June: The Mist | The Incredible Hulk | Gone Baby Gone

Director & Screenplay: Frank Darabont
Cast: Thomas Jane, Laurie Holden, Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Jones, Andre Braugher

Running time: 2hrs 7mins

Stephen King has written novels, novellas, and short stories that have been the source for quite a few films, some great, one or two reasonably good and others utterly dreadful. The Mist director Frank Darabont has been responsible, as screenwriter and director, for two of the best: The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, each screenplay earning him an Oscar nomination. But neither was a horror film, so both were atypical as King-inspired projects.

The Mist returns to horror basics, with more generic but less impressive results. Darabont is, in a way, returning to his roots, having written the scripts for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, and The Fly II early on in his career. However, The Mist, in addition to being a monster movie, is also a group-dynamics survival thriller similar in vein to vintage TV series like The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits.

A freak storm in rural Maine unleashes a strange species of bloodthirsty creatures from who knows where. The justifiably desperate, petrified local inhabitants take refuge from the enveloping fog and barricade themselves in the supermarket. The array of stock characters includes Thomas Jane as the protective father of a young son, Marcia Gay Harden as a religious nutter who blames the locals' sins and God's consequent wrath for their current travail, Andre Braugher as a hard-edged attorney, Toby Jones as the commonsensical geeky but decent assistant store manager with hidden talents, Laurie Holden as the schoolteacher who is the town's newest and perhaps most attractive citizen, Jeffrey DeMunn as the first shopper to have a close encounter of the bloody kind, and Bill Sadler as a belligerent handyman.

What appears to be trying to get into the store (and not for casual shopping) are extra-terrestrial insects the size of industrial equipment some of which fly, some of which crawl, all of which feed, and all of which kill. But what they're feeding on are not fast food snacks from the shop's shelves and what they're killing is not time. The human cast is generally capable although Braugher's performance is ridiculously chronic, stooping towards ham and never properly handling his dialogue. The confined setting works to the film's advantage in the building of suspense and inflation of the imagined terror. Of course, some of that terror doesn't have to be imagined at all because it's enacted. Ultimately, this is a creature feature, after all (courtesy of some modest CGI), but it's a character-driven piece despite that. If only the primary characters were less shallow and more compelling. In the extended middle section, the film gives itself over far too indulgently to monologue speeches as the traumatised residents debate, form allegiances, and decide how best to deal with their life-threatening predicament. That the theme of the monster within and without, the mist and the midst in other words, is the script's main concern. This is fine, but it gets hammered at too directly and articulated far too often.

For people who are swept up in the narrative, however, the anything-but-generic ending should deliver quite a shiver - and it's a genuinely brave decision on Darabont's part that he streadfastly sidesteps giving us the all too easy cop-out happy ending. I just wish however that the film operated at the same level of thoughtful creativity throughout, so that the tale lingered and haunted rather than evaporating in short order along with the mist.

Cast: Edward Norton (Bruce Banner), Liv Tyler (Betty Ross), Tim Roth (Emil Blonsky), William Hurt (Gen. "Thunderbolt" Ross), Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark)

This latest big-screen outing for The Incredible Hulk shows a warm allegiance to the original television series starring Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby (both of whom show up in other 'roles' here) - right down to Edward Norton's clobber and his character's endless need for wandering the countryside in depressed solitude. Fans who remember the original green man Lou Ferrigno will undoubtedly enjoy this film as it is clearly for the most ardent embracers of Hulkmania, those who were most disappointed by Ang Lee's thoughtful, introspective take on the character.

Norton plays doctor Bruce Banner and when we join him he is in hiding, and the film is in no particular rush to get him out in the open. Eventually however, he's forced to return home in pursuit of a cure for the green beast which ails him, and in pursuit of the woman he loves - Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). Actually very little is actually asked of Norton or Tyler. Ed spends the vast majority of his screen time staring silently, or breathing heavily to keep caged the beast inside him. Liv gives a solid performance as his besotted girlfriend, though even she seems to spend most of the flick wide-eyed and gormless, as unfortunately there is limited depth written in here for either character. Banner is defined primarily by his need to keep moving, and Betty is defined by her need to move after him. There's little more to either of them than that, and in the few times when the script strives for more it's quickly glossed over or doused by the inexplicable rain which invariably and incongruously pours down from the heavens (perhaps as a stand-in for the genuine emotion the film fails to conjure) whenever they're reunited, sometimes even on a bright and sunny day.

Hot on Banner's trail is the obsessive general Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), Betty's estranged dad, whom the army has lumbered with the cumbersome task of capturing Banner and copying his affliction to create a new breed of super soldiers. If there's a major problem with Incredible Hulk, it's his character. Thunderbolt is on camera more than any other cast member, yet he never makes a great deal of sense. He's wildly inconsistent. One moment he displays a blatant disregard for innocent life, the next he's contradicting everything he's said he stands for to protect it against his own utterly predictable failures. Thunderbolt never quite gells, and seems motivated only by some vague vendetta which is never properly explained.

Eventually it all culminates in the inevitable, obligatory, superhero movie, New York City street brawls in which the Hulk faces off against a Hybrid Hulk, emanating from a desperately miscast Tim Roth (sadly but obviously lured to this nonsense by the lucre). There's not much here that you haven't seen before. Cars are thrown and streets are smashed. The CGI is adequate yet obvious, and really no better than that which appeared five years ago in Ang Lee's previous go at it.

Rather than letting us latch on to the fights, Louis Letterier uses Hulk's battles (his final one in particular) as opportunities to treat fans to more geeky asides, all of which will no doubt have them quivering in their anoraks and clutching their vintage Hulk lunchboxes with glee, and it's those moments and references to other things which are often the most interesting throughout the film. In the film's closing (cheesy) minutes however, Robert Downey Jr. shows up as Tony (Iron Man) Stark to announce he's "putting a team together".....oh, please. Marvel (which is behind this film) owns both 'Hulk' and 'Iron Man' can you work out what's coming next?.....yawn.

For the most part though, I think The Incredible Hulk accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It simply isn't out to accomplish much as it isn't a particularly ambitious or subtle film, it exists primarily to tickle the nostalgia-bones of cinemagoers who are already invested in the history of this character and his world. There's nothing wrong with that I suppose, and it's done well enough so that Hulk fans will enjoy it and then overrate it to others. Therefore, if you're one of the others, feel free to stay home.

Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, Titus Welliver, Madeline O'Brien, Edi Gathegi

Director: Ben Affleck
Screenplay: Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane
Cinematography: John Toll
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams

Running Length: 1:55

Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are private investigators, the heroes of a series of novels from Dennis Lehane. They specialise in missing persons cases, and they are successful because people will talk to them in ways they will not to the police; like most of those Patrick and Angie must interrogate, they have lived their lives in the same tight corner of Boston, where everybody knows everybody, or at least think they do. It's a lot easier to gain someone's trust when you went to high school with a brother, a neighbour, a close family friend. This sense of community lingers over every scene of 'Gone Baby Gone' the fourth book in Lehane's series and the first to be adapted into a film.

That the film has been directed and co-written by Ben Affleck, his first feature in such a role, may seem like either a warning or a gimmicky selling angle, depending on your point of view. However, Affleck's work behind the camera is so self-assured and so knowing that this marks the arrival of a brilliant new voice in cinema. Affleck feels like the right choice to tackle this project. His love for Boston has not changed in the decade since 'Good Will Hunting' and this appreciation for such a tightly knit area is essential to the story itself, and to those in it. This is what makes it click. The same vibe was used to great effect in Mystic River (another Lehane adaptation) and The Departed; and here, Affleck, with a flawless feel for his environment, more than matches those outstanding works from vastly more experienced directors. Just take a look at the initial establishing scenes, which show a laid-back Boston afternoon. With just a few shots of ordinary people doing ordinary things, accompanied by brother Casey Affleck's hushed narration, the older Affleck sets up the next two hours with airtight efficiency and glorious ease.

The film opens with the kidnapping of the daughter of a drug addict; the police are dutiful in their investigations, but too slow, and so the girl's family asks Patrick (played by Casey Affleck) and Angie (Michelle Monaghan) to lend a hand. This is more than the couple is used to, and although they take the case (mostly out of a sense of neighbourly obligation), they are fully aware that their job will now take them into places they don't want to go. After all, it's one thing to hunt down a spouse who has skipped town, but who wants to be the one to find a dead child in the bushes?

In another film, this would be enough - the story is packed with colourful, dangerous characters, with truths buried under half-truths buried under quarter-truths, and the way Patrick and Angie uncover all of this makes for thrilling stuff. Indeed, this is the best straight-up mystery to come along in years, the cinematic equivalent of a gripping page-turner. We're easily lost in this labyrinthine world of dirty cops and vicious criminals, and Affleck finds the right level of grit to coat the entire tone of the piece. But the screenplay (Aaron Stockard shares scripting credit with Affleck) is not content with making this merely about plot. 'Gone Baby Gone' finds its way into the hearts of the characters themselves, and into the very morality of the situations in which we find them. The film ends with a killer of an ethical quandary, which, in non-spoiler terms, can be boiled down to: is it better to do something very wrong if it could lead to something good, or to do something right even if it could lead to something bad?

The entire film could be summed up as an ever-shifting debate over the very definition of right and wrong. And watch how the script and the cast revel in teasing us with the issue. Some scenes put it right up front, like the brilliant monologue from the crooked Detective Bressant (Ed Harris at his most mesmerising) in which he defends a time he planted evidence; other scenes bury the movie's themes off to the sides, in the pockets or behind the cold stares of the story's supporting cast. Which brings us again to matters of community. What Affleck gets right more than anything else is a sense of reality - there's never a moment that doesn't feel totally authentic, which is important when it comes to presenting this compact world. Affleck has created a place that lives and breathes on its own terms, which is important, as it allows the convolutions of the plot to feel permissible. These aren't cheap story gimmicks but genuine surprises born from this reality.

Affleck's flawless direction and scripting are then enhanced by what could be the year's best ensemble cast. Dependable names like Harris, and Morgan Freeman are matched scene-for-scene with lesser known actors Titus Welliver, Trudi Goodman, Edi Gathegi, and Slaine. Familiar faces Amy Madigan, Mark Margolis, and John Ashton shine in minor roles. Monaghan and the younger Affleck effortlessly bring their leading roles to life, making for an authentic couple along the way. Indeed, Affleck's turn here is spectacular, holding the story together with amazing ease; it's easily the best performance in his young career, a carefully honed interpretation built on restraint. And, of course, all the things you may have heard about Amy Ryan are true. Ryan, a longtime character actor and stage veteran, has raised countless eyebrows in her breakthrough performance as Helene, the drug-addicted mother of the kidnapped girl. Watch what she does with the role; instead of hamming it up, Ryan digs deep and finds the humanity in this weary woman. She never appears to be reaching for the spotlight, and yet she earns our attention in every frame.

Working with such a perfect cast in such an elegantly crafted piece, Affleck then allows himself the room for his story to rattle around in ways that dig under our skin. 'Gone Baby Gone' is a masterful work, going beyond the boundaries of simple detective thriller and into the realm of intelligent, morally complex drama.

Cast: Noel Clarke, Adam Deacon, Femi Oyeniran, Cornell S. John, Scarlett Alice Johnson, Danny Dyer

Written and Directed by: Noel Clarke

Noel Clarke returns as Sam Peel, picking up his story six years after Kidulthood, 2006's critically acclaimed portrayal of life for 21st century UK teens. Alongside Clarke, Adulthood re-unites several of Kidulthood's cast including Adam Deacon (West 10 LDN, Sugarhouse, Ali G Inda House), Femi Oyeniran and Cornell S. John (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian). Adulthood also marks the feature film debut of Scarlett Alice Johnson (formerly of Eastenders). This film is one of the best reflections of inner city teen urban life today and the soundtrack is able to reflect the sentiments of the film perfectly because of its authenticity with music full of award winners, veterans, newcomers and chart-toppers. The expected names like Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Lethal Bizzle featuring Kate Nash appear alongside rising talents like Bashy, Chipmunk and Tinchy Styrder and Plan B also contribute and to ensure that the soundscape is as deep as it is wide Shystie, Eliza Doolittle and Scarlett & Viva featuring The Audio Bullies all add there own flavours to the mix.

The 2006 feature Kidulthood, about the life of several 15 year olds in the deprived areas of inner West London, was directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Noel Clarke. Its compelling situations and ferocious soundtrack, brought contemporary teenage multicultural London to life so vividly. Clarke played Sam, the sixth former who uses the school playground as his personal arena. His reign of terror came under threat, however, when a schoolgirl committed suicide; the rest of her classmates were given compassionate leave and subsequently roamed the streets of London, causing mayhem with their loose-fitting tracksuits and even looser knowledge of life. Sam eventually became embroiled in, charged with and jailed for the murder of a street colleague.

Noel Clarke, an English actor and writer from London, won the Laurence Olivier Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" for his performance in the play Where Do We Live at the Royal Court Theatre. He has had recurring roles as Wyman Norris in the revival series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and as Mickey Smith in Doctor Who. Following his writing of the screenplay for Kidulthood - here with its sequel, Adulthood, he takes up the reins as both Writer and Director.

Six years after Sam Peel is released from jail for killing Trife, he soon realises that life is no easier on the outside than it was on the inside and he's forced to confront the people he hurt the most. Some have moved on, others are stuck with the repercussions of his actions that night, but one thing's for certain - everyone has been forced to grow up. Through his journey Sam struggles to deal with his sorrow and guilt and something else he didn't expect - those seeking revenge. As he's pursued by a new generation of bad boys, Sam sets about trying to get the message across to his pursuers that they should stop the violence, much like Trife tried to tell him all those years ago. Can Sam stop the cycle of violence and make something positive from the destruction he caused or will his journey into Adulthood end here?

A positive tale disguised in the bleakness of its environment, Adulthood pushes home the moral lesson that crime doesn't pay and is an excellent piece of work from an extremely exciting talent.