We settled in for a quiet Friday night (post Thanksgiving festivities) with a crackling fire and a pair of small movies we thought would be interesting.

Uncertainty is a 4 year old Joe Gordon-Levitt outing, low budget, largely improv dialogue, about the decisions a couple take on 4th July in New York. The comparison to Sliding Doors is inevitable, but they choose chance, flipping a coin to decide whether to attend a family dinner or a friend’s party.

The film divides, following each option (handily colour coded for easy reference), with one thread following the quiet drama of Kate’s (John Carter‘s Lynn Collins) family as she tries to decide whether to keep her baby, and the other becoming a paranoid thriller after the couple pick up a cell phone in a taxi.

I’m going to spoil here, so stop reading if you’re curious in JGL’s back catalogue.

So, here's an experiment: watch along with the reptile.

If you haven't seen The Cabin in the Woods and you do want to, best not to go any further as I'm just going to react as I go. Yes, this is partially about reducing the jumps given my boy is on the other side of the world. This is why I'm watching Cabin and not going to go see The Shining (tempting, but I'm stupid, not crazy).

So without further ado…

I think the real problem with This Means War is that I know it’s terrible, but I still can’t resist the outrageous levels of charm exuded by its three stars (Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon).

I want to start with a confession. I didn’t think Drive was all that. Sure, Ryan Blue-Eyes smouldered, but he was also creepy, frankly, and not in a good way. I didn’t appreciate that women are molls or doe-eyed mothers who need a good rescuing. And I’ve never been a fan of electronica.

Caught up last night with The Devil’s Double (in which Dominic Cooper reminds us that he can act, whilst remaining unaverse to chewing up scenery) and The Guard (in which Brendan Gleeson is unashamed of his pants). Two more dissimilar films may not exist, but we couldn’t face Drive after the bloodied insanity of Usay Hussain.

The Ides of March has a lot to live up to: Clooney is Democratic candidate Mike Morris, gearing up to become the Democratic presidential candidate.

The comparisons with Primary Colors are inevitable. Ides is also told from the perspective of idealistic campaign manager (here a chiseled Ryan Gosling, using his soulful blue eyes to good effect); its candidate is charismatic and idealistic; and if the hard-nosed wrangler is Philip Seymour Hoffman rather than Kathy Bates, that’s hardly a shortcoming.