Worth Watching February 2011

Worth Watching:

• The Green Hornet (2011), Michel Gondry - A really fantastic, and funny action film that benefits from Gondry's unique visual style. Firecracker opening sequence featuring a hilarious James Franco cameo sets the tone for the whole film. Even the 3-D looks good, doesn't have that whole diorama-rama day feel going on which has plagued recent releases.

• Madagascar (2005), Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath - The animation already looks positively dated compared to recent Pixar releases, but this is one of the funniest of the computer animations. Pleasantly relying on humorous caricatures of the animal kingdom, rather than tired pop-culture references.

• Rich & Strange (1932), Alfred Hitchcock – Hitch shows a lighter touch in this globetrotting comedy which features the strange use of intertitles for a sound film. A genuinely funny film that is extremely frank in its depictions of adultery for the 30s.

• Bedhead (1991), Robert Rodriguez - Rodriguez's formative short, with its funky hand-drawn credits, rocks a very cool visual aesthetic with the director experimenting with zooms, and editing (done on two VCRs). Throw in a great voiceover and music and it's a winner, which you can check out here:

• Gone Baby Gone (2007), Ben Affleck – Affleck adapts a novel by my equal favourite living novelist and knocks it out of the park. This is an intense, deeply affecting film, that will stay with you long after it is finished. An incredible ensemble piece - Casey Affleck is brilliant, Michelle Monaghan is brilliant, Amy Ryan is brilliant and Ed Harris is fucking brilliant. If there's a more promising and exciting young director than Affleck working today, I don't know about them.

Not Worth Watching:

• Danny Bhoy Live – I didn't see any movies I wouldn't recommend this month. But I went and saw the Scottish comedian Danny Bhoy. A strong start gave way to lowest common denominator stuff - gay jokes, jokes about ethnicity and most disturbingly rape jokes abounded.

If you only have time to watch one Gone Baby Gone

Avoid at all costs Danny Bhoy live