Friday, January 25, 2013Shropshire Star SS 2255www.shropshirestar.com

dvds

Loopy cartoon capersthat are so well-timed

House At The End Of The Street (15)

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence,Elisabeth Shue,Max ThieriotRunning time: 96 mins

Jennifer Lawrence takes time out from the blockbustingHunger Games series to play a young woman in peril inMark Tonderai’s predictable horror.

Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) is still smarting from an acrimo-nious divorce and she moves into a new house in an idyllicrural town with her pretty daughter, Elissa (Lawrence).

The family home is perfect and the locals seem lovely,then strange events begin to happen and Sarah and Elissalearn that the house next door was once a murder scene.

A young woman killed her parents there and left herbrother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as the sole survivor of the car-nage.

Sarah is understandably reluctant to allow Elissa to forgea friendship with Ryan but her daughter is drawn to therecluse, venturing into the house stained by the blood ofthe past.

Behind locked doors lie terrifying secrets and Elissaquickly realises that unspeakable evil lurks within herneighbourhood.

Resident Evil: Retribution (15)

Here we go again – the fifth instalment of Resident Evil Our house – predictable scares in this horror filmStarring: Milla Jovovich, Bingbing Li, Sienna Guillory,

Johann Urb, Boris Kodjoe, Michelle Rodriguez, KevinDurand, Oded Fehr, Shawn Roberts.Running time: 91 mins

Alice (Milla Jovovich) continues her battle against theshadowy Umbrella Corporation in the fifth instalment of thehorror franchise. At the conclusion of Resident Evil: After-life, Alice found herself on a ship, repelling hordes of heav-ily armed Umbrella soldiers. The vessel explodes and Aliceplummets into the icy waters below, waking some timelater as a prisoner in a subterranean Umbrella facility.

Ada Wong (Bingbing Li), the right-hand woman of AlbertWesker (Shawn Roberts), helps Alice to escape her con-finement and it transpires that the artificial intelligenceknown as the Red Queen has usurped Wesker as headhoncho of the corporation and is already amassing forcesto eradicate mankind.

Written and directed by Paul WS Anderson Resident Evil:Retribution is a cacophony of digital effects and slow-motion slaughter. Dialogue is excruciating, reducing con-versations to one-sentence exchanges.

From time travelling assassins to cartoonpsychics, Damon Smith finds this week’sDVD releases stylish and properly funny

ParaNorman (PG)Featuring the voices of: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, AnnaKendrick, Casey Affleck, ChristopherMintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin,Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, JodelleFerland, Tempestt Bledsoe, AlexBorstein, John Goodman.Running time: 88 mins

Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Looper (15)Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt,Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano,Pierce Gagnon, Piper Perabo, JeffDaniels, Summer Qing, Frank Bren-nan, Garret Dillahunt.Running time: 113 mins

Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)is an assassin, or ‘looper’,who guns down hooded

targets that have been sentback in time by his mob bossesin 2044 Kansas.

Silver bars are strapped to the backof each target – payment for the pull ofa trigger – and once Joe has inciner-ated the lifeless body, he stashes hisspoils in the hidden floor-space of hisswanky apartment.

Like all loopers, Joe knows his lifeexpectancy is finite and one day he will“close the loop” by gunning down hisfuture self. When the time comes for Joe tokill Future Joe (Bruce Willis), he hesitates,allowing his older incarnation to escape.

The race between hunter and huntedleads to a remote farmhouse, wheremother Sara (Emily Blunt) and her son Cid(Pierce Gagnon) reside far from pryingeyes.

Looper is an ingeniously plotted thrillerthat exploits the gaping plot holes affordedby time travel.

StylishlyWriter-director Rian Johnson’s script

demands constant vigilance to keep trackof alternate, intersecting plot threads.

It’s all meticulously planned and stylishlyexecuted, realising Marty McFly’s worstnightmare from the Back To The Futureseries by allowing a hero to co-exist with hisfuture self in the same timeframe.

The ripple effect leads to a simple yetstriking flourish: wounds inflicted on ayoung protagonist simultaneously manifest

as scars on the older self. This temporal tor-ture allows characters to cleverly commu-nicate with each other by scoring lettersand symbols into their own flesh.

Plot mechanics trump performancesthroughout, so Gordon-Levitt’s usual inten-sity is muted and Willis plays to hisstrengths as an action man.

✰Perry (voiced by Jeff Garlin)and Sandra (Leslie Mann) livein Blithe Hollow with their

daughter Courtney (Anna Kendrick)and son Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee),who can see and communicate withthe dearly departed.

They are stunned when deranged UnclePrenderghast (John Goodman) pays a sur-prise visit.

“The witch’s curse is real and you’re theonly one who can stop it,” Prenderghastinstructs Norman, who discovers he hasinherited his supernatural abilities from hisdotty relative.

Soon after, the seven people who sentwitch Aggie (Jodelle Ferland) to her doomback in 1712 rise from the grave and runamok, led by the menacing Judge (BernardHill).

Sheriff Hooper (Tempestt Bledsoe) strug-gles to maintain calm so Norman joinsforces with classmate Neil (Tucker Albrizzi),

Time’s up – Bruce Willis in time-travelling Loopers

Hot shot – Emily Blunt plays mother Sara in the film Loopers

Everything Or Nothing (12)

Running time: 93 mins

For the past 50 years, James Bond has entertained cin-ema audiences with his thrilling missions around theworld, clashing with villains such as Blofeld, Scaramangaand Auric Goldfinger.

The latest instalment, Skyfall, has become the highestgrossing film of all time at the UK box office and looks setto win at least one Oscar for Adele's theme tune.

Director Stevan Riley celebrates the enduring popu-larity of the franchise in this feature-length documentary,which charts the history of the series from its origins inthe imagination of writer Ian Fleming to the big screen,where tensions between producers Albert R Broccoli andHarry Saltzman provided as much drama off screen ason it.

Cast and crew from the various films share their mem-ories, intercut with famous scenes and rare behind-the-scenes footage of the six Bonds – Sean Connery, GeorgeLazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnanand Daniel Craig – bringing the dashing secret agent tolife.

Memories – Daniel Craig dug out the old car in Skyfall

his buff older brother Mitch (Casey Affleck)and school bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to break the curse.

ParaNorman is an intelligent and hilari-ous stop-motion 3D animation that openswith a tongue-in-cheek homage to GeorgeA Romero.

Chris Butler and Sam Fell’s colourfulromp might be aimed at families but par-ents and teenagers will laugh the loudestat the sly visual gags.

Young children might be slightlyunnerved by severed limbs that scuttlearound of their own accord but violence iscartoonish and scares are gentle.

Smit-McPhee tugs heartstrings as theloner who would give anything to lose hisability to communicate with the dead.

Animation bursts with vibrant colour andthe attention to detail is remarkable in fre-netic action scenes, especially in 3D,which is available exclusively on Blu-ray.

Dead funny – ParaNorman is an hilarious animated psychic caper

Phone home – communicating with the dead leads to laughs

BooksBy Peter FawcettPublished by Donald A. & PhilipBedford

As this 370-page hardbackbook has a price tag of £38 (toinclude postage), two things areapparent. The first is that it’s beena veritable labour of love overmany years by Peter Fawcett,who has striven to write a defini-tive account of the history anddevelopment of hand-bell ringing.And the second is that the peoplewho are going to seek out andbuy this book are going to be

ringing for gold

people who either have a personal interest in hand-bellringing or a family connection with the tradition. It seemsto have been a mainly north of England thing, but it turnsout that there have also been successful hand-bell ringinggroups in Shropshire as well.

This is an admirable project seen through to completionby Fawcett. For the lay person, there are interesting side-lights, such as when you put some bells down on the tablethere can be a sort of aftertone which can be artfullyexploited by the true experts in the field. And there are var-ious different techniques in actually ringing the bell, toachieve different effects.

The popularity of hand-bell ringing has waxed andwaned as it has gone in and out of fashion from time totime. The book includes plenty of old photos, full colourphotos, and various bits and pieces of memorabilia arereproduced. It also has an index, which is particularly use-ful in a work of this sort. Many congratulations to Mr Faw-cett for his research and for bringing this book to fruition.It feels like he has spared no expense in doing so but, asthe foreword says, it is a book “which had to be pub-lished”.

Incidentally it’s available throughwww.ringingforgold.co.uk

Review by Toby Neal

By Tilly BagshawePublished by Harper

From the pen of this prolificauthor, with nine previous novelsto her name, comes another deli-cious book for the ladies.

The story tells of three oldfriends all now embarked on verydifferent lives: Cat, feeling wellpast her prime and whose hus-band has left her for a youngerwoman, Kendall who is sure shehas it all with her successfulrecording career, and Ava, totally

friends and rivals

unworldly but now thrown into the cut-throat world of fame.Kendall and Ava become unwitting rivals, pitted againsteach other in a battle for the top spot, and with Cat fearingthat she can only trust one of them, the three friends areall tempted to betray one another as they navigate theirway through a world of backstabbing and greed.

The author has cleverly woven her plot and createdthree strong characters, each of whom deserves a bookof her own in my opinion. Old friends can make the worstof enemies, and we all have someone in our lives of whomthis is true.

Bagshawe has an uncanny knack of writing for womenof all ages and this book hits the spot, just as all her othershave done for me. Good reading for these long coldevenings.

Review by Sally Bunn

By Stephen HuntPublished by Harper Voyager

This is a mixture of high adven-ture, crime, and magic from aprolific sci-fi and Fantasy writer.

Middlesteel, in the Kingdom, isunder siege from a murderousenemy who cannot be seen butwho leaves bloodless corpses inhis wake. Vampire? Maybe. Inreturn for a handsome reward,Mistress of Mesmerism, CharlotteShades is approached by twomysterious men who ask her to

from the deep of the dark

steal the King’s sceptre from deep inside the Parliamentvaults, and, being the superb thief that she is, she agrees,little knowing that her magic may not protect her fromforces well beyond her control.

Two detectives, Jethro Daunt and his sidekick Boxiron,wade into the fray to rescue Charlotte but uncover a plotthicker than they had ever imagined. While escaping fromthe mayhem, in an ancient submarine, they encounter stiffresistance from a strange race who inhabit the deepunderwater realms, but trying to convince these creaturesto join them in their fight against a danger that threatensall their worlds is an uphill struggle.

Hunt’s imagination knows no limits and this is fast-mov-ing and spellbinding stuff from a master of his genre.

Review by Sally Bunn

harbour nocturneBy Joseph WambaughPublished by Head of Zeus

The latest novel by veteran UScrime writer Joseph Wambaughfinds him back on familiarground – patrolling the meanstreets of Hollywood.

You might expect the plot of hislatest adventure – layabout long-shoreman finds love and redemp-tion when he falls for a Mexicanstripper – to be little more than aB-movie cliche, but the writing andthe characters lift this tale out of the ordinary. He does notrely on shocking twists and turns to keep the plot moving,but instead slowly builds up the tension. A great read.

Review by Robert Dex