Now here’s a genuine oddity. A film financed by the BFI and Scottish Screen, which basically depicts the highlands of Scotland as the loneliest, darkest place in the world and with almost no way out.

Pirrie plays Shell, a 17-year-old girl living and working in a battered, run-down garage on a desolate road through the Highlands. Mum has long-since gone, so she lives with her dad (Mawle), an apparently broken man who works hard on cars, washes his hands and sleeps, and says virtually nothing.

The only thing that breaks up Shell’s day is the occasional regular – Robert, who treats her kindly, and Adam, a young lad who clearly fancies her and wants to take her out for a drink. She, however, is always ‘working’ – which basically means sitting behind the counter staring at the empty shelves. Even the cold drinks fridge seems to be permanently empty.

There are a lot of deer in the film – one gets hit by a car, one nudges Shell’s window, one ends up in the freezer. It’s all very symbolic, in a rather obvious way, running alongside Shell’s increasing attention on her father. He realises she is starved of attention, and suggests getting a dog – we know it’s not going to end well.

It’s a desperately bleak film, which seems to revel in its desperation – the highlands have never looked so brown and unrelentingly cold and rainy. The script could probably be squeezed onto two sides of A4, so if you want action this is probably not for you.

Ultimately it has some sort of positive message but it’s a hard watch. Pirrie is outstanding in a difficult role, windswept, make-up free and utterly fed up for much of the film, she still manages to exude warmth and sympathy. Much of her dialogue consists of discussing the weather, but somehow she manages to grab the attention.

Overall verdict: A difficult, bleak look at loneliness and family ties, which is an acquired taste but rewards concentration if you’re in the mood.

Reviewer: Mike Martin

The director of this remake of a straight-to-video 1980 slasher film was asked, “Does the world need another serial killer movie?” and his answer was, “Obviously, yes!”. The actual answer is; no, not really.

The original was a cheap and nasty experience, but now, with better special effects and a more liberal attitude towards screen violence, we should get a better version, right? Well no, actually. It’s a grim, dark experience with loads of gore and not much script, which leaves you feeling exploited and thoroughly used.

Elijah Wood is Frank, a disturbed, lonely young man living in a mannequin shop his dead mother left to him. He restores the models from the 1930s and 1940s, in an obsessive way. His hobby is scalping women, nailing their hair to a mannequin and thus turning them into his girlfriends. We learn, in the usual ho-hum Freudian way, that his mother was an abusive person, and the only time he was allowed to touch her was to brush her hair.

He drives around a Spartan, empty looking LA stalking women and knifing them, all very serial killer-esque. The complication comes when Anna (Nora Arnezeder) visits his store and ‘gets’ his obsession with mannequins. She is a photographer mounting an exhibition, and wants to hire the models for the opening.

He falls for her, claiming she looks at the mannequins with ‘soul’, and that eventually leads to his discovery.

It’s a depressing experience, and not for the obvious reasons. It revels in its violence and appalling treatment of women, yet asks for plenty of sympathy towards Frank. The ending is just daft, and ironically the one character who is almost asking for the haircut treatment – Anna’s dreadful boyfriend – merely disappears.

The film uses the point-of-view technique, so we see everything as Frank sees it. This has two major flaws – there is no tension, because we know where the killer is when chasing the victim, and also we can’t see the actor. That’s a shame as Wood tries to do his best as the killer, shedding his youthful image to play the disturbed young man.

Overall verdict: Unnecessary remake of an 80s exploitation slasher movie that adds little to the genre. Buckets of gore and a sympathetic lead performance do not a decent horror movie make, sadly.

Reviewer: Mike Martin

Back from doing a stint in Iraq, Jed (Chris Hemsworth) is a solider who finds himself up against an entirely new army when North Korean soldiers parachute into his own back yard. As the majority of his small Washington hometown are rounded up and enslaved in concentration camps, Jed manages to escape with a group of high school kids, including Jed’s younger brother, Matt (Peck).

On the outskirts of the town, deep in the forest, the group of escapees form a small rebel army known as the Wolverines, and band together to take down the North Korean army and take back their freedom.

Put on hold during MGM’s financial woes while the studio also wavered over whether their Red Dawn bad guys should be Chinese or North Korean (going for North Korea in the end, as not to affect the Chinese box office draw), this remake of the 80s cult classic of the same name (which featured Patrick Swayze kicking Soviet Union butt with a ragtag bunch of freedom fighters) finally gets a release nearly four years after production began.

With the potential to jump on the youth-in-revolt bandwagon and tap into that lucrative Hunger Games demographic, as well as taking advantage of the burgeoning superstardom of Chris Hemsworth (he accepted this before Thor) in the process, Red Dawn could have easily been a nice little earner for the studio and, as the film hints at during its final act, a potential franchise. Sadly, a wooden and uninterested Hemsworth (this was actually shot before Thor), a shaky supporting cast and a flimsy script ensure Red Dawn’s fate as a forgettable flop.

The gung-ho spirit of the 80s action flick is well and truly dead here and the brains behind John Milius’s original have been replaced with an absurdly swift plot that can’t wait to put machine guns into the hands of its young and ridiculous cast (Josh Peck is especially dreadful).

It’s silly, absurd and dull up until the final furlong, where a fairly neat twist breathes life into the proceedings (albeit an hour and half too late) and sets up what could have potentially been a much better sequel. But with Red Dawn failing miserably at US theatres, there’s not much chance of that happening now.

Overall Verdict: It could have been a contender, but Dan Bradley’s dull and tedious remake of a cult classic makes for a forgettable experience.

Reviewer: Lee Griffiths

Originally released in the US last year, Fire With Fire finally sees its UK theatrical release. Surely an attempt by Warner Bros. to ride the coattails of Bruce Willis’ latest Die Hard endeavour, Fire With Fire is a convoluted and action heavy mess.

Mr. John McClane himself sees little screen time, and once the film starts rolling it is clear to see why it went straight-to-video in the States. Instead the film follows everyman Jeremy Coleman (Josh Duhamel), a fireman working in the wild streets of Long Beach. It isn’t long until Coleman witnesses a racial killing at the hand of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Aryan gang. Coleman finds himself in witness protection, which is shown by a garishly bad credit sequence. flashforward 8 months and he has fallen in love with his US Marshall security, Rosario Dawson.

The debut motion picture of stuntman-cum-director, David Barret, Fire With Fire’s plot is its biggest let down. Duhamel’s character is sickly likeable, and making him a fireman just seems like an easy way to instantly make the audience empathise with him, which they won’t. He comes off as an extremely arrogant character in the opening scenes of the film. Pushed out of his comfort zone (because, ever since he can remember all he wanted to do was save lives) and oddly trained by his US marshal lover, it isn’t long till Coleman decides to go rogue and take on D’Onofrio’s David Hagan.

D’Onofrio’s character, along with Julian McMahon’s hitman, are definitely the most likeable, or should that be laughable characters, in the film. You can’t help but enjoy how they are almost caricatures of the tough seedy characters they’re supposed to be playing. Despite this, D’Onofrio gives his all to what little character development there is, playing a rather campy, almost pantomime-like villain, which is hard to say for an Aryan gang leader. Bruce Willis does grizzled as Bruce always seems to do these days. He actually did some acting in Looper, so for the next few years he’ll probably just ride off of that.

The moment Vinnie Jones appears on screen the audience is aware that the film isn’t going to turn out alright. Coupled with the fact that rapper-now-actor 50 Cent also stars it starts to get slightly pathetic. Modern day gangland films have been done a lot better in the past, and with its weak, two dimensional character’s the film really doesn’t do much for the genre.

Fire With Fire has very little going for it, a messy plot that appears to be a mishmash of ideas that have worked before, a half decent cast (minus lead Duhamel) are given little to work with –surely many of them must have signed up as favours to the director. An awful script and bad character development ensure Fire With Fire is one to miss.

Overall Verdict: Besides Bruce’s appearance this film would have been lost in the ether. Go see Die Hard if you need your Willis fix.

Reviewer: Gareth Haworth

 

After The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet confirmed the importance of the ‘grey pound’ – the older film fan no-one thought existed – along comes what could be the best of the lot. It’s definitely aimed at the older market but it also deserves a wider audience – it’s charming, witty, warm and just quirky enough to be engaging without tipping into sentimentality.

It’s a fairly simple tale. Set in the near future, retired cat burglar Frank (Langella) is living on his own in the suburbs and suffering from mild Alzheimer’s. He is forgetful, stubborn and just on the brink of being able to look after himself – he still thinks his son Hunter (Marsden) is at Princeton and his local café is open – it’s been closed for months. The only thing he has in his life to look forward to is popping in to see the dishy local librarian Jennifer (Sarandon) – although she is battling to keep the old building open – and a spot of petty thieving from a posh soap shop.

Hunter comes up with the answer, a robot helper who is programmed not just to clean and cook, but to help Frank start to exercise and take up hobbies to get his mind and body moving again. At first the stubborn old boy is appalled, thinking the robot is an invasion or, worse, a plant.

However he begins to warm to it when it encourages his hobby – which in Frank’s case is picking locks. As the robot has no ethical views, Frank is free to use it to help him break into the library and steal a precious book for Jennifer. Now feeling more mentally and physically sharp than for years, Frank next plans a bigger heist, the diamonds of the appalling yuppies who have moved in next door and who seem to be plotting to close the library.

Robot & Frank has a huge amount going for it, and ultimately it’s a tale of raging against the dying of the light. Frank is a convincingly crotchety old man, but when he spies a heist, or the librarian, a glint comes into his eyes. Langella deserves a huge amount of credit for the success of the movie. He is totally convincing, never asks for sympathy and does physical comedy superbly.

He is helped by a script that is surprisingly pacy, and gets on with the story at a cracking pace – within five minutes we know who Frank is and he has his robot to battle against. There is a twist before the end which borders on the sentimental, and there are a couple of moments which don’t quite ring true, mainly involving the yuppie couple who are cardboard cut-outs. Liv Tyler’s role as Frank’s annoying hippie daughter, travelling the world to do good deeds but uninterested in Frank, produces one funny segment but is otherwise slightly unnecessary. Minor quibbles though in a piece that is otherwise satisfying and enjoyable. Quite how Langella missed out on an Oscar nod is a mystery – he’s quite superb. And Sarsgaard deserves some credit as the flat voice of the robot.

Overall verdict: Engaging, funny, beautifully played mood piece about ageing that deserves to appeal to a much wider audience than the silver surfers – who should love it. Delightful stuff.

Reviewer: Mike Martin

 

In 2006 a tiny-budgeted nasty thriller called London To Brighton burst onto our screens, painting a bleak picture of a broken Britain and making a star out of the stunning girl lead, Georgia Groome. Now, six years later, it seems not much has changed – Britain is still broken, we’re still making gut-wrenching films about the violence bubbling just beneath the surface – and we have another girl actor whose performance will steal your heart.

While London To Brighton was more of a gangster thriller, Broken has a far more mundane setting, a cul-de-sac that could be straight out of The Good Life. Here lives Skunk, a girl just about to start secondary school, which is terrifying her, but apart from that life is fine – she plays in the nearby junkyard where she lets her imagination run free. Not even her type-1 diabetes is too much to get her sunny disposition down, and she is much loved by her solicitor dad (Tim Roth).

The setting might be utterly ordinary but violence is never far away in Skunk’s life. She witnesses her neighbour Bob (Roy Kinnear) assault her other neighbour Rick, a boy who appears to be mentally disturbed and who Bob believes has made sexual advances to his young daughters. Despite the attack it is Rick who is taken away by the police, much to Skunk’s bafflement.

She witnesses further upsets when her teacher (Cillian Murphy) splits up with her nanny, and she herself is then bullied at school by one of Bob’s three ghastly, dysfunctional daughters. Even getting her first boyfriend proves to be more heartache than joy, and the drama goes in a circle to provide a devastating climax that is as shocking as it is heartbreaking.

What makes Broken so powerful is that old adage – get the details right and the rest will fall into place. Skunk’s world is the classic one of the pre-school girl, with toys in her bedroom and a teasing brother, but in which her real escape is her own imagination in the fields beyond the drab home. She is surrounded by violence but refuses to change her personality, and in that respect the film does offer an optimistic theme amongst the carnage. When she shouts “Everything goes wrong” at her dad it’s a genuinely moving moment.

Presumably the title is a reference to Broken Britain, and the film does seem to offer a microcosm of what’s wrong with the UK today. Bob’s three daughters are foul-mouthed, slatternly, drunk and borderline psychotic, but we learn at one point that their mother died suddenly, leaving Bob with a seemingly impossible task raising them. He may be a monster, thrashing out with his fists every time they are threatened, but there is a sympathetic man inside there somewhere.

Perhaps it’s too neat to have these three families living literally next door to each other, but if you can swallow that slightly stage-bound conceit, then there is much to recommend here. Not the least of these are the performances. Usually we might expect Roth to play the psycho, but here director Norris goes for Kinnear, who is a revelation – unrecognisable from his role in Skyfall. Here he is a brute of a man, punching anyone who comes near him. In one scene, where Roth tries to reason with him, he eats a plate of ham in the most menacing style imaginable.

Roth as the sympathetic dad is just superb, teasing his daughter, happy to tickle her but queasily unable to give her the injections she needs – she unfussily does it herself. That leaves us with Eloise Laurence as Skunk. She may have got some help from her mum, Clara Burt, who plays the disturbed neighbour’s mother, but even so, this is a performance as astonishing as Georgia Groome’s in London To Brighton, and that is high praise indeed.

A completely ordinary, unglamorous-looking girl, she is vulnerable, cheeky, playful and utterly beguiling. It’s unshowy, natural acting and all the more heartbreaking for it, the highest praise should head her way.

Overall verdict: Punchy, powerful, multi-layered and devastating portrayal of the country we live in today, told in a concise, vivid manner and with supreme performances from all of the actors involved. Highly recommended.

Reviewer: Mike Martin