The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest - Comp

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest (TGWKTHN- if you ever feel the need to shorten it) is released this Friday. To celebrate, the lovely people at Momentum Pictures have sent some lovely merchandise for you lovely people to take home with you, so you can be someone really cool and stuff.

To be in with a chance to win, finish the sentence:

My wife/girlfriend/person i proper fancy, can best be described as "The Girl Who....".

Best answer wins!

Go...

Skyline Review

Skyline – (15)

Director: Colin Strause, Greg Strause

Cast: Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, Tanya Newbould

Colours to the mast – Independence Day is one of my favourite all time films, and so, unlike the rest of the world, I was quiet excited about Skyline. So imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a load of tosh.

In fairness, the odds were stacked against it; a relatively unknown cast who previously made their pay in the likes of Scrubs and 24; a media embargo until the day of release, usually a good indication that bad press is inevitable; and worst of all, the directors are the Strause brothers, best know for the AVP (Alien vs Predator – shortened to save space) debacle, and sadly this sees a return to form.

Opening with a scene of mysterious luminous blue lights landing in LA in a very ominous manner, the promise from the trailer of a special effects laden apocalypse-fest seems to be justified.

Promising indeed.

Until, fade to black, followed by the words “16 hours earlier”. And downhill we go…

Cue scenes of an LA thus far unaffected by alien invaders, and cue also efforts to introduce a series of boring, uncharismatic yuppies, none of whom possess any kind of empathy. The appearance of the alien invaders is most welcome, if only for the opportunity to see as many of the key cast have their brains removed as possible. The aliens do attack in spectacular fashion, giving the film it’s one redemption, in that the special effects employed are top drawer.

The Strause brothers show little flair - witness the comical use of slow-down/speed up shots to add “drama” - or awareness of character development, or even a logical script. The initial intriguing premise of alien ships abducting humans via a hypnotic blue light is soon sidelined, while the final scene is ludicrous, firmly planted in the region of sci-fi channel, low budget dross. Skyline is a depressing, meaningless affair which would be best served on the small screen at some ungodly hour.

Rating: 3/10

Unstoppable

Review: Unstoppable (12A)

Director: Tony Scott

Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine

Speed was a bomb on a bus. Speed 2 was a bomb on a boat. Speed was brilliant. Speed 2 was not. Proof then that not all types of transportation system, heading at speed toward inevitable annihilation, provide good entertainment. Buses are cinematically dynamic, with all sorts of potential hurdles and obstacles to overcome. Boats have very little to disturb momentum, bar the occasional iceberg or porpoise.

Unstoppable finds itself somewhere in between these two poles. The inevitable difficulties of leaves on the track or poor timetabling aside, there are few dramatic incidences that can happen to a train. That is, unless you are Tony Scott. Director of Top Gun (plane), Days of Thunder (car), Crimson Tide (submarine) and Domino (Kiera Knightley), Scott is something of an expert in getting performances out of inanimate objects. Based loosely on a true story, Unstoppable is a surprisingly tense experience, centering on the actions of two railyard workers (Washington and Pine) who attempt to stop a runaway train carrying explosive chemicals from derailing in a highly populated area.

Leaving the actions of the heroic leads aside, Unstoppable is an ode to cliched stupidity; arrogant network bosses refusing to listen to logic in order to maintain the bottom line; Pennsylvanian police attempting to save the day by shooting at the train's stop button; and worst of all the runaway train is not a result of some terrorist attack, but rather the careless actions of a mindless redneck!

The action moves at a fair pace, despite the ridiculous stuttering effect of using news reports to provide entirely unnecessary exposition (Denzel - "I'm going to try and couple the trains", New Report - "It would appear he is going to try to couple the trains"!). While there is no question of Scott's ability to entertain and set up an action set piece, the film does run out of steam (sorry) by the final third and dies with more of a whimper than a bark.

Rating: 6/10