jean-michel jammart

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Film Review : The Island

The Island is a sci-fi / action film set in 2019, and tells the story of “Lincoln Six Echo” (Ewan McGregor) and “Jordan Two Delta” (Scarlett Johansson), two residents of a futuristic colony containing the last remaining survivors of the “contamination”. If you have read anything about the film you will know that all is not as it seems, and that behind this façade lies a sinister secret.

The film is split into two quite different halves. The first half paints a picture of life inside the colony, slowly and intelligently unravelling the mystery. The second half, after our heroes escape from their prison, is an all-out action movie, containing more chases, crashes and explosions than you can shake a stick at.

I enjoyed the first half more – it was great to look at, was intelligently written, and kept me guessing for a while. The second half was a bit more formulaic, and although the stunts were spectacular they got a bit repetitive. The plot was on the whole pretty good though, except for a couple of slips towards the end - why did no one check Jordan for a concealed weapon?!

Overall though I really liked this film. Ewan McGregor was excellent in the lead role(s), and there were fine supporting turns from Steve Buscemi, Sean Bean and Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Voyager, instantly recognisable from his voice). Johansson was of course very easy on the eye, but her character wasn’t all that interesting.

I’d give it a **** rating, and would definitely recommend it.

Film Review - War of the Worlds

Steven Spielberg has of course made a lot of great summer movies over the years. Duel, Jaws, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park are among my all time favourites.

War of the Worlds is not.

I can't quite put my finger on why this film didn't do it for me. The special effects were awesome, there were some tense moments, and Tom Cruise was fine. At the end of the day I guess there were just too many things that grated;

1. the kids were annoying and unsympathetic. The son was badly written and illogical, and the daughter veered between hysterical and serene without reason

2. The aliens weren't at all scary. They came up out of their craters much too quickly - it worked a lot better in the book with the slow build up.

3. The Tim Robbins character was a bit of a cliché and wasn't believable

4. The plot didn't have any layers of complexity to it - aliens arrive, people got killed, aliens die. There wasn't enough to engage the brain.

5. There were too many bits that didn't make sense - eg how come Tom Cruise could run to his house quicker than 100ft aliens? And would people under alien attack really have the time to construct 9/11 style missing posters?

6. The film was of course hampered by the book's very un-cinematic ending......"Is that it?"

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I expect something more from Mr Spielberg. The wife thought it was excellent.

I give it 3 stars.

Do you disagree? Why not leave a comment and let me know what you think?

Film Review : Batman Begins

I took this photo while ice-hiking on the Vatnajokul glacier in Iceland. If you've seen Batman Begins you may recognise it, as the glacier was used to film the Siberian section of the film. Although we visited Iceland a few months after filming there was a lot of debris left on the glacier by the film crew - our mountain guide wasn't very impressed!

Anyway, onto the review. As you no doubt know, this is a re-launch of the Batman film franchise that went seriously off track in the 90s. It tells the story of how Bruce Wayne went from privileged billionaire's son to Dark Knight, and does the job pretty well. The scenes of Bruce as a child are very good, and his motivation for taking the path he has chosen is well explained. Christian Bale is excellent in the lead role, deliverying just the right level of menace.

The film isn't perfect though. The final act, where the film kicks into action mode, is far less interesting than the build up that precedes it. And Katie Holmes, despite being drop dead gorgeous, is much too lightweight for the role of a District Attorney.

All in all though it was a good film, and I'd give it 4 stars