Gary Lewis

The Saban Films release "The Vanishing," with Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan, Connor Swindells, Soren Malling, Olafur Darri Olafsson and Gary Lewis. Also known as "The Flannan Isle Mystery," where in December 1900 investigators find that the Scotland west coast lighthouse abandoned by the three men employed there. This story became inspiring a famous poem by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, his epic, Flannan Isle. There are also more recent artistic representations in various media, from a novel, an opera, and a video game. To date there has been no conclusion to what had happened to these men, James Ducat, Thomas Marshall and Donald MacArthur. There have been theories over the years that the men were killed by pirates, eaten by animals and maybe kidnapped by aliens. However, "The Vanishing" seems to be falling between the stools of thriller and drama the tale grows steadily but really never reaches a credible outcome even with the powerful actors such as Gerard Butler and Peter Mullan. After a storm, Donald makes a discovery down a deep crevice a dead man and his remnants of a small rowboat. When the young man (Connor Swindells) is lowered to validate the man has died. However, once down the man springs to life and there is a huge struggle between the two men. The young man (Connor Swindells) is forced to kill the man or be killed. It comes to light that the man was protecting this small chest that stored gold bars. This is unknown to the three light house caretakers at the time. The gold bars bring two more men to the island (Soren Malling and Olafur Darri Olafsson), who are seeking the man who had been killed. In this movie adaptation there are periods of vagueness of the story and this is one of them. There is no clarification of where the gold is from, why was their mate washed up in a crevice with the gold. The viewer is left to formulate their own conclusions. The story outlined by Celyn Jones and Joe Bone do not clarify if this is a crime melodrama or a psychological thriller. Nor does Danish director Kristoffer Nyholm, making his theatrical feature debut after numerous well-received TV cliffhangers ("The Killing," Taboo" and The Enfield Haunting") do a good job of having the audience truly understand what is going on. Leaving them with a bland and weak story that never comes home. "The Vanishing" starts slowly and continues slow throughout the film never gaining a decent momentum. Johansson's widescreen cinematography, and other tech/design contributions does capture the viewers' attention but never delivers the overall expectation of a movie with Gerald Butler in it. There are fighting scenes, killing scenes and bloody scenes with no conformity of reason or definition of actions or clarity of story. High character conflict with sometimes moderate suspense just never delivers a good solid logical premise for the vanishing of these here men. So, of the three men, one is killed (Connor Swindells) by another (Gerard Butler). No one really knows why. Then the man that kills that character (Gerard Butler) is driven on the ocean with the boat that was used by the two earlier men seeking the gold who had been killed by the three. Here you see the third character (Peter Mullan) slips the first character (Connor Swindells) slipped into the ocean after a good bye kiss from the third character (Peter Mullan), then the 2nd character (Gerard Butler) slip off the boat into the ocean off an idling boat and come back up where the third and last of the three caretakers (Peter Mullan) holds his the 2nd character (Gerard Butler) under water so he drowns and slips deep into the ocean. Then the movie is over fade to black with the third character (Peter Mullan) still on the boat. Leaving the viewer to draw their own conclusion of what the third man (Peter Mullan) does. Uneventful, curious, and very unsatisfying. "The Vanishing" is a great base story and could have been a good thriller with excitement and interactions between the players if just written better and with a better overall concept of the story. Easily could have been a great movie. After seeing it, the viewers are left with unanswered questions and bewilderment. Its sad to see an "ALMOST," great movie experience. The story falls short to fulfill even basic true elements of the" Flannan Isle mystery." - Martin Snytshuvel

Christopher "Chris" (Daniel Brühl) is a German backpacker travelling on foot on his own in an African country. He gets the whim of buying a certain bracelet, but the stall seller (Mawuli Semevo) doesn't want to sell it, because he's kept it for somebody else. Chris steals the bracelet, and the man runs after him to pick the bracelet again. When the home police (Prince Yawson and Jojo Robertson) arrive, the man leaves and Chris is left alone. A police officer asks for Chris' passport and he complies. When the police officer asks for his visa as well, Chris gets cocky, punches him and runs away. Chris goes to a derelict bar when he finds the crew of a cargo ship about to leave for Marseille, France. They all get a bit drunk and Chris, who is now running away from the police, goes after them. He enters the ship and hides with the cargo, a shipment of African birds about to be bootlegged into France. He hears the conversation between Brookes (Peter Mullan), the captain of the ship and the investors (Babou Cham and Ely Niang) of the ship, saying that Brookes'd better reach Marseille with the parrots alive. The atmosphere in the hold of the ship is strange: there are shadows everywhere, strange noises are heard sometimes, there are fast movements captured always on the corner of the sailor's eyes. The crewmates seem to be afraid of going down to the hold on thier own, and that's the thing which most makes Chris weary. However, the exotic birds have to be fed regularly. One of the crew soon finds Chris out, especially because of his reflection on a broken mirror in front of which the sailor was trying to shave. They take him to Brookes, who asks him what passport he's got. When they learn Brookes decides to put Chris on room 9 - something which the rest of the crew finds eerie - and make him work for them until they arrive to France on 7 days. Chris' only friend among the crew seems to be Baptist (Luis Tosar), an ex-priest who tells Chris not to ask questions and work in silence. Chris is given the worst jobs, like letrin-cleaning, and he just obeys. However, he finds it upsetting to go down to the ship cellar. It looks that there are weird shadows, the exotic birds start all twitting in the weirdest moments, and there is like strange movements in the dark. The rest of the crew seem to find it upsetting, although nobody wants to speak about it. In spite of all this, Chris has to feed the birds on his own. When cleaning one of the walls, he finds scribbled on it the name Rebecca. Baptist tells him not to ask questions once again. The crew is strange, and not completely there. One of them goes up to the watchpole and starts shouting something about the gulls. The rest of the crew chants "jump, jump" in a chorus. Brookes tells the crazy one to go down safely. However, when they are all together having lunch, the crew picks on the weak one, until Chris shouts and tells them to stop. Chris also has to shave Brookes with a penknife. Chris and Brookes have a strange conversation in which Brookes tells Chris that it was courageous to defend the weaker one, and that there is always the situation in which a single person is agains everybody else. That night, Chris has overheard somebody throwing somebody else oberboard - the crazed guy-. Brookes asks him if he has dreamt something, because he doesn't seem like having slept all right throughout the night. Chris denies any knowledge. Brookes asks him about his dreams, and Chris says that he never has dreams. When he's on his own at the captain room, Chris finds weird pencil drawings of a scary man, and then a lighter drawing of himself. Later, Chris finds two other stowaways, Subira (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and Abrahim (Kwaku Ankomah), both of African passport. He gives them some food, leaving it in a plastic bag in the shipment room. Abrahim is soon captured. Brookes makes Chris watch as Rhombus (Samuli Edelmann), Herman (Gary Lewis) and the rest throw Abrahim overboard. Brookes tells him that Chris himself was who took them to Abrahim, and says that he can't afford to have the ship moored again and a fine given to him if immigration officers find other migrants again. Subira looks for a moment to ask Chris about Abrahim. He says he doesn't know, but Subira will be lead to believe that Abrahim is dead. Chris cries on his own in room 9. A search party is organized. Brookes has become convinced that there are more stowaways, so everybody looks for them. They don't find anyone, and Chris says that he's sure there is not anybody else. He is beaten, because the crew is convinced there IS somebody else. Chris and Subira run and hide among the cargo. The crew can't find them again. The captain says aloud something in Swahili, and Subira runs away from Chris because she is lead to believe that Chris was the one who killed Abrahim. Later on, Baptist tries to stop the madness. He tries to help Chris and Subira, and although there is an odd moment in which he looks like helping Brookes and Rhombus, he tries to stop them. Baptist tries to reason with Brookes, saying it's not too late to stop everything. Brookes ties and gags Baptist and lives him on a hammock on his room. Subira will hit Baptist with a hammer believing it was Brookes. Subira kills Baptist. Brookes traps both Chris and Subira. Brookes admits that the previous time, the only person who refused to kill the stowaways was his own son, so he had to kill him. Brookes says that there is not turning back or redemption after that, so that Chris must decide who he wants to support: the crew or the illegal immigrants. Brookes forces Chris to choose to throw Subira overboard or be thrown himself. First, Chris pushes Subira overboard, but then he jumps. Brookes is shocked, as he had been considering Chris as a surrogate son, in the hope that this time, everything turns out all right and he does not defend the immigrants. Brookes gets mad and first, he throws a rubber ring, and then, he puts the Gull, one of the rescuing boats, on the sea. Subira helps Brookes to take Chris to safety. Subira herself gets on the boat and roars away from the cargo ship.

In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his fathers killer.

The film is set during the 19841985 UK miners' strike, and centres on the character of 11-year-old Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), his love of dance and his hope to become a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father Jackie (Gary Lewis), older brother Tony (Jamie Draven), and his invalid Nan (Jean Heywood), who once aspired to be a professional dancer in Durham. Both Jackie and Tony are coal miners out on strike. Jackie takes Billy to the Sports Centre to learn boxing like his father's dad, but Billy struggles and dislikes the sport. He then happens upon a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio in the Sports Centre is temporarily being used as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. Unknown to Billy's father, he joins the ballet class. When Jackie discovers this after the boxing coach mentions Billy's absence, he forbids Billy to take any more ballet. But, passionate about dancing, Billy secretly continues his lessons with his dance teacher Georgia Wilkinson's (Julie Walters) help. Georgia believes Billy is talented enough to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, but due to Tony's arrest during a skirmish between police and striking miners, Billy misses the audition. Georgia goes to Billy's house to tell Jackie about the missed opportunity. Jackie and Tony, fearing that Billy will be considered a "poof", are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer. Over Christmas, Billy's best friend, Michael, kisses him on the cheek. Although Billy is not gay, he is supportive of his friend. Later, Jackie sees Billy dancing in the gym and realises his son is truly gifted, and he will do whatever it takes to help Billy realise his dream. Jackie attempts to cross the picket line to pay for Billy's training, but is blocked by Tony. Instead, his fellow miners and the neighbourhood raise money for Billy, and Jackie takes him to London to audition for the Royal Ballet School. Though highly nervous, Billy performs well, but after he punches another boy in an unprovoked attack at the audition, he is sternly rebuked by the review board. However, as a final question, they ask him what it feels like when he's dancing, to which Billy responds, "like electricity." Billy returns home with his father. Sometime later, he receives a letter accepting him to the Royal Ballet School, and he leaves his family to go there. The film's final scene is set fourteen years later (approximately 1999), when Billy has finally attained his goal: the mature Billy (dancer/actor Adam Cooper) takes the stage to perform the lead in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, as Jackie, Tony, and Michael watch in the audience.