Film Intel

Trailer Of The Week - Week #5 - Jeff Who Lives At Home

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Continuing The Sundance Film Festival vibe this weekend is the new trailer for Jeff Who Lives At Home, the latest offering from mumblecore duo The Duplass Brothers. So much of this trailer feels like it shouldn't work; the awkward conversations, the detached acoustic soundtrack, the convenient plot device of the adult-who's-not-really-an-adult, the uber-geek pairing of Jason Segel and Ed Helms. But, somehow, Jeff Who Lives At Home emerges at the other end as a film that's still passably interesting, a quiet comedy with two leads who are clearly trying to do something different, assured quality provided by Susan Sarandon. Plus there's a Porsche crashing into a tree. The Duplass' latest hits the US in March, with a UK release slated to follow in April.

Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

Wronger Than Rubber?

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

This is the rather lovely poster for Wrong, the second film from Quentin Dupieux. Several reviews of the film, which is currently playing The Sundance Film Festival, seem to suggest that it is at least as weird as Dupieux's first film, Rubber. Seeing as Rubber was a film about a killer tyre, I'm sceptical but hey, I'm also excited.

Colombiana - Blu-ray Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'so far, so standard Besson. This is the same plot he's been recycling since Leon, tweaking elements (has the main character lost their parents/daughter/brother/hamster? Is she/he an assassin/agent/Joe-Schmoe/dog?) slightly along the way'

Potentially benefiting from the rule of diminished expectations, Colombiana is a film that has few errors, many mediocre moments and a smattering of elements that work quite well, resulting in a film that, if not quite plum in the middle of average, only misses the middle because it's firing at it with a bazooka.

With Luc Besson behind the screenplay there's little surprise here that we're dealing with a girl (Amandla Stenberg) who loses her parents early on, eventually growing in to a woman (Zoe Saldana) who is out to avenge their death. So far, so standard Besson. This is the same plot he's been recycling since Leon, tweaking elements (has the main character lost their parents/daughter/brother/hamster? Is she/he an assassin/agent/Joe-Schmoe/dog?) slightly so that someone new can be cast and a different director can be brought in to make it look somewhat original. You can't knock the success of the formula but that doesn't mean that recognising it isn't becoming a bore, like crossing the street to avoid the childhood friend you can't be bothered to catch up with.

In the directing chair this time is the impossibly named Olivier Megaton, a name bettered only by the revelation recently that a one Mr Barry Battles is currently finding gainful employment amongst Hollywood's collective of preposterous monikers. Megaton does a great job starting with a street-running inspired chase before showing that he hasn't quite got the same mastery of narrative: there's far too much time spent with Stenberg. The opening section could have been ended when the youngster first says 'it's my passport', thus cutting the film down to the ninety-minute runtime it desperately needed. Twenty minutes plus to explain why everyone is about to die is just too long for this sort of offering.

Once Saldana appears things predictably improve. Besson is adept at writing roles for female actors that don't placate or pander. Cataleya (Saldana) could just as easily be a male character and the toughness the writer includes, the fact that we never really stop to contemplate her sexuality, is notable and welcome. Megaton slightly undermines this by including one too many shots of Saldana naked, turning round at just the right moment to secure a hardly deserved 15-rating (it should have been a 12a) but hey, worse directors have done much worse than that with female-led action scripts.

Ultimately it's missing a killer action sequence or two and some front line support for Saldana but the inevitable final confrontation does deliver and both Lennie James and the always-welcome Cliff Curtis do their best. Passable, at the very least, but it needs to be the last time Besson goes to his favourite, safe, plot arc.

Look further...

'a smart, sexy thriller with a good story that propels Saldana's star power' - Reel Talk, B+

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring - Extended Edition - Blu-ray Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Aside from having a title which necessitates what must be the longest article header in history, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings - Extended Edition Blu-ray, adds in something like fifty minutes of extra footage for the film, when compared to the original theatrical release back in 2001, now seemingly aeons ago.

The benefits this new cut of the film delivers extends further beyond the fact that Hobbit fans get more, more, more. Director Peter Jackson - returning to the editing suite, relaying the music, finishing the special effects - has obviously put great thought into delivering a vision that, whilst not cinema-friendly, is closer to the narrative laid down in Tolkien's epic tomes and, therefore, more satisfying for fans of the source material. Increased background, such as the time spent explaining what exactly Hobbits are, will give them scant little new information, but it does give the film a more developed and respectful air. It's now more than an hour to the point where the Hobbits bump in to Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) in The Prancing Pony Inn, the bulk of the extra time spent laying down the ground rules of Middle Earth to an even greater degree than before.

There are narrative and character benefits to the extra material too. The attempt by the group to go over Redhorn Pass, eventually leading them into the Mines of Moria, seems better explained, the threat better realised, the decision by Frodo (Elijah Wood) to take the group underground all the more fatalistic and emphasised: it is ultimately his decision which forces Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to confront the Balrog that has been there all along, something the original cut of the film rather lost along the way.

The main beneficiary of this cut from a character point of view, is not someone otherwise considered a main player of The Fellowship. Sean Bean's Boromir receives a huge bulk of the extra development time available. His relationship with Pippin (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan) feels real and warm, where in the original cut it never did, better explaining the decision he makes in the film's closing moments. Boromir's departure from the plot, which once, Jackson had almost made an afterthought, is instead now the emotional apex, the point where the corruption of The Ring is realised to fatal effect and where man, finally, overcomes it.

For all its highlights (and there are many - the re-mastered, re-recorded Howard Shore score is exquisite), The Fellowship Of The Ring has always felt like a film with nowhere to go after the group exit the mine. With the extended run time, it is now a film with nowhere to go and an hour in which do it in. The extended Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) scenes make the forest section easier to endure but there still seems little of import here when compared to the standout Moria sequences.

The odd scripting choices, which always rankled, are also still here to take you out of a piece of literature and in to a Michael Bay film. 'Ride hard', Aragorn tells Arwen (Liv Tyler), presumably with appropriate Dewey Cox song playing in the background. 'If you want him, come and claim him', Arwen tells the wraiths moments late, like an announcer in a supermarket with a limited edition hot offer to promote. Considering Jackson's attention to detail it is still remarkable that he never spotted the fact that these lines, and a handful of others, just didn't fit.

And so, in extended form, The Fellowship Of The Ring is exactly as it was before: half a masterpiece and half a slightly-flawed adaptation. There's more of both, and an attempt to reconcile the latter, which ultimately endures despite Blanchett's best efforts. It's an outstanding work, a film to go back to again and again and a great start to the trilogy. But it's a few Hobbit hairs short of being a perfect film, no matter how much in love with it we all are.

Look further...

Explore Shore's fantastic music on Cinema Life.

Extra Time - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's Blu-ray Extras

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Extra Time: the easy guide to Blu-ray and DVD extras

Extra Hot

Two interviews form the bulk of the attraction from the limited selection of extras available on the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Blu-ray, the subjects being John le Carré and Gary Oldman. Le Carré's interview, pleasingly presented in HD, provides insight into what the erudite author thinks of Smiley, the book and Alfredson's adaptation. The author is one of those interviewees where the question being asked really doesn't matter; he's happy to talk, at length, on a plethora of subjects, giving his opinion that his original story is 'plausible, not authentic' and praising Alfredson for pursuing his own vision of the narrative. It's a great few minutes in his company. Oldman, though less willing to talk, is another insightful interview if only for the fact that it shows just how much of a skilled creation Smiley is.

Extra Not

The featurettes are fine but like a lot of featurettes they spend a lot of time replaying bits of the film and of the various interviews already on the disc and not a lot of time adding anything new to the discussion of the film. Colin Firth's interview is short and to the point and Tom Hardy's even more so, the soon-to-be Bane seeming very eager to get the hell out of there. The absence of a 'making of' is puzzling.

Extra Everything

The Tomas Alfredson/Peter Straughan interview is the best of the rest of the interviews and the fact that it is Alfredson and Oldman themselves on commentary duty is nice to see but there's not a huge amount else here of interest, apart from the inclusion of the audio books although I'm not sure what purpose they serve on a blu-ray. It rather seems as though they got lost.

The full list of material includes;

- Commentary with Gary Oldman and director Tomas Alfredson
- John le Carré Interview
- Deleted Scenes
- Smiley featurette
- Inside the Circus featurette
- Shadow World featurette
- Interview with Colin Firth
- Interview with Tom Hardy
- Interview with Director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter Peter Straughan
- UK Premiere featurette
- Sky Movies featurette
- Photo Gallery
- Trailers

Extra Rating

The absence of a 'making of' on any disc nowadays classes as a massive oversight and the material that is here wavers from incisive to inconsequential.

Extra Film

Everything that was right with the film is still right with the film. It's a fantastic achievement and the look and feel of the whole thing is well paraded over by Alfredson's justly-conserved direction. The montage at the end, set to music, feels more out of place the more I watch it. See the Film Intel review for further details.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on Monday 30th January 2012.

TrollHunter - DVD Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'at least Cloverfield, with all its problems, managed to create a sense that something happened before the ruddy great monster attacked... TrollHunter never gets close to this.'

André Øvredal's Norwegian found-footage film, TrollHunter is a loose mish-mash of all of the elements that have come to be regarded as failings of the sub-genre. Shaky cameras to show people running away in terror, an ambiguous and misguided ending, slightly too-annoying-for-their-own-good main characters, a lack of development of said characters; all the failings associated with the genre are present and correct and ultimately, Øvredal's film just doesn't do enough to overcome them.

The last one of that mini list - a lack of character development - is worth dwelling on. In most found footage material, and certainly here in TrollHunter, we are presented with a heavily edited version of a non-professional piece of filming, ostensibly a home movie. There's no footage of your Uncle's banal conversation about cheese, there's no moment where your kid Sister turns it on by mistake and catches you saying something you shouldn't, there's no larking around filming the pet dog; there's no background information. At least Cloverfield, with all its problems, managed to create a sense that something happened before the ruddy great monster attacked. It managed to convince us that the annoying people whose company we kept were friends. TrollHunter never gets close to this.

What's left to admire is what's left to admire in your common or garden Michael Bay film. There's some nice special effects, some lovely location work, a gruff sage-like giver of advice (Otto Jespersen) and a moment or two of well judged action, but, as a whole, that doesn't make up a narratively satisfying fantasy-horror. Like 2010's Monsters, the trolls appear infrequently but, unlike Monsters, in this film that actually matters.

The end seems to decide to be ambiguous only because it is aware of the genre it moves in and ambiguous endings are just the 'done thing' around here. There's no real reason for it and the narrative arc explored previously doesn't justify it. The introduction of a further character to the group all of five minutes before the reel stops running hints that no-one really had any idea how the thing was meant to conclude and someone took a brief stab at it in the editing room. Also loses points for failing to make use of The Automatic's Monster, which would have been hilarious. Probably.

Look further...

'a great watch not just for the garden variety horror fan, but for someone fascinated by the rough and epic beauty of the wild Norwegian landscape' - Front Room Cinema, 4/5

How Long Can 3D Films Remain Commercially Sustainable?

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Leanne Miller investigates the numbers behind 3D and suggests that, actually, the studios might need to start paying more attention to them sometime soon.

It is a subject that divides both casual cinemagoers and hardened movie fans and causes arguments in ticket queues all over the world. But whether you love it or hate it, studios remain keen to drive up revenues with films packaged in 3D – but how long can it last?

According to a report published in August that looked at cinema admissions across the UK in the first half of the year, the early signs seem to show that the general public are beginning to tire of 3D. While overall admissions for the period were ever so slightly up from 80.1 million to 80.7 million on the same period in 2010, the increase reported by the CAA/BFI seemed to be in conflict with data from Rentrak EDI.

This report showed that in the period ending June 2011, box office revenues across the UK and Ireland dropped by around 3.3 per cent which Screen Digest explained 'can be directly traced to fewer tickets sold to higher priced 3D movies'. This, it continued, was despite a rise in the number of 3D titles that had been released in the period. All of which begs the question, why is Hollywood bothering to force feed us low quality, post-converted 3D movies at extra cost to everyone - including themselves - if they aren’t wanted?

As far back as September 2010, on the release of Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, respected film journalist, writer and podcaster Mark Kermode, spoke about the technology and how it does nothing for the medium. In a video post he created for his blog, Kermode said that not only did he 'forget' that he was watching Toy Story 3 in 3D when he first saw it, he discovered that, when challenged to compare it to the 2D version, he found it to be a much better experience. 'The image is clearer, the image is brighter – and I’m not alienated by those glasses'.

And he isn’t the only one, respected film news commentators and bloggers from across the web have asked the same questions. Are people tired of 3D? Is this all being forced on us? Why should we pay extra for the privilege of sitting in a darkened room trying to watch a film while effectively wearing sunglasses?

It is worth noting however that many people feel that the medium has been poorly executed so far and is yet to reach its full potential. As 2011 drew to a close we saw the release of Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s first foray in to the world of 3D, which impressed both fans and critics in equal measure, making the film a commercial success on the back of its inflated, 3D-loaded, ticket prices. During the filming process Scorsese seemed keen to push boundaries and was less concerned about the existing rules that most of Hollywood studios have strictly adhered to when producing 3D films. Other directors should perhaps take note and realise that the technology can only be successful when it is used to add extra degrees of creativity to already unique storytelling, instead of packaged in as an afterthought.

However, if Hollywood continues to see 3D as a way to prop up their profit margins – regardless of what they are spending on doing so – then who is to say when they will listen to any of these arguments? Increasingly, blockbusters are being advertised with the added caveat of 2D being available in ‘selected’ theatres, with films like The Green Hornet proving especially difficult to find in this format, raising the question 'who benefits from the addition of 3D to these films?'. It certainly doesn't seem to be the studios. The best any of us can do is vote with our cash wherever possible and hope that the industry starts to listen.

Leanne Miller is a regular contributor to entertainment site playittoday.org. She is a gamer, a movie enthusiast and a firm believer that every argument can be resolved using Wikipedia. You can also follow her on twitter @playittoday.

Trailer Of The Week - Week #4 - Vysotsky, Thank God I'm Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

An interesting article appeared on The Guardian website this week claiming that 2012 could well be the year Russian cinema finally gets it act together and breaks out (both at home and abroad) in a big way. The film that was held up as starting this new wave? Vysotskiy. Spasibo, chto zhivoy or Vysotsky, Thank God I'm Alive, for the non-Russian speakers amongst you. The film is a biopic of Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky, a Soviet-era singer-songwriter who, according to his Wikipedia page, 'had an immense and enduring effect on Russian culture'. Politically and socially aware lyrics in 1970s Russia hint that there might be a dramatic goldmine here and the trailer (non-subtitled as yet) looks both suitably intriguing and well-shot. If The Guardian's predictions are right, keep your eye out for distribution (with subtitles) in Western territories at some point this year.

Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

At Some Point Photos Of Uggie From The Artist May Cease To Be Funny...

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

...but not yet.

Classic Intel: Road To Perdition - TV Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'Paul Newman claimed, a couple of years after its release, that this would be his last appearance on screen and that it was a fitting way to bow out. That's enough for me.'

Search for images relating to Sam Mendes' 2002 film Road To Perdition and note just how many of the results feature some sort of still from the above scene. Said scene, filmed almost entirely without dialogue or sound effects and instead set to one evocative piece of music, is important not just in the context of the film (indeed, it arguably signifies the film's emotional apex) but also in contemporary cinema. This, ladies and gentleman, presents a very good case for being one of the best scenes 21st Century cinema has thus far produced.

But look elsewhere throughout Road To Perdition and you'll find many more highlights. Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) sitting down to play piano with John Rooney (Paul Newman). Harlen Maguire's (Jude Law) introduction, off-kilter, stunningly photographed, purposefully out of sync with every other scene in the film. The almost-final shot, surprising, even to those who had been paying attention and, once again, near silent - just listen to how clearly you can hear the waves.

This is also a film of notable 'lasts'. It is both the last time - and arguably the first time - that Tom Hanks has come close to playing an unlikeable character. Sure, Rooney may be our protagonist but he is also a career criminal, a hit man for the mob, a father who takes his son on a murderous rampage, arguably culpable for contributing to Connor Rooney's (Daniel Craig) acts of violence that kick the plot off. It is also the last time we saw Paul Newman on-screen in a major film. I remember listening to Newman being interviewed at some point a few years after the release of Mendes' film. The interviewer asked whether this would be his last appearance and whether he thought it was a fitting way to bow out. Newman answered both questions in the affirmative. That's enough for me.

The film's sole Oscar win, for Conrad L. Hall's stunning cinematography, stands alongside several other rewards in the same category, recognising not just the success in this film but the many wonderful creations across Hall's career. It was, fittingly, the last film before his death in 2003. What the awards also nod to though is that Road To Perdition is a film whose worth has only become apparent in recent years. Mendes, a master story teller, can arguably claim to overseeing the last great period American gangster film, albeit one marginalised by more modern do-badders (The Departed) and a spate of foreign successes (Mesrine). It won't be the last time we visit the 1930s but, if, by some extreme form of genre purging, it proved to be, there would at least be a fantastic monument to the sub-genre, a fitting last entry. An under-rated classic.

Look further...

Wonders In The Dark consider Road To Perdition both on the page and on the screen.

NEDs - Blu-ray Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'manages to undermine many expectations, most notably Mullan's mastery of humour'

NEDs is one of those film people are quick to label 'uncompromisingly gritty', mainly because it is. Any one of the constituent parts of NEDs core plot (social realism, growing up in rough-house Glasgow, abusive father, wayward brother, drugs, girls, booze) could comfortably see it receiving the cliché and wearing it as a badge with pride. Throw it all in together and you can hardly avoid it.

Try to avoid it, especially in a dark alley, and you're likely to get stabbed or, in the case of one scene, shot with a crossbow.

The problem with throwing every semblance of a troubled youth at the screen, true that they may be to the experiences or research of writer/director Peter Mullan, is that many of the parts have trouble sticking. Protagonist John McGill (Conor McCarron), for example, has a troubling (and certainly troubled) relationship with his Father (Mullan himself), whilst his Mother battles on in the background. Neither of these elements is developed properly, instead left as lingering glances or the type of threat that encourages silence every time McGill senior enters a room. In a way, the story elements that come and go like this are effective but equally they're woefully under-developed and Mullan's story may have read more coherently with the focus being pushed on to just a few of his plot arcs.

Whilst the film is a veritable cliché of social realism-esque tropes, it also manages to undermine many expectations, most notably Mullan's mastery of humour. In a film with more violence than your average War Drama (and a fair amount of difficult-to-watch actions besides) the levity these moments bring is welcome and well-crafted. Watch in particular for the scene where a group of kids are forced to list their various ailments like names on a register ('glass eye? Hole-in-the-heart?') or the unforgettable 'don't be late again' segment.

Mullan's film then is a tale of both the expected and the unexpected. There is the hint here that Mullan, as director, can bring a fresh eye and a sharp tongue to British social realism in the 21st Century but there's also the hint that he needs to reign in his storytelling, basking in the glow of his finer moments rather than fleshing everything out with filler.

Look further...

'the film carefully balances over a knife edge to it's powerful and yet still ambiguous climax' - The Afrofilmviewer

Unknown - Online Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'works hard to keep you in the dark, allowing brief guesses at what might be going on but hinting that, at any moment, someone might rip their face off a la Mission: Impossible'

It is very difficult to get away from comparing Liam Neeson vehicle Unknown with Liam Neeson vehicle Taken, so much so that the header for my notes on this particular offering - following a Neeson-in-an-identity-crisis around Berlin - read, 'Taken'.

That the film might suffer its own identity crisis then is a given. There are vague hints early on (and from the trailer) that we might be dealing somewhere in the espionage field, as Neeson's Dr. Martin Harris starts to suspect he is being followed in a subway, escalating to several more definable acts of subterfuge, culminating in the necessary arrival of ex-Stasi agent Ernst Jürgen (Bruno Ganz) to help him out.

Unknown's main victory then is in the fact that it is both different and individually satisfying enough from Neeson's similar recent work to recommend it. More than that actually, Unknown is a damn good thriller. It works hard to keep you in the dark, allowing brief guesses at what might be going on but hinting that, at any moment, someone might rip their face off à la Mission: Impossible and turn the whole thing on its head. The conclusion and reveal are satisfying, Neeson tearing round any given city attempting to find information will never become boring and the character motivations are ultimately well thought-out.

The problems too come in small batches, easy enough to largely ignore. Harris has a slightly annoying habit of only retaining his amnesia when a crucial plot point is on the end of his tongue, remembering more complicated things like phone numbers whenever required. January Jones, here with a chance to shine outside of Mad Men, is very poor indeed, not helping her cause to claim she's a talent to watch where other failures elsewhere (X-Men: First Class, Justice) could have justifiably been blamed on the material given to her.

These issues though crop up infrequently enough to bypass, Jones marginalised earlier on in favour of the much-more-comfortable-in-these-sort-of-shoes Diane Kruger, who proves a good foil for Neeson. Neeson himself is, as usual, a tomb-like performer, weighting every scene with equal parts heft, threat and clarity. A very accomplished mainstream crowd-pleaser.

Unknown was playing on Lovefilm's Watch Online service, for users with an appropriate subscription.

Look further...

'If you manage to survive the unengaging narrative you’ll be met with a twist that unfortunately is not very creative or unexpected. A disappointing performance from Liam Neeson and the underused quality of Diane Kruger results in an unsatisfying film' - Remote Reviews

Red State - Blu-ray Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'the second half of Red State moves from Horror into solid B-movie Thriller territory, of the sort you might find Kevin Pollak featuring in nowadays'

Consider Red State's pitch and what should emerge to most film fans is a concept with a lot of promise. Red State is a Horror/Thriller from Kevin Smith, a vociferous director, which takes aim at ultra-conservative Christians, the Government and The World We Live In, to name but three. It's a fairly timely idea, which should stir up some degree of controversy whilst having plenty of material available in the background to mean Smith crafts his film to say something important, so lacking in some of his more recent efforts.

The resultant film takes its genre split rather literally. The first, more successful half, sees three likely lads (one of whom sports the worst haircut this side of the 1970s) kidnapped by Abin Cooper's (Michael Parks) Five Points Church and subjected to some degree of unpleasantness. This half, whilst tense and occasionally troubling, fails to deliver on the 'ultra-violence' Smith apparently promised but, non-the-less, is a fairly functional stab at kidnap horror, and the background segments showcasing Cooper's beliefs are effective.

The second half of Red State moves from Horror into solid B-movie Thriller territory, of the sort you might find Kevin Pollak featuring in nowadays. The film is low-budget, much publicised by Smith, something which shows much more in these segments, where a group of ATF agents seem to be invading your common or garden backyard. There is a way to shoot such small-scale engagements as if they are big budget spectacles but Smith never captures it correctly and the whole thing feels cheap and tacky, spending far too long showing a variety of un-interesting people shooting various automatic weapons aimlessly out of windows.

The whole that these two halves create is one which ultimately feels uneven, the film apparently abandoning its Horror pretensions halfway. Thematically too, there's plenty of real-life material here to mine and Smith could have hit back at critics of Cop Out by producing a well-made, visceral, treatise on the current climate, which shocked and/or awed in equal measure. Instead, he cuts away from more than one death, struggles to say anything new concerning ultra-conservatism and ends the whole thing with a kind of absurd wink towards the Government paranoia brigade.

Smith's return to material written by his own hand should have had horns sounding in triumph but instead misses more than half of what it aims for. The script only crackles very occasionally, the horror is fairly tame and the resultant location for Red State will, sadly, probably be somewhere in a bargain bin, lodged between any direct-to-DVD Horror you care to mention and the latest action-fest from Steven Segal. A sad state of affairs for an idea with so much to give.

Red State is released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on Monday 23rd January.

Look further...

'there’s an inordinate amount of shooting to be had and just not enough horror or scares to back it all up' - Cut The Crap Movie Reviews, 5/10

Why Americans Like Monty Python And The Holy Grail Better Than Life Of Brian

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Jeff Martin considers Monty Python's enduring US legacy, Imperialism, false Messiahs and coconut-laden swallows.

I do not care a whit about the Beckhams. I have yet to watch Downton Abbey. I do not own any pictures of Lady Diana. I cannot say the same about pictures of Keeley Hazell. When I say that I try to keep up with current events in Britain, I mean I have some fine Twitter friends in the UK and I read both The Sun and The Daily Mail online. Trustworthy news sources, all.

I’ve also benefited from the fact that our public television stations, back in the Year Of Someone’s Lord, 1974, began showing episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And let’s go ahead and reveal an important secret to you, my British friends: all Americans know of British culture comes from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

We still think John Cleese is in his mid-thirties, doing silly walks.

Yes, there are a few of us knowledgeable enough of British popular culture to think of Shaun Of The Dead as the closest thing we’ll ever get to a Spaced movie, but there are more of us still who don’t know who or what Spaced was.

But we’re talking about Python here, specifically the fact that about six years ago, a poll was taken of British movie goers. Brits, you voted Life of Brian the best British movie of all time. My friends, I don’t get it. I expected The Italian Job or perhaps Digby: The Biggest Dog In The World. Not Life of Brian.

Here in the States, we love Monty Python And The Holy Grail. We quote it. All the time. All of us. Every citizen of the United States of America says at least one line from that movie every day. And frankly, we don’t think Life Of Brian is all that great. I mean, it’s funny. It’s okay. But we don’t make a concerted effort to watch it.

In an effort to try to bridge the gap between our terribly disparate cultures, and build a tramway of love between our two formerly enemy countries, let me explain to you why Americans prefer Holy Grail to Life Of Brian.

We’ve had our share of unfunny false messiahs.

Even though it has been literally decades ago, we still don’t make jokes about the Peoples’ Temple. We don’t kick back with a piss-weak beer and crack jokes about David Koresh and that wacky compound fire that killed him and his followers. Actually, we’re still pissed about the duplicity of Emperor Palpatine. So when Brian’s mother screams, 'He’s not the messiah; he’s a very, naughty boy,' we Americans aren’t so sure. We think maybe Brian could lead dozens to their doom and we would be unable to stop it. Give him back his sandal. Leave our children alone.

Our parents told us it wasn’t funny. By the time Life Of Brian hit our shores, our parents had already videotaped all the Flying Circuses with their gigantic wood-grained VHS behemoth machines. We learned of the Piranha Brothers in our bedtime stories. They had also seen and absorbed Holy Grail. From the first moose bite to the final reel spool-out. We knew brave Sir Robin had run away. We knew Camelot was a silly place. We knew we weren’t part of an autonomous collective. So when they saw Life of Brian, with its linear storyline, consistent characterisations and comedy more pointed than broad and absurd, they didn’t quite get it. It was like replacing Benny Hill with Maggie Thatcher. One was funnier than the other. We weren’t trained to love Brian Cohen the same way we were trained to love Tim the Enchanter.

Blasphemy, Part I. Oh, the fuss when Life of Brian was released here! I was but a youngling at the time, but I can still remember the picket signs and the angry Christians, even a stern warning sermon from the pulpit of the church I attended at the time. 'This movie is making fun of Jesus! How dare you make fun of your Eternal Lord and Savior!'. Being a sweet little believer child, I swore I would never watch that foul, dirty movie. I didn’t realise that the people who were doing the protesting hadn’t actually seen the movie, either. It doesn’t make fun of Jesus at all! It wasn’t until I grew older that I was disappointed by that fact.

Blasphemy, Part II. Americans didn’t really understand how funny blasphemy could be until the Internet came around. When we saw what other countries, especially Sweden, were doing with the art form, we rolled through and claimed it as our own, like the Imperialist bastards we are.

The main reason we never quite accepted Life of Brian, however, is this: we liked seeing Graham Chapman in drag more than we liked seeing Terry Jones or Eric Idle in drag.

It’s true. Americans have always been picky about their queens, since we don’t actually have a figurehead monarchy to deal with. And we loved seeing Graham in an outrageous hat and a prim dress, talking to Mrs. Preposition or waiting for the penguin on top of the television to explode. When he opened the door and showed all of us his gigantic meat dreidel, a little bit of Python died for us in America. Also, we were a wee bit jealous.

See, in the States, we say lines from Holy Grail instead of actually having conversations. Why bother baring your soul and discussing your feelings when you can say, 'Ni!' instead? Love means never having to say, 'I love you', but it does require describing your beloved as having 'huge tracts of land'. We don’t argue about left versus right, Democrat versus Republican or the Judean Peoples’ Front versus the Peoples’ Front of Judea; we ascertain the airborne velocity of a coconut-laden swallow.

So thank you, England, our true Motherland. We may not have the fine taste for irreverence that you do, but you, and specifically Monty Python And The Holy Grail, taught we Americans an important lesson.

As long as you can quote a movie, you never need to really talk to another human being again. Now go away before I taunt you a second time.

Jeff Martin makes words go BOOM. He’s on the Internet and everything. Find his work at his own site, Better Geek Than Never. He has also smeared words on such websites as Brutal as Hell, The G.A.S.P. Factor and X and Sco Mark Out. He has also been published in Far Away Literary Magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @X_the_Unknown.

Trailer Of The Week - Week #3 - The Silent House and The Silent House

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

A tale of two trailers this week for Trailer Of The Week, as the marketing push for the US remake of Uruguayan film The Silent House starts to come into effect. Both trailers are presented below for a compare and contrast exercise and if you think that the second one comes out on top, then you're wrong. The house isn't as grubby and doesn't feel as claustrophobic, the lighting is way off and there's more screaming than Florencia Colucci made for the entire length of the original. It's meant to be a 'Silent' house. Shush. Given the original's problematic and slightly senseless ending and the fact that US remakes typically seek to explain everything even further any way, hopes are not particularly high.

Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

Film Intel's Final Word - Netflix UK, Burton Banality, Novak A Nutter?

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Netflix UK Launches With Streaming Only And The Inability To Look At Their Selection.

Story: The Guardian

Offering a streaming-only service for £5.99 a month with a one-month free trial is a great idea to try and capture some of the 'this streaming thing, is it any good?' crowd but you know what would have made it better? If the 'Browse Selection' tab had have actually displayed some results. It's either broken or restricted to users only which, although a viable marketing tactic, is a bit of a nuisance to those who just want a sneak peak.

Burton For Pinocchio, Banality And Boredom.

Story: Empire

This story did the rounds prior to this week but the sheer un-impressiveness of Tim Burton taking on a seemingly whimsical fairy tale (might it have an increased 'dark' edge, do we think?) is too overwhelming to ignore. This, people, is what you get for going to see Alice in your droves.

Kim Novak Cries 'Rape', Gets Attention She Was Seeking.

Story: HitFix and The Incredible Suit

My gut reaction to these sort of things is normally to follow the 'ignore the trolls' line but, fair enough, some of the articles covering Novak's hyperbole, ill-advised word selection and general slimy self-promotion have been excellent, particularly the pair linked to above.

Why Isn't This A Film? - Blood Meridian

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

What have we got here then?

Blood Meridian carries the ambiguous subtitle or the Evening Redness in the West and was Cormac McCarthy's fifth novel, first going in to print in 1985. Although it failed to generate much of a critical reaction at the time it has since been hailed as a classic of contemporary fiction, taking its place on several 'best of' lists and being hailed by many as McCarthy's masterpiece.

OK fine. What’s it about?

Blood Meridian is ostensibly a Western following your typical 'man with no name', known only as The Kid, on a journey around the US/Mexico borders during a time period defined specifically by the book as 1849-1850.

Interesting. Is there something more?

Although the book carries the nameless protagonist of a Western, the rest of the narrative seems almost to undermine (or perhaps accentuate) what that genre has come to mean in fiction and film. The violence is extreme, savage and shocking; never is it suggested that any of the characters deserve redemption or that the American protagonists are any better or more civilised than the Indians and Mexicans they come in to contact with. The Kid spends the majority of the novel in the company of a gang of murderous scalp hunters, whose actions are never anything but brutally violent.

Save me the trouble then – is it any good?

Although slow to start, Blood Meridian becomes compelling once The Kid joins up with The Glanton Gang, the historically accurate group of hunters mentioned above. Within this group, the protagonist begins a complicated relationship with both Glanton himself and the character who, arguably, at times, supersedes him as the group's leader, Judge Holden. Holden and Glanton are brutal - even in the context of this narrative - wholly without remorse, unreliable storytellers and unpredictable plot components, and they lend the narrative a much-needed air of innovation.

McCarthy's writing is, as ever, superb, although you'll need a dictionary and a lot of patience, his lack of speech marks and other grammatical conventions making Blood Meridian a difficult read, particularly at the start. Stick with it though and it becomes a bit of a monster: threatening, lurching and disturbingly unwholesome.

But…

Despite the wonderfully composed prose, McCarthy never gives you the impression that you are reading awards-bait, perhaps due to the brutality his words depict... apart from the final chapter or so. At this point Blood Meridian becomes a book which screams out for an award. Dialogue becomes infinitely flowery, scenes become ambiguous; its filmic equivalent would be the lazy use of a hazy montage. The last twenty pages or so are rather disappointing.

What are its chances of being made as a film?

At the start of 2010 a piece appeared on The Guardian website claiming that the arrival of further McCarthy adaptations (after The Road and No Country For Old Men) would not be too far down the line. It's easy to see why. On the whole, McCarthy adaptations have been received fairly well by both critics and public and his work does have a visceral vision that seems to translate well to film.

As far back as 2008 Ridley Scott was talking positively about his chances to bring the project to the screen. After that apparently floundered, the project passed to Todd Field, who struggled earnestly but was, again, unable to bring his vision into realisation. The latest indication, emerging very recently, is that James Franco will direct the project, having impressed producer Scott Rudin with a test shoot. Franco marks an interesting, and slightly left-field, choice for a brutal contemporary classic but the film perhaps needs something very original bringing to it, an element Franco could undoubtedly provide. The film has a tentative 2015 release date on IMDb.

But who'd star in it?

In his test shoot, Franco reportedly had Mark Pellegrino as The Judge, which seems like odd casting, given that The Judge is described as physically large and possessing the power to instill fear into one and all. Pellegrino just doesn't have that presence, although he may be able to fit the role of Glanton, something which he'll have to take up with Scott Glen who probably initially filled the role for Franco. Better choices for The Judge could include a beefed up Ralph Fiennes, a hairless Ray Winstone (The Judge is bald) or someone playing effectively against-type; think a Patrick Dempsey, assuming he was willing to lose the locks. The dream casting would have almost certainly have been an Apocalypse Now-era Marlon Brando.

The Kid provides a casting nightmare. The character needs to be young, confident, as brutal as the rest of the gang but slightly likable with it. He has common sense but is not clever and, at least on face value, appears one of the only characters not terrified by The Judge. Perhaps Daniel Radcliffe would like to continue his bid to escape from Harry Potter, assuming he can shed a touch of his nervous air. We Need To Talk About Kevin's Ezra Miller has already shown he can do quiet threat and menace, whilst Franco used his brother, Dave, for his shoot.

Will it be any good?

Recent McCarthy adaptations have only been good-to-excellent so far. There shouldn't be any sort of way this material breaks the cycle.

Anything else I should know about it?

The expertly read speech below gives a good flavour of what you can expect from Blood Meridian.

Why Isn't This A Film? is a regular Film Intel feature which takes a book (you know... one of those things with pages in, doesn't project on to a screen, makes small rustling noises), comic, video game or graphic novel and assesses its adaptation prospects. One day this feature will get something right and we will win something major and valuable. Possibly.

The Hangover Part II - Blu-ray Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'There's an intrinsic problem with the notorious 'difficult' scenes, assuming that you can look past them on a moral level. They're not funny.'

The Hangover Part II was dogged by a fair degree of controversy when it was released in UK cinemas back in May, so lets start with the scene or scenes likely to cause offence.

First up is a scene fairly close to the end where two characters played by actors of non-black origin decide to spend a number of moments calling each other 'niggers'. Next is a particularly odd scene during which director Todd Phillips decides it is a good idea to present the main characters to us as kids. Not kids doing normal kid type things you understand but as kids doing The Hangover type things; drinking, driving, drinking and driving, dancing with strippers and, more worryingly, snorting cocaine. Finally (although individual levels of offence may mean others experience higher levels of moral distaste) there is the obviously present scene with a 'lady boy' and the ensuing bought of mildly-conceived homophobia.

That some or all of the above will prove offensive to various people is a given but hardly surprising. The Hangover, especially this sequel, is a franchise designed to shock and provoke and Part II sticks to the tried and tested sequel plan, turning everything up to eleven and pushing the boundaries (of taste, decency and erm, scripting) further than before.

There's also an intrinsic problem with the above three scenes, assuming that you can look past them on a moral level. They're not funny. Kids doing adult things - sans any sort of scripted joke - in a hazy montage? Not funny. Characters using inappropriate language during an argument? Not funny. A crushingly obvious scene-long joke about a trans-gender individual? Not funny.

Where the first film had charm and genuine humour, mixed amongst its provocative air, this has very little. The script, like the first film, eliminates Doug (Justin Bartha) but never replaces him with a Heather Graham or Ken Jeong or Mike Tyson, losing much of the straight play that worked first time round. Instead, we get a more sinister version of Mr. Chow (still played by Jeong) who quickly outstays his welcome, a very poor Mason Lee, a pointless and humourless Nick Cassavetes and not a whole load more besides. Even if you can look past the moral impurities, this doesn't even come close to the original film.

Look further...

'Rarely do you find cinematography that looks this nice in a comedy film, but this is what big-budget comedy looks like and it looks fantastic' - Contains Scenes Of Mild Peril, 7/10

Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil - Online Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'a series of Unfortunate Events... less Lemony Snicket, more Michael Myers'

Eli Craig's Hick Comedy Horror has a couple of moments of laugh-out-loud fun and a number of moments of tight scripting but eventually staggers somewhat under the weight of its high concept. Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil's high concept seeks to disprove the constantly re-enforced Horror belief that backwood-dwelling Americans are all murderous savages, out for blood, suggesting, rather playfully, that they're really just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Said non-savages in this case are Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), a lonely pair of childhood friends, taking a trip to Tucker's 'holiday home' for renovations, beer drinking and a spot of fishing. Suddenly beset by a horde of partying college students - including innocent beau Ally (Katrina Bowden) and We Need To Talk About Kevin-alike Chad (Jesse Moss) - the friends find themselves blamed for a series of Unfortunate Events which are less Lemony Snicket and more Michael Myers. One, involving a wood chipper, serves as the film's single best sequence, a masterly combination of the grimly unfortunate, the bloodily icky and the darkly comic.

The problem for Craig's film comes from the fact that his concept limits the methods by which he can dispatch his victims. Once it has been established that Tucker is the epitome of 'wrong place, wrong time' and that Dale has all the common sense of a socially inept woodland animal, the college students are left to off themselves in a variety of vague variations on a theme, nearly all of which basically involve not heeding the sage-like advice to 'never run with scissors'.

There's some pleasant use of reverse imagery employed on a number of occasions (note who's 'on the couch' when the word 'psychiatrist' is first used) and the film proves a pleasant watch, mainly thanks to the warm connection between Tudyk and Labine, as well as the more-than-game support from Bowden and Moss. Ultimately though, this could have been much more fun than the level it settles for and the non-inventive kills in a sub-genre ripe for pastiche, parody and homage - as recognised by the film's very existence - are particularly disappointing.

Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil was available to watch on Lovefilm's Watch Online service.

Look further...

'Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil never runs out of steam. It briskly piles up a bounty of slasher movie clichés with delicious absurdity' - Film Babble Blog

Film Intel's 2011 Retrospective: Part 2 - The Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Possibly only of interest to those with severe OCD, these are the Film Intel film-watching stats for 2011. Look upon them in amazement. Or bewilderment. Or boredom.

Total films watched in 2011: 221

First film of the year: The King's Speech

Last film of the year: Paul

Film watched with the highest IMDb average rating: Inception (8.9)

Film watched with the lowest IMDb average rating: Age Of The Dragons (3.3)

Film watched with highest number of IMDb votes: Inception (472,558)

Film watched with lowest number of IMDb votes: Eliminate: Archie Cookson (not yet elligible) or Mitsuko Delivers (17)

Top three genres watched: Drama (105), Thriller (93), Action (64)

Bottom three genres watched: News (1), Sport (3), Musical (4)

Earliest produced film watched: The Great White Silence (1924)

Average rating given to films watched in 2011 (to 2dp): 6.06/10

Roll on being able to bore you stupid with this feature again in a year's time.

Page One: Inside The New York Times - DVD Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'from the ashes of print media, Page One concocts an argument for why we need The New York Times of this world'

The concept of Page One: Inside The New York Times is embodied by 'old-style' journalist David Carr's semi-quipped assertion that 'new-style' journalist Brian Stelter is 'a robot assembled in the basement of The New York Times to come and destroy me'. Old-style journalists, old-style media as a whole, Page One suggests, did not see the bloggers, the twitterers, the aggregators coming; they did not adapt and now they face extinction. They face extinction at the hands of the Brian Stelter's of the media world.

If that was all Page One had to say then it would be a pretty good documentary artifact, charting the often inglorious fall of print media at the hands of readily accessible, often free, alternatives. As it is, Page One is an exceptional documentary because, from the ashes of print media, it concocts an argument for why we need The New York Times of this world, and it does so largely without having to resort to romanticised clichés about tradition and 'good ol' fashioned journalism'.

Criticisms of Andrew Rossi's documentary could focus on the fact that no one news story is given any amount of focused time within the tight ninety-two minute runtime, or on the fact that it is perhaps twelve months too late to really hit the apex of print media's problems. The point missed here is that this is less a documentary about the action of journalism and more a documentary about journalism's evolving place in the modern world. The story isn't about the mechanics, the how, of The Times' partnership with Wikileaks, it is about the motivation, the whys, behind what drove The Times to take such a risk. Like a breaking news story, the emerging details are compelling, as are the arguments.

After all, as Carr suggests at one point, what are aggregators without news to aggregate? What are twitterers without news stories to link to? What is a story without a first hand source? A more accurate subtitle should perhaps have been In Defence Of Print Media. Agree or disagree with the stance, it's a superbly crafted argument that deserves front page coverage.

Look further...

'that the most inflamed anyone gets in this movie is when dealing with the navel-gazing of the media reporting on its own demise speaks to some of the problems traditional journalism is having in keeping an audience' - Not Just Movies, 3/5

Trailer Of The Week - Week #2 - ATM

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'Enjoy' this short tease for ATM, which looks remarkably by-the-book and not a decent choice at all for fairly hot, fairly young, upcoming things Alice Eve and Brian Geraghty. Stuck in a small structure by an antagonist with dubiously fleshed-out motives? Start worrying that this might be the start of a new Saw-alike franchise. Also: I don't know who Josh Peck is, which surely means the first victim/eventual reveal is a given.

Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

Laughing At People's Names Isn't Clever...

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

... as evidenced by the complete lack of laughing during this post. However, if you had to pick the name of the director of an action film then the name you would probably pick might well be Barry Battles. Also: incredible poster work.

Route Irish - Blu-ray Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'Loach has little to offer on foreign conflicts that hasn't already been offered, more eloquently, elsewhere'

Route Irish, a film obsessed with the idea that we haven't quite been told the whole truth, sees Ken Loach take his social realism and apply it to the United State's occupation of Iraq. The tale of Scouse working-class heroes Fergus (Mark Womack) and Frankie (John Bishop) is steeped in the usual Loach-lore of honest do-gooders, trodden on by a system that seems to operate on its own, broken, rules.

The problem with this is that whilst it has something to say when looking at, perhaps, broken English families or the effects of economic depression, Loach has little to offer on foreign conflicts that hasn't already been offered, more eloquently, elsewhere. The analysis of the Iraq conflict, which must now be reaching saturation point, means that Loach's supposition that Very Bad Things are happening out there, hidden from the public, is long past the point of supposition and has instead rather reached the point of fact.

Accepting then that Route Irish is a mute point thematically, this only leaves some flaky acting and a sub-espionage plot which reveals its conclusion far too early. Both Bishop and Womack seem like they could be accomplished actors but for some reason, they choose to deliver every other line (every line in some cases) with spittle-spouting vigour. Even relatively innocuous moments are shouted at the audience in a hail of swearing and non-concern for elements of subtlety or depth.

In conjunction, the faltering elements of Paul Laverty's script make it not just a film with an already explained message but a film that shouts the message, rather unpleasantly, at anyone in a two mile radius. Not Loach's finest work.

Look further...

'an often troubling, occasionally thrilling and always tragic low-key drama' - Movie Reviews by Tom Clift

Hereafter - Blu-ray Review

noreply@blogger.com (Film Intel) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

'is Damon truly the star when, after nearly thirty minutes, we've only spent a single scene in his company?'

Hereafter's massively baggy runtime of one-hundred and twenty-nine minutes goes some way to speaking for its core problem: Peter Morgan's script is actually three films rolled in to one.

As a starting point there's Matt Damon as retired psychic George Lonegan, struggling to connect with the real world and form proper bonds with those around him. But is Damon truly the star when, after nearly thirty minutes, we've only spent a single scene in his company? Arguably that honour falls to Cécile De France, as a TV host who experiences visions after her brush with death in the film's masterful opening scene and sets out to combat the prejudice associated with being a 'believer'. That's not all though. In twins George and Frankie McLaren, director Clint Eastwood explores the 'hereafter' through a third lens, muddying the waters still further.

Any one of the above plot strands could easily justify a ninety-minute film in its own right and the hints that there wasn't ample time to develop each one properly are everywhere. Lonegan, for example, starts up a sweet-looking relationship with cooking partner Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard, lovely and sadly rather wasted) and is pressured by his brother (Jay Mohr) to return to selling his psychic readings full time. Both of these subplots just end. Suddenly and without much warning the characters involved in them disappear from the film. If the entirety of Hereafter was devoted to Damon's character there would be a much more satisfying arc to invest in.

First to be evicted from the recut film would undoubtedly be the McLaren twins who, with the best will in the world towards two so young, simply aren't good enough. Their line delivery is flat and characterless and in scenes that lack dialogue their faces tell you little. As a result of both this and the similar character disappearances during their story, it is near-impossible to invest in them on any level and their arc should have been lost at the editing stage.

Technically too Eastwood's film feels weak. The lighting in several scenes is woeful (anything in Lonegan's apartment) and his direction fails to avoid several psycho-babble cliches (note the 'two-hands-on-one-object-for-slightly-too-long' in the above still). The blu-ray transfer is also a let down.

All of which is a crying shame given that occasionally, just occasionally, there are flashes of what everyone involved can accomplish. Lonegan's reading of two characters (and their subsequent reactions) are particularly strong, sealing the travesty that Damon wasn't allowed to feature more in a film too concerned with too many other things.

Look further...

'These three stories are all 'connected' by one thing: a fascination with the afterlife. But the problem is, other than that, these stories have as much in common as a bean, rabbit and book shelf' - Cinematic Paradox