Nitro Circus : The Movie (2012) 5/10

Starring : Travis Pastrana, Jolene Van Vugt, Tommy Passemante, Jim DeChamp
Director : Greg Godfrey & Jeremy Rawle
Running Time : 92 mins

The crew from the NitroCircus stunt crew jump to the big screen, performing some more elaborate stunts such as a looping-the-loop in a wheelchair, bike ramp jumping, performing jumps in a semi truck, water skiing off riding a speedboat through flames, riding bikes off high rise rooftops, rolling rally cars and jet skiing into oblivion.

This felt pretty put on, and none of the stunt accidents felt real, even though one of the crew apparently did damage their back. Interspersed with interviews with celebrities and their peers – including Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame – this might appeal to people who were fans of the TV show, but this is basically a long episode of the show with some 3D effects that aren’t that impressive. Think of a really boring repetitive episode of Mythbusters that goes on for ninety minutes, and you’ve pretty much got the gist of this movie.

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

Dickie Roberts : Former Child Star (2003) 7/10

Starring : David Spade, Mary McCormack, Craig Bierko, Alyssa Milano, Scott Terra, Jenna Boyd
Director : Sam Weisman
Running Time : 98 mins

Thirty-five year old former television star Dickie Roberts (Spade) desperately wants to get back into the limelight, but realises that the only way he can do this and not be typecast is to try out for a role as a normal man. Unfortunately he never had a normal childhood, so he decides to hire out a family so that he can see how their children’s lives are led.

This started off as a typical comedy venture for David Spade, but soon changed into something a little different for him. I liked the touch of having him be friends with other child stars, although I didn't recognise all of them, and his relationship with the kids he ends up shadowing was played out perfectly.

You’ll like this if you liked : Joe Dirt

Grabbers (2012) 8/10

Starring : Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey, Lalor Roddy, David Pearse, Bronagh Gallagher
Director : Jon Wright
Running Time : 94 mins

When a number of giant squid-like creatures are discovered on a remote Irish island, Garda officers Ciaran O’Shea (Coyle) and Lisa Nolan (Bradley) discover that the only way to stop the blood-sucking creatures from killing everyone is to get the entire village drunk.

This is a fantastic horror flick filled with some great performances, especially from Bradley who is possibly the best drunk I’ve seen in a long time. Fans of horror films will love the nods to the genre, such as the scientist discovering the weaknesses of the beast and the ridiculous solution to the alien invasion, and fans of comedy will love the way the two cops handle the problem – by not telling anyone about the beasts and just inviting them all to a piss up!

You’ll like this if you liked : Evolution

Felon (2008) 8/10

Starring : Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, Marisol Nichols, Harold Perrineau, Anne Archer, Nick Chinlund, Nate Parker, Johnny Lewis
Director : Ric Roman Waugh
Running Time : 104 mins

When he accidentally kills a burglar who is running from his house, Wade Porter (Dorff) is arrested for murder and placed in a prison environment. Faced with three years in prison, Wade has to adjust to life inside with the worst of the worst and must learn to cope with the daily routine of violence and death.

This really did make a bleak case not only for prison life but for life in general. There isn’t one good person in the entire prison system, and poor Stephen Dorff getting arrested for murder when he’s just trying to protect his family is typical of the American justice system. This is a good film, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who hates to see injustice prevail.

You’ll like this if you liked : Con Air

Django Unchained (2012) 8/10

Starring : Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L Jackson
Director : Quentin Tarantino
Running Time : 166 mins

A freed slave named Django (Foxx) joins forces with the man who freed him. A bounty hunter and former dentist Dr King Schultz (Waltz), who bought his freedom with the aim of making Django his deputy bounty hunter, but instead the two journey in search of Django’s wife, Broomhilda von Schaft (Washington), who has been purchased by plantation owner Calvin Candie (DiCaprio).

This actually wasn’t bad for a Tarantino movie. I’ve never been a big fan of his constant jumping from seemingly irrelevant scene to scene, introducing characters that are only ever so loosely related to each other (especially in films like Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown), but this has a great natural flow and, in spite of what people have said, isn’t as unnecessarily violent as you might think. Fox and Waltz make a perfect odd couple team, with DiCaprio proving his maturity once again with a very capable villainous role.

You’ll like this if you liked : Kill Bill : Volume One

Never Back Down 2 : The Beatdown (2011) 5/10

Starring : Michael Jai White, Dean Geyer, Alex Meraz, Todd Duffee, Scottie Epstein, Jillian Murphy, Evan Peters
Director : Michael Jai White
Running Time : 100 mins

Four college age kids love nothing better than fighting, so under the tuition of unorthodox trainer and ex-UFC Champion Case Walker (White) they train together to compete in a competition known as the Beatdown, but when Walker is set up and arrested by the local police, the trainees realise that one amongst them has betrayed his trust.

I don’t know why people keep making films about street fighting, especially when they’re not very good scripts. This is an okay movie, but it gets a bit boring and predictable as it progresses and eventually devolves into the kind of plot that only Jean Claude Van Damme could be proud of.

You’ll like this if you liked : Kick Boxer

The Sapphires (2012) 7/10

Starring : Chris O’Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell
Director : Wayne Blair
Running Time : 99 mins

It’s 1968, and a quartet of female aboriginal singers, Gail (Mailman), Julie (Mauboy), Kay (Sebbens) and Cynthia (Tapsell) are discovered by Irish talent scout Dave Lovelace (O’Dowd), who convinces them to stop singing country and western numbers and to start singing soul music instead. Comparisons are drawn between them and The Supremes, and their popularity lands them a gig entertaining the troops in Vietnam.

This was a nice movie that manages to take true events and make them entertaining, largely due to the romantic relationship between O’Dowd and Mailman. Fans of Dreamgirls will enjoy this, as in many ways it is a better, far more rounded movie, though it doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of energy, something it could really have done with to keep it going towards the end.

You’ll like this if you liked : Dreamgirls

Mysterious Skin (2004) 8/10

Starring : Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michelle Trachtenberg, Bill Sage, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Elisabeth Shue
Director : Gregg Araki
Running Time : 100 mins

Brian Lackey (Corbet) and Neil McCormick (Gordon-Levitt) are two completely different sorts of teenagers, but something that happened to them both when they were both eight years old connects them in a very unpleasant way. Brian believes he was abducted by aliens as a child, due his nose bleeds and black outs, while the other has turned to a life of prostitution after being abused by his little league coach.

This is a clever movie that shows two completely contrasting reactions to child abuse. Both Corbet and Gordon-Levitt are perfectly cast as the leads, both giving great performances in their respective roles, but many might find the subject matter cuts a little close to the bone.

You’ll like this if you liked : Hard Candy

Seven Psychopaths (2012) 8/10

Starring : Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken
Director : Martin McDonagh
Running Time : 111 mins

Struggling screen play writer Marty (Farrell) is desperately trying to come up with ideas for his latest project, a movie called Seven Psychopaths, when his friends Billy (Rockwell) and Hans (Walken) – who make money by stealing dogs and then returning them for the reward money – mistakenly steal the shih tzu belonging to criminal gangster Charlie Costello (Harrelson).

This is a great little movie that manages to balance humour and action well. Rockwell pretty much makes this movie, though Farrell and Walken are both good in their own right. The concept is more original than some gangster comedies I’ve seen in recent years, though technically there are only six psychopaths, and the conclusion of the movie is both satisfying and unexpected.

You’ll like this if you liked : In Bruges

My Sister’s Keeper (2009) 7/10

Starring : Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, Jason Patric, Sofia Vassilieva, Heather Wahlquist, Joan Cusack
Director : Nick Cassavetes
Running Time : 109 mins

Eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald (Breslin) has always known that the only reason she was ever born was so that her parents Sara (Diaz) and Brian (Patric) could use her for “spare parts” for their eldest daughter Kate (Vassilieva), who is dying of cancer. One day she decides that enough is enough and makes contact with top lawyer Campbell Alexander (Baldwin) in the hopes of winning medical emancipation from her parents so that she doesn’t have to go through anymore unnecessary surgeries.

This movie uses the lazy choice of flashbacks to show how cancer has affected the members of the Fitzgerald family over the years, though the idea of a child suing their parents so they don’t have to have surgeries to help save their sibling is an interesting one. It’s a little annoying that Vassilieva is so far down the billing considering her pivotal and emotional role in this film, but as usual the director chooses to concentrate on Breslin, who is okay but nothing special.

You’ll like this if you liked : Now Is Good

The Man With The Iron Fists (2012) 6/10

Starring : Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, RZA, Rick Yune, David Bautista, Jamie Chung
Director : RZA
Running Time : 96 mins

A village blacksmith (RZA) in 19th Century China is the main source of weaponry for the duelling clans in the area, so when a gold shipment is attacked and those delivering it are killed, the man tasked with ensuring the shipment goes through, Jack Knife (Crowe), suspects the blacksmith of being involved as he was the man who made the weapons the guards were killed with.

I really struggled to get into this movie. Perhaps it’s because it has been edited down from four hours to a measly ninety minutes and that a lot got lost in translation, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough substance to compensate for the amount of things that are going on in this movie. True, it is a visually well observed kung fu style of movie, but the scripting was a little weak and didn’t quite match up with the appearance.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Expendables 2

I Don’t Know How She Does It (2011) 6/10

Starring : Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Christina Hendricks, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Meyers, Olivia Munn
Director : Douglas McGrath
Running Time : 90 mins

Kate Reddy (Parker) works for a financial management firm while simultaneously taking care of her family, including out of work husband Richard (Kinnear). Her balance between work and home is a struggle, but things become even more problematic when she is given a new account that will involve her travelling across the country on a regular basis.

This was one of those horrible movies that manage to make men look bad without doing it in an overt way. I really didn’t get why Parker’s kids were so needy; their dad wasn’t working, so couldn’t he have done all the stuff she didn’t have time to do? It was almost as if to say time stood still when Parker left the house and if it wasn’t for her nothing would get done. To be fair, she didn’t really do that impressive a job. I’ve seen plenty of women do much better than her, considering all the events she missed out on throughout the film and the fact that if she concentrated on work or home the other suffered as a result.

You’ll like this if you liked : Life As We Know It

The Master (2012) 7/10

Starring : Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Director : Paul Thomas Anderson
Running Time : 138 mins

Freddie Quell (Phoenix), a naval veteran of the Second World War, returns to his home town and finds it difficult to settle down, suffering from a slight case of post-traumatic stress. Once he stumbles upon the cultish teachings of Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman), a man who believes in the use of hypnosis like practices to clear people of their negative emotions, he finds his life taking a turn for the better.

Phoenix is very effective in this movie, managing to portray his PTSD character with a believability that is rare and thankfully not over the top. Supporting actors Hoffman and Adams are equally effective, portraying a Scientology like commune in a fair and level manner that allows us as viewers to judge it for ourselves. I wouldn’t say this was good enough to win Best Picture at the Oscars, but it’s still worth watching.

You’ll like this if you liked : Magnolia

Repo Men (2010) 6/10

Starring : Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga, Liev Schreiber
Director : Miguel Sapochnik
Running Time : 118 mins

In the year 2025 medical breakthroughs have made it possible for people to have damaged organs swapped out for mechanical ones to improve their way of life; the downside to this is that those people that can’t keep up with their medical bills may be faced with having their replacement organs repossessed. When one of these repo men, Remy (Law), is injured on the job he wakes up to find that his heart has been replaced and he now has a hefty bill that he cannot foot. He soon finds himself on the run, with his ex-partner Jake (Whitaker) being sent after him to reclaim the organ.

This movie plods along at an incredibly slow pace, and feels like it’s about to end at the ninety minute mark. The performances of leads Law and Whitaker are okay, it’s just that the story is a little soulless and there isn’t enough depth to the characters given to make them truly appealing and to make the audience sympathetic to their cause. A good script would have had us sympathising with both Law and Whitaker, whereas this script had me sympathising with no-one.

You’ll like this if you liked : Minority Report

The Impossible (2012) 7/10

Starring : Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland
Director : Juan Antonio Bayona
Running Time : 114 mins

Maria Bennett (Watts) and her husband Henry (McGregor) are on holiday in Thailand with their three sons when a tsunami hits and they are separated. Henry and the two youngest are safe, but Maria and her eldest son Lucas (Holland) are trapped in the water, with Maria having suffered an injured leg, and the two eventually get rescued by local villagers and taken to a hospital where Lucas tries to help those that are injured while his mother’s condition gets worse.

Aside from the fact that this could have easily been around fifteen minutes shorter, this wasn’t too bad a film. The performances from Watts and McGregor weren’t great, but the kid who played Lucas was pretty good and managed to play the child thrown into a very adult world to great effect.

You’ll like this if you liked : Alive

The Ramen Girl (2008) 7/10

Starring : Brittany Murphy, Toshiyuki Nishida, Tammy Blanchard, Gabriel Mann, Daniel Evans, Renji Ishibashi, Sohee Park, Kimiko Yo, Tsutomu Yamazaki
Director : Robert Allan Ackerman
Running Time : 103 mins

American Abby (Murphy) moves to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend Ethan (Mann), only to have him dump her after a couple of weeks. Stranded in a foreign country with no idea about what to now do with her life, Abby takes solace at a local Ramen restaurant and becomes enamoured with the dish, finally asking Ramen chef Maezumi (Nishida) to train her in the art of ramen preparation.

This movie starts off badly with some stereotypical rom-com moments, but once Murphy’s character decides to move on with her life and concentrate on a new obsession, this stops being so much a rom-com and becomes more of a movie about someone trying to prove themselves to everyone that has ever doubted them. Murphy isn’t particularly impressive in this movie, but it’s a likeable romp with some nice moments that should keep most people interested.

You’ll like this if you liked : Little Black Book

Celeste & Jesse Forever (2012) 7/10

Starring : Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Eric Christian Olsen, Will McCormack, Rebecca Dayan, Elijah Wood, Emma Roberts
Director : Lee Toland Krieger
Running Time : 93 mins

Celeste (Jones) and Jesse (Samberg) are best friends, but found that while they were married they argued so much it could have potentially ruined their friendship. Now they are separated they seem closer than ever, but when Jesse discovers that his one night stand Veronica (Dayan) is pregnant the ex-couple start to realise that their romantic relationship may definitely be over and not just on the back burner.

This isn’t a laugh out loud comedy filled with gross out set pieces and one liners, instead it is a touching look at how friends of the opposite sex may or may not be suited romantically. Both Jones and Samberg play their roles beautifully and never fall into the deep dark hole of parody – something which is unusual for Samberg who is rarely known to play an almost straight-man role. There is humour, but it doesn’t get in the way of the viewer seeing how the news of Jesse becoming a father effects Celeste on many different levels.

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

Interview (2007) 7/10

Starring : Sienna Miller, Steve Buscemi
Director : Steve Buscemi
Running Time : 85 mins

Political journalist Pierre Peders (Buscemi) has had a falling out with his editor so, as a sort of punishment, he is forced into producing a fluff piece about actress Katya (Miller), star of television’s City Girl and a variety of slasher flicks. It isn’t long before Pierre annoys Katya to the point that she walks out on the interview, but when she sees Pierre injured in his cab she takes him back to her loft apartment where the interview continues…

Fans of Buscemi will enjoy seeing him actually take a lead role for a change, and his interplay with Miller is surprisingly believable for such an unlikely pairing. There is some humour, but the majority of the one hour plus conversation is dark and depressing and very revealing of the two characters involved. This is a good film with a nice though obvious twist in the tale.

You’ll like this if you liked : Coffee And Cigarettes

Killing Them Softly (2012) 7/10

Starring : Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Vincent Curatola
Director : Andrew Dominik
Running Time : 98 mins

When three incompetent criminals come up with a plan for robbing a mob fronted card game and blaming it on the guy who was in charge Jackie Cogan (Pitt), a hit man for hire, is brought in to track down those responsible for causing the collapse of the local criminal economy.

This was a pretty decent crime caper movie with some solid performances from all involved. The plot is simple and easy enough to follow, and the direction is some of the best I’ve seen in a long time, especially the scene where Ray Liotta gets shot. Fans of Pitt will be reminded a little of his performance in Burn After Reading, and if you’re not already familiar with Scott McNairy of Monsters and Argo fame then check out In Search Of A Midnight Kiss. There are plenty of surprises as the movie progresses, but the ending cuts a little short for my liking.

You’ll like this if you liked : Burn After Reading