Red - the Ed Miliband story

Ok so maybe this weeks Movie review is not about the new puppet leader of the Labour Party, but as you know I can't resist making a dig, however this is mostly due to the fact it is very easy.

Anyway the film R.E.D which stands for Retired, Extremely Dangerous is actually about a team of former CIA agents struggling to come to terms with retirement when they are placed on the hit list of one of the CIA's wet teams (assassination operatives) needless to say for this kind of movie the old experienced agents are infinitely better trained and efficient than the new hot shots sent to take them out and therefore out class them at every point.

The cast is a veritable who was who of cinema greats, once again proving that Hollywood has struggled massively with decent action stars for the last 20 years. Bruce Willis takes the lead, but the supporting cast of Dame Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich all prove the old saying that whilst form is temporary, class is permanent. All four prove why they have what it takes to survive so long in such a fickle industry, personally my favourite performance is from Malkovich who is great as a slightly un-hinged operative, although he is often proved right about most of his theories, and has the truly great action sequence in which he has a quick draw contest against a rocket launcher (I normally try not to reveal details of what happens in a film but as this is in the trailer I guessed it would be ok.)

Representing modern Hollywood was "Bones" McCoy - Karl Urban, obviously I am talking about the remake film series not the original television show, he does an ok job as the young ambitious agent that is tasked with neutralizing Willis only to discover he may well be out of his depth.

Whilst this film may not be anymore than you would expect before you go in, it will certainly not be any less either. My only concern is that this would appear to be yet another time when Hollywood's aging megastars come to the rescue and cover up the deficit of young talent in the action genre, and whilst their movies may suggest otherwise, they won't be able to do it forever.

Jonah Hex - supernatural or just unnatural?

This week we watched the supernatural cowboy extravaganza that is Jonah Hex, the film is like so many these days based on a comic book, and during the long set up in which they attempt to pack in so much back story that when the film starts you are completely clueless as to what has occurred. This isn't much of an issue however as the first scene is ample to get toy up to speed and only takes a couple of seconds - after all this is not intended as a cerebral masterpiece.

This film will no doubt get a very avid following, if only as it features Megan Fox as a wild west prostitute, undoubtedly securing the attention of thousands of boys, and men, who sat through the Michael Bay Transformers tripe for a lot less than is delivered by this movie, in case you're wondering I actually went for the robots (and to fuel my anti Michael Bay bias a little more each time) on the subject of Ms Fox, she was quoted as saying how much she enjoyed making this film as she had the chance to do some proper acting, my only reply to that is "bless"

The film itself is a cross between the punisher (In fact the cartoon version is voiced by Tom Jane who stared in the punisher) and wild wild west both elements it handles as you would expect to deliver a film that is low on thinking and high on simplicity, however if you come out disappointed I would be surprised and suggest that 1, you expected far too much, 2, you did not read the synopsis before you went in, and, 3, you're not male.

Other acting talent was provided by John Malkovich, who was of course great, even as the over the top confederate general. As well as Josh Brolin who unfortunately fell slightly flat as the hero, possibly suffering from the fact that every time he fell asleep he became locked in a seemingly endless battle against his arch enemy - but I guess that would take it out of us all in the end.