Johnny English Reborn

In 2003 Rowan Atkinson bought us a new type of spy. There had been a few James Bond parodies around that time, but this one took it a little more seriously.

I watched 'Johnny English' before I saw this film and found it to still be really funny. I found myself laughing out loud many times. I also laughed out loud many times in this film. There are many improvements made over the first film but there are also a few things lacking. I thought this film was a bit too long. It could have been trimmed a bit to make it quicker. The biggest problem though is the villain and and his evil scheme. In the first film we had a crazy guy wanting to take over England to turn it into a prison. This is a grand scheme with an obvious villain. In this film the villain is fairly hidden and not obvious which lessons their impact as being a threat. Their scheme to assassinate the Premiere of China does not come across as all the grand either. While I understand that if they were to success it could potentially cause World War III, I got no sense of that from the story. Despite that there are still some great points. I found this film to be better directed than the first film. It feels and looks slicker than the first film. This is especially true in the action sequences which are much better this time around as well.

I have grown up watching Rowan Atkinson. I think he is one of the greatest comedic performers who has ever lived. So you may not be able to take what I say here as I am a bit biased. I first saw him in the TV series 'Blackadder', one of my all time favourite TV series. So while I think he is one of the best visual comedians, I prefer roles where he gets to talk a lot more. Like many of the greats Rowan can do many subtle things in his performance that makes him funny when he is not really trying. Rowan has surrounded himself with some excellent straight people that let him be the crazy clown. I'm pleased to see Gillian Anderson is doing a comedy for a change. She is excellent here and her time in England means her accent is improving. Rosamund Pike makes and great romantic interest for Johnny. Dominic West is suitably suave as one of Johnny's fellow agents. I was also pleased to see one of Rowan's 'Blackadder' co-stars Tim McInnerny.

The English can do some of the best comedies and one of their greatest performers is Rowan Atkinson. He does not work all that often so we need to take every chance we can to see him.

13 Assassins

In Japan in 1844, Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira, the Shogun's illegitimate brother is rising to power - but when his tyranny run rampant, secret plans are laid to end his reign and his life.

Like all good action films, this one has a pretty simple story. There is a big bad ruler who is terrorising the country-side with his evil behavior. I find it amusing that when bad people like this come about they get so arrogant that they don't think anyone would dare challenge his reign. And this guy is pure evil. Writers Kaneo Ikegami and Daisuke Tegan have created one of the most evil person that cinema has seen. The beginning of the film is filled with some of the more nasty things he's done to the people of his region. Director Takashi Miike is not afraid to show this guy's brutality. It's up to one group of men to stop him. This where the fun start as our band of samurai lay a trap for Naritsugu and his men. The film is quite violent but not in a gruesome way. The big fight is very epic and done on a grand scale. It is a great deal of fun to see our heroes fight for the honour of their people.

I'm not very familiar with the actors in the film but they are awesome fighters. I'm always amazed at how they perform the big fight sequences in films like this, especially when swords are involved. Koji Yakuso makes an excellent leader. You can see the experience he has and know he can defeat the evil lord. On the flip side we have Goro Inagaki as the evil lord. He gives a brilliant performances and we really come to hate him.

Definitely one of the best action films in recent times. It has a nice simple plot with brilliantly staged fight scenes.

One Day

On St. Swithin's day, July 15th, each year we see the relationship of two people develop over about 20 years.

Normally I am a romantic softy and can really get into a romantic film. However I could not get into this one. The premise of only seeing one day each year in this relationship does not come across as all that interesting. Despite this 'gimmick' there is nothing special about the film. It did not come across as anything special because the relationship is viewed in this way. I'm not sure if it is better presented in the book but on film it does not quite work. The film '(500) Days Of Summer' had a similar premise and was able to make it work better. It also helps when you have interesting characters in the central relationship. While I did like Emma I found Dexter to be very unlikeable. I do not know what Emma sees in him that makes her fall in love with him.

Anne Hathaway is once of the best actresses working today. Regardless of the film she gives and excellent performance. This film is the same. Her portrayal of Emma is excellent even in many subtle ways. The same cannot be said for Jim Sturgess. I've come to dislike this actor as he is always very ordinary in his performances. He does not bring anything special. Of the support characters I was very impresses with Rafe Spall. I found him to be very funny and nicely nerdy and vulnerable.

As someone who is normally very forgiving of romantic films and am willing to overlook many of the problems they have, I was not very impressed with this film.

The Guard

It is not often that we get films from Ireland. However it does help when they feature two familiar actors.

This film is very much about character. The tag line for this film is: 'Is he really motherf**king dumb or is he really motherf**king smart?'. Sergeant Gerry Boyle is part of a long tradition in cinema of characters in authority who are unconventional. Living in a small village/town Gerry can basically do things however he likes. Not much goes on so he can take time off whenever he likes. So Gerry walks that very thin line where in some instances he comes off as a bit clueless but in others he is very clever. His motivations are never quite clear which is part of the fun of this film. You never know what he is going to do or say and so you are constantly surprised. As is the norm with this situation you have this unconventional character meet a conventional character. It is also typical fish-out-of-water with an American character in another country. Americans always have trouble when ever they set foot outside their own country. The great thing about the plot of the film is that it takes a more realistic look at how drugs are imported. The people doing the importing are how you imagine drug importers to look. Most films glamorise the way drugs are transported but this film nicely sends that up.

Brendan Gleeson is perfect as Gerry. Brendan does not get many leading roles so it is nice to see him front and centre. He is brilliant as playing the comedy and the drama of any situation. Don Cheadle kind of plays the straight man in this duo as he struggles to understand how his partner operates. Much like many audience members, myself included, Don has trouble understanding what these town folks are saying.

An excellent comedy from the country that everyone loves to make fun of. Highly recommended is you want to see a realistic display of drug trafficking.

Fright Night

Due in a large part to the 'Twilight' series and the TV series 'True Blood' we are being inundated with films about vampires. Hollywood is not just trying to come up with new stories but finding older ones like this to re-vamp.

Growing up I loved to go to the video store. I not only liked to hire movies but to look at video covers and the wonderful art work they had, especially of horror films. They usually had some really horrific artwork that would scare me and that is not even from having seen the film. One cover I really loved was for 'Fright Night'. It is one of my favourite pieces of poster art. The film itself was pretty good but I can't remember much of it. I did have pretty high expectations for this remake with regards to the people involved. Director Craig Gillespie I am a fan of from the movie 'Lars And The Real Girl' as well as his work on the TV series 'The United States Of Tara'. Writer Marti Noxon I'm a fan of from her work on the TV series 'Buffy: The Vampire Slayer'. It also has former Dr. Who, David Tennant in it. While it may not have lived up to the extremely high expectations I had for it the film is still quite a lot of fun. Because of 'Twilight' most vampire stories have been soft and mushy and romantic, with the exception of 'True Blood'. This film rightly portrays the vampire as a dark soulless killer. He is not interested in love and just romances women to entrap them to feed off of them. While the film is scary it does not take itself too seriously and has some great light hearted moments. The comedy is blacker than you might expect but it does fit in better with the tone of the film.

Anton Yelchin is rising through the ranks and becoming a decent actor. He does a good job here and nicely plays the freak-out-teen real well. He has already displayed great action heroics in 'Star Trek' but gets to be more hardcore here. Colin Farrell makes an excellent vampire. He knows how to be vicious and nasty as well as playful and seductive. This is a vampire that does not sparkle thankfully. As a fan of David Tennant I am a little disappointed he does not have a bigger part in the film but he is brilliant in the scenes he is in. Much like Roddy McDowall in the original film he provides most of the films comedy and he is hilarious.

A decent vampire film that proves they are not all big softies. The 3D effects work quite well and you should see it this way if you get the chance.

The Change-Up

Film making has a long tradition of having two completely different characters swapping bodies in a film to let the characters explore how the opposite type lives. This is the latest.

When I heard about the premise of this film I was not terribly impressed. To me these guys are virtually the same. When you do a body swap comedy you need to have two characters that are vastly different so as to make the comedy work better. I don't think a single guy and a married guy are that different to make the comedy work. The only real difference I can see is that one swears more than the other. The way they swap is pretty lame as well. Pissing into a magic fountain just brings up too many questions for me. Which brings me to the comedy style. It is unnecessarily gross. Films like 'The Hangover' have the gross humour but they are able to cleverly weave it into the story so that it does not seem obvious. It feels like it was added on and so does not suit the story. Writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore also wrote 'The Hangover' so you would think they would know how to write that style better. Dave Dobkin, as well, managed to work it into the film better when he directed 'Wedding Crashers'. I must admit though that there were a few sweet moments in the film which came across nicely in amongst all the silly moments. It is just a pity that these moments could not mesh with the rest of the film.

For me Jason Bateman is one of the best comedy actors working today. I love his dry sense of humour. He is good here but as mentioned above the material lets him down. The same is said for Ryan Reynolds. He does a decent job but can't work past the lame comedy. Leslie Mann does get decent mileage out of a pretty thankless role. The women in the film don't seem to fair well except to be put down by men. It is nice to see Olivia Wilde do a comedy.

The success of 'The Hangover' films has proven there is a market for more adult gross-out humour. But it needs to be better integrated in to the script so it does not seem as obvious. And if your going to swap bodies make the characters more different.

Pina

German choreographer Pina Bausch died two years ago just as director Wim Wenders was about to make this film about her work. So this film became a tribute to this great artist.

I've just become introduced to the world of dance through a friend of mine. While I love to see dance performances I prefer mainstream style stuff that you see in musicals. Performances that are more interpretive or impressionistic I've not been enjoyed as much. I feel a bit left out as I know the dance is supposed to be telling a story or have a message and I don't feel smart enough to know what they are trying to say. Despite that I really enjoyed the film. The performances are amazing. While I did not understand necessarily what the dances mean I thought the way the dancers moved was so beautiful. Not all the performances are great as this is kind of a 'best of Pina' showcase, but I did admire them all.This is another film this year that is a great artistic achievement as well as being entertaining. It was filmed in 3D and is quite possibly the best ever use of the 3D technique. It helps you think the performances are real and they are in the cinema performing the dances live. The best thing that Wim has done though is the dancers sometimes perform in outdoor places not just on stages. He is fond of placing them at road intersections which I did not quite understand.

As my interest in dance grows I am glad I got to see this film. Pina sounds like a true artist who created some great work which is on display in this film. If you love dance then you must see this film.

Submarine

Being a teenager can be difficult. It is a time of life which has been well documented in many movies. For his directorial debut actor Richard Ayoade has chosen to explore this time of life.

We are constantly bombarded by the American way of school life. So it refreshing when we get to see a different point of view. The English, or in this case the Welsh, present a more realistic view of school life. The kids don't look and act perfect like they do in American films. I don't like to use the word quirky when talking about this film but you can't help it. It is very different to most of the other teenage coming of age films that we normally see. Many have compared this film to something Wes Anderson might do and to a certain extent that is true. But the film has many of it's own qualities which make it unique. These are interesting character with many different quirks but they still feel very human and real. The bleak Welsh countryside also makes a nice refreshing change.

Craig Roberts is excellent as the nervous young hero Oliver. He plays the nerdy character well and his narration provides a lot of the films humour. His partner Yasmin Paige is a good cohort for Craig's shenanigans as Oliver. She is very delightful and has many of the film's best lines. Richard has gotten some excellent adult actors to support these young ones. Aussie Noah Taylor makes for a great deadpan father. Sally Hawkins looks so nicely repressed in this film. Paddy Considine plays the flamboyant charmer very well.

Richard Ayoade makes an excellent mark as a new director. As much as I love this film I hope he doesn't give up acting completely.

Green Lantern

Director Martin Campbell has resurrected the James Bond franchise and brought back the schwash-buckler with 'The Mask Of Zorro'. Now he tries to make a comic book film.

this film has been in development for quite some time. It has had a few directors and actors in the lead. There are several writers credited too. It shows with the resultant film. To me the film felt like it had been in development for so long and that no one could agree on what type of film it is supposed to be so they just filmed the script to get it out there and hopefully make some return on all the money they had spent on development. The story is a good one and helps explain the history of The Green Lantern Corp very well. It could come across as a bit confusing to some people and I'm sure this is one section of the film that was long debated. However the story is not well explored and does not come across as very thrilling or interesting. There is supposed to be a sense of doom coming from the bad guy but you don't feel it. There should also have been some better connection between Parallax in space and his human counterpart on earth Hector Hammond. Another part of the problems is the characters and their emotional arcs are fairly cliched and uninteresting. They come across as very two dimensional and you don't really come to care for them much. This is especially true of the supporting characters and those from The Green Lantern Corp.

Ryan Reynolds may not have been the best choice for this film. He gives a very good performance as he plays the cocky bastard he normally does. So it would have been nicer to see him play something different. I think Peter Sarsgaard comes off the best in the film. He has a more interesting character to play and he is a great enough actor that he is playing someone you don't normally see him play. Blake Lively gets a decent female role too which she does well with. Sadly Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett and Mark Strong have fairly functionary roles that while good for exposition are not all that interesting on their own.

The rumour is the while this film has failed to perform financially, Warners are still going ahead with another film. Hopefully they will spend a bit more time on a better script.

Beginners

People deal with grief in many different ways. Many film makers decide to make movies about it and honour the loved one they lost.

Someone coming out of the closet and declaring they are gay can be a difficult time. It would be especially tough when it is your father and he decides to do it just after your mother died. You begin to question the life your dad has been leading and the relationship of your parents. Writer/director Mike Mills has crafted an excellent film that deals with this issue really well. You father dying can be a difficult thing to deal with, then when he tells you a big secret it can be even harder to handle. Oliver does handle it quite well. However the falling in love with a great woman can help things. Fancy dress parties seen to be a good place to meet someone. Mike nicely mixes the drama and heartfelt together with some clever and witty lines so as not to make it seem to maudlin. What I really liked was the relationship Oliver has with his father's dog, Arthur. There is also the flashbacks to the times he spent with his mom.

Ewan McGregor nicely balances his career with the big films and the small. I think he does the best work in the smaller ones. I think this is one of his best roles. There are times in this film where I forget I'm watching an actor and involved in what his character is doing. Christopher Plummer has been playing the grumpy old man role lately so it is nice to see him play such a sweet and loving character. I also like the fact that Melanie Laurant has not succumb to the evils of Hollywood. It is also great to see her play a more lively character and have some fun. Goran Visnjic is very good despite playing a very weird character.

A nicely sweet dramatic comedy that takes a major change in some one's life and delivers a clever film about relationships. Love can come in many different forms.