Movie Squad - The Hurt Locker, Precious, Edge of Darkness, Daybreakers

Show

Breakfast with Barr,

Presenter

Peter Barr

Published

Friday 5th February

No noisy tools here. These men know Film Watching Etiquette and could teach classes in it. Beware the Pittman stare…

Grace, Pittman and Barr are on the proverbial road again to hunt the movies of gold. Along the way they meet Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, preparing to present the Oscars in March. Our Movie Squad men discuss the excessive nature of the 10 Best Film nominations. Listen at your peril…

‘The Hurt Locker’ – directed by Kathryn Bigalow (aka James Cameron’s ex). Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly.

Synopsis – The film follows the members of a U.S. Army EOD unit in Iraq and their tour together as they contend with defusing bombs, the threat of insurgency, and the tension that develops among them.

Verdict (Grace) – Amazing performance by basically a total unknown. Unbearably suspenseful.

‘Precious’ – directed by Lee Daniels. Starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz

Synopsis – Claireece Precious Jones (Sidibe) endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother (Mo’Nique), raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. After she is expelled from school, a social worker (Carey) sees amazing potential and invites her to enroll in an alternative school to keep Precious’ hopes and dreams alive.

Verdict (Grace) – It’s rough around the edges and its very confronting. You may not necessarily want to see it. Fantastic performances. Mo’Nique is absolutely terrifying. Mariah Carey is astonishingly amazing. She blew my mind.

‘Edge of Darkness’ – directed by Martin Campbell. Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston.

Synopsis – Based on a BBC series, this film doesn’t share much with that at all. As homicide detective Thomas Craven (Gibson) investigates the death of his activist daughter, he uncovers not only her secret life, but a corporate cover-up and government collusion that attracts an agent (Winstone) tasked with cleaning up the evidence.

Verdict (Pittman) – It’s an interesting two dimensional revenge thriller, but it’s nice to see Mel Gibson back doing the two dimensional revenge thriller.

‘Daybreakers’ – Directed by Michael Spiering and Peter Spiering. Starring Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, Sam Neil, The Cast of ‘The Secret Life of Us’ (Claudia Karvan, Vince Colissmo, Michael Dorman).

Synopsis – In the year 2019, a plague has transformed most every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival; meanwhile, a researcher works with a covert band of vamps on a way to save humankind.

Verdict (Pittman) – Pretty cool but a bit sloppy. Feels more like a pilot for an interesting TV series. Whilst trying to explain the plot to someone, they asked me if it was written by a 9-year-old. It’s well shot. It does what it says on the tin = vampire romp. Good Effort.