The Guard

The Guard

When a local murder is part of an FBI drug bust, a big shot agent must team up with the local slacker officer in order to solve the case.

I don't think there is much that Brendan Gleeson has done that I haven't enjoyed in some way. This is no exception. He takes the lead role as Boyle: the slacker member of the Irish Guard. In typical film style the slacker also turns out to be quite intelligent just lazy. Gleeson is fantastic, he's got perfect comedy timing and he's perfect for the lead. Don Cheadle, still good in his own way, but easily shadowed in every scene by Gleeson. Bringing up the supporting cast includes Mark Strong. He went from a terrible big budget blockbuster(Green Lantern) to this; a fantastic little film. He brings the British element to the Irish vs American bit.

The film itself is a little slow, but for the content of the film it all makes sense. What redeems it is all the witty humour that's used. So many one liners that left me in stitches at times.
The only critisicm i'll make is that with all the thick irish accents in the film it is a little hard to hear some of the standard dialogue at times. Oh and not to ruin it, but the half cliffhanger ending should have either been full cliffhanger or just explained.

Recommend: definitely!
Overall: 9/10

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The Inbetweeners Movie

The Inbetweeners Movie

Carrying on from Season 3 of the TV show the lads have finished collage/6^th form and go on a holiday before they have to go to uni. It’s then hilarity in the sun for the whole week.

Loved it. The plot is rather simple and obvious but they pull it off and its so funny. I loved the inclusion of Will’s dad, in the form of Anthony Head (real life father to the actress who plays Carley) There was also a really big camera moment, usually in films that its through a really big tense scene, but in this it just swooped through an estate in the burbs: I liked it. There was a nice short opening with them pre-holiday and nice moment to see all the original actors who play their parents. Then the jokes are just one after another when they get to Malia. I’m not going to list off all my favourite funny points, but from sun creme drawings to “stylish” dance moves it’s a hysterical movie.

I do have two gripes with the film though. The female nudity to male nudity was a little swinging in the wrong direction, for me personally, they were funny moments, but it did seem every 10mins in the film, there was a penis or some form of excessive male nudity going on. The second is that the character of Simon’s sub plot seemed too over the top. Even if he is still infatuated over his ex, there some times that just seemed over the top.

Definitely contender for funniest movie of the year.

Recommend: Yes, but better to have seen the all three seasons of the TV show first, but not essential.

Overall: 9.5/10

Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens

Just as the title says, a spaceship interrupts life in a western and starts stealing people and its up to a rag tag group to rescue them.

My quick review of this film was: “A good western film with an average scifi sub-plot”. This is primarily a western with a scifi element.

Harrison Ford, always a pleasure to see in films, he was very good in this film, a little “Ralph Garman- Esq” mumble at the beginning, but got better. His character however was a let down. He is opened as the bad guy of the town, the mob boss as it were and yet 20mins into the film aliens arrive and suddenly he’s fighting for the greater good of getting the aliens. It seemed a little weird that he did that. Daniel Craig’s mysterious Jake the outlaw has the right motive to get the aliens to find out about the contraption on his arm (which eventually is just a big “I win” button in the end) It’s also like he watched Clint Eastwood do the Dollars trilogy before doing that and decided to do his Man With No Name Who Gets Named In The First Thirty Minutes. I like Olivia Wilde and her character was a twist I didn’t see coming. Sam Rockwell also on top form.

The aliens themselves were a little generic. Not quite generic with ET and Paul, but more Alien meets Predator with two extra little T-Rex eating arms.

Recommend: If there is nothing else or its like £5 on DVD sure

Overall: 7/10

Star Trek Nemesis

Star Trek Nemesis

Picard finds he has a clone who cannot live with more of his DNA, and is willing to do anything to get it.

Short review this one. As usual all cast on top form, quick mention to Tom Hardy for a good performance as the troublesome clone. The story was all little meh and the ending really annoyed me with Data.

Best part of the film was the opening with Riker and Troi’s wedding.

Recommend: Every Star Trek fan has already seen it and if you don’t like Star Trek then this isn’t for you, but this is my second least favourite out of them all, just behind The Final Frontier, where they meet god.

Overall: 5/10

Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: Insurrection

The second Next Gen film. When Data malfunctions and poses a threat to a colony on a planet that the Federation is keen on acquiring, Picard is summoned to help.

I’ll skip the usual cast breakdown, to just say that all cast were on usual expected top form.

Several moments to point out in this film, though. First; it seems weird that Worf keeps flitting between serving on The Enterprise just for the movies then back to DS9, but more on this might be explained after I watch all of them. I loved the whole capturing data/Gilbert and Sullivan part of the film. Not only can all the actors sing well, but my favourite line of “Sing Worf sing!” is not met well by Worf. Its nice after the weird ending to Season 7 that Riker and Troi finally get back together, it was building up for nearly fifteen years. Another personal few favourite moments were Data explaining that he can be used as a floatation device and the boob conversation he overhears and tries on Worf.

This is definitely a more Next Generation movie compared to First Contact.

Recommend: Every Star Trek fan has already seen it and if you don’t like Star Trek then this isn’t for you.

Overall: 9/10

Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: First Contact

The proper first Next Generations movie. Picard and the NCC-1701-E crew follow a rogue borg ship into the past to stop them from altering the First Contact of the human race to alien life.

Yes, I finally finished watching Next Generation so it was time to re-watch the movies and we start with First Contact. One of my rules is: Time travel in a film is usually a clear sign of awesomeness, and this follows that rule rather well. Probably my favourite of the Next Gen movies.

First off I loved the split plot. Data, Worf, Beverley and Picard on The Enterprise with the Borg and Riker, LaForge and Troi on Earth helping Zefram Cochrane, played brilliantly by Star Trek veteran, James Cromwell.

Now with the Borg plot line, I loved the scenes with Data (Brent Spiner) and the Borg Queen, the chemistry between the two characters and their similarities was nice to see. Patrick Stewart’s Picard as awesome as ever.

Down on the planet I liked everything between the crew members and Cochrane. James Cromwell just knocked out a perfect performance. There was a nice moment when LaForge is explaining to him about his effect on the future and Reg Barckley comes up to him all giddy. It was fun moment, especially to see Barckley again. Everyone in the film had a nice role to play, except for Troi. She has one bar scene where she gets drunk and passes out but other than that she does nothing for the film.

The gripe I have with the story is that I didn’t believe they would risk going against the Prime Directive so easily. I would have thought that they would have figured out a way to explain their presence rather than tell him straight out everything.

Recommend: Every Star Trek fan has already seen it and if you don’t like Star Trek then this isn’t for you.

Overall: 9/10

Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles

Typical 80’s high school film: Girl wants boy, boy doesn’t know she exists, geeky friend intervenes and then boy and girl go out.

This is the film that Pretty in Pink had to live up to and failed. This is a much better film with very similar stories (as John Hughes wrote them both) Molly Ringwald, who plays the same, ish, character in every film I’ve seen her in, actually works in this one. She’s the ignored sibling and ignored classmate. Anthony Michael Hall, although occasionally too over the top, played a very good part, although he or his character seemed far too young to hanging around with his two very borg friends (one of which a very young John Cusack) who were both very funny. I loved the cheesy sound effects when things were happening or reactions to things, cheesy but fun. As mentioned in my review of The Blues Brothers, any film with the Peter Gunn theme tune in is an instant like in my book, love that tune. The one other thing I remember loving about the movie is that the car that Long Puck Dong/the Chinese exchange guy is driving has a food tray attached to the wing mirror: loved it and when I get a car: WANT! A good typical 80’s film.

Recommend: If you don’t mind watching 80’s movies then yes.

Overall: 7/10