Miles Teller Page 3

This is such a ripping true story that it can't help but grab hold of the audience, even if the film never quite breaks through the surface. A story of tenacious triumph in the face of seemingly impossible odds, it also offers Miles Teller a terrific against-type role as a beefy young boxer who simply won't take no for an answer. And the entire cast is just as surprising, adding textures to a movie that's a bit too straightforward for its own good.

This is the story of Vinny Pazienza (Teller), a young boxer who wins two world championships in two weight classes with the help of his father Angelo (Ciaran Hinds) and his trainer Kevin (Aaron Eckhart). Then at the top of his game, he breaks his neck in a car crash and is told he may never walk again, let alone fight. But Vinny is determined to remain the champ, so he returns to training, even though an injury could leave him permanently disabled. Kevin reluctantly agrees to train him, pushing him up into yet another weight class. And seeing the publicity possibilities, father-and-son promoters (Ted Levine and Jordan Gelber) set up a massive Vegas comeback match.

Writer-director Ben Younger shoots this with a steady authenticity, charging inexorably through the story in a way that echoes Vinny's singleminded determination. Along the way, there are strained relationships, a variety of physical and emotional obstacles, intense boxing matches and, of course, a few emotive training montage sequences. The story is so strong that the film can't help but be engaging and even rousing, even if there are very few shadings along the way. Vinny never seems to doubt himself at all, his family only barely objects to his potentially life-threatening decisions, and his opponents are clearly going down for the count.

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Based on a rather astounding true story, this comedy-drama centres on two stoners who landed a massive defence contract with the American government to sell arms for the War on Terror. The story is told with a heavy dose of macho swagger by The Hangover's Todd Phillips, which makes it entertaining even as it dodges the heavier themes the plot is raising. It's also set in a world where smugness is an asset and women are irrelevant.

It begins in 2005 Miami, where David (Miles Teller) is working as a masseur and living happily with his girlfriend Iz (Ana de Armas). Then he runs into his old school friend Efraim (Jonah Hill), who convinces him that there's money to be made selling weapons to the US military. Over the next few years, the business expands dramatically, bringing in a fortune as David and Efraim travel into Iraq to see their deals through. Then they land a massive new contract that involves working with a rather dodgy supplier (Bradley Cooper) and processing the arms in Albania. But as they start bending the law to maximise their profits, things start to fall apart.

Phillips tells this with a quick step and a twinkle in his eye, zipping through the events with masculine energy, filling scenes with black humour as the business gets murkier. Hill and Teller make a terrific team, using their impeccable comic timing to make every scene zing. They are also excellent at bringing out the contrasts between David and Efraim: David tries to do things right, Efraim has no moral compass. And their differing approaches to cross-cultural situations are telling as well. Many of their conflicts seem scripted for movie purposes, but they're so well-played that we don't mind too much. By comparison, the supporting cast kind of fades into the background. Cooper grabs attention in a seriously oddball role, while de Armas is completely sidelined as the only person with a conscience.

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After the more thrilling Insurgent, this saga reverts to the talky style of the original Divergent movie, constantly explaining this post-apocalyptic world's convoluted mythology before indulging in whizzy action that has little to do with the story or characters. It's a strange step back for a franchise that has such a strong cast and high production values. And this movie also feels frustratingly incomplete, because it's only based on the first half of Veronica Roth's third and final novel (a fourth film, Ascendant, is due next year).

When we last saw our hero Tris (Shailene Woodley), she and her hunky boyfriend Four (Theo James) had overthrown the nasty Erudite leaders to create a "factionless" society in Chicago under new leader Evelyn (Naomi Watts), Four's mother. But Evelyn's willingness to indulge in military excesses causes a rift with the more peace-loving leader Johanna (Octavia Spencer), sparking a civil war. Bored with this, Tris and Four free Tris' brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) from death row and escape over the walls out of Chicago along with cohorts Peter and Christina (Miles Teller and Zoe Kravitz). Fleeing into the fringe, they encounter a peaceful, futuristic community called the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, run by David (Jeff Daniels). There they learn new facts about their past, but they're unable to ignore the unravelling situation in Chicago.

As in the first film, this script is over-packed with long conversations about the society's complicated set-up, and the Bureau has its own set of issues. Some of this information provides welcome context to the earlier films, but the screenwriters also hold back a lot of key details for next time, so this episode is oddly inconclusive. And that also makes it feel dull and contrived, especially since it leaves the characters' motivations so badly muddled. There's also the problem that these movies continually steal ideas and imagery from other films (this time it's Mad Max and The Truman Show).

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Teens tackle yet another dystopian future in this well-made but derivative franchise-launcher. Filmmaker Neil Burger is more interested in whizzy visuals and a thorny plot to pay much attention to the characters or larger underlying themes, which leaves the film feeling eerily superficial. So while the film is relatively entertaining, it ultimately feels rather pointless.

The story's set after a war has reduced Chicago to a walled-in enclave of people divided into five stabilising factions: charitable Abnegation, peaceful Amity, honest Candor, defending Dauntless and brainy Erudite. Tris (Shailene Woodley) was born to parents (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) who are leaders in Abnegation, but when time comes for her to select her own path she discovers that she's Divergent, a cross-faction state that threatens those in power. So she chooses to join Dauntless, entering intense physical training under the tutelage of sexy hunk Four (Theo James) and harsh hunk Eric (Jai Courtney). then Dauntless' soldiers get caught up in a power struggle as Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) plots to take governmental responsibilities from Abnegation.

All of this scene-setting takes about half of the film's running time, and it's frankly not very exciting. Burger makes sure it looks fantastic, with seamless visual effects, impressive stunt work and flashy action sequences, but the character drama takes longer to kick off. And there's also the problem that it essentially feels like a cross between The Hunger Games and Harry Potter as an unusually gifted teen takes on a controlling society.

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Even a strongly likeable cast can't breathe life into this ill-conceived film, which poses as a sex comedy but is ultimately timid and sappy. The premise is intriguing enough to catch our interest, but it ends up being three badly written romantic-comedies woven together in a way that makes them neither romantic nor comedic.

The story strands centre on three best buddies enjoying their late-20s in New York. Jason (Efron) is the womaniser, breaking up the moment any girl begins to get serious. Daniel (Teller) is the clown, using humour to find women, usually with the help of his friend Chelsea (Davis). And Mikey (Jordan) is the responsible one, a medical doctor happily married to Vera (Lucas). Except that she leaves him, prompting Jason and Daniel to promise to stay single with him in solidarity. Then instantly, each of them finds himself in a relationship: Jason falls for wild-girl Ellie (Poots), Daniel realises that he's in love with Chelsea, and Mikey secretly tries to get Vera back.

The problem is that there's very little chemistry between any of the characters. Not only are the love stories strained and implausible, but the bromance never even gets off the ground because filmmaker Gormican is clearly terrified of any kind of male affection. He's also not very good at depicting sexuality, with only a couple of scenes played for comedy value. In fact, all of the film's sharp edges have been surgically removed, leaving only the illusion of gross-out humour.

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The writers of The Hangover stick with the same formula for this university-aged romp about three young guys who get far too drunk for their own good. It even opens on the morning after (they're walking naked across campus) before cycling back to piece together what actually happened. But all of the humour is as cheap as it can be, merely laughing at stupid behaviour rather than mining much genuine comedy out of the situation. At least the actors find some chemistry along the way.

Our three chuckleheads are party-boy Miller (Teller), smart-guy Casey (Astin) and their pal Jeff Chang (Chon), who is turning 21 at midnight. This prompts Miller and Casey to propose a night of drunkenness to celebrate his legal drinking age in style. But Jeff has his med school interview in the morning, so they have to sneak past his terrifying dad (Chau) to have just one drink together. Unsurprisingly, this drink turns into an epic bar crawl, culminating in Jeff's unconsciousness. And since Miller and Casey can't remember where he lives, they go on a ludicrously convoluted quest to find his address. This involves enraging a sorority house, releasing the university's mascot buffalo and tormenting the tough-talking boyfriend (Keltz) of a cheerleader (Wright) who catches Casey's eye.

Obviously, there's one massive problem with this whole premise: a cold shower and a cup of coffee would revive Jeff pretty easily. But then, Miller and Casey wouldn't need to go through, say, eight levels of frat-house drinking games to find a guy who might know Jeff's address. At least all of the antics give Teller and Astin a chance to deepen their characters a bit, mainly in the way they interact with each other as childhood pals who have taken unexpected turns along the way. Chon doesn't have quite as much to do with Jeff. Sure, he's been pushed into studying medicine by his fearsome dad, but he spends the entire movie in a drunken stupor.

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Instead, it centres on the interpersonal drama and exhilarating dance moves.

After his mother dies, Boston teen Ren (Wormald) moves to small-town Bomont to live with his aunt and uncle (Dickens and McKinnon). Teens here are prohibited from dancing due to a tragedy three years earlier, so Ren is soon at loggerheads with the local minister (Quaid), whose daughter Ariel (Hough) is a wild child with a redneck boyfriend (Flueger) and an eye for Ren. As Ren deals with his own issues, he teams up with new friends Willard and Woody (Teller and Blain) to take on the system.

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