Raising Helen (2004): review: 6/10

There are three sisters: Helen lives in New York and works for a fashion model agency: she is single and works a fair amount, at other times drinking. Her elder sister, who is considerably less attractive, has two children, a settled suburban lifestyle and a superiority complex. The third sister and husband die in a car accident: it is written in the Will that Helen is to take charge of the children, a boy and an adolescent girl, much to the chagrin of the elder sister and to the suprise of Helen herself.

Helen moves from Manhattan to Queens where she is befriended by a kind neighbour. She sends the children to a Lutheran school, where she meets a charming pastor. She has problems keeping up with her work commitments, and fulfilling some of the roles of parent, specifically when the adolescent girl becomes involved with an unpleasant young man who wears a baseball cap the wrong way round.

There's nothing really wrong with this film: it's ok, overlong, well intentioned, but unsurprising.

Con Air (1997): review: 7/10

Convicts take over a plane which is taking them to some other prison: they behave badly except ex-soldier Cage, who probably shouldn't have been imprisoned in the first place, and a friend of his, who has health issues.

He has a pretty wife whom he has seen and a small daughter whom he i hasn't: he is sentimental about both. Although Cage is terribly dour, he is decent. He also is capabale of extraordinary feats of courage, usually involving hitting other people: in short, he is a fine American. The others on the plane are also often given to acts of violence but seem more or less totally without any consciences whatsoever. Malkovich takes charge in his usual camp-psychopath style.

On the ground, various incompetants struggle first to locate, then to recapture the aircraft: smoothy-boy Cusak manages this eventually after a considerable number of explosions, and much shouting.

All this passes the time enjoyably enough.

Say Anything...(1989): review: 7/10

In the final days of high school in the 80s, a nicey nicey super intelligent girl (who alas is something of a wet sock and who has an excessively close relationship with her widowed father) meets a smooth uninteresting kickboxer with limited intellectual capacity: after many exhausting conversations they fornicate in a motor car.

If the characters are dull, the film is not: Cusak has a certain charm, and portrays the nervousness of early adulthood in an intelligent, understated way.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010): review- 2/10

*

Four friends mysteriously return to the 80s and a winter holiday resort and festival they attended as teens.

The film raises, and fails to resolve, various issues about the disappointments of life, instead seeking to divert through rapid pacing and gross humour.