Directed By: Brian Singer
Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth
Running time: 154 minutes
Links: IMDB | Trailer
Rating: 4/5

If you haven’t seen this movie stop here, the next line is about to fuck it all up, I warned yee…..

Whale oil beef hooked*, look who’s gone and got themselves a little baby boy in their absence. How the fuck did I go ten months from its theatrical release to watching this movie on DVD and not find out about this! Either everyone I know hates Superman or I’ve done a freakin’ amazing job of subconsciously steering clear of any Superman Returns related information. I must admit I’ve never really been a huge fan of the man in steel, which may perhaps account for my lack of enthusiasm in wanting to see the movie in the first place but come on… he’s got a kid for crying out loud!

Let me rewind just a little there; I’m not a comic geek, a geek yes, but a comic geek no. I’ve probably missed the comic-book-boat here and Superman’s already had twelve rug-rats, calling them “Spanky1” through “Spanky12” because of his underlying love for the Little Rascals Character. So the fact that Lois Lane has popped out little asthma-boy “Jason” in the latest film is something most of you knew about seven years ago? Who knows, who cares? I know I don’t; just don’t spam me with hate mail because I’m too lazy to research thing. One thing I do know & can be glad of is that we can finally put to rest the eternal geek debate of “Can Superman boink a normal chick?” Well hallelujah all, looks like we didn’t need Wonder Woman’s uterus to contain the Kryptonian unborn and Soup’s (yeah that’s right I’m calling Superman “Soup”, he’s my pal!) spunk isn’t going to blow right through poor Lois’s back.

Now lets get down to the nitty gritty here shall we; Soup (Bradon Routh) returns to Earth after a five year round trip to his home planet (or rather absence of a planet) Krypton to find Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) hooked up with Cyclops; shit.. I mean Richard White (James Marsden - aka Cyclops from X-Men) the nephew of the Daily Planet’s editor and touting a sickly boy Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu). Not to mention Lex Luther (Kevin Spacey), Soup’s nemesis has managed to wangle himself out of a two time life sentence to once again terrorize the world. The world seems pretty fucked up for my pal in the first twenty minutes but pretty soon he’s back in the swing of things saving people from all over the world, Lois falling back in love and Lex; well Lex decides growing a land mass off the East coast of the US out of Soup’s Dad’s crystal farm would be a good idea. Those crazy evil guys and their whacky ways I tells ya!

OK, so the story isn’t exactly something out of Jane Austin but this is Superman, what did you expect? I was a tad skeptical going into the movie if only because the only people I actually recognized in the opening credits was Spacey and Kal Penn. I had serious doubts that Kumar was going to save this film! To my pleasant surprise I found Routh pulled off Soup quite well, his interpretation of the dough eyed idiot of Clark Kent was excellent and his heroic posture & tone as Superman was well executed; sorry Dean Cain this is the guy for the job. Bosworth did well but I had a hard time thinking of her as a mother figure after remembering her in “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” and Cyclops is type cast for the rest of his days in my opinion, sorry James Marsden. Spacey as you’d expect steals the show, what more could you ask for from this man? Not quite “The Usual Suspects” but a well rounded, professional performance that does the Lex Luther character credit.

Lets look beyond the actors though; beyond the special effects; beyond the story; let’s look at the franchise, is this the Superman movie we all hoped for? Yes, I think it is. I’ve never been a Superman fan and seeing as though it took me almost a year to see it I think you’d agree but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Granted it’s nothing to rival the giant that’s Spiderman in the Comic/Movie ranks but this film certainly did a lot in returning the franchise to its rightful glory.

* Say it fast with an English or Irish accent….. turns into…. (well I’ll be fucked)

Directed By: Edgar Pegg
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
Running time: 121 minutes
Links: IMDB | Trailer
Rating: 3.5/5

“Hot Fuzz” is the second film from writing duo Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the same couple that unleashed the surprise cult hit “Shaun of the Dead” on the world a few years ago. Not since Guy Ritchie’s rise to fame has there been such hype over an English produced film. Fortunately just as Ritchie did the English proud by wowing us with “Snatch” Wright & Pegg have done the same. Lets just hope for their sakes they don’t follow any further in Ritchie’s footsteps and make a “Revolver”*.

The film revolves around Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a London police officer that is making the rest of the force look bad by doing his job too well. Because of this his superiors have decided to have him shipped off to the small village of Sandford where the biggest crime for the month is a run away swan. Nick’s joined by his new partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) to patrol the sleepy town where they discover there might be something deeper the series of deadly actions of late. In addition to Pegg & Frost is a fantastic supporting cast including the likes of Bill Bailey (Black Books), Timothy Dalton (ex James Bond), Martin Freeman (The Office) and Bill Nighy (Love Actually) to name a few.

To begin with “Hot Fuzz” is your classic fish-out-water flick, it spends a good 30 minutes establishing the story with little hilarity only to be followed up by another 30 minutes of plot development littered with sight gags and slapstick. That’s not to say it’s not funny, quite the opposite actually, Pegg & Frost’s on screen partnership is comedic gold, it’s just that you find yourself expecting them to be funny in every scene and at times you seem to be waiting an eternity for something funny to happen. The second half of the film is where it truly comes into its own right. You can quickly forgive the slow feeling of the prior hour as the story unfolds into a creation that could only come from the minds of Wright & Pegg.

Forget all that crap though, lets just cut to the chase; what’s better, “Shaun of the Dead” or “Hot Fuzz”? Well for me it was the first. “Shaun of the Dead” reinvented British comedy for me and although “Hot Fuzz” was extremely funny in its own right I couldn’t help but feel that it dragged on that little too much at first. “Shaun of the Dead” on the other hand kept a much more constant flow of laughs. That’s your decision to make though, I have friends that disagree and if you’ve never seen “Shaun of the Dead” do yourself a favor and go rent it today!

All in all “Hot Fuzz” is a fantastic, funny film that you shouldn’t miss. If you’re a fan of British comedy and enjoy TV shows like “Black Books”, “Black Adder” and “The Mighty Boosh” you’ll love this too.

* Never heard of “Revolver”? Don’t feel too bad, it had a theatrical release that lasted a couple of weeks (or should have) and anyone that has actually seen the film doesn’t know what happened and couldn’t tell you what it was about. Mind you that didn’t stop me paying 15 squid to see it opening week while I was on holiday in London. Yeah I got screwed!