Bovie Movie

Screenwriter Don Mancini, who created killer doll Chucky, makes his directorial feature debut with this, the fifth entry in the franchise. Here, Chucky (voiced, as always, by Brad Dourif) and his bride, Tiffany (breathlessly vocalised by Jennifer Tilly), are brought back to life by their gender-bending offspring Glen/Glenda (Lord of the Rings’s Billy Boyd) on the set of the Hollywood film chronicling their murderous exploits. The terrible toys then attempt to transfer their souls into the movie’s director (real-life rapper Redman) and Tiffany’s favourite star, Jennifer Tilly (playing herself), who generates the film’s biggest laughs with a go-for-broke send-up of her own ditzy persona. Genuinely sick and fitfully funny, this technically terrific horror spoof plays exclusively to the gore gallery with some insane parodies and in-jokes, and also revs up the bad taste quotient with a cameo appearance from Pink Flamingos director John Waters, who pops up as a sleazy paparazzo. 

Mel Gibson’s well-publicized production The Passion of the Christ concerns the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The dialogue is spoken in the ancient Aramaic language, along with Latin and Hebrew. In the Garden of Gethsemane near the Mount of Olives, Jesus (James Caviezel) is betrayed by Judas Iscariot (Luca Lionello). Jesus is condemned to death for blasphemy and brought before Pontius Pilate (Hristo Naumov Shopov), the Roman governor of Judea, for sentencing. The roaring crowd demand his death, so Pilate orders his crucifixion. Jesus is severely beaten and made to carry his cross up to Golgotha, the hill outside Jerusalem, where he is nailed to the cross. Romanian theatrical actress Maia Morgenstern plays Mary, Mother of God, and Italian superstar Monica Bellucci plays Mary Magdalene. Amid much controversy involving Gibson and various religious organizations, The Passion of the Christ received an international theatrical release in February of 2004. In March 2005, Gibson released an unrated version of the film, dubbed The Passion Recut, that eliminated five to six minutes of the more graphic scenes of flogging and crucifixion.

Director Sue Heel’s debut movie comes across as a sort of distaff version of The Full Monty, as a beautiful Italian woman fetches up in Newcastle upon Tyne and, through her own brand of sex education, tries to help some local ladies put the heat back in their cooling relationships. In her first starring role, former TV presenter Kelly Brook is certainly alluring enough to play a voluptuous bombshell, although her ability to sustain an air of mystery recedes pretty rapidly. On the other hand, supporting players Emily Woof, Dervla Kirwan and, especially, Margi Clarke are exceptionally good as the women who learn how to live through Brook’s sensual instruction. Unsurprisingly, Brook’s plans go a bit pear-shaped, but at least Heel manages to move matters along to a cosy if sentimental conclusion. 

Charlotte Cory (Connie Nielsen) is a young woman convict on Death Row who has built up a friendship with Frank Nitzche (Aidan Quinn) through mail correspondence, whilst her attorney (Kelly Preston) desperately tries to appeal the verdict before Charlotte’s time runs out. With only days to spare Frank realizes that he has fallen in love with Charlotte and discovers that there is much more to the tragic circumstances of her imprisonment than he first thought - her life is now in his hands. Frank races to solve the puzzle that will reveal the truth, and tell the secrets that both he and Charlotte have been concealing, before it’s too late.

A sci-fi thriller with a tremendous sense of scale and visual splendour, The Chronicles of Riddick is an ambitious but ultimately disappointing offering. Writer/director David Twohy takes Riddick (Vin Diesel), his monosyllabic antihero from Pitch Black, and thrusts him into an imaginative, fully realised universe populated by sleek spacecraft and war-ravaged cities. Diesel grunts his way through endless fights with bounty hunters, prison guards and an army of enslaved, zombie-like warriors called the Necromongers, but Twohy forgets to provide anything resembling a compelling story. The set pieces are impressive, but without any sense of narrative this comes across as an overblown and pompous space opera. 

It’s a little puzzling to work out who this live action update of the 1970s cartoon series is actually aimed at. It’s not knowing enough for grown-ups who remember the original, while it’s probably too sugary for today’s savvy youngsters. The original series, created by Bill Cosby (he serves as producer here and also pops up in a cameo), was centred around the feel-good antics of a gang of young black youths. Here the cartoon characters literally climb out of the TV set to help a lonely young teen (Kyla Pratt). Keenan Thompson makes a good fist of the fleshed out Fat Albert but a few nostalgic chuckles aside, this is as much out of step with modern tastes as the cartoon characters are in the real world. 

Jim Davis’s fat-cat comic strip gets the big-screen treatment in this family comedy from Thunderpants director Peter Hewitt. In an inspired piece of casting, Bill Murray provides the voice of the sardonic, lasagne-loving feline, who here finds his lazy lifestyle threatened when owner Jon (Breckin Meyer) decides to adopt a dog to impress beautiful vet Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt). It’s a minuscule plot, and one that barely does justice to Garfield’s infamous dry wit, but aimed squarely at a younger audience it works better than expected. As the movie’s only CGI animal, the ginger moggy is far more realistic than that digital doggy Scooby-Doo, which results in some fun sequences. Ultimately, though, it’s the flesh-and-blood critters who steal the show — clumsy canine Odie never speaks a word, yet is a particular delight, while Garfield’s kitty pal Nermal (voiced by Sex and the City’s David Eigenberg) gets all the best lines. 

Ripper 2: Letters From Within begins when Molly Keller, the last living descendant of the infamous Jack the Ripper, is sentenced to an insane asylum after some vicious murders. While there, she undergoes an experimental procedure that might cure her. Sadly, she begins to lose touch with the real world and her nefarious forefather might be able to use her to get back into the world.

This sloppy prequel plunders liberally from William Friedkin’s original spine tingler, yet remains the crudest of shockers. Paul Schrader was removed as director from the project after his cut was deemed too cerebral, but could it have been worse than replacement Renny Harlin’s bad B-movie? The film outlines how future Georgetown exorcist Father Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) loses his faith during the Nazi occupation of Holland and rediscovers it in a remote area of Kenya in 1947. There he examines a buried 5th-century church — mistakenly built on the spot where Lucifer fell — in which evil and CGI hyenas lurk. It turns hilariously funny when the possessed one is revealed and the demonic scares and swearing begin. Skarsgård retains some of Max von Sydow’s solemnity as the young Merrin, but the rest of the cast fails to rise above the clichéd gruesomeness. 

Five people are killed in a freak accident when a lofty rope bridge collapses. The film details a priest’s journey to discover if there was a divine reason for the bloody disaster. Set in Lima, Peru, during the 18th century. Based on the Thornton Wilder novel, and first made in 1929.