Starring:Iddo Goldberg, Deborah Francois, Fernando Tielve Genre: Drama IMDb:Unmade Beds Released: July, 2009 NZFF (New Zealand)

For the first half of this movie, I was intrigued. I felt genuinely interested in finding out all about Axl and his life of reckless debauchery in the underground scene of London town. But somewhere along the way I got side-tracked and things seemed a little hazy. Random events ocurring in the lives of both Axl and Vera became intertwined. It was no longer a clear cut path and the Unmade Beds became a mish-mash of imagery – broken glimpses of two lives thrust together by chance.

I don’t like messy storylines. Watching Unmade Beds began as if a painter was about to embark on creating a masterpiece with a blank sheet of canvas. But it soon became a collage of messy images, alot of which seemed unsubstantial. I did however enjoy the part of Axl’s story as he tried desperately to piece together aspects of his life after locating his father. This gave the character of Axl some backbone, something deeper than drugs, orgies and dancing to crappy music.

Maybe I’m just not made for art-house movies. None-the-less the acting talent of our two main characters Vera and Axl (Deborah Francois and Fernando Tielve) is undeniable. Diary of a Call Girl’s Iddo Goldberg is also worth a mention – he’s just great.

Image via Vimooz

Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris. Genre: Action/Martial Arts/Drama IMDb: Ninja Assassin Released: June, 2010 (New Zealand)

When the main actor in a movie’s first name is ‘Rain’, you might be forgiven for being just a tad dubious about the movie’s content. And honestly, when I first saw Ninja Assassin on the shelves at my local DVD store, I wasn’t jumping at the chance to watch it, which is kinda odd for me considering I love martial arts movies. The fact that Rain is actually a rock star in Korea and not really a serious actor didn’t help much either.

And my hunch was almost just about right. Rain’s acting ability is clearly something you really, really have to look for (with a microscope). Acting alongside Naomie Harris probably didn’t make things any easier for him considering Naomie is a seasoned actress and also one of my favourite Brit actresses (she was fantastic in 28 Days Later). But where Rain may have failed in the delivering of his lines department, he surely made up for it in spades in the action scenes and came across as something of quite a natural.

The Wachowski brothers along with Joel Silver were on production for Ninja Assassin and being the huge Matrix fan that I am, I try to look out for projects these chaps are associated to. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Ninja Assassin will make it into their top five movie projects but the martial arts sequences were actually pretty kick-ass. The only thing I couldn’t quite get a handle on was all the blood – I mean so much blood that any value the martial arts scenes may have had were unceremoniously buried under a sea of slurpy, messy, red stuff. Kinda fail.

However, all was redeemed when legendary Sho Kosugi took his place in front of the camera. I’m sorry but Sho F**CKIN Kosugi!!!!! This guy was a legend back in the day and ANY movie about ninja isn’t a movie without him in it. Yes, as you can guess, I’m a huge fan of Sho’s. I’ve seen all his movies and think he’s brilliant, even at the ripe old age of 62. His onstage presence is just so kick-ass and if you don’t believe me, try watching some of his earlier ninja movies – I recommend Enter the Ninja or Revenge of the Ninja.

So overall – Rain needs more acting lessons but kicks ass just fine and the director needs to understand that spraying everyone in the immediate area with fake blood until they’re drenched will over-shadow anything good a movie has to offer. Well almost anything – Sho Kosugi gives this movie serious brownie point cred.

PCR Rating:

Today’s visit to my local DVD store took me around 10 minutes. That’s actually a long time for me. I can usually spend less than five minutes in the store and know what I want (usually New Releases) – assuming I haven’t seen it at the movies first. But I’m happy to spend longer in the store if it means finding little gems like ‘After Sex’.

The movie is about what happens after the hanky panky (just as the title suggests). And it’s filmed so well that I found myself all over the place emotionally watching it. The movie is split up into short sequences between eight different couples – different people with different needs and sexual orientation. Pretty much everything’s covered – the gay couples (both male and female), the straight couples, the swingers, the cheaters, the virgins having sex for the first time and the one night stands. And not only is the script great but the cast will blow you away – Mila Kunis (from That 70s Show) and Zoe Saldana (pre-Avatar), Taryn Manning, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Jane Seymour even does a small bit.

The opening sequence was particularly powerful because the exchange between the two characters resonated with me on so many levels. When movie dialogue makes a connection to you, you know you’ve got a winner. The individual performances are also stellar; Zoe Saldana and Mila Kunis are particularly great as are Emmanuelle Chriqui (as the cheating ex-girlfriend) and Taryn Manning (as the actress that fools her date into thinking she’s an incest-loving escort from Arkansas).

Movies like ‘He’s Just Not that Into You’ might be fun to watch and may have some big names fronting for the camera, but when it comes down to it, it’s always about sex and ‘After Sex’ deals with this straight-up without all the BS inbetween.

PCR’s Rating: 5/5

It’s a crying shame when you find gems like ‘The Poker House’ hidden away in the new release section down the back of your local video store. A shame because little indy projects like this one should get a whole lot more exposure and publicity than they do, especially when they’re directed by a reasonably well-known Hollywood actress.

Lori Petty’s (Tankgirl, Point Break) directorial debut is a ‘based on a true-story’ kinda deal about a 14-year old girl named ‘Agnes’ (played by Jennifer Lawrence) who lives a life pretty akin to something out of a freakshow. Her mother is a drug addicted prostitute (played fantastically by Selma Blair) bound to a pimp who runs their household like the local five and dime (except his wares are women). Surrounded by a maelstrom of disconnected humanity, Agnes is forced to be the mother figure for her two younger sisters, Bee and Chloe. So much living to do for such a young soul full of promise, intensity and life. You can’t help but feel for Agnes as she fumbles through school with straight A’s, holds down two jobs, one of which sees her writing poetry for the local rag and juggles her responsibilities as a star Basketball player on her high school team.

As each new day of her life unfolds like pages in one of her text books, we come to understand that Agnes knows what the future holds and isn’t afraid to grab hold of it, even at the risk of losing everything. One particularly tragic event forces mother and daughter to make painful choices and we finally see Agnes leave The Poker House with her two sisters in-tow.

If you’re not one for reading the synopsis’ on DVD covers, ‘The Poker House’ is based on Lori Petty’s life as she grew up in a small town in Iowa. It’s powerful and sobering and will make you sit up and take notice. Jennifer Lawrence won the award for ‘Outstanding Performance’ at the Los Angeles Film Festival for her portrayal of the young Lori Petty.

If you thought ‘Precious’ was good, you’ll absolutely love ‘The Poker House’ and in my opinion, this movie is far superior.

PCR’s Rating: At the very least you should rent this title.

I really wanted to like ‘In the Electric Mist’ but I just couldn’t get into it. The movie didn’t really grab me the way I expected. With a great cast including Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman, I guess I was waiting for something that never arrived. This is probably not the fault of the actors who for the most part, seemed to be doing their jobs respectively well. Tommy Lee Jones is not new to playing law enforcement in a movie and we’ve all seen how exceptionally talented he is. John Goodman is believable as the bad guy in town but there’s very little else happening.

The movie begins to get interesting just when it also begins to get a little weird. Peter Sarsgaard’s alcholic movie star is kind of annoying (although I’ve really enjoyed Sarsgaard’s previous work). The plot takes a strange turn when he admits to Tommy Lee Jones’ character that he saw something strange out yonder near the bayou while he was recovering from a drunken binge. Hmm. My experiences of both being around drunken people and being a little tipsy myself is that when drunken people start talking about seeing dead things, bones in chains and such, you don’t really believe them. But believe him they did and the next thing we know, Mr Jones’ character is off on some wild-goose chase to find these bones.

As far as thrillers go, In the Electric Mist tries to build up to something but falls some-what short. You get the impression that there’s a gaping hole in the story somewhere and every single one of the main characters eventually ends up falling head-first into it, never to re-surface.

PCR Rating – 2/5

If you’ve never heard of the artist Francisco Goya you’re not alone. Goya’s Ghosts is directed by Milos Forman and stars the wonderful Skellan Skarsgard as Goya, Natalie Portman as his muse Ines and Javier Bardem as the manipulative and corrupted Father Lorenzo. It’s a movie told from Goya’s perspective and portrays Goya as a lonely but talented artist who falls victim to the injustices of the time at the hands of men who commit horrendous acts in the name of religion.

Goya’s Ghosts produces a solid cast including stellar performances from Bardem, Skarsgard and Portman who work magnificently together onscreen. It’s a touching story of a talented artist living in a tumultuous time who struggles to come to grips with the loss of his hearing and a world corrupted by religious tyrants and tragic women.

It’s nice to see Natalie Portman in another period piece after seeing her brilliant performance in The Other Boleyn Girl aside Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. I was also impressed with Javier Bardem’s portrayal of the deceitful Father Lorenzo – he seems almost too sincere in his corruptive nature.

For some, climbing a mountain that you know in your heart of hearts will most probably kill you is a passion and for a few, an obsession. There’s something deep and primal about man going up against nature but you kinda expect that the outcome will rarely be a positive one. Thus is the case for our adventurous mountain climbers from Germany and North Face is their story.

From a purely cinematic point of view, North Face is photographed beautifully. I’ve never been to Germany so I’ve never seen the Eiger Mountain but in this movie and from a distance, it really is beautiful and uncompromising and doesn’t look in the least bit threatening. For climbers Toni Kurz and Andreas Hinterstoisser, the challenge to face Eiger is overwhelming and cannot be ignored. After leaving the Fuhrer’s army to climb their mountain and make history as the first to do so, things start to really decline at a rapid pace.

Again, this is another movie supposedly based on the true story of the climbers who faced their most terrifying challenge ever only to succumb to a plague of bad luck, poor preparation and bad timing. Mother Nature it seems, is a more than formidable opponent and is captured in all her glorious fury as she unleashes her wrath upon the climbers. As they ascend the “Murder Wall”, the locals’ nickname for Eiger, step by painstaking step the climbers realise they are slowly losing their grip on their dream, their hopes and eventually each other.

North Face is similar to “Touching the Void” in the sense that it truly captures the essence of Man vs. Nature and the struggle of two friends with a dream to climb one of the most dangerous mountains in the world.

I enjoy stories about the underdog taking back what’s his or hers or theirs, in this case. The underdog in Stone of Destiny appears to be Scotland who as a nation in the 1950s, seem to be overwhelmed by the injustices of past historic deeds. Although most of these injustices seem to point at a severe case of identity crisis. Enter Charlie Cox and his small band of freedom fighters (Billy Boyd, Robert Carlyle and Kate Mara) who believe that something must be done and come up with the outrageous idea to take back the ‘Stone of Destiny’. The only problem with this is that the stone is now housed in Westminster Abbey under heavy guard and is next to impossible to access. That’s no problem for our wily band of freedom fighters though, because they’ve got a plan!

So goes the story of the Stone of Destiny as portrayed in the movie which is mildly entertaining and if nothing else, a nice wee yarn. Based on the book of the same name (and for the most part, based on a true story), Stone of Destiny is a solidly made movie about the pride and dignity of the scottish people captured and symbolised by a sacred relic. Although there are many rumours surrounding the Stone of Destiny which include it’s origin and subsequent copying of the original stone (circa 1950), Stone of Destiny avoids getting bogged down in particulars and as a result, comes together just swimmingly.

Robert Carlyle makes an appearance as a politician backing the young rogues on their quest. Charlie Cox (from Stardust) is enthusiastic and energetic as the enigmatic leader, Ian Hamilton. Good for the family, nice for a look if you’re into underdog stories or just curious about what the hell the Stone of Destiny is all about.

I was thrilled to walk into my local video store to find they had The Red Baron advertised on the shelves. Alas, this happiness was short-lived when I discovered every single copy was out! I was eventually able to grab one as it was returned and was pretty hyped to watch this movie all about the infamous “Red Baron” or ‘Der Rote Baron” as it is said in German.

Reading some of the background about the real “Red Baron”, I felt that the movie did well to capture alot of the realities and harshness of World War I. I’ve seen a few movies about WWII and Vietnam but very few modern movies focus on the first World War so in that sense, The Red Baron was something refreshing. And I don’t know alot about fighter planes, pilots or aerial combat but I was thrilled with the cinematics and special effects executed in this movie. You don’t have to know a thing about planes to feel like you were right there in some of the aerial combat scenes. The Red Baron was shot beautifully and the aerial combat mechanics were out of this world. Kudos to the direction and special effects team!

The casting was also spot on apart from Lena Headey’s portrayal of the love interest for our Red Baron, nurse Kate Otesdorf. According to historical accounts, the romance portrayed in the movie between Manfred “The Red Baron” Von Richthofen (played by Matthias Schweighöfer) and nurse Kate Otesdorf is purely fictitious. But this isn’t why I didn’t like her in the role. As an actress, I quite like Lena Headey but there was something about her playing the nurse that just didn’t fit. Her accent seemed fine, and it wasn’t her acting that was bad either. She just seemed a little too mature for the baby-faced beauty Matthias Schweighöfer. And there was a distinct lack of on-screen chemistry between them. It just didn’t work for me.

Matthias Schweighöfer on the other hand is brilliant as the Red Baron. I was very happy to see the director decided on a German actor rather than the previously listed Val Kilmer to play the main role. Again, I really like Val Kilmer but I thought that using a German actor and one that looks very much like the real Red Baron would serve the role and the movie better. I’m also glad that the movie received the funding it needed to keep the production in Germany rather than forcing it to become another ‘Hollywood’ movie made in the US.

I highly commend the director and script writers for portraying The Red Baron as a man with morals, honour, dignity and respect for both himself, his fellow pilots and the enemy. And although Germany didn’t receive this movie very well when it released in Berlin last year, I think the director, cast and crew all did a fantastic job of capturing an important historical icon of the German people on screen.

Distributor: Vendetta Films Released: 2009 Genre: Thriller/Drama Credits: Director: Dean O’Flaherty Written by: Dean O’Flaherty Starring: Sebastian Gregory, Michelle Chin, Tahyna Tozzi, Socratis Otto, Asher Keddie Rating: R 16

This dvd was supplied by Vendetta Films for review.

This year I’ve been thoroughly impressed with both the material coming out of the Aussie film industry and the calibre of actors. Beautiful is another well-written little thriller based in aussie surburbia about a 15 year old lad named Daniel (played superbly by Sebastion Gregory). Daniel is shy and introverted and not like alot of kids his age. He’s been through a fair bit emotionally and doesn’t find alot of support at home other than what he receives from his step mother. Danny also has a crush on his next door neighbour, the local ‘lolita’ Suzy who knows how to use her good looks and sexuality to manipulate others. After fixing her sights on Daniel, the two embark on a reckless and dangerous journey to discover the secrets hidden behind the door at number 46.

A sensational script will find you literally frothing at the mouth to discover the secret about the black car and the man and woman living at number 46. As Daniel edges ever closer to separating the fiction from reality, Suzy drops a bomb on him that catapults him further and further into dangerous territory, eventually almost leading him to the point of no return. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Well, it really is a great little story although as things wind up, you’re kinda left wondering what happened to the momentum. That aside, the acting talent is fantastic and I can’t rave about Sebastian Gregory enough!

Beautiful is available from Vendetta films here