Film Review: Superman III/Superman IV: The Quest For Peace

When it comes to reviewing films, some just don't need another rating. Take the original Superman film. It's an all time classic, and in my opinion the greatest super hero/comic book films ever. Nothing has ever matched it. But who needs yet another review telling you that? So I am skipping talking about the original here.

I am also skipping the second. So much has been said about the two different cuts. I actually watched the Richard Lester cut and the Richard Donner on consecutive evenings, with the films re-release on Blu Ray, and found the latter a much more coherent view. It's a shame it was never released back in 1980, it may have saved the franchise from where it was headed...

It had been about 5 or 6 years since I saw Superman's 3 and 4. In hindsight did the series just get worse and worse? Actually, not quite.

Superman III actually retained Richard Lester as director, but that doesn't help its cause. Seemingly more intent on 'wacky' slapstick humour (the entire opening sequence is fucking excruciating to watch, and I never swear in reviews) over what made the first (and to some extent) the second films what they were. Pratfalls such as people falling in holes, and cakes splatting in peoples faces just didn't even raise a smile.

Talking of not raising a smile, there was the decision to include Richard Pryor in the film. Now, I'm not someone who has seen any of his stand-up films, or any of his stuff with Gene Wilder, but this guy was meant to be a comedian right? Because, as Gus Gorman, the hard up computer expert that falls in with villain Ross Webster (a bored ridged looking Robert Vaughn) nothing he does is even slightly amusing. A scene where he is in the background on skis just mumbling bullshit to himself is probably the nadir of the entire film (and, by default the series.)

Allegedly due to vocally disapproving of the producers decision to fire Richard Donner, Margot Kidders screen time as Lois Lane is whittled down to less than five minutes, at the start and end of the film. It's a noticeable absence, although the Smallville storyline is a good idea.

As always, Christopher Reeve gives everything he has to the role, the guy was so committed in the face of everything around him being terrible, and typically he is the only good thing in the film. Playing 3 characters, Superman, Clark Kent and Evil Superman (created when Kryptonite and erm...tobacco tar are combined) he excels in all, and the Evil Superman stuff and climatic battle between him and Clark Kent is most entertaining scene in the movie, and is over too quickly and we are returned to the god-awful Pryor and his shameless mugging. Superman III is a travesty of a film.

But everyone seems to think that Superman IV: The Quest For Peace is the worst of the lot, but after the third installment it's actually an improvement. It's not brilliant, don't get me wrong but Gene Hackman is back as Lex Luthor (helped out of jail by his young nephew Lenny, played by Jon Cryer), the tone of the film is more serious and it actually deals with some pretty weighty issues - nuclear disarmament, the role of newspapers in world affairs and how what they print can affect peoples opinions, and Kidder has a proper role as Lois Lane again (and is part of one of the films highlights, the double date scene with Clark Kent and Superman.)

But, as I said it's not brilliant. After the films budget was cut in half, most of the exterior scenes were shot in Milton Keynes. And once you know that fact, you can notice. I swear I recognised a building in one scene.

The films running time (a very short for the series 90 minutes) was clearly the victim of severe editing, with the Luthors seemingly the victim of most of them. You can't help but think Hackman should have been in a lot more scenes, and if you consult the deleted scenes, you can see he was at one point.

Another negative is the villain, Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow, who never acted again after this), complete with huge mullet and dangerous long fingernails (afraid so), the whole character is quite the joke, and not in a Superman III way.

It's mostly quite a bizarre watch, what with the Milton Keynes factor, the shonky sets that seem to be have been done on the cheap also, and even little things like seeing Jim Broadbent play a French bad guy in a small role. It all seems quite surreal at times.

But none of the negatives in the film come close to matching the train wreck of III, and again Christopher Reeve put his all into his performance, and gives some great impassioned Superman speeches (Reeve himself actually came up with some of the story, so it was obviously close to his heart) but it would have been nice to see what would be his last appearance as The Man Of Steel be in a stronger film.

But, after the critical mauling and lack of box office interest, the Superman franchise disappeared, not to be seen again for 19 years...

Superman III
*
An absolute mess of a film, with needless slapstick 'comedy', terrible villains and the horrific decision to cast as seemingly coked up non actor as second lead. Superman III is not big, funny or clever, but scrapes one star for Christopher Reeve's multi-faceted performance.


Superman IV: The Quest For Peace
**
Nowhere near as bad as III, or as most people make out. Sure it's not brilliant, and at some moments it feels like a rather vivid hallucination, but it's a solid story, even if it's been hacked down in the editing suite. And again, it's all about Christopher Reeve as Superman that saves it.

Film Review: Green Lantern

Along with the likes of Thor, X-Men: First Class, and Captain America: The First Avenger, there seems to be a slew of super hero movies this Summer. So far, the results have been mixed, but here we have one from DC (as opposed to the ones listed, they are all based on Marvel comics.)

Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot who is given the powers of the Green Lantern, a group of heroes from thousands of planets (or sectors) formed by The Guardians Of The Universe using an 'Emotional Spectrum of Willpower'. Each member assumes great power, mainly the power to will anything in their imagination into being.

Meanwhile Parallax, 'the ultimate being of fear' (voiced by Clancy Brown) has returned from an exile in a far off sector, and killed Hal's predecessor Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) in the process, but not before Abin Sur sends his Green Lantern ring off to find a worthy replacement for him.

At the same time some of Parallax' DNA has wound up in Abin Surs corpse, so when scientist Hector Hammond comes to examine the body, he becomes infected with it, giving him telepathic and telekinetic powers.

As you may be able to tell, the plots a bit jumbled (I hate having to write origin stories for this kind of film, they can be utter gibberish sometimes.) And sadly, that reflects on screen too.

It's good fun when it's on. Reynolds is his usual charming and witty self as Hal Jordan. He truly makes the film interesting, and without him it would have been a lot less entertaining. Peter Sarsgaard is quite creepy and almost unrecognizable at first as Hector Hammond (and he gets really unrecognizable later), but there's quite a few superfluous characters such as Tim Robbin's dodgy senator Robert Hammond (father of Hector), and Hal's on again-off again love interest Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) who by no means drag the film down, but don't really add much to it. The love story almost feels like the film makers thought "Well, we better have one"...

But other than that, it's all entertaining enough. The action sequences are great, exactly what you'd expect from director Martin Campbell, the man who has twice now reinvigorated James Bond (In Goldeneye and Casino Royale), and the dialogue is snappy and witty and there is a great (if predictable) setup for a sequel after the first lot of credits, but once you've seen it, you've seen it. I have no real desire to go and watch it again, or pick it up on Blu Ray in a few months, but did enjoy it while it was on.

It's not an essential comic book film by any means, but it's a fun way to spend a couple of hours if you can get past the messy plot, you'll probably get something out of it.

***
A decent, if pretty forgettable super hero movie. Entertaining for it's duration, but don't go looking for a First Class movie, in both respects.

Clarence Clemons: RIP Big Man

Like many people, the first time I heard Clarence Clemons play saxophone was on Springsteen's breakthrough 'Born To Run' album, albeit with my first listen being many years after its release. In my opinion, no other set of songs established what an integral part he was of The E Street Band. And Bruce Springsteen knew it too, including him on the now famous cover, and immortalizing him in song on 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out'.

Clemons was everywhere on that album from the soaring opening to 'Thunder Road', through the title track and the aforementioned 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out' and most notably the epic sax solo in 'Jungleland'.

Of course Clemons had a huge input on other classic Springsteen records like 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' (who can forget 'Badlands?'), 'The River' ('Ties That Bind' being an immediate go to point for Clemons) and 'Born In The U.S.A.' (the fantastic 'Bobby Jean'), not to mention 'The Rising', 'Magic' and 'Working On A Dream'.

In June 2009 I was lucky enough to see The E Street Band live at Hyde Park in London. No one else I knew was that much of a Springsteen nut to pay the extortionate amount I had for tickets on eBay (they had sold out weeks prior), but it was a show I couldn't miss, and it turned out to be the best gig I have ever attended, and Clarence Clemons  had a lot to do with that.

The Band played 'Badland' as their second song, and the eruption from the crowd for Clemons solo was something I'll never forget. Likewise, the absolute silence that descended on Hyde Park during 'Jungleland' was something I've never experienced before, and doubt I ever will again.

Moments like that are just like Clarence Clemons. One of a kind. RIP Big Man.

Film Review: Jonah Hex

Recently, I've made it my mission to trawl through as many films that have come out in the last few years to see if they are as bad as all reviews seem to make out. So far, I've had to agree with them, but I live in hope that I find something I really dig. Jonah Hex is not that film.

Quite how this film can go wrong is astounding. The cast includes Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, Michael Shannon, Will Arnett, Wes Bentley and Lance Reddick, it's written by Crank directors Neveldine/Taylor, no stranger to massive action, and hell Mastodon supply the soundtrack!

The plot, such as it is, concerns Jonah Hex (Brolin), a scarred bounty hunter in the Wild West asked by the President to stop terrorists (led by Quentin Turnbull, John Malkovich) from unleashing a weapon of mass destruction (turns out they existed back then, too.) Shoehorned into all this is sassy hooker Lilah (Megan Fox, pouting a lot.)

And you'd think Megan Fox would be one of the problems in the film, but she's not required to do that much, no the problem lies squarely with the plot. It's all over the place. And I mean, there were points where I had no clue what was going on it was such a jumble.

The film, not including opening and closing credits is an hour and ten minutes. No joke, and it really shows. The whole story is rushed through so quickly that you will be left dizzy. Whose decision it was for this film to have such a short running time it was, I don't know.

The first ten minutes are decent enough too, that's why it's annoying. The film had potential, just a look at the cast shows you that, but then it goes full throttle, not slowing down for anything. Sometimes a good thing in a film, but when it doesn't even slow down for plot, you know you're in trouble.

Most of the starry cast (with the obvious exception of Brolin) are severely underused. Boardwalk Empire's Michael Shannon a prime example. I didn't even notice he was in the film until the final credits rolled. Lance Reddick (who viewers of The Wire, Fringe and Lost will know well) has 1 scene and his character is done with, save for a few cut backs near the end, and after his two scenes near the start, I actually forgot Will Arnett was in the film! So many great actors wasted.

And what must have these actors have been thinking? The only explanation I can think of is that they thought they were getting the start and end of the script, and the massive chunk in the middle would be ready soon. And this film desperately needed a chunk in the middle just so it could slow things down and get some pace going. Even 'extending' the film to 90 minutes would have helped!

And even with the films hurtling running time, we still get treated to the events that started the film about 3 times! Quentin Turnbull was responsible for burning Jonah Hex's face and the death of his family, we get it. Obviously not, as that point is rammed home at the films climax, in case we had forgotten.

It doesn't help that this is director Jimmy Hayward's first live action feature. A former Pixar animator, he then directed Horton Hears A Who. And the transition from animation to live action was not very smooth either. It's pretty much a disaster.

But it's not an unmitigated disaster. There is the odd plus point. As I said, the first ten minutes showed real promise, there are some cool weapons on display, and Mastodon provided a good soundtrack but it's not enough really. This is just a huge failure, when it really shouldn't have been.

*
A film that should have been watchable, given to a director who had never helmed a live action film before, and then having it's entire plot crammed into just over an hour. A giant waste of talent and time.

Film Review: Buried

A film that took me a while to watch, Buried seemed to polarize opinion with everyone I knew that watched it. They either loved it or hated it. Usually for the same reasons - it was just one guy, it was all set in the same place...but now I've finally watched it I seem to be the only person I know who sort of sits in the middle.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Paul Conroy, a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq, transporting supplies. His convoy is attacked by a group of Iraqis and he wakes up to find himself in a coffin, buried alive.

That's pretty much the premise, without revealing too much that happens along the way. While the plot is straight forward there are many entertaining twists and turns along the way to keep it just being a guy in a box for 90 minutes. There's a lot going on.

Reynolds is great as Conroy and really puts you in his shoes, switching between blind panic and reasoning as the film goes on. It must have been quite the ordeal to get through a shoot in those circumstances, which is a good a time as any to bring up this safety warning - if you are in any way claustrophobic, I'd give Buried a miss, it just gets worse and worse as it goes on.

Reynolds is the only character in the film you see, but there's a few guest stars making 'voice' appearances such as Samantha Mathis and Stephen Tobolowsky (whose voice I actually recognised, sadly enough!) as Conroy's wife and a figure from his company respectively.

But for all it's good points, it's hardly the jaw dropping phenomenon people would have you believe. There are limitations the film sets itself with it's premise. You can only go so far with it. And it's all entertaining enough, but I wasn't left astounded. And it's not the most original of ideas either, this kind of thing has been done before (albeit not to the scale of having it just be a one actor scenario - I may be wrong there, let me know.)

Buried was one of those films, I enjoyed while it was on, but didn't see what all the fuss was about (A bit like The Hangover in a way), but at the same time didn't think it deserved the bile spat at it from some people. Well worth checking out to see what side of the fence you sit on, or like me, if you sit on top of it.

***
An OK film, not deserving of the praise or the slatings it received when it was released. Reynolds is great, there's some entertaining plot developments but once it's done...it's done.

Film Review: Repossessed

Whilst recently reviewing 'The Last Exorcism', I drew a complete blank as to other exorcism films that weren't  'The Exorcist'. A quick trip to Wikipedia reminded me that somewhere in the middle of the Naked Gun series of films, Leslie Nielsen had done an exorcism spoof movie called Repossessed.

Seeing as it was made in 1990, long before the spoof movie bubble burst with turgid garbage like the Scary Movie films, then defecated upon with the likes of Superhero Movie and Epic Movie (sorts of films that lost any sense of parody, instead just having people dress up as characters from other films and do 'wacky' stuff, they even parodied comedy films, surely self-defeating), I thought it would be relatively 'safe' to try out Repossessed. Boy, was I wrong.

Warning signs should have come in the form of writer/director Bob Logan, whose dubious CV mainly includes  Meatballs 4, and cartoon versions of Dennis (not that one) and Ghost Busters (not those ones either). This is just as bad as that all sounds.

For what it's worth the plot of Repossessed concerns Nancy Aglet (Linda Blair, who was of course the child star of The Exorcist, and must have had a nice chunk of change thrown at her to do this), who after being possessed by Satan as a child, becomes repossessed after Satan comes out of her TV. Upon getting wind of this, sleazy TV evangelist Ernest Weller (Ned Beatty) and his wife Fanny Ray (Lana Schwab) decide it will be a great idea to perform a televised exorcism. Young priest Luke Brophy (Anthony Starke) must persuade the priest who performed Nancy's first exorcism, Father Jebediah Mayii (Leslie Nielsen) to come out of retirement to save her soul once more...

Apart from the mannerisms and the scant funny lines that Leslie Nielsen has, this film is total garbage. Most of the jokes don't hit the mark at all (and a good chunk of them are instantly dated, Sean Penn punching reporters, Pee Wee Herman, etc.), and the rest make little sense (I know these sorts of films are supposed to be random, but why are two wrestling commentators announcing an exorcism all of a sudden?) it's just a horrific mess that can't even keep continuity going, at one point bringing back a characters pet that had been killed about 30 minutes earlier!

And not forgetting the fact that The Exorcist came out in 1973. Did the world really need a spoof of a (at the time) 17 year old movie? The answer was no, Repossessed didn't even get a nationwide release and only raked in a little over a million dollars, and pretty much vanished without a trace. And deservedly so.

Marketed like a Naked Gun film at times (several posters are exact replicas of the original Naked Gun poster, except with Nielsen holding and standing on a crucifix instead of a gun and a bullet), this is nowhere in those films league and even makes tat like Spy Hard seem like comedy masterpieces. A film totally unworthy of Nielsen's talents.

*
Dreadful stuff. Not the fault of Leslie Nielsen, he tries his best but has barely anything resembling comedy to work with. You probably would get more laughs out of the film it was spoofing. Avoid!

Film Review: The A-Team

I grew up watching The A-Team, that's something I should get out of the way first. Every Saturday afternoon (or early evening, it's been a while) we'd sit and watch the crazy adventures of Hannibal, Faceman, Murdoch and B.A. It had the same tried and tested formula. Someone was in trouble, so they called the A-Team. Hannibal came up with the plan, Face tried to get out of any fights, whilst trying to get in the pants of whatever female character was in the show that week, B.A. beat people up and welded, whilst Murdoch acted a prat all episode. This happened every week and the show was brilliant for it.

It seems like from when the show ended there was talk of a movie. In the mid-nineties producer Stephen J. Cannell wanted to use the Gulf War as a backdrop for the film, but it bounced around in development hell for years. At one point John Singleton (Boyz N The Hood) was attached to direct, but he dropped out in 2008 and in the end it ended up on the lap of Joe Carnahan, who had recently proved himself in the field of madcap action with Smokin' Aces.

But all this trouble the film had getting off the ground proves one thing. It should have been left alone. Without a doubt The A-Team is a product of its time. It was truly an 80s show and any attempt to put it in a contemporary setting would surely be pointless. Correct there.

In the movie version of The A-Team we still have the main team of Hannibal (Liam Neeson), Face (Bradley Cooper), Murdoch (Sharlto Copley) and B.A. (former UFC champion Quinton Jackson) and we get to see the crime they did not commit, and how they bust out of military prisons to get payback. The A-Team: Origins if you will.

Only this resembles the A-Team in name only. Copley is probably the most accurate as Murdoch, whilst not touching how nuts the original was. Liam Neeson is OK as Murdoch, Face is portrayed as some sort of huge action hero, when the original is a bit gutless to boot, and B.A.? Couldn't be further removed. This is not The A-Team. There's too much swearing, it takes itself way too seriously at times, and most importantly - people die!

The only thing that is reminiscent of the show is that the action scenes are incredibly stupid, albeit on a bigger scale than turning a car into a tank (try a tank on a parachute). And there is a nice set up for a sequel at the end, with a special guest cameo.

Even without comparing the film to the show, it's still a below average action film, and is left standing by stuff like The Losers (another ensemble action movie that came out in 2010 as well). Apart from the A-Team themselves, the supporting cast are pretty dreadful. A cardboard cut-out would have done a better job than Patrick Wilson as Lynch, and the less said about Jessica Biel the better. The only decent appearances were cameos from Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz. Mr. T must have read the script, I'm assuming.

It just goes to prove it. It happened with the Knight Rider reboot show, and it's happened here. These shows were special. They had a charm and quality that can never be duplicated, but I'm sure we will have not heard the last of idea-deprived film and TV studios trying.

*1/2
A bit of madcap action aside, this is both a pretty dull action film, and a worthless attempt to try and reboot something that should be well alone. Pity the fools.

Film Review: Frozen

Sometimes the simplest ideas for films are the best. And sometimes, it's just downright strange when a film comes along with such a simple plot, you can't believe it hasn't been done before. Or at the very least, you haven't seen it. Frozen covers all these bases.

From the director of the Hatchet films (the first one being one of my favourite horror films in years), Adam Green, Frozen tells the story of three friends Parker (Emma Bell), her boyfriend Dan (Kevin Zegers) and their friend Joe (Shawn Ashmore) who, whilst at a ski resort fall a bit low on funds and bribe the ski lift operator to take them up one last time. Once up there, confusion abounds on the ground leaving the skiers abandoned extremely high up with not much chance of rescue for five days.

While it's certainly a horrific situation, Frozen is by no means a horror. It's all very real, and the none of the situations and twists that happen throughout are beyond the realms of possibility. This is definitely more of a thriller if you had to give it a genre.

Obviously, a large chunk of the film is just the three characters on the chair lift. And a surprising amount of tension comes from that situation as they decide what the best thing to do is. Invariably, it's the exact opposite though.

I don't think it's much of a problem with the film because it just changed how I felt about bad things happening to them, but I found all 3 of the main characters totally unlikable. A bigger collection of arrogant, idiotic pricks I have rarely seen assembled on the big screen. Even later 'humanising' weepy scenes on the chairlift later in the film failed to make me emphasize with them. I enjoyed to see them in this situation, and I don't think that's how the characters were meant to be written.

But it is written incredibly well. Situations you know for a fact will happen from the moment you hear the films premise (Someone deciding to jump for help, getting flesh stuck on metal) are still done in a brilliantly tense manner and things you hadn't thought of happening (wolves!) are just as good.

Frozen is a great little film, and it's good to see Adam Green can pull off films like this as expertly as he can slasher fare like Hatchet. Highly recommended.

****
A startlingly simple idea, with plenty of nerve shredding tension throughout. Apart from the annoying cast, this is great stuff.

Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence Banned In UK! Plus Trailer

The much anticipated (by me) sequel to The Human Centipede (First Sequence) has been denied an 18 certificate in this country, effectively banning it. And they are also considering action under the 'Obscene Publications Act'. This is what they had to say about their decision...

"There is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience. It poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers"


But why bother? I don't know about you, but I'd give my left nut to go see that now! It sounds awesome! When they ban or cut films like this, it just makes the viewer look for it in other ways. And in the age of the internet, that will not take long.

Take A Serbian Film. Cut by over four minutes in this country, it made the BBC News website. I went straight out and 'found' the uncut version. Banning or cutting does no one any favours. If people want to see it they will.

Anyway, check out the teaser trailer...

Film Review: The Informers

Bret Easton Ellis books are never the happiest places to take yourself in the world, and even if the results have been decidedly hit and miss, The Informers is no exception. Sadly it also falls directly into the 'miss' category.

This time round Easton Ellis himself, along with Nicholas Jarecki tackled the screenplay themselves with the latter set to direct, but the producers had a change of mind, and Gregor Jordon (Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly) was drafted in to take the directors chair, and also change the entire tone of the film and that move really shows throughout.

Based on Easton Ellis' collection of short that stories that he wrote before he hit the big time with Less Than Zero, The Informers is about the usual Ellis mix of wealthy, alienated characters and their stories and how they all cross over. These include rock stars, movie executives, disillusioned young people... this is pretty much how the book was, and for the most part this remains, although the part of the book that has vampires in it has been cut out of the final version of the film.

I try not to judge a film on how faithful an adaptation it has been, though. This is a film review not an adaptation review. And it's not like Easton Ellis reviews that are nothing like the book (Less Than Zero) are all terrible, I actually didn't mind that film.

The main problem with The Informers though is unforgivable considering the source material. It's dull. Dull, dull, dull. Whilst the book was blatantly a stop gap between novels, it still deserves much better treatment than this. Without Easton Ellis, this film lacks wit, charm or any likable characters at all (I know that can be said about the book, but there was something about his characters that didn't make them totally unlikable.)

The whole thing just drags on and on, just totally lost in translation. Which is a shame for a couple of reasons.

The cast is superb, a fantastic ensemble has been assembled. Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton, Brad Renfro (in what was to be his final film), Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Rhys Ifans, Chris Issak and Amber Heard (who spends half of her screen time topless!) amongst others. But even they can't draw much interest (and were apparently as dismayed as the writers with what happened to the film.)

This could have been fantastic if Easton Ellis and Jarecki were just left alone to do the film their way. I know we got a great version of American Psycho, and a pretty faithful adaptation of The Rules Of Attraction but it seems like a missed opportunity.

I'd love to see Ellis do one of his own books himself. Glamorama would probably be too much for studios, and Lunar Park would be good, but was such a good book I'd hate it if there was even the slightest chance of it being ruined.

The Informers is worth a watch for Ellis fans to see what went wrong, and to be honest even when he and Jarecki had the helm, I don't think it was such a good idea. I mean, short stories that have a few recurring characters in flesh out into an entire film. Not great. If you're not a fan, don't bother.

*1/2
Great cast aside, this is an utter mess. You can see a few traces of Ellis in it, but the rest is just boring drivel.

Film Review: The Last Exorcism

When it comes to exorcism movies, there's really only ever been one. That being The Exorcist of course. Sure, it may seem totally dated and at times even amusing these days in an age of 'torture porn' and many other gruesome spectacles, but in it's the day it was the scariest film ever made, I even remember hearing about how it drove one audience member at an early screening in London to take a dive off a bridge. Whether that's fact or just an urban legend, it's still adds to the films status.

It took a search on Wikipedia to find other exorcism films, my mind was so blank to them. You have 'The Exorcism Of Emily Rose', which I have yet to see, the various sequels to The Exorcist, and a few others dotted around (including Repossessed with Leslie Nielsen, a spoof of The Exorcist that starred Linda Blair!)

But that leads us to The Last Exorcism, another try at taking a different look at exorcism, and for a sizable chunk of the film it works, and works well.

It's filmed as a documentary that follows preacher Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), who was brought up as a preacher even as a child, and even though he has his doubts about religion after the troubled birth of his son, he still does it. He's good at it, that and performing exorcisms. Cotton sees most demonic possessions as things that can be explained away, usually by putting any strange behaviour down to psychological reasons.

To prove this he allows a film crew to join him as he travels to the farm of Louis Sweetzer (Louis Herthum) who believes his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell) is possessed. After performing his regular 'fake' exorcism, Cotton returns to his hotel on the way back home, but later that night finds Nell sitting in his room, with zero explanation as to how she got there.

Whilst 'mockumentarys' are not the most original idea in horror (or movies of any genre) these days, The Last Exorcism is mostly executed very well, with a wonderfully slow build up to some genuinely disturbing moments throughout the films 87 minute running time. The cast were pretty much unknown to me (although the son of Sweetzer (Caleb Landry Jones, did show up in X-Men: First Class as Banshee) which always helps when you are trying to watch it like it's real, big stars always take you out of it.

Although I did have an issue with music being used. It's supposed to be a serious documentary, wouldn't have suspenseful 'horror movie' music used throughout cheapen the subject matter? A minor quibble.

What wasn't a minor quibble, however was the ending of the film. And I mean the VERY ending, literally the last two minutes, which made precious little sense and was totally at odds with the tone and pace of the rest of the film. I spent most of the film hoping it wouldn't get silly, as these things can be prone to do, but this went far beyond mere silliness, it just was preposterous and really took what was a very good film down a peg or two.

***
If you stop watching where they stop in at the gas station near the end you have a atmospheric, tense and creepy exorcism movie. But if you carry on, things get ludicrous and you have another film to chuck on the pile of average and forgettable exorcism movies.  A massive shame.

Film Review: X-Men: First Class

It's not been the smoothest of journeys, the X-Men franchise. Things started well, with Bryan Singers top notch double to open the series, and the way the second was left open for a third, things were looking very rosy indeed. Then Singer wanted to go over to Warner and do Superman Returns, Fox didn't want to wait for him to finish, so we ended up with X-Men: The Last Stand, helmed by everyones least favourite hack, Brett Ratner.

To say The Last Stand was a disaster was an understatement. The film came out in 2006, and to this day I still cannot get my head around how it was fumbled so badly. I understand Ratner is a director who has very defined limitations (a nice way of saying stick to Rush Hour films) but everything was set up so perfectly at the end of X2...as you can tell it's still a sore spot with me.

2009 saw the arrival of the first spin off movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was middling to say the least, the highlight of which was probably Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, but it hardly set the world on fire. If that point needed proving, it's already getting an overhaul in the form of next years 'The Wolverine'.

When the original Wolverine film was announced, there was also talk of a 'Origins' film happening for Magneto, and pretty much that's how we have landed at X-Men: First Class.

XM:FC predominantly focuses on Magneto, then Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) and Professor X, the Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and how their paths cross back in 1962. Recruited by the CIA to head up a team of mutants, Xavier first meets Lehnsherr whilst the latter is attempting to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), an extremely powerful mutant himself who worked for the Nazis when Lehnsherr was a child.

Lehnsherrs plans go awry, but he ends up joining Xaviers team, and they go about recruiting mutants to form the original 'X-Men', but meanwhile Shaw is attempting to instigate a war between Russia and America by moving missiles to Cuba (which, of course is what later is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis), and it's up to the 'First Class' of X-Men to stop him.

Just taking a glance at the credits for First Class should cause a huge sigh of relief. Bryan Singer returns, this time producing and coming up with some of the story. Thor writers Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz are onboard as scribes as well as Kick-Ass writers Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughan, with Vaughan directing.

The difference between this and the ill-advised sequels and spin-offs is immediate. Similar in many ways to the first X-Men film in how it sets up everything nicely but keeps it all exciting, smart and funny and leaves you hoping for more (and apparently there will be, it's the first in a proposed trilogy) it is everything The Last Stand isn't.

The cast are great too, McAvoy does seem a million miles away from the Patrick Stewart Xavier will all know, but he's engaging and quite amusing throughout, whereas Fassbenders tortured Lehnsherr really gets behind what makes him end up as Magneto in his Ian McKellen incarnation.

The rest of the cast do have to jostle a bit for screen time, but generally impress, although some of the characters are slightly superfluous, almost there to even the numbers for the films climax it seemed. Kevin Bacon is a great bad guy, and the feel of the 60's is hammered home with the casting of January Jones (best known for her work on another 60s set piece, Mad Men) as Emma Frost, the prostitute (only implied) telepath. And there's even a nice little cameo (not Stan Lee this time), that comes very close to stealing the entire movie.

The action sequences are routinely superb. After sitting through Pirates Of The Carribean recently, where most of the action sequences were watchable, but not outstanding, I was starting to worry about films containing truly great action moments, but this delivers in spades. Quite violent also for a 12 certificate, not one for kids to see with parental supervision for sure.

And what a nice change that it wasn't in 3D. It seems to be the norm lately, but with this and the forthcoming Cowboys Vs. Aliens, hopefully it won't be too much of a fixture on the big screen.

So, after 8 years we finally get another great X-Men film. Not sure if this will mean a 3rd sequel in the original X-Men series, but as long as Bryan Singer is supervising I feel the franchise is in great shape whichever way they go next.

****
What a relief. After 5 years of shoddy sequels and spin-offs we finally get another 'X' film worth caring about. Funny, thrilling, dramatic with great performances and fantastic action set pieces. Yeah, the cast is a little crowded at times, but that doesn't really detract at all. Bring on Second Class!