If you’ve seen the trailer, you might already know the storyline. World-famous singer finds out on the eve of her televised wedding, that the intended has cheated on her with the lowly personal assistant. Her answer to this affront is to pick some random dude from the audience to complete the nuptials. Random dude being Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez being, well herself.

It unravels like a Jay Lo vanity project most of the time and Owen Wilson revisits a role he’s played way too many times already but these details don’t completely submerge the film’s charms. And while the cliches do add up, among them are quite a few moments of emotional resonance that ring true, and Lopez’s character has some lovely traits.

While no punches are pulled getting you to love these people, it seems unfair, almost mean-spirited to not let a few of those choice moments of bliss get through. It’s more commerce than art but in that context, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and despite yourself, you will find the occasional smile on your lips.

Rob Hudson
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Kat Valdez (Lopez) is half of the sexiest celebrity power couple on Earth with hot new music supernova Bastian (Maluma, making his feature-film debut). As Kat and Bastian’s inescapable hit single, “Marry Me,” climbs the charts, they are about to be wed before an audience of their fans in a ceremony that will streamed across multiple platforms.

Divorced high-school math teacher Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson) has been dragged to the concert by his daughter Lou (Chloe Coleman, HBO’s Big Little Lies) and his best friend (Sarah Silverman). When Kat learns, seconds before the ceremony, that Bastian has cheated on her with her assistant, her life turns left as she has a meltdown on stage, questioning love, truth and loyalty. As her gossamer world falls away, she locks eyes with a stranger—a face in the crowd.

If what you know lets you down, then perhaps what you don’t know is the answer, and so, in a moment of inspired insanity, Kat chooses to marry Charlie. What begins as an impulsive reaction evolves into an unexpected romance. But as forces conspire to separate them, the universal question arises: Can two people from such different worlds bridge the gulf between them and build a place where they both belong?

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley and Sarah Silverman, Marry Me will be release in Australian cinemas February 10, 2022!
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Ralph (John C. Reilly) and his BFF Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) go on a mission to save Vanellope’s old school video game and this involves a trip into the idiosyncrasies of the Internet. The journey is filled with great visual representations of some of the web’s oddest elements.

The film is unafraid of presenting things that are quite dark (for a kid’s film) even including a visit to the dark web and a scary visual representation of a computer virus. It doesn’t undersell its youth audience members and there are a few adult jokes thrown in for good measure.

Translating web crazy into family friendly visuals is handled with skill and imagination. As is taking advantage of the Disney playbook of characters including a very funny bit about the brand’s princesses. The six-year wait since Wreck-It Ralph kicked things off in 2012 has been well worth the wait.

Rob Hudson
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Emma Stone is quickly becoming the Meryl of her time and she is consistently outstanding in this and pretty much every film she stars in as of late. Steve Carell is also perfectly cast as the buffoonish Bobby Riggs. Using the actual audio from the original match (recorded back in 1973) really does show how ingrained the male chauvinism was at that time.

The film plays out like a time capsule of the day and the attention to seventies detail is outstanding. Even including the old style film company logo at the start of the film. It’s these little details that really help to sell the era. As always with works of this ilk, the song selection is spot on and does a more than adequate job of setting the scene.

It’s something that a sports match that took place over forty years ago is so relevant in tone and statement to the events of today. You can watch this film and relate to it just as entertainment or see it as social statement and be more than outraged.

Rob Hudson
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As the rivalry between King and Riggs kicked into high gear, off-court each were fighting more personal and complex battles. Together, Billie and Bobby served up a cultural spectacle that resonated far beyond the tennis court, sparking discussions in bedrooms and boardrooms that continue to reverberate today.

Directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine) and starring Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Elisabeth Shue, Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough, Bill Pullman and Jessica McNamee, Battle of the Sexes is in cinemas September 28.

One of the core problems with TRON: Legacy was that it completely disregarded the subsequent advances in video gaming since the first film. In an age where the first person shooter is considered de rigueur, TRON: Legacy was still playing with light cycles (Blockade/Surround) and illuminated Frisbees (Pong). Wreck-It Ralph corrects this oversight by internally chronicling the history of video games from the likes of Q*Bert and Tapper to 2D fighters’ Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat to the modern 3D first person shooter, where Wreck-It Ralph is a ‘classic’ conglomeration of Rampage, Donkey Kong and Crazy Climber.

Ralph (John C. Reilly), a bad guy who seeks the social acceptance and profligacy’s of a good guy, teams up with Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), a buggy (in the software sense) character who finds strength in her weakness, in a story which teaches kids that they don’t have to be satisfied with their lot in life, they are free to strive for better.

Highly derivative of other films such as Toy Story, the aforesaid TRON and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Wreck-It Ralph has barely an ounce of originality but it’s very sweet, fun and has lashings of nostalgia (and some bruising product placement!).

In aping the style of Pixar, Disney has moderate success, although the obligatory proceedings fall shy of par, lacking the literary elegance of much of Pixar’s work. The same could be said of the featurette but it’s a good attempt, though it’s probably best if Disney left this kind of film to its Pixar arm. John Lasseter does executive produce, however.

As a slice of family entertainment, you can’t go far wrong with Wreck-It Ralph. It’s as fun as a ferret in your underpants and it even has a kill screen but, naturally, only the most die-hard filmgoers will stick around to see that!

Stuart Jamieson
www.disneymovies.com.au

The biggest obstacle the film fails to overcome is in one of its lead castings as writer/director Seth MacFarlane is a very average actor and his role is not helped at all by the awkwardness of the writing. MacFarlane’s take on a modern day intellectual being able to deal with the brutal ways of the early American west ends up falling very flat. The rest of the actors are well cast but head bad guy Liam Neeson is given very little to do.

It’s a sign of our conservative times that even when attempting to be cutting edge and genre expanding, there are so many topics perceived to be out of bounds. It makes almost all comedies, even the ones that are trying to be shocking, ultimately quite mundane. MacFarlane tries his usual scattershot approach and along with his animation efforts like Family Guy and The Cleveland Show occasionally kicks the funny bone.

It’s doubtful that future generations will look back on this film as referential but for modern day viewers this is as out there as any money making cinematic effort of this generation. Hopefully the future will give filmmakers the ability to really push the boundaries of what constitutes shock comedy.

Rob Hudson
www.amillionways.com