http://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/default.aspxen-gbTue, 14 Jul 2009 11:40:37 GMThttp://www.teletext.co.uk/images/Logo64x64.gifhttp://www.teletext.co.ukBy Victor Olliver - Sacha Baron Cohen jackhammers deep into his dark soul to unleash the inner whipping Marquis de Sade we only glimpsed in Borat.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~4/juP5vG3uOVo" height="1" width="1"/>
New creation Bruno - a gay fashionista who aims to become the "biggest Austrian celebrity since Hitler" - is far crueller and crazier than his Kazakh predecessor. But is he funnier?

Jaw-dropping, certainly. Bruno shocks more than he gives belly laughs.

Bruno buries TV memories of Beadle's About or Candid Camera as Cohen sets up anyone from supermodels to terrorists in a series of outrageous encounters.

Watching him turn Milan Fashion Week to pandemonium as he disrupts a catwalk set with his clingy velcro suit is as mind-blowing as it is pointless. The precious fashion crowd boo furiously.

At the end he's carrying so many things on his suit he resembles a chic dosser.

On his trek to become famous, Bruno hires gay "second assistant" Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) who harbours an erotic unrequited love for his master.

Cohen's targets are various - dimwit celebs, homophobic hicks and politicos, brain dead TV and other things besides.

He lures an uncomprehending Paula Abdul to talk about her humanitarian work while she sits on a man who's on all fours - will she ever live that down?

There are sequences of comic genius. An LA psychic passes on messages to Bruno from a dead fictitious pop star.

Bruno then performs an obscene mime of gay sex with the pop star's ghost. The scene works because the psychic - who sits through all this silently - is completely clueless about the movie.

In a later scene, we witness bigoted disgust of hotel workers who find Bruno and Lutz chained together in bed.

The extreme comedy turns sinister and creepy when Bruno goes on a US TV show to talk about his adopted black baby.

Even now I can't work out the point in enraging the African-American audience whose obvious concern for the child must be shared by satirist Cohen.

And what is the point in offending Hasidic Jews in Israel by sashaying about in skintight short-shorts? Is this about mocking another culture?

When Cohen's showing up ambitious stage parents - like the mum who agrees her child can appear as a Nazi warder in a death camp film scene - you applaud.

But when he talks offensively of beards to a Middle Eastern activist or tries to bed a male former US presidential candidate, the humour turns nasty.

You suspect that the huge dollop of cruelty in Cohen has got out of hand - and then the movie wilts. Verdict 3.5/5

]]>90a1f252c2325219d083471c54c7d237http://feeds.teletext.co.uk/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~3/juP5vG3uOVo/Bruno+(18)+83+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/90a1f252c2325219d083471c54c7d237/Bruno+(18)+83+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/90a1f252c2325219d083471c54c7d237/Bruno+(18)+83+mins.aspxBy Victor Olliver - Teenage hanky-panky takes precedence over wizardy mumbo-jumbo in the sixth Potter instalment. Just two more films to go then.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~4/pyQ8xuHQnl0" height="1" width="1"/>
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince returns us to Snogwarts (Hogwarts, I mean). Meantime, Hotter (oops, Potter) adds love motions to the potions.

Director David Yates submerges us in the frothy Acne Years as light to the shade of a story that's growing meaner.

We know demonic Lord Voldemort is back if only because his Death Eaters - who travel as high-speed smoke worms - are wreaking havoc on Muggles and wizards.

Non-Potter fans may be flummoxed. Why has Voldemort assigned white-haired Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) to perform a horrible deed at Hogwarts? Why does Jim Broadbent debut here as an armchair?

He plays new character Professor Horace Slughorn, master of potion-making.

Slughorn is key to the whole story: he knows the secret of the late and wicked Tom Riddle, and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) wants Harry to crack it.

Broadbent's casting is a master stroke. He captures perfectly that blend of scattiness, eccentricity, furtiveness and fear that makes up Slughorn.

He's also big enough to take on Alan Rickman's brooding Severus Snape or indeed Gambon's sublime Dumbledore.

The love triangles offer some relief from the darkening fog of conspiracy that's one of the draws of Potter.

Maggie Smith's bossy Minerva McGonagall is most tolerant of all the teen face-eating in Hogwart's stony cloisters.

Harry fancies Ginny Weasley who is being fancied by hunky Dean Thomas, while Ginny's bro Ron (Rupert Grint) is being chased by Lavender Brown. But Hermione (Emma Watson) wants Ron, too.

Yates has boldly made his movie more funny than JK Rowling's book and made a few changes, too. Welcome after the messiness of Order Of The Pheonix.

At last the Quidditch game is starting to make sense and is a smart arena for the lads to show off to the girls.

If Ron and Hermione play much more subsidiary roles that's because Harry himself is changing into the Chosen One: the mystic boots are a good fit.

One of the great characters is killed in this chapter: we know the name, but let's not spoil it. Tears will flow.

To make the greatest sense of Half-Blood you really need to have seen Phoenix. Then, Harry was beset by demons; now he's making his choices.

Holding the movie franchise together is Daniel Radcliffe as Harry. As if by magic, he grows older but looks the same: who cast THAT spell? Verdict 4/5

]]>098a4e22dba53655d2b76e719990a966http://feeds.teletext.co.uk/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~3/pyQ8xuHQnl0/Harry+PotterHalf-Blood+(12A)+153+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/098a4e22dba53655d2b76e719990a966/Harry+PotterHalf-Blood+(12A)+153+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/098a4e22dba53655d2b76e719990a966/Harry+PotterHalf-Blood+(12A)+153+mins.aspxBy Victor Olliver - Thirty-five years after the event comes the celebrated documentary of the "Zaire 74" American R&amp;B three-day concert in Kinshasa.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~4/_uvqtqpxCaY" height="1" width="1"/>
It took place just before the legendary "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing fight in Zaire between Mohammed Ali and George Foreman, celebrated in the 1996 movie When We Were Kings.

Both verite docs are the work of director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte.

Soul Power lives up to its name - the pure energy, not just of the shows but of the off-stage build-up, blasts you in your seat. What have we missed?

Stars include James Brown, BB King, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz, Miriam Makeba, Sister Sledge and so many more.

This digital restoration was a hit at Glasto this year and will appeal to all lovers of funk. The sound quality is surprisingly undiminished. Verdict 4/5

]]>0ae97171b6cff37bcaed73e87a1543b9http://feeds.teletext.co.uk/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~3/_uvqtqpxCaY/Soul+Power+(12A)+93+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/0ae97171b6cff37bcaed73e87a1543b9/Soul+Power+(12A)+93+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/0ae97171b6cff37bcaed73e87a1543b9/Soul+Power+(12A)+93+mins.aspxBy Victor Olliver - A sharp script lightens Robin Wright Penn&#39;s load as a 50-year-old ex-wild child marinating slowly in a marriage far from blissful.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~4/scnBCxGPKlw" height="1" width="1"/>
Her 80-year-old husband Herb (played by Alan Arkin) embarks on an affair after a move to a retirement home as a "pre-emptive strike against decrepitude".

All is not lost for Pippa though when Keanu Reeves enters her life, not quite young enough to pass as her toyboy.

As this is not a superhero pic, Keanu's voice is lighter on the ear and he convincingly humanises himself after failing to do so in Sweet November.

Penn is supported by a strong female cast that includes Winona Ryder in a welcome and powerful return.

Director Rebecca Miller's soapy flick is perfect for afternoon TV auds: marital rot is slyly sexed up with wit and saucy antics. Verdict 3/5

]]>d5d0b2919456dd0aacd84d6d951f3980http://feeds.teletext.co.uk/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~3/scnBCxGPKlw/Private+Lives+Of+Pippa+Lee+(15)+93+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/d5d0b2919456dd0aacd84d6d951f3980/Private+Lives+Of+Pippa+Lee+(15)+93+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/d5d0b2919456dd0aacd84d6d951f3980/Private+Lives+Of+Pippa+Lee+(15)+93+mins.aspxBy Victor Olliver - To be immature about it, see this movie in order to watch naked saggy old people have sex.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~4/hZYCF2XTySI" height="1" width="1"/>
It's a rare sight and will educate passing ET aliens one day that humanity didn't give up the ghost at 50.

The intense menage a trois involves people in their 60s and 70s. Inge (Ursula Werner) is plump so the ETs will also learn that sex wasn't just something for the lean. Verdict 3/5

]]>9a4aacb9a82f3049df54a5f9c1c204bchttp://feeds.teletext.co.uk/~r/entertainment/big-screen/film-reviews/~3/hZYCF2XTySI/Cloud+9+(15)+98+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/9a4aacb9a82f3049df54a5f9c1c204bc/Cloud+9+(15)+98+mins.aspxhttp://www.teletext.co.uk/bigscreen/film-reviews/9a4aacb9a82f3049df54a5f9c1c204bc/Cloud+9+(15)+98+mins.aspx