Review: Green Lantern

There's something childlike about this latest comic book conversion and you expect kids will lap up the adventures of the Green Lantern and his fights against intergalactic evil - yet you also get the feeling this is completely unintentional and they were actually trying to make something that plays to the same crowd as Marvel films such as Iron Man, Thor and Captain America.

But thanks to second rate CGI and a script full of one dimensional characters and jokes that even the ever- charismatic Ryan Reynolds can't bring to life, Green Lantern sits at the lower end of the superhero films seen on screen - more Batman & Robin than Batman Begins.

Add on the poor box office returns and you get a commercial failure too. You do wonder if they might've actually been able to save that if they'd embraced a younger audience and gone in for a PG instead of the usual 12A. In the end The Green Lantern is a misse doportunity on all levels.

TV Club #2 Smashing Pumpkins 1991-2000

This week Billy Corgan and company announced that the latest version of the Smashing Pumpkins would be hitting the UK in November for a 7 night tour. To celebrate, this week's TV Club lets you watch the documentary that gives you the full Behind the Music style story of how things went first time round in the build up to their 'final' Metro show in 2000.

TV Club #1 Brass Eye

Tonight at 9 sees the terrestrial TV premiere of Chris Morris' controversial comedy Four Lions. Kicking off a new section of this blog we go back to 1997 to check out an episode an episode of his TV series of Brass Eye, which after the recent riots seems more topical than ever.

For those wanting more, the entire collection of Brass Eyeepisodes is available from 4oD here

Review: Captain America - The First Avenger

The final offering in Marvel's Avengers origin stories, Captain America offers two hours of fun, but ultimately forgettable action - yet deserves credit for how it manages to avoid becoming the nationalistic nightmare that Matt Stone and Trey Parker so successfully lampooned in Team America: World Police.

Chris Evans is excellent in the lead role, his softly spoken portrayal of Steve Rodgers standing out against the usual OTT performances you've come to expect from Marvels' Superhero films. Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter is the stand out amongst the supporting cast, but one of Captain America's main problems is that there's too many of them - The Cap's crew coming and going in the blink of an eye being the case in point for too many cast members spoiling the broth.

Captain America also falls short of hitting the heights of the Superhero genre by just kind of petering out towards an end thanks to the lack of a big action sequence or the feeling that he's ever really in any real danger at some point resulting in a leaving the cinema in a bit on anticlimax.

*speaking of which don't bother staying after the credits this time - I'm pretty sure the original post credit sequence was moved to the end of the film and you just get a rubbish Avengers trailer this time.

Review: Super

Kick Ass is always a bit of a red herring when compared to a film like Super. Working outside the usual Hollywood model, Matthew Vaughn managed to bring together the money needed to make something that could stand up visually to the likes of Marvel and DC's latest action efforts - but just one look at the trailer for Super shows that despite sharing a DIY crime-fighter storyline, they really are completely different beasts.

Last year's Defendor is more suitable watermark for Super - and for me it falls short of that, opting after a promising start to just end up in a sprawl of increasingly violent deaths - so most of the impressive cast end up being wasted in more than one sense of the word.

In the end, its more average than Super.

Review: American - The Bill Hicks Story

Charting the life and death of the influential comic, it's the archive footage of a young Bill Hicks and the innovative, animated way in which its brought to life that sets American out from the usual talking head documentaries.

The majority of contributes are either friends or family, so its not exactly the most rounded discussion of Hicks and his ups and downs - plus it spends a bit too long making the point that most of America didn't get his shtick, but taken as a tribute to the man, its and absorbing experience throughout.

Review: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

If you're a fan of monkeys jumping through glass, this is the film for you!

I'm not sure whether this counts as a remake, a reboot or a prequel, but whatever Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is it's definitely good - John Lithgow is the highlight of the human cast, it's his performance of an Alzheimer's sufferer and his bond with young ape Caesar that shines more than lead James Franco, who still gives a fine performance Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and the one out of Harry Potter manage to get all they can out of some pretty unsubtle villain roles. Freida Pinto is basically just there to look pretty and unsurprisingly she does this very well.

In the end any Planet Of The Apes film comes down to how well they do the apes themselves - and thanks to excellent mo-cap work from Andy Serkis and team this is almost a total success, even if the hard work that went in to making them as realistic as possible is spoiled by the amount of times they fling themselves through glass windows several times to many.

Unlike may recent blockbusters, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes takes its time building up to the action , making you wait till the final set piece before the Man vs Monkey action kicks off in earnest. and is all the better for it giving it real impact. Not going for overkill also means that you leave the cinema actually wanting to see the sequel that is blatantly teased at the end of this surprising summer hit.