Here’s a little blurb I’ve been sent on it:

Set against the backdrop of the 7th July 2005 bombings, London River tells the story of a friendship which develops between two seemingly unconnected people – Elizabeth (Brenda Bleythn) and Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyate). Both of them have come to London to search for their children who are missing in the aftermath of the bombings.

Although they come from different religious backgrounds – Ousmane is an African Muslim living in France and Elizabeth is a white Christian living in Guernsey, they share the same hope of finding their children alive. Putting aside their cultural differences, they give each other the strength to continue the search and maintain their faith in humanity.

Expect a follow-up shortly!

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Following an unexplained cataclysm leading to the death of most of the worlds population and all animal and plant life, “The Man” (not Samuel L Jackson, but the exceptional Viggo Mortensen) or “Father” and the “Boy” travel towards the sea looking for food to survive and some small hope for a future.

The Road is a very bleak tale set against a backdrop mostly drained of colour and life. Trees are dead and just waiting to fall, the sky is stained a permanent grey and every day Earth gets colder.

As Viggo’s character and the boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) make their journey they must forage for food in ghostly derelicts and shelter from the cold and periodic earthquakes. Any sense of order has disintegrated along with any hope for humanity and with the animals gone many of the planet’s survivors turn to cannibalism. Viggo must also therefore protect his boy from these twisted people they meet periodically on their journey.

The Road hinges on the relationship between father and son, passing on survival skills and ultimately doing what is right in a world where morals and order have otherwise completely gone out the window.

As in the novel, nobody has a name save for Robert Duvall’s character, a blind old man who calls himself Eli. It is this encounter and then later the scene with a thief that really stand out. Charlize Theron’s character – Viggo’s partner/wife and the boy’s mother is also fleshed out on screen in the form of flashbacks, building on what we glean from the book.

Ultimately The Road is a good adaptation of a great, stark book, which to read feels un-filmable. As a result Hillcoat had a very difficult task on his hands but has made a very admirable and watchable effort. Though the magnetism between viewer and character may be less electrifying in the film adaptation, most fans of the book should like this too. If doom and gloom isn’t your bag though, steer well clear!

From the roundel/cross-hair adorned marketing campaign I expected Harry Brown to be some sort of ageing mod superhero and in a way, I suppose he is. The story revolves around bad kids on the estate where Harry lives and him losing a dear friend Leonard Attwell (David Bradley), who has had enough of their constant taunts and takes it on himself to fight back.

Harry stays cool until about halfway through when, having decided the police will do sod all to find his friend’s killer, things really start to kick off. He goes looking for a gun to exact some degree of vigilante justice, encounters skeletal junkies and blows a drugs den sky high, and that’s just the beginning.

As the film builds everything gets a bit Death Wish in a fairly predictable revenge film manner. Detractors will probably pick up on Harry Brown’s fairly thin plot and the negative youth vibe, but to them I say watch something else, if you’ve seen the trailer you you can see what sort of film it’ll end up being. There are few surpises with Harry Brown.

The main selling point is Caine himself, the aforementioned marketing clearly a nod back to his mod-era heyday with films like Alfie (1967), The Italian Job (1969) and Get Carter (1970), among others. Needless to say the film is worth watching for his performance alone.

If you enjoy a good revenge flick that’s not going to change the world with a powerful message or an unseen twist ala Dead Man shoes, then you’ll enjoy Harry Brown. If you’re looking for wholly original revenge cinema watch the 2003 epic OldBoy by Chan-wook Park (soon to be butchered by Hollywood, ho hum).

Watch the Harry Brown trailer:

Considering I’m not a massive football fan (save for the World Cup, when everyone is) I really enjoyed this. Michael Sheen is a joy to watch as always, he looks the part as Clough, but more importantly he seems to catch the essence of the man. Timothy Spall is great as Peter Taylor, I’ve no idea how accurate his character is but Spall is fantastic and Colm Meaney is cool as Don Revie.

The only thing I didnt like about the film was the jumping around in time. I expect if I knew anything about football this would have been easy to follow but I got a bit confused once or twice as to where we were in the story. Also, don’t expect to see a lot of guys playing football, it’s just not that type of film. The Damned United is much more about Brian Clough the man and what he was up against (often self inflicted). Good flick!

The only downer for me so far is that Jesper Christensen won’t be returning to reprise his role as Mr White for part three. Apparently he gets bumped off by Bond in Quantum but Marc Forster decided to cut that scene. I think this is a shame as he was a pretty scary character, not only did he put a cap in Le Chiffre but he vanished at the beginning of Quantum and didn’t even bother to get up and leave in the opera scene which made him pretty intriuguing all round. I would think that Forster cut his death for a reason, but since his “supposed” outburst at the Berlin Film Festival he probably wouldn’t be allowed to take part even if he wanted to. Despite of course the fact he explained how his words got blown all out of proportion (likely, I’d say). Apparently we may see his death on a future Quantum director’s cut DVD, who knows.

For more info and speculation check out the pretty cool blog and fan-made posters here.

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Like many horror films the characters are mostly throw-away, but Melissa George does a fairly good job as the deeply-traumatised Jess looking for a way off the ship which promptly becomes a bloodbath.

I probably haven’t sold the film in my opening few lines but I’d say it’s a much more original, more interesting horror movie than a good portion of today’s gory dross. It’s not the best film ever made, nor is it particularly high-octane, but it isn’t supposed to be. Rather it’s dreamy and disturbing.

Triangle was written and directed by Christopher Smith, the chap responsible for both Creep (2004) and Severance (2006), in my opinion two very underrated horror movies. It’s nice to see that even though this is indeed another horror, it is different. More psychological. The best way to describe it is by saying it is a bloody, nautical version of Groundhog Day. Well, without the laughs.

Watch the Triangle trailer:

Detour

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