Film reviews
Film previews with Celia Shorojk 
Blow up
stuff including the planet
Forget it
Total Recall
THE producers of Total Recall must
have forgotten that not long ago (1990, not long ago for some) the original sci-fi
shoot&blowemup starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone collected
much of its handy profits through mystery and suspense.
Maybe it is just me, but surprise is
somewhat limp when you know what is coming.
Maybe the producers of the re-do were
mesmerised by the numbers of the original. It cost $50M and brought in more
than $250 mill. That’s good business, not likely to be replicated in relative terms
by Total Recall 2012.
You can hardly blame the cast which
includes top Brit thespos Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Bill Nighy.
Director
Len Wiseman along with writers Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bombark muck
about with some of the more memorable scenes of the original but that is more
cute than clever.
At least they have ditched the ultra-violence of the firstie but they have also thrown out much of the wit
and intelligence of the 1990 vehicle.
This one is bound to disappoint but
I would suggest a strategy to save the film. See it in the cinema one night and
watch the 1990 on vid the next. That should be fun.
Dick joke in the title; little other fun
The
Dark Knight Rises
THE
general public who have posted reviews of this film have in general been
enraptured with the latest in the Batman series.
Professional critics, in the main, have also been kind but some have
suggested the movie is too long (2hr 45 m).
Others have said you cannot hear what the masked villain,
Bane is saying. Maybe a sizeable chunk of the audience, teenage boys who
communicate in grunts and monosyllables, don't worry about that sort of
thing.
Most of your average punters are loving
it unreservedly, but Huff Post reviewer Scott Mendelson gave it
a bit of a pasting. Perhaps Ms Huff&puff lost total recall of the protocols
of industrial relations and forgot to pay critic Mendo.
Personally I prefer my
Batman grey and coloured with streaks of humour so director Christopher Nolan does not do
it for me most of the time.
If you can take a lengthy
nap in the boring middle of this epic, the whole experience should be rewarding.
Steve Carrell deserves better than this:
the film not the boobs, I mean
Seeking a Friend for the End of the
World
DO not let the title fool you: this one is not a shoot&blowemup. Of course, there are modest
explosions. It is the end of the world, after all. Due respects to Tissy Eliot, we are more likely to go out the way we came in, with a bang not a whimper.
More’s the pity this alleged rom-com did
not have a tonne of TNT under it to
re-ignite the humour.
Poor Steve Steve
Carell!.
He gets lumbered
with a straight role in one rom-com, Hope
Springs and in this one, the scriptwriters knife him in the back after a
promising start.
Britchick Keira
Knightley is the love interest but of little other interest.
Steve Carrell is one
of the funniest actors on the planet. Come on Hollywood, give him something to
work with.
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