25/04/2014 The Film Review

Championship. The World Championship Snooker a medal for Great Britain at

the diving event in London. Now, it's time for The Film Review.

Hello and welcome The Film Review on BBC News. To take us through this

week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode. What do we have? A mixed

bag, I'm sure you know. We have Transcendence, the new movie

starring Johnny Depp, which is done, let us say, not so well in America.

We have Tracks, a recreation of an epic journey across the Australian

outback. One woman, four camels and a dog. We have The Other Woman, a

story about women turning the tables on the man who wronged them. You

said something about Transcendence there, not doing particularly well

in the United States. It has been loathed, hated and dumped on as the

worse nonblock bust are of the year? Comparisons have been made with

John Carter. The film is the debut from Wally Pfister, best`known as

Chris Nolan's sinning to per. It was based on a script, referred to as

the Black List, a very fated but as yet unproduced screenplays back in

2012. Johnny Depp is an artificial intelligence specialist, who is

enthusiastic about reaching the point when computers basically over

take mankind and can know and understand the world in a more

extraordinary way than mankind can. This of course causes many people to

think, you know, aren't you playing God? Isn't this all about a bit

dangerous? Here is a clip. These are state`of`the`art processors. You

won't find faster power anywhere else in the world. Good even, Dr

Tagger. He has seen old pictures of you. Good evening, Donald Buchanan.

It knows me? Of course it can. Social media. Tell Agent bow can an

about yourself? I'm a physically independent neural network invented

by Dr Will Caster. Can you prove that you are self`aware? That is a

difficult question, doctor. Can you prove that you are What happens very

early on, he is attacked by terrorists. The only way of

surviving is he has to upload his personality to a data bank and

become an electronic presence. Become somewhere between man and

machine. However, is the uploaded presence really him, or is the

entity for which his wife is now in love, actually something completely

different, something sinister something that really isn't the man

she married? The interesting thing with the film is, it has gone down

very badly in America. The box office has been poor. Bad reviews.

That looks like it will be repeated over here. Someone who is a fan of

Wally Pfister, as a cinematographer, he is really brilliant. I went into

this with high expectations. Generally, I liked it. I thought it

was... What it is. You are the only the man of the planet who liked it,

as far as I can see? I found a couple of others. It's throw back

1970s B picture. Wally Pfister pictures like Silent Running, big

idea films. The problem with the film at $100 million you make movies

that have lots of explosions in it. Chris Nolan when he made Inception

which Wally Pfister shot it was clever and intelligent. It's like an

extended episode of the Twilight Zone. What would happen if you

uploaded your personality to the computer and the computer had access

to the internet. It's low on crowd pleasing explosions. Johnny Depp is

billed at the star. Early on he is sidelined. He becomes a cyber

presence. The heavy liftside done by Paul Bettany, a brilliant actor and

Rebecca Hall. As you saw from that clip. It is a film, which unlike the

standard trend for scientific movies doesn't have an edit every

milliseconds. It wants to take its time. Some of the dialogue is

clunky, in a sort of Star Trek way. I thought it was a film with big

ambitions, dealing with an interesting idea in a populous

manner, I thought. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed all two hours of it. I'm

genuinely surprised by just how hostile the reviews have been. We

are in favour of diversity in this programme, as you know. Here is what

you need to do. Go and see it and find out... I will. Make up your own

mind. I will. Don't let it put you off. I won't. Now, Tracks. This is a

true story. Robin Davidson tracked to the West Coast, armed with four

camels, a dog, and a sponsorship deal with nation National

Geographic. In order to do it she had to be met at regular inter Vales

by a photographer. For a lot of the journey she was alone. Certain parts

of it she was joined by an elder. She is on her own. It is her, the

animals, out in the desert facing her own demons. They do a back story

about why she wants to be alone, her own personal issues. It doesn't over

do it. It's a dangerous journey. There are moments of peril... Her

survival is not quaranteed. The film doesn't feel the need to crank it up

and do silly stuff. It's pretty much as it happens. It proceeds at a

walking pace. Which is right. It looks beautiful. You believe Mia

Wasikowska is that character. I thought it's not sentimental. It's

not anything that tries to make this a jolly, sugary coated story. It's a

very interesting story about a woman, who for reasons of her own,

wants to be completely alone other than the company of these animals.

The camels are extraordinarily exsprensive creatures. Talking about

strong women, The Other Woman. If only we were Cameron Diaz and a

revenge movie. Leslie Mann is married to a guy and she discovers

he is having an affair with Cameron Diaz, they bond and get on and then

they find out he is having an affair with another woman. I don't hate you

at all. I got all of that out of my system with that woman. You can be

friends with your husband's mistress. It's a dream come true.

Her. She is working through some stuff. You smell amazing. What is

that? I think it's just sweat. That was remarkably funny. First Wife's

Club meets 9 to 5? Yes. Absent of the wit and one liners. It's one of

those films that says, what we are doing, sisters doing it for

themselves. They don't appear to be doing it for themselves or each

other or us. It's meant to be a comedy in which the nature of what

is happening on screen, lots of hysteria. You are thinking ` I bet

this was great fun to make. Why do I think that? It's boring to watch.

The more fun it was to make, the less fun everyone has watching you

do it. Comedy is a rigorously disciplined. This misses everything.

It doesn't... Challenge gender sterotypes. It repeats them, then

says, it's OK it's a story about women on top. Which it kind of

isn't. It's something which trots out the old cliches. There is the

brainy one, the one who is the housewife. If those sterotypes

appeared in any other movie you wouldn't give them the time of day.

Underlying it all, it's not funny enough. The laughing you did to that

clip, that is the most laughing that happened in the whole screening. I'm

leaning towards going to see Transcendence. Exactly. Actually.

Rebel Without a Cause, which I have seen on the telly, I have not seen

on the big screen. A reissue. You have to seek them out. They are

playing around the country, Google it. It's worth seeing on the big

screen. Rebel Without a Cause stands the test of time. I hadn't seen it

it on the big screen. You have seen it on the telly. It works. It is

powerful. A very different movie to the movie you imagine from the

posttest and the iconic imagery. James Dean really was a very, very

talented, very promising actor. A lot of people dismiss him because

there were three films. It's worth seeing. It reminds people, given it

was in the 1950s, it reminds people that teenagers behaving badly, the

problem with young people is not an entirely new phenomenon. No. It's

about the story of a bad kid from a good home. I still think all those

things still chime true. The performances arer terrific and it

looks good. Your DVD choice That Sinking Feeling. It was . It's about

a group of kids in Glasgow who solve their financial problems by stealing

sinks. It's funny, really smart. It went into the Guinness Book of

Records as officially the cheapest feature film ever thee at Raically

released in the UK. It stands up to this day. All the things you love

about Bill Forsyth are there in That Sinking Feeling. That is

interesting. It bears out you talked about the theory about comedy. The

cheaper the film, the more they have to work on the script. Therefore,

actually the better it is. It I ma be the case that with Transcendence,

that $100 million is too much money for that movie. Had they had the

restrictions of Under the Skin it might have worked out in a more

popular way. Cheap and cheerful. Thank you very much, Mark. A quick

reminder before we go that you'll find more film news and reviews from

Mark on his BBC blog Kermode Uncut. , that's at bbc.co.uk/markkermode.

Thank you for watching. Goodbye. Good evening. A lot of cloud in the

forecast today. A lot of rain as well. Some of that rain still

continuing. The best of any brighter weather today has been across parts

of Northern Ireland, South West Wales and south`west England.

Generally speaking, it has been a grey, dismal day. Some of the rain

persistent as it pushed further north and west. Brief respite before

heavier pulses returned again across parts of Hampshire