HMV’s 3 for £20 offer caught me out again the other day and I acquired myself Sweeney Todd as one of my three. I knew this was a musical but I was still surprised when everyone started singing. Don’t ask me why, I’m just like that. The singing is pretty good, though the cynic inside me knows it’s been digitally remastered. It’s not a stand out film, or groundbreaking in anyway… it’s just entertaining.

I watched this at the flickers weeks ago, but I’ve been too busy and too lazy to update the blog. Life story to one side, I found the film pretty average. Enjoyable, but average. It’s more of the same from Casino Royale and not really as good. The product placement does reach new and ever reaching levels, though. I think Sony have a few new monitors/TVs they’d like to shift and Ford have a wide range of vehicles for all occasions. All flashy and shiny as you expect from Bond, but it lacked depth and a decent villain.

I went to see RockNRolla at the flickers over the weekend. It’s CRAP. To be fair, though, it had some funny jokes and lines. Some of which were that good they were used more than once. You know you’re onto a winner when you’re reusing lines and jokes in the same film. Toby Kebbell as the rock star/junkie Johnny Quid was the highlight of a pretty dull film. RockNRolla on to the planned sequel…

Well, it lives up to its hype. But I was more interested to see if Heath Ledger‘s performance as the Joker was really as good as people were saying, or just some Hollywood PR man’s attempt to sell the film. I’ve got to say that Ledger steals the film for me. It’s a great performance as the Joker. Dark, funny and very sinister. Should he get an Oscar for it? Probably and I think he will.

I went to HMV with the intention of buying two films, they were No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood. As soon as I walked in I noticed it was 3 for £20. Any plans I thought I might have had in my little head instantly vanished. So, one of the DVDs I did buy was 30 Days of Night. It’s nothing special and certainly not intellectually challengingly. Perfect for lazing about on the sofa and cabbaging out. In fact, all I can tell you about the plot of this film is that there are some vampires and stuff happened.

I went to see Spider-Man 3 on a whim, but I had been looking forward to seeing it for a while. All the trailers and clips I had seen made it look very good, and it did, but the plot and storyline really slowed the whole film down. Right from the start, it seemed to be going very slowly, lots of scenes showing how much Parker and Mary Jane love each other and how successful Spider-Man is and Mary Jane isn’t. And then we have to show how much Harry Osborn still really hates the hero!

I know a story has to be set, but this took too long. I also have to say that it looked like a lot had been cut out to shorten this story, because it kind of became disjointed in places. I kept thinking I must have fallen asleep and missed something important, but I hadn’t. Random scenes kept popping up to, including a cameo from Stan Lee. Don’t get me wrong, I like a cameo and I like spotting them, but to pop up and say something really random just made the film look even more disjointed.

Things only start to get interesting about halfway through the film when Spider-Man goes a bit nasty and has a couple of nice fights with the Sandman. However, we have to put up with a lot of deep moral questions and soul searching before Spider-Man can go all nice again and then fight Venom. I think Venom could have been one of the best and coolest villains in film, and the effects to produce him were excellent, but he just wasn’t very threatening or scary.

It was still entertaining to watch (the Cameo from Bruce Campbell as the Maître d’ was a nice highlight during the dull first half) but to think they want to make another three just seems like too much to me.

I also went to see Hot Fuzz last night. What a great film. I never saw Sean of the Dead in the cinema, but I’m glad I made the effort to see Hot Fuzz there. The cinema was packed and the atmosphere was great, giggling and laughing all the way through. The film itself has a great cast and lots of great little cameo appearances, most notably Bill Bailey, Adam Buxton and Martin Freeman. There are plenty of faces from Spaced and Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place too. If you haven’t seen it yet, then I’d highly recommend it.