A Walk Amongst The Tombstones

This was an interesting one... If it had starred anyone but Liam Neeson it would have been a generic thriller.. Liam plays a clique.... sorry, retired cop and alcoholic, who now is an unregistered private investigator.

His services are called upon by a drug 'trafficker' when the said traffickers wife is kidnapped and subsequently murdered (despite paying a ransom..!)

Turns out this isn't the first kidnapping and as the plot unravels things start to kick off. 

I'm not quite sure what to make of this one.. On the one hand it's very formulaic and routine. The dialogue isn't particularly good and, as well as the basic premise the film is littered with cliques... But on the other hand you have Liam Neeson. To his credit he does add a certain gravitas to the film. At six foot something you can't really avoid him. Plus with him there you know someone's gonna get punched.  This was more 'The Grey' than 'Taken'. There was no 'edge of your seat' action and the pace wasn't relentless.. 

That being said it was still an entertaining ***.

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Before I Go To Sleep.

Can't remember the last time I saw a good amnesiac thriller (bum,tish!).
Memento being the benchmark by which all are compared..
In this one Nicole Kidman is Christine Lucas, a woman who every morning wakes up remembering nothing of her past as the result of a traumatic accident.. Throw into the mix her husband (Colin Firth) and Doctor (Mark Strong) and you have 'top quality' actors..
There's a twist I didn't see coming and that always impresses me. The mood is somber and sinister, and in the end it was entertaining..

Rating ***1/2
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I Origins

Got to Cardiff in good time today so I thought, as its my birthday I'd get a film in.
I hadn't heard anything about this one. Basic plot goes something like this.. Ian (Michael Pitt) is a biologist whose specialist field is eyes. He and his lab partner Karen (Brit Marling) are trying to find how the human eye evolved and is not a product of 'intelligent design'. Throw into the mix Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) a young woman who Ian falls for and it all goes pear shaped..
This film started off quite slowly and at one point I was wondering where it was heading.. Then it threw in an interesting theory and the film went in a different direction..
Overall it didn't turn out as I imagined and consequently made me think about it long after I'd seen it. It's ignited my interest for 'Another Earth' now so I'm going to have to look that one up..

Overall an intelligent ***1/2 star movie..


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The Equalizer

Finished at lunchtime today so I thought I'd catch a movie at the local Odeon. This one has no connection to the TV series of the same name.  Edward Woodward didn't make a cameo appearance (he is dead after all) and neither did the excellent Steve Copeland theme tune (unfortunately).

A brief synopsis goes thus... Denzel Washington plays Robert McCall, an everyday man working at a U.S. version of B&Q and spending his evenings alone in a 24 hour Cafe reading. It's here he bumps into Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young prostitute under the control of Russian gangsters. When she's violently beaten up for assaulting a client, McCall approaches the gang and offers to buy Teri's freedom.. Needles to say they don't accept his offer and it all kicks off.. (as it does). 

If you haven't already figured it out by now it becomes apparent that McCall hasn't always worked at B&Q (unless he's had some advanced training in dealing with customer complaints!?)..

I'll come straight out with it... I liked it. Its slow and brooding... Which I'm a fan of. The action is visceral and brutal in places.. Denzels good as always, plus the head henchman is pretty intimidating too..

Overall easily a **** movie.

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In Order Of Disappearance

Cinema trips are a bit thin on the ground these days so I've got to be a bit more choosy in what I see.
This ones a case in point. I could have seen 'Lets Be Cops' or 'Guardians' (again!) but instead I opted for a Norwegian, subtitled, dark, comedic thriller (as you do)..

In this one we find Stellan Skarsgarrd as Nils Dickman, a snow plough operator whose son is found dead as a result of a drugs overdose. Nils knows his son was not an addict, and as the police are not interested he takes it upon himself to find the person responsible. As a result he instigates a war between two rival drugs gangs along the way..

I'm becoming a fan of Norwegian films after the excellent 'Headhunter' and recently the 'The Keeper Of Lost Causes'. This one is not on par with 'Headhunter' but it is well shot and has an entertainingly dark streak of humour running through it.  Stellan Skarsgarrd is excellent as expected, as is Bruno Ganz as Papa, the head of the Serbians.  It's Pal Severre Hagen who has all the best lines though. He plays 'the Count', a vegan, estranged father of 1, insane gangster who starts the whole thing off. 

Like i said, it's not up to Headhunter standard but I still enjoyed it, even if it was perhaps a little too long. Overall ***1/2

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