4 Lions

Is this gun too small?

I take back what I said in my Panique au Village, this is my favourite film of the year. It's about a group of jihadhi  who want to make their statement on the world so after a bunch of dud decisions (including blowing up the mosque) they come to a decision to bomb the London Marathon, this fails and in quite a bitter ending glazed with comedy, there ends that rare thing: a poignant comedy. The laughs are many but its tackling a very dark subject: suicide bombings. Not to mention all the people that you've grown a bond with during the film meet their end, all of them in a funny way (Faisal trips over a sheep whilst carrying explosives) except Waj who you really feel for.
Serious stuff over: this film is hilarious, Omar, Hassan, Waj, Faisal and um......Barry all put in stellar performances as confused bombers who are out of their depths, Faisal is my favourite but it could well have been any of them but have you ever seen someone try to fly a crow into a building? I dont think so and his ignorance is the funniest thing about it (when you watch it, listen to his variety of voices) and he was the first martyr of the final jihadhi.

Hassan's statement

In conclusion, this film hits every button on comedy whilst making it a sensible and serious plot at the same time, I learned never to give a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Heimlich from watching this film.

Fly to Heaven Brother Crow

Verdict:9.2/10

Get Him to the Greek

Running away from Sergio

This film is what made me want to get a furry wall in my house. It's about washed up rock star Aldous Snow (Russel Brand) who releases a new song 'African Child'. It is deemed one of the worst things ever. Meanwhile, Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) works for a music company run my incredibly angry overlord Sergio (Sean Combs) he suggests that they get Aldous Snow to play a comeback gig at the Greek theatre, Sergio agrees but on the one condition that Aaron has 3 days to get Aldous from London to California. Trials and tribulations occur that make me wonder why this wasn't an 18 and the ending is kinda nice but 2 things stood out for me in this film: the sheer inappropriateness with the least explained sex scene in movie history and Sean Combs, he pretty much plays himself but the fact that he's so serious when he's spouting these great jokes is a joy to behold. He sends such text messages as 'Where the f*** are you, I will f****ng kill you :-)' and he wants Pharell to be gangsta' in a song called 'I'm Gangsta' (Duhhhhhhhhhh)

Sergio ticking off Aaron

All in all this film is funny with a slightly serious side that's not worth taking notice of, I want to see Russel Brand ans Sean Combs in more films

When the Jeffrey gets ya' stroke the furry wall.

Verdict:7/10

Panique au Village (A Town Called Panic)

I am speechless after watching this film, the absurdity of the plot and characters is marvellous and it's the oddest film I've ever seen; done by the directors of the Cravendale adverts and in exactly the same style. It's about a horse who lives with an Indian and a cowboy who think it would be a great idea to build horse a barbecue pit for his birthday but when they try and order bricks they order far too many and have to store the bricks on top of the house, after a hilarious party scene with Stephen (a farmer who can only communicate by shouting) and Madame Longree (Horse's love interest) the house collapses under the weight of the bricks so the strange trio rebuild their house but someone steals their walls, after the 3rd time of this happening they follow the thief to the centre of the earth and when trying to climb back up they discover an area covered in snow with a bunch of scientists driving around in a giant mechanical penguin that throws snowballs; these are scientists who have discovered the simple pleasures of throwing enormous snowballs at deers, they hold Horse, Indian, Cowboy and the thief (who is a frogman) but they escape by throwing themselves at their home using the penguin. Eventually, they discover the theives' hideout and the parents of the thieves tell them to give the walls back, after a few more frankly bizarre minutes the walls are returned and one year later it is horse's birthday, a surprise party is thrown and he gets the horse(Madame Longree), Defeats the baddies, Saves the entire 'Town Called Panic'

The Mechanical snow ball launcher

Cowboy and Indian lying amidst brick carnage

This has been my favourite film of the year so far, the madness of everything in it is absolutely fantastic and the characters and their unique traits are hilarious in every sense of the word. The stand-out character is probably Stephen the farmer but there was such a long list of strange, angry, happy and sad characters that it could be any one of them. The question I want to ask is: What drugs were the writers taking when they came up with an idea as manic as this.

The trio in Horse's abode

Verdict:9/10

The Other Guys

After Bruce Willis' cop flop 'Cop Out' it seemed that the revitalisation of the comedy cop genre was over; Adam McKay thought otherwise: with emphasis on comedy. The Other Guys gives you what you want from a comedy/action crossover: parodies of the cliches and an odd couple of sorts. Will Ferrel plays Allen Gamble; a desk jockey who wants nothing more than a secure job where he can't lose control (He did once before as at university he was a pimp who went by the name of 'Gator') and Mark Wahlberg plays Terry Hoitz: a cop who was on the hommicide team until he shot a baseball legend and got demoted to desk work. This unlikely duo go out on a case and make a fool of themselves after the best cops the city had died by jumping off a building. Allen is researching Dave Ershon (Steve Coogan) who has broken scaffolding permits, they meet him and arrest him but a team of lawyers take him from them and they are told not to investigate any more but they are sure there's something fishy so they continue. They discover that to pay his debts: Ershon has stolen money from the national lotteryand has taken some police money as well. In the highlight of the movie there is a brilliant office shootout and car chase to kidnap Ershon and he tells them how they can stop the money transfer; they do and all is well.

This film is hilarious and most of it comes from the chemistry between Wahlberg and Ferrell who both perform very well. The idea of a car chase to the tune of 'Monday Mornings' is inspired and they try to destroy the explosion cliche. The problem is that it can't decide whether it wants to tell cheesy predictable jokes or witty, film defining ones. They should either make it a cheesy comedy or make it New Yorker style. You still get your laughs so I give it 7/10

Monty Python & the Holy Grail

This is an odd film to say the least, funny from start to finish and what plot there is makes no sense. King Arthur has a group of comedically crap knights who get into impossible situations when wooden rabbits are launched at them, on their quest for the holy grail they overcome many challenges from mentally defective enemies and it all ends up with them being arrested for no reason.

That's the synopsis over I can talk about how I cherish this film with its hilarious characters, disparaged plotline and acting to boot from the greatest comedy team of all time. Personally, my favourite scene is either the fight with the Black Knight who continues fighting despite the distinct lack of limbs or the question scene at the bridge of death. The random animated cutscenes are great as well, one of the is cut short by the animator suffering a fatal heart attack. You may get a good idea of what this film is but I doubt it highly. John Cleese plays most of the enemies (French man, Black Knight) and Sir Lancelot  with Terry Jones playing Sir Bedivere and the leader of the Knights who say Ni (Don't ask) these are the 2 stand-out roles; this film may not be as good as 'Life of Brian' but it's a whole lot funnier than a lot of comedy films so I rate it 8.5/10

Shaun of the Dead

Time to review a film that started off the greatest British comedy trio of modern time: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright. The story begins in The Winchester; the local pub with Shaun (Pegg) with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield)and her friends David (Dylan Moran) and Dianne (Lucy Davis) while Shaun's mate Ed (Frost) works at the slot machine. Liz tries to get Shaun to put his back into the relationship, Shaun seems anxious. The next morning when Shaun leaves for work, he asks Ed to take down any messages and just as Shaun leaves, Liz rings to say to book their dinner date 1 hour earlier, at work Shaun is reminded that he has to visit his mum soon so he buys flowers for her. After Liz leaves him, Shaun goes out with Ed and gets hammered, he returns home and listen to electro, much to the annoyance of their house mate Pete (Peter Serafinowicz) who tells them tthat he got bitten. The next morning there is complete carnage which Shaun is oblivious to, they see a zombie in the garden that after throwing many vinyl disks at, she dies they get their own rudimentary weapons (a cricket bat and a shovel) they head off to Shaun's mum's house when they hear that his step dad's (Bill Nighy) been bitten. They load them all into the car and head to Liz' house but on the way, the step dad turns to a zombie and Shaun kills him, Shaun scales the wall at Liz' house to get her and friends. They cross gardens and practice their zombie imitation techniques and they get to the Winchester, to stop the zombies following them in through the window that David smashed; Shaun distracts the zombies and hours pass and he still hasn't returned. Shaun returns and in the best scene of the entire movie, they beat a zombie to the tune of 'Dont stop me now' and everyone gets turned to a zombie or dies apart from Liz & Shaun but at the end when they're living together, Shaun goes to the shed to play Ps2 with zomnie Ed.

This is a hilarious film with (slightly odd) humour from start to finish, another thing that makes it funny are the cameos by Jessica Stevenson & Matt Lucas, if you've ever seen 'Space'; the comedy is similar. This is proof that British films can make money and can be a lot funnier than their big budget counterparts overseas. The acting is wonderfully bewildering and drunken and a surprising amount of character development for the genre goes into it.

Verdict: 8/10

Fistful of Dollars'

Gunfighter

Coffin maker

Now I'm reviewing Fistful of Dollars; a film that started off not only Clint Eastwood's career but also the spaghetti western genre. It's about a lone gunfighter with no name (Clint Eastwood) who walks into a trade town where there are a set of feuding families: the bandito like Rojo Brothers led by Ramon (Gian Maria Volonte) and the family of the town sheriff: the Baxters. TThe gunfighter spys a way to make money and decides to turn the families against one another whilst he's making a fistful of dollars in the process. He does this when a group of Mexican soldiers are delivering a vast quantity of gold to the river where it's being delivered to American soldiers in exchange for weaponry but the Rojo brothers have disguised themselves as the Americans and shoot the cavalry to take the gold. The gunfighter takes 2 bodies to the graveyard and sells info to both families that 2 soldiers survived the attack, both families rush to the cemeteries for different reasons: the Baxters to get them to testify and the Rojos to shoot them. A gunfight ensues and Ramon captures the Baxter's son Antonio, meanwhile, the gunfighter searches the Rojo's hacienda to search for the gold but he knocks out Ramon's unwilling mistress Marisol (Marianne Koch) when she surprises him, he hands her over to the Baxters and a swap is arranged. That night, the gunfighter frees Marisol from Ramon's house and gets her to run away with her son and real husband. The Rojos capture and beat him up but he escapes with help from the coffin maker (Joseph Egger), he witnesses the Rojo's burning down the Baxter's home so the Rojos now rule the town. The gunfighter goes to duel the Rojo's, he rescues the barkeeper (Jose Calvo), and no matter how many times he's shot he won't die; this is because he has a steel plate hidden under his shirt, he challenges Ramon to reload his rifle faster than he can reload his pistol, he shoots Ramon and the remaining Rojo's and leaves town.

Ramon

This is an iconic film that made a genre, it's quite dated and sometimes there's obvious dubbing but it's exhilarating, fast paced and the characters are brilliant. There's some odd slapstick comedy in there as well (the gunfighter shoots the ropes off the hacienda door and it knocks out a guard) all round a good film

Verdict: 7.5/10