31/01/2014 The Film Review

next general election renegotiating our position and holding that

referendum and if I'm Prime Minister after 2015 that's exactly what will

happen. Hello. Welcome to the Film Review.

Mark is here. We have Out of the Furnace. Scott Cooper made Crazy

Heart. Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for that. We have that awkward moment,

it's the moment that Zac Efron finally lets you down. And Lone

Survivor, a gritty war movie based on a true story from 2005. I think

since Christian Bale has got riT of the Bat costume he can do no wrong.

He was brilliant in American Hustle. He was brilliant before he put that

on. This new film is set in a dying steel town. The story is two

brothers, one of them decides he will stay at the mill, which is the

centre of the town, but basically it's like a dying sun around which

the whole of the opportune resolves. The other goes off to Iraq, does

four tours of duty in Iraq, from which he comes back and basically

full of horrible memories and things with which he can't quite deal.

Meanwhile, his responsible brother have served time in prison and they

both face an uncertain future. Here's a clip.

How do you feel? Like I want to run. I'm running away. Go! Do you want to

drive? Yeah. Yeah. Say goodbye. This is classic Bruce spring teen

territory, the mill and the boys coming home and the blue claRs.

Although there's very little dialogue, that scene tells you what

you need to know. It's shot on 33 millimetre so it's old-school. It

has two committed performances. It's about men together and relationships

with a manly thing going on. There is also, I heard in the score. It's

absolutely beautifully done, which is lyrical and melancholic. The film

has its roots in 1970's cinema. Behind it all is the Deerhunter.

There is a hunting sequence. It's about war and being unable to deal

with peacetime and getting involved in a deadly sport. In this

particular case, it's bare-knuckle boxing and it's about two brothers

both facing similar, but very, very different problems. It's a film with

great performances. Sam Sheppard plays a secondary role with Forest

Whitaker and it does have an awful lot of macho cliche about it to some

extent and you have to accept that as you go in, but if you are

somebody who is a fan of 1970's cinema. If you like Ain't Nobody's

Saints, it is moody and it has great atmosphere to it. It doesn't have a

huge amount that's original, but in a way it's dedicate today the past

it doesn't really want to be original. Talking about original or

otherwise, That Awkward Moment, which I was told the best Hollywood

script that hadn't been made? It was on the black list, which is a list

of hot scripts. It goes to show Hollywood nobody knows anything.

It's a rom-com and the difference is, it is seen from the view of the

three guys. Zac Efron is involved with his production company. As a

huge fan of Zac Efron, I thought it was whitless, charmless, and stuff

we have seen before. Guys talking in the way that no real men talk. It

says guys will recognise themselves and women will get an interesting

view on what guys like. Nonsense. It's a film people -- filmed by

characters who bear no relationship to human beings. The script is naff.

They are saying, "Hay, we are dealing with grown-up issues." It is

pure rile and -- pure isle and worst of all, it's not funny. You could

get away with a lot if it was funny. It is and I say this with - it's the

kind of film that Vince Vaughan would have done in his prime, but no

would go, "You know what, I think we've all moved on." There is life

after really bad rom-coms, as Matthew ma conhi is proving. I still

have faith in Zac Efron. Like a parent, I'm not angry, I'm just

disappointed. You've let yourself down and everyone down. Lone

Survivor. Crueling war movie based on a real incident in 2005 in

Afghanistan. Four American navy Seals in Afghanistan near the

Pakistan border are on a mission to track down the Taliban leader. When

they get there the first thing that happens he bump into a -- is they

bump into a group of innocent goad herders, but they can't -- goat

herders, but they can't work out whether they're innocent or not.

Eyes down. Eyes down. Eyes down. Is your radio working? No. This is a

cursed op. There are no curses. It's just Afghanistan. That's all. The

way I see it, we have three options. One, we let them go, hike up and

we'll be found in less than an hour. Two, we tie them up, hike out and

role the dice. Or freeze to death. Three. Too many to compromise. We

cannot do that. The film starts by raising a moral dilemma. Then it

moves into this sequence, which is the body, which is the fire

fighting, which they are pinned down in and it's visceral and hard to

watch and it's bullets and bones and blood and flesh and suffering. It's

not glamorous, but the problem is, the film is conflicted. It doesn't

know whether it wants to be horrifying and heroic. It doesn't

know whether it wants the audience to be excited, or aghast and in the

end it ends up being oddly unsatisfactory. On a technical

level, it's very well executed. The battle stuff is well done and really

quite flinch-inducing, but the film is conflicted to the point that it

becomes distracting. It keeps wanting to become a flag-waving

patriotic film, yet it's about the terrible thing, but it's technically

very good, and performances are strong and it's technically

engrossing and gripping, but it can't quite figure out what it wants

to be, so it is in the end oddly unsatisfactory. It's certainly not

Zero Dark Thirty. 12 Years a Slave. Lots of Oscars. We were talking

about films that you think a lot about after you enjoy it or sit

through, but after you think about it. Do you think about this? I think

it's beautifully done by Steve McQueen. I think it's going to win

Best Picture at the Oscars. I hope he wins Best Director. I think it's

a near faultless adaptation of a very difficult story and he tells it

brilliantly and how great it's doing so well. Prisoners, the DVD? We

talked about this when it came out. It's a kidnap and revenge drama and

it starts out very well. It's an interesting film about whether or

not the desire for revenge automatically causes corruption.

About two thirds of the way through it gives up and becomes a silly

chase movie, but for two thirds it's dark, brooding and raising

interesting ideas. Not least, about to be tour, which a particular

relevance in the post-Iraq world, but the last third, you go, you're

going that way. It's a shame. Compared to Taken with Liam Neeson

and somebody in a similar dilemma, which is a straightforward

shoot-them up and shake them up. There is a gulf like this. Prisoners

is interesting and it has ideas. Taken has an idea. It has one idea.

It's not a great idea. Check it out. Two thirds of the way through you

might start ing to disappointed. Thank you. Before we go, you'll find

pour film news and reviews from Mark on his BBC blog.