REVIEW: The Guilt Trip

Comedies rarely travel well globally. It's just a matter of fact that, the majority of the time, what American audiences find funny is just completely different to what British audiences find funny. Stereotypically we like dry, sarcastic humour whereas our American counterparts enjoy slapstick, visual humour.

However, sometimes there is a film that tries to appeal to both, widen it's core demographic, and just falls flat on it's face.

The Guilt Trip is a film that follows Andrew Brewster (Seth Rogen) who is an unsuccessful salesman. He has a brand new natural cleaning product, but he is just too shy to sell it. In steps his overpowering Mother, Joyce Brewster (Barbara Streisand) a widow who has too much time on her hands and too much enthusiasm for life, compared to her son. When Joyce tells Andrew about her long lost love, who just so happens to be an executive at a prestigious advertising company, Andrew suddenly doesn't mind having his Mother around and brings her on his cross-country trip in the hope that his product will finally sell.

The thing is, The Guilt Trip is a film that is billed as a comedy, but just isn't very funny. Now, this wouldn't be a bad thing, because the film plays out more like a family drama, but the problem starts because the film is being advertised and marketed as a comedy. It's almost like it's an American idea of what dry British humour is, when it's really not. Most of the jokes fall flat, or there are large stretches of the film where jokes aren't even attempted. I just had a problem because I went in expecting to have a few laughs, but I came out feeling decidedly mute. Seth Rogen was surprisingly tame, after coming from previous comedic films such as Knocked Up, Superbad and Pineapple Express - all great American style comedies. And Barbara Streisand was... well, just as unfunny as she was in the Meet the Parents sequels.

However, The Guilt Trip is fairly good as a family drama - not great, but fairly good. There's a slight moment of drama when Joyce opens up to her son about her previous true love (before meeting his Father.) Of course, there's Andrew's constant struggle to sell his new product, when his attitude keeps getting in the way. And finally there is the general clash of personalities between Mother and Son when travelling in the car together, but it all just feels half baked. It felt like the script needed a bit more tweaking before filming began, because although these conflicts were all there, they just weren't developed enough to cause enough drama. Joyce's revelation about her true love is all but diminished in the final scene (which can be guessed what will happen right from the beginning of the film), Andrew just does not help himself at all when trying to sell his product (even though what he needs to do is so obvious to the audience) and Andrew and Joyce's personalities just aren't opposing enough to cause enough drama or comedic moments.

Direction from Anne Fletcher (Step Up, 27 Dresses and The Proposal) is quite uninspired, as The Guilt Trip ends up looking like every other big-budget glossy Hollywood production, which would have been fine if she was directing a straightforward comedy, but instead the film was a mishmash of wannabe gritty drama and fluffy light comedy, with a bog-standard direction from Fletcher that failed to give her film any sort of visual punch.

Whereas Rogen's previous dramatic efforts, such as 50/50, really were able to pull at heartstrings and grab the audience by the jugular, The Guilt Trip fails to hit the right spots for laughs or for tears. If you're a diehard fan of Rogen or Streisand, then this film may keep you entertained, but for the general film-going audience, this film is a bit of a drag.

** / *****

REVIEW: Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters

The blending together of two different film genres can be difficult. Sure, some get it right (particularly the romantic comedies) but sometimes it just makes a muddled mess.

The Action-Horror genre hasn't always been full of successes. Van Helsing was a bit of a mistake, I haven't even had an urge to watch the Underworld films and Blade was good to begin with and then lost it with each sequel. However, Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters manages to get it right... on the whole.

The film starts off with an abbreviated version of the Grimm fairytale, where a young Hansel (Cedric Eich) and a young Gretel (Alea Sophia Boudodimos) are left by their Father in the middle of a the forest. They soon come across a house made of candy and gingerbread and are soon taken captive by a witch. However, they soon escape and grow up to become world renowned Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton), Witch Hunters. They arrive in the small town of Augsburg where they stop Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare) from executing a young woman, Mina (Pihla Viitala) who he has accused of witchcraft. The town is being terrorised by Muriel (Famke Janssen), a Head Witch, who is capturing children from the town as sacrifices so the witches can cure themselves of the ugliness curse that is put upon them. However, Hansel and Gretel aren't going to let that happen now, are they?

The thing that makes Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters succeed, in the dodgy Action-Horror genre, where most others have failed is that it knows it's a stupid film. Right from the start, where the language starts turning blue and the blood and gore start flowing, the film makes it clear to it's audience that the films knows it isn't out to win any awards and it's simply been created to entertain. It's in a similar vein to Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, which also takes an absurd premise, but fills it full of in-jokes and silly humour to lighten the mood. The result is that the film doesn't really have much Horror in it and firmly sits more on the side of an Action film, but it still manages to take the iconography of Horror and incorporate it well. Basically, don't go into this film expecting to be scared - instead go in expecting have a thrilling time and a few laughs along the way.

As a result, it seems that the Director, Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow) and the actors knew exactly how to play the roles and play the film itself. Both Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton play their roles in a pretty badass way, but surprisingly still manage to keep the tension high as they prove that their characters are not invincible (basically, the Witches can give as good as they get.) Famke Janssen, while not amazing in her role as the Head Witch, still manages to play her role pretty well but it just felt like she should of had more fun with it. There were glimpses of her having fun with the role (like when she decides to tell a story and says, "It all starts in a sh*tty little town...!") but she could have played her role so over-the-top to match the tone of the film.

However, despite some lacklustre acting, where Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters really shines is in it's direction of it's action scenes. The film rarely lets up and takes pride in taking the audience through it's story at break-neck speed. There's rarely any downtime and when there is, it's punctuated with gloriously silly action scenes like when the troll, Edward (Derek Mears/Robin Atkin Downes) decides to squash and splat Sheriff Berringer and his henchmen into a bloody pulp under the sole of his foot. The only place where I can honestly say that Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters lets itself down with the action is during the film's finale - the witches attempt at sacrificing the children under the Blood Moon is over so quickly, that it barely has any time to build up any tension.

On a technical side, the film looked glorious, however the 3D really didn't add much to the experience. There was one or two stand out moments where the 3D was used for some sight gags (like it should be!) these were so few and far between that it hardly felt worth it. However, the CGI work on Edward and the witches and the blood and gore were surprisingly well used - I can't remember one point in the film where it took me out of the experience and I thought, "That looked fake!"

So, if you like your Action-Horror films to be slightly more on the action side, with a sprinkle of humour and not many scares, then Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters is definitely for you. However, if you like your Action-Horror films to take themselves more seriously and be more equally balanced between action scenes and scares, then you might be a little bit disappointed...

***½ / *****