On the dark side of the Moon, man has found the answer to all his energy needs – mining an essential element to generate clean, sustainable power for earth. Such an easy solution – until the one man stationed there on a three year contract, is suddenly face-to-face with a younger, more angry version of himself.

Moon is the directorial debut for Duncan Jones – the son of David Bowie, and this movie is great testament to the fact that science fiction can be made on a low budget – but with high style. Visually the film is quite similar to 2001:A Space Odyssey – with GERTY (played by a disembodied Kevin Spacey) playing the part of the protective robot minder.

I really enjoyed this – the story is very clever and the part of Sam Bell (almost single handed through the film) is played admirably by Sam Rockwell. It won’t be headlining your local Odeon – but it is worth seeking out and enjoying.

What a surprise this film was – I knew it was Daniel Craig, and I knew it was his pet project (he is listed as Exec Producer) – but I had no idea it was such a strong story and a great film.

Craig plays a fading film star, Joe Scott, living out a life of debauchery in Hollywood – who suddenly hears of his childhood best friends death. We then flash back to childhood, and the almost idyllic lifestyle led by the young Joe (played by Harry Eden).

The story of Joe Scott as a child, is filled with memories of 70’s music and sexual awakening – and one life defining moment. From there we can see the threads that led Joe Scott to his later life. There is a sense of redemption at the closure, with Daniel Craig returning to the UK to reconvene with his childhood memories.

It is an amazing film – I had to go and check to see if it was from an Ian McKewan story – but it seems to be completely original. Beautifully shot, gently directed and well acted throughout. The central sequences, with Joe Scott listening to Roxy Music with his girlfriend, and the pivotal moment of the story are just superb.

I HIGHLY recommend this movie – it is gentle and moving, with some great acting. Craig was great, and the surrounding cast (especially Harry Eden) were superb. Its out on DVD now, so well worth your time.

De Niro and Pacino play two experienced New York cops, dealing with serious crimes and even more serious criminals. As some of the more seedier criminals start getting murdered in cold blood – it becomes clear that these two are some how involved.

Getting these two back together has taken 13 years (1995’s – Heat), and it is an irresistible combination. Just one of these actors on screen is a treat, to have them both is electrifying. Unfortunately, the script doesn’t really match up to the great acting – sure, there are some laughs – but those feel mainly down to the delivery than to the sharp writing. The filming and direction seems a bit pedestrian, and the surrounding cast really don’t live up to lead players (maybe excluding Brian Dennehy). Casting 50 cent (billed is Curtis Jackson) in amongst these two, is not a pretty sight.

All that aside – it is a movie worth seeing, if only to witness two of the best actors in the same frame – that alone is worth $10 and two hours spend drinking the worlds biggest soft drink.

Righteous Kill is released on the 25th September in the UK

I finally took my chance to go and see The Dark Knight yesterday, and despite all my anticipation, I wasn’t disappointed. Neither is everyone else – it is getting great reviews and has shot to the top of the IMDB 250.

Sure, Christian Bale is brilliant, bringing the darkness of Batman to the screen once again. Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhall, Aaron Eckhart and Michael Caine are superb – but it’s Heath Ledger they will all be talking about. The screen doesn’t seem big enough as he steals the show and hides it somewhere deep where you don’t want to look.

The story is pretty typical Gotham, with crooks and underworld vs the over run police and jurisdiction. Bruce Wayne sits astride the city passing judgement on right and wrong whilst his nighttime alter-ego fights against growing public apathy and unrest.

And then there is the Joker – the complete polar opposite of Batman, no rules, no ethics, no morals and most chillingly – no plan. His random acts of violence are quite disturbing, with the puzzles he sets for his hunted and hunters both brilliant and cruel.

The movie is a blast from start to finish, with the unease of Batman set against the wild simplicity of the Jokers violence. The conflict between the two men is the key to the film, the interrogation scene showing just how out of control Batman can be and how carefree the Joker is.  The climax of the film sets the people of Gotham against each other in a classic piece of game-theory, and writes large the crisis the Batman has – to protect himself and let others  die or turn himself over to the public, save lives but end his quest for justice as the Batman.

The picture above is from my favourite scene in the movie – Heath Ledger demonstrating what a talent he was, as the Joker rips through the streets of Gotham showering terror everywhere. I expect there will be a clamour for Oscars – and indeed this is an amazing turn, but I can’t help thinking that the Academy Aware never goes to a movie like this.

Marvelous, epic stuff that lived up to the expectations and hype – and not a flaw in its 154 minutes. I may have to go again.

I’m all booked up for Friday evening– babysitter booked, god is in his heaven!

One of my favourite books of recent years has made it to the big screen – with the impending release of Choke by Chuck Palahniuk.

The (NSFW) trailer is good enough to keep me going, but I can’t wait to see this.

Whilst I was looking at information about the new James Bond film, I noticed that Daniel Craig is due to play the devil (alongside Ewan McGregor as the main character – Declan Gunn)  in a movie based on one of my favourite books of recent years.

I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan tells the story of satan sent back to earth in a test to see whether he can behave himself enough to return back to heaven.

It is a brilliant story (like all of Glen Duncan’s writing) with savage dialogue and just enough religious influence to make it super interesting. I’m really looking forward to the film.

In this one, there seems to be some of the ‘darkness’ that came along with Casino Royale – but of course there is a huge dollop of bang crash wallop action.

Bond 22 is directed by Marc Forster and the screen play is by Neil Purvis = I’m looking forward to this one.

Check out the trailer at MSN Soapbox.

Another fantastic trailer for the new Batman film – July 25th release in the UK – this is going to be a great film. I sense a posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger…you read it here first.

It seems that increasingly the press are only getting to see movies at the very first public screenings (Friday afternoon on the day of release), because the film distributors and publicists are stopping newspaper reviewers seeing the film before the public.

The whole thing got me thinking a bit – does anyone really need the press reviews to judge whether to see a film or buy a book or not?  Certainly – if I see a trailer for a film and it looks OK, I’ll go and see it regardless of what the newspaper reviewers say. More than often, I’ll find out about a film release from a buzz on the ‘net and I might even do a quick search for comments made across the hundreds of blogs and websites that specialise in movies.

In fact – that’s the whole point, the web has democratised the process so much that press reviews have become negligible in their influence, sites like Metacritic have sprung up to aggregate the average reviews and tell us what a much wider base of people think about a film or book or whatever.

That just leaves the press reviewers like Anton Ego from Ratatouille – found out for the snobbish, elitist club members that they are.