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Congolese film VIVA RIVA! is unlikely to be precisely what you might think. Going in, it’s easy to expect yet another modern example of third cinema depicting the struggles of a developing nation, shot in the hyper-kinetic, gritty style employed most famously by Fernando Meirelles in 2002’s CITY OF GOD, and imitated by so many films since. So in a sense it’s admirable that director Djo Munga chooses a much more conventional shooting and editing style for VIVA RIVA!, and indeed much of the film is beautifully photographed and richly colourful, but by largely ignoring any larger issues (aside from the occasional suggested or tangential reference), we are left with a somewhat empty and at times silly film. That’s not to say that third cinema needs to be all bleakness and political issues, but in this particular case a little more depth would be welcome, as the primary story is so slight and uninspired that the whole exercise becomes frustratingly pointless.  Read the rest of this entry »

Narrated by that stalwart of British nature documentaries, Sir David Attenborough and produced by the team that gave us Planet Earth & Blue Planet, Frozen Planet explores the earth’s Polar regions.

Still the two most isolated wildernesses on our planet, the Arctic and Antarctic are both immense in size, beauty and sheer power. From the relentless grinding of the ever moving ice to the powerful Southern Ocean to the Arctic winds, nature seems to be at it’s most furious in these cold and inhospitable places.

But it’s also home to some of the most iconic animals, penguins, polar bears, killer wales and the massive albatross.

As per usual, the BBC enlist the latest camera technology and film from ever perspective possible; land, air, underwater and below the ice caps. The combination of talent, dedication and technology bring to life the stunning life that abounds in these frozen wastelands, bringing to life creatures that you would swear were cgi fantasies, if it wasn’t for the reputation that precedes the BBC.

What’s more, is that Frozen Planet doesn’t just focus on the wild life, but turns the cameras on the cameramen, showing us just how extreme life can be for the BBC’s best camera teams, and how close they potentially come to death during the course of their work.  Read the rest of this entry »

I really don’t like Richard Gere and I have little time for Topher Grace, but something in the trailer – other than the bit part played by West Wing’s Martin Sheen – made me want to watch it. It was a decision that I was beginning to regret during the early stages of the film, but I held onto the hope that The Double would pull out all the stops when it got going.

And it did.

The Double is a cold war spy thriller set in the present day, and after a ham fisted start where we see Russians crossing into America via the Mexican border, we get to meet the two stars of the show, Paul Shepherdson (Gere), a retired CIA agent who is pulled back to active duty after the murder of an American senator in Washington, and Ben Geary (Grace), an all too green operative, who wrote a thesis on the man they believe killed the senator, Cassius.

Teamed up together to find Cassius, this odd couple actually work off each other quite well, and the film starts to pick up pace, but it’s not until Cassius reveals to the viewer who he is that things get really interesting, and it’s a lot earlier in the film than you would imagine.

The cat and mouse game that follows is pretty intense, but I can;t really go into any specifics because it’s the unexpected twists and turns that make The Double what it is.  Read the rest of this entry »

Antiques Roadshow can be an interesting show, but it’s a show that kinda has no soul. We see a collection of things people have cued up to show in a hopeful effort to win the antiques lottery. For most people the most they will get valued is a hundred pounds or so. What the hosts don;t tell you is that this is retail, and to be able to sell it, they will probably have to settle for much less.

American Pickers takes the Antiques Roadshow concept and turns it on it’s head. Rather than have people come to them, odd couple Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz go out on the road in their van, looking for hidden treasure in peoples sheds, homes, anywhere there is a pile of junk, they will go. They run an antique store called Antique Archeology and with the help of Danielle, who does all the research, finding the boys places to visit, they collect old junk that they can then sell for a profit.

The great thing about the show is that we get to meet the people behind the junk, and see just how much of a hoarder someone in the family was, get to hear a story or two, and look into the history of some of the pieces they find. We get to see Mike and Frank haggle over prices, sometimes with people who have no clue as to the value, and sometimes with people who have too much of a notion of an items value.  Read the rest of this entry »

Sons Of Guns is another reality based TV show from the Discovery Channel. It’s kinda like MythBusters, but for gun lovers and set in a real world business. The show focusses on Will Hayden’s Red Jacket Firearms, a business he runs with his daughter and a close knit team, selling and customising guns.

And by customising, I mean customising. From creating a Master Key (a shotgun underslung on an M16 machine gun) for a local SWAT team, to recreating a the silenced shotgun from No Country For Old men, to helping a World War II veteran restore a flame-thrower back to working condition, the guys at Red Jacket just don’t know when to say no.

Of course, much like with Mythbusters, even though we see the creation process for these unique weapons, we don’t see the detail – you know, just in case some nut job was watching with the idea of building his own weapons of mass destruction.

There’s the usual friction that you would expect from a father-daughter run business, where the daughter runs the accounts and the father spends too much money on toys, but as far as reality TV shows go, it’s got a very uniqueness in that it’s pretty darn original.  Read the rest of this entry »

I picked up Warrior not expecting much, but looking forward to watching Tom Hardy kick the crap out of a bunch of people, whilst Nick Nolte mutters away in the background. People had been comparing it to Rocky, and the unbelivabally cliched story of two brothers facing off against each other for a MMA world title, without anyone realising, until the last minute, that they were brothers, meant that I wasn’t expecting much more than some ultra violence wrapped up in a sports drama package.

I was so wrong to have such low expectations of this film.

Don’t get me wrong, Warrior is a formula film, but it is also the best example of it’s formula that you are likely to see for some time.

Whilst the action is intense, and the world of MMA is presented in a good, solid light, Warrior is strangely a film that is anti violence. It’s a tale of redemption and forgiveness, of two brothers, gone separate ways after their abusive and drunk father split the family in two.

The brothers are now forced into the ring for two very different reasons, and of course end up facing each other in the final bout of a $5 Million World Championship. It’s a clever film that has you gunning for both brothers to win, and never allowing you to know which way the fight will ultimately go.  Read the rest of this entry »

Within the opening five minutes of WINNING SEASON, it’s pretty safe to assume you know how things are going to play out. The underdog high school sports story is well-trodden ground, and writer-director James C. Strouse brings little new to the table, instead trying to cram in too many stand-by elements of the genre, bloating a film which, while familiar, is harmless fluff featuring decent performances from a cast who all perhaps deserve a little better. The always dependable Sam Rockwell plays Bill, a down-on-his-luck deadbeat hired by an old friend (Rob Corddry) to coach the local high school girls basketball team. The team members themselves (led by the tirelessly plucky Emma Roberts), each an unfortunately underwritten representation of various high school issues, all deliver solid work with the exception of recent Oscar nominee Rooney Mara, who can certainly scowl admirably but seems a little disinterested by her role.  Read the rest of this entry »

Very rarely will a film transcend genre boundaries and offer a mix of Hollywood-style action and arthouse flair, which is what makes Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive so unique and something to be celebrated.

Drive tells the story of an unnamed stunt driver (Ryan Gosling) moonlighting as a getaway driver for a crime syndicate run by Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks). Seemingly a loner, the driver becomes involved in the life of his neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son Benicio (Kaden Leos). After agreeing to drive for Irene’s newly paroled husband Standard (Oscar Isaac), and finding himself on the wrong side of assassination contract, the driver embarks on a mission to protect Irene from the vicious gangsters who would seek to harm her to get at him. It’s a well-worn plotline which in the hands of someone less adept than Refn would likely be nothing more than a forgettable thriller, yet the massively talented director, who picked up the Best Director prize at Cannes this year for Drive, crafts an engaging and thrilling throwback film elevated by masterful performances across the board.

Refn, previously known for the fantastic Bronson, and the lesser known but equally excellent Pusher trilogy, is a man who has very clearly studied his Kubrick. Certainly most modern directors could do worse than imitate the style of one of history’s greats like Stanley Kubrick, but rarely does one pull it off with the skill of Refn. In Bronson, the influence was a little more obvious, with the resulting film seeming like something of a spiritual successor to A Clockwork Orange. With Drive however, the traces are a little more subtle, visible in the impeccable technical touches, and the use of dissolves, pensive long takes, and slow zooms, a hallmark of Kubrick’s catalogue. Drive is a flawlessly crafted film, filled with beautiful imagery of the Los Angeles underworld seen more often in the work of Michael Mann.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a whilst since I saw an episode of CSI, but when CSI:NY Season Five was released on DVD, I figured it was as good a time as any to dive back into the second spin off of the show that re-defined police dramas back in 2000. Whilst neither of the spin offs really lived up to the magnetism of the original, CSI:NY succeeds a lot more in bringing the action and the passion of the original than CSI:Miami ever did. And that probably comes down to the leading men, where Miami had the never quite right David Caruso, New York has the always capable Gary Sinise.

The setting, New York City also trumps Miami any-day – in the city that never sleeps, there’s always something new and interesting to investigate. And Season Five certainly has fascinating cases galore, from the bizarre and twisting story of a marathon runner ending up dead in a bridal fire-sale, to the edgy and provocative episode that sees a Jewish survivor selling family heirlooms to modern day Nazi wannabes.

The cutting edge science is clean a bright, with that Hollywood sheen that can make autopsies entertainment, the one thing that CSI:NY seems to lack is a soul.

For all the glitz and glamour of New York, the amazing depth and diversity of the cases, it’s the clinical nature of made for television forensic science that leaves you feeling slightly cold.  Read the rest of this entry »

There’s only one thing that makes me keep coming back to watch The Mentalist, and that is Simon Baker’s total ownership of the lead role, former psychic for hire, Patrick Jane.

Jane is without a doubt the most interesting and lovable characters in any police drama to date, Baker’s effortless portrayal of a character so tortured yet so full of charm is pitch perfect and carries the show through it’s third season.

Not that the third season needs carrying for much of the time, it’s another riveting ride with the principle team at the California Bureau of Investigation, but it is beginning to show it’s age with some stagnant patches throughout the season.

Whilst the overarching plot of Red John keeps the tension on, it’s the individual episodes that hold the chemistry, with a dazzling array of mind-bending cases of murder and such for Patrick Jane to charm his way through, pushing the boundaries of what’s legal, but always getting his man.

The third season reaches deep with some cohesive but divergent stories into the personal lives of Jayne and the team.

And of course what police drama would be complete without romance, and the chemistry between Jane and Lisbon fulfills that quota with ease, but if far from the only romance we seee this time round.  Read the rest of this entry »