Movie review - "30 Minutes or Less" (2011) **

Disappointing follow up from the team that made Zombieland despite an excellent cast. A minor fault is you never think the comic crook duo of Danny McBride and Nick Swardson are a genuine threat; a more major one is that I never bought why Jesse Eisenberg do the robbery. There were too many opportunities for him to call the police or army or someone, anyone. And the fact is they steal an innocent person's car and trash it and rob a bank and scare the hell out of people (even when Eisenberg is delivering pizzas he's running red lights, smoking cones behind the wheel and driving on footpaths). It takes a lot of fun out of it. Why didn't they have the female lead kidnapped at the 30 minute mark instead of waiting until the last act? It would have made it all make sense.

There is fun to be had - some of the lines are hilarious, the lead actors are all very talented (I hope Aziz Ansari becomes  film star). But they all feel like ad-libbed bits thrown in by the actors - the actual story itself is a lot of not particularly involving plot and noisy action. The female lead is completely under-developed (it would have been a better film had this been beefed up say like Emma Stone in Zombieland). It seems like everyone had a good time making it.

Movie review – “Your Highness” (2011) **

I can see why people would like this especially if they like James Franco and/or Danny McBride – a spoof of Lord of the Rings type fantasy, with plenty of quests, knights, royalty and danger. But too many of the jokes repeat – references to masturbation and swearing within period dialogue - and it runs out of ideas, downing in an orgy of special effects at the finale. Danny McBride's comedy is a one note samba - he doesn't have the warmth of a Seth Rogen - and Natalie Portman, while pretty, isn't a natural comic - and it's distractingly obvious that she's using a body double.

Movie review – “The Foot First Way” (2006) **1/2

A credit card movie fairytale – it didn’t become the box office sensation that Napoleon Dynamite did, but it helped make a name of Danny McBride and help its talented director (who is hilarious in a support role) get a Hollywood feature.
The basic concept is strong – a tae kwon do instructor with a bad personal life – and you can see why it quickly became a cult film, with Will Ferrel amongst its’ fans: plenty of great lines and “bits”. There’s grown men beating up little kids, jokes about Hollywood stars, a cute little fat kid. Guys who took martial arts lessons at some stage will find it especially fun and you can imagine fans reciting the dialogue ad nauseum.
But there really isn’t a story, and I found it got a bit tiring after a while. It lacked a little heart or something. The best moment is the party where McBride and his gang start kicking butt.

Movie review – “Tropic Thunder” (2008) ***

One of the best ideas for a comedy in recent years doesn’t quite have the execution to match, though much of it is terrific. Certainly all the characters would seem to be there: fading action star, Russell Crowe type method actor, P Diddy style rap mogul, Chris Farley-esque comedian, sly agent, vicious mogul, etc etc. So many with such potential that it feels vaguely dissatisfying; you kept wanting to know more, whether a bit more about Ben Stiller’s background, or Robert Downey Jnr’s, or to have Jack Black given a bit more that relates to the story, or a bit more work on the Nick Nolte story. Maybe a bit less screentime given to that young kid – or deeper characterisation or something.

The film has a great look – lush green jungle, explosives – and the action scenes are done with flair (though the choreography can be a bit wonky). The acting is fine across the board; Tom Cruise is a lot of fun (perhaps his dancing at the end isn’t quite as funny to deserve this amount of screen time it’s given) but Matthew Mahoganey’s usual grinning idiot isn’t as good as Owen Wilson would have been. Downey Jnr is brilliant in a dicey role.

Some of the making-fun-of-the-retarded people is funny (esp the “don’t go full retard if you want to win an Oscar) – but there’s a moment between Stiller and Downey Jnr where they come up with slang terms for the mentally ill perhaps a bit too much. And every Asian character in the film is a dumb, vicious killer.