God Bless America

  God Bless America is a great concoction of truth and exaggeration. Frank (Joel Murray) is divorced, terminally ill and loses his job. After seeing endless rubbish on TV he finally has enough and goes on a killing spree with the unlikely accomplice of 16 year old Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr).
   Frank is finally pushed over the edge by all the reality shows and adverts on TV. Sadly many of these reality shows do exist in real life, such as 'My Super Sweet Sixteen' where you see horrid rich and spoilt teenagers plan a ridiculously huge party. Then there is the barrage of X Factor type shows, The Kardashians, Cribs...the list is endless. A spoilt teenager is Frank's first victim and it is Roxy who makes him realise that he should keep on killing people who "deserve to die" rather than killing himself.
   This is predominantly a comedy, but it also shows one of the issues in western society as a whole. Talentless people are worshipped and the wrong ideals are being set for the next generation. Why go to university to get a well paid job when you can just leak a sex tape and become rich overnight?
   Obviously I am not saying that I agree with murdering these people just because they're annoying and have no talent or self respect...maybe just a punch to the face would suffice. God Bless America is a well made humorous look at the ever growing problem of reality TV and fame.

For fans of annoying people getting killed, films that make a good point and comical killings.

Stars ****

Photo from www.guardian.co.uk

The Cold Light of Day

I knew that it was Henry Cavill who was the main character, but I always look forward to a film starring Bruce Willis. However, his part was much smaller than I thought it was, which was quite a surprise.
Released earlier this year, it was a film I missed at the cinema. The plot is basic, Cavill's character has his family taken hostage and he has to try and save them in time...I was going to write more about the plot, but I realised I wrapped it up in one sentence!
The scenery is good, being set in Spain, so a lot of great European architecture. I have to give credit to an american film that isn't set in New York, actually I don't even think it was even mentioned! A rare occurrence for Hollywood.
Though the story is a basic one and I had no worries that the main character's were going to die, I did actually enjoy it to some extent. Cavill's acting was nothing to write home about, but he was solid. Sigourney Weaver was enjoyable throughout. She's a highly trained and experienced government agent, so quite rightly she would get rather pissed at a civilian like Cavill who she couldn't dispose of. But The Cold Light of Day does what so many action films do, which is making a normal untrained person with no fighting skills take down highly trained bad guys.
The Cold Light of Day is a decent action film. It has all the basic viewer needs to enjoy a generic action flick and there's even a random cameo from Colm Meaney. But this is not necessarily one to go rushing out to watch.

For fans of action films, Bruce Willis and sticking up for the little guy.

Stars **

Splice

Released in 2009 Splice is a sci-fi/horror film, starring Adrian Brody. This wasn't one of Brody's best. The idea was interesting, Brody's character Clive and his partner Elsa are genetic engineers and want to achieve fame in creating new life. They attempt this by splicing together DNA of different animals to create some sort of hybrid that can be used for medical use. What they do achieve is a human hybrid that's life span is compressed into a matter of weeks or months...I failed to pay enough attention to hear how long...

Elsa treats their creation like a child whilst in the lab, unlike Clive who realises their creation, Dren, is becoming a worrying issue. This leads to Clive and Elsa taking precautions by taking Dren to their home and letting her live in the barn. I failed to take Dren seriously, as I felt Delphine Chaneac played the role too much like a curious chimp, with almost cartoon like expressions. Though the spike on the end of her tail created some cool, if not gruesome moments.

I felt that Brody was half hearted throughout. Almost like he was running his acting skills at only 50%, so his abilities weren't wasted on a mediocre film. I don't mind that I missed this at the cinema and can see why it only lasted about a week before disappearing from the big screen.

For fans of something a little bit sci-fi and a little bit weird.

Stars **