George Clooney and his unfeasible sex-machine (Thanet Extra October 17 2008)

Apparently one of the tell-tale signs of a recession is a rise in cinema attendances as folk go for relatively inexpensive nights out.

Well, we have seen the highest ticket sales since 1974 in this country. That could have less to do with economics mind and more with singalong with Mamma Mia!

What with Abba-based musicals cleaning up and the global economic meltdown we need something to cheer us up.

The new Coen brothers' outing, Burn After Reading, is a start. It revolves around a disgruntled CIA operative, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), who loses a computer disc containing his confidential memoirs.

When this falls into the hands of two gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand), the two dummies try to blackmail money out of Cox. They are clearly in over their heads against this tough (and sweary) operator.

Throw in a bemused treasury agent (George Clooney), with a penchant for running and bouts of adultery, and you get a very slight, but oh-so-drole caper about double-crosses and human stupidity.

With character names like Linda Litzke (McDormand) and a Russian consulate official called Krapotkin, you can tell the Coens are just having fun after the heavy, death-centric, No Country For Old Men.

Not much happens in Burn After Reading but it happens quickly and there is fun along the way, with a goofy performance from Brad Pitt and a loveable loser role for Clooney. Look out for his character's mechanical invention too.

The Rocker is a comedy vehicle for Rainn Wilson (the nerdy Dwight Schrute in The American Office) as Robert "Fish" Fishman, a back-in-the-day guitarist who was thrown out of a rock band before they became super-famous.

Twenty years later, now bitter and the black sheep of his family, he gets a second chance at living the dream when his nephew's high school band need a new drummer.

Before you can say "hang on a minute isn't this a bit like School of Rock with a poor man's Jack Black", the movie turns into a road trip with Wilson the centre of the comic pratfalls.

Unoriginal, but funny enough when it needs to be. If you've already seen Tropic Thunder, this one is a half decent, silly comedy that not once mentions the words credit or crunch.

Son of Rambow ****

Let’s get right behind a lovely new British film. A childhood story set during an English summer in the 1980’s, Son of Rambow centres on Will (Bill Milner) who’s not yet old enough to gain access to the sixth form centre. Adding to his woes, his family (with an absent father) practice religion as Plymouth Brethren, so he is not allowed to mix with less religious children, watch TV or listen to pop music. No teenage kicks for him. Until that is the whirlwind, and all round school bad boy, Lee Carter steps into his life. Carter (played by Will Poulter) has a permanent scowl on his face and is the kind of pupil who spends most of his time either outside his classroom or waiting to see the head master. He’s an outsider who draws Will into his world; a place that includes top-loading VHS players and pirate copies of Rambo: First Blood and joyously: his camcorder.

Using his beloved movie camera, Carter sets out, with great imagination, to re-shoot Stallone’s violent epic with little Will as his semi-hapless stuntman, playing the son of Rambo. The actual filmmakers added the extra “W” for legal reasons although Mr Stallone was so impressed with director Garth Jennings’ vision; he allowed footage from First Blood to be included.

The boys enthusiasm for their remake, as Will is fired from catapults and sent swinging from vines, is a joy to watch and extremely funny to boot. Son of Rambow is a compelling story of friendship and growing up that just happens to be steeped in memories of the 1980’s. Jennings creates a convincing and hilarious school environment, with a sixth-form common room agog with New Romantic clobber and fizzy sweets. Also a large part of the humour comes with the arrival of an army of French exchange students, the coolest of which has the English schoolgirls lining up for kissing practice. The stunts, humour, and natural performances from the two boys combine for terrific entertainment. Son of Rambow also revels in the low-fi remaking of Hollywood movies, as seen recently in Be Kind Rewind; but the British film has a much better story and characters to go with its sweding.

As published in Thanet Extra, KM Group Friday April 4th 2008