The Cinema Scene

Film Review - Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

2012-02-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

Showdown in Little Tokyo stars Dolph Lundgren as Kenner, a cop in Los Angeles who was raised in Japan but saw his parents murdered at a young age, since then he has lived in the US, one day he is assigned a partner played by the late Brandon Lee as they investigate a new drug in the area.

Showdown in Little Tokyo was actually surprisingly good fun, a nice reminder of the B movie exploitation fare that we don't see a lot of these days, mainly due to most movies relying on huge budgets and time and money consuming computer graphics, Lundgren and Lee play off each other rather well and deliver some nice wisecracks that set them apart from the killing machine's they might have been in different hands, Lee also has some surprising charisma, it's a sad shame he died as young as he did as he might have made a likeable action star had he lived.

All in all, Showdown in Little Tokyo is fun B movie fare that does its primary job nicely, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

2012-02-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

Crazy, Stupid, Love stars Steve Carell and Julianne Moore as Cal and Emily, a couple married for 25 years when Emily announces during dinner one night that she wants a divorce, this devastates Cal and he comes across a man named Jacob (Ryan Gosling), everything changes.

You know, I went into Crazy, Stupid, Love with low expectations as I had heard very good reviews and also I'm not that big of a rom com fan, I love When Harry met Sally... but that would be about it, with that how did I find the film?

To my surprise I actually kinda liked it, well parts of it, mainly those to do with Carell and Moore who have great chemistry, their scenes are sincere and they're a pleasure to watch whenever they come on screen during the movie.

Sadly however, the film overcrowds them with a few too many characters, namely the 17 year old babysitter, the English teacher played by Marisa Tomei and the other wheel played by Kevin Bacon, their characters were unnecessary and the character Gosling plays got really annoying after a while, apart from Carell and Moore I also liked Emma Stone who did a great job but she has shown this before with Easy A and proves once again how good she is despite her far too limited screen time.

All in all, some good performances help to overcome a slightly unbalanced rom com but hey its better than most out there so you can't complain, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Proof (1991)

2012-02-05T00:37:00.001-08:00

Proof stars Hugo Weaving as Martin, a blind man who is looked after by his housekeeper Celia (Genevieve Picot) and has a guide dog named Bill, one day while eating out he comes across one of the dishwashers who works there named Andy (Russell Crowe) and he finds someone in which to trust.

Trust actually is a key theme of this film as Martin is blind so he relies on people to tell him the truth about what they see as he cannot with his own eyes, this movie I thought was a terrific Aussie drama with a great sense of pace, 3 terrific performances in the shape of Weaving, Crowe and Pucot and a great storyline that in all honesty almost had me in tears as I found it to be very moving.

One part I also liked was the use of the camera, Martin uses this so that he has a photo of what he senses but others see with their own eyes, I also liked the use of trust and truth as the film's key themes, it's a very subtle film and writer/director Jocelyn Moorhouse deserves huge kudos for pulling it off with ease.

All in all, this is a great drama and if you haven't seen it already, you should, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Colombiana (2011)

2012-02-05T00:35:00.001-08:00

Colombiana is the latest production by Luc Besson, best known for such films as Subway, The Big Blue and the Fifth Element, here he tells the tale of Catalina (Zoe Saldana) a young Colombian girl who sees her parents murdered and then escapes to America and grows up to be a professional assassin so she can exact her revenge.

You know, I like Zoe Saldana very much and I really liked Besson's 2008 production Taken with Liam Neeson but this one felt really, really dull mainly because unlike Taken which had a great central performance by Neeson and a clean and clear narrative structure, this movie doesn't have any sense of narrative at all and even the films action scenes get boring after a while, I can't believe that this was the same actress that poured her heart and soul into Neytiri in Avatar could pretty much phone it in here, what a waste of a great talent.

So in closing, go and rent Taken instead, its cheaper, you'll get more value for money and you'll have a great time, what more can you ask for, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - War Horse (2011)

2012-01-27T23:51:00.000-08:00

War Horse is the 2nd film by Steven Spielberg to be released with his Tintin adaptation, the story here concerns Albert (Jeremy Irvine) who comes across a horse he names Joey, but when war breaks out with Germany the horse is sold to a sergeant (Tom Hiddleston), and from there the Horse goes on an adventure across a war torn battefield.

Okay I went into War Horse with mixed expectations as I had heard both good and bad reviews for the film, so with that how I did I find it?

Well there's good and there's bad, first off I'll start with the good and that is the performance by Tom Hiddelston, he brings a lot of heart to his role and makes up for his role in Thor, where his Loki was the weak link of that film, I also liked John Williams's score in places.

But the score also sums up my middle of the road feelings regarding the movie, for while I thought it was okay, I also thought it was very problematic for two reasons:

1. The Length: The film is way way too long, its 150 minutes and boy do you feel the length at times, especially near the film's ending, there were numerous times during that last section that I checked my watch waiting for it to end.

2. The Script: yes folks, the film's script by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis feels very episodic, part of me felt this story would work better as a mini series in the style of Band of Brothers or the Pacific, as it would've allowed better development of the human characters who play second fiddle to the horse.

So all in all, I didn't hate War Horse but its too flawed for me to recommend, 2 out of 5.

FIlm Review - The Muppets (2012)

2012-01-27T23:31:00.000-08:00

This new movie regarding the Muppets is the brain of writer/actor Jason Segel, himself a big Muppets fan and the story in this film regards his character Gary, his Muppet brother Walter and his girlfriend of 10 years Mary (Amy Adams) heading to Los Angeles and while there they learn of a plan to demolish the old Muppets studios to drill for oil and with that its time to play the music and time to light the lights.

Okay, I went into the Muppets not being a fan of them originally, probably a good way to start but I saw it was playing and decided to go, with that how did I find the film?

To my complete delight, the film is simply wonderful, wearing its heart on its sleeve at all times but revelling in it and not bordering on schamltzyness or cheesiness, it feels nicely moderated and I had no idea Segel had such a heartfelt and warm film in him.

But wait there's more, the film also has a smart script that handles its "breaking the 4th wall" aspect very cleverly, Segel and Adams have really nice chemistry and speaking of Adams, she is note perfect in this movie and despite the absence of original Frank Oz, the new voices feel nicely done and you don't miss his contribution at all.

But I have to talk about the songs, namely two "Life's a Happy Song" which opens and closes the film and is very good but my favourite has to be "The Rainbow Connection" from the original Muppet movie, wonderful to hear again and I couldn't help but start to cry a little when I heard it in the cinema.

And lastly, there is a Toy Story cartoon before the film regarding a support group for discarded happy meal toys and a 3 inch Buzz Lightyear who swaps places with him, this like the film itself is very well done and I hope that a DVD of the Toy Story toons will be released soon.

All in all, seek out the Rainbow Connection and take the family to this movie, its a wonderful experience for young and old and smuggle a hanky in your pocket, I can't recommend this movie enough, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - Hugo (2012)

2012-01-16T22:24:00.000-08:00

Hugo is the latest film from Martin Scorsese and is based off the book "The Invention of Hugo Cabaret" and concerns Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who lives like a street rat and works the clocks in a Paris train station, one day he comes across a girl named Isabelle (Chole Moretz from Kick Ass) and his whole world changes.

I went into Hugo not really expecting a lot, it looked like a lot of fun from the trailer I saw but I wasn't sure myself whether the film would be any good.

To my surprise and complete delight, it was a wonderful experience, Scorsese seems to be at his most joyous in terms of his direction showing a sense of pace and excitement that we haven't seen from him since Goodfellas in 1990, there is also a wonderful cast including Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jude Law, Ray Winstone and more but the two kids Moretz and Butterfield were the highlights, sharing a wonderful chemistry and I couldn't help but fall in love with them.

The film also has a wonderful tribute to the early years of cinema ranging from Meilies, the Lumiere Brothers and even to the icons of the 1920's like Buster Keaton and Fritz Lang, those scenes are nothing short of marvellous to watch in full flight and well, you just have to see them for yourself in order for it to be fully understood.

But lastly, I also have to mention the beautiful cinematography and production design, the colours in the film and bright and clear and the world Hugo inhabits is beautifully detailed down to the smallest cog in the clock tower, oh how I wish it would take home the oscars in those fields as it really did feel like a world you would want to inhabit for yourself.

All in all, I really loved this film and after the sadness of Tintin's disappointment, this kicks off 2012 in grand style, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Super (2011)

2012-01-14T18:21:00.001-08:00

Super stars Rainn Wilson as Frank, a middle aged guy who works in a diner and lives with his wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) who leaves him for Jacques (Kevin Bacon) a charismatic drug dealer, this sends Frank over the edge and after a dream one night, he decides to become a superhero and everything begins to turn around.

Super is very much wanting to be another Kick Ass type movie in that you have an ordinary bozo who decides to dress up as a superhero and I thought Kick Ass was a lot of fun as well as being violent and making its characters important to the plot and having a sense of weight in terms of their dimensions.

Super in comparison just feels deadly boring and incredibly clunky, I couldn't really care at all whether the good guys got blown to kingdom come or the daylights beaten out of them, this is because the film has such a cavalier attitude to the violence that was for me very off-putting, and I am very tolerant to most levels of screen violence but this felt overdone.

On top of that, the two leads Wilson and Ellen Page came across as lunatics, Wilson's character in particular, I mean he comes across as someone who could go crazy and shoot up a mall over his divorce plus he mumbles most of his smegging lines throughout the film, aye aye aye and Page who is okay became more and more annoying as the film went on which is a shame as Page is a good actress.

But what feels worst is this, the lack of fun to counteract the hyper violence, something I thought Kick Ass did very well, yes it was violent, yes it had a dark streak but the film also had a sense of fun to lighten the proceedings, here everything seems dark for no purpose or reason to justify it being in the film, the last time I remember this happening to me was Robocop 2 from 1990 which had endless bloody violence without any of the heart or humour that made the first Robocop so good.

There was one thing that I did like and that was Kevin Bacon, his performance finds the right note and it's that note the film really needed to find but sadly it doesn't and Bacon feels wasted as a result.

All in all, I can't recommend this movie, it was dull, clunky and far too violent without anything to counteract its impact or justify its existence in the film, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Conan the Barbarian (2011)

2012-01-14T18:19:00.001-08:00

Conan the Barbarian is a 2011 remake of the 1982 fantasy classic which introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world but this time it is Jason Momoa from the hit TV series Game of Thrones that takes on the role of Conan, the legendary Barbarian warrior who must journey from his ruined home to seek the answer to the riddle of steel.

Now, I went into this movie not really expecting a lot but I did really enjoy the 82 film directed by John Milius and co-written by Oliver Stone, it was mythic, it had a great cast including Arnold, Mako, James Earl Jones and the late Valerie Quennessen plus having a beautiful, thunderous and sweeping epic of a score by the late Basil Poledouris, with that pedigree how can this new film ever hope to compete?

Well it can't, it has none of the epicness, none of the myth, none of the sense of having to answer the riddle of steel or to seek the days of high adventure, instead the whole thing just comes across as a boring fantasy tale that in light of shows like the recent Spartacus or Game of Thrones which I mentioned earlier, this just doesn't make the grade.

But wait there's more, Momoa just doesn't have the pure brooding presence that Arnold had and Ron Perlman and Stephen Lang just feel wasted in their roles but what feels worse is the score by Tyler Bates, it feels very generic compared to Poledouris's sweeping score that is just magnificent.

Sadly, I just cannot recommend this movie, it is not worth your time, rent the 82 version instead, its cheaper and will you give more for your money, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Friends with Benefits (2011)

2012-01-07T16:58:00.001-08:00

Friends with Benefits stars Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis as two young people who meet as Kunis has brought Timberlake to New York as she is a headhunter and he wanted for GQ magazine, the two develop a friendship and decide to do the bit with the thing in bed, but can best friends really do that or do feelings get in the way?

Okay viewers, let me take you back (take you back) to the year 1989 and two people who met during that year, one named Harry the other named Sally and their own meet and greet adventures made for a cracking film, When Harry met Sally...

This film is NOTHING compared to that film, mainly because while it has zing it has no heart, something WHMS had in spades, mainly due to the wonderful performance by Meg Ryan as Sally herself but while Kunis has some good timing, it feels hollow and as a result she's not as good to watch as Ryan was.

What does redeem the film is a solid supporting cast, mainly Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson and Jenna Elfman, all three are very good in the film and manage to do something with the stock standard characters they're given and boy was I thankful for that as it was the only time I really felt like laughing in this entire film.

So yeah, rent When Harry met Sally instead, its cheaper and you'll enjoy yourself a lot more, this just feels flat in comparison but hey one of my favourite films is being recommended to you instead so it ain't a total loss, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - One Day (2011)

2012-01-07T16:55:00.000-08:00

One Day is based off the novel by David Nicholls who also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation and it concerns Dexter (Jim Sturgess) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) two UK university students who meet on graduation day and decide to stay in touch over the years on July 15th, with both having their ups and downs along the way.

One Day was a film that I'm sorry to say I didn't like very much at all mainly for two key reasons: first off all Hathaway herself: she just doesn't do anything with the material to make it work at all and her British accent is appalling ranging from "a bit a here and a bit a there" but mostly sounding like an impression of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast you know "Mrs. Potts dear, how would you like a nice pot of tea, it'll warm you up in no time" which got really annoying, why oh why wasn't someone like Carey Mulligan cast in that role, it would've been perfect.

Another is the character of Dexter himself, mainly for his irresponsibility throughout the whole film and his screwing up of everything he touches since leaving Uni, if he and Emma had gotten together in the early 90s when he wasn't a total cock up in life you'd have a much better film and everything would've turned out better for both of them but as it stands they didn't and the film suffers as a result.

You know, I hate to rag on it as I love When Harry met Sally so much and again I have to say, rent that film instead, at least you'll have a good time watching it as all this did was once again make me appreciate just how good that film really was, 1 out of 5.

2011 on Screen - Part 2: The Good, The Bad and the Disappointing

2012-01-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

With Part 1 out of the way, in which I talked about my feeling on the year as a whole and the good and bad trends that in my view defined it, the time has come to say fair's fair, to pay my due now and share my view about the best, the worst and the disappointments of 2011.

First off, here are those that I anticipated seeing, looked forward to seeing and then when I saw them was left with disappointment, a bitter after taste for any movie going person, you can't taste but you know it's there and you it know it to be true.

Cars 2: Disappointing suits this movie to a tee, I kind of enjoyed the first Cars film and from the handful of previews Disney released for the film this one looked like a lot of fun, high action and energy done with that certain Pixar spice would have you thinking "Home Run" right?

Wrong, sadly and the reason it feels so disappointing is that it wasn't fun at all and Pixar just didn't really know how to tell their story and make it mesh together into a cohesive and satisfying whole, normally Pixar could pull that off in their sleep but here they just fumbled the ball big time and left a lot of its fans and movie critics as a whole shocked as a result, but as someone once said "Nothing Lasts Forever" and Pixar will have to do a lot with the upcoming Brave to prove they still have the magic formula and that this movie was merely a bump in the road rather than the start of a long term decline.

Green Lantern: Again like Cars 2 this film had disappointment written all over it, I was really looking forward to this one as it looked good from the previews I saw and I like Martin Campbell as an action director, who unlike Michael Bay can actually shoot his action scenes coherently and not move his camera here, there and everywhere in almost EVERY. SINGLE. SHOT.

But what made Campbell's action work stand out was missing from this movie and it has the feel of a film that was ripped out of his hands and taken over by a studio committee going through the check list of what looked like a film that would take a killing in the box office, well the opposite happened and the film died there instead, maybe Warner Brothers and DC might want to heed the lessons of their recent Batman films and actually let their director do the job they bloody well paid him to do and not second guess his every move, hopefully Campbell will bounce back from this disaster sooner rather than later though sadly that will be easier said than done.

The Adventures of Tintin: Easily thundering typhoons above the disappointments of last year was Tintin, the long awaited collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.

I was SO excited for this film, probably more than most in a long time having been a big fan of the Tintin books and cartoon series from the 90s so any Tintin film was going to be high on my must watch list but after seeing the film I felt a sense of anticlimax, in that my long wait for it turned out to not mean anything in the end, a sense that the world as I saw it felt that tiny bit different somehow, it's hard to explain but I know it to be there and to be true, I'm just that certain of it but I suppose it just comes with the territory sometimes.

That was the year's most disappointing out of the way, let's get onto the worst of the year, the ones that made even the best of us recoil in anger and kick in the balls simply for taking away precious time and money that we'll not only never get back but give us the feeling that we could have done something special with it.

One Day: Easily one of the worst movies I had the displeasure to sit through all year was the rom com One Day based on the bestselling book.

The reasons this is one of the worst movies all year are threefold first Anne Hathaway's appalling British accent which went here, there and everywhere and ended up more like an impression of Mrs. Potts and THIS is the new Selina Kyle, oh great hopefully she doesn't cock that up too.

The second was the endless misery and drinking throughout the whole film, for fucks sake people I'm really getting annoyed at this I mean Jim Sturgess's character seems to be drinking in almost every scene.

And the third was the whole thing of "If you did that thing in the first place" syndrome, I mean if the whole thing with the two leads had happened earlier everything would've been better, you wouldn't have the "I need a beer, 2 bucks a glass" parts of the film nor would you have the "oh dear, I knew this would happen, it always does" scenes, makes you appreciate just how good When Harry met Sally...

Source Code: A controversial choice to be sure as many others liked it a lot more than me but I did not as it was a film that wanted its audience to play along but had no real confidence in itself to do the same thing.

Apart from that the film's script was also full of plot holes, endless questions regarding the who, what, where and why that just get annoying VERY quickly as well as the film's insulting ending that's put on there purely to try and market the film towards a more mainstream audience that want more of a "love is in the air, every sight and every sound" style of an ending, give me a fucking break, at least Chris Nolan's Inception one of 2010's best movies had a sense of style and confidence about it, this one just feels like the bastard step child of that film.

Transformers - Dark of the Moon: Easily the worst of the worst, the bottom of the pile and the top of the junk pile was this movie.

And the reasons this is the worst film of the year for me are a few, how few are they, let thee count the ways:

The overall awfulness of it: The overriding opinion I had regarding this film was that it was awful, nothing in this movie made any logical sense, there was no real heart to any of it, everything moves so quickly you can't take it in nor can you really sit back and enjoy the scenes on screen, the complete disregard for anything resembling a storyline but worse worse worse of all was the endlessness of the entire film, the whole thing rambles on from one scene to another when some serious editing was needed to get it down to 2 hours or under, there was just no reason at all for a Transformers movie to be 2 hours and 40 minutes long but then that's what happened when you keep saying "yes" to this bozo rather than actually growing some balls and saying "No, this is too long, cut it down" or "No, this isn't funny, try something else."

And speaking of Mr. Bay, this leads me to my next point which is the dishonest spin that was employed in promoting the film, when talking about the release of the last Transformers film Revenge of the Fallen in the DVD Making Of, Bay took pot shots at the films critics, effectively saying they were wrong.

Well as it turned out, when that same public heard about this movie being made, they started to groan and both Bay and the series' main actor Shia LaBeouf were going on the record saying lines like these.

"We missed the mark"

"It was crap"

"You couldn't tell what was going on"

"There was a writers strike and we had to get a story together in 3 weeks"

"We let everyone down"

"This time however, we got it right"

Wrong wrong wrong, both Bay and LaBeouf lied to their audience, pure and simple and yet we all fell for it by going to see the film based on the lies you've read above, this really makes me mad, luckily most saw right through the lies and said the film was crap and for the record, I will be forever grateful I didn't see it in 3D as if I did I would've been A LOT harsher on the film.

But wait folks, I ain't done yet as to make matters worse, the first trailer for the new Transformers game Fall of Cybertron debuted last month and it looked fantastic, it was dark, exciting and heartfelt, none of which were in any of Bay's movies at all.

And best of all, it has a game director (Matt Tieger) who is actually sincere about atoning for the mistakes of his previous Transformers game, War for Cybertron and is finding various ways to correct for it in terms of creating new enemies, weapons and more, but then High Moon Studios know what they are doing, Bay and Co do not.

But enough rambling about the worst, lets turn the dial towards sunny days, clear blue skies, light winds, rainbows and lollipops by which I mean the best of the year.

3. Captain America: Coming in 3rd place is that Star Spangled Man with a Plan, Captain America.

The reason this is 3rd on my list is that I had so much fun watching this movie and was reminded very much of a modern day Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is no surprise given that Joe Johnston who directed the film worked on Raiders also as well as directing 1991's The Rocketeer which could easily go on a double bill with this movie, the highlight of the film without a doubt was the "Star Spangled Man" song composed by Alan Menken, hearing that reminded me very much of "Prince Ali" from Aladdin in terms of its lyrics and overall style.

2. Senna: Racing into 2nd place is the Formula 1 documentary Senna, based on the life and times of F1 driver Ayrton Senna from Brazil.

What makes this doco so good and transcend its genre is Senna himself, his life and times are perfect big screen material, his strong belief in the love of God, his ruthlessness and determination on the track and the rivalry he had with French driver Alain Prost, which makes for a damn good hero/villain dynamic if there ever was one, not to mention that extraordinary F1 footage of high speed excitement, exhilarating turns and gasp inducing crashes which remind you that this is the real deal, not some fancy computer graphic.

1. Super 8: Yes folks, coming in pole position for 2011 was JJ Abrams's collaboration with Spielberg, Super 8

Simply put, this was a wonderful film, full of danger, excitement, emotion and wonder, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning and the group of young boys were fantastic as was the score by Michael Giacchino possibly the first composer since John Williams to truly understand his style and bring it to a new generation to cinemagoers, though I must also mention the huge improvement in Abrams's direction, a far cry from his wobble cam mess of Star Trek, his action staging and editing seems much improved and I hope it continues long into the future.

So there you have it folks, my look back at 2011 in a cinema near you and me, hopefully 2012 is a good year also though with Ridley Scott's Prometheus, his first sci-fi film since Blade Runner, the Fire I mean the Dark Knight Rises, Marvel's the Avengers, Skyfall the new 007 film and Part 1 of the Hobbit, expectations will be high for each but will they reach them or fall doing so.

As someone once said, Only Time will Tell and I'll see you at the movies.

Film Review - The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

2012-01-02T21:48:00.000-08:00

The Adventures of Tintin is based off the books by Herge and this new film from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson takes its inspiration from three sources: Secret of the Unicorn, The Castafiore Emerald and Crab with the Golden Claws, the film tells of Tintin buying an old ship the Unicorn at a market and others wanting to buy if off him, those of a more nefarious cloth as its said to reveal an old mystery.

I've been greatly looking forward to this movie due to the fact that I'm a huge Tintin fan since childhood, the animated series was a defining one for me growing up and I even read some of the books as a result, the moment I heard about a film based off that I knew I had to see it post haste.

And long did I wait for the day where I had my ticket and I got to see the film for myself, now having done so, how did I find it?

Well it saddens me to say this but the film is a disappointment for me, probably the biggest I've had in a long long time, mainly due to the baggy and overcomplicated storyline which tries to combine the sources mentioned above into a singular narrative and it just doesn't quite come together plus Serkis's Haddock REALLY got on my nerves, mainly due to playing up the alcoholism of his character which after a while really got on my nerves and plus I felt that he was all wrong for the part to begin with, same with Jamie Bell as Tintin who really didn't do that much I felt instead spell out the plot.

Moving on, I want to talk about the positives first being the sequence involving Sir Francis Haddock which is an outstanding sequence and the best Spielberg has been since Raiders of the Lost Ark, in fact that scene had more energy in it than any of the Indiana Jones sequels put together, the other was the capture work done on Snowy the white dog, a nice template to use for Brain from Inspector Gadget if that is rebooted, I also liked Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thompson and Daniel Craig made for a pretty good villain.

But what's probably worst is this, the fact that only part 1 of the Red Rackham story was told in this movie, which spilled over into a 2nd book Red Rackham's Treasure which is hinted at but foolishly not old in this film, no doubt saved for a hopeful sequel which given its performance in the US, may never get made.

As for the 3D well it was 3D, dark, dim and blurry, so very blurry, see this in 2D as it will make you appreciate the look of the film and the performance capture a lot more as it will look brighter, clearer and not blurry but then again I've said that before haven't I.

All in all, nothing makes me sadder than to say this disappointed me as I had waited long to see it and really really looked forward to it but alas it is what it is, 2 out of 5.

2011 on Screen - Part 1: The Tides of Change

2011-12-24T23:35:00.001-08:00

And so, another film year has drawn to a close, all the popcorn popped, the drinks drunk, the previews previewed and the reels changed all for the last time, and it seems to get faster every year.

As you may have noticed by the title, I'm going to break up my end of year piece into 2 parts, the second part will have the top 3, worst 3 and 3 disappointments, this first part will talk about my own views on the year as a whole as well as the 2 good and 2 bad trends.

So, let's get started, first off I want to talk about the year as a whole in regards to movies as I saw it and to be honest, I thought this was a better than average year at the movies, last year I felt was not a good year for movies, a lot of them came and went and the consensus seemed to be from both critics and mainstream audience members that Toy Story 3, Inception and the Social Network were the ones that stood tall for 95% of the moviegoers.

Here that hasn't happened at all, the choices for top film of the year seemed to vary depending on the person you talked to where it be the documentary Senna, Terence Malick's divisive Tree of Life, the neo pop thriller Drive and others which is great to see I feel as it proves that each person like what they like and they aren't afraid to show that in their end of year lists.

But I can't not mention this year in film and avoid the discussion of cinema going, probably the one thing in life I like to do more than anything and this year saw the closure of my local cinema and its work in progress re opening, now to be honest I wasn't surprised that it closed down as it wasn't all that good to begin with but it was indeed mine and I did feel a sense of loss when it was gone, having seen the work in progress re opening on the day I write this, I feel a great sense of improvement and want to see it when the work is fully done but it will also depend on the film whether I go back or whether I decide to continue doing what I had done prior to it which is to take a trip for those films that I want to see and waiting for the DVD and/or Blu-Ray for most.

Now, with that out of the way I am going to talk about my 2 good and 2 bad trends of the year overall, and to start I'm going to give you the good which are:

The Rebellion against 3D: Yes folks, 2011 was the year that audiences finally woke up to the horribleness that is 3D, last year most gave it a chance, this year they began to reject it and see it for what it really was: dark, dim, horrible, murky and a general drain on your bank account that you just don't need, 2D is all you need it looks better, it looks brighter, it's cheaper and it's not murky, it's all you need when going to the movies.

The quality of the blockbusters: Probably the most surprisingly trend of the year was how well the blockbusters were received, normally most blockbusters are frowned upon but this year Thor, X-Men First Class, Super 8, Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes all got good reviews even though I didn't like some of those myself, still it bodes well for next year's crop which could continue this trend and I hope it does.

Now, that was the good, this is the Bad:

The Box Office: What on Earth Happened this year with the overall Box Office, it seemed that nothing could catch on with audiences, they either came in droves or stayed home, to me the only film to do anything regarding big numbers was the last Harry Potter but then that was always going to happen, you knew it was going to be big going in and it was every bit the big bang it promised to go out with.

Apart from that, so little managed to do well, it was liked those that wanted to see it went in the opening weekend and after that were either the stragglers that got the chance to see it or those that went because "hey there was nothing else on and I was there so what the hell", even movies like the Hangover 2, Twilight 4.1, Transformers 3 and Pirates 4 which did do well couldn't escape the near unanimous negative word of mouth and dropped off big time after their big openings.

But I can't say I'm surprised, the year started off badly and it ended that way, despite a promising middle part of the year, hopefully the box office improves next year but I can't say I hope for it to do so as audiences seem to have made up their mind when it comes to their movie going, well at least for now.

Weak Villains: Ah yes, my old bug bear re surfaced big time this year and that is the action film with the weak villain, I mean come on guys it can't be that hard can it, seriously I have really had enough of this, any film goer worth their salt knows that every good hero needs a good villain to define him and his quest I mean look at the Star Wars Trilogy, those movies would be nothing without Darth Vader and the Empire to help define it and if you want proof of that theory in practice, look at the prequel trilogy.

So, that's part 1 of my look back of the year, stay tuned for part 2 where I talk about my best, worst and disappointments of the year.

Film Review - Ides of March (2011)

2011-12-21T22:20:00.001-08:00

The Ides of March is directed by and stars George Clooney as Mike Morris, a US State Governor who seeks the presidential nomination for the US Democratic Party, behind him is a hip young advisor Steven played by Ryan Gosling who along the road gets a few lessons on the political arena.

I went into this movie really with no expectations but I have to say that I felt that it was well directed by Clooney who keeps a firm eye on the proceedings and does well with close ups and getting performances out of his actors, particularly Evan Rachel Wood and Phillip Seymour Hoffman and boy did he remind me of Channel 7 Political Commentator Graham Richardson when he was on screen with the white hair and facial structure.

But outside of them, this film fails, mainly because it lacks a sense of cohesion in its storytelling and a structured 3 act narrative to drive it along, the film feels like a bunch of individual bits edited together but don't really signify anything and if it does, its the same "politics is dirty" and "every dream has a price" message we've heard from other movies, like Oliver Stone's Wall Street as an example.

And speaking of that film, rent that one instead and if you want to see this one, wait for the DVD, it'll be just as enjoyable at home than in a cinema, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

2011-12-17T17:29:00.001-08:00

Cowboys and Aliens is based off a graphic novel and stars Daniel Craig, the current James Bond as Jake Lonergan, a man who wakes up in the middle of the desert in the 1870's with no memory of who he is and how he got a mysterious bracelet on him, he's then picked up by some deputies and taken to a nearby town, but trouble soon comes calling.

Before heading into this film, I didn't know much about it only that it starred Craig and Harrison Ford and was directed by Jon Favreau who directed the first two Iron Man movies, was this a winning combination?

Sadly no for one clear reason: The story, I know the title says "Cowboys and Aliens" but a lot of fun could've been had with this title and made for a cracking film but sadly it isn't and for the most part I found it boring mainly because the story didn't hone in on a central purpose and rambled on from one scene to the next and also, the characters in it we don't really care about very much at all as they're introduced for the most part and then not given anything to do apart from become cannon fodder for the Aliens.

And as for the Aliens side well they feel like a cross between the Chimera from the Resistance series and Kuato from Total Recall and nowhere near as interesting or scary as those two alien life forms and even they get a little boring after a while.

But there were some things I did like, mainly Craig himself I mean he nails that old school look of Indy so well with the Fedora, the Outfit, the Gun all he needed was the bullwhip and presto the rightful heir to the Indiana Jones throne, I also liked the action scenes which are well directed and give you a sense of what's happening at any given time and who's fighting who and I also liked the cinematography and the early scenes which had that real western feel with the widescreen landscapes, the old time setting and the "saddle up boy, yaw" feeling they help to create.

You know, if this had been a proper western, I would've loved it but the sci-fi elements bring it down and the messy script keep it lodged deep in the ground, a shame, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Green Lantern (2011)

2011-12-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

Green Lantern represents a move by DC to try and follow Marvel's lead and bring their own superhero library to the big screen, the story here concerns the Green Lantern Corps, a Jedi Knight style peacekeeping force who are faced with their darkest foe, Parrallax voiced by Clancy Brown which is powerful enough to destroy entire worlds and defeat their finest warrior, Abin Sur played by Teumeura Morrison, but Sur manages to flee and initiate the selection process which will determine who inherits his ring, meanwhile Hal Jordan played by Ryan Reynolds finds the dying alien and his whole life changes.

Now to say in advance of what I thought of the film I have to say that before its release, I was actually really looking forward to it probably more than most movies this year mainly due to the film's director Martin Campbell who unlike some can actually direct a pretty good action film, his work on the Bond series is a good example of this and the early trailers also helped to fuel my anticipation for it, but now that I have finally seen it, how did Campbell do, did he overcome the fear of it all or did he succumb to its dark power?

Well, sad to say he did not do a very good job with it all for multiple reasons, the first being that Campbell didn't do anything with the material given to him to justify his hiring as director on the film which can be absolutely crucial to how a superhero movie can either rise or fall and to use as an example of how a director can make a superhero film work is Richard Donner with Superman, a difficult character to pull off for sure but Donner and Tom Mankiewicz who was brought onto that film to rewrite the script completely nailed the essence of the character and what he stands for and I am also convinced that if they had been able to complete their version of Superman II, they would've made a much better film.

But getting back to this movie and as I said, there is nothing here that justifies the hiring of Campbell as the director as when he tries to put his stamp on the film, the script shifts gear and crashes back to Earth and so much of those scenes which also help to make up the bulk of the film feel lifted from other films such as Hot Shots, Batman Begins, Star Wars and Superman which I mentioned before.

But boy oh boy is this script as a whole a complete mess, nothing makes any sense at all, scenes that start off promising are cut off just as they get interesting and at times I was reminded of Highlander 2 in terms of both movies being completely incomprehensible.

But wait there's more, along with wasting Campbell, it also wastes a great cast I mean you have Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong, Tim Robbins, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Saarsgaard, Angela Bassett plus Brown and Morrison who I mentioned earlier and all of them I felt very sorry for as they have done so much better work in the past and didn't deserve this to happen to them, but as for Blake Lively well quite frankly wet lettuce would have more charisma than she does in this film.

Though if there was one waste above all that makes me saddened the most it is Strong, who plays Sinestro and it is an inspired choice to play the character if you know his story in the comics, here he doesn't really get anything to do apart from help lay the groundwork for a sequel and that is a real shame as I see in Sinestro's story the true back story of Darth Vader as told by Alec Guinness in the original Star Wars film, the pupil of theirs who turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights and who was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force.

But there was, yes was some small positive moments and almost all of them are to do with the home world of the GL Corps which actually look pretty good and those scenes do try to bring the viewer in and get them interested but they are far too brief and come across as too late as by the time we get to those scenes, most audience members will have lost interest.

And so in closing, In brightest day, in blackest night, no movie this year is as disappointing as Green Lantern's light, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)

2011-12-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol is the fourth film in the Mission Impossible film series and once again Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, special agent for the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) and after a bomb goes off at the Kremlin in Russia, Hunt and his team played by Simon Pegg, Paula Patton & Jeremy Renner are disavowed, leaving them on their own to find who was really responsible.

Alright, now I went into this movie with next to no expectations, having not really seen the other films in the series nor was I really all that impressed with the previews for the film, but along I went and after two and a bit hours in the cinema, how did it go?

Well, lets just say that I'll start with the positives first, mainly the score by Michael Giacchino which combines very well the original MI theme which was composed by Lalo Schifrin and a beautiful Russian choir that reminded me of Basil Poledouris's choir for the Hunt for Red October, there's also a gripping scene involving the world's tallest building in Dubai that frankly, you need to see for yourself to get the full impact.

But the overriding feeling I got from this film was that I was bored, bored out of my mind, this joke of a plot feels like it was ripped from Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies, not only that all Cruise seems to do in this film is "running, running, running, running, running, running, running" and boy does that get tiresome after a while.

But you know, there are three fundamental reasons why a spy film is good, very good, how do I know, let thee count the ways:

1. A Charismatic Hero: Yep, what you need first is a charismatic hero that the audience is willing to follow around on their mission, my favourite James Bond film is the Living Daylights for one reason: Timothy Dalton, he was suave, he was dashing, he moved with great grace and most of all he had that dark side to him which the Bond of the books always had, here Hunt is an uncharismatic bore and Cruise's age REALLY shows on his face in the film, frankly I hope its his last as I doubt he could continue on as an action man for much longer.

2. A good villain: I have said this before and I'll say it again folks, WRITE A FUCKING DECENT VILLAIN, Jesus Christ it can't be that hard now can it, I mean all the best action films succeed on this regard and here all Hunt and Co deal with is a bunch of Russian nobodies that you can't identify and aren't that threatening, apart from the fact that they hit people well and can shoot guns, whoop de fucking chook.

3. A proper plot: To use what is probably my favourite spy movie of all, 1990's The Hunt for Red October, as an example, the plot of that film concerned a secret Soviet sub that had a special silent drive system that could prove devastating if it fell into the wrong hands, here the gizmo of interest concerns a satellite that for all I care could power the Death Star, again some piddling missile has no threat, something Red October had in spades.

To be completely frank, do not see this movie, it's boring to sit through and a waste of your money, rent the Living Daylights and the Hunt for Red October instead, they're MUCH more worth your money than this tosh, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

2011-12-10T18:11:00.001-08:00

Rise of the Planet of the Apes stars James Franco as Will Rodman, a scientist for the Gen Sys company that is testing experimental drugs on chimps captured in the wild, one of which runs amok and is killed by the building's security but it turns out she bore a cub who Will takes home to his sick father played by John Lithgow who names him Caesar, and from there the legend begins.

Rise of the Apes wants to be the precursor to the iconic 1968 sci-fi film Planet of the Apes and in its defence it has an exciting action climax on the Golden Gate Bridge towards the end of the film but the film's script fails in almost every way to generate anything regarding excitement, imagination or feeling for anyone or anything contained in the film.

And it's a shame as there are some good actors, the biggest waste being John Lithgow, a seriously underrated actor reduced to mouthing "Caesar" and other sorts of gibberish as he's suffering Alzheimer's in the movie, as for Franco well he was fine but Frieda Pinto from Slumdog Millionaire is just pointless, she's okay but her role was just that of the thankless girlfriend cause hey we can't have a major movie without an attractive woman for the main male lead to go all goo goo eyed over now can we?

Hello?

(Cricket noises)

Nope, didn't think so.

Moving right along, you're probably asking "what about those damn dirty apes?" well Andy Serkis is Caesar and he's fine but when you look at the original Apes in the 1968 film, they looked very life like and believable which makes the Apes here feel more like the CG creations they are.

And not only that, one of the locations is the California Redwoods, most famously used as the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi and boy oh boy was I reminded of that every time they went there.

Oh and last point, they shoe horn in the famous "damn dirty ape" line into the film and it falls completely flat, in the original Heston delivered it powerfully whereas here Tom Felton just delivers it like an actor delivering a line in a flat monotone, I suppose that could be said of the whole tone to the film now that I think about it.

All in all, don't watch this movie, watch the original Planet of the Apes instead, it's cheaper and will be more satisfying than this movie which is possibly the most boring movie I've seen all year, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Senna (2011)

2011-12-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

Senna is a documentary focusing on the life of Ayrton Senna, a Formula 1 race car driver from Brazil who started in Go Kart racing and rose to F1's greatest heights in terms of his championships and the lows regarding the politics.

Senna is simply great filmmaking full stop, director Asif Kapadia succeeds where so many movies documentary or otherwise based on a real life person and/or events fail to do and that is give the viewer a sense of who the man really is and that we learn about that man as we watch the film, not 5 minutes after we finish watching and look up that person on the internet, no Kapadia doesn't make that mistake instead he uses purely archival footage to tell his tale and it is a masterstroke for it immediately gives the viewer the sense of the time and the place in which he lived and drove on the circuit.

Nothing however can prepare you for the final 20 minutes of the film, it is simply heartbreaking stuff, I won't say too much more if you haven't seen the film yet but if you already know of Senna's final fate then it won't be a surprise to the end but still it is heartbreaking and heart stopping stuff.

But I feel that the main reason I like this film so much is this, to me this gets right what so many action films get wrong and that is it gives you a complex hero, a snivelling villain, the bond that defines them and the arena in which they will face off against each other and where one has to beat the other and its done with real life figures that can't be thought up on the page and in a documentary of all things.

All in all, this is straight up one of the year's finest films, exhilarating, exciting and simply fantastic filmmaking, even if you are not an F1 fan and I know only a tiny bit about the sport its still highly recommended viewing, what an absolute joke that its lost its chance at the Oscars to compete for best documentary as it deserved a shot at the title, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Hanna (2011)

2011-12-10T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hanna stars Saoirse Ronan as Hanna, a young girl who grows up with her forest with her father played by Eric Bana who is training her for a great quest to Berlin, but to do so she'll have to avoid the dastardly Marissa played by Cate Blanchett.

Hanna I thought was well made by Joe Wright, last seen directing Atonement in 2007, he imbues the film with a great sense of style and a good pace, never letting things run on for too long, he also gets good performances from his 3 leads and there's a fantastic score created by the Chemical Brothers.

However this film has one big problem: The Script, quite frankly it feels predictable and that infects the film as a whole as you play spot the plot point throughout the whole thing; "That's gonna happen", "this is gonna happen", "Bang they're dead", "that person's gonna die", "they're gonna die" and on and on it goes.

There was one point while watching this movie where I was reminded of another Euro action thriller I've seen, 2008's Taken with Liam Neeson, that film to me felt far superior to this one and its a shame as I'd heard so much good about it before watching it.

All in all, I can't recommend this movie, all the style in the world can't make up for an obvious script that just feels too familiar for my taste, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Fast Five (2011)

2011-12-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

Fast Five is the 5th in the Fast and Furious series and this time, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O'Connor and Dom's sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) are hiding in Rio de Janiero following a prison break, but whilst there they learn of a corrupt businessman who has millions of dollars, with that its time to get racing once again.

Fast Five is a fun entry in the series, all of the main characters from the first movie are back and there are some others who appeared in the other entries in the series, notably Tyrese Gibson who appeared in the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious, the main leads have some fun chemistry and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson also has a few good moments despite his near endless sweating in almost every scene.

Unfortunately though the film runs way too long for its own good, it runs about 2hrs 10 when a good 10-15 minutes should've been trimmed from the film to allow for a more fast paced, high speed adventure but given that this is film number 5 in this series, you can't expect miracles.

As it stands, its an okay film with some nice chase scenes but rent the first film instead and leave it after that, this one whilst okay feels somewhat unnecessary, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Red Dog (2011)

2011-12-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

Red Dog tells the tale of well, Red Dog, an Australian Kelpie who wanders into the Western Australian mining town of Dampier, from there he meets the locals who work for the mining company as well as the local bus driver John (Josh Lucas) who changes his life forever.

Red Dog was a wonderful Australian film, reminding me very much of the good old days of our industry, especially the miners themselves as I was reminded of a late 70s Australian filmed called "The Last of the Knuckle men" which by the way produced by Byron Kennedy and starred Mike Preston both of whom would also work on Mad Max 2 a couple of years later.

But enough about the trivia, lets get back to this movie, it will tug at your heartstrings almost right away due to Koko the Kelpie, I mean sure Lucas, Rachael Taylor and the other actors are fine, in fact they're quite good but this is Koko's movie through and through and its hard not to fall in love with him with those oh so cute eyes and that look on his face that makes your heart melt, the cute little dog, I know that sounds slightly schmaltzy but if you've seen the film, you will understand why.

Though if I have a gripe with the film it is this, at times the movie plays out like a feature length version of a "This is our story" ad that the mining industry here in Australia showed on TV and in cinemas a while back, I know that is the point of the film but at times the mining segment of the film felt very tacked on and in your face.

And lastly, I couldn't help but call Red Cat MAD Cat at times as I was reminded of that famous cat while watching Red Cat in this film.

All in all, it took me a while to get to see it but it was well worth the wait, especially for that little dog, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Electric Dreams (1984)

2011-11-27T03:34:00.001-08:00

Electric Dreams stars Lenny von Dohlen as Miles, an architect returning to San Francisco from Los Angeles as he wants to design a style of brick that can withstand Earthquakes, but one night after work he is persuaded to buy a computer to help keep him organised though the next day he meets his new neighbour Madeleine (Virginia Madsen) and it all goes from there.

I have to say that I really liked Electric Dreams, the film put a big smile on my face and had me toe tapping along to its soundtrack composed by Giorgio Moroder who also worked on Top Gun, Scarface and other films, no surprise the highlight of the soundtrack was the "Together in Electric Dreams" song by Phil Oakley.

Apart from that, the film is also a lovely romance between Von Dohlen and Madsen, speaking of which Madsen is absolutely delightful in this film, it's easy to see why Miles would fall for her as I would find it hard to think of anyone else that didn't either, happily she has gone on to do other things, even Highlander 2.

All in all, I really loved this movie and it comes highly recommended, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Silverado (1985)

2011-11-27T03:32:00.000-08:00

Silverado is a western film which stars Kevin Kline as Paden, a drifter in the old west who comes across three other rough riders on the range, Mal (Danny Glover), Emmett (Scott Glenn) and his younger brother Jake (Kevin Costner), as they travel the old west they come across a town called Silverado where their real adventure is about to begin.

Silverado is a beautiful looking western film, well directed by Lawrence Kasdan who is best known for writing The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark and is clearly trying to do a similar adventure in the style of those films.

Sadly though he falls way short of those great heights due to a very scattershot storyline in terms of those four main leads going off onto their own separate storylines that somehow manage to come together in the end but you don't get any sense of satisfaction in seeing that happen nor do we get to see the leads developed as a posse for just as Kasdan rallies them together. They go their separate ways in the very next scene.

The other big problem with this film is the endless supply of characters, there's two sheriffs (Brian Dennehy and John Cleese), a lot of deputies, the barmaid (Linda Hunt), the gambler (Jeff Goldblum), the fair lady of the land (Rosanna Arquette) and so on and so on.

Well, quite frankly some of these characters needed to go, namely Dennehy's and Goldblums' characters, Goldblum is a great actor but here he is unnecessary and just sucks up screen time for no real reason at all and Dennehy's character wasn't all that flash, again a great actor filling in the time card, what should've happened is the two sheriff's being swapped, Dennehy's at the beginning, Cleese's as the main one as his was set up to be the bad guy only for him to exit the film a few scenes later, what a sad waste of a great talent.

All in all, despite some small positives, this film misses the mark as it feels too episodic in its construction, to cluttered in its characterization and too dull for its own good and boy does it feel sad to say that as I am a huge Kasdan fan for he really was a key reason why Empire and Raiders are considered the best of their respective film series but this time, it all fell short, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Re Animator (1985)

2011-11-27T03:28:00.000-08:00

Re-Animator is a horror film that stars Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Herbert West, who interns as a third year medical student and it's here that he meets Daniel Cain played by Bruce Abbott, a fellow medical student who along with his fiancée Megan played by Barbara Crampton rent out a spare room to West, but little do they know of his dark experiments.

As someone who isn't much of a horror fan, I was somewhat impressed by this film, mainly due to its intriguing story of re animating the dead using scientific methods and the great performance by Combs as West, he is delightfully manic and at times compulsive about his work and not once do you get bored watching him on screen in this role, Abbott and Crampton also had some nice chemistry as the young couple and David Gale was good also despite his near scary resemblance to Australian politician Bob Brown, though Combs also bears some resemblance to a young version of Australian prime minister John Howard.

However, what I didn't care for so much was the final act as it went a little too much in the "monsters on the attack" direction which in all honesty was very off putting mainly because of what I said above, not being much of a horror fan, I kept wishing the blood had been toned down a bit as the story was strong enough to not need it that much, but then that's just me.

All in all though, I did think the film was well done enough in its first two thirds to get it over the line, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Lighthorsemen (1987)

2011-11-12T19:34:00.001-08:00

The Lighthorsemen tells the tale of the Australian Light horse division during the first world war, well 1917 to be exact, the story here is that a young man named Dave Mitchell (Peter Phelps) who is eager to join the light horse and save his country, meanwhile a new army sergeant plans to take one of the enemy towns to use as a supply base.

The Lighthorsemen is a rousing Australian adventure directed by Simon Wincer, best known as one of the key people behind the Man from Snowy River and who also directed the recently released film The Cup about the 2002 Melbourne Cup horse race, he clearly seems in his element here doing a proper action adventure film with hundreds of horses at his disposal and their put to good work here as some of the action scenes in this movie are nothing short of spectacular as the sight of all those horses charging down the planes is a fantastic sight, especially in the final charge scene which is just breathtaking in its exhilaration, THAT is how you do a long battle sequence, not the relentless 60 + minutes of loud banging and crashing and smashing and shouting that we got in Transformers 3, but then you can't expect something bordering on coherent with Michael Bay now can you?

But my praise doesn't stop there, it extends to two other people, Mario Millo who composed the music and Dean Semler who was the films cinematographer, Semler shoots this film beautifully with rich colours, long wide shots that you couldn't bare to see butchered in pan and scan 4:3, long shots of the Australian desert that seem to go on forever and ever and finally the lush paradise at the hospital that seems a world away from the barren wastelands of war.

Millo on the other hands composes a rousing musical score that perfectly captures the tone of the film, some parts rousing, some parts with a lightness of touch and others capturing the spirit of Australian mateship, at times I was reminded of both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Gallipoli while watching this movie, no doubt the intention of its makers in which case if it was well they damn well succeeded.

All in all, despite a small role from Sigrid Thornton that bordered on dispensable despite doing the best she can to make it work, the Lighthorsemen is a rousing Aussie adventure that's well worth your time, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Street Hero (1984)

2011-11-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

Street Hero stars Vince Colosimo as Vinnie Romano, a young man who lives in commission housing and is sent back to school in the hope that his life might start to find some meaning again as his father is dead, one day he is persuaded to join the school band and it's here that Vinnie may start to change things for the better.

I liked this movie, it was well directed by Michael Pattinson and the film has some good performances from almost everyone on board, the highlights for me being Colosimo, the late Bill Hunter, Tibor (yes that is his first name and I did get a good laugh when I saw it) Gyapjas and pretty much the rest of the cast, what can I say everyone here delivered the goods though at times the plot did feel a little cliché in terms of "that I'll happen" and the film did also feel a little long at times despite being only about 98 minutes.

Though there is one that I want to talk about and that is Sigrid Thornton who plays Gloria and boy does she look young in this movie, the reason I say this is that when I talked about Summer Lovers, I mentioned that it was such a sad shame that Valerie Quennessen was killed before she had the chance to do that one iconic role that would ensure people remembered her as Thornton got to later with her TV Series Sea Change and that she was so enchanting that she could've been something great regardless, happily that didn't happen with Thornton and she had the chance to blossom into a great actress and one that is always worth watching.

One other highlight I want to mention also is the soundtrack or more specifically the songs that were in the film, all of them had my toe tapping but the highlight without a doubt was "Wilder World" by Dragon, this song was also used to promote the film and I did perk up a bit when it came on during the film.

But what I think is most appealing about the film is this, and that it reminded me of a time when Australia had a proper film industry and that not only we made the more art house style films but we could also make a good popcorn guzzler like this, Mad Max, Razorback, Alvin Purple and others, a shame that its gone by the wayside and with it, our industry, hopefully the success of films like Tomorrow when the War Began and Red Dog will help to re energise our industry and get it going again like it did in the 70s, 80s and early to mid 90s.

All in all, Street Hero works best as a product of its time, don't get me wrong, the film is enjoyable but all it does is remind you of the past, of a time when things weren't what they are now and I suppose if it does that and give you a good time while your watching it well you have to say that the movie did its job and did it well and that is something that you can't complain about, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Summer Lovers (1982)

2011-10-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

Summer Lovers is about an American couple, Michael (Peter Gallagher) and Cathy (Daryl Hannah) heading on a holiday to the Greek islands in order to enjoy themselves, have some fun in the sun and in the case of Cathy, enjoy some time to herself and have a sense of freedom, but one day while exploring some caverns Michael comes across an archaeologist named Lina (Valerie Quennessen) who changes his life forever.

Summer Lovers is an okay film directed by Randal Kleiser who also made Grease and the Blue Lagoon and here he shows off the Greek scenery to full effect and you can't say you blame him for doing so as the islands look terrific, Gallagher and Hannah also do a good job with their roles too even if their dialogue is a little flat at times.

But this movie belongs to one person and one person alone and that is Quennessen, quite frankly she is absolutely wonderful in this movie with those beautiful eyes that say so much and her natural easy going charm that would make just about any man fall in love with her right there and then, she steals the show as far as I'm concerned and that sadly is the good part.

Now comes the bad part, a few years after making the film, Quennessen was killed in a car crash in France which is such a sad waste as she was very talented and charismatic, in all honesty part of me keeps wishing that she was able to do the remake of Breathless with Richard Gere before she died as she would've stood toe to toe with Gere and made that film a big hit, don't get me wrong Valerie Kaprisky wasn't that bad in that film but Gere blew her off the screen, that wouldn't have happened with Quennessen had she had the chance to do that role.

All in all, watch this movie for the scenery and Quennessen's performance, though it may also have you thinking what might have been had she lived to do other movies and leave more of a mark than the brief flicker that remains, it was said in the movie Blade Runner that the light that burns twice burns half as long well this was one light that burned so very very brightly and it was also one that deserved to burn far longer than it ultimately did, may she rest in peace, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Seventh Sign (1988)

2011-10-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Seventh Sign is an apocalypse tale that tells of the seven signs of God or to be more precise the seven signs that foretell the end of the world, with the sun becoming black and the moon turning to blood and the boiling oceans that kill everything inside them, meanwhile Abbey Quinn (Demi Moore) is pregnant with her first child and her and her husband Russell a lawyer (Michael Biehn) take in an old man (Jurgen Prochnow) who may have more to him that what is seemed.

Going into this movie I was expecting a somewhat competent apocalyptic tale of death and destruction but something that would ultimately be forgettable but I was surprised by how much I got into this movie, it was I felt very well made, well directed with a nice sense of pathos and with some good performances from Moore, Biehn and Prochnow.

But I think what makes the film work as well as it does is the integration of the religious aspect regarding Judgment Day, not a new idea to be sure but here it seemed to have that feeling of believability to it with the quoting of the Bible and the use of the priests in a key role to the film's events, something that could've easily killed the movie if not done well but here is given the right treatment.

All in all, I found this to be a well made apocalypse tale with some good performances, certainly one of the better ones I've seen to be sure, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Unknown (2011)

2011-10-15T20:04:00.001-07:00

Unknown stars Liam Neeson as Dr. Martin Harris who at the beginning of the film is arriving in Berlin with his wife Liz played by January Jones to give a talk at a Biotech conference, but he mistakenly leaves a briefcase at the airport he takes a taxi back to collect it but is in a mysterious accident not long after and wakes up in the hospital not remembering anything, but there is more to this than meets the eye.

Unknown is a serviceable action thriller that is thankfully not very long and it has some good performances from Neeson, Diane Kruger and Frank Langella all of whom I like quite a bit especially Neeson who would have to be one of my favourite actors.

However, the script for this movie borders on the ridiculous at times and it got to the point where I not only started laughing (especially at the German accents in this movie that made me think of the "Don't Mention the War" sketch from Fawlty Towers) but also thinking that some of the characters may as well have put name pins on them saying "I'm the Bad Guy", "I'm his accomplice" and "I'm the Dead Man".

But hey, if you want to see some good Liam Neeson action, my advice is to rent Taken instead and skip this one, its a serviceable thriller but one that I didn't find engaging or interesting, the whole thing just bordered on being downright silly, 1 out of 5.

FIlm Review - The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

2011-10-15T20:02:00.001-07:00

The Adjustment Bureau is based on a short story by Phillip K. Dick and stars Matt Damon as David Morris, a Senate candidate for the state of New York who loses but one night meets a young ballerina played by Emily Blunt, they get to know each other but it may turn out to be that destiny has other ideas.

The Adjustment Bureau starts off pretty well with an interesting premise that being that the fate that we choose to make may not be what is planned for us in the grand scheme of things and that sometimes things happen because they are simply meant to and it also has some very nice location work in New York which helps give the feel of authenticity to the film and there is also a good performance by Terence Stamp as one of the senior adjusters, Stamp has always been a long time favourite and not only was it a pleasure to see him in this movie, I also had a bit of a geek out when he first came on screen.

However the film has a big weakness in the casting of Damon, quite frankly he has very little chemistry with Blunt and the character is meant to be this young hot shot when Damon himself is nearly 40 in real life, the film also flip flops around with the rules regarding the adjusters which like in Source Code is a little annoying but unlike Source Code didn't get on my nerves.

All in all, the film was okay, nothing great but nothing that terrible either, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Real Steel (2011)

2011-10-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

Real Steel stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a former boxer who is now retired as the world has moved to robot boxing, after losing a robot in a bull ring he learns that the mother of his son has died and young Max (Dakota Goyo) is now in his care, one night he goes to collect the kid and he falls down a cliff only to be saved by an old robot.

Real Steel is actually a pretty enjoyable film, thanks largely to Jackman's presence, Jackman has the ability to slip into the shoes of almost any character seamlessly and here he does a great job as well as a somewhat convincing American accent though it does at times slip back into his natural accent.

I also liked the robot effects, they looked pretty convincing and the fights were for the most part well filmed by director Shawn Levy though at times they did go a little too close, also the story for the most part borders on being a bit predictable but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the film too much though another small niggle I had was with the score by Danny Elfman, I was hoping it would found more of that Bill Conti feel from the Rocky series as I did find myself humming some of that music in parts of this film.

So overall, Real Steel is a great time at the movies with the kind of tone I really wished had been in the Transformers movies instead of the heartless piles of mashed up junk we got, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Source Code (2011)

2011-10-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

Source Code stars Jake Gyllenhall as what seems to be Jeff, a school teacher who is on a train heading into Chicago and sitting across from him is Christina Warren played by Michelle Monahan, but suddenly a bomb goes off killing all on board, but there is more to all of this than meets the eye.

To start things off I think that the movie is well directed by Duncan Jones, also known for the 2009 sleeper Moon, he paces the film well and doesn't let things run on too long though I also can't help but think that he was helped in this endeavour by the films editor Paul Hirsch who also helped edit Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back, there are also some good performances in this film particularly by Jeffrey Wright and Vera Farmiga.

However I have a BIG bone to pick with this film and that is with the script, quite frankly it is pathetic, plot hole ridden and at times illogical, now to be fair it opens very well with the initial train explosion but after that Gyllenhall asks all these stupid questions that make you think "JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO THE FUCKING LADY YOU DOPE".

I know I shouldn't have done that but it's because Farmiga's character (probably the only character in this movie with SOME intelligence and humanity) tells you exactly what you need to know before going into the train but Gyllenhall keeps asking all these stupid questions that are very off putting and to be frank made me angry, you're asking me to play fair dinkum with the movie and the logic within it but why should I do that when the movie itself keeps throwing up these endless and pointless questions about the who, what, where and why of all this when you only need to know that info at the time its required, all it did in the end is make me think that the movie itself is unsure of itself especially in light of what I said earlier when its wanting a confidence from its audience to follow it when it doesn't project that same confidence within the world the movie exists in or in its own rules.

But wait there's more, and it regards the ridiculous ending that I can't say too much about it but quite frankly I found insulting as it betrayed what the film was saying up to that point but I guess it had to be there so the pretty leads that are oh so beloved could end up together and we can wrap the film up in a nice neat little bow and have the happy ending with the clear blue sky and singing birds and "love is in the air, everywhere I look around", give me a fucking break.

If you haven't guessed by now, I didn't think that much of this movie at all and all it did in the end was make me appreciate Chris Nolan's Inception a lot more, a movie that not only asked its audience to stick with it but also have the courage of its convictions and not dumb itself down to try and get the conventional audience to go and see the film and be confident of not only itself but the world it exists in it and the rules that guide it, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Rio (2011)

2011-10-08T19:03:00.001-07:00

Rio is an animated film by Blue Sky studios, best known for making the Ice Age series, the story here is that a rare Blue Macaw bird is captured from his natural habitat and placed in captivity in a rural town in Minnesota, but he is found by a young girl who raises him as her pet and one day, a bird doctor comes to her book shop and says that he must go to Rio and meet a female from his species voiced by Anne Hathaway so that their race will survive.

Rio is a better than average animated film with some rather nice visuals that look great with their bright colours and starry nights, yet again proof as to why you don't need 3D as it would dark and dim and blurry like all 3D productions do these days, though there are some rare exceptions.

As for the voice acting, well it isn't too bad though the bright spot was Hathaway who gives a spirited performance and reminds you of how good an actress she can be when given the chance to prove herself and carry a film on her own two shoulders which she can do almost effortlessly which was also proved by the re do of Get Smart she did a few years ago.

But in all honesty, Hathaway's the only reason to check out the film as pretty visuals alone a good film does not make as outside of her the film borders on the boring, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - The Lion King 3D (1994/2011)

2011-09-21T23:19:00.000-07:00

A re release of the classic 1994 Disney film, the Lion King tells the tale of young Simba (voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick) who is the son of King Mufasa voiced by James Earl Jones and is also destined to become king, but his evil brother Scar voiced by Jeremy Irons wants to take the throne for himself.

The film has held up wonderfully well, seeing it back on the big screen with the dynamic sound was an absolute treat especially the films songs by Tim Rice and Elton John and the orchestral score by Hans Zimmer and the famous Stampede sequence also sounded terrific, needless to say I had a big smile on my face the entire time I was in the cinema.

However, I must talk about the 3D effect and I'll say that it's not terrible like the kind that happens with a lot of recent films like Captain America and Thor which did not benefit in any way at all from the 3D treatment but getting back to this film as I said it isn't terrible and there is a nice use of the effect in some scenes in regards to the depth of field and showcasing some of the background details but again I took the glasses off and noticed it was brighter and more colourful, which leads me to say that if you saw it on a nice 2D screen with a properly projected print, you'd have every inch the same experience.

All in all, if your thinking about going to see this re release, do it despite the 3D, it's wonderful to see it back on the big screen and it deserves to be seen with a sold out crowd, nothing else would do it justice and if you haven't shown your kids or nieces/nephews the film and want to do so, now is the time and chance to do it, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - Spaceballs (1987)

2011-09-17T21:20:00.001-07:00

Spaceballs is from the comedy icon Mel Brooks and this time he turns his attention to the Star Wars Trilogy with the Planet Spaceball and its inhabitants wanting the fresh air of the nearby planet Druidia, to do this they send their most fearsome agent Dark Helmet played by Rick Moranis, meanwhile on Druidia King Roland played by Dick van Patten wants to marry off his daughter Princess Vespa played by Daphne Zuniga. but she runs away and flees the planet, which gives Helmet an idea to kidnap her to get the air from her planet, but to succeed he'll have to deal with Lone Star played by Bill Pullman and his companion Barf played by John Candy.

Now, I remember first seeing this movie a few years back and loving it to death, the parody of Star Wars to me felt spot on and I laughed my head off for the most part, but recently I felt compelled to revisit it after having not seen it since then, has it held up?

Sadly no, mainly for two reasons, the first being that I just didn't laugh all that much, don't get me wrong I smiled and chuckled a little bit at some of the gags and riffs on characters from the Star Wars movies but the first time I really laughed was at the 40 minute mark which can be death in a comedy and even then there were only a few laughs after that.

Which leads me onto my next reason: It's Boring, yes folks I was bored throughout large chunks of this film and as if that wasn't enough, it's a slow comedy, why wasn't was some zing added to this movie, a sense of pace and movement, I mean a year after this movie came out the Naked Gun hit cinemas and that is an example of a great comedy that moves along, piles jokes onto each other and does its riffs very well, this in comparison just plods along to its tedious end.

But I do have to sound out the main positive and that is some of the cast, Moranis, Pullman and Zuniga give it their all and try to do their best but in the end like many actors before and since they just become lost in the material which doesn't do them justice and in the case of Moranis well quite frankly he is wasted in this film and that is a real shame as he is a talented actor.

So in closing, the Force just isn't with this comedy and yet Brooks would later make Robin Hood: Men in Tights which was funny, but as I said this isn't and its tedious and slow, I can't recommend this film, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - Colours (1988)

2011-09-17T21:19:00.001-07:00

Colours is a crime drama directed by Dennis Hopper and stars Robert Duvall and Sean Penn as two cops assigned to a special branch of the LAPD that deals with the gang violence in the area, and they're going to need all the help they can get.

Colours starts off strong and assigns its two leads straight away and both Penn and Duvall play off each other very well and Hopper at least tries to take the time and develop both the gang culture and the chief characters from that part of the film and the two leads so that when the action comes, we get a sense that these are actual characters fighting it out rather than props for those scenes.

I also liked the cinematography at times showing a down and dirty LA compared to what we usually see but even as I talk about the film and all it accomplishes and it does get a lot right, a lot of it also feels familiar in terms of the buddy relationship between the cops, the gang dynamic and the obligatory love interest played here by Maria Conchita Alonso and it feels totally unnecessary but tradition in regards to these kinds of movies demand this sort of subplot and its a shame as the film tried to take this genre somewhat seriously though happily its only a brief subplot.

In closing, I thought the film was okay, it's clear Hopper and Co tried to do something different but tradition got in the way and what we end up with is a bit of a mishmash unsure of what direction it wants to go in, 1.5 out of 5.

Blu-Ray Review - The Star Wars Trilogy (1977/1980/1983)

2011-09-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

May 25th 1977,

The world has been a strange place with much upheaval in the world in regards to the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal in America and the tumultuous prime minister ship of Gough Whitlam in Australia, all of this has helped to create a feeling of darkness and despair in the world and there are no modern heroes of that time to aspire to and believe that somewhere out there, there will be someone that will help to light their darkest hour.

But on a scant 32 cinema screens in America, a small film called Star Wars opens to very little fanfare, not much in the way of preview showings and no advanced word, the film starts small and grows to become the biggest hit of all time until Steven Spielberg's ET took the spot a few years later.

You know, it's hard to talk about these three movies objectively for me as pretty much everyone that knows me knows that I love these movies above all others, even the first two Mad Max movies which are the only ones I've seen that have come anywhere near as close to topping these three films as my all time favorites but for me they are an example of movie making at the top of its form with its pure imagination, a fearsome villain in the shape of Lord Darth Vader and the mighty Galactic Empire, a valiant band of heroes plus some of the greatest special effects, music and dialogue ever put on a cinema screen.

But alas, I cannot talk about this release and not talk about the tinkering that Lucas has done to these movies, for the most part they don't work and at times pull you out of the viewing experience due to it looking different than the original production footage but for the most part I didn't find them to be too intrusive but I do wish there wouldn't be anymore as its starting to get more and more pointless which each round of changes, I mean sure the changes made in 1997 for the 20th Anniversary were done for some sort of reason but the others since have not, having that feel of uselessness to them as they interfered with the actual story of the films themselves but alas as I said I didn't find them too intrusive but again, they are starting to wear rather thin.

The Video:

The Video quality for the most part is actually rather good, it is said that when the 2004 restoration work was being done, Lucasfilm also created HD masters for the three films, if they did than these clearly served as the basis for these new 1080p transfers.

The movies have had several clean up efforts throughout the years starting in the early 90's where the negative had faded very badly and needed immediate cleanup work in order to be salvaged for future generations, which is also part of the inspiration for the 1997 re release in the cinemas which at times resulted in a blue tint that ran through all three films and in 2004 when Lowry Digital, a restoration house that was hired by Lucasfilm to do their own restoration work, more problems surfaced in dimmed lightsabers, a general dimness throughout the movies and oversaturated colors.

As to whether these have been fixed, I'm happy to report that for the most part a lot of these problems have indeed been corrected for this release, to my eyes this is probably the best the films will ever look in regards of it looking like a real film rather than a HDTV print with a lot of the details scrubbed out in the process and boy are the details in these transfers superb, really goes to show how these older movies can really look in HD and also how they have a much more human touch than the more cartoonish CG effects we see today.

The Audio:

As with the video transfer, the audio for the Star Wars trilogy has never been the same way twice either, starting with three separate mixes that were created just for the original 1977 release to cover the mono, stereo and 70mm screenings for the film, then in 1985 Ben Burtt went back and created a brand new mix combining elements from those three mixes and then in 1997 a new 5.1 mix was created for the Special Edition releases as Digital Sound was now the norm in cinemas.

But it doesn't end there, in 2004 for the DVD release the first Star Wars film received another new mix which sad to say was not the best, it was clear that the ravages of time had played their part and some scenes sounded uneven in terms of balance between sound, dialogue and music while Empire and Jedi clearly sounded like the 97 mix and as a result sounded terrific.

But that was then, this is now and new sound designer Matthew Wood has been keen to restore the balance and give fans a mix that will please them in terms of having a similar sound to how they sounded when originally released and take advantage of the new lossless HD sound.

In this case, DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 sound and pleasing to say he does a good job, particularly on the first Star Wars film which again had to be done from the ground up, a lot of the problems from that mix are now gone but as with the video transfer this is likely to be the best we will get in terms of balancing faithfulness to the original style and going balls and all for a more modern style sound mix.

The Extras:

There are multiple releases for these movies on Blu-Ray, the 2 trilogies on their own and the 9 disc Complete Saga which combines the 6 movie discs and 3 exclusive discs with extras, as I only bought the Original Trilogy 3 pack I will cover those discs.

2004 Audio Commentary with George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren and Carrie Fisher: These commentaries appeared on the 2004 DVD release of the trilogy and the only difference is the addition of Kershner on Empire who sadly passed away last year, these commentaries are okay but at times are a bit dry and all participants are recorded separately so there's no real interaction between the various participants but still, it will kill a couple of hours when listened to.

Audio Commentary with Archival Interviews from Cast and Crew Members: New to this Blu-Ray release is a second commentary track compiled of archival interviews from many cast and crew members ranging from Lucas himself to people like John Williams, Richard Edlund, Ken Ralston, Alec Guinness, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels and many more but sadly one noticeable absentee is Richard Marquand who directed Return of the Jedi and sadly passed away in 1987 to a heart attack and I was really hoping that there might have been some interviews with him on this track but alas there is not.

But still, these new tracks are well worth your time and in a very nice touch, both commentaries have their own subtitle tracks so you can watch the film and read the commentaries as you watch, something that should be compulsory when you have audio commentaries on disc releases and also, when you take the disc out for the first time, an option appears to allow you to resume where you left off, another nice touch.

In terms of the other Original Trilogy extras created for this Blu-Ray release, the long awaited deleted scenes, the conceptual art galleries, the archive collection and the new and vintage interviews you'll have to pick the Complete Saga set and to be honest I can't say that I recommend you do mainly because of the prequel films not being all that good as the story in those films was already familiar to us and as a result it created no real surprise as to how those newer films would play out in the end.

But I also thought about this as I was mulling over the extras released for this set and the DVD set back in 2004 and that is apart from a few vintage documentaries, some of which also appear on the Complete Saga set and that was that there really isn't that much more left to release when it comes to bonus materials for these movies, most of the major stuff is now out on release in terms of commentaries, documentaries, deleted scenes, a look into the archives, trailers, TV spots and still galleries though if all of that from both major disc releases were combined you'd have a pretty definitive set apart from HD transfers of the original versions and we all know there's no way on Earth that will happen for a long time, a long time.

The Verdict:

In the end, most Star Wars fans are going to buy these movies on Blu-Ray if they haven't already, in terms of my own opinion as to how you should purchase these well the original movies 3 pack should be more than satisfactory as it contains great Audio/Visual quality as well as a new and interesting Archival commentary track on each film though I do wish the OT archive disc from the complete saga set was in this set so fans that don't want to shell out for the full set can get the original movies and its full complement of extras but alas that in the end is up to you fair readers but for most fans I would grab just the original movies pack, that should be more than enough.

Film Review - Starship Troopers (1997)

2011-08-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

Starship Troopers is based off the famous Sci-Fi novel by Robert A. Heinlein but takes its own path from the book, in this film version written by Robocop Co-Writer Ed Neumeier and directed by that film's director Paul Verhoeven it is the near future and bugs are the great threat to humankind from the planet of Klendathu but service in the military guarantees citizenship in the Federation and its these brave men and women of tomorrow that will take to the stars and defeat this evil menace, would you like to know more?

"Would you like to know more?" is a key line in this film and its used very well to keep the audience interested in the films plot rather than just its good special effects work in terms of the bugs itself which are rather good and you do get a sense of satisfaction of not only seeing them blow up real good (though you do wish the humans would use better guns to blow them all sky high before they tear them all limb from limb) but also seeing them tear the humans apart during the battle scenes.

But apart from that, the film is also so much fun to watch and its anchored by a great cast combining young and old actors from Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards in possibly her only good part, Neil Patrick Harris (yes that one) and Jake (son of Gary) Busey to the older crew such as Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside, Rue McClanahan in a small role, Brenda Strong all of these people and more do a great job plus there's a great script by Neumeier, great direction by Verhoeven and a terrific score by the late Basil Poledouris which combines the WW2 and Patriotic aspects beautifully.

But the main reason this film is so much fun is that it knows exactly what it wants to do, which is be an old fashioned 1950s B-Movie with an A-Movie budget, okay the central romance sucks the diddly but hey the rest of the films pretty good.

All in all, this is a very fun film that is easily worth a rent, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Superman 4: The Quest for Peace (1987)

2011-08-27T19:07:00.001-07:00

Superman 4: The Quest for Peace sees the Man of Steel confronting the real world threat of Nuclear War after a 12 year old boy named Jeremy writes to him hoping that he can put an end to the atomic crisis, but while Superman sees this as his chance to help the people of the world, the dastardly arch villain Lex Luthor has other ideas.

To be honest, I really don't know where to start with this movie as the whole thing comes across as a complete mess, but in the mean time, let me count the ways:

1. The Effects: Oh my God, this thing is laughable to look at as there is just no effort put into the special effects work at all as the exact same shot of Superman flying towards the camera is used again and again, the only difference being the background plate be it outer space, somewhere else, the Moon or Metropolis, but then again this film looks as though it had little to no money spent on it and boy does it show on screen.

2. The Story: Dear god is this story so noble and self serving, it just hits you over the head again and again with its moralising about how "there will be peace in our time and when people scream so hard for peace, their governments will have no choice but to give it to them" give me a break.

And to make matters worse on this front, almost all of the main points are borrowed from the earlier films, the battle on the Moon and the chief super villain feel right out of Superman II, Clark on the Farm and the scene of Superman and Lois flying feel right out of the first film, but then again you didn't need another reminder of those two great films now did you.

3. The Cast: Oh god what the hell is Gene Hackman doing in this movie I mean Hackman did a great job in the first two Superman movies and here he just becomes a cartoon character going "I am going to profit from all of this and destroy Superman for good, nehahahahahaha" plus there's also Margot Kidder looking like she's aged 10 years since the first Superman movie where she looked really bright and vibrant, here again everyone seems to be phoning it in.

And yet there is one small positive in this movie, what's that you're saying a positive for this mess well yes there is but as I said it's a small one and that is Chris Reeve himself, proving why he is the one true Superman and that anyone that fills the role will most likely never be as good, Reeve is just great as the Man of Steel but again its just this one very small ray of hope against this plodding mess that stinks all the way to the Moon in its own right.

But what is the worst thing of all is this, that it all could have been avoided if Richard Donner hadn't been fired from Superman II before he had a chance to finish it in 1979 as I fully believe that if he did get the chance to do that, he would've made possibly the best comic book movie of all and been able to continue with future films but alas things change and different creative people come in and think that if we focus on the real world stuff and less on the fantasy and wonder that Donner focused on then people might relate more to this Superman, well sorry to say this but it doesn't quite work that way, sometimes it might but most times it does not.

All in all, unless you're an absolute die hard Superman fan please do not watch this movie, trust me you will feel so much happier that you didn't, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - The Shadow (1994)

2011-08-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

The Shadow is based on the pulp novel and stars Alec Baldwin as the Shadow, a man living in the East who is taught to use his dark powers to defeat evil, and he'll need every inch of his mystical training to defeat his greatest enemy.

I actually quite enjoyed this film, it was directed by Russell Mulcahy and he does a good job with the material as well as his cast, almost all of which are effective, the highlights being Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller (who reminded me a lot of Rachel McAdams), Ian McKellen, Tim Curry and the late Peter Boyle, they're all great.

I was also struck by the effects in the film which complemented Mulcahy's style very well as well as Jerry Goldsmith's score and the dynamic between Baldwin and John Lone, which reminded me of the conflict between Connor MacLeod and the Kurgan in the first Highlander, no surprise as the same man directed both of those films.

All in all, a well done comic book movie that in some scenes lay the seeds for Batman Begins in 2005, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - The Way Back (2010)

2011-08-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

The Way Back is the first film by veteran Australian director Peter Weir since his 2003 movie Master and Commander which starred Russell Crowe, the story here concerns a group of prisoners in a Siberian gulag who during a storm one night make a break for it, but the journey from there has only just begun.

I was very much looking forward to this film, mainly due to the fact that Weir was the director, having greatly admired some of his earlier films such as 1981's Gallipoli and 1989's Dead Poets Society which is also one of my all time favourite films, but did Weir manage to deliver the goods in light of his long absence.

Gladly, he most certainly did, the film is beautifully shot by Weir regular Russell Boyd with the various regions of ice and mountains, sand and forests plus a beach or two feeling like a central character in it's own right, but apart from that the film is a wonderful journey with some fine acting by Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan and Mark Strong among the highlights.

You know, as I watched this I was reminded of the fact that directors like Peter Weir and James Cameron knew fundamentally how to make a great big screen adventure whereas a lot of modern directors really do stuff that feels more like a big budget TV show, but still I enjoyed this film thoroughly and it was well worth the wait to see it, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Captain America (2011)

2011-08-06T01:13:00.001-07:00

Captain America is the last of the Marvel movies to help set up the upcoming Avengers film which will be released next year, the story here is that in the 1940's the Nazi's have declared war and Steve Rogers played by Chris Evans is keen to enlist and serve his country but because of his skinny body and asthmatic health he is rejected, until a doctor played by Stanley Tucci offers him the chance of a lifetime.

In all honesty I wasn't really sure what to expect with this film, while the trailer looked pretty neat I kept thinking to myself "maybe I should skip this one" but thinking about the trailer made me change my mind, so was I right to be skeptical or was I right to trust my instincts in the hope that this one would deliver the goods?

As it turns out, I actually had a lot of fun with this movie, more so than some this year and the credit has to go to the director Joe Johnston, Johnston started at Lucasfilm in the 1970's and cut his teeth on the Star Wars Trilogy and Raiders of the Lost Ark and that background is on full show here with a car chase in the beginning of the film feeling a lot like the truck chase from Raiders and a bike chase in a forest towards the end of the film feeling a little bit like the Speeder Bike Chase from Return of the Jedi, now I'm not saying that's a bad thing necessarily but it's something that I noticed as I was watching the film.

As for the performances well generally they were quite good, Evans made for a strong and heroic Captain and Hugo Weaving made for a good bad guy, even though I still hate him as Megatron this and the Wolfman reminded me that he's a good actor though at times I did think to myself "When did he turn into Sam Neill" as he sounded a lot like Sam Neill when he played Visili in The Hunt for Red October and Hayley Atwell was pretty good too as the main love interest though again I was reminded of Claire Danes as she looked a lot like her, though it's a pity Danes didn't play Emma Frost in X-Men First Class as January Jones looked like her in that movie too.

Plus there's the fact that Tucci looked like Dr. Malikov from the Resistance video game series on the PS3 and I mean that literally, it was a dead ringer for Malikov.

Now comes my main bone of contention with this movie and it regards the 3D, frankly it wasn't needed as it felt more like 2.5D and low and behold, when I took the glasses off it looked great, it was brighter, more colourful and I got to appreciate the cinematography a lot more too, but then again it's not as if you needed further proof that 3D isn't needed and everything looks better in good old fashioned 2D now did you.

All in all, a good year for blockbusters notches up another win for its ranks but PLEASE see it in 2D instead, you'll feel so much happier you did, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

2011-07-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

In this, the final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry. Ron and Hermione are continuing their quests to destroy the Horcruxes which will in turn help to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort, but Voldemort and his followers are now descending on Hogwarts but the magical school won't go down without a fight and in the end, there can be only one.

If the Highlander reference is somewhat confusing I'll say it refers to the final battle between Harry and Voldemort which is the final showdown that ends this series and it does so very well indeed, the battle in Hogwarts which also helps to dominate much of the film is also beautifully staged with some very surprising moments.

But the reason it works so well is this: We actually care about the characters in it and that feeling permeated throughout the movie, in an age where we have movies like Transformers 3 where you have these big effects scenes full of elaborate camera shots and state of the art computer graphics and dialogue like "You didn't betray me, you betrayed yourself" but behind that is a hollow heart, one with no real love or genuine thought attached and as a result audiences don't have any reason to care about the action on screen, here that isn't a problem, we've invested so much into the main characters here that we want to see them succeed, to stand united as one and defeat evil once and for all and it's all brought together so wonderfully well and emotionally it's just as satisfying.

But in the end there can be only one and that is given due credence but I won't say too much more than that other than "One shall Stand, One shall Fall."

All in all, a very satisfying conclusion to a series that has come to mean so much to so many, strongly recommended, 4 out of 5.

PS: Hello to Jason Issacs!

Film Review - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

2011-07-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of the final Harry Potter book the Deathly Hallows, darkness has descended upon the world, the evil lord Voldemort has captured the Ministry of Magic and ultimate power is within his grasp but somewhere out there, Harry, Ron and Hermione are racing to destroy the sacred Horcruxes and end his reign of evil.

After the plodding dullness that was the last HP film the Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows 7A captures a tone of darkness and despair rarely seen in a blockbuster, you truly get the sense that no one, nowhere is safe from the evil that plagues the world, in a way it reminds you of the Two Towers which had a similar feeling of darkness and dread, of a world where evil has real power and good men can do nothing.

But as for our valiant heroes, all three actors have really grown in confidence of their roles, Emma Watson in particular who shows real strength in the face of near overwhelming odds, but they all go on in their quest knowing that they must do all they can to defeat evil once and for all.

All in all, part of a tale that is worth your time but the battle is not yet over, one more remains, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - The Green Hornet (2011)

2011-07-10T00:01:00.001-07:00

Based off the comic strip, The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen as Britt Reid, son of a famous newspaper tycoon played by Tom Wilkinson who dies after a bee sting and is left in charge of his empire, but one night he gets the idea to become a superhero with his aide Kato played by Jay Chou and run the story in his paper, but a local mob boss played by Christoph Waltz may have other ideas.

Okay, onto the good parts of the movie and they are some of the individual gags and chase scenes, for the most part these work on their own and the chase scenes are well directed but unfortunately they only work as individual scenes.

However the glue that holds this movie together; the script simply doesn't work at all, going from boorish to action to emotion as it goes on without any rhyme or reason to tie it all together and make the audience give two shits about anything happening on screen, as for the performances Rogen comes across as really annoying for most of the movie and just does nothing more than the stereotypical "overgrown man child who must learn to grow up well after he should've" routine that is REALLY annoying me to no end and Waltz really just does nothing more than the cartoon villain with his "I finally have Gadget exactly where I want him, hehehehahahaha" dialogue that is again very very annoying while Chou is given the impossible task of carrying the whole movie on his shoulders which he does rather well I must say, one can't help but think that if it wasn't for him the whole film would've been a total disaster.

All in all, as I said it has some good points but the script just doesn't work, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Footrot Flats (1987)

2011-07-02T21:38:00.001-07:00

Footrot Flats is based from the famous New Zealand cartoon strip that also featured in Australian newspapers and the story here is that Wal voiced by John Clarke is desperate to both impress his girl and the inspector for the NZ All Blacks rugby team, but those plans are derailed when a new Dog is delivered to him by his Aunt.

And speaking of that Dog, it is the star of this wonderful film, with it's internal monologues very funny including one where he impersonates Don Adams from Get Smart, the film also contains some dark elements too but if I have one complaint it is the lack of use of the great song "Slice of Heaven" by Dave Dobbyn, it only appears at the very end of the film when I wished that it would have appeared in the actual film itself as it would've been a shame to waste such a great song on a part of the movie where people wouldn't hear it in a cinema, they would've got up and left for home.

Oh well, you can't win em all and it's only a minor complaint of what is a very enjoyable film, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Dead Again (1991)

2011-07-02T21:37:00.001-07:00

Dead Again stars Kenneth Branagh as Mike Church, a man who is asked to pick up a woman played by Emma Thompson as she has had a terrible nightmare about a crime regarding Roman and Margaret Strauss, a couple also played in the film by Branagh and Thompson in which Margaret is murdered and Roman tried and executed for the crime, but things are not quite what they seem.

If that plot synopsis sounded a little complicated, then rest assured the film is anything but, it is simply a terrific achievement by Branagh who keeps a tight rein on the ship and makes sure nothing gets too out of hand, Branagh, Thompson, Derek Jacobi, Robin Williams, Wayne Knight and Andy Garcia are all really good in their roles and the score by Patrick Doyle really helps to form the identity of the film, being both quite and tense in all the right places.

One thing I also must mention is Matthew Leonetti's cinematography, it really helps to delinate the two timelines in a way that it clears up for the viewer where they are, the 1940's material is in Black and White and the 1990's material is in Colour, a great move and one that is most appreciated as the B&W material looks terrific.

Sadly though, if the film were to be released today it would immediately be seized upon as a rip off of last year's Inception due to the familiarity of the subject matter and that is a real shame as Dead Again deserves to stand on its two feet as a great film in its own right.

All in all, a really good movie that deserves to be seen, it's a real shame that Branagh's Thor movie wasn't as clear cut and enjoyable as this movie, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Fortress (1992)

2011-07-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

Fortress stars Christopher Lambert as John Brennick, a former Black Beret Captain who quit in disgrace and tries with his wife to cross the border who is carrying their second child after their first one died, but is caught and sent to the Fortress, a private security prison, but they won't be able to hold him for long.

Fortress is somewhat like the recently released Thor, in that it has a lot of talent attached to it in director Stuart Gordon, actors Lambert, Kurtwood Smith, Jeffrey Combs, Delroy Lindo and Vernon Wells but wastes every single one of them.

The reason why is that the plot itself is deadly dull and doesn't really inspire anything apart from a Die Hard meets Great Escape style plot and also Lambert himself, now I'm a huge fan of Highlander and thought he was great in that film but here seems unsure of where to go or what to do, it's been said that the project was originally going to star Arnold Schwarzenegger but Lambert replaced him, I wonder if Arnold would have been better in this film as he might have brought some energy to the film.

All in all, a lacklustre sci-fi film best left on the shelf, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

2011-06-30T00:21:00.000-07:00

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third movie in this live action series and the story here this time is that back in the 60's, an Autobot spacecraft fleeing Cybertron crashes on the Dark Side of the Moon, creating the famous space race of that decade, in the present day however Sam played by Shia LaBeouf has moved to Washington to start a new job and has a new girlfriend Carly played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, but the Autobots may need his help again as rumours fly around regarding the return of some old foes.

Dark of the Moon was seen as director Michael Bay and company's attempt to make up to the fans the failure of the last film in the series, 2009's Revenge of the Fallen which had nothing of any worth to go with it apart from a fight sequence in a forest, as a result this was the one movie I had been dreading so far all year, but was I right to expect the worst or did I expect a pleasant surprise.

Well, first off I'll start with the good stuff and that is twofold: First is the larger allotment of screen time given to Optimus Prime voiced again by Peter Cullen, this time around he's not used just to narrate the film or provide a fight sequence here or there, this time it really feels like he has a part to play in the storyline of the film as well as giving us the aforementioned narration which Cullen has done very well throughout all three films plus the badass fight scenes which are nothing short of fantastic to watch, mainly because we care about Prime as a character and want to see him triumph as "One shall Stand, One shall Fall."

The second positive is that there was a genuine attempt to atone for the mistakes of the last film by actually attempting to write a plotline for the film, the first half of the film for the most part is somewhat interesting as it involves the whole moon landing thing mentioned in my plot synopsis.

However, the film also has a lot of shortcomings, pretty much all of which occur in the latter two thirds of the film, how do I talk about thee, well let thee count the ways in no particular order.

1. Carly herself: Though Huntington is a vast improvement on Megan Fox, she's also not that much better either as she parades through the film looking like a 35 year old fashion model on vacation with Sam being the 21 year old kid she picked up and bonked more times than a worn and very old shagged carpet plus her British accent just gets grating after a while and she turns into nothing more than a plot device with tits and ass that just decides to phone in the whole thing, smegging hell.

2. No Heart: Pretty much the last hour of the film is the battle in Chicago between the Decepticons and the resistance and with the exception of the final showdown with Optimus and a few shots of fighters on the attack, it all gets monotonous, loud (so very loud) and boring as most of it is BWAMMMP, SHREECH, BOOOOOOMMMMPPP turned up to 15 and given audio enhancement steroids, it all gets too much after a time and it feels like you've had 10 decibels ripped off your sound index when it's all over.

3. The Role of the Decepticons: Ah yes, the dreaded Decepticons and Quite frankly, yet again they're given nothing to do apart from setup the action and also yet again, I was reminded how Hugo Weaving makes nothing work with Megatron, with some of his lines screaming for Frank Welker to say them so that you get some satisfaction watching him on screen, however though he does voice Soundwave as he did in the last film as well but again is given nothing to do as is Starscream, he might as well have taken a vacation, I'm sure Thundercracker or Skywarp could've filled his boots and also, what was the point of bringing in Shockwave if you're just going to shove him in there for no reason at all.

And to top it all off, watching this film kept reminding me of how good Avatar and James Cameron were, Bay is just nowhere near as good an action director as Cameron because he just piles the action on without giving any thought to making it matter or giving us a reason to care about the action on screen or for that matter letting us see who's fighting who in a clear and concise way, I know some weren't big fans of Avatar but at least Cameron took his time, wrote a storyline and characters and paced his action like a master.

But there is one last positive I must talk about and that is I didn't see it in 3D, if I did I think it would've been the equivalent of institutionalised torture, the 2D experience was more than enough for me.

So all in all, if you want a good Transformers experience then I highly recommend tracking down last year's video game War for Cybertron, that should be more than adequate, as for this movie well if you must see it then wait for the Blu-Ray release otherwise I wouldn't bother too much in going to see it, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Cars 2 (2011)

2011-06-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

Cars 2 is the long awaited sequel to the 2006 Pixar movie Cars, Lightning McQueen again voiced by Owen Wilson has won his 4th Piston Cup when Sir Myles Axelrod develops an alternative fuel source called "Allinol" and to celebrate he's hosting a World Grand Prix in which McQueen will race, but a spy named Finn McMissile voiced by Michael Caine is also racing to advert a major disaster.

To be honest I wasn't looking forward to this film, mainly because I wasn't a big fan of the first Cars which looked amazing but had an average story but the trailers for the film made it look like a lot of fun so how did they do?

Well they failed, and rather miserably at that, the film is so Boring it is not funny, nothing of any substance in this works, there is too little of the actual racing which IS pretty exciting nor is there a lot of the spy subplot too which is setup terrifically with the opening sequence but just ends up wasting Caine as it goes on.

What we do get is endless jokes regarding Tow Mater, the tow truck character from the first movie who is shoved into the limelight as the central character when it's McQueen that fronts all the posters flying around the place but nope McQueen's sentenced to the race track while Mater gets all the screen time and boy oh boy does it get excruciating to watch after a while, director John Lasseter really should've known better in this regard.

What did work though was the Toy Story short prior to the main feature, in which Barbie and Ken hope to go to Hawaii with their owner Bonnie for Vacation but are left behind, so the other toys fill in the blanks, it's very funny with some great jokes and almost made me yearn for another Toy Story movie, but hopefully we don't get it.

You know, following that wonderful film with this one was like following Highlander 1 with Highlander 2, what a disaster this was, if you must see it wait for the Blu-Ray release, otherwise don't bother, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Super 8 (2011)

2011-06-16T02:18:00.001-07:00

Super 8 is a collaboration between director JJ Abrams best known for 2009's Star Trek reboot and Steven Spielberg, the story is that Joe Lamb a young kid played by Joel Courtney as lost his mother in an accident, as a result his father the Deptuy Sherriff is concerned for his well being but Joe is determined to help his friend finish his Super 8mm movie, but one night the crew experience a train crash, one that will change their lives.

Super 8 was a wonderful achievement by Abrams, who has improved immensely on his Star Trek outing in that we actually care about the main characters and the action scenes are actually well shot and edited, one couldn't help but wonder if Abrams did so after the action scenes in Avatar but he doesn't have James Cameron's skill in that department.

However that doesn't stop the film from reminding you of the Spielberg movies of the 70's and 80's like The Goonies, ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind mixed in with Cloverfield for good measure, all of the main kids are exceptionally good and earn our trust, one of them even sparking a few tears in one scene, as for the cause of all this well I won't give that away despite others doing so, it's bad enough we went through all this with Scream 4 earlier this year and it's disappointing to see another prominent critic break a cardinal rule of reviewing.

As for yourselves well you should go see this movie pronto, it's one of the year's best, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - X-Men First Class (2011)

2011-06-16T02:16:00.000-07:00

X-Men: First Class is a reboot of the X-men film series that fell into despair with 2009's Wolverine movie, here Kick Ass director Matthew Vaughn is tasked with bringing the series back on track with his exploration of both Charles Xavier played here by James McAvoy and Erik Lensherr aka Magneto played by Michael Fassbender.

A s good as Super 8 was, this I felt was the better of the two mainly because I found this movie involving as it was a great action adventure ride with great characters and most of all a good villain, see that makers of Thor they actually made their villain important to the plot not a total afterthought and Kevin Bacon plays it with great relish as do McAvoy and Fassbender, capturing the same chemistry that Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen had in the first two X-Men movies directed by Bryan Singer, who also acts as a producer on this film.

But that's not all folks, the film's storyline balances both the seriousness of the main relationship, the historical aspects regarding Russia, the back story to X-Men 1 and the fun of the 1960's into a seamless whole, but there are others such as Rose Byrne and January Jones that deserve a mention, Byrne in particular has a very convincing US accent that was almost impossible to pick faults with, one fault I do have was the lack of the X-Men theme from the 1990's, just once I wish I could've seen that theme in an X-Men movie as it's a great theme that deserves to be heard in a cinema.

All in all, an awesome thrill ride that's worth the wait, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - True Grit (2010)

2011-06-11T20:05:00.001-07:00

True Grit is a remake of the classic 1969 Western which starred John Wayne and earned him his only Academy Award, this time it's Hallee Steinfeld as Matti Ross a 14 year old girl who seeks retribution for the death of her father, to do this though she will need help, so she hires a US Marshal Cogburn played by Jeff Bridges and along for the ride of his own will is Texas Ranger Labeef played by Matt Damon.

True Grit is a very enjoyable film, well directed by the Coen Brothers Joel and Ethan and nicely paced by their hand, Bridges and Steinfeld are amazing and it's their performances that help to carry the film however both Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are pretty weak but it's only a minor complaint.

One thing I must mention though is the beautiful cinematography work by Roger Deakins, in fact a lot of it reminded me of Dean Semler's work on Mad Max 2 and Dances with Wolves as there are many scenes of cold and darkness, vast landscapes and mountain ranges, even down to the forests in the background and the big buildings that feel very real and not the product of computer graphics, a job most well done indeed.

However as I said before, Damon and Brolin are the weak links as is the film's ending which drags on a little too long for my liking but considering both my enjoyment of the film and it's under 2 hours running time, these are only minor quibbles.

All in all, worth a look, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Unstoppable (2010)

2011-06-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

Unstoppable is inspired by true events and concerns two men: Frank Barnes played by Denzel Washington and Will Colston played by Chris Pine who are tasked in stopping a freight train carrying Hazardous material and is also unmanned and heading towards a populated area in Southern Pennsylvania.

Unstoppable is a fun, stupid movie like some of the early movies director Tony Scott made early in his career like his 1986 hit Top Gun or his 1987 sequel Beverly Hills Cop II, Both Denzel and Pine play off each other very well and the film does pick up steam after an initial wishy washy beginning.

But the one thing that I just couldn't get out of my mind as I watched this movie was its reminders to me of the classic Simpsons episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" I mean seriously it's all there, there's the brain-dead slob in the cushy job, the runaway object, the reclusive scientist that made me go "It's not Batman" heck even the crazy plan to stop the train is similar but this time it doesn't involve an anchor of some sorts that's stopped by a giant donut, all you needed was the management to do the whole solar power thing and one of the kids on another train to go "A Solar Eclipse, the cosmic ballet goes on."

All in all, it's stupid but fun stupid, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Chances Are (1989)

2011-06-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

Chances Are stars Robert Downey Jr. as Alex Finch, a Yale Graduate who takes the fancy of Miranda Jefferies played by Mary Stuart Masterson, but when the two go to her house and Alex meets her mother Corrine played by Cybil Sheppard, Alex starts getting strange memories.

Chances Are is a fun movie with several scenes that made laugh out loud and is also nicely anchored by Downey, Masterson, Sheppard and Ryan O'Neal but if the film has a failing it's with the slightly convoluted storyline that goes into all of these different directions regarding the main characters and though it nicely tied together in the end, I couldn't help but think that this was a big problem.

All in all, a fun movie that slightly overcomes its script problems, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Air America (1990)

2011-06-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Air America is the name of a supposed civilian operation by the Americans inside Laos, despite the insistence of President Nixon that there is no US presence in Laos, but a hotshot LA pilot played Robert Downey Jr. arrives to participate in the program and finds something very different.

AA was a fun movie with some great cinematography and flying scenes, some very funny moments and good acting from Downey, Mel Gibson, Ken Jenkins and others, If I had a complaint though it's the classic third act terminal illness that infects a lot of movies and spreads itself as it creates a breakdown of the rest of the film which was a funny one prior to it and adds a layer of sentimentality to it, luckily it wasn't terminal and it didn't affect the rest of the movie.

All in all, not a bad little film that's worth your time, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Black Swan (2010)

2011-06-04T19:17:00.000-07:00

Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, a ballerina with a company which is starting its new season by doing a version of Swan Lake, but when a rival dancer from San Francisco played by Mila Kunis comes to dance with her company, Nina starts to lose her mind.

You know, I don't know in all honesty if there will be a better movie released this year, almost everything about it is unbelievable and at times heart stopping, Portman, Kunis, Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey are all really good but the star attraction here is Portman, who puts everything she has and more into this, at times driving herself to the brink of total insanity through sheer determination to prove herself not only in this movie but as an adult actress to the world, having for a number of years failed to impress audiences since her film debut in Luc Besson's The Professional in 1994 when she was just 13.

In terms of the film itself, director Darron Aronofsky really lets his camera do the talking and finally shows off how to properly film dancing scenes letting the actors and the editing flow in a natural and uninterrupted way that lets us soak in the dancing in the scenes, I was also reminded of two other movies as it went on: David Cronenberg's The Fly and Rocky II.

I guess I should explain the latter reference in more detail, you see both Black Swan and Rocky II end in a big climax that involves our hero going to the brink before earning the adulation of the crowd and also in both instances, the final scenes are heartstoppingly tense in a way that makes you soar.

All in all, go check it out, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Hidden (1987)

2011-05-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

The Hidden stars Kyle McLachlan as Lloyd Gallagher, an FBI agent from Seattle who comes to LA to work with a local cop to investigate a series of bizarre murders happening in the area, but things are so much more than what they seem.

The Hidden is a highly entertaining and very exciting sci-fi action film, with its story being a spin on the classic Body Snatchers, the action here is extremely well handled, starting with a fantastic opening chase and going from there to several bloody gun fights, and yet none of it feels overdone or overlong, just short, sweet and right to the point.

You know, as I was watching this two things kept coming to mind, one was how everything felt real and not done on some green screen or blue screen stage and the other was that it reminded me of just how shitty today's action films really are, if you can find a copy of this one to watch, I highly suggest you do so, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The King's Speech (2010)

2011-05-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

The King's Speech stars Colin Firth as George, who is next in line to become the king of England after his father dies and his elder brother is forced to abdicate the throne following an illegitimate marriage, but this new King has a rather big problem: He bloody well stammers so his wife played by Helena Bonham Carter goes to a speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush but war with Germany is looming and the nation will await the King to address them.

I wasn't sure what to expect with the King's Speech as I didn't think that I will enjoy but the film's trailer made me laugh and became slowly convinced to check it out but it's recent victory at the last Academy Awards for best Picture made me change my mind but I watched it anyway so how did I like it.

Surprisingly I did enjoy it, mainly for it's warm and touching qualities as well as it's very funny humour between Firth and Rush using every slang term in the book to help the King overcome his stammer but my favourite performance is by Bonham Carter, an actress who normally doesn't do roles like this but this film makes me wish she would do more of them as she is warm and tender in a way that shows off how good of an actress she can be.

So overall, a good film worth the time and money, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Paul (2011)

2011-05-18T23:37:00.000-07:00

Paul reunites Simon Pegg and Nick Frost from 2007's Hot Fuzz, this time as two budding Sci-Fi fans from England who journey to America to attend the San Diego Comic Con, but one day while driving through the midwest, they encounter a strange person in the desert nearby, or is it?

While watching Paul I thought to myself that it was an absolute pleasure to see Pegg and Frost together again having missed them in Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World from last year, they work very well together and have great chemistry and comedic timing.

Not only that I also enjoyed the performances by Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Sigourney Weaver who does the Dr. Claw type role for most of the movie and Seth Rogen as Paul himself who almost ended up stealing the show from all the others.

If there is a fault I have with the film it's that the jokes don't quite work, one being the joke about the green Alien woman with the three tits despite the characters not knowing that was done in 1990's Total Recall, I wish someone had pointed that out at some stage as it stuck out like a sore thumb and Hot Fuzz didn't have that problem, but hey that's just nitpicking and that isn't the subject of this review.

What is the subject of this review was that I was entertained by some of the jokes and the performances I mentioned above and as a moviegoer, can you ask anything more than for a movie to leave you feeling entertained after it's over, this did and I was happy to say it here, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Morning Glory (2010)

2011-05-14T19:10:00.001-07:00

Morning Glory stars Rachel McAdams as Becky Fueller, a producer on a morning TV show called Daybreak which is struggling with low ratings and mixed match hosts, but Becky has an idea to recruit veteran news reporter Mike Pomeroy played by Harrison Ford onto the show, but her boss played by Jeff Goldblum has doubts she can turn things around.

Morning Glory is at times a quite funny comedy, with pretty much the whole film carried on Rachel McAdams' shoulders who does so effortlessly with her unbridled energy, optimism and manic talking though she's also supported very much by Ford, Diane Keaton and Patrick Wilson who pretty much gets the 'there there' role.

Ford however is quite good, as he pretty much does the whole film as if he's half asleep and because of McAdams and Keaton he succeeds but for all of the good this movie tries to create it also has some pretty big faults mainly due to the shift from comedy to sincerity, quite frankly it doesn't work and it almost kills the movie there and then.

But you know, I did laugh but it just didn't quite hit the mark in the end, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Tangled (2010)

2011-05-14T19:09:00.001-07:00

Tangled is Disney's 50th Animated Feature and is based off the classic story of Rapunzel, the girl with the long hair locked in a tower, but this time a thief named Flynn Rider voiced by Zachary Levi from Chuck finds her and agrees to take her out into the world, but not if her evil stepmother voiced by Donna Murphy has anything to do with it.

You know while I thought there was some mild enjoyment in that I enjoyed some of the songs, some of the jokes and some parts of the film on the whole I felt that the film failed for pretty much the same reason I felt Thor didn't pass muster.

Yes it's the old weak villain routine and I have a ruling that Disney movies share the same philosophy as an action picture in that they are defined by the strength of their villain and while Murphy is a fabulous actress and singer she didn't really give it the energy that someone like Jonathan Freeman did when he voiced Jafar in 1992's Aladdin, a film far superior to this one it's beyond a joke and though I didn't wish for Jafar to appear in this film as I wanted for Kratos to do so in Thor, a presence like his was sorely missed.

But my other key problem is this: the film's tone at times it plays out like an old fashioned Disney fairytale but also it tries to be a post modern Shrek like movie and the two styles didn't mesh together, it should have gone in one way or the other, not try to mould both.

All in all, though I did like some of it, to me it fell short of satisfaction so just a 1 and a half out of 5.

This is the Recession the Box Office has to Have

2011-04-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

For those of you out there that follow Australian politics, you might remember this quote by former Treasurer and Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating.

"This is the Recession that Australia had to have"

And at the moment, it would seem the Box Office is going through the same thing, with 4 lacklustre months in the Box Office (the current top grosser at present is Rango which is about $117 million dollars), it would seem that this may be the recession the Box Office has to have.

But what caused this, what events led to this happening, well dear reader let me count the ways:

1. Limited Sessions:

Cinemas depend very much on the right session times and in some cases of late, the movies only seem to get the ideal session times at times when people's chances of getting to those films may be limited and when they can get a chance to get to it, that film will have played for about 2 or 3 weeks and as a result it will most likely be on its final weeks or final week.

Which only makes things worse if that person happens to be a traveller also and doesn't have the luxury of having that movie in their living area, as a result they either have to miss that film or wait for the disc.

2. Limited Showing Weeks:

Recently I had a chance to see Google's Amazing News Archive of old newspapers from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, two major newspapers here in Australia and in one of those issues it showed Top Gun playing for 47 Weeks, almost a year in cinemas.

In this day and age that is absurd but reading that got my thinking, what if theatres returned to that as a way of getting people back to the cinemas because most movies these days run on average of about 2-3 weeks (the recent release Sucker Punch comes to mind) if some films are lucky (Avatar and The King's Speech being two of them) they might go on longer for about 4 or 5 weeks but again it feeds into the first point, which is that limitation of cinema showings which can also be incredibly damaging to a movie's theatrical run.

3. Emphasis on Children's Films:

At the moment, most of the prime time sessions are going to children's films, no doubt due to it being School Holidays at the moment and cinema chains will be eager to entice young kids and their families to come to the cinema.

But it also I think feeds into a much bigger problem, and that is a complete lack of movies for adults as most of those like Wall Street 2 to use as an example are pushed back to very late in the afternoon and the evenings, as a result it becomes harder for those movies to make some money from the sessions and justify staying in cinemas for longer than the exhibitors will be wanting to keep it if it's becoming nothing more than a drain on session bookings they might want to start using for future pictures or ones that are more successful.

But lastly, even if that movie and for this example I'll use Peter Weir's The Way Back, there's also every chance that the studio backing it may decide not to give it a wide release which again can limit on its exhibition and grossage which is what happened to Way Back, it was given a very small and limited theatrical release in Feburary and was gone before most people had a chance to see it.

4. High Prices

Probably the last reason on this list is the issue of high ticket prices in some cases, which for adults can be as high as $20 on average plus on top of that you add another $10-$15 on average for Popcorn and Drinks plus the surcharge if it happens to be a 3D screening.

Now for most people that is a fair chunk of change and that again can limit the number of people that go to a cinema session or out for that night altogether as they might decide to stay in that night feeling that they won't be able to afford it and as they say, it's the little things in life that make it worth living.

But some of you are probably asking the Question "What can be Done about it?" and to be honest with you, I just don't know, I guess it will depend on how the rest of the year plays out, what with the blockbuster season just now starting to kick off with Thor and in all honesty, there may very well be little that can be done about it.

But for now it seems, it would appear that we are indeed in a Box Office Recession, whether it's a short or long one remains to be seen.

Film Review - Megamind (2010)

2011-04-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

Megamind, the latest from Dreamworks Animation is the story of two super beings, Megamind voiced by Will Ferrell who is blue and has a large brain and Metro Man (Brad Pitt) who is essentially a Superman type figure, but when Metro Man is defeated, Mega Mind finds himself without purpose.

And so does this movie which is Mega boring, now I know that over time there has been great animated movies last year's Toy Story 3 being one of them and great Superhero movies the first Superman being one of them but this fails at both of those mainly because there is nothing here to hold the viewer's interest, so much of it feels like it's been done before and more interesting in other pictures.

And not only that, it wastes the talent of Tina Fey, who had no reason to do this at all but did so anyway, why she did I'll never know but apart from those even the animation feels sterile and did I mention how boring this movie is, for god's sake why didn't someone inject some excitement into this, I mean there were times where I wanted Dr. Claw and his MAD organization from Inspector Gadget to come and take over the movie, at least that might have been good, instead of this disaster.

All in all, skip this, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Thor (2011)

2011-04-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Thor is based on the Marvel comic and stars Australian Chris Hemsworth as Thor, the God of Thunder and son of Odin played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, but after a battle with the Frost Giants, Thor is exiled from his home of Asgard to Earth, but that is only the beginning.

Now before I go into the film itself, I want to talk about my expectations for this were, after I saw the trailer for this it made me think that I was going to expect a slightly better version of last year's Clash of the Titans, which wasn't all that much of a movie to begin with but were my expectations met?

Well, no as I thought this was 'Thor'-ing being a representation for boring, allow me to explain why:

1. No Strong Villain: Probably my Paramount objection to this is the lack of a strong Villain for Thor to do battle against, I have said this before but I will say it again that in an action picture or sci fi picture or whatever you have to have a strong villain for it to work, look at how successful the Star Wars Trilogy is still after all these years, chock that up to Lord Darth Vader and the awesome might of the Galactic Empire, here Loki just comes across as a total gimp who posed no real threat and personally, I wanted Kratos from the God of War series to come in and rip his guts out so he'd become the villain, now you'd have a movie.

2. Lack of Imagination: Next would be no real imagination in the script, the early scenes on Asgard and the fight with the Frost Giants was well done but the scenes on Earth felt a lot like the small town scenes in Superman II and the SHIELD stuff felt lifted from last year's Iron Man 2 and even with the whole frost world, it looked more like Mordor after a 100 year Blizzard.

3. Waste of Talent: It's hard to believe a movie this boring has all of this talent attached: Director Kenneth Branagh, Actors Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, Rene Russo, Hopkins and even Writer J. Michael Straczynski, the worst of this is Portman, a good and intelligent actress reduced to a giggling nitwit when in the presence of the big strong man, if Anne Hathaway had been in that role it might have worked but not with Portman.

As for Hemsworth well he is charismatic but tends to go into the Gerard Butler style of SHOUTING SOME OF HIS LINES LIKE THIS at times but apart from that I didn't mind him too much.

4. The 3D Effects: Last but certainly not least is the 3D effects work done for the film, quite frankly it sucks the big one the size of a vacuum hose, the CG effects look very substandard and in a post Avatar world it isn't good enough it looked more like digital tinfoil more than anything.

And as for the 3D, grrrrrr, let me repeat it as best I can, Dark, Dim, Fuzzy and every bit as bad as Tron Legacy's appalling 3D, made half the movie look fuzzy, seriously guys 3D is starting to get really annoying.

So all in all, I didn't enjoy this movie and as this is the first of the 2011 blockbusters to see release, it's not a good sign, hopefully Green Lantern by Martin Campbell and X-Men First Class by Matthew Vaughn will deliver the goods, 1 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Tough Guys (1986)

2011-04-09T19:00:00.001-07:00

Tough Guys stars Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster as two former convicts who have finished serving a 30 year jail sentence for robbing a train in 1955, but getting out has only begun the fun that awaits them.

Tough Guys is a fun movie that works mainly because of its two leads, in fact in some scenes it's easy to mistake Kirk Douglas for his son Michael and Burt Lancaster is also quite good as are Eli Wallach and Dana Carvey.

But despite that and a nice opening song by Kenny Rogers and Burt Bacharach, the written material isn't as lively as the actors are, essentially running out of steam after the 1 hour mark and coming up with a rather contrived chase scene for the movie's third act, and it's a darn shame as there are some quite funny and touching moments in this movie.

But does it affect my overall opinion, well not really as I was quite entertained by most of the movie to let the problems slide, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Warlock (1989)

2011-04-09T18:59:00.001-07:00

Warlock is a fantasy movie that starts in 1691 where a Warlock (A Male Witch) played by Julian Sands is sentenced to death for crimes against Man and God, but using some black magic he escapes his dungeon to 1988, but he is not alone.

Warlock clearly owes it's debts to both Highlander and The Terminator and sadly, this movie isn't anywhere near the same league as those for a number of reasons, let thee count the ways:

1. The Cast: In both Terminator and Highlander, you had charismatic actors that gave it their all and were compelling to watch, here both Julian Sands and Richard E. Grant have got the charisma of a pine tree.

2. The Story: Again in both of those aforementioned movies, the heroes and villains had frequent clashes with each other throughout the story and it gave a sense of what the heroes of those stories were fighting for, in Terminator it was preventing the rise of the machines and in Highlander it was preventing a great prize falling into the wrong hands, here the Warlock and Redfern are after this book and frankly, who gives a shit.

3. The Direction: As well as those two problems, Steve Miner the director doesn't infuse the film with any sort of energy or excitement whereas James Cameron and Russell Mulcahy did something with their movies and were a big part of why they were successful, here that just isn't the case.

But I will say this though, there are some parts of the film that work mainly to do with the opening scenes with the very biblical dialogue and the way the characters talk to each other, it's good stuff and there should have been more of it.

And so in closing, a boring fantasy film that is not worth anyone's time or money but also mentions two others that are, rent those instead, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - The Last Boy Scout (1991)

2011-04-09T18:57:00.001-07:00

The Last Boy Scout stars Bruce Willis as Joe Hallenbeck, a former Secret Service agent turned Private Detective who ends up investigating the murder of an LA Stripper played by Halle Berry and who's partner is played by Damon Wayans, what the two will uncover is something much grubbier indeed.

Boy Scout is a real step down from Man from Hong Kong in terms of quality of entertainment, Willis though is on top form and delivers what I think is one of his best performances, the rest of the film however doesn't keep up with him, on the one hand it is one of the nastiest movies I've seen in a good long while with many scenes of coarse language, scenes of a young girl spewing F-Bombs and having guns flown in her face, women getting tortured and pumped full of bullets and so on, and I thought Robocop 2 was sadistic.

But not only is it nasty, the climax of the film is also extremely boring, where Willis and Wayans have to save the day, whoop de do, if you want to watch Bruce save the world or a whole bunch of people, go rent Die Hard and another thing, this movie was written by Shane Black, who wrote Lethal Weapon and is to direct the next Iron Man film, but whereas Lethal Weapon was directed by Richard Donner, this was directed by Tony Scott, a less than impressive action director at the best of times.

In short, a nasty and boring action film that is only slightly redeemed by Willis, but even he can't save this from the not recommended pile, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - The Sicilian (1987)

2011-04-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Sicilian stars Christopher Lambert as Salvatore Guiliano who lives in Sicily and wants to buy land for the poor people there, but he will encounter significant resistance to do just that.

This movie quite frankly, is fucking terrible, first off it wastes a great cast with not only Lambert but also Terence Stamp, Joss Ackland, John Tuturro and Andreas Katsulas all of them are given nothing to do here at all, second the film lacks focus big time, there are some big ideas here but the way director Michael Cimino handles them is pathetic, everything crumbles to dust and the movie is far far too long, nearly 2 and a half hours, which is completely unacceptable given the film's enormous failings.

On the other hand the movie looks good with those dramatic shots of the mountains and it also has a good musical score but the movie lacks focus on a story level and it wastes a terrific cast so only a .5 out of 5.

Film Review - Chain Reaction (1980)

2011-03-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Chain Reaction (this one) is not the 1996 movie starring Keanu Reeves but a 1980 Australian movie starring Steve Bisley as Larry Stillson, a mechanic who is going away for a weekend with his wife played by Arna Maria Winchester but somewhere, a nuclear spill has occurred which has the potential for widespread contamination if left unchecked.

Chain Reaction is clearly inspired by Mad Max, in fact it's director George Miller and several of the key actors including Bisley and cameos by Mel Gibson, Tim Burns, Roger Ward and Hugh Keays-Byrne in a central role but at the same time it has some level of intrigue in regards to the nuclear spill side of the story.

But do these two different factors come together into a cohesive film, well the answer is yes and no at the same time, on the one hand the chase scenes and the intrigue around the spill are very exciting and don't leave you feeling bored but the film feels somewhat anti climatic in its conclusion as the film enter its final chase with only 5 minutes left in the film and as a result, it's left slightly unclear as to how it all ended.

But hey, it's a good but not great Aussie action film that is some fun to watch, so a 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Dead End Drive In (1986)

2011-03-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

Dead End Drive In concerns a future where the world's economy has collapsed sparking a crime wave and the government decide to deal with it by sticking them in a drive in where there's no way out, something that two youth's find out after they pay the unemployment price to get in, and one won't take it anymore.

Australian director Brian Trenchard-Smith is I think a stylish director and here he creates a very glossy and extremely entertaining film, the drive in is also well done, where you're always seeing something new in every shot, I also enjoyed the music, the design, the crazy Mad Max 2 type characters and the central relationships also, but I didn't care that much for the central character as his main shtick was "how do I get out" and after a while, it got a little repetitive.

In closing, a very entertaining Australian film, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Ricochet (1991)

2011-03-26T20:06:00.001-07:00

Ricochet stars Denzel Washington as Nick Stiles, a rookie cop when he foils a crime committed by Earl Talbot Blake played by John Lithgow, seven years later though Stiles is now an Assistant District Attorney and his old foe is out of jail and out for revenge.

This is an absolutely brilliant film that had me on the edge of my seat and soaking up every minute it played out, and what I like about it is that every performance is rock solid especially Lithgow and Washington, Lithgow is scary and menacing at the same time as well as incredibly captivating, in fact I was reminded of Ricardo Montalban in Star Trek 2 a lot of the time in terms of how he means to avenge himself upon Stiles, by not killing him but hurting him and also how he tasks him, he tasks him and he shall have him.

As for Washington well, when has this man not turned in a bad performance or been nothing short of a deadset legend and wonderful actor, he'll be in a wheelchair someday and still be able to kick someone's ass, and boy does he get put through the ringer here which only serves to make his comeback all the more satisfying to watch.

But wait that's not all folks, there are two other people that deserve the high praise lavished upon Lithgow and Washington, and that's director Russell Mulcahy and composer Alan Silvestri, Silvestri's work on the opening credits really set the stage for the rest of his score which is again really taut and adds to the mood of the film, speaking of which is Mulcahy's camerawork which takes you around a corner and you think to yourself that anything could be beyond it, but not only that he directs the action scenes very well and handles the overall darkness in the film well and this isn't a nice movie, especially given some of the subject material.

All in all, watch this movie, it's well worth it and shows Mulcahy had a real talent for directing, it's just a shame Highlander II killed off any chance he might have had for a good directorial career, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Town (2010)

2011-03-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

The Town marks the directorial follow up for actor Ben Affleck following the success of his 2007 directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, the story here is that Affleck plays a Boston criminal who along with his friend played by The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner and two others, rob armoured cars and hold up banks, but on their last heist they take a young woman played by Rebecca Hall hostage, who Affleck also starts having affections for.

The Town is actually a pretty solid film all around, held together extremely well by Affleck's steady hand at the helm, most action pictures these days over edit their action scenes to the point where it's hard to know who everyone is, where they are or who their fighting against, that problem is not here, you always get a sense of who the cops are, who the robbers are and what they're actually robbing and boy is that a huge relief and contrast to see.

As for the rest of the film, well as I said it's pretty damn solid, with the other main performers (Renner, Jon Hamm and Rebecca Hall) up to the task but my favourite performance is by the late Pete Posthelthwaite as the Flower Shop Owner, speaking his lines in an Irish accent crossed with a wicked tongue, how sad that this should be his final role but at least he was rightly awarded with a posthumous nomination at this year's BAFTA awards.

But again I have to come back to Affleck's direction, as it is really something special, almost every shot has a sense of detail in it down to the city streets, the corner shops in the background, the beautiful aerial shots that are scattered throughout the film, it's almost like a principal character in and of itself, it is so refreshing to see direction like this and not the banging and clanging and general incoherence we see from most movies these days.

All in all, a most solid action picture that's easily worth your time and money, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Gone Baby Gone (2007)

2011-03-19T20:38:00.001-07:00

Gone Baby Gone marked the directorial debut of Ben Affleck and concerns two private detectives played by Casey Affleck and Michelle Mongahan who are asked to investigate the disappearance of a 4 year old girl named Amanda, but what they will investigate is something far deeper than that.

Gone Baby Gone is not a nice movie and not for the faint of heart due to the film's subject material, which is actually fine with me given the near complete lack of dark movies in today's movie going climate, the performances here are rock solid with Affleck and Mongahan as well as Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and John Ashton who I couldn't help but smile at having enjoyed him in Beverly Hills Cop and so is Ben Affleck's direction, using the city of Boston and it's streets as almost a central character in the film itself but the film also does drag in spots and the subject matter may be a bit of a put off for some people.

But as I said, this isn't a nice movie but it is a well directed one with some good performances all around, overall I liked it, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Cross Country (1984)

2011-03-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

Cross Country stars Michael Ironside as Det. Sgt Ed Roescher who is sent to investigate a brutal murder of a woman which was found in the apartment of an LA advertising director played by Richard Beymer but what he will discover is that the trail will turn into a complicated web.

I enjoyed this film but can’t say that I would rave about it, I enjoyed Ironside in his role and thought he did a good job but I don’t think that the film sustains itself for the length of its running time as there are long stretches of the film that don’t quite work, but on the other hand I did enjoy the beginning and end of the film and there were some good performances so I wouldn’t say it’s a total write off.

As for a rating, I’ll give it a 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Breathless (1983)

2011-03-12T20:21:00.000-08:00

Breathless stars Richard Gere as Jesse Lujack, a small time crook who steals a car in Las Vegas in order to drive to Los Angeles so he can pick up another girl, a French student named Monica played by Valerie Kaprisky but along the way he accidentally shoots a police officer which doesn’t make his trip to Mexico any easier as soon the LAPD go hot on his trail.

I quite enjoyed this film, it’s hard not to get caught up in Gere’s enthusiasm as he carries this film on his own two shoulders, Kaprisky is absolutely lovely to look at but her English is rather poor at times, there’s also a great soundtrack and some real excitement but I do wish that the story had gotten out on the road a bit more and the ending pretty much becomes that classic cliché I like to call the “I’ll take you all on” climax.

Despite those though, I did enjoy this movie, it made me smile and rock out to some of the songs, so I’ll give it a 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Man from Hong Kong (1975)

2011-02-26T18:20:00.001-08:00

The Man from Hong Kong is an Australian action film and stars Jimmy Wang Yu and Inspector Fang Sing Leng from Hong Kong who comes to Sydney to extradite one of his own, but when he is assassinated, Leng blows the place Sky High to find out who's responsible.

Clearly inspired by the success of the James Bond series, Writer-Director Brian Trenchard-Smith has created essentially an Australian equivalent of a Bond film, complete with the title song (Sky High by Jigsaw) the pre credit action sequence, multiple action scenes which are just outstanding to watch plus the cherries of both a beautiful heroine and a nasty villain funnily enough played by one time 007 George Lazenby, A coincidence; surely not.

But back to the stunt scenes, which as I said before are outstandingly well made and boy does everyone involve cop a whack, even the film's director who appears in a small role, a pity that with all of the computer graphics directors have at their disposal these days, on screen action simply isn't as good as what's in this movie, no doubt due to the ease of just doing it all on a blue screen or green screen stage rather than going out and doing it all for real and in camera.

But hey, apart from that, go check this film out, it's a knock out in more ways than one with a real sense of energy and excitement, 4 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Sanctum (2010)

2011-02-23T23:17:00.000-08:00

Sanctum is an underwater thriller produced by James Cameron and concerns a team of cave divers who are going down a cave in Papua New Guinea when they are caught in a cyclone and trapped underground, so the team has to find their way out, by going down.

This review for the most part will concern both the 3D experience and the film as a whole, first off I'll start with the 3D and boy was it AMAZING, really a great experience which envelopes the viewer and at times, makes you really feel like you're struggling for air, there were times where I was literally holding my breath it was that good, so good in fact that after the film, I felt like I still had water in my lungs (I didn't really) and if there was an Oxygen tank nearby, I would have ran for it, anyone watching this on Blu-Ray will really be missing out.

But what about the movie as a whole, well sadly it isn't up to the 3D effect, probably because the 3D was probably supervised mainly by Cameron whereas Alistair Grierson directed the film itself and I have to say that it really feels like an amateur effort compared to a veteran like Cameron, in fact if Cameron himself had the chance to direct this film, I think it would have been so much more than it is in terms of the claustrophobia, tension and characterization.

As I write this, Sanctum is on it's way out of cinemas and in a way it's a shame as you really do get a proper cinema experience seeing it in one, it's just a pity that Cameron couldn't be persuaded to direct the film himself, as Grierson and Co. make it look like an amateur's job, but hey the 3D experience made it worth the wait so a 3 out of 5 for Sanctum.

Film Review - Easy A (2010)

2011-02-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

Easy A stars Emma Stone as Olive, a high school girl who doesn't get noticed much until one night she fakes a story about losing her virginity, a decision that will have some big consequences.

In all honesty I don't think this movie would have been anywhere near what it is without Emma Stone in the lead, she is wonderful in this film with her great sense of comic timing, her wonderful natural look and ability to garner sympathy from an audience, I honestly believe that she could be a big star in a few years, but enough about that, let's talk about the rest of the film.

And that is that it's smart, well written and also funny, with many odds to the 80's teenage comedies specifically those by the late John Hughes and Say Anything, the 1989 film by Cameron Crowe which starred John Cusack and Ione Skye, in fact I dare anyone not to get a little swept up when "Don't you forget about me" by Simple Minds and used in The Breakfast Club and Futurama plays at the end.

You know, as I was watching this I was reminded of some of the best episodes of both The Simpsons and Red Dwarf so you should give this a look when you can, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Basic Instinct (1992)

2011-02-05T17:46:00.001-08:00

Basic Instinct stars Michael Douglas as San Francisco Inspector Nick Curran and Sharon Stone as Catherine Trammel a Novelist, Douglas is investigating a murder that happened during a kinky night where an ice pick is the murder weapon, what he will uncover will push him to the brink of insanity.

You know, I really don't know where to begin with this movie, on the one hand it has a great performance by Stone, who's ice cold intelligence makes for compelling viewing not to mention a terrific score by the late Jerry Goldsmith, outside of those however this is one of the most predictable and ridiculous crime thrillers I've ever seen, complete with an ending that undoes everything the film says up to that point.

In some ways, this really feels like last year's Salt with Angelina Jolie, in that something that should be simple to solve at a script level is left unsolved and as a result, the writer (in this case Joe Eszterhas) cuts it both ways and chickens out of creating a final answer, which reminds me of the old idiom "The More things Change, the More they Stay the Same."

You know, I wanted this to be good as it was an adults only movie, something that is in short supply in the current climate but I can't say this was any good at all, despite those minor pluses, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

2011-01-15T17:36:00.000-08:00

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is the latest production from veteran producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the story here is that there were three apprentices to the ancient wizard Merlin, Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), Veronica (Monica Bellucci) and Horvath (Alfred Molina), throughout the centuries these three clashed against the evil sorceress Morgana, but in the end, there can be only one that is powerful enough to defeat her for good.

Now some of you might be surprised at the use of "There can be Only One" from the Highlander series, well not so good readers as this movie actually reminded me quite a bit of the first Highlander movie from 1986, I mean you have Nicolas Cage in the Ramirez role, Jay Baruchel (more on him later) in the Connor MacLeod slot, Alfred Molina in the Kurgan role (though he behaves more like General Katana from Highlander 2) and Teresa Palmer filling the Brenda role.

But why am I comparing the two exactly, mainly because this film like that one, had a real spirit and mythology that was interesting and worth following, unfortunately for this film though the potential to become a cult classic like Highlander doesn't quite get there mainly because of Baruchel, it's exactly the same problem I had with Michael Cera in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the centre of the film is a whiny little geek who whinges about anything and everything and would rather pine after a girl that in the real world would dismiss him completely then become a man who's destined for something greater, whatever happened to the good old days of movie heroes where the main leads were confident, self assured and willing to grab their task by the horns and do what's right.

I'll tell you where, it disappeared when Tobey Maguire did his little whinging act in the original Spider-Man movies and since those were mega buck box office hits, everyone since has gone "if we make the hero a nerd who's unassured about himself and lacking in self confidence, audiences will relate to him more" well that might have worked with some but not with me, I have really had enough of this and I wish it would stop, it's really hurting these action adventure movies to the point where it's hard to care about anything that's happening on screen.

But despite all that, this movie did have some real promise and it certainly held my interest enough to recommend it, thanks to Cage and Molina who hold their own well and the interesting sorcerer story, the love story and pimply little git that centres this movie, I could have lived without, at least in Highlander both of those elements were made important as well as the mythical stuff.

All right, time to wrap this review up, a promising fantasy movie that sadly doesn't quite feel the Quickening and live up to its full potential, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Cobra (1986)

2011-01-15T17:35:00.000-08:00

Cobra stars Sylvester Stallone as Lt. Marion 'Cobra' Cobretti, a cop who does things his way and annoys his superiors, but when a woman witnesses a murder by a group calling themselves "The New Order", Cobra finds himself in the fight of his life to protect her.

Cobra is in one way trying to do a Dirty Harry type film where not only do you have the violence extravaganza but also the commentary about violence in society as a whole, but this issue is only partially explored as Stallone's script prefers to go for the guns and blow everyone away with reckless abandon, now I did enjoy some of it as well as Andrew Robinson in a small role but the film's last act which I'm certain was inspired by the finale of the first Terminator film really got on my nerves due to its mindless action and lack of caring with the films characters or storyline up to that point.

In short, what could have been an interesting action picture with some good action and interesting villains and story just becomes another action picture that just leaves you bored by the end of it all, apparently this was what Stallone had in mind for the first Beverly Hills Cop film, thankfully Paramount had other ideas, just a 1 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - A Shock to the System (1990)

2011-01-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

A Shock to the System stars Michael Caine as Graham Marshall, a marketing executive who is waiting for a big promotion, but when it's stolen from him by a young wheeler dealer type, he plots a sinister scheme to get what we wants.

A Shock to the System is a very funny but also very dark movie, effortlessly anchored by Caine, who captures the black comedy tone perfectly, making him an absolute joy to watch, Caine also narrates the film and it also is fun to listen to, I also enjoyed Elizabeth McGovern as Stella, the young woman who he tutors in "the magic" as well as the rest of the cast but this is easily Caine's movie through and through.

What else can I say really, I found this movie to be a real joy to watch, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - When Harry Met Sally... (1989)

2011-01-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

When Harry met Sally stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally, two people who first meet on a trip to New York sharing the driving together, they meet up throughout the years and become friends but can men and women really be just that?

I hadn't heard much good about this one and I was unconvinced whether it would be any good, but to my surprise I really enjoyed it, mainly because of the script by Nora Ephron and the four main actors, with Ryan surprisingly being the standout, creating a wonderful screen presence while Crystal does his cynical New Yorker attitude with both Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher providing adequate backup support.

All in all, a great entertainment, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Freejack (1992)

2011-01-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

Freejack is based off the book "Immortality Inc" and tells the tale of Alex Furlong played by Emilio Estevez who is an F1 driver that ends up dead after a fiery crash in his big race, but instead of being dead he's transported into the year 2009, where his body is worth big bucks, escaping a fire fight, he goes on the run, and the chase commences.

Well, in a better movie it would be an exciting chase with an interesting story behind it, instead this movie feels like a pastiche of Star Wars, Mad Max, The Terminator, Blade Runner and Avatar, the last one being ironic as Avatar was released in the same year this movie's central story takes place, not only that but the action is boring to watch and the story makes no sense, mainly because there's no explanation as to what happened between 1991 and 2009, so as a result you're left stranded in a movie that not only bores you but also leaves you with more questions than answers.

Please skip this one and watch the 5 movies mentioned above, they're much more worth your rental money, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Rocky Balboa (2006)

2011-01-01T20:21:00.000-08:00

Rocky Balboa is the sixth and final entry in the series and this time, his beloved wife Adrian has died and he now runs a restaurant in her name, but his family has split apart as his son doesn't want anything to do with him but when a computer simulation fight between Rocky in his prime and the current champion Mason "The Line" Dixon, it gets his thinking.

After the disaster that was Rocky 5, the series went away and Stallone faced an uphill battle to get this new one made and frankly, he delivers a knockout punch for this series, almost every note here is finely tuned, the direction, the script, the performances, the music, everything in this movie feels like it's from the heart, this isn't just another shallow sequel designed by studio executives wanting to triple their bank accounts but a sincere attempt to close off a popular film series and give the fans their rightful finale.

And hey, it certainly worked for me, as the heart and drive and determination that made the first four Rocky movies works returns here in spades, in fact in the last scene I couldn't help but get a little misty eyed myself.

Yo Adrian, He did it and this deserves nothing more than a 4 and a half out of 5, tied with Rocky II as the best of the series.

The End of all Things: A Look Back at the Movies of 2010

2010-12-28T20:13:00.000-08:00

Another year has come and gone,
One life ends, another begins,
And in a world where time goes fast,
We come to the end of all things.

We saw great triumphs and journeys,
Valiant heroes and despicable villains,
But for everyone of these that we saw,
There were others destined to fail.

On a cold and warm planet,
That sees equal parts of love and hate,
Anger, fear and aggression,
We must always remember one thing,
That we must never turn to the dark side.

It was also a year that we saw great journeys,
On this world as well as others,
Where the cinemas all stand,
And the popcorn pops on.

So at last, we come to that time of the year,
The time where we not only look back at the year behind us,
But also to what the future holds,
But for now, we are at our end.
The end of all things.

Just wanted to have a little fun with you readers, who says that these types of editorials can't have that little something in them eh.

With that out of the way, it appears that we must indeed look back at the movies that we saw in 2010, the good times, the bad times, the misfires and the missed opportunities but before I go specifically into that I want to talk about the year as a whole.

And that is that 2010 on the whole has only been an okay year for movies at best, in comparison though last year (2009) started off bad and only got worse before James Cameron's Avatar swooped in at the last minute to snatch a key victory from the jaws of defeat, but this year wasn't so fortunate I think.

And that's mainly because a lot of movies released this year suffered from one big problem: The lack of a coherent and finished script, there is nothing more important to a movie's survival than that, it sunk last year's Transformers sequel Revenge of the Fallen and it also sunk a good number of movies released this year, guys look I know you have hundreds of millions of dollars, big name celebrities and state of the art special effects, but you cannot let those elements alone carry a film, you have to have a script, this one inefficiency is making me VERY angry and I've really lost patience with it, now I know some of you have made the criticism that I'm a bit of a grouch but nothing pisses me off more than seeing people pay they're hard earned money on something that they've wanted to see only to get nothing in return, it really gets on my nerves and I wish it would stop.

But hey like I said before, it wasn't that bad of a year overall, but it also wasn't all that good of a year either, as it started off fairly flat and only showed a few signs of life from there, here's hoping 2011 can rise above the last few years of mediocrity but from the looks of it on paper, the signs aren't promising, what is though is a return to the dead zone that dominated the 00's, well for now at least, but I could be wrong.

Now, let's get down to business shall we:

The favourites of 2010:

4. Green Zone/Kick Ass: One of two ties on this list mainly because I didn't like one more than the other, I enjoyed both about the same but for different reasons which are outlined below.

Green Zone was a great reminder of the action days of yore, when action and story blended together to create a satisfying movie as a whole, here not only did you have some pretty terrific action scenes helmed by director Paul Greengrass but also there was a compelling story about WMD's in Iraq, effortlessly carried by Matt Damon, who has now proven himself to be the real deal as an actor.

Kick Ass meanwhile was a very dark, very violent and also very funny comic book movie, my main line about this has been that this is what Iron Man 2 should have been, a smart action comedy that didn't over complicate it's story, if there was any justice in the world, Chloe Moretz would get an Oscar nod for her role as Hit-Girl, how someone so young can carry themselves so confidently on screen is something I'd like to find out.

3. Shutter Island: Martin Scorsese for me has been a little iffy since his 1990 masterpiece Goodfellas (yes I think it's that good) mainly because when you make a movie that's that impressive, it can be hard to follow it up as was the case with his 2006 Oscar winner The Departed, which was ridiculously long and really an attempt to recapture the success of that film, only for it to fail to do so rather miserably.

Getting back on topic, what Scorsese has done here is simply a high end "Haunted House" complete with the rustling weather, local crazies and the "Da Dum" soundtrack, and all of it makes for a movie watching experience that is certainly a lot of fun and Scorsese's best work in years.

2. Inception/The Social Network: Again we have another tie, mainly because again I didn't really like one above the other, I liked them both just as much but again they were for different reasons.

Inception (Director Christopher Nolan's follow up to his 2008 blockbuster The Dark Knight) was an impressive affair that juggled not only multiple characters but also multiple realities, as the main group of characters are asked to perform Inception, which is to plant an idea inside a person's mind.

Any other director could have potentially let this material collapse into an incomprehensible mess, but Nolan keeps his eye on the ball at all times, showing an impressive technical ambition not seen since James Cameron, but since the film's home video release some of the gloss has come off a bit as the visuals don't quite impress as much as they did on a nice big cinema screen.

The Social Network meanwhile was a movie that I walked into with very low expectations, as a movie about the founding of Facebook couldn't be that interesting could it, Could it?

Well, I was dead wrong as for two thirds of the film's 2 hour running time it was a fascinating story that also had the gall to say that Mark Zuckerburg, one of the world's youngest billionaires was a manipulative prick who wasn't afraid to trample on anyone or anything around him if it meant advancing his own personal gain.

Unfortunately though, the last third of the movie lacked that excitement as the threads come together and the film attempts to make Mark look like a nicer person, whereas I really liked the bastard, a real pity as when this film was good, it was dead on.

1. Toy Story 3: Yes folks, my favourite movie from all of those I saw in 2010 was an animated movie, about toys of all things.

But that ain't a knock against this movie at all as it hit it's marks completely dead on, simply put not only did this movie leave me with a big grin on my face almost the entire time with its warmth and humour but it also tugged at the heartstrings with two key sequences towards the film's end showing the softer side of a lot of people, and don't say it didn't happen to you cause it had to of in some way.

But I can't not reflect on this movie and not talk about the new characters created for it, all of whom I'm certain will have the same shelf life as the more iconic characters like Woody and Buzz, from the pink Lots'-O'-Huggin-Bear to the Big Baby doll which looks like some alcoholic serial killer to the rather funny Mr. Pricklepants, voiced by former 007 Timothy Dalton, but lastly this was the only film I saw this year which gave Avatar a run for it's money and I ain't gonna complain about that at all.

But enough of praise for the moment, let's see what didn't impress me this year:

The Worst of 2010:

4. Alice in Wonderland: The first main movie I saw this year and all through watching it one thought came to mind "Didn't I see this a few months ago when it was called Avatar", for it basically it had the exact same things that this movie did:

1. The big scary creatures that chases the main lead only to help them later on
2. The big dragon creature that plays a major part in the final battle
3. The leader who rallies both side for one last battle
4. The eccentric locals who come to the lead's aide

And not only that, this movie had nearly no plot at all and even if it did, it wasn't all that interesting, as it was really just a "oppressed people looking for a champion" story, whoop de doo.

Personally, I wish Tim Burton would quit making movies as he simply doesn't have it in him anymore to knock one out of the park but given that this movie made a billion dollars worldwide at the box office, I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

3. Clash of the Titans: Following his blockbuster success with James Cameron's Avatar, Australian Sam Worthington took on another big project with this remake of the 1981 cult hit Clash of the Titans.

Following a promising trailer which showed giant scorpions, clashing gods and a great big Kraken, what we got was anything but that, instead the great big monsters only got two minutes of screen time and Ralph Fiennes's Hades was one of the worst performances this year, sounding like someone who smoked way too much.

Not only that, the film as a whole was SO deadly dull and boring it wasn't funny, Worthington completely phones it in, Gemma Arterton was dull, Liam Neeson turned one of his rare bad performances and the comic characters were anything but.

2. Predators: One of the two movies this year that got on my nerves the most, Predators was quite frankly a pointless and unnecessary addition to the Predator film series.

And the main reason is that this film lacks any kind of worthwhile story, you see in the first Predator movie there was a good 10-15 minutes at the beginning that set up what was to happen in the jungle, a helicopter carrying a cabinet minister and his aide has gone down in the jungle and they're presumed missing, find them and bring them back, of course it was so much more than that.

In this one, we see Adrian Brody hurtling through the atmosphere which looks like outtakes from the sky diving scene in last year's Star Trek movie and a whole bunch of other characters and most of the time they're asking "How did we get here"?

HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW, I'M AS BAFFLED AS YOU ARE

Sorry about the capitals in that last sentence, but that really got on my nerves, as well as it's pointless ending that should been this movie's last act, but hey this means we have something for a sequel, yay for us.

1. Robin Hood: Yes folks, the bottom of the barrel for 2010, Ridley Scott's take on the Robin Hood legend.

Well, no it wasn't as quite frankly it was Gladiator 2, only this time it was Robin Hood and it's story shoehorned into that framework, Russell Crowe's accent changed more times than someone changing their underpants, Oscar Issac was nothing more than a 50 pound ham as King John, but the real kicker was Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian, who doesn't have any fun with this role whatsoever, she plays it as someone who has convinced themselves that they're an AC TOR who has to act not do silly stuff like this, because of that Blanchett will have to do something pretty special to get back into my good books.

But wait there's more, two more things that got my goat:

1. The story making no sense whatsoever as one minute Mark Strong's character is plotting behind the king's back, the next he's collecting money for him, dude make up your mind will ya.

2. The very end of the movie says "And so, the legend began", you know you could have said that TWO HOURS AGO and given us something more rather than once again, makes us wait for a sequel to give us what you promised the first time around, I mean fair go mate fair go.

Yeah, this movie got on my nerves much more than Predators did, now I know that we laugh at Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg and even George Lucas for some of their recent pictures but this movie was made by Ridley Scott, the same man who gave us Blade Runner, how on Earth could he have made this movie, he's above all this mediocrity, oh well, hopefully he'll have something good in mind with his Alien prequel.

The Disappointments of 2010:

One segment that I feel is worth talking about are the movies that disappointed us, you know the ones that you hope will deliver the goods based on what came before and what director did beforehand that you really liked but sadly you just walked out feeling really let down and wanting to cry on someone's shoulder, with that let's mark the top three disappointments of the year.

3. Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps: The follow up to Oliver Stone's 1987 original, I had been very enthusiastic to check this one but unfortunately the cruel hand of fate had other ideas and was left to wait another month before seeing it, but if you've already read my main review of this movie, you'd know this story by now.

The reason it's here on this list is that when I walked out of the movie one thought came to mind: "All this time, and THIS is what I get"; a half baked family drama, a subpar financial story and a lacklustre villain that felt like 3 separate stories rather than 1 glorious whole which was the case in the first movie, don't get me wrong Douglas was terrific but there were a few moments where he was Gordon, in control and calling the shots and you just thought "Where's that movie" but everything around him felt flat and that was a shame.

2. Iron Man 2: The first trailer for Iron Man 2 came out the day I saw Avatar, in fact at last year's Comic Con, the IM2 presentation was said to be better than the Avatar one, which had me convinced that people were looking forward to that film more than Avatar, needless to say I felt that the trailer released that day captured the heart and humour of the first and set up the same wild ride that was just fun on the bun, so I guess my hope was that this movie would stand up to Avatar in the same way that the first film did with the Dark Knight, hopes to be positive about or not?

Sadly, I was wrong as the film didn't have any of the energy, humour, heart and straightforward storytelling the first film did, instead this film was rushed from start to finish, no doubt so the Paramount executives could triple their bank accounts, I mean why couldn't it have been saved for 2011, as it would have mopped up the box office and given fans the sequel they deserved as well as something to look forward to, alas that isn't to be.

1. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Yes folks, the biggest disappointment for me this year, Scott Pilgrim was director Edgar Wright's follow up to 2007's Hot Fuzz, which I LOVED so very much, the trailers looked promising for the same kind of high energy, fast pace and quirky characters.

Sadly, my hopes were dashed as this movie had a dead weight hanging around it's neck in the form of one Michael Cera; quite frankly he isn't leading man material whereas Simon Pegg was, and the reason he isn't is because he talks in a very slow and whiny fashion, totally at odds with the rest of the actors and Edgar's style, which is fast and furious.

Not only that, Scott himself was a total smeghead, moaning on and on all the time when the other characters are trying to get it through to him that you have to step up, now I know that some will forgive that and hey, that's your prerogative I'm not going to stop you and nor should I, but this isn't some background person, this is the centre of the movie, you cannot make a massive mistake like that, unfortunately as a result despite high praise from fans and critics, the movie Bob-ombed at the box office earning only $10 million in it's opening weekend.

So, that's that for 2010's movies, hopefully 2011 will be good but considering the offerings, I'm not going to get my hopes up as it looks like a return to the dead zone that dominated the 00's, well we'll just have to wait and see what happens won't we, until then, see you at the cinemas.

2010 on Blu-Ray

2010-12-27T23:23:00.001-08:00

Part 1 of my look back feature on 2010 it brought some rather big Blu-Ray releases, I won't bore you with a long diatribe about the good and bad but just tell you what the top three are:

3. The Expendables: A new release on disc, the Expendables resembled to me what a no nonsense disc release should do, not give you hours and hours of worthless extras but just a few high quality bonuses that leave you feeling satisfied, and the bonuses here most certainly did that, sadly the Australian release left off the 90 minute making of so it feels a bit incomplete but what's here was good enough to let it qualify, as well as the booming 7.1 DTS-HD soundtrack and very entertaining movie, this was easily the best sound mix I heard on a Blu-Ray this year.

2. Beauty and the Beast - Diamond Edition: One of the great triumphs for the Disney studios (it's the ONLY animated film to score a legitimate Best Picture Oscar nomination), 2002's Platinum Edition DVD release was not the best, iffy Video, weak Audio and sub par extras really didn't do the film justice.

This year's Diamond Edition Blu-Ray however rectified all of those, with a beautiful Video presentation, great sound and some terrific extras that really take you behind the scenes into not only how the film was made but also how the Disney studios at that time rallied together to get back on track following several flops, a winner of a release.

1. Avatar - Extended Collector's Edition: Easily my favourite Blu-Ray Release from this year (though BatB came very close), James Cameron's Avatar combined first class Audio/Visual Quality with 2 full discs worth of terrific bonuses, from direct access to the 16 minutes reinstated to the film, the making of, the 70 minutes worth of deleted scenes plus so much more, this release deserves to become one of the finest special edition releases ever made.

So there you have it, short and sweet when it comes to the top three Blu-Ray's of 2010 for me, let's hope 2011 brings us some more as this format is really starting to show some serious potential and I look forward to more.

Film Review - Salt (2010)

2010-12-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

Salt stars Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt, a CIA operative who is asked to quiz a Russian defector named Orlov who claims that a Russian agent hidden on the inside will kill the Russian president, and it's none other than Salt herself.

If that small synopsis sounded slightly confusing, believe me so is this movie, it is literally all over the place, one part resembles the Fugitive, another part resembles the James Bond film The Living Daylights and another part feels like a spy script that was written 20 years ago but also in terms of the central question of whether she's really a Russian spy or not, I don't think this movie really made up it's mind on which way to go and so as a result, it tries to cut it both ways, you know maybe Mr. Kurt Wimmer who wrote the script for this movie should have answered that question BEFORE he wrote the full screenplay, not during it.

You know sometimes a little advance planning of what a story might look like and how it will all play out over a 3 act structure and how your characters fit into the roles that are required for your story can really go a long way towards making it work and if that's hard to do (and trust me, it can be sometimes), well maybe it's best not to write that story at all.

But despite my rant about the dog's breakfast that resembles this script, the movie isn't a total write off, mainly thanks to Jolie, she carries this film effortlessly and the steely resolve in her eyes never leaves you questioning her motives, it's just such a pity she along with Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor left to run the Gauntlet like so many actors that are given second rate action scripts.

All in all, this movie is a total mess and a waste of the three main actors, just a 1 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Harry Brown (2009)

2010-12-22T02:23:00.000-08:00

Harry Brown stars Michael Caine as Harry Brown, a retired man who lives in a rundown area of London that is run rampant by violent youth gangs, but when one gang murders his best friend played by David Bradley, Harry decides to take matters into his own hands.

Harry Brown is a dark and atmospheric film anchored very nicely by Caine, those with a light stomach should not watch this movie as the MA15+ rating is justified as there are scenes of people getting savagely killed and high on drugs, one character looked like Gollum from Lord of the Rings after a 3 day binge, but overall I don't think that it matched last year's Gran Torino which starred Clint Eastwood who also directed it, that film was great whereas this was okay.

2 out of 5 for Harry Brown.

Film Review - The Expendables (2010)

2010-12-20T01:29:00.001-08:00

The Expendables is the latest film from Sylvester Stallone and stars himself and other action luminaries past and present such as Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and more, the story here is that a team of mercenaries is sent to a South American jungle to overthrow a military dictator, but it won't be as easy as they thought.

The Expendables has all the elements to make a great action picture, a terrific cast with some great cameos which I won't spoil here but will be familiar to those who's seen the previews for the film, nice cinematography by Jeffrey Kimball and some good action scenes but the first half of this film is terrible beyond all belief, so much so that it almost sinks the film, luckily once the action kicks into high gear to film gains momentum and investment in its main leads.

All in all, a good night out, a 2 and a half out of 5.

1 Year Today...

2010-12-16T16:58:00.000-08:00

Yes folks, It was 1 year ago today that James Cameron's Avatar first hit cinema screens and took us all on a journey to the distant world of Pandora, which was full of great wonders and mysterious dangers.

It was this day that I also remember very well, it was a grey and wet day and I had made the journey to my regular cinema, eager and ready to see what director James Cameron had up his sleeve following a 12 year absence since creating his other mammoth blockbuster, the 1997 historical love story Titanic, also having devoured the film's main 3 and a half minute trailer as much as I could.

This showing wasn't in 3D, just the regular but frankly I didn't care all that much, I was eager to see it, the people cued up, we all went in, took our seats and the movie did it's thing.

About 3 hours later, give or take 15-20 minutes for the various adverts and previews to run their course, I came out of the movie mesmerized, no doubts rested in my mind that Cameron had pulled it off, defying his critics and creating something that had to be seen to be believed, which they did as the movie stormed the box office and created a success which has fundamentally changed the nature of box office success, surpassing Titanic and becoming the highest grossing film of all time, a success story like this I don't think we will see for a very long time.

And yet, as I type this, it's already been 1 year since that film was first released and another year of movies has come and gone for the most part as well as a deluxe special edition release of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray, did I like any of the movies from this year as much as this one, well you'll just have to wait and see for that answer.

Film Review - Tron: Legacy (2010)

2010-12-15T23:20:00.000-08:00

Tron: Legacy is the follow up film to Walt Disney Pictures's 1982 original movie, the story here is that Kevin Flynn played by Jeff Bridges has gone missing inside his own virtual world, now fully grown his son Sam played by Garrett Hedlund goes inside to find him, only to find a world beyond his wildest dreams.

Tron: Legacy was my first 3D experience and before I go into the movie as a whole I must talk about it, to be quite honest I HATED the 3D here, it looked dark and dismal and took away from the visual slpendor of the film, at stages I would take off the glasses and the slightly fuzzy footage looked 10 times brighter and had real visual flair, all in all if you can find a 2D screening, take it instead of the 3D one as it really distracted from the visual action, literally in those cases.

As for the movie's plot, well it's a bit like the 3D really, dull and dismal and throws 20 different storylines at you as the film progresses, not only that you can literally pinpoint what's going to happen, also making it very predictable, the cast though however really give their all, Bridges, Hedlund, Olivia Wilde as Flynn's Aide and Michael Sheen as a nightclub owner are actually quite good as is the film's sound design, but lastly there was a quote in the Herald Sun's review of the film by Leigh Paatsch that said this:

"TRON: Legacy summons a spectacle as breathtakingly out of this world as Avatar"

Now I'm sorry but I have to call bullshit on that one, Avatar was a true cinematic spectacle, that swept you away on a journey to a new world in a way that no movie had done in years, Tron: Legacy's visuals are nowhere near as good, muddled by the 3D gimmickry that because of the format's disconnection between the foreground and the background serves to keep us at a distance from the on screen action.

If I had seen the film in 2D, I would have given this a 2 and a half out of 5 for it being an entertaining ride but the wasted actors, dull storyline and gimmickry 3D visuals knotch this down to a 2 out of 5.

Blu-Ray Review - Inception

2010-12-08T00:13:00.001-08:00

Inception is the latest film from director Christopher Nolan, who is best known for his 2000 breakout film Memento and his two Batman movies, 2005's Batman Begins and it's 2008 sequel The Dark Knight, which showed a real maturity in Nolan's directorial style but after the mammoth success of Dark Knight, Nolan was given carte blanche to make whatever movie he wanted, no doubt a carrot to lure him back for a third Batman movie, well it seemed to work as The Dark Knight Rises will hit theatres in 2012, with expectations high enough to fill the Empire State Building 10 times over.

But back to Inception, and frankly it's because of Nolan's deft hand that this movie works, any other director could have let the material sink into a gigantic incoherent mess, but Nolan keeps his eye on the prize and as a result, we get sucked into this strange dream world, but I must say that since the first screening, some of the gloss has gone off a little, don't get me wrong it's easily one of the best films of the year but I felt that there were better movies released this year, but that shouldn't stop you from seeing this movie, not at all.

The Blu-Ray:

The Blu-Ray comes in a combo pack which contains the 2-disc Blu-Ray release, the DVD copy and a special Digital Copy of the movie which can be transferred to a portable device like an iPod or a Laptop but will only last for about 12 months.

However, there is one thing about the packaging that has gotten on my goat, there is no mention of the two galleries or the promotional ads (Trailers and TV Spots) but when you put in disc two, they're right there for all and sundry to go through, bad form people, very bad form.

The Video:

The Video comes in a 1080p 2:35:1 widescreen presentation and if you saw this movie on a nice big screen, you won't be disappointed as this transfer faithfully recreates that presentation, DP Wally Pfister shot a very nice color style for the film, distinctive and natural which again are recreated very well, some of the snow scenes looked downright beautiful, after the botching of the Dark Knight's video transfer, where the IMAX scenes looked great and the normal footage looked a little too sharp, this transfer is a nice surprise.

The Audio:

A rocking DTS-HD MA 5.1 track that again, is nicely done, the big winner is Hans Zimmer's amazing score, easily audible during the tension scenes and even in the quiet moments, but it isn't overbearing as the dialogue and gunfire are just as audible, fans should get a "kick" out of this mix.

The Extras:

Despite being a 2-disc release and the fantastic A/V presentation, here is where this release comes up short, as the bonus materials are to be frank, not worth your time as this is the kind of movie that doesn't lend itself to a behind the scenes look, as it would spoil the film's secrets, any who with that out of the way, let's see what's on there:

WB Extraction Mode: The sole extra on disc 1 is what's called "Extraction Mode", basically 45 minutes worth of interviews that can also be played separately, not quite the Maximum Movie Mode that has graced other Warner Home Video releases but more of a traditional PiP feature, to be honest I had hoped this might be more of a MMM type feature, but alas it ain't.

Disc 2:

Disc 2 contains the bulk of the extras, designed into separate categories, so let's get started:

Dreams: The Cinema of the Subconscious: Hosted by Joe Levitt, this 45 minute feature goes into the dream state in some pretty interesting detail, Chris Nolan also appears in this and there are some interesting stories to be told, all in all this is probably the best extra on this set.

The Cobol Job: A Prequel Comic set before the events of the film, this goes for about 15 minutes and again, I wasn't that thrilled with it mainly because the motion comic didn't quite work, a still gallery would have been preferable as then you could read it like a real comic.

5.1 Inception Soundtrack: Hans Zimmer's Score is recreated here in full DTS-HD 5.1, handy for when you need to clean your house one day but one drawback is that you don't get any stills while the tracks play, all you is an intro screen that says the title and then black, not a smart move there guys but you did do this extra so I can't complain about that.

Still Galleries: Two Galleries here, first is a conceptual art gallery that looks at the major sets designed for the film and is pretty thorough while the other is a look at the film's poster art, something that I like seeing especially as this movie had some good ones.

Trailers and TV Spots: Finally, we have 3 trailers and 11 minutes worth of TV ads, again something that's always welcome on a disc release in my book as they've become a sad rarity over the last 5-6 years, there used to be a time when you were guaranteed to get the trailer on a disc, now you'd be hard pressed to find it, sigh.

Overall:

One of the year's best movies that while having a terrific Audio/Visual Quality, it falls short on the extras but should you buy this disc, well personally I'd wait until the price goes down a little bit as after the exquisite Special Edition release of Avatar from a couple of weeks ago, this release feels like a big letdown but if you liked the movie, then chances are you already have the disc but as for the rest of you, I'd hold off for a lower price.

Blu-Ray Review - Highlander

2010-12-07T03:17:00.001-08:00

Highlander is a fantasy film from 1986 and stars Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown and Roxanne Hart, Lambert plays Connor MacLeod, a Scotsman who discovers that he is immortal and that he must fight through the ages to the time of The Gathering, where those who are left will battle for the Prize, but in the end, There can be Only One.

Highlander, at least this first film is a film that simply works in almost all areas, the direction by Australian Russell Mulcahy is solid, the cast hit their marks, there's an intriguing story and some great songs by the rock band Queen, a solid package that shouldn't disappoint many.

The Transfer:

Video:

Simply put, this video transfer feels the Quickening, a new HD master was created for this release and the team responsible have done a great job, there are a few instances of grain on the print but it didn't distract from the pleasure of this new print, for years now fans of this film have had to put up with a dark and murky DVD release, this Blu-Ray blows that out of the water as scenes in the Scottish highlands bounce off the screen with strong color and vibrance, again this print is a pure delight.

Oh and if you stop the film at any point and eject the disc, you'll pick up right where you left off next time you put the disc back into your player, a nice touch.

Audio:

Presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 (the 2.0 is the default track, so you'll have to change to the 5.1 via the menu), again the audio here is great and will definitely satisfy fans, the Queen songs are the highlight especially the end song "A Kind of Magic" so the sound will again satisfy.

The Extras:

The Making of Highlander: A 3 part 85 minute documentary on the making of the film, containing interviews with writers Gregory Widen and Peter Bellwood, DP Gerry Fisher and Designer Allan Cameron as well as actress Roxanne Hart, all of these people give their thoughts and memories on their side of making the film, Widen and Bellwood also talk about the response of Highlander II and Hart gives her own memories of working with Brown and Lambert, she also looks better now than she did in the movie.

A good making of that will satisfy fans.

Commentary with Director Mulcahy: Mulcahy sits alone for this track and sounds as though he woke up with a cold or at least a stuffed nose, he gives his own memories on directing the film and working with Queen on the songs, something absent from this release.

Interview with Christopher Lambert: Again, Lambert chips in using his native French to talk about his own memories of making the first Highlander, as well as the aftermath of the film's success.

Deleted Scenes: When the HD master was created a few additional scenes were found, but no production audio came with them, so they were presented with music segments, like 99.9% of all Deleted Scenes, they are best left out.

Trailer: A rarity on modern disc releases, but here is a trailer for the film, it does a good job advertising it but not one that the American audiences likely saw given how it did over there on its initial release (which is: badly)

What's missing:

Well, anything to do with Queen's contribution, no interviews with any of the surviving band members nor the music videos for "Princes of the Universe" (which DID appear on the DVD release), "A Kind of Magic" or "Who Wants to Live Forever", this is really unacceptable given how much the songs had to do with forming the identity of the film.

But then again, the band members might have charged too much for the disc makers to include them, so who knows.

Overall:

If you're a fan and have a Blu-Ray player, don't hesitate to feel the Quickening and grab this release, it's easily the best release of the film available at the moment and despite the absence of Queen, what's presented here should satisfy fans of the film

Farewell Shirley: A Memorial for Leslie Nielsen

2010-11-28T18:57:00.001-08:00

In what is a sad day for film fans the world over, Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen has died in America, he was 84 years old.

Nielsen was a veteran actor, best known for his comedic timing in comedy hits The Naked Gun (he would do 3 films in that series) and Flying High (The Australian title of the 1980 disaster spoof Airplane! which believe it or not actually out grossed The Empire Strikes Back at the Australian Box Office).

Nielsen's comic timing in both of those movies was genius, as he played all of the jokes completely straight laced and it made for some extremely funny and memorable laughs, my favourite being the singing of the American National Anthem on the baseball field in the first Naked Gun movie, as well as his "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley" line in Airplane!

But there was one small role he did that surprised me and that was as the sea captain in the original Poseidon Adventure, there was no trace of his comic timing in that small role and it impressed me that he was the real deal as an actor; convincing, believable and funny, what more can you ask for.

And so we must say, farewell Shirley, and thanks for the memories.

Film Review - Predators (2010)

2010-11-23T00:05:00.000-08:00

Predators is the newest installment in the Predator series and comes from producer Robert Rodriguez and concerns Royce played by Adrian Brody who awakes in freefall to a distant alien world, completely unaware that he is not alone and in for the hunt of his life.

I approached this movie with dog shit expectations as everything I read about this movie had me convinced that it was going to be little more than a remake of the original Predator movie from 1987 which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and was directed by John McTiernan so that was my expectation.

And to be frank, it didn't even meet that as this movie to me was a complete joke of a movie, and the main reasons why are:

1. All of the best bits felt like riffs on scenes from the first movie; from the jungle setting, the skinned bodies, the use of the mini gun, even the final fight all of those scenes were handled far better in the first film.

2. Not one person in the main group is worth giving two shits about as most of the time they come across as obnoxious dicks who shout or whine about their predicament, in the first Predator Arnold's group was built up before they got to the jungle, here they're dropped into the jungle right away and as a result, you don't care about any of them and just want the Predators to kill them.

All in all, I hated this movie almost as much as this year's Robin Hood, long-time Predator fans may like it but as someone who enjoyed the first movie I felt like I was watching a rehash of it and not a new Predator story, so just a .5 out of 5.

Blu-Ray Review - Avatar: Extended Collector's Edition

2010-11-23T00:02:00.000-08:00

Avatar: Extended Collector's Edition

Avatar I've covered a lot before, from the film's 2009 blockbuster release and last April's Blu-Ray release that while it had top notch Audio/Visual quality, it was lacking in any kind of bonus material.

Well, enter stage left this new 3-disc Blu-Ray release, but it can't be said that consumers weren't warned that this was coming, as director James Cameron took every effort to tell consumers when the original disc hit stores that a new special edition disc would come in November, thereby giving them the chance to either wait for this disc or buy both, well it would seem that the vast majority of consumers chose to buy just the first release and not bother with this one.

But before I get into the nitty gritty, you're going to ask "but is there anything new?" and my answer: you bet, not only do you get the original theatrical release, you also get the recent Special Edition which graced cinemas back in August as well as the new Collector's Extended Cut that contains not only the new footage from August but an additional 8 minutes on top of that, most notable is a new opening of the film set on Earth, as well as some additional scenes regarding Sigourney Weaver's character, Dr. Grace Augustine.

The Blu-Ray:

April's bare bones release of the film was hailed for its top notch Audio/Visual Quality and rightly so, it was one of the 2 or 3 best Blu-Ray's I'd ever seen in terms of A/V Quality behind Hot Fuzz and Blade Runner, here well time to take a deep breath as we go into this new release in detail and explore the behind the scenes material that goes behind the making of Avatar:

Video and Audio:

Disc 1 comes with three movie versions which I outlined earlier, the theatrical release which broke just about every box office record around the world, the recent Special Edition re release from August and the new Collector's Extended Cut with the long awaited Earth footage.

Miracously, despite having three full versions of the film on the one disc, there doesn't seem to be any loss in the A/V Quality, the previous disc was very well detailed in its visual quality and well mixed audio wise, here you get the same visual quality and the same mix which is a DTS-HD 5.1 mix, to be honest though I don't really know if there is any real difference apart from the compression on the disc so it will depend on what setup you have to watch the disc on.

Extras:

Alright, time to take a deep breath as there is A LOT of extras on this disc, two full discs worth as well as some minor extras on the movie disc so here we go:

Disc 1:

Direct Access to the New and Additional Scenes: A very very cool feature is that if you only want to watch the new scenes separately of the two extended cuts you can, all you have to do is go to the extras section and then go to "From Collector's Extended Cut" and boom, all of the new scenes are there for you to watch from the main menu, is that good customer service or what.

As for my take on the new scenes (and yes, I have watched them all), personally I'm very split on them, the new Earth opening and the scenes involving Grace's school and what happened there are terrific and could have gone back into the main feature without damaging the slightly lyrical pacing the final theatrical release has but the vast majority of them aren't that good and are probably best left out of the film, even though the CG work is very impressive, arguably more impressive than the final film, best shown in the extended death of Tsu'Tey played by Laz Alonso, this bodes well for when the film's inevitable sequel hits cinemas in a few years time.

Disc 2:

Four menu items are here on disc 2

"Deleted Scenes: Never Before Seen"
"Capturing Avatar"
"A Message from Pandora"
"Production Materials"

With that, let's start to look at each of the items individually:

Deleted Scenes - Never Before Seen: About 70 minutes worth of deleted scenes feature here which also include a user's guide for viewing the unfinished shots, which these are combining live action footage with template CG work which is very interesting to watch as a fan of the film.

As for my favorites, well they would have to be "Pandora Rules", in which Stephen Lang's Col. Quaritch gives the full safety briefing and "You're a Long Way from Earth" in which Giovanni Ribisi tries to stop Quaritch from attacking only to get confronted big time, apart from that the other scenes were okay and probably best left out, one nice part of this section is that you only get the user's guide foisted on you when you select a deleted scene for the first time, after that you're off and running to the races.

Capturing Avatar: A 4 part making of documentary that runs just an hour and a half and covers almost everything you would want to know about the movie from the initial conception, the casting, creating the performance capture technology even the reaction to the teaser trailer and inevitable release which is sadly slightly overlooked, it's rumored that about an hour was cut from this doco which I would like to see as it might have plugged some of the holes and covered some of the topics like the release in a little more detail, but it's still a great documentary and if you're a fan, check it out.

A Message from Pandora: A 20 minute Featurette where Cameron talks about his love of nature and his journey to the Amazon Basin where a massive hydro electric dam was planned to be built but it would also displace about 25,000 natives who depend on the area, watching this featurette two things came to mind: first, the parallels between that and the plot of the movie and also the city deep within the basin reminded me very much of the base that the humans occupy in the movie, a good watch.

Production Materials: A lot of stuff here, from a 17 minute art reel from 2006, a motion capture test with two different actors, a slew of VFX progression reels, even a crew film called "The Volume", but my favorite has to be the motion capture test based on another project called "Brother Termite" as it showed a CG character in the real world pretty damn convincingly, hopefully Cameron gives that challenge a go soon, the runner up would be seeing Zoe Saldana get her life cast, good lord I couldn't believe it as this purple and green goop was going on her face

Disc 3:

I said there was a lot and we have one last disc full of extras, here though there are only 3 menu items:

"Scene Deconstruction"
"Featurettes"
"Avatar Archives"

With that out of the way, let's get started:

Scene Deconstruction: Using your Blu-Ray remote you can select 17 different scenes from the film and have a look at three separate options: The original performance capture material, the template CG and the final film with the Performance Capture material in a PiP reference square, this was unbelievably fun to watch as you get a firsthand look at how some of the CG scenes with the push of a button as well as seeing how just dead on the performance capture really was, the buttons you want for this section are Red for the Final one, Yellow for the template CG (which looks like an old N64 game) and Green for the Performance Capture, well worth watching.

Featurettes: 17 Production Featurettes here on a range of different subjects, from the creation of some of the film's creatures such as the Ikran (Banshee), the Thanator, the gunships, the AMP Suit, the various cameras developed for the film and even down to the scoring and editing of the picture, some pretty cool stuff here which is worth checking out.

Avatar Archives: Possibly my favorite section of the entire set, there is all sorts of fan goodness here that I will be covering one item at a time, so read on dear reader:

Teaser Trailer: The film's Teaser Trailer is presented here in full 1080p HD and 5.1 sound, containing some different angles and unfinished CG work, this teaser gathered a very mixed reaction when released last year, although I'll never forget the pure glee at seeing this in a cinema when I went to see (500) Days of Summer late last year, something from my cinema going days that will stay with me for a long time.

Theatrical Trailer: If the Teaser Trailer garnered a mixed response, the Theatrical Trailer won over a whole slew of new fans, this fantastic trailer (which I must have watched 1000's of times prior to the film's cinema release) is also in full 1080p HD and 5.1 sound and I must say that it's absolutely delightful to see it here on this disc as it wouldn't have been the same without it, or the Teaser for that matter.

The Original Scriptment: Pretty much where it all began, James Cameron's original 1995 treatment for Avatar, and it's an utterly fantastic read especially as it goes into much more detail about Josh's (Josh was later changed to Jake) life on Earth which is more grim than in the final film, there's also a character who doesn't appear in the film at all, someone who's Avatar died, terrific stuff.

Screenplay Written by James Cameron: Pretty much the film's shooting script, a good read but not as good as the Scriptment.

Pandorapedia: Pretty much everything (and I mean everything) you could ever want to know about Pandora and it's inhabitants both human and Na'vi is covered here in massive detail, you could spend hours and hours in this although as I write this I haven't found the section on Toruk Macto, again great stuff.

The Songs: Here the Na'vi songs are translated into English as well as the original Na'vi language, I never really picked up on the Na'vi songs but it's heartening to see them here.

The Art of Avatar: An Extensive collection of artwork, photos and blueprints on just about everything in the film from the various weapons, the AMP Suit (VERY cool to see the blueprints of this baby) and more, what else is there left to say expect check it out.

Any further objections:

Actually, no apart from the lost hour on the making of which would have made this set feel a little more definitive but I will say in a very nice touch that at any point you stop any of the discs and eject them from your system, when you put it back in you will be asked to resume playback from wherever you left off, now that's good thinking.

Final Thoughts:

If you are an Avatar fan, you HAVE to have this disc, even if you bought the April release like I did to satisfy yourself in having the film then and there, to be quite honest the last time I remember being satisfied with a top notch special edition release was the Blade Runner set from 2007 and although it isn't as good as that set (and it will be a long time if ever before I see an SE as good as that one) it's the best one since as far as I'm concerned, so Go get it, Now I say.