The Road review
A father and son strive to stay alive in a depressing post apocalyptic world blessed with an added bonus of rampant cannibalism.
The broken sets, bleak scenery, atmospheric cinematography and desaturated post-production combine for a perfect, spooky look and a very believable dead world while Viggo Mortensen plays a complex range of emotions convincingly, evoking necessary sympathy with his character. The kid playing his “papa” this, “papa” that offspring is less convincing or likeable, giving some reason to cheer on the cannibals. Or willing Viggo, who must have been on a strict rice cake and low calorie cardboard diet in the months before shooting, to opt for a tasty, meaty treat. Luckily, with an open ending, you can believe that the boy ended up in a pie, at least.
There is no progressive plot beyond world goes bad, couple has child, mother flips out, and, predominantly, father and kid Keep On Truckin’. The interest lies in a series of encounters (cannibalistic and otherwise) and mini-stories (like the ingenious family who keep bipedal food in their cellar) and they are, largely, interesting and thought-provoking.
17th Jan 2010 | 1 Comment | Official site | On IMDb
Exam review
Eight very special job candidates in one small room are given a short set of carefully worded instructions and one hour to answer an undefined question.
After the initial, very intriguing, ten minutes, the first half of the film is plodding as it attempts to build up tension, the characters monotonously obsessing over how to reveal hidden ink on their exam papers, doing little to drive the story forward. An added annoyance is that they don’t come across as bordering on vaguely special let alone very special — it’s doubtful any of them could win a packet of crisps in a pub quiz let alone the universe’s most desirable job in a super hardcore test.
Cleverly, in terms of practical filmmaking, confined to a single room, it is heavily reliant on dialogue, which is by no means Tarantino-grade but is passable. Interest increases in the second half of the film as more incidents take place, more candidates are “disqualified” and although the predictable decline into primal savagery isn’t overly convincing, the ending is satisfactory and the simple twist is as clever as it is eye-roll inducing.
15th Jan 2010 | Comment | Official site | On IMDb
Sherlock Holmes review
You know what that fine, upstanding, famously congenial Baker Street detective needs, don’t you? That’s right! A healthy dose of violence! Yeah!
Lock, Stock and One Snatching Guy Ritchie directs a much bigger, grander, more commercial project than he’s used to and, y’know, even with the forced ingredient of mad violence to action it up a bit, it’s OK.
Robert Downey Jnr. is OK, Jude Law’s OK, the other OK actors are, well, OK. The special effects? They’re OK. Even the contrived story is OK. Ish. The backdrop of late nineteenth century London is OK. Perhaps even a little bit more than OK. But it’s certainly at least OK.
It’s a little bit silly but the light-hearted film knows it and gives the viewer a ride with no pretensions. It’s as forgettable as an especially average, inconspicuous pigeon walking around a tropical bird exhibition in Trafalgar Square but there’s a lot of daft fun involved and it’s rather enjoyable as a result.
2nd Jan 2010 | Comment | Official site | On IMDb
Losers of 2009: Brit Flicks opinion
Utilising a fuzzy form of intelligence and foresight, various apparent by-numbers romcoms and the likes of Lesbian Vampire Killers were avoided. But, somehow, a handful of duds slipped through the cracks. While Slumdog and Moon proudly flew the flag for British film, a trio of Brit flicks allied to provide the least pleasurable filmgoing experiences of the year.
First up, Doghouse, a gamble. That didn’t pay off. But at least it didn’t pretend to be anything other than an incredibly dumb film.
New Town Killers, on the other hand, took itself way too seriously. Apparently it gained a release in 2009, although it went largely unnoticed, thankfully. Poor in almost every conceivable way, the flimsy existential thriller failed abysmally to live up to its intellectual aspirations.
Winning the pyrite medal, though, is the worst, most shameful, painful film of the year. Ladies and gentlemen, Richard “I used to write good” Curtis gives you… The Boat That Rocked. The steaming mound of disjointed rubbish left me feeling dirty, questioning the state of the film industry in the UK and fundamentally ashamed to be British. World, please forgive us.
1st Jan 2010 | Comment
