Review: Hot Fuzz

UK release date: 14th February

Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright — the team behind zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead — return for this gleeful pastiche of American action movies. Pegg stars as a top London policeman transferred to a crime-free village where all is not as it seems.

What begins as a very funny, very British murder mystery eventually mutates into an ironic action spectacular that blows up half of Somerset. Armed with a Who’s Who of home-grown acting talent and a surfeit of gags, Hot Fuzz also showcases the continuing comic partnership of Pegg and co-star Nick Frost. Their mismatched cops play out every buddy movie convention imaginable while discussing subjects as diverse as ice-cream “brain freeze” and the homoeroticism of action thriller Point Break. More smart than silly, this is self-confident comedy that’s proud to be British.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15

Review by Jamie Russell

Review: The Science of Sleep

UK release date: 16th February

Less accessible than his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, director/screenwriter Michel Gondry’s pretentious sci-fi vanity production is an overly whimsical, infantile affair.

Gael García Bernal plays a graphic artist who returns to Paris after his father’s death. Will he ever realise his neighbour Charlotte Gainsbourg is the soul mate he’s been searching for? Or will he continually dream he’s the host of a one-man TV chat show starring a swirling melting-pot of his desires?

With its makeshift “Blue Peter”-style special effects (constructed from egg boxes, clay and cellophane), the consistently juvenile approach soon becomes wearing and the whole self-indulgent mess is a complete waste of Bernal and Gainsbourg’s charms. Resembling Gondry’s Bjork rock videos strung between surreally presented concepts of romantic angst, this fey fantasy is frustratingly hollow. The “one second time machine” is the single clever laugh.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate 15

Review by Alan Jones

Review: Charlotte’s Web

UK release date: 9th February

Author EB White’s classic animal fable gets the full Babe treatment in this warm, live-action family fantasy. Gently introducing younger viewers to the natural cycle of life, it explores how a clever spider called Charlotte (tenderly voiced by Julia Roberts) ingeniously uses her web-spinning talents to save a small pig from the chop.

While originally filmed as an animated feature in 1973, here the tale combines genuine critters and CGI effects, with delightful visual results. Like Charlotte herself, piglet Wilbur is so endearing that you can understand farmer’s daughter Fern (a likeable Dakota Fanning) begging for the runty porker’s life — though sadly the other crass creatures that inhabit Wilbur’s barnyard home don’t share this charm. Voiced by the likes of Robert Redford and Steve Buscemi, their tone-lowering flatulence and constant wisecracking dilutes the story’s central magic, making the finale less poignant than it should have been.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate U

Review by Sloan Freer

Review: Music and Lyrics

UK release date: 9th February

Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore fail to hit any high notes in this humdrum romantic comedy from writer/director Marc Lawrence (Two Weeks Notice).

Grant plays washed-up 1980s pop idol Alex Fletcher, who’s competing for the chance to contribute a song to hot young star Cora Corman’s (Haley Bennett) new album. Sadly, lyrics aren’t his forte, but his “plant carer” Sophie (Barrymore) proves to have a way with words.

After a chucklesome opening that sees Grant doing polite pelvic thrusts à la George Michael in his Wham! heyday, Lawrence runs out of funny ideas. Grant gets his share of snappy one-liners, but his incessant glibness becomes so tiresome that you’ll begin to tune him out. His budding relationship with Barrymore is largely unconvincing and it doesn’t help matters that she’s in constant danger of being upstaged by the vegetation surrounding her. And frankly, the less said about the Stock Aitken Waterman-inspired soundtrack, the better.

Radio Times rating:

**

UK cinema certificate PG

Review by Stella Papamichael

Review: Dreamgirls

UK release date: 2nd February

Showered with Oscar nominations and winner of the best musical Golden Globe, this backstage drama from Chicago screenwriter Bill Condon fulfils the glamour and glitz expectations in spades.

Jennifer Hudson excels as the lead singer of 1960s backing group the Dreamettes, who is sidelined by their new manager, Jamie Foxx, when he decides to promote Beyoncé Knowles to head up the trio.

Plot sound familiar? It is, of course, the thinly disguised story of the rise to fame and fortune of Motown supergroup Diana Ross and the Supremes, with Beyoncé as “Deena Jones”, the statuesquely striking backing singer who catches Foxx’s eye, and American Idol contestant Hudson, a deserved winner of the Golden Globe for best supporting actress, as the rejected and dejected Effie White (think Florence Ballard).

Although uplifting and moving by turns, the tale — based on the hit Broadway musical — too closely follows its real-life equivalent to make any sense as fiction. And, for fans of the Supremes, the admittedly rousing score is simply a frustration and even slows the action in places. However, keeping pace with Hudson, Eddie Murphy (the other Golden Globe winner) is a revelation as a James Brown-style showman, revealing a dramatic depth and maturity previously only hinted at.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 130mins

Review by Sue Oates

Review: Notes on a Scandal

UK release date: 2nd February

Judi Dench reunites with Iris director Richard Eyre to give one of the most intense performances of her career in this gritty, observational drama based on Zoë Heller’s bestselling novel.

The Oscar-nominated Dench injects malignant spite into the role of Barbara Covett, a lonely London teacher who develops a dark obsession with her spirited new colleague Sheba (fellow nominee Cate Blanchett). After catching Sheba in a compromising position with an underage student, Barbara’s fixation reaches skin-crawling levels.

Dench and Blanchett really sink their teeth into their meaty characters, clearly relishing Closer scribe Patrick Marber’s deliciously acerbic script. Yet what makes Dench’s performance the stronger of the pair is her skilful manipulation of the audience’s emotions — eliciting initial sympathy, despite Barbara’s sharp tongue, so that her subsequent behaviour hits even harder.

The film’s melodramatic climax packs less of a punch, but this is still deeply satisfying adult viewing, complemented by a mood-enhancing Philip Glass score.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 91mins

Review by Sloan Freer

Review: Running With Scissors

UK release date: 2nd February

This mordantly amusing tale of family dysfunction from the creator of TV’s Nip/Tuck is so outrageous that it’s hard to believe it’s based on a real-life memoir. Charting the 1970s upbringing of US writer Augusten Burroughs (who appears as himself in the closing titles), the highly stylised movie is a patchwork of his formative childhood experiences, held together by juicily idiosyncratic performances.

Joseph Cross is sweetly engaging as the adolescent Augusten, who struggles with identity issues after his wannabe-poet mother (Annette Bening) sends him to live with her madcap psychiatrist (Brian Cox) while she finds her creative voice. The shrink’s own clan — including dog snack-munching wife Jill Clayburgh and alleged telepath Gwyneth Paltrow — are hilariously unconventional, camouflaging the film’s lack of emotional depth with their eccentricities.

It’s only in the downbeat final third that the narrative’s overall lack of structure becomes apparent, though fortunately the dialogue retains its enjoyable sharpness amid the gloom.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 121mins

Review by Sloan Freer

Review: Gridiron Gang

UK release date: 2nd February

Fair play to him, The Rock — or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as he is billed here — is doing his best to avoid the usual action hero clichés. At this stage in his career he should probably be emulating Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vin Diesel by appearing in some family-friendly action comedy. Instead, he’s starring in this gritty urban drama — based on a true story — as an idealistic youth probation officer and former American football player attempting to establish a “gridiron” team made up of inmates at a maximum-security detention centre.

There’s an “against all odds” predictability in the way the story unfolds, but the action is skilfully directed by Phil Joanou. And while The Rock is effective enough playing the troubled kids’ mentor, his performance isn’t likely to win him any acting awards.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 120mins

Review by John Ferguson

Review: Blood Diamond

UK release date: 26th January

A mercenary Zimbabwean diamond smuggler might seem a stretch for the once impossibly baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio, but this thought-provoking action thriller offers a superb showcase for his growing talents, despite an occasional lapse into Hollywood sentiment.

For a time it seems the film will be as good as DiCaprio, starting with the surprisingly savage opening scenes of a tiny fishing community being torn apart by guerrillas in war-torn Sierra Leone in the 1990s. A wonderfully low-key Djimon Hounsou plays survivor Solomon Vandy, whose discovery of a rare and priceless stone while working in the diamond fields attracts the attention of chancer Danny Archer (DiCaprio). Archer agrees to help Vandy find the family from which he was taken in return for recovering the diamond from its hiding place and, along with a crusading journalist (an effective Jennifer Connelly), they set off on a perilous quest.

Unfortunately, it’s here that a once provocative, uncomfortable film turns into a predictable and disappointing morality tale that does a sad disservice to its impeccable players.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 143mins

Review by Damon Wise

Review: Bobby

UK release date: 26th January

Despite the title, this is not a biopic of US presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy but a snapshot of a precise time and place in history. The drama unfolds in a single momentous day in 1968 at the Los Angeles hotel that acted as Kennedy’s campaign headquarters.

Director Emilio Estevez personalises the story with glimpses into the lives of hotel staff, guests and members of the senator’s campaign team, played by a starry ensemble cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore and Elijah Wood. But it’s Sharon Stone who impresses the most, barely recognisable as the hotel stylist whose manager husband (William H Macy) is having an affair with a switchboard operator (Heather Graham).

With so many characters on show, the movie tends to lack a little in narrative drive (and the dialogue sometimes seems heavy and self-important), but what it does brilliantly is re-create the mood of the time. The real Bobby Kennedy is seen in archive footage and while he’s seemingly reduced to a supporting player in the film that bears his name, the promise he represented infuses everything. Of course most viewers will know how it ends, but that does not make those final scenes any less heart-rending

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 116mins

Review by Brian Pendreigh

Review: The Fountain

UK release date: 26th January

You wait years for a film about ancient Mayans and then, like proverbial buses, two movies come along at once. Like Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, The Fountain is one of the most original and extraordinary films of recent times — though a story that features not only ancient Mayans but also a bald man living on a little planet inside a snow globe with just a tree for company is bound to attract accusations of pretentiousness as well as claims of genius.

This third feature from director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) stars Hugh Jackman as a man on a thousand-year odyssey to save his beloved (Rachel Weisz, in multiple roles). In the 16th century, Jackman plays a conquistador searching for the fountain of youth in the Mayan Empire in order to save the Spanish queen from destruction. In modern-day America, Jackman seeks a cure for the cancer that’s killing his wife, and in the 26th century he sits like Buddha beneath his cosmic tree, trying to figure out what it all means.

Some of the audience may be doing the same, but those who stick with the movie will be rewarded with a profoundly rich experience about the meaning of life, death, love and immortality. The performances and music brilliantly complement Aronofsky’s philosophical musings in one of the most haunting, perplexing and visually stunning films since Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: a Space Odyssey.

Radio Times rating:

*****

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 96mins

Review by Brian Pendreigh

Review: Babel

UK release date: 19th January

Acclaimed Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, working with regular co-writer Guillermo Arriaga, once again fashions an ambitious, harrowing narrative from seemingly unconnected stories. As if to top his debut Amores Perros (set in Mexico City) and English-language follow-up 21 Grams (shot in Memphis), Babel crosses three continents and employs a number of languages, including sign.

Two young goatherds fire a newly-acquired rifle from a Moroccan hillside, precipitating trouble for an American tourist couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) and a risky trip from San Diego across the Mexican border for their nanny (a formidable Adriana Barraza). Meanwhile, a deaf-mute teenager in Tokyo (Rinko Kikuchi) experiences familial, social and sexual frustration.

Deftly moving between these four strands, the film is grainily handsome, naturalistically acted (the Moroccans are non-professionals) and throws up assorted themes to chew on. But with one of the links predictable and another arbitrarily contrived, the whole isn’t quite as profound as it appears.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 143mins

Review by Andrew Collins

Review: Infamous

UK release date: 19th January

Coincidentally made at the same time as the Oscar-winning Capote, this rival project also focuses on the events surrounding the writing of In Cold Blood — Truman Capote’s bestselling account of a shocking mass murder in a remote Kansas farmhouse in 1959.

Where Capote went for understatement, however, Infamous turns up the volume. It boasts a terrific performance from Toby Jones in the lead (one part Deputy Dawg, two parts Oscar Wilde) and punctuates the drama with stylised talking heads from the likes of author Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) and society maven Babe Paley (Sigourney Weaver).

More bothersome, though, is the heavy-handed portrayal of Capote’s relationship with killer Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) and the foregrounding of the homoerotic tension that underscores his prison visits. If Capote didn’t exist this would be a fascinating failure, but next to it Infamous is mostly entertaining but somewhat superfluous.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 117mins

Review by Damon Wise

Review: Rocky Balboa

UK release date: 19th January

In the sixth entry in the Rocky series, 60-year-old Sylvester Stallone returns to the franchise that launched his career back in 1976. Writing, directing and starring, Stallone offers an affectionate, nostalgic take on this iconic character, imbuing Rocky with a lived-in pathos.

A long first half sees the washed-up fighter back on the streets of Philadelphia, surveying his life as a widower. Tear-jerking clichés eventually give way to the main event, as Rocky is tempted out of retirement to exorcise his demons in an exhibition bout against the current heavyweight champ (played by real-life former light heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver).

Hokey and appallingly sentimental, Rocky Balboa should be risible. Yet as Bill Conti’s timeless score gathers on the soundtrack and Stallone rolls with the punches, this old warhorse proves it still has what it takes to be a contender.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 102mins

Review by Jamie Russell

Review: Black Book

UK release date: 19th January

Paul Verhoeven’s first film made in his native Holland since 1983’s The Fourth Man — after which he left for Hollywood and the likes of RoboCop and Basic Instinct — returns to the subject of the Dutch Resistance, which he first tackled in 1977’s Soldier of Orange.

Based loosely on a real character, Rachel (Carice van Houten) is a Jewish singer who, after seeing members of her party of escaping Jews massacred, joins the underground and infiltrates the local Nazi HQ, via the bed of officer Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch). Verhoeven delivers a rollicking yarn that’s surprisingly traditional, if convoluted, and, as usual, nudges happily at the boundaries of sexual imagery. The performances are universally good and the bloody action is typically well handled, but while Black Book certainly entertains it lacks the cultural tensions and mischievous satire that characterise the best of his American films.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 145mins

Review by Adam Smith