Weekly Movies

Rocky Balboa (****)

Despite my reaction being ‘surely not’ when I heard that Stallone was making this film, I actually really enjoyed it. Rocky coming back to box at 50 doesn’t seem all that ridiculous and when you read about guys like Jerry Quarry, there’s certainly precedent for it.

It’s a movie with a message, and has lots of ‘inspirational’ moments throughout. It plays on all the things we liked about the original Rocky movie and its sequels – the training montage, the run up the steps, the trash-talking, the love story, the uplifting speeches. It covers all the old Rocky ground.

Although there are numerous plot holes in it and silly scenes of Rocky bonding with various folk, it’s worth a trip to the cinema to see.



Dreamgirls (****)

It took me a little bit of time to get into Eddie Murphy as a straight man and stop thinking about him doing James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party on SNL. Once I did, I really enjoyed him in his role as James Thunder Early a man who although a star was never going right to the top.

Step in the Dreamgirls, with Beyonce Knowles with the glamour, but Jennifer Hudson the stand out. An Oscar surely beckons.

It’s a musical in the proper sense, dialogue turns into singing bouts and there’s never an opportunity missed for a show stopping number. The songs aren’t all that memorable, and the storyline has been done before. But that didn’t stop from making it a worthwhile watch.



Venus (***)

The story of a pervy old man and a yobbish young girl, Venus is held together by the performances of Peter O’Toole and Leslie Phillips. When I went into the cinema I noticed the 5 strong team of neds and nedettes, feet up on the seats, rabbitting away. I made sure I sat as far away as possible from them. However, even although they got pulled up by the staff at one point they seemed to roar with laughter all the way through the film.

This was mainly to do with the fact that O’Toole and Phillips play a couple of foul mouthed elderly gentlemen. Barely a sentence went by without a ‘fucker’ or stronger.

A film that you could easily envisage on stage, Venus is mostly amusing, though plodding in parts. With weaker actors it wouldn’t have had as much charm, but it just about pulls it off.