Bovie Movie

Bruce Willis is up to his neck in mud and bullets in this passable action thriller, playing the gruff, tough leader of an elite marine squad that’s sent into civil war-torn Nigeria to extricate a prominent mission worker (Monica Bellucci). But Willis’s mission is complicated when Bellucci decides to bring half the neighbourhood back with her, against the wishes of the uppity local militia. Cue two hours of bullets, blood and bombast. The story certainly isn’t painted in shades of grey: things are either black (locals, largely bad) or white (Americans, largely good), and the gung-ho, hyper-patriotic finale confirms yet again that, in the minds of US film-makers, nothing succeeds like excess. 

Quentin Tarantino’s vigorous assertion in Sleep with Me that this is the ultimate gay fantasy movie rather pulls the carpet from under the feet of those attempting to appraise this slavish tribute to flash fly boys and their hi-tech toys. There is no denying the quality and entertainment value of the flying sequences, which effortlessly blend mile-high footage with state-of-the-art modelwork, but the rivalry between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, and Cruise’s tempestuous affair with Kelly McGillis, are pure bunk. Yet, with the shameful exception of McGillis, all emerged with reputations enhanced, particularly director Tony Scott, who takes all the credit for preventing this mindless macho daydream from nose-diving. 

A rather over-zealous take on new age spirituality mars this otherwise impressive adaptation of Carl Sagan’s bestselling novel. Jodie Foster stars as the dedicated astronomer who receives a message from extraterrestrials explaining how humble humans can build a spacecraft and go to meet them. Matthew McConaughey plays the religious adviser battling for her soul, while Tom Skerritt and James Woods portray sceptical presidential aides. The digital effects are stunning and director Robert Zemeckis is at home with the action sequences; if only he’d stuck to the sci-fi. However, the climactic scene of Foster’s pod journey features one of the transcendent performances in all of cinema. 

“In space, no one can hear you scream.” A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror classic. On the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo’s crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship’s Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas’ (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane’s stomach and escapes. The alien starts stalking the humans, pitting Dallas and his crew (and cat) against a malevolent killing machine that also has a protector in the nefarious Company.

For Americans, baseball is still a field of dreams. For the British, interest in the sport has been clobbered half to death by too many unmemorable baseball movies. This entry in the genre is a true story that is, sadly, hampered by some signposted plot developments and undernourished characters. However, it does contain a poignant performance by the all too rarely seen Dennis Quaid as Jimmy Morris, a former pro-ball player who pledges to try out again for the major leagues if the school team he coaches makes the play-offs. The versatile Rachel Griffiths offers stoic support in the clichéd role of his supportive wife who’s concerned that the old injury will return to wreck his renewed dream. However, at over two hours, this movie is a bit too long and has too many dull stretches for what aspires to be a feel-good family film. With a sharper script and direction, instead of just echoing elements of Field of Dreams, this could have raised its game and matched it.