Film Reviews by AER

This film reflects the creative chaos that rules the mind of the central character and the director/writer Roman Coppola. With a laidback approach to narrative, Charlie Sheen is perfect as the love-lorn, half-bored Charles Swan III, a multi-millionaire graphic designer who is getting over a breakup. We venture into the minds of the central characters incl. Charlie, Kirby (his BFF) and one or two others. Like Charles, the film wants for nothing visually and creatively . Some scenes are very funny, but it doesn't amount to very much except to a zany brainstorm, where every idea stuck and nothing was rejected. Charlie Sheen is smooth and zoned out - totally brilliant.

Charles Swan III is part of that sub-genre dominated by Spike Jonze & Charlie Kaufman - films like Stranger Than Fiction, Being John Malkvoich, Her etc... This is less clever but who cares - it's a breezy 80+ minutes.

Cringy last minute though. But I forgive a film with this many ideas. The trailer makes it look like a disaster - but it's just the trailer that's disastrous showing the punchline to some good jokes with no context.

Recommended if you want something dazzling, quirky and you've missed seeing Charlie Sheen do his 'thing'...

If Benjamin had been about Stephen (Benjamin's failure of a standup comedian BFF) this would have been more interesting. Unfortunately, this slice-of-life comedy-drama focussed on a listless drip of a filmmaker dithering about a courtship with a French musician. Sadly, it's all too realistic yet fay like the characters;the people (on the whole) depicted in this movie are the kind of people most of us would run a mile from. So it's an unpretentious film about pretentious idiots who only gain clarity momentarily. Joel Fry (as Stephen) nails his depressed, lost comedian - he'd revisit a Richard Curtis-version/reading of this character type in Yesterday (that film sucked). Jessica Raine is also superb but groteque...

This is disposable and pretty unlikeable because of the prats in the story, not due to any shortcomings by the actors or the filmmakers.

Slight, mildly funny, and very occassionally astute and truthful.

A friend at work was telling me about this film so I put it on my CP list. Aside from ticking a list off made up of lost 80s actors,this end of the world film has one thing going for it, the Tangerine Dream soundtrack. Wish I could say something else in its favour but the film's plot defies logic, a trombone playing doofus turns out the a gun wielding maniac intent on warning everyone he meets of a nuclearstrike descending on LA within the hour. The script seems to have been written by 700 blindfolded people as one line of dialogue bears no relationship to the next and scenes go nowhere and characters remain toilet paper thin. It's dodgy, dated and bad in the bad sense. Sorry, but not all 80s movies are golden.

This film was a mould-breaker with a strong female character to root for. Inspired by Little Women, no doubt, Sybilla (JUDY DAVIS) defies society's need to get her married, by falling in love with neighbour Harry (SAM NEILL) but rebuffing his marriage proposals to purse a career as a writer.Set at the turn of the 20th century in rural NSW, this is a spirited and funny tale of adversity in the face of stuffy convention. Nowadays, films like this are envogue and being made regularly, bearing in mind that this was released in the late 1970s this must have been a game changer. It certainly helped to launch the international film careers of Judy Davis and Sam Neill. This paved the way for The Piano, Portrait of a Woman on Fire,Pride & Prejudice and other Austen/Bronte adaptations, Little Women remakes and so many more.

If you love Australian cinema, then this is an enduring classic. I've been meaning to see it for years and years to see whether it lived up to its fine reputation, and it certainly does. It's a shame the DVD transfer is quite poor (and there's no subtitles) (not Cinema Paradiso's fault as this movie is hard to come by streaming so at least they've kept it available!) - I will keep an eye for a restored version or a blu-ray.

Engrossing, funny and ahead of its time.

Initially intriguing, this bog-standard Independence Day cheapo is awful in too many ways. Some of the actors do impossible jobs with the astonishingly bad script. The plot starts off ok but quickly becomes nonsensical, then even the makers give up the ghost and just make do with inocherent action scenes. The SFX hint at the level of ambition the filmmakers have but they fall far short of realising the scale and need to convince. Cardboard sets, bad CGI and bad lipsynching make this a turkey. Pity Toyah Willcox who cameos as a care worker, as she puts in a serious performance, whilst all else chases its tale and begins to turn into a sentimental, soppy, preachy, quasi-religious, scientology-type mishmash of weak ideas.

Very bad, but at least it tried for a while to offer something original and new, but that's probably an accident as nothing else done by design seems to have come off well... War of the Worlds in Birmingham this ain't!

PS: why is the leading lady Lucy Drive credited as Roxi Drive in this?

At last a film worth watching about Borley Rectory. After the ludicrously bad Haunting of Borley Rectory by non-director Steven M Smith and Andrew Jones Haunting At The Rectory, this well-crafted, atmospheric part-animated chiller this is absolutely well-worth your time. It's finished in the style of FW Murnau's Nosferatu with flickering b&w visuals and superbly rendered special effects. Curtains billow, floorboards creek,doors slam, faces appear at windows and out of smokey shadows. It's a deft piece of showmanship. It works less well as a drama - this is more in the realms of dramatised documentary, but I was OK with that. This is a creative way to get the facts to the viewer and keep them engaged. Julian Sands' narration is excellent and well-poised. Shame the material is so slight and the running time very short - but this film is the quintessential movie to check out if you want to learn about Borley Rectory.

Based on a stage play 'Jump To Cow Heaven', this story of Frank Mitchell aka The Mad Axeman doesn't need to be opened out because of the events (guessed at) that really happened. But at the same time, this does feel like a filmed 'play'. Don't be put off, as the central three performers are excellent and the film has been nicely shot, including sequences on a dark and grey Dartmoor (wild ponies included). In 1966, the Kray Twins sprung Frank Mitchell from Dartmoor Prison and holed him up in a London flat with a minder and a blonde to keep him quiet. With challening mental problems, the dynamic for an interesting showdown is well-established. The Kray Twins fail to show up and their motivations are sketchy as to why they bailed him out in the first place. Read up on the real events, but officially Mitchell is still at large to this day. Spooky.

Recommended if you like performance led pieces. The Krays: Dead Man Walking (produced by Jonathan Sothcott) covered the same news story but their film was very bad by comparison.

This isn't a serious attempt to make a film. Bad sound and cheap production values make this a bust and that's without picking on the terrible performers - some of which you may have seen in top UK soap operas about 10 years ago. Pity leading man Kris Johnson (who has been excellent in similar movies) who takes a virtually silent role as a vengeful hitman. Virtually impenetrable plot and dialogue render this a sorry mess. Poor workmanship and a lack of experience, ideas and skill land this under the dustbin. Do not engage.

The phenomenally gifted Elle Fanning takes the lead in this straight-forward but convincing tale of a Isle of Wight-based Polish immigrant's rise to fame on a pop idol TV. She is befriended by a faded Croatian Opera Singer who becomes her protector through the maze of smarmy talent scouts / PR people. It's was predictable stuff but well made, well-acted and a superior teen movie. Recommended if you are looking for a short and unchallenging watch. It really achieves what it sets out to do.

Well above average for this kind of rags to riches teen idol flick...

This loosely adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Master & Man takes a while to kick in. It's not until the two main characters Basil (Danny Huston) and Nick (Matthew Jacobs) meet up as a property developer (of sorts) and his chauffeur for the day. It's clear that they are each, eachother's worst nightmare. The job is to be driven around Denver, Colorado to see some houses. It's clear they wouldn't cross paths in real life and all they do is wind each other up. The former is irritated the the latter's incompetence, nosiness and slowness, the latter is irritated by the former's arrogance, sense of entitlement, impatience and rudeness. They get into trouble in the mountains when a snow storm moves in... Then things get very interesting indeed. The first 15 minutes were a waste of time, but I stuck with it and this got really good even though both of the main characters were complete a**holes... I haven't seen any of Bernard Rose's films since Mr Nice or maybe ivansxtc, and for me, I like his light touch on the tech, it really puts you in the room with the characters.

Bernard Rose was one of the first known filmmakers to embrace digital cameras and push tech at gateway level. He's like the 'indie' James Cameron in a way. This just let's the actors do their thing and its wonderfully naturalistic, almost like we're in the car with these insufferable characters. Even in it's closing moments it highlights that there will be dire consequences in store all concerned.

Short, not sweet, and NOT a Christmas movie... Excellent.

If it were possible to leave minus stars on these reviews this would be minus 5. This unfinished, amateurish quickie has all the flare and poise of a home video of a child's nativity play, filmed by a drunk. There is no reason to watch this sorry shambles of a horror unless, like me, you waste too much time searching the UK's homegrown film releases for a low-budget horror gem. Painful - and this isn't director Louisa Warren's first film either, she's got form. Also avoid Satanic Nun, Viking War and Curse of the Scarecrow - and there's about 10 more from this terrible director coming too. You're better off dead than watching this.

Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren give this pulpy thriller a touch of class. Unfortunately, the plot is so far-fetched and has some whopping implausibilities at its heart that the whole film falls apart when you think back on it. However, it's an entertaining watch, and definitely Ian McKellen's best role since Mr Holmes (same director). So it plays well in the middle ground but once the cats out of the bag, you will groan that the film makers actually 'went there'. Fun but basic.

Gentle of pace and big on character, this is a beautiful portrait about parent's outliving their usefulness and relevance. Now a mistress of the universe, a highpowered executive has no time for her visiting father. So he sets about trying to sneak back stage into her life by usin ghis skills as a practical joker - he dons a bad wig and false teeth and begins to turn up at her work social gatherings and meetings. It's sweet but not sickly sweet and anyone with a heart and a taste for non-conventional films will get a lot from Toni Erdmann. In this age of bang for your buck, and sh*t CGI, this is just the tonic I needed. As a character driven piece and a comedy, it was aces all the way - it's very long though. hmmm.

Please avoid this filmmaker. His no-budget efforts have hit an all time low. This is an incoherent shambles. Unscary, repetitve and just a shade over 1 hour long (which was a good point). Horrendous acting from lead Jon-Paul Gates - perhaps the worst performer in employment - he should have his equity card revoked. Bad acting honours are hotly competed for and it looks like it includes footage of real-life people who were stupid enough to pay to see a ghost. Maybe their entrance fee got used to pay for the 10p the director and crew spent on props.

Historically woeful, this is an all-time low for one of the very worst filmmakers ever to have learnt how to unscrew a lense cap. Cr*p of the highest order.

You will have wished you had just sat and watched one of those Michael Winner-starring insurance adverts on a four hour loop.

Very poor sequel to the lacklustre White Noise, that starred Michael Keaton. White Noise 2 - The Light seems to be a different story completely and bits about the TV static seem to be inserted in at the edges (zelig-like) - this may have been written as an unrelated stand-alone then shoehorned into shape. I only watched this as I like Nathan Fillion from Firefly. Well, I don't anymore because this film sucked. The acting is poor, the script perfunctory and the special-effects aren't special at all. The plot runs around in circles with only one good set-piece involving a grand piano. Sadly though, this is poor man's Final Destination - it wouldn't even qualify to be a poor sequel. Craig Fairbrass shows up in a rare Stateside role but he's sidelined early on and hamstrung by the bad dialogue 'Tria mera! If save, must kill...' zzzzz. It was cheap, uncheerful and ultimately, very lame.

Sorry Nathan.