Nick Moran

For what's clearly trying to be a bad-mannered sex comedy, there's nothing particularly rude or funny here. This is mainly because the central character is both unlikeable and hard to believe. And also because this British movie reveals its moralistic intentions as the story develops from one contrived scene to the next. Thanks to the cast there are moments of wit here and there, but all of them are undermined by the uneven tone.

At the centre of the mayhem is Frank (Jason Durr), who runs a sex-toy company with his pal Bill (Nick Moran). Business is good, and life is a series of drunken parties populated with curvy women. Fed up with his refusal to grow up, Frank's estranged wife Rachel (Orla O'Rourke) talks their doctor into giving Frank a fake diagnosis to shake him up. Now believing that he has a fatal heart condition, Frank suddenly decides that he needs to get his life in order, clean up his professional life and bond with his 15-year-old son Sam (Dylan Llewellyn) on a series of days out. He also decides to help Sam get the girl (Poppy Drayton) he has his eye on.

The most annoying thing about this underdeveloped script is the way it portrays Frank as such an idiot that he never asks a single pertinent question about his condition, including treatment options and a second opinion. And yet Frank upends everything in an effort to change. This is so ludicrously implausible that it highlights the other contrivances in the script, most pointedly how Bill has managed to create such a successful company when he knows absolutely nothing about women or sex. None of this is the fault of the actors; both Durr and Moran have plenty of charm, but the misogynistic characters they play simply never feel like real human beings.

Continue reading: Down Dog Review

Cranking up the action and emotion, JK Rowling's Harry Potter saga moves into the first half of its extended grand finale. It's a relatively harrowing film punctuated by real violence, and it cleverly starts weaving together both the plot and the relationships.

After the tragic events of the previous school year, Harry (Radcliffe) and his pals Ron and Hermoine (Grint and Watson) know that they can't go back to normal. Instead, they're on the run from Voldemort (Fiennes) and his fearsome Death Eaters. They also have an overwhelming task: collecting the horcruxes that Voldemort has hidden to ensure his immortality. But where to look? And when they find one, how do they destroy it? Then a rebel journalist (Ifans) tells them the story of the Deathly Hallows, which makes their quest even more urgent.

The plot has a very different structure, as our three heroes are propelled by startling events into increasingly uncertain situations. Persistently chased by the bad guys and unable to trust anyone, they are profoundly alone and constantly in danger. We strongly feel their lonely desperation all the way through the film, so when another nasty thing happens to push them further along, it's genuinely unsettling.

Although it feels far too long, Yates and Kloves thankfully mix the dark drama with lighter comedy, allowing the characters to grow organically. Over seven films the story has grown increasingly gloomy but, despite the relentless anxiety, this chapter has an insistent pace, which is helpful since pretty nightmarish things are happening. There's also some subtext in the political storyline, as the villains seize control first of the media and then the government.

By now, the three central actors have settled solidly into their roles, adding subtle edges in every scene. Intriguingly, Grint has emerged as the most complex performer, but all three are excellent. And the who's who of British acting talent around them is fantastic. Stand-outs this time are Nighy (as a slippery politician), Isaacs (as a disgraced baddie) and Mullan (as a vicious security guy). But several others get a chance to shine as well, and of course there's a lot more action to come in Part 2.

Lock, Stockis in fact, probably the best film since Pulp Fiction in which there are no really good guys. Pulp Fiction, Lock, Stockbegins with what would seem to be a simple story, that quickly careens out of control. In this case, four buddies; Tom, Eddie, Bacon, and Soap, pool their money together to back can't lose Eddie at an unbeknownst-to-them rigged game of cards. Of course they get fleeced, and end up in heavy debt to the local heavy. What follows is a madcap plan to recoup the money by intercepting a heist Eddie has fortuitously discovered his neighbor is carrying out. The interrelation of the problems with the original heist, along with the interception of it by Eddie's gang, and a couple of other local illegal activities result in a frantic circle of destruction.

Continue reading: Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels Review

After all its TV commercial posturing about "re-envisioning" a classic as a post-Hong Kong actioner, "The Musketeer" betrays the truth of its utter lack of real ambition in the casting of a wooden, charmlessly handsome, totally generic Hollywood pretty boy in the title role.

His name is Justin Chambers (Jennifer Lopez's irritating Italian suitor in "The Wedding Planner"), and he looks and acts like he got the part only because Chris O'Donnell -- the industry's preferred choice for glinty-eyed, mannequin-souled heroes -- already played D'Artagnan in Disney's weightless 1993 adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers."

Out to avenge the murder of his father some 14 years before, this D'Artagnan is "all for one" without the "one for all." Ostensibly, he ventures to Paris to join King Louis XIII's elite guard, only to find them disbanded and in disarray following a power shift that favored troops loyal to the power-mad Cardinal Richelieu (Stephen Rea).

Continue reading: The Musketeer Review