REVIEW: The World's End

The World's End (2013): Dir. Edgar Wright. Written by: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan. Rated R (Language, robot blood). Running time: 109 minutes.

2 stars (out of four)

The World’s End starts promisingly as a the-boys-are-back-together comedy, slips into sci-fi mediocrity roughly a third of the way in, and ends with a slapdash epilogue so lazy, it feels like an insult, or maybe a mistake. The film was directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg, who previously collaborated on the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead and the (even better) tongue-in-cheek buddy cop movie Hot Fuzz. In both of those earlier films, as well as this one, Wright and Pegg meld the comedy of small town caricatures with more conventional genre-movie entertainment.

Their films also have a wry, distinctly British wit. They aren’t afraid to go for the jugular (sometimes literally, by way of decapitating a character), and for the first half hour or so, The World’s End appears willing to mine some good, uncomfortable laughs from its reunion of middle-aged blokes.

The organizer of this class reunion is Gary King (Pegg), a hyper, alcoholic mess of a guy. On a whim inspired by some mid-life crisis combo of boredom and desperation, he decides to get his old mates from high school back together for an epic pub crawl called the Golden Mile. Twelve pubs in one night, a pint (or more) in each one, is no easy feat for anyone, certainly not a group of men pushing forty. As teenagers, their first attempt at the Golden Mile left them passed out in a field somewhere between pubs nine and ten, getting sick all over themselves (which is also to say it was a smashing success).

The friends are played by a charming and accomplished group of actors that include Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman and Eddie Marsan. Nick Frost, again taking up his usual sidekick role beside Pegg (though, for the first time, as the straight man), plays Andy, Gary’s former best drinking buddy turned teetotaler. An incident from his and Gary’s post-grad years has made him swear off booze (as well as his friendship with Gary), but darned if his old friend can’t drag him back out for one more night.

Andy and the rest of the guys eye the former leader of their group with a mixture of morbid fascination and deep concern. He hasn’t changed a bit. He even still drives “The Beast,” his 1989 Ford that coughs black fumes at the slightest bump in the road. For a while, they enjoy the nostalgia of being in his company, but the sadness of his situation soon sets in. Watch the worried looks Considine and Freeman exchange when they realize Gary has been jamming out to the same cassette tape since high school, some twenty years ago.

The first act of the film is rich with moments like that one, suggesting that The World’s End is heading for bold, uneasy comedic territory. Pegg’s performance walks a careful tonal tightrope. Gary is the type of eternally upbeat guy who wants you to have a blast but just ends up depressing the hell out of you because it’s painfully obvious how in denial he is.

But an earnest set-up is wasted with a hard left turn toward science fiction that, this time around, feels forced rather than inspired. A plot about extraterrestrial robots taking over the guys’ hometown has potential for satire (they also find that the once colorful characters of their favorite pubs have been homogenized as a result of corporate buy-outs, a fate that mirrors the alien takeover) but it belongs in a different movie.

The World’s End’s jarring shift of gears also allows it to duck out of dealing with the more complex and interesting issues its characters face, such as settling into middle age, dealing with alcoholism and the effects of nostalgia.

Instead there are a lot of fight scenes, which are hectic, decently choreographed, squirt blue synthetic blood all over the actors, but are nothing special, really. I find it hard to recommend The World’s End even as simple-minded fun when you can just rent 2011’s way cooler, more inventive and way better alien invasion movie Attack the Block (also produced by Big Talk Productions, the same company that produces all of Edgar Wright’s films).

Fans of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz may be satisfied enough with The World’s End but I’d be surprised if it attained anything near the cult fandom of those movies. There are enough good scenes and chuckle-worthy jokes to remind you of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s earlier successes but the movie ultimately becomes as weary as Gary King does to his friends. You wish it would dispense with the distractions, grow up and deal with something real.

- Steve Avigliano, 8/28/13

Best of 2012: My Favorite Performances

The Oscars have it all wrong. By trying to determine “the objective best” performances of the year, the same sorts of roles get nominated year after year and a lot of strong work gets overlooked. What follows are my favorite performances of 2012. Are they the best? I’m not sure I even know what that means. These are the performances that made bad movies decent and good movies better. These are the actors I was talking about with my friends as I left the theater. These are the ones I’m still thinking about.

I’ve listed them in alphabetical order, selecting one as my favorite of the year and one bonus prize for the best ensemble.

Josh Brolin – Men in Black 3

Doing his best Tommy Lee Jones impression, Josh Brolin as Agent K’s younger self was the highlight of the second, time-traveling sequel to Men in Black. He may even play the straight man to Will Smith even better than Jones did. Getting laughs with nothing more than a mean mug and a dry Southern drawl, Brolin made this thoroughly unnecessary movie a pleasant surprise.

Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln

At the heart of Steven Spielberg’s superb film is Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. He disappears into the role as he always does but he doesn’t dominate the movie. The performance is low-key, painting the former president as a thoughtful, intellectual man. Of course, Lincoln is known as a great orator and Day-Lewis gets a few moments to shine in this capacity. But note also the quieter moments when he jokes with cabinet members or discusses with his wife the fate of their enlisted son. The performance is another in a line of great ones in the actor’s impressive career.

Andrew Garfield – The Amazing Spider-Man

There’s a moment in The Amazing Spider-Man when Andrew Garfield shakes his head, grinning, mouth agape, apparently speechless. I imagine I’d look much the same way were I lying in the arms of Emma Stone while she tended to my wounds. Garfield is thoroughly convincing as a teenager suddenly given super powers – a little cocky and a little clumsy but well intentioned. His Peter Parker is a charmer in a way Tobey Maguire never was in the role and his performance helped make The Amazing Spider-Man the most fun I had at the movies this summer. 

Salma Hayek – Savages

A wildly over-the-top Salma Hayek devours her role as a drug kingpin in Oliver Stone’s Savages. Cursing in two languages and wearing some fantastic wigs, she gives a movie that is already high off its own supply an added jolt of adrenaline.

Anne Hathaway – The Dark Knight Rises, Les Misérables

Yes, Anne Hathaway steals the show with her stellar rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” in Les Misérables, but I enjoyed her turn as the sexy, wise-cracking seductress Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman) in The Dark Knight Rises even more. The movie, which very nearly collapses under the weight of its own seriousness, is actually a lot of fun whenever she’s on screen and if there’s one thing it could have used more of, it’s her.

Philip Seymour Hoffman / Joaquin Phoenix – The Master

Any interpretation of Paul Thomas Anderson’s maddening new film hinges on how you view the relationship between Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) and Freddie Quell (Phoenix). Is their bond that of a father to his son? A teacher to his pupil? A scientist to a lab rat? All of the above? Each actor makes his part nuanced and complex. We can never pin these men down and this inability to fully understand their relationship is what makes the movie so compulsively fascinating.

Samuel L. Jackson – Django Unchained

In a film that mostly ignores the complexity of race relations in the Old South, Samuel L. Jackson fearlessly digs into some very tricky material as Stephen, the loyal servant of a cruel and violent plantation owner. He is frighteningly intense but, being a Tarantino veteran, Jackson is more than capable of navigating the sudden tonal shifts from drama to comedy and back. Stephen is a fascinating variation on the Uncle Tom archetype, muddying the waters of Tarantino’s overly simplistic morality and enlivening the movie’s last act.

Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook

A far cry from her solid-as-a-rock performance as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence shows off her range playing the romantic foil to a manic depressive Bradley Cooper. She is emotionally guarded and prone to mood swings but watch how her face shows you everything her character is thinking and hints at the sudden outbursts just before they happen.

Channing Tatum – 21 Jump Street

Channing Tatum is hilarious. Who knew? He has comedic timing to match his good looks and his presence here helps freshen up Jonah Hill’s fast-talking shtick in one of the year’s most unexpectedly funny movies.

My Favorite Performance: Martin Freeman – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

If Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit movie wasn’t quite perfect, there was at least one aspect of it that was: Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins. Freeman gets the part exactly right. His Bilbo is a homebody, curious about the outside world and with an impish streak in him, but mostly content to curl up by the fire with a good book. Whenever the movie threatens to get lost in a computer-generated frenzy, Freeman can be counted on to right the ship’s course. Though he is too often relegated to the sidelines in this first film, the next two parts of the trilogy would be wise to turn to Mr. Baggins more often.

Best Ensemble – Moonrise Kingdom

The cast Wes Anderson collects for his latest feature is an enviable one. Some of them play roles we’re familiar seeing them in. Bill Murray is as reliable as ever playing a sad sack and Frances McDormand is a joy to watch as his wife, a Type A personality who wears the pants in the family. But others play refreshingly against type. Ed Norton is a lot of fun as a scout leader who is still a boy at heart and Bruce Willis is touching as a lonely police officer. Add to that some fine supporting roles from Bob Balaban, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman and Tilda Swinton, not to mention some excellent young newcomers (including Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the eloping young lovers), and you have an excellent ensemble led by Wes Anderson, one of the best maestros around.

- Steve Avigliano, 2/23/13

REVIEW: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012): Dir. Peter Jackson. Written by: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro. Based on The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Sylvester McCoy, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis. Rated PG-13 (Goblin blood). Running time: 169 minutes.

3 stars (out of four)

Director Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s charming and durable 1937 novel The Hobbit, and a prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Much like the Lord of the Rings movies, An Unexpected Journey is a rousing epic, a stirring human drama and a breathtaking advertisement for New Zealand tourism. Though not quite the sprawling masterpiece each of those earlier films is, this is an entertaining movie that occasionally reaches greatness and comes very close to being satisfying as a standalone film.

This is the first in a trilogy, however, so though our heroes have climbed mountains, crossed valleys, scuttled through untold numbers of underground passageways and fought many foes over the course of more than two-and-a-half hours, they have apparently only just begun.

We have already seen (and, if you are like me, committed to memory) the daring adventure of Frodo Baggins, a lowly hobbit from the small village of Hobbiton, who saved all of Middle Earth from certain doom with a little help from his friends. The Hobbit tells the story of his uncle, Bilbo Baggins, a fellow adventurer who embarked on his own journey some sixty years earlier. In a prologue that runs surprisingly long, we see an aged Bilbo (Ian Holm, reprising his role) sitting down to write his memoirs in his quaint hobbit hole while Frodo (Elijah Wood making a cameo appearance) peeps over his shoulder.

As the old Bilbo narrates, we see his younger self (played to perfection by Martin Freeman) being visited by the wizard Gandalf (a sublime Ian McKellen slipping back into the role) who asks him very kindly if he would like to go on an adventure. Bilbo scoffs at the suggestion. An adventure? He would like no part in that. Few things are more unpredictable and uncomfortable than adventures and he would much prefer to stay home and enjoy his supper.

But Gandalf, of course, has already decided for him. In a delightful sequence – and the highlight of the film – Bilbo is visited by not one, not two or seven, but thirteen dwarves. They raid his pantries, serve themselves a feast and make plans for a great quest. They seek to travel to the Lonely Mountain, once a stronghold of the dwarves, to reclaim their land and their treasure from a terrible dragon named Smaug. Gandalf has informed the dwarves that Bilbo is to be their burglar. Naturally, this upsets Bilbo very much.

Though The Lord of the Rings is rich with stories of revenge and loyalty, vices and virtues, I relate more closely with The Hobbit than with any part of that great saga. I see more than a little of myself in Bilbo Baggins and I sympathize with his reaction to all this excitement. I love an impromptu plan but I need to be coaxed into it. Left to my own devices I would probably stay at home most nights, likely watching The Lord of the Rings or wasting away the hours on something equally unsociable.

So I connect deeply to the story of a fellow homebody who is begrudgingly pushed out the door, gets into all kinds of messes and ultimately winds up having a good time. In Tolkien’s novel, that story is told from point of view of Bilbo, who is alternately awestruck, amused, frightened and exhausted by all this adventuring.

An Unexpected Journey, on the other hand, takes on a broader perspective. Written by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh (Mr. Jackson’s wife), Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro, the script finds time to chase tangents and develop backstories that flesh out the expansive world of Middle Earth and its history. We meet Radagast (Sylvester McCoy) an eccentric, animal-loving wizard who discovers something dark brewing in his beloved woods. Whispers spread that a dark sorcerer named the Necromancer is raising the dead.

We also learn about the dark past of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), the dwarf leader of the expedition, who long ago tangled with the Pale Orc in battle and lost many loved ones to that foul creature’s sword. Though believed to be dead, the Pale Orc may in fact still be alive and looking to finish what he started.

There is a lot to absorb in this first movie and most of it is fascinating but the trouble with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is that it gets so caught up in the journey that it often forgets the hobbit. As expected, the action is superbly choreographed and the effects are stunning across the board. But poor Bilbo is sidelined for lengthy passages and the movie suffers as a result. His exclusion from many scenes is also unusual considering Bilbo himself is supposed to be telling this tale. I find it difficult to believe this adventurer would leave himself out of the main action of his own story.

As grand as Peter Jackson’s canvas is, the story needs Bilbo’s humble perspective to anchor it and give the audience someone to identify with. During more than one of the many battle scenes that transpire during the film’s ungainly 169 minutes, I found myself wishing I was cozying up in some corner of my hobbit hole – that is to say, my living room – underneath a warm blanket away from all this tiresome noise and commotion.

But when Bilbo does get screen time, as he does in his encounter with Gollum (Andy Serkis in another stellar motion-capture performance), the movie comes alive. Martin Freeman’s performance is the heart, soul and saving grace of the film. He is a gifted comic actor who wonderfully navigates the many hesitations, prejudices, preoccupations and contradictions of the cautious but brave hobbit. Ian McKellen, who still has the ability to turn a scene with a single look, is also an invaluable presence in the movie.

There are a number of pitch perfect moments when An Unexpected Journey captures the blissful whimsy of Tolkien’s novel. Just as often, however, this lighter side takes a backseat as Peter Jackson flexes his epic filmmaking muscles. By the time the credits rolled, I was plenty ready for a break from Middle Earth. That was more than enough adventure for one evening, thank you very much.

- Steve Avigliano, 12/15/12


On a side note, this movie is being shown in a number of different formats, including 3D and something called HFR (higher frame rate). The movie was filmed at 48 frames per second (twice as fast as the usual 24 fps) and if projected at that speed is supposed look more realistic.

I saw it in regular old 2D and enjoyed it but these websites were very helpful in making that decision. This one rates the 3D version and this one talks about the HFR version.