Frothy romantic comedy

6:50am Saturday 2nd August 2008

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27 Dresses (Cert 12, 106 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Comedy/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99) Starring: Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Edward Burns, Judy Greer, Malin Akerman, Brian Kerwin.

Jane (Heigl) devotes every waking hour to planning the nuptials of friends and work colleagues, hoping that one day, the man of her dreams, her boss George (Burns), might fall in love with her too.

That fantasy is wrecked when Jane's model sister Tess (Akerman) sashays into town and bewitches the entrepreneur. He proposes and to rub salts into the wounds, Tess asks Jane to plan the big day.

Complicating matters, cynical newspaper reporter Kevin (Marsden), who pens effusive wedding announcements in the New York Journal, starts snooping around with the intention of writing a front-page spread about Jane's pitiful life as the eternal bridesmaid.

He soon falls for her obvious charms but will she ever stop pining for George?

27 Dresses is a frothy romantic comedy which relies heavily on Heigl to carry the film through its countless flimsier moments.

She rises to the occasion, compelling us to fall in love with heartbroken Jane while kindling a smoldering screen chemistry with Marsden, especially in a hysterical karaoke sequence to the strains of Elton John's "Benny And The Jets".

Anne Fletcher's feelgood film waltzes down the aisle of predictability as Jane realizes that she is looking for love in all the wrong places, but not before a great deal of soul-searching, self-sacrifice and a toe-curling best (wo)man speech that threatens to end in physical violence.

Akerman revisits her manic persona from the remake of The Heartbreak Kid, telling little white lies to keep George sweet, like her supposed affinity for all creatures great and small. "The only animals you care about are dead ones with sleeves," scoffs Jane. Meow.

DVD Extras: "The Wedding Party" featurette, "You'll Never Wear It Again" featurette, "Jane's World" featurette, "The Running Of The Brides" featurette, three deleted scenes.

Rating: Three out of five.

Funny Games (Cert 18, 106 mins, Halcyon Releasing, Thriller/Horror, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99) Starring: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearheart, Robert Lupone, Linda Moran.

Anna (Watts), George (Roth) and their young son Georgie (Gearheart) arrive at their summer retreat, stopping to say a quick hello to the neighbours, Fred (Lupone) and Eva (Moran).

Father and son get on with the serious business of renovating the family sailboat while Anna prepares lunch, only to be interrupted by Peter (Corbet), who has been sent from next door for some eggs.

The wife feels uncomfortable in the young man's presence and is glad when George and Georgie return, with Peter's friend Paul (Pitt) in tow.

Anna's mounting dread is realised when Paul appears to make a veiled threat against the family.

"Listen young man, I don't know what kind of game you're playing..." warns George, just as Paul raises a golf club and practices his swing on the old man's legs.

Funny Games is a violent and provocative thriller about a normal family facing the nightmare ordeal of a home invasion, remade virtually shot for shot from Michael Haneke's 1997 film of the same name.

The Austrian writer-director transplants the brutality from Europe to a picturesque lakeside home in Long Island, an ominously tranquil setting for the sadistic mind games that leave us teetering on the edge of our seats... so long as you haven't been scared witless by the original.

Pitt and Corbet are deliciously evil in their roles as the hunters, who delight in goading their prey. Watts's incendiary performance leaves screen husband Roth firmly in the shadows.

The scene in which she tries to wriggle free of her restraints and run for help, shot in an agonising single take, will have you biting your nails to the cuticle.

DVD Extras: Exclusive interviews with director and producers, cast interviews, viral clips, theatrical trailer.

Rating: Four out of five.