Rightly attracting major
awards attention, The Hurt
Locker is a supreme, tense and
gripping piece of drama. And
it grabs your attention from
the stunning opening scene,
which perfectly gets across
the dangers faced by the
specialist bomb disposal squad
that we spend the rest of the
film following. Chief among
them is Jeremy Renner’s
Sergeant William James, who is
the focal point for much of
The Hurt Locker. The film
spends some time digging into
his head and why he does what
he does, and his approach
doesn’t always leave him
eye-to-eye with the rest of
his squad. Renner, in surely a
star-making performance,
delivers a rounded,
three-dimensional portrayal of
a man you could easily write
off as a maverick, and the
film is significantly enriched
as a result. But then with
director Kathryn Bigelow
behind the camera delivering
her best film to date, The
Hurt Locker excels still
further. Her gritty, haunting
visuals look superb in high
definition too, evoking the
down-to-earth shooting style
Bigelow employs, and making
the most of the assorted
set-pieces she puts on film.
It’s the sound that really
gets you too, cleverly eating
up the full breadth of a good
surround-sound set-up, and
carefully teasing you more and
more into the film. Not that
you’re likely to need much
persuading. The Hurt Locker is
a terrific war movie, and a
very human one. It’s also
packaged on a quality Blu-ray
that matches up strong
presentation with interesting
extra feature. It comes very
highly recommended. --Jon
Foster
The sixth installment of the
Harry Potter series begins
right where The Order of the
Phoenix left off. The
wizarding world is rocked by
the news that "He Who Must Not
Be Named" has truly returned,
and the audience finally knows
that Harry is "the Chosen
One"--the only wizard who can
defeat Lord Voldemort in the
end. Dark forces loom around
every corner, and now
regularly attempt to penetrate
the protected walls of
Hogwarts School. This is no
longer the fun and fascinating
world of magic from the first
few books—it's dark,
dangerous, and scary. Harry
(Daniel Radcliffe) suspects
Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) to
be a new Death Eater recruit
on a special mission for the
Dark Lord. In the meantime,
Professor Dumbledore (Michael
Gambon) seems to have finally
removed the shroud of secrecy
from Harry about the dark path
that lies ahead, and instead
provides private lessons to
get him prepared. It's in
these intriguing scenes that
the dark past of Tom Riddle
(a.k.a. Voldemort) is finally
revealed. The actors cast as
the different young versions
of Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin
and Frank Dillane) do an
eerily fantastic job of
portraying the villain as a
child. While the previous
movies' many new characters
could be slightly
overwhelming, only one new key
character is introduced this
time: Professor Horace
Slughorn (with a spot-on
performance by Jim Broadbent).
Within his mind he holds a key
secret in the battle to defeat
the Dark Lord, and Harry is
tasked by Dumbledore to
uncover a memory about
Voldemort's darkest
weapon--the Horcrux. Despite
the long list of distractions,
Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and
Hermione (Emma Watson) still
try to focus on being
teenagers, and audiences will
enjoy the budding awkward
romances. All of the actors
have developed nicely, giving
their most convincing
performances to date. More
dramatic and significant
things go down in this movie
than any of its predecessors,
and the stakes are higher than
ever. The creators have been
tasked with a practically
impossible challenge, as fans
of the beloved J.K. Rowling
book series desperately want
the movies to capture the
magic of the books as closely
as possible. Alas, the point
at which one accepts that
these two mediums are very
different is the point at
which one can truly enjoy
these brilliant adaptations.
Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince is no
exception: it may be the best
film yet. For those who have
not read the book, nail-biting
entertainment is guaranteed.
For those who have, the movie
does it justice. The key
dramatic scenes, including the
cave and the shocking twist in
the final chapter, are
executed very well. It does a
perfect job of setting up the
two-part grand finale that is
to follow. --Jordan Thompson
Pure. Popcorn. Entertainment.
That's an exact classification
of director Michael Bay's
Transformers: Revenge of the
Fallen. The action is nonstop,
with battles and explosions
from start to finish. The
camera (without any subtlety)
exploits Megan Fox's hotness
to the max. As if she weren't
enough, a new sex kitten
(Isabel Lucas) is thrown into
the equation. Shia LaBeouf is
as charismatic as ever, and
fills the starring role with
ease. And then there's the
humour. Sam's parents (Kevin
Dunn and Julie White) provided
some semi-raunchy
laugh-out-loud moments in the
first movie, but now they take
it to the next level.
Sometimes it seems like they
are trying a little too hard,
but it is still hilarious. As
far as the “plot” goes,
the writers didn't waste much
time--it's really just a
context for the giant-robot
death matches and dramatic
slow-mo sequences. The movie
kicks off two years later
where the Autobots have formed
an alliance with the U.S.
government, creating an elite
team led by Major Lennox (Josh
Duhamel), in an effort to
snuff out any remaining
Decepticons that show up. The
bad guys keep coming, and it
turns out that a much more
menacing force than Megatron
is out there--and it is
looking for something on Earth
that is tied to the very
origin of the Transformers
race. Fans of the franchise
will be delighted by the
addition of many new robot
characters (there are well
over 40 in the sequel, versus
only 13 in the first). The
second Transformers has shaped
up to be one of the worst
reviewed and most successful
movies of all time. This
strange pairing is really just
an indication that this movie
has one purpose: to entertain.
The creators didn't want to
waste time bogging down the
action and drama with
substance--which was arguably
a good decision. --Jordan
Thompson
