Horns (5/10): A mishmash of genres

“Tell me! Tell me everything I need to know!”

Alexandre Aja has never lived up to his directorial debut, High Tension, but to give him credit he did manage to set the bar pretty high. I haven’t really enjoyed any of his horror films since then, but I have to admit Horns was quite a unique experience. It was nothing like his previous films, and despite being considered a horror film it isn’t really one. There aren’t any scary moments in Horns and there is actually quite a bit of humor. It is more of a dark comedy mixed with mystery as the lead character, played by Daniel Radcliffe, has to figure out who murdered his girlfriend while the entire town suspects he did it. Along the process he acquires a strange supernatural ability after waking up one night with horns on his head. These horns make the people around him confess their deepest and darkest desires to him. He can also manage to look at people’s past once he touches them. Using these abilities he sets out to find the killer, so you could say this is a superhero film as well. You could classify this film in so many genres because at times it felt like Aja didn’t know what kind of film he wanted to make. There were many tonal shifts and some of the genre changes felt forced. I was really into this film during the first hour because the premise hooked me and the story was interesting. I also found the weird sense of humor quite funny, but as the story progressed and some revelations were made my enjoyment faded rapidly. It just lost track of what it was trying to do and most of the genre switches felt displaced and misbalanced. The film also becomes tedious towards the end because it felt overlong at two hours. Perhaps the childhood flashbacks could have been eliminated to allow a better pacing because I didn’t feel they added much to the story. Horns had so much potential to be a better film but unfortunately it suffers from trying to balance several tones and loses its identity in the process.

Keith Bunin adapted the screenplay from Joe Hill’s book, which I haven’t read so I can’t say how faithful the adaptation is. What I can say is that Daniel Radcliffe gives a strong performance and his American accent is spot on. It is interesting to see the transformation his character goes through as he discovers the power these new horns give him. Radcliffe is proving to have a wide range as he has played some dark characters this past year trying to break away from his Harry Potter days. I wasn’t a fan of the supporting cast mostly because the dialogue in this film felt melodramatic and forced at times, but Juno Temple does give a solid performance. It was fresh to see her in this role as a sweet girl instead of the trashy trailer park character she has often played. We believe that this girl really is the object of affection of the townspeople.  The rest of the characters in this film are forgettable and no one really adds anything to the story. 

This modern day fable-like story has a nice visual style to it. The town where it is set is gorgeous and we are surrounded by this beautiful landscape which contrasts with the darkness of the story and the characters. Unfortunately Horns doesn’t just suffer from a mishmash of genres, but it also seems to have some inconsistencies with its premise. I can’t get in to details without spoiling the film but there was something about the revelation of the murderer that didn’t make sense to me. The other issue I had with Horns was that it never established some of the rules of what the horns could do. At times it seemed as if the people had to ask Radcliffe’s character for permission to perform their darkest desires, but at others they simply did them even when he was against them. So why would some people ask them if they didn’t need his permission in the first place? That was just a minor issue I had, but nothing that really took me out of the film. The first hour of Horns is really engaging and entertaining, but the final hour is a letdown.

My Review: The Internship (5/10)

"Can we talk about the on the line thing for a minute?"

Ok lets talk about this "on the line" thing. For a movie full of movie and cultural references one would think that these two characters in their 40's would know something about computers, Harry Potter and X-Men. It's not like these guys are in their 80's, they grew up around computers and should at least know that you don't say "on the line." I get it that this is a comedy and they used some of these situations to create funny moments, but at least they could've been a little less lazy and done something original. I really love Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn together, I think they play off each other really well. Wedding Crashers is one of my all time favorite comedies and I was really looking forward to seeing these guys work together again. But I wasn't expecting them to repeat basically the same formula they used before. It just felt way too similar without being nearly as funny, but I still have to admit that I enjoyed this at some level simply because I am a fan of these two comedians. The script was real lazy and dull, while the secondary characters weren't funny at all. Not even Will Ferrell's cameo worked here like it has done in so many other movies. The love story between Owen Wilson's character and Rose Byrne's was also one of the weakest I've seen in a comedy. And the villain played by Max Minghella was completely one dimensional. The Internship fails at every level as a comedy and only fans of Wilson and Vaughn will have an enjoyable time here. They made this film bearable for me despite the cliches and predictable cheesy ending. I would recommend you to watch Wedding Crashers for the hundredth time before seeing this film.

Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) have worked together as salesmen for most of their lives and they are pretty great at what they do, the only problem is that with the digital era at its peak their services are becoming obsolete. Their boss (John Goodman) decides to retire and move to Miami, so Billy and Nick find themselves unemployed in their mid 40's with no idea of what to do next. Billy comes up with the bright idea of trying to get a job at Google, but before they can do that they have to begin as interns and fight for a job opportunity along with hundreds of younger and talented college nerds. The manager in charge of the intern program, Mr. Chetty (Aasif Mandvi), decides to divide the interns into groups and have them compete against each other in several challenges. The winning group will be hired. Billy and Nick are teamed up with the outcasts Lyle (Josh Brener), Stuart (Dylan O'Brien), Neha (Tiya Sircar), and Yo-Yo Santos (Tobit Raphael) and against all odds they will have to compete against other tech-savvy geniuses: their biggest rivals being Graham's (Max Minghella) group.

I was surprised to see how formulaic this comedy was. It played out kind of in the same way that Monsters University did. It's as if this were the live versions of those animated characters. Shawn Levy has always had a sort of similar approach as a director in all his movies (Date Night, Night at the Museum, and Real Steel). The script was written by Vince Vaughn himself and you can tell how he took similar elements from some of his previous comedies. The entire film feels at times like a commercial for Google, and there are really a few laughs for a two hour comedy. There is some trouble with the overall pacing of the film which makes the story drag at times. The only good thing about The Internship is getting to see Vaughn and Wilson back together again being charming and interplaying with one another.

My Review: 10 Years (7/10)

¨Now the party can start!¨

The film is about a 10 year High School reunion, and I know that the formula seems repeated and overdone but this film felt fresh and original. The cast is great and they all share a good amount of screen time. This film manages to deal with all the separate stories and characters much better than other high budget films tried to (Valentine`s Day and New Year`s Eve). I was interested in the different relationships between these characters and was hooked from the beginning. I thought Channing Tatum would be the lead character and that the story would focus around him, but it actually doesn’t; everyone gets a decent amount of screen time. There is no side story here, all the stories are equally relevant and have sufficient time to find some sort of closure. 10 Years was written and directed by Jamie Linden and this was his first film as a director. He had written the screenplays for Dear John and We Are Marshall. Here he gets to work with Tatum once again, but my favorite performance from this movie came from Oscar Isaac, who I really liked in Drive. Drive was my favorite movie from 2011, and despite the fact that Ryan Gosling carried that movie; I thought Isaac was absolutely perfect in his role as well. The chemistry he shares here with Kate Mara is amazing, and the song he performs at the karaoke bar was one of the highlights of the movie. 10 Years is not a laugh out comedy, but it has it`s funny moments. I felt like it worked best as a sort of melancholic romantic drama. The actors were all perfectly casted in my opinion and they each delivered. 10 Years was a lovely and entertaining film.

As I mentioned before the story revolves around a 10 year High School reunion. The first couple that`s introduced in the story is Jake (Channing Tatum) and Jess (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) who have been dating over three years. Jess is going to accompany Jake to his High School reunion. Before going to the party they stop to meet up with Jake`s High School buddies Cully (Chris Pratt) and Sam (Ari Graynor) who are happily married with two kids. Then they also reunite with Marty (Justin Long) and AJ (Max Minghella), and with Scott (Scott Porter) and Suki (Eiko Nijo) who are visiting from Japan. The last one that meets up with them is Reeves (Oscar Isaac), the most successful person from his class who has become a rock celebrity. Together they arrive at the High school reunion and meet up with the rest of their classmates. Cully, who was the class bully, is trying to redeem himself from his past and is looking to make amends with all the nerds. Jake is surprised when he sees  his ex-High School sweetheart, Mary (Rosario Dawson) arrive with her hubby Paul (Ron Livingston). Apparently Jake and Mary were pretty much a perfect couple during their teenage years. And then there`s Elise (Kate Mara) who always played it low in High School, but who Reeves remembers all too well as the girl who got away. There are several other supporting characters who also contribute to the overall humor and heart of the film like Garrity (Brian Geraghty), the ¨whigger¨ and his wife Olivia (Aubrey Plaza) who had never heard of that side of Garrity.

There is no novelty or breakthrough in this film. The story has been told before and we`ve seen the characters in other movies. In a way 10 Years reminded me of an 80`s John Hughes movie. The film really worked thanks to some great performances from the cast and an emotionally gripping script. I was really hooked with some of the stories and the way in which these characters interacted with each other. Despite the ten years that had gone by, these characters still remained the same deep down inside and some needed closure. I loved Isaac`s character and his song. His story and the chemistry between him and Mara was pretty intense. Aubrey Plaza really didn’t get much screen time, but I saw her as a leading lady in Safety Not Guaranteed and there is no doubt she is really talented. Tatum got to act beside his wife once again after first meeting her on the set of Step Up. There was really a lot of chemistry between so many of these characters and they all seemed like real life friends. This is an interesting directorial debut from Jamie Linden and I hope more people get to see this good movie.

  

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