Directed by Alex Holmes, it’s a fascinating and surprisingly emotional film. It’s impressive how much footage has been assembled and how beautifully edited together it is. The interviews with the crew in the present day make for fascinating viewing, especially intercut with their younger selves at the time of the race.
Edwards emerges as a uniquely determined and focused individual who took on a challenge and succeeded, despite her own deep insecurities and the prejudice she faced from others.
Anthony Hopkins is the only good thing about the film, and thankfully he’s in virtually every frame. He plays a know-it-all billionaire, Charles, who survives a plane crash in Alaska and attempts to walk back to civilisation. His efforts are hindered by the vain photographer, Bob, who he accompanied (Alec Baldwin), who happens to be having an affair with his wife (a miscast Elle MacPherson).
For some reason, Charles and Bob are continually saying each other's names.
The situation is exciting enough – there are plenty of showdowns with bears – but the execution is third-rate and even comical. In one laugh-out-loud scene, Hopkins and Baldwin don bear-hide costumes that they have apparently rustled up in mere minutes. They look like Ewoks.
Mark Ruffalo plays Robert Bilott, who tried to sue the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont for their contamination of a small town in West Virginia.
Anne Hathaway portrays his wife, Sarah, and Tim Robbins plays his boss Tom. Ruffalo is extremely convincing and hugely sympathetic in the main role. You really feel every emotion he expresses.
Photographer Maggie (Meg Ryan) and astronomer Sam (Matthew Broderick) team up to spy on and torment their former lovers, who have become a couple. This unlikely and mean-spirited premise sees the pair squatting in a New York City apartment opposite their exes and watching them by using Sam’s astronomy equipment for surveillance.
The story doesn’t work for a number of reasons, but mainly because it’s built around cruelty. Are we really meant to relate to them destroying the lives of the people who wronged them?
There are so many silly aspects:
1. Maggie is a revenge-crazed grungy biker/artist with perfect make-up. The film can’t decide how we’re supposed to feel about her.
2. Neither Maggie nor Sam have anything else they need to do, such as earning a living. They can spend all of their time dismantling other people’s lives.
3. The Frenchman Anton (Tchéky Karyo) who steals Sam’s sweetheart Linda (Kelly Preston) doesn’t sound French at all. I kept thinking that the plot would reveal him to be an American, but no, he was just acting badly.
4. There’s an absurd scene in which a bunch of kids are persuaded to spray perfume on Anton via water pistols. This sort of thing just doesn’t ring true.
It’s fascinating in a way, but the tone is all wrong and it’s simply not funny. You wonder why Ryan and Broderick ever got mixed up in something so misjudged.
Joaquin Phoenix is perfect in the lead role, underplaying rather than overplaying the part. It’s a simmering performance full of nuance and strength.
Central to the story is his relationship with Joséphine, brilliantly portrayed by Vanessa Kirby.
There's a lot to cram in, in terms of historical events and the surrounding context, and Scott does this without cluttering the story or making it unwieldy. At 157 minutes, it's long but it doesn't outstay its welcome.
Troublingly, there’s no apostrophe in the title (which should be Two Weeks’ Notice). That aside, this is a charming rom-com. Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock have great chemistry together, and a sharp script lets both of them deliver some funny lines. I like the fact that the pair have so much screen time together. Often in rom-coms the story is all about getting the couple together, leaving you feeling that you've missed out on enjoying their relationship.
Donald Trump has a slightly bizarre cameo, and indeed Grant’s empire seems loosely based on Trump’s own. Singer Norah Jones also briefly pops up as herself.
In 1942, Paris is occupied by the Germans and the Jews are deported in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. Sarah, aged 10, hides her brother in a cupboard before fleeing with her parents, vowing to return. The implications of this promise affect many lives, rippling outward in time.
It’s highly engaging. Kristin Scott Thomas gives one of her best performances as Julia Jarmond, a journalist who begins researching Sarah’s life and finds it’s unexpectedly connected with her own.
Somehow, all the jumping around in time and geography doesn’t quite work. I wished it was a true story rather than a slightly convoluted work of fiction. And in the final third, there are some slightly silly decisions. For example, there’s an incongruous father/son scene that feels completely out of place. And the scenes of Julia with her journalist colleagues feel hammy and lack the ring of truth. All that said, there’s a touching story at the heart of this drama and the two female leads are both superb.
There’s no tension or drama. But there’s plenty of sexism, homophobia and racism. There's also a clumsy sub-James Bond plot that doesn’t make sense, and a total lack of characterisation. Even the celebrated climbing sequences end up being dull.
Clint is usually reliable, so you can only wonder how this ended up being such a turkey.
Directed by Gabriele Salvatores, it’s a powerful drama and the performances are remarkable. Giuseppe Cristiano is incredibly believable, with none of the self consciousness that often affects child actors. The little girl who plays his sweet younger sister, is also fantastic.
Ultimately it’s an extremely sad film about poverty and its effects on a community.
Kim (Felicity Jones) is a former skateboarding champion whose mother died in a car accident. Since then, she has been living in semi-poverty with her depressed father (Bill Bailey). She takes a job as a chalet girl in an Austrian ski resort, where her working-class origins place her in stark contrast with her posh co-worker (Tasmin Egerton) and the wealthy family they both work for. Meanwhile, Kim rediscovers her sporting mojo and enters a snowboarding competition…
It’s frothy and very silly, but Felicity Jones is extremely charming. Brooke Shields and Bill Nighy play the parents of the fairly lame male lead (Ed Westwick).
The issues of class aspiration are never really resolved, but despite that there’s a reasonably satisfying progression to the plot. The script features some witty lines and it’s engaging enough to keep you watching.
The story deals with the intersecting relationships of two men and two women. Clive Owen and Natalie Portman are both excellent at presenting complex, rounded characters. Jude Law just does his usual Jude Law thing. And Julia Roberts is oddly drippy and underwhelming with a character that’s barely there – to the extent that you have no idea why two men would be obsessed with her.
It ends up a little overwrought, with lots of rather pompous statements about truth and honesty uttered by characters who are all over the place. You feel the writing tries too hard to be shocking and morally confrontational. As an account of intense human emotions it’s compelling but difficult to like.
It’s quite funny in places if you can suspend disbelief about various scenarios that fail to ring true. Morally, it’s all over the place and I’m not entirely sure what point it was trying to make about predatory men.
It’s an enjoyable twist-filled tale, even if it begins to stretch credibility in the final sections. Owen is always charming, and he is excellent with the limited material. Aniston is better than expected – or rather, at least she’s not merely reprising Rachel from Friends.
On the downside there is a silly character played by rapper RZA, and Clive Owen’s wife played by Melissa George is sketchy and unconvincing.
Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) is a 17-year-old Colombian girl who quits her deeply unpleasant job removing thorns from roses and becomes a drug mule tasked with transporting swallowed drug pellets to New York City. Of course, the job isn't as simple as she has been promised.
It's extremely gripping, and it works as a thriller as well as a human-interest story. Catalina Sandino Moreno is absolutely superb in the lead role, as is Yenny Paola Vega, who plays her friend.
While it's a very sad film, there's a hugely satisfying conclusion.
Fragmented and unfocused, it tells the story of the feuding Catholic and Protestant groups in the New York of the 1860s. At the same time, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) seeks revenge from William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), who killed his priest father (Liam Neeson).
Scorsese tries to tell too many stories and loses track of the multiple threads.
There's slightly naff Irish music running through the film, which drags on for 167 minutes.
DiCaprio doesn't get to act much, which is a missed opportunity, and Cameron Diaz (who plays his pickpocket girlfriend) doesn't bring a great deal to the role.
There was possibly a great film in here somewhere, but possibly it got lost in the edit.
Directed by Blake Edwards and adapted from a teleplay, this is an excellent portrayal of alcoholism and its destructive role on a couple’s relationship.
Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick are entirely convincing as a young, seemingly happy couple who slowly learn that they simply cannot be together, such is the destructive effect their addictions have on themselves and one another.
Their downward spiral makes for slightly gruelling, if hypnotic watching.
The small cast's remarkable performances highlight the horrors of a broken family and the damage it can inflict on the kids.
It's scary, thanks to expert pacing and also Carpenter's ominous, exciting music. The film looks terrific, too, and is visually striking.
It's in love with America: a celebration of cars, cheerleaders, drive-ins, and rock 'n' roll.
As well as the horror element, it's a story about friendship and growing up. There's very strong characterisation. Keith Gordon plays Arnie Cunningham, the nerdy boy who buys the 1958 Plymouth Fury and is quickly possessed by her. John Stockwell plays his friend Dennis, and Alexandra Paul plays Leigh Cabot, a new girl at school that both Arnie and Dennis are drawn to. Harry Dean Stanton plays the investigating detective.
Barrie is played unexpectedly well by Johnny Depp. Kate Winslet plays Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the widow he falls in love with and maintains a platonic relationship with, while becoming a sort of father to her children. In the meantime, he’s working on the Peter Pan play that will make his name, and which is inspired by the family he has become so attached to.
It’s quite a touching story. “Neverland” works as a metaphor for make-believe/imagination and also for Heaven. There’s a strong performance by Julie Christie, as Sylvia’s strict and frosty mother. Dustin Hoffman is refreshingly unselfconscious as Charles Frohman, the play’s producer.
It would be easy to criticise the film’s extremely sanitised portrayal of terminal disease, but it’s a story all about the imagination so it therefore seems to make sense that gritty realism is held at bay.
Arizona college professor (David Duchovny) and his geologist pal (Orlando Jones) investigate the site of a meteor landing. Exploring the site they encounter life-forms with the ability to evolve at high speed. Before long, all civilisation is at risk.
Julianne Moore plays an epidemiologist who keeps tripping over and bumping into things, while Dan Ackroyd is the state governor, keen to avert an embarrassing disaster.
It’s extremely silly, but it’s quick-witted and there are enough laughs to keep you hooked in until the end.
The wealthy American heiress Milly (Alison Elliott) is dying. Her friend Kate (Helena Bonham-Carter) schemes to inherit her money via a love triangle with her boyfriend Merton (Linus Roache). But inevitably things don’t go to plan.
It's enjoyable but there are a couple of flaws. The first is that Milly never seems especially unwell. The second is that Merton doesn’t seem charming enough to have two women in love with him. What’s the appeal?
In places, more depth was needed to explore characters and their motivations. For example, Kate’s strict, stuffy aunt (Charlotte Rampling) is something of a caricature without being fully explained. This may be because the novel had to be condensed for the screen.
That said, it's lavishly shot and generally well acted.
Growing up in Liverpool in the 1950s, Lennon (Aaron Johnson) is torn between his solid, strict, practical Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his flighty mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), who gave him up to live with her sister.
Wisely, it keeps to the emotional drama: the story of Lennon’s musical development mostly takes place in the background. I feared that it would be a sentimental and/or simplistic account of the heartache that led to his rise to fame, but the film explores his complicated relationships with nuance and subtlety.
A teenage girl (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mother (Elisabeth Shue) move to a new neighbourhood. They learn that a nearby property was the scene of a double killing by a 17-year-old girl, whose older brother still occupies the house. But of course nothing is as it seems.
The film suffers from being directed at teenagers. There’s little depth, with the usually brilliant Lawrence giving a merely adequate performance. The slightly tortured twists of the plot don’t satisfy, either, and there’s not a great deal to enjoy.
New York psychologist Dr. David Callaway (Robert De Niro) finds his wife dead in the bathtub, after what seems like a suicide. David takes his nine-year-old daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) to upstate New York, where they can live in a big spooky house miles from anywhere. But when Emily makes friends with “Charlie”, who may or may not be imaginary, events quickly take a sinister turn...
While De Niro is somewhat wasted in the role, it’s a tense drama with horror tropes and it keeps you guessing until the big reveal towards the end.
Directed by Tate Taylor, this film is adapted from the popular 2009 novel by Kathryn Stockett. Despite good storytelling and some remarkable performances by Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Viola Davis, it’s sentimental and simplistic. There’s also an unfortunate “white saviour” aspect. Given the importance of the Civil Rights movement, you wish there had been a more nuanced and subtle treatment of the topic.
Cher stars as lawyer Kathleen Riley. Liam Neeson plays Carl Wayne Anderson, a homeless Vietnam vet who she defends. Dennis Quaid, meanwhile, is an agribusiness lobbyist.
Cher is great, with an undeniable presence, and to the credit of director Peter Yates the film is never formulaic. But there are too many red herrings for the story to truly satisfy. And it's never entirely clear why the plot required Neeson's character to be deaf and dumb.
The ensemble cast is absolutely pitch perfect, mining the seriousness of the dog show for all the possible comedic value. The vanity of these dog owners is exposed with continually funny consequences.
It’s 1964. At a catholic school, the priest, Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is slandered by Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep), who accuses him of an inappropriate relationship with a black student. Meanwhile, a young and impressionable history teacher, Sister James (Amy Adams), is inadvertently drawn into this tangled mess.
Viola Davis plays the child’s mother with depth and empathy.
It’s fascinating stuff, and you are quickly drawn in by Streep’s intensity as a terrifying, vindictive, almost witch-like fanatic.
I felt slightly disappointed by the ending, although I’m not sure how else it could played out.
Somehow, what works beautifully on the page fails to translate to the screen.
Graeme Swift's elegant weaving together of different times and places makes perfect sense in a written context. But filmed, the multiple time frames and young/old juxtapositions seem clunky. Plus, the cheesy music by Paul Grabowsky is jarring and inappropriate.
Helen Mirren is solid as Jack’s wife Amy. Ray Winstone, Bob Hoskins and Tom Courtenay just do what they always do.
During the training process there are age-related jokes aplenty (Eastwood seems obsessed by the topic) before the four guys actually go into space and things get (relatively) serious.
A few flaws. The Russian plot is never really explained. Also, the despatching of the bombs is oddly never shown. Were those graphics outside of the budget? Or did something get mangled in the edit?
James Garner seems underused.
Marcia Gay Harden is good as the scientist Sara Holland, who becomes Tommy Lee’s unlikely love interest.
Hardly a classic, but it’s a good-natured romp with some enjoyable comic moments.
Three Slavic-American friends (Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage) find their simple, low-key lives are shattered after they are shipped off to fight in Vietnam.
Brilliantly, the film establishes a long set-up in their hometown. You get to know the characters and their context. The war segment is merely the second part of the film. The third part then deals with what happens after they come home – the emotional fall-out of everything they've experienced.
Meryl Streep is excellent as a companion from their pre-war existence. De Niro and Walken are at their very best: highly convincing as young men under unbearable pressures. There's a strong anti-war message, handled with subtlety, but it seems to be primarily a story about friendship and the strength of the human soul.
The Russian roulette sequences won't be quickly forgotten.
Portman is excellent as the ambitious but conflicted dancer who undergoes a remarkable transformation into the swan in the interests of achieving technical perfection.
Directed by Darren Aronofsky, it’s filmed in a striking way, with tropes from horror films cleverly deployed to add suspense and scary drama.
Alex Jennings plays Bennett. Maggie Smith is superb in the lead role, giving a suitably cantankerous and unlikable yet intelligent performance. I found the gimmick of two Alan Bennetts (as writer Alan talks to regular-guy Alan) an unwieldy distraction. Introducing the real Alan Bennett in a tricksy cameo at the end was further self-indulgent silliness.
To the film's credit it doesn't sentimentalise the original material (there's plenty about toilet matters), and it reveals psychological depths that a lesser director might have ignored in favour of lazy farce. It also looks at middle-class guilt and how people behave when confronted by difficult situations that puncture the veneer of social normality.
I was pleased to see Rising Damp's Frances de la Tour as one of the neighbours.
It’s slow and the thin plot doesn’t warrant the extended 139-minute running time. Costner proves the general rule that actors cannot direct (the only exceptions being Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen). He has little sense of moving things along or building character. Instead, it’s like a fifth-rate homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The one saving grace is Annette Bening as the doctor’s sister.
Philip (Pierce Brosnan) is a hard-hearted businessman. Ida (Trine Dyrholm) is a hairdresser recovering from cancer treatment. They pair meet when their children are due to marry in Italy, and they fall in love despite various obstacles.
Contrary to what the generic title and packaging might suggest, it’s surprisingly enjoyable and subtle, with some nice observations about the way families behave.
The plot features a retired FBI agent attempting to catch a killer. The twist is that he is suffering heart problems, which make it even more difficult.
Eastwood is great, as always. In fact, this could have worked as the next Dirty Harry film, although the main character is perhaps too compassionate to be Callahan.
There are strong female characters – notably Anjelica Huston as Dr. Bonnie Fox. Jeff Daniels also co-stars.
The writing seems clever on one level – the intertextuality of plots – but the characters are mainly annoying. Especially unbearable is Kathy Baker as Bernadette, who knits a lot and looks smug, but isn’t given a plot thread of her own.
Emily Blunt is probably the best of those in the ensemble cast, but even she is only given trite dialogue.
Helena Bonham Carter is immensely lovable in the main role.
There's so much subtle, gentle wit on display, and the Italian locations look lavish.
Surprisingly, Forster seems to work much better on film than on the page (see also Howard's End, which also starred H.B.C.). Rich and vibrant characters come alive through a sparkling script. Simon Callow is excellent as the Reverend Mr Beebe. Judi Dench is also on top form as the novelist Eleanor Lavish.
The rest of the all-star cast includes Julian Sands, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott and Daniel Day-Lewis.
In Conyers, Pennsylvania, two girls go missing – believed to be abducted. Their families begin to disintegrate under the strain, with one of the fathers (Hugh Jackman) resorting to increasingly extreme behaviour.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays the local detective, desperately trying to find the girls despite the community and his own boss working against him.
It’s brilliantly written, acted and photographed. There’s a genuinely creepy look to the rainswept houses and streets.
Themes of religion, family and community run through the narrative, adding depth and texture.
Like all the best biopics, it doesn’t attempt to cram a complete life story into two hours. Instead, it zooms in on one moment in that life and uses it to explore the character in depth.
It’s impressionistic, without losing sight of dialogue and storytelling. Natalie Portman gives the performance of a lifetime as Jacqueline Kennedy.
It’s sad and disturbing, perfectly capturing her mixture of shock, anger and loss.
Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons star.
The jungle setting is visually stunning.
It's powerful and moving, especially given that it's based on true events.
The stirring music is by Ennio Morricone.
It tells that political story as well as the tale of a young couple separated along social and religious lines.
Hugh Bonneville stars as the final Viceroy of India, Lord Dickie Mountbatten, and Gillian Anderson is excellent as his wife.
Overall, the film disappoints. Somehow it fails to bring all of this to life. The script never sparkles and the overuse of archive footage (or at least mocked-up archive footage) has the effect of distancing you from the action. Also, it’s never clear whether the British actors are being formal and stuffy on purpose or whether they simply don’t have particularly well-written parts.
A surgeon (Idris Elba) and Guardian journalist (Kate Winslet) survive a plane crash in the High Uintas Wilderness and attempt to walk to safety. The pair are very different to each other but the intensity of the experience brings them together.
It’s engaging and heartwarming, if a bit idealised.
I liked the simplicity: just two people and a dog trying to stay alive in a vast, desolate space.
A social worker (the always likeable Renée Zellweger) applies for custody of a girl she believes is in danger from her parents. But after a spate of disturbing events it turns out that the real danger is the girl herself.
It’s suspenseful and dramatic, with excellently handled tension throughout. Co-stars Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane add depth, although Cooper seems underused for an actor of his talents.
Thankfully, Case 39 doesn’t turn silly at the end like so many horror-flavoured stories tend to. That said, the ending did disappoint as I imagined a much bleaker (and even darkly comic) outcome. In fact, something similar to what I’d expected can be seen as the DVD bonus alternative ending.
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is merely adequate as Maid Marian, while Christian Slater is slightly odd as Will Scarlett.
Production values are poor, with constantly changing light and an often washed-out quality to the footage.
The famous theme song by Bryan Adams ("Everything I Do) I Do It for You") doesn’t even appear in the film, although it is used over the end credits.
It’s a baffling film. The set pieces featuring the songs are expertly created and Spacey inhabits the role brilliantly. But things come slightly unstuck with the “magical realist” element of him talking to his younger self. There’s no attempt to describe his rise to fame, but there’s lots about his health problems and his ambiguous parentage.
John Goodman and Bob Hoskins are on screen too much. Brenda Blenthyn is excellent as his mother. Kate Bosworth is underdeveloped as Darin’s wife. It’s suggested that she drinks too much but the question of alcoholism is never explored further.
In terms of storytelling it’s disappointingly shallow and inconclusive, despite moments of brilliance.
Nicolas Cage plays a TV weatherman having problems with his dying father (Michael Caine), estranged wife (Hope Davis) and unhappy children. He’s also having a sort of midlife crisis, and members of the public who recognise him keep throwing junk food at him.
It’s whimsical and engaging but you wish it was funnier. Michael Caine’s dodgy American accent is a distraction. Cage and Davis are both excellent, however, and the film gains gravitas as it progresses.
It’s a deeply sad story. Cage’s character seems such a nice guy that you’re completely on his side even as everything seems to go wrong around him.
