State Of Play (2009) 6/10

Starring : Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren
Director : Kevin Macdonald
Running Time : 128 mins

Two seemingly unrelated deaths – that of a petty thief and a congressman’s assistant – lead newspaper reporter Cal McAffrey (Crowe) to suspect that there is more to the two apparent accidents than first meets the eye. With the aid of rookie journalist Della Frye (McAdams), McAffrey starts to uncover more and more evidence that leads to what is really being covered up.

The main problem with this movie is it was just too long. If half an hour had have been cut along the way I might have actually enjoyed this, especially as it features the lovely Rachel McAdams, but the plodding pace manages to do nothing but create boredom in what could otherwise have been a fine political thriller.

You’ll like this if you liked : Michael Clayton

Gulliver’s Travels (2010) 6/10

Starring : Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly
Director : Rob Letterman
Running Time : 85 mins

Mail room worker Lemuel Gulliver (Black) is madly in love with travel editor Darcy Silverman (Peet), but when he attempts to ask her out he gets scared and instead says he’s like to try his hand at travel writing. So, he is sent on a job to write an article on Bermuda, but his ship is wrecked and he finds himself on the island of Liliput where the locals are all the size of mice…

Jack Black’s movie career goes from bad to worse as he is placed in the lead role of one of the classic American satires and basically butchers the role. Adults probably won’t enjoy this movie unless they are very childish, but kids will love experiencing all the toilet humour combined with romantic complications that is all that this movie really offers.

You’ll like this if you liked : Year One

The Wig (2005) 7/10

Starring : Chae Min-seo, Yu Seon, Lee Jeong-seong
Director : Won Shin-yeon
Running Time : 103 mins

A young woman named Su-hyeon (Chae), recovering from treatment for leukaemia, is given a gift of a wig from her sister Ji-hyeon (Yu) to make her feel better about losing her hair. As the weeks pass, Su-hyeon starts to recover far more quickly than expected, and Ji-hyeon starts to suspect that the wig might be responsible for the changes in her sister.

This is a genuinely creepy movie that manages to convey terror without doing anything majorly terrifying. By downplaying the changes in the main character the director has managed to make this more of a psychological horror than an outright scare-fest. It's just a shame that Americans seem to have decided to change the translation of this movies title from The Wig to... Scary Hair?!?

You’ll like this if you liked : The Eye

TRON Legacy (2010) 5/10

Starring : Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde
Director : Joseph Kosinski
Running Time : 126 mins

Sam Flynn (Hedlund) is the son of a famed computer programmer, Kevin Flynn (Bridges) who went missing many years ago. His search for his father leads him into the virtual world that his father created, and leads to him facing off against his father’s evil creation, Clu (Bridges).

Making a sequel to TRON has always felt to me like a terrible idea, especially as I wasn’t such a big fan of the original, but what we are given after almost thirty years of waiting is an unimaginative two hours od nonsense that focuses more on improving on the effects of the 1982 original and places no emphasis on writing a decent plot.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Chronicles Of Riddick

Boogie Woogie (2009) 5/10

Starring : Gillian Anderson, Alan Cumming, Heather Graham, Danny Huston
Director : Duncan Ward
Running Time : 91 mins

In the contemporary lifestyle of modern art expertise, a series of young hopefuls and ageing entrepreneurs try to make their mark on the world, some sleeping their way to the top, others being slept with as they fall from grace.

This movie wasn’t exactly what I’d call exciting. It mainly relied on the interconnected stories of a group of self-obsessed characters to try to progress a plot that was almost non-existent. The only redeeming feature is that it seems that this was the plan of the writers and director and that the shallowness of the characters is purely intentional and meant to be a clear representation of the sort of people that work in the modern art business.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Boat That Rocked

Little Fockers (2010) 7/10

Starring : Robert DeNiro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand
Director : Paul Weitz
Running Time : 99 mins

Ten years and two kids since they first met, Greg Focker (Stiller) has finally managed to get on the good side of his father-in-law Jack Byrnes (DeNiro), so when Jack suffers a mild heart attack, he makes the decision that Greg would be the best man to succeed him as patriarch of the family.

Although definitely not the best in the series, the third instalment of the Focker series still has a couple of laughs going for it. It’s nice that the relationship between Greg and Jack has developed as it could have gotten very old very fast if this was just another instalment in the ‘Jack Hates Greg Trilogy’. This is worth watching if you get a chance, but don’t make too much of an effort.

You’ll like this if you liked : Meet The Fockers

Management (2008) 7/10

Starring : Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn, Margo Martindale, Fred Ward
Director : Stephen Belber
Running Time : 90 mins

When travelling art saleswoman Sue Claussen (Aniston) takes a risk and has sex with motel night manager Mike Flux (Zahn), she doesn’t realise how much the moment will mean to Mike. So, when he turns up in her home town of Baltimore she is both horrified and touched by his actions.

Although from one perspective this is a sweet and touching romantic comedy that garners some great performances from both Zahn and Aniston, it’s hard not to remember that what this really is is a stalker movie. Zahn’s character follows Aniston across the country in an attempt to win her over, which some might think romantic, but the fact that she shunned his advances previously makes it ever so slightly creepy.

You’ll like this if you liked : (500) Days Of Summer

The Tourist (2010) 6/10

Starring : Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany
Director : Florain Henckel von Donnersmarck
Running Time : 99 mins

Frank Tupelo (Depp) is just another ordinary American tourist, riding the train into Venice, until he is approached by the mysterious Elise Clifton-Ward (Jolie), a woman who has decided to use him in a cunning ploy to evade the police by convincing them that Frank is her lover, Alexander Pierce, a man wanted for various crimes by both Scotland Yard and the Russian mob.

It’s not often that Johnny Depp makes an un-wonderful movie, but it looks 2010 was that year. Neither he nor Jolie are anything special in this laclustre action romance, but those that are easily pleased might find something appealing about this twist filled movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Knight And Day

St Trinians II : The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold (2009) 6/10

Starring : Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, David Tennant, Talulah Riley
Director : Oliver Parker
Running Time : 102 mins

Camilla Fritton (Everett), headmistress of St Trinian’s School For Young Ladies, reveals that she is descended from a pirate who stole the treasure belonging to another pirate, whose descendant Lord Piers Pomfrey (Tennant) wants it back. The discovery of a ring which, when paired with its partner, will reveal the location of the treasure, leads to the school girls engaging in a race against time and against the evil Lord Pomfrey.

Once again paedophiles everyway breath a heavy sigh as the girls of St Trinians don their skimpy school uniforms and start causing trouble for the middle classes. Fans of the original remake (?) should enjoy this latest instalment of school girl antics, but the jokes and stereotypes are starting to wear thin, and I doubt that there’ll be a third edition of the series.

You’ll like this if you liked : Fired Up

Futurama : Bender’s Game (2008) 7/10

Starring : Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio
Director : Dwayne Carey-Hill
Running Time : 87 mins

An extremely rare anti-backwards crystal that could cause all dark matter to become useless is accidentally used as a twelve-sided die as part of a Dungeons & Dragons game, and when it comes into proximity with Bender’s (DiMaggio) secret stash of anti-matter, the crew of the Planet Express find themselves transported into a fantasy realm created by Bender’s imagination.

This third instalment is definitely one gamers will relish, as it is filled with in jokes about gaming culture and the like. There’s still a lot here for non-gaming fans, and the humour is still as sharp as ever, with some great opportunities for the supporting characters to really shine.

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

Mean Machine (2001) 7/10

Starring : Vinnie Jones, David Kelly, David Hemmings, Ralph Brown
Director : Barry Skolnick
Running Time : 84 mins

Former England football captain Danny “Mean Machine” Meehan (Jones) is charged with drunk and disorderly – as well as assaulting two police officers – and sent to prison for three years. There, the gambling addict governor (Hemmings) forces him to train up a prison football team, then orders him to throw the game as he has money placed on the opposition…

Surprisingly this is quite a funny film, and intentionally funny to boot. Jones and his supporting cast manage to keep this tongue in cheek flick light, even when people are getting blown up and beaten up left right and centre. Aside from Jason Statham’s dodgy Scottish accent, fans of priosn comedies should enjoy this, even though the ending is a little sudden and lacks resolution.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Longest Yard

Serious Moonlight (2009) 5/10

Starring : Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Justin Long, Kristen Bell
Director : Cheryl Hines
Running Time : 84 mins

When Louise (Ryan) finds out that her husband Ian (Hutton) is having an affair with a much younger woman named Sara (Bell), she decides to take matters into her own hands and abducts Ian, taping him to the toilet in their country home, forcing him to admit if he still has feelings for her.

This movie is something of a one trick pony, with the whole movie pretty much being one long scene consisting of Meg Ryan holding Timothy Hutton hostage. The characters are one-dimensional and the plot coul have done with a lot of work. Avoid this movie if possible.

You’ll like this if you liked : Waitress

The Losers (2010) 8/10

Starring : Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short
Director : Sylvain White
Running Time : 97 mins

A Special Forces Unit is sent into the Bolivian jungle on a routine mission, only to discover that they’ve been sent on a suicide mission by their superiors. Presumed dead, the group of misfits begin to plan against their former bosses, tracking them down and plotting their revenge.

This was a really enjoyable movie, rather annoyingly better than The A-Team which it is clearly a comic book homage to. The characters were not your stereotypical stereotypes, the action was frequent but not too over the top, and the plot, though reminiscent of many other movies and TV shows, was handled expertly and not dragged out past the point of caring. A must for all action movie fans.

You’ll like this if you liked : The A-Team

Public Enemies (2009) 6/10

Starring : Christian Bale, Johnny Depp, James Russo
Director : Michael Mann
Running Time : 141 mins

Well-known bank robber John Dillinger (Depp) lives freely in 1930s Chicago with no worries concerning his potential arrest, but when FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Bale) makes his acquaintance it seems that Dillinger free and easy life of crime may be over.

I don’t think it’s just me that wasn’t impressed by this movie. The portrayal of all the people involved was flat and gave no real character to anyone shown. Even the acting ability of Johnny Depp couldn’t give the role of Dillinger anything approaching charisma, and Bale was boring and unimaginative. Steer clear unless you just want a movie to put on in the background.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

100 Girls (2000) 6/10

Starring : Jonathan Tucker, Emmanuelle Chriqui, James DeBello, Katherine Heigl, Larisa Oleynik, Jaime Pressly
Director : Michael Davis
Running Time : 95 mins

College student Matthew (Tucker) thinks he has found the girl of his dreams when he loses his virginity during a blackout when he gets stuck in a lift with a mystery woman. The problem is, he doesn’t know who she is, and he doesn’t want to come off desperate by asking around. So, with the help of some of his closer friends, he embarks on a mission to gain as much information about the women at his college by disguising himself as a female student.

This movie was okay, but it wasn’t the best teen comedy I’ve ever seen. Where in most films of this kind the nudity is treated in a funny way, this one kind of bordered on pornography, and if it wasn’t for the fact that it featured so many faces that were familiar to TV audiences it wouldn’t be difficult to mistake this for a poorly made soft-core porn film at times.

You’ll like this if you liked : Sorority Boys

Machete (2010) 6/10

Starring : Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez
Director : Ethan Maniquis & Robert Rodriguez
Running Time : 100 mins

Machete Cortez (Trejo) is hired to kill and up and coming Texas senator, but soon realizes he has been set up to take the fall and that he will be killed as soon as he takes his shot. With the help of a variety of unlikely allies, Machete sets out to exact revenge upon his former employers.

Possibly one of the worst action movies of recent years, Machete originally started life as a joke trailer during the double feature Grindhouse (Deathproof & Planet Terror). Trejo reprises his role from, of all things, Spy Kids, and is about as convincing in a lead role as a plank of wood. The supporting cast almost seem purposely poor in this stereotypical action flick, but fans of guns and violence might actually enjoy this blood fest if they don’t take it too seriously.

You’ll like this if you liked : Once Upon A Time In Mexico

Confessions Of A Shopaholic (2009) 8/10

Starring : Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Krysten Ritter
Director : PJ Hogan
Running Time : 105 mins

Rebecca Bloomwood (Fisher) is in desperate need of work in order to feed her uncontrollable shopping addiction, but when she accidentally mails a letter to a financial magazine she finds herself with her very own journalism column, using shopping comparisons for her economics articles.

I really enjoyed this movie. Isla Fisher manages to bring the quirky Rebecca Bloomwood to the big screen and breathe life into her that makes her fun to watch and a joy to support. Even though we know she needs to do something about her shopping habits, we still root for her to win in every situation she encounters.

You’ll like this if you liked : Bridget Jones’s Diary