:00:00. > :00:00.the Premier League with the top two set to meet. That is in Sports day
:00:00. > :00:18.at 6.30. Now time for The Film Review.
:00:19. > :00:20.Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
:00:21. > :00:23.To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.
:00:24. > :00:38.We have Trumbo, with a stand out performance by Bryan Cranston. We
:00:39. > :00:46.have Rams an Icelandic film about sheep and sibling rivalry and Dad's
:00:47. > :00:53.Army, coming back to the big screen. All human life is here. First
:00:54. > :00:57.Trumbo, the story of a screen writer who suffered under the
:00:58. > :01:04.anti-communist purge in the 40s and 50s and was blacklisted as a writer.
:01:05. > :01:09.When we meet him he is a highly respected writer. He is asked to
:01:10. > :01:14.testify before the house of representatives and then he faces
:01:15. > :01:16.jail and is employable. This is before this happens when he is with
:01:17. > :01:32.his wife and the I like the film in
:01:33. > :02:22.show forced labour! think Bryan Cranston does a great
:02:23. > :02:25.job. But Diane Lane does a great interesting that blacklist is
:02:26. > :02:44.something that has been returned to Woody Allen film. In any version of
:02:45. > :02:47.this story there will be a degree of simplification. You have
:02:48. > :02:51.reservations. I loved the performances, I thought the heart
:02:52. > :02:59.was in the right place, but the script was not. One of children
:03:00. > :03:00.goes, daddy, what is a communist. He said if one kid doesn't have lunch,
:03:01. > :03:08.you share your lunch. No, in 50s a communist was Stalin occupying
:03:09. > :03:13.eastern Europe and sending people to Gu lags. I get the point about
:03:14. > :03:17.simplification. Rather like the film about Margaret Thatcher, where you
:03:18. > :03:20.didn't understand why people didn't like her, you didn't understand why
:03:21. > :03:31.people didn't like people who were communists in the 50s. Interestingly
:03:32. > :03:35.the daughter was asked about th conversation and said id did it lap.
:03:36. > :03:41.He give me an answer. I said can I be a communist. He said, no you're
:03:42. > :03:46.not 21. In real life the character of Trumbo was different. What it
:03:47. > :04:00.does get is that you don't just get a portrait of a sort of civil a
:04:01. > :04:04.martyr, but someone who is writing B movies for John Goodman, he said I
:04:05. > :04:10.have a gorilla suit, I need something to do with it. You esee
:04:11. > :04:14.him as difficult and I mean I agree that I think it is not the best
:04:15. > :04:20.written piece. I think to some extent it is, it has a television
:04:21. > :04:24.quality, but Cranston's performance is great. That has got all the
:04:25. > :04:28.recognition so far. I think it is important how much Diane Lane's
:04:29. > :04:32.character enables you to tap into living with Trumbo. And all his
:04:33. > :04:38.difficulties. I didn't know what he had written. I won't spoil it, but
:04:39. > :04:42.the reveals of what he wrote in secret was amazing. Probably the
:04:43. > :04:50.best film on Icelandic sheep I will see all week. That is underselling
:04:51. > :04:53.it but two brothers both of whom are raising sheep and they have this
:04:54. > :04:59.regular competition for the best ram, but they don't talk to each
:05:00. > :05:04.other. It seems they're not ever going to talk and then the herd is
:05:05. > :05:10.threatened by scrapie. What is interesting about the film that was
:05:11. > :05:17.the Icelandic entry for the Oscar best foreign film award, it has that
:05:18. > :05:22.Nordic dead pan, is it comic or tragic, funny or heartbreaking? Is
:05:23. > :05:26.it hilarious or really sort of deeply worrying. What I like about
:05:27. > :05:33.it is that so much of the film plays out not to do with dialogue, but
:05:34. > :05:37.beardy Mo rose gesture. You need to see is in the cinema, it has a
:05:38. > :05:41.lovely sweep to it and there an end of the world quality to it. I went
:05:42. > :05:47.in not knowing what to expect, I thought it was drol, and also
:05:48. > :05:52.touching and tragic. One of best performances by a sheepdog in a
:05:53. > :05:59.movie I have seen for a long time. I love a good sheepdog. It runs
:06:00. > :06:05.between the brothers, because they don't talk. And they have the sheep
:06:06. > :06:10.Oscars. That was the best ram competition. One comes first and
:06:11. > :06:15.second, but they don't speak. It is oddly moving and strangely droel. I
:06:16. > :06:19.love Dad's Army and want to see this film and lake it. But I haven't. You
:06:20. > :06:26.hear of the casting and you think it is create. You have Toby Jones and
:06:27. > :06:32.Michael Gambon and Tom Courtney. How could it go wrong? Here is a clip.
:06:33. > :06:34.Very good men, breaking up the outline.
:06:35. > :06:39.You're not taking this seriously, are you Walker?
:06:40. > :06:49.Ah, put some thought into this Jones.
:06:50. > :06:52.Thank you captain, Mrs Fox lent it me from last year's
:06:53. > :06:56.production of Robin Hood, I'm a tiny bit of Sherwood Forest.
:06:57. > :07:05.You look like you're on a cruise to the South Seas.
:07:06. > :07:08.Thank you so much Sir, that's very kind of you.
:07:09. > :07:11.I got the idea from a picture I saw last week, South of Pago Pago.
:07:12. > :07:24.Now, listen men, Sergeant Wilson's mission is to reach our
:07:25. > :07:31.So we all need to keep our eyes peeled at all times.
:07:32. > :07:43.If I know Wilson he will have charmed his way into a lift.
:07:44. > :07:52.There are things to like in that. The problem is this - those small
:07:53. > :07:57.moments, Michael Gambon, he says you look terrible, he says thank you
:07:58. > :08:04.very much. Those moments are good. What it lacks is the script, which
:08:05. > :08:08.does haven't the interpersonal intimacy of the TV show. This is
:08:09. > :08:14.partly of making a film, you have to open it out. It is as far as the
:08:15. > :08:21.direction is concerned, it is fairly plodding, it opens with a bull in a
:08:22. > :08:26.field and ends with a battle on a beach and you lose that Dad's Army
:08:27. > :08:30.was about nothing happening, but them being in a church hall. There
:08:31. > :08:35.was a war somewhere. They want to be part of it, but they weren't. So now
:08:36. > :08:41.I didn't not laugh, I laughed a few times. I didn't laugh as much as I
:08:42. > :08:46.should have done considering how good the cast are, but it is not a
:08:47. > :08:50.total failure. But what it is is a sort of moderate disappointment with
:08:51. > :08:55.moments in it that make you think that there could have been a better
:08:56. > :09:02.film in this. Gambon as private Godfrey is very funny. Toby Jones
:09:03. > :09:08.gets the slapstick and the pathos of the pompous Mainwaring. But the
:09:09. > :09:13.script is weird, it gives them both too much and too little to do. There
:09:14. > :09:21.is too much baggy narrative and what you want is them standing in the
:09:22. > :09:26.church hall bickering. We saw Bill Nighy. I will give it a go. Maybe
:09:27. > :09:30.not with high expectations. There are moments that work, but they make
:09:31. > :09:37.you realise how much the best of it isn't. The best it. Room. Yes go see
:09:38. > :09:45.Room. It is not the film you think it is. It is an uplifting story.
:09:46. > :09:51.Your DVD choice is the Martians. I loved it. I am not sure the science
:09:52. > :09:59.stands up. Most of it does stand up, apart from the storm. But apparent
:10:00. > :10:10.think rest of it does. The film that won the gloelden globe for -- Golden
:10:11. > :10:23.Globe for best musical comity. The story is Matt Damon is stuck on Mars
:10:24. > :10:31.and will use his botany skills. It is a drama with comedy in it. It is
:10:32. > :10:38.not a musical, because it plays Abba in the middle. I loved the film, but
:10:39. > :10:41.I ain't a musical or a comedy. On that happy note...
:10:42. > :10:44.A quick reminder before we go that you'll find more film news
:10:45. > :10:47.and reviews from across the BBC online, including