Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

A swifter than expected return to Hogwarts as Luke was desperate to see it and Mrs Fletch and I both fancied seeing it again too. He couldn't believe his luck.

This is the one where the teenage angst and moods really kick off. And Harry has his first snog. The performances are definitely improved all round this time too. Think getting his wand out on stage in that horsey play definitely helped Radcliffe improve his acting chops ( I have no idea what chops are in that context and freely admit to reusing that phrase from some film mag or other). Imelda Staunton is excellent too as the tea sipping, chintzy, witch bag who tries to turn Hogwarts into Colditz. A truly hateful character excellently brought to life.

New-comer to the franchise David Yates, directs with a nice mix of flair and common sense. There's some good shots that feel 'handheld' and bring a bit of urgency to things. He must have done a lot right anyway as the directing gig was his from this film onwards.

There's not so much villainy on screen in this one (till the big smackdown at the end) and instead the story revels in the hubble, bubble, toil and trouble as unseen dark forces gather strength. You really get the feeling that badness and bad things are on their way. With that and all the teenage grumpiness going on, you could sum up this film with the word 'brooding'.

I asked Luke to give me his review of the film over breakfast this morning. "I really like Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix" was his considered verdict. He's a master of brevity, my son.

Day Watch

Crap in a bun! What is it with this series of films? The Snooze Demon got me again. Was having a lovely time, swigging beer and cooking a curry (ok, heating up a ready meal) whilst watching this when suddenly - slump - the eyelids turn into shutters and I find myself nodding on and off for the whole last act of the film.

This was doubly annoying because most of the film was a bit, well, odd. And odd for odd's sake it seemed. I really wasn't getting into it at all. But the last 20 minutes were mental! Every time I emerged from my sleepy haze, my tired little eyes were subjected to increasingly frantic and impressive scenes of carnage and destruction as buildings were obliterated, trucks jumped through each other and a penthouse of guests jumped around oblivious to what was going on. I knew just how they felt as I didn't have a scooby doo what was happening.

A few chapter selects and rewinds later and I'd managed to piece it all together. Just about. It was a really strong finish to a movie that didn't seem to know what to do with itself for the most part. Definitely not a patch on Night Watch but still a very strong visual showcase for the director. He's got some crazy sounding projects in the pipeline too. Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter and Moby Dick sound awesome. Bring it on Mr flashy, whizzy Russian dude.

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

What better way to follow a near three hour car journey than by watching a near three hour film? Was a bit hesitant about letting Luke see this one yet as it gets a bit dark to say the least. Thankfully our many hours playing Lego Harry Potter on the Xbox meant he had a good idea of the story already and the worst thing about it in the end was Ron's potty mouth, everything's 'bloody this' and 'bloody that'!

Parental concern aside, I was really surprised by how good this was on second viewing. This might be the first Potter film that's better than the book. It certainly benefits from trimming off some of the fat, like the hundred odd pages on the Quidditch World Cup at the beginning. Here that bit's just used to give the film a punchy start and set up several of the plot points for later on.

Whilst I still think that JK Rowling lost it a bit with the later books in terms of excess, you can't deny that she's a brilliant storyteller. Watching this film with the knowledge of what's going to happen is a lesson in how you introduce characters and devices and motivation to lead the audience to an exciting ending. Kudos to the filmmakers too for bringing it all so vividly to life especially as this is one of the more magical instalments - with dragons, mermaid things, a sunken galleon and Eric Sykes. And Jarvis Cocker.

The kids are still a bit awkward with some of their lines. It's the. Pauses. They put in for. Dramatic. Effect. Bless them though, they ARE the characters though and you can't imagine anyone else in their wizarding shoes.

I think the only real negative about the film is the lack of John Williams doing the score. Instead you get some random bloke who serves up an anonymous, sludgy bit of orchestral meh. I think that's how Classic FM would describe it anyway.

Looking forward to watching the next in the series with Luke now. He's completely obsessed with all things Potter and ran off at the end of this one to read the back of the DVD sleeve for Order Of The Phoenix. Can't remember much of that but as long as Ron doesn't start effing and jeffing all over the place then I'm sure we'll both enjoy it.

I Love You Phillip Morris

Sweet little film. Jim Carrey loves Ewan McGregor in and out of prisons and mansions and speedboats and fake careers. J and E are both superb in it but I couldn't help but wonder why you needed to get straight actors to play the characters. I suppose their star power ensured the film got the cash to be made. Maybe it's an easier sell to a wider audience too? I don't know - I just felt a bit annoyed that my cynicism got in the way a bit.

Anyway as I said, both actors do a great job. McGregor gives the film its sweetness (and a very convincing gay run that isn't camp or 'look at me, I'm being gay') whilst Carrey is all wild eyed and obsessive and endearing. Amazing that it's based on a true story as well. Some of the cons he pulls off are enormous. And that's not a reference to any of the inmates in the jail scenes.

At only 90 minutes long, you can enjoy this in an evening and still have time to wash up, pick a fantasy football team, get your camera ready for a trip and watch a meteor shower. Well that's what I did, you can do whatever you like. But you should definitely watch this film. If it was a letter, it would be the letter V. It starts brilliantly, sags a bit in the middle and then ends brilliantly. I'm not sure my new alphabet based reviewing system will last so make the most of that. I would love to see a film that got a Q though.

The A-Team

In 2010, a crack paternal unit was sent to the kitchen for a crime they didn't commit. They promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade (or at least their beloved wives and kids) to the Cineworld underground and tonight, these four Dads who make up The D-Team actually made it to the cinema as a foursome for the first time ever. As the planner of this ambitious escape attempt I naturally see myself as Hannibal (I would have gone for Murdock but, in a perfect 'Howling Mad' combo of craziness and flying, Nick took that role when he fell down some steps on the way out).

Being of a 'certain age', there was always a pretty good chance that the four of us would enjoy this film. We're old-skool. We were there for the original series at 5pm every Saturday during the 80s - to see pretty much the same story each time and always the same army jeep getting flipped over as stuntmen leapt out in slo-mo waggling their arms for all they were worth. I can still remember the toys I had too. Face's Corvette and a random HQ set with loads of stupid oil drums and hay bales that got lost.

So was this new movie version any good? Yes. It was bloody great fun. All four of us were grinning and laughing the whole way through. This is not a film that takes itself seriously. They've taken most of the basic elements from the old show and bolted them onto the usual prove-your-innocence storyline with a modern day setting. Oh and loads and loads of ridiculously over the top action scenes (with some impressively 'weighty' special effects) which are completely stupid but gloriously entertaining. It's a bit like a blokey version of 'Charlie's Angels' sometimes. Bradley Cooper as Face definitely gets the Cameron Diaz role - his tanning obsession being the perfect excuse for him to get his shirt off in several scenes. He doesn't wiggle about in a small pair of Spider-Man pants though. Which is probably just as well.

The cast do a great job of filling some very iconic shoes and there seems to be a genuine camaraderie between them which comes across really well. I didn't find myself pining for the original team at all (apparently Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz have cameos in this but I didn't see them). And despite his dodgy dyed white hair do, my man-crush on Liam Neeson is still intact. Don't tell the rest of The D-Team though or I'll get kicked out and be forced to watch Sandra Bullock rom-coms with The M-Team.

Night Watch

Been meaning to watch this for weeks and with family Fletch camping out in the garden that night, I decided to make use of my free TV time. Brilliant opening scene, really sets the stall out (to use the parlance of an ITV football pundit) as you're thrown into an incredibly stylised battle between good and evil types followed immediately by a superb story-setter featuring a cackling Witch-hag in a very vivid red outfit, a tiger and a creepy spider thingy. Hello I thought, am in for a bit of a treat here.

Think this was the first big budget Russian film. It looks amazing too - director Timur Bekmambetov (who went on to do more show-offy work with 'Wanted') has a great eye for colours and perspectives. And mental action sequences. It's great because you can feel all smug and clever for watching a foreign language film whilst you're enjoying the freaky vampire deaths or the insane truck flips. Awesome!

Annoyingly though, in between thinking that the main good guy looked like David Mitchell and that a vortex of crows looks even better on screen than it sounds - I was suddenly attacked by the Snooze Demon. This meant I had to rewind a few bits to catch up and even had to watch the last 20 minutes of the film twice. In fact, I went on to watch the very last scene again the next day just to make sure I'd absorbed everything (I'm a big fan of absorbancy). What this does prove though is that Night Watch is a really good movie. Why? Because if it wasn't, there's no way I would have bothered going to that much effort.

I'm really looking forward to the sequel which is already at home waiting to be watched. Hopefully this time it won't take me so long to get round to it and I can keep the evil Snooze Demon at bay.

The Prestige

Interestings. Second view of a film I very much enjoyed the first time around. Plenty of magic, illusion and the feeling of a hat being pulled over your eyes. Quite significant hats too. Sorry I'm rambling. It's really bloody hard to write much about this without giving anything away and spoilering and I love you too much for that dear reader. Hopefully one day we can meet up for some warm milk and discuss this film properly.

I will say though that you might not quite understand it even if you think you understand it. If you understand me? What I've just seen for the second time is still swimming around in my brain and simple things have changed into contradictory frown bringers. Which would be a great name for a band.

Mrs Fletch enjoyed it which was pleasing. Although I felt a slight twinge of hurt when she made a derisory comment about the appearance of David Bowie. The man is a legend. I just find him an incredibly compelling personality no matter what he does. Even when he wears decidedly non-child-friendly pantaloons in Labyrinth that leave very little of little David to the imagination. There were some other small parts (oh behave) that caught my attention in this too. I swear the magician at the beginning is Morrie the wig guy from Goodfellas. Actually hang on a minute.....

--------------------- *SHORT BREAK FOR GOOGLE SEARCH* ---------------------

.....hmmm, appears I was wrong. Although I have just learnt that the guy who played Morrie was once Robert De Niro's estate agent and has been in several other films with him. Nice trivia gain there. Where was I? Yes, other small parts in the film include the Piper Perabo lady who still has an odd face and a silly name and still hasn't been forgiven for Coyote Ugly.

You should definitely see The Prestige. It's slow but fascinating, clever but simple and magical but mechanical. And it's directed by the man hero that is Chris Nolan who, not once in this tapestry of type (tripe?) did I praise for his 'cinematic sleights of hand' like some poncey reviewers would have done for this film. So I saved you from spoilers and pretentious/lazy analysis - you can thank me later over a glass of warm milk.