Reviews: The Band's Visit (4/5); Rambo (1/5)

The Band’s Visit
(Eran Kolirin):
Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri,
Khalifa Natour.
Running time: 86 minutes.

The deadpan humour and fish-out-of-water zaniness of Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys Go America leaps to mind watching this comic Israeli film. But director Eran Kolirin elicits depth with a lighter touch. This is the story of an eight-piece Egypitian police band on excursion to Israel. A wrong bus leaves them in a small, conservative Israeli town in the desert. The Arab men stand out like neon beacons in their duck-egg blue uniforms. Proud Tawfiq (Sasson Gabai) enlists the help of blowsy café owner Dina (Ronit Elkabetz) who offers to put them up for the night. The Israelis are tetchy; the Egyptians nervy. But there will be no international incidents here. The film skilfully dismantles their prejudices. Soon, life’s disappointments are shared, and loneliness is unburdened. A common humanity is discovered. It is a small gem of a film.

Rambo
(Sylvester Stallone):
Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Paul Schulze, Matthew Marsden.
Running time: 91 minutes.

Life is brutish and short, unless, of course, you are Sylvester Stallone, who is stuck in middle-age. This is a very misjudged return to the Rambo role. He looks like a man in his 40s, but he moves like a weary wagon of lead. It is set in Burma (so as not to offend anybody) and the bad guys are the murderous, child-killing junta. Rambo wants to make a case against war, but he brutalises you into insensitivity. I lost count after 59,031 – the amount of people Rambo kills single-handledly. Worse still, you know deep down, you are slightly thrilled watching the carnage. An anti-war war movie?