‘World Trade Center’
Despite the overly sentimental feel of the promotional material accompanying this release, Oliver Stone’s ‘World Trade Center’ is a remarkably involving and quite powerful film. Wisely steering clear of his typically conspiracy-drenched representation of historical events (‘JFK’), Stone instead opts for a surprisingly gritty, almost documentary-like style, projecting images of overwhelming confusion and desperation surrounding the events of the morning of September 11th 2001.

The story centres around two port authority cops, John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), who went into the trade centre as part of a four man rescue team.

The attacks on the twin towers occur very early on and make up only around twenty minutes of the movie. We are left with the two men trapped under the rubble, and their struggle to get through the experience, learning who they are through cutaways and occasional flashbacks to their families and close relatives.

Perhaps a little jingoistic (the returning marine character), ‘World Trade Center’ is nonetheless, superb cinematic storytelling. Stone’s goal, by his own admission, was to create a tribute to the two survivors, by recreating the events of the day in as realistic a fashion as possible, and in that sense, he has surpassed expectations.
4 out of 5

‘The Black Dahlia’
‘The Black Dahlia’ is director Brian De Palma’s (‘Scarface’, ‘The Untouchables’) adaptation of the James Ellroy novel of the same name. Concerning two 1940s LA cops, heading up the hunt for the killer of a murdered starlet, the movie really is quite awful, the most horrendously miscast picture to come along in some time. ‘Dahlia’ assaults the audience with noir-ish dialogue that might sound appropriate coming from the mouth of Humphrey Bogart, but simply doesn’t work when spewed by the likes of Josh Hartnett (‘Pearl Harbour’).

Blame lies solely at the feet of the director. The movie adaptation of another Ellroy novel, ‘LA Confidential’, proved it possible to craft a fantastic feature film from his complex crime stories, using the right people.

‘Dahlia’ is by all accounts, an extremely complex story, here forced into a too-short running time, ‘brought to life’ by utterly unconvincing actors, populating cardboard sets. There’s not a lot to recommend here then, apart from interesting turns from Hilary Swank, and John Kavanagh.
1 out of 5

‘Children of Men’
Director Alfonso Cuaron delivers a superb adaptation of P.D. James’s novel. Set in London in 2027, a future in which humans can no longer procreate. An alcoholic and former political activist Theo (Clive Owen) agrees to help take a miraculously pregnant woman to safety, where her child’s birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.

The ‘future’ world created in ‘Children of Men’ is a frighteningly plausible one. With the world at war, demeaning immigration camps, daily terrorist bombings, martial law, and war scenes reminiscent of news footage from the war in Sarajevo, the world that Cuaron has created here is visually astounding.

Fight and chase scenes shot in long takes serve to increase the realism, and further draw the audience into Theo’s plight. A notable supporting turn from Michael Caine, portraying one of the most intriguingly tragic characters of the year, and a truly great science fiction story, make ‘Children of Men’ highly recommended viewing.
4.5 out of 5

‘Click’
Workaholic architect and family man Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) stumbles upon a universal remote control with which he can control his own existence. Fast forwarding through arguments, replaying good times, and pausing at the happier moments in life, Newman discovers he can juggle both work and his family, with the aid of his new-found mystery gadget.

There’s more to this Sandler (‘Happy Gilmore’, ‘Little Nicky’) vehicle than meets the eye. The trailers would have you believe it’s the same old Sandler schtick as always, the rule being that an angry Sandler equals comedy gold. Well, those moments come thick and fast, but ‘Click’ takes a different route, in that it actually has some depth to it.

Borrowing liberally from both Dickens and Capra, Sandler inevitably abuses the power of the remote, and gets to see what might become of his future personal and professional lives, if his behaviour doesn’t change drastically.
3 out of 5