Double Bill Mini Musings: Naughty Bears and Loving Aliens...

Ted 2:
What's it about?
When Ted's status as a 'person' is called into question by the state, the little fuzzy chaos machine and his 'Thunder Buddy' John - with the help of a pot-smoking newbie lawyer - must fight for Ted's civil rights. Naturally, gross-out gags and mucky-mouthed silliness ensues.
Who would I recognise in it?
Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, John Slattery, Jessica Barth, Morgan Freeman, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Having read some less-than-kind reviews of this follow-up to the well-received original, I couldn't help but think "Why?" Featuring a solid story (the fight for a sentient teddy bear's civil rights proves to be surprisingly involving) and several laugh-out-loud gags to accompany the general mirth, Ted 2 is just as much fun as Ted. A handful of resurrected jokes from the first movie do threaten to derail proceedings and send it careening down into a pit of self-referential 'remember this' laziness, but these call backs are soon dispensed with as the main thrust of the plot takes hold. It may not be as fresh as it once was, but what else would you expect? It's a sequel, after all - but MacFarlane, after a wobble with the patchy "A Million Ways To Die In The West", manages to give fans what they want and tell a good story. Arguably it's a smidge overlong (the Extended Edition adds in 11 minutes), but even scenes like the indulgent opening musical number are entertaining enough to paper over the cracks. The replacement of Mila Kunis with Amanda Seyfried (as new love interest Samantha L. Jackson) is well handled and allows the immaturity of John and Ted to run wild, sensibly leaving the "it's about time you grew up" shtick to the original movie. A little mustier around the frayed edges, but still as much fun as ever - if you dug Ted, you'll dig Ted 2. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for an intergalactic love story...

Double Bill Mini Reviews: Bosses and Fighters...

Horrible Bosses 2:
What's it about?
Nick, Kurt, and Dale - the bumbling trio of boss-hating worker drones from the first movie - have all quit their jobs and set out on their own, establishing a business making 'Shower Buddys'. Naturally, they get screwed over by a horrible boss and things quickly spiral out of control as they seek to get their own back.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Banks, Keegan-Michael Key.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Fairly solid plotting (relatively speaking) is left swinging in the wind thanks to a lack of jokes. After a slow start a few chuckles creep in, but all-too-often they rely on the 'bumbling and shouty trio' schtick that worked well in a lesser dose in the first movie. Here the same buffoonery takes centre stage at the expense of more interesting gags and starts to become grating at worst, and at best the dim-witted actions of Dale and Kurt in particular display chronic stupidity that's too stupid even for this movie's sense of logic. Jason Bateman was refreshingly candid about the film on a recent appearance on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast - everybody got paid, they had a good time, and they tried to improve upon a dodgy script. It's not a total disaster - there is an amount of fun to be had - but after the enjoyable silliness of the first movie, this sequel comes as a general disappointment. Alright.

Click "READ MORE" below for a rockin' rockumentary...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Trolls and Doppelgangers...

The Boxtrolls:
What's it about?
From stop motion animation studio Laika (Coraline, ParaNorman), this latest outing revolves around the titular box trolls - essentially scruffy little goblin handymen that live inside cardboard boxes - and the human populace of the world above who believe them to be vicious, man-eating ghouls after a small child is apparently kidnapped.
Who would I recognise in it?
Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, Elle Fanning, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Frost (voices).
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
As per usual, Laika's visual style is superb - the setting here being a rickety Victorian-esque coastal town that rises up on a large hill - and the story doesn't seek to safely illuminate its darker recesses. The Boxtrolls themselves appear both demonic and lovable, depending on the perspective, with a similar mix applied to the human characters - particularly the main antagonist and his goons. The former is a class-obsessed Boxtroll chaser called Snatcher, weighed down by the weight of the chip on his shoulder and his obsession with cheese (a delicacy reserved for the rich 'white hat' folk). His goons, meanwhile, vary between monosyllabic creepiness and complex introspective musings on whether or not they truly are the 'good guys' (as they have been told by their increasingly sadistic boss). If ParaNorman didn't quite hit the high watermark of Coraline, The Boxtrolls certainly manages to attain the same level of intelligence, wit, fairytale whimsy, and darkness. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for a double dose of Jake Gyllenhaal...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Troubled Grooves and Opening Night Jitters...

Inherent Vice:
What's it about?
A complex tale situated at the death of the 1960s in and around the fictional seaside L.A. area of Gordita Beach, in which Private Investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello becomes involved in a twisted, sprawling string of crimes including, but not limited to, kidnap, murder, fraud, and drug trafficking. Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon.
Who would I recognise in it?
Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Not quite Writer/Director Paul Thomas Anderson's best, but pretty close. Read the book and then watch the film for the best viewing experience. Don't try to unwind every mystery and understand every event - that's not the point - indeed, as Anderson himself said, the best thing to do is just let the movie wash over you. It's more about an atmosphere and an experience, than a neatly tied-up story. Even with some nips and tucks moving from book to film (the whole Vegas angle is reduced to a brief newspaper headline, various side characters' parts are reduced or removed, etc) Anderson manages to remain strikingly true to the source material, so much so that - at times - the film feels more like a book than it does a movie. The pacing and rhythms are different to your usual film, while Pynchon's world is beautifully recreated - cannily helped by deploying the side character of Sortilege as the narrator. Undoubtedly it's a divisive film, but it is one that will find its audience in the home viewing market, where it will reveal deeper layers with repeated viewings. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for Elijah Wood tinkling the ivories...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Groundhog War and Deliciously Dark Satire...

Edge Of Tomorrow:
What's it about?
Doug Liman's sci-fi action fest about a military P.R. man who unwittingly finds himself thrown into the midst of an all-out offensive against an invading alien force - and promptly dies - only to suddenly resurrect the day beforehand. He remembers what happened, but nobody else does - day after day after day he's thrown into battle to die, but when he encounters another warrior who knows what is happening to him, there might be a way to end the war once and for all.
Who would I recognise in it?
Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Tony Way, Noah Taylor, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Overlooked at the box office, it's a shame that Edge of Tomorrow (previously known as "All You Need Is Kill" after the source material) didn't do better - although the patchy advertising campaign didn't help (which turned a tagline into an accidental new title "Live. Die. Repeat."). Balancing sci-fi spectacle with an irreverent sense of humour, EoT plays the 'groundhog day' setup for all its value - both light and dark. The script is smart, funny, and briskly paced - making for an altogether entertaining thrill ride with an eye for invention. It absolutely deserved a better reception at the box office, but hopefully it will find a home as a cult classic in due course on the home video market. Great.

Click "READ MORE" below for Bobcat Goldthwait's savaging of America's rotten reality TV fixation...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Star Maps and Stolen Art...

Maps To The Stars:
What's it about?
A teeth-gnashing satire of Hollywood and its rich, successful, and damaged inhabitants from David Cronenberg with a script from Bruce Wagner. The lives of various Tinsel Town oddities - from an ageing actress desperately trying to secure the lead role in a remake of her famous (and dead) mother's iconic film, to a limo-driving screenwriter wannabe - intersect in what becomes a spiralling tale of madness.
Who would I recognise in it?
Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson, Olivia Williams, and more.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
A return to form from David Cronenberg after the frustratingly obtuse Cosmopolis that took itself far too seriously while lacking any warmth or access for a generally bewildered audience. It takes about ten to twenty minutes to settle into the rhythm, but Wagner's script gleefully piles increasingly bizarre and jaw dropping events on top of one another. Just when you thought it couldn't get weirder and more messed up - it does. Top performances all round, but particular kudos to Julianne Moore who goes all-out towards crafting a multi-dimensional and hopelessly damaged person who attracts the audience's sympathy and vitriol in equal measure. There's one decidedly dodgy moment of CGI that sticks out like a big old sore thumb, but apart from that it's a superb venture into Hollyweird ... although certainly not to everyone's tastes. Great.

Click "READ MORE" below for Kurt Russell in a crime caper...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Undead Nazis and Crime Fighting Geezers...

Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead:
What's it about?
Picking up exactly where the first movie left off, Martin finds himself suspected of murdering his friends at the same time as having to contend with the General Herzog's growing army of zombie Nazis ... and as if that wasn't enough, now he's got Herzog's arm sewn to his body!
Who would I recognise in it?
Vegar Hoel, Martin Starr, Orjan Gamst, Ingrid Haas.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
"The sequel you did Nazi coming" ... if you enjoyed the over-the-top gore antics of Tommy Wirkola's breakout horror comedy you can expect more of the same in this more expansive sequel. It's arguably about five-to-ten minutes too long, but the increased scope adds spectacle. Do you want to see undead Nazis do battle with undead Russians? Look no further. Not only widening its scope in terms of scale, Dead Snow 2 seeks to attract a broader audience by including three American zombie fighters (while maintaining its Norwegian heritage). Packed with plenty of gore-ific gags (think Peter Jackson's Braindead, or Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2) and a bonkers attitude, Dead Snow 2 gives you everything you enjoyed about the first movie, but successfully builds upon it to serve up a heartier meal. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for The Sweeney...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Undead Beavers and Space Raccoons...

Zombeavers:
What's it about?
Three college chicks head out to the sticks for some relaxation time only to wind up battling undead beavers ... as you do.
Who would I recognise in it?
Rachel Melvin, Cortney Palm, Brent Briscoe, John Mayer, Bill Burr.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
It's a schlocky low budget horror comedy along the lines of Critters meets American Pie, and it's surprisingly good. The focus on using practical beaver puppets adds a pinch of 1980s charm and there's a sprinkling of post-millennium sauciness throughout. Naturally, the script and characters aren't especially deep, but the protagonists are entertaining to be around. While the script takes a little while to get going in the beginning, it quickly finds its footing and tosses out some genuinely funny lines. In addition to the seam of humour running through it, Zombeavers also manages to subvert a few genre expectations, doing its part to blow the dust off what could have become an awful piece of trash. Certainly it's not going to win any awards or critical acclaim, and your mileage may vary, but the filmmakers are obviously having fun with a knowingly daft plot. The main feature clocks in at about 68 minutes, so it wisely doesn't outstay its welcome (the remaining time is dedicated to a blooper reel and the credits). It's a little bit sexy, a little bit sassy, and generally an all-round fun time. They could have gone further with both the nudity and the gore (and, even, the beaver jokes), but all-in-all it's a thoroughly silly slice of entertainment. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for Guardians of the Galaxy...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Killer Dames & Spider Men...

Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For:
What's it about?
Belated follow-up to 2005's smash hit comic-to-film success from Robert Rodriguez and Sin City creator Frank Miller. Tales, new and old, interweave throughout the seedy bars, secluded mansions, and dangerous alleyways. Dazzlingly dangerous dames, brutally violent men, corrupted officials, gamblers, voyeurs, thugs-for-hire, strippers and gunslingers ... all can be found on the streets of (Ba)sin City.
Who would I recognise in it?
Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Jaime King, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie Chung, Jeremy Piven, Juno Temple.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Nine years was arguably too long to wait for a sequel, particularly as initial rumours suggested a sequel in 2006, and expectations were running high. The original film was extremely well received, so perhaps expectations got the collective best of some reviewers and audience members. Of course a sequel isn't going to be as breath-takingly original as the first - this is more of the same, you know what to expect, it wasn't going to become something different. However, comparing the established tales of Miller (e.g. the titular A Dame To Kill For) with his newly-penned chapters, you can't help but feel something's missing from the Miller of today. Whatever that something is, it's hard to pin down ... but the new material, while continuing to do much of what worked before, still lacks a certain something...

Click "READ MORE" to continue the review and check out The Amazing Spider-Man 2...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Big Guns and Grotesque Bets...

The Expendables 3:
What's it about?
Barney Ross and his gang of Expendables take on an old enemy from their past, but to do so they need to add some new blood to their line up.
Who would I recognise in it?
Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Davi.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Even in its "extended/uncut" form the violence is conspicuously bloodless, and yet the body count is sky high. This second sequel isn't lacking in action - and certainly not in the half hour climax - but you can't help but shake the feeling that it's somewhat compromised. In chasing a younger demographic in the frustrating PG-13 rating (the UK rating system is much more varied and forgiving), the violence has had the sharp edges smoothed off. People still get blitzed in every which way you could possibly think of, but that extra punch seen in the first movie is missing. Even with the new (and young) additions - of which Ronda Rousey reigns supreme - to the cast, was it truly worth annoying your core target audience by chasing the tween dollar? However, that sticking issue aside, if you enjoyed the other movies you'll enjoy this one too - it's a no-brainer...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue this review and see some brutal bets...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Strange Cameras and Stolen Culture...

Time Lapse:
What's it about?
Three friends discover a bizarre camera, in the home of their recently deceased neighbour, which can take photographs of future events.
Who would I recognise in it?
Danielle Panabaker.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The film wastes little time in convincing its protagonists in the existence or mechanics of this strange photographic device, preferring to get the setup done quick and then take time with what comes next. There are familiar themes relating to time travel, such as using it for greed or the mind-twisting workings of the concept itself, but the film still feels more fresh than you might initially expect. The characters aren't necessarily the deepest or most complex, but their wants and needs are clear, and the performances help bolster their curious predicament as believable. Inevitably things take darker and more troubling turns, and while some twists are relatively predictable, the climax is deliciously satisfying. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for the art of war...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Chainsaw Brides and Flesh Addicts...

Rec 3: Genesis:
What's it about?
A beautiful wedding reception is torn to bloody shreds after an infection turns the guests into undead ghouls possessed by fallen angels.
Who would I recognise in it?
Leticia Dolera.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Ditching the found footage format of the first two movies inside twenty minutes, the bulk of the film unfolds in a traditional cinematic style while retaining the 'religious zombies' angle that helped define the franchise. The central characters - Groom Koldo and Bride Clara - bring a 'love conquers all' vibe to the gore-soaked proceedings, with Clara kicking a particularly impressive amount of arse, at one point wielding a chainsaw in her blood spattered wedding dress. Suffice to say, she's a heroine you'll be rooting for from the get-go as she attempts to find her broad sword-wielding husband amidst the carnage. Everyone else is cannon fodder, and the film lacks the nerve-shredding frights and infection paranoia of the first two films - opting for more of a gung-ho action horror vibe - but it's plenty of fun for the duration. Good, albeit on the lower end of the scale.

Click "READ MORE" below for Michael Fassbender rodgering his way through New York...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Super Soldier Punch-ups and Fruit-based Technology...

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning:
What's it about?
Fourth film in the official Universal Soldier franchise. A man wakes from a coma to avenge the death of his family, leading him towards an underground group of former government soldiers: clones who may or may not be brainwashed.
Who would I recognise in it?
Scott Adkins, Jean-Claude Van-Damme, Dolph Lundgren.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The link to past movies is fairly loose at best, and Van-Damme and Lundgren are both barely in the movie. I was pleasantly surprised by the third film (also directed by John Hyams), which reignited the franchise with gusto. With Luke Deveraux reborn as a dangerous - perhaps even murderous - Colonel Kurtz-a-like, it takes a little getting into, but with a focus on the revenge-driven motives of Adkins' grieving widower/father, Day of Reckoning hooks you in. The direction and photography are impressive, the budget can't have been particularly big, but they get a lot of bang for their buck. The blood-soaked explosions of detailed choreography are all-the-more impressive in wide shots that are, for action movies, held for quite a long time. Adkins' and the army of stunt performers are afforded ample screen time to show off their bone-crushing credentials in battles that are oftentimes as wince-inducing as they are effectively brutal. Climaxing with a gory, bullet-riddled, punch/kick/stab/shoot 'em up that clearly takes thematic and stylistic inspiration from Apocalypse Now, we're again reminded of just how tenuous the links are to origins of Universal Soldier. The story and plotting could have used some work, but the stunning action and razor sharp directing successfully paper over any narrative cracks. It's time for the franchise to now cut ties with Van-Damme and Lundgren, reaffirm the UniSol back story, and move forward with Adkins as the new carrier of the franchise - that certainly seems to be the intention. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for the Apple man's biopic...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Neo-Giallo Curiosity and Wacky Belly Laughs Galore...

The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears:
What's it about?
A curious mystery-cum-horror in which man returns from a business trip to discover that his wife is missing and their apartment is locked from the inside.
Who would I recognise in it?
Erm...
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
From Bruno Forzani and Helene Cattet, who previously gave us the giallo-tinged Amer, this is a dream-like experience, much like Dario Argento's Inferno, where the hallucinatory and fragmented presentation seeks to disorientate viewers as much as entice them. The directors ramp up their sensory approach to eleven, crafting a film which boasts astonishingly exquisite visuals and haunting aural soundscapes. The architecture of the apartment building is put to grand use, particularly in a kaleidoscopic introduction that suggests darkness and danger lie in wait, and sequences akin to the photographic approach of La Jetee stun the viewer. Many of the visual and thematic touchstones of gialli are present - the black leather gloves, the razor, the mix of sexuality and violence, the gorgeous soundtrack (cherry-picked Tarantino-style from a selection of 1970s Italian scores) - so fans of the genre will be in heaven. This all said, the narrative is hard to follow, fractured as it is by diversionary vignettes and sparse plotting. It would be fair to say that, similar to Amer, there isn't quite enough content to fill the running time, but this also feels like a film that will benefit from multiple viewings. Populated by curious characters - such as a detective with a deeply dark voyeuristic past - it's certainly not for everyone. Some have decried it, and it's predecessor Amer, as pretentious art-house guff, but this is too dismissive. It's niche market, absolutely, but it's one of the most richly textured cinematic experiences in a long, long time. There has been somewhat of a resurgence in the long lost giallo genre in recent years, and The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears is a grandiose highlight in the Neo-Giallo movement. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for newsreaders doing battle...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Wolves & Ghosts...

The Wolf of Wall Street:
What's it about?
Martin Scorsese's latest epic about the outrageous life and times of stockbroker Jordan Belfort in the late 1980s and early 1990s - sex, drugs, money, power, women, mayhem, and corruption.
Who would I recognise in it?
Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, Jon Bernthal, Jean DuJardin, Joanna Lumley, and others.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Scorsese's film is his most brash and outlandish for quite some time, and deals directly with despicable people doing reprehensible things. Terence Winter's whip smart script invites us into this world and manages to elicit different reactions from different people, or a multitude from one individual viewer. Deep down, who doesn't want money and power and sex? The condemnation creeps in when, slowly, the excesses take over and the protagonists' sense of reality skews into obscene territory. These characters - based on real people - do horrible things and never know when enough is enough, but you can't examine that world, or tell that story, without showing it as it is. You can't - and shouldn't - censor it. You can't deal with villainy without meeting the villain, you can't show excess without having a little fun, you can't illustrate a huge downfall without going to extreme lengths.

Click "READ MORE" below for more Wolf of Wall Street, and The Conjuring...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Horror show double dose...

V/H/S/2:
What's it about?
Horror sequel to the format-obsessed anthology horror in which four chilling and experimental tales are viewed by private investigators who break into a creepy house furnished with television screens, VCRs, and stacks of VHS tapes.
Who would I recognise in it?
Nobody probably, with this it's more about recognising the names of the directors involved.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
The original V/H/S was a pretty solid anthology horror with some good scares and plenty of atmosphere, but it also had significant downsides: some of the dialogue was flat-out awful, the majority of the male characters were 'alpha male brosephs' at best and full-on misogynists at worst, and it was one-tale-too-long. Thankfully the filmmakers have listened to the commonly-held criticisms of the first and addressed them. This sequel does chuck in nudity that's not strictly necessary, but the characters are far more balanced (and therefore easier to invest in) ... likewise the writing is much improved, although Simon Barrett's segments still featuring some moments of terribly blunt exposition that could have been easily solved with some minor tweaks ... and it's now four main stories with a wrap-around, rather than five.

Click "READ MORE" below to read more about V/H/S/2, as well as The Seasoning House...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Hard Partridge...

A Good Day To Die Hard:
What's it about?
Fifth film in the Bruce Willis action franchise. John Sr goes to Russia to help out John Jr, who is actually an undercover CIA operative seeking to bring down a terrorist organisation threatening to unleash nuclear war.
Who would I recognise in it?
Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Oh dear ... half the time Willis looks bored starring in this surprisingly brief Die Hard outing, which is hardly surprising seeing as John Sr appears to be playing second-fiddle in his own movie. The father/son plot is rough and shoe-horned into action sequences at inappropriate moments, the action is big and dumb and accomplished - but goes waaaaay beyond the 'average guy in an extraordinary situation' vibe of the original. Falls from great distances and leaps through glass windows are dime-a-dozen events, but the worst offender is the climax - going from Moscow to Chernobyl (even though they technically visit Pripyat), which is a big old distance by car (and in an entirely different country), in a couple of hours, and then not requiring any radioactive protection (despite most of the bad guys being fully geared-up).

Director John Moore (of the abysmal Max Payne movie) tries to sling as many explosions, trashed cars, and slow motion at the screen as possible to cover up all the narrative nonsense that fails to grasp your intrigue, but you can't do a damn thing to distract from the logic leaps in this dim-witted load of old noise. Some moments are good fun (such as a rush hour chase through Moscow, and a safe house attack), but when your franchise star doesn't seem to give a stuff (not to mention the screenwriters), why on earth should we? Sometimes shite, and only alright at best.

Click "READ MORE" below for a siege in Norfolk...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Iron Men & Iron Bars...

Iron Man 3
What's it about?
If you don't know about Iron Man by now, then where have you been? Tony Stark/Iron Man comes unstuck when international terrorist The Mandarin starts causing global chaos while the 'extremis' biological development only makes things worse.
Who would I recognise in it?
Robert Downey Jr, Gweneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, James Badge Dale, William Sadler, Paul Bettany, Miguel Ferrer.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Better than the second, not as good as the first. In spite of few plot holes and story jumps, the script is breezy and sassy enough to make this a hell of a fun ride. Director and Co-Writer Shane Black works his sardonic magic - a summer blockbuster that's set at Christmas, a precocious kid side-kick, innumerable withering put-downs, and an audience-splitting 180 degree blindsiding reveal, all make this a thoroughly enjoyable time. Some might gripe that 'there's not enough Iron Man in it', but there's plenty of iron-fisted mayhem come the finale. Focusing more on Tony Stark this time around makes things more personal and ties up some loose character ends - Iron Man 3 is, after all, the beginning of 'Marvel Phase II' after the billion-dollar juggernaut that was The Avengers. Much better that they play with the formula somewhat rather than just stick rigidly to the same old tricks we've seen before. Good.

Click "READ MORE" below for sleazy reform...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Theories and Deliveries...

Room 237:
What's it about?
Documentary considering some of the deeper meanings behind Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"; a mixture of the downright bizarre and improbable, to the decidedly convincing, that can be just as intriguing as it can be frustrating.
Who would I recognise in it?
Nobody beyond the film clips - not even the interviewees are shown on-camera.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Like conspiracy theories, Room 237 is polarising. Made of up firmly held ideas by those who 'discovered'/'created' them, it can go from providing convincing arguments about the background portrayal of the slaughter of Native Americans, the 'number 7 theory', and the Holocaust (including the number 42), to proffering absolutely far-reaching bullshit theories based on phantom shreds of nothing. The idea that "Room No. 237" equals "Moon Room" and that (without offering any evidence whatsoever) "237" was the stage number where Kubrick 'faked the moon landings' induce grandiose eye-rolls. Other readings are less grand, but lack conviction (the Minotaur theory, for one) - even with Kubrick's microscopic attention to detail, you doubt that there is any actual deeper meaning behind a couple of posters on a wall in one single room. That feels too small-scale to be believable - but on the other hand there are theories based on large-scale, up-front ideas (such as the aforementioned issue of the Holocaust, or even more specifically the Native Americans).

Click "READ MORE" below for more out-there theories, and a movie about bicycling...

Double Bill Mini Musings: Awards Bait Edition...

Django Unchained:
What's it about?
Quentin Tarantino's 'southern' adventure set in 1858 in which a German bounty hunter frees the titular slave, and takes him under his wing as they go in search of Django's wife Broomhilda, encounter gunfights and flamboyant slave owners along the way.
Who would I recognise in it?
Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson, Jonah Hill.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Surprisingly, for a film that's the best part of 3 hours long, Django Unchained rarely seems to drag. As good as Inglourious Basterds was, there were several scenes where I knew what was coming and I was just waiting for it to happen (e.g. the tense encounter at the bar) - Django Unchained, on the other hand, felt more unpredictable, and featured a more balanced sense of pace (helped too, by following the same main characters for the entire movie, not just parts of it like in Inglourious Basterds). The traditional Tarantino dialogue is there - especially for Christoph Waltz, who once again gives a (rightfully) Award-winning performance - but there's enough nerve-shredding encounters and all-out gunfights (with gleefully gloopy geysers of gore) to keep things fresh and exciting.

Click "READ MORE" below for more Django, and a dose of Argo...