Film Review: THE DESCENT: PART 2 (2009)

Director: Jon Harris
Running time: 94 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Watched at the cinema Saturday 12th December 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Having seen and quite enjoyed The Descent (2005) I was looking forward to the sequel. I was keen to see how they would move the story on, maybe some background on how the creatures came to evolve in the caves or some kind of scientific expedition. No, neither of these scenarios were considered, it was just a dumb rescue mission story. I should have guessed from the advertising, telling us it is the “Sh*t Scared Film of the Decade!” But I digress, I’ll tell you a bit about the plot and then I’ll tell you what I really think.

At the end of The Descent (2005), one of the characters, Sarah escapes the caves by putting a climbing axe through the leg of Juno to attract the creatures. This film picks up where that one left off with Sarah outside the cave, delirious, and finding a passer-by in a truck. By this time a search and rescue mission has begun, but they are looking in the wrong cave system. Desperate to find the missing party, the sheriff, Vaines, and his deputy, Rios, take Sarah in a catatonic state, back to where a dog has followed her trail and the right caves. With them are a small rescue party, Greg, Cath and Dan. It’s not long before they have their first encounter with the creatures and Sarah begins to remember the events that had preceded. Of course, certain members of the party are taken by the creatures as they get separated from each other. Just as Vaines is being attacked he is rescued by Juno who has survived and is still trying to find a way out. I’ll leave it there; I think that’s enough spoilers for one day!

Some decent cinematography and the creature effects were very well done, but far from the “Sh*t Scared Film of the Decade” I was lead to believe it was. What we basically had was the original film re-made with some of the cavers having the advantage of having been there before. Decent performances from the main cast members, Shauna Macdonald as Sarah, Natalie Jackson Mendoza as Juno, Krysten Cummings as Rios and Gavan O'Herlihy as Vaines. In the end though, I found it pretty disappointing and not one I can particularly recommend.

My score: 4.8/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1073105/
Official Site: http://www.thedescent2.co.uk/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3770025241/

Film Review: PATHFINDER (2007)

Director: Marcus Nispel
Running time: 106 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 15

Watched on DVD Monday 7th December 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

First of all, I have to admit I have (sort of) seen this movie before. Unfortunately I tried to watch it when I was really tired the first time around and ended up falling asleep about half way through. This time, however, I have the ‘Extended Edition’ on DVD and managed to stay awake all the way through! Set in North America in about 800 AD, that’s 600 years before Columbus, it tells the story of a Viking boy shipwrecked and found by a tribe of Natives. He is brought up as one of their own and grows to be a strong warrior called Ghost. He is somewhat shunned by boys his own age because of the colour of his skin, but he keeps the Viking sword that was found with him and secretly practices with it.

Fifteen years after he was first found, Ghost is out on a hunting trip when he is alerted to the return of the Vikings. They have raided his village and killed almost everyone in it. He tries to fight back but they are too powerful and he is injured escaping them. He goes to the next village and is nursed by Starfire, a young woman and her father, Pathfinder. When he’s rested he warns them to leave the village or they will all be killed, he had seen it before as a boy before the shipwreck. The villagers pack up and leave and Ghost sets off to delay the Vikings and possibly lead them astray. Unknown to him, Starfire has followed him and is in danger of being captured. The leader of the Vikings, Gunnar, has found out who Ghost is and knew his father. I’ll leave it there, not too many spoilers this time.

Made in a style similar to films like, 300 (2006) and Sin City (2005), it almost has the feel of a graphic novel. There is plenty of blood splatter and gore to go around. Fortunately there is not much CGI; a lot of physical stunt work was used, which was nice to see. Decent enough performance from all of the leading cast, honourable mentions go to Karl Urban as Ghost, Moon Bloodgood as Starfire, Russell Means as Pathfinder, Clancy Brown as Gunnar and Jay Tavare as Blackwing.

Unfortunately the plot and pace of this film seems to meander around before it decides to go anywhere. I found it hard to place exactly where the characters were from one minute to the next. The plot seemed to get lost in the middle and only began to take shape again towards the end. Over all, some good stunts, plenty of gore but unfortunately not a lot of direction.

My score: 5.2/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0446013/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/screenplay/vi4020175129/

Film Review: THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (2008)

Director: Rob Minkoff
Running time: 100 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 5th December 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Legend has it that the Monkey King, a fierce and respected warrior, was tricked by the Jade Warlord and turned to stone. Before this happened, he sent his weapon, a fighting staff, out into the world to hide it from the Warlord. It is said that someone would return it to him and when that day came the Jade Emperor would return to the world and free it from the tyranny of the Warlord.

A teenager from Boston, Jason Tripitikas, is obsessed with old Kung Fu movies. He gets bootleg films from Old Hop, who owns a pawn shop in Chinatown. On one of his visits there he finds an old mysterious staff tucked away in a back room. Old Hop shoo’s him out of the shop and he sets off home only to be confronted by a gang of local thugs. They know that he goes to the pawn shop and plan to rob the old man, using Jason as a means to get inside. They get to the store and start searching for the money when the old man tries to stop them. The leader pulls out a gun and shoots the old man. In a panic, Jason grabs the staff and runs for the roof. He seems cornered when the staff seems to push him over the edge. The next thing he knows he’s in ancient China! There he meets Lu Yan, a drunk who knows Kung Fu; he also meets Golden Sparrow, a female musician who is on a mission to kill the Jade Warlord. These two save Jason’s life when the Jade army come for him. They set off towards the Mountain where the Warlord lives and Jason persuades Lu Yan to teach him Kung Fu on the way. A mysterious silent monk takes the staff one day but ends up travelling with them and also teaching Jason the ways of Kung Fu. As they approach the mountain a witch is waiting for them, sent by the Jade Warlord. I’ll leave the summary there; I think you’ve had enough spoilers for now!

A very well made film with some truly excellent fight sequences, but with the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li in the cast, I would expect nothing less. I must admit it’s nice to see Jackie Chan in a more classical Chinese fantasy type role as opposed to the more Westernised roles he tends to play these days. Great performances from all of the cast, honourable mentions go to Jet Li as The Monkey King / The Silent Monk, Michael Angarano as Jason Tripitikas, Jackie Chan as Lu Yan / Old Hop, Yifei Liu as Golden Sparrow / Chinatown Girl and Collin Chou as Jade Warlord.

Over all, quite an entertaining film with a lot of very good fight sequences. The only thing that slightly let it down was the fact that one or two of the fight sequences went on a little too long, and the plot was a little weak in couple of places. Apart from that, pretty entertaining stuff!

My score: 6.5/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0865556/
Official Site: http://www.forbiddenkingdommovie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1605501209/

Film Review: BODY OF LIES (2008)

Director: Ridley Scott
Running time: 128 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 15

Watched on Sky+ Wednesday 2nd December 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Set against the war on terror, this film deals with the work of the CIA and their efforts to capture one of the terrorist leaders. Seen from the perspective of Roger Ferris, an agent on the ground, and Ed Hoffman, his handler back in the USA, it gives an interesting perspective to events in the region. Throw into the mix an enigmatic Jordanian security chief and a Muslim nurse who Ferris is interested in, and you have an enthralling espionage thriller.

As I said at the beginning, Roger Ferris is the agent on the ground, and we begin with him watching a suspect being tortured to death. Not a promising start, I know, but it does illustrate the point that torture does not work. Through several twists and turns, he picks up the trail of the terrorist leader Al-Saleem. We mostly see Ed Hoffman on the phone while taking his kids to school, or in the office, but when things really hot up, he makes the trip to Jordan where they are watching a safe house. They have solicited the help of the Jordanian security chief Hani Salaam, an enigmatic character who insists that Ferris always tells him the truth. Ferris has met a nurse, Aisha, and their relationship is just beginning to flourish when she is kidnapped. Thinking Al-Saleem is behind it, Ferris offers himself in exchange for the girl. And this is where I’m going to stop; I don’t want to give away too many spoilers!

A very well made film, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from Ridley Scott. Technically, I couldn’t fault it, the only problems I found were that the plot was very complicated to follow and it was a little long. Great performances from all of the cast, honourable mentions go to Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris, Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman, Mark Strong as Hani Salaam, Golshifteh Farahani as Aisha, Oscar Isaac as Bassam, Ali Suliman as Omar Sadiki and Alon Abutbul as Al-Saleem.

I think I would have to re-watch this one to give it a fair go, but I will score it on my first viewing. Should I watch it again, I will re-score it. Over all, apart from the comments I made earlier, I quite enjoyed this film. Although it does help that I am a massive fan of the director.

My score: 6.5/10 (on first viewing)

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0758774/
Official Site: http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/bodyoflies/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1783038233/

Film Review: Paranormal Activity (2007)

Director: Oren Peli
Running time: 86 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Watched at the cinema Saturday 28th November 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Katie and Micah are a young couple who have been living together for about three years. When strange noises in the night start to occur, Micah decides to find out what’s causing it by recording themselves at night using his video camera.

At first it’s a bit of fun, they joke around and nothing scary really happens. Katie has arranged for a psychic to come and see them. She tells him that she has been experiencing these events since she was eight years old. The psychic says that she is being haunted by a demon, not his field of expertise, and leaves them the number of an expert. He warns them not to antagonise the demon or things could get very ugly. In the night the door moves and this is caught on film. Micah is determined to solve this mystery without any outside help. As the nights progress, more and more strange events occur and Katie gets more and more anxious. At one point she even gets up, stands by the bed for an hour and then goes and sits outside in the yard. Micah finds her, but she has no memory of how she got there. I won’t say too much more, but needless to say the film builds to a pretty scary ending!

Considering the reported budget of US$15,000, I thought it was a very well made film. Made entirely in one house with very few actors and most of the action being filmed on just one camera. Also, some really effective use of sound, whenever the demon was about to put in an appearance we had an eerie low hum. Great performances from both Katie Featherston as Katie and Micah Sloat as (not surprisingly) Micah. They both really captured the mood and played their parts really well.

Over all, a pretty scary movie, it certainly made me jump more than once! If I have one criticism, it’s that Katie seems a little too normal. If this thing has been happening nearly all of her life, then surely she would be slightly more paranoid. Don’t get me wrong, she appears genuinely scared at points, but then appears normal the following day. Having said that, it is without doubt the scariest film I’ve seen in a very long time!

My score: 7.6/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1179904/
Official Site: http://www.paranormalactivity-movie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi309003545/

Film Review: VANTAGE POINT (2008)

Director: Pete Travis
Running time: 86 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12A

Watched on DVD Saturday 28th November 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Set in Salamanca, Spain, this film tells the story of an assassination attempt on the American President. Seen through the eyes of eight witnesses, we get eight different points of view of the attack. From these different perspectives we can then determine who is responsible.

The president is attending a summit in Spain to work out a treaty on terrorism. Starting with the coverage of a TV station we see the events leading up to and including the assassination attempt on his life. We then rewind and see the same events from the perspective of presidential guards, Thomas Barnes and Kent Taylor. Barnes has just returned to duty having been injured protecting the President from a shooting attempt. As with each of the different ‘vantage points’ used, we get to see a little bit more of the action and glimpses of who is behind the assassination attempt. An American tourist, Howard Lewis has an interesting perspective, being in the crowd with his video camera as events unfold. I won’t detail all of the perspectives; I’ll be here all night!

A very well made and exciting film with a great car chase thrown in. Filmed partly in Mexico and also in Spain, it had the look and feel of a Spanish town. Good performances from all of the major cast, Dennis Quaid as Thomas Barnes, Matthew Fox as Kent Taylor, Forest Whitaker as Howard Lewis, Bruce McGill as Phil McCullough, Édgar Ramírez as Javier, Saïd Taghmaoui as Suarez, Ayelet Zurer as Veronica, Zoe Saldana as Angie Jones, Sigourney Weaver as Rex Brooks and William Hurt as President Ashton.

Over all, a decent action thriller, but it had one major fault. We are never told why the bad guys are trying to kill the President. I guess it is assumed that US foreign policy is to blame, but there is no background at all on the terrorists. This, for me, totally unbalanced the plot and made a bit of a mockery of the whole film. I’m still going to give it a reasonable score because the production was pretty good, it’s just a shame the script didn’t give us a bit more depth.

My score: 6.6/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/
Official Site: http://www.sonypictures.co.uk/movies/vantagepoint/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1420951833/

Film Review: THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE (2008)

Director: Chris Carter
Running time: 104 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 15

Watched on DVD Sunday 22nd November 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

A young female FBI agent is abducted from her home in Virginia. A psychic ex-priest, who also happens to be a convicted paedophile, has led the FBI to a clue to her whereabouts. Unfortunately, this leaves the FBI in an awkward situation and they are forced to contact Dana Scully in the hope that she can find Fox Mulder, who is the only man with experience of this kind of thing. Scully is now working as a full-time doctor and wants nothing to do with the FBI, but she contacts Mulder and persuades him to come out of hiding.

The lead FBI agent, ASAC Dakota Whitney, has nothing to go on except a severed arm, not belonging to the missing agent, that Father Joseph Crissman led them to in a frozen lake. There is much scepticism about Father Joe, particularly from her colleague Agent Mosley Drummy. Mulder, however, is prepared to listen to the priest and he eventually leads them to the abductors. I won’t say too much more, not wanting to give away too many spoilers.

It was good to see Mulder and Scully back on the screen again; even Walter Skinner puts in an appearance towards the end of the film. As usual, David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully were excellent is the roles we’ve come to know them so well for. They were ably supported by Amanda Peet as ASAC Dakota Whitney, Billy Connolly as Father Joseph Crissman, Xzibit as Agent Mosley Drummy and, of course, Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner.

A very well made film that, like the TV series, was quite slowly paced, but kept you interested. There was just one thing that irked me a bit, the character of Father Joe was dropped about three quarters of the way through. They a built him up a lot throughout the film and all of a sudden he was just cast aside, which seemed a bit callous. Apart from that, a pretty good effort, no great special effects or action sequences to speak of, but a very atmospheric piece that was quite reminiscent of the TV show I grew to love.

My score: 6.9/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0443701/
Official Site: http://xfiles.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi4142334233/

Film Review: CLOVERFIELD (2008)

Director: Matt Reeves
Producers: J.J. Abrams & Bryan Burk
Running time: 81 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 15

Watched on DVD Saturday 21st November 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Manhattan, evening, a group of friends are throwing a party for Rob who has got a promotion at work and is moving to Japan. His brother Jason and his girlfriend Lily are throwing the party and Jason has got Hud, one of Rob’s best friends to document event for Rob to take to Japan with him. Hud is interested in one of the guests, Marlena, who doesn’t show much interest in him. Also at the party is Beth, an ex of Rob who he still has feelings for but has turned up with her new boyfriend. As you can tell, it’s gonna be a swell night!

Just after Rob and Beth have just had a big row and she has left, there is, what appears to be, an earthquake and all the power goes out. It comes up again and someone switches on a TV where a reporter says a tanker has exploded on the harbour. Most of the guests rush to the roof to see what’s happening. Another explosion, this time on land heralds the approach of the monster. Deciding it’s not safe on the roof, they rush down to the street where something big is thrown into a building further down and bounces to land just outside. It is the head of the Statue of Liberty! Rob, Jason, Hud, Lily and Marlena decide to try to get out of Manhattan and head for the Brooklyn Bridge. While crossing the bridge, Rob receives a call from Beth saying that she was trapped. At this point the bridge is attacked by the monster and one of their number doesn’t get away. The rest of the film deals with Rob’s attempts to get to Beth and the efforts of the military to defeat the monster. I won’t go into details, don’t want to give too many spoilers away!

It would be hard not to draw parallels with the amateur footage shot during the 9/11 attacks. The scene where a building collapses and a wall of smoke and dust blows down the street is uncannily similar. In fact, the filmmakers admit as much in the extras on the DVD. It is also very hard not to draw parallels with Godzilla, although different, a monster attacking New York is always going to look similar to the 1998 Roland Emmerich film.

I have to take my hat off to the filmmakers for the way the film was shot. It cannot have been easy to stage the footage they got. Also the special effects were pretty good, the main monster and the smaller ones both looked pretty scary. A good job by all of the main cast, Lizzy Caplan as Marlena, Jessica Lucas as Lily, T.J. Miller as Hud, Michael Stahl-David as Rob Hawkins, Mike Vogel as Jason Hawkins and Odette Yustman as Beth McIntyre. Although there was a bit of over-acting going on at times, it was nowhere near as bad as in The Blair Witch Project (1999)!

Over all, a pretty exciting film with lots of edge-of-your-seat action. The first twenty minutes are pretty dull, but once the monster makes an appearance, things really hot up very quickly. Made in a documentary style, similar to The Blair witch Project, as already stated, I quite enjoyed not knowing where the next attack was coming from, or who might be the victim.

My score: 7.9/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1060277/
Official Site: http://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi78774553/

Gig Review: MOTÖRHEAD + THE DAMNED + GIRLSCHOOL at the Leeds O2 Academy 20th November 2009

GIRLSCHOOL:

Girlschool are: Kim McAuliffe (Vocals/Guitar), Jackie Chambers (Lead Guitar), Enid Williams (Bass/Vocals) & Denise Dufort (Drums).

Unfortunately we missed the first half of Girlschool’s set due to the lateness of our departure from base. I have heard some of their studio stuff and I must say I haven’t been all that impressed. Now having seen them live, I have changed my opinion. They really know how to get the crowd moving and play some pretty good tunes too! I even recognised some of the tracks, ‘Hit & Run’ I remember from way back, ‘Emergency’ from the 1981 ‘St. Valentine’s Day Massacre’ EP with Motörhead has always been a classic and they closed the show with ‘Race With the Devil’, a track I always liked, but hadn’t realised it was Girlschool who recorded it! A great show from the entire band, they put a lot of energy into their performance and it showed!

My score: 8/10

Official site: http://www.girlschool.co.uk/


----o0o----

THE DAMNED:

The Damned are: Captain Sensible (Guitar/Vocals), Pinch (Drums), Cave Vanian (Vocals), Stu West (Bass) & Monty Oxymoron (Keyboards)

I haven’t seen The Damned live before, but, having been into Punk a long time ago I am pretty familiar with quite a lot of their early stuff. They opened with ‘New Rose’ a loud bawdy number that got the crowd moving. It was quite funny watching the people around me in the crowd, there were several bemused faces, but also quite a few singing along & I guess, like me, quietly reminiscing the late 70’s & early 80’s. There were several tracks I didn’t recognise, but I didn’t mind, they were OK, but not the classics I wanted to hear. The band then surprised me and played two tracks from my favourite Damned album, ‘The Black Album’. It was really great to hear ‘Curtain Call’ and ‘History of the World Part 1’, both of which are a bit avant-garde and a bit of a departure from the more raucous numbers. Towards the end of the set the better known tracks, ‘Neat Neat Neat’, ‘Eloise’, ‘Love Song’ and finally the classic ‘Smash it Up’ closed the show… Well, almost closed the show… Captain Sensible attempted a solo performance of ‘Happy Talk’ as they left the stage and had to be ‘assisted’ off by one of the road crew! Although I’m not sure they were for everyone at a Motörhead show, I quite enjoyed The Damned. Even after all these years both Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian still know how to put on a good show!

My score: 8/10

Official site: http://www.officialdamned.com/


----o0o----

MOTÖRHEAD:

Motörhead are: Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister (lead vocals and bass guitar), Phil Campbell (guitar and backing vocals) & Mikkey Dee (drums and percussion)

By the time Motörhead hit the stage the place was pretty full. Lemmy announced “We are Motörhead… and we play Rock and Roll!” and they opened up with a couple of classics of which ‘Over the Top’ was best received. With the usual appearance of ‘Metropolis’ I was nearly tempted to go in search of a T-shirt, but endured this dirge of a track, I don’t know why they always play it! I’m pretty glad I stayed because they soon redeemed themselves with ‘Killed by Death’, one of my all-time favourite Motörhead tunes! The set was littered with classics; the likes of ‘Stay Clean’, ‘I Got Mine’ and ‘Just cos You Got the Power’ were all well received. A smattering of new tracks also put in an appearance along with a cover of a Twisted Sister track whose title, I’m afraid, escapes me right now. Of course, at the end of the set we got the classics ‘Bomber’, ‘Ace of Spades’ and they ended with ‘Overkill’. Over all a really good show from the boys, I really enjoyed it. Towards the end I finally broke for the merchandise stand & got a T-shirt. I then watched the end of the show from the back, which gave me the advantage of being able to see, and I could also hear the music properly.

My only complaints are that the venue, when full, is not very condusive to being able to see the stage, particularly if, like me, you’re only 5 feet 7 inches tall! Secondly, don’t get me wrong, I like loud music, but when it’s so loud it is distorted to the extent that it doesn’t sound like music any more, then it’s not too enjoyable. It was only when I stood at the back towards the end that I could see most of the stage and I could actually hear the band. Over all, a pretty enjoyable show, slightly ruined by a venue that didn’t make it easy to see and an over-enthusiastic sound engineer.


My score: 7.5/10

Official site: http://www.imotorhead.com/

Film Review: 88 MINUTES (2007)

Director: Jon Avnet
Running time: 108 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 15

Watched on Sky+ Friday 20th November 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is a taught thriller set in Seattle where Jack Gramm, a forensic psychologist for the FBI lives and works. Nine years previously his evidence had convicted brutal serial killer Jon Forster, a.k.a. the Seattle Slayer and it is nearing the time of his execution. Jack is now a successful lecturer at the local university as well as working for the FBI.

With just a few hours to go before the execution, Jack receives a mysterious phone call informing him that he has just 88 minutes to live. The time, 88 minutes, is very significant to Jack, but I will not divulge it here. In trying to find out who is behind this call, and all the while suspecting Forster, Jack reveals a twisted plot that leaves several bodies in its wake. Somebody is copying the Seattle Slayer’s crimes and leaving evidence implicating Jack. I won’t say too much more, not wanting to give away too many spoilers, but needless to say it all culminates in a big show-down where the copy-cat is revealed.

A well made film, although I did find it a little stale. I didn’t really engage with any of the main characters and the story had elements of many of this type of thriller I have seen before. Decent performances from all of the main cast members, Al Pacino as Jack Gramm, Alicia Witt as Kim Cummings, Leelee Sobieski as Lauren Douglas, Amy Brenneman as Shelley Barnes, William Forsythe as Frank Parks and Neal McDonough as Jon Forster. I thought Neal McDonough was particularly good as the slightly psychotic Forster.

Over all, a pretty well made thriller that didn’t quite tick all the boxes for me. Maybe because Pacino played the part of Gramm in his ‘larger than life’ style, it gave the character a bit of arrogance that I did not find particularly appealing. I did like the twist at the end though.

My score: 5.5/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0411061/
Official Site: http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/88minutes/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi2058486041/