Recently in Jack at the movies Category

CHANGELING (15)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan
Run time: 141 minutes

IN LIFE, all great artists seem to fade as they get older.
Musicians, actors and authors all seem to struggle to recall the power and impact of their early work, leading to fans being disappointed and critics being left unmoved.
In the film industry, for example, Robert De Niro was hailed as the most talented actor in the business in the 1970s and 80s, but the fact remains that he has not given anything approaching a decent performance since 1995's Heat, and has had instead rested on his laurels, refusing to push himself as he once did.
The great songwriters of the 20th century have also apparently burned themselves out. For all we see of Paul McCartney in the newspapers these days, you have to go back almost 30 years to find a classic song by him, and the song writing form he showed in his 1960s heyday seems to have all but evaporated.
With this in mind, it is shocking to look at the recent directorial output of a certain Mr Clint Eastwood, aged 78.

by Jack Abell
jackabell@trinitysouth.co.uk

BURN AFTER READING (15)
Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton
Run time: 96 minutes

A LOT of film critics seem to be a tad confused by Burn After Reading, the latest effort from the much-acclaimed and recently Oscar-winning Coen Brothers.
The first film from the pair since the dark and gloomy No Country For Old Men cleaned up at this year's Academy Awards, Burn After Reading is a much lighter affair, more typical of previous Coen efforts such as the Big Lebowski and Fargo.
This dramatic switch in tone seems to have wrong-footed a lot of critics, who have almost universally sat on the fence, suggesting that the film is somewhere between Mediocre and Quite Good on their scale of reviewing. No one seems to know exactly what to make of it.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE (15)

Director: Robert B Weide
Starring: Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox, Jeff Bridges, Gillian Anderson
Run time: 110 mins

WHAT is it about British comedians in big screen films? Comics who seem hilariously funny when on television suddenly seem to lose their edge when seen in cinemas.
Some of the funniest men who have ever lived, from Peter Cook to John Cleese to Steve Coogan, have failed to translate the success of their appearances on TV to Hollywood films.

Tropic Thunder (15)

Director: Ben Stiller
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Steve Coogan, Tom Cruise.
Run time: 107 minutes

APOCALYPSE Now, Platoon and the Deer Hunter are some of the most revered war movies ever made. Critically acclaimed and multi-award winning, they have so far avoided parody, until now.
Ben Stiller's latest directorial effort, Tropic Thunder, rips into the pretension and self importance of Vietnam war films like napalm through the jungle. Where the Oscar winning films have attempted to comment on the fragility of the human condition in wartime, Tropic Thunder plays it for laughs, mocking the cliches with which these films are filled.

By Jack Abell
Righteous Kill (15)
Director: Jon Avnet
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, 50 Cent, Carla Gugino.
Run time: 101 minutes

With three Oscars and eleven nominations between them, not to mention a number of roles in some of the greatest films of the last 40 years, the on-screen pairing of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro should be a cause for celebration.