Hello you lucky sods, you're getting two film reviews off me today! For the price of one (click)!

In Bruges
Dir:Martin McDonagh.
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes

For those of you who don't like Colin Farrell (he does that to some people) don't worry. This film is neither a dumb film about how cool he is, or a really dumb film about how cool he is.
This film is actually intelligently paced, funny, expletive riddled and thoughtful.
After a botched job, two Irish hitmen are sent to Bruge (it's in Brussells) to lie low. It's a fairly simple premise, almost like a stage play in its simplicity, which allows the two characters to interact with each other, the city and reveal more and more about themselves as the film develops. It's worth a look, for a quiet night it, I am sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. The relationship between the two protagonists is engaging and sweet. Colin Farrell is given just enough by the director to allow you to see that he can act, without his ego putting you off too much (even though he does play a cock-sure hitman). Rent it out and have a look. It's an 18 cos there is an awful lot of swearing and some bursts of violence. Oh, and a bit of drugs too.

Ghost Town
Dir: David Koepp
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear

I came to this film thinking I was going to witness a great British comic get raped for his talent in order to make a bland Hollywood romantic comedy. I was wrong. Gervais plays himself, as he did in Extras and there are plenty of funny lines to be had. I found it funny, and I really like Extras so there.
In terms of the premise etc and what to expect, it reminded me of Groundhog Day, in terms of a man needing to change his self-centered life if he is going to get anything from it. This is also quite funny, it is. Try not to feel let down by some used Gervais material - he borrows a lot from his characters in his stand-up and Extras, but that's a good thing. It's funny watching the American actors try and copy his style too.

Bye.

There seems to be a surfeit of bad music around at the moment - almost every tv documentary is covered with bad and unnecessary music destined to drive the viewer crazy. I don't know why they find it helpful. There is much to be said about music when it is properly used. I'd like to hear from anyone who has something to say about this subject.

Ok so I knew when I sat down with this movie that it would be somewhat crude. My daughter warned me and aside from that, Seth Rogen was billed.  I have seen movies with Seth before and enjoyed them despite the crude content. Maybe it was the wrong day, maybe I am old.  There were some funny moments to be sure, but when it was all over I felt like I had been part of an experiment in torture, to see how much frat boy crudity I could tolerate.  This movie is extremely crude,and filled with about every sexual reference you can imagine, over and over and over.   I almost shut it off.  My daughter and her boyfriend loved it, laughing hysterically the night before so clearly it's a matter of taste. 

If you like Seth Rogen you will not be disappointed. He is in his element. Just be prepared for the experience. The main story is about a pair of broke roommates, childhood friends(boy-girl) who decide to embark on the production of a porn movie to make ends meet.  There are highlights, when they brainstorm to come up with a title, and the drunk football fan who stumbles into the coffee shop in the middle of a scene.  There is such a thing however as over the top, and this movie redefines it.

 

Hey guys!

I know its a lil old now - but I still haven't seen Seven Pounds!

Has anyone watched it - what do you think of it? And is is worth me paying to go see it?

The premise of Hitman is alot similar to that TV show with Jessica Alba in it, the name of which escapes me. Children are brought up in a secure facility and raised as assassins and have tattoos of barcodes put on the backs of their heads. They grow up and become very hard. Our 'hero' is one such assassin and is brought in for a job which turns nasty in that his employers (whoever they are) follow through with the first rule of assassination: kill the assassin. Cue a gruff Scottish Interpol detective (Dougray Scott) , an evil FSB agent and a Russian hooker-with-a-heart (Olga Kurylenko from Quantum of Solace) and off you go...

I haz a gun...

The action is good, although we don't see anything new really, and the premise that a man who never wears a disguise can disappear with such a distinctive appearance (oh, the barcode tattoo man - yeah, he's over there) is a little far-fetched. The gun-toting anti-hero escaping from bad guys with a beautiful anti-heroine is also a little old hat.

Eeerrrr...they didn't cover this in assassin school...

The ending leaves you feeling a little flat in a 'so that's that then?' kind of way, but concludes things quite nicely in case a sequel would be profitable.

Strike a pose...

Olyphant (the bad guy in Die Hard 4 and I believe he was also in a show called Deadwood) plays the socially incapable man-machine assassin as one would expect, hard but with teh occassional look to show he's actually a humna being - but whatever, he has lots of guns, guns and even more guns - and knives! Yes, knives!

But as with any Jason-Statham-esque movie, this is mindless fun with a simple enough plot and lots of guns and chases. It tries a bit to get all emotional and explore the human side of the characters, but this falls by the wayside pretty sharpish when there are bad guys to double cross and - eventually - shoot. Not as good as Shoot 'Em Up (as the main character never really gets that much depth) but a bit of fun overall.

Oh, and it's based on a video game, apparently, so its main premise was already established, the director (Xavier Gens) having to take it somewhere.

Put yer coat on love, we're leaving.....

7/10 if you like these kind of movies and are one to switch your brain off. Don't bother watching if you like to over-analyse films! Not the best of these types of brain-switch-off films, but worth a watch.

Here's the trailer: