This George Clooney film has already garnered Golden Globe Awards. It’s a strange piece which finds our hero working for an independent firing company and so he is up in the air literally, flying from state to state sacking people. He’s good at it and is shocked to see that back home in Omaha a new young female, Alex (Vera Farmiga) has come up with the idea of downsizing on Facebook. George’s character Ryan Bingham is having none of it and takes her on a road trip to meet the fired people face to face.

This is a very lonely tale about a very lonely man.

2 stars

Directed by Jim Sheridan

Cinema

It’s always difficult to come up with something script wise that we haven’t seen before when it comes to films. In this case it’s familiar territory. Never the less it does make you think, which is due to the great performances from its three main stars especially Tobey Maguire as US Marine Captain Sam Cahill who finds himself on active service in Afghanistan.


His helicopter is shot down and he is presumed dead and indeed back in snowy New Mexico in the USA they have a funeral or perhaps one should say tribute as there is no body.

Tommy Cahill (Jake Gyllenhaal) Sam’s brother a no hoper turns his life around and gets closer to Grace (Natalie Portman) and the rest of the Cahill family.

Guess what, Sam returns having been traumatised as a prisoner of war. His getting back to normal and the affect it has on his family is the basis of the film. There is a classic dining scene where you could cut the atmosphere with a knife and Sam finally flips. My dominant thought was why are we still fighting wars in the 21st century?

3 stars

Cinema

This French edge of your seat prison drama come highly recommended. What with winning the 2009 Grand Prix at Cannes and best film at the London Film Festival it should be good and it is.

Starting out with a nineteen year old Tahar Rahim (Malik El Djebena) receiving a six year stretch in the clink He finds himself alone and friendless as he learns the ropes of prison life. Which includes gang rule and coming under the influence of César the boss.

Life is tough to say the least. Gradually he is given various tasks to fulfil, which in turn opens his eyes to what he can achieve on his own. Being part Arab and Corsican he uses both gangs to his advantage but not before enduring beatings and humiliation at the hand of the other inmates. How he survives and comes out on top makes for a fascinating and absorbing watch. Be warned though it is violent, hard hitting and long.

4 stars

After an absence of seven years from the screen as an actor, Mel Gibson is back with us playing a Boston police detective in this remake of the BBC television series of yesteryear. Devised by Troy Kennedy Martin to whom this film is dedicated.

Detective Tom is happy to receive a visit from his only daughter, who alas is sick. So much so Tom (Mel) decides to take her to the hospital. Unfortunately they get no further than the front door when father and daughter are blasted with gunfire and she dies. At first people think it is detective Tom who is in the frame but as he untangles the spider web of intrigue that surrounds his daughter’s life, a tapestry of conspiracy is gradually uncovered.

She was the intended victim and was also poisoned! Why? She was working for a government plant, whose work is a little suspect, working with irregular nuclear weapons for alien use in covert hands.

There are cover ups, twists and turns, shootouts and cascading cars. Oh it’s all there. It has a slight eighties feel about it and Ray Winstone as a Cockney hit man, which is odd but worth a look.

3 stars

Set against a lush Australian wine growing backdrop, this tear jerker of a true story is good family fare, well certainly mums anyway.

Joe an English hack in Australia loses his second wife to cancer and is forced to look after his young son. He also receives a call from his first wife to say that his older son wants to join him down under for a while. So there he is juggling two sons, his sports journalism job and coping with his loss.

It will make you laugh and cry as all these people adjust to each other. It’s an amiable film and Clive Owen in the lead does all that he can to prove he is a leading man. However the film is almost stolen by the two lads George Mackay and Nicholas McAnulty and the Australian backdrop.

3 stars

Well it’s not actually when you have two superb stars like Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin on the screen, giving us the audience full value for the price of a cinema seat.

Jane Adler (Meryl) is a divorced Californian restaurateur who gets together with her three grown up children for a family gathering, which also includes her ex husband (Alec).

Much fun and frolics are had, having consumed plenty of wine the ex’s rekindle their passion for each other, which lights up the room and gradually they get into an affair.

He is now hitched to a demanding trophy wife. Basically it’s a case of ‘will they or won’t they?’ The only possible fly in the ointment is an architect suitor of Jane, namely Steve Martin, who plays it very low key.

In lesser hands this could have sunk but with Meryl and Alec it’s a lesson in great screen acting. There is a lovely scene with Meryl and her friends, where she reveals all. She says “It turns out I’m a bit of a slut” and I thought, oh no your not! This RomCom in ex Doris Day and Rock Hudson land is a pure joy, you must see it.