Film reviews
Film previews with Celia Shorojk 
Blow up stuff including the planet
Total Recall
THE producers of Total Recall must have forgotten that not long ago (1990, not long ago for some) the original sci-fi shoot&blowemup starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone collected much of its handy profits through mystery and suspense.
Maybe it is just me, but surprise is somewhat limp when you know what is coming.
Maybe the producers of the re-do were mesmerised by the numbers of the original. It cost $50M and brought in more than $250 mill. That’s good business, not likely to be replicated in relative terms by Total Recall 2012.
You can hardly blame the cast which includes top Brit thespos Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Bill Nighy.
Director Len Wiseman along with writers Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bombark muck about with some of the more memorable scenes of the original but that is more cute than clever.
At least they have ditched the ultra-violence of the firstie but they have also thrown out much of the wit and intelligence of the 1990 vehicle.
This one is bound to disappoint but I would suggest a strategy to save the film. See it in the cinema one night and watch the 1990 on vid the next. That should be fun.
Dick joke in the title; little other fun
The Dark Knight Rises
THEgeneral public who have posted reviews of this film have in general been enraptured with the latest in the Batman series.
Professional critics, in the main, have also been kind but some have suggested the movie is too long (2hr 45 m).
Others have said you cannot hear what the masked villain, Bane is saying. Maybe a sizeable chunk of the audience, teenage boys who communicate in grunts and monosyllables, don’t worry about that sort of thing.
Most of your average punters are loving it unreservedly, but Huff Post reviewer Scott Mendelson gave it a bit of a pasting. Perhaps Ms Huff&puff lost total recall of the protocols of industrial relations and forgot to pay critic Mendo.
Personally I prefer my Batman grey and coloured with streaks of humour so director Christopher Nolan does not do it for me most of the time.
If you can take a lengthy nap in the boring middle of this epic, the whole experience should be rewarding.
Steve Carrell deserves better than this:
the film not the boobs, I mean
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
DO not let the title fool you: this one is not a shoot&blowemup. Of course, there are modest
explosions. It is the end of the world, after all. Due respects to Tissy Eliot, we are more likely to go out the way we came in, with a bang not a whimper.
More’s the pity this alleged rom-com did not have a tonne of TNT under it to re-ignite the humour.
Poor Steve Steve Carell!.
He gets lumbered with a straight role in one rom-com, Hope Springs and in this one, the scriptwriters knife him in the back after a promising start.
Britchick Keira Knightley is the love interest but of little other interest.
Steve Carrell is one of the funniest actors on the planet. Come on Hollywood, give him something to work with.
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