Headhunters

An incredibly amoral thriller with the blackest of comedy and occasional bouts of extreme violence, in which a corporate headhunter by day is an art thief by night until he steals from an ex-military headhunter and the headhunting turns more literal.

This is one of those strange films where you root for your anti-hero not through any redeeming feature they carry but because their nemesis is so much worse. The characters are charicatures, the set pieces increasingly OTT and I'm not altogether sure the plot adds up. But, as with the similar American Psycho, it was so entertaining I didn't find the implausability at all jarring. Not for the faint of stomach.

Avengers Assemble

Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Captain America and Iron Man must come togeher to fight off Loki and a horde of marauding aliens. Cue opening set piece, talky exposition with minor set piece action followed by extensive mayhem.

The mayhem is on an incredibly grand scale and a joy to watch but what keeps it ticking over is snappy repartee courtesy of director JJ Abrams who blends masterfully, comic geek reference with zippy one-liners to embellish what is a paper thin plot.

With so many characters and so many set-up films preceding, little time is given to fleshing out the characters but the bickering and teasing means come the end, you'll probably wish you could join them all for a schwarma. If only all comic adaptations were this good. 

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

A collection of pensioners in gray old Britain decide a brighter life awaits in an Indian retirement hotel but when they arrive they find it isn't exactly ready. Still, India is the perfect place for even pensioners to grow spiritually.

As with so many British films containing an ensemble cast like this, (Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Dev Patel, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and more) a largely predictable and fairly lightweight plot doesn't prevent the film being highly entertaining. The presented view of India is very Anglo-centric and simplistic but provides scope for fish out of water comedy where the characters, and hence us, learn these views aren't an appropriate lens through which to view exceedingly complex cultures.

The laughs are gentle and with beautiful cinematography you may well find yourself longing for a holiday to India.