:00:00. > :00:00.cars are that much faster in Formula 1 and we have a look at the state of
:00:00. > :00:19.sport in our special report, but now we have the Film Review.
:00:20. > :00:25.Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
:00:26. > :00:27.To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.
:00:28. > :00:40.We have Life, science fiction with Jake Gyllenhaal. Power Rangers, they
:00:41. > :00:51.are still morphing, but are they mighty? And The Lost City of Z,
:00:52. > :00:55.real-life tale of exploration. Life, could be anything, but this is set
:00:56. > :01:01.on the International Space Station. This is a sci-fi horror hybrid, a
:01:02. > :01:03.soil sample from Mars is sent back from Mars to the International Space
:01:04. > :01:08.Station and the crew opened it and they find in the soil a single cell
:01:09. > :01:12.organism. They are delighted because this is proof of life on Mars, and
:01:13. > :01:16.it starts growing and everyone is very excited, and then it becomes
:01:17. > :01:21.dormant. They decide against the advice of the entire audience to
:01:22. > :01:22.give the organism and electric shock and see what that does, this is a
:01:23. > :01:30.clip. LAUGHTER Every single cell is a muscle
:01:31. > :01:44.cell and a nerve cell. Can I make a suggestion,
:01:45. > :01:58.can I just go in there and get him? Because the main
:01:59. > :02:20.thing is quarantine. You get the general idea. I was
:02:21. > :02:30.laughing before, but not now. It has a great cast. Rebecca Ferguson. Jake
:02:31. > :02:35.Gyllenhaal. The organism picks them off one by one and becomes bigger
:02:36. > :02:38.and more agile. It starts out like gravity and then it turns into Alien
:02:39. > :02:42.and then it is like life force and then it goes a bit event horizon
:02:43. > :02:47.before going back to being Alien and then turning back into gravity with
:02:48. > :02:51.a bit of planet of the apes. It doesn't have any originality in it
:02:52. > :02:56.at all, there is not one single idea that is original, but what it does,
:02:57. > :03:02.it tells a story that you know, but it tells it with a degree of wit and
:03:03. > :03:07.Vim. It is 104 minutes long and it feels like 85 and it zips along and
:03:08. > :03:10.it looks terrific. The way the film looks is very impressive, and all
:03:11. > :03:16.the characters are best described as thumbnail sketches, you could go,
:03:17. > :03:20.he's a scientist, he's the one with the kids, and then it does exactly
:03:21. > :03:25.what you would expect, and it is interesting. When you look back at
:03:26. > :03:32.Alien, it was drawing on a series of other horror movies but with a
:03:33. > :03:34.sudden twist in terms of the design of the alien and the direction from
:03:35. > :03:39.Ridley Scott, but there is nothing here that you haven't seen before.
:03:40. > :03:43.Is the thing, I thought this was meant to be a horror film or sci-fi,
:03:44. > :03:48.and I have noticed a smile playing on your lips for the entire
:03:49. > :03:52.description of this film. There are things in this which are creepy and
:03:53. > :03:56.a bit yucky, and I enjoyed it because I like sci-fi... But you are
:03:57. > :04:03.not a horror fan. This is tension, rather than glory Tom and Alien,
:04:04. > :04:09.there is a famous moment in that which is a lot more revolting than
:04:10. > :04:12.this. Yes, OK. But largely when we saw that in Alien for the first time
:04:13. > :04:18.no one had ever seen that done before. It is fun and disposable,
:04:19. > :04:25.popcorn movie, and I enjoyed it, but there is not a single original
:04:26. > :04:31.thought in its head. Which brings us to... Power Rangers, do they still
:04:32. > :04:37.exist? Who knew? You have got the 70s and 80s TV franchises, so you
:04:38. > :04:42.reboot it for the big screen with a 12 certificate and a lot of CGI. The
:04:43. > :04:47.Power Rangers TV Syriza was cutting Japanese footage with new American
:04:48. > :04:50.footage, and now what you have is that rebooted in what is basically
:04:51. > :04:57.the breakfast club as superhero movie. With the collection of young
:04:58. > :05:03.kids who are going to become the Power Rangers, the film addresses
:05:04. > :05:08.some issues, albeit in a very flimsy fashion, but that is the modern bit.
:05:09. > :05:11.It has a 12 A certificate which has caused great annoyance because much
:05:12. > :05:14.of the target audience for the Power Rangers is people younger than 12
:05:15. > :05:18.and they have always said that wealth means 12 and the bottom ages
:05:19. > :05:22.eight and I've already had messages from people who say, I've got a
:05:23. > :05:28.four-year-old, can I take them to see this? Well, no. It's a strange
:05:29. > :05:32.film, it has a certain degree of post-Transformers crudity, and a
:05:33. > :05:37.certain amount of violence because it is mighty morphing Power Rangers
:05:38. > :05:41.and they hit people. It is less leering than Transformers and less
:05:42. > :05:46.fun than real steel and it is too long and nonsense and it makes no
:05:47. > :05:50.sense, but it wasn't terrible. It was just kind of, OK, that's what
:05:51. > :05:56.mighty morphing Power Rangers looks like if it gets up on the big screen
:05:57. > :06:00.and do that to it. It is totally innocuous and surprisingly
:06:01. > :06:03.unremarkable. I love it when you tell me something which can go on a
:06:04. > :06:12.poster, this week, it is, it's not terrible. It's not great either. The
:06:13. > :06:20.Lost City of Z, this is the next film. Yes, true story, British
:06:21. > :06:28.explorer, Percy Fawcett, early 20th-century explorations of the
:06:29. > :06:31.Amazon, Charlie Hunnam is Percy Fawcett, and he wants to make his
:06:32. > :06:33.family name good and he's told if he goes on this first mission, that
:06:34. > :06:39.will indeed restore his great family name. The more he explores, the more
:06:40. > :06:43.you discover that this is is calling on what he wants to do with his
:06:44. > :06:44.life, but where he is travelling to is dangerous and also surprising.
:06:45. > :06:50.This is a clip. # We're soldiers
:06:51. > :07:17.of the Queen, my lads # In the fight for
:07:18. > :07:33.England's glory, lads # The England's soldiers
:07:34. > :07:49.of the Queen #. Does that help them, the singing?
:07:50. > :07:54.Yes, it does, there are moments which are very strange. Robin pandas
:07:55. > :07:59.and is in this and he is terrific, and the film is directed by James
:08:00. > :08:05.Gray and it is beautifully direct that Robert Pattinson. It is our
:08:06. > :08:10.fleet in its core, -- it is strangely elliptical, and they are
:08:11. > :08:13.individual moments which are very striking, there are moments when
:08:14. > :08:20.they come across a musical being mounted in the jungle which reminds
:08:21. > :08:33.me of a one Herzog film, and there are bits which reminds me of Conrad
:08:34. > :08:37.and Coppola. What I like about click -- like about it, it is five days
:08:38. > :08:39.since I've seen it and it has lingered in my mind, they are images
:08:40. > :08:45.which are very beautiful and arresting. Terrific performance on
:08:46. > :08:48.Sienna Miller, as his wife, a thankless role, but she make
:08:49. > :08:55.something of it. The toughest character on screen. And although it
:08:56. > :08:59.is a flawed film, it aims high and I would rather see something aim high
:09:00. > :09:03.and fail in certain areas then something which is franchise fodder,
:09:04. > :09:10.and it didn't feel like that at all, it is strangely old-fashioned. There
:09:11. > :09:14.are moments, there is a dream sequence which is reminiscent of the
:09:15. > :09:17.end of 2001 which is not something you would expect from a film like
:09:18. > :09:24.this, and so it is a very unusual and flawed, but very interesting.
:09:25. > :09:32.The best ad? Get Out, you have got to see this. -- the best out. If you
:09:33. > :09:45.think of the writings of irony than who wrote Rosemary 's baby -- Ira
:09:46. > :09:49.Levin. The smiles of the families hide something very creepy, it is a
:09:50. > :09:54.satire on a post-racial, liberal America, it has great depth and is
:09:55. > :09:57.sharp and scary when it needs to be. I know you are not a horror film
:09:58. > :10:05.fan, but it is a thriller. It is not a horror film, although it is, but
:10:06. > :10:14.it is a thriller, you will enjoy it. If you want to stay in, we have A
:10:15. > :10:18.United Kingdom. I love this. We have the heir to the throne of Botswana
:10:19. > :10:23.planned and his relationship with a white British woman. Like all of her
:10:24. > :10:27.films it takes the personal and political and it takes them and that
:10:28. > :10:31.is then together which is understandable and enjoyable and
:10:32. > :10:35.telling an important story. Thanks very much, Mark.
:10:36. > :10:38.A quick reminder before we go that you'll find more film news
:10:39. > :10:41.and reviews from across the BBC online at bbc.co.uk/mark kermode.
:10:42. > :10:49.And you can find all our previous programmes on the BBC iplayer.