DVD Rental

The Kids Are Alright is the Oscar-nominated comedy-drama telling the story of a married lesbian couple, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore), who have both given birth using the same sperm donor. Nic and Jules seem happy enough, but cracks are appearing in their once stable and loving relationship, and Nic’s working hours as an obstetrician are certainly not helping.

Matters are made worse by young son Laser (Josh Hutcherson), who wishes to seek out his biological father in order to satisfy his growing curiosity. Laser knows that Nic and Jules will forbid this, and he is too young to legally find the donor himself, so the inquisitive teenager persuades his 18-year-old sister Joni (Mia Wasikowska) to do this for him.

The kids meet up with sperm donor Paul (Mark Ruffalo) and it quickly becomes clear that he wants to be part of their lives. Inevitably, Nic and Jules find out what their children have been up to and condemn their actions, but come to the conclusion that it’s best Laser and Joni make their own choices.

The couple agree to meet up with Paul, who gets the frosty reception from Nic, but a warm welcome from Jules, leading to further arguments and an increased strain on their already rocky relationship. His involvement pushes the limits of a once happy family, and forces them to confront and understand their true feelings for one another.

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Think Planes, Trains and Automobiles with a slightly different end goal and you pretty much have Due Date wrapped up, so you might want to move on and watch something else…. or, alternatively, you could watch this hilarious comedy and laugh from start to finish, as I did.

If, like me, you felt sorry for Steve Martin having to endure John Candy on a journey from hell, then you are about to feel ten times worse for expectant father Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr), as he embarks on the roughest of rides with the travel companion from Hell.

Hurrying to catch a flight home to see the birth of his first child, Peter Highman has a chance meeting with aspiring actor, and all-round disaster magnet Ethan Tremblay (The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis).

The commonly occurring accidental bag switch has Peter searched for drugs and, after an incident with Tremblay on the plane, he is thrown off and placed on the No Fly List. To make things worse, he has left his bag, containing his wallet and ID, on the recently departed former mode of transport.

With no way of getting home, no money and no ID to hire a car, he is pretty much stranded, until his rescuer arrives - yes you guessed it - Tremblay, and his brilliant barking bud, Sunny.

As an aspiring actor, Tremblay is heading to Hollywood to pursue his career, and offers Peter a lift.  Left with no choice, Peter begrudgingly accepts and the two unlikely companions set off on a bumpy journey to LA that will destroy cars, friendships and… er… Peter.

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Toy Story was a phenomenal success, and set the bar for a new age of animated films. With the critically acclaimed Toy Story 2 proving an even bigger hit, Toy Story 3 was only a matter of time. The film features all the main characters from the previous movies and introduces a few new ones along the way. We are once again treated to the endearing vocal talents of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, as well as Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Cusack, Michael Keaton and a host of other famous names.

Toy Story 3 begins with a grown-up Andy setting off for college; without anyone to play with them, all our favourite toys feel unloved and rejected, all except Woody, who is chosen to join Andy, much to the dismay of the cowboy’s friends. In a state of confusion, the other toys that should have been put in the attic end up on the street, with the dreaded bin lorry fast approaching. Convinced that they are no longer wanted, they escape from the bin bag and, led by Jessie and Buzz, hop into a Sunnyside Daycare donation box, ready for an adventure of their own.

Once they arrive at the Daycare centre, Lotso the Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear tells them that the children play with the toys all day, every day and that they will never be forgotten or lost, as the Daycare centre has new children arriving all the time. Little do the new toys realise that their new home is not what it seems…

Meanwhile, a saddened Woody has followed his friends to the Daycare centre to try and explain the earlier mix-up, but he is found by an imaginative, caring child named Bonnie. He has a great time playing with her, but then he meets Chuckles the sad clown who has something very important to tell him.

What has happened to Woody’s friends, and will he get back to Andy in time?

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Despite appearing in a collection of incredible stinkers, with Daredevil, Gigli, The Sum of all Fears and Surviving Christmas heading the list, it should be remembered that Ben Affleck was one half of the writing team behind the excellent Good Will Hunting screenplay, and turned in a great performance too.

He was given the opportunity to direct, as well as write and star in, an adaptation of Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan (a story that has very little to do with Robin Hood), which was retitled as The Town and provided a showcase of Affleck’s raw movie-making talent.

The Town begins by highlighting the severity of bank robberies in the area of Charlestown, located in Boston. This is followed by a heist on a local bank, orchestrated by Affleck’s career criminal Doug MacRay, along with his lifelong friends Jem Coughlin, Gloansy Magloan, and Dez Elden.

The masked thieves encounter a minor hitch, which results in the kidnapping of bank manager Claire Kessey, who gets blindfolded and dropped off at a nearby beach. After the robbery, MacRay decides to follow Kessey, which leads to a relationship between the two, whilst she is blissfully unaware of his involvement in the robbery and her kidnapping.

Whilst MacRay tries to hide his guilt, and keep his friends from knowing his actions, FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley is behind a concentrated effort to get MacRay and his crew behind bars.

For a heist movie, there is very little in terms of bank theft, but this is a conscious decision by Affleck, and allows time for the impressive characterisation and performances to develop fully. This film really is a clever mixture of action and drama, with startling efforts from all the leads.

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Is there a bigger date in the horror movie fan’s calendar than the annual release of a Saw film?

Yes. Laundry day, or any other day.

Yet the cogs keep turning and the people keep watching, despite cries of despair and claims of wasted lifetime hours following each increasingly pointless instalment.

If we approach the situation in a frank, honest manner, the first Saw, whilst borrowing heavily from the concept of the mighty movie masterpiece Se7en, was in fact quite watchable and boasted an awesome twist right at the death (oops, sorry about that). Saw was a good horror movie, and of course a sequel was inevitable.

It is fair to say that Saw II was also pretty good. It lacked cohesion, but was gruesome enough to satisfy fans of the genre and still offered a few decent surprises, not to mention a meatier role for series lead Tobin Bell, as the dying Jigsaw killer John Kramer.

And then disaster.

Saw III, Saw IV and Saw V were increasingly mediocre, whilst Saw VI was actually a little better, but had a rubbish ending and dragged the story into even further reaches of plot direction stupidity. For Jigsaw to maintain a presence and influence on the storyline after his rather fatal throat-slashing in Saw III is actually a little insulting.

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Move over Jaws, there’s a new fish in town as director Alexandre Aja serves up this rather bitey remake of the silly seventies original.  In all fairness, remake is an understatement as this film’s storyline and characters bear very little resemblance to the ‘78 Piranha, or its sequel Piranha II: The Spawning (which happened to be the dubious directorial debut of one James Cameron).

The 21st Century version of Piranha, released as Piranha 3D in cinemas, is set during the all-American alchohol-fuelled bikini-bonanza known as Spring Break.  Young Jake, son of strict Sheriff Julie Forester, is unfortunately doomed to babysit instead of enjoying the madness, but porno director Derrick needs a guide on his boat so he knows all the best places to film his gorgeous actresses Danni and Crystal.  With this offer on the table,  Jake decides to leave the kids to their own devices whilst he goes and, er, enjoys himself.  He also manages to get a girl he likes to come along for the ride, but things take a nasty turn when little things with big teeth show up to spoil the party…

Some prehistoric, savage, bloodthirsty and generally quite irritable piranhas have been freed from their cave-like prison underwater, thanks to some kind of mini-earthquake or something.  This results in a very grisly death for Richard Dreyfuss (sending up his own Matt Hooper from Jaws, complete with ‘Show Me The Way To Go Home’ karaoke session), and this starts off an insane massacre that rarely lets up at any stage.  Much death occurs, along with gratuitous nudity and Ving Rhames using a chainsaw to make a sizeable ton of sushi.  It is bonkers.

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Love it or hate it, the Twilight beast rampages on, as book number 3 gets the movie treatment mere months after the release of predecessor New Moon.

In The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, emo-vampires and weightlifting-werewolves are forced to form an uneasy alliance after nutty vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) breeds an army of ‘newborns’. Vampires are at their most aggressive and lethal just after they ‘turn’, and Victoria plans to unleash this army on the sleepy town of Forks, with the ultimate goal of killing the frighteningly miserable Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).

Victoria is miffed at sensitive gentleman vamp Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) because he killed her partner back in Twilight, and she believes the best way to exercise revenge would be to kill his beloved Bella. Meanwhile, stroppy werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), aggravated by Bella’s preferred choice of lover, continues to insist that he is the right man-type-creature thing for her. Bella, to Jacob’s dismay, would much rather be a vampire with Edward, which happens to be part of an agreement made with super-vampires The Volturi, during the last instalment.

With the newborn army, and the aggrieved Victoria, on the warpath and heading straight for Bella’s neck, the awkward alliance of werewolves and vampires trains together for about 30 seconds, as they attempt to sharpen their tools enough to defeat the army before Bella is turned into soup.

Eclipse retreads so much of New Moon, and considering that New Moon was shockingly awful, this has not gone well. Eclipse may be following its source material, but that doesn’t mean that the exhaustive exploration of the love triangle translates well to the screen. The dialogue between Jacob, Edward and Bella is at times excruciating and wouldn’t be lost in a daytime soap opera.

Eclipse was marketed as the action-packed instalment that would be more accessible to those who have not been blown away by the surprisingly popular notion of emo-vampires. Considering that these films are about vampires and werewolves, the first two instalments haven’t seen a lot of action from either party, with the movies focusing mainly on Bella mulling over her oh-so-difficult life, whilst two men vie for her affections. In Eclipse we see more of Jacob trying to win her over, more of Edward being very dull and apparently uninterested in premarital sex with the gorgeous Kristen Stewart, more trees and fields, more shockingly bad CGI werewolves doing very little, more topless men and more of Bella being man-greedy, indecisive, morose, selfish, thoughtless and generally irritating.

We have seen so much of Eclipse in the other films, so perhaps it would have been best to cut down on these elements and bring the focus to some of the saga’s new story threads and themes. Unfortunately there is nothing else to the story, other than a weak plot about an advancing army that turns out to be somewhat of a pushover, so there’s nothing to fall back on that could provide the film with something refreshing.

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In 1997, director Vincenzo Natali wrote and directed a sci-fi horror movie called Cube which revolved around a group of strangers stuck in a construct of sadistically booby-trapped rooms, with no clue how to survive other than some seemingly random numbers engraved on each door. The fates of the characters were generally quite grisly, but the film itself posed some interesting questions about morals and the will to survive.

Natali planned to follow up that effort with a film exploring the concept and potential ramifications of genetic modification. His idea required a budget that simply was not available, but 13 years later he has finally been able to deliver Splice, a creepy, unnerving and ultimately thought-provoking slice of sci-fi horror pie.

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast, two genetic engineers who have been conducting research and experiments investigating the outcome of DNA splicing. They plan to start introducing human DNA into the mix, but the pharmaceutical company with all the cash is not too keen.

The persistent duo decide to oppose their financiers and proceed with their plans in secret, convinced that successful splicing of human DNA with that of other animals could provide cures to several devastating diseases.

Their secretive work spawns a creature that they name Dren (the reversed letters of the pharmaceutical company’s acronym N.E.R.D). The creature displays impressive cognitive development and rapidly grows into something akin to an inquisitive feminine teenager, albeit one with a tail and stinger.

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We have decided to start putting together regular reviews of some of cinema’s most unforgettable gems; movies that raise the bar, leaving us stunned and in awe of a true masterpiece. Today, we look back at 1998’s American History X, a disturbing, harrowing but ultimately brilliant non-linear portrayal of a neo-Nazi and his difficult journey through the complications of his misguided ideology.

Edward Norton is Derek Vinyard, a young man who excelled at school and was part of a contented suburban family until his fire fighting father dies whilst putting out a blaze in a predominantly black neighbourhood. The subtle seeds of racism had already been planted in young Derek’s mind by his late father, and the man’s untimely death served as a catalyst to his son’s simmering radical beliefs.

Derek moves on to become a leader for lost and troubled youths, going so far as to have a swastika tattooed on his chest, inciting race-related violence and vandalism and even making a bet with a group of young rival black youths that results in their `banishment’ from the basketball courts. Vinyard’s antagonistic behaviour results in the attempted armed theft of his car, which is noticed by Derek’s younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong, Terminator 2). Derek flips, kills the men, and receives a three year jail term for voluntary manslaughter.

Upon Derek’s release he is a changed man, having spent hard time in a prison where his racial prejudices and questionable moral values were truly put to the test. His time, though unpleasant, has had the necessary effect, but he comes out to find that Danny has grown older and is being lined up as a fitting replacement for Derek by twisted kingpin Cameron Alexander.

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This maddening mess sees three violent and disturbed teenagers break into the home of an unhappily married and extraordinarily unlikeable couple. The pair are beaten and tied up within seconds, and the assailants then proceed to sit on the couch waiting for the couple’s son to come home so they can kill him for being a grass.

This lasts for almost 80 minutes, and it is excruciating; a mind-bendingly dull and lazy waste of time; time that could be spent doing something infinitely better, such as attempting to clean your teeth with a pneumatic drill whilst swallowing a rusty cheese-grater.

The painfully clichéd unhappy couple argue over dinner in a monotonous and badly scripted fashion about an affair that she may have had a while ago (it’s hard to keep track of the conversation due to its poor delivery). They answer the door and are attacked. They are subjected to occasional abuse of a severe nature, whilst the clock ticks down (somewhat erratically) to their son’s arrival, which is due to be met with a fatal response. That is literally it.

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