TRAINWRECK - film

The stars of Trainwreck Amy Schumer and Bill Hader visited Australia from the US to promote this film and promote they did! It seems like they were on every TV show, radio show, print publication and blog in town.

So when the celebs come to town and your favourite hosts on The Today Show, Nova, The Project etc interview them, you know they pretend to have liked the movie even when they thought it was crap, right?! I mean, I get it, it would be super awkward if Karl Stefanovic said on national TV to Angelina Jolie "This movie is really terrible... did you get that feeling as you were making it or did it only become clear when you watched the finished product?"

So when everyone in the media was raving about Trainwreck, I wondered whether to believe the hype.

BELIEVE THE HYPE, PEOPLE!

I wanted to love this film because I love Amy Schumer, an accomplished stand-up comic, who wrote the film and stars as the leading lady; a character based on herself of many years ago. And I did love it, damn it!

It's laugh-out-loud-funny (including some great slapstick humour which I personally love) but more than that, which I confess I was surprised by. I cried at the heartfelt moments and not just an attractive tear rolling down the cheek 'cry' but actual red-face crying.

Amy and Bill are both so great in this but you want a surprise package? Check out basketballer LeBron James as himself! An excellent and seemingly effortless performance. Also Tilda Swinton who is barely recognisable but also excellent, as always.

Finally, any film that acknowledges that Billy Joel's Uptown Girl is a bloody awesome song gets my tick of approval.

If you don't get to the movies very often but enjoy a laugh, make this one happen!

Check out this four star review in the New York Post if you want to know more.

Trailer here.

(Opens 6 August in Australia but keep an eye out for sneak preview screenings in the meantime.)

RUBEN GUTHRIE - film

I've thought about this Australian film a lot since I saw it earlier this week. I'm a bit up and down as to whether I like it and could recommend it. That probably makes me a crappy blogger but I always want to be honest with you, dear readers.

Ruben (Patrick Brammall) is an advertising guru who's living the high life - amazing house by the Sydney Harbour, hot model girlfriend, booze, booze and more booze. You get the picture.

His girlfriend gets fed up and skips town but says she'll give it another shot if he stays sober for a year. Ruben has an emotional watershed moment pretty early on the film and you know what? I just felt no empathy for him. We just hadn't been given enough reasons to care about this guy yet. It was a strange moment in the film.

What follows is an interesting look at how unbelievably hard it must be to give up the grog when it's under your nose constantly. Alex Dimitriades is great as his camp mate who presents constant temptations because he's so bored by how dull Ruben is sober and that's just one of the many things luring him back to the bottle.

Also a shout out to my home girl Robyn Nevin (Ruben's mum) who I just love. This isn't her best work but seriously, even her worst work is great.

If I must summarize it, I guess I'd put it in the middle of the road. Certainly not terrible but also not amazing. If you do see this, I'd love to hear what you think.

The Herald Sun's Leigh Paatsch called it "irksomely uneven" in his review which I guess is in keeping with my experience. He gave it two stars.

For a more positive take on it, here's a 3.5 star Sydney Morning Herald review which is also a good source of background on the film is you're keen to know more.

Trailer here.

GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY & THE PRISON OF BELIEF - film

I wouldn't usually blog about a film having seen it so far into the run in cinemas, but Going Clear rates a mention regardless of circumstances.

If you have even a passing interest in psychology, faith, Scientology, spirituality, Hollywood, vulnerability, power, the infamous break-up of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, cults, whether Tom Cruise is really as bonkers as he seems (think, jumping on the couch on Oprah), religion, people's need for guidance or 'answers', L. Ron Hubbard ETC ETC ETC, then you should see this.

All you need to know is that it's a FASCINATING documentary about the Church of Scientology, in which former members give some truly alarming accounts of what goes on in their very secretive world.

Check out this piece in Vanity Fair 'The six most disturbing moments from HBO's Scientology documentary Going Clear'.

Here's a five star review of the film from The Guardian if you want to know more.

Trailer here.

TERMINATOR: GENISYS - film

The latest installment in the Terminator series of films (number 5) is what I imagine the previous installments are. That's right, I haven't seen them. Well, I think I might have seen Terminator 2, or at least some of it... if you're getting the impression this isn't exactly my genre, you'd be right.

So here's what I reckon. 

I was pretty confused by this film. I wonder if it would have helped to see the previous installments but I can't be sure. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but I thought I wouldn't at all so the bar couldn't have been any lower really.

Arnie features but as someone who's more into politics than Terminator movies, I found it very hard to process him as something other than a Governor. At a stretch, I can just picture him as a kindergarten teacher (or 'cop', if you like) saying "It's not a tumor".

I think if you've enjoyed the previous Terminator flicks you should consider seeing this. I'm not saying you'll enjoy it, I'm just saying you're the only hope this film has. I think if you haven't seen them or didn't enjoy them you should definitely give it a miss.

If you're considering it and want to know more, check out this one star review in The Guardian and this three star review in Rolling Stone magazine. (Three stars is as good as it gets, as far as I can tell.)

Trailer here.

INSIDE OUT - film

The latest animated flick from the Pixar crew, this one doesn't disappoint.

11 year old Riley moves to a new town with her parents and the main characters in the film are the feelings in Riley's subconscious as she deals with the move; Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Fear. Amy Poehler is the voice of their ringleader Joy and just bring so much, well, joy to the role.

As you could imagine, when an 11 year old moves to a new town it's not all smooth sailing. Sadness especially keeps creeping in and even Joy struggles to maintain the joy sometimes. I confess I shed a few tears. It's just lovely.

I think kids will love this and the parents who go with them will like it too. Like I said, not all joy, but the 'lessons', if you could call them that, aren't phoney or lame, just real-world emotion processing going on.

It's getting rave reviews and I can only add my voice to the chorus. Paul Byrnes from Sydney Morning Herald says in his review that it's an "astonishingly good movie, not just a great animation".

Trailer here.

ALOHA - film

It's not a good sign when a film director is getting publicity for apologising for his film. Oh dear, Cameron Crowe.

He says it's "misunderstood", I say it's "crap".

It's pretty hard to get past the fact that Emma Stone (above left) who is very much not either Hawaiian or Chinese plays a woman who is supposedly a quarter Hawaiian and a quarter Chinese. And it's actually part of the story. She talks about that heritage. It's ridiculous, you guys.

I thought about how to explain the convoluted plot to you in a 'cut to the chase' style but you know what, given my message is to stay well away from this one, I'm not going to bother.

Just take my word for it and give it a miss. Happily I didn't have to pay to see it but if I'd dropped down a lobster to see this I'd be disappointed, to put it mildly.

The one saving grace for me personally is that it also stars Bradley Cooper who has the most beautiful face I have EVER seen. I could stare at him for days.

If you want to read more about the film check out this review in Variety. To give you the flavour of it, it opens with "Unbalanced, unwieldy, and at times nearly unintelligible..."

If you want to read about Cameron Crowe's defence of the film, check out this Fairfax article.

Trailer here.

ENTOURAGE - film

A spin-off from a the very popular TV show of the same name, this film follows movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his 'entourage' made up of hopeless and not-nearly-as-attractive-as-Vince brother Drama and childhood friends E and Turtle.

This film has had some pretty stinking reviews so I went in with fairly low expectations. They were exceeded! I laughed a lot mainly thanks to the cutting humour of Vince's one time manager, now movie studio head, Ari Gold played by Jeremy Piven.

If you enjoyed the TV show, I reckon this will give you what you want in the main. It's still Vince, E, Drama and Turtle being the same old guys kicking around Hollywood trying to make it big. In the film, Vince is having his first run as a film director which plays out fairly predictably but not in an unpleasant way.

My only significant criticism of it is that I HATED the ending. I don't want to spoil it but I will say this - you can't spend eight seasons of a TV show making us believe a character is a complete loser and then expect us to suddenly believe he's a winner.

Two star review from the Sydney Morning Herald here if you want to hear what a proper critic thinks and/or know more about the story.

Trailer here.