C.S.A. Confederate States of America, The Last King of Scotland, Pan's Labyrinth and Happy Feet

9.55.02am GMT Fri 26th Jan 2007

Last night I saw C.S.A. Confederate States of America, which was really good. I realised I have seen both The Last King of Scotland, Pan's Labyrinth and Happy Feet recently and not given my views so here are all three.

C.S.A. was an interesting take on what America would be like if the South had won the Civil War and slavery continued. It was done as documentary by the British Broadcasting Service. It was very interesting to see how they mixed in real events - such as the Assassination of President Kennedy (who in the film was a Republican) and pictures of the moon landing and a revisionist version of the Second World War where the C.S.A. was allied to Hitler's Germany and they attacked the Japanese fleet in Tokyo bay. The documentary also had ad breaks which featured real ads from America's history bringing home the point that though slavery had been abolished there was still some racism present in recent US history.

The Last King of Scotland was also very good, and an interesting take on the rule of Idi Amin. Forest Whittaker was brilliant and deserves the nominations he has received so far. I went with a friend who remembered many of the events, such as the expulsion of the Asians and the Israeli hostage crisis. Certainly worth watching.

Pan's Labyrinth is a Spanish film set just after the Spanish Civil War. They combined two stories, the story of resistance to Franco's new Spain, and the story of one little girls fantasy world - which was a rather gothic and sometimes frightening tale. By trying to combine two stories I think they failed to do either one justice, though saying that it was still quite fun to watch.

Happy Feet was a great film to check you brain in at the door, just a feel good film with an excellent soundtrack. I suppose it helps if you have a (small) obsession with penguins too.

The film I have missed recently was Sixty Six but I hope to see it on dvd when it comes out.