Do you like guns? A trigger happy hero with rippling muscles and, strange but true, the head of once puny James McAvoy? What about Angelina Jolie? With a gun? Finally, are you a teenage boy? If the answer to these questions is yes, you will love this
Mark Millar penned action thriller.
The latest in a never-ending line of comic book adaptations, this is the most brainless of the bunch. McAvoy – and really, it's hard to mention him in this context without gasping 'Oh my god, who did he shoot to get that body?' – is Wes, a nerdy office boy. But our hero will not stay hopeless for long. Jolie, aka Fox, soon blasts onto screen to save his life and off they go on the freeway to shoot guns and hurtle towards machodom.
Now we discover Wes's real fate (which we should have guessed seeing as his dad is dead: a sure giveaway in comic book land). He is an assassin, part of the Fraternity, whose raison d'etre is to kill bad people. The problems are as you fear: senseless, glorified violence, a lack of irony or heart, and a barely concealed misogyny. Jolie, McAvoy and Millar are too good for this.
HORTON HEARS A WHO (U) £19.99
Directors: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino
Running time: 83 minutes
***There have been many versions of Dr Seuss's classic 1954 book, from a 1970 special to a 2000 Broadway show with the delicious title, Seussical: The Musical. Though this animated film isn't necessarily the greatest of them, it's still good fun and will introduce more children to the surreal and wonderful world of Dr Seuss.
Who better to get their tongue round Dr Seuss's divine twisters than Jim Carrey, who voices Horton, the playful and philosophical elephant living in the jungle of Nool, while elsewhere Steve Carell is the Mayor of Whoville and Carol Burnett the Kangaroo. Executive produced by Chris Wedge, the man behind Ice Age, this has all of that film's charm in bringing Seuss's off-the-wall imagination to vibrant CGI life as Horton sets off on his journey after discovering miniscule life, the residents of Whoville, teeming in a speck of dust.
Some sticklers for tradition may not appreciate the musical number but when this film stays close to Seuss, it's a treat.
The full article contains 406 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
