The Chorus
Dir: Christophe Barratier
Cast: Gerard Jugnot, Francois Berleand, Marie Bunel
School kids have no hope
new teacher makes them sing well
Dead Poets in French
So this was the "surprise" preview screening I caught this week. I have to say I was a little worried when I heard the title and was told it was a French drama, but take into consideration three Bafta nominations and an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film and there must be something here to recommend. And indeed there is. It's your standard put-upon-teacher-inspires-kids drama, but handled well and with a particularly strong performance from Jugnot who eschews showboating in favour of a much more gentle, restrained portrayal of the teacher. The fact that not one person walked out of this preview screening says a lot about the engaging nature of this movie.
soulmining rating: ****
Meet The Fockers
Dir: Jay Roach
Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand
Dad is house husband
Mom is oldie sex guru
De Niro won't like
Meet The Parents was amusing enough but I never felt it really warranted a sequel, but I guess that's Hollywood for you. My expectations were duly very, very low for this movie. Thankfully it's not as bad as I feared; in fact there's enough funny moments to illicit favourable comparisons to the first film. Yes, De Niro's self-parodying schtick is now wearing incredibly thin but he's done worse. There's more fun to be had with The Fockers this time around; Hoffman is particularly good and even Streisand manages to get some laughs. Not a comedy classic by any means, but still better than it had any right to be and you can't say fairer than that.
soulmining rating: ***
Assault on Precinct 13
Dir: Jean-Francois Richet
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Maria Bello, Gabriel Byrne
Working at New Year
bad cops want prisoners dead
unlucky thirteen
If it's not needless sequels then it's needless remakes. The original Assault on Precinct 13 wasn't one of John Carpenter's best films, but this latest version takes a fair stab at the familiar siege plot in which a handful of decent cops and scumbag prisoners have to work together to battle the dirty cops outside trying to off them. It's gritty stuff and the casting works well; I've always been a fan of Ethan Hawke and there's a good array of character actors on screen so you're never quite sure who's gonna make it out alive and who's gonna end up with a bullet in the head. What let's the movie down is the team of dirty cops led by Gabriel Byrne; any plausibility for their covert operation goes straight out the window when they start commanding helicopters and some serious firepower. The finale in the woods is also glaringly bad - like where did these woods suddenly spring up from? - and it's so poorly lit that you can instantly tell that you're watching some actors on a sound stage. These grumbles aside, it's a decent action-thriller and another surprisingly watchable remake.
soulmining rating: ***
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