Your number’s up

It says something about “What’s Your Number” that I saw it two weeks ago and am only just posting the review.

Riding on the post-Bridesmaids wave of female led comedy, this rom-com sees Ana Faris realise that after having slept with 20 guys she now falls into a magazine’s bracket of women who will never get married. Through a fairly contrived set of circumstances she teams up with Chris Evans (not being Captain America this time) to try and track down her all of her exes in the hopes that one will now be right for her.

It’s a shame that this was filmed before Bridesmaids and released after it, as they both have the same joke in the opening scene. And the comparisons to Bridesmaids (which I have reviewed before) don’t stop there. As with Bridesmaids there are some funny moments (though not as many) and the film falls apart in the last thirty minutes. Maybe it’s because that’s when it goes down the rom-com cliché, but as with Bridesmaids the ending left me cold.

Chris Evans is largely there for women to look at, but I won’t complain as Ana Faris (who is quirkily attractive) runs around in her underwear for a lot of the film. Evans doesn’t do much, and the numerous comedy cameos as Faris’ exes don’t last long enough. The real star is of course Faris, who once again proves her comedy chops, and shows herself to be an extremely good physical comedienne – which is no mean feat.

I found the cop out ending a bit too convenient, and it almost washed over the moral that people should love you for who you are. All in all it’s not terrible, it’s not great but it’s better than expected.

I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me

I caught “The Losers” when it was released at the cinema, but due to an epic day of filmage on Sunday (the aftermath of the beer festival), I was treated to a second viewing.

I genuinely think this film would have done better if it hadn’t been released around the same time as “The Expendables” and “The A-Team”. Overall, it works as an ensemble revenge piece, with standout performances from Chris Evans (the “Journey” scene is the highlight of the film for me) and the ever-brilliant Idris Elba.

It’s better than you would expect, so if you get the chance I heartily encourage you to check it out.

Oh Captain, My Captain

As I gushed quite enough about The Avengers on Tuesday, today I’ll keep my focus entirely on the actual (non-Avengers) parts of Captain America.

Let’s start off with the fact that it’s good. It’s not Iron Man good, but it’s almost Thor good, way better than some of the Spiderman or X-men movies that have been out in the last ten years, and a country mile better than Green Lantern.

Chris Evans manages to cast off his default wisecracking persona to bring humility and valour to Captain America. I know I said I wouldn’t mention the Avengers, but the character Evan’s portrays will play off against Tony Stark and Thor excellently. And whilst he’s great as Cap, he’s almost better as Steve Rogers, the plucky weakling who’s determined to not get pushed around by bullies. Here we see some excellent CGI, as Evan’s head is superimposed onto the body of a scrawny man-child. It jars a little at first, but that’s only because you know what Chris Evan’s should look like. If he had been an unknown, it would have appeared a lot smoother.

The supporting cast is solid. Sebastian Stan is breaking Hollywood as “Bucky” Barnes, Rogers’ best friend, and I wonder if seeds are being sown for an eventual “Winter Soldier” appearance in the next Captain America film. Dominic Cooper is suitably suave as Tony Stark’s father (or Grandfather, not sure of the timelines on this one), although his accent slips a couple of times. Tommy Lee Jones continues to sleep in Tupperware and gives good support as Steve’s army drill sergeant and Stanley Tucci consistently chews the scenery as Dr Erskine.

Relative newcomer Hayley Atwell manages to be a believable love interest, managing to make the character an attractive and appealing match for Rogers by playing on her strengths rather than making her weak and helpless. Then you have Hugo Weaving, giving an epic panto villain level performance as Red Skull (I’m sure we’ve not seen the last of him).

The film itself is a great balancing act. Book ended by Cap being discovered and thawed out in the present day, the majority of the film is (naturally) set in World War 2. After Rogers gets the Super Soldier Serum he becomes a poster boy for War bonds and then through a somewhat contrived (yet still entertaining) turn of events, he ends up leading a rag-tag team on covert missions against Hydra. Interesting side-note, in possibly the greatest attempt I’ve ever seen to establish an organisation as evil, at one point in the film Hydra is disavowed by the Nazis. That’s right, THE NAZI’S THINK THEY’RE TOO EVIL. Brilliant.

There’s lot’s of cross over with Thor (the same energy cube that turns up at the end of Thor plays a big part in this film), and overall it’s good watch with some solid action scenes.

Although it is primarily all set up for The Avengers.

(sorry).