60-second cinema

7 out of 10 Completing my viewing of Park Chan-Wook's vengeance trilogy , Mr Vengeance is probably the simplest, plot-wise, of the three films. A young man struggling to find — and pay for — a kidney for his dying sister goes to unwise lengths to help her. Initially duped into swapping one of his own kidneys plus cash for a compatible donor kidney (which nevers turns up), he then resorts to kidnapping to raise the cash for a legit transplant. At which point, it all starts going seriously pear-shaped. Despite the film's title, there are actually multiple vengeances being sought here. And you can sympathise with all of them. The film remains entertaining and gripping throughout, but its relative simplicity felt like a slight let-down after seeing Oldboy and Lady Vengeance . Or maybe I was just up to speed quicker with this one. Anyway, as this rounds out my viewing of the vengeance trilogy, I feel I can now say it's a seriously good set of films. Granted, each is unr...

5 out of 10 *Sigh* This should have been good. Carpenter writes, directs, and provides the 80s-synth, Precinct 13 style, theme. We're on Mars, heading to a remote mine, to arrest a bad guy who isn't. We've lost contact with the mine, but that's ok - we have guns. But somehow, all the promised strands never seem to go anywhere. Take for example Pam Grier's butch police commander. Was that a gay lust theme starting there on the train? Not that it matters. She soon "disappears" before re-entering as an unsurprising head-on-a-stake. When I say "disappears", I mean exits, stage right. That's it. No drama, no suspense, just left the stage. Instead of on-a-stake, perhaps Pam's head could have flown around attacking the laid back good guys with alien burn-spittle. Ok, lame, but a little less obvious. Thankfully, some action kicks-off. Cannae help but feel these bad fella s'no trying very hard. One goodie gets a circul...

5 out of 10 How can a film with so many good things in it be so... average? Tricky one, but Watchmen manages it. And it pains me to give such a low mark. :( For those not in the know, it's a dark, noir-like story of crime-fighting, superheroes-cum-vigilantes — although some of these characters hardly deserve to be called heroes. Based on a graphic novel whose tone is said to have inspired the latest Batman movies, it sounds like it should be brilliant, but... it just feels pretty flat throughout. The pacing isn't exactly snappy and a good chunk of the first hour or so is spent filling in backstory. And then there's the narration from one of the key characters, given in the form of journal entries, which had me thinking more of Dick Spanner than the developing story. Rounding off the negatives, a few of the superheroes are... well... a bit wet, frankly. And, for people who are superpower-free, they're all unrealistically able to withstand long falls. Must have a ...

8 out of 10 This is the true story of a college American football team based in Odessa, Texas. Friday Night Lights is based on the book of the same name. In the book, a journalist joins the team over the course of the season and you get to know the players, coaches, parents, and most of all what the game means to the people of Odessa. Firstly, the film does not work as well as the book. There is no history of the town, the rivalries between other teams or the corruption involved in getting high school kids grades to the level where they can spend all their time playing football. In fact the journalist is cut completely from the movie. It's understandable that cuts were made in these areas, as otherwise it would have been an hour or two longer. Instead the film focuses on the players and coach, the highs and lows of the season, the good, the bad and the desperate times. As the players are based on real people they never really slipped into lazy sterotyping. The performance of ...

8 out of 10 Grease - classic. Singing, dancing, ham acting, mid-30s pretending to be teens. What more could you want? Baby slept though the lot. Was bothering me where else I'd seen Kenickie - Babylon 5 of course!