Loosely adapted from the Isaac Asimov stories, I, Robot is a slick, enjoyable, but slightly underwhelming sci-fi film. Will Smith plays a robot-hating detective set to investigate the death of a scientist in a future-world in which robots are relied on for most of our labour and day to day chores. The whole film plays out more like a Will Smith vehicle than an intelligent science fiction parable though. That's not to say it doesn't work, Smith is as charasmatic as ever, there are some good set pieces and special effects, and it has an interesting final revelation. It just could have been something more had it not catered too much to the popcorn market. There is also some horrendous product placement which can spoil scenes if its done this blatantly. As a summer blockbuster its fairly effective though and both Will Smith and sci-fi fans alike will find enough to enjoy here to make it worth seeing. 6/10
Coming from Pixar, the team behind the Toy Story films and Finding Nemo etc and Brad Bird, the director of The Iron Giant (see below) and ex-Simpsons writer I had (ahem) incredible hopes for this film, and once again Pixar have delivered the goods. The Incredibles actually changes the Pixar formula slightly too without spoiling things, with less of a focus on friendship and less schmaltz (although their other films handled this well). Although still a family film, this is a shade darker than Toy Story etc. and has more action, feeling at times more like a James Bond film than Disney, especially with some of its clever 60's designs. And the action is handled extremely well, with the award winning animation team outdoing themselves, producing a beautiful looking film alongside some very exciting set pieces. The vocal cast does a good job too adding life to the CGI, and the script as would be expected from Bird is nicely polished and witty rather than just making obvious movie in-jokes ala Shrek, A Shark Tale etc. There's not much more to say really other than go out and watch it, whether you've got kids or not, theres plenty to enjoy for everyone. 9/10
A huge success in Asia, this Hong Kong thriller is a stylish and tense take on the undercover cop genre. Like The Killer, Face/Off and Heat this film blurs the lines between police and criminals, focusing on a policeman working as a mole in a triad gang and a triad mole acting as a police detective. This makes for a fairly interesting and intelligent action film, but its by no means perfect. The two leads, Andy Lau and Tony Leung do a fine job, pulling off the anguish of the characters as well as the macho posturing. The main faults I found with the film though were the tacked on female roles of both character's love interests, which are extremely slight and over-sentimental, and also the music, which I just found quite dated and at times melodramatic. There are quite a few cop movie/Hong Kong action cliches evident here too, which stopped it really rising above the rest. As I said at the start, it is very stylish though and its action set pieces are suitably tense and thrilling which makes a change from the over the top slow motion action that has been overdone now after John Woo's heyday. Overall its a good solid thriller which at times surprises but unfortunately isn't consistent enough to be anything special. 7/10
The Insider is a fantastically well made film from Michael Mann. Russell Crowe delivers an excellent performance as a man whose life is torn apart when he lets tobacco company secrets out into the open. This two and a half hour film is based on a magazine article about a disputedly true story, so an artistic licence has been used thouroughly, but you just don't care as the film grips you throughout its running time. It is shot in a glossily beautiful but also documentary-like style which works excellently, never annoyingly over stylish or too shaky as some modern films can be. Added to Russell Crowe's fine performance, Al Pacino pulls out his best, and shows us what he's good at, and the other supporting actors do a fine job too. Every detail in the film has been finely crafted to create a good looking, good sounding (it has an excellent soundtrack) and entirely engrossing film. It's a bit long, but felt a lot shorter than the similarly lengthed The Talented Mr. Ripley and was half an hour off The Green Mile and Magnolia. 9/10
The Coen Brothers return with another highly entertaining and quirky addition to their near perfect collection of films. I do have to say that this is not the Coens at their best, but considering that in my opinion they've never made a bad film, even a mediocre one for that matter, this is still good stuff. Intolerable Cruelty is a modern take on the old screwball comedies such as His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby, piling the jokes on thick and fast, but this being a Coen Brothers film, the jokes are sometimes a little more warped. George Clooney brings a great comedic performance to the film, echoing both Cary Grant and his role in the Coens' Oh Brother Where Art Thou? Catherine Zeta Jones isn't as strong unfortunately, which I think is one of the main reasons this film isn't quite as good as it should have been. Her role really demanded her to be an equal adversary/partner to Clooney for the film to really work and her lesser performance prevents this from happening. That said it doesn't totally spoil the film, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. One or two moments were pure comedy genius and had the whole cinema in hysterics, especially the scenes featuring a character called 'Wheezy Joe' and also those featuring Clooney's character's boss. Overall, I think that had this film been made by anyone else it would have been a minor revelation, but coming from the Coen Brothers its more of a fractional dissapointment, albeit still a very good comedy that I would certainly recommend to anyone. 7/10
You may have seen an advert for this film and dismissed it as standard kiddies Christmas garbage, but this is an excellently made moving film that won't be forgotten when the Christmas tree's been thrown out round the back and the turkey's finally been finished. The artwork and animation is superb, as is the music and sound of the film. It's based on the popular and equally brilliant book, the Iron Man by Ted Hughes. The whole film is polished to perfection, with just the right amount of schmaltz, humour, action, and even 50's political observation (check out the infamous duck and cover video). The touching finale almost moved me to tears, and this rarely happens. It is a kids film, and children will love this, but so will teenagers and adults just as much.
This film flopped in America, probably because it didn't have the 'Mouse House' behind it, but I just hope that people will watch it over here, so that it will get the recognition it deserves.
9/10
