Captain Phillips: Blu Ray Review

Captain Phillips: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Sony Home Ent

Tom Hanks is Captain Richard Phillips, a cargo ship captain, whose latest job sees him guiding the Maersk Alabama around the Horn of Africa. But as those in the waters know, that stretch of sea is famous for attacks from Somali pirates.

When a group of four pirates board the Alabama, the line between the Captain and the lead pirate Muse (Barkhad Abdi) is drawn - and so begins a psychological game which could have fatal consequences. Things get worse when the pirates kidnap Phillips and put him into a lifeboat trying to escape.

145 miles off the Somali coast and with the clock ticking, the stakes are raised even higher when the US military's called in to the first hijacking of one of their ships in over 200 years....will Phillips live to sail another day?

Captain Phillips is trademark Greengrass. The director of two of the Bourne trilogy films brings his usual eye for tension and detail to the fore of this tale that ramps up the suspense in some parts and simply tells the story as it is. But with an unnecessary shaky cam feel from the start - why this couldn't have been left until the water scenes I'll never know - it takes a while to get into the feel of the film and the drama. It's more a tale of two captains, who have desperation fuelling their decisions than a straight psychological piece. For Muse, it's fear from failing his superiors at home which spur him into the situation he finds himself in; and Abdi delivers a bony, edgy, nervily compelling performance which threatens to boil over at any point into horrifying consequences.

With Phillips, it's about the protection of his crew first off and Hanks does an excellent job of an average man trying to do an above average job in trying circumstances. It's a role Hanks has excelled at before and one that he shines at again, though in all honesty, it's not until the end of the movie that we actually see Hanks acting during a delayed emotive reaction to what's happened and it's spine-tinglingly good. Which is why it's a shame to report that there's no real emotional pull during the rest of the film. While the khat-chewing pirates are fairly well drawn out (there's the young newbie, the unpredictably volatile one, the one with heart) and stand out as characters of their own, it's only really when there's the head to head with Muse and Phillips that the film gains an edge. That tension seems to dissipate a little when the action moves off the boat and onto the submersible, which to be honest is somewhat of a surprise given that is where the claustrophobic atmosphere should have been ramped up. With shaky cam prevalent throughout, and no explanation as to why the military suddenly become so heavily involved in this altercation, there's a feeling that this flick leans quite heavily on Hanks' performance.

And that's a good thing given the level of underplayed intensity that he brings - certainly, by the end, I was a little more invested than I'd initially felt. While parts of Captain Phillips are all at sea, the underlying tension throughout niggles and inveigles its way under your skin - but it's all due, once again, to a powerhouse slow burning performance from Tom Hanks.

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Gravity: Blu Ray Review

Gravity: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Warner Home Video

In space, no-one can hear you scream.

Which is kind of sad because this latest from the director of Children of Men makes you want to scream from the rooftops about how incredibly good and technically impressive it is. Even on the small screen

George Clooney and Sandra Bullock star as two astronauts in space. Clooney is Matt Kowalski, a retiring astronaut; Bullock is Ryan Stone, a medical engineer working in space for the first time. When debris from a Russian satellite heads their way, the pair is thrust into a life and death battle to survive above Earth....


Gravity the movie is an incredible, utterly thrilling experience from the moment it begins.

It opens with a jaw-dropping shot of life above the Earth, which fills the screen and seriously impresses with the detail of the world below and captures the utter majesty of space. The opening shot tracks around the space station that Kowalski and Stone are working on and the world around it are completely awesome in the true sense of the word. It's a bravura start to an emotionally intense film which is more experience than traditional movie in many ways.

But as the relative peace of the skies and Ed Harris' mission controller voiceover begin to lull you into a false sense of security, Cuaron rips the rug from under you and ramps up the tension with a series of set pieces which assault the senses, both visually and aurally.As the empty skies fill with debris from the satellite and the OST builds perilously loud, the fear factor rises higher than you'd imagine possible and thanks to a rising crescendo of sound and visual FX, the tension forces you to the edge of your seat.

Clooney impresses as Kowalski, the old timer whose knowledge of how to survive kicks in but it's arguably Bullock's film.

In among her flailing and falling into the dark expanses of space, Stone undergoes a metaphorical and spiritual journey as the reality of what she's facing kicks in. Coming to terms with the loss of a child, the loss of the space pilots around her and her impending death, she undergoes the gamut of emotions and takes you along for the ride too.

However, it's the film which is the real hero of the piece - a visual feast and terrifying symphony with plenty of head-scratching as to how exactly they achieved the final effect, Gravity is as close to being in space as many of us will ever achieve - it left me with goosebumps as I gorged on the wonderful FX.

Make no mistake - even on the smallest of screens, Gravity will leave you breathless.

Extras: Over 3 hours of special features - see how the film was made

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4 minute preview of Captain America: The Winter Soldier

4 minute preview of Captain America: The Winter Soldier

There's a 4 minute preview of Captain America: The Winter Soldier here now to view...


Chris Evans stars as Captain America in the film coming in April from Marvel.

Watch the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Superbowl spot below.


Captain America returns! The official first trailer for Captain America The Winter Soldier -- in UK cinemas March 26 2014. The sequel to Marvel's Captain America The First Avenger. Starring Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell with Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

For the latest on Captain America The Winter Soldier, 'Like' us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MarvelUK

After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy—the Winter Soldier.

Based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series, first published in 1941, Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is produced by Kevin Feige, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, and stars Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp and Hayley Atwell, with Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is presented by Marvel Studios. The executive producers are Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo, Alan Fine and Stan Lee. The film releases March 26 2014, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For trailer arrives

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For trailer arrives

Good news - finally, a first look at Sin City: A Dame To Kill For with the new trailer

Starring Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Rosario Dawson, Jaime King, Josh Brolin, Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Dennis Haysbert, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Jamie Chung, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple, Julia Garner and Stacy Keach.

Watch the Sin City A Dame to Kill For trailer here

Le Week-End: Movie Review

Le Week-End: Movie Review

Cast: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, the streets of Paris
Director: Roger Michell

From writer Hanif Kureshi comes this tale of an English couple heading back to Paris to relive their honeymoon some 30 years ago.

Broadbent is Nick, and Duncan Meg - and it's clear from the moment they're on the Eurostar that there's a strain in this relationship. Meg clearly detests the man after years together, but Nick is wilfully oblivious, taking each barb as something to be mocked rather than viewed with caution.

Conflict is the raison d'etre of their marriage in later life and on most things, they appear to be opposed to all things the other proposes - but things take a turn when the pair bump into Jeff Goldblum's Morgan, who looked upto Nick during his time as a university lecturer.

Soon, Meg's finding herself part of a social swirl and Nick is finding himself a little confused as to what's going on.

Le Week-End showcases a marriage that some will find too familiar and others will be horrified by; Duncan plays the cruel cold wife with ease, and Broadbent's affability leads to the feeling that Nick's charm has worn off years ago. 90 minutes in their company seems to lead you to feel that you've been married to the pair of them as well - with little happening on screen other than bickering and sniping, it's hard to warm to either of them as they swan around Europe's most romantic city (the irony of which is not lost).

Thankfully, a change of pace comes with the arrival of Morgan, but it's a little too late to really fully save the day for the pair as the rot is setting in. Throw in some concerns about whether a son will return home to roost and the tensions are a-plenty; Michell makes a reasonable fist of Kureshi's slightly depressingly familiar screenplay and the actors give it their all in what feels more like a play than a movie.

All in all, Le Week-end has moments which feel like they're influenced by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's characters in Linklater's films, but without quite the light deft writing; granted, there's a touch of something beneath the veneer but it's hidden by a typically grey British sheen that makes it hard to love, but easy to appreciate.

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Stories We Tell: Movie Review

Stories We Tell: Movie Review

Cast: Sarah Polley, Michael Polley, The Polley family, extended friends of the Polley family
Director: Sarah Polley

The tangled family life of one of Canada's most respected young actors comes under the spotlight in this documentary, which in some ways, defies description and expectation.

Turning the camera on herself, Polley investigates the life of her family - her mother specifically - and how stories change when told by different people and from different perspectives.

Employing the adroitness of someone who would appear to have been doing this for a while, Polley manages to coax the best out of her subjects while sticking to an idea of what exactly she wants from this film. Initially, there's a swirl of confusion as you're overwhelmed by apparent archive footage of her mother at key moments from before Sarah was around.

However, it's here that Polley starts to mess with expectations of the traditional doco and blur the lines between fact and reality - as told by storytellers. Narrating the piece is her father, Michael, an actor who's dry sense of humour is evident throughout - and Polley manages to manipulate this at times by having her father re-read some lines of dialogue as it's recorded, subtly using those moments to emphasise the point she is trying to make.

In fact, her subjects at times seem a little befuddled by what's going on, with one asking "I hope you'll explain what you're trying to do" as the investigation into her past digs deeper. While I'd love to discuss the finer points of what transpires, aside from those being spoilers for those who know not of Polley's complicated life, part of the joy of this doco is watching it play out, as small emotional bombs explode amid the Canadian trademark humour.

The journey is a smartly executed one, with Polley's recreations of her mother's younger years and her examinations getting beneath your skin as she subverts the traditional trajectory of a documentary, mashing the fourth wall and her subjects together and ending up with something that's quite breathlessly different. Though there is a slight sense of feeling robbed when the reveal comes that the Super 8 footage that proffers an insight into a life aren't quite what they're cracked up to be.

The revelations within are more pertinent to her family, than an universal truth to be applied to us all, but the way Sarah looks at how stories are informed within a generation of an acting family is a clever insight into life behind the screen, even if differing sides of the story aren't actually brought to the table.

Stories We Tell remains a fascinating experiment, and a genre defying piece for the documentary field.

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Vampire Academy: Movie Review

Vampire Academy: Movie Review

Cast: Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Gabriel Byrne, Olga Kurylenko, Sarah Hyland
Director: Mark Waters

From the young adult novels, and with more of the undead in tow, here comes the latest in the vamp line of movie making.

Mixing Harry Potter's Hogwarts with vampirism and throwing in a brew of romance, it's the story of the Moroi, and the Strigoi, both lines of vampires and both (im)mortal enemies. The two will never see eye to eye and caught right in the middle of it is Dhampir (a half vampire and half human mix) Rose Hathaway (Zoey Deutch). Her job is to protect the Moroi princess Lissa Dragomir (Fry) whatever the cost.

To that end, the pair has been living in the human world for a couple of years; however, they're tracked down and dragged back to a fate worse than death - St Vladmir's Academy...

Thrown back into the horrors of classes, jealousy, and boys, the pair find their lives in danger when strange things happen on the campus and the Strigoi are suspected of being behind it all....

Vampire Academy is a strangely un-intoxicating hybrid mess of a film.

Part Harry Potter, part romance, part tongue in cheek silliness, part Buffy-style quipping (but without the smarts) and all insanity, it's one of the weirdest hot messes of a film that's appeared in a while, thanks to its wild mix of tone.

While a feisty Deutch does well with her wannabe Buffy / Faith style role, the writing doesn't quite help, with quip after quip flying and hardly many hitting their targets at all. There's an attempt to throw a Mean Girls / high school vibe into the mix, but there are so many elements within already that it just feels overcooked. The start is almost hamstrung by an overuse of exposition via voiceover and writing flying over the screen that it all seems a little too much, a supernatural pudding that's been over-egged with many elements of the genres that have already passed.

The more established names of the cast - Olga Kurylenko and Gabriel Byrne - simply chew the scenery and don't seem to want to know what to do with their underwritten parts. Along with cheesy action sequences and cornball dialogue, it's hard to see whether tweens will go for this given that it's neither fish nor fowl - choosing to shy away from too much self-knowing and parody while mixing in some of the seriousness, Vampire Academy doesn't raise any stakes in the vampire genre.

In fact, if anything, this coffin should be sealed shut for eternity before any more of the six books make it onto the big screen. Terrible CGI for some hellhounds simply show that the stretch of imagination didn't go far in this cinematic outing.

Quite simply, Vampire Academy bites.

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