DAYS OF GLORY

War movie
In Arabic and French with English subtitles

BACKGROUND
French Colonial Forces is a general designation for the military forces that were recruited from the French colonial empire from the late 17th century onwards. This military unit has played a substantial part in support of “mother France”.

In 1942 the Nazis occupied France while vast numbers of the French army were imprisoned in German camps. The colonies became the only source of a replacement army to continue the war effort in support of the Allies.

France conscripted its colonial citizens as soldiers from places such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. They were treated as second-class citizens, referring to them disparagingly as 'indigènes. Senior N.C.O.’s (sergeants and above) and all officers were native Frenchmen.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jamel Debbouze: Private Said, an illiterate Algerian peasant
Sami Bouajila: his superior, fellow countryman Corporal Abdelkader
Roshdy Zem: Messaoud, the company marksman
Samy Naceri: the scrounger Yassir
Assaad Bouab: his younger brother Larbri
Bernard Blancan: squad leader, Frenchman Sergeant Martinez

REVIEW
Several things sets this war movie apart from the others:

It is about a little known aspect of World War II
Very believable (except perhaps for the romantic sub-plot)
No high-tech effects are used

On the other hand, it also shares some of the things we see in better movies:

Excellent performances by the principals
Great cinematography
Crisp editing

CLASSIFICATION
for war violence, brief language.

THE LIVES OF OTHERS

Drama
In German with Enlish subtitles

BACKGROUND
The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (Ministry for State Security), commonly known as the Stasi,was the main secret police and intelligence-gathering organisation of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Stasi was widely regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world with some 100,000 employees and as many as 200,000 informers.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ulrich Mühe: Captain Gerd Wiesler, Stasi interrogator and surveillance specialist
Ulrich Tukur: his superior Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz
Sebastian Koch: playwright Georg Dreyman
Martina Gedeck: his actress-girlfriend Crista Maria Sieland
Thomas Thieme: Minister of Culture Bruno Hempf

REVIEW
A really good film with great acting and a well-written story that does not seem contrived. Although it is somewhat lengthy (2 hours and 17 minutes) it does not seem that long as we are intrigued by the unhurried approach given to developing the character of the principals.

CLASSIFICATION
for some sexuality and nudity.

ZODIAC

True story crime drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jake Gyllenhaal: Robert Graysmith, editorial cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle
Robert Downey Jr.: Paul Avery, crime reporter for the same newspaper
Mark Ruffalo: LAPD Detective Dave Toschi
Anthony Edwards: his partner Bill Armstrong
John Carroll Lynch: suspect Arthur Leigh (Lee) Allen
Brian Cox: famous attorney Melvin Belli

REVIEW
Had they edited it down somewhat, this would have been a really great movie. As it stands though, 2 hours and 43 minutes is far too long and requires a great deal of patience to sit through to the very end.

What a shame because it is finely acted with some nice cinematography and several chilling moments.

CLASSIFICATION
for some strong violence, language, drug use and brief sexual images.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Although the producers have gone to great length to accurately recreate the ambience of the time (smoking at your workplace, people wearing plastic pocket protectors, IBM computers with huge tape drives, Rolodex files etc) a couple of mistakes got past them:

The calendar posted on one of the pillars in the newsroom changes to match the different time periods except when it gets to be July 1972 and the 1971 calendar is still on display.

When Robert slams down the receiver on the green telephone, the curly wire is draped across the numbers. His wife comes in the room and they talk briefly. When she leaves we can see the wire has been put right although neither of them came near the phone.

MY DAUGHTER MY ANGEL

Drama
In French with English sub-titles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Michel Côté: Germain Dagenais, a political advisor
Karine Vanasse: his 18-year old daughter Nathalie
Dominique Leduc: her mother Jeanne
Laurence Leboeuf: Natalie’s best friend Angélique
Christian Bégin: Detective Michel Desrennes

REVIEW
Parents have a difficult time, even well-to-do ones who can afford to send their children to law school. We get to see how one family deals with some major issues and the impact these have on their relationships.

Excellent acting by Nathalie and her father, coupled with solid camerawork makes this a very compelling film.

CLASSIFICATION
for scenes of nudity, sexual content and brief explicit sex.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
During a discussion with her father, a strand of hair gets caught in Natalie’s mouth. The scene changes to focus on her father and then back to her. Her hair is nicely combed and nothing is amiss. The change of viewpoint repeats once more but now the strand of hair is back in her mouth.

MUSIC AND LYRICS

Romantic comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Hugh Grant: Alex Fletcher, former lead singer of a popular musical group
Chris Riley: his agent Brad Garrett
Drew Barrymore: Sophie Fisher, a replacement plant-waterer
Kristen Johnston: her older sister Rhonda
Haley Bennett: Cora Corman, teenage singing superstar

REVIEW
More often than not romantic comedies aren’t. Usually one of the two elements is missing but not this time. There are enough one-liners and innuendo to keep you smiling (and maybe even a real laugh once in a while) and the romance part is not so overdone that it is believable. How refreshing.

CLASSIFICATION
for some sexual content.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Brad comes into Alex’s kitchen and puts his can of Coke down on the counter so that the brand name can be clearly seen. Neither one touches it but when they leave the can is now turned around and the label is no longer visible.

Alex and Sophie have a lengthy discussion in a coffee shop. The camera shots over his shoulder looking at her have his right hand holding his coffee cup but shots from her perspective have his hand in his lap.

Sophie has a large tea in front of her. Although she doesn’t touch the cup, it gets turned around so sometimes we don’t see the name of the coffee shop on it.

After giving a concert, Sophie holds out an unopened bottle of water to Alex while he is talking. The very next shot he finishes his sentence to take a drink from it since the top somehow got removed in mid sentence.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

War
In Japanese with English sub-titles

BACKGROUND
Iwo Jima is a tiny, barren, desolate, volcanic island located about 550 miles south of Tokyo and was the last remaining outpost of the homeland. To the US, the island’s importance lay in its location, midway between Japan and American bomber bases in the Marianas. Beginning in the summer of 1944, the Japanese home islands had been hit by strikes carried out by long-range B-29 bombers. However, the Americans had no fighters with enough range to escort these big superfortresses so many aircraft were lost to Japanese fighter-interceptor attacks.

Iwo Jima, with its three airfields, was ideally located as a fighter-escort station and as a sanctuary for crippled bombers returning from bombing raids over Japan. Both the Empire of Japan and the United States of America wanted control of Iwo Jima, but for entirely different reasons.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ken Watanabe: Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, garrison commander
Tsuyoshi Ninomiya: Baron Nishi, former Olympic equestrian medalist
Kazunari Ninomiya: Private Saigo, conscripted former baker
Ryo Kase: Private? Shimizu, latest arrival and a bit of a loner

REVIEW
There have been few war movies seen from the enemy’s perspective. And there have been even fewer that have the air of realism to it (Das Boot comes to mind) but this one combines that with believable acting entirely in their language, not in poorly spoken English.

Unlike a lot of movies about international conflict, this one does not have an anti-war message about it. In fact it has no hidden agenda; simply showing us a group of people who are not all one-dimensional as the propaganda would have us believe.

The attention to detail is remarkable. For example the dimly lit caves and the muffled background noise of machines on the move recreates the situation to the point we almost can feel it ourselves. Despite the fact it is lengthy (2 hours and 20 minutes) it is compelling viewing and does not seem that long.

CLASSIFICATION
for graphic war violence.

P.S.
The Mark-II hand grenades used by the allies were primed to explode by releasing the safety lever in the process of throwing the ordinance. By contrast the Japanese Type 91 hand grenades were armed by striking the firing pin against an hard object, frequently the soldier’s helmet, which set off the primer and ignited the delay mechanism.

BREACH

Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Chris Cooper: Senior F.B.I. Special Agent Robert Hanssen
Ryan Phillippe: his aide, probationary Special Agent Eric O'Neill
Laura Linney: Eric’s “handler” and mentor Kate Burroughs
Caroline Dhavernas: Eric’s wife Juliana

REVIEW
It’s refreshing to go to a spy movie that you can actually follow and not get totally confused with sub-plots, red herrings and all the other ruses so often employed by filmmakers.

Right at the beginning the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft tells us the outcome so this is not a thriller-type movie. Waiting to find out what happens is not what keeps us in our seats. Instead, it is good solid acting coupled with excellent writing that fleshes out the principal characters as real people. The absence of heroics makes it all that more believable.

CLASSIFICATION
for profanity, sexual material and drug content.