Review: Warrior

Warrior certainly won't win any prizes for originality as you've seen a similar story told several times before in fight films - It's also far too long at 2 hours 20 mins, taking well over an hour to get to the tournament where it all kicks off, figuratively and literally.

Tom Hardy eschews the Christian Bale approach from The Fighter, instead offering up his best De Niro impression as the Jake La Motta-esque Tommy Riordan, a brilliant fighter but a broken human being, scarred by his war experiences. Nick Nolte comes close to out-mumbling Hardy as the father cum coach with his own demons - but the real acting credit here should go to Joel Edgerton who much like Wahlberg did last year, offers a restrained performance in support while others around him give their best shot at impressing judges going for awards.

When they finally make it to the cage is where the film finally starts to show its potential with fights brilliantly shot to give a real sense of the brutality involved in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Whoever cast Kurt Angle deserves credit, as anyone who watches wrestling will tell you that there is no one better at putting on a fake fight than the former Olympic Gold Medallist.

Much like the characters involved, Warrior starts flawed but ends up pretty good.

Review: 50/50

A comedy about a young man who learns he has cancer, and his battle to beat the disease: 50/50 essentially takes the good half of Funny People and turns it into its own full-length feature film.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a step up from Adam Sandler in that he can actually handle the dramatic stuff when it comes his way and 50/50 features several beautifully shot sequences that show both the desperation of the disease alongside an uplifting live for the moment attitude alongside it. One particular scene brings a new meaning to the term hospital trip. Seth Rogen is probably meant to be seen as comic relief, but the whole vile and nasty man-child routine seems horribly out of place with the film. The highlight isn't JGL's relationship with Rogen, but his with fellow patients Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer in combining successfully mirth with morbid in the way the film sets out to.

However, the major downer on the film for me was how it portrays its female characters - Bryce Dallas Howard's Rachel reprisals for her failings as a girlfriend are particularly unpleasant and aggressive. Right from the start she is castigated for not fulfilling her duty of sex with a man who later admits has never said he loves her. This nasty streak is present throughout with Adam's mother shown as smothering and a bit mental. Countless anonymous bimbos are lined up who can't resist the lure of a cancer sufferer just to reinforce what women are simply good for. Even though Anna Kendrick gets shown some sympathy as love interest, she spends most of the film being portrayed as hopeless at her job and can't wait to ignore all that professional ethics gubbins and get with Adam.

It's a shame the misogynistic undertones are the lasting memory of what is an interesting film, with Levitt's nuanced performance having plenty to recommend about it. 50/50 seems pretty apt in the end.

Review: Pearl Jam Twenty

Best filed under 'One for the fans' Pearl Jam Twenty won't offer you anything if you're not familiar with the work of Eddie Vedder's crew. Though all seem nice enough, the fact that none of them come across as a larger than life figure means this document of the band's 20 year career ends up just becoming a series of archived footage in montage alongside a series of talking heads that all downplay the key moments in their history - the death of their original frontman, taking on Ticketmaster's unfair prices and the terrible events that took place in Roskilde.

You'd expect that from a writer/director as proficient as Cameron Crowe he'd at least be able to put an interesting cultural perspective on it from his time at Rolling Stone Magazine, but the lack of any real substance to that makes the film far too one dimensional to be anything memorable.

By the end of 2 hours you find yourself asking the question - if it's all about the music, what's the point of making a film?

TV Club #7 Kurt & Courtney

Friday night's on BBC 4 have been must-see TV for a while now, as you're normally guaranteed a great performance or documentary from the BBC Archives. This Friday was no exception as they devoted the schedules to all things Nirvana, featuring a storming live show from the Paramount, a doc detailing the last 48 hours of Kurt Cobain's life and my personal highlight, Left of the Dial which while focusing on the contrasting fortunes of REM and Nirvana, also provided a pretty comprehensive look at US Alternative Rock, giving plenty of screen time to likes of Black Flag, The Pixies and Husker Du.

But for this week's TV Club we focus on the most infamous document of Grunge, Nick Broomfield's Kurt & Courtney, where the British film-maker investigates claims that Kurt Cobain was actually murdered and if his wife Courtney Love was in on it. The film is interesting as opposed to informative and ends up being more about his hate-hate relationship with Love and her attempts to stop the film being made - but those looking for fresh insight into the death of Kurt will be left left disappointed as its light on evidence and heavy on heresy from a series of shady and strung out people who claimed to be close to the pair.

The grunge theme continues next week with the TV premiere of Cameron Crowe's Pearl Jam doc, Twenty Friday 11th at 9pm on BBC 4, this time around featuring a story that looks like having a much happier ending.

Review: Upside Down - The Creation Records Story

Those looking for something to relive the Britpop era with will end up disappointed at this look back at the history of Creation Records, as this documentary focuses much more heavily on Gillespie than Gallagher for the most part.

For anyone else Upside Down provides an engaging, if a little one-paced tale of the rise and fall of the infamous independent record label - The film would've benefited from having the likes of Liam alongside brother Noel, as the film tends to drift into becoming a bit one sided and self congratulatory at times - without that bit of conflict that's a staple of all good rockumentaries (see Dig!) , Upside Down lacks that certain something to make it a classic in the genre,

If the talking heads do suffer from being a bit samey with tale after tale of coked up excess, the fact that the film has raconteurs like Alan McGee and Noel Gallagher telling them means its always entertaining and by giving equal focus to the lesser known likes of House of Love, Swervedriver and Sugar there's plenty of interesting tales, alongside some great music to be discovered for those who think the label started and ended with Oasis.

The label's dying days at the start of the noughties may be glossed over too quickly for some, but you can understand them not wanting to talk about the likes of Mishka on camera really.