2020-2029, Film Review

Borderlands (2024)

Posted on August 28, 2024September 2, 2024 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

**© Lionsgate Films, Summit Entertainment, Media Capital Technologies, Arad Productions, Picturestart, Gearbox Studios and 2K**

Borderlands – Film Review

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, Jamie Lee Curtis

Director: Eli Roth

Synopsis: A bounty hunter is tasked by a powerful businessman to find and rescue his daughter on an inhospitable planet…

Review: Film adaptations of video games offer filmmakers so much potential. There is no shortage of games that are developed with such scope in their world-building and their richly developed characters to represent ripe material for them to translate these incredible adventures to the big screen and introduce these stories to a wider audience. It is a fundamental aspect for anyone who sets about this task that they honour its source material and adapt it in a manner that delivers thrills for both fans of the games and wider audiences in general. Who knows, perhaps it could inspire some to pick up a controller and dive into the world on which it was inspired? While recent video games such as The Last of Us, Fallout and the two Sonic movies succeeded, Eli Roth’s adaptation of Gearbox Software’s Borderlands fails and fails miserably.

After a massive dump of exposition about the world of Pandora (sadly not that one) and why everyone in this world might be interested in this mysterious vault, we meet infamous bounty hunter Lilith (Blanchett) on some other planet whose name you almost certainly won’t remember once the credits have rolled. Lilith is approached by a powerful businessman named Atlas (Ramirez) who tasks her with finding and rescuing his daughter Tiny Tina (Greenblatt) as Tina may hold the key to unlocking whatever is being kept in this vault. Lilith reluctantly returns to Pandora to find Tina. Along the way, she encounters and joins forces with a mercenary named Roland (Hart) and the brutish Krieg (Munteau) with a rag-tag group of characters on a quest to find some MacGuffins on a quest so generic you have seen a million times before, and also done so much better. You will wish you were watching that movie and not this derivative pile of junk.

**“Somewhere down here is a better script than the one we used…”**

A rag-tag, oddball collection of personalities brought together by circumstances on a mission with significant consequences at stake. It cannot be denied that Roth is trying to channel the Guardians of the Galaxy vibe, with tonnes of mic-drops to boot. Unfortunately, unlike what James Gunn accomplished with his trilogy of the Galaxy’s most lovable collection of a-holes, the script, credited to Roth and Joe Crombie, does absolutely nothing to put a shred of development on any of these characters or why you should even remotely care about their mission and whether they succeed. The film, which initially went into production in 2021, later carried out reshoots in early 2023 overseen by Deadpool director Tim Miller. Craig Mazin – the showrunner of Chernobyl and co-showrunner of The Last of Us – later had his name removed from the project. One look at Mazin’s resume and he seems like the perfect writer to help adapt a video game franchise from the console to the screen. Yet he didn’t want his name anywhere near it. Go figure.

With a lazy and mind-numbingly boring script and painfully obvious green screen, things do not get much better when it comes to the performances. Even with ridiculously talented actors, the dialogue delivery is monotone, bland and tedious to sit through, with attempts at humour extremely juvenile and unfunny. Blanchett tries her best, but not even she can elevate this insipid material and neither can her fellow Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis. Kevin Hart as Roland the mercenary is completely ineffective and Florian Munteau’s Krieg comes across as an inferior, considerably less amusing version, of a certain Drax the Destroyer. Ariana Greenblatt can be thankful she has her great performances in projects like Barbie and Ahsoka to fall back on because, like just about everything else in the film, she comes across as obnoxious and annoying. Though, nothing is as nearly as annoying as Claptrap the robot, voiced by Jack Black. Clearly intended to be the comedic sidekick, he is excruciatingly unfunny and makes you wish someone would deactivate him and then blow him to smithereens several times over.

One can only speculate, but given Roth is known for his work in horror films, it could be reasonably assumed the film initally tried to go for a more R-rated tone in keeping with the source material only for the studio to stipulate that they stick to a PG-13 rating, hence the reshoots. An R-rating may have marginally improved matters, but when a film is this lazily written, shoddily edited and put together, it is beyond redeemable. With more than 77 million games sold (as of November 2022), the Borderlands games franchise is clearly doing something right. Fans of the games would be wise to stick to the world that exists on their consoles because this dull and uninspired mess deserves to be banished to the apocalyptic wasteland it came from and never heard from ever again.

Despite its talented cast, this substandard adaptation of the popular game franchise is devoid of a shred of personality and thoroughly deserves its place on the scrapheap of worst video game adaptations. A complete and total misfire.

2020-2029, Film Review

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Posted on May 22, 2022May 22, 2022 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

Everything Everywhere All At Once – Film Review

Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis

Directors: Daniel Kwan and Dan Scheinert

Synopsis: Staring at the looming possibility of her business being forcibly closed down and amid rocky relationships with her family, a woman discovers she has the ability to travel through the multiverse…

Review: Humanity has long had a fascination with the concept of the multiverse, which has often found its way into the media that we consume. Most notably with science fiction and the realm of superhero movies, particularly the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It does make you wonder, what if there was an alternative version of you living in a universe in conjunction with this mad world we find ourselves living in? How would their life be different from the one you currently have and how different their world would be compared to ours? The answers to those questions, and so much more, can be found in one of the best explorations of this concept that’s ever been put to film.

Evelyn (Yeoh) is a Chinese-American woman who owns a laundromat whilst living in a tiny cramped flat above the laundromat with her husband Waymond (Quan). Her business is currently under audit by the IRS and Evelyn is up to her eyeballs in paperwork to sift through. To make matters worse, she’s presently enduring some troubled relationships with her family. Her marriage is teetering on the brink of divorce, her ailing father (Hong) is coming to visit and her relationship with her daughter Joy (Hsu) is breaking down to potentially the point of no return. Everything comes to a head when Evelyn realises, whilst in a crucial meeting with the IRS, that she has the power to travel through the multiverse. She’s able to see the various different lives she could have led, and as it turns out, is humanity’s last hope as a grave threat threatens to destroy not just her universe, but every single universe in existence.

If you have seen the previous film from Daniel Kwan and Dan Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, where a farting corpse discovers the meaning of life and friendship, you know to expect the unexpected. But even with that caveat, nothing can truly quite prepare the audience for the breathtaking film that they are about to experience. Effortlessly combining multiversal travel, with flawlessly executed kung-fu inspired action scenes, absurd moments of brilliant comedy and a very sincere heartfelt story sounds like an impossible job for one film to accomplish. It would be very easy for any film dealing with multiverses to get lost in the madness and for things to spiral hopelessly out of control to the point where it’s nought but an incoherent mess that has scrambled your brain. Fortunately, Daniels’ screenplay is extremely airtight. The imagination to have come up with such a brilliantly realised story is beyond impressive. However, to go into much more detail and to give away some of the hilarious jokes and gags would be a disservice to the genius of Daniels’ brilliantly bonkers vision.

Michelle Yeoh has always been a very prominent figure across a plethora of Hollywood movies, from her memorable turns as a Bond lady in Tomorrow Never Dies to her scene-stealing work in Crazy Rich Asians, but it’s usually been from a supporting perspective. So, to see her given her first leading role in a Hollywood film is so immensely satisfying, because it is what an actor of her immense talent truly deserves. Yeoh throws everything she has into this role, doing all of her own stunts, and in turn, gives the many different lives of Evelyn that we see on screen so much depth. She demonstrates just why she’s such a revered actor and Yeoh gives the performance of her career. While the film belongs to Yeoh, the work of the supporting cast must not be discounted.

Having had a very small role in last year’s Shang-Chi, Stephanie Hsu gets her chance to shine as Evelyn’s disgruntled daughter Joy and she seizes that opportunity with both hands. There is so much depth and nuance to Joy and the relationship between Joy and her mother. Ke Huy Quan, who shot to fame with his early performances in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies had been away from the acting game for a while, so it is fantastic to see him return and give such a brilliant performance as Evelyn’s goofy husband Waymond. The icing on the cake is Jamie Lee Curtis’s hilarious turn as the grumpy IRS agent who’s leading the audit into Evelyn’s business.

Regardless of the medium, an exploration of the multiverse offers filmmakers/showrunners so many possibilities. However, the film doesn’t lose sight of its core story about the importance of family and finding one’s place in the world. It gives the audience that and an enthralling ride along the way that they are unlikely to forget any time soon. Films like Everything Everywhere All At Once don’t come around too often, but when they do, they demand to be celebrated and cherished. For as long as the cinematic art form exists, films like this one are a powerful reminder of the wonder that this medium can accomplish.

Taking a plethora of genres and throwing them all into one film could have very easily backfired. However, with a career-best performance from Michelle Yeoh, this cinematic masterpiece fully lives up to its title by being hilarious, exhilarating and heartfelt all at once.

2010-2019, Film Review, London Film Festival 2019

Knives Out (2019)

Posted on October 13, 2019October 21, 2019 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

**Image is property of Lionsgate and Media Rights Capital**

Knives Out – Film Review

Cast: Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Christopher Plummer

Director: Rian Johnson

Synopsis: After a family patriarch dies in mysterious circumstances, a highly renowned private investigator is hired to lead the police inquiry…

Review: After making one of the most polarising blockbusters of all time in The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson would have been forgiven for taking a break from film-making, given the fierce, at times toxic, reaction that his Star Wars film generated. Yet, Johnson was having none of that and has wasted no time getting back into the game. After conceiving the idea of a murder mystery following the release of Looper, he takes obvious inspiration from the likes of Agatha Christie to give his own unique take on the “Whodunnit” genre, with extremely enthralling results.

As with all entertainment that centres on a murder mystery, it pays to know as little as possible about any plot details before diving head first into the madness. Therefore, vagueness is the name of the game from this point onwards. As he celebrates his 85th birthday party with his family, a family patriarch dies. Sensing something suspicious about the circumstances of the death, an official investigation is opened. As the tagline reads: “Hell, any of them could have done it.” As such, with everyone who attended the party a suspect, the detectives must interview the family members, and use those “little grey cells” in a bid to piece together the clues and to try and crack the case.

**The most attractive group of suspects you’ll maybe ever see…**

With such a stacked, A-list, ensemble cast, to give everyone their moment to shine would be extremely difficult. However, with a sharp and brilliantly witty script, Johnson does exactly that, and it enables him to get excellent performances out of everyone. Every member of this family is given fascinating, fleshed out back stories, which enables the audience to try and establish their potential motivations. Though, like all great murder mysteries, the audience is kept on their toes. Though, to go into too much detail about who gives the best performances is running the risk of getting into spoiler territory. With that in mind, let’s just say that, apart from Daniel Craig’s brilliant turn as the lead detective channelling his inner Poirot (if Poirot ever became a gruff Southern sleuth), the characters who wind up being at the centre of this investigation, are the best of a truly outstanding bunch.

There’s some ingenious subtext to the story that could have been a massive turn-off. However, it’s written so cleverly into the plot that makes it relevant and extremely entertaining. With every line of dialogue, Johnson’s passion for the genre comes across effortlessly, and he proves that he is a master of his craft. There’s also the distinct possibility that with some of the lines that these characters spit venomously at each other, that it’s Johnson’s subtle way of firing back, following the vitriol that was aimed in his direction following his Star Wars venture. For a film that centres on a murder investigation, it seems absurd that there’d be so many hilarious moments throughout. They are plentiful and they never feel out of place as the jokes keep the plot moving along at such a thrilling, kinetic pace. It ensures that not a single moment of the film’s run-time is wasted.

Bolstered by some immaculate, very colourful production design, this was the perfect film for Johnson to “bounce back” from the endless mire of the The Last Jedi backlash. It proves, if it were somehow ever in doubt that, Johnson’s mastery of the craft remains intact, and that he’s at the very top of his game as a writer and a director. Furthermore, it’s evident from every frame, that the cast are having a blast with this script, and there’s a good chance that this feeling will be reciprocal for the audience. It will make them want to grab their deerstalker hat and magnifying glass, and strive to solve the riddle at the centre of this enthralling mystery.