January 2009 Archives

With such a generic title you would be forgiven to think this would be one to miss.

But if you enjoy easy paced love stories with a dash of light-hearted comedy along the way you may enjoy this one.

Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger) is a high-flying board member determined to become Vice President of the company. To prove herself she is sent from Miami to the barren ice lands of Minnesota to turn around one of the businesses failing manufacturing plants.

The locals give her a week.

Another teen comedy is heading our way, this time in the guise of Nick and Norah. The plot mirrors many such films that have gone before it: girl asks stranger to do a favour, bewildered boy says yes, 90-minute-madcap adventure, boy and girl fall in love.

Nick has just broke up with his girlfriend and Norah is single, she asked him to pretend to be her boyfriend for five minutes and their nighttime adventure through love, crushes, alcohol, Russian food, stripping nuns and drunken friends begins.

The trailer certainly delivers the one-liners but whether the film itself delivers the comedy remains to be seen.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is out Friday 30th January.

Nominated for thirteen Oscars and eleven BAFTA's, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is no doubt looking like it will be one of this year's best loved feel-good films.

Benjamin is born with an unusual condition which means that instead of getting older, he gradually grows younger instead. Raised in an elderly home by carer Queenie, Benjamin is not expected to live very long.

It is at the care home that he meets Daisy, who is the same age as him but growing up in the same direction as everyone else.

Benjamin's life finally takes him away from the home and he and Daisy remain in touch for many years through postcards before they meet up again in their forties at the same stage in their lives.

But can there love endure when they are both travelling in opposite directions?

Nowhere near as dramatic as the title implies, Revolutionary Road sees married couple Anne and Frank (Winslet and DiCaprio) ditch their run-of-the-mill American family lifestyle to chase the lost dreams of their youth in France.

But running away to chase your lifelong ambitions when you have two young children is more emotionally draining than keeping the ill-fated Titanic afloat...

This is the first time Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio have reunited on camera since Titanic twelve years ago and if your a fan then you are not likely to be disappointed.

One of the movies many people have been waiting months to see finally arrived in the cinema at the weekend.

Slumdog Millionaire puts a modern spin on the classic rags-to-riches tale. Set in Mumbai in India, Jamal Malik is on the verge of doing what no one from the slums has done before...win Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

But his quest to answer the final question and win the money turns out to be a journey that dates further back and mean much more than anyone watching could have ever anticipated.

Slumdog Millionaire is an emotionally stirring tale of one boy trying to find the woman he loves while exploring the seemingly random events of his life which lead him to know the answers to everything he is asked.

A far cry form Train Spotting, Slumdog Millionaire may appear to be a million miles away from that of Director Danny Boyle's previous works but proves to be just as engaging and emotionally intense.

A MOVIE about a comic book classic by the man who wrote The Dark Knight Returns, 300, co-directed Sin City and inspired Batman Begins?

Surely Zeus himself would shave his beard for a chance to see this!

But the truth is, it isn't great or even good for that fact. It's a convoluted mess of camp acting, boring brutality and tedious dialogue.

Based on the comic book by Will Eisner, The Spirit sees the hero of the same name (Gabriel Macht) in a battle to rid Central City of the criminal mastermid, Octopus (Samuel L Jackson). As the story unfolds it's revealed that they two actually share a hidden secret, which is key to both their powers.

It's a typical Frank Millar story- anti hero seeking redemption, lots of gritty undertones, a vigilante with a physcotic obsession over the protection of his city and lots of dames, with guns.

So cue 120 minutes of comic book mythology winks, lots of green screen action, a pair of Converse All Star Chucks, a cameo from "I'm the God damn, Batman" writer himself and Samuel L Jackson in a Nazi uniform, what do you have?

One of the biggest let downs in comic book movie history.

The film screams "I'm a comic book movie!" in your face and while it looks great, it does have an abundance of other problems that bring it down.

Is that it doesn't sound as half good as it looks. The acting is disjointed and the dialogue spoken awkwardly and amiss. The script would probably play out well if it was a graphic novel, not a full blown movie.

The stunning Eva Mendes puts in a decent performance as Sans Serif, while Sam Jackson is just weird as the Octopus and Gabriel Macht is allright in the film's lead role.

I have to say though that the biggest disappointment here is that, as a fan of Frank Millar's works, his solo directorial debut was overly hyped and ultimately a huge let down for everyone looking forward to this movie.

The Spirit is out on in Cinemas nationwide.