BAD NEIGHBORS
Kelly (Rose Byrne) and Mac (Seth Rogan) are a young married couple with a newborn baby, living quiet blissfully in there nice and quiet neighbourhood until one fate full day they acquire a new neighbour, Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron). They soon realise on his arrival that they are in for a rough ride, not only do they have a young single party boy on their hands but a whole fraternity house. The battle for the street is on.
Bad Neighbors is not brain taxing, it’s not clever and it’s not deep it’s just a wholesome American comedy full of stupid pranks and revenge all put together to give you one big belly laugh. To be quite frank with Zac giving us girls that great bit of eye candy (especially when he is topless) this is one for everyone.
See if you liked: Anything with Zac Efron or Seth Rogan in.
BRICK MANSIONS
In a dystopian Detroit, Brick Mansions has been abandoned and sealed off. Why? It houses nothing but the most dangerous of criminals. Damien Collier (Paul Walker) is an undercover Detroit cop enlisted to take down crime lord Tremaine (RZA) before his plot to take down the whole city is realized. However, Collier can’t do it alone, reluctantly Collier accepts that his partner is ex-con, Lino Dupree (David Belle) is best placed to help him not only save Detroit but to avenge his own Father’s death.
Some may find it hard watching what was to be one of Walker’s last films but he certainly delivers on what he did best, a performance of high octane action. Unfortunately that’s where the best part lies. Lacking in any kind of decent storyline or plot and quite frankly very poorly put together the only thing you will leave the cinema with is a headache.
See if you liked: Running Scared, Vehicle 19
BLUE RUIN
Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) is a down and out, quiet vagrant, mysteriously wondering from place to place. His quiet life is however about to be turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself to be quite the amateur assassin he ends up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.
Blue Ruin is your classic American revenge story, a thriller which some might say has the essence of Hitchcock laced throughout. It’s pretty grim and what gives it that air of suspense and tension that so many thrillers lack these days is the fact it’s really quite raw and stripped of any real special effects. If you’re still in doubt this could be a great film to indulge in maybe the fact it won the FIPRESCI prize for Directors at Cannes in 2013 and the Jury Prize at the 2014 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival might just win you over.
See if you liked: Out of the Furnace.
POMPEII
Its 79 A.D. Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava destroying everything in its path and bringing down the whole city. Milo (Kit Harington), a slave turned invincible Gladiator, finds himself in a race against time, not only to save the people and this “glorious” city but to also rescue his one true love Cassia (Emily Browning).
Pompeii is a German-Canadian historical disaster film, but has a very British feel to it. This could be due to the fact you have likes of British actors Harington, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and a very British Director in Paul W.S. Anderson amongst other British cast gracing this “epic” drama. Considering the big budget that was thrown at this 3D spectacular, this is nothing but a classic old-fashioned disaster movie, it lacks any real energy. The only thing you can rely on is copious amounts of gruesome bloodshed and the cliché dialogue one comes to expect from these films these days.
See if you liked: Gladiator, Prince of Persia.
MY PICK OF THE WEEK: BLUE RUIN (actually followed up by Bad Neighbors just for the shirtless Zac Efron scene).