It says something about a movie when you come out of the cinema and realise Keanu Reeves was the best thing in it.
Making Keanu play a cold, emotionless, stagnant alien iin The Day The Earth Stood Still is almost typecasting but the role perfectly suits eanu’s unique brand of timbre.
However, unfortunately, the film around him is a mess.
Hollywood is a callous, fickle and backstabbing land where producers do drugs, have promiscuous sex and use four-letter curse words like it‘s big and clever.
Meanwhile the greedy studio only cares about money and not the artistic integrity of a film. So what’s new?
What Just Happened tramples on this familiar territory. Robert De Niro plays hotshot movie producer Ben, who juggles his time between forcing a director to change the bleak ending of his latest film and getting Bruce Willis to shave his Grizzly Adams beard before he steps on the set of his next feature. As far as plot goes that’s about as good as it gets, and in the middle of that Ben is getting divorced and suspects his soon to be ex-wife may be sleeping with a friend of his.
Over the years the cinema has given us plenty of bumbling idiots on the big screen but arguably none are ever as likeable as the ones played by Simon Pegg.
Returning this week in How to Lose Friends And Alienate People, Pegg, riding high on his popularity, plays the pretentious tit Sidney Young who manages to get a job at a prestigious New York magazine. It’s like The Devil Wears Prada but with transvestites!
With a recent surge of great comedies, this effort is disappointingly neither consistently hilarious or has anything new to say. Pegg is a likeable lead but presents the character as a more of a loveable idiot who never really irritates, even those within the film. His characters charm instantly sets you into a light hearted predictable romp while although entertaining in its own way, is also somewhat a letdown.
Smart People is not, more’s the pity, a feature length actioner led by a bunch of immaculately well turned out gents in tweed.
No, when they say ‘smart’, the makers of this film mean the American version of smart, better known to us Euros as intelligent, clever or big bloody brainboxes.
Here, the smart person in question is Dennis Quaid, and for us, his brainy bragging rights are already well secured- after all, he did pilot his way out of Martin Short in Inner Space, which is no mean feat.
At the end of his movie you will just want to stand up and cheer.
Somers Town does not have the far reaching social analysis of This is England or the balletic masculinity of Dead Man’s Shoes. It has some of these qualities as you would expect being a Shane Meadows film, but more than anything Somers Town has heart, a big beating, bleeding, young and in love, scrapping and getting pissed heart.
The story details the lives of two lads Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) – a Nottingham lad fled to The Big Smoke homeless and penniless, and Marek (Piotr Jagiello), a Polish immigrant living with his hard drinking but loving father, who befriends Tomo.
Creator of The X-Files TV series Chris Carter has told anyone who’ll listen that this new movie adaptation will not be about aliens, the government, Tunguska, or in any way mention The Lone Gunmen.
What Chris is trying to say is that The X-Files: I Want To Believe, will not be the load of old tripe we’re expecting; this despite the reoccurring cast of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson apparently being past their pin-up days and Billy Connelly appearing on screen for more than five seconds.
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Probably the most hotly anticipated movie since time began, The Dark Knight finally arrives in cinemas this week after what seems a neverending wait.
Of course the accolades have been shouted from the rooftops and it gives us great pleasure to step in line behind countless others and give praise to what is sure to become a classic film of our time.
The film, as you should be aware by now, is a sequel to Batman Begins which rebooted the Bat franchise in a world rooted in reality. The Dark Knight not only continues the theme but expands it into something completely fresh and riveting.
Ever wondered what would happen if E.T had a threesome with Short Circuit and Robots? Well, cease your wondering, because WALL- E is here.
Set 800 years in the future, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is the last robot left on earth, doggedly cleaning up the waste the humans left behind when they fled to space.
Despite the obvious message, this film manages to stop short of beating audiences round the head with the ethical nunchucks.
Oh no, no, no, no no no. NO. Four stars? Empire, Glamour and Arena hang your collective heads in shame. This film is Swiss cheese, potent fromage pure and simple.
That’s right, you guessed it, Donkey Punch is full of holes and it stinks.
For a start there’s the title. Has to be the worst name ever for a movie not involving a jazz soundtrack and nubile pleasure-seeking nymphets.
M. Night Shyamalan's latest effort looked to be the return to darker, more suspense filled territory after Lady In The Water drowned with critics and audiences alike.
Unfortunately while the premise suggests that in this film shit happens, we're unhappy to say that, while score one for pun usage, it turns out that Happening's shit.
