State of Play – Out on DVD now

State of Play is the film adaptation of the 2003 BBC TV series of the same name, condensed into film length with the location moved to Washington DC. Crowe plays McAffrey an old school journalist who is old college friends with slick Congressman Collins (Affleck).

A man is shot on the street and Collins’s assistant falls in front of subway train on her way to an important hearing – two seemingly unrelated incidents that are in fact linked. A link emerges so McAffrey decides to uncover the full story with the help new journalist and blogger Frye (McAdams). McAffrey begins to untangle the story while trying to keep some distance with Collins and his wife – both of whom share history with him.

I never saw the original BBC programme so I came to this film with no particular expectations and really enjoyed it. I found it interesting, thought provoking and it kept me guessing. There are mercenaries for hire, corrupt businesses, sex scandals and assassins in this film as well as a good intelligent storyline.

At the films heart is the scruffy, unkempt McAffrey, Crowe plays the part very well, his appearance is in stark contrast to the slick, polished politician, which is why the friendship doesn’t entirely ring true sometimes. Maybe though that is the point - Crowe looks like an everyman whereas Affleck has the refinement of a career politician on the way up.

The rest of the cast are good, McAdams plays the eager web savvy new reporter – looking for her first big break with the hardened old pro. Mirren is great as the tough talking editor, she reminded me of a fouler mouthed M (Judy Dench) from the new Bond movies.

Theres great acting and a great story need I say anything else.

Director: Kevin Macdonald

Russell Crowe – Cal McAffrey
Ben Affleck – Rep Stephen Collins
Rachel McAdams – Della Frye
Helen Mirren – Cameron Lynne
Robin Wright Penn – Anne Collins

For the official website click here

The Damned United – Out on DVD now

The movie adapted from the David Peace’s book of the same name, detailing Brian Clough’s disastrous 44-day reign as the manager of Leeds United in 1974.

Leeds United, where at the time, the top team in the country, their manager Don Revie (Meaney) had just left them to take on the job of being England manager. Clough (Sheen) who was undoubtedly one of the best managers in football openly speaks out against Leeds – their style of playing, their ‘cheating’ and their manager but he decides to take on the job there when it becomes vacant. It’s a clash of super ego against a 1970’s super club.

Sheen is amazing, he has the chameleon like ability to transform himself into the most extreme characters and his Brian Clough is great. The look and sound and the presence of the man seems to be brought back to life.

The recreation of 60’s and 70’s football will make anyone who follows the game laugh out loud. The players smoke on the training field, the pitch is a muddy swamp that not even a Sunday league team today would play on, the back room team consists of 3 men, no physio’s or medical team. It’s a great snap shot of the game as it was at the time.

This is though, not a film solely about football, Clough was the first superstar manager of the game, a man whose ego seems to have no limits. This film does look at the frailty of the man, his first failure in managerial terms, and the need for his right hand man – Taylor (Spall), who doesn’t follow him to Leeds for the first time in their careers.

I have read the David Pearce book, and I loved it, this isn’t as good as the book (films rarely are) it is actually a more sanitised version. It is good though, good fun with great acting although I wonder if anyone who isn’t a football fan will watch it or not. They should but I doubt they will.

Director: Tom Hooper

Cast:

Michael Sheen – Brian Clough
Timothy Spall – Peter Taylor
Colm Meaney – Don Revie

For the official website click here

The Women out on DVD now

Take four well off society women in New York who find out that Mary’s (Ryan) husband is having an affair with a foxy shop girl Crystal (Mendes). They all rally to support their friend while she looses her husband but finds herself - no this isn’t Sex in the City this the The Women

Firstly, I would like to point out that I didn’t choose to watch this film, the title of which would be enough to repel me from picking it up but this didn’t stop a friend of mine renting it and I visited and this is how I came to watch it. I suppose that disclaimer would be enough to tell you the direction that this review is going to take.

I could sum up this film in a sentence really – a poor girls Sex and the City.

How are they friends – they are all so different, they didn’t even seem to have fashion or shoes in common – and of course I found myself thinking that all four main characters were poor shadows of their S & C counterparts. It is like the main characteristics of Carrie and friends were mixed together and then separated into four other actors. Unfortunately for this film none of the characters are bitchy, fun, witty or interesting enough to rival their S & C originals.

Bening is cast in the Samantha role – but without the sex, its like looking at Samantha in 10 years time – let’s hope though that she doesn’t become a one dimensional harpy like Fowler is. I felt no sympathy for Mary and also hated that her wandering husband was never seen or heard or had a chance to explain why he fell into the stunning Mendes arms (she really needs a better role than this).

I think it’s a terrible shame that female actors of such calibre are so short of good parts that this is the result – they are falling over each other to be in this film – there are cameos from Carrie Fisher and Bet Midler for instance, it’s a shame this flimsy predictable shambles is the result. Come on writers older women are still people – write something good, please.

Director: Diane English

Cast:

Meg Ryan – Mary Haines
Annette Bening – Sylvia Fowler
Eva Mendes – Crystal Allen
Debra Messing – Edie Cohen
Jada Pinkett Smith – Alex Fisher

For the website click here

The International – Out on DVD now

Louis Salinger (Owen) is an Interpol agent working with Whitman (Watts) a Manhattan DA investigating the IBBC – a corrupt international bank that wants to control the illegal two hundred million dollar business of weapons trading. Salinger has his own personal agenda for bringing the bank to justice and the bank will stop at nothing to ensure that the deal goes through.

This seems is a slightly overlooked movie, which to me, is strange as the idea of an evil corrupt bank pulling strings all over the world seems very relevant in the light of the current economic climate. I found it intriguing of how this polished, smooth, seemingly respectable business was actually more concerned with dealing with death and will stop at nothing including murder to achieve its aims, its not a new idea but maybe for me it seems to be possibly close to actual fact.

Salinger is a man with a mission, he is haggard, haunted and totally focused on the task of bringing down the corrupt bankers he’s like a dog that wont let go of a bone. Which maybe is why I felt that Whitman was less believable and less motivated – these are really bad people, ones you wouldn’t mess with if you had something to loose, like family for instance, Salinger doesn’t Whitman does. I also found it strange that the ‘baddies’ didn’t exploit this – if they really are as corrupt as they appear to be.

Overall the movies good although it is flawed – Owen tears through cities openly waving a gun and no one reacts, even in New York the security and police seem to react sp slowly. There is a great scene set in the Guggenheim Museum which is on par with Bourne or Bond but apart from that scene the action is slower and more pedestrian which means that the movie doesn’t quite live up to its action thriller billing.

Its worth looking at, although don’t expect too much action packed thrills; this film is a little more cerebral than that.

Director: Tom Tykwer

Cast:
Clive Owen – Louis Salinger
Naomi Watts – Eleanor Whitman
Armin Mueller-Stahl – Wilhelm Wexler
Ulrich Thomsen – Jonas Skarssen

To view the trailer click here

Che Part 2 – Out on DVD now

This is the second part of Steven Soderbergh’s Che Guevara story, which begins in 1965 when Che (Del Toro) resigns from the Cuban government to lead the revolution in Bolivia.

Che tries to stir the local population into action with his small, underfed, under resourced and largely unsupported guerrilla movement. The Bolivian army decides to squash the revolution before it has even really taken off. Che begins to suffer from bad health brought on by the harsh conditions him and his troops are living in. Slowly the odds of victory for the rebels lengthen as their numbers are whittled down until Che himself faces the Bolivian army.

I feel that I’m going to repeat myself from my review of Che Part 1, yet again I was largely disappointed by the story of the semi mythical Guevara. Again there is a lot of talking in jungles, walking in jungles and plotting in jungles and the action only really steps up a pace at the end of the film but by then you feel like you have been dragged through too many episodes of Ray Mears survival programme although with fierce looking bearded rebels rather than Mr Mears.

Yet again I was left feeling like I missed the real motivation for why Che would choose to leave his wife and five children to live in the jungle…. I know it’s based on his story but I still felt that the bones of the Che story were lacking. I’m actually going to cut and paste something from my previous review as its still relevant:
‘The film looks great, and is well acted, (Del Toro totally dominates the screen as Che, and looks amazingly cool) but also it doesn’t really do anything, or go anywhere. I watched Che walk through the jungle, shooting, rebelling, deal with injustice treat people fairly and treat people medically.’ Its a real shame as it was obviously a labour of love for Del Toro.

I’m yet again, I'm sorry to say I'm disappointed.

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast:
Benicio Del Toro – Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara
Carlos Bardem – Moises Guevara
Demian Bichir – Fidel Castro
Joaquim de Almeida – President Rene Barrientos

To view the trailer click here