Film Reviews

Takinga break from politics for one post to update on what I've been watching in the last week and a half or so. First up is:

Centurion
The latest from Neil Marshall (The Descent,Dog Soldiers) follows a group of Roman solidier running around in a snowy Scotland and trying not to get hacked to bits by troublesome picts. It's rather gorier than it needs to be and Marshall seems rather too fond of decapitating as many characters as possible. The Wire's Dominic West clearly has fun, but still seems to be playing McNulty, former bond-girl Olga Kurylenko scowls moodily at the camera throughout so its left to the ever-excellent Michael Fassbender and his group of talented younf brits to hold it all together, which they do making this an enjoyable chase movie with a Roman-twist, but the best bits are rather too obviously borrowed from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Overall - 6/10 - entertaining, but nothing special

It's a Wonderful Afterlife
Comes to us from director Gurinder Chadha (Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice) and has a nonsensical plot involving curry, murder and ghosts that quite frankly, its not worth the trouble of explaining. It's a frustrating film that yo-yos between the frankly dreadful and the really genuinely funny at unpredictable intervals. Heroes' Sendhil Ramamurthy utterly fails to convince as either a policeman or a romantic lead, Happy Go Lucky's Sally Hawkins fares rather better and gets many of the best moments (including the Carrie homage) but strays into irritating too often, whilst poor Mark Addy and Jamie Sives get lumbered with totally underwritten characters. Goldu Notay in the lead does a solid but unremarkable job. Overall - 5.5/10 -will make you laugh and cringe in roughly equal measure.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Its's difficult to make a film with only three characters without it seeming theatrical rather than cinematic. Writer-director manages it with some elan in this kidnap thriller. He's helped by some great performance from his cast (Eddie Marsan, Martin Compston and a never-better Gemma Arterton) and a script that keeps throwing some genuine surprises in the relationships between the three characters without ever losing credibility. Right up until the very last act you're never quite sure who's going to make it out of this and who isn't. Overall - 7.5/10 - might be too gritty for some tastes, but a well-acted, tightly plotted thrilling film.