IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU **

Minor George Cukor but even the most minor Cukor can be a delight. "It Should Happen to You" is the one about the girl who uses her savings to hire a billboard in the centre of New York and put her name on it. It's a one joke movie but when the girl is Judy Holliday the joke is never less than funny. It was also the film that introduced an outstanding young actor called Jack Lemmon whose instant star quality means that he almost steals the movie from under Miss Holliday's nose; almost but not quite. Her Gladys Glover may simply be an extension of her earlier Billie Dawn persona but who cares; she was a great comedienne who could keep the film's one gag percolating nicely for ninety or so minutes.

EVIL UNDER THE SUN *

"Evil Under the Sun" is actually one of the better Agatha Christie adaptations though it isn't very highly thought of. Perhaps that's because its 'all star cast' was just a little less 'starry' than usual or maybe it was just too easy to guess whodunit but regardless, it's good camp fun particularly when Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg are on screen; better still when they are on screen together. Rigg's a rich bitch just asking to be strangled, (but before she is, she gets to perform 'You're the Top' with a little hindrance from Maggie). Almost everybody else is wasted but Ustinov still makes for a marvellous Poirot. Silly then but hard to dislike.

YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET ****

Even at the very end of his career, (he was going on 90 at the time), Alain Resnais remained one of cinema's most original and innovative directors, choosing to introduce the cast of his penultimate film "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet", not as 'characters' but as themselves so the people seen answering their telephones are Michel Piccoli , Lambert Wilson, Sabine Azema and so on, who will continue in the film both as themselves and as characters in a production of "Eurydice" by Jean Anouilh as they watch it being performed by the Compagnie de la Colombe while stepping in and out of roles they once made famous.


What follows is a film within a film or maybe just a play within a film, (rather than simply a filmed play), performed by Resnais' stock company in a style straight out of Agatha Christie. It's like a documentary being played out as fiction and, of course, it's an exercise in great acting. Indeed, if anything, this is Resnais' comment on what constitutes 'acting'. As Resnais' stock company interact with the players of the Compagnie de la Colombe we have to ask are they performing 'roles' or simply being themselves?

Of course, the film itself is a tour-de-force by one of the giants of cinema who isn't afraid to strip everything away, (sets and all if necessary), to get to the core of his material while bowling us over with his technical virtuosity at the same time. I know the term 'masterpiece' is used much too often in the cinema but this really is a masterpiece and is shamefully neglected in the Resnais canon.

DEATH ON THE NILE **

An all-star cast, exotic locations and a good, if not very original. plot distinguish this otherwise workmanlike screen version of Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile", directed by John Guillerman and adapted by none other than Anthony Shaffer. Despite everyone's best intentions it's not in the same class as Lumet's "Murder on the Orient Express" but is vastly superior to the later "Evil Under the Sun".

Lois Chiles is the rich bitch heiress barging down the Nile on her honeymoon. When she's bumped off all her fellow passengers are suspects, mainly because each of them has a motive to kill her. It might all be a bit ho-hum were it not for the fact that the passengers include Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, David Niven and Jack Warden so there's a lot of bitchy fun to be had. Peter Ustinov is a less eccentric Poirot than Albert Finney which means he's basically upstaged by the film'sgrande dames. Enjoyable then, but no classic.

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN no stars

Hollywood being Hollywood, it didn't take them long to cash in on 9/11 with this terrorist attack movie in which a host of Asian terrorists, (very North Korean), slaughter half of Washington D.C. and take over the White House, holding the President hostage. "Olympus Has Fallen" is extremely violent, at times appallingly so, and suffers in being much too similar to "White House Down"  which came out at the same time. It may be technically proficient but is also in very bad taste.

A good supporting cast, (Aaron Eckhart as the President, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster as various officials), suffer stoically while Gerard Butler saves the world. As the bad guys, Dylan McDermott and especially Rick Yune have the best of it and are obviously relishing their roles. Unfortunately this is just the kind of nonsense a certain incumbent President might actually take seriously, thinking he's watching a documentary.

THE PRESIDIO *

"The Presidio" is a slightly better-than-average San Francisco set murder yarn from minor cult director Peter Hyams that makes good use of its familiar locations though its familiar plot could do with a boost every now and then. Of course, anything with a scenery-chewing Sean Connery in the lead gets a brownie point from me. He's a colonel in the military police who has to team up with a cocky young cop, (Mark Hamon), who is dating his daughter, (Meg Ryan), after one of his staff is gunned down in what looks like a botched robbery. Unfortunately, despite being shot in widescreen, it has the feel of a made-for-tv movie and is just the kind of film that if watched on a wet afternoon just might take your mind off the weather. A couple of excellent chase scenes aside it's not one of Hyams' better movies.

LE DEJEUNER SUR L'HERBE **

A satirical farce from Renoir on the bourgeoisie, (naturally), built around the subject of artificial insemination and sex but too broad to make a real impact, a kind of Carry On Picnicing. Paul Meurisse is the priggish scientist running for President of Europe who wants to make babies the arificial way but who comes under the spell of Nenette, (Catherine Rouvel), quite literally thanks to a flute-playing shepherd who can conjour up a wind-storm if need be. It looks great, (Renoir shot it in colour), and there's a nice score by Joseph Kosma but in the Renoir canon it's really only a divertissement . Still, even a Renoir divertissement counts for something and this one is undeniably 'charmant'.

WHITE BOY RICK ***

Rick Wershe Jr's claim to fame, or infamy if you prefer, was that at fourteen he was the youngest ever FBI informant before becoming a kingpin drug dealer at sixteen. Yann Demange's (he made "'71"), film "White Boy Rick" is a 'Serpico'-like account of how Rick got into this and it makes for surprisingly sobering viewing. It didn't help that his dad, (an absolutely terrific Matthew McConaughey), was a low-life gun dealer and his sister, (Bel Powley, brilliant), a junkie. You might say that with a family like this, a life of crime was inevitable.

It's a tragic story that Demange never exploits and if it isn't quite in the same class as "'71" it may be because this is material we've seen too often in the past. In the title role newcomer Richie Merritt is excellent and the film looks terrific, (Tat Radcliffe was the cinematographer), moving nicely from Hollywood crime movie gloss to documentary realism often in the same scene. In the end, this is a grim, downbeat little movie but it's hard-to-believe true story is one worth telling and Demange tells it very well indeed.

PARASITE ****

If you must make a home invasion movie do it as a comedy and not as a horror film, right? Bong Joon Ho's "Parasite" arrives already festooned with awards and rightly so. In this gem a family of low-life con-artists manage to take over the home and lives of a softer and much richer family that in some ways mirror them. It's like "Us" but without the supernatural element. Of course, a scheme like theirs can't succeed without something going very wrong which, of course, it does turning "Parasite" beautifully and brilliantly into the blackest of comedy-thrillers that does finally manage to erupt into just the kind of horror flic we expected from the start.

With pitch-perfect performances from the entire cast and the smartest script of the year, not to mention the kind of home any family would be happy to invade, this is an instant classic. I can already see the American remake but it will never top this. It may not be quite as profound as it would like to be but for sheer cleverness it's up there with the very best.

I LOST MY BODY ***

A severed hand goes in search of the rest of its body in this beautiful and hugely imaginative animated feature from French director Jeremy Clapin while elsewhere, in what appears to be a parallel story, a boy grows up and goes in search of love and his place in the world.  "I Lost my Body" is the kind of animated film that really does qualify as a work of art, (the imagery throughout is gorgeous), though the subject matter probably disqualifies it as being suitable for children, (never mind the occasional sexual reference; the basic concept itself is pretty alarming). The version I saw was the dubbed 'American' print but since the dialogue is always highly intelligent purists have nothing to worry about. If there is any justice this should win the Best Animated Feature Oscar that almost certainly will go to "Frozen II".

CRYSTAL FAIRY AND THE MAGICAL CACTUS no stars

A drugs movie, (the title kind of gives it away), and a road movie filmed in Chile by the Chilean director Sebastian Silva but starring Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffmann as the young Americans out to experience the ultimate high. Like its stars, the film basically meanders along with the director's brothers for company and is apparently based on a real experience Silva had. Both Hoffmann and Cera are excellent playing the kind of people you might jump off a high building to avoid and the film itself isn't very pleasant. In fact it feels like something of an ego trip and one that is being made up as it goes along. Personally I found it just the kind of drugs movie to put you off drugs for life which I don't think was the director's intention.

THE LINCOLN LAWYER *

"The Lincoln Lawyer" is a reasonably entertaining thriller but it's also extremely far-fetched and really not much of a movie. A good cast work very hard with the cliched material as hot-shot lawyer Matthew McConaughey is hired to defend rich mother's boy Ryan Phillipe on a charge of rape and assault only to find the ghost of a previous case coming back to haunt him.  McConaughey works hardest of all, sweating, fretting and generally behaving badly while Phillipe is ice-cool. Marisa Tomei is also in the mix as McConaughey's ex-wife and another lawyer but she's basically wasted, being decorative rather than dramatic. About the best you can say is that it's John Grisham lite.

OUT OF BLUE **

A metaphysical murder mystery directed by Britain's Carol Morley but set in New Orleans, moving at a funereal pace, taken in turn from a novel by Martin Amis and not only mystifying but art-house pretentious at times, "Out of Blue" really ought to be a total dog of a movie and yet its very weirdness and a couple of excellent performances, (Patricia Clarkson, Jacki Weaver), sustain it.

Clarkson is the detective investigating the murder of physicist Mamie Gummer, a murder that has all the hallmarks of those of a long dormant serial killer. Given that Clarkson proceeds in an almost catatonic state with suspects popping up out of the woodwork this isn't your typical thriller. Indeed it's hardly 'thrilling' at all but it's always interesting. James Caan is the dead girl's father, a superb Jacki Weaver is her mother and Toby Jones, a very nervy suspect. I haven't read Amis' original novel; perhaps it explains more than the film does but this is sure to divide audiences every which way.

AFTER THE FOX no stars

A mess but one that's partly redeemed by a real star performance, "After the Fox" was a daft caper comedy made in Italy by none other than Vittorio De Sica with a screenplay by the American playwright Neil Simon and starring Peter Sellers as an incompetent Italian criminal, (lots of disguises and silly voices), though in the end it isn't Sellers who redeems the film but Victor Mature, wonderful as a vain, ageing movie star, talked by Sellers, posing as a Neo-Realist director, into making a movie as cover for a heist. Subtle it isn't and as a satire on the movie business it never rises above pantomime, (De Sica appears as himself). It's also only sporadically funny, proving that farce, even with Sellers in the lead, wasn't really De Sica's thing.
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BAD DAY FOR THE CUT **

Despite "Game of Thrones" being filmed here, Northern Ireland is certainly not Hollywood so this Northern Ireland based revenge thriller is something of a pleasant surprise. It marks the feature film debut of Chris Baugh who obviously knows his territory, both literally and metaphorically. The plot may be derivative but it's very stylishly handled with fine performances all round, particularly from Nigel O'Neill as the middle-aged farmer who goes looking for revenge and answers after his mother is murdered. We may be in County Antrim but we could just as easily be in the American Badlands and Belfast could just as easily be Detroit and there's a nice streak of grisly humour running through the picture. Not that I ever doubted it but proof that there is local talent here after all.

90 DEGREES IN THE SHADE **

A genuine oddity. This Raymond Stross produced/Jiri Weiss directed British/Czech co-production disappeared almost before it was released despite being nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Foreign Film in the English Language. It was written by David Mercer, set and filmed in Prague with a British and Czech cast, all of whom were dubbed.

Anne Heywood is the assistant manager of a shop who is having an affair with her married boss, (a miscast James Booth), while helping him steal from their employers. Things come to a head when an auditor, who fancies Heywood, starts snooping around. He is played by Rudolf Hrusinsky, one of the Czech actors in a cast that also includes Ann Todd and Donald Wolfit.

It's superbly shot in black and white by Bedrich Batka with a terrific jazz score by Ludek Hulan. Though fundamentally 'British' it looks and feels like something from the Czech New Wave and had it been made entirely in Czech, rather than very stilted English, its critical reputation might have been much higher. As it is, it's a strange, compelling picture ripe for rediscovery.

THE VALLEY OF DECISION **

A big, thick best-selling novel has become a big, thick slice of Hollywood ham. "The Valley of Decision" may not be much of a movie but thanks to its all-star cast and the big thick plot, it is very enjoyable. At forty-one Greer Garson was a tad on the old side as the new, young Irish maid to the Scott family, well-to-do mill owners in Pittsburgh, where she falls in love with her employer's son, Gregory Peck, in real life twelve years Garson's junior.

Needless to say, their romance doesn't blossom since there is bad blood between their fathers and trouble at the mill. Garson's father is the perpetually hammy Lionel Barrymore, (who else), while Peck's is the perpetually stiff Donald Crisp, (who else), and others in the large cast include Gladys Cooper, (in one of her rare 'nice' roles), Dan Duryea, Marsha Hunt, Marshall Thompson, (showing great promise), and a young Jessica Tandy as the socialite determined to get her claws into Peck. It was, of course, a huge hit and Garson got another Oscar nomination, despite being miscast. As for Tay Garnett's direction, let's just say he didn't let it get in the way of the story.