By Roger Moore



FILM: Beyond the Reach
CAST: Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irvine, Hanna Mangan Lawrence
DIRECTION: Jean-Baptiste Leonetti

The Most Dangerous Game is one of the more enduring thriller formulas. About a big game hunter who longs to take a shot at human beings, “the most dangerous” of all game “animals”, it’s been adapted every few years since Richard Connell’s short story first appeared, back in 1924.
The hunter’s unarmed prey must outwit and turn the tables on the rich psychopath. You mess with that can’t-miss formula at your own peril, something the novelist Robb White knew when he “borrowed” the plot for his novel Death Watch, which in turn led to a 1974 TV movie (Savages) starring Andy Griffith as the crazed hunter.
Jeremy Irvine is Ben, “the best tracker in the county” in his corner of the desert Southwest. The sheriff (Ronnie Cox) swears by him, which is why Ben is summoned to take super-rich businessman Madec out into the wastelands, beyond “The Reach” (a geographic feature) in search of a trophy bighorn sheep.
Madec (Michael Douglas) makes a little metaphoric show of “establishing a dominance hierarchy” with his new employee, much as bighorn sheep do in their herds. Ben is leery of this guy with the over-equipped six-wheel Mercedes SUV, his sat phone, portable espresso machine, imported rifle and imported scope. But the kid needs the cash. His girlfriend (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) is off at college, and Madec is quick to crack about how easy it will be for her to move on from a poor uneducated hick like Ben.
A big business deal is in the offing. Madec is impatient and trigger happy. There’s an accident. And before Ben can respond to it, the hunter, “a fast thinker”, has covered his tracks and figured that lone eyewitness Ben needs to run off into the desert, with nothing but his watch and his underwear, and die.
Irvine makes a convincing Ben. Douglas makes a good villain out of a cardboard construction.  - TNS


An engaging war drama


By Troy Ribeiro



FILM: American Sniper
CAST: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict
DIRECTION: Clint Eastwood
 
Based on the biography of one of America’s best snipers, Chris Kyle, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper is an engaging war drama that is raw and emotional and is one of his best films as a director.
The film is more than a tribute to Chris. It is a character study of a man who travels to and from war, while his wife, Taya, and kids await his arrival.
The film encapsulates the complex internal as well as external turmoil of Chris, starting from his childhood right through his marriage and short career span that lasted only four trips to the strife-torn zone in Iraq.
From the opening sequence itself, you are sucked into a moral dilemma: should Chris shoot the mother and child? Are they a threat or is there just a misunderstanding? The sniper’s decision and the justification for his action lay the foundation of the narration.
But what makes the tale interesting is that despite Chris’ predicament, what is it that makes him restlessly gravitate to the war zone? Is it his penchant for shooting or his moral responsibility to be the guardian angel of the ground troops? This is the crux of the film.
The film at a certain stage seems like an American propaganda. It glorifies and justifies their mission in Iraq. It also stirs a strong patriotic fervour and Eastwood’s direction does nothing to underplay this.
The beefed up Bradley Cooper delivers an incredible performance. He displays the grit, grime and pain of the war and his personal inner conflict with equally measured ease.
Sienna Miller as Chris’ wife Taya is convincing and her angst is palpable.
 Overall, American Sniper is a well-crafted film. -IANS


An incomplete work


By Troy Ribeiro



FILM: The Lazarus Effect
CAST: Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger
DIRECTION: David Gelb

Edgily balancing between the science fiction and horror genres, The Lazarus Effect is a poorly crafted film that has nothing original about it. And, the execution of the idea is both ineffectual and lethargic.
Set within the confines of a laboratory at St Peternus University in Berkeley, California, the story follows a group of four medical researchers lead by Fank (Mark Duplass) and his fiance Zoe (Olivia Wilde). The quartet are working under a grant from the college to experiment with something that could revolutionise the mechanics of modern science. In their endeavour, they develop a serum that could bring the dead back to life.
This revolutionary experiment would definitely benefit humanity, but unfortunately, how their plans go topsy-turvy, forms the crux of the narration. While this brief may sound interesting theoretically, director David Gelb’s work of art is disappointing.
The first act of the film has verbose exposition where characters rattle off their frustrations spouting clichés and technical terms, creating a chaotic conflict which is unclear. It is only after the initial experiment when the dead dog comes back to life that the flow of events and narration is comprehensible to an extent.
In the second act, when Zoe accidentally dies and is later revived, strange things begin happening to her — she can move objects through telekinesis, and, this being a horror film, she’s possessed by the sudden desire to murder everyone around her. The abrupt end makes the film look like an incomplete work. -IANS

DVDs courtesy:
Saqr Entertainment Stores, Doha

A star vehicle


By Moira Macdonald



FILM: Focus
CAST: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro
DIRECTION: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

Sometimes, reviewing a movie is like trying to grab on to a goldfish in a bowl. It just keeps slipping away, and you can’t get your hands around it, and you begin to wonder why on Earth you were trying to capture this goldfish anyway.
In the case of the Will Smith heist comedy Focus, it’s as if you suddenly looked down, after repeated attempts, and realised there’s no goldfish in that bowl at all, and that you’ve been trying to grab something that isn’t there.
Focus isn’t really a movie, but a star vehicle, in which Smith wears nice clothes and says some slick things in some pretty locations. There’s no personality, no chemistry, almost no wit and certainly no goldfish.
Smith plays a career con man named Nicky, who crosses paths in New York with a lovely young blonde named Jess (Margot Robbie) who’d like to learn his trade. They are, theoretically, attracted to each other, but after he’s taught her a few things involving theft and sleight-of-hand, he breaks it off — only to bump into her again, years later, in Buenos Aires, as one does.
All this sounds like it might be good, Ocean’s 11-type fun, and the early scenes have an elegant sheen to them that’s appealing ... but then, you just keep waiting for the movie to start, and it doesn’t.   - The Seattle Times/TNS

DVDs courtesy:
Kings Electronics, Doha