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Hulk
With the myriad of superhero movies currently around (Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil) and the number of good summer blockbusters Ang Lee's (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) Hulk had to be something special to stand out from the crowd. Luckily, it is, this film is a really good action film but also has a good plot and some interesting camera work.
Throughout the movie, there is a distinct comic book feel with multiple panes of action on screen at once. The movie follows Bruce Banner (played by Eric Bana, Troy) a young scientist who through a combination of his father's genetic engineering and an unfortunate lab accident transforms into the Hulk when he gets angry. The only downside to this movie is that on occasion the CG work looks a bit fake, other than that it is a great action movie.
Starsky & Hutch
Ben Stiller (Meet the Parents, Zoolander) and Owen Wilson (Zoolander) star as Starsky and Hutch respectively in the conversion to film of the hit 70's cop show.
The movie sees clean cop Starsky paired up with the slightly dodgy Hutch as they try to solve a murder case which is involved with a cocaine smuggling operation.
As far as the movie goes, it is a typical Ben Stiller style comedy. Reasonably funny but nothing special.
This film was never going to be groundbreaking in any sense, but as a comedy set in the 70's its ok. Good for a night on the sofa when you don't want to have to think about anything.
Shattered Glass
Shattered Glass tells the true story of Stephen Glass, a young journalist for the New Republic magazine during the late 90's. As a young writer, he is enjoying his work at the magazine and it isn't until his piece 'Hack Heaven' comes under scrutiny that the truth comes out that over half of the articles he had written for the magazine were partially or entirely made up.
I hadn't heard the story of Stephen Glass before, but as a true story, it is interesting and amazing that he got away with submitting fiction as fact in such a high profile magazine for so long.
The cast is pretty good, Glass himself is played by Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars II) and Hank Azaria (Godzilla, Simpsons) stars as one of his editors, Michael Kelly. Christensen gives a good performance, although slips into the whiney teenage role which he seems to have picked up from playing the equally whiney Anakin Skywalker. Azaria shows a more serious side than I've seen him play in previous roles, but since I've only seen him in Godzilla and Friends, this is to be expected.
Peter Sarsgaard plays Chuck, the editor in charge during Glass' fall from the top and comes across well as he comes to realise just how deep Glass' lies run.
All in all, Shattered Glass is a decent film, a great story which is told well.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I haven't seen the original, so I don't know how Marcus Nispel's 2003 remake of the 1974 hack 'n' slash movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre compares, but with the amount of horror remakes around at the moment, is it any good?
The film tells the story of a group of teenagers who pickup a girl wandering by the roadside, she then shoots herself in the head in their van and they end up in some backwards town in Texas trying to find a policeman to help them deal with it. Of course, it's one of these redneck towns where everyone is a little strange, and that's when the Chainsaw and massacre come in.
Although the film is a pretty generic hack and slash affair, it is entertaining enough to watch, although the story seems very familiar, probably because it has been 30 odd years since the original and it has been copied over and over again. I was surprised how much this film was like Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses assuming this film is true to the original, it is amazing how many ideas Rob must have 'borrowed' (read chored) for his film.
All in all, not great, but not a bad night's entertainment with little to think about.
Fight Club
David Fincher (Alien 3, Se7en, Panic Room) directs the film translation of Chuck Palahniuk's book Fight Club. This is one of the best films of the 90's, Edward Norton plays a man disillusioned with his life, when he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and is introduced to a completely different life. The film has a very dark comic feel to it and in places can be very violent. The twist at the end is amazing, and watching the film a second time you pick up so much more on things which are explained by the twist. Palahniuk's book has been faithfully converted into a great film which will be relevant for years to come. All in all, a must see movie.
Ghost Dog: Way of the samurai
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai tells the story of Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) a hitman who lives by the code of ancient Japanese Samurai. He is indebted to a Mafia member who saved his life, and carries out contract killings for him, when the Mafia decide they want him dead, Ghost Dog takes his revenge in order to preserve the life of his retainer.
The film has a very surreal and dark comedy about it while at the same time, being a serious story of a man indebted to another and living with that debt everyday of his life. Forest Whitaker makes an amazing performance and is highly believable, the rest of the cast although mostly unkown add to the film to create a film which is funny, thought provoking and visually exciting.
Although a little short this is an excellent film with an interesting mixture of Mafia style organised crime and the values of ancient Japan, all in all highly recommended.
Spiderman 2
Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spiderman), returns with the sequel to 2002's hit movie.
The film follows the young Peter Parker as he struggles with the responsibility brought by being Spiderman. With the city mainly against Spiderman, Parker is torn between turning his back on Spiderman or continuing to save the city.
This installment sees scientist Otto Octavius gain 4 extra limbs which end up controlling him and turning him into the vastly superior Dr. Octopus. Seeking money to continue his Fusion experiments, Octopus robs a bank. When he has to get his hands on some Tritium, he seeks the help of Harry Osbourne who agrees to exchange some in return for Octopus getting him Spiderman.
Spiderman 2 has everything a great comic book adaptation should have, we have action, humour and the obligatory romance plot. This sequel is entertaining and well made, possibly better than the first film and certainly a great film in its own right. Look out for the obligatory appearance of Bruce Campbell as well as a brief appearance from Stan Lee.
I have some minor niggles about the plot from my minor knowledge of fusion power. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of artistic license involved in dealing with the actual science in the movie.
Having said that though, Spiderman 2 is a great movie, if you loved the first one, go see it, it won't disappoint. For those of you that weren't too keen on the first one, you might enjoy it, or if you don't like comic book adaptions you'll probably hate it.
Monster
Monster tells the true story of Aileen Wuornos a prostitute who was sentenced to death and subsequently executed for the murder of 7 men in Florida in the 80's.
Aileen Wuornos is played by a heavily made up Charlize Theron. The story starts with Aileen visting a bar with the aim of spending her last $5 before she kills herself. There she meets Selby (Christina Ricci, Addams Family Values), a young woman who offers to buy her a drink. This meeting is the start of a relationship which leads to Selby cutting ties with her family and moving in with Aileen.
At around this time, Aileen is picked up by a violent customer who tries to rape her, she attacks back, killing him and taking her car. This starts a trend of killing.
Monster is a very dark film, both Theron and Ricci give great performances, in what is a very disturbing tale. Although gripping throughout, the subject matter is quite nasty and at times hard to watch. Charlize Theron is totally transformed for the role and hardly recognisable.
All in all, although not a movie I'd want to watch over and over again, as a piece of cinema, Monster is a very good movie which I'd recommend to any fan of extreme cinema.
School of Rock
Renound funny man and leader singer in comedy rock band Tenacious D Jack Black stars as Dewey, a wannabe rock star who needs cash to pay his rent. When he gets a phone call offering his flatmate a job as a supply teacher, he can't help but pretend to be his flatmate and takes the class.
Since he knows nothing about teaching, he teaches the kids in class all about rock and roll and makes them form a band as part of a project which he hopes will win him a battle of the bands.
This film is great fun and very funny in parts, Jack Black is excellent and plays the part very well with the same sort of facial expressions and acting which makes him so good in Tenacious D. Having said that if you don't like Jack Black you'll probably find him annoying in this movie. Overall this is a great feel good movie and worth a watch if you want to veg out and have a good laugh.
The Butterfly Effect
Time travel in films can always be a bit of a risky topic, and casting an actor who is most well know for silly teen comedies and being the annoying host of a show on MTV which pulls pranks on celebrities seems like a bad idea.
Before seeing the film, my biggest preconceptions where that Ashton Kutcher was gonna be rubbish, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised as he plays the most serious role I've ever seen him in.
The Butterfly Effect tells the story of Evan, as a child Evan suffers from blackouts at key stages in his life, mainly when bad things are happening around him. He is recommended to keep a journal of his life to help him remember the missing parts of his memory, which he continues to do. As a student, he returns to the town he left when he was a child and speaks to an old friend about her abusive father, she subsequently kills herself. Evan discovers while reading some old journals that he can travel back to the time of the blackout and re-live it, upon doing so he changes the future and when he wakes up, he is in what seems like a perfect alternate reality. However, things soon change and he must try to change history once again to fix the new problems created.
The Butterfly Effect takes the idea that small changes in history can have devastating effects on the course of events.
Kutcher gives a reasonable performance, far removed from his usual comedy style. The story is well told and directed. The films comes to a chilling climax as Evan strives to right his life.
Overall, The Butterfly Effect is a pretty good film, with an interesting plot and a performance from Ashton Kutcher which transforms him from a bad comic actor to someone worth watching.
The Cat in The Hat
I never really read Dr. Suess as a child, from what little I know of his books, they just seem a little silly.
Having said that, the Cat in the Hat translates well to the big screen with the wonderful Mike Myers as the cat. The story tells of two children, one who is a control freak and the other a mischief boy who likes to trash the house and does the opposite of everything his mother tells him.
When the are left alone in the house before a party their mother is throwing, the Cat in The Hat turns up and all pandemonium ensues.
As ever, Myers is pretty funny with a lot of the cat's mannerisms reminiscent of both the Austin Powers and Dr. Evil characters. For a kids films, there are few risque jokes.
The film is set in a kind of surreal colourful world where everyone seems to drive a lime green Ford Focus. This unreal setting a very childrens book feel to the set and costumes adds to the whole Dr. Suessness of the film.
As I said before, I've never read the books, so the hardcore Suess fans might have a different opinion of the film, but I found it very entertaining and great fun.
Scratch
Scratch is a documentary about hip-hop and in particular the hip-hop DJ or turntablist, this film features interviews from many modern hip-hop DJs and follows the rise of the solo DJ as an act.
Although I know very little about Hip-Hop, this documentary was very entertaining and some of the scratching featured in it is unbelievable. Features such artists as Mix Master Mike, DJ Qbert, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and many more.
If you are a fan of hip-hop or just want to see an informative and interesting documentary about it, then watch this movie.
Phone Booth
When publicist Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) picks up a payphone he is caught by a sniper who threatens to shoot him unless he does as he is told. Pretty much the entire film is set in the phone booth with Farrell giving a great performance as the lead character. The release of the film was originally delayed because of the Washington sniper attacks. This is a great suspense movie and although quite short (80 mins) packs a fair amount of action into the time.
The Lady Killers
When a charming Professor (Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump, The Money Pit) turns up on the doorstep of an old lady enquiring about the room to let, he poses as a member of a renaissance band. Little does she know that the so called band are actually a criminal gang intent on breaking into a nearby casino by tunnelling from her basement.
His Gang consist of a crazy Chinese General, a High School American Footballer, the explosives expert and their man on the inside (Marlon Wayans). Together they make for an entertaining bunch as they attempt to carry out their scheme without the knowledge of their landlady.
The plot is reasonably interesting and the film is funny in parts. The cast do a reasonably good job and while not an amazing movie is certainly entertaining throughout.
Overall, the film is OK, but I found something lacking.
Shrek 2
The Sequel to 2001's hilarious animated tale, Shrek. Shrek (Mike Myers), Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are back with a whole host of fairy tale characters. Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) is angry to hear of Shrek and Fiona's wedding and is plotting to get Fiona and her son Prince Charming together.
Shrek and Donkey get a new friend, Puss in Boots, in the guise of Antonio Banderas. Puss In Boots has some great lines and scenes and is very funny. The other children's fairytale characters are pretty funny as well, especially the 3 blind mice, Pinnochio and the wolf from little red riding hood.
Although rated U, Shrek 2 manages to be one of those films like Monsters Inc. which has jokes in there for all age ranges. There are multiple levels of humour which make it as much fun for adults as for kids.
Overall Shrek 2 is great fun and I urge everyone with a sense of humour to go see it.
2 Fast 2 Furious
The sequel to car racing adventure film The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious sees Paul Walker return in the role of Brian.
Like it's predecessor, the acting is pretty shoddy and the plot is weak, if you hated the first film you will hate this even more. In fact from that point of view the only upside would be the departure of Vin Diesel.
I on the other hand enjoyed the first film, despite it's obvious flaws, it was a good mindless action film with fast cars and from a purely entertainment point of view was ok. Although the sequel is not as good, it is still a reasonably watchable action film, with some nice car chases.
Overall, not great but not unwatchable
Scary Movie 3
Scary Movie was hilarious, but Scary Movie 2 was pretty bad, can a third film in the series revive the comedy of the first or is it destined to become another Shriek?
Luckily, Scary Movie 3 brings in a host of cameos, most notably, Leslie Nielsen of Naked Gun fame and Hots Shots star Charlie Sheen. Both of these actors add to the movie with Nielsen in particular bringing some classic Naked Gun comedy to the mix.
The main plot to Scary Movie 3 is made up from spoofs of 'The Ring', '8 Mile' and 'Signs'. When two farmers find strange crop circles in their field, local newshost Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris, Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2, Lost in Translation) steps in to help find the cause of the circles. Meanwhile her nephew starts acting strange after watching a video tape.
Scary Movie 3 is a great laugh, with cameos from Simon Cowell and Pamela Anderson and some great gags you can't really go wrong. If you enjoyed the first Scary Movie, this film should be right up your street.
Monsters Inc.
Monsters Inc is the animated tale of two Monsters, Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) and James 'Sully' Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman). They work for a company where the must sneek into the real world and scare children to capture their screams which are used to power the Monster City. When Sully's rival Randall leaves a door on the scare floor, Sully accidentaly brings a little girl into the monster world. Since children are thought to be toxic to Monsters, the authorities begin looking for her while Sully and Mike try to return her to her bedroom.
I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of Pixar's films, but Monsters Inc is different. It's really funny and charming and there are a lot of subtle jokes aimed at a more mature audience. The animation in the film is top notch, like a lot of Pixars work. Billy Crystal's voice adds a lot to the character and humour of Mike Wazowski.
All in all Monsters Inc is a kids film which can be enjoyed by adults while retaining its charm and innocence.
Buffalo Soldiers
Set in West Germany in 1989 at the height of the cold war, Buffalo soldiers tells the story of Ray Elwood, an American soldier stationed in Germany. He does some dodgy stuff on the side, selling army supplies and cooking Morphine into Heroin for sale to soldiers on the base.
When a new top Sargeant arrives at the base, he doesn't take too kindly to Elwood, even moreso when Elwood begins dating his daughter. Eventually the sargeant discovers Elwoods side business and goes after him.
Ray Elwood is played by Joaquin Phoenix (Signs, Gladiator) and although I find him a bit annoying, he does a reasonable job in this role. The film is quite funny in places as well as having a reasonable plot. Although not amazing, it is reasonably entertaining throughout and a good laugh.
Fahrenheit 9/11
Fahrenheit 9/11 is Michael Moore's take on the events preceding and following the attack on New York and the Pentagon which took place on September 11th 2001.
Anyone familiar with Moore's TV shows, The Awful Truth and TV Nation or his previous films Roger and Me and Bowling For Columbine will know Moore's unique style of journalism. Through careful editing and a mixture of black humour with shocking images/sound clips Moore manages to evoke an emotional response in every scene.
The film starts with George W. Bush 'winning' the Presidential Elections. Anyone who has read Moore's book Stupid White Men will be familiar with the story of who Bush came to win in Florida. The first piece of real emotion comes when we see Congressional members standing up in the senate to contest the vote, only to be asked by Gore if they have the backing of a Senator. Member after member takes the stand, but none have the backing of a single Senator.
From this point on Moore takes us through the finer points of the ties between the Bush family and the Bin Ladens; the run up to the war in Iraq and the pushing through of the US Patriot Act. All of this is told in Moore's typical manner, asking members of Congress to enlist their children in the Armed Forces, driving around Washington in an ice cream truck reading the Patriot Act.
We also have contend with Moore's editing which pits very emotional visuals and sound clips together leaving for a film which hits you right at the heart.
I have no doubt that all of the facts shown in the movie are true, Moore himself has a list of evidence on his website backing the claims made in the movie. He has said before about his previous film, Bowling for Columbine, even although many people have said that he has lied or been untruthful, no-one has ever filed a lawsuit against him. You can't make a film which is this high profile without being very careful of the facts.
Having said this I do know that Moore can be selective and one sided in his telling of the story. While this in itself is not a problem, after all, he is making this documentary as an Anti-Bush statement, not a balanced account of the facts.
Moore likes to use questions which are taken to be statements, he has done this before in Bowling for Columbine, he'll ask a rhetorical question on the soundtrack and it will be taken by many (both critics and believers alike) as a statement.
We also see some obvious one sided points of view, his footage of pre-war Baghdad is all happy children and people living happily. Previously he had shown footage of a public execution in Saudi Arabia, but no mention is made of the attrocities conducted by Saddam Hussein's regime. Baghdad is portrayed as a nice happy place, even footage of Saddam is cheery clips of him smiling and dancing around.
Despite these niggles, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a very important film in many respects, it has enjoyed the highest grossing first week of any documentary ever. It shows the public a lot of information that the Bush Adminstration would rather was kept quiet and with the run up to to the US Presidential Elections, could make a difference to the vote.
Overall, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a powerful piece of journalism, but as with anything you see or read, you have to remember that Michael Moore has his own agendas and the film is not without its own biases.
If your political alignment goes along with Moore's you will know a lot of the information in this film already. Those opposed to Moore's point of view will probably dismiss the film straight away. The remainder of people in the middle with no strong convictions either way will find this film a real eye opener.
Overall Fahrenheit 9/11 gives you a lot to think about with an underlying sense that there isn't much we can do about it.
Roger and Me
Michael Moore (The Awful Truth, Bowling for Columbine) writes and directs this documentary about life in his home town of Flint, Michigan after the closure of the General Motors plant which was a major employer in the town.
The story tells of life in Flint as Moore tries to track down Roger Smith the CEO of General Motors.
This documentary is done in Moore's usual style, anyone who has seen and enjoyed Bowling for Columbine and his TV series, the Awful Truth will enjoy this movie. The depiction of Flint after the close of the factory is of a grim town full of boarded up shops and an increasing crime rate. This is a well written and well told documentary done in Moore's trademark style.
With his latest film Fahrenheit 911 winning awards at Cannes this year, Moore is one director who is well worth watching. Although since he has pretty strong views, they can be a little one sided and there are bound to be many people who disagree with him.
The Day After Tommorow
When Global Warming melts the polar ice caps, the melting affects the North Atlantic tidal currents plunging the entire Northern Hemisphere into a new Ice Age.
The main story follows a paleoclimatologist, Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) and his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal). Jack discovers that the Earth is on the verge of a new Ice Age and predicts we have 100 years or so before it hits, in which time disaster could be averted by becoming more ecologically friendly. When a English Scientist (Ian Holme, Alien) discovers that he prediction is wrong and the process is all ready starting Jack tries to warn the government but they pay him no heed.
The Earth is plunged into an ice age, Scotland is wiped out and Jack's son Sam is left stranded in New York which is attacked with a giant wall of water and then frozen. Jack makes his way to New York to rescue his son.
The Day after Tommorow is a pretty bog standard disaster movie affair. The premise behind it isn't very believable, but the special effects are good and it is definately action packed and in that sense it delivers exactly what it intends to. My only major niggle with the film is a rather contrived wolf attack which didn't seem to have any purpose other than add some extra excitement to a scene. I think the wolves could have been cut and something else put in.
Overall, a pretty standard disaster movie which is enjoyable to watch but not life changing.
Apocalypse Now: Redux
Francis Ford Coppola's re-editing of his 1976 vietnam war move 'Apocalypse Now' now runs for over 3 hours. Apocalypse Now is one of those films which regularly appears in the best films of all time lists. It tells the story of Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen) as he goes on a mission to track down a US Army colonel (Marlon Brando) who is hiding in the Cambodian jungle. The film follows Willard on his journey up the river into Cambodia and the events which take place on his journey. Not so much of a War film, more a story of a crazy journey set in Vietnam during the war. This film has lots of action and some great scenes, although I found it a little long and the end seemed a bit slow. All in all, a must see movie.
House of 1000 corpses
Rock legend Rob Zombie brings us the first film he has written and directed, House of 1000 corpses. The film tells the story of a group of teenagers who whilst travelling across America hear about the legend of Dr. Satan, a doctor who used to experiment of mental patients. The decide to try and solve the mystery of the legend and end up in trouble after they are taken in by a family of Hillbillys. First of all, this film has a lot of horror cliches, the entire plot has pretty much been done 1000 times before, the acting is bad, but since it's obviously a low budget horror film, this doesn't really matter too much. This film is never going to be critical acclaimed, but for what it is, I found it entertaining for the 100 minutes it lasted. There are also some classic Rob Zombie tracks on the soundtrack.
Me, Myself and Irene
Jim Carrey (The Mask, Ace Ventura) stars in a comedy about Road Island State Trooper, Charlie, who after having his wife run out on him and the whole town treat him as a joke finally snaps and forms a second personality who doesn't take the abuse Charlie would put up with.
When he is asked to escort Irene (Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones' Diary, Nurse Betty)) back to upstate New York, everything goes well until he loses his medication leading to mayhem when Hank starts to take control.
The film is a typical silly comedy, but having said that I personally find it hilarious in parts, Jim Carrey manages to get some of his patented silly faces in and some of the situations which Hank/Charlie and Irene get into are great.
Overall if you are a fan of this type of movie you'll probably find Me, Myself and Irene hilarious, if you don't like this kind of stupid humour then you'll probably hate this movie with a passion.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
When Joel (Jim Carrey) discovers that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had all traces of him removed from her memory, he elects to have the same procedure to remove her from his. Things don't go too smoothly when he refuses to let go of the memories.
With a unique tale, and great acting from both Winslet and Carry Eternal Sunshine... makes for a unique and interesting film. The camera shots are great and there is a very surreal quality to the film, especially since a large part of the story takes place in Joels dreams.
I was particularly impressed with Carrey, seeing a completely different side to him as a serious actor without any of his usual rubber faced shinanigans which although funny in Ace Ventura are now beginning to wear thin. His role in Eternal Sunshine... is far more serious and he pulls it off greatly.
The screenplay was written by Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote being John Malkovich, both films have the same surreal feel to them. As well as having the kind of inside someone's head story telling.
Overall this is a really enjoyable, charming, thought provoking piece of cinema which I urge everyone to go and see.
25th Hour
25th hour stars Edward Norton as a drug dealer who is caught and faces 7 years in jail, it follows his last day as a free man as he and his friends sort things out before his incarceration. Edward Norton (American History X, Fightclub) gives a great performance. Overall this movie was enjoyable to watch and well made.
Ed Gein
This movie tells the story of real life murderer Ed Gein. A lot of famous movies have been partially based on this story, including Psycho and Silence of The Lambs. Steve Railsback plays Ed Gein, a single man who lives alone on a farm. He has a strange fascination for things such as shrunken heads and other such gruesome acts. He digs up the bodies of dead women and make things out of their remains, and ends up shooting two women before he is caught. Steve Railsback gives a great performance of Ed and at times is very scary. Since the movie is based on real events, it is interesting to watch from the point of view of seeing where the ideas for the films which have borrowed from it came from. All in all, a movie worth watching, but can be a bit slow at times.
Timecode
This movie has some pretty unique ideas which make it a very interesting piece of cinema. First of all, the entire film is presented with the screen split into 4 and each quarter of the screen is following different situations with the soundtrack moving from quarter to quarter to allow you to follow the plot. Although this makes for an interesting effect it can be a bit distracting at first as you try to take in all of the images you are being displayed.
Another interesting thing about this movie is that it was filmed in 4 continous 89 minutes takes with a single Camera for each quadrant of the film. The actors did a lot of improvisation on the script and it was all coordinated so that the cameras would meet at the correct times in each of the 4 parts.
These techniques make for a film which is technically very interesting, the plot isn't amazing and the movie would probably be regarded as pretty substandard without these extra factors. All in all, this film is very much worth watching as an interesting experiment.
Jason X
Jason Vorhees (Friday the Thirteenth) is back and this time it's in space. A plot to freeze the seamingly unkillable Jason Vorhees until a time in which new technology can kill him fails and a scientist and Jason both end up being frozen. 400 years later they are discovered and taken aboard a spaceship where both Jason and the scientist thaw and he starts killing people again.
Having not seen any of the other Friday the Thirteenth films, I can't comment on how this compares to them, but I can say that if they are anything like Jason X I don't want to see them, this is one of the worst films I've seen recently, even beating Shriek, in fact I would go as far as saying this film is bad on the scale of Jeepers Creepers.
To sum it up the main problems with the film are a weak plot, terrible acting, absolutely no character development and a whole host of cheesy puns and one liners. The puns and one liners always seem to come exactly at a moment when you're thinking 'This movie is shit', then someone comes out with a terrible line and you're left wondering 'Who wrote this pish'.
In many ways, Jason X is similar to Alien; you can draw a parallel between Jason Vorhees and the Alien, both killing machines intent on destroying the crew. In both films, the 'specimen' is kept on board in an act of greed because someone thinks it is worth something. But that's where the similarities end, the Alien is genuinely scary; in Alien there is a strong build up of the characters; the crew actually seem to have a plan and half a clue and although the Alien is portrayed as the ultimate killing machine, it is still vunerable to many forms of attack. In Jason X, we have a killer who is in no way scary, there is no build up of tension, he just kills one meaningless character after another; the crew have to be the biggest waste of space ever, they have no plan, they all come across as very stupid and with most of them you'd just like Jason to hurry up and kill them.
The other major flaw with Jason X is that Jason is seemingly completely unstoppable, impervious to bullets nothing can harm him (although convienently the Android woman finds a gun from somewhere which blows him into little pieces, why oh why did no-one use that gun earlier?) there is no sense of hope, you watch marine after marine fire round after round into him and most of the time he doesn't even flinch. With the Alien at least there was the knowledge that it could probably be brought down with a gun if you were willing to take the risk.
All in all, Jason X is a terrible sci-fi film with no redeeming qualities, I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone.
Godsend
Nick Hamm, director of The Hole, brings us Godsend. Starring Robert Deniro and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Godsend tells the story of Paul and Jessie Duncan.
When their son, Adam, is killed in an accident shortly after his 8th birthday; Dr. Richard Wells (Deniro), an old lecturer of Jessie's, approaches the bereaved couple and tells them about a technique he has developed which would allow them to clone their son and raise the new child. Since this is highly illegal, they must leave their old life behind them and start a new life with their new son.
Once the new Adam reaches the age at which the original Adam died, strange things start to happen and the film starts to go downhill, eventually culminating in a deep pit of tenuous links and a ridiculous plot which even the mighty Deniro can't resurect us from.
The first half of the film starts off well, there is a lot of scene setting, and the background story is told quickly and efficiently in a reasonable way. Once the shit hits the fan, the film slips a little, but is still entertaining and quite scary in places. Although then we entire the dire end of the movie, some tenuous clues are given to the father which lead him to discover the rather ill thought out and ridiculous truth which forms the basis of the silly plot twist at the end.
We are then left with a lot of questions unanswered as the credits roll.
Overall Godsend is pretty poor, starts of ok and goes downhill from their, not really worth watching.
Dawn of the Dead
Zack Snyder's remake of George Romero's 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead gets off to an immense start and from that point on is unrelenting, this is a great modern Zombie movie and with such a lot to live up to could have gone horribly wrong.
The film starts by focusing on a nurse who after a hard shift, wakes up to find her neighbours daughter tearing into the room and starting to feast on her boyfriend. With blood spurting everywhere, he soon dies but then comes back to life and starts trying to attack her, after fleeing her house she finds a whole world of terror, groups of zombies running about biting anyone the see and very few survivors. She stumbles across a group of other survivors and they seek refuge in a shopping mall while the await rescue.
Unrelenting from the outset and in places genuinely scary this is a great horror movie with some funny parts and some pretty nasty deaths. If you're a fan of horror movies, go see this film, you won't regret it.
The Matrix Revolutions
The third and final movie in the trilogy, Revolutions sees the machines moving into the last human city, Zion as Neo tries to stop them. The best part of the movie is definately the fight in Zion when thousands of Sentinels descend into the dock and the battle for Zion begins.
Carrying on in the tradition of Reloaded, we have a cheesy script with Wooden Acting and a new take on answering questions. Every question is answered with some sort of cryptic question or statement, I assume this is meant to be some kind of deep philosophical thing, but it is totally ridiculous. There are some pretty big plot holes in the storyline as well and some stuff just doesn't make sense.
If you enjoyed Reloaded you should enjoy this, if you have seen the first two you might as well see this since it is reasonably entertaining and seems a lot shorter than reloaded.
I'd say Revolutions is slightly better than Reloaded, although it's hardly vastly superior. by the time this was released I think a lot of people were looking for the end.
The Matrix Reloaded
The Sequel to their 1999 classic, The Matrix, the Matrix Reloaded is much of the same from the Wachowski Brothers. Like the first, there is a lot of innovation with new filming techniques and a budget so great few films will ever be able to copy them. But for all the great stunt work and camera techniques there's a lot of really bad CG work.
The script also leaves a lot to be desired, very Cheesy dialogue and a plot which is meant to be deep and meaningful but is anything but. The acting is very wooden, although since we're dealing with Keanu Reeves, I wouldn't have expected any less.
On the plus side, there are some great fight scenes between Neo and a variety of characters and a rather exciting car chase scene which is one of the main pieces of action in the movie. Yuen Woo Ping does the fight choreography again and as always, does it very well.
The plot follows Neo and his chums as he tries to halt the war between man and machines. Add in to the action a cheesy romance plot between Neo and Trinity and some new characters and you have a reasonable sequel to an amazing movie.
Mystic River
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Mystic River tells the story of three childhood friends (Dave, Jemmy and Sean) re-united by the death of one of their daughters.
As children, one of the three Dave (Tim Robbins, Shawshank Redemption, Jacob's Ladder) was abducted which has a profound impact on his life, all three men still wonder how their lives would have changed if it had been someone else who had been taken.
When Jemmy's (Sean Penn) daughter is found dead after her car is discovered abandoned on the street, Sean (Kevin Bacon, Stir of Echoes, Tremors) who is now an FBI agent is put on the case with his partner Whitey Powers (Laurence Fishbourne, Matrix Trilogy [2][3]).
The story follows the investigation into the murder and the different personality's of each of the three men.
Overall the plot is reasonable, a typical murder mystery with an storyline which features as much on the 3 main characters as it does on the solving of the crime. With a number of big name stars Mystic River is pretty decent and worth a watch, although there are some rather predictable parts.
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) a young banker who is sentenced to two life sentences at Shawshank prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. It follows his experiences in prison and his friendship with fellow inmate 'Red' (Morgan Freeman). This is a great story and although the film is quite long (137 mins) your attention is held throughout leading up to a very good ending.
Shriek
Shriek, or to give it it's oh so hilarious full title, "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th" has to be a perfect example of when someone takes something too far. Scary movie was funny when it came out and it should have been left at that, but no, someone has to go and make this which is in parts a parody of Scary Movie, this doesn't work as they are basically taking the piss out of something which wasn't meant to be serious.
The movie has a lot of stuff borrowed from Scary Movie and adapted slightly, add to that some really bad jokes and some "it's obscure and therefore funny" moments and you have this film. There are a couple of genuinely funny moments in the film, but not enough to warrant watching the rest.
Scary Movie was good and it should have been left at that, there was no need to make this film, and it has to go on my list of the worst films ever.
Lost in Translation
Written and directed by Sofia Ford Coppola, Lost in Translation tells the story of two American strangers, alone in Toyko who meet in their hotel and together discover a side to Tokyo they never would have seen seperately.
Bob Harris (Bill Murray, Ghostbusters) is an actor who is in Tokyo to record an advert for a Japanese Whisky, the trip has been a bit of a culture shock to him and he is confused by the Japanese customs. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson, 8 Legged Freaks), is there with her new husband who is a photographer, since he is out most of the day working, she spends most of her time sitting alone in her hotel room. When Charlotte's husband takes a trip away from Tokyo for a couple of days, Bob and Charlotte meet and instead of moping around the hotel, go out and explore Tokyo.
The story doesn't have much of a plot and the entire thing is driven by the relationship between Charlotte and Bob. I found the movie very enjoyable to watch, and the view of the Japanese culture through the eyes of a stranger is very interesting. While nothing much happens, we are given an insight into Tokyo and there is a strong emotional bond between the viewer and the two main characters.
Overall this movie was very enjoyable to watch, the only downside being I now really want to go to Tokyo as soon as I can rustle up the money.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator, Titanic) brings us one of the best Sci-Fi sequels of all time, non stop action, guns, explosions and killer robots. Terminator 2 tells of the story of John Connor (Edward Furlong, American History X), future leader of the resistance. After the machines original plot to defeat Connor by killing his mother goes wrong, they send a new improved model of the terminator (the T-1000) back to kill John as a child. The human resistance send back a reprogrammed T800 to protect him.
The T-1000 has to be one of the coolest villians in Film history, with the ability to melt into liquid metal and reform itself into any number of useful shapes as well as take on the identity of anyone or thing of a similar size which it has physical contact with. Up against the ultimate villian is Arnie who plays the role of the Terminator amazingly, he is hard as nails and totally cool at the same time.
I don't know how many times I've seen this movie, but every time I do I am amazed by the action scenes, even now, 13 years later the CGI and special effects look top notch with only a few shots looking dated. This is one of Cameron's greatest films and one of the best Sci-Fi movies of all time, a must see for any fan of great action films.
Terminator 3: Rise of the machines
12 years after James Cameron's epic Terminator 2, Arnie is back, this time with a new director and a ditching of the 18 certificate in favour of a very family friendly 12. I have to say that I thought this film was going to be dreadful, Terminator movies should not be awarded 12 ratings, that was a total copout. I have to report that the film wasn't as bad as I had anticipated and in fact, this review is based on my second watching of the film now that it has been released on DVD.
Set 10-15 years after the world was saved from Judgement Day at the end of Terminator 2, John Connor (Nick Stahl) now lives 'off the grid', with no fixed address he wanders from place to place. When the machines send back a new Terminator, the T-X (played by Kristanna Loken), to murder John and his future luitenents the resistance also send back a T101 (Arnie) to protect John. John meets an old school friend who is his wife in the future, Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), Arnie meets them and they go on a mad mission to try and stop Skynet (Conviently Kate's father is in charge of the project).
This is a typical Hollywood action film, there are some very cool scenes, lots of guns and Kristanna Loken makes a very convincing Terminator. The film is a lot less dark than Cameron's original films, with Arnie playing a very tongue in cheek role which is at times very funny. Having seen the film a second time I noticed a lot more references to the previous films (especially T2) which was pretty cool and the ending is quite cool and something different from what I was expecting.
All in all, this is an acceptable Hollywood movie, something good to entertain you, but with none of the greatness of Cameron's originals. Had Cameron been on board it could have been so much more.
Big Fish
Director Tim Burton's (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow) Big Fish tells the story of Edward Bloom, a man who's life is defined by tall tales. Since an early age Will Bloom has heard his father tell his incredible stories, but when he is grown up he realises his father's tales can't be true and feels like he doesn't know the real Edward Bloom. The film follows Will as he tries to find the truth behind his father's stories while at the same time telling some of the tales.
The adventures Edward has told of are numerous and involve such topics as witches, giants and some heroics during the Korean war. As the action moves between the present day and the tales we get a sense of the normal everyday juxtaposed with the fantasy of the make believe. The young Edward Bloom is played very well by Ewan McGregor.
Tim Burton brings us a well written, highly imaginative film with some very immersive stories from Edward's life but at the same time delivers an emotional side with the present day story line. The film is a good length and the different stories help to keep the viewers attention throughout. All in all I'd highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see something different and who is not put off by the sometimes fairy tale like stories.
Ronin
Robert Deniro and Jean Reno star in this action movie set in France. A group of men are called together to help plan and execute an ambush to steal a briefcase from a gang before the case is sold on. The mission is shrouded in mystery and their only contact, Deirdre, refuses to give any non essential information away.
There is certainly lots of action in the film, some great car chases and a couple of big gun fights. The camera work in the car chases is pretty good and with a lot of tearing it up small streets in Nice it's definately entertaining to watch.
Aside from the action, the plot is ok, but not brilliant, overall it's an alright film, but nothing special. If you're in the mood for an action film you don't have to think about too much then Ronin could be worth a watch.
Dr. Strangelove or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
I'm a big fan of Kubrick's later films, (Eyes Wide Shut, 2001, Full Metal Jacket, Clockwork Orange, The Shining) but I hadn't seen any of his earlier works. Having heard that Dr. Strangelove... was a film worth seeing, I picked it up at the video store without knowing much about it. The story is set during the cold war and starts with a rather mentally unstable US Army Officer who has instructed American B52s to attack Russia with nuclear weapons, the story follows this event in three main locations, aboard one of the B52s in question, in the war room at the Pentagon and at the army base which the officer was stationed. The film is a black comedy and in this field there are some points which are quite funny, the directing and camera shots are what I have come to expect from Kubrick. Peter Sellers plays at least 3 different parts, a British Naval officer, the president of the US and the rather eccentric Dr. Strangelove. To sum up this film is well worth seeing, funny in parts, an interesting story and some nice camera shots.
Psycho
I have to say that this is the first of Hitchcock's movies which I have seen, and all in all I was impressed and am keen to watch more. For those of you that don't know the story line (which won't be many), it tells the story of a young woman who runs away from her life after stealing $40,000 from her boss to start a new life with her boyfriend who works far away in another state. Whilst travelling to him, she stops in at the Bates Motel, a remote Motel with no other customers. Seemingly the motel is run by Norman Bates who lives there with only his ill mother for company. The young woman is murdered in the shower, and the rest of the movie is a kind of who done it type thing. The annoying thing being I already knew who done it cause the film was made over 40 years ago and every TV show which ever mentions the film tells you who the murderer is.
Even though I knew the entire plot before watching the film, I found the film really enjoyable to watch, the start was a little slow, but the film itself is most definately a classic. If you haven't seem this film already and are a fan of modern films of this genre then you should check this film out.
Gattaca
In the near future, parents can have their children genetically matched to their specification leading to a class of society which are almost perfect and excel at everything. For those people born naturally, there is no chance for them to reach the ranks which the perfect can reach. Gattaca tells the story of Vincent, a man born naturally who wishes to become an astronaut, to do so he must go to Gattaca, the mission control centre. As himself he is discriminated against because of his genes, so he takes on the life of a genetically engineered man who has been crippled in an accident. The film follows his struggle to get on a mission into space while hiding his true identity.
The future portrayed in the film feels similar to films such as AI and Minority Report as well as George Orwell's '1984' and Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'. This future is reasonably believable and the concept at the heart of the film is quite an interesting question. With AI and Minority Report, the concept's were a little more far fetched.
Vincent is played by Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and his donor, Jerome is played by Jude Law (A.I.) both actors play their characters very well in what are both believable roles. Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) is also cast as another employee at Gattaca.
If you found the ideas portrayed in films like A.I. or Minority Report interesting or the idea of a future where people are born into specific roles in society, then I'd reccomend this film. Overall, an interesting storyline and ideas, well written and entertaining.
Kill Bill Volume 2
The film everyone has been waiting for since Kill Bill Volume 1 was released last year is finally here. Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off and follows the Bride (Uma Thurman, Gattaca, Kill Bill) as she completes her list of revenge.
This film has a lot less action than the first, and more plot, with a lot of background stories of the Bride, Bill and the situation. Again, Tarantino's writing and directing is excellent and David Carradine gives a great performance as Bill.
In comparison to Volume 1, Volume 2 is not as exciting, but since this was originally meant to be the latter half of a single film, I don't think it's fair to judge the film as a sequel. Volume 2 is a fitting end to the story and action which was presented in Volume 1 and as the second half of a film is a great film.
As a sidenote I'd have to say that the Kill Bill films are my favourite of Tarantino's films. Although Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs were both good films I've never regarded them with the same cult status which they seem to have attracted. Kill Bill on the other hand is an amazing achievement which is sure to go down as one of the great films of its time.
Kill Bill Volume 1
Tarantino returns with the fourth film he has written and directed. Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as a female assasin who is shot on her wedding day, after spending 4 years in a coma she awakes to take revenge on her former Boss (Bill) and the rest of the death squad who played their part in the attempt on her life.
From the outset Kill Bill is action packed, lots of great fight scenes and lots of blood and gore. Nearly every scene in the movie involves some sort of huge sword fight, each a set piece from old martial arts films. This makes for a very exciting film which is not only entertaining, but has lots of very cool touches which show that Tarantino is a great film maker. One such touch is that the story of O-Ren Ishii's (Lucy Lui) childhood which is told through a short anime segment produced by Production IG (Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire).
All in all, this is a very good film and I can't wait until Volume 2 comes out, I highly recommend it.
Scarface
In 1980 a young Cuban man, Tony Montana, arrives in a detention centre in America. After receiving a green card as a favour for killing a Communist leader in the detention camp, Tony moves to Miama to follow his dream of getting rich by any means necessary.
Al Pacino gives an amazing performance in this tale of one mans ruthless rise to the top and then his demise. Scarface is a classic, with some great scenes and that classic line 'Say hello to my little friend'.
Watching Scarface now it was interesting to see just how much of Scarface had made its way into GTA: Vice City. The film has just had a special edition DVD rerelease which is great considering the 80's revival which GTA: Vice City brought about.
Overall, a great film well worth watching.
Insomnia
When two detectives are sent from LA to Alaska to help solve the murder of a local teenager, things don't go well for detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) as he has problem sleeping due to the constant daylight of the Alaskan summer. It's hard to describe the plot without giving too much away, but it's well written and acted. Another good film I would recommend.
Narc
18 months after undercover narcotics agent Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is discharged from the force for causing harm to a civilian during a chase, he is asked to return to help on the case of a murdered policeman. The dead cops partner Henry oak (Ray Liotta) who is considered a bit of a loose cannon is assigned to help him. The film follows Tellis and Oak as the try to solve the case. The plot is really good, I don't want to give anything away, but this is a must see movie, Ray Liotta plays his part very well and there are some nice camera effects. All in all, a very well written entertaining film.
Swordfish
A criminal mastermind enlists the help of one of the world's best hackers to help him in a 9 billion dollar robbery. John Tavolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry star in what is a reasonably good action movie. The film is entertaining enough to watch and there are a couple of scenes which are quite spectacular, especially an explosion near the start of the movie.
The main letdown for this film is that the script has a lot of meaningless references to vaguely security related computer stuff which comes across as them not knowing what they are talking about. One scene in which Jackman is meant to be programming a worm is totally ridiculous, he has about 9 monitors and loads of flashing cubes and stuff which fly around to piece together the worm. Real life programming obviously isn't as exciting as they wanted, so a completely ridiculous graphical set up has been constructed.
Aside from the terrible computer related stuff, Swordfish is a reasonable action movie. Which is entertaining enough and a good movie to watch if you don't want to have to think too much.
Van Helsing
Hugh Jackman (X-Men, X-2, Swordfish) and Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbour, Underworld) star in what seems to be a tongue in cheek action flick set in a world of monster movie cliches. Van Helsing (Jackman) is a monster hunter employed by the Vatican to hunt down and kill evil creatures. When he is sent to Transylvania to help some villagers kill Dracula he and his comedy sidekick Carl team up with a local, Anna (Beckinsale). Together they must find a way to destroy Dracula before he kills Anna. They soon learn of a much greater danger in an evil plot.
This movie is full of cliches and is in parts very cheesy. The whole thing starts with a black and white section done in the style of old monster movies. We see Dr. Frankenstein bring his monster to life and when Dracula trys to take control of the monster they flee the castle. This all takes place while an angry mob with flaming torches try to seige the castle. You can probably picture the scene, lightning striking the castle, there's even a token Igor who pops up to say 'Yeth Marthter' at the appropriate moment. Anyway, the monster and Dr. Frankenstein escape the castle but are immediately chased to the only windmill I've ever heard of which happens to be full of absinthe (you can't make this stuff up!). Needless to say the mob burn the windmill which explodes in a rather spectacular fashion leaving the monster on the top screaming 'Whyyyyyyy??' as he is burnt alive.
Then we are introduced to Van Helsing in action, battling a kind of Dr. Jekyl and the hunchback of Notradame hybrid. We get a couple of 'The bells, The bells' but Helsing wins out in the end and can go back to the Vatican to meet up with his monk chump and get on with the film.
So we've got Dr. Frankenstein, his monster, Dracula, some Vampires and a token Igor. Throw a couple of werewolves and Dracula's own midget army (think of oompa loompa tuskan raiders who sound like Daleks) and you've got a movie.
Don't get me wrong, although the plot is ridiculous and it has nearly every monster from black and white monster movies bar king kong and godzilla; Van Helsing is actually reasonably enjoyable to watch, the CG work is pretty good, lots of opportunity for vampires teeth to grow, men to turn into wolves, monsters to fall to bits, that sort of thing.
FACT: Wooden carriages will spontaneously combust if they are brought into contact with a werewolves or are crashed into a canyon.
OK, that's not true in real life, but is typical of the over the top action that is in this film Van Helsing fires at numerous people with any number of projectile weapons, there are more swingy rope scenes than Tarzan and things (mostly people) explode, catch fire or turn to dust. While all this happens, the Back To The Future music plays and you are just waiting for Doc and Marty to come and rescue him. OK, I made that last bit up, but the music is very similar to Back To The Future.
All in all Van Helsing is enjoyable enough to watch for its two hour duration, some great CG, good action, very funny in parts (although maybe not intentionally). A typical Hollywood mindless action movie with a cast of vampires and werewolves.
Underworld
The first thing I have to say about this film is that it is far from original, there are many elements which have been chored from other films and sources, the entire basis of the story (forbidden love between two fueding factions) comes directly from Romeo and Juliet and much of the clothing and fight scenes seem to be heavily influenced by the Matrix.
Having said that, this is still a good film. Set in a time when Vampires and Lycans (Werewolves) are fighting for supreme control, Selene (Kate Beckinsale, Pearl Harbour, Van Helsing) discovers that the Werewolves are searching for a human and goes against the head of the Vampires clan wishes and seeks down the human the Werewolves are after. Michael (the human) ends up saving her life and they fall in love, but he has been bitten by a werewolf and has 2 days till the next full moon.
Anyway, after this the plot starts to twist and nothing seems like it is at the start, I don't want to give too much away on this. The plot and the action scenes make for an entertaining albiet not life changing film.
Bulletproof Monk
I didn't have very high hopes of this film from the start even although Sean William Scott's other films have been reasonably humorous (Dude Where's My Car, Roadtrip, American Pie). Starring Sean William Scott as young pickpocket Karl and Chow Yun Fat as a monk (just called monk, he has no name) who must guard a secret scroll which gives whoever reads it ultimate power, the monk meets up with Karl and as he tries to protect the scroll from a Nazi who has been after it since WWII he realises that Karl may be the next keeper of the scroll. This film is pretty poor, there are a couple of humourous moments, but the rest is made up of really cheesy action and dodgy special effects. One to watch only if you are really bored and can't find anything else.
Troy
Based on Homer's poem The Illiad, Troy tells the story of a war between Greece and Troy. When the two princes of Troy, Paris (Orlando 'Legolas' Bloom) and Hector (Eric Bana, The Hulk) visit Sparta to make peace with the King of Sparta, they start a war against Troy when Paris brings the kings wife, Helen of Sparta with him.
The king of Sparta asks his brother Agamemnon to go to war with Troy, and since Agamemnon has been itching for a war with Troy for a while, he agrees. The also get a warrior by the name of Achilles (of the tendon fame, Brad Pitt) in on the act, but he's a bit of a loose cannon.
Anyway, Helen's face launches the 1000 ships, the Greeks come to Troy, have a bit of a fight and as I'm sure you all know, it all culminates with a giant wooden horse (all Sean Bean's idea actually).
This is a classic ancient epic, scenes of 1000's of soldiers marching to war, intense fighting, and some impressive battles. On the downside, a lot of it is overacted and the dialogue can be a bit cheesy. The Trojans seem to have no grasp of military tactics and the Greeks aren't every good either. I'm surprised the managed to have a war at all.
This is almost 3 hours of large scale action, which is entertaining and to its merit doesn't drag on. Entertaining for what it is, but not an amazing movie.
I, Robot
Will Smith stars in the sci-fi action film I, Robot. In the near future (in my opinion too near to be feasible), Robots are everywhere, when a robot hating homicide detective (Smith) begins investigating the suicide of a leading robotic engineer, he believes it is no suicide and blames a robot. Everyone else tells him it can't be and he is labelled as paranoid.
First the bad things, the film is the perfect example of how to milk as much money as possible out a movie through product placement. Countless shots involving the Audi logo, no less than 3 mentions of a 'retro' Converse training shoe which has been released now and a couple of JVC hi-fi appearances. Of course, by mentioning these, I've further advertised the brands.
The other major niggle I have with the film is the over explanation of the main points in the plot. In particular, Asimov's 3 laws of robotics which are displayed at the start of the movie are explained over and over again until the film-makers were sure that even the dumbest of the dumb movie goers have got how the whole thing works.
Now that I've got the bad out of the way, I'll move onto the good. The futuristic view of Chicago is pretty cool, the robots all look believable and the animation is pretty good.
The big set action pieces are all pretty stunning visually and are reasonably exciting. The script has some pretty funny jokes with quips a plenty. Will Smith is pretty decent as the action hero at the centre of the plot and as a supporting actress, Bridget Moynahan gives an alright performance in the role of 'uptight female scientist who looks down on the hero cause he is stupid but once she realises she is wrong and he is on to something they make a good team.
Overall, I, Robot is no Bladerunner, but is a decent action film which keeps you interested with its explosions, jokes and reasonable plot.
Supersize Me
Supersize Me is a documentary written, directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock. He goes on a quest to eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 days, eating 3 meals a day and if he is asked to go Super Size he has to do it. Needless to say, his health suffers a bit. I don't really know what he thought would happen, eating 5000 calories a day regardless of where it comes from is never going to be good and it's not as if McDonalds recommend that you eat their food for every meal.
In the vein of Fastfood Nation, Supersize Me has a lot of facts about why the fastfood industry is creating a world of obese people. Unlike Fastfood Nation though, Morgan Spurlock seems to direct most of his criticism at McDonalds, wheras Eric Schlosser gave all of the American Fast Food Giants an equal bashing.
The film is full of shots of Morgan, holding a super-size fries or drink and going "wow look at the size of this". On the second day, we see him take 22 minutes to eat a Super-Sized double Quarter Meal and then throw up, either this is entirely staged, or he obviously doesn't eat very much usually, although a lot, it's hardly enough to make you spew.
Despite the fact that McDonalds serve healthier things on their menu, he goes out of his way to eat and drink the things with the most fat and sugar, opting for Milkshakes even although McDonalds sell water. To make matters worse, for the entire 30 day period he does very little exercise claiming that he is trying to emulate the typical American lifestyle.
His biggest claim is that shortly after the film was released, McDonalds stopped doing super-size options, how is that a good thing? If I want to eat my weight in chips, Morgan Spurlock has no right to tell a fast food chain they can't do a deal on that, the whole film has the mentality that the consumer is innocent in this and the reason for America's rising obesity rate is because McDonalds sell fattening food. Newsflash Mr. Spurlock, people choose how much to eat in McDonalds, McDonalds don't force you to eat Super-Size, it's a choice.
The film itself is slightly entertaining and funny in parts, although I felt the point being made has been made better elsewhere. The film makes you think about what you eat, but I did find, it made me really want to go out and get a Big Mac. In short, the entire premise to the film is flawed and Morgan Spurlock's blatantly biased reporting does little to convince me of the evils of McDonalds.
The Village
M. Night Shyamalan returns with his 4th blockbuster, after becoming famous for Sixth Sense and redefining the plot twist in Holywood movies, Shyamalan never really returned to form with his follow ups, Unbreakable and Signs which were reasonable, but not great.
Sadly the Village is worse than the previous two, with some of the most stupid and contrived plot twists in the history of cinema along with plot holes so big you have to wonder what he was thinking when he wrote it, you can almost imagine Night Shyamalan talking to the finace people when he goes to seek funding for the film:
Funding People: "This is a pile of toss"
Shyamalan: "But it will sell movies, we'll make a creepy trailer which says nothing about the film, slap a bit at the end saying 'From the director of The Sixth Sense and Signs' and by the time people realise its crap they'll already have parted with their cash"
Funding People: "Good point, after all value for money isn't what the movie industry is about, as long as it's a big budget Hollywood movie, it will make millions regardless of how shit it is"
Having said that, there are a lot of people out there who enjoyed this movie, but then Jeepers Creepers was quite liked by some people as well.
The film tells the story of a group of villagers who live in a village surrounded entirely by woods. The villagers are simple people from simpler times, it just so happens that the woods are inhabited by creatures who aren't very nice. Luckily the villagers have a truce with them, as long as no-one from the village crosses the boundary, the monsters will not come into the village.
When the monsters start coming into the village, the villagers must decide what to do, leading to some plot twists and a typical M. Night Shyamalan ending, including a cameo from the director himself *Gasp!* Oh wait, he is in every one of his movies.
Overall The Village is a big pile of pish, avoid.
Hellboy
Another comic book gets translated to the big screen. Hellboy tells the story of a demon who is summoned to the Earth by the Nazis during the second world war. Fortunately the Nazi's don't get their wicked ways and he is brought up in America. 60 years later (although he ages slower, so he still kicks ass), he is working with the FBI in their Paranormal Investigations unit. When a new agent is assigned to look after him, a plot is unconvered to use Hellboy to bring about the apocolypse.
As far as plot goes, the film is ok much what you'd expect from a slightly cheesy action movie. There some reasonable CG work and the big action scenes are pretty good. There's also a typical kind of humour much like in the X-Men and Spiderman films.
Overall, Hellboy is a reasonably made comic book translation, worth watching but not amazing.
Dawn of the Dead
Having recently been remade and spoofed, Dawn of the Dead has officialy been revived and what better way to celebrate the revival than watching the 1978 original in all its uncut glory.
The story tells of 2 SWAT team members, a traffic reporter and his girlfriend who end up seeking refuge in a mall after the dead start to return to life as flesh eating zombies. Romero's 1978 classic has everything which a good zombie movie needs, lots of blood and gore and some quality zombie action as the they mill about aimlessly in their comical dazed state.
Although the film looks a little dated now, it is still well worth watching.
The Chronicles of Riddick
Chronicles of Riddick, the sequel to Pitch Black is a bit of a mixed bag; on one hand there are some good ideas, the overall plot is alright and there is the potential for some great action moments. On the other hand, the dialogue is awful, it has Vin Diesel in it, the action scenes are plain annoying and there are so many over the top effects and sci-fi cliches.
The film follows on 10 or so years after Riddick escaped from the alien planet in Pitch Black, hiding out in a frozen wasteland, he is ambushed by Bounty Hunters looking to collect the price on his head. He outwits them and demands to know who put the price on his head, after he finds out he heads to Helion Prime to try and get the bounty lifted. Here he meets up with the priest from Pitch Black and Dame Judy Dench appears as an elemental to tell him about a group calling themselves Necromongers who have been going from planet to planet, indoctrinating those who will join them and destroying those who resist.
Needless to say Helion Prime is the next planet on their list, when they arrive he refuses to join kicks some guys ass and the take him to do some tests. He manages to escape from them but is recaptured by the bounty hunters who take him to Cremotoria a planet world which reaches 700 degrees during the day. Here he meets up with Jack from the first film, and they go on their adventure to defeat the Necromongers.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about The Chronicles of Riddick is the first 15 minutes of the film have strobe effects in every scene, this adds nothing to the atmosphere and is just plain annoying since it is hard to see what is happening. Add to this that every fight scene in the film is shot comprising entirely of short close ups of the action, cutting between them without ever showing anything actually impressive. It means that every fight you just see Vin punch someone, they hit back, the action doesn't flow sometimes you just want a wide shot in which you can actually see what is going on.
As a sequel to Pitch Black, it seems rather pointless. It is on a much larger scale than Pitch Black, obviously the success of the first one granted a much bigger budget for the second. The film doesn't provide any more insight into the character of Riddick, if anything it takes away from the character since Vin has a lot more dialogue now and he's not exactly a great actor. The character Keira who was called Jack in the first film bears no resemblance to what she is like in this one. It pretty much looks like David Twohy has been given a huge budget to make a sequel to a film which was never written as a the first of a trilogy.
The universe in which Chronicles of Riddick is set is reasonably well done, the different planets and races have the feel of a cheap Star Wars. The only bad thing is the planets have totally crap names. The evil doers of the film fly around in cool spaces ships which can land, become a building then fly away again, it's all crazy stuff.
Overall The Chronicles of Riddick is an example of a reasonable plot ruined by awful dialogue, shoddy acting, too much strobes and badly shot fight scenes.
Collateral
When LA cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx, Any Given Sunday) is asked by a passenger, Vincent (Tom Cruise, Cocktail, Top Gun), to drive him to 5 different stops in the night for more money than he would make otherwise he hesitantly accepts.
Max gets a nasty shock at the first stop off when a body is shot through a window and falls on his taxi. Vincent then demands he makes the rest of the stops threatening to kill him if he doesn't comply. Max is then thrown into a struggle to try to stop Vincent from killing more targets while keeping himself alive at the same time.
Collateral is a reasonably decent thriller, the plot is pretty good although most of it is explained in the trailer so there aren't many surprises if you haven't seen that. In fact if you've seen the trailer, towards the end you can tell by using a process of elimination which scenes are coming next. The screenplay and dialogue is pretty good, Cruise has some decent lines and in parts of the film there is a slightly comic tone to the script. The action scenes are reasonably exciting and well shot and there is some nice scenes following the cab through the city from above.
Overall Collateral is a reasonably good thriller, there's nothing here you've not seen before but it's entertaining through out.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
While movies starring Ben Stiller are usually reasonable, they're usually not amazing, Dodgeball is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time.
The film tells the story of Peter La Fluer (Vince Vaughn), when he fails to pay the mortgage on his gym, Average Joes, he is told he has 30 days to come up with $50,000 or his gym will be sold to White Goodman (Stiller) head of a large fitness centre who wants to bulldoze Average Joes to make way for a parking lot.
His team of mainly cliched friends get together to think of ways to raise the cash. Middle aged slightly overweight nice guy Gordon spots a Dodgeball tournament in his copy of Obscure Sports Quarterly with a $50,000 1st prize. The team enters the tournament and Goodman enters his own team as well to try and stop them winning.
The plot is pretty much the same as any other comedy involving any kind of sport and most of what's going to happen is pretty obvious. But in this type of film, the plot is pretty much irrelevant and the writing makes up for it all, luckily the screenplay is hilarious.
Vince Vaughn is pretty good as the team captain, the rest of his team are reasonable with the exception of Pirate Steve who is amazing. Although he doesn't really say much, apart from Aaaar, it's amazing how much comedy can be made from having a pirate in a film. Ben Stiller's role is kept to the minimum required by the story which makes his scenes better than if he'd been in every scene in the movie.
There's a few cameos with Hank Azaria appearing as the young Patches O'Houlihan, Dodgeball Legend, in an old educational film about Dodgeball. He introduces us to the 5 important skills of Dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dive, Dip and ...Dodge. Other cameos come from William Shatner, Chuck Norris and a rather angry David Hassellhof telling the German Dodgeball team exactly what he thinks of them.
The majority of the comedy in the film is slapstick, with lots of opportunity for people being pelted with balls, and in one particular scene, wrenches "If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball".
If you like stupid humour and slapstick comedy then you will love this film.
Anchorman
Anchorman stars Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, the Anchorman on a San Diego TV station. When Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) arrives at the station with aspirations of being the first female Anchor, Burgundy and the rest of his team treat her in a very sexist manner swaying between being mean to her and trying to get a date.
Ron falls for her, and things seem to be going well until an unfortunate incident causes him to arrive late for a news report to find Veronica has read his news for him and that he has competition.
The characters in Anchorman are alright on the whole, the stupid weather man Brick is probably the funniest character in the film. There is quite a varied range of humour ranging from the plain bizarre to slapstick. There are also some cameos including Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller.
Although I found the first 15 minutes really terrible and was expecting to hate the film, it does get better from that point on, with some great lines and scenes.
The Bourne Supremacy
The second in the series starring Matt Damon as CIA agent turned fugitive Jason Bourne. When Bourne is framed for the murder of a CIA agent in Berlin even although he was in India at the time, he is forced out of hiding to clear his name and discover more of his past.
The Bourne Identity was a reasonable film, but not amazing, The Bourne Supremacy is definitely better and as a film in it's own right is pretty good. The plot is really good and the acting reasonable, although Matt Damon isn't exactly the best actor in the world. As a sequel, Supremacy has the advantage that since it is based on a series of novels (albiet this is more the second half of the first book), it was always written as a sequel and isn't just a contrived bolt on to make a bit more money out of the first film.
Overall, the Bourne Supremacy is definately better than the Bourne Identity and any fans of the first should go see it. This is how sequels should be.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
The Sequel to 2002's Video Game based zombie horror action flick, Resident Evil. Resident Evil 2 returns with more of the same. A horror action flick with the usual cheap jumps and some reasonably large action scenes.
When a team of scientists from Umbrella return to the Hive to investigate the happenings in the first film, they accidentally release the T-Virus on the unsuspecting residents of Racoon City. The virus which brings the dead back to life spreads out of control and the Umbrella corporation use the city as a testing ground for their new biological weaponry.
The film follows a group of survivors led by plucky cop Jill Valentine as they agree to help a scientist who managed to escape to find his daughter. The team up with Alice (Milla Jovovich), a survivor from the accident at the hive in the first film. Now given superhuman strength due to the mutation effects of the T-Virus.
If you face the fact that Resident Evil 2 was never going to be a film which has a deep plot, and go and see it for what it is, mindless action with flashy special effects it's a reasonable film. With obvious flaws such as the terrible acting it's hardly Oscar material. If all you after is 2 hours of mindless action with little plot then Resident Evil is the film for you. Not good, but no where near as bad as some other films I could mention.
Saw
When a young photographer and a doctor wake up in a room chained to the wall by their ankles with a dead body between them, they find they are to be victims of a twisted serial killer known to the police as jigsaw.
Jigsaw's methods of killing people involve putting them into sick situations where they must choose themselves to do something terrible or die a painful death. The film is very dark and it some places deeply disturbing and fucked up.
Director and story writer James Wan has concocted a masterpiece of a movie. The majority of the film is set in the room which the two apparent strangers are imprisoned in. This gives a claustrophobic feel which echoes that of the feel in Cube. The idea of the two main characters trying to work out why they are there and how to escape also have a very Cube like feel and while the two movies are totally different, at times Saw reminded me very strongly of Cube.
The story is excellent, the cinematography great with a good feeling of tension and although the twist at the end is completely unpredicatable, it is still believable.
Although overall Saw is an excellent movie it has its downsides, the main one being the acting of the two main characters, both Leigh Whannell (Adam) and Cary Elwes (Dr. Gordon) have a tendancy to overact, with Elwes being more guilty of this. At times, his acting was so over the top he reminded me of Will Ferrell..
Overall, Saw is a really good movie although it is let down in places by sub-standard acting.
Alien vs Predator
When you have a film which takes two of Sci-Fi's most kickass enemies and pitches them against each other, you have the potential for an amazing movie.
AvP starts with the Weyland corporation picking up a strange heat emission in the Antarctic. On further investigation they discover an ancient pyramid buried beneath the ice, Charles Weyland (Lance Fredericksen, Aliens) gathers a team of experts to lead an excavation of the pyramid.
Unfortunately for the team, the Predators also have an interest in the pyramid and turn up during the mission. To make matters worse, the pyramid is home to an Alien queen who wakes up and begins spawning eggs. After some face hugger action there are soon Aliens running around fighting the Predators. The humans are caught in the middle of all the action and are powerless to stop the battle.
As far as plots go in action movies, it's alright but not exactly amazing. The special effects are reasonably good, both the Aliens and the Predators look reasonable and there is a good amount of fighting between them. When compared to the previous Alien movies though, AvP is very weak. The Aliens in the previous movies were scary and especially in Alien there was a build of of tension, with the Alien only really appearing when needed. In AvP, the Aliens are all over the place and although the look nice enough they just aren't as scary.
The chest burster scene is pretty rubbish as well, although the fact that this film is another Terminator 3 in that they have taken what were sci-fi films rated 18 and pitched at a more mature audience and made a film pitched at the more lucrative 15 rating market.
AvP had the potential to be really good, they had a lot to work with, but what they ended up with was a generic action movie which works on that level but has none of the style and excellence which the original Alien movies have.
Bad Santa
Bad Santa tells the story of conman, Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox, Me, Myself & Irene). Every Christmas Marcus and Willie get jobs in the Santa's grotto of a department store, then rip it off on Christmas Eve, emptying the safe and disappearing until the next year.
Willie is the most unlikely Santa ever, he hates kids; has a foul temper and is an alcoholic who is always drunk on the job. Things take a turn for the strange when Willie ends up staying with a strange kid he befriends.
The humour in Bad Santa is very dark, Billy Bob Thornton is excellent in his role as the store Santa who hates Christmas. Almost every line is hilariously funny and incredibly well delivered. Although a Christmas movie, Bad Santa takes all the Christmas cheer out of it, a great movie for people who are sickened by the usual cheery Christmas movies.
Overall, a pretty funny Christmas film with a difference. If you go and see it look out for the best cameo ever near the end when none other than Sherrif John Bunnel of World's Scariest Police Chases fame.
Man On Fire
Denzel Washington stars in Man of Fire as an ex-marine who is hired as a bodyguard by a wealthy family in Mexico City to protect their daughter. Hired on the cheap because of his drinking problem, he only really gets the job because the family need a bodyguard to renew their kidnapping insurance.
When the girl is kidnapped and the money exchange goes wrong, the uncle of a kidnapper killed in the exchange kills the girl in retaliation. Creasy (Washington) then goes on a revenge mission threatening to kill everyone involved in the kidnapping attempt.
Violent at times, Man on Fire is a pretty decent tale of revenge which is reasonably well shot and acted. Although the plot is a little predicatable leaving no surprises at the end.
Being John Malkovich
Written by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich tells the story of striggling puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack). When he gets a new job at a strange company run by an eccentric old man, he falls in love with Maxine (Catherine Keener, a co-worker in the same building. One night while working late, he discovers a hidden door behind some filing cabinets which allows you to enter John Malkovich's mind and see the world through his eyes. Together, Maxine and Craig start selling the experience to other people, things get complicated when Craig's wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) gets involved.
The entire premise of the film is wonderfully bizarre, and the comedy throughout the movie is similarly surreal. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is excellent, and all the actors involved give great performances.
Being John Malkovich has to be one of the most original films made recently and is well worth watching.
Taxi
To be honest, I don't know why I went to see this film. I'm a big fan of the original Taxi and Taxi 2; I have a big thing about Hollywood remaking foreign films; I can't stand Queen Latifah or Jimmy Fallon. So, with that start, I pretty much knew that I would hate the film, I just wanted to see how badly director Tim Story had ruined the Taxi franchise.
We start with a cycle courier cycling through New York, weaving in and out of traffic and taking shortcuts through shops etc. This amazing courier turns out to be Queen Latifah, now maybe it's just me but Queen Latifah doesn't look like the type of person who could be a cycle courier. She hardly looks the athletic type. We then get introduced to the rest of the cast of much crapness, every memorable character from the original film has been replaced with a poor alternative.
Daniel, the main character from the original is obviously Queen Latifah; but the useless cop Emilien has been replaced with Jimmy Fallon. And the eccentric Commissaire Gibert and Emilien's German love interest Petra have been rolled into one character, Lt. Marta Robbins, whose only role in the film seems to be a cheap attempt to appeal to the male members of the audience when we see her being patted down by Gisele. The German bank robbers are replaced with a gang of attractive Brazilian models.
Most of the jokes from the original have been translated into these new guises although in every case the joke has lost all of its appeal. The end of the film is similar to the original, so there will be no surprises for those who have seen the French film, or in fact the trailer since the end is quite clearly shown at the end of the trailer.
In summary, there was no way I could have done an impartial review of this movie since I had major problems with it before I even saw it, therefore, my score of 0 should come as no surprise. If you've seen the original and liked it, avoid this like the plague, otherwise only see this if you are a fan of Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah.
The Forgotten
Julianne Moore stars as Telly Paretta, a woman struggling to cope with the death of her son in a plane crash after over a year. When pictures of her son start to go missing, she confronts her husband but is told that she never had a son and it has all been her imagination. She meets a man who's daughter died in the same crash, he had forgotten his daughter but when she makes him remember, they are both drawn into something dangerous the government don't want them to know about.
The Forgotten starts off reasonably good, at first it seems like an alright conspiracy theory type movie with the government to blame. This is until the introduction of aliens which turns it into something worse than the worst episode of the X-Files. The alien bad guy is rubbish, he looks human but is impervious to gunshot wounds and being run over and appears to have styled his entire role in this film from Robert Patrick's role as the T-1000 in Terminator 2. The whole film generates into the biggest pile of rubbish at the end with the final conclusion making absolutely no sense.
Overall The Forgotten starts of well, as a nicely made thriller but quickly degenerates into a plot which makes no sense when thought about for more than 5 seconds.
Vanilla Sky
Vanilla Sky is a remake of Alejandro Amenabar's (The Others, Tesis) film Abre Los Ojos (Open your eyes). Starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz (Who also starred in the same role in the original Spanish film).
The story tells of a successful publisher David Aames (Cruise) who is introduced to the lovely Sofia (Cruz) at a party. His lives takes a turn for the worse when his lover Julianna (Diaz) attempts to kill him in a car accident leaving him horribly disfigured. From that moment on his life becomes a series of surreal incidents as he struggles to regain his life after the accident.
With the film becoming slightly confusing as it goes on, all is explained in the twist at the end. Although the end of the film is slightly longer than required and does feel to drag on a bit.
Overall a pretty good film, and I definately want to check out the original.
Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite tells the story of an teen outcast who is bullied at school and lives with his Grandmother and his similarly geeky older brother. When his Grandmother breaks her coxic in a Quad Biking accident, his uncle comes to look after him. At the same time, he meets a new friend Pedro who decides to run for class president along up against the most popular girl in the year.
Although much of Napoleon Dynamite is very surreal and the main character probably would have annoyed me in any other film, there are a number of very funny moments which are hilarious. Most of the comedy is either slapstick stuff or just the plain bizarre.
Overall, haliarious in parts, strange in others, worth seeing.
Flight of the Navigator
When you think classic 80's kids Sci-Fi movies Short Circuit, Batteries not Included and Flight of the Navigator are 3 which stand out. Flight of the Navigator tells the story of a young boy called David, one day while taking his brother home from a friends house, he falls down a hill, when he comes to he finds that the world has moved on 8 years.
At the same time, NASA find a strange Alien ship in the woods. They take the ship and David to a research facility to try and find out where he has been for the 8 years he was missing. They discover he holds a knowledge of undiscovered star systems. David escapes from the facility where he is being held in the alien craft where he he discovers the truth about the spaceship and his strange disappearence.
From a purely nostaligic point of view, Flight of the Navigator is excellent, there's no better way to relive your childhood than watching the films you used to watch as a kid. Overall Flight of the Navigator is good clean family fun and just as entertaining now as it was back in the 80's when I was growing up.
The Faculty
When the teachers at an American school start acting strangely, a group of the students are thrown together when they discover that the Faculty have been invaded by an alien force. It is up to them to defeat the evil and restore normality.
The Faculty can best be described as a Teen-Horror-Sci-Fi type affair, although not particularly scary, it has some good moments. The cast is made up of a number of well know actors and the plot is pretty good although does get a little silly towards the end.
As far as teen movie stereotypes go, the group of misfits thrown together seem to cover most of the major bases, we have the Jock who wants to study hard; the New Girl; the intelligent guy who doesn't apply himself (Josh Hartnett); the socially outcast girl; the small geeky guy (Elijah Wood) and the good looking intelligent girl. On the teachers side of things we also have the stuck up teacher who wears glasses, but when she takes the glasses off and lets her hair down, she becomes amazingly sexy (Famke Janssen).
With all it's stereotypes though and a not particularly original plot, The Faculty is definately worth a watch, a reasonable movie which doesn't require much thought and can be watched while chilling out.
Garden State
Zach Braff (Scrubs) wrote, directed and starred in Garden State. The film tells the story of Andrew Largeman who after 9 years away returns to New Jersey for his mothers funeral. There he meets old friends, makes new ones; meets a girl named Sam (Natalie Portman) and confronts his psychiatrist father (Ian Holme, Alien).
Garden State is mildy amusing in places, a lot of the humour in the early parts of the film I just didn't find funny. Having said that there were a couple of really funny moments, but overall it wasn't a particularly hilarious movie.
The plot is reasonable, and as a whole the film is entertaining and not particularly bad, although it did leave me thinking "So what?" at the end.
The Incredibles
Pixar's latest animated film "The Incredibles" tells the story of a family of superheros. There is Mr. Incredible, who has the typical strong man type power's; His wife who can stretch her body into many shapes; their son Dash who can run really fast and their daughter Violet who can generate forcefields and make herself invisible.
15 years after Mr. Incredible and his wife Elastigirl were forced to stop being superheros due to court cases being brought against them, Mr. Incredible is stuck in a dead end job with a boring life. He and his friend Lucuis aka Fro-zone (Samuel L. Jackson) spend some nights listening to Police Radios and doing a little superhero work to try and relive their youth. One day he is approached with an intriguing offer of a special mission, the offer is too tempting to reject so he gets his costume on and goes to help. When a second mission goes awry his wife and kids must also don their own costumes and make a bid ro rescue him.
As with all Pixar's films, the animation is top class, it looks great throughout and there are some nice special effects thrown in their. The script is cleverly written, appealing to both children and adults alike. There are a lot of funny moments and the although the plot has been done before the screenplay and quality of animation make up for this.
Overall The Incredibles is another great Pixar film, good clean family fun with laughs and excitement throughout.
Sky Captain and The World of Tommorow
Set in a kind of futuristic alternative 1930's, Sky Captain and The World of Tommorow follows Sky Captain, a freelance fighter pilot (Jude Law) and intrepid reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) as they investigate strange goings on when German Scientists start dissapearing and then New York is invaded by giant robots.
A big part of the film is the strange futuristic 1930's world where Sky Captain flies around in a propeller driven plane and meets up with his friend Franky (Angelina Jolie) on a gaint flying aircraft carrier. The whole film is also shot in a kind of Sepia tone giving an old feel to it, with some dodgy robot effects thrown in for good effect there is a very old feel to the film.
Overall, Sky Captain... is a visually impressive movie, with non-stop action throughout. The plot is reasonable for an action movie and the acting what you'd expect from the big names in the lead roles.
Ghost World
When social outsiders, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) graduate from High School, they have big plans to move in together and get on with their life.
When they play a prank on the geeky Seymour (Steve Buscemi), setting him up on a date which doesn't exist, Enid feels sorry for him and starts to spend more time with him while Rebecca gets a job. Slowly the two friends grow apart, but things are made worse when Enid's attempts to get Seymour a girlfriend succeed and Seymour isn't available.
Ghost World is a dark comedy, very funny in places, but overall quite sad. The events which happen to the main characters are easy to relate to and mirror events in yout own life. Overall a great film which is well worth seeing.
American Splendor
American Splendor tells the real life story of Harvey Pekar, a file clerk from Cleveland who started writing a comic about his every day events. The story is narrated by the real Harvey Pekar and the film jumps between the story as it is acted out by Paul Giamatti and some clips of the real Harvey Pekar being interviewed.
The character of Harvey Pekar is interesting in that he is an everyday guy who just started to write about his everyday life but through his own depressing style, people wanted to read about it. The film also includes real clips of when he appeared on the David Letterman show.
Overall the film is pretty good, giving us an insight into the Harvey Pekar who although obtaining some amount of fame and having his comics published never made enough money from it to leave his job as a file clerk.
Team America: World Police
Written by the South Park guys (Trey Parker & Matt Stone for all you non-South Park fans) and directed by Trey Parker, Team America: World Police is an action comedy film made with marionettes. It's kind of like South Park meets Thunderbirds.
When Team America foil a terrorist plot to trade WMD's in Paris; they recruit Gary, a broadway actor, to help them with a mission in Cairo to infiltrate the terrorists' network. After the mission is over, a backlash from the Federation of Actors Guild (F.A.G.) causes Team America to be hated by the publice, the Team must prove the worth by going head to head with Kim Jong Il the president of North Korea.
Team America is very well written and Parker and Stone stick to the formula that worked in South Park, musical numbers mixed with infantile jokes all topped off with some political commentary. In much the same way as the latest episodes of South Park the film takes neither side in the debate about the USA's foreign policy, focusing on the fact that neither of the extremes is right and a maybe a more middle ground should be reached.
Constantly making fun of America and peoples perceptions of world events, Team America is funny on many levels, ranging from the immature content through visual gags to some clever political jokes. If you are a fan of South Park then Team America will probably be one of the funniest movies you've seen in a while, those who don't like South Park will probably hate the movie as most of the humour is the same and there are even a couple of South Park in-jokes thrown in for good measure.
Elephant
Gus Van Sant's film Elephant follows the everyday life at an American High School in the day preceding a Columbine style massacre. The film follows a number of the students around the school as they go about their daily business unware of the impending devastation. The camera roams the corridors following each of the students in turn, sometimes jumping back in time to show us prior events, sometimes showing the viewer a previous scene shot from a different angle from the perspective of a different observer.
Much of the film is taken up by these long shots following people down corridors, the dialogue is minimal, just typical everday chat between students. The character development in the film is minimal and we are given little insight into what would drive two students to commit such a horrible act. Personally I found the way the film was shot mesmerising and as the film leads up to the chilling conclusion the tension is built up through the use of the long silent corridor shots.
Elephant has been criticised for being boring and pointless by some and hailed by others as a masterpiece. Personally I thought it was a beautifully made film which is a nice piece of cinema despite the lack of any answers.
Meet The Fockers
The sequel to 2000's Meet The Parents, Meet The Fockers sees Ben Stiller (Dodgeball) reprise his role as Greg "Gaylord" Focker. When Greg and Pam take Pam's parents down to Florida to meet his parents thinks don't go smoothly. Greg's mother (Barbara Streisand) is a sex therapist and his father (Dustin Hoffman) is a retired lawyer and he must do his best to make them get along with Pam's overly strict father (Robert DeNiro, Godsend, Goodfellas).
If you've seen Meet The Parents this is much of the same again, the same types of jokes and gags and if you liked the first one you're pretty much guaranteed to be on to a good thing here. The sequel is probably slightly funnier than the original, with a lot of in-jokes pointing back to the previous film.
Overall, entertaining but there is a limit to how many times you can say Focker just to get a laugh because it sounds like Fucker.
Top Gun
Ahh the 80's, so many memories and one film which everyone remembers from the 80's is Top Gun. Starring Tom Cruise as Maverick, a hot shot pilot in the US Navy. He and his co-pilot are selected to attend the prestigious "Top Gun" academy where they get to learn how to really fly.
Looking back on it now, Top Gun is eighties as fuck but still very much enjoyable. It's got everything you need, action; romance; sadness. There's not really much else you can say about Top Gun, a classic 80's movie still watchable today.
Closer
Set in London, Closer tells the story of 2 couples and their relationships. The 4 main characters in the film are played by Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.
The film starts with journalist Dan (Law) meeting Alice (Portman), an American stranger who has just arrived in London. Things between the couple change when Dan meets and fallas in love with Anna (Roberts), an American photographer. The situation gets even more complicated when Dan unwittingly sets up Larry (Owen) with Anna via an internet sex chat site. The remainder of the film tells the story of the 4 characters and their relationships.
The timeline is quite disjointed, with the film concentrating on a major event, then skipping months at a time till the next important event. All 4 of the main actors are really good, even Clive Owen who from the King Arthur trailer alone I had presumed was one of the worst actors of our time. Owen's character Larry has some great lines, and Owen delivers them perfectly.
Overall, Closer is a pretty decent movie worth a watch.
Timeline
Pretty much every book ever written by Michael Chrichton gets made into a movie; (the only exception to this rule I can think of is Airframe, but I'm sure there are one or two others) so when he writes a movie involving timetravel it was guaranteed to be picked up by Hollywood.
The film tells the story of a group of archealogists on a dig in France, when an American company funding them keep giving tip-offs as to where to dig, Professor Johnston (Billy Connolly) goes to see the company. When he fails to return, his son Chris (Paul Walker, 2 Fast 2 Furious) and a bunch of the Prof's archaelogy students go to America to see what's happened to him.
They discover that the company have unwittingly created a time travel machine which can send them back to France in the 14th century in the area where they are digging. The Professor was sent back and hasn't returned, so the team are sent back to try and find him.
This plunges them deep into France with the English army fighting the French, making for a Back to the future meets A Kight's Tale kind of movie. As usual, Paul Walker is so wooden, he makes Keanu Reeves look animated, luckily for us, he doesn't have that big a role so we are spared from the awful acting which we had to put up with in the Fast and the Furious films. The rest of the cast are reasonable, but not amazing, Gerard Butler (Dear Frankie) is probably the best of the bunch.
Overall, Timeline is a pretty average action Sci-Fi film, entertaining enough to pass a couple of hours chilling on the sofa.
Sideways
Sideways tells of two middle aged friends, Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack who go on a week long vacation to Califoria's wine region before Jack's wedding. Miles wants to sample some fine wine and play some golf, whereas Jack is looking to get laid one last time before he gets hitched.
The script is mildy amusing, and the acting reasonable, but there was just nothing there, I left the cinema with a feeling of immense averageness. Overall, an average movie which failed to grab my interest.
The film also portrays a very irresponsible attitude towards drink driving with the two characters very rarely being sober behind the wheel.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
When the new Terrance & Philip movie comes to South Park, Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny all go to see it and pick up some foul language. When their mother's hear of this, they are shocked and kidnap Terrance & Phillip and go to war with Canada. Meanwhile down in hell, Satan and Saddam discover if Terrance & Phillip's blood is spilled then the apocalypse will begin and they will rule the earth. It is up to Stan, Cartman and Kyle to stop the war and the ultimate destruction of the earth which that will bring.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut has everything you'd expect from a South Park movie, big musical numbers, political commentary and immature jokes and gags. The film is almost exactly like the South Park episodes from the time it was made except longer. Although very funny and highly entertaining, it's a shame the movie was made before the series got really good; the later series just get better and have become much more bizarre and clever than the earlier episodes.
Overall, any fan of South Park will love the movie, but on the other hand if you hated South Park when it first came out, you will more than likely hate the film.
THX 1138
THX 1138 portrays a bleak, 1984/Brave New World type future where everyone is doped up to make them into the perfect machines to do their work. Order is kept by a robotic police force who try to make it seem like they are their to help you.
The film tells the story of a man named THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) when his chosen mate LUH 3417 stops him taking his sedatives, their love for each other is expressed after being hidden by the medication. The lack of sedatives causes THX-1138 to be inefficent at his work and ultimately he gets caught and sentenced. The film then follows him as he and another prisoner, SEN 5241 try to escape.
The future Lucas shows us in THX 1138 is sterile and bland, everyone looks the same due to their shaven heads, the majority of the interiors are predominantly white with some scenes in particular taking place in a huge area which is just endless white.
The plot is pretty good and some of the thoughts and ideas while explored by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 novel Brave New World and George Orwell in his 1949 novel 1984 are shown to the viewer in a manner which can be shocking and thought provoking.
Overall, I'm not really a fan of George Lucas' other works, but THX 1138 is definately well worth a watch if you like that utopian future gone awry type story.
Falling Down
When Bill Foster (Michael Douglas) gets stuck in a traffic jam in LA he snaps and abandons his car. From there he goes on a rampage tackling the flaws he sees everywhere in society. Desperate to see his daughter on her birthday as he tries to get across LA, he picks up more and more weaponry as he wreaks havoc.
As the reports of his actions come in, Prendergast (Robert Duvall) a cop in the robberies division links the initially seemingly unrelated events together and sets to work tracking down Foster. Things are made harder for him since it is his last day on the force and he is under pressure from all sides.
Falling Down is a great tale of what happens in society when someone has just had enough and snaps. Although some of Foster's reactions are way over the top and some deplorable, at other times you can relate to the anger he feels when something annoying happens and he just loses it.
The script is well written and the film engaging and entertaining throughout, Michael Douglas is excellent in his role as a man pushed to the edge.
Stir of Echoes
When Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon, Mystic River) tells his sister in-law what he thinks of her belief in hypno therapy, he challenges her to hypnotise him. She does so successfully, but after the experience is having strange hallucinations. When his son starts acting strangely and talking to an imaginary friend his strange experiences intensify, causing him to think of nothing else other than trying to discover their meaning.
As a film, Stir of Echoes had little I'd not seen elsewhere, a typical kid has an imaginary friend, friend turns out to be someone who has died, must discover why the spirit is haunting the house type affair. I found the feel of the film similar in a way to Hideo Nakata's Ringu and Kubrick's The Shining, although I don't think either movie influenced the movie in any way.
The horror in Stir of Echoes is mildy scary, a couple of scenes where genuinely quite scary in a way I've not seen in an American movie for a while now. The screenplay is well written with director David Koepp having written screenplays for quite a few successful movies now. Kevin Bacon is pretty good and the rest of the supporting cast reasonable.
Overall, Stir of Echoes is like a lot of other movies and there's not much unique about it, but having said that it is well made and well worth a watch.
Constantine
With remaking comics into films being the "big thing" at the moment, now that most of the comics familiar to the general public have been made into films, we are seeing comics which the non-comic fan may not have heard of being translated to the big screen.
Constantine is one such film, based on the DC/Vertigo graphic novel Hellblazer, Constantine tells the story of John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), an exorcist who knows a little more than your average man about Hell having experienced it first hand.
When the Spear of Destiny (The spear driven through Christ's side while he was on the cross) is discovered it heralds the coming of great evil. John Constantine is the one person with the credentials to stop the inevitable, much religious imagery and general action movie type hijinx ensues.
Keanu Reeves is his usual terrible acting self, at times you forget he is meant to be John Constantine as he brings very little character to the role and plays it in almost the same was as he played the character of Neo in the Matrix films. The rest of the cast are reasonable and manage to hold together the film to make it into a reasonable action movie.
Exciting in places and not a bad plot, Constantine is not amazing but is by no means terrible.
Animal Factory
When Ron Decker (Edward Furlong, Terminator 2, American History X), a young, intelligent boy from a good family, is sent to prison for dealing marijuana thing look bleak for him. Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe, Spiderman), a hardened criminal who has guards in his pocket and is well respected, takes a shine to him and takes him under his wing.
Things take a turn for the worse for both Ron and Earl when a new found assertiveness in Ron brought on by prison life causes problems for them both. Both Furlong and Dafoe are good in their roles and the although the plot is a pretty standard prison drama type affair it is interesting enough.
Overall, not an amazing movie but decent acting and a typical story form a film which is worth a watch.
Arlington Road
When Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges), a college professor specialising in American History and in particular Terrorism in America, discovers a young boy staggering in the road covered in blood; he takes the boy to hospital. He learns that the boy lives across the road from him and despite having lived in the house for sometime, he has never spoken to his neighbours.
As Michael and his son Grant are still in the process of coming to terms with the death of Michaels wife, the boy from across the road and Grant become friends and Michael too is introduced to the boy's parents Oliver (Tim Robbins, The Shawshank Redemption, Mystic River) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack, Toys). When some of the things Oliver reveals about his history don't add up, Michael begins to suspect that something is not quite right and digs into his history. His studies lead him to believe that Oliver Lang may be a terrorist plotting an attack on the Government.
Both Bridges and Robbins are top notch in their roles, especially Robbins who pulls off the sinister Oliver Lang well. The plot is reasonable and there is a good amount of action throughout, but as the tension builds up to the finale, the film comes into its own with a great ending.
The Ring Two
The history of the Ring films grows even more complex in this the 7th film made thus far and unrelated to 5 of the prior films and to the series of novels. Based on a trilogy of novels by Koji Suzuki, the Ring series started with Hideo Nakata's 1998 film adaptation of the first novel titled Ringu. The same year the second novel in the series Spiral was made into a film by Jôji Iida starring cast from the original. In 1999 the first book was made into a completely seperate film in South Korea titled Ring Virus. Also in 1999 Hideo Nakata made another sequel to his own film Ringu completely unrelated to the second of the Koji Suzuki novels. This was followed in 2000 by a prequel based on a short story by Koji Suzuki, directed by Norio Tsuruta Ringu 0.
With the success of the 2 Nakata films Ringu and Ringu 2 and the prequel Ringu 0 in the West, in 2002 Hollywood remade the first book into a slightly different film. Now the whole story goes full circle and Hideo Nakata has been brought in by Hollywood to direct a sequel to the 2002 Hollywood film, as with Nakata's 1999 sequel the plot is unrelated to the events in Suzuki's second book in the trilogy Spiral.
So there you have it, Koji Suzuki writes three books, seven films later the first book has been made into 3 films, the second book into 1 and nobody has even bothered with his 3rd book focusing instead on writing their own sequels to the film adaptions.
Anyway, enough about the history of the series, onto this latest film, is it any good? The plot picks up 6 months after the events of the first film (Well, the 6th film I guess), Rachael and her son Aidan have moved into the country after seemingly breaking the curse of the haunted video tape. Things don't go as planned when the tape turns up in the town, Samara is back and has her sights on Aidan.
The film starts in a very typically American teen horror way and not much changes from then on. Nakata's masterful use of tension is thrown out of the window and while his previous Japanese horror films have not relied on cheap shocks to be scary, it seems he has made up for this in his English language debut by putting in as many obvious shocks as he can.
In comparison to his previous films, the plot is weak, the acting not very good and it's not particularly scary. Hideo Nakata was a director I respected, all of his films which I've seen before this one have been excellent; Ringu, Ringu 2 and Dark Water were all scary as hell and Chaos was excellent but it's seems with his transition to Hollywood he has changed his style to bland Hollywood horror rubbish.
What is even more annoying is that his next project is a remake of the excellent Pang Brothers (Oxide Pang Chun, Danny Pang) Hong-Kong horror movie The Eye. Without a doubt one of the scariest movies I've seen, but having seen the mess he's made his own work, I hate to see what he does with The Eye.
If you are a fan of cheap nasty Hollywood style horror you may like this movie, it's reasonable Hollywood trash but compared to old school Hideo Nakata it's a waste of time.
K-PAX
K-PAX tells the story of Prot (Kevin Spacey); claiming to be an alien from a planet 1000 light years away called K-PAX he is picked up by the police and put in a psychiatric hospital. When his knowledge of distant star systems appears to be spot on, his psychiatrist Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges) begins to doubt his own diagnosis and starts to believe him.
The film is mainly set in Powell's office and both Bridges and Spacey give performances expected of actors of their calibre. The plot is pretty decent and interesting enough throughout, leaving enough information out so that the viewer has as much idea as Bridges as to the truth behind Prot.
Overall, a reasonable film worth a watch.
Blow
Blow tells the true story of George Jung (Johnny Depp) a man who was a bug time player in the American Cocaine market during the 70's. The film chronicles Jung's life from when he moved to California in the early 70's and started dealing Marijuana, realising he could make more money importing it himself he started flying Marijuana over the border from Mexico. While spending time in jail his cellmate was an American of Columbian descent who knew about Cocaine, so on his release from prison, Jung moved from importing Marijauna to importing Cocaine.
The film takes us through the ups and downs of Jung's life as an importer of illegal drugs into the United States. The story is a very interesting one and entertaining throughout. Depp gives an outstanding performance and with supporting roles from Penelope Cruz and Franka Potente (Run Lola Run, The Bourne Supremacy).
Overal, great story, great acting and a well made film.
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Based on a true story, The Assassination of Richard Nixon tells the tale of Samuel Bicke (Sean Penn). Frustrated at life because he refuses to move on from his ex-wife Marie (Naomi Watts), he can't get a loan to start his own business and the job he works as a salesman makes him lie to customers to get sales. As he sinks deeper into his misery he blames president Richard Nixon on his troubles and concocts a plan to assassinate him.
Sean Penn plays his role really well, and the cast of supporting actors are reasonable. The plot is interesting and paced well throughout. The fact it is based on a true story makes it all the more interesting. One thing I would say about the film is that it reminded me heavily of Taxi Driver, set in a similar time period and dealing with similar issues.
Sahara
To be honest I didn't really have high hopes for Sahara, but for once I was pleasantly surprised. Set in the African desert, Sahara tells the story of two marine explorers, Dirk (Matthew McConaughey) and Al (Steve Zahn); after performing a recovery off the coast of Nigeria, Dirk begs his boss to let them take a boat and travel up the Niger in search of an American Civil War ironclad he believes, against all probablity, sailed across the Atlantic and is buried somewhere in the desert.
They team up with a doctor from the WHO (Penelope Cruz) who asks to travel with them to investigate a plague she believes is coming out of Mali. What the team find is much more sinister...
On one hand Sahara is completely ridiculous, you have to suspend your belief quite a bit, but on the other hand that's what makes it a top notch action film with a bit of comedy thrown in. An excellent supporting cast of many big Hollywood names adds to the film no end. The plot is great, the action exciting and Dirk and Steve are classic good guys out to defeat the bad guys.
The Interpreter
When Silvia (Nicole Kidman), an interpreter at the United Nations, overhears a conversation about a plot to assassinate the president of an African country who is coming to talk at the UN; two secret service Agents, Keller (Sean Penn) and Woods (Catherine Keener) are brought in to investigate the allegations.
At first Keller believes Silvia is making it all up and becomes suspicious of her, deeper investigations raise his suspicion further. It turns out Silvia is not being fully honest with him, but her life is at threat from the plotters of the assassination.
The Interpreter is a tense political thriller with a great plot and strong acting from not only Kidman and Penn in the lead roles but also in the supporting roles which feature a number of familiar hollywood faces. Exciting and intruiging from the start and leading up to a tense finale, The Interpreter is well worth a watch.
Sworn to Justice
When a Psychologist (Cynthia Rothrock) returns home to find her Sister and Nephew murdered during a robbery she attacks the intruders and ends up sustaining a head injury after jumping off her balcony into a tree. The head trauma awakens psychic powers with her and she uses these powers to help others by coming a vigilante. Her investigation into the murderers of her sister leads her to a crime syndicate who are non too happy with her meddling.
Sworn to Justice doesn't have much going for it, the acting is terrible; the plot is unoriginal and uninteresting; the action scenes aren't particularly good and although it only runs to 97 minutes it feels like much longer as it drags out.
To be fair to Cynthia Rothrock, she does seem to have talent as a martial artist; it's just a pity the fight scenes aren't particularly well choreographed and she can't act.
Overall, Sworn to Justice features acting and plot which wouldn't look out of place in a porn film; definately not one to watch. Although I can't really complain since the DVD cost £1.25 and also featured the Hong-Kong cop caper Gen-X Cops II: Metal Mayhem.
True Romance
True Romance tells the story of a young man, Clarence Worley (Christian Slater), who falls in love with and marries a call girl (Patricia Arquette) paid to take him out on his birthday.
When he goes to tell the girl's pimp that she's out of the game, he ends up killing the pimp and escaping with a large amount of cocaine. Invariably the mafia want the cocaine back and track Clarence and his wife as they flee to L.A.
True Romance is a love story set against a backdrop of organised crime and drug dealing; featuring an all star cast including many big Hollywood names, the acting is top notch. Quentin Tarantino's screenplay is darkly comic and well written as it builds up to the final breathtaking showdown.
XXX: State of the Union
The sequel to 2002's Extreme sport action flick XXX, this time we ditch Vin Diesel for Ice Cube, swap the Nu-Metal for Rap and the extreme sportstars cameos for Rappers.
The story follows ex-navy marine Darius Stone (Ice Cube); following a security breach at the top secret underground headquarters of the NSA, Agent Gibbons (Samuel L.Jackson) breaks Stone out of prison to help him bring those responsible to justice. This leads him to discover a terrible plot which puts the future of the United States in jeopardy.
Like the first movie, XXX2 is completely ridiculous. The plot is dodgy; the script is so bad that even actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Willem Dafoe fail to deliver their terrible lines convincingly and the stunts are so set up as to seem not only improbable but unnecessary.
Having said that, this makes the movie all the more enjoyable. Terrible movies can go either way, descending into boredom or being so bad they are good. Luckily XXX2 falls into this second category. If you like ridiculously over the top action movies with bad acting rappers in the lead role then this is one not to miss.
Recommended for fans of the first film and dodgy action films in general.
Pirates of the Caribbean
When not very good pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) arrives in the town of Port Royal, he becomes involved in an adventure with local blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) when they steal a ship to aid in the rescue of the Governor's daughter, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), after she is kidnapped by pirates from the dreaded Black Pearl. Sparrow's reasons for helping Turner out become apparent when Turner learns he was the original captain before a mutiny which resulted in a terrible curse being put on the crew.
Despite coming from one of the worst ideas ever (Take a ride at Disneyland and make it into a film), Pirates of the Caribbean surpases that with some decent acting talent, a big budget and a well written screenplay. Full of visual gags as well as witty one liners, it's what Action-Adventure films are all about, fun.
Depp is excellent in his role as Captain Jack Sparrow, playing the eccentric and continuously drunk pirate in a humourous manner without becoming over the top. Orlando Bloom is passable although there's not much in his character to make him seem any different from his roles in other movies. The remainder of the cast do well and there's a fair number of British actors in supporting roles including McKenzie Crook and Jack Davenport.
In summary, Pirates of the Caribbean is a big budget Action-Adventure which does not disapoint, a good laugh for anyone who likes swashbuckling and rum.
Final Cut
In the near future parents can pay to have a chip implanted in their unborn child's head which will record all of their visions and upon their death can be edited so that their loved ones may keep their memories for ever.
Alan Hakman (Robin Williams) is a cutter, a man who makes his living from editing the footage into a short film which can be given to the family of the deceased. When he takes a job which other cutters have turned down he is thrown into a scandal which may put his life at risk.
The main concept of the film, recording everything an individual sees and hears is an interesting one which leads to questions of morality in doing so. The film explores these slightly, but there is more scope for further pondering after the film is finished.
The plot is reasonable and the film is entertaining throughout with a good performance from Williams and the other actors in the supporting roles. All in all, an interesting first film from director Omar Naim.
The Jacket
The Jacket tells the story of Jack Starks (Adrien Brody), a Gulf War Veteran who was shot in Iraq and although his wound should have been fatal, he survived albiet with severe memory loss. After returning from Iraq, he finds himself framed for the murder of a policeman by a man he hitches a lift from, unable to remember any details of the incident he is found guilty and sent to a hospital for the criminally insane.
At the hospital he is subjected to a cruel form of therapy where he is bundled into a straight jacket and left in the drawer of a morgue, while in the jacket he has strange dreams which have important consequences for both him and those around him.
The Sci-Fi type plot which involves time travel amongst other things is completely ridiculous, but as long as you don't ponder on it too much or think about the plot holes, it is entertaining enough and keeps enough suspense to be guessing what's going to happen next.
Production wise, the film is well made and both Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley give reasonable performances in their roles although Knightley's American accent leaves a little to be desired.
Overall a reasonable suspense/thriller which is enjoyable once you get over the ridiculous premises you must believe for the plot to work.
Guess Who
Countless comedy movies have used the whole meeting the in-laws gags as part of their plot, then you have films like Father of the Bride and Meet the parents where the entire film is based on this premise. Guess Who is almost identical to any one of these scenes or films, with the oh so clever twist that the father (Bernie Mac) is Black and the would be Son-in-law (Ashton Kutcher) is White.
This leads to a film which is completely predictable and most of the humour relies on the fact that the jokes are racist, but in an ironic non-offensive way. The film is mildy amusing, although there are many non-comedy films which have better gags and since this is meant to be an all out comedy, I found it somewhat lacking in the laughs department. Kutcher is his usual terrible self and Bernie Mac is reasonable.
Overall, a comedy film which isn't that funny and was trying to make a serious point but fails somewhat on that level as well.
Seed of Chucky
The evil Chucky doll from the Childsplay movies returns in this slasher/comedy with his bride Tiffany and a new addition to the family. When Glen, son of Chucky & Tiffany sees his parents on TV, he travels to America and raises them from their sleep. Now awake, they seek human hosts to transfer their souls to in order to become a real family.
Seed of Chucky sees Jennifer Tilly play herself on screen, a lot of jokes are made at her expense which makes for some good laughs. Rapper Redman also stars as himself as Tilly attempts to seduce him in order to get the part of the Virgin Mary in a film of the bible.
All-in-all Seed of Chucky is a good laugh, there's a lot of funny gags, much of the same slasher/gore type carnage you'd expect and even an appearance from S-Club 7 singer turned actress Hannah Spearritt.
Star Wats, Episode III- Revenge of the Sith
Well it's taken 28 years to get here, but finally Star Wars is all wrapped up, ending where it began. I have to admit that I'm not a particularly big fan of Star Wars, I don't really rate the movies and Episodes 1 & 2 were pretty bad, so I went into the cinema expecting the film to be terrible which may have effected my take on it.
The film opens with Anakin and Obi-Wan attempting to rescue Chancellor Palpatine from the robot army, from here we follow Anakin as he turns to the dark side ultimately becoming Darth Vader.
The opening battle scene, is like every one of the film's vast array of huge CG rendered views very pretty. To it's credit that's one thing Lucas got right, the computer generated landscapes are stunning and the start fight scene is great until Hayden Christensen opens his mouth and begins the horrible two hours of terrible acting which are to follow.
The dialogue has to be some of the worst I've had the misfortune of listening to, it makes XXX2 look good and I don't think there is one actor in the film who is not stiff wooden and unemotional. There is whoever one character that out-acts everyone else in terms of emotion and feeling and that's R2D2.
The light sabre fights are boring, when compared with some of the proper sword fights you see in other films, doubly so when Yoda is fighting as it's all CG. The film's too long and could have been cut to a nice 1 hr if the awful scenes which were meant to be emotional removed.
All in all, Episode 3 is going to be loved by some, hated by others and the only way to know is to go and see it for yourself.
Identity
When 10 strangers are thrown together in a motel during a heavy storm they begin to get to know each other until it becomes apparent they are being killed off one by one. The strangers have to work out the deadly truth behind the murders with each having secrets from their past they'd rather keep secret.
Identity is a tense thriller with numerous twists and turns as many of the group are put under suspicion, leading up to a twist at the end where those remaining discover all is not as it seems. With a few big hollywood names, including Ray Liotta and John Cusack the acting is reasonable.
Monster's Ball
Monster's Ball tells of the life of two individuals living in the deep South. Leticia (Halle Berry) is coping as a single mother in the lead up to the execution of her husband Lawrence. Meanwhile, Hank (Billy Bob Thornton) the captain of the execution team is gearing up for Lawrence's execution with his Son Sonny, who will be taking part in an execution for the first time.
The film sees the two storylines progress in parallel until the point at which both Leticia and Hank are at their lowest they meet and things change from that moment onwards with dramatic effects for both. Monster's Ball is a gritty tale of woe which sees two characters having gone through a lot getting together.
The film is very much character driven with some great acting from Berry and Thornton. Overall, sad in places, shocking in others but powerful throughout.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Robert Rodriguez brings us another installment of the story of El Mariachi, a guitar playing Mexican gunslinger. El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) becomes involved in an operation by deranged CIA agent Sands (Johnny Depp) to stop a corrupt Mexican General from taking control of the presidency.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a fast paced; visually stunning action film with some deep comic undertones. Depp plays his character of the slightly crazy Agent Sands very well. The screenplay is well written and there are some nice set pieces in there.
Overall, a very entertaining film which has both action and some good laughs.
The Punisher
Yet another Marvel comic gets the Hollywood treatment; although The Punisher had already been made into a film in the late 80's. The film tells the story of Frank Castle, an FBI agent who after retiring from the Bureau finds his entire family massacred as payback for his last job which involved the death of the son of crime boss Howard Saint (John Travolta). Castle is understandably a little upset about this and takes it upon himself to avenge their deaths by going after Saint himself.
As far as comic book adaptation go, The Punisher is no Spiderman or X-Men, with a slightly lower budget feel, the script isn't particularly good, the acting isn't amazing and even the action scenes seem lacking in any real action. To its credit though, the plot does progress pretty quickly, so there isn't too much time to worry about it. All in all a pretty average film with no real punch to it.
Sin City
Based on the series of graphic novels of the same name Sin City is set in the fictional Basin City, a seedy town where the Mob, Police and Prostitutes are held in the grip of a power struggle all fighting for control.
This, the first of at least 3 planned films tells 3 tales from Frank Miller's comic books. The first of the three stories sees Marv (Mickey Rourke) framed for the murder of a prositute. As the girl was the only woman to ever have let Marv anywhere near him; he seeks to avenge her death while attempting to clear his name.
The second segment details the power struggle between the cops and the girls who run Old Town when Dwight (Clive Owen) while defending the honour of his girlfriend chases Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) in Old Town where he causes trouble with the prositutes who run it and is subsequently killed. This puts the very future of Old Town at stake and Dwight must help the girls sort the problem out if their way of life is to be retained.
The final story told sees tough cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis) face the wrath of Senator Roark after he saves a young girl from the grip of the senators peadophile son.
Sin City is visually unlike any movie I've seen before, being shot in black and white with some elements of the scene shown in colour; this makes for a visually stunning experience with the highlighted elements standing out. Another technique used is the application of a threshold over the greyscale image to cut the light greys down to white and the dark greys to black; this is used in varying degrees to give a comic book style effect. The comic book feel is enhanced further with the films heavy use of green screen technology.
Script wise, Sin City makes heavy use of monologues, with the individual stories being narrated by the main character and having the characters speak out their thoughts. Some of these monologues seem a little over the top in an almost shakesperian manner.
All the actors involved give decent performances, although Clive Owen is still pretty bad; the 3 story's have great plots and fit well in the world built up throughout the film. All in all, Sin City is a visually engaging film with a good plot and some stunning effects.
Ghost Ship
Ghostship shouldn't be particularly good, the plot is dodgy; the screenplay subpar and the acting comes straight from the Keanu Reeves school of how to act like Clive Owen. But underneath all that there is a reasonably entertaining horror movie which in a couple of places even managed to send a tingle down my spine.
When a marine salvage crew are approached by a mysterious stranger telling of a large ship floating unattended in the Bering Strait the jump at the chance. When they locate the vessel, it is earily quiet in a Mary Celeste style. After a series of unnerving accidents, they decide the ship is cursed, but escaping the curse proves to be difficult.
Despite it's flaws, of which there are many, Ghostship is entertaining enough if you don't think too hard about it's ridiculous plot and wooden acting.
Swimfan
Swimfan has to have the worst plot ever for a film. Ben, an ex-junkie swimmer who has aspirations of Olympic stardom or something meets Madison, a new girl at his high school (despite them both looking far too old for High School). When he almost runs her over he gives her a ride home and has to go back later to take her notebook back. This leads to him shagging her in the pool despite the fact he already has a girlfriend. When Ben refuses to see Madison again, she goes psycho and starts trying to hurt him, mainly by killing people he is fond of.
So with a terrible plot and some of the worst trailers in movie history I had assumed Swimfan would be pretty bad. I'm sad to report that I have seen worse films, not that it's good by any standard. The plot is terrible, none of the main characters are likeable, but the acting is up to a reasonable Teen movie standard and I have to admit the best film possible has been made given the dross the director had to work with.
One not to watch, but there are worse films out there.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
A married couple (Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie) who are bored with their marriage get a surprise when they discover that they are each professional assassins and their next targets are each other. Both are then pitted against each other in a tale of action comedy.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a decent action comedy, with some well written lines and some good use of action comedy. Both Pitt and Jolie are good in their roles and Vince Vaughn provides some more comedy in the small role he has.
Overall, a pretty mindless action film with fights, guns and explosions galore; highly entertaining throughout.
Eurotrip
On his graduation from high school, Scott is dumped by his girlfriend. After getting drunk at a celebration he is very rude to his German penpal "Mike" when Mike suggests he comes to America. When his little brother informs him "Mike" is actually Mieke and an attractive young lady, Scott and his friend Cooper travel to Europe to meet Mieke and win her heart.
What follows is a film about a group of stupid American's travelling around Europe with a lot of jokes based on stereotypes of the various European countries they visit. I.e. all English are xenophobic football hooligans, Amsterdam is all sex and drugs and in Eastern Europe the American dollar is worth a fortune. Perhaps the most shocking of these stereotypes is when a German child is shown drawing on a Hitler moustache then marching and doing a Nazi salute.
The "humour" in the film is mostly purile and aside from a couple of genuinely funny moments is dull and insulting. This film would have been pretty bad without the terrible European stereotypes portrayed throughout.
Catwoman
Another comic book adaptation, this time from DC. Having already appeared in Batman Returns; Catwoman returns with Halle Berry taking over in the role as Catwoman. When Patience, an artist working in the advertising department of a large cosmetic discovers that the companies new flagship product has hideous side effects she is killed; only to be brought back to life by a cat and given new feline powers.
As far as comic book adaptation plots go, the plot in Catwoman sucks. But what is lacking in a decent story is more than made up for in dramatic irony and feline based puns. Most of the action is done in CGI rather than live action and the budget is sufficiently low for the CGI to look a bit dodgy.
Halle Berry is pretty awful compared to some of her other films, although to be fair there wasn't much there for her to work with. Overall Catwoman is poor compared to many comic book adaptations yet manages to entertain for the hour and a half or so it takes up.
Batman Begins
Batman's fifth big screen outing and with Christian Bale taking up the role of Batman we go back to the start and follow Bruce Wayne as he takes up his role as Gotham's Dark Knight. Batman's first outing sees him go up against villains who plan to envelop Gotham in panic through the use of a fear inducing drug.
Batman Begins is a pretty good Batman movie all considered, Bale is decent in his role and while some critics have said it lacks humour, Michael Caine's character of Albert the Butler is campy as hell and has very few serious lines. The action is entertaing throughout although all the man to man fighting scenes are found lacking as the descend into a nasty mess of hundreds of cuts where you can't actually see what is happening.
Definately one of the better comic book adaptations and Batman adaptations in particular.
The Aviator
Martin Scorsese's biopic of multi-millionaire, film director/Aviator Howard Hughes sees Leonardo DiCaprio play the role of Hughes. The film starts as Hughes is filming his war epic Hell's Angels which was the most expensive movie of it's time. The story follows the eccentric Hughes as his eccentricity strays more into the realm of mental illness.
The story is an interesting one, made even more interesting by the fact that it is based on a real life man. DiCaprio is decent in his role and Cate Blanchett gives a good performance as Katharine Hepburn
From Hell
Based on a comic of the same name, From Hell tells the story of Jack the Ripper who murdered and mutilated several prostitutes in London 1888. Although not strictly a true story, the plot takes the story of Jack the Ripper and extends it based on an Urban Legend of who the killer was.
Johnny Depp stars as Inspector Abberline, an opium smoker who has strange dreams which often lead him to clues in his investigations. Depp is, as usual, excellent in his role although both he and Heather Graham suffer from dodgy English accents.
The film is suitably dark for its subject matter and with a little twist at the end, isn't as obvious as I had thought while watching it. The setting of 19th Century London is done well with a nice little touch of touching on the story of Joseph Merrick in one scene.
3 Kings
Shortly after the end of the Gulf War, 4 Soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze and Ice Cube) retreive a map from an Iraqi prisoner which appears to point to the location of stolen Kuwaiti Gold. The 4 go on an unauthorised mission in search of the gold. What starts as an effort to make themselves a quick buck ends with them helping those in need when they discover a group of Iraqi civilians under attack from Saddam's army.
A simple tale of how honour wins out over greed, 3 Kings is a reasonable action film with some slight comic moments which deals with the issues of the Gulf War well. I wouldn't consider any of the 4 main characters to be particularly good actors, but they are alright in their respective roles and work together reasonably well.
DiG!
A documentary telling the story of two bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre who started off as part of the same scene and were friends. Both bands took different directions with the Dandy Warhols signing a contract with a major label making them relatively well known; The Brian Jonestown Massacre on the other hand concentrated on writing an recording music with Anton Newcombe the main driving force for the band not wanting to sign for a label unless it was on his terms.
The film is pieced together from 8? years of footage shot on handheld cameras with a part commentary from Courtney Taylor lead singer of the Dandy Warhols. What makes the story so interesting is the character of Anton Newcombe, portrayed as egocentric you get the impression if it was physically possible he would appear on stage on his own and play all the instruments. While I'm sure that some aspects of his character were amplified for the movie, there is definately some basis for this as the footage clearly shows.
Overall, Dig is an interesting story well told although from a slightly biased perspective; definately worth a watch even if you aren't a fan of the Dandy Warhols.
Fantastic 4
When a team of scientists go into space to study a solar flare, they are caught unawares and hit by the full blast of the flare's radiation. This radiation mutates their DNA and they are given super powers. 4 of the astronauts must band together against the evil Victor Von Doom when he uses his power for the worse.
The Fantastic 4 is comprised of the Human Torch, a man who can create fire and fly; The Thing, a big strong mass of rock like flesh; The Invisible Girl, pretty self explanatory and Mr. Fantastic who has the Fantastic powers of being able to stretch. I assume Mr. Fantastic is an ironic moniker much like blokes who get called Tiny despite being 6'10" and built like a brick shithouse since he didn't seem to do anything Fantastic at all.
Not one of the best comic book adaptation films; the Fantastic 4 suffers from terrible jokes, terrible super powers and some dodgy plot. Having said that it is entertaining enough for what it is and if you go in expecting a mindless Holywood summer blockbuster that's what you'll get.
Spiderman
Sam Raimi's Spiderman was the first of the many big comic book movies which have come out over the past couple of years and remains one of the better adaptations so far. The film tells the story of Peter Parker, an ordinary college student who is bitten by a spider and as a result "Does whatever a spider can". When he fails to stop an armed robber from escaping from a wrestling match he is overcome with guilt when the robber kills his Uncle Ben. Parker then resolves to fight crime in the guise of Spiderman.
When local mad scientist Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) goes a bit crazy and takes on the guise of the Green Goblin, Spiderman must come to New York City's rescue.
Spiderman is an action packed tale which is stunningly presented. The CG in the fight scenes looks a little fake at times, but this adds to the comic book feel of the film. On subsequent viewings it struck me that the dialog is pretty terrible, although the excitement and action make up for this.
Wedding Crashers
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star as Jeremy and John, two womanisers who turn up at weddings uninvited in order to attract the attentions of the single young ladies there. When the two pull of their biggest crash ever crashing the wedding of Senator Cleary's (Christopher Walken) eldest daughter they set their sights on the Senator's two younger daughters.
Things don't go as planned for either when Jeremy's target turns out to be a little bit of a psycho and John is having more luck with the Senator's wife than his daughter. Wedding Crashers is much the same kind of humour as the myriad of other movies starring either Vaughn or Wilson, so fans of these should pretty much know what to expect.
Wedding Crashers is very funny in places, with a mix of good old fashioned slapstick and some jokes verging on tasteless. Having said that, it's not sufficiently funny throughout to rate alongside other comedies of the same style such as Dodgeball.
Stealth
Sometime in the near future the US Navy are preparing for the war on terrorism with the development of a new unmanned aeroplane flown using state of the art AI. The plane coded named EDI (Extreme Deep Invader: which seems to mean nothing, but sounds like Eddie which is a nice enough name for a plane) is teamed up with 3 of the navy's top pilots.
Initially the team are none to pleased with their new friend, but when it gets struck by lightning and starts disobeying direct orders they realise it is their duty to do something about it.
Stealth has to be on of the most stupid movies I've ever seen, OK so it's the same director as The Fast and The Furious and xXx so there's not much to expect but Stealth is just taking the piss. The plot is weak and full of huge holes; there are some really bad lines ("It has a brain like a quantum sponge") and some ideas which would be funny if the film wasn't trying to be serious. (EDI likes to download music from the internet, and has a penchant for Gavin Rossdale in particular).
Add to that some rather dodgy attitudes to the world of warfare.
Scenario 1:
3 Terrorists are meeting in Rangoon with an imminent threat to US security.
Solution: Send 4 planes into Burma and blow up a building without any UN backing or prior warning.
Scenario 2
A pilot is forced to ditch her plane while flying without Authorisation across North Korea, landing in North Korea, the Korean army are on her case.
Solution: Despite the fact that a.) She wasn't meant to be flying over North Korea and b.) She's not meant to be in their country she starts shooting at North Korean soldiers, and waits on her boyfriend to come pick her up at which point he kills some more North Koreans and then destroys a helicopter. I'm pretty sure even if you're American the laws of warfare don't allow you to just turn up in another country and start killing their soldiers and destroying their military hardware with no attempt to resolve the situation peacefully.
Anyway, I digress ... Stealth is as big a pile of pish as your likely to see although it does have enough explosions and dogfights to be mildy amusing, add to that a couple of lines which are (albiet inadvertently) hilarious and you have 2 hours of cinema which while terrible is not unentertaining.
It's basically a pretty awful futuristic Top Gun meets Flight of the Navigator.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Director Tim Burton's film translation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a darkly comic adventure which turns into a crazy trip of song, dance and candy.
The film tells the story of young Charlie Bucket; hailing from a poor family with barely enough money to feed him, his parents and four grandparents, he is obsessed with the chocolate factory in his town run by Willy Wonka. When Wonka announces that 5 lucky children who uncover a Golden ticket in his chocolate will get a tour of the factory with one winning a grand prize; Charlie is eager to win the ticket even although his single hope lies in the one solitary bar of chocolate he gets for his birthday each year.
When the children who are winning the tickets turn out to be some of the most revolting children on the planet; Charlie loses faith in the world, but then his luck changes for the better and he gets to join the tour of Wonka's factory.
Although the films starts quite slowly, once the tour begins the real Tim Burton magic starts the sets are all excellent and the Oompa Loompas songs are done well, each in a different style for each child (Personal favourite has to be the glam rock ones). There are a lot of hilarious moments although the humour is very dark and I'm not sure how much of it children would get.
As with nearly every movie he's in, Johnny Depp is brilliant and makes the film. His portrayal of the eccentric Wonka with his father issues and moments of madness is excellent, at moments the character reminded me of Dr. Evil from the Austin Power's films, the man who is in charge but doesn't seem to have a clue what's going on. His delivery of the lines are excellent and make for some very funny momements.
Overall, an excellent adaptation from the book, fans of Depp or Tim Burton will not be disappointed.
Crash
Set in Los Angeles, a city home to people from a diverse range of racial and cultural background, Crash tells the stories of a number of different characters who are each the victims of racism and/or racist in their own way. As the film progresses, the different characters lives mix together with their experiences of racism paying important parts in their future.
While there is no one single overall plot, the subplots for each of the individual characters are, while quite simple, engaging and interesting. Each of the characters are well acted and cast; The racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his rookie partner; 2 young black carjackers (Ludacris, Larenz Tate); The District Attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his wife (Sandra Bullock); A police detective, (Don Cheadle) the list goes on ...
Crash's biggest impacts come when the intertwined lives of two of the characters finally come to a head resulting in tense and powerful scenes which are highly emotionally charged.
Overall Crash is a powerful movie told in an interesting way which a heavy bias towards exploring the personalities of the individual characters rather than on an overall plot which is to be tied up at the end.
21 Grams
21 Grams follows 3 strangers whose lives are intertwined after a horrific accident. The accident changes the lives of all 3, Cristina, the wife who's lost her husband (Naomi Watts); Paul Rivers who is awaiting a donor heart (Sean Penn) and Jack Jordan, an ex-convict who has gone straight after discovering God (Benicio Del Toro).
The time line used in the film is very disjointed, jumping forward and back as the characters are built up; even towards the end of the film the are jumps back quite far in the story. While this can be a little confusing at times, it serves well to tell the story of the 3 characters.
21 Grams is a great thriller with a strong plot and good performances from each of the 3 main actors.
Bad News Bears
When a foul mouthed, drunk, washed up ex-professional baseball star (Billy Bob Thornton) is recruited to coach a team of misfit kids he has a struggle on his hands. He must turn the group into a team which can beat the smug Roy Bullock in the championship.
With Bad News Bears starring Billy Bob Thorton cast as a foul mouthed drunk who has to deal with children, it sounds a bit like the excellent Bad Santa but that's where the comparisons stop. The jokes just aren't as funny, relying pretty much on how offensive they are rather than being particularly witty.
There are some mildly amusing moments however, although not enough to make the film any good.
Sugar
Starting with a woman emerging from a fridge in a tiny dirty apartment she shares with a dead body which might be her own; Sugar is a strange collection of scenes. Varying from colour to black and white and with the main character not uttering a single word for the 80 minute duration it's a little hard to describe.
Without a real overall plot, Sugar is one of those films you just have to sit and watch while is goes nowhere. Not my usual cup of tea, but reasonably enjoyable.
Bewitched
Will Ferrel stars as Jack Wyatt, a washed up actor who in an attempt to boost his career takes the role of Darrin in a remake of the 60's TV series Bewitched. Things begin to get weird when he unwittingly casts a real witch (Nicole Kidman) as Samantha.
Plotwise Bewitched isn't anything special, a typical romantic comedy with the Bewitched backdrop; the writing is reasonably good though and both Ferrel and Kidman are good in their roles providing a good few laughs throughout the film.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
When oceanographer Steve Zissou's (Bill Murray) partner is eaten by a rare shark, he vows to seek down the shark and get his revenge on it. Steve and his crew are joined on their mission by Ned (Owen Wilson), a pilot who may just be Steve's son and a pregnant reporter (Cate Blanchet).
The Life Aqautic has a very dry sense of humour to it, bordering on the surreal at times as Steve and his team travel in search of the Jaguar shark. The film is well written and the plot is such that there isn't a dull moment throughout.
The Island
Michael Bay, King of big budget silly action films, brings us The Island. Dealing with an interesting albiet not entirely original premise the film follows Jordan-Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) and Lincoln-Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) two members of a Brave New World-esque community where their every move is monitored; everyone dresses the same and free thought is looked down upon. For everyone in the community their sole aspiration is to win a lottery which would see them move out to "The Island", a promised paradise where they can be free in the outside world.
When Lincoln-Six-Echo discovers that the Island doesn't exist and that in fact everyone he knows are clones of people in the real world, created solely to harvest their organs or have their children he escapes with Jordan-Two-Delta and the pair go on the run attempting to track down their sponsors.
The Island has it's faults, namely it is highly unoriginal, very silly at times, contains some dodgy plot holes and is full of product placement advertising. Despite these faults though, it pulls through for the most part as a string of exciting action set pieces vaguely held together. Action is what Michael Bay does best and in this regard, The Island does not disappoint. As with the plot, there isn't much originality to most of the action scenes, but they are exciting and fun to watch.
Overall a hugely over the top action movie which doesn't have a shred of originality, is a little on the long side but worth a watch if you just want to veg out to mindless action.
Me and You and Everyone We Know
You, Me and Everyone We Know follows a number of characters from their weird journey in life. Richard, a shoe salesman has recently split from his wife and lives with his two kids in a tiny apartment. Christine, a budding performance artist, is seeking to get her work shown in a local art gallery and two teenage girls are attracting the attentions of one of Richards's work colleagues.
A very character based film not requiring much in the way of plot, You, Me and Everyone We Know is packed with moments of bizareness which can only make you smile or laugh.
Hustler Squad
When the Allied in command in the Southern Pacific during the second World War discover that four high ranking Japanese generals are going to be meeting on a island in the Phillipines housing a brothel they decide the time is right to strike against them.
When it is deemed too dangerous to send in troops, they team up with a Fillipino soldier to create a team of crack prostitutes who will go undercover in the brothel and assasinate the Japanese officers.
With a plot as amazing as that, Hustler Squad should be amazing, but sadly it is piss poor. The action scenes are some of the worst I've ever seen in a movie, usually a 5 minute gun fight is exciting and entertaining but in Hustler Squad they are only surpassed in terribleness by the atrocious acting and the god awful dialogue.
This movie should not be watched by anyone ever and only merits the half a star awarded in the hope that someone remakes it as the basic premise is too good to not be realised in its full potential.
Kingdom of Heaven
Kingdom of Heaven tells the story of Balian (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith. When Lord Godfrey (Liam Neeson) comes to his town and reveals himself to be his father and invites Balian to join him on a crusade to Jerusalem.
Once in Jerusalem, he is pulled into a conflict between the King of Jerusalem, who is nearing death due to his leprosy, a Knight Templar who wishes to take power over Jerusalem and a muslim warlord who bears hard feelings towards the Christian rulers.
Kingdom of Heaven is exactly the big budget epic you would expect Orlando Bloom to star in and Ridley Scott directs a film on a similar scale to Gladiator. Lots of big action scenes and huge battles there is a reasonable amount there to keep the audience entertained and with a decent plot the film is entertaining for the most part. It's main downfall is that there isn't really anything to make it stand out from similar big budget affairs like this such as Gladiator, Troy, Alexander etc.
Overall a decent movie but with nothing to make it stand out from the crowd.
Serenity
Serenity is the big screen version of Firefly, the American Sci-Fi series written by Josh Whedon (who also wrote Buffy and Angel) which was dropped by Fox after just one season.
The film tells the story of the crew of Serenity who travel between planets taking jobs to earn cash and food. When they realise that a brother and sister they let on the ship in exchange for work are being hunted down by the Alliance (The Interplanetary Government) they become entangled in a deadly plot and captain Mal must decide whether or to risk his ship and crew and help them out or whether to ditch them and play it safe.
Serenity is pretty campy and cheesy, much what you'd expect from a film adaptation of a Sci-Fi series. The jokes and dialogue are reasonably funny and there is a good amount of action and some nice special effects.
From what I can tell, not being a fan myself, fans of Firefly will love the movie as it's pretty true to the series but those who have not seen the series should enjoy the film if they go in looking for a fun, exciting space adventure with little to think about and a large amount of cheesy jokes.
All in all, Serenity was pretty much as expected, entertaining for all but the last 10 minutes which dragged on a little.
Corpse Bride
12 years or so after the release of A Nightmare Before Christmas, director Tim Burton brings us a similarly themed and similarly animated tale in the form of Corpse Bride.
The story starts with the wedding rehearsal for the marriage between Victor and Victoria. Victor doesn't do to well remembering his vows and the parents of the bride aren't too impressed. He leaves the rehearsal disheartened and goes into the woods to practice his vows. In doing so he accidentaly slips the ring onto the skeletal hand of dead bride-to-be Emily mistaking it for a twig. Emily comes to life and declares his proposal binding taking him to the underworld where a troupe of dancing skeletons explain the situation via a trippy dance number.
Corpse Bride is very well animated and the screenplay is excellent with a good number of UK based celebrities adding their voice talents to the film. Dark and funny throughout, Corpse Bride is well worth watching.
I heart Huckabees
When Albert, a poet and ecological campaigner, has 3 strange co-incidences he turns to an existential detective agency for help. This leads to trouble when his main rival who works for a department store chain wanting to build another store on marsh land he is trying to protect approaches the agency as well. He is then thrown together with Tommy, a firefighter who is venomously against using petroleum as a mysterious French nihilist tries to undo the work the detectives have done with Tommy and Albert.
I heart Huckabees is a surreal comedy which delves in the world of existential philosphy and while most of the philosophical stuff was way above my head, the movie was interesting and humourous throughout. All the main characters are well acted although Jude Law does sometimes have trouble maintaining his accent.
Overall worth a watch if you want a comedy which is a bit different from most others.
Hulk
With the myriad of superhero movies currently around (Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil) and the number of good summer blockbusters Ang Lee's (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) Hulk had to be something special to stand out from the crowd. Luckily, it is, this film is a really good action film but also has a good plot and some interesting camera work.
Throughout the movie, there is a distinct comic book feel with multiple panes of action on screen at once. The movie follows Bruce Banner (played by Eric Bana, Troy) a young scientist who through a combination of his father's genetic engineering and an unfortunate lab accident transforms into the Hulk when he gets angry. The only downside to this movie is that on occasion the CG work looks a bit fake, other than that it is a great action movie.
Dave W - 18th August, 2003 - 21:30
Director:
Todd Phillips
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Ben Stiller (Meet the Parents, Zoolander) and Owen Wilson (Zoolander) star as Starsky and Hutch respectively in the conversion to film of the hit 70's cop show.
The movie sees clean cop Starsky paired up with the slightly dodgy Hutch as they try to solve a murder case which is involved with a cocaine smuggling operation.
As far as the movie goes, it is a typical Ben Stiller style comedy. Reasonably funny but nothing special.
This film was never going to be groundbreaking in any sense, but as a comedy set in the 70's its ok. Good for a night on the sofa when you don't want to have to think about anything.
Dave W - 25th July, 2004 - 13:57
Shattered Glass tells the true story of Stephen Glass, a young journalist for the New Republic magazine during the late 90's. As a young writer, he is enjoying his work at the magazine and it isn't until his piece 'Hack Heaven' comes under scrutiny that the truth comes out that over half of the articles he had written for the magazine were partially or entirely made up.
I hadn't heard the story of Stephen Glass before, but as a true story, it is interesting and amazing that he got away with submitting fiction as fact in such a high profile magazine for so long.
The cast is pretty good, Glass himself is played by Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars II) and Hank Azaria (Godzilla, Simpsons) stars as one of his editors, Michael Kelly. Christensen gives a good performance, although slips into the whiney teenage role which he seems to have picked up from playing the equally whiney Anakin Skywalker. Azaria shows a more serious side than I've seen him play in previous roles, but since I've only seen him in Godzilla and Friends, this is to be expected.
Peter Sarsgaard plays Chuck, the editor in charge during Glass' fall from the top and comes across well as he comes to realise just how deep Glass' lies run.
All in all, Shattered Glass is a decent film, a great story which is told well.
Dave W - 16th May, 2004 - 14:21
Director:
Marcus Nispel
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
I haven't seen the original, so I don't know how Marcus Nispel's 2003 remake of the 1974 hack 'n' slash movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre compares, but with the amount of horror remakes around at the moment, is it any good?
The film tells the story of a group of teenagers who pickup a girl wandering by the roadside, she then shoots herself in the head in their van and they end up in some backwards town in Texas trying to find a policeman to help them deal with it. Of course, it's one of these redneck towns where everyone is a little strange, and that's when the Chainsaw and massacre come in.
Although the film is a pretty generic hack and slash affair, it is entertaining enough to watch, although the story seems very familiar, probably because it has been 30 odd years since the original and it has been copied over and over again. I was surprised how much this film was like Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses assuming this film is true to the original, it is amazing how many ideas Rob must have 'borrowed' (read chored) for his film.
All in all, not great, but not a bad night's entertainment with little to think about.
Dave W - 25th April, 2004 - 18:14
Director:
David Fincher
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
David Fincher (Alien 3, Se7en, Panic Room) directs the film translation of Chuck Palahniuk's book Fight Club. This is one of the best films of the 90's, Edward Norton plays a man disillusioned with his life, when he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and is introduced to a completely different life. The film has a very dark comic feel to it and in places can be very violent. The twist at the end is amazing, and watching the film a second time you pick up so much more on things which are explained by the twist. Palahniuk's book has been faithfully converted into a great film which will be relevant for years to come. All in all, a must see movie.
Dave W - 21st September, 2003 - 16:10
Director:
Jim Jarmusch
Year: 1999
Language: English/French
Country: America
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai tells the story of Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) a hitman who lives by the code of ancient Japanese Samurai. He is indebted to a Mafia member who saved his life, and carries out contract killings for him, when the Mafia decide they want him dead, Ghost Dog takes his revenge in order to preserve the life of his retainer.
The film has a very surreal and dark comedy about it while at the same time, being a serious story of a man indebted to another and living with that debt everyday of his life. Forest Whitaker makes an amazing performance and is highly believable, the rest of the cast although mostly unkown add to the film to create a film which is funny, thought provoking and visually exciting.
Although a little short this is an excellent film with an interesting mixture of Mafia style organised crime and the values of ancient Japan, all in all highly recommended.
Dave W - 6th April, 2004 - 20:37
Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spiderman), returns with the sequel to 2002's hit movie.
The film follows the young Peter Parker as he struggles with the responsibility brought by being Spiderman. With the city mainly against Spiderman, Parker is torn between turning his back on Spiderman or continuing to save the city.
This installment sees scientist Otto Octavius gain 4 extra limbs which end up controlling him and turning him into the vastly superior Dr. Octopus. Seeking money to continue his Fusion experiments, Octopus robs a bank. When he has to get his hands on some Tritium, he seeks the help of Harry Osbourne who agrees to exchange some in return for Octopus getting him Spiderman.
Spiderman 2 has everything a great comic book adaptation should have, we have action, humour and the obligatory romance plot. This sequel is entertaining and well made, possibly better than the first film and certainly a great film in its own right. Look out for the obligatory appearance of Bruce Campbell as well as a brief appearance from Stan Lee.
I have some minor niggles about the plot from my minor knowledge of fusion power. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of artistic license involved in dealing with the actual science in the movie.
Having said that though, Spiderman 2 is a great movie, if you loved the first one, go see it, it won't disappoint. For those of you that weren't too keen on the first one, you might enjoy it, or if you don't like comic book adaptions you'll probably hate it.
Dave W - 18th July, 2004 - 22:32
Director:
Patty Jenkins
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Monster tells the true story of Aileen Wuornos a prostitute who was sentenced to death and subsequently executed for the murder of 7 men in Florida in the 80's.
Aileen Wuornos is played by a heavily made up Charlize Theron. The story starts with Aileen visting a bar with the aim of spending her last $5 before she kills herself. There she meets Selby (Christina Ricci, Addams Family Values), a young woman who offers to buy her a drink. This meeting is the start of a relationship which leads to Selby cutting ties with her family and moving in with Aileen.
At around this time, Aileen is picked up by a violent customer who tries to rape her, she attacks back, killing him and taking her car. This starts a trend of killing.
Monster is a very dark film, both Theron and Ricci give great performances, in what is a very disturbing tale. Although gripping throughout, the subject matter is quite nasty and at times hard to watch. Charlize Theron is totally transformed for the role and hardly recognisable.
All in all, although not a movie I'd want to watch over and over again, as a piece of cinema, Monster is a very good movie which I'd recommend to any fan of extreme cinema.
Dave W - 18th July, 2004 - 15:16
Director:
Richard Linklater
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Renound funny man and leader singer in comedy rock band Tenacious D Jack Black stars as Dewey, a wannabe rock star who needs cash to pay his rent. When he gets a phone call offering his flatmate a job as a supply teacher, he can't help but pretend to be his flatmate and takes the class.
Since he knows nothing about teaching, he teaches the kids in class all about rock and roll and makes them form a band as part of a project which he hopes will win him a battle of the bands.
This film is great fun and very funny in parts, Jack Black is excellent and plays the part very well with the same sort of facial expressions and acting which makes him so good in Tenacious D. Having said that if you don't like Jack Black you'll probably find him annoying in this movie. Overall this is a great feel good movie and worth a watch if you want to veg out and have a good laugh.
Dave W - 23rd March, 2004 - 23:56
Time travel in films can always be a bit of a risky topic, and casting an actor who is most well know for silly teen comedies and being the annoying host of a show on MTV which pulls pranks on celebrities seems like a bad idea.
Before seeing the film, my biggest preconceptions where that Ashton Kutcher was gonna be rubbish, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised as he plays the most serious role I've ever seen him in.
The Butterfly Effect tells the story of Evan, as a child Evan suffers from blackouts at key stages in his life, mainly when bad things are happening around him. He is recommended to keep a journal of his life to help him remember the missing parts of his memory, which he continues to do. As a student, he returns to the town he left when he was a child and speaks to an old friend about her abusive father, she subsequently kills herself. Evan discovers while reading some old journals that he can travel back to the time of the blackout and re-live it, upon doing so he changes the future and when he wakes up, he is in what seems like a perfect alternate reality. However, things soon change and he must try to change history once again to fix the new problems created.
The Butterfly Effect takes the idea that small changes in history can have devastating effects on the course of events.
Kutcher gives a reasonable performance, far removed from his usual comedy style. The story is well told and directed. The films comes to a chilling climax as Evan strives to right his life.
Overall, The Butterfly Effect is a pretty good film, with an interesting plot and a performance from Ashton Kutcher which transforms him from a bad comic actor to someone worth watching.
Dave W - 11th July, 2004 - 23:13
I never really read Dr. Suess as a child, from what little I know of his books, they just seem a little silly.
Having said that, the Cat in the Hat translates well to the big screen with the wonderful Mike Myers as the cat. The story tells of two children, one who is a control freak and the other a mischief boy who likes to trash the house and does the opposite of everything his mother tells him.
When the are left alone in the house before a party their mother is throwing, the Cat in The Hat turns up and all pandemonium ensues.
As ever, Myers is pretty funny with a lot of the cat's mannerisms reminiscent of both the Austin Powers and Dr. Evil characters. For a kids films, there are few risque jokes.
The film is set in a kind of surreal colourful world where everyone seems to drive a lime green Ford Focus. This unreal setting a very childrens book feel to the set and costumes adds to the whole Dr. Suessness of the film.
As I said before, I've never read the books, so the hardcore Suess fans might have a different opinion of the film, but I found it very entertaining and great fun.
Dave W - 11th July, 2004 - 23:00
Scratch is a documentary about hip-hop and in particular the hip-hop DJ or turntablist, this film features interviews from many modern hip-hop DJs and follows the rise of the solo DJ as an act.
Although I know very little about Hip-Hop, this documentary was very entertaining and some of the scratching featured in it is unbelievable. Features such artists as Mix Master Mike, DJ Qbert, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and many more.
If you are a fan of hip-hop or just want to see an informative and interesting documentary about it, then watch this movie.
Dave W - 23rd February, 2004 - 00:05
Director:
Joel Schumacher
Year: 2002
Language: English
Country: America
When publicist Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) picks up a payphone he is caught by a sniper who threatens to shoot him unless he does as he is told. Pretty much the entire film is set in the phone booth with Farrell giving a great performance as the lead character. The release of the film was originally delayed because of the Washington sniper attacks. This is a great suspense movie and although quite short (80 mins) packs a fair amount of action into the time.
Dave W - 11th January, 2004 - 16:56
When a charming Professor (Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump, The Money Pit) turns up on the doorstep of an old lady enquiring about the room to let, he poses as a member of a renaissance band. Little does she know that the so called band are actually a criminal gang intent on breaking into a nearby casino by tunnelling from her basement.
His Gang consist of a crazy Chinese General, a High School American Footballer, the explosives expert and their man on the inside (Marlon Wayans). Together they make for an entertaining bunch as they attempt to carry out their scheme without the knowledge of their landlady.
The plot is reasonably interesting and the film is funny in parts. The cast do a reasonably good job and while not an amazing movie is certainly entertaining throughout.
Overall, the film is OK, but I found something lacking.
Dave W - 27th June, 2004 - 20:20
The Sequel to 2001's hilarious animated tale, Shrek. Shrek (Mike Myers), Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are back with a whole host of fairy tale characters. Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) is angry to hear of Shrek and Fiona's wedding and is plotting to get Fiona and her son Prince Charming together.
Shrek and Donkey get a new friend, Puss in Boots, in the guise of Antonio Banderas. Puss In Boots has some great lines and scenes and is very funny. The other children's fairytale characters are pretty funny as well, especially the 3 blind mice, Pinnochio and the wolf from little red riding hood.
Although rated U, Shrek 2 manages to be one of those films like Monsters Inc. which has jokes in there for all age ranges. There are multiple levels of humour which make it as much fun for adults as for kids.
Overall Shrek 2 is great fun and I urge everyone with a sense of humour to go see it.
Dave W - 27th June, 2004 - 18:15
Director:
John Singleton
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
The sequel to car racing adventure film The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious sees Paul Walker return in the role of Brian.
Like it's predecessor, the acting is pretty shoddy and the plot is weak, if you hated the first film you will hate this even more. In fact from that point of view the only upside would be the departure of Vin Diesel.
I on the other hand enjoyed the first film, despite it's obvious flaws, it was a good mindless action film with fast cars and from a purely entertainment point of view was ok. Although the sequel is not as good, it is still a reasonably watchable action film, with some nice car chases.
Overall, not great but not unwatchable
Dave W - 27th June, 2004 - 17:53
Director:
David Zucker
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Scary Movie was hilarious, but Scary Movie 2 was pretty bad, can a third film in the series revive the comedy of the first or is it destined to become another Shriek?
Luckily, Scary Movie 3 brings in a host of cameos, most notably, Leslie Nielsen of Naked Gun fame and Hots Shots star Charlie Sheen. Both of these actors add to the movie with Nielsen in particular bringing some classic Naked Gun comedy to the mix.
The main plot to Scary Movie 3 is made up from spoofs of 'The Ring', '8 Mile' and 'Signs'. When two farmers find strange crop circles in their field, local newshost Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris, Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2, Lost in Translation) steps in to help find the cause of the circles. Meanwhile her nephew starts acting strange after watching a video tape.
Scary Movie 3 is a great laugh, with cameos from Simon Cowell and Pamela Anderson and some great gags you can't really go wrong. If you enjoyed the first Scary Movie, this film should be right up your street.
Dave W - 20th June, 2004 - 17:30
Director:
Pete Docter
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
Monsters Inc is the animated tale of two Monsters, Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) and James 'Sully' Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman). They work for a company where the must sneek into the real world and scare children to capture their screams which are used to power the Monster City. When Sully's rival Randall leaves a door on the scare floor, Sully accidentaly brings a little girl into the monster world. Since children are thought to be toxic to Monsters, the authorities begin looking for her while Sully and Mike try to return her to her bedroom.
I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of Pixar's films, but Monsters Inc is different. It's really funny and charming and there are a lot of subtle jokes aimed at a more mature audience. The animation in the film is top notch, like a lot of Pixars work. Billy Crystal's voice adds a lot to the character and humour of Mike Wazowski.
All in all Monsters Inc is a kids film which can be enjoyed by adults while retaining its charm and innocence.
Dave W - 13th June, 2004 - 01:13
Director:
Gregor Jordan
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
Set in West Germany in 1989 at the height of the cold war, Buffalo soldiers tells the story of Ray Elwood, an American soldier stationed in Germany. He does some dodgy stuff on the side, selling army supplies and cooking Morphine into Heroin for sale to soldiers on the base.
When a new top Sargeant arrives at the base, he doesn't take too kindly to Elwood, even moreso when Elwood begins dating his daughter. Eventually the sargeant discovers Elwoods side business and goes after him.
Ray Elwood is played by Joaquin Phoenix (Signs, Gladiator) and although I find him a bit annoying, he does a reasonable job in this role. The film is quite funny in places as well as having a reasonable plot. Although not amazing, it is reasonably entertaining throughout and a good laugh.
Dave W - 6th June, 2004 - 19:25
Director:
Michael Moore
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Fahrenheit 9/11 is Michael Moore's take on the events preceding and following the attack on New York and the Pentagon which took place on September 11th 2001.
Anyone familiar with Moore's TV shows, The Awful Truth and TV Nation or his previous films Roger and Me and Bowling For Columbine will know Moore's unique style of journalism. Through careful editing and a mixture of black humour with shocking images/sound clips Moore manages to evoke an emotional response in every scene.
The film starts with George W. Bush 'winning' the Presidential Elections. Anyone who has read Moore's book Stupid White Men will be familiar with the story of who Bush came to win in Florida. The first piece of real emotion comes when we see Congressional members standing up in the senate to contest the vote, only to be asked by Gore if they have the backing of a Senator. Member after member takes the stand, but none have the backing of a single Senator.
From this point on Moore takes us through the finer points of the ties between the Bush family and the Bin Ladens; the run up to the war in Iraq and the pushing through of the US Patriot Act. All of this is told in Moore's typical manner, asking members of Congress to enlist their children in the Armed Forces, driving around Washington in an ice cream truck reading the Patriot Act.
We also have contend with Moore's editing which pits very emotional visuals and sound clips together leaving for a film which hits you right at the heart.
I have no doubt that all of the facts shown in the movie are true, Moore himself has a list of evidence on his website backing the claims made in the movie. He has said before about his previous film, Bowling for Columbine, even although many people have said that he has lied or been untruthful, no-one has ever filed a lawsuit against him. You can't make a film which is this high profile without being very careful of the facts.
Having said this I do know that Moore can be selective and one sided in his telling of the story. While this in itself is not a problem, after all, he is making this documentary as an Anti-Bush statement, not a balanced account of the facts.
Moore likes to use questions which are taken to be statements, he has done this before in Bowling for Columbine, he'll ask a rhetorical question on the soundtrack and it will be taken by many (both critics and believers alike) as a statement.
We also see some obvious one sided points of view, his footage of pre-war Baghdad is all happy children and people living happily. Previously he had shown footage of a public execution in Saudi Arabia, but no mention is made of the attrocities conducted by Saddam Hussein's regime. Baghdad is portrayed as a nice happy place, even footage of Saddam is cheery clips of him smiling and dancing around.
Despite these niggles, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a very important film in many respects, it has enjoyed the highest grossing first week of any documentary ever. It shows the public a lot of information that the Bush Adminstration would rather was kept quiet and with the run up to to the US Presidential Elections, could make a difference to the vote.
Overall, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a powerful piece of journalism, but as with anything you see or read, you have to remember that Michael Moore has his own agendas and the film is not without its own biases.
If your political alignment goes along with Moore's you will know a lot of the information in this film already. Those opposed to Moore's point of view will probably dismiss the film straight away. The remainder of people in the middle with no strong convictions either way will find this film a real eye opener.
Overall Fahrenheit 9/11 gives you a lot to think about with an underlying sense that there isn't much we can do about it.
Dave W - 18th July, 2004 - 15:30
Director:
Michael Moore
Year: 1989
Language: English
Country: America
Michael Moore (The Awful Truth, Bowling for Columbine) writes and directs this documentary about life in his home town of Flint, Michigan after the closure of the General Motors plant which was a major employer in the town.
The story tells of life in Flint as Moore tries to track down Roger Smith the CEO of General Motors.
This documentary is done in Moore's usual style, anyone who has seen and enjoyed Bowling for Columbine and his TV series, the Awful Truth will enjoy this movie. The depiction of Flint after the close of the factory is of a grim town full of boarded up shops and an increasing crime rate. This is a well written and well told documentary done in Moore's trademark style.
With his latest film Fahrenheit 911 winning awards at Cannes this year, Moore is one director who is well worth watching. Although since he has pretty strong views, they can be a little one sided and there are bound to be many people who disagree with him.
Dave W - 31st May, 2004 - 20:31
Director:
Roland Emmerich
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
When Global Warming melts the polar ice caps, the melting affects the North Atlantic tidal currents plunging the entire Northern Hemisphere into a new Ice Age.
The main story follows a paleoclimatologist, Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) and his son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal). Jack discovers that the Earth is on the verge of a new Ice Age and predicts we have 100 years or so before it hits, in which time disaster could be averted by becoming more ecologically friendly. When a English Scientist (Ian Holme, Alien) discovers that he prediction is wrong and the process is all ready starting Jack tries to warn the government but they pay him no heed.
The Earth is plunged into an ice age, Scotland is wiped out and Jack's son Sam is left stranded in New York which is attacked with a giant wall of water and then frozen. Jack makes his way to New York to rescue his son.
The Day after Tommorow is a pretty bog standard disaster movie affair. The premise behind it isn't very believable, but the special effects are good and it is definately action packed and in that sense it delivers exactly what it intends to. My only major niggle with the film is a rather contrived wolf attack which didn't seem to have any purpose other than add some extra excitement to a scene. I think the wolves could have been cut and something else put in.
Overall, a pretty standard disaster movie which is enjoyable to watch but not life changing.
Dave W - 30th May, 2004 - 23:49
Director:
Francis Ford Coppola
Year: 1976
Language: English
Country: America
Francis Ford Coppola's re-editing of his 1976 vietnam war move 'Apocalypse Now' now runs for over 3 hours. Apocalypse Now is one of those films which regularly appears in the best films of all time lists. It tells the story of Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen) as he goes on a mission to track down a US Army colonel (Marlon Brando) who is hiding in the Cambodian jungle. The film follows Willard on his journey up the river into Cambodia and the events which take place on his journey. Not so much of a War film, more a story of a crazy journey set in Vietnam during the war. This film has lots of action and some great scenes, although I found it a little long and the end seemed a bit slow. All in all, a must see movie.
Dave W - 11th January, 2004 - 14:40
Director:
Rob Zombie
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Rock legend Rob Zombie brings us the first film he has written and directed, House of 1000 corpses. The film tells the story of a group of teenagers who whilst travelling across America hear about the legend of Dr. Satan, a doctor who used to experiment of mental patients. The decide to try and solve the mystery of the legend and end up in trouble after they are taken in by a family of Hillbillys. First of all, this film has a lot of horror cliches, the entire plot has pretty much been done 1000 times before, the acting is bad, but since it's obviously a low budget horror film, this doesn't really matter too much. This film is never going to be critical acclaimed, but for what it is, I found it entertaining for the 100 minutes it lasted. There are also some classic Rob Zombie tracks on the soundtrack.
Dave W - 22nd November, 2003 - 15:53
Jim Carrey (The Mask, Ace Ventura) stars in a comedy about Road Island State Trooper, Charlie, who after having his wife run out on him and the whole town treat him as a joke finally snaps and forms a second personality who doesn't take the abuse Charlie would put up with.
When he is asked to escort Irene (Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones' Diary, Nurse Betty)) back to upstate New York, everything goes well until he loses his medication leading to mayhem when Hank starts to take control.
The film is a typical silly comedy, but having said that I personally find it hilarious in parts, Jim Carrey manages to get some of his patented silly faces in and some of the situations which Hank/Charlie and Irene get into are great.
Overall if you are a fan of this type of movie you'll probably find Me, Myself and Irene hilarious, if you don't like this kind of stupid humour then you'll probably hate this movie with a passion.
Dave W - 18th April, 2004 - 13:52
Director:
Michel Gondry
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
When Joel (Jim Carrey) discovers that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had all traces of him removed from her memory, he elects to have the same procedure to remove her from his. Things don't go too smoothly when he refuses to let go of the memories.
With a unique tale, and great acting from both Winslet and Carry Eternal Sunshine... makes for a unique and interesting film. The camera shots are great and there is a very surreal quality to the film, especially since a large part of the story takes place in Joels dreams.
I was particularly impressed with Carrey, seeing a completely different side to him as a serious actor without any of his usual rubber faced shinanigans which although funny in Ace Ventura are now beginning to wear thin. His role in Eternal Sunshine... is far more serious and he pulls it off greatly.
The screenplay was written by Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote being John Malkovich, both films have the same surreal feel to them. As well as having the kind of inside someone's head story telling.
Overall this is a really enjoyable, charming, thought provoking piece of cinema which I urge everyone to go and see.
Dave W - 17th May, 2004 - 00:23
25th hour stars Edward Norton as a drug dealer who is caught and faces 7 years in jail, it follows his last day as a free man as he and his friends sort things out before his incarceration. Edward Norton (American History X, Fightclub) gives a great performance. Overall this movie was enjoyable to watch and well made.
Dave W - 16th November, 2003 - 15:03
Director:
Chuck Parello
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
This movie tells the story of real life murderer Ed Gein. A lot of famous movies have been partially based on this story, including Psycho and Silence of The Lambs. Steve Railsback plays Ed Gein, a single man who lives alone on a farm. He has a strange fascination for things such as shrunken heads and other such gruesome acts. He digs up the bodies of dead women and make things out of their remains, and ends up shooting two women before he is caught. Steve Railsback gives a great performance of Ed and at times is very scary. Since the movie is based on real events, it is interesting to watch from the point of view of seeing where the ideas for the films which have borrowed from it came from. All in all, a movie worth watching, but can be a bit slow at times.
Dave W - 16th November, 2003 - 14:53
Director:
Mike Figgis
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
This movie has some pretty unique ideas which make it a very interesting piece of cinema. First of all, the entire film is presented with the screen split into 4 and each quarter of the screen is following different situations with the soundtrack moving from quarter to quarter to allow you to follow the plot. Although this makes for an interesting effect it can be a bit distracting at first as you try to take in all of the images you are being displayed.
Another interesting thing about this movie is that it was filmed in 4 continous 89 minutes takes with a single Camera for each quadrant of the film. The actors did a lot of improvisation on the script and it was all coordinated so that the cameras would meet at the correct times in each of the 4 parts.
These techniques make for a film which is technically very interesting, the plot isn't amazing and the movie would probably be regarded as pretty substandard without these extra factors. All in all, this film is very much worth watching as an interesting experiment.
Dave W - 9th November, 2003 - 13:53
Director:
James Isaac
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
Jason Vorhees (Friday the Thirteenth) is back and this time it's in space. A plot to freeze the seamingly unkillable Jason Vorhees until a time in which new technology can kill him fails and a scientist and Jason both end up being frozen. 400 years later they are discovered and taken aboard a spaceship where both Jason and the scientist thaw and he starts killing people again.
Having not seen any of the other Friday the Thirteenth films, I can't comment on how this compares to them, but I can say that if they are anything like Jason X I don't want to see them, this is one of the worst films I've seen recently, even beating Shriek, in fact I would go as far as saying this film is bad on the scale of Jeepers Creepers.
To sum it up the main problems with the film are a weak plot, terrible acting, absolutely no character development and a whole host of cheesy puns and one liners. The puns and one liners always seem to come exactly at a moment when you're thinking 'This movie is shit', then someone comes out with a terrible line and you're left wondering 'Who wrote this pish'.
In many ways, Jason X is similar to Alien; you can draw a parallel between Jason Vorhees and the Alien, both killing machines intent on destroying the crew. In both films, the 'specimen' is kept on board in an act of greed because someone thinks it is worth something. But that's where the similarities end, the Alien is genuinely scary; in Alien there is a strong build up of the characters; the crew actually seem to have a plan and half a clue and although the Alien is portrayed as the ultimate killing machine, it is still vunerable to many forms of attack. In Jason X, we have a killer who is in no way scary, there is no build up of tension, he just kills one meaningless character after another; the crew have to be the biggest waste of space ever, they have no plan, they all come across as very stupid and with most of them you'd just like Jason to hurry up and kill them.
The other major flaw with Jason X is that Jason is seemingly completely unstoppable, impervious to bullets nothing can harm him (although convienently the Android woman finds a gun from somewhere which blows him into little pieces, why oh why did no-one use that gun earlier?) there is no sense of hope, you watch marine after marine fire round after round into him and most of the time he doesn't even flinch. With the Alien at least there was the knowledge that it could probably be brought down with a gun if you were willing to take the risk.
All in all, Jason X is a terrible sci-fi film with no redeeming qualities, I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone.
Dave W - 18th April, 2004 - 14:00
Nick Hamm, director of The Hole, brings us Godsend. Starring Robert Deniro and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Godsend tells the story of Paul and Jessie Duncan.
When their son, Adam, is killed in an accident shortly after his 8th birthday; Dr. Richard Wells (Deniro), an old lecturer of Jessie's, approaches the bereaved couple and tells them about a technique he has developed which would allow them to clone their son and raise the new child. Since this is highly illegal, they must leave their old life behind them and start a new life with their new son.
Once the new Adam reaches the age at which the original Adam died, strange things start to happen and the film starts to go downhill, eventually culminating in a deep pit of tenuous links and a ridiculous plot which even the mighty Deniro can't resurect us from.
The first half of the film starts off well, there is a lot of scene setting, and the background story is told quickly and efficiently in a reasonable way. Once the shit hits the fan, the film slips a little, but is still entertaining and quite scary in places. Although then we entire the dire end of the movie, some tenuous clues are given to the father which lead him to discover the rather ill thought out and ridiculous truth which forms the basis of the silly plot twist at the end.
We are then left with a lot of questions unanswered as the credits roll.
Overall Godsend is pretty poor, starts of ok and goes downhill from their, not really worth watching.
Dave W - 10th July, 2004 - 17:32
Director:
Zack Snyder
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Zack Snyder's remake of George Romero's 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead gets off to an immense start and from that point on is unrelenting, this is a great modern Zombie movie and with such a lot to live up to could have gone horribly wrong.
The film starts by focusing on a nurse who after a hard shift, wakes up to find her neighbours daughter tearing into the room and starting to feast on her boyfriend. With blood spurting everywhere, he soon dies but then comes back to life and starts trying to attack her, after fleeing her house she finds a whole world of terror, groups of zombies running about biting anyone the see and very few survivors. She stumbles across a group of other survivors and they seek refuge in a shopping mall while the await rescue.
Unrelenting from the outset and in places genuinely scary this is a great horror movie with some funny parts and some pretty nasty deaths. If you're a fan of horror movies, go see this film, you won't regret it.
Dave W - 28th March, 2004 - 16:39
The third and final movie in the trilogy, Revolutions sees the machines moving into the last human city, Zion as Neo tries to stop them. The best part of the movie is definately the fight in Zion when thousands of Sentinels descend into the dock and the battle for Zion begins.
Carrying on in the tradition of Reloaded, we have a cheesy script with Wooden Acting and a new take on answering questions. Every question is answered with some sort of cryptic question or statement, I assume this is meant to be some kind of deep philosophical thing, but it is totally ridiculous. There are some pretty big plot holes in the storyline as well and some stuff just doesn't make sense.
If you enjoyed Reloaded you should enjoy this, if you have seen the first two you might as well see this since it is reasonably entertaining and seems a lot shorter than reloaded.
I'd say Revolutions is slightly better than Reloaded, although it's hardly vastly superior. by the time this was released I think a lot of people were looking for the end.
Dave W - 24th May, 2004 - 00:24
The Sequel to their 1999 classic, The Matrix, the Matrix Reloaded is much of the same from the Wachowski Brothers. Like the first, there is a lot of innovation with new filming techniques and a budget so great few films will ever be able to copy them. But for all the great stunt work and camera techniques there's a lot of really bad CG work.
The script also leaves a lot to be desired, very Cheesy dialogue and a plot which is meant to be deep and meaningful but is anything but. The acting is very wooden, although since we're dealing with Keanu Reeves, I wouldn't have expected any less.
On the plus side, there are some great fight scenes between Neo and a variety of characters and a rather exciting car chase scene which is one of the main pieces of action in the movie. Yuen Woo Ping does the fight choreography again and as always, does it very well.
The plot follows Neo and his chums as he tries to halt the war between man and machines. Add in to the action a cheesy romance plot between Neo and Trinity and some new characters and you have a reasonable sequel to an amazing movie.
Dave W - 24th May, 2004 - 00:09
Director:
Clint Eastwood
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Directed by Clint Eastwood, Mystic River tells the story of three childhood friends (Dave, Jemmy and Sean) re-united by the death of one of their daughters.
As children, one of the three Dave (Tim Robbins, Shawshank Redemption, Jacob's Ladder) was abducted which has a profound impact on his life, all three men still wonder how their lives would have changed if it had been someone else who had been taken.
When Jemmy's (Sean Penn) daughter is found dead after her car is discovered abandoned on the street, Sean (Kevin Bacon, Stir of Echoes, Tremors) who is now an FBI agent is put on the case with his partner Whitey Powers (Laurence Fishbourne, Matrix Trilogy [2][3]).
The story follows the investigation into the murder and the different personality's of each of the three men.
Overall the plot is reasonable, a typical murder mystery with an storyline which features as much on the 3 main characters as it does on the solving of the crime. With a number of big name stars Mystic River is pretty decent and worth a watch, although there are some rather predictable parts.
Dave W - 25th July, 2004 - 22:14
Director:
Frank Darabont
Year: 1994
Language: English
Country: America
The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) a young banker who is sentenced to two life sentences at Shawshank prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. It follows his experiences in prison and his friendship with fellow inmate 'Red' (Morgan Freeman). This is a great story and although the film is quite long (137 mins) your attention is held throughout leading up to a very good ending.
Dave W - 24th August, 2003 - 22:26
Director:
John Blanchard
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
Shriek, or to give it it's oh so hilarious full title, "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th" has to be a perfect example of when someone takes something too far. Scary movie was funny when it came out and it should have been left at that, but no, someone has to go and make this which is in parts a parody of Scary Movie, this doesn't work as they are basically taking the piss out of something which wasn't meant to be serious.
The movie has a lot of stuff borrowed from Scary Movie and adapted slightly, add to that some really bad jokes and some "it's obscure and therefore funny" moments and you have this film. There are a couple of genuinely funny moments in the film, but not enough to warrant watching the rest.
Scary Movie was good and it should have been left at that, there was no need to make this film, and it has to go on my list of the worst films ever.
Dave W - 22nd February, 2004 - 19:05
Director:
Sofia Ford Coppola
Year: 2003
Language: English, Japanese
Country: America
Written and directed by Sofia Ford Coppola, Lost in Translation tells the story of two American strangers, alone in Toyko who meet in their hotel and together discover a side to Tokyo they never would have seen seperately.
Bob Harris (Bill Murray, Ghostbusters) is an actor who is in Tokyo to record an advert for a Japanese Whisky, the trip has been a bit of a culture shock to him and he is confused by the Japanese customs. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson, 8 Legged Freaks), is there with her new husband who is a photographer, since he is out most of the day working, she spends most of her time sitting alone in her hotel room. When Charlotte's husband takes a trip away from Tokyo for a couple of days, Bob and Charlotte meet and instead of moping around the hotel, go out and explore Tokyo.
The story doesn't have much of a plot and the entire thing is driven by the relationship between Charlotte and Bob. I found the movie very enjoyable to watch, and the view of the Japanese culture through the eyes of a stranger is very interesting. While nothing much happens, we are given an insight into Tokyo and there is a strong emotional bond between the viewer and the two main characters.
Overall this movie was very enjoyable to watch, the only downside being I now really want to go to Tokyo as soon as I can rustle up the money.
Dave W - 14th February, 2004 - 15:11
Director:
James Cameron
Year: 1991
Language: English
Country: America
James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator, Titanic) brings us one of the best Sci-Fi sequels of all time, non stop action, guns, explosions and killer robots. Terminator 2 tells of the story of John Connor (Edward Furlong, American History X), future leader of the resistance. After the machines original plot to defeat Connor by killing his mother goes wrong, they send a new improved model of the terminator (the T-1000) back to kill John as a child. The human resistance send back a reprogrammed T800 to protect him.
The T-1000 has to be one of the coolest villians in Film history, with the ability to melt into liquid metal and reform itself into any number of useful shapes as well as take on the identity of anyone or thing of a similar size which it has physical contact with. Up against the ultimate villian is Arnie who plays the role of the Terminator amazingly, he is hard as nails and totally cool at the same time.
I don't know how many times I've seen this movie, but every time I do I am amazed by the action scenes, even now, 13 years later the CGI and special effects look top notch with only a few shots looking dated. This is one of Cameron's greatest films and one of the best Sci-Fi movies of all time, a must see for any fan of great action films.
Dave W - 14th February, 2004 - 15:04
Director:
Jonathan Mostow
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
12 years after James Cameron's epic Terminator 2, Arnie is back, this time with a new director and a ditching of the 18 certificate in favour of a very family friendly 12. I have to say that I thought this film was going to be dreadful, Terminator movies should not be awarded 12 ratings, that was a total copout. I have to report that the film wasn't as bad as I had anticipated and in fact, this review is based on my second watching of the film now that it has been released on DVD.
Set 10-15 years after the world was saved from Judgement Day at the end of Terminator 2, John Connor (Nick Stahl) now lives 'off the grid', with no fixed address he wanders from place to place. When the machines send back a new Terminator, the T-X (played by Kristanna Loken), to murder John and his future luitenents the resistance also send back a T101 (Arnie) to protect John. John meets an old school friend who is his wife in the future, Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), Arnie meets them and they go on a mad mission to try and stop Skynet (Conviently Kate's father is in charge of the project).
This is a typical Hollywood action film, there are some very cool scenes, lots of guns and Kristanna Loken makes a very convincing Terminator. The film is a lot less dark than Cameron's original films, with Arnie playing a very tongue in cheek role which is at times very funny. Having seen the film a second time I noticed a lot more references to the previous films (especially T2) which was pretty cool and the ending is quite cool and something different from what I was expecting.
All in all, this is an acceptable Hollywood movie, something good to entertain you, but with none of the greatness of Cameron's originals. Had Cameron been on board it could have been so much more.
Dave W - 14th February, 2004 - 15:00
Director:
Tim Burton
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Director Tim Burton's (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow) Big Fish tells the story of Edward Bloom, a man who's life is defined by tall tales. Since an early age Will Bloom has heard his father tell his incredible stories, but when he is grown up he realises his father's tales can't be true and feels like he doesn't know the real Edward Bloom. The film follows Will as he tries to find the truth behind his father's stories while at the same time telling some of the tales.
The adventures Edward has told of are numerous and involve such topics as witches, giants and some heroics during the Korean war. As the action moves between the present day and the tales we get a sense of the normal everyday juxtaposed with the fantasy of the make believe. The young Edward Bloom is played very well by Ewan McGregor.
Tim Burton brings us a well written, highly imaginative film with some very immersive stories from Edward's life but at the same time delivers an emotional side with the present day story line. The film is a good length and the different stories help to keep the viewers attention throughout. All in all I'd highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see something different and who is not put off by the sometimes fairy tale like stories.
Dave W - 14th February, 2004 - 14:56
Director:
John Frankenheimer
Year: 1998
Language: English, French
Country: America
Robert Deniro and Jean Reno star in this action movie set in France. A group of men are called together to help plan and execute an ambush to steal a briefcase from a gang before the case is sold on. The mission is shrouded in mystery and their only contact, Deirdre, refuses to give any non essential information away.
There is certainly lots of action in the film, some great car chases and a couple of big gun fights. The camera work in the car chases is pretty good and with a lot of tearing it up small streets in Nice it's definately entertaining to watch.
Aside from the action, the plot is ok, but not brilliant, overall it's an alright film, but nothing special. If you're in the mood for an action film you don't have to think about too much then Ronin could be worth a watch.
Dave W - 11th April, 2004 - 02:24
Director:
Stanley Kubrick
Year: 1964
Language: English
Country: America
I'm a big fan of Kubrick's later films, (Eyes Wide Shut, 2001, Full Metal Jacket, Clockwork Orange, The Shining) but I hadn't seen any of his earlier works. Having heard that Dr. Strangelove... was a film worth seeing, I picked it up at the video store without knowing much about it. The story is set during the cold war and starts with a rather mentally unstable US Army Officer who has instructed American B52s to attack Russia with nuclear weapons, the story follows this event in three main locations, aboard one of the B52s in question, in the war room at the Pentagon and at the army base which the officer was stationed. The film is a black comedy and in this field there are some points which are quite funny, the directing and camera shots are what I have come to expect from Kubrick. Peter Sellers plays at least 3 different parts, a British Naval officer, the president of the US and the rather eccentric Dr. Strangelove. To sum up this film is well worth seeing, funny in parts, an interesting story and some nice camera shots.
Dave W - 23rd August, 2003 - 00:58
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Year: 1960
Language: English
Country: America
I have to say that this is the first of Hitchcock's movies which I have seen, and all in all I was impressed and am keen to watch more. For those of you that don't know the story line (which won't be many), it tells the story of a young woman who runs away from her life after stealing $40,000 from her boss to start a new life with her boyfriend who works far away in another state. Whilst travelling to him, she stops in at the Bates Motel, a remote Motel with no other customers. Seemingly the motel is run by Norman Bates who lives there with only his ill mother for company. The young woman is murdered in the shower, and the rest of the movie is a kind of who done it type thing. The annoying thing being I already knew who done it cause the film was made over 40 years ago and every TV show which ever mentions the film tells you who the murderer is.
Even though I knew the entire plot before watching the film, I found the film really enjoyable to watch, the start was a little slow, but the film itself is most definately a classic. If you haven't seem this film already and are a fan of modern films of this genre then you should check this film out.
Dave W - 16th November, 2003 - 15:13
Director:
Andrew Niccol
Year: 1997
Language: English
Country: America
In the near future, parents can have their children genetically matched to their specification leading to a class of society which are almost perfect and excel at everything. For those people born naturally, there is no chance for them to reach the ranks which the perfect can reach. Gattaca tells the story of Vincent, a man born naturally who wishes to become an astronaut, to do so he must go to Gattaca, the mission control centre. As himself he is discriminated against because of his genes, so he takes on the life of a genetically engineered man who has been crippled in an accident. The film follows his struggle to get on a mission into space while hiding his true identity.
The future portrayed in the film feels similar to films such as AI and Minority Report as well as George Orwell's '1984' and Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'. This future is reasonably believable and the concept at the heart of the film is quite an interesting question. With AI and Minority Report, the concept's were a little more far fetched.
Vincent is played by Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and his donor, Jerome is played by Jude Law (A.I.) both actors play their characters very well in what are both believable roles. Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) is also cast as another employee at Gattaca.
If you found the ideas portrayed in films like A.I. or Minority Report interesting or the idea of a future where people are born into specific roles in society, then I'd reccomend this film. Overall, an interesting storyline and ideas, well written and entertaining.
Dave W - 18th April, 2004 - 14:13
Director:
Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
The film everyone has been waiting for since Kill Bill Volume 1 was released last year is finally here. Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off and follows the Bride (Uma Thurman, Gattaca, Kill Bill) as she completes her list of revenge.
This film has a lot less action than the first, and more plot, with a lot of background stories of the Bride, Bill and the situation. Again, Tarantino's writing and directing is excellent and David Carradine gives a great performance as Bill.
In comparison to Volume 1, Volume 2 is not as exciting, but since this was originally meant to be the latter half of a single film, I don't think it's fair to judge the film as a sequel. Volume 2 is a fitting end to the story and action which was presented in Volume 1 and as the second half of a film is a great film.
As a sidenote I'd have to say that the Kill Bill films are my favourite of Tarantino's films. Although Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs were both good films I've never regarded them with the same cult status which they seem to have attracted. Kill Bill on the other hand is an amazing achievement which is sure to go down as one of the great films of its time.
Dave W - 9th May, 2004 - 14:37
Director:
Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Tarantino returns with the fourth film he has written and directed. Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as a female assasin who is shot on her wedding day, after spending 4 years in a coma she awakes to take revenge on her former Boss (Bill) and the rest of the death squad who played their part in the attempt on her life.
From the outset Kill Bill is action packed, lots of great fight scenes and lots of blood and gore. Nearly every scene in the movie involves some sort of huge sword fight, each a set piece from old martial arts films. This makes for a very exciting film which is not only entertaining, but has lots of very cool touches which show that Tarantino is a great film maker. One such touch is that the story of O-Ren Ishii's (Lucy Lui) childhood which is told through a short anime segment produced by Production IG (Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire).
All in all, this is a very good film and I can't wait until Volume 2 comes out, I highly recommend it.
Dave W - 1st November, 2003 - 12:42
Director:
Brian De Palma
Year: 1983
Language: English
Country: America
In 1980 a young Cuban man, Tony Montana, arrives in a detention centre in America. After receiving a green card as a favour for killing a Communist leader in the detention camp, Tony moves to Miama to follow his dream of getting rich by any means necessary.
Al Pacino gives an amazing performance in this tale of one mans ruthless rise to the top and then his demise. Scarface is a classic, with some great scenes and that classic line 'Say hello to my little friend'.
Watching Scarface now it was interesting to see just how much of Scarface had made its way into GTA: Vice City. The film has just had a special edition DVD rerelease which is great considering the 80's revival which GTA: Vice City brought about.
Overall, a great film well worth watching.
Dave W - 10th April, 2004 - 03:12
Director:
Christopher Nolan
Year: 2002
Language: English
Country: America
When two detectives are sent from LA to Alaska to help solve the murder of a local teenager, things don't go well for detective Will Dormer (Al Pacino) as he has problem sleeping due to the constant daylight of the Alaskan summer. It's hard to describe the plot without giving too much away, but it's well written and acted. Another good film I would recommend.
Dave W - 25th October, 2003 - 14:41
Director:
Joe Carnahan
Year: 2002
Language: English
Country: America
18 months after undercover narcotics agent Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is discharged from the force for causing harm to a civilian during a chase, he is asked to return to help on the case of a murdered policeman. The dead cops partner Henry oak (Ray Liotta) who is considered a bit of a loose cannon is assigned to help him. The film follows Tellis and Oak as the try to solve the case. The plot is really good, I don't want to give anything away, but this is a must see movie, Ray Liotta plays his part very well and there are some nice camera effects. All in all, a very well written entertaining film.
Dave W - 25th October, 2003 - 14:29
Director:
Dominic Sena
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
A criminal mastermind enlists the help of one of the world's best hackers to help him in a 9 billion dollar robbery. John Tavolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry star in what is a reasonably good action movie. The film is entertaining enough to watch and there are a couple of scenes which are quite spectacular, especially an explosion near the start of the movie.
The main letdown for this film is that the script has a lot of meaningless references to vaguely security related computer stuff which comes across as them not knowing what they are talking about. One scene in which Jackman is meant to be programming a worm is totally ridiculous, he has about 9 monitors and loads of flashing cubes and stuff which fly around to piece together the worm. Real life programming obviously isn't as exciting as they wanted, so a completely ridiculous graphical set up has been constructed.
Aside from the terrible computer related stuff, Swordfish is a reasonable action movie. Which is entertaining enough and a good movie to watch if you don't want to have to think too much.
Dave W - 18th April, 2004 - 14:15
Director:
Stephen Sommers
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Hugh Jackman (X-Men, X-2, Swordfish) and Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbour, Underworld) star in what seems to be a tongue in cheek action flick set in a world of monster movie cliches. Van Helsing (Jackman) is a monster hunter employed by the Vatican to hunt down and kill evil creatures. When he is sent to Transylvania to help some villagers kill Dracula he and his comedy sidekick Carl team up with a local, Anna (Beckinsale). Together they must find a way to destroy Dracula before he kills Anna. They soon learn of a much greater danger in an evil plot.
This movie is full of cliches and is in parts very cheesy. The whole thing starts with a black and white section done in the style of old monster movies. We see Dr. Frankenstein bring his monster to life and when Dracula trys to take control of the monster they flee the castle. This all takes place while an angry mob with flaming torches try to seige the castle. You can probably picture the scene, lightning striking the castle, there's even a token Igor who pops up to say 'Yeth Marthter' at the appropriate moment. Anyway, the monster and Dr. Frankenstein escape the castle but are immediately chased to the only windmill I've ever heard of which happens to be full of absinthe (you can't make this stuff up!). Needless to say the mob burn the windmill which explodes in a rather spectacular fashion leaving the monster on the top screaming 'Whyyyyyyy??' as he is burnt alive.
Then we are introduced to Van Helsing in action, battling a kind of Dr. Jekyl and the hunchback of Notradame hybrid. We get a couple of 'The bells, The bells' but Helsing wins out in the end and can go back to the Vatican to meet up with his monk chump and get on with the film.
So we've got Dr. Frankenstein, his monster, Dracula, some Vampires and a token Igor. Throw a couple of werewolves and Dracula's own midget army (think of oompa loompa tuskan raiders who sound like Daleks) and you've got a movie.
Don't get me wrong, although the plot is ridiculous and it has nearly every monster from black and white monster movies bar king kong and godzilla; Van Helsing is actually reasonably enjoyable to watch, the CG work is pretty good, lots of opportunity for vampires teeth to grow, men to turn into wolves, monsters to fall to bits, that sort of thing.
FACT: Wooden carriages will spontaneously combust if they are brought into contact with a werewolves or are crashed into a canyon.
OK, that's not true in real life, but is typical of the over the top action that is in this film Van Helsing fires at numerous people with any number of projectile weapons, there are more swingy rope scenes than Tarzan and things (mostly people) explode, catch fire or turn to dust. While all this happens, the Back To The Future music plays and you are just waiting for Doc and Marty to come and rescue him. OK, I made that last bit up, but the music is very similar to Back To The Future.
All in all Van Helsing is enjoyable enough to watch for its two hour duration, some great CG, good action, very funny in parts (although maybe not intentionally). A typical Hollywood mindless action movie with a cast of vampires and werewolves.
Dave W - 9th May, 2004 - 23:39
Director:
Len Wiseman
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
The first thing I have to say about this film is that it is far from original, there are many elements which have been chored from other films and sources, the entire basis of the story (forbidden love between two fueding factions) comes directly from Romeo and Juliet and much of the clothing and fight scenes seem to be heavily influenced by the Matrix.
Having said that, this is still a good film. Set in a time when Vampires and Lycans (Werewolves) are fighting for supreme control, Selene (Kate Beckinsale, Pearl Harbour, Van Helsing) discovers that the Werewolves are searching for a human and goes against the head of the Vampires clan wishes and seeks down the human the Werewolves are after. Michael (the human) ends up saving her life and they fall in love, but he has been bitten by a werewolf and has 2 days till the next full moon.
Anyway, after this the plot starts to twist and nothing seems like it is at the start, I don't want to give too much away on this. The plot and the action scenes make for an entertaining albiet not life changing film.
Dave W - 5th October, 2003 - 12:13
Director:
Paul Hunter
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
I didn't have very high hopes of this film from the start even although Sean William Scott's other films have been reasonably humorous (Dude Where's My Car, Roadtrip, American Pie). Starring Sean William Scott as young pickpocket Karl and Chow Yun Fat as a monk (just called monk, he has no name) who must guard a secret scroll which gives whoever reads it ultimate power, the monk meets up with Karl and as he tries to protect the scroll from a Nazi who has been after it since WWII he realises that Karl may be the next keeper of the scroll. This film is pretty poor, there are a couple of humourous moments, but the rest is made up of really cheesy action and dodgy special effects. One to watch only if you are really bored and can't find anything else.
Dave W - 21st September, 2003 - 16:25
Director:
Wolfgang Petersen
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Based on Homer's poem The Illiad, Troy tells the story of a war between Greece and Troy. When the two princes of Troy, Paris (Orlando 'Legolas' Bloom) and Hector (Eric Bana, The Hulk) visit Sparta to make peace with the King of Sparta, they start a war against Troy when Paris brings the kings wife, Helen of Sparta with him.
The king of Sparta asks his brother Agamemnon to go to war with Troy, and since Agamemnon has been itching for a war with Troy for a while, he agrees. The also get a warrior by the name of Achilles (of the tendon fame, Brad Pitt) in on the act, but he's a bit of a loose cannon.
Anyway, Helen's face launches the 1000 ships, the Greeks come to Troy, have a bit of a fight and as I'm sure you all know, it all culminates with a giant wooden horse (all Sean Bean's idea actually).
This is a classic ancient epic, scenes of 1000's of soldiers marching to war, intense fighting, and some impressive battles. On the downside, a lot of it is overacted and the dialogue can be a bit cheesy. The Trojans seem to have no grasp of military tactics and the Greeks aren't every good either. I'm surprised the managed to have a war at all.
This is almost 3 hours of large scale action, which is entertaining and to its merit doesn't drag on. Entertaining for what it is, but not an amazing movie.
Dave W - 23rd May, 2004 - 23:48
Director:
Alex Proyas
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Will Smith stars in the sci-fi action film I, Robot. In the near future (in my opinion too near to be feasible), Robots are everywhere, when a robot hating homicide detective (Smith) begins investigating the suicide of a leading robotic engineer, he believes it is no suicide and blames a robot. Everyone else tells him it can't be and he is labelled as paranoid.
First the bad things, the film is the perfect example of how to milk as much money as possible out a movie through product placement. Countless shots involving the Audi logo, no less than 3 mentions of a 'retro' Converse training shoe which has been released now and a couple of JVC hi-fi appearances. Of course, by mentioning these, I've further advertised the brands.
The other major niggle I have with the film is the over explanation of the main points in the plot. In particular, Asimov's 3 laws of robotics which are displayed at the start of the movie are explained over and over again until the film-makers were sure that even the dumbest of the dumb movie goers have got how the whole thing works.
Now that I've got the bad out of the way, I'll move onto the good. The futuristic view of Chicago is pretty cool, the robots all look believable and the animation is pretty good.
The big set action pieces are all pretty stunning visually and are reasonably exciting. The script has some pretty funny jokes with quips a plenty. Will Smith is pretty decent as the action hero at the centre of the plot and as a supporting actress, Bridget Moynahan gives an alright performance in the role of 'uptight female scientist who looks down on the hero cause he is stupid but once she realises she is wrong and he is on to something they make a good team.
Overall, I, Robot is no Bladerunner, but is a decent action film which keeps you interested with its explosions, jokes and reasonable plot.
Dave W - 8th August, 2004 - 23:11
Director:
Morgan Spurlock
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Supersize Me is a documentary written, directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock. He goes on a quest to eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 days, eating 3 meals a day and if he is asked to go Super Size he has to do it. Needless to say, his health suffers a bit. I don't really know what he thought would happen, eating 5000 calories a day regardless of where it comes from is never going to be good and it's not as if McDonalds recommend that you eat their food for every meal.
In the vein of Fastfood Nation, Supersize Me has a lot of facts about why the fastfood industry is creating a world of obese people. Unlike Fastfood Nation though, Morgan Spurlock seems to direct most of his criticism at McDonalds, wheras Eric Schlosser gave all of the American Fast Food Giants an equal bashing.
The film is full of shots of Morgan, holding a super-size fries or drink and going "wow look at the size of this". On the second day, we see him take 22 minutes to eat a Super-Sized double Quarter Meal and then throw up, either this is entirely staged, or he obviously doesn't eat very much usually, although a lot, it's hardly enough to make you spew.
Despite the fact that McDonalds serve healthier things on their menu, he goes out of his way to eat and drink the things with the most fat and sugar, opting for Milkshakes even although McDonalds sell water. To make matters worse, for the entire 30 day period he does very little exercise claiming that he is trying to emulate the typical American lifestyle.
His biggest claim is that shortly after the film was released, McDonalds stopped doing super-size options, how is that a good thing? If I want to eat my weight in chips, Morgan Spurlock has no right to tell a fast food chain they can't do a deal on that, the whole film has the mentality that the consumer is innocent in this and the reason for America's rising obesity rate is because McDonalds sell fattening food. Newsflash Mr. Spurlock, people choose how much to eat in McDonalds, McDonalds don't force you to eat Super-Size, it's a choice.
The film itself is slightly entertaining and funny in parts, although I felt the point being made has been made better elsewhere. The film makes you think about what you eat, but I did find, it made me really want to go out and get a Big Mac. In short, the entire premise to the film is flawed and Morgan Spurlock's blatantly biased reporting does little to convince me of the evils of McDonalds.
Dave W - 19th August, 2004 - 23:36
Director:
M. Night Shyamalan
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
M. Night Shyamalan returns with his 4th blockbuster, after becoming famous for Sixth Sense and redefining the plot twist in Holywood movies, Shyamalan never really returned to form with his follow ups, Unbreakable and Signs which were reasonable, but not great.
Sadly the Village is worse than the previous two, with some of the most stupid and contrived plot twists in the history of cinema along with plot holes so big you have to wonder what he was thinking when he wrote it, you can almost imagine Night Shyamalan talking to the finace people when he goes to seek funding for the film:
Funding People: "This is a pile of toss"
Shyamalan: "But it will sell movies, we'll make a creepy trailer which says nothing about the film, slap a bit at the end saying 'From the director of The Sixth Sense and Signs' and by the time people realise its crap they'll already have parted with their cash"
Funding People: "Good point, after all value for money isn't what the movie industry is about, as long as it's a big budget Hollywood movie, it will make millions regardless of how shit it is"
Having said that, there are a lot of people out there who enjoyed this movie, but then Jeepers Creepers was quite liked by some people as well.
The film tells the story of a group of villagers who live in a village surrounded entirely by woods. The villagers are simple people from simpler times, it just so happens that the woods are inhabited by creatures who aren't very nice. Luckily the villagers have a truce with them, as long as no-one from the village crosses the boundary, the monsters will not come into the village.
When the monsters start coming into the village, the villagers must decide what to do, leading to some plot twists and a typical M. Night Shyamalan ending, including a cameo from the director himself *Gasp!* Oh wait, he is in every one of his movies.
Overall The Village is a big pile of pish, avoid.
Dave W - 5th September, 2004 - 18:34
Director:
Guillermo del Toro
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Another comic book gets translated to the big screen. Hellboy tells the story of a demon who is summoned to the Earth by the Nazis during the second world war. Fortunately the Nazi's don't get their wicked ways and he is brought up in America. 60 years later (although he ages slower, so he still kicks ass), he is working with the FBI in their Paranormal Investigations unit. When a new agent is assigned to look after him, a plot is unconvered to use Hellboy to bring about the apocolypse.
As far as plot goes, the film is ok much what you'd expect from a slightly cheesy action movie. There some reasonable CG work and the big action scenes are pretty good. There's also a typical kind of humour much like in the X-Men and Spiderman films.
Overall, Hellboy is a reasonably made comic book translation, worth watching but not amazing.
Dave W - 9th September, 2004 - 23:11
Director:
George A. Romero
Year: 1978
Language: English
Country: America
Having recently been remade and spoofed, Dawn of the Dead has officialy been revived and what better way to celebrate the revival than watching the 1978 original in all its uncut glory.
The story tells of 2 SWAT team members, a traffic reporter and his girlfriend who end up seeking refuge in a mall after the dead start to return to life as flesh eating zombies. Romero's 1978 classic has everything which a good zombie movie needs, lots of blood and gore and some quality zombie action as the they mill about aimlessly in their comical dazed state.
Although the film looks a little dated now, it is still well worth watching.
Dave W - 9th September, 2004 - 23:30
Director:
David Twohy
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Chronicles of Riddick, the sequel to Pitch Black is a bit of a mixed bag; on one hand there are some good ideas, the overall plot is alright and there is the potential for some great action moments. On the other hand, the dialogue is awful, it has Vin Diesel in it, the action scenes are plain annoying and there are so many over the top effects and sci-fi cliches.
The film follows on 10 or so years after Riddick escaped from the alien planet in Pitch Black, hiding out in a frozen wasteland, he is ambushed by Bounty Hunters looking to collect the price on his head. He outwits them and demands to know who put the price on his head, after he finds out he heads to Helion Prime to try and get the bounty lifted. Here he meets up with the priest from Pitch Black and Dame Judy Dench appears as an elemental to tell him about a group calling themselves Necromongers who have been going from planet to planet, indoctrinating those who will join them and destroying those who resist.
Needless to say Helion Prime is the next planet on their list, when they arrive he refuses to join kicks some guys ass and the take him to do some tests. He manages to escape from them but is recaptured by the bounty hunters who take him to Cremotoria a planet world which reaches 700 degrees during the day. Here he meets up with Jack from the first film, and they go on their adventure to defeat the Necromongers.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about The Chronicles of Riddick is the first 15 minutes of the film have strobe effects in every scene, this adds nothing to the atmosphere and is just plain annoying since it is hard to see what is happening. Add to this that every fight scene in the film is shot comprising entirely of short close ups of the action, cutting between them without ever showing anything actually impressive. It means that every fight you just see Vin punch someone, they hit back, the action doesn't flow sometimes you just want a wide shot in which you can actually see what is going on.
As a sequel to Pitch Black, it seems rather pointless. It is on a much larger scale than Pitch Black, obviously the success of the first one granted a much bigger budget for the second. The film doesn't provide any more insight into the character of Riddick, if anything it takes away from the character since Vin has a lot more dialogue now and he's not exactly a great actor. The character Keira who was called Jack in the first film bears no resemblance to what she is like in this one. It pretty much looks like David Twohy has been given a huge budget to make a sequel to a film which was never written as a the first of a trilogy.
The universe in which Chronicles of Riddick is set is reasonably well done, the different planets and races have the feel of a cheap Star Wars. The only bad thing is the planets have totally crap names. The evil doers of the film fly around in cool spaces ships which can land, become a building then fly away again, it's all crazy stuff.
Overall The Chronicles of Riddick is an example of a reasonable plot ruined by awful dialogue, shoddy acting, too much strobes and badly shot fight scenes.
Dave W - 16th September, 2004 - 17:30
Director:
Michael Mann
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
When LA cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx, Any Given Sunday) is asked by a passenger, Vincent (Tom Cruise, Cocktail, Top Gun), to drive him to 5 different stops in the night for more money than he would make otherwise he hesitantly accepts.
Max gets a nasty shock at the first stop off when a body is shot through a window and falls on his taxi. Vincent then demands he makes the rest of the stops threatening to kill him if he doesn't comply. Max is then thrown into a struggle to try to stop Vincent from killing more targets while keeping himself alive at the same time.
Collateral is a reasonably decent thriller, the plot is pretty good although most of it is explained in the trailer so there aren't many surprises if you haven't seen that. In fact if you've seen the trailer, towards the end you can tell by using a process of elimination which scenes are coming next. The screenplay and dialogue is pretty good, Cruise has some decent lines and in parts of the film there is a slightly comic tone to the script. The action scenes are reasonably exciting and well shot and there is some nice scenes following the cab through the city from above.
Overall Collateral is a reasonably good thriller, there's nothing here you've not seen before but it's entertaining through out.
Dave W - 16th September, 2004 - 22:52
Director:
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
While movies starring Ben Stiller are usually reasonable, they're usually not amazing, Dodgeball is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time.
The film tells the story of Peter La Fluer (Vince Vaughn), when he fails to pay the mortgage on his gym, Average Joes, he is told he has 30 days to come up with $50,000 or his gym will be sold to White Goodman (Stiller) head of a large fitness centre who wants to bulldoze Average Joes to make way for a parking lot.
His team of mainly cliched friends get together to think of ways to raise the cash. Middle aged slightly overweight nice guy Gordon spots a Dodgeball tournament in his copy of Obscure Sports Quarterly with a $50,000 1st prize. The team enters the tournament and Goodman enters his own team as well to try and stop them winning.
The plot is pretty much the same as any other comedy involving any kind of sport and most of what's going to happen is pretty obvious. But in this type of film, the plot is pretty much irrelevant and the writing makes up for it all, luckily the screenplay is hilarious.
Vince Vaughn is pretty good as the team captain, the rest of his team are reasonable with the exception of Pirate Steve who is amazing. Although he doesn't really say much, apart from Aaaar, it's amazing how much comedy can be made from having a pirate in a film. Ben Stiller's role is kept to the minimum required by the story which makes his scenes better than if he'd been in every scene in the movie.
There's a few cameos with Hank Azaria appearing as the young Patches O'Houlihan, Dodgeball Legend, in an old educational film about Dodgeball. He introduces us to the 5 important skills of Dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dive, Dip and ...Dodge. Other cameos come from William Shatner, Chuck Norris and a rather angry David Hassellhof telling the German Dodgeball team exactly what he thinks of them.
The majority of the comedy in the film is slapstick, with lots of opportunity for people being pelted with balls, and in one particular scene, wrenches "If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball".
If you like stupid humour and slapstick comedy then you will love this film.
Dave W - 20th September, 2004 - 18:33
Director:
Adam McKay
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Anchorman stars Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, the Anchorman on a San Diego TV station. When Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) arrives at the station with aspirations of being the first female Anchor, Burgundy and the rest of his team treat her in a very sexist manner swaying between being mean to her and trying to get a date.
Ron falls for her, and things seem to be going well until an unfortunate incident causes him to arrive late for a news report to find Veronica has read his news for him and that he has competition.
The characters in Anchorman are alright on the whole, the stupid weather man Brick is probably the funniest character in the film. There is quite a varied range of humour ranging from the plain bizarre to slapstick. There are also some cameos including Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller.
Although I found the first 15 minutes really terrible and was expecting to hate the film, it does get better from that point on, with some great lines and scenes.
Dave W - 20th September, 2004 - 18:53
Director:
Paul Greengrass
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
The second in the series starring Matt Damon as CIA agent turned fugitive Jason Bourne. When Bourne is framed for the murder of a CIA agent in Berlin even although he was in India at the time, he is forced out of hiding to clear his name and discover more of his past.
The Bourne Identity was a reasonable film, but not amazing, The Bourne Supremacy is definitely better and as a film in it's own right is pretty good. The plot is really good and the acting reasonable, although Matt Damon isn't exactly the best actor in the world. As a sequel, Supremacy has the advantage that since it is based on a series of novels (albiet this is more the second half of the first book), it was always written as a sequel and isn't just a contrived bolt on to make a bit more money out of the first film.
Overall, the Bourne Supremacy is definately better than the Bourne Identity and any fans of the first should go see it. This is how sequels should be.
Dave W - 20th September, 2004 - 19:09
Director:
Alexander Witt
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
The Sequel to 2002's Video Game based zombie horror action flick, Resident Evil. Resident Evil 2 returns with more of the same. A horror action flick with the usual cheap jumps and some reasonably large action scenes.
When a team of scientists from Umbrella return to the Hive to investigate the happenings in the first film, they accidentally release the T-Virus on the unsuspecting residents of Racoon City. The virus which brings the dead back to life spreads out of control and the Umbrella corporation use the city as a testing ground for their new biological weaponry.
The film follows a group of survivors led by plucky cop Jill Valentine as they agree to help a scientist who managed to escape to find his daughter. The team up with Alice (Milla Jovovich), a survivor from the accident at the hive in the first film. Now given superhuman strength due to the mutation effects of the T-Virus.
If you face the fact that Resident Evil 2 was never going to be a film which has a deep plot, and go and see it for what it is, mindless action with flashy special effects it's a reasonable film. With obvious flaws such as the terrible acting it's hardly Oscar material. If all you after is 2 hours of mindless action with little plot then Resident Evil is the film for you. Not good, but no where near as bad as some other films I could mention.
Dave W - 21st October, 2004 - 21:53
When a young photographer and a doctor wake up in a room chained to the wall by their ankles with a dead body between them, they find they are to be victims of a twisted serial killer known to the police as jigsaw.
Jigsaw's methods of killing people involve putting them into sick situations where they must choose themselves to do something terrible or die a painful death. The film is very dark and it some places deeply disturbing and fucked up.
Director and story writer James Wan has concocted a masterpiece of a movie. The majority of the film is set in the room which the two apparent strangers are imprisoned in. This gives a claustrophobic feel which echoes that of the feel in Cube. The idea of the two main characters trying to work out why they are there and how to escape also have a very Cube like feel and while the two movies are totally different, at times Saw reminded me very strongly of Cube.
The story is excellent, the cinematography great with a good feeling of tension and although the twist at the end is completely unpredicatable, it is still believable.
Although overall Saw is an excellent movie it has its downsides, the main one being the acting of the two main characters, both Leigh Whannell (Adam) and Cary Elwes (Dr. Gordon) have a tendancy to overact, with Elwes being more guilty of this. At times, his acting was so over the top he reminded me of Will Ferrell..
Overall, Saw is a really good movie although it is let down in places by sub-standard acting.
Dave W - 25th October, 2004 - 19:46
Director:
Paul Anderson
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
When you have a film which takes two of Sci-Fi's most kickass enemies and pitches them against each other, you have the potential for an amazing movie.
AvP starts with the Weyland corporation picking up a strange heat emission in the Antarctic. On further investigation they discover an ancient pyramid buried beneath the ice, Charles Weyland (Lance Fredericksen, Aliens) gathers a team of experts to lead an excavation of the pyramid.
Unfortunately for the team, the Predators also have an interest in the pyramid and turn up during the mission. To make matters worse, the pyramid is home to an Alien queen who wakes up and begins spawning eggs. After some face hugger action there are soon Aliens running around fighting the Predators. The humans are caught in the middle of all the action and are powerless to stop the battle.
As far as plots go in action movies, it's alright but not exactly amazing. The special effects are reasonably good, both the Aliens and the Predators look reasonable and there is a good amount of fighting between them. When compared to the previous Alien movies though, AvP is very weak. The Aliens in the previous movies were scary and especially in Alien there was a build of of tension, with the Alien only really appearing when needed. In AvP, the Aliens are all over the place and although the look nice enough they just aren't as scary.
The chest burster scene is pretty rubbish as well, although the fact that this film is another Terminator 3 in that they have taken what were sci-fi films rated 18 and pitched at a more mature audience and made a film pitched at the more lucrative 15 rating market.
AvP had the potential to be really good, they had a lot to work with, but what they ended up with was a generic action movie which works on that level but has none of the style and excellence which the original Alien movies have.
Dave W - 31st October, 2004 - 13:32
Director:
Terry Zwigoff
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Bad Santa tells the story of conman, Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox, Me, Myself & Irene). Every Christmas Marcus and Willie get jobs in the Santa's grotto of a department store, then rip it off on Christmas Eve, emptying the safe and disappearing until the next year.
Willie is the most unlikely Santa ever, he hates kids; has a foul temper and is an alcoholic who is always drunk on the job. Things take a turn for the strange when Willie ends up staying with a strange kid he befriends.
The humour in Bad Santa is very dark, Billy Bob Thornton is excellent in his role as the store Santa who hates Christmas. Almost every line is hilariously funny and incredibly well delivered. Although a Christmas movie, Bad Santa takes all the Christmas cheer out of it, a great movie for people who are sickened by the usual cheery Christmas movies.
Overall, a pretty funny Christmas film with a difference. If you go and see it look out for the best cameo ever near the end when none other than Sherrif John Bunnel of World's Scariest Police Chases fame.
Dave W - 7th November, 2004 - 13:55
Director:
Tony Scott
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Denzel Washington stars in Man of Fire as an ex-marine who is hired as a bodyguard by a wealthy family in Mexico City to protect their daughter. Hired on the cheap because of his drinking problem, he only really gets the job because the family need a bodyguard to renew their kidnapping insurance.
When the girl is kidnapped and the money exchange goes wrong, the uncle of a kidnapper killed in the exchange kills the girl in retaliation. Creasy (Washington) then goes on a revenge mission threatening to kill everyone involved in the kidnapping attempt.
Violent at times, Man on Fire is a pretty decent tale of revenge which is reasonably well shot and acted. Although the plot is a little predicatable leaving no surprises at the end.
Dave W - 14th November, 2004 - 17:07
Director:
Spike Jonze
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
Written by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich tells the story of striggling puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack). When he gets a new job at a strange company run by an eccentric old man, he falls in love with Maxine (Catherine Keener, a co-worker in the same building. One night while working late, he discovers a hidden door behind some filing cabinets which allows you to enter John Malkovich's mind and see the world through his eyes. Together, Maxine and Craig start selling the experience to other people, things get complicated when Craig's wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) gets involved.
The entire premise of the film is wonderfully bizarre, and the comedy throughout the movie is similarly surreal. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is excellent, and all the actors involved give great performances.
Being John Malkovich has to be one of the most original films made recently and is well worth watching.
Dave W - 28th November, 2004 - 12:38
To be honest, I don't know why I went to see this film. I'm a big fan of the original Taxi and Taxi 2; I have a big thing about Hollywood remaking foreign films; I can't stand Queen Latifah or Jimmy Fallon. So, with that start, I pretty much knew that I would hate the film, I just wanted to see how badly director Tim Story had ruined the Taxi franchise.
We start with a cycle courier cycling through New York, weaving in and out of traffic and taking shortcuts through shops etc. This amazing courier turns out to be Queen Latifah, now maybe it's just me but Queen Latifah doesn't look like the type of person who could be a cycle courier. She hardly looks the athletic type. We then get introduced to the rest of the cast of much crapness, every memorable character from the original film has been replaced with a poor alternative.
Daniel, the main character from the original is obviously Queen Latifah; but the useless cop Emilien has been replaced with Jimmy Fallon. And the eccentric Commissaire Gibert and Emilien's German love interest Petra have been rolled into one character, Lt. Marta Robbins, whose only role in the film seems to be a cheap attempt to appeal to the male members of the audience when we see her being patted down by Gisele. The German bank robbers are replaced with a gang of attractive Brazilian models.
Most of the jokes from the original have been translated into these new guises although in every case the joke has lost all of its appeal. The end of the film is similar to the original, so there will be no surprises for those who have seen the French film, or in fact the trailer since the end is quite clearly shown at the end of the trailer.
In summary, there was no way I could have done an impartial review of this movie since I had major problems with it before I even saw it, therefore, my score of 0 should come as no surprise. If you've seen the original and liked it, avoid this like the plague, otherwise only see this if you are a fan of Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah.
Dave W - 4th December, 2004 - 19:37
Director:
Joseph Ruben
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Julianne Moore stars as Telly Paretta, a woman struggling to cope with the death of her son in a plane crash after over a year. When pictures of her son start to go missing, she confronts her husband but is told that she never had a son and it has all been her imagination. She meets a man who's daughter died in the same crash, he had forgotten his daughter but when she makes him remember, they are both drawn into something dangerous the government don't want them to know about.
The Forgotten starts off reasonably good, at first it seems like an alright conspiracy theory type movie with the government to blame. This is until the introduction of aliens which turns it into something worse than the worst episode of the X-Files. The alien bad guy is rubbish, he looks human but is impervious to gunshot wounds and being run over and appears to have styled his entire role in this film from Robert Patrick's role as the T-1000 in Terminator 2. The whole film generates into the biggest pile of rubbish at the end with the final conclusion making absolutely no sense.
Overall The Forgotten starts of well, as a nicely made thriller but quickly degenerates into a plot which makes no sense when thought about for more than 5 seconds.
Dave W - 11th December, 2004 - 15:05
Director:
Cameron Crowe
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
Vanilla Sky is a remake of Alejandro Amenabar's (The Others, Tesis) film Abre Los Ojos (Open your eyes). Starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz (Who also starred in the same role in the original Spanish film).
The story tells of a successful publisher David Aames (Cruise) who is introduced to the lovely Sofia (Cruz) at a party. His lives takes a turn for the worse when his lover Julianna (Diaz) attempts to kill him in a car accident leaving him horribly disfigured. From that moment on his life becomes a series of surreal incidents as he struggles to regain his life after the accident.
With the film becoming slightly confusing as it goes on, all is explained in the twist at the end. Although the end of the film is slightly longer than required and does feel to drag on a bit.
Overall a pretty good film, and I definately want to check out the original.
Dave W - 11th December, 2004 - 15:22
Director:
Jared Hess
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Napoleon Dynamite tells the story of an teen outcast who is bullied at school and lives with his Grandmother and his similarly geeky older brother. When his Grandmother breaks her coxic in a Quad Biking accident, his uncle comes to look after him. At the same time, he meets a new friend Pedro who decides to run for class president along up against the most popular girl in the year.
Although much of Napoleon Dynamite is very surreal and the main character probably would have annoyed me in any other film, there are a number of very funny moments which are hilarious. Most of the comedy is either slapstick stuff or just the plain bizarre.
Overall, haliarious in parts, strange in others, worth seeing.
Dave W - 11th December, 2004 - 15:36
Director:
Randal Kleiser
Year: 1986
Language: English
Country: America
When you think classic 80's kids Sci-Fi movies Short Circuit, Batteries not Included and Flight of the Navigator are 3 which stand out. Flight of the Navigator tells the story of a young boy called David, one day while taking his brother home from a friends house, he falls down a hill, when he comes to he finds that the world has moved on 8 years.
At the same time, NASA find a strange Alien ship in the woods. They take the ship and David to a research facility to try and find out where he has been for the 8 years he was missing. They discover he holds a knowledge of undiscovered star systems. David escapes from the facility where he is being held in the alien craft where he he discovers the truth about the spaceship and his strange disappearence.
From a purely nostaligic point of view, Flight of the Navigator is excellent, there's no better way to relive your childhood than watching the films you used to watch as a kid. Overall Flight of the Navigator is good clean family fun and just as entertaining now as it was back in the 80's when I was growing up.
Dave W - 12th December, 2004 - 16:34
Director:
Robert Rodriguez
Year: 1998
Language: English
Country: America
When the teachers at an American school start acting strangely, a group of the students are thrown together when they discover that the Faculty have been invaded by an alien force. It is up to them to defeat the evil and restore normality.
The Faculty can best be described as a Teen-Horror-Sci-Fi type affair, although not particularly scary, it has some good moments. The cast is made up of a number of well know actors and the plot is pretty good although does get a little silly towards the end.
As far as teen movie stereotypes go, the group of misfits thrown together seem to cover most of the major bases, we have the Jock who wants to study hard; the New Girl; the intelligent guy who doesn't apply himself (Josh Hartnett); the socially outcast girl; the small geeky guy (Elijah Wood) and the good looking intelligent girl. On the teachers side of things we also have the stuck up teacher who wears glasses, but when she takes the glasses off and lets her hair down, she becomes amazingly sexy (Famke Janssen).
With all it's stereotypes though and a not particularly original plot, The Faculty is definately worth a watch, a reasonable movie which doesn't require much thought and can be watched while chilling out.
Dave W - 13th December, 2004 - 19:35
Director:
Zach Braff
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Zach Braff (Scrubs) wrote, directed and starred in Garden State. The film tells the story of Andrew Largeman who after 9 years away returns to New Jersey for his mothers funeral. There he meets old friends, makes new ones; meets a girl named Sam (Natalie Portman) and confronts his psychiatrist father (Ian Holme, Alien).
Garden State is mildy amusing in places, a lot of the humour in the early parts of the film I just didn't find funny. Having said that there were a couple of really funny moments, but overall it wasn't a particularly hilarious movie.
The plot is reasonable, and as a whole the film is entertaining and not particularly bad, although it did leave me thinking "So what?" at the end.
Dave W - 14th December, 2004 - 21:56
Pixar's latest animated film "The Incredibles" tells the story of a family of superheros. There is Mr. Incredible, who has the typical strong man type power's; His wife who can stretch her body into many shapes; their son Dash who can run really fast and their daughter Violet who can generate forcefields and make herself invisible.
15 years after Mr. Incredible and his wife Elastigirl were forced to stop being superheros due to court cases being brought against them, Mr. Incredible is stuck in a dead end job with a boring life. He and his friend Lucuis aka Fro-zone (Samuel L. Jackson) spend some nights listening to Police Radios and doing a little superhero work to try and relive their youth. One day he is approached with an intriguing offer of a special mission, the offer is too tempting to reject so he gets his costume on and goes to help. When a second mission goes awry his wife and kids must also don their own costumes and make a bid ro rescue him.
As with all Pixar's films, the animation is top class, it looks great throughout and there are some nice special effects thrown in their. The script is cleverly written, appealing to both children and adults alike. There are a lot of funny moments and the although the plot has been done before the screenplay and quality of animation make up for this.
Overall The Incredibles is another great Pixar film, good clean family fun with laughs and excitement throughout.
Dave W - 20th December, 2004 - 00:00
Director:
Kerry Conran
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Set in a kind of futuristic alternative 1930's, Sky Captain and The World of Tommorow follows Sky Captain, a freelance fighter pilot (Jude Law) and intrepid reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) as they investigate strange goings on when German Scientists start dissapearing and then New York is invaded by giant robots.
A big part of the film is the strange futuristic 1930's world where Sky Captain flies around in a propeller driven plane and meets up with his friend Franky (Angelina Jolie) on a gaint flying aircraft carrier. The whole film is also shot in a kind of Sepia tone giving an old feel to it, with some dodgy robot effects thrown in for good effect there is a very old feel to the film.
Overall, Sky Captain... is a visually impressive movie, with non-stop action throughout. The plot is reasonable for an action movie and the acting what you'd expect from the big names in the lead roles.
Dave W - 20th December, 2004 - 21:53
Director:
Terry Zwigoff
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
When social outsiders, Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) graduate from High School, they have big plans to move in together and get on with their life.
When they play a prank on the geeky Seymour (Steve Buscemi), setting him up on a date which doesn't exist, Enid feels sorry for him and starts to spend more time with him while Rebecca gets a job. Slowly the two friends grow apart, but things are made worse when Enid's attempts to get Seymour a girlfriend succeed and Seymour isn't available.
Ghost World is a dark comedy, very funny in places, but overall quite sad. The events which happen to the main characters are easy to relate to and mirror events in yout own life. Overall a great film which is well worth seeing.
Dave W - 29th December, 2004 - 17:17
American Splendor tells the real life story of Harvey Pekar, a file clerk from Cleveland who started writing a comic about his every day events. The story is narrated by the real Harvey Pekar and the film jumps between the story as it is acted out by Paul Giamatti and some clips of the real Harvey Pekar being interviewed.
The character of Harvey Pekar is interesting in that he is an everyday guy who just started to write about his everyday life but through his own depressing style, people wanted to read about it. The film also includes real clips of when he appeared on the David Letterman show.
Overall the film is pretty good, giving us an insight into the Harvey Pekar who although obtaining some amount of fame and having his comics published never made enough money from it to leave his job as a file clerk.
Dave W - 2nd January, 2005 - 18:04
Director:
Trey Parker
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Written by the South Park guys (Trey Parker & Matt Stone for all you non-South Park fans) and directed by Trey Parker, Team America: World Police is an action comedy film made with marionettes. It's kind of like South Park meets Thunderbirds.
When Team America foil a terrorist plot to trade WMD's in Paris; they recruit Gary, a broadway actor, to help them with a mission in Cairo to infiltrate the terrorists' network. After the mission is over, a backlash from the Federation of Actors Guild (F.A.G.) causes Team America to be hated by the publice, the Team must prove the worth by going head to head with Kim Jong Il the president of North Korea.
Team America is very well written and Parker and Stone stick to the formula that worked in South Park, musical numbers mixed with infantile jokes all topped off with some political commentary. In much the same way as the latest episodes of South Park the film takes neither side in the debate about the USA's foreign policy, focusing on the fact that neither of the extremes is right and a maybe a more middle ground should be reached.
Constantly making fun of America and peoples perceptions of world events, Team America is funny on many levels, ranging from the immature content through visual gags to some clever political jokes. If you are a fan of South Park then Team America will probably be one of the funniest movies you've seen in a while, those who don't like South Park will probably hate the movie as most of the humour is the same and there are even a couple of South Park in-jokes thrown in for good measure.
Dave W - 19th January, 2005 - 17:15
Director:
Gus Van Sant
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Gus Van Sant's film Elephant follows the everyday life at an American High School in the day preceding a Columbine style massacre. The film follows a number of the students around the school as they go about their daily business unware of the impending devastation. The camera roams the corridors following each of the students in turn, sometimes jumping back in time to show us prior events, sometimes showing the viewer a previous scene shot from a different angle from the perspective of a different observer.
Much of the film is taken up by these long shots following people down corridors, the dialogue is minimal, just typical everday chat between students. The character development in the film is minimal and we are given little insight into what would drive two students to commit such a horrible act. Personally I found the way the film was shot mesmerising and as the film leads up to the chilling conclusion the tension is built up through the use of the long silent corridor shots.
Elephant has been criticised for being boring and pointless by some and hailed by others as a masterpiece. Personally I thought it was a beautifully made film which is a nice piece of cinema despite the lack of any answers.
Dave W - 19th January, 2005 - 17:19
The sequel to 2000's Meet The Parents, Meet The Fockers sees Ben Stiller (Dodgeball) reprise his role as Greg "Gaylord" Focker. When Greg and Pam take Pam's parents down to Florida to meet his parents thinks don't go smoothly. Greg's mother (Barbara Streisand) is a sex therapist and his father (Dustin Hoffman) is a retired lawyer and he must do his best to make them get along with Pam's overly strict father (Robert DeNiro, Godsend, Goodfellas).
If you've seen Meet The Parents this is much of the same again, the same types of jokes and gags and if you liked the first one you're pretty much guaranteed to be on to a good thing here. The sequel is probably slightly funnier than the original, with a lot of in-jokes pointing back to the previous film.
Overall, entertaining but there is a limit to how many times you can say Focker just to get a laugh because it sounds like Fucker.
Dave W - 2nd February, 2005 - 18:58
Director:
Tony Scott
Year: 1986
Language: English
Country: America
Ahh the 80's, so many memories and one film which everyone remembers from the 80's is Top Gun. Starring Tom Cruise as Maverick, a hot shot pilot in the US Navy. He and his co-pilot are selected to attend the prestigious "Top Gun" academy where they get to learn how to really fly.
Looking back on it now, Top Gun is eighties as fuck but still very much enjoyable. It's got everything you need, action; romance; sadness. There's not really much else you can say about Top Gun, a classic 80's movie still watchable today.
Dave W - 6th February, 2005 - 00:45
Director:
Mike Nichols
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Set in London, Closer tells the story of 2 couples and their relationships. The 4 main characters in the film are played by Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.
The film starts with journalist Dan (Law) meeting Alice (Portman), an American stranger who has just arrived in London. Things between the couple change when Dan meets and fallas in love with Anna (Roberts), an American photographer. The situation gets even more complicated when Dan unwittingly sets up Larry (Owen) with Anna via an internet sex chat site. The remainder of the film tells the story of the 4 characters and their relationships.
The timeline is quite disjointed, with the film concentrating on a major event, then skipping months at a time till the next important event. All 4 of the main actors are really good, even Clive Owen who from the King Arthur trailer alone I had presumed was one of the worst actors of our time. Owen's character Larry has some great lines, and Owen delivers them perfectly.
Overall, Closer is a pretty decent movie worth a watch.
Dave W - 20th February, 2005 - 17:11
Director:
Richard Donner
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Pretty much every book ever written by Michael Chrichton gets made into a movie; (the only exception to this rule I can think of is Airframe, but I'm sure there are one or two others) so when he writes a movie involving timetravel it was guaranteed to be picked up by Hollywood.
The film tells the story of a group of archealogists on a dig in France, when an American company funding them keep giving tip-offs as to where to dig, Professor Johnston (Billy Connolly) goes to see the company. When he fails to return, his son Chris (Paul Walker, 2 Fast 2 Furious) and a bunch of the Prof's archaelogy students go to America to see what's happened to him.
They discover that the company have unwittingly created a time travel machine which can send them back to France in the 14th century in the area where they are digging. The Professor was sent back and hasn't returned, so the team are sent back to try and find him.
This plunges them deep into France with the English army fighting the French, making for a Back to the future meets A Kight's Tale kind of movie. As usual, Paul Walker is so wooden, he makes Keanu Reeves look animated, luckily for us, he doesn't have that big a role so we are spared from the awful acting which we had to put up with in the Fast and the Furious films. The rest of the cast are reasonable, but not amazing, Gerard Butler (Dear Frankie) is probably the best of the bunch.
Overall, Timeline is a pretty average action Sci-Fi film, entertaining enough to pass a couple of hours chilling on the sofa.
Dave W - 20th February, 2005 - 17:27
Director:
Alexander Payne
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Sideways tells of two middle aged friends, Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack who go on a week long vacation to Califoria's wine region before Jack's wedding. Miles wants to sample some fine wine and play some golf, whereas Jack is looking to get laid one last time before he gets hitched.
The script is mildy amusing, and the acting reasonable, but there was just nothing there, I left the cinema with a feeling of immense averageness. Overall, an average movie which failed to grab my interest.
The film also portrays a very irresponsible attitude towards drink driving with the two characters very rarely being sober behind the wheel.
Dave W - 22nd February, 2005 - 20:17
Director:
Trey Parker
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
When the new Terrance & Philip movie comes to South Park, Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny all go to see it and pick up some foul language. When their mother's hear of this, they are shocked and kidnap Terrance & Phillip and go to war with Canada. Meanwhile down in hell, Satan and Saddam discover if Terrance & Phillip's blood is spilled then the apocalypse will begin and they will rule the earth. It is up to Stan, Cartman and Kyle to stop the war and the ultimate destruction of the earth which that will bring.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut has everything you'd expect from a South Park movie, big musical numbers, political commentary and immature jokes and gags. The film is almost exactly like the South Park episodes from the time it was made except longer. Although very funny and highly entertaining, it's a shame the movie was made before the series got really good; the later series just get better and have become much more bizarre and clever than the earlier episodes.
Overall, any fan of South Park will love the movie, but on the other hand if you hated South Park when it first came out, you will more than likely hate the film.
Dave W - 26th February, 2005 - 18:03
Director:
George Lucas
Year: 1971
Language: English
Country: America
THX 1138 portrays a bleak, 1984/Brave New World type future where everyone is doped up to make them into the perfect machines to do their work. Order is kept by a robotic police force who try to make it seem like they are their to help you.
The film tells the story of a man named THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) when his chosen mate LUH 3417 stops him taking his sedatives, their love for each other is expressed after being hidden by the medication. The lack of sedatives causes THX-1138 to be inefficent at his work and ultimately he gets caught and sentenced. The film then follows him as he and another prisoner, SEN 5241 try to escape.
The future Lucas shows us in THX 1138 is sterile and bland, everyone looks the same due to their shaven heads, the majority of the interiors are predominantly white with some scenes in particular taking place in a huge area which is just endless white.
The plot is pretty good and some of the thoughts and ideas while explored by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 novel Brave New World and George Orwell in his 1949 novel 1984 are shown to the viewer in a manner which can be shocking and thought provoking.
Overall, I'm not really a fan of George Lucas' other works, but THX 1138 is definately well worth a watch if you like that utopian future gone awry type story.
Dave W - 28th February, 2005 - 22:59
Director:
Joel Schumacher
Year: 1993
Language: English
Country: America
When Bill Foster (Michael Douglas) gets stuck in a traffic jam in LA he snaps and abandons his car. From there he goes on a rampage tackling the flaws he sees everywhere in society. Desperate to see his daughter on her birthday as he tries to get across LA, he picks up more and more weaponry as he wreaks havoc.
As the reports of his actions come in, Prendergast (Robert Duvall) a cop in the robberies division links the initially seemingly unrelated events together and sets to work tracking down Foster. Things are made harder for him since it is his last day on the force and he is under pressure from all sides.
Falling Down is a great tale of what happens in society when someone has just had enough and snaps. Although some of Foster's reactions are way over the top and some deplorable, at other times you can relate to the anger he feels when something annoying happens and he just loses it.
The script is well written and the film engaging and entertaining throughout, Michael Douglas is excellent in his role as a man pushed to the edge.
Dave W - 28th February, 2005 - 23:23
Director:
David Koepp
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
When Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon, Mystic River) tells his sister in-law what he thinks of her belief in hypno therapy, he challenges her to hypnotise him. She does so successfully, but after the experience is having strange hallucinations. When his son starts acting strangely and talking to an imaginary friend his strange experiences intensify, causing him to think of nothing else other than trying to discover their meaning.
As a film, Stir of Echoes had little I'd not seen elsewhere, a typical kid has an imaginary friend, friend turns out to be someone who has died, must discover why the spirit is haunting the house type affair. I found the feel of the film similar in a way to Hideo Nakata's Ringu and Kubrick's The Shining, although I don't think either movie influenced the movie in any way.
The horror in Stir of Echoes is mildy scary, a couple of scenes where genuinely quite scary in a way I've not seen in an American movie for a while now. The screenplay is well written with director David Koepp having written screenplays for quite a few successful movies now. Kevin Bacon is pretty good and the rest of the supporting cast reasonable.
Overall, Stir of Echoes is like a lot of other movies and there's not much unique about it, but having said that it is well made and well worth a watch.
Dave W - 1st March, 2005 - 21:21
Director:
Francis Lawrence
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
With remaking comics into films being the "big thing" at the moment, now that most of the comics familiar to the general public have been made into films, we are seeing comics which the non-comic fan may not have heard of being translated to the big screen.
Constantine is one such film, based on the DC/Vertigo graphic novel Hellblazer, Constantine tells the story of John Constantine (Keanu Reeves), an exorcist who knows a little more than your average man about Hell having experienced it first hand.
When the Spear of Destiny (The spear driven through Christ's side while he was on the cross) is discovered it heralds the coming of great evil. John Constantine is the one person with the credentials to stop the inevitable, much religious imagery and general action movie type hijinx ensues.
Keanu Reeves is his usual terrible acting self, at times you forget he is meant to be John Constantine as he brings very little character to the role and plays it in almost the same was as he played the character of Neo in the Matrix films. The rest of the cast are reasonable and manage to hold together the film to make it into a reasonable action movie.
Exciting in places and not a bad plot, Constantine is not amazing but is by no means terrible.
Dave W - 22nd March, 2005 - 19:25
Director:
Steve Buscemi
Year: 2000
Language: English
Country: America
When Ron Decker (Edward Furlong, Terminator 2, American History X), a young, intelligent boy from a good family, is sent to prison for dealing marijuana thing look bleak for him. Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe, Spiderman), a hardened criminal who has guards in his pocket and is well respected, takes a shine to him and takes him under his wing.
Things take a turn for the worse for both Ron and Earl when a new found assertiveness in Ron brought on by prison life causes problems for them both. Both Furlong and Dafoe are good in their roles and the although the plot is a pretty standard prison drama type affair it is interesting enough.
Overall, not an amazing movie but decent acting and a typical story form a film which is worth a watch.
Dave W - 26th March, 2005 - 18:42
Director:
Mark Pellington
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
When Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges), a college professor specialising in American History and in particular Terrorism in America, discovers a young boy staggering in the road covered in blood; he takes the boy to hospital. He learns that the boy lives across the road from him and despite having lived in the house for sometime, he has never spoken to his neighbours.
As Michael and his son Grant are still in the process of coming to terms with the death of Michaels wife, the boy from across the road and Grant become friends and Michael too is introduced to the boy's parents Oliver (Tim Robbins, The Shawshank Redemption, Mystic River) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack, Toys). When some of the things Oliver reveals about his history don't add up, Michael begins to suspect that something is not quite right and digs into his history. His studies lead him to believe that Oliver Lang may be a terrorist plotting an attack on the Government.
Both Bridges and Robbins are top notch in their roles, especially Robbins who pulls off the sinister Oliver Lang well. The plot is reasonable and there is a good amount of action throughout, but as the tension builds up to the finale, the film comes into its own with a great ending.
Dave W - 27th March, 2005 - 02:23
Director:
Hideo Nakata
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
The history of the Ring films grows even more complex in this the 7th film made thus far and unrelated to 5 of the prior films and to the series of novels. Based on a trilogy of novels by Koji Suzuki, the Ring series started with Hideo Nakata's 1998 film adaptation of the first novel titled Ringu. The same year the second novel in the series Spiral was made into a film by Jôji Iida starring cast from the original. In 1999 the first book was made into a completely seperate film in South Korea titled Ring Virus. Also in 1999 Hideo Nakata made another sequel to his own film Ringu completely unrelated to the second of the Koji Suzuki novels. This was followed in 2000 by a prequel based on a short story by Koji Suzuki, directed by Norio Tsuruta Ringu 0.
With the success of the 2 Nakata films Ringu and Ringu 2 and the prequel Ringu 0 in the West, in 2002 Hollywood remade the first book into a slightly different film. Now the whole story goes full circle and Hideo Nakata has been brought in by Hollywood to direct a sequel to the 2002 Hollywood film, as with Nakata's 1999 sequel the plot is unrelated to the events in Suzuki's second book in the trilogy Spiral.
So there you have it, Koji Suzuki writes three books, seven films later the first book has been made into 3 films, the second book into 1 and nobody has even bothered with his 3rd book focusing instead on writing their own sequels to the film adaptions.
Anyway, enough about the history of the series, onto this latest film, is it any good? The plot picks up 6 months after the events of the first film (Well, the 6th film I guess), Rachael and her son Aidan have moved into the country after seemingly breaking the curse of the haunted video tape. Things don't go as planned when the tape turns up in the town, Samara is back and has her sights on Aidan.
The film starts in a very typically American teen horror way and not much changes from then on. Nakata's masterful use of tension is thrown out of the window and while his previous Japanese horror films have not relied on cheap shocks to be scary, it seems he has made up for this in his English language debut by putting in as many obvious shocks as he can.
In comparison to his previous films, the plot is weak, the acting not very good and it's not particularly scary. Hideo Nakata was a director I respected, all of his films which I've seen before this one have been excellent; Ringu, Ringu 2 and Dark Water were all scary as hell and Chaos was excellent but it's seems with his transition to Hollywood he has changed his style to bland Hollywood horror rubbish.
What is even more annoying is that his next project is a remake of the excellent Pang Brothers (Oxide Pang Chun, Danny Pang) Hong-Kong horror movie The Eye. Without a doubt one of the scariest movies I've seen, but having seen the mess he's made his own work, I hate to see what he does with The Eye.
If you are a fan of cheap nasty Hollywood style horror you may like this movie, it's reasonable Hollywood trash but compared to old school Hideo Nakata it's a waste of time.
Dave W - 3rd April, 2005 - 18:27
Director:
Iain Softley
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
K-PAX tells the story of Prot (Kevin Spacey); claiming to be an alien from a planet 1000 light years away called K-PAX he is picked up by the police and put in a psychiatric hospital. When his knowledge of distant star systems appears to be spot on, his psychiatrist Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges) begins to doubt his own diagnosis and starts to believe him.
The film is mainly set in Powell's office and both Bridges and Spacey give performances expected of actors of their calibre. The plot is pretty decent and interesting enough throughout, leaving enough information out so that the viewer has as much idea as Bridges as to the truth behind Prot.
Overall, a reasonable film worth a watch.
Dave W - 3rd April, 2005 - 18:56
Blow tells the true story of George Jung (Johnny Depp) a man who was a bug time player in the American Cocaine market during the 70's. The film chronicles Jung's life from when he moved to California in the early 70's and started dealing Marijuana, realising he could make more money importing it himself he started flying Marijuana over the border from Mexico. While spending time in jail his cellmate was an American of Columbian descent who knew about Cocaine, so on his release from prison, Jung moved from importing Marijauna to importing Cocaine.
The film takes us through the ups and downs of Jung's life as an importer of illegal drugs into the United States. The story is a very interesting one and entertaining throughout. Depp gives an outstanding performance and with supporting roles from Penelope Cruz and Franka Potente (Run Lola Run, The Bourne Supremacy).
Overal, great story, great acting and a well made film.
Dave W - 6th April, 2005 - 18:26
Director:
Niels Mueller
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Based on a true story, The Assassination of Richard Nixon tells the tale of Samuel Bicke (Sean Penn). Frustrated at life because he refuses to move on from his ex-wife Marie (Naomi Watts), he can't get a loan to start his own business and the job he works as a salesman makes him lie to customers to get sales. As he sinks deeper into his misery he blames president Richard Nixon on his troubles and concocts a plan to assassinate him.
Sean Penn plays his role really well, and the cast of supporting actors are reasonable. The plot is interesting and paced well throughout. The fact it is based on a true story makes it all the more interesting. One thing I would say about the film is that it reminded me heavily of Taxi Driver, set in a similar time period and dealing with similar issues.
Dave W - 12th April, 2005 - 19:18
Director:
Breck Eisner
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
To be honest I didn't really have high hopes for Sahara, but for once I was pleasantly surprised. Set in the African desert, Sahara tells the story of two marine explorers, Dirk (Matthew McConaughey) and Al (Steve Zahn); after performing a recovery off the coast of Nigeria, Dirk begs his boss to let them take a boat and travel up the Niger in search of an American Civil War ironclad he believes, against all probablity, sailed across the Atlantic and is buried somewhere in the desert.
They team up with a doctor from the WHO (Penelope Cruz) who asks to travel with them to investigate a plague she believes is coming out of Mali. What the team find is much more sinister...
On one hand Sahara is completely ridiculous, you have to suspend your belief quite a bit, but on the other hand that's what makes it a top notch action film with a bit of comedy thrown in. An excellent supporting cast of many big Hollywood names adds to the film no end. The plot is great, the action exciting and Dirk and Steve are classic good guys out to defeat the bad guys.
Dave W - 12th April, 2005 - 19:33
Director:
Sydney Pollack
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
When Silvia (Nicole Kidman), an interpreter at the United Nations, overhears a conversation about a plot to assassinate the president of an African country who is coming to talk at the UN; two secret service Agents, Keller (Sean Penn) and Woods (Catherine Keener) are brought in to investigate the allegations.
At first Keller believes Silvia is making it all up and becomes suspicious of her, deeper investigations raise his suspicion further. It turns out Silvia is not being fully honest with him, but her life is at threat from the plotters of the assassination.
The Interpreter is a tense political thriller with a great plot and strong acting from not only Kidman and Penn in the lead roles but also in the supporting roles which feature a number of familiar hollywood faces. Exciting and intruiging from the start and leading up to a tense finale, The Interpreter is well worth a watch.
Dave W - 18th April, 2005 - 20:01
Director:
Paul Maslak
Year: 1996
Language: English
Country: America
When a Psychologist (Cynthia Rothrock) returns home to find her Sister and Nephew murdered during a robbery she attacks the intruders and ends up sustaining a head injury after jumping off her balcony into a tree. The head trauma awakens psychic powers with her and she uses these powers to help others by coming a vigilante. Her investigation into the murderers of her sister leads her to a crime syndicate who are non too happy with her meddling.
Sworn to Justice doesn't have much going for it, the acting is terrible; the plot is unoriginal and uninteresting; the action scenes aren't particularly good and although it only runs to 97 minutes it feels like much longer as it drags out.
To be fair to Cynthia Rothrock, she does seem to have talent as a martial artist; it's just a pity the fight scenes aren't particularly well choreographed and she can't act.
Overall, Sworn to Justice features acting and plot which wouldn't look out of place in a porn film; definately not one to watch. Although I can't really complain since the DVD cost £1.25 and also featured the Hong-Kong cop caper Gen-X Cops II: Metal Mayhem.
Dave W - 24th April, 2005 - 18:58
Director:
Tony Scott
Year: 1993
Language: English
Country: America
True Romance tells the story of a young man, Clarence Worley (Christian Slater), who falls in love with and marries a call girl (Patricia Arquette) paid to take him out on his birthday.
When he goes to tell the girl's pimp that she's out of the game, he ends up killing the pimp and escaping with a large amount of cocaine. Invariably the mafia want the cocaine back and track Clarence and his wife as they flee to L.A.
True Romance is a love story set against a backdrop of organised crime and drug dealing; featuring an all star cast including many big Hollywood names, the acting is top notch. Quentin Tarantino's screenplay is darkly comic and well written as it builds up to the final breathtaking showdown.
Dave W - 27th April, 2005 - 21:22
Director:
Lee Tamahori
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
The sequel to 2002's Extreme sport action flick XXX, this time we ditch Vin Diesel for Ice Cube, swap the Nu-Metal for Rap and the extreme sportstars cameos for Rappers.
The story follows ex-navy marine Darius Stone (Ice Cube); following a security breach at the top secret underground headquarters of the NSA, Agent Gibbons (Samuel L.Jackson) breaks Stone out of prison to help him bring those responsible to justice. This leads him to discover a terrible plot which puts the future of the United States in jeopardy.
Like the first movie, XXX2 is completely ridiculous. The plot is dodgy; the script is so bad that even actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Willem Dafoe fail to deliver their terrible lines convincingly and the stunts are so set up as to seem not only improbable but unnecessary.
Having said that, this makes the movie all the more enjoyable. Terrible movies can go either way, descending into boredom or being so bad they are good. Luckily XXX2 falls into this second category. If you like ridiculously over the top action movies with bad acting rappers in the lead role then this is one not to miss.
Recommended for fans of the first film and dodgy action films in general.
Dave W - 9th May, 2005 - 18:41
Director:
Gore Verbinski
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
When not very good pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) arrives in the town of Port Royal, he becomes involved in an adventure with local blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) when they steal a ship to aid in the rescue of the Governor's daughter, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), after she is kidnapped by pirates from the dreaded Black Pearl. Sparrow's reasons for helping Turner out become apparent when Turner learns he was the original captain before a mutiny which resulted in a terrible curse being put on the crew.
Despite coming from one of the worst ideas ever (Take a ride at Disneyland and make it into a film), Pirates of the Caribbean surpases that with some decent acting talent, a big budget and a well written screenplay. Full of visual gags as well as witty one liners, it's what Action-Adventure films are all about, fun.
Depp is excellent in his role as Captain Jack Sparrow, playing the eccentric and continuously drunk pirate in a humourous manner without becoming over the top. Orlando Bloom is passable although there's not much in his character to make him seem any different from his roles in other movies. The remainder of the cast do well and there's a fair number of British actors in supporting roles including McKenzie Crook and Jack Davenport.
In summary, Pirates of the Caribbean is a big budget Action-Adventure which does not disapoint, a good laugh for anyone who likes swashbuckling and rum.
Dave W - 10th May, 2005 - 13:27
In the near future parents can pay to have a chip implanted in their unborn child's head which will record all of their visions and upon their death can be edited so that their loved ones may keep their memories for ever.
Alan Hakman (Robin Williams) is a cutter, a man who makes his living from editing the footage into a short film which can be given to the family of the deceased. When he takes a job which other cutters have turned down he is thrown into a scandal which may put his life at risk.
The main concept of the film, recording everything an individual sees and hears is an interesting one which leads to questions of morality in doing so. The film explores these slightly, but there is more scope for further pondering after the film is finished.
The plot is reasonable and the film is entertaining throughout with a good performance from Williams and the other actors in the supporting roles. All in all, an interesting first film from director Omar Naim.
Dave W - 10th May, 2005 - 15:39
Director:
John Maybury
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
The Jacket tells the story of Jack Starks (Adrien Brody), a Gulf War Veteran who was shot in Iraq and although his wound should have been fatal, he survived albiet with severe memory loss. After returning from Iraq, he finds himself framed for the murder of a policeman by a man he hitches a lift from, unable to remember any details of the incident he is found guilty and sent to a hospital for the criminally insane.
At the hospital he is subjected to a cruel form of therapy where he is bundled into a straight jacket and left in the drawer of a morgue, while in the jacket he has strange dreams which have important consequences for both him and those around him.
The Sci-Fi type plot which involves time travel amongst other things is completely ridiculous, but as long as you don't ponder on it too much or think about the plot holes, it is entertaining enough and keeps enough suspense to be guessing what's going to happen next.
Production wise, the film is well made and both Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley give reasonable performances in their roles although Knightley's American accent leaves a little to be desired.
Overall a reasonable suspense/thriller which is enjoyable once you get over the ridiculous premises you must believe for the plot to work.
Dave W - 16th May, 2005 - 09:09
Director:
Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Countless comedy movies have used the whole meeting the in-laws gags as part of their plot, then you have films like Father of the Bride and Meet the parents where the entire film is based on this premise. Guess Who is almost identical to any one of these scenes or films, with the oh so clever twist that the father (Bernie Mac) is Black and the would be Son-in-law (Ashton Kutcher) is White.
This leads to a film which is completely predictable and most of the humour relies on the fact that the jokes are racist, but in an ironic non-offensive way. The film is mildy amusing, although there are many non-comedy films which have better gags and since this is meant to be an all out comedy, I found it somewhat lacking in the laughs department. Kutcher is his usual terrible self and Bernie Mac is reasonable.
Overall, a comedy film which isn't that funny and was trying to make a serious point but fails somewhat on that level as well.
Dave W - 16th May, 2005 - 09:29
Director:
Don Mancini
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
The evil Chucky doll from the Childsplay movies returns in this slasher/comedy with his bride Tiffany and a new addition to the family. When Glen, son of Chucky & Tiffany sees his parents on TV, he travels to America and raises them from their sleep. Now awake, they seek human hosts to transfer their souls to in order to become a real family.
Seed of Chucky sees Jennifer Tilly play herself on screen, a lot of jokes are made at her expense which makes for some good laughs. Rapper Redman also stars as himself as Tilly attempts to seduce him in order to get the part of the Virgin Mary in a film of the bible.
All-in-all Seed of Chucky is a good laugh, there's a lot of funny gags, much of the same slasher/gore type carnage you'd expect and even an appearance from S-Club 7 singer turned actress Hannah Spearritt.
Dave W - 16th May, 2005 - 10:12
Director:
George Lucas
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Well it's taken 28 years to get here, but finally Star Wars is all wrapped up, ending where it began. I have to admit that I'm not a particularly big fan of Star Wars, I don't really rate the movies and Episodes 1 & 2 were pretty bad, so I went into the cinema expecting the film to be terrible which may have effected my take on it.
The film opens with Anakin and Obi-Wan attempting to rescue Chancellor Palpatine from the robot army, from here we follow Anakin as he turns to the dark side ultimately becoming Darth Vader.
The opening battle scene, is like every one of the film's vast array of huge CG rendered views very pretty. To it's credit that's one thing Lucas got right, the computer generated landscapes are stunning and the start fight scene is great until Hayden Christensen opens his mouth and begins the horrible two hours of terrible acting which are to follow.
The dialogue has to be some of the worst I've had the misfortune of listening to, it makes XXX2 look good and I don't think there is one actor in the film who is not stiff wooden and unemotional. There is whoever one character that out-acts everyone else in terms of emotion and feeling and that's R2D2.
The light sabre fights are boring, when compared with some of the proper sword fights you see in other films, doubly so when Yoda is fighting as it's all CG. The film's too long and could have been cut to a nice 1 hr if the awful scenes which were meant to be emotional removed.
All in all, Episode 3 is going to be loved by some, hated by others and the only way to know is to go and see it for yourself.
Dave W - 23rd May, 2005 - 18:37
Director:
James Mangold
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
When 10 strangers are thrown together in a motel during a heavy storm they begin to get to know each other until it becomes apparent they are being killed off one by one. The strangers have to work out the deadly truth behind the murders with each having secrets from their past they'd rather keep secret.
Identity is a tense thriller with numerous twists and turns as many of the group are put under suspicion, leading up to a twist at the end where those remaining discover all is not as it seems. With a few big hollywood names, including Ray Liotta and John Cusack the acting is reasonable.
Dave W - 24th May, 2005 - 13:57
Director:
Marc Forster
Year: 2001
Language: English
Country: America
Monster's Ball tells of the life of two individuals living in the deep South. Leticia (Halle Berry) is coping as a single mother in the lead up to the execution of her husband Lawrence. Meanwhile, Hank (Billy Bob Thornton) the captain of the execution team is gearing up for Lawrence's execution with his Son Sonny, who will be taking part in an execution for the first time.
The film sees the two storylines progress in parallel until the point at which both Leticia and Hank are at their lowest they meet and things change from that moment onwards with dramatic effects for both. Monster's Ball is a gritty tale of woe which sees two characters having gone through a lot getting together.
The film is very much character driven with some great acting from Berry and Thornton. Overall, sad in places, shocking in others but powerful throughout.
Dave W - 24th May, 2005 - 22:08
Director:
Robert Rodriguez
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
Robert Rodriguez brings us another installment of the story of El Mariachi, a guitar playing Mexican gunslinger. El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) becomes involved in an operation by deranged CIA agent Sands (Johnny Depp) to stop a corrupt Mexican General from taking control of the presidency.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a fast paced; visually stunning action film with some deep comic undertones. Depp plays his character of the slightly crazy Agent Sands very well. The screenplay is well written and there are some nice set pieces in there.
Overall, a very entertaining film which has both action and some good laughs.
Dave W - 5th June, 2005 - 16:14
Director:
Jonathan Hensleigh
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Yet another Marvel comic gets the Hollywood treatment; although The Punisher had already been made into a film in the late 80's. The film tells the story of Frank Castle, an FBI agent who after retiring from the Bureau finds his entire family massacred as payback for his last job which involved the death of the son of crime boss Howard Saint (John Travolta). Castle is understandably a little upset about this and takes it upon himself to avenge their deaths by going after Saint himself.
As far as comic book adaptation go, The Punisher is no Spiderman or X-Men, with a slightly lower budget feel, the script isn't particularly good, the acting isn't amazing and even the action scenes seem lacking in any real action. To its credit though, the plot does progress pretty quickly, so there isn't too much time to worry about it. All in all a pretty average film with no real punch to it.
Dave W - 5th June, 2005 - 16:32
Director:
Robert Rodriguez
Frank Miller
Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Based on the series of graphic novels of the same name Sin City is set in the fictional Basin City, a seedy town where the Mob, Police and Prostitutes are held in the grip of a power struggle all fighting for control.
This, the first of at least 3 planned films tells 3 tales from Frank Miller's comic books. The first of the three stories sees Marv (Mickey Rourke) framed for the murder of a prositute. As the girl was the only woman to ever have let Marv anywhere near him; he seeks to avenge her death while attempting to clear his name.
The second segment details the power struggle between the cops and the girls who run Old Town when Dwight (Clive Owen) while defending the honour of his girlfriend chases Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) in Old Town where he causes trouble with the prositutes who run it and is subsequently killed. This puts the very future of Old Town at stake and Dwight must help the girls sort the problem out if their way of life is to be retained.
The final story told sees tough cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis) face the wrath of Senator Roark after he saves a young girl from the grip of the senators peadophile son.
Sin City is visually unlike any movie I've seen before, being shot in black and white with some elements of the scene shown in colour; this makes for a visually stunning experience with the highlighted elements standing out. Another technique used is the application of a threshold over the greyscale image to cut the light greys down to white and the dark greys to black; this is used in varying degrees to give a comic book style effect. The comic book feel is enhanced further with the films heavy use of green screen technology.
Script wise, Sin City makes heavy use of monologues, with the individual stories being narrated by the main character and having the characters speak out their thoughts. Some of these monologues seem a little over the top in an almost shakesperian manner.
All the actors involved give decent performances, although Clive Owen is still pretty bad; the 3 story's have great plots and fit well in the world built up throughout the film. All in all, Sin City is a visually engaging film with a good plot and some stunning effects.
Dave W - 5th June, 2005 - 22:45
Director:
Steve Beck
Year: 2002
Language: English
Country: America
Ghostship shouldn't be particularly good, the plot is dodgy; the screenplay subpar and the acting comes straight from the Keanu Reeves school of how to act like Clive Owen. But underneath all that there is a reasonably entertaining horror movie which in a couple of places even managed to send a tingle down my spine.
When a marine salvage crew are approached by a mysterious stranger telling of a large ship floating unattended in the Bering Strait the jump at the chance. When they locate the vessel, it is earily quiet in a Mary Celeste style. After a series of unnerving accidents, they decide the ship is cursed, but escaping the curse proves to be difficult.
Despite it's flaws, of which there are many, Ghostship is entertaining enough if you don't think too hard about it's ridiculous plot and wooden acting.
Dave W - 10th June, 2005 - 17:12
Director:
John Polson
Year: 2002
Language: English
Country: America
Swimfan has to have the worst plot ever for a film. Ben, an ex-junkie swimmer who has aspirations of Olympic stardom or something meets Madison, a new girl at his high school (despite them both looking far too old for High School). When he almost runs her over he gives her a ride home and has to go back later to take her notebook back. This leads to him shagging her in the pool despite the fact he already has a girlfriend. When Ben refuses to see Madison again, she goes psycho and starts trying to hurt him, mainly by killing people he is fond of.
So with a terrible plot and some of the worst trailers in movie history I had assumed Swimfan would be pretty bad. I'm sad to report that I have seen worse films, not that it's good by any standard. The plot is terrible, none of the main characters are likeable, but the acting is up to a reasonable Teen movie standard and I have to admit the best film possible has been made given the dross the director had to work with.
One not to watch, but there are worse films out there.
Dave W - 12th June, 2005 - 15:01
Director:
Doug Liman
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
A married couple (Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie) who are bored with their marriage get a surprise when they discover that they are each professional assassins and their next targets are each other. Both are then pitted against each other in a tale of action comedy.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a decent action comedy, with some well written lines and some good use of action comedy. Both Pitt and Jolie are good in their roles and Vince Vaughn provides some more comedy in the small role he has.
Overall, a pretty mindless action film with fights, guns and explosions galore; highly entertaining throughout.
Dave W - 13th June, 2005 - 14:25
Director:
Jeff Schaffer
Year: 2004
Language: 1
Country: America
On his graduation from high school, Scott is dumped by his girlfriend. After getting drunk at a celebration he is very rude to his German penpal "Mike" when Mike suggests he comes to America. When his little brother informs him "Mike" is actually Mieke and an attractive young lady, Scott and his friend Cooper travel to Europe to meet Mieke and win her heart.
What follows is a film about a group of stupid American's travelling around Europe with a lot of jokes based on stereotypes of the various European countries they visit. I.e. all English are xenophobic football hooligans, Amsterdam is all sex and drugs and in Eastern Europe the American dollar is worth a fortune. Perhaps the most shocking of these stereotypes is when a German child is shown drawing on a Hitler moustache then marching and doing a Nazi salute.
The "humour" in the film is mostly purile and aside from a couple of genuinely funny moments is dull and insulting. This film would have been pretty bad without the terrible European stereotypes portrayed throughout.
Dave W - 14th June, 2005 - 14:15
Another comic book adaptation, this time from DC. Having already appeared in Batman Returns; Catwoman returns with Halle Berry taking over in the role as Catwoman. When Patience, an artist working in the advertising department of a large cosmetic discovers that the companies new flagship product has hideous side effects she is killed; only to be brought back to life by a cat and given new feline powers.
As far as comic book adaptation plots go, the plot in Catwoman sucks. But what is lacking in a decent story is more than made up for in dramatic irony and feline based puns. Most of the action is done in CGI rather than live action and the budget is sufficiently low for the CGI to look a bit dodgy.
Halle Berry is pretty awful compared to some of her other films, although to be fair there wasn't much there for her to work with. Overall Catwoman is poor compared to many comic book adaptations yet manages to entertain for the hour and a half or so it takes up.
Dave W - 19th June, 2005 - 23:44
Director:
Christopher Nolan
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Batman's fifth big screen outing and with Christian Bale taking up the role of Batman we go back to the start and follow Bruce Wayne as he takes up his role as Gotham's Dark Knight. Batman's first outing sees him go up against villains who plan to envelop Gotham in panic through the use of a fear inducing drug.
Batman Begins is a pretty good Batman movie all considered, Bale is decent in his role and while some critics have said it lacks humour, Michael Caine's character of Albert the Butler is campy as hell and has very few serious lines. The action is entertaing throughout although all the man to man fighting scenes are found lacking as the descend into a nasty mess of hundreds of cuts where you can't actually see what is happening.
Definately one of the better comic book adaptations and Batman adaptations in particular.
Dave W - 19th June, 2005 - 23:58
Director:
Martin Scorsese
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Martin Scorsese's biopic of multi-millionaire, film director/Aviator Howard Hughes sees Leonardo DiCaprio play the role of Hughes. The film starts as Hughes is filming his war epic Hell's Angels which was the most expensive movie of it's time. The story follows the eccentric Hughes as his eccentricity strays more into the realm of mental illness.
The story is an interesting one, made even more interesting by the fact that it is based on a real life man. DiCaprio is decent in his role and Cate Blanchett gives a good performance as Katharine Hepburn
Dave W - 25th June, 2005 - 16:26
Based on a comic of the same name, From Hell tells the story of Jack the Ripper who murdered and mutilated several prostitutes in London 1888. Although not strictly a true story, the plot takes the story of Jack the Ripper and extends it based on an Urban Legend of who the killer was.
Johnny Depp stars as Inspector Abberline, an opium smoker who has strange dreams which often lead him to clues in his investigations. Depp is, as usual, excellent in his role although both he and Heather Graham suffer from dodgy English accents.
The film is suitably dark for its subject matter and with a little twist at the end, isn't as obvious as I had thought while watching it. The setting of 19th Century London is done well with a nice little touch of touching on the story of Joseph Merrick in one scene.
Dave W - 28th June, 2005 - 13:17
Director:
David O. Russell
Year: 1999
Language: English
Country: America
Shortly after the end of the Gulf War, 4 Soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze and Ice Cube) retreive a map from an Iraqi prisoner which appears to point to the location of stolen Kuwaiti Gold. The 4 go on an unauthorised mission in search of the gold. What starts as an effort to make themselves a quick buck ends with them helping those in need when they discover a group of Iraqi civilians under attack from Saddam's army.
A simple tale of how honour wins out over greed, 3 Kings is a reasonable action film with some slight comic moments which deals with the issues of the Gulf War well. I wouldn't consider any of the 4 main characters to be particularly good actors, but they are alright in their respective roles and work together reasonably well.
Dave W - 29th June, 2005 - 13:02
Director:
Ondi Timoner
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
A documentary telling the story of two bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre who started off as part of the same scene and were friends. Both bands took different directions with the Dandy Warhols signing a contract with a major label making them relatively well known; The Brian Jonestown Massacre on the other hand concentrated on writing an recording music with Anton Newcombe the main driving force for the band not wanting to sign for a label unless it was on his terms.
The film is pieced together from 8? years of footage shot on handheld cameras with a part commentary from Courtney Taylor lead singer of the Dandy Warhols. What makes the story so interesting is the character of Anton Newcombe, portrayed as egocentric you get the impression if it was physically possible he would appear on stage on his own and play all the instruments. While I'm sure that some aspects of his character were amplified for the movie, there is definately some basis for this as the footage clearly shows.
Overall, Dig is an interesting story well told although from a slightly biased perspective; definately worth a watch even if you aren't a fan of the Dandy Warhols.
Dave W - 28th July, 2005 - 17:48
Director:
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
When a team of scientists go into space to study a solar flare, they are caught unawares and hit by the full blast of the flare's radiation. This radiation mutates their DNA and they are given super powers. 4 of the astronauts must band together against the evil Victor Von Doom when he uses his power for the worse.
The Fantastic 4 is comprised of the Human Torch, a man who can create fire and fly; The Thing, a big strong mass of rock like flesh; The Invisible Girl, pretty self explanatory and Mr. Fantastic who has the Fantastic powers of being able to stretch. I assume Mr. Fantastic is an ironic moniker much like blokes who get called Tiny despite being 6'10" and built like a brick shithouse since he didn't seem to do anything Fantastic at all.
Not one of the best comic book adaptation films; the Fantastic 4 suffers from terrible jokes, terrible super powers and some dodgy plot. Having said that it is entertaining enough for what it is and if you go in expecting a mindless Holywood summer blockbuster that's what you'll get.
Dave W - 28th July, 2005 - 17:54
Sam Raimi's Spiderman was the first of the many big comic book movies which have come out over the past couple of years and remains one of the better adaptations so far. The film tells the story of Peter Parker, an ordinary college student who is bitten by a spider and as a result "Does whatever a spider can". When he fails to stop an armed robber from escaping from a wrestling match he is overcome with guilt when the robber kills his Uncle Ben. Parker then resolves to fight crime in the guise of Spiderman.
When local mad scientist Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) goes a bit crazy and takes on the guise of the Green Goblin, Spiderman must come to New York City's rescue.
Spiderman is an action packed tale which is stunningly presented. The CG in the fight scenes looks a little fake at times, but this adds to the comic book feel of the film. On subsequent viewings it struck me that the dialog is pretty terrible, although the excitement and action make up for this.
Dave W - 16th July, 2005 - 09:11
Director:
David Dobkin
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star as Jeremy and John, two womanisers who turn up at weddings uninvited in order to attract the attentions of the single young ladies there. When the two pull of their biggest crash ever crashing the wedding of Senator Cleary's (Christopher Walken) eldest daughter they set their sights on the Senator's two younger daughters.
Things don't go as planned for either when Jeremy's target turns out to be a little bit of a psycho and John is having more luck with the Senator's wife than his daughter. Wedding Crashers is much the same kind of humour as the myriad of other movies starring either Vaughn or Wilson, so fans of these should pretty much know what to expect.
Wedding Crashers is very funny in places, with a mix of good old fashioned slapstick and some jokes verging on tasteless. Having said that, it's not sufficiently funny throughout to rate alongside other comedies of the same style such as Dodgeball.
Dave W - 4th August, 2005 - 14:54
Sometime in the near future the US Navy are preparing for the war on terrorism with the development of a new unmanned aeroplane flown using state of the art AI. The plane coded named EDI (Extreme Deep Invader: which seems to mean nothing, but sounds like Eddie which is a nice enough name for a plane) is teamed up with 3 of the navy's top pilots.
Initially the team are none to pleased with their new friend, but when it gets struck by lightning and starts disobeying direct orders they realise it is their duty to do something about it.
Stealth has to be on of the most stupid movies I've ever seen, OK so it's the same director as The Fast and The Furious and xXx so there's not much to expect but Stealth is just taking the piss. The plot is weak and full of huge holes; there are some really bad lines ("It has a brain like a quantum sponge") and some ideas which would be funny if the film wasn't trying to be serious. (EDI likes to download music from the internet, and has a penchant for Gavin Rossdale in particular).
Add to that some rather dodgy attitudes to the world of warfare.
Scenario 1:
3 Terrorists are meeting in Rangoon with an imminent threat to US security.
Solution: Send 4 planes into Burma and blow up a building without any UN backing or prior warning.
Scenario 2
A pilot is forced to ditch her plane while flying without Authorisation across North Korea, landing in North Korea, the Korean army are on her case.
Solution: Despite the fact that a.) She wasn't meant to be flying over North Korea and b.) She's not meant to be in their country she starts shooting at North Korean soldiers, and waits on her boyfriend to come pick her up at which point he kills some more North Koreans and then destroys a helicopter. I'm pretty sure even if you're American the laws of warfare don't allow you to just turn up in another country and start killing their soldiers and destroying their military hardware with no attempt to resolve the situation peacefully.
Anyway, I digress ... Stealth is as big a pile of pish as your likely to see although it does have enough explosions and dogfights to be mildy amusing, add to that a couple of lines which are (albiet inadvertently) hilarious and you have 2 hours of cinema which while terrible is not unentertaining.
It's basically a pretty awful futuristic Top Gun meets Flight of the Navigator.
Dave W - 9th August, 2005 - 12:55
Director:
Tim Burton
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Director Tim Burton's film translation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a darkly comic adventure which turns into a crazy trip of song, dance and candy.
The film tells the story of young Charlie Bucket; hailing from a poor family with barely enough money to feed him, his parents and four grandparents, he is obsessed with the chocolate factory in his town run by Willy Wonka. When Wonka announces that 5 lucky children who uncover a Golden ticket in his chocolate will get a tour of the factory with one winning a grand prize; Charlie is eager to win the ticket even although his single hope lies in the one solitary bar of chocolate he gets for his birthday each year.
When the children who are winning the tickets turn out to be some of the most revolting children on the planet; Charlie loses faith in the world, but then his luck changes for the better and he gets to join the tour of Wonka's factory.
Although the films starts quite slowly, once the tour begins the real Tim Burton magic starts the sets are all excellent and the Oompa Loompas songs are done well, each in a different style for each child (Personal favourite has to be the glam rock ones). There are a lot of hilarious moments although the humour is very dark and I'm not sure how much of it children would get.
As with nearly every movie he's in, Johnny Depp is brilliant and makes the film. His portrayal of the eccentric Wonka with his father issues and moments of madness is excellent, at moments the character reminded me of Dr. Evil from the Austin Power's films, the man who is in charge but doesn't seem to have a clue what's going on. His delivery of the lines are excellent and make for some very funny momements.
Overall, an excellent adaptation from the book, fans of Depp or Tim Burton will not be disappointed.
Dave W - 10th August, 2005 - 12:45
Director:
Paul Haggis
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
Set in Los Angeles, a city home to people from a diverse range of racial and cultural background, Crash tells the stories of a number of different characters who are each the victims of racism and/or racist in their own way. As the film progresses, the different characters lives mix together with their experiences of racism paying important parts in their future.
While there is no one single overall plot, the subplots for each of the individual characters are, while quite simple, engaging and interesting. Each of the characters are well acted and cast; The racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his rookie partner; 2 young black carjackers (Ludacris, Larenz Tate); The District Attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his wife (Sandra Bullock); A police detective, (Don Cheadle) the list goes on ...
Crash's biggest impacts come when the intertwined lives of two of the characters finally come to a head resulting in tense and powerful scenes which are highly emotionally charged.
Overall Crash is a powerful movie told in an interesting way which a heavy bias towards exploring the personalities of the individual characters rather than on an overall plot which is to be tied up at the end.
Dave W - 16th August, 2005 - 17:22
Director:
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Year: 2003
Language: English
Country: America
21 Grams follows 3 strangers whose lives are intertwined after a horrific accident. The accident changes the lives of all 3, Cristina, the wife who's lost her husband (Naomi Watts); Paul Rivers who is awaiting a donor heart (Sean Penn) and Jack Jordan, an ex-convict who has gone straight after discovering God (Benicio Del Toro).
The time line used in the film is very disjointed, jumping forward and back as the characters are built up; even towards the end of the film the are jumps back quite far in the story. While this can be a little confusing at times, it serves well to tell the story of the 3 characters.
21 Grams is a great thriller with a strong plot and good performances from each of the 3 main actors.
Dave W - 16th August, 2005 - 17:30
Director:
Richard Linklater
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
When a foul mouthed, drunk, washed up ex-professional baseball star (Billy Bob Thornton) is recruited to coach a team of misfit kids he has a struggle on his hands. He must turn the group into a team which can beat the smug Roy Bullock in the championship.
With Bad News Bears starring Billy Bob Thorton cast as a foul mouthed drunk who has to deal with children, it sounds a bit like the excellent Bad Santa but that's where the comparisons stop. The jokes just aren't as funny, relying pretty much on how offensive they are rather than being particularly witty.
There are some mildly amusing moments however, although not enough to make the film any good.
Dave W - 19th August, 2005 - 16:15
Starting with a woman emerging from a fridge in a tiny dirty apartment she shares with a dead body which might be her own; Sugar is a strange collection of scenes. Varying from colour to black and white and with the main character not uttering a single word for the 80 minute duration it's a little hard to describe.
Without a real overall plot, Sugar is one of those films you just have to sit and watch while is goes nowhere. Not my usual cup of tea, but reasonably enjoyable.
Dave W - 22nd August, 2005 - 13:58
Director:
Nora Ephron
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Will Ferrel stars as Jack Wyatt, a washed up actor who in an attempt to boost his career takes the role of Darrin in a remake of the 60's TV series Bewitched. Things begin to get weird when he unwittingly casts a real witch (Nicole Kidman) as Samantha.
Plotwise Bewitched isn't anything special, a typical romantic comedy with the Bewitched backdrop; the writing is reasonably good though and both Ferrel and Kidman are good in their roles providing a good few laughs throughout the film.
Dave W - 22nd August, 2005 - 14:35
Director:
Wes Anderson
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
When oceanographer Steve Zissou's (Bill Murray) partner is eaten by a rare shark, he vows to seek down the shark and get his revenge on it. Steve and his crew are joined on their mission by Ned (Owen Wilson), a pilot who may just be Steve's son and a pregnant reporter (Cate Blanchet).
The Life Aqautic has a very dry sense of humour to it, bordering on the surreal at times as Steve and his team travel in search of the Jaguar shark. The film is well written and the plot is such that there isn't a dull moment throughout.
Dave W - 29th August, 2005 - 14:48
Director:
Michael Bay
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Michael Bay, King of big budget silly action films, brings us The Island. Dealing with an interesting albiet not entirely original premise the film follows Jordan-Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) and Lincoln-Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) two members of a Brave New World-esque community where their every move is monitored; everyone dresses the same and free thought is looked down upon. For everyone in the community their sole aspiration is to win a lottery which would see them move out to "The Island", a promised paradise where they can be free in the outside world.
When Lincoln-Six-Echo discovers that the Island doesn't exist and that in fact everyone he knows are clones of people in the real world, created solely to harvest their organs or have their children he escapes with Jordan-Two-Delta and the pair go on the run attempting to track down their sponsors.
The Island has it's faults, namely it is highly unoriginal, very silly at times, contains some dodgy plot holes and is full of product placement advertising. Despite these faults though, it pulls through for the most part as a string of exciting action set pieces vaguely held together. Action is what Michael Bay does best and in this regard, The Island does not disappoint. As with the plot, there isn't much originality to most of the action scenes, but they are exciting and fun to watch.
Overall a hugely over the top action movie which doesn't have a shred of originality, is a little on the long side but worth a watch if you just want to veg out to mindless action.
Dave W - 31st August, 2005 - 13:52
Director:
Miranda July
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
You, Me and Everyone We Know follows a number of characters from their weird journey in life. Richard, a shoe salesman has recently split from his wife and lives with his two kids in a tiny apartment. Christine, a budding performance artist, is seeking to get her work shown in a local art gallery and two teenage girls are attracting the attentions of one of Richards's work colleagues.
A very character based film not requiring much in the way of plot, You, Me and Everyone We Know is packed with moments of bizareness which can only make you smile or laugh.
Dave W - 23rd September, 2005 - 17:46
Director:
Cesar Gallardo
Year: 1976
Language: English
Country: America
When the Allied in command in the Southern Pacific during the second World War discover that four high ranking Japanese generals are going to be meeting on a island in the Phillipines housing a brothel they decide the time is right to strike against them.
When it is deemed too dangerous to send in troops, they team up with a Fillipino soldier to create a team of crack prostitutes who will go undercover in the brothel and assasinate the Japanese officers.
With a plot as amazing as that, Hustler Squad should be amazing, but sadly it is piss poor. The action scenes are some of the worst I've ever seen in a movie, usually a 5 minute gun fight is exciting and entertaining but in Hustler Squad they are only surpassed in terribleness by the atrocious acting and the god awful dialogue.
This movie should not be watched by anyone ever and only merits the half a star awarded in the hope that someone remakes it as the basic premise is too good to not be realised in its full potential.
Dave W - 27th September, 2005 - 11:08
Director:
Ridley Scott
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Kingdom of Heaven tells the story of Balian (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith. When Lord Godfrey (Liam Neeson) comes to his town and reveals himself to be his father and invites Balian to join him on a crusade to Jerusalem.
Once in Jerusalem, he is pulled into a conflict between the King of Jerusalem, who is nearing death due to his leprosy, a Knight Templar who wishes to take power over Jerusalem and a muslim warlord who bears hard feelings towards the Christian rulers.
Kingdom of Heaven is exactly the big budget epic you would expect Orlando Bloom to star in and Ridley Scott directs a film on a similar scale to Gladiator. Lots of big action scenes and huge battles there is a reasonable amount there to keep the audience entertained and with a decent plot the film is entertaining for the most part. It's main downfall is that there isn't really anything to make it stand out from similar big budget affairs like this such as Gladiator, Troy, Alexander etc.
Overall a decent movie but with nothing to make it stand out from the crowd.
Dave W - 10th October, 2005 - 12:43
Director:
Josh Whedon
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
Serenity is the big screen version of Firefly, the American Sci-Fi series written by Josh Whedon (who also wrote Buffy and Angel) which was dropped by Fox after just one season.
The film tells the story of the crew of Serenity who travel between planets taking jobs to earn cash and food. When they realise that a brother and sister they let on the ship in exchange for work are being hunted down by the Alliance (The Interplanetary Government) they become entangled in a deadly plot and captain Mal must decide whether or to risk his ship and crew and help them out or whether to ditch them and play it safe.
Serenity is pretty campy and cheesy, much what you'd expect from a film adaptation of a Sci-Fi series. The jokes and dialogue are reasonably funny and there is a good amount of action and some nice special effects.
From what I can tell, not being a fan myself, fans of Firefly will love the movie as it's pretty true to the series but those who have not seen the series should enjoy the film if they go in looking for a fun, exciting space adventure with little to think about and a large amount of cheesy jokes.
All in all, Serenity was pretty much as expected, entertaining for all but the last 10 minutes which dragged on a little.
Dave W - 12th October, 2005 - 13:35
Director:
Tim Burton
Year: 2005
Language: English
Country: America
12 years or so after the release of A Nightmare Before Christmas, director Tim Burton brings us a similarly themed and similarly animated tale in the form of Corpse Bride.
The story starts with the wedding rehearsal for the marriage between Victor and Victoria. Victor doesn't do to well remembering his vows and the parents of the bride aren't too impressed. He leaves the rehearsal disheartened and goes into the woods to practice his vows. In doing so he accidentaly slips the ring onto the skeletal hand of dead bride-to-be Emily mistaking it for a twig. Emily comes to life and declares his proposal binding taking him to the underworld where a troupe of dancing skeletons explain the situation via a trippy dance number.
Corpse Bride is very well animated and the screenplay is excellent with a good number of UK based celebrities adding their voice talents to the film. Dark and funny throughout, Corpse Bride is well worth watching.
Dave W - 2nd November, 2005 - 16:46
Director:
David O. Russell
Year: 2004
Language: English
Country: America
When Albert, a poet and ecological campaigner, has 3 strange co-incidences he turns to an existential detective agency for help. This leads to trouble when his main rival who works for a department store chain wanting to build another store on marsh land he is trying to protect approaches the agency as well. He is then thrown together with Tommy, a firefighter who is venomously against using petroleum as a mysterious French nihilist tries to undo the work the detectives have done with Tommy and Albert.
I heart Huckabees is a surreal comedy which delves in the world of existential philosphy and while most of the philosophical stuff was way above my head, the movie was interesting and humourous throughout. All the main characters are well acted although Jude Law does sometimes have trouble maintaining his accent.
Overall worth a watch if you want a comedy which is a bit different from most others.
Dave W - 2nd November, 2005 - 17:05