The Founder

On more than one occasion whilst mentioning the imminent release of The Founder, the biopic of the man who brought fast food to the world, the same joke was cracked. “So it's a film about Ronald McDonald then?” Oh how we chuckled. Whilst you can argue there may have been a great missed opportunity in not telling the fictional tale of the custard coloured clown's ascent from clown college to the pinnacle of an obesity empire, that question does hit on a deeper point. Who is this is Mr. McDonald then? The man who brought us the Happy Meal toy, the Fillet-O-Fish and the McRib. Everyone knows the name, but the only face they know is crimson cropped and pallid with an ever so slightly homicidal glint in his mirthful eyes.

The Founder, directed by John Lee Hancock, is in fact the story of one Ray Kroc. I can't say for certain whether or not his descendants ever leant their name to a line of rubber sandals whose comfort and practicality are outweighed only by their abhorrent aesthetic but I can say for certain that the man did not lend his name to a fast food chain. Instead, when we meet him he is a professional salesman trying to flog milkshake makers. When he one day receives a bewilderingly large order for these devices from a restaurant in California he is lead to the door of the McDonald brothers revolutionary burger stand. The film then follows his journey from inspiration to success with just a pinch of persistence, a dollop of determination and a liberal sprinkling of skulduggery.

The tale itself is certainly intriguing. Whilst the outcome is never in question, this is a film about the journey more than the destination. The brothers themselves were happy just running an efficient and successful restaurant with little concern for the bigger picture when all of a sudden their lives are turned around by a man with capitalism coursing through his veins. What starts off as a rose tinted paean to a company founded on family values and a quality product gradually gets warped in to something far less nourishing. Kroc sells them on a yarn about how the grand golden arches can be the symbol of the new American church. The film acknowledges this moment safe in the certainty that history would eventually prove him right and knowing just what kind of a god complex it would take to pull it off.

Whilst production line delivery is key to McDonalds success, it unfortunately proves to be a slight downfall for the film. Tales of devious capitalism have proven strong cinematic fodder in the past with everything from oil in There Will Be Blood to cocaine in Blow, but this film relies too much on being an easily consumable product. You have the early struggle, the flash of inspiration, the initial adversity and the eventual glory that comes at a cost. It ticks all the boxes but loses a bit of the flavor in the process. It may be a bit much to expect this particular story to deal in subtlety but as you see the man being lead to betray both his wife and his business partners through the medium of a seductively stirred milkshake, you can't help but feel they are laying it on a bit thick.

There is a lot to be said though for Michael Keaton's lead turn as the eponymous 'founder'. His re-emergence in recent years as an actor synonymous with performances of prestige is a story almost worthy of a film in its own right. He perfectly captures the megalomanical glint of a man who when presented with his break ultimately chooses to break bad and hits all the right notes of empathy and villainy to keep the audience with him. It is a performance big enough that all other characters are very much relegated to the minor supporting category. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch are very effective in capturing the tragedy of the hard done by McDonald brothers where as Laura Dern has little to do but suffer on the sidelines as Kroc's forgotten wife. You can't help but feel there was a better performance in there that for a story which film wasn't particularly interested in telling.

Overall there is a lot of entertainment to be had in the most nefarious tale of name branded meat this side of a Trump steak. The film benefits from a feeling of fortuitous timeliness; the slice of sepia tinged Americana corrupted through an avaricious figurehead. As a piece of film making though it settles for being good when it could have been great. Hollywood loves stories of desperate men willing to succeed at any cost and this one came coupled with the strongest brand recognition you could possibly ask for. It's just a shame it was assembled with efficiency when it could have used just a little more inspiration.

xXx: Return of Xander Cage

Ever want to see what $1.5 Billion dollars buys you? Look no further than xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Return of who? You may well ask. This film is the second sequel (yes really) to the successful, if not exactly lauded action/spy film from 15 years ago. So why now, a decade and a half later, are we getting a sequel to a film people didn't remember heralding the return of a character people didn't care about? Who is this film for? Well the answer starts with one person. Mr Vin Diesel.

Whilst people were hardly expecting the last Fast and Furious film to flop, even its most ardent fans, myself included among them, were likely a little surprised when its box office gross veered headlong in to the billion dollar stratosphere. With that financial clout and the support of over 100 million facebook followers, It can't come as too much of a surprise that a film studio was willing to finance him to relive his glory days onscreen. Ladies and gentlemen, please allow him to present The Great Vin Diesel Vanity Project.

Directed by DJ Caruso, the little plot there is revolves around our eponymous hero being coerced out of self imposed retirement after an anonymous villain uses a mysterious device to, and stick with me here, pull discarded satellites out of orbit and crash them in to earth, with one hitting a little too close to home. This amounts to scenes of a 49 year old man (look it up, its true) escaping armed guards on a skateboard, I repeat, a skateboard, to bring a digital tv box to impoverished villagers to they can watch the football. The children praise him! The ladies love him him! The audience remembers he actually produced the film himself. You get the sense that he believed he was making James Bond for a modern generation. It actually reminded me more of this:

Booourns indeed.

That reference may seem dated but that fits with the overall feel. If they were aiming to make a film that was 'down with the kids' I guess he succeeded in a way. A scene which features a mass of scantily clad women apparently unable to keep their hands off him feels akin to a teenage boy bragging about all the girls he totally made out with. Jay from the Inbetweeners would likely reject it as too self-aggrandizing.

As for the climactic action sequence, well that has all the dramatic gravitas of a bunch a 5 year olds in a playground making machine guns noises and explosion sounds with their mouths. If that sounds like a criticism, well that's because it is, but with one minor caveat. I have been told that watching kids play is moderately more endearing if they are your kids, and sure enough this films aims squarely for global box office domination by stocking its supporting cast to an almost cynical degree with an action star to appeal to any affection. From Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone and Thai marshal arts star Tony Jaa all the way to small screen standouts such as Orange is The New Black's Ruby Rose and Game of Thrones Rory McCann aka The Hound, all tastes are catered for.

I can't deny that I got a certain thrill from watching England's own UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping just about hold his own on screen, albeit in a role that wasn't exactly a stretch. The stand out though has to be Hong Kongs Donnie Yen, fresh from a rightly attention grabbing turn in Rogue One. His presence and charisma only served to show that he is the kind of star studios should be building franchises around and let Vin get back to playing with his cars.

Now I know there is an argument that films like this are almost beyond criticism because they are designed to be brainless fun but I disagree. They can be fun without being bad. I adore action cinema and there is plenty to love out there. From John Wick to the Fast and the Furious franchise itself, there are a wealth of films that shown repeatedly over recent years that you can be both genuinely entertaining and hugely entertaining without them have to coast on a wave of derision. Those films delivered set pieces that felt fresh and inventive, where as this feels like it conceived by a focus group of parents who were asked what their kids were in to.

There is no denying that in an age where the traditional action star has long since been on the decline, there is still some fair currency in the Vin Diesel brand but this project does him no favours. You are never going to appeal to the widest audience if you are your own biggest fan and in the case of this film, he may well be the only one.