:00:00. > :00:00.next general election renegotiating our position and holding that
:00:00. > :00:00.referendum and if I'm Prime Minister after 2015 that's exactly what will
:00:00. > :00:30.happen. Hello. Welcome to the Film Review.
:00:31. > :00:36.Mark is here. We have Out of the Furnace. Scott Cooper made Crazy
:00:37. > :00:41.Heart. Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for that. We have that awkward moment,
:00:42. > :00:48.it's the moment that Zac Efron finally lets you down. And Lone
:00:49. > :00:54.Survivor, a gritty war movie based on a true story from 2005. I think
:00:55. > :01:00.since Christian Bale has got riT of the Bat costume he can do no wrong.
:01:01. > :01:06.He was brilliant in American Hustle. He was brilliant before he put that
:01:07. > :01:10.on. This new film is set in a dying steel town. The story is two
:01:11. > :01:14.brothers, one of them decides he will stay at the mill, which is the
:01:15. > :01:18.centre of the town, but basically it's like a dying sun around which
:01:19. > :01:23.the whole of the opportune resolves. The other goes off to Iraq, does
:01:24. > :01:28.four tours of duty in Iraq, from which he comes back and basically
:01:29. > :01:31.full of horrible memories and things with which he can't quite deal.
:01:32. > :01:35.Meanwhile, his responsible brother have served time in prison and they
:01:36. > :02:07.both face an uncertain future. Here's a clip.
:02:08. > :02:38.How do you feel? Like I want to run. I'm running away. Go! Do you want to
:02:39. > :02:41.drive? Yeah. Yeah. Say goodbye. This is classic Bruce spring teen
:02:42. > :02:46.territory, the mill and the boys coming home and the blue claRs.
:02:47. > :02:51.Although there's very little dialogue, that scene tells you what
:02:52. > :02:56.you need to know. It's shot on 33 millimetre so it's old-school. It
:02:57. > :03:00.has two committed performances. It's about men together and relationships
:03:01. > :03:03.with a manly thing going on. There is also, I heard in the score. It's
:03:04. > :03:14.absolutely beautifully done, which is lyrical and melancholic. The film
:03:15. > :03:19.has its roots in 1970's cinema. Behind it all is the Deerhunter.
:03:20. > :03:23.There is a hunting sequence. It's about war and being unable to deal
:03:24. > :03:27.with peacetime and getting involved in a deadly sport. In this
:03:28. > :03:31.particular case, it's bare-knuckle boxing and it's about two brothers
:03:32. > :03:37.both facing similar, but very, very different problems. It's a film with
:03:38. > :03:44.great performances. Sam Sheppard plays a secondary role with Forest
:03:45. > :03:48.Whitaker and it does have an awful lot of macho cliche about it to some
:03:49. > :03:53.extent and you have to accept that as you go in, but if you are
:03:54. > :04:00.somebody who is a fan of 1970's cinema. If you like Ain't Nobody's
:04:01. > :04:04.Saints, it is moody and it has great atmosphere to it. It doesn't have a
:04:05. > :04:08.huge amount that's original, but in a way it's dedicate today the past
:04:09. > :04:13.it doesn't really want to be original. Talking about original or
:04:14. > :04:19.otherwise, That Awkward Moment, which I was told the best Hollywood
:04:20. > :04:24.script that hadn't been made? It was on the black list, which is a list
:04:25. > :04:27.of hot scripts. It goes to show Hollywood nobody knows anything.
:04:28. > :04:37.It's a rom-com and the difference is, it is seen from the view of the
:04:38. > :04:43.three guys. Zac Efron is involved with his production company. As a
:04:44. > :04:48.huge fan of Zac Efron, I thought it was whitless, charmless, and stuff
:04:49. > :04:55.we have seen before. Guys talking in the way that no real men talk. It
:04:56. > :04:59.says guys will recognise themselves and women will get an interesting
:05:00. > :05:04.view on what guys like. Nonsense. It's a film people -- filmed by
:05:05. > :05:10.characters who bear no relationship to human beings. The script is naff.
:05:11. > :05:15.They are saying, "Hay, we are dealing with grown-up issues." It is
:05:16. > :05:19.pure rile and -- pure isle and worst of all, it's not funny. You could
:05:20. > :05:24.get away with a lot if it was funny. It is and I say this with - it's the
:05:25. > :05:28.kind of film that Vince Vaughan would have done in his prime, but no
:05:29. > :05:33.would go, "You know what, I think we've all moved on." There is life
:05:34. > :05:42.after really bad rom-coms, as Matthew ma conhi is proving. I still
:05:43. > :05:46.have faith in Zac Efron. Like a parent, I'm not angry, I'm just
:05:47. > :05:51.disappointed. You've let yourself down and everyone down. Lone
:05:52. > :05:58.Survivor. Crueling war movie based on a real incident in 2005 in
:05:59. > :06:02.Afghanistan. Four American navy Seals in Afghanistan near the
:06:03. > :06:06.Pakistan border are on a mission to track down the Taliban leader. When
:06:07. > :06:15.they get there the first thing that happens he bump into a -- is they
:06:16. > :06:19.bump into a group of innocent goad herders, but they can't -- goat
:06:20. > :06:27.herders, but they can't work out whether they're innocent or not.
:06:28. > :06:35.Eyes down. Eyes down. Eyes down. Is your radio working? No. This is a
:06:36. > :06:39.cursed op. There are no curses. It's just Afghanistan. That's all. The
:06:40. > :06:46.way I see it, we have three options. One, we let them go, hike up and
:06:47. > :06:58.we'll be found in less than an hour. Two, we tie them up, hike out and
:06:59. > :07:05.role the dice. Or freeze to death. Three. Too many to compromise. We
:07:06. > :07:09.cannot do that. The film starts by raising a moral dilemma. Then it
:07:10. > :07:12.moves into this sequence, which is the body, which is the fire
:07:13. > :07:17.fighting, which they are pinned down in and it's visceral and hard to
:07:18. > :07:21.watch and it's bullets and bones and blood and flesh and suffering. It's
:07:22. > :07:25.not glamorous, but the problem is, the film is conflicted. It doesn't
:07:26. > :07:28.know whether it wants to be horrifying and heroic. It doesn't
:07:29. > :07:33.know whether it wants the audience to be excited, or aghast and in the
:07:34. > :07:38.end it ends up being oddly unsatisfactory. On a technical
:07:39. > :07:43.level, it's very well executed. The battle stuff is well done and really
:07:44. > :07:47.quite flinch-inducing, but the film is conflicted to the point that it
:07:48. > :07:55.becomes distracting. It keeps wanting to become a flag-waving
:07:56. > :07:59.patriotic film, yet it's about the terrible thing, but it's technically
:08:00. > :08:02.very good, and performances are strong and it's technically
:08:03. > :08:07.engrossing and gripping, but it can't quite figure out what it wants
:08:08. > :08:16.to be, so it is in the end oddly unsatisfactory. It's certainly not
:08:17. > :08:21.Zero Dark Thirty. 12 Years a Slave. Lots of Oscars. We were talking
:08:22. > :08:24.about films that you think a lot about after you enjoy it or sit
:08:25. > :08:29.through, but after you think about it. Do you think about this? I think
:08:30. > :08:35.it's beautifully done by Steve McQueen. I think it's going to win
:08:36. > :08:41.Best Picture at the Oscars. I hope he wins Best Director. I think it's
:08:42. > :08:44.a near faultless adaptation of a very difficult story and he tells it
:08:45. > :08:51.brilliantly and how great it's doing so well. Prisoners, the DVD? We
:08:52. > :08:56.talked about this when it came out. It's a kidnap and revenge drama and
:08:57. > :08:59.it starts out very well. It's an interesting film about whether or
:09:00. > :09:03.not the desire for revenge automatically causes corruption.
:09:04. > :09:09.About two thirds of the way through it gives up and becomes a silly
:09:10. > :09:13.chase movie, but for two thirds it's dark, brooding and raising
:09:14. > :09:18.interesting ideas. Not least, about to be tour, which a particular
:09:19. > :09:23.relevance in the post-Iraq world, but the last third, you go, you're
:09:24. > :09:27.going that way. It's a shame. Compared to Taken with Liam Neeson
:09:28. > :09:32.and somebody in a similar dilemma, which is a straightforward
:09:33. > :09:38.shoot-them up and shake them up. There is a gulf like this. Prisoners
:09:39. > :09:45.is interesting and it has ideas. Taken has an idea. It has one idea.
:09:46. > :09:50.It's not a great idea. Check it out. Two thirds of the way through you
:09:51. > :09:55.might start ing to disappointed. Thank you. Before we go, you'll find
:09:56. > :09:57.pour film news and reviews from Mark on his BBC blog.