hammy-3

It's entertaining enough but it really doesn't have the budget or imagination to compete with movies like Grindhouse or Mars Attacks as an homage to old B-Movies.

Lundgren is perfectly cast as a washed-up action movie star and plays along with the limited material he has to work with. Terence Howard seems to treat it too seriously as if it's making a serious point about independent cinemas closing which the movie seems too arch to be doing.

It can just never get the balance between chaos and pathos right for that to happen.

There's just a constant feeling that self-refenential B-Movies were so much better in the late 20th Century and that nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Normally I'd wish an up-and-coming low-budget flimmaker all the best but this movie is let down by a combination of poor script, mediocre acting and highly dubious messaging that I'm moved to go on IMDB and warn everyone else not to waste 80 minutes of their life on it.

It actually starts out promisingly enough as a psychological thriller dealing with domestic abuse but then the message it has about dealing with this problem is just so wrong on every level.

A woman is rescued from an abusive boyfriend by someone who seems to be a good samaritan but you know from watching every other ever made that it's not going to be quite this simple.

What transpires is simply alarming...the man monitors all her activities, chains her in his basement and prevents her from returning to her family and it turns out to be for the best as this was the only way for her to develop an assertive personality.

It's such a horribly misogynistic, pro-big data message that I recommend everyone avoid this movie, which is also let down by very medicore acting and poor script.

The one good thing I can say about it is that it looks okay visually for a film made on such a low budget.

Excellent documentary I found browsing through Amazon Prime (ironically enough) about how the belief in the possibility of endless economic growth is destroying the planet featuring interviews with one German, Chinese and Brazilian businessman who is creepier than the last one. It's filled with a thoroughly Germanic but extremely well-warranted pessimism. It's interesting to learn that the notion of economic growth which is central to every government's policy is such a recent concept but terrifying to realise the damage it has done to the Earth in such a small time frame.

Usually I make a point of staying until the end of films at the cinema or at a festival...once I stayed until the end of a Bruce LaBruce movie after 2/3 of the audience walked out...but I couldn't make it through this, even though one of the directors was sitting right behind me.

The first 45 minutes has it's moments, though the fly-on-the-wall style isn't conducive to much insight....there really should have been someone with more awareness than a fly to edit it...there are nice scenes among a hippie commune in Finland though.

The last half hour of what I saw was basically concert footage of a doom metal gig...if you're one of the few people who gets this music you might enjoy it, to me; it was like having a migraine.

Really sorry I can't be more positive...any movie that encourages communal living and a more basic lifestyle should be encouraged, but the endless doom metal just ruined it for me.

This is one of the best films about the immigrant experience in the UK that I've seen in a while.

It starts off appearing to be about a very English-looking German Jewish boy who's family are ultra-assimilationist and who wants nothing more than to succeed at the most English of sports, Cricket.

As it unfolds it takes in the experiences of some of the first West Indians to come to England, and are much more talented at cricket but doomed to suffer the depradations of little Englanders by virtue of their high melanin levels.

The complex racial issues that ensue are handled in a way that's sensitive and believable, as long as you can believe that the young jewish boy really is jewish, and not the scion of some old anglo-Norman family. The period detail is pretty spot on as well, though the use of colourised pathe footage slightly jars with the overall aesthetic of the film.

Mercifully, you don't have to be able to understand cricket to get this film, just appreciate how difficult it can be to live in a strange country

The first hour of this movie is excellent.

It deals with themes like how sexual orientation affects personality and vice versa in a way that's intelligent and accessible. It's fascinating to watch how the butch/femme roles are played around with in a lesbian relationship between a high powered music agent and a feral rock chick. It's filmed sparsely, almost all the scenes shot in one room, placing a lot of pressure on the actors, who handle it quite well. Towards the end they aren't served very well by a script in which one of them breaks down in a way that's not very believable.

It's a pity, as it was really enthralling up till then.

Great documentary which may bring people's attention to the latest form of urban guerilla warfare. Imaginative in structure as the people it depicts, a cast of characters as varied and outre as a Pynchon Novel, filled with a passionate contempt for the profligate consumerism of the contemporary west. Worth checking out - just don't buy it on DVD from a megastore.

An amazing film which throws new light on one of the most written about figures in history. Silent for 50 years, Fraulien Junge's story will make the mouth's of even the most ardent Hitler scholar gape in astonishment. I don't want to spoil it too much by giving away any of her revelations, but it does more to humanise one of the great monsters of all time than any number of academic tomes, and an account of the last days in the bunker that will be hard to bear for many, ironic as it comes from such a gentle, urbane woman.

Essential viewing.

When I saw the words "heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard" on the opening page for this movie, I said "Snap!" to myself. It's a much better Godard movie than many of the master's own recent efforts, with it's aleatory structure, it's offbeat philosophising, and it's wonderful dance sequences.

it's a beautiful film that won't appeal to those who like films with a beginning, a middle and an end and some of the audience might want to strangle the foley artists, but those of us who love inventive, cutting edge cinema will thank whatever God they believe in for this breath of fresh air from the East

When I saw the opening scenes of this movie I thought it was going to be a classic but as the increasingly preposterous plot unfolded i grew disillusioned. It's admirable in that, like _Alphaville_, _Zardoz_ and _minority report_ it tries to create a vision of the future that doesn't rely on Trickery, but it's view of where the current fascination with extreme sports might take us is seriously ill-judged. The plot is so full of holes that one often gets the impression that it was being made up as it went along.

It's a pity, because there's some beautiful cinematography and some imaginative use of location, and a genuine interest in the consequences of European integration for Ireland

This could have been a really great film if it wasn't for some bad acting and some slightly implausible plot twist. it takes on some pertinant issues like child care and tries to assimilate them into a coherent road movie, but somehow the principle characters aren't really believable. there's a good movie to be made about this subject, as things have changed so much since the days of _Alice doesn't live here anymore_ , but this isn't it.

nonetheless, it's a worthy attempt and it's good to see the subject being tackle from a sensitive males' perspective.

This is a film that wants to be disturbing but ends up merely being annoying. It's extremely heavy on imagery and pays little attention to narrative logic, acting or cinematography, looking like it was shot on digital by film students with unprofessional actors. It's got points to make about genetics and the logic of imperialism but makes them so relentlessly and in such and opaque way that it's like being stuck in an argument with a drunken political extremist.

This is a Quiet, unpretentious film about a young man trying to make sense of the world and cope with life in an unfamiliar environment. it's shot in an understated style, acted beautifully and has an excellent sense of it's mileu. The most memorable character for me is not the main protagonist, but an older, avuncular man who he shares his wisdom with the protagonist, and ultimately with the audience.

This film is based on a novel by a man named Swift but rather than being a biting satire, it's a film that only a person with a heart of stone could sit through wihtout breaking into tears. While the novel was praised largely for it's experimental style, it's the tenderness and humanity that make this film memorable.

Wonderfully acted by Michael Caine, helen Mirren, Bob Hoskins and others, it tells the tale of a London butcher's journey to his final resting place and a composite picture of his life is gradually drawn by the people who take him there. his story covers 70 years of british history which are lovingly recreated, but it's the personalities that are striking rather than the historical events that shape their lives. The film has moments of almost sublime beauty and pathos. It's a film that reminds us that, no matter how trivial our lives seem, we still have an impact on those around us.

Those of us who lament the decline of British cinema into a quagmire of Gangster flicks and rom-coms will embrace this film like a long-lost relative.

Werner Herzog, the man who's drawn sympathy to any number of deviant characters from german history and legend in his dreamlike movies, doesn't dissapoint with this tale of a Polish-Jewish stronman who becomes part of a freakshow led by the famous illusionist Haunausen, the subject of a more sympathetic portrayal by Istvan Szabo. In this movie Haunessen is a manipulative NAzi Appeaser who takes advantage of the leading character, himself played by a former "world's strongest man" finalist who is wonderfully convincing in the role; but who finally has the tables turned on him.

Being a herzog film, it doesn't shy away from major themes, moral responsiblity, the role of propaganda, and the nature of identity, but what struck me most was the tenderness with which herzog treats his subject and the realism of it's potrayal of 30's Poland and Berlin. A Wonderful, poignant story.

Hot on the heels of news that the british are reputed to be the most rascist nation in the EU comes this elucidation of why that may be the case. A russian woman comes to england to meet her fiance and is only allowed in to the country if she applies for refugee status. told she has to stay in a detention centre for a year and a half and given only food vouchers and terrible accomodation to live on. At this point the movie could turn into a kafkaesque fable but instead is an ultra-naturalistic study of live in british emigration centres.

It's a film that's cautiously optimistic about human nature, as a deus ex machina in the form of sweet, loving Paddy Consadine comes to save her from what he himself describes as a hell hole. This annoyed me a little bit; it seemed to be putting across the message that the english are really tolerant towards foreign immigrants and that it's "The System" that mistreats them. This seems a bit fanciful to me.

One other thing that annoyed was that the only person to be hurt was an internet pornographer who pays the woman the equivalent of a month's wages back home for about an hour's striptease work. Is it really him that deserves to be hurt, and not the government, the immigration authorities, and the editors of rabble-rousing right-wing newspapers?

But this is a warm, generous, beautifully shot, human film that i fear will never be seen by the people who need to see it most.

Think of the pitch for this movie: it's set in rural Ireland, where the older people nurse ancient grudges and enmities and the young ones want to leave and go somewhere more exciting, encouraged by a long-lost relative that turns up for a funeral.

Then ask: hasn't this been done before? And why aren't there more movies about the place Ireland is becoming and less about the place it used to be?

This film isn't totally uwatchable, but it never achieves the pathos it strives for, just a sort of dull lugubrity. You just want to take it to a psychiatrist and get it prescribed some Prozac. The acting isn't bad, and it makes good use of the scenery. It's sense of period is slightly unsure, though.

I'm tempted to think that, set near the border with Northen Ireland in the mid '60's among people who nurse ancient grudges, it may be strivng for some kind of allegorical significance, though regarding what I can't imagine.

Just when I thought I'd seen all the weird stuff that japan has to offer, this study of female "wrestling" comes along. It concentrates on a number of trainees who are just breaking into the professional form of the "sport" and their androgynous trainer, who looks like she gets through a whole whale every month or so.

At the start of this movie I was pretty cynical and detatched but it succeeded in drawing me into their demi-monde. There's one particularly moving scene where a trainee faces her coach and is brutally beaten up,which made me recognise how seriously they treat wrestling, no matter how shallow or merely entertaining it may appear from the outside.

Scripted by Ingmar Bergman and directed by his protege Liv Ullman, this film is much closer in spirit to Bergman realist dramas of the '70's than to his earlier expressionist work. Many of his characteristic themes are here: the responsibility of artists, and the hopelessness at the heart of modern relationships are prominent.

It's a deeply melancholy film, the only piece of comic relief is a scene where one of the protagonists is rehearsing a play which is hopelessly overwrought: if cinema is Bergman's mistress and theatre his wife, in this case, she's a wild, psychotic spouse. The movie as a whole is deeply theatrical, though, saved from being stagey by a few beautifully poetic cinematic touches. The acting is wonderful, bringing to a well-worn tale a deeply moving grandeur.

As if in response to all those British movies that present Irish people as being melancholy, dreamy alcoholics who sit around singing forlornly and then getting into fights - those of us who aren't terrorists, that is - here's an Irish movie set in Britain that's willing to perpetuate a few stereotypes of it's own.

Set among the slacker milieu of Kentish Town, it concerns a student who's growing old and wondering what he's going to do with his life - Stop me if you've heard this before - and is living with an unemployed guy who challenges him to see who can conquer the most young women - the "peaches" of the title. What's striking about the film is the narrow range of it's characters interests, which seem to extend only to pursuing women, clothes, drinking and avoiding work; like copies of Loaded magazine that had grown legs and started to walk. The one well-developed female character, in contrast, wants a more serious relationship (Bet you didn't see that one coming). If she was in an American movie she'd be telling us what a difficult place she's in right now, but she's too British and reserved for that.

The film has it's redeeming features, it's got moments of humour and uses it's locations well, even if some of them don't seem like that sort of locations unemployed people would live in. I'd like to see it get a wide release in the UK in the hope that less stereotypical Irish characters would populate their movies in future, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

It's been almost a week since I saw this movie but I can't figure out whether it's view of the world is liberal or reactionary, libertarian or determinist. One of it's central themes is the importance of discussing sexuality with pubescents, one that the movie doesn't shirk from discussing openly itself but doesn't seem to advise others to do. Whether the movie is wilfully ambiguous and trying to start an honest debate on the issues it raises or just confused itself is a moot point. A previous comment indicates that the movie was slated for release in September 2000 but I think it may have been withheld until after the Presidential election in the US, as it's the sort of thing the "moral majority" seize upon as an example of Hollywood filth, though I found it deeply moralistic.

I'm making this seem like a deeply serious movie, but actually it's main thrust is comic. It's got some excellent acting, particularly among the young members of the cast, and JJL is radiant as usual. Check it out, let me know what u think of it's moral stance if u want.

This is a potentially good movie with some excellent location scenery and some good characterisation that's ruined by it's sentimentality and catholic guilt. It concerns a stranger who arrives in a small town in the West of Ireland and upsets the natural equilibrium of the place by trying to set up a business and renewing an acquaintance with an old flame. As a result terrible things start to happen, though her father-in-law blames the fairies (seriously). The film makes good use of the scenery, to the extent that it seems like the movie's raison d'etre at times, though it looks a bit like a home movie in parts. The acting is good, too, it's just regrettable that it indulges in Irish cliches of the most annoying sort.

In some ways this is an incredibly refreshing film. In it's acceptance that lust and promiscuity are normal facts of life and not something that lead to a lifetime of suffering and possibly eternal damnation, it's almost unique in Irish cinematic history. Seeing a film so free from the historical and religious baggage that shackles most Irish films can also be a bit disconcerting, like seeing one of the nuns that taught you in school wearing a mini-skirt and fishnet tights.

Set far from the traditional Irish mise-en-scene in Dublin's trendy Temple Bar area, it features Stuart Townsend as a benign Irish cousin to Jack Nicholson in _The Witches of Eastwick_, who plays on the desires of three beautiful sisters for his own ends. Far from being a scheming Casanova, he's a likeable character who does nothing more than tell a few tall tales to aid his seductive techniques, and who helps people come to terms with themselves rather than cosign them to a life of guilt by doing so.

This film is like Stembridges earlier film, Guiltrip, turned inside out. It's bright, urban-based, modern, and shows signs that Ireland is finally developing a mature attitude to Sexuality.

This is a beautifully made and passionately felt movie, but a harrowing one to watch. I couldn't decide whether it was the director's intention to make the viewer suffer as much as I did while watching it in order to make us feel the main protagonists pain, or if he just lacks a sense of dramatic tension, but it's such a beautiful film visually that I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

It concerns a man who follows the familiar road from rural Ireland to British building sites. Filmed in a mixture of monologue and POV, it conveys a sense of the alienation and deracination which many people in his position would have felt. At first he seems like a simpleton, but the film's attempts to give him a tragic grandeour aren't entirely successful. The symbolism is often apposite; the scenes of animal slaughter at the beginning give him an earthy quality of which he is robbed by the time he reaches the urban wastelands of the English inner cities where he works.

The film's main weakness is that it's protagonist's monotonous delivery becomes grating after a while. I saw a monologue by African dissident George Serembra that was simaler in many ways to this but was carried by his stylistic variety. By the end of this film I was almost begging the lead character to leave me alone.

For all it's faults, this is a much more honest picture of recent Irish history than most of the Paddywhackery that passes for such in US multiplexes.

This is the sort of movie that would be dismissed as being implausible if it was pure fiction, but this tale of modern heroism is only slightly fictionalised. Joan Allen plays a thinly disguised version of Veronica Guerin (pron: GEER-in), an Irish journalist killed by the drug barons she fearlessly challenged.

In some ways the film's greatest asset is it's honesty: it's as uninhibited about tackling the issues involved as Guerin herself was: it doesn't pull any punches in criticising the irish government and police force's timid efforts to deal with the heroin epidemic in Dublin. It doesn't flinch from the fact that Guerin used some wildly unorthodox methods to tackle the drug barons. Also, like John Boorman's far more stylish _The General_, it shows that the Irish police aren't above colluding with terrorists in the drugs war.

In other ways, the film presents often gratingly hackneyed images and some wildly implausible scenes. The Drug baron's hoods are clearly based on the bad guys in Donald Duck cartoons, drinking champagne in Jacuzzis, while the newspaper office is apparenly modelled on _His Girl Friday_. Also, kids are seen shooting up Smack in Dublin streets IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, and no character bats an eyelid. The problem of using sexy Hollywood actresses to repressent real people rears it's finely embrocated head, particularly when Joan Allen is sexually approaced by several hoodlums. The movie also makes the world of Irish journalism and law enforcement seem more misogynistic than they really are.

These are minor quibbles, though. This, for all its flaws and low budget is a truly inspiring film, a film that shows that heroism is still possible and a welcome antidote to the "ironic" designer nihilism of much contemporary US and British crime cinema.