Film Reviews by RP

One of the best sci-fi films I have seen in a long time. A small story, a confined and claustrophobic environment, a small cast (one actor – if that doesn't give too much away), but complex concepts and deep emotions play out here. It pays homage to 'classic' sci-fi films, including '2001: A Space Odyssey' with a robot character akin to HAL. I enjoyed it – highly thought provoking. However, for an opposing view, my wife thought it truly boring so I guess you'll either love it or hate it. The film won a 2010 BAFTA for Outstanding Debut – I agree, and it gets 5/5 stars from me.

Great tongue-in-cheek comedy / sci-fi / horror film which pays homage to 1950s 'creature features'. Small town in Nevada is threatened by huge worm-like creatures. Most of the population survive by pole-vaulting across the desert – and it has a happy ending. What more can you ask from a B movie? Wonderful stuff - 4/5 stars.

I seem to have watched a lot of low-budget sci-fi films recently – Moon (man alone in moonbase), Skyline (alien invasion by tentacled creatures) and now Monsters (yet another alien invasion by tentacled creatures). Except it's not. The title is very misleading – the 'monsters' only make a token appearance and the story is far more about the two main characters and how a relationship develops between them.

The story is straightforward (?): some years previously a returning space probe crashed in central America, bringing back an alien life form. Tall, octopus-like tentacled aliens infect the area, making it dangerously uninhabitable. The area is cordoned off in an attempt to contain the aliens. But that is just background – the story itself is of a man and woman trying to make it back to the US and forced to cross the infected zone. They start out, they make it, nothing much happens. Err – that's it.

Dull movie, no thrills, no monsters. Boring – but some of the photography is good. Very disappointing – I was expecting better. But I have seen worse films so I'll give it 2/5 stars.

Well, I suppose it's intended to be a feel-good film with plucky Essex girls winning the war for equal pay for women. And it's had good reviews, so who am I to disagree? Frankly, it felt like a caricature – simplistic characters, industrial relations and politics, strewn with anachronisms, and workers who won but ultimately lost. It's not stated in the film, but Ford Motor Co ceased car manufacture in the UK in 2002.

The film aims for a period feel – and to a certain extent succeeds - but it's a bogus period feel. Also, it feels quite derivative of other and better British success-against-the odds films ('Billy Elliot', 'The Full Monty', 'Brassed Off' etc). The acting is good throughout – but make no mistake, that's what it is, acting. Real industrial relations isn't and wasn't like this – it's a drama, not a documentary. It's quite an enjoyable film so I'll give it 3/5 stars.

Competent cop thriller, in which Clint Eastwood plays Clint Eastwood getting his man and the girl. It's routine stuff with a silly plot, but quite enjoyable. It's also one of the few films either starring or directed by Clint Eastwood that somehow I hadn't seen before.

The (silly) plot goes like this: cop (well, FBI profiler) is invalided out after a heart attack. A couple of years later he gets a heart transplant. It turns out that he has received the heart of a murder victim. The donor's sister asks him to track down the killer. Retired cop finds that a serial killer is at work and that the killer is stalking him. Retired cop identifies killer using a series of telegraphed clues and gets his man.

It is well directed and acted – as we would expect from Mr Eastwood. The thing which jarred with me was grizzled 70+ year old Clint having a romantic encounter with a 40+ year old woman (at least that's the age of the actress – the character she plays is probably supposed to be younger). Talk about cradle snatching :) And the clues are pretty obvious – I don't think it's the kind of film you could watch over and over.

Despite the flaws I enjoyed it and rate it at 3/5 stars.

Clint Eastwood plays Clint Eastwood as an old and wily jewel thief who witnesses a philandering US President attempting rough sex with a woman who is then killed by Secret Service bodyguards. After a tense start, the film then rambles a little as suspicion for the woman's death falls on Clint who proceeds to evade detection by his mastery of disguise.

It's an entertaining but flawed thriller – the story is more than a little silly and many scenes are unrealistic (eg Clint gets away from Secret Service men at night when they're 30 years younger and fitter and he's wearing a heavy rucksack and they have night vision goggles) and his 'master of disguise' technique consists of wearing an old coat and a hat. Despite the flaws, Mr Eastwood directed yet another effective thriller. I enjoyed it and rate it 3/5 stars.

Superb. This is a drama based on a true story, starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer in the lead roles. Crowe plays a research chemist employed by a tobacco company to head research into a non-carcinogenic flavour enhancer. When he tells the CEO that a non-carcinogenic substitute cannot be found, the company insists on continuing the use of the carcinogen and fires him with a substantial payment but gagging him with a confidentiality agreement. Crowe turns whistle blower – he is the insider who knows the truth that the big tobacco companies are not telling.

Al Pacino plays the role of producer of the US documentary TV show '60 Minutes' and Plummer the presenter of the show. Pacino persuades Crowe to be interviewed and tells him that he will protect his source. But Crowe's ex-employer finds out and proceeds to ruin his personal and professional life with legal proceedings and a smear campaign, not to mention death threats.

This is a long and wordy film but I found it gripping. It is the first Russell Crowe film I've seen in which he actually acts rather than simply playing Russell Crowe. Pacino plays a typically intense role, in my opinion one of his best since 'Serpico'. Plummer is excellent as the TV journalist and presenter.

The film was nominated for 7 Oscars but lost out to 'American Beauty' + Kevin Spacey, but has picked up many other awards. It really is excellent but requires concentration as it's certainly not an action thriller. 5/5 stars - highly recommended.

Clint Eastwood plays Clint Eastwood as an old and cynical newspaper reporter who has a hunch that a convicted murderer is innocent. Can he prove that there has been a miscarriage of justice before the soon-to-be-executed man meets his fate? Of course he can – he is, after all, Clint Eastwood. Can he get the girl? Of course he can – he is, after all, Clint Eastwood and only 40+ years older than her. Can he play the loving father? Of course he can – he is, after all, Clint Eastwood and must have been fathering his daughter when he was well over 60. Clint plays an old, ex-drunk, womaniser – a role he could play in his sleep.

His age grates a little and this is one of his later films where his excellent directing skills improve while he continued to cast himself in age-inappropriate roles. It's still a fairly good film which I enjoyed – but then, I do like Clint Eastwood. One other point: Bernard Hill plays the role of the warden of San Quentin prison, a bold attempt seeing as he's from Manchester :) I'll rate 'True Crime' as 3/5 stars but that's stretching it a bit.

Based on the Nevil Shute novel of the same name, the film tells the story of the last days of the world as seen through the eyes of 5 people. This is not a crash bang lots-of-effects story, but gentle and romantic, and all the more effective for that.

The book was published in 1957 (and the film is set in then-future 1964) and supposes that there has been a nuclear war (started by accident) in the northern hemisphere. The radiation gradually moves south killing all in its path; the film is set in Melbourne, Australia, the last major city left. A US nuclear submarine is all that's left of the US Navy and undertakes a final voyage to determine whether radiation in the far north is now falling (it isn't) and the source of mysterious radio signals (accidental and random).

With hope for the future extinguished, the characters live out their last days before radiation sickness gets them. That makes the film sound a great deal more gloomy than it is – it is certainly sobering and thought provoking, but it's filled with life if not laughter.

However, there are some points which grate on me, not least the fact that the stars are all American with no Aussie accents to be heard. The film while reasonably true to the novel deviates unnecessarily in small but irritating ways – for example, the name of the submarine is changed from Scorpion to Sawfish, the source of the radio signals is changed from Seattle to San Diego, in the novel the captain remains faithful to the memory of his wife etc etc. But then I'm a Nevil Shute fan :)

Just in case you wonder why the end of the world is so subdued, the book includes an extract from T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Hollow Men', including the final lines 'This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper'. The film is set in a world now long gone, the cold war period over, but is still a sobering reminder of what might be. 4/5 stars.

Jeff Bridges reprises his role from 'The Big Lebowski' by playing the US President in this good but ultimately disappointing film about US politics. Why do I mention 'The Big Lebowski'? Well, Jeff Bridges is so laid back as the President that no work or decision making seems to get done, he has Sam Elliot (who played the barfly narrator in 'The Big Lebowski') as his Chief Of Staff, and there's even a scene in the White House private bowling alley. But on to the actual film...

The film is about equal treatment for women. The President selects a woman candidate for Vice President. She is examined by a hostile Senate committee to assess her suitability for high office. Allegations emerge about her sexual conduct when a student, and the hostile committee chairman (superbly played by Gary Oldman) uses these and other allegations in an attempt to discredit her, allegations that would never have been made about a man.

There is a twist at the end about her rival candidate, a rousing final speech by the President, and everything ends on a high note. I enjoyed it, but while it exposed the dirty infighting of US politics the characters didn't seem real to me. The central character (the contender herself, well played by Joan Allen) is an atheist who supports abortion - the premise that she was a former Republican is ludicrous. And the 'twist' concerning the rival candidate is simply too far fetched.

That aside, there are some fine performances and if you don't mind watching a wordy film about the politics of a foreign country, you may well enjoy this. 3/5 stars – but could have been a lot better.

I've been catching up on a few Jeff Bridges films that I had missed on their cinema release, and came across this one from 1984. It's a romantic / sci-fi / comedy film, if that combination is possible. It stars the young Jeff Bridges (well, 35 years young) putting on one of his 'goofy' acts as the 'Starman', an alien whose craft has crashed on Earth (after being fired on by US planes) and who must get to a specific location in Arizona to be picked up by the mother ship.

Karen Allen plays Jenny Hayden, a young widow, and the Starman adopts the form of her late husband. She drives him to the rendezvous and along the way there are car chases, crashes and an assortment of mild adventures, and of course a romantic interlude.

The storyline is very much one from the 1950s pulp 'space fiction' stories and feels dated even for the year in which the film was made. OK if you like that kind of thing – it's not an unlikeable film but I found it a little too 'girly' for me, although it certainly made me smile a few times. I'll rate it 3/5 stars.

Ip Man is best known as the Hong Kong kung fu master who trained Bruce Lee, the martial arts actor. Ip Man 2 is the second pseudo-biographical film about the life and times of Ip Man. I describe it as 'pseudo' because great liberties with his life have been taken in this pair of films.

The first film, 'Ip Man' tells of Ip's life in Foshan, China, under Japanese occupation in the 1930-1940s during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. Of the two films, 'Ip Man' is in my opinion the better and should definitely be viewed before 'Ip Man 2'. Although stylised – it's the nature of kung fu films – with fights between proponents of different martial art styles and a duel between Ip Man and the local Japanese commander (a baddie, of course) there is some character development. But it's along the lines of 'Ip Man good and gentle until provoked, Japanese bad'. At the end of the film, Ip Man is wounded by the Japanese and leaves Foshan for Hong Kong. In fact, he did not leave China until 1949 after the Communist takeover.

Anyway, the action in 'Ip Man 2' takes place in Hong Kong, where the impoverished Mr Ip tries to support his family by (of course) starting a martial arts school. First he has to assert his prowess against the local kung fu masters, then against the British, the then rulers of Hong Kong. And (of course) similar to the first film it's 'Ip Man good and gentle until provoked, British bad'.

I have to say that of its type it's pretty good, although some scenes are just silly – the battle against 50+ cleaver wielding locals using a pallet as a shield is worthy of a Jackie Chan film, and there is unnecessary wire work in the duel with Hung. However, the climactic fight against British boxer Taylor 'The Twister' Milos is pretty good stuff. Now, if only all the nasty, corrupt, upper class Brits weren't so stereotyped... 4/5 stars.

Perhaps I've watched a few too many poor sci-fi 'creature' films recently, but I have to say that I quite enjoyed this one. I came across it when looking for other films directed by Frank Darabont, who also directed 'The Shawshank Redemption' and 'The Green Mile' which I had recently seen.

The story goes like this: a mysterious mist descends on a small US town, trapping a group of shoppers in a supermarket. And in the mist are creatures... Err, that's about it – the story lies in the telling of what fear (and of course, a creature or two) does to those trapped in a claustrophobic environment. The lead character (played by Thomas Jane) is a little wooden, but this is more than made up for by the character of Mrs Carmody (played by Marcia Gay Harden), a religious fanatic who is quite disturbing. The ending, unlike most Hollywood films, is downbeat, effective, and moving.

If I have criticisms it is that the film is over long (2 hours) and that some of the creature effects are poor, but most are pretty reasonable.

If you like sci-fi thrillers, give this one a go. 3/5 stars - recommended.

Hmmm... I was hoping against hope for something better than this: it's just plain silly, a mish-mash of every assassinate-the-President / conspiracy theory / revenge film you've ever seen. Super-sniper Bob Lee Swagger (what? are people really called that?) is conned and framed for an attempted assassination and sought by the combined forces of FBI + police. While shot and injured he (of course) defeats all before him and (of course) gets his revenge on the baddies who have set him up and (of course) gets the woman. Unbelievable, mindless twaddle.

However, switch off your brain, sit back and let it wash over you and it becomes a fairly standard action flick, with all the usual car chases, shootings, explosions and a high body count. You will have seen the plot – and the action sequences – over and over in all the similar films you've watched over the years.

I have seen worse films so I'll have to give it 3/5 stars, but it really is disappointing, below average stuff and despite this rating I really didn't like it much.

It's not a gangster film, nor an action film, nor a revenge film. It covers a father's search for the truth of his daughter's death and is told in a sort of photo-montage, cut-up style, with abrupt time shifts, flashbacks and flash forwards, together with introspective moments.

Terence Stamp plays a grizzled Cockney career criminal who has spent much of his life in prison, thus losing touch with his daughter. He comes to LA to avenge her death but spends much of the time thinking about their limited time together and what might have been. The flashbacks to a happier time are well done, using clips from the Ken Loach film 'Poor Cow' which starred a young Terence Stamp and Carol White. 3/5 stars.