Film reviews: The Cove | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard | Colin

Published on Sunday 18 October 2009 12:19

THE COVE (12A) * * * *

The latest in a series of alarmist films that clue us in to an environmental crisis we'd prefer to ignore, this benefits from its supremely photogenic subject matter.

We're talking bottle-nosed dolphins: sweet, curious, intelligent and lured into a hidden cove in Taiji by Japanese fishermen in numbers that top 23,000 a year. Having long ignored global attempts to protect whales from being fished to extinction, the Japanese have found dolphins easier to locate, and protect the capture and slaughter that supports a town's economy by hiding the cove behind high fences and razor wire.

Director Louie Psihoyos has resorted to some cloak-and-dagger tactics that include hidden cameras and phone bugging. The Cove's director has some of Michael Moore's showmanship and moral outrage but avoids the centre-stage egoism or vitriol. Helping him tell this tale is Richard O'Barry – a former dolphin trainer, he coached five dolphins for use on the TV kids' show Flipper, and then began to question the way dolphins were used in captivity after Kathy, the main Flipper dolphin, died in his arms.

Glasgow Film Theatre from Friday

THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD (15) **

A large ensemble cast includes Entourage's Jeremy Piven as the head of a travelling crew of used-car salespeople, who specialise in going from town to town helping dealers clear their stock, using whatever dodgy means necessary to make a sale.

A vulgar, spluttering comedy, it's not just the sales team who carry a whiff of retreads and desperation: with its tiresome litany of jokes about lapdances, man love and Will Ferrell skydiving, this cynical film quickly outlives its welcome and dies hard.

Cinemas nationwide from Friday

COLIN (18)* * *

Hurrah! Another zombie movie. But low-budget Britflick Colin does deliver a twist to the genre by showing us the apocalypse of the flesh-eating shufflers through the eyes of young zombie Colin, and a surprisingly poignant and thoughtful conclusion.

On selected release from Friday

This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 18 Octoer 2009