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. 

One would’ve thought that Guy Ritchie would have shied away from replicating Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels after the glut of British gangster movies that followed its success. Sadly not. Although Snatch has its merits — among them originality and the talents of Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro, and Jasons Statham and Flemyng — the diamond heist and East End Mob plot are just more of the same. Gangs, cheeky chappies, bare-knuckle boxing and cameos from Vinnie Jones and Mike Reid merge into a “seen it all before” mix. Ritchie can direct, but perhaps he should get someone else to write the material. 

Vinnie Jones doesn’t stray too far from home for his first leading role, working with several of Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock company including Snatch producer Matthew Vaughn and an ex-footballer-turned-jailbird role. But what this remake of Robert Aldrich’s 1974 movie The Mean Machine — remember, ex-football pro Burt Reynolds trained his fellow convicts to take on the guards — really misses is Ritchie himself, since first-time director Barry Skolnick and his writers lack the creativity and vitality of Madonna’s film-making husband. That said, if you can overlook the rather thin characters and simplistic plot, the film’s final third — an ill-tempered soccer match between warders and inmates — is very well filmed and highly entertaining. Jones isn’t bad in a made-to-measure role, though the movie’s best moments involve Jason Statham’s maverick keeper and Jason Flemyng’s unconventional commentator. Definitely one for the boys. 

Another addition to the growing ranks of British urban dramas (see also Bullet Boy and Kidulthood), Rollin with the Nines is a gangsta movie with plenty of grit. After her brother Too Fine (Simon Webbe) is killed in a drive-by slaying and she herself is raped by the murderer, south London girl Hope (Naomi Taylor) decides to get both revenge and riches by forming a new drug-dealing crew, staffed by Too Fine’s homies Finny (Vas Blackwood), Rage (Roffem Morgan), and Pushy (Robbie Gee). But a retaliatory hit on a rival gang sets bent coppers White (Terry Stone) and Newmyer (George Calil) on their trail. Some of the acting is pretty amateur, and the dialogue may occasionally sound like leftover lines from The Bill, but these are forgivable infractions in what is largely an exciting, slickly made and convincing slab of hard-boiled fiction. The terrific soundtrack, made up of grime and hip hop tracks from the likes of Dizzee Rascal and Kano (who also cameo), adds to the atmosphere. 

In Miami, the professional driver Frank Martin is working temporarily for the Billings family, transporting their son Jack while his driver is on vacation. Mr. Billings is an important member of the government and Mrs. Audrey Billings trusts on Frank, who promises to protect the boy. When Jack is kidnapped by a mercenary hired by the Colombian cartels, Frank faces the criminals and the Miami police force trying to rescue the kid. When the boy returns to his family, Jack discloses the real and lethal intention of the abduction of Jack.

Tremors meets Titanic in this cheesy but entertaining sea-monster movie from director Stephen Sommers (who went on to box-office gold with The Mummy franchise). It’s a gory horror tale in which a hi-tech pleasure cruiser on its maiden voyage is overrun by modern-day pirates, then attacked by a multi-tentacled, Hydra-like creature. The film navigates an ocean of hilarious monster-movie clichés and derivative special-effects sequences, while Treat Williams does a decent Kurt Russell impersonation and Famke Janssen lets her wet T-shirt do the acting. This gruesome fantasy doesn’t skimp on memorably tacky death scenes (a victim sucked through a toilet!), and there are plenty of familiar faces among the cast (including Wes Studi, Jason Flemyng and Djimon Hounsou). 

This adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy graphic novel invites comparison with The Princess Bride and Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen for its fantastical imagination, scale, humour and cross-generational appeal. Charlie Cox plays Tristan, a young shop assistant in rural Victorian England, who enters a magical parallel world in pursuit of a fallen star in order to prove his worth to indifferent sweetheart Victoria (Sienna Miller). The star has taken on the earthly shape of Yvaine (Claire Danes) and the two find themselves pursued by Lamia the witch (Michelle Pfeiffer) and a motley crew of murderous princes, several of whom are dead. Salvation comes in the unlikely form of Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), the transvestite captain of a flying pirate ship, and the initial animosity between Tristan and Yvaine slowly gives way to affection. The pace is brisk throughout and the story delightfully picaresque, while director Matthew Vaughn makes the most of some awesome Scottish and Icelandic backdrops and impressive studio sets. 

Blade director Stephen Norrington tackles another comic-book adaptation with this ambitious take on Alan Moore’s Victorian superhero fantasy. Unfolding like an X-Men in period costume, it springs from a fabulous concept, in which fictional adventurer Allan Quatermain (a charismatic Sean Connery) is teamed up with fellow 19th-century literary icons to save the world from megalomaniac madman, the Fantom. With Tom Sawyer, Captain Nemo, the vampiric Mina Harker and both Jekyll and Hyde among the League, there’s no shortage of colour, and it’s enjoyable watching them make use of their well-known character traits in action-based scenarios. Although the special effects can be extremely ropey at times, the fast pace, quick-witted dialogue and overall spectacle help compensate for such shortcomings. Ultimately, the tale is overblown nonsense, with scant regard for realism, yet it has a likeable air of insouciance and derring-do. The film may not be extraordinary, but viewed as sheer escapism, it’s really rather fun.