Unbreakable
Slow paced, but the premise of the story hooked me. Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis in roles where neither of them are required to be badass, just actors.
Jackie Brown
Tarantino films can be hit-or-miss with me, sometimes they can be really clever and engrossing in the dialogue and just descend into almost implausible violence; Dusk til Dawn being the chief example.
But Jackie Brown retains the story and human element all the way through. There are the usual Tarantino plot forks that cross and converge. The volume knob on the violence is turned down quite a bit and does nothing to harm the enjoyment.
Closer
Very clustrophobic look at four people's interwined love-lives. Considering it stars Jude Law, Clive Owen, Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts it could have turned out to be a totally visceral hollywood catwalk for 4 stars to look pretty on but to give it it's due, it gets its hands dirty on the story. Bit of a surprise ...and I managed to stomach Julia Roberts, which is unusual.
Stinkers to avoid...
The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
I fell asleep watching the DVD and felt no desire to go back through the chapter index.
The books are ingenious and really funny, even the old 80's TV series which looked well under-budgetted, did a better job with the off-centre ideas and humour. This film is just what you would expect from a big-budget cinema release in the present climate of film making - rehashed crap.
Final Destination 3
Errr... yeah. The first FD took a novel idea into the teen/horror genre and did a good job with it. Even the second was passable.
This is just tired, predictable and doesn't even bother to consider taking the series anywhere different. Avoid a 'new' accident at the beginning, get killed one by one in over-contrived ways for the next hour...
