Showing posts with label James Marsden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Marsden. Show all posts

Sunday 22 December 2013

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues



Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was one of those rarest of comedies, a film that gets funnier the more you watch it and one that has so many quotable lines that you’d laugh yourself silly before running out while reciting them with friends. Like Airplane! and This is Spinal Tap! it was a film that you could introduce to friends and watch them fall in love with and watch on a loop without getting bored. As a nineteen year old in 2004, that’s how my friends and I saw it anyway. In the years since, the film’s star Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) has made occasional appearances in adverts and the like as well as a, let’s be honest, poor and straight to DVD Wake Up Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie which was compiled using left over footage from the first movie. Now though, nearly a decade later the famous New Team has finally assembled for a much anticipated two hour sequel.

I have an odd love/hate relationship with Will Ferrell. Sometimes he seems like the funniest guy in the world and his comic creations slay me. More than half the time though, he really annoys me. In Anchorman his Ron Burgundy character was always the former of these two Ferrells’ but unfortunately for long periods in Anchorman 2 I found his greatest creation not just annoying but also dull. Annoying and dull are two words that I’d also use to describe the film as a whole. That being said, it is not without its moments and most of these come flying from the gaping mouth of Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), the man who saves the movie.

Thursday 21 March 2013

Robot & Frank



I saw trailers for Robot & Frank close to a year ago and the movie was released in America last August but only arrived on our shores this month. I saw it on a recent flight the same week it came out in UK cinemas. I was intrigued by the premise and have a thing for Science Fiction movies set in the near future. I was also annoyed at having to wait such a long time to see the movie when there seems no reason for such a long delay between US and UK release dates. Now I’ve finally seen the movie all my excitement was unnecessary. While occasionally interesting and often funny, the movie loses its way by the half way mark and I lost interest soon after.

The plot revolves around a retired jewel thief called Frank (Frank Langella) who is suffering from the early stages of dementia. His days are filled with pottering about his house and involve daily trips to his ageing library in which he is pretty much the only patron. It is at the library that he maintains his one and only friendship with Librarian Jennifer (Susan Sarandon). Frank receives weekly visits from his successful son Hunter (James Marsden) who decides to buy his father a robot butler/companion to ease his chores and help to keep his memory in check. Frank initially rejects the robot but soon learns it might help him pull off one final job.