Dear John

Dear John is the latest film to be adapted from a novel by Nicholas Sparks the author of The Notebook. It’s clear that Dear John is trying to create the heart wrenching feel of The Notebook and disappointingly it fails miserably। The plot had an interesting premise in that John (Channing Tatum) meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfrield) while on two weeks leave from the army, they immediately fall in love and struggle to maintain their relationship, the only way possible to them,by writing letters to one another. Although this seemed like a unique story, this film just wasn’t strong enough where it mattered. When the film was going through the motions it was reasonably watchable, however at the points it attempted to hit your raw emotions it simply had no impact, even surrounded by women at this screening (this type of films target audience) I noticed not a single viewer crying at any point. This was in part due to the director Lasse Hallström who although he had his moments of visual flair at times did not make it clear at times what was happening on screen, and surely storytelling must be a directors top priority. Blame must also be put at Tatum’s and Seyfeild’s door who have either been miscast or are simply not good enough for leading roles. Dear John is simply not worth watching unless you are a big fan of these films and even then I would wait till it’s shown on TV.

The Bounty Hunter

The Bounty Hunter is an example of the studios producing a type of movie in the same way as usual, with the same stars as usual, breading apathy. This is the story of a young reporter, whose job causes her to miss a court date, and ends up being tracked down, by her bounty hunter ex husband. As always Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler were perfectly abdicate in their roles, however they nor this film brought nothing new to the table, in fact even outside of the movie we were subjected to the usual rumours of Anniston being romantically linked to co-star. However back to the film its self, the plot line and script were reasonably well thought out and, and they were implemented well by the cast and crew, but the thing that will stick with me when it comes to this film is its complete lack of originality.

Punisher: War Zone

Punisher: War Zone is a sequel to 2004’s The Punisher, and an adaption of Marvel Comics character of the same name, although curiously not only did it make no attempt to connect to the previous movie, it even altered the origin from the original film. The plot line is simple, the punisher is a vigilante who kills criminals, however one day one of his victims escapes with his life but not his looks and seeks revenge. This film tried to mix the surreal and extraordinary with grittiness and the ordinary and although this sort of combination may work in comics, it did not come together well on the big screen. There were some very interesting visual stylings in this movie and Lexi Alexander shows promise as a young director however she must learn to pay attention to the overall movie and not just the aesthetics. Ray Stevenson was an excellent choice for the lead role and stood head and shoulders above all else in this film, however he was lumbered with a film that unravelled as it progressed, as well as a ridiculous costume with some sort of neck amour that looked like it was fresh from the catwalks of Milan. This will go down as another one of those terrible comic book adaptations that make everyone wish the character had been left in his usual three colour world.