Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows – Which was just what I wanted and expected in terms of all action and very little plot. I really don’t know why they bother with the girl characters, because for the most part their role could have been fulfilled equally well by a pet. But whatever.
The Artist – Oh, I liked this muchly! Surprising how much dialogue isn’t needed, and also surprising how much more physical and yet subtle the acting has to be to work instead. Ok, it slowed down a bit during Valentin’s gradual decline to poverty and obscurity, but at least he still had the dog.
The Woman in Black – Which was not helped by a ghastly audience of teens who ate, drank, chatted and texted their way through the film, while the unwholesome pair next to me added repeated, audible sniffing to their repertoire. FFS. Still, I don’t think the film could have been saved and I’m sorry for Hammer’s attempts to relaunch if the best they can do is a checklist approach to spooky films. It’s all the more a shame because while the book on which it’s based was ominous, scary, tense, creepy, unsettling and horrible, the film achieves none of this and then further buggers things up by adding its own crap ending. As for Daniel Radcliffe, I really hope he turns into a better actor but at the moment he cannot carry the weight of most of a film on his own.
Vicky Christina Barcelona – Meh. Except for Javier Bardem, with whom I’d have nipped off for the weekend in a heartbeat.
The Hunger Games – What I find with the movie of the book is that, whereas the book may rattle along at a fair old pace, the film drags. And so it was with this, which took ages to get going. It was a perfectly good and faithful film adaptation, slightly watered down because no heroine is going to be as unpleasant as Katniss and be sympathetic in film. Ideal for fans of the book but I won’t need to see the rest of the trilogy.
The Avengers Assemble – While I am a sucker for a good action movie, I’m not all that fussed about superheroes. But since this one has Robert Downey, Jr (swoon) playing Tony Stark/Iron Man and is directed by Joss Whedon, it was a no brainer. So off I went, and thoroughly enjoyed it: good script, decent plot, nice ensemble cast, the right amount of laughs and action a-plenty. Tick, tick, tick went the boxes, and future Avengers outings are well set up. In the meantime, I’ve added Captain America and Thor to my Lovefilm list.
