Film Review: Teen Titans Go! To The Movies

"Titans, You Guys Are Never Actually Doing Anything Heroic..."

With the success of The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie proving that poking fun at the biggest franchises in the world can be best achieved within the format of animation, DC Comics' turn at rivalling Marvel once again comes in the form of Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, a feature long adaptation of the U.S show, Teen Titans Go!, which sees the titular squad of lesser-known superheroes attempt to prove their worth in a universe surrounded by the likes of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman and lose their image of being too immature to be taken seriously as heroes. Featuring a voice cast which mixes the regulars of the television show with guest stars such as Nicholas Cage, Jimmy Kimmel and Kristen Bell, Teen Titans is an energetic mixed bag, one which does manage to successfully orchestrate a huge number of brilliant in-house gags with eye-wateringly hilarious results, but a movie which also suffers from a headache inducing sense of not entirely warranting its' cinematic status, with issues regarding the movie's screenplay, direction and tone resulting in a movie which certainly lacks the aplomb its' predecessing familiars managed to get ever so right. 

With the best animated movies satisfying both younger and adult audiences alike, Teen Titans Go! does at least attempt primarily to aim at older viewers in regards to a high percentage of the satirical gags, with comments on the shared universes from Marvel and DC alike, the awfulness of Batman Vs. Superman, and the universally accepted hatred of Shia Labeouth all managing to work to impressive comedic means, but with an over-reliance on more times than not to default back to over-zealous screaming, shouting and an awful, bubblegum pop soundtrack, Teen Titans Go! unfortunately fails to balance its' tonal control, resulting in you more likely to leave the auditorium with an excruciatingly painful headache than a gleeful rush of wishing to see the film again as quickly as possible.  With a screenplay which weaves in and out of a central story, the narrative path of the film does quickly become overly tedious and dull, resulting in watch checking a common theme as the loudness of the movie forces you to stay awake, and with an overriding sense that Teen Titans Go! should have indeed offered a lot more, the ride from screen to cinema is undoubtedly one of crippling disappointment. 

Overall Score: 5/10

Film Review: A Bad Moms Christmas

"We're Gonna Put The Ass Back In Christmas..!"

Although American based comedies tend more than most to fall on the side of face-palm induced awfulness, with the likes of The House, CHiPs and the horror of Table 19 from this year alone proving such a genre is rife with utter, utter trash, last year's Bad Moms was a release of which I personally was pleasantly surprised by, a movie which although suffered from a dwindling lack of originality, featured enough charming characters and sharp one-liners to pass off as one of the better comedies to come from the US of A, particularly in the past few years or so. Whilst the success of the original by no means meant that a sequel was warranted, as per the norm of every single reasonably well received movie in Hollywood nowadays, here we are with A Bad Moms Christmas, a movie which takes the formula of its' predecessor and mixes in the saccharin filled notion of everyone's favourite holiday, a seasonal delight which either leads to cinematic classics such as It's A Wonderful Life or vomit-inducing crap such as Jack Frost. Eugh. Whilst it is no surprise that A Bad Moms Christmas is nowhere near the passable fun of its' predecessor, with the guilty pleasure appeal of the first movie somewhat absent a second time around, there is still enough smart gags and overripe new characters to allow the sequel to warrant its' existence. Sort of. 

With Christmas around the corner and the unexpected arrival of their respective parents on the cards, the leading trio of the original return once again to "take back Christmas" in a manner which begins by bearing huge similarities to its' predecessor with excess drinking, low-level criminality and drunk dancing with Santa, one which subsequently flows into a Meet the Parents type comedy which focuses on each of our leading ladies' troublesome mother figures. With Mila Kunis once again having enough charming eloquence to take control of the main bulk of the film and Kathryn Hahn's Carla always guaranteed to make the most cynical of audiences giggle in places, A Bad Moms Christmas undeniably belongs to the domineering presence of Christine Baranski as Ruth Mitchell, a maternal devil figure who is both bitchy and comedic in equal measure with Baranski's performance being one of the main reasons why the sequel does indeed work on some level. With the gross factor turned up however and the annoying overuse of obscenity rife from beginning to end, A Bad Moms Christmas is not exactly the sequel to carry on the successes of the first but for ninety odd minutes, it passes the time rather harmlessly. 

Overall Score: 5/10

Film Review: CHiPs

"Go Undercover Within The Department? That's Awesome...!"

Burdening themselves with the prospect of attempting to distinguish themselves from simply being yet another terrible excuse of a film which classifies itself as a comedy, CHiPs, written, directed and starring Dax Shephard, is based primarily upon the American television drama series of the same name which aired on NBC between the years of 1977 and 1983, and within a week in which Power Rangers has surprisingly succeeded in whinging a modern-day adaptation too, the penultimate week of March can only be classed as the week in which two of the most pointless and utterly undesired methods of entertainment have somehow had the 21st century treatment and had the nerve to grace the big-screen. All negative preconceptions aside, CHiPs, co-starring the undeniably likeable Michael Peña, whose back catalogue includes End of Watch and Ant-Man, as well as the most recent incarnation of Wilson Fisk from Netflix's Daredevil, Vincent D'Onofrio, CHiPs is indeed the type of movie in which you begin to wonder about the mindset of those who have played a part in creating it, with the main driving force in the form of Dax Shephard being primarily to blame in successfully creating one of the most vulgar, idiotic, mindless and utterly offensive movies in recent memory.

Featuring a supposed array of so-called jokes which offend everyone and everything from the professionalism of the police community to the LGBT community and the disabled, CHiPs is a textbook example of one man attempting to boost his egoistic capabilities by taking hold of a TV blueprint and throwing as much awfully constructed action and comedic set pieces at it as possible in order to overshadow how poor the movie actually is. Unfortunately for Shephard, the ridiculously unfunny narrative and sloppy direction only enhance the shoddiness of the overall finished picture, a picture which shares similar elements with the vile back catalogue of Adam Sandler in regards to how retrograde it comes across towards sex and the treatment of females in a "I can't believe they actually made this" kind of fashion. Whilst the response from fans of the original show has reportedly been less than positive, I would go as far to say that everyone who goes to see CHiPs will come out smiting the air in a retrospective feeling of contempt towards a film which is just so, so awful from start to finish. AVOID.

Overall Score: 2/10

Film Review: Bad Moms

"You're The Best Mother That We've Ever Seen, You Give Your Kids Salad...!

Let's face it; US comedy can sometimes be a drag. Not only is comedy itself one of the hardest genres to actually succeed in when it comes to the movies, it is also one of the easiest to get wrong. With Bad Moms however, it was one those rare cases in which although the trailer made it out to be another lazy, ill-judged mess of a movie, the final product was something rather solid, something that not only was continuously funny throughout, but also included a rare sense of warmth in its' attempt to address something trivial and commonplace in everyday life; motherhood. Where some may get upset by its' rather hideous portrayal of the father figure within the world of Bad Moms, personally, the shift from masculine-strung comedy to that of the female POV was a refreshing subject matter, harking back to the critical success of films such as Bridesmaids and others in recent years which have seen the rise of the female-led comedy in cinema today. Although it's fair to say that not every comedy has hit the mark in recent years, with The Boss being an example of when it goes completely wrong, Bad Moms is a solid example of when comedy is done right. 

Where the film ultimately succeeds is in its' true-to-life depiction of the overworked parent, with Mila Kunis' Amy being mother of unbearable struggles, with family life intertwining with school life intertwining with work life as well as the constant struggle to actually enjoy life rather than actually just managing to pull through reasonably unscathed. Where the movie loses touch is during scenes of recklessness, due in part to the two directors' affiliation with movies such as The Hangover, and although a film named Bad Moms has to include some sort of debauchery in some sense, the moral object of the film suggests that maybe being THAT bad isn't exactly the way to go. Although the film does sink into overbearing saccharin sweetness come the final act, Bad Moms manages to fight through the trivial acts of Hangover-esque plot-lines and sway into a comedic drama that says a lot about parenthood in the 21st century without ever feeling as if it's preachy or just plain dull. In a week where the creators of The Hangover franchise have pulled out both Bad Moms and War Dogs, maybe US comedy is back on the up and up? 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: The Boss

"Let's Watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre..."

Yes, we probably should have watched the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the original, not the remake, and a film which reminds me how thrilling and dramatic high quality cinema can become, something of which The Boss, directed by Ben Falcone and starring Melissa McCarthy, is most certainly not. However, in a week in which the human race has been subjugated to the horror show of Gods of Egypt, The Boss most certainly is a slight step up, however not the laugh-filled spectacular many would have thought when seeing McCarthy on the cast list, a comedic actress in which I can wholeheartedly state I am not the biggest fan of, with her latest cinematic venture being a reminder of what happens when comedy goes wrong, with The Boss being strapped full of face-palming plot points, dead-end jokes and one-liners that verge on the edge of profanity. At least one thing can be said for Gods of Egypt, it's funnier than The Boss, regardless of how unintentional that may be.

  

Focusing on the exploits of the greed-inflicted Michelle Darnell, who after being incarcerated and losing her entire income and empire sets to rebuild her wealth by exploiting the work of minors by selling brownies, The Boss expects you to empathise with a woman who not only becomes a white-collar criminal within the first five minutes of the movie, but a woman who believes using children as pawns in her tactic to regain her strength in the economic world is indeed the most important thing to do now she is free in the outside world. Feel empathetic yet? No, me neither, and this alone is a fundamental flaw in the films' genetic make-up. Add into the mix jokes that full flat on their face and a script so wayward it seems to have be written as a blind bet, The Boss is a comedic mess from beginning to end, a comedic mess which features the second awful Game of Thrones cameo in the space of a week with Peter Dinklage now having a pop at degrading his reputation. Oh well, at least Game of Thrones is on tomorrow. 

Overall Score: 3/10