Review No.185: That's My Boy

Plot: In 1984, 13 year old Donny Burger has an affair with his teacher which results in her getting arrested and also later having a child. The affair makes Donny a minor celebrity however his relationship with his son, who he names Han Solo, deteriorates over the years and the pair loose contact. In the present day Donny owes loads of money in back taxes and he is advised that the only way to get a large amount of money is to reunite his son with the mother he hasn't seen for years. Donny's son is now calling himself Todd Peterson and is doing well as an accountant while he is about to be married to the beautiful Jamie even though she treats him badly. Donny turns up on the weekend of Todd's wedding, posing as his oldest friend, and soon becomes his Best Man even though Todd realises that with his father around things will get out of control. Inevitably the pair bond over the weekend however with the reunion special looming will Donny tell Todd why he's really there or will he forgo getting the money in order to repair the relationship with his son.

Positives: There are two great cameos in the film with James Caan playing an incredibly violent Irish priest and Susan Sarandon as the older version of Todd's mother. I have to say I also found Vanilla Ice, who is now Donny's best friend, particularly amusing despite the fact he really can't act.

Negatives: This film is just distasteful from beginning to end starting as it does with statutory rape and ending with a couple of incest 'gags' David Caspe's script is truly terrible. Talking of truly terrible Adam Sandler once again portrays an over-the-top comic character by 'doing a voice' and hoping that will be enough to make him funny which it really isn't. I feel that Sandler, certainly when he plays these comedy roles, has now lost the humour he once had in Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer so should probably stick to more straight roles such as the one he played in Funny People. Sandler seemingly drags everyone down to his level namely Andy Samberg who as Todd has to play the straight man who is a complete wimp and another character that I failed to care for. Considering this is a comedy film there are very few actual laughs and this was probably the main problem with the film.

Verdict: Unfunny, distasteful with some really bad central performance I would recommend everyone steer clear of That's My Boy however I will at least award Caan and Sarandon for trying to raise the bar and give this 2/10

Review No.83: The Divide

So as well as the previous film Edge my next film The Divide came at the same time courtesy of LoveFilm and while I had a small smattering of knowledge of what I was getting into with Carol Morley's film I didn't however with this film. The Divide starts incredibly strong as we see nuclear explosions tear up New York City a group of tenants in a tower block rush to the basement where their janitor has a bunker. As well as the janitor, played by Terminator/Aliens alumni Michael Biehn, there are a pair of lovers, three brothers, an older gentleman and a mother and child all of whom have to survive together. The premise of the film then essentially is how long does it take before civilisation breaks down and everybody turns on everyone else? The answer is surprisingly not that long as almost immediately Milo Vetimiglia's Josh starts shouting at everyone while it becomes clear that Biehn's Mickey is hiding stuff from his fellow survivors. Though attempts at an escape are made it becomes clear that a group of men with Hasmat suits are carrying out some sort of experiment which means they have to kidnap the little girl. After being sealed in by these men things just break down as the majority of the characters become little more than animals as there is rape, torture and someone being set on fire before one of them finally escapes.

The opening few shots of The Divide promise so much as director Xavier Gens has obviously spent a lot of time thinking how he would like to destroy New York however is skill for designing these sort of shots is wasted in a film that is confined to a single setting that features characters who are mainly unlikeable. The cast aren't best-served by their characters however Lauren German does her best with plucky Eva while Rosanna Arquette's  Marilyn's dissension into madness is portrayed fairly well and Biehn is able to do creepy fairly well but that's about it. The major problem is that we don't spend a lot of the time getting to know these characters before they completely breakdown this is especially true of Courtney B Vance's Delvin of whom we learn little off at all. In fact I found a lot of the second half of this film hard to watch as the brothers take in turns raping Marilyn and tearing off Mickey's fingers. By the time the end finally came I was glad however I wished that these characters hadn't made it down to the basement in the first place as surely there were some nicer people who lived in their apartment block. Maybe that wouldn't have made for as much of a provocative film as this one is but I maybe would've cared a bit more when they started to die. With brief hints to the sort of film Gens wanted to make at the end of the day this was vulgar, unlikeable stuff for the most part and how it made it to the cinema is a mystery in itself.

Verdict: Though it has a good start increasingly vulgar material coupled with unlikeable characters means this one only gets a 2/10