Movie Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third installment of the Narnia Chronicles and is a vast improvement on its dire predecessor Prince Caspian. It is still nowhere in the class of the first movie – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – but is nevertheless a better than average fantasy movie, with an adventurous if slightly overlong plot, and quality 3D presentation that all combine to make it worth seeing.

The main characters from the first two movies – Peter and Susan Pevensie – are grown up and so this time Lucy and Edmund find themselves sent to their aunt and uncle’s house alone to wait out World War II. As teenagers they are now facing their own inner struggles and insecurities, and what’s more they have to endure the obnoxious company of their spoilt younger cousin Eustace Scrubb. Thankfully, they soon find themselves whisked off to the enchanting world of Narnia, this time through a magical nautical painting which unexpectedly drops them off in the ocean. They are picked up by Prince Caspian, Reepicheep and the crew of the Dawn Treader who are all on a quest to find the seven swords of the Lords of Telmar. These swords once gathered and laid at Aslan's table, will defeat a dark evil that threatens Narnia.

As mentioned the movie is perhaps a little overlong, but still manages to get things moving along fairly nicely. The quest involves the children moving from one island to another and battling different types of evils in each venue. There is plenty of action including sword fights, a dragon battle and a final battle against a Sea Monster that is extremely intense, and frankly, may be a little much for younger children. I am not a fan of 3D but it is done fairly well here, in fact, the special effects and creature design are all rather impressive. The actors all do a good job without being remarkable. Lucy Pevensie who is struggling with some very relevant teenage girl’s issues in terms of her self-image is probably the most endearing character, and young Georgie Henley who plays her was probably the standout actor. I found all the characters a little archetypal but I guess we must remember that C.S. Lewis wrote his books for children and also long before many typical fantasy archetypes were established.

The Christian imagery in this movie was almost as strong as the first (remember Aslan’s death and resurrection scene?), and of course Aslan features strongly throughout these. Aslan the Lion is famed for being the Christ figure in Lewis’ books and in this story he encourages the children to get to know him by another name back in their world. Lucy’s particular storyline is well handled, and Aslan confronts her at one stage to remind her that self-worth should not be based upon outward appearances. Yes, I know it is an age-old message but perhaps that is because it applies so directly to every new generation. There is also a strong theme of the outer darkness being faced by the adventurers as a parallel of their own inner shadows and struggles which need equally to be faced with courage and faith. Eustace’s greed, for example, results in him being turned into a dragon and he can only be made a boy again through the intercession of the great lion. The overarching lesson behind all of this is that belief and hope must have a trustworthy object – in this case, Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), the Christ figure of Narnia. And, it is only through Aslan's help that we can be restored and made whole.

I can’t help but feel that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a poor man’s Lord of the Rings, but as a children’s fantasy series it is above average, particularly because it carries such positive themes and values. It is PG-rated and might well prove a little scary for younger children – some caution is advised.

Three stars out of five for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Movie Review: Spud

Has the South African comedy scene finally grown up? Maybe so, because Spud is a genuinely South African story that is also genuinely funny without resorting to childish slapstick. Spud the book has been a phenomenal success and the good news is that Spud the movie is equally good. This is because Spud is funny in a clever and thoughtful sort of way, and like all truly good comedies it also tugs at your heartstrings. A little bit of drama and feeling always gives the comedic moments more context and bite.

Spud is set in South Africa 1990. It was a momentous year for our country since Nelson Mandela was released, and also a momentous year for young Spud Milton because it was his first year at a prestigious boys only private boarding school. John Milton is a very ordinary sort of boy, whose eccentric parents cause him much embarrassment, and whose sensitive nature and small stature cause him to struggle to fit in with his peers. He is struggling with the onset of puberty, but the biggest problem is that puberty seems to be happening more slowly for him than anyone else. He is embarrassed by other boys laughing at him in the shower, and that is the pivotal moment that earns him the nickname of Spud. What really worked in the book version of Spud is that he was a character almost everyone could relate to – awkward and insecure, feeling a little out, and struggling to come to terms with puberty – who doesn’t feel his pain?! Anyone who has ever been a teenager, that’s who.

Young Troye Sivan (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) does an excellent job of portraying Spud. He brings him to life exactly as I imagined him, and plays the role with sensitivity and depth. You can’t help but be drawn to the character, and you feel his awkwardness, loneliness as if it was your own. Yet that also means you can laugh along with him at life’s more bizarre moments, and you can rejoice with him as he gradually starts to find a place in his new world.

Talking of eccentric characters, it was certainly a coup for the movie makers to land John Cleese in the role of the ‘Guv’ – or Mr. Edly the English teacher – who becomes something of a mentor for young Spud, although a decidedly off-the-wall one. Cleese is the strongest personality in this production, yet his strength doesn’t dominate other less experienced actors, but rather in the style of a true professional he draws them out and makes them better. The Guv is also an excellent example of how a little bitter drama makes the comedy even sweeter as he struggles with his alcoholism. Most of the other actors were South African and they all did an excellent job. I especially enjoyed Aaron McIlroy as Spud's madcap father – he played his eccentricity to perfection without going over-the-top. Director Donovan Marsh should be mentioned for bringing the best out of his actors, and also for staying faithful to the essential elements of the bestselling book.

The story is nothing new – it is a classic coming-of-age tale that is only set above the ordinary because of its unique human insights, clever comedy and some really good acting. Most impressively, we are drawn into the shoes of the main protagonist (surely the aim of every story) as he struggles to come to terms with a strange new environment and learns some vital lessons in regard to acceptance, friendship, love and the vital importance of being himself. Along the way we are treated to some laugh-out-loud moments, a few tears, and an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for ‘those teenage years.’

Be aware that there is some strong language and sexual content – we are after all being drawn into the world of a teenage boy! The film is about teenagers but is probably fortunate to get away with a PG13 rating.

Four stars out of five for Spud. Let’s hope that more of this kind of South African comedy is on the way.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

The end is nigh. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 takes the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowlings much-loved fantasy series and breaks it into two. Just as well, because at well over two hours long I don’t think they could have squeezed much more in. If you are a huge Potter fan you will be thrilled to see the story continue but also a little sad the journey will soon be ending. If you are a Potter-hater then you will be thrilled to learn that around this time next year all the hype will be over. And if, like me, you are somewhere in between the fans and the haters, you will want to know whether this movie is worth going to see. Well, it is – while by no means brilliant, it is probably the best of the Potter movies so far.

It is also the darkest. Remember, how Harry Potter started off with a group of thirteen year olds and was kind of light and fluffy, but as they grew up, the story grew up with them becoming progressively more mature as the main characters started wrestling with more grown-up dilemmas. Harry, Hermione and Ron have to adjust their relationships as they struggle to adulthood, all the while facing the chilling evil of Voldemort and the reality that opposing him might bring suffering and death not only to them, but also to their loved ones.

One of the opening scenes is decidedly creepy as Voldemort’s hideous snake-like face presides over a dinner table of Death Eaters and his monstrous pet python Nagi. It aptly sets the scene for how the world has become a decidedly darker and more frightening place as Voldemort’s powers now extend to the Ministry of Magic, and all good witches and wizards have fled into hiding. This includes the central threesome who find themselves trekking through British wildlands with only a magical tent for company. They search for the mysterious Horcruxes – artifacts of power in which Voldemort has hidden parts of his soul. He remains immortal while these Horcruxes still exist so Harry and the others know they have to destroy them all before they can fight Voldemort on equal terms. The journey is fraught with danger, however, both from within and without. Hormones, growing sexual awakening, fear and stress all place tremendous pressure on previously inviolable relationships while they are constantly in danger from the Death Eaters tasked to hunt them down.

We have watched all three actors grow up with the story and they do a fine job of reflecting that growth. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), while solid enough, is probably the weakest performer of the three. I found that Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grinch (Ron) seem to be able to communicate far more with facial expressions and body language than Radcliffe who is a little wooden. Director David Yates does another great job in trying to cram a huge amount of material into one movie, and uses the dark and haunting mood of many scenes to communicate what words cannot. Although, he does stick very faithfully to the book in general, one particular scene (not originally in the book) where Harry dances with Hermione to cheer her up after Ron has abandoned them is priceless and really helps to convey their sense of desolateness. I found the trio’s wilderness travels quite dreary and overly drawn out in the book, but Yates sped this up by interspersing it with tremendous scenes of action. The actions scenes were incredibly well done throughout and the special effects are top notch. The scene involving the seven Harry Potter’s and subsequent broom stick chase is a highlight in this regard.

One warning, however, if you have not read the books or seen any of the previous movies, you will struggle to keep up. This movie takes a lot for granted, and there were quite a few scenes that lost me because I couldn’t remember how it all tied in to the overall story arch. I don’t think this is a fantastic movie, but it certainly is a step up from some of the previous ones. Three and a half stars out of five. Be aware that the PG-13 rating is fully earned – this is not for young children!

Movie Review: Unstoppable

I went into this movie without any real expectations, but got blown away. Built on a similar premise, this is as good, if not better, than the original ‘Speed.’ Based on a real life runaway train incident, “Unstoppable” is quite literally a juggernaut of a movie that seeks to crush you with its full weight of sheer suspense, edgy visuals and crunching sound. It starts slowly enough, but then much like the train involved it quickly builds up speed until you become swept away by it all.

Tony Scott and Denzel Washington collaborate yet again (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu and last year's The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3) to good effect, and young actor Chris Pine (Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek) is thrown in for good measure. Washington and Pine play the good guys but they aren’t special force ops, or highly trained policemen, just ordinary working-class Americans whose increasing poverty during the economic recession has left them facing uncertain futures.

I loved the focus on ordinary blokes in this – a train driver and conductor. There are no guns or bombs just heavy duty gloves and flannel shirts. There are no damsels in distress, just estranged wives and children. There are no snide, mentally imbalanced villains just profit-minded, greedy bosses who care more about equipment and profits than they do about people. And keeping the plot hurtling along is a speeding train roughly the length of a skyscraper, and weighing in at 1 million tons of steel with extremely hazardous and combustible material in its cargo. Through the indifference and incompetence of two red-neck engineers, the train escapes its station unmanned and builds up to speeds of in excess of 70mph. Various profit-saving preventative measures to stop the train fail dismally resulting in unnecessary death and damage, leaving it up to the blue-collar average joes Washington and Pine to save the day.

Washington plays Frank Barnes, a 28-year veteran engineer, a widower who has forgotten to call one of his daughters on her birthday, and now she isn't talking to him. Both his daughters are working their way through college by waiting tables at Hooters. It could have been worse I guess. Will Colson (Chris Pine), is recently estranged from his wife and son, and is a greenhorn conductor with political connections, who is resented by his fellow blue-collar coworkers who all fear losing their jobs. Barnes is assigned to show Colson the ropes, and what is unknown to the younger man is that Barnes has already been placed on early retirement. Their relationship is a typical veteran/rookie mix, although no one plays a veteran better than Washington. Add to this are the varying social, political and economic factors already mentioned and you have relationships that are as battered and bruised as anything else that gets in the way of this train.

Scott does a superb job in directing Unstoppable. His close up shots of the train, mixed with the body-jarring sound makes you feel as if you are an eye-witness. It’s better than 3D! Also, Scott cleverly uses the news hounds chasing the train to flesh out the developing crisis in explaining need-to-know details, and also to bring loved ones and random citizens into the story. Colson's estranged wife and Barnes's grown daughters watch on television and hold their breaths as they see their ordinary, blue-collar loved ones turn into heroes. Washington brings his usual, effortless skill into his character, while Pine leaves behind his brash James T. Kirk persona to play a man who clearly lacks confidence and emotional security and makes up for it with surly petulance. Their lives are about as out of control as the train is.

The film gives excellent insight into average human beings who are willing to face up to tremendous odds and sacrifice their lives to save others, and because they are so ordinary it makes it all even more powerful. There are definite limitations to this move, and I probably enjoyed it so more than I should have because I went in with ambivalent expectations. Four stars out of five for Unstoppable.

Note Unstoppable has a PG-13 rating with some strong language and violence.

Movie Review: The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played With Fire is the second film installment of Stieg Larsson’s monumentally popular “Millennium” trilogy. It is an above average crime thriller that does enough to keep you interested, but in many ways is a step down from its predecessor, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The story line is not quite as gripping, the plot a little more implausible, the dark edginess is quite tired, and the bad guys are fairly stereotyped. Perhaps, it is because first movies have that fresh, new appeal and sequels always have to work harder to impress. Noomi Rapace reprises her role as the anti-hero hacking genius Lisbeth Salandar and once again does an excellent job. She really owns this role and I struggle to see how the Hollywood version due to be released in 2012 will find an actress to match up. Michael Nyqvist also returns as investigative journalist and much like the first film provides a similarly solid presence.

Lisbeth is framed with the murder of a Millenium magazine researcher and his girlfriend. They had been working on an article on international sex-trafficking implicating high-level Swedes. Mikael is sure that she is innocent and sets out to prove it, while Lisbeth hides out and does her own sleuthing. The unlikely partners find themselves facing a seriously impressive arsenal of bad guys, including a monster thug (Micke Spreitz) who can feel no pain and seems to have sprung straight out of a Bond movie. As they try to clear Lisbeth’s name, they begin to unravel some dark and threatening secrets from her past building up to a climatic, if rather conventional and somewhat implausible conclusion.

The two main characters spend most of the movie apart, a circumstance that undermines the overall impact, but as before, Rapace manages to keep you fascinated by her dark anti-social character with a good heart. Salandar, like many in modern society has been so damaged by the evil actions of others that she struggles to socially interact in any meaningful way. New director Daniel Alfredson continues the direction of the first movie by showing most of the sex scenes as gritty and ugly rather than erotic. This is because rape and abuse of women was a major theme of Larsson’s work, and the real ugliness of it all is an attempt to awaken and educate people to its grimly disturbing reality. Whether the movie succeeds in this or not, or whether it wanders a little uncomfortably close to the darkness and thus becomes voyeuristic is an active debate among many followers of the series. The message is important and should be supported, I am just not convinced that we need to be so repeatedly and graphically exposed to the heinous sexual depravity and violence conducted against women in the story. You might well think differently.

Overall, it is quite a bit less gritty than the first movie and plays more like a conventional thriller. The clues seem more easily discovered, the villains are a little more boring and the finale feels like it has been done a million times before. I will go to watch the final installment of this trilogy (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest), but truly wonder whether the Hollywood version is necessary.

Three and a half stars. Be warned that there is strong language, violence and sexual content. It is also a Swedish movie so if sub-titles aren’t your thing, then don’t bother with this one.

Movie Review: The Social Network

David Fincher’s new film The Social Network is a movie of endearing and compelling ironies. Firstly, much like Facebook itself, this runaway success of a movie largely but not wholly manages to live up to its hype. Secondly, it purportedly tells a true story but relies mostly on supposition and guesswork and is openly fudgy about ‘facts’. And finally, its central character is the man who put together a computer programme that connects 1 in 14 people on the planet in hundreds of countries, yet he evidently is deeply lonely and fundamentally lacking in any people skills of his own.

Around two hours seems like a long time to tell a story about a computer programme and the geniuses and personalities behind it, but the sheer pace, humour, intelligence and zing of the dialogue is more than enough to keep you ‘connected’. Jesse Eisenberg is wonderful as Steve Zuckenberg, the man behind Facebook who became a multi-billionaire in his mid-twenties but whose path to success was littered with fractured relationships and broken trust.

Zuckerberg and his roommate and best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) started Facebook together, with Mark doing the programming while Saverin funded it and acted as CFO. Zuckerberg was accused of stealing the idea from two other Harvard students, the Winklevoss twins, who came up with Harvard Connect and claim they hired Zuckenberg to develop it. They subsequently sued him. Then Zuckenberg became swept up by another brilliant but incredibly sleazy internet guru Sean Parker (well played by Justin Timberlake). This relationship drives a wedge between Zuckerberg and Saverin, and ultimately leads to another lawsuit. Yes, the story behind Facebook is a story of disintegrating relationships and various betrayals.

Cleverly enough, and perhaps to avoid a lawsuit of its own, the movie is told from the perspective of these lawsuits. Fincher shrewdly interweaves straightforward chronology with deposition scenes involving Mark and both Eduardo and the Winklevosses. Using flashbacks, he presents various versions of what really happened and leaves it up to us to sort out the truth of the claims, or the different degrees thereof.

The Social Network is brilliantly directed, well-acted, has sizzling dialogue, and also delivers a penetrating morality message, without coming across all preachy. Of course it is controversial since the Facebook owner and many others vigorously dispute the truth of its relentlessly negative portrayal. Therein lies another irony, because somehow the story (and message) seem to play true, even if the facts aren’t. It is a scathing critique of our obsession with status and image, and the fact that our overreliance on digitally connecting could ironically (that word again) make us even lonelier. Behind the hundred of friends we may have signed up with on Facebook, lie many tales of broken relationships, character isolation and the inability to truly connect with others. Ultimately, we are reminded through the sadness of Zuckenberg’s case, that digitally connecting should be used as a method of enhancing community rather than as a means of replacing it entirely.

Four Facebook pokes out of five for The Social Network. Be warned that there is some sexual content and strong language.

Movie Review: The End of the Line

Forget 2012. It seems the world has a good chance of ending around 2050. No, this is not the prediction of the latest apocalyptic Nostradamus-style book, nor is it to do with the latest Hollywood disaster movie, rather it is the message of the latest eco-documentary. The focus is on our rapidly depleting worldwide fish stocks, and The End of the Line has facts, details and visuals that are far more horrifying than reading Nostradamus, or watching a high-tech end of the world disaster movie. This is because we are informed that an estimated 90 per cent of the world's large fish – tuna, cod and salmon – have disappeared from the ocean since 1950 and, extrapolating from the current rate of decline, some experts believe that, by mid-century, there may be nothing left but plankton, jellyfish and worms. Yes, exactly. At the rate we are going, fish stocks worldwide could collapse by 2050. We are used to viewing the sea as an endless resource, but those fantasies are well and truly over.

‘Green’ actor Ten Danson lends his soothing tones to this Rupert Murray directed film based on a book by Charles Clover. During the course of the movie we hear stories of fishermen from countries as diverse as Canada and Spain who are all facing the same, harsh reality that there are just not enough fish in the sea to sustain them and their livelihoods. Director Rupert Murray combines these stories with impactful visuals of our plundered oceans, and then seasons the whole enterprise with hard, cold, frightening statistics. Murray points to corporate greed, government ambivalence and inadequate regulation and enforcement, as the root causes of our planet’s over-fishing. Murray never complains about the need to fish, rather he acknowledges the central role that fishing plays in many cultures, but he does rightfully complain about the tonnes of wasted sea-life caught and discarded annually and the destructive effects of practices such as bottom-trawling, which leave one feeling a little nauseous they are so disgusting.

All in all, it is more than enough to both educate and infuriate, and Murray definitely demands a response from his audience with an ‘altar-call’ ending - a call-to-action for those who have sat idly by as our oceans are squeezed dry of life. Murray does well to give practical and actionable advice that the average person can do to make a difference in this regard. The optimistic, activist ending informs us that reducing the size of fishing fleets, creating more marine reserves and encouraging consumers to eat only sustainable fish will make a huge difference.

This is a better-than-average eco-doc, although I fear the effectiveness of these messages will become lost due to the sheer number of them that are being churned out lately. I would encourage you seeing it, because its message really does matter and as Murray makes clear at the end – the normal, average individual can make a difference.

Three (and a half) stars out of five.

Movie Review: The Joneses

"They're not just living the American dream, they're selling it."

This is a movie that could have been so much more than it actually is. The Joneses (as in keeping up with …) was meant to be a biting satire, a socialist message about our culture of mass consumption but ultimately it ends up with nothing much to say at all. And it certainly had a lot going for it in terms of potential, not least being built upon an intriguing idea about a fake family set up as stealth marketing team in a wealthy McMansion-type neighbourhood. Their good looks and popularity were meant to kick-start new trends in products and clothing that would send their wealthy admirers scuttling to the nearest store in a desperate attempt to keep up. The Joneses also enjoyed the privilege of two strong lead actors in David Duchovny (Steve Jones) and Demi Moore (Kate Jones) who both have had intimate experience with the highs and lows of Hollywood and thus should have been able to lend this movie the extra satirical bite it needed to be effective. Furthermore, these two were well supported by their ‘perfect teenage children’ in the good-looking duo of Amber Heard playing Jenn and Ben Hollingsworth playing Mick.

So with all that in place this really could have been a great movie, with an edgy satirical message and a black humour undertone that you would laugh at but simultaneously feel challenged by in terms of your own vain weaknesses and tendencies towards needless mass consumption. Sadly, The Joneses ends up totally missing the mark in this respect. There are some incisive and funny moments but about mid-way through its cultural critique collapses as the Jones' 'family' endure episode after episode of psychodrama. It ends up becoming a rather weak and unoriginal moralistic tale, rather than the scathing satire it could have been, should have been. The film tries to be more than one thing and ends up as nothing really. If it had continued the satire, then the noose of the Joneses inauthentic lives would have gradually strangled the life out of them, and we would have been left a little shaken – as any good satire should leave us feeling.

Ultimately, this movie wimped out and it paid the price. A compelling premise was wretchedly executed as it backed away from the satire and moved into a wishy-washy moralistic tale. The result is a decidedly average movie. In fact, it is a decidedly ironic movie, because it ends up being nothing more than weak escapist fare; it doesn’t make you think or challenge you, but ends up massaging your mind while you pay good money to do nothing more than sit there and consume popcorn.

One and a half stars out of five for The Joneses. Be warned that there is moderate bad language and some semi-nudity.

Movie Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Swedish film version of the best-selling book is a compelling and suspense filled thriller that is clearly designed to shock and provide food for thought. It is based on the first of a trilogy of books written by Swede Stieg Larsson before he died. Central to the story is one of the most fascinating heroines ever devised. She is Lisbeth Salandar (played by Noomi Rapace), a young genius computer-hacking rebel covered in tattoos and body piercings. Her abusive childhood has left her bearing many emotional and spiritual scars and as a result she faces life’s challenges with seething intensity and brutal ruthlessness.

The story begins with disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) being hired to solve a mystery by an elderly billionaire named Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), who inhabits a eerie mansion on a remote island. Forty years before, his beloved niece Harriet had vanished from a family gathering on the island and because the access bridge was blocked, the killer must have been a member of Vanger's large and greedy family, which he hates.

Since Blomkvist has six months to waste before having to serve a prison sentence for libel, and because he is keen to remove himself from public scrutiny, he agrees to help. Blomkvist is unaware that Salandar who works for a security firm has been hired to watch him, and she takes an interest in his case after finding out about it from hacking his laptop. They eventually team up and begin uncovering terrible secrets involving Nazi sympathizers, religious maniacs, sexual perverts and a serial killer. However, their meddling puts their lives in danger as someone is willing to do anything to keep Harriet Vanger’s disappearance an unsolved mystery.

Director Niels Arden Oplev makes the best of the forbidding island setting, with the grey winter light, dark buildings and hostile locals used to create a chilly and frightening atmosphere. Rapace as Salandar is an absolute star and plays her scenes with ferocious intensity. Although she looked a little older than the book version, she certainly nailed the character.

You do need to be warned that this film is graphically violent with heavy sexual content. This is not erotic sex but rather it is rape, bondage and assault and so is grueling to watch and quite emotionally draining. The original Swedish title for the book was “Men Who Hate Women” and author Stieg Larsson, who was renowned as a sharp social critic, saw these stark scenes as part of a larger crusade of awareness to awaken people to the awful realities of women abuse in modern society. Much like that graphically violent opening battle scene in Saving Private Ryan is a statement against the true horrors of war. However, I thought the director went a little overboard as he seemed to revel in the story's sadism to an uncomfortable degree especially in the needlessly, vile rape scene.

Overall this is a good film; it is a classic edge-of-your-seat thriller and a more than competent psychological study. But it is also a sober, grown-up film that will leave you feeling edgy and unsettled. If it succeeds in creating greater awareness around how prevalent violence against women is, and how deeply damaging that violence is to the individuals involved and society around them, then perhaps it can be forgiven for some of its more graphic scenes. I am not totally convinced that it does however.

Three and a half stars out of five. Once again, be warned that the age restriction is fully earned.

Movie Review: Eat Pray Love

Why did they call this Eat Pray Love when it could have just as easily been entitled, “A Classic Example of Western Emptiness”? Or even better, “Lessons in Human Selfishness 101”? Not as catchy I will admit, but equally truthful. Eat Pray Love chronicles Elizabeth Gilbert’s travels and is based upon her memoirs of the same name. The story involves her struggles with emptiness and her decision to leave it all behind (loving husband, job, friends, family) to go travelling for a year. She decides she needs to ‘let it all go’ in order to find herself. Of course, you are not really ‘letting it go’ if you receive a huge pre-approved book deal to fund your travels to exotic locales, but that is by the by.

Anyway, Gilbert (played by Julia Roberts) recounts her year-long journey of self(ish)-discovery that involves a lot of eating, some praying, maybe a little loving, and a whole lot of moaning and moping. Julia Robert's character wants “something to marvel at” while she ignores the blessings she already has. Perhaps, if she had learnt to appreciate the goodness of the people around her a little more then she would have found more fulfilment. How on earth did so many people find this movie ‘enlightening’ because I found her to be a monumentally unsympathetic character? Each choice she makes seems entirely based upon her own comforts. The final nail in the coffin of her marriage to her original spouse (Billy Crudup) is because he decides to ‘find himself’ by re-training as a teacher. You know, make the world a better place through the education and formation of children. Well, this is way too much for our Liz who divorces her loving husband then and there because apparently, his selflessness was stifling her selfishness.

She makes her way through Italy, India and Bali and each stop feels more interminable than the last. As a food documentary this might have been somewhat interesting because Gilbert’s eating quest through Italy features some exquisite food shots. She ‘let’s go of everything’ by letting herself go so to speak. As a travel documentary it might even have been absorbing, because again, the camera work brings the best out of the surrounding beauty. But as a movie, and as a spiritual journey, maybe this should have been called, ‘Eat Pray Snooze’ because in well over 2 hours nothing really seems to happen. Julia Roberts fails to pull this character off, perhaps because her big Hollywood persona swamped it a little. I lost interest early on but she eventually stops whining and ends up with some other bloke and they sail off into the sunset. Well, not sail off because that would have been cheesy. No, they had a motor on the boat so they puttered off into the sunset which is much more compelling.

Look, I know I am being rather harsh, but I am so sick and tired of Hollywood’s constant message that enlightenment is all about making life more about you. There is an inherent selfishness to this viewpoint that robs us of our deepest humanity, because being fully human actually involves sacrificial communal connections. As the African theologian, John Mbiti famously said in response to Descarte: “"I am because WE are and, since we are, therefore I am." Or as the English theologian C.S. Lewis wrote: "Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."

I found nothing redeeming in Gilbert’s journey of ‘redemption’ except another case of candyflossed, ‘me-first’, skin-deep, sickening Hollywood quasi-spirituality. Eat Pray Love? Eat Pray Puke more like.

One out of five. And the one is awarded solely for the great food and travel shots.
Be warned that there is some strong language, and brief nudity.

Movie Review: Oceans

Oceans was released internationally by Disney in time for Earth Day as part of a larger ecological message. The fact that it has arrived in South Africa a few months late should not lessen the impact of this movie, both visually and in terms of it message.

Oceans is an incredible visual experience, an example of how the big screen can offer you something that no mere TV set can match. The director, Jacques Cluzaud, hoped to present some of the “wonder, fear, calm, tenderness, violence, vitality and power” of this last great wild expanse, and he largely succeeded in doing so. Some of the visuals are so gripping, you cannot help but wonder if CGI has somehow been involved and it is truly humbling to realize that the incredible beauty on display is entirely natural.

Beginning with the Galapagos Islands, we get to view some of the most unbelievable aquatic animals, their habitats and cycles of life that are both hauntingly beautiful and also scarily violent. We become caught up in the desperate drama of newly hatched turtles trying to survive as they scurry to the relative safety of the ocean, and we catch our breath as schools of sardines are ravaged by attacks from below and above as dolphins, sharks, whales and dive bombing birds feed on them.

We also get to see massive armies of crabs scurrying along the bottom of Melbourne Harbour, surfing pods of dolphins stretching as far as the eye can see, great white sharks in all their fearsome majesty, and the awe-inspiring giants of the sea – blue whales. Other images are not so common like that of the blanket octopus of Australia, the winding ribbon eel, and the otherworldly weedy sea dragon.

Unfortunately, the dialogue of the movie does not come close to matching the visuals. Pierce Brosnan provides the voice over for the English version, and while his tones are suitably dulcet and mellow, the actual script is at best cheesy and at worst downright banal. We are told that “The ocean is a vast place” and “To really know the ocean, you have to live it,” and “She feeds the human race, body and soul”. Ouch and well, duh.

The poor narration is not enough to ruin Oceans, but it does diminish the enjoyment somewhat. Still, Oceans is well worth seeing and stands as an important reminder of the vast majesty of creation and how important it is for human being to truly protect and preserve it not only for our sake, but for the generations to come.

Three and a half stars for Oceans.

Movie Review: Winter in Wartime

Winter in Wartime is a Dutch made film that was shortlisted as Best Foreign Film alongside eight other films. It is beautifully shot in wintry tones, and manages to quite intelligently paint its characters in matching shades of purpled grey.

The story is seen through the eyes of 15 year old Michiel (an excellent Martjin Lakemeier), who begins by viewing life in black and white but then learns some harsh life realities amidst the brutal ugliness of World War II. It is these realities that lead him to see that it is not as easy to judge the failings of others as he initially assumed. Michiel is deeply ashamed at how his father (Raymond Thiry), the mayor of a village occupied by German forces, seems to bow and scrape before the Germans. Which is why when a RAF pilot (Jamie Campbell Bower) crash lands nearby, he takes it upon himself to protect the man and aid his escape. Complicating matters further is the fact that Michiel’s favourite uncle, Ben (Yorick van Wagenin) is a seemingly fearless resistance fighter that Michiel cannot help compare to his father with disappointing results. Michiel’s determination to eradicate his father’s perceived cowardice with acts of personal courage, however, results in tragic consequences.

As mentioned, Lakemier does a noteworthy job of playing Michiel, while Campbell Bower manages to invest real emotion into his role as a stranded pilot, especially into his complex relationship with Michiel. Each character is fleshed out beyond Michiel’s original black and white view, as we see them all struggling with their own inner demons and fears. Director Martin Koolhoven artfully manages to make you feel the cold of not only the season, but also of the period. War is so dehumanizing and cruel and this movie does an excellent job in holding this truth up to the winter’s glare.

That said the action in the movie left a lot to be desired, and the plot was more than a little predictable but ultimately this is a well put-together story that will certainly grip your attention and perhaps teach you something about life’s realities and how most truths can only be viewed in grey. Michiel learns something about his father during the course of the movie, and this lesson stands out to all of us as a stark reminder about the foolishness of judging others too easily and too harshly.

All in all, this movie is well worth your time and will definitely make you think. Be warned that it is in sub-titles, and does contain violence and some strong language.

Four out of five for Winter in Wartime.

Movie Review: The Last Airbender

I’m kind of obstinate about some things in life, one of them being that I am often determined to enjoy a movie that everyone else has panned. That didn’t mean I was excited about going to see ‘The Last Airbender,’ but it did mean that I was willing to at least watch it with an open mind despite the fact that every film critic worth mentioning has panned the movie with savage abandon.

My stubbornness lasted about two minutes. That’s right, only two minutes into the movie and I had already decided those critics were completely and utterly right. This could quite possibly be the worst movie I have ever walked out on. From start to finish it is meaningless, low-quality, b-grade, quasi-spiritual, immature drivel. I know what you are thinking ... stop holding back, tell us what you really think. Well, ok, I will thank you very much, because this movie is so bad, it has left me with a lot of inner frustration that needs some form of catharsis. The plot was light as air, the script was abysmal and the acting was achingly embarrassing. The special effects were ok and the scenery interesting if unoriginal, but the 3-D was tacky and obviously added on as an afterthought to squeeze more money out of innocent paying customers. Look, you may think I am going overboard, but I see it as my duty as a film critic to STOP you watching this movie. Don’t do it, don’t waste your money like I did mine.

Apparently this is based on some children’s cartoon and it involves people being able to control elements like fire, water, air and earth. They all went to war, and the only one who could save them was a mysterious avatar – a figure reincarnated in each generation and more powerful than the rest because he can control all of the elements at once. He can bring peace and unite the various warring tribes if only he can get in touch with enough of his inner chi in time. Seriously.

As you can guess there is a lot of Eastern religion and philosophy wrapped up in this, which really continues director M. Night Shyamalan’s fascination with movies and the spiritual world. He scored one outright success off this concept with ‘The Sixth Sense,’ but seriously, seriously either needs to give up the game entirely or move onto fresh topics. I can’t tell you too much more about the plot since I left soon after I finished my popcorn but I have heard it tries to set itself up for a sequel. I cannot bring myself to believe that any movie production company would be willing to waste more money on this, but hey, stranger things have happened.

Don’t go see this! It is so bad it should be a crime to charge people money to watch it. In my opinion, Ster Kinekor should put up police tape barring entry into all theatres showing it and hire a policeman to stand outside and warn all the nice folk off: “Move along people, nothing to see here.” Because really, there isn’t.

0 out of 5.

Movie Review: Salt

Angelina Jolie in an intelligent(ish) movie? Who would have thought? And what is more, Jolie puts in a credible acting performance in this espionage thriller resulting in a thoroughly enjoyable adrenaline ride punctuated by a constantly, twisting plot.

Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent on her way home to enjoy a quiet anniversary with her hubbie when a Russian defector shows up with some controversial globe-impacting information. This information opens up a can of worms and turns Salt’s life completely upside down. Salt is accused of being a secret Russian spy, trained as a child for an assassination mission, and she ends up on the run trying to save her husband and clear her name while being opposed by two other CIA agents, Ted Winter (Live Schreiber) and Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor). But is she really trying to clear her name, or is she instead intent on escaping to fulfill a decades old mission?

Playing a role originally written for Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie throws herself body and soul into this movie. She puts in a believable and sincere performance in playing a woman whose motives seem unclear even to herself. Look, this is by no means a perfect movie. Jolie looks china-doll fragile she is so thin, and the sight of her ‘a-salt-ing’ numerous foes is a little difficult to swallow at times. Also, the plot itself has a hole big enough for numerous Angelina Jolie’s to walk through standing shoulder to shoulder. And the action involves many scenes which quite simply defy the laws of physics. Yet, none of this prevents Salt from being good fun! Jolie climbs walls barefoot, drives a cop car with nothing more than a taser gun, uses an elevator shaft in a rather unconventional manner and does a ‘MacGyver’ on a fire extinguisher turning it into a rocket launcher.

I can’t reveal anymore of the plot without inadvertently slipping in a spoiler, but the director, Phillip Noyce artfully keeps the suspense going throughout. Salt concludes with such an open ended scene that it is little ‘in-salt-ing’ to the intelligence (ok, ok, I’ll stop now). Salt is literally begging for a sequel to be made, and I guess this movie has done well enough to warrant one, although I am not convinced it has the necessary weight for a trilogy like Bourne’s. Only time will tell, but it certainly won’t be the worst waste of your time to see this particular movie.

Three and a half stars for Salt. Be warned there is a 16 and over age restriction because of violence and some strong language.

Movie Review: London River

London River is set in the upheaval after the terrorist bombings in London on July 7, 2005. It is an absorbing and compelling drama of two parents from vastly different backgrounds who are united by their search for their missing children.

London River is a French made movie set in England and perhaps because of this is distinctly ‘un-Hollywood’ like. In other words it is gritty and real, a little fudgy at the seams and entirely resistant to wrapping everything up neatly. Also, real actors are chosen over pretty people and watching the two leads in this movie – Brenda Blethyn and Sotigui Kouyate – I wondered how many truly excellent actors are lost in the system simply because they are not good-looking enough. Blethyn plays Elizabeth, a white Anglican churchgoer, who lives in Guernsey but is not able to contact her daughter Jane after the attacks. She boards a ferry to look for her and meets Kouyate’s character – Mr. Ousamane – a Senegalese Muslim who has also travelled to London to find his son who has gone missing in the chaos.

Both actors put in deeply compelling performances that keep you riveted throughout. London River has no car chases or grand CGI effects, and instead relies upon a very real human story portrayed by two exceptional actors who manage to take you on a journey through their own emotional highs and lows with nothing more than subtle voice inflections and changing facial expressions. In fact, it is their very physical imperfections which aid their cause, with Blethyn’s wrinkled face and quavery voice drawing you deeply into the world of a grieving mother despairing the fate of her daughter, and it is Kouyate’s loping walk, lined face and fragile build that brings a certain vulnerability yet stoic dignity and sensitivity to the role of a father fearing the worst about his own son’s role in the terrorist attacks.

As much of the world struggles with a growing ‘Islamophobia,’ London River seeks to confront this prejudice by telling the story of a mother who in searching for her daughter finds that she didn’t know her as well as she thought. To her horror it appears that her daughter has not only fallen in love with a black man (Ousamane’s son), but may have also converted to Islam in the process. Her initial fear and distaste for Ousamane slowly melts as she is confronted by the hard realities of lives and cultures beyond her own and in the process the oddly matched couple find that their grief and fear over a future without their children manages to bond them together. Creating a constant undercurrent of suspense is the fact that the fate of their children is unknown until the final scenes. Perhaps the message here is that even age-old prejudices, reinforced by recent tragic events, can be overcome if we learn to listen to each other’s stories and find some commonality in that.

Clearly, London River went out of its way to dispel Islamphobia, even at the risk of becoming a little unrealistic. The portrayal of North London Muslims without the slightest anger, dissension or mistrust in the aftermath of a cataclysmic religiously-fueled terrorist attack is at the very least too easy, and at the very worst a little dishonest. I do, however, fully support the director’s intent – 99% of Muslims are kind, gracious people and it is both unjust and prejudicial to view an entire culture and religion through ‘terrorism lenses’ as many in the western world are prone to do.

Ultimately, this does not distract in the slightest from a fine movie. London River offers something wholly different and far more enriching that your standard Hollywood fare. It courageously deals with a controversial topic, and uses very real and extremely talented actors to convey its story. You won’t see actors like these in big budget productions, which honestly, is rather sad. London River seeks to change the world for the better in the telling of this story, and at the end of the day you can’t fault that.

Three and a half stars for London River.

Movie Review: The A-Team

What price nostalgia? I have seldom been as determined to enjoy a movie as I was this one. As a boy in the eighties, I grew up eagerly anticipating each new episode of the A-Team. I loved the crafty Hannibal, admired the suave Face, chuckled at the antics of Murdoch and envied the power of B.A. Even the generally poor reception by critics overseas wasn’t enough to dampen my spirits about the movie version. These critics complained of the non-stop and frankly unbelievable action scenes as well as poor character development. Well, for goodness sakes this is the A-Team we are talking about. It’s not meant to be a cultural experience akin to a night at the opera. In fact, the whole point of the A-Team TV series was that it was never meant to be taken too seriously. It was just a whole lot of fun!

If this was your experience of the A-Team, then the movie definitely won’t disappoint you, because it is a whole lot of fun. No, there is not much serious character development asides from B.A.’s flirtation with pacifism (you know that’s not going to last!), and yes, it is pretty much non-stop action, most of it completely unrealistic, but, boy is it fun to watch!

Although this movie version was shot almost a quarter of a century after the TV series ended, it really sets itself up as a prequel. In other words, we find out how the A-Team, a crack squad of elite Army Rangers becomes “convicted for a crime they did not commit”. In an effort to keep pace with the last 25 years, the landscape of their war experience is changed from Vietnam to Iraq, but other than that all the original themes and characters were kept in place. Hannibal (Liam Neeson) is still leading the team; Face (Bradley Cooper) is the hunky con-man; B.A. (ex UFC light-heavyweight champ Quinton Jackson) is the muscle; and Murdock (our own Sharlto Copley) is the kooky pilot. Details which always made the TV series such fun such as the big, bad B.A.’s fear of flying are kept intact, and we even find out how this fear originated.

All the actors put in strong performances and obviously have a whole lot of fun making this movie. Without exception they are all better actors than the originals, although that probably isn’t saying much. I was pleasantly surprised with the two unknowns in Quinton Jackson and Sharlto Copley. I expected Jackson to be awful, much like many sports stars turned actors are, but he wasn’t bad at all. Sharlto Copley you will remember as Wikus vd Merwe from District 9, and he was probably the movies highlight. He does a number of accents throughout, and the brief scene where he ‘does’ a South African accent is a classic.

As I have mentioned, the action is a roller-coaster ride of non-stop adrenaline rushes and at the same time is utterly, utterly unbelievable. Still, they do kill people in this A-Team which wasn’t allowed in the 80’s prime-time TV show were bullets would erupt out of flame-spewing guns and not a soul would be harmed. If you go in expecting a decent plot, you will be sorely disappointed. This is nothing more than formulaic action movie stuff, built around concepts like injustice and revenge. I won’t even bother explaining the plot since you probably have seen something similar a million times before. It’s not like anyone going to see the A-Team is anticipating an original storyline anyway.

There is no doubt about it but The A-Team is pure candyfloss. But what enjoyable candyfloss it is! So what price nostalgia? Well, at least half a star. The A-Team really is worth no more than a good, solid three stars but just because it is The A-Team, I award it three and a half! (Yes, I can do that).

Be warned that there is violence and very strong language throughout.

Movie Review: Peepli Live

Peepli Live is a fantastic first-time effort by Indian filmmaker Anusha Rizvi who takes a serious social problem and subjects it to satirical scrutiny. In this way, Rizvi popularises a topic to much greater effect than might have been achieved through a normal documentary.

Peepli Live is fascinating, funny and yet also very sobering. India has an incredibly interesting culture that much like South Africa is caught between two vastly different worlds – one of wealth and comfort and the other of life-threatening poverty. As India moves rapidly to an industrialised economy, farmers are being sidelined to quite devastating effects. Whole families are losing their land, and many farmers are either abandoning their work, or worse, committing suicide in sheer desperation.

Farmer suicide is such a common problem in India that it has hit the headlines numerous times before. In this movie Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri) is callously advised by an uncaring local politician to commit suicide as a way of saving his land and family. His laughably craven and conniving brother Budhia (Raghubir Yadav) takes advantage of his brother’s obvious simplicity and eggs him on (he would benefit to the tune of 100,000 Rupees from a government grant). A local reporter desperate to hit the big-time Rakesh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) overhears the brothers conversing and turns it into a news story. The story is picked up by a famous and glamorous TV personality (Malaika Shenoy) who rushes to the scene closely followed by other newshounds snapping at her heels. The result is that the whole affair is hugely sensationalised and soon the entire country is caught up in the saga of the simple farmer who vows to kill himself.

Lending even more hype to the story is that it is election time, and various politicians find their campaigns thrown into jeopardy by Nathi’s vow. Both the TV stations who sensationalise stories at the expense of the real people caught up in the tragedy of it all, and the politicians who seemingly care for little more than their own re-election, are lampooned with zest and energy. The best satires make political and social commentary behind a veil of laughter that is both ‘ha ha’ funny and also ‘ouch that’s true’ funny, and in this regard Peepli Live excels. I found some of the sniping battles between the mother-in-law and Nathi’s put-upon wife a little clichéd, but particularly enjoyed various scenes of the reporters encamped in Nathi’s village of Peepli. Some of them became so desperate to keep the story rolling that they even resorted to discussing the state of his faeces (which is um, funnier than it sounds here).

The local reporter, Rakesh, is the film’s moral barometer and we find ourselves anchored to his own slow disillusionment in the face of the big-time reporter’s predatory tactics, and the politician’s total lack of compassion. While I don’t think Peepli Live is a serious contender for Best Foreign Film, at the same time it is an absorbing comic gem. The satire works perfectly, and manages to focus your attention upon the terribly desperate plight of the real men, women and children caught up in endless cycles of destructive and dehumanising poverty. This movie will not only make you laugh, but also get you seriously thinking about life which is obviously the point.

Four stars out of five for Peepli Live. Be aware that it is a foreign language film and does have some strong language throughout.

Movie Review: Mao's Last Dancer

Mao’s Last Dancer is a beautiful tale filled with sumptuous costumes and sublime dancing. This is a story of freedom and learning to fly, and although it has a few inevitable clichés, the movie as a whole manages to gracefully pirouette away from being overly corny.

Mao’s Last Dancer is based on a true story, and centres on Li Cunxin who is the sixth son of a peasant family living in a poverty-stricken Chinese village. It is 1972, in the midst of the infamous Cultural Revolution and Li (played as a child by Huang Wen Bin) is plucked from his home and sent to Madame Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy. Li is pushed to the limits in his dance training while being simultaneously educated with Maoist Communist doctrine. However, much like Baryshnikov, Li Cunxin was too talented to be hidden behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ for long, and is spotted by Houston Ballet director Ben Stevenson (Bruce Greenwood).

The adult Li (played by Birmingham Royal Ballet principal Chi Chao) is seconded to America where he learns that the West is not as awful as he had been taught. Most importantly, Li is set free to dance traditional ballet and is no longer forced to participate in propagandist military-style Chinese ballet. The real struggle in this movie is not so much Li seeking freedom from a totalitarian state, but of the struggle he faces for his own artistic soul. Li also falls in love with an American dancer named Liz (Amanda Shull), and begins plotting a way to stay in America with the assistance of some friends and immigration lawyer Charles Foster (Kyle MacLachlan). He is agonisingly aware that his decisions may negatively impact on the fate of his family back home, and has to learn to live with the fact that he may never see them again.

Although nearing the end of his directing shelf-life, Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) does an excellent job with this movie. He was allowed unprecedented access to Chinese locations and these scenes in particular are exquisitely shot. More than that, he manages to steer away from typical anti-Communist and America-is-great stereotypes, and in this Beresford manages to draw strong performances from all his key role players. Key to this is that that even the Communist leaders who attempted to prevent Li’s bid for freedom were portrayed as being both human and somewhat fragile. By concentrating on the human stories behind the story, rather than his own version of political propaganda, Beresford has produced a movie that is hauntingly beautiful from beginning to end. The ballet scenes are worth the entry price alone as we are shown dancing that quite literally takes your breath away with its heady mix of balanced strength and mesmerising grace. Even if ballet is not exactly your cup of tea, you will struggle not to be affected by the sheer artistry of some of the scenes.

In summary, this is a story about how beautiful humanity can be when we give of the best of ourselves. It reminds us of what we can achieve and that at the end of the day, the human beings and relationships behind all the dancing, politics and ideologies are most important.

Mao’s Last Dancer is full value for its four stars out of five.

Movie Review: Inception

Say one thing about Leonardo DiCaprio; say he knows how to choose himself a movie role! There are a lot of good looking individuals around who can act a little, but the Titanic star sets himself above the rest by consistently choosing great movies to strut his stuff in. Of course, it can’t hurt to be Christopher Nolan’s first choice either, since Nolan is probably the hottest movie maker in Hollywood today, with recent hits like Memento and The Dark Knight. Nolan both wrote and directed Inception, and he and DiCaprio are surely onto another massive hit with this sci-fi thriller.

Inception is not a perfect film, but it gets pretty close in my opinion. Its two and a half hours literally fly because of the fantastic mix of fast-paced action, stunning visuals, mind-blowing plot and strong acting. Inception plays around with one central paradox: What is reality and what is dreaming? Which of the two is most real? Keep in mind that with this theme, Inception WANTS to disorientate you as part of an overall plot device and so it has layers and layers of differing perspectives, shifting scenes, and surprising character development. Yes, you will have to concentrate to keep up but that is a major part of the fun!

DiCaprio plays Cobb, an espionage agent who specialises in stealing ideas from other people’s heads. He enters their dream states to source their greatest secrets. Cobb’s own subconscious is plagued by the horrific death of his wife, and the fact that he has been blamed for her murder. As a result he cannot enter the States and is prevented from seeing his children. His desperation to be there for his kids means he takes on a job no one believes can be done involving the task of not stealing an idea, but instead of planting one inside the mind of a billionaire on behalf of a rival corporation.

Cobb’s reward will see all charges dropped and so in the best tradition of great heist movies, he sets about setting up a crack team with differing talents. Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is his long-time partner; Eames (Tom Hardy) is a con-artist and master at deception; Yusuf (Dileep Rao) is a master chemist. And there is a new recruit, Ariadne (Ellen Page), a brilliant young architect who is brought in to build the actual dream world – something that Cobb can no longer do since his subconscious is so fraught with guilt and pain over his broken family.

Cobb's team are hired to enter the dream world of Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), a billionaire with severe father issues. The problem is that Fischer’s mind has been trained to deal with dream infiltration agents, so they have to deal with all sorts of gun-toting ‘mindguards’ – mental projections that exist to protect him at this level. I won’t give away too much more of the plot suffice to say that there are plenty of layers and endless depths to plumb. Despite the inevitable confusion, you are kept in the story by its visual and emotional rollercoaster style. There may be plot holes in Inception, but I didn’t notice any, and at the end of the day what most captivated me was that the emotional connection matched the intellectual challenge. I found myself really caring about Cobb and his team, and rooting for him to get back to his children despite the illegal means he was using to get there.

Inception is well worth seeing and fully earns its four and a half stars out of five. Be aware that there is some strong language and violence throughout.

Movie Review: Knight and Day

Knight and Day received some really positive reviews and also some quite poor ones. It seems you will either love or hate it, depending on whether you decide if the movie is actually quite clever or mind-numbingly stupid. Knight and Day is now famous for Tom Cruise playing a character that is seemingly a parody of his public persona – you are never quite sure when to take him seriously, or whether he is actually a good guy or just a total nut job. Knight and Day has enough holes in the plot to drive every vehicle wrecked in the frenetic action scenes through (which is a heck of a lot), but it clearly doesn’t care. Never has an action movie been so obviously ‘look-at-me-cos-I’m-totally-tongue-in-cheek.’ Even the numerous drugging scenes of various protagonists are part of this overall vibe – when drugged they cannot work out what is actually going on behind the scenes, and often we are left in the same boat. Knight and Day does not take itself too seriously and literally begs you to do the same. Whether you find this endearing and entertaining or just plain stupid determines whether you will end up in the loved-it-camp or the man-it-was-dumb team.

Cameron Diaz, as always, basically plays herself but in the context of the story her cheerful yet overly excitable girl-next-door routine is a positive counterbalancing point for Cruise’s character. She is June Havens, an improbably lonely blonde stunner who fixes cars for a living. A chance encounter at the airport thrusts her into the life of the charming (in a freaky kind of way) and clearly lethal rouge agent Roy Miller (played by Cruise). She is whisked off to all sorts of exotic locations whilst dodging assassins and uncovering world-changing secrets. Throughout all this she is left struggling to work out whether Miller is one of the good guys, a ‘baddie’, or just plain crazy.

Stacked next to The Killers, a similarly themed movie released a short while ago, Knight and Day could be considered an absolute classic. It does have some great action scenes (the bull run for example), and Cruise and Diaz are much more compelling actors than Kutcher and Heigl. Both their action and romance scenes have far more chemistry and sizzle. It is quite violent though with the body count being incredibly high, Cruise kills more people in an hour than your average God of War computer gamer. It was also nice to see Cruise employing decent comedic timing, although he is so creepy at times you wonder whether that’s good acting or just more inner 'couch-leaping' coming out.

I am going to plonk myself firmly between those who loved it and those who hated it. I am not totally convinced about Knight and Day’s cleverness but can’t dismiss entirely its fun action, surprising character developments and the interesting chemistry between the leads.

Two and a half stars out of five for Knight and Day!

Please note that Knight and Day is full value for its PG13 rating because of excessive violence and some strong language.

Movie Review: Shrek Forever After

As a franchise Shrek has always tried to reach parents as much as it did children. There would be jokes-a-plenty that would ‘wooosh’ straight over the head of your average eight year old but leave mom or dad chuckling into their popcorn. In Shrek Forever After this is true not only with some of the jokes but also with its central message. Shrek battles a serious case of mid-life crisis brought on by balancing a marriage with caring for three active little ogre-lets and all the while feeling that somehow his own core identity is being lost in the process. And hey, what parent can’t relate to that after all?

Anyhoo, the big green guy is feeling a little over-domesticated. His ogre roar no longer sends people scuttling away in terror but is used as a gimmick at children’s parties. The only villagers chasing him with pitchforks and torches are those who want his autograph. Shrek has lost his ogre mojo and is seriously resenting his family and friends who he holds responsible for this. There is nothing new about this kind of identity crisis – we have seen it dealt with countless times in movies, and it occurs even more frequently in everyday life. Dad or mom start to feel useless and unappreciated, they romanticize life pre-family domestication, and so they end up doing something radical like have an affair, buy a Ferrari or give up their jobs. Normally, this doesn’t end up working so well leaving lives torn apart and regrets aplenty.

Since this is still primarily a children’s movie, Shrek’s foolish attempt to recapture his old life takes the form of a contract he agrees to sign with Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek magically earns one day to do as he likes, which turns out to be frightening the living daylights out of innocent villagers, but in return he has to give up a day from his childhood. It turns out that the sneaky Rumpelstiltskin takes the day Shrek was born meaning he is forced to confront life as it would be like in Far Far Away if he had never existed. Fiona was not saved from the tower (at least by him), donkey ends up pulling a cart, and Puss in Boots lets himself go (in a big, big way). Oh, and the underhanded Rumpelstiltskin is now ruling the kingdom and immediately banned all ogres. Compounding these problems, not one of his old friends recognizes Shrek and this includes his beloved Fiona who is now turning heads as a leather clad resistance leader. This leaves Shrek the space of only 24 hours to ‘re-friend’ his companions and win his true love back, for it is only in getting Fiona to fall in love with him again that he can undo Rumpelstiltskin’s magic and unravel the mess he has made of his life.

We have been assured that this is the final chapter in the Shrek series and I certainly hope so. After four of the same kind of format, similar jokes and very familiar situations the producers are certainly taking their own byline too seriously (“it ain’t ogre until its ogre"). Shrek 4 is way better than the disastrous third installment but still not as good as the first two. The quick wit and multi-tiered pop-culture referencing that made Shrek 1 and 2 so awesome just does not seem as clever the third or fourth time. Shrek 4 probably doesn’t have as many chuckle out loud moments as the others but it was sweet and warm nonetheless. Its message would not have meant much to children but is perhaps a good reminder to mom and dad to more fully appreciate present blessings. However, at the end of the day you can’t help but feel that compared to the standards of the first two movies, Shrek 4 is a well intentioned, warm-hearted but nonetheless ‘mediogre’ copy.

Three stars out of five for Shrek Forever After.

Movie Review: The Boys Are Back

“Growing up can be the adventure of a lifetime.”

The Boys Are Back is a deeply moving tale based on a true story that through the intimacy of tears and laughter manages to evoke both the extreme vulnerability and sheer beauty of family relationships. Clive Owen plays Joe Warr, a British emigrant who followed his second wife over to Australia after impregnating her. His work as a successful sports writer means that he spends a lot of time away from home while his wife carries the load of child rearing and house care. When cancer tragically claims her life, Joe is thrown into the tumultuous state of single parenthood. He has to juggle his own grief and busy job while raising a six year old boy. It is at this stage that Joe’s son from his first marriage asks to come and visit him in Australia as well. Joe is left with two boys in a household devoid of feminine influence. In the midst of this crazy daily mix, Joe hits upon the only child rearing philosophy that works for him – ‘Just say yes!’ Instead of fighting against his boys to instill some form of discipline and structure, Joe minimizes all rules leading to the Warr household becoming reckless, exuberant and on the constant verge of disaster.

The movie tracks their journey and struggles to manage their own inter-personal relationships while at the same time negotiate disapproving grandparents and local women. The house is a total mess and really only mirrors so much of their own emotions, but Joe feels it is the only way he can successfully parent his boys – he gives them as much room as possible to grow up in. Through the course of the movie, he does make some huge mistakes and also has to face some of his past failures as a father, but Joe never gives up on his boys and ultimately this makes all the difference.

Honestly, I found his parenting style a little disturbing. The ‘almost anything goes’ would definitely not work for me, but I can appreciate how difficult it must have been for Joe as a single dad grappling with grief and life’s hectic pace. Those who disagreed with Joe’s parenting styles were presented as kill-joys which seemed a little over simplistic as a point of view. I also felt that Joe’s visions of his dead wife Katy, and his subsequent conversations with her is a technique that has been way overdone by Hollywood of late.

Both Clive Owen and the actors who played his sons (George MacKay and Nicholas McAnulty) give strong performances and manage to successfully convey the wide range of emotions of life in the Warr household. The way that each of them relates to their father, in the absence of their respective mothers is powerfully absorbing. As each member of the Warr household tries to grow up in their own way, and to forge a meaningful path forward, they manage to do so in a way that brings them even closer together despite the conflicting feelings they are battling. What impressed me most was that Joe Warr was nothing special as a father. I don’t agree totally with his parenting techniques, but I thoroughly respect how he just kept getting back up after each body blow life brought him. Despite his ordinariness he managed to bring grace, compassion and forgiveness to the everyday life of his little family, and it is these qualities that sustain and strengthen them all.

I wholeheartedly recommend seeing this movie and award it four stars out of five.

Movie Review: The Twilight Saga - Eclipse

Twilight Eclipse is the perfect movie. The perfect movie that is, if you happen to be a teenage girl, or if you are one of those who have a ‘teenage-girl-inside-you-just-waiting-to-come-out’. This is, after all, a movie about two tall, dark and handsome hunks who hunger (quite literally it seems) after one awkward, confused teenage girl who gets to choose between them. She calls all the shots while they brood, fester, beg and play the perfect gentlemen. More than that, one of them has had about a hundred years to work on his emotional intelligence meaning that she doesn’t have to struggle through all that normal ‘teenage guy’ stuff that most young women endure. He has had time to catch up in other words. And even better, the other one seems to keep losing his t-shirt and has rippling abs that you could cook eggs on causing endless delight from certain sections of the audience.

Since I am male and in my thirties, Twilight Eclipse was by no means a perfect movie. None of the above stuff really got to me (ok, I was a little jealous over the whole perfect abs thing). Twilight Eclipse was surprisingly good however. Not excellent and not brilliant but simply good. The third instalment of the series ramps up the love triangle between Edward Cullen the vampire (Robert Pattinson), Jacob Black the werewolf (Taylor Lautner), and Bella Swann your friendly neighbourhood teenage girl (Kristen Stewart). Edward is refusing to turn Bella into a vampire until she agrees to marry him, while Jacob is desperately trying to convince Bella to face her feelings for him before she commits herself body and ‘soul’ to Edward.

Complicating the love triangle even further is the fact that fiery-haired vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) is intent on getting revenge on Edward and Bella for killing off her boyfriend James (see the first movie). To this end she is creating an army of Newborn vampires who in their youth are ravenous for blood and stronger than older vamps (I always thought that the older you got as a vampire, the stronger you became but perhaps my vampire lore is out of sync). Her activities are attracting the attention of the Voltari – the Vampire government – who demanded in the second movie that Bella be turned into a vampire because she knows too much. Obviously, Edward, Bella and the rest of the Cullen clan want to avoid this kind of attention whilst they battle it out with the Newborns.

Eclipse is better than the first two Twilight movies. It is faster paced with more action and the characters are more strongly developed. The main actors have all grown in their craft and so manage to bring something more to the table than looking pained or inserting an awkward pause before every line. This is not to say that they are good actors, just a little better than they were before. The quicker pacing means the story line is far more interesting and the action scenes were quite good, although the werewolves still look a little unrealistic. And did you know that killing a vampire is as easy as snapping an icicle? Well, it is if you are another vampire that is.

Perhaps one reason that Eclipse has greater weight and energy that the first two in the series is because its moral conflicts and messages are far more interesting. The various moral conflicts are as follows: Bella and Edward struggle over whether they should wait until marriage before becoming sexually active; Bella, Edward and Jacob all wrestle with the conflicting emotions of the love triangle but face it with great maturity; and finally all of the main characters unite together to fight a great evil – not only to protect Bella but all the various innocent humans in Forks.

The movie did raise a question that is very relevant to young people in contemporary society. Does marriage as an institution still have any value? It certainly seems to imply that it does, despite the fact that Bella feels marriage is outdated probably as a result of her parent’s divorce. Generally, inter-family relationships are treated positively, and all the participants in the famed love triangle manage to treat each other with respect which was quite refreshing as far as Hollywood normally goes. Refreshing also was that the struggle to come to terms with one’s sexuality was not actually solved by having sex – rather through a process of more mature conversation and questioning.

So there you have it. If you are a self-confessed “Twi-hard” you will love Eclipse – it is even better than the first two. If you are a non-fanatic like me, then you certainly won’t feel cheated out of your ticket price. It is an enjoyable enough two hours but by no means is it a great movie.

Three stars out of five for Twilight Eclipse.

Movie Review: She's Out of My League

The basic premise of this movie is simple: She is really good looking, he is average. She is considered a perfect 10, while he’s barely a 5. Wouldn’t it be both funny and meaningful then, to base a movie around them falling in love? Well, yes, it is funny in parts but unfortunately its moments of humour and insight are somewhat bogged down by excessive vulgarity and cartoonishness.

Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel) is an average Joe stuck in a dead-end job as a TSA security agent in Pittsburgh Airport. Kirk’s life is going nowhere fast, and as a result he cannot get over his last girlfriend who dumped him for another guy. What makes it even worse is that his very strange family have accepted both the ex and her new beau as members of the family, meaning Kirk can never escape his failures. Through a series of mishaps, Kirk ends up meeting Molly (Alice Eve), a successful and gorgeous ‘10’, who appears to have her sights on him, perhaps as a result of rebounding from a failed relationship with a cheating super stud named Cam (Geoff Stults).

Kirk is simultaneously bewildered, thrilled and frightened by Molly’s attention. His co-workers and friends from the airport, and his family, are equally confused by Molly’s interest. They all seem to think he should give the relationship up before it even begins since it appears doomed to failure … with Molly being so far out of his league. Kirk’s own inner insecurities begin to pile up, and ultimately threaten to derail the best thing that has ever happened to him.

The story as a whole is pretty contrived and predictable. The characters, most particularly Kirk’s friends and family, are what make the film so cartoonish. They are bizarre and frankly, unbelievable and more than a little silly. The humour is pretty unoriginal – why is it that no comedy these days seems unable to step out of the shadows of ‘There’s Something about Mary’ and ‘American Pie’? Why can we never have clever instead of vulgar?

I actually ended up quite liking the two main characters as played by Baruchel and Eve. They were innately good people who seemed to value more than just outward appearances. Both were wounded people who were starting to learn that there is far more to life than ranking people based on beauty, popularity, money or success. While there is nothing new or original about this message, I do think this film could have done far more with it. Instead of going for vulgar and bizarre, it could have focussed on funny, sweet and tender and with these two as your leads, they certainly would have pulled it off. In terms of an overall message, we would do well to remember that God doesn’t judge others as we do – based on outward appearances. God looks at the heart. This is a valuable and timeless message, especially whenever we are tempted to become caught up in the game of continually comparing ourselves to others. Kirk’s inner insecurities almost derailed his relationship, which is another valuable message because this truth is played out in reality time and time again. However, at the end these important messages are somewhat lost because this movie insists on sticking a whoopee cushion beneath every scene.

She is a ten, he is a five, but this movie is definitely a two (out of five).