Easy A

Good teen comedies are not all that easy to find and some of the bad ones can be really bad, so it was rather refreshing when, every few years, a really good one comes along. Easy A  is not quite as good  as the best of the genre (Heathers, Ferris Bueller, etc...) but it comfortably lives with the good films on the second rung of the genre (the likes of Clueless; 10 Things I hate about You; Mean Girls). Its not as dark as Heathers, nor quite as caustic as Mean Girls, but has a bit more bite than the likes of Clueless.

Like many successful teen comedies the ultimate source is literary (here The Scarlet Letter), although there are also knowing references to classic 80s John Hughes movies. You'll feel like you've seen most of the characters before, even Amanda Bynes' christian uber-bitch is  rather similar to Mandy Moore's character in Saved! and its easy to see where this is going from the start.

However, none of that really matters, because where the film succeeds is in being genuinely likeable and funny. There are real laughs to be had in the sharp script and they are got by a talented cast led by a breakout turn from Emma Stone, confirming the promise she showed in Zombieland. She's backed up by some good adult performances, especially from Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as the funniest movie parents in a long time.

Overall - 7/10 Not quite in the top draw, but a very entertaining and funny second-tier effort

The Town

Ben Affleck is starting to emerge as the frontrunner to be the unlikely successor to Clint Eastwood as the actor who wins critical acclaim as a director. This follow-up to Gone Baby Gone is probably not quite as accomplished film as his debut, but is nonetheless an extremely accomplished sophomore effort.

One of the things that aids Affleck is that he has a strong sense of place for his native Boston, which becomes almost an extra-character in the film. Another Affleck strength is that he is clearly an actor's director, marshalling strong performances from a very strong cast (albeit one lacking real star names). He chips in himself with one of his best turns for a while, but is ably supported by Rebecca Hall, Mad Men's Jon Hamm and The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner, with great support even in the minor roles coming from the likes of Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite.

The story is nothing all that new - skilled bank-robber (Affleck) wanting out of the game after meeting a girl from a different background (Hall) (albeit having met whilst abducting her during a bank raid), but persuaded to carry that one last job with a friend who's a bit of a liability (Renner), being pursued by the relentless cop (Hamm). But although he handles the action deftly, Affleck never lets this become another heist movie or loses sight of character or relationship in the mix.

Overall - 8/10  The material is decidedly genre-typical, but the performances and direction lift this into something far better and more engaging.

Some thoughts on Housing Benefit.

Whilst I've not yet got my head round all the details of the Comprehensive Spending Review, I thought I'd share some thoughts on the proposed changes to Housing Benefit as this is shaping up nicely to be the first major argument within the coalition.

There are three areas in particular that seem to be causing controversy:

1) The move to reduce the maximum amounts of housing benefit payable for private sector rents. The most often quoted figure is £400 per week for a 4 bedroom house. In general, I would support the reduction of maximum levels, however, I think applying the same figure across the country despite wildly differing housing costs is a mistake. Hence the attention being paid to London and brewing spat between best chums Boris and Dave. (That sais talk of social cleansing and Kosovo by Boris and Labour politicians is offensive and should be avoided at all costs). Part of the problem here is that across the country there is a real shortage of larger social housing properties, following years of under-investment in housing by both previous goverments. Thus larger families are forced to seek homes through the private sector and pay private rents. Therefore maximum limits need to take into account market rental prices in the area (not averaged across the whole country).

2) The move to reduce Housing Benefit by 10% for those who've been on Job Seekers Allowance for more than a year. This is a move which, in my opinion, is wholly without justification. It is draconian, punitive and stigmatising and should be opposed and dropped. Especially in the current economic climate, being unemployed for a year is not a sign of not trying to find work and there are already enough stick measures in the JSA system, adding another one will produce no positive results and will add further pressure on those who already under too much.

3) Allowing Housing Associations to charge close to market rents for social housing in order to pay for more house building. The aim is right, but the measure might be self-defeating in terms of reducing the welfare bill. It will make many tennants more dependant on housing benefit and needing more money from the state in order to pay their rents, thus the welfare bill will in all likelihood increase.

A Brief Aside on Child Benefit

Again, in principle, I would support the removal of child benefit from those who need it the least, but from the way I understand it the proposals, could lead to a hugely unfair situation: a couple where both work and are paid just under the higher rate tax threshold (say 42.5K each, joint income £85k) would still be entitled to child benefit, but a family where only one works but is paid just into the higher rate tax band (joint income £45k) would no longer be able to claim child benefit (if I've understood correctly). That ain't quite fair, is it.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I'm not a big Oliver Stone fan at the best of times, but the original Wall Street is one of the two Stone films (alongside Platoon) that I would recognise as an undisputed classic. Which makes it a hard act for a sequel over 20 years later to follow. Even given that, Money Never Sleeps is a crashing disappointment.

Michael Douglas was going through more than his fair share of problems during filming. Unfortunately, it seems to show with a performance that seems less than fully engaged and offers only a fraction of the drive that made Gordon Gecko such a memorable character.

Instead what you get is excessive focus on the young leads - Shia LaBoeuf (who after early promise in his career seems somewhat stalled and offers another performance almost identical to every other Shia LaBoeuf performance) and An Education's Carey Mulligan who struggles valiantly with an underwritten and underused character. Indeed, of the cast only Frank Langella offers any depth and he departs proceedings early. Added to this is a plot that fails to engage, other than the odd gripping boardroom scene, and an ending that seems badly tacked on and clashing with everything that went before.

But probably the film's worst failing is that the backdrop (the global financial crisis) swamps the story. So we are supposed to be bothered about Josh Brolin as the boo-hiss villain when what he was doing (although illegal) was small potatoes compared to what the whole industry was up to. You end up feeling like the target is write there in front of Stone, but he completely fails to nail it.

Overall - 5.5/10 A big disappointment, lacking any spark from Douglas, its shallow and flat and lacking in tension with an unbelievable ending.

RED

Recently back from holiday, so have a few blogging things to catch up. Might offer some thoughts on my travels soon (possibly on a new blog), thoughts on the CSR may or may not follow, if I ever get my head around it. But for now lets think films.

RED (which stands for Retired Extremely Dangerous) is not exactly original. The idea of former spies and hard men proving their more than a match for the younger competitors has been done before. The plot, as such, holds few surprises. Most of the characters are stock characters - from Brian Cox's Russian agent (think Robbie Coltrane in the bond films) to John Malkovich's paranoiac.

However, what RED lacks in originality it makes up for in fun - lots of it. Bruce Willis stars as the ex-CIA agent who in retirement finds himself on the wrong end of a hitlist and gets the gang back together to uncover the conspiracy. But who cares about the plot - it has Helen Mirren firing machine guns! There is something rather ludicrously appealing about Dame Helen firing off heavy weaponry which sums up the appeal of the film. Willis seems much more at ease here than he did in his brief cameo in The Expendables, enjoying having people who can actually act to play off and its a delight to see Morgan Freeman still up to the action. That's before adding into the mix Richard Dreyfuss and Ernest Borgnine. Karl Urban is also a surprisingly strong presence as the CIA agent on Willis' trail.

Not that the film is perfect by any means - Malkovich comes close to overbalancing it at times, some of the effects (especially one really bad shot of Willis stepping out of a spinning car, shooting a gun) really fail to convince and not even the excellent Mary Louise Parker can sell the romance with Willis. That said, the script is strong and witty, the action generally well handled and the gags well delivered.

Overall - 7/10 It won't be troubling the academy come Oscar night, but for a fun, action packed night out, it doesn't go far wrong and shows how a cast can have great fun and still make it fun for the viewer too.

The Hole in 3D

In the 80s, Director Joe Dante gave us some of the most fondly remembered films of the decade with the likes of Gremlins and its sequel and Inner Space. From there on it was downhill and The Hole marks his first cinema release since 2003's rather less fondly remembered Looney Tunes Back in Action.

Its the kind of child-friendly horror that should be just right for him and whilst it maybe lacks something of the anarchic fun and genius of Gremlins, its good enough to make it a welcome return.

The plot has a lot of familiar elements - single parent family move to a new house, where the children discover something mysterious (in this case a seemingly bottomless hole in the basement floor) and when they leave it open, strange things start to appear. Rather than running screaming back to the big city, like normal kids might, movie kids, of course, decide to explore things further.

The three kids (Nathan Gamble, Chris Massoglia and Hayley Bennett as the neighbour) all do a solid enough job without a breakout turn. (It is a sign of how things have moved on from the 80s that the girl is often the one who takes the lead (at least until the end sequence)and is least phased by things - a refreshing absence of screaming). That said, Bruce Dern can teach them all a thing or two with his crazy old man act. The effects are well done, although the 3D yet again fails to add much. There are some real jumps and scares pitched at just the right level to frighten children (as they want to be frightened0 but not enough to give them nightmares. It also goes to a pleasingly surrealist places in the final act when they enter the hole.

A word of warning - if you really do have a phobia of clowns, you're best avoiding.

Overall - 6.5/10 A solid family-friendly horror, lifted by a more interesting ending

Our oil addiction.

Today the UK government decided to allow oil company Chevron to carry out deepwater drilling for oil in the sea west of Shetland.

This decision was made in spite of the following factors:

- yesterday the EU is planning a moratorium on all deepwater drilling for oil in light of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. (Hence, one suspects, the rusging through of this decision).

- Enquiries into the Horizon disaster are still ongoing, which means that new drilling off Shetland will be carried out with the same exacting safety standards as were in place there. The industry is as yet offering no further reassurances or safeguards. Meanwhile, the environmental cost in the Gulf can still not be measured as damage is still being done.

- If the world's existing supplies of oil and gas were used up, the world would still exceed targets set for reducing emissions and climate targets the UK (and Scottish) government claims to be committed too. Surely efforts should now be put into the development of greener technologies to help the world when fossil fuels run out, rather than looking for more oil. We need to plan for this change now.

This is also an issue where Alex Salmond finds himself in bed with the coalition. When pressed yesterday he refused to back the EU moratorium, preferring to leave the door open to deepwater drilling. This despite his recent trumpeting of Scotland becoming 100% renewable. I suspect that at the end of the day the SNP needs the oil industry too much in order to make the economic case for independance and that will stop them ever fully embracing an environmental agenda.