Sometimes you hear a film concept and you just can’t help but think “why didn’t I think of that!”. Ricky Gervais movie “The Invention of Lying” is exactly one of those times. Set in a parallel universe where there is no such thing is lying (it’s not that nobody does it, they don’t even understand that such a thing exists), Gervais character “invents” it. And of course, much as things usually do in these situations, hilarity ensues.

It’s a film that to a certain point writes itself. There’s so much potential in the underlying concept that you can probably stretch that out for the first and second acts without too much trouble. It’s whether or not you can bring it all together into a satisfying conclusion that counts.

I tend to have faith in Gervais to manage that though.

Like I said, difficult to believe

The huge success of the first one means it should hardly be a surprise that we’re getting a sequel, where once again Ben Stiller takes on the role of Larry Daley, no longer working as a security guard at the National History Museum, but instead making a good career as an inventor (where exactly did this story come from? I don’t remember him being big inventor guy in the first film, or do I just forget? anyway…). He still goes back to the museum at night to check on all his old friends, and it’s here that he discovers that they’re all being crated up and shipped off to the Smithsonian for storage, as the museum is changing to an all digital holographic set of exhibits. He’s told by Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) that the Tablet of Ahkmenrah that brings them all to life at night isn’t going with them, which means they’ll all be stuck as lifeless models forever. This all changes on the night of the move when he gets a call from Jedediah (Owen Wilson) to say that the monkey stole the tablet and that they were now under attack from Ahkmenrah’s older brother (Hank Azaria). Hoping to save them all, Larry breaks into the Smithsonian to find out what is going on, and finds himself getting help from Amelia Earheart (Amy Adams).

If it weren’t for the cast, this would be an altogether more painful watching experience. Hank Azaria is always reliable, and he puts in a really fun performance here, with a ridiculously outlandish character and some great voice work that could only have come from such an experienced voiceover artist. Also worth singling out is Amy Adams, who is just bursting with energy throughout the entire movie, and who certainly can’t be criticised for not throwing herself into the role.

The problem is that it’s all just a bit contrived and stretched out. When you’re making a movie about a magical tablet that brings museum exhibits to life, you’re already stretching the realms of believability, but there are scenes in this that just push it a bit too far. Expecting us to believe that Teddy Roosevelt on his horse can walk around a museum is one thing, expecting us to believe that a NASA rocket exhibit can blast flames out of it’s engines without setting fire to the building (or somebody noticing) is something else. It also feels like a series of events, rather than a cohesive narrative. It’s a set-piece movie, we get a scene where something cool or interesting happens (probably some sort of special effect) and than that finishes, and we get another one. And another one. And another one. And they all seem strangely disconnected, like they exist in order for a guest star to have their moment, or because the CG team thought something would look really good on screen, or perhaps because a team of writers through all their ideas in a pot without actually servicing the story.

It’s not a completely awful way to spend a couple of hours, but I suggest you leave this one till you catch it on TV, and can watch it while you’re doing something else more interesting.

I’m wondering whether or not Roland Emmerich has some sort of hatred towards the world, because he sure does like blowing it up and destroying it in ever more creative ways.

I have no problem with that, I’m quite happy to watch a CG destruction fest for 2 hours. My only worry is that they never seem to live up to the film that started this trend, Independence Day, because they’re never as much fun. Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Harry Connick Jr, a crazed Brent Spiner; they all brought a level of humour to proceedings, which made for a much more human story in among all the explosions. 2012 (like The Day After Tomorrow) looks like another very serious father (this time John Cusack) trying to protect his family. And that seems like such a shame, because blowing up the planet should be more fun.

Stinging critique.

Seinfeld plays Barry B. Benson, who along with his friend Andy (Matthew Broderick) has just graduated from college, and now has to choose which job in honey production he’d like to do for the rest of his life. Disturbed by the idea of making such a life changing decision he’ll always be stuck with, he dreams of leaving the hive with the pollen jockeys and seeing the outside world. Despite protests from both Andy and his parents, he decides to brave it in the outside world and take a single trip outside before settling down. After an accident with a tennis ball he meets human Vanessa (Renée Zellweger), who saves his life from her boyfriend, voiced by Patrick Warburton. Deciding that there’s no way he can just leave without thanking her, he breaks a bee law and talks to her. From here, it’s not long before he discovers just what we humans are up to with the honey.

The movie opens with a quite a slow build, we’re introduced to Barry and the rest of the bees, the hive they all live in and the giant production that goes into making the honey, and how devoted they all are to it. But once Barry meets Vanessa and discovers the honey, there’s just no stopping this thing, every ounce of storytelling fat has been stripped off. There are times when it seems just a little too silly and convoluted, even after you accept that bees and humans can talk to each other, and how easily Vanessa accepts this, the court case does begin to stretch the realms of believability.

The resolution becomes a bit too preachy, with an environmental bent that appears out of nowhere, teaching us how important bees are to food production, but it’s not enough to ruin what is otherwise a fun animated comedy. It’s got a great supporting cast (Chris Rock’s small role leaps to mind), some clever jokes, and is up to the usual high standard of animation we’ve come to accept from Dreamworks. It’s certainly not Pixar quality, but it’d be a shame to let that put you off.

I'll just grab these before he notices...

The problem with this strategy is that it doesn’t work when the actor you choose can’t help but be a smug, arrogant ass. If you had cast, say, Greg Kinnear in this role, then he could have acted like a dick for the first hour and a half, and then when he ultimately realised what a dick he was at the end, you’d have actually been able to fall in love with his charm. But here, it’s just a step too far, you still don’t want him to get the girl, and you therefore leave the cinema not lifted in spirit like a movie of this is meant to do, but instead simply annoyed you had to sit through a Matthew McConaughey movie.

This is essentially the story of A Christmas Carol, where Christmas is replaced with the wedding of McConaughey’s brother (Breckin Meyer) and Scrooge’s hatred of Christmas and being nice to people is replaced with McConaughey’s hatred of love and marriage. It’s actually not all that bad a concept, and while it initially feels very forced, when the three ghosts take us on the tour of his girlfriend’s past, present and future, it’s actually quite well realised.

Most of the problems are down to casting. Not only is McConaughey completely wrong for the role, but I found Jennifer Garner pretty irritating throughout, I just never think she’s very compelling. Brecklin Meyer is nothing special, and his wife to be, Lacey Chabert, starts off annoying and reaches new highs of “this is the best actress they could find?” by the time it’s all over. Michael Douglas plays the dead Uncle who McConaughey’s character learned everything from, an equally despicable womaniser, and you can tell he’s having fun despite not being as loud and racy as he probably should be. You could re-cast all the main roles, put somebody far more lively in the Douglas part, and you’d immediately improve upon what’s here.

It’s definitely not as bad as I thought it would be walking in, but low expectations are never a catalyst for high scores.

Even in these times of worldwide economic downturn, people are still funding movies about giant sea creatures fighting with each other. God bless America.

I’ll admit I didn’t notice this myself, but I was too busy making “oooh” noises at the whizzy space ships.

Quick pose for a photo and we'll go kill the aliens.

I’m a big fan of Lost, never watched Alias, didn’t like the pilot of Fringe, and wasn’t all that impressed by Mission Impossible 3, so the selection of Abrams to direct the next Star Trek film wasn’t a slam dunk. I think he’s a really interesting character, and I like him a lot in interviews, but when he’s paired up with the writers of the terrible Transformers movie as well, you can understand I wasn’t expecting great things.

But then I saw that first trailer, with the welder, and I thought that maybe there was something here. Even in something so simple, the tone seemed right. And then when the second trailer was released, well then I was sold, this was going to be great. You don’t want to enter the cinema with your expectations set to high though, and I tempered them as much as I could so as not to be disappointed. But no such fear, for Star Trek is the best Trek movie since The Undiscovered Country (which was the best since Khan – I still don’t understand why people like Voyage Home so much) and a damn good movie period.

The cast are just perfect. Chris Pine, who is a complete unknown to me, knocks the role of Kirk out of the park. This is a man with a big future, and he just oozes charisma on the screen. Zachary Quinto, who I always enjoyed as Sylar on Heroes, was clearly born to take on the role of Spock. It is almost uncanny how much he resembles Leonard Nimoy, who also makes a worthy appearance handing over the baton to this new set of actors. Simon Pegg is wonderful as Scotty, and I demand a larger role for him in the inevitable future, while Anton Yelchin brings some great humour to the role of Chekov. In fact, I could name every member of the cast for bringing at least one wonderful moment to their role, however small it might have been. It’s difficult to pick out anyone who let the side down, or a character who could have been better cast.

There are issues here and there, including a convoluted way of introducing old Spock, but there’s nothing which is going to make a real Trek fan call out in disgust. In fact the way these characters are given free reign at the end of the movie to go off and have their own adventures without destroying existing canon, is a marvellous bit of sci-fi storytelling invention and something for which the writers should be credited. It would have been all too easy to just abandon everything that has gone before, but their treatment of the source material has been nothing short of excellent.

It’s also a funny film, with plenty moments to make you smile, but never resorting to the sillyness of Voyage Home. The special effects are also some of the best I’ve seen in years, with ships which appear to have actual weight and style to them and not just the plastic CG so common in most trips to the cinema. The music is grand, the sound effects reinvented (warp speed sounding like a bullet seems so appropriate) and it never lets up for a second, blasting out of the gate in the first five minutes and keeping pace right through it’s entire two hour running time.

Most of all it’s the fact that this doesn’t just feel like an extended episode of the TV show. Most of the TNG films especially suffered from a low budget and a tempered directorial vision, while this has clearly benefited from it’s $150 million budget (compared to Nemesis, which had a $60 million budget) and the visionary eye of Abrams. Space is a gigantic, epic place for telling stories, and Star Trek reminds you of that in the grandest way possible.

Whether you’re a Star Trek fan or not, this is one to go and see. Sci-fi fans, action movie fans, or even just cinema fans, you owe yourself a trip out.

It’s Christian Bale, it has robots, it has giant explosions, and lots of special effects. What’s not to love!

OK, Terminator 3 wasn’t all that great, but it wasn’t a total dud, and only when compared to Terminator 2 is it really disappointing. Surely from that we can at least hold out some hope that this won’t be totally awful, and the fact that Bale agreed to do it has also got to put some sort of mark of quality on there unless it was just so he could buy another boat.

Clocking in at 4 minutes long, this extended trailer seems to show what we’re in for. Gone is the colourful city expanse we saw in three, replaced by concrete coloured, gritty, war-torn earth circa 2018. Judgement day has come and gone, but maybe this isn’t the future John Connor expected.

I was pleased that the last one had the balls to basically wipe out most of humanity at the end of the last one, so let’s hope they don’t chicken out this time and bring everybody back at the end by claiming it was all a dream. Or that they were all on the holodeck.

I’m going to start combining all these into “Trailer Tuesdays” but I thought I’d take a look at this one tonight after hearing it looked promising.

I like Bradley Cooper, and think that Kitchen Confidential is grossly underrated, so I might give this the benefit of the doubt, but this kind of comedy can so very quickly go both ways. The premise is promising, but once babies are being hit off cars and people are being hit by stun guns, it starts to devolve into that painful slapstick (nobody was ever really hurt or showed pain in classic slapstick) that so many US comedies turn to nowadays.

There’s a story that could be told with that concept, and if there’s more of that, and less of the baby bashing, then maybe we’ll have something here.