107 - Interstate 60

Connection To SMALL APARTMENTS - James Marsden.

Sneaking onto DVD - bypassing the cinema completely - with very little fanfare despite a decent cast - and never growing any sort of following, Interstate 60 is an hidden gem of a movie.

Written and directed by Back To The Future co-writer Bob Gale, the movies problem could be that it was hard to explain without it sounding a little bit odd or even pretentious, the film is basically a metaphysical road movie.

James Marsden meets Gary Oldman who grants exactly one wish to each person, and he ends up wishing for answers, which sees him travel to the non existing Danver alongside the also non existing Interstate 60, which includes hoping to meet the girl of his dreams he finds himself on many little adventures.

A lot of these little adventures are very enjoyable from the museum of fake art, to a town obsessed with suing because everyone is just about a lawyer to a town that every inhabiting as on a particular drug to Chris Cooper who is a hitchhiker but would rather employ somebody per mile as in enter a boss/worker relationship.

Marsden carried the film really well I thought, you feel like he is a guy who deserves good things to come his way, at the time it was also unusual to see Oldman in a American film and not be the film's villains, BTTF alumni Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are in this too, but Fox is more of a fun cameo - other people who pop up include the Pink Power Ranger, Kurt Russell, Ann Margret and Amy Smart as the girl of his dreams.

Overall, such a cool little movie, this is about my third time seeing it and still enjoy it as much, I recommend it because I do think you would be in for a treat if you watch it.

106 - Small Apartments

Connection To MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - Billy Crystal.

You know I ended up liking this movie more then I thought I would I think I might have entered it with a little bit of prejudice, maybe because I'd heard the word quirky being mentioned (see Ghost World for me talking about quirky) and the film gradually got more enjoyable as the film went on.

While the beginning - the aftermath of what looks like a murder - is not really as intriguing, I wasn't wondering what had happened - Matt Lucas with the dead body of his landlord and Lucas is clearly not running on all cylinders, and over this we meet a series of characters, which is where the more time we spend with them the better it gets.

We have residents of the apartment block played by James Caan, Johnny Knoxville and Juno Temple among others and I chose them three particularly because they stood out the most for me - there is also none resident roles for Dolph Lundgren and James Marsden who I won't spoil their roles too much but are enjoyable. The film however belongs to none-resident Billy Crystal and a fire chief detective investigating the murder (makes sense in the context of the film), which to me proves Crystal is still capable of great work if the material is right.

Overall it's probably a film I may never watch again but it did creep up on me, by the end I had forgot about not been interested in the beginning but I would say watch it, like me you might end up liking it.

94 - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Connection To THE OTHER GUYS - Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

Sequels that come out along time after the original, there's always a fear isn't there - if you are a fan of the original, the positives of that film have spent years building up in your mind. I think comedy in-particular might just have the hardest time, the upcoming sequel to Dumb & Dumber as been long-waited and the original is much loved and it's been 20 years (which feels unbelievable I remember going to the cinema twice to see it). Anchorman 2 didn't take quite as long though with 9 years, but it's fair to say it's popularity built up over the next few years after it, so yeah it's got a lot to live up to.

To be honest, the best way to perhaps describe it is as a slightly inferior copy of the original, though the story is different, the elements of the original are certainly there - a rival newscaster, even Veronica and Ron's relationship is somewhat reset to the antagonist elements of the first, there's also the newscaster fight (which is bigger with so many surprise cameos, none of them I will list to not give away the surprises) and thankfully Brick is still... well as Brick as you want him to be.

So I did enjoy it... an important element for me at least of a comedy film is that it needs to be funny and it's funny, and it's probably the callbacks to the first movie that perhaps yield the funniest moments - James Marsden echoing Vince Vaughn from the first movie - funny. Brick being Brick - funny... this time he has a love interest in Kristen Wiig... the newscaster war - funny, among other things, but it feels there is slightly less plot going on here then the first time around and it's a film that doesn't have the same quotability factor (I Love Lamp, whales vagina etc.) but maybe time will tell on that front.

I think the returning characters valubility stayed the same for me - Brick is still the MVP, while others just get to be in his shadow but still have their moments. Of new characters not mentioned Meagan Good is a decent new foil/love interest for Burgundy while Harrison Ford honestly doesn't make that much impact.

Overall, yeah a sequel of diminishing returns but there is still enough funny in here to make it worth a watch, if you didn't like the first one don't bother with this but if you did you'll be suitably entertained.