Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2008

Be gorra and be the hokey, sure doesn't time fly and indeed and it does. Ah yeah, seems like only yesterday PCMR sat down in the sold out Savoy One to gorge on the delights of 'Curse of the Golden Flower', one of the best films of last year in my book. And of course there was 'Metropolis' at the National Gallery, another one of my movie highlights of 2007. For a full run-down of PCMR's adventures at the festival last year, have a look at these little beauties.

The 2008 festival runs from February 15th to 24th, and there is a sample of the schedule alread up on the official site. PCMR can at least tell you that 3Epkano are back, this time to provide the live soundtrack to 'Pandora's Box' in the Savoy... sounds promising!

There's even an opportunity to work at the festival this year. For those interested in doing a bit of film-related volunteer work, while possibly getting loads of free cinema tickets (PCMR does not guarantee you will get any free cinema tickets - Ed) check out the official JDIFF site.

Keep an eye on the site, the full schedule's sure to be up in the next few weeks... but fear not! If you can't make it, PCMR will be there to report on the best of what's there.

And the winner is...

Well folks, the draw has been made, and Hugh O'Brien is the first name out of the hat, so congrats Hugh, you're won two tickets to the Irish premiere of Death Proof!!

Hugh, please get in touch so I can arrange handover of the moy-chan-dise. (As Fat Tony might say).

I should probably also point out that if Hugh fails to get in touch by four o'clock tomorrow, I'll be obliged to draw another name... so no pressure there Hugh!

Death Proof Competition

Win two tickets to the Irish Premiere of Quentin Tarantino's 'Death Proof'!

Yes, you could be among the first in Ireland to see Tarantino's GrindHouse pic in the presence of the man himself... The premiere takes place on Friday September 14th in the Savoy cinema, Dublin. (More details here)

Two tickets are up for grabs.. all you have to do is answer three simple movie-related questions. The answers can all be found somewhere on this blog (little tip: use the search bar at the top of the page to help you...)

The Questions
1. Which English premier league football team does Sylvester Stallone (apparently) support?
2. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are starring together in a movie released later this year. Name that movie.
3. Name a Thai movie that features a gay volleyball team (I'm presuming there is only one...)

The rules:
- One entry per person. Multiple entries will be ignored.
- Competition will close for entry on Wednesday 12th September at 17.00.
- Your mail address will not be used for any other purpose than this competition. No mailing lists, I promise.
- The winner will be notified on Thurday 13th September before 17.00.


Answers should be e-mailed here. Good luck!

Curse of the Golden Flower

The verdict: Excellent epic Shakespearian regal tragedy set in Tang Dynasty China... and it's got ninjas, bee-atch!
The rating: 8/10

PCMR's Recipe for Curse of the Golden Flower

Take two cupfuls of 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon', and pan-fry with one-third of 'The Last Emperor' (finely chopped).
Next, add half of Mike Leigh's 'Secrets and Lies', a pinch of 'Eastenders' and bring to the boil.
When the mixture is boiling, add a half-pint of 'Macbeth' and two tablespoonfuls of Battle Spices extracted from 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'. (Don't worry if you don't have the Lord of the Rings Trilogy to hand, any large-scale battle spices will suffice, 'Braveheart' or 'Troy' for example).
Now would be the time to add two cloves of cleavage from 'Dangerous Liaisons', and then leave to simmer.
When the mix has been simmering for a good hour, add a sprinkling of 'Oldboy', and just a pinch of 'Ran' to flavour.
After two hours, serve on a bed of Chow-Yun Fat and enjoy!

'Curse of the Golden Flower' is the most expensive Chinese movie production ever to hit cinema screens. Starring a trio of Crouching Tiger veterans, Golden Flower is a tragic tale of the emperor and his royal family, set in the time of the Tang Dynasty in ancient China. Chow-Yun Fat is excellent as the emperor, but this is essentially the story of the empress, and Li Gong steals this movie, so excellent is she as the tragic matriarch of this most dysfunctional of royal families. If you saw 'The Queen' recently, and thought the Windsors had a few issues, you ain't seen nothin yet buddy.

The emperor has three sons, the eldest of which is from a previous marriage, and who the emperor believes to be unfit to inherit the throne. For this reason, he is in the process of deciding to make his second son Jai (Jay Chou) the crown prince. Things get dark and complicated very early on, however, as the Empress appears to be infatuated with the eldest of the three sons, the crown prince Wan (Ye Liu) - but don't worry, no blood relation here, so it's not that bad, right? (Hmm - Ed) Ahem... aaanyway, the emperor may or may not have gotten wind of this, but he has decided to poison the empress, by adding a fungus to her daily doses of anemia medicine that will slowly drive her mad.

What follows includes numerous twists and turns, with each character involved in a dense web of intrigue that threatens to literally tear the family apart. The empress, aware of her husbands intention to poison her, busies herself by embroidering numerous chrysanthemums, the titular golden flower, but does she have a plot up her own sleeve, or is she simply going slowly insane?

The scale of this production is really quite breathtaking. The imperial palace is the setting for almost all of the action, and it is a place of vivid colours and dense ritualistic protocol, playing host to countless servants working on behalf of the different family members. In the scenes where we are exposed to palace life, director Yimou Zhang gives the audience the occasional glimpse of just how much manpower goes into, for example, the preparation of the average day in the palace. Sweeping wide shots of thousands of extras, all costumed and made-up to the hilt, are employed to reinforce the scale on which the palace operates, and the lack of CGI effects only serves to make the effect of this portrayal ever more acute. And the cleavage! There's blummin loads of it on show, more than even 'Dangerous Liaisons', I reckon... smashing stuff.

In keeping with the epic spirit of Crouching Tiger, there is also the required dose of large-scale battle action to enjoy. However, where 'House of Flying Daggers' fell down in this regard, Golden Flower succeeds. Rather than overloading the audience with one immense battle after another, the battle scenes in Golden Flower are used sparingly, and so have greater effect when they eventually splash across the screen in vivid colour, and also notably with nothing but real actors on show.

Also, there are ninjas, dude!! The ninja warriors in Golden Flower are mean, dammit, and they certainly mean business. The scenes with these guys will have people like Quentin Tarantino punching the air saying things like "that's what I'm talkin 'bout!", and why not, because they brilliantly executed and exhilarating to watch.

Although the storyline is tragic to the point of being melodramatic, the balance between the large-scale battle sequences, and the assorted personal difficulties of the royal family members is well handled by director Zhang. The battles, when they occur, are not the focus of the picture, but integrate well with the rest of the movie.

Li Gong's performance is truly excellent, and Chow Yun-Fat, once again, delivers a portrayal of a troubled emperor, loaded with regal charm and charisma, and of course replete with the occasional perfectly-timed arched eyebrow or two. ('Troubled emperor' is always a good part to be offered - Ed) The three sons are each played quite well, but Jay Chou is the best of them, and is the hero of the piece.

This movie deserves to be seen on the big screen, as the scale is honestly larger than anything you will have seen before, with the possible exception of 'Metropolis' or something from Akira Kurosawa. PCMR will recommend it as an intelligent, dramatic story, with seriously excellent battle sequences that are worth the admission price alone. The movie borrows heavily from other similar films that have preceded it, and also from Shakespearian plays such as 'Macbeth', but when the finished product is as coherent, sumptuous and exhilarating a cinematic experience as 'Curse of the Golden Flower', PCMR sees absolutely no problem with this. If you're still unsure, then let me go out on a limb here: it's better than 'Crouching Tiger' or 'House of Flying Daggers'. ('nuff said. - Ed)

Metropolis (1927)

The Verdict: This is the template, the source and the inspiration, but it also happens to be a great movie.
The Rating: 9/10

PCMR was privileged to partake in a rare movie experience last night. 'Metropolis', Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece was shown in the National Gallery of Ireland, with a new soundtrack commissioned specially for the Dublin International Film Festival, and performed live by eight-piece mini-orchestra 3epkano. Picture, if you will, the setting of a salubrious ballroom, replete with chandeliers and candelabras, expensive oil paintings hanging from the walls betwixt elegant marble pillars, with two sets of immense winding stairs flanking a large cinema screen at the top of the high-ceilinged chamber, and you have an idea of the theatre we attended yesterday evening.

Not entirely familiar with all things classical-music related, PCMR awkwardly applauded the band along with the rest of the crowd as they arrived, and they themselves looked a little nervous, reinforcing the nagging feeling that this experience was a little out of the normal cinematic comfort zone for everyone involved.

Then the movie started, silently at first, instructing us through frames that up to a quarter of the original print has now been lost, and that occasionally there would be gaps in the movie, but these gaps would be filled by explanatory frames. Then, the opening credits ran, and the band began playing…

If you haven’t seen Metropolis, you will have undoubtedly been exposed to images from it over the course of your lifetime, whether or not you are aware of it. Fritz Lang toiled and travailed for years over his labour of love like the mad artist he was, eager to create a lasting masterpiece. The results, strangely, look futuristic even today. Fritz Lang succeeded in demonstrating the wild possibilities offered by this medium, fresh and new at the time.

The movie itself is set in a non-specific future, and man has built a sprawling Metropolis, replete even with a new Tower of Babel. This world has two levels, the thinkers who live above ground level, and the workers who live underground. The workers operate heavy machinery in two ten hour shifts every day, while the thinkers relax in gardens and sport halls above, basking in the fresh air.

Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) is the son of the president and one of the thinkers, but one day, he witnesses Maria (Brigitte Helm) emerge from the lower level with some of the workers’ children. She is showing them the thinkers, and telling the children that these people are their brothers. Freder is immediately smitten, and when Maria and the children are unceremoniously shooed back down to the lower level, Freder pursues her. His journey to the lower level exposes him to the workers’ daily rituals, and in his first minutes there he witnesses a terrible accident and has a kind of manic vision. He also visits Maria, who acts as a kind of prophet on the lower level, speaking to the workers of the coming of a Mediator who will act as a bridge between the two levels of Metropolis and bring peace to the two peoples.

The main message of Metropolis is that the head (the thinkers) cannot work with the hands (the workers) unless the heart acts as a bridge. This simple parable runs through the heart of the story, and is the last line in the script. However, before this message is fully explained, the epic visual feast that is Metropolis unfolds before our eyes. The scale of this movie is still breathtaking today, and it is difficult to imagine just what kind of impact Metropolis might have had on audiences in 1927. It is at the same time a love story, a dystopic vision of the future, and a contemporary interpretation of a biblical story. It is also a frightening view of mob mentality, ominously warning of the dangers of acting without thinking, some ten years before the rise of the German far right. This movie was brave for its time, and still has much contemporary relevance today.

Although by today’s standards, certain scenes are drawn out and the acting perhaps a little hammy, (Watch out for the brilliantly lusty men toward the end – Ed) the audience can have nothing but respect and admiration for the movie by the time the closing credits roll.

I can’t help thinking that the soundtrack to this movie will have a big impact on the audience’s enjoyment of it, and 3epkano’s interpretation complemented the action brilliantly, especially in the last act of the movie, where the industrial grind of the workers’ routines gave way to dramatic drum rolls, as the workers rise to the upper level and confront the thinkers in a devastating climax. I haven’t been exposed to the other interpretations of the score, which include a version by Giorgio Moroder that sounds interesting enough, but this version worked very well indeed.

Metropolis is more than iconic, and as Roger Ebert pointed out, the images in the movie have achieved an even further elevated status than that of iconic, entering our collective consciousness to be used as a means of interpreting the modern world. The stories told in Metropolis are universal, both grand in their epic scale, and emotive at a human level. This movie may be flawed, but it is undoubtedly a masterpiece.

As a movie experience, nothing PCMR has experienced in recent memory has come close to the setting, soundtrack and visual feast provided by this showing of Metropolis. It has taken great restraint on my part not to give this one a ten out of ten rating. I would recommend you seek out a copy of Metropolis at your earliest convenience, and bask in its glory. Near every Hollywood movie of recent years owes it a grand debt, and Fritz Lang managed to demonstrate in 1927 what the cinematic medium was capable of. Many celebrated directors working today will never come close to achieving something like 'Metropolis', and to be honest, few would be capable.

Fast Food Nation

The verdict: Great cast, not so great a script. A ‘Fast Food’ version of the book.
The rating: 6/10

The Book-to-movie adaptation is a unique type of media experience for the audience member. There is a certain idiosyncratic familiarity that can be enjoyed when reading a book over the course of twenty hours or so, allowing the reader to develop an intimate knowledge of characters, situations and plot developments. This type of experience has traditionally been difficult to replicate in a two hour movie. However, translations from printed page to silver screen have had no shortage of successes in the past, and show no sign of letting up in the future. Think the ‘Lord of The Rings’ trilogy of course, but also a long list including, among many others ‘The Shining’, ‘Schindler’s List’, and, um, ‘The DaVinci Code’. (Hmm… only because it made a shed-load of cash, I’ll allow that last one – Ed).

However, this type of movie adaptation can trigger visceral reactions from fans of the book. A classic example of this was the screen version of ‘American Psycho’, which made an enjoyable dark comedy experience out of a book considered by many to be repulsive at worst, and almost entirely unfilmable at best. The movie ended up more of a companion piece to the book, providing a deeper understanding of the main character’s story, and also produced a fantastic performance from Christian Bale.

'Fast Food Nation' is a curious type of book-to-movie adaptation, and one that most likely would fall into this companion piece category. For the uninitiated, Eric Schlosser's book was a didactic, well-researched account of all that is wrong with the American fast food industry, establishing links between the burger joint production line, and various aspects of the cultural fabric of the United States. From high-powered marketing executives, to cattle ranchers and Mexican slaughterhouse labourers, all the way down the chain to high school kids flipping burgers to earn a few bucks, and the millions of happy customers chowing down on big macs every day, the book is far-reaching and extremely informative. As each chapter draws to a close, the gathering weight of the overall conclusion rolls on relentlessly, and almost operates as a guide to quitting Big Macs, in the same manner as Allen Carr’s ubiquitous guide to quitting smoking. By the time the reader has finished the book, it is unlikely s/he will be rushing into a Mickey D’s or BK in the near future.

In the book, strong links are forged between the product offered by these fast food joints and many insidious cultural problems faced by Average Americans, such as obesity, employment issues and the pervasion of big corporation marketing into schools, with companies such as Burger King and Dr. Pepper sponsoring underprivileged schools to build 'lifelong consumers of the brand'.

However, Richard Linklater's adaptation - which was co-written with Schlosser - is a dramatisation, foregoing the obvious possibility of a documentary approach for a more character-driven story with a traditional narrative. (He does still talk about the shit in the meat though - Ed)

In what now seems to be the mandatory narrative structure of choice these days, 'Fast Food Nation' is three stories in one, with each separate vignette following the progress of characters involved in the fast food industry, albeit in very different ways.

Raul (Wilmer Valderrama), Sylvia and Coco are Mexican immigrant labourers, risking a hazardous border crossing for the prospect of work. Don Henderson (Greg Kinnear) is a marketing executive for a large – fictitious – fast food chain named Micky’s, and is enjoying unprecedented success with their latest beefy offering: ‘The Big One’. Meanwhile, Amber (Ashley Johnson) is an honest middle-class high-school kid working in her local Micky’s to earn the few bucks to help her get by, and possibly help out her mom, played by Patricia Arquette.

Although you might remember Wilmer Valderrama from ‘That 70’s Show’ (Fez!? Dude, no way! .. ahem – Ed), he’s actually quite good in this, albeit playing an everyman character, but he’s an honest guy with good sense, who just happens to be swallowed up by the meat-packing industry, and does his best to cope. This storyline is the device to allow the camera to poke around the slaughter-house, and although these scenes are the most horrifying in the movie, the characters themselves were a little caricatured for my liking.

Amber’s story takes a turn when she receives a visit from her uncle, played by Ethan Hawke. He encourages her to think twice about working for a company such as Micky’s, and his coherent arguments re-evaluate her choice to work for Micky's, a choice driven simply by the fact that it was the first job she could find.

Greg Kinnear’s story is the most implausible at the outset, and although he’s a great actor, and does well enough with the subject matter, this story is really just a device to allow the corporate side of the fast food industry to be lampooned. He visits a rancher (Kris Kristofferson) and talks to a rep from the meat-packers (played very well by Bruce Willis) and his journey enlightens him as to the type of corporation he’s working for.

As a political piece of work, ‘Fast Food Nation’ is brave, daring even, for it is challenging one of the foundation industries of the United States, and encouraging people to do the unthinkable – think. Amber’s story, the most interesting of the three for me, involves an intense period of learning and questioning for the young girl, and is possibly the only one of the three that produces any kind of positive outcome. Unfortunately, it becomes a little mired in political sensitivities towards the end, with Avril Lavigne’s character in particular providing an unwelcome addition to an otherwise very watchable support cast (including Paul Dano, who you might remember from ‘Little Miss Sunshine’).

So, it may be politically brave, but the ultimate question is, is it a good piece of movie entertainment? Well, unfortunately, it left me a little cold. I felt that, for the most part, the stories explored in the movie were a little lightweight, losing much of the power of the arguments presented in the book of the same name. Also, by presenting this story in an easily digestible package such as this, I felt as if the film was ultimately nothing more than a fast food version of the square meal the book had so capably delivered.

So instead of hanging around to watch Jeremy Thomas get presented with his Volta award after the Dublin Film Festival screening, PCMR decided to head off for a Whopper meal on the way home instead. (Dude, totally sick burn! – Ed)

The Good German

Starring the current Spiderman (Tobey Maguire), a former Batman (George Clooney) and the queen of the elves herself (Cate Blanchett), the heavyweight cast of 'The Good German' may lead you to believe it is a blockbusting 'event movie' of the Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer variety, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, this movie was billed as 'an experiment' for the director, one in which he only used equipment that was available in the 1940's. So, no zoom lenses, only one camera per shot, and hand-held boom microphones. We might be forgiven for asking, as John Stewart put to George Clooney in his Daily Show interview: "why!?".

Well, The Good German is a noir tale of suspense and intrigue, set against the backdrop of conflict-ravaged Berlin and Potsdam in 1945, just as WWII is drawing to a close. So the easy answer to John Stewart's question is really that the style of production just happens to suit the subject matter, and contributes to immersing the audience in the story.

Clooney plays a war-time correspondent for the U.S. forces, stationed in Berlin, with the nefarious Tully (Tobey Maguire) assigned as his driver. Tully is sleeping with Lena, the German referred to in the title, and she turns out to also be an old flame of Clooney's from the his previous Berlin assignment. Lena is played by Cate Blanchett, and her performance is noir femme fatale to a tee, effortlessly mixing the German accent of Marlene Dietrich with the smoking femininity of Lauren Bacall from the days of 'Dark Passage' and 'To Have and Have Not'. Her stand-out performance really out-shines her two super-hero co-stars, and PCMR must stop banging on about this, but she really is one of the best actresses working today. Even large amounts of German dialogue can't repress her ability to deliver each scene as capably as the last.

War-time Berlin was a place where, to put it mildly, many bad things happened. The characters in this movie espouse the belief that, after living in Berlin for a while, nothing surprises you any more. This is the backdrop for this intriguing story, and is also a classic element of many noir tales, detailing a micro-struggle set against the backdrop of a larger conflict. Every noir movie also needs a bar, a smoke-filled sleazy den, housing shady characters, military men, and dangerous women, all with an angle to work and a story to tell. The Good German is no different, and in these scenes, the barman, played by the Scot Tony Curran, has some great lines. His genuine Scottish accent seems a little out of place in war-time Berlin, but this adds to his character, and he has some memorable moments.

It was a strange experience for PCMR, watching this one at 10.30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, but in a strange way, the timing seemed appropriate to the lazy pace of the movie. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, mainly because there is too much detail to cover, but also because every little detail gradually builds the plot, and contributes to the outcome of the story. Like every noir movie should, The Good German twists and turns, with your opinions of characters never allowed to settle as they gradually reveal their cards, and what they have at stake.

The noir tradition was established by Hollywood classics of the 40's and 50's, and is populated by such legends as Peter Lorre, John Huston, Lauren Bacall, Marlene Dietrich and the man himself, Humphrey Bogart. Roman Polanski also added a benchmark to the genre in 1974, when he teamed up with screenwriter Robert Towne, Faye Dunaway and a certain Jack Nicholson to produce one of PCMR's all-time top movies 'Chinatown'. (Wasn't John Huston in that too? - Ed). The Coen brothers have even done a noir flick, receiving a more mixed reaction with their slickly shot 'The Man Who Wasn't There'.

The point of this little noir history lesson is that Steven Soderbergh is attempting to move into an illustrious neighbourhood with this movie, and is harking back to an established style that has been well-defined by some of the cinematic greats. Indeed, for much of the movie, Clooney sports stitches in his cheek and a bandage on his ear, in a thinly disguised nod and wink to Jack Nicholson's 'Chinatown' nose plaster. Also, the closing scenes of The Good German, set as they are in a military airfield, are a very obvious reference to the iconic ending of 'Casablanca', with driving rain substituted for the misty setting of - arguably - Bogie's most iconic cinematic moments. Soderbergh and writer Paul Attanasio avoid the temptation to refer directly to Casablanca in the dialogue, but the similarity of these scenes must have been intentional.

The style imposed by the constraints of the equipment used gives the movie a real old-school feel, continually reinforcing the noir atmosphere. Clooney's idiosyncratic charisma is reinforced by the black-and-white film, and he delivers a capable enough performance. Also, Tobey Maguire does a very good job as the dodgy geezer Tully, but Blanchett's performance is the real reference point of the flick. She played Hepburn in 'The Aviator', and her mysterious character in this movie is definitely a little Dietrich. Her femme fatale is the main driver behind Clooney's investigations, which gradually uncover a multi-layered mystery involving the american military, the enemy, and a possible cover-up of something really quite heinous.

It's unfortunate for 'The Good German' that the noir genre is so well-defined, because it's really quite a good movie in it's own right, so to compare it to, say 'Chinatown', is unfair. For me, Soderbergh's 'experiment' is more than that, as the movie is slickly shot, very well acted by the three leads and an excellent troupe of talented support actors - Beau Bridges amongst them. The plot is immersive, and the inter-mixing of stock showreel footage from that era contributes to separating the acts, and also placing the audience in this time and place. The story also has contemporary relevance, relating as it does to Clooney's growing discomfort at the fact that his own military superiors may not be acting with the moral fibre one would expect from people in the seat of power. (Shady politicians? Perish the thought! - Ed)

However, despite all it has going for it, if I was going to pick holes, I felt the pace of the action dragged a little in the denouement (That'd be 'the ending' then.. - Ed), and I wasn't as attached to the outcome of Clooney's story as I was to Cate Blanchett's character. Overall though, it was a very enjoyable way to spend a Saturday morning, and I'm quite surprised that 'The Good German' was pretty much overlooked by Oscar, garnering as it did just the single nomination for music.


The verdict: Immersive, atmospheric and well-acted, but just a tad drawn out in the end.
The rating: 7/10

Dublin International Film Festival Preview

Well, it may only be a fledgling film festival, an impudent stripling when compared to the big boys, but the Dublin International Film Festival is growing every year, and there's a bumper crop of new and old Irish and International movies to choose from this year. Here's a quick run-down of the ones PCMR will be watching (reviews of all these will follow after the viewings):

The Good German
Ok, so it's on at half ten on a Saturday morning, but Steven Soderbergh's collaborations with George Clooney have produced some of the best stuff either of these two have done, and their foray into a bit of noir should be at least an interesting way to wake up! It's being touted as 'an experiment' for Soderbergh, and this may be another way of him saying 'don't give me grief if it sucks', but PCMR reckons a little noir first thing on a Saturday morning is no bad thing. (No comment - Ed)

Sunshine
Danny Boyle's sci-fi is apparently a bit of a labour of love for the 'Trainspotting' director. It stars the always good Cillian Murphy though, their first outing together since '28 Days Later', and it's rumoured to have been a colourful production, with the cast locking themselves into a claustrophobic setting for weeks on end, and apparently getting genuinely pissed off with each other in scenes that made the final cut...

Metropolis
Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi masterpiece wrote the book. It is doubtful if another single film has been more influential on the world of cinema in general, and the sci-fi genre in particular. Packed to the gills with iconic imagery, this showing is in the National Gallery and has a live soundtrack. Can't wait for this one.

Fast Food Nation
Richard Linklater's adaptation of Eric Schlosser's ubiquitous anti-burger-and-fries diatribe should be interesting at the very least. If it's as harrowing as the book though, PCMR may just have to comfort eat in Burger King on the way home.

Curse of The Golden Flower
The most expensive Chinese movie production ever. Chow-Yun Fat, Gong Li and many many large scale kick-ass battles, this one should reward those who take the opportunity to watch it on the big screen.

Color Me Kubrick
John Malkovich plays a con-man pretending to be Stanley Kubrick in this off-beat comedy written and directed by close collaborators of the late director. This should be a hoot.


PCMR Would also Recommend:

Letters From Iwo Jima
Clint's japanese companion piece to 'Flags of our Fathers' is rumoured to be the superior of the two Iwo Jima movies he's cobbled together lately, and given that it's up for a Best Picture Oscar, and topped most American critics' picks of 2006 lists last year, it must have something good going for it. (Plus PCMR foolishly has ten euros on it to win the Oscar at 11-1 - Ed)

Half Nelson
Ryan Gosling's performance alone is worth the ticket price for this one. I can't recommend it highly enough. Read PCMR's review if you're still not convinced!

Rescue Dawn
Freed from the shackles of big-budget Hollywood productions such as Batman Begins and The Prestige, Christian Bale should relish the opportunity to flex his acting muscles in this, Werner Herzog's latest. It's an intelligent war movie, and Christian Bale is possibly the most under-rated British actor of his generation... what more do you need to know?