Hideaki Anno, Masayuki & Tsurumaki Kazuya | 107 mins | DVD | 15
The genesis of this film is a long story (at least, longer than I’d like for this review!) The anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion ends with bizarre theme-centric episodes that fail to conclude the story; a film was produced to re-tell the end from a story-centric position and/or to provide an alternate ending (depending who you believe). This is not that film, but something that was released a bit before that.
The first 69 minutes (titled Death) are an intriguing reorganisation/summary of the series in a somewhat impressionistic way, including a few new scenes. It’s either quite clever or just a jumble. The final 27 minutes (titled Rebirth) are an all-new continuation of the story.
There are answers, revelations, some great sequences, and a great cliffhanger! Unfortunately this is also the start of the concluding film, which ultimately renders this as just one thing: a fan-only curio. Its main value, in my opinion, is the neat cliffhanger, which makes for a tantalising ending (instead of the first act plot point it must be in the next film).
If you’re curious about Evangelion and think a filmic summary sounds a good idea, don’t watch! Get hold of the series, it’s worth the time. (I’ll undoubtedly share my thoughts on the conclusion, The End of Evangelion, as soon as Play.com get it back in stock.)
Stephen Fry leads a starry British ensemble in this biopic of poet, novelist, playwright and genius Oscar Wilde. The film focuses not on Wilde’s literary achievements and public life, but on his private relationships with various men, and in particular his obsession with the young Lord ‘Bosie’; of course, eventually, all of these things collide.
Period drama focusing on the friendship between Queen Victoria and her Highland servant John Brown, alongside political threats faced by the British monarchy in the 1860s.
Recent adaptation of Patrick Süskind’s popular novel, often considered unfilmable because of its focus on the sense of smell. Tykwer covers for that with strong cinematography, with sumptuously rich visuals and a judicious use of close-ups to evoke beauty or disgust as appropriate (the early birth scene in a fish market is particularly rancid — do not watch this right after eating!)
Jock-tastic ’80s-style surfing-based crime thriller. If you’ve seen 
Famous/infamous documentary centred on Al Gore’s presentation about global warming.
No doubt you’ve heard only bad things about this re-imagining of Gerry Anderson’s ’60s puppet extravaganza (apart from that esteemed publication The Funday Times proclaiming “You’ll love this!” on the DVD cover). Certainly there’s much for fans to hate — dull teen angst, tired moral messages, low budget CGI, an iffy storyline, and a truly horrendous re-mix/ruining of the theme music.
Michael Caine stars as the eponymous London lothario in this ’60s sex-based comedy/drama, which helped bring about a change in British abortion law thanks to its chilling final act.
A slightly unusual one to review, this: it’s a 49-minute animated Sherlock Holmes adaptation from the ’80s, one of four in this particular series. But, as best I can tell from IMDb, it’s not specifically TV-based, and it does feature the voice of Peter O’Toole. Vocally he makes for a good Holmes, though the character design could be a little better. I can’t recall the original story well enough to comment on this as an adaptation, but it’s a decent mystery that’s well explained. The animation is not bad; certainly no worse than most kids’ TV animation from the ’80s and ’90s, and better than the flat Flash-animated stuff of today. A solid production.
