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Avatar (out 26 April 10, Cert. 12) Stephen Lang, Wes Studi, Joel David Moore, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Matt Gerald, Michelle Rodriguez, dir. James Cameron, 2009, cert. 12 MonkeyScore: 68% Ex-Marine Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, finds himself thrust into hostilities on Pandora, a distant planet filled with
exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human consciousness in an
alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds in a desperate
fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. One cannot stress just how beautiful this film is, and it really has to be seen. It is so stunning that even watching the DVD on a basic TV will blow your mind. The film is gorgeous to look at from start to finish, and is bound to make you gasp, or even feel dizzy - particularly if you have issues with height. The Best Achievement in Art Direction, Visual Effects and Cinematography could not have gone to a more deserving picture at this year's Oscars. Avatar did not, however, win Best Motion Picture Of The Year, which seems just as right. The visual candy cannot deter from the fact that the story has been heard before, and in fact to some degree has already won a Best Motion Picture Oscar: the year was 1990 and the film was called Dances With Wolves. There are too many similarities between the two pictures to catalogue here, even though the Sioux didn't win (nor were they blue.) Still, Avatar is a visual feast that will set the standard for big budget sci-fi productions for years to come. |
Serious Moonlight (out 26 April 10, Cert. 15) Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, Justin Long, dir. Cheryl Hines, 2009, cert. 15 MonkeyScore: 71% When high-powered lawyer Louise (Meg Ryan) discovers that her husband Ian (Timothy Hutton) plans to leave her for younger Sara (Kristen Bell), she duct tapes him to the loo. Enters a house burglar (Justin Long), and the impatient mistress. Penned by the late Adrienne Shelly, Serious Moonlight is a well acted and written romantic drama. It would, however, remain firmly in the "average" bracket if it wasn't for a subtle twist at the very end that manages to lift it into much higher grounds. Shelly began her career as an actor, starring in Hal Hartley's indie classics Trust & The Unbelievable Truth, where she no doubt picked up the quirkiness in character development that shines through in this posthumous work. Friend Cheryl Hines (best known for being Larry's wife in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and starring in Shelly's last film, Waitress) does a decent job at pulling intimacy and lunacy from her cast in equal measures. Meg Ryan proves once more she's just as good in a bunny-boiler role as in the rom-coms she's famous for. Interesting and quirky.
Tenderness (out 26 April 10, Cert. 15) Russel Crowe, Jon Foster, Sophie Traub, Laura Dern dir. John Poulson, 2009, cert. 15 MonkeyScore: 65% Buffalo, NY. Eric
Poole (Jon Foster) is released from jail at 18, having served his sentence for a double homicide. Det. Cristofuoro (Russell Crowe) put him away and is convinced that Poole will reoffend. He keeps Poole
under surveillance as he sets off on a seemingly innocent road trip to Albany. Young run-away Lori (Sophie Traub), who may have witnessed the first murder, is obsessed with him and hides in the boot of his car. Tenderness is based on a riveting Robert Cormier book. The story of two broken young lives, it takes a meandering trip up state New York to reveal just how broken, and lead to a twisted yet inevitable end. While the book worked on just about every level, indeed getting the "tenderness" felt by young Poole towards his victims, and Lori's slow descent into the realms of obsession, there is little sense of this in the film version. All the milestones are here, but the translation from paper to screen did away with a good chunk of the depth, leaving viewers to spend more time guessing the motives and goings-on than really getting into the story. Still, worth watching for the very promising performances by Sophie Traub and Jon Foster in the lead roles. |
Murder She Wrote - The Eleventh Year (out 26 April 10, Cert. 12) Angela Lansbury, originally broadcast in the U.S. from September 94 to May 95, 21 episodes, cert. 12 MonkeyScore: 74% Episodes list: A Nest Of Vipers, Amsterdam Kill, To Kill A Legend, Death In Hawaii, Dear Deadly, The Murder Channel, Fatal Paradise, Crimson Harvest, Murder By Twos, Murder Of The Month Club, An Egg To Die For, The Scent Of Murder, Death 'N Denial, Death In High C, Twice Dead, Film Flam, Murder A La Mode, The Dream Team, School For Murder, Another Killing In Cork, Game Set Murder Mystery has a way of following novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) wherever she goes. In the eleventh season, the show features such guest stars as Jeffrey Nordling (24), Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond), Ann Cusack (The Informant!) and Jeri Ryan (Boston Public, Star Trek: Voyager), joining Angela Lansbury for investigations that span the globe from hometown Cabot Cove to Ireland & tropical Martinique. The penultimate season of Murder She Wrote shows sign of degrading standards. Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher is as quirky as ever, and the writing well paced. You may think that there are only so many ways to skin a cat(*) but the writers manage to keep the murders Jessica solves quite fresh. Each episode is perfectly crafted, and the formula does indeed work. The eleventh year sees Jessica doing quite a bit of travelling away from her dainty Cabot Cove (in real life located on Jaws Lake, at Universal Studios), with stints in Hawai and Ireland amongst others. Murder She Wrote never pretends to be competing with high-octane cop shows, but for what it is, it is a treat: as dependable and satisfying as a cup of afternoon tea, with biscuits. (*) and just how many ways to skin a cat are there?? Someone actually took a stab at listing possible techniques, for a giggle ...  [we're assured no cats were harmed during the compilation of this list] |
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