Tron: Legacy

Release date: 30 November 2010 (Tokyo, Japan)

Still fabulous after all these years, Tron: Legacy, directed by Joseph Kosinski, brings us back to gladiatorial games and netherworld of life on The Grid in a fashion the original cult sci-fi classic never dreamed of. Starring Jeff Bridges as gaming guru Kevin Flynn (and his alter Tron ego, Clu); Garrett Hedland as his son Sam; and Olivia Wilde as Quorra, the perfect ISO lifeform created in the Grid that Clu is determined to wipeout, Tron: Legacy is full of flash and special effects wizardry. While the story's themes are breathtakingly deep, the movie does not have the time to full develop or explore them which is really unfortunate. Still, the film is beautiful on oh-so-many levels and will remain timeless in a Blade Runner fashion.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Source Code

Release date: 11 March 2011 (South by Southwest Film Festival)

Duncan Jones directs this sci-fi adventure that sees a near-dead army pilot, Coulter Stevens, being teleported (though some magic of physics not wholly explained) into a Chicago commuter train's last eight minutes before a bomb blows it up. His mission is to discover who the bomber is so as to avert an even bigger dirty nuclear attack that is going to happen in the 'present' time. Source Code is essentially an action vehicle for Jake Gyllenhall bookended by a romance between Stevens and fellow passenger Christina (Michelle Monaghan) and victim of conscious Colleen (Vera Farmiga) trying to navigate whether or not to let our hero Stevens finally die. Source Code is a fun movie despite the constant deja-vu. With tighter writing to really add depth to the exploration of Steven's situation 'living' amid life and death and futher examination of the consequences his tinkering with time could have, Source Code would have been an instant classic.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Incendies

Release date: 4 September 2010 (Telluride Film Festival)


When their mother, Nawal Marwan (a superb Lubna Azabal), dies, twins Simon (Maxim Gaudette) and Jeanne (an excellent Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin) are given instructions through their mother's will to find their brother and father. This strange yet simple start to the film, based on the play written by Wajdi Mouawad, then evolves into a moving recounting of Nawal's life in Lebanon as a mother, terrorist and prisoner that is both captivating and brutal to watch. Several scenes will leave you breathless with sadness. Directed by Dennis Villeneuve, Incendies was Canada's entry into Best Foreign Picture at the Oscars in 2011, and is certainly one of the most beautifully crafted films in sometime. As their search into the mysterious roots of their mother's life progresses - leading to tortuurer Abou Tarek (Abdelghafour Elaaziz) - an awful truth is revealed with all its devastating impact. Incendies is a film not to be missed.

My rating 10 out of 10.
 

The Box

Release date: 17 September 2009 (Lund Fantastick Film Festival)

Camera Diaz plays Norma Lewis, the far-too-older looking wife of Arthur (James Marsden) in this psychological sci-fi thriller built in the X-Files and Twilight Zone vein. Using Richard Matheson's short story Button, Button (which was actually made into a Twilight Zone spot) as his jumping off point, director/writer Richard Kelly takes the film into the pseudo-spiritual world casting a very good Frank Langella as Steward, a born-again NASA bigwig whose job it is oversee the testing of humankind. Clear? Well, the test is the box, which, if you hit its big red button will kill someone you don't know somewhere in the world and leave you $1M richer for it. The premise is intriguing and this reviewer thoroughly enjoyed the ride Kelly gives us - as outlandish, silly and outrageous as it all is. Kudos to Pallet, Butler and Chassagne for their perfectly realized music for this film. While frustratingly murky to the nth degree, it's still worth pushing The Box's button.

My rating 7 out of 10.   

Robin Hood

Release date: 12 May 2010 (Cannes Film Festival)

(Yawn) yet another Robin Hood movie. Ridley Scott, no less, directs this version and opts to pack plenty of star power into his merry film in hopes - we think - to distract viewers from the fact this is yet another Robin Hood movie, and a bad one at that. Scott even tries a new angle to distract us by tackling Robin Hood's before-the-merry-gang life as a crusader with Richard the Lionhearted, his return to England and his saving of King John's throne from the French. Sadly, despite a decent Russell Crowe as Maximus (oops, I mean Robin Hood), Cate Blanchett as Marion, William Hurt as Marshall, and a great Mark Strong as evil Godfrey, this movie is a dreadful mess. Raspberries to a dreadful Oscar Issac (as King John) and a morose Matthew Macfadyen (as the Sheriff of Nottingham). Scott's film delivers no heart so we are left adrift with characters so similar in their construct they seem cutouts. Too long by half, this Robin Hood is lost in the Nottingham woods from the get-go and ought to have stayed there.

My rating 2 out of 10. 

Leap Year

Release date: 6 January 2010 (New York City, New York)

Leap Year gives us a romantic comedy done a little differently with the arrival of a tightly strung American lass Anna Brady (Amy Adams) in County Nowhere Ireland. She's en route to propose to her geeky fiance Jeremy (Adam Scott) in Dublin. Problem is Anna doesn't carry much travel luck and enlists the help of Declan (Matthew Goode), an Irish innkeeper, to help her get across the Republic safely into the arms of her betrothed. But as Irish luck has it, she and Declan - fighting the whole way - end up in love. Directed by Anand Tucker, Leap Year is a solid film that's fun to watch for both the interplay of its characters and the stunning Irish scenery.

It is, in a word, endearing. My rating 8 out of 10. 

The Class aka Entre les murs

Release date: 24 May 2008 (Cannes Film Festival)

Winner of the 2008 Palme d'Or at Cannes, The Class follows french teacher Francois Marin's (Francois Begaudeau) work with a multi-racial group of 14- and 15-year-olds who live on the other side of the tracks, so to speak, in Paris. Director Laurent Cantet utilizes the much-a-rage shaky-camera-syndrome to give the film a documentary feel. Everyone has baggage in the class, the teacher included, and the film is a poignant examination of people struggling to understand each other despite the biased perspectives their upbringing has bestowed. The subtlety of the class trying to comprehend the archaic rules of French grammar adds a je ne sais quoi to the whole process. Gritty, honest and familiar to anyone who attended an inner city school, this class is worth attending.

My rating 8 out of 10. 

A Single Man

Release date: 11 September 2009 (Venice Film Festival)

A Single Man starts and ends with death. In between are several gorgeously constructed - if rampantly artsy - moments of English professor George (a brilliant Colin Firth) dealing with the loss of his gay partner of sixteen years, Jim (Matthew Goode). The film is fashion designer Tom Ford's coming out directorial debut and my, what a triumph it is. Ford captures both the beauty and tragedy of moments perfectly and knows how to linger on shots to allow all their Joycean detail to emerge. Working with a fine novel by Christopher Isherwood and supported by an excellent  Julianne Moore as Charley, George's 'f*g hag', and Nicholas Hoult as Kenny in full Tadzio splendor, A Single Man is a singularly beautiful film for its resonant depth.

My rating 9 out of 10. 

Push

Release date: 29 January 2009 (Los Angeles, California)

Push is interesting first because it's intriguing despite being frustrating, and secondly because it uses American actors set against the backdrop of Hong Kong. Directed by Paul McGuigan, it is a rift of Matrix, Blade Runner, and, none-too-subtlety, X-men. Starring Dakota Fanning as Cassie Holmes, a 'watcher' who can see the future, who is busy convincing Nick Gant (Chris Evans) that he needs to reconnect with his girlfriend Kira (Camilla Belle) before the big bad 'Division' folks lead by Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) get to her. Got all that? Push is so wrought with goings-on that you tend to grow mute to the telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities of everyone: screaming Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers-like asian brothers aside. The best advice with this one is to suspend reality and cede yourself to the silliness, action and great views of Hong Kong. It's actually worth pushing yourself to do so. 

My rating 7 out of 10.  

Sherlock Holmes

Release date: 24 December 2009 (Worldwide)

Any new iteration of Conan Dolye's classic is always welcome and director Guy Ritchie's version adds another layer to the myth that is Sherlock Holmes (a just-on-the-edge Robert Downey Jr) and his sidekick Dr. Watson (Jude Law). This version has evil - and recently risen from the grave - Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) out to create a new world order by doing in the British Parliamentarians as a start. Ritchie adds some fabulous fun to this version by adding Rachel McAdams to the story as Holmes' American femme fatale. Full of witty repartee, some heady high jinks and plenty of action, this reborn Sherlock Holmes is a welcome addition to the family.

My rating 7 out of 10. 

Chloe

Release date: 13 September 2009 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Chloe, a film directed by Atom Egoyan, gives the viewer a great tour of Toronto and really, that's about as much as you can say about this film that marries psychological thriller with sexy romp - neither successfully. Liam Neeson stars as David, a professor with an eye for his students that gets his wife Catherine (Julianne Moore) to wondering when he misses his surprise birthday party and she finds a picture of him with a student on his cell phone. Enter young-prostitute-with-a-problem Chloe (a doe-eyed Amanda Seyfried) whom Catherine hires to tempt David. Problem is Chloe has a thing for Catherine and begins telling fibs about her relations with David in order to further her own attempts to bed his wife. Yawn. Chloe is a darn awful film that fails to be entertaining, sexy, or scary. Egoyan who is known for - one could argue - too many films of this ilk should perhaps consider venturing down some new paths.

My rating solely for the great architecture shot in the film, 2 out of 10.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Panassus

Release date: 22 May 2009 (Cannes Film Festival)

From the opening shots this is undeniably a film directed by Terry Gilliam. Christopher Plummer stars as Dr. Parnassus, a man given immortality through a deal with the devil (a brilliant Tom Waits). The deal requires he sacrifice his own daughter Valentina's (Lily Cole) soul when she turns sixteen. Parnassus runs a traveling road show that takes people into his imagination where their dreams and wishes come true. This premise is used in a new deal with the devil to save his daughter's soul with help from a corrupt charity CEO, Tony (variously Heath Ledger and Johnny Depp and Jude Law) they discover hanging under a bridge. It's all very Brazil, of course. The Imaginarium of Dr. Panassus will forever be known as the last film of Heath Ledger and Gilliam does a fine job adapting the screenplay to accommodate Heath's death. The movie is a fantastical journey and fans of Gilliam's work will love it. Others will reach for the remote.

For the sheer audacity of his imagination, my rating 5 out of 10.

Eat Pray Love

Release date: 13 August 2010 (Canada)

Eat Pray Love is Julia Roberts' version of the film Shirley Valentine. Roberts plays Liz, a lass who is down on love, out of love with her husband, and lost within a new relationship to David (James Franco). To mend she flees: to Italy to eat; to India to pray; to Bali to reflect. On route she meets people who give her what she lacks - perspective. With their advice she is able to find love again with a divorced Brazilian Felipe (Javier Bardem). While a great travelogue, Eat Pray Love plods and director Ryan Murphy should have edited the film with more vigor. That said kudos to Richard Jenkins for his role as Richard the Texan and the richness of the scenery throughout (Ms. Roberts included).

My rating 6 out of 10.

Hot Tub Time Machine

Release date: 26 March 2010 (Canada)

Dumb title, sure, yes, let's admit that from the start. When three longtime buddies - just dumped Adam (John Cucsak); Nick (Craig Robinson) and a recently suicidal Lou (Rob Corddry) head back to a ski resort they partied at during their college days - accompanied by Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) - the strangest of things takes place. Thanks to too much booze, and a can of Russian Red Bull-like drink spilling on the hot tub's control, the foursome find themselves transported back to 1986. Remember those days? Reliving their lives again reveals all sorts of truths and allows the guys to reconnect, reflect and heal. While Hot Tub Time Machine is inconsequentially silly with no greater meaning than filling screen time, it's still worth digging out the bathing suit and heading to the water.

Love Actually

Release date: 7 September 2003 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Love Actually is an ensemble piece whose characters are all in varying stages of infatuation. Some are madly in love; others are busy falling out of love; still others are finding their first love. Directed by Richard Curtis, it stars the likes of Hugh Grant (as the Prime Minister nonetheless); Liam Neeson (as Daniel); Emma Thompson (as Karen); Bill Nighy (as Billy Mack); Keira Knightley (as Juliet); Chiwetel Ejiofor (as Peter); Alan Rickman (as Harry); and even Billy Bob Thornton (as the US President). Set in London at Christmas, the film is wonderfully engaging as the lives of all these characters collide and intermingle with nary beat missed. Love Actually works. Works because we see in every encounter some semblance of ourselves. 

My rating 7 out of 10.

Legion

Release date: 21 January 2010 (Hollywood, California)

Seems the world is always ending in America and Legion continues this trend with a fallen St. Michael (a wooden Paul Bettany) arriving in Los Angeles on the prowl for a new age Mary named Charlie (Adrianne Palicki). The premise of this gawd-awful film directed by Scott Charles Stewart is that God - it seems - is fed up with all our bullsh*t and has opted to use humans themselves (rather than a flood) to end the world. But God has been watching too many B-rate zombie movies and has possessed sort-of-dead Los Angeleans driving out to the desert to kill our new age Mary who is holed up with the renegade St. Michael and the occupants of a diner - Jeep (Lucas Black), his dad (Dennis Quaid), Kyle (a good Tyrese Gibson), Percy (Charles S. Dutton) and the Anderson family. Mayhem ensues until St. Gabriel arrives, bringing with him one of Hollywood's most stupid entrances ever, a mace, and a nasty case of Father-infatuation. Production value aside Legion gives new meaning to bad film-making and is, in the worst sense of the word, a horror to watch.

My rating - may God strike me down - 1 out of 10.

The Lives of Others

Release date: 15 March 2006 (Berlin, Germany)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - a mouthful of a name for sure - directs this perfectly paced thriller that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign picture in 2007. Set in East Berlin when the Stasi ruled supreme and whole arms of the East Germany government spent their time monitoring the lives of others. Into this world arrives Stasi secret agent Capt. Gerd Wiesler (a fabulous Ulrich Mühe), a man of monotonous routine and precision, who is charged with spying on the lives of author Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) - believed to be sympathetic to the West - and his lover, a actor named Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Problem is the real motive for the spying is not western sympathies - though are these discovered? - but the fact the Minister of Culture has a love-on for Christa. The film works brilliantly on many levels - the suspense building subtlety throughout - as Wiesler's own fascination with the couple slowly creates holes in his Stasi armour. The Lives of Others gives us an example of the tragedy that results when a man's allegiance - to a ideology, to his country - is tested.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Sunshine Cleaning

Release date: 18 January 2008 (Sundance Film Festival)

Directed by Christine Jeffs Sunshine Cleaning gives us the story of two Albuquerque sisters who venture into the business of bio-hazard and post-crime scene clean-up. Bright and cheery, it is not. Rose (Amy Adams) is eking out a living working as a house cleaner, dealing with a son, Oscar (Jason Spevack) with challenges of his own, and continuing an affair with her (married) high school sweetheart - now sheriff - Mac (Steve Zahn). When he suggests she raise the money she needs to send odd Oscar to private school by cleaning up murder scenes she recruits her gadabout sister Norah (Emily Blunt) and is off to the hardware store to bulk buy Lysol. And thereupon Sunshine Cleaning is born, and pardon the pun, dies. With a decidedly 'indie' feel to the adventure - and despite the appearance of Alan Arkin as their very eccentric father, Joe - Sunshine Cleaning feels wrong from the get-go. As though we are watching not a film but a version of Twin Peaks swept into Little Miss Sunshine. Where's the magic eraser when you need it?

My rating 3 out of 10.

Watlz with Bashir

Release date: 15 May 2008 (Cannes Film Festival)

If you haven't yet danced with Bashir; get moving. Waltz with Bashir is director Ari Folman's exploration of his time serving with the Israeli military during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. More than that however, the film cuts new territory on the art of documentary film-making by marrying one man's journey to discover - and reconcile - his wartime actions using animation as the vehicle. Portraying the horror of the war and subsequent massacre of civilians in animation dulls the visceral nature of the violence so Folman can examine more clearly his part in it. Waltz with Bashir is a fascinating achievement that rockets the viewer through the history of the middle east and the wounded dreams of those who've fought its battles and ends with a live action segment that is brutally effective. This is powerful stuff and a must see.

My rating 9 out of 10.  

Swept Away

Release date: 8 October 2002 (Los Angeles, California)

There's really only three reasons to watch this film. The opening credits are beautifully realized; the last ten minutes are achingly beautiful on an emotional level with - finally! - emotive acting by Madonna (as Amber, the uber rich, bitchy socialite); and, most intriguingly, to sift through the dreadful other bits to ponder the deeper themes at play. Themes of class warfare; sex; and the roles of men and women. Directed by Guy Ritchie, Swept Away is a remake of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 film Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August). Madonna essentially plays herself and is forced to look at things a little differently when she is stranded on a Mediterranean island with a fisherman named Giuseppe (Adriano Giannini). Here she evolves we're led to believe and the film ventures into territory that is deeply misogynistic (to the point of being uncomfortable) but perhaps that's the film's salient point? 

For making me uncomfortable and forcing me to think, my rating 4 out of 10.

The Counterfeiters

Release date: 10 February 2007 (Berlin International Film Festival)

The Counterfeiters won the Academy for Best Foreign Film in 2008, and deservedly so. Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, it recounts the true story of Operation Bernhard - the Nazi's plan to destabilize the British and American governments by flooding their economies with forged pounds and dollars designed and printed by Jews interned at Sachsenhausen. Central to the story is Salomon "Sally" Sorowitsch (a superb Karl Markovics), a master counterfeiter who is captured in Berlin at the start of the war by Friedrich Herzog (Devid Striesow), who later becomes his jailer at Sachsenhauser. The Counterfeits is a fine film full of fine acting - kudos to both August Diehl (as Adolf Burger) and the young Sebastian Urzendowsky (as Kolya) - that drags us into the dirty moral quicksand associated with Nazi complicity and lets us struggle with the question: what would you have done?

My rating 8 out of 10. 

Invictus

Release date: 3 December 2009 (Hollywood, California)

Despite the considerable talent of none other than Clint Eastwood directing, Invictus is a formulaic - verging on trite - recap of the South African rugby team's victory at the 1995 World Rugby Cup. Based on John Carlin's book, Eastwood positions the story as President Mandela's (Morgan Freeman) mission to win the cup as one tool to help unite the apartheid-torn nation. He recruits into the effort none other than the team's captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon). And while a true story indeed - and an important one - sorry, it doesn't make for very good film-making. Worse, Damon's seemed to forgot how to act (unless you count woodenness as acting) and Freeman's portrayal of Mandela cum Gandhi with a dreadful accent just plain hurts. All in all, a film decidedly lacking in heart. To paraphrase William Ernest Henley, whose poem the movie draws its title from: in the fell clutch of circumstance, I have both winced and cried aloud. 

My rating 4 out of 10.  

Death at a Funeral

Release date: 10 February 2007 (European Film Market)

Directed by Frank Oz, this black comedy has two brothers - Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) and Robert (Rupert Graves) - maneuvering about their father's home trying to deal with a disabled and acerbic uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan), a blackmailing dwarf (Peter Dinklage) and their cousin Martha's (Daisy Donovan) fiance Simon (Allan Tudyk) who has surreptitiously taken hallucinogenic drugs. What makes this all so entertaining is the fact it happens on the day of their father's funeral. Turns out the dwarf is actually their father's gay lover; Martha's dad Victor (Peter Egan) can't abide Simon; and, best of all Daniel's been harbouring a grudge against his older, more successful brother for ages. Death at a Funeral is a twisted dark comedy in a style so decided fawlty (emphasis and spelling intended) it's a wicked joy to watch.

My rating 7 out of 10.

127 Hours

Release date: 4 September 2010 (Telluride Film Festival)

Bully on James Franco for tackling a film where he is the center of attention from the get-go and responsible for carrying all the action. Bully on director Danny Boyle for detouring off the beaten path of Slumdog Millionaire to tackle the harrowing true-life story of Aron Ralston, who when trapped in a crevice in the Utah badlands opted to amputate his right arm rather than perish. A bold story coupled with bold acting in the hand(s)? of a bold director can produce a fine movie and 127 Hours is that and more.

My rating 8 out of 10.

It's Kind of a Funny Story

Release date: September 2010 (Toronto International Film Festival)

It's kind of an odd story, what with a suicidal 16-yer-old checking himself into an adult psychiatric ward, but It's Kind of a Funny Story is a good story too. Got that? Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the film follows Craig (Keir Gilchrist), a not untypical teenager as he wanders the ward of the unit meeting and befriending the patients in his search to fully understand he's just like most teenagers confused by he feelings for a girl and unable to relate what he wants to be (artsy and creative) with his parents expectations. Central to the film is a great performance by  Zach Falifianakis as Bobby and Emma Roberts as Noelle, Craig's soon-to-be girlfriend. While the film tackles the subject of mental health with a tongue-in-cheek humour that may lessen the severity of those individuals working their way through the maze that is brain health illness, It's Kind of a Funny Story (dumb title aside) is both quaint and odd enough - in an indie film sort of style - to make you forgive this.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Inception

Release date: 8 July 2010 (London, UK)

Easily the best film of this or any year, Christopher Nolan's masterpiece is a Jungian's wet dream of symbolism and one of the most deep films in the past half century. A marriage of past and present layered with a premise so interesting it ought to warrant its own research grant - that we can invade the subconscious and lay seeds that will eventually blossom into real-life actions. Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb (and who else does tortured soul better?) the leader of a group of professionals who parachute into the dreams of their targets. With him are sidekicks Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Ariadne (Ellen Page) and paying client Saito (Ken Watanabe). When Cobb is hired by Saito to change the mind of the CEO of the world's key energy company Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), he comes face-to-face with his own past and the wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), he abandoned within a dream.  With a rich storyline that goes deeper and deeper as it evolves and special effects that brilliantly complement its brazen premise, Inception is the most refreshingly original movie you'll see in long time.

My rating 10 out of 10.  

The Secret in Their Eyes

Release date: 13 August 2009 (Argentina)

The Secret in Their Eyes won Best Foreign Film for Argentina in 2010. Skillfully directed by Juan Jose Campenella, there is nary  a misplaced scene. In fact what works best about this film is its quietness. A skill that continues to elude the majority of American directors. The film is a crime thriller with a retired legal counselor in 1999 choosing to write a book about an unsolved rape/murder case from 1974. Ricardo Darin stars as Benjamin Esposito, the counselor in question; Guillermo Francella is Pablo Sandoval his perpetually drunk colleague and Soledad Villamil is their boss, Irene Hastings.  When a recently married Lilana is raped and murdered Esposito is assigned to the case. From that assignment he builds a lifelong fascination with the case and its players, including Lilana's husband Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago). The Secret in Their Eyes is a bold film despite its quietness and the twists and turns you encounter viewing it are fabulously fodder for a psychiatrist. See it.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Iron Man 2

Release date: 26 April 2010 (Los Angeles, California)

Robert Downey Jr returns - some six months later in time - as mega entrepreneur Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Now that he's a successful deterrent to war, the US Army begins its work to militarize the Iron Man technology, much to Stark's chargin. Sadly, Stark's ticker continues to wane and new bad guy Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) proves the US military right when he shows up at the Monaco Grand Prix in a Iron Man-like suit and nearly does Stark in. Gwyneth Paltrow returns as Pepper - now Stark CEO - Potts and Lt. Col. James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) pulls double duty again tiptoeing between his military bosses and Stark. Stark's new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johansson) we discover is actually working for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and when Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) hires Whiplash to work on a Hammer version of Ironman, all heck breaks loose. Directed by Jon Favreau, Ironman 2 continues all the great stuff discovered in the first movie and gives us a reason to like Ironman all over again.

My rating 8 out of 10.

 

The Town

Release date: 8 September 2010 (Venice Film Festival)

Charlestown on the outskirts of Boston births some of America's most successful thieves. The Town is director  Ben Affleck's story of one such group of armed robbers and, in particular, the attempt by one of this gang - Doug MacRay (Affleck) - to quit the neighbourhood's business.  When Affleck and his crew rob a bank and end up taking the bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hull) hostage, it sets in motion a collision between him, his best friend James (an outstanding Jeremy Renner) and the law. Anxious to escape Charlestown and with FBI agent Frawley (John Hamm) in pursuit, Doug is forced to take one last job for the neighbourhood godfather, Fergie Colm (Pete Postlewaite).  The Town is an action filled tale woven tightly around the story's four key characters and while it can be criticized for being unrealistic on a whole host of levels, the acting is fine enough, the action sharp enough to warrant a sojourn.

My rating 7 out of 10. 

Score: A Hockey Musical

Release date: 9 September 2010 (Toronto International Film Festival)

A film only a Canadian could love, Score: A Hockey Musical stars Noah Reid as Farley Gordon, a home-schooled lad with the hockey skills of The Great One. Recruited to the Brampton Blades for a tryout he soon makes the team much to the chagrin of Coach Donker (John Pyper-Ferguson). But when Farley is faced to fight, the pacifist  sentiment his parents - Hope and Edgar (Olivia Newton John and Marc Jordan respectively) - built into him has him at a crossroad. Directed by Michael McGowan and co-starring Alle MacDonald as Farley's 'I've-not-yet-discovered-I-love-her' best friend Eve, Score is ramp with over-the-top silliness and some pretty awful singing too boot. But hey, it's about hockey and features a few cameos by the likes of Walter Gretzky, Nelly Furtado, Evan Soloman, Theo Fleury and George Stroumboulopoulos, so it can't be all bad, eh!

My rating 4 out of 10. 

The Road

Release date: 3 September 2009 (Venice Film Festival)

The Road is a post-apocalyptic story based on Cormac McCarthy's novel that has a grungy looking Viggo Mortensen traipsing around an even grungier America. Viggo is looking for a safe place for he and his son, "Boy" (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as a new ice age settles on the continent and consumes the compassion that once knit  communities and people together.  Directed by John Hillcoat in hues of gray that match the relentless malaise and sadness of the story this is not a film to watch if you're feeling out of sorts or depressed. While ultimately The Road is a story of hope and love, you are forced to suffer through lots of violence to get there.  Viggo is as good as ever but we've been down this road before.

My rating  6 out of 10.

Kwaidan

Release date: 29 December 1964 (Japan)

Even today this 1964 film by artist-turned-director Masaki Kobayaski remains a masterpiece. Whether viewed as a psychological horror, a histogram of creepy folktales or a fantasy, Kwaidan remains hugely influential in Japanese film even today and echos of Kobayaski's style appear in modern anime with his pioneering use of stark colours and subtle messaging that mixes fable and parable. The film is a compendium of four stories based on the stories of Lafcadio Hearn - Black Hair, The Woman in the Snow, Hoichi the Earless and In a Cup of Tea. Each has its eerie and supernatural aspects and of the four the first and third work the best. Hoichi the Earless is a profound segment that blurs the lines of history when a story teller's ability to recount the past has the ghosts of the past trying to recruit him.

Essential viewing for any Japanese film fan, Kwaidan gets my rating of 9 out of 10.

The King's Speech

Release date: 5 September 2010 (Telluride Film Festival)

Telling the little known story of King George VI's (an excellent Colin Firth) struggle with stuttering and the speech therapist, Lionel Logue (an even better Geoffrey Rush), who aided him, The King's Speech recounts a heady slice of European history from the death of George V (Michael Gambon), the ascention and abdication of Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) and the arrival of George VI on the throne at the start of World War II. Directed by Tom Hooper, the film gives us a peek into the Family Royal and the intrigue - real or imagined - of life at court. Everyone is good in this film and the production has a regal air about it fitting the subject matter. The film's best bits though are those with Bertie and Lionel alone working through his stammer and the psychological baggage that birthed it. A good film that marries a history lesson with a drama few of us - at the time - knew was taking place behind the velvet curtains of Buckingham Palace.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Release date: 14 October 2009 (London Film Festival)

After promising his pregnant wife, Mrs Fox (Meryl Streep) he'll refrain from his fox raiding ways to take up a job as a journalist, the erstwhile Mr Fox (George Clooney) moves his home from a den to an oak tree situated beside three of the biggest, baddest farmers in the county - Boggis and Bunce and Bean. There, with his very odd son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) grown-up and his nephew Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) moved in, he resumes his chicken stealing ways. This inevitably leads to a war between the farmers and Mr Fox which draws in the entire animal community living beneath the ground. Directed by Wes Anderson and using stop-action animation - a decidedly brave move that works in a world of computer drawn animation films - Fantastic Mr. Fox takes Roald Dahl's much loved characters on a new adventure that is endearing, slightly odd, and wickedly funny.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Winter's Bone

Release date: January 2010 (Sundance Film Festival)

Daniel Woodrell's novel of the same name is adapted by director Debra Granik and becomes a movie critic's darling. When 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is told the home she and her family live in will be confiscated unless her drug-dealing father Jessup is found, she takes things into her own hands to search the underbelly of Missouri hillbilly country - and its vile web of secrets and mean inhabitants - to discover the truth. Sadly, she finds it in a swamp but does come out richer for it. Winter's Bone is beautifully filmed in an unflinching fashion and cuts very near the bone. And while Lawrence, John Hawkes (as her uncle Teardrop) and especially Dale Dickey (as the cruel-to-be-kind matriarch Merab) are all excellent, in the end you have no emotional attachment to these folks - real as they may be in portrayal - and worse, tire of the dreariness of the whole thing. A good example of style over substance, Winter's Bone leaves this critic cold indeed.

My rating 4 out of 10.

Exam

Release date: June 2009 (Edinburgh Film Festival)

Stuart Hazeldine wrote and directed this stylistic thriller that has a mysterious group of wannabes entering a room to take an exam which will land one of them a much coveted job with the world's greatest pharmaceutical. At the outset the exam's invigilator (Colin Salmon) lays down the rules the 8 candidates must adhere to. These include no spoiling the exam paper; no talking to either the invigilator or the armed guard stationed in the room; and no leaving the room. With that, the exam and intrigue commence. The central players end up being White (Luke Malby), Black (Chukwudi Iwuji), Blonde (Natalie Cox) and Deaf (John Lloyd Fillingham) who - once they realize they can talk to each other - try to sort out the mystery and answer the question that appears to elude them. Exam is a well thought-out thriller expertly directed within the confines of a single room. It captures you from the opening credits forward with enough cerebral and physical action to keep you pondering. You'll look at your next exam a little differently for sure.

My rating 8 out of 10.

The Kids Are Alright

Release date: 25 January 2010 (Sundance Film Festival)

Lisa Cholodenko directs a film she wrote - and a very good original screenplay at that - which follows the arrival of a surrogate father into the lives of two lesbians and their two children. Annette Benning stars as Nic, the successful physician and 'father' of the family. Julianne Moore is her partner, Jules, a woman still trying to find herself and her lot in life. When their teenage children - Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and brother Laser (Josh Hutcherson) - decide to meet their sperm-donating father Paul (Mark Ruffalo) it sets off all sorts of doubts and drama that challenges the family's dynamic. The film is refreshing in that it portrays two not unusual occurrences in life within the (to some) unique context of a gay couple with kids. Filmed with good humour, it all ends predictably enough - poor Paul aside - and Benning steals the show.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Toy Story 3

Release date: 12 June 2010 (Taormina Film Festival)

Lee Unkrick directs this latest installment of the Disney Studios juggernaut that keeps going and going. The playpen of characters returns including Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Lotso (Ned Beatty), Mr Potato Head (Don Rickles - who this reviewer always thinks is deceased), and Ken (Michael Keaton). As Andy heads for college, he toys with what to do with his beloved childhood friends. Opting to cart them to the attic, they are inadvertently waylaid by Andy's mom and end up in a notorious daycare overseen by an evil strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-o'-Huggin'. The story is formulaic to its core and despite the gorgeous animation, Toy Story 3 has a thoroughly been-there, done-that feel. And the Academy picked this an Oscar 2011 contender? Oh my!

My rating 5 out of 10.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Release date: 8 September 2009 (Venice Film Festival)

Despite a stellar line up of stars, The Men Who Stare at Goats is simply too strange a film to warrant anything but passing interest. Ewan Macgregor stars as Bob Wilton, a loser journalist who ships out to Iraq to get a story that will make his girlfriend reconsider the fact he is a loser. There he meets Lyn Skip Cassady (George Clooney) who recounts a tale only a strung out San Franciscan could love of an army officer, Bill Django (a good Jeff Bridges), whose job it was to train a secret group of army misfits to be - wait for it - psychic Jedi warriors. Kevin Spacey appears being, well, Kevin Spaceylike as the Jedi warrior with a grudge, Larry Hooper. And yes, a goat dies. The film fails despite its tongue-in-cheek plot thanks solely to Macgregor who is thoroughly aggravating throughout the film. This reviewer kept hoping he'd be shot. Never a good sign, granted. Kudos to Clooney and Bridges for giving us something to focus on.

My rating 4 neahs out of 10.

Red

Release date: 29 September 2010 (Austin Fantastic Fest)

Retired Extremely Dangerous is what the initials stand for and to it you might add, fun to boot. Directed by Robert Schwentke, the ensemble piece stars a fine group of stars - Helen Mirren (as Victoria); Bruce Willis (as Frank Moses); Karl Urban (as William Cooper); the always crazy John Malkovich (as crazy Marvin Boggs); Mary-Louise Parker (as Sarah); Morgan Freedman (as Joe Matheson); the always fine Brian Cox (as Ivan) and even Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest Borgnine. Best watched by totally ignoring the plot and simply going along for the ride, it's great to see this cadre of fine movie stars in a vehicle that plays wonderfully to their age.

My rating 7 out of 10.

A Room With A View

Release date: December 1985 (Royal Command Film Festival)

An Ivory and Merchant film that is - as all Ivory and Merchant films are - exquisite. A Room with a View puts to film E.M. Forrester's fabulous novel of the same name. The film is a gorgeous love story with a overriding social commentary that pokes fun at English sensibilities at the turn of the century. Starring oh-so-young versions of Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch and Daniel Day Lewis as her pompous fiance Cecil Vyse; Julian Sands is Lucy's paramour George; the great Denholm Elliott is his father Mr. Elliott; Julie Dench is writer Eleanor Lavish - gotta love that name! - Simon Callow plays Reverend Beade and the great Maggie Smith is Lucy's cousin and chaperon, and ever-in-a-muddle, Charlotte. The film is rich on too many levels to count and the scene of Lucy coming upon George in the field high above Florence remains one of this reviewers most favourite movie scenes of all time.

My rating 9 out of 10.

500 Days of Summer

Release date: 17 January 2009 (Sundance Film Festival)

Marc Webb directs Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen and Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn, the inspiration for the title of the movie. Tom is a greeting card copy writer who has become so caught up in his verses that when he meets new office employee Summer is instantly love-struck. What follows is a cute synopsis of their 500 days of ups and downs. Summer, you see, is a freer spirit and is fine with that nebulous commitment best termed 'friends with benefits'. When fate intercedes and she meets the man of her dreams, Tom is forced to realize sometimes love-struckness can be one-sided. 500 Days of Summer is a very good film that uses an inventive storyline complemented by fine acting to relate one of the great truths of dating - often you're not 'the one', but 'the one' is out there.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Finding Bliss

Release date: 8 January 2009 (Slamdance Film Festival)

Schlock. Pure schlock and poor schlock at that. A straight to dvd disaster that uses the premise of a 'real' film-maker Jody (Leelee Sobeiski), who, trying to make inroads into the industry, opts to work at an adult film company while secretly filming her 'real' movie in their studios at night. While the movie bills itself as a romantic comedy, the dreadful intermingling of a love story with porn makes the romance, pardon the pun, impotent. Directed by Julie Davis and with Matt Davis as Jody's romantic interest, Jeff Drake, the film's only redeeming quality is supporting actors Kristen Johnston as Irene Fox and PJ Bryne as Gary. What's sure, you'll not find any bliss in this awful film.

My rating 1 out of 10.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Release date: 24 June 2010 (Los Angeles Film Festival)

(yawn)... finally the end of this sad journey. The usual gaggle of werewolves and vampires reassembles again including the unholy trio of shamelessly inane 'actors' Kristen Stewart as Bella, Robert Pattinson as Edward and Taylor Lautner as Jacob. David Slade directs the two sorry hours of tedious boredom; Bella graduates; Victoria returns for more revenge; Jacob still lusts after Bella. Amid the tiresome seen-it-all-before scenes rank with simply brutal dialogue lies the end of the saga. Let do hope and pray this dreadful series that only got worse as it evolved has finally met its eclipse.

My rating 1 out of 10.

Before Sunset

Release date: 10 February 2004 (Berlin International Film Festival)

Nine years after their first encounter in Paris, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Deply) cross paths again when Jesse arrives in Paris at the end of a long book tour. The book, of course, is a veiled autobiography of his and Celine's before sunrise journeying. Both remain haunted by their first encounter and director Richard Linklater picks up where they left off dealing with the question: did either return to the train station as they promised. Before Sunset doesn't work as well as the first film. The couple are simply re-hatching old themes, driven by a plot vehicle - Jesse's soon departing plane - that feels false. Though both are wiser, sadder and more mature this time out, the passion that brought life to the first film is buried in too much psychological melodrama that is both too verbose by half and gives us characters weighted in stone rather than light. But perhaps that's the point?

My rating 6 out of 10.

Down with Love

Release date: 9 May 2003 (New York City, New York)

Down with Love is an homage to those silly, bantering romantic comedies of the 1960s. It is not trying to be something bigger or deeper or more meaningful. Its raison d'etre is simply lightness and silliness. Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger) comes to New York to celebrate the publication of her women-can-have-lives-and-pleasure-without-men book - Down With Love. Journalist and womanizer extraordinaire, Catcher Block (Ewan Macgregor), is set on proving her wrong by trying to woe her - as someone else. It's all utterly ridiculous in the hands of director Peyton Reed and with the addition of David Hyde Pierce as Peter MacManus, Block's boss, and Sarah Paulson as Vikki Hill, Novak's agent, the mis-communication and comedic results are wonderful to see on screen.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Replusion

Release date: May 1964 (Cannes Film Festival)

In 1965 Roman Polanski directed a very young Catherine Deneuve in this deep and beautifully filmed psychological thriller. Deneuve is Carole, a young manicurist who lives in London with her sister Helen (Yvonne Furneaux). Carole is deeply troubled, in particular by men; repulsed in fact. A situation not helped by her sister who is banging her boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendrey) each nigh in their flat, nor by Colin (John Fraser) her wannabe boyfriend. Things come to a head when Michael takes Helen on a vacation leaving Carole alone in the flat. She soon slides into hallucinations as her mental state slips beyond the norm into a nether world where she imagines being raped as the walls of her flat - literally - come alive. Way ahead of its time, Repulsion is pregnant with subplot but try to avoid thinking too much and simply sit back and enjoy watching the great film-making. Exceptionally great even all these years on, Repulsion shows us how to create horror that doesn't need the gory effects so prevalent in today's films.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Sin Nombre

Release date: 18 January 2009 (Sundance Film Festival)

It doesn't end well. That said, Sin Nombre is a magnificent film that takes us deep into two miserable worlds: the gangs of southern Mexico and the lives of desperate families trying to escape poverty in Central America by making the dangerous journey to America. Directed and written by Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre shows us the story of El Casper (Edgar Flores), a Mexican lad brutally buried in gang culture and Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), a young Honduran refugee escaping to America with her father and uncle by riding train roofs across the breadth of Mexico. When the lives of these two youths meet atop the roof of a train one night, the film's true journey begins. Beautifully filmed and oh-so-sad to watch, Sin Nombre gives us in the 'have countries' a reality difficult to comprehend. Fate is cruel and despite knowing intuitively that his days are numbered El Casper aids Sayra in reaching the border as though his redemption for past sins rests on this goal alone. A must see.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Mission Impossible 3

Release date: 24 April 2006 (Rome, Italy)

JJ Abrams directs Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in this latest MIF caper. Aiding Hunt is his usual crew - Maggie Q as Zhen and uber-cool Ving Rhames as Luther. Trying to finally exit the MIF life and retire, Hunt marries Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Alas the scriptwriters have different ideas for Julia after Hunt captures bad guy Owen Davian (a wickedly evil Philip Seymour Hoffman). She is duly dispatched to Shanghai as a bartering chip for Hunt to steal - wait for it - the "Rabbit's Foot", which is some crazy nuclear vial that will end the world or something - sorry, this reviewer lost track, and, frankly didn't really care by this point what it was all supposed to be about. In the end, there's plenty of action and Tom huffs and puffs his way through it all capably - the utter lack of any romance between him and Monaghan aside - and Billy Curdup, as double agent Musgrave, gets his comeuppance. Roll credits; roll eyes.

My rating 3 out of 10 for some breathtaking special effects.

The Book of Eli

Release date: 11 January 2o1o (Hollywood, California)

Allen and Albert Hughes direct the screen version of Gary Whitta's novel about a Christian black man wandering a post-apocalyptic America with purportedly the last copy of the Bible in his hands. Denzel Washington plays Eli with a sort of cool hand Luke attitude as he crosses America just ahead of the evil Carnegie (the always great Gary Oldman) accompanied off and on by Solara (Mila Kunis), a lass he rescues from bandits. While an excellent study of one man's journey to his destiny - at Alcatraz of all places - the marriage of Mad Max-like scenes with spirituality doesn't feel genuine. America - post-apocalyptic or not - is hardly the place we're going find a latter-day saint.

My rating 4 out of 10.