Moonwalkers: Faking The Moon Landing

Moonwalkers is a comedy film directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet. The plot follows CIA agent Kidman (Ron Pearlman), as he travels to London to get acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to fake the moon landing for the American government. However, rather than meet the actual Kubrick Kidman meets two local losers.

This film was one of the best I have seen recently, it was charming, endearing and the action scenes worked surprisingly well and didn’t ruin the tone of the film.

The drug trip look this film goes for works really well and captures the decade of the 60’s really well. It also compliments nicely the plot of the film that is in and of itself more than a bit ridiculous. I for one really enjoyed the absurdness of this film and I think it made standout.

Kidman is perfectly cast as a vet who doesn’t fit in with the world around him. As are Rupert Grint and Robert Sheehan (the two con artists that Kidman falls in with), who perfectly capture the loveable loser angle. Sheehan really gives it his all and gives a very spacey and far out performance that shows why he is one of the best Irish actors currently working.

Overall, this is a hidden gem and definitely worth your time.

Pros.

Perfectly cast

The plot and the setting reflect each other superbly

Great performances

A fun out there premise

Good action scenes

Cons.

It has a few minor pacing issues

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Cats: Eye Bleach

Cats is a musical drama film directed by Tom Hopper. The film is a big screen adaption of the famous theatrical musical of the same name.

So, yes I watched this to see if it was as bad as everyone said and yes, I can confirm for you all it is trash. Copies of this film should be burnt and we as a species would be better if we could erase it from our collective memory. Here’s how I got there.

Right from the off, the design and look of the Cats themselves is off putting, they’re too humanoid and also weirdly sexual. I don’t know if Furriers where the secret target demographic for this film, but it is weird, the casts are often shaking what would be their human sexual organs and yeah, its uncomfortable.

Secondly there is no real plot, from the opening moments of the film we are bombarded with songs telling us about what cats are and what their world is, but they don’t really explain anything, and you have no idea what is going on. There is also a song very early on in the film that takes place in a graveyard and I personally found something very disconcerting about this one, like it made me panicky and troubled and I can’t really tell you why.

I understand that it is a musical, but the constant songs get to be a bit much, there are other musicals that have actual lines of dialogue in-between their songs, but this is not one of those films. The acting is blatantly not there, most of the actors seem to either be there for an easy pay day or because they were forced into it (at least that is how they appear when they are on-screen as they clearly don’t want to be there).

Overall, this is as bad if not worse than you have heard.

Pros.

It is bizarre.

Cons.

The furriness of it

The design of the Cats themselves

The lack of a basic plot

The repetitive non-sensical songs

The terrible performances.

0/5

Reviewed by Luke

My Big Fat Greek Wedding: One Of The Family

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a comedy romance film directed by Joel Zwick. The plot sees a young Greek woman fall in love with a non-Greek man, will her family ever accept him? Will the star-crossed lovers get to be together?

So, this is another childhood favourite of mine, I watched it a lot when I was younger and recently decided to watch it again and see if it still held up: it does.

As far as standard rom coms go this is quite generic, there have been many other films with the same plot. Two people from different backgrounds getting together and their families having to adapt to the change; it is as old as time.

However, what makes this one stand out and be so beloved by me and others is the heart. This film has one of the biggest, purest hearts of any films I have seen for a long time. It is good comfort viewing to be sure, in these bleak times something like this can have even more of an impact.

All of the characters in this film are great and incredibly loveable, the film makes you feel like part of the family. You become immersed in this world and want to see this couple get together. Crucially what this film does that many other rom coms fail to do is make you care, making the emotional and romantic journey be something that affects us the audience.

Overall, this film is good for the heart, it will make you smile and has some of the best lines that are guaranteed to make you laugh.

Pros.

The family

The romance

Hilarious

Heartfelt

Cons.

A little generic at times

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Palm Springs: Your New Favourite Rom-Com

Palm Springs is a comedy romance film directed by Max Barbakow. The plot sees Sarah (Cristin Milioti), become trapped in a time loop at her sister’s wedding, luckily she is not alone. Nyles (Andy Samberg), has been in the same time loop for so long he can no longer remember when it started, and the two of them must figure out what they need to do to move on and escape the loop.

This is a film that you should watch blind, it’s very good, but really don’t read this review until you have seen it because I don’t want to spoil anything for you, beyond the base premise. Okay.

The reason why this film is so great is because of the spot-on chemistry between Samberg and Milioti, very few other rom coms have on screen chemistry quite like this; it is in a word electric. Both give great performances, but probably my favourite of the entire cast is J.K Simmons as Roy a man who always ends up killing Nyles at the end of the day. Simmons was the scene stealer of the film for sure.

Furthermore, this film breaths new life into the played-out time loop sub-genre, using it for something new and exciting. Yes, Happy Death Day had a romance plot line and also a time loop set-up, but that was far more of a horror than anything else.

Overall, this is a lovely film and one I highly recommend you see!

Pros.

Samberg

Milioti

The romance

The new twist on time loops

J.K Simmons

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Beach Bum: Proof Anything Can Get Made

The Beach Bum is a comedy film directed by Harmony Korine. The plot sees Moondog (Matthew McConaughey), live life on his own terms.

That description of the plot might seem brief, hell even sparse, but that is the best I could do because honestly there is no plot. It is just Moondog doing drugs and having sex with various people for an hour and a half. There is nothing more to it. Some say simplistic is a good thing, however here it proves to be mind-numbing.

I really respect McConaughey as an actor and think that most of his recent output has been top notch, but this is beneath him. McConaughey is doing his best Johnny Depp impression and just playing a strange oddball and in that respect he nails the part perfectly. The issue arises from the fact that his character does nothing, has no real motivation beyond learning to find a place in the real world, the writing just isn’t there and that is not McConaughey’s fault.

Moreover, no to come off prudish, but there is sex nearly all the time in this film, I understand its use as showing Moondog as basically an eccentric playboy and it does set up that character trait, but then it carries on and carries on to a point of stagnation. It just feels very needless.

Overall, this is trash, I am surprised it even got made and that they managed to get McConaughey to sign on for it.

Pros.

Matthew McConaughey seems to be having fun

Cons.

It is boring, tedious and incredibly repetitive

The sex feels excessive

The writing is terrible

The plot is non-existent

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Moana: The Ocean Rises

Moana is an animated comedy adventure film directed by Ron Clements, Chris Williams, John Musker and Don Hall. The plot sees a Polynesian island becomes the recipient of a curse; this results in life on the island becoming increasingly worse. That is until one day a brave young woman called Moana (Auli’I Cravalho), sets out to find the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), and lift the curse forever.

Recent Disney Animation films have been hit or miss for me, so I was cautiously optimistic as I watched this film and I have to say it was much better than I thought it was going to be. Yes it had a fair few problem, but on the whole it was very solid.

So, straight of the bat the plot is very predictable, you can tell from very early on where it is going, and you will have seen many different films very similar to this one. Secondly, Moana herself to me felt quite bland she never really had much to her that made her standout; from the lead she was deeply underdeveloped. Luckily Maui and voice actor Dwayne Johnson steal the show, he is the reason this film works; without his easy charm the film wouldn’t be even half as good.

The songs are quite good, particularly the first song done by Johnson, who knew the man could sing as well. I found them all to be quite catchy and I enjoyed them, my only issue with them was that they were ten a penny, there seemed to be a song every five seconds and yes I enjoyed the most of them, but some of them just felt forced in.

Also, something I will penalise this film heavily for is that they wasted the legend that is Jeamaine Clement, they give his character one scene and then he never comes back; the horror.

Overall, standard Disney fare made better by the presence of the Rock and a few good songs, however it is far from perfect.

Pros.

The Polynesian influence

Dwayne Johnson

Some of the songs

Cons.

Too many songs

It feels too familiar

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Midnight In Paris: That’s A Yikes

Midnight In Paris is a comedy film directed by Woody Allen. The plot sees aspiring writer Gil (Owen Wilson), a man who often remakes he was born in the wrong time period, gain the ability to go back in time to 1920’s Paris and meet some literary greats.

Before we get into this I just want to say, the fact that it was a Woody Allen movie bothered me. It creeped me out and after I knew it was one of his films I couldn’t enjoy it the same way, so in that this review might be a little skewed.

In spite of the infamous director I found myself intrigued by this film, I thought it had a novel premise and I enjoyed seeing literacy figures interacting with one another. However, I don’t think there was enough enjoyment to stretch across an hour and a half. The idea would have worked better as a short.

Owen Wilson seems to be enjoying himself and he gives a good performance for the most part, I can’t fault him, however the same can’t be said for the rest of the cast who are given very little to do. I found that the female characters were the worst served they had nothing to do aside from being love interests for various characters; some of said romances were icky on multiple levels.

Overall, if you can ignore the director and some of the themes then this is a good breezy turn your mind off kind of movie; that should be about twenty minutes shorter.

Pros.

Wilson

The premise

Cons.

The director.

Gil and his troublesome romances

The cast is underused

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Angry Birds Movie: Curse Breaker?

The Angry Birds Movie is an animated videogame adaption directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly. The plot sees pigs invade Bird Island and no one can see their dastardly intent expect for one angry bird. Red (Jason Sudeikis), must set out on a question to recover the lost eggs and defeat the evil pigs.

I think this was the film that proved that videogame adaptions could be done well, before Sonic. I played the hell out of Angry Birds and I really enjoyed this film, I enjoyed how the film was able to create personalities around the game characters, which were incredibly hollow.

I thought all of the characters were done really well, with Red and Might Eagle (Peter Dinklage), probably being my favourite. The humour of the film is well done, and I often found myself laughing, the comedy itself was surprisingly mature for a kid’s film. However, the thing I connected to the most was the heart of the film.

Red being shunned because be was angry, unlike all the other birds who are happy all the time, was a stroke of genius and it made it feel earned and genuine when the towns people came to appreciate him for how he is and it was said anger that let him rise to the occasion and save everyone.

Overall, this is a nice easy to watch film, that will make you laugh and maybe make you feel something. Not as strong as Sony’s Hotel Transylvania offerings, but still a good watch.

Pros.

Bringing the game to life

Red and the other characters

The comedy and the heart

Cons.

The comedy is a little juvenile at times

The film is poorly paced and feels too long even though it is only an hour and a half

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Baby Mama: Safety Isn’t Always A Good Thing

Baby Mama is a comedy film directed by Michael McCullers. The plot follows Kate (Tina Fey), a successful career woman who has decided she wants to have a baby, she can’t do it herself, so she hires a surrogate Angie (Amy Poehler). The two women argue and disagree sharply about how best to treat the baby and then it is revealed that Angie was never really pregnant in the first place.

This film was one of the most boring and generic films I have seen in a long time. There was nothing new or original about it, I heard of films wanting to play it safe, but this was a whole other level. This film to me felt too clean, by that I mean it felt very fake and overly happy and sentimental, it didn’t really focus on the messy parts of having kids just a larger than life dumb comedic premise.

The humour again feels too safe, the jokes feel almost as though they were written for a kid’s movie. The humour didn’t land once for me and I didn’t connect with the films attempts at heart either.

Overall, to me, this is an incredibly bland film that doesn’t do or say anything interesting. It struggled to keep me engaged after the first ten minutes and I wanted to turn it off many times thereafter. This film screams Hollywood executives to me, it feels as though it was made by a focus group to be as inoffensive and as overly people pleasing as possible. Don’t waste your time with this, it is one of the weakest comedy films I have seen in a long time.

Pros.

Dax Shepard is mildly amusing

Cons.

It is too safe

It isn’t funny

Neither Fey or Poehler are likeable or entertaining to watch

It is boring

0.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Sisters: The Fey-Poehler Dynamic

Sisters is a comedy film directed by Jason Moore. The plot sees two sisters come together to sort through their parents’ house before it is sold. Of course the sisters are opposites to one another, Maura (Amy Poehler), is the self-disciplined scared to let lose type and Kata (Tina Fey), is the party girl who peaked in high school, both use this trip home as a means of trying to be different people and grow as individuals.

The plot is cliché and generic, this film will never win any awards for originality, but at the same time it is also very good and incredibly funny. The perhaps soul reason for this is the dynamic between the two leads and the fact that both are very humorous in their own way.

The dynamic between the two leads is definitely what makes this film so good, but it also boosted by a largely fantastic supporting cast, with the likes of Maya Rudolph and Ike Barinholtz proving to be standouts as well.

The humour worked for me and often made me laugh, though as I often say comedy is subjective so that doesn’t mean you will find it funny. As well as this the film has a lot of heart, that mostly comes off the right way. You do buy Fey and Poehler as sisters and when they face strife it is believable.

My one complaint would be that there is no reason this film is on for almost two hours as it just doesn’t need to be. It is self-indulgent and poorly paced as a result.

Pros.

Fey and Poehler

The comedy

The heart

The wider supporting cast

Cons.

It is poorly paced and on for far too long

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke