60-second cinema

8 out of 10 Am I allowed to review documentaries on here? What the hell, let's go for it. Heima is a film of various performances from Sigur Ros 's 2006 tour of Iceland, interspersed with interviews of band members and fans alike. If you've never heard them before, you can expect something akin to whale song played by a rock band. In fact, there's a fair chance you'll already be familiar with one of their tracks, Hoppipolla, as it was used heavily in the trailers for Planet Earth . But I digress. Much like their music, the film and the band members themselves turn out to be just as gentle and reflective as you'd expect. In fact, there are plenty of shots of them simply staring into space, mid-song. Most of the music, recorded at various unusual venues around the island, is fairly mild stuff too, but both the opening track and the final gig rise to amazing climaxes. At the end of the first one, in particular, I felt like getting up from my cinema seat, clappi...

8 out of 10 What a relief to get back to a real film after watching AVP-R . This one even had a plot and proper character development. Man On Fire follows former mercenary, Creasy ( Denzel Washington ), struggling to find meaning in his life, now working as a private bodyguard. That meaning comes in the form of a young girl name Lupita ( Dakota Fanning ) whom he's assigned to protect. Pass the sick bag? No. As their friendship grows throughout the first hour or so, the film threatens to wander out of heart-warming and into schmaltz, but then everything's turned on its head as she's kidnapped. The rest of the film takes on an incredibly purposeful air as he sets out to exact revenge on the kidnappers. Despite this separation of themes being so distinct, the film overall felt surprisingly well balanced. All actors gave excellent performances, but the two leads in particular worked very well together. My only complaints were one or two out-of-character or unrealistic m...

1 out of 10 Rubbish.

7 out of 10 Cronos is Guillermo del Toro's Directorial debut. An ageing Antique dealer, Jesus Gris, discovers a device that seems to prolong life. Unfortunately there are conditions tied to the use of the device, not known by Gris. To further complicate matters the device is being saught after by a dieing man, De la Guardia, and his son (played by del Toro favourite Ron Perlman ) Despite being a horror movie, the film's strongest moments are when Gris is with his granddaughter Aurora. This is particularly true of the latter moments in the movie and for me this is the aspect that will stay with me the most.

9 out of 10 Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a Congressman: one who likes a drink, likes the ladies, knows many influential people and is owed favours by more than a few. His friendship with Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) brings him into contact with the President of Pakistan and an impromptu trip to the refugee camps filled with hundreds of thousands of displaced Afghans. Witnessing the plight of these families first hand prompts firm action from Wilson in support of the Mujahideen, leading to the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 and ultimately to the current situation in Afghanistan. The film itself is beautifully produced, the script is full of sparkling, dry wit delivered expertly by Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays CIA man Gust Avrakotos. These are two very fine performances, supported admirably by Roberts and Congressman Wilson's all female office staff. The cinematography delivers powerfully, particularly during Wilson's first visit to the camp in Northe...

7 out of 10 Despite feeling incredibly condensed, I rather liked The Golden Compass. Fantasy isn’t normally my thing, but at least this wasn’t fairytale stuff. In fact, I'm quite keen to see the following 2 episodes in the trilogy. Who knows - I might even get the books on which they're based. Back to the film, though, and I can't get away from the pacing of it. Nearly every single scene feels rushed. Not in a thrown-together sense, but as if someone were trying to give you a summary of the story in very limited time. Given this, there was a fair amount of exposition too. I don't know what the running length was, but it could've easily managed another half hour, maybe even 45 minutes, and I wouldn't have complained. It really needed to take a breath and expand upon various plot- and character-development scenes, some of which lasted less than 10 seconds. Still, the quality of the story and the integrity of its setting were good enough to pull it through....

10 out of 10 This is the second time I've seen this film and it really does stand up to repeat viewings remarkably well. In fact, I'd even say it gets better with repeat viewings, hence me upgrading it to a ten. Oldboy tells the story of a man imprisoned for 15 years without knowing either the reason or the identity of his jailer. While we do get a summary of his internment, it's his subsequent quest for understanding and, perhaps, vengeance that dominates the story. Frankly, it's a bit of a masterpiece. Yes, that's an over-used phrase, but I've never known another tale of revenge that even comes close to the brilliance of Oldboy. I could elaborate, but that would only spoil things for you. Instead, I'll say just this: rent it, buy it, or borrow it. Regardless, just watch it .

4 out of 10 Think 28 Days Later , but in New York. There you go. Review done. Except... it's not as good as 28 Days Later. It takes a lot for one actor to carry an entire film. Sadly, I don't really feel Will Smith was able to pull it off. I never really felt any emotional connection with him, his fate, or even that of the human race. And for a sci-fi/horror set in a well-realised, post-apocalyptic world, it committed the classic sin of making some of its mindless baddies inexplicably cleverer than others. Surprisingly like 28 Weeks Later , in fact. In summary: disappointing.