Starring Nicolas Cage, January Jones and Guy Pearce, Justice is released on DVD by PremierPR on Monday 26th March
Directed by Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, Thirteen Days), Justice tells the story of Will Gerrard (Cage), an inner city high school teacher who is married to a beautiful musician wife, Laura (Jones), they live the perfect life until their world is shattered when Laura is violently attacked and left for dead.
Searching for answers and vengeance, Will is approached by a mysterious man, Simon (Pearce) who promises him justice without the need for an unwanted trial. Simon says they can do away with the killer, and all Will has to do is do a favour for this vigilante group in return at some point in the future.
Whilst Will agrees to the proposal, he soon realises that even justice must come at a price.
This is Cage's umpteenth movie in less than two years and whilst he still has that silver screen allure and magnetism you can see that part of him is definitely phoning it in - which is a shame as the possibility of doing a decent thriller with this solid supporting cast and director who has covered this ground previously has been missed.
At times the tension is never cranked up, and some of the set pieces have not been handled effectively. Tellingly, a producer of the film was Tobey Maguire, you can maybe see Maguire playing opposite Jones and being manipulated by someone older than him like Pearce - but here you have to get over the fact of Cage being married to Mrs. Don Draper from Mad Men (a big leap in itself), and Cage sporting another silly piece of facial hair to distract you from his receding hairline.
Justice is out on 26th March on DVD (£17.99) and Blu-Ray (£19.99) from Momentum Pictures.
Showing posts with label Guy Pearce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guy Pearce. Show all posts
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Animal Kingdom - DVD review
Lauded upon its cinematic release in the early weeks of this year, David Michod's debut feature Animal Kingdom is released on the 11th July on DVD and Blu-Ray from Optimum releasing.
Michod's epic feature tells the story of fictional family the Cody family, a rag-tag of differing brothers in terms of personalities and personas, who have had a successful run in bank robbing in the urban milieu of Melbourne.
Interestingly, the first character we see (and to whom we will follow throughout the narrative) is Joshua, later christened J, who is an outsider to this group even though he is related. Joshua has moved in owing to the death of his mother from an overdose. And so the Codys attempt to fit him into the mould of themselves, a fresh pair of legs for the fight. Overseeing all of the boys is their mother, who may be the most evil of the lot Janine Cody, played with chilling presence by Jacqui Weaver (who was Oscar nominated for her portrayal).
The most potent member of the group is Pope Cody (Ben Mendelsohn) who plays the family of one another, and deals with the corrupt cops. Once things take a turn for the worse, Pope decides to take revenge against the police force. Added to the mix is the one honest police officer, Det. Nathan Leckie (played by Guy Pearce) who sees the innocence in J and attempts to get him to testify against his brothers.
The familiar tropes of gangster genre are evident here; people looking out for themselves, the manipulation of others, ulterior motives, the use of violence to problem solve, the lack of periphery female characters, whilst the one present woman Janine, is more memorable and problematic than the men. But as always with crime families the idea of mortality and law is second to blood running thicker than water. Janine loves her boys, all our career criminals so will not have a bad word said against them, and will defend them to the end.
Michod interestingly twists the narrative structure, by using the fact that they are career criminals against the construction of the character's identity focusing on the claustrophobia of being stuck indoors and hiding from the police, and making it clear that they are unable to do anything apart from break the law.
Whilst indebted to The Wire in terms of constructing a portrait of criminal activity with heavy psychological undertones and elaborating on violence without pandering to intelligent viewers, Michod shoots with a keen eye for detail and uses the city of Melbourne as a character itself - bright exterior with suburbia looking good in the heat, but with a merky criminal underground taking place in the cold light of day. He might be indebted to American influences such as Baltimore's finest and Scorsese's crime epics (most importantly Goodfellas) but you do get the impression that this is distinctly Antipodean about this production.
Featuring stunning performances uniformly from the cast, expertly shot and editing with a tantalising screenplay in harmony with his own confident directorial debut; Michod should be proud to have given this gift to the world, from half a world away.
The DVD extras include the obligatory making of documentary, trailers and interviews with the director and cast; how much a director's commentary would have been needed in this instance.
Available on DVD (£17.99RRP) and Blu-Ray (£22.99) from Optimum Releasing from Monday 11th July.
Michod's epic feature tells the story of fictional family the Cody family, a rag-tag of differing brothers in terms of personalities and personas, who have had a successful run in bank robbing in the urban milieu of Melbourne.
Interestingly, the first character we see (and to whom we will follow throughout the narrative) is Joshua, later christened J, who is an outsider to this group even though he is related. Joshua has moved in owing to the death of his mother from an overdose. And so the Codys attempt to fit him into the mould of themselves, a fresh pair of legs for the fight. Overseeing all of the boys is their mother, who may be the most evil of the lot Janine Cody, played with chilling presence by Jacqui Weaver (who was Oscar nominated for her portrayal).
The most potent member of the group is Pope Cody (Ben Mendelsohn) who plays the family of one another, and deals with the corrupt cops. Once things take a turn for the worse, Pope decides to take revenge against the police force. Added to the mix is the one honest police officer, Det. Nathan Leckie (played by Guy Pearce) who sees the innocence in J and attempts to get him to testify against his brothers.
The familiar tropes of gangster genre are evident here; people looking out for themselves, the manipulation of others, ulterior motives, the use of violence to problem solve, the lack of periphery female characters, whilst the one present woman Janine, is more memorable and problematic than the men. But as always with crime families the idea of mortality and law is second to blood running thicker than water. Janine loves her boys, all our career criminals so will not have a bad word said against them, and will defend them to the end.
Michod interestingly twists the narrative structure, by using the fact that they are career criminals against the construction of the character's identity focusing on the claustrophobia of being stuck indoors and hiding from the police, and making it clear that they are unable to do anything apart from break the law.
Whilst indebted to The Wire in terms of constructing a portrait of criminal activity with heavy psychological undertones and elaborating on violence without pandering to intelligent viewers, Michod shoots with a keen eye for detail and uses the city of Melbourne as a character itself - bright exterior with suburbia looking good in the heat, but with a merky criminal underground taking place in the cold light of day. He might be indebted to American influences such as Baltimore's finest and Scorsese's crime epics (most importantly Goodfellas) but you do get the impression that this is distinctly Antipodean about this production.
Featuring stunning performances uniformly from the cast, expertly shot and editing with a tantalising screenplay in harmony with his own confident directorial debut; Michod should be proud to have given this gift to the world, from half a world away.
The DVD extras include the obligatory making of documentary, trailers and interviews with the director and cast; how much a director's commentary would have been needed in this instance.
Available on DVD (£17.99RRP) and Blu-Ray (£22.99) from Optimum Releasing from Monday 11th July.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Animal Kingdom DVD Preview
Hey all, just to let you know that the critically lauded Animal Kingdom will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray from Optimum Releasing and ThinkJam on Monday 11th July
My review will follow in due course, but giving you a heads up, as the check disc arrived this morning and I am watching the film now - looking forward to it
http://www.optimumreleasing.com/
www.facebook.com/thinkjam
ANIMAL KINGDOM tells the gripping tale of seventeen year-old J (James Frecheville), as he fights for survival in a vicious criminal family and the detective (Guy Pearce, The King’s Speech and Memento) who tries to save him. Pope Cody (Ben Mendelsohn), an armed robber on the run from a gang of renegade detectives, is in hiding, surrounded by roughneck friends and family. Soon, Pope’s nephew, J, arrives and moves in, but when tensions between the family and corrupt cops reach breaking point, J finds himself at the centre of a cold-blooded revenge attack that turns the family upside down.
Writer and director David Michôd’s brutal and captivating depiction of Melbourne’s criminal underbelly heralds the arrival of an intense new voice to contemporary Australian Cinema.
The film has received awards and nominations worldwide, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Jacki Weaver, and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival.
My review will follow in due course, but giving you a heads up, as the check disc arrived this morning and I am watching the film now - looking forward to it
http://www.optimumreleasing.com/
www.facebook.com/thinkjam
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