From Paul Haggis (Crash), you might want to get a little excited about Russell Crowe’s next film. When wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is arrested for a murder she didn’t commit, John (Crowe) is struggling to keep it together, with a song, his job and a final appeal turned down against her decision all weighing on his shoulders. So he’s down to the last solution to get his wife her life back, break her out of jail.
Boy does this make me want to finish learning how to skateboard, and move to NYC.
Great short film by Nuno Rocha, written and directed for LG Portugal.
Rapha are about the coolest biking company out there. They make clothes, have a cycle club and send teams out for centenary biking challenges.
A man’s obsession with key lime pie brings him to the brink of insanity and a chance encounter with the Grim Reaper. Directed by Trevor Jimenez.
We featured part 1 of VBS‘ video series on Afghanistan a couple of days ago, but now in part three, the army have shipped out to the war-torn country, and it gets all the more shocking by the second:
“Night time mortar attacks lead into a day visit to Paghman village. A re-creation of an Afghan village complete with Afghani-refugees employed to man bazaars and restaurants. Suddenly a suicide bomber, played by one of the Gurkha soldiers who blend in among 2 Para, detonates his vest. The aforementioned Afghani refugees and the amputees / actors / stuntmen / ex-estate agents and aspiring comedians who work for an agency called Amputees In Action react in appropriate fashion. The army uses these guys a lot these days.”
Warning: contains footage that may be upsetting to some viewers.
Retelling the real life story of adventurer Aron Ralston, James Franco stars in the lead role, directed by the fantastic Danny Boyle, 127 Hours sees the mountain climber become trapped under a boulder while canyoneering, and with no-one around to come to his rescue, must resort to desperate measures to survive. I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve been looking forward to this for so long, but the trailer feels fairly underwhelming. Then again, this is Boyle, so I’d still expect the final film to be something pretty special.
Vice’s online VBS series are maybe the best thing they’re doing at the moment. Going places other reporters daren’t, and delving into stories so perverse, well, you might not even call them stories, it’s good to flick on for a quick burst or settle down for one of their longer documentaries.
Their latest series, Afghanistan In The UK, as they put it “travels to STANTA, a training camp in middle England to meet the esteemed 2 Para, one of the British army’s most elite, and legendarily aggressive, units. They are readying to travel to Helmand Province for Winter and are using a multi-million pound “Afghani Village” in the middle of the British countryside to prepare their new troops for their first visit to the war in Afghanistan. Some of the soldiers, male and female, are just 18 years-old.”
Oh and the usual Vice warning: contains footage that may be upsetting to some viewers. It would be more of a surprise if it didn’t contain shocking footage to be honest. Check out more of the show here.
Soon to have its world premiere in England at Frightfest, the Ford bros film The Dead, a zombie movie set in Africa, now has an official trailer. The brothers and their crew went through a lot to get this movie finished, including muggings at knife point and a serious case of malaria; hopefully it will all have been worth it.
Shūsuke Kaneko’s Death Note, the first in a two part Japanese series based on the popular manga of the same name, is a high concept thriller set in Tokyo, in which protagonist Light Yagami (Tatsuya Fujiwara) discovers a mysterious notebook that has the power to kill any human whose name is written inside it. Taking it upon himself to rid the world of criminals and evil-doers, Light’s own morality increasingly comes under question. The police, struggling to understand their new nemesis, enlist the help of unorthodox detective L, whose battle of wits with Light steadily escalates.
Accompanied by his bizarre companion Ryuk (a CGI death god; see picture above), Light’s adventure often hints at genuine intrigue but struggles with its lumbering pace and occasionally clunky dialogue (some of which, admittedly, may have been damaged in translation). An interesting concept is unfortunately squandered in a film that never manages to sustain a genuine sense of darkness or suspense.
Film: ★★★★★ Extras: ★★★★★
