Every once in a while you can be surprised by a film.  I put I love you Beth Cooper on our LoveFilm rental list because the trailer had seemed quite amusing.  I’m so glad I did.

One the outside, this is a reasonably standard coming-of-age American highschool flick.  The main cast, a couple of newly graduated boys and a similar bunch of cheerleaders come together in amusing circumstances and learn lots about themselves, life and living.  But on the inside, it’s an always funny and often heartwarming story which is more than worth the time invested in watching it.

Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) is convinced by his best friend Rich (Jack Carpenter) to be honest during his speech at the graduation.  He extols the virtues of honest during his speech and how people should take this moment to say the things they feel so that they don’t regret not saying them later.  Taking his own advice, he (among other things) declares his love for Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere), the head cheerleader and upsets her brawny, meat-head boyfriend in the process.

What follows is a collect of fast pace set pieces full of humour, some truly cringeworthy embarrassments and some entertaining and engaging dialogue.  There are almost no surprises, although you might not guess the exact outcome (which I actually thought worked really well), but there are some true laugh out loud moments and plenty of reasons to want to keep watching.

The wet towel fight is well worth watching.

Not as gross-out as the likes of American Pie or Road Trip, and certainly funnier than some of the more recent American Pie movies, I love you Beth Cooper is something I think I could watch again and again and enjoy every time.  It reminds me of Weird Science, and deserves to be just as much a cult classic.

You don’t have to have watched any porn to enjoy Zack and Miri, but it certainly helps.  If you needed evidence that Kevin Smith can make just about anything in life both funny and heart-warming at the same time, then this movie is it.  Zack and Miri are best friends and have been since school.  They share an appartment because neither of them can afford it on their own, and they complement each other.  It’s clear to everyone viewing that they should be in love, married and enjoying life together but because they’ve been friends for so long, they don’t see anything other than that when they look at each other.

A trip to a high school re-union where Zack meets a male porn star, a few missed bills and having their power and water cut off force Zack and Miri to a rather weird solution to raise cash – they should film a porno and distribute it to their ex-high school companions.  They gather a few friends and employ a few more colourful individuals and set about making their movie.  Needless to say, it doesn’t go to plan, but eventually they get under way and the moment arrives where Zack and Miri have to do it. I’ll leave the content there, you’ll have to watch and find out what happens.

If you’d seen any Kevin Smith films and then saw Zack and Miri without knowing Kevin wrote it, you’d probably be able to spot it anyway.  His trademark dialog is strewn throughout although it’s slightly more refined than it was in say, Clerks II.  This is probably because it’s not two guys mouthing off to each other for a change, however it doesn’t detract from the humour in that dialog and there’s plenty to laugh about.  The situations are funny without being too twee, all the characters are amusing if a little flat and the story isn’t quite as straightforward as I’d expected.  There’s one laugh-out-loud and cry-for-days moment which made us both laugh so hard it hurt, and plenty of good relaxed funny moments.  While the ending certainly won’t come as a surprise, the journey is worthwhile and interesting.

Zack and Miri do indeed make a porno, and learn an awful lot about themselves, each other and the business in the process.

I bought this movie an age ago, and then I read a review saying it was pure tripe.  So it sat on the shelf for a long old while in the ‘to watch’ section.  However, the universe works in karmic ways and while a friend was visiting, we asked her what she wanted to watch and she picked this.  It turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  It’s a pretty straight forward buddy movie, an Asian monk protecting an ancient scroll, a young American martial arts movie loving kid and the love interest.  The monk takes the kid under his wing (even if the kid doesn’t know it), prophecies are fulfilled and the world is saved.

There are some above-average action sequences, some sassy dialog, some tin-pot wisdom and a couple of scenes which make you glad you watched.  There are some frustrations as well, the villain introduces some over complex technology near the end to explain away one minor plot issue that could have been countered in more simple and pleasing ways and bits of the final battle leave a sour taste in the mouth for their paint-by-numbers feel.  Overall though it satisfies the comedy action glands and presses some of the right buttons.  Certainly no more than 5/10 but it’s a solid 5.

I saw Hancock listed recently, in a collection of Superhero Spoof movies.  Let’s get this straight from the start, this is not a spoof.  This is a superhero movie and if you go in expecting a spoof you’ll be disappointed.  Yes, it’s a comedic superhero movie, but the comedy is an inherent part of the action and the story, this is a superhero movie with heart, depth and an excellent twist.

I was in fact, totally surprised at how much I enjoyed this, certainly, the most surprising movie experience in quite a while.  I was expecting a steady Will Smith comedy vehicle but Hancock is much more than that.  Our hero (Hancock) is a drunk, asshole superhero who saves people from crime and causes more damage in the process than the criminals ever would.  His reputation stinks, most people hate him and the city has hundreds of warrants out for his arrest, which he ignores.  It’s clear who really needs saving in this town, and when Hancock saves the life of a publicity specialist the resulting relationship nearly kills them all.

I won’t tell you anything else about the story because the real enjoyment of this story comes from the twists and to give them away would destroy half the film.  Suffice to say the performances are great, I really thought Will gave a great performance, big when it needed to be big and understated when it needed that.  Charlize Theron is a little hit and miss, but when she hits the character it’s really great.  There’s one really emotional scene, but it’s quietly sad and Charlize pulls a blinder.  I loved the humour, the subtle touches and the excellent action sequences.  Hancock really is a fully rounded and enjoyable movie.

Simon Pegg is a funny man.  He’s a comic.  He conveys humour with his face, his stance, his voice, his very presence and it’s a good job because without him, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People would have been a very average movie.  With him, it’s on the better than average side of funny.  Pegg plays an entertainment journalist given the chance to move to America and join a world famous magazine, there he meets the stars, forges a career, screws plenty of things up and falls in love.  It’s a straight by the book romantic comedy with a few decently amusing scenes that Pegg carries pretty much throughout.

I didn’t find Kirsten very comfortable in her role at all, and the rest of the cast has hardly enough screen time to make any kind of impression.

No where near the quality of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz or even Run Fatboy, Run, but still worth a giggle.

A lowly noodle chef dreams of being a mighty Kung Fu champion, turns up during the selection of the Dragon Warrior and ends up joining the Five Kung Fu heroes he has idolised for his entire life.  It’s a common enough story (down and out turns good and saves the world) and it needs a strong cast and some solid writing to really give it any life these days.  Kung Fu Panda comes close to nailing it but falls short at the final bout.  Everything is flawless, the animation, the voice acting, the humour is excellent, the story is interesting enough.

But there’s something missing.  Some heart, some soul and a huge act from the second half.  Where is the scene with Panda and the Five taking on the enemy together?  Where is the scene of them training together and finally coming to accept each other?  Where is the team work?  Instead we are left with the Five setting out on their own to defeat the enemy and Panda training in their absence, becoming the Dragon Warrior while they are away.

It feels like something was left out.  Which is a true shame.  I really enjoyed watching it, I laughed, and it was suitably touching, but it was too short, and subsequently too hollow to be a classic.

I really had to make myself sit through the first half of Pineapple Express.  While in theory the material is just the kind of comedy I should find amusing the pace was very slow and perhaps I would have been better off watching the theatrical release?  The characters were a little interesting, and the initial plot seemed sound, but I just didn’t find it hilarious or outrageously funny.  I smirked a few times early on, but the first real out loud laugh moment didn’t arrive until the police car chase scene when Saul sticks his foot through the windscreen (must be around half way, felt like three hours in).  The movie did actually pick up after that point, the pace improved and we finally started making some progress.  I was engaged finally, and after almost getting up and wandering off earlier on, I found myself interested enough to stay until the end (which was decent).

The movie revolves around a dope-smoking loser who witnesses a murder, and the ‘hilarious’ escapade which ensues while he tries to set things right with his drug dealer, girlfriend and various other people.  If you’re going to rely on a plot like that you really have to make the characters, situations and dialog funny and it just wasn’t that funny.  I have to wonder if Seth, Evan and Judd write this stuff while they’re totally stoned, find themselves laughing outrageously and decide to film it.  Perhaps it is much funnier to watch it stoned or drunk.

I’ve no idea how it scores 7.4 on IMDB unless all 46 thousand voters were stoned or drunk though.

A weak movie with some amusing moments and one or two cracking lines, but nothing to write home about.

I tend to watch a lot of action movies, sue me.  It’s always a surprise to me when I watch something else and enjoy it, and Burn After Reading is very enjoyable indeed.  Watching it straight after Death Race adds some amusement factor as well because Burn After Reading is full of acting and plot and a lot of talking (it’s a Cohen movie, after all).  All the folks were great, Clooney, Pitt, Malkovich, Swinton, McDormand, everyone.  The movie tells (kind of) the story (a little bit) of a bunch of folk who (eventually) interact in a bizarre (mostly) blackmail scheme.  Maybe.  The dialogue is excellent, the characters are engaging and amusing, and although I wasn’t sure which of them I should be empathising with the most, I enjoyed them all on one level or another.  It goes without saying it’s a black comedy, some of the comedy is side splitting, while a lot of it is far more subtle.  It turns out that everyone’s screwing everyone else either literally or figuratively, and the CIA is watching.  Everyone.  Always.

Burn After Reading is a funny, black, engaging comic story which doesn’t try to say anything, and succeeds.  If it teaches us anything it’s that we shouldn’t do it again – whatever it is we did.  There are some very amusing OMGWTF moments as well.  I recommend it.