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UNLEASHED
Director:
Louis Leterrier
Cast: Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry
Condon, Vincent Regan
Certificate: 18
Price: TBC
Released: TBC
Bravely
pushing himself further than his usual stoic persona,
Jet Li is Danny, a child-like ball of repressed
rage who’s been trained to think like a
dog and attack on sight for his gangland ‘master’
Bob Hoskins. When he comes into contact with blind
piano tuner Morgan Freeman, however, he finds
another life and suddenly doesn’t want to
return to his violent ways. This daft mix of sentiment
and bone-crunching action features some enjoyably
brutal fights, but while Luc Besson’s screenplay
desperately tries to emulate Leon, all we get
is a pale and unconvincing carbon copy.
Extras: Making Of documentary, Extended Fights,
Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Music Video, Trailer
There’s plenty of details on the fight training
in the documentary, and seeing the roughly edited
fights before the removal of the wires is interesting–
although the ‘blonde girl in a cage’
music video for Baby Boy by Thea is less than
essential.
Rating:
* * Extras:
* * *
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VALIANT
Director:
Gary Chapman
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ricky Gervais, Tim Curry,
Jim Broadbent
Certificate: U
Price: £19.99
Released: 7th November 20055
Blending
CG animation with the stiff-upper-lip British
War movie, this genial kids adventure follows
diminutive but determined pigeon Valiant (McGregor)
as he joins the Royal Carrier Pigeon Service,
and encounters danger on a mission to occupied
France. Despite being a long way from Pixar’s
quality level, it’s got more charm than
many recent CGI cartoons, as well as the added
benefit of Ricky Gervais in free-associating comedy
sidekick mode.
Extras: Featurette, Premiere Footage, Recording
Sessions Footage, Interactive Game, Bloopers,
There’s good coverage of the film’s
development, although some of the recording sessions
footage is weak, and ripping off Pixar’s
fake bloopers idea was definitely a bad move..
Rating:
* * * Extras:
* * *
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WAR OF THE WORLDS
Director:
Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins,
Justin Chatwin
Certificate: 12
Price: £24.99
Release: 14th November 2005
For
just over an hour, Spielberg’s take on the
H.G. Wells classic is one of the most ferociously
brutal alien invasion flicks you’ll ever
see. A ground-level, post 9-11 view of American
apocalypse, it’s prepared to explore the
darker, violent side of humanity and isn’t
afraid to spectacularly traumatise Dakota Fanning’s
smart-talking ten year-old, while the eerie Tripod
war machines are a magnificent example of effects
that rarely expose their CGI origins. The trouble
is, while Spielberg loves pretending to be dark,
he can’t repress his showman instincts.
Like Minority Report, WOTW suddenly starts throwing
in improbable heroics, and tacks on an unbelievable
happy ending, leaving what could have been another
Spielberg masterwork as a near-miss that’s
both brilliant and frustrating.
Extras: Featurettes
With the master filmmaker continuing his ‘No
Commentaries’ mindset, we get ten lengthy
featurettes that slot together into a gigantic
two-and-a-half-hour making-of documentary. Every
angle of the film’s production is exhaustively
covered, and it’s a fascinating insight
to the ridiculous speed at which the production
was done, as well as featuring engrossing interview
material with Spielberg. The self-congratulatory
tone and the non-stop footage of joking around
on set gets annoying after a while, but the level
of sheer detail is seriously impressive.
Rating:
* * * Extras:
* * * *
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