The Imposter.

Non-fiction thriller..... Frédéric Bourdin in The Imposter.

In some ways its hard to believe that The Imposter is non-fiction, it did happen, the events told in the movie are real and it is shocking. It was not all in part, filmed as a documentary with some sequences recreated with actors so you are left at the end thinking what bits were real and what was faked. It focuses on the case of Nicholas Barclay, a 13 year-old boy living in San Antonio, Texas who never returned home after playing basketball with friends. He is found over three years later, in Madrid, Spain. The 16 year-old they found was not Nicholas Barclay, and he was not sixteen. He was in fact, Frédéric Bourdin, a 23 year-old French con-man now dubbed "The Chameleon", for he has since 2005, adopted over 500 identities. The documentary goes on, with all interviews with Nicholas Barclay's family and Bourdin himself shown as talking heads. Other sequences are done using actual footage from the event or mocked up with actors. Bourdin returns with Nicholas's sister, Carey Gibson who says he is Nicholas and he meets the family. As to the surprise of the public and press, they accept him although he looks nothing like Nicholas. They have different color of eyes, different skin tone, rough outline of a dark beard and as one interviewee says, if Nicholas Barclay were to have a beard at 16, it wouldn't be black. Not everyone is convinced that this is Nicholas, the two main people unconvinced are Nancy Fisher, an FBI Special Agent and Texas private detective Charlie Parker. It's brilliant, gripping stuff and from the moment it opens you are drawn in. You want answers to so many questions throughout and some are answered. Others are not, as the public and Nicholas Barclay's family don't actually know the answers to them. So completely amazing, it feels like a thriller, not a non-fiction documentary.

5/5

Brave.

Sweet and sour.... Kelly Macdonald as Merida in Brave.

The annual cinematic tradition of the Pixar film is something movie goers look ahead to. I am joined with those people as I already look forward to Pixar's next treats such as Monsters University and am delighted at the possibility of a sequel to Finding Nemo. I won't defend Pixar all the time as they have given us some poor films, WALL-E had charm but wasn't great while I regret the Cars films existence. Brave is like WALL-E, full of charm and decent characters, the main thing letting the film down is the plot. It's that of a Disney movie, bland and predictable. The finale to the whole thing is so simple and reliant on magical mumbo-jumbo, something worthy of a Doctor Who story line. It has its moments and there is a touching montage between mother and daughter, I'll get onto that in a minute. Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald plays feisty princess Merida, a unsettled teenager that is shocked to discover she is to be married. The way of her betrothal is a Highland Games-style competition for the winner to take her hand in marriage. Quite obviously infuriated by this situation she storms off into the local forest to find a funny old witch (voiced by Julie Walters) who is in the wood-carving business. She gives Merida a spell to help change her strict mother, Queen Elinor's (Emma Thompson) mind about the forced marriage but as predicted it doesn't go right. The queen ends up as a charming bear and the princess is forced to hide her mother from the bear hating King Fergus (voiced by true Scots actor Billy Connolly). Things get tricky and Merida is forced to think of a way to help her transformed matriarch before the sun rises again.  The color is stunning and beautiful but the background is stereotypical Scotland, something you'd see in a Chinese advert or even a VisitScotland brochure. It's good fun stuff and obviously not aimed at young kids, like the Cars movies. So now you must be asking, is it aimed at adults. The answer is again, no, Brave isn't directed at lovers of Pixar's kookiness or younger lovers of anything that moves on a screen. I am at the time of writing, still wondering who it is aimed at.

4/5

The Dark Knight Rises.

Spectacular finale....Tom Hardy as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman.

Dubbed, 'the most anticipated film of year' means that The Dark Knight Rises has a lot to live up to. Fortunately, it does, and it does it with style. Christian Bale returns to the role except this time as Bruce Wayne more than Batman. In the third of this trilogy he is pitted against British actor, Tom Hardy as Bane, a disfigured warlord forced to wear a respiratory breathing mask. Bane poses a large threat to the Dark Knight but you can obviously see Christopher Nolan had the whole thing lined up for The Joker to be the primary antagonist. Unfortunately due to Heath Ledger's unexpected death in 2008 this idea was binned. Bane was an interesting choice, and rumors emerged that The Riddler might be a good choice with Leonardo DiCaprio as a possible contender for the role. I think The Riddler would have been interesting but Bane is a wise decision. He is a large bulky, muscular man and makes his presence known to everybody in the room. Bane poses a tough enemy for Batman and at several times, Bane defeat Batman but everyone knows Bats will win or will he?
The real scene-stealer for me has to be Anne Hathaway, she has style, charisma and very funny lines. Hathaway plays Selina Kyle, a young cat burglar that proves to be a bit of a antihero assisting Batman/Bruce Wayne and then turning against him. Gary Oldman is superb as usual while Michael Caine as Alfred is a bit irritating. Marion Cotillard's character, Miranda Tate is a bit more interesting than you first think. Morgan Freeman has a more physical role than in The Dark Knight and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Officer John Blake, a strong admirer of the Batman.
The first hour of the film is a bit padded and flabby but the second half is brilliant, you will be blown away by the might of it all and the final five minutes will hit you like Sherlock Holmes' fall from Reichenbach Fall. 






4/5

The Amazing Spider-Man.

Back in its prime...Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man.

There has been several years since the abomination, Spider Man 3. The world has moved on from the Tobey Macguire series, admitting that, that is all they are going to get from the 'Spider Man' comics, in the form of film. Now (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb revisits and takes a re-look at the series. Casting Brit-American Andrew Garfield is a stroke of genius, Garfield has the right shape and look for the character and looks wiry yet strong. He plays Peter Parker, a teenager struggling to find himself and who he is ever since his parents (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz) died in mysterious circumstances. The philosophical question of 'what is our name?' is addressed numerous times throughout the film, relating back to Parker trying to find who he is - the answer is Spider-Man. Donning the trademark blue and red Spandex suit, Peter Parker searches for the killer of his uncle (Martin Sheen). After Uncle Ben's death, he is left in the care of his Aunt May, played by Sally Field. The struggle to find the killer leads from a vendetta to becoming a superhero. Parker's love interest in this film is the original girlfriend of Peter, Gwen Stacy, a smart and pretty classmate of his. Emma Stone brings the character to life, making her the opposite of the irritating and needy Mary Jane Watson from the Sam Raimi films. Now we come to the villain of the movie, The Lizard. The thing I like about The Lizard is he isn't a self-appointed one like the pathetic Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), he's more like Alfred Molina's Dr. Octopus, the offspring of a experiment gone wrong. Rhys Ifans plays Dr. Curt Conners, an intelligent man who worked with Peter's father and together they tried to develop cross-species gene splicing, now after Richard Parker's death, Conners has continued the work. After the experiment goes wrong and Dr. Conners tries to regrow his missing arm by using lizard DNA (lizards have the ability to regenerate limbs at will) he turns into The Lizard - two times taller than an average man and very deadly. The good thing about him is that Dr. Conners is still there except he looks like The Lizard. You'd expect the doctor just to disappear, to be taken over by the lizard genes and forget who he is, then wake up naked in a sewer somewhere feeling very tired. But no, Dr. Curt Conners is very much alive in his grotesque transformation. Pushing aside the jaded Maguire trilogy, Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb bring Spider-Man into a glorious new light. 




5/5

The Five-Year Engagement.

You snooze, you lose...Emily Blunt and Jason Segel..The Five-Year Engagement.

This ridiculously overlong romantic comedy is a massive letdown. "From the producer of Bridesmaids" is plastered across the top of the poster, one of the reasons I saw this film is because I loved Bridesmaids so much, sadly I was sorely misled. The Five-Year Engagement sees what looks like an odd couple, Emily Blunt and Jason Segel put together. Segel is Tom, a sous chef at an up-market restaurant in San Francisco while Blunt is Violet, a PhD graduate in psychology on the verge of getting a post-doctorate. The pair fall deeply in love at a New Years' Eve party where she is Princess Diana and he is 'Super-Bunny.' When Violet gets accepted to do the post-doctorate, things go up for her and things go down for him. The pair postpone the wedding and head for Michigan where Violet is going to be working. The thing this film looks at is that men can also be the ones who have to sit around and do nothing when woman go out and work. The usual stereotype is that woman sit around, as Violet says she doesn't want to sit around and cook and clean and make apple pies and tend to babies. Tom gets depressed and ends up hunting deer and growing side-burns. The pair are visited by Violet's sister, Suzie (Alison Brie) and Suzie's husband, Tom's idiotic friend, Alex (Chris Pratt.) Rhys Ifans has an unsatisfying role as Winton Childs, a professor at the university, Violet works for and who has a soft side for Violet. It drags on far too long and you get rather fidgety. The chemistry between Jason Segel and Emily Blunt works somehow and it's an intelligent romcom, something that only comes around once in a blue moon.


3/5

Jaws.

Shark tale.....Jaws.

The re-release of the 1975 classic, Jaws, shows it is still got the same charm as it did 37 years ago. It revolves around the vicious great white shark targeting the innocent holiday resort island, Amity. To solve the shark problem the corrupt mayor (Murray Hamilton) turns to his part-time police chief, Martin Brody (Roy Sheider). Vowing to kill the shark and save the community from it's psychotic plague, Brody calls in marine biologist, Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss.) The pair get salty sea-dog Quint (Robert Shaw) and they set out to kill the creature, intriguing camera angles and John Williams' magnificent orchestral theme telling us when Jaws is present. Jaws is long and slightly drawn out with only three people dying under Jaws' wrath in the whole film - I like a bit of bloodshed. The scenes set on Quint's boat,   Orca are interesting but the initial chase of the serial killer-esque shark just goes round in circles until a too quick climax. Jaws has charm but it isn't a great movie, although it is a good shark film and puts more recent 'killer shark' films like Shark Night 3D to shame. The series is exhausted producing four movies of the same idea, it's time Jaws was put to bed.


3.5/5

The Angels' Share.

A bit more comic...Jasmin Riggins, Wiliam Ruane, Paul Brannigan and Gary Maitland.

Ken Loach is notable for not having the cheeriest of film topics, The Angels' Share is one of his more lighter offerings than previous films. It received the Cannes Jury Prize, a very prestigious award. Obviously Loach has been inspired by Ealing comedy, Whisky Galore! It's a innocent comedy caper about a young Glaswegian criminal named Robbie, played by newcomer Paul Brannigan. After narrowly avoiding a harsh jail sentence and with the birth of his son, Robbie forces himself to leave his lawbreaking life to focus on his girlfriend, Leonie, the most unconvincing character in the whole film played by Siobhan Reilly. His sentence is community pay-back so he gets to work with a bunch other wrongdoers - Rhino (William Ruane), Albert (Gary Maitland) and Mo (Jasmin Riggins.) Their supervisor is the kind-hearted Harry (John Henshaw) who has a passion for whisky. He takes the four to a distillery where a new life is shown. One of the biggest names in the film is Roger Allam who plays a whisky collector that happens to come across Robbie. Its very light-hearted and the characters are played very well. 




4/5