Film Review - The Amazing Spider-Man

Release Date: Jul 3rd 2012

Genre: Action/adventure, Cult, Science Fiction

Starring: Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Andrew Garfield

Director: Marc Webb

Review:

“The untold story,” gushed the hype. There’s only one story, shrugs someone in the film, accompanied by what sounds like back-pedalling: “Who am I?” So what is it? New story, or same-old repackaged? Both and neither, as it happens.

Swinging from fresh to faithful-to-source, Marc Webb’s reboot is a sparky, well-cast, often punchy Spidey spin... but it’s also Spider-Man Begins Again, struggling in places to assert its own identity.

Sure, context cuts Webb’s work out. In 2002, the only decent superheroes around were X-Men. Batman had been Schumacher’d, Superman was grounded, the Avengers were unassembled: Sam Raimi’s Spidey had an open runway. Nowadays, you can barely swing a lizard without hitting some spandex lug.

With great power has come great terror (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), suits (Iron Man), mischief (Chronicle), gags-per-minute counts (Avengers Assemble) and sweary brats (Kick-Ass). It isn’t easy to stand out among that lot, or against Raimi’s run: his threequel over-stretched the web but the first two were pulp marvels, making a Spidey reboot harder to justify in 2012 than Batman’s 2005 franchise-fixer.

The shadow of Batman Begins looms as Amazing opens, the gold standard of origin-skewed reboots riskily invoked. Parker as a child plays games at home, stumbles on some destiny-sealing revelations, loses his parents on a stormy night... A dark roots movie steeped in tragedy? Some “untold story”, that.

Webb finds much surer footing as Parker hits high school, helped by crack casting. More confident than the last, this Parker is slick on a skateboard and not shy about standing up to Flash Thompson. The geek just got chic: who better to play him than the guy with the algorithms and rhythm from The Social Network?

A young buck made testy by grief, a rebel without a comb, Garfield nails all bases here, star DNA aglow. Stare-y eyes melting, he’s winningly earnest; lithe of physique, he delivers in the dust-ups; blithely gatecrashing Gwen Stacy’s bedroom, he gives good dreamboat. Read more ...

Film Review - Storage 24

Release Date: Jun 29th 2012

Genre: Horror, Science Fiction

Starring: Noel Clarke, Colin O'donoghue, Antonia Campbell-hughes

Director: Johannes Roberts

Review:

There’s nothing new about a monster picking off people one by one in a locked-down setting (in this case, a storage facility).

But Johannes Roberts’ thriller adds some freshness to the formula via the messy break-up between confused Charlie (co-writer Noel Clarke) and aloof dumper Shelley (Antonia Campbell-Hughes).

It’s far from flawless: the set-up feels forced and certain sequences do meander into tedium.

Yet even so, there’s enough gore, ideas and self-aware absurdity here to make it something a bit more enticing than merely Alien: The EastEnders Redux.

Film Review - Rock of Ages

 Production year: 2012

Country: USA

Cert (UK): 12A

Runtime: 123 mins

Directors: Adam Shankman

Cast: Alec Baldwin, Bryan Cranston, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough, Malin Akerman, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Tom Cruise

Review:

This hugely dislikable film of the rock musical currently running in London's West End is set in 1987 Los Angeles and stars the colourless Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta as out-of-town innocents who come to Hollywood to become singing stars. It's love at first sight, success at second try, and they are the only pure spirits in a world of sleazy rockers and corrupt politicians. The tone is uncertain, the music loud but tame, the performances misjudged. The dialogue features such gems as a noisome gay rock venue manager (Russell Brand) describing his opponent, the mayor's moral-crusading wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), as looking as if she's been "hibernating in Margaret Thatcher's bumhole". Never has Los Angeles looked less enticing.

Film Review - A Thousand Kisses Deep

 Production year: 2010

Countries: Rest of the world, UK, USA

Cert (UK): 15

Runtime: 84 mins

Directors: Dana Lustig

Cast: Allan Corduner, David Warner, Dougray Scott, Emilia Fox, Jodie Whittaker

Review:

This heavy-handed fantasy begins with a London nurse (Jodie Whittaker) witnessing her elderly future self commit suicide by defenestration. The portentous janitor of her apartment block (David Warner) then helps her use his lift as a time machine to revisit her past and put her messy life in order. After a mildly intriguing first 20 minutes, most viewers will want to take an hour-length jump into the future to put this idiotic film behind them.