'The World's End' review by Captain Raptor

'The World's End' review by Captain Raptor

First, they tried to save a few mates. Then they tried to save a sleepy English village. This time, they try to save the world; the stakes are higher but the faces are the same as ever as the trio behind two of this century's greatest films reconvene for the final installment of The Cornetto Trilogy, one last round of pubs, violence, nerdiness and the savviest blend of intelligence and silliness to ever hit cinemas. With the possible exception of Avengers Assemble, I don't think I've ever walked into a cinema with higher expectations. And Wright, Pegg and Frost certainly didn't let me down. 

The World's End has quite a slow start and takes a while to get going -  manchild/scoundrel Gary King isn't introduced as efficiently or as entertainingly as Pegg's characters in the first two installments, and his begrudging band of ex-friends don't immediately appear to be very funny. Pegg and Frost have swapped round in their traditional placement as straight man and buffoon, which keep things fresh but in the early scenes of the film neither fully occupies their role. At this point the film is mildly amusing but nowhere near the dizzying heights of Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead. All of this rapidly changes about 15-20 minutes once the higher concept of this film has been established and we encounter our first robot. Immediately everything changes, the film picks up speed and the hilarity begins. All the supporting cast do a great job, but ultimately it's Frost and Pegg's film and they steal most of the best moments and lines. The World's End borrows Shaun of the Dead's 'panicking people arguing in pubs covered in blood' and Hot Fuzz's 'nice ordinary village folk are secretly murderous' (and a pleasing callback with the recurring fence-jumping joke), but there's still a lot of original material and comedy present, as Pegg, Frost, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan (in some rare but spot-on comedic roles) and Cornetto Trilogy constant Martin Freeman try and desperately fail to act nonchalant in the face of almost certain death. The backstory of the reunited school friends who don't hang out anymore gives the group a really interesting dynamic, and once the carnage begins and all the characters become increasingly inebriated, Pegg and Frost play their parts with all the confidence and expertise we've seen before, and they return to the business of being hilarious.

As is befitting of a closing chapter, The World's End is the most sentimental of the trio's films, with a couple of characters revealing some personal tragedies in their lives. It adds some nice depth to the characters and it's done briefly, enabling the revelation to be more shocking and allows them to avoid killing the mood. The sentimentality can also be found in the dialogue, which contains a few interesting (but funny) points about what it means to be young, or even to be human. Don't get me wrong, the film is still as chaotic and blood-splattered as Shaun or Fuzz, but there's a slightly more thoughtful edge to it this time, probably because they all knew it was the end of an era. It's also certainly the most frantic of the films, once the action starts. Almost all of the film's fighting is done hand-to-hand, which allows for some much more frenzied combat scenes, and if seeing Nick Frost splitting Pierce Brosnan's face open with a headbutt doesn't amuse you, well, you're a bad person.

The World's End is the worst of the Cornetto Trilogy, but only marginally. The slow start does allow the sudden change in pace to be all the more amusing and exhilarating, but it still does suck some of the fun out of the film, and Gary King certainly isn't as much of a classic comedy character as Shaun or Danny Butterman. Minor flaws aside, The World's End is a phenomenal movie that expertly balances familiarity with inventiveness, and acts as a fantastic closing act filled with all the humour and genre-bending you could have hoped for. 

'30 Minutes or Less' review by Captain Raptor

'30 Minutes or Less' review by Captain Raptor

I would have seen 30 Minutes or Less ages ago were it not for the consensus of the critics that it wasn't very good. The talent involved is phenomenal (Ruben Fleischer and Jesse Eisenberg teaming up again after the near-flawless Zombieland, with support from stars of two of the best TV comedies of recent years, Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride), but sure-fire combinations have failed me before (such as McBride's fantastically cast but abysmally unfunny spoof Your Highness) so I never made the effort to see it in cinemas.

I find myself both cursing my own cynicism and perplexed by the negative opinions of the film-loving community. 30 Minutes or Less had me thoroughly entertained from start to finish. Jesse Eisenberg isn't as funny here as he was in Zombieland, but he's still perfectly good in the comical role, and he manages to act with realistic terror and anguish in the early scenes where the bomb is first strapped onto him without ever killing the mood. There are a couple of action scenes, which strike a perfect balance between being low-key and infrequent enough not to disrupt the comedy and being visually impressive to still dazzle the audience. What surprised me about the comedy is that is wasn't anywhere near as dark as you'd expect from a film about bank robbery, bombs and hitmen. There's the occasional crudeness (this is to be expected; Danny McBride's in it) but more than anything else it's a buddy comedy about Jesse Eisenberg's slacker and his on-the-up former best friend played by Aziz Ansari. Aziz brings a lot of likeability to the role and prevents him from ever coming across as boring or nagging when he berates Eisenberg. The ups and downs of their friendship feel entirely authentic and the two leads share some fantastic chemistry, particularly during the bank robbery scene itself. There are a couple of decent side characters, such as Michael Pena's insecure mercenary (who bags a couple of the film's best lines when trying to give himself a pep-talk) but the combination of Eisenberg's mumbling God-of-all-slackers and Ansari's likeable and genuinely funny straight man is by far the best thing that 30 Minutes or Less has to offer.

Like last week's review of Now You See Me, the film is held together by an on-form cast; however this time round they're underpinned by a stronger script that would be entertaining in its own right. Surprisingly, the film comes complete with a full plot and character arcs which provide a lot of energy and interest to the film. I'm particularly fond of the antagonist's convoluted plan - strap a bomb to a pizza boy and force him to rob a bank so I can get the money to hire an assassin to kill my Dad so I can inherit enough money to run a tanning salon that's a front for a prostitution ring - which is the greatest/worst evil scheme since Hot Fuzz. Unfortunately, Zombieland (quite possibly the best film of 2009) casts a looming shadow over the whole affair. Not one bit of the film is good enough to be even comparable to the film that put Eisenberg on the map in the first place, and 30 Minutes or Less is lacking all the madness and fast-pace possessed by Zombieland that would be a welcome addition (perhaps even a necessary improvement) in this film.

30 Minutes or Less isn't a classic or a must-see, but I feel it's certainly worthy of far more than the dissatisfied reaction it was greeted with. Fleischer and Eisenberg can't quite recapture the brilliance of Zombieland, but it's a perfectly enjoyable comedy with little to no weak moments. Ansari and Eisenberg put in excellent performances and the plot is different and crazy enough to entertain. Even the soundtrack is awesome. 30 Minutes or Less is funny, verging on hilarious, another feather in the cap of the various cult stars who worked on it and overall the film has been unfairly maligned.

'Now You See Me' review by Captain Raptor

'Now You See Me' review by Captain Raptor

I tend to keep abreast of film news, so Now You See Me was the rarest of treats for me; a film I hadn't heard a word about until the trailers hit the silver screen. It seems like a magic trick in itself that a film with such serious star power has inexplicably slipped under my radar (and nobody else's, it would seem). 

Now You See Me is essentially a film about trickery and deceit, similar to how the film uses incredibly talented actors to trick you into thinking that it's funny and interesting. The script itself is devastatingly bad, mostly devoid of wit and intelligence, but it takes a while for you to notice this because every single actor present is having a field day and hitting each line with precision delivery. The entire cast charm the audience throughout the film, but if you take a moment to think about what they're saying, it really is vapid. The screenwriters were so pleased with the line 'The closer you look, the less you can see' that they inserted into the film around half a dozen times and plastered it onto all the promotional material too. The plot isn't anything special, and while the various tricks and heists that the magicians pull are interesting, not that much happens that's worth speaking about. The scriptwriters seem to think that being confusing counts as being clever, so the story leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The film goes out of its way to reassure the audience that the illusionists are not in fact magic by having Morgan Freeman explain it all (which, incidentally, is how all movies should do their exposition), but then it makes it look like the writers are pulling stuff out of their ass when they don't explain a trick, like when Isla Fisher flies inside a giant bubble or when three people jump off a roof and transform into a pile of  exploding money in plain sight. This type of thing really requires an explanation.

A lack of focus also chains the movie down, and there's no clear protagonist, with all four magicians, Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo's surly FBI agent all vying for the audience's attention and sympathy. Dave Franco's humbler and less famous street magician would seem like the obvious choice for the main character, but he's pretty much dropped about 10 minutes in, and never really seems to assist in any of the team's heists or magic shows (although the film's best sequence might be a short scuffle in which Franco comically evades Ruffalo with a few basic party tricks), so he is essentially superfluous - which might be quite fortunate because he doesn't seem to share any of his brother's charisma. Now You See Me would best be viewed as a demo reel - casting directors should watch this to see a bunch of actors at the top of their game.

Although the great performances keep the film watchable and even with a worse cast the film wouldn't be awful, I strongly recommend you don't watch this film because there are simply so many better alternatives. If you want an amazing cast doing clever things with magic, watch The Prestige. If you want a crime-comedy about charismatic thieves coolly liberating money from the rich and powerful, there are 5 fantastic seasons of Leverage on DVD. A good concept and an even better cast are wasted on a drab, styleless 90 minutes that hasn't been thought through at all. 

'Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life' review by Captain Raptor

'Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life' review by Captain Raptor

The problem with reviewing this film (other than the long title which is a bloody inconvenience to repeatedly type out) is that virtually any criticism can be stomped out by the phrase 'It's not supposed to'. The dialogue has no originality: 'It's not supposed to'. The plot is moronic and doesn't intrigue me at all: 'It's not supposed to'. The film provides little else than flash and spectacle: 'It's not supposed to'. There's setting the bar low and then there's digging a ninety-foot trench to lower the bar into. Still, a film with low aspirations can hardly be expected to receive anything better than damning with fake praise and other weak defences.

As you may have guessed from the above paragraph, Cradle of Life is not a good film by any definition. It's not the same as something like Transformers of The Expendables where no matter how bad everything else is, the action is done with perfect competence as a flipside. Somewhere in the editing process things got a bit out of hand, and Cradle of Life contains enough slow-motion to convince you that your TV must be broken. Even fairly mundane actions such as rolling or lying down are given the slow-mo treatment, but in terms of the action it stops looking cool around twenty minutes in after we've already seen close-up/slowed-down footage of sharks, jet-skis, avalanches and submarines. Surprisingly, the special effects aren't good either, which tends to be the main thing that action films have going for them. The budget seems to be have been entirely invested in locations, from Kenya to Hong Kong, as Angelina Jolie and Gerard Butler swan about all over the world and encounter oversized guns, conveniently inaccurate henchman and surprisingly co-operative locals. 

The irritating thing is, despite being an action film with mostly terrible action, Cradle of Life does contain a few enjoyable saving graces, mostly in the performance department. I've never been a fan of Angelina Jolie (she's the worst thing in both Beowulf and Alexander, which is saying something) but she's never been more likeable than as Lara Croft, combining her own natural charisma with a script catered to her specific strengths. Both her and Gerard Butler give charming and sometimes even engaging performances here individually, but the two have very little chemistry together and a lot of the conversation between them feels awkward and forced. The villain is so spectacularly overdone and knowingly (hopefully) exaggerated that it's hard not to smile, and Inglourious Basterd's Til Schweiger does a fantastic job in the thankless task of Chief Henchman. Unfortunately, the film is not in any way focused on any of the characters, who would be the icing on the cake in a fully-functioning action adventure with better stunts, effects and set-pieces, none of which this film possesses. 

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life is the sort of film that should only be watched at about 2AM on a Saturday. Even in a genre where dialogue and plot going by the wayside is the industry standard, those elements are particularly appalling here. The action itself is too low budget, and while the scenery and locales the film is set in certainly are impressive, it might have been wiser to spend the money on better effects. The occasional flashes of brilliance from Jolie, Butler and Schweiger in no way compensate for a shoddy film that is almost as bad as Angelina's English accent.

'This Is The End' review by Captain Raptor

'This Is The End' review by Captain Raptor

Out of all three of this year's upcoming apocalyptic comedies, This Is The End is the one that I've been the least excited about. I'm over-the-moon in anticipation about the The World's End, the conclusion to Wright, Frost and Pegg's Cornetto Trilogy, and I'm dying to see the amazingly cast Rapture-Palooza, despite the ominous ratings and lack of widespread distribution, but for me This Is The End was the neglected middle child of the three. It's from writing duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who wrote 2007's Superbad, a near perfect combination of sex and booze played for laughs, but their recent track record of The Green Hornet and The Watch doesn't exactly install any confidence.

One thing that This Is The End should be commended for is its ballsy concept as numerous actors and comedians (of severely varying degrees of fame) play themselves trying to survive the aftermath of the apocalypse. There's a lot of self-parody and self-deprecation from the six leads (James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill and Danny McBride) and the rest of the celebrities who start the night at a hedonistic party at Franco's house before the Earth opens up to swallow them and fire reigns down from the sky. It's mildly funny to see action star Channing Tatum pretend to be cowardly and submissive or Franco mock the somewhat pretentious arty nature he's known for, but by far and away the film's standout star is famously timid Michael Cera playing himself as a repulsive cokehead bully. He steals every scene he's in, whether he's slapping Jason Segel or gleefully blinding Christopher Mintz-Plasse. If all this name-dropping and self-awareness is bothering you, then This Is The End certainly isn't the film for you, as it has two methods it uses to obtain laughs, one of which is by taking the piss out of Hollywood's comedy elite. The other is sheer childish puerility, which sometimes works (Franco and McBride angrily discussing ejaculation is far, far funnier that it should be, showing Goldberg and Rogen's mastery of their wonderfully immature craft) but when it doesn't, it's groan-worthy and makes you feel bad about paying for the privilege to see it.

Although the film is mostly about goofball comedy, a fair proportion of it is devoted to the action and special effects bonanza of the titular 'End', and the scene in which the apocalypse interrupts Franco's house party features more gore and death than any section of a similar length from this year's Evil Dead remake, during which around 15 to 20 well-known comedians (and Rihanna) meet their bloody end. Up until this scene, the comedy has been steadily building, but the carnage is so intrusive that it takes the film a while to get back into the swing of things. The remainder of the film is a mixed bag, and features almost nobody apart from the six actors I mentioned above (one or two other survivors crop up throughout the rest of the film). For a supposedly tight-knit group of friends, the cast don't actually seem to have that much chemistry together, and Franco, Rogen, Hill and particularly Baruchel (who acts as the outsider to Hollywood and the audience's window, but also highlights the precise reasons he hasn't had as much recognition as the rest of the cast) really aren't as funny here as they need to be to carry the film. Craig Robinson manages to deliver every line perfectly competently, but it's Eastbound and Down's Danny McBride who really has the most fun, playing an monstrously exaggerated version of himself: an asshole whose unbelievable arrogance repeatedly worsens an already terrible situation.

This Is The End is unbelievably childish and occasionally uncomfortably bloody and self-referential. It's also moronic, taking a fairly high-concept film and treating it with overwhelming simplicity. The cast aren't always pitch perfect, and an above-average knowledge of the American comedy scene is required to fully appreciate all the jokes and references. There's certainly a lot here that could put a viewer off. However, ultimately, the film can be extraordinarily funny at times, which for all the other flaws is the main purpose of a comedy, and even when the jokes do fall flat it's below average at worst and the lapses in entertainment don't last for long. I came out of the cinema having thoroughly enjoyed myself with what I consider to be a goofy and inventive success. The person I saw it with described it as "a self-indulgent mess". This Is The End certainly doesn't possess mass appeal, so if you require a film to be intelligent, calm or coherent to be enjoyed then you'd better look elsewhere. To everybody else, switch off your brain (apart from the segment required to understand in-jokes and recognize references, you'll be needing that), strap yourself in and enjoy one hell of a ride.