The latest on Blu-ray films & games
James Bond blockbuster Quantum Of Solace has become the UK’s biggest home entertainment release of 2009, the Official Charts Company confirmed today.
The film shifted 522,926 Blu-ray and DVD copies on its first day of release yesterday.
Anders Kloster, managing director UK, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, said: “Bond is as big as ever with the British public.”
The film was also a box office phenomenon and had the biggest Friday opening of all time in the UK.
Changeling (Cert 15, 141 mins, Universal Pictures UK, Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Devon Conti, Jason Butler Harner, Denis O’Hare, Gattlin Griffith.
Single mother Christine Collins (Jolie) raises her nine-year-old son Walter (Griffith) in ’20s Los Angeles by working long hours as a supervisor at the telephone exchange.
Unexpectedly called into work one weekend, Christine arrives home to find that Walter has disappeared without trace. After months of fearing the worst, Captain JJ Jones (Donovan) contacts Christine with incredible news: Walter has been found safe and well. Overcome with joy, the mother races to the train station to meet her son, except the boy (Conti) who claims to be Walter is an impostor. When Christine threatens to expose the lie, Captain Jones dispatches her to the mental asylum. Just as all hope seems lost, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich) and his allies launch a campaign to release Christine from her cell and expose corruption in the LAPD. Elegantly adapted from the Los Angeles police files by J Michael Straczynski, Changeling is a cautionary tale about the abuse of power and the extraordinary influence of one individual on a corrupt system. Jolie was deservedly Oscar nominated as a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who screams and shouts for justice, fearful that she might not get the answers she wants. We share her sense of outrage, shedding tears as the asylum’s insidious head doctor (O’Hare) threatens to destroy Christine’s resolve with electro-shock therapy. Donovan is equally compelling as a chauvinistic bully determined to restore his department’s tarnished reputation. Eastwood directs at a typically leisurely pace, underscoring Tom Stern’s flawless cinematography with his own mournful orchestral score.
DVD Extras: “Making Of” featurette, “The Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins” featurette.
Rating: ****
Body Of Lies (Cert 15, 123 mins, Warner Home Video, Action/Thriller/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Golshifteh Farahani, Mark Strong, Alon Aboutboul.
CIA supervisor Ed Hoffman (Crowe) is a key player in his country’s overseas operations to quash terrorist activities. From the comfort of his suburban home where he adopts the mantle of doting father, Ed co-ordinates the day-to-day activities of agent Roger Ferris (DiCaprio), who is on the trail of the elusive Al-Saleem (Aboutboul), the mastermind of numerous bombings across Europe. To achieve his goal, Roger aligns himself with Hani Salaam (Strong), the slippery head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID), but lets his guard down to spark a tentative romance with Jordanian-Iranian nurse Aisha (Farahani).
The relationship leaves Roger dangerously exposed and Al-Saleem seizes the opportunity to strike back against the infidels. Opening with a devastating explosion on British shores, Body Of Lies channels timely fears about the fight against terrorism into a routine spy caper, enlivened sporadically by the directorial brio of Ridley Scott. The British filmmaker grafts some impressively robust, adrenaline-pumping action sequences onto a disappointingly linear plot, including the bombing of a Dutch market place. DiCaprio is lacklustre in a predominately reactive role but Crowe impresses, carrying 50lbs gained specially for the role to portray a portly family man, who effortlessly juggles energetic children with decisions of national importance. The romantic subplot is a crude plot device to facilitate a pivotal torture scene, during which DiCaprio’s right hand is smashed to a pulp in gruesome close-up. Scott’s forte as an action director shines through, including a desert hideout fire fight and a thrilling helicopter chase. Marc Streitenfeld’s orchestral score keeps time with the erratic pacing, delivering bombast to accompany the pyrotechnics.
DVD Extras: Director commentary, “Actionable Intelligence: Deconstructing Body Of Lies” featurette; Blu-ray: Director commentary, “Behind The Story” featurette, “Actionable Intelligence: Deconstructing Body Of Lies” featurette, “Interactive Debriefing” featurette, additional footage, deleted scenes with optional director commentary including alternative ending, free digital copy of the film.
Rating: ***
The Secret Life Of Bees (Cert 12, 105 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Drama, also available to buy DVD £19.99)
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, Alicia Keys, Paul Bettany, Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds.
When her nursemaid Rosaleen (Hudson) endures a beating at the hands of local bigots in ’60s South Carolina, plucky teenager Lily Owens (Fanning) vows to spirit her friend away to a safer place, leaving behind her hard-drinking father T Ray (Bettany).
The travellers seek refuge with the Boatwright sisters – August (Latifah), May (Okonedo) and June (Keys) – who produce some of the state’s finest honey. The sisters, it transpires, are directly linked to Lily’s dead mother and as the young woman explores her tortured past, she learns to harness the courage to stand up for what she believes in, and even stand up to T Ray. The Secret Life Of Bees is an affecting and well-crafted rites of passage story, adapted from Sue Monk Kidd’s acclaimed novel. Cinematographer Rogier Stoffers beautifully captures beatific scenes of sisterly solidarity and honey gathering in sun-dappled landscapes. These moments of pastoral splendour contrast starkly with occasional explosions of violence, including scenes of racial and child abuse, and the death of one character guaranteed to pluck the heartstrings of most viewers.
Fanning anchors the picture with another emotionally raw portrayal of tainted childhood, crying her heart out on cue as her brittle heroine comes to terms with the grief and guilt that forbid her from chasing her dreams. Latifah impresses as a clucky mother hen and Okonedo and Keys are excellent in wildly different roles. Bettany is poorly served as the film’s one clearly identifiable villain. Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s script is perhaps a little emotionally manipulative and sickly sweet – rather like the bees’ golden nectar.
DVD Extras: Director, producers, actors and editor commentaries, 8 deleted scenes with optional director and editor commentary, “Adaptation: Bringing The Secret Life Of Bees To The Big Screen” featurette, “The Women And Men Of The Secret Life Of Bees” featurette, “Inside The Pink House With Sue Monk Kidd” featurette, “A Day In The Life” featurette, The World Premiere.
Rating: ***
Lakeview Terrace (Cert 15, 106 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Thriller, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Samuel L Jackson, Jay Hernandez, Regine Nehy, Jaishon Fisher.
Loving couple Chris (Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Washington) excitedly move into a new home and clash with LAPD officer Abe Turner (Jackson), who lives next door with his children Celia (Nehy) and Maurice (Fisher), and strongly disapproves of interracial marriage. Chris’ efforts to broker peace in the cul-de-sac fall on deaf ears and he becomes the butt of Abe’s mean-spirited pranks. “You scared the hell out of me!” shrieks the young husband after one startling, late night encounter. “How else are you going to learn?” retorts the cop menacingly. As cracks appear in the Mattsons’ relationship, Abe resorts to extreme tactics to scare Chris and Lisa out of their new home, with help from his buddies on the force, including partner Javier (Hernandez). Lakeview Terrace is a predictable game of cat and mouse between vulnerable newlyweds and a man in authority, who seems untouchable by dint of his badge.
LaBute strains credibility to crank up the suspense, abandoning common sense for the sake of narrative twists. Harsh words lead to bloodshed and a climactic showdown set against the backdrop of flash fires raging uncontrollably throughout the state – an obvious and somewhat heavy-handed metaphor for the fiery emotions pitting one homeowner against another. Jackson chews the scenery before it goes up in flames as the bigoted bully, while Wilson adopts a permanently furrowed brow.
The overwrought finale restores the LAPD’s image but not before Jackson has one final opportunity to bellow and bluster and roll those eyes wildly.
DVD Extras: Director commentary, behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes.
Rating: ***
The Children (Cert 15, 81 mins, Vertigo Films, Horror/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: 
, Stephen Campbell-Moore, Hannah Tointon, Rachel Shelley, Jeremy Sheffield, Eva Sayer, Jake Hathaway, Rafiella Brookes, William Howes.
The snow is deep and crisp as Elaine (Birthistle) and her husband Jonah (Campbell-Moore) travel by car with their kids – truculent teenager Casey (Tointon), Miranda (Sayer) and Paulie (Howes) – to spend Christmas with Chloe (Shelley), her beau Robbie (Sheffield) and their tearaways Nicky (Hathaway) and Leah (Brookes). One by one, the brats fall ill and experience disorienting visions of carnage and mayhem. As bloodlust takes hold, the urchins strike out at the adults with terrifying consequences.
The parents, and an increasingly distraught Casey, try to keep the demonic whippersnappers at bay, hastily planning an escape route from their remote, snowbound location. Yet, every way the uninfected turn, a possessed poppet waits to strike. Director Tom Shankland’s gruesome follow-up to WAZ conjures a hellish vision of the festive season, pitting two couples against the cherubic offspring they have raised their entire lives. The Children poses a thorny moral dilemma – in order to save your own life, would you harm the one thing in the world that is most precious to you? – but the film doesn’t deliberate in any real depth, erring on the side of campy as the zombified offspring start wielding sharp implements with ghoulish intent. Older cast members are immobilised in the order you expect with a sticky ending involving a sled for one unfortunate soul. A frenzied scene in a greenhouse culminates in a reflex, life or death decision guaranteed to have those of a nervous disposition covering their eyes.
DVD Extras: “The Making Of The Children” featurette, location featurette, “Paul Hyatt Talks Prosthetics” featurette, snow set design featurette, deleted scenes, Tom Shankland’s On-Set Lair, “Working With Children” featurette.
Rating: **
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Chart Title Format Release Date (pre-order)
1 Empire: Total War Game Out now
2 Quantum of Solace DVD 23rd March 2009
3 Killzone 2 Game Out now
4 Street Fighter IV Game Out now
5 Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Game Out now
6 Empire: Total War – Special Edition Game Out now
7 Resident Evil 5 Game Out now
8 The Lord Of The Rings: The Trilogy [Extended Ed.][12 Discs] DVD Boxset
9 Mamma Mia! DVD
10 The Bourne Ultimatum Blu-ray 30th March 2009
Top Deals this week
Up to 70% off Mother?s Day gifts
Triple film boxsets from £5.93
MARLEY & ME (PG)
Animal lovers will go bow wow wow for this comedy-drama about one man’s journey of self-discovery with a mischievous Labrador.
Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star as a young couple struggling to juggle professional and parental responsibilities as well as Marley, the tiny, adorable bundle of fun that soon grows into 100 pounds of uncontrollable energy, chewing up anything and everything in the couple’s home.
Only the stone coldest heart – or a cat lover – would fail to be moved by the outcome of this movie.
Rating: Four stars
BRONSON (18)
Originally sentenced to seven years at the age of 19 for a bungled armed robbery, Charles Bronson is now one of the UK’s most notorious and violent inmates of our overcrowded prison system.
So how do you get inside the mind of a man who has been certified as clinically insane… and would you even want to?
Violent and expletive-ridden, Bronson is an acquired taste.
Rating: Three stars
SURVEILLANCE (18, 97 mins)
Director Jennifer Lynch returns with her second feature, a thriller of murder and deception set predominantly on one of those never-ending highways loved by her father David. Explosions of graphic violence and moribund humour prove that she has definitely inherited his appreciation for a world teetering on the brink of insanity, but the histrionics of the final act skirt perilously close to laughable.
Rating: Three stars
WATCHMEN (18)
Relations between America and the Soviet Union are strained and there is a clear and present danger of nuclear attack. In this politically charged climate, a deadly conspiracy involving the masked crime-fighters unfolds, which could have far-reaching implications for the future of mankind.
An uncomfortable, buttock-numbing 162 minutes, Watchmen is bloody and violent from the outset – hence the 18 certificate.
Rating: Three stars
THE YOUNG VICTORIA (PG)
Of all the love stories that have defined the British monarchy, none tugs the heartstrings quite like Victoria and Prince Albert.
Tracing the romance from the initial sparks of attraction between the first cousins to marriage, The Young Victoria reveals the private frustrations of the young queen.
Boasting gorgeous sets and costumes and a haunting orchestral score the film adheres closely to fact, albeit with an attractive cast being somewhat easier on the eye than some of their historical counterparts.
Rating: Three stars
NEW IN TOWN (12A)
Hopelessly misconceived and poorly executed, New In Town is a tiresome fish out of water comedy reminiscent of Sweet Home Alabama. Ambitious executive Lucy Hill (Zellweger) has been hired by her bosses back in Miami to spearhead the restructuring of a tiny Minnesotan town’s ailing Munck Foods plant. A city girl at heart, she has trouble adjusting to her new surroundings but slowly finds common ground with the locals – particularly union representative Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr). Despite Zellweger’s admirable attempts at physical comedy, this film is dull to its frozen core.
Rating: One and a half stars
THE UNBORN (15)
Gleefully appropriating elements from The Exorcist including a possessed soul whose head swivels through 180 degrees then scuttles up the stairs on all fours, The Unborn awkwardly uses the Holocaust as a backdrop to an outlandish tale of secret experiments and evil spirits. When Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) suffers a series of disturbing visions and one of her eyes mysteriously changes colour, she discovers she was in fact a twin. It transpires her unborn brother died in utero, and an evil spirit is now haunting her waking hours. But the only real shock in this proposterous supernatural yarn is whatever possessed Gary Oldman to be involved.
Rating: Two stars
GRAN TORINO (15)
In what reportedly will be his final appearance in front of a camera, Clint Eastwood delivers a tour-de-force performance as Walt Kowalski, a xenophobic war veteran, in this timely, Humanist drama. A powerful tale of modern day vigilantism, Gran Torino examines the clashes of ideals in predominantly white, blue-collar American neighbourhoods, where the ethnic and cultural make-up altered by the influx of immigrants. After intervening in a fight, Walt inadvertently takes young Asian Thao (Bee Vang) under his wing but finds himself in a world riven by gang violence and peer pressure.
Rating: Four stars
THE INTERNATIONAL (15)
Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) uncovers evidence of serious infringements within one of the world’s most powerful banks and resolves to bring the institution’s boardroom to justice. However, the men in power will stop at nothing to protect their investments – even murder. The International is distinguished by a couple of brilliantly orchestrated action sequences, and Owen is strong as a man of conviction willing to go to any lengths in the name of justice.
Rating: Three stars
CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (PG)
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) is a journalist who dreams of working on fashion bible Alette. Biding her time on a financial journal, her quirky column becomes a huge success. But she is hiding a deep, dark secret – an obsession with shopping. She juggles 12 credit cards, racking up debts of around 16,000, yet somehow still clings onto her apartment, her dream job, Mr Right and the love of family and friends. As long as Isla is on screen, goofing around, we’re happy to be sold this cheap and cheerful fantasy.
Rating: Two and a half stars
PUSH (12A)
This suspense thriller is set in a grim, foreboding future. A shadowy government agency known as The Division rounds up psychics for the express purpose of creating an army capable of controlling every thought and event. Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is a second generation telekinetic, who has been on the run ever since Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) murdered his father. He meets 13-year-old Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a “watcher” or clairvoyant, who needs his help to retrieve a suitcase containing £6 million. Director Paul McGuigan directs with confidence, including a couple of blistering action sequences, but the script, however, is riddled with unanswered questions and plot holes.
Rating: Two and a half stars
FRIDAY THE 13TH (18)
What is this crazy, mixed-up world coming to when a group of promiscuous, bong-smoking college kids can’t spend a weekend at a waterside retreat with a grisly past, without running into a machete-wielding psychopath?
The new Friday The 13th nods and winks to Sean S Cunningham’s seminal 1980 bloodbath and adds a few twists of its own.
Devoid of scares, male characters are largely misogynist jerks while their female companions divide neatly into sensible girls and brazen hussies who are incapable of keeping their breasts covered.
The latter die first.
Rating: Two stars
THE PINK PANTHER 2 (PG)
The razor-sharp intellects of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple would struggle to unravel The Curious Case Of The Completely Pointless Sequel.
The convoluted plot, clumsily stitched together, is a hook for desperately unfunny set pieces, which include Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, falling down a chimney, donning the guise of a flamenco dancer and impersonating the Pope.
The Pink Panther 2 is an embarrassment, revolving yet again around the theft of the legendary diamond from under ze noses of ze gendarme in ze French capital.
Hardly the cat’s whiskers
Rating: Two stars
HOTEL FOR DOGS (U)
While The Pink Panther 2 leaves us caterwauling for mercy this week, Hotel For Dogs turns out to be a decidedly finer pedigree of comedy, a family-oriented tale of two enterprising orphans, whose enduring love for their four-legged friends sparks a magical adventure.
Andi and her younger brother Bruce have passed from one foster home to the next, eventually landing up with musicians Carl and Lois Scudder, who care more about rehearsals than feeding two brats. So Andi and Bruce learn to take care of themselves, and their Jack Russell terrier Friday.
Cute and undemanding, Hotel for Dogs engineers a happy ever after for the two diminutive heroes.
Rating: Three stars
NOTORIOUS (15)
In the early hours of March 9, 1997, Christopher ’Biggie’ Wallace aka rapper The Notorious B.I.G. left a Los Angeles club with his entourage, bound for their hotel.
When the vehicles stopped at traffic lights, an unknown assailant opened fire in a drive-by shooting, spraying the car with bullets and fatally injuring the musician.
Executive produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs, Notorious is an overlong biopic that doesn’t draw any conclusions, but offers up a reverent if not entirely affectionate portrait of The Notorious B.I.G.
Rating: Three stars
VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (12A)
Flighty and single Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and soon-to-be-married Vicky head to Barcelona for the summer. Taking in the sights of the Catalan capital including Antoni Gaudi’s most famous buildings and the Picasso Museum both contrasting beautifully with the city’s bohemian and gothic quarters, the young women catch the eye of artist Juan Antonio, who is the talk of the town.
Cristina falls under Antonio’s powerful spell embarking on an affair before his crazy ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), reappears and stirs up dormant desires.
Rating: Four stars
THE SECRET OF MOONACRE (U)
There’s not much in the way of magic or gung-ho adventure in this exceedingly gloomy tale of thwarted love, adapted from the children’s classic The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. Plucky 13-year-old orphan, Maria Merryweather (Dakota Blue Richards), is forced to seek lodgings with her gruff uncle, Sir Benjamin Merryweather (Ioan Gruffudd), on the isolated Moonacre Valley estate. She arrives with a leather bound copy of The Ancient Chronicles Of Moonacre Valley, which reveals her family’s dark history. Unless an enchanted necklace is located by the rising of the 5000th moon, the entire valley will be destroyed. Alas, even esteemed director Gabor Csupo is unable to spark this turgid fairy-tale to life.
Rating: Two stars
HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (12A)
Based on the book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, this is an ensemble drama-comedy about the affairs of the heart of myriad twenty- and thirty-something men and women living in present day Baltimore. Despite a stellar cast list – Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson – He’s Just Not That Into You is a disappointingly familiar scrapbook of relationship highs and woes, culminating in the usual array of broken hearts, smouldering kisses and wedding vows.
Rating: Two and a half stars
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (12A)
This fantastical tale of a man who grows younger not older with each passing day is set to scoop a number of awards. Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) was born “under unusual circumstances” in 1918. Raised in a retirement home, he soon grows young enough to leave and seek his fortune on a tugboat. Here, he falls in love with a ballet dancer (Cate Blanchett) but fears commitment as he continues to grow young, alone. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button recalls Forrest Gump, possessing the same scope and ambition as it juxtaposes an ordinary man’s extraordinary escapades against a backdrop of 20th century American history.
Rating: Four stars
DOUBT (15)
Themes of certainty and suspicion underpin writer/director John Patrick Shanley’s film, adapted of his own Tony award-winning stage play of the same name, set in a ’60s Catholic school. On the basis of rumour and hearsay, Father Flynn (Philip Semour Hoffman) is accused of child abuse. The ferocious Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) makes it her mission to bully Flynn into a confession of guilt. Doubt lacks the immediacy and some of the palpable tension of the stage version but Shanley’s adaptation of his own source material is still a riveting game of cat and mouse.
Rating: Four stars
BOLT 3D (U)
Man’s best friend learns to stand on his own four paws in Byron Howard and Chris Williams’ computer animated comedy, which pokes fun at our obsession with celebrity. Since he was a pup, Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) has been the star of a hugely popular TV series, in which he plays a genetically engineered canine with superpowers who saves plucky owner Penny (Miley Cyrus) from the clutches of the dastardly Dr Calico (Malcolm McDowell). But once thrust into the real world he embarks on a series of misadventures. Also available in 3D format.
Rating: Three stars
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (15)
Sam Mendes’s beautifully crafted adaptation of the novel by Richard Yates chills to the bone with its unflinching portrait of scenes from a disintegrating marriage. Set in ’50s suburban Conneticut, Frank Wheeler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and aspiring actress April Johnson (Kate Winslet) have high hopes of happy life together. They raise two children and make ambitious plans to move to Paris. But these dreams quickly fade and are replaced with screaming, shouting and tears. Revolutionary Road is technically polished with electrifying performances.
Rating: Three stars.
VALKYRIE (12A)
Bryan Singer’s controversial war opus relates the final attempt on Hitler’s life before his suicide in April 1945 in the Fuhrerbunker. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is recruited by the German Resistance to spearhead the assassination attempt. The dissenters plot to seize control of the government using Operation Valkyrie, Hitler’s plan to protect ministers in case of an uprising using the reserve army. Unfortunately, Valkyrie is a plodding history lesson. Bryan Singer’s film ambles along without any sense of urgency, while Cruise’s sombre one-note portrayal lacks vitality.
Rating: Two and a half stars
FROST/NIXON (15)
On August 8, 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first President to resign from the Oval Office. Rather than answer tough questions about his so-called crimes, Nixon was sensationally pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford. Frost/Nixon documents the efforts of an unlikely champion – British talk show host David Frost – to interview Nixon on camera and to effectively tease a confession from the wily orator. Based on the award-winning stage play by Peter Morgan, Ron Howard directs this classic tale of David and Goliath blessed with tour de force performances.
Rating: Three and a half stars
(15)
On November 27, 1978, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, was gunned down along with Mayor George Moscone by city supervisor Dan White. Gus Van Sant’s stylish and haunting biopic celebrates the power of one man to take on the political establishment and to affect lasting change through a selfless, unwavering pursuit of equality for all. Sean Penn delivers possibly the performance of his career, affecting Harvey’s speech patterns and mannerisms perfectly.
Rating: Five stars
Eagle Eye (Cert 12, 112 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Action/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Thornton, Ethan Embry, Rosario Dawson, Cameron Boyce.
Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf) and single mother Rachel Holloman (Monaghan) have never met. He is grieving the death of his twin, she is concerned about her young son Sam (Boyce), who is travelling to Washington for an important musical recital. Both receive similar telephone calls informing them to follow explicit instructions or pay a terrible price.
When the mastermind behind the devious scheme reveals her ultimate goal – for Jerry and Rachel to commit murder – the would-be assassins find themselves on the run from FBI special agents Thomas Morgan (Thornton) and Toby Grant (Embry), and Air Force special agent Zoe Perez (Dawson). The people who could save Jerry and Rachel from their 21st century nightmare are now the very same people who want them dead.
Ludicrously overblown yet undeniably thrilling, Eagle Eye barely pauses for breath between slam-bang set pieces, intercutting the reluctant heroes’ mission with the efforts of authorities to second guess the next move of these two alleged terrorists. LaBeouf and Monaghan puff and pant for all their worth in the midst of eye-popping pyrotechnics, generating sparks of sexual tension that only ignite in the film’s mawkish epilogue. Thornton brings a spiky charm to his pursuer. DJ Caruso delivers a series of spectacular set pieces that begins with the arm of a construction crane scything through the side of a building. Viewers will have to play as dumb as the beleaguered heroes. As soon as you question the film’s twisted logic, you realise that survival relies too heavily on luck and coincidence.
DVD Extras: “Road Trip” featurette, 3 deleted scenes (Ethan’s Wake, Minuteman, Twins), alternative ending, gag reel, photo gallery; Blu-ray: “Road Trip” featurette, “Asymmetrical Warfare: The Making Of Eagle Eye” featurette, “Eagle Eye On Location: Washington DC” featurette, “Is My Cell Phone Spying On Me?” featurette, “Shall We Play A Game?” featurette, 3 deleted scenes (Ethan’s Wake, Minuteman, Twins), alternative ending, gag reel, photo gallery, theatrical trailer.
Rating: ***
How To Lose Friends & 
(Cert 15, 105 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges, Megan Fox, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson, Bill Paterson.
Sidney Young (Pegg), the snide editor of Post Modern Review, a sardonic rebuke to celebrity culture, is stunned when renowned American magazine editor Clayton Harding (Bridges) offers him a correspondent’s position on New York lifestyle bible Sharps.
Abandoning London for the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, Sidney quickly realises his finely honed sarcasm doesn’t wash with the locals, not least department head Lawrence Maddox (Huston) and fellow writer Alison (Dunst).
Public relations doyenne Eleanor Johnson (Anderson) is equally unimpressed, and wards him off rising starlet Sophie Maes (Fox). Trying to survive in the city that never sleeps, Sidney finds himself torn between feisty Alison and beautiful yet dim Sophie, while attempting to woo the great and good of the film industry. Based on Toby Young’s celebrated memoir, How To Lose Friends & Alienate People is a dull, lifeless mess. Screenwriter Peter Straughan files down all of the barbs in Young’s confessional, shoehorning the characters into a generic fluffy romantic comedy, replete with outlandish set pieces including the protracted death of a pet Chihuahua.
Pegg is a most dislikable and unsympathetic anti-hero, grating from the very first smug grin, making Dunst’s undernourished love interest seem even more adorable by comparison. When Alison angrily defends her colleague – “Sidney Young has more going for him than anybody in this place!” – we’re tempted to give the film its first and only laugh, of derision. Bridges, Huston and co are wasted in thankless supporting roles, while Fox pouts and purrs in a succession of slinky, figure-hugging outfits.
DVD Extras: Director and actor commentaries, deleted scenes with optional director commentary, gag reel, Simon Pegg blogs.
Rating: **
The Women (Cert 12, 109 mins, Entertainment In Video, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes, Debi Mazar, Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher, India Ennenga, Cloris Leachman, Tilly Scott Pederson.
Mary Haines (Ryan) is a successful, part-time fashion designer with a handsome Wall Street husband Stephen, a 12-year-old daughter Molly (Ennenga) and a coterie of loyal friends: women’s magazine editor Sylvie (Bening), clucky mother hen Edie (Messing) and sassy lesbian author Alex (Smith).
When the pals learn from motor mouth manicurist Tanya (Mazar) that Stephen is having an affair with gold-digging salesgirl Crystal Allen (Mendes), they rally to the cuckolded wife’s side. Mary follows the advice of her mother Catherine (Bergen) and doesn’t confront her husband, preferring to lick her wounds at a summer cottage retreat in Maine. Meanwhile, Sylvie finds her allegiances torn when she tries to lure gossip columnist Bailey Smith (Fisher) to the magazine – and must dish the dirt about Mary and Stephen in return. The Women is a dull, contemporary remake of the 1939 George Cukor classic, which chronicled sisterly rivalry in the swankier nooks and crannies of Manhattan society.
As re-imagined by writer-director Diane English, this is an inoffensive clone of Sex And The City – minus the sex and with only fleeting glimpses of the distinctive New York City skyline. Touchstones from the original film – the showdown in a women’s hanging room, a climactic fashion show and “Jungle red” nail polish – remain intact. Sadly, the biting wit does not. Performances are strong though, particularly Bergen as the feisty matriarch who instructs her daughter, “Don’t be bitter, it leads to Botox!”
DVD Extras: “Behind The Women” featurette.
Rating: ***
The Duchess (Cert 12, 105 mins, Pathe Distribution Ltd, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell, Charlotte Rampling, Simon McBurney.
Seventeen-year-old social butterfly Georgiana Spencer (Knightley) must marry into money to ensure the social standing of her family in mid-18th century high society. The imperious Lady Spencer (Rampling) encourages her daughter to accept a proposal from the brutish and considerably older Duke of Devonshire (Fiennes).
The nobleman urgently needs a male heir and Georgiana will be paid handsomely to carry out her duties as a fertile, childbearing woman. When she gives birth to not one, but two daughters, his eye wanders and he takes Georgiana’s friend Bess Foster (Atwell) as his mistress. The infidelity drives the young wife ever closer to her one true love, Charles Grey (Cooper), ambitious protege of Whig Party leader Charles Fox (McBurney). Director Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy) ventures confidently into the realms of lavish costume drama with this well upholstered adaptation of Amanda Foreman’s best-selling biography Georgiana, Duchess Of Devonshire. The Duchess waltzes through the period with elan, recreating the giddy social whirl, courtesy of Michael Carlin’s meticulous production design, Michael O’Connor’s resplendent costumes and Jan Archibald’s voluminous, cascading wigs. It’s truly a feast for the senses but Jeffery Hatcher’s screenplay leaves us feeling emotionally undernourished. As history lessons go, this is a tad dry.
Knightley conceals her heroine’s emotions a little too well behind the powder and rouge, and Cooper doesn’t have sufficient screen time to convincingly establish Grey as the love of Georgiana’s life. However, Fiennes is impressive as a cold, repressed man, constrained by the traditions of his age, revealing the chinks of vulnerability and sadness behind the character’s cruel facade.
DVD Extras: “Making Of” featurette, deleted scenes with optional director commentary, photo gallery.
Rating: ***
Baby Mama (Cert 12, 99 mins, Universal Pictures UK, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver.
Successful Philadelphia businesswoman Kate Holbrook (Fey) has sacrificed her dream of raising a child to climb the corporate ladder at an organic food chain run by self-styled hippie Barry (Martin). Cursed with a peculiarly shaped uterus, Kate turns to surrogacy doyenne Chaffee Bicknell (Weaver) to find her a healthy, walking womb. Dim-witted, yet lovable Angie Ostrowiski (Poehler), accepts the nine-month assignment in exchange for 100,000, to the delight of her scheming husband Carl (Shepard). After a fight with Carl, Angie turns up on Kate’s doorstep and the two women sow the seeds of a most unlikely yet touching friendship, while Kate pursues a romance with juice bar owner Rob (Kinnear).
Baby Mama is an entertaining comedy that provides plum roles for Saturday Night Live cohorts Fey and Poehler as the unlikely buddies in conception. Their quick-fire comic timing and wonderful rapport sparks the film to life, bringing a tear to the eye as the characters careen into the delivery room. The script is littered with polished one-liners and Fey and Poehler make a terrific double-act, the latter bringing the house down when she has to pretend to be Kate’s sister to pull the wool over Rob’s eyes.
By focusing so strongly on his female leads, writer-director Michael McCullers is forced to give Kinnear and Shepard disappointingly short shrift, weakening the parallel romantic subplots that come to a head at Kate’s baby shower. Martin and Weaver relish their quirky supporting roles, the latter milking a running joke about her fifty-something character’s fertility. Baby Mama, meanwhile, delivers an abundance of laughs.
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes.
Rating: ****
Saw V (Extreme Edition) (Cert 18, 91 mins, Lionsgate Home Entertainment UK Ltd, Horror/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Saw DVD Gorology £44.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Julie Benz, Meagan Good, Greg Bryk, Carlo Rota, Laura Gordon.
Diabolical killer Jigsaw (Bell) continues his bloodthirsty reign of terror in the fifth installment of the horror franchise, full of more devilish booby traps and gruesome deaths worthy of that 18 certificate. At the end of the fourth film, Detective Hoffman (Mandylor) outwitted FBI profiler Strahm (Patterson) to continue Jigsaw’s grotesque and ghoulish plan. In Saw V, Hoffman revels in the applause of his colleagues for apparently outwitting Jigsaw, successfully concealing his involvement in the carnage. When this secret is threatened, Hoffman is forced to go on the offensive, targeting all of the loose ends including Strahm.
Meanwhile Jigsaw’s embittered ex-wife Jill (Russell), who is guardian to all of the killer’s secrets, receives a message from beyond the grave and five apparent strangers – Ashley (Gordon), Brit (Benz), Charles (Rota), Luba (Good) and Mallick (Bryk) – find themselves at the mercy of yet more diabolical inventions designed to severe their extremities. With Saw VI unfathomably in pre-production, this fifth installment isn’t the last after all, although it does neatly tie up Jigsaw’s back story via a patchwork of flashbacks that revisit key scenes from other sequels. Previous knowledge of the series is essential to follow the chronological mish mash, interspersed with the usual, gleeful torture of two-dimensional supporting cast who squeal and whimper before their grisly exit. As with earlier films, nothing is quite what it seems, and somebody has a final ace up their sleeve to ensure Saw V ends with an almighty… whimper. The Saw Gorology DVD box set, comprising all five films, is also available.
DVD Extras: Director, first assistant director, producers and executive producers commentaries, “The Coffin Trap” featurette, “The Pendulum Trap” featurette, “Slicing The Cube” featurette, “The Fatal Five” featurette, “Cube Trap” featurette.
Rating: *
(Cert 18, 85 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Horror/Thriller/Action, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Jay Hernandez, Johnathon Schaech, Columbus Short, Greg Germann, Marin Hinkle, Joey King, Rade Serbedzija.
Television reporter Angela Vidal (Carpenter) is despatched to a Los Angeles fire station with her regular cameraman Scott (Harris) to make a behind the scenes segment on life for these brave men. The TV duo shadows Jake (Hernandez) and George (Schaech) through the night shift, including an apparently routine 911 call to rescue an old woman, who is barricaded inside her apartment. No sooner are the fire fighters, Angela and Scott inside the building than agents from the CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) seal off the exits.
The TV crew and the residents, including vet Lawrence (Germann), mother Kathy (Hinkle) and her daughter Briana (King) and building manager Yuri (Serbedzija), learn they are in the midst of an outbreak of a rabies-like contagion, which incites deadly aggression in victims.
Quarantine is the English language remake of the chilling Spanish horror film REC. Director John Erick Dowdle adheres closely to the template of Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza’s gory, suburban nightmare, employing the same faux documentary style a la Blair Witch Project. Indeed, sections of this film unfold almost shot for shot, word for word, scream for scream and splat for splat. Transplanting the carnage to Los Angeles necessitates some tweaks, such as the addition of a claustrophobic elevator to the apartment block: the perfect setting for a couple of breathless set pieces, one involving an unfortunate resident and a dog. Violence is more graphic, including a fire fighter with a repulsively gammy leg and a radical approach to tackling the building’s rat infestation.
DVD Extras: Director commentary, behind the scenes featurettes.
Rating: **
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas (Cert 12, 90 mins, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Drama, also available to buy DVD £17.99/DVD Gift Pack £20.99)
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Amber Beattie, Rupert Friend.
Bruno (Butterfield) arrives home from school one day to discover that his Nazi commandant father (Thewlis) has been promoted and the entire family must relocate far from the city and their friends. While his mother (Farmiga) and older sister Gretel (Beattie) embrace the fresh start, Bruno is desperately lonely in the new house. Hungry for adventure, Bruno sneaks into the woods and stumbles upon what appears to be a farm and a young boy in striped pyjamas called Shmuel (Scanlon).
Separated by a barbed wire fence, the two boys become friends, until Bruno learns the truth: that Shmuel is a Jew and the farm is actually a concentration camp under the control of his father. Based on the best-selling novel by John Boyne, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas refracts the unimaginable suffering and tragedy of the Holocaust through the prism of one family’s experiences. Writer-director Mark Herman tries to distance his characters from obvious Nazi cliches by having the Germans speak in clipped English, which is a little distracting at first.
However, the device ultimately brings us closer – whether we like it or not – to the family. Thewlis and Farmiga embody opposing voices in the conflict and Butterfield and Scanlon deliver remarkably natural performances as friends, who should be sworn enemies. Their scenes together at the wire fence, playing draughts or concocting hare-brained schemes, are sensitively handled by Herman, who lulls us into a false sense of security before a finale that doesn’t quite deliver the knockout blow. A DVD gift pack, including the film and the book, is also available.
DVD Extras: Director and author commentary, “Friendship Beyond The Fence” featurette, deleted scenes with option director and author commentary.
Rating: ***
(Cert 12, 127 mins, 2entertain, Drama/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi.
Army officer Charles Ryder (Goode) reminisces about his turbulent past at Oxford University, where, as a shy, middle-class student, he meets Sebastian Flyte (Whishaw). Charles accepts an invitation to join the aristocrat’s inner circle, forging an intimate bond with the fey, fragile student, who describes himself as “the family shadow”. Sebastian invites his new friend to the childhood estate, Brideshead, where Charles meets the formidable Lady Marchmain (Thompson) and Sebastian’s sister Julia (Atwell). The two young men grow close, culminating in a brief kiss, but a trip to Italy to visit Sebastian and Julia’s father, Lord Marchmain (Gambon), and his mistress (Scacchi) kindles a betrayal that will drive apart Charles and the prodigal Flyte son forever. Brideshead Revisited never escapes the shadow of ITV’s lavish 1981 mini-series, condensing Evelyn Waugh’s text into a simplistic menage a trois, riven by Catholic guilt. Goode is too restrained as the tragically naive interloper, internalising Charles’s anguish so deeply it barely registers.
In contrast, Whishaw is terrific, powerfully conveying the emotional devastation as Sebastian succumbs to alcoholism and self-loathing. He tugs the heartstrings during a final meeting with Charles in Morocco, confiding sadly, “I asked too much of you. I knew it all along really. Only God can give you that kind of love.” Thompson imposes herself upon the role of Lady Marchmain, walking a fine line between icy and resolute as her matriarch sacrifices the children at the altar of her faith.
Visually, at least, this Brideshead Revisited takes the breath away. Alas, the script barely makes our hearts flutter let alone skip a beat. The Blu-ray also includes a director’s cut of the film in high definition.
DVD Extras: Director commentary, cast and crew interviews, “Creating Brideshead” featurette, four pivotal scene featurettes, picture gallery.
Rating: ***
The Rocker (Cert 12, 98 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99)
Starring: Rainn Wilson, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone, Josh Gad, Christina Applegate, Samantha Weinstein.
Rising band A.D.D. loses its drummer to suspension on the eve of the high school prom. Singer-songwriter Curtis (Geiger) and bassist Amelia (Stone) resign themselves to cancelling the gig. However, keyboard player Matt (Gad) has a solution: recruit his slobbish uncle, Robert “Fish” Fishman (Wilson), one-time drummer of rock supergods Vesuvius, who was famously kicked out of the band and has been in an emotional tailspin ever since. Fish picks up his sticks and subsequently becomes an internet sensation with A.D.D. when footage of his naked antics hits Youtube, courtesy of Matt’s precocious sister Violet (Weinstein).
The band quickly gains popularity, compelling Curtis and Amelia to confront their feelings for one another and Fish to woo Curtis’ smokin’ hot mom Kim (Applegate). Strumming to the same beat as School Of Rock – albeit with a younger target audience – The Rocker hits most of the right notes but there’s nothing here we haven’t heard before. Screenwriters Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky tease out some gentle laughs, from one musician’s strange pre-concert ritual of vomiting (“Some people carry a rabbit’s foot, I like to rock with a pocket of puke”) to an excruciating flirtation worthy of a slap in the face (“I would love to spend nine months inside of you.”) Wilson is a poor facsimile of Jack Black as the anarchic force of nature hoping to inspire his young charges to greatness. The Rocker builds to an inevitable grandstand finish at a concert where A.D.D. are asked to support Vesuvius. We know the outcome before Curtis belts out a single note.
DVD Extras: none stated.
Rating: ***
Title: Killzone 2
Platform: PS3
Genre: First person shooter
Price: £44.99
ASIN: B000E69YHK
Is February too early to start talking about game of the year. Probably a touch, bearing in mind the goodies to come for all gamers during the latter part of 2009, but there’s no doubt that Killzone 2 will be in the mix for all awards, after providing a peerless demonstration of how a first person shooter can triumph in both single player and multiplayer modes. Graphics that give a true sense of what the PS3 boasts under the bonnet coupled with the creation of a science-fiction world that is believable from the first second to the last ensure that this is likely to be the only title on gamers’ lips through their bluetooth headsets. Four years in the making, the hype and anticipation has grown with every month, and it’s a tribute to the Guerilla development team to say that it delivers in every sense of the word.
5/5
A SILENT HILL WORTH SHOUTING ABOUT!
Title: Silent Hill: Homecoming
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Survival Horror
Price: £49.99
ASIN: B001DHHUIO
In Silent Hill’s first outing on Xbox 360, the series follows Alex Shepherd, returning to his hometown of Shepherd’s Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother. Cue the familiar grim setting for more survival horror action, with some notably improved combat attacks and defensive options, making those freakish fiends you’ll come up against not quite so creepy to dispose of. The atmospheric graphics and sound are perfectly in keeping with what’s gone before, and Homecoming certainly makes its mark as an excellent next generation effort for the Silent Hill crew. Perplexing puzzles, eerie enemies and another spine-chilling storyline all points towards a 360 hit for 2009.
4/5
LIFELESS GAMEPLAY
Title: Shellshock 2: Blood Trails
Platform: PS3
Genre: First person shooter
Price: £49.99
ASIN: B001DCE0WI
Using next-generation powers of suggestion, Shellshock 2: Blood Trails planned to carefully execute the implications of horrifying acts without going gung-ho on the blood and gore. What it actually succeeds in doing is giving gamers a full frontal, in-your-face expose on how not to do first person shooters. The franchise has never really stuck in gamers’ minds and this latest effort will unlikely cause cries for a third installment. Poor graphics and sound, and a lack of interactivity with your environment quickly dissolves any sense of involvement you may have built up in the first half hour or so of gameplay. Another gaming casualty of war.
2/5
ANIMAL MAGIC ON THE DS
Title: My Pet Shop
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Animals
Price: £19.99
ASIN: B001O9C158
A new career as a pet shop owner awaits, as you and your mum settle down in town to serve all the inhabitants’ pet-related needs. And who’d have guessed, every blighter in town wants a new cat or dog, or their pooch needs some serious shampooing, a loving brush or clothing makeover. Played out in a kind of turn-based role-playing way, you can hunt down animals in the woods outside the town and entice them into your clan or accessorise them with ribbons, hats and bonnets. It’s all played out through straightforward navigation and cutesy cartoon graphics, which all adds up to a winner of a game for youngsters.
4/5
2D RUN’N’GUN HAS STILL GOT THE MOVES
Title: Metal Slug 7
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Action
Price: £29.99
ASIN: B001I45CB4
Metal Slug does action shoot ’em ups better than anyone, staying true to its original format and dishing out round after round of intense button-mashing battling with a peerless heritage behind it. Metal Slug 7 offers up seven brand new missions for the corking six playable characters to conquer. Even more weapons to wield and bosses so big it’s a wonder they manage to squeeze them into the diddy DS ensures that this addictive run’n’gunning at its best. Perhaps only comparable with Contra 4, the only thing really lacking is the two-player mode that hardcore Slug fans must be crying out for. This would ensure the series is truly taken to the next level, rather than a re-tuning of what’s gone before.
4/5
WHAT’S HOT AND WHAT’S NOT
The recession could be a “blessing in disguise” for the gaming world, says EA Chief Exec John Riccitiello, according to gaming website Gamesutra. Ricitiello argues that tighter times could help filter out the ’junk’ from the shelves of games stores, as “it seemed like anyone who cold draw a guy with a gun with a crayon could get funded”.
“I’m not pro-recession,” he added, “but to quote Rahm Emanuel, ’never waste a crisis’.”
In the charts this week, the resolute Wii Fit was finally toppled from its tower as super scrap franchise Street Fighter IV stormed into first place with a fabulous showing of fighter action. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection were the other new entries to the top ten, at three and seven respectively
GAMES CHART ALL FORMATS FULL PRICE
1 (-) Street Fighter IV
2 (1) Wii Fit
3 (-) Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
4 (-) Ben 10: Alien Force
5 (5) FIFA 09
6 (4) Call of Duty: World At War
7 (-) Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection
8 (6) Mario Kart Wii
9 (7) Wii Play
10 (2) FEAR 2: Project Origin
RETAIL TOP 10
1 (-) High School Musical 3 – Senior Year
2 (-) Kung Fu Panda
3 (-) Taken
4 (6) Wanted
5 (-) Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of TheCrystal Skull
6 (-) Righteous Kill
7 (5) Mamma Mia – The Movie
8 (-) Hancock
9 (-) The Devil Wears Prada
10 (-) Burn After Reading
Ghost Town (Cert 12, 98 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Aasif Mandvi, Billy Campbell.
During a routine colonoscopy, middle-aged, British dentist Bertram Pincus (Gervais) reacts badly to the anaesthetic and his heart stops beating. Thankfully, hospital staff revive him on the operating table but Bertram wakes with a strange gift. He can now see and hear the spirits of the recently departed, including Frank Herlihy (Kinnear), who entreats Bertram to speak to his widow, Gwen (Leoni). The misanthropic dentist unexpectedly feels an emotional connection to another human being and he wrestles with his growing attraction to Gwen. Alas, she is engaged to human rights lawyer Richard (Campbell), who works with homeless prostitutes in Bengal. With a different leading man, Ghost Town could have been a quirky and charming romantic comedy. Regrettably, with Gervais on board, the project becomes a limp one-man show and the award-winning star of The Office and Extras simply doesn’t have the charisma to carry an entire film, falling back on his usual repertoire of comic tics and mumbled asides. Sexual chemistry between Gervais and Leoni is completely inert, rendering Bertram’s romantic overtures horribly pathetic. He’s certainly no credible match for Campbell’s suave, charming do-gooder. Saturday Night Live regular Kristen Wiig is a blessed relief in a cameo as a litigation-shy surgeon, who tries to cover up for the unfortunate turn of events on the operating table. “You died… a little bit,” she eventually confesses. There’s every chance viewers will die of boredom well before the end of David Koepp’s film and the emotionally manipulative, mawkish denouement that recalls Scrooge’s transformation in A Christmas Carol. Bah humbug indeed.
DVD Extras: Director and actor commentary, “Making Ghost Town” featurette, “Ghostly Effects” featurette, “Some People Can Do It” featurette.
Rating: **
(Cert 15, 124 mins, Entertainment In Video, Thriller/Action, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)
Starring: Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich, Jennifer Ehle, Ramon Rodriguez, Rick Gonzalez.
When four men from NYPD are ambushed and slain during a drug bust, Chief of Manhattan Detectives Francis Tierney Sr (Voight) assembles a crack task force to identify and capture the shooter. He implores his son, Detective Ray Tierney (Norton), to lead the investigation, working alongside brother Francis Jr (Emmerich), the dead men’s commanding officer, and brother-in-law Jimmy Egan (Farrell). Ray’s meticulous work
uncovers undeniable evidence of police involvement in the drug turf war between Angel Tezo (Rodriguez) and Eladio Casado (Gonzalez).
Consequently, the department becomes embroiled in a scandal that makes grim reading on the front page of the morning newspaper. Meanwhile, the entire Tierney clan prepares for the impending death of Francis Jr’s terminally ill wife Abby (Ehle). Pride And Glory pounds the beat with a band of brothers for whom intimidation, extortion and murder are badges of honour. Gavin O’Connor’s gritty thriller is shot predominantly on handheld cameras to maintain uncomfortable, close proximity to the action, shadowing detectives as they wander back and forth through a crime scene or hunkering down during a standoff with an armed man. The constant movement can be a little disorienting but is an apt reflection of the Tierneys, always searching for the next lead, the next link in the chain. Director of photography Declan Quinn opts for a grimy, colour-bleached palette that makes the city seem cold and foreboding. Norton and Farrell are solid in underwritten roles but both are out-gunned by Emmerich, whose scenes with his dying wife leave a lasting impression. His character’s hard fought and hard earned redemption comes at a terrible price.
DVD Extras: “Source Of Pride: The Making Of Pride And Glory” featurette.
Rating: ***
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