HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2

And so, after 8 months since the last Harry Potter film left audiences worldwide wondering the fate of Harry, Hermione and Ron vs Voldemort and his horcruxes, the journey that has encompassed 10 years and now 8 blockbusting films reaches it's final conclusion.

Indeed as the tagline says, it all ends here.

The question would, and quite rightly be, is it worth it, is it a fitting end? To all fans of the boy wizard who have watched him grow over the past decade, and indeed for those who have grown up alongside him, the answer is a plain and simple "yes."

Yates, who has directed the most Potter movies - 4 in total - has helped steer the franchise through some of the weaker novels and turned them into some of the more favoured and well-received adaptations. Here, he never lets the baton drop nor forget that this is a milestone for a great many fan out there. Admittedly, Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is a movie for people who have seen, and read, the previous adventures, as opposed to the casual viewer. This however should be overlooked as it was never intended and indeed never feels like a stand-alone event; if you haven't seen at least the last 3 films, don't watch this until you have done so.

Here you have literally action crammed into every other frame - if it's not the impossible bank heist of Gringotts, then it's the multi-layered battle of Hogwarts that jumps from sub characters valiantly defending the schools premises to the 3 main leads desperate search for the final horcruxes amidst the chaos. But Yates and his cast get to show emotion as well during the Lord Of The Rings-type spectacle, although some of the big-hitting moments feel a tad rushed and therefore lose some of their expected impact - Mrs Weasley's "Ellen Ripley" impression against Bellatrix should have brought the house down but appears then disaperates just as quickly from the screen. Whereas Snape's BIG reveal does pull at the heart strings in a sequence that puts the brakes on all the action and fighting but there's a rushing feel to it as each memory pushes it's way to the foreground to be seen.

The hardest decision to make is why the slight empty feeling you find when the end credits begin to roll: is it that you just don't want to say goodbye to these characters that you've invested 10 years in loving and following, or is it that after that length of time the finale could have had just a few more moments in it and run a bit longer? Being one of the shortest running times in the series, couldn't we have had a more lingering look on the sub characters and their heroic deeds as well as Harry's final fight?

Either way, it's a fitting ending to a saga that now totally deserves the phrase "epic." Mischief managed.

UK release date: 15.07.11

Certificate: 12A

TREE OF LIFE

There are "events" that occur occasionally throughout a lifetime; the passing of Haley's Comet, a presidential assassination, and a film from director/writer Terrance Malick.

Since 1973, he has only directed four films, and now his fifth - Tree Of Life starring Brad Pitt - is upon us. Before I go any further, I must make it clear to you that his previous work - The Thin Red Line - was one of the hardest films to review for me. I just couldn't click with it, or understand it. There's not much that's changed over the last six years.

To see if you could get to grips with it during it's 140 minutes, answer yourself this question: do you like the perfume adverts of the last 20 years?...

If the answer is yes, then book your seat now. The first 50 minutes of the film sees imagery upon imagery slowly rolling across the screen with no interactive dialogue what-so-ever. If that hasn't sunk in, take a moment to contemplate that - characters have no conversation with each other... at all for nearly an hour. There is breathless, whispered lines placed over images depicting life seen from a distance - the birth of life itself upon Earth - down to the microscope directed at Pitt and his family. But nothing to help you connect with them as they try and connect with each other.

The story seems to be simply of a brother looking back upon his early years, primarily dealing with one of the brothers he lost at 19, and his see-sawing relationship with his father. Penn, as the older version of the brother has the thankless task of what seems to be just wandering around in depressive reflection, leaving Pitt to dance between doting dad and frightful father during the middle part of the movie.

This simple premise is buried deep within images and choir music that threatens to distance the audience from any emotional connection during the first and final act. The middle part shows what could have been with beautiful moments catching the eye and heart - the child's reaction to his baby brother hitting his face, the mother waking her children using ice cubes - but what is built up by those moments is taken away with the rolling onslaught of what kind of feels like pretentious commentary of life, love and death.

Admittedly unlike anything else that turns up at the cinema, Tree Of Life is an unusual experience that, if you go in with the right frame of mind, it could have you leave feeling perplexed yet only slightly agitated at what it could have been.

Release date: 08.07.11

Certificate: 12A

GAME OF THRONES

Over the last few decades, the divide between small screen and the silver screen has been become less defined and blurred. Major talents (from both behind and infront of the camera) have made the move to TV possibly in the hope of avoiding the restrictions that the average 2 hour running time of a movie has.

HBO, now considered the home of quality entertainment, have been branching out of late from their usual faire. Their historic efforts - Band Of Brothers, The Pacific, Boardwalk Empire - have now been joined by the fantasy genre with True Blood and now Game Of Thrones.

An easy, or lazy way of trying to describe it would be to say it's Lord Of The Rings with sex and blood. Yet, with its first season of 10 episodes lasting an hour each, it's so much more.

It has as much cast and sub plots as it does landscape. 7 families battle openly and secretly for the control of Westeros. Some long to sit upon the throne made from the swords of the vanquished. The others have a much more worrying problem with what lies beyond The Wall and the prospect that the horror stories of old from that area aren't stories.

Like the glorious The Walking Dead, ...Thrones has a "how many actors can you spot" cast - Sean Bean as reluctant hero family man Ned Stark; Lena Headey as queen bitch Cersei Lannister; Charles Dance as rich, cold-hearted war strategist Tywin Lannister; Mike Addy as over-weight, out-of-touch King Robert Baratheon. Each gets more than their fair share in the limelight with equal amounts of humour, drama and suspense piled moment-by-moment on top of each other.

Now, I do not wish to ruin the wondrous enjoyment that will be had if you take the journey to Kings Landing and The Wall, but realise this: if you do, will be rewarded with one of the finest surprise sequences of recent TV serial history in episode 9. See it coming you won't.

A delight straight from the start, Game Of Thrones takes far-away drama and lines it with believable back-stabbing politics, sexual intrigue and hints of fictional fantasy with long-forgotten dragons, to make this a piece of work that will appeal to even those who think that they don't do fantasy.

You win or you die.

BEST MOVIE ANIMALS

After seeing the chimp-based documentary Project NIM and Disney's Tangled (again) recently, I was reminded of exactly how great Maximus - the blood hound trapped in the body of a horse - is and could undoubtedly stand for, and win, Best Movie Animal Ever! But then some people could argue he would have an unfair advantage since he is an animated animal and therefore is allowed to do his own stunts...

So, here is the battle for Best Animal with "Real" vs. "Assisted" pitted against one another...

REAL DEAL

1) Name: Milo.

Species: Dog.

Movie: The Mask

Reason: You really need to ask?!? Awwrrigghty then! Without doubt, the best type of comedy dog is, and shall always be, the Jack Russell. If you have any doubts, ask anyone who's watched even one episode of TV's Frasier and they'll tell you.

It's not when Milo himself puts on the Mask in order to save the day, but his truly heroic efforts to break his master Jim Carrey out of prison that gets him a place in this chart.

2) Name: Virgil.

Species: Chimpanzee.

Movie: Project X.

Reason: Everyone loves a chimp (ask the PG Tips marketing team) but if that chimp could communicate with you... Just think how much extra tug it would then have on your heart strings eh?

Take a chimp that has his own stuffed animal toy, a desire to break out of captivity and take his fellow primates with him and a dream to fly, and I give you Virgil...

3) Name: Samantha.

Species: Dog

Film: I Am Legend

Reason: The phrase "man's best friend" is never more evident than here, where, man's (Will Smith) ONLY friend is a dog. And what a mutt.

Putting up with all of Smith's idiosyncrasies, Sam never-the-less helps with the food shopping, the exercising, oh, and the laying-down-the-life-to-protect-your-owner, which just breaks the heart.

4) Name: Babe

Species: Pig

Film: Babe

Reason: Well, first of all, they named the film after him! How's that for confidence in the little guy!?!

Not content with his pre-allocated lot in life, he shows that anyone, no matter what their species or age, can dare to dream and realise that dream. That'll do pig. That'll do.

5) Name: Clyde.

Species: Orangutan.

Film: Every Which Way But Loose

Reason: He acts Clint Eastwood, yes, you read that correctly, Eastwood, off the screen! He drinks, he drives, he washes, he fights, heck, he even has his own way of indicating for traffic manoeuvres!

ASSISTED (BY TECHNOLOGY OF ANY KIND)

1) Name: Bruce.

Species: Great White Shark.

Film: Jaws.

Reason: Really? It needs to be said?!? The film that created the phrase "blockbuster" and made generations, unnecessarily, afraid of the water, Bruce the shark is perfect evolution (although the mechanical version didn't always want to play.) For this, you Must Love Jaws...

2) Name: Kong

Species: Gorilla (the "massive" kind!)

Film: King Kong

Reason: It would seem through his many screen appearances, no one, but no one messes with Kong! Whether it's man with his selfish, money-grabbing ways or a few hungry T-Rex's with a grudge, Kong will always see you safe - so long as you're blond and female...

3) Name: Maximus.

Species: Horse.

Film: Tangled.

Reason: He's a horse! Yet he can track like a bloodhound, wield a sword like Zorro, and put all the soldiers to shame regarding making sure justice is served. Take note Black Beauty, that's how it's done!

4) Name: Gromit.

Species: Dog.

Film: Wallace & Gromit In The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.

Reason: The most intelligent of the bunch, Gromit is the put-upon, hard-done-by voice of reason and brains behind every venture that he and Wallace have undertaken. Constantly saving the day, and Wallace, Gromit says what we are all thinking, without uttering a single sound... now that's genius!

5) Name: Donkey.

Species: Donkey.

Film: Shrek.

Reason: "...and in the morning, I'm making waffles!" A true friend till the end, Donkey will always try and help you see the silver lining on every cloud, whether you want to or not. What he lacks in brain matter he certainly makes up for with enthusiasm.

So now you have the contenders. Who wins? Who misses out? Who have I missed out? Start voting and we'll see which animal is allowed to stay indoors and which are left outside in the garden...

LARRY CROWNE

Do you remember the 80's and the 90's? When the studio's distributed films that weren't offensive, shocking, effects-driven or... awful?

Well, it would seem that Tom Hanks does. Which is not surprising since he starred in probably over 50% of them! For his second feature film outing as director, Hanks has gone right back to what made him a household name, and he cleverly brought THE other household name from the same genre of movie along for the scooter ride...

The outline is simple and has been dished out a thousand times before - person finds themselves after losing what they thought was important to them. This time round it's Hanks' job which has kept him going since his divorce. With his firing happening in the first 5 minutes of the film, the job of rediscovering himself through community college and being the new pet project of local care-free spirit girl Mbatha-Raw kicks into gear. Things move quickly throughout it's running time and sub-plots skipped over - Roberts' marriage is trashed easily to make way for the romance between her and Hanks to grow; Mbatha-Raw drops out of college to open a shop - but strangely enough, these matters are forgiven.

Most of this is down to two factors - the Hanks factor and, especially the Roberts factor. Her smile still knocks it out of the park, and her laugh when drunk on the back of the moped, infectiously reminds you of that jewellery case-snapping scene from Pretty Woman that cemented her into the public hearts.

It's, simply put, a warm, inoffensive tale designed to make you smile and feel good about life for two hours. Laughs are to be had, and even if not true belly ones from the likes of recent fare such as The Hangover, the jealous boyfriend of Mbatha-Raw's project on Hanks and Takei's mobile phone-grabbing Economics teacher keep the chuckles coming.

Sweet and a reminder of what Roberts and Hanks can do.

Release date: 01.07.11

Certificate: 12A