June Watch List

1. Cuban Fury

Apart from the salsa obsessed element to the film, this Brit-Rom-Com isn't that bad but not as good as I thought it would be. Nick Frost is great in this and I really hope he did most of the dancing in this. The story is quite run of the mill, chubby guy with weird talent like the pleasant American girl who happens to share said weird talent/interest. Annoying (but hilarious Chris O'Dowd) third person is trying to ruin things for said chubby guy. I am being unfair, the film is funny in parts and the cast are great but it is rather predictable. It would be nice to see a film where average girl gets average boy but with a massive twist of some sort. One last thing, the lunchtime dance off is hilarious. 3/5

2. The Young and Prodigious T.S Spivet

From the director of Amelie said the posters. The director also made MicMacs, a brilliant and under appreciated well crafted film with great characters. Moving on. This is Jean-Pierre Jeunet second english language film and it may not be as beautiful as Amelie or as creative as Micmacs but it has heart  and a truly (adorable) brilliant actor, the very young and talented Kyle Catlett.

The film is based on the book, The Selected Works of T.S Spivet by Reif Larsen. I bought the book in preparation for the film but didn't finish it before the film was to disappear from the cinema. The book, similar to the film is annotated and full to the brim.

4/5

2. Last Vegas

This film looked like it could be decent for two reasons, Kevin Kline and Morgan Freeman. The other two actors are quite disappointing. Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas are playing stereotypes of themselves throughout and De Niro is especially annoying, always being a negative moody old man. They may all be old men but Kline and Freeman have all the best lines. There are some funny touching moments of friendship but that doesn't stop the creepy old men eye boggling at (basically) teenagers. Its late life crisis comedy that couldn't be saved by the Pirate King or God. 2/5

4. Reign of Fire

I watched this because I had never seen it and I needed an action film to watch while on my excercise bike. I thought dragons, check, hearing Christian Bale with his real (and better) British accent, check, a film set in England, check, watching an action film, un-check.

The set up is simple. A dragon's nest is uncovered deep underground under a London tube station and from there the planet burns. Dragon attack survivor, Christian Bale is sort of in charge of a small community of other British survivors in Cumbria. The year is 2020, dragons rule the skys and burn the ground. American self claimed 'dragon slayer' Matthew 'can't believe he won an Oscar' McConaughey arrives with a group of other army like fellow dragon slayers and a helicopter. He is annoying and shoves his weight around and acts like he was the only one effected by the dragons. Gerard Butler, also with better, real accent, has the best line; 'The only thing worse than dragons, Americans.' For this film, its true. 2/5