Archive
DOWNSIZING – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Downsizing is the latest film from director Alexander Payne. It has a fascinating premise; in a research lab in Norway a team of scientists led by Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen (Rolf Lassgård) finds a way to shrink a human being from full size, down to about five inches tall – perfectly safe, no side effects, but irreversible – as a way to halt humanity’s over-consumption of the planet’s natural resources . Within a decade the new technology – known as ‘downsizing’ – has become incredibly popular, with hundreds of thousands of people undergoing the procedure and moving to brand new, specially built communities for small people, which offer every luxury imaginable. Into this world comes Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), who agrees to undergo the downsizing procedure with his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) as a way to escape from their dull life in the real world. However, before long, Paul finds that the ‘small world’ has its own set of problems, and after he meets a Serbian playboy businessman (Christophe Waltz) and a former Vietnamese political activitist (Hong Chau), his life changes in more ways than he could have ever anticipated. Read more…
UP IN THE AIR – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Up in the Air is the latest film from writer/director Jason Reitman, whose previous films included Thank You For Smoking and Juno. It’s a comedy-drama starring George Clooney as a business executive who spends half his life travelling around the country; he lives out of a suitcase, eating at airport cafeterias, allowing him the freedom to never make a commitment. However, just as a corporate re-shuffling threatens to end his nomadic lifestyle and tie him to a desk, he meets and falls in love with a fellow frequent traveler in the shape of the comely Vera Farmiga.
In addition to boasting Awards-caliber performances from Clooney, Farmiga, and supporting actors Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman and Sam Elliott, the film has an eclectic soundtrack which makes use of many contemporary pop and rock songs alongside an original score by Rolfe Kent. Kent’s contribution to the album is limited to just two tracks: “Security Ballet” Read more…
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Contrary to popular belief, The Men Who Stare At Goats is not a film about the life story of my good friend and esteemed colleague James Southall; instead, it is a comedy-drama about the US government’s experiments in psychic warfare. Directed by George Clooney’s longtime writing partner Grant Heslov, it stars Ewan McGregor as Bob Wilton, a reporter in Iraq who thinks he may have uncovered the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney) a slightly deranged former US army officer who claims to have been part of a top-secret project to equip the military with soldiers capable of paranormal powers. With a quirky supporting cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey and Robert Patrick, The Men Who Stare At Goats has all the right credentials to become a cult hit; along for the ride is composer Rolfe Kent. Read more…
GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A fun rom-com reworking of the classic Scrooge tale, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past stars Matthew McConaughey as Connor Mead, a love ‘em and leave ‘em serial monogamist who, while attempting to stop his younger brother’s wedding, is visited by the ghost of his dead uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas). In life, Wayne was a player like Connor, but in death has seen the error of his ways; now, in attempt to save his younger nephew’s nuptials, Wayne tells Connor that he will be visited by the “ghosts” of girlfriends past, present, and future, who will show him that true love, rather than casual sex, is the way to go.
The film is directed by Mark Waters, co-stars Jennifer Garner, Breckin Meyer, Robert Forster and Anne Archer, and has an original score by Scottish-born composer Rolfe Kent. Read more…
17 AGAIN – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A funny vehicle for High School Musical star Zac Efron, 17 Again is a new spin on the old ‘body swap’ comedies of the 1980s like Big, combined with the back-to-school nostalgia of Back to the Future. Matthew Perry stars as Mike O’Donnell stars as a sad-sack thirty-something with a dead end job and a bitter ex-wife (Lesley Mann). After a fateful meeting with mysterious a high school janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray), Mike wishes he could be seventeen again, and do over all the things in his life he screwed up the first time around. Magically, the following morning, he wakes up looking like Zac Efron, and with the help of his perpetually nerdy pal Ned (Thomas Lennon), sets about getting his life back.
It’s a feel-good, genuinely funny teen comedy, directed confidently by Burr Steers, and which features an original score by Rolfe Kent. Read more…
THE HUNTING PARTY – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The aftermath of the war in Bosnia still lingers, twelve years after the conflict officially ended. People there still remember the atrocities committed by the combatants, and some of the individuals who took part in them are still at large. This difficult political situation is the jumping off point of director Richard Shepard’s action/drama/thriller The Hunting Party, which stars Jesse Eisenberg, Terrence Howard and Richard Gere as a trio of journalists who, without the knowledge of the US government, embark on an unauthorized mission to Bosnia to find The Fox (Ljubomir Kerekeš), a notorious war criminal who remains free somewhere in the former Yugoslavia. However, once in the Balkans, the group finds itself in danger when they are mistaken for a CIA hit squad, and The Fox decides to wipe them out before they can find him. Read more…
REIGN OVER ME – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The serious side of Adam Sandler gets a rare outing in director Mike Binder’s film Reign Over Me. Sandler plays Charlie Fineman, a dentist whose entire family – wife, kids, dog – was wiped out in the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York. Since then, Charlie has shut himself off completely from the outside world, unable to cope with the trauma of his life; that is, until he meets up with old college roommate and former fellow dentist Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), who is having personal and professional problems of his own. Recognizing Charlie’s grief, Alan attempts to rekindle their friendship and bring Charlie out of his depression – hoping that, in doing so, it will bring him out of his own. Read more…
THE MATADOR – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A rather peculiar buddy movie directed by Richard Shepard and starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear, The Matador is about an unlikely friendship between two men who shouldn’t get along, but do. Brosnan plays Julian Noble, a burned-out hitman trying to perform a few last jobs before getting out of the business. One night in a Mexico City hotel bar, he encounters businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), and strikes up a conversation. They click, and the next day Julian takes Danny to a bullfight – hence the movie title. Feeling enough of a connection to be able to open up to one another, Julian reveals to Danny that he’s an assassin. At first horrified, then fascinated, the two men part as friends, but never expect to see each other again – until Julian shows up at Danny’s Denver home a year later with a business proposition… Read more…
WEDDING CRASHERS – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of 2005’s more effective summer comedies, Wedding Crashers is the latest vehicle for comedy duo Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, who seem to be making something of a habit of appearing in movies together. This time round they play best friends John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey, good-natured womanisers who spend each summer crashing society weddings, spinning tall tales about their lives and histories, with the express purpose of ‘having their way’ with the bridesmaids. However, then the pair crash a wedding hosted by powerful US Senator Cleary (Christopher Walken), things change: John (Wilson) meets unexpectedly falls in love with Cleary’s middle daughter Claire (Rachel McAdams), while Jeremy (Vaughn) finds himself pursued by Cleary’s slightly insane youngest daughter Gloria (Isla Fisher). Before they realise what has happened, the happy-go-lucky conmen have been invited up to the Senator’s lavish summer home in the country, where they meet the rest of the family, including Cleary’s sex crazed wife Kathleen (Jane Seymour) and Claire’s jock boyfriend Sack (Bradley Cooper). Unfortunately, John and Jeremy must continue with their charade in order for true love to blossom… Read more…
SIDEWAYS – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Peter Simons
Having received much critical and popular acclaim Sideways can be considered last year’s surprise hit. Being the winning film at the Toronto film festival, it also received seven Oscar nominations in addition to seven Golden Globe nominations of which it won two: for screenplay and film. Combining elements of a romantic comedy and a road movie, Sideways is about the two middle aged men Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) who set off for a week into California’s wine country in search of a good time, lots of wine and women. The chronically melancholy Miles is still recovering from his marital break up from two years ago; while the overly outgoing Jack is about to get wed. Before committing to one woman Jack insists on getting laid during this road trip, though Miles grudgingly disapproves of his friend’s behavior and would rather get drunk on Pinots. However, they meet the mature Maya (Virginia Madsen), who clearly like Miles a lot, and the frisky Stephanie (Sandra Oh) with whom Jack hits it off immediately. Miles’ compulsive obsession with wines and his shy struggle with women; in contrast to Jack’s generally exuberant and overly confident behavior make for many hilarious scenes. The cast perform terrifically and it’s easy to see why moviegoers were surprised by the Oscar’s passing on nominating Giamatti for his lead role. Read more…
NURSE BETTY – Rolfe Kent
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s been said a hundred times before, but sometimes the most unlikely movies get great scores. Neil La Bute, having contributed two of the nastiest relationship movies in recent memory with In The Company of Men (1998) and Your Friends and Neighbors (1999), both of which told twisted little stories of manipulation, verbal assault and a total lack of moral fiber, is the last man you would expect to helm a sweet-natured road movie. Therefore it comes as something of a surprise to discover that his third feature, Nurse Betty, is a generally wholesome romantic fable – with just a hint of subversion to keep it interesting. Renee Zellweger stars as Betty Sizemore, a put-upon waitress obsessed with the daytime soap opera A Reason to Love, and its star Dr David Ravel (Greg Kinnear). Betty’s life is drastically altered when she witnesses her lowlife husband Del (Aaron Eckhart) being murdered by two bickering hitmen (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) over a drug deal gone wrong. Shocked into a “fugue state” by the trauma, Betty goes AWOL and heads off across America to LA, convinced that she is in fact a nurse at the fictional hospital from A Reason to Love, and that Dr Ravel is her real-life former fiancé. Unaware that the two killers are hot on her trail – and that a cache of cocaine is stowed in her trunk – Betty’s odyssey picks up pace as she traverses the country, imparting her tale to a variety of bemused on-lookers, and becoming increasingly determined to rekindle her imaginary relationship. Read more…
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