The little island that could

Next Goal Wins (2014)

Directed by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison this documentary follows the American Samoan national football team. American Samoa are the worst ranked nation in world football having never won a competitive match and holding the record for the largest defeat.

This documentary does an amazing job of exploring a group that play football for the love of the game in an era when it is so commercialised. I would like to have seen a little more of the players day to day lives but the film does a great job of exploring so many varied themes you can forgive it for leaving out a little. There is some really great cinematography and the film never gives into sentimentality.

4/5

Eco-warriors laid bare

Night Moves (2013)

Directed by Kelly Reichardt this film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard. Three environmentalists plan and carry out an act of eco-terrorism by blowing up a dam.

If you are expecting an action packed film look elsewhere but otherwise this is a great slow burning film that really drills in on the psychological side of things. The story is a low key and grounded, really putting you in the events it follows and shows the warts and all consequences of the characters actions. I thought this film was excellently made, it is tense through out and the direction always has you on the edge of your seat without ever being flashy.

5/5

10 cent film

Million Dollar Arm (2014)

Directed by Craig Gillespie this film based on a true story stars Jon Hamm, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Lake Bell and Bill Paxton. A sports agent that is struggling to run his own agency plans a last ditch effort to make some money by finding an Indian that can play professional baseball.

Traipsing through the usual clichés of the genre there is little of originality in this “learn people are more important than money” story. While the film does fairly well not becoming overly sentimental it does come with a huge slice of cheese and trades heavily on stereotypes. There is some annoying shaky camera work and disappointingly the big name supporting cast in Paxton and Arkin are underused.

2/5

An incomplete visit

A Day in the Country (1936)

Written and directed by Jean Renoir this film stars Sylvia Bataille, Georges D'Arnoux, Jane Marken and Andre Gabriello. In 1860 a family of Parisians travel to spend the day lunching in the countryside where two local men eye up the lady folk.

This is a short film that is not complete as Renoir imagined it but the narrative does hold together at least. I found the story to be a little simple and not with much depth but that could well be due to the incomplete nature of the film. The does look pretty good but not remarkably so in my opinion.

3/5

Luke warm in Arabia

Escape from Zahrain (1962)

Directed by Ronald Neame this film based on the novel “Appointment in Zahrain” stars Yul Brynner, Jack Warden and Madlyn Rhue. Following a break out an Arab revolutionary, an American embezzler and other criminals seek to escape across the desert.

While this film makes some pretence to explore imperialism in the Arab peninsula it never goes very deep into the matter but at least it offers a surprisingly liberal out look for the time it was made. Disappointingly a lot of the plot is a second rate knock off of Ice Cold in Alex (1958) but offers little of the tension of the earlier film. At times some of the camera tricks and special effects are a little too obvious but if this is the type of film you are into it is not a bad watch.

3/5

Days of past not enough future

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Directed by Bryan Singer this film stars Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. In the future Mutants are kept in camps and hunted by killer robots, the only option left is to send someone back in time to prevent the future ever happening.

Having to put the X-Men franchise back together after the disaster of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) was a major effort but this film provides an elegant reboot using one of the iconic story lines from the comics. Unfortunately the plot of the film focuses too much on the 1973 portion of the story which lacks the huge scale and darkness of the future portions which I would love to have seen more of as in the comics. The plot does a decent job on a character level, expanding the characters from the First Class (2011) but is not as good as some of the other films in the franchise. There is plenty of enjoy and the action sequences are decent but I am not sure this is the best version of Days of Future Past we could have had.

4/5

Too many heroes don't quite spoil the broth

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Written and directed by Joss Whedon this film has a large cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johnasson and Mark Ruffalo. After recovering Loki's sceptre Tony Stark can't help but use it to try and create an AI which ends up back firing.

This is the epitome of a fast food movie, the plot moves along at a breakneck pace with relentless action and humour but is only ever fun not something with a real soul. Maybe the film suffers from having a crowded cast but so many ideas go undeveloped that it would have been better if this had been a three hour film. There are the trappings of familiar sci-fi ideas here but the fast pace of the film means that Ultron never really gets explored with any depth.

As someone who has stayed clear of nearly all the pre-release material there were plenty of surprises and things for me to enjoy along the way. There are a at least a couple of great moments and some interesting attempts to do different things with the characters but the film also redundantly repeats some of the “learning to be a team” elements of the first film. I think the first Avengers film was a much cleaner effort and while this film is enjoyable it offers little for the grey matter.

4/5