How to Re-establish a Vodka Empire, Movie Review

Director : Daniel Edelstyn

Producer : Daniel Edelstyn, Christopher Hird, Hilary Powell

Screenwriter : Daniel Edelstyn

Starring : Daniel Edelstyn, Hilary Powell, Conrad Asquith, Anthony Styles, Francois Guesnet, Bob Brown

Like a less-gimmicky, more goofy Morgan Spurlock, Edelstyn puts himself at the centre of this documentary telling two stories: of his grandparents' journey across Europe and his own discovery of an old family business and his work to revive it. It's an engaging, personal story full of moving details.

It all starts when Edelstyn finds a box of manuscripts and letters by his Ukrainian grandmother. Lost for 100 years, they outline how the family's wealthy life ended with the 1917 Russian Revolution. Then he travels to Ukraine to find out more about his family's sugar factory, which is now closed. But the locals reveal that there was another factory, a still-working vodka distillery.
As he decides to revive the business and import the vodka into Britain, Phis artist partner owell discovers that she's pregnant.

And to tell the story, Edelstyn uses combines a variety of film styles, from archive footage and photos to wacky re-enactments of historical events in which they play his grandparents. Getting friends to play his ancestors and various extras, he inventively recreates events unsung miniatures, animation and lots of green screen spliced in with real footage from both the past and present.
And he finds interesting parallels between this story a young woman during the 1917 revolution and his own journey.

Edenstyn assembles this with sharp wit that plays on Russian cinema and culture. As he travels into rural Ukraine, he encounters real Slavic hospitality, including rather a lot of vodka-shot drinking, and he meets meets a very old woman who remembers his grandmother. But he also discovers that the recent closure of the sugar factory has drained the life out of the village. So relaunching the family vodka in the name of Granny Maroussia is a way to redress history.

This is a thoroughly intriguing film that entertains us with its inventive approach while exploring the ethical and historical implications. And as we follow him through the red tape in present-day Ukraine, we also see Granny Maroussia navigating the bureaucracy of her time. What emerges is a fairly standard story of European migration in the 20th century made much more personal by the way it echoes in Edelstyn's life, leading to births, deaths and the launch of Zorokovich 1917 Vodka in the UK.

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Act of Valour, Movie Review

Director : Mouse McCoy, Scott Waugh

Producer : Mouse McCoy, Scott Waugh

Screenwriter : Kurt Johnstad

Starring : Roselyn Sanchez, Nestor Serrano, Rorke, Dave, Van O, Michael, Ajay, Sonny, Ray, Weimy, Duncan Smith, Alex Veadov, Jason Cottle

A simplistic script nearly undoes this energetic doc-style thriller, which stars US Navy Seals as, well, US Navy Seals on an ambitious mission to stop a cataclysmic terrorist attack. Despite some exciting action, the plotting and dialog are just too corny.

Long-time friends and colleagues Rorke and Dave assemble their team of experts to rescue an undercover agent (Sanchez) who's been kidnapped by a Central American gang. After decimating the baddies and rescuing the hostage, it becomes clear that the gang is linked to a vicious Chechen terrorist (Cottle) who's working with a notorious arms dealer Christo (Veadov) to attack America in a way that makes "9/11 seem like a walk in the park". While the clock ticks, the Seals travel the world and deploy all kinds of whizzy military gadgetry to stop the nefarious plan.

The film is shot with hand-held urgency that really captures the precarious nature of each action set-piece, often with exhilarating results. Watching these efficient soldiers get where they need to be and then get out again really gets our pulses racing, and since these are real operatives, the scenes have an usually visceral resonance. But this only makes the dramatic scenes feel all the more ridiculous by comparison.

Not only does screenwriter Johnstad ham-fistedly pack every conceivable international threat into one story, he fills the down-time with silly melodrama, such as the fact that Rorke's wife (Marshall) is newly pregnant.
These scenes are earnest that the non-actor cast doesn't have a chance. Rorke and Dave only get through it due to their inner charisma, while Van O adds an impressively bristly edge to an interrogation scene. But mostly if someone's talking we wish they were speaking with their guns.

Although the action isn't without problems. The film's slick urgency can't make up for a dubious premise in which self-proclaimed good guys are justified in shooting anyone who moves (except unarmed women of course). It certainly doesn't help when the filmmakers say they used live ammunition on set, or that the project started as a recruitment film, which explains why macho camaraderie is laid on with a trowel. And the assumption that America's holy war is more honourable than anyone else's might be too much for international audiences to swallow.

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We Bought a Zoo, Movie Review

There's a terrific story inside this well-made but bloated movie, as if director-cowriter Crowe simply couldn't figure out which elements he most cared about, so he included everything. It's engaging enough to keep us watching, but never finds any real focus.

After his wife dies, Benjamin (Damon) is struggling to keep his kids - 14-year-old Dylan (Ford) and 7-year-old Rosie(Jones) - happy, mainly because he has lost the daredevil storyteller within himself. So against the advice of his goofy-but-sensible brother (Church), Benjamin buys a run-down zoo and moves there with his children to get it up and running again. Zookeeper Kelly (Johansson) and her team (including Macfadyen and Fugit) don't think he'll stick it out. And indeed, it's more of a challenge than he ever imagined.

The narrative tries to work on a variety of layers, but each one is so predictable it's impossible to develop any interest in what might happen. Kelly is clearly interested in Benjamin, and her 13-year-old cousin (Fanning) is likewise attracted to Dylan, so we have two mini-romances bubbling along.
There's a snooty inspector (the scene-stealing Higgins) who has a personal vendetta against this particular zoo. The lion's looking restless, the star tiger is dying and the bear is trying to escape. The weather doesn't even cooperate.

The problem is that, while all of this might be part of the true story the film's based on, it's assembled in the blandest way imaginable. There's no central thrust, as we just watch the characters and animals swirl around in a flurry of smiley cuteness. Even the killer animals don't seem to have real teeth. Although at least there's the odd moment of honesty along the way. And the actors are engaging, adorable or funny as required, but only Johansson has any bite.

In the end, Crowe tries to make the film about something altogether different, as he begins to wallow increasingly in a sentimentalised exploration of the grief Benjamin and his children are trying to adjust to. But since this is never explored with any real depth, the film begins to feel glib and overwrought, missing the point mainly because Crowe couldn't settle on just one point.

In Darkness, Movie Review

Director : Agnieszka Holland

Producer : Leander Carell, Wojciech Danowski, Marc-Daniel Dichant, Eric Jordan, Patrick Knippel, Juliusz Machulski, Steffen Reuter, Paul Stephens

Screenwriter : David F. Shamoon

Starring : Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Furmann, Michal Zurawski, Kinga Preis, Agnieszka Grochowska, Krzysztof Skonieczny, Maria Schrader, Herbert Knaup

Based on the true story of Polish Jews who hid in the sewers of Lvov for 14 months, this film can't help but grip us tightly for nearly two and a half hours. Fortunately, the filmmakers deepen the characters and situations beyond movie conventions.

Poldek (Wirckiewicz) works in the Lvov sewers with his young sidekick Szczepek (Skonieczny). When the Nazis begin to systematically clear out the Jewish ghetto, either murdering them or shipping them off to the camps, a handful of Jews escape into the sewers, where Poldek and Szczepek agree to help them for a price. But as the months go on, Poldek becomes increasingly involved in their lives, causing stress with his wife (Preis) back home and making him very nervous around his soldier pal Bortnik (Zurawski).

Poldek is a terrific character: a true hero who doesn't believe he's anything of the sort. He may always demand cash from "his Jews", but he's also willing to risk his life to make sure they're safe. And key events include killing a Nazi to protect the group leader (Furmann), whom Poldek also helps to break into the concentration camp. The lengths he goes to to ensure their survival surprise even him.

Director Holland vividly captures the squalid conditions underground, while unflinchingly portraying the street-level horrors inflicted by the invading Germans. Amid all of this nastiness there are moments of real tenderness and compassion, even as the situation seems increasingly hopeless. Sometimes the scenes begin to feel repetitive, with the constant panicking in the face of imminent danger and claustrophobia. But the cast and the script ground each scene in raw humanity.

What makes the film so powerful is the way every character is fully rounded.
The Nazis are portrayed as cruelly obedient rather than pure evil, while the story's protagonists are feisty, stubborn and selfish. And the interaction between characters feels truthful and urgent. This is a beautifully written and directed film that takes us into a situation we couldn't imagine. And it leaves us wondering what we might have done whichever side of the situation we may have found ourselves.

Wanderlust, Movie Review

Director : David Wain

Producer : Judd Apatow, Ken Marino, Paul Rudd, David Wain

Screenwriter : David Wain, Ken Marino

Starring : Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Akerman, Ken Marino, Michaela Watkins, Joe Lo Truglio, Kathryn Hahn, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Lauren Ambrose, Linda Lavin

An unusually sharp script makes this silly comedy thoroughly enjoyable, even when it tips over the top. And it helps that there's terrific chemistry between Rudd and Aniston, plus a range of riotous side characters.

When their over-extended Manhattan lifestyle falls apart, George and Linda (Rudd and Aniston) head to Atlanta to regroup at the home of George's rich brother (Marino) and his medicated wife (Watkins). But on the way they stop at a B&B in Elysium, a countryside commune that sparks their imagination of a possible new life. Led by forgetful founder Carvin (Alda) and self-important guru Seth (Theroux), George and Linda are surprised at how well they fit in.
But this free-spirited, free-loving society starts to strain their relationship.

The rather serious storyline grounds the film's goofy humour in a way that's thoroughly engaging. Yes, there's some lesson-learning involved, but the filmmakers never preach, instead keeping us entertained with a procession of hilariously wacky characters who grow on us thanks to the solid cast. Rudd is an expert at this kind of thing, creating an almost criminally likeable character even when George acts like a jerk. Rudd's good-natured approach adds buckets of charm, which helps us follow George through the film's most ill-conceived gag (an unfunny stream of dirty-talk).

Meanwhile, Aniston brings Linda to life with both astute comic timing and an undercurrent of real emotion. And the film is livened up by a string of notable scene-stealers: besides the amusingly up-for-it Theroux, the commune includes the terrific Hahn, Kenney-Silver, Ambrose and a bravely naked LoTriglio. And Watkins is hysterical as a Real Housewife who finally begins to see through the fog of her fake life.

Refreshingly, the script focusses on interaction between the characters rather than getting caught up in the trite save-the-ranch plot. The filmmakers merely use that as a framework in which the actors are encouraged to ad-lib their dialog and run wild with their characters. So even if the film feels wacky and fluffy, it has moments of remarkable depth along the way. So while it keeps us laughing all the way through, in the end we're surprised that our brains have been engaged as well.

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The Raven, Movie Review

Director : James McTeigue

Producer : Marc D. Evans, Trevor Macy, Aaron Ryder

Screenwriter : Ben Livingston, Hannah Shakespeare

Starring : John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans, Brendan Gleeson, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Brendan Coyle, Pam Ferris, Sam Hazeldine

An acerbic sense of humour and a gleefully grisly production style make this gothic thriller good fun to watch. It may be rather preposterous, but it's also a grippingly complex mystery populated by some terrific actors.

In the weeks before his inexplicable death in 1849, author Edgar Allan Poe (Cusack) finds himself at the centre of a series of murders in which a killer is recreating his stories in grotesque scenarios around Baltimore. Detective Fields (Evans) asks Edgar to help with the case, but he's distracted by his girlfriend Emily (Eve), whose harsh father (Gleeson) refuses to allow the couple to marry. As the murders get increasingly personal for Edgar, he realises that his own fate is entwined with the fiendishly clever killer, whoever he may be.

The film opens with a note about how Poe's final days are shrouded in mystery, then proceeds to tell a story that's about as public as it can be, as the events play out in Baltimore's newspapers and among the city's chattering classes. In other words, everything's so fictionalised that the fact that the central character is Poe is almost irrelevant. Not that this really matters, when the filmmakers work so diligently to gleefully gross us out.

Each murderous scenario is more grisly than the last, and Cusack is terrific as a guy horrified that his own imagination is being used in such a ghastly way.
But the filmmakers are having so much fun with the energetic action that they never bother to explore the intriguing issue of a horror writer's creative process. Instead, the film's a series of set pieces involving confusing attacks and chases souped up with period detail.

Thankfully, the actors have plenty of space to add sardonic wit, creating tension between them that makes the film more entertaining than it has a right to be. The mystery resolves in a way that isn't hugely satisfying, but the lively tone never lets up, even as things become increasingly grim. We know that it will end with Poe's death (the story is told as an extended flashback), and while the whodunit isn't hugely convincing as an explanation for real-world events, it's a thoroughly entertaining movie plot.

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A Man's Story, Movie Review

Director : Varon Bonicos

Producer : Alastair Clark, Rachel Robey

Screenwriter : n/a

Starring : Ozwald Boateng, Giorgio Armani, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Paul Bettany, Gavin Rossdale

By following British designer Ozwald Boateng over 12 years, filmmaker Bonicos vividly captures his subject's personality on screen while recounting his rather astounding life story. But the film remains oddly dry and superficial.

Inspired by Armani, Boateng emerged from his childhood in riot-torn 1981 Brixton to become the first black tailor on Saville Row. As the creative director of Givenchy, his influence spread out through the fashion world, even as he juggled his work with his own label and two strained marriages. By 2005, he was at the centre of the Oscar red carpet, teaching American men to stop dressing like boys and reinventing the suit with shape and colour. He was awarded an OBE from the Queen in 2006.

Narrated by the director, the film follows Boateng through the highs and lows of his career, both his triumphant, groundbreaking shows and the shattering moment when his entire collection was stolen. The cameras capture hilarious moments, such as an icy event in Russia featuring vodka, chocolate and cheese, when he made a rather striking entrance into Red Square, where people aren't used to seeing 6'4" black men. And yet we never feel like we properly get under the surface either of the designer or the fashion industry

Boateng emerges as a very cool dude who combines intelligence, charisma and stunning good looks to get pretty much whatever he wants. And it seems almost accidental that the film captures Boateng's darker side. He admits that he neglected his family in a strangely offhanded, unapologetic way, and there are eerie references to both Mugabe and Gaddafi as the film traces his humanitarian work in Africa. But Bonicos lets these things just slide by.

Fortunately, he adds artful/wacky touches (one sequence is shot under water) to the interviews, archive footage and behind-the-scenes sequences. But a lack of depth makes the doc feel overlong and repetitive. So it's a bit deflating that the most revealing thing Bonicos finds about Boateng is that he isn't hugely introspective. Indeed only thing Boateng gets excited about is conquering the world with his work, enthusing that "it's all about the experience". So while the film's lively and informative, perhaps another editor could have found the real story hidden in the overabundant material.

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Trishna, Movie Review

Director : Michael Winterbottom

Producer : Sunil Bohra, Melissa Parmenter, Michael Winterbottom

Screenwriter : Michael Winterbottom

Starring : Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed, Roshan Seth

With this darkly edgy romance, Winterbottom adapts his third Thomas Hardy novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and sets the action in India. It's colourful and dramatic, but lacks the passion the story requires to grab our emotions.

When her father loses his livelihood in a traffic accident, Trishna (Pinto) needs to support her family in Rajasthan. So she takes a job offered by flirty tourist Jay (Ahmed), who works at his father's hotel in Jaipur. When Jay pushes their relationship further, Trishna runs home. But Jay finds her and talks her into moving with him to Mumbai, where they can live together while he pursues his dream of being a film producer. And as he becomes more distant, Trishna wonders if she's made a terrible mistake.

Winterbottom beautifully captures the colours and textures of India, combining beautiful but gritty photography (by Marcel Zyskind) with a lively song score.
It also a perfect setting for Hardy's story, cleverly adapted to the present day in a society that is just now emerging from old traditions into the big bad world, much as Britain was doing when Hardy was writing in the 19th century.

Less convincing is the way the characters come across. Trishna is an intelligent, capable woman who has a good job, then proves herself adept at studying hotel management and could also make a living as a Bollywood dancer.
And yet she passively allows herself to be blindly led by Jay. A mixture of Angel and Alec from the novel, Jay shifts abruptly from kind and generous to romantic charmer to aggressive monster as the film progresses. And these transitions feel constructed by the screenwriter.

Even so, Pinto and Ahmed superbly play each scene with internalised conviction that almost bridges over the gaps. Their chemistry is very strong, even as the relationship shows signs of strain. But the film's meandering structure makes it begin to feel a little dull, simply because there's no sense of logical momentum.

In the end, there's plenty to admire. The film has a lot to say about the nature of relationships, especially where family responsibilities come into play. And the strong performances and skilful filmmaking contribute to moments of intense joy and pain. Although some key changes to Hardy's plot mean that the story's finale is a bit more alarming than we expect.

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Bel Ami, Movie Review

Director : Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod

Producer : Uberto Pasolini

Screenwriter : Rachel Bennette

Starring : Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colm Meaney, Philip Glenister, Holliday Grainger, James Lance

Guy de Maupassant's 1885 novel was first adapted for the cinema in 1919, and yet the story has some intriguing parallels with European society today. On the other hand, this adaptation never finds its tone, and it doesn't give us a single character to care about.

In 1890 Paris, penniless charmer Georges (Pattinson) has a chance encounter with former comrade Charles (Glenister), who offers him a job as a journalist.
Unable to string a sentence together, Charles' wife Madeleine (Thurman) offers to help, but refuses his relentless flirting. Instead he starts a torrid affair with married family friend Clotilde (Ricci). But a taste of the high life goes to his head, and when Charles dies, he makes a move for Madeleine. Or maybe he can get more out of Virginie (Scott Thomas), wife of the newspaper boss (Meaney).

The central question is whether Georges is manipulating people for his own gain, or whether everyone else is actually using him. So the story is a political thriller (a scandal that could topple the government), romantic melodrama (he yearns for each woman in very different ways) and bedroom farce, all at the same time. Yet the more we get to know Georges the more we despise him: not only is he selfish and cruel, but he's also seriously dim. And even though Pattinson gives his spiciest performance yet (which isn't saying much), we never root for him.

Meanwhile, the actresses make the most of their one-sided roles. Thurman oozes confidence as an intelligent woman who refuses to submit to a man's world.
Ricci is sweet as the doe-eyed lover who hasn't a clue what's really going on around her. Scott Thomas is hilarious as the repressed woman who becomes rather unhinged when Georges loosens her corset. Meaney, Glenister and Lance (as a politician) glower nastily through every scene, clearly plotting something villainous.

But all of this gloomy intrigue weighs the film down, never becoming clear enough to engage our interest and distracting us from the much more entertaining romantic chaos. At least the filmmakers have some fun in the bed-hopping scenes, letting the actors add lusty subtext to every glance. If only this light touch had extended through the entire film.

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John Carter , Movie Review

Director : Andrew Stanton

Producer : Lindsey Collins, Jim Morris, Colin Wilson

Screenwriter : Andrew Stanton, Mark Andrews, Michael Chabon

Starring : Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Dominic West, Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, James Purefoy, Ciaran Hinds, Thomas Haden Church, Daryl Sabara, Bryan Cranston

While trailers make this look like an effects-heavy sci-fi mess, the film is actually a rollicking adventure firmly centred on characters rather than the creatures or action. It's an involving, strikingly well-made action drama.

At the end of the American Civil War, John Carter (Kitsch) is in Arizona looking for gold when a strange artefact in a cave transports him to Mars, known locally as Barsoom. Getting used to the lower gravity is one thing, but he's soon captured by green, 15-foot-tall Tharks, who have four limbs plus tusks on the sides of their faces. He earns the respect of leader Tars Tarkas (Dafoe), but when he rescues Helium's Princess Dejah (Collins), he ends up in the middle of the war between red human kingdoms Helium and Zodanga.

The story is bookended with scenes of author Edgar Rice Burroughs (Sabara), John's nephew, who has a key role in a plot that includes numerous characters who are inter-connected in complex ways. Dejah's father (Hinds) is about to sell her into marriage with enemy leader Sab Than (West), who's being manipulated by Matai Shang (Strong), a angel-like Thern. Meanwhile, John is accompanied by feisty Thark warrior Sola (Morton) and an enormous, slobbery dog-thing who's fiercely loyal to him.

The film is packed with these kinds of details, cleverly woven into the script to make the story funny, intriguing and thrilling. It's also extremely fast-paced, never letting up the tension as John is propelled from one dangerous situation into another, discovering things about himself that he never knew. And as we take this journey with him, we feel the punch of terror and exhilaration along with emotional resonance on a variety of fronts.

On a technical level, the film looks terrific. The effects work continually surprises us with animated characters who are thoroughly engaging, while the 3D camerawork makes nice use of the desert locations. And even if the story feels constructed, with action and emotional beats at key intervals, it never feels contrived. Like the 1977 Star Wars, it's a pure story of a young man looking into himself and deciding what's really important. OK, it's not that ground-breaking, but it bodes well for adaptations of Burroughs' 10 other Barsoom novels.

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