Based on Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ novel, The Feather Men, and not the 1975 film of the same name, Killer Elite enters a crowded market of spy flicks and secret ops that are covertly beating each other up in cinemas around the world. Fiennes’ book caused a stir when it was released in the early 1990s, as it was purportedly based on “real life” examples of a secret squad of British SAS assassins. In the wake of a decade of post-9/11 spy dramas and thrillers, this Australian co-production goes back to the heyday of the 1980s, where the good guys were good, and the bad guys had beards.

It’s 1980, and mercenary Danny Bryce (Jason Statham) is ready to leave the killing business after a job goes wrong in Mexico. Returning to Australia with his girlfriend, Danny is summoned to Oman a year later when his colleague Hunter (Robert De Niro) has been held captive. Mission facilitator Agent (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) lets him know Hunter accepted a $6 million job and couldn’t finish it, and now he is being held captive by Sheikh Amr, who wants the three SAS agents who killed his eldest sons terminated. In order to save Hunter, Danny has to get back in the game and not only convince all three agents to confess, but to make their deaths look like accidents. Plus, he must also contend with Logan (Clive Owen), the head enforcer of the Feathermen, a society that protects their own agents.

Academy Award nominated short film director Gary McKendry makes his feature debut with Killer Elite, and he has done so by throwing most of his kitchen utensils at the task. Shot almost entirely in Australia, this is an awkward fit, presumably only done to appease the local financing gods. Yet with a few trips to the UK and Morocco, McKendry attempts to give the film a bit of a globetrotting flavour in the style of the Bourne films. However, the slate-grey and über-serious way the film treats the material sucks any of the potential fun out of the mash-up of these three distinct superstars in their own right. Killer Elite is a very no frills affair, and even with explosions, car chases and gunplay galore, none of it is done with a sense of entertainment, or seemingly with a sense of purpose.

Killer Elite lurches from one scene to the next, as if carrying the weight of the action tropes it know that it must live up to. You can almost see the action movie checklist hovering over the side of the screen during this overlong movie. The usually reliable Statham takes no pleasure in the methodically presented bone-crunching action, and Owen seems to have phoned in much of his performance. Supporting cast members Dominic Purcell and the great Lachy Hulme provide a bit of liveliness in quiet moments, but only De Niro, who holds the smallest amount of screen time of all the players, truly impresses with one of his more solid performances in recent years.

Matt Sherring‘s script hints at the possibility of a sequel, although he and director McKendry will next be seen working together on Joseph and the Girl, a remake of the French film Joseph et la Fille. If that sequel does come along, Killer Elite has all of the basic building blocks to make a solid action film, it just needs to tighten them all up to truly live up to its title.

Killer Elite was released in Australia on 23 February 2012 from Disney.

The two photos show Uhura (Zoe Saldana) battling Benedict Cumberbatch, and Spock (Zachary Quinto) going Vulcan on the same. This more or less confirms the rumours that Cumberbatch was going to play the villain in the film. Either that, or he is just really disliked by the rest of the cast and these are candid shots.

Very few details have been released about the notorious secretive Abrams’ follow-up to his first hit, but Roberto Orci and co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof are the writers behind the film.

The sequel, as you can tell from the photos, has begun shooting and is set for a 3D and 3D IMAX release in 17 May 2013 from Paramount.

From Academy Award®–winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes “John Carter”—a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). “John Carter” is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.

John Carter is due in cinemas on 8 March 2012 in Australia and 9 March 2012 in the US from Disney.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

Director: Stephen Frears

Writers(s): Hanif Kureishi

Runtime: 97 minutes

Starring: Gordon Warnecke, Daniel Day-Lewis, Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth

Distributor: Mainline Pictures

Country: UK

Rating: Better Than Average Bear (?)

More 80s Bits

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons) is a queer cult classic that once seen will never be forgotten. Based around the Indian community in London the film exploits issues of England in the mid 80s including minority groups, class and race segregation, drugs, poverty and crime.

The story follows Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a dutiful son to father Hussein (Roshan Seth, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) who arranges a job with his uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey) a successful business man. “Try and fix him up with a nice girl, I’m not sure his penis is in working order”. With a burst of ambition an almost mute Omar finds his confidence and blindly strides forward with his laundrette venture assisted with the money (and drugs) of his extended families corrupt side dabbling.

Omar is joined by business partner and love interest Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York, The Last of the Mohicans) who coming from the slums of London decides to make an honest living. Together they build a glamorous laundry palace like no other with luminescent signs, cassette decks, pin ball machines, scenic murals and comfort for all.

Omar idolises Johnny and confidently includes him in all his endeavours without hesitation. There is a power shift and role reversal between the two with Omor becoming Johnny’s “boss”. “I want big money; I’m not going to be beaten down by this country. When we were at school you and your friends kicked me all around the place, and what are you doing now, washing my floors and that’s how I like it. Now get to work…or else you’re fired.”

Sexuality is subtly addressed as an issue throughout the film. During Omar and Johnny’s love scene his Uncle and mistress Rachel (Shirley Anne Field) are seen dancing simultaneously though the mirrored window of the Laundrette. Nasser and Rachel walk in on the lovers who were “Asleep, Uncle. We were shagged out.” At the request of his Uncle, Omar is asked to marry Cousin Tania (Rita Wolf). Tania, initially satisfied with being provided for, soon realises her fate and “would rather drink my own urine”.

The segregation of race, politics, the power of money and relationship dynamics are themes throughout. This is reflected in Johnny’s obedience to Omar and his needs at the expense of his own socialist values. The status of “Pakis” in the British community is portrayed as being overshadowed by the opportunities to make money. This negates any thoughts for the Ali family returning to their home country. Johnny is accepted into the Asian community and as a result is forced to choose between his new shady connections and his socialist homeless drifter past ending in violence.

Perseus embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, who has been targeted for capture by his traitorous son, Ares, and his brother, Hades.

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman, the film stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Rosamund Pike.

Wrath of the Titans will be released in Australian on 29 March 2012 from Roadshow Films.

Please Do Not Disturb (2010, Mohsen Abdolvahab, Iran)

Mohsen Abdolvahab
’s anthology film is one of the highlights of the festival, showing the increasingly modern city of Tehran from the perspective of a battered wife, a mullah, and an elderly couple. The first story sees the abused wife of a TV host finally snap and make a report to the police, revealing a system that makes in increasingly difficult for women to actually report. In the second story, a beleaguered mullah tries to counsel couples while dealing with a thief who has taken the contents of his bag, in frustratingly hilarious consequences. The final story is perhaps the most heartbreaking, as an elderly couple talk in loops with a TV repairman they refuse to let in. The documentary filmmaker’s first fictional feature is compelling, often funny and always fascinating, with this holistic view of Iran’s conflict of ideals explored in a way that even the terrific A Separation (below) has to tip its hat to.

Please Do Not Disturb is screened Friday 24th of February at 6:30.

Rainy Seasons (2009, Majid Barzegar, Iran)

Majid Barzegar often layered look at social interactions in Iran is shot in the familiar intimacy of hand-held cameras, but this belies an often complex series of relationships that sit underneath the surface. The ostensibly familiar narrative, in which an Iranian teenage boy becomes trapped in the middle of his parents’ divorce as well as his own problems, becomes a disarmingly intimate one when he can only confide in a female student looking for a roof over her head. Barzegar reportedly spent two months rehearsing with his actors, and the ease at which they relate to each other is evident on screen. While some of the other films aim to look at the problems unique to Iran, viewers will undoubtedly see parallels with the youth in their own country in this snapshot of an Iranian generation.

Rainy Seasons  is screened Saturday 25th of February at 4:00

Ashkan, The Charmed Ring and Other Stories (2009, Shahram Mokri, Iran)

Another film that explores the interconnecting lives of five quirky characters. We meet a cop who is unhappily in love with a cashier, a sculptor who dreams of emigrating, a young man who constantly is constantly trying to kill himself, and, in the middle of it all, two blind jewellery thieves, who are about to make the heist of their lives. This is one of those movies that demands your attention, and that’s partly because it is as twisty as a snake in the sand. While the film can sometimes be too clever for its own good, Shahram Mokri – who released a short film last year called Raw, Cooked, Burned – has marked himself as one to watch in the future.

Ashkan, The Charmed Ring and Other Stories  is screening Saturday 25th of February at 6:30.

Opium War (2008, Seddiq Barmak, Afghanistan)

Afghanistan’s official submission to the 2009 Foreign Feature Academy Awards, as well as the  winner of The Golden Marc’Aurelio Critics’ award for Best Film at Rome International Film Festival, follows two American soldiers who are stranded after their helicopter crashes in enemy territory in Afghanistan. When they encounter a group of opium farmers who grow the crop to survive, the film offers an interesting outsiders perspective on the rough end of an industry that makes barons around the world incredibly rich.

Opium War screens on Saturday 25th of February at 8:45.

A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi, Iran)

Few Iranian films have gained as much attention as A Separation. From the opening scenes of Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, in which a faceless bureaucrat categorically tells troubled couple Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moaadi) why they will not be granted a divorce, it is clear that the filmmaker has a thing or two to say about the Iranian justice system. When the pair separate, because Nader is unwilling to follow his wife out of Iran due to his Alzheimer’s stricken father, a carer is brought in for the old man while the family is at work. Hiring the devout Razieh (Sareh Bayat) proves disastrous, when Nader returns home to find his father tied to a bed near death and the resulting scuffle results in a murder charge for Nader when the pregnant Razieh and her hot-tempered husband claim he caused Razieh’s miscarriage. An often frustratingly circular plot only serves to highlight the frustratingly baffling legal “system” in Iran, very much indebted to the Koran. While it sometimes feels like a legal procedural (we doubt Law & Order: Iranian Investigations Unit is on its way), and is a little on the lengthy side, this is another indictment of a “justice system” that barely lives up to either of those words.

A Separation is the closing night film of the Persian International Film Festival. It will be released in Australian cinemas on 1 March 2012 from Hopscotch.

In 1989, emergency responders received a 9-1-1 call from Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) confessing that she had brutally killed three people. 20 years later, her daughter Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) seeks to understand the truth about what happened that night. She travels to the Centrino Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Italy where her mother has been locked away to determine if her mother is mentally ill or demonically possessed. When she recruits two young exorcists (Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth) to cure her mom using unconventional methods combining both science and religion, they come face-to-face with pure evil in the form of four powerful demons possessing Maria.

The Devil Inside is released in Australian on 1 March 2012 from Paramount.

Exorcism School

Connect the Cuts

Hospital

Caius Martius Coriolanus, a revered and feared Roman General, is at odds with the city of Rome and his fellow citizens. Pushed by his controlling and ambitious mother to seek the exalted and powerful position of Consul, he is loath to ingratiate himself with the masses whose votes he needs in order to secure the office. When the public refuse to support him, Coriolanus’s anger prompts a riot which culminates in his expulsion from Rome. The banished hero then allies himself with his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius to take his revenge on the city.

Making his directorial debut, acclaimed actor Ralph Fiennes has taken Shakespeare’s brutal play and reconfigured it as a study of modern warfare – machines guns replace swords, flack jackets replace armour, but the essence of The Bard’s play remains in this stunning production lead by the extraordinary cast of Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, James Nesbitt and Fiennes himself in the title role.

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Have you ever imagined a place where Vulcans and vampires get along? Where wizards and wookies can be themselves? Welcome to Comic-Con San Diego. What started as a fringe comic book convention for 500 fans has grown into the pop culture event of the year that influences every form of entertainment, now attended by over 140,000 strong. Comic-Con in Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope - a film by Morgan Spurlock explores this amazing cultural phenomenon by following the lives of five attendees as they descend upon the ultimate geek mecca at San Diego Comic-Con 2010.

Comic-Con in Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope is released on 6 April 2012 in the US from Wrekin Hill Entertainment. It does not currently have an Australian release date.

Click image to enlarge

A grand adventure full of heart, memorable characters and signature Pixar humour, Brave uncovers a new tale in the mysterious Highlands of Scotland where the headstrong Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) defies an age-old custom and inadvertently unleashes chaos, forcing her to discover the meaning of true bravery before it’s too late.

Brave will be released in Australia on 21 June 2012 and 22 June 2012 in the US from Disney.