Film Preview: Butter

Described as an ensemble comedy which is usually the usual bunch of comedians coming together and making a bad movies. In this it's more an ensemble of straight actors/actresses coming together to do a quirky comedy about an intense devotion to butter sculptures. The trailer shows some real promise in terms of being a funny film about quite a random topic, although the main idea being that people become obsessed with hobbies of all kinds.

Jennifer Garner was quoted as saying "We are just about to get green light, so I will be diving into butter and learning how to fake it. I am sure we will have to hire professionals to make the final products but I'm looking forward to picking up some new skills. Maybe they will come in handy during a family holiday" just after the screenplay was picked up for production.

Movie Poster

Butter does not have a release date in the UK yet but the trailer is embedded below:

This week's releases 07/09/2012

Shut Up and Play the Hits: April 2nd 2011 saw the last ever gig played by the band LCD Soundsystem at Madison Square Garden, frontman James Murphy deciding to quit whilst the band were at the peak of their success. This documentary follows the events of that night and the mammoth four hour show that they put on as well as an intimate look at Murphy himself.

Dredd 3D: A remake of the original from 1995, this time with Karl Urban as Dredd. Set in a dystopian future where the police have rule over all to be judge, jury and executioner, Dredd must stop a drug lord who has a mind altering drug that can slow time from using it to destroy the city.

Anna Karenina: Based on Leo Tolstoy's epic 19th century novel, Keira Knightley is Anna Karenina who embarks on an illicit affair with a count which sees her challenge the conventions of the upper echelons of the world she inhabits. A second attempt at the novel after an original movie was made in 1948.

Lawless: The lucrative nature of bootlegging during the Prohibition era in the states and the violence that goes along with it.

A full preview can be found here: Lawless Preview

Film Review: The A-Team

Director: Joe Carnahan

The popular 1980's TV Show is re-made for the big screen with a new cast playing the popular characters of Face (Bradley Cooper), Murdock (Sharlto Copley who is the most impressive of the four), Hannibal (Liam Neeson) and B.A (Quinton ''Rampage'' Jackson). The film had been in development since around 1995 with many different producers and writers having ideas for the project to then be shelved. It was finally released in 2010 and performed well at the box-office.

The plot covers a bit of the back-story that the TV series was based around with how the four became locked up in a maximum security prison for a crime they did not commit and also how B.A. became afraid of flying. Their mission revolves around some U.S. treasury plates that can print U.S. dollars which have fallen into the wrong hands and ends up being a search for the people inside the CIA behind the job with many explosions and gunfights ensue.

Face, Murdock, Hannibal and B.A.

Sharlto Copley as Murdock is absolutely hilarious during the movie and he plays the slightly mad pilot brilliantly, 90% of the funny moments from the film revolve around him. The other three are all decent in their roles but as a group of four they do have good chemistry which is visible on-screen. Jessica Biel really can't act and is supposed to be a tough woman with a soft side for Face but this is shambolic at best. The original cast were offered cameos which some accepted but only appear for about three seconds so blink and you miss them.

The plot at times is a mess and a bit incomprehensible but you could do a lot worse for an easy film to enjoy. The action sequences were a bit predictable in places and looked heavily CGI'd which always detracts from my enjoyment when you clearly can see it's not real. The story leaves it open for a possible sequel after a nice little cameo by Jon Hamm at the end.

2/4 funnier than expected but predictable action sequences

Film Preview: Stolen

After the popular success of Taken, David Guggenheim as done us the pleasure of writing a screenplay called Stolen for a film starring Nicholas Cage which at first glance seems to mirror the plot of Taken. No doubt Cage is hoping it will re-launch his career in the same way it did for Neeson but copying a very similar formula is lazy to say the least.

Movie Poster

In fairness to the film, the plot is slightly different in that Cage is a bank robber who has just been released from prison and tries to reunite with his daughter who he hasn't seen for 8 years. His former partner in crime returns, who he believed was dead, kidnaps his daughter and wants the proceeds from the bank robbery he was put in jail for believing Cage has it. He has just 12 hours to find $10 million dollars without being caught by the police.

Not quite the same as Taken but certainly inspired. Stolen is released in the UK on 5th December 2012 and the trailer is embedded below:

Film Preview: Taken 2

After my review of the original, I was informed by a few people that I had under-rated it and that it deserved a better grade. Unfortunately this didn't persuade me to change it as the things I didn't like about the film still stand out in my mind but I am more worried about how the sequel will go. The format of the original just about stretched over the 90 minute timeframe and hope the second has more to it in terms of entertainment value.

Film Poster

The premise looks exactly the same as the original in that the Albanian mobsters are after Bryan's (Liam Neeson) daughter, but this time it is to avenge the deaths of their family and friends in Paris. Bryan has reconciled with wife and daughter so go on holiday to Istanbul for a family trip.  Does anybody else think going on holiday to somewhere that close to Albania was clearly a bad diea? I'm pretty much expecting Neeson to punch, kick and shoot his way through half of Istanbul like he did in Paris.

Film Review: Alien vs Predator

Director: Paul Anderson

If you thought Prometheus was bad (I didn't) then you really need to see Alien vs Predator. It isn't full of holes as a film, more one great big hole with nothing to hold it up. There had been much talk of trying to do a crossover between the two franchises but many felt it was a hugely ambitious project and didn't pursue it. Unfortunately Paul Anderson with the help Shane Salerno wrote a screenplay based on a comic book to finally bring the two creatures together into one film.

The plot is based around the idea that hieroglyphics reveal that a pyramid buried beneath the icy sheets of Antarctica is a hunting ground for Predators who kill Aliens that they have bred purely for sport and killing as a rite of passage for young Predators. A team from Weyland Industries decides to go investigate the pyramid to see what life is there after heat sources are detected there but stumble upon a war.

Movie Poster

The premise itself is laughable that Predators used Earth as a hunting ground to breed and kill Aliens for sport because they needed humans to help produce the Aliens. In action-horror movies like this the plot doesn't have to be fantastic and complex but some aspects of plausibility need to be included. The characters are all hugely wooden and unlikeable meaning that you are actually rooting for the Predators and Aliens so that they all die as soon as possible whilst it is easily predicted which character will survive at the end.

Despite a big budget of $60 million, the special effects and action sequences seem heavily reliant on poor CGI which makes them look like they are happening independent of the rest of set. At times it reminded me of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat where you fight in front of a background that has no bearing on what happens in front of it. Even as a silly bit of fun this film is quite unlikeable and easily forgettable so much so that I'm sick of writing about this film already.

0.5/4 terrible acting, terrible plot, poor special effects

Film Preview: Arbitrage

Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon continue the trend of bleak recession based dramas set around the big world of banking. The director is Nicholas Jarecki who is making his directing debut on the big screen here and also wrote the screenplay, he has big shoes to fill after the brilliance of Margin Call by J.C. Chandor that was released in early 2012 around a similar idea. The film was released at the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year and is scheduled to be released in the US on 14th September but no date has officially been set for the UK yet .

The film is based around Robert Miller (Richard Gere) who makes a big error when trying to sell his trading empire which means he has to look to an unlikely person for help. Look out for Tim Roth playing a Detective.

Arbitrage is released in the UK in early 2013 and the trailer is embedded below: