Horrible Bosses (2011) 8/10

Starring : Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell
Director : Seth Gordon
Running Time : 98 mins

Nick Hendricks (Bateman), Dale Arbus (Day) and Kurt Buckman (Sudeikis) all hate their bosses – Nick’s boss is a slave driver. Dale’s is a sex maniac, and Kurt’s is a slacker. So one drunken night they get together and talk hypothetically about killing them all off. One thing leads to another and before they know it they’ve hired someone to do the jobs for them…

I wasn’t expecting much from this; I just thought big names equals small plot. However, this was actually really funny and very well played. The interweaving story lines worked perfectly with each other, and the build up to the final scenes paid off beautifully.

You’ll like this if you liked : Superbad

The Shortcut (2009) 6/10

Starring : Andrew Seeley, Shannon Woodward, Dave Franco, Katrina Bowden
Director : Nicholas Goossen
Running Time : 86 mins

There’s an urban legend surrounding a shortcut through the woods involving a young boy killing a girl by cracking her head with a rock. As the years have passed, people have stopped using the shortcut for fear that they too will succumb to the legendary death, claiming that the boy is now an old man who kills anyone who ventures into the woods. When his little brother finds a dead dog in the woods, new guy in town Derek (Seeley) decides to take a few of his new friends into the woods to investigate.

This is a stereotypical teen slasher flick with stupid kids doing stupid things and a crazy old man warning them all of impending doom, though the all ignore these warnings. The acting is okay, and the premise is simple, and it has a nice twist at the end that, if you pay attention to the clues, you will see coming a mile off.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Skeleton Key

Letters To Juliet (2010) 5/10

Starring : Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael Garcia Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave
Director : Gary Winick
Running Time : 106 mins

Aspiring journalist Sophie Hall (Seyfried) takes a holiday with her fiancée Victor (Bernal) to Verona in Italy where Victor is due to open a restaurant. She finds a “letter to Juliet” – a love letter addressed to Shakespeare’s heroine left in the fictional lover’s courtyard - from an elderly woman named Claire Smith (Redgrave) and decides to make it her mission to find her long-lost love. But Claire brings along her grandson Charlie Wyman (Egan), and the two taking an instant disliking to each other.

This is an awkwardly made movie that doesn’t really have any direction for the lead character. Her relationship with Egan’s character feels forced and unlikely, and the final resolution of the movie did not feel realistic in my eyes. Don’t bother unless you really enjoy Seyfried’s romantic comedies, though this has little or no comedy in it. In fact, a bit of comedy might have helped.

You’ll like this if you liked : Leap Year

The Astronaut Farmer (2006) 7/10

Starring : Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, Bruce Dern
Director : Michael Polish
Running Time : 105 mins

Former military man Charles Farmer (Thornton) has always dreamt of travelling into space. Instead he was forced to retire from his job in the Air Force to save his family farm, but he continues working on his dream, even going so far as to building a rocket in his barn. His actions draw the attention of not only the media, but the FBI who start keeping him under surveillance…

This is a sweet enough story of one man trying to make his dreams come true while trying to stop his family from falling apart. Thornton does a bang up job as the wannabe astronaut, and the supporting cast of doubters and supporters are perfectly suited to the job in hand. It does run a little slow in the middle, but by the time the farmer makes his launch you’ll be smiling at his success.

You’ll like this if you liked : Space Cowboys

Stag Night (2008) 4/10

Starring : Kip Pardue, Vinessa Shaw, Breckin Meyer
Director : Peter A Dowling
Running Time : 81 mins

Whilst out for a stag night celebration, four friends get off their train at the wrong station when the best-man starts hassling two girls, and the six individuals find themselves in an abandoned train station where a group of cannibalistic sewer dwellers start protecting their territory by killing them off one by one.

This movie is about as formulaic as you can get. Not only are the characters almost all walking stereotypes, but their actions are clichéd and their deaths are boring and repetitive. This is basically a rip off of Creep without the cleverness or the back story to the underground dwellers. Don’t bother watching this – there are many far superior horror movies out there.

You’ll like this if you liked : See No Evil

Beastly (2011) 7/10

Starring : Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Lisagay Hamilton, Neil Patrick Harris
Director : Daniel Barnz
Running Time : 87 mins

Stuck-up rich kid Kyle Kingson (Pettyfer) has everything anyone could ever want, so when he is punished by teenage witch Kendra (Olsen) for being nasty he finds himself transformed into a veiny tattooed bald-headed freak. The only way to change back is for him to find someone within a year who truly loves for himself, and he soon turns his attention to his secret love, class mate Lindy (Hudgens).

Although this is a cliched romantic drama aimed at teenagers, it is still quite entertaining. Pettyfer plays his two roles well, though the transition between the two is a little too swift (although in the movie five months have passed), but his relationship with Hudgens doesn’t quite feel right but, if you can suspend your disbelief for ninety minutes, this isn’t actually that bad.

You’ll like this if you liked : Beauty And The Beast

Edge Of Darkness (2010) 6/10

Starring : Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic
Director : Martin Campbell
Running Time : 117 mins

When his daughter is Emma (Novakovic) shot dead in front of him, police officer Thomas Craven (Gibson) thinks that he was the intended target, but when he starts to hear stories that his daughter was on a list of suspected terrorists he starts to dig deeper, soon finding that his daughter’s secretive work for a nuclear testing company called Northmore may be responsible for her death.

Aside from the Lethal Weapon series, and perhaps Bird On A Wire, I’m not a big fan of Mel Gibson movies, but this was actually okay. There were plenty of surprises throughout the movie, and the upbeat-downbeat ending worked reasonably well, though it was ambiguous. Fans of Gibson will like him here at his brooding best in the old fashioned thriller.

You’ll like this if you liked : Inside Man

The Girlfriend Experience (2009) 6/10

Starring : Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Philip Eytan
Director : Steven Soderbergh
Running Time : 78 mins

High-price call girl Chelsea (Grey) charges $2,000 an hour to provide her clients with the girlfriend experience – acting like a wife or girlfriend to her clients and going out for dinner and a movie before providing them with sex. In spite of having a boyfriend, Chris (Santos), she finds herself attracted to one of her new clients and has to decide whether to break her cardinal rule and get involved.

This is an interesting mockumentary that takes a long hard look into the world of the professional call girl and how her job can affect her romantic life. The performances are a little on the dry side, but it’s a reasonable enough effort for an experimental movie, though many might get bored of this, even though it has such a short run time.

You’ll like this if you liked : Sex, Lies, And Videotape

Fast Five (2011) 7/10

Starring : Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson
Director : Justin Lin
Running Time : 131 mins

Dominic Toretto (Diesel) is broken out of custody by his sister Mia (Brewster) and her boyfriend, former cop Brian O’Connor (Walker). Together the trio flee cross-country, finally ending up in Rio de Janeiro where they get involved with a crime boss who wants them dead. Managing to escape his clutches, Dom forms a new gang to pull off a one-time heist – to steal $100 million dollars from the crime lord.

The creators of the fifth in the never ending series of Fast and Furious movies manage to make one major change in this latest instalment – they avoid overusing cars! This might sound like a death knell to some, but by turning this into a heist movie rather than just a drag-racing movie, the writers manage to give the story more body, although some bits at the beginning seem like they’re just rushed through to turn this more quickly into the heist movie it desperately wants to be.

You’ll like this if you liked : Ocean’s Twelve

Alfie (2004) 7/10

Starring : Jude Law, Sienna Miller, Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon
Director : Charles Shyer
Running Time : 102 mins

Alfie Elkins (Law) is an Englishman working in New York as a limo driver, a city he decided to move to due to its reputation for being filled with beautiful women. He lives the life of a gigolo and enjoys himself until he begin to realise that the consequences of his actions may prove to not only be far reaching but could actually lead him to live a life he doesn’t want to live.

This is an entertaining enough remake of the Michael Caine classic, with Law doing a pretty good job in the lead role. It’s actually quite a sad story, as Alfie manages to lose not only his friends but his own son, and his way of life soon becomes unappealing to him when he realises he’s getting too old to keep playing the field. I especially liked that the ending isn’t closed, so we don’t know really if he changes his ways o carries on as he is.

You’ll like this if you liked : Casanova

Super (2010) 8/10

Starring : Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Nathan Fillion
Director : James Gunn
Running Time : 92mins

When his wife Sarah (Tyler) leaves him for her drug dealer boyfriend Jacques (Bacon), Frank Darrbo (Wilson) creates a super hero he names The Crimson Bolt and, together with Libby (Page), a young girl who works at the local comic book store, he decides to fight crime with his trusty pipe wrench and the firm belief that he will get his wife back if he can just prove himself worthy of her attention.

I wouldn’t say this movie would be everyone’s cup of tea, but personally I loved it. Wilson is so ridiculous and unbelievable as the hero of the piece, and his sidekick Boltie has so much enthusiasm it’s just silly. There are some genuinely surprising scenes that you probably wouldn’t have found in a super hero movie say ten years ago but that seem much more common place nowadays, and the final scenes will have you screaming ‘Shut up crime!’ at the TV.

You’ll like this if you liked : Kick-Ass

Fighting (2009) 7/10

Starring : Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Zulay Henao, Luis Guzman
Director : Dito Montiel
Running Time : 108 mins

Shawn MacArthur (Tatum) is a con-man and a street vendor, selling knock-off books on street corners to make his money, but when he is observed fighting off some thugs by street-fight organiser Harvey Boarden (Howard), he starts earning big bucks. Things look like they’re going well, until Harvey asks Shawn to throw a fight, something Shawn is not willing to do.

This is actually a pretty interesting movie with some nice ideas that feel original despite having many comparisons with the Rocky series of movies. Tatum plays the underdog well, the fight scenes are actually realistic rather than being over the top, and Howard manages to make his role feel comical without moving into outright farce. Fight fans will really enjoy this movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Rocky Balboa

Submarine (2010) 9/10

Starring : Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine
Director : Richard Ayoade
Running Time : 93 mins

Fifteen year-old Oliver Tate (Roberts) wants nothing more than to be popular at school, so when classmate Jordana Bevan (Paige) takes an interest in him, he jumps at the chance to start a relationship with him, stemming from their mutual enjoyment of bullying. As their relationship progresses, Oliver discovers that Jordana’s mother has cancer just as he discovers that the new man next door is his mother’s ex-boyfriend. So Oliver is faced with the choice of either comforting his girlfriend in her time of need, or concentrating on getting rid of his mother’s ex.

I thought this movie was brilliant. Roberts and Paige make an appealing couple that actually feels believable, and the script is fresh, crisp and fun to listen to as it is performed by the actors. Even the direction is splendidly delivered, with some nice nods to the audience with its choice of direction based on the lead characters experience with movies. This is an all-round great film.

You’ll like this if you liked : It’s Kind Of A Funny Story

Armoured (2009) 6/10

Starring : Columbus Short, Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Lawrence Fishburne
Director : Nimrod Antal
Running Time : 88 mins

Ex-soldier Ty Hackett (Short) takes a job as a security guard thanks to old friend Mike Cochrane (Dillon) who works for the same firm. Not long into the gig, Mike asks Ty to help out his colleagues in a $42 million dollar heist that will mean the end of his financial difficulties, and he reluctantly agrees.

This was your stereotypical heist movie, and as a result it is very predictable. You know as soon as they mention robbing somewhere that someone, if not everyone, is going to die, and that there’s bound to be some betrayal involved. This movie doesn’t disappoint on that side if things, but sadly the formula feels a little dry in this uninspiring crime thriller.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Bank Job

Transformers : Dark Of The Moon (2011) 7/10

Starring : Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson
Director : Michael Bay
Running Time : 150 mins

Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) may have a new girlfriend, but some things never change as he finds his life turned upside down once again when the Autobots and Decepticons – shape changing robots from outer space – start a race to reach the moon where a strange Cybertronian spacecraft has been discovered on the dark side of the moon – a spacecraft that contains a device that could end the war between Autobot and Decepticon.

If you can get passed the ridiculousness of the first two movies, then you’ll probably enjoy this third instalment. There are some bizarre situations that just seem to get explained away between scene (does anyone else know how they escaped from the collapsing building), but if you can switch off for almost three hours and just accept Michael Bay for what he is, then this could prove to be enjoyable.

You’ll like this if you liked : Independence Day

The Abducted (2010) 3/10

Starring : James Ray, Kathleen Benner, Michael Harrelson
Director : Jon Bonnell
Running Time : 83 mins

Ridley Thompson (Ray) is a crazed psychotic who searches for women online so he can abduct them and use them as hunting practice His latest captor is Valora Smith (Benner), a young girl who he takes a shine to and decides not to kill straight away…

If you’re going to have a character doing voice over throughout a movie, at least find someone who can act. This movie was simply terrible; it’s shot like a bad porno and the plot is abysmal, not to mention the terrible acting of both the main leads. I think that if this had have been given some good actors and a script rewrite, it might have been interesting, but sadly this is nothing more than incredibly bad. Perhaps the writers should have kept the original title, Match.Dead, which would have given me a better idea of what I was letting myself in for.

You’ll like this if you liked : Really, Really Bad Films