A million balloons, a flying house and a talking dog. Disney and Pixar team up once again to bring us yet another graphically and visually dazzling animation. Showing both in 2D and 3D, it’s the cocktail of action, adventure and comedy with an added shot of good morals we can normally expect from this prosperous pairing.
Kenny Ortega’s offering of behind the scenes footage, however lukewarm it might be, gives us a tiny glimpse of an artist who affected popular music like few have ever before. Michael Jackson always said, “I want to start where everyone else would end”. The film doesn’t do enough justice to his musical and choreographic brilliance – it might be called ‘This Is It’ but we know that this is definitely not. Michael Jackson’s legacy will live on forever.
Take a romatically challenged, cynical workaholic and cross her with a victim of heartbreak who thinks with what’s in his pants. What do you get? True love apparently. Boy meets girl. Girl hates boy. Boy wins girl over. It’s nothing we’ve never seen before – The Ugly Truth is your typical boring battle of the sexes ‘romantic comedy’. Yet another sickly film to leave us with a floating outlook on relationships. And that’s the ugly truth.
It’s been a long time coming for this first of Jodi Picoult’s bestselling tear-jerkers to make it to the big screen. The slightly odd casting of Cameron Diaz in a serious drama role leaves a little to be desired, but her younger counterparts shine with charming vulnerability and maturity. Overall, it’s a well-adapted modern ethical tale that will have you blubbering like an idiot ten minutes in.
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.
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.
Snipe London
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