Classic Intel: Bolt - DVD Review

'a Homeward Bound-style, get-me-there-before-I-get-squished-by-a-car narrative, which fails to avoid that most-visited of dog-film locations, The Pound'

Whilst Avatar may have rammed 3D down the cake-holes of the masses in December 2009, it was Bolt in February of the same year that introduced many people - especially families - to the relaunch of the digital medium. A Disney film with the backing of newly installed (as of 2006) creative director John Lasseter, the film was nominated for the Animated Film Oscar in 2009 yet, since then, largely seems to withdrawn to the very hind parts of peoples' memories.

Perhaps the prevailing reason for Bolt's lack of staying power is the heavy feeling of 'haven't we seen all this before'. There's talking animals for a start - hardly something we'll ever tire of but familiar nonetheless, especially for Disney - and a Homeward Bound-style, get-me-there-before-I-get-squished-by-a-car narrative, which fails to avoid that most-visited of dog-film locations, The Pound. Mix well with large doses of The Aristocats, Oscar and Lady And The Tramp and you've got a solid recipe for anonymity.

At this point it would be fair to expect a 'but this is a real shame - Bolt doesn't deserve anonymity', style refrain but the sad fact is that if any film deserves a back-of-the-mind shelving, it's this one. Sure there is, like every animal film ever, a comedy sidekick (Matt Walton's Rhino) who tries hard to rescue our attention and John Travolta as the voice of Bolt is cracking casting but there's never really any heartstring pulling, originality of plot contrivance or dynamic action to drag this up to the next level. The opening battle - well choreographed and naturally hilarious - is as close as the film ever gets to goodness, let alone greatness.

If anything, the averageness of Bolt, acceptable averageness though it is, points to the rightly elevated pedestal where Disney (and Pixar) now find themselves. Averageness, trotted out in the same old formula, just isn't good enough any more if you want your film to be remembered longer than the sickly sweet popcorn your target audience are munching.

Look further...

'a solidly entertaining and diverting family film' - The M0vie Blog

Trailer Of The Week - Week #44

Continuing Trailer Of The Week's build-up to the 25th Leeds Film Festival is the elongated trailer for Happy People: A Year In The Taiga, a documentary shot in Siberia by director Dmitry Vasyukov. Whilst Vasyukov might not be a household name, the co-writer, executive producer and narrator certainly is: one Werner Herzog is behind this film about the isolated people of the Taiga, a large ecoregion in Northern Russia. Herzog's presence makes this a must-see for fans of his previous documentaries and, despite the German not being the one behind the camera, the footage on display looks to have plenty of promise. With the addition of Herzog's vocal talents (sadly not included here) this could very well turn out to be a documentary of some note. The film can be seen at Leeds on 13th November, with a DVD release set to follow on 28th November.



Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

Film Intel's Final Word

What happened this week and why you shouldn't care.



Tom Cruise In 'Sensitive' Shocker.

Story: Empire

I'm really not sure what this story means. 'Sensitive' doesn't really say anything does it? Should have gone for 'embarrassed', 'sorry' or 'doesn't give a flying fuckuckle'.



Sorkin Eyeing Apple Job.

Story: Slash Film

Perfect match. Although whether Sorkin will want to move from one big tech story to another is a different question entirely.



Paranormal Activity Officially The New Saw.

Story: Total Film

Only better reviewed. Which is nice.

From The Files Of... We Need To Talk About Incredibly Lazy Headlines. Again.

Remember this bought of incredibly lazy headline writing, where every journalist seemed to decide to take the route of the very obvious, non-puntastic, blending of headline and film title? Its happening again.

LoveFilm

Herald Scotland

Chicagoist

The Independent.ie

The Guardian

The Independent

The Guardian

The Independent

The Independent.ie

Mimic: The Director's Cut - Blu-ray Review

'the second half descends into a 'well we've come this far, we better have some horror' collection of sieges, standoffs, half-hearted group-dynamics-gone-sour and large amounts of time spent messing around underground'

Aesthetically, narratively and, erm, hokumily, Mimic looks very much like the not-too distant cousin of fellow 1997 creature-feature The Relic, albeit with a less compelling plot, worse acting and, in this form, an even longer running length. Those that have experienced The Relic will know that comparisons like these are not exactly designed to paint Mimic as any sort of masterpiece.

Director Guillermo Del Toro reports that the main changes to this newly-released Director's Cut version (as opposed to the studio-influenced original) consisted of removing anything shot by the second unit and re-introducing several small plot strands and scenes that sought to tie the film to religious ideas and iconography. It's difficult to understand why he bothered. In the extras, Del Toro talks of 'the film that got away' and of how it is a prime example of what happens when 'everything that can go wrong does'. On that basis, did he really expect a small amount of scenes to change Mimic from a schlocky, B-movie mess into something approaching a decent film? Perhaps if he had been able to include his original ending (mentioned in the extras but never filmed), Mimic could have been elevated but on the basis of what's shown here, there was never any saving it.

The hokum begins when doctors Tyler (Mira Sorvino) and Mann (Jeremy Northam) release a new breed of super-bug into the New York sewers (always a bad idea) in order to kill a strain of cockroach that's been infecting children across the city. The first half develops from there as a sort of 'adult guilt' drama, with the doctors and, to an extent, the city, slowly coming to terms with the fact that the newly altered bug population might not have been the best thing for their kids in the long run. It's a fairly effective first half, albeit plodding in its delivery, which, like The Relic, keeps its dubiously rendered monsters well hidden.

The second half descends (literally) into a 'well we've come this far, we better have some horror' collection of sieges, standoffs, half-hearted group-dynamics-gone-sour and large amounts of time spent messing around underground. It's too long, introduces one too many characters we don't care about (take your pick from Josh Brolin or Charles S. Dutton) and never gets effectively scary. Sorvino is effective in the lead and believable as both an intelligent doctor and a damsel in distress but Northam has never been suited to this sort of thing and goes out of his way to prove so. Del Toro fans will get an insight into his creative process but for everyone else there's little here to warrant revisiting a film which isn't even the best knowingly-bad monster film of 1997.

Mimic: The Director's Cut is out on Blu-ray on 31st October 2011.

Look further...

'an entertaining and fun monster film that has some terrific scares and a genuine sense of style' - Top 10 Films, 3/5

Classic Intel: Bullitt - Online Review

'show me a man who can look manly and intimidating in a pair of flower print pyjamas and I'll show you a movie star'

Primarily notable for two things (a charging green Mustang and an iconic poster) Bullitt is more than the sum of its conveniently marketable imagery.

For a start, as star turns go, you'd struggle to find a more compelling one than Steve McQueen's performance as the titular detective. The man oozes presence. He oozes it when he's taking part in the legendary car chase. He oozes it the final scenes, whilst sticking it to the man. He oozes it in his introduction where, for God's sake, the costume department have dressed him in a pair of flower-print pyjamas. Show me a man who can look manly and intimidating in a pair of flower print pyjamas and I'll show you a movie star.

The nominal 'mystery' - about a hit on a gangland informant - is never really all that involving because the outcome is perfunctory. Whether it had something to do with political mover Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) is by-the-by in the end, ditto any other possible outcome. The thrill is all in the chase, perfectly orchestrated by McQueen's choice of director Peter Yates. The hunt for the mob men becomes an excuse for tense creeping round hospital basements and that chase around the outskirts and narrow streets of San Francisco, for which the sound department should have been ladled with awards (they settled for an Oscar nomination).

Fans might cry heresy but the only significant miss-step in the film feels like the casting of Jacqueline Bisset, as Bullitt's love interest. Bisset, English and speaking with an extremely clipped accent, feels out of place with all the smoothness happening elsewhere and isn't helped by Yates or screenwriters Alan Trustman and Harry Kleiner, who push her out to the margins and give her standardised 'how can you love this horrible job?' guff to speak. Still, she ups the coolness stakes when she turns up to work dressed in what can only be described as one of McQueen's shirts and not a lot else, typifying the delicate in-vogue stylisation so prevalent in everything about Bullitt, excluding, for the most part, her character.

Bullitt is available on LOVEFiLM's Watch Online service.

Look further...

'so the story’s about as deep as a Law & Order episode and, for some reason, it works best when it doesn’t try to go any deeper than that, but those minor flaws are easily overshadowed by everything else that’s so effing boss' - Cut The Crap Movie Reviews, 9/10

The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn - Cinema Review

'it's action all the way and, more often that not, what brilliantly well-conceived action it is'

Motion-capturing a hugely well-regarded comic is a brave move but perhaps it says something about where the technique is at now that the smooth faces and occasional lazy eyes are the least of The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn's problems. At only one point (a late cameo by a character who has more to do in another of Hergé's Tintin adventures) does the effect get distracting and for the most part fans of the source material should rest assured that Tintin looks slick, fast and perfectly at the apex between human and cartoon, something which the medium has struggled with in the past.

Speed, in fact, seems to be of the essence here. At one-hundred and seven minutes, director Steven Spielberg doesn't give himself a huge amount of time to begin with and sets about racing through the narrative at breakneck pace. The introduction is non-existent and, although we occasionally stop for Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) to explain what's going on, everything else is pretty much action all the way. And, more often that not, what brilliantly well-conceived action it is. The Morocco chase is the obvious highlight but the ship traverse is also exceptional and the little moments of well conceived camera work - in particular a segment where Tintin (Jamie Bell), trapped in the middle of a busy road, has the camera pirouetting around him and the cars - are consistently delightful.

Considering what would have happened if these moments hadn't have been there is as redundant as considering what would have happened if Darth wasn't Luke's father but the film does rely on its action set pieces and, in particular, the humour Spielberg imbibes them with. The script, from an all-star team of Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, should have been both smoother and funnier and too often delivers goods that are under-wrought and over-sold. Too often punchlines destined to appear on-screen seem to float away from the team and there's an over-reliance on the type of 'look Snowy... a clue' style dialogue that Hergé had to use in what was still, despite the artwork, a medium reliant on the written word. Worse than this the natural comic-relief of Thompson and Thomson (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) is largely wasted and, as bonkers as it may seem, someone appears to have thought it a good idea to include a joke about bestiality.

The end is fluffed slightly in an anti-climactic battle that both seems to have been inspired by Transformers and forgets the 'less is more' rule, Spielberg then further ruining the pace by including an elongated epilogue which seems uncertain whether to wrap things up quickly or stay around for another twenty-minutes. That said, it is probably the director's only miss-step, most of the film's failings lying firmly with the scripting. Spielberg, unconcerned with minor problems like that, wrestles the thing back up to high levels of fun and the discernibly grandiose ideas of adventure that shot through the Indiana Jones series. It's not the only thing the films have in common. Indy's comedy punch noises make a welcome return and feel very much at home here in a film that, like those films, does best when it's not taking itself quite so seriously.

Look further...

'it will sell on Spielberg’s name, and hopefully it will sell based on the fact that it’s really very good indeed, a rollicking adventure that contains several moments of unrivalled cinematic exhilaration' - Alone In The Dark, 4/5

Extra Time - Mimic: The Director's Cut Blu-ray Extras

Extra Time: the easy guide to Blu-ray and DVD extras

Extra Hot

The Reclaiming Mimic featurette, commentary and video prologue are all basically different ways of presenting an interview with director Guillermo Del Toro, not that that should put you off - the opposite in fact. Del Toro speaks honestly about the original cut of the film and talks about the need to 'reclaim' the film as his own, referring, of course, to the constant meddling of The Weinsteins, which he believed damaged the film irreparably. Del Toro takes the discussion on to cover why his and The Weinsteins' brands of film-making at the time were so different, distinguishing between the need to be able to clearly 'understand' a film and clearly 'read' it as two different things. Even for someone with no interest in Mimic it is fascinating stuff. A real insight into a visionary director's working methodology.

Extra Not

Back Into The Tunnels is a bog-standard, insultingly short, 'making of' from the film's original release and as such features a beardless Del Toro and a fresh faced Josh Brolin talking with great gusto about how wonderful they think the film is going to be. It's got no place on a disc which by its very existence rubbishes those notions. The only way of doing this properly would have been to combine the behind-the-scenes stuff with new interviews and the fact that that hasn't been done (or apparently even attempted - Del Toro is the only new interviewee on the disc) smacks of laziness.

Extra Everything

Del Toro pops up again during the A Leap In Evolution featurette to explain more creative differences. Its a short 'creature feature' with not much to add but it at least shows how the 'making of' should have been done.

Other material includes;

- Deleted scenes
- Gag reel
- Theatrical trailer
- Storyboard animatics

Extra Rating

Mimic: The Director's Cut is released on Blu-ray in the UK on 31st October.

Trailer Of The Week - Week #43

Trailer Of The Week continues its build up to the Leeds International Film Festival by going back to 1960 to take in a very modern-looking Psycho trailer. The most interesting thing about this? Hitchcock's film doesn't look at all out of place within the confines of modern trailer trends... in fact, it looks very much at home. The classic horror, currently number twenty-six on IMDb's Top 25, plays at the festival on Saturday 5th November.



Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

From The Files Of... Your Poster Looks Like My Poster

It would appear that the director of Cold Fish is a Straw Dogs fan...

Made In Dagenham - DVD Review

'Richardson is a gem hiding way down the cast list, her Barbara Castle bristling with the competing notions of political dignity and social sympathy'

Anchored by a delicious central performance from Sally Hawkins, Made In Dagenham is a worthy and occasionally emotional depiction of the strikes at Ford during 1968, strikes that would go on to start the ball rolling for equal pay for men and women in Britain and several other countries.

Hawkins has real presence and a tactile line in flitting between motivational speaker and meek wife, silenced by the men she comes into contact with on a daily basis. The scene early on with teacher Mr Clarke (Andrew Lincoln) is genius, tying together the narrative threads of Rita (Hawkins) and Lisa (Rosamund Pike) and demonstrating the suppression of women with something to say and a fair axe to grind.

Director Nigel Cole handles the obvious motifs fairly well but it's really little surprise that every opportunity is taken to demonstrate the differences between men and women and, in particular, their standing in society. Rita's husband Eddie (Daniel Mays) is the most confusingly handled of the selection of available identifiers; supportive one minute, misunderstanding the next, downright rude a moment late. Mays seems to be moving to cover all the bases of the stereotypical sixties 'man' where really, the more human characters of supportive Albert (Bob Hoskins) and conniving Monty (Kenneth Cranham) are much more interesting.

As the final acts start the emotive punches and wrought speeches increase and waver between compelling (Rita's speech at the union) and redundant (Miranda Richardson's speech at parliament). Richardson, despite being given the unenviable task of delivering the final bit of plot exposition, is a gem hiding way down the cast list, her Barbara Castle bristling with the competing notions of political dignity and social sympathy. If the amount of care that goes in to her character had been given to the rest of the support then this could have been something truly special.

Look further...

'no one is glamourised. Set in a run-down area, the girls live with a low-income and average life, but are full of fighting spirit' - The Film Obsession

Classic Intel: Mr Smith Goes To Washington - DVD Review

'the key scene is the moment when Smith comes face-to-face with Taylor. As Smith starts to see that he is being asked to leave his morals behind and 'tow the company line', Stewart (a rangy 6'3") literally stands up to Arnold'

The challenge for Frank Capra with Mr. Smith Goes To Washington was that Sidney Buchman's script held within it two ideas which did not seem to make comfortable bedfellows. On the one hand, the film is famously and poetically admirational of US governance, liberty and the legal system, as personified by whiter-than-white congressman, Jefferson Smith (James Stewart). On the other, the film rails against the corruption and bureaucracy of government, of the degradation of the American dream and towards the lack of inspiration dished out to the young by the men who sit in office. Capra's ultimate success with the film is that he manages to imbue it with both ideals. There's a healthy lack of respect for men in power here but there's an at least equal level of devotion to the idea of government 'of the people, by the people, for the people' and the director is adamant that neither shall perish from the Earth.

Capra's job at marrying the two ideas together in a non-invasive way was made easier by the cookie-cutter characters, most of whom fall on to one side of the argument or the other and never even threaten to move to the opposite side or even the middle ground. Smith is enamoured by the truth and honesty inherent in the American constitution, whilst the corrupt interpretation of it is represented by two-faced Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains) and Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), a tycoon whose characterisation and influence bear more than a passing similarity to the alleged reach and influence of another media mogul, recently making the front page of many newspapers.

Because these characters are so clear cut in terms of which idea they represent, the real interest in Mr. Smith is held by the characters who sway from side-to-side, primarily Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur). Saunders is initially presented as a disgruntled secretary who is sick of looking after ageing men with little clue of what is happening around them but quickly morphs into the smart know-all of the piece, a savvy observer of the industry she's been in for several years. Arthur handles the initial transformation magnificently and then continues to do so further into the film, as the predictable third act revelations start to change the focus onto the final scene. The other major female presence, Paine's daughter Susan (Astrid Allwyn) is sadly forgotten about just over halfway through and the chance of using her as another ambiguous character to explore is rather wasted.

Although given the fairly uninteresting role of the man whose faith cannot be shaken, Stewart excels as the lead. Adept at playing the innocent hero, Stewart gives Smith the air of affability that he needs if the audience are going to get behind his ideals. It doesn't matter if we hold the same values as he does so long as we can believe in him and, eventually, believe in him we do. The key scene is the moment when Smith comes face-to-face with Taylor. As Smith starts to see that he is being asked to leave his morals behind and 'tow the company line', Stewart (a rangy 6'3") literally stands up to Arnold from the seat from which he has been receiving his lecture. It is the spark needed for Smith to transform from Boy Scout with ideals to defender of the American Way.

Apart from the Susan Paine non-character, the film's main problem is the length of time it takes to deliver some of its set pieces. A scene where Saunders and newspaper reporter Diz (Thomas Mitchell, playing another intriguing character) get drunk seems not only to go for far too long but to actually go round in conversationally redundant circles. The end too, which feels like it needs the knockout punch of a killer piece of prose, instead opts to go the distance and feels less dramatic for it. It does work but Stewart standing up to the man by way of a marathon senate session doesn't have the air of a conclusion for the ages, even though much of the imagery from it still remains vivid in popular culture.

Look further...

'no matter how cynical you are or how rosy the film's platitudes, it's hard not to get swept up by Mr Smith's combination of fine directing and superb acting' - Film4, 4/5

The Pacific - Blu-ray Review

'doesn't really get going until Episode Three when the action takes a break and director Jeremy Podeswa gives us a chance to spend some much-needed character time'

The spiritual sequel to Band Of Brothers (same production team, same period of history, different locations and characters), The Pacific feels worthy and well-produced but lacks some of the magic which made the original series such a landmark of modern television. Overseen again by Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg, the series doesn't really get going until Episode Three (Melbourne) when the action takes a break and director Jeremy Podeswa gives us a chance to spend some much-needed character time with the hitherto fairly anonymous main players.

With those characters defined as a triumvirate of Bob Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda), along with their respected associated compatriots, The Pacific improves markedly. Dale and his gang feel like forbears of the 1970s Vietnam war troops, larking around as much as possible and engaging in several bouts of rule breaking, all whilst Leckie - articulate and intelligent - struggles to externalise his opinions on the war and on his situation. Basilone and Sledge serve as links back to America, the former being pretty sharply shipped back home and the latter being forced to wait for his deployment thanks to an over-bearing family.

The strongest moments of the series happen during the corridor from Melbourne to Peleliu Airfield (Episode Six) when Leckie's group are at their most developed and Sledge is just starting to emerge in his own right. Basilone is largely marginalised until a post-Episode Six return which feels overly manufactured and doesn't have the emotional importance of the character's own real life story. Gloucester/Pavuvu/Banika (Episode Four) is both tense and well managed by director Graham Yost who has the enviable task of juxtaposing an hour of warfare against the previous episode's luxurious Melbourne-based downtime.

The final episodes have some good moments of scripting, particularly Home (Episode Ten) which confirms that you actually care a lot more for Sid (Ashton Holmes) than perhaps previous episodes would seem to allow. Episodes Seven and Eight though are fairly anonymous and the character changing that seems to happen every third episode or so continues to be both frustrating and confusing. There isn't the level of cast commonality that Band Of Brothers had and when that series changed cast members it did so in a much clearer way than is handled here. A good compatriot to the first series but never so much as threatens to take that production's crown as the best thing we've seen on TV for a number of years, possibly ever.

Look further...

'an exceptionally well made series that’s filled with great performances, supremely accurate battle recreations, and a good deal of heart' - Good Film Guide, 9/10

Love And Other Drugs - DVD Review

'the serious bits in Chicago look like a serious city drama whilst a late and ill-judged foray to a slumber party looks like something directed by Apatow'

A tonally unstable Romantic Comedy, Love And Other Drugs treads the thin line between laughing at illness and being upbeat about it, whilst also trying to balance a comedy room-mate sub-story and more ogling at Anne Hathaway's breasts than anyone could wish for (or not depending on your visual preferences). Think Philadelphia meets You've Got Mail meets Old School and you're somewhere near close.

Needless to say it is the fratboy inspired hi-jinks that feel most out of place. Josh (Josh Gad) is Jamie's (Jake Gyllenhaal) millionaire brother, yet continually chooses to sleep on his couch where all manner of male-orientated stupidity might occur. At one point the character is even asked what he's still doing there although, apparently, no producer ever threw the same question out to director Edward Zwick.

Zwick, director of such eclectic works as Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai and Glory, brings a decent eye to proceedings, albeit one that ensures his film's look morphs in tune with its tone. His serious bits in Chicago look like a serious city drama whilst a late and ill-judged foray to a slumber party looks like something directed by Apatow. Notably he fluffs the final scene, which zooms in and out on its protagonists more times than any camera operator should feel comfortable with.

The saving grace is the sweet relationship/medical drama at the core with Gyllenhaal - now absolutely a bona fide 'star' and here bubbling with charisma - and Anne Hathaway rising through the distractions. Hathaway starts uncertain, weak even, but grows as the film progresses, her Maggie becoming a sympathetic creation who becomes a joy to be around. When the focus is allowed to rest on the two stars the film can be compelling, which makes it a real shame that so much time is spent on incidental meanderings into the wilderness of unimportant bit-players.

Look further...

'Love and Other Drugs is one of those rare movies during which you can laugh and cry within just one scene. Life can be like that.' - Movie Brit

Countdown To Zero - DVD Review

'the Pakistanis and Indians - amongst others - chant and cheer during the launches of their first nuclear tests, the latter of these - rather ironically - punctuating the whole thing with fireworks'

For a film that reveals, a) the true extent of the world's nuclear arsenal, b) the fact that we once came close to nuclear disaster because of a misplaced videotape and, c) that there are several nuclear weapons lying at the bottom of the ocean, Countdown To Zero somehow feels less shocking than it should be. Perhaps that's the film's ultimate argument. Director Lucy Walker wants to point out the idiocy of surrounding ourselves with the weapons of the apocalypse and the fact that her film doesn't feel particularly revelatory typifies how laissez faire we've become about the whole thing.

Perhaps, when you see some of the imagery Walker pulls together, laissez faire isn't the right word. The Pakistanis and Indians - amongst others - chant and cheer during the launches of their first nuclear tests, the latter of these - rather ironically - punctuating the whole thing with fireworks. The grim nature of the beast coupled with its supposed liberating and protective power is one of the film's main draws.

Structurally too, Walker's film finds a guiding star in the form of a JFK speech, where he talked of how nuclear catastrophe could be brought about by 'accident, miscalculation or madness'. Taking the ideas in reverse, Countdown To Zero explores how each one could happen, then pauses to consider how each nearly has. Clearly the madness section (which considers terrorism) is the most compelling, revealing kitty litter as a terrorist's best friend and riding roughshod over homeland security, with Valerie Plame Wilson (subject of Doug Liman's Fair Game) as our guide.

The two cracks in Walker's irate salvo come from the final third and that most common of documentary flaws: the failure to consider the other side. No one pops up to explain why we need nuclear weapons, nor does anyone really explain why we can't just all agree to get rid of them. Meanwhile, the finale spends far too much time explaining what happens in a nuclear blast, something we've all learned already from Hollywood's countless attempts to revel in our own destruction.

Look further...

'a passionate call for action against a catastrophe that may be closer than we think' - Phil on Film

Trailer Of The Week - Week #42

Continuing the build-up to the 25th Leeds International Film Festival, this week's trailer zooms in on Sundance favourite Bellflower, which comes with a moody acoustic-guitar-laden trailer which doesn't really give much away. The film was a big hit on the US indie circuit and writer/director Evan Glodell has been receiving praise for his creation ever since. The acting perhaps looks a bit spotty but you can't doubt the atmosphere which creates a distinct air of uncertainty and threat. And there's fire. Lots of fire.



Trailer Of The Week is a regular Film Intel feature which picks a different tasty trailer of delectable goodness every week and presents it on Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Sometimes old, sometimes new, sometimes major, sometimes independent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes a load of old bobbins: always guaranteed to entertain. If you want to make a suggestion for Trailer Of The Week, see the contact us page.

Film Intel's Final Word

What happened this week and why you shouldn't care.



Poster for The Sitter: Shall I Count The Ways Thou Art So Very Wrong?

Story: Movie Reviews

Also: this looks like being the film where we can indulge in nostalgically remembering a time when Jonah Hill was still fat.



The Avengers Trailer Debuts, Is Instantly Bitched About.

Story: iTunes Trailers

Stuff we've already seen that is also in this trailer; every superhero/villain, Nick Fury, cars blowing up, hammers, Tony Stark being snide/slightly unlikeable, Hawkeye being marginalised. So, yeah, this is basically a trailer for Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner.



Dreddful?

Story: Slash Film

The new Judge Dredd film is now being described, by the film-makers themselves, as an 'unorthodox collaboration'. Which means its shit.

Top 5 Reasons Why High Fidelity Is One Of The Best Films Of The Noughties

Please note: you should have seen High Fidelity by now. If you haven't, this article may spoil parts of it for you. Which would serve you right.

5 - The List Structure

Lists are comforting. We make them in our everyday life. We make them to do our shopping. We make them of things we need 'to do'. We make them to categorise the films we've seen. High Fidelity is a film built around a list with a substructure of other lists within it. As a starting point, Rob (John Cusack) lists his top 5 break-ups and then works his way back through them, exploring the reasons and revisiting the ex-girlfriends before he inevitably comes full circle, back to current-nearly-ex-partner Laura (Iben Hjejle). In between those points we take in the 'top 5 musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s' and the 'top 5 songs about death', amongst others. The structural conceit of High Fidelity - completely focused around 'top 5' lists - makes the film organised, comforting and coherent.

4 - The Location

Move a novel from the UK to the US and you've basically got two city choices; New York or Los Angeles. Director Stephen Frears eschews both of these and instead opts for Chicago. It's the perfect choice. Set this in either of the other two cities and this becomes a completely different film. Set it in New York and Rob isn't a near-down-and-out with a job that hardly pays the rent. Instead, he'd be a trendy hipster with an ultra-fashionable boutique store. Set it in LA and you don't get the rain. On it's own merits, Chicago looks alternatively great and suppressed by browns and greys, which only add to the underground vibe the film builds throughout.

3 - The Fourth Wall Breaking Narration

The narration itself, though brilliantly scripted, isn't the key thing here, the key thing is how utterly convincingly Cusack and Frears sell it to you. Case in point: at no stage of the film does anyone in it (apart from Cusack) recognise or acknowledge that what the character is doing is a bit odd. No-one walks in on him talking to himself (us), no one turns round to 'shush' him whilst he's whispering during the funeral scene, no one else attempts to communicate with us directly. The film is an absolute masterclass in directing fourth wall breaking by Frears.

2 - The Musical Moments Of Genius

Being a film that comes very close to making music its subject matter, there are plenty of musical moments. Two approach genius. The first is almost throwaway, glossed over and disappears in an instant: Bruce Springsteen shows up to talk to Rob. In his imagination. Its almost a nothing scene but it's the kind of delicious cameo you can't help but love and it typifies Rob; he's a semi-dreamer, looking for the answer to everything in the songs of his heroes. The second is much more subtle. As Dick (Todd Louiso) starts to chat up Annaugh (Sara Gilbert) over a shared love of Green Day, Rob sidles over, 'I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band'. Rob puts it on, the shoppers in the store start nodding. Frears doesn't even need to show you the scene where Rob sells his five copies. It nods to the end of the film: it has shown Rob to be the slyly clever, music-obsessed businessman he could be/is come the conclusion. Also: perfect track choice.

1 - The Human Characters

Rob - our hero - cheats on his girlfriend, indirectly causing her to abort their unplanned pregnancy. During the course of their separation, whilst still somewhat attempting to repair their relationship, Rob sleeps with Marie (Lisa Bonet), whilst Laura moves in with (and sleeps with) the odious Ian/Ray (Tim Robbins). Barry (Jack Black), rude and unlikeable throughout, gets throttled by Rob at one point. Dick is so wet he wouldn't be able to light a match. Of Rob's exes, only Penny (Joelle Carter) seems completely corpus mentus. Charlie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is particularly horrendous. Liz (Joan Cusack) switches sides more often than a glory hunting football fan. Vince (Chris Rehmann) and Justin (Ben Carr) steal stuff. Everyone is flawed but, with the exception of Ian/Ray and, arguably, Charlie, you come to the end of the film liking every single one of them.

Sub-question: what moments just missed out?

Jack Black is still funny and possibly gets another moment of musical genius when Sonic Death Monkey morph into Barry Jive and The Uptown Five. On a similar note, at this point, John Cusack hadn't made 2012 and can still be considered to be channelling the coolness of Say Anything to great effect. The thing that came closest to making the list though? This is a rom-com. For guys. And you don't see a whole load of them.

Chico & Rita - Blu-ray Review

'this doesn't start and stop with a fling on the dance floor, there's something much more here, with delicate relationships, capable of being stamped out in a vicious dance of death, or re-lit by fingers twinkling across ivories'

Chico & Rita - a gorgeous Spanish-language animation, charting the trials and tribulations of the titular lovers - dances with vigour through the rhythms of Cuban music to a unique beat that marks it out as a one-of-a-kind experience. Directors Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba have made something fantastically unique here; a simple, stylised film with heart, passion and a unique knack for capturing its story in song.

As Chico (Eman Xor Oña) and Rita (Limara Meneses) find their eyes meeting on the dance floor, a relationship starts, filled with fire from the off. As the tones and beats of jazz drive the heart of the film through inevitable fiery clashes and distressing situations, Errando, Mariscal and Trueba paint an involving relationship, full of a love which threatens to become all consuming.

As the action moves from the warm Cuban climes to the cold wastes of New York, the directors three impart the formula with a consideration of musical migration. Chano Pozo - a real life Latin jazz star, typifying the film's crossing of fact with fiction - arrives on US shores, announces his dominance and is promptly eliminated from the narrative. The re-appropriation of musical lineage has begun - not that that's going to prevent us from stopping frequently to breathe in as much of it as possible.

As pacey rumbas become slow waltzes, the film finds itself shot through with inevitable considerations of age and lives not lived. Like every great epic love story, this doesn't start and stop with a fling on the dance floor, there's something much more here, with delicate relationships, capable of being stamped out in a vicious dance of death, or re-lit by fingers twinkling across ivories. Heartbreaking, unique and one of the best-produced animations outside of a Pixar studio.

Look further...

'the original score by Bebo Valdés is sensational making the movie essential viewing for any jazz fan' - Fandango Groovers, 4/5

Eight Highlights At LIFF 25

The Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) announced its full line-up in a ceremony in the town this past Friday night. If you're lucky enough to be going along this year then here's a selection of highlights, in no particular order, from the programme, which you may want to consider. If you can't get there then look out for these coming to a rental list near you, sometime in the future.

Small Town Murder Songs

Sat 12th Nov, 19:00 @ Hyde Park Picture House

Sun 13th Nov, 14:00 @ Hyde Park Picture House

Featuring a rare chance to see Peter Stormare in a leading role, Small Town Murder Songs is short at just seventy-five minutes and seems designed to be a film dense of theme. Reaction to its release in its native Canada (for more see here and here) has been largely positive with lots of praise for writer/director Ed Gass-Donnelly.

Finisterrae

Fri 11th Nov, 14:00 @ Leeds Town Hall 1

Fri 11th Nov, 18:00 @ Leeds Town Hall 1

The IMDb synopsis for this ('two ghosts walk along the Camino of Santiago') is enough to guarantee interest and the imagery available online is haunting. Shot by Eduard Grau - who made Tom Ford's A Single Man look so wonderful - this apparently produced a good reaction when footage from it was shown at the LIFF 25 launch event.

The Other Side Of Sleep

Fri 4th Nov, 20:00 @ Vue in the Light 1

Sun 6th Nov, 18:00 @ Vue in the Light 1

Rebecca Daly's feature-length debut, The Other Side Of Sleep has already featured on several festival slates this summer. Twitch were there to catch up with it at Cannes, where it mainly appears to have gone down well. Another examination of small town murder this has 'indie-sleeper' written all over it.

Mitsuko Delivers

Sat 5th Nov, 16:00 @ Hyde Park Picture House

Thu 10th Nov, 18:00 @ Vue in the Light 2

When you think of Japanese film, 'comedy' isn't the immediate genre that springs to mind but Yûya Ishii - described as a 'Leeds favourite' on the festival website - seems set on single-handedly changing that. His latest (Japanese title: Hara ga kore nande) follows a down-and-out pregnant girl (the titular Mitsuko) as she tries to fix the lives of those around her.

Inbred

Tue 8th Nov, 21:00 @ Hyde Park Picture House

As an independent horror with very little proven pedigree to speak of, Inbred could of course be awful. Still, it's difficult not to love both the tagline and the programming: sticking something on the bill that appears to directly laugh at the locals has to be applauded.

Bellflower

Fri 11th Nov, 16:00 @ Leeds Town Hall 1

Fri 11th Nov, 20:00 @ Leeds Town Hall 1

This has got to be considered a semi-coup for LIFF. Bellflower has been described as a 'phenomenal showcase' for writer/director Evan Glodell, whose film wowed several critics at Sundance. Currently one of the hottest indies around.

Park Chan Wook Short Cuts

Wed 16th Nov, 18:00 @ Hyde Park Picture House

Back in January, Park Chan-Wook caused a stir by announcing that he was shooting his next film entirely on an iPhone. This screening pulls together both the finished article (Night Fishing) and two of the director's earlier shorts. A must for Oldboy fans. And iPhone fans.

Snowtown

Sat 12th Nov, 20:00 @ Hyde Park Picture House

Continuing the rise and rise of Australian cinema over the last few years, Snowtown has already managed to generate some serious buzz across several markets. Detailing John Bunting, Australia's most infamous serial killer, through the eyes of the 16 year-old boy he befriends, this could be a huge breakout for director Justin Kurzel, for whom this is a first feature.


Look further...

The festival's big hitters have been purposefully left off this list (there's plenty about them elsewhere) but if you want to see opening night (3rd November) film Wuthering Heights or Shame, the closing film of the official selection (18th November), then it is probably best to sort out tickets sooner rather than later. Other notable 'big' films showing at the festival include The Thing prequel (5th November) and possible awards contender Take Shelter (6th and 7th November).

Also left off this list are the selection of classics screening this year. These provide a rare opportunity to see some fantastic films on the big screen, whilst also providing a break from the influx of new things festival-goers will no doubt be dashing between. Notable films available for your nostalgic pleasure at LIFF 25 are; Alien (November 6th), Aliens (November 15th), Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (November 13th), Family Life (November 18th), Grave Of The Fireflies (November 5th), Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (4th November), Psycho (November 5th), The Day The Earth Stood Still (4th and 6th November) and Waltz With Bashir (14th and 16th November).

The Rite - Blu-ray Review

'Hopkins might be exorcising the devil but it feels like he might sit down to have a cup of tea with you at any moment'

On the one hand, The Rite is one of those films which handles its themes with all the tact and delicacy of a Hugh Jackman fighting robots film. An early shot in Michael Kovak's (Colin O'Donoghue) home town spends far too long ogling the cinema, which happens to be called 'Resurrection Theatre', for no discernible reason other than for director Mikael Håfström to start getting his ideas about faith, doubt and redemption across.

As a film which deals with those large circular considerations The Rite proves surprisingly effective. Kovak has become a priest only to escape his small town. Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins) seems to be a priest in exile, who admits occasional crises of faith early on. Father Xavier (Ciarán Hinds) is so zealous in his beliefs that he is unable to enter coherent conversation with Kovak's logical thought progressions. As a film which sets out to deal with faith as a concept - particularly its ever-swinging nature between 'solid' and 'shaky' - Håfström's creation does a good, albeit fairly casual, job.

Somewhere within his musings on faith Håfström appears to have half-thought about making a horror film. In the end product this is concretely not the case. There are perhaps three-to-four scenes which could have been taken from a horror film, three of them involving exorcisms, which form the backbone of the narrative. Beyond these though, there's nothing scary about The Rite, which doesn't even manage to hold down a solid feeling of dread at any point. Håfström either needed to forgo the horror entirely (difficult in a film concerned with exorcising the devil) or develop it much more and the lack of focus on this element lends the film a rather tame air for the most part.

Take it as a thriller which occasionally touches base with its horror forefathers though and you stand a chance of getting a positive experience out of The Rite. Hopkins gives a very naturalistic performance for the most part: he might be exorcising the devil but it feels like he might sit down to have a cup of tea with you at any moment. Hinds doesn't get enough to do (a common theme for him this year) and Alice Braga's token role is a complete waste of time. O'Donoghue, who has to ground all this hokum in the believable shell of a priest who doesn't really want to be a priest, is solid enough to carry the film and considering the alternatives in his age group (Orlando Bloom and James McAvoy spring to mind) he probably does just enough to achieve better-than-average marks.

Look further...

'a moody and intelligent drama, with strong performances and a genuine sense of mood and place. The first two acts are engaging and thoughtful, and the somewhat more visceral third act doesn't fatally wound the film' - Mendelson's Memos, C

Rediscovering Tintin

The advantage to keeping large piles of crap in your loft is that when someone decides to remake, re-appropriate, relaunch or redevelop part of your childhood, you can head up there to get all misty-eyed over the original material. So it was that I ventured upstairs, into a space filled with soft toys, board games, books and other paraphernalia, in search of a few distant memories that might remain, hidden in amongst the dust. Armed only with a blue jumper, torch and questionable quiff I battled the cobwebs and copies of Dracula: The Board Game and emerged carrying untold riches...

Sadly there wasn't a copy of The Crab with the Golden Claws (which I don't even remember being a Tintin book), The Secret of the Unicorn or Red Rackham's Treasure - the books which have been pooled together to create Steven Speilberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, due to hit UK cinemas at the end of October - but IMDb reports that there's also elements of The Shooting Star in the script, so finding that must be counted as some form of success.

Rediscovering old favourites is always a bit of a risk. There's the obvious chance that films and books you loved as a youngster don't hold up to the standards you apply to similar material now and the more-than-likely chance that your own misty-eyed nostalgia has led you to think them better than they ever were. There's also the chance that you've simply forgotten stuff. None of us are getting any younger you know.

As a case in point, I don't remember ever being able to see Snowy's thoughts. That's right. In the comics, the dog basically talks. I'm sure I could illustrate this point by scouring the web for a good-quality scan of a cell featuring Snowy talking but why would I want to do that when I can make your eyes hurt through the sheer excellence of blurry home-made photography...

Over recent years, Tintin's major feature in the media has been due to accusations of racism against some of the content contained in Hergé's books. The main culprit has always been fingered as Tintin in The Congo and the evidence presented here is pretty damning, although the validity of returning to something first published in 1931 to re-appropriate and reinterpret the content must also be questioned.

What is certainly true of Hergé is that he does write in stereotypes. Captain Haddock is a salty sea-dog who speaks mainly in alliterative insults. Professor Calculus looks bookish, with a small beard and circular glasses. In Flight 714, the deceptive English assistant to the millionaire Laszlo Carreidas couldn't look more like a deceptive English assistant if he tried...

The over-whelming feeling you get when looking back at Tintin though is an appreciation of just why these books were so able to capture the imagination. They all involve voyages of discovery of one kind or another, more often than not to places most people - even in this age of cheap flights and package holidays - will never have been. Even in Tintin in America, the America in question is prohibition Chicago, run by Al Capone and his gangster chums. It's laced with a romanticism for individual eras and for the joy of discovering something new.

The Shooting Star relies heavily on this. The voyage is in search of the titular star. It involves a yellow plane and a boat trip and a race against time and a cast of stereotypical characters laid out in such a way by Hergé to apparently invite you to guess at which one of them might be the evil guy...

It's a rollicking good adventure and one which (especially given the look of the extra-blurry cells below) Spielberg's film seems to have drawn on for elements of its visual appearance if nothing else. If the film lives up to it I'll be the happiest, most misty-eyed, ticket-holder in the cinema.