The Eye
Madman

A blind girl gets cornea transplants from a suicide victim...

Seems like a great idea for a horror movie and, for the most part, this film begins quite well with some rather interesting plot and character developments.

The audience is
cleverly drawn into the newly illuminated world of Wong Kar Mun. We see what she sees; only we know something is not quite right.

Once Mun figures out the things she sees are not necessarily what is there, the chills tend to taper out. The film takes a sharp turn and becomes more of a mystery.

With the help of her friend, Dr Wah, Mun finds herself in Thailand tracing the origins of her corneas.

I like the ideas in this fi lm, and many of the visuals are quite creepy, but I just didn’t get that much out of it.

Maybe it was the sudden tonal shift that lets it down, or maybe I just like seeing people suffer.

– AB Kade Rogers

Control Room
Madman

Since the fall of Baghdad, enough documentaries have been made that detail both sides of the story.

The world wants to know what’s going on with the US Government and the Iraqi people – and the media that portray them.

Control Room is a documentary about Al Jazeera, one of the main Arab channels in the Middle East, and their coverage of the war in Iraq.

Interviews with Al Jazeera managers and producers, US military public affairs, western media and war footage from all forms of television news media build a compelling story.

It’s interesting to see Al Jazeera’s side of the campaign, as they only had to report to the Middle Eastern public and not consider the families of the Coalition. Well worth $6 from the video shop.

– LT Simone Heyer

Nothing
Magna Pacific

The Canadians, bless their mapleleaved socks, aren’t renowned for their movie-making prowess and Nothing isn’t a stand-out of the movie world.

It promises to be about real people in a totally true story. Not a new concept.

Two nerdy house mates, are done over by people they trust, then discover their house is going to be destroyed. While they’re cowering in the basement as police surround the house they see a white light.

Everything is quiet and the friends gather up the courage to step outside.

They discover their house and the patch of land it sits on, is suspended in nothing. All around them is nothing.

The rest of the movie is about the quest for fi nding something – which they don’t fi nd. They walk into the nothing – which feels and looks like tofu, and keep walking till they fi nd their way home.

Nothing is unusual and best saved for TV.

– LT Simone Heyer

Festival Express
Magna Pacific

In the mid-1970s, a bunch of bands chartered a train in Canada to ride from coast-to-coast, performing concerts along the way. Festival Express is a documentary featuring clips of the journey and interviews with the key players.

It shows the trip wasn’t all beer and skittles.

At one stage, the hippies expected free concerts, alcohol and drugs, and rioted at the arena, prevented paying customers from getting through, and attacked police.

This documentary is a warts and all look at the music industry in the 70s, what was expected of bands and what bands expected of the public.

If you love 70s music, hippies or trains, this fi lm is for you.

– LT Simone Heyer