Netflix And Chill: Unfrosted (2024)

Please feel free to read the following in the style of an exaggerated Jerry Seinfeld impression. What's the deal with non-bread breakfast that you put into the toaster? We have bread for that. Oh, you want fruity goodness too? Put some jam on top. Got a sweet tooth? Add chocolate spread. Want it all feeling as if you have some kind of acceptable hot pocket to start the day with? Just fold it over. But no, someone had to go and invent Pop-Tarts, a filled pastry product made by popping it into your toaster.

A satirical look at the breakfast cereal landscape, and the creation and marketing of the Pop-Tart, Unfrosted is directed by Jerry Seinfeld, stars Jerry Seinfeld in the main role of Bob Cabana, and was written by Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Andy Robin, and Barry Marder. While it doesn't really help anyone to understand the landscape of breakfast brand creation and marketing, it certainly helps people to understand why Seinfeld seems to have spent the last few years going on about people not being able to just be funny any more. While constantly bemoaning a cultural landscape that he believes is restricting and throttling comedians, Seinfeld has really been signifying to us all that he is just no longer all that funny. And Unfrosted proves that.

Look, I'm no comedian (successful or otherwise), and I have had nowhere near the amount of experience that Seinfeld has. But has Seinfeld actually done much on his own to allow himself to be positioned as some wise commentator on the state of society as a whole, and how it has specifically affected comedy? I am going to say no. Seinfeld is a half-decent stand-up comic who has had his greatest achievements due to the work of other people, whether that is Larry David behind the scenes or the co-stars that we all think of when we think of Seinfeld. And that's a show named after himself.

But let's get back to Unfrosted, as unfunny and charmless as it is. Aside from Seinfeld in his main role, the cast also includes Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, Christian Slater, Melissa McCarthy, Cedric The Entertainer, Thomas Lennon, James Marsden, Tony Hale, Hugh Grant, and many more. Everyone gets a moment, with the slight and silly plot just used as a framework to jump from one selection of gags to the next, but only a select few can do enough to rise above the material. Schumer isn't bad, McCarthy is as much fun as she usually is (I'm a fan, but that statement will also help those who dislike her usual schtick know that they can avoid this), Slater is a lot of fun as a threatening milkman, and Bill Burr is very funny in his portrayal of JFK. It's Grant who steals the film though, looking slightly shame-faced as a classical actor hiding away inside the suit of Tony The Tiger, that well-known breakfast cereal mascot who assured us all that the bowl we were served every morning tasted "grrrrrrrrrreat."

I'm sure that everyone involved in this had fun. There are so many people popping up for one or two scenes, so many different ideas and gags added to the mix, that it feels as if someone came up with the premise to simply gather friends together and have a lot of fun. Good for them. It doesn't translate to a fun viewer experience though. Did I laugh a few times? Yes. Did I hate the whole thing? No. It just all seemed so random and pointless though, and as smug as many other Seinfeld appearances I have seen in recent years (whether he's having coffee in cars with someone much funnier than himself or being interviewed about how he and his peers can no longer deliver jokes to audiences who just don't recognise comedy any more).

People can still very much recognise comedy. It's just that people no longer recognise some of Seinfeld's material as being very funny. Maybe it never was, considering how he has spent his career surrounding himself with layers of other people's talent, or maybe I'm just judging him too harshly after having wasted 97 minutes of my time on this nonsense.

3/10

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Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (2025)

Coming along after three movies of varying quality (the superb "Diary", the lacklustre "Edge Of Reason", and the enjoyable "Baby" adventure), Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy has been pitched as a welcome return of a beloved female character that all women are eager to catch up with. It's more than that though. This is the return of a British institution, an iconic British woman (albeit played by an American) who yearns for a dash of the kind of romance that often feels left in the past while striding bravely through every pitfall of the modern world. Each movie is, at the very least, a great mix of comedy and comfort, and there's a fantastic selection of British acting talent on display (many of them reprising their roles here, even if only for a brief moment).

Time has moved along, and life continues to deny Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger again, as if there could be a replacement for her at this stage) any kind of permanent happiness, or so it seems. She now has two children (Mabel, played by Mila Jankovic, and the older Billy Darcy, played by Casper Knopf), but her life has a Mark Darcy-shaped hole in it. There's still the occasional flirting from Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, once again at his caddish best), but things finally start to look up when Bridget tries out Tinder and meets a young man named Roxster (Leo Woodall). Meanwhile, the children aren't always doing well, especially Billy, and this leads to a number of uncomfortable encounters with a new teacher, Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

While the director of To Leslie doesn't really feel like a natural fit for this material, it turns out that making that assumption would just make an ass out of us and Michael Morris. Morris has the good sense to not get in the way of a talented cast all having fun with the screenplay co-written by Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan, and, of course, Helen Fielding, adapting her own novel. There's everything you want in terms of amusing embarrassments, satisfying swearing, and fine comedy moments, but Morris does a great job of balancing everything out with a more serious central strand exploring loss and how to keep moving forward when the destination ahead seems to have nothing there for you.

Zellweger continues to shine in the role that she'll be identified with for all time, and she seems natural and effortless onscreen in a way that seems to convey her own love for the character. Jankovic and Knodf are solid child actors, the former involved in more of the sequences that cause our heroine to get a red face, and everyone else onscreen, old or new, feels like a perfect addition to this (final?) chapter. Woodall is helped by the fact that he has scenes that show off the affect he has on others around him, especially in a sequence that has him arriving late to a party just in time to act the hero, Ejiofor is playing the typical hard-shelled individual with the soft centre, and both Firth and Grant continue to be delightful in their respective roles. Emma Thompson, Sally Phillips, James Callis, Shirley Henderson, Neil Pearson, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Joanna Scanlan, Celia Imrie, Nico Parker, Claire Skinner, Sarah Solemani, Josette Simon, and Leila Farzad are all wonderful, not one of them letting the side down, and I'm probably still forgetting one or two people I will later kick myself for not mentioning. It's a shame that Isla Fisher is only seen for mere seconds, and I suspect some of her work may have ended up on the cutting-room floor, but such an abundance of riches makes that much easier to accept.

I went into this hoping to enjoy it. I came out of the cinema knowing that it was easily my second favourite of the foursome. I can imagine many other people will feel the same. What could have felt lazy and by-the-numbers instead turns out to be as surprising, in terms of the themes being satisfactorily explored, as it is satisfying and eager to meet all expectations. The only downside is that I would now welcome another cinematic journey through a new Bridget diary, but I also know that this is just about the most perfect ending that we could all have wished for.

8/10

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Heretic (2024)

There's been an interesting trend in recent years for some horror movies to base themselves around the idea of social awkwardness/embarrassment. Maybe it was always there, to some degree anyway, but we've had recent films giving us horror that stems from two separate people accidentally being booked in to the same Airbnb, holiday friends who astoundingly take up the offer of an invite to spend more time together when the reality should have been to immediately lose contact once they were back in their respective homes, and now, and maybe worst of all, answering your door to people who are aiming to educate you on their religion.

Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are, respectively, Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, two young Mormon  women who end up knocking on the door of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). Mr. Reed welcomes them inside and is delighted to have a conversation with them, but it's not long until the women suspect that all is not quite right. They want to leave as soon as possible, which goes against their usual mindset. Mr. Reed has plenty that he wants to discuss though, and maybe even one or two sights to show them.

Co-written and co-directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, Heretic was one of a number of horror movies to receive no small amount of praise from people in 2024. While I'm happy to see it so praised, and while a number of aspects deserve it, I have to say that I'm a bit puzzled by the amount of people who seemed to recommend it without a couple of important caveats.

So here are a couple of important caveats. Heretic really has to work hard to maintain any sense of plausibility as the central characters remain in one location for most of the runtime. It doesn't quite succeed, but that only becomes a problem until things take a more serious, arguably more genre-leaning, turn. Then everything gets quite interesting and fun again, right up until we have to endure a final 10 minutes that almost undoes all of the previous good work. Almost.

When it comes to the conversation between the three main characters in the first half of the movie, this is fantastic. Grant gets to relish every sentence and carefully-chosen word, moving from harmless and lonely old man to someone who seems more dangerous and predatory with every subsequent chess move against people who believe they are playing chequers, and both Thatcher and East eventually work hard on their rebuttals to the arguments that he makes. Then comes the motivation though, which is where the film falls down, and then you have to watch one apparently far-fetched incident after another, with writers Beck and Woods happy to throw in coincidences and ridiculousness in whatever way best serves themselves in their directorial capacity.

The performances are the saving grace. Thatcher and East do really well in their roles, fighting hard to present themselves as more than just paper-thin caricatures. Grant is given the best seat at the table though, and starts chomping his way through every scene as if he's just been served a huge platter of all of his favourite foods. I have always been a big fan of Grant, even when he was making his millions as the floppy-haired rom-com charmer, but it's undeniable that he's been doing some great work, and clearly having much more fun, in the past decade than when he first shot to stardom. His turn here is another in a steady stream of absolutely brilliant and entertaining performances that have made him a scene-stealing highlight in the films that have made use of him lately. There aren't really any other people worth mentioning, aside from Topher Grace (who has just one or two minutes of screentime), but that's no big loss when the three leads are so good.

I really enjoyed Heretic, despite what my criticisms here may have led you to believe, but I really enjoyed it because of the first half and the work of the leads. I was disappointed by the ending, but at least it tried to do something interesting. I'd still highly recommend the whole thing though, but with caveats.

7/10

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Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023)

While I never exactly got into Dungeons & Dragons when I was younger, I did explore some of the lore and the scenarios created for it. I enjoyed a number of RPGs, but would often spend more time reading the rule books (for stuff like Star Wars and the brilliant Paranoia) and settling back into the single-player fun of the Fighting Fantasy books. But there was a time when I certainly knew a gelatinous cube from a less harmful creation, and I had a selection of impressively unusual dice.

I had heard good things about Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves since it first hit cinema screens a little while ago, and many people complimented it by saying that it somehow managed to evoke the atmosphere of a gaming session with friends. Many people were correct.

The plot is quite simple. Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez play bard Edgin and barbarian Holga, two people working together to escape their prison, assemble a group of people with various skillsets to help them, and defeat a villain who has been taking care of Edgin’s daughter for some time. The list of potential helpers includes Simon (Justice Smith), a sorcerer trying to get better with his powers, Doric (Sophia Lillis), a shape-shifting Druid, and Xenk Yendar (Regé-Jean Page), a Paladin who is mistrusted by Edgin. 

Co-directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio, this is a snappy and confident slice of genre work that may have benefited from those involved not having already worked with fantasy adventure material. The script balances everything well between the witty dialogue, the serious approach to the lore and world-building, and a number of brilliant little extra gags and references that those familiar to the game will catch, and the direction is polished and inventive enough to help make the 130-minute-plus runtime fairly fly by.

It also helps that the casting is actually about as perfect as can be. Pine turns his charm all the way up to full power, and that’s something almost impossible to resist, Rodriguez is as believably tough as ever, but with a good and loyal core making her easy to warm to, even as she is scowling at most of the people around her, and  there’s yet another wonderfully roguish turn from Hugh Grant, who is seeming to have more fun at this time in his career than he has at any other time. Smith gives us a character with an endearing lack of confidence, Page is at the other end of the spectrum, and Lillis is often the coolest member of the group until she transforms into whatever shape is required to cause maximum havoc. Chloe Coleman is fine in the role of Kira, Edgin’s daughter, and Daisy Head is enjoyably sombre as a powerful wizard with a plan to plunge the world into a new age of darkness and misery.

There are a couple of great set-pieces, including a hilarious sequence involving some magic used to enable Edgin to question some corpses (trust me, it’s much funnier than it sounds), the score/soundtrack is a delight, every element of the production design, wardrobe, and FX work looks as if it has been worked on with genuine care and attention to detail, and there’s a strong chance that this contains at least one of my favourite cameos in recent years (not to mention the other main cameo, a star name placed in a delightfully amusing scene that provides a little insight into what Holga looks for in a partner).

I am already keen to rewatch this, and I hope others feel the same way. It may have underperformed slightly at the box office, but, trust me, it’s a critical hit.

8/10

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Prime Time: Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)

Guy Ritchie has certainly settled into a new groove in recent years. His output has increased, and he seems to enjoy moving between comedy capers, like this one, and darker fare (such as Wrath Of Man and his upcoming film, The Covenant AKA Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant). Working again with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies on the screenplay, Ritchie and his cast probably had a lot of fun making this. It’s a shame that viewers don’t get to enjoy themselves quite as much as those onscreen.

Something has been stolen, and it is due to be sold off to the highest bidder. It’s not important to know exactly what the stolen item is. It’s important to know that it is very dangerous. The person most likely to be brokering that deal is the super-rich and super-dodgy Greg (Hugh Grant). A team is assembled to get close to Greg. That team is made up of action man Orson (Jason Statham), tech whizz Sarah (Aubrey Plaza), and a man who can support both, JJ (Bugzy Malone). Cary Elwes plays Nathan, the man trying to remain in charge of this small team, and problems arise when he realises that they aren’t the only ones assigned to this job. But they are the only ones who come up with the idea of getting close to Greg by introducing him to his favourite actor, Danny (Josh Hartnett).

I am not going to use this review to try and pretend that I didn’t enjoy this film (and to hell with typing out that unnecessarily unwieldy title every time I am referring to it). This is a fun time, thanks largely to the cast obviously having fun in their roles, but it’s an insubstantial and lesser fun time than many other films directed by Ritchie.

Timing is a big part of that, especially when the central idea is so close to the plot of The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent (which had the added bonus of letting Nicolas Cage playing a version of Nicolas Cage), but there’s also a script issue. This is an action comedy that doesn’t quite have enough action or comedy in it, and I cannot imagine how people will react to this if they aren’t already fans of the cast.

Statham is on good form in the lead role, doing what he does well (being charming, cocky, and good at punching people in the face), and both Plaza and Malone work well alongside him, the former getting more of the laughs with her constant playfulness and teasing. Elwes has to roll his eyes often as he tries to keep his team in order, and he is subsequently ordered around by Eddie Marsan, fun in an all-too-small role, while Peter Ferdinando does well as the head of the secondary team. Hartnett has a great time portraying a slightly precious actor, roped into a scheme he would rather know nothing about, and Grant delivers yet another hilarious rogue that seems to be his forte nowadays.

A lot of people will enjoy this. There certainly isn’t much here to hate. It just doesn’t do anything as well as expected though, sadly, with the 114-minute runtime feeling overlong, the soundtrack disappointingly sticking very much in the background, no major set-pieces, and a third act that lacks real tension. Nobody ever feels as if they are ever in proper danger, which means that you never get the sense of the stakes being very high. I don’t regret passing some time with this, especially as I like every main player, but I would rewatch either The Gentlemen or Wrath Of Man ahead of it, and I highly recommend both of those films to anyone who hasn’t seen them yet. The former is in line with the tone of this film, the latter is quite a bit darker and more violent.

6/10

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The Gentlemen (2020)

I absolutely understand that Guy Ritchie movies aren't necessarily designed for anyone other than Guy Ritchie fans (and I'm not talking about his studio work here, I am talking about GUY RITCHIE movies), and I also absolutely understand that another crime comedy from him will be about as appealing as a smack on the back of the head from an irate Jason Statham, but The Gentlemen actually ends up being a lot of fun. Ritchie is confident enough in his own abilities, and he seems to relish the chance to get down 'n' dirty with a great cast who will help him create his most blatant homage yet to The Long Good Friday.

Matthew McConaughey is Mickey Pearson, the mastermind behind a superbly profitable drug business. It's pot he sells though, which means we can still view him as a good guy compared to other criminal types onscreen. Charlie Hunnam is Ray, Mickey's trusted right hand man. Mickey wants to retire, which sets off a twisted and violent chain of events as people try to nominate themselves as worthy successors. The prime buyer would seem to be a savvy businessman named Matthew (Jeremy Strong), but Dry Eye (Henry Golding) is an up-and-coming boss/thug who wants to get a big piece of the pie. We learn all of this through a lengthy conversation between Ray and a bloodhound journalist named Fletcher (Hugh Grant).

The Gentlemen is a film that does everything well, and is elevated by the cast. From those just mentioned, the only performer I didn't really enjoy was Strong, who delivers a performance that feels just a bit too weak and lacking in confidence for his character (despite his character being the kind of brain who outsources to brawn).McConaughey is his usual cool self, and very laid-back until he has to pounce on someone, Hunnam is the best I have seen him be, Golding is enjoyable in a role that thankfully doesn't have him yet again showing all of us men up as inferior and unromantic souls, and Grant has an absolute ball playing the kind of unscrupulous journo he has often publicly berated while working in support of Hacked Off, a campaign group set up to hold members of the tabloid press to account over their illegal tactics of phone hacking to gain private information that would provide them with juicy tabloid gossip. Michelle Dockery is a fitting queen to McConaughey's king, Eddie Marsan has fun in a small role that leads to a punchline both hilarious and appalling, and Colin Farrell once again proves that he can be relied upon to do his best work when not constrained by the packaging of a mainstream star vehicle.

There are only two main problems, and they're problems you find in most Ritchie movies (although I hadn't realised it before). First of all, every character feels like a character written by Ritchie. Nobody has their own voice here, although Grant almost overcomes this with the strength of his performance. Secondly, the large selection of characters inevitably delivers some that you wish weren't given much screentime (in this case it's a bunch of amateur criminals who upload their exploits to YouTube).

Those with sensitive ears will want to give this a miss, because the word "cunt" is bandied about more than it would be at a Christmas night out with a bunch of gynaecologists, and those who prefer their tales of crooks and crime to be told in a more straightforward fashion may also be a bit peeved, especially during the indulgent moments that allow for some playful unreliable narration from Grant's character. Everyone else should have a great time.

8/10

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason (2004)

I really disliked Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason when I first saw it. It spent too much time either being completely ridiculous (a plot point that sees Bridget jailed in Thailand) or just rehashing moments that were done better the first time around. Watching it now, I don't mind it too much. It still suffers from the same failings, especially the ridiculousness of that Thailand section, but the worst thing about it is really that it's just not the first film, despite trying hard to be.

At the start of the movie we see Bridget (Renee Zellweger) enjoying a happy life with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Unfortunately, that happiness doesn't look like it will last forever. Bridget is insecure, still as accident-prone as ever, and she once again ends up with the predatory Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) in her life. Can she make it through a difficult time, or will she give in to that inner voice of hers that is often spectacularly wrong in the viewpoint and advice it provides?

Directed by Beeban Kidron, this is a film that seems to struggle to find a proper identity. Much like the central character, it's not sure where it really fits in. In trying to both give audiences what they enjoyed so much the first time around while also adding some new adventures, it falters and stumbles from one set-piece to the next. The script, by Helen Fielding (who wrote the source material), Adam Brooks, Richard Curtis, and Andrew Davies, has too few moments of decent dialogue, instead relying on the familiarity and appeal of the main characters to carry things along.

The main plus point is that those main characters DO appeal. This remains the best role that Zellweger has had, perhaps simply due to it being the most fun and (for many) identifiable, and she slips back into the character like a favourite outfit. Firth does his strong-jawed noble act again, few do it better, and Grant is as amusing as he usually is, especially when in full on devilish mode. As well as the leads, most of the supporting players return (some getting more screentime than others) so it really feels like the whole gang is back together, which makes this an easy choice for comfort viewing. Jacinda Barrett and Joe Nicholls is the main new face, and they both provide some interesting twists. There's also a fun little turn from Jessica Hynes, no twists there but always good to see her onscreen.

The pop soundtrack, the fun escapades, the cast of well-to-do characters dealing with problems that help everyone forget the burning hellhole of the real world around us, there's nothing here to outright hate (unless you hated the first film). But there's nothing here to outright celebrate either. It's just there, bringing no advancement to the story or characters that we all enjoyed the first time around, and seeming to have no purpose other than selling repackaged boxsets featuring the first film alongside it. And yes, I bought the boxset.

6/10

You can buy the movies here.

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

A top-tier entry in the selection of British rom-coms from the past few decades, Bridget Jones's Diary is the film that made everyone fall in love with Renée Zellweger, reminded everyone of their love for Colin Firth, and once again showed off the comedy chops of Hugh Grant.

The fairly light plot involves Bridget, a young woman who is keen to change her life for the better. She wants to lose some weight, quit smoking, and land a good boyfriend. Unfortunately, she has a habit of not helping herself in these matters, sometimes accidentally and sometimes not. She is unimpressed when she meets Mark Darcy (Firth) at a Christmas party, despite the fact that he is, well, Colin Firth, and eventually ends up having some fun with her work colleague, and charming rogue, Daniel Cleaver (Grant). Things may seem like they're going her way but there are some obstacles on the way to true happiness, or at least a satisfyingly happy ending to this movie.

Directed by Sharon Maguire, Bridget Jones's Diary holds up as well nowadays as it did when first released back at the turn of the 21st century. Critics could argue that it's a horrible fantasy, pandering to international audiences with scenes of snow-covered and picturesque pockets of England, upper-class Brits going through their angst while not having any real cause for worry (certainly compared to many others), and a problematic female icon who seems to look in all the wrong places for solutions to her problems. Fans might refute those accusations by saying that those aspects make the movie as enjoyable as it is. It IS a fantasy, it IS people dealing with problems unlike the standard problems that many of us have (although I am sure that we've all had our moments of unrequited love and/or loneliness), and the central character being problematic is better than watching yet another flawless starlet pretending that her life is unravelling around her while she continues to do everything right until the world around her finally delivers the good karma that everyone knows she will be due.

The script, written by Helen Fielding (who also wrote the popular source novel, of course), Andrew Davies, and Richard Curtis, is full of classic rom-com moments and some wonderful dialogue, whether it's Bridget narrating her diary entries or awkward exchanges between her and Mr Darcy. You could do a lot worse if you ever wanted to dissect a script that brilliantly sketches a number of main characters while delivering quality laughs in most scenes. Things rattle along perfectly, and you get a selection of pretty good pop hits on the soundtrack helping everything along.

Despite a career that has seen her give a number of great performances, Zellweger may never escape from her role of Bridget (a role she has now played in three movies). She's brilliant in the role, authentic and appealing, helped by the fact that she manages to also put on a very good English accent. Firth does his stoic act with aplomb, making it all the more amusing when he has an angry outburst that leads to a hugely entertaining fight scene, and Grant is probably as hilarious as he's ever been (and he has made me laugh a lot in so many of his roles). Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent are both excellent as Bridget's parents, Shirley Henderson, Sally Phillips, and James Callis are all fun as Bridget's main three friends, and there are wonderful turns from Neil Pearson, Felicity Montagu, Paul Brooke, Celia Imrie, and many others.

If you enjoy great comedies then you'll like this. It's a near-perfect rom-com, and a reliable favourite to have to hand for those evenings when you want to watch something that will keep you grinning from ear to ear throughout, even if you started watching it while in a low mood, wearing your pyjamas, and determined to eat your way through an entire tub of ice cream.

9/10

Buy the set here.
Americans can get the same set here.

Netflix And Chill: The Rewrite (2014)

The Rewrite is just about as predictable as a movie can be. It's not even too far removed from many other Hugh Grant movies from the last couple of decades. And I really enjoyed, I tell you, REALLY enjoyed it. Despite the predictability, I almost rated it even higher than I eventually did.

Grant stars as Keith Michaels, an Oscar-winning writer who hasn't recaptured that glory in many years. He as had numerous meetings that lead to nothing and he needs some money. So he accepts a teaching job in Binghampton, despite believing that writing cannot be taught. Instead of reading all of the script extracts that should be the deciding factor on who gets into the class, he picks attractive girls (including Karen, played by Bella Heathcote, who he has also slept with on his first night in town) and a couple of non-threatening males. There's someone else who wants to get into his class. A woman (Holly, played by Marisa Tomei) who tries to hold on to optimism, whatever life has thrown her way. Will the students learn anything? Can Keith even make it to the end of term? He has a couple of allies (played by Chris Elliott and J. K. Simmons) but quickly makes a powerful enemy (Allison Janney).

The Rewrite is written and directed by Marc Lawrence, the man who also gave us Hugh Grant vehicles such as Two Weeks Notice, Music & Lyrics, and Did You Hear About The Morgans? I haven't seen that last movie YET but this film is very much in line with the first two. Grant is someone who, throughout the course of the film, eventually learns some lessons while finding himself growing closer to someone who may become a love of his life. Hs charm and humour help people to overlook his flaws as he wades through territory that is unfamiliar to him, and there's usually a major wobble in the third act that has to be fixed for a standard, happy, rom-com ending. Lawrence does this so entertainingly, helped by his leads and the whole supporting cast, that it's easy to actually admire the formulaic nature of it, rather than resent it.

Grant is as wonderful as he usually is in this kind of role, working a fun mix of cynicism, desperation, and a small shred of hope that he can see things out long enough to get back on his feet. Tomei is equally wonderful, she has been a romantic lead in many other movies and is always believably warm and lovable in those roles. Heathcote does well, as do Andrew Keenan Bolger, Steven Kaplan, Emily Morden, Annie Q, and the other women playing the students. Simmons is a delight as a man who jokingly gripes about being the only man in a household with his wife and daughters, and who always gets emotional when he starts talking about them in earnest, Elliott is fun as a teacher who wishes that his ability yo find a Shakespeare quote for any occasion could improve his lot in life, and Janney is very welcome in a role that could have easily gone to a lesser-known performer.

The only downside I can think of is the decidely average score. Well, you also have the formula, sometimes feeling almost slavishly adhered to. This is disposable entertainment. It just happens to be disposable entertainment that made me smile, laugh, and feel satisfyingly entertained from start to finish. Others might even agree with me.

6/10

You can buy The Rewrite here.
Americans can buy it here.

Paddington 2 (2017)

I try my best not to mix my own politics with film reviews, unless the films are making a strong political statement or something happens that I find so downright loathsome that I just have to say something. And yet here I am with this review of Paddington 2 and it feels as if I should start off with a bit of a statement.

Don't worry, I believe what I am about to say is actually quite bipartisan, but I suppose that really depends on how you're viewing the world around you. Because that world has been getting a bit crappier and crappier for most of the past few weeks, months, and years. Natural disasters, idiots and criminals in positions of authority, tensions between countries with nuclear weapons, business closures and job losses, murders and cowardly terrorist attacks, and the general downsizing of some of my favourite chocolate bars.

Why am I doing my best to make us all a bit depressed? Well, Paddington 2 is an undeniably fun and lovely film, but it's also the perfect kind of film to make you forget about global problems for a while, and I think the timing may be as much a key to its success as the quality of the film itself.

Returning to helm once more, after doing such a great job with the first movie, director Paul King (also co-writing again, this time with Simon Farnaby, who also has a hilarious cameo) crafts another perfect mix of comedy, sweetness, and sheer entertainment.

The plot revolves around a pop-up book. Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) wants to save up his money and buy it as a great birthday gift for his Aunt Lucy. Which makes it very unfortunate when the book is stolen. And it's even more unfortunate when Paddington is mistaken for the thief, leaving him to spend some time at her majesty's leisure while the cunning thief (Hugh Grant, clearly having a blast) uses the book to decipher a code that he hopes will lead to a heap of treasure. Prison life leads Paddington to meet Knuckles McGinty (Brendan Gleeson), and an unlikely friendship develops. But is that enough to keep our little bear in good spirits while people outside the prison walls try to prove his innocence? Or will a prison break be necessary?

Watching Paddington 2, and enjoying it SO much, got me thinking about both of the Paddington films. They both have the same strengths. First of all, the cast. Most people return here to the roles that they had in the first film, and the cast includes Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Jim Broadbent, Tom Conti, and many, many more. Some scenes are a veritable who's who of British talent. Second, this is how you update a cute character who came to prominence in what might be labelled more innocent times. Paddington Bear isn't the type of youngster who has grown up with Twitter and Facebook, he doesn't have a smartphone in his pocket, and a lot of his values are as naive as they are admirable. But keeping him that way, almost a wide-eyed innocent often wrong-footed by the world around him, makes him a great character at the heart of these stories. And the fact that he never doubts himself, the fact that he always treats everyone the same way, makes it easier to accept those reciprocating his kindness and selflessness in a way that somehow doesn't feel too schmaltzy and annoying.

There are other reasons for the films being so successful, of course. The production design, the visuals, the CGI, the music, the pacing, every aspect of the film feels like it has been given due care and consideration. The script balances out the jokes with the emotional content, nicely weighting things on one end or the other through alternating scenes, and both major elements work. And I think I already mentioned Hugh Grant. He may be portraying a very different kind of villain from the character played by Nicole Kidman in the first film, but that doesn't make him less of a threat. He's the type that you want to boo and hiss at, even while laughing at his vanity and showiness (he plays a hammy actor who hasn't starred in a hit for quite some time - at least those costumes he has will help him in a variety of different disguises).

I haven't taken the time to rattle through the entire cast and sing their praises because this is an ensemble piece that brings the best out of everyone, whether they're onscreen for ten seconds or one hundred minutes. You don't view Hawkins, Bonneville, and co. as the supporting cast. You view them as the Browns. You don't spend the film contemplating how good Whishaw is in his voice role, you just accept that he's Paddington. And so on.

There's not much more I can say about it. I don't agree with some who think this sequel is superior to the first movie, but I couldn't say that it's inferior either. I rate both the same, and recommend picking up a nice double-bill immediately if you've somehow avoided either film until now. Buy the films, clear your schedules, make yourself a nice plate of marmalade sandwiches, and then sit down and press play. You'll thank me for it.

9/10

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