A brief rundown on recent films

National Treasure - The Second One
Crap film. Nicolas Cage: need I say more? But I was on a 7 hour flight and I'd seen everything else. Apparently, life is a massive conspiracy theory which is easily unravelled by a quick thinking professor who finds it quite easy to break into places like Buckingham Palace and the White House. This is a film that will appeal to 14 year old boys and no one else.

There Will Be Blood
Boring film. God, I was two hours into it expecting it to build up to something. Blood, for example. it was actually reasonably watchable, and the opening 15 minutes were great (no talking at all - it really gets your attention), but at the 120 minute mark I realised it was still only the second act and that I didn't care about any of the characters. What a waste of time. At least I was on a plane and hal cut on bloody marys.

Lions For Lambs
Number three for today was seen on the same business trip. Emirates long-haul planes have really good entertainment systems, but shit films. Lions for Lambs had three plots running concurrently: journalist tackles with dilemma of not wanting to publish government propaganda, about a new tactic in Afghanistan; two soldiers find themselves stuck in an impossible situation in Afghanistan as part of the new tactic; and aging professor talks to student about doing something with your life, just like two of his old students who were now in an impossible situation in Afghanistan as part of a new tactic. Not bad, but not great.

Butterfly on a wheel
Thriller. Irish ne'er-do-well kidnaps a couple and destroys the husband's life in an act of revenge. The resolution was good and saved it from being an also-ran.