The Company Men (2010) 6/10

Starring : Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones
Director : John Wells
Running Time : 105 mins

Bobby Walker (Affleck), Gene McClary (Jones) and Phil Woodward (Cooper) all work for the same company, and are all affected by the recession when their bosses decide to lay people off. They find that the work place can be a very competitive place, especially when your pay expectations are high or you a little older than the usual job applicant in a world that prejudices the old.

This is almost like watching Wall Street after everyone gets laid off, and the ridiculous career choices the characters make. Most of the guys in this stay unemployed, with Affleck getting a job as a builder, but it is their attitudes towards unemployment that is what this movie’s plot hinges on. It’s fun to see the characters either deflate completely or just explode for no reason as they are faced with losing their cushy lives, but it might have been nice if they didn’t all have such seemingly happy endings – not a single marriage fell apart, which seems unlikely.

You’ll like this if you liked : Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps

Midnight In Paris (2011) 7/10

Starring : Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kurt Fuller, Mimi Kennedy, Marion Cotillard
Director : Woody Allen
Running Time : 91 mins

While on holiday in Paris with his fiancée Inez (McAdams) and her parents, struggling writer Gil Pender (Wilson) goes out one night and discovers he is able to travel back in time to the 1920s, where he meets some of his all-time literary heroes who help him to get the inspiration he so sorely needs to help with his unpublished novel. Unfortunately he finds himself falling for as woman called Adriana (Cotillard), a 1920s lady that has dated some of the greatest artistes of all time.

This starts off terribly slow – I was really worried this was going to be like the last Woody Allen movie I saw, Whatever Works – with no plot and endless Allen-esque ramblings. Thankfully this eventually develops an interesting plot, and the lead (Wilson) manages to remain likeable in spite of his dual (if not triple) relationships in what is basically a truncated rip off of the 90s sitcom, Goodnight, Sweetheart.

You’ll like this if you liked : How Do You Know

Nights In Rodanthe (2008) 6/10

Starring : Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Christopher Meloni
Director : George C Wolfe
Running Time : 97 mins

Adrienne Willis (Lane) is having troubles with her husband Jack (Meloni), so to give herself some space she agrees to run a friends inn for the weekend in Rodanthe, North Carolina. The only guest at the inn Dr Paul Flanner (Gere), a man who is trying to get in touch with his estranged husband, but when a storm is forecast the two find themselves trapped together and they start up an unexpected romance.

Yet another movie which starts off reasonably, gets all slushy and romantic, then has something horrible happen right out of left field that really makes it miserable. In spite of this, there are some okay moments that those who are really sappy will enjoy, although the romance between the two leads is a little quick off the bat. Don’t watch this if you want a cheerful movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Notebook

Real Steel (2011) 8/10

Starring : Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo
Director : Shawn Levy
Running Time : 127 mins

In the not too distant future, where robot fighting is a popular sport, struggling ex-boxer turned robot fighting promoter, Charlie Kenton (Jackman), spends all of his time trying to find a robot that can win him big. When his ex dies, he discovers he has an eleven-year-old son - Max (Goyo) – and the two of them start working together to rebuild a broken-down robot they found at a junk yard.

This is a fun movie which, although filled with futuristic robot action, is basically a story about the relationship between a man and his son. Jackman and Goyo have a great on-screen relationship, and even if you can’t be bothered with the story, there’s plenty of robot fisticuffs to keep you entertained. It’s a little long, but to be honest I didn’t even notice.

You’ll like this if you liked : Transformers

Dear John (2010) 6/10

Starring : Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins
Director : Lasse Hallstrom
Running Time : 107 mins

While home on leave from the army, John Tyree (Tatum) meets and falls for student Savannah Curtis (Seyfried). They manage to get past the fact that John is due to finish his tour of duty and has to go back off to war, and they write to each other all the time, but following the events of 9/11 John decides to reenlist when his tour of duty finishes, much to the frustration of Savannah.

This is a very slow going attempt at cashing in on recent sad romance movies such as Letters To Juliet, The Note Book, Remember Me or more recently The Vow. Personally I didn’t really like this – the characters were a little one-dimensional and the fact that John can’t choose between fighting for his country and being with the woman he loves, and that Savannah marries another man just because John's off fighting, doesn’t really say much for their relationship.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Notebook

Setup (2011) 4/10

Starring : Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Bruce Willis, Ryan Phillippe, James Remar
Director : Mike Gunther
Running Time : 85 mins

Following a big money robbery, Sonny (Jackson) is betrayed and left for dead by his friend Vincent Long (Phillippe). Planning his revenge, Sonny decides to team up with a local mob boss, Jack Biggs (Willis) in order to get his hands on the stolen money, but what Sonny doesn’t know is that Vincent betrayed his friends in order to stop his father William (Remar) from being killed in prison.

There’s some terrible acting in this revenge movie, where 50 Cent is made to look like a good guy by not killing his friends, even though his actions knowingly allow him to responsible for his dad’s death. But he gives the money to some woman he fancies, so he can’t be all that bad. What a load of shit.

You’ll like this if you liked : Armoured

The One (2001) 7/10

Starring : Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham
Director : James Wong
Running Time : 84 mins

Gabriel Yulaw (Li), also known as Lawless, discovers that there are multiple universes with multiple versions of himself, and that if he kills them it makes him stronger. So he hijacks the police method of travelling between universes – quantum tunnelling - in order to kill all of his alternate versions until he is the only, all-powerful One remaining. But his last remaining target is police officer Gabe Law (Li), who has the same level of power as Yulaw.

Although the special effects were hammy – mainly due to the use of ropes and pullies for the fight scenes which made people fly about in a far too unrealistic way – and the plot feels unoriginal, this is still a pretty fun-filled sci-fi movie. Li may not be the greatest actor, but come on, this is an action movie! You don’t need great actors if the fighting is fun and the plot is interesting. This is definitely worth watching if you love classic action fair.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Matrix

Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows : Part 1 (2010) 8/10

Starring : Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes
Director : David Yates
Running Time : 146 mins

Harry (Radcliffe) and his friends find themselves on the run from the Ministry of Magic which is accusing any witch or wizard with even a hint of muggle blood of being a danger to magical society. The only way they can save their fellow witches and wizards from death is to find the Horcruxes that contain fragments of Lord Voldermort’s (Fiennes) soul and kill him once and for all.

This Harry Potter movie manages to mix the darkness of the late movies and the lightness of the early movies perfectly. The stand out sequence for me is where the three leads take on the guises of workers at the Ministry of Magic in order to infiltrate their headquarters to find one of the missing Horcruxes. Fans of the series will love this exceptional instalment, although the point where the movie ends didn’t feel quite right to me.

You’ll like this if you liked : Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

I Sell The Dead (2008) 7/10

Starring : Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Larry Fessenden
Director : Glenn McQuaid
Running Time : 82 mins

Faced with being beheaded for murder, grave-robber Arthur Blake (Monaghan) tells his life story to Father Francis Duffy (Perlman), explaining how he got into stealing corpses with his mentor Willie Grimes (Fessenden), and coming out with an almost unbelievable tale of aliens, immortality, and the undead.

I actually thought this was pretty good for a movie I’d never even heard of before. Monaghan and Fessenden are great in the lead roles, and the idea that Monaghan is telling the story to Perlman allows us to believe that what he is telling may not be entirely true. It isn’t until the final scene that we know for sure whether or not he is lying, and it’s definitely worth the wait.

You’ll like this if you liked : Burke And Hare

Source Code (2011) 7/10

Starring : Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Director : Duncan Jones
Running Time : 95 mins

Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) wakes upon a train in the body of school teacher Sean Fentress, and within eight minutes he is killed when the train blows up. He then wakes to find he is part of a government experiment to stop terrorism by sending people into victims to find evidence of the terrorist’s identity. Apparently there is no way for him to change the events that have already taken place, but when he falls for bomb-victim Christine Warren (Monaghan), he decides to do everything he can to save her.

Those who hated repetitive movies such as Groundhog Day and Déjà vu will despise this, but I thought it wasn’t too bad. The plot is interesting, and the performances are sound, and if you can look past the repetition – which, to be honest, isn’t that repetitive – you might find that this is actually a decent sci-fi romantic action movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Deja Vu

Know Thy Enemy (2009) 3/10

Starring : Sheaun McKinney, Marlon Taylor, Jeremy Mitchell
Director : Lee Cipolla
Running Time : 85 mins

Nate “Nemesis”Harris (McKinney) has been dubbed the hottest rap artist in Miami, but secretly he doesn’t want to be a rapper – he only agreed to be a hard-core stereotypical hip-hop artist in order to get a record deal and some much sought after airplay. His publicists set about making him appear to be a typical rapper by faking a violent history for him, but when his fans demand to see some evidence of Nate’s true gangster nature, his bosses set his childhood friend Razor Ric (Taylor) against him to create a rap war.

Clearly this movie is aimed at people with low IQs, as the narrative really spells everything out for the viewer. I especially found the scene where Razor Ric tells his cronies that he is declaring war on Nemesis to be a prime example of this talking-down-to narrative. Fans of bad rap movies will like this, otherwise steer clear.

You’ll like this if you liked : 8 Mile

Albatross (2011) 7/10

Starring : Felicity Jones, Sebastian Koch, Julia Ormond, Jessica Brown Findlay
Director : Niall MacCormick
Running Time : 90 mins

Seventeen year old Beth Fischer (Jones) befriends a new girl in town, aspiring author Amelia Conan Doyle (Brown Findlay), but as Amelia starts to become more of a feature in the lives of Beth’s family, she starts an affair with Beth’s writer-father (Koch).

It’s nice that the two characters that have an affair actually have something in common, but the whole thing was still a mid-life crisis cry for help from the dad, and I did feel sorry for Beth, faced with the possibility of losing her dad and her new best friend while having to put up with her overbearing mother. I like that Amelia manages to turn things around and chooses her friend over her pretentious lover, and the ending where everything pretty much falls apart makes for a believable conclusion.

You’ll like this if you liked : An Education

Cyrus (2010) 7/10

Starring : John C Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener
Director : Jay & Mark Duplass
Running Time : 88 mins

When he discovers that his ex-wife Jamie (Keener) is about to get remarried, John Kirkpatrick (Reilly) decides to finally try to move on. He meets Molly Fawcett (Tomei), a woman he thinks is perfect and could really help him move on from his previous relationship, but when he meets her clingy son Cyrus (Hill) he discovers that he might have to fight him for Molly’s attention.

This is a very subtle movie that doesn’t do anything too major to make John and Cyrus hate each other but manages to make the issue of their disliking each other pretty clear to the audience. Both Reilly and Hill play their roles perfectly and manage not to overact, as this could have quite easily spoilt the whole movie. Worth watching if you like comedies such as Juno and Little Miss Sunshine.

You’ll like this if you liked : Dan In Real Life

In Time (2011) 7/10

Starring : Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy
Director : Andrew Niccol
Running Time : 106 mins

In a world where everyone stops ageing at twenty-five but is forced to purchase additional time to continue living, Will Salas (Timberlake) finds himself accused of murder and is forced to go on the run - taking a young woman named Sylvia Weis (Seyfried) as a hostage - to prevent himself from losing what little life he has left to him.

This actually wasn’t half bad. I felt like a Philip K Dick story but is actually an original story by writer / director Andrew Niccol, which is rare in this day and age of remakes, sequels, and movies based on little known novels. Timberlake and Seyfried may not be that impressive in terms of acting skills in this, but the action and plotline really manage to push the story forward on their own.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Running Man

The Fourth Kind (2009) 7/10

Starring : Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Director : Olatunde Osunsanmi
Running Time : 98 mins

Psychiatrist Dr Abigail Tyler (Jovovich) starts to suspect there is something strange happening in her home town of Nome, Alaska when a number of her patients claim to have similar dreams involving owls. As she investigates, she suspects their dreams may be related to the death of her husband, Will, and that they may be a supressed memory of alien abduction.

This movie is set out as if it is a documentary about a true event, and manages to make this feel believable up to a point. The mix of alleged documentary footage and re-enactments does at times work well, but for me the intro and closing by Jovovich and director Olatunde Osunsanmi kind of spoiled the movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Paranormal Activity 2

51 (2011) 6/10

Starring : Rachel Milner, Jason London, Bruce Boxleitner
Director : Jason Connery
Running Time : 90 mins

When public pressure forces the Air Force to be a bit more open about the infamous Area 51, the decide to allow a certain number of well-known reporters on to the base. Unfortunately, some of the long-term visitors at the base – alien creatures with various special abilities – uses the opportunity of the unusual visit to break free and aid his fellow captives in their escape.

This had TV movie written all over it, but to be fair it wasn’t that bad. The effects were ropey and the acting was hammy, but this is disaster stroke horror movie and that is to be expected. To be hones t this is just good, clean, badly-made fun that will entertain those who are fans of the usual stuff that is churned out by the SyFy channel.

You’ll like this if you liked : Deep Rising

Blue Crush (2002) 5/10

Starring : Kate Bosworth, Matthew Davis, Michelle Rodriguez
Director : John Stockwell
Running Time : 102 mins

Anne Marie Chadwick (Bosworth) loves nothing more than waking up early and catching some surf on her board – she loves this so much in fact that she uproots herself and moves to Hawaii with a group of friends, including best bud Eden (Rodriguez), so she can get more practice and possibly surf professionally. But when she meets Matt Tollman (Davis), she finds herself falling for him - and falling off her board - as their romance starts to interfere with her potential as a pro surfer.

This is a pretty bad movie that focuses more on showing scenes of surfing excellence than on actually writing a decent script or employing decent actors. It sometimes gets confusing as to what is a surf board and what is Kate Bosworth. Surf fans might find something worth watching here, as will fans of scantily clad bikini babes, but if you are looking for something with some substance then this won’t be for you.

You’ll like this if you liked : National Lampoon's Endless Bummer

The Adventures Of Tintin (2011) 7/10

Starring : Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg
Director : Steven Spielberg
Running Time : 107 mins

When young reporter Tintin (Bell) buys a model ship from a market stall, he finds himself on a fantastic adventure in search of a long lost ship called the Unicorn. Along the way he joins forces with Captain Haddock (Serkis), whose ancestor originally captained the Unicorn, and also finds himself under threat from the evil Sakharine (Craig).

This was a pretty faithful adaptation of the Herge comic book – with a few extra action sequences thrown in for good measure – but Spielberg fans might find it difficult to recognise his input. Fans of the books will enjoy this, but people who are expecting something visually impressive or comically fuelled will be disappointed by this story driven animation.

You’ll like this if you liked : Legend Of The Guardians : The Owles Of Ga’Hoole