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DVD REVIEW
The Ides of March ****
Directed by: George Clooney
Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood
Real Steel ****
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Kevin Durand
If ever there was a gentleman deserving of pure, undiluted hatred it’s George Clooney. Just where exactly does the Chin with the Grin™ get off being both a talented, respected performer and an assured director of classy, quality flicks? The cheek of the man!
When not busy as a man’s man, ladys’ man, man about town, Clooney is no stranger to a bit of politics and his interest shows through in The Ides of March, an adaptation of the Beau Willimon play, Farragut North.
Ryan Gosling stars as Stephen Meyers, a brilliant and idealistic junior campaign manager working for presidential hopeful Mike Morris (Clooney). Labouring under grizzled campaign veteran Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) Gosling has his ideals pushed to the limit when the opposition (in the form of Paul Giamatti) comes a-callin’ with a job offer at around the same time that Meyers starts to question exactly how firmly his candidate’s halo is attached.
To all appearances Morris is the perfect candidate (for Democrats anyway). Tough on crime but unwilling to peddle a pro-religion line he comes across like a cross between Barack Obama and The West Wing’s Jed Bartlett.
Short, sharp and to the point, the stage roots of The Ides of March are clear from the outset. What it lacks in car chases, gun battles and dwarf-flinging it makes up for in sublimely acted moments of tension, horror and down-right awesome – all of which are made possible by the fantastic cast.
Though the ends seems to creep up a bit abruptly and the pacing is a bit off, it’s chock full of political references and in-jokes to make you feel a bit clever. Clooney’s involvement in politics is slyly referenced in a campaign poster which uses the actor’s face instead of Obama’s in the now famous “Hope” poster. (The picture of Obama used in the original image was taken as the then Chicago senator watched Clooney speak at a political rally).
There’s a few things you’re not supposed to see getting made – sausages and laws are the two most often referenced – and political candidates are an easy contender for the list. The nuts and bolts of the political machine might not be to everyone’s taste but a flick of this quality should be sampled by everyone at least once.
From a film about politics stealing a soul to one that will check if you have one to begin with.
If you can’t find it in your heart to enjoy Real Steel then you have no soul. If you can’t find it in yourself to get onside for a film about a kid, his deadbeat dad and a giant fighting robot then you should report directly to a member of any licensed faith and seek some sort of absolution, benediction or rubber chicken-waving procedure to fix the matter because you, my friend, have NO SOUL!
Starring Hugh Jackman, Real Steel is a quality little family flick that is neither saccharine sweet nor trying to be different or meta or anything other than exactly what it is. At its core it’s about Max (Dakota Goyo) – a kid with a dead mom, an absentee dad Charlie (Jackman), and an aunt with a rich husband who wants to adopt him – and his giant fighting robot, Atom.
Set in 2020 when combat sports featuring humans have fallen to the wayside, the masses now get their jollies from watching giant robots do the same thing only on a bigger, better, more violent canvas.
Some post-mortem legal wrangling sees the the young fella landed with Charlie for the summer. After initially trying to shirk his fatherly duty, the two bond over Charlie’s job – robot boxing and moreso, over Atom, a battered old droid the kid finds on the scrap heap and cleans up to competition standard.
Once the bot get’s a dose of spit and polish you can just hear the strains of Eye of the Tiger kick in and Real Steel becomes Robo-Rocky and every cheesey sports movie cliché gets pulled out and used to deadly effect.
In other hands this could have been a mess. If Jackman weren’t such a convincingly likable loser or if the kid was less endearing and more annoying it could all have gone horribly wrong.
Fortunately it doesn’t. Heartstrings are pulled, feelings manipulated and if, by the film’s final scenes, you aren’t shouting and shadow boxing as the little robot that couldn’t proves that, well, maybe he can, then you sir (or miss) have no soul.
