Review No.36: Deviation

It seems that I have already got a little ahead of myself as my plan to be on 34 films by the end of the month seems to have increased by two. That's thanks in part to a couple of films going into cinemas one week and then coming straight to DVD and that is true of Deviation. The film comes from a third time director who has pulled off a bit of a coup in getting a familiar actor to play the lead role of an escaped mental patient who kidnaps a young nurse to try and evade the cops it's just a shame that that actor happens to be Danny Dyer. Yes Dyer plays Frank Norton an escapee from Broadmoor who kidnaps Amber for no apparent reason when he could've just stolen her car and left her by the roadside. Frank is a nutcase who has been arrested for killing three young girls who in his own words all deserved it because they teased him, made them spend money on them and then didn't have sex with him as you can see he is a charming individual. Frank and Amber just essentially drive around in the space of less than a day while he tries to justify his personality and she tries to get help something she constantly fails to do because at the end of the day she is just a bit of an idiot. At every escape attempt Frank seemingly kills somebody else but keeps Amber alive for reasons that only seem obvious to the characters and the film-makers.

I think anybody who has seen Danny Dyer act in anything knows that he really doesn't have that much range and he is it at his best when playing a sidekick dodgy dealer type role. Here he is essentially on screen throughout the piece in what is for the most part a two-hander alongside the competent yet bland Anna Walton as Amber. The problem with Frank is that we never know if he understands his actions is he an intelligent criminal or a childlike nutcase? At first look he seems to be the latter as his personality keeps changing in his interactions with Amber and one of his fellow former inmates. Though later on Frank meets someone who has admired his work including his poetry and his artwork which apparently was quite plentiful as it was enough to justify a whole exhibition. Now Danny Dyer is a lot of things but I fail to believe him as someone who has created a whole gallery's worth of art. For me the entire piece makes little to no sense, why does Frank value Amber's life so much? Things just don't add up and the final attempt to explain Frank's attraction to Amber comes too little too late for me. The lesson is if you want a decent lead performance in your film then the last person to rely on is Danny Dyer.

Verdict: A Danny Dyer film in which he is in every scene with an incomprehensible plot only gets a measily 2/10

Review No.35: One for the Money

After watching a couple of low rent titles I was after something with a big Hollywood star that wasn't too taxing and I found that and so much more in One for the Money. After watching this film I find it completely surprising that Katherine Heigl has become as popular as she has and I'd give the credit to Judd Apatow for casting her in Knocked Up despite the fact that she has since knocked her character in that movie by saying that she found it patronising. Though she has headlined movies before they have always had a familiar male co-star to stand alongside her on the poster be it Ashton Kutcher, James Marsden or Gerard Butler however here she is all on her own. She plays Stephanie Plum an out-of-work lingerie saleswoman who gets a job at her cousin's acting as a bail bondsman. Though her cousin only wants her to track down low maintenance cases she blackmails him into tracking down Joe Morelli a corrupt cop who she once ran down with a car after he tricked her into losing her viginity. Things turn into a knockabout comedy when Morelli finds out that Stephanie is out to get him and the two play a cat and mouse game which inevitably sees her getting naked at one point and in her bra later on. Obviously because Morelli is the romantic interest he isn't the real bad guy and Stephanie basically turns into a copper to track down the real bad guy on the way learning how to shoot in a gun in the hilarious shooting sequence as well as befriending a pair of prostitutes one of them played by The View's Sherri Shephard.

While I've got no problem as Heigl as part of an ensemble she's no lead actress in her own right and this isn't a romcom where both parties are on an equal footing. Jason O'Mara as Morelli does gruff quite well but his part is just popping up occssionally surprising Stephanie and then going on his way again. In fact I thought Stephanie was better off with her mentor Ranger, played by Rescue Me's Daniel Sunjata, a strong and comforting pair of hands who had more chemistry with Heigl than O'Mara. Star power is provided by John Leguizamo and Debbie Reynolds who have a couple of scenes each while Shephard's role is that of sassy informant something that works for her quite well. There was nothing particularly wrong with One for the Money it was slickly produced and well shot but I never laughed once or believed that these two could ever be a couple. It reminded me of a mix of two awful films from 2010 one was the Godawful The Bounty Hunter while the other was Killers which starred Miss Heigl in the leading role. It just left me thinking that Heigl isn't a strong presence and I didn't once believe that she would go through what Stephanie did plus her New Jersey accent kept slipping when she had to engage in scenes full of action. The scary thing is that One for the Money is adapted from the first in a series of books and I'm guessing if this does well at the box office then there could be two more films with Heigl in the lead which is a terrifying prospect.

Verdict: A romantic, action, comedy hybrid that left me cold yet was well produced and not completly terrible gets a generous 3.5/10

Review No.34: A Useful Life

In trying to do complete this project I fully expected along the way to come across some unusual films and A Useful Life is a prime example. The film focuses on Jorge a cinephile who has been working at the same Uruguayan arthouse cinema for the last twenty years compiling the programmes and dubbing over the foreign films that aren't subtitled. During his time working at the cinema he also falls for lawyer Paola also a cinema fan but someone who isn't interested in Jorge outside him giving her free tickets. When the cinema shuts its doors Jorge is without a job for the first time in twenty-five years so the second half of the film is all about him trying to find a purpose in life and thinking that purpose lies with Paola. He gives an improtu talk at the law school where he thinks she will be before getting his hair-trimmed to impress her and then there's the all-important moment to end the film but I will spoil it for the two people who this film probably appeals to.

It is clear that director Federico Veiroj has a love of old cinema as this black and white piece is shot in a way that emphasises Montevideo's filmic landscape and the music used in the second half of the film feels very old school and fitting for Jorge's pursuit of Paola. It is after the cinema is shut that the film becomes a little more engaging but at just over an hour long there's hardly room for character development or anything else for that matter. The film's first half, centring around the cinema itself, feels stuffy and almost as if Veiroj is trying to impress us with his knowledge of Icelandic film and other obscurities. As a fan of different types of cinema I very much enjoyed parts of A Useful Life especially the lead performance from Jorge Jellinek whose mannerisms and facial expressions were reminiscent of silent comedians such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. The fact that he plays the entire film with a completely straight face is a testament to his skill especially seeing as this his debut film. I just felt that overall there was too many conversations about cinema that would alienate casual fans and at a just 63 minutes it is far too short to invest any real time in our central protagonists.

Verdict: A love-letter to old cinema that has a sweet central performance but one that is packed with obscure references and that is far too short I wish I could give it more but I can only stretch to 6/10

Review No.33: Best Laid Plans

It's interesting when film-makers try and adapt classic literature into a modern setting for example when Clueless took Jane Austen's Emma and placed in California or making Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew into 10 Things I Hate About You. However Best Laid Plans, an adaptation of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, doesn't involve a group of pretty American teens but instead is a sub-Guy Ritchie British crime flick. The film stars Stephen Graham as Danny a fast-talking Scouser who gets in trouble with the local mobsters after he steals a lot of drugs and fails to give them back any money. The biggest parallel between this and Of Mice and Men is the relationship between the charismatic Danny and the slow-thinking but large of build Joseph which bares resembles that between George and Lennie in Steinbeck's text. To make up for his debts the gangsters get Danny to use Joseph in a number of underground cage fights and with the money Danny buys more drugs and begins a relationship with a prostitute despite promising Joseph that the two would relocate to island in a camper van. There is also a subplot involving Joseph's awkward romance with a similarly mentally disabled woman Isabel, played by Maxine Peake, the relationship with her could see Joseph's rise above the gutter but Danny is suspicious of her parents' motives.

The success of Best Laid Plans can be seen in it's quieter moments between Joseph and Danny as the mis-matched pair try and navigate life the best way they can. Stephen Graham is a brilliant actor and the character of Danny is something that he can get his teeth into while Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje is an intimidating presence, he is best known for playing Lost's Mr Eko, so it is interesting to see him play a character who isn't violent but rather protective. Maxine Peake is also predictably excellent as the sweet and charming Isobel but aside from that this feels a little generic. The scenes involving the cage fighting and the characters of the gangsters could be taken out of any film post Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and are predictably generic. Personally I also thought that Danny's relationship with the prostitute Jill progressed a little too quickly for my liking and the end to this plot arc didn't feel right. The ending was a little different from Of Mice and Men but this wasn't a good thing and overall the clever aspects of the plot were outweighed by the fact that this film was trying to conform to a genre that felt outdated several years ago.

Verdict: Three strong performances along cannot save a film that feels like another entry in the long list of sub-par British gangster films so I will award it 5/10

Review No.32: Goon

It's interesting the preconceptions you form before watching a film for example take Goon from the poster which sees Seann William Scott smiling with a mouth full of bloody teeth from this I imagined a film that saw Stifler playing ice hockey for 90 minutes but how wrong I was. Though I've seen William Scott play slightly different roles in Southland Tales and Stark Raving Mad for the majority of the past thirteen years he's been portraying the same character that he did in 1999's American Pie. I can safely say that in Goon we see Scott give his best performance ever as Doug a slightly slow bouncer who finds a career as an ice hockey player who can take a beating. After protecting his friend, who hosts a low-rent hockey show, he catches the eye of a local manager but soon is drafted to the big time playing for the Halifax Highlanders. In his role as an enforcer he soon becomes a team favourite however his team-mate and flatmate Xavier LaFlamme isn't happy with this popularity seeing Doug as a thug or a goon rather than a proper ice hockey player. It is this theme that plays throughout the film as Doug's role as an enforcer is more about him beating up the other team players that is about the finesse that Xavier has and Doug also fails to gain the approval of his parents. In addition there is a romantic subplot featuring Doug falling for Alison Pill's Eva a hockey fan who has a boyfriend but is strangely attracted to his aggressive nature.

I have to say Goon is a strange mix of sports film, comedy and character-led drama with Seann William Scott making the most of a slightly underwritten character. I thought Scott was certainly the standout in this film fleshing out the role of Doug into someone who has always been seen as second best but is trying to make something out of his life with the skill set that he has been given. His romance with Eva is certainly the sweetest thing about this very violent film and where he tells her that he has a major crush on her you can't help but smile. As well as the violence, which isn't that excessive given the subject manner, to me I found there was an overuse of bad language especially from Jay Baruchel's character but then along with Judd Apatow regular Evan Goldberg he did write the script so he obviously wanted to swear a lot here. Apparently this is based on a true story but obviously it wasn't that interesting as I felt the film ended too soon and it really seemed that Baruchel and Golberg wanted to trick the audience into thinking there was more left but I never felt that there was any resolution to Doug's inner turmoil which was the point of the film in the first place.

Verdict: A great performance from Scott and a sweet romantic subplot gives this violent and foul-mouthed film some heart however it ends too quickly so I'll give it 6.5/10

Review No.31: J. Edgar

Usually appearing in a biopic is a key to Oscar success and usually you're guaranteed at least a nomination however this year it seems that in the actor category the Academy Awards have bucked that trend with only Brad Pitt nominated for playing a real-life character. That's bad news then for Leo DiCaprio who was hoping to get another Oscar nod for his turn as infamous FBI head honcho J Edgar Hoover in a film directed by Academy favourite Clint Eastwood however that wasn't to be. The film is split into two parts one in which Hoover is narrating his autobiography to Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl and the other which follows his ascension to the position and his relationship with his deputy Clyde Tolson. The suggestion is made throughout that Hoover and Tolson are lovers but despite a declaration of love their relationship never blossoms mainly due to Edgar's mother, a great turn from Judi Dench, who tells him that she'd rather have a dead son than a gay one. The other recurring theme is that of Hoover's inflated ego and his belief that he had been involved in a lot more arrests than he actually had been so when Tolson confronts him towards the end of the film our belief in the story that Edgar has been narrating changes. The main case featured is of the kidnapping and later death of the Lindbergh baby and Hoover's involvement in that investigation but once again his personal life clouds his judgment.

A lot of what's good about J. Edgar can be found in its actors namely DiCaprio who over the past few years has proved himself to be a reliable actor and his performance here is reminiscent of the one he gave in The Aviator. Equally as impressive is Arnie Hammer who is known to most as the twins in The Social Network here he only has to worry about playing one character and he seems more comfortable playing the unspoken relationship between Hoover and Tolsen. If anybody was going to get an Oscar nod I feel it was Judi Dench her Mrs Hoover is a mixture of the mother from The Manchurian Candidate and Lady MacBeth and it is the only character that I have seen her play recently that has any substance to it. Unfortunately the negatives outweigh the positives as Eastwood's direction here seems to be both long-winded and a little big short-sighted. There are only a couple of references to Hoover's penchant for dressing in women's clothes and I also found this very episodic rather than entertaining. Another point of note is the make-up as in the final scenes both DiCaprio and Hammer don a large amount of old-man prosthetics and neither looks particularly convincing. It's a shame that this film wasn't nominated for any awards but after watching it I'm not that surprised that it hasn't.

Verdict: Some brilliant performances are marred by poor direction and shoddy make-up so at the most I can give this 6/10

Review No.30: The Muppets

OK after a family film that I hadn't connected with to one that I hoped would be excellent seeing as its the big screen return for The Muppets. Although it's sort of standard for everybody to say their favourite Muppet Movie is A Christmas Carol for me it's always been Muppets Take Manhattan due to its knowing references and snappy musical numbers. Thankfully this film, simply titled The Muppets, has all that and more and focuses on brothers Walter and Gary the former of whom is a Muppet and the latter who is played by Jason Segal the man responsible for getting this latest Muppet film off the ground. When Walter, Gary and Gary's girlfriend Mary played by Amy Adams journey to L.A. and tour The Muppet Studios Walter finds out that Chris Cooper's Tex Richman plans to buy The Muppet Theatre, knock it down and drill for oil. The only way to save it is to get The Muppet gang back together and put on a show that will raise the required $10 Million to get the theatre back. Kermit rounds up The Muppets but has trouble getting Miss Piggy on board as she is now living in Paris and working for Vogue Magazine in scenes reminiscent of those in The Devil Wears Prada. Of course the highlight of the film is the show itself featuring old school songs such as Rainbow Connection, celebrity cameos from the likes of Jack Black and Selena Gomez and tie-ins to the main plot involving whether Walter considers himself to be a Man or a Muppet.

And it's this question that forms the backbone of The Muppets because even though the reconciliation of the group is what everybody is going to the film to see I certainly got quickly involved in Walter's story. Indeed by his own opening monologue I felt more sympathy for him than I ever did for the kid in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close so maybe this should've got a Best Picture nod instead. Both Jason Segal's script and his performance as Gary shows that he has a great love of The Muppets and a respect for the tradition however I never really took to Amy Adams' Mary who was an odd breed of smiles and resentment. Chris Cooper was excellent as the villain especially when he started rapping while Brett McKenzie's songs were amazing and more than deserve the Oscar nod that they have been given. The only problem for me was the overuse of knowing looks to camera and a cavalcade of in-jokes which sort of took away from the old school charm of The Muppets. But overall this was a charming slice of nostalgia but one that doesn't alienate younger viewers who just want to see chickens singing Cee-Lo Green songs.

Verdict: I was always going to love this film but I didn't expect it to be as near-perfect as this so I'm going to give it an impressive 8.5/10

Review No.29: A Monster in Paris

So a week removed from half term seems like an appropriate time to review two children/family films. First up is one that didn't really have that much mainstream publicity but in actuality is a redubbed version of  French animated film released last year. A Monster in Paris, or Un Monstre a Paris if you're a French sympathiser, sees Vanessa Paradis reprise her role as Lucille a cabaret singer who finds fame when she is accompanied by a giant flea who was turned into a monster following an accident with some fertilizer. This accident is caused by Lucille's would-be-love-interest lorry driver Raoul and his friend projectionist Emile who in turn is in love with fellow cinema-worker Maud. All these stories come to a head when the investigation is headed by police chief Maynot someone who also has his eyes on Lucille and is intent on getting the monster. The love triangle, Emile's feelings for Maud and the monster's true identity are all bought out in a final battle set against The Eiffel Tower.

I hate to describe anything as blah but that's sort of how I felt after watching A Monster in Paris. The opening featuring old film reel and Emile's job as a projectionist were all handled well but once the roguish Raoul was bought into the story things sort of went a bit downhill until the final third of the film. The final set piece was handled well and to me evoked memories of Hitchock's The 39 Steps and King Kong with the plot as a whole also owing a debt to Little Shop of Horrors. If I was a fan of anything in this film it had to be the musical sequences handled extremely well by Paradis whose voice performance is the best thing about Bibo Bergeron's film. I'm sure if I were the target audience for this film, which played in 3D in cinemas, then I would probably enjoy the large insects and the obvious plot points but I'm afraid I'm just an old cynic.

Verdict: A film I found just OK I'll give a bigger score to just because I think it probably appealed to its target group so it seems about right to give it 6/10

Review No.28: The Grey

Isn't that film just Liam Neeson punching a wolf in the face for two hours? That was my friend's reaction when we were mentioning The Grey in conversation the other week and at that time that's what I thought it was as well. Looking at the posters and the trailer it seemed to be almost Taken goes Arctic but in fact it is more of a survival film think Alive with less cannibalism and more Arctic wolves. In the opening scenes of The Grey we meet Neeson's John Ottway a man who is paid to keep the wolves at bay while others work on an Alaskan oil rig. In flashbacks we see that Ottway has had some troubles with his wife and it seems now that he is trying to commit suicide but ultimately feels he can't go through with it and is back on the plane home with the rest of the men. However disaster strikes and the plane plummets down with only a few survivors left it us up to Ottway to lead the charge and help the less experienced navigate their way through the snowy landscape in hope of finding some kind of rescue. Anybody who has seen any film like this before knows what to expect there's in-fighting, unexpected deaths and scenes in which the survivors gather round a campfire and say what they're going to do when they get home. The main threat though is a pack of wolves that are constantly on the tail of the men as they edge closer and closer to possible shelter it seems that this pack aren't too happy with these men infringing on their territory.

The Grey is an interesting film in so much as I feel I've seen it's like before but thanks to Neeson's gripping lead performance it keeps you watching. The theme of the film seems to be what are these men living for? Some like Dermot Mulroney's Talget have got family to get back to while others like Frank Gillo's Diaz just don't want to die without one more shag. Neeson though is a man torn and director Joe Carnahan keeps you guessing to what it is that happened between Ottway and his wife. Carnahan is also good at presenting the wolves as a constant threat even when they aren't seen on screen the men's fear of them is enough to keep you guessing when they'll strike next. One thing that I do like is that there are no scenes of mutiny here and while Diaz bitches and moans from time to time you never think that he will usurp Ottway's authority. On the negative side I did feel a bit weary a times as the scenes of the men constantly making their way through the snow were a little boring but I suppose there's nothing else that could've been done to further the plot though things to get a bit repetitive at times that's only because this does feel fairly realistic. I have to say this was a pleasant surprise of a film but don't fear because Neeson does get to at least wrestle a wolf if not punch one directly in the face.

Verdict: A surprisingly gripping disaster film with a really engaging lead performance from Neeson I'll give this one a 7/10

Review No.27: Jack and Jill

There is a saying how the mighty have fallen which decades ago didn't seem to apply to many actors because how could legends like Al Pacino and Robert De Niro fall that far? But come 2011 we see Raging Bull himself in ensemble romcom disaster New Year's Eve and then The Godfather fall even further by playing a romantic interest for Adam Sandler in a dress. Jack and Jill sees Sandler take both of the titular roles as twins the man who is an LA-based arrogant scriptwriter and partner in an ad agency while the latter is a nasally-voiced talkative woman who has lived in the Bronx all her life but who wants to be spend more time with her. The way the two are presented it is Jill who is the nightmare because she is so in your face while Jack is the rational one despite him spending a lot of time at work and not noticing that as he is married to Katie Holmes he can have sex with her as many times as he wants. When Jack discovers that Dunkin' Donuts want Al Pacino for a new commercial he decides to go after him in order to save his company. Predictably Pacino is drawn to the uncomplicated nature of Jill and wants to romance her despite her being completely disinterested in her and the whole thing comes to a head when Jack tries to whore his sister to the actor in order for him to seal the deal.

There is an interesting film somewhere in Jack and Jill featuring a once great actor who is torn between starring in theatre or selling out to do a commercial. In fact Pacino's career has been on a large downward spiral for years and this sort of Curb Your Enthusiasm type vehicle would be something to get more public interest in him. However Pacino, the best thing about the movie, is simply a subplot and a way for Jack to realise how much he needs Jill and how horrible he is to her. Jill really isn't that terrible she is just a bit annoying and the worst thing about her is the nasly New York twang which Sandler gives to her. Like most of his male characters Sandler's Jack is a man who puts his career before his family and has to go through a whole film to realise this. Poor old Katie Holmes meanwhile doesn't do much more than smile which probably is an accurate portrayal to her actual marriage to Tom Cruise. There's also no mention why the couple's adopted Indian child likes to cover himself in tape or why their Mexican gardener makes a lot of inappropriate racist jokes. But the biggest question is why Pacino agreed to appear in a bit part role in a film which could've be an interesting portrayal of his own fall from grace. In the last scene Pacino tells Jack to burn the whole thing and to be fair he could've given that advice to all those involved in this dreadful film.

Verdict: Al Pacino should be ashamed about being the best thing in this dreadful movie but at least earns it a more than deserved 2/10

Review No.26: Red Dog

It's odd sometimes how patterns emerge in the titles of these films with the next film being the third in a row with a colour in the title and the second with red featuring prominently however Red Dog is neither a British Chiller or a Chinese sex film but instead a based-on-a-true-story Australian film. We open on the Australian outback as Thomas a trucker pulls into a bar for a drink and sees that a man in the back is trying to shoot a dog but can't bring himself to do this. Thomas is then told that Red Dog is a popular part of the community and one by one they tell him what Red Dog means to them from a confident to a matchmaker to a life-saver he has made a difference in all their lives. However his eventual master becomes John an American and the dog is instrumental in him securing a romance with the local beauty Nancy. As the story goes on there is tragedy and heartbreak with Red Dog becoming famous as he goes on a search across the country before he returns to the community that he called home.

At first I found it hard to engage with Red Dog but as it went on I was won over by the ensemble cast's earnest performances and the camaraderie that existed within the small mining community in which they lived. Obviously a lot of the enjoyment of the film is down to Koko as the titular animal and he does a great job of portraying the emotions that we are meant to believe Red Dog is feeling. There are also some lovely understated performances from Josh Lucas and Rachael Taylor as John and Nancy as well as an over-the-top one from John Batchelor as the romantic Peeto however I feel the bigger names among the cast such as Noah Taylor and Keisha Castle-Hughes are wasted especially the latter who basically has to smile and hold babies. The cinematography by Geoffrey Hall perfectly captures the American bush and the friendship that develops between these seemingly disparate people thanks to Red Dog. Even though initially I was sceptical of the film by the end I was a bit emotional which I suppose meant that it did it job effectively either that or I'm a big softy.

Verdict: Not particularly original but a lovely little story about the dog that could so it seems appropriate to award it 6/10

Review No.25: Red Light Revolution

So here we are one eighth of the way to achieving my goal of watching 200 films released this year and the next film is the first cinema release of the year to come to DVD. It's hardly surprising that Red Light Revolution has taken this quick to come to DVD as it hardly made a dent at the box office and in fact struggled to get a distributor a fact made evident by the director's introduction explaining how the distributors got on board and thanking me for renting the film. In addition to being the first DVD of this journey it is also the first subtitled film taking place as it does in China and focusing on one of life's eternal losers Shunzi who finds himself jobless and wifeless in one eventful afternoon. Going back to live with his parents he then ends up working selling weight loss drinks a thankless job made better by his friendship with pretty co-worker Lilli. After running into an old school friend Shunzi is convinced to buy a lot of adult stock and set up a sex shop thanks to a crazy supplier and Lilli who provides him with her grandmother's old shop. Shunzi fights it hard to set up shop but he gets a few regular customers however the film-maker then seemingly skips some character progression because it seems that the sex shop has livened up the neighbourhood so when the villainous market inspector comes around they rally round to help Shunzi save the shop.

The one positive thing to come out of Red Light Revolution is Jun Zhao who is able to portray this loveable loser thanks in no part to his overweight frame and physical expressions. His constantly frustrated expression adds itself well to Shunzi's journey but it may just be that the actor is frustrated over this unequal script. The problem with the film is that it never knows what it wants to be there is a lot of broad comedy such as when Shunzi and Lilli play with a box of dildos or the young virgin who is nervously frequenting the shop. On the other hand writer/director Sam Voutas wants this to be a study of a man who has always been trampled on by life and the last twenty minutes is fairly dark until we find out how Shunzi is able to turn his life around. This uneven tone means that I could never really fully enjoy the film but if Voutas had made this a broad comedy film then I may have invested more in as there were a few laughs in there by they were counterbalanced by an uneven tone seemingly suggesting that he never really knew what sort of film he wanted to make.

Verdict: A few laughs and an enjoyable central performance is outshone by a lack of focus in the writing and directing so I can only give it 4.5

Review No.24: The Woman in Black

Though I sort of knew it was half term it didn't strike me till I got to my local multiplex and saw the hordes of families and unescorted teens littering the entrance way. I did think though that they'd be going to see something more family appropriate and not my choice of the creepy chiller The Woman in Black. How wrong I was it seems that a lot of families and teens had decided to see this purely because it had Harry Potter in it while in fact this film only made the 12A certificate after the distributors agreed to cut down some scenes and the BBFC then dropped their original 15 rating presumably so more money could be made. The film itself sees Radcliffe play Arthur Kipps a widower with a four year old son who is tasked with handling the final affairs of Alice Drablow including dealing with the property of Eel Marsh House. When Kipps travels to the small town where the house is located he gets a frosty reception from the locals who try to get him to leave a soon as possible but its not until he spends the night at Eel Marsh House that he finds out why.

Any more than that I fear would spoil the story but what spoilt it for me more was the constant interruption from the young audience whether it be light pollution emanating from their mobile phones or the slurping of drinks and crunching of popcorn. I do think that the BBFC should've kept the rating at a 15 not because of anything gory, kids today are desensitised to a lot of graphic images, but because this film relies on moments of silence and character development in order to get its thrills however the young generation has no patience and got bored very easily. As for the film itself it was an enjoyable low-key chiller which really benefited from its small town setting casting Kipps as the outsider and the townsfolk as a judgmental bunch. In the lead Radcliffe is better than I expected but I feel he was miscast as a widower of four years as despite a small bit of stubble he still looks very young though on the positive side I never felt like I was watching that kid who played Harry Potter. There is also a nice little performance from Janet McTeer as a mother who lost her son but has never got over it and this fits in with the rest of the story. Talking of the story Jane Goldman, wife of Jonathan Ross and scribe of Stardust, does a good job with the script making us wait for those jumpy moments however I never really found myself scared the gathered masses in the cinema did so possibly the only plus point of the whole cinema experience was gauging a response from this young audience. However though I really never got into the film which wasn't a fault of those on and behind camera but rather of those sitting in the general vicinity of my cinema seat.

Verdict: For the film a solid 7 out of 10 for an old-school horror film but 0.5 for the cinema-going experience as a whole.

Review No.23: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

As I arrived for my free preview screening of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel I thought there wouldn't be many people out and about on this cold Sunday morning but how wrong I was. Getting to my local Odeon I found a large queue outside the cinema of mainly more mature customers waiting to get in which isn't surprising seeing as the film is about characters in the latter stages of their life. The film is almost like The Expendables of seasoned British thespians with a cast including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton and Tom Wilkinson. The first scene we see is of Dench's widow Evelyn who is trying to sort out her internet provider now her husband has passed away as he left with a mountain of debt she has to move out of their home. Also suffering with money woes are Nighy and Wilton's married couple who invested all their money in their daughter's internet company and are still waiting to see the money. Celia Imrie plays a grandmother who wants to fly her wings while Ronald Pickup's Norman is still on the lookout for love. All of them are tempted to move away and find out about a luxury resort for people in their autumn years the only catch is that it is located in India. Wilkinson is also tempted by this offer as he grew up in India and has a secret that he's never told anyone and finally there's Maggie Smith's Muriel who is going to India for a different reason as she can get her hip operated on a lot quicker. They find out that the Marigold Hotel isn't what they thought as owner Sonny, Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel, is still desperately trying to renovate the establishment left to him by his late father. During their stay some of the characters find the joy they've been missing while others realise that it is time for the end of certain things and the affect that these residents have on Sunny is also a positive one as he makes a decision about his own future.

I can appreciate that this sort of film isn't for everyone and if you've already switched off during the plot synopsis then you'll have no interest in seeing this but I'm glad I saw it as I probably wouldn't have had it not been free. The best thing here is the performances but that's to be expected with the crop of acting talent available and standouts for me were Dench as the widow who is having to stand on her own two feet for the first time and Wilkinson a man who's been trapped by a secret which he is trying to put right with his return to India. Maggie Smith also does well with her woman who at the start is presented as a bit of a racist but as time goes on learns to appreciate the similarities between those she meets and her own life. But with five or six plotlines going on at once some characters get left in the shuffle with Imrie and Pickup getting the least screentime and Wilton being disserved with playing the pessimistic moaning woman a similar part to the one she portrayed in Calendar Girls. However within the script there is enough laughter and some tears to justify the moments when characters talk like no ordinary person would ever speak. John Madden's direction also picks up on the tourist culture of India and will probably see a lot more people think about holidaying in that area if they have enough cash. The transposition between old India and modern India is a theme here as is the question have you ever really lived even if you've grown old? This was a lovely old-fashioned film with a good story and some fine performances despite it being cheesy as well as slightly predictable it kept me smiling throughout as well as keeping my attention which a lot of films fail to do these days.

Verdict: While this isn't everybody's cup of English Breakfast Tea I personally found it engaging, well-acted and engaging so personally I'll award it a 7/10

Review No.22: Shame

So last week I reviewed A Dangerous Method a film in which Michael Fassbender goes through a lot of moral dilemmas having rough sex along the way. The film I saw last night, again at the brilliant Light House in Wolverhampton, was Shame a film in which Michael Fassbender goes through a lot of moral dilemmas having a multitude of sex along the way. Fassbender plays Brandon who is a sex addict although that word is never uttered we can see it from the very start due to his frequent use of internet porn and his hiring of hookers. Into his life comes his sister Sissy an equally troubled character who we are led to believe tried to harm herself several times and who gets into unfulfilling relationships with inappropriate men. The majority of the film looks at Brandon's compulsive disorder, his disjointed relationship with his sister and his brief fling with co-worker Marianne through these encounters we see Brandon learn how others see him and also why he needs to act in the way he does.

I have to say I loved almost everything about Shame and a lot of that has to do with the teaming of Fassbender and director Steve McQueen who worked together before on Hunger. As McQueen is a former artist he has a different eye for things than a standard director and the way Brandon's apartment looks is as important as what the characters say. In fact there aren't many words uttered in the first ten minutes just far too many shots of Fassbender's penis, but ladies might disagree, as he wanders through the streets of New York looking for his next lay. Fassbender is a powerful screen presence and for me this is his best performance since Hunger here his brooding eyes and quiet confidence reminded me a lot of Christian Bale in American Psycho. He is able to convey Brandon's personality without saying anything with his eyes doing most of the talking but I'm not discounting the script by McQueen and Abi Morgan the latter making up for The Iron Lady. Also worth a mention is Carey Mulligan who with this and Drive is turning into a very interesting actress and her and Fassbender make for a good duo as they make you believe the siblings may have had some sort of other relationship in the past. Mulligan also reveals her brilliant singing voice in a rendition of New York New York which is just heart-breaking and Fassbender's reaction is equally as powerful. Though not a perfect film, Shame isn't far off with every scene perfectly crafted and every shot thought about in the right way with two top notch performances this is going to take a lot of beating to knock it off my current Film of the Year perch.

Verdict: My favourite film of the year so far and it proves that McQueen and Fassbender are the perfect actor/director duo 9/10

Review No.21: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Two weeks ago when the Oscar nominations were read out there were some audible woops whenever a nomination for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was announced. The film ended with two nominations one for Best Picture and one for Best Supporting Actor for the brilliant Max Von Sydow but we'll get to him in a moment. After watching the film it's really no surprise that it was nominated for those films as it stars former Oscar winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, deals with how 9/11 affected the families of the victims and is directed by Stephen Daldry who never fails to get a film in the Best Picture nominations however poor it is. Though the film does star Hanks, Bullock along with a cavalcade of other famous faces the star of the show is fourteen year old Thomas Horn who plays Oskar Schell a boy trying to cope with the loss of his father in 9/11 and who finds a key that may unlock something that will lead to a mystery to do with his departed dad. Oskar is no ordinary boy though and as we are lead to believe suffers from a form of autism as he must bring a tambourine alongside him at all times as he visits everybody in New York with the surname Black thinking one of them will have a connection to the key. During his search he gets his grandmother's lodger, played by Von Sydow, to accompany him despite the fact that this man doesn't speak we the audience know who he is straight away. Meanwhile through flashbacks Hanks, who plays the dad, earns his pay check as we learn why Oskar is so keen to cling on to a piece of his father and what place his mother played by Bullock has to play in his search.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close proves that if you campaign hard for a film to be nominated at the Oscars it will get a Best Picture nod no matter how bad it is. The main problem with the film is that Thomas Horn is both annoying and obnoxious as Oskar a character we are supposed to sympathise with and go on a journey with. After reading some backstory on Horn it seems that this was his first film as producer Scott Rudin cast him after seeing him as a contestant on a junior edition of the game show Jeopardy. It really shows that the boy has not acted before and for a film that relies on its child actor to be the main attraction someone who has some experience with films would've been more appropriate. I feel this was also quite a hard book to adapt as anything narrated from the point of view of a child who has a slight learning difficulty is going to require a tough screenplay but once again I feel the film failed in this respect. Technically the film looks good but that's down to the work of veteran cinematographer Chris Menges, who previously worked on such classics as Kes and The Mission, who makes us see the world through Oskar's eyes whether we want to or not. As for the adult cast each of them gets to pop up from time to time and do a bit of acting whether that be John Goodman's kindly doorman or Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright as a warring married couple while even Hanks and Bullock don't have much to do. The only shining light in this cloudy picture is Von Sydow whose mute lodger and sometime companion to Oskar is the sole compelling character and one which you wish was around more. In a film full of obvious clichés and in-your-face performances it is Von Sydow who gives a subtle and well-judge turn as this very sad man trying to make amends for past sins to the extent you wish the roles were reversed so he got to talk all the time and Oskar would just shut up. Well done to Rudin, Daldy et al for the Best Picture nomination but as you can tell I really don't think this film deserves to be recognised alongside the rest of its fellow nominees.

Verdict: A great performance from Von Sydow and some good cinematography just about saves this melodramatic claptrap from being the worse film of the year so far and so for those two plus points it gets 4/10

Review No.20: Chronicle

Ever since The Blair Witch Project back in 1999 the 'found footage' style of film has been incredibly popular being used in a large amount of films from Cloverfield to the staggeringly popular Paranormal Activity films and last year's very entertaining Nordic movie Troll Hunter. Now in the same mould we have Chronicle a film largely seen from the point-of-view from high school outsider Andrew who decides on a whim to chronicle his everyday life. It seems that is everyday life is quite sad at home he is beaten by his former fire fighter father or caring for his terminally-ill mother while at school he is a loner with his only friend being his philosophy loving cousin Matt. After Matt convinces Andrew to come to a party the two of them along with high school king Steve find a mysterious hole in the ground and after they journey down they find they have special powers. From this point on I don't want to give too much away but the trailers have shown the trio bending forks and crashing cars with Andrew trying to use his new found power to seek revenge but he's held back by the rational Steve and the somewhat scared Matt. However as you can imagine things take turns for the worse but I'll leave you guessing to what they are.

I have to say that Chronicle is a very interesting film and the fact that the film is seen from the point-of-view of whoever is holding the camera is a neat little trick. So we see Andrew's lonely life where he eats his lunch on his own on the bleachers and gets beaten up regularly by the jocks meanwhile the vain Matt turns the camera on himself and the girl-obsessed Steve keeps turning away from the main action to focus on various female's assets. It's also an interesting idea to give three different high school kids these powers as it shows how they've been treated up to this point affects the way in which they use them. The effects themselves are pretty impressive but maybe the scenes where they find out what exactly they can do were where the script-writers concentrated the most on as character development was very sparse. I did find a lot of the time that Chronicle was basically using a lot of stereotypes to further the plot which is not always a bad thing in films such as this but I feel had it spent a bit more time letting us get to know Matt, Andrew and Steve this could've been more than an entertaining sci-fi film. The cast of mainly unknowns does well with what its been given and the stand-out for me was Micheal B Jordan as Steve but then he has a lot more experience than the others appearing on both Friday Night Lights and The Wire. After Chronicle had finished I really didn't know what to make of it because it did have some good ideas and filmic devices but there were a lot of ambiguities with the plot and the characters were very slight but as I previously mentioned it had so much more potential that it failed to use.

Verdict: Overall a good entry into the found footage cannon and an entertaining Friday night popcorn film but this could've been so much more so regrettably I can only give it 6.5/10

Review No.19: Tiny Furniture

I don't think there is an actual dictionary definition of an indie film but I think signifiers such as mumbled dialogue, quirky characters and a sense of self-importance all count. Those can all apply to Tiny Furniture the film that won writer/director/star Lena Dunham a first screenplay award at The Independent Spirit Awards two years ago. What's taken it this long to make it to British shores is a mystery but what isn't a mystery is that this tale full of meandering whimsy will end ambiguously. But let's begin at the beginning as Lena's Aura returns home from an Ohio College to her mother's New York loft which she shares with Aura's intellectual sister Nadine who is played by Dunham's real life sister. The film sees Aura trying to figure out her life by getting a job as a hostess at a restaurant, which she is awful at, and reconnect with a horribly selfish high school acquaintance. She also meets up with two men one is a pseudo-intellectual who has made his name with sarcastic YouTube videos and who eventually manipulates himself into her life while the other is a loveable chef who himself as a secret. Meanwhile her mother worries about her, her sister moans at her and she just generally frets.

I do think there is a good film to be made out of the story of someone leaving university for the big wide world and ending back at home again because be honest a lot of us have found ourselves in the same situation. However I don't think many people would sympathise with Aura as she really brings a lot of her problems to herself and I don't blame her ex-boyfriend for breaking up with her. In fact Tiny Furniture is full of odious characters but some namely the mother and sister have redeeming features. I have to say for a cast of mainly unknowns, with the exception of Nurse Jackie's Merritt Weaver, they did a good job with the material which itself did raise a few smiles. The problem I had with Tiny Furniture was that I didn't find it too accessible and I think Dunham's own experiences of life differ from that of the majority of her audience. In one scene a character reads a book of Woody Allen and I think that he is a figure that the film-maker greatly admires however she has to make her material a bit more relatable before she becomes a household name. 


Verdict: A middle-of-the-road indie comedy drama which is too offbeat for its own good gets a 5.5/10

Review No.18: The Decoy Bride

The thing with this blog is that I would watch films that I probably wouldn't have picked otherwise, Mercenaries is a case in point, and just like that film The Decoy Bride seems like a movie that would go straight to DVD. Maybe it's because it has some big names in there with David Tennant and Alice Eve playing a couple who are about to get married but she is constantly hounded by the press as she is one of the world's most famous actresses. To dissuade the paparazzi they travel to a small Hebiedean island which Tennant's author James previously wrote about although it turns out that he googled all of his research and never actually went there despite this book being what Lara fell in love with in in the first place. Lara's 'people', played by Ugly Betty's Michael Urie and screenwriter Sally Phillips, have to put together the dream castle that she imagined from the book but even then the press arrive so these two pick a local girl to become her decoy but surprise surprise these two end up married instead. This girl is Katie a girl whose returned to the island following a unsuccessful career on the mainland working on an online trouser magazine and finds herself the only unmarried female in a world with no young men left. You can then really make your own mind and join the dots to what happens next but the film does include a scene in which two deaf people dance to Tennant playing the bagpipes badly.

If that above scene is something you've always wanted to see then The Decoy Bride might be for you if not then there's very little going on here. This is by no means a bad film but the best compliment I can lavish upon it is that it is quite easy-going and uncomplicated. The thing I couldn't get past is that the two central characters are fairly unlikeable Katie is self-loathing and unmotivated while not very attentive to her dying mother while James has written a best-selling book by plagiarising most of his material. In fact the most likeable of the three leads is Eve's Lara who isn't the spoilt movie-star but rather a caring, poetic girl who helps one of the islanders live out her dream in fact The Decoy Bride would be better if James was escaping a woman who wasn't very likeable rather than this charming saint-like beautiful actress. The best parts are the comic agents played by Phillips and Urie the latter playing an approximation of his character Mark from Ugly Betty these two get all the asides and his campy nature lends itself well to a film that is fairly slow elsewhere. There is a lot of wasted talent though both James Fleet and Dylan Moran aren't on screen long enough and the natives of the island are all clichéd oddballs. So a romance between two characters who deserve each other and a comedy that made me smile but never laugh and I'm sure this is meant to be a great British romcom.

Verdict: For an average uncomplicated romcom it gets a standard 4/10