Viewer Reviews
Recent Reviews By KEITH R
 | The Other Guys (Film)Summary - Keith RThe Other Guys has enjoyed (if that's the right word) a hefty wad of hype in the run-up to its release. Given the dire recent standard of American comedy, the unanimous rallying call of "Will Ferrell's return to form" was enough for this reviewer to enter the theatre in a sceptical frame of mind: hasn't Ferrell had umpteen supposed returns to form in his more ... |
 | Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Film)Unique, but no classic - Keith RThe inevitable misunderstanding Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has encountered from a cross-section of people who have toddled along to the cinema to see it will come as no surprise to those who have, for want of a better term, "got it". This is innovative and brash comedy, with little or no lip service paid to cinematic norms - director Edgar Wright more ... |
 | Toy Story 3 (Film)Worthy end to the trilogy - Keith RIt's difficult to find anything critical to say about Toy Story 3. Pixar's excellence as a studio may have shone through in numerous other films since the original's debut way back in the depths of the 90s, but seldom has animated filmmaking hit the heights that this fantastic series has consistently achieved. There's no reliance on pop culture references á more ... |
 | The A-Team (Film)When will these remakes end? - Keith RFor those of us who haven't found the sacrilegious butchering of multiple 80s franchises over the last few years to prompt complete disillusionment, behold Joe Carnahan's interpretation of the decade's best-loved action series. Forget Miami Vice, Magnum, Airwolf et al - the A-Team was a series that typified and distilled everything that was good or bad more ... |
 | Inception (Film)Too much like hard work - Keith RIt's not difficult to see why Inception's reviews are running the entire gamut from super-positive to disappointingly uninspiring. It's certainly going to divide viewers, not least because of the ambition at its core which fuels every sequence from start to finish. While Christopher Nolan's film displays admirable intelligence and complete fearlessness, more ... |
 | Predators (Film)A decent effort - Keith RPredators really has a huge weight of responsibility resting on its heavily-muscled shoulders. The desecration committed to both the Alien and Predator series by the two woeful crossover flicks can't be understated - they somehow managed to undo two decades of good work in establishing a couple of Hollywood's favourite nasties, with little or no respect or more ... |
 | Get Him To The Greek (Film)Bit of a let-down - Keith RAnyone who has taken in the bulk of Hollywood's prolific comedy output over the last 6-8 years will be well aware of what to expect from Judd Apatow's firmly established stable of funnymen. Wry asides and an almost Dickensian discourse of genitalia are both safely in harness here, albeit alongside a nagging familiarity which is unfortunately starting to more ... |
 | Robin Hood (Film)blunt and boring - Keith RRidley Scott's stellar Hollywood heritage has led to the inevitable pulling power when it comes to his new output - much like James Cameron, any new project he embarks upon kicks up untold hype and becomes an event quite apart from its substance. So it is with Robin Hood, a solid but uninspiring adaptation of the origin tale of Nottingham's infamous more ... |
 | A Nightmare On Elm Street (Film)Less of a nightmare, more a panic attack - Keith RThe recent spate of Hollywood horror remakes continues to trundle apace, with nary a lingering effort to even delay these cynical cash cows until the traditional October release for seasonal scaremongers. On the heels of two Friday the 13th updates, The Amityville Horror and another couple of efforts to re-energise the Hallowe'en franchise comes arguably more ... |
 | Iron Man 2 (Film)Does double the action mean double the film? - Keith RIt's hard to imagine any actor slipping into a role with the comfort and confidence Robert Downey Jr. displays while portraying Iron Man's chief protagonist, weapons guru Tony Stark. The actor's well-documented hellraising past stands him in good stead when portraying the egostistical, wisecracking billionaire - indeed, so apt are his mannerisms and more ... |
 | Clash of the Titans (Film)A missed opportunity - Keith RIt's not too difficult to see exactly what Louis Leterrier was hoping to achieve with Clash of the Titans. With blockbuster season charging our way, a special effects-laden rehash of the 80s original fits right into the early trickle of summer epics that reliably emerge every time the clocks go forward. In theory, this should have all the ingredients to more ... |
 | Alice In Wonderland (Film)Average - Keith RI'm not going to pretend to be a massive Alice in Wonderland fan - having never read Lewis Carroll's tale and possessing only a passing fondness for the Disney classic, this review is intended to offer a commentary of Tim Burton's remake on its merits as a standalone piece of cinema. In that regard, it may be difficult for fans to reconcile their own more ... |
 | Avatar (Film)Impressive - Keith RMuch like Ridley Scott and Martin Scorcese, James Cameron enjoys lofty status as a directorial law unto himself. Trailblazing 80s classics like The Terminator and Aliens firmly established his ability to pace and execute within the action genre, and Titanic's Oscar-sweeping catastrophe cemented his claim to be afforded complete independence as an auteur. more ... |
 | Paranormal Activity (Film)Overhyped, but entertaining - Keith RIt seems the fate of every contemporary horror film worth its salt to be heralded as "the scariest thing ever", and so it has been with Paranormal Activity. Unfortunately - and, pretty much, inevitably - the reality is that it falls some way short of this lofty billing. That's not to say that there aren't scares to be had here. However, the film's more ... |
 | District 9 (Film)Original,clever and engaging - Keith RSat in the cinema patiently waiting for District 9's storyline to take shape, it's all too easy to imagine a hackneyed and uninspiring armageddon flick spawning from the early plot threads. All the ingredients are there: a giant, hovering alien spacecraft; bipedal extraterrestrials roaming freely; a tense human populace with weapons primed and itchy trigger more ... |
 | Two and a half hours of nothing - Keith RBoasting a stellar cast and helmed by Michael Mann, Public Enemies certainly has a lot going for it. As the film plays out, however, it's clear that it is sorely lacking an engaging plot. Adaptations can often be detrimentally affected by their source material, and so it proves in this case. No amount of excellent acting or virtuoso directing can ignite a more ... |
 | Bruno (Film)1 joke,told repeatedly for 90 mins - Keith ROh dear. It's difficult to know how to begin explaining why Bruno is such a let-down. Anyone expecting the subtlety of Borat's best scenes will be sorely upset to find Sacha Baron Cohen's latest offering to be the cinematic equivalent of a great big gay-bashing wrecking ball.In an attempt to cut as close to the bone as Borat's charming political more ... |
 | The Hangover (Film)Solid comedy - Keith RHaving garnered almost unanimous rave reviews, Todd Phillips' The Hangover finds itself catering for a far wider audience than might at first have been expected.That's obviously no bad thing when it comes to the bottom line at the box office, but the harsh glare of increased expectation also brings more potential for disappointment. Thankfully, its easy to more ... |
 | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Film)Identikit action,cringeworthy storyline - Keith RThe original Transformers adaptation did a fair job of tearing a hole in cinema screens when it hit the big time a couple of years ago. It showcased Michael Bay's flair for high-octane action sequences, with the "giant warring robots" premise providing the perfect template for the director to blow up a whole plethora of locations. This more ... |
 | Terminator: Salvation (Film)Ticks all the boxes for - Keith RIt's difficult to overstate the difficulties posed for any creative team tasked with furthering the Terminator franchise. Not only does the series boast two of Hollywood's best-loved action flicks, but the time-travelling storyline has long since tied itself in unwieldy quantum-leaping knots. With these factors in mind,the potential for Salvation to fall more ... |
 | Star Trek (Film)A pleasant, thrilling surprise! - Keith RDoes J.J Abrams' magic touch know no bounds? The Lost producer's interesting 2008 offering, Cloverfield, confirmed that he had the ability to transfer his creative flair to the big screen, but nonetheless gave little indication that he could be relied upon to drag Star Trek kicking and screaming into the 21st century. But that's exactly what he's managed to more ... |
 | X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Film)Good,but not invulnerable to criticism - Keith RIt says a lot about the enduring appeal of one of Marvel's flagship mutants that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine can be selected to front a film on his own hind paws and nobody bats an eyelid. The X-Men trilogy was essentially an ensemble adaptation of a comic that has always favoured the collective good over individual heroism, but there was never any denying more ... |
 | Gran Torino (Film)Grand entertainment - Keith RYou've got to hand it to Clint Eastwood. As 21st century comebacks go, he's surely top of the pile of Hollywood's old-stagers. While heavy-hitters Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's careers have largely stalled over the past number of years (The Departed earning Jack a partial pardon on that front), Clint has consistently shown that there's far more ... |
 | Watchmen (Video)Unique, divisive cinema - Keith RThe realm of comic book adaptation has become vastly overpopulated in 21st century Hollywood, with every second blockbuster of the last 10 years sporting a masked visage made famous in the pages of American pulp literature. Zack Snyder's adaptation of a work widely recognised as the zenith of the graphic novel form was always going to live or die by more ... |
 | Step Brothers (Film)silly fun,but lacking any substance - Keith RIt's becoming difficult to remember what constituted a decent comedy film pre-Will Ferrell. Since the affable loon hit the big time via roles in Elf,Zoolander and most notably Anchorman,Hollywood's funny factory has churned out innumerable dumb-ass capers in an effort to reproduce the delicious absurdity of characters like Ferrell's own Ron Burgundy.Step more ... |
 | Tropic Thunder (Film)Solid,enjoyable,and at times hilarious - Keith RIt seems a long time since a worthy comedy came out of Hollywood without the name Judd Apatow featuring in the writing/directorial credits,but lo and behold,Ben Stiller has resurfaced after his recent fallow spell and reminded everyone that there's more than one troupe of funnymen in Tinseltown.Having played a notable part in the early stages of American more ... |
 | Pineapple Express (Film)underwhelming - Keith RSeth Rogen's rapid rise to prominence as the impromptu figurehead of the Judd Apatow stable of new American comedy has been based on the big fella's affable screen presence and droll comedic delivery, but Pineapple Express may yet see the rising star's course begin to plateau. Having spent the last two years offering up increasingly amusing turns in the more ... |
 | WALL-E (Film)You'd be a WALL-E to miss it... - Keith RYou have to hand it to Pixar, WALL-E is as ballsy and original an animated film as we're likely to see from one of the major Hollywood studios for quite some time. Not content to continue churning out orthodox surefire hits like The Incredibles and Ratatouille, the Emeryville-based studio has struck out for new territory with their lastest effort. Taking more ... |
 | Cloverfield (Video)Interesting, but runs out of ideas - Keith RYou have to applaud Cloverfield's producers for attempting to inject some life into the stagnated horror genre. By following the homebrew lead of the Blair Witch Project, there's no doubt that they've brought a sense of immediacy to the film that tends to be lacking in modern, special effects-laden monster flicks. Indeed, a great deal of the film's early more ... |
 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Film)Not your average superhero movie - Keith RGuillermo Del Toro returns to the director's seat for the second Hellboy film, picking up where he left off with the 2004 original. The acclaimed Mexican's name was arguably the most high-profile aspect of the original production, and he managed to imbue an otherwise unspectacular film with an element of intimacy that many modern superhero adaptations lack. more ... |
 | Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Film)Lucas continues to milk the cash cow - Keith ROh dear oh dear oh dear. That's just about all that can be said for this cynical mess of an animated feature that showcases all that is wrong with Lucasfilm's refusal to let its beloved space saga rest on its hallowed laurels. While the criticism aimed at episodes 1-3 by hardcore fans was thought to be a little unfair in parts, any such treatment dished out more ... |
 | The Dark Knight (Film)Darker than the bottom of a pint of Guinness - Keith RChris Nolan's abandonment of the camp stylings that had dogged the Batman films since Tim Burton's 1989 original saw the caped crusader's welcome return to top form in 2005's Batman Begins. The director's follow-up, I'm glad to say, has continued in the same vein, exploring an ever-more menacing dimension to Bruce Wayne's bombastic moonlighting. Each more ... |
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