Bunny and the Bull

Cert 16

STEPHEN (Edward Hogg) hasn't left his flat for a year. He has a strict routine that he doesn't change, living among his carefully catalogued boxes of everything. It is this memorabilia, combined with a failed attempt at leaving his house, that leads Stephen to relive his travels with Bunny (Simon Farnaby). In a bid to cure uptight, nerdy Stephen of a broken heart, wildman Bunny suggests they use a gambling win to go on holidays. Where Stephen is thinking museums, Bunny is thinking women and drink -- and on they plod from mishap to mishap.

In Poland, they meet Eloisa (Veronica Echegui) a Spanish waitress looking to get back to Spain for fiestas, and a road trip is born. A love triangle of sorts happens, the boys fall out and the reason behind the title becomes apparent. The story is laconically narrated.

Written and directed by Paul King, the man behind the cult comedy series The Mighty Boosh, Bunny and the Bull has elements of the series, but is certainly not derived from it. Boosh's Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt make cameo appearances in the latter half, and the film has a surreal look to it, largely thanks to the drawn sets and pieces of varied animation.

The original visual distracts from the fact that the characters are stereotypes who behave entirely as such, perhaps limiting the actors. It's also slow in places, the middle section in particular, and the script isn't quite as funny as it could be. But it's an interesting and surprisingly effective look at loss and guilt, perhaps partially because of the stereotyping. Bunny and the Bull, however, is often funny and, at times, even touching.

Bunny and the Bull opens on Friday

Paranormal Activity

Cert 15A

Paranormal Activity will have a hard time living up to the hype, so if you're keen to see a scary but not gory horror film, perhaps it's best to just go. If you're uncertain, read on.

Paranormal Activity opens with a paragraph thanking the families of Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston for allowing them to use footage shot in 2006. Then we see Micah filming his girlfriend Katie as she arrives home. The camera, he explains, is to document the strange happenings in their home, happenings about which he is sceptical, even though Katie has recently explained she has a backstory of odd events.

They also record their interview with the psychic (Mark Fredrichs) who says it sounds like Katie is the subject of a demonic stalking, not his field. He recommends a specialist but Micah resists, convinced that he can get to the bottom of whatever it is. But events escalate, naturally, because this is a horror film.

Sloat and Featherston are really good, both at portraying couple and fear, the script is clever and often funny, although the story is slow in places. However, the momentum builds and the real-time footage combined with time-lapse night footage is very effective. As with every horror, there are a few questions, such as why are you hanging around there, love? But overall, it works.

Similarities to The Blair Witch Project and The Last Broadcast are clear, the self-filming documentary style, the "is it or isn't it?" flirtation with reality. It's similar, too, in that it was filmed and made by newcomers (both main actors and writer/director Oren Peli) on a tiny budget of well under $20,000. Made in 2007, Paranormal Activity failed to get a distributor until this year. Who's sorry now? It has made more than $100m already.

Paranormal Activity opens on Wednesday

Law Abiding Citizen

Cert 16 (re-rated from 18 on appeal)

Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is stabbed, and his wife and small daughter are brutalised and murdered during a home invasion. The already devastated Clyde is then horrified to see ambitious young DA Nicholas Rice (Jamie Foxx) make a lenient plea bargain that sees only one of the accused get the death penalty while the other gets a short jail sentence.

Ten years on, and the execution of one of the assailants goes gruesomely wrong while the other, now out on licence, is tortured to death by Clyde, who doesn't bother to cover his tracks and is promptly thrown in jail. But he's only getting started, and although behind bars he begins a trail of revenge and destruction against a system he deems unjust.

No-one can accuse Gerard Butler of being typecast, he's playing muscly cartoon guys, romcom leads and gritty heroes. He is remarkably similar in all the roles, but he's getting them. The man has charisma and he steals the show from Foxx, who is most unconvincing. But while Butler may have charisma, he isn't overburdened with acting nuance. Then again, neither is Foxx. The support, including Colm Meaney, is generally better.

Rife with cliches, Clyde only looks like a nerd, the roaring mayor, the overworked DA, the neglected family life... the plot goes a bit bonkers. It is interesting that Clyde goes from protagonist to antagonist, the aforementioned charisma clouds that somewhat, but ultimately there is no-one to really care about and as the film doesn't tackle the issues it brings up, there is no real moral weight to it either.

It's quite gory and sadistic, it's very macho and daft. It's oddly entertaining and will undoubtedly appeal to certain tastes.

Law Abiding Citizen opens on Friday

- AINE O’CONNOR

Sunday Independent