THE DARK KNIGHT
Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine
As a huge Batman fan I didn’t think there was anyway possible that anything could outshine ‘Batman Begins’… how wrong was I?
‘The Dark Knight’ sees Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) go even deeper into his alter-ego Batman and sees him work with Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) save Gotham City from a new evil… The Joker (Heath Ledger).
Writer/Director, Christopher Nolan has captured the dark feel of the original Batman comics and graphic novels in a way that no other director ever has and despite the well-deserved praise of how dark Heath Ledger made The Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’ a lot of praise must also be forwarded towards Christian Bale for his ‘darker’ Batman as well. In fact the scene in the Interview Room with Bale and Ledger must be one of the greatest screen moments of all time.
In fact the acting here is great all round, but then what do you expect when you use people like Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. Even Nolan’s surprise in casting Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face works exceptionally well. It’s just a pity Katie Holmes didn’t resign as Maggie Gyllenhaal is a let down in the role of Rachel.
An absolutely sensational film ‘The Dark Knight’ deserves all the praise that has been heaped on it. Can it now breakthrough and be the first superhero movie to attract the attention of the Oscar voters?
(Warner Bros.) Dave Griffiths

MEET DAVE
Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks
When Gina Morrison (Elizabeth Banks) runs over Dave (Eddie Murphy), she never suspects that Dave is in fact an alien spacecraft sent to earth in search of saltwater. She suspects even less that inside that space craft and hundreds of ‘people’ who nothing about Earth. As Dave gets to know Gina and her son, the ‘people’ learn that humans aren’t the savages they thought they were. Will knowing that stop them doing what they were sent to Earth to do; something that will end life on Earth forever.
The fact that ‘Dave’ is a spaceship is a great concept and is well and truly explored. The ‘people’ inside the spaceship are another stroke of genius, and it’s good to see a creative team have the guts to try something new. The fact that each of these ‘people’ each have their own character and not just generic mutants is another plus.               
Also impressive is the acting. Eddie Murphy is back to his old best. The slapstick elements of Dave are done in such a rubbery way that they are reminiscent of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean character... and believe me that is a compliment. Murphy is well supported by Elizabeth Banks and Gabrielle Union while newcomer Austin Lind Myers seems to have a promising career ahead of him.              
It’s good to see Eddie Murphy back to his best in a film that will guarantee the audience at least a chuckle.

(Twentieth Century Fox) Dave Griffiths

ST TRINIANS

ST TRINIAN’S
Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Talulah Riley
‘St Trinian’s’ is definitely a film that is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s set up to look like in should be the latest teen drama with Hilary Duff in the lead role, but after just a few moments of watching it you realise that this is in fact an adults-only black comedy.
It tells the story of Annabelle Fritton (Talulah Riley) is sent to St Trinian’s, a private school where girls are en couraged to be themselves even if that is a criminal-self, by her father, Carnaby Fritton (Rupert Everett). The school has a bad reputation and is run by headmistress Camilla Fritton (also played by Rupert Everett), and has just come under the attention of the government who sends Geoffrey Thwaites (Colin Firth) to investigate. To make matters worse Camilla needs to come up with half a million pounds to save the school from closure.
The film works awfully well thanks largely to a brilliant soundtrack and also a witty script from a very talented team indeed. A lot of the humor is that black-comedy that only the English seem to be able to get away with…and no matter how wrong it is you will laugh. Rupert Everett is brilliant in the role of Camilla and the production team’s gamble really paid off.
Black comedy at it’s best, fans of British films will be in their element with a film that does it’s job and makes you laugh.
(Sony) Dave Griffiths

WANTED

WANTED
James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp
Perhaps one of the biggest disappoints of 2008, largely because I was expecting so much more… actually I was expecting it to be like the graphic novel it was based on…how wrong was I?
Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) lives a boring existence but all that is changed when he discovers a group of assassins known as The Fraternity. The sexy Fox (Angelina Jolie) tells him that his father was killed by a skilled hitman, Cross (Thomas Kretschmann) who double crossed the Fraternity. Soon Wesley is being trained by Fox and Sloan (Morgan Freeman) and told to hunt down Cross.
This could have been… no make that should have been a great film. With this cast and director, Timur Bekmambetov (‘Daywatch’ and ‘Nightwatch’) attached you expect something great but instead you are delivered a film that’s storyline is full of holes and expects you to suspend your belief just a little too much.
No matter what Hollywood tries to tell you no amount of spectacular special effects or shoot-outs can cover up a bad storyline… it is still there for all to see.
Okay if you want a film that won’t make you think… but really just a shoot ‘em up with a big budget.
(Universal) Dave Griffiths

HOW ABOUT YOU?
Heyley Atwell, Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Fricker
Nobody quite knows how to do a serious drama with a tinge of black comedy, the way the filmmakers of Great Britain can. They proved that several years ago with ‘Keeping Mum’ and now they keep that mantle firmly in place with Anthony Byrne’s latest film, ‘How About You’. It is impossible to find fault with ‘How About You’ as it is an exceptional film that works on all levels.
Ellie (Hayley Atwell) is left in charge of an Irish retirement home when her older sister Kate (Orla Brady) has to go and look after their sick mother. Kate has no time for Ellie and honestly expects her sister to fail the task at hand as the job is made that much harder by a group of residents none as ‘the hardcore’. This group has given up on life and spends most of their time making life difficult for others.
‘How About You’ works so well because of its brilliant script. It delves into the topic of old age with a serious edge, but also provides laughs without going all out and making fun of the elderly like films such as ‘Grumpy Old Men’. This script will have you in tears one moment and laughing the next.
Some will argue that ‘How About You’ is a bit slow; yes it is a dialogue driven film, but it’s not a boring watch as it fully captures all your emotions. This is one of the films of the year.

(21st Century) Dave Griffiths

STARWARS THE CLONE WARS

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson
Don’t let the gloss fool you while the animation is so good that you soon forget that you are watching an animated film, but scrape underneath the surface just slightly and there are some major flaws.
The story centres around Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Matt Lanter) being sent a young Jedi to train, the precocious, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein). Anakin and Ahsoka must then save Jabba The Hut’s (Kevin Michael Richardson) son, Rotta (David Acord) who is being kept captive by Asaji Ventress (Nika Futterman). And that is where the major flaw in the film is, we are given barely sufficient information about who Ahsoka is and even less about Ventress, in fact nothing about Ventress, except for a throw-away line by Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) that she is constantly being defeated by the Jedi. If this is to pass as a pilot you would expect for writer, Henry Gilroy to at least give you a little background information on the new characters.
It is also a good chance that many Star Wars fans will find Ahsoka as annoying as they did Jar Jar Binks.
The other major flaw to the film is that the whole film is made of action sequences meaning there is little time for story or character set-up. I also have to question whether or not the producers even tried to get actors like Ewan McGregor to voice their regular roles.
Still ‘Star Wars; The Clone Wars’ is visually sensationally and will more than wet the appetite of any Star Wars fan.
(Village Roadshow) Dave Griffiths

(Village Roadshow) Dave Griffiths