REVIEW - ALLIED (ROBERT ZEMECKIS)

You there! Visiting my blog, perusing my appraisals of films of your fancy - you're here for a reason, and that reason has nothing to do with the opinions of Pauline Kael or Andre Bazin or Roger Ebert. It has to do with the opinions of yours truly, and so you'll surely forgive me for putting those opinions first. Those opinions are founded upon tastes, those tastes upon some indistinct, indefinite parts of my psyche over which I have little control. And those tastes favour Robert Zemeckis' Allied, a solid, substantial work of canny craftsmanship that plays immediately into my favours - patient and suspenseful, yet twisty and thrilling. Steven Knight has a marvellous knack for writing screenplays that feel almost minimalist in their lean efficiency and stylistic simplicity, while Zemeckis' own taste for technical trickery enlivens the film without overwhelming it; his respect for classical storytelling techniques a far more apt and valuable attribute in Allied. It's Hitchcock-lite, but then isn't most everything in this genre? And this is a terrific example of adult entertainment (now now, not 'Adult Entertainment') in a modern market that often regards those two terms as mutually exclusive. You see, I have a taste for spy films, especially spy films like Allied. I like their narrative coyness, their aesthetic glamour, their purposeful action sequences - all only when done well, of course, which is largely the case here. And I like it when they're good fun, without necessitating that the viewer checks their brain in at the door. You want my opinion? Allied might just be Robert Zemeckis' best film.

OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR ALLIED

Now here's something into which to sink your teeth! Paramount could hardly have begged for a box office coup like Allied promises to be, what with all the Brangelina divorce drama and the rumours of his affair with Marion Cotillard, albeit quickly quashed by all parties. It gives Robert Zemeckis' wartime thriller the mainstream appeal it might otherwise have lacked; that appeal, however, is supplied to me by this new trailer, far stronger than the teaser, and hinting at the central intrigue to this enticing spy mystery story. Written by Steven Knight, it suddenly seems such an attractive proposition! Released in the US on the 23rd of November and in the UK on the 25th.

REVIEW - THE WALK (ROBERT ZEMECKIS)

The guy who says he gets scared on a stool step? That's me. He quivers with fear standing by the glass wall overlooking the World Trade Centre lobby, though dangles off its roof later on with a peculiar lack of hesitation - that's not me. I caught myself out in The Walk, barely registering that I'd craned my neck around so as to barely glimpse what was on the screen, only doing so when the 3D effects began to distort. It's the most intensely frightening film, a bravura showpiece of directorial prowess, an extraordinary sensory account of an extraordinary act; it's a dreadful drama with ugly 3D, regressive gender politics, an insufferable lead performance in an insufferable part and some of the year's very worst dialogue. It rather depends on where you are in The Walk. The first half is mostly risible, weighed down by cutesy comedic affectations and an oppressive lack of stylistic appreciation - Robert Zemeckis tries, but all you notice is the effort, and none of the results. The second half is mostly remarkable, a demonstration of the power of cinema to evoke fear and excitement and to raise them to near-ecstatic levels. Zemeckis utilises a most unique environment to craft an astounding study in spatial dynamics in cinema, with the human component that is this film's driving force (and often its downfall) providing the perfect emotive counterpoint to all this geometric effects work. It scared the stools out of me, brilliantly and beautifully. It's a masterpiece of filmmaking spoilt by some of the worst filmmaking in contemporary Hollywood.