It's life Jim, but not as we know it

Running a bit late with my blogging - admit it, you've noticed, well maybe not - but I am trying to catch up now, last weeks movie was life as we know it, the movie starring Katherine Heigl (the woman from every romantic comedy of the last three years - at least it is starting to feel like it!) and Josh Duhamel (Fergie's husband)

The film was once again formulaic, Hollywood seemingly going through a period of un-imagination at the moment, perhaps the writers are on strike again and they don't want to tell anyone! The jokes were either telegraphed from too far away to be funny or else given away in the trailer and so the entire film felt flat. The film followed the relationship of the two main characters as they come to terms with the death of their best friends and that they are now responsible for raising their friends daughter, but here is the twist, after an unsuccessful date years earlier they can't stand each other - bet you didn't see that coming - Heigl plays the same character as always so no fear of originality there, whilst Duhamel as a player who goes by the name of Messer, was fun enough but did not really come across believable enough as the sex symbol who could fluster a woman just by walking into the room, maybe at 37 he is getting too far away from his model of the year award (which was after all 13 years ago now.)

The supporting cast included "sexiest woman in the world" (according to Esquire) Christina Hendricks as Heigl's best friend and mother of the orphaned child, so she obviously was limited in her screen time, this is obviously a shame as I am a big fan of hers, although from her time in Firefly - as I have never seen mad men.

Over all I would say, this film is ok, as long as your expectations are low, as with a lot of Heigl's recent work, you get exactly what you would expect, and nothing more.

Knight and Day

Went to see Knight and Day this week, the film is your classic Spy meets girl story that has been played out many times in the past, most recently in The Killers, The Killers starred Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl where as Night and Day stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz and until you see some of the New-ish stars against a pair of 80's - 90's stars you really don't realise how much better the older stars are. There seems to be a complete lack of acting talent coming up into movies these days (In Fact Shia Leboef seems to be the only actor left in Hollywood capable of not playing a nerd - And he is very nerdy looking for a leading man) so it is no wonder that action movies must look to the 80's and 90's for a decent cast.

Tom Cruise was very good in his role as a slightly psychotic yet very laid back CIA agent who runs into naive car mechanic Cameron Diaz, both give great performances which meant the film was one of the better attempts at this genre with enough laughs and outrageous action to pass the hour and a half.

There is a tendency of the movie to avoid finding solutions to outrageous situations by playing for laughs but it is handled well so it does not feel like a cop out

Killer Movie?

My second cinema visit this week was to watch Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in The Killers. The trailers looked like by the numbers romantic/farse comedy but I have always thought that Heigl handles comedy very well. And I have to admit that I was not surprised as that was exactly what we got.

Basically Kutcher is a (Probably CIA) Hitman who gives it all up when he meets Heigl by chance whilst on a job in Nice, They start a relationship and I doubt it will ruin the film too much to give away that his past catches up with him. What ensues is a by the numbers Action Comedy with only the two main leads lifting this film above the standard (But not by much, although Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara as the In Laws give a good perfromance.) Like I say it is an alright film, however if you can only hire one film in this Genre I would instead recommend Mr & Mrs Smith, in fact this year even Date Night is a better, similar film.

But it is definitly in the top two films I have seen at the Cineworld Cinema Crawley This Week, and most likely the best one I have seen in Screen 2 at an 18:30 Start!!