In an attempt to evade the enemy agents Jamie helps Charlie with delivering the final vital documents, enthralling the young boys imagination as he hides from passers by and creates diversions.

However as they wait for the final £2 million payment it slowly becomes clear to Jamie that maybe things aren’t exactly as his dad is making out.

Robert Carlyle is quoted as saying that he feels this is one of his best performances – and it’s probably true. He brilliantly and flawlessly portrays a man pushed to the brink of sanity by forces outside his control, and his attempts to reconcile them.

Young Jamie is touchingly portrayed by newcomer Aaron Fuller who perfectly displays the love and concern for his father.

Highly recommended. I Know You Know is directed by Justin Kerrigan and released via Network Releasing

Burton’s Alice in Wonderland takes us on a journey that combines aspects of the original Disney film with aspects from Lewis Carroll’s books as Alice returns to ‘Underland’ in her teenage years to face her destiny.

Alice (Mia Wasikowska) needs an escape from the pressures of a high class engagement party where she is in the spot light and facing an unexpected marriage proposal from a ginger Lord with sensitive digestion, so she follows the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) down a hole in a tree trunk and finds herself in the fantastical world from her childhood dreams.

Alice meets some strange and wonderful creatures in ‘Underland’ including Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (Matt Lucas), The Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and of course the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp). They all assist her in realising who she really is and they guide her towards her fate of defeating the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and her Jabberwocky to return the crown and the power over the land to the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

The cast for this film is fantastic but, there are two characters in particular that stand out amongst the rest. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are excellent as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen; both shine in their roles and create enchanting performances that are a joy to watch. And they’re both mad to boot!

Tim Burton has let his imagination run wild and has put a firm stamp on this film with his reinventions of certain characters, the amazing aesthetics and the brilliant use of CGI. If anyone has possibly failed to sit up and notice Burton’s works before this then this film will surely do the trick.

In short, Alice in Wonderland is an excellent film which I would recommend to everyone. I just didn’t want it to end.

In the end the festival took place in White Lake with nearly half a million people attending or at least trying to.

Ang Lee’s latest film Taking Woodstock tells the story of Elliot Tiber and how he brought the festival to his hometown. Played wonderfully by Demetri Martin, Elliot is finding his feet as an interior designer in Greenwich Village, and feeling at home with the burgeoning gay rights movement.

But he still feels duty bound to return each summer to help his parents failing El Monaco motel, run by his strident, outspoken Jewish Russion mother (Imelda Staunton) and fading father (Henry Goodman). In the summer of 1969 Elliot hears that the Woodstock festival is being chased out of town after town and sees an opportunity to offer his motel to the promoters and make some much-needed income.

Of course things begin to take on a life of their own as the Woodstock chaos and magic comes together to create a generation-defining experience that will change Elliot – and popular culture – forever.

Ang Lee has created a beautiful piece of cinema, as he not only tells Elliot’s story but also shows the importance of the events going on around him. Two hours has rarely gone by so fast.

Highly Recommended. Taking Woodstock is released this Friday 13th November 2009 in cinemas nationwide.

Taking Woodstock will be in cinemas November 13th. Find out more at www.takingwoodstockthemovie.co.uk

Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm in White Lake, NY, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life, and American culture, forever.

Taking Woodstock is directed by Academy Award®-winner Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) with a screenplay by James Schamus (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm), based on the book Taking Woodstock by Elliot Tiber. The film stars Demetri Martin (Important Things with Demetri Martin on Comedy Central) as Elliot Tiber, Emile Hirsch (Milk, Into the Wild), and Liev Schreiber (Defiance).

Release date: 13th November 2009

Don’t let this fool you though, as the initial promise soon falls well short of expectations. Surrogates has a great concept based of a successful graphic novel and is directed by Jonathan Mostow of Terminator 3 fame. The running time however is its largest downfall as plot holes quickly squash away any initial promise the film displays.

The plot sees us taken to an unnamed year in earth’s future where society now consists of people laying in bed controlling their robot selves. (Think of The Sims with a pulse). However, society’s flawless lifestyle is quickly disrupted by an unidentifiable criminal who possesses a gun that can kill not only the robot, but the humans controlling it as well.

This is when we get introduced to Bruce Willis in not so unfamiliar territory as a rogue cop by the name of Tom Greer, who quickly goes investigating into the crime. He quickly abandons his dashing, flawless and full haired surrogate in the process to mix it up with balding stubble and a bad attitude, much to the chagrin of his loved ones and peers. By this point it’s best to just sit back and enjoy the pretty colours as the films cohesion quickly unravels before your eyes. Characters motivations go completely unanswered as you’ll find yourself somewhat looking across to the person in the seat next to you with a quizzical look. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything. These scenes likely did exist; they’re just probably laying on the cutting room floor somewhere.

Lack of cohesion aside, Surrogates is not a massive failure. The action scenes are slick and effective, but it largely suffers from style over substance. Large portions of the film are very dialogue heavy and will likely spark some fruitful coffee shop discussion about where society is heading, but generally you’ll always likely come back to the fact that the plot quickly lost any semblance of structure to be taken seriously.

I’m unsure as to whether Mostow intended this to be the 1950’s style B movie it very closely resembles. If you go into it with that attitude then you may be pleasantly surprised. Bad timing may be against the film with audiences likely going to watch it after Sci-Fi blockbusters such as Star Trek and more recently District 9, so expectations may be slightly misplaced. However I would say Surrogates is still a rental at best. Hopefully the DVD release will see an uncut version with the plot tightened up.

The film is about a group of aliens who become stuck on earth after their Mothership breaks down. The people of Johannesburg find them malnourished and so they set up a secure camp for them to live in where they can be separate from the human population.

However, this does not quite work for the locals as the aliens (or ‘prawns’) start to break the rules of their confinement. The authorities decide it’s time for them to be moved outside of Johannesburg into a new camp and so they are all served eviction notices which they are expected to cooperate with.

One vigilante alien has other ideas; he has been running an operation under his home in District 9 where he has been working on a special substance which will enable him to repair the Mothership to take his people home again.
The government agent in charge of the evictions is exposed to the liquid when searching the alien’s home and slowly finds that he is transforming into one of the ‘prawns’.

District 9 is a really interesting film. It’s shot in a documentary style which feels strange at first but really works as you adapt to the technique. The film is gripping from start to finish and the interaction between the aliens and the humans is great to watch and offers plenty of laughs. The film feels fresh and quite different to the alien films we usually see, which makes it a brilliant watch.

Orphan is about a couple who are looking to adopt an older child as an addition to their family after loosing their baby. At the orphanage they meet Esther, a 9-year-old girl originally from Russia who appears to be a very talented and intelligent girl who is a little bit different to the other children.

John and Kate decide to give Esther a chance and they take her home with them to join their young family. Everything seems to be perfect to begin with as Esther is sweet and polite but, strange things soon start to happen around her and Kate becomes suspicious. Kate tries to express her concerns to husband John but, he just can’t see things the same way until it’s too late.

The plot for this film is intriguing but, can be a little difficult to swallow in places. The opening sequence, for example, is very hard to watch and seems a bit insensitive and unnecessary, and there are sections throughout which are also unsettling. However, despite some of the horrible content, the film still keeps you tensely on the edge of your seat and wanting to know what happens next.

I wouldn’t recommend this film to most people as it is a little bit shocking and it should probably have a higher certificate than a 15 but, for those who do chose to see it, expect to leave the cinema very unsettled.

John Travolta stars as Ryder who has recently been let out of prison and is now the ringleader of the train hijack. Along with his gang of miscreants, he terrorises the passengers and demands a heavy ransom which has to reach him on time or he threatens to start shooting the people on the train.

An unsuspecting train dispatcher (Denzel Washington) finds his day taking a very unexpected twist as he has to quickly learn how to negotiate with terrorists while keeping the situation calm and the train passengers alive.

Pelham 123 is a really gripping film and John Travolta is perfect as the unhinged and humorous Ryder. The relationship between his character and Garber (played by Denzel Washington) is really interesting to watch as it develops over the course of the film. The film focuses mainly on these characters but, this doesn’t harm the plot at all as they are both well cast and have great chemistry, resulting in a great watch.

Dillinger is a notorious criminal who spends his time robbing banks, evading the long arm of the law and plotting ways to escape prison each time he is caught.

Hot on his thieving tail is Christian Bale’s character Melvin Purvis who makes it his duty to hunt down Dillinger and his men and see them firmly back behind bars by any means possible.

Along the way, Dillinger meets the love of his life in French woman Billie Frechette; he falls hard and fast and decides to take her along for the ride in his crazy, fast-paced life.

Public Enemies is a bit disappointing and was not quite what I was expecting. The first half of the film is very slow paced and the scenes do not seem to fit together very well. There is a lot going on but not much explanation as to why. This sadly gets the audience off on a bad start with it.

The second half of the film, however, is a huge improvement; the pace is better and the action flows more effectively which makes it much more enjoyable to watch.

Public Enemies has an interesting plot, some interesting characters and some solid acting; it’s use of hand-held camera and natural sound is effective as it really gives a documentary feel, reminding you that the film is based on a true story but, these positive aspects do not quite save it from the poor pacing and the lack of coherence at the start, which really lets it down.

There was definitely a lot more that director Michael Mann could have done with this film to make it more of a hit.