It turns out that even back in the Year One Michael Cera was exclusively cast as a bumbling dork and Jack Black a garish buffoon. Yikes…that means they’ve been typecast for over two millenniums now. Thankfully, they’re both become quite good at their respective roles. Yet not even their solid comedy paring is enough to elevate this biblically themed ‘bromance’ above recent misfires from the Judd Apatow production canon (here’s looking at you Step Brothers and Drillbit Taylor).

Angels and Demons is a lot like Limbo, a place that exists between cinematic heaven and hell where the audience is suspended for two and a half hours. It’s not exactly thrilling, yet nor is it downright boring. The characters aren’t all that engaging, yet nor are they completely unlikeable. It’s not in the least bit convincing, yet neither is it complete hogwash. In the same manner as The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons is neither bad nor good, it just is. When you consider the talent involved, ‘just is’ just isn’t good enough.

 I’m sexy, I’m cute, I’m popular to boot… uh sorry, wrong film. That’s right, you’re meant to be doing the math: 2 guys, 300 girls. A simple tagline brings a simple premise; high-school jocks hoping to score with the ladies. We’ve seen this all before, but the experiment of trying to mix American teen sub-genres comes out a mixed bag.

Fired Up brings nothing new to the table as we see Shawn (Nicholas D’Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) do ‘whatever it takes’ to get some action. By ditching their gruelling football boot-camp for cheer camp (hence, creating a jock-cheer teen film), to the viewer they subconsciously emasculate themselves in the process. Most on-screen however, are blind to their charms and although Tigers cheer-captain Carly’s initial scepticism serves up a cold dish, there’s not enough to suggest that this film won’t follow the same path as its predecessors.

If it hasn’t been spelled out enough for us with other recent films, surely it has been now. We know New York is a fashion haven and we know that women can walk around with the latest Prada bag and turn heads. Interestingly enough, so many of the subjects are writers with the world at their feet and a lot of time on their hands – in Confessions of a Shopaholic, the latest Carrie Bradshaw gives us a more eccentric line of thought.

Before it became the popular 1990′s anime series Dragon Ball Z, the Dragon Ball franchise started off as a Japanese magna comic book in 1984. If the subtitle doesn’t make it obvious enough, DragonBall Evolution is a live action film based on the first volumes of the Japanese original comic. What this means is that fans of the original comic are now balding their way through their 30′s, whilst fans of the TV show are probably drinking their prime away in their 20′s.

Yes Man is the unofficial sequel to Jim Carrey’s 1997 comedy Liar Liar. Instead of being unable to lie, this time Carrey cannot say ‘no’ to any opportunity. You see, it’s all part of a new life enrichment program, which Carrey’s miserable character Carl reluctantly signs up to, thereafter living his life under the motto “yes is the new no”. As soon as he does of course, good things start to happen. He gets the promotion at work, he restores his social life and he even gets the girl. By simply saying yes to everything, Carl’s life takes a dramatic turn for the best.

Now call me a cynic, but I’m not convinced. In the spirit of the film, I went out of my way to say ‘Yes’ to seeing Yes Man. But as it turns out, nothing good came of it.

Many of the films at the BAFF have used stylistic visuals to give a distinct look. What’s shown on screen to the audience; how the space is used, camera distances, etc. all makes an important impact on the telling of the story. Turkish film Three Monkeys (Üç maymun) uses what could be seen as innovative modern direction, including visuals, to enhance its story but as shown here, it doesn’t work all the time.

A forty-something tram conductor (Fraulein Winslet) with a dark and terrible secret living in the grieving conscious of post-war Germany enters into an unsolicited affair with a ingenuous young school boy (David Kross). Bookmarked in 1995, the film initially explores the seemingly predatory, sexually-charged relationship between working-class Hanna & privileged Michael. As romance ensues, their casual fling turns into a fully-fledged starcross’d romance, that runs on equally strange stipulations. As the senior partner Hanna desires Michael read to her from a variety of classic texts ranging from Homer to Chekhov. Only after a reading occurs will the two have sex (some fantastically candid scenes shot by British New Wave DP Chris Menges). Like clockwork, trouble ensues and the love-nest created ruined by Hanna’s dark past (hmm post-war Germany what could it be? think Isla).