Alpha And Omega (2010) 7/10

Starring : Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Dennis Hopper, Danny Glover, Christina Ricci
Director : Anthony Bell & Ben Gluck
Running Time : 88 mins

Kate (Panettiere) and Humphrey (Long) are wolves from different sides of the tracks – Kate is the Alpha daughter of the pack leader, and Humphrey is somewhere near the bottom of the pecking order. But when the two wolves find themselves thrown together when they are accidentally moved to another wildlife park they are forced to join forces in their hopes of returning home.

The animation isn’t great in what is basically a reworking of Romeo and Juliet, but it still manages to be fun filled and entertaining from start to finish. The supporting characters are interesting and appealing and fill the slow moments with elements of humour that will keep the whole family entertained.

You’ll like this if you liked : Gnomeo And Juliet

Julie And Julia (2009) 8/10

Starring : Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina
Director : Nora Ephron
Running Time : 124 mins

Online blogger Julie Powell (Adams) sets herself the culinary challenge of working through the famous recipe book, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, written by celebrity chef Julia Child (Streep) and producing one recipe a day and recording the results in her blog.

I really enjoyed this movie, probably in part because it reunites the great acting skills of Adams and Streep, who previously worked together in Doubt. The simple plot of a woman trying to meet a challenge is intertwined with flashbacks to a wannabe chef struggling to be accepted by French society as anything other than a wife. Well worth checking out if you haven’t already seen it.

You’ll like this if you liked : Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day

Easy A (2010) 7/10

Starring : Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow
Director : Will Gluck
Running Time : 93 mins

When a rumour starts getting spread around school that clean-cut student Olive Penderghast (Stone) has lost her virginity, she decides to use the rumour as a way of improving her social standing, an idea she gets from reading The Scarlet Letter. Then, when she is offered moey by other social outcasts to pretend she has slept with them too, she decides it might be a good way to earn some money for her future…

This isn’t your typical teen comedy, and might actually be a little too intelligent for most teens, but if you can actually watch a teen movie and appreciate the plot then you’ll probably enjoy this movie. This has all the key ingredients of a fun teen comedy with all the typical stereotypical characters, and Stone is great in the lead role.

You’ll like this if you liked : She’s Out Of My League

Superman / Doomsday (2007) 8/10

Starring : Adam Baldwin, Anne Heche, James Marsters, John DiMaggio
Director : Lauren Montgomery, Bruce Timm & Brandon Vietti
Running Time : 78 mins

When a strange creature known as Doomsday is discovered by LexCorps employees, it is accidentally released and goes on the rampage. Superman (Baldwin) intervenes and tries to stop the creature, but the result is both of their deaths. With Superman gone, and no one left to protect Metropolis, Lex Luthor (Marsters) takes the opportunity to create a clone of Superman using DNA harvested from his dead body and plans on using the clone to help gain control of the city.

Superman fans will love this, the first in Warner Brothers’ line of DC Universe Animate Original Movies. Taking one of the most popular story lines from the comic series and bringing it to the screen was a sure fire hit for the company, and resulted in a number of copy cat movies in the years to follow. The animation isn’t great, but it’s what you’d expect from a Warner Brothers cartoon, and the voice skills and storyline more than make up for anything the animation may miss out on.

You’ll like this if you liked : Ultimate Avengers

Frozen (2010) 7/10

Starring : Shawn Ashmore, Emma Bell, Kevin Zegers
Director : Adam Green
Running Time : 94 mins

Three young people take a holiday to Mount Holliston to enjoy a weekend of skiing and snowboarding, but when they accidentally get stranded on the chair lift, and no-one else is around to know, they find themselves faced with life and death decisions as the temperature slowly drops below freezing…

I actually enjoyed this tense thriller. The cast were pretty convincing in their roles and manage to keep the movie interesting even when they’re basically sitting on a ski lift for an hour and a half. This will have you shouting at the screen, telling the cast not to be so stupid and to stop doing ridiculous things.

You’ll like this if you liked : Buried

Whip It (2009) 8/10

Starring : Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden
Director : Drew Barrymore
Running Time : 111 mins

Teenage tearaway Bliss Cavendar (Page) wants nothing more than to get away from her mother Brooke (Harden) and her insistence on entering her into beauty pageants, so when she discovers a roller derby league in a nearby town, she decides to lie about her age and join up.

I wasn’t expecting much from this directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, but was pleasantly surprised when I sat down to watch it. Ellen Page is always great in any movie she does, and the supporting cast manage to keep the movie interesting and fast paced, making the near two hour run time feel more like ninety minutes.

You’ll like this if you liked : Stick It

The Social Network (2010) 7/10

Starring : Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
Director : David Fincher
Running Time : 121 mins

Harvard undergrad Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) makes himself into the youngest billionaire in history by creating the social networking website Facebook, but soon finds himself under fire from his friends and colleagues who claim that they helped co-develop the site with him.

This movie is basically a long-winded courtroom drama that simply made me dislike everyone involved in Facebook. The acting wasn’t anything special in my opinion, but at least it was refreshing that the writers and director didn’t try to make the characters sympathetic (or if they did, they did a pretty bad job). Perhaps by showing the characters as being unlikeable it portrays a true irony in Facebook itself.

You’ll like this if you liked : Rogue Trader

Quarantine (2008) 7/10

Starring : Jennifer Carpenter, Steve Harris, Columbus Short
Director : John Erik Dowdle
Running Time : 90 mins

Television news reporter Angela Vidal (Carpenter) has been asked to cover a story on the LA fire department and their typical work night so joins the crew on a simple call out with her camera man, but when they discover that the building they have been called out to has been infected by an unknown virus she finds herself placed under quarantine and under attack from an unknown source of evil.

Although almost a scene by scene remake of the Spanish horror film [Rec], this isn’t quite as effective nor as scary. The acting is fine, but it was the documentary quality of the original that made it so effective, whereas this looks too slick for my liking.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Blair Witch Project

Life As We Know It (2010) 7/10

Starring : Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas, Hayes MacArthur, Christina Hendricks
Director : Greg Berlanti
Running Time : 114 mins

When their best friends Peter (MacArthur) and Alison (Hendricks) die in a horrible car crash, singletons Holly Berenson (Heigl) and Eric Messer (Duhamel) are faced with having to raise the dead couples orphaned daughter.

It was hard for me to imagine this being a very funny movie, especially once I saw that the premise was that the two main characters best friends get killed in a car crash, but it did manage to have some funny moments. The predictability of the two main characters getting together (I don’t count this as a spoiler, it’s just really obvious) can be seen coming a mile off, but it’s still just as satisfying when they finally do.

You’ll like this if you liked : Definitely, Maybe

Chloe (2009) 7/10

Starring : Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson
Director : Atom Egoyan
Running Time : 93 mins

Suspecting that her husband David (Neeson) is having an affair, Catherine Stewart (Moore) hires an escort named Chloe (Seyfried) to seduce him in an attempt to see how much he can be trusted, but when she starts receiving reports back from Chloe describing increasingly saucy details she starts to worry that she might have done the wrong thing…

This is a strange movie that takes what feels like a long time to reach its payoff, but the twist at the end is well worth the wait. Fans of Seyfried will love this simply for the fact that she goes nude, but try to give the plot a go too – it’s not bad to watch either…

You’ll like this if you liked : Basic Instinct

Rachel Getting Married (2008) 6/10

Starring : Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Debra Winger
Director : Jonathan Demme
Running Time : 113 mins

Recovering addict Kym (Hathaway) is let out of rehab for a few days to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel (DeWitt). Underlying the happy event is an air of tension, with Kym being upset that Rachel has chosen someone other than her to be maid of honour, their mother worrying more about her own wellbeing over that of her daugthers, and their father favouritsm towards Kym.

I found this movie slow, overlong and kind of boring. The too-tense drama made for an uncomfortable viewing experience, especially with its awkward filming and some ridiculously long and unnecessary scenes. A bit of editing could have made this a bit more interesting, especially as Hathaway was so good in this (which is pretty much where the extra marks come from), but as a whole this just seems to fall down somewhere along the way.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Savages

Tamara Drewe (2010) 9/10

Starring : Gemma Arterton, Roger Allam, Bill Camp, Dominic Cooper, Luke Evans, Tamsin Grieg
Director : Stephen Frears
Running Time : 111 mins

Following a nose-job, Tamara Drewe (Arterton) returns to her home village of Ewedown in Dorset to sell her dead mother’s house and stirs up romance and lust among the locals.

This was a great little movie, with a wonderful cast that make this one of the most overlooked movies of 2010. Arterton wonderfully underplays her character, the once ugly duckling who returns to her home village as the beautiful, though awkward, swan. The script is sharp and witty and creates the kind of stereotypical charactersand situations that make for great viewing. Don’t be put off by the fact that this is based on a graphic novel – the acting is sharp, the script is tight, and the direction is relaxed and great fun to watch.

You’ll like this if you liked : Death At A Funeral

Inglourious Basterds (2009) 8/10

Starring : Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz
Director : Quentin Tarantino & Eli Roth
Running Time : 153 mins

During World Warr II, Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) plots revenge against the German soldiers who murdered her family by destroying a theatre guaranteed to be filled with Nazi soldiers at the premier of a pro-Nazi movie. Unfortunately a group of American soldiers who have heard about the movie showing have had the same idea…

In spite of being very long, this is quite an entertaining movie, especially the bar scene where the Germans suspect the Americans aren’t who they appear. The actor that really makes this movie is Christoph Waltz, whose performance as the hateful Nazi Colonel should have won an Oscar.

You’ll like this if you liked : Tigerland

See No Evil (2006) 4/10

Starring : Kane, Christina Vidal, Michael J Pagan
Director : Gregory Dark
Running Time : 76 mins

When a group of juvenile delinquents are punished and forced to clean up and dilapidated hotel, they find themselves running for their lives as they are pursued by Jacob Goodnight (Kane), a psychopath who has been hiding out in the hotel while it has been closed to the public.

This was a terrible movie with a flimsy plot and bad direction from a man most famous for directing porn. The acting was atrocious and the deaths were ridiculously unbelievable, but not even in a comical way that could have made this movie entertaining but instead just makes it unintentionally funny which, to be honest, is the second worst kind of funny. Perhaps the biggest mistake was employing a professional wrestler in an attempt to sell this movie to the public – Kane doesn’t even come across as psychopathically vacant but instead just come across as being a bad actor.

You’ll like this if you liked : Hatchet II

Buried (2010) 8/10

Starring : Ryan Reynolds, Jose Luis Garcia Perez, Robert Paterson, Stephen Tobolowsky
Director : Rodrigo Cortes
Running Time : 96 mins

Paul Conroy (Reynolds) is an American military truck driver who is attacked by a group of Iraqi insurgents and knocked unconscious. When he comes round he finds himself buried alive in a coffin with nothing but a lighter and a cell phone for company. What follows is a race against time for Paul to figure out where he is so that someone can come and rescue him before he runs out of air.

This was a well-paced psychological movie that makes great use of Ryan Reynolds acting ability. The majority of this movie is placed inside a coffin, for crying out loud – there’s not many actors who could pull this off and still make the movie an entertaining spectacle.

You’ll like this if you liked : Unthinkable

Gran Torino (2008) 8/10

Starring : Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Christopher Carley
Director : Clint Eastwood
Running Time : 117 mins

Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) decides to take matters into his own hands when his neighbor Thao (Vang) attempts to steal his car. He attempts to reform Thao and get him to sever ties with his gang member friends, but Walt soon finds himself drawn into the family life of Thao, in spite of his initial prejudices.

Eastwood’s role as the ex-Korean War vet is so grouchy and grumpy you can’t help but like him. As his character develops and starts to understand the people he always thought of as enemies, he starts to show signs that he may one day change his ways, and it is the relationship between Eastwood and his Korean neighbours that makes this such an appealing and, inevitably, heartbreaking movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Reign Over Me

The Other Guys (2010) 7/10

Starring : Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Derek Jeter
Director : Adam McKay
Running Time : 108 mins

When supercops Highsmith (Jackson) and Danson (Johnson) are killed in the line of duty, two boring cops, Allen Gamble (Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) decide to try to take their place by being reckless and gung-ho, something they’ve never been comfortable doing.

I honestly thought this movie was going to be a one trick pony, with Ferrell playing his usual over the top character and Wahlberg being unnaturally placed in a comedy, but instead Wahlberg was surprisingly good and Ferrell actually downplayed his role. Well worth watching for fans of buddy cop movies.

You’ll like this if you liked : Cop Out

Imagine That (2009) 7/10

Starring : Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church, Yara Shahidi
Director : Karey Kirkpatrick
Running Time : 103 mins

Financial executive Evan Danielson (Murphy) is finding that his career is going down the pan, especially since all of his associates have started listening the crazy rantings of Johnny Whitefeather (Church), but when he discovers that his daughter Olivia (Shahidi) has a security blanket that can give people insights into the world that could help his career, he starts spending some much missed father-daughter time with her in her imaginary worlds.

This is a cute kids movie that will appeal to the imaginations of children young and old. While Murphy delivers his usual over the top and vibrant performance as the failing executive forced to start spending quality time with his daughter, Shahidi delivers a very cute performance as the daughter with a big imagination.

You’ll like this if you liked : Bedtime Stories