The Watch

The Watch is a great example of how previews can mislead you. I expected to be in for a rollicking good time but actually was given some laughs and the feeling that I had been cheated.
Just because you throw together a bunch of old action stars and come up with a hilarious send up of their genre (Expendables) doesn't mean you can put a few funny people in the same film and make it work.
Evan (Ben Stiller) runs the local Costco, the running club, the Spanish table and a host of other community events but when a beloved employee is murdered he decides to take it upon himself to find the killer and sets up Neighbourhood Watch as the police are rather insipid.
An eclectic group of interested parties turn up to the first meeting - Bob (Vince Vaughn) is a man's man looking for a bunch of guys to hang out with, Franklin (Jonah Hill) is a rather manic wannabe cop who likes the idea of a vigilante group and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade) who is a British recent arrival in town who seeks illicit encounters with local Asian women.
It soon becomes apparent that the murder was done by an alien and we're thrown into another alien invasion plotline.
Some of it works but most of it doesn't. Stiller is Stiller, control freak not unlike his Meet The Parents character; Vaughn is his usual chatty, over the top self, Hill isn't bad and seems to enjoy playing a loose cannon. I was most disappointed by Ayoade, who I love in the IT Crowd. I just couldn't buy 'Moss' saying a lot of the things he said in this film and his comic timing went criminally unused.
I don't really need to go any further.
If you must see this then lower your expectations, it does have some pretty good moments but overall it really shouldn't be classed as a comedy because it's not really that funny. A 5 out of 10.

A is for....

Let me give you a bit of free advice.
If you're ever diagnosed with anxiety take it very seriously and learn how to manage it.
The past few days have been hellish, I've felt anxiety physically and it's not pleasant to deal with. It has a habit of creating a vicious circle which is tougher to get out of than you think.
I have a fair idea of what has been contributing to the bouts of anxiety and hopefully it can settle down. At the same time I need to manage it better as I thought, I guess, it wasn't an issue any more because I hadn't really felt it for quite some time.
Funny thing, I was watching a show on TV the other day and it had quite a prophetic line in it and one that we should all keep in mind, regardless of whether anxiety is an issue for you.
''If you're going through hell....keep going''.

Stagnation

Something really needs to change.
I've probably said this a number of times of late but never have I felt it so strongly.
I took a small step today by starting my gym program, and I definitely underestimated how hard it would be. Sure, I didn't think it would be easy - and anything that brings about physical change isn't going to be - but it still took me by surprise. Have to say it was very good, though.
I felt similarly to the time I went to a pilates class with a friend and pretty much thought I was going to die for about 15 minutes. It probably wasn't quite that bad - I didn't feel physically sick but I did know I had had a workout.
The plan is to go back on Thursday as other commitments will prevent me from going again tomorrow (and given how the body feels it is probably a good thing that I have a few days rest).
If I can lose between 3 and 5kg by the start of summer it will be a good achievement. And it will give me confidence that I'm doing things right outside the gym as well.
So that's a great step forward, albeit a relatively small one.
But still I feel that some areas of life need to be different. Part of it is in attitude, outlook and purpose.
I don't really know what I want, long term.
Hopefully I can begin to address this problem in the next few weeks, I'm in the process of doing some organisation in that area.
I do know that standing still is no way to move forward.
In some ways I probably don't have the guts to make the change that needs to be made. Certainly not yet, though it has been on my mind for quite some time.
I guess I hoped it would happen naturally. Alas, it hasn't.
That will be reassessed in the near future, it has to be, because I suspect that it is the area that is causing this stagnation.

Hope Springs

Let's face it, it's hard not to like anything that the wonderful Meryl Streep does these days.
In yet another example of how the trailer doesn't do the movie justice, Hope Springs sees Streep team up with Tommy Lee Jones for a drama about a couple whose marriage is dying. The trailer will have you believe it is a whimsical comedy (does have some funny moments, though).
Streep is Kay, a housewife stuck in Groundhog Day-style life with her husband Arnold (Jones) and she isn't happy. They hardly speak, the sleep in different rooms and they haven't been intimate for years.
She decides to try an intensive couples therapy, dragging a resisting Arnold to Hope Springs to meet with Dr Feld (Steve Carrell) in an effort to save their marriage.
Arnold thinks there's nothing to save, he doesn't see any problems and is rather grumpy and dismissive of the process. This is much to Kay's disappointment.
As Feld digs deeper into their relationship, or lack thereof lately, we find out what attracted them to each other when they were younger and how their marriage just started to fade at a time when it was supposed to be at its most fun.
I must admit there are some uncomfortable scenes here, but that depends on how you feel about people in their 60s attempting to have sex and performing acts of foreplay.
It's done fairly tastefully though, and quite tongue in cheek mostly.
Naturally, this is another vehicle for Streep. It's directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) and Streep is engaging and touching as a woman desperate to restore the love and passion to her marriage. Tommy Lee Jones is his usual gruff self but you can also see through Arnold's eyes here - and there's a great metaphor about a client of his who he's had the same conversation with for 17 years. When you see it you'll know why it's poignant.
Hope Springs is a little misleading in a way, you think you're in for something fairly light-hearted - and there are funny moments - but it's actually quite sad and stark in the way it depicts a marriage that is dying. Does it get saved? Well, you'll have to see to find out.
Not exactly what I was expecting but Meryl is fantastic, Steve Carrell isn't bad either as the therapist for that matter. A 7 out of 10.

The Expendables 2

It's action hero overload again with The Expendables 2 taking absurd action to new levels and the audience along for one heck of a fun ride.
If you've ever seen the film Shoot Em Up (if you haven't it's worth a watch) then you know what you're in for. This sequel is a worthy addition to the 'so bad it's freakin awesome' category of film.
There's not a lot in the way of plot but the story is essentially that Church (Bruce Willis) feels he is owed a favour by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) for events of the first movie and calls upon him and his comrades to extract something from a safe in a fallen plane in the old Soviet Union.
When one of his own is killed retrieving the package, which is taken by the terribly named Jean Villain (Jean Claude Van Damme), Ross vows revenge and sets out after the bad guy.
The great thing about these Expendables movies is that it brings together all the great 80s/early 90s action stars that you would have never got in the same film 20 years ago: the likes of Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger, Statham, Norris, Li, Van Damme, Lundgren etc.
It'd be interesting to know what the body count was in the movie, I reckon it'd be close to a record!
One of the stand out performers though, was the youngest cast member Liam Hemsworth who plays Billy 'The Kid'. He looks like more of an 'actor' than his brother (Chris, aka Thor) rather than an action star and time, I guess, will tell.
On the score of pure entertainment, you've got say this is a four-star film.
The fight scene between Stallone and Van Damme is pretty funny and the latter's accent is hilarious as well.
But we'll bring it down a notch because it is just so ridiculous, over the top, and funny (with some wickedly funny one-liners) and go with a 7 out of 10.
Let's hope if they do a third film they can continue along the same lines, because the sequel is one of those rare times when it's actually better than the original.