Sawyer is a bit of a lonely boy. He dotes on his cousin Kyle who is about to be shipped out with the US armed forces and he is staring at the prospect of summer school on account of his poor grades. One day he stumbles upon a dolphin stranded on the beach, caught up in a crab cage. She is taken to the nearby marine life hospital where Harry Connick Jr’s kindly Dr Clay Haskett tries to nurse her back to health, but her tail has to be amputated. Sawyer becomes friends with Winter (her new name) and is devastated to learn that she will be unable to survive long without her tail.

When Kyle comes back from serving with a serious injury, Sawyer’s visit to a Veteran’s Hospital and a chance meeting with a prosthetic’s Doctor gives him a bright idea.

*****

On its theatrical release, Dolphin Tale came and went pretty quickly and could easily be dismissed as day time TV movie of the week fodder, especially given its “inspired by true events” tag. But there is a lot to enjoy and admire here, even if you can see its plot developments coming a mile off. It goes without saying that not every film needs to be heart-breaking, overwrought and down-beat; there is room for a heart-warming, triumph over adversity, everything works out swimmingly (sorry), tale and all but the most cold-hearted should find something to enjoy and smile at here.

The acting is pretty good across the board, with Nathan Gamble (Jim Gordon’s son in The Dark Knight) making a very effective lonely boy opposite Cozi Zuehlsdorff’s much more spunky Hazel (Dr Clay’s daughter). He gradually comes out of his shell in a convincing and affecting manner, even if it all plays out quite obviously. Alongside the aforementioned Connick Jr, we get Ashley Judd as Sawyer’s mother, Morgan Freeman as the prosthetic’s expert and Kris Kristofferson as Hazel’s grandfather. The script makes no great demands of any of them, but to their credit they approach their roles with appealing authenticity and energy, with Freeman in particular excelling as a light-hearted, unconventional Doctor.

The pacing is just fine, coming in at a sprightly 90 minutes, with much-welcomed real-life footage of Winter playing over the end credits. Yes, everything is wrapped up with a bow at the end, but it keeps moving along, shifts through the narrative and tonal gears, introduces problems to be overcome and heart-warming solutions and leaves you happy and satisfied. Which can only be a good thing.

Dolphin Tale is out today on DVD, Bluray and download. You can catch a copy here, or try to win a Bluray copy here.

***~~ (3/5)

Extras: None available for review, though one would expect making ofs and “the real story” docs and featurettes to abound.

Thirteen years earlier I was in Leicester Square to witness a moment which had long been rumoured, promised then teased when the first of the Star Wars prequel trilogy was released.

It hadn’t started well. The Phantom Menace seemed too quirky a title, however the cast was good – Ewan McGregor as a young Alec Guinness, Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman were on board and Ian McDiarmid turning up to reprise his role as Palpatine.

And then there was Jar-Jar…

In many ways The Phantom Menace was a tipping point in our collective pop culture. Never before was the maxim ‘When the Gods want to punish you, they give you what you want’ more appropriate and we stumbled out of the cinema a little older, far wiser and wondering if The Matrix was still playing across the road.

Years later, and the trilogy complete, The Phantom Menace takes the stage once again, this time in 3D, and while the extra dimension was never going to change the film in any epiphanic way, it’s a shame that the 3D adds nothing to the film. For those who took issue with the film in 1999 you’ll find that time has not been kind and a dull curiosity may tempt you back into the cinema but the numerous problems of the film will always weigh this film down.

The final light sabre duel still looks great, though riddled with narrative oddities, and there’s no doubting that Darth Maul is an excellent addition to the Sithsphere, but the bloodless Jedi characters and feckless narrative drive are still like cinematic molasses. Dave commented during the early part of the film, ‘zzzzzzzzz’.

The 3D post conversion varies wildly in quality, adding nothing save for one soaring shot of a  floating platform high above the surface of Coruscant which induces a moment of stomach-churning vertigo. The pod race has its moments when the vast engines of the racers loom large over the manically paced background but these are sparse exceptions to the rule.

This is not Clash of the Titans/Viewmaster bad 3D, but it is a far cry from what we’ve seen so far of James Cameron’s Titanic 3Ding which is due out in April.

Perhaps this conversion will set a new standard and the subsequent Star Wars episodes will make use of 3D, and I can’t deny I’m curious about seeing how the original trilogy will look in 3D but this isn’t the best advert for the process, nor will it convince many that the addition of a third dimension is anything more than another money spinner.

And The Muppets is out today. I think you know what to do.

In the court of King Uther Pendragon, Merlin serves as a lowly servant to Prince Arthur, the heir of Camelot. Merlin is fated to be the mightiest wizard/sorcerer/warlock ever, but must keep his powers secret for the time being, for there is a great deal of suspicion regarding magic. His mentor Gaius (Richard Wilson) must try to train and guide him and above all, Merlin must ensure that Arthur is safe and eventually ascends to the throne.

*****

Perhaps like many, I have dipped into Merlin before, but never been gripped by it. As we move now into season 4, its popularity is clearly enough to keep it as part of the BBC’s primetime market, though it remains a flawed and, at times, unsuccessful programme.

Coming across as a kind of twenty-something Smallville, the show mixes supernatural mystery of the week with the over-arching building of the mythology of Arthur, Merlin, Excalibur, Camelot and there is a certain amount of fun to be had in seeing Merlin trying to keep Arthur safe, while keeping his powers secret. No-one takes him seriously, which makes it rather hard for him to make himself heard at times of impending crisis, though by the end of the two-part finale to this season, he does seem to have generated a bit of currency with Arthur and his beloved knights. In that respect there are echoes of Ben Affleck’s Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears. Which is not a bad thing.

Given that there are plenty of praise-worthy elements in place here, it is difficult to pin down precisely why the show does not work as a whole. The script is serviceable and occasionally witty, the cast are all up to scratch, the production design is impressive enough, but it remains a show that struggles to grab our attention. Although season 4 moves things along by offing a few key cast members and developing the conspiracy between Morgana and Arthur’s treacherous Uncle Agravaine, there is too little progression for Merlin himself. He casts the occasional secretive spell and solves mysteries here and there, but we do not see him growing, becoming the force he is prophesied to be. Tonal problems abound too. Some episodes (including the commendably creepy “A Herald of the New Age”) convey a suitable sense of danger and menace, but too often episodes are played for jaunty laughs when they would benefit from a little more gravitas. The chief culprit in this regard is “A Servant of Two Masters”, where a bewitched Merlin tries to kill Arthur, but it is all played too broadly.

Of course there is nothing wrong with moments (or even episodes) of levity and the usual mantra for this sort of thing of “make it darker, grittier” is misguided, but there needs to be a consistency of tone to avoid pulling us out of the drama. In the end it is hard to care very much about what happens, with too little of the characterisation really drawing us in. Morgana in particular is poorly played by Katie McGrath, coming across as surly and stroppy rather than dangerous and so the “big bad” is a bit of a damp squib, draining the show of any over-arching sense of peril and menace.

A show with enjoyable elements, no doubt, but over all not as much of a success as it needs to be. Although they are of course very different creatures, Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings have shown us how to do this sort of thing a lot better. Season 4 of Merlin is out now on DVD or Blu-ray and you can grab it here.

**½~~ (2.5/5)

Extras: The 13 episodes are spread over four discs, with a fifth disc given to a making of (25-odd minutes of on set footage), out takes and the like. Episode-specific commentaries abound, with contributions from cast and directors and writers. They are mostly far too lightweight with far too little interesting content.

**~~~ (2/5)

Nathan (Taylor Lautner) is a relatively regular kid, about to finish high school, a bit of a thrill-seeker and seeing a therapist due to ill-defined anger management issues from his early teens. He is paired up with his friend and neighbour Karen (Lily Collins) for a school project, through which they find themselves scanning through a website detailing children who have disappeared. Nathan notices an uncanny resemblance between himself and one of those children, which serves as a catalyst for the murder of the people he believed to be his parents, sending him on the run with the CIA and a Serbian secret agent on his tail, while he tries to figure out who he really is and what has become of his real parents.

*****

To get the obvious out of the way first thing, Taylor Lautner is no great shakes as an actor. His relative youth was a serviceable excuse for Sharkboy & Lava Girl, but by the time we now get four films into the Twilight saga, it is starting to show glaringly. He can scowl, smile and (we now discover) kick and punch with the best of them, but his line delivery and conveying of emotional weight remain lacking.

Having said that, his limitations do not really present much of a problem in relation to the overall impact of this film, the latest in a long line of illustrations that director John Singleton really has gone a long, long way downhill since Boyz N The Hood, his searing 1991 debut. Singleton at least has the good sense to pack the film out with impressive actors (Alfred Molina, Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Michael Nyqvist), who take care of the heavy-lifting, while Lautner frowns, runs, punches and looks good on a motorcycle. The script is pure bunkum (Nathan’s real father stole a list of secret agents from the aforementioned Serbian who wants it back), but remains believably conveyed without too much ham-fisted exposition and it cannot be questioned that Lautner is more than a match for the physical requirements of the film, holding his own in fight scenes with bigger, older and more accomplished men on the basis of an apparently impressive background in martial arts. Although Lautner does not have much range, the role does not require too much of him and he acquits himself well with limited material.

Aside from Lautner, everyone does their part. Weaver, Molina et al could do this stuff in their sleep, but to their credit they do not phone their performances in and give good value for the most part. As by the numbers as the film is, there is no sense of anyone having ideas above their station in terms of their aspirations for the film and no-one does the film the disservice of sleep-walking through their scenes. All concerned seem to appreciate that the film is what it is, a serviceable action thriller, built on and playing to the appeal of Lautner and not trying to be anything more than that. The running time is fine, knocking around the 100min mark and although the plot takes a little longer to kick into gear than it should, once Nathan and Karen are on the run the pacing is excellent, alternating between action sequences and moments of rest and plot development, which whilst far from emotionally affecting, do at least keep you interested to the end.

There are a number of good set pieces, some involving Lautner, others bringing in Bello and Isaacs for some welcome ass-kicking and they help to keep our attention when the admittedly unsurprising narrative begins to become formulaic. This is nothing that will convert those uninterested in Lautner’s tight abs, nor will it deter those who adore him and it seems likely that with the right choices Lautner can carve out a decent career for himself. You can catch it here from 13th February.

**½~~ (2.5/5)

Extras: Lautner comes across as surprisingly and pleasantly enthusiastic, realistic, grounded and focussed in the raft of extras which inevitably focus on him. He waxes eloquent about working with the rest of the impressive cast and seems to understand how fortunate he is to find himself where he is, career-wise. Everyone has genuinely nice things to say about his physical ability and commitment to the performance, whether in the brief making of doc, or the featurette that looks at fighting training. We also get a slightly longer featurette that takes us through the shooting schedule and Lautner’s recollections of and reflections on each phase. It is quite interesting to see the shooting sequence and how much time is given to each element of the film and to see Lautner’s self-effacing nature come through. Finally, there is a run of the mill gag reel.

**½~~ (2.5/5)

Whether you remember the plight of the California Gray whales back in September 1988 or not, the dramatic rescue that involved the residents of Barrow, Alaska, international media coverage, two entrepreneurial brothers and the governments of the US and the Soviet Union working together is pure family movie gold, and just another entertaining but subtle and meaningful nudge in the environmental awareness direction.

In small-town Barrow, news reporter/cameraman Adam Carlson (John Krasinski) is waiting for his breaking news story to propel him into the TV big league. When a family of three California Gray whales find their way back to the open Arctic sea blocked by rapidly forming ice, Carlson and ex-girlfriend, Greenpeace activist Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore) spring into action to form one of the biggest global rescue operations against Nature’s design ever.

Director Ken Kwapis and writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler are aware that the emotive story needs no further milking, and rightly focus on the strengths of the characters involved and their determination to succeed while injecting the story with lighter-hearted moments, using the talents of Krasinski and a gregarious Ted Danson as the flamboyant local oil businessman J. W. McGraw. However, the characters are as trapped on the ice as the whales are under it, and although perfectly believable – or the story would grind to a halt there and then, are limited by the sum of their own parts, and feel like merely a cacophony of voices in a bitter but beautiful environment after a while.

Even Barrymore who usually excels as a stubborn champion of justice finds her character’s own voice drifting off into the Arctic atmosphere at moments – and even Kramer’s courageous but foolish venture under the ice seems to have lesser impact on the storyline than it should. Still, Barrymore’s cherub good looks, infectious spirit and girl-next-door appeal manage to keep the impending disaster active and interesting. There is also time for the huge significance of events in challenging our perceptions of what matters in life to flag the characters’ individual issues as mini drama series sub-plots – such as the implied lack of communication that caused the Carlson-Kramer relationship to previously crumble.

Although the whales’ plight should be enough – and their screen time does feel slightly compromised in favour of the egotistical plight of the humans’ situations, without going down the documentary route that would have been a more powerful environmental message, the filmmakers stress man’s need to reconnect to nature and what is important throughout, without being overtly self-righteous. The end rescue scene, although a cinematic take on historical reality, nicely reaffirms our great nations’ need to bond to tackle environmental scares while showing our helplessness in the face of Mother Nature.

Big Miracle grows on you as the seriousness of situation unfolds and the breathtaking surroundings keep you in awe, and is as inspiring as any family-centric film can be, without being too insipid and manipulative. With an attractive cast to boot, it channels its sentimentality in its diverse characters and their united defiance of defeat that if it had not been based on a true story – or had the ‘real-life’ footage tacked on at the end, would be much harder to believe.

***~~ (3/5)

I know by this point everyone expects any review of Jack and Jill to be a terribly scathing affair and there’s no doubt it deserves as much.

But there’s more to it than that. It’s not just a film about Adam Sandler in a woman suit and Al Pacino slumming it like successful career choices have gone out of fashion. No. It’s a film about missed opportunities, lost potential, no potential, past potential, wasted potential and of course poo jokes and fart jokes. And lots of pooing and farting. Sometimes together, sometimes not. It’s creative like that.

However whilst I would love to give the 97 minutes of wasted celluloid a good raking over with a few rounds from a shotgun, a can of petrol and some horribly puerile similes and metaphors (god there’s so much potential here for a good old rant) – which I will – it’s hard to do so when I’m so utterly bewildered. When cinema can be such a powerful force. When you have so much money and industry power at your disposal. When you obviously have at least a modicum of acting talent. Why not do something great with your time. Why make commercial refuse? Why make this?

The film as everyone by now is horribly aware is a prosthetics and tiaras affair (à la Big Momma’s House and the second half of Eddie Murphy’s career) in which Adam Sandler plays both of the titular roles. He firstly stars as a grumpy career oriented ad exec living a comfortable life in Los Angeles with his prim and proper wife (played by Katie Holmes). His second role in this tour de force is that of Jill, Jack’s loud, stupid twin sister who is much less successful and much less tactful. Then Al Pacino arrives and fancies her and everything takes a turn for the surreal.

Short of the unfunny rubbish, the rubbish unfunny stuff and that gently amusing joke about Pacino only ever receiving one Oscar (which is in the trailer incidentally so why not save yourself the time and the money) the film has so much more to offer in the way of disappointment. It’s not really even worth reviewing properly. it’s just terrible. Need you know more? I’m guessing you won’t be rushing out to watch it anytime soon.

I mean, what was going through the heads of everyone involved? Sandler has proven himself to be utterly terrible at picking roles and passable at delivering them time after time. However let’s not forget that he hasn’t always been so bad. In 2002 he starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love and was quite simply awesome. Ever since then with the possible exception of Reign Over Me he’s taken a career trajectory of diminishing critical returns. He received $7 million to star in Punch Drunk Love yet he routinely receives $20 million+ salaries to produce commercial silage devoid of any artistic merit whatsoever. He’s shown he can act and he’s shown that he has a huge amount of creative control and executive power when it comes to making films, so why oh why oh why is he so utterly lazy?

I mean just look at Jack and Jill on paper. A $80 million budget with which Sandler will dress as a woman and ‘klutz around’. Oh and Johnny Depp will have a cameo and Al Pacino will ruin his career. Sold. It just boggles my mind that these talented people squander their myriad opportunities to create something great on rubbish like this.

This time around Sandler is his usual passable self as Jack but as Jill he really starts to grate about two seconds after appearing on screen sporting a hairpiece and prosthetic bum combination that pretty much constitutes the artistic zenith of his performance. I can’t quite decide what’s less tasteful, her vaguely racist remarks to her adopted Indian nephew or the fact that she has unresolved incestuous feelings for her brother which she creepily airs at certain points in order to apparently elicit laughter. Stumbling all over the screen like a BNP sympathising, loose bowelled Norman Wisdom, she falls over here, offends an ethnic minority there and farts thither an hither. Did I mention there’s farting?

It’s not even funny in a bad way. It’s hard to put a film in the so bad it’s good category when all it does is make you sad. Adam Sandler has managed to make watching the self-immolation of Hollywood movie stars a boring and tedious act. Gone are the days when you could sit back and laugh watching Lindsay Lohan pole dancing her way into an early retirement. Gone are the days when watching Guy Ritchie’s ‘early noughties phase’ was a questionable viewing pleasure. Now we have Sandler – a man eternally alight with a million miscalculations – up in flames on a seemingly bi-monthly basis. However earning $20 million dollars to humiliate yourself before millions does have a certain ring to it.

One also has to wonder how much Pacino was getting paid to debase himself in the name of self-satire. That he does this through playing someone with an artistic integrity that Jack spends most of the film wearing down only makes his presence even more excruciating. It’s less Being Al Pacino and more Being an Idiot. And I thought Robert De Niro was going through a late career malaise…

Jack and Jill was released in UK cinemas on the 3rd of February.

*~~~~ (1/5)

Co-writer and star Jason Segel and director James Bobin courageously embraced the arduous task of recapturing the magic of The Muppets for a new generation, safe in the knowledge that the adult ‘kids’ out there who remember the show first time around would only need a few bars of Sam Pottle and Jim Henson’s iconic theme tune to secure a captive interest.

However, this alone cannot guarantee a whole new movie’s success, and it’s because Segel and Bobin – of The Flight of the Conchords fame – have stuck to making this a puppet character-driven piece full of the coy innocence of the 70s’ franchise, and created another new Muppet character called Walter who gingerly and affectionally takes centre-stage that The Muppets (2011) still triggers the warm and fuzzy nostalgia from 30 years ago.

In the Segel-Bobin film, The Muppets’ biggest fan Walter (voiced by Peter Linz) convinces his human brother Gary (Jason Segel) to make a pilgrimage to the old Muppet studios while Gary and girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) holiday in LA. But while there, Walter overhears that the studio grounds and the theatre that housed The Muppet Show are being sold to a greedy oil tycoon, Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who has other more fatalistic plans for the site. Geared into action, Walter and co unite to convince The Muppets, including Kermit The Frog, to strive to raise the funds to save the historic site by putting on another The Muppet Show/telethon.

Although unoriginal but highly relevant, the plot – good sense overcoming corporate evil – has wisely been kept simplistic to allow the main focus to be reintroducing The Muppets and their personalities that have merely been briefly showcased through other movies and TV specials in the past few decades, but never reunited in full force to show their appeal. Walter represents the ardent, ever-loyal fan here, like a human-puppet ambassador to guide new viewers to Muppet nirvana. In doing so the often-overpowering and self-depreciating Segel screen personality actually takes a back seat with chirpy Adams, content with playing the goofy human support in some awkward but hilarious song-and-dance moments, letting the true felt-made stars shine.

Even with ample ammunition to go on an entertainment offensive against the likes of reality TV shows and faddy TV diets the TV corporations now deliver, the writers never get preachy or cynical, and in turn lose the gracious charm and ever lovable, sweet nature of the original show – even with some of the latter having fallen on hard times, like Fozzie Bear performing in some back-of-beyond bar with his less talented Muppet tribute band, The Moopets.

That said the Muppet global roundup that takes up a good percentage of the run-time, which includes Kermit, Walter and co relocating Kermit’s lost love, Miss Piggy, in Paris, working as the fashion editor of Vogue with Emily Blunt as her assistant (a Devil Wears Prada nod), is both a necessary introduction and a counterproductive snag in that its significance triggers more thrill factor for established fans, but might leave the younger viewers the filmmakers hope to target a little restless.

Indeed the only saving grace is the Muppets are so recognisable that both demographics are likely to rally behind the troupe to save the establishment, and the good-natured and earnest way they go about getting support wins over in a family-friendly way. And every Muppet Show needs its star guest that allows us to rekindle our fond affection for the zany Jack Black comedy, who as the ‘kidnapped star victim’ actually plays against type in trying to escape. There are also a host of other celebrity appearances to boost the campaign too, while Cooper has a ball in true one-dimensional baddie mode trying to bring the curtain down on the night.

We defy anyone over the age of 30 not to get emotional when the lights do go up and Kermit takes the stage – after the inevitable speedy, made-for-TV tidy-up. With all the firm favourites united and back where they belong, and old and new tunes to inanely grin along to, the Segel-Bobin resurrection is nothing short of inspiring, thought provoking and filled with authentic affection, making it a trip out to the cinema not to be missed.

****½ (4.5/5)

One of the most lovable and popular children characters currently shown on television, Little Charley Bear was only released last year and yet it has already enjoyed success with the new series airing on the CBeebies channel and toys selling at shops.

The popular teddy bear has also enjoyed some DVD releases and with this week’s release being part of a big collection of merchandising, these six new episodes will appeal to children while also having some great appeal for grown-ups to enjoy watching with them.

Each of the six episodes included start with a white, blank screen with only a toy box sitting in the middle, with the narrator (voiced by James Corden) asking if Charley Bear is there and the teddy bear pops up from behind the box or playing with his toys in different scenarios that he is imagining.

We then enter his imagination to see him pretending to be another person, from an Antarctic adventurer to a zoo keeper in a different and colourful location with his toys coming to life and being part of Charley’s imagined stories. But there would always be a situation where he would either have to help or make amends with someone, reach a particular goal or to simply explore new things about the world that young children will also feel.

The ending of each episode sees his imaginative adventures finish and the narrator says goodbye to him, with Charley waving back and continues to enjoy playing with his toys.

All six of these episodes are really pleasant and charming stories that offer a surprisingly wide option of storytelling that has made the series and the main character really appealing towards young children.

As far as animated children’s shows go, this is not the most detailed use of computer animation compared to other CBeebies shows like the Octonauts or 3rd and Bird, but it is only because the settings, locations and some of the toys featured use a very simple design layout that doesn’t require a massive budget or too much detail. Even with Charley’s imagination coming to life, the animation team made it simple and recognizable enough so that children can just focus on the characters.

Character design is made in the same simple and recognizable style that really makes them each stand out in their own rights, especially with the star of the show. From Bellarina the ballerina doll to Frozo the toy penguin to Rivet the robot, each of the characters are given their fair share of screen time on all the episodes, being part of Charley’s imaginative stories.

Some grown-ups and people interested in animation might have some issues with the overall presentation, but the animation does well with the scripts and make the characters appealing towards children.

While young audience members will have enough appeal for the series, there is something for grown-ups to enjoy and that is the narration by James Corden.

The actor and comedian previously did a good job doing the voice of Mouse in both The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child and he does another good job as the narrator with a calm, approaching voice work and as he is also the only speaking character, he really does a good job at bringing the storytelling to homes in the UK.

Some people who are new to this series might be a bit surprised, especially if they have only seen his work in Gavin & Stacey and A League of Their Own and it’s great to see him working on different projects. This might even encourage them to watch these episodes with their children rather than putting the DVD on to keep them occupied.

Overall, the elements for both children and grown-ups blend together well enough that families might be invested in Little Charley Bear together rather than being solely for young children, something that the Big Barn Farm DVDs last week didn’t quite have. Who knows, you might even find yourself saying to the screen with Corden “Are you there, Charley Bear?”

 ****~ (4/5)

Final Fantasy, eh? Die-hard fans are nigh-on rabid supporters, while RPG virgins are understandably terrified by the prospect of jumping aboard a franchise with over 40 games to its name.

Either way, despite aiming for somewhere in the middle, Final Fantasy XIII wasn’t quite what everyone was expecting. A far more linear affair than anything the Fantasy series had experimented with before, the less esoteric plot received ‘mixed’ reviews, and the new battle system combat was intriguing if not exactly refined.

Thankfully for pretty much everyone, Square Enix have not only listened to the criticisms aimed at its predecessor, but acted upon them.

Set three years after XIII’s rather epic finale, a lot has changed in the worlds of Cocoon and Gran Pulse. For one thing, Lightning (she of the pink hair and ass-kicking prowess) mysteriously vanishes upon being freed from stasis by her sister Serah.

Even worse, no one else seems to remember why or where she left – that is, until the mysterious arrival of one Noel (he of the floppy hair and a FF8 Squall-lookalike to boot) who not only reveals that he’s met Lightning, but he can take Serah to her. Cue a history-bending race through time and space to find Lightning and save the day from the even more mysterious enemy Caius.

Once the time-travelling plot gets underway, it’s instantly obvious that XIII-2 suffers from a mere fraction of the linearity that plagued its predecessor. Bouncing through time with paradoxes to solve, and endless side-quests and towns to explore offers up far more of a traditional, rambling RPG explorative feel.

Meanwhile the battle system (specifically the Paradigm Shifts) has been tightened up so it’s swifter and boasts a whole Pokémon-esque monster collecting angle which allows you to add all manner of wonderful and weird beasties to your fighting party.

Either way, this is Final Fantasy and an RPG at heart, meaning you should expect cutscenes and menus in abundance, a 20+ hour main mission and waffly monologues aplenty.

While there’s enough innovation and accessibility for fanboys and newbies both to enjoy, it feels like Square Enix are using XIII-2 as an exercise in making good on the quibbles many fans levelled at the original.

XIII-2 is far from perfect (some of the advancements and improvements still feel a little behind the modern RPG curve), but it’s beautiful to look at, thrilling in battle, and – like all the best Fantasies – insanely addictive.

And that’s something guaranteed to please just about everyone.

****~ (4/5)

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is out now and available on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Resident Evil fans are sure in for a treat this year with Resident Evil 6 being released at the end of the year and Operation Raccoon City set to be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March the twenty third (and the latest installment in the Paul W. S. Anderson film series, if you care about any of them).

But to start the year off, Capcom have released Resident Evil Revelations for the 3DS and with more horror games needed for the handheld, this is a warm welcome and is a worthy purchase for fans of the series.

Set between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, the city of Terragrigia had been destroyed by the bioterrorist group II Veltro with Bio Organic Weapons and resulted in the entire area to be evacuated. But the bioterrorist group then took over the city’s prized ocean liner, the SS Queen Zenobia, and infected one fifth of the ocean with a new virus derived from the T-virus known as the T-Abyss virus.

The Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) sent Jill Valentine and her partner Parker Luciani to the ship in order to find the missing Chris Redfield and stop II Veltro from infecting the world’s ocean.

But you soon find out that Chris is actually looking for the terrorists in European Mountains and has teamed up with another BSAA agent named Jessica Sherawat.

The series has always been known to be ridiculous at times, but the story was a bit confusing to start with. But as soon as I understood what was happening and got used to the game, it became an engaging plot filled with some intense scenes, creepy monsters and some of the best visuals currently on the console.

Some 3DS owners have probably already got an idea of how the game works with the free demo that was available at the eShop and the whole game plays in the tradition of having easy to use controls with new weapons and items to use during your eight to ten hour play through.

The game is split into two specific gameplay elements that works really well and adds variety to the game. When you play as Chris and Jessica on the mountains, it plays out very much in an action-packed shooter as you take on infected wolves and go through obstacles. Meanwhile, the levels on the SS Queen Zenobia is in the traditional suspenseful horror that the older games were and you must defend yourself on limited ammo and some herbal plants against the T-Abyss monsters that are based on deadly marine creatures.

But while the mountain levels are action-packed, they don’t offer much variety or colour as the levels on the ocean. The ocean levels see you go through so many different rooms, from dark control rooms to glorious restaurants that really makes the experience that much more interesting, especially when there are times when you will have to go through water to reach a particular destination. It’s a bit of a pity that they couldn’t add monstrous sharks or giant sea creatures in these water-filled sequences to add that much more to the game.

Gameplay is great most of the time as the controls are easy to operate after getting used to the buttons and going through the first ten minutes in the game that makes it a bit surprising that Nintendo bothered to release the Circle Pad accessory as the game plays fine without it. It does make it a bit bothersome at times that you can’t move backwards or forwards when using a gun and because it then puts the camera in a point-of-view perspective, you can only move right to left to aim and shoot at enemies. While it only gets annoying at times, it can work well to build intensity on the cruise levels when monsters are attacking you in tight corridors.

And that is all just on the single player story mode! The developers also added several missions that you can take on to get new guns and weapons, from either taking down a particular number of enemies or try to find fifteen handprints with a high-tech scanner. The plus side to these is that you can get more missions through SpotPass and Street Pass. You can also unlock Raid mode that acts as a replacement to Mercenaries, in which you have to try and get the best score in a short amount of time and it is still a shame that Capcom could not include Mercenaries 3D as a package, but there is still enough in this game to satisfy gamers.

With the mix of action and horror gameplay, a lengthy single player mode and a great looking game from start to finish, Resident Evil Revelations has started the year off to great expectations of what we can expect on the 3DS. Even if you have not played any previous games in the series, this is a good place to give it a go.

****~ (4/5)

We review this week’s Bollywood release which already attained the most successful Box Office opening tag in Hindi film history within a few days. Agneepath is revenge drama starring Hritik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Rishi Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma production and directed by debutant Karan Malhotra.

Although a remake of Dharma’s very own 1990 starring the one and only Amitabh Bachchan.

So is this re-imagination better than the original? Click on the image below to find out in our very special Battle Of the Remakes Episode ft J. Hurtado (AKA Zombeaner), the main Bollywood and South Indian film writer from Twitchfilm.

Click here to take you to Upodcast to listen to the Review!

Shownotes:

• Introduction
• 1990′s Agneepath and the differences
• Expectation after seeing the trailer
• The performances
• Scenes that stood out
• Dissapointments
• Why is this version of Agneepath the perfect movie for Hindi film novices?

Let us know what you thought of the show in the comment section below!

@asimburney

Rosie lives in a lovely garden with Raggles the rabbit, Bluebird (the blue bird), Big Bear, cheeky Will, shy Holly and Oakley, the old oak tree. They enjoy adventures, get scared by strange noises, play pranks and solve problems and everyone always winds up happy.

*****

Everything’s Rosie is the latest hit with the tots to come out of CBeebies, the BBC channel for the very young. If you’re not familiar with it, this show is unlikely to be of any great appeal to you and if you are, then your kids are likely already devoted fans. Although this is a show impossible to review or critique by any of the usual criteria, that does not  make it bad by any means, just harmless and aimed at the very little.

Everything’s Rosie is presented in the form of CG animation (predictably) and although it is clearly cheap by (unfair) comparison to the standards of Pixar and Dreamworks, it is nonetheless charming and enjoyable for its target audience. Rosie and Co. do not get up to very much – scooter races, searching for the source of a mysterious echo, watering Oakley, playing harmless pranks, enjoying picnics – and it always ends with a safe moral and a happy conclusion, but that is what the under-fives want and need. Once you venture into CBBC territory (Horrible Histories, Tracy Beaker, Sorry I’ve Got No Head), you can introduce slightly more grown up themes and a bit more sophistication, but it is neither necessary nor appropriate here.

The DVD comprises 13 episodes:-

• Things That Go Glug in the Night
• Raggles and the Reporter
• The Mystery of the Four Feathers
• The Call of the Wild
• How to Catch an Echo
• How to Teach a Bear to Meet the Queen
• The Curious Story of Holly and the Four Bears
• How Will Got His Wings
• Little Bear
• How Rosie Mislaid Her Raggles
• The Slowest Race That Ever There Was
• Skipping Bears, Talking Trees and Knitted Nests

Each is around 10 minutes long and my five year old sat and watched the lot in one go without fidgeting, so they must be doing something right. He likes Will the best “because he is funny and cheeky”. You can get this series on DVD from 6th February 2012, or enter our competition here and win one!

If you’re my son’s age ***** (5/5)

The concert film can be an odd cinematic experience. It’s a genre which places the viewer in the position of comfortable, passive observer when in reality, what’s really being presented is an atmosphere offering the complete opposite, willing its audience to contribute in as lively and exuberant manner as possible.

The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think (filmed at last year’s Fuji Rock Festival in Japan) is perhaps the best example yet of testing an audience’s participatory threshold, and watching this thrilling 90-minute audio and sensory assault, it’s incredibly hard not to succumb to the urge of leaping up out of your seat and triumphantly punching the air as soon as the duo lay down that first beat.

Eschewing the traditional accompaniments associated with the genre (pre and post-gig backstage shenanigans, talking heads of fans in various states of excited and jittery anticipation) we’re thrust straight into the action as Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons (two surprisingly ordinary, nerdy-looking guys) are revealed behind a huge bank of mixing desks and modulators. With the duo introduced within a circular lighting structure, we’re lead through their blistering array of hits which are supported by a huge patchwork of stunning visual instillations, spilling out and evolving between each song.

Director Adam Smith (a long-time collaborator with the duo) understands how to add a cinematic sheen to the film, and he uses kinetic editing and some nifty post-production techniques to achieve this. Particularly effective are the huge animated human silhouettes which escape the confines of the screen and begin to float out above the crowd during ‘Swoon’. Smith also leaves behind the action on stage a couple of times, and we’re treated to some trippy sequences which wouldn’t look out of place in a Wong Kai-Wai feature, particularly a moment where a cute girl in a dreamy, euphoric state is whisked around the outer bar area, amongst friends and fellow revellers.

Throughout the event, it’s really wonderful and uplifting to see the lights and colours from the stage bouncing off the faces of thousands of enraptured Japanese fans, and the adoration the duo receive really brings home the transformative power and universal appeal of dance music. The hi-def camerawork (20 were used to record the gig) looks sensational, and both the gorgeous colour palette and crowd detail (often found in low light) are incredible. Presented in glorious Dolby 7:1 surround sound (mixed by the Chemical Brothers themselves), the big screen is really the only place to see this film.

Watching the duo in action makes you realise what an amazing body of work they have amassed over two decades on the music scene, and all the old favourites are here (the throbbing electronic riff from ‘Out of Control’ segues beautifully into the screaming psychedelic strains of ‘Setting Sun’).

This is a must for all fans and indeed anyone who is interested in seeing a truly dazzling and visceral live-action music experience adapted to the cinema screen. For best results, grab a seat in row E.

Don’t Think is on limited release now.

Not to be confused as one of the cutesy tween stars, the Olsen Twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley, little sister Elizabeth has cut her fledgling feature film teeth with far more sinister material in debut writer-director Sean Durkin’s psychological thriller, Martha Marcy May Marlene. Olsen’s performance can only be described as a groundbreaking career move as she takes the lead as Martha, a girl escaping the clutches of a cult existence. Durkin’s unsettling and whimsical thriller is so effective in disorientating the viewer, as you try to decipher what is fact and fiction through the eyes and memories of a troubled young woman, that it leaves more disturbing questions than answers.

After two years living under the name of Marcy May, Martha (Olsen) runs away from a hippie-style, self-sufficient commune run by the enigmatic Patrick (John Hawkes) after witnessing some atrocities. She contacts her estranged older sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), who is happily married to Ted (Hugh Dancy) and living a prosperous lifestyle away from the city. But back at her sister’s holiday home, Martha begins reliving the nightmares as we question who is the real danger in a somewhat idyllic setting?

Those of us unfortunate enough to come into contact with such cult-like groups will acknowledge that the effects on any one person are very different to another, and the subtly with which the ‘teachings’ – or reprogramming – occurs makes re-assimilation into society all the more tenuous, even treacherous on the individual concerned. Durkin has captured this slow and deliberate process with great expertise and harrowing effect in his filming style, also showing that the ‘victim’ (Martha) can also be the perpetrator.

Durkin wants our empathy with Martha’s experience to stand firm, hence the lines drawn at the start of the film are very clear, with Olsen painting a tragic, haunted and exhausted case after her cry for help. We witness her numbed personality and fully experience the frustrations of Martha’s sister and sceptical brother-in-law as they try to gain ‘the truth’ during her changeable mood swings. Here, our sympathies grow for a family divided.

It is only after Martha’s increasingly erratic behaviour that our sympathies then become shredded, and the flashbacks fill in more of the picture. Every gesture or quote from Marcy May’s lifestyle is never squandered, but rears its ugly head later on in some part of the story, making for a highly accomplished piece of first-time writing. That said Durkin deliberately leaves elements unanswered to continue challenging our perceptions and prejudices that cloud our altering judgements.

Naturally, with such a controversial subject matter, some might have trouble watching the more abusive scenes, which are never titillating as to cause unnecessary offence or diminish to the problematic nature of societal faction groups, as there are so many elements at play. However, these scenes are more menacing in a subconscious way as we try to reason our way through events, and figure out what is the appropriate response at times. In a sense, Durkin has become both educator and manipulator, with his star, Olsen, as his alluring accomplice, and we are left with our character loyalties in disarray after watching.

Both filmmaker and star stand to benefit from this excellent and somewhat mesmerising, if fearful and a touch ambiguous psychological ride whose power is in the subtleties of the fragile human condition, as well as its astoundingly self-assured lead performance from rising star Olsen.

****~ (4/5)

Rose is new to Brighton. She is leaving something relatively unpleasant (but not specifically explained) behind her and is seeking to create a new life for herself and although naturally shy, she manages to strike up conversations and burgeoning friendships with a pleasant mix of people – homeless Joe, barman Harry, half-naked housemate Kyle and underpants wearing launderette user Carlos. Over the course of a few days she chats with them, plays music to them and mingles at parties, whilst trying to feel at home in a lovely but unfamiliar city.

*****

Cards on the table time – I approached this film with no small amount of trepidation, having learned that it hailed from Jamie Patterson, the writer and director of Billboard, a film I had little time for. But (and it is a big but), such apprehension was unwarranted, for here we indeed have a true hidden gem of a film, a wonderful, funny, charming, sweet little number that will hopefully find a wide audience and much-warranted acclaim for all involved.

Rose is played by Ellen Cosgrove, the Dublin-born lead singer of Brighton-based Ellen and The Echo. Although her vocals are threaded through the film, whether in scenes of her playing and singing, or over the top of the on-screen action, her presence as lead actress is warranted on merit. This is no mere showcase for her talents as a singer-songwriter and she proves herself to be a capable, affecting, affable actress, enjoying the quirky (but not annoyingly so) charms of her new-found friends and squirming with genuine embarrassment as she messes up from time to time.

Although the rest of the cast are far from faultless, they are a talented group of players and they convey their respective characters well. As Harry, Rose’s new found friend, Ross Scarfield is genuine and friendly, but with his own (believably portrayed) hang-ups and Eddy Brimson handles the film’s main emotionally affecting scene as Joe, a homeless guy who finally tells Rose how he came to be on the streets. The real finds here though are Amanda Piery and George Webster as Rose’s new housemates, Nicole and Kyle. They are at times laugh out loud funny and always endearing, handling their scenes with confidence and ability. Characters that could have been irritating, “kooky” caricatures wind up instead being kind, sweet and silly.

While far from incident-packed, there is enough going on to fill out the running time. Although for the most part Rose walks from encounter to encounter, stopping off at the occasional gig or party and we hear a lot of authentic Brighton music, there is never any danger of being bored, the natural performances and appealing characters keeping us hooked to see how it all pans out, even if we do have the sneaky suspicion that it is all going to resolve itself a little too smoothly. That easy resolution to the different story strands might grate with some, though by then enough goodwill has been won to carry us through, especially with Rose’s question at one point, “do you believe in fairy tales?” – there is a sense of walking through a slightly idealised version of Brighton, where it is not unreasonable to see everything tied up with a bow as the curtain falls.

This will not be to everyone’s tastes. Some will find it too twee, or lacking in dramatic heft, or too much of a gentle amble along one person’s week, but those are not criticisms by this reviewer, simply an acknowledgement that not everyone will find what they are looking for here. But if you come expecting a funny, sweet, engaging film, showcasing some superlative music and taking us on an enjoyable voyage with Rose as she tries to settle into an unfamiliar place, you will come away happy. Even now, a week on, I still walk along humming the music and chuckling at Kyle’s film-stealing scenes. The film had a brief run at the Duke of York cinema in Brighton, but it is unclear how soon it will be available on the big or small screen. Track it down any way you can.

****~ (4/5)

]]> http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2012/02/02/city-of-dreamers-review/feed/ 1 http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2012/02/02/carnage-review/ http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2012/02/02/carnage-review/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:00:04 +0000 Lisa Giles-Keddie http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/?p=125632

Tried and tested on stage from Paris to London to Broadway, New York, Yasmina Reza’s successful play God of Carnage was always going to present a challenge being adapted for film by the playwright herself. However, the key to the story – shortened to Carnage – is the power of the acting talent assigned to play the parents; director Roman Polanski’s excellent casting of Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly as the Longstreets, and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz as the Cowans is the absolute tour de force of the film.

After the Cowans’ son, Zachary (Polanski’s own son Elvis) ‘disfigures’ the Longstreets’ son, Ethan (Eliot Berger) with a stick in the park, the Longstreets, Penelope (Foster) and Michael (Reilly) invite the Cowans, Nancy (Winslet) and Alan (Waltz) over to their apartment to discuss what course of action should be taken next. However, a civilised, albeit contrived meeting unravels into childish chaos.

Set in New York, but filmed in Paris, Polanski’s Carnage is brilliantly acted, scripted, produced and directed, with all the nitty gritty relationship angst allowed to vent and later explode under one roof and in one location. The latter allows the tension to build from the start with the false pleasantries while Penelope drafts a formal-looking statement for the Cowans about what happened, adding in inflammatory language. The delicious development of the story is in the detail that you and the characters pick up on about each of the four players that suggests possible reasons for the kids’ ‘character flaws’ and the boys’ fight. In suppressing their true feelings, the whole fiasco and attention on pointless irrelevancies becomes a farce of epic proportions, which is where the dark humour lies.

Both sets of parents are complete contradictions that re-draw their allegiances as the story unfolds, down to basic ‘man verses woman’ and even macho traits, such as the hilarious scene involving high-flying lawyer Alan’s mobile phone, as well as the mens’ alpha dominance rearing its head over scotch and a cigar. While Waltz is delightful as the arrogant and blasé Alan, more interested in his business life than his personal one, and taking amusement from toying with his new acquaintances and his wife, it’s Reilly’s salesman character Michael who is the real catalyst in the story, manipulating the situation and encouraging the characters’ prejudices to pour forth.

Foster is a wonderful bag of shredded nerves and morals as liberal humanitarian Penelope who wants the others to see the bigger picture of the origins of violence from a world perspective. Her inverted snobbery matches Nancy’s prosperous, aloof nature, and after an unfortunate cobbler pie incident, their role reversal in the confrontation scenes allows them to see each others’ side of events as they bond over the trials and tribulations of motherhood and marriage. Winslet is a rollicking drunk to behold as she lets her prissy demeanour slip.

Carnage is one of the most accomplished and illuminating comedies of this year that lays bare the true, hidden depth of its characters within a downward spiral of complete folly. Polanski’s theatrical film is a breath of comedic fresh air at the box office, and a highly entertaining must-see.

***** (5/5)

First released in German cinemas way back in 2005, Before the Fall (aka Napola) is an impressive coming of age tale which looks at the trials and tribulations of its young protagonist whose fall from innocence is as brutal and hard-hitting as they come, and in the worse kind of environment.

It’s 1942 and young Friedrich Weimer (Charlie Hunnam lookalike Max Riemelt) is facing the prospects as an unremarkable and dreary future. A talented boxer, his skills are noticed by a couple of high-ranking Nazi officers during a match, and he’s offered a place at the prestigious National Political Academy (NaPolA), a private school which churns out the Hitler elite. His father is vehemently opposed to the idea (he insists on him starting an apprenticeship in the local factory) but Weimer rebels and takes off to the place he believes offers the best opportunities for him to make a go of himself.

The school proves to be a tough experience where he’s subject to fascist, dehumanising daily training rituals as he’s indoctrinated into the Nazi way of life, alongside being groomed to win the state boxing championship. He forms a close friendship with Albrecht Stein, a fellow student and roommate. Stein is the son of a senior Nazi governor, but he’s a mild-mannered pacifist who is more interested in picking up a pen than a gun.

The reality of war hits home one night when the students are asked to help participate in the hunt for a gang of escaped Russian POWs in the nearby forest. Given live ammunition and encouraged to show aggressive force, it’s an event which is the catalyst for a string of incidents which ultimately change Weimer’s perspective and makes him question the abhorrent and inhumane cause  he serves.

Many of the tropes associated with school-based rites of passage dramas are present and correct in Before the Fall (a older, bullying hall monitor, the overly sadistic teachers and conflicted classroom ideologies) but it’s a well-made and convincing-acted film, which doesn’t hold back in it’s portrayal of the very real horrors of combat training under the Nazis (one of the tormented students meets his demise in a particularly horrific way). The intensive and cruel exercises the students embark upon on a daily basis are almost unwatchable at times and result in a number of incredibly intense scenes, where the lives of the young characters are constantly put into jeopardy.

Quite why the film has sat on the shelf for so long is a mystery (both director and star went in to greater success with 2008’s The Wave) as this is foreign language drama which offers the kind of subject matter and themes which are appealing to a universal cinema/small screen audience. It’s also acts as an important history lesson, and an audience of a similar age to the actually characters in the film will benefit from watching this.

Sadly, marketing-wise, what’s presented here is yet is another example of the DVD cover art betraying what the film is actually about, and instead opting to present something resembling a high-octane Hollywood war action adventure. It’s a great disserve for this thoughtful and sobering slice of history, told from a uniquely compelling perspective.

****~ (4/5)

Our thirst for family adventure movies is never quenched, and the promise of yet another involving a mystical, far-off land packed with interesting creatures promises big things. Carving a niche in such a market is Canadian filmmaker Brad Peyton, the debut director of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore that got mixed reviews in 2010. Tasked with breathing life back into the Journey to the Center of the Earth franchise from 2008, and with the second film simply shortened to Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Peyton’s shaky foray into family feature filmmaking has been redeemed.

In this adventure, a more mature Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) is back on another quest to find yet another lost relative at the centre of the Earth, his grandfather (played by Michael Caine), after receiving a coded message from him. Reluctantly accepting help from his mum’s enthusiastic new partner, Hank Parsons (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), the pair decodes the message and finds the hidden location of a mystery island through the classics of Jules Verne, Jonathan Swift and Robert Louis Stevenson. But getting to the island will prove tricky and highly dangerous, and the pair enlists the help of pilot Gabato (Luis Guzmán) and his attractive and smart teenage daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) who get ‘sucked’ into the bizarre rescue.

As such ideas and mythical vistas have been seen and recreated before, Journey 2 is inevitably predictable in a respectful, copycat Jurassic Park/Avatar kind of way – even down to florescent forest toadstools from the latter. However, it bounds along on a flurry of enthusiastic energy and silly but amusing frolics and familiar squabbles between Hank and Anderson Sr, never taking itself too seriously. In turn, it provides ample family fun with good clean jokes that neither bore the adults or sore over the kids’ heads.

It also aims to spark literary inquisitiveness that will have the youngsters checking out all the old adventure classics that its own journey is based on, including the lost City of Atlantis. In addition, and as with any film in this genre, it is peppered with lessons to be learnt and appreciation for your elders – even if Caine as Anderson Sr. is as unreliable as they come, and looks like an aging rocker at the end. It also has its faults when dealing with scaling of its animals in this new world (big animals are small, and vice versa) – just check out Anderson Sr.’s fireflies illuminating his abode that remain normal size.

The casting of beefy Rock – still a man giant from Fast & Furious 5 last year – with a toned Hutcherson acting alongside Hudgens in the tiniest of shorts and vest top and with curls to die for is designed to titillate and provide the glamour among the forest undergrowth. If nothing else, this display of youthful virility will thrust Hutcherson into the hormonal and rather over-crowded teen spotlight currently occupied by the Twilight boys. Boy-next-door Hutcherson has an appealing integrity about him that carries through from the first film, even though he endearingly struggles with teenage angst and bad chat-up lines this time around. Still, he can handle bee flying – another unoriginal nod to another kids’ film classic, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.

As for the 3D, it seems to have been deployed in this film merely to allow The Rock to do his party trick of firing virtual berries in our faces using pecks power alone – and it gets some giggles. Intimidating in size but as soft a playful puppy dog, the only really disconcerting feature of Johnson’s appearance is his oddly placed nipples that provided a fascinating, if horrifying distraction in the drearier moments. Still, the actor’s comic timing laced with sarcasm is in full supply in this, and he produces some comedy moments with Guzmán and Caine as the grown men try to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of making a quick escape. Apart from that, the 3D is just a nice, visually enhancing factor, but hardly earth-shatteringly important to the story context, so you decide whether you wish to spend the extra money when paying for a family cinema outing.

As foreseen as the ending is, it’s the journey taken that is key, in generating the laughs and the life lessons along the way. Journey 2 may not offer any exciting new premise to the genre and is not without its continuity errors, but its appealing cast has a great chemistry and an infectious team spirit that gives you a buzz and entertains you right until the corny and equally predictable finale.

***~~ (3/5)

With rumours of another film from the series in the air and a well-deserved Oscar nod for Gary Oldman now is a good time to revisit Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of John LeCarre’s Tinker Tailor Solider Spy.

The story is no stranger to the small screen with the Alec Guinness fronted BBC series being, until now, the definitive version. Alfredson’s film is a meticulously crafted and intriguing thriller, taut in execution and bold in its refusal to sex up its dossier.

This is a superficially complex story of deceit and betrayal, told with confidence and benefitting from an exceptional cast and in revisiting the film there is a real sense of the depth of emotion in this collection of lonely men who are fighting what seems like an endless war against an oncoming network of internal and external enemies. If you want a more in-depth look at the film you can check out my review from last year.

Oldman’s Smiley is a masterclass of the understated leading man and watching the film for the second time you become aware of the delicacy of his movements and the deep well of emotions which briefly break the surface (two clear examples are the Christmas party and the arrogance of a high ranking MP) and it is a powerful performance which rewards further viewings.

A key indicator of the well told nature of le Carre’s story is the enjoyment to be had even though you know from the beginning who the mole is. Partially this is because everyone, even Smiley, knows in their hearts who the man at the centre of the betrayal but also because the mystery is so well revealed that you hang on every slight development.

Maria Djurkovic’s evocative production design, itself something of an awards magnet, is a treat on the Blu-ray, with its plethora of detail every bit as important in immersing us in this world as Jacqueline Durran’s costume work or Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography. The world is so dutifully created, with great skill, that it fades into the background as the story takes hold though without the explicit attention to period detail the film wouldn’t work nearly as well.

It’s rare that a cast is as uniformly this good, particularly with such a sizeable ensemble, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy impressing in particular, and each subsequent viewing is a rewarding experience. In taking us back in time once again Alfredson’s maturation as a director is evident in his ability to inspire his actors to surrender any sense of ego to the story. Despite the complex nature of the plot there’s a wealth of character here and it is their revelation, as much as that of the spy within, that is the film’s triumph.

****~ (4/5)

Extras:

It’s a well stocked affair with the usual back-slapping interviews giving a genuine sense of affection for the film and the people involved. There are a number of small featurettes focusing on a character or the institutions but the real meat is to be found in the sections devoted to le Carre and the interviews with the main cast. Each redoubles the enjoyment of the film and what comes across is partly where the film is at its best – that there is a great deal of unseen and necessary depth to the film.

***~~ (3/5)

Expect the unexpected with Man on a Ledge, Ghosts of Cité Soleil documentary filmmaker Asger Leth’s first feature film that offers an ever varying, well-paced and highly enjoyable crime thriller scenario. In fact, Leth might well have succeeded where other directors have failed; casting Sam Worthington in a comfortable role for once, an action-man niche for his ‘reserved’ – some might argue ‘wooden’ – acting personality.

Ex-cop Nick Cassidy (Worthington) has been convicted and jailed for stealing a $40 million dollar diamond from unscrupulous Manhattan property tycoon David Englander (Ed Harris). After being released for the day to attend his father’s funeral, Cassidy escapes then ends up checking into upmarket Manhattan hotel, the famous Roosevelt Hotel, and climbing onto his hotel room window ledge, 21 stories up, in what looks like an attempted suicide bid brought on by grief. But nothing is as it seems, and everything is for a reason.

Think ‘Noughties Phone Booth meets Ocean’s Eleven’, with a touch of Statham rough-and-ready flung in from Worthington. Apart from the nicely stimulated tension and intrigue as to where the whole narrative is heading, one of the main reasons Leth’s film works is we like Worthington’s Cassidy for no apparent reason from the start, other than we have a ‘cop’s hunch’ that he’s a guy who has taken a fall and must be allowed to restore justice – by any means. Like a Statham character – albeit minus the slick action moves, Cassidy isn’t squeaky clean, but he fights his corner and has values that we can relate to. It’s certainly a time-honoured premise that allows us to feel the world isn’t such a bad place after all, full of latter-day, flawed ‘heroes’.

Admittedly, while some parts are amusingly far-fetched – as in one gravity-defying fall at the end, another obvious reason Leth’s film is a potential hit is the attractive cast. Aside from Worthington, Elizabeth Banks is a cop negotiator playing on borrowed career time who tries to coax Cassidy off the ledge then gets a lot more on her plate than she bargained for. An athletic-looking Jamie Bell also plays Cassidy’s kid brother, Joey, teamed up with equally toned and sultry Genesis Rodriguez as his high-maintenance girlfriend, Angie. Coupled with the eye-popping gymnastics and outfits, the pair also creates a foolish comedy repartee that keeps things interesting while the tension mounts all around.

In times of austerity, Harris as Englander symbolises the latter-day folk devil – the greedy, corrupt businessman we all love to hate – and is faultless in the part. In fact, Leth’s fictional story is almost a self-serving diversion from his gritty documentary making, in that ‘the wronged’ and deserved triumphs – even if it ends with a groan-inducing slap-on-the-back for honest Irish roots and integrity.

Leth also cloaks a lot of the characters’ responses in a healthy dollop of dirty cop cynicism, which permeates proceedings and takes the edge off delivering a more polished and serious crime affair. Indeed, the film’s minor flaws, subtle self-mockery and irony work in its favour, bolstering the detailed observations and its characters’ complexed anxieties. Nobody is privy to how things will pan out, and there is a nice little twist at the end in an action flick where the sexes get to play equal in driving proceedings to fruition.

****~ (4/5)