2016 movie reviews

OUR KIND OF TRAITOR (UK/France 2016) ***

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our_kind_of_traitor.jpgOUR KIND OF TRAITOR (UK/France 2016) ***

Directed by Susanna White

Starring: Carlos Acosta, Radivoje Bukvic, Stellan Skarsgård, Naomie Harris, Ewan McGregor

Review by Gilbert Seah

The new John Le Carre film scripted by Hossein Amini is a spy thriller quite different from what audiences have seen in the past. The main character is now an academic, Perry Makepeace, played by Ewan McGregor. McGregor appears in more relaxed Mode compared to Richard Burton, Alec Guinness or Gary Oldman in THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD and SOLDIER, TAILOR, TINKER, SPY respectively. This is not necessarily a bad thing as White’s treatment of Le Carre’s material has a more feminine – more human touch. This is a huge contrast to the last major Le Carre film adaptation by Tomas Alfredson, the chilling and excellent SOLDIER, TAILOR, TINKER SPY.

The story here is simple and much more straight forward compared to the extremely hard to follow SOLDIER, TAILER, TINKER, SPY. After Perry is offered a tennis game by Russian mafioso, Dima (Stellan Skarsgard), he is ‘recruited’ by him to help him and his family defect. A sort of mixed STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and TORN CURTAIN Hitchcockian story, White’s film plays well blending the cold blooded spy game with a more human aspect. With this main plot, the story weaves in some choice bits of political debate.

Director White is quick to point out that it is not only the Russian mob that are the bad guys in the movie. There is also something very nasty within the British Intelligence as there is in every character in the story. Even Perry is a philandering husband and not one to make his long suffering wife, Gail (Naomie Harris) happy as she is one to point out the faults of her partner. But surprisingly, both Perry and Gail have a change of heart to protect Dima at all costs. In the process their marriage is saved.
As in a Le Carre story, fans will not be disappointed with the plot twists, swift cold blooded killings, car chases and exotic locations, in this case Marrakech, the Alps and the cities of London and Moscow. The film has the look of the spy thrillers of the 60’s and 70’s. But the Carre story is updated with modern technology such as the downloading of key information (bank account numbers) into a usb memory stick.

The humour is also slick. When asked by Perry the reason he was picked, Dima’s reply was that he was the only one left in the restaurant. But a good pick Perry is. A lot of the humour is also derived from Dima’s behaviour – how he changes from kindness shown to his family to cold brutality.

The film contains a few outstanding performances that make the movie. Among them are Stellan Skarsgard’s flamboyant and hyper ex-Russian mafioso Dima and Damian Lewis’ Hector who starts off following British red tape and ends up fighting against it. Jeremy Northam (PRIEST, THE WINSLOW BOY) has a cameo as Aubrey Longriegg, a treacherous British politician.

OUR KIND OF TRAITOR is a milder but still entertaining Le Carre thriller.

 

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Movie Review: THE WITNESS (USA 2016) ***1/2

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the_witness.jpg
THE WITNESS (USA 2016) ***1/2
Directed by James Solomon

Starring: William Genovese, Shannon Beeby, Kitty Genovese

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE WITNESS, is a documentary about the 38 witnesses of the 1964 stabbing of Kitty Genovese. But it turns out that they all did nothing. Or so it seems. Could it be true that Americans are that soulless? The film goes on to probe how it is impossible for that many people to see everything and do nothing. As the film progresses, THE WITNESS covers many other stories. Though the stories are quite different, they are all linked to the stabbing. But the real story that stands out is the one of Bill Genovese, Kitty’s brother who is in almost every frame of the film.

The details of the case: Kitty was a bar waitress in Kew Gardens, Queens who was randomly stabbed by a stranger named Winston Moseley—who later told police he was just looking for a woman to kill—then raped and robbed by him after he returned to finish the job. The New York Times later reported that 38 witnesses heard and even saw some part of the attack but didn’t call police and failed to intervene or even call attention to it.

Solomon’s film is absorbing for many reasons. The most important of these is Bill’s fixation on finding the truth about his sister’s murder. Bill will not stop. He investigates the New York Times reporter, ironically nicknamed Honest Abe who twisted the story to make it one that made news around the whole country. The fact of 38 witnesses doing nothing became a sociology study in many colleges. Bill also goes through a checklist of all the witnesses and questions each of those who are still alive. He goes so far as to ask to speak with Winston Mosley, his sitter’s killer, now serving sentence. When Mosley declined to meet Bill, Bill met his son. This meeting (which does no appear to be a re-enactment) is the film’s tensest segment. Initially, Mosley’s son, who is a reverend appears detached and unhelpful. When he finally confesses how he also suffered, especially at school with kids calling him the murderer’s son, Bill and the audience begin to feel for him.

But he film finally looks at Bill. When will Bill give up and accept the facts and move on? The investigation also reveals Kitty’s character. It is also revealed that she is gay. Bill interviews some of her lesbian friends as well.

Solomon’s film is intriguing in that it goes many different directions just as Bill’s life has taken him. Bill has also lost two legs while serving in the marines during the Vietnam war.

In the end, it is up to the audience to determine what Bill has gained from his intensive search. And in the process, learn from the film a few valuable lessons in life.

 

 

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Movie Review: THE NEON DEMON (Denmark/France/USA 2016) ***

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the_neon_demon.jpgTHE NEON DEMON (Denmark/France/USA 2016) ***
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring: Elle Fanning, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves

Review by Gilbert Seah

The much anticipated film at Cannes that caused quite the sensation, Nicolas Winding Refn’s THE NEON DEMON will not disappoint in terms of gore and surrealism. Refn has already proven himself a director to watch, with remarkable features like his PUSHER trilogy, DRIVE and ONLY GOD FORGIVES.

While his earlier 5 films displayed speed and ultra-violence, THE NEON DEMON reveals a different side of Refn. THE NEON DEMON is an extremely slower paced film, full of pauses that allow the audience to sit back and figure what is actually going on. And most of the time, it is still hard to figure out what is going on.

But one must hand it to Refn that as slow paced as this film is – it is far from boring. The film for one, is meticulously shot with glittery lighting that mesmerizes as much as confuses. His images of the characters often blend one into another, like the corpse that looks like the heroine in the film, for the purpose of the lady making love to it imagining the corpse to be the girl she did not succeed in sleeping with.
The film shows Refn’s interpretation of the pretentious L.A. fashion industry. A young and aspiring model called Jesse (Elle Fanning) has just moved to Los Angeles. She is an orphan, very beautiful and impresses everyone she meets with her beauty. She meets make up artist Ruby and two of her rather nasty model friends Sarah and Gigi at a surrealistic dimly lit party. The rest of the plot is immaterial except to show that models will do everything to stay ahead.

Refn’s films seldom contain pleasant characters. There are none in THE NEON DEMON. Who initially appears a kindly soul, Ruby turns out to be another mean person with the ulterior motive of using Jesse for sexual satisfaction. And when Ruby cannot get what she wants, she turns incredibly vicious. Refn does to shy away from gore and violence. Where there is insufficient of these in the story, he more than makes it up in the dream sequences. Jesse has a nightmare of her motel manager (Keanu Reeves in nasty mode) inserting a knife down her throat only to be awakened by him banging at her door wanting to rape her. This unpleasant character is not crucial to the story of Jesse, but is there just for added unpleasantness. But the prized unpleasant segment is the one with necrophilia on full display.

Ref does not seem to care what audiences think of his work. With that attitude, Refn can come up with a few mighty fine films – the best of these being his PUSHER trilogy, which are all cutting edge, exciting and relevant. THE NEON DEMON is his most surreal film, reality turning into a nightmare with models morphing into flesh eating vampires in a world lit by neon and fluorescent lights where the sun seldom shines. Needless to say, THE NEON DEMON is not a film for everyone, but it is not without its merits, strange as they may come.

 

 

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Movie Review: CHAMPION. Directed by Andrés Passoni

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champion_movie_posterCHAMPION was the winner of best film at May 2016 FEEDBACK Short Documentary Film Festival.

Directed by Andrés Passoni

Genres: Documentary | Short

Read Interview with the Director

MOVIE REVIEW:

Astonishingly beautiful and stunningly shot, Champion follows the world of competitive Racing Dogs in Argentina. Shot with a focus on the animals (not their owners) the film utilizes silence, space and spectacular imagery, downplaying the natural noise and eliminating all scripted dialogue. A powerful stylistic choice that pulls the viewer’s focus to the real story of the racers. Instead of the money or bets of the people owning dogs, we focus on the dogs themselves.

One may imagine that Passoni’s film is an exercise in Voyeurism, as it emphasis lies in the spectacle of the race without any blatant insight into the mind of the racer. Conversely, it can be said that Champion does the exact opposite – showing the mind of the racing dog by focusing on the event as a dog might see it- a flurry of color, the garble of indistinguishable human noise and a pulsating energy of a run waiting to happen. Andreas Passoni defines the luminous visual aspects with respect to a lifelong appreciation for the aesthetics, “All my life I felt attracted by image and sound.”

As a filmmaker, Passoni’s Instincts for the visual spectacle of cinema are seamless and lush, both riveting and gorgeous. In regards to a short that can propel the audience into emotion via image alone- Passoni is ahead of the pack.

by Kierston Drier
Founder of The Bathroom Stall Project
Consultant at TheKayWorks.com
Freelance Film and Television
www.thekayworks.com

Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Video:

Movie Review: THE STEPS (Canada 2015)

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the_stepsTHE STEPS (Canada 2015) **
Directed by Andrew Currie

Starring: Emmanuelle Chriqui, James Brolin, Jason Ritter, Christine Lahti, Kate Corbett

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE STEPS of the movie title to the members of a step-family. There is every variation from stepmother, stepfather to stepmothers and stepsisters in this comedy about a dysfunctional step-family.

The setting is the family’s reunion at a lake house in picturesque Parry Sound, a small town in Northern Ontario. The patriarch, wealthy publishing magnate, Ed (James Brolin) has married the love of his life, a lovely, bubbly good-berated Sherry (Christine Lahti) and wants everyone over in order to convince a social worker that the happy family is perfect for the adoption of a Chinese girl.

The story’s main focus could be any member of the family, but it chooses failed investment banker, Ed’s son, Jeff (Jason Ritter) as the one. Whether this is the correct choice makes no difference, as long as the story has an anchor that puts everyone else into perspective. Jeff arrives with his party animal sister, Marla (Emmanuelle Chriqui). They meet Sherry’s children, pot-smoking half-East Indian Samir (Vinay Virmani), David (Benjamin Arthur) and Keith (Steven McCarthy). They do not get along.

Director Andrew Currie directed the zombie comedy FIDO a decade or so back – another family based comedy in which zombies could be trained as a pet. His comedy sense seems largely muddled in THE STEPS – a pity as FIDO was a very well received and hilarious comedy.

The script by Robyn Harding contains lots of potential for comedy. The fact that half of the siblings are American (Ed’s kids) and the other half Canadian (Sherry’s kids) opens humour to be poked at the different cultures. Jeff knocks over a stuffed moose in one scene and David angrily complains that the national animal is not respected. The many siblings from different backgrounds also offer other avenues for humour. The pot smoking allows Jeff to get very high; the party animal Marla is caught giving Keith a blow-job and David blasts Jeff with 7 hits of paintballs. Still, it is a disappointment then that Currie’s film is hardly funny. The jokes are mildly funny at best and the laugh-out loud segments are very few and far between.

Performances are largely wasted. Christian Lahti, so good in her early films like HOUSEKEEPING has nothing much to do here but to smile, complement everyone and lead silly ice-breaker games. The segment on paintball, the greatest potential for humour hardly generates any laughs at all.

When Ed tells Sherry at the film’s mid-point,that his children will come through at the end, the film really dips into predictability. Jeff turns into the perfect son, bringing the family together (literally) into getting the Chinese girl adopted.

The question is whether an audience wishes to see a dysfunctional family of Americans and Canadians eventually come together with silly jokes and pointless humour? The answer is one big ‘no’. But if the film turned out as funny as Currie’s last film FIDO, all might have been forgiven.

Movie Review: Warcraft: The Beginning (2016)

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warcraft.jpgWARCRAFT (USA 2016) ***
Directed by Duncan Jones

Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell

Review by Gilbert Seah

The phrase ‘based on a video game’ should scare serious movie goers from this CGI blockbuster extravaganza. Based on the Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft series which consisted of 5 core games, this film is actually based just on the first one. WARCRAFT is set in the human Kingdom of Azeroth, threatened by an Orc invasion before Azeroth was expanded into new continents of Kalimdor, Northrend and Pandaria, allowing the introduction of new characters like the Night Elves.

The story in nutshell involves humans fighting against the Orcs as they invade through a portal. The battle lasts from the start to the end of the film. There are several main characters, humans and good Orcs to distract audiences from a basically non-existent story.

The Orcs come from another world called Draenor to invade Azeroth. The warrior Lothar (Travis Fimmel) fights for his king (Dominic Cooper) who relies on the suspicious Guardian, Medivh (Ben Foster) who has taken to the dark side, and is responsible for opening the dreaded portal. Meanwhile, the young warlock Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) lands a hand. The Orcs are led by an evil Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), that a good Orc chieftain recognizes should be stopped. The characters help to liven the video game movie up several notches.

The film is best watched in IMAX 3-D – forget the small extra cost. It is difficult not to get into the action on a film in 3-D IMAX. The special and video effects, production design by Gavin Bocquet) and costume design all look the more convincing. This is director Duncan Jones blockbuster directorial debut after making small films like MOON and SOURCE CODE.
I entered the screening with the lowest expectations after all the bad hype about the movie. But truthfully, WARCRAFT is not bad. It is better watching an expensive blockbuster that is difficult to make than a well reviewed low budget film with maybe just two characters. On has to give credit for effort put in.

WARCRAFT ends with the obvious set-up for a sequel. Judging from other critic reviews so far, WARCRAFT has been panned. But for video game fans, this might be the fun film summer has promised. The film has already made $45 million in China on opening day breaking all records for a weekday opening day. So it looks like a sequel will likely be in the making with Night Elves.

See WARCRAFT for what it is – guilty entertainment with super special CGI effects. And Remember – to see it in 3-D IMAX.

Movie Review: The Boy and the Beast (Japan 2015) ***1/2

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the_boy_and_the_beast.jpgTHE BOY AND THE BEAST (Japan 2015) ***1/2
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda

Starring: Bryn Apprill, Kumiko Asô, Morgan Berry

Review by Gilbert Seah

When his mother dies, the nine year-old boy, Ren (voiced by Aoi Miyazaki) runs away from his relatives in modern day Tokyo and stumbles into a parallel realm inhabited by anthropomorphic beasts. There he becomes the apprentice to bear-like Kumatetsu (Koji Yakusho) who trains him in martial arts. Kumatetsu is a grumpy sort and the boy is feisty – so there is non-stop bickering back and forth. When the boy turns 17 (Shota Sometani), a darkness descends, putting the bond between him and Kumatetsu to the ultimate test. Ren re-enters the human world to search for his missing dad and halts the martial-arts training.

THE BOY AND THE BEAST is not entirely original in its story. It has taken bits from other animated features. The mixing of two worlds the beast and the human, and the crossings from one to the other is similar to what occurred in Hayao Miyazaki Studio Ghibli’s animated SPIRITED AWAY where the spirit and human worlds were crossed. The mouse like creature in the film is also similar to he furry balls in Miyazaki’s HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. (Hosoda initially worked on that film before taken off by the studio.) But Hosoda’s film takes premises one step further. He bonds both worlds. What initially seems strange as the beast walks in the human world becomes natural by the film’s end. The training of apprentice and master is also given a good turnaround. Hosoda’s Master in the film has lots to learn unlike other films where the Master is perfect. As he trains his rebellious apprentice, both learn from each other and fine tune their techniques. Ionically, this is what happens with Hosoda. As he learns the techniques from other films, he does not merely copy but takes each film ahead, changing the rules and fascinating the audience.

Hosoda started his apprenticeship at the famous Toei Studios before starting his own Studio Chizu in which BOY AND THE BEAST is its second film.

As the film progresses, what initially appears as a predictable tale turns out to be a unique story full of wonder and surprise. The humour and lightness the of the film are never lost as important messages are subtly wound into the story.

Excepting the mousy creature, Hosoda refrains from cutesy bits, typical in Disney and other animated features aimed at kids. THE BOY AND THE BEAST thus has a more universal appeal despite it being targeted as a family film.

A key component in the majority of Miyazaki’s film is the love element. There is always a love story and one involving first love. In Hosoda’s film, Young Ren falls in love for the first time when he returns to the human world though it occurs at the half way point of the story.

The soundtrack of piano playing scores is very pleasant covering the darker nature of the story. Hosoda’s hand drawn animation is top-notch.

THE BOYS AND THE BEAST turns out surprisingly entertaining. It was a box-office smash in Japan and should do well in Norther American given its universal appeal.

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Movie Review: DOWNRIVER (Australia 2015) ***

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downriverDOWNRIVER (Australia 2015) ***
Directed by Grant Scicluna

Starring: Reef Ireland, Kerry Fox, Robert Taylor

Review by Gilbert Seah

Writer/director Grant Scicluna’s moody suspense drama premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival followed by a screening at the Inside Out LGBT Film Festival for its gay content. It is a worthy first effort, though not without flaws rendering Scicluna a new filmmaker to be reckoned with.

The story’s protagonist is teenager James (Reef Ireland). When the film opens, he is just released from juvenile prison. He returns home to mother, Paige (Kerry Fox) hoping to find out the truth about the death of a child. James was sent to prison for it when the death occurred when they were kids. Mother had turned him in. James did not tell the cops about the other kid with him. That kid is now a very nasty grown up, Anthony (Thom Green). The story includes a few other interesting characters, that helps keep the story interesting up to the climax.

Newcomer Reef Ireland plays James, the teen prone to epileptic seizures convincingly. Kerry Fox (SHALLOW GRAVE, AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE) is fine as his mum, and there should more of her in the movies. But Thom Green steals the show as the young and nasty Anthony. Playing a bullying, creepy and plain nasty character, Green also reveals a vulnerable side later on.

The film’s setting is perfect for this kind of plot. The action takes place in the country where a trailer park exists close by. There is a river where the folks go fishing and there are caves and abandoned structures. It is curious why anyone would want to live there unless they have no money and no alternative option. But it is surprising that in such a male chauvinistic environment, almost every young male is gay or has had a gay sexual encounter.

The gay sex scenes are shot mostly in the dark, making the sex appear even more erotic. Cinematographer Laszlo Baranyai does an even better job with the shots in the open. His camera glides across the beautiful murky waters of the river. The country areas outside Melbourne, where the film is shot, never looked more stunning.

But one of the film’s flaws is its muddled narrative. As the film progresses, there are many confusing incidents. Scicluna is found of overlapping dialogue with scenes. One segment has repeated dialogue from the next scene starting before the previous scene goes off. One other scene has Wayne (Robert Taylor) asking James to go fishing and a whole lot of people show up in the boat. James says that he will be gone of 5 minutes and ends up gone forever in an underground structure. As if things cannot get any worse, a lot of the actors mumble their lines, which is hard enough to catch when uttered with an Australian accent.

Despite the film’s flaws, DOWNRIVER is an absorbing film about youth angst. It covers universal issues like redemption, family ties, relationships, friendships and gay sex. It does not skimp on the nastiness which occurs quite a lot in the film.

 

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Movie Review: THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY (UK 2015) ***

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the_man_who_knew_infinity.jpgTHE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY (UK 2015) ***
Directed by Matthew Brown

Starring: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Malcolm Sinclair, Stephen Fry

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY is the bio pic of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) based on the 1991 book of the same name by Robert Kanigel. Growing up poor in Madras, Nujan (as he is fondly called in the film) earns admittance to Cambridge University under the mentorship of professor G.J. Hardy (Jeremy Irons). Initially upset at Nujan for his pride and refusal to work out proofs for his mathematical theories, Hardy eventually relents and lets the horse run loose. Together, they achieve milestones in mathematics, cracking the almost impossible task of formulating formulae for partitions.

The first 30 minutes of the film is boring while the the film is set up. Nujan is just married, shown to love and excel in mathematics before fate forces him to leave Madras and serve his true calling. For a biopic of this kind, one expects him to face hardship and prejudice in his new country while finally proving himself to the nonbelievers while uniting with his family at the end. The film felt headed that way and one would almost walk out of the film if it had not changed course.

The typical story is altered by the First World War that creeps into the story. The second is the illness (T.B. or Tuberculosis) that Nujan falls prey to. The rest is pretty predictable stuff with the usual ‘stuffy’ English dialogue put in so that the film feels put up on a high pedestal since it is supposed to have a Cambridge university setting.

Patel was the second option to play the main role as the filmmakers wanted an actor internationally known to carry the film. Patel, who has proven himself apt in comedy as in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and the BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL films, demonstrates here that he is also capable of carrying a more dramatic role, one that needs to show suffering from illness as well as desperation and despair. Irons looks convincing as the pipe puffing professor who ends up sympathetic towards Nujan’s course. Stephen Fry is remarkable in being able to make a lasting impression from a performance than lasts only a few minutes. The role of Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher and mathematician undertaken by Jeremy Northam is underwritten and exists only to make a few criticisms on Hardy’s character.

World War 1 is dealt with in terms of both prejudice and its futility. The former issue is demonstrated very effectively in a scene in which Nujan is beaten up by white English soldiers for being a freeloader in a country where the rest have to go fight and die for their country. It is anger that has its point and one almost impossible to resolve. Hardy organizes antiwar rallies dealing with the other war issue.

Associate producers Manjul Bhargava and Ken Ono are distinguished mathematicians who also served as the film’s math consultants. The math is shown only briefly but the message on the intricacies of infinite series and partitions comes across clear enough.

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY make its case more of one of cultural acceptance than (one) in the development of new mathematical theories. Brown brings the film to an end all too quickly, wrapping everything up with Nujan’s eventual failure to survive from Tuberculosis.

 

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Movie Review: Neighbours 2 (USA 2016) ***1/2

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bad_neighboursNEIGHBOURS 2: SORORITY RISING (USA 2016) ***1/2
Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Starring: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clara Mamet, Selena Gomez

Review by Gilbert Seah

NEIGHBOURS the Seth Rogen comedy with Zac Efron as a frat neighbour was one of the best comedies of 2014. It featured the funniest sequence in a comedy that year – the Robert De Niro segment in which Efron, Dave Franco and gang all dress up as De Niro to taunt Rogen and wife for calling the cops the night before to lodge a complaint about their party.

NEIGHBOURS 2 has tough shoes to fill. But thanks to good writing from a script credited to 5 writers, the sequel makes it. Jokes like the air bags and the Dean Carol Gladstone character (Lisa Kudrow) from the first film are brought back into the sequel. If a few jokes do not work, one can be sure another couple will in a few minutes. With hardly any time for the audience to take a breather, NEIGHBOURS 2 comes across as intense as the dressed up clown that shows up at a tailgate party, a segment that is almost as funny as the De Niro sequence.

The success of this film lies a great deal on the comedic potential of both Efron and Chloe Grace Moretz. Efron plays the older frat member, now graduated and unable to find a decent job and living space while Moretz plays his younger female version looking to party all the time. Teddy Sanders (Efron) helps her at first in renting her sorority house that just happens to be next to the house that Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) is selling. But Teddy switches to Mac’s side to help him evict the sisters sorority. It is a fairly simple plot but with plenty of comedy potential, with the setups well staged. Efron has proven his mettle in comedy as in the first NEIGHBOURS and the recent DIRTY GRANDPA. Efron can even be funny in moments demanding the audience to show sympathy for his character. Teddy, for example, shows genuine puzzlement on why eggs get hard whereas pasta gets soft when dunked in boiling water, Moretz, however, has the straighter role. Her character serves to anchor the story. Her sorority sisters, Beth (Dope’s Kiersey Clemons), and Nora (Beanie Feldstein) and other sorority members are left with the task of providing the laughter.

NEIGHBOURS 2 also lifts comedy to a level of political correctness. The gay jokes are largely positive, with Teddy’s best friend, Pete (Franco) coming out and getting married to his new husband. On the female side, the sisterly bond fosters positive feminism while male chauvinism (such as in the depiction of girls as whores in colleges) is frowned upon. There is also a comedic discussion on the difference between a male teen vs. a female teen losing his or her virginity.

While NEIGHBOURS 2 is funny enough, its desperation to top the original is obvious. The film grabs at any opportunity for a joke, even to have didoes dressed as princesses to get a laugh. The result is the film looking a bit ‘all over the place’ compared to the more focused original despite the almost equal high to hit miss laughter ratio.

 

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com