Review: Real Steel (12) / Director: Shawn Levy / Screenplay: John Gatins / Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lily / Release Date: Out Now

How much enjoyment you’ll get from Real Steel depends on how much you’re able to tolerate being thoroughly emotionally manipulated and if you’re able to cope with being able to predict exactly what this movie is doing, how it’s doing it and where it’s going within the first ten minutes. For no cliché is left untouched in this cloying, corny and ultimately unacceptably pedestrian low-key SF romp aimed very squarely at a Mom and Pop family audience who, like, really lurrve each other.

From the moment Hugh Jackman’s Charlie Kenton, grubbing a living pitching beaten-up robots into hopeless fights in a near-future world where battling robots have replaced boxing humans makes contact with his long-unseen young son Max (Goyo) we know exactly the journey Real Steel is taking us on. Having relinquished his parental rights over young Max following the death of the boy’s mother for the sake of a few thousand dollars he can spend on another fighting robot, we just know we’re going to be watching a film where Charlie and Max, initially resentful of one another, ultimately forge a new mutual respect and learn lots of really important life lessons. So we know that Charlie, already on his uppers, is going to plunge even further into debt with another robot-related failure; we know that Max is going to really irritate Charlie who doesn’t want the boy with him but just needs to for the money; we know that Max will make a Wonderful discovery which will slowly turn their fortunes around even when it looks as if things can only get worse. And of course, we know there’ll be hugs and tears before the end credits roll after a great, life-affirming triumph…

There’s absolutely nothing at all in Real Steel which even remotely surprises the audience. The story and the relationships are almost cynically formulaic and it appears that director Shawn Levy (A Night at the Museum) was banking on the presence of big clanking boxing robots to paper over the cracks in the wafer-thin story and distract the audience from the “Hmmm, haven’t I seen this before?” nature of the script. And in truth the robots are pretty much the only reason to stay tuned; the practical FX suits are good and chunky and the fighting sequences have a walloping charm about them (even if the robot movements in the ring, all motion-capture athleticism and fluidity, entirely belie the lumbering mechanical nature of the robots when they’re static or just walking and interacting with the cast).

But it’s not just the mechanical plot and action which irritate. The relationships are all either perfunctory – Charlie’s family-friendly girlfriend Bailey (Lost’s Evangeline Lily) or unconvincing – there‘s not really much fizz between Charlie and Max, even when they start to begrudgingly appreciate each other. There are some ghastly overplayed cartoon ‘bad guys’ (the bunch of debtors who give Charlie a tame pasting in one scene and the hilariously clichéd Russian robot operator in the final robot boxing sequence), no sense of danger of jeopardy or even much in the way of real drama with no raised stakes and not much to play for.

Ultimately Real Steel is a kid’s film and there’s probably enough here to keep Transformer-crazed little ‘uns going until Michael Bay wheels out Optimus Prime and the Decepticons for a fourth outing. But there’s really nothing much going on in Real Steel to hold the attention of adults apart from the most obvious and transparent form of story telling which may in itself provide a bit of easy entertainment. Real Steel looks great and has clearly been put together with enormous care and attention but it’s hard to excuse a script as laboured and seen-it-all-before as this one and I can’t help thinking that, in years to come, the always-reliable Jackman will come to regret the embarrassing sequence where he enthusiastically (if self-consciously) shadow boxes in the arena as a CGI robot mimics his moves in the boxing ring. Real Steel is adequate, lively entertainment for kids but there’s nothing much of interest going on  for the grown-ups.

Extras: A couple of behind-the-scenes featurettes, bloopers, commentary.

Review: Maniac Cop (18) / Director: William Lustig / Screenplay: Larry Cohen / Starring: Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z’Dar, Sheree North / Release Date: April 16th

Writer Larry Cohen’s mad mash-up of Police procedural and grisly slasher flick doesn’t seem half as daring, edgy and revolutionary as it must have done when it first appeared at the tail end of the 1980s. In fact, if not for the presence of cult favourite Bruce (Evil Dead) Campbell in an early starring role, it’s unlikely that Maniac Cop would be remembered today as anything other than a derivative, surprisingly-tame quasi-supernatural thriller straight out of the bargain basket. As it is, this is a movie which has only its vaguely interesting premise of cop-as-serial-killer to distinguish it from dozens of other straight-to-video titles from the late ’80s.

A new killer is cruising the sleazy mean streets of New York City; innocent members of the public are being brutally slaughtered by a ruthless, hulking, silent killer dressed in Police uniform – a man with a terrible past and a terrible grudge. Innocent Police officer Jack Forrest (Campbell) finds the finger of suspicion pointing in his direction and grizzled homicide detective Frank McCrae (Atkins) and giant-haired rookie Theresa (Landen) team up to uncover the identity of the real butcher prowling the streets of the city.

Cohen turns the slasher flick craze of the 1980s on its head in Maniac Cop by creating a killer who’s not some twisted loser or escaped lunatic but, disturbingly for an audience used to powerful, reassuring Police authority figures, a man in the familiar uniform of the NYPD cop. Cohen’s Matt Cordell is a tormented figure with his own tragic story; a former cop unjustly imprisoned, disfigured and left for dead in the prison shower in one of the film’s more graphic sequences, and driven insane by a desire for revenge which is entirely arbitrary. No one, it seems, is safe from the scarred Maniac Cop as he dispatches anyone who crosses his path, usually some hapless individual looking for help from the one figure they should be able to trust in the dark, shadowy back streets of modern New York.

There’s a quaint, almost TV Movie charm about Maniac Cop betrayed only by a bit of casual blood-letting, a sense of heightened tension in some sequences where the Cop bears down on his desperate victims and some narrative wrong-footing which still has the capacity to surprise – the death of a major character after about an hour is a real sit-up-and-take-notice moment. The final reel, with Cordell slaughtering everyone in the Police station and with only Forrest and Theresa left standing against the savage killer, sees Maniac Cop fully embrace the slasher genre and, with Cordell dispatched in the final reel, it sets up the inevitable sequel which arrived two years later with a final entry in the saga turning up in 1993.

Fans of cult 1980s thrillers and films once spoken of only in muted whispers are likely to get a few cheeky nostalgic thrills from Maniac Cop but a modern first-time audience are likely to be surprised, not only by the 18 certificate it still carries, but how mainstream and mundane it frequently is.

Extras: Trailers and TV spots and an interesting 20 minute chat with star Tom Atkins who recalls his B-movie career in general and his experiences on Maniac Cop in particular.

Review: Daylight Fades (15) / Directed by: Brad Ellis / Screenplay by: Allen C Gardner / Starring: Matthew Stiller, Rachel Miles, Allen C Gardner, Kim Justis, Dennis Phillippi / Release Date: Out Now

And so, with a heavy heart, the Starburst DVD reviewer slips the disc of Daylight Fades into his player and settles back in the full expectation of another wishy-washy tame-toothed American fable about a vampire falling in love and craving redemption for his hundreds of years of sins and blah blah yawn yawn. Ninety minutes later that same reviewer is pressing ’eject’, having enjoyed a rather good, thoughtful little movie characterised by a decent script, compelling performances and with a bit more bite than your run-of-the-mill straight-to-DVD vampire schlocker.

We are, however, in very familiar post-Twilight territory here. This isn’t really a film about vampires, it just uses vampirism as a handy contemporary metaphor to make some choice observations about relationships, addiction and the forced repression of otherwise unacceptable social behaviour. But don’t worry, we do see fangs. Tough, flighty Elizabeth (Miles) and kindly, nervy Jonathan (Miller) meet up in a bar and strike up a relationship. But Elizabeth has been bruised by years of abuse from her drunken stepfather and is terrified of committing to Jonathan. They’re ultimately driven apart by their differences but Jonathan is involved in a horrific car crash which leaves him with terrible injuries and only hours to live. Then he’s visited by the mysterious Seth (screenwriter Gardner) who saves Jonathan’s life the only way he can – by turning him into a vampire. Seth helps his new recruit keep his bloodlust under control and Elizabeth, who has realised how much Jonathan means to her, is happy to continue the relationship even though she knows what he’s become. But when Jonathan’s vicious vampiric nature comes to the fore Elizabeth can’t handle it and flees, driving Jonathan into the arms of a cold, calculating, murderous vampire known as Raven.

In some ways Daylight Fades sounds like twee ‘TV movie of the week’ stuff and it does occasionally play a bit like Twilight for people who’ve grown out of wearing tooth braces. But it’s actually a little bit gutsier, dealing in a more mature way with the destructive nature of relationships and how people who are meant to be together can so easily force each other apart. Elizabeth is no miserable Bella, mooning away in her bedroom window as the seasons rush by, pining for her vampire lover; Elizabeth takes it on the chin and learns to live with it until she witnesses Jonathan’s undead savagery and then she hotfoots it as quick as she can. Jonathan, for his part, has lost his anchor to humanity and quickly falls into the clutches of Raven (who, unfortunately, comes across as a bit of a clichéd sultry vampire seductress) even as his mentor Seth, who has his own personal agonies to deal with, tries to help him redeem himself.

Daylight Fades is very much a character piece rather than a vampire movie. The usual vampiric tropes are referenced here and there but this is much more concerned with how people cope with the tragedies of their own lives, past and present, and not the horror of actually becoming a predator destined to live through the centuries feeding on the blood of the living. Johnny-as-vampire is very much just a device the film uses to explore the power and frailties of relationships and how fragile are the bonds that bind us together.

Stylish, well-directed and written – and with a very low-key final sequence which is guaranteed to haunt you – with commanding performances from the unknown cast, Daylight Fades, like the forthcoming low budget British vampire flick Harsh Light of Day offers a decent and intriguing new take on the vampire love story and suggests that, in cinematic terms at least, there’s life in the undead yet.

Extras: None

Review: Don’t Go Into The House (18) / Directed by: Joseph Ellison / Written by: Joe Masefield / Starring: Dan Grimaldi, Charles Bonet, Bill Ricci, Robert Osth  / Release Date: March 26^th

When his abusive mother passes away, a disturbed young man transforms one of the rooms of their massive house into a furnace for burning his unlucky victims to death. The title is not only brilliantly evocative but good advice too: a psychopath with a flamethrower is a very convincing reason to not go into the house.

Donny is a typical early 80s horror movie villain. Permed and nervous with a tragic backstory and terrible mummy issues, he relaxes in his spare time by luring pretty young ladies into his home and setting about them with an enormous flamethrower. With no mother to hold him back, Donny is free to live out his fantasies. But with such a large number of women going missing and Donny not turning up for work, it can’t be long before our killer and his plans begin to unravel. He attempts to unwind by visiting a disco with his work friend, but this only worsens the situation when he uses a candle to re-enact the famous Michael Jackson Pepsi accident on an innocent woman’s head.

It’s like Psycho crossed with Saturday Night Fever. Someone certainly missed a trick by not having The Trammps’ Burn Baby Burn on the soundtrack (an idea nabbed by Hobo With A Shotgun, to great effect). This film is very much a product of the era within which it was filmed, and is all the better for it. The disco outfits, nightclub scenes and dodgy haircuts make the film look great throughout.

The best scenes see Donny struggle with this life; outside of his comfort zone at the disco, and awkwardly shopping for dancing clothes in a trendy boutique. There’s a great moment early in the film – upon learning of the death of Mother Dearest, Donny proceeds to turn his music up loud, dance on the furniture and rub out cigarettes on the tacky trinkets decorating the place. His is a great transition from mild-mannered loser to deranged psychopath in the tradition of a Silent Night, Deadly Night movie. His flamethrower outfit is wonderfully functional; like Harry Warden’s mining suit or Leatherface with his chainsaw.

It’s the film’s grounding in reality that sets it apart from other surrealist video nasties. His victims are switched on enough to realise that Donny might be a few matches short of the full box, making fairly rational decisions and attempting to escape as real people generally would. There’s a subplot with a work colleague that is sweet if a little homoerotic (Donny’s chum invites him for a beer as though he were asking a girl on a date; Donny calls him up to suggest they go to the cinema) – a bromance ahead of its time. This serves to emphasise the more surreal moments – and Donny’s fragile state of mind – more. What Donny does is truly horrible, but the viewer can’t help but feel a sense of sympathy towards the tragic character.

There’s a great vibe to the film, even during the scenes in which not much seems to be happening. It’s slow to build, but the atmosphere and Dan Grimaldi’s goofy performance ensure that it’s always watchable. Like most video nasties revisited, Don’t Go Into The House doesn’t seem all that nasty – in fact, it’s rather silly at times. But this silliness just serves to make it all the more enjoyable.

Don’t Go Into The House has aged well, its antiquity working in its favour. It’s competently acted and directed, with some great imagery, a fantastic atmosphere and a memorable killer. So, Don’t Go Into The House – unless it’s to find a copy of this DVD; in which case, you should probably chance it.

Extas: None

Review: Straw Dogs (18) / Director: Rob Lurie / Screenplay: Rob Lurie / Starring: James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard, James Woods, Dominic Purcell, Walton Goggins / Release date: March 12th 

James Marsden has made a career of playing nice guys who suffer at the hands of those with designs upon his wife. This is taken to its violent extreme in Straw Dogs, where the violent hicks are a lot less concerned with issues of consent than Superman, Wolverine or the lawyer in Enchanted ever were. Marsden plays screenwriter David Sumner, with his erstwhile Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) as Amy. The couple relocates to Amy’s old hometown in the deep South, where smarmy David wastes little time in upsetting the locals, and the culture clash soon rises to a violent climax.

It’s a well cast film, with True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard in fine fettle as sinister builder Charlie. The great James Woods is a welcome presence, playing the town’s angry football coach. Marsden and Bosworth are fine as the leading couple, despite the fact that neither of them are particularly likeable. Only Dominic Purcell seems out of place. Some might say that he’s perfectly cast as the village simpleton. He’s reliably bad here, threatening to derail the whole film at one point. The presence of Walton Goggins, accents and location combine to make Straw Dogs to feel like an episode of Justified. Raylan Givens would soon sort this sleazy lot out.

As a remake of Peckinpah’s controversial siege movie, Straw Dogs is a quite different beast. It’s a slick, polished production, lacking the grime and the grit of the original piece. Like its stars, it’s a prettier, more refined version of a story that shouldn’t be pretty or refined. In this respect, it’s reminiscent of the I Spit On Your Grave remake; technically better, but seems to miss the point of the original work. 

Still, the transposing of proceedings from gloomy, grey England to hot, oppressive Southern USA makes the rising tension feel impressively palpable. Small Southland towns have become overexposed of late, as have their hillbilly antagonists, but Straw Dogs writes them better than most. There’s a sense that it could maybe be avoided if only David were to dial back the superiority complex a little. And then the line is crossed, and suddenly the characterisation is all undone. There’s no sympathy left for them – they’re nothing more than a gang of whooping idiotic movie rapists.

Where would Straw Dogs be without its rape scenes? Again, there’s a suggestion of consensual non-consent to some of it, and it all leaves a familiar foul aftertaste. Like the I Spit On Your Grave remake, the camera leers at its female star. There’s a scene which sees Amy jogging in a pair of skintight bottoms and vest. Not far behind, her soon-to-be rapists, tongues agape. In seeing her like this, set to The Noisette’s Never Forget You, The viewer is made complicit. Even the Of Mice And Men subplot sexualises its fifteen-year-old victim, giving her a lovely cheerleader outfit to wear.

It takes a long time to get started, but the siege is tense, bombastic and thrilling. It’s during the action sequences that the film benefits from its newfound polish. Marsden does well as the geek turned action man, although he is a more conventional hero than Dustin Hoffman. The increased presence of Purcell is a shame; his extended bouts of melodramatic screaming and head shaking are tremendously irritating. His performance resembles Miko Hughes’ in Mercury Rising. It was bad enough then – it’s considerably more horrible when performed by a burly six-foot tall man who can’t act.

In spite of its flaws, Straw Dogs is a tense, entertaining and occasionally thrilling piece of home invasion cinema. Its updated gloss brings the story an unexpected palatability. Whether this is a good thing remains to be seen. Some things just aren’t meant to be pretty or slick. Straw Dogs is one of those things.

Extras: Commentary with Writer/Director Rod Lurie; Courting Controversy: Remaking a Classic; The Dynamics of Power: The Ensemble; Inside the Siege: The Ultimate Showdown; Creating the Sumner House: The Production Design

Review: The Deadly Spawn (15) / Director: Douglas McKeown / Screenplay: Douglas McKeown, Ted A. Bohus, John Dods / Starring: Charles George Hildebrandt, Tom DeFranco, Richard Lee Porter, Jean Tafler / Release Date: March 19th

For those of you old enough to remember browsing video shops in their pre-VRA heyday, and the lurid, often sleazy gems found within, The Deadly Spawn may well be familiar. Made in 1983, and made on less than a shoestring budget, this slice of Sci-Fi/horror should be welcomed like an old friend. How does it stand up today, though?

After a meteorite falls near a small town, strange creatures congregate in the basement of an average family. Science student Pete (Tom DeFranco) is awaiting his study buddies, and horror buff Charles (Charles George Hildebrandt) is trying to scare his visiting Aunt, and answering the probing questions from Uncle Herb who is a psychiatrist trying to find fault with Charles’ fascination with monsters. “Do you ever think you’ll really see a monster?” he asks. Oh boy, you soon will! The parents are due to be going on a trip, so their absence is not really noticed until much later on when Pete sees that their car is still in the garage. Young Charles, meanwhile goes down to the cellar to scare an electrician on the job. What he finds down there is the mother alien, with hydra-esque multiple heads, and tadpole like babies swimming away on the flooded floor. The story, such as it is, is almost a single location horror, as the boys try to escape the ravenous aliens. When the radio announcer states “it looks like it’s going to be a bad day..” you know he ain’t kidding! The final shot of the film is a doozy!

With a budget of a mere $20,000 and shot on 16mm, the limitations of the actors and behind the scenes ‘talent’ show from the first scene (a howling continuity error where a shirt sleeve changes colour right before your eyes!) but there is one place the film does not scrimp – in the special effects. The makeup and creature effects (by John Dods, whose basement is used in the film) managed to make the gore and aliens look as good, if not better than many films that cost millions more.

The young Charles – who is the precocious hero of the film – was under 13 years old and is actually quite good, and not at all annoying. It was wonderful to see his bedroom – all full of monster models and classic horror film posters (there’s even a copy of Denis Gifford’s seminal A Pictorial History of Horror Films on the floor). It is even better that this was his real bedroom, as the main house was that of his father, executive producer, Tim Hildebrandt – who, along with his brother Greg, were the illustrators behind the famous 1977 Star Wars poster (you know, the one with the large Vader head and Luke and Leia looking all heroic and the arc of X-wings). This thrifty way of film making allows every cent to be up there on screen.

If this was made with today’s digital formats the result would be a sterile, false looking mess. The grainy, dark look of blown up 16mm gives this so much more credence and validity. I’m glad Arrow didn’t attempt to release the film on Blu-ray as the film does show the limitations of the source material, but speaking as someone who remembers seeing this on VHS, you really will not get better than what is on display here. You can actually see what’s going on in the darker scenes for a start! While The Deadly Spawn is no classic, it is fun and worth seeing if only for the great effects.

Extras: A fantastic lot of bonus features to enjoy here: two separate commentaries, a comic strip style prequel, alternate opening sequence, a vintage video film visit to John Dods’ effects workshop, a selection of off air recordings of the film makers on American TV, a lengthy audition reel, an out-take/blooper reel (which is actually a very interesting selection of behind the scenes footage, which looks like it was filmed on 8mm but is great), the obligatory trailer and a collector’s booklet with essays by Calum Waddell and Tim (Chillerama) Sullivan (who provided “additional dialogue” to the film).

Review: Immortals (15) / Director: Tarsem Singh / Screenplay: Charley Parlapanides, Vlas Parlapanides / Starring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, John Hurt, Luke Evans, Freida Pinto / Release Date: Out Now

There are times when I feel completely at odds with the critical consensus. Last November was one of those times, when Tarsem Singh’s loud and spectacular Immortals blasted into cinemas. I felt that most critics were perhaps too harsh on this film and seemed eager to want to dismiss it as another style over substance spectacle from a director known more for his visuals rather than his skills with narrative and plot. Immortals is not a perfect film but it is extremely good fun and satisfying in a purely visceral way.

Immortals takes place in ancient Greece with King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) cutting a swathe of carnage across Greece. Hyperion is heading for Mount Tartaros to unleash the titans; destructive creatures who were defeated and imprisoned centuries before, using the Epirus Bow. Hyperion ransacks a small village and kills the mother of peasant Theseus (Henry Cavill) who swears revenge. Along with the virgin psychic Phaedra (Freida Pinto) and the thief Stavros (Stephen Dorff) they must journey to Tartaros and stop Hyperion in his tracks. All the while Zeus (Luke Evans) and other gods look on from the heavens, unable to intervene.

First things first, Henry Cavill is an awesome screen presence and this film proves that he has brilliant leading man potential, so those worried about Superman can breathe easy. Cavill is matched by Mickey Rourke as one of the nastiest villains for a long time. Rourke growls and mumbles his way through his scenes casually slaughtering those who get in his way. This is definitely a far better performance than his disappointing villain from Iron Man 2. Aside from these two the remaining support is adequate if not stellar. Most of the actors seem to be afflicted by the same problems as the Star Wars prequels. With nothing to act against, as the sets are largely green screen sound stages, some of the acting comes across as awkward and wooden.

Where this film scores big is in the visuals. There is the occasional blatantly false looking background or set but mostly this is very impressive. Tarsem doesn’t get to really use his gift for framing a beautiful shot the way he did with The Fall but again this is mainly because of the heavy green screen work. The battle and fights scenes are breathtaking with some insane levels of violence on display. When the gods eventually decide to get up off their clouds and take off their fancy hats, they enter a kind of ‘god mode’ where they make heads explode and send people flying off in slow motion whilst they zip about the place. It’s an effect similar to ‘bullet time’ and is impressive and exciting.

My main complaint about this film is its lack of a sense of humour. The film is completely straight faced and serious with even the supposed comic relief character growling lines robbing them of their comic value. Theseus may be intense and a leader of men but one or two moments of charm and a twinkle in his eye would have gone a long way towards making this more memorable.

If you didn’t likeTarsem Singh’s previous films then it’s unlikely this will convert you. For others who found Clash of the Titans to be uninspiring and bland this could well do the trick.

Extras: It’s no Myth, Carravaggio Meets Fight Club (Tarsems Vision, A Matter of perspective, Immortal Warriors, Settling a Score), Deleted Scenes, Alternate opening scene, Alternate Endings, Theatrical Trailer.

Review: In Time (12A) / Directed: Andrew Nicoll / Written by: Andrew Nicoll / Starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Alex Pettyfer, Vincent Kartheiser, Johnny Galecki / Release Date: Out Now

Former curly-haired pop moppet turned sultry sexy backed r’n’b superstar Justin Timberlake makes a timely (geddit?) escape from romcom/light comedy Hell and tries his hand at an action hero role in Andrew Nicoll’s interesting if rarely thrilling future fantasy In Time.

In the 22^nd century genetic fiddling has brought a halt to human ageing at 25 but everyone has to ‘earn’ Time to stay alive or else die within a year. The concept of money has been replaced by ’living time’ and a person’s lifespan is displayed on implants welded into the lower arm. A zero Time reading leads to instant death, the body just switching off. Not unnaturally society has become divided, the rich and virtually immortal living in luxury and the young living in bland ghettos scratching a few more hours of life and paying for necessities with the ’Time’ they’ve earned. Factory worker Will Salas (Timberlake) ‘inherits’ over a hundred years of life from a businessman he rescues from a bar brawl but who believes he’s lived long enough and commits suicide to end his eternity of living. When Will is unable to help his ageless mother (Wilde) prolong her life he rails against the unfair world order and, with Sylvia Weis (Seyfriend), daughter of Time millionaire Phillippe Weis (Mad Men’s Karthesier), sets off like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde to subvert and bring down the system. But the Timekeepers, ruthless Police-like guardians of ‘living Time’ are in hot pursuit…

Superficially there’s not much wrong with In Time. There are some decent ideas on display, even if it’s hard to work out quite what the economic benefit to the world would be if ‘living Time’ replaced the concept of money. The film is coy about the morality and ethics of life in the 22nd century, turning instead into a chase movie with Salas and Sylvia haring across the rooftops being shot at by Timekeepers or else whizzing about in the film’s cool electric cars. The forearm Time implants present some interesting visual images as well as several opportunities for literal ‘race against Time’ sequences as characters fight to renew their Time allocation with their implants counting down to zero and sudden death.

But despite all the rushing about and the odd car chase, In Time just can’t manage to be especially exciting. The first forty or so minutes drag alarmingly and when the action kicks in it seems a bit sluggish and perfunctory, as if the movie’s frustrated at having to abandon a potentially-interesting and thought-provoking ethical storyline for the sake of a couple of punch-ups and some random gunplay. Timberlake doesn’t yet have the charisma of the true action movie star and he’s pretty much acted off screen by the much cooler and more malevolent Cillian Murphy as the relentless Timekeeper Jaegar and Kartheiser as Sylvia’s ancient father trapped in the body of a young man.

Having distributed a stolen cache of a million years amongst the poor of the ghettos, Will and Sylvia, with a 100 year bounty on their heads and having set themselves up as a pair of futuristic Robin Hoods, move in to rob a huge Time Bank and continue their mission to disrupt the system. Despite some genuinely-intriguing if fairly standard dystopian science-fiction concepts, In Time never really makes the most of what it’s got and ultimately the movie comes across as diluted, half-hearted and distinctly underpowered. Unfortunately for Mr. Timberlake I’m very definitely not lovin’ it…

Special features: The DVD has a few deleted scenes whilst the fiddly Blu-ray/DVD/Triple Play edition adds some behind-the-scenes material.

Review: Urban Explorers (18) / Director: Andy Feyscher / Screenplay: Martin Thau / Starring: Nathalie Kelley, Nick Eversman, Klaus Stiglmeiler, Max Riemelt / Release Date: 5^th March

Have you ever walked past a sealed door or tunnel and wondered what lay beyond? That’s the premise for Urban Explorers, which uses the plot point of investigating closed off areas in urban settlements. In this case, a group of young foreigners meet up with a guide to search the underground tunnels of Berlin, to try and find some rare World War II era graffiti and trinkets.

Denis (Eversman) and his girlfriend Lucia (Kelley) enlist the services of Kris (Riemelt) to aid their little illegal subterranean adventure and have two other girls, Marei and Juna, tag along for the ride. After bumping into a couple of red herring neo-Nazis, the group carry on to their destination and find a room that was bricked off to ensure that no-one would ever see it again. If the film-makers didn’t add any props to the tunnels that the characters find themselves in, then the Nazis planned to stay down there for quite a long time. There’s a piano for a start! There also appears to be an old shooting range where spent bullets lay strewn across the floor. It is quite unnerving to know that all this happened for real underground.

It is on their return from their destination that things go a bit awry. When Kris suffers a fall which leaves him immobile and unconscious, Marie and Juna are sent to find help. Denis and Lucia stay behind with their prone guide, with Lucia doing what she can with her nursing skills. From out of nowhere, a stranger appears. Supposedly retired border guard Armin (Stiglmeier – who looks like the bastard love child of Scott Glenn and Klaus Kinski) helps them back to his underground home and calls for help. Of course, like with any film of this nature, Armin isn’t really there to help. The phone line isn’t actually connected and Denis and Lucia find themselves in a fight for their lives, trying to escape their crazed captor – who still seems to think that there is an active border in Berlin – and navigate the labyrinthine tunnels that they find themselves in.

The film is shot, refreshingly, without using the worn cliché of found footage. Instead the camera utilises the darkness well, creating an eerie and claustrophobic setting. There are moments where you are reminded of Creep and Midnight Meat Train, although this probably has more to do with the setting than anything else, and the whole film is quite unsettling. Of course, as with any horror film – good or bad – the ending is left open for a sequel in an apparent nod to the ending of Neil Marshall’s The Descent. With what you have seen before, that might not be a bad thing.

If you like your horror dark and disturbing, then Urban Explorers may be right up your alley.

Review: Paranormal Activity 3 (15) / Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman / Screenplay: Christopher Landon / Starring: Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Christopher Nicholas Smith, Lauren Bittner, Dustin Ingram / Release Date: Out Now

Paranormal Activity is a film that in a lot of ways has led to the deluge of poor imitators you now see clogging up shelves at your local blockbuster. It’s also further evidence that anyone can get a camera and go make a film as long as they have a unique hook. I was about ready to hate this film but dammit Paranormal Activity 3 manages to be better than the first two films in the series.

The plot starts with the sisters from previous films, Katie and Kristie talking about some VHS tapes they have inherited from their parents and during the paranormal events of one of the two films the tapes go missing. It’s not clear when in the series chronology this prologue takes place but it doesn’t really matter, the scene is set. We then go back to 1988 and witness Katie and Kristie as young children, living with their mother and their mother’s nice video making boyfriend Dennis. Kristie has an imaginary friend she calls Toby who sits with her when she plays and seems to have an unhealthy dislike for Katie. After a few bumps in the night, Dennis sets up video cameras around the house to try and capture something and guess what? He does…

If everyone reacted to things making sounds in the middle of the night the way that the characters in these films do then we would literally have thousands of hours’ worth of supposedly supernatural footage on the web. Logic and motivation aside, Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman do a great job of setting up the dynamic within the family with some great performances from child actors Chloe Csengery and Jessica Tyler Brown as well as Chris Smith who plays Dennis. Perhaps most importantly this is the first film in the franchise where you actually care about the characters and they are not annoying. Dennis may carry the camera around with little thought of his own safety but if he didn’t we wouldn’t have a film so there.

This film is tense and creepy, with the previous films mining the tension from static shots that drag on for ages and the fear spreading through the audience like a virus as everyone thinks they are about to see something. You get some of that here but mostly it’s about where the directors place the camera and how they frame things. A sequence involving a camera attached to a moving fan and a babysitter is one of the tensest things on screen for ages and it all comes from careful pacing and a simple but effective scare. Another moment when a family friend is stuck in a bathroom with Katie whilst something awful throws a tantrum outside is equally brilliant.

We’ll not go into details about the ending of the film but I will simply say that the ending makes you question everything you have seen in the previous films and feels like a natural end to the series. Of course this won’t be the end of the franchise because they are cheap to make and continue to make money but if they were to leave it here it would feel like the natural ending to a franchise that has been hit and miss. Paranormal Activity 3 is a definite hit.

Extras: Extended director’s cut and theatrical version, Scare montage, Dennis’ commercial.