Film Reviews by JD

It is as interesting for the insight into Inuit culture as it is for imagining how to survive in those conditions as it is for the story of feuds and revenge.

The story is the almost inevitable consequence of tiny communities living in very close contact and the rivalries and bonds that are created. Some of the parts of Arctic life were touchingly portrayed. I would have thought it would be difficult to make Arctic feuds into good film as the landscape is bleak, the squeaky scrunch of snow is the loudest noise and outside everyone is completely covered. The intense coldness however is used as a backdrop into a simmering and exhausting tension between aggressive and dominant members of the group. Although this is clearly an ancient tale it has modern parallels.

Some brilliant acting notably by Miranda Richardson, Forest Whitaker was good but was not up to his usual brilliance, and some fairly dire performances too. There are twists that keep the plot going enough to be quite watchable.

I don't know what it is about good French films but this had the same feeling as Jean De Florette and Amelie. Audrey Tautou was the reason I requested this film and she is superb. As an added and entirely unexpected surprise for me was an appearance from Jodie Foster. For me the two best actresses in modern cinema.

Set against this was trench warfare which was poignantly pointless and dehumanising and seen from a very personal perspective. The plot was a bit convoluted with several lines of investigation and the male actors were not quite as fantastically gifted as their female colleagues but I would generally recommend this film.

Lots of French folks being interviewed and little clips of these dotted throughout. Unfortunately all the action had happened decades before and so there was no film of the main high wire walk. Some stills gave an impression of how scary it might have been. As poor as the content was, it seemed to keep a certain interest going.

There is everything you could want in a film. It starts with action and proceeds through most worthwhile genres. Utterly captivating development of 4 actors with a at least 3 sub-plots. The most complete film I have seen. Most of my reviews have a balance of good and bad, not this one.

This is a well crafted film with many levels. The top level is a pretty horrifying account of guerrila warfare and torture, the bottom layer a fantasy world with characters that really have to be seen to be believed. Some of the middle layers get a bit blurred but are no less interesting for it. As scary a 15 rated as you are likely to find.

This really is family viewing. Prima facie it is a children's cartoon about raccoons who can metamorphose into apparitions some a little scary. The satirical element is not emphasised but is clear. Presumably familiarity with Japanese folklore would make this more relevant. I can well imagine that there is considerable commercial pressure on undeveloped suburban land in many parts of Japan. The plot however seemed to repeat itself too often. An interesting juxtaposition of cartoon and satire which has been under utilised, but not with this plot.

I was reminded of Men in Black not because of Tommy Lee Jones but because Javier Bardem plays a character who kills in the same way as the alien cockroach, with total apathy. Personally I don't find this dramatic; wooden acted killers are clichéd. The Coen brothers seem to have a style of bringing out the domestic familiarity in characters. Although distinctive I am not a particular fan and do not think that this film deserved so many accolades. It is without doubt tense in parts with some good shoot out scenes but the plot is patchy, sometimes slow. The redeeming feature is TLJ, always worth an audience.

I am not a Hollywood fan and watch more sub-titled film than English, but Al Pacinos acting of a tired and stressed detective was superlative. I had seen the Norwegian original (produced 1997) without knowing there had been a remake and found it to be a good plot but rather under-acted. It felt like a fairly average TV detective series. This remake is proper cinema. This is no TV dinner fodder. If you don't feel sick with a feeling of sleep-deprivation by the end, you have no soul.

Poor girl seduced by rich girl for summer holiday of love. Not much of a plot and not much drama come to that. There is not much to recommend this film unless you like the idea of lesbian love in a rural Yorkshire village. I don't think it deserved to be best British Film which is why I was swayed to ordering it.

A moving true tale and with a strong moral message of the perils of 20th and 21st century living almost Marxist in its outlook. I thought Brosnan gave an emotional performance of a man who was so clearly secretive. A good family film.

I watched it as a detective whodunnit but it is quite possible to see this film as a pastiche of 30's Hollywood or indeed to see it as a biography of Superman. I'll be honest I am not a great fan of Hollywood and did not appreciate that side of it though there will be many who will. They would rate it higher. As a detective film its quite good.

Footage from the era of fanatical commie paranoia serves to emphasise the reality of this worrying historical fact, that it is easy to fear being victimised and allow bullies to reign. Religions throughout time have had periods of this oppression of free thought, some much more intensely and for much longer. Even now in Western society there are fanatics keen to assert themselves in this way.

The acting of Clooney and Downey is excellent but some is mediocre. The black and white photography was well worked (lots of cigarette smoke curling through rays of back-light).

The reason that I don't rate higher is that it is not a particularly gripping plot nor did I feel the paranoia, which seemed to be the intention of the film. The moral is not new and has been done better.

This is frustratingly good and bad. Moments of surreal comedy from Sheridan Smith and Tamsin Greig are utterly spoilt by some dreadful attempts at comedy by most of the others. Gil's analysis of comedy is so irritating that it spoils the mood. Dinner parties dominated by recently divorced women; It has to be done well to be funny and the actors weren't up to it. Is it the script or the acting? Well I think the acting because the two mentioned earlier were just fantastic. I could watch them forever.

The two others who watched this had very different opinions (1 and 5 stars ratings). For me the two gripping processes were firstly whether the suspect was guilty or not. The second was about torture as a means of extracting information by developed countries. How it happens, how it is concealed and speculating how commonly it is performed.

The film puts clear perspective onto the context of such a situation and subtly influences the viewer to change their opinion on the issues. Meryl Streep plays a very hard character who shows the perspective of a necessary evil. An excellent drama with a very well delivered message.