Lovely and tongue-firmly-in-cheek in its awkwardness in the way that Spinal Tap is, for a group of characters that take themselves far too seriously. Some gut-bustingly funny moments in this too. I must admit that some of the bloodier moments made me cringe more than the farce elements though. All of the individual performances are endearing nonetheless.
A bit of a mess plot-wise as the writers seemed to want to cram in a lot of things, and Foxx's overall transition from bumbling nobody to super-villain seemed way over the top. But still some great special effects, and the chemistry between Garfield and Stone is excellent.
Highly brutal but very engaging. Has a lot going for it even without the inevitable comparison to the 1995 version - sticks closer to the feel of the original comics, our title character doesn't take off his helmet (which gives a better ideal of him being an almost inhumanly unflagging and unrelenting pillar of justice), and there's a sense of desperation in the Mega City One inhabitants that gives a fantastic dystopian edge to the tale which sets it well apart from Stallone's almost day-glo effort. Best of all, this version seems to be almost an origin story for Judge Anderson - a very welcome addition of the beloved character, who very gratefully isn't relegated to being the love interest or even unnecessarily oversexualised, and is also only briefly turned into a McGuffin in need of rescuing. Only sticking point really is the almost shocking levels of gore and a leaning toward glorification of violence, and at times this also gives a streak of black humour which is only funny perhaps half of the time. The three principals are excellent in their roles - Urban once again showing his versatility in a role where he had to bring an Eastwood-high level of grim persistence and some nuance of humanity, Thirlby's Anderson isn't the seasoned veteran but her rookie vulnerability lets the audience into the world, and Headey once again expertly portrays the evilly charismatic villain.
Fairly basic action vehicle with some great gun fu scenes, with the added twist of the protagonist characters being largely "over the hill", even if the actors who portrayed them don't seem to be so much. Slightly distracting is the concept that Willis and Parker have a romance going on when it seems that he's conceptually old enough to be either her father or grandfather, and sadly Freeman suffers a too-well-worn fate for the token African-American, but this is all forgivable considering the good humour, the chance to see Mirren go nuts with sniper rifles and submachineguns, plus the bonus of Willis in a brutal hand-to-hand with the ever-likeable Urban.
Heart-warming and humourous, but light on the substance. Having only recently seen the musical before viewing the movie (or even reading the original, which I still haven't done), I can see where each of the performed versions has strengths and weaknesses - the musical has some leaps in the plot where the movie spells them out better (such as the musical's more sudden revelation of the eponymous lead's powers of telekinesis), but the musical delves into its relationships with more ease (possibly because of the presence of songs to investigate heightened emotion more). In both cases the body-shaming of Trunchbull (and to a lesser extent Bogtrotter) didn't sit well with me in a more modern context, but there are still moments of great humour to be found in the whole text. Wilson has the right amount of gumption and smarts to hold the title role, and Davidtz's Honey is sweet and articulate in support of Matilda's genius. Ferris, DeVito, and Perlman are perfectly hateable in their roles too.
