A couple off sky this week....
The Gridiron Gang - 'The Rock' forms an American Football team at a young offenders institution, aiming to teach the young ruffians some pride, discipline, self-respect & general life lessons etc etc. Even by inspirational real life sports movie standards the use of overbearing music is particularly bad. Every other conversation the characters have, not to mention the slo-mo game highlights, seem to be accompanied by background music which is straight from the very pits of tv movie hell. You'd never watch a film like this expecting not to hear this kind of music, it's part of the fun almost, but Gridiron Gang lays it on so incredibly thick it'll drive you mad. Which is a shame, because the film doesn't need this heavy handed approach. Don't get me wrong, you've seen this film before, we all have, but it's well acted by a young cast and 'The Rock' gives a well judged performance as the coach. There's sometimes a clash between the films attempts to 'keep it real' (there's reminders of the harsh realities, it's not all happy endings etc) and above mentioned sports movie cliches but tbh those cliches are the reason i watch films like this anyway.
Wild Hogs - Another predictable but easy watch. It never threatens any serious belly laughs but it's light hearted fun and that works better for the cast and premise than it would having them go down a more grossout approach favoured by most teen targeted comedies. William H Macy makes so-so lines into pretty good ones, Ray Liotta plays a good arsehole, Marisa Tomei is still lovely and there's a great gag in the end credits. That's about it really but for a film i remember getting a couple of 1* reviews when it came out it that'll do me. A nothing film for sure, but a pleasant enough one.