March 28, 2013
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“I know all sorts of people who have had bad experiences in caravans,†Tina’s vile mother warns.
Julia Donaldson’s charming children’s book is enhanced in this lovingly made animation from the makers of The Gruffalo.
Neil Maskell is horribly convincing as Arby, a psychotic working for shadowy organisation The Network.
Argo is further proof, after the excellent Gone Baby Gone and efficient The Town, that Ben Affleck is an accomplished film-maker. The 1979 Iranian hostage crisis is the catalyst for this bizarre true story, in which a CIA agent (Affleck) sets up a fake fantasy film in order to smuggle six Americans, hiding at the Canadian embassy, out of Tehran. He recruits a foul-mouthed producer (Alan Arkin …
Hit and Run is a considerably more enjoyable road movie with an engaging cast and script.
“What I see in him is compulsive psychosis,” grumbles Viggo Mortensen’s William Burroughs-like character about Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund, convincingly hedonistic/idiotic).
Frankenweenie, from the science teacher who resembles Vincent Price to the Stepford Wives-looking suburban neighbourhood, is the closest in spirit to Tim Burton’s 1990 masterpiece Edward Scissorhands.
If you’re not a Woody Allen fan, subtract one point from the above rating. If you are an Allenite, you’ll still be forced to file To Rome with Love among his minor works.