Short film reviews

Last week: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Adam Sandler and Kevin James are firemen who embark on a well-meaning scam by pretending they're married to make sure James' kids will be cared for if something happens to him. The pair have a number of surprisingly dramatic-looking fires to attend, but the real surprise is the way the film addresses homophobia.

However, Adam Sandler apparently co-wrote the script which may explain the sheer number of women he scores with. The message is 'I'm only pretending to be gay'. Given the kind of people usually classed as Adam Sandler fans such signposting is probably necessary. I do wonder how many retakes 'had' to be shot of the scene where he massages Jessica Biels' boobs.

But overall the film's watchable and has a few decent laughs in places. The only problem is, for a movie which is about acceptance, most of the genuinely gay characters are stereotypically flamboyant, but then perhaps you'd expect that in a pro-gay movie written by heterosexuals...

Jongudmund's rating: 7/10 - one to watch on DVD perhaps.


This week: Ratatouille
What do you need to know? It's by Pixar. It's another brilliant animation. It's about a rat with yearnings to be a chef and a cultured nose, who develops a symbiotic relationship with a lowly garbage boy in a restaurant kitchen and together they ascend the pinnacle of the restaurant trade. If you're not weirded out by the concept, then enjoy the cameo characters, especially Peter O'Toole as a morbidly snide food critic. Pixar rarely mess up, and although this is possibly one of their weaker films, I enjoyed it.

The trainee alien abductors in the short film which precedes it are probably worth the entrance fee alone.

Jongudmund's rating: 8/10 - go and see it, but not at a time when the cinema will be full of screaming children.