Take Jake, three times a day (Out this week - 31/12/10)

It's the last day of the year, and consequently the last weekend with just three releases battling for screens this week. Naturally the biggest hit will be the one I don't want to see, but what can you do, there's no accounting for taste. Film of the week has to be the one with lots of naked Jake Love and Other Drugs, but I've seen both of the non Jack Black starring releases and the other one is a better film so make of that what you will (or just realise that my exciteability scoring may not be completely related to quality - for proof look at what picture I'm using again).



Before I run down the releases I thought I'd just spill a bit of background on what has been a fascinating year for cinematic releases. Overall 486 films have seen the inside of British cinemas - not including documentaries and re-releases - that's 14.6% up on 2009. I saw just 41, less than 10%, down both as a proportion and in real terms against 2009. Naturally the largest producer of films has been the US with something like 40% of the total output. The rest of the top five were UK, India, France and Germany. The remaining 15% of films represented 45 other countries. Liam Neeson was in the multiplexes more than any other actor with Chloe, Clash of the Titans and The A-Team being backed by up voice work in Ponyo, The Dawn Treader and the reconstructive doc The Wildest Dream. Julianne Moore was the most prominent female, and I think it's safe to say her work was generally better received.

Perhaps as curious as the films that are released is the group that aren't. As we reach the end of the year there are inevitably some high profile movies that we must assume will never see the inside of a British cinema. There's Joel Schumacher's Town Creek with it's Nazi occult themes and starring the other one from "Prison Break", the short collection New York, I Love You might not have been as successful as Paris, Je t'aime but it's failure to be released - even to be withdrawn one week before a release date - is surprising. Finally I am shocked to see Oren Moverman's Oscar nominated drama The Messenger starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton hasn't had a whisper of a UK release, maybe the subject matter is still too raw for us.

Gulliver's Travels

I actually heard some very positive buzz from an exhibitor earlier this year about Jack Black's latest travesty which probably proves the lengths they'll go to sell tickets. It's a laughably unfunny trailer and even the orange advert they made on the way seems poorly written.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○



Love and Other Drugs

Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are naked a lot. I'd like to pretend there are other reasons for watching this but I'm not sure I'd be being completely honest. Ed Zwick's a competent director - does that help?

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○

The Way Back

Peter Weir's latest film follows the controversial story of escaped Gulag convicts trekking from Siberia to India to avoid their Soviet captors. Regardless of the provenance the film was funded by National Geogrephic so you know the vistas will be stunning.

Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○