May 2009


Fermat's Room (full review)
Is Fermat’s Room Spain’s answer to a Christopher Nolan cerebral slight of hand tricksy movie? Or J.J. Abrams TV mysteries? It’s along those lines, but nowhere near as captivating or clever. A for effort though.
***

Drag Me To Hell
Gross out horror comedy the only way Sam Raimi can do: icky, scary and funny in equal measures. A welcome return to what he excels at, DMTH is one hell of an innovative, kinetic, wild ghost ride. Alison Lohman also deserves to be a bigger star after this brave, "take anything the sadistic Raimi can throw at her" performance. Bruce Campbell eat your heart out.
****

12 Rounds
I like a brainless actioner as much as the next guy that grew up watching Arnie in the 80s and JCVD in the early 90s. 12 Rounds unfortunately falls way short of this mark in its wannabe throwback attempts though. Disappointing.
**

Night at the Museum 2
An underrated, enjoyable, throwaway family fun sequel to an underrated, enjoyable, throwaway family fun original with added Geek Cliquers, Hank Azaria and Amy Adams thrown in (which is obviously a good thing) for good measure. Another Night at another Museum anybody?
***

Fighting
There's more than meets the updated A.W.O.L. nutshell plot synopsis to Fighting. Course, seeing as its Dito Montiel's 70s-by-design follow-up to the superb A Guide To Recognising Your Saints that shoulda been obvious. Think Saturday Night Fever but with brawling instead of dancing.
***

Star Trek (full review)
Warping straight into second place in the canon of Trek films after the universally-acknowledged best of the best The Wrath of Khan, on this evidence Star Trek’s sure to live on even longer and prove even more prosperous than it ever has boldly done before.
****

Coraline (full review)
Entertaining enough with visual flair to spare, the resounding feeling one gets from Coraline is however meh.
***

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Note to all future generic rom-com producers: Matthew McConaughey = watchability. The gorgeous Jennifer Garner don't hurt neither, nor does a hilarious turn from Michael Douglas. That said, this is no industry-high How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days mind.
** (and a half)