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Showing posts from November 24, 2013

Review: Robot and Frank

Set in the near-future, Frank Langella plays an aging former cat burglar, who isn’t quite ‘former’ yet. He lives on his own, seems to be heading towards dementia and refuses to admit that he can no longer properly look after himself. His long-suffering, family man son (James Marsden) buys Frank a new robot helper to do the various household tasks, allowing Frank the chance to relax a bit. This robot, voiced by Peter Sarsgaard is initially met coldly by the curmudgeonly Frank, but it’s not long before Frank (who has already served two prison terms, once for tax evasion) has enlisted the robot’s help in planning a new jewel heist. The robot hasn’t been programmed for law and order, so it can’t really turn Frank in, merely try to encourage him towards other, less dangerous pursuits. Meanwhile, Frank starts a relationship with a local librarian (Susan Sarandon), whose store is set to be modernised thanks to rich yuppie Jeremy Strong, a techno tycoon and neighbour who eyes Frank and the

Review: El Gringo

Scott Adkins stars as an extremely thirsty man-with-no-name who arrives in a shitty Mexican border town with a bag full of American money well over a million bucks. Whilst all manner of seedy townsfolk (gangsters, corrupt lawmen, street thieves etc.) try to alleviate him from the pressure of having to carry that bag, we get to find out slowly how he got to be in possession of the money in the first place. He might be staying thirsty for a while, though, it seems. Christian Slater plays a DEA guy investigating the deaths of several agents, and chasing Adkins, whom he has an apparent history with. Erando Gonzalez plays the corrupt sheriff. Yvette Yates plays a sexy bar owner who refuses to give Adkins a glass of water, but eventually allows him to sleep upstairs while he waits for the next bus out of town. Something tells me he might be staying in town for a while though, too.   I’ve always been convinced that Scott Adkins could and should be the biggest action star going aroun

Review: Death Race: Inferno

Dougray Scott plays a nasty billionaire who has taken over the Weyland Corporation and its ‘Death Race’ concept, which he hopes to expand to various parts of the globe. The latest race is to be held in the Kalahari desert, with Carl Lucas (Luke Goss) once again coerced into competing, at the threat of his friends (mechanic Danny Trejo, navigator and main squeeze Tanit Phoenix, and baby-faced tech-head Fred Koehler) being killed. The new competitors include the aptly (if lazily) named Psycho (Jeremy Crutchley), returning driver 14K (Robin Shou), and Olga Braun (Michelle Van Schaik). Ving Rhames reprises his role as Weyland, who having been displaced by Scott, has a somewhat shift in allegiance this time around.   The original “Death Race 2000” was an hilariously nasty Roger Corman-produced cinematic precursor to “Carmageddon” and other computer games of that nature. The more recent remake “Death Race” and its sequels/prequels have been lesser films, but each has their merits,

Review: The Campaign

Will Ferrell stars as swaggering idiot Democrat congressman Cam Brady, who has stood unopposed for years, until a public embarrassment leads to a drop in the polls and the two Conservative powerbrokers backing Brady, The Koch...er...Motch brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow) decide to put their support behind a new candidate in the upcoming North Carolina elections instead. Their choice? Naive, somewhat thick-headed black sheep Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), a Christian who wears knitted jumpers, comes from a rich family, has a couple of cute pugs, and is generally an embarrassment to his father (Brian Cox) and douchebag brother (Josh Lawson, of all people). Needless to say, ruthless campaign manager Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott) has a lot of work to do with dorky, soft-hearted Marty. He even replaces the pugs with ‘American dogs’. Wait, which one’s the Democrat again? Anyway, let the mud-slinging begin, as for the first time ever, Brady has a fight on his hands and he doesn