Out to own today:
Daddy’s Home
 | “If I’m being honest, even I’m rooting for Dusty,” Leo Holt (Thomas Haden Church) Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg have phoned in a lacklustre comedy, a double disappointment as their previous collaboration was so funny: THE OTHER GUYS. As much as one is a fan of Ferrell’s idiot savant shtick, it usually only breaks the rote when channelled through the hands of director Adam McKay (ANCHORMAN, STEP BROTHERS, TALLADEGA NIGHTS, etc.). There is the nagging sense in DADDY’S HOME that the lead duo just turned up on set sans prep and just adlibbed for a bit. There are some chortles to be had, but the humour is too broad and obvious for this reviewer’s tastes. [To read more, click here.] |
In the Heart of the Sea
 | “How does one come to know the unknowable?” Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) What is up with everyone’s accents? There are Brits, Irish and an Australian attempting to speak with an American lilt and it grates. Mostly adroit thespians, easily commanding the screen, give performances here not out of keeping at an unrehearsed school play. A clunking script does not help, and neither does being helmed by TV-movie-of-the-week director Ron Howard. IN THE HEART OF THE SEA is a joyless affair striving for something grand, though it is not quite clear what feeling it is trying to evoke in us. ALL IS LOST meets GODZILLA, if the monster is a whale. [To read more, click here.] |
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