Johnny Knoxville Page 2

Relentlessly quirky and strange, this pitch black comedy manages to combine its outrageous silliness with some surprising emotional resonance. Swedish filmmaker Akerlund (who directed Lady Gaga's Telephone) keeps the film's pace snappy as it lurches through a series of crazy situations that aren't remotely believable. But the starry cast manages to hold our interest.

Everything centres on a run-down apartment complex in Los Angeles, where Franklin (Lucas) lives in his dumpy flat, dreaming of someday moving to Switzerland to play his alpine horn in the mountains. Clearly unhinged, Franklin desperately misses his brother Bernard (Marsden), who went away but still sends him a daily audio-tape message. Then on the first day a tape fails to turn up, Franklin's whole life starts to unravel, starting with the fact that his landlord (Stormare) is lying dead on his kitchen floor. Franklin's attempt to get rid of the body draws the attention of two detectives (Crystal and Koechner), who start quizzing the neighbours (Knoxville and Caan). But this is only the start of Franklin's big adventure.

The story is structured as a series of wacky set-pieces set apart by luridly colourful flashbacks and fantasy sequences that fill in the back-stories for each of the characters. As a result, everyone on screen bursts with personality as well as motivations for everything they do, which makes watching them a lot more interesting than we expect. Crystal and Caan emerge as the most engaging people on screen, but even nuttier characters like Lundgren's "Brain Brawn" pop psychologist are fun to watch. By contrast, Lucas gives Franklin an eerily blank face: this is a man who still hasn't figured out who he is.

Continue reading: Small Apartments Review

Korean filmmaker Kim played with the Western genre before in his wacky 2008 pastiche The Good the Bad the Weird, and this film is just as chaotically uneven, mixing cartoon-style silliness with grisly violence. But the high-energy approach holds our interest, as does Schwarzenegger's immense screen presence in his first starring role since his political career. The film is far too jumbled to hold together, but its sardonic sense of humour makes it a decent guilty pleasure.

Arnie plays Sheriff Owens, who has a quiet routine in his sleepy Arizona-Mexico border town. So when a stranger (Stormare) appears, he sends his deputies (Alexander and Gilford) to investigate. Things get violent quickly, so he deputises a drunken veteran (Santoro) and a moronic gun-nut (Knoxville) to work alongside another deputy (Guzman). What he doesn't yet know is that the baddies are part of an elaborate plan to help a drug kingpin (Noriega) escape from a Law Vegas FBI Agent (Whitaker) and cross the border to freedom in Mexico.

The whizzy plot actually has promise as a straightforward action movie, but Kim throws so much nuttiness at the screen that we can't take anything seriously. The story zings from set-piece to set-piece without much concern for credibility or coherence. It's all very cool, especially the baddie's glimmering, super-fast prototype Corvette, which travels "faster than a chopper" on isolated country roads that are improbably smooth. And his climactic plan to get over the border is astonishingly silly, but played dead straight.

Continue reading: The Last Stand Review

A collection of random shorts that focus mainly on idiotic male behaviour, this portmanteau comedy is only occasionally amusing, never making anything of its astonishing cast. Frankly, we spend most of the time wondering how the filmmakers lured these A-listers to appear in these pointless, nasty little films. And while the premises have potential, not a single one has a decent punchline.

As a prank, two teens make up a banned online film called Movie 43. While their brainly little brother searches for it, he runs across a series of clips that mainly focus on awkward vulgarity between the sexes. Bitter exes (Culkin and Stone) have a rude exchange that's broadcast on a supermarket sound system. Pratt is shocked when his girlfriend (Faris) asks him to "poop" on her, and agrees because he loves her. Parents (Watts and Schreiber) homeschool their teen son (White) with the goal of showing him how excruciating life will be. Two pals (Scott and Knoxville) kidnap a leprechaun (Butler) who's reluctant to give them his gold. And a 1950s basketball coach (Howard) tries to convince his players that they're winners because they're black.

Others are dating scenarios: Winslet goes on a blind date with a guy (Jackman) who has testicles on his neck; Berry and Merchant play an increasingly deranged game of Truth or Dare in a Mexican restaurant; a pre-teen (Bennett) can't cope when his young date (Moretz) has her first period; Batman (Sudeikis) messes up Robin's (Long) attempt at speed-dating; Banks struggles to cope with her new boyfriend's (Duhamel) obsessive cartoon cat. There are also a few random advert spoofs, including one for the naked-woman shaped iBabe, which leads to trouble for the company CEO (Gere).

Continue reading: Movie 43 Review

You know you're in trouble when a madcap comedy is unable to even raise a smile. And it's worse when it strains to include a sentimentally emotional subplot without grounding anything in believable characters or situations. All that's left is a lot of corny toilet humour and eye-rollingly limp schmaltz. Even a decent cast can't rescue this one.

It all happens on one Halloween night in Ohio, when brainy 18-year-old Wren (Justice) and her oversexed pal April (Levy) plan to attend the party of the year hosted by the school hottie. But Wren's mother (Handler) runs off to her own party, leaving Wren in charge of her mischievous 8-year-old brother Albert (Nicoll), who hasn't spoken a word since their father died a year earlier. And Albert quickly ditches Wren, running off for an adventure with a lovelorn convenience store employee (Middleditch). To find him, Wren gets help from the nerdy Roosevelt (Mann), who has a crush on her.

The premise has potential, blending Adventures in Babysitting and Home Alone along with a bit of emotional subtext. But the screenwriters never make anything of it, instead indulging in startlingly unfunny slapstick, jokes about paedophilia and a sappy streak of half-baked sentiment. All of which means that the filmmakers waste their solid cast at every turn. Justice and Levy make an enjoyable if unlikely duo, while Nicholl is full of unpredictable energy. But the filmmakers manage to subdue the usually irrepressible Handler in a badly underdeveloped role that's still the most interesting thing in the film.

Continue reading: Fun Size Review

Despite making some of the most uncompromising music of the last 30 years, Motorhead for some strange reason, cross all boundaries. This is undoubtedly down to the enduring appeal of Lemmy - a man who's stuck to his guns and done things on his own terms to the point where he has just ended up being accepted.

Which gives credence to the fact that If you spend long enough doing something and which such conviction, people will eventually come round to your way of thinking. As a rock 'n' roll icon his influence has touched almost everyone who is anyone and the most surprising thing of all about this documentary is the sheer breadth of people who have fallen under his influence. The usual rock crowd is to be expected. Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Metallica etc but its appearances of others such as Jarvis Cocker, Peter Hook (Joy Division), Mick Jones (The Clash), Marky Ramone (The Ramones) and Billy Bob Thornton that most surprise.

Continue reading: Lemmy Review

Now, I know I'm not the only one seeing Hazzard because of Simpson, and quite frankly, she's the film's biggest draw. This is her Crossroads. But let me caution that while you'll come to see Simpson, it's really the zoom-zoom of that little orange 1969 Dodge Charger that will make you stay. When the film is all said and done, I'm guessing that you'll leave the theater wondering what all the fuss over Simpson was about to begin with.

Continue reading: The Dukes Of Hazzard Review