Tyrannosaur

PCMR Verdict: Three brilliant performances underpin what is at times an uncomfortably intimate tale of a bond between two lost souls. It's hard-hitting and hardcore, but never exploitative. Stunningly, it's Considine's first film.

PCMR Rating: 7.5/10

When PCMR heard that Paddy Considine had gone and directed a feature film, interest was registered. Then, after seeing the trailer before Tinker Tailor last week, curiosity was aroused. (Careful now - Ed). But after learning that the man himself would be coming to the IFI to chat about the movie after a preview screening, well.. the camel's back and all that.

You see, since the heady days of Paddy Chayevsky (the Paddy C who penned the line "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it any more") there just aren't that many Paddy C's out there making movies. (I think he might be the only one - Ed) So I did feel obliged to show some support and be a bum in a seat. Solidarity. That's all I'm saying.

Well, not quite all, a few words about 'Tyrannnosaur' would be appropriate first I guess. Right, well, 'Tyrannosaur' is Paddy C's feature-length directorial debut, but it's based on his short film 'Dog Altogether' which won a BAFTA no less, so the boy's certainly got some chops. After the movie, it was no great surprise to learn however, that he started out in life as a photographer. He certainly retains the photographer's eye, as he really fills each frame.

In 'Tyrannosaur', Peter Mullan - who is so good in this, he should really have the official prefix 'the incredible' - plays Joseph, angry, working-class, and down on his luck. Joseph seems to eke out a kind of survival on his council estate, but is never too far from violence. Put it this way, in the opening scene of the movie he kills his own dog, and things go downhill from there for a while. (wow - Ed)

Olivia Colman, who you might recognise from the excellent BBC Series 'Peep Show' plays Hanna, a middle-class charity shop assistant, who has a comfortable life in the suburbs, and an apparently unshakeable religious faith. Their first meeting is fractious, but she offers to pray for him, and shows him some unquestioned warmth for what must be his first time in a while. Falteringly, their relationship starts to develop.

Until, that is, Hanna's husband James - played powerfully by Eddie Marsan - gets wind of things. Things get pretty hardcore for a while around this point, and suddenly the relationship between Hanna and Joseph becomes more essential for both of them.

This film is powerful, and not for the faint-hearted. Olivia Colman is surprisingly effective in what is really the lead role, and this is genuinely as far from Peep Show as you can get. Peter Mullan, too, is just awesome as the coiled spring who doesn't understand his own anger, but who somehow meets this woman at exactly the right moment in his life.

It's a love story, but not a traditional boy-meets-girl type of deal, oh dear lord no. Mullan and Coleman's real achievement is to effortlessly portray the growing bond between these two people that seems to be made of something more permanent, something that exists outside of the events in the movie. Considine said he wanted the two characters to be like old soldiers at the end of the movie, and in PCMR's humble view, he achieved that.

A gritty tale of domestic violence might not be up everyone's street, but I'd urge you to seek it out in the cinema if you can get an opportunity. 'Tyrannosaur' is tough viewing at times, but it is also beautiful and has real heart behind it. It's a good story, well played and well told, and is an sure-footed debut for Considine. Also, considering it was made for less than a million quid, your tenner will actually make an impact on its box-office, and hopefully mean that Paddy C will get another run at the director's chair.

In the Q&A after the screening, Paddy Considine had an entertaining little chat-cum-interview with Jim Sheridan, who appeared to have seen the movie for the first time. PCMR was a little over-awed to be in proximity to greatness, but certainly had the opportunity to notice that Sheridan seemed genuinely impressed with 'Tyrannosaur'. And let's be honest, who are we to argue with Jim Sheridan!?

'Tyrannosaur' is showing in the IFI this month, here's the trailer.

The Bourne Ultimatum

The verdict: A cracking actioner, requiring just the right amount of suspension of disbelief. The Bourne Ultimatum is that rarest of movie entities: a third instalment that improves on the previous two.

The rating: 8/10

The third instalment of the Bourne trilogy trundles along at such a confident, relentless pace, it would almost be easy to dismiss it as a solid action movie... you know, good popcorn entertainment. Well, I'm happy not to describe Ultimatum only in those terms, simply because it provides an absolutely top night at the flicks.

Be prepared though folks, because this movie is a tale of perpetual motion, right from the off. From the amnesiac hero at it's centre, on the run from the CIA and the NSA, to the hand-held camera style favoured by the movie's director, the now surely A-list Paul Greengrass, everbody in this movie is in a hurry to get about their business. Right from the opening scenes, which pick up as the second movie ended, there is an atmosphere of little time to waste: the dialogue comes thick and fast, and the action, set almost in real time pace, is smart, realistic and adrenaline-fuelled.

This movie follows a similar template to the previous instalment: Bourne is trying to re-discover his identity while being pursued by the CIA, who use cutting edge technology to try and catch up with him before he uncovers a number of dark secrets that their top brass would prefer to keep buried. While Bourne jets from one exotic location to the next, the CIA agents pace up and down in ultra-modern offices, using any means necessary to try and dispose of him, and getting quite irritated with each other as they continually fail to do so. Meanwhile, Bourne must follow a lukewarm trail of limited information from one life-threatening situation to the next, and keep literally just one step ahead of his pursuers all the while.

Matt Damon is convincing, and David Srathairn is excellent as the morally questionable chief investigator. Joan Allen reprises her role as chief pacer in the office, and does have a little more to do in this instalment, but the real star of the movie is the action. The set-pieces never feel overly contrived, as they are all deceptively simple. A few car chases, a chase on foot across rooftops in Tangier, a sniper in Waterloo station, every set-piece is filled with tension, close shaves, and unexpected twists, leaving the audience with just enough time to gasp before the next moment of high drama erupts onto the screen.

The soundtrack pulses with just the right amount of intensity when building tension, but daringly, many of the action sequences occur without any musical backing. When Bourne is fighting hand-to hand, we hear every swipe, every grunt of pain, and every bone crunching hit. When Bourne is in mobile pursuit, we hear tyres screeching, sirens wailing, glass smashing, and shouts of passers by. Overall, the sound in this Bourne movie really is second to none, and heightens the impact of the action scenes.

The dialogue is terse and urgent, and as with the action, there is little waste, with everything happening at real pace. However, there is some depth below the surface in the exchanges we see on screen, with the high-powered executive banter in particular displaying a real wit that you're unlikely to see in many actioners. A moment that sticks in my mind is when David Strathairn's character lambasts Joan Allen for criticising real-time judgements from an armchair, and I interpreted this almost as a challenge from the screen writers to the audience, as if they were saying, go on then, what would you do differently in this situation? Because Bourne generally stays one step ahead, and also because of the pace of the action, we never get the opportunity to poke holes in his decisions, and this is a major strength of the movie.

There are no cheesy one-liners, arched eyebrows, invisible cars or signature theme tune here (unless you count that Moby song.. which I don't). Bourne gets hurt and is regularly in mortal danger, but when he has to fight, he can fight. When he needs to drive, he's as comfortable on a scrambler as in a cop car. He capably speaks foreign languages, he knows how to lose a tail and he uses pay as you go mobile phones to avoid surveillance. Nothing in Bourne is beyond the boundaries of possibility, and that's what pulls you into wanting him to win out in the end.

If this movie is overlooked for Oscar next year, it will be a real crime. Direction, sound and script are top notch here and are the definite stars of the piece. Damon, too though, is understated and quietly effective in the lead role, and Strathairn and Allen have a very watchable sparring relationship, with a real undercurrent of tension (thankfully not of the Unresolved Sexual type).

What more can I say folks, go see it, you'll have a blast. You'll need a little suspension of disbelief, but not much, and for a movie that asks for so little, it delivers in spadeloads. I'm not sure if I want them to make a 'Bourne IV' (the door is left wiide open), but as long as Paul Greengrass continues to make movies of anything approaching this quality, then I'm going to be very happy to keep watching.

Hot Fuzz

The verdict: smart, funny, a good laugh and a great cast, but a tad long.
The rating: 7/10

Simon Pegg’s star is definitely rising at the moment, and PCMR would argue that this is no bad thing. I remember the short-lived TV series 'Hippies' a lot more than the more successful 'Spaced', but the clearest memory I have of that show is a stand-out performance from that man Pegg and his energetic, earnest comedy routine. He also had a small but memorable enough role in '24 Hour Party People', which PCMR would heartily recommend.

But then came 'Shaun of the Dead', inspired by a short sketch from Spaced, and possibly also from numerous sessions on the couch playing Resident Evil with best mate and co-star Nick Frost. Shaun was a clever, good-humoured pastiche of tributes to well-known zombie movies, and was a massive hit for Pegg, Frost, and director Edgar Wright. Personally, I always felt Shaun of the Dead to be just a tad over-rated, but still a very enjoyable film nonetheless. PCMR’s opinion didn’t stop the movie from being a runaway success on both sides of the Atlantic, however, attracting interest from Hollywood big-shots keen to capitalise on a post-Ricky Gervais wave of affection towards British comedies.

In promotional interviews immediately after making Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg quipped about what he was going to do next, joking that he would fly off to Hollywood and make 'Mission: Impossible 3'… or something. Well, as it turned out, reality sometimes is stranger than fiction. JJ Abrams, the producer of MI:III, counts himself among a legion of American fans of Shaun of the Dead, and he invited Pegg to Hollywood to do exactly that.

So, with a credible internationally acclaimed home-grown hit, and a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster under his belt, the inevitable question had to be asked: what next for Pegg, co-star Frost and director Wright?

Well, the trio have set out to pay homage to a different genre, the buddy-cop movie, and the result is 'Hot Fuzz'. The story is devilishly simple, Nicolas Angel (Pegg) is an over-achieving London copper, is forced to transfer to a quiet rural small town because his exceptional arrest rates are making the other London cops look bad. He arrives in the village of Sandford still tuned in to big city ways, constantly on the look-out for underhanded goings-on, but all that Sandford appears to offer in terms of criminal activity is under-age drinking and.. well… that’s about it really.

But then, people start dying, and the townsfolk appear more than willing to dismiss these events, stating that "accidents happen all the time". Angel starts to become convinced that something sinister is going on under the surface of the quiet town of Sandford, but is this all just a product of his hyper-sensitive London beat cop instincts, or is he quietly going mad at the prospect of his failed career?

Sandford, like most small rural towns, is populated with its fair share of eccentrics, and this is a source for much of the humour in Hot Fuzz. Angel’s partner, played brilliantly by Nick Frost, appears to be a dim-witted, but good-natured simpleton, constantly questioning Angel as to whether he’s jumped through the air while firing a gun, and such and such.. The supporting cast is impressive, however, with Edward Woodward, Jim Broadbent, Bill Bailey and Paddy Considine all enjoying themselves thoroughly on-screen. Special mention must go to Timothy Dalton though, who revels in the role of roguish upper-class jaguar-driving supermarket chief Simon Skinner.

The movie is essentially a comedy, and for the first two thirds, introduces the array of characters, sets the scene, and essentially sets up the third act. In these early scenes, PCMR picked up on more than a passing reference to 'The Wicker Man', and I don’t believe for a moment that Edward Woodward’s casting was an accident!

In the third act, the movie becomes a balls-out homage to the crash-bang-wallop buddy-cop explosion-fests that Nick Frost’s character loves watching on DVD, such as 'Point Break' and 'Bad Boys II' for example. The action is very well put together, and although large amounts of disbelief must be suspended, there are also a fair amount of laughs in this section of the movie.

What Hot Fuzz has in common with Shaun of the Dead is something that many big-budget Hollywood blockbusters lack. At the same time as trying to make the audience laugh, or give them a wave of excitement, the film-makers are aware that the audience has – cough – actually seen other movies! Referring to other movies is not something Wright and Pegg appear to shy away from in their writing. Quite the opposite in fact, and some of the funniest moments for me were when these movies, which have obviously provided the inspiration for Hot Fuzz, were referenced, either directly in the dialogue, or implicitly in the action scenes.

As a comedy, it is a success, and PCMR would venture that it is funnier than Shaun of the Dead, with quite a few laugh-out-loud moments. Like Shaun, the comedy almost gives way to action roughly two thirds of the way through, but there is still room in the action sequences of Hot Fuzz for some belly laughs, and these contribute to the relentless pace of the final twenty minutes or so.

My only real quibble of the movie was the running time. At two hours, Hot Fuzz felt a little too long for me. Also, because the first two acts were so long, when the action kicked in, it jarred a little, given that the audience had possibly settled into a nicely paced eccentric comedy. Suddenly there’s all sorts of gun-wielding lunatics, massive explosions and cheesy one-liners to be had. I’m not debating the merits of these things, just that they could probably have shed fifteen minutes or so, and ended up with a leaner, punchier movie as a result.

So, it’s funny, but it’s also quite violent. However this violence is in the classic tradition of gross-out movies, in that it’s almost cartoony in its shock value. Fly-kicking a granny in the face might not seem like such a funny thing (Eh? – Ed) but it gave PCMR quite a good belly laugh in the context of Hot Fuzz.

Pegg’s performance is really great though. You would expect him to be good in the more comedic sections of the movie, and he doesn’t disappoint there. However, when he gets pissed off and starts kicking ass, Pegg is quite believable as the action copper, and gives a very good account of himself in some fairly stunt-heavy scenes, inevitably delivering the odd cool quip here and there, to great effect.

So, I’d recommend it because it’s smart, funny and will reference other movies you may have seen. The two leads are great, the script is smart, and the supporting cast are terrific. PCMR predicts big things beckoning for this trio of Pegg, Frost and Wright, but in particular, you can expect Simon Pegg to feature in a few Hollywood outings in the not too distant future. And with a performance as good as this, why the hell not?