During
the last days of the Korean war, the armies of both North and South
Korea battle for an isolated mountain, as which side possesses it is
essential for the final demarcation of the armistice border between
the North and the South during the ceasefire talks between both
sides. May I mention that both countries are still, technically, at
war, as no peace treated has ever been signed.
It
is quite interesting that The Front Line has been filmed now, as the
tension between the North and the South has again arisen, with
accusations and counter-accusations being thrown across the Armistice
line between the heavily armed but economically weak North, and the
South, one of the strongest economies in South East Asia. It is also
significative that the opening scene shows a military jeep wading its
way in the streets of Seoul through a demonstration held by students
who oppose the war and claim for the reunification of Korea. As it is
when one of the protagonists of the film, Lieutenant Kim Soo-Hyeok,
exclaims that “the enemy is the war itself, not the commies”.
This
is a film about people who have died long before they actually die,
because of the brutality of the war, because of the many who they had
to kill, because killing becomes like breathing... Or, as Cha
Tae-kyeong (Ok-bin Kim), a deadly sniper in the North's army
nicknamed Two Seconds (because the bullet hits its target two seconds
before the shot is heard), says, after she has killed yet another
soldier from the South: “What that the boy who sang?” Or the
commander in the North's army, who used to know why he was fighting,
but he had long forgotten it in the mud, the rot and the blood
spilled on both sides.
The
way I read it, director Hun Jang did not make an anticommunist North
propaganda film per se, but rather cast his eye on the battle
fatigued people who were actually fighting each other rather than the
rather paranoid leaders and high brass from both Seoul and Pyongyang,
as we see Lieutenant Kang Eun-Pyo, the officer who was in that jeep,
being later reprimanded as he criticised his superiors for labelling
commies peasants who were given a gun and a kind of uniform by the
North just because they wanted something to eat. The climate and the
geography are unforgiving, have no illusions about that. The
depiction of this brutal war is also unforgiving, no illusions about
that either, so if you, readers, cannot stand scenes of extreme
violence, then this film is not for you.
Security
Command Lieutenant Kang Eun-Pyo (Ha-kyun Shin) has been sent to
investigate a possible communist infiltration in the so-called
Alligator Company, based in the Eastern front line, and the
suspicious death of its commander, who was found to have been killed
by a pistol used by the officers of the South Korean army. Once in
the Aero-k Hills, Kang Eun-Pyo finds his old friend Kim Soo-Hyeok
(Soo Goo) as a Lieutenant, also commanding the troops, a man he
thought was missing in action in an early episode of the war that we
see in a flashback. What he finds in those tough hills was not a
communist plot or infiltration, but extremely weary and fatigued
soldiers from both sides who just had enough of the war and who, in
between the fighting, had managed to establish some kind of human
contact. The kind of situation that is seen as intolerable in both
Seoul, as we see in the film, and we suppose in Pyongyang too, but we
do not see that as The Front Line is narrated from a South Korean
point of view.
The
themes in The Front Line are not new per se, the blood (of the
soldiers) and the glory (of the leaders), the two comrades in war who
face each other, but they fight together against all odds, the
liaisons established between enemy soldiers on the battle ground, the
hill which has changed hands more than thirty times just for the
leaders and the generals to draw a line on a map. However, director
Hun Jang has put them brilliantly together here, resulting in a film
which is both visceral in its realism yet intelligent in the way it
deals with its subject. This is not a war epic, but a film about war.
However, I thought that the flashbacks, while vital in many occasions
to understand the unfolding story, were also overdone.
The
discs also contain the following enlightening features:
Making
of
Aero-k
Hill – Action and SFX making of
A
daily record of battle – Making of production
Ceasefire
Agreement – Production design
The
Front Line is released in Britain by Cine-Asia on DVD and Bluy-ray on
Monday 27 February 2012.
In
the final decisive battles of The Korean War, the battle-worn armies
of North and South Korea face a brutal deadlock on the rugged Aerok
Hills. Fears of treachery and collusion with enemy forces trigger an
investigation into the men of the South Korean Alligator Company.
A
veteran intelligence officer accepts the assignment and discovers
mysterious and tragic occurrences surrounding a former comrade he had
long thought dead.
In
the epic battle for survival that follows, the two men become locked
in a deadly battle of wills. One will sacrifice his humanity for the
sake of his ‘brothers’; the other will discover compassion in the
agonies of war. Ultimately, both will be forced to fight
side-by-side, so their loved ones can enjoy freedom for just one more
day…
Daddy was right. She
shouldn't have gone to the pageant.
Murky is one of those
words which have been used, and misused, too many times. However,
Gerardo Naranjo (his excellent I'm Gonna Explode still lingers in my
memory) has captured the visceral murkiness of the drug wars and
institutional corruption in Northern Mexico in Miss Bala, where
nothing is what seems to be, where the violence has become as much as
part of daily life as the weather. Miss Bala is not only a dramatic
example of cinema vérité
at its best, but also a gripping thriller on its own right. Issue
based cinema can also be entertaining, and Miss Bala certainly is,
with its fast pace and more turns and twists than a plate of drunken
spaghetti. Yet it left a sour taste in the mouth long after having
viewed it.
Laura
Guerrero (model turned actress Stephanie Sigman is admirable in her
first role), a 23 year old young woman, jokes with her friend that
the prize for the winner of the pageant to choose Miss Baja
California is not only the crown, but also to sleep with one of those
rich guys behind it. If she had known how prophetic were those words!
Laura is just a young woman who wants to get out of her rather
plodding life in a provincial city in the North of Mexico, to make
some money, joining the queue of the many others who aspire at
something else in their lives.
By
being on the wrong place at the wrong time, Laura becomes involved in
the violent drug wars ravaging the Northern provinces of the country,
as she witnesses the attack on a night club used by the police by a
gang of narcos, led by Lino Valdez (Noe Hernández is admirable in
his portrayal of Lino's psychopathic intensity and intelligence), the
battles between the narcos and the estate para-military police being
openly warfare, those scenes being admirably set up by Naranjo. Three
tense days follow, during which she becomes a drug mula for the
traffickers between the USA and Mexico, worrying for the fate of her
little brother and her father, a winner of the crown of Miss Baja
California after the rather convincing intervention of Lino, and a
sexual pawn who is used by both Lino and General Duarte (Miguel
Couturier), the commander of the estate police force – she was
right, she became the prize for the General...
Stephanie
Sigman's performance is one of the best I have watched in recent
times with her ability to portray the wide range of human emotions
crossing the character of Laura Guerrero, the young woman caught as
an unwilling pawn in the narco war, as she witnesses the atrocities
that happen in front of her eyes, betrayed by those who thought she
could trust upon, and, ultimately, realizing she was as much as an
expendable pawn as the American DEA agent, Kike Camara (José
Yenque), was, murdered in an horrific fashion in front of her. As much of Mexican society is.
Naranjo
does not moralize in Miss Bala, he constructs instead a vivid picture
of how is to live in a society where brutal violence is a daily
occurrence that can erupt at any moment anywhere, where institutional
corruption means that no one is what seems to be, where the narcos,
los valientes (the fearless) are seen by many as another players in
this war rather than as mere criminals, where both authorities, the
estate police. and the traffickers benefit from each other as
parasites do.
When
the last scene of Miss Bala is over, I just did not know any longer
what was what in this mêlée. This is what Naranjo has so admirable
conveyed, that behind that apparent façade of social order being
imposed by force there is only a desolate land: existential and
social emptiness.
Miss
Bala is out in DVD in Britain on 20th
February 2012.
In Bruno Dumont's film,
Hadewijch, a novice in a Catholic convent who has taken her religious
name from a 13th century mystic, has fallen in love with
Christ, and desperately seeks catharsis for her desires for Him. The Mother Superior
decides to expel her as, in her words, her love of God and the Son of
God has become obsessive, the world could offer opportunities for her
that the walls of the convent could not. Her words became prophetic
in unintended ways.
I can distinguish in Dumont's film, who has a
background in Greek and philosophy, three chapters, although they seamlessly blends into a coherent
whole:
The love for Christ
Seeking catharsis
Catharsis
Once she is back in
Paris with her parents in their sumptuous baroque apartment, her
steps echoing through the vast rooms, Céline's
days, she has gone back to her civilian name, drift between waiting
for her exams results, caring for her beloved dog, praying and
wandering around. The camera zooms to her hands playing with a
crucifix as she meets three Arab boys in a café,
and she eagerly goes with them to a gig on the Seine. An uneasy
relationship develops between her and Yassine, one of the boys,
although she rejects his advances as she is a virgin, and wants to
stay that way, in spite of her eagerness to befriend strangers,
because she wants to give herself to Christ. Yassine, whilst
respecting her, finds difficult to understand her feelings. Céline
invites the boy for lunch with her parents, an occasion that
amplifies their differences as he rebukes her for calling her father,
a government minister, a “jerk”.
However,
this chance meeting with Yassine leads her to an encounter with
Islamic Fundamentalism through his brother, Nassir, a religious
studies workshop leader. She seeks his advice, as a religious man, as
she believes he can help her in her quest for God, for Christ. He
recruits her for his campaign to avenge the humiliation of his people
after a visit to Lebanon, where she witnesses the aftermath of an
Israeli aerial attack, where she sees the smoking ruins of a house,
the body of a little boy killed in the bombardment, and, most of all,
she experiences the anger, that anger coming from the guts. In a
democracy, there are no innocents, is Nassir's argument, so we all
are target for punishment. In her sacrifice, she glimpses her union
with Christ.
Céline
is a very open and innocent young girl, at no moment she hides or
flaunts the comfort and wealth of her family, in a way, she sees them
as much as an obstacle to her desire to give herself to Christ as her
body is. There is a recurrent theme in the film, the film opens with
it, as we watch Céline
climbing a steep hill, panting, crying, reaching a shrine on a hill
top church, where she prays for her beloved Christ, the symbolic value of this ascent being visually beautifully rendered. However, she has
developed in her quest with each appearance of this film, culminating
in the last scene where she, at last, finds her catharsis in an
unexpected manner.
Julie
Sokolowski gives a powerful and nuanced yet low key rendering of the
path that Hadewijch has taken to reach her goal, while Yassine Salime
as Yassine gives an excellent performance as the Arab boy from the
projects (council housing) with no training nor job, while Karl
Sarafidis conveys the low burning yet explosive anger of Nassir for
the humiliation of his people. David Dewaele plays the small time
crook doing odd jobs at the convent, where he meets Hadewijch.
Hadewijch,
a meditative cinematic study on the nature of religious faith and passion,
carnal passion, and their impact in contemporary society, offers some
thoughtful insights on the nature of terrorism, Julie Sokolowski
particularly being worth of praise for the depth and development of
her character.
Hadewijch
will be released by New Wave Films on selected British cinemas on
February 17, 2012.
There
are some films which are the better precisely because they are
difficult to put into a labelled box, such as teenage angst,
thriller, horror, murder, or whatever. Antonio Campos' sparse yet
mesmerizing Afterschool is certainly one of those, apart of also
being visually brilliant, and, interestingly, sporting a sound track
almost devoid of music, environmental sound being exquisitely
sculpted as a counterpoint to the narrative.
Ezra
Miller somehow manages to put a strongly expressive depiction of
Robert, yet simultaneously conveying his lack of expression of his
inner feelings to the outside world. This is quite an achievement for
a young actor, Afterschool being his first film. Robert is a closed
book to all those around him, the master of the private East Coast
boarding school (Michael Stuhlbarg), to the school councillor (Gary
Wilmes), to his girlfriend (Addison Timlin as Amy), to his room mate,
Dave (Jeremy Allen White). We do not see his parents, apart from a
brief phone conversation with his mother that we overhear, a
conversation where he does not say much, either. With a few brush
strokes, Ezra Miller paints the character of a troubled, lonesome
boy, who finds his pleasure watching masochist porn on the internet,
later trying some of what he has seen on Amy, who becomes, for a
short period of time, his girlfriend. A boy that conveys very little
to the outside world, yet who has a kind of pent up energy inside him
that he, perhaps, cannot either control or understand. Monster?
Psychopath?
Antonio
Campos does not give any indication of what is to follow, there is no
and they lived happily afterwards that distinguishes so many
mainstream movies, no sense of closure of any kind. The very last
scene, in the school library, is telling on this respect. It is for
us to ponder what this lonesome boy is to become, mass murderer or
poet? Rapist, or genius? The sound track is a powerful factor in this
clinical and cold stare of the lens on the character, as there is
almost no music to emotionally guide us in what has been, in what is
to come. Environmental sounds have been moulded and sculpted to
punctuate the dialogue, the silences, no sweet notes to accompany the
lovemaking between Robert and Amy, only the chirping of birds, the
rustle of the wind; or the sharp staccatos of a tray falling in the
canteen, drowning the conversation between the youngsters. There is a
hint of Haneke here, as it has been pointed out by other critics,
those non judgemental eyes, that non judgemental lens staring at the
abyss that lies behind the apparent calmness of the human condition.
The
other interesting point in Afterschool is how the camera is used
under Campos' direction, gone are the thirds composing rule, we often
see main characters either on the edge of the frame, or partly
outside it, we see bodies and no heads, the camera pans on a room and
we see only the top of the heads of people crouching, or a beautiful
bokeh in a school hall for a spot to come forwards, metamorphosing
into Robert. By using the camera in this manner, Campos is constantly
conveying a sense of disorientation, of uneasiness, of not knowing
what is what, of the kind of existential limbo that constitutes the
world as seen through Robert's eyes.
The
outline of the story is, really, quite simple. The complexities lies
in the psychological level, in what lies underneath our actions.
Robert, a young student, decides to take video as his after class
activity, that all students are urged to take (although McDonalds
will probably be still hiring staff after graduation, as the
schoolmaster cheekily mentions). Exploring the school buildings with
the camera, he happen to capture the death of the Talbot twins, two
beautiful and popular young girls. He apparently helps the one still
surviving, until she dies in his arms. And this is the point, we do
not know what actually happened, even with the video camera running,
as Robert was giving his back to the lens. We learn, later, that the
girls died from a poisoned drug overdose. So, who actually gave the
drug to them? Someone inside the school? A climate of paranoia is
created. The staccatos in the sound track exacerbates it. The
uncertainty of the memorial video is crucial to depict this
atmosphere.
Did
he kill the surviving Talbot girl? If he did, was that an act of
mercy? Or was he play acting on what he has seen in the cesspit that
the internet can also be?
Campos
does not give a clear indication of what is what, he throws the
questions at us, open ended questions. The whole film has been
constructed with this aim in mind.
This is the brilliance of Afterschool.
AFTERSCHOOL (18) is available to buy in Britain on 13th February 2012, RRP £9.99
It is distributed by Network Releasing.
Special features:
Deleted scenes
Mobile phone videos
Teacher testimonials
New York Film Festival trailer
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
AN
INTERVIEW WITH ANTONIO CAMPOS, DIRECTOR OF “AFTERSCHOOL” (18)
STARRING
EZRA MILLER FROM "WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN"
1.
What was your inspiration for making the film?
In
my last year of high school, 9/11 happened in our first week back.
That day my best friend's father died in one of the towers, and at
the end of that year, after we all graduated, another close friend of
mine died in a freak accident in Amsterdam. It was a strange time,
and the bookending of that with these two events was quite confusing.
I felt very connected and disconnected at the same time, and all the
ideas I had had for films I wanted to make seemed somewhat trivial at
the time. Then I had this idea about a boy who witnesses the death of
two girls by drug overdose--girls he had never spoken to and only
knew from passing in the hallway or through gossip. How does he deal
with it versus everyone around him? For me, the idea being how does
he deal with it feeling so close but at the same time disconnected
from the death.
2.
Are the internet clips shown at the beginning of your film real and
why did you choose them? Did nastycumholes.com ever
really exist?
Some
of them are real and some of them were staged by us. I wanted to give
a pretty broad spectrum of what you see on Youtube or Youtube kind of
sites, in no particular order, almost in the way that you could
potentially consume them online. So if you haven't seen that
particular clip of THAT baby, you most likely have seen something
like it.
Unfortunately,
I wanted to have a clip from a TV show somewhere, but this would have
been impossible to get clearance for or to recreate.
Nastycumholes.com doesn't exist. We had to come up with a porn
website that didn't exist, which if you ever try to do, you will
realize is nearly impossible. Almost every filthy combination of
words has been taken. My art director who was designing the site and
i kept throwing ideas around, and one of our young actors came in and
started throwing some pretty awful, disgusting names around. But he
landed on "nastycumorifices" which wasn't quite right
but close. So we replaced orifices with holes and we had it.
Apparently, it was only the dirty mind of a teenager that could come
up with something so offensive that no adult could come up with!
3.
Is Afterschool a positive or negative portrayal of the YouTube
generation? Has the internet made people in general better or worse?
It's
really the portrayal of one boy who happens to be part of this
generation. And it isn't necessarily a positive or negative portrayal
in my mind, really just a portrayal; whether it's good or not, it's
up to the audience to decide. I think the internet, like any
technology, comes with its positive and its negatives, but the fact
is that technology for as much as we try to use it to bring people
together, ultimately works in doing the opposite somehow.
4.
How difficult was it to get such a natural performance from the young
cast?
It
wasn't difficult. As a director, you just need to listen and treat
your young actors with as much seriousness and respect as your older
actors. Their opinions on things are just as valid. The kids also
spent a lot of time getting to know one another before and during the
shoot,and that comfort and chemistry carried over into the film.
5.
If you could go back in time to make films, what decade would you
choose and why?
Sometimes
I think I would like to go back and be making films in the 70s when
there was a real freedom in the studio system and American mainstream
cinema was really daring. Other times, I'd like to go back to the 40s
or 50s in Hollywood where the studio system was really strong and you
had all these wonderful craftsmen from the crew to actors all on the
same lot, constantly making movies. Obviously, there were huge
restrictions but at the same time, it just made filmmakers work
harder and be more creative to be subversive in their work. At the
end of the day, I wasn't there, and there must be some reason that I
was born when I was to be making movies now.
6.
What¹s the craziest experience you¹ve had so far promoting this
film?
We
had been asked last minute to show Afterschool at a private club's
screening series. In the back and forth with the coordinator, we
realized that this screening wasn't being held at the club but at a
much bigger theatre in Times Square. Unfortunately, I was in a
festival in Nashville but my producer Sean Durkin and actors Ezra
Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Jeremy Allen White went to
the Q&A. First, my actors were greeted by a big bouncer outside
the theatre who upon discovering they were the stars of the film,
said, "You know, if you need any protection, I've got your back.
For now, maybe you should get back stage quickly since the movie's
getting out soon." Confused, they asked "Why?" "Well
this is a screening series for senior citizens. They came here
tonight thinking they were going to see The Soloist (with Jamie Foxx
and Robert Downey, Jr.). No one told them that was cancelled and that
they were screening your film. Once the film started, people started
screaming, 'This isn't The Soloist! Where's Jamie Foxx? Where's
Robert Jr.?!' And people started leaving in groups, complaining to
management. I haven't seen your film, but people are pissed."
They go backstage, and eventually Sean arrives and hears the story.
The critic who is moderating the event--a local NYC TV critic-- gets
backstage, completely flustered and annoyed. "Who's the
director? Who directed this?!?" Sean tells him why I'm not
there. "Oh! Great! The director doesn't even show up. You know,
I had no idea they were showing this tonight. I'm not taking
responsibility for this." He introduces Sean, Ez, and Jeremy to
the stunned audience of elderly people (of which there are still two
to three hundred) and right away says "I'm not going to say
anything, except to let you know I had nothing to do with this
screening choice. I thought we were gonna see The Soloist."
Still very flustered, "I guess I'll just ask one question and
then open it up. Why would you want to make this film?" They
all give their answers, unwavering about why everyone involved was
excited about the film. Well, the critic just didn't have anything
else to say, and the angry audience was unleashed on them. "This
was the worst movie I've ever seen. Why couldn't you have made a nice
movie like The Soloist? What was the point of that?! Why would they
show a movie about these crazy kids to people our age?!?" So
they answer all the questions they can, politely. Apparently, they
were very excited about such a heated response, as I would have been
too. But then the tide turned. Someone stood up and very loudly said
"All of you who booed this film or who left the theatre should
be ashamed of yourselves! We're not just a bunch of senile senior
citizens who need to be shown nice pictures every week. This is the
most important film we've ever been shown at this series. This film
is about the world that our grandchildren are living in and we should
be seeing more films like this!" At this point, half of the
remaining audience gave a loud applause. The critic who began with
nothing nice to say, kind of slumped back into his seat, and said
"Well, yeah, I guess that is true. This film portrays a world we
haven't seen much in films." The discussion went on for so long
after this, between the people from the film and even between
audience members that the critic said that he had to leave and that
everyone could stay if they wanted to but most of his Q&As don't
last this long and he had to get home to his kids. So he left, and
Sean, Ezra, and Jeremy stayed with the audience for another
half-an-hour discussing the film with the audience of passionate
senior citizens. By far the best post screening discussion.
7.
What web site could you not live without?
I'm
sure I could live without any of them if I had to. I would say IMDb
or Youtube, but 10 years ago I didn't have any of them and I was
fine.
8.
What advice do you have for young filmmakers trying to make their
first feature?
Do
something personal and do something for as small of a budget as
possible, since the smaller the budget the smaller the risk for the
investors and the bigger the freedom you'll have to take risks. In
general, I think young filmmakers should experiment as much as
possible with their short films. You'll quickly realize what you like
and what you don't like, what you're interested in pursuing and what
bores you.
And
by the time you get to your first feature, your voice as filmmaker
will be a lot clearer and louder.
Nopporn Watin's Yamada
Way of the Samurai, while offering a series of spectacular Thai
boxing action sequences, is actually based in real events that
happened in Siam (nowadays, Thailand) during the 17th
century.
A young Japanese
Samurai warrior, Yamada Nagamasa (Seigi Ozeki), has a painful secret
in his heart, the secret being that the bandits terrorizing the
kingdom are, in fact, fellow Japanese, an elite force of Samurais.
Betrayed and left half dead by them, he manages to flee, seeking
refuge in a remote village, where he recovers and decides that his
heart is where the land will cover his face when he dies, and that
land is Siam under King Naresuan.
As he knows that his
former comrades will seek him to silence him for ever, he masters the
art of Muay Boran, or Thai boxing, a devastating martial art form
that uses eight weapons: two arms, two legs, to elbows and two knees.
Yamada, after joining the fearless elite force of King Naresuan's
body guards, confronts his former comrades, and wins the fight.
Knowing he cannot return to Japan, his wishes are granted and dies in
Siam after a long life.
Whilst Yamada Way of
the Samurai is based on historical events, they are in fact used as a
vehicle to show the spectacular Thai boxing fights, which are
excellently rendered, with a camera that moves from long view to
close ups with the same precision as the boxers have. Whilst the film
was beautifully shot in the Thai landscape, the story itself is too
shallow to have much credibility, both the dialogue and the scenes
becoming too repetitive in parts, which exasperated me to no end (I
almost fell asleep), and as I wasn't expecting too much in the acting
front from these excellent Thai boxers, I wasn't that disappointed by
it.
In short, Yamada Way
of the Samurai is a film for the martial arts fans, they will not be
disappointed with the fight sequences.
Before I forget, I must
add that the little girl was simply adorable!
Yamada Way of the
Samurai is out on DVD and Blu-ray for sale in Britain in a special
collector's edition, distributed by Cine Asia.
Cash seems to have been
openly designed for the
American market, presumably the producers expecting to cash from the
larger than life figure of Jean Reno's, whom I first met in the
silver screen in Léon,
together with a delightful Natalie Portman, still a child then.
Cash, directed by Éric
Besnard, which could well have been called Twister, as the twists
piled upon twists upon... well, you get the picture, I hope, left my
head and my limbs entwined so tightly that I somehow managed to get
sense of myself, and the film, as there are several strands in the
storytelling which, I gather, have been designed to throw us, the
audience, out from our tracks. I reckon this will be the allure for
many, apart of the rather corpulent figure of Jean Reno filling the
screen every time he appears, his figure giving even a heavier
impression by the choice of suits he wears.
There is a scam that
went wrong at the beginning, leaving the perpetrator dead, leading to
the subsequent revengeful actions by a rather gallant and skilful
scoundrel, Cash (Jean Dujardin), which is partly a plan to entrap a
corrupt police officer, Julia Molina (Valeria Golino), and partly a
plan to not too gently relieve a rich Southafrican of his substantial
cargo of diamonds, which is were Maxime (Jean Reno), a mastermind
that several European police forces would like to get their hands
onto, gets into the action. The beauty of this plan is that, as the
stones are unregistered, therefore non existent in the eyes of the
law, no crime will be committed.
The plan to get the
diamonds is actually highly implausible, relying on too many
coincidences to make any sense at all, but still quite fun to watch
as it develops, all set in an environment that the poor of the earth,
like myself, do not usually get to see, such as a luxury barge in the
Seine, a five star hotel in the South of France, and a mansion which
Maxime uses to lure punters (or pigeons, as I learned a new meaning
of the word designating that most misunderstood of all birds), which
could be rented for the day.
The pace of the film is
fast, resulting in the fact that I was all the time wondering where I
was. The actors are agreeable, although is very unlikely they will
get any prizes for their performances, and Reno gets to cash his
cheque for basically filling the silver screen with his presence and
little else. However, he is good at that, so I am not complaining.
Cash
is released today 6th
February 2012 in DVD & Blu Ray formats
in Britain by Metrodome Distribution.
Running
Time: 100
Minutes
DVD RRP:
£15.99 / Cert:
TBC