Back To The Future

Wow! Go and see this in the cinema immediately. 5/5

I concur.

Great film with cool special effects but I don't really get the decision to set it 25 years ago with those silly and unrealistic haircuts and clothes...

:-D

Nostalgia, must be.

Because I don't think anyone noticed the last time I mentioned it: Check out this clip of A Town Called Panic.

It's an entire film from the Cravendale ad guys...

That looks nuts. Brilliant. Would love to see that with the Badgerfest lot. Might have to buy the DVD for the New Year's trip...

Oh my, I have to see that. Now.

RED

Lonely, retired 'analyst' Bruce Willis spends his days finding excuses to phone the pensions agency to talk to Mary-Louise Parker (who wouldn't?) until his night is interrupted by masked men bearing firearms that fire round corners. After summarily dispatches them, Bruce embarks on a road trip to find out who has it in for him picking up old acquaintances Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Brian Cox and takes Mary for good measure 'for her own safety'.
It seems that the cast had a good time filming this; Bruce does his thing but with a more world-weary, wry approach, Malkovich hams it up and Helen Mirren manages to pull off an evening gown and massive gun in a way that will have men of a certain age crying into their popcorn, and boys thinking about certain among their teachers in an entirely inappropriate manner. Mary-Louise Parker also does a good job of injecting life into a character that could have easily been an annoyance.
It won’t win any awards; it’s not a particularly great action flick, but it’s quite fun and you should enjoy the ride even if you forget you’ve been on it as soon as it’s over.
3/5

In the Mood for Love

Following on from your conversation about geishas, Wong Kar Wai's ode to Chinese courtship and art cinema with some stunning women, beautifully edited scenes of tense, forbidden love and dreamy, stylised sequences of Hong Kong soup kitchens, alleyways and days spent utterly in love, 'In The Mood for Love' is truly one of the most smart, sexy and mesmerising films I've seen in a long time. Following the story of two neighbours who come together out of their own crumbling marriages, the film is essentially a visual feast with lots of long pauses and understated drama.

If you have a girl and you like art cinema, please get this. If I'm decades too late in reviewing this, watch it again anyway. This is truly magical filmmaking.
4.25/5

Cory Doctorow and William Gibson for me. Judging by your amazon sales, you're doing better than me. Poo!

I'm Cory Doctorow everytime....

I'm beginning to think I Write Like only has three writers we're likely to write like. hahahaha

A colleague got HP Lovecraft. And he's a fashion editor. hahahahaha

Harry Potter 7a: The Deathly Hallows Part 1

And so we come to the beginning of the end; gone are the familiar trappings of a cosy HP movie; no Hogwarts, no Quidditch, no teachers and no escape from the pervading dread of not knowing who to trust. Our intrepid trio, entrusted with the task of destroying a whole heap of maguffins, find themselves on the run with not a whole heap of idea as to what to do but to collect more things to collect (hallows, horcruxes, things to destroy horcruxes), camp in austere places and irritate each other.

I'd heard conflicting things of HP7a; the reviews seem to fall into two broad categories: those that feel that there's too much camping and thingamajigs and not enough action, and those that welcome a different approach and the slow-burn ethic. I'm with the latter camp: it's a great relief to escape the confines of Hogwarts with its distracting staircases and British thespians and really start to spend some quality time with our heroic trio under exam conditions. After an entertaining intro with 7 Harrys (Daniel Radcliffe enjoying the girls' clothes just a little too much) and a thrilling broomstick chase we get some expositionary will-related issues, a wedding and are whisked off on a heist of the Ministry of Magic. This is the opportunity for a trio of adult actors (including Dave, Nessa's squeeze from Gavin & Stacey) to have fun pretending to be teenagers in adult bodies: you'll never look at Harry walking without thinking of his slightly gormless air while wandering the malls of ministerial magic. After this it slows a touch to focus almost completely on our heroes and their slightly fragile relationships as they go on an extended camping trip. This section does not drag (and certainly doesn't hang around as long as the source material) but allows the audience into the feeling of bewildered helplessness that surrounds the enterprise at its lowest moments. In fact, in what felt like quite short order, and after some more fun scenes including an excellent animated shadow-puppet version of The Tale of the Three Brothers, the end of the beginning of the end arrives on the beach outside shell cottage. This leaves HP7a with the peculiar distinction of being a 2hr 40 min film that feels too short: Finally there's an HP film that I'd watch again on its own merits, not just for the cosy Hogwartian nostalgia - I cant wait for the next one.

4/5

Edit: Hmm post in the style of JK Rowling...I wonder why? :Thoughtful face:

After having watched the HP previous to this and feeling it to be rather anti-climactic (what the hell was all that bollocksy ham acting with the drinking of the water - like a Bollywood production that) and milking the Harry Potter cow to within an inch of its udder I cannot say with any mirth that I have any intention of watching the heroic trio go all Blair Witch on themselves. I may watch HP7b v2.75 on a plane somewhere and forward it just to watch someone die. What odds on a Harry companion guide series emerging from Ms Rowling's den of wonders (on individual t-shirts) with a surprise death ending of one of the books towards HPCS7b.446512?

You may call me a heretic, but honestly...honestly...?

Honestly Gov: It's worth a go if only because (whisper it) Dumbledore is dead already and can't ruin the film with his ham...

I've been fairly underwhelmed with the HP films in the past (PoA being the best of the previous whilst still suffering from inexperienced teens) but I really liked this one.

I've enjoyed some of the HP films in their run - funnily enough I didn't love PoA but I did like the one where they all seem to realise they have hormones and want to jump each other. Can't think why....

hmmm...

When is Black Swan coming out and is it scary enough that I will poo myself at an opera or in Regent's Park (or some other such park where swan like animals shuffle about?)

[bold]HP&TDH-1[/bold]

Just saw HP7i and thought Mikey summed it up brilliantly. I am definitely in the same camp as he, enjoying the change of pace and the much more adult feel of the movie. It suffers a bit from having to rush in some details - for those of us like me who have not read the books (shock horror!) you're sometimes left thinking..."wait, who the hell was that?" but you still get what's going on well enough. I am tempted to read all the books now though before watching the last film so that I can completely understand what is going on. Somehow now seems worth it.

I thought the main trio are starting to step up their performances and were given more demanding scenes where there is little else happening apart from them. Ron can still be a bit of an annoying twerp. Harry can still be the over-noble "no one else is going to die for me!" nob head but at least now Hermonie is just about old enough to 'appreciate' without worrying about going to hell...

It's definitely not a feel good film though with everything completely buggered up by the end of the film. Should make the last one a good'un though!

8/10

Thanks Dan, roll on HP 7b eh?

Tron: Legacy

Swooshy, slick and very pretty but lacking the heart, humour and slightly goofy air Jeff Bridges brought to the hero in the first film. The plot is at once too complicated and far too simple (Simple: Man goes to rescue father from digital world. Complicated: Father's digital representation wants to take over real world using repurposed programmes and the data contained in Father's data disc but father wants to protect someone for some reason ohIcan'tbebotheredanymore) and the hero far too athletic and All-American.
Perhaps it's the lack of any of the nostalgic patina that has accumulated on Tron over the years but this inspired little affection and I can't see it being fondly remembered by many in 2 years' time let alone 20.
Nevertheless itwas swooshy and pretty (as is Olivia Wilde) and so not entirely terrible.
3/5 (Oh and the 3D was pointless as always.)

The 3D in Toy Story 3 was subtle and excellent. And yes, I am going to repeat this every time you say that 3D is always pointless.

I agree that in the vast majority of cases 3D is pointless.

Well OK then; as I have only seen TS3 in 2 dimensions I can't legitimately comment myself but I'd wager both that it is the film with the best chance of convincing me, out of all those that have been released so far, and that it still wouldn't do the job. I was certainly fully immersed in the world without the glasses and the loss of colour involved in wearing them. (Imagine watching HP 7a in them: you wouldn't be able to see a thing.)

This is what Mike said...




This is what I heard...(well I do hear his voice in my head when I read his posts so ner!)

'................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Olivia Wilde....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................'

So worth watching then! Nice one.

Here you go Gov, you can perv over this:

Thanks Gov; I knew I could rely on you to bring it back to the important stuff.

The Secret of Kells

Oscar-nominated, Irish animation telling the story of the creation of The Book of Kells against the backdrop of the threat of viking invaders.

This is a film that is light on action but stunningly animated with a particularly Irish mix of Christianity and pagan mythologies: A young acolyte struggles against the confines of his monastery, sneaking into surrounding woods in order to collect berries for ink and finding mischievous sprite Aisling (Ashley to you and me), sinister ancient gods and the afore-mentioned, smoke-clad vikings.

Well worth a look, partucularly if you are a fan of the animation style of Samurai Jack, The Clone Wars or Kim Possible (I know you can't get enough of Kim). 4/5

The King's Speech

Turely excellent, surprisingly funny; Colin Firth gives an outstanding, utterly convincing central performance as the Prince with a crippling stammer, forced into the spotlight by circumstance. Geoffry Rush is good as spritely Australian speech therapist with whom the prince develops a friendship and Helena Bonham-Carter is solid as Princess/Queen Elizabeth. I really recommend it - worth the smattering of applause it engendered in my showing.

4.5/5

I agree with the above review of The King's Speech.

The Kings Speech

Very good film. Though I actually would give stronger credit to Bonham-Carter who I thought was excellent. Really loved her performance which was both slightly kooky, wonderfully posh and very loving. She's definitely absorbed some Deppiness.

Funniest scene involves Firth and a lot of swearing after which I was moved to a mini applause amidst a cinema full of laughter.

Well worth the trip.
4/5

Kings Speech - Excellent

127 Hours - pretty, grim, in no way as boring as the plot makes out: "man spends 5 days in a hole".

Four Lions - not sure what took me so long. Hilarious. funniest film I've seen for ages.

Black Swan - very Aronofsky - very well made, captivating and involved. I liked it.

Let Me In - a different take to the swedish film adaption of the book, and very good in it's own right. Still I recommend the original and the book.

Black Swan

I loved this film. I've yet to see The Wrestler, so my experience of Aronofsky until this film was limited to Requiem For A Dream (mental) and The Fountain (beyond mental). On the strength of this film I can't wait to see The Wrestler and whatever Aronofsky's next project is.

Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, a dancer at an unnamed New York based ballet company. Her ambition/obsession is to play the Swan Queen in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a notoriously difficult part to play because it requires the performer to essentially dance two parts: the pure white swan and the sensual black swan. Nina's thirst for the part is encouraged by her mother (Barbara Hershey), an over-bearing former ballerina who piles on the guilt at every opportunity. She implies that she would have had a greater career had she not given birth to Nina and the jealousy of her own daughter is apparent.

Nina is told by Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) that she is unsuited to playing the black swan, however he changes his mind after a meeting between the two in which he kisses her forcefully and she bites him. Once rehearsals start though, Nina struggles with the change in personality needed to play the black swan. It is implied that she is a virgin, and this is not hard to believe given the oppressive conditions she lives in with her mother. To counter this, Thomas encourages Nina to 'lose herself', which to him means embrace sexual abandon. This is alien to everything Nina knows and becomes one of a number of things slowly destroying her psyche.

Another is the arrival of Lily (Mila Kunis) who is cast as Nina's understudy. Lily is everything Nina isn't - sensual, reckless, free - and Nina is immediately jealous of Lily whilst also being attracted to her. As the pressure builds on Nina, her mind cracks, her paranoia giving way to outright hallucinations.

The film is mostly concerned with the two sides to Nina's personality (echoing the white swan and the black swan) and how they clash. This is not an original subject for film, or for art in general, but Aronofsky handles the theme so well that it doesn't matter. Mirrors are everywhere in this movie and are used to great effect in illustrating the duality of Nina's mind.

The use of sound and music in this film is also astonishing. As the tension builds so does the music, Tchaikovsky's overtly melodramatic themes fitting perfectly with the wild climax of the movie, supplemented by disturbing sounds of flapping wings.

All of this comes together to form one of the most visceral experiences you could possibly hope to have in a cinema.

If you haven't seen it, do so.

I'm pretty sure it isn't a change of mind. It was the beginning of him screwing with her head. He'd already given her the part but pretended that he hadn't to try to bring out some kind of passion / fight from her so that she could play the Black Swan.

Both Jonny and I used the word astonishing to describe the film. I spent the last 20 mins physically thrust back in my seat, wide-eyed. This movie screws with your head before picking you up and slapping you across the face. And you love every moment.

I Was Monty's Double is a funny old film. The (mostly) true tale of ME Clifton-James (based on his book) stars ME Clifton-James as himself - an average actor who was recruited to do his bit for D-day by pretending to be General Bernard Montgomery, swanning around the Middle East when he was actually preparing for the attack back in Blighty.

This is an interesting little footnote in all the conniving that led up to D-day that has recently been confirmed with the release of government documents of the time; having the actual guy playing himself (and Monty) adds another element of piquancy that I enjoyed, along with spotting all the actors I recognised in small parts ("Hey that hotel receptionist was Sid James", "Ooh, that bitchy C.O. is John Le Mesurier"). The tone of the thing is surprisingly light; plenty of James's handler being a bit of a ladies man (in his defence those conical boobs are amazing), and his boss being absent-minded and slightly dishevelled, and not a whole heap of tension and drama until a slightly tacked-on coda. This involves a kidnap attempt via U-boat and feels a little out of place (probably as it didn't happen) but at least provides a climatic ending - in real life they smuggled him back to England and shut him up with some whiskey and cigarettes for company. The rest is fairly accurate apparently, allowing for creative licence; the actor didn't actually have a tête-à-tête with a german spy over dinner, he was just glimpsed getting into a car across the courtyard, the governor having 'accidentally' shown the spy out at the wrong (i.e. right) time.

Not high art, and only vaguely related to war films, but well worth a look for the curious for an embellished view of some of the misdirection around D-day.

3/5

I have never seen I Was Monty's Double, but the Goon Show's parody of it, I Was Monty's Treble, is excellent and one of my favourite Goon show episodes of all time.

So, we need forty thousand Monty's doubles, eh? We'll have to form regiments!

Paul

Grahame and Clive (Pegg and Frost) are two thrity-something, English geeks on a pilgrimage to some of the USA's most notorious UFO hotspots who unexpectedly come across an actual alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogan) and agree to help him evade capture by The Man and get home. With hilarious* results.

Pegg has been touting this on twitter for a while so I was keen to see if it could stand up to previous efforts. I had the feeling from the trailer that a) it wouldn't and I'd have already seen most of the funny stuff. This was sort of true. It's not bad; a decent enough trip to the cinema but I couldn't help feeling it could have been much better if it had been an indie movie and didn't have to keep leaning back to the mainstream. Apart from this though; the CG alien is pretty darn good, Pegg and Frost have great chemistry as usual, Kirsten Wiig is in fine form and Jason Bateman gives good support. There are enough laughs for it to qualify as a comedy it's just shame it doesn't explore the geek to the extent of the Cornetto films. Oh, andI missed Edgar Wright's snap cuts but otherwise Greg Mottola des ok.

3.5/5

*Hilarity not guaranteed

A double bill of The Dude films in which he essentially plays the same character; one with a flair for singin’ and the other for killin’:

Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges plays Bad Blake, a washed-up, boozed-up country singer, touring the fleapits & bowling alleys of the US in his hearse of a car. Can the love of a good woman (Maggie Gyllenhall) and the help of his protégé (Colin Farrell) save him from his boozy ways, or will they go really downbeat?

A decent film with an excellent shambolic turn from Bridges (when first we see him he gets out of his car, buckles up his belt and tips out a bottle of his own pee in the car park) that is ably supported by Farrell, Gyllenhall and Robert Duvall. It’s well shot and directed but the main focus is Bad Blake and his music; all the songs are performed by the actors (even Farrell performing admirably convincingly as top Country star Tommy Sweet) and are much the better for that.

Definitely worth checking 4/5

True Grit

Jeff Bridges plays ‘Rooster Cogburn’, a grizzled, boozed-up US marshall, recruited by 14 year-old Mattie Ross to track down the man who killed her father. Can the faith of an imperturbable girl and the help of a dandified Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) save him from his boozy ways and track down the killer?

In truth this film isn’t really about Rooster, its focus is our narrator and heroine Mattie Ross, played brilliantly by newcomer Hailee Stansfield. Seeing her negotiations with the adults of an unknown town is a joy, the archaic, biblical speech patterns of the time (and the novel on which the film is based) tripping off her tongue as if she were born to it (what she is doing in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars I don’t know…(or rather I do; she isn’t up against Natalie Portman and so could win) ). Her support is, again, excellent; Matt Damon manages to make his popinjay of a Texas Ranger sympathetic in the end and Jeff Bridges has enormous fun with his almost indecipherable US Marshall who bears a striking similarity to his character in Crazy Heart.
Somehow the Coen brothers stamp their mark on the Western genre; never have the wilds looked so bleak and cold and filled with beguiling oddballs; the bit players of whom the brothers are enamoured are present and correct, whether it’s a henchman whose only communications come via farmyard noises or a travelling doctor dressed as a bear, these are encounters that fix us squarely in Coen territory and will provide succour to their fans as they bemuse newbies.
All this would have been for naught, however, without their lead; forget The Dude; Mattie Ross is the one to watch in this film.

4.3/5

Recently watched The African Queen and while making allowances for its 60-year pedigree and obvious commitment to filming on location where possible, I still fail tsee how Bogart managed an Oscar for Best Actor on the strength of that performance...I've seen more convincing Canadians in South Park.

The Karate Kid
12 year-old kid moves to china, gets beaten up, taught kung-fu by Jackie Chan, does some beating of his own but in an honourable setting...it's Karate Kid 2010.

It's not bad actually - it is every bit as good as the original (make of that statement what you will) but has the added advantage of Jackie Chan in the mentor role: While the focus is on an engaging and disgustingly athletic Jaden Smith (who carries the film without too much trouble) it's Jackie who gets to break out his acting chops for the first time in a US-produced film, delivering some unforced, sincere emotion. In addition it all makes China look ever so lovely, all sunshine, Great Walls and hill-top temples inhabited by masters more serene than Yoda and no-one struggles under the yoke of oppression more than the girl not allowed to attend the kung-fu tourny by her father.

In short cliched but pretty with some impressive action and an arse-numbing run-time.
3/5

Source Code

US Helicopter pilot with unfeasibly macho name, Colter Stephens (Jake Gyllenhall) wakes up on a train with no memory of how he arrived, eight confusing minutes later the train explodes and he finds himself elsewhere. He is part of Source Code, a secret project that can inject his consciousness into that of one of the train passengers for his final eight minutes of life. So begins a game of hunt-the-bomber in a Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap kind of way.

This is a film that could oh so easily be mishandled; in the hands of Michael Bay for instance there would be much running, shooting and stuff exploding at sunset (aka Bayhem). Fortunately it was up to Duncan Jones, director of the sombre and excellently 70s-esque slice of s-f that was Moon, to bring the tale to the screen. He has crafted an intriguing and intelligent film that (while not as pure as Moon or as astonishing as Inception) does not pander to its audience but expects it to keep up as it drip-feeds information and clues about Colter's predicament. He is ably assisted in this endeavour by his stars: Michelle Monoghan is as lovely, shiny and alluring as ever, providing a believably distracting love interest despite only having a maximum eight minutes face time a turn, and Vera Farmiga displays crucial hints of warmth beneath her taciturn uniform. Ultimately though this is Jake Gyllenhall's film (he approached Jones about directing after taking an interest in the script) and he throws himself into the part of confused military man in a teacher's body struggling to complete the mission assigned to him, find the truth behind his circumstances and take the fight to the laws of quantuum mechanics.
While the tale is not as convoluted as it could be; sending Colter down some obvious dead-ends as he attempts to decipher the identity of the bomber, it manages its surprises with assurance whilst leaving enough clues for a second, illuminating viewing. The ending is tied up in a manner that may irritate those who favour uncertainty but that still seems to be inspiring some online debate. There are also nods both to Jones's (hardly extensive) back catalogue (he includes Chesney Hawkes' "(I am) The One and Only" for a second film, and to the seeds that must have inspired the writing (Colter's father has a voice familiar to some), none of which distract from the film but rather add to a feeling that soon people will be referring to David Bowie as 'Duncan Jones's dad'.
4/5

Source Code: Done.

I'm expecting Micmacs next...which is nice.

From Wikipedia:

Its original French title is Micmacs à tire-larigot, ('Non-stop shenanigans').


Damn it! That was going to be the name of my film! Maybe

Source Code

I am not going to review this as I agree with King's review above. I would like to take the opportunity to talk about film trailers and their purpose. The trailer for Source Code is one of the most misleading I have seen. From watching it, my impression of the film was that it would be another standard Hollywood actioner with a time-travel / repeating period of time angle in the mould of Deja Vu or Vantage Point. This emphatically not what the film is like. It's far more thoughtful than that and actually ends up being more of a character piece driven by Jake Gyllenhall. This is unfortunate because if I didn't have an unlimited card I would have been tempted to give Source Code a miss based on what I gleaned from the trailer. It annoys me that the film distributors feel the need to mislead the audience in order to get people into the cinema. Presumably their thinking was that people don't want to see a thoughtful film, they want to see Deja Vu again (yeah, that was intended, deal with it) but with Jake Gyllenhall in the lead role.

It is irritating; a film's marketing often has little to nothing to do with the filmmakers and hence it can (and often is) be hit and miss.

In this case they evidently went for the Michael Bay crowd which is unfortunate.

I generally ignore trailers and rely on Empire and the Wittertainment download to steer me in the right direction...though I now have a desire to see the latest Werner Herzog documentary about [german]'Staring into the abyss of the human soul.'[/german], this time set in a magnificently painted cave in France.

Fortunate indeed for you good folks that I am here to sporadically review random films in which you have no interest.

Since I moved to the real world and took a real job and have had to do...real things...I do not watch movies any more. I watch them on DVD. Twie. Like Tron. I am obsessed with Tron.

Please someone remind me how out of the loop I am.

*groan*

A Single Man

Quiet and extremely stylish with an excellent turn from Colin Firth, this day-in-the-life tale of a suicidal English Professor in Cuban Missile Crisis era LA is a careful study into how to make your mark in the film world with the right script, an immaculate dress sense (ok almost immaculate - a white angoran sweater is not the look for any man even if he is young, gay and handsome in the 60s) and, most importantly, the right cast...or just Colin Firth.
It's not perfect; it's episodic and the use of colour saturation to suggest the return of feeling to Firth's world is rather heavy-handed but it's an impressive calling card for a first-time director with a splendid central performance (and a convincing English accent from Julianne Moore...)
4/5

Wings of Desire

In Berlin 1986 angels spend their time listening to the thoughts of Berliners (and Peter Faulk and a French trapeze artist) as they reflect on life in Cold war Germany. One angel, Daniel, gradually becomes infatuated with the circus performer and wishes to fall in order to experience her, and life, first hand.

This is a film of about 2 hours in length. The first sentence of the plot synopsis above occupies 1 hour 40 minutes of the run time. The falling and experiencing life takes up about 16 minutes, leaving some time for credits. If you're looking for a film in which German people (and Peter Faulk and a French trapeze artist) wander around reflecting on life and loneliness in black and white then this is for you. If you're normal you'll avoid. I'd almost recommend you should instead watch the US remake starring Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage but I couldn't have that on my conscience.

I suspect all Wim Wenders films are like this...I'll read the 5-star review more carefully next time.
1/5

Ha, excellent review Kingol. I actually really want to see that now - but then I'm not normal.

Fast Five

This is the fifth Fast And The Furious film, and is the best of the bunch. I can say that with confidence despite never having seen the 3rd film - Tokyo Drift.

Although the film is clearly ludicrous (it even stars Ludacris) and climaxes with a heist which relies on the thieves being able to switch the laws of physics on and off at will, I enjoyed this. In particular I liked seeing Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson chewing up not just scenery, but entire buildings in the scenes he was in.

Oh god. I so want to see this movie.

Thanks JB, back at ya; I, like Jennie, now harbour a desire to watch Fast 5. That is the main function of reviews I guess; to direct the readers' attentions to films of which they may not have heard or wouldn't have usually considered, but don't blame me if you fall into a coma while watching Wings... and I won't blame you if I lose most of my brain cells watching 5.

Hanna

I liked this. I may do a proper review at some point.

Please do; I'm interested in seeing it. I will review Thor (which was fun in a pow, smash, HAMMER! kind of way).

Thor

Thor, a member of a race of God-like beings living on another plane, is manipulated by his brother Loki into attacking another race thereby bringing the, to the brink of war. For his hubris he is banished to Earth by his strangely Welsh father Odin (Sir Anthony Hopkins) where he meets the beguiling Natalie Portman, demands a horse from a pet shop and generally learns some humility before nipping back to Asguard to save the day.

This is, quite surprisingly, pretty good fun; Brannah and the cast treat the ridiculous pomp of Asguard with admirable straight faces before pricking the bubble in the scenes on Earth. ("How dare you threaten the mighty Thor with such a puny weapon!?" Buzzz "Argh!" Thump.) Admittedly not a whole heap happens beyond introducing Thor before he appears in The Avengers, but Portman is pretty, Chris Helmsworth is genial (and cut like a freaking steak) and there are some nice references to other Marvel films in the canon ("Is that one of Stark's?" "I don't know. That guy never tells me anything.").

Overall it's worth a watch but not a classic.
3.5/5

I'm a fan of the Swedish original and unconvinced of the need for a US remake but this trailer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo looks pretty cool.

I even like the cover of Immigrant's Song by Karen O.