Film reviews
Men In Black 3
It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.
Bel Ami
The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.
The Dictator
A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.
The Woman In Black
Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.
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Route Irish (Film)
Rating: MA
Running Time: 109
Country: UK, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: John Bishop, Andrea Lowe, Mark Womack
Distributor: Transmission
Release Date: December 08, 2011
Film Worth: $18.00
FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worthAnother powerfully compelling and humane piece of filmmaking from Ken Loach which calls into question contemporary politics.
Route Irish opens with a lone figure standing upon the deck of the Liverpool ferry, as an increasingly desperate series of answering machine messages play on the soundtrack. When the caller needed his friend most, Ferg (Mark Womack) was locked up in a jail cell. Now Frankie (stand-up comedian John Bishop), a contracted soldier for hire in Baghdad, is dead. Frankie's employers tell him and the dead man's grieving family that he just happened to be in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time' - Route Irish, the most heavily attacked strip in Iraq as it leads to the airport. Refusing to believe that Frankie's death was an accident, Ferg investigates further, discovering a mobile phone with video footage of civilian atrocities that his friend witnessed.
Womack is a revelation as the unstable Ferg, his sudden eruptions of anger incredibly raw. Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Sweet Sixteen) has been often lumbered with the descriptor of being a ‘political filmmaker', but his film is rooted throughout in genuine human emotion. Actual footage of atrocities is utilised during scenes, reminding viewers of what is actually at stake behind the media spectacle of the WikiLeaks scandal. This is powerful, heart-wrenching filmmaking.
