Alex Reviews...

Think Like A Man

Generally, romantic comedies aren't what I'd take a trip to the cinema for, but after reading a review on Brothers With No Game and learning that Think Like A Man had one of my more recent favourite comedians - Kevin Hart - in a starring role, I knew that I at least should give the film a look. Having heard literally nothing about the film minus the quick skim of the BWNG review, I sat down in a largely empty cinema with a blank slate of expectations and I was very pleasantly surprised. If you are in a relationship, be it in the early stages where you still need to think of ways to impress each other or far down the line where a night out is a rarity, take your girlfriend to see this film - you will both get a kick out of it. In a nutshell, the film follows essentially two 'teams'; a group of male friends who are each classified as different types of men, for example; The Player, The Momma's Boy, The Dreamer and so on. The opposing 'team' are the female counterparts, each with their own 'classification', such as a Single Mom or an Ambitious CEO type lady. This female 'team' have been swept into a craze over a new book released by a prestigious male celebrity revealing all male secrets about the dating game. Oh no. Cue each woman being clued into male views about dating and how to get the most out of a relationship with a man. This allows for some hilarious misunderstandings and confusion from the male counterparts until the male friend group realise that this 'handbook' exists and they try to use it to their own advantage. It's a modern battle of the sexes, and although it can be cliché at times, every man and every woman will probably either relate to a character or know someone they dated who is a shoe-in for a character. 

I really don't know much about the producers, director or writers behind this film, but it hit the spot. It's funny, charming, sexy (see Meagan Good  and Gabrielle Union for the dudes, Michael Ealy and Terrence Jenkins for the dudettes) and well produced - not too long and not too short, with a plot that isn't ground-breaking in terms of most romantic-comedies, but is still fresh enough to surprise you. There are star-studded cameos, some better than others, and a number of the lines can be guaranteed to wriggle into London slang talk if enough people see it. Kevin Hart is hilarious in it and it's great to see him in a bigger part than usual, and he is just as able to make fun of himself in a big picture as he is in his stand-up routines. If you see it in a cinema, expect to constantly hear hilarious commentary from groups of women around you, as well as applause for some of the pure class moments that the male characters have. I have a couple of favourite scenes, but I can't appropriately describe them to you without stealing the magic. All I will say is; the 'chirp chirp girl' scene with the flash car, 'did that boy just steal my coffee?' and pretty much every scene with Kevin Hart.

I realise I probably haven't done this film much justice, but seriously, if you're waiting around for the big blockbusters to come around and you want to take your significant other to something that you both will genuinely enjoy, go see Think Like A Man - it looks to have a pretty limited release in my area, so catch it while you can!

Peace

In other news...

Most annoying thing ever ever ever for film lovers

No, not British films about good looking female athletes overcoming adversity and blah blah blah - good sports films work well in getting adrenaline pumping and perhaps more importantly getting people into the sports that they glamorously advertise (see films like Bend it like Beckham or Cinderella Man) but the thing that annoys me about the above trailer is the fact that I feel that I have seen most of the film by watching it condensed into a 2 minute advert. Understandably, this looks like it could quite a low budget film that won't push boundaries, so will need to really capture the attention of the viewer to get bums on seats, but from watching this I already know that; the main character has a crush on another character and gets with him, that the main character has a rivalry with another character but that this is resolved, and that any drama that for whatever reason would add tension is resolved in the end. Great. Again, I know that this isn't a film that everyone has been looking forward to, but so many films do this. It's really annoying. When a film is coming out that I have REALLY been looking forward to, I will deliberately avoid trailers and news in the weeks coming up to release. Take for example The Dark Knight Rises which is out later this month - I kid you not that I have closed my eyes and plugged my ears whilst sitting next to my friend in the cinema, with him on the order to tap me when it finishes. The difference is, however, that I am fairly certain that the Batman trailers won't give away anything too devastating so that it takes away from any particularly jaw-dropping sequences, while Fast Girls (above) although not a blockbuster, has meant that I don't feel I'll be surprised by anything that it has to offer.

Now, the obvious rebuttal of my rant is that I haven't seen the film, so I don't actually know if there is something exciting being kept from us. Like maybe aliens turn up or there's a zombie-apocalypse and these four relay girls are pretty set because they can, like, run really fast. But there are plenty of trailers that do a film justice while not giving anything major away. The trailer for Prometheus (2012) was good enough to generate heap loads of hype despite being a sub-par film, and while the trailer for Inception (2010) displayed some of the jaw-dropping scenes, it only gave glimpses and there were still scenes that came as a complete shock. In my opinion, this is how all trailers should perform:

Comedy films - show ONE of the best gags and some of the lesser ones - keep others in the chamber

Action films - show a few explosions, an excerpt of a car chase or a gun fight or whatever, and a sexy lady.

Science Fiction - SPAAAAAACEEEEEE but remain mysterious about what is out there

Romance - set the premise, show the characters, but for the love of god don't actually show us if they get together in the end

Westerns - horses and guns and sand and shit

All films - Don't do what Fast Girls did and include an announcement saying 'with music from...' - I don't care what artists have lent their vocals to the soundtrack. This wont happen; "Oh good lord, these characters are severely underdeveloped and this plot is dull, but I can forgive this because they used that track by Tinie Tempah that I like so much"

But yeah, good trailers but keep us guessing. Thank-you everyone.

Incoming...

Magnificent Seven remake?

I've only read snippets of information around this potential release, but it looks like a remake of probably one of the best Western films ever is in the works. Now, sometimes there'll be a collective intake of breath at even the suggestion of remaking a classic, and a lot of people will be concerned that once again Hollywood will attempt to drag a piece of classic cinema through the mud. But this hasn't always been shown to be true. While remakes such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) with Keanu Reeves or The Wickerman (2006) with the hilarious Nic Cage might have bombed, other attempts have managed to at least be good enough to introduce an old film to a potentially new audience. For example, I really enjoyed True Grit (2010) and I've never seen the original - so in seeing and enjoying the modern rendition of the film, I am much more likely to go back and watch the original at some point. Maybe I'll find that the original is better, but if I never get round to seeing it I'll still be pretty satisfied with the version that I've seen. The Ocean's Eleven films were great, 3:10 to Yuma (2007) is another great Western remake, and there are a number of films that wouldn't necessarily be called remakes so much as re-imaginings. Even the original Magnificent Seven (1960) is a remake of Seven Samurai (1954) - which is just as good with the added bonus of katanas! 

The reason most of the good re-makes work is down to good direction and good casting. Christopher Nolan has brought Batman from a pretty mediocre run of films, and sticking acting greats such as Jeff Bridges, Russell Crowe and George Clooney in the above mentioned films surely helped each film with its success, so in the case of this Magnificent Seven remake, the rumours of Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Costner has to be a good sign. Each of this actors has probably had a very limited number of bad films, but the vast majority of their films and performances have been top class - so surely having them all together in an ensemble kick-ass Western can only tip the odds in epic proportions. If, and none of this has been officially confirmed as of yet, these four actors are down to play some of the Seven themselves, that - if my maths is correct - will leave three more slots to be filled up, and with actors of such high calibre already you can bet that there'll be more brilliance to be added. 

I think the reason why I find myself more able to give this re-make a chance than I would some other attempts is because Western films, which are some of the best films - especially for lads -, have more or less passed by my generation. Yes, it would be nice if there could be original stories and characters bringing Westerns back into cinema, but some of the old classics are just so good that it'd be criminal to not introduce new audiences to them in a new form. I do sometimes find it hard to go back and watch the originals, especially when many of them are made over sixty years ago, partly because it can actually be hard to get hold of a decent copy. So  while it would definitely be criminal to attempt to remake The Godfather, some of the ventures into the ol' West are more than welcome in my opinion. I wish I was a cowboy.