Predators (2010)

(MA15+) ★★★

Director: Nimród Antal.

Cast: Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Walton Goggins, Louis Ozawa Changchien.

Who brings a sword to a Predator fight?

FORGET Predator 2 and all that Alien Vs Predator rubbish - this is the sequel that the Arnie-starring '80s actioner deserved.

Sure, it's not brilliant and it's not as inventive or original as the first Predator, but it shares that film's explosive spirit and dark sense of fun while adding a new twist or two of its own.

The opening sequence is certainly a heart-starter, beginning with soldier of fortune Royce (surprise action hero Brody) waking up mid-parachute drop.

He's soon in a jungle with seven other equally befuddled tough guys (and one tough gal) wondering where they are, how they got there, and why.

But what's more important is staying alive, because something unseen is hunting them, picking off the eight protagonists one at a time.

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the Predator story will figure out where it's all heading ahead of time, however Robert Rodriguez's script manages to hold interest by unfolding in a few pleasantly unexpected ways.

It's a shame the characters are a bit translucent - they may as well have been slapped with numbers indicating the order they're going to die - although the cast does a spirited job of trying to keep things lively, particularly Grace and Fishburne, with the latter contributing a short but effective cameo.

Brody proves to be a handy action star, adding brains to the brawn, even if he does follow the Crowe & Bale School of Action Movies by enunciating every line in a low-octave whisper-growl.

The Predator effects and action sequences are solid, and the film's Cube-esque premise adds enough intrigue, while the underlying notion that the prey are a sort of predator themselves is interesting.

As a blockbusting actioner, Predators has its moments and is decent enough to appease fans who have been waiting for the dreadlocked otherworldly hunter to finally get a worthy follow-up.

Iron Man 2

(M) ★★

Director: Jon Favreau.

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson.

This was the moment the International Whip Cracking Championships decided to introduce drug testing.

ONE of the biggest problems with superhero franchises is that in an effort to go one better than their predecessors, sequels get crammed full of more characters, more action scenes and generally just more of everything.

It's this method that sunk the pre-Nolan Batman movies and Raimi's Spider-man 3 and it's a worry that a similar rot seems to be creeping in so early in the strong-starting Iron Man series.

Having revealed he is Iron Man at the end of the first film, Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is now dealing with the consequences - the US government wants the suit and Stark is fighting a losing battle to stop the power going to his head.

The suit is also affecting his health but that might be the least of his worries thanks to the appearance of Ivan Vanko (Rourke), a Russian physicist who recasts himself as Whiplash to exact revenge on Stark.

Looking at Iron Man 2 objectively, it's not a good film. There are plot-holes big enough to fit Stark's ego in and the script feels like its key action sequences were written first and the rest of the story was forced to tenuously join the dots, with the worst example being the F1 race near the start of the film that serves as Whiplash's introduction. It's an exhilarating set-piece but its presence is frustratingly incongruous.

As the script struggles to latch on to a direction, the excellent array of characters flitter in and out, and proper plotting is supplanted by a messy story that stumbles from explosion to explosion.

Another downside is that positives of the first film have been amped up into negatives - the humour that made it so great now borders on cheesy and the sketchy hyper-reality of Iron Man's world is stretched to new levels of ludicrousness.

But...

Subjectively, as a fan of Marvel and the first movie, I really enjoyed it, in spite of the plotholes, the increased cheesiness and the extra ludicrousness. Stark is a great character wonderfully realised by Downey Jr, the supporting cast is great, particularly Rourke, the comic book's qualities shine through, and the widening of the Marvel universe reduced me to a giggling fanboy. I laughed in spite of the cheese. I was thrilled by the action sequences despite the plotting making little sense at times.

So I'm torn, as I was with Watchmen. My inner comic book nerd loved that movie, but as a film reviewer I could see the cracks, and Iron Man 2 has some pretty big cracks in its shiny metal suit. Fans will be satisfied, even if it doesn't match the nuanced and well-rounded brilliance of the first film. But many will be disappointed with this seemingly rushed follow-up.

Robin Hood (2010)

(M) ★★

Director: Ridley Scott.

Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, William Hurt, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston.

Russell was always up for a spot of LARPing.

A MORE accurate title for this film might have been The Man Who Would Become Robin Hood, or even Robin Hood: The Prequel.

Those expecting a typical Robin Hood adventure, featuring the man in tights living in Sherwood Forest with his merry men, taking from the rich to give to the poor, riding through the glen, battling wits with the Sheriff of Nottingham - all that stuff - will be sorely disappointed.

Instead we get an ungainly amalgam of Gladiator and Braveheart (with a dash of The Wife Of Martin Guerre) that ends where the Robin Hood story traditionally begins - there's even a title card at the film's finale that says so.

Robin Hood is Robin Longstride here, a soldier in King Richard The Lionheart's army, which is plundering and sacking its way home after the crusades. After falling afoul of the king, Robin and his men (Allan A'Dayle, Little John and Will Scarlet) decide to head for home, but find themselves impersonating a royal envoy that is bound for England to deliver the sad news that the king has been killed in battle.

From there, Robin and co set up shop in Nottingham, where our hero meets Marian Locksley - whose husband Robin is impersonating - and our heroes soon become embroiled in a conspiracy to bring about a French invasion of England.

For the most part, the film works really well. Crowe is a good Hood, Blanchett is a superb Maid Marian, and the battle scenes are as good as you would expect from the man behind Gladiator. There's also a deft comedic touch in the right places - Robin's merry men and Mark Addy as Friar Tuck make sure of that - and the gentle laughs are spaced well between the sword-swinging.

So why is this only a two-star film? The problem lies in the bigger story around Robin, which attempts to make him into a Middle Ages Martin Luther King rather than the cheeky philanthropist of the old tales. Robin Hood gets bogged down repeatedly in its exploration of 12th century socio-politics, international relations and medieval English finance which adds great context at first, but soon becomes a millstone around the movie's neck as Robin is forced to become a William Wallace-style character, uniting the feuding noblemen behind a cranky king to fend off the French.

Even this would have been forgivable if not for the ending, which pushes all the wrong buttons in its attempt to be an iconic grand finale and effectively undoes much of the movie's good work.

With its cast of thousands and impressive sets, Robin Hood looks great but this is not the gritty re-imagining of the Merry Men that many had hoped for - in fact, it hardly even counts as a Robin Hood film.

The Other Guys

(M) ★★

Director: Adam McKay.

Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Steve Coogan, Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes.

"It's Donnie from New Kids On The Block! I love those guys!
Hey jump in the photo, why don't ya?"

FIRST, the good news: the combination of Ferrell and Wahlberg is a great one and their chemistry elevates this comedy.

The bad news: the combination of Ferrell and Wahlberg is still not enough to save this misfire.

It's disappointing because the potential here is huge. After a rambunctious opening involving NYPD's top cops Highsmith and Danson - played with great cheek by Samuel L Jackson and Dwayne Johnson - the film pulls the carpet out from under the viewer by killing them off quickly in horribly tone-breaking and idiotically absurd fashion.

Their deaths pave the way for two other cops to step up and become heroes of the city, and disgraced short-fused officer Terry Hoitz (Wahlberg) and his mismatched accountancy-loving partner Allen Gamble (Ferrell) hope it will be them.

But to become the best of the best, Hoitz and Gamble have to solve a case, and the script has a hard time finding a straight-ahead one for them to investigate, leaving the plot to wander aimlessly for much of the running time as they chase a shoddy businessman (Coogan) and get chased by a number of shadowy forces.

One of the biggest problems is that The Other Guys is unsure of what kind of film it wants to be. After its promising opening, it seems destined to become a kind of buddy cop/action parody and this is when it works best - the real ramifications of being close to a huge explosion is one of the funnier moments, although the realistic laughs in the face of blockbuster conventions clashes badly with the unwieldly absurdist moments that are commonplace throughout.

The film also wants to make some kind of satirical comment about the Global Financial Crisis, as evidenced by its end credit graphics detailing corporate excess and how a ponzi scheme works, but aside from a handful of throw-away moments, this attempt at making a statement is almost non-existent.

What we're left with is an uneven comedy that has a major fail rate for laughs. Many potentially hilarious set-ups go begging because of botched punchlines and it seems as if Ferrell's best improvs have somehow been left on the floor (in fact, some of the trailer's funniest moments aren't even in the film or have been changed for lesser takes).

It's only when Ferrell and Wahlberg go head-to-head that The Other Guys sparkles and its unfortunate that such a good pairing is wasted. You almost wish for a sequel just so they can make the most of this chemistry second time around.

The Expendables

(MA15+) ★★★

Director: Sylvester Stallone.

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Terry Crews, Randy Couture.

Don't you hate it when someone else wears the same outfit to an apocalypse?

STALLONE'S latest project assembles a veritable dream team of action stars past and present, plus a handful of ex-wrestlers, and features an historic fanboy-tingling moment where Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger share the screen for the first time.

With such a line-up, it's a shame The Expendables is so underwhelming - particularly the Arnie-Sly-Bruce scene. When the movie kicks into gear and starts flexing its impressive action pedigree, it's an unstoppable throwback to the days of Rambo and Commando; a time when heroes cracked wise, shat bullets, and blew-up a thousand faceless enemies before breakfast. Outside of that, it's a tad disappointing.

Stallone is Barney Ross, the head tough guy in a mini-army of tough guys that includes Statham, Li, Lundgren, Crews and Couture, and the excellent opening sequence introduces the gang well, complete with a welcome wry sense of humour.

But the big mission comes from the mysterious Mr Church (Willis), who offers The Expendables a big wad of cash if they can take out the military government that has taken over the Cuba-esque island of Vilenas.

The mission itself becomes irrelevant quickly, morphing into a vague rescue-the-girl story, and it all serves merely as a paper-thin wind-up for the finale, which features an impressive explosions-per-minute count and an even higher body count.

The film continues Stallone's recent attempts to relive his glory days, following on from Rocky and Rambo sequels, by recalling the all-guns-blazing '80s actioners that disappeared with the rise of CG (although digital effects are used to add extra carnage to the final battle) and made his name. In reminding audiences of a genre that now only exists as straight-to-DVD movies, he also falls into many of the same traps of those films he references - explosions at the expense of script, and performances that highlight the shortcomings of the actors.

Stallone and Lundgren are hit-and-miss, as is an over-the-top Roberts as an American backing the military coup and a miscast David Zayas as General Garza, leaving the heavy acting lifting to the under-rated Statham and a superb bit-part from Mickey Rourke as an ex-Expendable. Time has also slowed the fight capabilities of the stars, meaning that choppy editing is used to hide the seams in Stallone's fight with Steve Austin's bodyguard and Lundgren's potentially awesome duel with Jet Li.

But there are plenty of saving graces. The film never takes itself too seriously, is packed with action, and the performances aren't so consistently bad as to be annoying. There is also enough humour and "woah, cool!" moments to satisfy the hordes excited by the prospect of Stallone's dirty half-dozen.

Far from awesome but not totally dumb, The Expendables is kinda awesomely dumb, which makes it pretty good fun.

Inception

(M) ★★★★★

Director: Christopher Nolan.

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard.

Let's face it. We've all seen a hotel corridor do this after a big night on the booze.

YOU'LL need to pay close attention to keep up with the dreamworld machinations of this mind-blowing heist movie, which is one of the first blockbuster classic of the '10s.

But you'll want to pay close attention anyway, because you won't want to miss a second of this thought-provoking spectacular.

To say too much about the plot would be a mistake, as the pleasure of watching Christopher Nolan's unpredictable thriller unravel in unexpected and inventive ways is half the fun.

All you need to know is that Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, the leader of a team of thieves that specialises in stealing ideas from people's subconscious by entering their dreams.

What follows is an elaborate cerebral actioner that delves into the power of the mind and blurs dreams and reality in exciting ways. It plunges the audience into dreams within dreams, resulting in some incredible sequences including a zero-g fight in a hotel corridor, a slow-mo explosion in a Parisian street, and the remarkable sight of watching the world fold in on itself.

But the film would be nothing without heart, but through DiCaprio's troubled Cobb and Cillian Murphy's billionaire heir Robert Fischer we get two emotional cores to help balance Inception's brainy concepts.

These concepts (which are Matrix-esque and then some) drive the movie, which makes it a bit exposition-heavy, but the ideas are fascinating and backed by great performances and jaw-dropping visuals so you won't mind the endless explaining.

This is not a movie for everyone. Comments heard while leaving the cinema included "I didn't get it - that was crap", "What a waste of time and money", and "It put me to sleep". But if you liked The Matrix and dig non-linear plotting, enjoy.

If you're looking for a big dumb actioner to switch your brain off to, don't bother. If you don't like actually paying attention to an entire movie, don't bother. If you don't like a movie to challenge you in unique ways, don't bother.

But if you're looking for a classic-in-waiting that will keep you guessing and thinking while you pick your jaw up off the floor, don't miss Inception.