Review : The Angriest Man in Brooklyn

Year Release : 2014

Director : Phil Alden Robinson

Cast : Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage and James Earl Jones

This is probably the most mainstream film that I have reviewed so far on this site, and I would implore you all of avoid it like the plague when it gets released in the UK. If it isn't straight to DVD I would be surprised.

Imagine you are told that you only have 90 minutes to live, how would you spend it? Well I certainly wouldn't waste it watching this movie again. After being diagnosed by a replacement doctor as only having 90 minutes to live, Henry (Williams) decides to spent the remainder of his life saying goodbye to his family, the only problem is that none of them like him.

Since the death of one of his two children a few years before hand, Henry (Williams) has alienated everyone in his life, and the only reason that Dr Gill (Kunis) is chasing him down to try and prevent disaster is because she lied about him having 90 minutes to live and feels a sense of guilt. So she's chasing him as he goes around trying to see his friends and family and is usually one step behind Henry as he finds out his wife is sleeping with the next door neighbour, he realises criticising his son's decision to work at a dance studio was wrong and his brother (Dinklage) misses the days when they used to be close.

What follows is one of the blandest films to be released in many years.
The title is misleading as the only times you see Henry angry before his diagnosis for a brain aneurysm is when he is hit by a taxi and then has to wait for more than two hours for his doctor to arrive for his hospital appointment, and yet the title suggests that it's highly unusual to get angry in these situations normally.

Infact, during the entire film you only see him get angry on three occasions, totaling maybe ninety seconds. An 83 minute film, take out five minutes for credits, leaving 78 minutes overall, and he's only angry for less than 2% of the film. There is no build up to the anger, you're just thrown in to this guy's life and are just expected to know that he's angry all the time without knowing why. This is made obvious from the first minute as the words uttered in the film comes as Henry lists all the things he hates, but again, everyone has a list of stuff that they hate. They expect is to think this guy is the angriest man in Brooklyn simply because he has a lot of things as gets angry when he is hit by another driver and has to wait for two hours to see a doctor? I'd get pissed off at that, hell, a Buddhist monk would get pissed off in that situation, so this guy isn't special and is just like 99% of people in the world.

Henry tries to buy a camera but does nothing but reaffirm he isn't a likeable person by mocking the seller's heavy stutter.

Henry's family only learns about his condition after they reject his attempts to connect and they launch a desperate attempt to find him. If it takes him dying for them to think they will miss him, then it does make you wonder if it was worth it and whether the relationships would be stronger at the end of this ordeal, or whether things would eventually go back to the way they have been.

There is precisely sod all character development in his film, seriously, none, and what makes it worse is that you don't feel sorry for Henry, he's a bit of a dick. Whether it be threatening to deport a taxi driver by reporting him to the authorities to mocking a camera salesman with a severe stutter, you almost start to genuinely wish that Dr Gill was correct and that he only had 90 minutes to live.

The performances are dull and Williams puts in yet another performance where you wonder if he was actually trying. Can you actually remember the last film that Williams was in where he was actually any good, or played a likeable character? I know some people will say "what about Mrs Doubtfire?", well given that film is about a man who openly tries to film his soon-to-be divorced wife's new boyfriend, I would say that answer is no. Infact, I can't recall a film where he actually played a guy that was both likeable and didn't spend most of the film being an intolerable arse.

Henry (Williams) reflects on his relationship with his son as Dr Gill (Kunis) gets as bored as anyone watching the film

Mila Kunis continues to be on her regular film, in other words being a terrible actress. I love her in the role as Meg in Family Guy and there's no denying she's definitely an attractive woman, but watching her act is painful due to that beautiful face being completely expressionless during each and every film she is in. In this film her character is supposedly very sad that her cat just jumped out of a 10th floor flat window, and but for all we know she could be absolutely delighted at it as there is no range in her acting ability. She was the same in "The Book of Eli" as well, bland, bland, bland.

*WARNING, THIS NEXT BIT CONTAINS A SPOILER, I WILL INDICATE WHEN SPOILER ENDS SO YOU CAN CONTINUE READING

For me the most painful scene to watch was right at the end. Henry did die afterall, eight days after the events of the majority of the film, and his family release his ashes into the river. They are confronted by a member of the ship's crew and they all start shouting at him in a way that they think Henry would have. They could have simply said that they were spreading ashes, but nope, they had to deliver this in a way that was exceptionally painful to watch.

*SPOILER FINISHED*

I would implore all of my friends and family to avoid this film at any cost. The trailer makes it look reasonable but it really, really isn't. Horrible, horrible film.

This film did have potential as it's an interesting concept, and one improvement would be for the film to last 90 minutes from the point that Henry is told he has 90 minutes to live, but the film as a whole doesn't last 90 minutes. With a better script, director and cast this film could have actually be very watchable and enjoyable, but alas, we were stuck with this rubbish.

Review : Maniac

Year Released : 2012

Director : Franck Khalfon

Cast : Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, Genevieve Alexandra

Elijah Wood is a man who has seemingly done everything he can to stop being typecast as fantasy characters after his role as Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings. Since then he has a neuroscientist with stalkerish tendencies in the excellent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a hooligan in Green Street and the voice of a possessed puppet in the animated "9", and he continues that trend in Maniac, a remake.

I've got severely mixed feelings about remakes. Some fall into the excellent side of the argument. The Thing (1982) and The Fly (1986), Night of the Living Dead (1990) and Dawn of the Dead (2004), for example, are a few of my favourite films and all are remakes, however, I could probably sit here for a long time and list films that are shockingly poor remakes, so I am always cautious when it comes to watching remakes.

I first heard about Maniac whilst on the London Underground and a very large poster, however, upon searching for when it was on in or near where I was living at the time (Newark), the nearest showings were all in London. Infact, outside of London there didn't seem to be any showings anywhere. I found myself asking the question "How good can a film really be if it's not being shown at 99% of the cinemas in the country but isn't straight to DVD?" Don't get me wrong, some of my favourite films didn't come out at the cinema, such as the previously reviewed Exit Humanity, but something always strikes me as unnerving about a film that some have deemed good enough to be released at a cinema, but only a very, very small percentage.

Anyway, Wood plays Frank Zito, a man who is mentally disturbed and leads a double life. By day he is the respectable owner of the family's mannequin business, my night he is a murderer. With his mother being a prostitute during his childhood, Zito struggles to develop relationships with women but does eventually meet a French woman called Anna. As time goes on Zito struggles to lead a double life and keeping Anna away from the other half.

Let's start with the few positives that there are from the film. Firstly, Zito keeps the body of an early kill in his bedroom throughout the film, and you gradually see it decompose and become surrounded my flies. The acting throughout the film is generally good and other than Wood, it was refreshing to see a relatively unknown cast. It's unusual to see a film with very established actors outside of the teen-horror (Final Destination for example) genre.

Now onto the negatives.

The film is shown in a first person perspective, all from Zito, meaning that Wood is only in the film when looking in a mirror, again there is something quite unusual about that as although you can hear what Zito is saying and/or thinking, it's hard to really get his sense of confliction without being able to see his face on the majority of occasions.

I found this film ultimately disappointing. The trailer made it look reasonable but I found it to be very slow, generally uninteresting and other than the final 20 or so minutes, completely unengaging. Whilst not completely awful, it's definitely a bit "meh".

To put this into some context, I would put this into the group of films that I call "Watch once and be comfortable in the fact you will not watch it again!"

Review : Thank You For Smoking

Year Released : 2006

Director : Jason Reitman

Cast : Aaron Eckhart, Katie Holmes, William H Macy and J.K. Simmons

Long before he gained the role he is best known for (Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight) Aaron Eckhart starred in a dark comedy about a man who works as a tobacco lobbyist.

Eckhart plays Nick Naylor, a guy who lives by the motto "if you argue correctly then you are never wrong." His job is to convince people that smoking cigarettes is a good thing, or at least not as bad as it is made out to be in the media. He has to fight people from every angle, including anti-tobacco campaigners, right up to the Senator of Vermont (Macy) and his ex-wife, who is determined to not have him get their son involved in the same industry.

There aren't many films based on booked that are actually any good. Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club" is probably my favourite book-to-film conversion, but this comes a very close second. It is very sharply written and the cast do a fantastic job with their characters, even the normally intolerably bland Katie Holmes doesn't ruin it. With a sensitive subject at the heart of the film, Thank You For Smoking is one of those films that the doesn't really deal with being politically incorrect, and in one of the opening scenes the Senator refers to a young cancer patient who failed to help him win an argument as "cancer boy."

I can't recall a movie that has been as quotable as this since the aforementioned Fight Club, with constant references to serial killers, the yuppie culture, cancer and of course, the cigarette industry, but all in a satirical sense, and although the odd statement could be deemed as offensive, it's nice to see a film that isn't afraid to be a little politically incorrect and subtlety (and unsubtley on occasions) offend people.

Despite being a black comedy, there are some excellently hilarious parts of the film, including a phrase that sticks in my head and makes me chuckle occasionally, afterall, how can you forget "The great state of Vermont will not apologise for it's cheese".

The stand out star though has to be Eckhart. He doesn't have your typical " movie star" look to him and therefore portrays the very business minded Naylor perfectly. There are numerous times during the film where, despite initially appearing to be invincible, Naylor has to realise that he might not be as strong as he thoughts, and it is played superbly by Eckhart.

My one criticism of the film really is that there are a few characters that get far too much screen times, and whilst obviously it helps the story along, there are several characters where you actually look at their character and part in the movie and realise that you could have easily left them out. On the flip side there are characters who you want to see more of, such as the other two characters in the "Merchants of Death Squad" (lobbyists from the alcohol and firearms industries), who could definitely have been in it more and explore their defending of their relative industries.

Overall "Thank You For Smoking" is a thoroughly enjoyable film and at 92 minutes is about the right length for a film of this type. It's one of those films that you can watch numerous times and learn something new each time, and that's the type of film everyone loves.

So just to end this review, I demand an explanation Senator......

Review : Exit Humanity

Year Released : 2011

Director : John Geddes

Cast : Mark Gibson, Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace, Adam Seybold, Jordan Hayes and Brian Cox

Described in the trailer as “this is not a movie, but a piece of cinema,” Exit Humanity makes a bold promise about what it is about to deliver and as far as I am concerned, it certainly delivers on that.

Edward Young (Mark Gibson) returned to his family following the American Civil War and had settled down to a normal life, however, upon a return from a hunting trip, his family has disappeared and the area is infested with zombies. Young soon discovers Isaac (Adam Seybold) and they venture to find the latter’s sister (Jordan Hayes), who has been kidnapped by an insane army general (Bill Moseley). Throughout Young is struggling to come to terms with the new world and slowly loses his grip on reality and his sanity, and attempts suicide on numerous occasions. The eeriness of his feelings comes out with the haunting quote “If this is the humanity that is left then I need an exit!”

Divided into chapters, this “piece of cinema” has many fascinating sub/mini-sections, including one where Young captures one of his infected neighbours and tests what they are capable of via various experiments. One of the more fascinating chapters explores the origins of zombies, and although in some senses it is a little far-fetched, it’s as good as a theory as you’re likely to get in most zombie films.

Presented with a mix of live action and animation, Exit Humanity is visually stunning, and whilst the action is little and far between, I have never seen a film with as much character development, and Young’s slide into insanity is a fascinating journey, no more so than when an early suicide attempt fails and he realises that he is forced do with what he has.

The soundtrack and settings almost act as individual characters, with haunting melodies played on banjos accompanying the characters through their journey amongst sweeping landscapes. Wide open spaces may not fill you with dread, but certainly bring you into the main character’s feelings of isolation, especially early on the film before he meets Isaac.

Reviews have generally been mixed throughout the history of the film, however, the comments from those who have viewed it and reviewed it negatively seem to revolve around the theme of there being long spells between story advancement, but I personally would much rather have characters built to the level where you can what happens to them. Too many films from the zombie genre have too many characters that you don’t even know the names of, let alone care about whether the character lives or dies.

Exit Humanity only has nine characters that get decent screen time, but each has an excellent level of character development, ranging from Young and Isaac, to a doctor who questions his own faith in medicine and science as he can’t figure out what is happening or how to stop it. There isn’t a single weak character in the film, and you even care somewhat for the antagonists.

Zombie films could learn a lot from this movie. It is an exceptionally intelligent film that doesn’t treat it’s audience like they are gore-obsessed morons. Too many zombie films are just obsessed with showing hordes and hordes of people getting bitten and/or dying on a regular basis, and I’ll be honest, I have grown very tired of the genre, however, this film is a cut above not only most zombie films, but most horror films.