MOVIE REVIEWS - The Dictator

SACHA Baron Cohen atones for the sins of Bruno with this gleefully bad taste fish-out-of-water comedy, which kicks sand in the eye of political correctness.

We’re in a perpetual state of discomfort during The Dictator, unsure where the scriptwriters might venture next for uneasy laughs.

No subject is off limits – the September 11 attacks, rape, sexual equality, Judaism – and Larry Charles’s film tramples merrily over social taboos, hitting more targets than it misses as the titular despot runs amok in the capitalist playground of New York City.

We can’t resist a wry smile when Cohen’s abominable protagonist makes a speech to American dignitaries and exposes the Land Of The Free as a dictatorship in all but name.

A flash of full frontal male nudity takes us by hysterical surprise and Megan Fox and Edward Norton embrace brief cameos as themselves.

Like Borat and Bruno, Cohen is at the centre of the madness, relying on a script this time rather than inspired improvisation with the unsuspecting public.

He plays Admiral General Aladeen, tyrannical ruler of the African state of Wadiya, who is hiding the real Bin Laden in one of his opulent palace’s spare rooms.

“You go to the bathroom after Osama, you will know the true meaning of terrorism,” he confides.

During a visit to “the Devil’s nest” of America to address the United Nations about his nuclear arsenal, Aladeen is usurped by his duplicitous brother Tamir (Sir Ben Kingsley) and cast adrift on the streets, without his trademark beard of any form of identification.

Zoey (Anna Faris), the tomboyish manager of a vegan feminist non-profit co-operative, takes pity on Aladeen, who she accepts as an immigrant called Allison Burgers.

Sparks of romance are continually extinguished by Aladeen’s bigotry.

“I love it when a woman goes to school,” he sniggers to Zoey, who boasts a college education. “It’s like seeing a monkey on roller skates – it seems important to them, but it’s so adorable for us.”

Eventually, Zoey discovers the truth and is horrified.

“You lied to me... and you’re wanted for war crimes!” she gasps. “That stuff never sticks,” Aladeen assures her cheekily.

The Dictator delights and disturbs, careening from razor sharp satire to a Monty Python-esque birthing scene, shot through the dilating cervix of the expectant mother (Kathryn Hahn).

If you judge Charles’s film based on the number of belly laughs it packs into 83 minutes and ignore the occasional lulls, it’s a rousing success.

Some gags are so jaw-droppingly offensive, you can feel the oxygen being sucked out of the cinema, such as when Aladeen excitedly plays the Munich Olympics level of his Wii Terrorist 2K12 video game and guns down helpless Israeli athletes.

Faint hearts beware.

Rating: 8/10

The Dictator is showing at Empire Cinema, Robin Park, Wigan - book your tickets on 08714 714 714.

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME - FILM-MAKING brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, two key exponents of the low-budget mumblecore movement, err dangerously close to the mainstream with this quirky comedy of ill manners.

Like their previous work, Jeff, Who Lives At Home is distinguished by flowing, naturalistic dialogue and winning performances from an impressive ensemble cast.

Jason Segel and Ed Helms are extremely well matched as brothers from opposite ends of a shallow gene pool, whose humdrum lives are devoid of excitement and meaning.

Neither man is willing to confront the regret that wafts off them like cheap cologne, until a bizarre series of events unexpectedly shepherds the siblings to a life-or-death crossroads.

Ordinary men are capable of extraordinary feats, when they put their simple, addled minds to it.

Thirtysomething layabout Jeff (Segel) lives in the basement of his mother’s home, where he rhapsodises about the Mel Gibson sci-fi thriller Signs.

“I can’t help but wonder about my fate, my destiny,” he ponders aloud, convinced that the universe has big plans for him.

Until then, Jeff will happily moulder in the basement, throwing a tantrum like a truculent teenager when his mother Sharon (Susan Sarandon) has the temerity to ask him to get some milk from the local convenience store.

A wrong caller asking for someone called Kevin sparks Jeff’s febrile imagination and the waster becomes convinced that the enigmatic Kevin is going to play a pivotal role in his future.

During a city-wide search for the elusive Kevin, Jeff helps his brother Pat (Helms) patch up his marriage to Linda (Judy Greer) with a spot of covert surveillance.

Meanwhile, their mother hunts for a secret admirer at her workplace, who keeps instant messaging compliments to her PC.

Framed by the tug of war between free will and destiny, Jeff, Who Lives At Home is an engaging portrait of lives in a rut that mines a rich vein of earthy humour.

Banter between Segel and Helms rings true and there is a lovely, touching moment when they pause to consider the answer to their father’s favourite riddle: “What is the greatest day in the history of the world?”

Humour and heartfelt emotion are happy bedfellows, especially when the characters speak from their aching hearts, such as when Jeff tells Pat and his mother, “You and mum will never understand me and you’re all I have left.”

Equally gorgeous is a tender sequence involving Sarandon’s lovesick mom, who has always dreamed of being kissed beneath a waterfall.

In the hands of another director, this bold romantic overture might have jarred, but it works beautifully here, illuminated by Sarandon’s warm and unself-conscious portrayal.

The twists of the final five minutes, which tie loose plot threads together, feel slightly contrived, but are satisfying nevertheless.

Rating: 7/10

AVENGERS ASEMBLE - More is less in Avengers Assemble, the special effects-laden amalgamation of four Marvel Comics franchises.

Bringing together characters from Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk, Joss Whedon’s frenetic romp deftly knits together plot strands from the earlier films, threaded with tongue-in-cheek humour.

There’s a clear presumption that audiences will have seen the pictures that inspire this battle royale, accounting for a paucity of fresh character development, which undermines the relationship between the two heroes without a franchise.

However, exhilarating action-packed sequences abound, choreographed at breakneck pace by writer-director Whedon, who knows how to seamlessly meld live action with digital trickery.

Interestingly, he keeps the Avengers disjointed for most of the film, only bringing everyone together in the same location for the protracted final showdown to decide mankind’s fate – and the likelihood of a sequel.

Thor’s evil brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) plots to exterminate mankind by harnessing the power of the pulsating Tesseract cube.

Aided by an army of aliens, Loki steals the artefact from the subterranean headquarters of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D, and enslaves scientist Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) and ace marksman Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to do his nefarious bidding.

“As of now, we are at war,” declares Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), director of S.H.I.E.L.D, to the dismay of fellow agents Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg).

Desperate times call for innovative measures and Fury scours the globe for the ultimate team of superheroes, uniting the inflated egos and rippling muscles of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).

Fury has great faith in his team, if they can overcome their petty jealousies and insecurities.

Avengers Assemble doesn’t scale the dizzy heights of the original Iron Man, but for almost two and a half hours, we’re entertained and energised by Whedon’s vision of the Marvel universe.

The writer-director gifts many of the best lines to Downey Jr, while there is also a lovely moment when Thor attempts to defend the actions of Loki, only to learn his scheming sibling has killed 80 people in two days.

“He is adopted,” deadpans the hammer-wielding god.

So basically, sit back and marvel at the outrageously overblown special effects.

Gwyneth Paltrow cameos as Iron Man’s valiant assistant Pepper Potts, but Oscar winner Natalie Portman was clearly too busy with motherhood to put in a physical appearance for Thor’s back story.

When Ruffalo mutates into the not-so-jolly green giant, the final battle becomes hilariously one-sided. “Hulk smash!” he growls. Avengers Assemble is simply smashing.

Rating: 7/10

Avengers Assemble is showing at Empire Cinema, Robin Park, Wigan - book your tickets on 08714 714 714.

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS - You have to give writer-director Drew Goddard full marks for effort.

With tongue wedged firmly in cheek, he lampoons hoary cliches and attempts to reinvigorate the horror genre with this slick tale of kids in peril, that is three parts bonkers to one part twisted genius.

Not since poor Drew Barrymore answered a crank call in Scream has a film exploited stereotypes with such lip-smacking glee, and subverted our expectations at every blood-spattered turn.

Joss Whedon, creator of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer television series, co-wrote the script and his droll humour percolates throughout, inviting us to become whooping, cheering voyeurs as characters meet a grisly demise.

For the opening five minutes, making sense of the madness in Goddard and Whedon’s hare-brained method takes up most of our attention, which is no bad thing, given how thinly characters are sketched.

Plot twists are the key selling point of The Cabin In The Woods, and the big reveal in the closing minutes is a humdinger, including a cameo from a big name Hollywood star, who clearly relishes their five minutes in the spotlight.

Yet for all of its audacity and deliciously off-kilter humour, the various elements don’t gel seamlessly and once the writers’ grand plan is laid out before us, we feel slightly underwhelmed.

Bookish college student Dana (Kristen Connolly) is looking forward to a jaunt into the great outdoors with blonde friend Jules (Anna Hutchison) and her jock boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth), and slacker Marty (Fran Kranz).

Curt invites along his shy and sensitive buddy Holden (Jesse Williams), principally as a date for Dana, and the five thrill-seekers head off to a remote log cabin.

Meanwhile, deep within an underground bunker, scientist Richard Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford) stare at a bank of CCTV screens, which seems to be following the progress of the students towards the cabin.

They invite the rest of the team to bet on the quintet’s chances of survival, but new guy Truman (Brian White) resists.

“How can you wager on this when you control the outcome?” he asks.

“They don’t transgress, they don’t get punished,” smirks Sitterson.

The Cabin In The Woods has some big laughs and lashings of gore, while the young cast embrace their genre archetypes, screaming or disrobing on cue.

At certain points, Goddard probably gives us too much information – a throwaway shot of an eagle tracking the students’ van along a winding road should have been cut to make one character’s death more startling – but the crescendo certainly doesn’t skimp on the digital effects or blood letting.

Goddard knows how to end with an almighty bang.

Rating 6/10

THE PIRATES: IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS - Bristol-based Aardman Animations, Oscar-winning creators of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, discover their sea legs in this salty escapade based on the book by Gideon Defoe.

Five years in the making, The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists showcases the extraordinary craftsmanship and dedication of director Peter Lord and his team, who have brought this colourful world vividly to life through the painstakingly slow process of stop-motion animation.

Their artistry is astonishing and backgrounds are crammed with detail and sly visual gags which warrant a second or even third viewing.

Defoe’s script is peppered with wry one-liners, and a centrepiece chase sequence down the winding staircase of a house is hysterical.

For all its dazzling qualities, there’s no escaping a nagging feeling that this madcap voyage stops short of the brilliance of Aardman’s earlier works.

It’s the mid 19th century, and Queen Victoria (voiced by Imelda Staunton) has declared war on all pirates who dare to sail Britain’s waters.

Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) is the leader of a ragtag group of seadogs, whose enthusiasm far exceeds his questionable ability to plunder booty.

His subordinates include Pirate with Scarf (Martin Freeman), Pirate with Gout (Brendan Gleeson), Albino Pirate (Russell Tovey) and Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate (Ashley Jensen), whose glaringly obvious gender is concealed behind a false beard.

Consequently, the Pirate Captain and his crew are a laughing stock, derided by rivals such as Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven), Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and Peg Leg Hastings (Lenny Henry).

To prove the naysayers wrong, the Pirate Captain sets out to capture a Bank of England treasure ship, but inadvertently storms The Beagle, and captures a young Charles Darwin (David Tennant) and his primate manservant, Mister Bobo.

The scientist leads the pirates on a merry dance. But first they must venture to the capital without being spotted by the Queen.

“London smells like grandma!” grimaces one of the crew as they adopt a succession of silly disguises and discover the greatest treasure of all has been in their clutches all along.

The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists draws on Aardman’s trademark visual style and playful sense of humour.

Grant is a snug fit for the misguided Captain, and the supporting cast have fun with their roles, including Brian Blessed as the Pirate King.

The script, adapted by Defoe from his book, walks the gangplank of belly laughs and gentle emotion although none of the characters threaten to usurp Wallace and his resourceful pooch in our affections as they sail off into a perfectly animated sunset.

Rating: 7/10

THE HUNGER GAMES: Death is a lottery – literally – in Gary Ross’s nail-biting survival thriller based on the first chapter of Suzanne Collins’s post-apocalyptic trilogy.

Set in a dystopian future where teenagers compete in a gladiatorial death match, The Hunger Games was always going to struggle to meet the dizzying expectations of the book’s ardent fans.

However, the film is suspenseful, exhilarating and genuinely moving, galvanised by strong performances and breathlessly orchestrated action sequences.

Screenwriters Ross, Collins and Billy Ray remain faithful to the source novel, including chilling scenes of adolescent protagonists slaying each other to survive and impress the viewing public.

It’s no wonder UK censors recommended cuts and alterations to the intense scenes of carnage to achieve a 12A certificate.

Gore is plentiful though never excessive. Parents of small children should exercise caution.

North America lies in ruins and in its place stands the deeply divided autocratic nation of Panem, comprising the wealthy Capitol and 12 surrounding, poorer districts controlled by President Snow (Donald Sutherland).

Every year, one boy and one girl from each district are selected by lottery to take part in The Hunger Games: a televised contest designed by Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley).

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to take the place of her younger sister Primrose (Willow Shields), joining baker’s son Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) as the tributes from District 12.

The teenagers are escorted to the Capitol by Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and alcohol-sodden mentor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), whose first advice is to “embrace the probability of your imminent death”.

Katniss and Peeta are prepared for the tournament by stylist Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), while television coverage hosted by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) creates an atmosphere of feverish excitement.

Eventually, the pair from District 12 must face their rivals including sadistic Cato (Alexander Ludwig) and weakling Rue (Amandla Stenberg).

Only one can survive.

The Hunger Games is a terrifically entertaining opening salvo that whets our appetite for the romance and rebellion to follow.

Oscar nominee Lawrence beautifully captures the steeliness and despair of a resourceful daughter, who would die for the people she loves.

Hutcherson is equally compelling and the menage a trios with Liam Hemsworth’s rugged best friend is swiftly established.

Ross employs handheld cameras to sprint alongside competitors, giving a palpable sense of their disorientation and mounting dread as whooping rivals close in for the kill.

Katniss is a classic underdog and we’re rooting for her every blood-stained step of the way.

Rating: 7.5/10

DISNEY’S JOHN CARTER - Intended as the first instalment of an action-packed trilogy, John Carter is a fantastical and fantastically battle beyond the stars based on the novel A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Oscar-winning director Andrew Stanton, who collected golden statuettes for Finding Nemo and WALL-E, makes a lacklustre live action debut with this sprawling epic.

The miasma of digital effects, which hopes to emulate Avatar by immersing us in an eye-popping alien world, feel flat in 3D and the quality of the computer trickery doesn’t match the ambition of Stanton’s own script, co-written by Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon.

Like the monstrous white apes, which the eponymous hero fights in a gladiatorial setting reminiscent of the Rancor pit sequence from Return Of The Jedi, the film lumbers.

The bloated running time certainly tests our patience, especially with so little to hold our attention on the screen.

Young Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara) is summoned to the home of his beloved uncle and former Confederate soldier John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who has perished in mysterious circumstances.

Leafing through Carter’s cherished journal, Burroughs learns that his uncle sought sanctuary from Apaches in a cave and was magically transported to the Red Planet. There, Carter was captured by the Tharks – a savage race of 15-feet-tall green warriors with tusks protruding from their mouths, who live in the deserts of Barsoom (the alien word for Mars).

Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and his plucky daughter Sola (Samantha Morton) attempted to protect Carter from power-hungry rivals Tal Hajus (Thomas Haden Church) and Sarkoja (Polly Walker).

Meanwhile, Matai Shang (Mark Strong), the leader of the Holy Therns, took charge of the planet’s destiny by orchestrating the marriage of Prince Sab Than (Dominic West) of Zodanga and Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) of the besieged city of Helium.

The spunky princess raged against the arranged nuptials, despite the pleadings of her father (Ciaran Hinds), and when Dejah captured a glimpse of Carter’s rippling chest, her rebellion intensified.

Opening with a computer-generated aerial battle in one of the sandstorms that rage across the surface of Mars, John Carter is a soulless spectacle.

Technical wizardry overwhelms one or two flickers of emotion and we give up caring well before the plodding 132 minutes are up.

Kitsch is devoid of charisma as the eponymous time-travelling soldier, who tips the balance of power in favour of the pacifist good guys by scything through hordes of computer-generated beasts.

Strong and West are pantomime villains, and their comeuppance is swift and unsatisfying.

A convoluted race-against-time finale neatly tees up a second film in the series but unless John Carter magically strikes box office gold, it’s doubtful that his adventures will go any further than the closing credits here.

Rating: 6.5/10

SAFE HOUSE - Safe House is a high-octane, adrenaline-fuelled action thriller that borrows liberally from The Bourne Identity and its sequels, replicating the same jittery handheld camerawork as a serpentine conspiracy plot reveals skullduggery at the blackened heart of the US administration.

Director Daniel Espinosa doesn’t stint on the pyrotechnics, gun battles or breathless chases.

He opens with a protracted game of cat and mouse through the teeming streets of South Africa that lights a fuse on two hours of double-crossing and betrayal.

The lines between right and wrong are continually blurred in David Guggenheim’s lean script that sacrifices character development for edge-of-seat excitement and macho posturing.

Agent Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is caretaker of a CIA safe house in Johannesburg.

Humdrum routine is thrown into disarray by the arrival of grizzled agent Daniel Kiefer (Robert Patrick) with a prisoner: rogue operative Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), who sold out the agency to the highest bidder.

In the middle of a highly-charged interrogation, the building’s defences are compromised by a gang of gun-toting thugs led by Vargas (Fares Fares).

Matt escapes the hail of bullets with Tobin, bundling the prisoner into the boot of a car as he makes a hasty exit, alerting his boss David Barlow (Brendan Gleeson) and senior agent Catherine Linklater (Vera Farmiga) to the clear and present danger.

Safe House accelerates into top gear in the frenetic opening 10 minutes and barely touches the brakes as director Espinosa orchestrates each set piece with aplomb, including an extended car chase that culminates in vehicles smashing through the central reservation into oncoming traffic.

A race through the crowded favelas of Johannesburg has obvious similarities to the highly charged Morocco sequence from The Bourne Ultimatum, but still gets our blood pumping as corrugated iron roofs give way under the strain of stampeding feet.

Washington may be in his fifties but he physically matches his younger co-star and relishes the verbal sparring such as the first time Tobin gets the upper hand and pulls a gun on Matt.

“Are you going to kill me?” whimpers the fledgling agent.

“I only kill professionals,” replies Tobin coolly, wounding the younger man’s pride.

Reynolds copes admirably with the rigours of his underwritten role, and Nora Arnezeder willingly fulfils her brief as Matt’s scantily clad love interest.

The identity of the mole within CIA ranks is obvious, but we play along with screenwriter Guggenheim as he attempts to convince us it is not the most likely candidate.

“People don’t want the truth any more. Keeps them up at night,” claims one CIA operative explaining their shameful actions.

People might not want the truth but they certainly want to be entertained, and Safe House confidently delivers.

Rating: 7/10

THE WOMAN IN BLACK - For a 12A rated film, The Woman In Black is a frightener.

The disturbing thriller features Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe as a young lawyer who discovers the vengeful ghost of a grieving mother.

Radcliffe sticks around the remote village he’s been sent too long enough to figure out how to let the woman in black rest in peace ... or does he?

To most people Radcliffe will always be Harry Potter and nothing else, but this role of a young dad still mourning the loss of his wife, shows him in a new light, shrugging off the wizardry and magic moves we’re so used to.

The Woman In Black is an edge of the seat and enticing film from beginning to end.

It is one film I have watched at the cinema this year and not actually looked at my watch to see whether it was close to finishing.

Despite being so scared that I viewed half of it through my fingers and also knocked my glasses off my face, I enjoyed it.

The dark scenes, the intense music and the frightening shots of the woman in black make this film a very worthy watch and one for the horror collection when it comes out on DVD.

But it should come with a warning – not for the faint-hearted or downright soft ... like me!

Rating: 8/10

THE MUPPETS - For more than 35 years, Kermit The Frog, Miss Piggy and their fun-loving friends have been firmly engrained in our rose-tinted childhood memories, with their slapstick routines and song and dance numbers.

The popularity of Jim Henson’s creations has never waned thanks to endless repeats of the award-winning television series The Muppet Show, which ended in 1981, and subsequent film adventures, including madcap re-imaginings of A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island and The Wizard Of Oz.

Director James Bobin taps into that nostalgia with a glorious throwback to the days of yore that sees the colourful critters facing an uncertain future in a world of technological advances and fleeting celebrity.

The script, co-written by leading man Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, strikes the perfect balance between affection and irreverence.

The only way to save the Muppet Theatre from demolition is to raise 10 million dollars in two weeks.

The film opens in Smalltown, population 102, where a muppet called Walter (voiced by Peter Linz) lives with his human brother Gary (Segel), who is about to celebrate 10 years with his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams).

The trio visits Los Angeles, where Walter discovers that scheming oil man Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) plans to bulldoze the Muppet Theatre and drill for the black gold beneath.

Walter galvanises Kermit (Steve Whitmire), Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson), Fozzie Bear (Jacobson again), Gonzo (Dave Goelz) and the gang into organising a televised appeal in the company of celebrity guests, including Whoopi Goldberg and Selena Gomez.

The Muppets is a perfect family film, with broad humour to appeal to all ages, interspersed with delightful ditties written by Bret McKenzie from Flight Of The Conchords, including the exuberant Life’s A Happy Song.

Segel and Adams embrace the ridiculousness of the premise with gusto, like when Kermit initially refuses to spearhead the telethon and she despairs, “This is going to be a really short movie!”

The addition of Kermit’s mechanised manservant, 80s Robot, sparks another moment of genius, when the little helper wonders, “Mr Kermit, may I suggest we save time and pick up the rest of the Muppets using a montage?”

Director Bobin milks laughter and tears in generous, equal measures, leaving us hankering for more.

A delightful new Toy Story short called Small Fry, in which Buzz Lightyear is locked inside a fast food restaurant and joins a support group for discarded meal toys, plays before the main feature.

It’s the icing on an already delicious cake.

Rating: 8.5/10

THE GREY - Air transport may well be trumpeted as the safest form of travel but for film-makers, the possibilities of disaster above terra firma are irresistible.

Set in the frozen mountains of Alaska, The Grey is a nightmarish thriller about a group of oil-rig workers who survive a devastating plane crash, only to find that they have plummeted into the hunting ground of a pack of snarling wolves.

It’s a classic showdown between man and Mother Nature, and as usual, our arrogance, believing we stand tall atop the food chain, is swiftly punished by the wily predators.

The pivotal crash sequence is orchestrated with brio by director Joe Carnahan, who depicts the carnage through the eyes of the central character as he drifts out of consciousness, flames licking the air above his head as the fuselage disintegrates.

Visual effects really come to the fore once the survivors stumble out of the wreckage when digitally rendered wolves are combined with trained live animals and puppet animatronics.

Unfortunately, the computer-generated creatures don’t look realistic and the script, co-written by Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, has bark but no bite.

The order in which the cast will perish is clearly telegraphed and characterisation is thin, giving us scant reason to care about the men, when tragedy stares them in the eye.

Sharp-shooter Ottway (Liam Neeson) is employed by a refinery in Alaska to shoot the wolves that sometimes target the roughnecks as they carry out their exhausting work.

After a gruelling five-week shift, Ottway boards the plane home only for a brutal storm to wrench the craft apart, depositing the widower and seven other men - Burke (Nonso Anozie), Diaz (Frank Grillo), Flannery (Joe Anderson), Henrick (Dallas Roberts), Hernandez (Ben Bray), Lewenden (James Badge Dale) and Talget (Dermot Mulroney) – into the Alaskan tundra.

The men huddle together for warmth but the local wildlife quickly encroaches on the crash site, attacking one of the men.

With the howls of wolves chilling the survivors even more than the icy blasts of wind, Ottway tries to galvanise his co-workers into action.

“We’ll kill ‘em. One at a time. Tip the numbers. That’s what they’re doing to us,” he growls, determined to fend off the flesh-hungry beasts.

The Grey is a testosterone-fuelled survival thriller that casts Neeson as the hard man haunted by tragedy.

Physically, the actor is more than capable of taking on an entire ecosystem, but he fails to fully convey Ottway’s underlying grief that drives the hero onwards when other men fall.

Supporting cast are largely dispensable, earmarked as fresh meat for those starving wolves.

Tension dissipates in the second half as some of the plot twists and decisions strain credibility.

Rating: 6/10

J EDGAR - DURING a turbulent and contentious term in power spanning almost 50 years, J Edgar Hoover was instrumental in the fight against mounting criminality on the streets of America.

In 1924, he was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation, which became the FBI, and he threw his weight behind the latest developments in forensic science.

Hoover championed the creation of a centralised fingerprint database that allowed the agency to track offenders across states.

His achievements were considerable but his methods were heavily criticised, including supposed heavy-handed treatment of suspects and secret dossiers on important figures, such as the presidents and their wives, which could be used to strengthen his position on Capitol Hill.

As Hoover, played with scenery-chewing gusto by Leonardo DiCaprio in Clint Eastwood’s handsomely crafted and slow-burning biopic, tells a close ally, “No one freely shares power in Washington.”

Eastwood crafts a meticulous and elegiac portrait of the man, whose professional travails were almost as fascinating as the swirl of rumours surrounding his close relationship with FBI assistant director Clyde Tolson.

Following Hoover’s death, Tolson accepted the flag draped over his mentor’s coffin and inherited J Edgar’s estate, and they are buried close to each other in the Congressional Cemetery.

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who won an Academy Award for Milk, underpins his history lesson with a tender and chaste romance between the two men.

The film opens with Hoover (DiCaprio) clinging to power, assisted as ever by loyal secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts).

He begins to dictate his memoirs to Agent Smith (Ed Westwick) and drifts back in time in hazy reminiscences to the 1919 bombings which sent shockwaves through Washington DC.

With Clyde (Armie Hammer) by his side, Hoover becomes embroiled in the ill-fated search for the missing infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh (Josh Lucas) and clashes with Robert F Kennedy (Jeffrey Donovan).

Away from the corridors of power, Hoover strives tirelessly to impress his domineering mother, Anna Marie (Dame Judi Dench), who instructs him to hold firm when others doubt him: “Faith, Edgar, don’t wilt like a little flower.”

J Edgar is over-long at 136 minutes and the ageing make-up used to transform DiCaprio into a liver-spotted septuagenarian isn’t convincing.

But Hammer cuts a fine figure as the loyal protege and Watts makes the most of her small role.

Dench offers sterling support, sending a chill down the spine as she pointedly makes clear her views on homosexuality to her boy: “I’d rather have a dead son than a daffodil for a son.”

The love story, which culminates in a kiss in a hotel room and an unconventional declaration of feelings, is handled with sensitivity and restraint – two qualities which eluded the great man.

Rating: 7/10

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - IF there is one film you watch this year, make it The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Ok so there are another 11 months to go and hundreds of films to be released before the year is out, but this intense thriller starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara is one that cannot be overlooked.

Based on the Swedish novel by Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is not one for the faint-hearted.

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) is asked to find out what happened to a teenager forty years ago.

Hacker Lisbeth Salander (Mara) joins in the search and not only uncovers some very gruesome details, goes through quite a few traumatic ordeals herself.

Not only is this film based on a book, but it is a remake of the 2009 original, Swedish picture.

And while many Hollywood remakes of European films rarely do them justice, this one does.

Having to fit a very complex plot into a Hollywood blockbuster that will translate well to the worldwide audience is not an easy task, but this works.

Acclaimed director David Fincher has created a work of art with this film, which includes one of the best opening credits sequences I have ever scene.

I’m rarely hooked from the first second of a film, but with this I was.

Mara and Craig are sublime together and it was refreshing and interesting to see Craig in a role as dark as this and featured in such heavy scenes.

This is one that has had had me thinking for days, it’s a must-see, the original is a must-see and the book is a must-read.

Rating: 9/10

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