A round-up of this month’s best home entertainment releases.
SANCTUM
BURIED
SEPERADO
CARLOS
UNIVERSAL
ICON
SODA PICTURES
OPTIMUM
June 13th
February 14th
Alister Grierson is a relative newcomer to the director’s chair, but even with veteran James Cameron at his side producing and the added spectacle of 3D to pull in audiences, nothing could save Sanctum from becoming the car wreck it inevitably is. Amid characters less enjoyable than a dead leg and a script packed with one horrible cliché after another, it would be advisable for audiences to avoid Sanctum at all costs and to embrace a classic such as The Poseidon Adventure instead.
Buried centres on Paul Conroy, a contracted truck driver working in Iraq who’s been indiscriminately kidnapped and buried in a coffin somewhere in the desert. Director Rodrigo Cortes does well to maintain a sense of tension throughout the film, but Chris Sparling’s script is at times found wanting; in particular its ending which does little else other than divide audience opinion. Still, it has to be said that Buried is not bad effort for what is essentially, Ryan Reynolds, in a box, for ninety minutes.
3/10 JAMES WRIGHT
7/10 JAMES WRIGHT
November 18th
In a rare foray into the world of documentary filmmaking Super Furry Animals singer Gruff Rhys excels as a Champion of the welsh language. The South American road trip in search of Rhys’ long lost Patagonian uncle (The ponchowearing guitarist Rene Griffiths), is at times directionless, meandering from one Welsh infused town to the next. Thankfully the bizarre narration of Gruff, “are Armadilos dangerous?” and captivating charm of the numerous characters, soon makes up for this disrupting oversight. 7/10 JAMES WRIGHT
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November 1st
Oliver Assayas assembles an ambititious shotgun perspective of the infamous revelutionary Carlos the Jackal. The result is startling, in particular the frenzied raids and explicit brutality which rightfully cemented the film as a worthwhile choice to close last years Cannes. Regrettably, the short (3Hour) version of the film, lacks the much needed character depth or intensity exhibited by the five-and-a-half-hour ‘Trilogy’ counter-part (although both versions are available). This is due largely to the sheer bulk of history related to the Jackal, as well as the films terribly fragmented delivery of the information-. 8/10 JAMES WRIGHT
MOTHER
September 20th OPTIMUM
Director Bong Joon-Ho’s latest offering following on from the superb film The Host, is once again something to shout about. When a local schoolgirl is viciously murdered the police soon pin the murder on a local twenty-sevenyear-old who suffers from having the mind of a child. Unable to fully comprehend the serverity of the situation, it falls to his mother to search for the killer that fraed her son. The murky storyline is impeccably paced and is complimented by a level of sound design which some films can only dream about. 9/10 JAMES WRIGHT
Look At What The Light Did Now Out Now - POLYDOR
Anthony Secks’s fly on the wall documentary following singer /songwriter Feist is not your everyday rock doc. The film might have all the credentials: live shows, studio sessions, music vids, but in truth there’s far more to it. Every minute exudes an irresistable arty charm and a genuine sense of community amongst Feist’s compatriots. Look at What The Light Did Now is well worth new and old fans attention, especially considering it’s packaged with a wealth of DVD extras and a bonus CV to keep you humming along to boot. 8/10 JAMES WRIGHT
KNOW THE SCORE CIRCO NEED A SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE TRIALS OF A TRAVELLING MEXICAN CIRCUS? CALL CALEXICO With their dusty atmospherics and evocative tales of hitting the road, desert noir specialists Calexico are built for soundtrack duties. Their score for this low profile documentry features almost thirty instramental sketches meandering between Americana and carnival music, and creates a sense that life under the Big Top isn’t quite as it appears on the surface. Musically it strectches from ‘Chamacos’, a snapshot of barely developed delicate beauty, to the richer, trumpet-infused palette of Mi Vida el y Circo’.
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