Friends with Benefits/Colombiana (both out 9th Sept)

This week we have two lovely films about hot girls who, due to parental abandonment in childhood, now have trust issues and are emotionally stunted. The results are slightly different in each case.

In Friends With Benefits, the tiny cute Jamie lady (Mila Klunis) never knew her real father, and her irresponsible slutty mum makes endless contradictory statements about his nationality. As a result, she is constantly looking for "Prince Charming" and her high expectations are putting off chaps. In Colombiana, our lithe spunky Cataleya (Zoe Saldana - the tall blue gal in Avatar) also has trust issues when it comes to fellas, due to witnessing her parents murder at the hands of some nasty drug baron man, but unlike Jamie, who is an executive headhunter, Cataleya likes to murder criminals and naughty people, and draw flowers on their corpses. Both of the gals are using men for sex - Justin Timberlake is the Friend with Benefits of the title, and Cateleya is having saucy times with some artist guy (his paintings are terrible btw).

Both the movies are likeable, I had a few giggles (though perhaps parts of Colombiana are unintentionally funny. Some of the dialogue is clunky, and there's an excellent fight scene involving bathroom equipment - no, not razors, but a towel and toothbrushes). Friends With Benefits tries to weave in a rather serious storyline about a parent with Altzheimers in amongst the lightweight rom-com. It tries to be a bit clever and post-modern, whilst the characters make a big deal of how life is not like the romantic movies of Hollywood, whilst ultimately forming a "will they, won't they?" romance typical of romantic movies in Hollywood. I would like to have seen more of Andy Samberg and Emma Stone, who pop up in the beginning as ex-partners. In fact, I would much rather see a movie about those two hooking up.

If you fancy a night at the flicks and there's not much else on, I would say "yeah, go and watch one of these, why not?" but I wouldn't rush out to the cinema specially to see them. Especially the cost of the cinema these days. Tisk! And sneak your own pick'n'mix in.