popular consciousness and people’s aspirations in life.

The musical contribution from dance outfit Skrillex trash and pound you into each situation engaging your primal instincts to react to the visceral images of excess and violence on screen, while the score from Cliff Martinez and Gucci Mane shines in the reflective moments between the chaos.

As Captain Benjamin L. Willard took the river journey of madness to find Colonel Kurtz in ‘Apocalypse Now’, so too does Korine with his bikini clad crew in ‘Spring Breakers’. The battlefront for hearts and minds has changed in the pursuit of liberty, and it’s a scummy but enlightening reflection of the western world.

4.5/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

Robbing banks, crooked cops and politics don’t really factor into the any parental mantra, but co-writer/director Derek Cianfrance squeezes it into his guide to fatherhood in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ that, unfortunately, strangles the sublime moments with mediocrity.

A motorcycle stunt rider, Luke (Ryan Gosling), starts robbing banks to provide for his lover (Eva Mendes) and their newborn. Luke’s crime spree puts him at odds with a rookie police officer and new dad, Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), who is trying to move up the ranks of the police department to provide for his family.

‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ is a film of two distinct halves and it works to provide a dual character study between Luke and Avery of paternity and legacy. Luke’s journey is outstanding. Driven by an extraordinary performance from Gosling; who taps into the reserves of James Dean’s stash of cool; can express the genuine pain and guilt of a father who wants to provide for his child. A shroud of mystery surrounds Luke and you can feel a history of neglect that he is desperately trying to break for his offspring in low socioeconomic circumstances. Motorcycle riding is an outlet for his anguish and Cianfrance crafts heart-pounding sequences with Luke carving through narrow forest tracks and the bank heist chases drain the body of adrenaline. Even Luke’s t-shirt he wears for a majority of the film represents his attitude; a shirt emblazoned with the Metallica album cover ‘Ride the Lightning’.

Despite a decent performance from Cooper, Avery’s side of the story that takes up a huge bulk of the film’s second half is marred by all the clichés that come with corrupt police officials. As soon as a detective played by Ray Liotta shows up, doing the shady act Liotta has been doing in every film since ‘Goodfellas’, there’s a steep drop in quality. Cianfrance and co-writer Ben Coccio (with a re-write from Darius Marder) overload the story with corruption, politics and a massive time jump of 15 years (where none of the adults seem to age) that sullies the excellent ground work they’ve laid down with Luke’s side of the tale. There is an attempt to bring the story full circle using Luke and Avary’s teenage sons that’s way too coincidental and it breaks what’s believable in the gritty reality Cianfrance has created. It’s as if Cianfrance is reaching for something akin to the cross generational crime drama of The ‘Godfather’ Part 1 and 2, but it ends up getting stuck in the bland arena of bent cops that has been overdone to the point of fatigue and you really feel this tiresome plot device in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’.

Playing another sweaty chain-smoking degenerate (see ‘Killing Them Softly’), Ben Mendelsohn continues his cinematic charm offensive and he is a magnetic presence in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’. Mendes aches through the role of a suffering loved one but it’s a powerful supporting performance that’s far from the write-off female role given to Avery’s wife played by Rose Byrne.

The score from Mike Patton (former Faith No More front man) adds a haunting aesthetic to the film that matches beautifully with the eerie cinematography of Sean Bobbitt whose camera slinks around winding roads and rips through woodland areas.

After a superb first half you could probably walk from the cinema satisfied with ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’. It’s a shame to forsake that satisfaction by witnessing a well laid plan completely fall apart.

3/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ is released:

9 May 2013 Australia

Clothes make the man, but does the armour make the Iron Man? Rather than lift Tony Stark/Iron Man’s stakes on the mythic superhuman scale, writer/director Shane Black strips back the character in ‘Iron Man 3′ to get to the core of who he is in a world where the unbelievable is increasingly becoming a reality. Do not fear of excessive navel gazing though because Black delivers a fiery extravaganza that is a collision between the comic book world and his resume of rapid fire action thrillers.

Unable to find peace following the events of The Avengers, Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) throws himself into his work while getting into a grudge match with a terrorist known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). Further complicating matters is the appearance of a scientist and former lover, Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), who is trying to lure Stark to work with fellow scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) on a project that treads the line between innovation and destruction.

Despite four appearances in Marvel films so far it’s surprising how much room for growth there still is for Stark. ‘Iron Man 3′ isn’t just another romp through the technological wonderland of Marvel’s premier genius playboy, billionaire and philanthropist. There are still moments with new versions of Stark’s Iron Man armour where it feels like your inner child might break through your ribcage with joy, but the film has a surprising amount of depth. The plot starts with Stark experiencing a form of shellshock from his near death experience in New York. He’s looking to be healed by his own innovations but Iron Man is only a hiding place. From this wounded platform Black and co-writer Drew Pearce further plunge Stark into darkness until he has nowhere to hide and has to face his demons. In the shadows, Stark goes on a path of self discovery while clocking in a little detective work all with the wit and charm that Downey Jr. brings to the role and he is sensational. It’s engaging because of the genuine peril you feel for the character. The odds are stacked up against Stark so high that you can’t help but prepare your goodbyes amidst the bedlam. It’s a refreshing shakeup to the Iron Man series that shows off the benefit of passing the series from director John Favreau (Iron Man 1 and 2) to Black. It’s similar to the way the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise benefited from Alfonso Cuaron taking over from Chris Columbus with ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’.

The dialogue is enough to make dictionary drool. Black and Pearce know when to get serious but there is always a one-liner or a comedic moment the make sure the film never takes itself too seriously thus reminding you that you’re still in tethered to a film inspired by a comic book. The plot has plenty of great surprises despite resting on the flimsy motivations of the film’s main antagonists who seem to share the angst of a teenager stood up at a high school dance.

Kingsley is marvelous and gets to indulge in the best secrets and revelations of ‘Iron Man 3′. Guy Pearce is perfect as the shark in the suit and Don Cheadle slots in nicely once again as Stark’s sidekick James Rhodes. James Badge Dale and Stephanie Szostak are memorable goons and the presence of an eclectic mix of suited henchmen with pony tails and aviators sunglasses all hark back to the 80s era of action film bad guys. Of all the familiar faces in the franchise it’s only Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) who suffers from being jammed into the story as a damsel in distress who gets a moment to shine in battle but it’s so cringe worthy you’ll be wishing she just stayed in distress.

The action scenes provide an adrenaline rush that would inspire Bodie from ‘Point Break’ to retire in awe. A helicopter attack on a beachfront property (a Black trademark from the ‘Lethal Weapon’ days), an Air Force One rescue mission that brings new meaning to “free falling” and a finale that’s so spectacular a health warning should be issued for dislocated shoulders from excessive fist-pumping.

‘Iron Man 3′ is the jolt to keep Marvel’s film track record intact. It’s a slight step away from the superhero formula, but one needed to prevent our hero turning into a clichéd rust bucket.

4/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

High above the scorched landscape of planet Earth that has been destroyed by alien invaders called ‘Scavs’ there sits a flash living space featuring a large glass-bottom pool where the film’s characters frolic. You know a film isn’t having an impact when amidst all the lashings of science fiction tropes you can only ponder how the pool’s filtration system works. Welcome to ‘Oblivion’, a film that lets the mind wonder to mundane and familiar places within the sci-fi genre although there are a few decent surprises.

Humankind has abandoned Earth and a few survivors remain to oversee the maintenance of mechanical drones that protect the giant automated machines harvesting natural resources. A drone repairman, Jack (Tom Cruise) and his communications partner, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) oversee the operation. When a mysterious spaceship crash-lands in their area the duo investigate and find out the true nature of their mission.

Throughout ‘Oblivion’ it is obvious that writer/director, Joseph Kosinski is a big sci-fi fan and he wears his influences on his screen. It’s almost as if the director pulled out a shopping list of all the films he wanted to reference as a tribute and he didn’t miss much: ‘Star Wars’, ‘Planet of the Apes’, ’2001: A Space Odyssey’, ‘Independence Day’, ‘Alien’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Moon’, ‘District 9′, ‘Predator’ … it’s overstuffed. While it’s interesting to see a Cruise running on a Stanley Kubrick inspired circular treadmill, HAL 9000’s red eye present in the design of the drones, or even Darth Vader’s distant cousin in the ‘Scav’ design, Kosinski never builds on any of the ideas presented by the great films that have obviously influenced ‘Oblivion’.

The screenplay from Kosinski with re-writes from Karl Gajdusek and Michael Ardnt, throws the film into a vague black hole for a majority of the runtime as if pulling a cosmic curtain over the big secrets. A lot of time is wasted going over the same plot points and the repetition seems like an excuse to show off the amazing visuals and digital effects of the charred remains of Earth and all the futuristic gadgets. And why the hell not? It’s a stunning creation with everything from the remains of a destroyed moon speckled across the sky, the hints of nature taking ownership over the landscape once again and a ride in Jack’s slick spaceship (that looks like a Robocop’s genitals). For all its ambiguities, ‘Oblivion’ does deliver a few decent revelations as it zooms toward the finale and although the twists feel familiar and are far too derivative, Kosinksi places his bombshells precisely enough to jolt your curiosity.

Cruise fulfills his action man duties with ease but there was one motorbike sequence that almost warrants an intervention for Cruise appearing in films on motorcycles. Cruise’s Jack is haunted by memories and dreams of life before his career as a futuristic repairman and he delivers an apt performance playing the sci-fi hero stuck between his duty and humanity. Riseborough is entrancing but somewhat distant and loyal in upholding the mission. There’s enough mystery to her behaviour that keeps you mildly involved. Appearing via various screens as the representative of Jack and Victoria’s employer is Melissa Leo who freshens up the computer bound corporate voice with her southern accent and corporate ideologies.

Instead of presenting something fresh and iconic in the score (like so many films in the genre have in the past) the work of Anthony Gonzalez, M83, and Joseph Trapanese is so overbearing and reminiscent of the work of fellow composer, Hans Zimmer that you almost feel compelled to call Mr. Zimmer’s lawyers. To quote Pablo Picasso “good artists copy, great artists steal”; he was however speaking before the age of ‘copy and paste’.

‘Oblivion’ serves as a great introduction to the sci-fi genre if you’ve been living in a nuclear fallout shelter since the 1950s. For those more familiar with the genre, it’s an elaborate sci-fi theme park ride where you can point out all your favourite cinematic memories without getting too involved.

2.5/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

After a seven year absence the director of ‘Freddy versus Jason’, ‘Bride of Chucky’ and ‘Warriors of Virtue’ (yes, the Kung-Fu kangaroo film), Ronnie Yu is back … and as mediocre as ever with ‘Saving General Yang’.

Based on Chinese folklore, ‘Saving General Yang’ focuses on the seven Yang brothers, who are tasked with rescuing their father who is stuck behind enemy lines after going to battle with an old foe who wants revenge.

‘Saving General Yang’ is epic in nature but minute in plotting and characterisation. The tale that inspired the film is packed with themes of revenge, loyalty, brotherhood, honour and family, not to mention centuries of Chinese adoration of the Yang family’s quests but it’s mostly missing from the film. Yu manages to channel some of that greatness into the frantic battle sequences aided by lush visuals from cinematographer, Chi Ying Chari. Watching the Yang Brothers take on entire armies on their own is thrilling and there is a good mix of siege machinery such as catapults and a beautiful melee of two archers in a sun drenched wheat field.

Yu never finds the essential balance between each member of this band of brothers and there isn’t enough time to develop a bond with the siblings; which renders caring for their safety useless. They each adhere to the usual stereotypes of any war film: such as the veteran, the new parent and the rookie. If only there was a brother one day away from retirement it would have completed the whole set. There is a flotilla of father issues built into the plot that’s never fully explored beyond the Yang brother’s simply doing what any respectable son would do for their dad. They bravely punch, kick and slash their way through hordes of bad guys with but it’s nothing more than a physical display in the actors and stuntmen’s athleticism. It’s similar on the home front with the mothers and lovers waiting for the brothers to return home safely only offer longing glances over scenery with misty eyes. Even the chief villain scowls his way through a brief backstory that’s easily shrugged off without any real interest. Yu fumbles the juggling act but he’s playing with a story that could probably fill an entire saga of films.

The costuming and weaponry is elaborate but at times it feels like being stuck in the middle of a heavy metal video clip from the 1980s. This reviewer swears Ozzy Osbourne was wandering around somewhere in the background. There are a few underdone special effects used to increase the number of men on the battlefield, but it looks more like a bucket of plastic toy soldiers have been tipped onto a sandpit.

‘Saving General Yang’ is a swift hit of adrenaline and a treat for the eyeballs but not enough to provoke the heart with a battle cry.

2/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

Amnesia, long lost lovers, slimy villains; sounds like a soap opera but it’s all packed into ‘Trance’, the new film from filmmaker Danny Boyle. While Boyle’s frenetic direction excels, the film is always one long lost evil twin away from deteriorating to complete melodrama.

An art auctioneer, Simon (James McAvoy), works with a group of criminals to steal a painting but the artwork goes missing during the heist. Only Simon knows the painting’s whereabouts, but he can’t remember due to a head injury so the crooks hire a hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) to help find it.

Once past the straightforward robbery that launches the plot, it’s the journey into Simon’s mind via various stages of hypnosis that allows Boyle to unleash his vivid style. It’s a strange mix of various cerebral vistas that the characters inhabit while searching for the location of the painting. It drifts between the gory dreams of Wes Craven’s ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ to the altering perspectives of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’. There are moments where Boyle paints different scenes with bold block colours as we dive further into Simon’s memories and emotional states. It’s as if Boyle has been inspired by the way light passes through the eye to interpret and catalogue the spectrum of the world around us; it’s a striking touch from the accomplished director to make a mindscape believable.

The plot is wrapped in plenty of mystery and as the line blurs between reality and the hypnotic state, screenwriters Joe Ahearne and John Hodge keep escalating the intrigue. There is plenty of time for second guesses until Trance endures an aneurism revealing its big secrets. Long monologues explaining every plot detail and character motivation in the finale bursts Boyle’s bubble in a similar way that Ang Lee’s ‘Life of Pi’ lost puff in its finale. It’s as if Boyle forgot his power as a director to show and not tell.

McAvoy is a good actor but he struggles to carry a lot of ‘Trance’. As McAvoy’s character is blasted with the films revelations we’re treated to various facial expressions more at home in a bathroom after eating a bowl of concrete. Vincent Cassell appears playing (surprise, surprise) a criminal and delivers his special brand of greasy euro-felon as you’d expect from a man blessed with his leer. Dawson brings the mystique and acts as sort of femme fatale, but is burdened by her exposition heavy dialogue.

Booming from the speakers throughout the film is the score from Boyle’s long time music collaborator Rick Smith that sounds like it would be more at home at a 90s dance rave.

‘Trance’ contains Boyle’s special brand of chic but it’s part mind-meld and part mind-mute.

2.5/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

‘Warm Bodies’ constructs the Frankenstein like zom-rom-com that isn’t as grotesque as the idea sounds. It’s humorous, sweet and has unexpected depth that superbly elevates it well above the genre bending gimmick it could rest on.

Most of the world has been turned into zombies and R (Nicolas Hoult) is a member of the horde. When R meets a human survivor of the zombie outbreak, Julie (Teresa Palmer), he is captivated by her and their relationship unexpectedly stirs R’s humanity.

Writer/director, Jonathan Lavine (adapting the novel of the same name by Isacc Marion) has a lot of fun picking elements from the genres that inspired the tale and making them unique to the plot. Instead of the “meet-cute” we’re treated to the “meet-gruesome” when R spots Julie toting a shotgun during a zombie attack on a group of survivors. The film has a soundtrack that features oddball love songs including a fantastic use of John Waite’s hit Missing You and there’s even a makeover scene featuring a nod to ‘Pretty Woman’ and a disapproving father (played by the great John Malkovich). All the elements of rom-com are still present but they have been put through a zombie filter that makes ‘Warm Bodies’ truly unique. And the zombie side of the film isn’t short-changed either with plenty of brains devoured, gruesome looking members of the walking dead and little frights.

Aside from the relationship between R and Julie, ‘Warm Bodies’ has an engaging subtext. The excellently scripted internal monologue of R (another twist in the zombie tale) provides commentary on the state of the world he lives in. R mentions that he can’t remember what made everyone turn into zombies, but even his faint memories imply that humans were already acting like mindless fools plugged into mobile phones, iPods and computers, and the decline seemed inevitable. In the same way George A. Romero used zombies to satirise consumerism in his film ‘Dawn of the Dead’, Lavine uses ‘Warm Bodies’ as a wakeup call for an increasingly cynical and detached society to rediscover its humanity.

Hoult nails the physicality and awkwardness of the traditional slow moving zombie. The balance between his movements and delivery of the internal monologue crafts a complex character that’s impressive because there has never been a zombie portrayed this way before and it’s an invigorating point of difference. Palmer has an earthly beauty and, of course, the BRRAAIINNS! She’s a delightful romantic lead and it’s easy to cheer for the abnormal couple. In zombie mode Rob Corddry gets big laughs and so does Julie’s best friend played by Analeigh Tipton who both execute well timed one-liners and reactions to the ludicrous situation.

The zombie makeup on the human extras is good but the digital creation of the skeleton like zombies known as “bonies” is a little rough and it’s strange watching them run around making what sounds like dinosaur noises lifted from ‘Jurassic Park’.

Don’t fear that the zombie has become too cuddly in the same way that vampires became plush toys in the ‘Twilight Saga’. ‘Warm Bodies’ takes the notion of zombie meets girl an turns it into something that’s so crazy that it works.

3.5/5

Cameron Williams
The Popcorn Junkie

‘Warm Bodies’ is released:

11 April 2013 Australia