Zane-14

I first saw "The Club" in high school as the play the film was based on was part of the English required reading list. I enjoyed the film but thought that with the Australian Rules Football setting, people unfamiliar with the sport would find many of the references obscure and dislike the film. Having seen "The Club" again recently, I realised that although somewhat dated, the film is as much about the wheeling and dealing that occurs off the field as it is about the action on the field. The action that takes place in the boardroom would be instantly familiar to fans of any sport and it's in these scenes the movie comes to life. Any producer wanting to remake "The Club" with the American market in mind needs only to replace the references to Australian Rules football with baseball or basketball and the script would be ready to go into production.

The Producers would also be wise to recast Jack Thompson as the coach as he gives a great understated performance that deserves an encore.

Certainly worth a viewing on a wintry evening.

On a remote, desolate island off the British coast, a community lives a hand to mouth existence, celebrating when passing yachts come to grief so they can scavenge the wood. They celebrate more when a pod of narwhales are beached, knowing they can eat in style for weeks. As the islanders ready themselves to butcher the whales, an elderly hermit appears to warn of danger if the whales are harmed, remembering an earlier time when the slaughter of a pod of stranded whales was followed by disaster.

Good performances all round, led by Paul Scofield and Helen Mirren. This is certainly not a film to get your adrenalin going but "When the Whales Came" is worthy of a viewing; for the acting, the scenery and the whales.

I don't know if the producers of this film envisaged that "Love is a Gun" was destined for late night cable but that's where I saw this film and that's what it deserves. A convoluted plot, a by the numbers performance by Eric Roberts and pedestrian pacing throughout unite to consign this film to mediocrity. The only factor that saves "Love is a Gun" from being a complete waste of time is Kelly Preston, who at least looks like she took the role for something other than the money.

Eric Roberts plays a photographer infatuated by Kelly Preston who is married to a much older man. Eric and Kelly become embroiled in an affair which causes Eric to start going off the deep end and perform his trade marked crazy man routine which he has honed to a perfection over the years.

R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket) gives a solid performance as a detective but the rest of the cast fail to make an impression.

As indicated, Kelly Preston is the star of this film and it has perplexed me why she has not become more successful than she is. She either has been stuck in second rate fare where she has little room to show her talents or she bobs up in cameos in block buster movies when she should, by all rights be in the starring role. If the Movie Gods are at all fair, she will soon be offered a role which will do her talents justice and launch her into the acting stratosphere.