Hairspray

The tale of Tracy Turnblat and dance as a weapon against segregation, set in 1960s America. Also John Travolta in drag reprising the part played by Divine in the original 1988 movie, a film I must have seen a couple of times but really do not recollect. Well, that might be just as well. This is not a political movie, despite the theme. It is a very 'feelgood' film though. It a good old fashioned musical (and provided you accept the ludicrous nature of these films you'll be fine). Every night the teenage population of Baltimore rush home to see the nightly dance based music show on the local television station. Tracy is obsessed with becoming a dancer on the show. Her reclusive overweight mother (played by Travolta) is not convinced that she can achieve her aim - but she does! Once a month there is a 'negro day' programme. Young Tracy can't accept that every night cannot be 'negro night'. Joining the black students at her school she becomes a part of a campaign to 'integrate' the programme and have mixed dancing on the show. Her mother supports her and the film ends with the achievement of integration and a young black dancer becoming 'Miss Hairspray'. My rating? 7/10

The Simpsons Movie

You really have to be a fan of the TV series to want to go to this film - but thankfully I am! This could have easily been several episodes strung together with no real common thread, but this movie is more than that - it does have a plot, and plenty of one liners, but also more developed comedy too.

Homer is the real hero of the film. Springfield is facing environmental meltdown. Lisa tries to rouse the residents and turn them from their anti- social ways - some hope! President Arnie decides to step in and act when Homer's newly acquired pet pig (Spider pig, the comic book hero pig) produces so much waste that a tipping point is reached on the pollution scales. A dome is lowered over the town to protect the rest of America from the appalling effects of their behaviour. But Homer saves the day - I won't explain how. At the same time he forms a new relationship with wife Marge and his three children. Most of the usual characters in the TV series have a part in the movie, and there are enough laughs, and enough of a plot to make this enjoyable for both adults and children. Rating: 7/10

Transformers

Starring the bizarrely named Shia Labeouf (a young male star - made up name I hope) and Megan Fox, and variously people disguised as vehicles that transform themselves into robots/organic life forms. Based on the toys of the same name. It is obviously the summer season because there is a glut of films aimed at a 'younger audience' - not generally highly intellectual films, or terribly thoughtful or thought provoking. There's nothing wrong with a good action movie or thriller, but this probably isn't that good. I think the problem is that it can't make up its' mind whether it is an action movie, a love story, a comedy, a drama or a teen movie. So geeky young Shia has the offer of a car from his father and instead of a Porsche that he desires he goes to a second hand car lot where he is a 'adopted' by a clapped out motor. This vehicle turns out to be an autobot (a car which turns into a robot in disguise - hence transformers). This vehicle is just one of several autobots locked in an eternal battle with the evil decepticons in search of 'the cube' which turns out to be hidden under the Hoover Dam. The cube is (naturally) the source of remarkable powers - for good or evil - that could lead to Decepticons ruling the universe and the elimination of the human race. The story line does hold the attention and there are some good action moments and battle scenes, but this is really only a slightly above average film. Rating: 7/10

Die Hard 4.0

Bruce is back as John MacLean! For a man in his mid to late fifties Mr Willis can still carry off this action movie to great effect!

It is nearly or perhaps more than 20 years since this series began, and I reckon this one is up there with the best. It draws you in so rapidly to the plot to destroy American society through complete destruction of the computer systems - no communication (mobile phones, etc), power (electricity, gas) total gridlock of the roads (traffic lights all turned to green simultaneously) and all so plausible. The suspense is just terrific, the violence all so well staged and somehow cosmetic, and Mr Willis is the real superhero, out to save the world and is daughter now a full grown woman. His sidekick this time (and John MacLean always needs a side kick just to emphasise how much bigger and better and somehow good looking he still is even at his age!) is Mat Farrell a computer geek, with boyish long hair to contrast with Bruce's shave head. The mastermind of this computer scam is also young and tender and good looking - Mr Gabriel (the Archangel perhaps?) I really enjoyed this film, the tension and suspense wonderful, the plotline simple but effective, the explosions dramatic, the villains suitably villainous and the heroes outstandingly heroic, but somehow vulnerable and human. Rating - oh this gets a 9/10 - Yipee-I-ay!

Tell No One

Just a passing comment - but why are most of the good films around at the moment mainly foreign language - or is it just my strange taste in films?

I many ways this French film is a traditional murder mystery but there are so many twists and turns it is raised above the average. How much of the plot can I give away - well the central character is a paediatrician whose wife was murdered eight years previuosly. He was suspected of complicity, and this suspicion is revived when the bodies of two men are discovered close to the scene of her abduction. There are so many twists to this tale - he is under surveillance from both the police and another sinister group, there is one of the most bizarre by exciting chases I've ever seen in the cinema, he gets rescued by the father of one of his patients - a sinister underworld hardman, his father-in-law (and ex policeman) starts behaving very suspiciously, there are murders, an emails that pull the story off in another direction. All together this is a film worth seeing - as a thriller and a well produced one at that. Rating: 8/10

By the way the title means nothings - despite an injunction to 'Tell No One' the hero seems to tell everyone he knows!

Shrek III

This certainly made a change, from my usual diet of 'serious' movies. I didn't see Shrek 2 at all, and the original Shrek I only saw on TV. I think I should begin by saying that the quality of animation is outstanding. At times you really forget it is an animated film - the people, the animals, the clothing, the skin, the buildings, the perspective is just so life like. This has to be admired.

The storyline is fairly straightforward. The old king dies, leaving Shrek as his heir - but he doesn't really want the job. There have been a series of 'mishaps' during the regency when he and Fiona were filling in for the ill monarch. Shrek is told there is an alternative heir - Arthur. Whilst he goes off to to find the once and future king, Prince Charming aided by all the fairytale villains embarks on a coup d'etat.

Shrek and Arthur engage the support of Merlin, and gingerbread man, the three little pigs, one of the ugly sisters (the other is on the side of Prince Charming), Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots and of course donkey, to free the imprisoned Queen and Fiona and retake the kingdom for the good heroes of fairytale. Fiona is pregnant and in the course of the film we deal with 'friendship', 'fatherhood', god and evil, and all those eternal tales. There are lots of very funny bits to the story, too many references to other films, books, and tales, but is generally a good lighthearted movie. My rating - 6/10

La Vie En Rose

An incredibly powerful, emotional and moving biopic about the life of Edith Piaf. I've never been a terrific fan of the little sparrow, but now I've seen how tragic her life was I think I appreciate her music far more, and will probably end up buying a CD of her music.
Born in the First World War she was left in a brothel to be looked after by prostitutes as her mother left to find her destiny as a singer, her acrobat father returns from the War to take her to the circus. By the 1920s she was begging on the streets and her voice was becoming noticed. By the 1930s she was a true star, but already becoming riddled with every possible addiction and her body misshapened by disease. As a child she was blind for some weeks as a result of an illness, but the intervention of St Teresa Des Lesieux cured her - thereby becoming Piaf's guardian angel. A daughter died as a result of meningitis, marriages failed, the love of her life was killed in a plane crash, drug and drink wreaked its vengence and Edith died at 47. A true tragedy.
And how does this film deal with all this? Incredibly well, if in a slightly chaotic way. Events are not dealt with in strict chronology - we leap from the 1930s to 1950s, back to World War I, her deathbed, the 1920s, see Piaf collapse on stage in 1959, 1963, injecting drugs with one of her husbands, going into hospital in the 1950s and emerging just before her death. This was a tad confusing - but overall the tragedy is dealt with without tipping over into sentimentality, and who could not cry when she sings about the death of the true love of her life, or the French National Anthem at the age of 10, or finally as she sings 'Non, je ne regret rien' in the last months of her life, after having to be carried to the stage racked with pain. That voice is just amazing.
Rating: 8/10