The Good, the Bad and the Blu-rays

Stuck in a post-Olympics lull, there's very few releases of note this week, apart from a slice of Nordic Noir and Sean Penn finding his inner Robert Smith.

Well, it's not exactly Nordic Noir, more Scandi Crime or whatever sub-sub-sub genre they're calling it this week. With quite a dark sense of humour in it, when a thief tries to steal a valuable piece of art to fund his extravagant lifestyle, little does he know that the owner isn't going to let him win easily. With author Jo Nesbo's name attached this is going to be a popular thriller; I recommend seeing it before the forthcoming Hollywood remake so you can say "it's not as good as the Scandinavian original".

It might be easy to write off this thriller for having the girl from Mamma Ma in it, but Amanda Seyfried gave good bunny boiler in 2009's Chloe, so there might be something here of worth. It does look like a fairly run of the mill thriller, perhaps a decent rental prospect but not something that needs seeing more than once.

Based on a real life story (sort of) of a geriatric on the bus who decided to stand up to a bully by kicking seven shades of shit out of him, Bad Ass sees Danny Trejo take on the role of said old person, becoming a vigilante folk hero in the process. After seeing the trailer, I can imagine this being based on Danny Trejo's own life, as despite him being the grand old age of 68, there's not a chance in hell he couldn't kick my ass. It appears that the story has been 'embellished' somewhat, as there's no sign of any explosions in the Youtube clip of Bad Ass (AKA Epic Beard Man) that started it all.

This Must Be The Place sees Sean Penn goth up as a former rock star going on a road trip to find out more about his estranged father's life as a holocaust survivor. A tragi-comedy that balances its heavy subject matter with a very dry sense of humour, this is worth seeing for Sean Penn's turn as a softly spoken goth and the music by Talking Heads' David Byrne.

It's nice that Ray Winstone is proud of his daughter's careers and that he appears with them when given the opportunity, but Elfie Hopkins seems to be a poor choice, its tale of cannibalism in a remote part of the country currently holding a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. I know that's not a guarantee of poor quality, but the trailer does little to persuade me otherwise.

Ugh. I think I've said all I need to about this film.

Trying to pull a fast one, Highway to Hell is merely a re-packaged version of Eldorado 3D, the atrociously advertised release from earlier this year. The lack of popularity must be down to the publics ill feeling towards the name Eldorado after the BBC soap opera of the same name, so I'm completely positive that the film will reach a much wider audience this time as polishing turds always works, doesn't it?