You, the Living (2007) / Adventureland (2009) / Hot Rod (2007) / F (2010)

You, the Living / Du Levande (2007) caught my eye in the schedules as it was billed as a Swedish comedy. It was fairly amusing... and decidedly odd. There was no narrative as such, merely a collection of 'sketches' or vignettes featuring ordinary moments of daily life in a very raw, dramatic yet blackly comic style. The tone put me in mind of Sound of Noise but that was a much more linear movie, with a point to it. The indecipherable impetus behind You, the Living didn't end up making for an unsatisfying whole, I quite enjoyed the movie... I'm just unable to articulate why I liked it. Weird.

Much more straightforward was Adventureland (2009), an American comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg as a geeky kid who ends up working at the titular theme park for the summer between high school and college. While there he befriends Kristen Stewart, who plays a variation of her unreasonably mopey misery-chick schtick from the Twilight franchise but manages to be less irritating with it. Oddly he falls for and ends up dating the park's resident cool chick (in a bit reminiscent of Bandslam's geek-gets-the-girl genre subversion) but it's obvious who he should really be with. It's a slight movie with an unoriginal premise yet Adventureland is hugely enjoyable, mainly because Eisenberg is so damn charming and cute. He's like Michael Cera with less attitude. The supporting cast are a wonderful array of freaks and misfits, including a small role for Bridesmaids' Kristen Wiig, and Bill Hader (who also crops up in Hot Rod below), plus a turn by Ryan Reynolds as a likable bastard.

An evening of pizza, wine and chat at our friend's flat last Friday also involved watching the fabled Hot Rod (2007). Twice. Watching with a group of friends is not normally how I like to see a new movie, but the reverence that certain of my mates show this film made for a pretty hilarious experience. And from what I had the opportunity to see, Hot Rod turned out to be pretty hilarious, full of really silly, unexplained humour that wouldn't be out of place in The Muppets (although some of the racier stuff would need taming). Andy Samberg's daredevil/idiot lead is endearing and not just stupid, and his relationship with his stepfather, Ian McShane, is deliriously deranged - his goal is to earn enough money through stunts to save his stepfather's life... so that Rod can kick his ass. There were many bits that had us all laughing out loud, from the 'cool  beans' sequence, the wacky grilled cheese sandwich and burrito fight and my favourite, the random dancing Chinese guy who gets a montage of bill posting and crotch thrusting... It really is a movie that has to be seen to be believed. And quite rewatchable as it turns out.

While recuperating from a manky cold this week I watched the British horror/thriller simply titled F (2010) - no relation to US high school Othello adaptation, O (2001). After an opening set up that sees teacher Mr Anderson (David Schofield) head-butted by a pupil and thus more resigned and timid in his role, the movie settles in to the confines of the school campus after most of the inhabitants have gone home. Unfortunately for the cleaner, secutiry guards, headmistress, secretary, woodwork teacher, Mr Anderson, his daughter and her boyfriend, they're still in residence when a gang of hoodies turn up to kill them off, one by one. The growing menance is effected by tight camera angles, right up in the victims' faces, and some creepy choral/lullaby music when the speechless, faceless bad 'uns turn up to bash, stab, burn, maim, slice, axle-grind and generally murder all involved. There's not much character development or even really any plot after the first 10 minutes of set up, just a series of offings. No explanation is given as to why these hoodlums are committing these graphic acts or even who they are - are they connected to the guy who headbutted Mr Anderson? The script doesn't care, there are plenty of people to be bloodying up to bother with motivation. The lack of impetus leaves the film feeling a bit hollow, although it is effectively chilling. Thankfully the final scene/ethical dilemma is a real humdinger and makes the previous 80 minutes well worth the price of admission (y'know, if I'd seen it in a cinema).

Inside Men (2012)

basics...
A four-part drama that follows the aftermath and planning of a robbery on a counting house, seen through the eyes of 3 inside men, employees who for various reasons decide that they can pull off the perfect crime.

brilliant...
I've not been able to get this incredible drama out of my head since I saw it last weekend. Not quite as stylishly cool as last year's peerless The Shadow Line, Inside Men was still top-class entertainment from beginning to end. Opening with the heist in progress, motives unclear, with no idea of who was who, the story then flashed back to a time preceding the planning of the assault and slowly, like the over-used metaphorical onion, the layers of the plot were teased out. Steven Mackintosh's counting house boss was a work of sublime beauty. His performance made me shiver, and the character's terrifiying motives and manipulative skill was a joy to behold. Mackintosh was ably supported by Ashley Walters as a security guard with a conscience and Warren Brown as the brash employee who dares to steal from Mackintosh's meticulous manager in the first place, sparking off the plan to take every last note from the place. Spooks' Nicola Walker and Kierston Waring (last seen in Top Boy with Walters) were excellent as, respectively, Mackintosh's unwitting wife and Brown's complicit partner. The flashback/forward style was used perfectly, in fact I'm not sure I've seen this technique used so well in a drama before - always breaking at just the right moment to make me desparate to get back to the time-stream to see what happens next, but I'm made to wait as even more exciting drama unfolds in the present. Not a single predictable moment, Inside Men held me gripped every minute. It's dramas like this that justify the BBC licence fee!

briefly...
Astonishingly assured acting, writing and directing from all involved. This is the high watermark for 2012's crop of mini-series dramas. 

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

basics...
The Twilight series finally kicks it up a notch and gets *gasp* exciting! The Cullen clan of good vamps teams up with Jacob's wolf pack (introduced in New Moon) to take on some evil vamps who are intent on destroying Bella - not because she's a petulant miserabilist, but because she helped kill bad ass Victoria's beau in the original movie.

brilliant...
With the third movie the series can rightly start to call itself a 'saga' as plotlines from the first movie come back to bite everyone in the ass here. Whether it's a change of director or a stronger plot Eclipse is much more enjoyable and thrilling than the preceding films. Bella is not quite so irritating, while Robert Pattinson is afforded the opportunity to breath life and personality into his gloomy Edward. Taylor Lautner spends about 80% of his screen time with no shirt, never a bad thing, and the script is playful enough to reference this. The best scene sees Edward and Jacob chatting in a tent over Bella's sleeping body - rather than butting heads they bring some warmth and humour to the characters that improves them both immensely. While Bella's friends (including the ever wonderful Anna Kendrick) are sidelined, we get to see more of the Cullen family, particularly Edward's 'sister' Alice (Ashley Greene) one of the few to be given personality and a winning smile. The movie explores Bella's wish to be turned into a vampire by Edward to be with him forever and how that would be selfish to her family and friends, but she ultimately decides she wants to do it anyway. These more complex issues could have been explored in more depth but at least add more adult subject matter to a slightly neutered 12-certificate vampire flick.

but...
I've said it twice before and I'll say it again: Bella Swan is a rubbish protagonist. She has few redeeming or even interesting qualities, just a selfish desire to be with a vampire she's known not all that long. What Jacob and Edward see in her is a mystery, although Kristen Stewart does do a better job with the character third time round (or the script does). There are still odd moments that don't make much sense, like why vampires shatter like glass rather than exploding in a gore fest as in True Blood, and why the climactic face-off between vamps, wolves and vamps didn't result in any fatalities on the good guys' side. I think the death of a Cullen or a pack member would have brought some extra emotional weight and showed that the fight wasn't too easy. I know Jacob got his bones crushed but we know he'll be ok, there're another 2 films to come.

briefly...
It would be too easy to say that the third film 'Eclipses' the first two, but it would also be accurate. Twilight finally becomes a series worth (some of) the fuss.

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (2011)

basics…

A complex spy thriller set in the grey seventies, with a who’s who cast of British acting talent, headed up by Gary Oldman’s George Smiley – tasked with rooting out the mole in The Circus.

brilliant…

I can easily see why this thriller wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. There are no explosions or car chases or anything you might term ‘thrilling’… other than the top notch plot that is. Moodily directed by the Swede behind Let The Right One In, Tinker’s visual style is intoxicating, the camera hovers on seemingly insignificant details and affords Oldman the time to react to things in a subtle way. The spy plot takes in many characters and several twists and turns as each of the 4 suspects are put under varying degrees of scrutiny. Toby Jones does a good turn in twitchy and snivelling while Colin Firth is charming. Kathy Burke makes a welcome return to acting, although what is going on with her massive neck I’ve no idea. She’s one of the few female characters in a film about men betraying men, perhaps a rather old fashioned concept, but one that works really well. Oldman is perfectly world-weary and his approach to the matter in hand is methodical and believable, while Benedict Cumberbatch ironically makes a great Watson-like sidekick. It’s good to see a film that is so resolutely unshowy and so undeniably British getting good box office, especially as this has no King’s Speech style triumph over adversity feel-good factor. Some of it is downright bleak, particularly what happens to Tom Hardy and his love interest, but Tinker is always gripping, never boring.

but…

Ciarán Hinds’ suspect is not as well developed as his co-stars, leaving him not a great deal to do. An extra few minutes of motivation for him would have marked him out as a more credible suspect alongside Firth, Jones and the other fellow.

briefly…

A cerebral thriller that held me rapt throughout as a result of labyrinthine plotting and masterful character work.

Die Welle / The Wave (2008)

basics...
Based on an American teen novel, this German, adult movie follows a high school class during project week, when their Autocracy lesson gets out of hand. Rubbishing the idea of another Nazi Germany, the students are manipulated by their teacher, Mr. Wenger (Jürgen Vogel), into adopting a dress code and a new set of values which leads the class to discover that fascism is all too easy to set in motion...

brilliant...
Would this film have such an emotional undercurrent if it was not German made? I doubt it. Germany's painful history, and its people's struggles to assimilate it with the modern day, are an explosive catalyst to the plot of The Wave. And because of the history of fascism, the resultant fallout is all the more scary. I found the film enthralling from beginning to end, and although I'd associate 'thrillers' with action and special effects, The Wave proves that a relatively simple domestic classroom drama can be just as thrilling. The class is full of recognisable types, the hippy chick who stands up to the Wave and won't conform, the bullies who rail against it initially and then don't want to be left out, and the popular, hot jock (Max Riemelt) who can see that all will not end well. And then there's Tim, who's all too open to the power of suggestion and becomes far too enmeshed in the narrative of the Wave. Posing challenging questions - although the students are defacing property outside of class, their school work improves - about the power of the individual versus the mob, The Wave is a masterful piece of filmmaking, with a style and soundtrack that only increases the feeling of growing menance and lack of control.

briefly...
A powerful premise thrillingly executed, The Wave will be a film I'll revisit in the future.

In the Heat of the Summer (John Katzenbach, 1982)

basics...
The first book in an omnibus edition of two novels by John Katzenbach (my first taste of the author), In the Heat of the Summer is a rollicking good thriller that I'd describe as 'unputdownable' if that wasn't too clichéd. A young girl is found murdered in Miami, Florida, and the killer chooses to phone the Journal reporter assigned to the case, Malcolm Anderson, to tease clues and promise more murders. As the killings continue, Anderson is caught between his job, his conscience, the police and the killer himself, whose motives involve a possible massacre in Vietnam...

brilliant...
So, 'unputdownable'. Well clearly any book is putdownable, I don't anything is *that* gripping, but I really enjoyed this book, from beginning to end. Katzenbach's style is punchy and raw, Anderson's first person narration and the handful of named characters really puts you inside the journalist's head and his grapple between following his media instincts and delivering a great story, and helping the police to stop the killer who has chosen him to communicate with. The mid-seventies setting uses post-Vietnam fatigue to develop a compelling backstory for the unknown killer, and the lack of technology such as DNA databases and instant phone taps add to the tension as the killer continues to murder seemingly at random, while Anderson and his paper feed the fear of the city's population. In our times of media saturation and influence, this book's concerns about whether this one murderer is having an effect on the community or whether it is the media obsession and over-exposure that really has the detrimental effect.

but...
I can't really think of anything that didn't work here. Even the unmasking of the killer wasn't a let down, mainly because it almost didn't matter who did it. Or even why he did it. The greater story was about the media and the relationship between journalist and killer, and so the ambiguous ending add's to the novel's success.

briefly...
Gripping, thrilling, exciting... A superior popular thriller that actually has something to say about the world at large. I look forward to reading the second volume in the omnibus, although I might read something a little lighter first.

Eagle Eye (2008)

basics...
A non-stop action thriller, with explosions, car chases and CGI, Eagle Eye sees Jerry (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) thrown together by a mystery female who can seemingly track their every move in order to participate in a plot to bring down the Executive Branch of the US Government. 

brilliant...
I really enjoyed Eagle Eye, it's been a while since I've seen a film that is so balls-out energetic and non-stop from beginning to end. I enjoyed the way the plot was peeled back, layer after layer, and the mystery behind the voice making the lead characters commit armed robberies and resist arrest by the FBI was skillfully crafted and full of surprises. While Eagle Eye probably isn't to everyone's tastes and wouldn't win any awards for subtlety, it's so fast-paced and slickly produced that the plot holes fly by and you don't care so much. It helps that LaBeouf and Monoghan are sparky and utterly watchable, while Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson and Michael Chiklis provide excellent support - particularly Thornton, who's humour and approach adds depth to his role. The overarching plot uses fear of terrorism and the ubiquity of technology in everyday life alongside the US constitution to justify killing the president and his cabinet, and it's a thought-provoking idea, although there's not too much time to think about it as cranes crash through windows, drones fly through tunnels and the leads are chased along airport conveyor belts.

but...
Some of the things that an all-powerful computer can do here are ridiculous, for example how exactly does an artificial intelligence decouple a power-cable in order to crash down and electrocute somebody? How does a computer move a train independently backwards and forwards, and manages all of this without crashing or waiting for an egg-timer to finish turning? I think with a film this action-packed it would be churlish to suspend disbelief one moment and then be aghast at implausability the next, it's all or nothing really, so these are only minor gripes. In terms of plotting though, at the end I would have been happier if the Hollywood ending was rejected in favour of actually killing off one of the main characters. It would have felt more satisfying emotionally, less of a cheat. 

briefly...
A blast from start to finish, with the added bonus of likable performances and pertinent plotting.

Hanna (2011)

Last weekend we popped to the cinema to see Hanna, a very stylish thriller starring Saorise Ronan as the eponymous 'hero', a teenage girl genetically-modified and trained to become a killer - a bit like Kick-Ass' Hit Girl but without the comic book stylings. The action is more Bourne and toned down a little for a 12A rating, which I still think is a bit low considering what goes on but hey. Hanna is also reminiscent of James Bond's travelogue-like attributes - the movie begins in a presumably Scandanavian snowscape and moves through Morocco, Spain and France to reach Berlin and the whole feels very European in tone, which makes sense as it's a German-UK-US co-production. Starring two Australians (Eric Bana as Hanna's 'father' and Cate Blanchett as baddie Marissa Weigler) and Irish Ronan. 

There's a lot to like about Hanna, from the gorgeous scenery, frenetic fight scenes and the performances of all involved. Tom Hollander pops up as a badly dressed mercenary, and Hanna makes friends with a young girl and her family on their camper van trip across Europe who add some humour to the otherwise serious plot. Really it's just a big chase movie, and there's very little that Hanna is trying to say, there doesn't appear to be a message. It's a hugely enjoyable tour de force of filmmaking, with not a CGI robot to be seen. If only all thrillers were as intelligent and visceral as this.

Source Code (2011)

Our first cinema trip in a couple of months, mainly because there's not been anything that has really drawn me to part with £6+ (half the price of a Blu-ray, or a DVD sale price!) until Source Code, the main draw to which was Jake Gyllenhaal and a 4 star Empire review. Like Groundhog Day, or more accurately like The X-Files episode 'Monday' in which Mulder and Scully live through the same bank/seige explosion scenario until Mulder figures out how to prevent it, Source Code sees Gyllenhaal's Colter Stevens re-living an 8 minute train ride, up to the point a terrorist bomb blows it sky high. 

It's a deceptively simple scenario, rendered much more complicated by the puzzle that Colter must solve - it's a whodunnit - along with the mystery of what's going on back in the 'real world' where he's in some sort of pod being beamed back into the train. Or is he. It's a time twisting mind-fuck that doesn't have the visceral thrills of Unstoppable, but rather it has more depth and is equally as gripping. The casting certainly helps with what could be a repetitive movie, given the nature of the storyline, Gyllenhaal is as likable and believable as a hero as ever, while Vera Farmiga does great work with a computer/desk based role as one of the people putting Colter through the Source Code. 

After leaving the cinema there was much to dissect, particularly about the time travel paradox style ending, that's often a problem in movies with similar themes. I think it'll be worth a second viewing to try to work out how it might resolve, or to spot the plot holes!

The Killing / Forbrydelsen (2007)

The Killing is quite possibly the best drama ever to be shown on British TV, so it's a little odd that the whole thing is Danish in origin! Featuring one single murder investigation, following the death of young Nanna Birk Larsen, the show has kept us riveted for the last 10 weeks - I'm so glad the BBC has been showing them in double bills to allow us to watch one episode after another. 

The cast are uniformly excellent, and from one scene to another my favourite changes, and then changes again, from the stoic, gum-chewing, jumper-wearing police heroine Sara Lund, to the heartbreaking eyes of Pernille Birk Larsen, the grieving mother or Theis Birk Larsen the troubled father, both of whom hold so much simmering beneath the surface and say so much with their faces. Lund's begrudging partner Jan Meyer is gleefully grumpy, but as he learns to respect Lund and her methods, he thaws and becomes a really likable character, so when his time in the story comes so suddenly it's a massive shock, and I didn't believe it at all! 

And then there's the other half of the story, following the mayoral campaign of Troels Hartman who becomes embroiled in the murder investigation at various points, along with his sneaky sidekicks Rie and Morten. Oh and the wonderful Bremer, current mayor and possessor of flexible morals. While this half of the story perhaps didn't have the same emotional punch as the investigation, except where the two intertwined (which was most of the time), it was still a thrilling watch. 

As new evidence came to the fore, each episode, which more or less followed a 24 hour period each, threw up new suspects in the case. Red herrings, lies and suspicion abounded, while Lund and co all kept it real and had a distinctly 'un-Hollywood' approach to police work. So much worked unspoken, with not a boring second to be found. Revelations worked, characters acted within the bounds of their emotions and did things you didn't want them to do but knew they would. 

I'm going to avoid the American remake, it just can't be this good. I think one of the reason's it's great is that the actors are unfamiliar, thus it is much easier to suspend disbelief and 'forget' these characters aren't real and lose yourself in their lives. The Killing ranks in my top 10 best shows, and it is with feverish anticipation that I look forward to the second series on BBC4 later in the year.

Steget Efter / One Step Behind (2005) & Pyramiden / The Pyramid (2007)

The final two Wallanders that were on over Christmas were theatrically released in Sweden, and thus shorter than the other mini-series, and appear to be the last in the series starring Rolf Lassgard. They’re also the best Wallander stories and productions I’ve seen so far.

One Step Behind (which comes chronologically before Firewall) is a very emotional piece of cinema, centred around Wallander’s colleague Svedberg who tragically commits suicide in the opening 10 minutes, following the discovery of a macabre scene of recently dug-up and posed corpses. It turns out Svedberg was actually murdered, and as Wallander and his colleagues delve further into Svedberg’s life they discover some surprising things about a man who was supposed to be their friend.

Svedberg certainly was Wallander’s friend, and he also turns out to have been gay and harbouring a crush on his portly colleague (I don’t know it is about Lassgard’s Wallander that has women and men throwing themselves at him, he’s not at all attractive). Hidden desires and jealousy are at the centre of an atmospheric, beautifully filmed episode. The ending features some real jeopardy as Kurt and Anne-Brit are kidnapped by the crazed killer of Svedberg – and when Wallander shoots him finally and then administers mouth-to-mouth so that he doesn’t die and take the easy way out, it opens up the lead character to interesting questions and motives.

In The Pyramid, Wallander is haunted by a case from his past in which he failed to pull the trigger and shoot a killer, leading to the death of one of his friends. Rather than being a hackneyed way of joining Kurt’s first case with what turns out to be his last, the conceit works well and allows Lassgard some meaty scenes of internal struggle as he tries to shoot the long-ago escaped killer at point blank range but ultimate decides he’s not that person.

This is a less stylishly filmed story, but it is no less cinematic, with explosions going off with gay abandon, and a particularly nasty villain with a heart of stone. Seeing Wallander resign in the final moments of the episode is sad, as I’ve really come to like Lassgard’s portrayal – he’s more bombastic, less introspective than Krister Henriksson, but he’s a bigger hit with the ladies (I love how shy he gets with ones he fancies, it’s endearing), and he’s still pretty dour – and the movies have been top notch, with an excellent supporting cast. That said, the ending feels believable – Kurt is visibly relieved to be free of police work that has subsumed his life, and it is good to see him off happy.

Black Swan (2010)

2011 continues to impress in the world of cinema, this time with the creepy, psychological horror Black Swan. Masquerading as a drama about a ballet dancer who seems to gradually crack under the pressure of being the lead in Swan Lake, the movie is actually an unsettling chiller and one of the best horror movies I've seen in a while. 

Natalie Portman is excellent in the lead, ably supported by Eliza-Dushku-as-Faith-alike Mila Kunis in the role of her nemesis/double/dark side/what-the-fuck?!, with Barbara Hershey as creep personified as her pushy mother in a small but memorable role. Vincent Cassel is reassuringly Gallic as the ballet director, pushing Portman to breaking point in order to get her to play the role of Black Swan convincingly. 

Black Swan is one of those movies you can't stop discussing as you leave the cinema, talking about how great it is and also comparing notes on what you think it was all about. There were no definitive answers as to why Portman was seeing images of herself reflected in mirrors in different poses, or why she had a fantasy about sleeping with Kunis, or why Winona Ryder kept stabbing herself in the face with a nail file! It was real (cliché alert) edge of the seat stuff that had me squirming and occasionally watching through my fingers. The film really gets inside your head and toys with what you're expecting while drawing you in with masterful direction and a gorgeous score, adapted from Swan Lake. I hope every movie I watch at the cinema (and at home for that matter) is as good as this and the others I've seen this January.

Dead Ringers (1988)

No, it’s not the impressionists comedy sketch show with Jon Culshaw, the Dead Ringers I watched recently is a creepy, psychological drama/thriller from David Cronenberg. It stars Jeremy Irons as identical twin gynaecologists Elliot and Beverly Mantle. Elliot is the pushy, confident one, with a bit of a sadistic streak, and Beverly is the strangely-named, quieter one, the one who ends up falling for Genevieve Bujold’s actress character, Claire.

The brothers are inseparable, and share their work and women, often posing as the other so that both can enjoy the good life. Elliot boasts that Beverly only ever experiences what Elliot has experienced first. When Beverly becomes more attached to Claire, and wants her for himself, it of course goes on to affect his filial relationship with Elliot. Once Claire catches on that she’s being ‘serviced’ by both brothers, she’s not happy, but Beverly wins her round. There follows a dissent into drug-induced madness from Beverly when he believes that Claire is cheating on him, and in typical Cronenberg style, there are some lurid dream sequences of conjoined twins, and an ending that is bloody and inevitable.

This movie was a good deal more creepy than Eastern Promises, the last Cronenberg I watched – incidentally, I’ve now seen a fair proportion of his output, with A History of Violence (2005), eXistenZ (1999), Spider (2002), Crash (1996), and The Fly (1986) all proving suitably weird (and Crash just being plain crap). I’ve still got The Dead Zone (1983) on the shelf ready to watch too. I like the unsettling style of this director, and Dead Ringers is an effective part of his oeuvre. Jeremy Irons puts on a masterful dual performance, making it clear which brother he is through subtle treatments, although you’re not always sure you know which is which. I look forward to catching more of Cronenberg’s back catalogue when I can.

The Girl Who Played With Fire / Flickan som lekte med elden (2009)

After the rather exciting and excellent The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in March it’s been just a few short months to wait for the next in the Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire the sequel to the Swedish original. The reviews I’ve read of this instalment have been a bit sniffy, but I can’t see why, it’s just as gripping and thrilling as the first movie.

This movie is more thriller lead than mystery as the first one was, and it involves Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth Salander more than Michael Nyqvist’s Mikael Blomkvist, and the two of them only communicate via email, only meeting up in the last 5 minutes. Salander is a very compelling character, and a strong female lead, with strong views on men who are violent to women. Here she’s framed for the murder of the man who raped her in the previous film, and spends the movie trying to find out who the real killer is, leading her to some very dark places.

The extended cast of characters in this world is expanded on, with Salander’s female lover, and a boxer friend who are both beaten for their connection to our hero. There’s a blond bad guy who can’t feel pain, who comes across as a standard Bond henchman, and some very gory, bloody bits at the end when Lisbeth faces her ‘enemy’, who turns out to be someone surprising.

Rapace and Nyqvist make a fantastic duo, even though they spend all their time apart. Both are magnetic, and the movie really draws you in. I think this is helped in part by the subtitles which really make me concentrate and stop me watching passively. The Swedish settings are as lovely as ever, but I’ve seen prettier in the Swedish Wallander that I’m also watching at the moment. I’m really looking forward to the third instalment. I’m ambivalent about the US remake though.

Salt (2010)

In this kick-ass action movie Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA operative who is fingered as a Russian sleeper agent, tasked with carrying out the assassination of the Russian president. She then goes on the run, seemingly carries out this assignment, and then prepares to kill the president of the USA…

It’s a preposterous premise, but Salt is action-packed, thrilling and genuinely has you guessing whose side Salt is really on. Most of the success of the movie I think comes down to Jolie, who is a female action hero like no other, she’s as believable in dramatic scenes as she is kicking butt and shooting her way out of situations. There’s just something cool about the woman that adds immeasurably to her performance.

There was a lightness of touch lacking in Salt. Although I know it’s not a comedy, it would have been nice to have a few funny lines to diffuse the tension now and then. As a result, it all comes off a bit serious and earnest. I can forgive the faults when the action and story is this good. I really liked the bits in the White House, with the President being taken deep down into the emergency bunker, but then I like any drama set in the White House! It’s the West Wing’s fault, for being so great. If they made another Salt movie I’d be quite happy to watch Jolie beat up some more people.

Cry_Wolf (2005)

That underscore is not a mistake, the movie is called Cry_Wolf. In need of something a bit lighter, or at least less dramatic, than Hunger, my afternoon movie was a movie that a thought would be a breezy throwaway werewolf horror flick, with American 30-somethings playing teenagers getting picked off one by one. It turned out that Cry_Wolf was altogether a better movie than I was expecting, and it had a subversive take on the genre. 

Featuring a cast of unknown young American actors (plus Supernatural's Jared Padalecki), the film's lead is actually a hot young Brit named Julian Morris, who I hope to see in something else soon. He had me from the first moment he appeared on screen as Owen, the new kid at posh Westlake Preparatory Academy. He falls in with a redhead preposterously named Dodger who draws him into her friends' midnight game of Cry Wolf, where someone is named 'wolf' and the rest have to accuse each other to try to determine who is said 'wolf'. Bored with life on campus, and following a death off campus, Owen and his friends concoct an email that suggests a serial killer has been roaming the country's colleges, killing students in a certain pattern, and that he is due to strike again soon. 

The email is sent around the college and soon it appears that the rumour has become reality as Owen instant messaged by someone claiming to be the killer... As suspicion falls on various of Owen's friends, eventually they begin getting killed off, in the exact ways mentioned in the fake email. As a synopsis I realise none of this sounds particularly different or interesting from other slasher pics out there, but Cry_Wolf really is. The underscore for one thing indicates how this is a very 21st century tale, using email, instant messaging, texts, etc to generate the plot and to keep the identity of the killer or killers concealed. Just when you think you know where this is all going, your expectations are subverted, and the twists feel real and believable. 

Julian Morris is a great lead, not just easy on the eyes (he is), and although the other characters are probably a little underdeveloped, there are some interesting relationships. The adult cast includes Jon Bon Jovi, a teacher who's seeing far too much of Dodger, Anna Deveare Smith and Gary Cole (those last two West Wing alumni, so I was happy), although they're not much more than cameos. The young cast carries this, and the first time director, Jeff Wadlow, gives the movie an autumnal, New England look to Westlake Academy, and keeps the suspense ratched up throughout. He avoids horror clichés effectively, or when you think he's left one in, it turns out you were wrong (e.g. just who is the creepy janitor the camera keeps lingering on watching our teen stars?). Once the ending comes, along comes another sucker punch twist that makes you reassess all that has gone before. This is a superior teen thriller, along the lines of the first 2 Screams, albeit with less self-referential/knowing nods.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Last weekend we settled down to watch The Silence of the Lambs, the big-5 Oscar winner (see It Happened One Night) and all round masterpiece, with genuine scares and twists. It was the 3rd or 4th time I've seen it Andrew had managed to miss it in 26 years! So although he'd seen the ubiquitous parodies (such as in our recently watched Loaded Weapon 1) he'd not enjoyed this slice of quality cinema. 

As you can tell, I like it. Watching it again after many years, I found more qualities to enjoy. It always surprises me how little Anthony Hopkin's Hannibal Lecter actually appears in the movie, and how his story is not the one driving the plot, that honour goes to Buffalo Bill and his truly creepy intent to make a human suit out of human skin. Pleasant. Jodie Foster is phenomenal as Clarice Starling, and I can't help but see her as a proto-Scully, being a massive X-Phile and all. There's so much going on beneath the surface with Foster, and every uncomfortable moment makes you squirm watching her, particularly when Hannibal is psyching her out. 

I've never really noticed the camera techniques that director Jonathan Demme uses. The close, straight on shots of Hannibal or Clarice, or the Clarice-POV shots, where everyone who's staring strangely at the young FBI cadet is also staring at the audience, are effective and unnerving. Demme really draws the audience in. It's also surprising how un-graphic some of the more horrible sequences are. Sure there are spurts of blood here and there and at one point Hannibal wears someone else's skinned face... but the camera doesn't dwell on the gore like some of today's gornography-fests. A lot of the gruesomness is got across by using graphic wordplay and suggestion, which is always a lot scarier since you have to use your imagination. 

For my money, the scariest moment in any movie I've seen - and by scary I don't mean a shock or something that jolts you out of your seat, there are so many of those! - occurs during the last 15 minutes of the movie. As Clarice fumbles about in the pitch-black basement of Buffalo Bill's house, we see from Bill's POV through green-hued night-vision goggles as he watches her. And then he reaches out, almost touching her... Every time it sends shivers through my spine. Again, it's the fear of the unseen horror, rather than a gory, nose-biting splurge that terrifies. After watching the film, we viewed the (brief) outtakes on the second DVD, which does a lot to disperse any left over tension. This is one of my top 10 favourite movies.

Inception (2010)

I was expecting to come out of Inception feeling thoroughly confused. Christopher Nolan's MASSIVE movie takes concentration, but it takes the time to explain what's going on, and at times can feel a bit exposition heavy. It only lost me about 3/4 of the way through when Leonardo DiCaprio and his team of dream thieves went to a snowy location in a dream within a dream within a dream... Each extra layer meant more complication. 

It was only after I left the cinema and talked about the movie with Andrew that I found more and more inconsistancies and confusions. Why did this happen? What was that all about? Was this significant? While I watched it, I enjoyed it a lot, there were some amazing set pieces, and I especially liked the train coming down the middle of the city streets, and the awesome fight with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a weightless, rotating hotel hallway. All the acting was top notch, with Tom Hardy one of the standouts, possibly just for the fact he brought a bit of levity to proceedings, as the movie had a tendency towards po-faced seriousness. Marion Cotillard as the sort-of baddie was simply wonderful, every scene she was in, she stole. 

Inception was a great film then, though I wouldn't say the best. It would have benefited from a lighter edge here and there. All in all though it was great because I enjoyed it while in the cinema, and then afterwards it made me think about it more. A movie that stays with you or that stimulates discussion will always win out over a dumb popcorn flick, though both have their merits.

The Escapist (2008)

I was very impressed with The Escapist, a claustraphobic, edge-of-the-seat little thriller set almost entirely in a prison, and during the escape of the title. Brian Cox led the cast of British and Irish actors, including a cute Dominic Cooper, creepy Steven Mackintosh, and unfeasibly hot Joseph Fiennes, in a movie that I couldn't tear my eyes away from. 

The plot of the film is simplistic - a group of 5 men escape from prison - but the execution is spot on, particularly the way the actual escape is intercut with 'flashbacks' to how and why the escape was conceived. There's minimal dialogue - during the escape scenes there is next to none, and Cooper barely opens his mouth - and little background to the characters, but each is fully formed and their motives and allegiances are neatly sketched out. It doesn't matter why any of these cons are in prison, so we don't find out, this is all about the here-and-now and the need to escape. 

The flashback scenes gradually explain why Brian Cox wants to escape, and how he gets the other 4 escapees to go along and help him, whilst fleshing out their relationships and those with Damian Lewis' evil who runs the prison, and his demented, predatory brother, Steven Mackintosh. The scenes of the escape itself are fantastically tense and edited at a frenetic pace that had my holding my breath until the next flashback allowed me to breathe again. There were many little twists and revelations towards the conclusion, none of which I saw coming, and the massive twist that explains all that has come before is up their with Keyser Soze in The Unusual Suspects. A little masterpiece.

Right at Your Door (2006)

This movie is a no-budget thriller that takes place in just one location (mostly) and with just a handful of characters. It's bleak, intense and exciting, and well worth a watch, but probably not a second viewing. Mary McCormack and Rory Cochrane play Lexi and Brad, a couple who get caught up in events when a series of dirty bombs go off in downtown Los Angeles. Brad barricades himself in the house with next door's yard man, while Lexi, contaminated by the blast, struggles outside their home. And that's it for plot really. Since there's clearly little budget here, the filmmakers use this to their advantage - the dirty bombs and the aftermath is relayed through radio reports and the briefest of glimpses onscreen (Lexi and Brad have just moved to this house, so their TV's not set up, handily), and through the sheer terror that McCormack channels as Lexi is forced to exist with Brad, but apart from him, through plastic sheeting in his sealed off house. Hints of their life before the catastrophy show a very real couple struggling to survive and keep up their spirits while the world around them seems to crumble. 

The beauty and the terror behind Right at Your Door is that these people aren't Tom Cruise super-men always just avoiding danger, escaping death and miraculously finding cures, they're average Joes trying to work out whether what the radio says is really the best way to stay alive, or whether it's all just propaganda - the shocker being that the authorities don't seem to have any answers, just platitudes. The overall effect of the movie is terrifying and it opens a lot of questions.