SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES*****

It's decades since I watched the original rock-mockumentary SPINAL TAP, so I can't remember the specifics of any of the jokes bar 'turning it up to eleven", Stonehenge and ill-fated drummers. And since then we've had the tragic murder of Rob Reiner and his wife. I just didn't know how I was going to react to this sequel.  I am happy to report that it's just delightful:  silly, sweet, sometimes melancholy, with some insane cameos and so many moments where I was guffawing out loud. 

The movie opens with our ageing three rockers retired and variously running a cheese shop, a glue shop, and writing muzak for crime podcasts.  The daughter of their old bandmate wants to bring them back for a shameless cash-in reunion concert in New Orleans, masterminded by a thinly veiled evil Simon Cowell-Simon Fowler-style impresario played with relish by Chris Addison (The Thick Of It).  Along the way we get old beefs rehashed, and the introduction of a new drummer played by Valerie Franco.  We get to see Tap interact with evident real-life fan Elton John in an extended and tremendous cameo.  It's just a bloody good time - just so well-meaning, so funny and so full of people pretending but actually writing good rock songs and enjoying playing them. In fact, the final 25 minutes is basically just a filmed real Tap concert.  Loved every second of it.

God bless Rob Reiner and all who sailed in him. 

SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES has a running time of 83 minutes and is rated R. It was released last October.

AND SO IT GOES

From the director of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY - a rom-com of true originality - comes a rom-com of deathly predictability and banality in every aspect except the age of its protagonists. Michael Douglas plays his familiar screen persona - a selfish, wise-ass lothario called Oren Little.  He's the grumpy grieving landlord of a small residential community in which one of his tenants is the sweet and lovely Leah, played by the typically sweet and lovely Diane Keaton.  To say that all three major players in this film - stars and director - are slumming it here, is an understatement.  As the film unfolds, we see Oren's ex addict son turn up with a ten year old daughter who he dumps on his dad before he goes to prison. Naturally, Leah is going to turn out to be a lovely surrogate grandmother and this is going to soften Oren's heart and lead to a bumpy but ultimately happy romance. 

The film is not entirely unwatchable thanks to the genuine charisma of both leads but it really does just grind through its gears and lead us to a very obvious denouement.  There is really nothing new to see and frankly this is a DVD release at best, if not plain avoided.

AND SO IT GOES has a running time of 94 minutes and is rated PG-13. The movie is on release it Italy, Israel, Greece, the UK and Ireland. It is released later this month in Israel, Ukraine, Canada, the USA, Mexico and Singapore. It goes on release in August in Estonia, Lithuania, Argentina, Chile, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Croatia, Macedonia and the UAE. It goes on release in September in Denmark, Hungary, Kuwait, Norway, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Paraguay, South Africa, Paraguay, South Africa, the Philippines and Slovakia. It goes on release in October in Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Colombia, Lebanon, Peru and Finland. It opens in November in Germany and Austria, and in January 2015 in Hong Kong and Japan.

THE BUCKET LIST - shameless schmaltz

THE BUCKET LIST is a horrible, lazy, manipulative movie and all the high-octane talent on the poster should be ashamed of having taken the pay check. Jack Nicholson plays a cantankerous old bastard just waiting to have his heart melted by Morgan Freeman's smug old wise man. It's like the script-writer simply spliced every other movie Nicholson and Freeman had starred in over the past decade. The two old men meet-cute in a cancer ward and indulge themselves in a few month's of global travel in their dying days. Apparently, being terminally ill with cancer is no bar to hiking in the Himalayas. Naturally, Nicholson learns the evils of his capitalist bastard ways and delivers one of those final act speeches that has us tearing up. That is, if you are able to supress your gag reflex.

THE BUCKET LIST is already on release in the US, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Israel, Colombia, Spain, Turkey, Venezuela, the Philippines, Argentina, Slovakia and the UK. It opens next week in Australia, Hong Kong, Portugal and Brazil. It opens the following week in France. THE BUCKET LIST opens in March in Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands and Singapore. It opens in April in Finland, Norway and Sweden and opens in Russia on June 5th.

RUMOUR HAS IT - enough with the Unfunny

What did I do when I wasn't laughing at this movie? I wondered why, if the movie is set in 1997, Jennifer Aniston is carrying a 2005 Cruise collection Gucci handbag. It turns out that I am not the only one not to be feeling the love for this movie. Costner apparently had the original director fired half-way through shooting. That director was replaced by Rob Reiner. Rob Reiner directed THIS IS SPINAL TAP, perhaps the funniest movie ever made. How are the mighty fallen.

RUMOUR HAS IT is on global release.