THE SQUARE : Tuesday 27th March 2018

'THE SQUARE' which I finally caught this week one month after its Australian release at the end of February, is a Swedish, French, German and Danish Co-Produced satirical drama film Directed by Ruben Ostlund and was shown in competition for the Palme d'Or at The Cannes Film Festival in May last year, where it took out that prestigious award. It subsequently screened at The Sydney Film Festival last June, TIFF in September, and went out on a limited release in the UK last August, and the US in September. Only five months after that did it get its Australian release having done the festival circuit and picking up 27 award wins and a further 37 nominations in the meantime. It was also in the running for the Best Foreign Language Film at the recent 90th Academy Awards. The film was made for a mere US$5.5M and so far recovered US$9M, and has received generally positive Reviews.

Here Christian (Claes Bang) is the respected Curator of the prestigious contemporary X-Royal Art Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. The film opens up with him being interviewed for the camera by journalist Anne (Elisabeth Moss) who asks him to interpret some artistic jargon contained within their website, to which Christian struggles to find a simple answer.

Later the next morning, when Christian is walking across a busy plaza on his way into work he is confronted by a screaming woman claiming that she is being chased by a man who wants to kill her. After calming the woman down, and seeing off her would be assailant aided by another man, he walks away and notices that his wallet and smartphone are both missing. He's been pick-pocketed during that apparent fracas.

Back at his office he is able to track the location of his smartphone using his computer aided by a colleague Michael (Christopher Laesso) and discovers that it is just a few blocks away in a large apartment building. The pair hatch a plan to type up a letter demanding return of his phone and wallet intact, otherwise the authorities will be alerted to its whereabouts. The letter is then to be hand delivered to every apartment letterbox in the block later that night by one of the pair. The perpetrators are to deposit the phone and wallet at a nearby 7/11 Store marked for the attention of Christian if they want to escape prosecution.

Meanwhile, Christian is overseeing the installation of a new exhibit at the museum - 'The Square' by renowned artist Lola Arias which is described by the artist as 'a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations.' The Advertising Agency commissioned by the museum are tasked with coming up with a message to stir the emotions on the international stage, and bring onlookers flocking to the museum to see it. They have a week to turn around their concept and come back with something extraordinary, harnessing the power of social media.

Within a couple of days Christian receives a phone call from the manager at the 7/11 informing him that a package has been delivered marked for his attention. He collects it, and lo and behold inside is his smartphone and wallet returned, both fully intact. He is very pleasantly surprised to say the least. That night at a party at the museum Christian meets Anne again and they begin to flirt, and he winds up at her apartment, in the company of her pet fully grown chimpanzee! They have sex, and then argue immediately afterwards when Anne offers to discard the used condom. Christian steadfastly declines to hand it over but relents when Anne forcibly removes it from his clenched hand.

A few days later Anne meets Christian at the museum unexpectedly, and comes on strong about their encounter the other night. She is looking for something more than casual sex, and starts probing him hoping to find a connection. Christian is evasive and later ignores her phone calls when she tries to reach him. In the meantime, a second package has arrived for Christian at the 7/11 store. Being wary of its contents he sends Michael to investigate and take collection. In the store Michael is greeted by a young twelve year old lad who is ranting and raving and making a scene, believing Michael to be Christian. He claims that his parents are furious at him, believing him to be the thief because of the way the letter was written. The boy demands an apology to him and his parents and an explanation of the facts, otherwise the boy will bring 'chaos' down upon him.

The boy eventually tracks down Christian to his apartment block. He repeatedly pesters Christian in front of his two young daughters. Christian at first is reasonable with the young lad, but his patience is wearing thin after the boy persists and then begins knocking on neighbours doors late in the evening and screaming for help. In the end the boy falls down a flight of steps and Christian and his girls go inside the sanctuary of his apartment. But later Christian hears the whimpering sounds of the boys cries for help which eventually after some time, subside. Wracked with guilt Christian goes in search of the note with the boys phone number which he had previously thrown out with the garbage. In the pouring rain, he finally retrieves the note and tries to call, but the phone rings out. Instead he leaves an apologetic video message which becomes a diatribe for all that is wrong in the world.

The Advertising Agency has meanwhile come back with a social media campaign designed to spark controversy and ultimately go viral. They develop a promotional clip showing an impoverished young blond street beggar girl carrying a black kitten who wanders into The Square and is killed by an explosion. The video is released on the museums website and their own YouTube Channel, and in no time gains 300,000 hits and attracts the ire of the museum Board, the Church, the media and the general public. Christian is asked to stand down as Curator of the museum for violating protocol, and in the ensuing press conference is attacked by all sides, however, some more than others.

Later that night at a museum gala dinner attended by Stockholm's wealthiest elite, artists and members of the Board, the live entertainment for the evening takes the form of a human exhibit in the shape of Oleg Rogozjin (Terry Notary channelling his experiences & skills as 'Rocket' on the three recent 'Planet of the Apes' films) who mimics an ape convincingly. Initially what is seen as a highly extroverted if realistic and unique performance by the 400 or so gathered guests quickly turns very messy as Oleg gets too in the zone and becomes quite violent toward a number of guests including famed artist Julian (Dominic West) exhibiting the ugly and physically confronting side of ape behaviour. Ultimately a number of male guests drag Oleg off a female guest and rain down their clenched fists upon him, chanting 'kill him, kill him'.

In the aftermath of all of this Christian enjoys some R&R with his daughters attending the exhibit at the museum, and a cheer leading competition for his oldest daughter. On the way back in the car, Christian asks the girls if they mind him making a detour to see someone. Christian is still feeling guilty about the boy whom he has heard nothing from. So he parks up at the apartment block and with the girls goes in search of the young lad and his family. Talking to a neighbour, Christian is told that he knew the boy, but that he had moved away with his family.

'The Square' is a dark, sometimes disturbing satirical social commentary that exposes plenty that is wrong in the world through the trials and tribulations of one man going about his personal and business life that gets inextricably interwoven, often with funny, gripping and thought provoking consequences. The performances from the principle cast are top notch, although Dominic West's role is no more than a cameo appearance, while Terry Notary as the ape in man's clothing steals the show with a ten minute sequence that is convincing, disturbing and brutal . . . and he doesn't utter a single word! Claes Bang is also on fine form as the Curator having to deal with a maelstrom of misadventures thrust upon him as he lurches from one absurd, comedic and brutally honest situation to another. My criticisms would be that the character played by Elisabeth Moss is not fleshed out anymore, she disappears completely after that awkward exchange at the museum, and BTW, what's with the chimp, and secondly, the films running time. At 142 minutes, the Editor must have taken an extended period of leave, resulting in a film that is easily twenty minutes too long, with scenes dragged out well beyond their use by date, or bearing little consequence to the story therefore being surplus to requirement. Coming away from the theatre, the film also leaves many questions open ended and unanswered, but perhaps this was the Director's intention too. All that said, worth a look for sure.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

TOMB RAIDER : Tuesday 20th March 2018.

I saw 'TOMB RAIDER' earlier in the week, and here we have a reboot of the 'Tomb Raider' franchise that launched into the cinematic world in 2001 from its video game origins dating back to 1993. That first outing starred Angelina Jolie as our titular action adventure heroine Lara Croft, with the film being Directed by Simon West for US$115M and grossing US$275M. On the strength of this, a second film was released in 2003 titled 'Lara Croft Tomb Raider : The Cradle of Life', with Jolie reprising her role but this time Directed by Jan de Bont for US$95M and raking in US$157M. Now fast forward fifteen years, and its reboot time for this film franchise, which as a video game has sold over 63 million copies worldwide, and has made Lara Croft one of the most recognisable and notable video game protagonists in existence. And so Norwegian Director Roar Uthaug has helmed this latest instalment based on the 2013 video game of the same name as worked up by game developer Crystal Dynamics. Costing US$90M to make, the film has so far grossed US$163M and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews.

And so in 2018 Alicia Vikander portrays the fiercely independent, free spirited, reckless and carefree action adventure loving Lara Croft who spends her life kick boxing at her local gym and in between time running food deliveries as a bicycle courier across London. She is the only daughter of eccentric archaeologist adventurer Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) who went missing some years previously, now believed to be dead. When she is arrested for a relatively minor infraction, involving her bicycle and a Police car, Richard's business partner Ana Miller (Kristen Scott Thomas) posts bail and advises her that if she does not claim her inheritance, her father's estate will be sold off. In flashback we see Lord Croft tearing himself away from his country estate and his young seven year old daughter Lara to go away on some purposeful adventure, and then doing so again at age fourteen . . . a journey he would not return from.

Reluctantly Lara, now in her early twenties, agrees to sign off on the inheritance papers, and in doing so uncovers a key contained in an old Japanese wooden puzzle wrapped up in a handwritten clue that gains her access to a secret office located in the bowels of the Croft estate. Rummaging around in her fathers office, she finds a camcorder with a recorded message to Lara that describes his years long search for the tomb of Himiko the mythical queen of Yumatai whom it is said was able to control the power of life over death. The parting message warns Lara to destroy all evidence of his search for Himiko - written notes, diaries, scribblings, voice and video recordings, lest they should fall into the wrong hands and unleash the power of Himiko upon an unsuspecting world with deadly consequences for all humanity.

Lara travels to Hong Kong in search of a boat owner that allegedly took her father to the island of Yumatai seven years previously aboard 'The Endurance'. After a run in with some local likely lads who steal Lara's satchel, which she retrieves successfully following a foot chase across various boats and junks on Hong Kong Harbour, she encounters Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) the drunken gambling owner of the boat. He explains that it would have been his father (also named Lu Ren) who was commissioned by Richard Croft to take him across 'The Devil's Sea' to the island of Yumatai - but Lu Ren Senior is now dead! However, the pair strike up a deal, and set sail. The ship gets caught up in a boiling sea just off the island and crashes into treacherous rocks and is smashed. Lara is tossed off the boat, and Lu Ren is presumed lost at sea. Washed ashore in the storm, Lara is knocked unconscious by a mystery figure.

The next morning Lara comes around face to face with Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) who has been on the island for seven years searching for Himiko's tomb with no success. He claims to have killed Lara's father all those years ago, but is grateful for his detailed research notes found in Lara's satchel that will help him locate the tomb once and for all. Vogel works for a secretive organisation called 'Trinity' that wants to harness the power of Himiko, and ultimately weaponise it. Vogel takes Lara prisoner and puts her to work with a whole bunch of other fishermen and shipwrecked sailor prisoners captured over the years, and Lu Ren, who survived the storm only to be captured himself too.

With the help of Lu Ren, Lara is able to stage a distraction and make an escape, but is chased through the dense jungle undergrowth by two of Vogel's henchmen. She successfully evades them, but gets into various death defying falls and bad scrapes along the way that see her lurch from one near death experience to another in quick succession. Finally, she is hanging from the canopy of an old parachute as it roughly glides her down towards the jungle floor through the trees to come to an abrupt crashing halt. She is injured and passes out from her wound.

Later that evening Lara is stirred by the sounds of someone or something lurking close by. She gets into a fight with one of Vogel's henchmen sent to track her down and retrieve her. She gains the upper hand and drowns him in the river. Her first kill, which distresses her. But this is short-lived when she spies a hooded figure looking on through the nighttime undergrowth. She gives chase but the figure disappears up the side of a cliff with the aid of a rope which is quickly hauled up. Lara climbs up without the aid of the rope into a cave, where the mystery figure is poking around at an open fire. The mystery figure is a heavily bearded Richard Croft. At first Ricard does not recognise his daughter, but she jogs his memory and they embrace. Richard treats Lara's wound, which she sleeps off until the next morning.

Despite Richard's protests Lara sets off to recover his research notes and a satellite phone from Vogel's camp. She and Lu Ren create a distraction so allowing him and the fishermen prisoners to escape amidst the chaos of gunfire and explosions in and around the camp site.

Meanwhile, Richard has ventured up to the uncovered entry to the tomb site, found by Vogel with the aid of his extensive research notes which were clearly not destroyed by Lara despite her father's very specific instructions to do so. He is joined by Lara and then Vogel. With Richard caught in the middle, with his daughter aiming a bow at Vogel and Vogel pointing a gun at Richard's head, something in this Mexican stand-off has to give. And it is Lara who buckles under the pressure, and agrees to open the tomb in lieu of saving her father, much to Richard's disdain. And so faced with various cogs and wheels built into the wall which must be unlocked in sequence in order to gain access to the tomb, Lara sets about her task . . . with relative ease it seems!

With access gained to the tomb, Vogel orders Lara to venture down first, then Richard and then several henchmen bringing up the rear. Needless to say the group is greeted by a number of booby traps and challenges through a labyrinth of tunnels and corridors that open out in to huge expanses of underground space. One of the henchmen perishes at the end of a giant spike, and there are several close calls along the way, but ultimately the group reach Himiko's sarcophagus.

Opening up the casket, two of Vogel's henchmen attempt to lift Himiko's corpse but are almost instantly infected by her power. Lara deduces that she was the carrier of a disease that was so powerful that physical contact alone triggers an immediate reaction whereby the body starts to progressively die and disintegrate. From the markings around the walls, she further deduces that Himiko voluntarily sealed herself in her tomb because she wanted to avoid spreading it, even though she had an immunity to the disease which she was carrying. Vogel shoots one of his infected henchmen, and from this decides that he cannot move the corpse as planned. Instead, he cuts off a finger tip and seals it in a plastic ziplock bag and drops it into his shirt breast pocket. One of the henchmen believed to be dead, rises up and attacks Richard, allowing Lara to make a getaway. In the ensuing gun fight between Richard and Vogel, Vogel is shot in the leg but manages to escape, while Richard fends off the henchmen killing him, but is himself infected by the henchman's touch.

Lara returns to the sarcophagus where Richard sits, the infection taking hold. He tells Lara to keep her distance, and explains that he proposes detonating several bombs to seal the tomb shut forever, prevent the worldwide spread of the disease and killing himself in the process. Lara backs away tearfully and gives chase to Vogel who is fleeing the cave as quickly as he can. The two meet and fight, with Lara ultimately force feeding Vogel the severed finger which he swallows inadvertently biting down on the bag. He stumbles backwards as the disease takes a rapid hold and falls down a deep ravine in the cave on to a bed of human skeletons. The explosion rips through the cave system, the blast destroying everything in its path and sealing the cave tightly shut under mounds of dust, debris and rubble. Lara escapes just in the nick of time, and is pulled out of the rubble at the mouth of the cave by Lu Ren. The two then commandeer an arriving Trinity helicopter to take them and the remaining fishermen prisoners back to the mainland.

Back in London at the headquarters of Croft Holdings, Lara signs her agreement to accept her fathers inheritance looked on by Ana Miller and Mr. Yaffe (Derek Jacobi) legal counsel for Croft Holdings. Once completed Yaffe hands Lara a portfolio of all the companies owned by Croft Holdings. Scrolling through the huge volume of individual business details, she notices a company name that she had seen before on Yumatai Island and deduces that this is a front company for Trinity. Investigating further, she begins to suspect that Ana Miller is not all she seems and that she manipulated Lara to signing over the day to day business operations of Croft Holdings. Knowing how ruthless Trinity is, Lara arms herself with two assault pistols procured from her local pawn shop owned and operated by Max (Nick Frost), ready for her next adventure.

'Tomb Raider' is a bit of a misnomer for this film really, considering that Lara Croft doesn't actually raid a tomb here, but is rather a reluctant bystander dragged along while someone else does the raiding. She's just the 'Joanna on the spot' left to clean up someone else's mess, pay the price and get the hell outta there before it all comes crashing down around her ears. And in casting the diminutive Alica Vikander in the role of our titular heroine she is far cry from the tall statuesque curvaceous arse kicking gun wielding Angelina Jolie that most resembles the video game character that the world has come to know and love. That doesn't make Vikander's performance any less, and she is reasonably convincing in the role but she does get beaten up and picked on aplenty by her male antagonists who are all worthless dispensable bad dudes anyway that we don't care about and ultimately get their comeuppance. In between the well choreographed action sequences the film plods a little, and really there is very little here that we haven't seen many times over in similar genre specific offerings - 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'The Mummy', 'National Treasure' and the earlier 'Tomb Raider' franchises most notably. Clearly set up for further instalments, Lara Croft will need to lift her tomb raiding, gun toting, tough as nails approach if she is to succeed in this action adventure world.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MONEY MONSTER : Friday 3rd June 2016.

'MONEY MONSTER' which I saw on Friday is Jodie Foster's fourth Directorial outing after 'Little Man Tate', 'Home for the Holidays', and 'The Beaver' and in this Wall Street set thriller she teams up with George Clooney who Co-Produces and acts with Julia Roberts in the lead roles. Made for US$27M the film has so far recouped US$67M since its mid-May Premier at Cannes and its release Stateside that same day, but has received mixed reviews from critics, despite this probably rating as Foster's best Directorial outing so far.



Our story opens with the news channels broadcasting to us that yesterday 'IBIS Clear Capital' stocks nosedived losing angry investors over $800M because of a 'glitch' in the computer trading algorithm used by that company. As Wall Street financial wunderkind and fast talking stock trading guru Lee Gates (George Clooney) is about to go to air on his own cable network show 'Money Monster', he remains calm, calculating and lighthearted despite recommending this blue chip stock to his viewers just one month ago - and on Wall Street it seems Gates has some clout and has served his investor viewers well in the past. But not today! The count down begins to Gates going live on air, with his long time Director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), in his ear and in front of the studio monitors every step of the way. They laugh and joke - it's a Friday - and the week is drawing to a close - what are their dinner plans for that night they quip from opposite ends of the Friday night dinner spectrum.

When the cameras role, its time for action and 'Money Monster' goes live to air with Gates opening up with a song & dance routine to introduce the show, and then quickly gets to grips with the IBIS Clear Capital meltdown of yesterday. He shakes it off in a cavalier kinda way saying that as investors you gotta roll with the punches, ride the ups and downs and take the rough with the smooth. He is hoping to get the IBIS CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West) on the show for some live Q&A, but has to settle for Chief Communications Officer Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe) who is via a live feed on a monitor in the studio, because Camby is in flight somewhere heading to Geneva in one of his many private jets.

About five minutes into the show, a delivery man wanders onto the set carrying two boxes having negotiated his way easily enough past a napping team of security guards. Going along with what is thought to be a ruse, Gates soon realises that this delivery guy is no ordinary delivery guy as he pulls out a loaded weapon and starts firing randomly to draw attention to himself and capture the interest of the viewing public. The man in question is a Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) who we learn quickly wants answers from Gates as to how and why IBIS tanked yesterday costing investors $800M and him personally his inherited life savings of $60K in a stock that he recommended as a sure bet only weeks before. Having made his intentions known on live television, Budwell orders Gates to open a box, pull out and put on what is contained therein - a vest containing semtex explosives with a hair trigger that Budwell keeps firmly held in his hand, but will detonate as soon as his thumb is released from the trigger.

Once Gates has got over his initial panic, and Budwell has taken charge of the on-camera events, so Fenn swings into action taking charge of the off-camera events albeit in direct communication with Gates via his ear piece and the New York Police Department who quickly assemble a team on the ground. She orders everyone to vacate the studio except for essential cameramen, sound technicians and a couple of assistants in her control room.  The on-camera dialogue continues as Gates tries to calm the situation and gain some control with Fenn's help. Gradually, Gates starts to feel some sympathy for Budwell, realising that he is from a working class background, struggling to make ends meet and he has indirectly compounded the situation. To placate Budwell, Gates says that he will get him the answers, and so he organises a live link up with IBIS CCO Lester in Camby's absence to provide some clarity. That doesn't go well as she says that she too lost money and it was just a 'glitch', and hey, shit happens!

Unaccepting that it is just a glitch, behind the scenes Fenn starts to do some digging as does Lester by tracking down who created the algorithm in the first place eventually tracing the programmer to Seoul, where she gets him on the phone. He states clearly that there is no way  he algorithm could take such a substantial and slanted position - it is mathematical code not designed to do so, and such an event could only occur with human intervention - guaranteed! As more becomes known about Budwell, we learn that his mother died six months earlier leaving him the $60K that he invested in IBIS based on Gates more than positive endorsement. We also learn that he has a girlfriend heavily pregnant with their first child, and that he earns $14 an hour labouring - barely enough to scrape together a living for the two of them let alone a third on the way. The Police bring her to the studio where she goes on air to talk him around and diffuse the matter, but instead she publicly berates and humiliates him with all the voracity of a woman scorned and on live TV for all the world to hear and see.

The Police SWAT Team have arrived meanwhile and have gained access to the studio with the aim of taking out Gates by shooting the bombs receiver which is located directly over his kidney - shoot the receiver and the bomb is diffused, but that means shooting Gates and there is an 80% chance he'll survive, and hey, he's got two kidneys anyway! Gates and Fenn don't know this, but soon do when an evacuated Assistant to Fenn down on the street overhears a conversation involving the Police and the SWAT guys that this is about to unfold. By now, Gates is sympathetic to Budwells position and has taken pity on the struggling man with a cause. He hatches a plan to vacate the studio and get to Federal Hall and confront Camby who has since flown in from Johannesburg it is revealed, and not Geneva where everyone thought he had been. Using Budwell as cover to prevent the SWAT Team from shooting out the vest's receiver, the two vacate the building with a cameraman, the Police following behind and onlookers lining the streets.

In the meantime, Fenn is on the ground following and giving instructions from an outside broadcast van. She contacts a group of hackers based in Iceland to dig into Camby's whereabouts in Johannesburg and uncover the truth behind his dealings there. Locating Camby at Federal Hall before he could bolt having been cornered by Lester who divulged that she knew he had lied about his whereabouts, Gates and Budwell position him so that he can not run away. Confronting Camby with what they know, having received video evidence from the ever so helpful Icelandic hackers, it turns out that the IBIS CEO syphoned off $800M to invest in a South African mining company whose stock value would be devalued by a made up union strike that would run longer than expected as a result of bribing the miners union. Buying the undervalued shares, he would then profit in the billions when normal work resumed and the share price rose to its former position and then some. But the plan backfired, when the miners remained on strike and IBIS buckled under the weight of its own trading position - nothing therefore to do with a glitch in the algorithm. Confronted with the video evidence which has now been beamed around the world, Camby admits the wrong doing which is all that Budwell wanted, and so he gives himself up willingly, whilst Camby has to face trial for various violation counts under the Foreign Investment Acts.

I did enjoy 'Money Monster' - it moves along a good pace, it is a solid enough story reasonably well told, the characters you can relate to, the lead players of Clooney and Roberts share an on-screen chemistry that we have seen before and which is evident here too, and Director Foster has further honed her film making skills to deliver a thrilling, dramatic and at times satirical look at Wall Street, those who work it, those who invest in it and how we consume it. However, for me the final chapter when everything comes together just so is a little too convenient, too contrived and too quick. The whole thing unfolds over a few hours one Friday during day time TV and serves to bring the whole sorry story for Budwell and Gates to a close in the way that we know is going to be inevitable. Certainly worth a look, entertaining if a little predictable.

  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JOHNNY ENGLISH : REBORN - archive from 5th October 2011.

Took the lad and his mate to see 'JOHNNY ENGLISH - REBORN' this arvo and as you would expect of Rowan Atkinson it combines the charm & gadgetry of James Bond; the campness of Austin Powers; the slapstick of Mr. Bean; and the wit & sarcasm of Edmund Blackadder. Directed by Oliver Parker this second (and so far last) instalment in the series was made for US$45M and grossed (perhaps unbelievably) US$160M, so clearly it found an audience who appreciated this for what it is, and the unique physical comedy of one Mr. Atkinson.


This film takes off five years after the first film ended and sees Agent English holed up in Tibet learning some mysterious ancient martial art and serving out his penance for the botched job he was held responsible for in Mozambique at the end of the last film - he has been stripped of his Knighthood too. Learning of a plot against a prominent world leader English's superiors back at MI-7 call for him to return to the London headquarters which is now led by 'Pegasus' (aka Pamela Thornton, played out by Gillian Anderson) who give English the details of what they know, and the plan to thwart the attack. This is where English comes in aided by gadget inventor extraordinaire Patch Quartermain (Tim McInnerney). The plot surrounds taking out the Chinese Premier while he is having talks with the British Prime Minister.

Fast forward to Hong Kong and the action takes us there as a group of assassins (known as 'Vortex') hold a secret weapon that can only be unlocked by three metallic keys - one of which comes into the hands of our fearless secret agent, who promptly loses it on a plane trip back to London. In the meantime however, it is learned that 'Vortex' were responsible for the mess in Mozambique, which pretty much absolves English from guilt, but this still needs concrete proof for the powers that be at MI-7 to believe him.

Various 'Vortex' assassins come and go until there is one remaining, and as the story moves along with the finger of suspicion pointed firmly within the KGB, CIA and even MI-7, English must uncover the truth and prevent the assassination attempt from going down in the Swiss Alps whilst trying to clear his own name and protect those around him - although, who can he really trust? With various set pieces involving a foot chase along the roof tops of Hong Kong; a low level helicopter flight to get to the nearest hospital; a getaway on a tandem bicycle; another getaway on a modified wheelchair; a drug that results in English fighting with himself; and when his Knighthood is about to be reinstated English beats up QEII thinking she is in fact a Vortex assassin, bur in reality she IS the real Queen.

Does any of this make any sense - ho hum, not really! It is one for the kids raising plenty of laughs, and for the (male) adults the redeeming feature is Gillian Anderson back on the big screen again looking as good as ever! Rosamund Pike and Dominic West also star, but the show is Atkinson's with a firm tongue-in-cheek nod to the spy genre with a dose of pratfalls, slapstick and sarcasm that he does so well.  See it on DVD on a wet afternoon, and save the price of cinema entry!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-