miscellaneous factZ

6/10. Not badly done WWII action thriller. There was the occasional sudden lurch (or even gaping hole) in the plot and the high level of (graphically rendered) torture/death of leading characters mean this wasn’t your classic mythologized feel-good war movie.

7.5/10. A powerful film, though be warned: this is no feel-good piece and by the end of the two and a half hours you are unlikely to be leaving with a spring in your step.

4/10. Abysmal and travesty of previous outings. The plotting was so casual as to be insulting, compared to previous outings the set-pieces were very weak, and the reintroduction of Marion (by the most creaky of plot devices) only served to emphasize how far from the original this had fallen (and how dependent on derivative recycling this was). I doubted that Lucas’s (responsible for the story) reputation could fall much further after the debacle of the Star Wars prequels but I was wrong.

6.5/10. Engaging first-feature from Lebanese director and actress Nadine Lebaki.

7/10. A good story and an excellent performance in the leading role combine to make this recent Italian drama a very watchable piece.

5.5/10. Not uninteresting and really quite funny in places. However, while certainly better than some of Leigh’s other recent outings, it was rather intermittent and never became more than a mildly diverting ramble around Poppy’s life.

6.5/10. Interesting and unusual, though slightly conventionalized in its last 15 minutes. At last we have Ralph Fiennes playing an appropriately nasty character — I can never understand why he ends up in so many ‘romantic’ roles for his froideur and general demeanour make him entirely unsuited.

7/10. Very skilfully put together and acted. Affecting.

5/10. After the excellence of Gondry’s last outing (The Science of Sleep) this was a real disappointment.

6/10. This latest outing from Sidney Lumet is an unusual combination of family melodrama and crime-gone-wrong Greek tragedy. Unfortunately, though ticking all the boxes (acting, script etc) it left one rather cold, largely due to the absence of any character who merited the audience’s sympathy. After all, for tragedy to work must care about the character whom it befalls — even if their downfall is principally the result of their own actions or their own failings.