reviews

War is hell, we’ve learned by now. But what about not-war? The 1999 BBC-TV film Warriors — an unsentimental and heartbreaking story of British peacekeepers in Bosnia — demonstrates that any kind of armed conflict is devastating, even to those not in the immediate line of fire.

Imagine Romeo and Juliet without the chipper bounce, and you’ve got Solomon and Gaenor. Tragedy looms for these two star-crossed lovers from the opening frame of Paul Morrisson’s gloomy and melancholy film — tragedy you know they’ve no hope of escaping — and yet this isn’t a relentless bummer of a story. Instead, it’s a wonderfully morose, rainy-day kind of movie, one to watch curled up on the couch with a cat and a cup of tea. Classical and literate, it lets you pretend you’re edifying yourself while you have a good cry. Kinda like a Bronte novel.

Directed by schlockmeister Russell Mulcahy, Highlander ain’t Braveheart, but it has its own cheesy charm. Darkly stylish, it cops a feel off The Terminator, with lots of electrical energy literally charging the atmosphere, as the immortal lifeforce the losers of sword duels give off is sucked up by the victor (but not before breaking every window in the vicinity).

If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap! And sometimes even when it is Scottish, it’s still crap. I was prepared for crap — I was expecting it, and yes, even looking forward to some good laughs. And *Highlander: Endgame,* like its predecessor sequels to the sneakily charming Highlander, does not disappoint.

Bernie McPhelimy (Julie Walters) doesn’t consider herself political, but in Belfast’s explosive atmosphere, speaking out for peace is tantamount to treason — if she’s asking the IRA to stop shooting, she must be pro-British. Bernie is the heart of Titanic Town, based on Mary Costello’s autobiographical novel and directed by Roger Michell, and her story is full of the tragic ironies of the Irish struggle for independence.

If you’re someone who thinks you can choose your family, and that family is what we make it, then you’ll love this wonderfully charming dramedy. Harold and Dolores Williams (Paul Winfield: Strange Justice, and Mary Alice) adopted Mai (Lauren Tom) and Dwayne (Chi Muoi Lo) when they were only 10 and 6. That the Williamses … more…

On the seedy side of Yokohama, Maiku “Mike” Hama (Masatoshi Nagase) — “that’s my real name” — runs a detective agency out of a rundown movie theater. He doesn’t seem to do much investigating — instead, he gets into a lot of trouble, gets called “punk” by the local cops, and gets beaten up quite … more…

There are two kinds of women in the world. There are those who put up with boring guys they can’t stand to be around just “because sometimes you just have to get out of the house.” And there are those who develop their own interests, nurture their own friends, and are quite capable of taking … more…

A guided tour through a serial killer’s demented mind sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Imagine the cool CGI we’d find there. Surely there’d be demons and monsters and women chained up like animals and blood and medieval torture and stuff, right? Yup. *The Cell* has it all.