Category: Film

DVD Review-The Decoy Bride

“The Decoy Bride” is a romantic comedy about a Hollywood actress (Alice Eve) who escapes to the fictional Scottish island of Hegg with her famous author fiancé (David Tennant) to avoid the paparazzi. When the paparazzi shows up at the wedding venue, Alice flees, leaving David standing at the altar. To throw the paparazzi off the scent, Alice’s assistants hire a stand-in (Kelly Macdonald) to pose as the bride. However, things don’t go as planned, and David and Kelly end up getting married for real.

While the film has an interesting premise, it falls short in execution. The plot feels drawn out and could have worked better as a TV special than a feature-length film. The performances are average, with David Tennant essentially playing a variation of his popular character from “Doctor Who.” Sally Phillips’ American accent is distracting and doesn’t add much to the story. The American characters could have been removed without affecting the plot.

The only standout performance comes from Kelly Macdonald, who brings charm and humour to her role. It’s refreshing to see her in a lighter role after her serious work on “Boardwalk Empire.”

Overall, “The Decoy Bride” is a predictable rom-com that will likely appeal to fans of David Tennant. However, it fails to live up to the standards of similar films by Richard Curtis or other notable romantic comedy filmmakers.

⭐️⭐️

Film review: The Woman in Black

What makes Woman In Black so refreshing is that it is old-school psychological horror,  complete
with an isolated, haunted mansion, rocking chairs, beheaded dolls, random screams, mysterious deaths, untold secrets, dangerous silence, suspiciously-hostile locals, a hallucination sequence and horrifying consequences.

A few eyebrows were raised when Daniel Radcliffe was announced as the leading man; other than the Harry Potter franchise he had only done one drama called The December Boys. Let’s start by saying Radcliffe is amazing: his performance is captivating. A lot of the film focuses on his character alone in a haunted mansion and he manages to hold your attention throughout. Continue reading Film review: The Woman in Black

THOR Blu Ray review

Origin movies are incredibly difficult to get right, for every Spider-man there’s a Daredevil. Unfortunately Thor is more Matt Murdock, than Peter Parker.

The movie is a bit of a mess, the pacing is way off and they recycle the same gag, every three minutes. I could never escape the feeling that there were a few scenes missing.

The humans believe Thor’s story all too quickly and I would have liked to see more of Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman talking about Life, the universe and everything. Or at the very least convince me that there was something going on between them. I just didn’t believe in their romantic relationship. I believed they were friends, but nothing more. Some great characters were criminally underused, as a Marvel geek I was excited to see them in the movie, but I just got the feeling they were there for merchandising. It could be that their backstory was included in the missing scenes I spoke of earlier.

The cast is great, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Idris Elba as Heimdall and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, all put it great performances. But a special mention must go to Tom Hiddleston, he plays Loki brilliantly. With villains, there is always a danger of over, or underacting. He turns in a great, believable performance.  Now whilst I have issues with the way certain characters are used, that doesn’t mean I thought they were miscast.



There are slight nods and references to other characters in the Marvel universe when Loki’s robot turns up on Earth the S.H.I.E.L.D agents ask “One of Stark’s?”.  This movie handles the future setups better Iron Man 2 did, the references don’t just feel like a checklist to pave the way for future Marvel films.

I’m hoping that Thor will work better as part of an ensemble team, in The Avengers. But, he has yet to win me over. It’s really a telling sign, when the 1:45 minute, the post-credit sequence made me more excited than the whole movie.

Special Features:

  • Commentary by director Kenneth Branagh
  • Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant
  • Featurettes
  • Road to the Avengers
  • Deleted Scenes with optional commentary
  • Teaser Trailer
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Avengers Animated Trailer

Thor is out now on DVD, Triple Play and Blu Ray



Film Review-Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol

The IMF, implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, is forced to shut down, leaving Ethan Hunt and his new team to clear their organisation’s name by going rogue.

Director Brad Bird, known for his work on animated films, delivers his first live-action film, which is visually stunning and features breathtaking action scenes. The standout moment is undoubtedly when Tom Cruise scales the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa tower, in Dubai. Cruise’s performance is excellent, and he is joined by a talented cast, including Simon Pegg, who has been promoted to a co-starring role.

The film also includes industry in-jokes, such as Ethan Hunt’s code number being “A113,” a frequent Pixar in-joke based on one of the room numbers for the animation program at Cal Arts.

However, the storyline could have been better, and there are noticeable dips in certain parts of the film. Additionally, there are some errors that may distract viewers from the overall experience, such as the Nuclear Launch Device used by Hendricks having a Russian keyboard but an English interface screen. Despite these flaws, the film is worth watching and will mostly keep viewers entertained throughout.

For the full experience, it’s best to watch the film on an IMAX screen.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Film Review-Another Earth

Another Earth is a great little gem of a movie, written by Mark Cahill and Brit Marling. Marling also stars as the main character of the film, Rhoda Williams.
Rhoda has recently been accepted to MIT and she goes out to celebrate with friends and drives home drunk. On the drive home she listens to a news broadcast on the radio about an approaching planet that looks just like Earth, she looks out her car window and crashes into another car, putting John Burroughs (William Mapother) in a coma and killing his wife and son.

Rhoda is sent to prison and after serving her sentence she tracks John down and decides to take care of him. Rhoda learns that there is a lottery to win a trip to the mirror Earth. She hopes that her other self didn’t make the same mistake and applies for a place.

Although the title and premise make this sound like a sci-fi movie, it is far from it. Another Earth is clearly a metaphor for a second chance, something we all desire. The only misstep this movie took, was having Rhoda and John become romantically involved. The relationship could have been a lot more touching if it hadn’t been romantic.

This is easily the best movie I have seen this year and shows indie cinema at its best. Had this been a blockbuster the mirror Earth inhabitants would have been evil versions, with goatee beards and WMD’s. I can’t recommend this film enough, this deserves a lot of praise. I would love a mini-series follow up exploring the consequences of another Earth being so close to ours and also to see what was happening to the inhabitants on mirror Earth.

Another Earth is in cinemas, nationwide.



Film Review-Puss In Boots

A Puss in Boots spin-off has been in development since he made his first appearance in Shrek 2 way back in 2004. Now that DreamWorks have milked the Shrek franchise for all its worth, it is finally time for the cat to have his day.

This is essentially an origin story. It’s set way before Puss met Shrek, Fiona and Donkey. Since Puss is the main character, he needs wacky, funny characters around him. The love interest is a feline named Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) is Puss’ best friend from childhood. Puss and Humpty Dumpty were once as close as brothers until Puss became famous. Humpty soon became jealous of Puss and betrayed him by tricking him into a bank robbery. Years later, Humpty tracks him down seeking forgiveness, as well as help with a new scheme. The scheme involves stealing some magic beans from an out-law couple, Jack and Jill. The magic beans will send them up the famous beanstalk to the golden-egg laying goose.



The first half of the movie is better than the second half. I think this is due to it being such a busy story, the ending is little anti-climatic, but strangely unlike most children’s CGI movies, it isn’t bogged down by the over-preachy moral of the tale. The performances are all solid, but special mention must go to Antonio Banderas, he manages a performance that is consistently amusing as well as moving. The moment he sees his heartbroken mother staring at him is gut-wrenching. Visually the film is a treat. The 3D works well but adds little to the overall experience. The film would still be funny, enjoyable and moving in 2D. Puss in Boots is not a great film, but it is an extremely good film.

Puss In Boots opens in the UK on December 9th 2011.

DVD REVIEW-Cars 2

I didn’t care much for the first Disney Cars film when it came out in 2006, however, since then I’ve had a son. He adores Cars and has just about every piece of merchandise with Lightning McQueen on it. He has watched the DVD so many times that the disc now sticks and requires replacing. Over the multiple viewings, it’s grown on me and I’ve even learnt to love Mater.

We went to see Cars 2 in 3D full of enthusiasm and excited to see the latest instalment. It was a letdown, my son got bored and wanted to run around and I wanted to go back and see the far superior Rio.

The story this time involves Mater being mistaken for a super-intelligent spy. Visually it is up to the high quality you’d expect from Pixar, but plot and story-wise it’s extremely poor. It’s a parody on a Bond film that we’ve seen done a thousand times. To me this movie was Pixar apologising to Disney for making Up, a film they couldn’t sell toys about. The best thing on this disc is the Toy Story short that is on the extra features.

A third instalment is inevitable, due to it being a huge cash-cow. Let’s just hope they actually have a story instead of a toy commercial.

DVD extras:

  • Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation
  • Air Mater

Cars 2 is available on DVD and Blu Ray



Review-X-Men: First Class DVD

X-Men: First Class is a fantastic film that surpassed my expectations after the disappointment of X-Men 3 and the forgettable Wolverine. The story begins in 1944, with a young Erik in a Nazi concentration camp. His powers are discovered by Dr Schmidt (Kevin Bacon), who encourages him to unleash them in a brutal way. Meanwhile, a young Charles Xavier befriends young Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) when she’s caught stealing food disguised as his mother.

Fast forward to 1962, where Charles (James McAvoy) teams up with CIA agents to search for other mutants. During a mission, they encounter Erik (Michael Fassbender), who is still on the hunt for Schmidt, now a wealthy man named Sebastian Shaw. Shaw is assembling his own group of mutants to rise up against humans.

The acting is superb, with Fassbender and McAvoy delivering standout performances. However, the film does suffer slightly from having too many characters, making it challenging to give each one adequate screen time. Some of the mutants include Angel, Azreal, Banshee, Beast, Emma Frost, Darwin, Havok, and Riptide. Hugh Jackman also makes a cameo appearance as Wolverine.

There are some continuity issues that die-hard fans may notice, such as Xavier being left wheelchair-bound in this film, but walking unaided in the flashback opening of X-Men 3. Additionally, in the ’80s-set Wolverine, there’s a teenage Emma Frost, while in First Class, she’s a fully grown adult. The only significant flaw in the film is January Jones’s performance as Emma Frost, which falls short of expectations.

Despite these minor criticisms, the film is thoroughly enjoyable, and the standout performance of Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast is noteworthy. His American accent is convincing and natural.

Overall, X-Men: First Class is an excellent addition to the franchise, and I would welcome another film with this cast.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Film Review: Red State

Three virgin high school friends think they’re on to a sure thing. One of them has found a woman online that will sleep with all three of them but they are soon caught in a trap by Pastor Albin Cooper and his Five Points Church. Albin Cooper is based on the real-life head of the Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps.

Five Points protest at funerals with signs saying “anal penetration equals eternal damnation,” etc – Cooper believes that homosexuals are sinners and must be wiped off the Earth.  In its first half, Red State is almost a horror film. A gay man is murdered quite brutally and the three high-school boys are next.  However, halfway through it turns from a horror film into a shoot ‘em up action movie; the transition doesn’t really hurt the film.  What hurts is that the tension that Smith created in the first half completely vanishes in the second; it’s almost two different films. In the first half, Smith showed incredible restraint in not adding much comedy but in the second half, during the middle of the shoot out, characters start cracking jokes and asking for tea. Which is a shame, since the tension could have been cranked up a bit. By far the first half of the movie is the strongest part.



Red state is a massive departure for Kevin Smith. You could even argue that it’s his first grown-up movie. The visuals are stunning which is really impressive for Smith; he has never been known as a visual director.  He’s been criticised in the past for static camera setups and simple lighting but with Red State, Smith has created a style that works incredibly well. Shaky camera work is nothing new but it is a huge step forward for Smith. The film has no background music which really makes it more atmospheric; all we get is the sound of bullets and Cooper singing hymns.

This is easily Kevin Smith’s best work as a director. It’s something different and doesn’t feel like ‘a Kevin Smith movie.’ We are seeing him mature here but he seems to be lacking the confidence he needed for this. The introduction of Five Points isn’t handled in the best way. We learn about them in a classroom and it’s just too much exposition. John Goodman’s character exists only for exposition which is a waste of the actor’s talent.

Overall the film is good, it’s just not great. But it is great to see Smith break away from his comedy roots and try something a bit more ambitious. It’s a shame that he’s announced his next film, Hit Somebody, will be his last as Red State is such a huge step forward for him. It would be interesting to see what else he could come back with. Let’s just hope that Red State and Hit Somebody is such huge, global hits that he’ll change his mind and come out of retirement.



Film review: Fright Night

Charley Brewster, played by Anton Yelchin, is trying to leave his nerdy past behind. He’s got a new girlfriend (Imogen Poots) and is working hard to impress the school’s popular jocks. But when his former best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) starts claiming that their new neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire responsible for the recent disappearances in the neighbourhood, Charley tries to distance himself even further from Ed. However, when Ed goes missing, Charley begins to believe his friend’s theory, but nobody else does.

Desperate for help, Charley turns to magician and vampire hunter Peter Vincent, played by David Tennant in a brilliantly intense performance that features a lot of swearing. However, Charley’s last hope might not be enough to stop Jerry, who is played with an intimidating presence by Farrell.

As a fan of the original, I approached this remake with trepidation, but I found it to be entirely enjoyable. It’s a faithful enough adaptation that captures the fun of the original while ramping up the tension and giving it a modern twist. The cast is strong, with Farrell owning every scene he’s in, and the dialogue is sharp and witty. The pacing is well-done, and the acting is superior to the original. The only drawback is the 3D, which makes the nighttime scenes too dark to fully appreciate.

Overall, it’s a solid remake worth watching,but if possible, catch it in 2D.

⭐⭐⭐