Review: Bunraku (18) / Directed by: Guy Moshe / Written by: Boaz Davidson, Guy Moshe/ Starring: Josh Hartnett, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson

Poor Josh Hartnett, now that Hollywood has stopped shoving him down our throats as ‘The Next Big Thing’ it seems that most of his work is consigned to a bottom shelf. After the fascinating failure of I Come with the Rain a few months back now an equally flawed and somewhat less fascinating film debuts on DVD despite featuring the presence of Ron Perlman, Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore. Bunraku is best described as a cross between Equilibrium, Sin City and West Side Story as directed by Michel Gondry but even that doesn’t do this glorious mess justice. Bunraku has the strangest tone in a fantasy action film since Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element.

Through a simply animated prologue narrated by Faith No More singer Mike Patton, we learn that the world eventually got tired of gun violence and the endless death and decided to ban all guns. We then enter this strange new world in a small town somewhere in the east which is ruled over by disillusioned and tired gangster Nicola the woodcutter (Ron Perlman) and his band of nine killers lead by the lethal assassin Number Two (Kevin McKidd). Into this world walks a drifter and card player (Josh Hartnett) who is just as lethal with his fists as he is with a deck of cards. At the same time Yoshi (played by Japanese superstar Gackt) decides to come to town to visit his uncle whose restaurant happens to be Nicola’s favourite and to whom his uncle owes protection money. Both of these strangers run afoul of Nicola’s men and end up kicking some henchmen arse with their fists and swords which displeases Number Two and Nicola no end. A bartender who is fond of philosophy and pop up storybooks (Woody Harrelson) teams these two up with a view to ending Nicola’s reign of evil. The two of them are reluctant at first but Nicola and his men keep raising the stakes, either through rigged card games or through attacks on Yoshi’s uncle. These two men decide to lead an attack on Nicola with a small resistance of townspeople that have had enough.

I’m sure there was an intention here to evoke Frank Miller by way of Busby Berkeley but sadly Bunraku doesn’t quite work. What should be its strength end up being its weakness. The design of the piece is nowhere near convincing enough, imagine the standard of sets used on BBC’s The Mighty Boosh used in a film as an artistic decision and you may get an idea of the problems. Nothing in terms of set design or the surroundings feels real in Bunraku, not one shot is actually outside and quite often the fake backgrounds are laughable instead of quirky. The film seems to be set in a far east that has been massively influenced by American style from the 1930’s if you can imagine such a thing. A few scenes shot outside on actual locations would have gone a long way and given the film a bit of grit which is sorely needed. The tone and pacing are also all over the place. Bunraku moves slowly and not because it would take time to tell this story (which is pretty standard) but because instead of propelling the story forward characters will instead spout cod philosophical nonsense about the plight of the warrior and revenge being pointless. Not only do the characters speak this way but Mike Patton’s admittedly cool narration goes off on one every fifteen minutes as well. The trouble with philosophy in dialogue is its all very clever but unless you are a characters in The Matrix and use it as a means to describing a complex plot whilst moving forward then it doesn’t work.

The characters are also pretty poorly sketched though they may all be philosophy students and being pretentious just isn’t enough. We only get to know the reasons for Josh Hartnett’s characters vendetta against Nicola in the last five minutes and all the character development he gets is a little tic where he slides his hand across the brim of his hat. Demi Moore also pops up as a prostitute whom Nicola is desperately in love with. There are hints of a back story to this character as there is with Woody Harrelson’s bartender but it is never developed into anything satisfying. There is a moment where there is a quick look between Harrelson and Moore during an action sequence but that’s about it and it’s quite possible the two of them were just remembering when they were in Indecent Proposal together. The person who comes across the best in all this is previously unheard of (in the west anyway) superstar Gackt. His character gets all the best scenes and the best plot arc and the film could have just focussed on him and felt less bloated for it.

Where this film scores is with the fight/dance sequences, yes dance sequences. They never go full blown into dance numbers but right from the first scene where Kevin McKidd takes out most of a rival gang after doing a virtual tap routine its clear that director Guy Moshe is a big musical nut. The characters move in strange ways prior to striking with a sword or axe and it’s as if they are getting ready to pirouette across the stage, sorry I mean set. Nowhere is this more obvious than a scene where Josh Hartnett is surrounded in towns square by about twenty people. He is attacked by them one by one but in the background the ones standing by are moving around to music that you cannot hear, it’s like a scene from Cats. The fighting is well choreographed; particularly impressive is a scene where Hartnett viewed sideways walks through a prison beating up policemen. The camera seemingly never cuts away even when Hartnett goes down flights of stairs and it makes a pleasing video game like noise when he exits stage right. Also pretty unique is the decision to subtitle Gackt and families dialogue by using comic book style boxes, it works really well and adds to the feeling that Bunraku is a comic book come to life.

Bunraku is a failure but it’s at least an interesting one. I can guarantee you have never seen anything quite like it. I would rather see a noble failure than just a failure and for this reason I would advise you to watch it at least once. Some people are going to flat out hate this film but you can’t fault Guy Moshe for attempting something different and on his first big directorial job too.

Extras: Trailer

‘Bunraku’ is out now on DVD/Blu-ray

Review: Blood Creek (18) / Directed by: Joel Schumacher / Written by: David Kajganich / Starring: Henry Cavill, Dominic Purcell, Emma Booth

Joel Schumacher actually made some pretty decent movies at the start of his career. The Lost Boys is still great and so is Falling Down. Somewhere around the time he turned Batman into the camp crusader with his late 90’s versions of the comic book he became a hated hack the way that people now talk about Brett Ratner. Schumacher redeemed himself somewhat with Tigerland and Phone Booth giving Colin Farrell the early career boost that had him so hyped up early on. Now it seems as he approaches 75 years old he is content to just sit back and cash the cheques. Blood Creek (aka Town Creek) has limped out on to DVD a year after it did the same stateside and with good reason because the film is a mess.

We start off in the 1930’s and a small farm run by a German immigrant family. One day a member of Hitler’s SS Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender) visits the Wollner family as he is one of the members tasked by Hitler with locating some sacred stones that will give the owner immortality. Once such stone lies at the base of the family barn and Wirth proves its power by reviving a dead bird for the daughter. Flash forward to modern day and we meet troubled paramedic Evan Marshall (new Superman Henry Cavill) who is overworked and constantly looking after his terminally ill father. His brother Victor (Dominic Purcell) has disappeared after returning home from the war in Iraq and Evan spends a good deal of his time taking care of his kids who miss their father. One night a bearded and long haired Victor returns ranting and raving and asking Evan to get their rifles and follow him to somewhere in the countryside. The two of them go to the Wollner farmhouse and set about killing the family who do not seem to have aged and also don’t seem to die. Evan is understandably reluctant believing Victor has possibly flipped. Evan gets to know the daughter Liese (Emma Booth) and learns that the families life has been prolonged by the sacred stone in their basement. They have been keeping prisoners to farm blood from and feed to Wirth who is locked in their basement and has become something more than human. Eventually Wirth escapes from his prison and leads a siege on the farmhouse using other people whom he turns into zombies that do his bidding and also zombie horses, yes zombie horses.

Not quite sure what happened here but this has all the hallmarks of a creatively compromised project. Joel Schumacher and writer David Kajganich had a falling out about Schumacher’s proposed changes to the screenplay. Turns out Schumacher won and the man who brought us Batman and Robin re-wrote parts of the script himself and man does it show. This is really incoherent and doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense. Large chunks of exposition are often shouted or communicated mid battle scene. The plot also doesn’t add up, for instance why are the Wollner family farming blood for someone they keep locked up anyway? And also if what the family did to Victor was so bad that he is prepared to slaughter them in the middle of the night why is he so quick to join with them when Wirth gets loose. These plot holes are not well thought through or explained and it seems like Schumacher thinks that by showing us enough gore we will just forget about it.

Michael Fassbender seems like he is slumming it here and gets the best from the scenes he is in but really feels wasted when we know he is capable of so much more. Henry Cavill is worryingly wooden despite being very pretty and Dominic Purcell seems to think that by shouting his dialogue all the time it’s the same as giving a performance. Emma Booth seems to be the token exposition girl and doesn’t seem to have any other purpose beyond that. Even the usually great Shea Wigham, who is fast becoming the supporting actor du jour for low budget films, doesn’t get anything to do apart from be a victim.

Apart from these things working against the film, Fassbender’s make up is suitably gross and there are some cool scenes with a zombie horse going nuts as big chunks are blown out of it with a rifle. That is all that I can say is good about this mess though. For a better film with gore and an assault on a country stronghold then seek out Feast or Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. Both have ten times the charm of this drivel.

Extras: Trailer

‘Blood Creek’ is out now on DVD/Blu-Ray 

Review: Red, White and Blue (18) / Directed by: Simon Rumley / Written by: Simon Rumley / Starring: Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter, Jon Michael Davis

The period in the late 70s and early 80s that introduced some extreme cinema and films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are seen as a reaction to the end of the 60s and the era that brought us the Manson family murders and Watergate. It’s possible that we are now living through a similar reflective period in horror filmmaking and that in years to come film historians will look back on films like Hostel and Saw as a representation of these troubled times. Simon Rumley’s Red, White and Blue feels like a product that is reflective of the years under the Bush administration and a portrait of a country rotting from the inside out. Whereas previous films could be seen as the scars carried by a country still recovering from events like Hurricane Katrina and September 11th, Red, White and Blue is a festering, infected open wound of a film, anger pouring from every frame. It is also amongst the most powerful films I have seen this year.

Our film begins following troubled and distant nymphomaniac Erica (Amanda Fuller) as night after night she trawls bars and clubs in Austin, Texas and succumbs to easy sex with partners who she barely knows. When threatened with eviction, Erica meets the damaged Iraq war veteran Nate (Noah Taylor) who was ‘honourably discharged’ and is unusually nice to her. Initially Erica is reluctant to accept Nate’s offers of kindness but, increasingly desperate for money, she takes a job he gets her in a hardware store. Erica then proceeds to sleep with most of the staff to Nate’s disapproval. One day Nate saves her from an assault and the two of them start to bond, Erica’s defences are gradually brought down to reveal just how damaged she really is. Meanwhile across town, young band member and one of Erica’s previous partners Franki (Marc Senter) discovers he is HIV positive and seeks out Erica whom he believes infected him. Secrets are revealed, tragedy turns to violence and Nate reveals just how dangerous he really is.

As a rule I am not against extreme cinema, I respect the filmmakers right to show whatever he feels is necessary in the name of artistic expression. But I know my own limits; I will never watch A Serbian Film or Human Centipede 2 just because I know there are certain things I never want to see on film. Whilst watching Red, White and Blue I found myself feeling queasy and it wasn’t due to the violence on screen, it was the subject matter. True horror should make you feel uncomfortable and shouldn’t be an easy thing to watch, there is a place for creature features and ghost films but I’ve always felt the point of horror is to make you feel revolted or disturbed. As this film unfolds things get very intense, a lot of uncomfortable subject matter is dealt with very matter of factly and at one point when a character reveals something, the rug is well and truly pulled from under you and nothing in the film is safe. One particularly intense scene had me sit up right in my chair because I couldn’t believe that Rumley actually went there and put that on screen when other filmmakers would have merely hinted at it.  The film is ugly, shot on digital with natural lighting and no make up for the actors; it has a realistic washed out look that reflects the ugly side of every day life that the film deals with.

This film would be nothing without the brilliant performances of its three leads and these are some of the best from an independent film for some time. Noah Taylor is a face you have seen before in the likes of Almost Famous and Submarine, here he is playing a character that is a coiled snake. His unassuming appearance and posture help to really sell a character that is capable of great kindness and decency and also savage violence. Taylor’s goofy charm really works in his scenes with Amanda Fuller and it’s understandable that she could latch on to such a person. On the flipside his dark eyes, wiry frame and calm demeanour really hint at the darkness within. Amanda Fuller as Erica is an incredibly brave performance, this is a role that called for constant nudity and no make up and is something that no Hollywood starlet would ever be brave enough to take on. The character is brilliantly written with a minimum of dialogue and Fuller sells a world of internal pain often with just a look. When a big reveal happens for the character, Fuller does so with the minimum of emotion to just convey enough to make you doubt all the sympathy that you previously had for the character. Marc Senter is cast as what would typically be the ‘villain’ role in this film but it’s hard to see the character as such. The character he plays is ultimately the character who goes on the biggest emotional journey in the whole film, he starts off really unlikeable and as we get to know him and see what his life is like and the tragedy starts to pile up he ultimately gets the most sympathy of all of these battered individuals. Senter really rises to the occasion too, his eventual fate should make you pleased in typical horror comeuppance fashion but it really doesn’t, in fact it’s so brutal that it almost makes you cry.

Simon Rumley has made a great film here, it’s an ugly, depressing film on a par with Requiem for a Dream or David Fincher’s Seven. I haven’t gone into detail over plot points on purpose because part this films power comes from seeing them unfold. Rumley very carefully lets each character gradually reveal themselves to you either by their actions or a line of dialogue. The editing is very clever in that it will present you with what seems to be a pivotal scene then, just as you think you are about to get a major secret from a character’s dialogue, it very quickly cuts to the next scene. Important events often happen off camera and a lot of the climax is left to your imagination which somehow works to make it even more powerful. Quite often the scenes in which Marc Senter is called on to display nervous breakdown levels of emotion are completely silent on the soundtrack with just the characters face twisted with pain.

I can’t recommend Red, White and Blue highly enough to fans of the power of cinema. It’s a testament to good writing and direction over gore (although it is here) to get your shocks and Rumley should have a major career ahead of him. Plus he is British and a film this powerful made about America post 9/11 by a brit is something to celebrate.

Extras: Trailer, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Character teaser trailers.

‘Red, White and Blue’ is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray

Review: The Sarah Jane Adventures – Season 4 (PG) / Directed by: Joss Agnew, Alice Troughton, Ashley Way, Brian Minchin / Scripts by: Phil Ford, Joseph Lidster, Gareth Roberts, Russell T Davies, Rupert Laight, Clayton Hickman / Starring: Elisabeth Sladen, Tommy Knight, Anjili Mohandra, Daniel Anthony, Anthony Armstrong (voice), John Leeson (voice), Matt Smith, Katy Manning

It’s really no exaggeration to suggest that the death, in April this year, of long-time ‘Doctor Who’ stalwart Elisabeth Sladen was a body blow which left many antique fans of the series, myself included, reeling. Hard to imagine quite how the actress’s legions of younger fans, addicted to her teatime ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off show ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ must have felt by this horrible collision between fantasy and reality – but a quick look at the memorial wall on the BBC’s ‘Newsround’ website will leave no-one in any doubt that here was an actress whose work, as just one character, reached out across the generations and left an indelible mark on all of them. The last six episodes of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’, forming the truncated fifth season, have just transmitted on CBBC, marking the final bittersweet end of an era. ’Sarah Jane’ was a show which was always growing and evolving, just like its audience, and this is surely never more evident than in its fourth series, transmitted last year and finally arriving on DVD and Blu-ray (a first for the series) this month.

Series four of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ is all about growing up and, to a lesser degree, about growing old. In its fourth year it seemed as if the show’s writers and producers (Russell T Davies keeping a steady hand on the ship and even contributing a two-part script) had been conscious of the fact that the show’s intended audience was growing up and that some of the slapstick the series had indulged in in the past is unlikely to wash with a more sophisticated and maturing young audience. So the Slitheen, a constant in the show since year one, get a brief cameo in the first episode of ‘The Nightmare Man’, quickly turned to slime as if to acknowledge the fact that gunging is no longer going to be a major feature of the show. Even in series finale, the uncomfortably-presciently-titled ‘Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith’ the audience’s expectations are confounded when villainess Ruby White’s stomach doesn’t explode in a shower of coloured liquid but just burps out a little splodge of gunk. The show’s telling its audience that it’s no longer concerned with covering people in slime for the sake of it, and neither should they be. Series four recognises that its core characters (beyond Sarah Jane herself) – Luke, Clyde, Rani – are getting older and each of the stories address the consequences and difficulties of coping with growing pains, difficulties exacerbated by the outlandish lifestyle the trio enjoy due to their relationship with Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane, too, given a new lease of life courtesy of her ‘adopted’ son Luke, has to learn to let go as Luke moves away to Oxford (with a robot dog for company and a disturbing taste for inappropriate neckwear) and, at the end of the series, is apparently forced to face the prospect of her own faculties diminishing.

Joseph Lidster’s brilliant opening two-parter, ‘The Nightmare Man’, is possibly the best story of a strong season because it deftly balances some genuinely disturbing stuff – Julian Bleech’s creepy and unsettling vaguely mid-European turn as the titular villain, a creature who exists and feeds on the subconscious – and some great character stuff as the super-intelligent Luke is fast-tracked to Oxford and his friends Rani and particularly Clyde have to cope with unfamiliar emotions as their cosy friendship is threatened. How will Luke cope on his own? What will happen to his friendships with Rani and Clyde? The Nightmare Man himself is very much a metaphor for growing up, dealing with new, unfamiliar and very real problems. In Luke’s final confident confrontation with the him, it’s about rising above your fears and doubts and showing that you’re strong enough to survive even the greatest of adversity. As Luke toddles off to Oxford at the end of the story it’s the start of a new era for the show and when he returns in the second part of series finale ‘Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith’ both Clyde and Rani have grown and developed so much as they take centre-stage that he almost seems surplus to requirements and a throwback to a more naïve era in the show’s history.



‘Vault of Secrets’ is a nod in the direction of the more pantomime stories of earlier series, with its bumbling comic UFO conspiracy freaks, Rani’s Mum Gita’s comedy gurning and those always-unconvincing body-swap moments where returning bad guy Androvax (from series three) possesses Luke, Rani and Sarah Jane. But even here the show reins back its earlier instincts for knockabout fun. The mysterious ‘men in black’ brought to life from the David Tennant ‘Dreamland’ animation two or three years ago, are a formidable presence with their wrist machine-guns and even Androvax is given a bit more light and shade as the story centres around his desperation to keep his species alive and find a new home for the last of his race. Some good FX work (a particular feature of this series) and some well-staged action set pieces kept ‘Vault of Secrets’ pacey and enjoyable without ever being hugely memorable.

In any earlier series of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ a story like ‘Death of the Doctor’, featuring current TARDIS incumbent Matt Smith and a special reappearance by 1970s companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) who preceded Sarah Jane aboard the TARDIS, would be a centrepiece, a real flagship story for the whole series. But so strong are the rest of this year’s serials that ‘Death of the Doctor‘, a gift to us from Russell T Davies himself, is simply fifty-odd minutes of glorious, joyous fun. Davies grafts a simple but effective story to his typical beautifully-paced character moments, scenes which seem to slow down the action but in reality add some wonderful light and shade and serve as reminder of why Davies absolutely got what modern ‘Doctor Who’ should be. It’s probably fair to say that Davies was ‘Who-ed out’ by the end of his run but the break clearly did him a power of good. He grabs Matt Smith’s Doctor and just seems to instinctively grasp the character but ultimately the story exists as a glorified piece of fan fiction as Davies gets to do what he couldn’t really do during his time at the helm of the parent show; he just shows off. Davies fills his scripts with fan-pleasing continuity references as Jo Grant (now Jo Jones, of course) swaps TARDIS anecdotes with Sarah Jane and later, as prisoners of the Shansheeth (not the show’s finest monster hour, being lumbering vulture undertakers redeemed by suitably funereal voices) the two recall their past in a string of flashback sequences which recall their experiences with earlier Doctors. Random dialogue references obscure stories like the appalling Colin Baker 1984 story ‘Timelash’, the girls delight in discovering they both visited medieval planet Peladon and Davies gets to drop in references to Metebelis 3 and briefly fills us in on the fates of a number of fan favourite former companions, right back to Ian and Barbara who were there when it all started back in 1963. Typically, Davies depicts Jo as being as scatty as ever but, contrary to popular fan opinion, he sees her as still happily married, with a stream of children and grandchildren, still boldly travelling the world fighting for the planet’s rights just as the nascent environmentalist Jo did back in her last regular appearance in 1973. ‘Death of the Doctor’ couldn’t help but bring a little tear to the eye of anyone who ever watched ‘Doctor Who’ back in the 1970s and, if we don’t get Davies back to write the odd script for ‘Doctor Who’ in the future, it’s a story which can happily stand as a wonderful full-stop to his work on the show, a little coda to the character he knows and loves so well.



After such ‘fan-squee’ delights the rest of the series might have been expected to have turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax but not a bit of it. ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ picked up its metaphorical skirts and reached even higher. Season four’s Lis Sladen-lite yarn, ‘The Empty Planet’ may have been written just for me, still suffering withdrawal symptoms from the premature cancellation of the BBC’s reboot of Terry Nation’s ‘Survivors’ and still morbidly fascinated by the idea of a world without pesky people in it. Phil Ford’s script, in which both Clyde and Rani wake to find themselves in… well, the title gives it away, I suppose… is cleverly constructed to give the two youngsters a turn at talking centre-stage and crucially and fundamentally, to allow them to develop as young adults rather than children. Faced with the prospect of living on an a depopulated Earth the pair have to cope with the tricky business of potentially starting humanity all over again; it’s a thought Rani doesn’t take too kindly to but Clyde seems quite pleased at the prospect. With Luke out of the way, viewers are forced to see Clyde and Rani almost as a ‘couple’, the only two youngsters left in Sarah Jane’s immediate world and drawn together because of their shared experiences. It adds a new dimension to the ‘friends’ relationship the show has traded on previously and builds nicely on a few subtle suggestions of a potentially deeper relationship between the two in the first episode of ‘The Nightmare Man’. ‘The Empty Planet’ shows the pair racing around the deserted streets of Ealing (but to a fairly local boy it’s painfully obviously Newport City Centre) and the story is enlivened by some zingy dialogue between the pair and two impressive robots which are stamping about the place. The story even takes advantage of story elements from previous years – Rani and Clyde haven’t been ‘evacuated’ because of the ‘banning’ order placed on them by the Judoon last year, prohibiting them from leaving Earth (although quite how we reconcile this with the consequences of Clyde’s bodyswap with the Doctor in the previous story, I’m not entirely sure just yet).



‘Lost in Time’ is a thoughtful and mature two-parter which more than adequately fulfils the BBC’s Reithian principles of “educating and entertaining” as, through the handy convenience of a time portal conjured up by the mysterious ‘Shopkeeper’ (former ‘The Bill’ star Cyril Nri), Sarah Jane, Clyde and Rani are dispatched into three different time zones to recover three artefact upon which the fate of the world depends. Oo-er. This is basically the ‘Doctor Who’ ‘Key To Time’ season from 1978 across fifty minutes but it pitches Clyde into a World War 2 scenario and a close encounter with racist Nazi invaders, Rani gets to know the doomed Lady Jane Grey and Sarah Jane enjoys a more traditional supernatural adventure where echoes of the future impact upon the past. Moody and slower-paced than much of the season, this is intelligent thought-provoking stuff and a reminder of how far the show has come so quickly since the Mona Lisa with a space gun and the Judoon driving a Police Car.



So to the season finale and ‘Goodbye Sarah Jane Smith’ which, with the benefit of hindsight, manages to bring a premature sense of imminent closure for the whole series. In part one the gang meet up with Ruby Anne White (played with real power and malevolence by Julie Graham who’s so clearly having the time of her life here) who is everything Sarah Jane is only younger and with better tech (she has a palmtop version of Sarah Jane’s redoubtable but clunky Mr Smith supercomputer). There’s something wrong with Sarah Jane; she’s forgetful, distant, not quite in control. Mr Smith diagnoses that she’s “very ill indeed” and Sarah Jane, not one to outstay her welcome, decides to do a moonlight flit and leaves it all – the house, the supercomputer, everything – to the entirely-plausible Ruby who has wormed her way into all their affections. But is Ruby all she seems? Can Clyde and Rani find out what’s become of their friend and find out Ruby’s secrets… if she has any? It’s another rousing romp, packed with more tear-jerking moments, big set-pieces, great FX and assured performances. But it’s a difficult couple of episodes to watch now, knowing as we do what was in store for Lis Sladen not that long after these episodes ostensibly depicting Sarah Jane as gravely ill, were recorded. Life imitates art yet again, and this time not in a good way.

Series four of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ was pretty much an unparalled success. Four years in, Sarah Jane’s show was on top form, a show with enough depth and maturity to please even sniffy adults who wouldn’t come close because it’s a kid’s show. I’ll be looking at the recent very last batch of episodes in greater depth in next month’s ‘TV Zone’ column but this DVD release stands as a fitting example of how much the series was able to grow and mature from its debut pilot episode in 2006 and how kid’s TV is going to be such a poorer place without Sarah Jane to defend the world just as that world has lost a little bit of its sparkle with the passing of Elisabeth Sladen.

Special features: Nothing exclusive (hopefully a tribute to Lis for the season five boxset?) but an entire four-part ‘Doctor Who’ serial from 1975 (‘Pyramids of Mars’ starring Tom Baker and Lis) isn’t a bad extra, recognised as one of he best fourth Doctor/Sarah Jane stories and it’s certainly a tale likely to entice younger viewers who’ve yet to sample the delights of ‘classic’ ‘Doctor Who’

‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ season four is available on DVD/Blu-ray in the UK from 2 Entertain on 31st October 2011

Review: The New Daughter (15) / Directed by: Luiso Berdejo / Written by: John Travis, John Connolly / Starring: Kevin Costner, Ivana Baquero, Samantha Mathis 

Hard to believe now, but there was a time when Kevin Costner was a big deal. His films used to make millions at the box office, then Waterworld happened and then The Postman, these days his films rarely seem to get a cinema release. The man seems to have a knack for choosing poor projects that do nothing for his waning star status; the latest bad decision was dropping out of Tarantino’s Django Unchained. The New Daughter is his latest film to arrive straight to DVD and if you have seen the trailer you might expect it to be a certain kind of seen it all before film about a possessed girl. Except The New Daughter is actually quite surprising and far better than you would think based on Costner’s recent track record.

At the start we are in Stephen King territory, newly divorced writer John James (Costner) arrives in a small South Carolina town with his kids; daughter Louisa (Ivana Baquero from Pans Labyrinth) and son Sam (Gattlin Griffith). They move into a big house in the countryside surrounded by fields and woodland. Clearly the divorce has been rough on John and the kids miss their mother. Whilst out exploring the grounds the kids find a mysterious mound of earth. Louisa seems drawn to the mound and spends an increasing amount of time outside alone. Soon she starts acting strangely and weird marks appear on her neck. She sleepwalks and John finds her clutching a creepy straw doll in her bedroom. John grows more and more concerned as his daughter’s behaviour grows more and more erratic. He overhears whispers in town about the houses history and his estate agent is cagey about the details. Disturbed by horrifying sounds and after their cat is found brutally murdered, John seeks out the previous owner of the house. He finds that in a mirror of his own situation a rift grew between a mother and her daughter who she no longer believed was the same person, this situation ended in tragedy. John desperately seeks a solution to the problem and receives calls from a professor with an interest in ancient mounds and their relation to old world gods. Eventually John discovers that his daughter’s problems may lie in an ancient force long thought dead that exists in the grounds around his new home.

At the start; The New Daughter feels very much like the typical horror film that sprang up en masse in the wake of the success of The Ring. Then you see something startling on a roof and all bets are off. The tension builds and builds with each new alarming piece of anti social behaviour that Louisa exhibits. You are drip fed more and more information about what could be lurking in the darkness and when it’s revealed you realise that what you thought you were watching was not at all what was advertised in the trailers. If you think along the lines of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Signs then you are on the right track.

The New Daughter is directed by the writer of the films Luiso Berdejo and is nothing like the kinetic horror presented in those films. Here Berdejo favours the slow build with identifiable situations. Most parents with teenagers can testify to the fact that with puberty comes many problems, especially for girls and Berdejo mines this basic truth for all the tension he can. You are never sure if what you are seeing is an actual transformation or just a rite of passage for a young girl and her relationship with her father. This theme is not blatantly knocking you over the head at every plot turn but it’s definitely in the subtext although sadly not developed satisfyingly enough. When Costner is pushed to the limits is when the film really kicks into high gear and takes a surprising and welcome turn into different territory. It’s been a while since there has been a creature feature with a man besieged in a farm house but once this film becomes that kind of tale, it becomes even more enjoyable. Costner is solid if a little too world weary in the central father figure role and seems to have what Bruce Willis has developed with a glazing over of the twinkle in the eye as he just thinks of the pay check. Ivana Baquero proves that Pan’s Labyrinth was no fluke and acts her socks off as the daughter, it’s going to be fun to watch her grow into a promising young actress based on her short career so far.

Where this film scores big is with the sound design, if you have a good quality home cinema system then crank it up for a workout. Much like what M.Night Shyamalan did with Signs, Luis Berdejo uses sound to disarm the viewer with bangs and knocks around a big house and saves the creature reveal until the last possible moment when the tension is at breaking point. The design of the creatures is also very effective; you rarely get a full glimpse of one (probably to save on the budget) but the point is got across that they are utterly terrifying and ferocious. The claustrophobic John Carpenter-esque finale may not satisfy everyone but works in the context of the film.

The New Daughter isn’t an out an out classic and many viewers, on the IMDB anyway, seem to hate it. I had a great time watching this film, it was a surprise for certain and it’s not often I can say that about something that goes straight to DVD.

Extras: None

The New Daughter is available now on DVD/Blu-ray

Review: Stakeland (15) / Directed by: Jim Mickle / Screenplay by: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle / Starring: Connor Paolo, Nick Damici, Kelly McGillis, Michael Cerveris, Danielle Harris, Sean Nelson

Remember a time when Vampires didn’t look longingly at emo girls and weren’t fierce love rivals with a werewolf? Ah yes great days, vampires ripped people limb from limb and exploded in the sunlight. Jim Mickle remembers this glorious era in horror history too. He also evidently read Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend at some point and was hugely influenced by it. Stake Land is a shot in the arm for the vampire sub genre that has been hijacked by hormonally charged teenagers. It manages to make vampires scary again and present us with a terrifying vision of an apocalypse. There is just something missing that holds it back from being a classic.

At the beginning of our story we meet young Martin (Connor Paolo) whose family farmhouse is being terrorised by vampires. Luckily Mister (Nick Damici) a fearless vampire killer shows up and saves Martins life. With his family all dead, Martin joins up with Mister and they roam the countryside killing vampires as they find them. In this world the vampire apocalypse has happened, civilisation as we know it is over. Different types of vampire are out there and all have different ways of being killed. Trouble is there is also a clan of human survivors known as ‘The Brotherhood’ who are religious nutjobs who believe that the vampires are the lord’s way of ending human existence for our sins. The brotherhood does everything it can to expedite the demise of the humans who do not believe as they do. Mister and Martin come across a nun (Kelly McGillis) fleeing from her life and kill two members of the Brotherhood who intended to rape her. This brings them on a collision course with the leader of the clan Jebediah (Michael Cerveris aka The Observer from Fringe) who stop at nothing to wreak bloody vengeance. On their travels and whilst avoiding brotherhood territory, the two travellers pick up a pregnant lady Belle (Danielle Harris) and Willie (Sean Nelson). Can this makeshift family unit survive in this world gone mad?

Stake Land has a bleaker than bleak tone that has been notably absent from horror for a while. Those with depressive tendencies should avoid this because it’s unrelentingly miserable. Fairly early on we learn that nobody is safe and the absence of big name actors make it tricky to guess who will be left come the climax. This puts it a cut above most other horror films with four times the budget where you know who will survive just from the opening credits. If you saw director Jim Mickle’s previous film Mulberry Street then you know that Mickle doesn’t like convenient and nice. Armed with a bigger budget but using existing locations, Mickle presents us with a convincing portrayal of a society plunged back into the dark ages. The film takes place in burnt out husks of the old world and in makeshift shantytowns. There is hope as we see certain types of people come together and start to rebuild the remains of the shattered world. Stake Land is a step up for Mickle dramatically as well as visually. Like in 28 Days Later, we also learn that human’s are far crueller and evil than creatures of the night that have one driving desire to feed. The villain as played by Michael Cerveris is one of those great religious fiend’s driven by a need to appease a god who has in all likelihood abandoned him. He will stop at nothing though, even dropping captured vampires into a settlement to drive out his enemies. It’s a truly hissable villain role and Cerveris has a great time playing someone you can’t wait to get their comeuppance. Nick Damici as the resident badass is a very interesting looking actor. He looks like Mickey Rourke if Rourke hadn’t given boxing a try. Damici certainly looks the part as a brooding man of few words; he never has any hope even when surrounded by goodness he just keeps moving, trying desperately not to feel anything. Sadly the role is a little underwritten and a few more character moments would have gone a long way so that we could understand more about what is driving him and his hatred of vampires. Connor Paolo is not an actor I am familiar with but he is the central heart of the movie and his character really goes through an arc in the film. Paolo does a good job especially in scenes towards the end. It’s always good to see Danielle Harris and Kelly McGillis back in films and they make the most of their roles despite little dialogue.

The vampires are among the nastiest bastards seen in recent memory. They have snarling angry faces, spew black bile and are unrelentingly savage when they attack. Mickle made the right decision here with how he portrays the creatures, as far as I could tell they were all practical with no CG in site. When the vampires are staked they don’t explode or dissolve into CG dust, they just lay there and die. It’s a nice touch as the roads are littered with charred remains of the bodies which burn once the sun rises. It’s a fairly low key little detail in a film littered with them that make the world wholly believable.

Mickle had all the ingredients here to make a genuine classic movie with Stake Land. Sadly he doesn’t quite pull it off, the problem is the screenplay written by Mickle and Nick Damici which really needed another final re-write. As a whole it’s functional but feels so episodic that it really comes across as three episodes of a TV series mashed together and marketed as a movie. If this was the intention originally it’s unclear, but if so then it really needed attention so that it could be structured more like a film. The other problem is that the only character that has any kind of development or arc is Martin. The other actors do the best with what they are given but sometimes it’s like just watching miserable people traipse through the countryside endlessly. Solid, believable misanthropes but yeah, still unhappy. A minor detail or speech from Mister would have made all the difference and when characters meet an unpleasant fate it’s hard to really care as they seem better off.

Stake Land is bound to become some kind of cult film as it’s the first vampire movie for a while to take itself very seriously. Next time Jim Mickle might well make a genuine classic as he seems to be growing as a filmmaker and based on this evidence; this will be something to look forward to.

Extras: Commentaries, Making Of, Director Diaries, VFX featurette, Webisodes.

Stake Land is out now on DVD/Blu-ray

Review: Retreat (15) / Directed by: Carl Tibbetts / Screenplay by: Carl Tibbetts and Janice Hallett / Starring: Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton, Jamie Bell

What’s this? A psychological three-hander about a married couple holed up in a cottage on a remote and windswept island visited by a mysterious and bloody stranger who tells them the world outside is being ravaged by a virulent pandemic? I’m in…

‘Retreat’ is the work of first time director/screenwriter Carl Tibbett and while it’s more of a ‘home invasion’ movie than an apocalyptic thriller (boo!) it’s a solid if workmanlike piece of work, a small-scale film impressively put together by a debut director who wears his influences – Roman Polanski amongst them – on his sleeve and who has managed to attract a fairly big name cast to what’s obviously a low budget movie.

Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton play Martin and Kate, a young couple who are struggling to rekindle the passion in their relationship after a devastating miscarriage. They head off for a few peaceful days on the horribly-isolated island of Blackholme where they enjoyed happier times as young lovers but, despite Martin’s cheeriest efforts, their relationship remains as cold and tempestuous as the weather outside. Suddenly an exhausted and blood-soaked soldier collapses virtually on their doorstep and, on recovering, he tells the couple that the world is being swept by a South American flu-like virus which leaves no survivors. Jack (Jamie Bell – that nice Billy Elliott) quickly takes over the house, boarding up the doors and windows to keep the airborne virus out and before long Martin and Kate are cowering prisoners in their own holiday home and they soon  realise that Jack is rather more – or possibly even less – than he’s been telling them.

Familiar territory then, in films as diverse as ‘Funny Games’ and this year‘s ‘Mother’s Day’, as the sanctity of ‘the home’ is violated by a brutal outsider with the twist here being that there may be an even greater danger waiting outside the four walls which have become Kate and Martin’s prison and that escape from the man who’s quite clearly a psycopath could result in an ugly, painful death for both of them. But ‘Retreat’ seems to be too eager to shoot its bolt because Jack’s quite clearly nothing but trouble from the moment we set eyes on him; usually the ‘invaders’ in these sorts of films at first appear charming and compelling, disarming the audience who can’t help thinking something’s not quite right about these people who have inveigled their way into someone else’s home and yet never suspecting the depths of pain and degradation they’ll later be shown to inflict. Here Jack’s a wrong ’un from the off and even if his tale of the pandemic is believable, his own behaviour and reactions are so extreme and threatening – he’s dismantling the furniture and barking orders within minutes of waking up – we’re never fooled into letting our guard down, we never give his story any real credence and so we can’t really feel much sympathy for him later on when we discover what he’s really been through, especially because it turns out to be more bad news for Kate and Martin.

However, ‘Retreat’ remains a tense and absorbing, if relentlessly bleak and downbeat, experience. Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy give solid, powerful performances (sure, the chemistry between them isn‘t great, even when they’re reunited as a loving couple) and Jamie Bell is a bit of a revelation as the tough, thuggish Jack. Well-directed and atmospheric and thankfully not reliant on the torture-porn and gore of many ‘home invasion’ flicks, ‘Retreat’ doesn’t quite manage to fulfil the promise of its premise but it’s a confident and assured debut for a new British directing talent who, let’s hope, can be allowed to move on to bigger and bolder things.

Special features: Brief making of, photo gallery, trailer.

‘Retreat’ is out now on DVD/Blu-ray

Review: Green Lantern (12) / Directed by: Martin Campbell / Screenplay by: Greg Bertanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, Michael Goldberg / Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarasgaard, Mark Strong, Tim Robbins 

Despite having made 214 million at the worldwide box office this summer, Green Lantern is still seen as something of a flop due to the amount they spent on it. Sometimes the films that flop deserve re-appraisal when they appear on DVD and sometimes you are amazed they never found an audience. Honestly I can see why Green Lantern didn’t connect; it has a strange misjudged tone that is neither here nor there. It’s too scary for kids and the concept is too goofy for adults. Having said that this is still superior to Pirates 4 and much of the inferior product that made money this summer.

At the beginning of our story we meet Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) working for the Ferris aircraft company testing top of the range aircraft for sale to the military. Hal is reckless and often risks valuable aircraft costing millions to just prove a point. Hal is on thin ice in his job with his boss and former lover Carol (Blake Liveley). Meanwhile in space, the Green Lantern Corp are the peacekeepers of the universe using powerful rings that harness the power of the will, enabling the user to project whatever he wills into existence. One of their best warriors Abin Sur is up against the deadly entity known as Parallax, a being that harnesses the power of fear. During the battle, Abin Sur is mortally wounded and crashes to earth. On earth the Green Lantern on board seeks out the most fearless individual around to become a replacement on the Green Lantern Corps. The ring transports Hal to the crashed alien craft and he is given the ring. Eventually when he works out the Green Lantern oath, Hal is transported to OA the home planet of the corps. Once there Hal is filled in on the history of the Corps by Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush) and trained in battle by a lumbering beast known as Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) and the cynical leader of the Corps Sinestro (Mark Strong). Hal realises he is not worthy of the responsibility and returns to earth. Back on his home planet the military finds the body of the crashed alien and a particle of Parallax infects the scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Saarsgaard) who gains supernatural powers. This in turn brings Parallax to Earth and Hal must embrace his new powers and inner courage to save the world.

Sometimes just because you can do something with modern special effects doesn’t mean you should. There is so much to do with the Green Lantern’s powers that clearly works wonders on the comic page that doesn’t quite translate to the screen. For instance in one sequence, Hal saves a crashing helicopter from certain doom by conjuring up a Hot Wheels style race track for it to careen around. Instead of going ‘wow that’s cool’ the first instinct is to laugh. Suddenly it becomes clear why the film was once conceived as a Jack Black starring comedy. During some of the later sequences in battles between Hal and Hector Hammond, things become very confusing and it’s not clear what exactly is going on as both of them writhe mysteriously on the floor. Again something that probably worked well with thought bubbles on the page but not in the context of a movie. I honestly think that Martin Campbell is a bad match of director with material. His fast cutting and brutal style may work well for a Bond film but somehow doesn’t translate to a big science fiction comic book canvas like Green Lantern. As a result you never feel like the film is given time to breathe, it seems to just race to meet each script beat and get to the end. I wonder what someone like Steven Spielberg or James Cameron would have done with this material. There is a sub plot involving Hal’s feelings of fear related to his dead pilot father but it’s literally just a footnote and never really expanded upon (although this is apparently expanded on in the extended edition) so it comes across like Hal just can’t be bothered to be the Green Lantern rather than it coming from a deep childhood trauma which we are supposed to believe. Sadly this is a product of screenwriting by committee where four screenwriters are credited, each one paring it down until it’s by the numbers basics.

Despite these flaws, Green Lantern is a lot of fun. Ryan Reynolds is solid as the hero of the film and does not rely on the sarcastic charm that has turned many off of his previous performances. All of the Green Lantern Corps aliens are also very well realised. Had this been made in the late nineties then it could have looked awful but now with motion capture technology and other advances the aliens are completely believable and the planet of OA is quite breathtaking. Apart from the aforementioned confusion in the editing, the action scenes are pretty great so if you are just looking for effects and explosions then this will do the job. They build a convincing and well realised universe here and it will be interesting to see where they go with it in the proposed sequels. Although apparently the intention is to go even darker and grittier with the sequel when really they need to go the opposite way and make it even more fantastic. The success of Star Trek and Avatar have proved that there is still an audience for space opera and this is why a Green Lantern movie set solely in space would be the best way to go with it. They set this up with a neat post credits coda which will lead into a strong storyline from the comics.

Green Lantern is not as bad as you have heard but kind of a missed opportunity for something truly great. Ultimately it has great special effects and a nice central message about belief in ones self. Hopefully a sequel will correct all of the flaws present in this first movie and Green Lantern will get the film that does the epic concept justice.

Extras: Extended Version of the film, The Universe According to Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds Becomes the Green Lantern, Deleted Scenes, MMM: Green Lantern’s Light (No Walk On Version), MMM: Graphic Localization, MMM: PiP, The Art of the Green Lantern, MMM: Focus Pod, Weapons Hot: The U.C.A.V Dog Fight, MMM: Focus Pod, Reinventing the Superhero Costume, MMM: Focus Pod, Ring Slinging 101, MMM: Focus Pod, We Are the Corps, MMM: Focus Pod, Acting Under 10 Pounds of Silicone, MMM: Focus Pod, When Parallax Attacks, MMM: Focus Pod (All of these are BR only) Justice League #1 Digital Comic, Preview of Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

Green Lantern is out now on DVD/Blu-ray

Review: Ninjas Vs Vampires (15) / Directed by: Justin Timpane / Screenplay by: Justine Timpane / Starring: Daniel Ross, Jay Saunders, Cory Okouchi, Devon Marie Burt, Carla Okouchi

Ninjas Vs Vampires doesn’t suffer from pretensions of grandeur. This is no high-brow thinking man’s vampire flick, that’s for certain. We’re not talking Let the Right One In or even The Lost Boys for that matter. Think John Carpenter’s Vampires with a heavily slashed budget and work down from there.

The plot follows Aaron – Jay Saunders – who while out on a date is caught in the middle of a supernatural face-off between ninjas and vampires. Waking up the next morning to discover his memories mysteriously wiped, Aaron sets about searching for the truth of that night’s events. Tracking the ninjas to their not-so-secret base, Aaron is drawn into a world of magic and monsters with disastrous and hilarious – but perhaps not in the sense the director intended – consequences.

Yes, it’s a B movie skirting the dangerous territory of fan fiction. Yes, the acting is so wooden you could replace half the actors with cardboard cut-outs and nobody would notice, much less care. Yes, the plot – what there is of it – is a tedious and meandering affair.

But somehow none of that seems to matter.

Ninjas Vs Vampires is a bit of senseless fun. While it’s fair to say this is one and half hours of your life you won’t ever get back, there are moments of humour that carry the film to its bland and predictable ending.

Daniel Ross’s performances borders on mediocre – as opposed to dire – but when set against the dismal vampiric portrayal ends up looking quite good. A splattering of comically timed pop culture references feels like a drinking game waiting to happen, and a few fight scenes manage to come across as a poor man’s Blade mixed bizarrely with Kevin Smith type dialogue.

The biggest problem – and there are many – is the uninspired use of the source material, namely the vampires. Despite the film’s need to distance itself from flicks such as Twilight, director and writer Justin Timpane still manages to portray vampires as upper class snobs or degenerate, heavily-clichéd monsters. Many low-budget films have made cult status by playing to what few strengths they had. Colin, for example, was filmed for $70 and achieved notable success at that year’s Cannes. But Ninjas Vs Vampires doesn’t bother with all that pathos, touchy-touchy feely stuff, and instead aims straight for the jugular with effects that would have Christopher Lee shaking his plastic fangs in bitter disappointment.

Ninjas Vs Vampires is an improvement on its predecessor, Ninjas Vs Zombies. It’s good for a laugh, but is instantly forgettable. Which is a shame. If director Justin Timpane put just a little more foresight and planning into his set production, writing, and casting, he may have achieved a notable success. As it stands Ninjas Vs Vampires fails to make an impression . . . well, the right one at least.

Ninjas Vs Vampires is out now on DVD