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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (Film)

by Tristan Schumacher | January 18, 2012 10:13 | Edited January 18, 2012 10:17

The laughs and flashy set pieces are barely enough to disguise the derivative and charm-free script, but thankfully the performances are mostly uh, Rock solid.

Imagine a film which combines elements from the greatest literary adventure stories of all time, Treasure Island, Gulliver's Travels, Moby Dick... Now lower your expectations, throw in The Rock and you've got Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Indeed, screenwriters Brian and Mark Gunn have come at this film with both barrels blazing - ahem - and created a fantastical and thoroughly random, nonsensical island, with a thinly woven plot to match, which will entertain kids, but maybe not parents alike.

 

When young, angst ridden Sean (Josh Hutcherson) and his mother's boyfriend Hank (Dwayne Johnson) - discover a coded message from Sean's long lost grandfather (Michael Caine) concerning the existence of a mysterious island, it's unlikely that they predicted they would soon be hurtling past a golden volcano astride giant bumble-bees... With a little help from the loveable, bumbling Gabato (Luis Guzmán) and his feisty daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens), it's not long before the mythical island is all too real and the foursome are marooned amongst the deadly animals which inhabit it.

 

Director Brad Peyton (Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore) handles the unoriginal and uninspiring material with about as much intelligent thought as it deserves, serving up laughably camp action set pieces with almost enough gratuitous slow-mo and in-your-face 3D action to keep his audience interested. Meanwhile pseudo scientific theory disguises an unintelligent and unbelievably derivative script, lacking in charm, but boasting an exceedingly bizarre recurring joke concerning The Rock's pectorals. Oh yeah, and The Rock sings. So be ready for that. Thankfully performances are solid and Michael Caine will charm the most hardened cynic.

 

So the question remains, will everyone escape the island? Will Sean win Kailani's heart? Do we care? Unfortunately the jury's still out on that last question.