Review: Crazy Heart

On the face of it, not much actually happens in Crazy Heart, former country star drinks a bit too much, a couple of bad things happen and well...that's about it really.

However the story isn't what makes Crazy Heart worth watching, it's the masterful performances from Jeff Bridges as 'Bad' Blake in the lead who completwely inhabits the role and the excellent support he gets from Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall who all give suitably world-weary performances, subtle enough to give Bridges the space to shine.

Review: Jackass 3

Jackass 3 is back with more of the stunts and gross-out humour you've come to expect from the likes of Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius and Bam Margera. The 4 year gap between films mean things once again feel fresh and the break has given the crew chance to think of some inventive new stunts to fill 90 minutes of screen time.

The main twist this time around was that things were done in 3D, with many surprised by the clever ways with which they managed to use the technology. Having just watched the film on DVD I can't vouch for that myself, but with the amount of props and bodily fluids you see flying about I can guess you'd get your money's worth.

Where Jackass constantly manages to stand out from the competition is that it's always been more about silliness than stupidity, with a warmth and humour present throughout instead of it just being a collection of gross and dangerous stunts that you get from the likes of Dirty Sanchez - the closing credit montage is actually quite touching and shows how the gang and the audience have grown old together.

Review: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

The final part of the Millennium Trilogy is a return to form, wisely getting rid of much of the Bond and Kill Bill inspired antics and going back to the spirit of the original with a tale of murders, conspiracy and a mysterious past.

The past in question this time is Lisbeth's as Blomkvist tries to prove she is innocent of the 3 murders she is accused of, whilst to uncover why the Swedish authorities seem so keen to silence her. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest is still not without problems though, mainly being its still a bit too long and the feeling it would work better as a TV series is hard to shake, but thanks to the power of the performances from Nyqvist and Rapace in particular, you still manage to stick with despite it being hard-going at times.

Therein lies the problem with why the sequels fail to match up to the original - the fact that Blomkvist and Salander are barely together in parts 2 and 3 means they are always destined to be seen as the weaker of the efforts, stripped of the chemistry that made The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo such a success.

Review: The Girl Who Played with Fire

For those whose first introduction to the Millennium Trilogy was David Fincher's recent remake - The Swedish version of The Girl Who Played with Fire is pretty easy to get up to speed with, as the only major difference to get used to is journalist Mikael Blomkvist now looks more like Shaun Ryder than James Bond.

It's a shame then that this second instalment is the worst of the three by far, thanks in main part to the introduction of a hokey Bond-style bad guy who feels no pain in an implausible action-based plot that actually turns out to be pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of the trilogy's storyline.

Add on an ending that tries to be a cliffhanger but just ends up annoying the viewer for wasting 2 hours on a film that goes nowhere and you have a middle part that is eminently skippable.

Review: Mr Nice

This movie, based on Marks's 1996 memoir Mr Nice is reminiscent at times of 24 Hour Party People, thanks to the light-hearted take on the protagonist's life story and various comedians popping up throughout in several roles.

Much like Coogan did in 2002, Rhys Ifans is a much playing himself as much as he plays Howard Marks and his natural charisma carries the film throughout. There's not much plot to speak of apart from going to different countries to get drugs, but like Marks himself there's a certain charm to it that makes sure it gets away with it in the end.

Review: Wall Street 2 - Money Never Sleeps

With Western civilisation seemingly collapsing around us as we speak, the time couldn't be better for a second instalment in the adventures of Gordon Gecko - but what we get is up there with Godfather 3 levels of disappointment as we get 2 and half hours of a dodgy love story between Shia Lebeouf and Cary Mulligan instead of Douglas chewing scenery as ultra-bastard Gordon Gecko.

When he does get the chance to do that the film succeeds, but they chances are few and far between. In the end a bit more greed would've been good.

Review: Takers

For a film about a gang of thieves, it's kind of apt that Takers liberally steals from the Ocean's Eleven template. As Idris Elba is the only one with the acting chops to match up to Clooney's crew, Taker's wisely focuses most of the plot on his character and the usual clichéd struggle to pull off one last job.

Matt Dillon plays a cop with troubled family life and a corrupt partner, but neither story really goes anywhere - same with most of the minor members of the crew who get a small bit of back story before a couple of Heat-style shoot outs finish things off.