Ghostbusters, Men and Chicken, Summertime The Film Review

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

week's cinema releases, who are you going to call? Mark Kermode. We have

a new Ghostbusters, which has been making headlines. We have Men and

Chicken, which I think you decide to describe as a Danish comedy horror,

about chickens. And Summertime. Ghostbusters, one of my favourite

films of the 80s. As I'm sure you know, when it was announced that

they were going to do a female lead a reboot internet was awash with

trolls and people sang, you can't possibly, and a lot of hiding

behind, actually, it is to do with defending to the original. I think

it was barely concealed misogyny. Then, the film finally came out, it

has been previewing for a few days now, and the response has been

really to refit. Here in the UK it has got glowing reviews. I honestly

think the truth is somewhere in between, that it is fine, it is not

great, but it is certainly much better and certainly more

crowdpleasing than any other haters would have wanted. I don't think it

is quite the classic that some of its cheerleaders are saying. One

academic is ashamed by the resurgence of a book she wrote about

ghosts with Melissa McCarthy. She went to Melissa McCarthy and ended

up getting involved in a resurgence of ghostbusting.

I like to call this a ghost ship, it sucks in the ghost and neutralises

it. Step up to bat and do what you are going to do. You truly scare me,

I just want to let you know that. Oh! It is like Mardi Gras in their!

It is a proton glove, it will maximise activity during fist to

Specter combat. Give it a go. That was awesome! No, that is a deadly

high-5. That was funny. You laugh three or four times. A proper comedy

has to make you last six times. I think what it is is it is a very

likeable remake that has a great affection for the original. Part of

me thinks that with the kind of talent we have in the director, a

great cast, a great screenwriter, there is so much potential but what

troubles me somewhat is that structurally it is a bit ramshackle.

It is a little bit all over the place in terms of the narrative that

plays out is nothing like as disciplined as it needs to be. But

it was really nice to see the film liking its subject matter so much. I

saw it with an audience in which it was going down pretty well. It is

not bridesmaids, it is not the really on the money soaring success

that you want it to be, but when you look at the extraordinary talent

involved in bringing it to the screen, perhaps my expectations were

too high. I think it will do well, and I like it, but don't love it.

Briefly, there has been some criticism of the way the

African-American character is treated, kind of very 1980s rather

than what you would expect in the 21st century. I think she is smart

and funny enough in the role to neutralise the potential criticism.

I understand that has been an issue, and I have to say when I was

watching it I thought Leslie Jones' performance overcame any of those

anxieties. There is a great turn by Chris Hemsworth as the beefcake

receptionist who doesn't understand not only how to work a telephone,

but what a telephone actually is. It is a nice role reversal. When I

heard you were going to review Men and Chicken, I thought it was a film

about Mendis. This is a very dark Danish comedy about two brothers,

and at the start there is a videotape and he says he is not

their real father. They end up going to a sanatorium where a group of

half-brothers who appear to be the family they didn't know they had.

They are living a very revoked and isolated existence. The local mayor

says here on the island seems to be fairly basic. You think that might

be a touchstone to the film itself. It is a strange balancing act

between bat horror. As you watch this really strange twisted story

playing out, with some absurdist comedy, on the other hand it hints

towards Psycho and towards one flew over the cuckoos nest, and the

island of Doctor Mariah, were all these strange happen. You genuinely

feel quite uncertain of this jet black comedy. I thought it

maintained that sense of uncomfortable as rather well. There

was no point in the film in which I settled into it and thought I had

the measure of it. I think that in itself is praising it, but it is not

easy to watch, and it is at times very disturbing. May be the Best

Film about Chechan we will see all summer! I think that is going on the

poster. Summertime. Yes, I thought this was a great film. It is set in

early 70s France, Delphine is a young woman growing up on a rural

farm, she moves to a city to change her life, where she comes across a

feminist protest group who she first meets as they run through the

streets giving grouping meant a taste of their own medicine.

The vibrancy from that clip, what happens is they now develop a

relationship initially based on politics but then on passion.

Delphine is then called back to the farm on which she grew up, the

question is can this love affair survive that move? What I really

like about the film, firstly I completely believe in the

characters. I thought they were immersed in the roles and I believed

in them. Secondly it has a really good indication of that time, the

heady politics and also the dawning of the relationship, which I thought

worked really well. Visually it has a bucolic beauty of something

Legendre Florette, but also the frankness. It was a really well told

drama about a relationship that we absolutely believe in, it was a

personal project and I was engaged in the characters. Many parts were

very funny and touching, and it had real heart. I liked it very much. I

haven't seen it but I wonder whether the film Carroll, and some of the

others you mentioned, give a frame of reference and whether we have

seen some of that. Possibly, but for me the real reference point is the

director's previous work. In the past she has dealt with the subject

of overwhelming passion in the way in which it can be life changing.

What I saw from it was just a story about two people in a particular

circumstance whose lives you completely believe in, whose lives

you are invested in, and his fate you genuinely care about. It is like

what Roger Ebert used to say about movies, you have to care about the

characters and in this case are really did. Notes on Blindness is

something you care about, and use their best DVD of the week?

Absolutely superb, a wonderful evocation of an account of losing

your site. It is a brilliant mix of drama and documentary. Thoroughly

enjoyable movie. I'm thrilled to see this has been plain to packed out

cinemas. I have seen screenings on the south bank where they have been

turning people away. It is so great to see a film is ambitious and

adventurous and as important as this touring such an audience. High-Rise,

to say it divides opinion, it certainly divides opinion. It was

supposedly unfilmable. Yes, and a novel they were trying to filter

decades, and I think Ben Wheatley has done to reject adaptation, and a

horrific performance by Tom Hiddleston in the lead role. The

real genius is that what they have done is take a story that has passed

setting, so a story about the present set in an alternative past

looking at the future. It is hard to follow that but you are absolutely

right. I thought it looked beautiful and was well played, it is smart and

intelligent and very well scripted, and plaudits to the screenwriter who

did such a good job of adapting and apparently unfilmable novel stop

white by JG Ballard. Yes, I didn't say that. We know about

screenwriters and authors, they never get the proper credit they

deserve. You will find more news and reviews from across the BBC online.

You can watch our previous shows on iPlayer. Thank you for watching,

enjoy the movies.