Dirty, Sexy Politics.

Film: The Ides of March
Year: 2011
Director: George Clooney
Written by: George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon, based on the play 'Farragut North' by Beau Willimon.
Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, Max Minghella, Jennifer Ehle.
Running time: 101 min.

Politics. They're one thing that I should have a strong stance on, but every time I hear about them, my brain switches off. I'm sure they're really interesting and all, but the only thing I think about before my brain switches off is how our government thinks it is okay to take money out of the education system, and they wonder why nothing good ever comes out of this place. It just confuses the crap out of me. One thing that confuses me even more is the way that American politics work. I could not tell you the first thing about American politics. So I guess that makes it seem like The Ides of March, George Clooney's latest directorial effort which is all about a presidential candidate's campaign trail, would not be a very good film for me. Admittedly, a bit of Ryan Gosling eased me into things, but The Ides of March was enough to not only get me a little more interested in the ins and outs of politics (only a little, though), but my eyes were opened to the stuff that may or may not be happening behind these smooth talking hot-shots who claim to have the right stuff for running a country.

Rewind--Shoot 'Em Up

or: Kill 'em with carrots.

One word to sum it up: Hilarious.

Shoot 'Em Up came out in a straight-to-DVD release back in 2008, and I may have been interested to see it. But now that free-to-air TV has become a lot more up to speed (The Dark Knight is on next week! YAY!), by chance I thought I may give it ago. It left me wondering...why the hell did this go straight to DVD? All the kids in this town would have got an absolute kick out of this.

In the middle of the night, while waiting for a bus in a bus station, a lonely stranger called Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) sees a pregnant woman being chased by a man with a gun. He follows the couple, kills the man and helps the delivery of the baby in the middle of a shootout while a gang of hit-man tries to shoot them up. The woman is killed but Smith saves the baby, escaping from Hertz (Paul Giamatti), the leader of the killers. Then he meets the prostitute Donna Quintano (Monica Bellucci), who has just lost her baby, and asks her to breastfeed the newborn. They are chased by Hertz and Smith discovers the reason why the bad guy wants to kill the baby.

This movie is fun. It's just a hardcore action flick that has the most shooting I have ever seen, but yet, seems to go somewhere. Hard to believe, but it does. Not that one would care, because they will be too entertained by the non-stop shooting and interesting situations that it contains. Even though I don't like Clive Owen, and never particularly have, I found his character in this to be on of the biggest bad-asses in recent action film history.

To be honest, all of this is total nonsense. And while most of the time it's nonsensical spirit gets the better of it, and you could be left thinking 'WTF is happening now?!', you still want to watch it. Because it's a little guilty pleasure that may not make you feel so guilty. Action films like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are stupid because they try to be cool. Shoot Em Up is cool because it tries to be stupid. Oh...and by the way, this has the most well put together sex scene I have ever seen. And carrots have never looked so lethal!



THE VERDICT: While it is pretty good, it's nonsense sometimes gets the better of it. However, it doesn't take itself too seriously, which makes for some pretty entertaining viewing.

6/10