Review: American Hustle

Like Argo, American Hustle has a story that sounds too good to be true, but unlike Ben Affleck's Oscar winner American Hustle plays it more for laughs and is worse off for it to be honest.

It's still good fun, but Bale and Cooper play things so far over the top this crime-caper can never become anything more substantial - the star of the show is Amy Adams who as well as looking amazing, manages to add some layers to her character whilst not wearing that many herself.

Review: Man Of Steel

There's plenty to like about the opening half of Zakk Snyder's take on the man from Krypton's origin story - it's a shame that it descends into a long mess of a final fight scene that tries to outdo Avengers Assemble, but ends up a boring sequence of CGI spearing and punching through buildings that goes on forever.

You can feel the influence of Christopher Nolan, whose watchful eye Snyder was under in the films first half, giving the film a similar feel to Batman Begins (with added dragons). Whilst Russell Crowe hams it up (with aforementioned dragons) as Jor-El , Superman's birth father on Krypton - Kevin Costner steals the show as Jonathan Kent, his father figure on Earth full of world weary wisdom and advising the restraint of Clark's powers - whether he sneakily used them to knock up a baseball pitch in the corn fields though we'll never know.

I'm not sure whether the fact that General Zod looks like Paul Robinson from Neighbours actually improves this latest Superman reboot or not, but Michael Shannon manages to stay on the right side of scenery chewing throughout.

For the most past Man of Steel deserves credit for mixing the fantastical elements of the story with a modern day setting, but its a shame that the films finale is its weakest part, as its the films abiding memory leaving the cinema, not all the good stuff that came before it.