Posts Tagged ‘Clive Owen’

Cleaner

Director: Martin Campbell

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Clive Owen, Taz Skylar, Ruth Gemmell, Matthew Tuck, Lee Boardman, Rufus Jones

Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

There is a mysterious independent film corporation simply called Anton which are releasing new original films. Anton released the creepy psychological suburban thriller Mother’s Instinct with Oscar winners Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) and Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye). Anton’s corporate website says they have an address in Clerkenwell, London and operate remotely in Los Angeles.

Now Anton has released a distinctly British action film simply called Cleaner starring Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley as a skyscraper window cleaner opposite Oscar nominee Clive Owen (Closer) and British-Arab actor Taz Skylar as the demented environmental activist Noah.

Cleaner takes place entirely in a London skyscraper in Canary Wharf and revolves around Joey, a young woman with military training who has to look after her autistic brother Michael played by Matthew Tuck. Joey’s job is to do window cleaning at a posh skyscraper in the financial district of London. Things go awry when she has to bring her brother to work for the afternoon. Meanwhile high up, a glamourous shareholder’s cocktail party is about to take place for a shady energy company run by the cocaine sniffing Milton brothers Gerald played by Lee Boardman and Geoffrey played by Rufus Jones.

Soon a band of heavily disguised eco-terrorists led by Marcus played by Clive Owen (Children of Men, Gemini Man, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) take the guests’ hostage and along with the demented Noah, want all these lavish corporate executives to confess to covering up widespread pollution and corporate corruption.

The only person that is not captured is Joey, wonderfully played by Daisy Ridley (Murder on the Orient Express) who has come a long way from the Star Wars franchise which cemented her fame.

Cleaner crisply directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro, The Protégé) makes for a thrilling 93 minutes with lots of action, high stakes treachery and Joey battling the evil climate change terrorists all while trying to save the hostages and protect her brother. Joey is helped by the temperate and sensible DS Hume well played by Ruth Gemmell.

London has never looked this contemporary with beautiful shots of the skyscrapers rising up like towers of progress amidst the fog of the British capital, location shots that are replicated in the brilliant hit series The Day of the Jackal starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.

The storyline is very shaky and unfortunately Clive Owen’s star power is not maximised. His career has never really recovered from the heights of his early films like Gosford Park, Inside Man and Closer.

It’s great to see an action film lead by a formidable female star like Daisy Ridley. Cleaner is pure British action, like a slimmed down version of the Hollywood hit Die Hard without Bruce Willis’s 1980’s charisma.

Cleaner gets a film rating of 6 out of 10 and is no masterpiece, but watchable. This film is recommended viewing for light entertainment as an original British action film which has sufficient plot twists to keep the audience engaged.

Gemini Man

Director: Ang Lee

Cast: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Linda Emond, Douglas Hodge

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

Two time Oscar winner for Best Director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi) approaches the action genre with less than satisfactory results in Gemini Man much like the 2003 flop that was his interpretation of Hulk before Marvel Studios got properly straightened out by Disney.

Will Smith (Bad Boys, Aladdin, Concussion) plays an over the hill assassin Henry Brogan for a shady government department based in Virginia headed by Clay Verris played without compassion by Oscar nominee Clive Owen (Closer) who is wasted as the villain in this rather bizarre CIA revenge story that sees Brogan being cloned without his knowledge so that a 25 year old version of him called Junior comes after him in some exotic locations including Cartagena in Colombia and Budapest in Hungary.

Narrative gaps abound in a poorly written script with a contrived storyline which appears to get more irritating as the film progresses with zero onscreen chemistry between Will Smith and the female lead Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Kill The Messenger) who plays intelligence operative Danny Zakarweski who gets planted by the covert agency to run surveillance on Brogan while he is fishing off the coast of Georgia, USA.

What follows is a classic tale of a cat chasing its own tail as Brogan soon discovers that the man trying to kill him is himself, hence the title Gemini Man. This is a paint by numbers thriller whose storyline is less solid, while the visual effects are about the only redeeming feature of this below average action film.

Considering Ang Lee’s impressive body of work including Sense and Sensibility; Lust, Caution; Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Gemini Man falls flat as an action film although there are some fantastic visual sequences which make up for the completely dubious premise of this film’s faulty storyline. Such a pity to see great talent as Will Smith and Clive Owen wasted in a poorly scripted film directed by a more than accomplished film director.

Unfortunately, Gemini Man gets a film rating of 6 out 10 and judging by the fact that Alibaba Pictures financed this film, this was a grudge project for Ang Lee to appease the studios which are churning out content with Chinese capital investment.

If audiences like flawed action films with dubious plots, then Gemini Man is for them. 

Valerian and

the City of a Thousand Planets

Director: Luc Besson

Cast: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Rihanna, Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Sam Spruell, Rutger Hauer, Kris Wu, Herbie Hancock

French director Luc Besson attempts to re-enact his Sci-Fi success of his hit film The Fifth Element with a sparkling and innovative new space adventure film set in the 28th century Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets starring Dane DeHaan (Life, Kill Your Darlings) as Major Valerian and British fashion model turned actress Cara Delevingne (Paper Towns, Suicide Squad) as his sidekick stroke lover Sergeant Laureline.

After an impressive Virtual Reality sequence in a universal market, Valerian comes face to face with the Pearls a luminescent race whose planet accidentally got obliterated during a celestial conflict.

The Pearls, initially a harmonious alien race soon realize that dark forces are at play in the Universe and seek shelter in an abandoned space ship which is transported to the vast city of a Thousand Planets called Alpha.

The attractive duo Valerian and Laureline play the ever bickering lovers of this bizarre space opera have to report to the crafty Commander Arun Filitt played by Oscar nominee Clive Owen (Closer). As the duo have to discover what is really behind the malignant threat growing within the City, they come into contact with a collection of utterly bizarre CGI creatures and a guest appearance by superstar Rihanna as Bubble who appears in a Cabaret like moment as a glambot nicknamed Bubble.

Ethan Hawke (Boyhood, Training Day) appears all too briefly as the crazy pimp Jolly in Paradise Alley where he attempts to entice Valerian in all sorts of virtual lascivious entanglements with Bubble.

While the pace of Valerian slackens in the second half of the film, the visual effects are utterly mind-blowing and since the majority of the film’s financing came from BNP Paribas let’s hope director Luc Besson gets a return on his box office both in France and internationally.

With fabulous onscreen chemistry between DeHaan and Delevingne, audiences should completely suspend their disbelief as they watch Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets which will certainly appeal to fans of comic book Sci-Fi. The funky score by Alexander Desplat and the gorgeous cinematography by Thierry Abrogast make Valerian cinematically palatable and infinitely beautiful despite some extremely imaginative sequences.

The voices of Elizabeth Debicki and John Goodman also feature in Valerian.

The story of home planets being destroyed is nothing original and has been done before in Star Trek Beyond and Star Wars, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is recommended viewing for hard core fans of Sci-Fi and gets a film rating of 7 out of 10.

Audiences should watch out for a cameo by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer as President of the World State Federation who appeared in the original Blade Runner film directed by Ridley Scott in 1982.

THE  58TH BAFTA AWARDS /

THE BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS

Took place on Sunday 12th February 2005 in London

BAFTA WINNERS IN THE FILM CATEGORY:

Best Film: The Aviator

Best Director: Mike Leigh – Vera Drake

Best Actor: Jamie Foxx – Ray

Best Actress: Imelda Staunton – Vera Drake

Best Supporting Actor: Clive Owen – Closer

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett – The Aviator

Best British Film: My Summer of Love directed Pawel Pawlikowski

Best Original Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Best Adapted Screenplay: Sideways by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

Best Costume Design: Vera Drake

Best Foreign Language Film: The Motorcycle Diaries directed by Walter Salles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/58th_British_Academy_Film_Awards

62nd Golden Globe Awards

Took place on Sunday 16th January 2005 hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Golden Globe Winners in The Film Categories:

Best Film Drama: The Aviator

Best Film Musical or Comedy: Sideways

Best Director: Clint Eastwood – Million Dollar Baby

Best Actor Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio – The Aviator

Best Actress Drama: Hilary Swank – Million Dollar Baby

Best Actor Musical or Comedy: Jamie Foxx – Ray

Best Actress Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening – Being Julia

Best Supporting Actor: Clive Owen – Closer

Best Supporting Actress: Natalie Portman – Closer

Best Foreign Language Film – The Sea Inside (Spain)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/62nd_Golden_Globe_Awards