The Thick of It S3: DVD Review

The Thick of It S3: DVD Review

The Thick Of It Season 3
Rating: M
Released by BBC and Roadshow
The ferociously satiric comedy The Thick Of It returns with a slight retooling for its third year's outing.
The jerky camera work's still there and the humour is as dry as ever before but the dynamic's shifted with more of an emphasis on Peter Capaldi's brilliant spin doctor Malcolm Tucker. Once again though, the target is still the ineptitude of politicians, focus groups and petty office squabbles as the election's taken in and backstabbing aplenty reigns.
All in all, this series continues to impress - from Peter Capaldi's great performance of bile and bluster as the spin doctor, there's little to match him on the comedy front. With smart writing from some of the UK's best comedy brains, this really is superlatively intelligent and ferociously funny stuff.
A fourth series is planned for 2012 but for now, there are three series of pure brilliance to fall back into and wallow in the best creative and savage comedy to have come out of the UK in a very long time.

Rating: 7/10

Scream 4 Blu Ray Review

Scream 4 Blu Ray Review

Scream 4
Rating: M
Released by Roadshow

"What's your favourite scary movie?"
15 years ago, one horror film reinvented the slasher genre and made it fresh, smart and frightening. Now, the franchise is back - with a new film expected to be the start of a fresh franchise of fear and slaughter.

On the anniversary of the first killings in Woodsboro, Sidney Prescott (the ever luminous Neve Campbell) heads back into town to promote her self help book. But her arrival heralds a new round of mayhem perpetrated by Ghostface - and soon, her friends, family and everyone in Woodsboro is a new target.

It starts with a phone ringing - and a very smart analysis of opening scenes from the Scream films (it's difficult to talk too much without giving spoilers so forgive vagueries) and the initial fake outs throw you off guard before the real action begins to take place. It's this self awareness which pervades the film - and makes it more entertaining than the two sequels which preceded it.

That said, the latest entrant seems a little muted compared to what we've become used to.

David Arquette is mightily impressive as doofus Dewey the sheriff; Courtney Cox is bitter and angry as Gail, the would be writer who's now trapped in small town Woodsboro; and Campbell really brings the psychological plight of a victim/ survivor to the fore. Throw in a new group (a next generation if you will) of teens (Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts as Sid's cousin, two new film geeks) and there's a veritable pot pourri of characters on show.

There's a lack of suspense at times to be frank - and if you're after a blood spattered night out, this isn't the film for you.

Granted the scenes of teens/ adults being stabbed are actually quite horrifying, but they're muted in comparison to the over the top death scenes of the previous two films - and that's what impresses.
The final sequences are overlong and drawn out - and the revelations of ultimately who's behind it make reasonable sense (partly because they spend an inordinate amount of time explaining why they're doing it.)

Sure, there's plenty of running up stairs when going out the front door may have been best; there's dark and deserted parking lots, shadows of things moving by windows, but all in all this Screemake (or Screequel as the characters call them) isn't a bad entrant into the franchise. As one line says :"You do a remake to outdo the original"; certainly Scre4m (to give it its marketing title) brings some new aspects to the genre, but the over peppering of the script with commentary on the films and horror franchises may lead some to feel this latest is a little flat and lacking in requisite suspense in places.

Rating: 5/10

Game Review: Dead Rising 2 - Off the Record

Game Review: Dead Rising 2 - Off the Record

Dead Rising 2 - Off The Record
Released by THQ/ Capcom
Platform: PS3
Zombies are everywhere at the moment - with the success of the Walking Dead TV series, it's almost as if the undead have been given another shot at life.
The latest Dead Rising sees you taking control of Frank West, a once TV star whose star is most definitely in the descent and who finds himself in Fortune City, armed with only a camera and whatever he can get his hands on to take on the hordes of the undead. With the clock ticking down to a kind of apocalypse to cleanse the dead and the chance of Frank becoming zombified himself if he doesn't get the wonder drug Zombrex, it's clearly a race against time and a quest to survive.
I've not played any of the Dead Rising series before but this latest is a reinterpretation of the last one with a different main character; that's a clever move but some may feel there's little new to see this time around.
However, it's relatively good fun if you like just pointlessly killing things using an array of weapons; from freezing them with fire extinguishers and then bashing them to using microphone stands to spear them, there's a certain amount of joy to be had just slaughtering.
It does get a little frustrating when the game loads up every few minutes but I guess given the multitudes of undead and options on the screen for weapons, as well as stores to explore, something's gotta give. A neat touch is giving Frank a camera and using that to take pics around Fortune City to gather points; plus giving the game a sandbox option where the time threat is stripped away, is also a chance to invest a little deeper into the game.
Overall, Dead Rising 2 - Off The Record will come down to whether you like to just put your brain in neutral and engage the game - and while that's not a bad thing, it certainly means this latest is playable enough and disposable fun.

Rating: 7/10

Beautiful Lies: Movie Review

Beautiful Lies: Movie Review

Beautiful Lies
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Nathalie Baye, Sami Bouajila
Director: Pierre Salvadon
Amelie's Tautou stars as Emilie in this French romantic comedy about little white lies.
Emilie is a partner in a hairdressing business - one day she receives an anonymous love letter from Jean (Bouajila) who works with her. But she dismisses it and carries on with her life.
However, realizing her mother Maddy's yet to recover from her father walking out on them four years ago, she decides to take that letter and retype it, changing the intended addressee and sending it to her depressed mom.
But, that rejuvenates Maddy and sets in motion a chain of events which spirals out into farcical consequences.
Tautou is perfectly fine in the role; one minute all wide eyed and the next haughty and cross; while she has a bit of spark about her, it's only really at the start of this film that you're carried along with the premise. About a third of the way in, it becomes a little too farcical for you to care as the misunderstandings escalate and a somewhat strange situation/ triangle develops between Jean, Maddy and Emilie.

Beautiful Lies is a piece of French fluff; beautifully shot in a bright French town - it has all the breeziness within but is insubstantial and instantly forgettable.

Fright Night: Movie Review

Fright Night: Movie Review

Fright Night
Rating: 8/10
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Imogen Poots, David Tennant, Toni Collette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Craig Gillespie
So it's a remake of the 1985 flick of the same name - and despite the fact you're probably rolling your eyes wondering if Hollywood's run out of ideas, this ain't half bad.
Yelchin is Charley Brewster, who lives in a small suburban settlement just outside Vegas; his mom (Collette) is an estate agent and he's just starting a new relationship with popular girl Amy (Poots) having graduated to the cool kids from a group of geeks he used to hang around with.
One of them, Ed (Mintz-Plasse) believes the third member of their former gang has been taken by a vampire named Jerry (Farrell) who just happens to be Charley's next door neighbour...
And when Ed goes missing and Charley begins to investigate, it transpires there may be a grain of truth in the accusations.
Fright Night is a whole bunch of bloody fangtastic fun.
A good horror these days needs several key ingredients in the mix; a dose of self knowing humour, some genuine scares, spooky atmosphere and some quality acting.
Thankfully, Fright Night has all of that and more.
Colin Farrell pulls a stunningly menacing turn out of the bag as the shifty and frightening neighbour who just wants to get to know his neighbours; Yelchin also impresses having enough presence to make you believe he's just graduated from the geeks to leading man status and David Tennant brings a lizard lounge swagger to the Vegas magician to give him enough charisma on the screen.
To be honest, the 3D format of this film is a little hit and miss - some of it's used to have blood splatter come out of the screen at you and that's a little disappointing. But the FX when the vampires burn up in the sun is stunningly good.

All in all, Fright Night represents a great piece of popcorn entertainment; it's a clever film whose easy mix of occasional tongue in cheek tone and masterfully eeked out tension ensure you're kept on the edge of your seat throughout.

In Time: Movie Review

In Time: Movie Review

In Time
Rating: 5/10
Cast: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser
Director: Andrew Niccol
Kiwi director Andrew Niccol returns with this sci-fi film, set sometime a few days after the day after tomorrow.
In this alternative future, people stop aging at 25 and must work to buy themselves more time. A green digital clock counting down on their arm signals how much time they've got left in life - but they have options to work to buy time and can transfer it freely between themselves. With me so far?
It's in this world we meet Justin Timberlake's Will Salas, who lives in the ghettos. When Salas finds himself in a bar one night with a man who's got over a century of time notched up on his arm, Salas ends up saving him from a corrupt gang preying on those who live in the ghetto.
However, the next day, Salas finds the man dead and all the time transferred to him.
Suddenly, the police force of TimeKeepers (including Cillian Murphy's character) is on his tail - and Will heads to New Greenwich where the rich live to try and escape the law and live his life.
There, he meets Amanda Seyfried's Sylvia Weis, the rich girl/spoilt brat who's desperate to get out of her father's clutches so that she can live a little.
However, she hadn't bargained for becoming Will's hostage when he finds himself trapped and with nowhere to run....
It's an intriguing concept and one ripe for sci fi trappings but In Time just falls short of its clever central premise.
The whole feel is starchly pompous at times and utterly silly at others. It's also a mish mash of other films; shades of Logan's Run, elements of Bonnie and Clyde and touches of Robin Hood as Salas robs time from the rich to give to the poor. With lines like "The poor die, but the rich don't live" and "Don't waste my time", there's some heavy handed hammering home of the ideas at play here.
That's some of the problem as the film doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Sure, there are thematic questions running underneath as the ethics of living and dying come up but they're mired in noisy chase scenes and plenty of running that they lose their intelligence too early on. It's a shame that Niccol resorts to car chases to keep the audience engaged when the central conceit is such an interesting one.
Seyfried makes a very sultry wide eyed naïf to begin with and Timberlake is relatively straight as he tries to become an intelligent action hero (which unfortunately he doesn't quite make), but the two just don't mix well and there's very little chemistry on display, making Seyfried's Stockholm Syndrome a little hard to believe in.

Granted there are some good ideas, concepts and designs here- the look and feel particularly of the day after tomorrow works very well - but Kiwi director Niccol doesn't seem to know what ultimately he wants to do with this film, which is a real shame.

The Inbetweeners Movie: Movie Review

The Inbetweeners Movie: Movie Review

The Inbetweeners Movie
Rating: 7/10
Cast: Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison
Director: Ben Palmer
From three successful TV series, a movie's born from some very crude loins.
UK comedy series The Inbetweeners centred around 4 teenagers, Jay, Simon, Will and Neil who're obsessed with sex, girls, sex, breasts, sex and even more sex.
In the film spin off from the TV2 show, the quartet have finished school; when Jay's grandfather dies, and Simon's dumped by long term on/off girlfriend Carli, they decide it's time for a lad's holiday away in Crete.
So the four lovably deluded losers head off to the sun and sand in the hope of scoring plenty of ladies and a memorable time.
But things get complicated when Simon finds out Carli's there too and sets out to woo her back; and the rest of the guys find their quest for notches on the bedpost don't quite go according to any sort of plan.
The Inbetweeners Movie is full of sharp one liners, smut and humiliation - and because of that, is in keeping with the TV series, the awkward situations they find themselves in and the characters we've come to know and love.
Of the four lads, it's perhaps Simon Bird's geeky and intellectual loser Will who comes off best in the flick; he's got some great lines and Bird really does bring an extra dimension to the character. Joe Thomas' Simon starts to grate a little as he continues to pine after Carli - so much so that you want to shout at the screen for him to move on; Blake Harrison's Neil has some astonishingly filthy - yet very funny- moments (which sadly can't be discussed here) and James Buckley's deluded Jay is perhaps the weakest of the bunch in terms of story arcs.
But that's the thing with The Inbetweeners - you could always see what was going to happen and while parts of this film may feel a little repetitive, the laughs you get from seeing the delusions of sex obsessed teenagers in action far outweigh the feeling you've seen it all before.

With a healthy smattering of smut and some genuinely laugh out loud and cringeworthy moments, The Inbetweeners Movie is a sign the Brit comedy industry is still in very, very rude health.