The White Ribbon

At the start of The White Ribbon there is what seems like a very long sequence of titles that fade in white text on a black background and fade it out again. There is no sound at all. OK...

When the picture fades in and the sound starts, there is an intriguing set-up which makes you think "Hmmm. Maybe this isn't pretentious crap after all?"

That lasts for half an hour or so. It is quite interesting. The black-and-white works. The characters have depth, especially the children, which is uncommon.

But then it doesn't really go anywhere. It carries on at the same pace for ages. I found myself checking to see how much longer there was to run; and being disappointed to see that the total running time was nearly 2 1/2 hours.

To be honest I fast-forwarded through the last hour just to see what happened at the end. Hopefully it isn't too much of a SPOILER to reveal my complete incredulity at finding that there isn't any final resolution... the narrator leaves the village without ever finding out what happened... so neither do we.

All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't take the trouble to watch the whole thing. But I did enjoy the first 30-40 minutes. What a shame the film wasn't shorter.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

I love all the Spider-Man films; including the mostly forgotten ones from the 1970s starring Nicholas Hammond. Each one has used the best available special effects and been, for its time, literally amazing.

Of course, I don't love all the films equally; and I think it is quite possible that The Amazing Spider-man 2 might be my favourite so far. Not because the effects are great, even though they are amazing. Not because the action is exciting, even though it is awesome.

This film is brilliant because Andrew Garfield portrays a Spider-Man totally conflicted by his love for Gwen Stacy and his fear of putting her in danger. For me this is the central dilemma for any superhero. It is always going to be easier for the bad guys to attack the hero's loved ones than to attack the hero directly.

There is a lot going on this movie, but it doesn't feel too crowded or too long. There are great supporting performance from Jamie Foxx as Electro and Dane DeHaan as the surprisingly menacing Harry Osborn. Sally Field also provides a subtle and understated extra dimension in Peter Parker's life.

But every scene between Garfield and the wonderful Emma Stone is excellent. You feel his angst about breaking the promise to her father. You feel her frustration that he can't get his mind straight; that he can't trust her make her own choice. Does the fact that you know they are a couple in real life make a difference? I don't know. I just know that they both had me believing 100% in their characters.

Great film. I'll be watching it again very soon.

Pacific Rim

Plenty of people have rubbished Pacific Rim as silly non-sense. I'm not one of them; despite the fact that the film is silly and it is non-sense.

I like it because it is completely up-front about the silliness and nonsensicality. Right at the beginning the film tells you this is a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters. There is no pretence. It doesn't try and be anything else; monsters and robots; that's it.

So we can forget about plots and characters and just enjoy the robots slugging it out with the monsters.

And then the film plays a trick on you. Because there are some good performances in here. They stand out even more because you are expecting the acting to be awful (and some of it is). The brilliant Idris Elba is very believable as the wise battle-hardened general commander guy. Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi make a good paring for the sentimental stuff. And good old Ron Perlman is a nice focus for the comedy capers with the limping less-mad scientist and the normal looking but bonkers self-experimenting scientist.

There is obvious influence from The Power Rangers which strikes a cord with those of us of a certain age. And the tone also reminded me of Starship Troupers; another film where big aliens are fought hand-to-hand rather than using the more obvious tactic of heavy artillery!

At the end of the day though, this is monsters versus robots and the battles are brilliant.

The Matrix Reloaded

I remember The Matrix Reloaded being released. It was very exciting because the 3rd film was due only a few months later, so it felt like an appetiser for the big finale. But it wasn't. As it turned out The Matrix Reloaded was much better than The Matrix Revolutions ... which was, well, a bit rubbish really.

Not to say the Reloaded is great. It is OK. The original Matrix was so good (in my all time top 10) and innovative that the sequels were always going to struggle to have the same impact.

So Reloaded does what all sequels to great films do: more of the same. A lot more. Which is a problem. The film is too long. The fight scenes are mostly too long (some are just right) and too similar.

There are innovations. The replicating Agent Smith is great; but again we get too much of that and not enough of the great dialog which made Hugo Weaving such a hit in the original. All the best lines are saved for Laurence Fishburne's Morpheus.

There are also some stunning lapses of imagination: we already had The Oracle, but now we also get The Keymaker, The Twins and The Architect ... compensated somewhat by the epic Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian.

Ultimately Reloaded is memorable for the fantastic set-up it gives the last film. Right at the end we see Neo interact with Sentinels outside the Matrix. What? How can that be? There is no physical mechanism by which he can interact with Sentinels at a distance outside the Matrix... unless he really isn't outside the Matrix!

When I heard that the final movie was titled The Matrix Revolutions I was convinced that the twist was that it was revolutions as in cycles, rather than uprisings, and that we would discover that the Zionistas had never actually left the Matrix at all.

It would make sense; all the minds troubled by being in the Matrix get fed a scenario where they seem to escape and fight the evil machines.

But we didn't get anything like that... Neo is just magic or something.

Leaving (Partir)

The French film Leaving is a great piece of work by Catherine Corsini and co-writer Gaelle Mace.

It is the story of a woman who leaves her husband, showing the consequences for her family and herself.

Kristin Scott Thomas gives a wonderful performance as the conflicted Suzanne. Sergi López is a perfect balance as Ivan and Yvan Attal is good as the frostily ambitious Samuel who has everything and never takes 'no' for an answer.

Whilst all the performances are good, it is the skill of the director and the editing that really makes the film work. Hints here and there give us clues to what Suzanne is thinking; but we are never really sure, even at the end. That works for me because I think she is a character who doesn't really know what she wants herself: she has a life that she doesn't like, and she tries to change it, then she's not sure, but she can't undo events and has to make the best of the consequences.

There's even a twinge of black humour near the end when you hear the daughter scream and can't help thinking 'yeah, up yours, you bitch'.

Overall I think this is nearly as good as the haunting I've Loved You So Long.

Trouble With The Curve

I normally avoid films about sports; especially American sports. But because it stars Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams I made an exception for Trouble With The Curve.

I have actually been to 2 baseball games... but don't really know anything about the game. You don't really need to to understand the film, but maybe loving baseball might help you enjoy it, because there's really not a lot else to see.

The plot is paper-thin and totally predictable. Eastwood's character is mean and unlikeable, to little end. Adams is unconvincing as a frosty lawyer. Justin Timberlake pretty much plays himself, but as a moderately successful ex-pitcher instead of a famous ex-singer (or does he still sing?).

Some credit has to go to the main actors for having the presence to at least make the watcher sit through to the end... but I think the only believable performance is from the excellent John Goodman.

Now You See Me

Unlike many of the films I watch, I did see several trailers in advance of Now You See Me. And unlike many trailers these days, they don't give away too much; well, anything is too much for me normally, so I guess I mean not enough to spoil the film too much.

Four magicians are recruited by a mysterious figure, that they don't ever meet. Then they start doing shows where they magically steal money and give it to the audiences. Somehow the FBI have to try and stop them.

It's a cross between a heist movie and a mystery thriller. In that sense it is quite original. I have seen plenty of comparisons with the style of the Ocean movies (of which I've only seen "11") but for me that is only down to the ensemble cast: in substance it is more like The Thomas Crown Affair where a very clever chaser battles a possibly cleverer crook.

Often with big-name casts you get a thinly veiled pissing contest; but here the names are nicely balanced by the up-and-comings and everyone plays together nicely; with Woody Harrelson and Mark Ruffalo perhaps edging ahead slightly for me.

The female roles are poorly stereotyped as usual in American films. Isla Fisher and Mélanie Laurent are the token women in magic and cop camps respectively; the former misdirecting the punters with her legs and the latter flashing her smile and French accent for mostly no reason at all.

I loved the way the story twisted and turned. There were hints and misdirections. The whole movie was set up like a big magic trick. Well done to director Louis Leterrier and writers Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt.

Red Cliff

An odd thing happened when I started watching Red Cliff. It is a Chinese historical epic; I knew that. It is subtitled; I expected that. But in the first few minutes a big booming American voice tells you in English what is happening. Huh?

I thought there must be a mistake. Surely someone accidentally turned on Audio Description. No. Maybe it is just a one off. I carried on watching. But a minute or two later the American voice is back. Argh! No, no, no. What were you thinking John Woo?

Sometimes I am very tolerant of things like that; sometimes I am very intolerant. Last night was one of the latter occasions and I just switched the film off.

Incendies

Mysteries always tread a fine line between hiding too much and not hiding enough. Canadian film Incendies is a great example of a mystery drama that does get it right.

The film starts with an intriguing shot of a landscape and pulls back to reveal a boy having his head shaved. Without any explanation the film then switches elegantly to a scene where a notary is about to read out a will. Already I'm wondering what the connection is. Was the first scene in the past? Is the reading the present? We find out, of course, but never immediately... we have to keep watching.

After the opening scenes the film is a mixture of the consequences moving forward in time and the causes in the past. Big red words mark the transitions... often naming people who are about to be introduced to us. I think the writer/director Denis Villeneuve gets this spot-on; I don't recall ever thinking that I was being stalled; the story flows really well and the scenes from the past show you just what you need to know without spoiling the conclusion.

The central character played by Lubna Azabal holds everything together nicely. The daughter (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) is very convincing; and a couple of times I initially mistook scenes which began with her as ones showing the younger Nawal. The son (Maxim Gaudette) is very brooding... you have to make your own mind up about whether he's justified or not.

We are presented with many tragedies which make us think. This is a very emotional film. It is delivered very cleverly to have maximum impact.

After the film was over I found myself wondering which characters knew what and when. I think I figured out most of it; but that doesn't really matter. The important thing isn't whether the exact sequence of events portrayed is possible, it is the realisation that wars destroy lives... and the hope that good people can rebuild them.