On Air Now Non-Stop Music 1:00am - 6:00am
Now Playing Lady Gaga Abracadabra

Alex Cann's Weekly Film Blog - 11th June

Family-sized lasagne is loved by cuddly indoor cat Garfield, but he's not a fan of Mondays. Fair enough, although it seems he has a pretty pampered life living with Jon, who finds him wandering the rainy streets as he dines alone in his favourite Italian restaurant.

Chris Pratt lends his voice to the loveable but greedy moggy, and Samuel L. Jackson brings his scruffy street cat dad Vic to life. Despite a less than favourable Rotten Tomatoes score, I really enjoyed this one. There were some decent one-liners, I liked the animation, and it kept the kids in the screening I attended thoroughly entertained. It's filled with nostalgia, humour, and a touching father/son bonding storyline as they embark on a high stakes dairy farm heist. The Bill Murray era sarcasm is dialled down a bit, but I thought there was a good balance of elements here. Won't give you furballs!

Talking of nostalgia, I rented Death Becomes Her after noticing it made up part of Cineworld's Pride season, and really enjoyed it. The special effects have aged well, given it's over 30 years old, and I particularly liked Bruce Willis's role as Dr Ernest Menville. A huge departure from the likes of Die Hard and other films you'll know him best for. Yippee ki yay!

 A novelist loses her man to a smouldering A list movie star and former friend, and subsequently ends up in a psychiatric hospital. Years later, the two (played by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn) both realise that immortality has its consequences, after both drink a potion promising eternal youth. Wonderfully dark and funny.

And Bad Boys : Ride Or Die still boasts a bit of the chemistry seen in earlier films between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, but it all feels a bit like they are going through the motions. The plot is wafer thin, although I did miss a bit when I nodded off about 25 minutes in, which might tell you it wasn't the most compelling watch. Something blows up approximately every 33 seconds, and there are several refrains of the famous "Bad Boys, Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do" along  the way. A highlight was the end credits...because they feature an excellent new version of one of my favourite Genesis songs by Black Eyed Peas! The rest washed over me really. A perfectly plausible popcorn flick packed full of car chases, shoot outs and Miami beach scenery, but not one to rush to watch on the big screen, in my humble opinion. Will Smith didn't seem to get many of the funny lines in the script this time. His performance was not very punchy, you could say.

As Wendy Ide, my favourite film critic, says in the Observer: "If the bullets mainly find their targets, the jokes do not." She also describes the buddy cop routine between the two leads as "laboured and stale". With four films in the franchise, perhaps it's time for something new, lads?

Next week, Sting, Inside Out 2 and The Hitman. Happy film watching!

More from Alex Cann's Weekly Film Blog

  • Alex Cann Film Column - 20th March 2025

    There are some pretty decent offerings this week, beginning with the taut, twisty spy thriller Black Bag. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett lead a strong cast in this tale of subterfuge, loyalty, double-crossing, and gameplaying. It's a neat entry into my 'decent films lasting no more than 90 minutes' list, as George Woodhouse (Fassbender) is tasked with finding a mole within their spy circle. Unfortunately for him, one of the possible suspects is his wife Kathryn (Blanchett). Will he put his job before his marriage?

  • Alex B Cann Film Column - 13th March 2025

    Marching Powder is a contender for the worst film of 2025 so far for me. Danny Dyer plays Jack Jones, an ageing, down-on-his-luck football hooligan whose marriage is on the rocks as his life spirals out of control. The biggest wonder is that Dani (Stephanie Leonidas) sticks around past the opening scenes. In my book, this is certainly not a film to rush to see on the big screen.

  • Alex B Cann Film Column - March 6th 2025

    I was fortunate enough to catch a preview screening this week of Flow, the Oscar-winning Latvian animation about a solitary cat caught up in a raging flood and forced to team up with other animals to try and survive the torrent. There's not a single word of dialogue, but this is a mesmerising watch from start to finish. An unlikely alliance is forged between the cat, a capybara, a dog, and a secretary bird, and the film leaves us thinking about climate change, living in the moment, and survival. Clever stuff, and it proves that sometimes you don't need a wordy script to move cinema audiences.

  • Alex Cann's weekly film blog - 9th January

    A mix this week of stuff that I watched over the festive season and a couple from this week, to start another year of movie watching!

  • Alex's Weekly Film Blog - 31st October

    With it being Halloween week, it's worth mentioning that horror has had a rather lucrative year at the cinema, with movies such as The Substance, Terrifier 3 and Smile 2 all delighting audiences and smashing their budgets at the box office.

Weather

  • Tue

    13°C

  • Wed

    14°C

  • Thu

    15°C

  • Fri

    9°C

  • Sat

    11°C