April was quite a tough month. This roundup isn’t about discussing that but somehow amongst the stressful times, I found time to watch 16 films. Not too bad at all. As usual, here are my thoughts.

1st: Midnight in Paris – I wasn’t too keen on this back in January but I enjoyed it more on second viewing. It’s a clever film indeed and a must see for fans of the 1920s or Woody Allen.

6th: Small Time Crooks, The Ides of March – Only watched half of Small Time Crooks with my Mum before going out. I can hardly remember it now but I think it was ok.
The Ides of March is a decent film. Not quite as smartly written as if Aaron Sorkin had been the scriptwriter but Ryan Gosling and George Clooney show off their respective acting prowess.

7th: Yes Man. Anuvahood – I had to spend the afternoon sorting out my old laptop ready for selling so I thought I’d poke around with the Lovefilm instant account I’ve hardly touched. I settled on Yes Man which was daft really considering I own it on DVD. Enjoyable film (and good book too). Jim Carrey isn’t too over the top and there’s Bradley Cooper for me to gaze at. Win win.
I couldn’t sleep that night so thought I’d give Anuvahood a shot. It was awful. Avoid.

8th: The Mummy, Bad Teacher – The Mummy is a very enjoyable, old fashioned (despite being made in the 90s) romp of an action film, reminiscient of Indiana Jones really. Great way to spend an afternoon.
Bad Teacher was cheap to buy in Tesco. It’s ok with a few laugh out loud moments but a little weak otherwise.

9th: The In-Laws, Red, Wedding Crashers – The In-Laws is another very easy to watch film (yeah, nothing challenging this month. My brain had enough trouble with life!). Michael Douglas is a spy whose son (a young Ryan Reynolds) is getting married just as he’s finalising a big project. Chaos ensues when Ryan Reynolds’ future father in law gets involved. It’s quite like a lot of 80s comedies which is probably why it suits Michael Douglas.
Red offers a great cast, a predictable story and lots of explosions. It’s hard to dislike anything with a cast as varied as Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman.
Wedding Crashers is a film I know far too well but I was in dire need of falling asleep to something familiar and comforting. Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Bradley Cooper fit the bill.

11th: Big, The Proposal – Love Big. Fantastic film that’s touching yet very funny. Tom Hanks is brilliant in it.
The Proposal is an underrated but very predictable rom com. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock perform their roles admirably but do expect to switch your brain off for a couple of hours.

21st: The Change Up – Fast becoming Ryan Reynolds’ month in this household, I picked up The Change Up for £10 on blu-ray. It’s a little crude in places but in the good way. Nice to see Jason Bateman not playing the straight man too.

26th: The Avengers (cinema) – YAY. The Avengers has a very good chance of being my favourite film of the year. I adored every second of it. The Hulk steals every scene he’s in but all the other characters are still great. It’s just an utterly brilliant example of a Blockbuster movie. Get to it if you haven’t watched it yet.

27th: Cedar Rapids – This was switched off about 45 minutes in. It’s just not funny. At all.

28th: Stripes – Something that should have been switched off 45 minutes in – a very dated 80s comedy with Bill Murray. It’s just bad and sexist and unfunny and, ugh, dated.

The regular monthly excuse: life got away from me. Anyone who follows me on Twitter will have noticed that. Still, a mere 12 films to cover this month. Never fear: April looks like a busy film watching month already! On with the roundup:

1st: Starsky and Hutch: Not the old school variety, the Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn film. It’s a fun film. Mindless but entertaining. I’ve seen it a few times over the years but I always forget how much I enjoy it. I’m honestly not sure there’s much more to say about it than that really. Enjoy ‘Frat Pack’ films? This one will suit you.

2nd: Real Steel: Oh dear, oh dear. This was a free rental courtesy of a good friend. I switched it off within an hour or so. I expected some saccharine and Disney-ish style nature but not even the charm of Hugh Jackman could save it, or the allure of boxing robots. Just utterly dire. Given that I nearly saw this at the cinema (I expected mindless fun), I was pretty disappointed.

5th: The Lion King 2: Yeah, I know. I adore the first Lion King film. I was at the right age for it when it first came out and it’s always been an important part of my childhood. As it was on, I thought I’d see what the sequel was like. It’s not great. I know I’m an adult now so it’s not aimed at me but I still enjoy (far too) many animated films. This wasn’t really one of them. It’s loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, thus very, very predictable. There’s hardly any humour either which is a bit rubbish.

8th: How Do You Know?: Talking of limited humour: a Reese Witherspoon/Paul Rudd rom com! I think How Do You Know? bombed at the cinema. I went to see it at the cinema but then I’m willing to see most things at the cinema. I’m pretty sure no one else saw it though. It’s not very funny and Witherspoon in particular is immensely irritating. Give it a miss.

11th: Safe House (cinema): Deviating away from everyone else’s opinions, I’m not much of a fan of Denzel Washington. I like Ryan Reynolds though. Previously not in a ‘Ooh he’s attractive’ sort of way (although he’s certainly growing on me), there’s just something appealing about him and I reckon he could do well if he chose the right scripts. Safe House was nearly the right script. It’s not his usual role and he does well thanks to that. It’s not taxing by any means. The usual rogue CIA agent stuff really but it’s quite smart and a decent way of spending a couple of hours.

14th: Shame (cinema): A different kind of cinematic experience. Shame is grim, very grim. It’s also a fantastic example of Fassbender’s acting ability. He’s a real chameleon of an actor and deserves to go far. Carey Mulligan is great in it too but overshadowed a little. Seemingly a popular trend, Shame spends a lot of time focusing on knowing looks rather than guiding the viewer. This makes for a far more satisfying experience, reading between the lines. Do see it. Do expect misery.

16th: Tower Heist: I’m struggling to remember much to do with this film. I think it was ok but very formulaic. Great cast underused. That sounds familiar. The fact I remember so little probably says it all though!

20th: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (cinema), The Hangover: I didn’t expect to enjoy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I’m not a huge fan of British comedies and while I knew the cast would be great, I thought the script would be weak. Turns out I was wrong. It’s a great film. Very funny and sharp. Some great insights in there too.

I’ve said a lot about The Hangover before. It’s fun and one of the most enjoyable comedies I’ve seen in recent years. I’ve also said plenty about what I think of Bradley Cooper too which helps.

24th: The Lion King 1 1/2: Is it The Lion King 1 1/2 or The Lion King 3? Who knows. It’s still not as good as the first one but showing the film’s story from Timon and Pumbaa’s perspective is a nice idea. Kids will like it a lot more than the mediocre The Lion King 2.

27th: 21 Jump Street (cinema): What a surprise! I’ve never seen the TV series so didn’t really know what to expect. It’s a smart, slightly self referential film that shows off that Channing Tatum can do more than melodrama and Jonah Hill doesn’t have to play supporting roles all the time. Very funny.

30th: We Need To Talk About Kevin: Not funny by any means. We Need To Talk About Kevin starts slowly. It’s another film that uses knowing looks more than dialogue, especially for the first 30 minutes or so. Once it gets going though, it’s phenomenal. Tilda Swinton is absolutely amazing in it and the kids playing Kevin are also astonishingly good. It will genuinely put you off having children but it’ll fascinate you along the way. Analysing it afterwards demonstrates just how much depth there is too, and I really want to read the book soon. Film of my month by far.

Bit of a delay on the film roundup front again. Sorry about that. Guess it’s becoming a bit of a regular thing now. I’ve been exceptionally busy but I’ve finally got round to this! A mere 17 films this month. Bit low given it’s winter but there’s been some not bad TV of late which has distracted me.

1st: The Ghost: I’ve seen The Ghost a couple of times before but that’s how much I enjoy it. It’s focused on the corruption of power and a certain passage of recent history in the UK and it’s very interesting. Ewan McGregor does a weak accent as usual but otherwise he’s sound. As a rare change, Pierce Brosnan discovers the ability to act and plays a very slimy politician. It walks that often welcome path of being quite intelligent but not to the point where you feel mentally drained by the end of it. Just enough to get the brain cells ticking along a little bit.

2nd: The Change Up: Unlike The Ghost, The Change Up isn’t very bright, but it is great fun. Happy waster Ryan Reynolds and uptight family man Jason Bateman swap bodies. Chaos ensues. Fortunately, both actors do a great job of riffing off their usual routines and it’s a great way of spending a couple of hours. A film I’ll certainly be buying when it’s a little bit cheaper on Blu-ray (this one was a rental).

3rd: Crazy, Stupid, Love: Ryan Gosling can do no wrong at the moment. I think we’ve all established this. Crazy, Stupid, Love could have just been a regular rom-com that tested no one and was utterly forgettable. Great turns by pretty much everyone in this film (and it’s a decent cast with Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone) ensures the script is very sharp and witty, while maintaining a comfortable level of sentimentality (but never too much). Another one, I’ll be over once it drops in price a little (I’m trying to cut back on purchases and focusing on rentals).

4th: The Debt: Good pedigree in terms of writers Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, and directing courtesy of John Madden. Pity it’s not a very good film. Too many stupid things occur in this film about Mossad agents hunting down Nazis that mean it’s just not very good. Great idea and all that. Poorly implemented.

6th: 30 Minutes Or Less: Short yet sweet, 30 Minutes Or Less is all about a pizza delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg) having a bomb strapped to him by Danny McBride and being forced to rob a bank. It’s less than an hour and a half long but it’s a fun way of spending that time even if it’s hardly testing material for the cast.

7th: The Guard: I think I did The Guard an injustice. I was doing something else while watching it, and I think it deserved my full attention. It’s deeply, deeply dark and also pretty funny. Brendan Gleeson is fantastic as ever. Do watch it and pay attention (unlike me).

9th: Hanna: A friend raved about this. A lot. As in, it was one of his favourite films of the year alongside Drive. I wasn’t impressed. Again, it felt like there were too many strange decisions made and I suffered from disliking the main role far too much to care, as I suspect I should have.

10th: 4,3,2,1: My Mum saw this a while back and recommended I saw it. Not my usual thing (or hers either), I gave it a shot and was pleasantly surprised. Noel Clarke’s always seemed pretty talented and this film has proven that to me. It’s one of those films where, if it was placed in the ‘correct’ order, it’d be pretty average, but the cutting is what makes it so gripping. It’s fast paced and keeps the viewer entertained throughout. It also features some exceptionally well written female roles which makes a change.

13th: Fright Night: This is the remake of the 1980s film. I’ve not sen the original. This film isn’t very good. I’ve seen worse but it’s lacking in humour for too much of the film. Colin Farrell does a decent enough job, David Tennant appears to be doing an impression of Russell Brand. Make of that what you will!

14th: The Muppets (cinema), Warrior: One of these films is my film of the month and will almost certainly feature in my Top 5 of the year. No, not Warrior. I didn’t like that. I’m talking about The Muppets! The Muppets is fantastic. A friend described it as a year’s supply of Prozac in film form. He’s right. It’s fantastic. Within seconds, even the grumpiest of person will smile like a loon. It’s just utterly wonderful. So free of cynicism and smart remarks, yet not excessively full of sugar coated ridiculous glee. Just see it. Amazing.

Warrior: I didn’t like. I switched it off halfway through so maybe it improved. I suspect that it just wasn’t for me. The fact I disliked all the main characters didn’t help at all.

15th: Blue Valentine: I wasn’t impressed by this. Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling act reasonably but I struggled to become engrossed in their tale of breaking up. It was a film that reminded me of just how well (500) Days of Summer deals with the same subject. Watch that instead.

18th: Mission Impossible: I don’t remember buying the Mission Impossible 1 and 2 boxset but clearly I did at some point. As I loved Ghost Protocol, I thought I’d return to the series. Mission Impossible 1 isn’t great. It’s incredibly slow and not overly interesting. Best just giving this a miss really.

21st: Captain America: Got this on Blu-ray for Christmas. About time I watched it! I saw Captain America originally at the cinema. It was fun. It still is on the small screen too. Not much else to say really. Enjoy comic book films? This is a decent one of those.

24th: The Woman in Black (cinema): Hmm. I had a bit of a problem with The Woman in Black which wasn’t the film’s fault. I had the worst example of kids at the cinema I’ve had in years (and given how often I go to the cinema, that’s a lot of visits). Sitting directly behind me (it was a busy cinema so I had no chance of moving), they kept talking loudly throughout the film and also kept laughing at every other moment in the film. They did quieten down in places (mostly when either myself or the security guard who came in every now and then glared) but it was a pretty bad experience. Having said that, I’m not convinced I’d have liked this much anyway. Every jumpy moment was telegraphed to the point that I could predict it all. It didn’t build suspense enough for me to be drawn in so much that I stopped thinking about what was going on and just went with the flow. Still, Daniel Radcliffe wasn’t as bad as I thought he’d be so that was a blessing.

27th: The Reality of Love: The TiVo box picked this one up as it had Bradley Cooper in it. Well done TiVo box. You were quite smart. Unfortunately, this film was dire and I switched it off within about 30 minutes. It’s a very bad TV movie. The kind that you know the actors only agreed to do because they were desperate for money. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

28th: One for the Money (cinema): Went to see this as my Mum loves the Stephanie Plum series of books by Janet Evanovich and she was keen to see it. It was pretty bad. She reckoned it was nothing like the book and I just thought it was a bit rubbish with wafer thin characterisations and a sense that two of the leading men should have been sexy but really, really weren’t. Give it a miss.

Another late film roundup for the month, my bad. The start of February has been hectic and annoyingly not in the satisfying way either! Anyway, 19 films were watched in January. Not too shabby.

3rd: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (cinema) – The first cinema trip of the year. How exciting! Good way to start the cinematic year too. Ghost Protocol is an excellent example of what Tom Cruise does so well and how much fun an over the top action blockbuster can be. I enjoyed it even more than Sherlock Holmes 2 which is saying a lot coming from me.

6th: The Inbetweeners – A Christmas present. I’d seen this twice at the cinema and loved it. It’s still great. I hadn’t really watched much of the TV series beforehand so having spent the intervening weeks watching it, it was great to see the film and get the in-jokes. It’s a film that knows when to stop with the laughs and not stretch a joke too far. Excellent fun.

7th: The 41 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall And Felt Superbad About It (part) – The least said about this the better. To be fair, I knew it’d be crap. I didn’t realise how crap it would be though. Awful, just awful.

10th: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (cinema) – This one is tricky to discuss without spoiling for those yet to see/read it. I’ve not read the book or seen the original film. Daniel Craig is predictably great in it but Rooney Mara is fantastic in it. Real star in the making. It’s a difficult film to watch in places and I’m still not overly convinced that some of it needed to be so graphic. Somewhat disturbingly, an old guy in the audience at the cinema laughed at a few particularly unpleasant moments. Erm yeah. Odd. It’s a good film and I’m keen to see the sequels but probably not one that I would watch many times.

12th: Gulliver’s Travels, Horrible Bosses – Gulliver’s Travels was on Sky Movies which is why I bothered watching it. It’s really not very good.

Horrible Bosses is very formulaic and nothing that will stick in the memory for any great length of time but it does the job of making 2 hours pass smoothly!

13th: Stand By Me – I’ve never seen this before. People go on about it a lot though so I recorded it ages ago. Then Dark Bunny Tees were running an offer where you bought one t-shirt and got a random one free. I love the designs of their shirts and any excuse to buy one and all that. I ordered the Shaun of the Dead one and got the Stand By Me one free. Stand By Me is a good film. That’s about all that needs to be said. I can see why it sticks in people’s memories.

14th: Limitless, Made – Getting near to the end of our month of Sky Movies, this is about where I realised I’d seen everything I wanted to see. I own Limitless on Blu-ray yet I still ended up watching it. It’s got Bradley Cooper in it which makes me biased but I do contest that it’s a decent story. The book’s not bad either.

I watched Made as part of my free trial with Netflix. The cast looked ok. The film is not all that at all. Jon Favreau did a great job with Swingers and Iron Man but Made was not one of his great successes by a long shot.

16th: Limitless – I wanted something to watch with one eye while I worked. That’s my excuse.

17th: Midnight in Paris (cinema) – This is an awkward one for me to rate. For those who love the 1920s and the culture of it all, it’s amazing. It’s very self indulgent of Woody Allen and many fans of the decade will adore the nostalgic vibe that it gives off. Owen Wilson makes a fine double for Allen and demonstrates that he can actually act. The problem is I’m not a big fan of the 1920s culture so it didn’t quite work for me. I can see why it was nominated for so many awards though, it’s very well made and it is clearly Allen’s best work for years.

20th: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Vampires Suck – Eclectic mix I know. Fear and Loathing – erm yeah. It’s bizarre (although not the weirdest film I’ve seen all month – see below). I honestly don’t know what I thought of it. I’m probably just best off admitting it wasn’t for me.

Vampires Suck is beyond stupid and having only seen one Twilight film, I suspect I missed some references. It is silly fun though.

21st: The Game – Nokkonwud got me this for Christmas. I’d not heard of it before despite being a fan of David Fincher’s. It’s a great story. One that’s very difficult to talk about though without spoiling something. Do see it if you get a chance though. It’s worth it.

24th: Haywire (cinema) – This was interesting. Is it a regular spy/rogue agent action film? Is it a clever thriller? Erm, what is it? I don’t know. It’s very stylish, much like Soderbergh’s previous work. The action is quite brutal and realistic. The acting is OK but the likes of Michael Fassbender and Ewan McGregor don’t stretch themselves. Unlike many action film scripts, male roles feel underwritten and cardboard cutout-ish with the female lead written in a much more intruging fashion. It’s worth a watch.

27th: The Tree of Life – THIS is the most bizarre film I’ve seen all month (and currently all year too). I’ve never seen a Terence Malick film before. I had no idea what to expect and mostly chose to watch it as it’s nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The story sounds simple enough. The tale of Sean Penn as a child growing up in heavily religious Texas in the 1950s and some struggles along the way. That part is quite interesting and straightforward. The weird part is interspersing it with what looks like the Universe beginning and some other very surreal imagery. It’d be interesting but those sections go on a little too long and I found my attention wavering. It’s an interesting film but one that requires some effort.

28th: Drive – Twitter followers will know how desperate I’ve been to see this. My local cinema only showed it for a week and then only at very late times, so I missed it then. So I was left to wait for the blu-ray. It was worth the wait. Loved it. Ryan Gosling is effortlessly cool and an exciting enigma of a character. Everything about his character is shades of grey rather than obvious. He manages to say so much while actually hardly saying anything. It’s exceptionally nasty in places but in a relatively realistic way rather than over the top. So glad to see the relationship between Carey Mulligan’s character and Gosling’s isn’t rushed through and feels like it’s naturally developed. It’s just fantastic.

31st: The Money Pit, 127 Hours – The Money Pit was a Netflix choice. It hasn’t aged hugely well but it has its moments of great humour.

In the case of 127 Hours, I’m undecided. I loved the ending (when he reaches safety – not the few minutes after that which was stupid and patronised the viewer). It genuinely made me feel happy even though I knew the result anyway. The rest of it though was unsurprisingly slow and sluggish. Worst of all, I felt no empathy towards the main character as he seemed like an arrogant idiot (which is a mean thing to say really considering it’s a true story!). Maybe I’m just heartless or maybe it was Franco’s portrayal but, excluding the last few minutes, I just didn’t feel enough towards him to maintain my interest.