The Wee Man (18)
H
Dir: Ray Burdis
With: Martin Compston, Stephen McCole
Dir: 105 minutes
EVEN by the sometimes subterranean standards of homegrown cinema, this biopic of convicted criminal Paul Ferris, one-time bad boy of this manor, is a shocker. The way this film tells it, Ferris had it so hard from bullies growing up he couldn't help but grow up to be a tearaway.
Really? Even then, according to The Wee Man, he was something of a Robin McHood. While such an approach can be put down to bad judgment, there is simply no excuse for a cliche-ridden script that is more God-awful than Godfather, and a level of acting (with the exception of Martin Compston as Ferris) that is so cringeworthy it makes Garnock Way look like a Tony-award winning production of Ibsen. Criminal.
V/H/S (18)
H
Dirs: Various
With: Calvin Reeder, Frank Stack
Runtime: 116 minutes
DESPITE running out of originality years ago, the found footage horror, as pioneered by Blair Witch, shows no sign of slinking off into the woods never to return. In VHS, a group of knuckle-headed twentysomethings obsessed with filming their every move are hired to break into a house to steal a very important VHS tape.
Once in, they discover a cache of recordings that expose terrifying goings on. Purposely shot to look like amateur video, the entire shebang looks like some X-rated version of You've Been Framed, but with a notable absence of chuckling babies and accident-prone kittens. Difficult to watch because of the style in which it is shot, and hard to stomach due to the extreme violence. A video nasty indeed.
Monsters Inc 3D (U)
HHHHH
Dir: Pete Docter
Voices: Billy Crystal, John Goodman
Runtime: 88 minutes
THE Pixar favourite from 2001 is given a re-release in 3D in advance of the July release of a prequel, Monsters University, which traces the beginning of Sulley and Mike's friendship.
All the inventiveness, humour and heart with which the animation studio made its name are present and correct here, as we find out if that monster under the bed or lurking in the cupboard really is as scary as we think.
John Goodman voices big blue Sulley, while Billy Crystal issues wisecracks to the dozen as the little green guy, Mike Wazowski, with Mary Gibbs as Boo, the girl who enters Monstropolis and turns the world of monsters on its hairy ear. A joy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article