Johnny English: Reborn Review

Johnny English has returned! The question you got to ask yourself is, why?

When I heard that Johnny English was making his triumphant return to our cinemas, I didn’t really know how to feel. To me it always felt like one of those franchises that never got off the ground, a film that has some good points but had by this point been generally written off as simply ‘mediocre’, despite its genuinely good cast. I didn’t really think that anyone thought back on it that fondly, or felt as if a sequel was warranted, nor that it made enough money to require one of those awful ‘just for the cash’ sequels that we all love so much. So what is Johnny English Reborn? A Reboot? Kicking an already Dead Horse? Or was did Rowen just feel like giving it another go? Well who knows, and in the end it doesn’t matter all that much. Despite the time gap, we have another film which is essentially of the same mould, with many of the same laughs (or similar types of laughs at least) and another story which in the end is just a vehicle for Rowen’s funny Mr Bean-like antics. It’s as if the last eight years never happened!

From the DVD Shelf: Orcs! Review

A film that does precisely what it says on the tin, here’s another low budget, low-rent comedy horror with well...Orcs (!).

I seem to be riding this strange film wave at the moment, avoiding all that seems notable or what reviewers would term ‘good’ (whatever that really means), instead making a b-line towards what many would term ‘awful’. Well Orcs! (because plainly Orcs wouldn’t be as impactful) certainly falls into this low-budget-straight-to-DVD-awfulness category, but that doesn’t mean it is without its charm. Actually, I had a good time with it, take that film media! (but also, you are probably right). At least it isn’t zombies again. Right?

The Inbetweeners Movie Review

It's ungraceful and at times it certainly isn’t pretty, but if you were a fan of the series, or if you just love faecal matter and penis jokes, you’ll probably enjoy the movie spin off of this somewhat popular British television series. Otherwise, I’d steer well clear.

I’m not sure how I feel about the inbetweeners television series. At first I was rather a large fan, enjoying the first series rather a lot. From the heights of the first series though, as with many television series', the creativity of the story lines waned as it progressed and , to my mind at least, there seemed to be a reliance upon increasing crudeness to get laughs (an ever increasing use of slang descriptions of ladies for example), rather than through interesting story lines. To me, then, the film is a pinnacle of this transition, swapping out the interesting and sometimes cleverly written episodes of the first series, with a story line that is probably as bog standard as you can possibly get, but one where the rude jokes are almost always present. I’m not saying that I’m against this, and sure I did laugh rather more than I was expecting, but really beyond these moments there were many others which had me cringing, not because of the constant references to private parts, but instead because the character interaction, dialogue and plotting was so mind numbingly dull, clichéd and in many points arbitrarily enforced.

Super Review

Some of the plot decisions may seems rather strange and the humour may not be as forthcoming as expected considering the cast, but for what it is, Super is an entertaining movie, though probably one that might have seemed a little more original if it had come out before Kick-Ass.

Super heroes are dumb. Yeah that’s right, they are. Admit it, dudes (or ladies!) running around in spandex fighting crime, at its core, is a silly concept, no matter how well Christopher Nolan can make Batman films. Super fully embraces this silliness and bring us a super hero film along the same lines as Kick-Ass (though possibly even more down to earth), demonstrating that in the real world being a super hero would be far from its cartoonish depiction. Not all suave acrobatics, witty one liners and glitzy costumes, more likely rampant violence, murder, and a warped sense of justice by those with some definite emotional issues.

Attack the Block Review

It’s like Kidulthood meets Alien, in all the best possible ways, you get me fam?

Aliens are cool right? It’s been a while since aliens have come to Britain, let alone London (unless you count Doctor Who), and I was looking forward to what Joe Cornish, in his debut feature length film, had in mind for this urban invasion, I was hoping for high octane action and rich London slang; Attack the Block supplies both by the bucket load.

£3 Film: Black Sheep

Mutant-zombie Sheep? Perhaps there’s a good reason why nobody had tried this concept before, and after Black Sheep, no one ever will again.

I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt to any film that is attempting to try something new and different, and surely nobody has attempted to frame sheep as the main antagonist within a horror film. Obviously those behind Black Sheep couldn’t do this without wandering into comedy-horror territory – which is fine, but such territory is already highly congested with other, certainly better, titles, and ultimately, Black Sheep’s crazy premise can’t rise above crippling flaws.

From the DVD Shelf: Machete

Dumb with a capital D, but in all the best ways; If you like your films fast, gory and ridiculous, don’t look any further than Machete.

Machete has strange origins, originating as a 2 minute fake trailer for Robert Rodriguez’s Quentin Tarentino’s film, Grindhouse. If you’ve seen the trailer in all its generic ridiculous action movie-ness, you may well doubt the possibly of turning the idea of a machete wielding Mexican into something resembling a full length feature. Well Rodriguez not only manages this, but he manages this with some style.

The Hangover: Part 2 Review

The Hangover Part 2 is pretty funny and rather enjoyable; that said, it is at its core almost a carbon copy of its predecessor, a predecessor which outstrips it in terms of laughs and especially in terms of originality in almost every way.

It is understandable why there is a second Hangover film. The first, released in 2009, was the highest grossing film in the US for that year and in the top 10 for the world and is credited as being the highest grossing R rated comedy of all time. Obviously this is not the first time that film studios had attempted to capitalise upon a successful film by throwing out a sequel to films that don't really seem to warrant them (actually its probably more surprising when this doesn’t happen) and many of these such films are generally poorer in quality and originality. In some ways, this is the path of this Second Hangover film.

£3 Film: Dead Snow

Hmm I don’t know, Zombies just seen a bit cliché nowadays. Well How about Nazi Zombies? Well now you’re Talking!

It’s kind of surprising that nobody had thought of combining the two most deadly of history's enemies, the Nazi’s, and Zombies (...wait a minute?) before Dead Snow came along in 2009 - but everything has got to start somewhere right?

Submarine Review

I didn’t really know what to expect from Submarine. The writer-director, Richard Ayoade, is best know for his roll as Moss in the IT Crowd, and I had my doubts about his abilities in a role behind the camera. Perhaps I was expecting the IT crowd, along with all its silliness, but in a different setting; well this isn’t that at all, but for all the right reasons.

From the DVD Shelf: Burke and Hare

Burke and Hare is an alright film, it just isn't funny; what's the point of the comedy that isn't funny?

I was rather interested in seeing Burke and Hare. Quite recently (well about 6 months ago) I travelled up to Edinburgh and came into contact with the legend of Burke and Hare, the true story of two illustrious evil-doers who took grave robbery to a whole new level by murdering people and selling their corpses on. I thought to myself, how do you make something as horrible as that, funny? That was obviously the problem facing those behind Burke and Hare, and plainly they made the wrong decisions.

Rio Review

Every year now there are countless animated films jumping of the Pixar fuelled bandwagon and 2011 is definitely no exception. We’ve already seen Gnomeo and Juliet (…..), Rango, Mars Needs Moms (Moms?) and we have yet to come: Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Happy Feet 2, Smurfs, Puss in Boots and a number of other 'thrilling' titles. Obviously it is a difficult task to rise above the mediocre in this ever expanding genre, and Rio does just that, and with some style.

£3 Film: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Bit of an older one this week, and probably most everyone will have seen this but thought I’d write a little something about it anyway.

Guy Ritchie is one of those directors when you kind of know what you are going to get, though his Sherlock Holmes taking him in a slightly new and more exciting direction. Snatch, RocknRolla, Revolver; all the high-octane, gangster filled, gun ridden, cursing and maiming that anyone could ask for. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is where this all began, being Guy Ritchie’s first full length feature, and it is here that we see the origins for the majority of his later films, both good and bad. It also introduced to the world two titans of the film industry, Jason Statham and former footballer Vinnie Jones! These great casting decisions aside, Lock Stock is actually a great film, and well worth watching (if you haven’t already seen it).