:00:19. > :00:30.Hello, welcome to the film review on BBC News. To take us through this
:00:31. > :00:34.week's releases, Mark Kermode. We have Blue Ruin, made on a very low
:00:35. > :00:46.budget. We have Pompeii, the story of... Pompeii. And Vesuvius. And we
:00:47. > :00:49.have Bad Neighbours. Seth Rogan and Zach Efron are Bad Neighbours. Blue
:00:50. > :00:53.Ruin, on this programme, we like cheap movies that turn out to be
:00:54. > :00:59.rather good. Blue Ruin is a very interesting case. Jeremy Saulnier is
:01:00. > :01:03.the director. This is not a goofy horror comedy at all. We start and
:01:04. > :01:07.meet a homeless man, who is having a bath in somebody else's house. He
:01:08. > :01:11.escapes through a window. We see him getting food from a dumpster, almost
:01:12. > :01:16.completely wordless. Early on in the film, a policewoman turns up and
:01:17. > :01:26.says he needs to come to the station because she needs to tell him
:01:27. > :01:32.something. Here's a clip. Joo`Ho I apologise for the mystery. `` I
:01:33. > :01:36.apologise for the mystery. I don't mean to scare you. You're not in any
:01:37. > :01:40.trouble. Everything's fine. You'll be fine. Somebody brought this by
:01:41. > :01:51.our stoop. I just thought you should be somewhere safe when you found
:01:52. > :01:59.out. With somebody. He's going to be released. I don't know how much you
:02:00. > :02:04.may have missed. It's an awful thing he did to them. I'm just going to
:02:05. > :02:07.hold your hand for a little while. Wow. 20 seconds this afternoon and
:02:08. > :02:11.have you the creeps already. Exactly and 20 minutes of the film and you
:02:12. > :02:14.actually cover the territory that most revenge thrillers would take
:02:15. > :02:17.their whole running time for. Somebody is out of prison. He goes
:02:18. > :02:20.looking for a weapon. Have you a sense of was going to happen. 20
:02:21. > :02:25.minutes in, they've covered that ground. Rather than being interested
:02:26. > :02:28.in rehashing what's gone before, the director is interested in what
:02:29. > :02:32.happens next. The interesting thing about Blue Ruin is it's a stripped
:02:33. > :02:36.down, very gruelling, very powerful thriller played really well. What's
:02:37. > :02:40.interesting about it is you hear so many times people making this kind
:02:41. > :02:45.of movie saying, well, the message is that violence cupts and vengeance
:02:46. > :02:49.is not good. But they spend 90 minutes enjoying the violence and
:02:50. > :02:54.vengeance, oh, but it's all about. Blue Ruin is compared to the work of
:02:55. > :02:58.the Cohen brothers, but it offers a genuinely broken antihero, somebody
:02:59. > :03:03.who is weak, somebody who is scared. You saw the look of terror on his
:03:04. > :03:07.face. It's a film which doesn't give the audience the standard pleasures
:03:08. > :03:11.of a revenge movie but it is beautifully told. The first 20
:03:12. > :03:14.minutes is almost worldless. It's like watching a silent movie. It's
:03:15. > :03:18.all to do with economy of story telling. It was a really, really
:03:19. > :03:22.fine work. As I said from the director's previous film, you'd have
:03:23. > :03:27.no idea it was the film he was going make next. What's fascinating is
:03:28. > :03:30.talking to people that are fans of mainstream cinema, horror fans,
:03:31. > :03:35.across the board, everyone has had the same reaction as you did. Also,
:03:36. > :03:43.having heard of none of these actors, the performances are pretty
:03:44. > :03:48.obviously amazing. Yes, Macon Blair is amazing. He has an encounter a
:03:49. > :03:56.razor and fresh set of clothes and then emerges Aymar strange `` as a
:03:57. > :04:02.strange, withdrawn character who is not think of as an avenging angel.
:04:03. > :04:05.He has a terrible thing in his past attempting to come to terms with the
:04:06. > :04:08.expanding violence behind him. If you want a straightforward thinker,
:04:09. > :04:14.you get that. If you want something which is philosophical very offing
:04:15. > :04:18.into the issues `` delving into the issues of the right to bear arms is
:04:19. > :04:23.part of the key part of the country's ethos is in there. It's
:04:24. > :04:28.really impressive. I was hoping Pompeii was about Up Pompeii as a
:04:29. > :04:34.remake. Tlncht is a bit of Frankie Howerd because this is enormously
:04:35. > :04:42.camp. This is pall WS Anderson's second Best Film. The first being
:04:43. > :04:47.Event Horizon. We have Kit Harington, who is a gladiator and he
:04:48. > :04:51.wants to have a relationship with Emily Browning. They're torn apart
:04:52. > :04:56.because he's a gladiator and she's a noble woman. This is a build up to
:04:57. > :05:02.the fact that about an hour in, Vesuvius explodes. Being a Paul WS
:05:03. > :05:07.Anderson film, chuck in everything and the chicken sink, everything
:05:08. > :05:12.explodes. I saw it in 3D, the volume up to 11. The best thing about this
:05:13. > :05:15.it is completely stupid, but it's laughably stupid in a good way. I
:05:16. > :05:20.think you're laughing with, it rather than at it. The time doesn't
:05:21. > :05:24.feel boring or dreary. It's feels like if you were a kid in the 70s
:05:25. > :05:36.watching this, you'd go, wow, look at the size of those explosions!
:05:37. > :05:44.Everything is turned up to Elevnety stupid. Kit Harington knows what
:05:45. > :05:48.he's doing, he's the gladiator and it's all there. It's exactly what
:05:49. > :05:55.you want and we're seeing exactly what you said. There's no surprise.
:05:56. > :05:58.The volcano is going to to explode. Do know what the plot is. Bad
:05:59. > :06:07.Neighbours, we don't know what happens. Zac Efron, there was a film
:06:08. > :06:15.called Neighbours. Bad Neighbours is the gag where they switched the role
:06:16. > :06:25.around, they lived next this one, they live next door to each other
:06:26. > :06:30.and tear each other around. Seth Rogan realises that Zach Efron who
:06:31. > :06:41.has played clean`cut roles and now it's going to be a frat house. What
:06:42. > :06:46.are they going to do. Who's this little lady? Stella. That's the best
:06:47. > :06:54.name ever, are you kidding? She's a flirt. Like her mum, I bet. Cool. If
:06:55. > :07:00.you could maybe just... Keep it down! All right. If you ever need
:07:01. > :07:06.anything or we get too noisy, talk to me or Pete. We will take care of
:07:07. > :07:16.it. Same with us, we're pretty loud. Game of thrones, we get loud. It's
:07:17. > :07:18.crazy. All righty. They call the police and then there's a rivalry.
:07:19. > :07:23.It's neighbours all over again. The problem is this: There is a feeling
:07:24. > :07:28.in modern American comedy that actually everything being slack,
:07:29. > :07:33.loose, free form, being slightly improve `` improv, it's great. If
:07:34. > :07:37.you want to get comedy right, get tough. There's no fat on that at
:07:38. > :07:41.all. Too often, you get the sense there's an idea for a scene, an idea
:07:42. > :07:45.and they let the cameras role and let it keep going. It's not
:07:46. > :07:50.disciplined enough by any means. There are some very funny sight
:07:51. > :07:54.gags, which I would have laughed at enormously had they not been in the
:07:55. > :07:57.trailer. It's a classic case of there's one central gag involving
:07:58. > :08:01.air bags, which has a couple of punch lines and set up and punch
:08:02. > :08:05.lines are in the trailer. When the thing finally comes, you think, OK,
:08:06. > :08:10.that's the best gag in the movie, I understand you put it in the trailer
:08:11. > :08:14.to get me to see the movie, but I've seen the gag. This is a film that
:08:15. > :08:20.opens on a Saturday. Most open on a Friday. It opens on a Saturday, so
:08:21. > :08:28.the opening box office weekend will be nine days long. I suspect it will
:08:29. > :08:36.go to number one. I see. Just dot math. In America they only do math.
:08:37. > :08:40.They can't add the S. Transcendence is the best of the week for you. You
:08:41. > :08:45.are rowing against the tide. The tide is turning. I have had a couple
:08:46. > :08:51.of conversations, one with Robbie Colman from the telegraph and with
:08:52. > :08:55.Mark Cousins, who I know you're a friend of, they both went to see the
:08:56. > :08:59.film and say it's interesting. It's not perfect. There are flaws. If you
:09:00. > :09:03.want a big ideas, heavy science fiction film, not big on explosions,
:09:04. > :09:07.not big on special effects, but dealing with ideas, it's a 70s throw
:09:08. > :09:11.back sci`fi movie and I liked it. I thought it was enjoyable. It was
:09:12. > :09:14.full of interesting ideas. I think you'd like. It I think you should
:09:15. > :09:21.put the negative press aside and see it any way. Right Mark Cousins I'm a
:09:22. > :09:25.fan of, A Story of Children and Film, the history of film is an
:09:26. > :09:30.amazing series. It is, this is wonderful. It's him looking at the
:09:31. > :09:34.role of children in sin paw. It's incredibly broad ranging, very
:09:35. > :09:40.international, the entire history of cinema. If up go to the BFI player,
:09:41. > :09:45.he's created a season of children's films. It's available on DVD as
:09:46. > :09:52.well. Mark Cousins is a poet of modern cinema. He's a film maker but
:09:53. > :09:56.looks at things with a critics' eye. He's not afraid to go against the
:09:57. > :09:59.current. He has a wonderful, lyrical way of making films that's not so
:10:00. > :10:04.much documentary, it's more like poetry. I think it's a wonderful
:10:05. > :10:07.piece of work. A great writer, a fine writer. He is. Some people
:10:08. > :10:11.don't like his delivery. I love it. Some people are wrong. We have
:10:12. > :10:15.covered that already. Yes! Thanks Mark.
:10:16. > :10:21.A quick reminder, you'll find more film news and reviews from Mark on
:10:22. > :10:23.his BBC blog, Kermode uncut. That's it for this week. Thank you
:10:24. > :10:38.for watching and goodbye. Hello, as the weekend begins
:10:39. > :10:42.temperatures will be struggling. Some of us will have a frost going
:10:43. > :10:45.into tomorrow morning. Temperatures will recover a bit though as the
:10:46. > :10:48.weekend goes on. We've seen more in the way of sunshine today, though,
:10:49. > :10:51.across the northern half of the UK in particular. And the cloud still
:10:52. > :10:56.showing up on the satellite imagery. Most of that is going to fade away
:10:57. > :10:57.through this evening and tonight, allowing temperatures to dip