maatmouse Reviews

The Golden Compass (2007)

A film version of Phillip Pullman's intelligent book

[7/10 · 31 December 2007]

I came to the Golden Compass having read all of the books and also having read some of the mixed reviews this extraordinary film got. Some reviews stated that the film was a very watered-down version of the book, others stated that Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy attacks the Roman Catholic Church.

For the record, I enjoyed the books enormously and found a viewpoint on the Catholic Church, not unlike my own. This film, however, was a different matter. Gone are the explanations about WHY the Magisterium wants to remove free-will from children before they are adult and in its place, is an action movie, more about a young girl who wants to rescue her childhood friend and, in the process, becomes tangled up in a war between the right to exercise free-will and not.

The film differs quite a lot from the book but not so much as it becomes unwatchable. The beginning, which explains why this world of Lyra's is so different from our own also gives us a glimpse into the trilogy's second part with ideas of parallel worlds. The part where Lyra hides from her uncle, played quite seriously by Daniel Craig (who really isn't given enough time to develop his character), is very short and concentrates on the main gist of the story about what some view as heresy versus intellect. What is less deeply entered into is the role that Jordan College plays in the book. Other details include Lyra's meeting with Mrs Coulter, played brilliantly and believably by Nicole Kidman and then there is the parts in the story where certain events happen. Lyra's meeting with Ragnar the Bear King is brought forward in the film but is no less enjoyable for it and time constraints make the rescue of the children and the explanations about why the children are being experimented on, much shorter. Lyra's reunion with Lord Asriel is hinted at, which was a disappointment and there is no explanation in the film about why Lyra and her aleithometer is so important to Asriel's work. For that, you need to read the book.

Other characters are rendered quite nicely. Eva Green is interesting, well-cast and very pretty as the Witch Queen Serafina Pekkala and Sam Elliott is good fun as the aeronaut Lee Scoresby, although I thought Scoresby was much younger. Dakota as Lyra is brilliant and very much as I imagined, although my feeling might be that she was too old to be believable, but for a first shot at playing Lyra, she is excellent and looks like she'll make the role her own. She had just the right amount of arrogance and innocence to make the role interesting.

300 (2006)

Historically inaccurate but looks really good

[7/10 · 6 October 2007]

What an extraordinary looking film! When I saw the trailer for 300, I was amazed at what a 'look' had been achieved. And then there were the battle scenes. Wow! 300 recalls the Spartan battling the Persians at Thermopylae. Xerxes the Persian King moves towards Greece with an army counting thousands and comes across, probably one of the harshest regimented armies in the ancient world. Not for nothing is the term 'Spartan' used to describe harsh conditions.

300 is stylised storytelling. It is not historically accurate. The Spartans fought with far more armour instead of the almost naked soldiers in the film, the Persian king Xerxes did not have numerous facial piercings and a bald head (although he probably had very eyelined eyes) and his women probably didn't sport nipple rings either. But then, who really watches these films for historical accuracy? Very few. If you want historical accuracy, then watch any of the documentaries on the History Channel or read Greek and Roman historical accounts of the Spartan way of life.

Gerald Butler not only looks the part but acts it as well, taking to his role as Leonidas with relish. David Wenham, whose distinct voice also provides a kind of 'storytelling commentary' also acts and fights very well. Lena Headey and others give remarkable performances.

But the star of the film is whoever provided the movie with its fascinating 'look'. Swopping the usual epic look which is reserved for films such as Troy and Gladiator, 300 has, instead, gone for a very dreamlike visual with careful slowing down and stop-motion style editing in the battle sequences which owe something to The House of Flying Daggers style employed by Zhang Yimou and his other film, Hero.

All in all, a visual treat and an extraordinary telling of an ancient tale. With embellishments.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

Another brilliant modern western

[8/10 · 13 August 2006]

My first thoughts on watching this, was 'why hasn't Tommy Lee Jones directed anything sooner?'. This is simply a brilliant story well told and without any of the usual flashy hand held camera usage or art-house style moving camera which can be annoying and has put me off cinema for a while. Tommy Lee Jones prefers to let the camera, characters, story and scenery tell this morality tale superbly.

The story comes in when Border Patrol man Norton has arrived in this part of Texas from Cinncinnati with his young wife Lou Ann. Setting up home in their trailer park house, the couple settle into life in this bleak end of Texas. Norton goes to work as the border patrolman whilst his wife spends her days drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes whilst watching the curiously weird, large folk of the trailer park in their everyday business. She also breaks up the boredom with a little prostitution; in this case, entertaining the Mexican of the title whilst her waitress friend does the same with Tommy Lee's character, Pete.

Both Pete and Melquiades are both 'cowboy' ranch workers. They strike up a good friendship based on mutual stories, giving horses and, of course, finding women. All of this side of the story is shown in retrospective. The film had opened with Mel's death at the hands of Norton's rifle, a terrible accident committed by Norton when the patrolman believed Mel was firing at him (actually Mel was firing at a coyote threatening his livestock). Mel pays with his life and Pete, frustrated at the lack of interest in the Mexican's death by the other border patrolmen who buried him, decides to remedy this for the sake of his friend's memory.

Unlike The Proposition, Three Burials is not such of a revenge movie. Norton is being taught a vital lesson by Pete as he is tied to a horse and taken, with the dead Mexican, by Pete, back to the Mexican's home and family. Along the way, little things remind us that our actions can come back to haunt us. In the case of Norton, he is bitten by a snake and has to go to the Mexican woman he hit on the nose earlier in the film for healing. She pays him by healing him but in the process leaves him in a lot of pain. Finally, Norton is urged to seek forgiveness and to help bury the dead Mexican, thinking he is going to wind up in the same grave, but Pete spares him. The lesson, it seems, has been learnt.

The Omen (2006)

The son of the devil turns up once more in this modern remake

[7/10 · 11 August 2006]

When I heard they were remaking The Omen, I had a sense of disappointment. Firstly, the original film was perfectly okay, not brilliant but creepy enough by modern standards, secondly, there are few actors to match up to Gregory Peck's performance in the original. That all said, The Omen, remake, is not a bad film. Lieb Schreiber and Julia Stiles are just about believable as a modern, young American couple trying for a baby who finally end up with a creepy child that looks nothing like either of them and is actually the biblical Antichrist as told in the Book of Revelations who will bring about the end of the world. Some of the set pieces are quite nice. The journey to the monastery of Cervete is a wonderful, misty river Styx and hooded ferryman ride with a truly horrific priest/monk meeting with Thorne. There is also some good casting as well, such as that of David Thewlis as Jennings the photographer who helps Robert Thorne to understand what is going on with his son and why he is visited by mad priests and terrible accidents. Mia Farrow as the nanny Mrs Baylock is nowhere near as creepy as Billie Whitelaw, however. There was a genuine unsettling nastiness to Whitelaw's performance which Farrow doesn't quite capture, which is a pity because Farrow is a brilliant actress. In this film, she comes over as a bit madder/deranged but there is an unsettling edge of overprotection surrounding her relationship with Damien.

For my money, though, Lieb does not come over quite as convincing in his portrayal as Robert Thorne, but when you've seen Peck's brilliantly, tired and worried performance in the original, its always going to be a hard one to compete with. Lieb does as well as he can but again, better casting might have helped. This is the sort of part that cries out for a Johnny Depp type actor, someone who could be utterly believable.

A few things, however, do rankle about this film. One is Thewlis' photographer using chemical photography in the 21st century. Most press photographers now use digital cards for ease of transferring pictures to waiting editors. This could have so easily been updated to Thewlis examining his digital downloaded pictures on a computer screen and looking at the card in puzzlement because he thinks there's a fault with it. Somehow having developed photos seems very outdated.

All in all, a good attempt. Gruesome in the right places, particularly with the deaths and creepy dream sequences but better casting and a better script might have made a better film.

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

The Da Vinci Code - an okay piece of fiction

[5/10 · 8 July 2006]

With all the fuss made about the book's so called revelations and now the film pro porting to bang around fiction as if it's the truth, its a wonder that TDVC was ever made at all.

Firstly, the Catholic Church need not worry their heads about this one. Like the book, its a slightly hamfisted action movie with a bit more talking than action and the script is tedious. Tom Hanks doesn't quite convince as Robert Langdon, a role that in my opinion could have gone to Hugh Jackman with little trouble and Audrey Tautou is okay as Sophie Nouveau trying to make some sense of the situation she finds herself in. The other characters are quite flat. Only Ian McKellen comes out with any credibility and he is only playing the nice Englishman turned nasty he played in Gods and Monsters. Paul Bettany is little more than a scary looking monk who ends up being pitied rather more than booed for having to do the dirty work of his 'saviour'. Other people in this film, like Jean Reno are sleepacting or simply in it to pay the mortgage.

A not terribly good book made into a barely interesting film.

The Proposition (2005)

Australia's answer to Sergio Leone and Pale Rider

[8/10 · 8 July 2006]

If there is any justice in this world, Nick Cave and John Hillcoat would be up for Academy Awards. Cave's screenplay betrays his classic education and is tight and, in parts, very raw. The performances in this remarkable film are brilliant and often haunting. There is Guy Pearce doing his level best to add a new dimension to his western as one of the Burns' gang who murder, rape and generally make a nuisance for themselves in the Outback. Pearce's performance invokes memories of Pale Rider/Clint Eastwood or any cowboy that Clint has played. His is the hostile lawbreaker, the outsider who is tormented by the Proposition of the title which means he has to kill his elder brother, played superbly by Danny Huston or have his younger brother face the noose.

And then there is Ray Winstone and Emily Watson, both acting a little against type. Watson plays Winstone's wife, a woman who passionately loves her husband but finds his employment frustrating and finds out with horror how her best friend was killed. Winstone is the law man desperately trying to find a way to tame the savage nature of both prisoner and, in metaphor, the land. Even his wife is trying to grow roses in the harsh landscape.

The only jarring aspect in all of this, is David Wenham. From his performance in Lord of the Rings as Faramir, he is a capable and precise actor but doesn't seem to quite convince as an Englishman in this film. Perhaps it was the accent he finds difficulty with and that's odd because both Winstone and other actors find their accents rather more convincing.

But hats off to Cave, above all, and also his haunting and uneasy music to accompany this film. I sincerely hope he makes more films because they will be worth watching.

Personal Services (1987)

A sort of Belle De Jour for the British

[8/10 · 8 July 2006]

Often it is said that you can define a country by the way it deals with that thorny business known as sex. Personal Services is as English as it gets about sex. Based very loosely on the life of English madam Cynthia Payne, Personal Services takes the character of Cynthia Painter and follows her progress from London waitress to a brothel keeper or 'Madam'.

It starts with an accident. Madam is renting out flats but her clients (particularly one) don't pay her rent so she has to pay her landlord in a different way, by offering him sexual favours. Pretty soon, she starts to do this on a regular basis. Usually her clients are old men or men with a particular 'kink' such as wearing rubber and being locked in a cupboard with only a panic button for company. Others prefer being treated like naughty school boys and being spanked by matron or mistress. All this is done in the only way it can be done, the English style, accompanied by ribald comments about male anatomy, cups of tea, transvestites called 'Dolly' and, of course, the law, the police and eventually the crown court judge (who happens to be a Painter client).

It is Belle De Jour without Catherine Deneuvre and with a lot more fun and more honesty. And of course, loads of tea and biscuits.

Derailed (I) (2005)

Run of the mill thriller for Aniston and Owen.

[6/10 · 22 June 2006]

Derailed was trying very hard to be something it wasn't. It was trying to be a Hitchcock style twist type movie but failed somewhere along the way and became very predictable.

Clive Owen plays an advertising exec who has one bad morning and finds his fare paid for by an attractive 'accountant' played by Aniston. After paying her back, meeting her for a meal and drink and then heading off to a seedy hotel, Owen is apparently injured and robbed of his cash and cards at gunpoint whilst Aniston is raped and robbed by the same man. The robber subsequently continues a reign of terror, phoning Owen up to demand even more money for blackmail and even visits his home. Despite all this, Owen's character continues to resist going to the police whilst Aniston's character flatly denies it ever happened and even undergoes an abortion. Things come to a head when, after countless attempts to get rid of the robber/thug, Owen becomes suspicious and decides to follow Aniston, only to find her in collusion with the robber/thug who is her boyfriend and them both part of a gang who does this 'adulterous affair/robbery at gunpoint' routine for a living. Owen eventually shoots the thug, his girlfriend and his accomplice, and walks away with his money back, only to be done for embezzling his firm (whom he borrowed the money necessary to pay the thug with). After working in a prison as part of his 'prison sentence' for embezzlement, Owen re-discovers the thug and kills him. Everyone lives happily ever after.

The biggest disappointment with this film was Vincent Cassel who can only do much better than this routine nonsense by playing the tramp/loser thug who is Aniston's character's boyfriend. Cassel, so good in dramas in his native France, is wasted here as a two dimensional and extremely violent thug who adds nothing worthy in this tale. I suppose this film, like Ewan Mcgregor's appearance in the film The Island, is only about paying the mortgage or rent for Cassel but it does nothing to diminish the stereotype of the exotic, foreign thug beating up the submissive, compliant Englishman. Owen is also very run of the mill, as is Aniston who doesn't quite make you believe in her gangsters' moll number.

Madam Kitty (1976)

Is Brass more than a bit interested in Nazi Germany's Perversions

[5/10 · 22 June 2006]

When I bought Salon Kitty, The Director's Cut, I thought I would be doing something quite risky in buying this controversial curiosity. Salon Kitty is the story of a Brothel Madam who is hired by the SS to school a group of perfect 'National Socialist Party' women to become prostitutes for the Third Reich, whilst secretly recording their customer's disclosure of secrets for later use (one supposes) in blackmail.

There is a genuine feel of Brass's other work, Caligula in this hugely staged presentation. The sets are impressive but to certain eyes look a bit 1970s and some may be shocked at the imagery on show here, for example, the women being required to 'prove' their worthiness on the project by performing various sex acts on unlikely clients. Berger plays a Nazi officer with more than a passing interest in Margherita as she comes to his home and offers him sexual favours in return for a place on the project.

Still, if you want a viewpoint of Brass' work without renting Caligula, which is a highly flawed film, then try this curiosity but it is not for the nervous or fainthearted.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

The royal tenebaums - overly dysfunctional American family

[8/10 · 9 June 2006]

I have to say that before this film, I was a Wes Anderson film virgin. I had never seen one of his pictures previously. This film is not a bad place to start.

The Royal Tenebaums is the story of a family of likable American curiosities. You have the spiv runaway father done for trying to cheat on his son, the intelligent mother hen, the brilliant but now paranoid son, the genius adopted daughter who smokes incessantly but secretly and the ambitious ex-tennis player son who, through his love and jealousy for his adopted sister, no longer plays tennis. Added to that, a family friend who becomes famous and talented in his own right and becomes involved with the adopted daughter and you have the recipe for an interesting blend of people most of us recognise.

This whole film was presented in a series of chapters, like those of a book. The cast are brilliant, especially Gwyneth Paltrow and Owen Wilson who manages to restrain his usual surfer dude schtick long enough to present a different, more moody side to his acting talents. It also presents us with straight acting from Ben Stiller who is normally renowned for doing very likable comedy, again playing the money mad genius son who is left a paranoid, safety conscious widower by an aircrash. And finally, there is Luke Wilson. A world away from his usually quite dopey but gentle comedy characters, Richie Tenebaum gives a new edge to Luke's acting talents. He far outdoes Owen in this film and gives a rich tapestry to a character who is jealous but sincere in his love for his adopted 'sibling' Margot and in dealing with her husband of convenience, played by Bill Murray. All the cast are wonderful.

Lots of nice little touches, like Margot's secretive smoking, missing finger, fur coat costume and thick, clumpy flat shoes combined with tiny sports dresses and Kelly Bag, Owen's drug addled and porn driven cowboy with Gucci loafers and blonde, little boy lost bob haircut, Richie's sports wrist bands and mustard suit with dark glasses and long hair that disappears in his anguished response to his 'adopted sibling's sexual proclivities and his later passionate kissing with the same and, of course, Gene Hackman with his 'break all the rules' mad man attitude.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Brad and Angelina are beautiful but the film - oh dear!

[5/10 · 29 November 2005]

This film is an idea which started out with such promise. A film featuring two of the most popular and pretty people in Hollywood at the moment playing a pair of married assassins who don't realise what either of them does for a living, then watch the fun when they are ordered to kill each other.

Does all this sound so familiar? I believe Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner did something similar in a film years ago and that wasn't terribly good either. So why repeat a bad formula? Simply money.

I really wanted to enjoy this film, despite it's premise of being basically a no-brainer Friday night after work type of movie (the one where I don't have to think about the plot). I wanted to laugh as both of them came up with more ludicrous ways of rubbing each other out and I didn't! Sorry Brad and Angelina, you are a lovely couple and I'm sure you'll get married, settle down and have loads of children but, please, don't act together in another film.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Kubrick's last attempt at a conventional Hollywood film

[7/10 · 29 November 2005]

Reading much in the tabloid press about the controversy and lies told about this film's production I was surprised to find, on watching it, that none of the rubbish was actually true. Kidman and Cruise make a halfway decent couple in this film, although one gets the impression particularly from Cruise's acting that he suffered far too many takes going wrong but aside from that, Kidman looks lovely and completely at ease with being pictured in the way that Kubrick portrays his film women - mostly naked but in a strangely non voyeuristic manner.

That said, all the classic Kubrick touches are there. The sumptuous ballroom scene at Ziggler's and the equally beautiful masked party scene; liberal use of female nudity (seen in many Kubrick films, including The Shining, Clockwork Orange and occasionally in Barry Lyndon) but with a continental eye on it (as its incidental to the plot), little touches which crop up again and again (the well-lit Christmas tree, Cruise's ill-fated attempts to have sex as a means of getting back at his wife's revelation and the parties of the rich and successful (and masked)). Also there is the Kubrick trademark long tracking shot down a corridor and his use of nudity to shock. Kubrick was an incredibly talented and creative director who will be sorely missed by his fans.

The plot is as complicated as ever. Cruise plays an ordinary suburban doctor whose former art dealer wife makes an uncomfortable revelation about an encounter she had on one of their holidays. Then Cruise, answering a call from a client/friend to attend to her dead father, finds himself dwelling over and over again on his wife's real or imagined infidelity as he travels around. He meets a succession of characters; a prostitute whom he almost sleeps with, a piano player in a jazz club who tells him about a masked party in another part of the country which he is playing at and then a costume supplier and his unruly daughter, followed by the anticipated so-called orgy sequence in which Cruise is, oddly, out of place and is 'rumbled'. The rest of the movie concentrates itself on Cruise trying to find out what went on at the party and whether the girl who 'sacrificed' herself for him really did.

The only problem with me regarding this film was Cruise's acting. It is, at times, quite tired and he never gives a feeling that he is in any danger or his family are and he is concerned about it.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Dark Times ahead indeed

[8/10 · 18 November 2005]

Easily the best and the funniest in the Harry Potter series, this film really is brilliant! What makes it as well is its intensity. The danger factor has been enhanced from the book considerably, as evident in Harry's battle with his dragon during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. The book merely has Harry riding around a bit to avoid the dragon but the film has the dragon breaking it's restraints and following Harry around the school's turrets in an attempt to roast him alive. The action is definitely better with the special effects used in the telling of the story rather than overused.

One bug bear about this movie: I'm not sure that Daniel Radcliffe and some of his actor friends are going to last the distance on this series. They are all definitely older and its far more noticeable, particularly in the case of Rupert and Daniel. Both seem to have grown up at an alarming rate (particularly in Ron's use of language). The challenge for the next films (should Daniel and Rupert continue with them) is going to continue to retain the age and experience perspective relevant to the character (Harry is supposed to be 14 in this film, but he appears to be a bit older both in appearance and attitude but thankfully, no facial hair yet). That said, the teenage raging hormone factor is extremely funny, particularly in their sparring with Hermione and her decision to go to the Yule Ball with a rival to Harry in the Tournament. This annoys Ron very much and leaves him to wonder why he never viewed Hermione in this way before. Other funny moments include Harry's visit to the Prefects' bathroom to find out the secret inside his golden egg (a close encounter with Moaning Myrtle ensures). This sequence particularly highlights the actor and the character's age although Daniel does cut quite a figure underneath the school uniform (he must have been working out).

That said, all the signs are that this series will continue in a very successful vein and I hope it does. I also hope all of the cast continue with it, as to cast anyone else in their parts would have a detrimental effect and I don't think any other actors can play Harry, Ron and Hermione quite as well. Their character dynamic together is both hilarious and quite charming. Other characters have also matured considerably, especially the Neville Longbottom character who has grown out of being the constant fall guy.

The Island (2005)

Logan's Run by another name

[7/10 · 12 September 2005]

I saw The Island quite recently and expected, from what I had read from other critics, to be watching a mindless summer blockbuster action movie. The critics, I am glad to say, were wrong. This is a well put together movie with something to please just about anyone looking for something more than action.

Ewan McGregor reveals a fair amount of un Hollywood humour in this movie as well as a brief glimpse into his Scottish Generation X persona. This is shown up quite well when his 'clone' or 'insurance policy' as McGregor's Tom Lincoln calls him, turns up at Tom Lincoln's posh house. Pity we never get to meet Scarlet's human being although we glimpse her too from one of the adverts that Johanssen made for a perfume company (!). Other players are good as well. Steve Buscemi is as he always is but Sean Bean is, in my opinion, a little bit too understated although he has a nice hard edge about him as the mad doctor of the piece.

The action scenes are very well realised, although I am not a big fan of hand held camera action and fast paced blink and you'll miss it filming which doesn't allow the eye to linger too much over what's going on. And my other grumble, which is typical of a lot of film makers today is the scenic helicopter swinging around on the main couple shot which has been done to death. Enough of that.

All in all, not bad at all. And McGregor looks so much happier doing this than any of the Star Wars films he was involved in.

Bedazzled (2000)

Oh Dear!

[3/10 · 12 September 2005]

Ah well, it had to happen sometime. Brendan Fraser makes one bad film in an otherwise decent career.

The trouble is, its not his fault. Whoever cast Liz Hurley should be strung up. She is certainly not convincing enough. Pretty, granted, but not enough. A better choice might have been Christina Ricci. At least she would have had a fun time trying to doodle Elliott out of his wishes.

This is a mess of a movie. To have even considered remaking a film which was not known as a huge box office hit around the first time was bad enough but this is taking the mickey. Is there no originality left in Hollywood anymore? I'm amazed that Harold Ramis even put his name to this.

Still, if you are not expecting anything serious then try it but don't expect too much.

And someone give Brendan Fraser better material to work with in future even if its a bad film.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

A tough third year for Harry

[7/10 · 6 September 2005]

Following both the Harry Potter books and the progress made on the films has been fascinating, not least in guessing what will remain in the film and what won't.

It is Harry's third year at Hogwarts and already there he is in trouble both with his horrible adopted family (the dreadful Dursleys) and with the Ministry of Magic for finally getting fed of them and leaving but not before swelling his aunt to the size of a small air balloon and sending her flying. Picked up by the Knights Bus (I wish we had one of those), Harry finds himself back into the world he knows and loves much sooner. But, unlike other children, there is trouble in his direction - in the form of Sirius Black, escaped convict and possible traitor to Harry's dead parents.

The film concentrates quite well on the key points: the dementors (shades of Tolkien's ringwraiths creeping in here) and Sirius Black as well as Harry's struggles with his life situation (Voldemort wants him dead and he has to live in the holidays with the Dursleys). All this and Quidditch and, of course, growing up.

This film is considerably more grown up than the other two. Radcliffe is able to give the character a much needed shot of teenage stroppiness and inject some frustration as Harry realises that he has much to overcome as well. He is helped in his task by Professor Lupin, his new Defence against the dark arts teacher who helps Harry considerably against the dementors and gives him more much needed insights into his parents' own characters by revealing what his father really was like. Added to that, Gary Oldman is perfect as escaped convict and would be murderer Sirius Black.

My only disappointment is that Gambon was perhaps not the right choice for Professor Dumbledore, playing him more like an elderly old hippy grandfather given to muttering strange stuff than the old, wise grandfather Dumbledore which was Harris'. Hopefully after the Goblet of Fire - he can settle into the role.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

A Nice 1st year for Harry

[8/10 · 6 September 2005]

I came to reading the Harry Potter adventures after, for the want of something better to do, picked up the first book and enjoyed it immensely. The book is very readable, whatever age you are, and I rather hoped that the film would live up to expectations.

Surprisingly, it did. Chris Columbus does a really good job of bringing Rowling's boy wizard and his adventures nicely to the cinema. The whole film is a bit rushed but watching it, you get enough of an idea of what Harry's situation is and why he is at Hogwarts and who his chief nemesis is. The other children do an excellent job of support. Emma Watson is perhaps the most like her character of the swotty, bossy bookworm Hermione and Rupert, as Ron Weasley, does a great job both as some comic relief (his comments after witnessing Professor McGonagall's transformation from a cat to female for example) and as friend to Harry. I thought a lot of very unfair criticism had been directed at Daniel Radcliffe for his portrayal of Harry but I am not sure how much more Daniel could have done as much of his part consists (as with so many films incorporating a lot of special effects) with reacting properly to things which would have been put in later. In my view, he has nothing to apologise for. Long may Radcliffe play the part, hopefully to Harry's last book.

The teachers are brilliant. Rowling's insistence on a largely British and Irish cast has paid off and Coltrane's portrayal of Hagrid is just spot on as is the late Richard Harris playing Professor Dumbledore, a kind of surrogate grandfather to Harry. I thought too little was seen of Maggie Smith, though.

All in all, nicely played.

9 Songs (2004)

A Michael Winterbottom curiosity

[5/10 · 6 August 2005]

I came to this Michael Winterbottom film from one of his previous efforts starring Samantha Morton and Tim Robbins. I had never heard of him as a director and when Sight and Sound (the house magazine of the BFI) did an article on him I thought he was worthy of attention.

Another reason for seeing this film was the promise of being able to watch a couple having actual sex and no merely faked orgasms and suggested oral sex either and no pornography. I quite wanted to be reminded of the reasons why two people can get together because of what they have in common.

Winterbottom's film is not pornography at all. It is merely a study of a relationship seen through the context of real sex (what nearly all of us have experienced once we are a certain age (18+ usually) and are not bound by religious considerations ie the Catholic priesthood) and popular music. That's all. And the cast are two everyday folk. They are not artificially enhanced porn actors or glossed up dolls for the benefit of the viewer. It is a very much warts and all film, although I have much admiration for Winterbottom to persuade any actor to show the camera (and thus the audience) his real erection and later orgasm.

Once the novelty of watching real adult sex wears off, however, there is little else left and that's the real disappointment of this film. Nevertheless it is an adult movie and some may enjoy it.

The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995)

Dark Passions in the Forest

[5/10 · 2 April 2005]

It is rare to chance on the first few films of a Hollywood actor obviously destined for better stuff and this is no exception. This is Brendan Fraser post California/Encino man and pre-Mummy etc in a sexy movie about passions bubbling under the surface. Fraser plays the Darkly Noon of the title who is found by a labourer and taken to his friends, Caly and Clay who reside in the forest. For the first 30 minutes plus of the film, only Caly is present, a beautiful and at times teasing presence in the film from Noon's perspective. Extremely religious Noon has difficulty reconciling Caly and his feelings for her until her lover, Clay returns and, troubled by their love for each other and the teachings of his parents and other strangers in the woods, Noon fights, literally against his rescuers quite spectacularly.

Secretary (2002)

Not your average office romance!

[7/10 · 12 March 2005]

Secretary is a brave movie. One that takes at least three difficult subjects and does something interesting with them. The first is the issue of self-mutilation which Maggie's character Lee does whenever things go wrong, the second is the misery of watching and listening two parents arguing all the time and the third is obviously, the employer/employee in a s&m relationship albeit one which is rooted in some kind of reality.

Secretary challenges all those who think that such relationships don't exist or aren't normal. It argues that this sort of sexual relationship goes on and seeks not to judge or impose judgements.

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

Zhang Yimou's beautifully simple action film

[8/10 · 15 January 2005]

House of Flying Daggers is one of those rare movies: an action movie which doesn't rely on the action to get it anywhere. It also makes a political statement but like so many good Chinese films, doesn't ram it down the viewer's throat.

See it not least for the wonderful echo game, Zhang Ziyi's lovely dancing and the almost poetic nature to the fighting. Not quite as lovely as Crouching Tiger etc but better than any of the Matrix films for the fact that the Director of Photography can actually shoot fighting properly.

This is a film Quentin Tarantino could learn from.

The Magic Toyshop (1987)

A magical film literally about unusual goings on in a toyshop

[4/10 · 4 January 2005]

I have recently found this film on one of my husband's VHS tapes (the blank variety which he uses to record stuff from the telly). The film looks as if it was last shown in the eighties and I don't remember having seen it since. It has not (to my knowledge) been released on DVD or VHS although I shall browse around for a copy.

The film tells the story of three young people: two girls, one on the edge of puberty and the other much younger, and a young boy who go to live with their mother's brother and his young, mute Irish wife. His wife also has two brothers who live with them. The children's uncle is an unpleasant control freak who forces his young wife to wear a silver collar whilst she watches a marionette show put on by him and her brothers in his toyshop.

The eldest girl and one of the Irishmen (the younger) develop a love for each other whilst they live in the same house. The girl helps her aunt out in the shop whilst her brother helps his uncle to make things in the workshop.

There are a lot of very disturbing elements to the film. There is the uncle's treatment of his wife as some kind of dumb (literally) possession (illustrated by the collar) whilst the Irish indulge dancing, drinking and somewhat forbidden love. Interestingly, though, I have seen far more explicit themes played out in other movies made in Hollywood today.

Makes you wonder whether the British film industry and the BBC have some kind of hidden agenda going on.

Still, despite it not being a children's movie, there are a lot of playful, magic moments in it and the one Irishman does some beautiful paintings.