District 13...

The French seem to have a real talent for producing kick arse, low calorie action flicks, especially when Luc Besson is involved. District 13 has a plot with the depth of a chocolate biscuit, but that's not the point of the movie. The whole point is the breathless, fast-paced and inventive action set pieces, all of which have been given the Parkour treatment.

Parkour, or "free running", has become the new extreme sport craze of the last decade, as evidenced in the James Bond revamping Casino Royale, and Electronic Art's game Mirror's Edge, and being a French invention it was only a matter of time before we got a spiffing little action movie out of it.

Step forward District 13, set in a near-future dystopian Paris where troublesome districts of the city have been walled-off and left to rot. Throw in a couple of tough-guy free runners having to stop a bomb going off in the titular district, and that's about it really.

It's brief, light on your brain, fast and carefree entertainment. It's like an energy bar, no roast beef Sunday dinner, but it doesn't half give you a boost.

Another slew of new movie viewings...

Well, it's been a while since my last round up of new flicks I've recently checked out, so here goes with as little ramble as possible:

"The Host" - a foreign monster movie without (for a lot of the time anyway) a monster. At least it isn't a guy in a suit falling on styrofoam buildings, but I felt it was overlong, the central plot being a bit too thin and a bit too "meh" in general. I appreciate what it's trying to do, or what it's there to do, but I personally wasn't bothered by it in general. It was okay, but yeah...

"Ocean's 13" - it's certainly not as good as the first in the new-version-chise - but it kicks the nuts right off "Ocean's 12" which was just a bunch of stuff happening in Europe, with the majority of the so-called 12 getting nary-a-look-in...which was partially the case with 13 as well, but nowhere near as much. It felt much more like the first, even if Pacino was kinda wasted for the most part (no real "GREAT ASS!!!" type moments here I'm afraid). Over all, it's fun, it's intensely stylish (if only more Hollywood fair was pieced together this excitingly) and you can kick back to it quite easily, if you liked the first you'll no doubt dig this one...but leave "Ocean's 12" well alone, it's just cack...stylishly edited cack though.

"1408" - John Cusack = awesome. New Stephen King adaptation = awesome. "1408" = alright, a bit up & down. It starts well, and it continues that way at least up until the half-way point, perhaps a little further. But it is as soon as all the really obviously supernatural stuff starts happening (i.e. the stuff beyond a crazy alarm clock and scary window), that it starts to crumble a bit, taking a bit of a detour, and then re-adjusting to a solid-enough ending (part of which I found to be quite visually arresting, many kudos going to Cusak's performance). Definitely worth a watch, not superb, but there are far worse King adaps out there...although "The Shining" this is not.

"Knocked Up" - what can I say? Absolutely balls-out hilarious, maybe a little less-so than "40 Year Old Virgin", but probably only because this film is a chunk more sentimental (but not sickeningly so, rather in a growing up & moving on kinda manner). The extended version is definitely better than the theatrical (same as with "40YrOV"), because there is a decent dollop more in the way of irreverent guy-gang trash talk and dick jokes. Seth Rogen is a LEG-END, nuff said. I absolutely cannot wait to see "Superbad" - NICE!

Yes, I know it seems like all I do is watch movies all day, but I don't ... I play Xbox too! :)

Oceans 13/Disturbia/Dead Silence...

I recently posted these short reviews on the forum over at the excellent Homepage of the Dead (my online hang out/speak easy/place where everybody knows your (online) name, if you will), but I plan to post up my movie musings here as well as a more organised record of them.

First off, as the title suggests...

Ocean's 12:

Generally cack, the style of the film has that effortless sense of cool, like the main characters, but beyond that the plot was daft flitting around all over the place getting in and out of trouble, the first (of the new breed) was better, just concentrate on one bank job thank you...also, many characters seemed to have piss all to do because Clooney and Pitt were hogging all the scenes.

Disturbia:

Was skeptical at first because I'd heard it was PG-13 and had been successful in America, so I figured teeny-bopping mug-fest, but actually it was really good. Even though it'd be nothing without "Rear Window", it's a smart new take on the themes without being a remake and brings it into our age. Parts were all well played, the lead in particular was convincing and his next door neighbour girlfriend person was smoking hot, yes please! Also quite funny in places, so over all a really enjoyable flick.

Dead Silence:

Again, I was skeptical - PG-13 horror about a doll...which isn't that an enticing summary to be honest, but I sat down and gave it a chance - as it was made by the guys behind SAW (Leigh Whannell and James Wan) - and I, again to my surprise, totally dug this flick. It's styled like a classic ghost story and feels like one of the classic horrors of the 1930s, just filmed today. It was genuinely creepy with a few moments that really dig give me the willies, and all from a PG-13...just goes to show that if you fashion a film to a particular rating to begin with, you're more likely to come up trumps ... unlike cutting down to a rating *cough* Die Hard 4 *cough* when the film comes out worse off as a result, fortunately though Dead Silence was enjoyable, creepy and felt smart, all down to it feeling - as I said before - very much like a Universal horror movie from the 1930s, just filmed today.

So 2 out of 3 ain't bad, for my next mini-bender will be:

The Host (should hopefully be fun)
Wild Hogs (expecting relative cack)
Black Snake Moan (expecting to see Christina Ricci getting shagged a lot)

I will say, that just a couple of hours ago I checked out Wild Hogs, but I'll comment on that in due course.