Film Review: Brad's Status

"You're Fifty Years Old And You Still Think The World Was Made For You..."

Tackling notions of the mid-life crisis and looking back on a lifetime gone swiftly by, School of Rock writer, Mike White, directs and provides the screenplay for Brad's Status, a low-key and pleasantly thoughtful comedy which utilises the leading star skills of Ben Stiller who returns to the big screen after a somewhat nonexistent cinematic footprint over the course of the past few years or so. Whilst Stiller's comedy can somewhat not exactly hit the mark, take the likes of Zoolander 2 for instance, the emergence of White's script and a wide range of lovely supporting performances from an extravagantly well-versed cast, proves to be a solid winning return for the comedic stalwart, and although the underlying narrative point of the movie is one which has been tackled before in a wide range of differing movies ranging from American Beauty to last year's Ingrid Goes West, Brad's Status is a cool, sombre and sometimes heartwarming drama which doesn't ever feel the need to raise up from its' subtle examination of its' titular leading character. 

Accompanying his son, Troy (Austin Abrams, Paper Towns) along the East Coast whilst they seek out potential future colleges, Brad Sloane (Stiller) reminisces about the success of his out of touch school friends whilst he contemplates his own life's middling mediocrity, one which is full with seething regret and unwarranted shame in comparison to his long lost forgotten acquaintances. With the narrative primarily explained through the use of Stiller's voiceover and some rather excessive yet undeniably comedic dream sequences which convey's Sloane's belief of his friend's individual successes, White's movie works primarily thanks to a brilliantly conflicted leading performance from Stiller alongside the grounding of its' youthful cast, with the likes of Abrams and Shazi Raja counteracting Sloane's contempt for the world by explaining its' true riches in a It's a Wonderful Life style monologue. Whilst the movie falls at times for swaying too much from the central narrative and limiting its' actual comedic zingers to a minimal amount, White's movie is still an interesting social drama which reinforces the idea that when put to good use, Stiller is still an important and welcome leading star. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Zoolander No. 2

"You Really Are An Idiot Aren't You?"

Although I can confess to only recently watching Zoolander, the 2001 satirical comedy directed, written and starring Ben Stiller, this long-awaited sequel was something that I can confess to not entirely looking forward to in a week where so many films share a release schedule and battle for supremacy at the box office. With returning characters such as Ben Stiller as the titular Derek Zoolander, the dim-witted, good-mannered fashion model, resigned to living life as a "hermit crab" due to the loss of wife and son, both of which he believes to be sole responsible for, as well as Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell as Hansel and Mugatu respectively, Zoolander No.2, was in danger of falling into the pit of despair many comedy franchises have been led into over the course of the past decade within cinematic history with awful examples of the genre taking centre stage such as Get Hard and Unfinished Business. Unfortunately for Stiller and co., Zoolander No.2 is a rather unremarkable and most importantly, unfunny continuation of the life of Mr. Zoolander. 

Featuring more or less everything that made the first film full of snigger-induced fits, Zoolander No.2 continues the trait of dim-witted Derek Zoolander being incredibly, you guessed it, dim-witted, all-the-while being surrounded by strange celebrity cameos in an attempt to carry on the trend started within the first film, a film in which cameos included David Bowie (RIP), Victoria Beckham as well as everyone's favourite republican Donald Trump. Now in Zoolander No.2, we have Justin Bieber being shot violently to death, one of the few saving graces of the film, as well as stand-out appearances from Sting, Kiefer Sutherland and Benedict Cumberbatch looking extremely startling as All, the sexually ambiguous male/female model. The problem with the wide range of celebrity cameos is that they attempt to divert from the rather shallow plot and lack of inventive humour and when the screen-time is left solely to the core actors of the movie, Zoolander No.2 fails to live up to the comedic value of its' predecessor with a rather bland story and jokes that don't exactly live up to scratch. Another example of a sequel not being as good as the first film, Zoolander No.2 is something that will swiftly be forgotten. The Godfather Part II it is not. 

Overall Score: 4/10