It might be July 2008 before The Dark Knight opens here in Ireland, but there’s been a lot to talk about already. Warner Brothers have recently released this teaser poster and while I find it difficult to look at I can’t stop…

The Lives of Others tells the story of the Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, played by Ulrich Mühe, and his investigation of the playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall. While the trailer tries to make it out to be a tense thriller it is more of a character study than anything else.

At the very heart of the film is the eventual disillusionment of Agent Wiesler. By listening to and watching Dreyman’s life, Wiesler becomes aware of what he is missing out on in his own serious and self disciplined life. Although his moment of change was a little sudden Mühe’s performance - which was a cross between Ben Kingsley and Kevin Spacey - and the film as a whole were able to make up for it.

Fear and paranoia run throughout the film with everyone being a suspect for the Stasi and nobody knowing who to trust. It was hard not to draw parallels with modern day, especially the current USA administration. I found myself wondering what message the director had for us and why he would want to draw parallels with the US? I came to realise though that it was just the media focus on the US that made me draw parallels with it. The message of the film is as relevant to our own society here in Ireland as it is to any other country in the World.

The message of this film made it a surprise winner in the Best Foreign Film category at this year’s Oscars. Surprisingly enough there was no controversy beforehand or afterwards. I believe this was because Pan’s Labyrinth was the favourite and not too many people were familiar with The Lives of Others. Having seen them both I have to agree with the choice the Academy made.

The Lives of Others marks the feature debut for writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It shows us a successful and talented playwright and the love of his life, an equally successful and talented actress. Their happy lives are put at risk by the invasion of the state in their domestic and private affairs. Surely the message to everyone is to be careful about who you give power to. Oh, if only there was an election on?

*The Lives of Others is now showing in The Kino on Washinton Street, Cork.*

I’ve been reading a lot about Coen Brother’s projects recently. They have No Country For Old Men opening soon and have announced four other projects to be completed over 2008 and 2009. Looking at the quality of work they have produced so far this is great news. The project that excites me the most though is their second next film, Burn After Reading.

I’ve heard critics go on about an amazing cast before but this is the first time I’ve been wowed by a cast list in my life. John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. I mean what a cast for such talented film-makers to have. This has got to be good right? Right?

I had the misfortune of seeing Spider-Man 3 last night. Before I go any further I’d like to point out that I really liked Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. I was looking forward to seeing this film as with Raimi, Maguire and Dunst still involved I believed they had one more good film in them. How wrong I was.

I just don’t know where to begin with my complaints about this film. While watching it I was reminded over and over again of the Joel Schumacher Batman films. Maybe it was because Christopher Young’s score reminded me of the music Elliot Goldenthal gave us in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin? Why anyone would decide to replace the excellent Danny Elfman I don’t know but that was the least of their mistakes.

Just like Schumacher’s massacres, Spider-Man 3 had too many characters and the story was fragmented. The film was also far too long. Raimi is a very good director and showed his skills with the first two films, so where did it all go wrong? The fragmentation and overly long running time must be down to either the director or the editor, but Raimi and Bob Murowski worked on all three films. I found the answer after further investigation of the credits. The first two films were written by David Koepp and Alvin Sargent both professional scriptwriters. For Spider-Man 3, Sargent was joined by Raimi and his brother, Ivan Raimi.

Ivan is a doctor by trade, although does have a few writing credits, and Sam has several writing credits - the most notable being The Hudsucker Proxy, although it must be hard to go wrong working with the excellent Coen brothers. It’s not that I think the Raimi brothers are incapable of writing a decent screenplay, I merely feel that Sam Raimi had things too much his own way on this film and it didn’t work. It is a real shame and watching the film I got the impression that Raimi’s attention was elsewhere. Maybe he was thinking about The Hobbit or maybe there were too many family members around?

His other brother Ted played Hoffman (J. Jonah Jameson’s suck up assistant) and his children Lorne, and Henry had small parts in the film. There’s also a Emma Raimi in the cast list but I couldn’t find any confirmation that she was Sam’s daughter.

The news that Spider-Man 4, 5 and 6 have been confirmed doesn’t make me happy, but I don’t expect Raimi, Maguire or Dunst to be involved. It’ll be interesting to see who they get. At least David Koepp looks to be back on writing duties.

Edward Norton is to play the Incredible Hulk in Louis Leterrier’s new version, The Incredible Hulk.

I’m not a big Hulk fan but still there’s something about this casting that doesn’t sit right with me. Norton doesn’t seem like the right choice and The Incredible Hulk doesn’t seem like the right project for Norton. I have a feeling it’ll go the same way as Nicholas Cage’s Superman project a few years back.

Leterrier’s previous directorial outings were both Transporter movies and Unleashed. While I didn’t hate The Transporter and I haven’t seen his other work, his track record doesn’t fill me with hope that this will be better than Ang Lee’s effort.