releasing this week: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

It’s not been a bad couple of weeks for cinema and this week sees a couple of big releases. Adam Sandler’s latest, Grown Ups is out as is Diary of a Wimpy Kid, based on the popular kids novels. Speaking of novels, Swedish thriller The Girl Who Played With Fire is also out. There’s only one film you really need to see though – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Also based on a novel, of sorts.

Now I know that at this stage some of you would have already Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It came out on Wednesday so I’m a little behind on posting this. I usually try to get it out to give people a guide for weekend viewing but I’ve even failed on that this week… Sorry about that.

For those who don’t know much about Scott Pilgrim though, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the latest film from super-cool director Edgar Wright. You may remember him as the write/director of such films as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and the excellent TV show, Spaced. I was trying to think of a better way to describe him but I couldn’t. He’s just really cool. It’s based on a comic book series of the same name from Bryan Lee O’Malley, six graphic novels from 2004 to 2010.

The premise is simple, our hero Scott Pilgrim is a slacker musician who one day, quite literally finds the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately for him the path to her heart is riddle with obstructions in the form of her seven evil exes. If he is ever to capture her love he must battle them. To the death!

I got to see this at the premiere courtesy of a Phantom 105.2 competition (thanks guys!) and I can say that it is great fun. It probably won’t be to everybody’s taste – in addition to it being based on a graphic novel; it’s heavily influenced by video games. Which is not to say that you have to be into video games to enjoy the film or the action but let’s be honest… There’s gonna be some people out there who just aren’t cool with the style at all. It’d be a great pity if people avoided it just because of that… but it would be understandable

Personally, while I wouldn’t say that I loved it but I had a great time watching it and I definitely think it’s worth seeing. It’s nice to see a wide film doing something a little different from the norm. I heard this hasn’t been doing brilliantly in the US but I hope that Edgar Wright will still be afforded to a chance to direct the kind of films he wants to do…

Other films that opened this Friday…

Grown Ups – Adam Sandler’s latest collaboration with director Dennis Dugan. Five high school friends and basketball team-mates are reunited after the funeral of their high school coach and decide to spend Fourth of July holiday weekend together, for the laugh. I assume there lies the promise of hilarity ensuing. Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider all star. I gather it’s not very good but I wouldn’t want to discourage you from making up your own mind. I won’t be seeing it though.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Based on a series of humorous novels of the same name by Jeff Kinney. It’s about a wise-crackin’ 11 year old who’s on a mission to become the most popular kid in school. It’s pitched at kids so not getting many evening showings.

The Girl who Played with Fire – Second film in the adaptation series of Steig Larsson’s best-selling Millennium Trilogy. The first film of which was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I never finished this book but I’ve heard it’s really good… but the main thing I’ve heard is that you pretty much have to go straight into the third novel so I’m not sure how this will effect this particular film. Easy enough for people to go straight into the next book but the next film in this installment The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest won’t be out here till the end of November. Also I’d be slightly worried because, as much as I liked TGWTDT, I thought it was a very stripped down version of a great book… so I’ll probably finish this book first before seeing this one.

Even though the film is in Swedish, the popularity of the novels means it’s getting a bigger release than you’d expect of a foreign language film. You might even be able to find it outside Dublin. Well, in Cork and Galway anyway.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, Avatar is back in cinemas this week with 9 extra minutes (No way! Didn’t they make enough money? I hear you exclaim… I guess not).Whatever about the extra 9 minutes, I do actually recommend you see it if you didn’t catch it the first time ’round. In 3D, at the cinema, really is the only place to see this. That’s why, even though this is obviously a cheap ploy to get more money out of me. I probably will see it again. Truth is I meant to see it twice the first time around and just didn’t get around to it. Undoubtedly they’ll pick up a few more like me along the way as well. I just wish they didn’t cheapen the venture by trying to claim that 9 extra minutes is worth the money. Bah.

That’s all for this week. Sorry I was late again this week, you’d never know, might be before Friday next week.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Grown Ups, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Girl Who Played with Fire are all in cinemas now.