X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) Film Review

The mutants are out, the whole world knows about them. Then someone comes up with a cure (source from a mutant whose power is that he strips people of their powers) and there is outrage. Some mutants want the cure and to be normal, but there is also the sinister side of things – the government will force the cure on the mutants. Plus, it will be weaponised. Oh, and the good chick who died at the end of the last film? She’s not dead. But she’s evil. Awesome.

I quite liked this film, although I didn’t like Wolverine’s attempts to be cheeky. He is brooding and, for once, I like that brooding. Don’t make him have snappy one-liners and the like. Just don’t. Oh, and there was a guy with amazing wings. Oh, and finally, how is this the last stand when there are more films to come? Stupid title for a film.

 

 

She’s the Man (2006) Film Review

This is a pretty decent teen comedy, I reckon. There’s a girl, Viola (Amanda Bynes) who is great at soccer, only her school has lost some funding and the girl’s team has been cut. She has a brother, Sebastian (James Kirk) who is ditching his new school for a couple of weeks to go to London, so Viola does some nifty hair and make-up and pretends to be him to get onto the soccer pitch and prove that girls can play with boys. The problem is, she’s rooming with Duke (Channing Tatum), the hot star of the team and gets dragged into a whole big complex set of personal issues.

I really like the work of Amanda Bynes, and when I saw that she hadn’t made a film for a while, I went looking. She’s gone off the rails. Shame, I hope she comes back and makes some more flicks. There is also the always magnificent David Cross as the totally insane principal and Vinnie Jones as the scary coach. The one thing that I felt really let this film down was the sports. All of the trickiness of who is who and where and why and stuff was great (being based on Shakespeare, it’s got a pretty darned good basis), but I did not believe that Viola was a very good soccer player. I think if that had been what the film was about, I’d have been disappointed. As it is, the films about the relationships and being true to yourself. Like any good teen film.