Song For A Raggy Boy Sat 10/2 RTE2 @ 23.15 An ex soldier becomes a teacher at an Irish industrial school & stands up to the establishment after he witnesses the cruelty dished out by so called men of god. An very good but very very hard to watch film directed by Aisling Walsh that will rightly leave you shaking with anger. Aidan Quinn is solid in the lead role but Iain Glen and Marc Warren are so chilling in their parts that it will probably forever colour your views on them. 28 Days LaterSat 10/2 Syfy @ 22.10 A man wakes up from a coma and discovers his hospital is deserted and London outside is quiet. A bit too quiet. Danny Boyle's 2002 horror film is the real deal. A genuinely unnerving and terrifying experience and that will get under your skin and live in your head when your lights go out at night. Cillian Murphy is spot on in the lead and Naomie Harris and Brendan Gleeson are both powerful as back up. Not for the squeamish. Spy Sun 11/2 CH4 @ 21.00 Melissa McCarthy stars as Susan Cooper, a spy sent out on her first field mission. A genuinely funny film full of proper belly laughs made even better by the fact that Susan is good at her job and we are laughing with her rather than at her. Jason Statham has a whale of a time in support and rips the absolute piss out of himself and his screen persona. Rose Byrne and Jude Law both add to the fun. The Fog Sun 11/2 The Horror Channel @ 21.00 Director John Carpenter is on mighty form in this genuinely spooky and scary tale of ghostly pirates taking their revenge on a seaside town that let them down many years before. This film has a lovely old fashioned feel as violence and gore is kept to a minimum and atmosphere and creepiness rules the roost. Horror legends Jamie Lee Curtis, Adrienne Barbeau, Janet Leigh and Tom Atkins are all good in this.
Clear And Present Danger Sun 11/2 TV3 @ 22.30 There has been 5 film adaptions of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels and this is by far the best. Harrison Ford stars in a thrilling, complex and intelligent tale of government dodginess and Colombian drug cartel nastiness loosely ( very loosely ) based on the story of Pablo Escobar. Joaquim de Almeida steals the film with a great slimy performance plus it contains one of my all time favourite action scenes. Fruitvale Station Mon 12/2 Film4 @ 23.20 The true story of a young man called Oscar Grant III and the last 24 hrs of his life in California's Bay Area before he fell foul of white America. Director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan are brilliant in this microcosmic look at the daily pressures of life as an African American male. A scary and heart breaking tale. Octavia Spenser and Kevin Durand give excellent support. The Railway Man Tues 13/2 More4 @ 21.00 A man ruined by the torture he was put through in the Pacific theatre of World War 2 finds out the person responsible is still alive and he wants to face him one last time. A dark,grim film made watchable by a superb performance from the always reliable Colin Firth. An unusual film too in that it portrays the horrors of war intimately rather than on an epic scale as most war films do. Powerful stuff. The Lobster Wed 14/2 Film4 @ 21.00 In a dystopian future, single people are given a set amount of time to find a romantic partner or they are turned into an animal of their choosing for the rest of their lives. Sounds odd right? It is, it's absolutely bizarre but it's also very very entertaining, especially the first half when we discover this strange new world. Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz as the leads are both great. The Wrestler Thurs 15/2 TCM @ 21.00 When health problems start to affect both his personal life and his work life an aging wrestler is forced into retirement. But life outside the ring is a lot tougher than he expected. Mickey Rourke is immense in this touching and upsetting tale of redemption and of a man losing his way in the world. Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood more than carry their own against Rourke. Wuthering Heights Fri 16/2 Film4 @ 01.20 A young boy is taken in the Earnshaw family and as the years pass he develops a strange and intense relationship with his foster sister. This Andrea Arnold directed take on Emily Brontë's famous novel is unlike any you've seen before. It doesn't whitewash the darker aspects of the novel like previous adaptions did and adds it's own modern touch too. An excellent watch with superb performances from Kaya Scodelario and James Howson. Bad Neighbours Fri 16/2 RTE2 @ 22.35 When the house next to them is turned into a fraternity house for a nearby college a married couple find themselves facing off against an unruly mob of students. Chaos ensues. Your enjoyment of this film will depend on your tolerance for Seth Roger but if you can take him you'll have a fun time with this. The very likable Rose Byrne and Zach Efron both add to the fun. A perfect Friday night watch to enjoy with beer and a takeaway.
If you're reading this, chances are, like meself you are partial to the odd film or seven. Man I love everything about them. The sheer pleasure of getting caught up in a film and forgetting your aches and pains for a while. The smile that spreads across my face in the cinema when the ads and trailers are finally over and the lights go down. Watching a film you've seen so many times you know the dialogue, when you are having a shit day. Comfort food for the eyes. Browsing in a film shop and finding that one film you've always wanted to own at a price that's too good to be true.
Watching an old classic you've never gotten around to seeing and finally understanding all those Simpson's references that used to go over your head.
Going through your collection or Netflix or whatever you use looking for that one film that will hit the spot. Even just looking is fun. Watching a movie you've never even heard of and slowly realising that it's brilliant. Talking about movies with people who love them too.
Introducing a friend to a film you love and seeing them fall for it too. Of course seeing them scrolling through their phone five minutes into it is a heartbreaker. When you watch a film that doesn't spoonfeed you and makes you use your brain to figure things out. Watching foreign movies or stories from minorities and seeing different takes on things that you may have never thought about before.
Mustang ( 2015)
Rewatching a classic movie in the cinema with a crowd who will appreciate it. Laughing so hard during a comedy you get a pain in your head. See also being so unnerved during a horror film you have to keep looking behind you. Skipping through TV channels and coming across a favourite and saying fuck it and watching it to the end, ad breaks and all even though you have a copy of it on a shelf 3 metres away.
Taking part in film table quizzes and actually having a use for all the movie trivia clogging up your noggin. A good film poster. My favourite type of artwork.
When you see the first trailer for a film you are excited about and it looks awesome. Revisiting a film you loved as a child and seeing that it has aged well and it's as good as it was years ago. When you see something so good it leaves you pinned to your chair for an age afterwards wondering how the hell do people come up with these ideas. And finally, the fact that I'll never run out of new movies to watch. Ever. It's impossible to catch up but I'll give it my best shot. What do you love about them?
First off I feel the need to apologise to people of a certain age who will read this and watch the below clip. This film traumatised an entire generation of kids in the late 1970's and 1980's and is still the most complained about children's film ever. It's a story that introduced a lot of us to adult concepts like cruelty, slavery and violent death. It's from a time when children's films treated kids with respect and didn't talk down to them. It's 40 years old this year and hasn't lost an ounce of it's power. TBH it's like a snuff movie compared to the family film's of today. After a rabbit named Fiver has a vision of the warren he lives in being destroyed he warns others and him and his brother Hazel lead an escape. They are attacked left right and centre before finally finding some kind of peace at a hill warren called Watership Down. Hazel returns to a farm they passed previously to rescue some doe's but gets shot by a farmer. Fiver has another vision of his wounded brother and the Black Rabbit of Inle (which was the rabbit version of the Grim Reaper) going to collect Hazel's spirit. Fiver can't give up on his brother and sets out to rescue him and this is where the film decides to really test out it's audiences tear ducts. Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel is a song that may have lost some of it's impact over the years through repetition but when it plays over this scene it's just magnificent. It's a perfect accompaniment to that glorious animation. CGI may look cleaner and smoother but it will never grip you like hand drawn artwork. There's real soul in there. BTW if you haven't seen this film before don't watch past 3.30
During the Superbowl on Sunday night the first trailer played for a new Netflix film called The Cloverfield Paradox. There was a twist though. The trailer was for a film which was being released later that night. No fanfare, no reviews, no hype, just the film. Social media was aflame yesterday. Everyone talking about it. It was a pretty astute move from Netflix, using a method that was basically the norm before the arrival of the internet and making it look fresh. It built insane hype up in just a few hours. Pity the film is such a mess though. The Earth is in trouble. It's fuel resources are running dangerously low and tensions among countries are rising. A group of nation's band together and launch the Cloverfield space station with the intention of testing a particle accelerator which could theoretically create an infinite energy source which would of course save the planet from certain destruction. The downside of it is, just like the real life Large Hardon Collider particle accelerator there's also a chance of some pretty serious side effects... I really wanted to like this. 2008's Cloverfield is an absolute belter of a horror/sci-fi movie and 2016's 10 Cloverfield Avenue was a darkly funny and clever twist on the story but this is a big disappointment made worse by the fact that the first hour of it is pretty good. It's interesting, has some very intriguing ideas and clever moments that are well carried by a solid and racially diverse cast. And then when you think something special could happen it just......it all goes to fuck. It falls into a messy mire of cliche. And the potholes. OH THE PLOTHOLES. Things happen that might look cool but they make no sense whatsoever, there's nothing to back them up. Making things worse again is the film stealing plot devices from better sci-fi films such as Alien, The Thing and Sunshine. I'll give it kudos for a nod to Evil Dead 2 though and the typically Irish reaction to it.
The cast tries gamely but as good as they are they just can't cover up the cracks. Gubu Mbatha-Raw as Hamilton is a fine actress. She gives the film some bit of an emotional centre, someone to care about particularly when we find out a bit about her past. Chris O'Dowd plays Chris O'Dowd, Roscommon accent and all and gives us two fine laughs at his own expense. The rest of the cast including Zhang Ziyi, Daniel Brühl and David Oyelowo are fine but honestly you won't give a damn about them. Bad writing and characterisation is the enemy of empathy especially with supporting characters. If you haven't seen the first Cloverfield film you'll be baffled tbh. And if you have you'll notice a bit of retconning going on in this to help the two films fit together. Which somehow cheapens the first film too which is a pity. This is director Julius Onah's second film and I hope it doesn't derail his career. He does have an eye for cool looking moments and builds some solid tension earlier in the film, I have to give him that. If he'd been put together with a better script this could have been mighty but nope, it's a poor effort that feels rushed and will probably mean the end of this franchise. It's just not a good film and I think Netflix knew this when choosing to release it this way. Getting it out there before critics should savage it means more people will watch it. And of course we all fell for it. Like dopes.
Phantom Thread is Daniel Day-Lewis's last film according to him. I truly hope he's talking shite because his retirement, while good for him, will be bad for us. The man is a master of his craft. He'll be missed and cinema will be a poorer place without him. And of course his final performance is so good that it can only leave us wanting more. Reynolds Woodcock is a dressmaker in 1950's London. He's a coddled, spoiled, egotistical man who'll go through you for a shortcut. The only person he respects is his 'old so and so' sister Cyril who's domineering presence keeps him in check. While on a country break he meets a quiet French waitress who has a body that matches his clothes designs perfectly. She's not as fragile as he thinks though. This was fantastic. Yes, i know the story of a post war dressmaker sounds like hard work but it really is stunning stuff. It's the kind of slow moving tale that gets under your skin without you even realising it. The social mores and the sexual politics of the day keep characters quiet and tightly wound and create the kind of simmering tension that will keep you glued to the cinema screen. And when tempers finally explode you'll realise words can be as bad as any type of violence. It's a film that's hard to talk about without spoilers but let's just say love is odd and compromise is key.
Daniel Day-Lewis is astounding. A coiled ball of tension who can only let loose when he's in his car or when he's trying to talk down to a woman. He's created a magnificent bastard. An obsessive, awkward manchild. A character you want to hate but you can't. He's magnetic and you can understand why people are drawn to him. Director Paul Thomas Anderson's films are populated with angry egotistical men and this is could be his best creation yet. Awards talk is all about DDL but Lesley Manville as his sister Cyril and Vicky Krieps as Alma are fantastic too. Manville is a clipped and seemingly cold matriarchal figure but you can just about sense some warmth under the surface as the film goes on and she's totally believable as the only person to hold sway over Reynolds. Vicky Krieps more than holds her own against Daniel Day. She's stunning, saying more with a sad and knowing look in her eyes than so many others could with a thousand words. Two food based scenes between them crackle with electricity. Btw, food is a big thing in this film. Make sure you eat before hand because despite what you see onscreen you'll leave the cinema strangely hungry.
This is PTA's 8th movie and Inherent Vice aside he just keeps getting better. Seriously he's hitting Hitchcock levels of sublime (Keep an eye out for a Mrs Danvers influence in this btw), this is a film that's up there with any of the Master's psychological dramas. A slight sprinkling of profanity aside it could easily have been made in the time period where it's set. It has a gorgeously timeless feel to it. Daniel, we'll miss you. What a way to go out though. A serious swansong. And his final film has given us another gift, Vicky Krieps, a star in the making. Hopefully we'll see more of her. Maybe Paul Thomas Anderson might give her her own leading role someday? Here's hoping.
Suffragette Sat 3/2 CH4 @ 21.00 The story of the suffragette movement in early 20th century Britain and the hardships they faced in the pursuit of rights that women should have had all along. A rage inducing, angering, moving and stressful film but one that should be watched. A fantastic cast led by Anne-Marie Duff, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter makes the whole thing barrel along too. Noble Sat 3/2 RTE2 @ 22.00 Deirdre O'Kane is great in this simplistic but very absorbing biopic of Christina Noble, an Irish woman who survived a harsh childhood and ended up in Saigon devoting her life to helping the less unfortunate. Good to see RTE showing Irish films in a primetime slot too. More of this. Nice Irish cast in this too including Ruth Negga, Liam Cunningham and Mark Huberman. The Hallow Sat 3/2 Film4 @ 22.55 A family moves into a remote Irish village thats surrounded by woods. And in those woods lurks......well you're just going to have to see that for yourselves. A disturbing but very entertaining Irish take on the horror genre that's sprinkled with a bit of Celtic mysticism. It starts off slow but you'll have no fingernails by the end. Joseph Mawle and Bojana Novakovic are effective in the lead roles. How The West Was Won Sun 4/2 TCM @ 15.00 One of the all time best westerns right here. An epic and sprawling tale following one family over several decades from the Gold Rush to the arrival of the railroads. This is 3hrs of every western you've ever seen all rolled into on and starring a cast for the ages. James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Debbie Reynolds, John Wayne and too many others to begin to name star in this brilliantly entertaining and beautiful looking story. Rear Window Mon 5/2 Film4 @ 16.40 After he breaks his leg a photographer finds himself with a lot of time to kill & he starts to notice suspicious goings on in the apartment complex that he lives in and overlooks. This Hitchcock thriller is an absolute joy. Funny, totally absorbing and littered with tension, lovely characters and nail biting set-pieces. So influential too. James Stewart and Grace Kelly as the leads are an absolute pleasure to watch. This is a film everyone, young & old, will love. Slumdog Millionaire Tues 6/2 More4 @ 21.00
A teenage boy from Mumbai looks back on his life after he finds himself in a precarious position after he appears on a famous television show. A stunning and uplifting film that gives us a fantastic insight into life in one of the most densely populated places on earth. It's a film that's hard to watch at times but it's so worth sticking with. It's also Dev Patel's 1st film role and he just nails it. War Of The Worlds Tues 6/2 3E @ 21.00 A stevedore from New Jersey battles to save his family when the people of earth find themselves under attack by a vicious enemy. Tom Cruise is in fine form as Joe Everyman is this genuinely scary and effective bit of science fiction from Steven Spielberg. One of the best post 9/11 disaster films. Cruise is reliable as always, Dakota Fanning as his daughter too but Tim Robbins steals in the show in a terrifying little vignette. Doomsday Wed 7/2 Syfy @ 21.00 In the near future a deadly virus has destroyed Scotland and turned it into a savage wasteland. When the virus threatens England a woman must venture north to find the cure. Rhona Mitra has a ball as the lead of this insanely violent and extremely entertaining mix of Outbreak & Mad Max 2. Medieval fights, car chases and cannibalism are just some of the treats on display here!! Great craic if you have the stomach for it. The Dressmaker Wed 7/2 Film4 @ 21.00 A very different kind of revenge thriller here. The strange, upsetting, unique, surreal and funny tale of a woman returning to the small Australian town that spurned her and getting her own back. Kate Winslet is superb in the title role and pulls off an Oz accent that's pretty damn good. Judy Davis as her mam is excellent too and Liam Hemsworth and Hugo Weaving are good in support. Looper Fri 9/2 BBC2 @ 23.05 Set in the near future where unwanted people are disposed of by sending them back in time to be killed. This is all well and good until a man is faced with an older version of himself. A magnificently original piece of sci fi/action right here. Fun, chilling, brutal, intelligent and mind boggling. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis have a whale of a time playing the young/old versions and Emily Blunt is super as a protective mother caught up in it all. Ricki And The Flash Fri 9/2 RTE1 @ Midnight One again Meryl Streep proves she can do no wrong in this tale of Ricki Rendazzo, an ageing and failing rock singer who returns home to the family she's ignored for far too long to help out. Ignore the reviews, OK it's a touch melodramatic in places but this is lovely, heartwarming stuff buoyed by two superb performances from Streep of course and Kevin Kline.
Big Nick O'Brien is a hard living Deputy in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He drinks too much, he smokes too much and he works too much. He loves his job and he revels in the larger than life hard man image he projects. And he loves a challenge. When he and his task force find themselves hunting a well organised gang of bank robbers, well that's a challenge he can sink his teeth into. Den Of Thieves is a stupid film. It's dripping with testosterone and cliche. It's full of big burly bastards who like to drink, smoke and call each other motherfuckers. It rips off entire scenes from other better movies. It's loud, it's very silly, one storyline stretches belief to it's very limits in fact and it's pretty badly acted but I gotta say I still had a lot of fun. TBH, I'm very forgiving when it comes to films like this. And i'm blaming Gerard Butler. He has a whale of a time in the lead role. He chews the scenery apart. It's not a good performance by any measure but jesus it's a fun one. He makes the film. He's just fun to watch. He's like a bull in a china shop. His character is in no way believable but his sheer OTTness is hilarious. The character and some of his questionable choices add a nice edge of unpredictability to proceedings. One morally questionable decision is straight from the Vic Mackey playbook and went down a storm in the screening I saw this at. Without Butler playing the character this film would have went straight to DVD but he still has enough cache and enough of a fanbase to get this film into cinemas. He seems to have embraced his career as a star of big loud silly films. This, Law Abiding Citizen, Machine Gun Preacher, GeoStorm, Olympus and London Has Fallen. It's fun so far. The rest of the cast however doesn't fair so well. O'Shea Jackson Jr has a likable way about him just like his father (Ice Cube) but he has a ways to go yet before anyone will call him a good actor. 50 Cent is predictably awful. The man cannot act and yet somehow still turns up onscreen regularly. He must know where people's bodies are buried. Pablo Schreiber as the main baddie is an imposing presence but his role basically consists of him snarling and throwing dirty looks. But this isn't a film people come to for acting. It's a film about cops and robbers. It's about car chases and shooting and intricately planned bank robberies. And on that note.
Elephant in the room time. This film is far too close to Michael Mann's 90's masterpiece Heat for comfort. One storyline aside it basically is Heat. It hits every big beat of that film and opens and closes it's story in exactly the same way. But where Heat used subtlety Den Of Thieves uses blunt force. Now I know Heat isn't a film that could be accused of having a delicate touch but it's like a fine china cup beside a big dirty pint glass. Heat isn't the only film 'homaged' either. Hints of Sicario and The Town turn up and one very funny scene utterly rips off a scene from Bad Boys 2. However if you are going to rip off a masterpiece you need to do it well. This does the basics well but adds its own touch that at one point gets so stupid that it will take you out of the film. It requires a suspension of disbelief that will just too be much for some. It's unnecessary and ends up padding the film out to a ridiculous 140 minutes. Yup, it's nearly two and a half hours long. Silliness. Look, if you think you won't like this don't bother watching it. Nothing here will surprise you or change your mind. However if you want a bit of loud fun this won't do ya wrong. It's bad but it's good bad if you know what I mean.
I harp on about this a lot but for me, a cinema is a place to come, sit down, be quiet and watch the film you paid to see. it's not a place to pay a tenner so you can look at your phone the whole time. That's just stupid. Go to a cafe, get absolutely rode sideways by paying for an overpriced cup of foam and work away on your phone. You won't bother anyone there. A phone isn't distracting in a well light coffee shop. I went to see The Post lately. A fine film that was nearly ruined by a muppet. A muppet who decided to take a phone call during the film. Ignoring numerous shushs he chatted away. Loudly. Then he stood up, walked towards the exit giving us all a bit of hope, popped something in the bin and walked back to his seat, chatting all the time. And when the chap nearest to him finally told him to shut the fuck up, he decided to get all huffy and defensive like he was doing nothing wrong. The prick. I know cinema's are like every other business and they exist to make money but this thing of always having a profit maximising skeleton crew working the place has a horrible knock on effect on every aspect of viewing a film. Aside from not having enough staff to deal with melt's like the chap mentioned above you also get the following happening. Queue's being so big you miss the start of the film. Films not starting on time or at all because someone forgot to press a button. Some fucker behind you throwing his clogs up on the seat beside your head. The height of ignorance. Films starting with no sound. Sometimes you think this is a stylistic choice and the opening of the film is supposed to be silent and then 5 minutes later you feel like a fool. The picture being so dark as to be unwatchable.Or the aspect ratio is off. GRRRR.
Non stop usage of mobile phones. Seriously, people actually using snapchat to take selfies during a movie should be beaten. People sitting in your seat and then being arsey about it when challenged. Blokes especially seem to think this is a challenge to their masculinity or something. Allocated seating only works when there's enough staff to ensure it works. But oh wait, there never is. Full on conversations between people during a film. This one should be a stabbable offence. But the worst is a new one. OH IT KILLS ME. It's something I've only noticed in the past few months. Automated lighting. You are totally engrossed in a film, you've lost all track of time, you aren't sure when it's going to be over. Oh god, something is going to happen. Fuckin hell I didn't see that twist coming!! And then bang, the cinema lights up before the film is even over. That's a serious way to kill the mood. I know it's to stop people tripping and falling in the dark but if they are able to get up and go to the bathroom during the film without falling over why can't they do it at the end of the film too. It sounds like I should hate the place tbh. But i don't. Cinemas are my happy place. We put up with a lot for what we love.
Every year around Oscar time we get a big American war film hitting the cinema. In the last few years we've had Hacksaw Ridge, 13 Hrs, Fury, Lone Survivor, American Sniper and now this film, 12 Strong. The story of the first American soldiers to be boots down on enemy sand in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. 12 soldiers known as Task Force Dagger and headed by Captain Mitch Nelson are inserted into Afghanistan 5 weeks after the attack and their objective is to meet up an Afghan warlord, General Dostum and help him and his men to take the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in order to stop the Taliban from digging in and spreading their influence around the land. Sounds like a new take on the 9/11 story? Sounds interesting right? Ya it's really not. One late scene aside it's just nothing you haven't seen before. Like Lone Survivor and American Sniper it's the same jingoistic, patriotic, America Fuck Yeah!! stuff all over again. It's about purity facing off against evil, an evil distilled down to one man in a painfully obvious scene. Thankfully it's not as po-faced as those others but that's down to it's cast. Well a few of them anyway. The film may as well have been called 3 Strong tbh. The film's leads are played by the immensely likable Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon and Michael Peña and they are the only ones that get any bit of depth. The other soldiers are as faceless as the Taliban soldiers they use for cannon fodder. Navid Negahban as Dostum is the only non American to get any screen time either. He's not bad and brings a bit of needed gravitas to the film.
There's a lot of war films around. They've always been popular, I for one love em but these days we need something new. Something we haven't seen before or heard before. Cramming a film full of lines like "If we quit now what happened back home is going to happen again and again." "Don't you quit on us!!" never helps. It's dialogue by numbers. Old hat. Cliche all over the shop. You're supposed to care about these men and half hearted stuff like this isn't going to help. There's nothing to hold onto. There's no one to care about. A few years ago audiences would have been more forgiving but sadly America these days has lost it's place in people's hearts. Being a yank isn't a reason to want a character to succeed anymore. I sound very down on this but there was one saving grace. An action scene near the end of the film that somehow hits the mark. A full on gung-ho ride towards the enemy that despite yourself you'll be caught up in. It's like it's from a different film from an earlier age and that's why it works. It's stupid and ridiculously far fetched, An orgy of blood squibs, oily smoke and explosions that feels like the love child of The Magnificent Seven and Chuck Norris's Delta Force. It's a crowd pleasing moment that works while feeling totally at odds with the rest of the film. The earlier parts of the film are full of gunfights and skirmishes but repetition causes them to blend into one. This stands out because it's fun. And the fact that I've described it as fun opens up a whole other can of worms doesn't it. Eek. You won't miss anything if you don't go see this. An excellent 10 minute action scene in a 130 min film just isn't good enough. Save your cash. It will be on Netflix soon enough.
Assault On Precinct 13 Sat 27/1 ITV4 @ 23.00 A group of cops and prisoners find themselves trapped in their remote station by a gang of killers intent on murdering someone inside. This 2005 remake of the 1970's classic isn't as good as the original but makes up for it with a cracking cast and some crunchingly visceral action setpieces. Ethan Hawke, Gabriel Byrne, Mario Bello and Laurence Fishburne all do fine work. Adam & Paul Sat 27/1 RTE2 @ 23.55 Two heroin addicted men roam the streets of Dublin, hoping for a bit of good fortune that seems to eternally evade them. Lenny Abrahamson's tragic comedy is a masterpiece of Irish cinema and a superb example of that wonderful ability we have to create a story that will make you weep tears of mirth followed by tears of utter sadness. Mark O'Halloran and the late Tom Murphy play their parts to perfection. The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three Sun 28/1 RTE1 @ 00.10 Four criminals take a subway train hostage in New York City. If their demands aren't met hostages will die. It's up to a transit police lieutenant to sort the mess out. This 1974 film is a perfect little thriller. Well paced, funny, economical, tense, filled with memorable characters and is far superior to the later remake. Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw are brilliant in the lead roles. Well worth staying up for. Snake EyesSun 28/1 CH4 @ 00.20 During an Atlantic city boxing match a government minister is murdered and a show off cop investigating it discovers all is far from what it seems. Brian De Palma takes a pretty hackneyed story and adds his own directorial flourishes to it and turns this into a very entertaining film. Check out the opening one shot scene, its a magnificent bit of showing off. Nicholas Cage is as always bonkers &Carla Gugino and Gary Sinese are solid back up. Harry Brown Sun 28/1 ITV4 @ 22.30 Harry is an elderly ex-marine who lives on a housing estate that has been ruined by drug dealers. One night he suffers a loss and decides not to look the other way anymore. Michael Caine is absolutely convincing in this well paced and gruelling thriller that might be too much for some. Emily Mortimer, Liam Cunningham and a terrifying looking Sean Harris all give good support. Buffy The Vampire Slayer Mon 29/1 The Horror Channel @ 22.50 A young woman finds out her destiny is not to be a cheerleader like she wants but to protect the world from evil things that only come out at night. Nope, this isn't the fantastic TV show but the fun film that inspired it. Highly entertaining stuff that's a lot funnier than you'd expect it to be. Kirsty Swanson is good in the lead role and Rutger Hauer and Paul Reubens make great baddies. Equilibrium Tues 30/1 Syfy @ 21.00 In a dystopian future where feelings and self expression are illegal, one person decides to make a fight back. Imagine if 1984 and The Matrix had a baby that grew up watching Bruce Lee films. This is what you'd get. An intelligent, philosophical scifi that's sprinkled with some brutally effective and very original action scenes. Christian Bale leads a fine cast that includes Sean Bean, Emily Watson and Taye Diggs. A Walk In The Woods Wed 31/1 Film4 @ 21.00 Two men decide to hike the Appalachian trail. 2000 miles of wilderness. One is an aging writer and the other is a walking heart attack. Comedy ensues. Robert Redford's adaption of Bill Bryson's book of the same name is just a lovely film. If you like your comedy gentle but with a hint of a profanity then this is the film for you. Redford in the lead role is grand but Nick Nolte as his hiking partner Katz steals the show. Win Win Thurs 1/2 Ch4 @ 01.55 A solicitor who makes extra money as a wrestling coach finds the sins of his past coming back to haunt him when he comes into contact with a clients grandchild. This Tom McCarthy directed film is a lovely, humane, touching and painfully real film that for some reason is being shown at ridiculous o'clock. It's really worth recording. Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale and Melanie Lynskey are all excellent. SorcererFri 2/2 Film4 @ 22.45 The roads and jungles of South America are a dangerous place as a group of men hired to drive a highly unstable and explosive shipment are about to find out. William Friedkin's remake of 1953's Wages Of Fear is a masterpiece that has thankfully been rediscovered lately. A sickeningly tense and gripping thriller that will pin you to your chair. Roy Scheider in the lead role is on fire. We're The Miller's Fri 2/2 RTE1 @ Midnight
A pot dealer owing a drug debt has to move a large shipment through the US border and decides the best way to do it is to create a fake family to make himself look respectable. This is good silly fun, a perfect Friday night film to watch with a few beers or maybe even a smoke. Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis are great craic as the leads and make sure you stay put for the bloopers during the end credits.
Imagine your first film turned out to be not only one of the biggest hits of the year but also beat the likes of Raging Bull to Oscar glory. That's how Elizabeth McGovern started her career. Not a bad way to do things. 38 years later she's still turning up on cinema screens (The Commuter, out now) but mention her name and you'll no doubt get blank looks. She's one of those stalwart actors who does stellar work continuously but never really got her name on the marquee. These days she's best known for her part as the colourful Lady Cora Crowley from Downton Abbey. She's been a horribly treated object of obsession in a Sergio Leone masterpiece. Done Shakespeare on stage. Been the mother of Kick-Ass. Presided over Helen Mirren's court case. Been Oscar nominated for her portrayal of upper crust New York society. Starred in the first film made for IMAX cinema. Been married to Liam Neeson, Craig Sheffer, Kevin Bacon and Mickey Rourke. Dealt with both the Scarlet Pimpernel and nastiness in Tales From The Crypt. Raised a great mythological Greek hero as her own son and been a Handmaiden in a very dystopian future. She's done it all. All this and she's also the singer in here own band. Check out her career here.
Greatest Hits Ragtime. A forgotten piece of brilliance. In a massive cast that included James Cagney in his last appearance her role as Evelyn is the one that stands out and got her an Oscar nomination. Once Upon A Time In America. Poor Deborah. The object of Noodle's obsession and desire. And yet another woman destroyed by him. A small but striking role in a sprawling masterpiece. The Handmaiden's Tale. Not the brilliant TV show but the film from 1990. Here she plays the rebellious Moira, best friend of Offred. A highlight in a very dark film. Downton Abbey. Plays Lady Grantham. A yank in a show full of stuffy English toffs. Forward thinking. Modern. And therefore of course looked upon with disdain. Previous heroes 123456789101112131415
