Review
DVD REVIEW
This week’s DVDS picks: From a triple helping of Rambo to Rob Brydon Swimming With Men
Check out our selection of the top films available this week
SKYSCRAPER sees Dwayne Johnson in a towering inferno, chills in The Secret Of Marrowbone and two John Carpenter classics.
The Rambo trilogy, laughs in Rob Brydon's Swimming With Men, geeky fun in Festival Of The Spoken Nerd and a Kenny Everett collection – all in the best possible taste...
Skyscraper
(12) Out Nov 19
8
'Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?' used to be Dwayne Johnson's catchphrase in his wrestling days.
Well if the flames licking up his 3,500ft skyscraper get any higher in this action blockbuster, his meal is going to be a bit overdone.
Johnson plays Will Sawyer, an ex-FBI hostage rescuer who's hired in China as a security analyst for the world's tallest building.
But there's a team of unscrupulous baddies intent on setting the tower ablaze, which means Will (and his prosthetic leg) are in for a long shift.
It's Die Hard mixed with Towering Inferno and while it never reaches the heights of either (metaphorically at least) it's got a certain 80s action movie throwback charm.
The last quarter of the movie grows increasingly preposterous - a 'hall of mirrors' showdown stretches credibility in particular - while some of Johnson's high-altitude feats of derring-do simply don't feel quite as nerve-jangling as they should.
For all that, it's an entertaining ride, and if you take the plunge, you'll have a high old time.
★★★☆☆
Jayme Bryla
The Secret Of Marrowbone
(15) Out November 19
8
Four children and their mother move into a remote and ramshackle house to escape their monstrous father.
But disaster strikes when the mum dies and elder boy Jack (George MacKay) honours her last wish to keep the family together.
Soon an ambitious lawyer, who has guessed the kids are all alone, wants to repossess the house.
However, the kids are convinced that their evil father, who they believed was killed, is either still alive and living in their attic, or his ghostly precence is haunting them.
Then comes a twist that will almost make you rewind the disc to make sure you're keeping up with the turn of events.
Rather than give too much away, it is enough to say that the demons are not just in the attic.
The young cast give solid and confident performances in this psychological thriller aimed largely at the teen market.
★★★☆☆
John Maskey
Swimming With Men
(12) Out now
8
Rob Brydon stars as an accountant who escapes from his midlife crisis by joining an all-men synchronised swimming team in this gentle comedy.
The first thing viewers will notice is just how desperately this film wants to be The Full Monty.
The second thing? Just how short of that benchmark it is.
That's despite a promising ensemble cast, featuring Rupert Graves (Sherlock), Thomas Turgoose (This Is England), Jim Carter (Downton Abbey), Adeel Akhtar (Four Lions) and Daniel Mays (Line Of Duty) as various oddball members of the team.
They're all likeable enough performances yet Swimming With Men fails for two very important reasons centred on the script: one being that for the most part, it's just not particularly funny-ha-ha.
The other is that it IS rather funny-odd.
These men just don't act, speak or relate to each other in any recognisable way.
Official trailer for Swimming with Men starring Rob Brydon
Their actions are fairly alien, right from the off where Brydon's character Eric huffs out of his marriage to Heather (Little Voice's Jane Horrocks) for no real reason. Rather than being able to empathise with Eric, most viewers will simply be wondering why he's behaving like a petulant child.
And in any case, they seem so fundamentally ill-suited it's difficult to root for them to work out their differences.
Likewise for the rest of the plot which somehow manages to ring false, despite being based on a real-life story of a Swedish men's swim team.
Perhaps the arty, dreamy underwater sequences and existential gloom that permeates the film would feel more relevant in Swedish culture and cinema.
At the centre of the oddness is the main female character in the movie, played by Charlotte Riley (recently seen on the small screen as a crusading reporter in the risibly unrealistic Press).
Again, nothing wrong with Riley's performance as an actress: it's more that the script never really seems sure what role she's playing. Fairly far in, she all of a sudden pops up as their perky coach, except she isn't really their coach. And this coach/not-coach seems to be romantically involved with a Swedish synchronised swimmer, except she's not really.
It all feels quite bizarre and lacklustre.
There are some nice moments and bits of visual flair but for a comedy about synchronised swimming, all the elements are oddly out of sync.
★★☆☆☆
Jayme Bryla
Festival Of The Spoken Nerd: You Can't Polish A Nerd
(12) Out now
8
Science comedy trio Festival Of The Spoken Nerd (Matt Parker, Helen Arney and Steve Mould) are back with this DVD of their latest UK tour.
From songs about the periodic table to what happens if you put a grape in a microwave (do NOT try it at home) and even creating an infinite high-five, this is science at its silliest.
If you're not a scientist or mathematician, be warned though - a lot of this (about two-thirds) will go over your head. There are equations, along with lots of talk about pi and geometry.
But the trio are still fun hosts, and if you are a science or maths nerd, you will be in your element (see, you don't have to be a science expert to make science jokes).
Or it would make an excellent Christmas present for a teen or adult who has inclinations towards that side.
π/5
Jayme Bryla
The Fog
(15) Out now
8
John Carpenter cemented his reputation as a tour-de-force of horror in 1980 with The Fog, his second stab at the genre after the cult classic of Halloween.
It's is set in the town of Antonio Bay, which is celebrating the centenary of its founding as well as a tragic shipwreck which killed several men. At midnight on the day of the festivities, a mysterious glowing fog rolls in from the sea and kills anyone caught in it.
Everything within the film is set up to raise the tension and horror. The titular fog creates a wonderfully claustrophobic atmosphere and hides the creatures within in such a way that they are mere silhouettes for the vast majority of the film, leaving them as supernatural creatures instead of actors wearing costumes like in the Alien franchise or a malfunctioning shark in Jaws.
The horror is compounded by a distressingly scary score, that keeps you questioning what is happening on screen and what is in your head.
This 4K Blu-ray re-release of The Fog is somewhat light on extras, merely containing a couple of audio commentaries with the cast and crew.
But the film itself will more than satisfy fans of the genre and Carpenter’s works.
★★★★☆
Graham Osborne
They Live
(18) Out now
8
Our second John Carpenter film of the week, also rereleased in 4K Collector's Edition, is probably one of the horror director's most well-known and referenced.
First out in 1988, They Live stars Roddy Piper as John Nada, a vagrant worker who, one day, manages to find a pair of sunglasses that somehow reveal that the Earth has been taken over by aliens, which are controlling humans using subliminal messages.
Eventually, Nada and his friend Frank (Keith David) join up with an underground resistance movement to break the aliens' hold over the world and fight back.
The film itself is probably best known for the quotability of its script - it's the origin of the phrase: "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I'm all out of bubblegum." - and its extended fight sequence.
As well as that, the overall message of the film strikes a startlingly similar chord to modern life, especially when considering news and politics and the supposed subliminal messaging that the broadcast.
Despite the somewhat cheap nature of the special effects and the crazy-sounding plot, They Live is most definitely a cult classic. Both Piper and David excel, and a lot of entertainment can be derived from the action sequences, as well as a very thick, rich vein of dark humour.
It's a fantastically prescient and poignant film which exudes fun from start to finish. A must-see for anyone and everyone, especially if you’re all out of bubblegum.
★★★★★
Graham Osborne
Rambo: First Blood (15) Out now
Rambo: First Blood Part II (15) Out now
Rambo III (18) Out now
8
Younger readers, or those who have never seen the 1982-88 Rambo trilogy, are likely to know the much-caricatured character as he appears in the second and third films.
First Blood Part II and Rambo III are loud, dumb, bombastic displays of Sylvester Stallone’s ripped physique and his ex-special forces character’s penchant for racking up a huge body count of Soviet villains with knives, guns and explosive arrows.
However, it’s easy to forget how different they are to First Blood, Rambo’s first outing. In it, a PTSD-riddled John Rambo faces off against an overzealous small-town sheriff and his deputies, and it’s striking just how dark the film is, from its oppressive Pacific Northwest forest setting to Rambo’s indignation at his country’s failure to care about its veterans.
Stallone really acts in this one, too: his final sobbing monologue is genuinely moving, and the ending is decidedly downbeat. Not only that, but Rambo doesn’t kill a single person (at least, on purpose). You’d struggle to believe the next two films were about the same character.
If this 4K upgrade of the series isn’t appealing enough, franchise enthusiasts can gorge themselves on the bounty of extras, with filmmaker commentaries (including one from Stallone) and a bevy of documentaries about the making of the series and its characters.
MOST READ IN FILM
★★★★☆
Jasper Hart
The Kenny Everett Video Show
(15) Out Nov 19
8
Those of us of a certain age will have fond memories of cuddly Ken’s early TV adventures.
Before alternative comedy’s 80s takeover, he brought zaniness and a bit of anarchy with these four ITV series and three New Year specials (before hopping it to the Beeb).
His characters, such as leather-clad rocker Sid Snot, huge-handed evangelist Brother Lee Love and animated space hero Captain Kremmen, introduce some of the biggest music acts of the day.
Bowie, The Police, Elton John... even Freddie Mercury appears in a “Eurovision Violence Competition” skit.
Then there’s Kenny’s Mary Whitehouse-bothering Naughty Bits of course (slightly suggestive dancing by Hot Gossip).
A lot of it seems ad-libbed, you can hear the camera crew cracking up with laughter quite often, it’s rough around the edges, and somewhat hit and miss, but there are still plenty of laughs here.
★★★☆☆
Steve Knowles
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