Rumah Film

Film Reviews. Jaideep Sen gets his break as director with this mish-mash starring some famous names who regrettably fail to elevate proceedings above the mundane. Krazzy 4 sees an innocent psychiatrist (Juhi Chawla) get embroiled in a political game when she finds herself kidnapped and stashed away for reasons unknown. The quest falls on her motley batch of patients to rescue her, reclaim their own sanity and deliver a somewhat contrived and confusing lesson about our misconceptions about crazy folk. Sound interesting? It so isn't...

Dr Sonali (Chawla) is a sugar-sweet psychiatrist working in Mumbai. Her patients - four in total (what a surprise!) - are headed by Raja (Arshad Warsi), a hot-tempered and haphazard individual who you just shouldn't cross. Dr Sonali's compassion toward her patients leads her to organise a trip to the city. But when she suddenly gets abducted by a couple of unconvincing thugs, her patients begin to wonder where she may have gone. Before they realise it, they have expertly solved her missing-persons case by tactfully kidnapping a big government official and even single-handedly outwitting a notorious criminal - something even the sane-minded would have difficulty achieving.

"HINGES ON A PARADOX THAT BORDERS ON LUNACY"
While the movie takes inspiration from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, this one seems to fall out of the sky ahead of time. The ensemble cast is sincere enough, but a sluggishly drawn-out screenplay (which is as zany as the patients trying to keep it afloat), coupled with a wafer-thin plot and dreadful comedy, doesn't help sweeten the cake. The story hinges on a paradox that borders on lunacy itself, and even some A-list appearances aren't enough to electrocute this film into life.

Krazzy 4 is out in the UK on 11th April 2008.

Film Reviews. The background to "The Lost World" is as fascinating as the movie itself. It's taken eight different prints to put together the exciting new DVD release of this remarkable film. If you were thrilled by "King Kong", "Godzilla", or the "Jurassic Park" movies, this is a DVD that you must own. It's fascinating.

PICTURE

Picture quality is excellent. Of course, there are scratches galore, but as all prints were destroyed bar a few lucky exceptions, we're lucky to get to see it at all. The image has been tinted, as the original film would have been to represent night or day, and it works very well.

SOUND

You get two orchestral choices. Either you can have Robert Israel's slightly whimsical traditional score, or the horrible new synthesiser creation of the Alloy Orchestra. Both make good use of the speakers though, with surround sound throughout.

SPECIAL FEATURES

There's a commentary track by "The Lost World" expert, Roy Pilot. As his comments are few and far between, it's possible to have occasional interesting points in the background without it spoiling the film too much.

Other extra features include a stills gallery, an Arthur Conan Doyle biography and, best of all, 12 minutes of animation outtakes. In these excerpts you can actually see technical genius Willis O'Brien appear in some frames, as he adjusts the 50 model dinosaurs that populate the film.

Film Reviews. Alongside the elements of earth, wind, fire, and water - the one the pop group forgot - there is a fifth element, embodied within a young woman (Milla Jovovich). And it's a good thing too because it and she are the key to preventing the end of the universe.

So she's the fifth element, she's the sum total of our hope for survival, but she's way down the cast list and she can't get around town without Bruce Willis. It's no surprise that Luc Besson thought this story up when he was a teenager: it's core is the teen film cliché of a rough hero, which the teen wants to be, having unattainable women fall into his arms.

You have to fight to ignore this but fortunately there is much to distract you. The visuals are jaw-dropping, especially an unexpectedly gigantic spaceship hovering over a desert and some stunning sequences in a future New York.

It's also very funny in parts with Chris Tucker along for (perhaps a little too much) comic relief and paradise sequences that are camp and witty.

Bruce Willis is good in an average role, Milla Jovovich is acceptable in a terrible role, but as ever Gary Oldman is terrific in how he seems to find just the right note for the film and threatens to take it over.

Ultimately you'll delight in the ride, but you won't care too much about the outcome. If the end of the universe can be stopped by tough guy Bruce Willis, it just doesn't seem like much of a problem anymore.

Film Reviews. Universal set the standards back in 1932 with Karl Freund's "The Mummy", starring Boris Karloff. 67 years later and this all-new version blends old-fashioned scares with a hefty upgrade in the special effects department.

CGI technology is stretched to its limits in a veritable orgy of epic scenes. The problem is that director Stephen Sommers wants to create visions of grandeur that CGI cannot yet adequately realise. While some sequences like the sandstorm chasing the plane work well, others, like the opening pan over the city of Hamunaptra, are glaringly unconvincing.

It is a criticism that may seem a little unfair, but this over-reliance on such a relatively new innovation is only likely to date this movie in coming years. What redeems it now, and possibly for later, are the distinctly old-fashioned thrills of a film that's all about high adventure.

Brendan Fraser leads in an Indiana-Jones-styled role that teams him up with the bookish Rachel Weisz and her chancer of a brother, John Hannah. On the search for the tomb of the legendary Imhotep (Vosloo), they manage to disturb the now severely grumpy mummy from his 3000-year slumber. His revenge is to bring about Biblical plagues to the people of Egypt, while he attempts to revive his mummified bit of crumpet (or 3000-year-old girlfriend).

Realising that this crusty menace plans to wreathe the world in pestilence and icky boil-based diseases, our intrepid group set out to stop him. It's all done with plenty of action set-pieces, some decidedly creepy thrills, and a hearty slice of cheesy humour that often hits the mark, due to the energy and timing of the cast.

Read about and rate "The Mummy Returns"

Film Reviews. Universal set the standards back in 1932 with Karl Freund's "The Mummy", starring Boris Karloff. 67 years later and this all-new version blends old-fashioned scares with a hefty upgrade in the special effects department.

CGI technology is stretched to its limits in a veritable orgy of epic scenes. The problem is that director Stephen Sommers wants to create visions of grandeur that CGI cannot yet adequately realise. While some sequences like the sandstorm chasing the plane work well, others, like the opening pan over the city of Hamunaptra, are glaringly unconvincing.

It is a criticism that may seem a little unfair, but this over-reliance on such a relatively new innovation is only likely to date this movie in coming years. What redeems it now, and possibly for later, are the distinctly old-fashioned thrills of a film that's all about high adventure.

Brendan Fraser leads in an Indiana-Jones-styled role that teams him up with the bookish Rachel Weisz and her chancer of a brother, John Hannah. On the search for the tomb of the legendary Imhotep (Vosloo), they manage to disturb the now severely grumpy mummy from his 3000-year slumber. His revenge is to bring about Biblical plagues to the people of Egypt, while he attempts to revive his mummified bit of crumpet (or 3000-year-old girlfriend).

Realising that this crusty menace plans to wreathe the world in pestilence and icky boil-based diseases, our intrepid group set out to stop him. It's all done with plenty of action set-pieces, some decidedly creepy thrills, and a hearty slice of cheesy humour that often hits the mark, due to the energy and timing of the cast.

Read about and rate "The Mummy Returns"

Tube driver Paul, having had two people fall under his train in a week, learns that a third will win him a handsome redundancy. Scouring the web and the streets for a suicidal volunteer, he peruades Tommy, an Irish down-and-out, to take the plunge, and the pair take off for one last weekend before seeing their deal through. Rare winning moments aside, Three and Out is unconvincing, uneven and unfunny: a severe points failure.

The film's bleak premise could have made for a decent black comedy but, the first few unsettling minutes apart, all that remains of note is a relieving patch of middle ground on the plod from witless comedy to please-let-it-end melodrama. There it finds some much needed warmth in note-perfect turns from Imelda Staunton and Annette Badland (the former as Tommy's estranged wife), while Bond-girl-in-waiting Gemma Arterton makes a decent fist of a thin role as Tommy's bitter daughter and Paul's improbable love-interest.

"STOPPED DEAD IN ITS TRACKS"

Mackenzie Crook - surely the only lead ever cast because he looks like a train driver - and Colm Meaney - suicidal tramp to cheery rogue in one fell shave - try hard to make unlikeable characters shine. Most of the gags, however, fall flat, while some dreary slapstick and the categorical refusal of either of them to think beyond the eye-stabbingly obvious means any momentum they generate is stopped dead in its tracks.

Three and Out is out in the UK on 25th April 2008.

Film Reviews. Members of the Knocked Up/Superbad crew reunite for another irreverent comedy in the comely shape of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jason Segel is likeable as leading man/loser Peter, who's dumped by his gorgeous girlfriend Ms Marshall (Kristen Bell) in the opening scene. An initially agonising holiday ensues - she's there with her new guy (Russell Brand) - but life gradually looks up in this amiable and witty laughfest that only suffers slightly for its rambling moments.

This succeeds in creating sympathy for its hero from the off. Peter is stark naked when his girlfriend finishes with him - and then he's the object of ridicule when she spots him while holidaying with her rock star boyfriend Aldous. Russell Brand is, for once, well cast in the role of vague, vain singer Aldous, who's also the object of obsession for a waiter and aspiring musician in the Hawaiian resort. That this waiter is played by Superbad chubster Jonah Hill only makes the whole thing funnier.

"HEAVY SOBBING FITS CAN'T FAIL TO ENTERTAIN"
There are downsides. Mila Kunis may be noticeably prettier than Meg, the character she voices on Family Guy, but she feels too much like a token love interest - how many model girlfriends can one loser score, after all? Still, if Peter's imperfections are exaggerated, it's to amusing effect: his frequent heavy sobbing fits can't fail to entertain. And that's one of the genius touches of this comedy. It's prepared to expose the vulnerabilities of its hero and humiliate him completely - to the point where you've just got to love him and laugh at him in equal measure.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is out in the UK on 25th April 2008.