Film Reviews by JD

This feels really amateur at first but after a while it grows on you. It is not subtle or clever comedy, just a bit daft. Nick Frost is the main character a lovable caring commander of a spaceship. The other characters are generally over-the-top silly but after a while interesting and amusing. Stick with them and the rewards are bountiful.

Like most sketch / review shows, there are some good bits and some bad bits. A feature of modern sketch shows I personally dislike is the endless repetition of an idea e.g. the wheelchair user in Little Britain. A few variations is amusing, but less is more generally. The incoherent ex-boyfriend in this series is one I found myself fast forwarding through. It is not an idea worth expanding on. Essentially because he is crying you cannot work out what he is saying. After 6 sketches of that, you really want to switch off. Teenagers will find the naughty shop assistants funny but again it wears thin after a while. This would be much better watched on Friday night after a few drinks.

Essentially the biography of Abebe Bikila. If that is what you want, it is an excellent film. If you want more there is little. I was surprised of the immense importance of this marathon runner who was such a role model and ambassador in and for Ethiopia and indeed Africa.

The main character in the four unconnected stories is a waiter played by Tim Roth. He tries to be funny by adopting a manner similar to Rowen Atkinson in Mr Bean. This requires a comic talent that Mr Roth does not have and in any case generally appeals to the younger viewers who would not be watching an 18 rated film. Why is it 18 rated? There is a scene of bare breasted women dancing round a pool and a dead women under a bed next to a hypodermic syringe. Madonna cannot act, (in my opinion she is a fair dancer but her singing is as bad as her acting), and Bruce Willis's part does not suit him and he plays it poorly. There is absolutely nothing to recommend this farce.

Muddy and bloody camouflaged soldiers shouting over machine gun fire in pigeon afro-carribean american using army acronyms, get the GDV to the XSD by the PLQ man. It was difficult to tell who was who, what they were doing and decipher what they were saying. Apart from that, it was a poignant cynical view of the Vietnam war. How did it compare with the other 715 Vietnam war films? OK but not in the top 10. Johnny Depp plays the most fleeting cameo you will ever see, Forrest Whittaker is not much more. It is mainly about Sheen, Berenger and Defoe who are good but I would definitely not have given the Berlinale Silver Bear for best director to this film nor the Oscar, but we all know how how corrupt the awards are!

You can't believe that it is Marilyn but as a film in itself it is quite interesting. A bit like Notting Hill in that it is about celebrity meets ordinary guy. The acting is OK and the film flows well, I think Eddie Redmayne kept it together and kept the film entertaining.

This film is masterful. In essence a comedy but drawing on despair and hope in equal measure. I was intrigued that the main characters included actors who were previously untrained. The experienced actors must have been a very positive influence on them as the effect is of genuine criminal mentality, poverty and desperation. Not the usual home counties actors putting on dreadful provincial accents. The filming is both beautiful and simple and captures the mood magnificently. For everyone but particularly if you like Scotland.

Very violent. 2 scenes of men tortured to death, 1 scene of human dismemberment and 1 of a frenzied stabbing from behind through the neck. Who judges these, psychopaths? The plot is of the betrayal of life long close friends who try and kill each other for money. If you thought Bruce Willis would make it enjoyable he doesn't. Too sick for me.

The Swedish filmed trilogy is in my opinion fantastic. It was bold to do this bit again and so soon. There are different emphases on the plot, the actors of course also have different skills and emotional portrayals which are not better or worse. Daniel Craig was remarkably good as the journalist a bit more heroic but with enough modesty for it not to be disappointing. The main differences I felt was mixing scenes together possibly to keep the drama of the horrific scenes driving the more quiet detective plot; and Lisbeth. She was less heroic and more troubled, at the time of watching less impressive but in retrospect a better sub-plot.

2 city port authority policemen get stuck in the collapsed twin towers. There are lots of distraught wives and children on telephones. The trapped heroes just about manage to keep going. The even more heroic rescuers only just by chance hear the faint cries for help. The main characters are saved. Too slushy for me but if you'd like a weepy romantic about 7/11 this will do.

The setting is 1930's but the relatively youthful Garner and Willis and the glamorous western feel make it feel like it was filmed in the 70's. The plot is a typical Saturday morning western, albeit quite violent in parts. Although the acting is good and the villains (of which there are many)are all detestable, it does drag on. There is a long irrelevant scene of Mexican dancing in the middle during which I nearly lost the will to keep watching.

Starts at the end flashes back and dots about until you are not sure when you are. The very slow diary type recounting of a life then starts. Flashes of this and that. It becomes a chore to wait for the child to grow up because the bits don't hold that much interest on their own. There is then an arty beach sequence which is utterly tedious. The end.

The basic plot is that Crowe takes a hostage to a bad guy. The hostage keeps escaping. He meets a women he initially finds irritating but then he falls for her. The number of times this hostage escapes is utterly beyond belief. I suppose it generally is an excuse for more blood and guts shooting. Unbelievable, with a predictable end.

This is an eclectic assemblage of modern wild-life, palaeontology, cave drawings, modern fishing methods and other ramblings. All very pleasant but pretty unstructured and ultimately unsatisfying. I imagine it was cutting room floor stuff too good to throw away.

A real story about an agitator husband and an undercover CIA agent wife who are in the middle of the start of the war against Iraq. There can be few people who still believe the Blair and Bush governments acted in good faith in starting a war based on not being able to find WMDs. This is what you've been waiting to hear. It might not make you feel nice thoughts about Tony and George. I am disheartened also that this has received no awards. It is a brilliantly acted and gritty drama.