Reviews
COME I, r
THE EX
(15) 90min Fla-Hair 0..
- \ rm": U
Meet the Parents meets (here Something About Mary with a bit of (Ea/den State thrown in for good measure iust about sums up the hardly original but often amusing latest Zach Braff vehicle.
Playing a husband who's emotionally over- achieved, bagging a leC‘ most of the people in the film think is out of his league, Braff's Tom Riley and his better half, Sofia (Amanda Peeti. leave New York after he loses his job as a chef, and she can no longer continue doing law work because she's iiist given birth to a baby. Off they go to Ohio so that Tom can work for her dad (Charles Grodin) in an ad agency called Sunburst Communication, and to take orders from the wheelchair bound ex (Jason Bateman) who iust might be psychotic. Directed by Jesse Peietz. the film has the over-lit gloss Of a W movre or a romantic comedy. but it does. at least. have half a dozen well-handled gags. Extras Include featurette. (Tony McKibbinl
DRAMA
OF MICE AND MEN
(PG) 106mm
(Arrow DVD Retail) 0...
Made only a couple of years after the John Steinbeck novel was published. this respectful 1939 adaptation by Lewis Milestone tells the now famous stOry of the wily and slight George (Burgess Meredithi and his gentle Goliath buddy. Lenny (Lon Chaney Jr). Working as itinerant farm IabOurers but with dreams of getting their own place. George spends most of his time
keeping his clumsy, mentally slow pal out Of trouble. BSOBCIalIy difficult en a farm populated by an
insecure husband. a '.‘/lf(;
who looks like she is always ready to wander. and a black hand who is resentful that he can't socralise With the whites. This is smoothly and freshly directed. as evidenced in one scene in which the wrfe seems to be Witnessmg her husband beating another man in a tracking long shot. only for us to notice her moments later enter the very frame and try to come to the man's resCLie. (Tony McKibbini
SCREWBALL MELODRAMA
LABYRINTH OF PASSION
(18) 94min (Tartan/DVD Retail)
It was wrth this. Pedro Almodovar's second film. made in 1982. that the brand of melodrama which has become known as ‘Almodorama' — essentially a combination of melodrama and screwball comedy — emerged. Here Cecilia Roth plays SeXilia. a nymphomaniac who falls in We wrth Riza Niro (played by Imanol Allasl. the homosexual son of the emperor of Tiran. He's hiding out in Madrid. but. wary of being kidnapped. goes for an image makeover and becomes a rock star.
This is less than half the stOry. but gives a fiav0ur of how early in
ecstaha", he. tea'iirgs Anon ,.a' himse‘f adr""ts f a, J hare beeh ‘t:et‘.e' " aide fethCaiiy'. cut its s still arr accomps’ea early work as the bunk aesthetic starts ti; gwe to the lab/(inns 3‘ 0888100. that would become his trademark Minimal extras
(Tony MCKibbini
SOON. REAL ISY CFNL‘A IT’S A FREE WORLD . . .
(15) 96min
(Channel 4) COO.
. It‘linfith
Grandfather of British sOCial realist Cinema Ken Loach and Glasgow- born screenwriter Paul Laverty's follow up to their Cannes Palme d'Or-winning rise of the IRA thriller The Wind that Shakes the Barley is a biting. bang up to date drama abOut the expl0itation of immigrant labOur in the UK that deservedly scooped three maior awards after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month.
Focusmg on a QOrgeous. charismatic and ruthless London recrUitment con8ultant named Angie (impresswe newcomer Kierston Wareingi, who sets up her own busrness and becomes the pretty face of gangmastery. It's a Free World . . . is not only a searing indictment of what in this case is largely Eastern European lab0ur eprOitation, it's also a burning condemnation of the callous entrepreneurship that blights the UK.
As ever, Loach's stOrytelling is naturalistic. nOn- sensational and yet deeply shocking and extremely th0ught- provoking. Meanwhile. Laverty’s deCision to tell
Film
DVD ROUNDUP
\ . . . . or)‘.)‘r\‘ 'h')‘ I 3: -
The Alec Guinness Collection
1m, “";.Tf;'* J {7‘ i I“
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(RJ
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Quentin Tarantino's exploitation movie homage Death Proof proved to be a damp souib. and Robert Rodriguez‘s fonhcoming companion flick Planet Terror isn't much better. In America. the films were released — and flopped — as the double bill Grindhouse. but the fake film trailers sandwiched between the features got rave reviews. Ditto Grindhouse Trailer Classics (Nucleus Films eeee ). a superb two-hour splattering of teasers for the original 19603 and 708 exploitation movies. The films themselves may not always have been up to much, but the short ads for such gloriously lurid titles as Three on A Meathook, Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS and Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things are an absolute riot. Extras include a Bump'n'Grind featurette and poster art gallery. With Warner Bros having Iobotomised the forthcoming The lnvasron wrth cuts and re-shoots (see Also Released. page 42) sci-fi fans can console themselves with the timely reissue of the original 19503 classic Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (Universal 0000.). Don Siegel's terrific and terrifying tale about the inhabitants of a small American town who are replaced by alien duplicates is the quintessential communist red scare allegory. No extras. Modest of means but ambitious in intention. a pair of low budget Scottish films are receiving their premiers on DVD: Wild Country (Guerilla Films
), a gory Highlands-set horror movie starring Peter Capaldi and Martin
Compston. and Night People (Guerilla Films sees ). a nocturnal drama shot in Edinburgh, for which The List's film editor provided an ‘excellent performances' endorsement. Extras include commentary. making of and
deleted scenes.
Back to black (and white) now with a pair of Screen Icons boxed sets. The John Mills Collection (Optimum Classic see Mills. but the high sea farce The Baby and the Battleship. music teacher mentor drama It '3 Great to be Young! . IRA thriller The Gentle Gunman. and 608 kitchen sink drama The Family Way prove what a versatile actor the man was. No extras. Meanwhile, The Alec Guinness Collection (Optimum Classic sees ) is a superior selection, featuring The Captain '3 Paradise. Last Holiday. Barnacle Bill and two Eating comedy classics, The Man in the White Suit and - a contender for best British comedy ever — Kind Hearts and Coroners. No extras. (Miles Fielder)
the story from the ()(Jll‘i Of View of a Ver ambiguous —- and ver, likeable — character is inspved.and COmplicates. in a good way. the (SSues at hand that might have bee". treated in purely black and white terms, The DVD release. f0|lO'.’.’1l‘.g SOOn after the recent SCreening on Channel Feur (the film's producersi. includes an unsurprisingf, engrossmg director's COmmenfah,1
(Miles Fielderi
DRAMA MANJI
(Yume Pictures) 90min .0.
As strange as it is sensual, Yasuzo
M A N”
';‘( “MM VWidimrnLl !
li/laSurnara's 796/. "‘elod'ar'iatc Sizzler succeeds ll; being .aricus things to different people. At its best. t casts a visceral eye upon the codes of sexuai Culture which would ha.e seemed ‘iastl, alien to ‘.'.'esterr. './lE:.‘./E:TS of the time; at it worst. With SOme
) may not be vintage
hilarmusly maniacal perforri‘ziiice‘3. it coine‘, Close to being Carry On Up flit: Ramon/y. Sonokr, w housewife who falls in lust 3.th Mitsuko. a life model at her art class \"Jliile Mit‘mko appears to .'.'elr,orne her attentions. it soon f)€:CU’YIf;S (,lfn’jl iliili lief (RON/0f; are (0.33 Tidili honourable and a four .‘iay game of charter; .‘iltli suicide (lact‘. and [210(ij Oath”) “MUNICH if) tear apart their souls The extras on show are trailer“, from the eqiially bonkers back catalogues of t/lasurr.ura al‘id lit“) {illlle Pictures stableli'iate Seijuri Suzuki (Brian Donaldson)
, a bored
.2—‘ a ’2'} 2907 THE LIST 43