BROTHERS (USA/15A/104mins)
Directed by Jim Sheridan. Starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard, Carey Mulligan.
THE PLOT: Having just picked up his younger brother, armed robber Tommy (Gyllenhaal), from prison, the good son Sam Cahill (Maguire) is off to Afghanistan to do his duty as a proud, patriotic, gun-toting marine. When his wife, Grace (Portman), is told that Sam has died when his plane crashes, she begins to rebuild her life. Reluctantly, she lets Tommy help around the house, and with the kids, and they soon become attracted to one another. And then Sam returns, torture having made him a changed man. An angry, changed man.
THE VERDICT:
It's easy to see why Jim Sheridan was drawn to remaking the eponymous 2004 Danish arthouse hit Susanne Bier - once again, he's dealing with issues of family. And how they can be torn apart.
It's a premise rich in drama, and Sheridan certainly knows how to make the most of the layers of emotion that come with love and loss. But he makes it clear that nothing ever happened between brother and sister-in-law. Bier didn't. Bier did it better.
RATING: ***
THE BOYS ARE BACK (Australia/UK/12A/104mins)
Directed by Scott Hicks. Starring Clive Owen, Laura Fraser, Emma Booth, George MacKay, Emma Lung.
THE PLOT: Based on Simon Carr's 2001 memoir, this Australian drama sees Owen as sports journalist Joe, who decides the best way to help his 6-year old son, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty), to get over the sudden death of his mother is by allowing the little tyke to do just about anything that he damn well pleases.
Such permissiveness leads to a particularly scattered lifestyle, and a very messy house. And a really, really unlikeable kid. With a seemingly dumb father.
THE VERDICT: At least, that's how I read it. The American critics seem to like it though, The Boys Are Back scoring a 72% approval rating on the critical round-up site, rottentomatoes.com. Then again, who are you going to believe, hundreds of American film critics? Or me?
Enjoy.
RATING: **
MOVIES.IE'S ONE TO WATCH!
TOY STORY 2 IN 3D (USA/G/84mins)
Directed by John Lasseter, Ash Brannon. Starring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammar, Don Rickles.
THE PLOT: Hey, you know it - it's boy loses toy, toy meets girl, toy has to decide on living in a box or in the big bad world. It's a choice we all have to make. Every single morning.
THE VERDICT: There's not a lot can be said about Toy Story 2 In 3D, other than it's a fantastic piece of entertainment for kids young and old, and it's now in 3D. Which, you know, we're all going goggle-eyed over. They really should try to fix that.
With a third Toy Story due around these parts in July, the time is right to revisit the earlier outings. Like the original's 3D makeover last year, this is also a limited release, playing for two weeks only at movies@dundrum) - so, you know, don't dilly-dally. RATING: *****
BOOK OF ELI (USA/15A/118mins)
Directed by Albert, Allen Hughes. Starring Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals.
THE PLOT: Denzel Washington plays the post-apocalypse, gun-toting survivor carrying the sacred book that holds the secrets of mankind's survival. Think Holy Man On Fire.
THE VERDICT: Released last week without an Irish press screening (go, Lionsgate!), this is like watching The Road if it had been adapted by Michael Bay. It's that stupid. Washington seems to be having fun, and it's nice to see the Hughes brothers (who gave us 1995's underappreciated gangster tale The Dead Presidents) back in business after making the abymsal From Hell nine years ago. Still doesn't make this a good movie though.
RATING: **
44 INCH CHEST (UK/18/95mins)
Directed by Malcolm Venville. Starring Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Ian McShane, Joanne Whalley.
THE PLOT: Winstone plays solid London car dealer geezer Colin Diamond, none too pleased to discover that the love of his life (Whalley) wants to do an Iris Robinson. Bad news for the younger man in question (Melvil Poupaud), as Colin and his gang of cartoon, West End criminal cronies have decided the best thing to do is have the him tied to a chair in a derelict house. So, you know, they can talk it out with him. Man to gang.
THE VERDICT: Winstone's back in Sexy Beast territory here, co-writers Louis Melle and David Scinto having 10 years to deliver what is ostensibly a sequel of sort. It's beautifully played by all involved (Tom Wilkinson and Stephen Dillane make up the rest of the gang), and first-time director Malcolm Venville gives the whole thing an august look - it just ain't quite Sexy Beast. Worth seeing though...
RATING: ***
A PROPHET (France/Italy/16/155mins)
Directed by Jacques Audiard. Starring Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Hichem Yacoubi, Reda Kateb.
THE PLOT: France, the present, and the cruelty and brutality of prison life kicks in early for 19-year old drifter Malik El Djebena (Rahim) when he's sentenced to six years for beating a police officer.
That cruelty and brutality is as initially shocking to us as it is to Malik, but he soon finds his feet when prison godfather Cesar Luciani (Arestrup) forces him into befriending and killing a new "dirty Arab" inmate on his way to testify in court. Soon, Malik is acting as gopher for Cesar and his Corsican gang, tolerated rather than accepted as one of them. Befriending Ryad (Bencherif), Malik begins to educate himself, both academically and in the fine art of organised crime. From there, we see just how a slave can manipulate a master, Malik slyly developing survival skills far beyond Cesar's reckoning.
THE VERDICT:
The year is barely underway, and I think we may have already found one of the films of the year. The fact that A Prophet (France/Italy/16/155mins) debuted at Cannes last year might make it feel a little like old news for some, but then, we had the exact same predicament last year, when the towering Let The Right One In finally arrived on our screens in January 2009.
You're always onto a winner, of course, when you go deep, down and dirty into the world of organised crime, A Prophet providing the same kind of compelling and thrilling ride through a dangerous underworld to be found in the likes of Goodfellas, The Wire and The Sopranos. It's director (and co-writer) Jacques Audiard's masterpiece. And that's something, considering he last gave us The Beat That My Heart Skipped.
RATING: *****
NINJA ASSASSIN (USA/Germany/18/99mins)
Directed by James McTeigue. Starring Rain, Sung Kang, Randal Duk Kim, Ill-Young Kim, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles.
THE PLOT: As a headstrong young ninja, Raizo (Korean pop star Rain, one of Megan Fox's dream boys, incidentally) decided to split from the ninja-for-hire orphanage that raised him, and now they want him back. Or his head on a plate. His feet in a fruit bowl would do either.
THE VERDICT: What to say about Ninja Assassin? This is Joel Silver and yet another wide-eyed Asian star hoping to break into the international market. With yet another generic, one-size-fits-all action movie. And what the hell are the Wachowski brothers doing, producing muck like this? Have they really given up that much?
RATING: *
JACQUES AUDIARD at the IFI
Over at the IFI, to mark the release of Jacques Audiard's stunning A Prophet, a retrospective of the new French director's films will be shown over the coming weeks. The fact that Audiard has made only five movies so far, and yet has had such an impact, reflects just how good those movies are. As anyone who's seen The Beat That My Heart Skipped will testify. Or, indeed, Read My Lips.
Kicking off Saturday, Jan 23rd, at 2.20pm with his 1994 debut, See How They Fall, tomorrow sees 1996's A Self-Made Hero at 2.10pm, Jan 30th sees 2001's Read My Lips at 1.50pm, and at 2.15pm on Jan 31st, it's 2005's The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Full details on www.irishfilm.ie.
Words - Paul Byrne