Good Luck Chuck 7 out of 10
Critically reviled but the description on the back of the DVD case sounded quite promising. I liked it and laughed a fair amount. It sort of peaked about 47 minutes in (roughly around the scene of them sitting at the airport on top of the car) as it didn't really have anywhere to go plot wise after they got together apart from contrived trials and tribulations. A solid enough movie even if the second half didn't live up to the promise of the first half.

Being There 10
Takes a while to get going but when it does it's excellent. Apart from speeding up the start there really isn't much that could be done to improve the film. Probably one of my top ten favourite movies of all time.

The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997) 10
I have no idea how this isn't considered a minor comic classic? I was laughing right from the very beginning and I think I laughed at each and every joke in the film. I love it.

Mr Brooks 8
If you're not on the films wavelength within the first five minutes then it will probably seem like a very plodding, slow film of no great consequence. Straight to rental trash with a big name lead actor. If you do get on its wavelength then I think it's a way better than average serial killer film. I really like it and I didn't think it was boring at all. A very good film.

Ghost Town 8
It's a small film with little ambition but I really like it. I think I've seen it three times in only a little over a year, which is a lot of viewings for me. He's probably the most misanthropic non-violent character ever put on screen. I just really like the film and I find it to be funny.

Thank You For Smoking 8
It works really well and I like it a lot. It's perhaps a little small in ambition once you've seen it a stack of times but that's hardly the films fault. I really enjoy the Fight Club style deconstructing of what society considers to be correct.

In Her Shoes 7
It does feel like a novel adaption as there's little plot or forward momentum. Instead it's all about the characters and their complex relationships with each other. A good film although nothing special.

A Guy Thing 3
The first time I saw this I missed the first 10 or 15 minutes. So I got a sense that there was maybe more going on than I could understand as I had missed important set up information. In other words the film looked smarter and more clever than it really was. Now having watched it in full it turns out that I missed nothing important. It's a very average film but by the end it outstays its welcome and gets a bit boring. And the climax of the corrupt cop Ray plotline was terrible. He gets busted by Internal Affairs but there's no additional jokes in the scene, it just plays straight without any proper gags.

The Science Of Sleep 2
The first 40 or so minutes are perfectly okay in a flat, so-so sort of way. Then, round about after Gainsbourg tells her friend in the chemist/stationary(?) shop about the weird letter, it runs out of plot and becomes a random series of scenes, events and dialogue. Little of it makes much sense and it's confusing for no good reason (their romantic relationship is hard to follow as it's as if important information has been cut). It just sort of comes apart and becomes boring as there's no narrative drive, and the characters are too weak and poorly defined to carry the weight. It very much outstayed its welcome and I ended up watching the last half hour at x2 speed.

Funny People 3
It's a millionaire's home movie starring his celebrity friends and neighbours. The subject is so specific to such a small group of comedy entertainment people that there's little reason for anyone who doesn't work in that particular business to watch it. It's too undramatic to mean much to us in the outside. Oddly enough Adam Sandler (really not a funny guy, and the stupid voices are so annoying) made a film called Spanglish which suffers from the same specific rich man's problems that audiences couldn't care about. I'm amazed a studio financed this vanity project and I can see why audiences didn't go to see it. It's not a bad film, but it's really pretty weak. And Sandler's blood disease is non-existent, he doesn't even look tired never mind sick.

Must Love Dogs 8
A very solid romantic comedy that, unusually for the genre, doesn't flag and run out of steam after an hour. They are kept apart for the full length by fairly realistic circumstances. The ending was a little twee but otherwise it was relatively free of big clichés and cheesy moments. It's engaging, amusing and well paced from start to finish. I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a superior romantic comedy but it's certainly way above average. Much better than the assembly line look of it suggests.

Baby Mama 7
Good film although the cast makes it feel like it could be a much better, more substantial film. It's also curiously devoid of many big laughs and joke set-pieces. For a comedy it's strangely restrained and not preoccupied with being funny all the time.

Zack and Miri Make A Porno 3
The first half is okay and amusing. The second half, once they start trying to make the film, floats by on underwritten autopilot and is frankly very boring. The indifferent reactions of the characters about making porn is also very odd and hard to believe. Overall the film doesn't really work and is a bit of a dud.

The Invention Of Lying 5
Very average. I get the sense of them coming up with a great high concept idea and then writing the most generic, straightforward script possible. I see few signs of extra ideas or semi-believable characters being created. They didn't get far beyond the central idea and wrote it on autopilot. I didn't mind the film but I can see how if you're not on its side straight away it would be like torture sitting through the whole thing. Also the cast was more impressive than I expected with lots of notable American comic actors in it. The religious storyline deviation was much criticised but it wasn't as big a redirection of the story as I was lead to believe.

Vacancy 8
It took a bit to get going but once it did it really picked up the pace. Not a lot really happens, and I'm amazed so little story doesn't feel dragged out endlessly as it never seems to meander once the attacks start. The snuff films themselves look very creepy by how over-lit, unfussily but competently filmed they are and how fast the attacks are. It's a shame we don't get an explanation to why this is happening, but I guess that makes it all the more effective. I jumped a few times but it was more action based to effectively work the outright scary angle. I liked it and it's one of the few decent horror films I've seen. By the horror genre's low standards it's a borderline classic.

The Proposal 2
It has no plot and there’s no chemistry between the leads. No sense of them becoming authentic lovers. The Grandma character is written and performed for maximum teeth grinding cliché. The crap and profoundly unfunny improvisations over the end credits sum up how poor and half arsed the whole film is. It was not painful to sit through but it wasn’t much fun either. Overall way below average with a very weak script. Nothing happens and the eventual attraction between the leads doesn’t convince. Nothing builds as there is a lack of interconnectedness. One scene doesn’t lead into another. You could remove whole scenes or sequences and it’s doubtful if anyone would notice anything missing.

Employee Of The Month 7
Good solid formulaic comedy. More of a consistent amusing tone than big jokes. Enjoyable fluff. Dax Shepherd is really good so it's surprising I'm not aware of seeing him in anything else since.

Hope Springs 5
I kind of enjoyed it but it's clearly not a particularly good movie. There's no chemistry or even psychology happening on screen. It all works on a straight visual surface level like the Sean Connery film Cuba. Nothing going on under the pretty visuals. Also has an odd choppy feel to it as if lots of moments and scenes have been deleted, especially in the first half hour. There's something likable about it anyway.

Blow-Up (1966) 7
It's a good solid film even though it has a plot that could be told in 30 minutes. It's not that slow feeling until the last stretch, after the two aspiring models leave, after that it does begin to drag. To call it a masterpiece is to go crazy but it's an enjoyable enough film that doesn't choke on its own pretentions. It also gets bonus points for being lucky enough to be set in a culturally important time and place. It could have done with losing two redundant scenes though - the photoshoot with the five models at the start as we've already seen him do a photoshoot in the previous scene, and the Yardbirds concert also adds nothing of note.

Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life 3
I like it but it has to be said that, as with all sketch based films, it's very inconsistent. A lot of it is very memorable and much of it is good. Sadly the pacing makes it a hard slog to get to the end. I watched the last half hour at x2 speed just to get it over with. It is a good film of considerable merit but it's just not enjoyable in one sitting. Also too many musical numbers. A film that works better in your memory (7 out of 10) than it does in actual reality (3 out of 10).

Tomcats (2001 Jerry O'Connell film) 7
This is very 80's. I happen to have a weird enthusiasm for really bad American 80s comedies, a borderline fetish even. I can usually find lots to enjoy in even the most crass and incompetent comedy from that period. So although this was stunningly juvenile and badly made I really enjoyed it. I can easily imagine that I might be the only person who could enjoy this rubbish. The jokes are weak and obvious etc but to me that was part of its "charm", So shoot me, I enjoyed it.

Liar Liar 8
Jim Carrey doing funny faces is funny. Very funny. It isn't big or clever but he does make me laugh. This is one of his best films. It has a lot of sentimental goo but for some reason I find it to be very bearable and not a sickening chore to sit through. Those scenes aren't good but they don't sink the film. And the funny non-sentimental scenes are all crackers. Curiously I noticed how small, how tiny the court case is. A private detective plays a sex tape recording. Then the lover goes on the stand to deny that it's him on that tape, but Carrey accidentally gets him to admit that it is. Then Carry notices a technicality and puts Tilly on the stand and wins. That's it pretty much in its entirety. A very funny film that isn't weighed down by its unearned sentimental motherlode.

Hunt To Kill 3
Fairly competent low budget action film with a slight 80's feel to it. It comes on like an action film although there isn't really much action in it so maybe it's better described as a thriller. It's decent enough and plods along okay. It maybe overextends itself with a weak action climax that goes on longer than it should. The thrills are tepid but at least its mildly entertaining and doesn't try to be anything more than what it is. The film's real problem for me is that it's already been made with a better script and better actors as The Contract starring John Cusack and Morgan Freeman. As average as The Contract is, it does punch slightly above its weight and it's on the more enjoyable end of the average spectrum.

The Upside Of Anger 7
It was better than I expected. It might be a bit inconsequential and TV movie like, but it was engaging and funny and dramatic enough to sustain its near two hour running time. Joan Allen gets a great role of a prickly, difficult woman full of rage who isn't shy about lashing out at everyone. A solid film of some merit that I can see myself returning to from time to time. I liked it and I'm very glad I took a chance on it. It felt like it was adapted from a novel as the subject matter and the way it was presented feels more naturally suited to a book rather than as an expensive, glossy film.

Buying The Cow (2000 Jerry O'Connell film) 7
Solid middle of the road comedy. Very average but I enjoyed it as it was mildly amusing and had a nice pleasant tone to it. It's one of those films that there really isn't much to say. You either like it (it just happens to be on your wavelength) or hate it (if you're not on the film's side from the start then it's probably like torture to sit through it). I happened to like it.

Halloween Part 4 1
Starts okay and remains sort of alright for awhile. Becomes fully tiresome after Loomis goes to the police station. Film has long, long loungers of nothing happening (Jamie lost in the streets when Trick Or Treating, and when they barricade themselves up in the sheriff's house waiting for Myers to strike). And when something does finally happen it's way too little, way too late. The kills are poorly and near bloodlessly filmed leading to a distinct lack of satisfaction. Also too many murders took place off screen! And as a slasher film it has nothing else going for it beyond the quality of its death scenes. An incompetent film that can't even reach the super low expectations that are set for a slasher film sequel. Also the use of physical space in most scenes is pure BS, which basically means the film is constantly cheating the audience as Myers can be anywhere. When it came to the school scene towards the end I gave up and just fast forwarded it at x6 speed without audio or subtitles (it was taped on my Virgin TV box so I couldn't watch it at x2 with audio). As it's not a film of deep subtlety or complexity I think I understood what I saw as the images whizzed past me. I'm glad I saved myself the fifteen or so minutes as I was very bored. Halloween Part 5 was on the next day - I didn't bother taping it as it's supposed to be even worse.

Re-Animator 3
Never seemed to hit its stride. I can see why others like this film. I'm not blind to its merits but it just didn't work for me personally. It felt like it was underperforming in every department. It failed much more than it succeed with the quality of the script, the direction, the acting, the pacing and the special effects. The lurid special effects were gloopy and bloody but not necessarily good. My gold standard for blood and guts is Bad Taste and it falls very short of that quality and quantity. Frankly I found the film to be pretty weak overall. It was too flawed to grip my attention. It didn't work as a horror film or as a comedy. Having said that I laughed (perhaps three or four times) more than I jumped (probably once). As too often happens with horror films I ended up finishing the film at x2 speed after the 67 minute mark just to get it over with. It was too plodding and amateurish for me personally. There is a very distinct feeling of first time filmmaking to the movie. For me it just never quite clicks and truly works. I would say it's a few notches below average.

In The Electric Mist (Tommy Lee Jones film) 3
A big nothing. Very bland, very muted, very underplayed and subdued thriller. Cardboard lifeless characters and an undramatic little story of no consequence. It held my attention well enough for me not to watch it at x2 speed, but frankly I should have saved myself some time and done so. It doesn't add up to much and is a poor time waster at best. The climatic rescue of the kidnapped daughter is particularly half-arsed and barely dramatised at all. An unexciting, tepid film that is played too politely and at a stately pace for no obvious reason considering the general straightforward pulpiness of the story.

Stir Of Echoes 9
About as good a ghost story as I can imagine. It didn't drag and it didn't rely too much on random, weird, hard to explain happenings going on around the house. An effective, taut little movie even if the story is small and predictable (the story was very A to B without any clever variation on what I was expecting). More creepy than scary. I liked it a lot. And by the horror genre's low standards it's a towering masterpiece.

Dodgeball 7
Solid enough comedy. Not particularly funny or even all that silly, but likeable and amusing enough. Has some good over the top performances. The character "beats/development/journeys" are half-arsed even by the standards of these type of comedies. A decent film that works well as straightforward silly entertainment.

The Serpent (2006 French Thriller) 7
A very silly film but very enjoyable. Certainly not the most logically rigorous script ever written. I assume the French still rate Hitchcock highly enough to still make mainstream films in his style while American's have moved on to more modern styles for the thriller genre.

Sleuth (2007 Remake) 4
Not anywhere near as terrible as its reputation suggests. Although not even remotely a patch on the original film, it's not a complete waste of time. It is an interesting story and it's mildly engaging once the weird camera work settles down and they properly start talking to each other. The psycho-sexual homosexual ending was too drawn out and boring. When Jude Law finally rejects Caine it makes sense and isn't as stupid a sequence as it felt at the time. The house set is incredibly stupid and contrived. Everyone should be ashamed of it. Also the film is humourless, which is in stark contrast to the playful original. A weak film but watchable.

11:14 (2003 Hilary Swank film) 7
Perfectly decent and competently made cut up and paste timeline movie in five sections. Doesn't amount to much and I'm not sure there's much point to it beyond how clever it is at getting the parts to criss-cross with each other. The story itself is rather inconsequential and wouldn't be much cop if told straight. I enjoyed it and I'm glad I watched it. Better than average.

The Hangover 6
The trailer made it look a lot better than it was. It constantly underperformed and was only fitfully funny here and there. The story wasn't as well put together with satisfying comic payoffs as I expected. In many cases I could see the jokes but it just wasn't funny. Overall it was alright but certainly not half as good as it could have been. If anything it worked better as a straight dramatic movie than it did as a comedy.

Dogtooth 7
A very interesting film that held my attention throughout. Very self-consciously arty with minimal editing, long awkwardly framed static shots and lots of slack space all over the place. This type of art cinema stuff is usually tiresome but it worked for this film. My only complaint is that it doesn't have much of an ending. I suppose I should have expected an inconclusive ending as the film had been enigmatic throughout so why would it have a satisfying climax? I would just have preferred it to have finished with its immediate plot tied up with us getting to see the daughter's reaction to the outside world. I never expected answers so the film's lack of explanations was not a problem for me (I took everything on surface value and I doubt the makers have any answers to give).

Meet The Spartans 4
Clearly a film of no merit what so ever. Having said, that I enjoyed it for what it is; a crudely made, bad film with weak and painfully obvious jokes against easy big targets. It held my attention and I laughed a few times here and there. I have a minor fetish for unfunny 80s comedies so I'm maybe more pre-disposed to liking this than many people. Some of the jokes blurred the line between joke and outright advertising which left a bad taste in the mouth. Also it relied way too much on talent show TV judges suddenly turning up. A bad film but not an unwatchable one.

The Mask (1994) 10
The film more than lives up to its potential. It is very difficult to imagine how the film could be improved. It's maybe not perfect but it's better than it could have been as there are no weak spots in the film. Perhaps it could be funnier, have more action and maybe have a better plot; but what is here is more than good enough.

Garden State 7
Better than I remembered it to be. Solid, competent indie film. Not a lot happens, but that is what the movie is. I guess I expected little this time around and was therefore in a position to enjoy it for what it is without bigger expectations getting in the way. No great shakes but decent anyway.

Inception 5
I didn't really enjoy it. I found it to be a bit boring and overlong. In about a years time, if I ever work up the genuine enthusiasm to watch it again, I expect it to work a lot better. The different speeds of sleep in the different levels felt arbitrary with no real logic underpinning it. The story felt small and bloated out with a massive blockbuster budget and too long a running time. Certainly not a bad film but not one I can say I cared that much for.

Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls 7
Although not a patch on the brilliant original it's still highly amusing with some cracking jokes.

Iron Man 2 7
On my first attempt to watch it I gave up before the opening credits had finished. Now, on my second attempt, I forced my way through that and the following scene with Stark opening his expo. I found the first five minutes to be fairly unwatchable and very off-putting. It picks up once we get to the congressional hearing. It's maybe not the most exciting blockbuster ever made but it was okay. It's been described as having quite a few dull sections in it, but I thought it was consistently entertaining in a low key, slow burn sort of way. It certainly could have been better but it's not as bad as it could have been.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 8
This film never appealed to me so I've avoided it for a very long time. I was wrong to ignore it as it's a very good film.

The Wonder Boys 8
A film that gets better with every viewing.

Lethal Weapon 1 1
The first 60 or so minutes were very average and very plodding. I wasn't impressed by it at all, but I didn't mind it either. Eventually though I just felt bored and I had a strong desire for it to just end now. I was watching it with my brother who described it as very "bitty". Also he said that the main problem is that as it's was one of the first modern action movies, every film since has built on it and done most things better. I ended up walking away from the film after Mel Gibson chases Jake Busey out of the nightclub as I was too bored to continue (there was about another fifteen or so minutes still to go). I was intending to watch all four films again but after this experience I've decided not to continue [due to lack of anything better to watch I continued with he films]. Plus Richard Donner is a very unimpressive nuts and bolts director.

Toy Story 3 8
It's good but it's not great. The previous films all felt revolutionary - the first one just for even existing, the second one for the size of scale and the quality of the writing. This just feels like a good film, nothing more. It's very solid and well made etc but I can't really say more for it than that.

Lethal Weapon 2 4
Not a strong film but it's at least a substantial step up from the first movie. Plodding and very average throughout and overlong. Also not very funny but it least has some amusing ideas for some scenes. Far from being anything wonderful but it is watchable. It hasn't dated too well with the action scenes in particular looking rather drab and old fashioned.

Lethal Weapon 3 5
It meanders as much as the others but it flows better, like a conventional film. It just feels a bit less dated. The bad guy was weak and his death was a banal and as half-arsed as it was possible to be. Also the film was overlong. It was watchable enough. My brother rated this as the best of the four films.

Lethal Weapon 4 5
I guess this was probably the most enjoyable of the series. Apart from the banal nuts and bolts direction, it felt like a film from the recent past, instead of a relic from a bygone era. The ending was wildly bloated with self-indulgence as it went on for about ten minutes longer than it needed to. It really, really tried my patience. A very average film but decent enough to pass the time with minimal pain.

Cop Out (Kevin Smith film) 1
Gave up 40 minutes in. It really doesn't work at all. Very, very bad.

Just Like Heaven 9
It works. It's short, sharp, to the point and without any meandering. I like it. It's about as good as any romcom as I've ever seen (with the exception of When Harry Met Sally which is the pinnacle of the genre). It's maybe lacking a bit of character, or "flavour", but I'm not bothered.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010) 9
A very good film. At the time of watching it I had read two and quarter of the six comics. It's very faithful to the first two, but I get the impression it starts to diverge quite a bit from the remaining books (up to the Brandon Routh fight). Whatever alterations they made were always good (added jokes or wittier connections between things). The critics didn't seem to care too much for Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Romona Flowers. She was okay but she was a bit on the blank side - she was the least interesting and engaging person on screen. It was a very satisfying film, I liked it a lot. I'm finding the comics to be average but it seems to work a lot better as a film.

Jonah Hex 3
It's hard to put your finger on why it doesn't work. It has a slight half-arsed quality to it, as if they couldn't quite bring themselves to dramatise the story properly. The source material is promisingly ripe with silly, pulpy potential but they did very little with it. I like that it's only 73 minutes long, but it has been edited so far down to the bone that they've leached many sequences of any real impact as things happen, or a threat appears but it is then dealt with immediately. Nothing builds, nothing accumulates, nothing leads on to something else. Normally I would say a film that doesn't let anything build would be badly structured, but I don't get a sense of that being the case with this film. I think overall the makers just wanted it over with as fast as possible, and so getting it done was prioritised over getting it right. It's not a bad film, it's just not good and it underperforms what it could have been. I found the film to be oddly boring.

if... 8
I don't know if it's meant to be funny but I laughed a lot throughout it. It perhaps peaks a little early with the war games as I found the remaining fifteen minutes to be a bit more than I really needed to see. A very good film and not plodding at all. It has dated in a way that makes it seem odder and more surreal than perhaps it did when it was first released.

Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist 8
I didn't care much for this first time I saw it as it was a bit pointless, a little light on substance and was almost an ambient film like Sophia Coppola would make (but with an actual plot). I really liked it on my second viewing were I could enjoy it for what it was. It held up well on this third viewing. It's an enjoyable, cosy little movie and the perfect companion film to Scott Pilgrim, with which it shares a few similarities. It's quite odd as it up-ends the usual romcom conventions and has the girl liking the boy before they've even met, and it's him who is the difficult one to get.

RV 9
Very amusing film, and very well directed. I laughed a fair amount. It fulfilled its potential as family entertainment.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010) 10
Just as good as the first viewing. A very strong film and much better than the comics (of which I had read all six by the time I watched the film for the second time). I struggle to find any flaws in it. Whatever doubts I might have had on first viewing for its potential to become a great landmark film have been completely dispelled.

Date Night 6
It was clearly average but I was enjoying it more than I expected. Unfortunately the ending was pretty feeble (the overlong strip club dancing sequence in particular). Also I felt too many characters popped up for only a scene or two (Mark Wahlberg, Mark Ruffalo, Common and Mila Kunis) which made the film feel a bit shapeless, as though these characters were only created as an excuse to shoehorn in some famous people for cameos.

(500) Days Of Summer 7
It's a good film but it feels like it's not reaching its full potential, and fails to deliver the killer punch its capable of.

The Men Who Stared At Goats 6
Not much of a story - really just a bunch of anecdotes strung together and poorly shaped into something that looks like a story. Insubstantial and rather pointless. It is amusing, and a harmless enough way to spend 90 minutes so I can't complain too much. It's okay.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2011) 10
Holds up well on my third viewing within two weeks.

He's Just Not That Into You 7
Good film. When I first watched it I felt that some storylines worked much better than others. It held up better than I expected as the various parts seemed more cohesive this time, such as the Jennifer Aniston sections weren't as big a drag as I first thought. The Justin Long storyline is still by far the most interesting part of the film.

School Of Rock 8
A very enjoyable film. Well made and acted from a good, solid script.

Shaun Of The Dead 5 out of 10
I loathed this first time I saw it, and I didn't think much of it the second time, although I didn't dislike it half as much. This third viewing didn't do much for me either. My problem with it is that it's like a bad, watered down episode of Spaced. On the TV show they were more extreme, more out there. This film feels compromised to make it more appealing to the general public who won't get the cultural references in Spaced. It's only mildly amusing and the pace drags once they get to the bar in the last third.

Trust The Man (David Duchovny film) 5
Very average but also very watchable relationship comedy/drama. Like a dry run for David Duchovny's Californication TV show later. Decent enough to pass the time.

Zombieland 7
The first 45 or so minutes were excellent. Funny and very inventively filmed. Very good stuff, but I was aware of a lack of a clear end point for the movie to be heading in, so I felt the film could easily drift off into random bloated self-indulgence due to a lack of proper structure (yes, I knew the film would end at the theme park, but the journey there wasn't clearly laid out). And it happened when they reach Bill Murray's house. The film loses all forward momentum and takes a weird time out for about ten or so minutes. The stuff in the mansion was okay, but it was pointless and a bit aimless. Eventually they left and the climax at the theme park was good, if not as impressive as the first half of the film. Overall very good but badly flawed after the first half.

Margot at the Wedding 5
An okay film though a big nothing overall. Really didn't amount to anything. Enjoyable enough. She was an unpleasant character, but not a big enough monster to really justify a whole movie about her.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped 6
An okay film that I get, I understand what they are doing and what it's about. The end results are fairly good but I can't truly say it's a great film. It's maybe a little too aloof and existential dramatically to fully engage me.

What Happens In Vegas 9
Very good film. I enjoyed it and thought it was often funny.

Smart People (Dennis Quaid film) 6
Competent film that doesn't amount to anything, and has a non-ending. Watchable, but it's hard to say more for it than that.

The Social Network 9
Very interesting film, gripping even. Never comes across as too talkative. The only complaint I can come up with is that the boat race sequence looked out of place - it was filmed in a stylised way that was more appropriate for an insurance advert than for a film. Very good movie, dramatic and often funny. I expected the dialogue to be a bit stilted, like a pretentious play, but I'm glad that isn't the case.

Killers (Ashton Kutcher film) 2
To begin with it felt decent enough if rather mediocre. Then it plodded on for nearly half its running time before the real plot kicked in. The action was weak and the romance weaker. The story also felt rather choppy, like large parts were missing. Although I think that might have been poor acting (the actors failing to sell what was happening) and not really a fault with the script. Overall rather boring, insipid and deeply mediocre.

The Ghost (Roman Polanski film) 3
It was exactly as I originally expected. It sounded like a thin premise for a book and even thinner stuff for a film. I could see a thirty minute film but at two hours it was going to be awfully stretched. Very little happens with low, uncinematic dramatic stakes . Just a big yawn really. Having said this, it's not a bad film, just very poor. Bits of were intermittently interesting.

Black (2008 French action film) 2
It has a very good opening but unfortunately the rest of the film couldn’t live up to it. The film is set up, and I assume advertised, as a heist movie. We never really get to the heist. Instead, after some per-functionary planning, the robbery of the bank doesn’t take place. The heist is replaced with an action scene in a different location. From this point on, around forty minutes into the film, it becomes an uninspired and rather boring action film with 70’s Blaxploitation Grindhouse cinema overtones. The film then switches genre again (from a heist film, then an action movie) into a mystical, supernatural tinged semi-horror. It just didn’t work as the last fifteen minutes were painfully bad and very tedious. I watched the last ten minutes at x2 speed to get it over with. A truly awful ending. It’s not a good film. It has a strong opening, but the longer the film goes on the worse it gets.

The A-Team 7
The first half is very good. The third quarter was okay. The last quarter was poor (with too much CGI). Overall a good solid film.

Greenberg 4
A big nothing. I have nothing to say as the film itself has nothing to say. It's competent on all fronts but at the service of a very banal, undramatic story and an uninteresting lead character. Why anyone bothered to make this movie I don't know as there is nothing notable about any of it. It's watchable, that's about all I can say.

The Social Network 9
Time just flies by as it's so gripping. Holds up one hundred percent fine on repeat viewing.

Hot Tub Time Machine 6
I was expecting it to be either terrible or borderline great. The latter being the way I was expecting it as the story was my type of thing and the makers have a few notable movies to their names. Sadly it was just about okay at best. My brother watched it with me and he said it started okay but quickly lost its way. For me only the end was bad. I think they made the same 80s values mistake as Back to The Future made at its end. The film suggests material wealth and high social status are essential to happiness, which might be true but is not exactly a nice thing to say as the moral message of a movie. Plus the characters missed out on about twenty five years of their alternative lives as they didn't live them and they have no memories of it. Overall a disappointing but still enjoyable film.

Taken 8
Solid Borne style action film. It does what it sets out to do. No masterpiece but very entertaining.

S1mone 10
Consider my boat floated. No one else seems to like this film but I think it's great.

Juno 7
A good Indie film. I can imagine young girls watching this constantly. It seems to surpass most of its creators modest intentions, but for me it's just a good film. No more, no less.

All Of Me 7
Funny movie that made me laugh quite a bit. Steve Martin is a funny guy.

Zero Effect 10
Probably one of my favourite films. It just works perfectly with a great twisted plot and a fascinating central character. Brilliant film.

LA Story 7
A nice little comedy. It has no more ambition to be more than that, and is therefore just a nice little comedy. I like it.

Warlock 7
Decent enough film, and by the horror genre's super low standards it's practically a masterpiece. Some of the logic and behaviour of the some of the minor characters (all the police characters and the mother of a dead child) are the only major niggles.

Airheads 9
A highly enjoyable comedy that hits the spot to perfection. Brilliant film.

Accepted 9
Very good comedy that is oddly overlooked.

The Shrink Is In 6
Enjoyable enough fluff. The generic and boringly predictable ending went on a bit (and again it's one of those annoying movies when the lowly character just happens to be a secret millionaire).

My Blue Heaven 6
The first half was better than I expected. The ending seemed rushed (they didn't even get to the second court appearance which was talked about throughout the movie) as though they realised the page number they were up to and decided to just end it there and then because they could.

The Producers (1968) 8
It's a great concept and it's well done with some great acting and lines of dialogue. The ending is a little over-extended as my attention did start to wander after the show turns out to be a hit.

The Maltese Falcon (1941) 4
A talkathon that becomes a tad boring after an hour. The last ten minutes were like pulling teeth as it went on so long. Not too badly dated, and it is entertaining for that first hour. Overall okay, but not something I can truly get that excited about.

Sneakers 7
A strangely small scale film with fairly low jeopardy. Robert Redford also falls into the same trap as Warren Beatty in being to cool for school, too remote, too detached to actually truly involve himself in the movie. It's as if he's mildly embarrassed. If the lead actor doesn't treat it as being important then why should we? A decent enough caper film that isn't anywhere near as dated as you would expect for a film that deals heavily with computers. Enjoyable fluff that could have been much better if it had larger ambitions.

Best Seller 7
Decent enough, if slightly plodding thriller. The ending had a few stupid moments (the lead's daughter runs into the bad guys hands almost on purpose). Logically very little of it holds water (the central concept of a cop hanging out with a contract killer doesn't make much sense) but it's enjoyable.

So I Married An Axe Murderer 4
Not half as good as it could be. Having said that, it is watchable enough. The lead actress is a bit of a charisma/personality black hole.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010) 10
Just as good on the fourth viewing. A very strong film that is near flawless.

The Box (2009) 7
I was expecting it to be very bad so I had low expectations which probably helped me enjoy it. I really got into it and liked it. I saw hints of Brian De Palma and Shining era Kubrick in the visuals. The film worked well and only started to unravel towards the last half hour. Even then it held together well enough to not become bad, just a little silly and borderline pointless. All I can say is that I enjoyed it and I didn't feel short-changed by how the story developed. A good film if flawed.

Salt 7
Decent action. At about the half hour mark I was thinking it was potentially brilliant but in the end the plot is maybe just a little too silly. Probably Angelina Jolie's best film, which isn't saying much since none of her films have been much cop so far. Far from great but enjoyable and well made.

The Expendables 1
Gave up about 30 minutes in just after Eric Roberts is standing in a field complaining that the cocoa plants haven't started to grow. How can an action film with THAT cast be so boring? Too much talking, and what little action there is just isn't any good. A terrible botched film.

Knight and Day 7
It was aiming for middle of the road mediocrity. And it achieved it. Very average film of no real merit, but an enjoyable way to waste two hours. Overall a decent film that I have no complaints with.

There's Something About Mary 7
The film is good but it's nothing great. Hard to imagine this was such a big watershed film for the comedy genre as it's so average and restrained. It isn't particularly rude or crude. If you listed every joke in the film I doubt it would be that long a list for a near two hour comedy. It's more nicely amusing throughout than properly funny. Enjoyable if a little plodding.

Operation: Endgame 6
Solid straight to rental low budget action film with a much better than average cast. Has a strong comic book vibe to it but it's surprisingly not based on a graphic novel. Rob Corddry (the bald jerk from Hot Tub Time Machine) was very funny in the first half hour. Comfortably a notch or three above most other straight to rental films. Nothing particularly inventive or memorable happens but it was always entertaining and enjoyable. Which is something that I can very rarely say for B-movies; films that are almost always better in theory than in reality.

Sex Drive 9
Very good film. I remembered it as being much better than I expected when I first saw, and yet again I'm surprised at how good it is. The first half hour is particularly funny.

Quick Change 6
Perfectly alright movie which succeeds at what it's trying to do; which is to be an alright middle of the road little comedy. It could have been better if just a little bit more creative effort was put into it. As it is, it feels a little bit more average than it really had to be.

The Happening 3
Not as laughable as people say it is (although I can see how a full cinema could bring out the mob mocking). The first half hour is okay, the next part up to them leaving the roads and going into the fields is very average. When in the fields it starts to look very silly as people become scared of the wind. The last half hour is pointless. Overall a feeling of pointlessness hangs over the whole thing. The direction and acting is also stiff and stilted, almost dated with a fake theatricality that recalls films of the 50s. The clearly storyboarded set pieces and the unnatural acting just doesn't feel right at all for a modern film. Overall a poor film but not the disaster its reputation suggests it is. Put it this way, I didn't laugh out loud at the film.

Starsky & Hutch 6
Very average. Not anywhere near as good as it could have been but watchable fluff anyway.

Harold & Maude 2
A rather boring film with little to no plot. The ending is a complete non-event. The mock suicides are funny but they're not enough to make up for the long stretches of vague nothingness that makes up the bulk of the film. It's a film I want to like but I can't. I struggled to finish it, and frankly it wasn't worth the effort.

The Informant! 3
The dramatic content is way too vague and watery to be of any real interest. Really simple not a cinematic story at all. A bunch of people standing or sitting around talking about something obscure that no audience can be reasonably expected to find compelling. So vague was the story that I wasn't sure if the price fixing was real or a figment of the lead's imagination. I don't get the impression it's meant to be that hard to follow. It was watchable enough and was not a terrible film, although if I'd paid to see it in a cinema I don't think I'd be so kind towards it.

I can only comment + and - as I haven't seen most of those.

+ Sherlock Holmes, Juno, 500 Days

- Inception, Shutter Island (the DVD broke, we didn't bother asking LoveFilm for a new copy) and some awful shite involving Julia Roberts in Italy.

PS Are you using this blog as a back-up in case your hard-drive fails?!

When you said V for Vendetta is better than Children of Men.

Don't be silly.

I haven't spotted any non-conformist opinions in the thread.

A non-conformist opinion would be that The Godfather is shit and The Creeping Terror is a terrific sci-fi film.

Totally agree it's a unrecognised minor classic. I first saw it on a plane back from the USA, where something had gone wrong with the in-flight entertainment, and it was the only film available to watch. After all the groans from the passengers, everyone grumblingly settled down to watch, but when it was over, everyone turned to their neighbours to tell them how good it was! Seems to be on Film4 every week for anyone who'd like to give it a try...

Wow, someone who likes silly comedies as much as me. I never thought I'd see that on here!

Accepted, Tomcats, Sex Drive? I love those films, miles better than worthy stuff. Here's what I saw last night, in your style.

Friends With Benefits 5

A film of two halves. The first half was great, lots of laughs, both one-liners and slapstick. It was also rather rude, albeit in a Carry On kind of style. Then it went right downhill. As soon as Timberlake's Dad appears it becomes a completely different film, utterly mirth free, and confirming to the rom-com stereotypes it subverts at the beginning.

Jurassic Park 3 - 9 - best of the lot and they invented a dinosaur called a Megalosaurus. Lots of intentional self parody and displays of cowardice

Lethal Weapon 4 - 10 - they jump a car from the motorway, through a building, drive through the office and then back out the other side onto the motorway

Children Of Men - 10. No question. Gripping, moving, brilliantly shot, well plotted, and the best cameo Caine's ever done.

The Mask - minus 5. Torture to endure. I'd rather watch the cinema burn.

That, to me, is the sign of a great film. Someone outruns a fireball.

Is it non-conformist to rate Being There highly? I remember when it came out in 1980 that it was warmly welcomed by the criterati.

I've just watched The Human Centipede recorded off the SyFy channel. I don't know why I'm surprised that it was awful. 2 out of 10, because two of the cast are easy on the eye.

Never saw the film, but I almost walked out of the trailer.

I think So I Married an Axe Murderer is a funny film. I really like Myers' Scottish Dad character (and I'm from Scotland myself).

.....'Catch Us If You Can' is better than 'A Hard Day's Night'.

De de de de de de.
Bigger boat. Beach delusion.
Head falling. Fin.

Oh I think I got my threads mixed up.

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/non-conformist-opinions-lots-films...