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What's new on the big screen |
| Pineapple Express |
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You have to wonder whether Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg were high on some powerful grass when they came up with the idea for Pineapple Express — stoner action flick that despite being a complete mess still manages to be absolutely hilarious.
Dale (Rogen) is a slacker who, while tugging away on a joint one night, witnesses a murder. He gets away from the bad guys but leaves behind his rare wacky tobacky, the titular Pineapple Express, which can be traced back to dazed and confused dealer Saul (Franco).
With a couple of henchman closing in on them, Dale and Saul go on the run and encounter a host of freaky people including cat-loving middleman Red (Danny McBride) and a ruthless bent cop (Rosie Perez).
Like a pothead struggling to remain focused, David Gordon Green's film veers from a Clerks-like comedy, with blokes talking utter bollocks, car chases, shoot- outs and big explosions. Somehow tying everything together are two leading men who both put in memorable performances.
Rogen continues his sterling work as a lovable buffoon but is, surprisingly enough, upstaged by Franco. Having scowled his way through three Spider-Man movies over the past few years, he loosens up in this film to hilarious effect and breathes life into what is destined to become a cult character.
True, the laughs pretty much dry up towards the end as the action-packed climax is dragged out for too long. By then, though, Pineapple Express will have put you in a very good mood.
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| The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas |
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The son of a Nazi concentration camp commandant strikes up a friendship with a Jewish boy in Mark Herman's deeply moving Holocaust drama. Beautifully acted with an ending that's utterly devastating.
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| Heavy Metal in Baghdad |
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Eddie Moretti and Suroosh Alvi explore Baghdad's heavy metal rock scene in a documentary that offers an intriguing new angle on the conflict in Iraq. Despite occasionally losing focus, this is fascinating stuff.
PIERRE DE VILLIERS |
| The Feelers |
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As their name would suggest, The Feelers sound like a band wholly in touch with their emotions. They sing songs with names like Communicate, Venus and On A High, and ply an inoffensive, commerically viable folk-rock sound aimed directly at the gut. This is Snag — Sensitive New Age Man — rock. Indeed, they make Reef sound like mono-browed, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals in comparison. In town as part of their Best Of 1998-2008 tour, the mega-selling Kiwi stalwarts will also be headlining TNT's Month Of Music this week.
» Shepherd's Bush Walkabout, Shepherd's Bush Green, W11. Call 020-8740 4339 for September 9 (£15). See www.tntmagazine.com/monthofmusic for September 11 (£15).
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| RocknRolla |
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Guy Ritchie is desperate to remind people he's more than just Mr Madonna. To resurrect his flagging career the director goes to his default setting with RocknRolla, a bloated gangster flick that covers all-too-familiar ground. Returning to a geezers-with-guns world where likeable rogues have names like Handsome Bob and thugs beat people up with golf clubs, Ritchie has come up with a twisted storyline that has just about everyone screwing over the person next to them.
After being swindled by crime boss Lenny Cole (Wilkinson) a gang of small-time crooks led by One Two (Butler) needs some cash in double quick time. The answer arrives in the shapely form of crooked accountant Stella (Newton), who gets them to steal money from Russian billionaire Uri Omovich (Karel Roden), a dangerous operator who's struck
a dodgy deal with Cole. To pad things out, Ritchie chucks in something valuable for everyone to chase (a lucky painting) and a subplot involving Cole's stepson, a ludicrously OTT rock star called Johnny Quid (Tony Kebbell).
After a promising start, the film gets weighed down by too many forgettable fringe characters who add little to proceedings. Why, for example, did Ritchie cast brilliant Entourage star Jeremy Piven then leave him standing with his thumb up his arse? Apart from a few choice lines, the dialogue seems forced and tired, and Wilkinson's mob boss lacks the menace of, say, Snatch's Brick Top. Visually there are some nice touches, and a bruising running battle between London and Russian mobsters is well executed. But RocknRolla is a disappointing return for Madge's fella.
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| El Cantante |
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Jennifer Lopez stars alongside husband Marc Anthony in an indulgent and mind-numbingly boring biopic centred around
the 'King of Salsa', Hector Lavoe. Further proof — if any were needed — that couples should never work together.
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| Disaster Movie |
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Cloverfield, Iron Man and Juno are some of the movies spoofed in a film so unmitigatingly awful it's almost impossible to sit through. Crass, brainless and painfully unfunny, this is a new low for Hollywood.
PIERRE DE VILLIERS |
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