Movie review - "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" (2025) ***1/2

 Points to Rian Johnson changing mode, making this an examination of faith. Josh O'Connor is excellent in a tricky role. Daniel Craig hams it up. Mila Kunis feels miscast. Jeremy Renner seems unwell but it suits the part. Nice images.

Movie review - "Oz Great and Powerful" (2013) **

 Decent central idea - origin story for the wizard - but James Franco isn't as compelling a lead as say Johnny Depp would have been, and it's sluggishly paced despite some decent actors and visuals. Maybe it needed songs.

Michelle Williams looks pretty and smiles at Franco. Rachel Weisz is fine. Mila Kunis ditto though you're aware her most interesting work will come later.

The chatty chimp was adequate. The china doll touching. There's GI battles.

It was fine, I guess.

Movie review - "Bad Moms" (2016) ****

Raunchy, funny female skewed R rated comedy which has a very strong cast and some outstanding moments. At it's heart this is an old fashioned star vehicle for Mila Kunis, who is probably too young for her role in terms of age (to have a 12 year old) but completely right in terms of attractiveness, charisma and tone.

She's a super woman - tries to be there for her husband, is a great mom, a top notch worker and very funny. The husband is No Good, the kids are ungrateful, and her work don't appreciate her. Oh and she clashes with the head bitch of the PTA (Christina Applegate, perfect). This leads to an act of rebellion - she kicks out the cheating husband, teaches the kids to be self sufficient, parties, scores a hot widow (Jay Hernandez, not very good in a thankless role), beats the baddies, and learns the importance of more chilled out parenting.

It's a nice message and the writers have come up with lots of laugh out loud moments and fresh twists on old situations to overcome the formula. Kunis has excellent support from Kathryn Hahn (trashy single mom) and Kristen Bell (uptight anxious mom) as her new BFFs. Lots of fun.

Movie review - "Ted" (2012) ***1/2

Extremely funny movie which contains many laugh out loud moments, and a simple structure well executed, even if Mark Wahlberg is too old for his role. They keep calling him 35 but he doesn't look it, and there's a real gap between him and Mila Kunis. Both give good performances, though, as do the people who helped create "Ted". (The special effects are well done).

Jam packed with pop culture references, I mean really jam packed: Flash Gordon, Flying High, Boogie Nights, Tom Skerritt, Norah Jones, etc. It also went on too long, and the Joel McHale section didn't really work (the tone felt out or something), and it's got that strand of misogyny you often find in boysie comedies (there are a couple of scenes with these hot chicks just kind of standing around eg. the one at Wahlberg's work, the ones at Kunis' work) but was generally a lot of fun.

Movie review – “Friends with Benefits” (2011) **1/2

These sort of movies always cheat because you know they’re going to get together at the end – heck these two are basically together at the beginning, spending all their spare time together, going on dates-in-all-but-name, not really seeing anyone else. Mila Kunis does see that doctor for a bit (played by that actor who always turns up in romantic comedies), it doesn't turn out well, Justin Timberlake doesn't seem to care that much. That's about the extent of exploring the "issues" of a commitment-less relationship.
Director (and co-writer) Will Gluck seems more interesting on exploring the fact that his characters are in a romantic comedy (just as he was self referential about making a teen film in Easy A) - there are jokes about the expectations created by Katherine Heigl movies, they watch a mock rom com (with Jason Segel and Rashida Jones), etc - but even this is kind of cheating, and pointless.
On the other hand, Gluck's direction has plenty of imagination and verve, the film has energy, the two leads work well (I do think Justin Timberlake is more of a character actor than a star). It's just the script isn't the best, with it's stock situations (New York, publishing) pumped up with modern tech references (bible apps, Wii), father with dramatically convenient Alzheimers, no really decent support roles (there are two "best friends" during an opening monologues by the two stars who never say anything and are hardly seen again, and Jenna Elfman is wasted).

Movie review – “Black Swan” (2010) ****1/2

Excellent horror film/psycho thriller, reminiscent of those Jimmy Sangster-written films of the 60s, and works of Roman Polanski. Natalie Portman deserves every award she gets for her impressive work here as the ballerina who goes bonkers (NB are there any films out there about well-adjusted ballerinas?); there’s wonderful support by Barbara Hershey (crazy stage mother), Vincent Cassel (sexually harassing director), Winona Ryder (don’t buy her as a ballerina but we don’t see her dance and she does great crazy) and Mila Kunis (the best-adjusted of the lot). I felt it slumped around the middle; I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, maybe it was the fact Portman was so passive most of the time, just deteriorating and going mad, it dragged a bit. But once her descent gets going it’s tremendously gripping; I was on the edge of my seat a lot of the time. Extremely well directed, powerful atmosphere, very hot lesbian love scene.

Movie review – “Date Night” (2010) ***

Starts brilliantly - Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are a marvelous duo, and their teaming as a married couple is easily enough to sustain a film. The first half hour is great, but when the North by Northwest stuff happens it's less good and eventually things become tired. For instance, Mark Wahlberg's initial appearance is fantastic - but we go back to him far too often (literally; they keep popping back to his place). James Franco and Mila Kunis are funny in their bit too - I expected to see more of them. A good hearted film.