Two for the family and a load of Bullock

Getting back to some reviews on here after a long break. First up this week:

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang - 6.5/10

The first Nanny McPhee was a genuine surprise - a British family film that was full of real humour and feeling and entertaining action with great turns from the children and the adults. Unfortunately, in such cases the sequels rarely manage to live up to the raised expectations and this is no exception. There's an over-reliance on CGi animals doing "cute", too much of the children and (surprisingly) not enough of Emma Thompson. The children do an OK job, without being great, but the film rushes through the part where they move from resisting Thompson's McPhee to welcoming and needing her to the extent that the turn around doesn't feel convincing. Similarly, Rhys Ifans makes an ok comic villain, but one of his deceptions strikes an emotional note so at odds with the rest of his character that it jars hugely.

On the plus side, Maggie Gyllenhaal manages a very credible English accent. And the whole does hang together and is entertaining and fun. However, what lifts this slightly above the average are hilarious supporting turns from Maggie Smith and a very well cast Bill Bailey ("Intelligent creatures, pigs"). As family entertainment at the cinema goes, you could do a lot worse, but you could do better:

How to Train Your Dragon - 7.5/10

In terms of 3D animation, Dreamworks definitely lives in the shadow of Pixar, but with this following on from the entertaining Monsters vs Aliens, they are definitely on a good run. The still might not be competing with the artistry and innovation of WALL-E or Up, but they are producing very solid, fun, entertaining films. Here they present us with a beautifully realised world visually, some nice humour and good action sequences, the characters feel believable and the awkward interaction between father and son is well done. Leaving aside minor quibbles about why all the adult vikings have Scottish accents whilst their children sound American, this is a well above average animation.

The real stars here though are the dragons - you've got to love the creativity in the variety of dragons and the way they're animated, which manages the great trick of making them a fearsome opponent at times and rather cute at others. Be warned, if you take a young child to see this, they could come away wanting their own pet dragon.

The Bind Side - 5.5/10

The film for which Sandra Bullock won an Oscar (not totally sure it was deserved, but thats another debate) and you can't argue that she gives a great performance. In fact, there's not much wrong with any of the performances. (Although country singer Tim McGraw as the husband is rather one-note in his performance).

No the main problem here is the story which is more made for TV story of the week than a real cinematic film, and true to form it cynically tugs on any heart-string it can find. Even more concerning is that the film is so dominated by Bullock and her attempts to help this poor black teenager, that Big Mike himself is relegated to a passive bystander in his own rising-from-the-gutter story, which leaves an overall impression of the film that smacks of paternalism rather than empowerment. Approach with caution.