Latest News

05 / 11 / 2008
Review: After the gruelling James Bond press junket tour, I bet Daniel Craig could use a Quantum of Solace.

02 / 11 / 2008
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Japan are in - just one rally to go and still the lead keeps changing! See how your team fared or see the Japanese rally results. Any of the top ten could still claim overall honours!

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Brad Pitt steals the latest from the Coen brothers: Burn After Reading.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Simon Pegg learns How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Ben Stiller directs stars aplenty in Tropic Thunder.

12 / 10 / 2008
Review: A few words on some recent movies: RocknRolla,
Death Race,
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,
Space Chimps,
Stuck,
The Babysitters,
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder,
Son of Rambow,
Jack and Jill vs the World,
Made of Honor,
Meet Dave,
Doomsday,
Pathology.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review: You can mess with Adam Sandler, but You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review: Mike Myers tickles some chakras in The Love Guru.

14 / 08 / 2008
Review: Toot and come in, it's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

14 / 08 / 2008
Review: You can stop watching the skies now, it's The X Files: I Want to Believe.

31 / 07 / 2008
Review: Batman Began and now continues in The Dark Knight.

24 / 07 / 2008
Review: The Chronicles of Narnia continue with Prince Caspian.

23 / 07 / 2008
Review: Pixar goes Short Circuit with Wall-E.

22 / 07 / 2008
Review: Jules Verne never envisaged a 3D version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Jet Li and Jackie Chan team up in The Forbidden Kingdom.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Will Smith keeps the streets safe and smelling of booze in Hancock.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: M Night Shyamalan's latest, The Happening.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Spanish creepy-creepy The Orphanage.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: A quick catchup of movies that don't get the full treatment:
Be Kind Rewind,
Street Kings,
What Happens In Vegas,
Superhero Movie,
The Ruins and
Teeth.

08 / 07 / 2008
Review: Bend that bullet Angelina! Wanted.

01 / 07 / 2008
Review: Those cats were fast as lightning - Kung Fu Panda.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review: Don't make Ed Norton angry - The Incredible Hulk.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review: Carrie and Big's wedding, it can only be Sex and the City.

11 / 06 / 2008
Review: Everyone's favourite pot-addicts are back in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review: Harrison Ford returns in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review: Tube driver seeks suicidal man in Three and Out.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review: CGI fantasy motor racing in Speed Racer.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review: Your creases will fly away with Iron Man.

18 / 08 / 2005
Sudoku! Have a go at the online Sudoku game.

Plenty more
See the rest of the reviews here.

Michael Clayton

Cast: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack. Written and directed by Tony Gilroy. Story: Lawyer defends weedkiller manufacturer who's gone doolally. Running Time: 1hr 59 minutes. UK Certificate 15.

I would never have bothered with Michael Clayton had it not been nominated for Best Picture. Glad I did now, because it holds its head up high among the other nominees.

They're all very similar, this year's nominees. They're all slow-burners, they're all character- and script-led and there's barely a car chase between them. Mind you, I suppose that's not all that unusual, but this year's contenders do seem rather more closely related than usual. Michael Clayton has picked up all the big nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and nominations for all three main players - George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson, and it's bound to win at least one of them. Curiously though, it doesn't stand out in any one of those areas in particular, rather it's uniformly high quality throughout, which is a pretty good achievement since director Tony Gilroy is a screenwriter (e.g. all the Bournes) who's never directed a movie before.

I haven't mentioned the story yet, have I? Well as usual you don't want to know very much beforehand. George Clooney is Clayton, "The Fixer," a highly successful lawyer who specialises in "tricky" situations, such as Tom Wilkinson's descent into fruitcakeness during the prolonged trial of his weedkiller manufacturing business. In truth, there aren't as many twists and turns as you might expect from a movie like this, but it really doesn't need them, because the trio of central performances would prop up any script. Well, maybe not Why Did I Get Married, they're not gods. The quality of the stars helps us to concentrate - and that helps, because we're treated like adults and expected to pay attention. If you're prone to drifting like I am, you might misinterpret the odd moment or two - but it won't really matter if you do. What you might have a problem with is remembering the movie a few years down the line, because the one thing it could benefit from is an injection of character, of a signature look and feel. It's too similar to a million other lawyer-centric movies and so will become assimilated into the movie-memory morass.

Michael Clayton is an extremely high quality movie that is arguably the best possible realisation of the story. You'll like it, I guarantee it, you just won't remember it.

I enjoyed this film: 4/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 5/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 0/5 - As with all the Oscar maybe's, adrenaline junkies need to look elsewhere.

To enjoy this film you should: like George in talkie mode - e.g. Good Night, and Good Luck.