Review: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Movie stars playing themselves is nothing new. At least when Nicolas Cage does it, you know he's going to go all in. And so it proves to be in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he plays a struggling actor with almost the same name (he's "Nick Cage") and a similar past who's occasionally haunted by a younger version of himself ("Nicky") who likes to shout and say weirdly compelling things. You know, like Nicolas Cage.

When a comeback role falls through and the hotel he's been living at since he separated from his wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) hands over a hefty bill, Nick reluctantly decides to take the advice of his agent (Neil Patrick Harris, no stranger himself to playing "himself" in the Harold & Kumar films) and accept a million dollar offer to appear at a wealthy fan's birthday party. 

Exactly how Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal) made his money remains a mystery - well, it does until Nick touches down in Spain, where a CIA agent (Tiffany Haddish) pulls him aside, lets him know Javi is actually a ruthless killer and arms dealer, and they need him to help find a teen he's supposedly kidnapped to throw an upcoming election. 

Nick, who has his own issues with his own teen daughter (Lily No Sheen) - it seems she doesn't enjoy German expressionistic film-making of the 1920s anywhere near as much as her dad - reluctantly says yes. Two things complicate matters: Javi turns out to be not just a devoted fan but a nice guy (with a screenplay in his back pocket), and Nick is nowhere near as good at this spy stuff as he thought he'd be.

While the "Cage plays Cage" angle makes for a good hook and a lot of amusing references, the real meat here is the double act between Nick (burnt out, not sure about acting, feeling adrift) and Javi (enthusiastic but still grounded, an adoring fan but also someone willing to try for a real connection). The middle stretch of the film, where they're basically just doing a buddy act - occasionally and hilariously on acid - is the strongest part: team these guys up again soon.

Fortunately, even the parts that aren't amazing are still solidly entertaining, and when the film takes a third-act swerve into more straightforward action territory complete with car chases and shoot-outs, it's still always decent action. Nick is above all a likable (if eccentric, and somewhat worn down early on) character, and Cage gives a warm-hearted performance that makes him the kind of guy you really want to succeed.

The meta-textural comedy promised early on never quite materialises, but references to the emotional power of Paddington 2 almost make up for it. This isn't an interrogation of Cage's career, or even a celebration of it; it's just a fun romp about a struggling movie star who just happens to look exactly like Nicolas Cage, a man who after almost 40 years in Hollywood has nothing - not even his performance in 1993's Deadfall, which once seen can never be forgotten - to apologise for. 

- Anthony Morris

Review: The Northman

The secret to The Northman's success is simple: it delivers everything you could want from a Viking movie. Unlike a lot of other genres, Viking movies are fairly straightforward. So long as there's some brutal violence, references to honour and bravery and Odin, a funeral or two, some intrigue and betrayal, and longboats attack a village, you can't go far wrong. The Northman? It doesn't go wrong at all.

Based on the saga that Shakespeare based Hamlet on, the story is a superficially straightforward tale of revenge, as young prince Amleth sees his father, King Aurvandill War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) betrayed by his uncle Fjolnir (Claes Bang), swears vengeance, flees into the wilderness, grows up to be Alexander Skarsgard, and realises that a life as a brutal killer just isn't enough after a mystical encounter (with Bjork no less) reminds him of his fate.

Disguising himself as a slave, he sneaks aboard a ship heading to Iceland where his uncle - who has claimed his mother (Nicole Kidman) for his own - is now living on a glorified farm, having lost the family kingdom to King Harold. On the journey he meets Olga of the Birch Forest (Anya Taylor-Joy), who becomes his partner in crime as a fellow slave on Fjolnir's farm. And there's a lot of crime to be committed.

Director Robert Eggers' previous films (The VVitch, The Lighthouse) were mostly small-scope exercises in cranking up tension through character. This is more mainstream (with a US$70 million budget to go with it), yet manages to maintain enough of his vision to never feel generic or by-the-numbers. There are plenty of offbeat touches here, but the core of the story - Amleth's quest for revenge, even if it destroys him - is always clear and at the heart of every scene.

Visually this is often striking, especially in the moments of religious power and awe, but it's always in service to the story; Iceland's epic grimness is there to underline the remote and hostile nature of the environment and the people who dwell there. Likewise there's plenty of slaying, but the gore and brutality is rarely lingered on - and when it is, its to show the depths to which Amleth is willing to go to achieve his goals.

If there's any drawback to this relatively straightforward approach, it's that at times the story occasionally feels a little too simple, especially during the lengthy middle section. That said, things become more complex as the film progresses, and the matter-of-fact approach to the supernatural (where it's shown to be a central part of their lives, but not to the extent that magic happens... or does it?) does add another layer to Amleth's Big Payback.

The Northman is an all-too-rare example of a well-made genre film that satisfies on just about every level. Even the lengthy run time - two and a half hours if you sit through the credits - feels earned. It's the story of a shirtless warrior with a magic sword (that can only be unsheathed at night!) murdering his way through the people who took his family from him; what more could you ask for?

- Anthony Morris

Review: Ambulance

Early on in Ambulance one of master bank robber Danny Sharp's crime crew sneeringly asks another casually dressed member "who wears Birkinstocks to a bank robbery?" The answer is, of course, an idiot - as proven slightly later when the Birkinstocks-wearer stumbles in front of the getaway van during their botched robbery, gets run over, and is last seen being dragged out from under going "what happened to my [clearly mangled beyond repair] legs?" while the cops spray the street around him with automatic gun fire.

The thing is, everyone here is - to put it bluntly - an idiot. And not just in a typical action movie way: everyone is aggressively stupid and gleefully makes the wrong decision all the time. The movie wouldn't work - and surprisingly it often does work, though the constant excess is a bit excessive  - if there was even one sensible character who stopped a moment to think before shouting some snarky quip or generic action line. 

This would usually be a problem in a heist movie, a genre where audiences like to be surprised by smart twists and characters who know what they're doing. But this is a Michael Bay heist movie where everything is dialed up to 11; footage from a swooping drone doing barrel-rolls over central LA can hide a lot of problems when your script requires everyone to constantly screw up.

Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) is presumably named Sharp to distract us from the fact he isn't. In fact, his entire multi-million dollar heist - which has to happen RIGHT NOW - relies on him bringing on board his brother Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a man who has turned his back on crime and is actively opposed to returning to the world of crime both his father and brother occupy. 

But of course Will does (this is America, so he needs the cash to pay for his wife's medical treatment), which is handy as he's an ex-solider with excellent combat driving skills... oh wait, he's not the getaway driver - some chump who panics, drives off, and runs over one of his buddies is. 

And yes, the heist goes wrong, in large part because the LAPD's SIS unit - led by Captain Munroe (Garret Dillahunt) - knew they were coming. Of course, stopping them before the robbery would be too easy; as we're told multiple times, this unit "lays traps"... and then abandons them the second there's a problem.

Danny, Will, and sixteen million dollars manage to escape a closing net by hijacking an ambulance with EMT Cam Thompson (Eiza Gonzalez) inside. They only get out because there's a cop (shot by Will) in back being worked on, which introduces the only interesting subtext (it's the only subtext at all) to this film: cops are brutal murderous thugs.

Throughout the film Danny is constantly worried about the idea of killing a cop, because in this world - and, let's be honest, often in the real world - if you kill a cop, the cops will murder you the very first chance they get. Fortunately for fans of carnage, Ambulance also depicts all cops as complete idiots so desperate to apprehend a criminal they're constantly crashing cars into everything around them, including multiple clearly avoidable accidents that are obviously fatal for the car's occupants.

On screen LA is often presented as a melting pot where everyone has a story, and so it proves here. Even supporting characters get a scene or moment to display their one character-defining trait. Munroe drives around in a tiny car with a giant dog; Cam is a former speed addict who doesn't do emotional connection; there's a FBI bank robbery expert (with a connection to Danny) who asks "do we have to pay for the stupid questions?" during his marriage counseling.

Not that we're expected to care about any of these people; even Will's "good guy in over his head" arc is muddled (he just keeps on shooting people). The real focus in this 136 minute movie is the 100 minutes or so of car chase through LA, though most of the time it's more that the ambulance drives around while the cops merely follow. 

It's definitely entertaining in a shouty way, but while there's always something happening - removing a spleen, dodging snipers, singing along to Christopher Cross - it almost always feels like the same thing. 

Even the moments that should be a diversion from the main action are presented at the same extreme pitch. Bay doesn't trust any other part of this film (not even Gyllenhaal in motor-mouth mode) to keep us watching, so he keeps the camera moving and the explosions coming until everything blurs together and having a bunch of cops shooting at a clearly remote controlled car because they believe the manikin in the drivers seat is a real person is just another part of an average LA day.

- Anthony Morris