Trouble with the Curve (2012)

Think of this as the old school reply to new science Moneyball.

Clint Eastwood plays an ageing talent scout who is due to be replaced by number crunchers after one last signing.

Watch for: quirky sports drama full of sports minutiae, a predictable if moving family drama, and a well-made road movie that delivers a slice of Americana.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 31 October 2012.

House at the end of the street (2012)

Newcomers move into sleepy town, next to a serial killer and her tormented, nice brother.

It's a modern horror film, but done entirely with the thriller sensibilities of Hitchcock and Brian de Palma.

Watch for: Jennifer Lawrence, who proves she's not a flash in a pan.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 31 October 2012.

Apartment 143 (Emergo) (2011)

Technically a found footage horror, Apartment 143 is a supernatural procedural where where a team of paranormal investigators are invited to solve a pressing problem.

Ditching modern horror un-storytelling, we're presented with the old school notion of horror and hauntings as an externalisation of prepubescent sexual anxiety and the family psychodrama.

Watch for: horror with a good story; a found footage horror that doesn't suck.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 31 October 2012.

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Spooky special effects continue in their search of a story in Paranormal Activity 4.

It's not scary, feels tedious, and has no sense of storytelling. Just like all of Oren Peli's 'horror' films, including Chernobyl Diaries.

Forget the stupid marketing and Skip This With Extreme Prejudice.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 31 October 2012.

It Begins with the End (Ca commence par la fin) (2010)

This would be the French arthouse version of 500 Days of Summer, telling the ins and outs of a failed romance out of chronological order.

Unlike 500 Days of Summer, this isn't really good at all. It's a first film by a director who makes the typical mistakes in storytelling, concept, casting, editing, and so on.

Watch for: every other scene beginning with the first eight bars of the Brandenberg Concerto no. 4, movement 2, as if to signal that you're watching something important and intense.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 24 October 2012.

Bait (2012)

A tsunami traps a group of shoppers in a flooded mall together with... sharks.

A rare serious animal horror flick, the only thing ridiculous and comical about it is... its ridiculously comical premise and the ridiculously serious backstories they've invented for all the characters.

Watch for: how something can come across as being not sufficiently ridiculous and comical.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 24 October 2012.

Soar into the sun (R2B: 리턴투베이스) (2012)

In the Korean peninsula, the Cold War never ended. That makes this Korean retread of Top Gun and Iron Eagles strangely appropriate despite how the rest of the world has moved on.

Rain plays: the rookie genius fighter pilot who... Well, you know the rest of the story already.

Watch for: an unironic third act which has men saluting each other, saluting into the sun, saluting at fighter planes, and crying manly tears as they carry out a final mission.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 17 October 2012.

Hit and Run (2012)

This chase caper feels like Quentin Tarrantino adapted a chase caper written by Elmore Leonard.

By which we mean there's all-star cameo cast playing eccentric characters and ex-cons working at cross purposes against each other in a mad rush for the prize.

Watch for: brilliant modern updating of an old comedy genre.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 17 October 2012.

The Dinosaur Project (2012)

Jurassic Park meets Blair Witch meets Paranormal Activity in The Dinosaur Project.

The resulting, incoherent mess could well be Survivor: Dinosaur Jungle.

The story is hackneyed, the characters are cardboard, but the film doesn't take itself seriously, and is so very silly and fun to watch.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 17 October 2012.

Dangerous Liaisons (危險關係) (2012)

This would be the third cinematic remake of Les liaisons dangereuses of note.

Cheat sheet: A pair of frenemies decide to ruin a morally upright society woman for fun and giggles. And sex. This remake trades the Ancien Regime for Jazz Age Shanghai.

It's a huge mistake. Jazz Age Shanghai was never a strait-laced, moralistic society where the proceedings of such dangerous liaisons would be a shocking, untold scandal. There's no sense of near-absolute cynicism, amorality and malice either.

Watch for: Stupendous sets. Otherwise: Watch the Korean remake instead.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 10 October 2012.

Sinister (2012)

The Ring gets a classic American horror style homage in Sinister.

Ethan Hawke plays a writer who wants to be the Truman Capote of unsolved serial killings and finds there is a real evil behind a case, lurking within... homemade 8mm videos.

Watch for: excellent conceptual writing that melds two very different horror traditions, and Ethan Hawkes, who's very good in any movie he's cast.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 10 October 2012.

Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)

The best way to approach this comedy is to watch it as a project to expose the romcom formula and structure, then subvert it from within.

The gimmick: a happily separated couple of over a year might as well be the happiest couple alive with their effortless chemistry and intimacy together.

In a reverse of other indifferently written romcoms, you can't really figure what they don't see eye to eye on, why they're supposed to be moving apart, and why the film really wants to split them apart.

Is that groundbreaking for the genre and what we really want to see in the genre?

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 3 October 2012.

The Words (2012)

A dissipated pulp writer presents a novel about a plagiarist who discovers his story is Based On Real Life because the real author tells him All About It.

Highly postmodern, the literate thriller sets up a series of Chinese puzzle box narratives. That ride is fun and worth the entry price.

What isn't fun is how all that careful literary construction leads to a very disappointing punchline.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 3 October 2012.

Taken 2 (2012)

Like its predecessor, Taken 2 is a repudiation of Hollywood's Total Action Film concept, which punctuates action with cartoonish humour.

In this Totally Serious Action flick, Liam Neeson kicks ass once again as once again, someone in his family is kidnapped. The gimmick? It's him.

I thought despite being a retread, the sequel had enough differences from the original to justify the price of a movie ticket.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 3 October 2012.