Plush (3½ Stars)

"Pain, pleasure, light, darkness. In order to create you have to embrace the dark side".

I discovered this film by accident a few weeks ago. I bought it on Blu-ray just before my holiday, but didn't have time to watch it. I was curious why I missed it when it was released in 2013. It's the sort of film that I would rush to see. An erotic thriller set in the world of rock music? Fascinating! Then I realised that it was released straight to video. That's strange. Doesn't Emily Browning's name have any pulling power at the box office?

Plush is a soft rock band based around the brother and sister Jack and Hayley. She writes the lyrics, he writes the music and plays lead guitar. After two albums they're at the peak of their career. All their concerts sell out. Then things slow down. Hayley gets married to a successful author of murder mysteries. She has twin sons. This breaks up the close bond between her and Jack. There's no time to write new songs, although they still go on tour with the band.

Then catastrophe strikes. Jack dies of a drug overdose. But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. The tragedy inspires Hayley to write more songs than ever before, most of them about her brother. She finds a new guitarist called Enzo playing in a bar. Not only is he talented, he looks remarkably similar to Jack, so he's an obvious replacement.

While on tour Hayley sleeps with Enzo. It's nothing serious, it's just to get comfort for bad reviews in the music press. When she returns home to her family she wants to be left alone, but Enzo won't let go. She discovers that it was no coincidence that she met him in a bar, he's been stalking her for years, and now she can't get him out of her life.

So much of the film takes place in the midst of glamour and glitter that we hardly notice the terror that is simmering in the background. There's also a stark contrast between Hayley's family life and her image on stage. Most people see her as a rock icon, but she has a quiet family life which she tries to keep separate. The band members and her manager visit her, but they appear as friends, not professionally.

As usual, Emily Browning has a constantly sad face. I don't think she's ever learnt how to smile, but it doesn't seem to hamper her film career. That's better than being an actor who doesn't know how to stop smiling. Especially in this film her face is suitable for portraying a damsel in distress, whether her hair is dyed black or blonde.

It's not a perfect film. I regret that the other band members, apart from Hayley and Enzo, aren't fleshed out. We just see them playing on stage, and they're hardly introduced. If I understand correctly they aren't actors, they're musicians hired to play in the film, so it's understandable they weren't given any lines. That's still regrettable. I also found Hayley's husband Carter a bland, lifeless character. A better actor should have been found to play such an important character in the plot.

As Emily Browning's fans already know, she's a talented singer, so she was able to perform the songs herself. I feel tempted to buy the soundtrack album.

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Sucker Punch (3½ Stars)

There's something about this film. The promotional photos, like the one above, all look very sexy and titillating, but when you watch the film itself its very unerotic.

I've watched it twice before and only given it 3 stars. Today I watched the extended version for the first time and have decided to give it an extra half star.

The film has so much promise, but it fails to reach its potential. It's a clever film that runs on three levels of reality. Normally I like films like that. Something is missing, I'm not sure what. The missing character development is a large part of the problem, but that's not all.

Maybe we can find an answer if we look at Zack Snyder's other films. Over the last few years he's become the main director of the DC films. He specialises is films with lots of action and very little story. In "Sucker Punch" there's more of a story than in his DC films, but the over-the-top action scenes are so unnecessary that they can be deemed gratuitous.

If only Emily Browning could have cracked one smile in the film I would have been happier. One little smile would have made all the difference. I'm not saying she was the wrong actresss for the role. Her little girl look suited the film well. She played her part the way she was told to by the director, but it was wrong. She should have put more heart and emotion into the role. She was the right actress, but the film had the wrong director.

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The Host (3 Stars)

There seem to have been a lot of films called "The Host" over the last 50 years. I'm reviewing the 2013 science fiction film starring Saoirse Ronan. At its core it's a love story, but it's a very twisted love story.

In the near future the Earth has been invaded and conquered by an enemy race called the Souls. They are parasitic beings that enter the bodies of humans and control them. Humans controlled by the Souls are easily recognisable, because their eyes shine with a circle of light. Almost all of the human race is controlled by the Souls. There are only small isolated pockets of resistance.

Melanie Stryder is a resistance fighter. When a mission goes wrong she attempts to kill herself rather than be captured, but she survives the suicide attempt and a Soul takes its place in her body. The Soul's name is Wanderer, which is shortened to Wanda later in the film. Usually when a Soul controls a human the human mind disappears altogether, as if in a permanent coma, but Melanie's strong will allows her to remain conscious and speak to Wanda. Melanie battles to regain control of her body, but Wanda is too strong for her to succeed. The two beings speak to one another throughout the film. In some parts the voices are both in the mind, being presented as voice-over. In other parts Wanda speaks aloud, while Melanie replies in the mind, again as a voice-over.

Wanda has access to Melanie's memories, so she goes to visit the resistance cell that Melanie belonged to. After a car crash Wanda is captured by the resistance. Since Melanie can't speak, they don't know that she is still alive inside Wanda.

Now the story gets complicated. Wanda becomes sympathetic with the resistance's cause, mainly due to Melanie telling her how good they are. Melanie's boyfriend Jared hates Wanda, because she has taken control of Melanie's body, and he tries to kill her. Another boy, Ian, falls in love with Wanda, but every time they become romantic Melanie is yelling at her to stop. Eventually Jared realises that Melanie is still conscious inside Wanda, so he begins a relationship with her. This means that two girls who share the same body are having relationships with two different boys.

This is a very original story. It would have been more successful in the hands of a more experienced director like Spike Jonze. As it is, it becomes very confusing at times, especially when the two girls are arguing in their mind. Since the same voice is used it's not always obvious which is Melanie and which is Wanda. It's only apparent in the scenes where Wanda is speaking the words out loud.

The film is based on a novel by Stephenie Meyer. She has announced that the novel is the first part of a trilogy, but the other two books haven't been written yet. This means that the film ends without resolving all the issues. We probably need to wait another few years for the continuation.

Legend (4½ Stars)

Before going to see this film in the cinema I knew almost nothing about the Kray twins. I knew their names, I knew they were gangsters in London's East End in the 1960's, but that was it. I expected the film to tell me about their lives and how they rose to power. I was disappointed that this wasn't the case. The film begins in the mid 1960's when the Krays were already powerful gangsters, and it continues to their imprisonment in 1969.

Barring this disappointment I enjoyed the film. The remarkable thing is that Tom Hardy plays both twins. The easy part was to put the two incarnations of Tom Hardy into the picture together. Computers can do anything nowadays. The difficult part was for Tom Hardy to realistically portray two men with different personalities and mannerisms. Only a truly great actor can pull off a feat like this. An actor like Tom Hardy.

The film is all based on the differences between the two brothers. Reginald Kray was an efficient businessman, keeping a cool head to make his business as successful as possible. Ronnie Kray was erratic and impulsive, using his fists rather than his brain. Even though it was obvious to everyone that Ronnie was a problem to their business, Reginald supported him because he loved him as a brother.

The story's narrator is Reginald's wife Frances, played by Emily Browning. I have mixed feelings about her as an actress. I've never seen her smile once in a film, she has a permanently miserable face. However, this doesn't cause problems. She gets by with her sad face. I shan't be too hard on her until I've seen her in more films. She's definitely a better actress than Kristen Stewart.

I went to see the film with my fellow blogger, Emma Roberts. Click here to read her review.

Pompeii (4 Stars)

I read mixed opinions about this film before I went to the cinema today. Normally before I go to see a film I check out what film critics are saying. The reviews of critics are usually safe, because they're professional enough to steer away from spoilers. I always avoid reading the Wikipedia article about a film before seeing it, because it almost always gives a full plot description, including the ending. The critics vote roughly 2-1 against the film. Since the film was released two months ago in America I was also able to check the user ratings on Amazon.com for the film, and it seems that the general public is evenly divided on whether they like it or not.

As my four star rating already tells you, I liked the film when I saw it. In fact, of the people who went to see the film with me -- I went to see it with the Birmingham film club -- we all liked it, although one of us had reservations. I'm prepared to defend my opinion of the film against those who hate it, but I'll admit its weaknesses.

We all know the story of Pompeii. It was destroyed in 79 AD when the nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted. It was the most thorough destruction of a city by a volcano that has ever been recorded. I was shown pictures when I was in junior school, and during my studies of Latin in grammar school I returned to the topic. There are no immediate eye witness reports, because nobody survived. A historian known as Pliny the Younger wrote the following report, which is quoted in the film:

You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying. Many besought the aid of the gods, but still more imagined there were no gods left, and that the universe was plunged into eternal darkness for evermore.

However, we have to remember that this is not a report from Pompeii itself. Pliny was in Misenum, about 20 miles away on the other side of the Bay of Naples. He is obviously not describing the screams in Pompeii itself, but the lesser suffering around him, which was restricted to dark clouds and falling ashes. I also have a suspicion that he was dramatising his account of the disaster, making it more appealing through exaggeration.

Due to this lack of a first hand account, I knew before I entered the cinema that the bulk of the film would be a work of fiction, leading up to the destruction itself. I reject any criticism of the film based on the accuracy or the relevance of what happened before the disaster. This part of the film is story-telling, and it's what is needed to separate it from documentaries of the disaster.

The film's fictional part is a classic love triangle, such as we already know from disaster films like "Titanic", "Pearl Harbor" and "Dresden". Love triangles always make good stories, whatever the variations. They're something that people can relate to. And love triangles go well with disasters. Doomed love. That's something that can evoke tears from the hardest of men. The film tells the story of a young slave captured from a tribe of horse-keeping Celts in northern Britannia. His name is Milo, but as a gladiator he's called "The Celt", because the Romans claim that he is the last Celt left alive. He falls in love with a noble lady from Pompeii, Cassia, who is being pursued by a Roman senator called Corvus. The triangle is complete.

The gladiatorial scenes are so similar to "Gladiator" that the film could almost be accused of plagiarism. Almost? Maybe some of the critics do make this accusation, but I reject it. The life of a gladiator and the scenes he had to portray were doubtlessly similar from one city to another over the centuries, so there's no shame in showing similar scenes.

The disaster itself is stunningly filmed. The horror of destruction is brilliantly portrayed in the panic of the people while fire is raining down from the skies. Just as in "Titanic" we see small vendettas being played out in the middle of the devastation, as if people care more about killing others than saving their own lives. It's impossible to underestimate the depths of evil.

So what is my main criticism of the film? Simple. It was too short. The romance should have been stretched out for an extra hour. It should have been a three-hour film like "Titanic", "Pearl Harbor" and "Dresden". We could have had a passionate night in Milo's cell; it was a usual practice for noble ladies to pay to visit the gladiators. We could have seen Cassia tearfully submitting to Corvus in order to do the best thing to help her parents. Maybe more gladiatorial training and an extra fight. "Pompeii" is a good film, worth watching at least once, but it doesn't measure up to the other three films, in quality or in length.

Before I went to the film I went to McDonald's to try one of their new double cheeseburgers. I don't care what anyone else says, I enjoy eating at McDonald's. I don't visit their restaurants often, but I consider their food to be good and nutritious, whatever the haters say. However, yesterday I was disappointed. The burger that I ate yesterday at the McDonald's branch in Birmingham's Paradise Forum was virtually tasteless. I don't know what they did wrong, but if it had been my first visit to McDonald's I would never have gone again.

Sleeping Beauty (2 Stars)

Sometimes a film is too arthouse for its own good. That's the impression I get with this film. The director had a screenplay that involved a lot of female nudity, so she decided to film it in a tasteful artistic way to avoid being accused of sexual titillation for the sake of it. The result is incredibly boring. This is Julia Leigh's first film as director. She shows talent, however, and I'm sure she'll improve as time goes on.

The film is about Lucy, a teenage student who is doing a string of part time jobs to pay her bills. We see her wiping tables in a restaurant and making photocopies in an office. But then she has a lucky break. She's given a job as a hostess in an exclusive club. Dressed in lingerie she has to serve drinks at dinner parties for old men. For this she is paid $250 an hour. That's definitely worth the money, even if they occasionally touch her.

After settling in Lucy is offered another job by the club. She has to sleep naked in a large bed, for the same hourly rate. She's given a sleeping potion to make sure she doesn't wake up during the night. While she's asleep an old man remains with her who is talking to her, touching her or just sleeping next to her. The only rule is that he's not allowed to penetrate her. After all, it's not prostitution!

To me this is creepy. It would be easier for me it accept if it had been prostitution. Being able to buy time with an unconscious woman is the ultimate in female objectivisation. It's the last resort for impotent old men who are unable to get female company any other way. It might be better for them than real prostitution, because a normal prostitute might feel too disgusted to touch them. They're much better off with a sleeping beauty. I doubt clubs like this really exist, but maybe the director intended to make a statement about Internet pornography? It's now possible to watch webcam shows of naked women without the women being able to see who is watching.

Despite all the nudity, this isn't a sex film. The nudity is very sterile and unsexual. For this reason the choice of Emily Browning as Lucy is appropriate. She's attractive without being sexy. Nothing about her titillates the viewer. She has small breasts and narrow hips, giving her a boyish quality. Maybe the intention is to present her to the old men as an underage girl, even though she's really over 18? Some men might be turned on by that, but I prefer women to look like women. I find Emily Browning much more attractive in the university scenes when she's dressed normally.

As I mentioned in my post on "Battle Royale", this film is one of the main reasons I signed up for a free trial of Netflix. I was disappointed that it wasn't available, but I found out today that it's just a question of configuring my browser correctly. This makes Netflix much more attractive to me and increases the likelihood that I shall continue to use it after my free trial period runs out.

Sucker Punch (3 Stars)

Dancing can save others.

Sucker Punch (3 Stars)

A young girl is locked up in a mental asylum through the scheming of her father who wants her inheritance. She attempts to escape through the power of her mind. Or is she just fantasising, imagining an escape?

This is a difficult film to review. It's a depressing film wrapped in a layer of glory. The visuals are spectacular, the girls are tittilating eye-candy, and the film's multi-levels of reality are mind-boggling. And yet it doesn't work. Why not?

I'm not sure. Maybe the problem is that the characters aren't developed enough. We're given a backstory for the main character, Babydoll, but her companions in the escape attempt are blank slates, total strangers to the viewer. Director Zack Snyder obviously wanted to present something intellectual to make the audience think, but in my opinion he's failed. The end result is just confusing.

One good thing about the film though: the music is excellent throughout. Many of the songs were sung by the film's actors, including the main star Emily Browning.