Because Everybody Else Has One

Now this one is just a really pleasant surprise. Though, I don't know why it should be: it does star Rose Byrne, after all. This review is also on Channel 24 What it’s about Pete and Ellie are a happily married couple who decide that it’s finally time to take the plunge and have kids. Opting to adopt rather than give birth, the couple ends up fostering three siblings from a broken home: a headstrong teenager, a hyper-sensitive pre-teen and a lively but tantrum-prone pre-schooler. As kids and foster parents learn to come to terms with one another, the children’s birth mother returns to make an already complicated situation even more difficult. What we thought Instant Family’s flaws are pretty much exactly what you might expect them to be based on the premise. It’s a family drama that is predictable, somewhat clichéd and sentimental bordering on mawkish. At nearly two-hours long, it’s also much longer than such a film should be. What is perhaps less expected, though, is j...

First, no, I'm not suddenly starting to review porn: the film's title is a very pointed reference to Let It Be, Naked by the Beatles and is a crucial part of the plot, so no jokes from you smartasses in the corner, thank you. Second, I made the mistake of rereading my original review so I, inevitably, had to change a few things that I didn't like so this is a somewhat longer and altered version of the review you will find on Channel 24 . I'll try not make a habit of this but, as any writer knows, looking back at your own work is never a smart move as all you see is the mistakes you made and the things you wish you did differently. What it’s about Annie Platt and Duncan Thomson are a couple with a fairly comfortable, if unexciting relationship, living in a small coastal town in England but if there is one thing that constantly places a strain on their relationship, it’s Duncan’s obsession with the life and music of Tucker Crowe, an American indie-rocker who, two d...

Reteaming once again with Paul Feig, will Spy be the movie to cement the over-exposure of Melissa McCarthy or will it rejuvenate her once incredibly promising movie career? Yes... Reuniting for the third time with her Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, Melissa McCarthy once again applies her considerable comedic talents to a major Hollywood comedy: this time tackling the time honoured tradition of the spy comedy. And even if I can't quite give Spy the glowing thumbs up of most reviews, as it is very, very inconsistent, I can say that it's almost definitely the best comedy released this year so far and, though she comes close to being outdone by two of her co-stars, it's also a nice step forward for McCarthy who was very much in danger of being typecast as the profane, often repulsive "trailer trash chick" that already started to grate in her second collaboration with Paul Feig, the Heat.     McCarthy plays a mousy but sweet CIA desk-worker who works mostly as...

... This time it's personal. Well, not really. This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about : Picking up immediately after the events of the first film, we once again find the Lambert family trying to deal with malicious spirits as they uncover connections to their own past and the ghosts that haunt them. What we thought : Coming hot on the heels of director James Wan's own  The Conjuring , it's hard to get past the feeling that even Wan doesn't really see the point in a sequel to  Insidious .  The Conjuring  may fit into much the same genre, indeed the same sub-genre, as the Insidious  films and it may have plundered freely from many often better horror films from the last five decades or so, but it at least found Wan on noticeable revitalized form as the film had a vitality and freshness – not to mention creepiness - that so many modern horror films so sorely lack. It was probably the best horror flick he has done yet and indicated that ...

Now for a quick review of a pretty fun horror flick.  From Channel24 What it's about A married couple's idyllic life is thrown into turmoil when their young son falls into a coma but even as they try and deal with the fact that no one understands why he isn't waking up, they are confronted with increasingly malicious supernatural forces. What we thought Regardless of whether you find Insidious scary or not, it's nice to see a horror film that is neither a remake ( Let Me In ) nor another entry into the increasingly irritating “torture porn” genre (take your pick). Neither, for that matter, is it as mind-numbingly boring as Paranormal Activity 2 , nor as pointlessly nasty as something like local slasher, Night Drive . It's especially cool to note that it is directed by none other than Saw director, James Wan, who is apparently as sick and tired of “torture porn” as the rest of us should surely be by now.