286. On The Sly (A Pas De Loup)

After a day of seeing how movie millions are spent, it was a neat contrast to watch how effective film-making can be without a huge budget.
Yes, Mrs W and I have been in Beverly Hills today, goggle-eyed at the wealth that motion pictures can create.
A far cry from the intriguing Belgian children's film On The Sly.
Actually, in its original form it's called A Pas De Loup but its narration has been translated.
Anyway, director Olivier Ringer and his brother Yves have written a movie about a young girl who believes she is invisible to her parents.
Indeed, she confirms her view by not getting in the car when they leave their holiday home in the countryside to return to Paris.
And for the ensuing days she manages to live a happy time with a fish, some seeds she has planted and a dog.
She never speaks throughout but we hear her thoughts through a charming narration.
In fact, the only word which is directly spoken is her name: "Cathy.''
Cathy is really Wynonan Ringer, the daughter of the director who clearly has a much more loving relationship than the one portrayed on screen.
Only loving instruction could have helped little Wynona perform with the spark which she conveys in this picture.
And while she carries the day, the script is also poignant and clever - looking at the lives of busy parents through the eyes of a child with thought-provoking clarity.
The lush orchestrated soundtrack also helps enormously as does the splendid cinematography.
It's a charming little film which is short enough to keep its target audience - children - interested and will gain the admiration of adults with a heart.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 6.5/10

285. Chernobyl Diaries

Let me be frank. I am in a fantastic mood. After a stunning week in Vegas we arrived at the splendid Beverly Garland hotel in Hollywood.
We ate a very hearty meal and caught a shuttle bus to Universal City Walk and who should a crowd be gathered around but Channing Tatum.
Yes, withing three hours of being here, we were celeb spotting. Tattum, who seemed a jolly nice fella and was being interviewed 20 yards from where we were standing, along with Matthew McConaughey and a chap we didn't recognise.
One of my life's ambitions was to be in Hollywood and already the fairy dust was working.
Thus, Chernobyl Diaries would have had to have been very bad indeed for me not to like it.
So, I have to go to an independent view - that of Mrs W.
Well, I would say she wasn't as high as me but as she had been trying to take pictures of the Hollywood heart-throbs on her phone, she was rather excitable. And then, the cinema cashier commented how she liked her dress.
This was starting to get silly. The next thing we'll know Coventry City will be signing footballers.
I digress. Mrs W would never had gone to watch Chernobyl Diaries back home.
She really doesn't like this brand of psychological but she reported afterwards that, despite watching a bit from behind her fingers, it was pretty good.
I guess it rather depends what the viewer wants. If anyone goes expecting to see Shakespearean acting they should take ear muffs and a blindfold.
None of the crowd of young folk are going to trouble the Oscars.
But if audiences go to see Bradley Parker's film to leap from their seats and see a movie with a spark of originality, their boxes should be ticked.
Chernobyl Diaries starts in the style of Hostel with a gang of young folk on hols in Eastern Europe.
Wholesome singer Jess McCartney plays Chris whose brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski) lives in Kiev, a few hours from the Chernobyl reactor.
Paul, who, it seems, is always keen to shock, suggests a trip to the area which has been under lockdown since the disaster in 1986.
However, an enterprising Ukrainian (Dimintri Diatchenko) has been running trips there for five years.
Normally each of these sojourns last a couple of hours before the tour party comes home.
This stay was a tad longer.
To say much more would lead to spoilers but I was impressed with how Parker increased the tension.
It led to far more jumps from my seat than many so-called horrors.
Laughs: none
Jumps: Six for me.
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Ovaerll rating: 7/10

284. Buck

The flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles is a short one but there was time to have a film catch up in the departure lounge.
And thanks to and hour's delay, I am now more informed in the art of training horses than I was before.
If that sounds a bit sarcastic it is certainly not meant to be.
This is a movie about Buck Brannaman who is recognised as America's top man when it comes to breaking in horses.
So much so that he was a key consultant on film the Horse Whisperer.
But unlike the cowboys of the olden days, Brannaman's style is to treat the horses like he would like to be treated himself.
The results can only be believed because director Cindy Meehl has recorded them so faithfully.
Thus, we see Brannaman taking out of control colts and calming them to the point that they are like infants nuzzling into their mother.
But this is not just a story which will fascinate those who are passionate about horses.
The psychology of his approach comes from a frightening personal history. He lost his mother at an early age when he and his brother were just beginning to be TV celebrities for their rope tricks.
Thereafter, he was savagely beaten by his father.
Brannaman speaks frankly about that terrible time and how it moulded him into the person he is today - determined, straight-talking but humble.
He believes that how people look after horses reflects their own personalities. He has little time for those whom he detects have been harsh or careless with their animals.
With contributions from his peers, clients and The Horse Whisperer's director Robert Redford, Buck is an illuminating and not at all soppy biopic.
In fact, it is everything the previous biopic I reviewed wasn't. It strikes me that Brannaman would not have a lot of time for the self-indulgence displayed in Arirang.
I caught up with Buck on Lovefilm after missing it on its brief UK release a couple of months ago.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 8/10

283. Arirang

Many people seem to consider me a movie fanatic on the basis of the everyfilm quest.
The truth is, however, that I am far more interested in the entertainment that a picture brings, rather than to delve into its art.
For example, it seems that critics have admired South Korean director Kim Ki-duk's documentary/drama Arirang.
Me? I found it a big pile of self-indulgent navel-gazing.
The background of Kim Ki-duk is actually very interesting.
He is a director of world repute who went into hiding for three years after an actress nearly died in a hanging scene in his movie Dream. Apparently, he saved her.
As a result, he became a recluse and it is in his retreat that we find him at the beginning of the movie which is wordless for its first ten minutes.
Then, in quite a clever ploy he starts to interview.
With considerable emotion he talks about what happened and the blame he takes for the near-tragedy.
He is also quite caustic about people involved in the movie industry.
At the same time we discover his ingenuity in his new life, creating, for example, his own espresso machine.
But there are two major failings with Arirang.
Firstly, great swathes of time are spent on watching Kim go through his daily routines, like eating fish and feeding his cat.
But, more importantly, he cannot resist making the movie into a drama.
So, he cries right on cue for the camera and then it seems deliberately makes himself look like he is going over the edge.
It's a movie made by him about him and his views on the world. Are they that interesting? Not really.
Arirang was apparently a cathartic experience for Kim and I am pleased for him.
But that doesn't make it a great film for the rest of us.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 4/10

282. What To Expect When You're Expecting

All blogs over the week or so are written from the United States. However, can I make clear our house is NOT empty.

The blog's statistics have crashed in my absence.
Indeed, yesterday was the worse figure in terms of blog followers since February and May has been quite a bit worse overall than April.
It's my fault. I intended to keep up the intensity of movie reviews while in Las Vegas but, well, Vegas is Vegas and there is so much to do (well, so many slot machines to play).
However, today in between a walk that has taken us from the bottom to the top of The Strip, we detoured to take in Kirk Jones's universally panned What To Expect When You're Expecting.
And, I don't know whether it is just because I'm in a fantastic mood on the holiday of a lifetime, but I didn't think it was that bad.
I wasn't the only one. There was a woman at the back of the auditorium who was in danger of having a hernia if she had laughed any more heartily.
The funny bone of Mrs W was also tickled but I have to confess she had just drunk an unfeasibly large margarita.
What to Expect etc is from the same school as Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve, although not made by the same people.
It has five parallel stories of couples at various stages of having a baby.
The star turn belongs to Camron Diaz as a reality TV stars who wins an American version of Strictly Come Dancing with Matthew Morrison.
Sparks fly as they trip the light fantastic and soon the celebrity-watchers are agog at the news that they are having a baby.
Meanwhile, infant 'expert' Elizabeth Banks is trying to conceive with her slimmer of the year hubby (Ben Falcone, whose hellraiser father (Dennis Quad) has also a surprise to tell about his trophy wife (Brooklyn Decker).
Then there is Jennifer Lopez and other half (Rodrigo Santoro) who are looking to adopt and Anna Kendrick who has a one-night stand with Chace Crawford and precautions are not taken
The main laughs come from Banks whose character makes a living out of speaking glowingly about pregnancy beforehand but becomes rather more realistic when the cravings, hormones and piles kick in.
I guess the reason we found this so amusing was that it was the grisly side of pregnancy which we could remember.
Mrs W burst blood vessels in both her eyes as she pushed so hard during labour!
Sure, quite a few of the gags miss the mark but I would think anyone who has been a parent in the last 25 years will have at least some which will resonate.
Laughs: five out loud for me with many more for others in the audience
Jumps: none
Vomit: one particular nasty scene plus a baby puking.
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 6.5/10

281. Men In Black III

All blogs over the next couple of weeks are written from the United States. However, can I make clear our house is NOT empty.

It's Vegas, it's very hot and after a glorious run on the slots, Mrs W and I have had a casino setback.
She had a drubbing at blackjack and my previous form has deserted me.
What to do? Of course, go and watch an over-the-top film on the most over-the-top street in the world.
If ever a film belonged on The Strip in Last Vegas it is Men In Black 3.
In fact, I am sure I had already seen half of the cast this US memorial weekend - and I'm not talking about the humans.
So, Mrs W and I set up home for two hours in the fifth row of the United Artists' Showcase cinema.
The screen was big and the sound was loud. Perfect for the occasion.
It was, however, a bit lucky that I saw Men In Black 3 at all. You see trailers in the US seem to me to be a lot longer and there seems to be more of them.
Now I always close my eyes during trailers but on this occasion they lasted so long I actually dropped off (jetlag is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.).
There was no chance of kipping during the main event, however.
Men In Black 3 is a funfest from start to finish with plenty of the zest of the original .
Of course, it will never be as fresh as the first because at that time we didn't know the story of special agents K (Tommy Lee Jones and J (Will Smith) trying to keep control of the aliens who reside on earth.
To combat this, screenwriter Etan (not Ethan) Cohen had to come up with a zippy new plot and new blood was injected into the team.
The latter comes in the form of Emma Thompson who is Agent O and has one particularly hilarious scene, Josh Brolin, who plays Agent K 40 years in the past and New Zealander Jemaine Clement who is Boris The Animal, the movie's inevitable baddie.
Both Brolin and Clement add a new depth to the franchise. Clement, in particular, is so good that I had no idea he was the chap who played in the offbeat comedy Eagle Vs Shark a few years back.
Anyway, Boris is a rather nasty alien who breaks out of jail on the moon and vows to kill the man who cut off his arm 40 year previously.
Thus, K becomes his target and he finds a way of going back in time with an eye to saving his arm and killing K.
Meanwhile, Smith's character is having none of it and also nips back four decades to lend a hand.
If it all sounds rather far fetched - it is. This, after all is Men In Black.
But it is also thoroughly entertaining, the special effects are great and, at times, it is downright funny.
Laughs: four out loud with many sniggers
Jumps: one
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 8/10

280. Free Men (Les hommes libres)

All blogs over the next couple of weeks are written from the United States. However, can I make clear our house is NOT empty.

Over the last couple of years, it seems as if I have seen much of Paris during the Second World War.

The attack on the Jews in the 11th district was a key part of The Round-Up and Sarah's Key but, while that terrible event in an important backdrop for Free Men, this film concentrates on the lives of north Africans in the city at the time.

Many had come over from Algeria and Morocco looking for work before 1939.

During the Second World War they fought for the resistance in France while, at the same time, demanding their own independence from France.

The other irony is that Muslims were often involved in operations to save Jews.

Ismael Ferroukhi's film encapsulates the tension of the time brilliantly.

It uses a fictitious character Younes (the excellent Tahar Rahim) to represent the daring heroism of many men from north Africa.

Other roles are of people who really existed such as the head of the Paris mosque Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit, played by the always brilliant Michael Lonsdale and famous Algerian singer Salim Halali (Mahmud Shalaby).

The intertwining of fiction and fact is no detriment to a most memorable piece of work.

I must have been on the edge of my seat half a dozen times (and I was only watching it on an internet link).

What was intriguing was the way for large parts of it Younes (a black marketeer) was oblivious to the real impact of the German invasion of Paris.

Basically, because what had happened did not affect him personally, he just went about his normal life.

The change in him as the movie is both startling and moving.

Picking out Halali as a key character adds a verve to the film because of the rich Arabian music which features strongly.

I know it hasn't had wide approval but I loved Free Men. Go see it.

Laughs: none

Jumps: one

Vomit: none

Nudity: none

Overall rating: 9/10