Film Reviews by JD

Psychological thriller, not a common genre but a reasonable description. There are some good scary moments, some very uncomfortable scenes and some good drama. The plot twists and twists again. I thought Al Pacino acted his socks off but most of the rest were a little less than gripping. Most of it is moderately entrancing but you won't forget to blink.

This is the biography of James Braddock a light heavy weight boxer from New York. The terrible poverty suffered by him his family and those around will make you feel hungry. If you eat afterwards you can empathise his family's pain. Boxing films can be dramatically good though there are a few dreadful ones. This is one which is full of period atmosphere and gripping drama. Crowe is brilliant, Zellweger isn't too bad either.

It feels initially like a 1950's black and white English film. The acting is a bit like St. Trinian's and the plot about a factory where every one is jolly and not working very hard. Some of the Moccasin slipper references reinforce the archaic atmosphere. The plot is pretty basic: Hopkins is sent in to improve and is a bad guy at first but he becomes a good guy in the end. Why is it not a 2 star? Well it just has a little bit more to it than the old moralistic slap stick 60's stuff. May be just a bit more believable.

Totally American. American football as the central theme and rarely about anything else. The accent is difficult to understand. The plot is very predictable. Guess what, everything comes good at the end. Lots of pretty girls dancing and muscle men flexing, if you get very bored with the plot. I thought Al Pacino would save it, he was great but nothing would make this all american yeeee haaaa dross worth watching to the end. Some of the action is good and saves this from a 1 star.

This is a brutal account of the rise of neo-nazism in a group of Australian skin heads whose hatred of oriental immigrants escalates to fever pitch. The acting is convincing, the plot real but just too brutally bleak and callously angry to be enjoyed. This is one to watch if you want to stress up to boiling point. Not remotely escapist.

The whole series is good but this era is awesome. The children are now 9 - 15 and the challenges as intense as ever. The writing is very well observed and there will be some resonance with most families albeit Karen is a little precocious. The style is very English, a welcome change from the studio audience who laugh every 5 seconds, and without the projected acting endemic in other sit-coms. All the child actors are very gifted (certainly 3 leagues better than the Harry Potter children) and few could pull off such a long comedy. By the way don't watch more than a disc a month as I did; too much of a good thing.

Washington and Crowe in their early careers, arguably at their peaks, are brilliant. There is a new and interesting computer plot. Some bits a tiny bit dated (made in 1995 but released later) but tons of action, drama and suspense. I am a bit surprised at the current rating of 2.8, it really is better than that. Possibly 15 is a bit generous a certificate. Loads of deaths in every possible way, but that is the point of the plot, which is essentially a malevolent computer programme.

Tabu by the way is a mountain in Africa where some of the story is set.This a black and white film which has a very amateur feel to it. Like watching a home movie. This may be the desired effect but it feels naff. I feel particularly irritated when such a mediocre film is described as one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year. It is an Emperor's clothes sort of statement. If you don't enjoy this you're a philistine. Well I didn't it's silly, sad and feeble.

This brings totally different characters and cultures together into a single plot. I felt it was a bit disjointed and unreal. Why would a professor move countries to help someone he had never met nor likely to. It lacks purpose. Some of the scenes are poorly acted and very plain, some are plain but have real meaning. It is a jumble of Turkish, Kurdish and German stories of lesbians, prostitutes and refugees being happy, sad and angry.

I was blown out of the water with Christian Bale's weight. He must have lost 7 stone to play this role. He is so thin it is truely creepy. He looks so sick it turned my stomach. He uses this to project a truely creepy personality. This is just awesome acting with awesome dedication. The plot is a bit odd and horrorish at times but most is great suspense and totally sapping.

There is a nice 1940s feel to this film, with well cut suits and a debonair attitudes. The plot is quite difficult to follow but comes together nicely in the end. For me Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe steal the show. Their acting is brilliant and the fight scenes sweaty to watch. Danny de Vito is too crude and corny to enjoy. The others are pretty good. The 18 certificate must be for violence because it ain't saucy. The violence is pretty straight forward punching and shooting, should be a 15.

Of the Turkish films I've seen the common link is long, unusual and interesting scenes with no camera movement, crisp lighting and a mid-distant figure walking or smoking. The plot is based on very plain characters doing very plain things in ordinary ways. The interest is in subtle interactions requiring incredible acting for which Toprak and Ozdemir were justly rewarded. The tragedy and sadness is all the more for the ordinariness. Having said that it is a bit too slow in parts but if you're feeling chilled it is worth a watch, there is even a bit a humour in bits (e.g.the host gets stuck on his own mouse trap spying on his guest).

The huge amount of time sorting through ancient film and photography archives and probably hunting for good film is clearly evident. Some of the footage of film and early photography is in itself historically important and fascinating. The documentary starts in the Victorian era. The historical account of Irish oppression and of the steps to freedom is told in a very unbiased and unemotional way. It is in Gaelic but there are sub-titles. As you might imagine it is in black and white (starting in 1896). The music is not a major feature it is pretty much all a fairly dull narration. Like another critic I am just not interested enough in political history to watch more than an hour of old film clips, and I fast forwarded most of it.

I disagree slightly with a previous critic in that I think Danny Glover is always dreadful. In this however he is truly awful. Some of the acting is fair but none is good and I definitely agree about the embarrassment and that the plot could have been done so much better. There is no one to whom this will appeal.

This is definitely NOT formulaic. The film is more about atmosphere, mood, shifting seasons and diurnal rhythms. It is centred on the children of a poor rural Turkish village. The parenting is pretty brutal. There is no real plot or direction but there is a sort of movement and although the children are not much in the way of actors they are interesting and despite the poverty it is easy to see their view point.