The early part of this movie does nothing to develop any of the characters. There is no back story there is no explanation of anything much just a short pilot briefing and then the pilots take off on a mission into Laos. The mission is top secret as Laos is not officially at war and in fact Vietnama and the USA are not fully at war at this point in history.

Even after Christian Bale gets shot down, captured and put in a prison camp the characters feel distant and it’s hard to care for any of them. The interesting point for me was viewing this 30 years after the Vietnam war and seeing the Viet Cong in a completely different light.

You can see why they treated the American servicemen so poorly in fact everyone is brutal. It is interesting to realise how effective the propaganda of the 60’s and 70’s was (even in the UK) and how our political perceptions and sympathies have changed especially over the time that the Iraq war has been on.

The story gets more interesting in the second half where Bale starts to plan for a breakout. By the end of the movie I felt that it is worth watching and by the end quite enjoyable.

I was not expecting much from this movie but it was lot better than I thought it was going to be. It’s kind of an old fashioned vampire movie but with the 30 days of night twist where the hero has to survive for a month in freezing Alaska while being stalked and chased by a band of nasties.

I am not a big fan of Josh (wooden acting) Hartnett but he seemed to fit in well here as the laid back Sheriff of a small Alaskan town (the most northerly town in America).

The vampires are scary enough and have all the usual characteristics (can’t go out during the day, drink blood etc.) They are a tough bunch though and not easy to dispatch – an axe comes in handy about half way through the film.

If you like traditional (non-slasher) horror films that have a reasonable plot and better than average acting then this is worth a look in.

Breach is an interesting understated movie and worthy of a wider audience. It seems to have bypassed the production company’s marketing department, personally I can’t remember it being released.

The plot revolves around a tracking and capture of the most damaging mole incident in the history of the US secret service. The movie starts with an announcement of the arrest so you know immediately the outcome but then flashes back two months.

Ryan Phillippe plays a newly appointed low level FBI operative who is assigned to baby-sitting the main suspect played by Chris Cooper (in a stunning performance). The movie plots the development of the relationship between Phillipe and Coper until arrest.

For a lot of time the movie plays like a two handed stage play, well written and with well developed characters. I would thoroughly recommend this movie.

This is a movie about three drug addicts who owe their dealer $8000 and have to pay it back quickly, try to rob a house to get the money, bury their dead friend, escape from a satanist cult, get rescued by dwarves and get eveything cleared up in 88 minutes. The characters are funny and you like them from the start of the film. This kind of film has been done a few times but at least this one is funny and however stupid the plot gets you manage to go along with it.

It’s a good Sunday night with nothing to watch on TV. Give it a go you might like it more than you think…

Man without a past is a great little movie from Finland. The Finnish language is really quite strange which is something I not thought about before. The basic plot centres around a man who gets off a train in and is attacked by a group of skinheads. He wakes in hospital some time later with no memory of who he is and what has happened.

He ends up living rough in a container lot by the sea and gets involved with a lot of colourful and strange characters. He finds it difficult to get work as he has no name or insurance number so end up working for the Salvation Army. He gets the SA band to start playing rock and roll and becomes the band manager.

There are all sorts of encounters and adventures before his past finally catches up with him.

This is a well crafted film with great performances all round. Well worth watching.

American Gangster is a film in the style of The Godfather. The pacing is good, the plot coherent and well structured and the acting throughout and by all actors is excellent. Russel Crowe plays the character of the lead investigator with a lot of restraint (for a change) and actually does not try to mug his way through, he even injects a fair amount of subtlety to the part.

Denzil Washington is great as the top gangster with the right amount of smooth charm balanced with moments of crazy madness. The art direction is really excellent with scenes depicting the late 60’s and early 70’s with all the right colours, cars and fashion styles but all looking a bit worse for wear. Even the colour of the sky looked right – from my childhood memory of 1968/69.

I would throughly recommend this film even though it is quite long it is well worth a few loo and tea breaks.

A thoughtful well plotted movie with interesting characters and good performances. The sets with scenes from the 1940’s are blended into the one’s with the modern actors almost seemlessly. The pacing is slow but it had an old fashioned feel about it that I liked probably because I have been brought up on a diet of old black and white WWII movies! Geogre Clooney was excellent in the part of the news reporter getting in over his head (how many times does he get hit with a chair?)

Tobey Maguire is very sleezy and played the part of the soldier on the make really well. I always thought his Spiderman was on the verge of psychotic and this role seemed an extension of this part.

All-in-all I would recommend this film even though it has a reputation for being slow and maybe even boring. I would have a couple of coffee’s and watch it to the end it IS worth it.

For a film about a pop group Heima is quite an excellent movie. The locations are beautiful and the guys in the band grow on you as their personalities are slowly revealed. The scenes where the drummer was selecting rocks and then makes an instrument from them is very evocative of how the music is built up and reflects the professionalism of the band.

I also liked the scene with the 100 year old rhubarb patch! If you are considering going to Iceland I would recommend watching this movie as an introduction to the country, it’s people and the music that is inspired by it’s phenomenal strangeness.

Control is a great movie. I was in too minds about watching this one but it is really well made, the performances are superb especially the lead playing Ian Curtiss. I was not a fan of Joy Division and had not heard many of their songs but I did not find it necessary to know anything about the band.

The director treats the audience with intelligence and for a UK based movie this is a real breath of fresh air. There are no in depth explanations of the transitions in the life of the band and main characters. It’s very slick and well worth watching. If you have not seen this one get it ASAP you won’t regret it.

I was thinking about popping over to Paris on the Eurostar sometime but this movie slightly put me off. Some of the issues raised:
– the food (Lapin)
– the taxi drivers (fascist, racist, speak only French)
– the nightlife (noisy)
– the neighbourhoods (dangerous)

Apart from all that Paris looked great. The relationship between the two main characters is sparky and there is definite chemistry between them (according to the IMDB they did date).

My favourite characters are Julie Delpy’s (real) father and mother.

The plot is pretty obvious from the first few seconds – trip to Paris on the way back to the US from their European vacation the couple stay with her parents for two days and along the way meet her ex-boyfriends and suitably middleclass and arty mates. Along the way there are all sorts of funny moments around language – he speaks no French and the French speak little or no English.

Their relationship strained to breaking point by the end due to what they find out about each other.

It feels like a Woody Allen film at times and even seems to borrow some scenes from films such as Manhattan and Annie Hall.

It is funny and inoffensive and worth seeing if you are stuck for something else to watch.