Balls of balls

Balls of Fury (2007)

Directed by Ben Garant this film stars Dan Fogler, George Lopez, Maggie Q, Christopher Walken and James Hong. A washed up table tennis start that failed at the 1988 Olympics is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate a secret table tennis tournament set up by a crime boss.

There are a ton of sports film parodies out there and this one does very little to stand out from the crowd. At times it seems like the plot is just going through the motions and does not really hold together that well. Jokes are a little too sparse for this to be a full comedy and only Walken doing one of his bizarre performances holds your attention at all.

2/5

Machete don't tweet

Machete Kills (2013)

Directed by Robert Rodriguez this sequel stars Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Amber Herd and Sofia Vergara. Our hero is sent South of the US-Mexico border to deal with a revolutionary holding the USA hostage to a missile attack.

There is not much subtle about this homage to exploitation cinema but it is a pretty fun ride even if it occasionally bogs down in exposition. Occasionally the film hints at some fairly relevant issues to do with immigration and US-Mexican relations but these are mostly just as a back drop. Some of the special effects are intentionally clunky and the direction does capture that cheap grindhouse feel.

3/5

Better than expected

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Directed by Chris Columbus this film stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Tim Curry and Catherine O'Hara. While his family is heading off to Miami for Christmas our mischief maker accidentally ends up in New York.

For most of this film the film makers manage to keep the tone of the original without repeating events too closely as to make this seem like just a remake. Oddly it is the big battle finale which goes too close to the original for my taste but still this is an entertaining watch and a good sequel. The film is well made and manages not to ram the Christmas message too strongly down the throats of the audience.

3/5

A play without a play

Glumov's Diary (1923)

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein this is a collection of inserts from an adaptation of the play of the same name. The scenes star Grigori Aleksandrov, Aleksandr Antonov and Mikhail Gomorov.

Watching these inserts by themselves it is pretty hard to work out any plot or connecting threat so in that sense this is not really a film, short or otherwise. Where the film has it's strengths is in some nice early special effects that show the start of the career of one of the masters of early Russian cinema. There is entertainment to be had here but only as a curiosity really.

2/5

If Pixar and Marvel had a child....

Big Hero Six (2014)

Directed by Don Hall & Chris Williams this film based on the comic of the same has voices from Scott Adsit, Ryan Potter, Maya Rudolph and T. J. Miller. Following the death of his older brother a teenage genius adapts a medical robot to help him find out what happened.

This film deviates in a pretty big way from it's source material and more of what you would expect of a Pixar take on a Marvel film. As enjoyable as this film is it lacks some depth and does not really explore the themes of loss fully enough. Despite all the flaws I really enjoyed this film, there is plenty to like here, it is just a shame it does not fully explore the idea of a Japanese team of super heroes like the comic does.

4/5  

Mossy on down to the Red Sea

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Directed by Ridley Scott this Biblical epic stars Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro and Ben Kingsley. A man raised by Egyptian royalty finds he is of Jewish decent like the salves the kingdom relies on.

Starting from a modern view point I found this to be a slightly different and interesting take on the well known story. The story unfolds well and while not completely faithful to it's source material I found it entertaining as a non-believer. Some of the casting is a serious problem but if you can look past that then this is a decent entry into a nearly dead genre.

4/5

A monster in New York

Cloverfield (2008)

Directed by Matt Reeves this film stars Michael Stahl-David, Odette Yustman, T. J. Miller, Jessica Lucas and Lizzy Caplan. Attractive 20-somethings try to escape New York during a monster attack.

Thanks to being presented as a special effects film this is essentially a special effects film with bad camera work which is kind of a bad idea in my opinion. Both the characters and the plot have no depth which is a shame for a film made when New York under attack was still a very raw and topical subject. I found that all this film succeeded in doing was giving me a head ache thanks to the shaky and often unintelligible camera work.

2/5