DVD Roundup (1)

So yeah, in order to be positive and cheerful, I've decided to talk about the one thing I know I'm always good for: films. Now, see, I don't really buy many DVD's, but when I figured out how to get the best out of my weekly shopping budget, I now pick up a DVD or two every three weeks or so, just as long as I don't spend more than £3 on it. So here are the ones I've been buying...

NINJA ASSASSIN
J. Michael Straczynski rewrote the script for this random action film in 57 hours. It shows. Good fun, though, not to be taken seriously in any regard.

BLACK DEATH
You know those films that are just action and could almost have had a decent story if they'd cut down on some of the fight scenes? This movie is the exact opposite.

THE BUCKET LIST
Four of us watched this while we were having dinner and it was a truly excellent way to spend an evening. I'd forgotten how heartwarming a film about cancer could be.

THE INVASION
Yea-No. Nice try. Actually not even that.

STARDUST
If the final sequence in the witches lair hadn't taken 40 odd minutes then this would have actually been stupendously good, as it is, it'll have to settle for pretty good.

TAKEN
I love a movie where the bad guys are characterised only to the point where you want Liam Neeson to brutally murder them in inventive ways. Over and over and over again.

RUN, FAT BOY, RUN
A lot of people dismissed it as second rate and pointless and... well, I still find it amusing. It's not brilliant, but it's relatively harmless on a sunday morning.

So that's some of my recent film acquisitions, I was tempted to put down who I watched each one with, but I'll refrain from being that anal retentive. And now... talking about another film. Big surprise there, then.

THE BEST EXOTIC
MARIGOLD HOTEL
FOR THE ELDERLY
AND BEAUTIFUL

The only problem I've found with multi-protagonist narratives is that you're often following just one too many people, or perhaps two. With seven lead characters in this film, as well as Dev Patel's manager character, this film felt just a little too thinly stretched over all that it tried to achieve.

That being said, this is a wonderfully funny and warm, sunny film that I think just about anyone would like. The script is sharp and fresh, the characters are genuinely loveable and whole thing shows a side to India that most people probably hadn't considered unless they'd actually bee there.

I'm sure at least one lecturer of mine will point out how it affects Post-Colonialism as a statement, what with this former 'owned' country now welcoming people who are of a generation who can remember a time when it was beneath our boot... but I think the film was trying to talk about now, a time past that.

Either way, very funny, very enjoyable.

Next up: I'm actually not sure
Either JOHN CARTER or EXTREMELY
CLOSE AND INCREDIBLY LOUD