Rumah Film

"You were always looking for beauty because it was such an ugly place", reflects Bernard Sumner, as images of rubble, grime and high rise flats of 1970s Manchester linger on screen during the opening minutes of Grant Gee's fascinating documentary. From the city's urban deprivation emerged an underground music revolution and one of the most seminal bands in musical history - Joy Division, a band that created a whole new musical landscape despite only releasing two studio albums ('Unknown Pleasures' and 'Closer') before lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide on May 18, 1980.

Thought-provoking and genuinely heartfelt, 'Joy Division' is a riveting watch whether you're a fan or not, primarily down to the frankness with which remaining band-members Sumner, Stephen Morris and Peter Hook recount their experiences and sense of helplessness as they witnessed their singer's epileptic fits and mental breakdown. Particularly poignant is the moment when Peter Hook's eyes glaze over as he confesses his regret at not going to Curtis's wake: "I just wanted to go to the pub with my mates, not see a dead body."

"INCREDIBLY MOVING"
Director Gee wisely keeps voiceover to a minimum, letting the band and those involved in their story do the talking, including the late Factory Records owner Tony Wilson, photographer/film-maker Anton Corbijn (director of the acclaimed Curtis biopic Control) and a revealing account from Belgian journalist Annik Honore speaking for first time about her relationship with the singer. Together with a mix of unseen archive gig footage, extracts from audio interviews and a spine-tingling soundtrack representing their musical legacy, 'Joy Division' is an incredibly moving and insightful document that captures the spirit and chemistry of a band whose music feels as fresh and exciting today as it did thirty years ago.

Joy Division is out in the UK on 2nd May 2008.

If you were stranded on a desert island, having Little Miss Sunshine for company might just save your life. Likewise this kiddies' adventure yarn is pulled from the depths of mediocrity by Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin who stars as the eponymous Nim. She isn't just a smiley face but a gutsy heroine who lives in the jungle, eats bugs for dinner and Australian tourists for breakfast. It's like a junior version of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, without the whining.

Concerns about hygiene and the high price of fame are left to Jodie Foster playing Alex Rover, the JK Rowling of adventure novelists - and OCD sufferer supreme. She is Nim's only hope for survival - or so she likes to believe - after the girl's father Jack (Gerard Butler) is lost at sea. After a brief exchange of emails (a wireless connection, we presume), Alex dares to venture beyond the city and embark on a rescue mission. In many ways, this is Alex's story of triumph over adversity while Nim makes do and Jack busies himself trying to mend his leaky boat.

"THERE IS FUN TO BE HAD"
If only co-directors Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin (Little Manhattan) had thought to jettison some of Butler's scenes, the story might've flowed a lot more easily and generated more tension. As it is, the intertwining of three points of view feels messy, and there is no real sense of jeopardy. On top of that, Butler has a second role as Alex Rover's storybook superman: the voice in her head that eggs her on. It's another bit of scrappy storytelling (he's also called Alex Rover) that leaves little doubt about Jack's fate. Thankfully he does make a good comic foil to Foster's twittering bundle of nerves, and there is fun to be had as Nim strives to protect her island from a cruise-line invasion. A performing sea-lion is thrown in to distract you from any other flaws, but it's the sunny, strong-willed Miss Breslin who truly keeps the film anchored.

Nim's Island is out in the UK on 2nd May 2008.

Film Reviews. An inoffensive but bland romantic comedy, Made Of Honor is a safe bet for a Friday night if you consider My Best Friend's Wedding the best film ever made. More demanding viewers are likely to be bored by the join-the-dots story of a womanising New Yorker (Patrick Dempsey) who falls for his best friend (Michelle Monahan) just as she gets engaged - and then has to win her back, while acting as her - you guessed it - maid of honour.

Dempsey is currently housewives' choice for his turn as Dr Derek Shepherd in TV's Grey's Anatomy, and it's easy to see why his safe, designer-stubble charm holds an appeal. But as a devil-may-care commitment-phobe, he doesn't really convince - you never believe he has the selfish streak necessary to be a serial date-'n'-dumper. Michelle Monahan, so spiky and sexy in the little-seen but superb Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, has little more to do than bounce around looking cute, while the usually reliable Kevin McKidd (check out his turns in the tender Afterlife or raucous Dog Soldiers) has a desperately dull time as her Scottish fiance.

"THERE ARE A COUPLE OF FORGETTABLE GAGS"
The Caledonian connection leads to an excruciating third act, when everyone hops over the Atlantic for - och, aye - a good old Celtic wedding, replete with kilts and caber-tossing. There are a couple of amusing but forgettable gags (such us... oh, um, can't remember), but for all but the most dedicated fans of soppy, sloppy romance, Made Of Honor deserves to be jilted.

Made Of Honor is out in the UK on 2nd May 2008.

Film Reviews. Is it summer already? The first of the big budget superhero blockbusters has arrived, and it's a roaring success, thanks to a combination of superb special effects and canny casting. Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark, an amoral weapons manufacturer who acquires a conscience and a suit of power armour when he is kidnapped by generic middle eastern baddies. Back home, he rebuilds his suit and takes to the skies, to rain fiery justice on warmongers foreign and domestic.

Put in such simple terms, Iron Man sounds like just another gung ho wet dream of American militarism: Rambo with an exoskeleton. But while Iron Man is undoubtedly simplistic, a light and larky tone carries the movie easily over potential political pitfalls. Stark, a humming dynamo of energy and humour in Downey Jr's delightful performance, is far more appealing that the stodgy, guilt-ridden heroes of Batman and Spider-Man. While he operates on his own steely moral code, there's none of that tiresome bitching about the burden of responsibility. Iron Man understands that being a superhero is supposed to be fun.

"LOOKS LIKE A MUSCLE CAR ON LEGS"
Downey is well supported by Gwyneth Paltrow, giving it loads of sass as Stark's unfazeable PA Pepper Potts, and by Jeff Bridges, playing it nasty for once as our hero's manipulative corporate boss. Jon Favreau shoots the plentiful action with elan, and the production design of the Iron Man suits is top notch - he looks like a muscle car on legs. Iron Man's only real fault is an underwhelming climax, but by then it has amassed enough goodwill to keep audiences happy. Roll on the sequel.

Iron Man is out in the UK on 2nd May 2008.

Film Reviews. Michael Haneke has been tormenting art-house audiences for years, but the recent success of Hidden has allowed him a chance to test his confrontational thrillers on the masses. The result is this English language remake of his 1997 anti-exploitation film Funny Games, complete with an A-list cast and major studio backing. Although the film's ideas remain as strong as they were first time around, Funny Games is probably too disorienting and disturbing to gain the word-of-mouth approval necessary for mainstream acceptance.

Naomi Watts and Tim Roth play the comfortable couple whose yachting holiday is interrupted by Paul (Michael Pitt) and Peter (Brady Corbet), two young nihilists on a sadistic mission to destroy the family's smug sense of security. The intruders' sinister and excruciating mind games eventually develop into a gruelling spree of humiliation and degradation. But Peter and Paul aren't the only ones playing games, as Haneke has his own tricks to play: characters address the audience directly, scenes are 'rewound' in front of us and key moments of violence take place off-screen. Haneke's intention is to awaken his audience to the irresponsible power of mainstream cinema by jolting us out of our complicit, media-induced stupefaction.

"TIM ROTH AND NAOMI WATTS DEBASE THEMSELVES"
While the original film toyed with oMempublikasikan Postingur expectations of genre convention, this one makes us examine our assumptions about actors. It's fascinating to watch Tim Roth and Naomi Watts debase themselves so thoroughly and unexpectedly, but their familiarity also lessens the unsettling, alien atmosphere that the first film achieved. It's unlikely that Funny Games will prompt the mass rejection of commoditised violence that Haneke ultimately desires, but you get the feeling he'll be satisfied just to have terrorised a few wandering multiplex innocents.

Funny Games is out in the UK on 4th April 2008.

Film Reviews. sking for trouble from its title onwards, Botched makes a valiant stab at combining knockabout comedy and grisly horror, but misses both by a mile. Starring not one, but two patron saints of the bad movie - box-office kiss-of-death Stephen Dorff and serial flop-maker Sean Pertwee - it's a lumbering slice of gory farce that lacks the resources to achieve a fraction of its ambitions. The result feels like a cut-price Severance, with far fewer laughs and no Danny Dyer.

When a diamond heist he organised goes disastrously awry, professional thief Ritchie Donovan (Dorff) is packed off to Russia by his angry boss (Pertwee) to steal a jewel-encrusted cross from a Moscow penthouse. Thanks to the incompetence of unhinged accomplice Peter (Jamie Foreman), he soon finds himself trapped on the 13th floor with a bunch of hostages. To make matters worse, they are all at the mercy of a murderous descendant of Ivan the Terrible who takes a sadistic pleasure in impaling, decapitating and dismembering.

"GRUESOME DETAIL"
"This is getting out of hand!" sighs Dorff with a sense of world-weary resignation that will be all too familiar to any punter who decides to give Kit Ryan's caper the benefit of the doubt. Okay, so the sheer quantity of gruesome detail (an amputated hand here, a fridge full of human innards there) ensures we are seldom bored. In the end, though, there's only so much slack you can give a film that wears its cheapness and ineptitude like badges of honour.

Botched is out in the UK on 18th April 2008.

Film Reviews . Second sight takes on a creepy new meaning in The Eye, which sees a blind violinist (Jessica Alba) plagued by spooky apparitions after a double cornea transplant. Is she seeing dead people? Or could these shadowy spectres be warning of some disaster in the making? You'll be hard pressed to care in this remake of the Pang brothers' 2002 original which, despite having another duo behind the camera (Them's David Moreau and Xavier Palud), struggles to generate half its chills.

"I've never been so scared in my entire life!" says Sydney Wells (Alba) on the eve of her surgery. It is what happens afterwards, though, that really gives her the willies, as her donated peepers begin to make out enough grisly ghouls and shrieking demons to keep Haley Joel Osment busy for months. Is she losing her marbles? Neural specialist Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) certainly thinks so, though he is obliged to change his tune as Sydney's visions increase in number and unpleasantness. Might they have something to do with her pupils' previous owner (Fernanda Romero), a Mexican Cassandra who went loopy after bearing witness to an unspeakable tragedy she was powerless to prevent?

"DREARILY DERIVATIVE"
With every twist of the second-hand plot telegraphed far in advance, you don't need to be clairvoyant to see where this is going. Throw in Alba's bland performance (is there any other kind?) and a damp squib of a finale and you're left with a drearily derivative thriller that will have most punters eyeing their watches.

The Eye is out in the UK on 24th April 2008.