Reggie Perrin

I laughed only once in the first episode of Reggie Perrin last night. Probably won't bother with episode 2. Then again, I probably wouldn't find the original that entertaining if I was to revisit it today.

But what is it with BBC1 sitcoms? They're all unfunny!

Be kind rewind

Strange film.

I'm not sure this knows what kind of film it wants to be. It starts out with the set-up for a dumb comedy, but with not enough laughs. Then, about 25 minutes in, we get to the video remakes bit which is probably all that the audience knew about before watching the film. This starts off a bit dull (the Ghostbusters & Rush Hour 2 bit) but gets fairly entertaining for ten minutes or so of remakes which come thick and fast. But its clear that the remakes can't sustain interest for the rest of the film and so the movie switches genre and morphs into one of those light-hearted films full of quirky characters that you're supposed to care about. And the funny thing is that you do care. Finally, at the end, it turns into Cinema Paradiso and goes all arty on us.

So, in no way is this a coherent film. But it is entertaining and even a little moving. And probably about 20 minutes too long.

Jack Black is, of course, just playing Jack Black. If you can't tolerate him, then steer clear. If you can, this is fine.

About 20 minutes into it is a near perfect sight-gag that is just brilliant. Almost worth the rental price just for that moment of art. (Yes, I mean the bit with the 'camouflaged' boiler suit when the police turn up. Masterful.)

However, I'm unlikely to watch this again. Next...

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

I finally got around to watching this movie.

• Reasons why I wanted to watch it: Its a superhero movie, I love superhero movies. Its a comedy, I like comedy movies. I mean, Mystery Men was excellent, wasn't it?
  
• Reasons why I didn't want to watch it: It stars Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson. I have never understood why Uma Thurman is cast in roles where she's supposed to be attractive or sexy, I just don't see it. And Luke Wilson is always the same character in whatever film he's in.

But I added it to the list of movies on my online DVD rental selection and eventually it turned up on my doorstep.

And I have to say I quite enjoyed it. Yes it had an almost entirely predictable plot (except for the bit with the shark) and you could see the final two 'twists' a mile off, and all the characters were paper thin and reasonably stereotypical, but it did actually have a heart lurking under there and in the end you did care what happened to the characters. And Eddie Izzard always adds a little fun to a film.

Forgettable but transiently entertaining fluff.