Bad Teacher - Review

I rememebr school well, I'm not ashamed to admit I was a teacher's pet, a swot. I always got on well with the teachers and was never in detention. Though not the top of the class I always put in a decent effort, took pride in handing in my work early and happy when my work was used as an example of good work for the rest of the class. Now I never made the teacher cakes or anything, I wouldn't go that far. I used to be put off people who talked in class and blatantly did not pay attention or care, then seeing that same trait portrayed in films it sudddnely became funny, though I never adopted it myself. Now it seems the roles have changed and it's the teacher's who have their own lives outside the classroom and may just not give much of a shit.

I like Cameron Diaz, she doesn't really stand out for me though compared to other female comedy actresses, particularly SNL alumni Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig, but I have nothing against her. It's been a while though since I've seen her do a decent comedy film, I haven't seen What Happens in Vegas ( I don't really want to), and don't get me started on the Charlie's Angels films or The Sweetest Thing. Arguably the Farrelly brothers film There's Something About Mary is a good point of call but even in that film she mainly plays a straight lace, innocent-like girl of Ben Stiller's dreams, so for what I'd seen in the trailer for Bad Teacher there's was expectations that Ms Diaz would really be able to exercise her comedic abilities, and she does...to an extent. There are moments in the film where her character creates these cringe worthy situations all in the pursuit to attract the attention of the new rich guy played by real life ex Justin Timberlake, sometimes these moments are so awkwardly funny, they're biting your lip and looking over at your friends face funny, sometimes they just make you cringe. Diaz's acting in this is good and, moments of great humour, but sometimes it seems just to go that tad bit too far, not so much that its too insulting (though that may be the case for some) but too far that it seems a bit too far fetched, unless that is what the director is aiming for, it's unclear. Also there is never really any explanation as to why the main character is such a bitch, now I'm not saying there needed to be  a heartfelt speech two thirds of the way through the film in which Diaz breaks down and says her father left her and her mother preferred her younger sister or whatever but it actually bothered me a bit that there was no reason at all put forward as to why she chose her lifestyle, or what got her to where she is now. Just curious!

The rest of the cast are great, always nice to see john Micheal Higgins, Justin Timberlake is quite funny, particularly in the dry humping scene, the film's funniest moment, Jason Segel is slightly underused but brilliant as the interested in Diaz gym teacher, and gets the film's funniest line (in my opinion), the fact that Diaz is pursuing the good guy when actually the film wants her to go for the guy who smokes pot and has a very casual attitude to everything is interesting. Some nicely suprising comedy faces pop up in the film, such as Molly (in it for about a minute but hilarious) Shannon, Thomas Lennon and Phyllis Smith of The Office: An American Workplace. But the show stealer of this film has to be Lucy Punch as rival teacher Ms Squirrel who's so squeaky clean and over the top she "out funnys" all the scenes she shares with Cameron.

If easily offended and looking for something with reasoning behind it, avoid this film. It is unashamedly rude and awkward but for what it is it works. This won't be an all out smash but it has potential, it's just missing some depth. The fact the film doesn't want Ms Diaz's teacher to change her ways may or may not be a bad thing, but the film does seem to be telling us a few harsh truths, people will judge you on your looks, if you're a geek/nerd you may well get bullied. This film won't really leave a lasting impression but it's a comedy to watch with mates and if you like the kind of boundary pushing humour, however it ain't no Bad Santa.

X-Men: First Class - Review

I'm a bit of geek. I'm not ashamed to admit that. Sometimes the best way to chill out and relax is to play some XBox and kill some things and/or complete some quests. I get excited when I discover a new graphic novel to read and love it when great sci-fi/fantasy comes to the screen. This geekism was fuelled in part by my first viewing of X-Men in 2000 (yes 11 years ago!!), apart from Star Wars, it was my first proper encounter with the comic book sci-fi genre, and I loved it. I loved the feeling it gave that at some point, in some way the prospect of human evolution reaching a new point seemed somewhat plausible if quite fantastical. And best of all Hugh Jackman... Not just a good looking speciman but also a great actor and playing Wolverine has done massive favours for him, though his mutant role is still his best and most enjoyable. The second film X2 two years later was a great sequel, which expanded nicely on the first and left the end on an awesome cliffhanger. The third film...well all the cast returned again (a few exceptions...Nightcrawler?!). And now we have what inevitably comes to all movie franchises...a prequel. Here is my review.
 

Now this film didn't get off to the best start possible what with the eye offending, shoddy posters that looked hastily mocked up, which were released as the films' first official imagery. Even the director slagged them off, but I tried not to let this affect the perception of the film.

I was quite keen to see X-Men prequel as soon as possible, because I had been interested since the first film eleven years ago, to know the backstory of Professor X and Magneto, brilliantly played in the originals by Pactrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, these characters often hinted or remarked back to their pasts but we saw and knew very little. Now I have to say the first twenty to thirty minutes of First Class were good and established the main charcters well but it seemed very rushed, jumping through their childhoods very quickly in order to get to the main story segment. There were also several what I like to call "convenient" moments within the film. For example there is a scene when the junior mutants are showing off their powers to one another, which is enjoyable, but then they suddenly decide to have codenames and all very quickly come up with the names we are very familiar with as well as telling McAvoy and Fassbender's character's that they have come up with the names Professor X and Magneto for them....it's too chessy and quick and nothing works like that, even in film, it's all too convenient! Also there are moments in the film which seem straight out of a drama, which is great, it gives the whole mutant sci-fi thing a bit more depth, set amongst the Cuban Missile Crisis of the sixties, it gives deeper meaning. Then there are moments of great chessy-ness (if that is a word) and action sequences typical to a summer blockbuster film, which are good, but my problem is that the two sides of this film never really seem to quite mesh well enough together, the first half of the film is more dramatic but this starts to slowly slide away as the film progresses and turns towards the popcorn movie side. The scenes where telepathic messages and visions are seen by us, the audience, I'm still not sure whether or not they really worked, and it may have better to have had them on the cutting room floor rather than in the film, there's odd moments here and there which just mess up the original tone of the film before it leaves it behind completely.

Having said all that I did enjoy the film, though didn't leave with that big of a smile on my face. The two leads played by James McAvoy and Micheal Fassbender are great, they aren't trying too hard to fill in the roles which are known so well, which is a good move, though McAvoy's hand to the forehead seemed a bit too cheesy a gimmick and there were slight Irish accent fluctuations in Fassbender's German character. Both charcaters were well acted and you did root for them against Kevin Bacon's villain Sebastian Shaw, who gives a good charming-but-an-asshole performance. Their friendship itself was a bit lacking in the film, there wasn't too much shown of the two bonding, however the scene where Xavier helps Erik (magneto) with his power is well shot and memorable. Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/ Mystique and Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast were very intriguing and well cast, Rose Byrne as the human CIA agent was very unused and not very essential to the story apart from two scenes out of the whole film.

I really enjoyed the childhood scenes, they packed a good sense of tension and emotion into the film but as mentioned earlier, seemed to be rushed so as to move the story on. For me Fassbender was the star of the film, though there was a lot of him in the first half the focus on him became lost at the halfway point in the film, where it seemed to shift to Mcavoy, but Fassbender, for me at least, had the stronger charcter and performance.

Mixed reviews have been given for this film but I have not heard anything to say that this film was a masterpiece, and considering that the director was Kick Ass's Matthew Vaughn I was expecting more of this film. There are genuinely good moments in this film, the effects are good, costumes and settings are just right, not too over the top, and there are some well acted and emotional scenes which set up the two mains really well. It is a very long film, being over two hours long, and with the film struggling to be a drama and a blockbuster and not quite succeeding at either it could be that this film may lose a few dedicated fans.