FiLm

words rich pelley

jan/08 maximmag.co.uk 63

Film FiGht

DIARY OF THE DEAD VS [REC]

which fake zombie doc eats the most brains?

Out 7 Mar lllll l right now theres a proper spate of scary films pretending to be filmed on fictitious found cameras (Cloverfield, [.REC], etc). Now zombie legend George A romero adds to the hey, is This Thing On? genre, making a students video diary of an unfolding zombie apocalypse. it lacks the satirical punch of his other ...Of The Dead films, but it does prove that for sheer imagination in shock and gore, romero still reigns.

Diary of The DeaD

Film oF the month

rambo
Out now lllll

Gruesome violence from Hollywoods hardest pensioner

[REC]

Out 21 Mar lllll l Kicking off in almost exactly the same way as Diary Of The Dead, this Spanish horror follows a news crew covering a fire. News becomes nightmare when the crew are attacked by, yep, zombies, and they film their desparate bid to escape. More realistic than Diary, this is relentless, disorientating and claustrophobic, but it fails to answer the big question: why on earth are you still filming? put the camera down and run!

l and the wInner Is

Diary Of The Dead lurches in ahead of [REC], which stalls to chew off one of its rotting feet.

ollowing the success of his previous resurrection heroically reviving loveable warhorse Rocky Balboa Stallone is eager to reanimate his other franchise by directing and starring in Rambo. As with Rocky Balboa, Slys tried to take the character back to his roots and avoid the trashy faceless-Commie-goon slaughtering of the previous Rambo sequels. Opening with genuine news footage of the oppressive Burmese military regime, followed by a sickening depiction of the junta executing its prisoners, it seems this time Stallone is trying to get a real political message to the world, beyond mindless violence andurrrrrrgh. Sadly, though, the message doesnt quite hit home: theres no back story to explain the politics and raise awareness of the real atrocities that are taking place in Burma.The enemy leader is only

identifiable by his mirrored sunglasses: they are faceless goons after all, and, much like Saving Private Ryan, the films heroic morals all get drowned out by the constant gunfire and people screaming as their bodies get shot to little piles of liquid. Its confused politics aside, Rambo is throbbing, pounding action all the way home.The second half of the film is non-stop, and it looks great. Stallones learned some

Rambo is throbbing, pounding action all the way home

120 aPr/08 get mobiLe: text maxim to 60030 (25p)

FiLm
whats that? You want some more? have it! dinner times been ace since sly was put in charge of the puddings

The bank job

lllll
Out 14 Mar

thats the hat that killed my father

l Starring Jason Stathams chin, this cockney heist thriller is a right old barrell of hows yer monkeys fathers. its based on a real-life crime caper the unsolved 1971 walkie-talkie robbery, where a bunch of cheeky sods tunnelled into the vault of a baker Street bank but told in the implausible, overblown style of a bruce Willis action-farce. Which, for all its silly cartoon-cockney mugging, makes it great. As crime capers go, its a rocketpaced, salt-of-the-earth in-andout job basically a hollywood remake of an EastEnders omnibus and its a right bleedin corker, my son. l Like this? Youll like: Oceans 11, The Italian Job, The Sweeney

THE COTTAGE
lllll
Out 14 Mar

l featuring The League Of Gentlemens reece Shearsmith and Andy Gollum Serkis, this comedy horror is an unlikely second feature from the director of London To Brighton. in parts its both funny and scary, but Jennifer ellisons acting will have you praying shes the first casualty... l Like this? Youll like: Shaun Of The Dead, Severence, Brookside

new tricks as a director, and the raging, bloody war he creates is properly scary. Soldiers are literally torn in half by heavy machine guns, grenades reduce people to soup, while Rambo and his mercenaries (including an excruciatingly mockney ex-SAS officer) take their own losses.Yep, thats right: its a Rambo film where (most) of the baddies can actually shoot straight. Its frustrating to know how much better this could have been (Rocky Balboa proves Stallone, now in his sixties, is at the top of his game), but its undeniably thrilling, gut-twisting stuff. It just leaves a bad taste in the mouth knowing the set-up a chilling introduction to the horrors of Burmas brutal military government is still just a prelude to more mindless violence after all.

F.Y.i.
WHEn CREATinG THE CGi fOR THE pRE-HisTORiC AnimAls in 10,000BC, iT Took 16 hours To mAkE A sinGlE fRAmE. ThaTs why The film Took 10,000 years To mAkE.

THE OTHER bOlEyn GiRl

lllll
Out 7 March

l copy to come copy to come copy to come opy to come copy to come copy to come opy to come copy to come copy to come copy to come opy to come copy to come copy to come opy to come copy to come copy to come copy to come opy to come copy to copy to come copy to come opy to come copy to come copy to come opy to come l Like this? Youll like: School Of Rock aPr/08 maximmag.co.uk 121

words chriS bOurN, NicK lefTley