Film Reviews by RP

The world is defended by an assemblage of Marvel Comics' superheroes (Ironman, Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor + Black Widow and Hawkeye) against the baddie Loki and a horde of invading alien Chitauri. Hmmm....

Sorry, that's just too many wooden-acting superheroes for me, a villain (the Loki character, played by Tom Hiddleston) who just isn't bad enough, and far, far too much CGI special effects. But I did quite like the Chitauri.

There's plenty of crash-bang-wallop, lots of preposterous hand-to-hand fights and if you're about 14 years old you'll like it a lot. But frankly, I felt that the film insulted my intelligence - it's just didn't have the depth (?) of the Batman films, the humanity of Superman nor the novelty of Spiderman. Nope - these are comic book characters with big muscles, small brains, and small minded dialogue. It's just too silly for words.

I know it's popular, I know lots of people like it, it's taken a shed load of box office money, I know that it's got an IMDB score of 8.4 (Dec 2012) but I found it poor. The worst fault is that it takes itself too seriously - a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour would have improved things a little, but at over 2¼ hours it was too long and boring for me. Or maybe I just prefer characters from Marvel's rival, DC Comics?

I'll give it 2/5 stars - I've seen worse, and the Chitauri effects were quite good - but I'd rather watch Steed and Mrs Peel any day :)

I was intrigued by the title - and I was hooked (groan...). Slightly more seriously, I quite enjoyed this film and it certainly made me chuckle in places.

It's a cross between a political satire / romance / mild comedy. Watching it I thought 'this isn't really my kind of film' - so why did I enjoy it? The dialogue is sharp and witty, the acting by Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas is good, the story bizarre enough to be amusing.

Yes, it could have been sharper in places, Ewan McGregor's character was both fixated and showed limited empathy (but he was described as having Asperger's syndrome), the romantic relationships were all very stilted, the Kristin Scott Thomas character should have been much nastier, the Sheikh Muhammed character was a bit of a caricature, the assassination plot etc was a distraction, and the 'green screen' effects at the end somewhat unrealistic. It's a gentle film, so perhaps extra 'sharpness' isn't required and anyway, these are minor criticisms. Perhaps a more serious criticism is that it tries just a little too hard to be both 'quirky' and 'British' - but I still enjoyed it.

4/5 stars - recommended. You may of course hate it :)

It's in French, with subtitles. But don't let that put you off - this is a superb film, blending romance, battlefield action, and search for a missing fiancé.

Mathilde, played by the always excellent Audrey Tatou, searches for the truth about her fiancé Manech, sentenced to death - along with four others - for self inflicted wounds during WW1. The death sentence is carried out by forcing the men into No Man's Land, where they will be killed by enemy fire. After the war, Mathilde refuses to believe that Manech is dead and searches for him, both herself and using a private investigator. During the search the stories of each of the condemned men is explored, giving each of them a fair amount of characterisation.

Told with a voice-over dialogue, the film intertwines several threads of story to give a satisfying complex tale with a happy - if somewhat ambiguous - ending.

I enjoyed this film. The acting, the dialogue and the photography are very good and the war scenes as grim - if not grimmer - than the opening of 'Saving Private Ryan'. Look out for Jodie Foster displaying a remarkably good French accent in a small part.

Excellent - 5/5 stars - highly recommended.

This is a low budget revenge / vigilante thriller - but quite well done, of its type.

The story goes something like this: Joe is a shy and retiring young man whose outgoing older brother John seems to be his best - and only - friend. After a minor altercation John is killed in a fight outside a pub. Joe mooches in his room until a knock on the door reveals Piggy, claiming to be an old friend of his brother. Piggy is a hard man, direct and brutal, and involves Joe in violent revenge on the yobs responsible for his brother's death. Err, that's it...

But is Piggy real or fantasy? Is it a tale of Joe's solitary descent into violence as he broods on how a weakling could get revenge? That's up to the viewer - but suffice to say that for a low budget film it's very well acted, the dialogue is good, and the locations are realistic. I enjoyed it (can one 'enjoy' a violent, brutal revenge film? - but you know what I mean...).

I'll give it 4/5 stars, although that may be a little high.

[Aside: the film appears to be set around Camden / Chalk Farm / Kentish Town, although the pub scene was filmed in the 'Prince Of Wales' in Mottingham Road, SE London - if locals don't mind me describing Mottingham as in SE London!]

I'm a beginner (although I've had 'proper' lessons) and I've been playing for 10 months or so. Having sampled a couple of others in the 'Lick Library' range, I wasn't really sure what to expect of this DVD. Easy acoustic rock? How easy? What era?

Well, some of the tracks here are classics - The Beatles 'Here Comes The Sun' for example, but others now sound a little dated - the DVD does date from 2005. That's a minor issue of course - every player needs a bit of a 'back catalogue'. I do have gripe however, and it's a combination of the format (DVD) and the speed of the instructor. Jamie Humphries is clearly a very competent guitarist, but he goes a little too fast for a beginner and it is necessary to replay his instructions several times. Unfortunately 'rewinding' and replaying very short sections of the DVD is not very convenient - a written tab (which could be included on the DVD, printed then studied at leisure) would make things much easier than following an experienced player in real time. But perhaps that's just me...

I'll give it 3/5 - averagely good.

[Aside: This is Volume 2. At the time of writing (December 2012) Cinema Paradiso don't seem to have Volume 1, although I have requested it via my 'Saved' titles]

Hmmm.... I had heard good things about this Aussie TV series: supposedly the downunder answer to 'The Sopranos', it tells the tale of assorted killings in the Melbourne underworld from 1995-2004. It's told in a semi-documentary style with voice-over commentary from one of the women detectives on the case. It's also looooong with 13 x 45 min episodes.

But unfortunately it's most definitely *not* 'The Sopranos' nor indeed any half decent TV gangster series - it came across to me as yet another Aussie soap with plenty of f-ing and blinding, a few shootings, and a bit of pseudo-sex thrown in for good measure. But added swearing, violence and assorted rude bits don't make it realistic - it's still a soap. And the fact that it's based on true events doesn't make up for the awful acting and appalling dialogue.

I regret that I've wasted my time watching this - if you want to see a good 'cops v gangsters' series then watch the very excellent French TV series 'Spiral'. I can't rate 'Underbelly' higher than 2/5 stars - it's below average stuff, and I won't be watching the other (prequel) seasons.

Luc Besson has directed, written or produced a host of action films, from the excellent 'Léon' to the dire 'Transporter' series. 'Colombiana' was co-written by Besson and feels a little like a follow-up to 'Léon' in that the story is of a girl who sees her family killed (as in 'Léon'), wants to become a killer so that she can take revenge (as in 'Léon'), then succeeds (perhaps how the Mathilda character might have wished in 'Léon').

Here, the central character is Cataleya, played by Amandla Stenberg who looks the part, is both suitably athletic and good looking and does a good job of kicking ass, but is otherwise an unsympathetic character. I wanted to like her but found her somehow lacking and the acting a bit wooden.

In fact much of the acting was wooden, the dialogue a bit ropey - but who cares? When a film is directed by someone with the name Olivier Megaton, I expect a megaton of action - and that's what you get here. The film is well photographed, there's plenty of flash-bang-wallop, the baddies are bad, the sexy heroine gets to kill all before her, and she even seems to be adept at parkour. What's not to like? It's not bad if you don't look too hard, otherwise you'll see far too many plot holes...

Unfortunately, not only are there plot holes but there's lots of shooting but no wounds, a few bedroom scenes in which no clothes are taken off and the film seems to have been edited to achieve a lowly 15 certificate. It would have been better with a harder, more adult edge to it.

But never mind, just sit back and let it wash over you - it's worth 3/5 stars from me. I've seen an awful lot worse.

Poor Cillian Murphy. Here he is, a good actor sandwiched between two better actors, Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Nero. And he gets beaten up as well, but he does get to have the last word in a supposed 'twist' at the end. And once you've been told by a friend (as I was) "There's a great twist at the end" you'll find the 'twist' so obvious that it isn't great at all, but obvious - and very, very silly. Ooops - now I've done it :(

Like the tired football cliché, this is a game of two halves - first half good, second half poor. The (silly) story goes like this: Weaver and Murphy play two academics who play, ever so seriously, at debunking psychic fraudsters. Then Weaver - who by this time has fleshed out her character quite well - dies, leaving Murphy to carry the second half of the film alone. Except he's not alone, he's on screen with renowned psychic De Niro - who as we know has a powerful on-screen presence and over acts (as always, these days). So Murphy comes off second best - until the very end.

Apart from the silly story, I'm not aware of any reputable British university that has two whole departments devoted to so-called parapsychology, nor that offer lectures in psychic fraud, nor any British demand for sell-out theatre tickets for on-stage psychic shows - but maybe it's different in the US, or Canada + Spain, where this was filmed. The whole backstory seemed unreal and I just didn't feel comfortable accepting it.

I last saw Sigourney Weaver in the naive and simplistic 'Avatar' where she played a determined scientist. Here she plays a determined scientist. I last saw Robert De Niro in the pretty average 'Limitless', where his role is best summed up by the name of his character, Carl Van Loon. Here he plays Simon Silver, a psychic. Now, if he were a real psychic perhaps he'd be able to pick roles that enhance his excellent reputation rather than reducing it.

Having said all that, the film does have a certain atmosphere, it's slightly spooky (but no real scares, shocks or thrills) and I quite enjoyed it - but it's pretty average stuff. See it if you want to be entertained by some mild piffle masquerading as a thriller. 3/5 stars.

A few weeks ago I rented Week 1 of this course, so I've been waiting expectantly...

I'm a beginner (although I've had 'proper' lessons) and I've been playing for 9-10 months. I have to say that I found most of the material on this DVD pretty straightforward - but then perhaps that's because when I said I wanted to play blues guitar, my tutor gave me the E minor and A minor pentatonic scales to learn, so little of the basic material on either of the first two DVDs in the series is new. The licks (on this DVD, claimed to be in the style of Johnny Winter) need somewhat more practice but these too are fairly straightforward.

I certainly don't think there's enough 'meat' here for a whole week's worth of practice - but I'll persevere and order up the next one in the series. 3/5 stars.

[Aside: You should be aware that there's a lot of 'filler' material on this DVD in the form of ads for and extracts from other 'Lick Library' DVD products. I have sampled the 'Learn To Play Peter Green' 2-disc DVD set and it's pretty good - but I'd prefer it if each DVD wasn't stuffed full of so many product trailers. But hey, it's a commercial world out there...]

From the trailer and some of the publicity you might get the impression that this is yet another East End gangster film. But you'd be wrong.

Yes, it's set in the East End (more specifically, Newham / Tower Hamlets) and there are some excellent background shots of the construction of the Olympic Park, and 'Wild' Bill's son has a job on the construction of the nearby Westfield shopping centre at Stratford. Yes, there are gangsters, and yes there is one fight - at the end.

Yet it's really quite a gentle film at heart, despite a certain grittiness. The story goes like this: 'Wild' Bill Hayward returns home from Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight where he's done an 8 stretch for GBH. He finds his boys, aged 16 and 8, living alone in some squalor having been abandoned by their mother. His probation officer forces him to get a job and become more responsible or the children will be taken into care. He does get a job of sorts, avoiding the temptation of easy money dealing drugs, and impresses the local social workers. His eldest son has a job on a construction site, but the younger son is tempted by the money on offer from the local bad boys, and becomes involved in the drug trade. 'Wild' Bill builds a relationship with both sons - not an easy task, given that he's been gone for most of their lives - and sorts out the local baddies at the end.

It's a low budget film but it really does work well, and I enjoyed it very much. Yes, there's plenty of f-ing and blinding, but that seems par for the course these days, but there's a rich seam of humour as well. I was most impressed with Will Poulter who plays 16-year-old Dean - he was also excellent in the recent 'Son of Rambow' which I can also recommend. 'Wild Bill' is worth 4/5 stars from me - highly recommended.

Comedy zombie film, plenty of splatter effects, f-ing and blinding. The song that plays over the end credits is titled 'Head to Head (With the Undead)' which really says it all.

The (somewhat silly) storyline goes like this: the granddad of a pair of loveable but incompetent cockney lads lives in an old folks home. The home is threatened with closure and redevelopment. Likely lads + cousin + local bad boy plan to rob a bank (incompetently, of course) for money to 'save' the home. After the robbery a zombie plague breaks out, the likely lads return to save the old folks, splattering many zombies on the way. Err, that's it....

It is fairly amusing but there aren't many (any?) laugh-out-loud moments. The zombie effects and makeup are pretty good, there's plenty of splatter and gore (mostly off camera) - it's an OK film if you don't want to think very much. Some 'proper' actors - Honor Blackman, Richard Briers, Georgina Hale - have small parts, and Alan Ford who you may remember as the over-the-top 'Brick Top' in Guy Ritchie's 'Snatch' gets to play yet another elderly retired gangster.

Good use is made of east end redevelopment backgrounds, including the construction of the Olympic Park.

Compared to the last deeply unfunny zombie 'comedy' that I saw, 'Zombieland', this is a masterpiece. However that's not saying very much - but it's not unlikeable and it does have some funny moments. Sit back and have a mild chuckle. 3/5 stars.

Hmmm.... I've been catching up on a few Westerns recently and thought I'd try this one. Directed by the lately neglected Henry Hathaway who made 'Niagara' with Marilyn Monroe, but seemed to specialise in Westerns, including several John Wayne films and went on to make the original version of 'True Grit'.

It's based on a mini-story within Harold Robbin's over-long potboiler of a novel 'The Carpetbaggers' and tells the story of Max Sands (aka Nevada Smith) who seeks revenge on the three men who tortured and murdered his parents. Three men, three distinct episodes of revenge, essentially three mini-stories within the film. And of course, he succeeds and then rides off into the sunset (well, almost).

The film stars Steve McQueen, then approaching the height of his fame ('Bullitt' was made 2 years later) and regarded as the king of cool, together with a number of other well known 1960s actors. But unfortunately Steve McQueen is a problem - he appears in virtually every frame, and the film appears to be conceived as a personal vehicle for him. And perhaps because of this it is very average - it really could have been so much better.

The film only works at all because of his boyish good looks - but the story spans many years and McQueen is clearly just too old to be referred to at the beginning as 'kid' and 'boy'. The film was made when he was 36 and certainly no 'boy', although a man in his 30s is probably appropriate for the final scenes. Also the story has been sanitised - if I remember from reading the book many years ago, part of the horror is that the last baddie's tobacco pouch is made from Nevada Smith's mother's breast.

The photography is excellent but the storyline and dialogue are weak, so I'll give it 3/5 stars - and that's stretching it a bit. Not one of Mr McQueen's best :(

Yes, it's in German with subtitles, but don't let that put you off - it's rather good, although clearly a low budget effort.

The film is based on the book 'The Black Box Experiment' by Mario Giordano, itself based on the 1971 so-called Stanford prison experiment (look it up on Wikipedia). The film tells the story of 20 volunteers paid to take part in a psychological research experiment. Divided into 'prisoners' and 'guards', the 'guards' begin to take their role too seriously and the experiment moves from an innocent game, through ritual humiliation, to violence, retribution - and death.

OK, it's a drama - but perhaps a fictional illustration that power corrupts. And lest we forget, similar events happen in real life. The events at Abu Ghraib prison, anyone?

The two central characters are a taxi driver Tarek Fahd (who is given a somewhat weak back story and a girlfriend) and the 'guard' named Berus - they antagonise each other and clearly things are going to go too far. How far is quite scary - for a low budget film it is really well done.

There are a few loose ends, a few noticeable continuity errors, and the subtitles are in American rather than English and my German tells me that the translation is a bit uneven. But it's well worth watching. I also note that there has been a 2010 US remake with the Forest Whitaker, but I haven't seen that one.

The director is Olivier Hirschbiegel who went on to make the excellent 'Downfall' about the last days of Hitler, yet another excellent film.

I can recommend 'The Experiment' and rate it as 4/5 stars.

I would class myself as a beginner guitarist - I've been learning for about 9 months. When I had the first lesson, my tutor asked me what sort of music I would like to play. My reply? "I'd like to play like Peter Green."

I truly regret that I never saw him in his heyday, first with John Mayall's 'Bluesbreakers' and then with his own band 'Fleetwood Mac' of which he is the founder, despite the name. I have seen him since, both with his 'Splinter Group' and more recently touring as 'Peter Green and Friends' - regrettably he is a shadow of his former self, albeit having recovered after many years in psychiatric hospitals and on antipsychotic medication following an LSD overdose. And 'Fleetwood Mac' went (IMHO downhill) from one of the greatest British blues/rock band to a middle-of-the-road, mid-Atlantic pop group.

As this DVD demonstrates, Peter Green had a wonderful touch that I only wish I could emulate - perhaps someday?

There are two discs in this DVD set on which Michael Casswell breaks down 5 superb 'Fleetwood Mac' tracks (including the classic 'Albatross') into the various guitar parts and gives an exhaustive demonstration on how to play each part. There are regrettably two issues with this approach. The first is the format: when learning, the disc has to be 'rewound' repeatedly until a specific phrase is mastered - this isn't the fault of the Mr Casswell, but is inherent in a video medium with no printed tab. Having said that, the teaching is pretty good - Mr Casswell is a talented guitarist and the breakdown of each piece is very thorough.

The second issue is that 'Fleetwood Mac' of the day had three guitarists (Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan) plus bass and drums (John McVie, Mick Fleetwood) so there are three guitar parts, not just a straightforward lead + rhythm. And Mr Casswell gives an impressive breakdown of the original recordings, but doesn't provide a simplified approach to allow a solo guitarist or a duo to get 'the sound'.

That minor quibble aside, this is an excellent introduction to Peter Green's guitar style aimed at the intermediate player. 5/5 stars - it's very comprehensive.

I would class myself as a beginner guitarist - I've been learning for about 9 months. I've always wanted to play blues guitar and although I've had regular guitar lessons I haven't tried any DVD-based lessons, so I thought I'd try this.

It started off pretty easy with the E minor pentatonic and blues scales, then moved onto a few licks. These however needed quite a bit more practice until I became proficient, but I found the lessons valuable - in fact I'm going to other the other discs in the series :)

Just one complaint about the lessons. Steve Trovato plays each scale or lick at either a slow pace or against a backing track (included on the DVD). However, there is no use of a metronome which would allow you to progress steadily up to full speed - for me, this would have been a major improvement. I also have to say that for me there wasn't a full week's worth of material here - perhaps the later discs will prove more challenging.

For now, I'll give week 1 of this series 3/5 stars.