theOneliner.com: Handling the Truth

Continuing the traditional festive season run-in of mild disappointments, this week's slim pickings are described below.

Saying it's based on a video game ought to be enough to put any right thinking cinemagoer off Max Payne, especially given that it seems to be doing its best to put fans of the game off as well. Concentrating on the 'plot' aspects of a game largely concerned with 'shooting', it's not much of a surprise to find a rather sparse narrative with cliched characters and nowhere near enough action to sustain interest. It's stylish enough, I suppose, and it has higher production values than most game to film outings, but it's still more dull than anything else.

Capturing all the thrills and spills of a mental breakdown of a shy immigrant in a small NY diner, if there's a point to Choking Man at all it's so well hidden that it effectively doesn't exist. Tedious characters with inexplicable lapses into twee animation, it only gets marginally more interesting as it takes a darker turn towards the final reels before bitching out on that as well. Good comedy accents, though.

It's a new Kevin Smith film! Although you'd be forgiven for thinking Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a Judd Aptow film really, as two long term friends decide that the only feasible way to make enough cash to cover their mounting debts is to, well, Make A Porno, prompting them to re-examine their feelings for each other during the course of filming. Obviously, not one for the easily offended given the subject matter and volume of swearing, but it's very funny and surprisingly good-natured, given the subject matter and volume of swearing.

Enough for now, see you on the flipside.