The Informant! Movie Review

Unbelievable is Right - The Film is Informative But Flawed

The Informant!

Movie Review

I wonder how the pitch for this movie went. Steven Soderbergh, director of Ocean's 11 through 13, bowls into the office of a besuited studio executive, ready to give the lowdown on his latest feature project. It turns out that the Academy-Award winning director wants to adapt a book called The Informant, written about price-fixing in the lysine industry. The suit nods along as Soderbergh discusses his plans; he's thinking of The Insider, and how that film, although lauded by critics, didn't perform too well at the box office. This movie is going to need something different, something extra. Almost on cue, Soderbergh says the same. The suit is impressed, until he hears that the director wants to make a dark comedy. That's when the nodding stops.

The Informant! tells the story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), who outed a worldwide lysine price-fixing ring in the mid nineties. He confesses one night to an FBI agent (Scott “Quantum Leap” Bakula) who has been brought in to work on an unrelated extortion case. This is unusual in itself because, first of all, the agent didn't know a thing about the conspiracy, but also because Whitacre had a lot to lose from co-operating (he was the highest-ranking whistleblower in US legal history, and was swiftly ascending the company ladder when he confessed). As the agents spend time with their inside man, they begin to find that he has problems of his own, and is not as squeaky clean as he appeared at first blush.

Let me cut straight to the nub of what's wrong with this film; the third act sucks a donkey's nether regions. The first hour or so of the movie trundles along nicely. I was sucked into the plot pretty early and it was holding my interest, despite the fact that the jokes weren't exactly flying. Matt Damon's take on Mark Whitacre is quietly endearing, and his voice-over asides are the most enjoyable element of the film. The small man taking down a big company dynamic was floating my boat, and I was engaged, if not ecstatically overjoyed.

Then the movie fell apart. Whitacre is exposed as a fraudster who has been battling with bipolar disorder, and the focus of the film shifts from his battle with his employer, to a personal fight to keep a grip on reality whilst avoiding prison himself. It's all introspection from there to the credits; in one easy step the forward thrust of the plot stalls, and Whitacre goes from lovable weirdo to pathologic liar.

I'm convinced that the reason Matt Damon is such a good actor is because he seems like he would be a blank slate off camera. He seems to have an uncanny ability to slot the fragments of his personality into whatever character he is currently portraying. I wholeheartedly believe that if I were ever to meet the man in real life, he would speak like a robot.

Soderbergh does his usual slick job here. He seems to have a knack for picking unusual projects, and making them more than they appear on paper; exactly what a good director should do, I suppose. Between the two of them, director and leading man have synthesised a similar comedic style to the Ocean's movies, all pauses and music cues. It works well, and softens the eventual drop-off.

Go to see this movie if you're hard up for unwatched new releases, but be aware, everything from the beginning of the third act is a shocking waste of time. You have been informed.

6/10

The Blues Brothers DVD and Movie Review

The Blues Brothers

DVD and Movie Review

Why isn't Blues Brothers mentioned in the same breath as other great musicals? I'm no fan of the genre, but I feel somewhat aggrieved that Dan Aykroyd's 1980 masterpiece isn't recognised as both a comedic and sonic tour de force.

The Blues Brothers grew from a Saturday Night Live skit. The band, also fronted by the late John Belushi, appeared as a musical act during the 1978 season. They released an album the same year, and then, prompted that there was interest in producing a feature film, Aykroyd set to work on a script.

What resulted was pure gold, from a writer who has since lost his touch. “Joliet” Jake Blues (Belushi) has just been released from Joliet prison, Illinois, into the waiting arms of his brother Elwood (Aykroyd). They attend the orphanage where they grew up, and are told by one of the nuns that the institution will close unless the boys can procure – by lawful means - $5,000 which is owed in back taxes. Jake and Elwood decide to get their band – The Blues Brothers – back together, and earn the money by performing. Throw in some Illinois Nazis, a crazy stalker played by Carrie “Princess Leia” Fisher and a heaping helping of musical cameos, and you've got yourself one enduring musical comedy.

The term “musical comedy” makes me cringe, because it brings to mind movies so disconnected from reality that the viewer may as well be watching a cartoon. The comedy lighter than air, a liberal helping of awkwardly telegraphed musical numbers only serving to make any offering in the genre seem dated from the moment of production. Blues Brothers manages to avoid this pitfall; it helps though that the script was co-written by an SNL alum, and that gritty Rhythm and Blues lines the soundtrack.

The cast is a plethora of perfection. Belushi and Aykroyd are the only main players, the rest of the ensemble being confined to cameos of varying length. But what cameos; no less than Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown and John Lee Hooker contribute songs to the production. John Candy, Frank “Yoda” Oz, and the aforementioned Carrie Fisher line out for the actors. Thankfully none of Jake and Elwood's backing band have too many lines; they keep to their strengths, concerning themselves with their instruments for a large part of the movie.

I will again go on record as disliking John Landis as a director. I feel that his successful projects have always benefited from powerhouse scripts (some of which, I should fairly point out, he also wrote), and that his direction has ruined a number of potentially decent movies; cases in point Beverly Hills Cop 3.

The DVD I watched was a single-disc affair with scant extras. The one gem I carried away was Dan Aykroyd's story about writing the first draft of his script. Most screenplays are approximately 100-120 pages long (one page of script equates to about one minute of screen time). When Aykroyd turned in his treatment, it was 324 pages in length. Rather than shy away from this fact, he decided to have the script bound to look like a yellow pages book.

So there you have it; Blues Brothers combined comedy and musicality and was equally adept at doing both. Avoid the 1998 sequel; even though it starred the often-excellent John Goodman and Aretha finally got to sing the more popular Respect, it isn't a patch on the original.

Movie: 9/10

Extras: 4/10

The Last Bastion of Solitude

The Last Bastion of Solitude

I had originally intended to name this piece “Up, Up and Away”, “Fly me to the Moon”, or one of any number of song titles or pop culture catchphrases which touch on aviation. That was until I actually went to Weston Airport, Leixlip, to try flying a plane. Now I see that the above title is the best way – despite the fact that words are insufficient - of verbally expressing my first trip in a light aircraft.

I arrived at the offices of Flightwise about twenty minutes before my lesson was scheduled to begin, surprised that I wasn't as nervous as I had anticipated being. I met with Brian Higgins, my instructor, and he took me through a brief overview of the basics of flight, both physical and practical. From looking at him, I could tell that the flying bug had bitten him big time. It did make for an engaging briefing though, and we were soon strolling toward our alloted aircraft; a two-seater yellow Grob G115A.

Despite my repeated pleas, Brian would not refer to me as The Yellow Devil. He did, however, show me how to get into the plane and after we ran through a reassuringly large list, I found myself in an idle airplane, ready to scoot down a shorter-than-average runway and into the big blue.

Brian opened the throttle and – again surprisingly – I didn't feel my stomach churn as is normal for me during takeoff. I think, and have thought for some time, that my apprehension of all things flying is brought on by the control which any passenger sacrifices on stepping into a vehicle which they will not be piloting; takeoff confirmed this. Brian brought the Grob to 1,000ft, levelled out, and suddenly announced, as if feigning laziness “right, you have control”.

You'll forgive the horrifically bad pun, but my time in the cockpit absolutely flew by. Brian pointed out landmarks left and right, and I duly acknowledged them, but his tour-guide impression ultimately went to waste because my head was screaming “I'm flying a feckin' plane! Look at me! Woo!” Brian had me increase and decrease my altitude, perform turns, and generally just keep the plane on an even keel. I'm proud to say that in spite of the fact that our altitude fluctuated constantly, he only needed to tip the controls occasionally during my stewardship of the aircraft.

It was all over too soon, and before I knew it Brian was taking over the controls, and bringing the Grob in for a nice, soft landing. I had known a sense of solitude which the average ground-dwelling commercial flier never experiences; for one hour I had – Brian excepted – been further from any other living soul than I had been before, looking down on all the ant-like habitats below the Grob's cockpit; it is going to be hard to avoid swanning around in aviator sunglasses and a bomber jacket from now on.

The only word which I mustered on exiting the plane was “again”, and by the time our debriefing had ended, I knew that it was a question of when, not if I would take another lesson.

Eclectic Micks Sketchbook Launch

Eclectic Micks

Sketchbook Launch

You don't put guys like that in a room together. Who knows what can happen?

I attended Forbidden Planet this Saturday for the launch of a new sketchbook called Eclectic Micks. Six of the seven Irish (hence the Micks title) comic book artists responsible for the publication were in attendance signing, drawing and generally slagging each other off. I sat down with the collective to talk influences, superhero movies and jowly actors.

What prompted your involvement in this sketchbook?

Declan Shalvey: We all met at a comic convention about a year ago and decided to do something together, so we started the Eclectic Micks blog.

Bob Byrne: Each of us posts a picture and some text once a week. The ideas are things we come up with or that the other guys suggest. The sketchbook is basically the best of the blog.

When did you realise you wanted to become involved in comics?

Bob Byrne: When I was twelve I produced my own comic, and gave copies to my friends. Of course, I never kept any of them for myself, which is a shame as they might be worth something now [laughs]. Although, a guy did contact me on Facebook the other day to say that he had kept one. The quality of the artwork was terrible.

Stephen Mooney: I remember that Image Comics became big when I was growing up and I was all over that; I loved it. I think that was when I developed a love of comics. I also did art for leaving cert, so that helped. It's funny, because my art teacher was always trying to get me out of comics.

How did you begin working on your current publication?

Stephen Mooney: I was working on a book called Freakshow 4 or 5 years ago. Chris Ryall, the editor of IDW comics, loves having Irish guys working for him; he's fourth or fifth generation Irish himself. He hired me for a CSI book called Dying in the Gutters. It's weird working on books like that because you have to get approval to use a person's likeness. I got an email of approval from Stan Lee that I still have. The only problem was the guy who plays Grissom in the series (William Petersen), who thought I made his jowls too big.

Stephen Thompson: I had to be vetted before I could work on Die Hard: Year One, so I don't really need to get each picture vetted before it goes out. I was originally going to work on the Farscape comic (Will Sliney's current publication), but then I moved to Die Hard. I was a fan of the films going in. John McClane deals with smaller time bad guys in the comics, because it's set before the first film, when he's just a rookie, but we also try to include big events like the New York blackouts and the Bicentennial.

Bob Byrne: When I created Mr. Amperduke [a book dealing with racism among tiny people who resemble Lego-men], the short answer was that I wanted to tell a story without words. I came up with the concept, and the idea for the characters came later.

Nick Roche: I always wanted to draw Transformers [the book on which Roche now works]. I have an inside contact at IDW comics who mentioned this to them and I got an interview and got in. I was always just interested in drawing the comics, but then one of the writers pulled out of doing some issues and I said 'Um, can I give them a go?' My first series was called Last Stand of the Wreckers. It's essentially I Am Legend with Transformers, so the plot was quite easy to construct. I would like to do something anti-Transformers next. I've thought about drawing a kid's comic with mummies and vampires as fairytale characters, or a comic about World War II, with dinosaurs.

Do you like the current crop of superhero movies?

Will Sliney: I think the industry is very healthy, and superhero movies are a big part of that, so yeah, in general I like them.

Nick Roche: Some I do, some I don't. I don't like the Spiderman movies; I think Sam Raimi is a great director and the special effects are great, but I don't really like the actors or the plot. The Incredibles was excellent. That took all the best bits from different superhero books. I also liked X-Men 2 because Hugh Jackman is hot [laughs].

And like that – I was gone.

The Eclectic Micks blog is online at www.eclecticmicks.blogspot.com.

Forbidden Planet is located at 5-6 Crampton Quay.

Alexander Rybak Interview

This was a piece we ran a few weeks ago. Pretty sound guy.

This was the least camp picture I could find

Alexander Rybak Interview

By

Alan Del Rio

This week The Local News sat down with 2009 Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak. The 23-year old Norwegian, born in Belarus, blitzed the competition in May when “Fairytale” - a song he wrote and composed - won with a record-breaking 387 points. His first album, also entitled “Fairytale” is out now.

Alex, what should someone listening to your music for the first time expect?

My music is nothing groundbreaking (laughs). I write simple tunes, but catchy. I always hope my music is catchy. It is a mix of Norwegian folk music and Belarussian folk music.

Fairytale in particular sounds like a fusion of Russian and Norwegian folk. Was your place of birth something that drew you to this music?

When I did Eurovision I had to mix styles to get as many points from the judges as possible (laughs). No, I like to mix Belarussian folk in there because I like the style of the chords. If you listen to Fairytale, you can tell that although I'm singing about love, that the chords are loaded with nostalgic feelings, ans the result is actually quite melancholy.

What was foremost in your mind when you were collaborating on writing your new album?

There were a few things influencing me, I had letters coming in from the whole of Europe, even Ireland, saying that they wanted me to keep the folk music in, because it's great for dancing. My parents think that I should write ballads, because they think that is what I do best, and then my violin teacher wants me to write songs that include the violin. So all these things came together on the album.

Is there a specific way you go about writing a new song?

I write the melody first, then the lyrics. It's best if everything comes together at once though. I usually will have a catchy chorus in my head before writing. On Fairytale everything came together at the same time. It was perfect.

What are your earliest memories of Eurovision?

I started watching about five years ago. I think it is great to see all the nations sharing a stage. I think it is slightly stupid when when people say it is a poor competition, and that the songs aren't very good. It is hard to have twenty new artists pushed in your face over the course of a few hours. If you were to listen to an act like Madonna in Eurovision I think it would be the same. You need some time to acclimatise to an artist's music.

What are your top 5 favourite albums?

I don't really have a top five albums. I generally like single songs, then I get disappointed when I listen to the album. There are some artists, and I like everything that they do. Michael Jackson is brilliant, Sting, Blink 182, although if you've heard one of their songs you've heard them all, and Eminem – I think he is a genius. I know that is only four. Can I say my own album also (laughs)?

Do you have any plans to do a show in Ireland?

Well, I was on a show there recently - The Late Late Show - but I do hope to come back at some stage in the future to do a concert for the Irish people. Yes, that would be nice.

Yo adrian! We Made It! Kinda!

Hey everyone (and by that I mean the two people who read the blog),

The reason that updates have been less frequent lately is that I managed to get myself a writing gig on a local newspaper, called (confusingly) The Local News. It's a decent paper, but having a day job has meant that I have a lot less time to post (the recent updates have been pieces from the entertainment page which I'm writing.)

I was thinking the other day (something I generally like to avoid), when I hit upon the idea of posting a few of putting up a few non-movie review posts. So, in the words of Kel Mitchell, here goes.

Alan.

High Fidelity Movie and DVD Review

High Fidelity

Movie and DVD Review

Remember when Nick Hornby used to write good books? I read a compendium containing Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy back in the early 2000's, and I was floored. The three novels display a remarkable sense of humour and inventiveness and are only second in comedic value per square pound to Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy compilation. Since then though, Hornby's output has encountered more of a cliff-top fall off than downhill turn and I gave up after 2005's exercise in mediocirty, A Long Way Down.

I think the only reason I went back to read the books was that I had recently watched the movie adaptation of High Fidelity for the first time, and wanted to check out the source material.

Released in 2000, High Fidelity is a film that seems to live exclusively on DVD in my mind, as I missed the original theatrical release. It was developed by John Cusack, with the same writing team he used on Grosse Pointe Blank (another DVD you should check out). Apart from changing the setting from London, Cusack left most of the book intact.

Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a music aficionado who, as the movie opens, has just broken up with his girlfriend, Laura (played by Danish actress Iben Hjejle, who learned her American accent for the part). He runs a record shop, Championship Vinyl, with his two employees Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black in a career-launching role). He struggles to get Laura back whilst trying to discern why all his relationships end in misery.

Why is this film so good? A host of reasons, including a stellar script which tampers just enough with the novel, great direction from Frears (who coincidentally also helmed two-thirds of the aforementioned Barrytown trilogy), a brilliant soundtrack which introduced me to several new bands, a not-too-saggy second act and a bravura performance by Jack Black. All that packed into a movie which is probably located in the €4.99 rack in your local HMV. In fact, why are you still reading this review? Go out and own this piece of brilliance right now.

The extras on my one-disc copy contain some better-than-average deleted scenes, and conversations with Cusack and Frears. The lack of audio commentary is what holds the package as a whole back from a five-star rating.

High Fidelity is a movie which I will dig out of my collection every few years for the foreseeable future. The Stevie Wonder song which rounds out the film is so beautiful that you will want to watch the end credits all the way through.

8.5/10

The Men Who Stare at Goats Movie Review

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Movie Review

I am rarely tricked by trailers, which, apart from being the worst superhero power of all time, is also a handy money-saving device when deciding which films to go see. So, when I saw a snippet of The Men Who Stare at Goats about two months ago, I was quietly delighted, because it looked like it contained all the elements necessary to make a good film. Oh, how wrong I was. The trailer for this piece of foulness was my shiny green kryptonite.

I read Jon Ronson's book – on which the movie is based – a few years back, and really enjoyed it, although never did I think that it had any hope of becoming a feature property, mostly because of its documentary style. The book concerns Ronson's efforts to find out more about a section of the U.S. army which were in training to use highly specialised and exceedingly secret parapsychological skills, such as – I s&*% you not - invisibility and walking through walls. You can see where this is going; Ronson spent a great deal of The Men Who Stare at Goats presenting an army unit which was misguided at best, at worst insane. The title comes from what the soldiers – who call themselves Jedi warriors - did in an attempt to try to stop the hearts of what must have been some very confused animals.

The movie essentially steals the premise of the book and throws in a plotline in which a reporter (Ewan McGregor) goes to Kuwait during the Gulf War, where he bumps into a Jedi warrior (George Clooney), who takes him into occupied territory. And then hilarity ensues, right?

Not exactly. What unfolds over the course of the film's extremely long-feeling 90 minute runtime is a string of pratfalls, sight gags and verbal jokes so hackneyed and unfunny that they would make the orangutan from Dunston Checks In blush. This movie is a textbook case of stocking the trailer with all the best bits; blatently misleading advertising. God knows how the producers of this movie managed to convince stars like Kevin Spacey and George Clooney to sign on, but I wish that I had their powers of persuasion if nothing else.

On the cast; I don't know whether the director knew who Ewan McGregor was before, after, or during the film, but he had quite a prominent role in the prequels to a moderately successful franchise known as Star Wars. I couldn't work out whether the writers – by including frequent mentions of Jedi warriors - were just beating the joke to death, or if they just couldn't be bothered to change dialogue once McGregor became attached to the project. The first time Jedi was mentioned, there was a nice ripple of laughter in the audience, and I found myself grinning, but a joke like that grates so easily and by the fourth time around I began to anticipate it as much as nails on a black board.

Jeff Bridges also deserves dishonourable mention, playing Bill Django, founder of the New Earth army. His role is basically a badly written version of The Dude from The Big Lebowski, and I was quite hoping his eventual death would be a lot more graphic.

Do yourself a favour; use your powers of mental persuasion to convince yourself that this movie was never made. And if you want to see the American military being made fun of, watch Dr. Strangelove.

1.5/10

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Movie Review

Filmmakers are increasingly using animation to make adult-oriented movies. No, not pornography; these directors and writers are subverting a genre typically seen as exclusively pre-adolescent by inserting grown-up themes and humour. Pixar does it all the time, and kids lap it up because their computer-generated animation is well executed and cool things occur in abundance. The latest offering to exploit this “kids love shiny things” loophole is Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Mr. Fox (the wonderfully dry George Clooney) is enticed out of his profession – raiding local farms – by his wife's declaration that she is pregnant and becomes a writer for the local paper. But, after two years of family bliss Fox opts to move to a house – well, a tree to be more precise – overlooking the properties of three of the area's biggest farmers. A series of night time sorties follow, and eventually Fox – and his woodland neighbours – must deal with the consequences.

I wouldn't really describe Fantastic Mr. Fox as a return to form for Wes Anderson, since I really enjoyed both The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited; rather, the movie is a return to commercial viability for a director who needs a hit more badly than a strung-out junkie. Both of Anderson's last two features floundered at the box office, and if Fox goes the same way, there could some wilderness years ahead for the young auteur.

I get the very strong feeling that certain members of the cast were heavily “suggested” to Wes Anderson. The two leads – Clooney and Streep – are stars that can justify the $50 million budget, but neither is included for the sake of a big name. Clooney has grown a reputation as an actor that can deliver a nuanced performance which won't dissuade audiences from coming to see him, and brand Streep - revitalised following 2008's Mamma Mia – is character acting for the masses.

The script, penned in conjunction with The Squid And The Whale's Noah Baumbach, is dryly-humoured dynamite, but not quite fit for consumption by those yet to grow pubic hair. One particular scene, which I can only assume was written by Baumbach - whose Squid relates to the breakup of his parents – sees Mr. Fox admit to Mrs. Fox that he cannot not control his impulse to do an Ozzy Osbourne impression on farmyard chickens. Mrs. Fox's reply to this is that she knew this when they wed; her solution, they should never have married. The scene ends there, with no pratfall or fart noise to break the tension. We're in the land of animated reality here, people.

Speaking of which, the inert sets mirror Aardman's Wallace and Gromit constructions. Their stillness accentuates each character's movement, which was reportedly mimed for the animators by Wes Anderson. They are often filmed from distance too, adding to the sense of dreamy stillness.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox proves that you don't need Pixar computer trickery to produce a slick, funny, and above all fantastic, adult-family film.

9.5 out of 10