Bradley Cooper films

Are you the exception... or are you the rule?

Jennifer Connelly and Bradley Cooper stand out with layered, truthful performances in an otherwise average romantic comedy, which is based on a book which was based on a throwaway joke in an episode of Sex & The City. A large cast of assorted characters fight for screen time and inevitably some of the stories feel underdeveloped or resolved too easily, but Connelly & Cooper's troubled marriage is brilliantly played and feels real because these characters are not especially likeable. I love them, they deserve a thousand plaudits. The 'chaptered' structure of the film with occasionally direct to camera confessional vox-pops from non-returning characters is a device lifted from the very early days of S&TC and doesn't work, whilst the warm, vibrant colours and interesting fashions pale because of flat direction. He's Just Not That Into You is tart enough to work in spots and is better than expected, whilst simultaneously not different enough to rise above an already crowded genre.

A very effective film that gets better with repeated viewings, this is one of the most successful Clive Barker adaptations to date (made closely with Barker's supervision and support). Director Ryuhei Kitamuta (Versus) keeps things violent, bleak, grimy, mythical-feeling. It's extremely bloody in places and uses a mixture of prosthetics and CGI to mostly great effect, with one especially bravura sequence taking place from the point of view of a victim that has lodged itself in my brain. I love how this unapologetically announces itself with that title - this film doesn't compromise for anyone. Bradley Cooper is a brilliant everyman here in his first lead role; he's our way into the painstakingly (perhaps too painstakingly) detailed underworld that he so desperately wants to show in his photographs. Vinnie Jones has probably his most successful part so far (he doesn't speak), and Roger Bart is good value. There are some problems; Leslie Bibb's character is (deliberately, possibly) annoying as fuck, Brooke Shields is a bit iffy, and the big reveal near the end feels like it has come in from some other film (or perhaps it's just so out there I can't quite come to terms with it). But this is mostly a very good film and a good adaptation of the source material, which seems to be gaining cult success after being inadequately promoted on the big screen (where it really should be seen for maximum effect). A big B+.

A reality show as filtered through dial-up (pre-broadband) era Internet, My Little Eye takes the concept of the Big Brother TV program to its next "logical" step, with five contestants tasked with living in a house somewhere in remote North America for six months. But just as they're verging on finishing their stay (and by doing so collecting a million dollars), strange things start happening.

My Little Eye was one of the first horror films to explore the possibilities of playing around with 'reality television' (in this case, reality internet) before the sub-genre got over saturated with copycats like Halloween Resurrection. Though played as being seen through the webcams fixed in strategic spots around the house and surrounding areas (and in weirder places like on video games controllers and fountain pens), director Marc Evans gets quite a lot of scares from a surreal sonic mix, which emphasises some sounds to be louder than reality (like the crow - a bad omen - getting stuck in the attic that reeks of piss), and ads reverbs, echoes and distortion. Far from taking you out of the film, this is a trick that works surprisingly well, building tension and getting quite a fair few of well earned scares in the first 35 minutes, until the enigmatic Travis (a small part played to great effect by Bradley Cooper) enters the house, causing curiosity, tension and doubt with the housemates. The truth behind the webcast is easy to work out but nonetheless quite shocking, and despite some technical illiteracies with computer technology (no worse than in episodes of X Files or CSI) the revelations continue to thrill and horrify as gradually the housemates appear to meet sticky ends. This is an underrated horror film, one of the best of the early 'noughties', with a gut-wrenching and powerful ending. It should also earn a place in film history by having one of the first truly 'interactive' DVDs, which included multiple viewing angles for the entire film using a webcast-esque portal, allowing the viewer to become even more of a voyeur.

Summer Camp surreal spoofery that is strange but consistently very, very funny. The film is basically a series of sketches strung together with some loose storylines involving various romantic entanglements. A stellar cast includes the likes of Janeane Garofalo, Paul Rudd, Chris Meloni, Elizabeth Banks, Bradley Cooper, Ken Marino, David Hyde Pierce and Molly Shannon.

Even if this is sometimes a little hit-and-miss, there are some terrific running gags and personally I found it worth checking out just for 'that scene' with Bradley Cooper and Michael Ian Black. And I gotta admit, hearing David Hyde Pierce yell "oh, fuck my cock!" in frustration was kind of a thrill too.

"Oh Jesus she's got a machete! Where the hell did she get a machete? Oh, man! She's gonna pluck out my eyes, man! She is gonna carve my eyes out and she's gonna make me eat them! I swear to God I've read about it on the internet, man!"

Bradley Cooper is hot. Here endeth the lesson.

Oh, okay, the film. Well, All About Steve was a gigantic flop at the box office, hated almost universally by every critic going. Peter Travers called it "unwatchable", and even reverent supporters of Bullock's output generally agreed that this was the nadir of her career. To me, this is grossly unfair. All About Steve never comes close to reality - it's true - none of the characters have anything genuine to them (if they did, Mary, for example, would have to be considered a psychopathic, albeit an intelligent one - or at least someone who is able to absorb a huge amount of knowledge - a 'nutter on the bus' if you will). I certainly seem to be in the minority of people not expecting something realistic, which I don't understand given the inherent daftness of the pitch and indeed the theatrical trailer. Taken as a sort of extended sketch show or a tied up skit, however, there's much to enjoy here. Whilst the writing is often awful there's something in the awfulness which just works, and I actually found myself laughing out loud at many scenes. Bullock takes her usual kooky act from the likes of Miss Congeniality and Speed and notches it up way past 11 but since every character is some form of caricature anyway it fits. Many of my friends will likely not want to talk to me for a long time for admitting this, but I actually had an ok time.