Silver Linings Playbook (2012) 7/10

Starring : Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker
Director : David O Russell
Running Time : 122 mins

Pat Solitano (Cooper) has been released into the custody of his parents after an eight month stint in a mental health facility after he blew a fuse when he found his wife naked in the shower with another man. In his efforts to win his wife back he forms an unlikely friendship with a widow named Tiffany Maxwell (Lawrence), believing that if he enters a dance competition with her his wife might become jealous and take him back.

This is a sweet movie that tries to keep us interested by having the lead characters suffer from various neuroses, but the overall effect wasn’t as good as it could have been. Although Lawrence does a great job in her role, I only believed Cooper’s character when he was being angry – at other times he just felt like every other character he has ever played. Still, it’s definitely worth a watch.

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

Winnie The Pooh (2011) 7/10

Starring : John Cleese, Jim Cummings, Bud Luckey, Craig Ferguson, Jack Boulter
Director : Stephen J Anderson & Don Hall
Running Time : 61 mins

In Disney's 51st Animated Classic, Winnie The Pooh (Cummings) helps his good friend Eeyore (Luckey) who appears to have mislaid his tail, but when Owl (Ferguson) misinterprets a note left by Christopher Robin (Boulter) he jumps to the conclusion that the boy has been kidnapped by a creature called a Backsoon!

Disney returns to its classic animated look for this revival of Winnie The Pooh – the first Pooh movie to be classed as a Disney Classic since 1977. All our favourite characters are there, and the usual misunderstandings lead to fun that very young children will enjoy. The plot isn’t complicated, and I was shocked when the end credits started to run only 50 minutes in, but for kids with short attention spans this movie is perfect.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Tigger Movie

Argo (2012) 8/10

Starring : Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman
Director : Ben Affleck
Running Time : 121 mins

It’s 1979, and when the American embassy in Iran is invaded and a number of Americans are taken hostage, six hostages manage to escape and seek shelter in the Canadian embassy. The CIA is challenged with getting the six out of the country, and exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with a plan that involves smuggling the six out of the country under the guise of the production crew on a fictional sci-fi movie.

This was an entertaining movie that, although based on true events, manages to make those events feel simultaneously humorous and serious. The acting isn’t anything special, but the approach to the scenario is handled very well and it’s not surprising this is up for Best Picture at next year’s Oscars.

You’ll like this if you liked : Fair Game

Love And Other Drugs (2010) 8/10

Starring : Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria, Josh Gad
Director : Edward Zwick
Running Time : 113 mins

Pharmaceutical salesman Jamie Randall (Gyllenhaal) will stop at nothing to get a sale, even going as far as paying a doctor so that he can sit in on his consultations, so when Parkinson’s patient Maggie Murdock (Hathaway) walks into his life he takes the opportunity to get to know her as a way in with the various doctors she’s been consulting. It isn’t long before the two fall for each other, but can Jamie manage to focus on love and his career as he is given a hot tip about new wonder drug Viagra?

I was expecting this to be yet another silly sex comedy, but it is in fact a touching look at illness and relationships and how the two can cause major problems for couples. Gyllenhaal and Hathaway have great chemistry on screen and their characters are vibrant and real in every scene. Sadly Josh Gad’s comic relief character was a little uninspired and fell flat at times.

You’ll like this if you liked : No Strings Attached

Taken 2 (2012) 6/10

Starring : Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Leland Orser, Rade Sherbedgia
Director : Olivier Megaton
Running Time : 93 mins

History repeats itself when retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Neeson) invites his ex-wife Lenore (Janssen) and daughter Kim (Grace) to spend some time with him in Istanbul where he is working. It isn’t long before Bryan and Lenore are kidnapped by a man named Murad Krasniqi (Sherbedgia), the father of the man Mills killed when his daughter was kidnapped years earlier, and now their only hope of escape is Kim, who managed to evade capture.

For some reason Liam Neeson looks like he’s not even trying in this odd sequel. I just couldn’t fathom why there would be a sequel to Taken other than the fact that it made so much money that the producers though that making another would be guaranteed profit. This movie is a little weak, and having Maggie Grace trying to defeat the bad guys was almost laughable, but fans of random action movies that don’t make sense should get a kick out of this.

You’ll like this if you liked : Die Hard 4.0

Monster’s Ball (2001) 6/10

Starring : Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger, Halle Berry, Peter Boyle
Director : Marc Forster
Running Time : 109 mins

Racist prison guard Hank Grotowski (Thornton) finds himself falling in love with a black woman named Leticia Musgrove (Berry) when they get to know each other after her son is involved in a hit and run accident. To make things worse, Hank is also the man who executed Leticia’s husband as part of his Death Row duties, but neither of them realise that this is the case.

The fact that Hank has had a racist upbringing doesn’t even really seem to get touched upon; granted his dad uses the n word, but Hank talks to black people and doesn’t say anything outrageously derogatory about them. The main focus should have really been on the fact that Hank killed Leticia’s husband, which would be a mjor obstacle for the two of them to overcome – even bigger than race – and the fact that race is even brought into the equation tends to water down the overall message of the movie. Throw in some over the top sex scenes and hammy acting from Berry, and this turns out to be a pretty mediocre flick.

You’ll like this if you liked : Black Snake Moan

Anna Karenina (2012) 6/10

Starring : Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen
Director : Joe Wright
Running Time : 130 mins

It’s 1874, and aristocrat Anna Karenina (Knightley) has journeyed to Moscow to help save her brother Prince Oblonsky (Macfadyen) from a failed marriage, but when she meets Count Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson) and starts an illicit affair with him, she finds that her own marriage to Count Alexei Karenin (Law) might be in jeopardy.

Jude Law does do a really good job in this latest adaptation of Tolstoy’s melodramatic work. Sadly, Knightley doesn’t feel like she is acting anymore and seems to play the same character in everything and as for Taylor-Johnson in a serious role? I can’t take him seriously since Kick-Ass, even though he did dramatic roles prior to that, and I sense that Kick-Ass may have ruined any career he may have planned on having. Fans of Tolstoy might enjoy this, or they might think that there is too much going on in the background for such a simple and dark story.

You’ll like this if you liked : Marie Antoinette

J Edgar (2011) 7/10

Starring : Leonardo DiCaprio, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Armie Hammer, Josh Lucas
Director : Clint Eastwood
Running Time : 137 mins

While being interviewed for a biography of his life, J Edgar Hoover () recounts his career as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from his early days as a man obsessed with taking action against those he feel oppose the American way of life right up to his involvement in certain cases where he embellished his role in certain captures to make himself looking like a great man to both politicians and the public.

Although a little slow, and aside from the fact that there isn’t really any action, this is still an interesting movie that manages to address Hoover’s relationship with fellow bureau official Clyde Tolson without openly saying they were gay. DiCaprio brings Hoover to life with an incredible sense of belief that is heavily promoted by Eastwood’s great directing, but sadly there isn’t really enough here to make this a truly great biopic.

You’ll like this if you liked : Milk

The Campaign (2012) 8/10

Starring : Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, Katherine LaNasa, Sarah Baker, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd
Director : Jay Roach
Running Time : 109 mins

In a desperate attempt to gain influence over their North Carolina district, two dodgy businessmen – the Motch brothers (Lithgow & Aykroyd) – come up with a plan to get rid of the existing congressman, Cam Brady (Ferrell), by organising a competitor for his position who will do what they say, but they need someone malleable that they can mould to their needs, so they decide on using local tourism operative Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), a naïve family man with no political experience but who has always wanted to get into politics.

It’s been a long time since Will Ferrell has made what I’d class as a laugh-out-loud comedy, but this manages to perfectly balance slapstick comedy with a plotline! Jay Roach (of Austin Powers fame) has done what few have done for Ferrell since Anchorman and directed him in a movie that is consistently funny. It may also be in part thanks to writer Adam McKay who co-wrote both films, but either way Ferrell and Galifianakis make a wonderful pair in this funnier than usual comedy.

You’ll like this if you liked : Anchorman : The Legend Of Ron Burgundy

Arrietty (2010) 7/10

Starring : Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Olivia Colman, Geraldine McEwan, Mark Strong
Director : Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Running Time : 91 mins

Pod (Strong) and his wife Homily (Colman) are four inches tall and live secretly in a human-sized house with their only daughter Arrietty (Ronan), but when a young boy with a heart condition named Sho (Holland) moves into the house and discovers Arrietty in the garden, the family’s life is turned upside-down and the start to fear that others may discover them as well.

Like all of the Studio Ghibli movies this is beautifully animated and doesn’t talk down to kids. This might not have the cute characters some might associate with Ghibli, but it is still fun filled and action packed without having action for action’s sake. The ending is a little open ended, but I don’t expect there to be a sequel as that is sort of a rarity for Studio Ghibli, so it does lose a few marks for having no real conclusion.

You’ll like this if you liked : Ponyo

The Five-Year Engagement (2012) 8/10

Starring : Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie
Director : Nicholas Stoller
Running Time : 132 mins

One year after meeting at a New Year’s Eve party, Tom Solomon (Segel) decides to propose to his girlfriend Violet Barnes (Blunt), but when Violet gets offered a position as an experimental psychologist at a university that will involve them having to move, the wedding gets put on hold for two years until she can complete her work, with Tom deciding to quit his chef job in order to stay with her. But when the two years turns into four, Tom starts to get annoyed with how much of his life has been put on hold for Violet.

I actually really enjoyed this movie which looks at the kind of things that can delay a wedding, most of them being related to career opportunities. I thought, judging by the runtime and the bad press I’d heard about it that it would be awful, but it is actually very entertaining with some realistic comedy that doesn’t go too over the top, although the rushed wedding at the end felt a little tacked on to me.

You’ll like this if you liked : Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Bernie (2011) 6/10

Starring : Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey
Director : Richard Linklater
Running Time : 100 mins

Bernie Tiede (Black) is an extremely popular mortician in his small Texan home town, where he is known for throwing the best funerals in town and making even the worst person sound and look good. He starts a relationship with a wealthy local widow, Marjorie Nugent (MacLaine), who is known to be bitter and mean, but she soon turns her attitude around when she starts taking Bernie with her on vacations and he becomes part of her everyday life. But when she decides she doesn’t want to share Bernie with anyone else, Bernie is faced with a dilemma.

Jack Black is likeable in a self-serving sort of way in this light-hearted drama, but when he accidentally kills Shirley MacLaine I was kind of thrown. The acting isn’t up to much, but the overall feel of the movie made it reasonably likeable although – as with most things based on true events – the ending was a bit sad and not what you’d expect.

You’ll like this if you liked : Cedar Rapids

Get The Gringo (2012) 5/10

Starring : Mel Gibson, Kevin Hernandez, Daniel Gimenez Cacho
Director : Adrian Grunberg
Running Time : 96 mins

When he is arrested by Mexican police, a man known simply as Driver (Gibson) is sent to a tough Mexican prison where prisoners are permitted to carry weapons and where there seem to be no rules. The Driver meets a kid (Hernandez) who lives in the prison, and together they form a bond through which they try to put a stop to the corrupt running of the prison.

Personally I didn’t enjoy this movie. Yet again Hollywood has decided to make a movie about a criminal who defeats other criminals and is thereby redeemed. What a load of rubbish. In spite of some okay performances from those involved, and a reasonable script that doesn’t go too over the top, but the combination just didn’t work well for me.

You’ll like this if you liked : Safe House

Scooby-Doo And The Goblin King (2008) 6/10

Starring : Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, Mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle
Director : Joe Sichta
Running Time : 74 mins

In the twelfth of the direct to video Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo (Welker) and Shaggy (Kasem) find themselves transported into a world of magic where they must find the magical sceptre of the Goblin King before an evil magician can claim them and gain supreme power over the world of magic.

I have to say I much prefer the Scooby-Doo movies that have fake monsters. This admits right from the get go that the ghosts involved are real, and this has always been something of a spoiler for me. Fair enough if we go through the whole movie and then the ghosts are real, but this just felt like an episode from the eighties and the only thing that would have ruined it completely would have been if Scrappy-Doo showed up.

You’ll like this if you liked : Scooby-Doo And The Cyber Chase

Skyfall (2012) 8/10

Starring : Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris
Director : Sam Mendes
Running Time : 144 mins

Whilst on a routine mission, James Bond (Craig) is accidentally shot down by one of his own people and presumed dead. He survives, but while he is missing his boss M (Dench) finds herself under pressure to retire, using Bond’s death as an excuse. Bond eventually returns when he hears of an attack on MI6, and his investigation leads to a man named Silva (Bardem) who wants M dead.

I’m breathing a sigh of relief that this wasn’t another Quantum Of Solace. Granted, it doesn’t feel like a Bond movie, and clearly Bond wants to give up his job and isn’t his usual cheerful quippy self, but fans of Craig in the role will really love this gritty instalment that leaves the audience second guessing at every turn.

You’ll like this if you liked : Casino Royale

Ca$h (2010) 7/10

Starring : Sean Bean, Chris Hemsworth, Victoria Profeta, Mike Starr
Director : Stephen Milburn Anderson
Running Time : 109 mins

Sam Phelan (Hemsworth) finds a suitcase filled with money in the back of his car, and he and his wife Leslie (Profeta) can’t believe their good luck. Sadly, the money belongs to criminal Reese Kubic (Bean) who was being chased by the cops when he got rid of the bag, and his identical twin brother Pyke (Bean) has tracked down the Phelans and wants the money back.

This starts off slowly, and the whole twin thing was irrelevant to most of the movie, but this did get entertaining when the Phelan’s start working with Kubic to get the money back. Fans of heist movies will like this and it really concentrates on the planning more than the execution, but it would have been better if it was a little faster paced.

You’ll like this if you liked : Bandits

Changeling (2008) 7/10

Starring : Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner, Colm Feore, Devon Conti, Gattlin Griffith
Director : Clint Eastwood
Running Time : 141 mins

Christine Collins (Jolie) is devastated when her son Walter (Griffith) disappears without a trace. The police spend five months trying to track him down and finally bring Christine good news – they have found a young boy (Conti) who says he is Walter, but Christine knows instantly that this is not her son, but in spite of her protests the police – namely Captain Jones (Donovan) – try to silence her by declaring her mental unstable and an unfit mother, and have her committed to an asylum.

Apparently based on true events, it’s amazing how dodgy the police can be just so that they can close a missing persons case. The idea that the police could do this rather than trying to track down a serial killer is a little frightening, as were their methods in dealing with Christine Collins, but Eastwood manages to direct this in a way that keeps us believing the actions of those involved and keeps the intrigue going from start to finish.

You’ll like this if you liked : Unknown