The Green Hornet (2011)

I actually chose to watch this film even though like seemingly quite a lot of people something about Seth Rogen just puts me off, his voice performance in Paul was great but this is the only good thing I have heard him do. He just has this way of being annoying, which worked in this film as a he was supposed to be annoying. So your story is Seth Rogen is the son of a Paper Mogul, played by Tom Wilkinson they do not get on and he has to take over the paper when his father dies. He hooks up with Kato his fathers mechanic and they decide randomly to become crime fighters and ingratiate themselves with the bad guys so they can bring them down and using the newspaper they start their campaign of crime against the criminals.

Now as a premise it works quite nicely, the biggest flaws in this film is the humour does not work properly as there seems to be something missing. I think that it is the crossover between slapstick and intelligent and it fails to work. Also I did not believe the relationship between Seth Rogen and Jay Chou who plays Kato and when you throw Cameron Diaz in to the mix the chemistry is just not there between the trio. Christoph Waltz plays an excellent bad guy and with James Franco getting a cameo the cast of this film was actually really good, Edward James Olmos also shows off his chops as the editor of the paper.

Overall I had low expectations and they were barely met, this is a 2 star avoid unless you like Seth Rogen a lot. Will give him credit he does look like he has lost a bit of weight but his style just does not work for me at all in this film or any of the others I have seen him in.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

I went to watch this film with anticipation and some trepidation it falls in to the double whammy category of remake, of a sorts from the Apes films and a prequel to the Mark Whalberg remake of the Charlton Heston classic Planet of the Apes. So I was not really sure what to expect from the film in general I knew that with James Franco and John Lithgow acting in the film and Andy Serkis doing the motion capture there were going to be some good acting and great special effects. The trailers which I have seen a few of and reviewed one here did not give as much away as I thought after seeing the film. The editing of them was quite deceptive and watching the trailer after seeing the film I have to say that they look like they are advertising a different type of film.
I have to say that overall I was fairly satisfied by the film as a whole, there was some good acting by John Lithgow as the Father with Alzheimers and a good performance from Tom Felton as a keeper in the Primate sanctuary with an interesting performance from Brian Cox as his father. The biggest disappointment to me was James Franco I thought he was totally miscast as the scientist I could not believe in him as a super intelligent character, which is a shame as I have really enjoyed a lot of his films recently. With Andy Serkis doing the motion capture for Ceaser I have to say that it was totally believable and the CGI which the film has to rely on heavily was awesome. The Apes which had to convey so much emotion without any words or communications you could see the intelligence and what they wanted from their movements and reactions.

Overall with worried expectations I have to say that I really enjoyed this film it is a strong 3 stars and I am interested what they are going to do with the series if this film is successful enough to spawn the probable sequel, I have to say that the nods to the original with Charlton Heston and the fact that it lossely linked back to the Mark Whalberg film were fantastic and I really enjoyed catching them. The one thing that bothereed me while watching was the sheer number of Apes in just the one city.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) Trailer

Decided that along with reviews I am going to look at some upcoming films that I might go and see and see what I think of them from the trailer and have a comparison when I have seen the film.

First up is the remake of The Rise of The Planet of the Apes, now I am not sure if this is a remake of the original film by this name or if it a sequel/prequel to the Mark Whalberg remake of the original classic.

So from the trailer I am highly anticipating this film, with James Franco and Andy Serkis and the effects that the trailer show it looks really good, it is the set up of how the apes take over? do they take over, well if it is a sequel/prequel to the remake then we know how it is going to end up but ultimately it still looks great and I cannot wait to se this at the cinema.

UK Release Date - 11th August 2011

Your Highness (2011)

This is another film that I had wanted to see at the cinema pretty much because Natalie Portman was in it and I enjoyed watching Natalie Portman, the rest of the film was laughable and not in the good comedy way. I have no idea where this film came from, it was like a gaudy comedy that decided to go for the R rating in the USA and to hang with making sure it was funny. James Franco was fine in the role he played and the supporting cast were okay but Danny McBride was just wrong in so many ways, it was like I want to write a film where I am the star and for some reason they let him make it.

The jokes were poor and the story itself would have been funny had I been stoned, I was straight and really it felt painful. Part of the problem was that they ended up getting more stars than they knew what to do with and they did not get a chance to do what they were good at. Portman was sort of like, well we will ask her, she will probably say no and for some reason she said yes and they were like wow, now what do we do?

I would say avoid this unless you are into lowest common denominator comedy and are perpetually stoned cause then I think you will find it funny, a very disappointing 1 star film for me.

127 Hours (2010)

Now this film falls in to the category of real life story so I was not very sure about it, also it is about a man stuck by himself for 5 days how entertaining could that be. I have to say I was really impressed, they did enough development of the character to begin with that you were there with him James Franco engaging you enough that you wanted the best for him.

The visuals of this film, the bits in the film where Aron is going a bit stir crazy are fantastically surreal with a real sense of loss and at one point when he is talking into the camera it was totally moving and stunning.

Even if you know the story then you have to see this film, the scene that you know is coming is not that graphic but really does give sense of what he went through and what it would have been like to be in that situation, this is a solid 4 stars for me and a you should see it recommendation, it will not appeal to everybody but I think that everybody will appreciate the story and how it was filmed.