The Host

Stephanie Mayer certainly knows how to write a good book, after vampires and werewolves we now get an alien invasion, and a schizophrenic Alien with a human voice in her head, The Storyline and the concept are superb, and visually this film is stunning, but unfortunately I can't help feeling that maybe this movie does not do the book justice (although I have not read the book)

It just felt like there was something lacking from the acting performances, I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Maybe the characters lack a bit of depth, so you don't feel emotionally involved with them, and the "If we are the last man and woman alive" scene, early on in the film, is loaded with so much cheese it is almost cringe worthy. 

I'm sure the Twilight Audience will enjoy this, certainly take your teenagers, but if you are expecting a fully rounded movie you will come away a little disappointed 7/10

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Wat can I say about G.I. Joe? this is a film with issues, mainly the acting, or lack of, from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who should just stick to wrestling, and Bruce Willis who really should just give up with the action movies and retire gracefully, or take on something different.

The plot is extremely contrived, and if you go and See it make sure you don't sit towards the front,  as in several of the fight scenes the camera angles change so quickly that if you are to close to the screen you can't actually process the images fast enough to see whats going on.

Apart from that this is an ok movie 5/10

BBFC classifications

I have just written my review of Trance, if you read it you will see that my enjoyment of the film was limited slightly by my distraction with regard to its 15 certificate, this was also the case with The Master last year.

Is full frontal nudity acceptable for a 15 year old? especially when that full frontal nudity includes a close up of the genital area to emphasise a point.

In the case of The Master, it was a hullucination where he was seeing everyone in the room naked, maybe my objection to that one was that not everyone in that room was as attrative as Rassario Dawson! but that film also included use of the C word, however according to the BBFC "The single use of very strong language occurs during a psychological experiment in which some pornographic prose is read out. This includes the line "I felt his fingers opening the lips of my c**t". The use of the word occurs in the context of a crude sexual description and is not used aggressively or insultingly"

So again is this the sort of thing that a 15 year old should be allowed to see? in many ways the context of the word in The Master, a slang term for the vagina, is, for me, worse than it being used as a insult.

Some may argue that our 15 year olds should be exposed to this, that the vast majority of them will have seen much worse anyway and that they need to experience this sort of thing. if that is the case, why are our rules on TV for channels like Babestation so draconian?

Trance

I was really looking forward to watching Trance, ever since I saw the trailer and then heard that Cineworld were doing a preview, I have to admit I really like Danny Boyle, I guess post olympics he is a bit of a national treasure, but also his recent films Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours are both a superb watch.


Trance is a very good film, and an enjoyable watch, but you need to stick through to the end to really appreciate it in its entirity, about half way through I thought I knew what was going on, I was wrong! the whole thing is quite mind bending in that once you get into the hypnotism section, certain elements are not actually real and are the subject of hypnosis. however the end "reveal" shows how deep that actually goes. (I won't ruin it for you)

My Issue with Trance is the use of nudity, there are several sex scenes, and scenes where people are nude, that are shot so that you don't see anything, (IE head shots and above the waist shots for the men) Then all of a sudden there is a plot device which involves Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) shaving off her pubic hair, she goes into the bathrom, you hear the electric razor, but then she steps out of the bathroom full frontal, and to emphasise the point you get a nice close up of her (freshly shaven) vagina.

Now don't get me wrong here, I am a red bloodied male afterall, but a) I wasn't expecting it, b) if you are going to show that, why be so careful for the rest of the movie and c) how on earth can the BBFC justify giving it a 15 certificate?

Unfortunately I came out of the cinema thinking more about BBFC classifications that I did about the film, which is a shame, because had this been an 18, I probably would have enjoyed it more without being distracted by the certificate.  7/10

Jack the Giant Slayer

Yet another fairy tale reworked with a different story, the trouble with this sort of movie is that although they change the original story of the fairy tale, they tend to keep a lot of the key elements, and therefore become terribly predictable, Jack the Giant Slayer falls right into this trap, the story of jack and the beanstalk is so familiar, that athouh this is "Jack the Giant Slayer" not "Jack and the Beanstalk" you are always one step ahead of the movie.

For what its worth, the CGI is good, as per my hatred for all things 3D I saw the 2D version, but I have heard people who have seen the 3D version saying it is good, and very subtly done, so they didn't come out with the usual headache.

The acting is passable, I'm not sure this will go down as one of Ewan Mcgreagors most memorable performances, but decent enough from the leads Nicholas Hoult and Eleanor Tomlinson.

Take your children, and if you have never told them the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, I'm sure they will enjoy this immensly. otherwise just don't bother 5/10

Identity Thief

Identity Thief is supposedly a comedy about a guy who has his identity stolen, and in a bid to clear his name he goes to Florida in order to bring the Woman who stole his Identity back to Denver in order to clear his name.

The reality is that this is about as funny as watching paint dry, all the best "Jokes" are in the trailer, and even those are not funny. I actually cannot recall laughing once. the acting is poor and even as a story line it just dosent work. It just fails on very level.

This is possibly the worst film I have seen so far in 2013, if you have seen the trailer then you have seen the best of the movie, just satisfy yourself with that and don't bother with the rest. 3/10

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

I went into Burt Wonderstone not really knowing anything about it, is not a movie that has been heavily trailed or got much in the way of press coverage, the fact that it is not being shown next week gives a clue to the size of the box office, Which is strange considering it stars both Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. However I think both of them would be quick to admit that this is not one of their better films.

Carell plays Burt Wonderstone, an ageing magician who has been doing the same act for years and his audience is starting to dwindle, Carey comes along as a kind of David Blane type character who doesn't do traditional magic, but wonders people with ever increasingly dangerous stunts.

The Comedy is fun in parts, there are a few good gags, but on the whole I found myself giggling rather than full on laughter, the story line is ok, but like a magic show there is nothing here to make you sit back and go wow, it has no cutting edge and is a whole lot of bland comedy.

I did enjoy the closing scene, which I won't ruin or you but aside from that this is a very average film, which is a shame given the cast 5/10