flechette

Mike Nichols in finest form. I was not a fan of "Closer", so it's refreshing to see him again right back on top with this comedy set in the darkest of circumstances. Just one slip in tone could have wrecked this compelling picture but Nichols and his very strong A-list cast never put a foot wrong in this biopic of a deeply flawed but utterly compelling Congressman.

Philip Seymour Hoffman as usual is scintillating and brilliant - here playing a damaged but ultra-smart CIA manipulator, and it is in the exchanges between Hanks and Hoffman's characters where the comedy soars. Rarely is movie humour laugh-out loud and also smart... This hits the spot time after time with a biting satirical edge that makes you both laugh and weep at the state of the world (often simultaneously).

One other major plus is the length of the picture. The film is based on George Crile's fat book of the same title. The temptation for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (his claim to fame is "The West Wing") must have been to make a fat movie, but what we get is a breath-taking 90 odd minutes of great story with sweeping implications.

This film deserves to be seen and to be recognized for finding an extraordinary balance between the darkest of dark subject matter and the lightness of touch of it's sparkling witty script - even if it does flunk the obvious link between the help that Herring and Wilson provide and the ultimate consequences (9/11).

Sadly and utterly predictably, they should have left the old tired St Trinian's franchise well alone.

This is the 2007 version - with the cross-dressing headmistress, and Flash Harry the Spiv - played in the 1950s and 60s by the brilliant and sadly missed Alastair Sim and George Cole - still here as characters - but without a hint of their original charm. Somehow instead of jokes there is a real nasty streak including the humiliation and stripping of a new girl, and a pointless, well-past-its-sell-by-date sniggeryness about gayness. (Both Rupert Everett (yes, yes, we know he's gay, and who in the 21st C gives a damn?) and Colin Firth (who probably isn't, but camps it up with gusto) are an embarrassment to themselves and the so-called British cinema industry.

This is a film that has attracted state funding from the National Lottery and the UK's Film Council. The audience that I saw it with were all BAFTA members, and even more embarrassingly, they applauded at the end. Why did they applaud? Perhaps it was because the British Academy membership was so pleased that it was a British picture they felt obliged to leave their brains outside and let jingoism rule their hearts. Of course it says nothing positive about British cinema or for that matter BAFTA members!

This is a puerile load of old recycled garbage. Do not be tempted to see it.

Don't be fooled by the ridiculous and dishonest voting for this film (which is packed with so many 10s it's pretty obvious it's misleading and desperate). This is a pointless story with a singular violent act in the middle that frankly you ain't gonna care about anyway. Seeing endless long and really tedious shots of a moochy teenager doesn't do it for me and contribute to a sense of a film that is stretched to snapping.... to the point that it feels 85 minutes too long! Van Sant has given us the glimmer of greater things in the past with a sparkle showing through despite his low budget indie approach. Now that he's done that, and we've forgiven him for doing the best with the limited resources at his disposal, surely it's time to expect a little more. Instead it looks like he's a one trick pony and this time around it will take a lot for me to give him another chance.

This film is weak and unengaging. The skateboarding "culture" is so old hat and uninteresting, and the "crime" at the centre of this chopped up mess is such a non-event, that I wonder what it was that Gus van Sant saw in the story or why he raised the money to make it into a movie.

Avoid this film! It's a stinker.