Film 010 - Prom Night

(2008, colour, 88 mins)

Director - Nelson McCormick

Starring - Brittany Snow, Scott Porter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis

It's amazing that a slasher film with a grand total of twelve deaths can be tamer than a dead teddy bear and about as scary as a sleeping puppy. One of the few recent slasher films rated PG-13 in America (the equivalent of 12A), it's pretty clear why: with no swearing and less blood than an average trip to the dentist, its about as squeaky-clean and young teen friendly as you can get.

The story goes that Donna (Brittany Snow) is getting ready to celebrate her prom night with her boyfriend and four of her other friends, but as luck would have it a crazed ex-teacher who was obsessed with her and murdered her family to be with her has just escaped from an asylum. As you'd expect, this results in all sort of "oh no, there's a killer at the prom" shenanigans.

Except it doesn't, because most of the "action" (if you can call it that) takes place in a suite three floors up at the hotel where the prom's being held. As a result, the film is a case of various teens and hotel staff going up to the third floor and meeting a predictable knife-related death by the hugely non-terrifying killer.

Prom Night uses every cliche in the horror book, sometimes even doing so multiple times. There are three different "closing the mirror door and seeing someone behind them" moments throughout the film: one would be unoriginal enough, but three?

The one saving grace about Prom Night is that the acting from the lead actress Brittany Snow is believable, and she somehow manages to avoid coming across like a generic slasher film airhead teen. But this just isn't enough to carry this complete dog of a film.

Slasher films have three main principles: scary moments, gory deaths and titilation (pardon the pun). Prom Night delivers precisely zero of these and as a result can only be considered an absolute failure.

1 out of 5

Film 009 - Tropic Thunder

(2008, colour, 107 mins)

Director - Ben Stiller

Starring - Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Brandon T Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan

I recently watched Tropic Thunder for the second time with my dad and my brother. As the credits rolled, my dad summed the film up perfectly in just four words: "Well, that was daft".

There's no better way to explain it as I'm concerned: Tropic Thunder is simply madder than a bucket of spanners.

The plot goes that five actors are shooting a war movie in Vietnam, but things aren't going too well as some of them are having problems emoting. The director (Steve Coogan) decides the best idea to deal with this is to get the actors in a helicopter, fly them into the middle of the jungle, strip them of their luxuries (mobile phones and such) and make them fend for themselves as he films. That's the plan, at least.

The problem is that this jungle area is home to a genuine gang of Asian criminals who are running a huge drugs operation and who don't take too kindly to visitors. Ironically, the actors are unaware of the danger they're in and think it's all part of the movie.

The ensemble cast is strong for the most part, with the possible exception being Jack Black. This is simply because his role doesn't allow for a lot of range though: playing an actor who's out of drugs and is crashing pretty badly, all he can really do is shout a lot, shiver and look a bit mad. He doesn't get a lot of great lines to work with.

The same can't be said for Robert Downey Jr, who is by far the star of the movie. As a multi-Oscar winning actor who's so serious about his parts that he literally lives the roles, he undergoes a controversial skin pigmenting operation so that he can turn himself black to play an African-American solider. Many of his subsequent lines are so stereotypially "black" that it's ridiculous, and ultimately hilarious.

Tropic Thunder is worth seeing becasue there are lot of memorable moments throughout, a few of which involve a fantastic cameo by a heavily-disguised Tom Cruise as a fat, bald, hairy movie producer. The only main problem with the movie is that the final 20 minutes of the film focus so much on action that the humour takes a seat for the most part, which can be frustrating. If you don't mind that though, this is well worth a look.

3.5 out of 5

Film 008 - The Dark Knight

(2008, colour, 152 mins)

Director - Christopher Nolan

Starring - Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman

You’d be hard-pushed to find a film that has received such positive word-of-mouth as The Dark Knight has recently. The general consensus from the countless people who helped it break box office records in the US last week is that the movie lives up to the hype, and maybe even goes so far as to exceed it.

Indeed, the fact that the film currently sits pretty at the top of the IMDb’s Top 250 movies of all-time list having knocked The Godfather and The Shawshank Redemption off the top of the list should be some indication of its current popularity. Is this justified? Yes and no.

First things first: the film is impressive, both in terms of visual splendour and pacing. The movie retains the same gloomy dark atmosphere of Batman Begins and continues to skilfully walk the line between action and story development as well as its predecessor did. It shows a Gotham suffering from an uncertain future as crime continues to plague the city while the ever-looming presence of the Bat signal and district attorney Harvey Dent show promise for a crime-free future. Anyone expecting to see some sunshine or flowers would be wise to give this a miss: this is a dark movie.

This darkness isn’t confined to the cinematography, however: it could easily be attributed to some of the actors’ performances too. Heath Ledger has been the main talking point of the film among critics – unfortunately partly due to his untimely death – but there’s no denying that his deeply unsettling performance as the Joker eclipses that of anyone else in the movie. He literally steals every scene he appears in and is hypnotically compelling to watch: one would hate to be an extra in a Joker scene because the audience’s eyes would be so intently focused on Ledger’s subtle facial nuances that they’d be almost certain never to glance at anyone else in the frame.

The rest of the cast is also on top form, with many of them giving flawless performances that sum up their characters to a tee. Aaron Eckhart is effective as Harvey Dent, particularly halfway through the movie when he undergoes a rather disturbing transformation; Maggie Gyllenhaal makes the role of Rachel her own, to the extent that it’s hard to imagine Katie Holmes (who played the same character in Batman Begins) doing so well. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are once again given some memorable lines and provide some dryly warm comic relief, and Gary Oldman once again shows why he’s the best Commissioner Gordon.

Ironically, perhaps the only main performance that isn’t consistently outstanding is that by Christian Bale as the emotionally tormented Batman. As Bruce Wayne he’s compelling to watch, and as the film progresses and events unfold he starts to embark on a downward spiral that’s bleaker than anything even seen in a Batman film (yes, even Mr Freeze’s one-liners in Batman & Robin).

However, once he dons the Batsuit he somehow develops a distractingly gruff voice which makes him sound needlessly angry, even when he’s just having a normal conversation with someone like Commissioner Gordon. This is a minor issue in an otherwise fantastic performance, though.

The Dark Knight is another fantastic Batman movie from Christopher Nolan and serves as proof that Batman Begins wasn’t a fluke. The film does suffer from the odd slow moment during the middle third, but it’s never too long before the Joker turns up and captivates you all over again. This movie would be worth seeing for Heath Ledger’s performance alone, but thankfully there’s also a great movie there too.

4 out of 5