Entry Eleven

The Assassination Bureau: Pretty dry attempt at mixing black comedy and action in this 60s movie, starring the reliable Oliver Reed and Diana Rigg. Set just before World War I, Rigg plays a woman desperate to become a respected journalist, and who manages to track down the leader of an international syndicate of assassins, headed by Oliver Reed. When she hires his firm to assassinate him, he accepts and tells his colleagues that unless they kill him, he will kill them. This leads them on a chase through Europe as both parties try to kill one another. Despite the game performances from the two leads, this is predictable, and at times, dull stuff, with Rigg almost disappearing in the final 20 minutes for Reed to deal with the bad guys on his own.

Volver: Pedro Almodovar's latest film revolves around a family of women, headed by Penelope Cruz as a newly single mother trying to start a new business while dealing with her past. It's engaging stuff, with Cruz radiant in a role that the camera positively leers at, with shots of her bountiful cleavage the norm. And despite the inherent darkness in the plot, there's a light and airy feeling to the movie, which seems to alleviate the the whole proceedings. Cruz can sing, too.

Career Girls: British film about two women who meet again 6 years after they parted from University and the film flashes back between their present day reunion and their lives together previously. I enjoyed the film, and while I thought the performances were on the whole, good, felt that that the portrayal of the women as students was a little too eccentric, and slightly hard to reconcile with their slightly more mature counterparts. It's a film of decided warmth though, and has some very funny moments. The DVD also contains a short film by director Mike Leigh, Short & Curlies, starring David Thewlis as a man who seems to be only able to communicate by jokes, and his relationship with a Pharmacy countergirl. It's quirky, though probably not to everyone's taste.

Thief of Bagdad: Tremendous Arabian adventure movie from the 30s in glorious technicolor. A prince who's overthrown by his evil vizier meets a thief in jail (played by Sabu) and they escape to Basra where the prince falls in love with the princess, only to be blinded by the vizier who has come to claim the princess' hand. He and thief (who has been turned into a dog) then set about finding the princess, which takes them on a series of mystical adventures, and features some fine special effects, some 20 years before Ray Harryhausen delighted audiences with them. The photography is superb, and though the film took over 2 years to make and involved 6 directors, suprisingly coherent. It's a perfect escapism film, and shows just what the British film industry could do and it's zenith.

Get Smart: This updated version of the noted 60s series is funny and entertaining, and rests entirely on the back of the considerable talents of Steve Carell. When the entire roster of Control's agents' identities have become known, it falls upon former Control analyst Max Smart and recently returned Agent 99 to discover what their mortal enemies, Kaos, are up to. Despite it's lull into sub-Bond action towards the end, there are some genuinely hilarious moments in the movie (such as Smart's attempts to free himself using his Swiss Army Knife Crossbow attachment), and Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, and Alan Arkin all provide able support.