Thor

Despite being the proud owner of no less or more than 12 X-Men comics I am a real fan of all things Marvel and comic book adaptations in general with the exception of Superman which I never fully understood.

When Chris Evans was announced as Captain America I was super excited as he is my guilty pleasure actor and whenever The Avengers movie was announced I was even more delirious as it meant that Robert Downey Junior, Chris Evans and potentially Edward Norton would all be in the same film.

Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America were all fine with me as they are based in the real world without any non scientific powers. I could never fathom how Thor would slot into this Marvel universe but there was never any doubt that I would be there to see this film.

PLOT: Thor (Chris Helmsworth) is banished from Asgard by Odin (Anthony Hopkins) after he is tricked by Loki into breaking a long held truce. Thor, now mortal, is sent to earth where he meets Jane (Natalie Portman) a scientist who is equal parts smart and hot. Thor’s hammer plays hard to get and SHIELD get involved. Hawkeye makes a cameo and Samuel L Jackson does not. The family turmoil continues until the big show down between Thor and Loki takes place. END PLOT

Iron Man 2 was an summer action flick with delusions of grandeur in that it had Stark's breakdown forced into the second act in an attempt to add some drama. In contrast Thor is a drama with some action scenes added in to keep the tension high.

I think the difference between the two lies with the director. Favreau is great at summer fluff but Thor went a different route and hired a Shakespearian actor/director (Branagh) to take the helm. This worked so well as the drama between fathers/sons and brother/brother was utilised to the full.

The family drama remained at the core of the movie but once Thor got to earth there were some genuinely funny fish out of water comedy moments. Thor’s expression of hunger (this mortal frame requires sustenance) has already been stolen by me and will be used to death. Thor managed to be equally light hearted and serious with neither feeling out of place.

Chris Helmworth is a big, lumbering, super muscled and tanned Aussie who shouldn’t have progressed further than Summer Bay but he is very good as Thor. He has the charm, looks and charisma of the late Heath Ledger and it was hard shaking this thought off during the film.

I love Natalie Portman in anything (except films which star Ashton Kutcher - I don’t love her that much) and she was fine in the usual female love interest role which required her to be totally uninvolved with the action.

Anthony Hopkins is perfect as Odin and effortlessly commands authority and respect from the people of Asgard and the audience.

The action is fun and there are a couple of nice little set pieces based in Asgard but the earth action scenes were the best.

I was worried about Thor fitting into The Avengers team before I saw the film. Now I am worried about The Avengers fitting in with Thor.

Thor had the potential to a camp cheesy wreck and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it went the same road as Clash of the Titans but as usual all my preconceptions were thankfully wrong. Thor is the strongest movie Marvel has produced in a long time.

I will be seeing Thor again before my Easter break is up - it has been a long time since I have watched a film twice in the cinema. The bar has been raised. Captain America has a lot to compete with and even the appearance of Chris Evans wont be enough to suffice.

Thor gets 9/10. I absolutely loved it.

Facebook - 30 Day Film Challenge = Day 11-20

Back by absolutely no demand whatsoever - it is days 11 - 20 of my facebook movie challenge:

Day 11: A Film By Your Favourite Director
Choice: Blade 2 Guillermo del Toro

This isn't his best film by far nor is it even in the top three but it is the last del Toro film I watched so it gets a place on the list. You can see del Toro's influences throughout the film and it looks all the better for it. I haven't watched the first Blade but own Blade Trinity - the drop in quality is not subtle. One of the few times that vampires appeared cool.

Day 12: A Film By Your Least Favourite Director
Choice: Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarintino

It does worry me that the vast majority of film lovers are all huge Tarintino fans as it makes me feel as though I have missed the point as I just don't get him. He is a very stylish director I will give him that but this is the only concession I will make. There are some good moments in Inglourious Basterds - the opening sequence is fantastic between Landa and the farmer. The rest is just hammy acting by Brad Pitt and some violence. He is also one of the smuggest egotistical pricks involved in film. Meh.

Day 13: A Guilty Pleasure
Choice - Pathfinder

I have so many guilty pleasures it renders the term guilty pleasure redundant and more likely means I just have bad taste in film.

The Nerdy Trio saw this film in an empty screen and it was one of the most entertaining cinema experiences we have had as a group. This film is so awful it boarders on brilliance. We didn't think it could ever be beaten until we rented the directors cut and our love for it grew. This is probably the only group choice in my list. Pathfinder to this day is the bad/good film we compare all others to. This film will always remind me of how much I love my friends.

Day 14: A Film No One Expected You To Like
Choice: Dirty Dancing

To this day my friends do not believe I have watched this film let alone own the dvd. I don't know why it is so hard for people to believe that I am a Dirty Dancing fan. I love musicals and I do have a soft spot for dance movies so technically Dirty Dancing is my ideal film - not that I would ever admit it.

Day 15: A Film That Depicts Your Life
Choice: Saturday Night Lights

This is one of the more ridiculous days of the challenge and there is no film out there that comes close to depicting my life which is completely run of the mill and mundane. I chose this film as the football are the underdogs which get to the final and ultimately lose. I have a habit of falling at the final hurdle (although this is due to lack of commitment) so this is the only common ground. I am not a lover of sports movies and the only reason I own this one due to a little crush on one of the cast members. This method of buying dvds usually fails (Ala the short lived Ryan Reynolds phase) but this is actually a really good little film.

Day 16: A Film You Used To Love But Now Hate
Choice: Chicago

I used to love this film and would have placed it as my favourite musical. This changed as soon as I saw the stage musical a couple of years ago as it highlighted just how awful Renee Zellweggar's performance was. People who are familiar with my tastes know just how much I hate Renee so the fact that I loved this movie to the extent that I did speaks for itself. The movie hasn't been watched since and isn't likely to be any time soon. Bitch

Day 17: Your Favourite Drama
Choice: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner and its sister novel A Thousand Splendid Suns are two of my favourite novels both of which had me in tears on several occasions. The film version of The Kite Runner is a fantastic adaptation of an exceptional novel. I hope that a script for Suns is being prepared as I type.

Day 19: Your Favourite Action Film
Choice: Aliens

This should be the template for all good action films. The tag line for this film is "This time it's war" and it is 100% accurate. I love all the bad ass marines and their decent into complete panic. It is also a good film for quotes too - I am working out of the office at the minute and have to take a lift to the third floor (yes I am that lazy) of the building I am based in. Every time I go down the lift I have to fight the urge to hell "I'm on an express elevator to hell! Going down!"

For me Aliens is the best sequel ever made!

Day 20: Your Favourite Love Story
Choice: Atonement

This is the genre I knew I would struggle with - films like The Notebook and Dear John are watchable but for me totally forgettable. Atonement is another story altogether. I absolutely love this movie and have yet to watch it without dissolving into floods of tears which isn't like me at all.
I love the way this film is shot I tend to stay away from the technical side of film when I write my blog as I don't really know too much about it and tend to sound like an idiot.
Atonement has one of my favourite ever movie scenes - the steady cam shot around Dunkirk is just amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5dqmUgu0SI&feature=related

I also love the performances - McAvoy, Knightly and Ronan are all amazing and I also love the score which is now on my ipod. This film will considered a classic in years to come.

Days 21-30 to follow....

Red Riding Hood

You may not believe it due to my complete inability to write a sentence shorter than a medium sized paragraph (a skill which annoys my employer to no end) - I am a reader but we will all just have to accept that writing a never ending sentence without even the implementation of basic punctuation - accepting of course the over usage of the dash - which serves no real function but rather allows the rambling to continue on its never ending journey until the full stop is finally deployed.

One of the best things about being a reader as an adult is the occasional foray back to childhood favourites - and I am not talking about the Harry Potters or dare I type it the Twilights of modern literature. I had a great love of fairy tales as a child but it is only as an adult that you realise just how deliciously dark they are - I think this is one of the reasons why I love Pans Labyrinth so much.

When I heard that there was to be a Red Riding Hood movie I was intrigued - that is until I discovered that Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight was to be at the helm.

PLOT: Valerie (Amanda Seyfied) lives in a small forest village which is terrorised by a wolf. Valerie is in love with Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) but is being married off to Henry (Max Irons). This has no relevance whatsoever to the traditional Red Riding Hood plot but as it is now standard practise for all films to have a love triangle it had to be shoehorned in somewhere along the line.
In order to destroy the wolf the village priest sends for Father Solomon (Gary Oldman) who sets about cooking the village idiot, who is the double of Ron Weasley, in a large horse drawn stone elephant in what can only be described as a very failed interrogation attempt.
Henry loves Valerie. Valerie loves Peter. Peter loves to imply he is the wolf so that he can smoulder around all smouldery and misunderstood. The wolf attacks. Grandma gives Valerie a red clock. They all go off to grandmas house for a grand finale. The wolf is destroyed. Jacob finally gets Bella. END PLOT

Plot wise there is only so much you can do with a short fairy story although in fairness Disney did a more than adequate job with Tangled so it can be pulled off when in the right hands. The problem is Red Riding Hood was in the wrong hands.

The cast were fine if nothing remarkable - Amanda Seyfied is living on borrowed time playing a teenager but phoned in her performance with enough charm to scrape through. The two male leads watched Twilight as research for their roles and were essentially nothing more than attractive props.

Gary Oldman popped up in a brilliantly flamboyant entrance sequence and hammed it up quite nicely. He is clearly slumming it until the shooting of the next Batman begins but it is always fun to watch Gary enjoy himself.

The movie looked like an expensive shampoo commercial. I didn’t realise that people in winter during the 1300’s could look so radiant. Virginia Madsen was so glossy and made up she looked as though she was glowing. I guess winter during the time of the Black Plague may not be pleasant to look at but jeez….

The Brothers Grimm came out a few years ago and whilst watching it I couldn’t help but feel that a huge opportunity had been wasted as Terry Gilliam just didn’t have the skill to pull it off. I feel exactly the same way about Red Riding Hood.

Catherine Hardwicke just hasn’t got the imagination to bring a fairy tale to life and what we get is a complete rehash of the most boring love triangle in history. The comparisons to Twilight cannot be helped as these movies are practically the same right down to the cheap werewolf special effects.

I said it with The Brothers Grimm and I feel the same way about Red Riding Hood - an opportunity for a potentially magical film was wasted as the wrong director was at the helm. Guillermo del Toro should just be in charge of all fantasy based films.

When Del Toro’s Pinocchio finally gets made we will be shown properly how to take an well know story and turn it into a decent film.

Red Riding Hood has its faults but I will admit it did hook me in to the extent that I could see this becoming a very guilty pleasure. This also happened with The Brothers Grimm. The mixture of the bad love triangle, the smouldering attractive guy and Gary Oldman may not have been a totally disastrous collaboration after all.

I would give Red Riding Hood a 6/10. It is absolute nonsense but if I spy the dvd on a 3 for 2 offer I may just buy it.

If nothing else I should thank if for making me blow the dust of my Brothers Grimm collection which was due for a reread.

Fast Five

There are some franchises which suck you in and you could not, even if your life was dependant upon it, offer up a respectable reason as to why you are on board with this particular turbo charged bandwagon.

I blame clever release dates aka there was fuck all else out. It is the only viable explanation as to why this is the third instalment of the Fast and Furious saga that The Nerdy Trio have been to see on opening weekend.

PLOT: Fast 5 opens exactly where Fast 4 finishes. I realised this in the cinema and subsequently I died a little shortly thereafter. Dom (Vin Diesel) Brian (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) are on the run in Rio where they chance upon a micro chip that leads them on an adventure whereupon they stand to steal $100,000,000.00. Agent Hobbs (Dwyane Johnson) and various local criminals are unhappy about this. There is a car chase. There is a nice little “get the gang back together montage” and before The Rock can scream “BRING IT!” the explosions start. There is a fight scene between two big bald headed lumbering juggernauts of manly testosterone. Paul Walker has very blue eyes. Diesel and The Rock stare so intently at one another I thought I saw a brief glimmer of man love. There are cool cars. They get the money. Down town Brazil is destroyed forever. END PLOT

The plot is irrelevant but allows us to have some minor car chases in order to build up to the big finale which is as ridiculous as it is awesome.

Paul Walker is a very bad actor who has struck it lucky as all these movies require him to do is to smile and look attractive until the stunt double is ready to take over.

Vin Diesel cannot be considered an actor as he always come across as some sort of doughy mechanical retard whose batteries are in dire need of changing. The Rock just plays The Rock and even then I think he is always slightly miscast. It is only a matter of time before these two play brothers in the LOUDEST (but mostly dialogue free) action film of all time.

If The Rock had taken up the offer of a hug this would have been a totally different movie

The supporting cast through are quite fun. I think that Ludicrous has this wonderfully dry delivery (either that or I am giving him way too much credit) and although saddled with some god awful lines Tyrese Gibson is charming. These two were fun together.

I am not even embarrassed to admit that there was always something cool about the character of Han. I am glad that we are forgetting that he actually died in Tokyo Drift in order to keep the character around - either that or the Fast & Furious movies are trying to mind fuck us all with a complicated time line of events.

In action franchises each instalment gets bigger and louder with each passing movie and Fast 5 is no different and to be honest I am grateful. I could sit here and type out a list of faults in the movie, the fact that it is totally unrealistic and of course the bad acting but what would be the point? If you are wanting a thought provoking critique on the modern failings of society then you have walked into the wrong screen.

Fast 5 is a classic leave you brain at the door and enjoy the noise, pretty cars and explosions kind of film. It gets an 8/10 for the cinema experience - I will never see a Fast and Furious movie outside of the cinema

Facebook - 30 Day Film Challenge = Days 1-10

There is no real point to this blog other than to rewrite my facebook choices and attempt to explain them in no depth whatsoever

Day 1: My Favourite film
Choice: Pans Labyrinth

There is nothing that I do not love about this movie - Guillermo del Toro cannot be bettered at creating a fantasy world deep within an everyday or completely non fantasy setting.
It was this movie that made me fall in love with the Spanish language to the extent that I am now taking classes to learn how to speak it. There is something about the lyrical cadence of the language that just hooks me in from start to finish. I actually think that this movie wouldn't work in English.
The acting, the score and the casting are all perfect. I don't think that Pans Labyrinth will ever look or feel dated.

Day 2: Your Least Favourite Film
Choice: Eat, Pray, Love

I did cheat a little in my choice for this film as it is one that I have never nor will ever watch. I appreciate that it is based on a book which will no doubt be better than the film but that matters not.
The trailer of this movie offends me so much - the story of a wealthy middle class woman going off to find herself just pisses me off!
Perhaps it's just jealousy that I can't afford to up sticks and find myself but it doesn't change the fact that this movie is a pile of pretentious bullshit.
This is the only film in my list that I haven't seen or own.

Day 3: A Film You Watch To Feel Good
Choice: Life of Brian

This has got to be one of the best comedies ever made. There are so many quotable lines that you just don't know where to begin! It is hard to find a weak link in the entire film.

Day 4: A Film You Watch To Feel Down
Choice: Titanic

I will admit that there was a sense of desperation with Day4 as I don't watch films in order to cause myself to feel low. I don't necessarily watch a movie to feel entertained either as I am not against a hard hitting drama, for example, I watched The Changling recently and whilst I enjoyed it I wouldn't say I was entertained nor would I ever be inclined to watch it again as I don't believe I would get anything out of a repeat viewing.
The whole love story aside there are some very sad little moments - the third class mother tucking her children in bed as the ship was sinking is just heartbreaking

Day 5: A Film Which Reminds You Of Someone
Choice: Kelly's Heroes

This is one of the most quoted movies in our house as we live in a home full of "negative waves" most of which are mine when I am having a strop. Kelly's Heroes is loved to the extent that we have an Oddball poster stuck pride of place on our fridge where it has hung for years.
The person the film reminds me of is my younger brother Christopher who is also one of my best friends (although I would never admit to it) and it is one of our films we watch on a fairly regular basis together with The Dirty Dozen - although this movie is not particularly quoteable.

Day 6: A Film That Reminds You of Somewhere
Choice: Letters to Juliet

The Nerdy Trio are heading back to Italy in July and this year we are doing Verona and Venice. Our nerdiness is apparent in our title so in Verona we will be doing the complete Romeo and Juliet experience and this film wet the appetite nicely. It isn't the best film in the world but location wise it is stunning.

Day 7: A Film That Reminds You Of Your Past
Choice: Zulu

It doesn't remind me literally of my past as of course I wasn't there (look at me - so witty) but every time this film came on tv when me and Christopher were kids (usually Christmas - so festive) we watched it without fail and ever year we were absolutely terrified. It isn't so scary now and I can appreciate it for the amazing film that it is. It appears that most of the films me and the brother watch together are older war films which isn't a bad thing!

Day 8: A Film You Can Quote The Best
Choice: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

I appreciate that this is an absolutely ridiculous choice but I already chose Life of Brian and The Holy Grail will be used later on down the line but when I stood looking desperately at my dvd collection it hit me that I do know this film a little too well. This is another film from my childhood. If I am ever required to prepare a monologue from a film I think I can to this day recite the "we are brothers Robin" speech with a worrying degree of accuracy thanks to a crush on Christian Slater. Forgive me.

Day 9: A Film With Your Favourite Actor:
Choice: The Quick and The Dead - Leonardo DiCaprio

When the entire world was crying over the death of Jack in Titanic I was as per usual looking the other way and was crying over the death of The Kid!
Young DiCaprio is a pretty face and from behind his blond curtains you can see glimpses of talent. He is of course now one of the best actors today and if forced to pick a best performance I would go with Blood Diamond. Djimon Hounsou should have won best supporting actor for his role as Solomon Vandy and DiCaprio played off his amazing performance and delivered his finest to date.

Day 10: A Film With Your Favourite Actress:
Choice: Fight Club - Helena Bonham-Carter

I absolutely love Helena in every film she makes. The only problem is she is stuck in the Burton/Depp/Elfman trio which I despise. If all Burton/Depp collaberations are quirky and original then none of them are - the success of this partnership is a phenomena of the world I will never understand.
Helena manages to be quirky and slightly off the wall with every role she plays and the fact that she is like this in real life (who else could turn up at an award ceremony with two different coloured shoes on) makes her all the more likeable.

The next ten days are to follow............*crickets*

Scream 4 - spoiler alert

I always maintain that I am not a huge fan of the horror genre but in reality that is a lie as what I should say is I am not a big fan of modern horror - the Hostel films and overly graphically violent films such as I Spit On Your Grave do not interest me in the slightest.

If am going to be scared in the cinema I want it to be as a result of jumps, thrills and scary ass children - graphic violence neither scares nor entertains me.

The announcement of another Scream movie caught my interest as I absolutely loved the trilogy but ten years is a long time between films so it was with nervous anticipation off we set to see Scream 4.

PLOT: After the two false openings Scream 4 finally gets under way. Celebrity Victim Sidney (Neve Campbell) arrives back in Woodsboro ten years after the third film and low and behold she isn’t back in town long enough to sign copies of her new self help book when the killings start up all over again. We are introduced to her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) and a new generation of tweeting teens who are all completely expendable. Dewey has lost his limp but kept his moustache and is now the town sheriff. Dewey is in charge of protecting Sidney, the teens and the town therefore everyone naturally dies. There is blood shed, there are new rules, Gail is still a bitch, there is some more blood shed and the killer comes back for one last scare. END PLOT

I have neither the talent nor the inclination to discuss the plot of Scream 4 without spoiling too much but I gave a spoiler warning in the title of my post and I am giving you another warning - I will give stuff away.

The plot of Scream 4 is standard fare with the teens getting picked off one by one until Dewey and Gail are rendered unconscious and Sidney kills the ghost faced killer. What always makes the scream movies interesting is that they always have at least one handy movie buff around to remind us of the rules - in this case we are introduced to the rules of the reboot in typical Scream-esq fashion. This was my favourite scene in the entire film.

I really like the fact that the characters are self aware and casually throw around the “meta” phrase. The only show I can think of which forces at least one meta episode upon the fans a season is Supernatural and every year without fail this episode comes across as smug, self satisfying and never fails too piss me off. Scream 4 handles this aspect very well.

After the teens are all disposed of in various bloody ways the killers are finally revealed and I really liked the twist that the geek and the victim counterparts of the original Scream became the psychos in Scream 4.

The new cast members were your typical mixed bunch with some familiar faces and the others no doubt from teen drama shows that I have never watched. They were all fine in roles that really required nothing other than being hip, cool/geeky and looking wide eyed in their dying moments.

The old cast slipped into familiar roles with ease. This isn’t particularly a compliment as they hadn’t changed at all since Scream 3. The only thing that had changed is that they are ten years older - Gail is still a bitch, Dewey is still slightly retarded and Sidney is still as bland as ever.

The one thing that concerned me going into Scream4 was the violence. The first three Screams had their fair share of blood and gore but for me it was bearable. I was worried that this instalment would go down the road of more recent horrors and become overly bloody with the killings becoming completely over the top and unrealistic.

The violence and gore remained within the usual Scream standard with the only gross out moment being a brief glimpse of a large intestine on the duvet of the recently slashed to bits big chested blond whose name I cannot remember. It was startling for a second then the camera panned around the room to show the blood splattered walls and through my shock I couldn’t help but thinking that was an awesome shot.

The big disappointed in Scream 4 was that Sidney survived and this isn’t just because I lost the bet that she would die first. I assumed that they were rebooting the series with the new generation and the franchise would continue on without her - although I would never be happy with the never ending stream of new sequels.

The problem with Sidney’s inability to just die already is that there is nothing else they can do with the franchise. The Scream trilogy had been laid to rest a decade ago and resurrecting it without a major shake-up does make it seem rather pointless and I can't help think why did they even bother?

The only good thing about Sidney's survival was that it tied up the reboot theme within Scream4 with a good “don’t ever fuck with the original” line which I did enjoy but I can't help but wonder did they reboot the series just to get that one line in!

Scream4 is aware of the formula of slasher films and has this amazing ability to follow it without deviation whilst giving the impression that it is completely original. It gets an 7/10 as it was great fun to watch but enough is enough - there is absolutely nowhere for these characters to go as we are now all but one step away from Scream: In Space.

Sucker Punch

I wasn’t expecting to get to see Sucker Punch as I had pretty much talked myself out of it but the times for showings of Limitless went against us so we ended up seeing going to see a movie that I no longer cared for.

This will be quite a short blog this time around as I don’t like writing my reviews after reading everyone else’s as I tend to sway more towards what I have read as I am incredibly lazy and unoriginal.

PLOT: Baby Doll is sent to an insane asylum by her evil stepfather who has arranged for her to be lobotomised in five days time. Baby Doll meets Rocket, Amber, Blondie and Sweet Pea and together they all plan to escape the asylum using a map, fire, knife, key and a mystery fifth item. On attempting to procure these items the girls are armed with nothing other their imagination. Instead of sneaking around the asylum they are transported into imaginary worlds where they fight dragons, orcs and steam filled Nazis. The evil orderly kills two of the girls in front of the Dr and this is acceptable. The evil orderly forces the Dr’s signature and this is unacceptable. Forgery is worse than double homicide. END PLOT

The plot of Sucker Punch matters not as the dialogue serves only as a means to connect the action sequences. Zack Snyder always manages to make visually appealing movies however this is the first Snyder movie which isn’t an adaptation of a novel or a remake. Sucker Punch was written by Snyder and I think here is were the quality drops as the plot was neither strong nor interesting enough to fill the gaps between the imagination sequences.

The acting was fine - the cast were required to do nothing more than look attractive and to look attractive whilst firing an automatic weapon.

One thing I do like about Snyder is that he can put together a decent soundtrack - Sucker Punch had really good covers of Sweet Dreams and White Rabbit which are now on my I-pod.

I am glad I went to see Sucker Punch as my curiosity has now been satisfied. The imagination scenes were very good and looked fantastic but there just wasn’t enough substance behind them to make the movie in any way memorable.

Sucker Punch gets a 6/10. It is watchable but on too many occasions I found myself wandering into my own imagination which quite frankly was much more entertaining……

Source Code

I first saw the trailer for Source Code about two weeks ago and that two minute preview managed to bump Sucker Punch, a movie with a very impressive trailer, down the pecking order. The Nerdy Trio therefore set off to the VIP lounge as a reward for a hard week at work to see Source Code.

PLOT: Capt Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a US army pilot who wakes up on a train having been transported into the body of a random commuter. Stevens has eight minutes to find out which passenger blew up the train killing everyone on board. This happens several times without the dry humour of Groundhog Day until Stevens finally figures out who our public transport using terrorist is. There is racial profiling. There are daddy issues. There is romance. There is the discovery that everyone on the train died. There is the discovery that Stevens is also dead with his functioning brain being linked to the Source Code which is in turn linked to the last eight minutes of said random commuter. The plot desperately stretches itself out in order to have an apparently necessary happy ending. END PLOT

Source Code is set in our modern day and throws around phrases like “quantum physics” in order to explain the science behind the Source Code simulation. I can buy into movie science quite easily and generally accept the amazing scientific feats that mankind are capable of in film - this aspect of the plot did not bother me in the slightest.

It was emphasised throughout the film that the people on the train were already dead, Stevens was also dead and that the events of the Source Code would have no effect whatsoever on the real world. These facts were mentioned over and over again by Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) however at the end of the film, in order to give the audience a happy ending, the Source Code world enters the real world and Stevens, inside the body of the random commuter, saves the train, gets the girl and apparently lives happily ever after with Christina (Michelle Monaghan).

What the hell happened to the mind of random commuter? If the train didn’t explode then he didn’t die and his mind is now forever floating around in the ether somewhere. It was a completely ridiculous way in which to end what was an otherwise tight little thriller.

Another aspect of the movie which annoyed me was the character of Goodwin. Goodwin starts off as a strong professional, however as she is a woman, her character must soften and in the end destroy the Source Code in order to grant Stevens request for death at the end of the mission. It irks me that someone who has spent their entire career in the military and fighting terrorism could so easily destroy the greatest weapon ever created because she developed a little crush on a brain.

The above paragraph is a bit of a moot point as in the end the train didn’t explode, Goodwin didn’t speak to Stevens in the Source Code and the events of the movie technically never happened.

I would have had much more respect for Source Code if it didn’t wimp out on its ending and have the people on the train die, the terrorist be caught and Stevens mind wiped and reset in order to set up a potential franchise.

The scenes with Stevens inside his capsule are filmed very darkly and this contrasts nicely with the glaring happy brightness of the characters on the train although this could have been the light bouncing off Michelle Monaghans happy smiley white teeth. I like my thrillers dark and gritty but I should have known that the colourful brightness of the train scenes would ensure that a happy ending would follow suit.

Jake Gyllenhaal was as watchable as ever and although Source Code has flaws you can't really fault Jakes performance.

I remember sticking up for Vera Famiga before the movie began by saying that as I have no real opinion of her as an actress then she must be doing okay however after watching Source Code and the pathetic drippy actions of her character she has now been moved over onto the Shitlist.

We are getting a run of thrillers this month with The Lincoln Lawyer, Limitless and now Source Code and its nice that this genre is getting some screen time. Source Code gets a 6/10. It would have scored so much higher if it didn’t pussy out (for want of a better expression) and force a happy ending.