Intermission: Sometimes all you want is a hug

Half way through my four-part dissection of the year's highlights and lowlights, and I've realised I need a fifth category. Sorry for those of you who have already devised a complicated wall chart based on my last couple of posts. I am hereby inserting a new category between my last post, 'meh', and my next one, 'quite good' and I have decided to call it 'reasonably entertaining'.

Things that are reasonably entertaining include films which just sort of passed the time and were fun to watch, but which didn't really inspire me with any lasting joy. They are the digestives of film: perfectly acceptable, and once in a while they might be exactly what you're in the mood for, but not what you'd give to Derren Brown if he came round to your house to help you hypnotise some troublesome ants into not stealing your bloody toast.

Films that were Reasonably Entertaining in 2010

Salt

Angelina Jolie is an agent! But then someone says she's a double agent! And then! Whoah! Maybe she is and maybe she isn't! There is lots of running, many things explode and a lot of people get shot and fall over looking sad. It's an effective post-Bourne thriller with a strangely retro Cold War feel and Jolie makes a good action hero - but we knew that. Once all the twisty turniness is done it's like having watched a series of 24 at several times normal speed and you are left feeling quite happy, until you notice something shiny and forget all about it.

The Town

Ben Affleck's directorial follow up to the brilliant Gone Baby Gone is nearly in the 'very good' category. It is an engaging tale, well told and with some properly thrilling set pieces. The central conceit - bank robber falls in love with hostage who could identify him and his gang - is simple and effective, and played well by the leads. I do like Ben Affleck, and I'm glad he's turning into such an interesting director.

The only real issue is that it feels a lot like Michael Mann's Heat. The basic plot, following the ethical and procedural similarities of opposing groups of cops and robbers, is very similar and there are a number of repeated dramatic beats. Which made me keep coming back to Jeremy's thoughts in Peep Show, when watching a play: 'This is as long as Heat. I could be watching Heat. I'm going to pretend I'm watching Heat!'

The A-Team

Now, I know that by doing this I am risking incurring the wrath of The Expendables, which may well come charging in from the last blog-post, shrieking in rage. "Why do you love her but not me?" it will scream, firing machine guns indiscriminately into the air. "She's an equally stupid throwback to the eighties with no real sense of characterisation or plot!" (Throws hand grenade through a window). "You're a hypocrite and she's a slag and why does no-one ever love the real me?" (Collapses in tears on stairs, eye make-up everywhere).

Well, quite. The A-Team isn't really much smarter than The Expendables, and doesn't have a particularly strong sense of what it is, beyond a nostalgic attempt at launching a franchise. But it's a funnier script, has better actors and, yes, draws heavily from the well of love that lies deep in the hearts of an entire generation. I'd like to see a sequel, please.

The Karate Kid

Another film which almost nudges its way into the higher categories. A surprisingly fresh and fun remake which does enough new things to make it a worthwhile exercise while more or less keeping the ethos of the original. Jaden Smith is a good actor already, and very likeable, and will probably be as big a star as his dad at some point. Jackie Chan is ace.

Red

What's this? A film about an older generation of movie stars geting back into their action groove? Surely not! Like the A-Team, this is a lot of fun and just spending time with the characters is reward enough. The plot is a little more coherent, though only just, and there are some fantastic images - not least being a suited John Malkovich handling the ammunition butler-style, while Helen Mirren operates the biggest machine gun you've ever seen. In a big dress.

Cyrus

Clever, funny comedy in which John C Reilly fancies Marissa Tomei, and tangles with her son Cyrus -  Jonah Hill - over the latter's oedipal tendencies. Small scale, well played and very funny.

Get Him to the Greek

Jonah Hill again, this time trying to stop rock god Aldous Snow (Russell Brand, channeling himself) from smoking/having sex with  everything he meets. Sporadically funny, though uneven, and entirely reliant upon Brand's personality for its effect.

I think that's everything. There's quite possibly other films I've forgotten, but on the whole these are films that, should you come across them on the TV, you should consider showing a bit of love.