Film Reviews by Pete W

Despite a fine cast of British character actors, I'm afraid I found this tedious and rather unfunny. A grave disappointment after Shaun of the Dead.

Forget the "gay cowboy" tag, this is just a quality film. Stunning cinematography, score and script. Ledger is absolutely outstanding - I would never have expected a performance of such depth and nuance from him - and Gyllenhaal runs him close. If you are looking for an action movie, you will be disappointed. But if you want a drama that is thought provoking and emotionally gripping, watch this film. I challenge anyone not to have a little weep during it. Once you've seen the film, you won't stop thinking about it - and it doesn't matter whether you're gay or straight or anything else.

I'm afraid this left me completely cold. I was expecting a vaguely historical story about Ancient Greece but got "Lord of the Rings" meets "Oiled up muscle marys in their pants". Since when was the Persian warrior king Xerxes a giant with an unfeasible number of piercings? Not my cup of tea at all.

Broadly based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, except that Ripley has moved from France to Italy for some reason. Why don't film makers just film the Highsmith stories without "improving" them - the films would be much better. Biggest problem for me was Malkovich - too old for Tom Ripley, he can do the chilling psychopath pretty well but lacks Ripley's essential charm.

Typical Le Carre country but not up to the standard of the Smiley series. The story seems too slow moving and drawn out. Ray McAnally is excellent as Pym's conman dad and Peggy Ashcroft steals several scenes but Peter Egan just didn't work for me as the lead character.

A gripping representation of life in an American EOD team in Iraq. This doesn't present the guys as purely heroes but shows the corrosive effect of the constant pressure in terms of their relationship with each other and with outsiders. Not afraid to duck the possibility that the whole adventure may be pointless.

Star Trek gets the Star Wars treatment in this entertaining prequel to the Star Trek TV series. The younger versions of the characters are very believable in a film with a solid storyline - even if it starts getting a bit difficult to follow about half way through when two versions of the same character appear after a bout of time travelling.

I don't think that this film really seizes all the opportunities presented by the situation. The sole joke seems to be that two straight guys have agreed to make a porn film with each other and are now very embarassed by the whole situation. Had the film been a bit more daring, and made the comedy broader, it might have been more entertaining. As it was, it was a bit of a yawn.

I'm afraid this didn't work for me. It took a very superficial approach to some serious issues such as child mutilation and exploitation. I couldn't see any comedic element to the film or any feel-good factor. In fact, I found the whole piece rather depressing.

Tom Cruise does a good job of portraying von Stauffenberg, supported by the usual cast of supporting British actors (plus Eddie Izzard). Even though we all know the outcome, the film maintains a good level of tension throughout. Interesting to wonder how close the plot came to ending the war nearly a year before it actually ended.

Remember all those westerns that used to be on TV on a Sunday afternoon? Well this is out of the same stable but updated for the 21st century. Solid performances from Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in the lead roles and a storyline that holds the attention with constant twists and turns. Special mention for Ben Foster as a psychopathic outlaw who gets what he deserves in the end from an unexpected source.

I haven't got the faintest idea what this film was trying to say. Perhaps it was just an exercise to see how far you can push the boundaries of censorship. Yes, you get to see total nudity, erections - the lot. But why?

Cotillard deservedly won awards for her performance as Piaf - an extraordinary performer but a pretty hopeless drunk and drug addict who died at the age of 48 completely burnt out. Tragedy follows Piaf everywhere - a feckless father, absent mother, blindness while being brought up in a whore house, life in the gutter in Paris, the murder of her first manager and the death of the love of her life (unfortunately married to someone else)in a plane crash. The film jumps around a bit but Cotillard carries it and you get a real sense of the magnetism of Piaf on stage, in contrast with her complete unsympathetic real life persona.

Superb performance by Timothy Spall who shows us the humane side of an executioner and the eventual trauma which his profession causes to those who carry it out and their families. The film evokes the atmosphere of the 1930s to 1950s when capital punishment was an accepted part of everyday life but by the mid 1950s we see the unease caused by executions of innocent men like Evans and Bentley and of women - Ruth Ellis in particular. A strong cast all round. Based on fact, only one incident appears improbable but may be true for all I know. Recommended for those who enjoy a thought provoking film on a serious topic, well acted.

Someone in France saw "Shakespeare in Love" and decided to do something similar about their national playwright, Moliere. Entertaining enough but I expect it would have been more interesting if I had more than a long forgotten French A level standard acquaintance with the works of Moliere