Bad Samaritan, featuring David Tennant as a psycho, Brit boxing comedy Gloves Off, Nazi drama The Captain and Aussie detective series Mystery Road are among the unheralded but rather good films in this week’s Sun DVD reviews.
Bad Samaritan
(15) Out Oct 8
David Tennant stars as a creepy rich guy with a dark secret in this tense thriller.
The Bad Samaritan of the title is Irishman Sean (Robert Sheehan), a burglar who uses his valet job at a downtown American restaurant to get customers’ keys so he can burgle their home.
But with Cale Erendreich (Tennant with an American accent) he has picked the wrong target and finds more than he bargained for in the house. Sean wants to do the right thing but it could cost him his life.
The tension in the early stages of the film builds up really well, and there is a fantastic jump scare.
That dissipates as the film goes on, as Tennant ratchets up from an understated, controlled creepiness, which is effectively chilling, to a borderline Doctor Who mania, which is less convincing.
Overall though, if you watch Bad Samaritan, you’ll be glad you stayed and didn’t just pass by on the other side.
★★★★☆
Jayme Bryla
Mystery Road: Series 1
(15) Out Oct 8
Gruff-as-can-be detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) arrives at a remote cattle station in Australia’s Outback to investigate the disappearance of one of the ranch-hands.
He teams up with local cop chief Emma James (Judy Davis) to unravel the riddle, but it seems everyone in this outpost has plenty of secrets.
Jay’s part-Aboriginal heritage and cowboy swagger makes him well-placed to bridge the community’s lingering racial divides, but even so it seems no one wants him here.
This six-part series sags briefly in the middle but is otherwise a stylish detective thriller that joins up satisfyingly at the end.
Its slow pace and beautifully shot scenery means Mystery Road lives up to its billing of being Australia’s answer to True Detective (the good first series).
★★★★☆
Jayme Bryla
The Captain
(15) Out now
Director Robert Schwentke (Insurgent, Allegiant, RED) returns to his native Germany to piece together a violent but stunningly impactful World War 2 drama.
Following the real-life story of Willi Herold, a German soldier who pretends to be a Luftwaffe captain and takes charge of a prison camp where he murders a number of army deserters, The Captain is more than your traditional wartime thriller.
Herold is not an endearing character. He’s a cold, conniving man who lies and tricks his way out of sticky situations – only small lapses of true emotion seep through. During these lapses, though, it’s hard not to doubt your initial opinions of him.
What is most striking, however, is the obedience of officers to their leader – proclamations of “Heil Hitler” are jarring at first but become almost background noise as the story continues.
Their unrelenting obedience to Herold pushes to the forefront. Soldiers follow every word of his orders, regardless of whether they believe it’s right or wrong – echoing wider Nazi Germany.
Whilst it deviates substantially from the true story, the plot The Captain presents is more than that.
Mirrored with powerful black-and-white visuals, it gets you thinking and will keep
you watching past the credits.
★★★★★
Alex Smith
Gloves Off
(12) Out now
Ricky Tomlinson, Denise Van Outen, Paul Barber (Denzil in Only Fools And Horses) and Alexei Sayle feature in this British boxing comedy.
The main roles, though, belong to relatively unknown actors in Brad Moore, Kab Silva and Gary Cargill.
Faced with spiralling debts and a life in turmoil, to save his struggling boxing gym, downtrodden Doug agrees to train a fighter for a bareknuckle bout.
There are minor negatives in its approach to gypsy stereotypes but that hardly undermined the success of Snatch.
The film fuses comedy, romance and pathos and is classic British cinema.
We might not do glitz and glamour but we do make good comedies.
Similar in style to The Full Monty, the only pity is that it probably won’t get the audience it deserves.
★★★★☆
Jarred Bold
Book Club (12)
Out Oct 8
Boasting a stellar cast including Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, this light comedy works to shatter the myth that old women don’t have sex.
After reading Fifty Shades Of Grey at their monthly book club, a widow (Keaton), divorcee (Bergen) and a frustrated wife (Steenburgen), all decide they need a bit more spice in their life. All the while, they’re egged on by Fonda’s character, who plays a sort of elderly Samantha from Sex And The City and loves “getting laid”.
The chemistry between these Hollywood giants is undeniably great, and the film’s message is
important.
Much like the TV show Grace And Frankie (which Fonda also stars in), the film shows that older women have desires too.
However, this is not a clever comedy. The writing is often cringeworthy and the sexual innuendos just never stop. Brace yourself for talk of “lethargic pussies” and very wet “moisture meters”.
★★☆☆☆
Felix Thompson
Dead Night
(18) Out Oct 8
You could say this movie lost the plot.
What little of a storyline this bizarre gorefest has descends into carnage 40 minutes in.
High-school PE instructor James, his wife Casey, their two kids and a pal head to a remote woodland cabin for a weekend away.
While collecting firewood, quirky dad James (a likeable AJ Bowen) finds a collapsed woman, Leslie (Barbara Crampton), who sets about turning the family into zombies despite the best efforts of nurse Casey (Brea Grant).
Throw in some weird old crones watching a stack of TVs in the woods and an odd spiral rock and that’s pretty much it.
The acting is, on the whole, good, and the true-crime TV clips interspersed throughout, looking back on the slayings and pinning them on Casey, add an interesting layer.
But some scenes are so poorly lit they are barely visible, while the tale lacks depth and the entire film just seems a mishmash of scatterbrained ideas flung together with little explanation.
Bewildering.
★☆☆☆☆
Kathy Bell
Ismael’s Ghosts
(15) Out now
A frustrating drama from Arnaud Desplechin about film director Ismael (Bond villain Mathieu Almaric), whose wife, missing presumed dead, returns after 20 years.
Between Almaric, Marion Cotillard as his long-lost wife and Charlotte Gainsbourg as his upstaged partner, there should be plenty to enjoy.
But the decision to cut to a film within a film, with scenes from the main character’s latest project, does not pay off and the tone is inconsistent throughout, negating any engagement with the main mystery. By the end it has become something of a mess.
★★☆☆☆
Ben Martyn
MOST READ IN FILM
Picture Of Beauty
(18) Out now
This so-called “erotic drama” is one certainly not one you’d want to watch with your family.
A British film shot in Poland, it is supposedly based around a French painter who is commissioned to paint for a brothel before the First World War.
However you could be forgiven for missing the entire plot as it is almost non-existent, with the only thread to some kind of storyline coming at the very end of the film with the full reveal of the painting.
With eccentric characters, old-fashioned and brusque sets, it’s a blessing that the running time is only 70 minutes.
☆☆☆☆☆
Emma James
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/the-weeks-top-dvds-including-bad-samaritan-mystery-road-the-captain/
News Pictures The week’s top DVDs including Bad Samaritan, Mystery Road & The Captain
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NINTCHDBPICT000439251857.jpg?strip=all&w=680
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