Owing to a busy schedule. I'm probably going to be publishing a number of smaller reviews together, probably on a weekly basis for the time being. The reviews are in order of star rating and recommendation. Here's the first batch.
Gloriously madcap comedy from cinema's king of quirk, Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes shows a rarely-exhibited comic talent as camp womaniser, Gustav Hand the film has an absolutely charming aesthetic and sense of comic timing, even if the film is slow to start.
Les S*laudes (B*stards) (18/TBC) (**)
Euro-thriller tries to be edgy and mysterious but instead provides an nearly-impenetrable first half with and never fully makes up for it later on. Two plots (one detailing an adulterous affair, the other the disappearance of a sexual torture victim) that would both make good movies but meshed together, neither is explored to their fullest.
Need For Speed (12a/PG-13) (**)
Whilst movies about video games are often good (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010), Wreck-It Ralph (2012)) adaptations of specific games to the big screen has met with a more negative response (oh, way too many to count). The world has yet to find a truly popular adaptation (arguably the Resident Evil franchise has come closest) and will have to keep on looking beyond Need For Speed.
The film starts strong with a blistering race sequence and if the film was satisfied with dumb action for 90 minutes, it would be fine. Instead, the film limply drags around a cliched plot as if by obligation and pushing way beyond an appropriate run-time. Even Michael Keaton doesn't come out of this wreck unscathed.
300: Rise Of An Empire (15/R) (**)
No way was this cash-cow franchise going to lie still after 300 stormed theatres in 2006 and what we get is not really an improvement, but not a disappointment either. Instead we get a similarly dopy dose of style over substance where historical accuracy means little and character development means even less. CGI blood, annoying as ever, flies at the screen in an almost fetishistic way (although the film is not quite a thorough gore-fest) and lead Sullivan Stapleton stands around looking imposing and seemingly not putting in much acting effort beyond that. At least Gerard Butler had some bravado. Eva Green is perhaps the best thing about this movie and she has to slog through what will probably be the most awkward scene of "passion" in her whole career.
The film does side-step some of the more...uncomfortable political overtones of the first film, and if this is your thing, fine. It simply isn't mine.
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