2 stars**

Ashton Kutcher is still better known as being Demi Moore’s young husband, but he’s working on it as we see more of him than her, on the big screen, these days.

Movies need their stars to surpass a certain chemistry, for their new found love to be believable. It could be that Mr Kutcher’s wife was on set during the making of this movie which would explain why there was a lack of chemistry, but Katherine Heigl starred opposite Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth and that lacked more than just chemistry. Perhaps it’s just not meant to be and Ms Heigl needs to select better screenplays as sadly, she’s also responsible for Knocked Up. That’s a trio of movies that most would want to avoid from an actor’s acting point of view, but then the money must have been very good, which may be enough to sway the talent.

So what’s it all about?

Spencer Aimes (Kutcher) is just your average, undercover, government-hired super-assassin accustomed to a life of exotic European locales, flashy sports cars and even flashier women. But when he meets Jen Kornfeldt (Heigl), a beautiful, fun-loving computer tech recovering from a bad break-up, he finds true love…and happily trades international intrigue for domestic bliss, until Spencer and Jen are on the run for their lives.

The movie starts of as a mild laugh and then gets serious. It’s like being in two completely different movies, except that both only just do enough to keep the audience interested. The twists and turns are just plain tedious and are obviously meant to come across that way, but it only succeeds in the ticket payer thinking they’ve been had.

The silliness wouldn’t be lost in a Monty Python film, but here is just looks like a seven year old wrote the screenplay at times. Perhaps Blake Synder’s Save The Cat would be helpful here.

This movie had a good chance to be great but it missed out buy a long way. Perhaps they should get their chemistry set out again if they intend a follow up.

Finally, Gerard Butler gets to play a meaty part in a movie rather than his recent rush of mild mannered modest character parts. The good news is that this suits him and he carries it off fiercely. Let’s hope he finds more roles like this soon.

Siding with the bad guy is a difficult part for a screen writer to succeed with, but here writer Kurt Wimmer conveys it with vast composure, until the last scene where the bad guy has to get some bad news; he can’t get off completely free. It may have been better to see the bad guy get away with it all. After all, his planning had been excellent and it was worth seeing him ride off into the sunset, but American studios won’t allow a ‘sensible’ ending, feeling the need to always resolve the story with the bad guy getting his just deserts.

The story is so incredibly preposterous that we immediately side with the bad guy after his family are wiped out and he plots revenge against the US legal system. They’re as good a target as any ‘bad guys’ so the story unfolds as we see the bad guy always one step ahead of the legal system people.

What sets off this movie so well is that we constantly move from one level of expectation to be taken to a higher level just minutes later. This is great screenplay writing, a master example for newbies.

Nevertheless, critics have panned this movie. Perhaps they’re just being too technical over the storyline whereas movie ticket purchasers will see it as fun and interesting and receive a high level of entertainment – surely that’s why we pay over our dollars?

The producers have spent their money well. They maintain pace balanced against the special effects which turnover on a regular basis. Spoiler alert – when the judge gets shot every person in the theatre jumped out of their seats, well at least missed a heartbeat or two.

The overall premise is quite absurd, but the audience won’t mind as the bad guy gets to fight the system that we all know is also, quite ridiculous. Deals get made in the legal system that defy belief, especially to those in the ‘victim’ line. Unfortunately we also know that justice is often served best by the attorney who gets paid more, if a higher quality advocate than his opposition number. It’s a show rather than justice with this movie putting it in its place.

Heaven forbid a jury actually gets to make a difference. At least we’d like them to have a chance. That’s where Gerard Butler comes in.

Why, oh why is a quality actor like Gerard Butler in a movie like this that is so predictable and shallow when his talents have been proved in Nims Island, 300 and the brilliant Rock’n’Rolla, among others (and dare I never call him Gerald again for fear of being tied to a tree and beaten to a pulp by his multitude of fans LOL.)

There are no jokes. There isn’t even the faintest chuckle to be found in what appears to be a romantic comedy according to the official listings.

Predictable is probably overstating it. Any stay at home movie viewer could write down the format of this movie, probably coming up with the ‘staged’ version of what will happen and when in ten easy steps. This script by Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith and Nicole Eastman sticks to those steps rigidly. We all know what will take place and when and the dialogue doesn’t help anyone take an interest.

The ending is just so unsurprising and bland we wonder if the movie has actually finished or question whether it will continue for another fifteen minutes after the credits. It didn’t. Oh well, the guy got the girl (and equally the other way around), but who cares by then?

Without spoiling the conclusion (not that it really even started), it’s hardly a great last line for the girl to tell the guy she may or may not have been faking it. It was supposed to have been a play on words to sum up the whole movie, unfortunately I believe they’ve all been faking it for the director’s benefit. By then Gerard’s fans were just pleased that he found time to remove his clothes, but they’ll complain it was all in total darkness!

It’s just so disappointing that movies like this get made, because of the attached actors while many quality scripts remain on the scrap heap, unmade, not even sold in an option agreement. The movie has already made three times its budget before Gerald Butler’s fans buy the DVD and watch it with the mute button firmly on.

I didn’t need to waste 95 minutes of my life, but unfortunately, unless you believe movie reviews, you have to take a chance to find out yourself.

They may be biased in wanting him to win everything, but that’s what being a fan is about. Film stars love their fans, even if that’s not what they say. They need their fan base to stay box office stars.

Gerard Butler (Gerry to his fans) was born in 1969, and is a Scottish actor, even though he now spends his time between London and LA. Some of his family hails from Ireland. He’s also spent time living in Canada.

He appeared way back in the 1997 movie Mrs Brown and followed that up with a small part in the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. During the years he’s been in around 35 movies, including 300, The Phantom of The Opera, PS I Love You, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Beowulf and the wonderful Nims Island and the great Rocknrolla.

We should see him soon in Law Abiding Citizen and then during 2010 in How to Train Your Dragon.

I’m hopeful that some GB fans will let us know which are GB’s best movies and why.

4 stars****

This franchise continues Guy Ritchie’s excellent direction. If this film is successful (figures show it already is) then he’ll follow up with ‘The Real Rocknrolla’ and finally the trilogy closes with ‘Rocknroll Suicide.’ He’s the master of Brit mobster movies, even if he does have the occasional disappointment.

Stepping aside from Guy Ritchie’s directing work; he is a masterful screenplay writer. This is another of those movies where you can pick up a copy of the screenplay and put the movie into your mind as you read it. There’s a fair chance that you’d end up with the same movie these guys came up with.

While the Academy almost certainly won’t put this Guy Ritchie comedy/mobster screenplay on their final list, it does deserve to be at least, close. You can see that he has dissected every word that he crafted to leave just the bare bones, which means that every word counts.

Tom Wilkinson won applause for his ‘Full Monty’ performance and most definitely for the extraordinary ‘In the Bedroom’ with Sissy Spacek. In this movie, he deserves more praise; his portrayal of a mobster boss who doesn’t appear to essentially be involved directly with his squad’s interrogation techniques, is close to perfect. He may give the orders, but he talks to others.

Thandie Newton, one of many stars in both ‘Crash’ and ‘Mission Impossible II,’ demonstrates an outrageous charm as she fiddles the books for whoever will pay her as an up market accountant. She’ll steal from them by employing low level thugs and then go back for more. If she did make it to the end of the movie (and the gloves being worn by one of the Russian thugs suggests she won’t be) her role could become additionally riveting in franchise part 2.

I’m disheartened that I virtually missed new Bond girl Gemma Arterton as ‘June’ as I wondered what her skills were like before I see the new Bond movie next week. I’ll have to wait and see.

We saw the immense Gerard Butler in Nims Island earlier this year. This actor’s role was so far removed from his previous task, so as to prove his acting abilities show no boundaries, while Mark Strong knows that with his second in command performance, he’ll be back in charge in franchise 2 and, if he lives long enough (in the movie no-one is safe), in franchise 3.

The only person missing was footballer Vinnie Jones, although his acting years are becoming close to his football years, so we will at some stage call him actor, Vinnie Jones. Vinnie was a major player in early Guy Ritchie films, especially the film of 1999, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Two final points of major interest then:

One; no definite violence is in fact, seen. Show and not tell is used to mammoth proportions. You see the golf club going down on the man’s legs. You don’t see it really hit the legs, but you do know his legs will be broken. You may see the blood hit the wall, but you don’t see the bullet going into, through and out the opposite side of the soon to be corpse.

Two; Guy Ritchie, via both films schools of high note (Dov S-S Simens and Elliot Grove’s Raindance) is an excellent screenplay writer. This script is one of the best in years. It’s an excellent example of how to re-write until you assemble all that the experts will charge you to find out. It’ll be used as an illustration of clear writing at future film schools.

I hope his divorce from Madonna doesn’t slow down his output.

• Nim’s friends: featurette
• Abigail’s journey: featurette
• Working on water: featurette
• Deleted scenes
• Adventure commentary with Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin
• Commentary with Directors Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett

The Blue Ray version will help you feel as though you’re on the island with enhanced sound and vision.

The movie is reviewed here and the trailer is here

So what’s been happening since you saw the movie in the theatre?

Fluent French speaking Jodie Foster hasn’t any films listed for future release at the moment, but then that’s become the norm for Ms Foster recently where her movies have been separated by large time scales, but each one well worth waiting for as she brings up her young children. It appears the press just want to dig deep in dirt about who her relationships are with these days. We don’t care; just keep making those great movies.

Abigail Breslin has been busier. She has one 2008 movie called ‘Kit Kittredge: An American Girl’ and one further movie lined up for 2009, ‘My Sister’s Keeper’. However, as she’s only twelve years old, she has plenty of time to grow into movies the way Jodie Foster did, herself.

Garard Butler has been very busy with the recent release ‘RocknRolla’ from the Guy Ritchie stable with ‘Game’ and ‘The Ugly Truth’ in post production for 2009. He’s also filming ‘Tales of the Black Freighter’ and ‘How To Train Your Dragon.’. If that’s not enough he’s also involved with ‘Law Abiding Citizen.’ We’ll be seeing a lot more of this guy over the next two years.

Joseph Kwong and Paula Mazur did an excellent job writing the screenplay of Nim’s Island. I hope to see more work from them soon, but can’t find anything listed just now.

The budget of $37 million wasn’t the highest, but I guess they thought the response would be limited to people wanting to watch children’s films. Money moving through the cinemas has been around $85 million. Once you allow for the cinema’s 50% share, the movie appears to have just broken well into profit. DVD sales have been pushing the profits through the roof. It’s in the top five of sales charts all around the world, and that’s not counting CD sales of the soundtrack.

I’m surprised we don’t have Alex Rover novels out yet; that should keep the ghost writers busy.