Filmstalker Reviews

Filmstalker Reviews Deadfall

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:09:46 +0000

Deadfall opens fast and hard with quite a bang, it's something that you find bookends the film but between the two it is a much quieter thriller and one that offers a bit more than the standard fare. You would expect that with it starring Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde, Charlie Hunnam, Kate Mara, Sissy Spacek, Kris Kristofferson and Treat Williams, and most importantly being directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky who previously wrote and directed The Counterfeiters.

From the attention grabbing opening the pace pulls back turning into a film I didn't totally expect and one that plays out in rather familiar territory but still with some turns that will keep you interested and engaged right to the final second.

Filmstalker Reviews Iron Man 3

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:20:11 +0000

I have to admit to going into Iron Man 3 not expecting to like it as much as I have the previous two in the series, the trailer had some things that just rubbed me up the wrong way - the multiple suits, the American-Chinese terrorist, I just didn't feel they were quite right and thought that perhaps Iron Man had gone a little too far into the comic realm and away from the strength of the first film.

This third Iron Man film is already being touted as the last one that Robert Downey Jr. will appear in but then there's a long time until another Iron Man film comes round anyway, there are other Avengers stories to be told and then another assembled Avengers story as well. Could this be the last outing for Downey's Iron Man and if it is, does it do him justice?

Filmstalker Reviews Star Trek Into Darkness

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:33:01 +0000

I love the original Star Trek films and it was with great surprise that I saw J.J. Abrams pull off the reboot of the franchise. Not only did he change the crew but he changed the entire universe they lived in and set about an entirely new and separate franchise with an audience both old and new.

The first new Star Trek film pulled it off, despite how much fans of the original were voicing their concern beforehand. It captured the feel of the original and started building the love for the new crew that we had for the old.

So the sequel came along with the tagline "Into Darkness", a tagline which could be taken a number of ways. The darkness could be space and the Enterprise was heading off once more or it could mean that the crew were heading towards their own darkness and we would see the second film, like so many second films in a franchise, deliver some darker fare.

Filmstalker Reviews The Place Beyond the Pines

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:45:07 +0000

Reading the blurb for The Place Beyond the Pines I was expecting a film very similar in nature to another we've seen from Ryan Gosling recently, Drive (Filmstalker review). It didn't really sound a lot different and since I'm not one of the huge fans of Gosling it seemed odd that I'd decided to seek it out at the Glasgow Film Festival, but it was one that I knew people would be interested in.

The film has a great cast that drew me to it with Gosling taking the lead, Eva Mendez, Bradley Cooper, Ben Mendelsohn were co-starring but the Festival blurb was offering little. It became clear why it couldn't quite early on, after all it might give too much away.

Quite early on I was surprised that there was much more to it than the Festival outline had suggested, but then it couldn't give too much of the story away for fear of spoiling it. Early on the film turned around, but it couldn't seem to keep it going.

Filmstalker Reviews Evil Dead

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:01:06 +0000

Remaking cult or classic films hasn't worked very well so far, especially when those remakes are in the genre of the horror film. I believe there's a specific reason for that but I'll come to that in a moment. So it was with much hope for the future of the horror film remake that I sat down to watch Evil Dead.

This cult horror remake seemed to be onto an early run of good fortune, after all the people behind it were behind the original and Sam Raimi was at the fore. It was directed by Fede Alvarez whose short film Ataque de pánico! you might remember, he also co-wrote the film along with Rodo Sayagues who co-wrote the short. Oh, and there's the uncredited keyboard of Diablo Cody in there too.

Sadly none of the original cast were coming back and Raimi wasn't going any nearer to the film than as producer, but everything else sounded very positive and if Raimi was behind it then surely…surely…

Filmstalker Reviews Olympus Has Fallen

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:02:50 +0000

When I first saw the trailer for Olympus Has Fallen I was left with a distinct taste of Die Hard. Of course a film being like Die Hard is no bad thing but after that previous Die Hard, whatever it was called, perhaps we needed another attempt at a Die Hard style film.

The good news is that Antione Fuqua directed the film and Gerard Butler is the lead backed with a strong list of actors such as Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Aaron Eckhart and Radha Mitchell.

I was hopeful for Olympus Has Fallen for all those reasons but at the same time I was feeling a little trepidation, after all it was saving the President of the United States of America from a terrorist threat within the Whitehouse, was this going to get too gung-ho all-American?

Filmstalker Reviews In the House (Dans la Maison)

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:40:00 +0000

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that I'm a huge Kristen Scott Thomas fan, especially of late as I've watched a number of her recent French films and talked about how great she is even in the smallest of the roles. So while I was drawn to this film for her name, it was also the promise of the interesting plot that drew me, and what kept me there was the wonderfully written and filmed screenplay.

The well-known and respected François Ozon directs the film that he has adapted from a play by Juan Mayorga, and once it had begun he's the reason that I became so caught up in the story, and no doubt the reason you will too.

Filmstalker Reviews The Gatekeepers

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:22:20 +0000

Any film that looks at the Israel-Palestine conflict is one worth visiting for it tells us a lot not just about the issues in the region but about conflicts between groups of people everywhere. The Gatekeepers is one of those films. In fact the film offers a never before seen insight into the military and political view of the country through former heads of the organisation Shin Bet, also known as the Israel Security Agency, the organisation that took over from Mossad as the organisation looking after Israel's security operations.

There are a number of heads that the documentary has managed to secure from a number of periods of the history of Shin Bet and interviewing them delivers an insight into some of the operations they carried out as well as the view of the Israeli government at the time. It also offers a view of the issues facing both countries that will surprise and educate no matter whether you believe in one side of the conflict or the other, or even have no side at all.

Filmstalker Reviews Dormant Beauty

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:21:03 +0000

Dormant Beauty was the last film I caught at the Glasgow Film Festival, deciding to dodge out of the credits of the excellent film Welcome to the Punch (Filmstalker review) and the Q&A which followed. I was hoping it was going to live up to the promise from the festival blurb. The connection to the true story, the multiple stories that each had something to say about the issues involved around people being kept alive in a coma, and of course the appearance of Isabelle Huppert.

It all seemed to suggest that this was going to be an intelligent film with lots to say about the decisions of life and death and the individual's right to life.

Filmstalker Reviews Welcome to the Punch

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:02:15 +0000

Hype is always a worrying thing especially at a Film Festival. Blurbs are forever positive and you have to learn how to read them, and when a film-maker appears at the screening for his film they are always biased no matter what the individual audience member thinks of it. So when the blurb said this director was like a young, British Michael Mann and the director himself introduced the film speaking of styling each shot like Tony Scott, I was naturally preparing myself for a letdown.

You can understand why, making comparisons with Michael Mann and Tony Scott before a film is seen sets the bar high for the film but then the cover shot for the film does look a little Collateral in style and the cast list carries great British names such as James McAvoy, Mark Strong, Andrea Riseborough, David Morrissey, Peter Mullan, Jason Flemyng, Daniel Mays and more. With that mix of talent, with the backing from Scott Free and the fact that the film has sold all over the world, perhaps they weren't wrong.

Filmstalker Reviews Fire With Fire

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:53:08 +0000

If you've seen the trailer for Fire With Fire you will be like I was, thinking that you've seen a rather large twist in the film that might just spoil it for you, well the bad news is that you have. It's not the major twist of the film but it does reveal a little too much of a character's journey and the trailer really could have done with toning it down a little. However it isn't as huge a spoiler as you might think so don't get turned off by the trailer for that point.

Another thing the trailer does is play heavily on two big names, Bruce Willis and Rosario Dawson and so it's worth pointing out that they are side characters and won't be on screen as much as you might expect. Instead this film is about Josh Duhamel and Vincent D'Onofrio, yes there's also Richard Schiff, Kevin Dunn, Julian McMahon, Vinnie Jones and 50 Cent, but none of them are in the film for any real length of time either.

Finally, while this is getting a UK cinema release on the 8th of March it has already seen a US release on 31st August 2012 and has been released on DVD and Blu-ray over there. These kinds of overly long staggered release schedules aren't a good sign for a film nor are they doing anything to combat piracy. Still, let's give it a go.

Filmstalker Reviews Side Effects

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:16:19 +0000

If you didn't know, Steven Soderbergh is retiring from film-making and that's a great loss. During his career he's challenged traditional studio film-making and made some fantastic films. His recent films include titles like The Girlfriend Experience (Filmstalker review), The Informant!, Contagion, Haywire (Filmstalker review), all great films and definitely something different from the conveyor belt of Hollywood.

It is a great shame he's stopping and I do hope it's temporary but there is some good news, judging from his recent spate of films and the fact that this is one of his last directorial roles, there's a great deal of positivity for his latest film Side Effects, a film that appears to carry similar themes to Contagion. Joining him on the film as the writer is Scott Z. Burns who has collaborated with Soderbergh on a number of other films, a few on that list above, and so the anticipation rises once again.

Added to the names of Soderbergh and Burns we have Rooney Mara and Jude Law taking the leading roles with a strong supporting cast including Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum, an equally enticing line-up of talent in front of the camera ready for what could turn out to be an interesting and powerful thriller.

Filmstalker Reviews Mama

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:34:39 +0000

Jessica Chastain is riding high from her great role in Zero Dark Thirty and the film's numerous awards mentions, if not nominations or wins, and so starring in a Guillermo del Toro produced film along with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and off a promising trailer you'll be expecting a lot more than a standard horror film and for the most part we get that.

Of course the fact that this is a "produced by" film should raise the usual concerns with people, why does it need to be highlighted by the producer over and above everything and everyone else involved in the film? Well that's a good question.

Mama is written by Andrés and Barbara Muschietti and is based on the short film Mamá which Andrés wrote and directed and Barbara produced. The film version is also written by Neil Cross who created and wrote for the excellent BBC television series Luther as well as writing on Doctor Who and Spooks.

Looking back over all those names above surely that's enough to be mentioned before the "produced by" credit?

Filmstalker Reviews Stoker

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:01:13 +0000

Stoker is the first English language and Western made film for director Chan-wook Park a name you will undoubtedly recognise from the fantastic Oldboy (Filmstalker review) and perhaps other films such as JSA: Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Chinjeolhan Geumjassi) (Filmstalker review), I'm a Cyborg but that's OK (Filmstalker review) and Thirst. He's a superb director but he hasn't made the move to Hollywood and really there didn't seem to be a need.

Now he's made that move and to join him he's managed to get a surprising cast that backs up the suggestion of a creepy psychological thriller, Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode. Now that's a fine cast indeed.

So many foreign directors arrive in Hollywood and fail to deliver, or rather they fail to fit into the studio system and end up seeing their film fail at the box office or to get a proper release and they return to their home film industry. I doubt this can be said of this director and his film Stoker.

Filmstalker Reviews Arbitrage

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:58:26 +0000

The reason I went to see Arbitrage at the Glasgow Film Festival was chiefly because of the comments that Richard Gere was receiving for his performance. There's no doubting that he's a fantastic actor, he's just had some poor choices of films over the years that haven't exactly allowed him to showcase his acting range. I thought that Arbitrage might be different considering those comments, and it sounded like a strong thriller from the outset.

There were also some other reasons to see the film, Susan Sarandon who seems to be everywhere I look just now would undoubtedly give her natural and charismatic performance, Nate Parker, Brit Marling and Laetitia Casta. Oh and I've forgotten the second biggest reason to see this film next to Gere, his adversary in the film, the ever great Tim Roth.