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.

Taking the fun out of the heist

What was Idris Elba doing starring in “Takers”? I get that Matt Dillon hasn’t really done anything else since Crash, but Elba has proven with The Wire that he’s a quality actor. Not really sure why he got involved with this train wreck of a movie.

Somehow making a heist movie boring, Takers is a weird mash up of a movie. Leaving you neither rooting particularly for the cops or the bank robbers, you end up watching the whole thing unfold with a detached indifference, not caring whether any of the characters live or die. And Elba feels like he should be in a different movie – the strained cockney-accented arguments between him and his drug-addict sister feel out of place against the US backdrop, almost making you feel like the two of them have been lifted out of a Mike Leigh movie and dropped into the middle of this glossy American pap. Weird.

Matt Dillon is doping a version of the role that garnered him so much attention in Crash, whilst Chris Brown takes some time away from his normal routine of domestic violence to be easily the most annoying character in the film. He’s not the only awful performance in the film though, we also have the always uncharismatic Paul Walker (a poor man’s Keanu Reeves – and that’s saying something) and Hayden (I was in Star Wars, remember?) Christensen tries unsuccessfully to be intimidating.

Avoid.

Getting ready for Thor's Day

I’ve been thinking about this summer’s big comic book movies, and Thor is far and away the one I’m looking forward to the most.

Be it the predicted tease introduction of Hawkeye, Anthony Hopkins thesping it up as Odin or the needlessly controversial appearance of Idris Elba (its 2011, surely we’ve moved beyond caring about the colour of a character’s skin?), there’s lots to look forward to. Speaking of Idris Elba, I can’t defend him enough. He was the biggest revelation in the wholly amazing “The Wire” and has recently been excellent flexing his deadpan chops in The US Office.

So for me, bring on next week.

I’ll happily watch the other three, with Captain America being the neat companion film to Thor to set up Joss Whedon’s 2012 “Avengers” movie, which I could not possibly be more excited about. Especially now it’s got How I met Your Mother’s Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill – really glad to see they’re bringing in another strong female character. Plus I do wonder if Alyson Hannigan introduced her and Joss, as she seems to be the missing link in their six-degrees of Kevin Bacon game.

Captain America’s also got some excellent looking CGI (skinny Chris Evans looks great on the trailer) and Hugo Weaving is always a top choice for a bad guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if the film ends with Captain America saving the day but in the process falling to his “death” in the frozen artic, only for the post credit sequence to be Samuel L Jackson / Robert Downey thawing him out in the present day.

X-Men: First Class is a bit of a weird one for me, as I love the X-men comics, but have yet to see a film that has properly reached it’s full potential. It’s either too much about Wolverine, or there’s too many needless characters running around (and not enough Gambit). I’m not convinced about James McAvoy as Xavier either, but am happy to be proven wrong. Michael Fassbender should be a good Magneto, and January Jones is inspired casting as Emma Frost. If any actress screamed “cold beauty” it’s her. And it’s always nice to see Kevin Bacon again.

Finally we’ve got Green Lantern, which I’m most dubious about. Partly because of the ropey trailer and partly because of the needless “complete CGI” effect when Ryan Reynolds becomes Green Lantern. I get that they want him to appear fantastical, but surely he could just have a costume! I just think it seems a bit pointless, which is exasperating as the character / Green Lantern corps have great potential for future films, and I think DC will probably red light / green light Wonder Woman and The Flash based on it’s success. And that’s a shame, as DC have got some great heroes that are worthy of their own franchises, and they need to start doing something other than Batman and Superman reboots if they’re going to keep up with Marvel, who are steaming ahead with three blockbuster films a year at the moment.

But that’s all speculation at the moment. We’ll see what Thor is like and go from there. And there’s less than a week to go until that.

Ultimately I wonder if I’ve been over-thinking all this? I say thee nay...