ADVENTURE ROMANCE FOOL’S GOLD (12A) 112min 00
All that glitters is not gold is indeed the case With this witless. plodding rom-com romp that reunites How to Lose a Guy in 70 Days pretty pair Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson as estranged husband and Wife-cum-treasure hunters in the sunny Caribbean.
McConaughey gives good bare chest as Ben Finnegan. a booty hunter With his eye on a legendary 17th century Spanish treasure ship named the Queen's dowry believed sunk in Caribbean waters. Having had enough of her husband prioritiSing golden booty over that of his Wife. Hudson's Tess is in the process of filing for divorce when Finn gets a lucky line on the location of the priceless dowry. The pair are soon off after the waterlogged fOrtune. assisted by Donald Sutherland's dapper billionaire and purSLied by Kevin Hart's ruthless rapper-gangster.
Written by John Claflin and Daniel Zelman (whose most notable previous credit. Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. may give you an idea of the quality of their scriptl and directed by Hollywood hack Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama. Hitch), Fool's Gold lacks both romantic chemistry and decent comic banter. And even the thrilling adventure one would expect from a National Treasure-With-sex is absent. sunk in a sea of unnecessarin tedious and baffling exposmon.
(Miles Fielder) I General release from Fri 78 Apr.
COMEDY CRIME. HORROR BOTC ED (15) 94min u
If characters explode like tomatoes in microwaves. you're probably Witnessmg the continuing rise of British splat-core comedy horror that's had as many hits (Shaun of the Dead. Severance) as misses (The Cottagei. the latter now (omed by the appropriately named Botched.
Stephen Dorff plays Ritchie. a (OWCI thief who aCCidentally drops a suitcase of diamonds during a heist gone wrong. leaVing him in the debt of Russmn gangster Mr Groznyi (Sean Pertwee). Groznyi suggests that Ritchie work off his debt by stealing a valuable cross from a Moscow apartment block. where Ritchie achdentally awakens the vengeful spirit of Ivan the Terrible. Or at least a man With a stuck-on ginger beard and an axe.
With Dublin standing in unconvinCingly for Moscow and a limited budget for gore effects. debut feature director Kit Ryan and Scottish SCreenwriter Raymond Friel (The Cale/um Kid. Only Girls) hit the panic button and go for the cheapest of laughs. Missmg trousers. speeded-up chases With Benny Hill-style balalaika leSIC and tart Jokes ab0und. With one desperate sequence involving all three within five seconds.
PartiCipating With the good- humoured awkwardness of an adult at an infant's tea party. Dorft deserves credit for keeping a straight face. only once turning towards the camera to ask ‘When's the next light back to LA?‘ (Eddie Harrison)
I Selected release from Fri 7 7 Apr.
Reviews
FlAéHBACKs or A FOOL (15) 113mm 0.0
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HORROR [REC] (18) 85 min 0000
Pan ’5 Labyrinth and The Orphanage have proved that Spain is a hotbed of horror talent whose filmmakers can strike a chord overseas. [REC] easily joins these ranks (it already has an American remake, Quarantine, scheduled). Yet, instead of following the Spanish vogue for ghost stories [REC] is an all-out zombie fest shot from the hip.
The film boasts a cunningly simple premise. A Spanish TV crew follows a group of firefighters on what appears to be a routine callout. Little do they know that the block of flats they enter is ground zero for a zombie infestation. Amping up the claustrophobia as the authorities seal them into the building and the infection spreads, the filmmakers' muddy the waters with vague hints of an unnecessary supernatural twist in the final reel, but overall this is a creepy, genuinely edge of your seat cinema experience.
It may be an amalgamation of various horror movies (most notably Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later and The Blair Witch Project) but it excels in its execution, while the directing/writing team of Jaume Balaguero (The Fragile, The Dark) and Paco Plaza (Romasanta) demonstrate a visual flair and a true grasp of disturbing imagery.
Unlike George A Romero’s latest, Diary of the Dead, [REC] revels in its realism, using the handheld camera to immerse the viewer in the action rather than give a knowing commentary on media over saturation. That's not to say [REC] isn’t an intelligent film; smartly economical in budget and story, it ramps up the tension throughout to a genuinely unsettling finale
(Henry Northmore) I General release from Fri 7 7 Apr. See profile. left.
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