Changeling

Year: 2008
Running time: 141 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: J. Michael Straczynski
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Gattlin Griffith, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner

Christine tries desperately to get the help she needs.

Changeling seemed like a pretty big deal when it was released in 2008. As a director, Clint Eastwood can range from competent-yet-uninspiring (American Sniper, Sully), to astonishing (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) and Changeling appeared to be an example of the latter, but in the decade and change since, it isn't usually remembered as one of his best. There was a buzz about it and it got a decent critical reception (Empire has been known to give away its five-star 'Unmissable' rating a little too easily sometimes, and while not quite an Attack of the Clones five-star misstep, the review of Changeling did overrate it a tad).

Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie, shining brighter than everyone, as usual) is a single mother in 1928 L.A. She comes home from work one day to find her 9 year-old son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) missing. She goes to the police for help, and the search begins. After five months, the LAPD claim Walter has been found, and mother and son are reunited publicly, the police taking every opportunity they can for some positive publicity. The only problem is, Christine can see, clearly, that the boy they've brought to her isn't her son. Eager to maintain the positive boost to their reputation, the LAPD flat-out shut her down, telling her that it definitely is her son.

Christine has her nagging doubts and worst fears confirmed.

Nowhere to turn to, Christine finds her way to Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malcovich), a preacher well aware of the corruption running through the core of the police department. He takes up Christine's cause as his own, and standing up to the authorities when they commit her to a mental asylum to get her out of the way.

Part of the film also follows a discovery at a dilapidated farmstead, where a horrific tale offers a clue to the true whereabouts of Walter.

The film takes in several genres, moving smoothly from a missing persons drama, to noir, through horror to a courtroom drama. The characters are generally quite one-dimensional, so I think this changing of genre makes little difference to them; perhaps if there was more complexity to them, it would be more jarring. It's a competently told story, based on true events, and Jolie is magnificent, but the no-frills, somewhat pedestrian film-making makes it much less memorable than it might have been.

Score: 6/10

Reviews out there certainly covered a number of varied opinions; not only was there the 5-star Empire review, but there is also this review from Dana at Slate, who was about as impressed as I was, and this one from Christopher at The New Republic, and he declared it the worst film of the year, which I though was a bit over the top.

Cars

Year: 2006 (Cars), 2011 (Cars 2), 2017 (Cars 3)
Running time: 117 minutes (Cars), 106 minutes (Cars 2), 102 minutes (Cars 3)
Certificate: PG (Cars), U (Cars 2, Cars 3)
Language: English
Screenplay: Dan Fogelman, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, Jorgen Klubien (Cars), Ben Queen (Cars 2), Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson, Mike Rich (Cars 3)
Directors: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft (Cars), John Lasseter, Bradford Lewis (Cars 2), Brian Fee (Cars 3)
Starring (voices): Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Jenifer Lewis, Paul Dooley, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger, Michael Keaton, Richard Petty, Jeremy Piven, Bob Costas, Darrell Waltrip, Tom Magliozzi, Ray Magliozzi, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Tuturro, Cristela Alonzo, Chris Cooper, Nathan Fillion, Armie Hammer

McQueen finds the mentor he never knew he needed.

The Cars franchise has always been lesser Pixar. I mean, it's still imaginative brilliance, but it's never reached the highs of most of the studio's other output. It's always been a little strange to me, then, that the first movie spawned two sequels. It was a bit of a passion project for Pixar head honcho John Lasseter, and so I suppose that could be a reason. I'm determined to not let Lasseter being tarred by the 'me too' brush ruin my enjoyment of it too much, because, as I mentioned in the Rain Man review, a film is made by more than one person, and there is a hell of a lot of great people at Pixar, and many of them worked on the Cars franchise.

Set in a human-less world populated instead with sentient cars, it is certainly an unusual concept. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is a rookie race car looking to win the Piston Cup. His two rivals are honourable old champion with the big sponsorship deal McQueen is hoping to win The King (Richard Petty) and a car bitter from a lifetime spent in second place in The King's shadow and willing to play dirty to win, Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton). McQueen is clearly talented, but when we first meet him he is obnoxious with it. Betting he can win the final race and bag the Piston Cup without changing his tyres, a blowout on the final lap sees him just scraping a three-way tie with The King and Chick. The stage is set for a deciding race between the three of them.

Chick Hicks: A dangerous opponent.

Having not yet learned his lesson, McQueen pushes those around him away and Mack, the truck that hauls him around everywhere (voiced by Pixar lucky charm John Ratzenberger) to the point of exhaustion. A mishap in the middle of the night leaves McQueen stranded in the middle of nowhere and in his panic he crashes into a sleepy backwater known as Radiator Springs, wrecking the road as he does so.

And this is where Cars finds its heart. Radiator Springs is populated with a cracking set of characters, where McQueen immediately gets on the wrong side of the cantankerous old Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who sets him the task of resurfacing the road he damaged in lieu of jailtime. Out of the cast of oddballs, there are two that stand out most significantly in addition to Doc; Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), a Porsche running the local motel and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), a rusty tow truck who takes a shine to McQueen early on and before long becomes his best friend.

Mater gets to know McQueen's new rival.

During his time in Radiator Springs, McQueen finds an opportunity to appreciate the slower things in life, and as he changes his outlook he wins the townspeoplecars over and begins to feel at home. This film and its makers have an obvious love for cars and the times when driving across a country was done for the ride, not just to get to somewhere else as quickly as possible, and it's made with such affection, that you can’t help wishing for those times too, although, like McQueen, I've never actually witnessed such a time.

The heart of the story may be in Radiator Springs, but the standout set pieces are the races themselves; incredible looking and thrilling - everything Days of Thunder was supposed to be. Even a lesser Pixar film set in a world populated with talking cars with giant eyes, they still somehow manage to create a final act that brings a tear to my eye, as McQueen learns and demonstrates the value of friendship, empathy and just being kind.

Finn McMissile demonstrates how he got his name.

The sequel is bonkers, and straight out of leftfield, even for Pixar. For Cars 2 is a spy movie. With cars. The focus shifts to Mater as he is accidentally recruited as a spy by suave agents Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer). McQueen is competing in a new series of high-profile races to publicise a more sustainable fuel pioneered by Sir Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard).

Mater assists in uncovering a conspiracy to make the new super fuel appear unsafe by making it appear like it causes engines to blow dangerously mid-race. A conspiracy run by what Mater refers to as 'Lemons' - cars that are unreliable, constantly breaking down and having to source spare parts.

Some quality comedy is mined from the rivalry between McQueen and Italian Formula One car Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), and the film looks glorious, but it's just such a strange diversion from the tone set by the first film, that it never quite convinces. Perhaps 'convinces' is the wrong word to use when talking about films about sentient spy cars, but I'm sure you know what I mean. It lacks something that the first film had.

McQueen struggles to catch new hot-shot Jackson Storm.

Something that Cars 3 happily finds again. No longer the fresh-faced rookie, Cars 3 finds McQueen struggling to keep up with the new and improved racers. Pushing himself against new rival Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), McQueen suffers a horrendous crash and isolates himself in Radiator Springs throughout his long recovery. McQueen's old sponsors Rust-Eze have been sold to Sterling (Nathan Fillion), and McQueen sets himself up in Sterling's state-of the-art training centre to get back into shape.

Working with racing trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo), McQueen refuses to accept what seems obvious to everyone; he'll never be as fast as Jackson Storm. This is where Cars 3 begins to evoke the original in a really rather poetic and beautiful way, as McQueen's focus shifts from trying to get faster to teaching Cruz to drive on sand, and discovering more about his late mentor, Doc Hudson. Doc's old mentor Smokey (Chris Cooper) explains to McQueen how much their friendship meant to him.

Working with Smokey, Cruz and McQueen start to build technique to try to overcome McQueen's speed disadvantage, and following an earlier conversation where Cruz revealed she had always wanted to be a racer but could never find the courage, it starts to become clear that Cruz can beat McQueen when she finds her confidence. The finale of Cars 3 also borrows from the first film, as McQueen moves out of the picture, leaving Cruz to take centre stage and beat Storm to the finish line.

McQueen and Cruz, bonding while training.

The three films are chockfull of gorgeous imagery, lovely character work and thrilling set pieces, but, especially with the middle part that lacks some of the heart you can usually take for granted in a Pixar movie, they are decidedly second-tier Pixar.

Score:
Cars: 7/10
Cars 2: 6/10
Cars 3: 7/10

While the general opinion out there tends to mirror mine (see the IMDb scores), there are some out there that have a different opinion. This review of Cars by James at ReelViews skews close to my opinion, but Todd at The Hollywood Reporter overrates Cars 2 somewhat, and David at Rolling Stone prefers Cars 3 to both its predecessors by some margin.

Cronos

Year: 1993
Running time: 94 minutes
Certificate: 18
Languages: Spanish, English
Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Frederico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Tamara Shanath, Margarita Isabel, Mario Iván Martinez

Despite its failings, Cronos has its fair share of beautifully-framed shots.

Being the debut work of director Guillermo Del Toro, Cronos makes interesting viewing as it allows you to see a man of astonishing talent developing his craft. While overall it’s not up there with his later high-water marks, it isn't without moments of greatness.

In the 1500s, an alchemist (Mario Iván Martinez) creates a mysterious device that bestows eternal life on the person it attaches itself to, but the price to pay is a craving for blood. This is a pretty cool take on the vampire movie, and when we find out that the alchemist is still alive in the present day (that is, until his building collapses on him, staking him through the heart), we get some idea of the power of this device. It finds its way in to the hands of elderly antiques dealer Jesus Gris (Frederico Luppi) who lives with his granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath).

Jesus finds it harder and harder to resist.

A dying millionaire De la Guardia (Claudio Brook) learns of the device and what it can do and sends his nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to retrieve it. That's the basic set up, but Cronos is more concerned with the idea of immortality and the affect it has on the human psyche. It does fall short of its lofty premise, relying too much on B-movie horror effects in the final third, which is at odds with the stylistic approach that the first half of the film took.

Del Toro's stamp is all over it, despite it being his debut, and while it doesn't quite work, it's interesting to see flashes of the astonishing director he'd become, and it contains striking imagery, for example one scene at night where Jesus is struck by a raging thirst and is crouched in front of a blue refrigerator light gulping water, while almost all around him is pitch black, and, perhaps even more striking, bright red blood on the floor of a gleaming bathroom.

Beautiful (at times), bizarre, but only really for Del Toro completists.

Score: 5/10

It seems Cronos is thought of more highly by others, if these reviews by Richard at the Washington Post and Matt at Collider are anything to go by.

The Cat Returns

Year: 2002
Running time: 75 minutes
Certificate: U
Language: Japanese
Screenplay: Reiko Yoshida
Director: Hiroyuki Morita
Starring (voices): Chizuru Ikewaki, Yoshihiko Hakamada, Aki Maeda, Takayuki Yamada, Hitomi Satô, Kenta Satoi, Mari Hamada, Tetsu Watanabe, Yôsuke Saitô, Tetsurô Tanba 

Haru in a brief moment of quiet reflection.

Studio Ghibli didn't always need to rely on Hayao Miyazaki's genius to produce great work. While The Cat Returns is certainly proof of that, it does feel like a lesser work. Rest assured, however - it is gorgeous, engaging and a lot of fun.

As is the trend with many Studio Ghibli films, The Cat Returns explores a fantastical fantasy world through the eyes of a young girl. 17 year-old Haru (Chizuru Ikewaki) is walking home from school when she saves the life of a cat, preventing him from being run over with inventive use of her lacrosse stick. It turns out that the feline life she saves is none other than Prince Lune (Takayuki Yamada), heir to the kingdom of the cats. In addition to gratitude, Haru is betrothed to Prince Lune and somehow needs to find a way to escape the cat kingdom before she turns into a cat herself and marries the prince.

Haru and her new friend, The Baron.

Helping her in this endeavour is The Baron (Yoshihiko Hakamada), the cool top hat, tails and cane sporting cat and fat cat Muta (Tetsu Watanabe). The Baron and Muta have featured in a previous Studio Ghibli feature (the beautiful ode to the awakening of the creative urge in the young Whisper of the Heart, which is truly impossible for me to recommend highly enough) and it's great to see them again, this time in a much more hands-on (paws-on?) role. The escape is packed full of moments of comedy and breathless action brought to life by staggeringly good animation.

Less sophisticated than most of Studio Ghibli's other output, this is nevertheless another splendid addition to the studio's stellar collection.

Score: 7/10

Opinions of The Cat Returns as a lesser-yet-still-worthy Ghibli release seem fairly uniform across the board - see these reviews from Hannah at T.H.E.M., IGN and Kuma at The Nihon Review.

Catch Me If You Can

Year: 2002
Running time: 141 minutes
Certificate: 12
Language: English
Screenplay: Jeff Nathanson
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Nathalie Baye, Martin Sheen, Amy Adams, Jennifer Garner

Frank Abagnale Jr. faking the high life.

Just after the turn of the millennium, Steven Spielberg directed three films that marked the start of a kind of reinvigoration. It's not like he'd become a bad director or anything, but this trio of films seemed to kick-start a new period of inspiration for the director, and with last year's outstanding Bridge of Spies and a new version of The BFG not far away, it hasn't stopped yet. It's a bit like Bruce Springsteen and The Rising. And what’s more, he seems to be improving with age. Catch Me If You Can made up one of those three films, along with Minority Report and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Lightest in tone of the three, it is a wonderful story, skilfully told, about a boy who runs away from home and forges more than $4 million worth of cheques while impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer. Brilliantly, this is based on a true-life account; that of Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio).

As with many Spielberg films, it is a broken family unit that sits at the heart of the story – it is the breakdown of young Franks’ parents’ marriage that is the catalyst for these events. In his youth Frank idolises his father Frank Sr. (Christopher Walken). When told his parents have split up and he must choose which one of them to live with, Frank makes a run for it and doesn't look back. As Frank forges a living he sparks the interest of F.B.I. agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) who invests years in the chase of cat and mouse.

It is this relationship that forms the core of the story; the two move from grudging respect to genuine friendship, with Frank making a point of calling Carl on Christmas Day just to be able to talk to someone who understands him.

Carl Hanratty, closing in on Frank.

Decap is on fine form, and of course, Tom Hanks is as good as ever, but what makes this such a joy is the way they work so well together; it’s almost like watching Rock Hudson and Doris Day. It goes without saying that Christopher Walken as down-on-his-luck Frank Sr. is great to watch – that man is truly a highlight in any film he’s in.

Another standout is John Williams' beautiful jazzy score; a departure for both Williams and Spielberg which really compliments the light and breezy feel that much of the film is saturated in. The stylish animation and jazzy music that form the opening credits are wonderful and really highlight that this is a change or tone for the director, falling somewhere in between the crowd-pleasers and the Oscar-baiting 'serious' ones.

It may be just a touch too long, but this can be forgiven when it’s so much fun to watch.

Score: 7/10

There's a lot of love out there for Catch Me If You Can, as evidenced by this review from Mark at Empire and this one from Stephen at the New York Times.

Con Air

Year: 1997
Running time: 115 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Scott Rosenberg
Director: Simon West
Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson, Nick Chinlund, Danny Trejo, M. C. Gainey, Jesse Borrego, Steve Buscemi, Renoly Santiago, Dave Chappelle, Rachel Ticotin, Steve Eastin, Monica Potter, Landry Allbright

Nic had forgotten to pack the Pantene again.

Like many movies produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Con Air is a bit of a guilty pleasure – you know that it’s not clever, artistic or attempting to relay a message; it’s just that blowing shit up is cool. And nobody blows shit up like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage, on his post-Oscar action-hero credibility-wrecking trip) is a U.S. soldier who fatally injures a man while fighting off an attack by a group of drunken town hicks. Sent to prison for eight years, his pregnant wife Tricia (Monica Potter) must raise their daughter Casey (Landry Allbright) alone until his release. When he finally does get released, he really should get sent straight back for crimes against hair. But then again, what's a Nic Cage film without ridiculous hair? Catching a ride with Poe, we just so happen to have the scummiest scum on the planet, led by Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom (John Malkovich), who have plans of their own, largely involving escape while causing maximum carnage.

After this, it's up to our hairy hero to save the day and get Casey's bunny to her in one piece pretty much single-handedly - there is some on-the-ground assistance given by U.S. Marshall Vince Larkin (John Cusack), but he spends most of his time bickering with grumpy DEA knob Duncan Malloy (Colm Meaney). That's the high-concept set-up, all there is to do after grasping that is watch the sparks fly. And my, my, what sparks.

You can forgive Nic Cage’s awful accent (how Cage kept a straight face while delivering the line "Put the bunny back in the box" is beyond me) and dreadful hair, you can almost forgive that horrific theme song, because, well, they drag a sports car through the air behind a plane, and then crash said plane into Las Vegas. The action isn't particularly bloodthirsty, but does enough to earn Con Air an 18 certificate - a point brought up here because I remember when I saw it at the cinema it was only a 15, and became an 18 when released on video/DVD, and the only other film I know of that did that is Verhoven's Starship Troopers. I've never worked out the reason why - did the BBFC change its mind, or are there additional scenes? One of life's great unsolved mysteries, I guess.

Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom: Poster child for the criminally insane.

Cusack, usually being rather more cerebral in his choice of parts, doesn’t quite seem at home in this film (which actually makes him a fine choice, because that pretty much describes his character), but everyone else, particularly Malkovich and Steve Buscemi (as nut-job serial killer Garland 'The Marietta Mangler' Greene) are obviously having a whale of a time - the two of them share of the best lines between them, with the exception of Cage's aforementioned bunny/box fiasco.

The ending is great as well – not because Poe gets to give the bunny to his little girl after all, but because Grissom gets possibly one of the most bizarrely elaborate death scenes ever and especially because the movie ends on a joke about a convicted, obviously insane (but, just possibly, following a sing-a-long hymn with a little girl, reformed) serial killer being free and on the loose.

Long live the Bruckheimer action movie!

Score: 7/10

Whether you like Con Air or not I think depends on how much disbelief you'll be willing to suspend - the film knows full well it's ridiculous, but it's determined to have fun all the same. That's why you get reviews with varied opinions in them like this one from Janet at the New York Times, who quite liked it, or this one from James at Reelviews, who didn't.

Calendar Girls

Year: 2003
Running time: 108 minutes
Certificate: 12
Language: English
Screenplay: Juliette Towhidi, Tim Firth
Director: Nigel Cole
Starring: Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, John Alderton, Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Philip Glenister, Ciaran Hinds, Celia Imrie, Geraldine James, Penelope Wilton 

The first of the girls to disrobe gets plenty of moral support.

Calendar Girls is based on the true story of a group of WI women who decided to do something a little different for their yearly calendar in order to raise money for a worthy cause. They decided to strip for it. Chris (Helen Mirren) and Annie (Julie Walters) are lifelong best friends who are members of their local WI group. While they are good friends with a number of the other women at the group, they do express a frustration with the relentlessly dull meetings and guest speakers on subjects such as rugs (in fact, all kinds of carpeting - "Oh, thank god for that" mutters Chris sarcastically under her breath). So you've got a frankly wonderful leading pair in Mirren and Walters who can bring both comedic and dramatic chops to their roles in spades.

When Annie's husband John (John Alderton) dies of cancer she is determined to raise money for a memorial, and they hit upon the idea of making the yearly calendar a little more interesting. It's a giant success, hearts are warmed and everybody's happy. There is more to it - Calendar Girls shares DNA with other recent comedy hits uniquely British like The Full Monty and Billy Elliot, and like those films, it will not appeal to everybody. Walters is so good that Annie, while mostly fairly positive gives small hints at the deep grief hidden just under the surface and the support cast are all engaging.

Annie and Chris discuss the fruits of their labour.

The film manages to hold the attention for the first two thirds, but it does lose something when the girls become famous and go to Hollywood to be exposed to the evils of American corporate advertising, but this doesn't detract too much from the film as a whole.

Not a bad film, but won't be everybody's cup of tea.

Score: 6/10

This review by Cidtalk rates the film more highly than I do, and Peter at The Guardian also has positive things to say.

Casshern

Year: 2004
Running time: 142 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: Japanese
Screenplay: Kazuaki Kiriya, Dai Sato, Shotaro Suga
Director: Kazuaki Kiriya

Starring: Yusuke Iseya, Kumiko Aso, Akira Terao, Kanako Hiquichi, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Mayumi Sada, Jun Kaname

Better times.

I’ve been struggling to think what to say about Casshern for some time. I have been trying to decide whether I like it or not, or more precisely, whether I understand it or not. My first thought was simply to have ‘Eh?’ as the entire review, but on reflection, there is more to say.

First off, unless I’m incredibly stupid there is one very simple message behind Casshern and all of its complexities, and that is that war is bad. Really bad. Not good. At all. Many stories make a similar point, but I guarantee you that no film has made the point in quite this way before. Adapted from a 1973 anime, the set up is truly great, if complex. I'll try to cover the basics. The world of the future is simply a seemingly endless war between two superpowers, and even when that war is technically over after 50 years, the victor is struggling to suppress pockets of resistance and, more urgently, the human race has been brought to the brink of self-annihilation, and is unable to repopulate the planet. Cue scientist Dr. Kotaro Azuma (Akira Terao), who is developing a way to rebuild humanity using techniques involving rejuvenating the body parts of the dead that are rather dodgy, ethically speaking.

All hail the victor.

An unexplained and inexplicable bolt of lightning (which seems to become a solid structure) causes life to emerge from the raw material in the lab (whole humanoids, not just parts, somehow), life which is promptly destroyed by the military, apart from Akubon (Hiroyuki Miyasako), Sagure (Mayumi Sada) and Barashin (Jun Kaname), who manage to escape. Dr. Azuma then brings back his son Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya), killed in the aforementioned war, who makes use of a newly designed super-suit to become the superhuman Casshern to fight for humankind against the robot army randomly discovered by Akubon and co. But remember, war is bad. So there is less distinction than you might think between which side is supposed to be good, and which is bad. Because war is bad, which means each side is as bad as the other, and the true heroes are the ones that finally realise this and are able to stop the killing and forgive the wrong that was done to them. Of course, they usually have to die for this to happen. The story is actually far more complex than that, but I don’t want to spoil the fun of working out for yourself exactly what the hell is going on.

The place where Casshern falls down the most, I feel, is in the one on one fight scenes, where the two opponents try to out-pose each other first while some awful techno-rock is playing, then when the fights start they have that Pokémon / Beyblade look, and when Casshern is running up buildings and the like, he looks rather like Sonic the Hedgehog, only not blue. Obviously, the filmmakers didn’t have the hugest budget, but I think that these moments are a little over-stylised – to the point of being cartoony, and not in the cool Manga way I think they were going for.

Casshern, being dramatic.

However, it's not all negative. The moral, although being a tad simplistic (ironic considering the ridiculously random complexity), is an honourable one, and the consequences of humankind’s insistence on forever being at war with itself are appropriately tragic. The price that all of the characters pay for their deeds is truly devastating. But the thing about Casshern that will undoubtedly bring me back to watch again is that it is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. Excepting the fight scenes mentioned earlier, every frame, every background, every moment has an astonishing mix of colour, style and CG wizardry. In particular, there is a scene in which Tetsuya and his love interest Luna (Kumiko Aso) converse where different visual styles are used to portray each character's viewpoint which is spellbindingly gorgeous to look at.

So, on reflection, I think I did like it after all.

Score: 7/10

Scribble King liked it more than me, but the Massie Twins weren't particularly impressed.

Collateral

Year: 2004

Running time: 120 minutes

Certificate: 15

Language: English

Screenplay: Stuart Beattie

Director: Michael Mann

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo

Dave.

Vincent's night is not going to plan.

Michael Mann is probably one of the best directors around when it comes to making slick, tense crime thrillers, so you can be pretty sure even before Collateral begins you'll be in good hands from start to finish. It takes a moment or two to get over being asked to accept Tom Cruise as a cold-blooded killer, so it's a testament both the director and actor that after a few minutes of him onscreen you're no longer consciously watching Tom Cruise, but his character Vincent, and you have little doubt that he is every bit the remorseless assassin. More surprising than this however, is Jamie Foxx, previously stand up comedian, as Max, the cabbie unlucky enough to get stranded with a psychotic killer for the night. He's very believable as an average person facing extraordinary circumstances, and his grounded performance is truly superb.

There's relatively little in the way of plot - Max is a taxi driver with ambitions to be something more, who is struck by Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith), a fare he gets one day. Later that day, against his better judgement he agrees to take Vincent's offer for a fare for the night. It doesn't take long to notice that Vincent has multiple stops where he intends to assassinate different targets. Fanning is a cop played by Mark Ruffalo on the trail of bodies left behind by Vincent. There's not much more to it than that, but this leaves plenty of room for Mann to find ways to wind up the tension - see a visit to Max's sick mother and a conversation with one of the victims in a jazz bar for two of the most striking examples. The film continues to wind the tension up a little more scene by scene, until in true Michael Mann style the action explodes in a thrilling gun battle in the middle of a crowded nightclub.

The music, sound and especially the cinematography are outstanding - I could watch those gorgeous birds-eye view shots of LA at night for hours on end.

Unfortunately, the film goes off the boil a little once the characters leave the claustrophobic confines of the cab, but that's to be expected and unavoidable. Also, the contrived, predictable coincidence of Annie being Vincent's final target is a little too much, but when the overall effect is so dazzling, these are minor quarrels indeed.

Not as good as Heat, but then again, very little is.

Score: 8/10

Rachel.

Max is most definitely a man in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

When I remember watching this film, the thing that stands out most in my mind is the darkness, with the night time setting and the whole movie taking place within the course of a single evening. This darkness echoes the content of the story (assassination), which works really well. Supporting Dave's comments, Tom Cruise plays a blinder and forgetting the actor in real life and his previous roles, you find it easy to buy into him as a cold-blooded killer.

All in all a great looking film with an entertaining story. Definitely worth a watch!

Score: 7/10

Joshua at Cinemablend thinks much the same, as does Colin at Empire.

Crank

Year: 2006
Running time: 88 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Directors: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
Starring: Jason Statham, Amy Smart

Dave.

You're doing it wrong.

There isn't really much to say about Crank other than 'oh dear'. It is a genuinely interesting premise - an assassin named Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) is poisoned by a rival and the only way to stay alive is to slow the poison by keeping his heart rate up and his adrenaline pumping. As a result he gets up to increasingly ridiculous things to keep the inevitable at bay. It's like Speed but in a human body. Unfortunately the execution is completely fluffed from the start and it looks like it was made on an even smaller budget that the modest one it was made on. It's further proof (in addition to the also terrible Transporter films) that Jason Statham has no business being an action hero and should have remained a cheeky cockney gangster. Obviously since Crank Statham has been relentlessly pursuing the goal of being the hardest action man in Hollywood and following his part in The Expendables may have finally achieved it, so although he'll always be Bacon (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and Turkish (Snatch) to me, credit is due.

Shagging to stay alive.

The only reasons it scored any points at all are for the lingering shots of his at-home girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) in her lingerie (and yes, I know that is sexist and pervy but I'm struggling for nice things to say) and the stiffy joke half way through.

To sum up, Crank stank.

Score: 3/10

Rachel.

Crank is wank!

Score: 1/10

Erik at Cinemablend agrees, but Nick at Empire and I have a rare disagreement.

Children of Men

Year: 2006
Running time: 109 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Alfonso Cauron, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
Director: Alfonso Cauron
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine

Dave.


The handheld camerawork places the viewer right in
the thick of the aciton.

This film is truly stunning, although at times difficult to watch. The ultra-realism of the violence reminds the viewer uneasily of Saving Private Ryan - if you didn't know better, you would swear the people onscreen were genuinely being shot to pieces. The idea of this hell being a baby's first hours in the world is a very uncomfortable thing to be exposed to. The film is set in possibly the most depressingly realistic vision of the future yet filmed, forgoing the beautiful dystopias of Blade Runner and every film it influenced and the clean cut, poverty-less vision of Star Trek for a civilisation that has de-evolved into a hellish place with more in common with the Third Reich than anything else. Everyone not from the country they are in is breaking the law simply by existing and are rounded up, kept in cells or forced to live in lawless ghettos. Only a few terrorist resistance cells remain of the illegal immigrants. Clive Owen plays Theo Faron, an average man who gets involved with an attempt to smuggle a miraculously pregnant woman to safety after reuniting with an old girlfriend. Handheld camerawork and long takes serve to raise the intensity of the impressively staged set pieces.

It's not without humour, however, for which I was very grateful. Michael Caine is a highlight as Jasper, a wood-dwelling drug dealer who is never far away from cracking a fart joke. Clive Owen also has his moments, for example escaping his would-be killers by rolling a car downhill to get it started - it's funny and tense at the same time.

Owen, incidentally, is a marvel. Pulled by events out of his control and being forced to run for his life during the first two thirds, when he actually takes matters into his own hands to drag the mother and child out of the war zone he manages to mix dignity and bravery with terror to staggering effect. A must see.

Score: 8/10

Rachel.

Our desolate future?

What's truly disturbing is that this film is so realistic. I could almost imagine this as our bleak future; a world without children, our own thoughtlessness and greed leading to pollution, war and infertility. The grey, drained colours that make up the landscape mirror the mood throughout. It's very violent and at times difficult to watch but the story also leads the viewer to the conclusion that life by its nature gives hope - in this case in the form of a young woman pregnant with a 'miracle child'. Michael Caine acts perfectly to lighten the mood. The story, direction and brilliant acting in this film make me agree with Dave - "A must see", but perhaps have something more lighthearted on standby to restore your faith in humanity afterwards. Scrubs, perhaps?

Score: 7/10

Damon at Empire & Roger Ebert seem to agree.