The Bling Ring, Pacific Rim and Now You See Me

I think that Sofia Coppola may have peaked with Lost In Translation. Her new movie The Bling Ring was a huge disappointment. And it was such a good idea. But the whole thing ended up a mish mash of highly stylised editing which just made me want to get up and go.

I now normally avoid movies like Pacific Rim, packed full of CGI special effects, and humans fighting monsters. But this was a step up from the Transformers franchise thanks to having a director like Guillermo del Toro and his writing partner Travis Beacham. That is not to say that the dialogue is any good, far from it. But the story is reasonably original and the 3D visuals are the best I have seen. The fight sequences are not too long, thank goodness, and Idris Elbe is competent enough as the  no nonsense boss.

The reviews for Now You See Me were not encouraging, so I was surprised to find what turned out to be a decent thriller about illusionists. A starry cast of fine actors do their best to turn a stodgy screenplay into something quite watchable. The set pieces are excitingly filmed and there is the twist at the end that I, for one, didn't see coming. Is that why the critics were so unhappy, that they too were taken in?