Film Review: London Boulevard (18)

THE PLOT

Colin Farrell is Mitchell, a newly released Pentonville con who falls for Keira Knightley’s reclusive cinema starlet, Charlotte (say that fast 3 times!). Mitchell is determined never to end up back behind bars and resists the encouragement of friends and foes to get back in to the old life.

THE REVIEW
You could easily consider this to be just another attempt at a gritty London gangster flick. And you wouldn’t be far off the mark as there is little groundbreaking here. Ray Winstone is Gant, reprising what is seemingly his ‘usual role’ of local crime boss and hard man. Together with his sideshow goons, this is gangster-by-numbers stuff. Even Mitchell’s moronic chum Billy (Ben Chaplin) is the type of wide-boy geezer you hope gets knocked off early just for being a twat. So far, not a resounding endorsement!

David Thewlis’ Jordan, an at times addled benefactor-cum-guardian to Charlotte, is perfectly played and carries some of the best lines of the script. ‘I was on a kids' show; then I was on methadone…’ captures the humour in this character well, however this doesn’t carry throughout the rest of the script and perhaps it is here the film loses something. Charlotte, Jordan and Mitchell are fuller, better developed characters, but the remaining roles are left to the realms of comic book dialogue, and even this trio aren’t enough to save this film from enjoyable mediocrity.

Farrell is the lynchpin of this film, portraying a character, and turning out a performance, reminiscent of his 2008 role as Ray in the superb In Bruges. But I suspect this good performance is down to Farrell rather than the script, and that is a surprising disappointment considering that Oscar winner William Monahan (The Departed) is the man behind it. Perhaps Monahan has taken on too much as both writer and first time director that forms the main reason behind delivering this relatively lacklustre flick. Were it not for Farrell’s troubled lead and good support from Knightley and Thewlis, this film would have had me wanting a refund, but instead left me ‘almost’ happily entertained.

This film could have benefited from more of the Charlotte and Mitchell storyline and less on the London underbelly, but then that might fly too close to The Bodyguard (1992) script and that wouldn’t be good for anyone! On the up side, the cool 60’s soundtrack would at least raise it above its saccharine sweet Whitney Houston counterpart.

THE VERDICT
Colin Farrell leads well but is let down by an average script and archetypal characterisations. Entertaining, but nothing special or new.
TC

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UK Release Date: 26 November 2010

Film Review: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Pt I (12A)

Prelude to a Storm

THE PLOT
Following Dumbledore’s death and Voldemort’s continuing rise, Harry must go on the run to avoid the Dark Lord’s Death Eaters. Accompanied by Ron and Hermione, Harry also sets about untangling the mysteries of the remaining Horcruxes in order to destroy Voldemort once and for all. During their investigations they realized another mystery that requires solving; that of the Deathly Hallows. What are the Deathly Hallows? How do they relate to their quest? And what is Voldemort looking for?

THE REVIEW
For the those whom have been following this series over the last decade this latest outing kicks into gear from the outset, with members of The Order of the Phoenix getting Harry out of the muggle world to more protected realms. The pace of this exciting opening scene belies what is otherwise a slow and deliberate film that concentrates more on our three young leads. In fact, never before in this series has a whole film more or less hung solely on acting ability over CGI and visual effects. That’s not to say that the thesping to date has been poor, but this film focuses on character and plot rather than action and adventure, and carries it off well.

Even more than the earlier Order Of The Phoenix, this film is an intermediary, more so being that it covers roughly half of the 600 page source novel, leaving the audience hanging by the end, waiting for the inevitable showdown and series climax. By the time the credits roll you feel robbed, that after more than 2 hours the end seems palpable but remains elusive. I for one could have happily endured another 2 hours just to reach the long anticipated ending.

Deathly Hallows Pt1 is an enjoyable film with strong characterisation and performances that are familiar but not mundane. With the emphasis squarely on Potter, Weasley and Granger all other characters seemed sidelined as the trio strive to keep off the radar. Rhys Ifans and Nick Moran make appearances for the first time as Xenophilius Lovegood and Scabior respectively, adding to the virtual who’s who of British acting.

A special mention should be made of Ben Hibon's beautifully crafted animation during Hermione's reading of The Tale Of The Three Brothers, the children's fable and the origin story of the Deathly Hallows. This is a very memorable scene and worth watching for this alone.

This is not the best film of the series to date, but, as attested by seemingly all other film reviewers, it is the darkest and most bleak, where tempers flare and lives are lost.

THE VERDICT
Bleak and intense, Deathly Hallows Pt1 sets the scene for the final hurrah due in the summer of 2011. A good watch, but the storyline prohibits this film from being great. This is not a criticism particularly; as it’s only part of a story, but when the credits roll you can’t help but feel a little disappointed and wish the summer was here already for more than just the weather!

TC

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UK Release Date: 19 November 2010

AWARDS
BAFTA Nominee - Special Visual Effects: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Aithadi, Christian Manz
BAFTA Nominee - Make Up and Hair: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1: Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin

Academy Award Nominee - Art Direction: Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
Academy Award Nominee - Visual Effects: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi

Film Review: Skyline (15)

A small budget stretched to great effects

THE PLOT

Strange blue lights descend from the early morning sky over Los Angeles drawing curious people outside like mystical sirens. Hundreds of thousands of onlookers are sucked up into the air to the waiting space ships whilst we follow the panic and desperation of a small group struggling to stay alive.

Eventually a defence is mounted but can the invaders be pushed back before no one is left to save?

THE REVIEW
Essentially this film is Independence Day meets Cloverfield. No bad thing you might say, but this film lacks the star power and humour of Independence Day nor does it deliver the tension of Cloverfield.

The biggest failing of this film however, was in the characterisation of our survivors. There was no strong character to hang this picture on and therefore no one to care about. The script makes only the slightest attempt to establish the characters before the action trickles in.

This isn’t helped by the casting of B Grade actors (24’s Eric Balfour, Scrubs Donald Faison and Dawson’s Creek’s Brittany Daniel) that lack the charisma or acting chops to bring their characters to life, in spite of mediocre dialogue. This was part of the success of Independence Day in that it took standard Hollywood fodder and threw actors and comedians into it, giving viewers more grounding and evoking a sense of fun.

Whilst fun was probably not the goal of Skyline, it was clearly supposed to be gripping, but without anybody worth caring about you find yourself waiting for the next explosion or gruesome encounter. Surely part of the essence of ‘gripping’ is that you either don’t know what will happen next or sometimes you may not even want to find out; Skyline falls well short of the mark on this. You find yourself knowing pretty much what’s comings next and you wish it would happen faster! Hardly gripping.

The best moments of this film are in the creature encounters, which might be expected from a Sci Fi flick, but these were too few and far between for most of the movie. Skyline attempts to create the same sense of unknowing tension engendered by Cloverfield, but broadly fails. Perhaps this is due to the manner of the hand-held camera work in JJ Abrams superior 2008 feature. Of course it was this same camera work that sometimes made for a difficult watch, but had that approach been taken here this film might have felt more edgy.

The effects in Skyline were perhaps the best feature of this film, no real surprise coming from Hydralux, the outfit behind the stunning effects of Avatar. However, even here, and as good as they are, the big effects of a small budget are nothing new to cinema, especially when compared to box office hit District 9, which at least managed to develop a great central character as well.

The only moment I experienced something close to panic was in the closing scene as I realised the producers were leaving things open for a sequel!

THE VERDICT
A poor man’s Independence Day. Not an awful film but equally, not particularly good. If you’re already paying for movies on satellite or cable wait ‘til it lands there, otherwise you might feel like and bit of a mug.
TC

NOW SEE THE TRAILER... BUT GO NO FURTHER!


UK Release Date: 12 November 2010