December Films

Glorious 39

This is the latest Brit indie film from Stephen Poliakoff who has recent specialised in TV. The cast is an assembly of some of the best British talent: Romola Garai (the central performer who recently appeared on TV as Emma), Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, David Tennant, Christopher Lee, Charlie Cox and Jenny Agutter among others. Consequently the acting is good and the direction is good maintaining tension for the first 3/4 of the film. The plot is a kind of 1930s 39 Steps, and espionage thriller about a group of people who don't want Britain to go to war with Germany (not because of ideology but because they don't want a war) so are attempting to remove any opposition to the Chamberlain government. Romola Garai and her boyfriend Charlie Cox find out about this but are helpless when everybody they tell dies. The downfall of this film is that it tries to be indie, it tries to defy convention when if it had decided to go with the conventional ending it could have been a fantastic film. Unfortunately it tries to be different and distinctive and unfortunately falls flat at the end with an ending that serves little point when it could have been the spy film of the decade.

The Informant

Steven Soderbergh must be close to winning the prize for the worst year in cinema. His biopic of Che Guevara was released too late for the Oscars and split in 2 both parts of which flopped at the box office (so badly they finished before I had a chance to see either) after lukewarm reviews and a realisation that very few people are actually fascinated with Che Guevara and lots of people don't consider him the good guy. After that he made this film which has flopped to the extent that I caught its last showing at my cinema 2 weeks after release. I can see why too. The Informant is about a man who appears to be a whistleblower on corporate corruption but end up having also stolen millions from his company and being a compulsive liar. The film presents itself as light-hearted but ends up spending too much time trying to help you understand its complex story to make you laugh and gimmicks such as the Matt Damon voiceover that never says anything to do with the plot becomes stale after a while. This film feels a bit like Soderbergh is trying to do what he did with Oceans 11 except that it lacks the style and coolness of Oceans 11 and lacks the jokes to be a comedy. Parts of the film in music and camera angles are as though Soderbergh is sending up 70s spy film (James Bond at least twice) but these are not more than vague references to films that very few people watched and even fewer remember, not stylish or funny enough and to be honest slightly boring, 6/10.

Law Abiding Citizen

Gerard Butler is obviously the cheapest "name" actor in Hollywood as he is churning out mediocre films at an alarming rate. The plot of this film is that Gerard Butler's home is broken into by 2 assailants; he is knocked unconscious while his wife and daughter are murdered. James Foxx's career driven prosecutor, afraid of the prospect of losing, gets one of the offenders to testify against the other resulting in one of the perpetrators getting the death penalty and the other going free much to the anger of Gerard Butler who sees this as an injustice. 10 years later the execution of the convicted killer goes wrong and ends up being much more painful than it should have been. Shortly after the other killer is brutally killed and Gerard Butler confesses to the crime and is imprisoned. However, killings continue and it becomes clear that Gerard Butler wants to bring down the legal system that denied him justice but how s he doing it from prison. The film plays out its plot well, there is a sense that Butler and Foxx are doing for the pay check not the quality of script but the film is executed well enough. The opening scenes are more violent than necessary and if the film had understood that it isn't that good and inserted a bit more fun into the mix it would have been improved. The quality of twist at the end was always going to decide the quality of this film an it is quite good, 6/10.

Where The Wild Things Are

Max, a young boy, gets angry at his Mum, runs away to an island populated by wild things. They make him their king and together they build a fort, however, things don't go to plan and Max decides to leave and go home. Spike Jonze directed music videos before films, the trailer was a music video and this film has a sense that he wants it to be a music video. The film does some things well, the wild things are wild and have their dark side and everything about the films looks brilliant. However, the lack of plot tells in the film, there is not enough fun and enjoyment in the film, the poetic elements of the filming don't quite work and the film ends up being a serious examination of childhood when childhood is meant to be about fun and innocence. I needed to be able to enjoy the film and I didn't 5/10.

Avatar

This is the one we have been waiting for, the special effects adventure to end all special effects adventures. The plot is basically the evil military company wants the resources under the home of the peaceful forest dwelling Navi who won't leave their home. Sam Worthington uses an Avatar (Navi body) to spy on the Navi and ends up liking them falling in love with one of them and leading them to battle the vastly technologically superior humans. Visually the film is fantastic, all the money that went into technology was well spent. The rest of the film is standard blockbuster fare, well executed and very enjoyable. The film is also very well acted from a comparatively little known cast and has illusions from Iraq to global warming. If the film has faults they are these: at almost 3 hours it is a little over long for a not incredibly complex plot and the final battle where they are saved by mother nature is a bit of a stretch. A great film nonetheless, 8/10.