oliver9184

Are you kidding? I remember going to watch this with no expectations and thinking it was pretty shit at first then it growing and growing on me until the FANTASTIC ending! I think I may have been still drunk from the previous day but I was absolutely agape at the ending of Knowing, and I stayed through the credits to properly digest it. I couldn't. I think I went and got more drunk (day off, probably).

Agreed, the Wrestler is not far off perfect, on that level, and on some others, too.

Sherlock Holmes 6/10 - (sort-of mild spoilers in here) I was quite severely, and unexpectedly, disappointed by this. I remember seeing trailers early in the summer and being very excited; it looked smart, funny and action-heavy and not totally stupid... It is funny to an extent, and some of the action is pretty good but it's not very smart (it should be smart above all things, I think) and the story really sucks. Holmes and Watson have been dumped into a stinking and overripe mad/evil-genius trying to take over the world plot in which there are plenty of chases and set-pieces but which doesn't seem to require Holmes's powers of deduction until the end. The hackneyed climax sees Holmes face off against enemy Lord Blackwood, and in that scene I counted three hoary old cliches that I presumed had been abandoned through overuse decades ago. For instance: we really shouldn't be seeing a character step unwittingly into a loop of rope which then tightens and drags him somewhere thus allowing his opponent to gain the advantage. There's a slight chance that I may have missed the point - some sort of spoof or parody was intended - but if so it was poorly executed. The whole film, and the final scene in particular, had a feel of artificiality that veered between a bit niggly and downright irritating. The performances were generally fine, although I'd like Rachel McAdams to have had more of a forceful presence - and, thinking about it, Blackwood is a really shit villain and a well played Professor Moriarty (played by whom? Paul Bettany perhaps) would have been a more appropriate rival.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 9/10. Having been severely underwhelmed by Sherlock at the cinema I came home and put on my ragged old 3rd or 4th generation VHS copy of this 70 year old Hollywood version starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. Most things that get called classic don't deserve it but this does. Everything is as it should be: Holmes is impetuous, brilliant, mercurial; Watson is bumbling, blundering, childlike in his simplicity and petulence but loyal as a dog. The plot involves something about a killer using a primitive Andean throwing weapon and Moriarty stealing the crown jewels, and it is pretty solid - but the real joy comes from watching the two leads racing around Hollywood's idea of 1890s London, which then gradually became the whole world's idea of the same.

Yes Man 6/10. This is Jim Carrey coasting. Everyone knows by now how good he can be: Lemony Snicket's and Eternal Sunshine are the two recent examples that showcase his formidable range. Exemplary performances taken from opposite ends of the scale. Yes Man is one of those flimsy, trite comedy films featuring Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crashers, The Hangover) in support that seem to have become popular over the last few years: aimed at young adults who laugh whether it's funny or not: nine times out of ten it's not. (It unnerves me no end hearing Carrey say fuck) The whole conceit (say yes to everything no matter what) is intriguing in an abstract don't think about it too long sort of way; as a premise for a film it's simply not up to snuff and seems also to be taken by the writers as a license write... well, to write a lot of bullshit and use it as a film. This would be sort-of ok if Jim Carrey was sometimes a bit mad, etc, but he's plays the most dull, miserable, dislikeable and downright boring protagonist I think I've ever watched in a proper film. (Except for Shrek.) He hardly ever does his Jim Carrey thing - the best we get is him making mad faces by sticking see-through tape all over his face. That said this is still a very very easy to watch film that requires no effort whatsoever. That's what some audiences want. And that's fine. (what is it about Bradley Cooper? He looks like a young, even eviler Ralph Fiennes. I want him to be the bad guy not the smarmy best friend).

Observe & Report 9/10 There's plenty of savage and close-to-the-bone comedy in this film from last year starring Seth Rogen. I really wish I'd seen it in a packed cinema so I could have heard people's laughs and gasps and so on. Rogen plays a different sort of character than in Pineapple Express and Knocked Up - he's the protagonist in this film but he's not as easily identifiable with and sympathetic because he's really a real loser - not a pretend loser like in those other films - he's a real loser, and mentally damaged, in this film. It's really hilarious in parts, it's surprising and pulls none of its punches and for these reasons I'm sure it will reward repeat viewings.

In Bruges 8/10 I really didn't think this would be for me but watched it anyway and was pleasantly surprised. The humour ranges from pretty broad and crass to absolutely inspired, to subtle and touching. There are more hits than misses. and Colin Farrell does his best with a badly written and fairly dislikeable character. Most of the parts involving the dwarf/midget are lousy - this compounded by disastrous acting from the dwarf himself but they aren't so bad as to spoil everything. The best thing about this film is Ralph Fiennes - so far unseen - on the other end of the telephone. But what I liked best about this film I think, is the immature and lighthearted attitude its characters take towards things like life, death, morality, firearms, revenge, honour and the like. They're gangsters but they go about their business as if they were schoolboys playing a game.

What Price Glory 8/10 is a comedy-drama set in WWI from 1952 directed by John Ford and starring James Cagney. I was never a fan of John Ford; he was known to be out of his element with this film and at odds with the studio and so unsurprisingly this is by quite a long way the worst James Cagney film I have seen so far. But he is my favourite actor of all time and I can happily sit through anything he's in. If some other actor played his role in this I probably wouldn't have considered watching it. The film is stagey and rough, it staggers between uneasy and unbalanced comedy and fearful mawk as the old Hollywood wartime situations and cliches you know from hundreds of other films get acted out yet again. Cagney is absolutely the keystone to it all - everything in the film centers on him and he's like a father to his troops, who are young, green and scared. I would certainly have been scared serving as a marine in the First World War but I couldn't hope for a better C.O. than Captain Flagg - aka James Cagney!