Review: The Lucky One***
Penned by the author who gave us the equally schmaltzy Dear John, The Last Song and The Notebook, The Lucky One is another pubescent girl’s wet dream, starring former Disney poster boy Zac Efron no doubt. It’s the kind of predictable romance-by-the-numbers that young girls can swoon over and mature females – who ought no better – can daydream about. It’s Mills and Boon, Louisiana style – with a softer ‘remember our fighting heroes’ message tagged on. A super buffed Efron plays US Marine Logan who, after serving three tours in Iraq, goes on a journey back home to Louisiana…
Review: Delicacy***
Audrey Tautou has come a long way since her touching, doe-eyed international debut in Amelie. The actress is typecast in such feisty, cutesy roles that it’s hard to determine whether she’s good or just a natural charmer – a bit of both perhaps. In debut directors David Foenkinos and Stéphane Foenkinos’ new romance, Delicacy, we find a more determined Tautou at play – who still commands the screen in a delightfully challenging role about life, love and death. Nathalie (Tautou) is a beautiful, happy and successful Parisian business executive who finds herself suddenly widowed after a three-year marriage to her…
Review: Titanic (3D)***
Our fascination with the last few hours onboard the doomed 1912 passenger liner Titanic and its now eerie, watery grave – to quote Celine Dion – “will go on and on and on”. James Cameron took this then moulded it into a classic love story for the big screen back in 1997, and the film and its young stars, Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio, encapsulated the emotions of hope, fear and determination. The story itself is still as powerful and goose-pimply as the first time and simply made for big-screen viewing. Everyone knows the ending – Titanic sinks, but for…
Review: StreetDance 2 (3D)**
Regardless of whether it’s a good film or not, StreetDance has its loyal fan base – paying punters – ready to flock to see the latest nimble starlets battling against the odds and demonstrating some astounding moves as their ammunition. Admittedly, whether you’re a fan or not, it’s always captivating for the length of each dance set piece – and we all know the outcome and who the victors in the dance-off will be. However, waiting to be dazzled by each routine is as painful and ugly an experience as getting corns on the feet. In the 2012 film, after…
Review: Bel Ami***
It’s before the turn of the 20th Century in decadent, gay Paris, home of the can-can and every eccentric and intellectual soul trying to bring about a second Enlightenment with a political downfall. It’s also another chance for Twilight vamp Robert Pattinson to enlighten us further as to the next step in his career path, after appearing in some fairly average films, Water For Elephants and Remember Me, meant to break the Cullen spell. In Bel Ami, Pattinson is Georges Duroy, a former soldier who happens upon his former command leader Forestier (played by Philip Glenister) in Paris, now a successful…
Review: This Means War****
This week’s ‘date movie’, director McG’s This Means War, is wrapped in an action blanket from the start for romcom lovers weary of lovelorn, sugary angst from the start. Thankfully, it doesn’t start in an idyllic Manhattan suburb either. It comes crashing into fun focus, James Bond style, in the oddly intriguing pairing of Tom Hardy and Chris Pine – yes, Bane and Kirk unite. It shamelessly tries to hook the male/tomboy viewer in with a blast of guns blazing to set the scene for what is effectively a wickedly entertaining love triangle, headed by the bubbly Reese Witherspoon as the…
Review: Hunky Dory**
Welsh director Marc Evans (Patagonia, My Little Eye) returns with a nostalgic take on growing up in small-town Wales in 1976 in the midst of the summer heat and raging hormones. Schooldays films are ten-a-penny and ever enticing as we get to reminisce at a safe distance at the thrills and fears of our teenage years. Indeed, what this promises is a healthy inject of 1970s glam rock for David Bowie fans – much like a 70s Glee. For admirers of the ever-fearless Minnie Driver, the actress plays an attractive, inspirational drama teacher who (surprise, surprise) stirs more than a…
Review: Black Gold**
The prospect of another, more contemporary Lawrence of Arabia that focuses on relevant current affairs in the region today, and with big acting names involved is an attractive proposition, especially as Black Gold has been producer Tarak Ben Ammar’s long-time goal by bringing the finer points of Hans Ruesch’s rousing novel South Of The Heart to the big screen – all directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud (Enemy at the Gates, Seven Years in Tibet). The reality though is a dull, dusty, overly long epic attempt that has jarring and frankly odd sporadic bouts of humour in a story that is primarily…
Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel****
Charm and experience go hand in hand, and director John Madden (The Debt) has coaxed this potent combination effortlessly out of a truly stellar British cast of Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup. This film may have an older audience in mind, but its characters’ personal issues are universally felt on the whole. – In The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, British retirees from different walks of life travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel, run by an over enthusiast young entrepreneur called…
Review: Dreileben Trilogy
The Dreileben (‘Three Lives’) trilogy brings together three feature films, three German directors with one threatening tale in common. Each of the films are linked by an escaped convict lurking around the small town of Dreileben, whilst some films depend on this, others merely use it as a backdrop prop. The project was initiated due to contrasting opinions about narrative structure in the magazine, Revolver. However, this method of filmmaking has been experimented with in the past, for example, in the 2009 Channel 4 series, Red Riding. Each director emphasises their individual cinematic style and way of storytelling to providing…
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