Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Is Studio Ghibli no more? You’d hope not with a reputation and following as substantial as it has, but the retirement of directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isai Takahata seems to have left it rudderless, exposing a crisis of confidence in how to move forward. So while we wait for what may or may not come next, we can at least savour one more exceptional full-length animation from the studio.

Just as with his previous Ghibli feature Arietty (2010), director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s film is based on a British children’s book, in this case Joan G Robinson’s title of the same name, beloved by schoolgirls since the 1960s. Bizarrely, the movie transposes the story setting from Norfolk to Japan, but if you weren’t aware of the source material you really wouldn’t know it.

12-year-old Anna is a socially introverted, asthmatic schoolgirl with autistic tendencies (if she doesn’t get your drift she’ll call you a “fat pig” and run away). Packed off to the country to get her adolescent act together via a spot of fresh air and landscape painting, Anna soon encounters a grandiose abandoned house across a nearby marsh lake. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a ghostly girl who keeps appearing at the window, a girl who Anna will discover to be far more than just another imaginary friend.

When Miyazaki signed off with 2013’s The Wind Rises, the world of cinema rose as one to salute his final masterpiece as though it were a work of greatness, as opposed to the meandering, self-indulgent downer it actually was. What an unfitting farewell to Ghibli that would have been. Thankfully, When Marnie Was There hits all the right buttons; the story is a corker for a start (very reminiscent of Catherine Storr’s classic Marianne Dreams) and Yonebayashi wastes no time drawing you into Anna’s imaginary world. Wonderful hand-drawn animation (the pearly skies and lush landscapes are breath-taking), vibrant music and spot-on vocal performances (whether you go for the English or original Japanese soundtrack) all combine to immerse you completely in her emotional journey.

It would be easy for this story to descend into g(h)ibbersish. The last few minutes are packed with a level of dramatic revelation even EastEnders might baulk at attempting. The difference being that EastEnders would make a right cockney dog’s dinner of it and this doesn’t. It may not wring your emotions out like a dishrag and leave you whimpering for the emotional rollercoaster to stop (that would be Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies), but you’ll definitely be holding back a wall of tears by the time the credits roll. Oh sod it, just have a big old cry.

The greatest irony of When Marnie Was There being ‘the end’ is that, although it’s the first Ghibli movie to involve neither of the two creative lynchpins, it misses them not one jot. So hold your horses, men and women of Studio Ghibli, the fat lady ain’t sung yet.

WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI / SCREENPLAY: KEIKO NIWA, MASASHI ANDO, HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI, DAVID FREEDMAN / STARRING: SARA TAKATSUKI, KASUMI ARIMURA, NANAKO MATSUSHIMA, SUSUMU TERAJIMA, TOSHIE NEGISHI / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 3RD

Sandwiched between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Halloween (1978), Wes Craven’s 1977 follow-up to the controversial The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes remains one of the key tent-poles of horror history. To the 1980s generation of horror kids, it is part of their initiation into a lifelong love of the genre.

Arrow Video once again strike gold with this 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Special Edition, a magnificent transfer that gives the film a lovingly greater impact than it had back in its original pre-VRA release through World of Video 2000 (which also distributed the first UK releases of Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (AKA Nightmare) and Don’t Answer the Phone. This new updated edition includes not only the original theatrical cut, but also a version with an alternate ending, as well as brand new interviews (with cast member Martin Speer and composer Don Peake), the standard audio commentaries, a reel of outtakes – and the Anchor Bay documentary which looks back at the making of the film, featured on an earlier DVD release.

Made for under $500,000, The Hills Have Eyes is loosely based on a real-life cannibal family legend. It chronicles the trials and tribulations of the Carter Family, out on a trip to Los Angeles with their dogs Beauty and Beast. They are in search of a silver mine, allegedly a present to the parents celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, but, due to misunderstanding the map in their possession, take a wrong turn and crash their vehicle. Unbeknownst to them, a whole cannibal family is happily living in the vicinity, and taking not too kindly to this Cleveland-based combo trespassing on their desert patch. With no vehicle and limited supplies, the stage is set for a disturbing and prolonged ordeal…

Horror icon Michael Berryman, whose image adorns early VHS covers (one of which can be glimpsed early on in the cabin in Sam Raimi’s original classic Evil Dead), confirmed his status as Pluto, and Dee Wallace, still ahead of her appearance in Joe Dante’s werewolf classic The Howling (1981), acquits herself admirably as one of the Carter clan. Indeed, every single member of the cast, much like those on show in Sean Cunningham’s original Friday the 13th, heighten the dynamic throughout.

What has elevated The Hills Have Eyes above other films is its more extreme guerrilla filmmaking situation. Whilst Chainsaw and Halloween were both shot in more accessible areas like Texas and suburban California, the desert location here (which according to the documentary interview with the filmmakers was about 114 degrees at times in the day and freezing in the night) makes the overall result all the more incredible to experience to this day.

It is high time for horror fans old and new to experience the late director legend’s best work of the 1970s.

Special Features: Two brand new audio commentaries / Audio commentary with Wes Craven and Peter Locke / Looking Back on the Hills Have Eyes documentary / Interviews / Alternate ending / Outtakes / TV spots / Trailers / Image gallery / Original screenplay / 6 postcards / Fold-out poster / Limited edition booklet 

THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: WES CRAVEN / STARRING: SUSAN LANIER, MICHAEL BERRYMAN, DEE WALLACE, JOHN STEADMAN, ROBERT HOUSTON, MARTIN SPEER, JAMES WHITWORTH / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 3RD

Ever since I saw it, Murnau’s Nosferatu is, in this writer’s opinion, the best silent horror movie ever committed to film. This writer has often wondered over the past few years, what else he might have directed and how one might get to view these films, if indeed they still existed.

Thankfully, the latest offering from Eureka in their Masters of Cinema series gives an ample opportunity for both fans and scholars to explore and enjoy Murnau’s rich talent and incredible diversification of subject matter, with this five film set on Blu-ray.

Spread across three discs, the five movies are a mixed bunch of genres. Disc one contains probably the best of the films, Schloss Vogelod (The Haunted Castle). Not that there’s any actual haunting going on, it’s actually an old fashioned murder mystery set in a stately home, where a man previously accused but never proven guilty of murdering his brother is intent on proving his innocence to his grieving, but since remarried sister-in-law and everybody else. Also on this disc is Phantom – again, not a horror film as one might expect, but a fantasy romantic drama about a man becoming obsessed with a woman who runs him over on his way to work and his attempts to find her again.

The second disc contains The Grand Duke’s Finances, a heavy handed farce about a destitute aristocrat and Tartuffe, a tedious drama regarding a young man’s attempts to safeguard his inheritance by exposing the wiles of a governess employed by his rich grandfather.

The third disc has The Last Laugh. This one is poignant and sad, but insightful. The ageing doorman of a large metropolitan hotel is fired from his job and has to relinquish his grand uniform. He feels diminished and humiliated as a result, as his uniform and job were essentially his identity.

The accompanying “Making of” documentary on this disc examines the film as an exploration of the German tradition of relishing the finery of uniforms and their importance within the German psyche of the time.

Overall, it becomes apparent that Murnau enjoyed recurring motifs, as a menacing clawed hand in a nightmare sequence in The Haunted Castle strongly resembles that of Orlock in Nosferatu, just as speeding coach chase in Phantom brings to mind a practically identical scene in the vampire classic.

The restoration work undertaken on the films is incredible, with the prints looking as crisp, fresh and debris free as something that was filmed yesterday. However, although there’s plenty here to enthral classic silent movie fans, genre fans looking for something a little darker will be disappointed.

Special Features: Video Essay / Featurette / Making Of / Documentary / Audio Commentary / Booklet

EARLY MURNAU – FIVE FILMS (MASTERS OF CINEMA) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: F.W. MURNAU / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: EMIL JANNINGS, ARNOLD KORFF, ALFRED ABEL, GRETA BERGER, HERMANN PICHA, ROSA VALETTI / RELEASE DATE: 26TH SEPTEMBER

There are those of us – this reviewer included – who believe that Richard Stanley could have become one of the world’s truly great filmmakers, if the Gods had been on his side. His first film, Hardware, is a cult classic. His second film, Dust Devil, was even better. But both Hardware and Dust Devil hit major bumps in the road – Hardware was famously smacked with a lawsuit from 2000 AD, and Dust Devil was so badly butchered by Miramax that it was lost in the wilderness for several years. Even though Stanley’s Final Cut of the movie is now available on DVD, it has never received the acclaim it deserves. And then came the straw that really broke Stanley’s back: The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Creating a definitive cinematic version of Dr. Moreau had always been Stanley’s dream, and David Gregory’s fascinating documentary elegantly charts how that dream quickly became a nightmare: from an early crisis meeting with the film’s star, Marlon Brando, that had Stanley so worried he asked a Warlock friend to supply some magical intervention, to the infantile super-brat tactics of the film’s other leading man, Val Kilmer, who was not only locked in psychological warfare with Brando, he was also intent on undermining Stanley at every turn, to an unprecedented tropical storm that destroyed most of the film’s sets, to New Line Cinema’s decision to replace Stanley with the despotic John Frankenheimer, to the rumour that Stanley – instead of boarding the first flight out of Australia, as New Line demanded – had ‘gone troppo’ and was living out in the jungle smoking superhuman amounts of pot and laying grandiose plans to sabotage the production… this is, by a very long way, the most astonishing and engrossing filmmaking documentary we have ever seen. Although it’s obvious that Gregory’s sympathies lie – quite rightly – with Stanley, it is still a very even-handed piece, loaded with straight-to-camera contributions from Stanley, various members of his cast and crew (but not Kilmer, unsurprisingly), and even one or two of the New Line execs. On top of all that, the film is illustrated with a rich cornucopia of photographs, ‘behind the scenes’ footage and some truly astounding storyboard art.

The fact that Stanley wasn’t allowed to make ‘Moreau’ is tragic, but it’s even more tragic that the experience burned Stanley so badly he has all but retreated from the world of cinema. Perhaps, one day soon, he will be tempted to return. But until that happens, Lost Soul is a teasing ‘what if?’ and a fine testament to the power of Stanley’s original vision.

LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY’S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DAVID GREGORY / STARRING: FAIRUZA BALK, HUGH DICKSON, OLI DICKSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The excellent and understated Blue Ruin launched the career of Jeremy Saulnier in a big way, thanks to its creeping sense of melancholia and dread. In the case of Green Room, he successfully continues on with that trend, showcasing his skills of building the atmosphere and directing his characters with enough subtlety and nuance, but intercutting that with sharp intensity and brutality. It takes a special kind of horror film to get such a visceral reaction out of even the most acquainted of the horror milieu, but this film leaves you stressed out of your mind by its shear intensity, violent grimness and veracity.

The film’s sense of anxiety, violence and melancholia is unending, unnerving and absolutely relentless, yet that nature never once overstays its welcome or becomes glamourized or glorified in any way. This could’ve easily descended into Hostel or Saw territory where it is just all gore but no substance whatsoever, but this is a very smart and able machine that has clear echoes of films like Assault on Precinct 13 or Deliverance.

When the movie delivers on its brutality, it feels impactful and shocking, with one particular moment with a box-cutter that’ll leave you gasping. Everything’s steeped in violence, yet it’s the writing what drives it, filled with rich and deep, complex characters that are all part of a plot that’s intimate and small-scale. It’s not all black and white or good vs. evil, as those lines become incredibly blurred and each character has their own shortcomings or moral shades of grey. It all cleverly relates back towards Nietzschean philosophy, particularly the famous quote of, “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you”.

All this makes for an incredibly dynamic cast, with the particular standout being Patrick Stewart, whose performance is laced with melancholy and unhinged grouchiness, yet is full of smooth charisma and shear dynamism. Imogen Poots is also phenomenal as the kick-ass heroine who, as the film goes on, almost begins to spiral into insanity herself, especially when she proclaims how “hungry” she is. She is also teamed with her Fright Night co-star Anton Yelchin, who especially deserves praise given his recent tragic passing. He gave an incredible performance, and it was clear here that he was really coming into his own as an actor, which makes it all the more heartbreaking that someone with so much promise has left us so soon.

Green Room is a debilitating, white-knuckled thrillfest, yet done with the same amount of care, attention and understatement that Blue Ruin had before it. The way Jeremy Saulnier is able to easily craft an arbitrary tale of fate and circumstance into an oppressively melancholic and character-driven slasher-fest is truly remarkable, and further shows Saulnier as a true bona-fide genre filmmaker to watch out for.

GREEN ROOM / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JEREMY SAULNIER / STARRING: ANTON YELCHIN, IMOGEN POOTS, PATRICK STEWART / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The excellent and understated Blue Ruin launched the career of Jeremy Saulnier in a big way, thanks to its creeping sense of melancholia and dread. In the case of Green Room, he successfully continues on with that trend, showcasing his skills of building the atmosphere and directing his characters with enough subtlety and nuance, but intercutting that with sharp intensity and brutality. It takes a special kind of horror film to get such a visceral reaction out of even the most acquainted of the horror milieu, but this film leaves you stressed out of your mind by its shear intensity, violent grimness and veracity.

The film’s sense of anxiety, violence and melancholia is unending, unnerving and absolutely relentless, yet that nature never once overstays its welcome or becomes glamourized or glorified in any way. This could’ve easily descended into Hostel or Saw territory where it is just all gore but no substance whatsoever, but this is a very smart and able machine that has clear echoes of films like Assault on Precinct 13 or Deliverance.

When the movie delivers on its brutality, it feels impactful and shocking, with one particular moment with a box-cutter that’ll leave you gasping. Everything’s steeped in violence, yet it’s the writing what drives it, filled with rich and deep, complex characters that are all part of a plot that’s intimate and small-scale. It’s not all black and white or good vs. evil, as those lines become incredibly blurred and each character has their own shortcomings or moral shades of grey. It all cleverly relates back towards Nietzschean philosophy, particularly the famous quote of, “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you”.

All this makes for an incredibly dynamic cast, with the particular standout being Patrick Stewart, whose performance is laced with melancholy and unhinged grouchiness, yet is full of smooth charisma and shear dynamism. Imogen Poots is also phenomenal as the kick-ass heroine who, as the film goes on, almost begins to spiral into insanity herself, especially when she proclaims how “hungry” she is. She is also teamed with her Fright Night co-star Anton Yelchin, who especially deserves praise given his recent tragic passing. He gave an incredible performance, and it was clear here that he was really coming into his own as an actor, which makes it all the more heartbreaking that someone with so much promise has left us so soon.

Green Room is a debilitating, white-knuckled thrillfest, yet done with the same amount of care, attention and understatement that Blue Ruin had before it. The way Jeremy Saulnier is able to easily craft an arbitrary tale of fate and circumstance into an oppressively melancholic and character-driven slasher-fest is truly remarkable, and further shows Saulnier as a true bona-fide genre filmmaker to watch out for.

GREEN ROOM / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JEREMY SAULNIER / STARRING: ANTON YELCHIN, IMOGEN POOTS, PATRICK STEWART / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Back in 2011 Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class stunned this reviewer by delivering a jolt of giddy energy to an exhausted series. Integrating real historical crisis and fantastical superhero action, the film was a stunning rebirth for the series. And then in 2014 Bryan Singer returned with the ambitious, engaging and very complex X-Men: Days Of Future Past (a film held highly as the series’ best by many and called a mind spanking muddle by others). Point is, that after the initial X-Men trilogy a few years back, eyes were on Singer’s Apocalypse to see if all could be brought to a brilliantly high stakes climax. Sadly, while fun in part, Apocalypse is a dip in quality.

The film picks up in the early ‘80s as an excavation awakens an ancient evil in En Sabah Nur (aka Apocalypse) (Oscar Isaac), the world’s first mutant. Naturally his intentions are sinister, as he seeks out the most powerful mutants to lead a hostile takeover of the entire world. The only thing that can stop him is the X-Men, led by Charles Xavier (James McAvoy). You know the drill by now surely but anyway, that is the layout for this film, which is fun, flashy, effects filled and yet, fails to strike the same chords as what came before. Singer’s film never holds up on the action sequences and scale but in the process feels lacking in the same handling of character and the same interesting blend of fictional blockbuster narrative and socio-political history, that were the best features of the last two films. 

Based in part on arcs of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s comics, this film features some moments of excellence amidst some quite hectic storytelling, lacking emotion and thrills. The Magneto sub-plot is brilliant, with the character undergoing more tragedy and there is a mid-film cameo by a certain someone that is undoubtedly fantastic too. In fact Singer’s film and Kinberg’s script features a few enjoyable moments, with the opening sequence feeling torn straight from X-Men: The Animated series and once again Evan Peters excelling as Quicksilver. To that point, a few characters stand out with Jennifer Lawrence being great again as Mystique, Kodi-Smit McPhee making a genuinely funny Nightcrawler and James McAvoy gets undoubtedly the most depth to play with as Professor X. There are also strong turns by Tye Sheridon as Scott “Cyclops” Summers and Sophie Turner as Jean Grey.

Sadly the film comes apart as it fails to develop many aspects of its plot or supporting characters, with Magneto’s appearance (aforementioned sub-plot aside) feeling inconsequentially handled, and his fellow horseman of Apocalypse all just being there and you’ll need to Google them to remember them. In fact the whole of the supporting cast give it their best shot but never really get chance to flex their mutant muscles as much as you’d like. Though the worst hand dealt is that of the main villain role, in which Oscar Isaac exudes menace but his clichéd big bad – in an era of supervillain films, cool heroes and deep antagonists – feels over familiar and ineffective.

As well as this the film’s nuclear panic themes feel tacked on and are not integrated into the narrative as seamlessly as the Cuban Missile Crisis in First Class or state fears/political assassination in Days of Future Past. In all, the film really does not have as much to say, minus using Auschwitz as a set piece (a reckless move some, obviously, did not take kindly to). It’s very serious and doomy and yet the stakes don’t really feel all that high, true there are big sequences that carry you along but Apocalypse is uneven and while funny at times (Magneto’s first meeting with Apocalypse) and badass at others (the prison break sequence), it is not consistent. 

So while certainly not a dreadful (hell, its fine superhero genre stuff) Apocalypse cannot help but feel like a disappointment by association with its previous two installments. The film feels like it would have been a landmark picture 10 or more years ago (or at least its flaws would not have stood out so much) but with the superhero genre getting ballsier (Deadpool), riskier (Suicide Squad), changing the formula (Captain America: Civil War) or becoming more sophisticated (the Dark Knight Trilogy), this film feels like it is playing catch up. The energetic moments within, mostly indebted to the much loved animated series, do ensure that Apocalypse is not a bore but cannot help the film become anything more than spectacle and potential. Fun in part, flawed in others and no match for what came before.

Special Features: Deleted/Extended Scenes / Concept Art and Photo Gallery / Documentary / Wrap Party Video / Audio Commentary / Gag Reel

X-MEN: APOCALYPSE/ CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: BRYAN SINGER / SCREENPLAY: SIMON KINBERG / STARRING: MICHAEL FASSBENDER, JAMES MCAVOY, JENNIFER LAWRENCE, OSCAR ISAAC, EVAN PETERS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (DIGITAL RELEASE), OCTOBER 4TH (DVD, BLU-RAY)

Sometimes a movie sequel comes much demanded, other times they’re unexpected but welcome and then (increasingly often) there are those sequels very few ask for/want. We speak of films like Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Son Of The Mask, Cats & Dogs 2: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and The Huntsman: Winter’s War, all exist but few can really say why. However there is no need to wonder why this unasked for follow up to Tim Burton’s surprisingly sized hit 2010 adaptation Alice in Wonderland exists, as Disney were clearly hoping for more box office wonder. How you take to James Bobin’s (The Muppets) Through The Looking Glass will depend on how you took to the first and to what extent, for if you loved it, then you’ll love this, contrariwise if you loathed it, this return to wond…er…underland, will not alter your perceptions.

Based, like the first film, on the writings of Lewis Carroll (very, very, very, loosely), this film catches up with Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) as she returns from captaining her father’s ship in a voyage across the world. However as she arrives home, her family’s estate is in question but before she can come to grips with that, the blue butterfly Absolem (the late great Alan Rickman- in his final film role) draws her to a magic mirror that leads straight back to Underland, where she finds that all her friends are worried about the health of The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), who is plagued and maddened (well maddened more) by thoughts that his family may still be alive. To find out whether he is delusional or not, Alice visits Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) in hopes of retrieving a device- the chronosphere- that will allow her to travel back to the past and uncover many secrets behind Underland and its inhabitants.

In a move reflective (see what we did there) of Terminator Genisys, Alice Through The Looking Glass comes off the back of bad reviews and is overwritten to justify existing but that said, we cannot say it does not offer up a fun ride. Linda Woolverton’s screenplay may fall into some of the same rabbit holes as last time but exudes a lot of charm and affection for these iconic literary characters. Showered in CGI, in fact ridiculously so in the final stretch, Underland remains a visually interesting backdrop, with Coleen Atwood’s costumes proving equally dazzling, and while some retconning time travel plot devices may wind up (tee hee) older viewers, kids will likely enjoy this batty pretty journey. Filled with puns (see one genuinely funny tea time scene) and some emotional depth, Bobin’s film may at times loose the plot but at least tries to develop one and succeeds more than it fails at doing so.

The characters themselves remain eclectic and rather faithful in spirit to Carroll’s deranged on-page cast, with the big name actors clearly having fun being silly. Wasikowska is more assertive and even stronger as Alice this time, offering a very positive role model as the film’s leading hero, while Johnny Depp’s Madonna/Carrot Top/Elijah Wood lovechild Hatter is arguably better used than last time. However Cohen steals many moments as the Herzogian voiced steampunk inspired Father Time, accompanied by his clockwork servant Wilkins (voiced by Toby Jones), who reminds a little of Tik Tok from Walter Murch’s infamously dark and disturbing cult classic Return to Oz (those darn Wheelers). While the glorious cast list of the last film also remains intact, with Matt Lucas, Michael Sheen, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Helena Bonham Carter, Barbara Windsor, Alan Rickman, et al. all back for another bite of the Upelkuchens.

Bobins’ film is no masterwork and is messy at times in marrying action and fantasy but for its faults, this second trip to Underland succeeds in creating a pretty entertaining time-based story that captures the all over the place eccentricity of Carroll, even if it is in no way an adaptation of the 1871 book (mind you the first film kind of adapted Looking Glass in part anyway). Alice Through The Looking Glass is a visually driven family fantasy that offers a lot of flawed fun, and major points for the credits’ classy tribute to Alan Rickman, a loss to cinema that still hurts very strongly.

Special Features: Featurettes, Music Video, Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: JAMES BOBIN / SCREENPLAY: LINDA WOOLVERTON / STARRING: MIA WASIKOWSKA, JOHNNY DEPP, SACHA BARON COHEN, HELENA BONHAM CARTER / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 3RD

From The Producers to The Player, there’s no target Hollywood loves to satirise more than itself. This 1999 comedy, now being released on Blu-ray, is no exception, poking fun at everything going on in the film industry of its time through the story of Bobby Bowfinger, an enthusiastic but penniless film producer.

Bowfinger (Steve Martin, who also scripted the film) will stop at nothing to get his alien invasion movie made, even when the star he wants, Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) flat out rejects him. His idea is to have Ramsey star in the movie without knowing he’s in it – by following him around with a hidden camera and having the rest of their cast walk up to him in the street and act out their scenes. The thing is, Ramsey’s already the paranoid kind, being a member of a Scientology-esque organisation called MindHead, and this scheme only further convinces the star that aliens are after him.

It’s a great premise, and one that plays out in very entertaining fashion, with some clever satire at the cults of both celebrity and Scientology mixed in with the surreal and zingy dialogue you’d expect from a Steve Martin script; “she had the personality of a ZIP code in Kansas”, Bowfinger says of a failed auditionee. A couple of the set pieces stop just short of being truly hilarious, but you’re never far away from the next laugh.

What really makes Bowfinger work is the performances of two comedy actors with very different approaches to their craft; Martin’s deadpan delivery of lines like “This film is only for Madagascar and Iran, neither of which follow American copyright law” makes Bobby Bowfinger a very watchable grifter, while Murphy’s over-the-top style perfectly suits the neurotic Ramsey. Plus, it wouldn’t be an Eddie Murphy film if he only played one character, and he gives an equally energetic performance as Jiff, the dorky Kit Ramsey lookalike drawn in to the movie. Many more laughs come from the film’s heightened and satirical side characters, including Heather Graham’s naïve young starlet, Christine Baranski’s pretentious veteran actress, and Robert Downey Jr.’s studio exec.

It’s not the most biting satire out there, nor is it the funniest comedy, but this good-hearted, zany take on the movie industry zips through its 97-minute running time and won’t fail to keep a smile on your face throughout.

Special Features: Featurette / Deleted Scenes / Outtakes / Trailer 

BOWFINGER (1999) / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: FRANK OZ / SCREENPLAY: STEVE MARTIN / STARRING: STEVE MARTIN, EDDIE MURPHY, HEATHER GRAHAM, CHRISTINE BARANSKI / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 26TH

Robinson Crusoe (recently released with little impact in the US under the impossibly-bland title The Wild Life) is a Belgian/French computer animated 3D feature film based – loosely – on the classic shipwreck adventure yarn by Daniel Defoe. Therein lies the problem. Pixar and Dreamworks have raised the animation bar so high in a string of titles we’ve all got on our DVD/Blu Ray shelves regardless of our age, that it’s very hard for any other more anonymous animation studio to even reach it much less surpass it. So it is with Robinson Crusoe, a colourful but fatally-bland concoction which tells the story of Crusoe from the perspective of the animals (the wild life, you see) on the island on which he pitches up when he’s shipwrecked with his dog following a storm.

What’s become clear over the years is that Pixar and Co. spend as long honing their scripts, refining their characters, telling a good story, as they do crafting their immaculate animation. Robinson Crusoe demonstrates no such lightness of touch. To give credit where it’s due, the animation here is really quite extraordinary; colours are rich and vivid, the level of detail is hugely impressive. Storm sequences look genuinely wet and in all honesty there’s more fun to be had marvelling at the intricacies of the animation than the story itself, which rarely splutters into life and abjectly fails to ignite that magic spark which Pixar routinely build into their projects. Robinson Crusoe is scuppered by a flat script full of by-the-numbers characters and displaying a marked lack of real wit or visual invention. Crusoe himself is a bland do-gooder, the various animals on the island are, for a 3D film, worryingly two-dimensional. Two shipwrecked cats and their offspring are the villains of the piece and they really don’t cut the mustard, prowling around on an adjoining island bearing a grudge against Crusoe and his friends and terrorising them just for the Hell of it. But most crucially, Robinson Crusoe just isn’t funny. There are no real jokes, no witty wordplay and certainly none of the subtle multi-layering we’ve come to expect from the frontline animation boys. This is thin, plodding stuff which offers little more than predictable slapstick, thinly-drawn characters and nothing in the way of exciting, vibrant incident.

Robinson Crusoe throws away its potential USP and fails to capitalise on its idea of telling its story through animal eyes and ears, and so ends up as the sort of film best enjoyed by undemanding five-year-olds who will be entranced by its fast pace, pretty colourful pictures and talking animals. It might keep the nippers quiet for an hour or so, but in the end Robinson Crusoe just about works as a place-holder until the kids are ready for the rather sharper and more sophisticated delights of Toy Story, Up, Inside Out and even the Shrek and Ice Age series.

Special Features: Two (brief) featurettes

ROBINSON CRUSOE / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: VINCENT KESTELOOT, BEN STASSEN / SCREENPLAY: LEE CHSIRTOPHER, M. DOMONIC PARIS, BEN STASSEN, CAROLINE VAN ISEGHEM / STARRING: MATTHIAS SCHWEIGHOFER, KAYA YANAR, CINDY AUS MARZAHN / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 26TH