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For the weekend beginning 29 February, Leap Day, here are the films in focus:
Semi-Pro [rating: 7]
Semi-Pro may look like recycled Will Ferrell, outrageous personality and all, but there is an attention to detail and a surreal ‘70s splash that makes it all work.
Will Ferrell seems to have fallen into a groove as of late. Ever since Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, his pure comedies have developed their own unique universes, worlds where the actor and his crack team of costars can play and pretend. In Talladega Nights, it was NASCAR. In Blades of Glory, it was the surreal stage of competitive figure skating. Now comes the solid Semi-Pro, a movie that perfectly mimics the debauchery and malaise of the 1970s in all its leisure suit loving, animal fur wearing, pop culture vulgarity. While not as immediately outrageous as his other onscreen turns, Ferrell fulfills the promise of the ultra-wacky premise, delivering another collection of crudities, gaffs, and expletive laced plot twists.read full review…
Penelope [rating: 5]
Resembling the kind of tale Aesop might spin after one too many vats of homemade ouzo, Penelope plods along on a desire to endear. All it really does is infuriate.
The trend towards “adult” fairytales has got to stop. In the last few months alone, we’ve had the stale saccharine slop of August Rush, the sword and snooze dullness of Stardust, and the one step from stupid Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. The notion of juxtaposing the whimsical against the mature is not a new one. Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton practically wrote the rulebook on such cinema. But the current movement in such storytelling seems to push the extremes of both dynamics. When the material is serious, it’s downright dark and frequently disturbing. And when it’s fanciful, it’s like potent, pixie stick laced candy floss. Now comes Penelope, a self-esteem allegory masquerading as Cinderella with a snout. Sadly, instead of exploring the far reaches of the subgenre, it sinks directly into the maudlin middle. read full review…
Other Releases - In Brief
The Other Boleyn Girl [rating: 4]
British royal history has enough black marks against it - it definitely doesn’t need this one. Crafted from Phillipa Gregory’s well regarded novel, and penned by Oscar nominee (for the excellent The Queen) Peter Morgan, The Other Boleyn Girl bobbles much of its potential. Most of the blame falls directly on the shoulders of TV director turned feature filmmaker Justin Chadwick. Not only did he hire the completely miscast leads (two Americans - Scarlett Johansonn and Natalie Portman - and one Australian - Eric Bana) as his battling noblewomen and the iconic King trying to bed them both, but he places them in a 16th century setting that’s too clean and too generic to engage our interest. Not even the typical bed hopping and political skullduggery are entertaining. Instead, The Other Boleyn Girl just sits there, going through its bodice-ripping routine like an adult education literature class discussing a Harlequin romance. While the ‘women as chattel’ message might inflame some post-modern mentalities, the overall film will likely cause more ennui than uproar.
