zelx Reviews

Fathers of Girls (2009)

Disappointing

[4/10 · 3 May 2010]

I caught this at the opening gala performance of the Southend Film Festival and as exciting as it was sitting amongst the cast and crew - including Ray Winstone himself - it couldn't detract from the fact that Fathers of Girls is a difficult watch. I don't just mean in terms of its bleak subject matter (drug abuse), but because its plods along at such a pedestrian pace without anything too dramatic ever happening.

The film was something of a family affair what with Winstone and Halmans's daughters both starring and lifelong friend Karl Howman directing (Winstone did it for free), it took only 10 days to shoot, and it shows in the poor direction, uninspired locations of Salisbury, irritating internal monologue from Winstone, which really wasn't needed -it's all about the subtext, we don't need it force fed to us.

I am a fan of social realist movies and having seen BAFTA winning Fish Tank previously, I just found Fathers of Girls really poor in comparison. Winstone and Howman are working on a new project together, let's hope they have more than 10 days to shoot it and a better script to work from.

In closing, Winstone should be applauded for working on this for free and fitting it in between Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Without Cameron at the helm, Arnie and co descend into parody

[5/10 · 27 June 2003]

The director certainly knows how to control big action scenes as evidenced in the likes of Breakdown and U-571 yet the the scriptwriters have lost the plot when it comes to. plot, and there is far too much parody, turning Arnie into a caricature, like he is in the Simpsons.

This just doesn't feel like a Terminator movie. It's more like a cover version, say The Datsuns covering an AC/DC song.

Some of Arnie's lines are so bad such as `It's time', `I'm back' and, probably the most embarrassing part in the film, when he tells a guy at a checkout `talk to the hand'.

We knew it was coming, we knew it was never gonna be as good as part 2, and it isn't.

On the plus side, the new TX is very fit in her cherry red leather outfit and there are some really funny scenes and a couple of good action scenes.