Before the Devil Knows your Dead is directed by Sydney Lumet and has an enviable cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney - all very fine actors.

Sydney Lumet also directed Serpico, one of my favourite films of all time. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, here’s what could go wrong: Take one really crap, standard fare, predictable Hollywood movie script, throw all the talent you can find at it, and it’s STILL GOING TO BE A CRAP SCRIPT.

What were they thinking, getting involved in this. The only thing I can think is that they all signed up because Lumet was directing, and he forgot to read the script.

The film tells the story of two brothers who get decide to stick up a jewellery shop, with the best of non-violent-robbery intentions, but (hey, don’t tell me you guessed it) it all goes horribly wrong.

Some of the film is shot very well, but extemely horrible editing ruins a large portion of it. I think Lumet was trying to get all arty with us and show the distance between Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character and his wife by rarely showing them in the same shot, but for some conversations they have this results in some unbelievably choppy watching.

The film also utilises that oh so jaded technique of messing with the timeline, for absolutely no good reason. This was a straightforward tale that gained nothing by hopping about in that way. Stop it people, you are just devaluing films like Pulp Fiction, Memento and 21 Grams.

To be fair there is also some great acting. Philip Seymour Hoffman in particular gives a masterclass in how to come out of a stinker of a script smelling of roses.

This film is watchable, but not good.

Oh, Marisa Tomei looks amazing in it. She doesn’t have much of a role though.

After Ang Lee’s disappointing 2003 film ‘Hulk’ I went about giving out about why they focussed so much on the origin and why they didn’t delve into the inner battle of Banner and why they didn’t learn from what the TV series did so well and I generally bored the pants off anyone who would listen to me about the Hulk.

You see, I loved the TV series. I still do. Ok, the quality wildly oscillates, but the GOOD stuff… the GOOD stuff was just EXCELLENT. Especially to an impressionable young mind of six or so!

I think The Hulk was the first good television I was exposed to. Sure it had a big green scary monster who was dangerous and smashed things up, but it also seemed so so real. The main character was so tortured by his affliction and struggled to keep his anger under control so as not to unleash the beast lurking within, a beast whose nature went against all the man’s non violent beliefs.

And of course that wonderfully haunting theme tune, also known as ‘The Lonely Man Theme’.

So when I saw the trailer for the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk I got quite excited - it was clear they were using the TV show as some kind of basis to begin from. Some of the imagery was taken directly from the show, Marvel even obtained the rights to the original theme tune for the movie, and Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk from the TV series) had a cameo and also did the voice of The Hulk.

But of course, my excitement has been dashed so many times at the cinema, I had to be realistic. I said on Twitter:

i’m predicting a good start with loads of promise of inner battles a la good tv episodes, with descent into brainless cgi brawl

Echoing my thoughts from my Hulk post on seeing the trailer, and also my comment on Eoin’s post about the Hulk.

I settled in at the cinema, with my Sprite and Popcorn, bracing myself for disappointment. It opened well as predicted… except, it opened really well. Better than I had expected, with loads of hat tips to the TV series.

And it continued well. And continued and before long I realised I was really enjoying this film. Not in a vaguely-absent-left-my-brain-at-the-door Iron Man way, but really enjoying it. Edward Norton was the perfect Bruce Banner. Tim Roth was great as the power hungry fighter, and Liv Tyler and William Hurt fleshed out the strong cast well.

Now, before you all go rushing out to see the best film ever, here’s the thing - my predictions were somewhat right, and the CGI brawl began and the film lost the plot.

It was weird, it just reached a point where it was almost as if the director, Louis Leterrier, said ‘ok, we’ve made most of the film we wanted to make now let’s step out and let the Hollywood machine step in and make shit of our movie‘.

It wasn’t just that there was another pointless CGI bash em up like in Iron Man, it was that the performances, the character work, the logic, EVERYTHING went out the window at the same time.

Luckily though, proportionately it was a very small percentage of the overall film, so while it was very strange and stupid, it didn’t entirely ruin the experience for me.

But come on Hollywood, wake up! Stop underestimating us. We LIKE story. We LIKE rounded fleshed out characters. We LIKE the suspense of not seeing the Hulk for a while. We LIKE being made wonder if the beast is going be unleashed, and not being exposed to a constant barrage of computer generated violence. We DO have brains.

It struck me that they could have had a much more interesting film if Tim Roth had not become a huge monster… use the same plot more or less, just have Tim Roth retain most of his human form and dimensions while gaining all that strength and power. Then at least it’s not just a CGI brawl between two beasts you could’t care less about.

At least you would have a more human element at play.

Edward Norton allegedly had some issues about the cut that was released, I wonder if his proposed cut would have made more sense out of some of the penultimate scenes. One scene which should have been massively climactic was glossed over and used as a device to get the two monsters fighting.

I’ve given this film three stars. More psychological drama and less CGI and it was headed for a 5.

How can we get the message to Hollywood to make better films??
maybe FirstShowing.net could do what they did for I am Legend and get a discussion going about which aspect of the Hulk audiences prefer, the taught psychology of the inner battles and the fugitive Banner, or the CGI brawls between monsters?

Finally got around to watching 3:10 to Yuma, this is standard Western fare, well shot and acted.

It’s based on a short story by Elmore Leonard and is directed by James Mangold, who directed ‘Walk the Line’. He also directed ‘Identity’ (awful), ‘Girl Interrupted’ (I didn’t like it) and ‘Copland’ (good - best performance from Sly Stallone I’ve ever seen).

3:10 to Yuma opens well, nothing ground breaking or earth shattering, but some nice ideas well executed.

It continues well, and becomes quite an engaging film, and it kept me interested in what way the plot would develop.

I have heard criticisms that Russell Crowe phoned in his performance, but I have to disagree. His laid back, disinterested air was precisely what the character called for, as well as making for very entertaining watching and marking a stark contrast with his deeds - which is alluded to several times in the script.

Bale also gave a very credible and engaging performance, without relying too much on any western stereotypes, or giving away too much of his hand at any time.

Ben Foster, while he didn’t shy away from the western stereotypes quite so much as Bale or Crowe, gave another compelling performance - even if it was a character we felt much more familiar with from a host of other westerns. BTW - if you want to watch more Ben Foster, watch Alpha Dog - an excellent film.

Peter Fonda also gives a great performance, it’s only a pity he didn’t have a larger part.

3:10 to Yuma is a solidly good and engaging film… up until about 15 or 20 minutes from the end. At this point you should turn off your television and walk away having had your entertainment. If you watch the rest of the film it will ruin your evening’s enjoyment for you.

The film every now and then veers away from a nice gritty realism for some forgivable reasons like old fashioned but completely ridiculous gun skills, but once you hit the home stretch in this film, even the reality they have created for themselves is completely discarded and the film jumps gleefully into fairytale land with both feet and refuses to come out.

I was gobsmacked. How could anyone have thought this ending was acceptable? How could any director ruin a perfectly good film with this rubbish? How could… how… it….. oh. my. god.

Please tell me I’m not alone here. And also, if you’ve read the Elmore Leonard short story, please let me know if it included this ending, having read some of his work I sincerely doubt it.