Anyone been to the cinema lately?

I don't know anything about any of your choices but I went yesterday to watch Burn After Reading and it was bloomin fantastic. Brad, George and the Cohen brothers, it doesn't get any better for me.

I don't fancy How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, but that's because I've read the book and apparently they've turned it into a crappy romcom. Also, the book only works because Toby Young is such a complete and utter cock, and laceratingly honest about this - but a film of his real-life exploits would probably be unwatchably cringeworthy, so they've massively sanitised it.

On the other hand, Ghost Town has been getting excellent advance press, so I might well give it a go.

As for current films that I've actually seen, Tropic Thunder is very funny indeed, while Gomorrah is the kind of film that makes you feel like you've done a full fifteen rounds with Mike Tyson in his prime - brilliant, but gruelling in the extreme. And it's not just in Italian but a weird Neapolitan dialect that meant that it needed subtitles even in Italy.

I've seen all 3 of those films, and I'd rate both Ghost Town and How to Lose Friends - both full of laughs - I suppose Ghost Town is a bit more cheesy than HTLFAAP.

Tropic Thunder was the most painful 2 hours of my life, utter utter bollocks. Spare yourself ?

For a second opinion, read the dedicated Hitched Tropic Thunder thread, where the general consensus is that it's hilarious.

I concur that Tom Cruise was completely brilliant in it, but as to a general consensus (and me therefore being labelled some kind of extreme oddball?), I think it depends on your sense of humour. That's not meant to sound snotty BTW, I just genuinely think it's not a film for everyone?

I am most wanting to go and see Burn After Reading. Have recently seen Taken, which is an adequate thriller, sort of 'Man on Fire' Lite

L
xx

I loved Tropic Thunder. So did MrRache.

I just can't wait until Quantum of Solace comes out <bites fingers>

We saw HSM3 last week & really enjoyed it.

I think MrJMP enjoyed it more than MissJMP.

Thanks to everyone for you opinions, will take them all into account when choosing!!

I really wanted to love it and, although there were several moments where I laughed out loud (Clooney's DIY project in the basement, for starters ?), I came away pondering to myself "Did I enjoy that or not?"

And then I read the review in the Independent and the tag line pretty much summed it up for me: "Despite some fantastic performances, the Coen brothers' espionage farce adds up to less than the sum of its parts". It was worth seeing if only to see Brad Pitt, as the Coens put it, 'embrace his inner knucklehead' but the film as a whole left me vaguely dissatisfied.

I tried to not read any reviews before I went and even now I won't click on your link as I don't want anyone to take away my enjoyment. I just loved the way they (them Coen brothers, not Cohen, I promise I knew that) used all the great characters they had in previous films and mixed it all up in a brilliant collage of comedy. The last scene with Mr Big CIA was, for me, bloody brilliant. Pitt was brilliant but also seemed to lose a good 20 years!

How brilliant was that chair though - sod the hitched determination on shower heads, imagine watching Ramsey's kitchen nightmares rocking on that!