Cinemas - starting this week - 6/6/08

Jun 6 2008 by Michael Green, Flintshire Chronicle

GONE BABY GONE (15) (All major cinemas)

LET’S face it, Ben Affleck’s acting career has been on the slide for years – at least since his Bennifer fiasco produced the universally lambasted Gigli.

Having left J-Lo and his place on the A list of movie stars behind him, Affleck is trying something new and turning his hand to directing.

His somewhat smug screen persona may lead you to believe he would cast himself as his leading man but in fact, he provides the best big screen break to date for his little brother Casey whose previously unremarkable career is now really picking up thanks to this and the recent Jesse James picture.

The strategy has worked – for the first time in years, critics are falling over themselves to find praiseworthy things to say about Ben and his assured handling of both directing and co-adapting Dennis Lehane’s novel.

Lehane’s work has already hit paydirt once with Clint Eastwood expertly bringing Mystic River to the screen and similar plaudits are being heaped on another compelling if sordid tale, this time involving the apparent abduction of a four year old girl.

The girl is the daughter of an alcoholic junkie (Amy Ryan) which may or may not influence the approach taken by the detectives in charge of the case played by Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris and who are getting nowhere.

The child’s more respectable aunt (Amy Madigan) hires two rookie private investigators Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan whose determination to do a good job makes up for their lack of experience.

The film has been praised for its character development, dialogue and skill at slowly uncovering the various mysteries behind the abduction, all of which suggest Affleck the director has a rosy future.

STAR RATING: ***

SUPERHERO MOVIE (12A) (All major cinemas)

THE title gives away the fact that this is from the Epic, Date, Scary Movie braindead brigade which are to movies what Jive Bunny was to late 80s pop music.

Spider-Man is the hero who comes in for most of the stick although Batman, X-Men and Fantastic Four certainly don’t come away unscathed.

Drake and Josh TV comedy star Drake Bell plays the high school geek who is bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly and develops super powers.

Most of the humour is aimed at the early teen MySpace audience although older viewers will get something out of seeing older familiar faces such as Leslie Neilsen, Robert Hays and Marion Ross.

STAR RATING: **

PROM NIGHT (15) (All major cinemas)

THE original 1980 Prom Night was made for one simple reason – to quickly cash-in on the astounding success of John Carpenter’s Halloween.

Not only did they come up with a fairly obvious variation on the stalk and slash theme, they managed to nab the breakout star of Halloween by signing up Jamie Lee Curtis to scream her way through more peril.

So what we have now is an apparently lame remake of a picture which was itself a pale imitation of a superior movie - no wonder the reviews have been so dire.

What this version seems to have done is prompted critics to look back fondly on the 1980 original which is now getting better reviews than it ever did 28 years ago!

The story has Brittany Snow as the sole survivor of a killing spree which wiped out her family. The psycho in question decides to choose the titular Prom Night to finish the job.

STAR RATING: *