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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Source Code (Film)
Rating: M
Running Time: 93
Country: USA, France
Director: Duncan Jones
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright
Distributor: Hopscotch
Release Date: May 05, 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 worthA thrilling and utterly brilliant mind-twister, which finds the human story amidst the edge-of-your-seat action.
The complex and the multiplex are strange bedfellows. But it happened last year with Inception and here it is again with Source Code - a sci-fi thriller with the punch of a pyrotechnic-enhanced action flick plus more than a touch of the cerebral.
It's a mind-twister about Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a US Army helicopter pilot. He's on a Chicago-bound commuter train but he has no idea how he got there. His last memory - his ‘yesterday' - was of serving in Afghanistan. Now he's awakened on the train sitting opposite Christina (Gone Baby Gone's Michelle Monaghan), who keeps calling him "Sean". To him, she's a stranger but she nevertheless seems to know him well, and when he goes to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, he - and we - find another man's face in the mirror...
This is just the start of an engrossing film that demands your attention. It involves quantum physics, a non-standard terror plot, and an ingenious twist on one of science fiction's most beloved themes. To say more would ruin the mental challenge Source Code offers (be cautious around the trailer - it gives way too much away).
The cast are uniformly impressive. As Colleen Goodwin, a woman in uniform and Colter's primary contact with the outside world, Vera Farmiga (Up In The Air) delivers a measured performance. Tough and tight-lipped, she slowly - and convincingly - thaws. Monaghan is incredibly likeable as Christina, while Gyllenhaal is simply terrific as the heroic captain.
Inside Source Code (which will be talked about in the same breath as the aforementioned fellow mind-puzzle Inception) is a romantic heart - a love story that's organically part of the plot rather than something added to appeal to the masses. Here, you will find human drama amid the explosions and quantum musings, with characters you want to see survive the edge-of-your seat, life-and-death scenarios.
Source Code is the highly anticipated sophomore offering from Moon director (and son of David Bowie) Duncan Jones. Moon was a relatively low budget slice of indie genius. Source Code isn't the masterpiece that was Moon, but it's still utterly brilliant. What they have in common is that they both challenge and transport. But where Moon was tidily arthouse, Source Code is Jones' jump into the mainstream. Yet he's done this without making any concessions or compromises. Moon announced the arrival of a major talent. Source Code just confirms it - it's the thinking person's popcorn movie.
