movie review

Short Film Movie Review: DISAPPEARED (5min, Canada, Fantasy/Romance)

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DISAPPEARED played to rave reviews at the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film Festival in January 2016. 

DISAPPEARED, 5min, Canada, Fantasy/Romance
Directed by Jon Silverberg

On the day he plans to propose to his girlfriend, a lowly shipping clerk finds a fountain pen that cause objects to vanish. He embraces the strange phenomenon as a novelty, until it threatens to impede his romantic plans, and very existence.

Movie Review by Amanda Lomonaco:

This film definitely played on one of my biggest fears, and despite its light-hearted nature I couldn’t help but feel a heavy knot in my gut after watching this. I have mentioned repeatedly in my reviews how much I am a fan of horror, but perhaps the very fact that Disappeared isn’t a horror film is what got my nerves jumping. Fortunately I seem to be the only person in the audience with a phobia for disappearances, as everyone else seems to have simply enjoyed it for what it was, even more so for its open-endedness.

While Jon Silverbeg’s introductory performance could have been a little more convincing, this minor flaw is quickly forgotten as the rest of the story draws us in. There’s even a certain catharsis in the very idea of a magical “erasing” pen that can make all our troubles go away. You can’t help but root for Silverberg’s character as you watch him magic all his problems away just so he can make it to dinner and propose to his girlfriend.

The best thing about this short was most certainly the ending… in a good way. It is both surprising, and vague enough to let you create your own satisfying version, and even leave you longing for a sequel. One audience members cleverly pointed out that it would have been interesting to encounter the other people or objects that the magical pen had been used on. In fact nothing says Jon Silverberg’s character wouldn’t encounter exactly that just moments later. The film ends so abruptly it leaves all that room precisely for you to interpret and decide where his life goes to from here.

It’s easy to deduce from here that this film is certainly one for the more creatively minded. Nevertheless, caution should be taken for those with a phobia of disappearing loved ones, like me. I guess that also makes this perfect for lovers of mystery. It’s always nice to appreciate good home-grown cinema, and Disappeared is definitely a good example of the capacity of the Canadian imagination.

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Short Film Movie Review: ARTIFICIAL (20min, Spain, Sci-Fi/Thriller)

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ARTIFICIAL was the winner of Best Cinematography at the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film Festival in January 2016. 

ARTIFICIAL, 20min, Spain, Sci-Fi/Thriller
Directed by Luis Espinosa

A man goes to a job interview. What he doesn’t know is that he has already been selected. CORPSA offers to pay him 80,000 Euros if he agrees to be cloned. But more than just a lot of money depends on his decision.

Movie Review by Amanda Lomonaco:

I’ve always found Science Fiction to be a tricky genre in the film industry. People seem to either love it or hate it most of the time. I’ve never been sure if that’s because of how expensive it is to produce a good sci-fi film, or because people have a hard time wrapping their heads around them, but the genre often provokes a lot of mixed reviews. That’s the only explanation I could find for the audience’s reaction to Artificial. During moderation people seemed a bit at a loss for what to say about their experience, whereas I wasn’t sure how anyone could have helped but fall in love with it.

Harkening back to a recent Indie sci-fi favourite, Ex-Machina, David P. Sanudo manages to simplify Alex Garland’s original concept and cause an even bigger impact. By condensing the films’ twists and turns into a smaller time span, Sanudo, the mastermind behind Artificial, keeps the audience constantly on their toes. 20 minutes pass by in an instant as you constantly try to figure out what’s actually happening and then get slammed with more shocking information just as you think you’ve figured it all out.

Connoisseurs of Spanish cinema will easily recognize Aitor Mazo and be disappointed to hear this was his final performance. Suffice to say hiswork in this short film was no less impressive than those of his blockbusters. It’s heartwarming to know the famous star passed away after such a great contribution to independent cinema, but it’s always sad to lose such a valuable component to the International film scene.

Fans of Spanish cinema and science fiction alike will appreciate this film for its simplicity in the face of such complex, and deeply philosophical concepts. Sanudo’s use of the ever familiar job interview setting also appeals to a less tech obsessed audience and provides an interesting fantasy relief to a commonly nerve-racking situation. With a thought provoking storyline, excellent performances and amazing production quality, Artificial certainly deserves every award it has won. Hats off to David Sanudo and his team for such an impressive final tribute to one of Spain’s cinema greats.

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Movie Review: EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina 2015) ***

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

embrace_of_the_serpent.jpgBest Foreign Language Film of the Year

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina 2015) ***
(EL ABRAZO DE LA SERPIENTE)
Directed by Ciro Guerra

Review by Gilbert Seah

Touted as the first Colombian film to be nominated for the best Foreign Film Oscar, EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT might just be the sleeper hit if voters for MUSTANG and SON OF SAUL cancel each other out.

The Colombian film plays like an a weird combination of art-house primitive feature. The film is set in the early 1900s, centring on a young shaman, Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) in the Colombian Amazon. He is reluctantly hired to help a sick German explorer, Theo (Jan Bijvoet) and his local guide (Miguel Dionisio Ramos) search for a rare healing plant. Flash forward a decade or so later when the same shaman (each played by a different actor, Antonio Bolivar) takes an American to search for the same plant.

Unfortunately, the film’s uncomfortable intercutting between the two twin stories makes little sense and spoils the momentum built in each segment before a switch. It would be better to tell the two tales in two parts one after another. Both stories are equally interesting.
The villain of the film and hero appears to be the white man. But director Guerra also shows the pompous native shaman as one that could learn a lesson or two. In short, the native and white man could do best to learn from each other, one of the messages hidden in the story. But the priest that beats up the native children for nonsensical sins is quite the shock to take in. Religion and colonization is treated as totally evil in Guerra’s film.

The film is shot in black and white, which enhances the images. The scenes of the boat gliding down the rivers of the Amazon are breath-taking.

But the slow pace of Guerra’s film and lack of narrative might be hard to take for some, despite the rare see images of the Colombian jungle.

It is revealed in the end credits that it is from the diaries of the two German and American explorers that the world got to learn about these Amazon tribes. And Guerra’s heartfelt film (must be his labour of love) will extend the knowledge to the world as well.

 

 

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Movie Review: THE MERMAID (Hong Kong 2016) ****

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the_mermaid.jpgTHE MERMAID (Hong Kong 2016) ****
Directed by Stephen Chow

Review by Gilbert Seah

Starring: Yun Lin, Chao Deng, Yun-Lin Jhuang

Thanks to Sony Pictures, THE MERMAID gets a distribution release in Canada and the United States. I just previewed the film on the second day of opening on a Saturday evening in a full-house of Cantonese speaking Asians. It was quite the experience.

THE MERMAID is produced, co-written and directed by Stephen Chow whose KUNG FU HUSTLE was widely released. To those unfamiliar with his works, his films are pure silliness. Lots of action, slapstick, fast dialogue with CGI added to this 3D comedic hilarity. The film has already broken records after opening Chinese New Year in Asia. See paragraph below (figures from and courtesy of Sony Publicity) before the review.

“MĚI RÉN YÚ (direct translation: Pretty Human Fish i.e. Mermaid)” opened in China on Chinese Lunar New Year’s Day (February 8) and shattered box office records. On opening day in China, it opened in the #1 spot, grossing a whopping $66 million. In Hong Kong, the film also opened to #1 on opening day with $709,000. To date, the film has grossed over $348 million in China. In Singapore, the film was the highest grossing Sony release for a Chinese film with $838,000, while in Malaysia it was the highest grossing opening day of all time for a Chinese-language film at $528,000. In Malaysia, it was also the highest grossing film opening on New Years and also the highest opening day gross for director Stephen Chow.

THE MERMAID tells the tale of a mermaid (Jelly Lin) who falls for the evil business tycoon (Deng Choa) she’s been sent to seduce and assassinate.

The CGI in THE MERMAID is used for the most ridiculous purposes. The flapping of the mermaid’s tail, the movements of the octopus’ tentacles, the shoals of fish in the sea, the air-borne back-strapped contraption are some examples. But, they do to Chow’s credit generate the most laughs.

Anything can happen in a Stephen Chow film and the man will do anything to get a laugh out of his audience. Take for example the important scene in which an old sage (in the form of a mermaid) tells the legendary tale of how humans and fish used to co-exist. All the mermaids and other fish are listening. Before she ends her story, she falls asleep snoring. Another is the octopus cook acting as if nothing is happening while his tentacles are being cooked up in the open kitchen.

The film contains, as in all comedies, hits and misses. The hit/miss ratio, thankfully is high, with the laughs coming fast and furious. There will be classic segments that might go down in Hong Kong comedy history like the chicken cooking/exercise segment in the Hui Brothers’ THE PRIVATE EYES. One of these is the segment where Deng Chao goes to the police station to report being kidnapped by the mermaid. (See trailer below or part of this segment.)

If you can throw logic and sanity out the window, THE MERMAID will turn out to be a big treat. THE MERMAID is as silly (and hilarious) as can be. The millions of asian moviegoers cannot be wrong.

 

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Movie Review: TRIPLE 9 (2016) ****

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triple_9.jpgTRIPLE 9 (USA/UK 2015) ****
Directed by John Hillocoat

Starring: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Gal Godot, Kate Winset, Aaron Paul, Teresa Palmer, Michael Kenneth Williams

Review by Gilbert Seah

No stranger to violent films, director John Hillcoat’s (LAWLESS, THE ROAD and his best film THE PROPOSITION) latest entry into gangster genre proves himself apt at serious comic book sensibility. TRIPLE 9, the code for ‘officer down’, plays like a ‘real’ serious adult comic book version of DEADPOOL.

It takes a while for the film to settle on its bearings. The script by first time writer, Matt Cook is clever enough not to reveal all the plot points, but keeps the audience always one step behind what is happening. An example is the bank heist. Who are the robbers working for? What is their aim? One point is a bank officer removing a safety deposit box from the vault. As far as I now, it requires two keys, one from the officer and the other from the customer to open a box. It is a good tactic. For example, the audience is aware that one officer is going down, but never sure which one or for what reason. The characters are also individually distinct and eccentric all aided by superlative performances from a eclectic cast.

The key performance comes from Casey Effleck (brother of Ben) who has proven his acting mettle in previous films like THE TOWN. His character is the only uncorrupt one, and the key one that puts the whole story into prospective. The good must always prevail. The script contains a few too many close calls for his character. As for the ambiguous baddies, there are too many too count. Interesting enough, many do good for the wrong reasons. The true baddie appears to be the Russian moll, Irina played by Kate Winslet , complete with Russian accent and is barely recognizable in her makeup.. She is also doing bad for a good reason, to aid her crooked husband escape.

Hillcoat keeps the action and fury fast and furious and nonstop. Be prepared to be glued to your seats! The film alternates between highly charged action and drama sequences. For the action segments, the bank heist at the film’s start is hard to beat. The robbers show no mercy and show they mean business. They do not shout warnings. They fire and beat up the victims, and talk later. All this makes the heist even more gripping. Hillcoat also realizes that the devil is in the details. On the highway, a robber points his rifle at a car, only to have it rammed from behind and the robber moving backwards to avoid being hit. The camerawork is excellent, the best example being the one where the camera pulls back during a car chase showing where each in on the maze of highways in the city.

Hillcoat does not skimp on the violence as evident by showing a bag of bloodied teeth at another point in the film. The characters are always angry, screaming at each other but not without reason. Every character is desperate. Every character is ready to kill.

Stay for the end credits. The 1980’s song ‘Pigs” (called so for obvious reasons) by Cypress Hill is inventive, catchy, hilarious and totally appropriate. The song can also be played on YouTube.

Movie Review: RACE (2016) Directed by Stephen Hopkins

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

raceRACE (Germany/France/Canada 2016) ***
Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Stars: Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt

Review by Gilbert Seah

The word RACE of the film title could mean the running competition or a people of the world. Stephen Hopkin’s biographical sports drama tells both the story of African American athlete Jesse Owens (Stephan James) running in the Berlin Olympic games in 1936 and the controversy ensuing with the then upcoming Hitler regime. Owens went on to win 4 gold medals. Hopkins is no stranger to biography, having directed THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS.

The script, written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, covers many stories. The first and foremost is the story of the athlete Owens and his white coach Larry Snyder. The other is the romance between Owens and his girl, Peggy (Amanda Crew), who he has already had a daughter with, when going to the games. A political subplot involving the boycotting of the Games by the U.S. due to Germany’s racial policy of exclusion of blacks and Jews makes good interest into an otherwise too often told tale of underdog achieving the top prize. This story pits Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) against host of adversaries. Despite the many stories, director Hopkins always has the main story in focus, the winning of the games, while keeping the other side stories in perspective. The overall feel is a solid narrative.

Newcomer Stephan James inhabits the role of the star athlete very comfortably. He looks young as well as buff enough to pass off as an Olympic medallist. He is convincing without having to overact his role. But it is the supporting cast that deliver the prized performances. Carice van Houten steals the show as German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, commissioned by the Hitler to film the games. She runs head to head with the Interior Minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels (played with sinister relish by Barnaby Metschurat). One could watch both van Houten and Metschurat, two German acorn forever.

The period piece was sot in both Berlin where the Games took place as well as Montreal to stand in for spots of Berlin. The atmosphere of 30’s Europe is satisfactorily convincing, but not over-stunning. The shot of the Games are excitingly executed with camera intercutting among the faces of the athletes, the looks on the faces of the coaches and of course, the spectators.

It is odd that this piece of anti-racism is a co-production between Germany and Canada. One would have expected the film, supported by the by the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, the Jesse Owens Trust and the Luminary Group to have some American financial backing.

Hopkins plays his film safe without trodding into too deep waters. The racial controversy is tackled with tact and quickly covered for. The result is a rather mild anti-racist film, that is more suited for the family than one to invoke controversy.

The film ends with the pictures of the real characters against the actors that played them. Again, formulaic safe filmmaking, like a history lesson that disturbs no one and stirs no still waters!

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Movie Review: THE CLUB (EL CLUB) (Chile) ***1/2

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

the_club.jpgEL CLUB (Chile 2015) ***1/2
Directed by Pablo Larrain

Review by Gilbert Seah

Pablo Larrain’s (NO, TONY MANERO) latest film is a very different drama that is as absorbing as it is deadly slow-moving. The title of THE CLUB (EL CLUB) refers to an open prison for disgraced priests. The 4 priests and nun confined there in the seaside town of La Boca in Chile by the church are about to have their idyllic sojourn shaken to the ground.
EL CLUB is a very complex film, in a way similar to last year’s CALVARY starring Brendan Gleeson, a black comedy about a priest taking on the sins of a murderer. Both films coincidentally take place in a seaside setting.

The film begins innocently with a greyhound race that takes place in La Boca. The grey greyhound wins the race. It is slowly revealed that the animal is trained by a father who resides in the roomed building. There are three other priests who all place bets. It turns out that Father Vidal (Alfredo Castro), Father Ortega (Alejandro Goic), former army chaplain Father Silva (Jaime Vadell), and senile Father Ramirez (Alejandro Sieveking), disgraced priests are all dutifully tended to by a similarly “retired” nun, Sister Monica (Antonia Zegers), who is apparently not that innocent. She is called a bitch by one of the fathers later on in the film.

Trouble brews when another disgraced priest, Father Lazcano (Jose Soza) is delivered to the house. He shoots himself after a young local fisherman, Sandokan (Roberto Farias), recognizes him. Sandokan, kind of a crazed bum, remembers the abuses he suffered as an altar boy at Lazcano’s hands and starts screaming the abuses outside the doorstep. Then the church dispatches Father Garcia (Marcelo Alonso), a crisis counsellor, to settle things. The priests come to believe, that Father Garcia’s intention is to close the house down.

The story turns into a horrid tale of survival. It is each man for himself, even for Sandokan and Father Garcia who is disliked and looked upon with suspicion by all.

Director Larrain is a great story teller always keeping the audience in anticipation with always a twist in the story around very corner. His camera work is meticulous, capturing the tranquility and imprisonment of the subjects despite the beautiful seaside setting. Violence is kept at a minimum, and mostly left to the imagination. He also keeps each priest as interesting as the other – each having their own individuality despite being there for the identical purpose.
One of the greatest pleasures of the film is the director’s use of Arvo Part’s music. I first heard the Estonian composer’s music, ‘Spiegel I’m Speigel’ when I first saw Gus Van Sant’s 2002 film, GERRY years back. Part known for his classical and religious music, he delivers a beautiful score that adds to both the serenity and eeriness of the film’s proceedings.

Whether the film ending is a happy one is arguable – best left to the audience to decide. But EL CLUB is a story that concerns many key issues – identity, beliefs, redemption, fulfilment but mostly forgiveness and how one can live with oneself after any terrible deed.

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Movie Review: WHERE TO INVADE NEXT. (USA 2015) ***

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where_to_invade_nextWHERE TO INVADE NEXT. (USA 2015) ***
Directed by Michael Moore

Review by Gilbert Seah

When the title of Michael Moore’s new movie WHERE TO INVADE NEXT. was announced at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was followed by an auditorium of laughter. What would s***-disturber Michael Moore come up next to enrage his new film subject(s)? His then new film was totally hush-hush till it premeired at TIFF. Surprisingly, WHERE TO INVADE NEXT. offends no one. It is a crowd-pleaser with Moore even praising the United States, though only at the film’s very end. Moore must be getting soft in his old age.

The premise is a neat one. Moore travels to different countries, steals the ideas that work and returns with them to the United States. Moore plants the American flag wherever he travels in victory after stealing the ideas, though many countries would gladly have the U.S. adopt them. Italy is first visited first. Th idea of paid vacations, extended holidays and happy workers is the norm of the Italians. In France, it is the wonders of a different public school cafeteria food that makes the difference in healthy kids. Other countries visited include Germany, Portugal, Norway, Iceland and the highly surprising Slovenia and finally Tunisia. It is a fun trip. But the film runs long at close to 2 hours and like any vacation, no matter how entertaining, can grow a bit tiresome.

But what Moore clearly misses out on are the reasons the United States can never follow the ‘stolen’ policies of Moore’s invaded countries. One cannot just take one working concept from one country and implement it into another. Culture, upbringing of the people all come into play. Americans are known to be taught to be individualistic, and one against all, quite unlike for example the asians where, respect for oneself comes last.

Unlike Moore’s other films like ROGER AND ME and BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE in which the subjects were very focussed like GM’s auto factory and gun availablity, this film is scattered and is all over the place like the countries he hops to, one after another. Why did Moore pick most of the countries in Europe, one from Africa and none from Asia? There is also no reason for the order of his countries in terms of the importance of policies.

But Moore captures the film’s idea in one brilliant segment in which he asks a Tunisian woman to give a two-minute advice to the American people. “If you have to minutes of advice to give to the American people, what would it be?” And what she says hits the nail right on the head. This is the common theme tying in all of the film’s ideas of what makes a country work. The film contains many other moving moments like the one in which a Norwegian father of a dead son (the 2011 Norway summer camp massacre) confesses that getting revenge on his son’s killer solves nothing.

Moore’s film is nicely concluded, like a textbook with an ending to please the U.S. Moore says all the success stories from the countries have all originated from ideas in the United States. All the Americans need to do is to follow. But easier said than done. In this way, Moore tries the other way, (compared to using anger as, in his other films) i.e using niceness to get his point across.

The result is a crowd-pleasing, very entertaining film that somehow will have the same difficulty of getting Moore’s point or points implemented. The question is whether audiences like the nastier old Moore or the nicer new Moore.

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Movie Review: ONLY YESTERDAY (Japan 1991) ***1/2

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only_yesterdayONLY YESTERDAY (Japan 1991) ***1/2
Directed by Isao Takahata

Starring: Miki Imai, Toshirô Yanagiba, Youko Honna

Review by Gilbert Seah

ONLY YESTERDAY is a 1991 Studio Ghibli film which was generally produced by Master Hayao Miyazaki. Takahata also directed the well-known and loved THE TALE OF PRINCESS KAGUYA and GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. Studio Ghibli is known to be in financial trouble, so any reworking of the studio’s animated features is a huge welcome.

Though one wonders of the reason ONLY YESTERDAY is the film chosen for the reworking. It is immediately noticeable that the film is so unlike the favourites of Ghibli Studios the most notable being Miyazaki’s HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, PONYO, MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO and SPIRITED AWAY. There is an absence of Japanese folklore and mythical creatures. Magic, is present though in a different form. In ONLY YESTERDAY, the magic is in the imagination of the heroine and what life has to offer.

The premise is a simple one. 27-year old Taeko (Daisy Ridley) is unmarried. She loves the countryside. She visits her relatives there and a flood of memories brings her back to the days of first romance, puberty (done with much humour and taste) and the frustration of math (division of fractions, of all things) and boys. Takeo meets a young farmer, Toshio (Dev Patel). The two connect with feelings. Taeko is taken aback and feels uncomfortable when she is pressured by Toshio’s parents into marriage with their son.

The 1991 Japanese version is available in laserdisc format but the film has been redone in an English version, with the voices of the now famous Daisy Ridely, who had the lead as Rey in STAR WARS; THE FORCE AWAKENS and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE’s Dev Patel.

I do not favour any dubbed version of a film, and the pleasure of ONLY YESTERDAY comes especially when the soundtrack with songs in Japanese comes on. But there are lots of American influences in the film, such as baseball and the Beatles, though they also form part of the culture that Taeko grew up with.

The best parts of the film are the simple ones – like the family sitting by the dinner table slicing a pineapple for the first time, or Takeo literally taking flight in an imaginary sequence.
But the film is not without certain flaws. For one, both Ridley and Patel could do British or American accents as Ridley is British and Patel could be coached to do American. But the strong American accent of Ridley’s character and British accent of Patel clash in the film. If one wants to argue that people from the countryside speak with a British accent to differentiate, why then only the Patel character an not the others from the countryside? The film’s imaginary happy ending also leaves the audience a bit bewildered.

But it is the animation of the Ghibli Studios, care of Takahata and his team of artists that triumphs. From the detailed shadows of the characters to the landscape of the countryside and the glorious colour and glow of the insects and background, ONLY YESTERDAY astounds and is the best of what animated films can offer. This alone is worth the visit to this breathtaking work of animated art.

ONLY YESTERDAY celebrates Studio Ghibli’s 25th anniversary (and 30 years in its founding). The studio is sadly in hiatus with no new productions after disappointing box-office receipts of their recent efforts.

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Movie Review: ZOOLANDER 2 (USA 2016) ***

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zoolander_2ZOOLANDER 2 (USA 2016) ***
Directed by Ben Stiller

Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penélope Cruz, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Christine Taylor

Review by Gilbert Seah

ZOOLANDER and ZOOLANDER 2 are milder versions of Sasha Baron Cohen’s BRUNO which are still pretty wild for most audiences unfamiliar with films like these that satirize the fashion/modelling industry.

It took a while, 15 years, since the first ZOOLANDER (2001) also directed by Ben Stiller hit the screens. It has been a long wait – the stars have grown older, and the plot makes use of the fact. Whatever goes on in the movie does not make much sense, but famous pop stars are being killed as they are protecting the Chosen One. “You can’t kill us all.” utters Justin Bieber, the 6th pop star killed in a year, before he kicks the bucket after posing on Instagram. Even Madonna has struck her last pose! Who is the Chosen One and who is the villain? As outrageous as the plot is, the twist is even more outrageous than anything found in any film in a while. Hilarious? It is in a way if one sits back and ponder over what has occurred. The script, by no less than 4 writers including Stiller, Justin Theroux (the writer of AMERICAN PSYCHO who also appears in the film as an evil DJ) is actually hilarious, though it might not seem so on first appearance. Perhaps ZOOLANDER 2 should be seen a second time to digest the mayhem on screen.

So, the not-so bright Zoolander (Stiller) is drawn out of recluse together with fellow model, Hansel (Owen Wilson). The villain is Mugatu (Will Farrell hamming it up, the most he can ever muster), engineering his escape from fashion prison. (Don’t ask!)

Not everything is original in the film. A lot of the jokes are similar to ZOOLANDER 1 and the ending sexy cat fight between two beauties, Penelope Cruz and Milla Jovovich, to the delight of all the males watching is way too similar to the scene from the French film (that did not get released here), OSS 117 NEST OF SPIES, directed by THE ARTIST’s Michel Hazanavicius.

The star cameo list is staggering. They include Bieber and real life fashion icons, Valentino, Vera Wang, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and Anna Wintour. The trouble is that these icons are not immediately recognizable, but their names are emphasized at least so audiences know who they are. Of the recognizable star cameos, Susan Sarandon (doing a ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW routine), Milla Jovovich, Macaulay Culkin, Billy Zane, Katy Perry, Sting and Neil deGrasse Tyson strut their stuff, all playing themselves. But the best of these belong to Benedict Cumberbatch who surprises as he plays All, a transgender looking super model so full of himself that he marries himself.

ZOOLANDER 2 plays like a spy spoof as well as a satire of the fashion/model industry. Hate it or love it, my partner best described the film as “not that funny but sill entertaining.” Yes, and the film has lots of energy! But audiences not in the know might be totally bewildered at the goings-on!

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