Your Highness

Director:

David Gordon Green

Starring:

Danny McBride

James Franco

Natalie Portman

Zooey Deschanel

Running Time:

102 minutes

1/5

 It’s a shame when a movie, like Your Highness, has such a great cast (minus McBride) that is unable to perform due to such a terrible script. Basking in the success of Pineapple Express, director David Gordon Green is back trying to rework the stoner comedy, but this time with a D + D twist. McBride plays a bumbling prince sent on a quest to rescue his brother’s fiancé from an evil wizard, while also trying to seduce a mysterious female assassin, played by Portman. While the film does have a few funny moments, the humour is generally cheap and lacking the wit that was found in Pineapple Express, ending up being a stoned gamers perverted fantasy. You’re better off just watching the trailer as it has all the funny parts in and it will save you one hundred minutes of terrible acting and unforgivable dialogue.

Scream 4

Director:

Wes Craven

Starring:

Neve Campbell

Courteney Cox

David Arquette

Emma Roberts

Hayden Panettiere

Running time:

111 minutes

4/5

It’s rare for a franchise to be on its fourth film and still be half decent, but Scream 4 manages to be that and arguably as funny, witty and scary as the first. It has been 15 years since the original murders and Sidney returns to Woodsboro to promote her new book telling her version of the story, but while she is visiting a copycat killer goes after her and her remaining family. You’re probably thinking that this has all been done before in the second and third films and you’re right, but like it says in the tag line ‘new decade, new rules’ breaking all the conventions of the horror genre and setting its own. The death count is a lot higher than the any of the previous films, but with a generation brought up on torture porn like Saw you expect this. Over all the film is incredibly clichéd and over done but it’s Scream and you’ve got to love it for it.

Sucker Punch

Director: 

Zack Snyder

Starring:

Emily Browning

Abbie Cornish

Vanessa Hudgens

Jamie Chung

Running Time:

120 minutes

2/5

This year there appears to be a large number of comic books being made into movies and with Zack Snyder at the helm of this one we should be in for an enjoyable ride. Although I haven’t read the comic books, the plot of Sucker Punch seems to be a mess and at certain points in the movie I found boredom setting in. Sucker Punch is about a girl trying to escape from a mental asylum/brothel that she was wrongfully placed into after her mother’s death, to escape all the horrifying moments she imagines she’s elsewhere fighting dragons and robots. The acting by Browning and Cornish is adequate, but for Hudgens, who is merely an extra, I cannot be so lenient. It’s not all doom and gloom though as the cinematography and editing are outstanding, which you expect from the Watchmen Director. Overall I wasn’t impressed with the film and I think that it could have been better without all the imaginary scenes, that in my opinion where a waste of time.

Tomorrow When the War Began

Director:

Stuart Beattie

Starring:

Caitlin Stasey

Rachel Hurd-Wood

Lincoln Lewis

Colin Friels

Running Time:

104 Minutes

2/5

It’s almost impossible these days to make a teen movie without it being incredibly clique; unfortunately Tomorrow When the War Began is no exception, with its American high school stereotypes and cringe worthy dialogue that will make you laugh out loud in the cinema. Adapted from an award winning book series, it follows a group of small town Australian teenagers going camping into the outback, but when they return home they find that all their friends and family have been captured by a mysterious Asian army. Instead of running and hiding the ill-equipped teenagers wage war on the invading army and try to win back their home town. Just by reading the synopsis you can tell how ridiculous the movie is and it is not helped by its soap style acting, fronted by neighbours star Caitlin Stasey. Although the film is generally terrible it does have a lot of funny and equally thrilling moments which in the end makes it quite enjoyable, this is one of those movies where you just need to stop thinking for two hours and go with it.

Killing Bono

Director:

Nick Hamm

Starring:

Ben Barnes

Robert Sheehan

Pete Postlethwaite 

Krysten Ritter

Running time:

144 minutes

2.5/5

In most coming of age stories there is a deep moralistic message that shows its face towards the end and tries to persuade you to change the way you live your life. This is not the case for Killing Bono and is perhaps the reason why the film never really lifts off the ground. From the writer of The Commitments comes a true story about two brothers who grew up with the members of U2 trying to replicate their success, but only end up failing time after time. The best thing about the film is the array of young talented actors, who give the unlikable characters several hilarious moments. U2 fans may be disappointed though as the film only features one U2 song and problems with the narrative brings it down due to a few ridiculous subplots and the constant failure of the brothers turning into a rather annoying gimmick. Even though there are a lot of problems with the film, its worth seeing just for the great Pete Postlethwaite’s last ever performance.

 

The Eagle

Director:

Kevin Macdonald

Starring:

Channing Tatum

Jamie Bell

Donald Sutherland

Mark Strong

Running Time:

114 Minutes

2/5

When you’re going to see a Roman historic epic you expect to see huge empires and choreographed sword fights, The Eagle has none, in fact the whole film is set in the Scottish wilderness and the battle scenes are an out of focus mass brawl. The film is set in 140 AD and tells the tale of a Roman officer (Tatum) venturing into North Britain with his slave (Bell) to recover a golden eagle that his father lost 20 years before. An overall good performance from Bell, but it’s hard to say the same for Tatum as he refuses to lose his American accent, the two actors do seem to have chemistry though and if the film is trying to give a message about two people from two very different background becoming friends, then it is lost amongst the gay undertones. The one positive thing about the film is the beautiful shots of the Scottish countryside, but this alone is not enough to save this slow placed film. 

Limitless

Director:

Neil Burger

Starring:

Bradley Cooper

Abbie Cornish

Robert De Niro

Running Time:

105 minutes

3.5/5

When I first saw the Limitless poster and realised that Bradley Cooper will be playing the protagonist it made me hesitate on whether or not it would be a good movie, but after viewing the film it was obvious that Cooper pulled it off and is capable of being in a fairly decent serious film. The protagonist in question is Eddie Morra, a struggling writer that is offered a pill which allows him to access 100% of his brain, this helps him to become the perfect version of himself, but things start to go wrong when the pills side effects kick in. The acting is not the only good thing about this film, although it is concrete evidence that Robert De Niro has lost it. The editing is outstanding and uses several different techniques for when Eddie is on the drug, including a zooming effect which baffled me. One problem I found is that the film seemed to end suddenly and didn’t really finish off the story, possibly leaving it open for a sequel, nevertheless the story is original and the film is exciting the whole way through.

Source Code

Director:

Duncan Jones

Cast:

Jake Gyllenhaal

Michelle Monaghan

Vera Farmiga

Jeffrey Wright

Running Time:

93 minutes

4.5/5

Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie and director of 2009's critically acclaimed Moon, returns with his second feature length film Source Code. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal playing his usual charming hero self as Captain Colter Stevens, whom is connected to a program named the source code which allows a person to take over someone else's body in the last eight minutes of their life. Captain Stevens is connected to the program in order to find out who blew up a train outside of Chicago in order to stop a second attack. Cleverly written and brilliantly directed with obvious Hitchcockian influence, the film infact is such a thrilling ride that the sentimental ending that takes it a little off track wont bother you in the slightest. I'd be surprised if there is another film out this year as thrilling as this.