Conflict resolution - (Out this week - 03/12/10)

Somewhat complicated week - not least because of the range of quality films hitting cinemas. I am currently typing in a random hotel in Bournemouth, and am beginning to worry if I'm going to make it back to Manchester this weekend, let alone make it to the local multiplex. I love snow, but apparantly the UK road network is less keen on the concept. (And the computer I'm using is so crap I can't copy and paste so the blobs are just numbers!!!) Film of the week - should it be relevant - is Miral.

No picture either I'm afraid - damned if I can work this thing...

Bathory

The first out of the gate of the Elizabeth Bathory movies, this one stars Anna Friel as the alleged bloodthirsty Countess. This version aims to act as a counterbalance to the popular myth and attempts to show the accusations of mass murder were simply a reaction to a womans quest for power in a world of men.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 3



Be all and End All

British black comedy - I like to warn you up front - about a teenage boy with a fatal heart condition who just wants to lose his virginity before it's too late. I wish I could reach into the screen and tell him it's probably not worth the effort.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 3

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

Follow on from the 1995 TV series "Fist of Fury", itself a remake of the Bruce Lee classic film, Donnie Yen plays the returning legend who infiltrates the Mafia in an attempt to fight off the Japanese armies.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 3

Love Life

Also known as Stricken, this movie looks like a pure slice of European miserablism as Carice van Houten learns of her impending demise whilst having sex in clinical looking apartments.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 3

Megamind

Will Ferrell plays the titular super villian in this latest blcok busting animation with Brad Pitt as his superhero adversary. Will likely be the biggest money maker of this weeks releases, but I can't help thinking it's chances would have been better if it came out before Despicable Me.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 4

Miral

Julian Schnabel's look at the political and religious divides in Jerusalem follows four Palestinian women over forty years. Reviews suggest the ball has been dropped and it fails to hit the heights of Schnabel's previous works, but it's a subject rarely delved into and one that I confess an interest in hence it's high score. Vanessa Redgrave and Willem Dafoe cameo in the movie.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 6

Monsters

This is certainly the runaway favourite with the critics, a monster movie made on a shoestring budget by an up and coming British director Gareth Edwards and blurring the boundaries between romantic road movie and special effect alien invasion pic.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 5

Of Gods and Men

This years French entry for the Foreign language Oscar looks at the passion that drives people to serve God before their self as six monks in a true life story remain in an Algerian monastry in grave danger to themselves. Highly regarded at Cannes.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 4

Rare Exports

This is an unusual Finish take on the Santa Claus stories with a not quite human saint who knows who's naughty and nice but tends to concentrate on the punishments for the naughty. Clearly the most bonkers of this weeks releases, and all the more exciting because of it.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 4

Sectretariat

Horsey drama about the horse that won the triple crown - apparently a major flat racing feat in the US - starring Diane Lane, John Malkovich, James Cromwell and a horse. The clips from the races look fantastic, the rest less so.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 4

Warrior's Way

Massively delayed New Zealand Western with Dong-gun Jang as a warrior assassin forced to assimilate himself in the badlands with Danny Huston and Geoffrey Rush out to get him.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: 3