Rev Stan's film blog

The short review for the longest film title: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 3D*

Wasn't going to go and see Pirates 4, they've gone downhill rapidly since the first. Then I was offered a free ticket to a private preview screening...

So what was it like? Well it is certainly more coherent than Pirates 3 but overall it is just mildly entertaining. The problem is that we've seen and heard it all before in the first three films: the fights, the escapes and the Jack Sparrow jokes, nothing is new.

OK so there are mermaids in this, which were very well done and probably the best bit and there is no wooden acting by Orlando Bloom but ultimately the story just feels pedestrian. It follows three different parties racing to find the fountain of youth - the Spanish, the British led by Barbosa (the ever wonderful Jeffrey Rush) and Black Beard who is forcing Cap'n Jack to navigate.

Ten minutes in I asked myself: "Would I care if the film projector broke now and I never got to see the rest of the film?" And the answer was "No". The story just feels like a loose structure on which to pin the aforementioned fights, escapes and Jack Sparrow jokes.

Love Johnny Depp but it's time for Cap'n Jack to hang up it hat. Please.

I'm giving it 38%, Rotten Tomatoes aggregated critics rating is 39% from 121 reviews with a surprisingly high user rating of 86% so perhaps it is one for the kids. Metacritic gives it a rating of 45% from 30 reviews but has yet to register a user rating.

Don't fooled into thinking that the film is as exciting as the trailers looks:

 

The amazing American

To say that The American is about a killer with a heart is to over simplify and do a diservice to this complex and atmospheric character study.

The only thing we know for sure about George Clooney's charcter Jack/Edward is that his job is to kill people; for whom and in what capacity is never revealed. The scene is set in a secluded snowy landscape where Jack is spending time with a lover in a chalet. On a walk he quickly realises he's being stalked. A gun battle ensues and the lover, now a witness, is disposed of with seemingly little thought. 

Quickly departing the scene of the crime he heads to Italy where his boss/handler arranges a place for him to live in a small mountain village where he decides enough is enough and is given one last, low key job to perform.

With a screenplay written by Roland Joffe (28 Days Later/Brighton Rock) and directed by Anton Corbijn (Control) The American isn't your average spy/assassin thriller/action movie. For a start the action sequences are few. Instead Corbijn plays on layers of ambiguity to create something far more deliciously subtle and tense that seems more about the central character than the unfolding plot.

The idylic pastoral setting it at once beguiling and threatening with Corbijn unexpectedly shattering the peace on occasion and making even the nosy neighbours seem slightly less than innocent. Jack is, of course, the biggest ambiguity. He is an emotionless, alert and experienced killer and yet someone who craves company and closeness. Friendship, particularly with women, is his weakness.

#LFF Another Year with director/cast Q&A

Didn't get tickets to the actual glitzy gala thingy in Leicester Square, with all the celebs, but in a marvellous innovation they decided to broadcast the event live to cinemas around the country. So instead I walked the 15 minutes to the very nice Clapham Picture House and sat with South West London's finest, with a very quaffable glass of cabernet sauvignon. (And rather than costing £35 it cost £6.5o with my PH membership, bit of a bonus there).

We didn't get the live coverage of the red carpet as promised but we did get the opening speeches and the cast and director Q&A afterwards.

But first the film. Now I like Mike Leigh's films. I like the ordinaryness of them but how he manages to turn that ordinaryness into something that is engaging and entertaining. It's not for everyone, I know but there is something quite profound in everday existence.

The story, as the name suggests, takes in a year in the lives of Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen). First up, Tom and Gerri are happily married. They work, Gerri as a counsellor and Tom as an engineer. They have a garden and an allotment. They have a son who is normal and well-adjusted. And they have good friends. They are normal.

There is no high drama in their lives but the piece explores differing attitudes towards life, the choices made and how they deal with what life throws at them.

It is superbly acted, as you might imagine with a cast that also includes the wonderful Lesley Manville as Gerri's friend Mary, Oliver Maltman as Tom's friend Joe and a cameo appearance from Imelda Staunton. And it is funny, sad, moving, frustrating and above all entertaining.

Autumn is definitely here as new film releases flood the market

After the drip feed of interesting fodder to watch on the silver screen over the summer, bam, it's Autumn and the taps have been turned on.

My tired and addled brain is spinning with what to see as there are at least four English language films I'm interested in before I even start looking at the foreign fare. It's a good job that my initial list is all English language and definitely in the trashier/light/pop corn movies quadrant so if I want to close my eyes for a bit it won't matter too much.

Here's what I'm considering for this weekends viewing pleasure:

The Runaways - purely because I desperate to see Kristen Stewart put in a non-Bella esqe performance that justifies why some critics think she is so good.

Going the Distance - Drew Barrymore was behind and also in one of my all time favourite films, Donnie Darko, and quite frankly a frothy rom-com with beautiful young people in it might be all I can cope with this weekend

Tamara Drew - Mainly because it's got a great cast of Brits and I'm hoping that Dominic Cooper still has his buff Phedre body* and gets his top off, although I suspect he won't

Cyrus - 'Uncompromising, dark and savagely funny....this year's must see indie-comedy.' Naturally I'll be the judge of that but I'm an eternal optimist.

* He played Hyppolytus at the National Theatre last year which involved him wearing combats and a tight vest for most of his performance...and he'd obviously not be a stranger to the gym. View the production pics over on the NT's website.

Cherry Tree Lane

There is something confusing about Brit flick Cherry Tree Lane and it isn't the plot. That is simple enough: Middle class couple eating dinner in their nice home, son is out at football, doorbell rings and they are attacked and held captive by a group of their son's acquaintances who await his return to enact revenge for 'grassing'.

The confusion comes because I don't understand what Paul Andrew Williams really wants to convey with this film.

It has some quite artistic cinematography. All very nice but lingering extreme close ups, shot with minimal depth of field, don't add anything when the film merely skims the surface of the story, foregoing any attempt to get beneath the skin of the characters or plot.

The opening scene hints that there is discord between the parents but this is never explained, explored or even revisited.

The son's misdemeanour, that earns the wrath of this group of teens, isn't explained either. And we learn little about the hoodies to challenge perceptions hints of back story are fleeting and left unexplored.

Without knowing the characters' motives or the consequences of their action you are left with something that is supposed to be a tense thriller but just frustrates.

22 Bullets - well I really enjoyed it anyway

French writer, director and actor Richard Berry has based 22 Bullets loosely on the story of Marseille mafia boss Jacky Imbert who was shot 22 times and survived albeit having lost the feeling in his right hand.

Berry constructed the story around this incident, Jacky becomes Charly Mattei, played by the wonderful Jean Leno, who is gunned down after retiring from the business. His past having caught up with him and despite not being able to use his right hand he sets about enacting revenge on his would-be assassin's. 

Yes 22 Bullets is violent to the point of having to look away a couple of times and there are some cliched gangster movie motives such as Charly's love of opera but underneath that it is a character piece about  childhood friends whose life's philosophies are based on two fundamentally different premises.

Charly and Tony Zacchia (Kad Merad) who is now the Mafia-chief about Marseille town had sworn to stick together through life and death but while Charly believes he can gain some sort of redemption from turning his back on his former life and living quietly and modestly with his family and a young son Anatole (a great performance from Max Baissette De Malglaive), Zacchia believes that blood on the hands can never be washed off and all evil deeds are therefore equal.

By giving the characters history and lives with families and responsibilities outside the crimeworld, Berry has given this gangster flick more depth and dare I say it a bit of soul. That isn't to say that it isn't a taut edge of your seat suspense thriller because it is that too although I know the mix hasn't sat too well with some reviewers (see below).

Great film, I really enjoyed it.

Professional reviews:

Interesting that the Herald mentions A Prophet and Mesrine, the latter I really enjoyed but the former I didn't quite feel lived up to the hype:

EmpireOnline gave it just two stars concluding: "Despite being based on a true-life Marseilles gangland story and a towering Reno turn, Richard Berry's thriller is an uneven stew of character development, violence and sub-Top Gear car chases. Disappointing."

HeraldScotland gave it three stars: Set beside French game changers such as A Prophet and the Mesrine duo, it can at times feel as dated as an old Johnny Hallyday track.

Beautiful, Beautiful Kate

Wow, where did this little debut from actor turned writer/director Rachel Ward come from?

In a radio interview Ward said she got fed up of the limited and stereotyped roles for women in films and turned to writing and then film-making as a more satisfying career. She said she was attracted to making Beautiful Kate because it had the sort of roles she would have loved to have played when she was an actress.

And what great trio of roles they are: a tactless trophy girlfriend, a perceptive but overlooked stay-at-home sister and a teenage femme fatale.

Set in a remote Australian outback settlement, Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) a successful writer is returning home after 20 years absence, to see his dying father with his much-younger, trophy girlfriend Toni (Maeve Dermody) in tow.

Ned's father Bruce (Bryan Brown) is being cared for by youngest daughter. the ever-patient and good-hearted Sally (Rachel Griffiths back with her natural Australian accent). It is not a happy reunion for Ned and his father, the latter quickly seeking to criticise and belittle. Naturally Ned bristles but not only because of his father's bitter words but because the family home holds a lot of painful reminders as to why he ran away 20-years earlier.

As the story unfolds we learn that Ned had a twin sister Kate (Sophie Lowe) on whom he doted and an older brother Clifford. Kate died in a car accident and Cliff hung himself. Switching from present to past, the story of the fateful summer before his departure and his siblings deaths is told.

Did Rapt have me rapt?

Blimey, yet more French cinema. I'm beginning to wonder whether the Curzon bought a job lot...not that I'm complaining there has been some great french cinema in recent years. But will Rapt be classed among them?

It is certainly a fresh take on the standard kidnapping yarn. Neither rich industrialist Stanislas Graff (Yvan Attal) or his wife and family bargain on quite how a life changing experience his kidnapping will be for start.

*potential plot spoilers* Aside from the more usual trauma - these kidnappers show they mean business by cutting off one of Stan's fingers and posting it before even so much as writing a ransom note - there are all the sordid little details of his past which the police and, disasterously, the press unearth.

If the affairs and love nests aren't bad enough there is the expensive gambling habit which means that Stan isn't quite as rich as the kidnappers think which, inevitably, leads to some questioning whether the whole thing hasn't been elaborately staged.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - behind the scenes

OK so the trailer made me nervous but this little behind the scenes featurettes has got me all excited again. Perhaps I just shouldn't watch any more trailers?

Hurrah for low budget movies like Skeletons

Every now and again a film comes along that proves that you don't need mega bucks to make an imaginative and entertaining film. Nick Whitfield's Skeletons is such a film offering a simply-shot, surreal and engaging comedy that has echoes of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind done in the style of Withnail and I.

The two central characters Bennett and Davis are exorcists but not in the traditional sense. Watched over by The Colonel (Jason Isaacs) they are hired to exorcise skeletons from closets. Donning protective aprons and goggles, they harness special powers, channeled through some shiny stones and enter the closet to erase the embarrassing little secrets by inhabiting them.

Each has his own weakness which could affect their future career in the skeleton exorcising business. Davis likes to be a voyeur of his own memories in his spare time which could corrupt his powers and Bennett always feels some sort of obligation to the people whose secrets have been exposed, finding it difficult to walk away when the job is done.

Their strengths and weaknesses are put to the test when asked to examine the skeletons in the closet of a husband missing from his family for eight years. To say more would spoil it but overall the film is laugh out loud funny with some lovely touching moments. 

Skeletons is definitely a classic British film in the making. It's only got a limited release but it would be a shame if more people didn't see it.

Other people's views

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave it four stars describing it as a both odd and funny but overall a breath of fresh air.

Film Four website gave it four stars concluding: "This bleakly comic high-concept psychodrama about family, memory and grief defies easy categorisation or summary - but missing it would be your loss."

Rotten Tomatoes UK gave it 77%