Chan-wook Park finally makes his trip across the world to
direct an English-speaking language film and while in the past, for many great
foreign directors this transition has proven to be rather unsuccessful, that is
not the case here with Park’s Stoker. This film still contains the stunning
visual use of patterns for which he has become famous for over the past few
years and the plot does contain some rather awkward moments for the actors to
tackle as they portray the twisted tale of a broken family with a long lost
uncle returning with a hidden dark aura surrounding his every movement, its
really quite surprising that this compelling and twisted script comes from
Wentworth Miller (best known for his role in TV series Prison Break), there’s
brilliant performances all around from the main cast; Nicole Kidman is utterly
convincing in her portrayal as an unstable mother and with Mia Wasikowska in
the lead role as India who delivers just the right amount of edginess to her
character that really helps to bring together the complications of her
relationship with her mother to the fold, but the standout performance is from
Matthew Goode as Uncle Charlie; though the film is titled Stoker, this isn’t a
vampire film but throughout the film Goode delivers comparable characteristics
with the Bram Stoker’s Dracula character; Goode manages to convey a sense of
mystery and overwhelming sense of danger whenever on screen, making Stoker an
excellent character piece from start to finish. As you’d expect from a
Chan-wook Park film the cinematography is stunning and is complemented with a
wonderful soundtrack, but where the film really shines brightest is with the
sound design which strongly evokes the atmosphere that Park is looking to
deliver to the audience, the expectation of many was that in hope that the
director could make the transition to America but probably not reach the
heights of his previous films, and for me Park by far exceeds these expectation;
as Stoker is a really strong addition to his filmography and certainly isn’t
his weakest film to date by far. It might not be to the standard of OldBoy
(2003) but it certainly doesn’t look out of place with the likes of Thirst
(2009).
No. 4 Worst - Kick-Ass 2 dir Jeff Wadlow
Back in 2010 when Kick-Ass hit the screens – I left the
cinema really pumped feeling that Matthew Vaughan had done a pretty stellar job
at bringing Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass to the big screen, I did have issues with
some of the changes in key dialogue, but given Nicolas Cage’s performance as
Big Daddy, I couldn’t help but love the film. Though I do feel that James
Gunn’s Super (2010) that also hit in the same year was actually the much better
film, I still had a lot of love for Kick-Ass and was quite excited of the
prospect of the upcoming sequel. As for the sequel itself; Kick-Ass 2 seems to
have completely forgot what made the original such a blast and a thrill to
watch from start to finish; gone is the charm and fun factor and is replaced by
all out gratuitous violence with forced attempts at slapstick comedy with silly
jokes. Kick-Ass 2 is unrelenting with the gore, but it all feels and looks very
cheap; as if they tried to cut as many corners as possible to keep the budget
down, not caring for the quality of how it looks on screen, it’s a film that is
just full of set pieces that are connected by small by-the-numbers dialogue
driven scenes that do nothing for the characters themselves, but rather act as
a means to an end. Kick-Ass 2 is all very depressing and it’s sad to see a
franchise be killed off in front of your eyes by very lazy filmmaking and extremely
poor judgement. Though I do have to admit that Jim Carrey’s performance, as
Colonel Stars & Stripes is absolutely fantastic, it’s hard to believe that
it’s Jim Carrey in the role. For the first time in a number of years he is
actually acting rather than just playing a figment of former characters that
made him famous way back when and because of his utterly exceptional performance
(of which I think is right up there with Nicolas Cage’s in Kick-Ass) it makes
Kick-Ass 2 a much more greater disappointment that everything surrounding
Carrey is utter garbage. This sequel in my mind has killed off any chance of a
good franchise and if there is to be a third instalment then I can see it being
nothing more than a bargain basement direct-to-DVD experience.
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