Been on holiday on the States for the past fortnight but still managed to get a few films in due to long flights and a cinema trip:
Oz: The Great and Powerful - not a bad visual representation of Baum's world, if a little too Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland at times. It's definitely too long and Mila Kunis is spectacularly miscast but it's charming enough and Raimi's passion and enthusiasm really shines through
A Good Day to Die Hard - aka A Good Day to Die Bored. A really soulless and cynical franchise entry. You can see the attempt at recreating the McClane-as-the-everyman-caught-in-a-bad-situation appeal of the original film with the constant uttering of his "I'm on vacation!" catchphrase (despite the fact that the very reason for the Russian trip was to bail out his son!) and Willis' delivery of the contractually-obliged "Yipppie kay-ai" line is embarrassing and weary. The film makes little sense, McClane is practically superhuman (and resistant to radiation to boot!) even the action set pieces are boring and uninspired and the constant crash zooming is headache-inducing and dated. It's terrible as a bog-standard actioner and even worse as a Die Hard movie. I hope John Moore never directs again
Man of Steel - starts off promising but descends into a noisy and boring SMASH SMASH over-long climax. I spent a great deal of Superman Returns hoping Superman would hit something and face a formidable physical threat, something which is overplayed here to the point of tedium. The problem with Superman Returns was that it was too indebted and reverential to the previous films, conversely the problem with Man of Steel is that it almost seems to be embarrassed by the mythology as it tries desperately to invent its own while only ever referring to 'Superman' in a winky, almost-apologetic way. I still maintain a good sequel can be made though.
Cop Out - In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that the version I watched was a tv edit, nincompoops, mother lovers and all but I doubt that the added cursing would make the plot any more engaging or the jokes any funnier. It was an absolutely woeful experience, Bruce Willis looked almost as bored as I was and Kevin Smith's assertion that "writing a nasty review for Cop Out is akin to bullying a retarded kid. All you've done is make fun of something that wasn't doing you any harm and wanted only to give some cats some fun laughs" is completely off the mark.
Trance - really good thriller by Danny Boyle. Excellently shot with some great twists and turns which and almost plays like an exploitation movie at times. A shame it didn't do better at the box office as I'd love to see Boyle tackle more films like this.
Side Effects - Excellent film. Starts off as expected but turns into an almost Hitchcockian thriller with shades of exploitation and made-for-tv movies (in a good way). I can't remember the last time a film took me by surprise in this way and kept me as engaged and enthralled throughout the entire duration. Highly recommended.
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