Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are back. Not being sent into High School this time, but instead to College. And apart from that, everything’s the same. Or is it? No, not really. Then watch just under two hours of self-referential gags about sequels and themselves. And have a few laughs.
It’s not bad. About as good as the first, which was a lot better than I’d have thought it was going to be, but not amazing. It’s clearly a film that they had a lot of fun making, and that made it a lot of fun for me to watch, but I’m certainly not overly keen on seeing it again. But if you do watch it, stick around for the closing title sequence. It’s fun.
Based on the Frank Miller graphic novel of the same name and filmed almost entirely against green screen, Sin City takes a dip into the sordid world of Basin City. This is a world with pedophilia, prostitute wars and corrupt cops.
Along with general action films, I really like the genre of films made from comics and graphic novels. Sin City takes this to a whole new level. The entire look of the film is like a dark comic strip, with lots of dark shadows and limited use of colour. What’s more, it is extremely and horrifically violent, but in a way that, even though it is clearly fake, it is uncomfortable to watch. I think this is a truly wonderful film, and I’m very excited to see that another Sin City is due to be released next year.
Two young and hopeless cops get assigned to the Jump Street department that send cops undercover into schools. Trying to bust a drug ring, geeky Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and jock Kenko (Channing Tatum) find themselves getting in too deep and having to go to ridiculous lengths to get the job down.
I accidentally saw half of this (the second half) a while ago and thought it looked terrible. It doesn’t help that I grew up on the original television show with Johnny Depp and was suspicious that this film would ruin the integrity of the original. Even having recently watched the original and realised that what I thought was brilliant television was actually pretty average. And even with a brief cameo from Johnny and his mate Peter DeLuise, I couldn’t bear giving it another try.
How wrong I was! This is a really fun film. Stupid, ridiculous and unbelievable, but also totally aware of this. There were elements of this that reminded me of The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy – silly action, hilarious banter, just good old fun times.
A small-time drug dealer, David (Jason Sudeikis) is robbed and owes his supplier a lot of money. His supplier, Brad (Ed Helms) makes him go to Mexico to pick up a ‘smidge’ of dope and bring it back, a real suicide mission. But David has the idea of travelling in a mega-caravan-truck-thing posing as a wholesome family. The problem is he is a single man. Wait! All he needs to do is get the stripper from next door (Jennifer Aniston), the weird kid downstairs who is always being abandoned by his family (Will Poulter) and a homeless chick (Emma Roberts) and he’s got a family!
I totally expected to hate this film. The premise seemed weak and I figured it would just be an awful film that I would cringe through and then slam. But it’s alright. In fact, it’s pretty good. The characters are unlikable enough, and when it turns sweet and sickly, it’s just the right balance of sweet and sickly to work really well. Plus Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn turn up in it, and that can never be a bad thing.
After her successful mission in Miss Congeniality and the ensuing publicity , Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is having a tough time working as an FBI agent as she is constantly recognized. On top of this, her relationship with her colleague ends unexpectedly and she is bereft. When the opportunity comes to become the face of the FBI in a publicity campaign, along with a book, an entourage and appearances on every television chat show across the land. Then, Miss America (Heather Burns) and Stan Fields, the host of the awards (William Shatner) are kidnapped and she ends up back in action with her new, angry FBI agent bodyguard Sam Fuller (Regina King).
This is exactly the sequel it needed to be. It had all of the humour of the first, and ridiculous costumes and slapstick and the lot. Plus add in Nick Offerman and Abraham Benrubi and you have a good, cheesy ridiculous film that many people would consider a waste of a few hours of your life, but that I just loved. To bits.
Surely, the name of this film just lends itself to bad reviews. Like ‘All Good Things – apart from the acting, story, directing and just about everything else’ or ‘All Good Things… All bad things, more like?’ or something equally as terrible. As it happens, it is not a great film, so unleash the terrible lines.
David Marks (Ryan Gosling) is the son of real estate tycoon Sanford Marks (Frank Langella). But he doesn’t want to follow his father’s footsteps. He and his beautiful young wife, Katie (Kirsten Dunst) move to Vermont and open a health food store called All Good Things. Life is great, but then David is pressured to return to New York and follow his father’s footsteps. He’s acting pretty weird, and then his wife disappears, then suddenly it’s 20 years later, David is dressing as a woman and his best mate dies, and the spotlight is put on him for both cases.
It is based on the true story of Robert Durst and his wife Kathleen McCormack who disappeared in 1982. It’s a pretty compelling story, yet not a compelling film. This despite the strong acting, especially from Kirsten Dunst in one of the best performances I’ve seen from her. The key problem was the structure and the script – it felt as though a lot of time was put into the set up of the relationship between David and Katie, but then the disappearance and all of the acts after this seem rushed, and given how exciting this part of the story is, it’s just a waste.
ireckonthat 