Chris Evans is Frank Adler, who is the guardian of his niece Mary (McKenna Grace) a seven year old with a special ability for solving complex mathematical equations despite her tender age. When Frank decides that home schooling can offer her nothing else he to sends Mary to regular public school classes where she is, understandably, bored by the seeming basic tuition. When her teacher Bonnie Stevenson (Jenny Slate) realises just what a talent she has, Mary is offered a scholarship to a private school for gifted children. Having seen what this kind of education done to his sister he turns the offer down but her estranged grandmother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) emerges from the shadows to ensure that Mary gets the education she believes she should have. This begins a battle over the custody of Mary and the ethical question emerges as to whether Mary should be allowed to live the life of a normal kid with her uncle, who undoubtedly loves her as if she were his daughter, or should her talent be honed and nurtured to ensure she fulfils the full scope of her abilities.

 

 

While this may all sound a little melodramatic the refreshing take this movie has is that it doesn’t ever really answer the question it poses, instead it focuses on the characters who are causing the question to be posed. Grace plays Mary with the cuteness of Jonathan Lipniki in Jerry Maguire, she is never anything other than a seven year old child, with natural curiosity and mood swings as any child of her age. She knows that she is different but her ability is just something that she can do and her bond with Frank is her whole world. Evans is excellent as Frank, a relatively carefree spirit, happy to earn a few quid repairing boats. Devoted to looking after his niece but torn by the developing decision he has to make as he realises that treating Mary as a normal child may not be the best thing for her education but he is fearful of sending her down the same path as her mother, so he tries to protect her but deep down knows that he’s inevitably going to fail. It’s nice to see him away from the Captain America suit and he get to show his dramatic range with his bonds with Mary and her kind hearted teacher Bonnie both having an air of gravitas adding to the reality of the situation.

 

 

Duncan plays the grandmother with an almost pantomime essence and although the story set her out as the villain what she is trying to achieve for Mary is not the wrong thing to do either, which adds an interesting twist. She is fearful that Mary’s talents will go to waste and wants nothing more than to see her grand daughter carry on the work that her daughter has completed, keeping the academic tradition of the family going.

What could have turned into a Hallmark movie is kept from doing so by some good direction by Mark Webb who uses his experience from 500 Days Of Summer and The Spider-Man reboot, to ensure the serious is sporadically filled with moments of levity either in the script or on screen activities which stops the drama becoming too heavy.

 

 

For a smaller budget movie this is one of the more enjoyable films I have seen in the past few weeks and, although the subject matter may not be something that captures your attention this is will worth checking out and it would be a shame if you missed this one with some of the poor efforts which have graced our present in recent times.

DJ Speaks Movies Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

© Darren Jones 2017

Continuing the never ending Marvel juggernaut that seems to be able to keep churning out tales yet still keep the ideas from becoming routine, the Guardians are back and despite all bringing out the best in each other when it comes to the crunch, they are the exact same bickering bunch we left behind in 2014.

This time we find our heroes on a mission for a race of people called The Sovereign, who look a bit like they came out of a 70’s Doctor Who episode, but being the mischief makers that they are they inevitably manage to get themselves into hot water, end up fleeing for their lives and have to go on the run.

 

 

While the original movie was a story of how fate threw the group together and forced them to work as a team in order to survive, this time you get the sense that they have undertaken numerous missions since, so while still giving us adventure elements, this is much more of a character piece with less focus on the humour and action, instead giving us a deeper look into each of the individuals, revealing details which lead them to become the characters that they are which gives the movie a much slower pace but more depth than you may expect.

It’s very much a tale of dual bonding, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) finds himself dealing with finally finding out who his father is, why he was left alone with his mother and discovering just what he is capable of as a person, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) has to deal with her estranged sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) who’s constant attempts to prove herself the better sibling drift from the sly to the downright psychotic, Drax (Dave Bautista) is trying to deal with the loss of his family and finds solace through his interactions with Mantis (Pom Klementieff), a new character that the team meets, while Rocket (Bradley Cooper) is having to cope without his good friend Groot (Vin Diesel), who is still in his baby form, and finds a kindred spirit from an unlikely source. These themes make the film much more routed in the ideals of family and togetherness which in turn bonds the group to deeper levels than we have seem previously.

 

It is the Guardians Of The Galaxy though so you still get the expected space battles and witty dialogue. The CGI effects are excellent, never take you out of the moment and after the brilliant levels seen in Doctor Strange have set the bar very highly for future movies. Throw in some great pop culture references, a good soundtrack (not as good as the first though) and plenty of action sequences and it sounds like a winner but something was lacking and I think it was the fun and originality that the first movie gave us.

Kurt Russell, as always, played his part as Ego very well and really brought the idea of what the character is onto the screen when, in the hands of a lesser actor it could have been a disaster. The character of Baby Groot, while it could have very easily slid into becoming a cliché, worked well with some funny moments. Drax was arguable the most comic character of all getting some great lines, particularly playing off the innocence of the Mantis character, which were all delivered superbly by Bautista but it was a little disappointing that this warrior didn’t see an awful lot of hands on action. Pratt done what he needed to and his chemistry with Russell was good but the quick witted sarcasm which made the character was too sparingly used while the Nebula & Gamora moments gave a good insight into why their relationship is where it is and gave both characters some much needed depth.

The biggest surprise for me was the performance of Michael Rooker as Yondu, the side plot with The Ravagers, which ties nicely into the overall tale, gave him some moments to really shine and his was the best character arc of all with Rooker playing it all brilliantly. But it brings me back to an earlier point, with so much exposition and plot build all through the movie, this seemed like more of a character development piece for both the heroes and villains and it felt a bit like a stepping stone for the MCU leading towards Infinity Wars.

 

Let’s not forget that this is a Marvel movie after all so despite the flaws there is no doubt that this will find box office success, but maybe not to the levels of the original. Director James Gunn deserves credit for changing things up for the sequel and doesn’t just churn out a blueprint copy which would have been easy to do. The story has much more of a pull on the heart strings than I expected, with some great emotionally charged moments, so while it wasn’t a good as I expected and left a lot of elements which were featured in the first movie untouched, it’s still an enjoyable film, which will keep you amused and entertained in equal measure.

Don’t forget to stick around for the post credit scenes (all five of them) which hint at a lot of potential characters that are going to appearing in future and one scene, if you know your super hero tales, which may just explain what all these Stan Lee cameos have been leading up to.

I will end with one last statement, “I’m Mary Poppins Y’all” (You’ll understand when you see the film)

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

©Darren Jones 2017

Director Peter Berg brings us the tale of the 2010 events upon the Deepwater Horizon, a semi submersible offshore drilling unit, which resulted in the worst environmental disaster in the United States and during which eleven people lost their life.

Essentially told in two parts we start by meeting the main players, finding out a bit about said people and their lives outside of work. Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) is a general handyman and fixer on the rig, whom we see with his wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and daughter and he comes across an everyday down to earth family man, Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez) who drives the rig and shows some chops by giving as good as she gets in the male dominated scenario and the experienced manager of the rig Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) who runs the ship but is liked and respected by his crew. There are also a number of BP employees on board who are worried that the project is falling behind schedule and money is being lost, central to this is Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) who is at loggerheads with Harrell over the slow progress but all in all the picture is painted of just another regular day and unremarkable shift change.

The second part switches to the drilling unit and is all about the occurrence and aftermath of the incident. We find out that there are a number of parts and items which are not working correctly and that the pressure is on all parties as the project is running at a big loss so the BP personnel are keen to push on with the drilling and are taking short cuts around testing regimes while Harrell and his team are unsure that the drilling can continue safely and are reluctant to continue until the proper tests are run. The build up is very well done slowly peeling back the chain of events which, when coupled together lead to a drill test falsely showing results which would indicate that it is safe to proceed but unknown to the people aboard the chain reaction which leads to the blow out has already kicked in, the fuse on the ticking time bomb is lit and a disaster is imminent.

The Berg & Wahlberg partnership, which we seen in Lone Survivor, once again works well and Berg gets the best out of Wahlberg who once again shows us that there is more to his acting than his comedic timing and that, when he is on form he can take centre stage. It is great to have Russell back close to his best and what he does here he does with ease yet the performance still has the gravitas it requires. When you add in Malkovich who gives a great sleazy performance as the BP executive who is all about the monetary return for the company there is a good acting base to work off and the verbal exchange scenes between Malkovich and Russell are excellent.

Unfortunately despite all the early work I still felt very little empathy with the characters. Yes, there were heroes, signs of great camaraderie between these workers who spend weeks together in the middle of the ocean, tales of self-sacrifice and lives being put in danger to help others but rather than feeling like real people I still felt that I was watching actors in a movie and despite the terrible situation that was occurring I never got to really caring about the fate of the characters in a way that a disaster movie really should suck you into doing.

On the up side, while the movie could have become bogged down with technical details I always felt that I understood what was going on with the machinery and why the disaster occurred, so credit must be given for the moments of exposition which gave us an inside to how the drilling worked, particularly the use of Walhbergs daughters school assignment utilising a fizzy drink to show the pressure that drilling occurs under and once it kicks off it is one of the most spectacular disaster sequences I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure how much of the filming was done through CGI but the explosions and fires felt very real and there were very few occasions where I was taken out of the moment. Each creak could be the one which finally brings the structure tumbling into the sea which adds a great tension to the situation. Both the sound editing and technical camera was excellent with some very good underwater scenes around the structure base and the inside of the mechanical parts of the drill giving some insight into the unseen workings of the set up.

The last few moments film back on shore, dealing with the aftermath of the situation also falls a little flat after the intensity of the rigs demise so while not the greatest film you will see this year it’s worth checking out for the great portrayal of the disaster itself, think Backdraft meets The Towering Inferno for the modern age.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

© Darren Jones 2016

The third installment in the Bridget Jones saga sees her reaching her 43rd birthday, still single but with her new career as a TV producer going well she is a lot more upbeat than usual until a ‘Happy Birthday’ call from her mother reminds her that the opportunity for having a family is running out which gets the cogs in her brain turning towards parenthood even if there is still a glaring gap in the form of a man to fill out the biological requirements. Two chance encounters soon sort that out however as she attends a music festival, gets very drunk and ends up sleeping with an American stranger (Patrick Dempsey) and shortly afterwards she attends a Christening where she is the Godmother and old flame Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) is Godfather which throws them back together and when she finds out that the now married Mark is soon to be divorced they too end up sleeping together. Inevitably she soon finds out she is pregnant but is unsure which of the two men is the father and when the American stranger turns out to be Jack Qwant, a self made millionaire through his successful invention of a popular dating site who ends up on the TV programme she produces her quandary is complete.

I wasn’t a massive fan of either if the first two although, if the box office figures are any indication, they seem to be very popular and I’m sure this one will be no different even if it is a similar plot. Bridget ends up in varying hilarious situations while she needs to choose between one of two men both of whom fall for her quirky character and vie for her attention. Forgetting the ironic twist of him appearing in the first two movies, I always found that this character was the female equivalent of the characters Hugh Grant made his fame playing. Socially awkward, fopping around saying ‘Bugger’ a lot.

This time Bridget needs to pick between the dynamic handsome American millionaire Jack and the ever so British, handsome gentleman lawyer in Mark. Both of whom are eager to play the parent role and are unaware of the potential fact that they may not even be the father or the child as Bridget tries to keep her situation a secret. Zellweger has done a great job in making this character her own over the years and does not disappoint in her third outing and despite the fact that she has shied away from taking new roles over the last five years or so there is no obvious loss to her talents. She also has able assistance this time from her friend and news anchor Miranda (Sarah Solemani) who is a very bad influence, but in a good way and gives some very funny comic relief moments.

There is also a small but memorable performance by Emma Thompson as Dr.Rawlings who shows she has lost none of her comic talent or timing through the years and both Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent are back as Bridget mother and father to add some more comedy especially as her mother is running in a local election with her main ethos being on family values all of which add to the comedic tone of the tale.

Unfortunately the movie runs out of steam a bit towards the final third with the predictably farcical, water breaking, dash for the hospital, epidural and labor pain jokes we have seen before. But in that lies the key, there is nothing new within the film but it feels like wearing comfortable clothes, there may be nothing fancy going on but there’s no call for it either so it’s like two hours spent in a happy zone where you know what is happening, what is likely to happen but you are more than happy to be there and tag along for the ride. So despite the slushy ending and formulaic plot you still find yourself entertained.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

James Donohue (James Allen McCune) is the brother of the character of Heather from the original Blair Witch movie and he is sent a clip in which he believes he can see his sister in a house in the woods which nobody else has been able to locate since the disappearance of the original group, despite many searches. So he gathers his friends  Ashley (Corbin Reid), Peter (Brandon Scott) and Lisa (Callie Hernandez), kits them out with the latest array of GPS gear, Go-Pro cameras and a drone, and they head to Burkittsville to meet the person who sent the clip as they have agreed to show them the location where they found the tape with the footage.

When they meet their contact it turns out to be two aspiring Internet celebrities Lane (Wes Robinson) & Talia (Valorie Curry) who will only take the group into the woods if they can tag along as they also want to film their own investigation into the mystery. In his desperation to get some answers about his sisters disappearance James pushes the group into reluctantly agreeing so the hike begins with a group of six heading back to the location of the original movie.

All seems fine and they reach the area where Lane located the tape but during the night the group are disturbed by loud crashing noises and when strange symbol appear at their camp site they begin to realise that the legend may be very real so they decide that it is in their best interests to back out of the search but this is only the start of their troubles and their real ordeal begins when they realise that they cannot seem to find their way out even with all their modern equipment and have to spend a second night in the woods despite their reluctance.

Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett collaborated on both You’re Next and The Guest, two very good if a little underrated movies so the signs were promising to see them both working together on this movie and in one sense they have continued their good record as they have managed to take a tiring found footage genre and injected some modernisation into the film with the upgraded technology, in particular the introduction of a drone, adding something new. They also have tried to give some explanation to the legend and just how the witch and the forest trap people all of which was a positive.

One major problem was the international use of poor sound, especially in the early parts of the film. I realise that it is trying to portray an amateurish feel to the recording but it got on my nerves very quickly. Putting aside that the other major issue I had was that a lot of the film felt very like an updated remake of the original with lots of quick cuts between cameras, plenty of shouting, running, unseen noises, more running, screaming and it even goes so far as to have a very similar ‘I’m so sorry’ scene. They also took a concept used effectively in The Ruins but it had no real impact on the flow of the film so it seemed to be added for shock value only which felt a little cheap. While I appreciate that the story is quite bounded it wasn’t really until the last third that the movie shifted into something approaching originality.

Overall it felt a little like a missed opportunity as the drone was a good idea but very underused, the jump scares were generally cheap and the ‘twist’, once revealed, could have been used far more effectively so with a little more originality this could have been an excellent film. Given the original intrigue and uncertainty surrounding the events of the film which added brilliantly to the effect the movie had on it’s audience this film started with the ground work already done but I think that actually worked against the film in this instance.

After the recent resurgence of sorts in the horror genre for me this was a side step rather than another potential push onward but if you liked the original then you will most likely enjoy this one as well and if you are a fan of the genre there is enough to keep you entertained.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

In case you have been living under a rock and are not aware of what this movie is about, Sausage Party, is the tale of a group of food items living in a grocery store who are all waiting to be chosen by humans, whom they see as Gods, as when they are chosen they perceive that they are taken to food heaven but while this may be a cartoon it is not one for your kids.

It look as good as anything Pixar will release, and there are plenty of visual references within to Pixar movies, the content is anything but similar. From racism, Nazism to sexism, if there is an –ism then they most likely touch upon it in this movie but given that the main theme of the film is that Frank, a sausage (Seth Rogan) is waiting to get out of the grocery store so that he can hook up with his girlfriend Brenda, a hot dog bun that looks remarkably like a vagina (Kirsten Wiig) and constantly makes sexual references about how he wants to get into her then there is no surprise that the tone of the movie is of the adult variety. So when a jar of Honey Mustard (Danny McBride) gets returned to the store he brings back a very different tale than the heavenly experience they expect and Frank decides to try and find out the truth behind these rumours. So he sets out on an adventure across the store to locate Firewater (Bill Hader) a native American bottle of liquor who can show him the truth but hot on his trail is Douche (Nick Kroll) a feminine hygiene product who wants revenge, after Frank stopped him getting picked by the humans and will stop at nothing in order to get his hands (or nozzle) on the sausage.

As bizarre as it sounds this is a funny movie, especially if you like your movies in the style of Ted or Pineapple Express but behind the adult comedy there is a lot of hidden satire and clever humour which may be missed and there is a brilliantly genius parody of the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan all involving food. However on the downside the movie suffers from a lack of consistency as the novelty of the talking food humour does wear off after a while and there were times when the gags felt a bit cheap so while there were moments that I was laughing uncontrollably there were plenty of so-so moments as well and there is a scene towards the end which is just so out there and bizarre that you cannot help but laugh.

While it wasn’t as funny as I thought it was going to be it may have opened up a new avenue of adult humour in movies and it certainly gets credit for originality. Give it a shot as you may be pleasantly surprised.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 out Of 10

Maura Ellis (Amy Poehler) is a recently divorced nurse who’s always been on the straight and narrow with life and is eager to help others while her sister Kate (Tina Fey) is disorganised, living in her friends house and trying to keep in touch with her teenage daughter Haley (Madison Davenport) who is doing her best to keep one step ahead of her. When their parents Deana (Dianne Wiest) and Bucky (James Brolin) advise Maura that they are selling the family home they leave it to Maura to break the news to Kate as they know what the reaction is going to be. When Maura collects Kate from the airport and feeds her the information about the situation she is not pleased to say the least but when the sisters actually arrive at the house and they find that it is has already been sold and are devastated, furthermore their parents tell them that they need to have all their stuff out by the weekend so Kate convinces Maura to have one final blow out party in the house.

If it doesn’t sound like there a lot to this movie then you would be correct, it’s a very basic plot but as usual where the movie comes into it’s own is with how Poehler and Fey can bring humour to any situation but, what may surprise you is the emotional acting which both bring as the sisters recount their memories of bygone times, fight and argue as family always do but also act as a crutch for the other to stand on when things get hard.

Although it quite reminiscent of movies such as Bad Neighbours which base themselves around a central party event and (before Bad Neighbours 2 done it) give it a female twist while the party preparation threw me straight back into the similar themed movies of 1980’s without ever going full cheesy and the scenes where the sisters are trying on different outfits while getting ready was possibly the funniest of the film.

There are some very good supporting roles from John Cena as Pazuzu the local drug dealer and Maya Rudolph as Brinda as the former friend who keeps showing up and causing problems, while both Weist and Brolin have some great moments as the exasperated parents.

While it’s a little too by the numbers and a case of having seen all it before to be a really good movie, if you liked the previous outings from the duo, then you won’t be disappointed with their performances here and there are enough comic moments to make it worth checking out.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 out Of 10

Emma Roberts is Venus Delmonico, known as Vee to her friends who seem to be an everyday (if a little old looking) high school senior who’s talent for photography has earned her a place in a Californian college but who’s mother Nancy (Juliette Lewis) expects Vee to attend a local college near her Staten Island home as she does not want to be left alone since the death of Vee’s brother and this sets up the character very well. A nice girl but a bit of a wall flower who allows others to control her life, none more so that her outgoing, center of attention friend, Sydney (Emily Meade).

Sydney is currently engaged in an online game called Nerve where she is a Player and must act out dares as dictated by the people viewing the game, called Watchers. After one such dare Sydney begins to tease Vee about how she needs to let go a little and take a chance in life. When this leads to an incident where Sydney embarrasses her in front of a guy that she is attracted to Vee takes off and in a moment of rebellion decides to become a Player where her first dare is to kiss a stranger which co-incidentally leads her into the path of Ian (Dave Franco) who turns out to be a fellow player and so the Watchers turn them into a partnership as they are given dares which require them to work together to succeed.

As Vee becomes deeper and deeper involved she loses her shackles and begins to embrace the limelight however the dares get closer to the point where they become life threatening and when one particular dare almost causes the death of one of her friends she decides to pull the plug and report the game to the authorities, an act which brands her a snitch and thus puts her completed at the mercy of the game organisers. So with the help of her friends she must try and escape from the clutches of the unseen coordinators of Nerve.

As a concept the movie works very well, it hits the points of the all seeing, data heavy, social media world we live in where all information is, supposedly, accessible to anybody with the sufficient skills and equipment. The element of peer pressure worked well and the concept of instantaneous Internet celebrity stardom worked to bring a sense of reality to the situation. The chemistry between Roberts and Franco is good and the dares themselves are interesting and, while the motivation may have seemed a little far fetched to me, given the content on the Internet it never gets to a stage where it becomes implausible to believe anybody would go so far so when the dares are taking place there is a nice element of tension.

There were a couple of points which didn’t work for me, the nerdy friend Tommy (Miles Heizer) who is obviously in love with Vee and follows her everywhere but as usual she is oblivious to the fact that he doesn’t just want to be her friend felt a little tacked on just to serve a purpose. Nothing to do with the acting, but it was the one character in the movie who felt like and outsider trying desperately to fit in. Juliet Lewis as the mother was a waste of talent, with the exception of the opening scenes where she is shown as a smothering character which helps to build Vee’s submissive character she really doesn’t contribute a lot to the movie. One thread that wasn’t touched upon was the fact that Vee is portrayed as this person who never takes acts on impulse or takes control of situations but in order to rectify this she signs up for a game where she is dictated to by anonymous people. For me it was a nice little plot point but it was never mentioned. However, the main issue I had with the movie is that it is a little predictable, I spotted the twists coming and then ending felt like a bit of a cop out so while it did not ruin the movie it took some of the suspense out of the situation.

There have seem some comparisons between this movie and the book Daemon by Daniel Suarez (a great read by the way) in the way a program seems to be operating autonomously but I personally didn’t see the comparison as for me the game never felt self controlling and always had a big brother is watching feel especially since the Watchers often had a hands on participation in the dares but overall it was an enjoyable film and I never found myself disengaged while watching which is more than I can say for a few of the more recent, supposed big budget movies, and that in itself says a lot.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out of 10

Set one year after the events of the Finding Nemo movie Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) is now an every day part of Nemo’s life but is beginning to get flashbacks to previous events one of which reveals some early moments in her life during which she remembers her family and her home at the Jewel of Morrow Bay and she decides that she needs to try and track them days but as always she is hampered by her short term memory loss so Nemo (Hayden Rolence) and his father Marlin (Albert Brooks) feel obliged to help her in her adventure. During their trip Dory is captured and brought to a Marine Life institute, Marlin and Nemo need to try and arrange a rescue, but Dory is not alone and joins forces with an octopus named Hank (Ed O’Neill) who has an escape planned.

I had questioned whether Dory had enough of a story to front a whole movie but Pixar have produced a very clever twist of making a prequel/sequel in one film where the film jumps back in time as Dory’s memories are unlocked by various events and we learn more about her history and why she ended up where she is while still progressing the movie in the present, adding new characters and developing the ones we already know. It’s yet another master stroke and they have opened up another set of characters for many potential future films. As with the original movie, and all Pixar films, the animation is top quality and all aspects of the underwater world look fabulous. Ellen DeGeneres does a great job as the title character and both Brooks and Rolence pick up on where the story left off. The addition of Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton as Charlie and Jenny, Dory’s parents, gives a great depth to that character but for me the movie was stolen by Ed O’Neill as Hank who’s was perfect as the desperate loner who, despite his initial misgivings about her, finds both an unlikely ally and friend in Dory by the end of the movie.

Is it as good as the first film? I didn’t think so but then again it’s a little unfair to call it a sequel. It’s more of a new movie in the Finding Nemo universe. There was a little less of the subtle adult humour which Finding Nemo had so despite there being some funny moments and good dialogue once the tale moved out of the underwater depths and into the institute the plot was very stretched and went from an adventure to cartoonish quite quickly so it is really targeted at a younger audience. With the voice over talent on show and Pixar at the helm you know it’s going to be entertaining and the kids will love it however it lacks a bit of the magic of the first film and felt a bit, been there, done that, seen it before at times.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is a very large, physically imposing coloured youth growing up in Tennessee in foster care since he was taken from his drug addicted mother Denise (Adriane Lenox). Purely on the basis that he believes that it will assist the schools American Football team coach Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon) convinces the board to accept Michael as a student but they soon find out that Michael is not academic and he struggles to fit in. One evening when driving home Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), who knows Michael through the fact that her children Collins (Lily Collins) and S.J (Jae Head) attend the same school, sees Michael walking in the rain and, believing he is living rough, invites him to stay the night in their home. During his brief stay Leigh Anne and her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) sees something in Michael and gradually begin to warm to the young man as they find out a little more about what is hidden behind the imposing exterior. In time Leigh Anne begins to become a surrogate mother of sorts and Michael becomes more and more like a family member as time passes, must to the shock of Leigh Annes friends, local authorities and members of the school board. But Leigh Anne is a feisty Southern lady and gives as good as she gets shaming all and sundry into believing that she is doing this for any reason other than to help a kid in need of some stability and care.

While the movie has all the elements of a feel good story with an unlikely friendship developing into something of an inspirational story of success against the odds, perhaps it’s just my sceptical mind working but something just felt off about the tale. For example, Bullock has her perfect family, who don’t seem to have any flaws, arguments or imperfections yet (aside from even opening the racial issue door) they take this stranger that they don’t know, into their home at the drop of a hat, with young kids in the house. A questionable action at best. Or, at one point Bullock takes Michael back to see his mother in a ‘ghetto’ and stands up to the local gang members without any major incident. Very unlikely. Plus, the whole situation just didn’t seem to fit with where the family sat within the community. I know this is just based on events but if you are making a ‘true life’ tale then any element of improbability takes away from the realism.

Also, is this actually the tale of Michael Oher and his rags to riches story of finding success from humble beginnings? I believe that is what the tale is supposed to be but this felt more like the Leigh Anne Tuohy story of how she managed to put social and racial prejudice aside and help a coloured kid from the ghetto achieve a goal in his life which, without her assistance, would have been doomed for failure. Maybe that is down to the excellent performance from Bullock, although not Oscar worthy in my opinion, which is head and shoulders above any other in the film and she commands the screen when she appears (which is almost every scene) and, with no disrespect meant to any of the other cast members, she is the only A-lister in the movie so I would expect her to stand out. Aaron doesn’t have a lot to do even though he is supposed to be the main focus of the movie but what he has to do he does well and comes across as the big, lovable, teddy bear he is being depicted as, with seeming ease. McGraw subtly plays Leigh Annes husband who seems like a quiet, hen pecked man but when needed can still rein her in when required and both Head, who sees Oher as a larger, bigger brother and Collins who shows a good range as the family member most uneasy about the situation as she struggles with the jibes from her friends and some sexual insinuation from others about their new tenant.

To give the film credit it is still very enjoyable and although I may not believe it is deserving of the same high praise it has received, if you can suspend some of the questionable moments it is a nice account of the impact, change and development the situation had both for Oher and for the Tuohy family.

DJ Speaks: 5.5 out Of 10