We at Best For Film are probably in the majority if we say we’ve never seen Meryl Streep in a bad movie, so it’s not surprising that in safe, recession-era Hollywood, a rom-com with her name in top billing is one of January’s big releases. Add director Nancy Meyers of Something’s Gotta Give fame to the mix and you should have a surefire hit. But despite having all the hallmarks of a Meyers film, this fluffy romp still falls a little flat.
We need to be honest with you… we’re nerds – pocket protector owning, corduroy wearing, Windows 3.1 loving nerds and have been long before it became quasi-cool (thanks Pharrell). While our playground peers were debating The Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan, we were having deep discussions about phasers, warp drives and why Captain Kirk would make the best dad ever. This makes us the worst type of nerd – a Star Trek nerd. And while we’ve never gone to a convention, it didn’t stop us pestering our mother’s in to making us a Federation captain’s uniform out of a knitted yellow jumper, some kitchen foil and a carefully cut egg carton. Hence you can only imagine our trepidation at the prospect of the Mr. Mission Impossible 3 J.J. Abram’s, reboot – but we and our fellow geeks needn’t have worried.
It’s sad when your realise something you used to find endless entertainment in as a child is no longer appealing to you. Much like discovering we would rather play drinking games than jump rope, it seems the time has come where we may have outgrown the Chipmunks. Either that or this modern-day retelling of the rodents’ rise to fame in the music industry was, well, crap.
It’s always a bit awkward when Adam Sandler tries a serious role, so when viewing this comedy-drama in which he plays a successful comedian coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis, we approached with caution. Sandler actually proves his chops as an emerging dramatic actor well, and Seth Rogen is equally capable in support as the struggling amateur comic who Sandler decides to mentor. Naturally, the pairing of these two giants of the genre along with the equally impressive Judd Apatow as writer/director delivers a load of laughs, but a lack of balance in the script as a whole means it’s not as good as it could be.
In these troubling times of global warming, financial crises and that nice Tiger Woods cheating on his wife, it’s comforting to know that one man alone remains staid and unchangeable: Hugh Grant. Luckily, his latest frothy outing, with toast of New York Sarah Jessica Parker, is no exception to his usual bumbling-posh-man charms – this time, he’s heading into the wilds of the American midwest after he and his estranged wife witness a murder and must be relocated into a protection scheme. There’s just as many laughs, albeit predictable ones, as always, so if you’re a Hugh fan, get ready for a fun-filled 90 minnutes spent chuckling into your popcorn.
Yes Man is basically Peyton Reed’s (Down With Love) version of Liar Liar and, of course, it stars none other Jim Carrey as the leading man. Carl Allen (Carrey) a miserable banker notorious for saying “no” to everyone and everything. In a plight to change his life, he signs up to a self-help programme which enforces one rule – he must say ‘yes’ to everything. EVERYTHING.
The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s thrilling and hard-hitting war drama, is a master class in sustained tension as a three-strong bomb disposal squad attached to the US Army risks life and severed limb to defuse roadside IEDs. Starring Ralph Fiennes and Anthony Mackie, it’s one of the sharpest and most intelligent films concerning the War in Iraq, but it’s in no way easy viewing.
With the recent box-office success of movies like The Hangover and Superbad, it was only a matter of time before the bromance genre spread from the sets of Hollywood overseas. Now India is giving it a try, with this screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s novel that centres around two college friends on a journey to find their vanished buddy. But this film has a little more heart than your average drunken-exploits-and-fart-humour college romp.
Richard Curtis’ (Love Actually) The Boat That Rocked is set in 1966, a time where people could only listen to one hour a week of rock’n’roll on radio. Bill Nighy stars as Quentin, boss of Rock Radio – the pirate radio station which millions of music fans illegally tuned into for their fix of rock’n’roll.
The fourth in the increasingly desperate-sounding Final Destination series sees another premonition-prone twentysomething (Bobby Campo) foreseeing the death of himself and a few of his similarly hot-to-trot mates. This time, the trouble starts at a race car track, with Campo’s Nick persuading his sceptical chums to exit just before a multi-car pile up blitzes the just-vacated seats.
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