Jay (Neil Maskell; The Football Factory) doesn’t want to go back to work. Eight months after a traumatizing “incident” in Kiev, he’d rather spend time at home with his seven year old son, or work on installing a Jacuzzi in his backyard. But his wife Shel – a beautiful, fiery Swede (MyAnna Buring; The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) – says they need the money, and she’s right. Unlike most films of this ilk, Shel knows what Jay has to do to earn a living. This idealistic family, like this film, is not what it appears. A dinner party with Jay’s old colleague Gal (Michael Smiley; Burke & Hare) – a good humoured Irishman – turns hostile when the issue of work arises. But it’s enough to prompt Jay to go back on the road, taking a job that Gal nonchalantly refers to as “nothing too strenuous”.

“Nothing too strenuous” turns out to be assassinating three people – a priest, a librarian and an M.P. Yet for Jay and Gal, it really isn’t that big a deal. Like Pulp Fiction’s Jules and Vincent, or Ken and Ray from 2008s phenomenal In Bruges, these two go about their business with calm professionalism, keeping themselves entertained in the interim with highly amusing banter. Minimalist and clever, the script is credited to Wheatly and Amy Jump, with additional dialogue “by the cast”. Maskell and Smiley have fantastic chemistry, and their naturalistic improvisation lends the picture an authentic feel that sticks around even as their missionbecomes increasingly bizarre.

But amidst the laughter, Wheatly lets us know early that something is amiss. Before the job even begins, a dead rabbit appears in Jay’s backyard. Later, Gal’s seemingly normal dinner date carves a demonic symbol on the back of a mirror when she’s left alone. Once the duo are on the job, the isolated locales – vacant hotels, rustling woods – carry an ominous emptiness that creates sensations of dread that are then heightened by jumpy editing and a wonderfully eerie score. Slowly these feelings begin to wear of Jay and Gal, who begin to doubt the nature of an employer who makes them sign in blood. When they discover a secret about their second target, Jay looks increasingly likely to snap.

When things change, they change dramatically. An absurd but wholly terrifying cavalcade of occult images that sear themselves into your brain, the climax of Kill List is the finest kind of gut-clenching, white knuckle horror. You’ll have questions regarding the ending – I certainly do. But “was it worth it?” won’t be one of them.

Kill List is currently available in Australia on DVD.

—

Still Life was reviewed as part of our coverage of the 41^st International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

You can read all of Tom Clift’s coverage of the festival here.

Room 514 (IFFR Review)

Alps (IFFR Review)

Still Life [Stillleben] (IFFR Review)

Ace Attorney (IFFR Review)

Kotoko (IFFR Review)

Before continuing, it’s worth considering the possibility that this was all just an innocent mistake. Maybe Anderson thought he was making a subversive parody of The Three Musketeers, one designed to point out how inane it would be if videogame logic was used to sully Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel. Or maybe, just maybe, he thought he was making The Three Musket Ears; a direct-to-DVD mockbuster intended to piggyback off of the release of the real movie, which was being made elsewhere by an actual filmmaker. You know, one who, upon standing behind a camera, yells sensible things like “No! I don’t think we should make a Three Musketeers movie about the proliferation of CGI airships! Whatever we do, let’s not do that!”

At least the costumes are nice!

The story itself is far too convoluted encapsulate in a mere paragraph, but think of it as Resident Evil in a corset; a disconnected string of action set pieces where Anderson’s wife, Milla Jovovich, back-flips her way through tripwires and dangerous contraptions laid out by none other than Leonardo da Vinci himself (who clearly had nothing better to do with his time). Still, looking back over Anderson’s repertoire, it could have been much worse; Athos (Matthew Macfayden) could have been an Alien, Porthos (Ray Stevenson) a Predator and Aramis (Luke Evans) a zombie, although maybe they’re saving all that for the hinted-at sequel. Here, only the actors appear to be zombies, the exception being Macfayden, a versatile performer who deserves much, much better. As for Evans, I spent half the film thinking he was Orlando Bloom, which I must admit, left me feeling a bit silly when Bloom turned out to be playing the Duke of Buckingham. Still, with that accent, I’m sure he felt much sillier.

Let me talk a bit about the fourth musketeer D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman), because after all, he’s the “hero” of this film. D’Artagnan is introduced innocently enough, leaving his Ma andPa behind and setting off for Paris in a hope of teaming up with the famed Three Musketeers. But, like a drunken polo-popped skinhead who’s just been kicked out of a nightclub, the first thing he does is pick a futile fight with scar-faced guardsman Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen). Being the right-hand man to the devious French Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz), Rochefort shows no mercy to the wannabe swordsman, and in fact comes mightily close to killing him. It’s a damn shame he didn’t, because I don’t think the silver screen has seen a more infuriatingly smug little twerp this side of a Star Wars prequel. 19-year-old Lerman, with his dollish face yet lifeless presence, appears to be the first prototype to be churned out of the Hollywood Hunk Machine 2000, a contraption that smashes together DNA from the likes of Justin Bieber, Alex Pettyfer, Rob Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and Zac Efron into one irresistible tween magnet.  Well, that’s the theory; they haven’t worked out all the kinks just yet.

The insanely irritable Logan Lurman, who I hope is having a bad day.

Look, I could harp on about how stupefyingly dumb it all gets, how tediously derivative the action is (one scene being a shot-for-shot Matrix rip off) and how the accents manage to be everything but French, but we’d be here all day. I could also attempt to calculate the precise number of black holes that must align for a movie this outrageously awful to come into existence, but given that the last time this happened was only a year ago (see: The Last Airbender), I think we’re all better off not knowing. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

Verdict:

Alexandre Dumas isn’t merely turning in his grave, he’s half way through re-enacting ‘Thriller’.

Resident Evil: Afterlife (Review)

Australian Box Office Report: 28-31 Oct 2010

Australian Box Office 6/11/11: We still love to be ‘In Time’

Australian Box Office Report: 14-17 Oct 2010

Australian Box Office 30/10/2011: JT not just NSync but In Time for top spot

What we have here is an underdog story of sorts, although one where the hurdles aren’t overcome by the horse. Instead, it’s Diane Lane (Jumper) with something to prove as Penny Chenery, a dignified housewife who is put in charge of her ailing father’s financially-troubled Stables despite knowing little about the male-dominated world of horse racing. Determined to get the family business back on the track, Penny nuts out a deal with premier horse breeder Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell; The Queen) that results in her acquisition of Secretariat, the offspring of his stallion and her mare. With the aid of renowned trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich; Transformers 3), Penny raises Secretariat into a racing legend, the kind that would make for a satisfying Disney flick sometime down the line. 

Secretariat has been helmed by Randall Wallace, the chap responsible for directing The Man in the Iron Mask and We Were Soldiers, as well as writing Braveheart and Pearl Harbour. In other words, if you’re a stickler for historical accuracy, then this mightn’t be for you. The directing itself is assured, if unadventurous, but let’s not forget that this is a family film, so it’s better to play it safe and not confuse half of your target audience. It’s certainly formulaic at times, but Secretariat really is a case of a winning formula working, so why meddle with it?

I do feel a little sorry for the editor, however, because during the scene of Secretariat’s birth, the young colt kicks the camera mount in such a way that could not possibly have been intentional. I suspect a second take was out of the question – most mares prefer it if they don’t have to give birth to the same foal more than once – so the filmmakers probably had to make do with what footage they had.  Why they kept the sound of the kick in, however, is beyond me.

Inoffensively conventional and possessing some genuinely nice moments, this really is a fine family film, but not one I suspect will stay with your children as they mature, as the best Disney films have in the past.

Alas, not every film can be The Lion King…

—

Click here to read aQ&A with James Cromwell, the actor who plays millionaire horse trainer Ogden Phipps.

Competition: Win SECRETARIAT on Blu-Ray & DVD!

Interview: James Cromwell, star of SECRETARIAT

War Horse (Review)

Hakuna matata for The Lion King 3D

Senna (Review)

But I thought what happened in Vegas was supposed to stay in Vegas? So why is it happening again — almost exactly the same way — in Bangkok?

Ladies and gentlemen, meet lazy filmmaking. You’d best take your laughs elsewhere; all he wants is your money.

Allow me to be blunt; The Hangover Part 2 is far and away the most disappointing film of the year. As an inferior replica of the first film, one could easily mistake this supposed blockbuster for a mockbuster: a slapdash B-movie designed to piggy-back on the success and publicity of a tent-pole release. Heck, maybe that’s exactly what it is. After all, it was co-written by one of the writers scribblers of the Scary Movie series.  And since ripping-off other, superior movies is all that franchise is capable of, maybe that’s all The Hangover Part 2 was aiming to do as well?

Well aim a little higher, guys. Audiences deserve better.

For a full review of The Hangover Part 2, be sure to watch my video review below:

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Funny Friday: ‘The Social Network’ Parodies

Funny Friday: Twilight…for guys!

X-men: First Class (Video Review)

Bridesmaids (Video Review)

Insidious (Video Review)

Our hero is a shy, lonely chameleon – funnily enough an aspiring actor – voiced with infectious bravado by Johnny Depp (The Tourist). After a disorientingly surreal opening, he finds himself in a struggling frontier town called Dirt – a fitting moniker, as the town’s water supply has almost run out. A reckless performance during a tense showdown in the local saloon convinces the disenchanted townsfolk to appoint the heroic (or so they think) lizard as their sheriff, and when the last few drops of water locked away inside the bank disappear, Rango finds himself responding with vigour to his new role of leader, protector and saviour. At least, he tries pretty damn hard to.

Humorous angle aside, if the plot sounds familiar at all, it’s because Rango is a gleeful pastiche of a genre that just refuses to die. It unashamedly pays homage to many of the classics, most notably the Sergio Leone Dollars trilogy and its memorable musical themes, which put both star Clint Eastwood and composer Ennio Morricone on the map. The archetypal mysterious stranger coming to the rescue of a town in peril, battling lawlessness and greed while also managing to catch the eye of a distressed but plucky maiden – you know how it goes. But Rango piles on the references to other movies like Tarantino on a bender, extending the tribute to many great films of other genres which are actually Westerns in a different guise, from Star Wars to Chinatown.

There is a solid story to back up the feast of film references, and while it’s committed to a tried-and-true formula and is a bit long, it maintains a fast pace, and there are enough twists and twisted humour to keep you absorbed. As you might expect, a lot of the parodies and jokes will fly over the heads of children, but they’ll respond to the “fish out of water” premise – a staple of the young filmgoer’s diet. At the same time, I wouldn’t call it a kid’s film. The humour is very dry and at times quite dark, while some of the imagery is sinister and intense. And Rango is significantly different from other animated films in that, while the characters are all identifiable animals, most of them are clearly not designed to look cute. They are as dirty and disease-ridden as their antecedents in the spaghetti Western. Hats off to the filmmakers for keeping their attention on the movie and not the merchandise.

It all makes you wonder what kind of audience they’re aiming at. Rango is the offspring of, among others, George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic visual effects company and Nickelodeon Movies, but I’m guessing Johnny Depp will be its major drawcard. The film boasts a handful of seasoned and crusty veterans playing off each other, none of whom I’ll give away here because it’s always fun trying to figure them out before the final credits give you all the answers. There is also a brief appearance by a surprise guest star – at least, it looks and sounds like the guy. In hindsight, director Gore Verbinski – a filmmaker who can churn out noisy, gargantuan Hollywood adventures like the Pirates of the Caribbean series as well as a small, stinging comedy like The Weather Man – was a good choice, as Rango is as gloriously cinematic as it is witty and ironic. And it will change the way you think about roadkill.

Australian Box Office 20/3/2011: Battle LA conquers Rango, Limitless

Australian Box Office 13/3/2011: Rango has The Rite

Rio [2011] (Review)

Australian Box Office 10/4/11: Rio rules the roost

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Review 2)

That being said, the Church isn’t doing their image any favours by permitting Hannibal Lecter to become a priest, but let’s be thankful they did, because Anthony Hopkins (The Wolfman) is the film’s only saving grace. As the unorthodox exorcist Father Lucas, Hopkins is having a heck of a lot more fun than those of us in the audience, using his venomous vernacular to scare the hell — quite literally — out of a heavily pregnant teenage girl.

Unfortunately, though, Hopkins doesn’t make an appearance until the half-hour mark given that he plays support to leading man Colin O’Donoghue, an Irishman with few previous credits. O’Donoghue dolefully embodies Michael, a young mortician with less charisma than the bodies lying on his autopsy table. Desperate to escape the family business and lead a zestier life, Michael – a part-time atheist – makes the logical decision to become a Catholic priest, effectively trading in his scalpel for scepticism. Yet despite his religious doubt, he is selected to attend exorcism classes at the Vatican where Father Xavier (Ciarán Hinds; The Eclipse) teaches him how to differentiate between demonic possessions and psychotic episodes. The key giveaway? Possessed people tend to have dark, sullied eyes and speak as though they’re dying from lung cancer. Joan Rivers, for example.

After enduring the long and laborious setup, the first fright comes in the form of a black cat that inexplicably leaps toward the camera, the kind of cheap jump scare that is hastily inserted during post-production when the filmmakers realise an episode of Two and a Half Men is more terrifying to watch. Hopkins’ long-awaited arrival does elevate the proceedings, but even he’s kept on a leash until the finale, where he lets Lecter loose and briefly frees the film from its overly staid tone.

Michael Petroni’s screenplay is supposedly “inspired by true events”, which I imagine is another way of saying he once saw William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and felt inspired to replicate it. Unlike last year’s surprisingly innovative The Last Exorcism, Håfström’s film makes no concerted effort to distinguish itself from Friedkin’s 1973 classic, a movie without peers but countless imitators. The Rite is easily among the worst of them, an exorcism movie in which all the scary bits have been exorcised.

The Last Exorcism (Review)

The Eclipse (Review)

Australian Box Office Report: Nov 25-28 2010

Australian Box Office 13/3/2011: Rango has The Rite

THE WOLFMAN competition: Win tickets + merchandise!

In other words, they’re people like Griff (Ryan Kwanten; Red Hill), an introverted office worker who spends his nights secretly surveilling the city for any excuse to become his crime-fighting alter ego. More pitiful than he is powerful, Griff only feels comfortable in his own skin when he’s pretending to answer urgent distress calls from the Commissioner, or ripping off his work clothes to reveal his G-crested costume beneath.  His older brother Tim (Patrick Brammall; Home and Away) wishes he’d just give up his childish fantasies and wake up to real world, but Griff – a victim of bullying at work by office clown Tony (Toby Schmitz; Somersault) – finds a sense of security in being invisible to those around him.

That changes when he meets fellow oddball Melody (Maeve Dermody; Beautiful Kate), Tim’s new girlfriend who firmly believes it’s possible to walk through walls so long as every atom is perfectly aligned. The two are instantly drawn to each other’s idiosyncrasies, yet their reluctance to play by the rules of reality does little to please their family and friends.

I wouldn’t be the first to compare Ford’s film to Kick-Ass, last year’s DIY superhero movie that also portrayed someone on the fringe of society taking the law into their own hands. But whereas Kick-Ass is about as hyperactive as a toddler on Christmas morning, Griff is far more low-key.  I’d sooner liken it to indie rom-coms such as 500 Days of Summer than any comic-book capers given how it pulls more emotional punches than physical ones. The casting is spot on, Kwanten winning us over with the same childlike charm he exudes as Jason Stackhouse in TV’s True Blood, minus the cockiness. If not romantic chemistry, there’s an endearing kinship that forms between Kwanten and Dermondy – whose performance is as tuneful as her character’s name suggests — that makes it easier to forgive the absence of a strong narrative.

Ultimately though, Griff the Invisible is simply too meek to get truly excited about. Ford’s screenplay could do with a few more comedic moments, while his direction – although impressively poised for a first-time feature – would benefit from a shot of adrenaline every once in a while to help offset the film’s leisurely pace. As it stands, I suspect Griff’s invisibility will extend to its theatrical run here in Australia, which is less to do with the quality of the film and more to do with Ford’s unwillingness to adhere to the expectations audiences have when it comes to superhero films. It’s commendable filmmaking rather than commercial filmmaking, and while there’s nothing particularly wrong with that, a better film would have been both.

Australian Box Office 13/3/2011: Rango has The Rite

Australian Box Office 20/3/2011: Battle LA conquers Rango, Limitless

Competition: Win KICK-ASS merchandise + tickets!

The Green Hornet (Review)

Interview: Luke Ford, co-star of ANIMAL KINGDOM

For those of you who don’t know what a hall pass is, it’s kind of like a “get out of jail free” card – only in this case it’s marriage. The recipient is granted one week off from matrimony, and is free to make his own choices, restricted only by his conscience (or what little he has of one). When disheartened Maggie (Jenna Fischer from the American version of The Office) gives easily distracted husband Rick (Owen Wilson, Little Fockers) a hall pass, she thinks it’s a chance to save their marriage – once he gets it all out of his system he’ll finally be ready to settle down. Saturday Night Live’s charismatic Jason Sudeikis plays his oversexed best friend Fred, who practically has a hall pass thrown at him by his wife – although most male members (groan) of the audience will be scratching their heads as to why anyone would want a hall pass from Christina Applegate, still a total babe some 25 years after she graced our TV screens in Married With Children.

The boys don’t really know what to do with themselves at first, however. Their first couple of nights aren’t spent trying to pick up women but hanging out with their three moronic friends – a nerdy Brit, the token black guy, and a dim-witted slob whose prime topic of conversation, like his animated cousin Chris Griffin, is poo. But their quest escalates when they hook up with player extraordinaire Coakley – an eye-popping performance by the always dependable Richard Jenkins (Let Me In, Step Brothers) as a kind of sleazy wizard (imagine Obi-Wan Kenobi in a T-shirt wielding a vengeful boner instead of a lightsaber).

As you might’ve guessed, tasteless gags and toilet humour are the order of the day here. And there were some scenes early in the film where I couldn’t catch every second joke because the audience was laughing so hard – the last time I saw a movie that got that kind of reaction was probably Clerks, more than fifteen years ago. But the unfortunate problem with Hall Pass is that while it starts out really well, it peaks early, and the laughs are weighted more in the first half of the film. The lags in the second half are mostly due to the fact that we spend increasingly more time with the wives, and while they too inevitably get up to no good at some beach resort nearby, the abrupt shifts in tone are jarring. The moral thread of the story – the idea that a hall pass gives the men freedom without consequences, but the women are not obliged to stay wholesome and virginal either – becomes rather heavy-handed and starts to work against the flow of the gags, pouring on the irony instead.

The awkward combination of gross-out gags and an almost sugary tone is no surprise, coming from writing/directing team Bobby and Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary), and the crude humour and raunchy dialogue will delight fans of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen (admirers of The 40-Year-Old Virgin will not be disappointed). The way the film falls over itself with its incessant need to have a heart is also similar – right from the beginning you know things are going to get pretty sappy and lessons will be learned. So just be warned – it’s that kind of film. On the other hand, there are moments when things go way overboard that are just about priceless, and you’ll be able to expand your vocabulary with plenty of words and phrases that you might want to refrain from using around your mother. But then, she’s probably guilty of cockblocking and is definitely no good for your spankbank, so who needs her anyway?

Bridesmaids (Review)

Australian Box Office 20/2/11: Hall Pass for everyone

Australian Box Office 27/3/2011: Basket full for Hood

Horrible Bosses (Review)

Australian Box Office 13/3/2011: Rango has The Rite

Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck; The Town) has a great job, a big house and an expensive car. A high roller at the GTX Corporation, he’s reached the stage in life where he thinks more about improving his golf swing than anything else. Until he walks into work one morning a high-paid executive and walks out carrying a cardboard box, the victim of a merciless corporate evil: downsizing. From that moment on, he finds his lifestyle and identity systematically stripped away as the full weight of his misfortune slowly rolls over everything that is important to him.

Even though Bobby loses his foothold early in the film, he still has an ally at GTX in Gene, who has been with the company since day one but is powerless to stop the layoffs. With his weathered features and abandoned puppy look, Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) is the moral centre of the film, as Gene is locked between righteous but redundant Bobby and their ruthless boss, a capitalist demon second only to Gordon Gekko. The unseen villain of The Company Men is equally heartless and evasive; Bobby and thousands of other GTX employees are sacrificed in a series of downsizes prompted by an economic collapse. The cry of the stockholders seems to be louder than that of the shellshocked executives, and by the end of the film half the cast finds itself marching through the same unemployment services office.

This all sounds rather dreary – as it should – but there are plenty of light moments to break up the doom and gloom. The overenthusiastic career coaching Bobby is subjected to will make you cringe along with him, and when he swallows his reluctance to accept a job working for his brother-in-law (Kevin Costner in a blue collar), we can’t help but enjoy watching him squirm as Costner has fun with an uncharacteristically lightweight role. However, the film suffers from underwritten characters – Costner and particularly costar Chris Cooper (who also had a small but pivotal role alongside Ben Affleck in The Town) aren’t given much to work with, and deliver performances that are arguably better than their roles.

The Company Men is the feature debut for writer/director John Wells, whose background in television (ER, The West Wing) influences his approach here – short, punchy scenes and a revolving cast of characters in turmoil help to maintain interest and momentum, even when the material seems a bit thin or strays into feelgood territory. Ultimately, your experience of the film will be determined by how much sympathy you develop for the characters. Their plight of being unceremoniously cast aside while having families to take care of is indeed a compelling setting, but it’s hard to forget that these guys are all wealthy and leading a very privileged lifestyle – maybe cancelling their next ski trip and losing their golf club membership isn’t quite the end of the world. As a result, the film lacks a bit of bite and doesn’t offer the catharsis you expect. This is no fault of the cast, however, as the performances are strong and convincing – as an actor’s showcase, you’re definitely in good company.

Win ‘The Company Men’ DVD Prize Pack!

Kevin Costner cast in Superman reboot ‘Man of Steel’?

Horrible Bosses (Review)

It’s Relevant #1: Wall Street (1987)

Wall Street (DVD Review)

Two plots run parallel during the film; Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) works as a doctor in an African camp, where he operates on women mutilated by the village’s tyrannical leader. At home in Denmark, he deals with his separation with Marianne (Trine Dyrholm) while their son Elias (Markus Ryggard) deals with school bullies. When Elias gains a friend in Christian (William Johnk Nielsen), the boys discover they can stand up for themselves but aren’t prepared for the road it takes them down. We’re subject to some horrific ideas – that kids can plan extreme revenge from sites on the Internet and tyranny comes in all forms.

The complexity of each character is shown sympathetically through Anders Thomas Jensen’s screenplay, as we explore the important lessons they learn with them. It’s not issues we’re unaware of, but rather those we seem to disregard for one reason or another. Susanne Bier intricately shows us the pain that comes with love and how confronting intimidating people can be just as much being the bigger man as getting revenge. The cast is faultless, with Dyrholm and Persbrandt particularly strong as a couple trying to create a safe world for their children. Following the boys may be more intriguing because their choices are far from what we would expect, but this film triumphs as a questioning yet beautiful tale of showing the consequences of our actions and what we can teach each other.

Verdict:

Worthy of its Oscar win, In A Better World is a powerful piece of cinema.

–

In A Better World screens as part of the 2011 Bigpond Adelaide Film Festival. Read all of our BAFF11 coverage here.

The Recipe [2010] (BAFF Review)

A Useful Life [La vida util] (BAFF Review)

The Troll Hunter (BAFF Review)

Elsewhere [La tête ailleurs] (BAFF Review)

The Illusionist [L'illusionniste] (BAFF Review)

Things begin promisingly as Hughes quickly establishes a strong last-century atmosphere in the remote country town of Red Hill, which joins Wolf Creek on the list of places tourists should avoid if they have no intention of going home in a body bag. Yet to realise this is Shane (Ryan Kwanten), a young police officer who has moved with his pregnant wife from the big smoke to lead a quieter life. Fat chance. On his first day of the job, Shane’s sneering superior Old Bill (Steve Bisley) learns that the murderous half-aboriginal convict Jimmy Conway (Tom Lewis) has escaped from prison and is looking to get revenge on those that put him behind bars: the Red Hill police force.

Red Hill walks the fine line between genre homage and parody, taking the premise of the iconic western High Noon, modernising it with raw Coen Brothers atmospherics and lathering it with campy B-movie horror sensibilities. While one can admire the tenacity of such an eclectic combination (especially for a first time filmmaker), the result is surprisingly generic and frustratingly fragmented.

As a director, Hughes hasn’t an issue. With the help of Tim Hudson’s starkly lit cinematography, Hughes demonstrates his keen ability to manipulate his audience, particularly in the first half where he milks suspense out of the simplest of scenarios. He also elicits strong performances from both the likeable Kwanten and rancorous Bisley, the former a major drawcard for international distribution given his starring role in the popular TV series True Blood.

As a writer, however, Hughes falters. Leaning heavily on genre clichés, Red Hill struggles to build logically on its “man rides into town” premise, resulting in numerous moronic character decisions and unconvincing narrative junctures that completely unravels the tension. The film degenerates into a generic slasher, the scarred and unspoken Conway striving to be as eerily unflinching as No Country For Old Men’s magnificent monster Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), but ending up more like an imitation of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13^th. As revenge reveals itself as justice, the twist ending can be spotted a mile away, but that doesn’t make the final confrontation any less ludicrous.

Red Hill only truly works when it retains a hard edge and a straight face. So why does Hughes insist on blowing so many raspberries?

Jonah Hill considering directorial debut with ‘The Kitchen Sink’

New Release Movies 25/11/10: Due Date,The Last Exorcism

The Loved Ones (Review)

The Waiting City (Review)

The Invention of Lying (Review)