Film Reviews by AER

What starts out as a vaguely intriguing stoner comedy turns into another one of those - there has to be more to life than this / oh hold up, I'm a sleeper assassin. Everybody seems to be sleepwalking their way through this rote and unoriginal action flick. The fights are competent enough and there is lots of gun play but you've seen the actors in this in way better films. Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart even gelled excellently in Adventureland. Wasted opportunity.

This is one for 'The Notebook' / Reese Witherspoon book club crowd - this is a very well-presented melodrama set in Scotland during the first quarter of the 20th century. An over-qualified cast try to make a very basic underserving script work. Some scenes work, others are cringey, but much is thanks to the acting of the principal cast, only Mark Gatiss seems miscast. The plot runs on rails and although it's a very sad tale (based loosely on fact), it fails to distinguish itself from the 100s of lesser made-for-TV dramas. This is low-budget but good acting, excellent cinematography, beautiful locations and tastefully soundtrack just about elevate this from boring to above-average. It's not my cup of tea, and had all the above aspects been terrible, I would have switched off. The last twist in the tale was corny and unneeded, but I guess this is the kind of denouement The Notebook crowd craves.

With it's crap script, dopey non-characters and silly plot, Tarot doesn't have alot going for it. However, it was watchable mainly because a lot of the set-pieces ended up being quite effective. Because the 'assailant' changed appearance depending on which tarot card each of the protagnists were dealt, it made the film interesting to look at. So you see the major arcana manifested in physical form such as the magician, the joker, the devil etc. It kept things going and creepy, but this is largely dumb, bloodless, and a thin placeholder under Final Destination 6 shows up.

Sub-zero expectations saw me through.

Guy Ritchie returns to the style of Cockney Gangster Geezer Movie and he's clear lost the light touch. This seems like a tired facsimile of his older films without the wit, originality or humour. Clunky sideplots about a gay gangster and a lucky painting that we never get to see fog up the pace. Sadly, it's marred by over-mannered acting. Only Tom Wilkinson generates any electricity, and a pair of Chechen hardmen bit players offer memorable scenes and fun action. It's not a patch on Lock Stock, Snatch, or even Revolver. The Gentleman, which is Guy Ritchie's most recentl return to gnagster land was better too. A post-credits promise of a sequel has so far failed to materialise. Good, keep it that way :) lol

This ain't The One - Jet Li is simply awful playing various different versions of himself across a multiverse. He is the last of his kind as an evil Jet Li tries to wipe him out to gain ultimate power and destroy the galaxy of galaxies. An incompetent interdimensional police force have failed to save a single Jet Li (out of 1000s of worlds) from evil Jet Li - it's hilarious. Bad acting on a tropical disease scale from Jet Li and a hairy Jason Statham try to convince you that they are the best unintentionally funny comedy duo in the history of Hollywood! Perhaps one of the worst mid-budget sci-fis Hollywood ever produced except for Babylon AD (but that was French wasn't it?:)

Number Two - a real t*rd

the difference between Late Night With The Devil and your hordes of other horrors are the performances. Presented as a missing episode of a late night variety show on TV that goes tragically awry this brings horror to viewers in a new respect. The acting is atypical of a horror film but a live TV event, so how it manages to be terrifying is something short of a miracle. However, when the veil is lifted in the last 10 minutes, it loses it's stragnelhold. However, you won't have seen another horror flick like this. It's very entertaining and an all-too-rare treat that brings innovation and scares. Do not miss.

There are few living artists whose work lends itself to cinema so well. Anselm Kiefer's creations are large scale objects of destruction and decay. And this documentary offers a fly on the wall perspective into his processes as he works at his Institute at Barjac in the South of France. It's slow cinema to be sure but engrossing to see a master at work. Worth a look if you are interested in learning how Kiefer works. This isn't a historical documentary; you won't learn anything about his life or career here.

Sadly the VHS series of short horror films is out of ideas. This sixth entry was tedious, unscary and boring. Each of these stories lost the knack for the uncanny and were just instead gory and repetitive. Shame as these used to pretty vital to modern horror.

A huge dip in quality when compared to the first two movies. This was directed by John Landis too and must count as one of his worst movies. Eddie Murphy looks perplexed half the time and the plot is very dull and makes an ass outta everyone.

I usually enjoy the VHS anthology series of short horror flicks but none of the five films in this edition are at all interesting.

This is the first time I've seen Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters; I recently rewatched Annie Hall and saw 'Melinda and Melinda' too - so I'm going through something of a Woody Allen phase it would seem. The most recent one I've seen of his was Wonder Wheel which seems like a long time ago now...

Anyway, Hannah and Her Sisters benefits from pushing Woody Allen (the actor) into a supporting role rather than have him hogging the limelight. I'm not a fan of his characters (which always seem the same), so this was cool to see Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, and Barbara Hershey take centre stage for once - and they embody some interesting roles convincingly. Woody isn't even the best male actor in the film, as Michael Caine and Max Von Sydow have better roles and nail them with aplomb. Hannah and Her Sisters is an entertaining, serio-comedy that adds nothing new to the Woody Allen cycle of films. Like all his movies, you either warm to the story or you don't I enjoyed this as it wasn't as irritating and as dated as some appear to be. Look out for John Turturro in a walk-on role!

This is like an episode of Coronation Street if it was set in South Central Los Angeles! It has some funny moments but in the main it's slow, uncinematic, uneven and not as funny or good as your average Cheech and Chong movie....

I remember liking this second chapter to the inventive Insidious - however, this time I noticed that there wasn't much going on or for this sequel. An interesting backstory aside and one creepy scene with a hidden room full of patiently waiting bunch of shrouded corpses, Insidious 2 is a bit of a narrative mess, with a bad script, weird uneven performances, bad overdubbing, and crap facial hair. Worst of all is that hardly any of the scares land, and the story goes in circles, adding nothing fresh to the story. Whilst it doesn't repeat much from part one, it drives to less interesting places. However, it's still better than 3, 4 & 5 which drag the series down and down and down.

Thin.

This forgotten Channel Four film offers an insight into a soldier's PTSD. Pvt Deakin (DAVID THEWLIS) goes MIA during the Falklands only to turn up safe and sound seven weeks later. His family had already given him a funeral. At first he is proclaimed a hero but then the UK press turn on him, putting the seed into people's heads that he deserted the battle field. His fellow soldiers welocme him back with suspicion, and he also returns home a changed man. It's an interesting film with committed performances. It's based on a true story and was worth the telling. It's solid and holds no surprises. It's not very cinematic, although it wasn't produced as a TV film. This was director Paul Greengrass' (The Bourne trilogy / Green Zone) debut and he showed a lot of promise. It still stands up to day, even though it's style is of British movies made in the 1980s. Great support from Tom Bell, Rita Tushingham, Christopher Fulford, David Lonsdale, and Rudi Davies (as Deakin's understanding girlfriend). Look out for young Steve Coogan in a background role.

Sean Patrick Flanery is superb as a genius/albino/lightning conductor called Powder who gets taken into a state school for troublesome teens when his grandparents die. Having never really encountered ohter humans it's a bit of a rude awakening. Lots of eyebrows and questions are raised as this keeps Powder'mysteries locked away, but still has lots of big plotholes. There are a few great set-pieces like a scene in the dining hall, and another that centres on a dying deer. Bad acting on the sidelines scuppers this film more than you'd think and they can't make their careless characters seem more sympathetic. Jeff Goldblum is simply awful, Mary Steenburgen unmemorable, only Lance Henriksen won me as the town's sherriff. In turn creepy and sentimental, it's all over the place tonally. I saw it back in the 90s and quite liked it, but I am obviously a bi tless accepting now, and more critical. I'm sad that it's not the cool film I remembered.