www.list.co.uk/film
ACTION/THRILLER THE A TEAM (12A) 118min ●●●●●
‘I love it when a plan comes together’ opines cigar- chewing black-ops manager Col John ‘Hannibal’ Smith (Liam Neeson) several times in director Joe Carnahan’s revamp of the 1980s action series. Unfortunately the Smokin Ace’s director’s plan, which involves replacing the TV show’s stunt-work with flashy CGI, and peppering the dialogue with endless shout-outs, call-backs and smug referencing of the TV show, never quite comes together like the plans Hannibal loves. Updated from the Vietnam war to Iraq, The A-Team
has Smith and his business partner Faceman (The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper) join forces with air- travel-averse toughie BA Baracus (Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson) and madcap pilot Murdock (District 9’s Sharlto Copley) to retrieve stolen printing plates used
for counterfeiting US dollars. When they’re double- crossed and framed by another black-ops team, Smith sets about busting his men out of jail, and going after the real culprits in explosive style, with federal agent Charisa Sosa (Jessica Biel) in hot pursuit.
From its extended, twenty-minute opening credits scene onwards, The A-Team, like the original TV show, aims to be excessive, exuberant fun, with flying tanks, macho badinage and an ingenious climax involving hundreds of multi-coloured packing containers on the Los Angeles waterfront. But with the stars looking uncomfortable with such deliberately lightweight material, The A-Team plays like any other pumped-up B movie; there’s plenty of bang for your buck, but the film tries so hard to pander to its audience’s silliest desires that it ends up feeling calculated, shallow and empty. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release, Wed 28 Jul.
Reviews Film
ALSO RELEASED The Rebound (15) 94min ●●●●● On the rebound from a broken marriage, can Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones) really have feelings for Aram (Justin Bartha), the young guy from the coffee shop who looks after her kids? Given that he is cute and seems to be a saint (responsible, idealistic, well- educated, great lover etc) it doesn’t seem that much of a stretch. Is the twist, or total lack of it, supposed to come from the possibility of a relationship between a 40-year-old woman and a 25 to 30-year-old guy? Cue Sam Taylor-Wood. Slick, cute and schmaltzy with an interminable ending. There is, however, a bizarre appearance from Art Garfunkel as Aram’s dad. General release from Fri 23 Jul.
Bronco Bullfrog (15) 86min ●●●●● Re-issue of Barney Platts- Mills’ 1969 cult British social drama set in the East End of London in which a young couple try to find some peace and solitude from the suedehead youths that hang around the streets. A genuine off- beat rediscovery, Bronco Bullfrog is a fascinating and moving portrait of forgotten London, one that foreshadows the early polemical TV work of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh and the Punk movement. GFT, Glasgow from Mon 2-Wed 4 Aug. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore (PG) 90min Sequel to 2001’s Cats & Dogs in which hairless sphinx cat Kitty decides to enslave humans. Unable to review at time of going to press. Will be reviewed at www.list.co.uk General release from Wed 4 Aug.
DRAMA BEAUTIFUL KATE (15) 101min ●●●●●
The directorial debut of British actress Rachel Ward, Beautiful Kate is an assured adaptation of a novel by American writer Newton Thornburg, which was originally set in 1970s Idaho. The filmmaker has transplanted the story to contemporary rural Australia, where after a 20-year absence, writer Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) returns with his much younger fiancee Toni (Maeve Dermody) to his isolated family farm in the Flinders Ranges region. The belligerent patriarch Bruce (Bryan Brown) lies dying, tended by Ned’s sister Sally (Rachel Griffiths). It soon becomes clear that the whole family is haunted by the events of a quarter century earlier, when Ned’s twin sister Kate (Sophie Lowe) and elder brother Cliff met tragic ends.
Ward fluidly moves between present and past, giving each time frame a distinctive visual sensibility. In the flashbacks to the 70s and 80s, we’re aware of both the fertile surrounding landscapes, and Ned’s increasingly obsessional feelings towards Kate. In the present-day sequences however, which are more deliberately framed, the dominant mood is one of decay: the aridity of the terrain and the shabby domestic interiors become metaphors for the family’s emotional paralysis. In concentrating on the troubled father-son relationship the film unwisely removes two of the most interesting female characters from the story, whilst the coda involving reconciliation with the Aboriginal community feels unearned. Yet this remains an impressively acted drama, with Lowe’s striking portrayal of the luminous title character marking her out as one to watch. (Tom Dawson) ■ GFT, Glasgow & Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 30 Jul.
22 Jul–5 Aug 2010 THE LIST 47