07/03/2014 The Film Review

of all time since he has been England coach. And we will have the

latest from the world indoor athletics. Now, it is time for the

film review. Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News to take

us through this week's cinema, we have Mark Kermode. What do we have?

We have a new Wes Anderson film, Grand Budapest Hotel grand. If you

know him, you know what to expect. We have mret bullet, the latest film

from Danny Trejo, in which he plays a enforcement officer who take takes

law into his own hands and we have 300: Rise Of An Empir.

Now, Wes Anderson is not everyone's cup of tea but I like most of what

he does, most. When Wes Anderson is on form, he is

intriguing, occasionally, he can be too arch for his own good. This is

one of his most enjoyable films. One of the things he does is boxes in

boxes and stories in stories. The story here is with a narrator, who

remembers a younger version of himself, who then has a conversation

with somebody who takes us back to the 1930s, and the centre is the

Grand Budapest Hotel when it was run, lorded over by an extraordinary

concierge, played with brilliant economic timing by Ralph Fiennes.

Here is a clip. Who are you? I'm Zero, sir, the new

lobby boy. Zero? Yes, sir.

Who haired -- hired you? Mr Mojo. Am I to understand you hired this

young man in the position of a lobby boy? He's been engaged for a trial

period, pending your approval, of course. Perhaps, yes. Thank you, Mr

Mercer. You are welcome.

You are to be officially interviewed.

Shall I light the candle first, sir? What? No! Experience? Hotel, kitchen

boy, six months. Before that, I was... Experience, zero.

Thank you, again, sir. Accepted. Education? I started my

primary school, I almost finished... Experience zero.

Not now. Family? Zero. Oh, that is wonderful.

You were laughing all of the the way through. The cometic acting,

everybody loves Ralph Fiennes but his cometic genius is untouched? He

has done comedy performances before. A director saw him on stage on an

daptation of God of Carnage, and what is interesting here is that

Anderson treats the characters as if they are animation. So all of the

movements are stylised and particular. It is vae funny film,

largely as it has that brittle sense of everything is working, not so

much like looking at a Swiss watch but more like a grandfather clock in

which the workings are on display. What I like about the film is that

Ralph Fiennes manages to do that cometic timing thing that goes back

to the silent cinema. You think of Keating and Chapman. And the story

is a caper. It is mad cap it is about art theft, murder, cakes,

family plots. It has cable cars, trains, it has a war... All of this

stuff that comes together in a big meringue-like confection. And cakes

play a central role, arriving in boxes and then lovingly unpacked.

There have been times in the past when Wes Anderson's world has

beensterile, hard to get into to, but this is funny. Ralph Fiennes is

terrific. Every single actor in the world is in it. Bill Murray, we

could be here for the rest of the programme saying who is in it.

But it works well. It is a debt to Hitchcock. It is about story

telling, and crucially it is funny. The jokes are funny! I am glad you

mentioned razor sharp wit, because Bullet, perhaps not so, what do you

think? Danny Trejo became an international icon through Chris

Tarrant doing post modern pastiches but in Bullet this is B film grind

affair. It is on its way to DVD. Out on Monday. So opening the doors to

the cinemas, then going off to the DVD shelves.

He is up against a bad bunch of kidnappers, drug dealers, they are

kidnapping his grandson, there -- therefore he has to take matters

into his own hands. So fine at home with a curry and a six pack but even

at that mark it is lame. It is bland. It does not have the wit or

the sparkle that has been done by him before. It is head bang, a B

film for Boring. I did watch 300. I have no idea why.

Don't be ashamed, embrace it. But 300: Rise of the Empire, what is it?

This is skp exact Schneider's best film. A companion piece. The story

this time is that we have Themistocle and Artemisi played with

some relish, by Eva Green. Which is more than I can say for any

of you... Do you gentlemen find my command unreasonable? Is it too much

to ask for victory? Although I stand among 10,000, I am alone! I long for

a soul who would stand by my side. Someone I could trust.

Tell meeshgs general -- tell me, general, are you that man? You will

taste your victory by the day's end. I will make certain of it.

I hope so. That gives an indication of the

acting that goes from overripe to utterly wooden. The film starting

with a voice over that explains the plot going on forever. Making the

open opening of the Phantom Menace wild.

And it reminds you about 300 but being dull. Despite the massive

amounts of flesh, blood and sword-swinging... And not to mention

baby oil. Everyone is nicely waxed before

battle. And this time we have not one but two warrior queens, and yet

it is still the same kind of manly, beating, war! And interspersed with

these unbelievably bits of tedious splot exhibition, all so the in CG

3D. It looks like something you see on a computer game. The dialogue

apparently written by those who wrote the Carry On films. And

considering the level of carnage, the body count, how much stuff is

going on it is astonishing how uninteresting it all is. It does

demonstrate just how interesting 300 was as a film.

You are kidding me? ! No, I am not, 300 is Citizen Kane.

No, Unforgiven. I wondered why this was in best of the week? It is a

re-make. A Japanese re-make, obviously there has been a long

interplay between Westerns and mythology.

In the case of this they have taken the script verbatim and transferred

the location and it sounds like a strange idea but the minute you

start to watch it, it makes sense. The underlying myths are the same.

The samurai war yore, the lone figure haunted by his past who, is

drawn into violence it does not, I think match the depth of the

Eastwood original, which is an astonishing piece of work, but what

it lacks in depth, it makes up for in splendour it is interesting how

you watch the myths passing backwards and forwards between the

cultures it works surprise ingly -- surprisingly well. Even with you

know the story so well, it is amazing how well it works in the new

setting. Now, I am surprised by the new

choice of Gravity, you need to see it on a big screen? I know! It won

Best Picture but it is an interesting case of will the film

hold up when not on a big screen. Ideally, you have to watch it on a

mass massive I max screen, and seek out the stereo version, but the

reason for this, is that there has been a lot of talk about Alfonso

Cuaron, the story works, Sandra Bullock's personal journey. And it

is interesting to watch on the small screen. It is a different film. It

looks more like an episode of the Twielight zone. Once the visuals are

not doing the dazzling, you watch it as an up upmarket B film script. I

am surprised it holds up. It is not the roll rollercoaster experience

but it works better than you think. OK.

Works better than you think. So a quick reminder before you go. More

films and news from Mark on his blog at Kermode cut.

That is it for The Film Review this week. Thank you for watching and

goodbye. Well, I think that this weekend's

weather will get mixed reviews. We are seeing mixed fortunes today.

Temperatures hitting 16 or 17