I have never been a great Woody Allen fan, but his "Midnight in Paris" had received mainly good reviews ("a return to form" etc). I found it pretty lightweight, but are all his movies the same? It did have a certain je ne sais quois (get it?), the scenes of Paris being quite beautiful as expected. The mix of time travel and the introduction of many characters who inhabited Paris in the past (Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali to name the most prominent) was interesting, but reminded me too much of the book I have just read ("Any Human Heart"). The scenes where Owen Wilson (seemed to struggle with his lead role) meets Rachel McAdam's family I found embarrassingly amateurish. However, it was mostly an entertaining 90 minutes.
It wasn't even half term and Aylesbury Odeon had little to offer. "Real Steel" was one of those movies that seemed quite enticing on the trailer, but ended up a very poor affair. It could have been so much better, but a clumsy script and ridiculous characters made for a very disappointing movie.
I was looking for a a much more tense thriller than "Contagion" delivered. It had all the hallmarks of a documentary with too much switching between all the organisations looking to contain or cure the virus and the people who are effected. But director Steven Soderbergh and his all star cast have produced something that is clever and watchable. Marion Cotillard produces the best performance, but like the other stars, is on the screen all too briefly. A slick and informative thriller that sort of peters out at the end. But overall a quite enjoyable film.
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