Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) 8/10

Starring : Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone
Director : Dan Fogelman
Running Time : 126 mins

Cal Weaver (Carell) thinks he’s living the perfect life, that is until his wife Emily (Moore) asks him for a divorce. Faced with life alone for the first time in his life, Cal is forced to re-enter the dating scene, something he has pretty much never had any experience with. So young man about town Jacob Palmer (Gosling) takes Cal under his wing and teaches him how to pick up women.

I though this was a very well plotted comedy drama that really gives you some great rewards for sticking with it for its two hours plus runtime. It’s pretty good how the storylines all come together at the end, and the coincidences are both funny and logical. There are some great moments of comedy here, but none of it feels forced. Well worth checking out.

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

Neighbour (2009) 4/10

Starring : America Olivo, Christian Campbell, Lauren Rooney, Pete Postiglione
Director : Robert A Masciantonio
Running Time : 91 mins

A new girl (Olivo) moves into an affluent neighbourhood and starts breaking into her neighbours houses and torturing them in a variety of ridiculously over-the-top and violent ways for days on end for no explainable or obvious reason.

This movie was ridiculous. The violence was far worse than movies such as Saw, but I’ve never heard any notoriety about this. Maybe it’s because Saw was good and this was just weird. There were far too many double bluffs in this movie; it just made everything too confusing, and I’m still not sure why the hot chick was killing everyone. It would have been nice if there was just a hint of a reason behind her madness but clearly the makers of this movie didn’t think she needed a reason to be a crazy bitch.

You’ll like this if you liked : Run! Bitch Run!

London Boulevard (2010) 6/10

Starring : Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, David Thewlis, Anna Friel, Ben Chaplin, Ray Winstone
Director : William Monahan
Running Time : 98 mins

Harry Mitchel (Farrell), an ex-con, takes a job as protector for reclusive actress Charlotte (Knightley) in the hope of going straight, but his criminal friends, especially good friend Billy Norton (Chaplin), try to coax Mitchel back into his criminal life. Underground boss Rob Gant (Winstone) decides that one way to get Mitchel back into the fold is to find the person responsible for sending him to jail in order to incriminate him in his murder, but Mitchel still refuses to join Gant and takes action to end the persistent hassles of his criminal past.

This started off quite promising, but soon become really confusing. I’m still not sure what was supposed to be so special about Harry Mitchel, but apparently the criminal underworld couldn’t get enough of him. The C word was dropped more times that I thought it was humanly possible, and although mostly the acting was strong, it was difficult to say it was great as the script was so weak.

You’ll like this if you liked : Harry Brown

D.E.B.S. (2004) 5/10

Starring : Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Meagan Good, Devon Aoki, Jill Ritchie
Director : Angela Robinson
Running Time : 88 mins

There are secret questions planted in the SAT exams to test who has the potential to be a covert government agent. Those chosen are then sent to a training facility where they are taught the art of espionage. When the best student at D.E.B.S, Amy Bradshaw (Foster), comes face-to-face with international criminal Lucy Diamond (Brewster), she finds herself inexplicably attracted to here. The feeling is mutual, so when Amy is thought to have survived a fight to the death with Lucy, she is hailed as something of a hero.

A movie filled with young girls in school uniforms? And some of them are lesbians? What could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, pretty much everything. The plot, which I thought was going to have some sort of crime-foiling involved in it, basically revolved around Brewster converting Foster to lesbianism, but tries to masquerade itself as a spy movie. Some parts are okay, but overall the movie just doesn’t gel quite right.

You’ll like this if you liked : Charlies Angels : Full Throttle

30 Minutes Or Less (2011) 8/10

Starring : Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson
Director : Ruben Fleischer
Running Time : 83 mins

Two terrible criminals, Dwayne King (McBride) and Travis Cord (Swarsdon), want nothing more than to run their own prostitution ring, but first they need money. So, realising that by killing one of their fathers and cashing in on his insurance money, they hatch a plan to kidnap pizza delivery guy Nick Davis (Eisenberg) and force him to rob a bank for them – in order to raise the $100,000 they need to hire a hitman - by strapping a bomb to his chest.

I thought this was a great movie, and it’s one of the few movies I’ve seen lately where, at the end, I thought ‘That can’t be it?’ and actually wanted to see more. This could easily have been a dramatic action movie, but I really enjoyed the fact that there was a lot of comedy thrown in for good measure. Some of the scenes could easily stand on their own as part of a sketch show, and combined they work wonderfully to make this a laugh-out-loud fun-filled romp.

You’ll like this if you liked : Pineapple Express

Marmaduke (2010) 5/10

Starring : Owen Wilson, Judy Greer, Lee Pace, Emma Stone
Director : Tom Dey
Running Time : 89 mins

When he finds out that his owner Phil Winslow (Pace) and his family are moving to California for a new job, Marmaduke (Wilson) the clumsy Great Dane thinks of it as an opportunity to reinvent himself and impress the dogs at the local dog park, but soon Marmaduke realises that wherever he goes he will be faced with some pedigree dogs who think of him as nothing more than a mutt.

I was never a big fan of the Marmaduke comic strip, although I did watch the Heathliff and Marmaduke cartoon when I was little. I wouldn’t say this was a disappointment, but I hoped that it would at least be as good as the Garfield movies. Unfortunately this fails to be anywhere near as cute as Garfield, what with Marmaduke being just too gigantic to come across as anywhere near cute. Kids might enjoy the doggie surfing scene and the general bedlam, but there isn’t much here for adults.

You’ll like this if you liked : Furry Vengeance

The Change-Up (2011) 8/10

Starring : Jason Bateman, Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Mann, Olivia Wilde
Director : David Dobkin
Running Time : 119 mins

In spite of their differences, Dave Lockwood (Bateman) and Mitch Planko (Reynolds) are best friends – Dave is a happily married family man and Mitch is a free-wheeling bachelor – but recently they have started to drift apart. When they make a drunken wish while peeing into a fountain to switch places, they wake up the next morning to find their wish has come true. As they realise they want their old lives back, they discover that the fountain they made the wish to has disappeared!

I secretly enjoy comedies where people switch places, and this was just as entertaining as any other in its ilk. Bateman and Reynolds are both excellent at playing each other, and the gross-out humour is spot on, at no point really overstepping the mark. My only real complaint is that it ran a little too long for me, but that’s only a small issue for an otherwise good movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Hot Chick

Why Did I Get Married? (2007) 6/10

Starring : Tyler Perry, Sharon Leal, Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba, Jill Scott, Richard T Jones, Tasha Smith, Michael Jai White
Director : Tyler Perry
Running Time : 119 mins

Dr Patricia Agnew (Jackson), author of best-selling self-help book ‘Why Did I Get Married?’, organises yearly retreats for her and three of her couple friends so that all four couples can discuss why they got together in the first place. As the couples meet up for another year, they soon discover that one of the couples, Mike (Jones) and Sheila (Scott), may be set to split when Mike invites another woman along – and that’s when everyone else’s secrets start to come to the surface.

This is slow going, but about halfway through you really get the payoff when all the couples secrets are revealed, especially as we only think there’s one secret to reveal by this stage. The performances might be a little over the top, and the acting isn’t great, but the simple story is worth watching, and there’s a nice moral at the end.

You’ll like this if you liked : Couples Retreat

Skyline (2010) 7/10

Starring : Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel, David Zayas, Donald Faison
Director : Colin & Greg Strause
Running Time : 89 mins

A group of friends, meeting up to discuss a potential business opportunity in Los Angeles, wake up one morning to see strange blue lights in the sky. When they look directly into the light, the find themselves overtaken by an irresistible urge to follow it and soon discover that the light is emanating from a battalion of alien spaceships that are sending down forces to steal human brains.

Despite some pretty bad reviews, this wasn’t that bad a movie. Granted, if you sit back and examine every moment, you’ll spot all the inconsistencies, but you can say that about the best film ever made. The acting isn’t great, and there’s a lot of exposition that isn’t really necessary, but as far as action sci-fi movies, this isn’t that bad, and the ending is interesting for a Hollywood movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Infestation

Fright Night (2011) 7/10

Starring : Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Toni Collette, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director : Craig Gillespie
Running Time : 106 mins

When Charley Brewster (Yelchin) starts to suspect that his new next-door neighbour Jerry Dandridge (Farrell) might be behind a series of killings that have recently occurred in the neighbourhood, no one believes him. So when he starts to suspect that Jerry might actually be a vampire, he employs the aid of Las Vegas magician and self-proclaimed vampire hunter, Peter Vincent (Tennant).

Although this is yet another 80s horror remake – and a remake of one of my favourites – this is still an entertaining adaptation. I especially liked what they did with the characters of Peter Vincent, changing him from a late night horror movie presenter to a Vegas showman. Well worth watching, and fans of the original will be pleased that its memory has been honoured.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Lookout

Charlie St Cloud (2010) 7/10

Starring : Zac Efron, Amanda Crew, Donal Logue, Charlie Tahan
Director : Burr Steers
Running Time : 100 mins

When Charlie St Cloud (Efron) and his brother Sam (Tahan) are involved in a car crash, Charlie is brought back from the brink of death while Sam dies. As a result of his near death experience, Charlie gains the ability to see dead people, mainly his brother who he spends the next five years visiting every night at sundown, but when Tess Carroll (Crew), a yachting enthusiast that likes Charlie, goes missing at sea and her spirit visits him, Charlie is faced with a choice - to sacrifice his time with Sam to save Tess, or leave her to die…

This is an odd little movie that manages to keep itself entertaining even though there are some large portions of inactivity throughout the movie. Even though he works in a graveyard, Charlie probably only sees about three ghosts in the entire film, which seems a bit strange to me. Fans of Efron will enjoy his better than usual performance, but this is slow in places.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Notebook

Powder Blue (2009) 5/10

Starring : Jessica Biel, Ray Liotta, Eddie Redmayne, Forest Whitaker
Director : Timothy Linh Bui
Running Time : 107 mins

A group of seemingly unconnected people in the Los Angeles area find their lives brought together by coincidence and happenstance in the lead up to Christmas.

This is another one of those slightly annoying movies that don’t really have any kind of set plot, but instead have a series of subplots that converge towards the end of the movie, in this instance in an unsatisfying way. The cast seem to go in only one of two directions; either under-performing and giving very subdued performances, or completely going over the top and basically screaming at the audience. Fans of movies like Crash will enjoy this vain attempt at bringing together a number of unconnected storylines (only one of them really worked in my eyes), but if you want a plot that flows well and makes sense all the time, then this probably isn’t for you. Although Jessica Biel does play a stripper – that’s got to be worth something…

You’ll like this if you liked : Crash

Spy Kids : All The Time In The World In 4D (2011) 8/10

Starring : Jessica Alba, Joel McHale, Rowan Blanchard, Mason Cook, Jeremy Piven
Director : Robert Rodriguez
Running Time : 88 mins

Former spy Marissa Wilson (Alba), nee Cortez, is called back into action when time starts speeding up, and the evil Tick Tock (Piven), in league with the Time Keeper (Piven), is suspected of being behind it. Unfortunately, by going back into action, Marissa is forced to reveal her secret to her step-children, Rebecca (Blanchard) and Cecil (Cook).

I really like the Spy Kids movies, and I thought this one was actually pretty funny. The opening sequence with a pregnant Jessica Alba chasing down Tick Tock was definitely the highlight, and the two new Spy Kids performed well in their roles. The plot itself was fun and well thought out, as well as being a little sappy, and I truly think that children and adults alike will enjoy this fourth instalment, despite an annoying ending.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Incredibles

Tekken (2010) 4/10

Starring : Jon Foo, Kelly Overton, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Ian Anthony Dale
Director : Dwight H Little
Running Time : 88 mins

In the near future, powerful corporations run the world, and the most powerful of these corporations is Tekken. Following the death of his mother, Jin Kazawa (Foo) discovers that Tekken were involved when he finds a company ID at the crime scene, he enters a highly skilled combat tournament called Iron Fist in order to get into the Tekken headquarters and exact vengeance against those who killed his mother.

Fans of the Tekken computer games will love this movie because it is like watching a bunch of actors act out the game. Fans of proper films will hate this movie because it is not very good. The acting is poor, the plot is formulaic, and the overall effect is week, especially the little scene at the end of the movie that hints at a sequel but makes no sense. Shouldn’t Jin have taken over Tekken when he defeated his dad? Who knows and who cares?

You’ll like this if you liked : Street Fighter

Final Destination 5 (2011) 7/10

Starring : Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Tony Todd
Director : Steve Quale
Running Time : 92 mins

Sam Lawton (D’Agosto) receives a premonition of a terrible disaster while he and his work colleagues are on their way to a company retreat. When they become trapped on a collapsing suspension bridge, it seems that his premonition has come true, though not everyone who ides in his dream dies. Soon the survivors find their lives in danger when they start to die in mysterious and often violent ways.

The Final Destination concept is starting to get a little on the repetitive side, with this being the second instalment also filmed in 3D, but this has a nice twist at the end that links it back to the first movie which fans of the franchise will enjoy. Hopefully there isn’t a Final Destination 6, as this will spoil the full circle motif that this movie has managed to create, though I’m sure that won’t stop the producers of this series.

You’ll like this if you liked : Final Destination 3

Run! Bitch Run! (2009) 4/10

Starring : Ivet Corvea, Cheryl Lyone, Johnny Winscher, Peter Tahoe, Christina DeRosa
Director : Joseph Guzman
Running Time : 86 mins

Two Catholic schoolgirls, Catherine (Lyone) and Rebecca (DeRosa), are travelling door-to-door selling Bibles to raise money to pay for their school fees, when they unwittingly witness a murder and find themselves on the run from a gang of sadistic sex-crazed killers.

This intentionally B-Grade looking movie is intended as an homage to the rape-revenge movies of the 1970s. The interesting part in this is that one of the primary rapists is a woman! The movie runs like such classics as I Spit On Your Grave and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with the middle of the movie basically being a chase scene, and the last half hour being the revenge portion of the movie. It’s easy to see why this was banned in many countries, but don’t let its notoriety trick you into thinking this is anything special.

You’ll like this if you liked : I Spit On Your Grave

Cowboys And Aliens (2011) 7/10

Starring : Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell
Director : Jon Favreau
Running Time : 119 mins

Jake Lonergan (Craig) wakes up in the desert, with no memory of how he got there and a strange contraption attached to his wrist. He wanders into the nearby Arizona desert town and is recognised as a wanted outlaw and locked up. That night, when local cattle rancher Woodrow Dolarhyde (Ford) turns up and demands that Lonergan be delivered to him, a strange alien ship attacks the town and takes some of its residents captive.

I thought this was going to be a silly movie with no real plot or direction, but it actually wasn’t too bad. Western fans won’t be disappointed with the standard gun fights and general violence, and sci-fi fans will enjoy the alien action. There is a story line, which makes a change with what is basically an action movie, and it’s nice to see that Hollywood didn’t choose romance over spectacle.

You’ll like this if you liked : Outlander