For It Is Man's Number: rosamund pike

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Sunday, 31 May 2026

Netflix And Chill: Ladies First (2026)

If Ladies First had been made in the 1980s then it might seem like something fun and harmless. It could make use of some comedy stars to have some fun with the deep-rooted problems in a patriarchal society that would seem ripe for an overhaul. As a film released in 2026, however, it's just a depressing reminder of how little progress has been made throughout modern history. And it doesn't have the right lead actor needed to make it an amusing enough distraction.

Sacha Baron Cohen plays a male chauvinist pig named Damien Sachs. Working for a company that needs some better optics, he promotes the talented Alex Fox (Rosamund Pike), but doesn't really want to take note of her good ideas. He doesn't really want her input on anything at all, because he and his colleagues are used to completely ignoring women unless they're trying to sleep with them. That becomes a big problem when Damien hits his head and wakes up in a world where the roles are reversed. Women are in charge, and he will be trapped there until he can figure out a way to get into a top management position.

I actually wondered why I didn't have more fun with this, but writing out that plot summary has clarified things for me. This is a Netflix film based on another Netflix film, "Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile", which may not seem like a great idea, but there's just about enough talent behind and in front of the camera to make it work. If only anyone involved actually made some effort.

Director Thea Sharrock doesn't do much to liven things up, settling for a reliance on numerous production design gags (various ads using males in very little clothing, Burger Queen, etc.), and writers Natalie Krinsky, Cinco Paul, and Katie Silberman seem so busy having fun with the role reversal concept that they forget to pack in more gags or any storyline that viewers may actually care about. Everything about this, from the obviousness of the jokes to the character names (male character names Sachs, female is Fox, and even a character our lead needs to pursue as he tries to get promotion is named Chase), is lazy.

There are better performances from most of the other players, but Cohen cannot make his main character work, which is a big negative. He can be cocky and rude, believably sexist for most of the runtime, but there's nothing tempering that, either because of the writing or because Cohen cannot manage to add a touch of honey to his sharpness. Pike is much better, but even she is unable to do anything truly great with what she's given. Fiona Shaw presents a riff on a character that she's done a number of times before (she's very good at being the polite Brit who also happens to be struggling to contain a burning passion), Richard E. Grant is amusing enough as he portrays "Pigeon Man", and there are decidedly okay turns from Emily Mortimer, Tom Davis, Charles Dance, Bill Paterson, and Kathryn Hunter, to namecheck the main faces I recognised.

I had heard bad things about this before I pressed play, but I figured that it was just being dismissed by people who weren't in the mood for some silliness. I was wrong. Silly isn't bad. Silly and lazy and unfunny is bad. Did I smirk a couple of times? Yes. Did I laugh enough times to be able to rate this as a comedy? Not even close.

3/10

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Sunday, 16 March 2025

Netflix And Chill: Fracture (2007)

It's hard to deny that Fracture is quite ridiculous. It's actually not very good. I would also argue, however, that it's hard to deny that Fracture is also entertaining. It's a legal drama with a focus on fun ahead of any pesky stuff like plausibility or reality. Neither of the two leads, Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling, are doing anything close to their best work, but they're perfectly in sync with the tone of the whole thing.

Hopkins is Ted Crawford, a man who we see at the start of the movie shooting his wife. He did it. He confesses to it. It should be an easy case. Gosling is Willy Beachum, a smooth and skilled lawyer who really likes easy cases. When he is asked to take on the case, despite readying himself for a move to a more lucrative private practice, he agrees, thinking it will be quickly dealt with. Complications soon arise though, and Crawford may be getting just as much satisfaction from playing with those around him as he got from killing his wife.

Director Gregory Hoblit has been involved with some landmark TV shows throughout his career, but his film work has been a bit more forgettable. There are some treats here and there, and most of his features actually came out between 1996 and 2008, but he's the kind of figure you would be more likely to describe as dependable rather than great. The same could almost be said of writers Glenn Gers and Daniel Pyne, although Pyne started strong with his first theatrical features at the start of the 1990s. It's clear that the draw here needs to be the cast, which is why we get Hopkins and Gosling.

Both of the leading men are working with accents that they would have been better to leave well alone, and both somehow play their parts well while also barely containing a smirk in response to how laughable everything is. Thankfully, there's a great supporting cast to help remind viewers of how actors can be great when not being pushed towards increasing silliness. Rosamund Pike, David Strathairn, Billy Burke, cliff Curtis, Bob Gunton, Fiona Shaw, Embeth Davidtz, and Xander Berkeley are the other names worth mentioning, although some do better than others, and some have much more screentime than others.

I cannot bring myself to make too many excuses for my enjoyment of this. The cinematography, editing, and other technical and production work stays decent throughout, but that's not enough to make up for the script and the hamminess. The script and hamminess are also part of the appeal though, and I have already watched this film twice while many much worthier films sit unwatched on my shelves. I won't rush to rewatch it, but I wouldn't speed by it if I was channel-hopping and saw it playing. Maybe that's down to the fractures in my own mind though.

5/10

Wednesday, 20 March 2024

Prime Time: Wrath Of The Titans (2012)

I can understand why people got upset when the news broke that we were getting a remake of the beloved Clash Of The Titans. I still ended up watching it, and I didn’t mind it. In fact, I eventually bought the double-pack that included both that film and this film in fun 3D. I have had that set sitting on my shelf for at least five years, and this week I decided that I should finally watch the second movie. There was probably some subconscious reason for that, considering the fact that the film is . . . well, we will get to the full critique shortly.

Perseus (Sam Worthington) is trying to live a peaceful life with his son. That peace is ruined, sadly, when his father, Zeus (Liam Neeson), gets himself in big trouble. Hades (Ralph Fiennes) has seen the writing on the wall - gods losing power, the titans almost set to break back through to their realm - and wants to end up on the winning side. He also has help from Ares (Edgar Ramírez), the son of Poseidon. It is up to Perseus to ensure that humanity survives, and he is soon joined by another demi-god, Agenor (Toby Kebbell), and the fierce warrior queen, Andromeda (Rosamund Pike). They will have to fierce a variety of huge and deadly enemies, including a cyclops or two, a minotaur, and at least one of the intimidating titans.

Written by Dan Mazeau and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (billed here as David Leslie Johnson), this should have been a much better, and much easier, film to craft. Moving a step or two away from the beloved original, all it had to do was take a handful of familiar characters and throw them into something spectacular and fun. I guess that is the aim here, but it just doesn’t work, mainly due to the weakness of the villains and the feeling that the structure is just a pale retread of the previous film.

It doesn’t help that director Jonathan Liebesman is now at the helm. While far from the worst person to take on the role of director, he seems to bring nothing unique to any of his projects. He can sometimes emulate better films informing his own, at best, but he usually just delivers something that lacks any hint of style or proper authorship. If you are asked next week to name the director of this movie then I would put good money on you not being able to remember his name. And the same goes for every other film he has directed.

The cast is quite a mixed bag, but the good far outnumbers the bad. Unfortunately, the bad includes our leading man, Sam Worthington. I don’t mind Worthington, and he’s certainly not awful, but almost every other actor that he shares screentime with does a better job. Except Ramírez, sadly, which makes him a sorely unentertaining villain. Neeson and Fiennes have fun in their godly roles, Danny Huston is welcome for the minute he is onscreen, and both Kebbell and Pike are excellent additions to the ensemble. There’s also a very small role for Bill Nighy, who almost steals the entire movie with his wonderful turn.

There is an over-reliance on CGI once again, as expected, and the cinematography focuses on dirt and flames to the detriment of anything more visually interesting, but the runtime isn’t bloated, the pacing is brisk enough, and it’s always fun to see the creatures featured here that were previously so well-realised in a pre-CGI world by the legendary Ray Harryhausen.

I was still tempted to rate this as ever-so-slightly above average, because I didn’t hate it while it was on, but it’s just too forgettable, too bland, and disappointing for being a waste of such a good opportunity. So I will consider myself generous enough already by rating it as absolutely average.

5/10

Wednesday, 3 January 2024

Prime Time: Saltburn (2023)

Unoriginal and imperfect throughout, Saltburn has been gaining more of a reputation since it became available to stream, as people share their astonishment at a few key scenes. It also helps that it's a brilliant film, elevated by a cast who are doing some of their best work. Writer-director Emerald Fennell may not surpass her debut feature, the superb Promising Young Woman, but she does well enough to deliver something on a par with it.

Barry Keoghan is Oliver Quick, a student at Oxford University who stands out for all the wrong reasons. It's obvious from the way he carries himself, the way he dresses, and the way that he has actually completed the recommended reading list, that he's not from the same social strata as many of the privileged and carefree students around him. He soon gets a chance to taste a very different lifestyle, however, when he is befriended by Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). Felix likes Oliver, and eventually invites him to his family home for the summer holidays. The family home is Saltburn, a huge mansion that houses mother (Elspeth, played by Rosamund Pike), father (Sir James, played by Richard E. Grant), Felix's sister (Venetia, played by Alison Oliver), and an American cousin (Farleigh, played by Archie Madekwe). Oliver soon starts to feel more comfortable in his new surroundings, but some people go out of their way to remind him that he'll always be a tourist reliant on the charity of the rich and the patronising.

Part gothic romance, part sexy vampire movie, part Patricia Highsmith tale, Saltburn is another film that shows how you can take a number of familiar elements to make something that feels vital and fresh. Whether it is the framing of the images (Fennell decided to avoid a widescreen look in order to show the grandiosity of places like the old university buildings and Saltburn) or the moments of kink that will have mainstream viewers reaching for the smelling salts, this is a film that keeps trying to prod and tickle you while taking you towards a seemingly-inevitable finale. It may seem quite blunt and silly at times, especially when certain details are revealed later on, but it’s worth remembering that a lot of the characters are themselves blunt and silly. Money doesn’t buy class or intelligence. It just means that you have money, and probably keep wanting more of it.

Keoghan, although a bit too old for the central role, gives a performance that is rightly winning him a whole new fanbase. He’s so comfortable in his skin, even as he continually adapts and reacts to the situation and people around him, that it’s unnerving. Everything about him feels slightly false, but it doesn’t matter because everything about everyone around him also feels slightly false. Elordi is equally good, albeit in a very different way, portraying his character as someone with bad habits and good intentions, making himself feel better by befriending a “charity case” he can make happy for a fleeting period of time. Grant and Pike are also fantastic, with the latter already in danger of cornering the market in films featuring people deemed sociopathic, at the very least. As for Oliver and Madekwe, it’s hugely entertaining to watch the cracks appear in their facades as things start to come undone in the imposing surroundings of Saltburn. It’s also worth mentioning the glorious supporting turns from Paul Rhys, as a head butler named Duncan, and Carey Mulligan (delivering what is basically a bittersweet cameo that helps to underline the shallow, cold, and crass nature of the central characters).

There’s also a great score and soundtrack accompanying the visuals (okay, one song from The Cheeky Girls makes an appearance, but the placement of it works), a lot of dark humour underpinning even the darkest moments, and numerous references to the main works that influenced Fennell’s script, ensuring that this will reward repeat viewings.

If you have heard too much about this already, and some people have made far too much fuss over one or two scenes that aren’t quite as shocking as the conversation would have you think, maybe try to put all that chatter and noise aside when you get around to watching the film. I think anyone going into this with a rough idea of how playful and twisted and erotically-charged it is will have a good time, but anyone going into it with some of the many hyperbolic exclamations about it running through their mind is more likely to end up disappointed. And nobody wants that. Saltburn is a place where everyone should end up completely satisfied. At least temporarily.

9/10

Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Prime Time: What We Did On Our Holiday (2014)

Holidays, as much as we fantasize about them in our minds, don’t always go to plan. They can actually be very stressful, especially when you are wrangling various family members, and especially when you aren’t heading off to sun-kissed tropical climes. And visiting family, including a very ill father who may not see beyond his next upcoming birthday, while pretending that you and your wife haven’t separated and are struggling to behave in a way that doesn’t negatively impact on the children? That probably wouldn’t be a nice and relaxing holiday. It is the holiday that viewers see depicted here though.

Rosamund Pike is Abi, David Tennant is Doug, and the two are taking their three children up to Scotland to visit Doug’s father, Gordie (Billy Connolly). Gordie has terminal cancer, with not long left until he reaches his expiration date, so Abi and Doug try to put on a united front, despite going through divorce proceedings. This united front will also require the help of their children, Lottie (Emilia Jones), Mickey (Bobby Smalldridge), and Jess (Harriet Turnbull). Other characters populate the screen, including Doug’s brother, Gavin (Ben Miller), and his sister-in-law, Margaret (Amelia Bulmore), but the focus stays on the antics of the children, eventually left in the care of their grandfather, and the bickering between Abi and Doug. It isn’t long until some messy stuff hits the fan.

Co-directed and co-written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, What We Did On Our Holidays is very much in line with other work they have delivered over the years, most often on the small screen. These two men have decades of experience, and they help themselves by casting familiar adults with an equal amount of experience in front of the camera. If you like any of the cast members here then you’re going to enjoy this, to some degree, and you may be relieved to hear that the child actors are all more than up to the task of being amusing and entertaining without becoming too annoying.

It cannot help feeling like a TV movie though, as opposed to something that could stand tall as a theatrical feature. The small scale of the story, the familiar faces most recognisable from their TV work, the tone and pacing of the whole thing. It’s not bad, and it certainly doesn’t feel as if it was made by people lacking skill or resources, but it’s not inherently filmic. Not to me anyway.

The children get to shine, especially in their scenes alongside a typically cheeky and anarchic Connolly, Tennant and Pike work well together, Miller and Bulmore are entertainingly uptight throughout, and I will always welcome screentime for the likes of Celia Imrie and Annette Crosbie. Nobody is doing their best work, but they all add extra value to the project.

You get a fair few decent laughs, some entertaining characters, and some pleasant views of the Scottish countryside. If that sounds like enough to keep you happy, and you may already be swayed if you are a fan of Tennant, Pike, or Connolly, then I recommend this. Unlikely to become a firm favourite, but it’s a decent enough little film with a big heart.

6/10

Wednesday, 30 November 2022

Prime Time: I Care A Lot (2020)

The easiest, and most flippant, way to summarize I Care A Lot is to make some joke about how I didn’t really care for it. I enjoyed it enough while it was on, and the central casting helps a lot, but the whole thing lacks any plausibility, which means it lacks any real bite it should have.

Rosamund Pike plays Marla Grayson, a woman who has built up a very successful business around becoming guardian to numerous elderly individuals. This allows her to drain their assets, bill them for hours spent dealing with their cases, and generally profit from the misery of someone spending the last of their days in a care home environment. Unfortunately, Marla targets Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), a woman who is connected to the very dangerous Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage). This puts Marla and her partner, Fran (Eiza González), in mortal danger.

Written and directed by J Blakeson, this is a film that feels like it wants to be a few different things. It could be a comment on how we treat the elderly. It could be a taut and entertaining thriller. It could be a damning indictment of a system that leaves people with nothing as they simply aim to remain healthy and alive in a society that has already deemed them as having no (or very little) value. The fact that it fails to fully commit to any of these aims means that it ends up an unsatisfying middle of them all, with no one aspect handled as well as it should be.

It all looks clean and cool throughout, although I wouldn’t even say there’s anything particularly standout about the visuals, and the score from Marc Canham is decent, but there’s a distinct air of everything being competent, as opposed to actually good.

The only area of excellence is the cast, and Blakeson really stops the film from being a complete disaster by having such a great selection of main cast members. Pike is superb in a role that feels very similar to one of her best cinematic performances (you will know what one I am on about), and Dinklage is an excellent menacing presence. Wiest is the most pleasant surprise though, making the most of her small amount of screentime to remind everyone that she still excels in any role she is given. To be clear, the surprise isn’t her level of talent, it is seeing her get a couple of real moments to shine in a role that could have easily been no more than a fleeting cameo. González is fine, although not given much to do, and there is some excellent scene-stealing by Chris Messina (playing a slick lawyer) and Macon Blair (playing the son of someone scammed by Pike’s character).

It loses points for having the most ineffective onscreen killers not wearing stormtrooper uniforms, it loses points for not using the obvious Faith No More song choice, and it loses points for an ending that doesn’t feel half as pointed and/or clever as Blakeson may think it is. In fact, the entire third act is more silly than anything else.

I Care A Lot? Nope. And I doubt others will.

5/10

Sunday, 24 March 2019

Netflix And Chill: Johnny English Reborn (2011)

I have no idea what movie I saw, and so disliked, some years ago but it seems that it wasn't this one. Or, if it was, I was in some kind of terrible mood that completely clouded my judgement. Because Johnny English Reborn made me laugh a lot. It's silly, it's predictable (seriously, if you cannot spot the main villain as soon as they appear then I'll be amazed), and it's superior to the first outing in a few key ways.

Atkinson returns to play the main character, a man we last saw basking in the glow of success. That glow has long faded, after an incident in Mozambique that was so bad that he even had his knighthood removed, and he has spent a long time training with Tibetan monks. But an opportunity for redemption awaits when he is requested back by MI7. There's a plot brewing to kill the Chinese Premier and the main lead will only talk to English. Partnered up with a young man named Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya) and armed with the latest gadgets, English is determined to foil the plot. And he's a lot more skilled than he used to be.

There's a level of polish and ambition here that was missing from the first film, although I think it may have been possible here as a direct result of that film's success. And it also does a great job of delivering what audiences want more of while not simply rehashing all of the previous highlights.

Director Oliver Parker oversees everything with a sense of confidence and style, working with a great script from Hamish McCool that, sensibly, makes the main character a much better agent than he used to be, although he still lacks essential knowledge and social skills while remaining oblivious to his own failings. Rather than just derive laughs from the ineptitude and clumsiness of English, McCool gives the character a different flavour. He's an agent who now compensates for his failings with new techniques and tricks.

Atkinson has just as much fun in his role, perhaps even more so with the moments that allow him to look a lot cooler than he ever has before (a chase sequence in which he relentlessly, but sedately, strides along after a daredevil practitioner of parkour is a highlight in the first half that best rings the changes), and the supporting cast is even stronger than it was for his last spy adventure. Kaluuya is as likeable as ever in his role, Gillian Anderson is the weary boss, Dominic West is the standard British agent in the mould that we're all more familiar with, and Rosamund Pike is a behavioural psychologist who obviously finds herself fascinated by English, and you also get small roles for Stephen Campbell Moore, Richard Schiff, Tim McInnerny, and Pik Sen Lim (as a deadly assassin).

If you enjoyed the first film then you're likely to enjoy this. There's even a chance that, like me, you enjoy this one even more. And I'm looking forward to checking out the next instalment.

7/10

Here's a triple-pack for you.
Americans can buy the same set here.

Monday, 18 February 2019

Mubi Monday: A Private War (2018)

I am going to start this review with a slight, unexpected, spoiler. So don't read ahead if you want to go into the film knowing absolutely nothing about it. There's a scene towards the end of this movie, a look at the incredible journalism of the late Marie Colvin, in which the real Marie Colvin talks about her life. It's a testament to the performance from Rosamund Pike, who has the lead role here, that I thought it was still her voice, as opposed to that of the woman she had just spent almost two hours portraying. And I think that one moment underlines just how good her performance is.

Pike plays Colvin with no polished edges, no vanity. She is a tough, determined, woman who will often go further, and therefore get more, than many other journalists who take their chances out in the battlefields. But it takes a toll, and that's quite obvious from the earliest scenes. Not only physically, Colvin lost an eye while reporting on one conflict, but also emotionally. Her boss (Tom Hollander) isn't ever really sure how she manages to do what she does, but he knows that she needs to do it, both for herself and for those around the world who will be unable to deny the truth once it is shown to them.

It's no surprise to find that director Matthew Heineman has a background in documentaries, particularly from the way he presents everything to viewers here while expecting them to be able to piece everything together as we move along with Colvin from one corpse-strewn environment to another (not often shown, but a couple of devastating images are more effective for being used sparingly). Working from a script by Arash Amel, that was based on an article by Marie Brenner, Heineman asks viewers to trust him, a trust rewarded by everyone involved in the way that it feels as if we are getting to really know, and appreciate, the amazingly strong woman at the centre of things.

I started with praise for Pike because, well, she deserves it. It's a performance so strong that I'm surprised it hasn't been talked up more. In fact, I'm surprised that the release wasn't planned to get Pike in the running for some awards (she was nominated for a couple). Hollander is good at portraying her boss, a man who knows he has a star worker but also knows that it's affecting her mental health. Jamie Dornan is excellent, playing a photographer with a military background who likes Colvin, admires her, and tries to save her from her own worst journalistic instincts. Greg Wise ands Stanley Tucci do well with their limited screen time, and Nikki Amuka-Bird has at least one great moment as the one person who comes closest to calling Colvin out for the habits that she develops away from her workday, to cope with the images that haunt her.

A celebration of a life without pretending there weren't any major flaws, A Private War is a timely look at the risks some people take to get the truth out there to a much wider audience. It's also, of course, a worthy introduction to Colvin. Much like the documentaries he has helmed in the past, Heineman does justice to the central subject while also making you keen to do some more research once the film is over.

8/10

You can read about Colvin in this here book.
Americans can already buy the movie here.

Thursday, 8 January 2015

Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl is a good film. At times it's a very good film. It also turns out to be the weakest one yet from director David Fincher. It's as if the opportunity to direct this came along when he wanted to coast slightly, matching his style and meticulous craftmanship to material that never really seems to deserve it. This is, let's be honest here, daytime TV movie stuff, given some added spice and edge to make it more of a talking point.

Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, the husband who goes home one day to find that his wife (Amy, played by Rosamund Pike) has gone. He calls in the police, and soon finds that he is the main subject of their investigation. As the evidence starts to pile up against him, Nick begins his own investigation. And he starts to suspect that perhaps he didn't really know his wife at all.

Written by Gillian Flynn, adapting her novel for the big screen, this is a film that seems to think it's always one step ahead of the viewer. It's not. Yes, there are one or two moments that will wrong-foot those wondering whether they are watching a real version of events, or something created by either of the main characters, but even those moments are easy to dismiss if you pay close enough attention to what's going on. There are a couple of BIG shocks, I guess, but even those are so heavily signposted that their impact is sorely muted.

Thankfully, none of the weaknesses in the source material cause any problems for the cast. Pike and Affleck deliver two fantastic performances, with the former able to enjoy a real variety of roles (depending on how she is being viewed by others) and the latter making the best use yet of that certain smug quality his detractors often accuse him of having. I've never had a problem with Affleck, but even those who tend to dislike what they view as his persona may end up liking his turn here, seeing him turn on charm for the sake of cameras and crowds while constantly having a large finger of suspicion pointed in his direction. Kim Dickens is great as the cop determined to crack the case, and Patrick Fugit tries his best alongside her, despite the fact that he seems trapped in a state of perpetual adolescence. Carrie Coon is the twin sister of Affleck's character, and very good she is in her role, Tyler Perry impresses as a hotshot lawyer willing to act in defence of a man who is starting to look guilty as sin, Neil Patrick Harris is an ex-lover who may or may not have information, and both Sela Ward and Missi Pyle have fun playing two TV celebrities, both with differing approaches but the same aim.

There's also the bonus of having Fincher at the helm, even if he IS on auto-pilot (or so it seems). The cool colour palette, the music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the slow and steady camerawork, the pitch-black humour. I seem to spend half of my time saying that familiarity breeds contempt with the other half of my time appearing to be a bloody hypocrite when I say that familiarity can often be an easy, comforting layer used in movies. This movie falls in to the latter camp.

It's not often that a film can overcome weak source material. This one manages it. But there's only so much that can be done, which is why it ends up being merely a good film, as opposed to a great one.

6/10

http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Girl-Blu-ray-Tyler-Perry/dp/B00Q5996EQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1419685676&sr=1-2&keywords=gone+girl

Thursday, 5 September 2013

The Big Year (2011)

Owen Wilson plays Kenny Bostick, the best birder in the world. His big year total stands as a record that looks almost impossible to beat, yet he's obsessed with defending his title. What IS a big year? Well, it's when birders (aka birdwatchers) head out to spot as many different species as possible in one year and then hand in their results to see just where they stand amongst their equally dedicated peers. Bostick may be the man to beat, but Brad Harris (Jack Black) thinks he can do it. As does Stu Preissler (Steve Martin). As do many other people. But how much do you have to sacrifice in a year that could lead to spotting over 700 different types of birds? These three men may find that out as they vie for the top spot.

Directed by David Frankel, and written by Howard Franklin (based on/inspired by a book by Mark Obmascik), The Big Year is one of those films that's hard to hate. The gentle humour works well, there are some nice moments that try to showcase individual birds to show just why the birders often view them as something so worthy of pursuit. Of course, it's so predictable and desperate to please that it's also a film that's hard to love. It just stays in a very safe middle ground.

Owen Wilson turns in another performance almost exactly like most of his performances from the last two decades, but Martin plays it pretty straight and Jack Black is surprisingly restrained in his role, making a decent average Joe that viewers should want to see actually succeed at the one goal he seems to have in his life.

The real pleasure here, however, is in the supporting cast. Rosamund Pike plays the long-suffering partner of Wilson, Rashida Jones is a fellow birder who isn't even aiming for her own big year, but is rather just doing it for the pleasure of doing it, Joel McHale and Kevin Pollak are two men trying to keep Martin focused on his successful company while JoBeth Williams is his supportive wife. Brian Dennehy and Dianne Wiest play Jack Black's parents, and there are small roles for Anthony Anderson, Tim Blake Nelson, Anjelica Huston, Corbin Bernsen and Jim Parsons.

Worth watching if there's nothing else to occupy your time, this is ultimately just a pleasant diversion that allows viewers to observe people who spend their time observing our feathered friends.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Year-Blu-ray-Jack-Black/dp/B004U5BJQ0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1378377762&sr=8-2&keywords=the+big+year