Leven Rambin

The shift from bright comedy to rather grim drama is gradual enough to carry the audience along, but it's rather startling to end up somewhere so serious after such a cheeky start. Director Anna Mastro and writer Paul Shoulberg set this up as a breezy coming-of-age movie before adding a supernatural twist and quietly moving the goal posts. Fortunately, the strong cast and assured filmmaking carry the audience along. So even if it ultimately begins to feel melodramatic, it's also surprisingly moving and meaningful.

Convinced that he has been called by God to decide who goes to heaven and hell, 18-year-old Walter (Andrew J. West) is a perfectionist who maintains order in his life both at home with his over-concerned mother Karen (Virginia Madsen) and at his job taking tickets in the local multiplex. At work, he has his eye on the smart-sexy Kendall (Levin Rambin), but is too shy to speak to her and is teased mercilessly about this by bullying colleague Vince (Milo Ventimiglia). Then a ghost named Greg (Justin Kirk) starts taunting him as well, and Walter finally agrees to see a shrink (William H. Macy) in the hopes of restoring order to his life.

Of course, the point is that Walter doesn't need order: he needs to face up to the truth about the death of his father (Peter Facinelli in flashbacks). But the more he acknowledges, the more his life seems to unravel around him. This is played beautifully by West, a likeable actor who manages to get even more engaging as Walter falls apart. His interaction with the rest of the cast is pointed and witty, packed with knowing commentary and some sharply funny observations. And all of the actors around him bring layers of emotion and energy to the film.

Continue reading: Walter Review

There can't have been a very big demand for a sequel to 2010's The Lightning Thief, but at least this is another adequate adventure for the teen demigods. Much more child-friendly than the first movie, this episode is essentially just a series of heavily animated action set-pieces strung together by the flimsiest of plots. At least it has a sense of energy and some jagged humour to keep grown-ups engaged.

At Half-blood Camp, the refuge for the children of gods with mortals, Percy (Lerman) continues his rivalry with hot-shot Clarisse (Rambin). And when the protective barrier around the camp is poisoned, it's Clarisse who leads a mission to find the healing Golden Fleece in the Sea of Monsters. But Percy knows that he's the subject of a prophecy about the fleece being used to resurrect the destructive Chronos, and that his nemesis Luke (Abel) is up to something evil. So Percy takes his friends Grover and Annabeth (Jackson and Daddario), plus his newly discovered cyclops half-brother Tyson (Smith), and heads off on his own quest.

Despite a few close calls in which characters come close to death, we're pretty sure nothing nasty will happen to these young franchise characters. But director Freudenthal (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) never hangs around long enough for us to realise that there isn't actually any suspense or intrigue in the plot. The film's pace is frantic, as the characters bolt from one crazy scenario to the next, often without bothering to logically connect the two. Several scenes could be cut without changing the story, while others are pure indulgence, such as Fillion's extended cameo as Luke's parcel-delivering father Hermes.

Continue reading: Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters Review

Despite a number of exhilarating surfing sequences, the interesting true story of surf legend Jay Moriarty is transformed into another dull Hollywood biopic. Painfully family-friendly, it's all so relentlessly smiley and sun-kissed that we wonder where the real story and characters are amid the sticky schmaltz. Even so, it's so beautifully shot that it holds our attention, especially when the cameras are riding the waves.

By the time he was 9 years old in 1987, Jay (Timberline) was already an expert on the tides in his home town of Santa Cruz, California. Watching the surfers every day, he longs to get out there himself. His mother (Shue) is a sleepy alcoholic and he never knew his father, so he adopts salty old surfer Frosty (Butler) as a mentor, even though he's not sure he wants the job. Especially since he's doing everything to avoid his own wife (Spencer) and baby. But Frosty sees Jay's natural talent, and seven years later Jay (now Weston) has the confidence to ask Frosty to teach him how to ride the mavericks, mythical monster waves that only come along every few months.

With its absent father and drunken mother, the script never feels like more than an after-school special, complete with a bat-wielding bully (Handley) and a surf babe (Rambin) who chastely flirts with Jay whenever they meet. Frosty even sets Karate Kid-style pointless tasks for Jay to teach him the bigger picture. But this set-up is so trite that we never have even the slightest doubt about where it's going. And the characters all feel like cliches rather than real people. The three women are especially wasted, but at least they add spark to their roles.

Continue reading: Chasing Mavericks Review