Paul

Cast
Simon Pegg
Nick Frost
Seth Rogen (voice)
Jason Bateman
Kristen Wiig
Bill Hader
Jane Lynch
Joe Lo Truglio
Sigourney Weaver
Screenwriters
Simon Pegg
Nick Frost
Director
Greg Mottola
Running Time
103 minutes

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite for the comedy adventure Paul as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America's UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. (Universal)

It just wasn't very good, I went in with high expectations but was disappointed. The last quarter was alright but the first 3/4 quarters were dull, basically. There were lots of lines and references from other films which almost entirely didn't work because they were so obvious and fell flat over and over. It was bizarrely sweary for no reason other than seemingly to get it a 15 certificate and prevent lots of its target audience from seeing it. It seemed like a dry run or first draft because none of it was thought through enough, detailed enough or basically good enough. The characters were all one dimensional even the leads you learned almost nothing about and they just kept adding more "kooky" characters when they should have fleshed out the ones they already had.

True Grit

Cast
Jeff Bridges
Matt Damon
Josh Brolin
Hailee Steinfeld
Barry Pepper
Screenwriters
Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Directors
Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
Running Time
110 minutes

Fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross's father has been shot in cold blood by the coward Tom Chaney, and she is determined to bring him to justice. Enlisting the help of a trigger-happy, drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn, she sets out with him -- over his objections -- to hunt down Chaney. Her father's blood demands that she pursue the criminal into Indian territory and find him before a Texas Ranger named LeBoeuf catches him and brings him back to Texas for the murder of another man. (Paramount Pictures)

I've seen the original many times although not recently and think it's fantastic. When I heard about this remake I was dubious but I had read or heard somewhere, maybe from Jeff Bridges in an interview, that it would be based more on the original book than the first film and so be substantially different. When I saw the trailer it seemed to be following the plot of the first film exactly but it was getting glowing reviews and award nominations. So anyway I've seen it and it is pretty much a total copy of the original just not as good in most if not all respects, time after time I kept thinking this scene had been done better in the original. A particularly odd thing about Hailee Steinfeld, who was good and I guess she was closer in age than Kim Darby to the character, was how she seemed to be as tall as all the other actors so nullifying the sense of her being really young.

Tangled 3D

Cast
Zachary Levi
Mandy Moore
Donna Murphy
Ron Perlman
Brad Garrett
Jeffrey Tambor
Screenwriter
Dan Fogelman
Director
Byron Howard
Nathan Greno
Running Time
100 minutes

A princess stolen from her parents' castle as a baby, Rapunzel is locked in a hidden tower longing for adventure Now an imaginative and determined teenager, she takes off on a hilarious, hair-raising escapade with the help of a dashing bandit. With the secret of her royal heritage hanging in the balance and her captor in pursuit, Rapunzel and her cohort find adventure, heart, humor, and hair... lots of hair. (Walt Disney Pictures)

The 3D added little and it was perhaps a little long, my mind wandered at times, also the songs were unmemorable but it was imaginative and fun with a good cast and animation.

The Fighter

Cast
Christian Bale
Mark Wahlberg
Melissa Leo
Amy Adams
Screenwriters
Scott Silver
Paul Tamasy
Eric Johnson
Director
David O Russell
Running Time
115 minutes

The Fighter, is a drama about boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO'd by drugs and crime.

Terrific performances, dialogue and visuals. Its sense of authenticity is great, maybe the only negative was that I didn't find the fights that thrilling.