So I went tenpin bowling 2

So you're supposed to roll the ball in such a way that it hits the space (the "pocket") between pins #1 and #3 (or #2 if you're a lefty) at an angle. This means that the ball has to travel in a wide curve, or that a straight ball has to make a sudden twist just as it's about to hit the pins, or that you make the ball go any which way you please so as long you hit the sweet spot at an angle. In bowling parlance this is called a "hook". Do as much damage as you can with a hook in your first of two chances in a "frame".

Roll the ball hard, slow, or something in between the two. Use the markers on the lane to help you with your aim – or not. It would also help if you have your own personal ball as opposed to using house balls. And if your ball's a bit too heavy for you to hook, go ahead and invest in a wrist support as well.

I've yet to buy myself my own ball, but if I do I'm going for a shiny 10-pounder.

So I saw 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'

Shia LaBeouf's stock has just gone up with his taking on a big role in this sequel to Wall Street (1987). Actually, labelling the movie a 'sequel' doesn't do it justice. 'Sequel' is nowadays synonymous to uncalled-for-but-what-gives. Wall Street part two, on the other hand, is very much called for.

Director Oliver Stone captured the greed of the 1980s in Wall Street, which features Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko and Charlie Sheen as Gekko's protégé Bud Fox. The movie was released in the States in December 1987, only two months after Black Monday, which was a coincidence that played nicely into the movie's hands to make it all the more relevant.

Two decades later, Wall Street greed cost us the 2008 global financial crisis and in the States people were even talking about a second Great Depression. And so came the perfect time for Stone to bring out Gekko once more.

It's 2001 and he's just been released out of jail where he's done time for insider trading. As he steps out of the gate, nobody's there to welcome him.

Fast forward ahead some years, right to the verge of the crisis. LaBeouf's Jake Moore is a young Wall Street guy who works for ageing Wall Street heavyweight Louis Zabel (Frank Langella). The two share a mentor-protégé bond; in fact, Zabel's almost like a father to Moore.

Apparently, Wall Street likes its old masters to take care of its young and hungry: at some point, Wall Street shark Bretton James (Josh Brolin) makes an attempt to take Moore under his wings, who in turn rather seeks counsel from Gekko. And James too – ruthless and confident as he may be – answers to somebody, namely Jules Steinhardt (Eli Wallach), who enjoys a Yoda-like status in the Wall Street universe.

So just you don't forget where all this is taking place, Stone takes shots of Manhattan that soar high above rooftops and helipads of skyscrapers before they plunge down to dizzying effect. The analogy should be obvious, as is Moore and James' need for speed.

Look forward to a cameo by Sheen as Fox. It's as if he's just walked off the set of Two and a Half Men as his Fox grins to Gekko while balancing a babe on each arm. Fox seems to point up Gekko's own maxim: "It's not about the money – it's about the game."

(Running time: 133 minutes)

So I saw 'Centurion'

Remember that scene in Inglourious Basterds (2009) where Michael Fassbender's character, Lt. Archie Hicox, finds himself in a pickle? That was just one scene. That was child's play. In Centurion, his character finds himself in the shit from beginning to end. Remember how graphic the violence in that scene was? In Centurion, graphic doesn't start to describe it. Gory? Sure. But what's more, it's realistic.

People slaughter each other and when a blade slits a throat, slices a torso, or severs a head you can actually feel the laws of physics at work on its business end. But it isn't director Neil Marshall's intention to gross you out. The violence is simply a consequence of the story's circumstances, namely northern Britain somewhere during the Roman period and, apparently, warfare at the time wasn't for the faint-hearted.

Centurion Quintus Dias (Fassbender) is in charge of an outpost in the area and in addition to icy weather he has to ward off the Picts, a local tribe that uses guerrilla tactics to particular great effect, as Quintus would soon find out not only once but twice. The first instance leads to his capture, and the second –in a very cool and very realistic shot of a Roman battle sequence– the wiping out of an entire Roman army.

Strange enough, the movie almost comes over as a History Channel special, perhaps because there's nothing Hollywood about the production. The Roman soldiers, the Pict: they're hard and they're brave –commando-like– but they're also human; Quintus and a group of survivors whimper when they witness a Pict hacking off the head of a fellow Roman. Even Etain (Olga Kurylenko), a Pict woman warrior who's the closest match the movie has to a Hollywood cliché, is the way she is because of a traumatic childhood encounter with Roman soldiers.

In Centurion the characters are thrown into a pickle and everybody not involved is asked to take a step back and to just watch. There’ll be no helping hands; nothing artificial is to be thrown into the mix –the story is to be carried solely by the interaction among the characters. Which makes for a very interesting movie indeed.

(Running time: 97 minutes)

So I saw 'The Last Airbender' (in 3D)

I like to make comparisons because I'm lazy. So here goes: M. Night Shyamalan is the Quentin Tarantino of fantasy.

Consider this imaginary conversation that never was:

Studio brass: "Night, I wanna cash in on the latest fad."
Night: "You're going to make a 3D movie?"
Brass: "Yeah, and guess who's gonna get to write and direct it."
Night: "Me?"
Brass: "Damn right you. Only one catch."
Night: "I don't get to cast Mel?"
Brass: "Damn right you don't, though I was going to say: go nuts."
Night: "The catch is that I've got go nuts? But I always go nuts."
Brass: "Exactly."

And so came to being The Last Airbender 3D, which tells the story of how Aang (a precocious Noah Ringer), a runaway Avatar who has the potential to bend to his will all four elements – Earth, Water, Air, Fire – though he has thus far only mastered Air, ends up in a Waterbender tribe where he meets Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) and his sister Katara (Nicola Peltz), the tribe's last waterbender, before he gets caught by Prince Zuko (an intense Dev Patel) of the warmongering Firebender nation (which considers Aang to be a strategic threat); escapes; learns Water; and eventually accepts his destiny.

I know, right? But if you have your doubts, and mine popped up several times early on during the movie, just remember this: you're in the good hands of Night.

That ought to be enough assurance.

(Running time: 103 minutes)

So I saw 'The A-Team'

It is said that if you have the right cast in place you're halfway there. If so, The A-Team is a long way from home.

What made The A-Team the TV series work was the chemistry among the A-Team members: charismatic John "Hannibal" Smith (George Peppard), charming Templeton "Faceman" Peck (Dirk Benedict), grumpy B.A. "Bad Attitude" Baracus (Mr. T), and wacky H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (Dwight Schultz). Vietnam War veterans, they've been on the run ever since the country they served has framed them for a crime they didn't commit. But, if you have a problem, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team, as they offer their services as private soldiers of fortune.

Their service would typically involve: springing Murdock from a mental institution; B.A. driving them around in a black GMC van; tricking B.A. into boarding a plane; Faceman getting it on with the ladies; Hannibal coming up with a plan; and the assembling of a device of sorts to beat the bad guys. After Hannibal's plan has come together and the bad guys have learned their lesson, the A-Team drives off into the horizon where a new adventure awaits them. It's uncluttered, straightforward fun.

And it's everything the movie is not.

Among the A-Team cast only Sharlto Copley (Wikus Van De Merwe in District 9 [2009]) as Murdock seems an inspired pick, while the rest is miscast. Liam Neeson as Hannibal? Uh-uh. Neeson is too elegant a presence. You want him to lead a Mission Impossible subterfuge, not an A-Team loop-de-loop. Bradley Cooper's Faceman brings the looks sans the charm, while Quinton Jackson foolishly tries to channel Mr. T's B.A..

It could've worked out just fine if only the plot wasn't so random, involving, for instance, time jumps that nonchalantly fast-forward the story first eight years and then six months ahead. Time jumps are for epics and time travel movies, not an A-Team flick.

If you're going to see it for old time's sake, be warned: there are no cameos by the original A-Team cast other than a brief appearance of the GMC van, which get totalled. Randomly.

(Running time: 117 minutes)

So I saw 'Robin Hood'

When I saw the teaser for Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe as the titular legend, I thought: "Genius." Genius because I'm a sucker for anything medieval, and genius because of the casting of Crowe.

For Crowe adds testosterone to the works, which distances his Robin Hood that much farther from Kevin Costner's in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). Ridley Scott, the director of Robin Hood, went for a grittier feel and he got his money's worth with Crowe, though the finished product comes off as romanced as the 1991 effort. Which is to be blamed, if blame must be assigned, on the castles, dense woods, and damsels in distress – sceneries that are inherently romantic and feel more familiar and less distant than those in Gladiator (2000), a movie also directed by Scott and starring Crowe but set in the Roman Period.

In terms of plot, Robin Hood is a medieval adaptation of Gladiator, which feels right as rain as far as I'm concerned for it's a winning plot. Returning home to England from the Holy Land with a handful of fellow crusaders, Robin Longstride (aka Robin Hood) lucks out and finds himself shelter with the aristocratic Loxleys as the family's patriarch, Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow), has coaxed him to, for practical reasons, pass for the late husband of Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett) but only to get caught up in high-level chicanery as Prince John (Oscar Isaac) and right-hand man Godfrey (Mark Strong) work themselves out of favour of the English nobility and into the hands of the French.

At the end of the movie we find Robin Hood hiding out in the woods living the utopian life with his Merry Men and Marion after the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen) has declared him an outlaw.

A sequel wouldn't be entirely out of order, I'd say.

(Running time: 140 minutes)

So I went tenpin bowling

As opposed to going to the movies. Almost got pwned early on but managed to stage a late comeback after I got the hang of it. I even hit a number of strikes. Now I've got to figure out how those strikes exactly transpired.

So I saw 'Clash of the Titans' (in 2D)

I've come to realize that if I'm having a hard time jotting down my impression of a movie, it's because I came away with none, and not because it sucked, but because it was bland. A case in point being Clash of the Titans, now in theatres in 2D and 3D.

Perseus (Sam Worthington) learns that he's a bastard son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) and therefore a demigod, and as Hades (Ralph Fiennes) plans to unleash the Kraken upon Argos he has to use his demigod powers to – with the help of a band of brave soldiers and a certain beauty named Io (Gemma Arterton) – save the city and its sacrilegious ways from certain annihilation.

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) it ain't, try as it may. For that to happen it needs a Johnny Depp. And while I'm at it, it could also use a Sofia Milos and an Emmy Rossum (of Passionada [2002] fame). Now that movie I'd love to see in 3D.

(Running time: 106 minutes)

So I saw 'Green Zone'

It's a movie about the Iraq war and it has a message, which says: where's the WMD, the reason the US went to war with Iraq?

Three times CWO Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his men had conducted raids on sites suspected of hiding WMD, and three times they had returned empty-handed. Now, it was Bush who said, "... fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can't get fooled again," and so, suspecting there's something fishy about the intel he's been feeding on, Miller decides to poke around and to raise a stink all while creating friends and foes along the way in an exercise that will prove to be Jason Bourne's Training Day (2001), meaning that Miller's about to have a long, long day with a lot of shaky-cam effects.

While watching, somehow, for some reason, I was thinking about movies about the Vietnam war, e.g. Platoon (1986). They tend to be more contemplative, more raw. Green Zone, in the meantime, plays out more like a thriller.

Now, let's hear it from an Iraqi Oliver Stone.

(Running time: 115 minutes)

So I saw 'Shutter Island'

Leonardo DiCaprio's eyes can speak volumes. And that's probably why director Martin Scorsese has taken to him, which is just as well considering such clunkers as Blood Diamond (2006) and Body of Lies (2008) he's apt to find himself in when not in the maestro's employ.

In Shutter Island, Scorsese's latest, DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels, a cop investigating the disappearance of a patient from an insular mental institution for the criminally insane with fellow cop Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo). A comment here, a gesture there can have story-wide implications, and when a storm rages over the island things start to unravel.

After the movie's ended, you'll find yourself tracing back the story. Just don't you work up a headache.

(Running time: 138 minutes)

So I saw 'The Wolfman'

One reason why werewolf movies work so well is because you know what to expect. The only true mystery in a werewolf movie is after all: who'll turn into a big, bad wolf come full moon? But once that's established, there's plenty more suspense to be had around the campfire.

In a werewolf movie, the first act sets up the story, the second act sets up the conflict... and proceeds to seep into the third act. As a result, werewolf movies lack a distinct third act, i.e. the part where things get tied up, and which you practically sit out waiting for the credits to roll.

The Wolfman, set in 19th century England, is of course a werewolf movie and all the above apply, though it also boasts an absurd level of star power: Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro, Hugo Weaving, Emily Blunt. Compare this to Dog Soldiers (2002) and its dogs-of-war cast.

It is a treat, though, but if you must compare, I reckon Dog to be superior still.

(Running time: 102 minutes)

So I saw 'From Paris with Love'

John Travolta plays a gung-ho, trigger-happy US secret agent on the job in Paris. The movie's tonal feel is that of tongue-in-cheek in the vein of Shoot 'Em Up (2007), though it's nowhere near as witty. Ditto for its effort to be Tarantinoesque in the dialog department.

But, it's nice to see Travolta swagger on the screen; I root for the guy, mainly because he gave us Grease (1978). You can tell that he's having a ball. Speaking of balls, he shaved his head completely bald to play his character in the movie, who also wears a goatee-plus-moustache and earrings to complete the image in an effort, subconsciously or otherwise, to emulate Ving Rhames.

And he doesn't pull off one single dance routine. Which means that he's finally managed to shed, or let go of, his image as king of the dance floor. Instead, he may or may not have started to build a new image around the Pulp Fiction (1994) legacy.

Oh well, time will tell.

(Running time: 92 minutes)

So I saw 'Edge of Darkness'

It's been a while since Mel Gibson headlined an action flick and so I was intrigued when Edge of Darkness came to town.

Alcohol-fuelled antics be damned, you can't help but feel for the man, for he's cool, if not mad. Face it, nobody metes out righteous retribution as spectacular – and as bloody and violent – as Mel does, or breaks down as heartfelt as Mel does. And that's exactly what Edge of Darkness, a thriller taking place in a sleepy town in Massachusetts with a nod or two to Braveheart (1995), has to offer.

Mel Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a cop character as far removed as can be from Mel's Martin Riggs of the Lethal Weapon films. Or perhaps not. Perhaps Craven is just an aged version of Riggs. The tight jeans and cowboy boots may be gone, as is the long hair, but the madness remains; the sort of madness that's triggered when a Mel character is visited upon with a particular traumatic event that would launch him on the warpath.

And a Mel character on the warpath is something to see. It's a cinematic experience in and by itself, run-of-the-mill scripting be damned, which is the movie's bane, fast-paced or not.

The script calls for most of the good guys to act hyper-paranoid as they fear for their lives after having gotten on the wrong side of a shady corporation of sorts. They hold up well to Mel, though there is an instance or two where you would expect him, prankster that he is, to cross his eyes or something in the face of his opposing player-in-distress. The script also calls for cardboard bad guys: there you have the evil corporate master of puppets, there the corrupt politician, and, hey, there's Ray Winstone too.

But on a positive note, the film does have a happy ending: Mel styly. Take that as you want.

(Running time: 117 minutes)