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STEP BROTHERS - REVIEW

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The pairing of Ferrell and Reilly should have been comedy gold, unfortunately Step Brothers only manages comedy bronze. Having said that, Step Brothers has a lot going for it and if you allow yourself to give in to the pleasantly retarded proceedings, you'll love it.  The step brothers in question clearly have a ball improvising and just being silly as they happily bring their own take on  Dumb and Dumber  to the 21st Century. In contrast to the chaotic buffoonery involved, Jon Brion provides a beautifully orchestrated, subtle score which manages to fit in very well even though it is somewhat out of Step Brothers' league.  Overall, Step Brothers may not be the single most memorable comedy you'll ever see but it's a bunch of fun for anyone willing to shut their brain off for a couple of hours, sit back and lol. 

HALL PASS - REVIEW

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Whatever happened to the Farrelly Brothers? Now don't get me wrong, these guys were never the Fellini Brothers but for a while they were the go-to guys for gross-out, dumb but cute comedies. But after the genius of Dumb & Dumber , the creativity of There's Something About Mary and the extreme silliness of Me Myself and Irene things got too dumb ( Shallow Hal ) or too cute ( Perfect Catch ) leaving the brothers in a sort of comedy no man's land... Then Hall Pass comes along. Yes it's set in Providence, yes it's about two buddy idiots...but alas Dumb & Dumber this most certainly isn't. For one thing it's barely funny. Barring a couple of amusing build-ups or observations there's really nothing here to count on laughs-wise. Even the likes of Richard Jenkins, Christina Applegate, Jenna Fischer and Stephen Merchant fail to raise a single smile, it's really quite astonishing. That said, Owen Wilson is great and manages to create a surpri

TRUE GRIT - REVIEW

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It was somewhat inevitable that the Coen Brothers would end up making a straight-up western, especially after modern-day effort No Country For Old Men . This time we get True Grit, a remake of a John Wayne classic but with an alcoholic Dude and a pipe-smokin’ Matt Damon. Borrowing not much more than the core story from the original, the Coens introduce us to a familiar setting and a very simple plot but add their own spin on it, whether it is through touches of black comedy or dark undertones which few John Wayne films would have been comfortable with. Newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is the little girl who drags Jeff Bridges' "meanest" US Marshall and Damon's unsure Texas Ranger across the desert to find her father's killer. Steinfeld is great and really steals the show: she is strong-willed, tough, determined, courageous and doesn't take no for an answer. Bridges is always a safe bet and he does well here but his thick accent, grungy voice and constant mumbl

A SERIOUS MAN - REVIEW

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Can The Coens do no wrong? Is that possible? It certainly appears that way. A Serious Man is indeed yet another mini-masterpiece from the men behind The Big Lebowski , Fargo and countless other triumphs. After a truly perplexing opening 5 minutes, it looked like The Coens were going to really lose us on this one. But of course they were only teasing. A Serious Man is probably their most personal film and feels closer to the likes of Barton Fink than anything else they've done in the past: small, focused, stylish, incredibly clever, truly unique and of course very funny. For anyone with Jewish heritage, the film will probably feel extra-perceptive but at its core the film's ideas and messages are universal. Larry Gopnik's struggle to make sense of the unjust treatment he suddenly receives from the world around him is one which anyone can empathise with and understand. A Serious Man, like a lot of Coen Brothers films, is a bit like watching an ant struggle under a mag