Scoob! (2020)

An attempt to give the Scooby-Doo brand a shot in the arm, Scoob! may fall a bit short for fans due to two main points. And one of those is the fact that the brand never feels like it needs a shot in the arm (and this is from someone who quite enjoyed the live-action movies).

The story starts with Shaggy (voiced by Will Forte) meeting a little Scooby (voiced by Frank Welker, so that is a plus). The two then meet the rest of "Mystery, Inc" before that was formed - Fred (Zac Efron), Velma (Gina Rodriguez), and Daphne (Amanda Seyfried). Years pass by, a montage shows the gang doing what they do (in a wonderfully-recreated copy of the opening titles of the cartoon I grew up with), and life is good. Which makes it a perfect time for the group to be split up, with Shaggy and Scooby meeting the Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg), and possibly helping to foil some nefarious plan by Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs).

You might have already surmised the other main problem people may have with Scoob! Yes, as seems to be the norm now for companies wanting to get lots and lots of money coming in . . . this film is also an attempt to create some kind of bizarre Hanna-Barbera movie universe. You get Blue Falcon and company, you get Dick Dastardly and Muttley, and you get a small role for Captain Caveman (and whoever thought Tracy Morgan was the best choice to voice one of my favourite cartoon characters was so far wrong that I hope they spend many sleepless nights thinking about what they have done).

The script, written by a few different scribes, works in the first third, generally, before trying to fit the gang into a wider movie universe. Then it all goes to pot, one or two witty, meta lines aside.

The same may be said of the direction from Tony Cervone, although his hands are tied by the script. But everything becomes a long, slow slide downhill once the main mystery comes into play.

The voice voice cast generally do well. It's a shame that nobody offered Lillard the chance to return to the role he made his own, but Forte doesn't do too bad as an alternative. Efron, Rodriguez, and Seyfried are a good match for their characters, Welker does his usual excellent work (which really goes without saying), and Isaacs has a lot of fun as Dick Dastardly. Unfortunately, the rest don't really fit in, be it Whalberg and his companions (voiced by Ken Jeong and Kiersey Clemons), or that unforgivable mis-casting for the Captain Caveman role. And let's not mention the clanging Simon Cowell cameo.

Scooby-Doo isn't a property that you should be able to mess up so easily, certainly not in animated form. But the creative forces behind this film manage it.

Consider my rating generous, with at least one point just for the sweet glow of nostalgia.

4/10
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Netflix And Chill: Look Away (2018)

India Eisley plays Maria, a quiet girl who isn't having a very good time of things at her school, mainly because of her being a bit quiet (I guess). While unhappy at school, she is equally unhappy at home, observing her unappreciated mother (Mira Sorvino) or being harshly criticised by her cold father (Jason Isaacs). Things start to change for Maria when she finds out that her reflection isn't JUST her reflection. It's a presence that has been with her throughout most of her life, calls herself Airam (of course), and is willing to switch places with Maria to put things right. So the two switch, which allows Airam to start punishing those who have spent too much time wronging Maria.

As slick and teen-centric as it is, and it really is, Look Away also has some surprising depth to it. Written and directed by Assaf Bernstein (an unexpected choice for him, considering most of his previous work), what could have easily been a supernatural revenge tale focusing on a bodycount and bloodshed instead plays out as a character study of a young woman willing to go to extreme lengths to find acceptance and love. Multi-layered scenes none too subtly reinforce the point that how others view you is a lot less important than how you view yourself.

A quote from Hollow Man comes to mind: "It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have to look at yourself in the mirror anymore." Although that doesn't look to be the literal case here, it's essentially the same thing. Maria sees herself whenever she looks in the mirror. Until she sees Airam, who is the tougher version of herself. Airam, on the other hand, sees Maria for a while, but does her best to avoid her when she starts heading down a very different path.

Eisley does well in the lead roles, doing her best to convince as both the worn-down teen and the badass out for revenge. Isaacs and Sorvino are both superb, portraying parents who are letting their daughter down in different, but equally damaging, ways. Penelope Mitchell is a friend to Maria who may not have always been as supportive as she could have been, John C. MacDonald is a bully motivated by an underlying attraction to Maria, and Harrison Gilbertson is the nice guy caught up in between people who are hiding their agendas from him.

Solid from start to finish, and genuinely interesting and thought-provoking by the time the end credits roll around, it's just a shame that the script doesn't fully convince in the opening act. Maria doesn't seem to have it as badly as some other movie characters we've seen endure tortuous school years of bullying. That's not to say that a character can only feel miserable and bullied if x events occur but it just feels a bit light compared to how the rest of the plot unfolds.

The title may be Look Away, but this rewards viewers who look a little deeper.

7/10

You can order a R1 disc here.
Americans can order it here.

The Death Of Stalin (2017)

People living under Josef Stalin didn't have an easy time of things, to put it mildly. He was a dictator who ruled with fear, forcing citizens to adore him and cater to his every whim. Anyone who opposed him, or his views, could end up on a list, spirited away in the middle of the night to be imprisoned and/or executed. His death led to a vacuum that needed filling immediately, while also giving everyone a chance to rewrite the recent narrative to play up their positive aspects in his regime while trying to downplay the negatives. And it's this turbulence, this almost farcical warping of the facts, that is looked at in a comedy that WILL make you laugh aloud without shying away from some of the nastier elements (e.g. some men are spared a bullet in the head as a change of order is delivered mid-way along the line, the difference between life and death being nothing more than a political tactic).

Based on a graphic novel, by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, it's easy to see why this material appealed to director Armando Iannucci (a sharp comedic commentator, arrguably best known nowadays for popping the bubble of British politics with The Thick Of It). Iannucci knows how hilarious it can be to observe the hoops that politicians will jump through to serve themselves while also trying to cling on to their elected positions. And he knows that those moments should all be weighed against just how the general public are affected. The scenario shown in The Death Of Stalin may be a bit extreme, but it's undeniable that politicians make life-affecting decisions every single day, sometimes with seemingly very little thought to the consequences.

Bringing all of these points to the screen, playing up the absurdity of certain moments while showing sudden threats and death, Iannucci has banded together with David Schneider, Ian Martin, and Peter Fellows to adapt the screenplay by Nury. That's a talented pool of people right there, and their dialogue is handed over to a hugely talented cast.

Simon Russell Beale may not be on the main poster but he's the main character, Lavrenti Beria, the right hand man to Stalin and the one who has to do the most scheming to try changing his perceived image. He was the man who handed out the "death lists". Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) is the other main figure trying to get himself into a better position, with Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) being the man stuck in the middle, replacing Stalin for the time being, despite not having any real thoughts of his own about the best way to move forward. Othe rmain figures include Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin), Field Marshal Zhukov (Jason Isaacs), and Stalin's children (played by Andrea Riseborough and Rupert Friend).

You may have noticed that none of the actors above are Russian. I can't think of anyone who is. Certainly not Paddy Considine, Paul Whitehouse, Tom Brooke, Paul Chahidi, or any of the other supporting players are either. Olga Kurylenko is the closest, I guess, originating from Ukraine, and there are a few people in much smaller roles who seem native to the country, but that's about it. Which is fine. Iannucci has gone for the best actors, not the best Russian actors, and he hasn't made anyone put on dodgy accents that might make them sound silly. I assume, considering the reaction to the film from certain people in Russia who have commented on the content of it, that this may have been a film difficult to populate with an all-Russian cast. Nobody living there would want to fear a major backlash over their involvement here, which makes the approach from Iannucci sensible, and ultimately beneficial when it comes to the selling of the film.

Nobody puts in a bad performance and it's genuinely hard to pick a standout. I was going to praise the wonderful no-nonsense machismo of Isaacs (his appearance just over the halfway mark also standing out as a way to help the pacing of the film). Then I was going to praise Palin for tapping back into some of his golden comedic ability, especially considering he has been on both sides of such a dictatorial regime now. But Tambor made me laugh a hell of a lot, Buscemi was entertainingly determined to turn things around and not be kept on the back foot, and Beale was a great mix of weaselly charm and Machiavellian scheming at all times.

Darker than you might expect, or just as dark as it should be, The Death Of Stalin is a fantastic comedy aimed at adults, allowing Iannucci to once again chop off the heads of the arrogantly powerful with a gleaming sword of brilliant comedy. And one or two gags about a man wearing a corset.

9/10

Buy it here.
The graphic novel is available here.

Soldier (1998)

A sci-fi action  movie directed by Paul W. S. Anderson may be enough to make most sane cinema fans reach for the "Off" button, but this is one of his better films, improved no end by a superb central performance from Kurt Russell. I'll be honest, I tend to enjoy Anderson's movies. Okay, the second Resident Evil movie was really painful, but the rest of the franchise has provided me with a lot of mindless fun (in fact, here is my overview of the franchise with more recent releases available in the Flickfeast sidebar). However, those movies don't matter. Anderson used to make better films. I also enjoyed Mortal Kombat, sue me. Event Horizon remains his best film, but Soldier comes close.

It's a shame that this movie was released so unceremoniously here in the UK, being judged a bit of a flop. It was, at the time, the most expensive movie to be released direct to DVD over here, with some people criticising the fact that such a large chunk of the $75M budget had gone to Russell, given a big paycheck for a role that saw him uttering barely over 100 words. It's easy to put on rose-tinted glasses nowadays and bemoan the fact that audiences neglected to help out a great film, but that would be lying. Soldier is good, almost very good, and it deserved better than the treatment it received, but it's not great.

So, what's the actual plot? Well, Kurt Russell plays Todd 3465, a super-soldier. He's one of a group of tough, obedient, young men selected and birth and brought up to know nothing but the military life. He's so tough that he accepts orders from Gary Busey without batting an eyelid. Sadly, or maybe not so sadly, that regimented life is disrupted when Jason Isaacs comes along with new and improved super-soldiers. He asks to pit one of his men against a number of Busey's men and so Jason Scott Lee fights a group of people, including Todd. The older models put up a valiant attempt, but it's no good. New blood is taking over. The soldiers are no longer needed, which leads to Todd being dumped on a planet like an old washing machine that's broken down beyond repair. Thankfully, the planet isn't as uninhabited as everyone else thinks it is, and Todd soon meets a bunch of people (including Sean Pertwee and Connie Nielsen) who try to befriend him and allow him to become part of their community. It just remains to be seen whether or not he can stop being a trained killer, but maybe that's just what the people need in case anyone else ends up on the planet.

This kind of thing has been done many times before, the old guard facing off against the new, and it's a solid premise brought to life by a solid cast. Anderson does okay in the director's seat, thankfully resisting the temptation to chop the thing up into an unwatchable mess, and he's given a decent, though sparse, script by David Webb Peoples to work from. Peoples claims that the movie is a side-quel to Blade Runner, which he also wrote, and there is fun to be had in spotting the little nods and references to many other films (though you may need to keep pausing the film to find them all).

Russell is excellent as Todd, a man almost made into a machine, but all too vulnerable. He's able to gain sympathy, despite not really being a warm and winning personality because it's completely outwith his control. He is what he is, others did it to him, and perhaps others can restore his humanity. Sean Pertwee and Connie Nielsen are fine as a pair of decent folk who try to remain optimistic, even as Todd puts other people on edge. Gary Busey is, surprisingly, one of the good guys, in a way, but Jason Isaacs really goes to town with his role, and Jason Scott Lee is certainly intimidating enough as Todd's main foe (not actually a villain, really, Isaacs remains the villain). Mark Bringelson is also good fun as someone aligning himself with either Busey or Isaacs, depending on how he sees things developing.

While it may be a bit slow for some people, especially in the middle section, this is a very enjoyable sci-fi action flick that benefits from some decent design work and action sequences that really do pack a punch. Russell and Lee really convince on the physical front, easily selling themselves as the super-soldiers that the movie needs. If you swore a long time ago that you would never watch a Paul W. S. Anderson movie, maybe just give this one a chance and see what you think. When all is said and done, you can still avoid the Resident Evil movies for the rest of your life if you want to.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldier-DVD-Kurt-Russell/dp/B00004CYXW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365032563&sr=8-1

Check this screencap carefully to spot a few of the many little references in the film.