Dan Trachtenberg directs Mary Elisabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jnr in this woman trapped in an underground bunker mystery.

Like its franchise “blood relative” Cloverfield, this is a flick you admire more in concept than actual experience. A nicely shot and edited, twisty maze for us and the ever impressive Mary Elisabeth Winstead to work out, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jnr both also excelling as the apparently untrustworthy pre-existing tenants of the trap. Potentially there’s a lot to love but I ended up merely liking it. For as the truth all unravels you suddenly realise the threads are all falling exactly where you’d expect them to, and it is pretty poor praise to say that when all hell does finally break loose it is exactly the hell you can already imagine from the trailer. For a film thats hook is the “unexpected” that proves a pretty jutting out barb to snag the viewer on. It also lacks maybe one midway set piece to be what I’d measure effectively tense. Maybe a rewatch with lowered expectations might help this all feel more than satisfactory once the credits roll. I’m willing to concede my own fault for wanting a great night at the movies when this is just a perfectly well made and OK one.

7

John Milius directs Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones and Sandahl Bergman in this warrior versus a mystical snake cult adventure.

Impressive in scale and intent but disappointing in pace and action, you admire this early Schwarzenegger vehicle more for it ambitions than its execution. Sword and sorcery hits our screens in such small, rare bursts that even if this fails to live up to be anywhere near to the Lord of the Rings gold standard, it still makes the medal podium compared to its lesser rivals. Moments such as a dangerous sex scene with a witch, James Earl Jones going full python, the animated attack of the warrior ghosts all linger in the memory effectively. Arnie’s acting is still finding its feet, he often seems happy enough to just be making such an epic romp, but if a scene really demands an emotion you can at the very least see the gears grinding hard to achieve it. A promise of greater things he would deliver on personally… even if the genre and franchise have yet to really. As a viewing experience though this essentially sells us steel, gives us bronze.

6

 

David Cronenberg directs Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz in this tale of a scientist who gets spliced with fly.

Jeff Goldblum fires in with one of genre cinema’s finest performances. His speech and body language faultlessly goes from acerbically precise to the sugar rush burble of a man losing his humanity to the fly inside. The effect works is gorily solid, the smart design and lighting sell even the less than believable gunk. It all boils down to a taut three hander as much about AIDS, jealousy and the weakness of an ageing body as the teleportation science fiction on the surface. You are gripped as it is convincingly told in measured surges of humour, romance, drama, terror and cold observation. Neatly small scale with an abundance of expected sick imagination, this is easily Cronenberg’s most accessible work.

8

Nicholas Hytner directs Winona Ryder, Daniel Day Lewis and Joan Allen in this faithful adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem Witch trials.

Near perfectly cast, with an authentic mud and timber look, this should on paper be a 10 out of 10 classic. And while the cast give it their all, the classic play itself just seemingly doesn’t lend itself to cinema. The direction sensibly opens up and mixes up the settings, losing much of the intense claustrophobia of even an averagely acted stage production, but adds no bit of fun or involving extra visual drama. This The Crucible all just sits up there on screen rather coldly like a museum piece. I was left immaturely checking the fluctuations in how bad the Day Lewis method teeth were; they noticeably slalom from rotting sulphur to pearly whites over scenes set on the same day. My attention shouldn’t be given wriggle room for such nitpicking in what should be an utterly involving tale of injustice and repression. Once a feisty Ryder abandons the third act the univintingly loyal prestige overwhelms the endeavour.

6

Baz Luhrmann directs Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice and Barry Otto in the stylised look at a dancehall romance.

Sweet, but with a bit too much icing to get through from the top… You could say that of all of Luhrmann’s confections really. The now standard screeching, overacted,  48 frames a second, trippy  opening act always hamstrings his films for me (others love it) and that painful birth into whichever world he eventually settles us in jarred with me when I was younger. Now I know, once he gets all the throb and garishness out of his system, the bulk of his narratives are much calmer, more inviting prospects I can revisit his debut knowing not to outright hate it from the start. The well told ugly duckling / be true to yourself ballroom dancing romance has real heart and passion once it smooths out. Excellent use of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time too.

6

David Fincher directs Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake in this hopefully heavily fictionalised look at the creators of Facebook.

Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin bring their impeccable talent to the tale of a dick. Poor Jesse Eisenberg. His take on Mark Zuckerberg is a career making role and he inhabits it so clearly, definitely and is so beautifully detestable that he could be cast as the Dalai Lama yet the impact of his performance here would mean you’d walk out of Kundun 2 thinking the Dalai Lama was a bit of a dick. It is that iconic a performance, nothing he will do will ever override it. Poor Mark Zuckerberg. He could donate (nearly) all his money to charity and based on Sorkin, Fincher and Eisenberg’s expert character assassination work, he will still be the dick to the majority of the Facebook using public as portrayed here. They aren’t the only dicks. The Social Network is awash with dicks. Poor Armie Hammer as both the Winklevoss twins, he/they both lost to a dick… Making him/them even more pitiable – satisfyingly so given their old world money bought arrogance. Andrew Garfield, in the most sympathetic and likeable role, puts his own dickishness perfectly when he explains he was a CFO of the multi million dollar valued company who did not get his contracts checked by his own lawyers. The utter dick. And as for Justin Timberlake’s Napster founding, underage sex loving, Iago with hair gel, Sean Parker… Well… you can only guess. It all makes The Social Network a sharply funny look at a community of social rejects at war with each other over new technology, massive stakes and underdeveloped maturities. Fincher manages to perfectly capture a point in time where the world changed, a period film set less than six years ago. Browns and golds melt seductively into our eyes as the echoing piano of Trent Reznor’s score strokes our hair. The autumn of modernity captured just as the moment passes? Sorkin gets the satire exactly right, the barbed dialogue is like ping pong rallies. The dicks all win riches and lose their relationships. How is that for a moral of our times?

10

Adrian Grunberg directs Mel Gibson, Peter Stomare and Kevin Hernandez in the south of border prison thriller.

Before he publicly exploded, Mel (Max, Riggs, Maverick) used to churn out a neat little action thriller like this or two a year. It could easily be a spiritual sequel to the fun Payback (in fact there is very little evidence to the contrary). If you like that, then you’ll like this. It’s a nasty, foul mouthed, Mel outsmarts everyone in a some gun toting brinkmanship, bit of spectacle. He’s still got it even if no one is currently buying.

7

Jack Arnold directs Grant Williams, Randy Stuart and April Kent in this domestic set sci fi thriller.

The performance and effect work are very much of their time, charming rather than ropey, but the action becomes so involving you ignore the seams apparent in the spectacle. Good writing and strong vision make this a very easy prospect to just enjoy the ride. Narratively lean but with quite admirable existential ambitions this is an intelligently made treat. In a small but significant role as a circus midget happy with her lot, April Kent impresses. Sadly a quick Google suggest this was the peak of a short career. Shame really as she adds a little extra heart to this sharp tale of bloodless body horror and one man’s survival against a rapidly changing world.

8

 

Lesli Linka Glatter directs Christina Ricci, Gaby Hoffmann and Thora Birch in the 70s set coming of age drama with big star modern day bookends.

A sweet little film that is not really focussed, funny, authentic or emotionally satisfying enough to compete with its clear inspiration: Stand By Me. The cast make it more than an interesting curio though and I’m not talking about Demi Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Brendan Fraser or Hank Azaria in extended cameos. Ricci, Hoffmann and Birch were all impressive child stars who despite interesting work in their late teens have not managed to keep their momentum going. Now and Then stands as a testament to their charm and currently untapped potential.

5

Zack Snyder directs Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Micheal Shannon in this modernisation on the Superman origins myth.

Perhaps the most frustrating blockbuster ever made – the first 90 minutes is a 5 star classic look at Superman embracing his destiny. From an eye popping last day on Krypton right up to being outed to the world as an alien saviour among us, this is exciting stuff. Then we have a relentless hour of overwhelming, effects obese set pieces that numb the audience into submission unraveling all that good work. You can even see what two of the four action chunks could be easily cut out; attack of nanotentacles & 15 minutes of Supes and Zod playing pinball with other against and through the architecture of Metropolis. Snip those two plate spinners off unto the cutting room floor and the narrative is unaffected, the running time manageable and that rumble in Smallville and the stop World Engine from destroying humanity skit would be a more than satisfying one-two knockout. There’s lot to love in that start though – Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner shine as Kal-El and Clark Kent’s respective fathers, the smaller scale action as hobo Clark hitchhikes across an accident prone America rocks, the glimpses of his alien eyeview of childhood disturbs, Amy Adam’s Lois Lane is given meaty more to do than wait for the boy in blue to save her, the production design is lavish and Hans Zimmer composes possibly the greatest movie score since… well… Richard Donner’s Superman. OK, it’s not all solely the overlong conclusions fault… Cavill, Adams and Shannon do not have much chemistry with each other or the source material which is a shame (especially considering what talents the last two are). And the big name mega ensemble may add the sheen of quality but also means we get to have a completely unnecessary Perry White action sequence (at 2 hours 15 minutes in, no-one cares about Jenny the Intern, even if it is Laurence Fishburne saving her). Still any film where you get to see Gladiator fly a space dragon and Kevin Costner teach life lessons in the visual equivalent of a Bruce Springsteen album is worth a punt and you can always switch off once the CGI overpowers the hope.

6