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| Wallace and Gromit grow up |
WALLACE AND GROMIT - THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
Directed by Nick Park and Steve Box
Certificate U
THIS is an ambitious, somewhat scary yet quite adventurous feature-length
take on the lovely claymation duo.
The story is a simple one: Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and
Gromit are the town bunny-capturers – a very good gig given
that they live in a town where everyone is a vegetable lover. The
townsfolk are also vying for the Golden Carrot prize at the next
giant vegetable competition and this is the single obsession of
the entire community. When Lady Tottington (voice by Helena Bonham-Carter)
needs to have her rabbits removed – and her shot-gun-armed,
pompadour-wearing boyfriend (voice by Ralph Fiennes) isn’t
doing the trick – Wallace and Gromit offer their services,
with not a little flirting between the Lady and Wallace despite
Gromit’s vague bemusement. But there has to be a snag in the
works somewhere and, scientist that he feels he is, one of Wallace’s
experiments go awry – with disastrous results. Think of The
Fly and you won’t be far off.
With more filmic allusions than most buffs will be able to spot
(Watership Down, King Kong, etc), the feature has a snappy pace
and sensible storyline with just enough wild coincidence to make
us laugh.
It is the detail, too, that arouses the eye: the actual light bulbs
in the eyes of Wallace’s clients‚ portraits, the firm
grasp on reality Gromit is forced to take and, for better or for
worse, the sexual innuendo between Wallace and Lady Tottington –
an element which was avoided in previous Wallace and Gromit outings,
making this one decidedly more Austin Powers around the edges.
The Curse of the Wererabbit is hefty and fun enough to spin into
a franchise. Think of this as one giant vegetable feature feast
for the whole family.
Kiera takes pride in tackling bad-girl
role
DOMINO Directed by Tony Scott
Certificate 15
BASED on the genuinely interesting true life story of actor Lawrence
Harvey’s bounty hunter daughter Domino, Keira Knightly (pictured)
plays the woman herself – one-time model, sorority girl and
full-time badass – as a kind of rock star with a gun who makes
her living tracking down sweaty bad people.
All skin, short hair and armed to the teeth, this role is almost
as if Knightly wants to prove she can play anything – from
Jane Austen to a modern bad girl – with ease. Although she
does fill the shoes admirably, it is the story which suffers. As
its real life subject was recently discovered dead via an overdose,
this film could have been so much more than what it is: an easy
romp through a life that seems seamlessly fictional.
Mickey Rourke is, however, typically spot on as Domino’s mentor
and boss, a legendary bounty hunter with his own philosophical approach
to life, death and women.
The third member of the bounty hunter team is the swarthy Choco
(Edgar Ramirez) who speaks Spanish when it isn’t required and
whose love for Domino knows no bounds.
In a pivotal and incredibly enjoyable role, Christopher Walken co-stars
as a wily TV producer who puts the trio on the air in their own
reality show – and it is his consistently funny delivery of
the word, ‘WOW!’ which is one of the film’s mini-highlights.
Jacqueline Bisset is wonderful in the thankless role of Domino’s
golddigger mum with DelRoy Lindo doing his bit as a bail-bondsman
turned scam artist.
While neither an action film or a biographical study, there are
enough car wrecks, shoot-outs, lap dances (well, okay, just the
one) and explosions to keep us awake. Director Tony Scott –
who apparently befriended the real life Domino in her last few years
on earth – didn’t want this to be a documentary on what
was a beleaguered and clouded life. This is a mix of the real and
fictional, a visual mesh of an exciting existence seen through an
excited lens.
Ultimately, Scott pulls out the stops, cutting and treating film
like so much visual fabric, to bring a feature to life that looks
great even if it doesn’t say much.
Aslo showing
Godzilla
The original, unedited 1954 Japanese classic is given its first
UK showing. Made in the years after the first successful hydrogen
bomb explosions, Godzilla reflects the panic of its time –
and this version replaces the original anti-nuclear footage cut
by the American distributor in 1956.
A stunning piece of historic cinema that mustn’t be missed.
Guy X
Jason Biggs stars in this military black comedy which tries to be
Catch-22 for the 21st century. Scottish director Saul Metzstein
(Late Night Shopping) takes a slightly too safe road in exposing
the seamy underbelly of an American military post in Greenland.
Cinematography and performances rate high – the latter especially
from Jeremy Northam, Michael Ironside and Natascha McElhone.
Le Grand Voyage
Festival darling Ismael Ferroukhi’s religious road trip centres
on an old man who forces his son to drive him from France to Saudi
Arabia in order to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The son, used to
the ways of the west, learns that perhaps his father isn’t
just a religious fanatic after all. Predictable, yes, but beautiful
too.
Lord of War
Nicolas Cage (pictured) plays a gun runner who constantly questions
his own ethics in this luxuriously, deftly made yet rather airlessly
preachy drama by writer and director Andrew Niccol, who also did
Gattaca.
Visually astonishing, even the opening credits feature an amazing
take on the lifetime of a bullet. Jared Leto co-stars.
Pick of the indies
Out on a Limb
When nasty TV chef Felix Limb (Henry Goodman) finally drinks himself
into losing his cookery show along with his wife and his girlfriend,
his day gets worse.
He still has a dinner party to prepare, entertaining his disgruntled
women, a celebrity author and other nightmare guests.
To make matters worse, two gunmen crash the party, mistaking Limb’s
house for their proper target.
From that point on, this lopes into a farce, eventually rolling
into a three-day police siege, a woman writing kidnapping demands
on her naked torso and lots of bedroom shenanigans between those
trapped inside Limb’s home.
Studded with with snappy if obvious jokes, Neil Stuke and Goodman’s
comic timing makes this moderate comedy better than it should be.
White, however, comes out on top in the acting stakes, proving that
comedy often requires more acting skill than drama; in fact, White
won a festival award for her role here.
UGC Shaftsbury Avenue. Call 0870 9070716. |
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