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Audrey Hepburn In The Movies: DVD Review

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A look back at the career of a five-star Hollywood actress… 

Timothy Knight’s 39-minute documentary Audrey Hepburn In The Movies takes movie fans on a whistle-stop tour of the British actress’ filmography. There’s a rush to pile through the early years so the film critic can focus on the good stuff, although to its credit the doc doesn’t linger as long as you might expect on My Fair Lady or Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

Audrey Hepburn In The Movies DVD cover

Still, there’s not much chatter about her bit parts in films such as Laughter In Paradise and The Lavender Hill Mob (which paid her way as a trainee ballerina), or her breakthrough role in the stage production of Gigi. The end of her career gets similar treatment, with her last three films – Bloodline, They All Laughed and Always – dashed off in just a few moments.

What we do get is a lot of trailer footage (with its laughably sexist and amazingly cheesy dialogue!) of hits such as Funny Face, Roman Holiday and Sabrina, linked together by snippets of Knight’s chat. Don’t expect too much hard-hitting insight, though, as the tagline “A celebratory documentary” sums up the reverence placed on one of Hollywood’s greatest stars.

Playing the entire documentary or selecting a specific movie from the menu will have the same result: the footage of Hepburn in action will have you reaching for her full-length films in your DVD library. On that basis, Audrey Hepburn In The Movies is a success. One for a rainy afternoon.

VERDICT: 6/10 

Audrey Hepburn In The Movies DVD back cover

Audrey Hepburn In The Movies is released on DVD by Wienerworld on 14 January 2013 and can be purchased from Amazon. 


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Gangster Squad: Review

by with No Comment CinemaReviews

Gangster Squad stretches its true story status as wide as Sean Penn’s rubber face… 

A soldier who has returned from World War II to serve in the Los Angeles police force, questioning the changes in the world he fought to defend as he interrogates suspects and gets into gun fights and car chases? Anyone who has played the videogame L.A. Noire will recognise the themes in Gangster Squad.

Yet Will Beall’s (TV’s Castle) screenplay is actually based on Paul Lieberman’s series of articles entitled Tales From The Gangster Squad. This ‘true life’ story, set in Los Angeles in 1949, follows Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen’s (Sean Penn) attempt to take over the town. With judges, politicians and the police in his pocket, plus a ruthless policy of killing or intimidating witnesses, it seems nothing can stop him.

Gangster Squad Josh Brolin Ryan Gosling Anthony Mackie Robert Patrick Giovanni Ribisi Michael Pena

That’s until Nick Nolte’s police chief asks Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) to create a rogue outfit of cops willing to do whatever it takes to break up Cohen’s operation. It’s not long before he’s rounded up the wise-cracking slacker (Ryan Gosling), the tough black beat cop (Anthony Mackie), the sharp shooter (Robert Patrick), the brain (Giovanni Ribisi) and the sidekick (Michael Peña).

It’s a cracking set up that somehow never reaches its full potential. Penn’s turn as Cohen doesn’t help, gurned so much his rubber face wouldn’t have looked out of place amongst the puppets on Spitting Image.

The only thing stopping Penn’s performance as a sneering Cohen from being criticised more heavily is Nolte. Whether he knew he was in the movie or not – and anyone who has seen his red carpet experience might ask – is questionable. And the actor hasn’t just let himself go, he’s ballooned to the point where he’d be in the running to play the Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters: The Musical. It’s a sad sight to see.

Any hope of deeper character explorations for the Squad themselves, as they wonder if what they’re doing is really right, are also lost along the way as their throwaway psychoanalysis barely has time to be heard between stylised action sequences. Wider themes looking at how a society deals with the return of a well-trained mass of killers from active service also get short shrift.

Gangster Squad Ryan Reynolds Emma Stone

Despite all of those concerns, Gangster Squad is actually very entertaining. Some genuine humour early on lightens the tone, the film is stylishly shot by Oscar-winning director of photography Dion Beebe and the real life locations make you want to book that flight out of grey old Britain right now.

For once even the dreaded word ‘reshoots’ – which usually suggests the first cut wasn’t strong enough – is not an issue. A scene showing a shoot-out in a cinema was deemed to be too heavy going for the audience, given the real life theatre shootings that happened during a Dark Knight Rises screening in Aurora.

Gangster Squad hasn’t lost any of its bite because of that omission. It’s not easy to accuse a film of skimping on the violence when it starts with a man in chains between two revving cars and segues into a bloody fight against multiple opponents.

VERDICT: 6/10 


Midnight Son review Jacob Zak Kilberg 470

Midnight Son: Review

by with No Comment CinemaReviews

Sun-dodging, sex and sanguination in a moody vamp horror from the director of The Blair Witch Project… 

Whatever happened to movie monsters the good guys love to kill? Creatures of the night used to bring whole communities together, carrying torches and waving pitchforks, yet there’s no such nimby attitude these days. Whereas women used to run screaming from vampires, they are now more likely to jump on anything without a pulse. Perhaps this is the true, lasting legacy of Twilight, a series of films that saw its female lead debate whether to date a werewolf or a bloodsucker. It was restaurant silver service rather than silver bullets, steak tartine rather than stake through the heart. With zombie love story Warm Bodies on the way, things are only going to get worse.

Midnight Son review Jacob Zak Kilberg Mary Maya Parish

It’s therefore disarming to find out that Midnight Son was shot in 2007 – a year before Twilight’s release – with principle photography taking place over 22 nights in Los Angeles and a few scenes being added years later. Had Scott Leberecht’s (The Blair Witch Project) film been released six years ago, its decision to ask the audience to feel sympathy for someone who stalks the night(shift) would have seemed much fresher.

The story follows Jacob (Zak Kilberg), an overnight security guard who had a normal childhood until a rare skin condition forced him to seek shelter during daylight. A joke from his junkie girlfriend Mary (Maya Parish) and a sudden change in his health – where no amount of eating can satisfy his hunger – has him renting vampire flicks and checking out his teeth in the mirror to see if he might be on the change.

Midnight Son uses its low budget to great effect. Vérité-style camerawork gives it a raw – if not quite bleeding – edge, witnessed in the handheld back and forth of a street conversation or the extreme close-ups of its insatiable lead character. Kilberg is RPattz without the sparkle, all tortured looks and glaring appetites.

Writer/director/producer Leberecht’s artistic input, meanwhile, even extends to the painted pictures of sunrises and sunsets Jacob obsessively crafts. Moody, mean and with a glimpse of LA’s darker side, it’s just a shame his film didn’t see sunlight for so long.

VERDICT: 8/10

Midnight Son opens in cinemas in key UK cities on 11 January 2013.

  • Like this movie? Check out the season eight Supernatural episode Bitten to see an awesome found footage take on what it’s like to become a werewolf.


Argo Review poster Ben Affleck sci-fi movie Iran true story 470

Argo: Review

by with No Comment CinemaReviews

“This would be one of the worst films ever made if it wasn’t a true story,” Ben Affleck admits in a press interview for Argo, and he’s right.

This pottiest of pot boilers sees six US Embassy staff escape into Tehran when a crowd breaches their secure complex and takes everyone else hostage. Fearing for their lives if they are caught by the Iranian hardliners, their possible escape routes sit squarely between a rock and a hard place.

That’s until CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a crazy plan to shoot a made-up sci-fi film in Iran, sneaking the six out as Canadian filmmakers once they’ve scouted possible locations. Cue the creation of a fake studio, the interest of a known director and the search for a suitable script. The premise is bonkers – but given that it is true, also fascinating.

Affleck doubles up on directing duty and manages to pull off a difficult task in that area. Mixing the very real fear of execution with some genuine humour and sly digs at the LA film industry is a difficult juggling act, but for the most part it hangs together. He gives Argo the pace and attitude of a heist movie, the weird vibe of Star Wars and even occasionally throws in the swagger of Anchorman as part of his ’70s setting. Some of the taches are so luscious it’s a wonder part of the ticket price isn’t being handed over to charity for Movember.

His cast also do him proud. Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane and Christoper Denham excel as the bickering Embassy staff unsure of whether to trust Mendez or not. Meanwhile, John Goodman (glib as hell as real-life make-up artist John Chambers) and Alan Arkin (on his best grumpy form) handle the Hollywood (or should that be ‘LLYWO D’ as the sign read in those days) side of things with aplomb. Bryan Cranston also continues an excellent run as Mendez’s boss, proving it’s almost impossible to pigeonhole him.

In fact, the only real weak link is Affleck himself. Directing, producing and starring is a tough gig and perhaps it took its toll, as it’s his character that rises least to the challenges facing all those involved. Waking up in what looks like Tracey Emin’s bed and chatting to his 10-year-old son on the phone feel like lazy attempts to fill out Mendez’s backstory. And while, admittedly, he’s supposed to be the cool and professional one of the group, we never really get the sense that he feels the danger or the pressure of the situation – despite the inclusion of the inevitable fuck-you scene as he argues with his superiors.

As for Affleck’s quote, about Argo being one of the worst films ever made had it not been true? It easily avoids that thanks to its effective period recreations, fine character acting, some truly gripping moments and a plot that really does defy belief.

VERDICT: 8/10

Argo was released in US cinemas on 12 October 2012 and is in UK cinemas 7 November 2012.