Tom at the Movies

Over the weekend I saw a few films. First up was Casino Royale. I am generally not a Bond fan, however this is the first time that they’ve cast a Bond that I like as an actor. I’ve been a fan of Daniel Craig ever since his portrayal of Geordie in Our Friends in the North.

So finally a Bond that can actually act, there’s every reason to expect the film to be good. And it actually is. There’s the traditional ‘cold open’ and big credits sequence at the beginning which is pretty good, then there’s an excellent stunt sequence.

From there on it’s good stuff until the final half hour or so, which sags heavily, but picks up for the last few minutes.

It lacks a really good Bond villain and I kept wondering why, when he’s this special, super trained agent, he seemed to have bother kicking folk in.

Anyway over the piece it’s pretty entertaining and for my money Daniel Craig makes for a good James Bond.

Next up is Stranger Than Fiction. Will Ferrell plays a dull man going about his daily business, until one day he hears a narrator’s voice and he realises he’s a character in a novel. And a character about to be killed off at that.

The film is clever and witty, if not laugh out loud funny. Ferrell is never less than compelling, even when he’s not playing up to his over the top comedy strengths, as this is a pretty dry and understated role for the most part.

There’s a good supporting cast in Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gylenhall, but I most enjoyed seeing Tony Hale, Buster from Arrested Development, in his small part.

It’s certainly an enjoyable film, even if it feels a bit ‘so what?’ at the end of it all.

Finally it’s Big Nothing, a British film set in America. It stars Simon Pegg, so I was always going to go see it, no matter how many bad reviews it got.

It also stars Friends’ David Schwimmer, my least favourite of that cast. Natasha McElhone, Mimi Rodgers and Jon Polito all have small supporting roles.

The double-cross comedy/thriller is a genre that the Coen Brothers have made their own, but not everyone can do it like the Coens.

There are holes aplenty in this script. One of the rules for writing this type of film is never make your characters stupider than you are. If you wouldn’t go in to the old abandoned warehouse on your own after dark, then don’t make your character do it. No one followed that rule here.

Characters do needlessly silly things that go completely against the character they’ve established, just to drive the plot on. So I spent a lot of time thinking, ‘why’s he doing that?’

It also struggled to walk that difficult tightrope between comedy and thriller. Are people making these big mistakes because it’s a farce or because we need stuff to go wrong to up the stakes. There also comes a point where it’s got to either get serious or go out and out funny, and the film isn’t sure what to do when that point comes.

That’s not to say that it isn’t watchable. There are a few laugh-out-loud lines, and Simon Pegg, although hampered by an American accent is perfectly decent in his part.

The ending is pretty disappointing, it’s not clever like the writers might think, but just disappointing.

It’s by no means the worst crime caper movie I’ve ever seen, but unless you’re a big fan of either Simon Pegg or David Schwimmer, you should probably stay away.