Review No.187: You've Been Trumped

Plot: Anthony Baxter's film shows the battle between American tycoon Donald Trump and a small number of Aberdeenshire residents who want to protect their home from being turned into a golf course. Baxter follows this fight as Trump bad mouths one farmer's abode by calling it an eyesore and he also tries to get the Scottish people on his side by promising jobs at his hotel and golf resort. After the Scottish government give him the go ahead the residents refuse to move from their area of natural beauty even though it seems the police are now working for Trump also. As time goes on the people from Trump's end try dirty tactics by cutting of the power and water of several residents while at one point even Baxter is arrested.

Positives: This is a great David versus Goliath story that draws obvious comparisons to Bill Forsyth's Local Hero as we really get to know these unfortunate local residents who are at the mercy of a tyrannical businessman. Baxter makes the most of these characters by giving them all their own cameras so he can use their personal footage into the film and capture the demolishing of their homes first hand. There is also an element of guerrilla film-making here as Baxter attempts to get to Trump by ambushing at a press conference and also gets arrested for his poking his nose in where some don't feel it belongs. The cinematography throughout the film captures perfectly why this area should be preserved and why Trump and his cronies shouldn't be allowed to build on it.

Negatives: The film feels a little one-sided as Baxter fails to get any interviews with Trump's supporters or the police who arrested him. There is also an ambiguous ending which tells us that Trump's plans may now not go ahead anyway due to the installation of wind turbines on the land.

Verdict: A story that needed to be told and one that is told in a spectacular way, Baxter's film perfectly defines the phrase stranger than fiction as some of Trump's methods are truly unbelievable though the film isn't completely perfect it still deserves a strong score so I will award it 8/10

Review No.186: The Campaign

Plot: Will Ferrel stars as Cam Brady a Democratic congressman who is standing in his district unopposed for the fifth time however his whiter than white image is damaged after a dirty message to a mistress is accidentally left on a different family's telephone. Eager to have an upstanding congressman, political fixers the Motch Brothers approach Zach Galifianakis's Marty Huggins to run however his innocent nature isn't a match for Cam's underhanded approach. The Motches than hire Tim Wattley as Marty's campaign manager who helps him look great in the eyes of the voters while smearing Cam's name at the same time. Marty's time on the campaign trail has an adverse effect on his relationship with his family so Cam decides to capitalise on the loneliness of Marty's wife. Marty eventually finds out the true reason why the Motches wanted him to run in the first place so he has an ethical decision to make as regards his political future.

Positives: At 85 minutes the film flows along quite nicely and the plot is easy enough to follow. Dylan McDermott's campaign has every hallmark of a sleazy Washington type that knows how to get stupid Americans to vote for whoever he wants them to. Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow are a great double act as the Motch brothers to the extent where I wish they were in the film a little bit more.

Negatives: Though the narrative of the film is easy enough to follow for a comedy there aren't nearly enough laughs and as a political satire its nowhere near as biting as it should be. One of the problems for me is that both Ferrell and Galifianakis are playing broad comic characters which means that they cancel the other out. I think a film like this needs a straight man to balance out the broader character however that isn't the case here and therefore I think it is harder to care about either of these men who both come across like caricatures.

Verdict: An inoffensive if unfunny Ferrell/Galifianakis double-header this doesn't have nearly enough biting satirical moments though there are a couple of great supporting performances so for those reasons I will award The Campaign 5/10

Review No.185: That's My Boy

Plot: In 1984, 13 year old Donny Burger has an affair with his teacher which results in her getting arrested and also later having a child. The affair makes Donny a minor celebrity however his relationship with his son, who he names Han Solo, deteriorates over the years and the pair loose contact. In the present day Donny owes loads of money in back taxes and he is advised that the only way to get a large amount of money is to reunite his son with the mother he hasn't seen for years. Donny's son is now calling himself Todd Peterson and is doing well as an accountant while he is about to be married to the beautiful Jamie even though she treats him badly. Donny turns up on the weekend of Todd's wedding, posing as his oldest friend, and soon becomes his Best Man even though Todd realises that with his father around things will get out of control. Inevitably the pair bond over the weekend however with the reunion special looming will Donny tell Todd why he's really there or will he forgo getting the money in order to repair the relationship with his son.

Positives: There are two great cameos in the film with James Caan playing an incredibly violent Irish priest and Susan Sarandon as the older version of Todd's mother. I have to say I also found Vanilla Ice, who is now Donny's best friend, particularly amusing despite the fact he really can't act.

Negatives: This film is just distasteful from beginning to end starting as it does with statutory rape and ending with a couple of incest 'gags' David Caspe's script is truly terrible. Talking of truly terrible Adam Sandler once again portrays an over-the-top comic character by 'doing a voice' and hoping that will be enough to make him funny which it really isn't. I feel that Sandler, certainly when he plays these comedy roles, has now lost the humour he once had in Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer so should probably stick to more straight roles such as the one he played in Funny People. Sandler seemingly drags everyone down to his level namely Andy Samberg who as Todd has to play the straight man who is a complete wimp and another character that I failed to care for. Considering this is a comedy film there are very few actual laughs and this was probably the main problem with the film.

Verdict: Unfunny, distasteful with some really bad central performance I would recommend everyone steer clear of That's My Boy however I will at least award Caan and Sarandon for trying to raise the bar and give this 2/10

Review No.184: Paranorman

Plot: A young lad named Norman Babcock has an uncanny ability to converse with dead people but those around him don't believe he can with his parents thinking he's going through a phase while his classmates see it as an opportunity to bury him. When Norman starts having visions about a famous witch trial his uncle, who also has a similar ability, tells him that he will soon need his powers to save the town. So follows the most important night of Norman's life which sees an unlikely group of his friends, enemies and family members join together to help Norman in his quest.

Positives: An animated children's film that doesn't treat its main audience as idiots this cartoon horror does include some genuinely scary moments however it's abiding message is that we are afraid of a lot of things that we simply just don't understand. The script, written by co-director Chris Butler, has plenty of humour but also some genuinely real characters a quality that is very rare in an animated film. The animation lends itself well to the story as it is fairly gloomy at times but this very much the mood of the film while all of the members of the undead are drawn beautifully. Of the voice cast The Road's Kodi Smit-McPhee perfectly captures this awkward adolescent while Elaine Stritch is great as his long dead grandmother and Casey Affleck is the biggest surprise as Mitch the jock.

Negatives: The directors gave themselves quite a lot of content to cram into 90 minutes and I felt either the film should've been longer or one of the subplots removed. I also believe that the content isn't suitable for some younger children but I suppose at the same time if it were removed it would lose the edge that makes it so great.

Verdict: A great animation for kids and adults alike that genuinely has something for everyone though I do wish it could've been a little longer overall I really enjoyed it so for that reason it receives an 8/10

Review No.183: Ruby Sparks

Plot: Paul Dano stars as Calvin a depressed novelist who is trying to live up to the success he achieved with his first book that he wrote when he was still at school. Calvin's therapist suggests he write something terrible about a girl who likes his do and he creates Ruby Sparks eventually falling in love with her. Calvin freaks out when Ruby appears in his kitchen one day however he discovers that he has made her real and can actually write her to do whatever he wants. Instead of making use of this power he believes that Ruby is the perfect woman so vows not to change him however soon his depressive nature starts to stifle her and she begins to spend less time with him. After a painful visit to his mother's house Ruby starts to change her opinion of Calvin which in turn makes him consider whether or not he should change her personality as he has that power.

Positives: Writer and star Zoe Kazan's script is an inventive piece that has lots of fun jokes and gets very dark towards the end. The use of light and shade in the cinematography is fairly well used while the film's score is also quite pleasant. Paul Dano is excellent in this leading role as he really encapsulates the misanthropic Calvin and by the end we learn why he can't maintain a relationship as well as why he has writer's block. The film also boasts a great supporting cast including Steve Coogan as a sleazy author and Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas as Calvin's mother and her partner with the pair both playing kooky to the max. Kazan herself is also great as the upbeat Zoe who is eventually dragged down by Calvin's moods and she also plays it excellently during the aforementioned darker scenes.

Negatives: Ultimately the film doesn't have the courage of its convictions as Calvin comes good and I thought the ending absolutely sucked as I personally thought it could've been left more open-ended. The film also takes a while to get going and I found it incredibly difficult to connect with Calvin before Ruby came along.

Verdict: An inventive film that has a fairly mainstream ending and while I enjoyed it I expected more from the team behind Little Miss Sunshine so for that reason Ruby Sparks receives a 7.5/10

Review No.182: Premium Rush

Plot: Premium Rush stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Wilee a bicycle messenger who is tasked with delivering a package from a university to an address in Chinatown however soon finds himself pursued by a number of interested parties. The plot rewinds to various points to explain why Michael Shannon's corrupt copper Bobby Monday is after the package while in addition also reveals the link between Wilee and the package's owner who is desperate for it to get to its destination on time.

Positives: This definitely seemed like a film that was based around the speed-cycling scenes rather than any sort of plot but Mitchell Amundsen's cinematography captures them perfectly. Michael Shannon is absolutely terrifying as Bobby Monday and raises the quality of the film quite a bit channelling the spirit of Christopher Walken in his portrayal of the gambling-addicted cop. There is one fantastic scene where an injured Wilee is being interrogated by Monday and let's just say his methods are far from savoury Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also good as the unsuspecting everyman who is just trying to get a bit of extra money by taking this job on not knowing that he's been selected for a reason.

Negatives: I get the impression that Premium Rush think it's more clever than it actually though I found its non-linear structure to be a distraction rather than an improvement. I feel all the stuff with Chinese gangsters and sinister loan-sharks was all a bit far-fetched as was the fact that Monday was allowed to get away with all of his wrong-doings. I also didn't much care for Wilee's relationship with fellow messenger Vanessa though I suppose it was necessary in terms of a couple of the plot points.

Verdict: Incredible shots of the bike messengers whizzing around the city coupled with another excellent Michael Shannon performance means that Premium Rush has a lot to offer however due to the fact that it seems to have ideas above its station I will award it a fitting 6.5/10

Review No.181: Lola Versus

Plot: Daryl Wein's film stars indie darling Greta Gerwig as the titular Lola a 29 year old who is about to get married only to be dumped by her fiancée three weeks before the wedding. After that Lola embarks on a voyage of self-discovery attempting to complete her doctoral thesis while at the same time sort out her relationship woes by sleeping around. Lola eventually embarks on an ill-fated relationship with her best friend Henry before discovering why her fiancée split up with her in the first place. She is also given various bits of advice from her hippy parents and her actress friend who herself is having trouble finding a man.

Positives: Gerwig tries her best with the lead role of Lola which fits perfectly in her resume of quirky vulnerable young women who are trying to navigate their way through life. The best performances of the film come from Bill Pullman and Debra Winger who are incredibly entertaining as Lola's chilled-out parents. There are a couple of decent gags at the beginning of the film and at just under ninety minutes it doesn't really outstay its welcome.

Negatives: There were long periods of the film which I found completely self-indulgent and really started to loathe the character of Lola at some points. The whole film is centred around the fact that women all want to be settled down by the time they're all thirty and I find that in itself fairly insulting. After her break-up Lola's romance with best friend Henry is fairly excruciating as is her encounter with a handsome man who likes talking about fish a lot. The male characters generally are woefully underwritten and are either presented as needy intellectuals or self-obsessed morons while even Lola herself doesn't feel real. Co-writer Zoe Lister Jones has seemingly given herself all the best lines as Lola's mate Alice but even her character feels somewhat over-the-top as all her lines relating to her sex life don't ring true.

Verdict: Despite some game performances and a few decent gags Lola Versus is just too quirky for its own good to the extent where it just doesn't feel real and for those reasons I can only award it 5.5/10

Review No.180: Magic Mike

Plot: Steven Soderbergh's film concentrates on Channing Tatum's Mike Lane who works on building sites by day but at night is a regular turn at the XQuisite nightclub under the name Magic Mike. Mike has built up a relationship with the club's owner Dallas, played by Matthew McConaughey, and gets an extra cut of the profits by helping his boss do the books. Mike is saving his money so he can one day run his own furniture-making business but due to his bad credit the banks won't give him a loan so he has to work harder to achieve his goals. At the construction site Mike meets 19 year old Adam and later introduces him to the stripping world as Adam is thrust onto the stage after veteran stripper Tarzan is too inebriated to perform. Through his relationship with Adam, Mike also meets his sister Brooke who is worried about her brother and asks for Mike's help however it seems she doesn't want a relationship with him because of what he does. As the film goes on we see Dallas attempt to expand the act, Adam getting into his new life and Mike trying to escape the stripping world however one incident has an impact on all three.

Positives: After Contagion and Haywire, Soderbergh continues his exploitation films with this look at the male stripping industry pitching it halfway between sleazy and glamorous. Soderbergh's visuals making the stripping scenes come alive, which I know won't appeal to most people, which really explains why the women can't get enough of these guys. Channing Tatum is actually pretty decent here excelling at playing the everyman and really making us empathise with Mike who has a dream but is constantly put down by the man. He has a believable chemistry with Cody Horn, who plays Brooke, and by the end of the film you are really willing them to get together. The real stand-out in Magic Mike is Matthew McConaughey who presents Dallas both as a showman and a businessman getting quite ruthless when he realises how much Adam and Mike may have jeopardised his business. McConaughey's performance is so good that I could honestly see him being nominated as Best Supporting Actor at next year's Oscars as Dallas is the sort of character that could well appeal to the academy.

Negatives: I have to say I don't think English actor Alex Pettyfer really had the wide-eyed innocence needed to play the part of Adam successfully and by the end he'd just come off as brattish. I also felt Olivia Munn wasn't given much to do as Mike's occasional sex buddy Joanna.

Verdict: Soderbergh suceeds in directing another well-shot and engaging exploitation film with two great performances from McConaughey and Tatum so for those reasons I will give Magic Mike 8/10

Review No. 179: Fast Girls

Plot: Fast Girls is set around the world of female athletics and stars Being Human's Lenora Crichlow as Shania an aspiring sprinter who was raised on a council estate receiving training from local shop-owner Brian played by the brilliant Phil Davis. Shania's trials are successful though she finds out that she has to compete against rich girl Lisa Temple whose father David, played by Rupert Graves, is a former gold medallist himself. After initially turning down the offer to be a part of the relay team she accepts when a spot opens up after a veteran athlete is injured however she then finds out she has to team with Lisa. The two form a begrudging respect however this is torn apart when Shania finds Lisa in a clinch with team physio Carl whom she has a thing with. As the trials approach Lisa and Shania clash on the track however they eventually learn that if they can work together then they'll be unstoppable.

Positives: This is a well-crafted debut feature by Regan Hall which predictably focuses on the exciting and well-shot running scenes. Though the story is rather corny the cast is strong led by the formidable Crichlow who adds an edge to Shania never making her feel like too much of a stereotype. Crichlow is ably supported by the rest of the relay girls and even Lily James as Lisa grows into her role by the end of the film essentially creating a believable chemistry between the teammates. Co-writer Noel Clarke has an undeniable likeable energy in his performance as team coach Tommy while both Phil Davis and Rupert Graves lend an able to proceedings. Fast Girls is incredibly formulaic but I have to say I was really involved with the characters' fates and was emotionally invested enough to really care about the final relay.

Negatives: The whole love interest angle involving Shania and Carl the physio really feels out of place with Crichlow and Bradley 'King Arthur' James having no chemistry whatsoever. I didn't really buy the fact that Shania's feelings for Carl were what made her argue with Lisa and jeopardise her place on the team mainly as I didn't think he was her type. I also felt that Shania's 'council estate' friends and family members were a little clichéd with their constant partying and lazy behaviour.

Verdict: Fast Girls may be cheesy and predictable but it is well-paced, well-shot, fun and has some brilliant performances plus the fact I was rooting for the characters at the end of the film must be a sign of my enjoyment so for that reason it gets 7/10

Review No.178: The Angel's Share

Next up for the new style review treatment is Ken Loach's The Angel's Share

Plot: The Glasgow-set film sees repeat offender Robbie given community service for his latest crime which sees him winding up in the care of Harry played by the wonderful John Henshaw. On Robbie's first day of Community Service his girlfriend Leonie goes into labour and when Harry drives him to the hospital he witnesses being beaten up by two of Leonie's uncles who warn him off their niece. Harry takes Robbie under his wing and is amazed by his nose for whisky when he takes his community service charges on a day out to a distillery. As Robbie agrees to meet up with one of his former victims he realises that he must leave Glasgow with his young father and spots a way to do this when a priceless cask of whisky comes on the market. Accompanied by his community service pals Robbie comes up with a plan to steal out of the cask but it remains to be seen whether his plan will be successful or not.

Positives: This is possibly one of Ken Loach's most comic pieces to date as he mixes in broadly comic characters, such as the idiotic Albert, with the more humanistic drama that he's known for. Screenwriter Paul Laverty creates some incredibly well-rounded characters with Robbie especially coming across as incredibly believable as he's someone who has become a victim of his circumstances. Despite Robbie inflicting both physical and emotional pain in his past you can't help but feel for him in the scenes in which Leonie's family tries to separate him from his girlfriend and child. The believability of the character is heightened by the performance of relative newcomer Paul Brannigan who is incredibly sympathetic but also commands authority when he takes charge of the bunch of community service misfits. John Henshaw is also used well as Harry an incredibly warm man who actually takes his job as a way to find a better life for some of these repeat offenders. The latter part of the film in which the gang attempt to steal the whisky has an Ealing comedy vibe about it and as a fan of that particular brand of film I really enjoyed it.

Negatives: You could say that the robbery scenes do stretch credibility while I personally would've liked to have known more about Robbie's community service cohorts.

Verdict: A warm, funny and heart-warming tale with a sympathetic central character and a great screwball plot that never loses all of the edge that we've come to know from Loach so for all those reasons the film gets an 8.5/10

Review No.177: Take this Waltz

OK from now on these reviews are going to be a tad different instead of long rambling paragraphs I'm going to have headings for plot, positives and negatives before giving my overall score and we'll start with Take This Waltz



Plot: Michelle Williams plays Margot a disenfranchised writer who currently makes end's meat writing articles for a travel website however life turns around for her when she meets Luke Kirby's charming artist Daniel. The only problem is that Margot is married to the dependable Lou, played by Seth Rogen, whose latest project is to write a book of ways that people can cook chicken. Margot tries to keep her feelings for Daniel underwraps however this easier said than done when he lives on the same street as her and becomes near impossible when Lou starts inviting him around. As well as losing her husband, if Margot does end up with Daniel she'll lose her best friend in Lou's recovering alcoholic sister Geraldine played by Sarah Silverman. In the end Margot makes her choice but in the final few scenes it seems that her decision may not have been the best one.

Positives: Anybody who saw her debut feature Away from Her knows that Sarah Polley has a great visual flair and this film demonstrates it with its stark colour. Though Michelle Williams is usually glum here she at least gets to crack a smile and demonstrate a little more humour than she got to in say Blue Valentine or Meek's Cutoff. Seth Rogen is no stranger to drama but here he plays it completely straight and is every inch the good guy as he cooks chicken for his family and generally puts in an amiable yet believable performance. The revelation here though is Sarah Silverman who is absolutely fantastic in her role as the sarcastic yet damaged Geraldine who often acts as Margot's confident but also has her own issues to deal with. I also think that the situations that Polley has created are believable with the couple who were married young no longer having that spark so the wife looks elsewhere. Rogen and Williams' chemistry is great and I really bought into their relationship to the extent that I didn't want it to end.

Negatives: It seems that Polley didn't think that her story had enough going for it so had to add plenty of kooky elements from the fact Daniel drives a rickshaw round the neighbourhood to the sight of Margot and Geraldine working out with the old women in the pool. There is also an incredibly odd sex scene towards the end of the film which is incredibly arty and for me feels mildly pretentious. I also wasn't a fan of Daniel nor the performance of Luke Kirby as he tried to steal Margot away from her perfectly nice husband I really wondered what she saw in this slightly creepy guy other than he was artistic.

Verdict: Despite being overly kooky at times it's the performances from Rogen, Williams and especially Silerman that make Take this Waltz what it is coupled with a mostly believable script as well as the director's likeable style I will give this one 7.5/10

Review No.176: The Watch

You'd think I'd given up didn't you? Well oh no I'm back and I've got a mammoth slog to get through 15 reviews in the next few days. I might give up again though after having to relive my experiences of enduring The Watch an ensemble 'comedy' about a ragtag neighbourhood watch group that try to bring down some aliens. The film is apparently based on a script that Seth Rogen wrote when he was younger and I have to say I think there's a reason that it's been discarded up to now but for some reason some big name comedy stars decided to sign up. Frat Pack members Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller seem to still be harking back to the glory days of Dodgeball and Starsky and Hutch though both are a lot older now so the gags don't work as well. Stiller stars as Evan a manager of a Costco in the  small suburban neighbourhood of Glenview where he fill his days starting up clubs as he has no real friends. After his co-worker is killed and the police refuse to do anything about it he sets up a neighbourhood watch in attempt of tracking the assailants. Obviously his recruits are a useless bunch of  misfits and include Vaughn's hard-drinking spendaholic Bob, Jonah Hill's slightly psychotic Franklin and Jamarcus a recently divorced Brit played by the brilliant Richard Ayoade. Much to Evan's annoyance Bob uses the watch as a way to escape his family rather than help clean up the neighbourhood however they soon discover that Evan's friend was killed by an alien.. From there this goes into sci-fi comedy territory, think a much less funny version of last year's Paul, as the watch tries to bring down the alien invasion. Obviously all of the characters have their own issues Evan can't get his wife pregnant, Bob's daughter is starting to attract attention from boys, Franklin desperately wants to become a cop and Jarmarcus also has a secret that eventually gets out. Along the way there's swearing, plenty of sexual references and not many laughs. 

As previously mentioned Vaughn and Stiller try to capture the magic of their earlier comic successes however it seems that that magic has now disappeared instead replaced by the sight of two men not acting their age. Jonah Hill doesn't seem to know what to do with his career as he followed Moneyball with The Sitter and then 21 Jump Street with this where he essentially plays a psychopath. Even the usually hilarious Richard Ayoade is rendered unfunny here saddled with a character who basically has a silly name and likes Indian women. The alien plot is poorly handled while the individual stories concerning our four central characters are tedious and predictable. Even the choice of song in the obligatory group sing-a-long scene is a bad one as 'You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet' doesn't really have that flow to it. There's nothing particularly offensive about The Watch however there wasn't really much to like either as this saw four comedy actors purely doing it for the money. The final scene in which the quartet battle the aliens is extremely juvenile as we find out where the aliens' brains are kept I'll give you one guess as to where. Ultimately for a summer comedy there's very little to laugh and you hope that the four men, especially Hill and Ayoade, will go on to bigger and better things in the near future. 

Verdict: An unfunny comedy that isn't particularly offensive but has no merit whatsoever so I'm being generous giving it 2/10

Review No.175: What to Expect When You're Expecting

If you have been reading all of the reviews that I've been writing throughout the day then you're a stronger person than me but thankfully this is the last and ironically it is also the least. The big trend at the moment in romantic comedy films is to pack them as full as stars as is conceivably possible to make-up for the fact they are neither romantic nor comedic with prime offenders being New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day. Adding to that list is What to Expect When You're Expecting whose title is based on the popular pregnancy guide and whose script looks to have been drawn on the back of a fag packet. The story focuses on five different couples, all of whom are somewhat interconnected, and who are all expecting babies in one way or another. First we meet Cameron Diaz as weight-loss guru Jules who appears on a Dancing with the Stars like show and starts a relationship with her professional Even played by Glee's Matthew Morrison with her hilariously discovering her pregnancy after throwing up in their winner's trophy. As their relationship is in its infancy they struggle to cope as they're both strong characters and a big argument ensues over whether or not they should circumcise their son which is an issue which soon goes global. One of Jules' former clients Gary is also expecting a baby with baby store owner Wendy, played by Elizabeth Banks, with the pair finally conceiving after trying for absolutely ages so when Gary's former racing driver dad played by the brilliant Dennis Quaid reveals that he and his trophy wife Skyler are having twins it comes as a blow to the couple. Skyler's cousin Rosie, played by Anna Kendrick, meanwhile has a one-night stand with a former high school acquaintance and food vendor rival Marco which obviously leads to her getting pregnant and the pair having to become a couple instantly. Finally Wendy's go to photographer Holly, played by J'Lo, is planning to adopt a baby from Africa along with her husband Alex who isn't as sure that he wants a child in the house so she sends him off to be with a group of fathers led by Chris Rock's incredibly vocal Vic. The basic message of Kirk Jones' film is that life's hard and sometime's we don't get everything we want but as long as we both have each other then life is good. 

As there's five different stories here I thought there'd be different types of couples but two of our pairs are happily married while another have been dating for a while. While the situations involving Lopez and Kendrick are at least a bit different what with the adoption and the one-night stand I would've thought that a film set in 2012 would at least have some alternative views. For example What to Expect purports the myth that a parent needs a mother and a father but why couldn't there have been a single mother or at least a gay couple? I'm guessing the answer to this question is that this film wants to be as traditional as possible and despite the women in this film being presented as strong and independent there doesn't seem to be one character who thinks they'd be better off without a man with the case in point here being Rosie's story as instead of deciding that she wants to raise the child on her own she instantly gets the baby's father in so the pair can become a couple. As this was a comedy I was expecting some clever material but instead what I got was a long line of vomiting, urination, fat jokes and generally tired gags about what happens when you get pregnant. The funniest performers of the piece for me are Dennis Quaid as Gary's ultra-competitive father and Rebel Wilson as Wendy's shop assistant who has some brilliant asides while Chris Rock seems to be in a completely different film as he tries out some new stand-up material in his 'dad's group'. While I was watching I thought some of these individual stories would be good on their own especially Rosie and Marco's tale which I thought didn't have enough time dedicated to it despite the fact that Anna Kendrick is possibly the most talented of the five central actresses. I thought the script as well could've delved more into Holly's struggle with the adoption process but as it was she and Alex managed to get a baby fairly easily after just one home visit! The story that annoyed me the most was that of Jules and Evan which seemed to exist mainly to get a load of cameos in from Megan Mullaly, Whitney from The Hills and our own Cheryl Cole. Personally I would've expect more from Kirk Jones, who directed one of my favourite films in Waking Ned, but here it seems he's sold out directing 'comedy' sequences that I felt would be above him and overall there's not much praise I can lavish on the film other than to complement a couple of the performers. 

Verdict: A horrible mess of a film with far too much going on and too many cast members doing it for the money while Kendrick, Quaid and Rebel Wilson did at least bring something to the picture I personally didn't find it funny or original enough to award it more than 3.5/10

Review No.174: Katy Perry - Part of Me

It's hard to know what to write when watching films that are essentially taped concerts as they have very little plot to them which in turn makes for a very short review. When I saw the trailer for Katy Perry: Part of Me I thought it was simply a concert film with a little bit of DVD commentary thrown in for good measure however there was very much more to this autobiographical feature. Though indeed there are several full performances from her California Dreams Tour which took her all around the world from London to Tokyo and even to her own backyard but really this is a portrait of the artist and also it sees how she influences other fans. The start of the film is indeed her fans waxing lyrical about how she's inspirational and how she preaches the message that it doesn't matter if you're different or weird you can still achieve things, that is especially if you've got your own hair and make-up team, and this segment finishes off with a tape of the 16 old Perry talking to camera. Though I only really watched this because I had to I did in fact learn a lot about Perry including her strict religious upbringing in which she was only allowed to listen to Christian Rock and the only film she was allowed to watch was Sister Act 2 but not the first one however I agree with her parents that the sequel if far superior and much misunderstood. Eventually she went on the road touring her own music however it was far from an overnight success as she spent ages going round various record companies and at one point was so broke she had to ask her younger brother for money. We all pretty much know where the story goes from there as Perry's contemporaries, including Adele and Rihanna, talk about how great she is while we also see her family praising her. Though even now she still has personal issues as we well know her marriage to Russell Brand, a relationship that is really put under the microscope during the film, collapsed and the pair divorced soon after. The fact that Perry shows the aftermath to her divorce in great detail is a testament to her and personally I think it makes the film that more interesting as it does show her at her most emotional. Though the divorce almost means she doesn't go on stage we're left with the message that Katy is a professional and a chorus of Teenage Dream is all you need to get over all your relationship troubles.

I think the enjoyment of a film about a musical act sometimes comes from how much of a fan you are of that particular artist and for me I'm not the biggest Katy Perry fan. Her bubblegum pop is inoffensive enough it's just not my kind of thing however it's good to see that the lyrics are personal and that they do inspire other youngsters unfortunately they're not just for me. For that reason the performance footage did little for me despite the colourful staging, which we saw the planning of during one scene of the film, which takes its inspiration from surreal works of art including Alice in Wonderland. What I did enjoy was the backstory about Perry's upbringing and especially seeing her father doing some of his preaching you could sort of see where she got her love of performing from. The home video footage was also eye opening as we were able to view Perry from a young girl up to the artist that she is today and how each step made her what she is. As I already mentioned all of the scenes with Russell Brand were also fairly interesting as we saw him lurking backstage at her concerts and we also saw how their careers strained their marriage to an eventual breaking point. For me I found the film a little overlong mainly because there were far too many behind-the-scenes of her tour footage for my liking as each little element was explained in detail although I did like the names of some of her backstage team including her manager Bradford Cobb. At times my cynical side kicked in as I started to wonder if at least a portion of the film was created as an advert for her next tour however I think most Perry fans would want to see her on tour before watching this film and as was evidenced in Part of Me they are a fairly manic bunch. So to that end if you're a fan of Perry I would say that you'd completely love this movie and for me I found it interesting if overlong with colourful performances plus a mixture of highs and lows for the singer who had much more of an intriguing past than I first realised.

Verdict: As I'm not a fan the concert footage bored me somewhat while the film as a whole was overlong having said that her fanbase will absolutely love this and personally there was enough information here for me to at least appreciate Perry in a new light so for that reason I will give it 6/10

Review No.173: The Cold Light of Day

You wait for a review of a Bruce Willis film, or maybe you don't, but two come along at once nonetheless but if you were hoping for more of him after his handful of appearances in The Expendables 2 you may be disappointed. Despite appearing fairly prominently on the poster for The Cold Light of Day, Mr Willis' appearances add up to no more than about 15 minutes of the 90 minute run time so any fans of the Die Hard star who would be watching this film for him alone might want to look elsewhere. Willis plays Martin Shaw a man who has a job working for the government booking philharmonic orchestras or something to that effect, yeah right, and is currently in Spain with his family on a fishing trip. Arriving in Spain is his son Will, played by the new Superman Henry Cavill, who doesn't seem to have a great relationship with his father and they argue over Will's instance to make business calls while on the trip a decision that later injures his brother's girlfriend.  He goes to town to get some medicine for her but when he returns he finds his family missing and later discovers they have been kidnapped by some shadowy folks who want a briefcase back from his father who is in fact a CIA agent, shock horror! Will and Martin briefly reunite as we are introduced to his partner, Sigourney Weaver's Jean, who may or may not have turned against him to sell said briefcase and the bigger question is who exactly Will can trust. Later on in the film he meets a sexy senorita by the name of Lucia who  in addition to helping him escape may also be able to shed some light on his father's dealing in the past as the two have a slightly unbelievable connection. 

I think The Cold Light of Day has its roots firmly in the old school Alfred Hitchcock thrillers in which the action is all controlled by a MacGuffin, which for those not in the know is an object that moves the plot along even if it isn't that important, however that would be an insult to Hitchcock's collections of films. The MacGuffin here is the mysterious briefcase which everybody is after even though we never discover what is in it, though as Willis is here maybe it's Marcellus Wallace's soul, but I never once cared and that's the major problem with this film. There's a lot of running, jumping and shooting in the film however if it's all based on a plot point that you don't care about then everything seems a little bit pointless despite the fact that all the action sequences are fairly well shot. Personally I didn't think Henry Cavill was a particularly captivating lead but to be fair to the actor has little to work with playing a character who owns some sort of small business which is on the verge collapsing and who also has a poor relationship with his character. Willis is in his action movie default setting as he gets to both play the slightly brooding patriarch and the gun-wielding CIA agent in his brief time on screen in what amounts to no more than an extended cameo. The two performances I enjoyed were from Sigourney Weaver who makes for a tremendous central villain and British actor Joseph Mawle has her creepy henchman. The Spanish setting also means that the running, jumping and shooting gets some lovely backdrops to be shot against but I don't think this is fully utilised as there are more sequences in dingy clubs and dark houses than there on the streets of Spain. Though I did like seeing Weaver brandishing a gun and being badass there's only so much of that you can take in one film and due to the lack of any decent characters and a story that is fairly one-dimensional I got bored of The Cold Light of Day fairly quickly. 

Verdict: Though the Spanish backdrop and Sigourney Weaver's villainous turned did provide brief highlights overall The Cold Light of Day suffers from an uninvolving leading man, a threadbare plot and fairly dull action scenes so for that reason I'll have to give it 4.5/10

Review No.172: Damsels in Distress

There's often a fine line between quirky and irritating films with many finding the mumblecore genre a particular offender but personally I've never really had a problem with those sort of films until I watched Damsels in Distress which was at times amusing but another times fairly annoying. Whit Stillman's film sees Analeigh Tipton's Lily arrive as a sophomore transfer to a college in which she is soon taken under the win of Greta Gerwig's Violet and her minions Heather and Rose. The trio, who work in the college's suicide help centre, seem to want to cheer up students by having them learn to tap-dance while Violet herself is attempting to star a new dance craze. They also invite Violet into their world in which they often hang around with the fraternity boys as they harmless and dumb so they can be easily moulded into the perfect men however Violet's heart is broken when her intended man goes off with one of the girls they are trying to help. As Violet runs away from the college her friends think she may have done something drastic, with Heather revealing the truth about the real Violet, however she is saved by a bottle of hand-soap. At the same time Lily is going through some personal trauma over her own as she is attracted to the handsome intellectual French student Xavier who unfortunately already has a girlfriend so her eye is drawn instead to Adam Brody's cheerful Charlie. Eventually Xavier and Lily get together but his bedtime games don't sit well with her, and don't make her sit well either, so she turns back to Charlie however it is he and Violet who may have more in common. 

Stillman's Ivy League College world is somewhat old-fashioned in its design with our Damsels not paying any attention to what's going on on Facebook but instead marching to their own drum by walking in a dignified manner around the campus trying to help all the people they can. In the first twenty minutes or so of the film I found Violet and company utterly irritating and it is only really when we find out the truth about her that we become more sympathetic towards her while her relationship with Charlie also helps her seem like more of a normal human being. I personally think Stillman wants us to view the film through the eyes of Lily who is bemused by most of the antics of her new found friends but goes along with occasionally challenging Violet who is more than willing to be challenged because she's just that sort of character. Lily's assertion that some people don't want to be quirky but would rather be normal is one that would strike a chord with a lot of viewers of this film and I think in a way the director may be subtly hitting out at some of the same films of the genre. Thankfully his leading actress is Greta Gerwig who has great timing and delivery plus she's someone who is convincing enough as a student who thinks everything she does is for the greater good of the college but sometimes has a sense of self-importance. Adam Brody has some great chemistry with Gerwig and the two bounce off each other perfectly in the second half of the film as Violet gets closer to creating her own dance craze. I also quite enjoyed Analeigh Tipton as the 'normal girl' who suddenly finds her being charmed by a sleazy Frenchmen and taken in by a group of slightly offbeat females though again she more than holds her own. I do feel somewhat sorry for Megalyn Echikunwoke and Carrie MacLemore who have little to do as Rose and Heather respectively however the former does have a knack of repeating the line 'playboy operator' while the latter's romance with the brutish Thor is one of the comic highlights of the film due to the fact that he never learnt the name of any of the colours. Overall there's much to like about Damsels in Distress such as the lead performances, the lighter moments in the script and the way the college is designed but for me there were moments that I found deeply annoying which I think stopped me from enjoying the film as a whole. 

Verdict: With lovely performances from Geriwg and Brody as well as some truly funny moments Damsels in Distress is a somewhat likeable film however for me there were too many irritating sections so for that reason I can only give it a 6.5/10

Review No.171: The Expendables 2

More summer fun now as we enter the retirement home of action that is The Expendables franchise with Sylvester Stallone and buddies blowing more stuff up around the world. The plot of this new film is like the first one, somewhat unmemorable, however with an even bulkier cast plus a shorter runtime and a new director at the helm I found this one more enjoyable. The start of the film sees all of The Expendables from the first film team up to shoot down some bad guys or something before Arnie's Trench comes up and saves the day while soon after Jet Li says his goodbyes to the group. Bruce Willis' Mr Church then gives them another mission to go on with some new recruits namely Liam Hemsworth's idealistic Billy and Yu Nan as new technology expert Maggie Chan. While the group to retreive the mystery item for Church they're soon pounced upon by Jean Claude Van Damme's imaginatively named villain Jean Villain who steals the item, takes their weapons and kills poor old Billy presumably so he doesn't show up the rest of the oldies in the remaining battle sequences. From there the team travel to some desolate Eastern European town where Jean Villain is abusing the men as workers in a nearby plutonium mine and soon his men are on the case of our heroes thankfully though Chuck Norris is around to help them out however he doesn't stay too long as he is a lone wolf after all. From there it's business as usual as Stallone, Arnie, Bruce, Stath and the rest battle JCVD and his allies to the death but as there's a third film in the franchise I think we all know how things are going to pan out.

For me I wasn't a big fan of the first Expendables film finding it disorganised and over long while at the same time it didn't exploit the great cast that it was given with most of the scenes featuring simply on Sly and Stath. The sequel though is a vast improvement which I believe is mainly down to the fact that Sly has handed over directing duties to Con Air's Simon West, who knows what he's doing when it comes to ensemble acting pictures, and he tries to make the best film he can about a bunch of over-the-hill action heroes that he can possibly do. The Expendables 2, unlike its predecessor, doesn't take itself too seriously instead adding a lot of in-jokes about the catchphrases that our stars are best known for as well as some obscure jokes also. The fact that Arnie and Bruce are in the film a little more this time, after the former is officially out of the politics game, also adds to the overall feel of the film as a nostalgia-trip while seeing them fight alongside Sly and Chuck Norris is a treat all on its own. Talking of Norris his Booker is well-utilised and only has a minimal talking role which is good a thing as he's more useful when he's kicking ass and he does that a lot. As far as the rest of the cast is concerned with Mickey Rourke, who did all the acting in the first film, now departed it seems that Jason Statham has picked up that mantle and was actually fairly impressive however it is still his bromance with Sly that is the highlight of the piece. Elsewhere the other expendables don't do a lot, however Maggie Chan is slobbered over by her male colleagues to the point where she could've ordered some sort of employment tribunal while Hemsworth is at least given an emotional death scene. JCVD is always cast as a villain although he does have some of the more ludicrous lines of the piece he's able to pull them off because at the end of the day's it's Van-Damme whose even cool when wearing sunglasses in a plutonium mine. If you're coming to The Expendables to for a story and character development then jog on as there's little of that here however what there is plenty of enjoyable in-jokes, chemistry between the leads and the chance to see your favourite childhood action figures fight alongside each other. Personally I rather enjoyed The Expendables 2 which, while it had no story to speak of, survived because of the willingness of the cast to send itself up and West's competent direction so in summary a good summer action film which is all we can ask at the end of the day.

Verdict: There's lots of fun to be had while watching The Expendables 2 though due to the fact it has very little going on outside of its action scenes I can only award it 6/10

Review No.170: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

It's true that the Apocalypse has been covered in many different ways over the years away from the obligatory sci-fi uses of the end of the world we've also had some more interesting efforts including last year's Lars Von Trier film Melancholia which divided opinion as I know people who both loved and hated it while I was somewhere in the middle. Playing the situation for laughs is writer/director Lorene Scarfaria, best known for her various work on indie films such as Whip It and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, who presents a middle-management drone force to face the apocalypse on his own in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. In the film Steve Carell plays Dodge an insurance salesman whose wife leaves him directly after hearing that all efforts to stop an asteroid hurtling towards the Earth have been in vain so he has to soldier on alone. When he sees one of his neighbours, Keira Knightley's Penny, crying on the fire escape he lets her in only to discover she's upset that she'll never be able to get to see her folks in England again while he finds out that his first love wanted to see him once again however he never got the letter due to Penny holding onto his mail. Eventually the two make a pact - she helps him get to his lost love and in return he'll get to a guy he knows who has a plane so the rest of the film turns into a road movie and inevitably the two develop feelings for each other. Along the way we see how the apocalypse has affected other people with the staff at a TGI Fridays-esque restaurant getting a bit more saucy, one of the people they meet getting bumped off by an assassin and one of Penny's exes building a shelter in the hope of repopulating the Earth. In the end things take an unexpected turn as the pair both find what they're looking for but find out it's not necessarily what they wanted.

If you take Seeking a Friend for the End of the World as a number of set pieces then it works a lot better than as an overall film. I enjoyed several parts of it including a party Dodge attends, Dodge and Penny's heart-to-heart at his ex-girlfriend's parents' house and the discovery of who owns the plane. The film also has some beautiful location shots which cinematographer Tim Orr utilises especially a later scene on a beach where Penny and Dodge discover a lot of lost people getting married. Where the film falls down is that I never felt the believable nature of the relationship between Dodge and Penny despite Carrel and Knightley trying their hardest to play two people who had genuine feelings for each other. Throughout the film we meet several of Penny's former loves, including Adam Brody's waster Owen and Derek Luke's survivalist Speck, both of whom seem to want to do anything to hold onto her however she only has eyes for the man that insults her several times throughout the course of their journey. Individually though the two leads do a good job with Carell perfecting the hangdog expression we first saw on him in Little Miss Sunshine while Knightley's quirky Penny veers on the right side of being annoying. There are also some great cameos from Patton Oswalt, Rob Corddry and one towards the end of the film which I don't particularly feel like spoiling as for me the revelation was one of the best parts of the movie. The soundtrack is also great, someone sitting next to me in the cinema thought so too as she spent a lot of the time singing along to the more recognisable tunes, thanks to Penny's instance of bringing her records along with her this is a film that really knows how to use popular music to advance the story. As a whole though I don't think the story always worked and I felt that after it ended it went on for another ten minutes which spoilt the overall film plus I didn't really understand why Dodge would choose to keep a dog that was left as his feet for the rest of the film even though it was incredibly cute. Though there is indeed a lot to like in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World it still feels fairly uneven and runs longer than it should've done even though I feel it does do a good job of demonstrating how normal people would react if the world were to end in a couple of weeks.

Verdict: Good performances, a number of winning set-pieces and a great soundtrack are spoilt by a lack of chemistry between the two leads as well as an overlong ending so for that reason it gets 6.5/10

Review No.169: Brave

As I've previously discussed summer time is synonymous with the animated film and over the past decade the majority of the quality animation has been delivered by the Pixar studios ever since the first Toy Story film was released they have more hits than misses with a flawless record only spoilt by the two average Cars films and Ratatouille a film others seemed to like but I personally didn't care for. After Cars 2 was generally derided by critics last year they were due for a strong turn and have released Brave a Scottish-set fable starring Kelly MacDonald as Merida a tomboy who is also a princess daughter of warrior King Fergus and traditional Queen Elinor voiced respectively by Billy Connelly and Emma Thompson. As a teenage girl Princess Merida would much rather be aiming her bow and arrow than getting dressed up in order to choose her suitor however her mother informs her that tradition comes first. When all the warring Scottish lord descent on the castle their sons compete for Merida's hand through an archery contest though when she conceals her identity, takes part and wins she angers her mother who believes that her daughter has disrespected all that she stands for. Annoyed at her mother Merida travels into the forest and comes across a witch's cottage where inside she is given a potion that she believes will change her mothers mind but actually ends up transforming The Queen into a bear. This isn't the best thing in the world that could happen as her father is currently looking for the bear that tried to kill his family and is under the belief that his wife is the bear in question so another journey into the woods with her mother is called for however she gets a cryptic message from the witch. As is always the way with these animated tales all of our characters must learn lessons about breaking tradition, knowing what it is to be a family and about how sometimes our stubborn natures could cost us dearly. 

The good news then is that Brave is better than Cars 2 however for me it lacked the emotional resonance of Up, the sheer bravery of Wall-E or the end of an era that was Toy Story 3. In a way Brave doesn't feel like a Pixar film but rather more of a traditional Disney animation with a simple story and a strong central heroine which you can add to the recent parade of female role models which also included the leads in Tangled and The Princess and The Frog. Indeed the only thing separating Brave from being a classic Disney film is that the characters don't sing however there are several sequences set to music that are sung by Julie Fowlis with a third composed and performed by Mumford and Sons all of which I quite enjoyed. As you would expect from a Pixar films the characters are, on the whole, well-crafted with the flame-haired teenage princess a very relatable figure for a lot of the film's audience with Merida also being well voiced by Kelly MacDonald though at times I felt that she sounded more like a woman than a young girl. Connelly and Thompson both bring life into their respective royals while Julie Walters is also great in her two scenes as the witch my only criticism is that I wished they done more with her. The animation is also absolutely tremendous with the studio sculpting this glorious medieval highland in great detail and really bringing every aspect of it to life. It is the story of Brave that lets it down though and for me it dips when The Queen is turned into a bear with the closing bear hunt scenes also feeling a bit weak. Brave is also at a disadvantage in that Dreamworks have already done a Scottish film, albeit it one that had a slightly different look, in How to Train Your Dragon with Scottish comic Craig Ferguson featuring in both though. Even though Brave may be on the lower end of Pixar's spectrum it still has plenty going for it - the characters, the animation and the music are all spot on however I think the story just lacked a little bit of the magic that is usually present throughout the films produced by the studio. I think fans of the earlier work will be happy that sequels to favourites such as Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. are imminent but for me I feel they should be concentrating on original stories as Brave did show promise even if it did fall slightly short. 

Verdict: As you would expect from Pixar, Brave sounds and looks great with some brilliant characters let down by an uneven story nevertheless it is still enjoyable on the whole so therefore it receives a 7/10

Review No.168: The Lucky One

To me Nicholas Sparks adaptations appeal to a certain demographic to which I'm not a part though The Notebook was a massive crossover hit, and featured the mighty Ryan Gosling, I've only caught parts of it though since then I've had the misfortune to watch both the dreary Dear John and The Last Song which starred the dreaded Miley Cyrus. So imagine my surprise when I actually sort of enjoyed the latest Sparks adaptation The Lucky One which starred Zac Efron as former marine Logan whose life is saved twice by the picture of an unknown blonde meaning that when he is shipped back to the States he makes it his mission to track her down and walks all the way from Colorado to Louisiana to do this accompanied only by his loyal German Shepherd dog Zeus. After a small search he tracks down Beth who runs a local kennel and whose brother Drake was in the same company as Logan however when she mistakes him for someone who wanted to apply for a job at the kennels he neglects to tell her why he's really there. Inevitably the two get close quite quickly with Logan striking up a bond with Beth's son Ben who he encourages to play the violin however this raises the ire of Ben's father Keith who is the town's local sheriff so attempts to make life hard for his new love rival. Keith eventually gets one up on Logan when he discovers that he was searching for Beth when he first came to town which in turn means that he has to confess all. As is always the way with Sparks' books this isn't the end of their story as a tragedy forces old grudges to be put on hold as torrential weather causes our characters' lives to change forever.

Let's get one thing clear right from the start The Lucky One is completely cheesy romantic tripe that I wouldn't normally like however there was a charm to the story and a believable chemistry between Efron and female lead Taylor Schilling that made the film a lot easier to watch. I think in the past the Sparks adaptations suffered from a lack of chemistry between the leads and a story that I struggled to connect with however director Scott Hicks kept things simple enough as this was just a story of two lost people coming together. Though some snootier critics may steer away from praising him here I felt that Efron gave one of his best performances to date as he has made the effort to actually get in shape and be somewhat believable as someone who is deeply troubled from what he's seen during the war though I did find his early night terrors fairly laughable. Though Efron has no problem with the romantic scenes he still needs some work on the more dramatic side of things with the big rain-soaked tragedy at the end seeing him going slightly over-the-top. Schilling is also believable as a woman who has left her life behind her to hide in the kennels following the death of her brother and the breakdown in the relationship between her and the father of her son there is also reliable support from Blythe Danner as Beth's grandmother. Some of the performances are a bit iffy with Jay R Ferguson's Keith being a bit too much of a clichéd villain and Riley Thomas Stewart being a little too annoying as Ben. Hicks, who directed the Oscar-winning Shine, has always been able to capture great visuals and he does this again with The Lucky One with Alar Kivilo's cinematography adding to the overall feel of this syrupy love story. So though The Lucky One may purport the myth that the best kind of man is the one that can look after a boat and has a loveable dog it is still an easy film to watch with a couple of believable romantic leads and lots of well-shot scenic locations.

Verdict: While it's not my usual cup of tea The Lucky One survives thanks to the chemistry between Efron and Schilling and the ability of director Hicks to create a believable love story so for those reasons it receives 6/10

Review No.167: North Sea, Texas

Second film in a row now to feature a seaside community but this one doesn't have any of that silly sci-fi nonsense in it but instead focuses on a very complicated boy trying to determine his sexuality in a small Belgian town. North Sea, Texas concentrates on Pim who, as a young boy, likes to try on his mother's clothes and make-up before having his first sexual experiments. Pim's mother sees him as a hindrance to her having a good time as she invites various gentleman suitors to her place and often spends a lot of time at the bar known as 'Texas' where Pim often has to wait for her doing this by sitting in a corner and drawing quietly. Pim has also developed almost a surrogate family with the more maternal Marcella whose two children love having him around mainly so they can both indulge their passions on him with daughter Sabrina running around after him and older brother Gino leading him with the two eventually having sex. It is clear that Pim is much more in love with Gino who takes him on bike rides and they continue their affair but only in places where they won't be discovered as Gino is obviously ashamed by his feelings for Pim. Eventually Gino leaves town, to hook up with a French girl, while Sabrina also discovers the truth behind her brother's relationship with the boy she is also fond of. Essentially North Sea, Texas is a film about families, growing up and where we all fit in in the grand scheme of things and as the film draws to a close there is a tragic death which brings the majority of the characters closer together.

What I really liked about North Sea, Texas are the performances with the young cast in particular portraying confused teenagers really unsure of their feelings. In the lead role Jelle Florizoone is excellent as a teenager deciding which path he wants to take in his life and despairing over his awful home life as his mother constantly ignores his needs. Mathias Vergels is also good as the torn Gino somebody whose carnal desires point him towards Pim but he realises that he can only be accepted if he dates someone of the opposite sex and leaves the boy he actually loves for somebody else. I think if this theme had been picked up to a stronger extent then this would've made a better impression on me but as it is I found Bavo Defurne's film fairly meandering for the most part as when Gino left, Pim spends most of his time gazing out along the coast as Matt Smith did in the last film I reviewed. The only character to really stick with me was Pim's mother Yvette a really big character who wants desperately to hang onto her youth which she knows is slipping away especially now that her son is turning fifteen. The cinematography is also beautiful capturing a small town that a lot of the characters want to escape from and in that essence it reminds me of the great Swedish film Show Me Love however other than this sparse setting and the homosexual relationship there isn't much comparison. So there are admiral points about North Sea, Texas, mainly the acting and the cinematography, overall it's rather a bland effort that seems to run out of steam before the end credits roll, which is a shame as some good themes are bought up throughout the film.

Verdict: Some great camera work and performances give some impact to this otherwise forgettable film which runs out of steam so for those reasons I'll award a generous 6/10

Review No.166: Clone

Before latest Doctor Who Matt Smith became a household name he was a jobbing actor picking up any films that came his way and obviously the chance to have a love scene with Eva Green was too much to resist even if it was in such an odd film as Womb which has since been re-named Clone on its UK release. In a weird English beach town of the near future two kids, Rebecca and Tommy, are very close however when her family move to Japan she goes with them. The older Rebecca, played by Green, journeys back to the town to find Smith's Tommy shacked up with Natalia Tena however it doesn't take too long for old feelings to come to the core with the pair hooking up. As they go off on the road together the two get into an accident which injures her but kills him off however desperate to get him back she decides to enrol on a programme in which his DNA can be used to bring him back however she must give birth to him first. This is where everything gets a little weird as Rebecca essentially has to raise the baby, she calls Thomas, into the man she loves so she can get with him or something like that. Smith obviously resurfaces again as the older Thomas whose mother is in love with him however he hooks up with Monica, played by Skins' Hannah Murray, who is a little unsure of the frosty relationship in her boyfriend's household. The plot of Clone is a fairly odd one which looks at how much science could meddle in our future relationships if cloning of this nature ever becomes popular but more than this it is just a bit confusing.

Anybody wanting to watch this film just for Smith may want to know that he's not in it for great periods of time only a bit about twenty minutes in and then for the final half hour. In that time he does some things you wouldn't normally catch him doing on prime time BBC1 such as saying the F-Word, showing his bare behind and that aforementioned romp with Ms Green. Talking of Eva Green this is really her film appearing in the majority of the scenes she perfects the wistful stare casting her eye over the unknown beach in many scenes throughout the film. For me Green's performance is the best thing about this film for a country mile as she manages to make the preposterous plot at least halfway convincing in that she is able to portray a woman torn between trying to be a mother and caring for her lost love. Smith once again does his best manchild impression, similarly to the one he does in Doctor Who but this time without a Sonic Screwdriver, while Hannah Murray is given little but gives a lot as the girlfriend weirded out by the situation she finds herself in. The seaside locations add a nice touch and everything is well-photographed but there's no getting away from the fact that this is a ridiculous film and more than that is fairly dull for long segments in between. I found there were far too many quiet moments that were meant to be arty but came off as as slightly pretentious and fairly overlong. There are some good things in Clone - Green's performance and the majority of the cinematography however an odd plot and too much naval-gazing means this is one to miss even if you're a big Matt Smith fan.

Verdict: A silly plot about nature and nurture coupled with too many quiet moments makes Clone a fairly skipable film all be it one with a great performance from its leading actress.

Review No.165: 360

The first time I saw Fernando Meirelles' stunning City of God I was transfixed by this study of Brazilian gang life and the movie ended up being crowned my favourite of less decade. Meirelles followed this up by helming The Constant Gardener which saw Rachel Weisz scoop a Supporting Actress Oscar and now he reunites with the actress for new multi-lingual drama 360. The film, which is written by Peter Morgan of The Queen and Frost/Nixon fame, sees Weisz play an unhappy housewife to Jude Law's businessman with her cheating on him while he considers spending the night with a high class prostitute. Laura the wife of Weisz's lover leaves him when she finds out about him and decides travel back to America where on the plane she meets Anthony Hopkins' recovering alcoholic who is desperately searching for his daughter who ran away from home years ago. Also on the plane is Ben Foster's recently released convict who was arrested as a sex offender and catches the eye of Laura as their plane is grounded due to heavy snow the two almost have an illicit encounter but he brushes her off. We also see that Law's prostitute is getting into deep water with a known Mafia crime lord who hires her for a night while her sister and his henchman Sergei meet and fall for each other. Finally we find Sergei's wife Valentina falling out of love with him as she catches the eye of her dentist boss but as he's a devout Muslim the two are destined not to end up together a problem she vocalises at an AA meeting that Hopkins' character just happens to attend.

Watching 360 I felt that Alejandro González Iñárritu had to be involved in some capacity as the film reminded me strongly of his back catalogue especially Babel and Amores Perros. At least those films though kept all of their plot strands equal throughout the course of the film because in the case of 360 you pretty much only get to spend twenty or so minutes with one character and its on to the next one. That's not too bad when it involves the very disinteresting marital rifts between Law and Weisz's married couple however Anthony Hopkins' character, simply known as Older Man, is an intriguing creation who deserves a lot more time on screen given the calibre of the actor that is playing him. Similarly Ben Foster, who has mastered the art of playing the creepy loner, is great as a sex offender trying to make amends for his past crimes but is tempted in while in airport full of families. The problem with the majority of the characters is that Morgan never really brings them to life and seems far more obsessed with pointing out the stories that connect all of us across the globe rather than giving us any reason to care about them. The piece is universally well acted,  as well as Hopkins and Foster I enjoyed Jamel Debbouze as the Algerian dentist, however the cast are fighting a losing battle in a film that essentially calls for them to say their lines before exiting stage left. Morgan and Meirelles try desperately to keep all their plates spinning at once but ultimately there's porcelain all over the floor by the time the end credits roll. There's no denying that the acting in 360 is top notch but everything else leads a lot to be desired which is a shame seeing as this is from the man who bought me my film of the last decade but I can safely say that at the end of the 2010s his latest movie will not feature in my list at all.

Verdict: Incredibly well-acted but lacking in all the other areas 360's cast try their best with the material they're given but ultimately there's too much going on so I can only award this 5/10

Review No.164: Step Up 4 - Miami Heat

Onto the second fourquel as the all-dancing Step Up franchise entitled Miami Heat or Revolution depending on what it was you saw it. For arguments sake lets call it Step Up 4 but it does indeed take place in Miami this time focusing on a flash mob known simply as MOB who become infamous after a series of impromptu dance numbers. Sean and Jason are the two members of the MOB that we follow throughout both of whom are from a poor district of Miami as well as working side-by-side at Dimont Hotel owned by Peter Gallagher's dastardly property tycoon Bill Anderson. After work one day Sean meets a girl called Emily who later transpires to be Anderson's daughter though the two do hit it of and he convinces her to join MOB after  she is told she needs to add some originality into her dancing in order to get a place at a prestigious dance company. Around the same time Jason is fired by Anderson while the MOB's bar owner also reveals that Bill will be tearing down all of the old town in order to build a new hotel essentially rendering them all homeless. Emily convinces the MOB to do something about it and arrange a routine in protest of the development which initially goes well however when the rest of the group discover that Emily is Anderson's daughter things don't go to plan. So will Emily get into dance school? Will the area be saved and economic recovery put back another ten years? Will the MOB earn all that money from the YouTube competition? Will Emily and Sean get together? And will anybody make an attempt to tie this film to the rest of the Step Up franchise?

In answer to that last question the film does share a couple of familiar faces from the Step Up films, although most of them simply cameo, but Step Up 4 seems to be parading itself as a stand-alone film. As you can imagine the plot isn't up to much and it seems to resort to the boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls for the upper class girl but they realise they're not too different story although it is done well mainly due to the performance of the always-reliable Gallagher as the her father. Aside from Gallagher the acting is fairly ordinary and the character development is almost zero but then I don't think anybody goes into a Step Up film for any of those sort of things. Yes indeed it is the dance sequences that make these films and the decision to focus on the ever popular flash mob trend was a clever one as it leads to a number of enthralling set pieces my favourites of which were the opening scene on a busy highway and a later number at an art gallery though all of them are impressive. The setting of Miami is also well shot by Karsten Gopinath as he really makes us a part of this hot city with its divide between our poor protagonists and the wealthy landowners. Step Up 4 may not be original but I can't say I wasn't entertained and even a cynic like me found the majority of the dance sequences enjoyable and in some cases fairly unique to the extent where I think this certainly kicked the ass of the Streetdance sequel I watched not so long ago. For a fourquel Step Up 4 certainly has a lot going for it even though there's poor acting and characterisation, the dance sequences are all top notch though I really don't know if there would be room to do a fifth film, or if anybody would want to see it.

Verdict: Packed with plenty of thrilling dance sequences Step Up 4 is an entertaining ride even if the acting and scripting generally sucks but any film with a Mario Lopez cameo can't receive a bad mark so for that reason I'll give it 6/10

Review No.163: Le Havre

I sometimes find that you can sum up a film with one adjective and if I were to do that with the next film on my list, Le Havre, then I would say it was simply charming. Le Havre is the latest film to be helmed by legendary Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki who has moved over to France, to be exact the Normandy port of the title, as a setting for his new project. The protagonist of Le Havre is Marcel Marx a former literary great who is now making a very modest living as a shoe shine as well as trying to care of his ill wife though this sometimes means stealing a couple of baguettes from the local bakery. Early on in the film Marcel meets Idrissa a young African boy who has escaped from the rest of the illegal immigrants who have arrived at the port and is desperate to meet up with his mother in London. Though Marcel is scared away by the police he later finds Idrissa in his outhouse and invites him to stay while his wife in hospital with a potentially fatal disease. The community rally around to help Idrissa while Marcel discovers the address of the boy's mother in London as well as hatching a plan to get him there on a fishing boat the only problem is raising the money to do it. Marcel's other big problem is that the wily head of the police Monet is onto him and is constantly trying to catch him out as he's aware that the boy is being hidden he just is yet to find the proof. After a benefit concert in Marcel's local bar he raises the money to send Idrissa home although will it be too late as Monet and the rest of the La Havre police force are on his tale.

So why did I describe Le Havre as charming? Mainly because it just has that quality about it and I found it very old-fashioned to the extent that if the currency exchanged wasn't Euros and there wasn't the plot about the immigrants then I would say it would've been set about fifty years ago. Andre Wiilms has a very classic screen presence about him and he almost reminds me of one of the silent comics as his mannerisms are spot on though he is also able to tackle more dramatic scenes such as the realisation that his wife might not come out of hospital. As our central antagonist Monet, Jean-Pierre Darroussin is a very stoic figure, often dressed top to toe in black, but one that bounces well off Marcel with the handful of scenes featuring the two being some of the film's best. The themes of the community bonding together also gives Le Havre a very earnest quality as Marcel is given more free food and is allowed to hold his benefit gig in the bar where he spends most of his time anyway. Kaurismäki blends old-school charm with a modern day issue to create a truly pleasing film which is well shot by cinematographer Timo Salminen who sweeps over the small houses of the town to give us a feel of what life is like there. I had a few problems with La Havre and most of them were due to the plot which at times, I personally felt, really didn't make a lot of sense especially the final scene featuring Idrissa and Marcel. These don't really stick with you after the film though but what does is a charming, often funny film which demonstrates friendship, love and acceptance in a way that is never saccharine but simply engaging and realistic.

Verdict: Though the plot suffers at times Le Havre is generally a charming film about love and friendship with some great performances, brilliant camerawork and a lovely score so for those reasons I will give it 7.5/10

Review No.162: Personal Best

It's those damned Olympics again. Round two of athletics-based movies sees me take on a more up-to-date story this time of four athletes, most from underprivileged  backgrounds, as they prepare for Olympic tryouts. The documentary starts off in 2007 when director Sam Blair made a short film entitled Sprinters as part of his Film Studies MA and this followed the exploits of Jeanette Kwaykye and James Ellington two youngsters who love to run. We see both of them training hard with Michael Afilaka a tough coach who gives a hard time to Jeanette however their relationship improves as the film goes on where we follow them right up to 2011 and the qualifiers to become part of the Team GB quota.. James' motivation is that he doesn't want to be normal and that all he's wanted to is run claiming that if he doesn't qualify then he'll have to go back to being Job Centre James and bumming around though both of his parents claim that he's extremely motivated. James is probably best known for being the athlete who put himself up on ebay in order to gain a sponsorship deal however the majority of the film is set before this incident which is simply mentioned in the final reel. Jeanette meanwhile is a fairly self-deprecating character who knows that when Sam first started to film her she wasn't a contender at all however now that her relationship with Richard has greatly improved, she seems him almost as a father figure, she knows that she can go the distance despite some injuries holding her back from  qualifying for Beijing. In making this into a feature film Blair has also drafted in two new subjects firstly sprint hurdler Richard Alleyne someone who had been out of the game due to injury and whose coach fears that he's starting from a negative space however, somewhat predictably, he turns himself around in order to be in shape for the World Championships. My favourite of the four subjects is the youngest of the bunch Omardo Anson a 17 year old who only wanted to run rather than doing anything else with his life while his brilliant mother bemoans this fact however knows that he is becoming a man. It's just a shame then that both Richard and Omardo often get pushed to the side in favour of Jeanette and James presumably as Blair has a better relationship with both of them.

For me the problem with Personal Best was that there was so much going on that it was hard to keep up and at times I forgot who of the four I was watching and what they were currently trying to qualify for. The slow motion running scenes were all shot well however after a time they started to become fairly monotonous although those featuring Jeanette displayed a lot more of her character than some of her to-camera interviews did. Admittedly I'm not a huge sports fan so that may be a factor on why I didn't enjoy this as much but I think the fact was that there was no real conclusion due to this finishing before we found out who had actually qualified for the games. It was actually fairly odd as the day I watched was the same day that James failed to get any further in his heats at the Olympics while after a quick search on Google I discovered that none of the other three made it to London 2012. I also started to get fairly annoyed with the electro beats of Lukid which accompanied the majority of the training and sprinting scenes this was because I felt that they lacked emotion as did lot of the film. Though I did like individual elements of the film overall I didn't really connect with any of the four subjects, even though I did love Omardo's mum, while all I learnt about being an athlete was that it was quite hard as you had to sacrifice a lot. Though it's probably on the same level as The Athlete I found that Personal Best wasn't anywhere near as well-made or fascinating as Town of Runners another film about the sacrifices made in order to be an athlete only set in a deprived country. Overall the cinematography and the subjects of Personal Best were interesting up to a point but there really wasn't anything for me to connect with in Blair's film also he faces a lot of competition in the running documentary genre but unfortunately I don't feel he's made it past the first heat.

Verdict: Some good points are covered in Blair's film however after a while I failed to connect with any of the subjects and found the music monotonous so for those reasons Personal Best receives 5.5/10

Review No.161: Ice Age - Continental Drift

More kiddy cartoon action now with the fourth instalment in the Ice Age franchise a series which I've caught smatterings of but never had been a huge fan. As you can imagine from the title the whole premise of these cartoons are that they focus around a group of prehistoric mammals who, though they are outcasts, have come together to form a mini family. In this fourth film the dynamic of the three is changing with Manny the Woolly Mammoth, voiced by Ray Romano, now having a teenager daughter of whom he is very protective while his wife Ellie tells him to lighten up. Sid the sloth also has family problems when his  whole brood descends only to lumber him with their wise-talking grandmother, voiced as Wanda Sykes playing the character she always plays in these kinds of films, before scarpering off once again. Finally there's Dennis Leary's sabre tooth tiger Diego the gruffest of the bunch who is feeling lonely so wouldn't you know it throughout the film he ends up finding love. As the subtitle atests to this sees our band of heroes drift off as the ice cap begins to melt and different parts of ice are splintered separating Manny from his family with the majority of the woolly mammoths having to find a new home while our central trio plus Sykes' character try to find home again. Continental Drift also parodies/rips off the pirate genre by having our heroes having to defend themselves from a gang of pirates led by Captain Gutt, voiced by Peter Dinklage in full Game of Thrones mode, which include a range of animals from Nick Frost's dumb elephant Flynn to Jennifer Lopez's sexy sabre tooth tiger Shira who as I alluded to earlier becomes Diego's love interest. Along the way there are life lessons learnt as Shira learns it's better to part of a family, Manny's daughter learns that she'd been better sticking with her friend than going after the bad boy and Sid learns that he isn't as much of a screw up as his family think he is. As well as all this there's the usual malarkey with Scat the squirrel desperately trying to bury his acorn.

As you can imagine this is a lot to cover in under 90 minutes and to me Continental Drift reeks of the flogging of a dead horse despite some clever touches. I don't think anyone, who is at least under eight, really needed yet another Ice Age film and Continental Drift seems to be drinking the well dry with plenty of pointless subplots and stunt casting. Said stunt casting includes R&B stars Nicki Minaj and Drake popping up as two of Manny's daughters friends I'm not sure if these names bought any customers to see the film especially for them however I'm wondering the point of paying two such high profile stars for voicing very minor characters. Thankfully the main voice cast are still good at their jobs while Dinklage adds that little bit of eccentricity and Nick Frost is also good in his minor role as Captain Gutt's comic side kick however as much as I love Wanda Sykes her wise-cracking nature doesn't fit with the character she has been asked to play. As far as the plot goes there's far too much of it and I feel the pirate stuff was also a little bit rushed as were the stories involving the other mammoths which I feel that I didn't really need. I'm also sure I've heard and seen all these messages in previous animated films where they were said and done better plus probably spending a lot less money than the team behind Continental Drift did. I do appreciate that I'm not the target market here and I do think there's a lot more enjoyment to be have if you're under eight but I've still seen smarter films for that age group that I enjoyed just as much as they would've done. Ultimately I can't help but see this as a pure money making venture, rather like the fourth Shrek film, as this is a franchise that long outstayed its welcome but one that it seems looks set to continue as this film as already made a shed load of cash.

Verdict: Some nice comic touches plus a reliable voice cast mean that Continental Drift is passable plus it will appeal to its target market but I feel that it exists purely to make money rather than to bring any particular kind of entertainment so for that reason it gets 5.5/10

Review No.160: Ted

I would say that Seth MacFarlane is a fairly polarising figure there are some that will hear no wrong said about the creator of Family Guy while others find his creations tacky and puerile. I feel I sit somewhere in the middle as I was a fan of the early Family Guy series as well as American Dad which I personally think is a better all-round show however I do think that sometimes he puts jokes ahead of plot structure not a bad thing when you're making a twenty minute cartoon but it's a little different when crafting a 90 plus minute film. I say this of course because MacFarlane has now made his big screen debut with Ted in which, as well as directing and co-writing, he lends his voice to Ted a toy bear initially given to eight year old John Bennett who wished that he was his real friend a wish that came true bringing notoriety to both Ted and the Bennett family. Years later we find John at 35, now played by Mark Wahlberg, living with Mila Kunis' Lori his girlfriend of four years as well as Ted who has now grown up to be a drug-taking foul-mouthed layabout who constantly wants to drag John down to his level. Lori feels that Ted is keeping John from being a proper grown up as he still works a dead-end job, in a car rental service, and has to have his childhood toy in bed with him whenever there is a thunderstorm. After an incident in their apartment, which is funnier if you see it first hand, John forces Ted to move out but still sees him every day which brings his relationship with Lori to its tipping point which is not helped by the fact that her sleazy boss Rex is constantly hitting on her. After a lot of jokes MacFarlane seems to want to add a little bit of plot so slides in a story about Giovanni Ribisi's creepy father and his son who want to buy Ted from John but won't take no for an answer.

There's no denying that Ted is absolutely hilarious and if you love Family Guy then I would recommend you see this immediately as it couples expletives with plenty of pop culture references though I think watching Flash Gordon before you see this film would be a good idea to get about ten of the jokes. As I mentioned MacFarlane's never been one for story structure and it shows here as the various plot strands such as Rex's flirtation with Lori and Giovanni Ribisi's pursuit of Ted are given very little time over the bromance between Wahlberg and his bear. This is of little concern early on however the jokes peter out in the last twenty minutes or so and do expose some of the film's shortcomings such as the fact that the central idea about a foul-mouthed children's toy can be stretched too far. Wahlberg is great in the lead, and today seems much more comfortable in a comic role than he did in the woeful Contraband, he and MacFarlane have a natural chemistry which is easy to enjoy as well as being essential to the smooth running of the film. Wahlberg captures this middle-aged man who still refuses to grow up and blames most of his issues on the fact that he has a teddy bear that he helped bring to life it is this theme that gives the film its much needed emotional edge which stops it from being just another offensive comedy. Mila Kunis is also perfectly cast in her role and is given a strong female character rather than one who just puts up with her boyfriend's odd situation it's also clear that MacFarlane knows how to write for her, she does voice Meg in Family Guy after all, which makes her seem natural. Giovanni Ribisi and Joel McHale make the most of their roles the latter doing his usual slimeball routine to play Rex however both just act as plot devices however some hilarious cameos do light up certain scenes. Ted is certainly one of the funniest films of the year and MacFarlane has cemented himself as someone who can also do feature films however I still have the issue that I feel he puts jokes over plot structure but then I don't think I care that much when a film makes me laugh as much as this did.

Verdict: Possibly the funniest film of the year so far however one that cares little for most of its plot strands MacFarlane is on form here making the most of his talented comic leads creating a movie with emotional core if not one that is evenly balanced so for those reasons I will give Ted 7.5/10

Review No.159: The Athlete

Damn those flipping Olympic Games. As a result it seems that a number of various athletic related documentaries and dramas, some of which that have been on the shelf for a while, are being released if only briefly. After the already reviewed Town of Runners we have The Athlete once again focusing on Ethiopia but this time on arguably their most famous Olympian marathon runner Abebe Bikila who made his name by running barefoot at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew's film has an odd mix of archive footage of Bikila's most famous moments and actors reconstructing the latter stages of his life. The film focuses in on Bikila trying to train up to run the marathon at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich after he feels he embarrassed himself and his country at the 1968 games in Mexico City. As we learn through flashback Bikila won the marathon in Rome before breaking his own record four years later in Tokyo with hopes to do the same in Munich however his friends are sceptical given his age and his record. The film then recounts the tragic car accident that left him as a paraplegic and that complete depression he suffered after this with him only breaking through this barrier by taking up archery. Though Bikila thought about running marathons in his wheelchair instead he went to Munich where he was honoured before taking up his friend's idea of competing in a sledging contest for people with impairments such as his. This sledging scene is one of the film's final pieces and for me was definitely the most involving as we saw that this had been filmed for a previous documentary but in this film we see he and his friends watching the film. Sadly Bikila died three years after his accident but his funeral, which we also see footage of, was attended by thousands of his countrymen so in a way this was sort of a celebration of his life.

Abebe Bikila is obviously a fairly famous figure in the world of athletics but I personally had never heard of him until this film where I learnt what a courageous person he was and how he was taken from us far too soon. The best bits of the film for me were watching the archive footage of Bikila's various marathons that were narrated by co-director Rasselas Lawkew, who also portrayed Bikila in the film, as this really gives you a picture of what the man was like. I feel that Lawkew and Frankel probably had enough of this footage to combine it with some talking heads and make a straight documentary as for me the dramatic scenes are what really let down The Athlete. Lawkew is seemingly better behind the camera as he is in front of it as I don't really think he gives justice to the character of Bikila and I felt he didn't really convey enough emotion in the scenes just after his accident where he is completely depressed. None of the supporting players really convince either and the scripted parts of the film sometimes seem almost comical, such as the scene in the bar where Bikila is threatened by some young soldiers who don't believe he should be celebrated in the way that he has been, maybe these are created from stories that have been written but for me I would've much preferred just to hear Bikila's story told by those who knew him best. The Athlete is definitely a film of two halves one is a captivating documentary about a great man who had a passion for his sport while the other is a poorly acted biopic with little merit other than to fill the gaps of the narrative where no archive footage is available. I'm just hoping there's better to come from the Olympics output, and indeed I promise at least one more athletic documentary before the week is through, as The Athlete for me fell at about the fourth hurdle.

Verdict: The Athlete is at its best when showing us archive footage of Bikila's achievements however the dramatic portion of the film falls flat therefore I will be fair and give it half marks so therefore it receives 5/10