Category: Reviews

The Bourne Ultimatum is one of the most accomplished and thrilling action films to come out of Hollywood since, well, The Bourne Supremacy in 2004.

In an era of CGI powered tent-pole movies, the Bourne films feel relatively retro with their old fashioned reliance on fist fights, car chases and spy intrigue.

The first two films almost functioned like a post-911 Bond (even if The Bourne Identity was in production before September 2001) and their financial and critical success almost certainly helped inspire the gritty reboot of 007 in Casino Royale.

The first film, directed by Doug Liman, was an impressive modern day update of the Robert Ludlum novel establishing Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) as a CIA trained assassin who has lost his memory after a botched mission.

With the second film however, things got ramped up to a new level with British director Paul Greengrass on board. Continuing the narrative thread of the first film, Greengrass and his team created a riveting thriller that cleverly employed some of the hand-held camera techniques he had used so well in Bloody Sunday.

Now with the third Bourne film, Greengrass has again created that rarest of films – an action movie that engages your pulse and brain at the same time. It is also rare for being a third film that is better than the previous two.

The plot begins in earnest with when an English journalist named Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) uncovers Bourne’s real identity and the existence of a new assassination program. Bourne comes out of hiding to meet with Ross and uncover his past but finds himself a prime target of the new black ops scheme – codenamed Blackbriar.

Not only does this installment neatly dovetail and reference the first two movies, but it also never lets up in the action and suspense. As the action moves from London to Madrid, then on to Morocco and finally New York, the pace intensifies and the set pieces – especially the cat and mouse chase at Waterloo – are handled with tremendous skill and urgency.

Credit must go to Greengrass and his collaborators from Supremacy as Oliver Wood’s cinematography, Christopher Rouse’s editing and Dan Bradley’s 2nd unit work are all first rate. The viewer is thrust head first in to the action but at the same time is treated like they have a brain to digest it all.

The script (which reportedly has a few authors including original scribe Tony Gilroy and Tom Stoppard) has echoes not only of the darker arts of the Bush administration but also seems to reference (albeit obliquely) other contemporary news events such as the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes.

It isn’t an overtly political film by any means but given the director’s background in current affairs (he co-authored Spycatcher in the 80s) the film is infused with a sad awareness of the ruthless world in which Bourne and the real CIA now operate.

But despite all the undercurrents to the film, it also functions as a taut and truly memorable thriller. It is unlikely to match the box office grosses of the likes of Transformers and Spider-Man 3 but make no mistake, this is the best film released a major studio so far this year.

The Bourne Ultimatum opens in the US this Friday and in the UK on Friday 17th August

> Official site for The Bourne Ultimatum
> Read reviews of The Bourne Ultimatum at Metacritic
> Find out more about the series at Wikipedia
> Check out some photos I took whilst the film was shooting in London back in January

Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (PG)

The sequel to 2005’s adaptation of the comic book sees another Marvel character join the film with the arrival of the Silver Surfer. But his presence isn’t really enough to elevate what is another lacklustre outing for the quartet.

Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Jessica Alba return in their roles as the Fantastic 4 and we again see how they deal with their fame and powers whilst the mysterious Surfer starts to trigger panic around the world.

Like the original it is a bit too light and fluffy and the visual effects are not up to scratch. The exception is the Silver Surfer himself but even his character is largely wasted in an underwritten supporting role.

Vacancy (15)

When a couple (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) break down in the middle of nowhere, they have to spend the night at an isolated motel. They switch on the TV and discover that the sinister slasher movies on the box were all filmed in the very room they’re in.

Continuing the trend of horror films that have been raining down on cinemas recently, this tries to mix low budget scares with a more mainstream sensibility.

The problem with this approach is that isn’t shocking enough to be truly scary and is too low budget to really impress on a technical level. Whilst it is watchable enough for about an hour it is too derivative (Psycho is just one of the many touchstones referenced) and outstays its welcome long before its time to check out.

Tell No One (15)

A smart and absorbing thriller about a Paris doctor (Francois Cluzet) who has to deal with the apparent murder of his wife and the mysterious emails 8 years later that seem to show her still alive.

Things are complicated by the police and a mysterious criminal gang determined to find out what he does (or doesn’t) know about the crime. He then has to solve the mystery whilst also avoiding getting killed himself.

Based on a bestselling US novel by Harlan Coben, director Guilluame Canet has done a terrific job of adapting the action to France, as the action ticks along with plenty of satisfying twists and turns.

Cluzet is superb in the title role and there are some notable supporting performances from the likes of Kristin Scott Thomas and Gilles Lellouche. The film deservedly won several Cesar awards earlier this year (with Canet scooping Best Director) and is certainly a cut above most thrillers Hollywood has churned out in the past year.

Listen to this week’s Review Podcast here:

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> Check out the local listings for these films at Google Movies
> Listen to Guillaume Canet discuss Tell No One on our Interview Podcast

The first blockbuster of the summer season creaks under the weight of several subplots but is a rousing finale to what has been a magnificent comic book trilogy.

Taking up after the trials and tribulations of the first two films, this starts off with things going very well for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). He’s finally settled down with his sweetheart Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and the public love his superhero alter ego Spider-Man. But when an alien substance infects his suit, he starts to become a darker person. If that wasn’t enough, three different villains – the New Goblin (James Franco), Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace) – want to kill him for their own reasons, things get difficult.

The first thing to you’ll probably notice about Spider-Man 3 is the sheer scale of everything. After the success of the first two movies, almost every element is expanded to bursting point. Not only are there multiple plot strands, but a whole host of new characters thrown in to the mix. Added to that, the action sequences are longer, the visual effects more detailed and the running time of 140 minutes indicates that director Sam Raimi is squeezing a lot in here.

After the lean, character driven origin story of the first film and the pitch perfect blend of love story and action in the second, this third instalment does at times feel like 3 and 4 combined. But that is precisley why this film is such a joy for most of its running time. Unlike some other bloated blockbusters, this ducks and weaves with such energy and abandon that I found it a dizzying but satisfying ride.

However, the key here is that Sam Raimi along with screenwriter Alvin Sargent have retained the emotional core – and occasional goofy humour – of the previous films. They also cleverly mine a key plotline and theme from the original film in a way that dovetails nicely with what has gone before. Although it will inevitably make a ton of money, it is likely to divide viewers. With so much plot and some characters confined to the margins (most notably Gwen Stacy, played here by Bryce Dallas Howard), people will grumble that the only thing missing is the kitchen sink.

There also seems to be a resentment, even within the industry, as to how much money has been spent on this. The gargantuan budget is rumoured to be around $250 million and that (probably) makes it the most expensive film ever made. But to be fair to Sony and the filmmakers, it is a figure they’ve earned with the success of the first two films.

Like those, the action scenes and visual effects are pulled off with an ingenious intensity and the emphasis on character is what gives the story a greater emotional depth than most mainstream blockbusters. At the time of the first film I was surprised that a director like Sam Raimi (who CV includes The Evil Dead trilogy) was allowed to make a comic book franchise on this scale. But now that he has, I think audiences and fans of the comic have reason to be very grateful indeed.

> Check out local showtimes for Spider-Man 3 via Google Movies
> Visit the official Spider-Man 3 site
> Read other reviews of Spider-Man 3 at Metacritic
> Check out the IMDb entry for Spider-Man 3

A polished and moving adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel features two excellent lead performances from Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.

Dr Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is an expert in infectious diseases who is posted to China. When his mismatched, funloving wife Kitty (Naomi Watts) has an affair it drives them apart. But as they struggle to adapt to their rural location amidst a cholera outbreak, they begin to see each other in a new light.

Often literary adaptations can be restrained and stodgy affairs, but director John Curran has crafted a sensitive and moving film. Watts and Norton dovetail each other nicely and bring a powerful sense of passion lurking beneath their cool social exteriors. Watch out too for the excellent Toby Jones in a supporting role as a fellow ex-pat worker in the Chinese village.

The rural locations (it was shot around Guilin) are frequently used to beautiful effect, often proving an effective counterpoint to the disease and emotional suffering of the principal characters. Special mention should also go to Alexandre Desplat who contributes a lush score that mixes Eastern and western melodies.

> Check out our interview with John Curran & Edward Norton
> Visit the official site
> IMDb entry for The Painted Veil
> Reviews for The Painted Veil at Metacritic
> SoundtrackNet review the score by Alexandre Desplat
> Check out the showtimes for The Painted Veil at your local cinema

Nicolas Cage stars in this silly but mindlessly entertaining thriller about a man who can see 2 minutes in to the future.

Based on a short story by Philip K Dick called The Golden Man this covers the same sort of territory as Minority Report and The Matrix but without any of the finesse or brains of those films. With some clumsy dialogue and predictable plotting you might be forgiven for thinking that some scenes border on parody.

Although Cage is an agreeable presence in the leading role the two female characters are wafer thin sterotypes: Julianne Moore is wasted in the grumpy cop role whilst Jessica Biel is given little to do in a flimsy damsel in distress role.

That said the action is slickly handled by Lee Tamahori and the central concept is strong enough to keep the interest even though it deviates wildly from the source novel.

Dick is an author who doesn’t always get the best treatment from Hollywood and this continues that tradition but if you switch your brain off it is something of a guilty pleasure.

> Official site for Next
> IMDb link for Next
> Buy The Golden Man at Amazon UK

Shooter (15)
A slick and surprisingly political thriller from director Antoine Fuqua. It stars Mark Wahlberg as a retired US military sniper named Bob Lee Swagger (and yes that really is his name) who is recruited by a shadowy government agency to help stop an assassination attempt. When he then gets framed for the crime he has to evade the forces of the law and prove his innocence.

There isn’t anything massively original here and the plot goes one act too far, but there is a pleasantly cynical undertone to the proceedings, with plenty of sly digs at the current US administration admidst all the gunfights and explosions.

The Lives Of Others (15)
A moving and expertly crafted drama set in East Germany during the 1980s. In East Berlin, a highly skilled Stasi agent (Ulrich Mühe) is ordered by his superior (Ulrich Tukur) to spy on a playwright (Sebastian Koch) and his lover (Martina Gedeck). As the story progresses the spy and those spied upon slowly become involved with each other in ways they couldn’t have predicted.

Writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has crafted a remarkable film – not only is it a stunning snapshot of Cold War Berlin but it is also has brains and heart in equal measure. It deservedly won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars back in March (even beating the mighty Pan’s Labyrinth). Easily one of the best films of the year.

The Curse Of The Golden Flower (15)
Chinese director Ziang Yimou has created two stunning martial arts epics in the last few years with Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004). The story involves love and betrayal amidst the imperial court of the Later Tang Dynasty in the year 922. The Emperor Ping (Chow Yun Fat) is unhappily married to the Empress Phoenix (Gong Li) and the simmering tensions between them explode into a bloody conflict that splits the kingdom in two.

His latest does contain some remarkable production design and a few interesting ideas but isn’t quite up to the standard of his previous two films. Visually it isn’t as dynamic as Yimou’s previous work, nor is it as emotionally involving. That said Yimou working at half steam is a good deal more watchable than many other directors currently working today.

Wild Hogs (12A)
The turkey of the week arrives with a cast filled with actors with one eye seemingly transfixed to the pay cheque. John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy star as re four middle-aged suburban men in Cincinnati who find themselves frustrated with the pace of daily life. They decise to become bikers nicknamed “The Wild Hogs” and set across the country on their motorcycles in pursuit of adventure.

This leads to a lot of crude and unfunny situations mostly invlving gags about a gay policeman, a rival biker gang and (of course) Easy Rider. At one point I did start laughing, but that was only out of sheer, surreal bemusement at how this grossed over $40 million on its opening weekend in the US.

> Get local showtimes for these films at Google Movies
> Get other reviews over at Metacritic

AT THE CINEMA

Sunshine (15)
Set fifty years in the future where the sun is dying, a space crew are sent on a mission to reignite it with a nuclear device. Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh and Chris Evans star as some of the crew who begin to question the mission and are forced to deal with events out of their control.

Director Danny Boyle serves up an intelligent and stylish slice of sci-fi from a script by Alex Garland. It stumbles a little in the final act but is still a visually arresting and absorbing piece of work from the director of Trainspotting.

> Official site
> IMDb entry for Sunshine

Blades of Glory (12A)
After the slapstick antics of Anchorman and Talladega Nights, Will Ferrell ventures into the world of ice skating with another goofy comedy. He plays a maverick skater who is forced to team up with his more conservative rival (Jon Header) in order to compete at the Olympics.

Somehow managing to make a virtue out of its own self conscious stupidity, the laughs arrive with surprising regularity. Jenna Fischer, from the US version of The Office, turns up in a sweet supporting role. Daft but funny.

> Official site
> IMDb entry for Blades of Glory

USEFUL LINKS
> Get local cinema showtimes for your area via Google Movies
> Check out other reviews at Rotten Tomatoes UK
> Find out about your own movie tastes at Criticker

There is only really one major release worth checking out this week at UK cinemas.

The Namesake (12A)
Based on the Pulitzer prize winning novel by Jhumpa Lahiri this tells the story of an Indian couple (superbly played by Irfan Khan and Tabu) who settle in New York and start a family. They have a daughter and a son who they name Gogol (after the Russian novelist). The film then charts their struggles to adapt to American culture whilst not losing their traditional Indian ways. Perceptive in its treatment of the immigrant experience touching in how it depicts family relations, director Mira Nair deserves credit for creating a drama of considerable depth and sensitivity.

Mr Bean’s Holiday (PG)
Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) returns and the bumbling character goes on his travels to the south of France where mishap and mayhem begin, most notably at the Cannes Film Festival. Bean was never an amusing character to me on TV or in the first movie in 1997. In many ways he is the antithesis of Rowan Atkinson’s other great comic creation – the more cynical and verbally astute Blackadder. You may find it funny if you enjoy laboured gags about miscommunication between the French and a bumbling Englishman, but if you are more discerning you may (like me) find it unnecessary and unfunny. But it is still destined to make money around the world.

The Hills Have Eyes 2 (18)
Another unnecessary sequel (a sequel to a remake no less) sees a group of National Guard trainees fighting for survival against everyone’s favourite group of vicious mutants in the desert. Like a lot of recent horror movies (e.g. Hostel) it indulges in a lot of over the top violence and sadism designed for drooling fanboys rather than delivering any real chills or drama.

FILM OF THE WEEK: The Namesake

> Get cinema showtimes for your area via Google Movies

The two major releases at the cinema this week see Sandra Bullock and Sienna Miller go head to head at the box office.

Premonition (15)
After the cinematic disaster zones that were Miss Congeniality 2 and The Lake House, Sandra Bullock appears in yet another dull waste of her talents and our time. The story here is like some bad TV movie – Bullock plays a woman who wakes up one morning to find out her loving husband (Julian McMahon) is dead. Only she wakes the next day and discovers he isn’t. Cue lots of loud melodramatic nonsense, some predictable plot twists, a ridiculously sappy climax and Miss Bullock has even more reasons to fire her agent.

Factory Girl (15)
This is a biopic about Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller) who for a period in the 60s became a muse to Andy Warhol (here played by Guy Pearce), girlfriend to Bob Dylan (Hayden Christensen plays a very thinly veiled Dylan figure) and a style icon before her untimely demise at 28. It explores her early years and her collaboration with the man who predicted everyone in the future would be famous for 15 minutes. Miller and Pearce both give solid performances and the subject matter is interesting (and topical in our current fame obsessed culture) but it never quite sparks to life. Ultimately, although the film deals with an interesting time and an intriguing set of characters, it doesn’t have the resonance it should.

Neither of these films get an enthusiastic thumbs but if you have to go see one, Factory Girl isn’t as bad as Premonition.

> Get showtimes for your local cinema via Google Movies

It is a busy week at UK cinemas with a decidedly mixed bag of releases that include a silly comedy about a geek, a drama about Jane Austen’s early years, a tacky piece of vigilante nonsense and a stylish war drama that pays homage to the films of the 1940s.

Norbit (12A)
The latest comedy starring Eddie Murphy in multiple roles (after films like Coming to America and The Nutty Professor) is a rather unfunny mess. Norbit (Murphy) is a geek who loves a girl (Thandie Newton) he knew as a child from the orphanage they grew up in. But problems stand in his way: her fiance (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Norbit’s wife (Murphy again). The film is crude, crass and there a precious few laughs here. The only thing to admire is how Murphy juggles the different roles but that loses its novelty after about 15 minutes. In a nutshell it is unfunny and not very clever either.

Becoming Jane (PG)
Like Shakespeare in Love this is another costume drama dealing with the private life of another English writer. Only in this case Jane Austen gets the biopic treatment as Anne Hathaway portrays the young novelist. It tells the story of her early life and her flirtations with the Irishman Thomas Langlois Lefroy (James McAvoy), based on speculation about their relationship together. The production design and acting are all agreeable but the central conceit (how Austen’s own life would inspire her books) is a little laboured and lacks the charm and invention that could have made it something special.

Outlaw (18)
After The Football Factory (2004) and The Business (2005), writer-director Nick Love inflicts another sloppy crime drama upon us. When a former soldier (Sean Bean) returns from Iraq he decides to form a vigilante mob to deal with a criminal who seems above the law. Coming across as an unlikely combination of Munich and Death Wish it tries to tap in to the disillusionment with the state of modern Britain. Unfortunately, like Love’s previous films it is sloppily put together and comes across as some kind of tacky exploitation film. Beware people who label this kind of film “edgy” or “controversial” – it is just a poorly made crime drama that belongs in the DVD bargain bin.

The Good German (15)
Director Steven Soderbergh re-teams with George Clooney in an audacious attempt to make recreate a 1940s style film. It tells the story of a US war correspondent (Clooney) who returns to Berlin during the Potsdam conference and discovers a web of intrigue involving a former lover (Cate Blanchett) and his driver (Tobey Maguire). The film it is shot in black and white and uses plenty of old school tricks but has a modern day approach to content like sex and violence. The acting is also done in the old fashioned style, but the performances are all very engaging as Clooney, Blanchett and Maguire bring a good deal of nuance to what seem to be one dimensional characters. Although it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea Soderbergh deserves a lot of credit for creating a small but perfectly formed experiment.

FILM OF THE WEEK: The Good German

> Get showtimes for your local cinema via Google Movies