Mr Brooks (18)

Posted by Andy Kelly on March 25, 2008 11:48 PM

EARL Brooks is Portland’s man of the year, a successful businessman with a beautiful wife and a daughter. He’s also an addict – to killing. It’s his ultimate turn-on and he’s very good at it.

In the lead role, Kevin Costner battles with an alter ego, always pushing him on to the next “fix� while he stifles his urges at AA meetings.

His secret is in danger of being exposed when a double killing is witnessed by a neighbour.

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YEAR OF THE DOG

Posted by Andy Kelly on March 25, 2008 11:44 PM

THIS is a charming little tale of a woman who finds relationships with her dogs much easier and more rewarding than anything she really has with people.

Peggy’s life is thrown into turmoil when her latest dog, Pencil, is accidentally killed and she is offered the chance to adopt a troubled Alsatian.

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The Counterfeiters (15)

Posted by Andy Kelly on March 25, 2008 11:37 PM

THIS intriguing film looks at one of the less well known stories of World War II, the attempt by the Nazis to counterfeit huge amounts of pounds and dollars to bring Allied economies to their knees.

Our central character is Saloman “Sally� Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics), a crack Jewish forger operating in Berlin in the mid-1930s.

Eventually caught, he is sent to prison where his survival instincts find him earning extra privileges by painting portraits of the guards.

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PLANET TERROR (18)

Posted by Andy Kelly on March 5, 2008 8:29 AM

AFTER Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof comes the second part of the Grindhouse project, with Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror.

The two directors’ homage to 70s slasher and Xploitation movies were originally intended for release as a double feature but the idea failed to grip audiences in America, and the films were turned into single features.

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THE SERPENT (15)

Posted by Andy Kelly on March 5, 2008 7:38 AM

REVENGE is everywhere in this slick French thriller, which starts relatively conventionally but delivers some real tension by its conclusion.

Vincent Mandel is going through a divorce and fighting for custody of his kids. An old friend, Joseph Plender, comes back into his life, offering friendship but actually determined to correct a wrong committed years before.

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THE HOAX

Posted by Andy Kelly on February 23, 2008 11:28 PM

BASED on a true story, Richard Gere is Clifford Irving, an American author living on past glories who is desperate for another hit. After his latest book is rejected, he embarks on an ingenious plan to pull off the century’s biggest literary con trick.

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EVENING

Posted by Andy Kelly on February 23, 2008 11:26 PM

AS FEMALE casts go, you don’t get much better than this. Claire Danes, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson and Toni Collette – beat that lot if you can. Evening sees a dying woman, Ann Lord (Redgrave) look back on her life, particularly at a weekend when she attended the wedding of her best friend, rich American socialite Lila.

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ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (12)

Posted by me on February 23, 2008 11:22 PM

PERIOD drama is my one weakness, as Dorcas might say in Lark Rise to Candleford, so this sequel to Elizabeth I was already preaching to the converted.

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ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (PG)

Posted by me on February 23, 2008 11:18 PM

SET in Milan and originally released in 1960, director Luchino Visconti’s “Rocco� is often cited as an influence on The Godfather and Raging Bull.

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A Mighty Heart (15)

Posted by Andy Kelly on February 3, 2008 11:00 PM

THERE’S a problem when you look like Angelina Jolie, that body, that mouth, that partner. People can forget you’re a damn fine actress who has taken a few chances in your career and deserves some credit for it.

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Atonement (15)

Posted by Andy Kelly on February 3, 2008 10:53 PM

IF YOU missed this at the cinema, you’ve already rather missed out because it really does look spectacular on the big screen. Thank god for widescreen then.

James McAvoy and Keira Knightley play a pair of young lovers in 1930s Britain separated by class and upbringing who are ripped asunder by false accusations made against him. After his release from prison, they are briefly reunited before he is called to war in the killing fields of France.

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Death Proof (18)

Posted by Andy Kelly on January 13, 2008 11:55 PM

ALONG with a couple of hundred others, I was lucky enough to first see Tarantino’s latest opus in the presence of the great man himself, courtesy of his well-received visit to Fact last year.

I really enjoyed it then, and I still really enjoy it now. The problem for Tarantino is expectation levels.

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Sherrybaby (15)

Posted by Andy Kelly on January 13, 2008 11:52 PM

IT’S impossible to start talking about this film without going straight to Maggie Gyllenhaal in the lead role – she’s simply mesmerising.

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Shoot 'Em Up (Cert 18)

Posted by Andy Kelly on January 13, 2008 11:50 PM

HIT-MAN Mr Smith (Clive Owen) is forced to save a pregnant stranger from villainous Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and his pistol-wielding henchmen.

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Death Sentence (Cert 18)

Posted by Andy Kelly on January 13, 2008 11:47 PM

INSURANCE executive Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) and his family – wife Helen (Kelly Preston) and teenage sons Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) and Lucas (Jordan Garrett) – are the picture of middle-class, suburban perfection.

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SLACKER

Posted by me on December 16, 2007 9:25 PM

ALONG with Douglas Coupland’s Generation X novel, director Richard Linklater’s movie was most responsible for defining the era of the early ’90s, when “slacker� became not so much a criticism as a lifestyle choice, driven on a soundtrack of grunge or shoegazing.

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High School Musical 2 (Extended Edition) (U)

Posted by me on November 30, 2007 9:09 PM

WHEN High School Musical, a fairy-tale inspired by Romeo & Juliet, premiered on the Disney Channel in early 2006, few could have predicted the beginnings of a global phenomenon. Teenage girls now swoon at the mention of Zac Efron, the soundtrack has gone multi-platinum, and various DVDs have propelled the brand to the top of the charts.

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The Seventh Seal 50th Anniversary Digitally Remastered Edition)(PG)

Posted by me on November 30, 2007 9:07 PM

WINNER of the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for the coveted Palme d’Or, Ingmar Bergman’s classic fantasy stars Max Von Sydow as knight Antonius Block, who returns from the Crusades with his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjoernstrand), and comes face-to-face with Death (Bengt Ekerot). Surrounded by horrific reminders of the plague and memories of fallen comrades, the knight agrees to play a game of chess against Death: the prize – his soul.
Rating: 5/5
Extras: 2/5

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Away from Her

Posted by Andy Kelly on September 14, 2007 9:48 AM

FEW movies – if they want to make any money, anyway – would wish to choose the onset of Alzheimer’s disease as a topic. But this beautifully acted piece proves not only very watchable but also gives considerable food for thought.

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The Great Bookie Robbery (15)

Posted by Andy Kelly on August 3, 2007 12:15 PM

THEY’RE not big and they’re not clever, but bank robberies just make for great drama.

The balaclavas, the shooters, the money, the escape, you can’t help get gripped on such stuff if it’s done well and it certainly is here.

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Sleeping Dogs (18)

Posted by Andy Kelly on August 3, 2007 8:32 AM

GOT any skeletons in your cupboard? I’d imagine most of us at one time or another have done something that we’re not exactly proud of.

The question here is whether you should reveal that previous indiscretion to the new love of your life in the interests of honesty?

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The Fruit Machine

Posted by Andy Kelly on August 1, 2007 3:23 PM

REGARDED as one of the best gay movies ever made, this is the story of Eddie and Michael, two 16-year-old boys in 1980s Liverpool, each battling their own demons.

Eddie has to deal with his disapproving father (Brookside’s Louis Emerick) who thinks he should be “more like a man� but is indulged by his mother, who watches old movies all day convinced she too could have been a star.

Michael is far more street wise, determined to do what he can to make life OK for him and Eddie, even if it involves selling his body on the streets.

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