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: Dir: Daniel Alfred son •Release Date : 26/n/10 •
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Stieg Larsson's crim e thrill er novels burst onto the best se ll ers li st in 2007, beginning with the now infamous The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. With the LL film following a year later, the dark Swedish trilogy gathered popularity for the following th ree years . 0 Now, the final chapter has m hit screens this November. Can The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest close the story of Lizbeth Salander with as much excitement as o it started 7 W Disappointingly, the a: simple answer would be 3 no . Although certainly a step up from the second ,
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:Director: Anton Corbijn l!> •Release Date : 26/n/10
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Anton Corbijn's powerful directorial debut Control, depicting singer lan Curtis instantly brought him to the fore causing this, hi s second fi lm, to be eagerly critically ant icipated. George Cloon ey is Jack, a professional killer with a seeming ly idylli c, James Bond li festyle, holed up in a Swiss cabin as the film opens. This il lusion is quickly shattered as after an assass in ation att empt he is ordered to lay low in a remote village in Italy whilst completing the lengthy construction of a specia li se d weapon. Natura ll y, once in Italy, a love interest is established in the form of a prostitute Clara and, coupled w ith a
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friendship with the village prrest, Jack begins to examine the life he has led thus far. Th ere is an interesting premise of self-examination, but predictable plot twists hamper this thematic development. Clooney brings his usual engag in g screen presence, yet his character needs fleshing out, as do th e pastiche Th e supporting ro les. film picks up towards its conc lusion with a series of wonderfu ll y composed sce nes. Once again, however, content is sacrificed for lingering stylisti c shots creating a polis hed, glossy, surface which is more than the sum of its parts.
Emily Bater
JCJ<ED THE HoRNET's NEsT
and former lover Mikael Blomkvist despe rate ly attempting to prove her innocence, time is running
whilst under their care, and you can te ll that life ha s not got any easier for poor Li zbeth Salander.
out. Add in a psychotic half brother who still wants her dead, and an evil Swedish corporation desperat e to silence her before she can expose the truth of the sexua l abuse she suffered
The film'SlS certificate is there for a definite reason. Th e trilogy's reputation of gritty violence has not been forgotten and The Hornet 's Nest fully delivers on thi s front . With the brutal and
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The Girl Who Played With Fire, the most tedious, of the trilogy, the third instalment still feels like it's missing the chilling originality of the first. Flitting between dramatic courtroom drama and disconnected conspirac y tale, The Hornet's Nest seems confused about how many genres it can cram its excessive ly dense narrative into . Picking up almost immediately after the end of the second film, we now see heroine Salander on trial for th e attempted murder of her father. Traumatized after being shot in the head and buried alive, Lizbeth has become even more of a recluse, and with journalist, friend
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MoNSTERS
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•Director: Gareth Edwards • : Release Date: 3/12/10
The first thing that rea ll y needs to be noted in this review is, oddly, if you're going to see Monsters for the titular 'mo nst ers', more than li ke ly yo u' ll be disappointed. Whilst obvious comparisons can be drawn to high-budget studio efforts such as Cloverfie ld (2008) and District 9 (2009), this is no big blockbuster monster movie. follo ws Th e story journalist Kau lder (Scoot McNairy), as he escorts his boss' daughter, Sam (Whitney Able) through the ' Infected Zone' of Central America, six years after aliens have invaded, making the area their home.
Dr. Teleborian, a sadistic paedophile brilliant ly played by Anders .'\ hi born. In fairness, the downfall of this film is simply that it's source material is too good. W ith so much happening in one narrati ve it's unsurprising that certain intricacies get lost in tran slation . Feeling long at l48 minutes, the complexity of this concluding tale may leave viewers simply w ishing they'd waited for the American remake (the first of w hi ch , directed by David Fincher, is due to hit our screens in December 2on). Better than the second but not quite as good as th e first; people might be less disappointed if they stick to the books. Beth Davison
disturbing rape sequence of the first film sti ll resonating , add in one toe-curlingly nasty scene involving a nail gun and audiences everywhere will be wincing' Aesthetically th is fi lm cannot be faulted. With gorgeous backdrops and cleve r came ra work the narrative may not thrill the Swedish tourist board but the scenery certainly wi ll . The acting is also brilliant with Noomi Rapace st ill on stunning form as our protagonist. Once again donning fu ll gothic punk attire for ju st one courtroom scene, audiences are reminded why she is one of the best antiheroes of this decade . The face of the central villain comes in the form of the abhorrent
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................... . Although it's hard to believe, first -time British director Gareth Edwards wrote , shot and edited the entire film himse lf on location, with a very modest budget. Most of the time this isn't even obvious; the CG I is admirable and serves its purpose we ll, even if it doesn't stand up to the likes of Avatar. Th e two leads should also be praised ; their simmering romance is the real attraction here. Make no mistake, there are plenty of massive electric octopus crea tures chucki ng cars around, but they only really serve as a background to the real story of the film; something which is far more potent than your average creature-feature.
James Coli ins
I : Dir:William Monahan
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: Release Date : 26/n/10
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• •••••••••••••••••••• London Boulevard is the latest edition to the British gangster genre and has a lot t o live up to. Directed by the writer of The Departed, London Boulevard tell s the tale of M itchell, played by Colin Farrell, a man newly released from prison , and his attempts to leave beh ind hi s former li fe as a gangster. In doing so, he takes a job working for Charlotte, a reclusive ac tre ss (Keira Knightley), with whom he fal ls in love . But Mob boss Gant (Ray Winstone) is not willing to let him go easily. Th is film is worth seeing if only for the supporting as cast. Anna Friel Mitchell's sister and David Thewlis as a film producer
who lives with Charlotte for no apparent reason steal every scene they are in. The film itself is enjoyab le, if rather hollow, and it certainly does not add anything to the gangster genre. Mitchell falls back in to the violent underworld too easi ly for his determination t o not return to his old ways at the beginning of the film to ring true, and the film suffe rs because of a lack of chemistry between Knightley and Farrell. Overall this is an enjoyable film, but does not offer anything that audiences have not seen before. Katy Ouigley