Film Review Bonanza

Went to see “The Adjustment Bureau” today. Great film. A bit like Inception, but done better in my opinion. The story is based on one from Philip K. Dick. There have been so many films based on his writings that the next one will have to be a cinematic reworking of his laundry list. But I digress. The film tells of a pair of lovers star-crossed by fate or, more accurately, the Bureau of the title. Well acted, with very engaging leads. And a satisfying ending. It reminded me of a time I had to mend a desk in my office. Although actually that was “The Bureau Adjustment”. Anyhoo, enough of the bad jokes, good film, go see it.

Talking of “star crossed lovers”, here’s another pair. A week or so ago we went to see ”Gnomeo and Juliet” which tells of a couple of ceramic lovers of the garden gnome variety. This film has just enough wit and originality to sustain a 90 second trailer, which was unfortunately the thing I saw that made me decide to go and see it. Movies like this really make you appreciate Nick Park and Pixar, who can make producing this kind of fare seem effortless.  If you are five you might like it I suppose, but for the rest of you, just watch the trailer.

Billed as ‘the film that cost over 20,000,000,000,000 to make’ the movie ‘Inside Job’ is a documentary that tells the story of that economic crash thingy that was all over the papers a couple of years ago. You know, that thing that is going to blight the lives of an entire generation or two and is set to recur every now and then until the world realises that banks that are ‘Too Big To Fail’ are going to keep trying to.

I caught this film on the plane on the way home. You must see it too, if not for the lovely helicopter shots of cities then for the  squirming of some of the idiots daft enough to appear and try and justify the indefensible.

I’m sure it over-simplifies here and there and the viewpoint is not particularly balanced, but if only a fraction of what the film reveals is the case then the whole world (and I do mean everyone) has been taken for a massive ride. It has always puzzled me that things can just “go up in value” for no readily apparent reason. It turns out that they can’t, and if you base a business on this premise then every now and then we will have one of these massive crashes. If there ever was a job for the Adjustment Bureau then this is it.