Downsizing, Early Man and The Last Flag Flying The Film Review

Australian open and defeat for

English cricketers in Australia.

That is all coming up at half past

six. First, it is time for the film

review.

First, it is time

for the film review.

Hello and welcome to

The Film Review on BBC News.

To take us through this week's

cinema releases is Mark Kermode.

So Mark, what do we have this week?

And interestingly, we have got

Downsizing. Earlyman, the latest

offering from Aardman Animations,

always a treat. And last flag

flying.

It looks intriguing, your

first choice, that is what I would

say.

Intriguing is exactly the word.

This is something a bit different.

The best way to describe it is it

takes riffs from The Incredible

Thinking Man and combines it with a

bit of inconvenient truth and the

American satire Spanglish. The

earth's resources have been depleted

and process has been discovered to

shrink people down to five inches.

You can save the planet, you become

and use less resources. Everyone has

agreed it is a good idea. But the

reason people are doing it is

because the lifestyle you get

offered if you agree to become small

is more extravagant than you get in

the big world.

So the decision...

Downsizing takes pressure off,

especially money pressure.

It must

be a good to know you are making a

difference.

All that crap about

saving the planet? Yes. Downsizing

is about saving yourself. We live

like kings.

I am still in the same

house I was born in, Audrey is dying

to move, but we are strapped.

Do not

mess around. You get the best

houses, best appliances, doctors,

the great restaurants. The kids love

cheesecake factory is. We have got

three of them. Can you back up a

little? They might be too much

garlic in the source.

It is an

interesting setup and it looks like

the beginning of a great movie. Then

Matt Damon's character decides he is

going to downsize and when he does,

he is isolated, alone and not

content like he was in the bigger

world, but only smaller. Then the

film loses its direction. Once you

get into the small community there

is very little of interacting with

the large one. Most movies dealing

with the miniaturisation have them

interacting. Here you can forget

that you are in the small world,

which is the point. More troublesome

is the fact it has a number of

threads it is trying to deal with,

the eco-crisis, the personal crisis,

a commentary on consumerism, staff

about general middle-aged malaise,

and somehow those elements do not

only not come together, they start

completely fracturing. The film is

not short. It is two and a quarter

hours long and it could have done

with some Downsizing in its running

time. After the initial setup and

promise, after what looked like

being a good use of a science

fiction premise it falls apart. It

is a shame because there are lots of

interesting ideas and it is always

good to see a director aiming big

even if it does not come together. I

have to say there was a good half of

it I find frustrating. Having given

you all these ideas, it then does

not know what to do with them. It

does not know whether it wants to be

funny, satirical, sombre about the

fate of the planet or whether it

wants to concentrate on a marriage

falling apart. It ends up not

satisfying any of them.

Unfortunately it is terribly

unsatisfying, despite the fact it

starts well.

Very disappointing. I

was a big fan of Sideways. And I am

a very big fan of Wallace and

Gromit.

And no disappointment for

Earlyman. A Stone Age tribe is

driven out of its valley by the

arrival of Lord Knuth who says the

stone age is over and long live the

age of bronze. What then happens the

young hero, Dug, agrees to have a

football match for ownership of the

valley. It turns out that way back

in his heritage, football is deep in

his genes. However, all his

tribesmen cannot play football, so

they have to recruit a young woman

to teach them to get the match

ready. Firstly, the visuals are

incredible. They use some computer

graphics to get a sense of stadium

size, but all the primary animation

has that Aardman Animations feel, it

is physical, and I can see you

looking at these images. It is

wonderful. And it is properly funny.

It has great slapstick jokes that

referred to Harold Lloyd and Buster

Keaton. There is a homage at the

very beginning, but it is also not

about straightforward end of the

pier, innuendo and human. I started

laughing right from the very

beginning. I never lost it, I

laughed all the way through. In the

screening there was only me and the

other person. I became embarrassed

by how much I was laughing. They

were enjoying it but not as much as

I was. You see so many comedies with

insufficient laughter. All the way

through this I chuckled and I was

delighted by the visuals.

The story

was charming. And I can go on my

own, I don't need to find a child?

They make genuine family films for

people of all ages. I would happily

go back and see it again, not least

because they were so many fleeting

sight gags that I did not catch the

first time round. I love Nick Park,

he does a great job.

A genius.

Your

third choice? Last flag flying. It

is adapted from a novel and the last

detail was adapted into a film and

this is the novel sequel to his

novel. It is an adaptation of a

novel that is not a sequel. Three

former Marines are reunited decades

later when one of their sons dies in

Iraq and they go on a road trip

together. One of them has taken holy

orders. They go on the road trip

together and they bicker and the

bond and they talk about the past

and the present.

What if I don't

like it? We get stuck with a

contract for two years?

Two years.

What if you fall down? Have you

thought of that? With your legs that

is a possibility. You cannot get up

and nobody can see you? But with

your mobile phone you can get it out

and if you could see the numbers,

your glasses, I can't say, help me,

I cannot get up.

911 calls do not

count against minutes either.

Come

on! If I say yes, Will you shut the

hell up?

The joy either

performances. Laurence Fishburne is

really good. He is the person facing

up to grief. I think he does that

really brilliantly. If you go there

looking for a film that is as

cutting edge as the last detail, you

will be disappointed. If you see it

as a film in its own right and you

are able to enjoy the ensemble

performances, it is a film about

their relationship, it is

melancholic, it is sad and

nostalgic. It is often laughed out

loud funny. It will not change the

world. Rather than saying it is the

sequel, it is more of a footnote,

but a rather charming footnote,

largely because the three central

performances carried through. You

were enjoying that clip. It is a

film that stands on its own. Oddly

enough, the problem becomes if you

try and put it next to others and it

is a different kettle of fish. It is

a kinder not sequel to the movie.

Is

that clear? I think so.

And the best

DVD? Coco came out last week and I

love Free Billboards. It is great

that Pixar animation is finally back

at the top of its game. Some really

complicated subjects. Life, death,

grief, loss, memory, but it does it

in a way that children and adults

alike can watch it. It looks

beautiful. If you see it and you

love it, get The Book Of Life on

DVD. It is also a very good movie.

And DVD. I felt ignorant when I read

lots about this because of your

forthcoming recommendation, and it

sounds fascinating. I felt bad I did

not know very much about it.

In

Between is a story about three women

living in Tel Aviv, each fighting

their own personal battle for

freedom against political, religious

and social repression. It is

beautifully observed, fantastic

performances, really well written.

It deals with difficult subject

matter, often very light-hearted and

funny. It has a beautifully

enigmatic ending and the best way of

describing it is you have seen The

Graduate? At the end is that

incredible sense of ambiguity, I

think has that. It is really well

worth seeing. It did not get a huge

theatrical release, but I have yet

to meet anyone who has seen it who

has not loved it.

Thank you very

much, Mark. An interesting week. We

are now creeping up towards awards

season as well. Lots to talk about

in the coming weeks.

Lots to talk about

in the coming weeks.

A quick reminder before we go that

you'll find more film news

and reviews from across the BBC

online at bbc.co.uk/mark kermode.

And you can find all our previous

programmes on the bbc iplayer.

That's it for this week though.

Enjoy your cinema going. See you

next time, goodbye.