SHOOT ’EM UP begins with a man named Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) delivering a woman’s baby during a shootout, and is then called upon to protect the newborn from an army of gunmen led my Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti).

3:10 TO YUMA has the classic western scenario.  Quiet rancher who holds a secret, Dan Evans (Christian Bale) agrees to escort notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) board the 3:10 prison train to Yuma for the $200 he needs to save his family ranch.  Word has got out to Wade’s gang led by Charlie Prince (Ben Foster).  But more is at stake than the money.  Dan prepares for a showdown in Contention City with the gang.

At the end credits of the mockumentary GREG & GENTILLON, actor Thomas Michael who plays Gentillon takes off his wig and tells the audience that everything else in the film is real.  It hardly matters as 10 minutes into the mockumentary, the feeling that the characters GREG & GENTILLON are made up comes as no surprise.  For one no one in Toronto (me being one) have heard of this group, nor does director Klinck make any attempt to make all the interviews look real.  The purpose of the documentary or mockumentary is defeated from the very start.

BALLS OF FIRE about underground ping-pong, spoofs everything from James Bond to Hong Kong martial arts flicks.  Writer/director Ben Garant (the RENO 911 movie) figures that with a few good jokes, he can create a hilarious enough comedy.

LADY CHATTERLEY can best described as a female French version of the erotic D.H. Lawrence novel about sexual awakening.  The lady is a woman of society (Marina Hands) wed to an impertinent, pompous, and impotent coal baron, Lord Clifford. (Hippolyte Giradot).  She finds sexual awakening and love in the form of what Lord Clifford describes as an uncouth gamekeeper, Parkin (Jean-Louis Coulloc’h).  For a film running for almost 3 hours, much more happens than can be penned on paper.  This is the beauty of director Pascale Ferran’s film.  From dialogue, to cinematography, from acting to music, LADY CHATTERLEY soars.  She brilliantly plots the film’s build-up as her protagonist undergoes a sexual maturity and freedom - which works well to edge the film to a satisfactory climax.  Almost every scene is taut with tension or energy.  The (only) scene with Lord Clifford, the Lady and the gamekeeper together is explosive.