Reel Review Roundup

Runner Runner (M)

Directed by: Brad Furman

Starring: Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck, Gemma Arterton

One and a half stars

Review by: Julian Wright

Perhaps Justin Timberlake is only good in small doses on the big screen. The singer making his way in films has made so few remarkable choices, particularly with his lead roles, that his impressive turn as the slimy but super slick entrepreneur in The Social Network is beginning to look like a fluke. His appearance in the disastrous In Time certainly didn’t do him any favours. Taking on the wide-eyed, naïve hero in Runner Runner also ensures that his film career idles just the little bit longer.

When he tries and fails to multiply his $17,000 in savings to pay off his Princeton University fees, online gambling whizz kid Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) loses everything. Being the brainiac that he is, the struggling student begins to investigate and uncovers a glitch in the website, indicating that those who run it are cheating the players and taking off with their money. Richie hops on the next plane to Costa Rico (his monetary source for flights and accommodation is a minor detail conveniently overlooked) to track down website owner and millionaire Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Richie’s honesty gets him a job with the shady business owner, but the new favourite employee discovers he has entered a dangerous world that he may not be able to escape from. But his occasional trysts with his sultry colleague Rebecca Shafran (Gemma Arterton) tends to soften the sting.

Surprisingly short but incredibly dull, Runner Runner fails to make us interested in the phenomenon of online gambling, the shifty goings on that it has spawned or these characters that are caught up in the intrigue, making this 90 minutes feel like a much less exciting Lord of the Rings marathon. From the obvious, underwritten characters to the Scooby Doo reveal at the end, this is a lacklustre script constructed with little care. So flat is the material that it’s not even laughably bad enough to be mildly entertaining. This toothless thriller can’t even get the blood pressure up with the presence of a few hungry crocodiles.

The actors don’t appear to be trying, not that they have much material to work with – Timberlake trying once again to carry a film on his shoulders has little screen charisma, Arterton is required to do little more than act sexy and Affleck occasionally shouts. Their uninspired performances are merely a reflection of the script.

One Directon: This Is Us (G)

Directed by: Morgan Spurlock

Starring: Niall Horan, Zayn Malick, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson

Three and a half stars

Review by: Julian Wright

A documentary that follows the One Direction boys – Niall, Zayn, Liam, Louis and Harry – around the world on their first big tour was never going to offer any real insight. While in the prime of their popularity, these UK lads are not getting up to any kind of trouble that would make for controversial material. There is no pot smoking, promiscuous sex or hotel room trashing. Not only is there no room in their hectic schedule, but they are just not that kind of pop star. Also, the record label would not want to alienate the young girls downloading the albums. This is all pretty safe stuff.

The story of five young lads in their early 20s performing to thousands upon thousand of screaming and crying teenage girls touches on all the painfully obvious points – crazed fans, crowd control, huge productions, touring, performing, getting up to mischief etc. The surprising thing about this gruelling whirlwind tour that we may not have thought about is the effect it has on their parents. This makes for some of the most interesting and moving revelations. While it does not dwell on sentimentality or woe-is-me sookery, the parents of these boys who one minute auditioned for a realty TV show, then the next minute ripped from their roots and families for a 10 month world tour, are the forgotten ones. The ones who lost their children to the world and to their adoring fans. And in exploring that heartbreaking reality, this tween aimed doco sets itself aside from the recent 3D cash ins from Miley Cyrus to Katie Perry and Justin Bieber in between.

The small town kids caught up in flashing lights angle is played out to effect as the doco charts the band’s on-a-whim creation Cowell and The Beatles-like mania. Setting the stage is important for us clueless folk who wouldn’t be able to pick one One Directioner from another in a line-up. Much is made of the serendipitous nature of how the group came together – a last-minute thought from producer Simon Cowell to bring the boys back and jam them together as a boy-band after they separately auditioned for and were eventually rejected from the 2010 season of X-Factor. Only for them to ultimately lose the competition.

But while the boys lap up the attention and ride the wave of instant success, the situation takes its toll on their parents who sit back at home missing their kids. There is an unexpected amount of loss that none of them could have prepared for. As one mother says “I am supposed to be the one taking my son to these cities” and one father says “I’m from a small town, I don’t have any advice to give him anymore.” Another even resorts to buying a promotional cardboard cut-out of her son just so she can see him. Unexpectedly candid – these are parents who are missing out on vital time with their children for a commercial endeavour.

These heartbreaking revelations are desperately needed, seeing as this doco is so uninterested in showing us any negative impacts on the band members themselves, always showing them as fresh as daisies, even at their 53rd of 130 concerts. Or as they hoon around the arenas on golf carts in their downtime. In fact, it is this type of behaviour that shows an immature side to these boys that implies that maybe they do not realise the weight of the situation. Sure, they are young fellows just having fun, but no one around them tells them to pull their head in and remember that they are working. Not even their choreographer, whose moves they make fun of. Or the photographer whose time they waste with silly, unusable poses. Fun, down to earth larrikins, sure, but there is often a line that is crossed that lands them on the unprofessional side.

Perhaps a step back for documentarian Morgan Spurlock who famously put his health on the line for his breakout hit Super Size Me, with this sweet, tooth-ache of a concert film, but he offers glimmers of consequences of the group’s success. It is the sadness behind the brief comments made by their parents that linger beyond the catchy tunes and lyrics of the One Direction songs and their flashy concerts.