SILENT NIGHT : Tuesday 12th December 2023.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'SILENT NIGHT' earlier this week, and this American action film is Co-Produced and Directed by John Woo whose prior feature film output includes 'A Better Tomorrow' and 'A Better Tomorrow II' in 1986 and '87, 'The Killer' in 1989, 'Bullet in the Head' in 1990, 'Hard Boiled' in 1992, and then his first Hollywood actioner 'Hard Target' in 1993 followed by 'Broken Arrow' in 1996, 'Face/Off' in 1997, 'Mission : Impossible 2' in 2000, 'Paycheck' in 2003 with 'Red Cliff : Part I' and 'Red Cliff : Part II' in 2008 and 2009 amongst a whole swathe of others. This film is John Woo's first American production since 'Paycheck' twenty years ago, and was released in the US on 1st December and here in Australia last week, has so far grossed US$7.5M and has garnered mixed reviews.

The films opens up with a man wearing a Christmas jersey with a jingle bell dangling from his neck running down the alleyways and streets of a city with bloodied hands and blood stains on his clothes. Meanwhile two cars are involved in rampaging gang related shootout, with the running man clearly intent on tracking them down. He does so, but in the aftermath the gang's leader easily identifiable by the tattoo's of an intricate spiders web covering his neck, head and half his face clambers out of the wreckage of one of the vehicles and shoots the running man in the throat, and leaves him bleeding out. 

The man, we learn is Brian Godlock (Joel Kinnaman), who survives and is operated on and stitched back up in hospital, but his vocal chords are so badly damaged that his is no longer able to speak. We later learn through flashbacks that Brian is an electrician and is living a happy life in the city of Las Palomas, Texas with his wife Saya (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and young son Taylor Michael. On Christmas Eve 2021, Brian and Taylor are using a new bicycle on their front lawn, which Saya is recording on her smartphone. They are caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting in the middle of a gang war and Taylor is killed by a stray bullet, which prompted Brian to chase after the perpetrators. 

Brian is discharged from hospital on 26th January and returns home with Saya to a lifeless house, with now very sad looking Christmas decorations still hanging up, and presents for their son still under the tree. Brian and Saya grieve over Taylor's death and Saya tries to be emotionally supportive to Brian during his physical recovery, but Brian becomes cold and distant and begins drinking heavily and locking himself away in their garage. Easter comes and goes, and at this point Brian has an awakening and becomes focused squarely on pursuing revenge for Taylor.

Saya becomes emotionally overwhelmed and leaves

Brian, who plans to kill all the gang members involved in Taylor's death on Christmas Eve in 2022. Over the course of the next eight months Brian builds up his strength and stamina through rigorous bodybuilding exercises, familiarising himself with deadly weapons and sharp shooting, self-defence training and mastering his defensive driving skills in his souped-up pre-owned Ford Mustang. 

At one point, Brian visits Detective Dennis Vassel (Scott Mescudi), who offered to help in his son's case, but with the Detective unavailable Brian instead uses this opportunity to gather information on Playa's (Harold Torres) gang and begins reconnaissance on them, collecting evidence that will help put them behind bars (if they live to see the day that is!) Saya attempts to contact Brian, expressing that she and his parents are worried about him, but he continues to ignore her text messages. 

Brian attacks and abducts a member of Playa's gang, hurting and threatening him in an attempt to gather written information on the gang's underworld activities. The thug briefly manages to escape from the garage where he was bound, gagged and strung up only for Brian to subdue him in a fight through the laundry and into the kitchen. Brian later delivers the bound and unconscious thug to Vassel's house, along with a Christmas card, containing his intent to kill Playa and his gang, and a USB stick with the evidence he has collected, along with the thug's bloodstained written contributions to his information. He also sends two of the thug's amputated fingers to Playa, intimidating him.

Brian spends the entire night of Christmas Eve 2022 killing the members of Playa's gang one by one, at times interrupting their crimes in the process. After stealing a cell phone from a thug and using it to record a video of him being shot twice in the back and sending it to Playa, the gang leader sends a group text for his men to return to his HQ. Brian takes the opportunity to trap and kill them all there. 

Following much close quarter combat involving guns, knives, fists, feet and the occasional explosive device as Brian inches ever closer to Playa, he is confronted by Detective Vassel, following up on the information sent by Brian earlier in the day. Initially pointing their drawn weapons at each another, they both silently put them down and agree to work together to finish off Playa. 

Playa's drug-addled girlfriend manages to get the drop on them, shooting them both with an automatic weapon. Brian sneaks around and holds her at gunpoint, as she drops her gun and fakes surrender looking all lost and innocent. When Brian hesitates to kill her, she unveils a hidden sidearm and attacks him with it. Brian is able to plug her with a couple of rounds, one through the forehead, and then confronts Playa. In the shootout between them, Playa manages to get the upper hand and is about to shoot Brian in the neck again, but Detective Vassel shoots Playa, allowing Brian to finish him off by strangling him with his bare hands.

Brian and Detective Vassel fall to the floor and look up at the ceiling and the huge Christmas bauble decorations hanging down from above while they both bleed out dying. Brian sees reflections of his memories of his time with Taylor and hallucinates an alternate future, where he and Taylor are both still alive. Brian experiences visions of Taylor graduating from college and giving Brian a grandson who they bond together with. Saya opens a letter that Brian wrote to her before he went on his Christmas Eve rampage, where he apologises for how cold he had become in their marriage and thanks her for loving him. Brian further tells her that he knows no one can make Taylor's death right, but that he is going to die trying. Saya takes the letter to Taylor's grave, where Brian had earlier brought his previously unopened Christmas present from the year before (a toy train set) that he built and set up around his grave. 

'Silent Night' is a gritty, brutal revenge thriller completely devoid of any dialogue so allowing the Director, John Woo, to let the actions and mannerisms speaks louder than any words can. And on that level he largely succeeds, with any communication between all parties done by text messaging. What lets the film down though is the pacing from when Brian returns home at the end of January to sometime in December when we have an hour or so of our protagonist diving inside a bottle, to his epiphany, to his revenge fuelled training regime, to his intel gathering all intertwined with emotion writ large on the face of a dour looking Kinnaman, before the action kicks into gear finally in the final thirty minutes. And it's in the opening ten minutes and that closing half hour that the John Woo who we all know and love from his often stellar work in defining '80's and '90's action cinema, that represents a return to form for the now 77 year old Director. 

'Silent Night' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE SUICIDE SQUAD : Tuesday 19th October 2021.

I finally got around to seeing 'THE SUICIDE SQUAD' on the big screen now that cinema's have reopened across greater Sydney in the past ten days or so, following almost four months of COVID-19 forced lockdown. Written and Directed by James Gunn, this standalone sequel to 2016's 'Suicide Squad' (Directed by David Ayer) is the tenth film in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe). Gunn's previous film making offerings include his directorial debut in 2006 'Slither', 'Super' in 2010, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' in 2014 and 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' in 2017, with 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' currently filming and due in 2023. 'The Suicide Squad' was released in the UK in late July, and in the US in early August while streaming on HBO Max for a month starting the same day. It has generated positive critical reviews, although has been a Box Office let down recouping just US$168M so far from its production budget outlay of US$185M.

Here then, A.R.G.U.S. Director (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans) Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) assembles two Task Force X teams, known as the Suicide Squad that consist Belle Reve penitentiary inmates (a high security metahuman prison), who reluctantly agree to carry out missions for Waller in exchange for having ten years shaved off their sentences, while at the same time having explosive devices injected into their necks which Waller can activate at any given time should the need arise. The teams are sent to the island nation of Corto Maltese, located off the South American coast, after its government is overthrown in a military led coup by an anti-American regime. They are tasked with destroying the Nazi-era laboratory, Jotunheim, which holds a secretive experiment known as 'Project Starfish' as well as conducting clandestine experiments on human subjects, led for the past thirty years by lead scientist Gaius Grieves aka The Thinker (Peter Capaldi). 

The first team is led by Waller's subordinate Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and comprises Brian Durlin aka Savant (Michael Rooker), George 'Digger' Harkness aka Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Cory Pitzner aka T.D.K. (The Detachable Kid) (Nathan Fillion), Gunter Braun aka Javelin (Flula Borg), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Richard 'Dick' Hertz aka Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Mongal (Mayling Ng) and Weasel (Sean Gunn). They are almost entirely wiped out by the Corto Maltese military upon landing, with only Harley Quinn and Rick Flag escaping the fray. This distraction allows the other team to enter the country undetected, from a beach on the other side of the island. The second team is led by assassin Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport (Idris Elba), who accepted the mission in order to prevent his daughter Tyla (Storm Reid) from being incarcerated at Belle Reve, and consists of Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker (John Cena), King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone), Abner Krill aka Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and Cleo Cazo aka Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior). 

After Flag is deemed to be still alive albeit being held captive, Bloodsport and his team systematically kill all those guarding the campsite only to discover that Flag is sat relaxing and enjoying a cold beer with the leader of a group of rebel soldiers fighting the resistance against the new regime Sol Soria (Alice Braga). Despite all of Soria's foot soldiers and resistance fighters being killed off, she agrees to assist them. 

Harley Quinn survives the attack on the first team and is taken captive by the Corto Maltese government, after killing the new President Silvio Luna (Juan Diago Botto) with whom she had a one night stand during which she learned from him of the new regime's plans to use Project Starfish against other nations, most notably America, Russia and China. Mateo Suarez (Joaquin Cosio) the Major General of Corto Maltese interrogates Quinn by having her strung up and goaded with an electric cattle prod to the stomach. In the Corto Maltese capital, the second team captures the Thinker, the lead scientist in charge of Project Starfish, in a bar and is ushered out the back door by Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man just as the military arrive and detain Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the three military guards escorting their three new prisoners in the back of an armoured vehicle or the two upfront in the driver and passenger seats. Ratcatcher 2, Polka-Dot Man, King Shark, the Thinker and Milton (an Associate of Task Force X) arrive in a beat up old Toyota bus to retrieve Bloodsport, Peacemaker and Flag.

Meanwhile, Quinn using the power of her thighs strangles her interrogator and using the dexterity of her foot retrieves the padlock key from the now dead interrogator, turns herself upside down, inserts the key into the padlock and turns the key so unlocking it and freeing herself. She then goes on a killing spree wiping out every guard who happens to be in her path either in a hail of bullets, or using the golden javelin bequeathed to her by Javelin just before he died on the beach a couple of nights ago, or by breaking necks from some accurately landed high kicks or savage punches. You never should underestimate the wrath of a woman scorned! 

And so Harley successfully escapes and joins the others, who use the Thinker to gain access to Jotunheim. As the Squad rigs up the facility with explosives, Flag and Ratcatcher 2 enter the laboratory with the Thinker, where they witness the fruits of all of his clandestine human experiments. He tells them that Project Starfish is Starro the Conqueror, a giant alien starfish that is able to create thousands of smaller versions of itself to kill people and take control of their minds and bodies. Starro was brought to Earth by the US government, who have been secretly funding experiments on him in Corto Maltese for the past thirty years and using thousands of its citizens as test subjects. Upon learning this, Flag decides to leak a hard drive containing evidence of this news but is killed by Peacemaker who is under secret orders from Waller to cover up the US's involvement in the experiments, and the existence of Starro.

Meanwhile, a skirmish between the Squad and the Corto Maltese military lead by Major General Suarez results in Polka-Dot Man accidentally setting off the explosives prematurely. As the facility slowly begins to implode and fall apart, Peacemaker catches up with Ratcatcher 2 and is poised ready to kill her for knowing the truth about Starro, but Bloodsport shoots him instead and takes the drive, so sparing Ratcatcher 2. 

Starro escapes from the now destroyed laboratory, kills the Thinker and the majority of the military personnel on the ground, and begins taking control of the island's population by releasing thousands of smaller starfish which latch onto the faces of the victims, so suffocating them almost immediately before taking control of their minds and bodies at which point they are revived - zombie like. Waller tells the Squad that their mission is complete now that Jotunheim is destroyed, but Bloodsport chooses to ignore her and leads his teammates in battling Starro, while Waller is knocked out by one of her subordinates using a golf club across the back of the head, back at Task Force X HQ to prevent her from executing the squad. 

During the battle, Polka-Dot Man is killed, Harley pierces a hole in Starro's eye using the javelin, and Ratcatcher 2 summons the city's rats to chew the alien to death from the inside. With the military diverted, Soria takes control of the government by gunning down all of the corrupt officials and pledges democratic elections. Bloodsport forces Waller to release him, Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher 2 and King Shark from their imprisonment, and to swear not to go after his daughter Tyla, in exchange for keeping the contents of the drive confidential to which she has little choice but to agree. The remaining Squad is airlifted out of Corto Maltese.

It's easy to see where Director James Gunn filtered away a production budget of US$185M, and it's equally as easy to see why this film has yet to recoup that initial investment. 'The Suicide Squad' is a silly film full of largely one dimensional characters that we have very little investment in by way of back story apart from one or two glib sentences in passing from the main characters; there is plenty of cussing and swearing; the humour seems aimed mostly at fifteen year old boys; there is lots of blood and gore; and the action sequences are so over the top that it really does remind you that you're watching a comic book adaptation after all. As for the giant alien starfish, Starro, well that reminded of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the 1984 'Ghostbusters' film, just a little more menacing. On the positive side, Gunn's absurdist direction shines through in this no holds barred, fast paced, ultra violent, piece of nonsense that doesn't take it self too seriously, has moments of sardonic humour, and is visually everything you would expect from a movie such as this. Worth watching on a big cinema screen just for the spectacle of the action sequences which Gunn delivers with aplomb and of which there are plenty to satisfy the most die hard fans of the genre. The film also stars Taika Waititi as Ratcatcher, the father of Ratcatcher 2 who is dead but is seen in memory flashbacks by his daughter. Also, remain in your seat for the post-credits sequence.

'The Suicide Squad' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SUICIDE SQUAD : Tuesday 9th August 2016.

I saw 'SUICIDE SQUAD' earlier in the week, and after much hype and eager anticipation the long awaited third instalment in the DC Extended Universe with its assembled mad, bad, disparate antiheroes has burst on to our screens across the world last week. Made for a cool US$175M, Directed by David Ayer and Co-Produced by Zack Snyder this film stars an ensemble cast of Actors and Supervillains, poised at the ready to wreak havoc and bloody mayhem on an unsuspecting Midway City - seemingly nestled somewhere between Gotham City and Metropolis. These titular characters first appeared in 1959 published by DC Comics but received a make over and a modern touch in 1987 by John Ostrander, upon which this film is based, and having been written for the screen by David Ayer too (watch out for the visual nod to Ostrander too in the film). This latest version sees our anti-hero strike force of imprisoned nefarious supervillains operating covertly under the jurisdiction of the US Government on high-risk black-ops missions in exchange for leniency of their prison sentences . . . assuming they survive their missions of course. The film has so far made US$295M.

And so here we have a secret government intelligence agency headed up by Director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) working for 'ARGUS' (Advanced Research Group for Uniting Superhumans) who creates a task force of our deadly, dangerous, despicable super villains under the banner of 'Task Force X' affectionately dubbed 'The Suicide Squad' by Deadshot, for a top secret mission to thwart an unknown but powerful enemy. Taking place after the events of  'Batman v. Superman' which sees Superman supposedly dead, and leaving Batman to clean up the streets, and he does, bringing in Deadshot/Floyd Lawton (Will Smith) an expert marksman, assassin and doting father to his eleven year old daughter, and Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel (Margot Robbie) a former psychiatrist who used to treat the inmates at Arkham Asylum until she turned as mad as those she was treating - especially The Joker (Jared Leto) whom she just happens to be 'madly' in love with.

Incarcerated in Belle Reve penitentiary with Deadshot and Harley Quinn are Captain Boomerang/Digger Harkness (Jai Courtney) an opportunistic thief and assassin who uses deadly boomerangs to dispense with his prey and now serving three life sentences; El Diablo/Chato Santana (Jay Hernandez) who can command flame at will and is serving time because in days gone by he couldn't contain this skill and he torched those closest to him and numerous others; Killer Croc/Waylon Jones (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) with a reptilian skin condition and an animalistic criminal with a tendency to eat his enemies - he spends a lot of time in the water; and Slipknot/Christopher Weiss (Adam Beach) an expert with chemically treated ropes and a skilled assassin.

We are quickly introduced to these characters individually, we get a little back story which Waller discusses with her advisors over dinner and her plan for them, and by way of bold text up on the screen which is all well & good but you need to be particularly adept at speed reading for the time that data scrolls out in front of you (David Ayer take note!). Under the pretext of wanting to protect the planet from possible otherworldly attack with someone of Superman's strength, a rag tag bunch of the worlds worst career criminals with nothing to lose are assembled under the command of Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) as the field leader of The Squad and seasoned special forces combat soldier applying the wishes of Waller, although not always agreeing with them. She gets approval to assemble her team, and what can the aforementioned gang do but to accept, and they do with promises of reduced sentences, special privileges, and the full arsenal of the US Government at their disposal . . . as long a they behave themselves. As a precaution, each has implanted in their necks a rice grain sized incendiary devise that will be deployed should they rebel, attempt to escape, not follow orders or step out of line - just once!

One other recruit is Dr. June Moone (Cara Delevingne) an archaeologist possessed by an evil ancient force that transformed her in to a powerful sorceress known as Enchantress. Rick Flag is in love with June Moone, but she is able to transform into the witch-goddess by simply whispering her name. She is under the control of Waller who holds her ancient heart in a brief case, enabling Waller to command the Enchantress at will knowing that for now she is fully subservient to her wishes and that she will comply. However, as if on cue the Enchantress quickly turns on everyone, deciding to wipe mankind off the face of our planet for imprisoning her for so long (literally thousands of years!) She summons up her brother, Incubus, to lend some much needed support, creates an army of humans transformed into deadly stone like orc monsters; begins building a super machine to destroy the planet and along the way gets her heart back from Wallers grasp.

Waller summons up the Squad on the basis that Midway City is under fierce attack from terrorists, and their mission is to extract a high-profile individual from the top of a tower block in the city centre. Just before leaving for their mission, the team are joined by Katana/Tatsu Yamashiro (Karen Fukuhara) an expert in martial arts and sword play wielding the mystical 'Soultaker' Samurai blade that captures the souls of those it kills. Katana has got Flags back. As the helicopter taking the Squad into the now evacuated city is en route it is attacked by Incubus and brought down, but all escape unscathed. However, they are attacked by hordes of the stone like orc monsters created by Enchantress once on foot, but are able to overcome them and make it to their final mark at the top of the tower block. Waller it turns out is the subject of the extraction, who quickly dispenses with her own immediate team with a well aimed pistol to several heads to cover up any involvement she has in what has just gone down. This shows Flag and Deadshot exactly what they are dealing with, and what Waller is capable of.

Meanwhile The Joker infiltrates the facility where the nano bombs are made that have been implanted into the Squads necks, and is able to disarm that which is in Harley Quinn's neck. He then makes off in his own helicopter to extract Harley Quinn from the others, by raining down rapid machine gun fire on Flag and his crew on foot below. Harley Quinn escapes up a rope thrown down by The Joker from the helicopter above, and they fly off into the night, but the aircraft is soon shot down by Wallers men. Harley Quinn escapes seemingly unhurt and rejoins her Squad members, but The Joker is believed perished in the wreckage. Immediately after, Waller is extracted by helicopter from the roof top, and her helicopter is shot down too, and she is carted of by the stone like orc creatures of the Enchantress.

With Waller now compromised, an all powerful evil force at work intent on destroying life as we know it, and the prospect of returning to incarceration The Squad decide enough is enough and they haul up in a deserted bar for some much needed refreshment and self consolation. Flag joins them, destroys the device that would activate the nano bombs in their necks, and says your free to go. But The Squad decide that they have a chance to prove themselves and do something worthwhile (like save the world!) and so they regroup. They track down Waller, Enchantress and Incubus to a deserted partially flooded subway station where they hatch a plan to destroy Incubus first as he poses the biggest threat. A NAVY Seals team intend to plant a bomb in the sewer below, but need Diablo to summons his set of particular skills with fire to help distract and thwart Incubus to position himself over the bomb at the point of detonation. This attempt is successful, but it costs Diablo his life in the process.

With Incubus gone, all attention centres on Enchantress who with her heart back is now all powerful. Ultimately she overcomes The Squad and offers them anything they can dream of in exchange for their submission, loyalty and honour. Harley Quinn gives in and sidles up to the Enchantress. Kneeling before her, and beside Katana's Samurai sword, which she lifts up and plunges into the stomach of the Enchantress ripping out her heart with her hands in the process. Killer Croc then throws an explosive package into the centre of the still functioning all powerful machine which Deadshot fires at with a well aimed shot so destroying the weapon of mass destruction, enabling everyone to live happily ever after (well, until the next global crisis anyway!) Flag takes the heart of Enchantress and crushes it to dust, so freeing June from the evil ancient curse. The Squad are returned to Belle Reve with ten years taken off their sentences and allowed certain special privileges, that include Deadshot being allowed access to his beloved daughter (see he is human after all), and Harley Quinn an espresso machine in her cell.

Just when you thought it was safe to look away, in bursts The Joker to spring his love, Harley Quinn from incarceration, much to her surprise and delight. In a mid-credits scene, we see Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) around the dinner table with Amanda Waller. He offers her protection from the backlash brought about by the shenanigans of the Enchantress in exchange for access to a Top Secret dossier that 'ARGUS' has on the ever increasing metahuman community and their known activities. He flicks through its files revealing, amongst others, Aquaman, and so setting up 'Justice League, Part One' due in November 2017.

I did enjoy 'Suicide Squad' for all the adverse press it has so far received, but I did feel let down by all the hype and expectation that went on months before its release. The film moves along at a cracking pace, has a thumping soundtrack, but there are plot holes and editing flaws in here aplenty as the story jumps around and in places is half-baked. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith at Deadshot carry this film without doubt and are both convincing and engaging in their roles, but many of the other characters are superfluous or simply under developed. Jared Leto plays a good Joker, but not in the same league as Heath Ledger's, and as someone sitting on the periphery of the Suicide Squad he adds little value to the story other than his relationship with Harley Quinn, or perhaps he's just in there for effect. There are several brief scenes with Batman/Bruce Wayne for continuity sake that do add value, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller portrays the formidable, ruthless and intimidating Director well too. The effects are well delivered, but really nothing we have not seen in other similar comic book adaptations and certainly nothing that stands out with a 'wow' factor. With 'Man of Steel' bringing in US$668M, this years 'Batman v. Superman' US$873M, the DC Extended Universe needs a sure fire winner at the Box Office. Will this third instalment in that universe be the commercial success needed despite the luke warm reviews so far received? One thing is certain . . . you can't believe the hype, and for me the guys at Marvel set the standard by which DC will be judged, and they have!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE DARKEST HOUR - archive from 1st February 2012.

Saw 'THE DARKEST HOUR' at my local multiplex last night. Another shoot 'em up Sci-Fi actioner that does have some redeeming features. Directed by Chris Gorak and Produced by Timur Bekmambetov ('Nightwatch', 'Daywatch' & 'Wanted'), this has all the latter Director/Producer trademarks all over it. Set in Moscow rather than the staple New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or San Fran this features a largely invisible alien foe who descend upon our planet and immediately set about vapourising our population to rob us of our natural mineral resources.

A largely unknown cast
except for Emil Hirsch and Rachel Taylor the story surrounds two US tech-savvy geeks - Ben and Sean (Max Minghella and Emil Hirsch respectively) who travel to Russia to promote their new social media/party locating software. When they are betrayed by their Swedish partner Skylar (Joel Kinnaman) the disappear to a club to drown their sorrows and meet up with two young holidaying chicks - Natalie from the US (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne from Australia (Rachel Taylor).

Exiting the club all together they witness strange lights up in the sky which then begin to decend to the ground and disappear. After the commotion a policeman standing close by approaches the scene whereupon he disintegrates, as do a number of other close bystanders. The lights as it runs out are alien beings protected by an almost invisible forcefield.

What follows is a fairly standard cat & mouse game as invading aliens wipe out all human life forms on sight, and the invasion is global. Our four friends duck, dive, bob & weave past oncoming alien attackers, through the rubble that once was Moscow, and into a short lived sanctuary where they learn that these pesky no-good alien varmints can in fact be thwarted by microwaves, and that they cannot see through glass.

Coming across various enclaves of hauled up humans fighting the resistance against said alien interlopers, our four heroes continue to fight and pass on their alien thwarting knowledge to others as they pass through. It all ends with a set piece on some Moscow river with a nuclear submarine parked up ready to take them to safety . . . and hope!!

The alien creature FX are well conceived and convincingly rendered, a post apocolyptic Moscow cityscape is impressively visualised, and the action set pieces are good enough . . . but still it lacks something! A little predictable, the 3D does nothing for it either, and there is plenty of other similar Sci-Fi end of the world alien attack fodder out there to choose from too. Costing US$30M to make it brought in US$65M so was only a modest commercial success but fared less well at the time from the critics. You can catch it now on DVD and BluRay.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-