Trance

SF: I'm going to name this Eternal Sunshine of the Gambit Inception. The opening did peak my interest - art heist film - but after a while it becomes too obvious what is happening and where it's going. This has no new ideas and throws in some ludicrous ones. All this achieved was rehashing concepts from superior films. The result is a boring thriller that has little to no emotion or originality. In facts some points are totally unwelcome (I've seen too much of Rosario Dawson). I can see how others might enjoy this but it really wasn't for me. 4/10

50Eggs: I find it difficult to score this. Clearly I'm not as clever as SF or DonkeyB because I didn't see the twists coming and, to be honest, I couldn't keep up with the plot. But I rather think that is a weakness of my brain rather than the film. That said there were a fair few scenes, particularly in the first half hour, that were very entertaining, and there was never any danger of me nodding off. Still, I'm going to have to plum for the score in the middle. 5/10

DonkeyB: It's a piece of nonsense. I'm 90% sure hypnosis is a cabaret act, and if it isn't it certainly can't work like that. You can't light petrol on fire by firing a gun at it either. However, as an elongated twilight zone episode which reminded me at times of limitless and was trying to be a bit inception I thought it was an ok entertainment. It is very predicable in its plot twist / revelations and making a plot point out of female pubic hair grooming is a touch gross. Vincent Cassell is always great watching and I didn't hate Rosario Dawson as much as I usually do, but all things considered I can't really give it a very strong endorsement. 6/10

Overall: 5/10

Project Jen- Friends with Money

There are many many reasons I should love this film, Joan Cusack, Frances McDormand, Jason Isaacs, Simon McBurney. All actors I really like watching.

I have tried to watch this twice before and both times given up around 20 minutes in - I'm reviewing as I go this time as an incentive to get through, so lets see what happens.

20 minutes in and I already want to turn it off. It's a conversation about having a gay child, it's awful.

I don't identify with any of the characters, they're not believable, they're not interesting and everything about the film is unpleasant.

Jennifer wears a French maid outfit.

The good news is that the first 20 minutes are the worst and there are only 60 minutes afterwards.

It is still no good at all and utterly pointless. Don't watch it.


RATING: 1 Green Dress

Oz: The Great and Powerful

SF: A prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I fully expected to hate this but thankfully I didn't. The intro is one of the few that looks good in 3D and overall the film isn't bad. However it is not that great either, just alright. The effects are hit and miss, in that most of it looks great but there was loads that looked a bit unfinished. Maybe that was intentional. It deserves credit for keeping in line with the classic film and the cast do a fair job too. Good for a Sunday afternoon but a tad long for kids 6.5/10

50 Eggs: I liked this! It's an enjoyable adventure film, equal parts colorful, scary and funny. It's not a complex film but it's not as lightweight as most Disney, and it also contains enough odes to the original to make it feel like a genuine prequel, rather than a spin off. The pace does dip a little in the middle, but the finale is rousing and it's hard not to root
 for the good guys. Zach Braff makes a great monkey too. 8/10

DonkeyB: It felt very long to me. We saw a 3D screening and while as SF correctly points out the intro (another pop-up book style- layers of flat planes application) looks great [see also Beauty and the Beast], 3D presents a very serious problem for a film which is attempting to reproduce the almost psychadelic technicolor of the original film. Several times I removed the glasses and the screen was gloriously bright and vibrant, then I put my glasses back on and it was dull and had a slighlty green cast (no pun intended). I'm not sure why Mila Kunis had to wear leather effect leggings and rip off her bodice (to reveal another piece of ultra supportive female undergarment, its a family film), other than the fact that they had cast her. It lacked the magic of the original which I has the pleasure of watching on Friday afternoon, on a rare day off. As I commented to SF if you sat down with mummy on a Sunday afternoon to watch this Wizard of Oz, it would be bedtime by the time it finished. 5/10

Overall: 6.5/10