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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 April 2022

The Harry Potter wizarding universe is at an interesting point for Warner Bros. Pictures.  The first eight movies, all adapted from J.K. Rowling’s immensely popular books, were a box-office sensation.  That timeline culminated in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 which generated $1.34 billion in global ticket sales and became, at that moment, the 3^rd highest grossing movie of all time.

Rowling was then engaged to create a five-film prequel series which focused on key wizarding events in the first half of the 20^th Century.  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was released in 2016 and was followed by Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald.  The later made just $655 million at the global box-office (down $160 million on the previous film) and represented the lowest take in the franchise to date.  Reviews, from both critics and the public, weren’t great either.

For Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, a significant change has been made to the cast.  Mads Mikkelsen (Another Round) convincing steps into the shoes of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.  Johnny Depp, who appeared in the last two movies, was asked to “resign” in November 2020 after a British court ruled, to a civil standard, that he had physically assaulted his ex-wife, Amber Heard.  Also noticeable is the near-complete absence of Katherine’s Waterston’s previously prominent character, Tina Goldstein.  Reasons are given in the film for her relegation but they’re flimsy.

Uncannily predicting recent events in the United States, this new instalment is centred on the villainous Grindelwald and his attempts to rig an important wizard election.  He’s still trying to create a world where magical folk are in charge and humans are treated like second-rate citizens.  Our beloved heroes, guided by the astute Albus Dumbledore (Law), each have a part to play in saving democracy and ensuring Grindlewald isn’t falsely elected.

By a narrow margin, this is the best of the three Fantastic Beasts movies.  The story is easier to follow, there’s a better blend of comedy and drama, and Mikkelsen creates a worthy villain worth rooting against.  The use of magic is always opportune but it’s still nice to see it illustrated – whether it be as simple as a floating teacup… or as complicated as an eternal blood pact.  It’s also cool to return to Hogwarts, albeit briefly, to the backdrop of John Williams’ iconic theme.

That’s not to say there aren’t an equal number of weaknesses.  For a film which is 142 minutes long, it’s not offering much in terms of narrative and character advancement.  It reminds me of a television soapie where they create a key storyline and drag it out for weeks and weeks.  Where these characters finish up at the end of the movie isn’t all that different from where they were at the start of the movie.  It needed more pace, more urgency.

Directed once again by David Yates, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will be closely followed in this post-pandemic world to see if it can alleviate the franchise’s downward trend.  Is there enough interest in these characters to maintain interest for another two movies?  This movie is watchable, but unlike the early Daniel Radcliffe-helmed Harry Potter movies, I’m not sure it’s memorable.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 30 March 2022

Established in 1828 and located in an iconic building in London’s Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery is home to one of the world’s great collection of paintings.  It includes works from Claude Monet, Johannes Vermeer, Paul Cézanne, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.  The cost of insuring the paintings is unaffordable (many are deemed to be “priceless”) and so a heavy burden falls on the shoulders of security and other staff to keep them safe and in good condition.

In the long history of The National Gallery, only one painting has ever been stolen.  On 21 August 1961, 57-year-old retired British pensioner Kempton Bunton snuck into the museum while the security system had been disabled (cleaning was underway) and stole a 19^th Century work of Francisco Goya entitled The Portrait of the Duke of Wellington.  It has recently been acquired by the Gallery for the sum of £140,000.

Bunton wasn’t a big fan of the painting.  He didn’t steal it to display on his living room wall or to sell on the black market.  Bunton was angered by the British Government requiring all residents with a television set to pay a “licence fee” and so he’d stolen the painting as a mean of protest.  It was a classic kidnapping and ransom.  Writing anonymously to newspapers, Bunton agreed to return the painting but only if a significant donation was made by the Government to help pay TV licence fees for poorer residents.

If you love a good “truth is stranger than fiction” tale, The Duke is for you.  It’s also noteworthy in the sense it marks the final movie of director Roger Michell who passed away unexpected last year at the age of 65.  His previous credits include Notting Hill (my personal favourite), Changing Lanes, Hyde Park on Hudson, and the documentary Nothing Like a Dame.  He had a knack for extracting great performances from his cast.

That’s again the case here.  Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent (Iris) relishes the chance to play such a fun character and that same vibe will rub off on audiences.  It’s hard not to cheer for Kempton Bunton despite the fact he’s a criminal.  The most entertaining scenes in the film are where he pleads his case, with the help of a creative defence lawyer (Goode), in a packed court room.  Helen Mirren (The Queen) works nicely off Broadbent with her more serious role as the concerned wife. 

The story is over-simplified in places but The Duke will please many thanks to its charming leads.  An interesting story.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 04 April 2022

“People still rob banks?”  It’s a question asked half-way through Ambulance and it alludes to this movie being part action, part spoof.  The scenario we see played out here isn’t very realistic… but a flick about an elaborate, in-person bank heist, complete with a big shootout, is more likely to get the attention of action fans than something involving cybercrime and money laundering (more common today).

Not much nuance has gone into the screenplay.  Will Sharp (Abdul-Mateen II) is a “good guy” getting screwed over by health insurance companies who won’t stump up $231,000 for experimental surgery to help his ailing wife (Ingram).  With seemingly no other opinions, he reaches out to his estranged criminal stepbrother, Danny (Gyllenhaal), who conveniently needs an extra accomplice to help steal $32 million from a bank in central Los Angeles.

They’re doomed from the start but that’s largely their own doing.  Bringing in a new man just 5 minutes before walking out the door and putting plans into action… yeah, not the best idea.  Danny isn’t a great judge of character either.  The crew seem woefully underprepared to the point where one of them is wearing Birkenstocks.  They’re not the slick, sharp, shrewd group we saw in Michael Mann’s epic heist film, Heat.

The robbery goes poorly (no surprise there) and what follows is a 90-minute car chase where Will and Danny have commandeered an ambulance and drive through the packed streets of Los Angeles trying to evade the authorities.  In the back are two people they’ve kidnapped – a seriously wounded police officer they “inadvertently” shot (he’s just three months out of the Academy!) and a skilled, emotion-supressing paramedic (González) who rubs people up the wrong way (“no one wants to be your partner”).

The character development isn’t great and the moralistic, semi-redemptive arc provided to Danny is difficult to swallow.  It’s reminiscent of the Fast & Furious franchise in that it’s pushing “stick together” and “do it for the family” type themes.  People are in perilous, life-threatening situations and still have time for laughs and deep, meaningful conversations.

All of that said, this latest effort from Michael Bay (Bad Boys, Transformers) doesn’t ask you to take it seriously.  It even makes humorous reference to a past Bay film starring Nicolas Cage!  Ambulance warrants your attention because of its extreme, adrenalin-pumping car chases.  A great example is a creative scene where the paramedic performs open heart surgery with the help of Facetime on a phone with low battery while travelling at 60 miles an hour.

There’s decent tension in the film too.  From the initial robbery to the long pursuit, writer Chris Fedak (Chuck) finds enough twists and turns to keep audiences engaged.  Showing events from the perspective of both the escaping criminals and the hunting authorities also adds to interest levels.  Praise needs to go the way of two-time Oscar winning editor Pietro Scalia (JFK, Black Hawk Down) in weaving all the footage together in a way that feels hectic but still easy to follow.

A remake of a Danish film released in 2005, Ambulance has its issues but it’s still an energising entry to the action genre.

You can read my chat with director Michael Bay by clicking here.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 March 2022

Texas, 1979.  Three men and three women have rented a run-down guest house on a remote farm to shoot a “quality” porno movie to be viewed in people’s homes using the new medium of VHS.  There’s a producer (Henderson), a director (Campbell), an assistant (Ortega), a well-hung male lead (Mescudi), and two female stars (Goth and Snow).

I was reminded of the closing scene of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights when Mark Wahlberg whips out his schlong in front of a dressing room mirror and naively proclaims “I am a big bright shining star.”  The simply-titled X opens with something similar – albeit from a female perspective.  It immediately tells us that while these characters have good intentions (for the most part), their dreams of success and stardom are simply delusions.  Nothing about the porno they’re making will improve their financial or social standing.

It’s at the half-way mark where X morphs from a comedy-drama into a violent horror flick.  Writer-director Ti West is no stranger to the genre having made films including Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, The Innkeepers and The Sacrament.  West uses well-trodden formulas here (such as splitting everyone up to create multiple subplots) but the characters act in a rational, realistic manner which gives the film credibility.  They’re not the sharpest tools in the shed but you’ll care about them more than you might expect (the interesting backstory helps).

I wasn’t as convinced by the “villains” but X is still an above-average horror movie with several moments that will catch audiences off guard.  It’s got a decent script, an energetic cast, and lots of style.  I had to laugh at a random split-screen musical interlude half-way through.  There’s another memorable moment, humorously shot by cinematographer Eliot Rockett, involving a naked Scott Mescudi standing outside the front door in the middle of the night.  These scenes highlight that the film is as light-hearted and entertaining as it is creepy and gory.

West was fortunate enough to get renowned American production company A24 to rely on economies of scale and put up the money to make two movies about these characters and their messed-up world.  They were shot back-to-back in New Zealand in early 2021 and, based on the early hype/success for X, we can expect to see the next instalment very soon.  A tease of this very different film (a prequel) is offered after the closing credits so be sure to stick around.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 31 March 2022

Don’t judge a book by its cover.  It’s a message that’s pushed very, very, very strongly in The Bad Guys, the latest animated feature from Dreamworks.  Those looking for nuance will be disappointed but, given this is targeted largely at kids, the focus is on a simple storyline with cute, fun characters.  It’s like a Looney Tunes cartoon except with better production values.

We meet these “bad guys” in a quick-paced introduction.  Wolf (Rockwell) is their cunning leader, Snake (Maron) is a master safe-cracker, Tarantula (Awkwafina) is a renowned computer hacker, Shark (Robinson) is a master of disguise, and Piranha (Ramos) is willing to fight anyone.  Not afraid to rob a bank or steal precious artifacts, they’re described as the “most diabolical criminals of our time” and they wear it like a badge of honour.  To use Wolf’s own words – “we may be bad… but we’re so good at it.”

The argument put forward is these five characters are bad… because that’s what society expects of them.  People are naturally afraid of wolves, snakes, spiders, sharks, and piranhas and so they never had a chance to begin with.  What if there was a way to break the stereotype, give them a fresh start, and turn them into “good guys”?

The team is arrested after a botched robbery at the aptly titled Gala for Goodness and they’re fortunately provided a rehabilitation opportunity by the generous governor.  Instead of sending them to the slammer, she hands them over to the much-loved guinea pig, Professor Marmalade (Ayoade), who will put them through a series of tests and make them better creatures.  He’s out to prove there’s a little bit of good in all of us.

As the central figure, Wolf seems to be channelling the mantra of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.  You never know which side he’s playing (sometimes he doesn’t know either) and he continually changes his persona to fit each situation.  Does he truly want to be good?  Or is it all part of the “most relaxing con ever”?  His views are sharpened during a predictable, semi-rushed finale.

There’s a local connection with the movie based on a children’s book series first released by Australian author Aaron Blabey in 2015.  He’s now published more than a dozen books about these characters which highlights their popularity around the world.  Websites state a recommended reading age of 6-12 years old which fits with what we see on screen.

Production values are strong and it’s easy to see kids engaging with these villains-turned-heroes.  The voices have been astutely selected with the distinctive Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina and Richard Ayoade standing out as the best of the bunch.  Alex Borstein also rates a mention as the city’s emotional police chief. 

I’d have preferred a narrative with more complexity but The Bad Guys knows its audience and knows what it’s trying to sell.  One for the kids.

You can read my chat with the book's author, Aaron Blabey, by clicking here.