James Moran, a reviewer who prides himself on his no-nonsense, no-research, no-factcheck reviewing style, takes us through the best of the blockbusters we might have missed last month.
Shame (18)
This posthumous work from legendary actor and king of cool Steve McQueen (The Great Escape, Bullitt, Towering Inferno) is full of clever directing tricks, such Michael Fassbender's knob, but fails fundamentally in its attempt to give us a male Sex and the City.
Brandon Sullivan (played by a forty-something Michael Fassbender) is seeking love and laughter in New York City. Everything's going well for him - he even gets his end away at one point - until his sister Sissy (played by a predictably young Carey Mulligan) ruins it all with her dittziness and muff.
What follows is a light-hearted comedy that sadly under-delivers on the laughs, and over-delivers on scenes of people bumming and crying. 3/7
The Artist (PG)
Everyman George Valentin is framed for the murder of his wife and becomes a fugitive from the law, relying on prototype cloaking technology and a wacky sidekick robot to avoid arrest.
By over-egging the film's crime thriller credentials, director Michel Hazanavicius has missed out on a big opportunity to not do that. During a credit sequence in which Hazanavicius insists on naming the cast and crew involved, the audience are left wondering "yes - but what does it mean?" The comedy sidekick robot, voiced most likely by Eddie Murphy, is also criminally underused.
What lets the film down ultimately is its technical direction. Set in 1980s Camden, the set seems wildly anachronistic and outdated. And the costumes, though largely accurate and impressive, lack conviction. The elephant in the room, of course, is the sound error. Nadine Muse, the sound editor, need not be lambasted for her mistake, but it does detract from what is undoubtedly a brilliant original screenplay. 4/9
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (12A)
In his poem "A Psalm of Life", Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: "Lives of great men all remind us/ We can make our lives sublime/ And departing leave behind us/ Footprints on the sands of time." The statement has of course become passé now, but it still tells us something about what a biopic should offer. Sadly, this portrayal of one of Britain's most controversial, and longest-serving prime ministers fails the test drastically.
Director Brad Bird does a commendable job in portraying the rollercoaster-like political career of Thatcher, including her tussles with Michael Heseltine and when she scaled the Burj Khalifa. But we never get a sense of who Thatcher's real opponents are, nor what drives her on her mission to reform Britain's economy (aside from consistent allusions to a 'ghost protocol').
Though it has been noted by many other reviewers, Meryl Streep does deserve special praise for her portrayal of the Iron Lady. Though there are occasional jarring moments (would Maggy really grin so much after flipping a BMW i8 into a man's face?), the performance is captivating and quite good. (5/3)