:00:20. > :00:21.Hello and welcome to The Film Review on BBC News.
:00:22. > :00:24.To take us through this week's cinema releases is Mark Kermode.
:00:25. > :00:28.We have a couple of very big releases and something a little bit
:00:29. > :00:32.We have The BFG, the new film by Steven Spielberg.
:00:33. > :00:39.Chevalier, a jet black comedy about male competitiveness.
:00:40. > :00:45.And Star Trek Beyond - the reboot continues.
:00:46. > :00:49.Now, like anybody who loves Roald Dahl, I really want this to be
:00:50. > :00:53.You can heave a sigh of relief, it is good.
:00:54. > :00:56.OK, so, this is Spielberg's adaptaion of the Roald Dahl classic
:00:57. > :01:00.with Mark Rylance in the title role as the Big Friendly Giant -
:01:01. > :01:03.a performance, obviously, put together through his performance
:01:04. > :01:07.and motion capture technology and extraordinary CG visuals.
:01:08. > :01:10.Ruby Barnhill, who is a newcomer, is young Sophie, who,
:01:11. > :01:12.at the beginning, we meet in an orphanage and then
:01:13. > :01:15.she is whisked away from the London Orphanage to giant
:01:16. > :01:18.country, where she suddenly finds herself in a whole new world.
:01:19. > :01:34.Because the first thing you would be doing, you's be doing,
:01:35. > :01:42.you'd be scuddling around and yodelling the news that
:01:43. > :01:45.you were actually seeing a giant and then there would be a great
:01:46. > :01:49.And all the human beings would be rummaging and wiffling for the giant
:01:50. > :01:53.what you saw and getting wildly excited and then they's be locking
:01:54. > :01:57.me up in a cage to be little looked at with all the squiggling,
:01:58. > :02:05.you know, hippodumplings and crocodandillies giggyraffes.
:02:06. > :02:07.And then there would be a giganscious looksie giant hunt
:02:08. > :02:16.You are laughing all the way through that!
:02:17. > :02:19.I was just thinking, I have seen Mark Rylance in so many
:02:20. > :02:22.things, but I have never seen him do that thing with his ears before!
:02:23. > :02:25.I mean, it is a really, really good performance,
:02:26. > :02:28.which is at the heart of the film and, of course, that wonderful
:02:29. > :02:32.I think she has something of that independence of spirit that we saw
:02:33. > :02:41.What I liked about this is, the script is by the late
:02:42. > :02:44.Melissa Mathison who, of course, wrote ET.
:02:45. > :02:46.This has, I think, a touch of the magic of ET.
:02:47. > :02:49.Dahl's writing was often very dark, but this actually tends much more
:02:50. > :02:54.There is the whole segment when they go to Buckingham Palace
:02:55. > :02:56.and there's lots of whizz-popping fun.
:02:57. > :02:59.What I like about it is that it gets that central idea that,
:03:00. > :03:02.actually, Sophie and the BFG, she is small, he is huge,
:03:03. > :03:05.but they are two sides of the same coin, which was an idea
:03:06. > :03:08.that was very much explored in ET, you know?
:03:09. > :03:11.They are alien cultures, but, actually, they're the same person.
:03:12. > :03:13.I think the way in which the computer graphics work
:03:14. > :03:15.with the live-action is really well done.
:03:16. > :03:18.I think it has a lovely gentle touch and, like you,
:03:19. > :03:22.I loved the language, which has a touch of the Stanley Unwin
:03:23. > :03:29.There is a little bit of Nadsat from A Clockwork Orange in there.
:03:30. > :03:32.It was Spielberg rediscovering his inner child and managing to use
:03:33. > :03:35.the technology in a way which does not, in any way, take
:03:36. > :03:40.It is a story about two characters first and foremost and I believed
:03:41. > :03:42.in them and I rooted for both of them.
:03:43. > :03:44.I suppose the only thing that is sometimes said
:03:45. > :03:48.about Roald Dahl is how do you stretch what is quite a short
:03:49. > :03:51.story to make it work at an hour and a half or whatever?
:03:52. > :03:53.They have definitely made additions and not everybody is completely
:03:54. > :03:58.I thought this did work as a feature-length drama
:03:59. > :04:02.As I say, I smiled all the way through.
:04:03. > :04:06.It left me with a warm glow, which is what you want from The BFG.
:04:07. > :04:08.Yes, that didn't leave me with a warm glow!
:04:09. > :04:14.Wow, it is a jet black, very, very dry black comedy
:04:15. > :04:16.by Athina Rachel Tsangari, who was the director of Attenberg
:04:17. > :04:19.and has worked with Yorgos Lanthimos.
:04:20. > :04:23.The story is these men on a luxury yacht, they start playing
:04:24. > :04:26.competitive parlour games and one of them says,
:04:27. > :04:29."Yeah, well, if you win in this it doesn't mean you're the best.
:04:30. > :04:37.Let's have a competition to see who is the best" They start
:04:38. > :04:39.scrutinising everything - their physique, their hair loss,
:04:40. > :04:41.their blood sugar levels and, in one fantastic sequence,
:04:42. > :04:44.the ability to put together a flat-pack book shelf!
:04:45. > :04:47.The whole thing is a satire on male power struggles and the way
:04:48. > :04:49.in which men compete for the primary role.
:04:50. > :04:56.There are very few laugh out loud laughs and there is an awful lot
:04:57. > :04:59.of cringing, an awful lot of recognising something...
:05:00. > :05:06.It is close enough to reality to be really awkward.
:05:07. > :05:10.I can imagine it rubbing some people up the wrong way,
:05:11. > :05:14.The tagline is "A Buddy Movie Without The Buddies".
:05:15. > :05:17.I don't think I'm giving anyway anything away to suggest that
:05:18. > :05:20.neither you nor I would do very well at the IKEA flatpack test.
:05:21. > :05:25.That right at the competitiveness of me.
:05:26. > :05:39.You can see exactly where Tsangari got it from, she knows
:05:40. > :05:42.if you just press the right button and Mark Kermode suddenly wants
:05:43. > :05:43.to become a do-it-yourself monster.
:05:44. > :05:56.Basically, the enterprise is a few years into its mission, and the cast
:05:57. > :06:02.are feeling a bit sexist eventually weary about their journey. There is
:06:03. > :06:04.a distress signal, which they answer, and it turns out to be not
:06:05. > :06:22.quite what they expect. Approaching ultimate. Class M
:06:23. > :06:26.planet, massive subterranean element but limited to no lifeforms on the
:06:27. > :06:35.surface. There is an unknown ship heading right for us.
:06:36. > :06:56.No response, I am picking up some kind of signal. They are jamming us.
:06:57. > :07:08.Magnify. What is this? Shields up, red alert! As I said, would you
:07:09. > :07:12.expect from this director is spectacular action sequences, and
:07:13. > :07:17.that is what you get. I saw this on a large IMAX screen, it was big in
:07:18. > :07:20.explosive. However, as with all the Star Trek stuff, it comes down to
:07:21. > :07:26.the interpersonal relations between the characters. Were you a fan of
:07:27. > :07:30.the TV series? I was a fan of the TV series, and I have seen a few of the
:07:31. > :07:35.films, but one of them was a stinker and I can't remember which one and
:07:36. > :07:38.it turned me off. In the case of this, what I thought it did have
:07:39. > :07:46.easily get that lovely tension between Spock and McCoy. You get all
:07:47. > :07:53.that interpersonal irascibility that made the TV series charming. Simon
:07:54. > :07:57.Pegg was the cowriter and he really enjoys the comedy in that. You also
:07:58. > :08:02.get a lot of shonky plotting, which happened in the TV series. There are
:08:03. > :08:06.things down on the planet that just look like a TV series with a larger
:08:07. > :08:12.budget. Again, I don't think it is as good as the Abrams ones, but I
:08:13. > :08:17.think it is fun, good popcorn entertainment. I was never bored.
:08:18. > :08:20.You come out of it is insubstantial and a bit flimsy, and it doesn't
:08:21. > :08:29.hang together in the way it should, but while you are watching it it is
:08:30. > :08:32.enjoyable multiplex fare. It has a group of viewers is ready-made who
:08:33. > :08:36.really want to go and see it, but does it extend beyond that? It would
:08:37. > :08:40.take me quite a lot to go and see another Star Trek movie, to be
:08:41. > :08:44.honest. I have seen all the Star Trek movies, obviously it is part of
:08:45. > :08:48.my job, but I would go and see them anyway because I have enough
:08:49. > :08:53.residual effect. And as part of the reboot, they have been interesting.
:08:54. > :09:01.I don't think this is as good as the previous ones, but I think it is
:09:02. > :09:09.entertaining popcorn fund. Zachary Quint steals the show, when you
:09:10. > :09:13.can't work out whether to be logical or emotional. He manages to get the
:09:14. > :09:16.most out of those gags and he does it very well. It is good,
:09:17. > :09:22.entertaining fun. Insubstantial but spectacular at the same time. Your
:09:23. > :09:27.best this week is still Notes on Blindness. This suggests it is
:09:28. > :09:32.either really good or this is just spectacular. There is a lot
:09:33. > :09:36.happening, but this is the last am I will flag this up. I was so
:09:37. > :09:42.encouraged when people said they went to see it and found the cinemas
:09:43. > :09:47.were sold out. It is an extraordinary account of one man's
:09:48. > :09:52.loss of his site, and I think it is a brilliant cinematic portrait that
:09:53. > :09:57.you would imagine cinema would find very difficult to betray. I thought
:09:58. > :10:01.it was moving and important and humbling, and is a piece of cinema,
:10:02. > :10:04.it is not just a documentary, it is so much more than that. It is a
:10:05. > :10:10.dramatic depiction of something that is very hard to do, and I think they
:10:11. > :10:16.did it brilliantly. Your DVD of the week, 10 Cloverfield Lane. Again
:10:17. > :10:25.with this, it is much more like the disappearance of Alex Creek meets
:10:26. > :10:28.war of the worlds, and you wonder what connection it has with
:10:29. > :10:31.Cloverfield, but it has nothing to do with that. A young woman finds
:10:32. > :10:38.herself trapped in a cellar with a man who seems to be her capital, but
:10:39. > :10:44.then he says he saved her, something terrible has happened above ground.
:10:45. > :10:50.Did he? We don't know. What we do know is what plays out in this
:10:51. > :10:52.basement. It is tangentially connected to Cloverfield, but it is
:10:53. > :11:00.a well written psychological thriller with some excellent
:11:01. > :11:03.characters. It keeps you guessing as to what might or might not have
:11:04. > :11:07.happened. It sounds good to me. A quick reminder before we go you will
:11:08. > :11:13.find more news and reviews across the BBC online, and on Mark
:11:14. > :11:27.Kermode's blog. Thank you for watching.
:11:28. > :11:32.This first part of the weekend was pretty reasonable for many of us,
:11:33. > :11:37.with the best of the sunshine the further south and east you happen to
:11:38. > :11:38.be. This is a picture from Norfolk, with some good