Movie reviews

She's out of my league - Movie Reviews

2010-12-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

Movie reviews this week looks at the romantic comedy She's out of my league, it stars the charming Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) as Kirk, and the very beautiful and talented Alice Eve (Crossing Over with a flawless American accent, just as she was with a flawless Australian accent in Crossing Over, even though she is British) as Molly.

The movie begins as Kirk and his best friends, Stainer played by T.J. Miller (Get Him to the Greek), Jack played by Mike Vogel (Miami Medical), and Devon played by Nate Torrence, are at an airport discussing Kirk's breakup with his girlfriend Marnie played by Lindsay Sloane (Entourage), one of them mentions the only way to get her back is to date other people and let her know he is dating other people so she gets jealous. They all work at the airport, with the four guys as Aviation Attendants. A drop dead gorgeous girl walks by, and captures the attention of everyone, including Kirk. She leaves her phone as she boards the plane, and when she phones her number via her friend's phone, to find out where her phone is, Kirk answers, she reminds him who she is, and of course Kirk hasn't forgotten her. She then tells him to meet her at a party she is organising (as she organises parties) so he can give her back the phone. On meeting her she tells him she has four tickets to a hockey game, and invites him as well as a friend, when Kirk gets back to his friends and tells them about her, and that she has invited him to a game, they guess this is a date, and are all amazingly surprised if not a little jealous, to which Kirk is reluctant to believe, claiming she is way out of his league. Kirk's group of friends even go on an intellectual debate about guys dating girls that are out of their league, even comparing King Kong and Naomi Watts.

Not only does Molly know a lot about Hockey but she even knows one of the star players, after the game Kirk invites Molly to meet his family (she asked and he couldn't refuse), where a hilarious scene occurs, as some of Kirk's family members are in a pool, and are shocked at the very pretty girl Kirk has brought with him, they ask her to join them in the pool, she says she would but she didn't bring a bathing suit, they mention underwear would be fine, but she says yes it would be if she was wearing any.

Kirk somehow has to convince his friends and more importantly himself that maybe he is good enough for her, despite her ex, Cam played by Geoff Stults trying to win her back.

Eventually it's turn for Kirk to meet Molly's parents Mr. and Mrs. McCleish, who surprisingly are played by Alice's real life parents Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughan, there is a hilarious sequence where Kirk refuses to shake Molly's father's hand due to an embarrassing incident, which Patty, Molly's best friend, played by the lovely Krysten Ritter (What Happens in Vegas), suggests she should dump him, as she is only dating him because she sees him as safe, and someone who won't break her heart.

She's out of my league is a nice romantic comedy with superb acting from all sides, many will enjoy.

Red Movie - Movie Reviews

2010-12-04T05:43:00.000-08:00

Movie reviews this week looks at Red the movie. A crime and action thriller with an all star cast starring Bruce Willis (the Sixth Sense) as Frank Moses, the very dependable Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) as Joe Matheson, Helen Mirren (The Queen) as Victoria, Mary-Louise Parker (with the same funny charm in Weeds, something about her eyes reminds me of a deer caught in headlights) as Sarah Ross, and Richard Dreyfuss ( many had to do a double take for his uncanny portrayal of Senator Cheney in W) as Alexander Dunning.

The movie initialises with Frank talking to a Pensions Adviser (Sarah), we sense from their conversations, that the two like talking to each other, Frank mentions about an avocado plant that has two leaves, to which Sarah sounds elated at, we presume that this is a long distance romance that has been going on for some time, albeit via phone calls only. The two talk about a book that they have been reading, we are not quite sure who recommended the book to each other, and we see them later tuck themselves into bed, reading the same book.

A little later in the night, Frank is attacked by a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team, we are not quite sure, if this is a dream, as Frank dispatches them with relative ease, but when we next see him in Sarah's apartment telling her that she is in danger because she spoke to him, and that from their conversations it is obvious that he likes her, we realise this is real, and we also realise that this is the first time, Frank and Sarah have met, as Frank says this is not how he pictured their first meeting would be like, to which Sarah replies, "I always pictured you with hair...now none of our dreams have come true".

It turns out Frank is a retired CIA agent, and one of their bests, responsible for toppling governments, and code named RED (Retired Extremely Dangerous). Frank had taken part in a rescue mission in Guatemala, and for some reason all the people associated with that mission are being executed, a journalist who discovered this, and the list of the names of the people involved in the Guatemalan incident, is herself executed, when Frank and Sarah find the list of names, it is no surprise that Frank's name is on the list.

Frank visits his old friend Joe to find out if he knows who could be behind it, Joe is a in a hospital battling cancer. They gather up some of their old comrades, with an eccentric Marvin Boggs played by the dependable John Malkovich (Con Air), and Ivan Simanov played by the stalwart Brian Cox (X Men 2). Frank visits him in his Russian Embassy stronghold, and the two get into a nostalgic chat about the good old days of the Cold War, there is a hilarious conversation where Ivan asks about a cousin he believes Frank killed, to which Frank says he didn't kill him, but flipped him (i.e. turned him to the CIA's side), and that he now weighs 500 pounds. Matters are made complicated as a young CIA operative William Cooper played by Karl Urban (His performance as Bones in Star Trek is simply phenomenal, had Bones' mannerisms right down to a t) has been ordered to eliminate Moses.

Red the movie is a great action thriller, with plenty of romantic comedy thrown in the mix, and one many will enjoy, especially with the great cast involved, and a cameo by the much loved Ernest Borgnine as Henry, the Records Keeper.

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Takers the Movie - Movie Reviews

2010-12-01T04:41:00.000-08:00

Movie reviews this seek looks at the crime thriller Takers, with an all star cast starring Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious) as John Rahway, the stalwart Idris Elba (Rock N Rolla) as Gordon Cozier, Michael Ealy (The Good Wife) as Jake Attica, Hayden Christiansen (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) as A.J., Matt Dillion (Traffic) as Jack Welles, and an impressive performance by Chris Brown as Jesse Attica.

We meet the cast in the middle of a bank job, that goes as smooth as they planned, leaving no trace as to their identities or who could have done the job, and they even have the courtesy to wave at the security camera (masked of course) and offer a signature salute. It is left to two cops Jack Welles and Eddie Hatcher played by Jay Hernandez (The Rookie) to figure out who carried out the robbery, with basically nothing else to go on except the heights of the culprits, and their gestures to the camera.

As with great movies we are made to sympathise with the characters early on, as we get to know a little bit about their personal struggles, especially for Cozier, as he tries to look after his sister Naomi played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste (28 Days), fresh from rehab; amidst the job they are planning, a job that they unexpectedly have been asked to do, by one of their associates, no one in the group quite trusts, Dalonte Rivers, played very convincingly by T.I., who tells them of an opportunity he learnt of while in jail, with several millions to them to obtain, if it goes smoothly.

The background to this distrust for Rivers, is five years ago he was caught and the time he has just spent in prison was as a direct result of the joint job he had with them, Rhaway assures him his takings from that job are in a savings account, and still good for collection, which Crozier and the others reckon, this is the only reason why he did not give them up.

We also get to see a little bit of the problems faced by the police force as they deal with some of the criminals, Welles as he tries to make time for his daughter, and deal with the case at hand, while Hatcher tries to explain to Welles his priorities are a little squinted.

Romantic interest for Jake is provided by the gorgeousJoe Saldana (forever in our minds as Neferti from Avatar) playing Lilly, this proves a little contested issue, as she was Dalonte's love interest before he went to prison, and has his sights on taking her back. There is a scene where Jake and Dalonte have a little confrontation in front of Lilly as Dalonte tries to reassert that she still has feelings for him in front of Lilly.

The acting in Takers is top notch and you will be on the edge of your seat to find out how it all onfolds.

Movie Reviews - The Expendables

2010-09-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the all action drama The Expendables.

The Expendables is billed as the greatest action stars ever assembled in one movie, and you can see why. Fans have been pinching themselves from the expendables movie trailers alone, with Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Rambo), Dolph Lundgren (Universal Soldier), Jet Li (Hero), Arnold Schwarzeneggar (Terminator), Bruce Willis (Die Hard), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Jason Statham (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) not to mention Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) and Randy Couture (Red Belt), a MMF (Mixed Martial Arts) superstar in his own right, this is a feast for action fans of the last 20 years.

The movie begins with a group of Americans being held hostage and it is up to our heroes to put an end to it, the inevitable shoot out goes in favour of our heroes, except that Gunner Jensen played by Dolph Lundgren is a little too eager to hang one of the pirates, Ying Yang played by Jet Li attempts to stop him, but it takes Barney Ross played by Stallone to place a gun to his head to make him stop. This sets the stage for Jensen being the loose canon of the group.

The main plot of the movie is that a rogue CIA operative James Munroe played by Eric Robers, is distributing drugs via Bolivia into the U.S. after getting a certain General Garza played by David Zayas (Dexter) to do his bidding. One of the CIA heads Mr. Church played by Bruce Willis has hired Ross to get rid of him, albeit off the books, he also sent the same mission to Trench played by Arnold Schwarzeneggar, and the two superstars play on their well known off-screen feud, as Trench walks away after declining the mission Church asks Ross what his problem his, to which Ross replies sarcastically "He wants to be president". Ross agrees with his band of men to take the mission, and he must now convince his men to also accept the mission regardless of the danger.

Ross and Lee Christmas played by Jason Statham go on an initial exploration to Bolivia, pretending to be wild life naturalists, they meet their contact Sandra played by the gorgeous Giselle Itié, who happens to be the general's daughter, and inevitably the soldiers arrive for an encounter (Stallone mentioned he was injured during this fight scene and you can see why), as always the action scenes are brutal, and fans of Jason Statham's movies won't be disappointed.

Ross and Christmas escape via the plane they brought in, but Sandra is taken hostage, and Munroe intends to find out from her who were these men that killed most of his men, and why she has gone against him. Despite the fact that she is the general's daughter the signs are looking ominous for her, unless Ross and his gang are willing to return to Bolivia, rescue her and put and end to Munroe's drugs campaign.

The Expendables as all action movies go is a treat for the fans, not so much for the plot mainly because of the assembly of casts many wouldn't think their demands or egos would allow them to share the screen with their contemporaries. Much of the melancholy of their lifestyle is envisaged by the stalwart Mickey Rourke who plays Tool, a tattoo artist and former member of Ross's gang, who has a lifetime of regret for some of the things he had to do. Already there is talk of a sequel, with Stallone asking fans what they would like to see in it.

Movie Reviews is constantly updated with great reviews of good movies that are a must see.

Movie Reviews - Bass Ackwards

2010-07-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Movie reviews this week looks at the charming road trip movie Bass Ackwards.
It stars Linas Philips as Linas ( you realise a movie might be a tad biographical if the lead actor has his real first name), it also stars John and Gema Philips, Linas's real life parents as themselves.

We meet Linas as he videos a wedding, speaking and video the people at the wedding, alternated with flash backs of when Linas was a kid, and his affectionate and adorable family.

Linas is currently staying at a friend's place, but inevitably his friend and girlfriend would like some privacy, so Linas moves out, and starts working at a Alpaca Llama farm, run by a wonderful Alpaca farmer played by Bill Green, who has a classic 1976 converted Volkswagen mini, Linas falls in love with the moment he sees it; that is a source of constant amusement throughout the movie, especially when Linas tries to get people to pass by him as it is way too slow.

He decides to go on a road trip, to New York and visit his parents, using the classic mini, and asks his on-off girl friend Georgia played by the gorgeous Davie-Blue if she would like to come along. It turns out Georgia is not quite sure if she wants to continue a relationship with Linas. There is an amusing scene, where Linas phones up Georgia and asks her to come over, whilst she is at home with her current boyfriend, she makes an excuse and meets up with Linas, unbeknownst to her, her current boyfriend follows her, he sees her coming out of Linas's flat, and when she leaves, attacks Linas without a word being said.

Linas seems to be a very friendly individual, and even offers space on his car for someone to sleep in, Jim played by Jim Fletcher, who just happens to knock on his window whilst he is asleep and asks if he can come in (it would be pretty rare for anyone to do this), and throughout the movie Linas exemplifies himself as someone willing to help anyone regardless of his own circumstance, as an example, a young boy steals a toy in a shop and runs off, but the shop keeper spots him, and he is about to call the police in front of his alarmed mother, when Linas steps in and says he was just about to pay for it, he duly pays for it, and saves the boy and his mother a lot of trouble.

Linas and Jim continue their road trip together, with Jim going to New York in order to spend time with his daughter, as it is his turn for his daughter to stay with him, as is the agreement with him and his ex-wife. At first you wonder if Linas has made a terrible mistake, giving a lift to someone who seems anxious at best, and says he has hardly had any sleep in the last few days; if this is heading towards a disaster Linas is going to regret.

Bass Ackwards is a charming movie, and once the end credits are shown you realise it was a family endeavour.

Movie reviews is filled with great reviews of feel good movies like these.

Movie Reviews - Wonderful World

2010-06-23T02:10:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the romantic drama Wonderful World. This is a unique look at the often repeated love tale. It stars Matthew Broderick (Godzilla), as Ben Singer, a Proofreader at a big firm, who is a little disillusioned at how his life is turning out so far.

He used to be a children's entertainment singer, who released an album, that is now forgotten folklore, but now he is a Copywriter, which has left him a little empty, he is also divorced, and in his regular meetings with his daughter, Sandra played by the lovely Jodelle Ferland (The Messengers) for their regular get together, you realise he is out of touch with her too.

There is some escape and companionship for Ben, in the form of his mesmerising flatmate from Senegal, Ibu, played by Michael Kenneth Williams (The Philanthropist), through their regular fights at chess (which Ibu always win), we find out that Ibu is much more interested in helping Ben find romance, even offering to be his wing man.

Matters come to a dramatic turn of events, when Ibu, who is diabetic, collapses, while Ben tries desperately to get him to the hospital, only to find that his car has been towed, it turns out an angry neighbour had Ben's car towed away as he felt it blocked his access to the road.

Although they arrive at the hospital, Ibu slips into a diabetic coma, Ben is asked if Ibu has any next of kin, Ben recalls he often talks about his sister, Khadi played by the gorgeous Sanaa Lathan (Alien Vs. Predator, with an equally impressive African accent), so Ben sends her a message that her brother is not well. She comes to America, and she is just as charming and full of sincerity as Ibu. Ben inevitably falls for her, there is a comical scene where Khadi does a custom to contact her ancestors to help Ibu get better, after doing some of the rituals, Khadi suggests they close their eyes, Ben assumes she wants a kiss, only to be fended off that the ritual is not complete, and they must leave the room.

Wonderful World is a love story with a modern day audience in mind, with its theme appreciating the diversity of humanity.

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Movie Reviews - The Hurt Locker

2010-06-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the Oscar-winning, hard-hitting Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker.

It stars Jeremy Renner (28 weeks later) as Sergeant First Class William James, an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) bomb disposal expert, who has been sent into Bravo Company, at Camp Victory. We join the movie as Staff Sergeant Matt Thompson played by Guy Pearce (Memento) along with Sergeant JT Sanborn played by Anthony Mackie (Half Nelson), and Specialist Owen Eldrigde played by Brian Geraghty (Bobby), are attempting to disarm an IED, that has been put there to kill and maim as many civilian and military personnel as possible, Thompson is the bomb expert while the other two soldiers are to watch for any problems, i.e. anyone interfering and to keep the people relatively safe.

Unfortunately things do not go as planned, and James soon joins Bravo Company. However his innovative or carefree (as his fellow soldiers regard it) methods at bomb disarming don't go too well with Sanborn and Elridge, there is a memorable scene where Elridge tells one of his commanding officers, after he asks how he is doing, he says that his team leader is inspired, and mentions sarcastically that his team leader is going to get him killed, the commanding officer, mentions that he shouldn't be having these kinds of thoughts, that war is a one in a lifetime opportunity, as Elridge looks distantly, the audience cannot help wondering at the indirect sarcasm in that statement, as Elridge tells asks him if he knows what it is he and the other men do every day, his commanding officer states that he has had his time on the field, to which Elridge sarcastically asks "Where was that...Yale"?

Matters come to a heated exchange when James attempting to disarm a bomb, that is extremely complicated, removes his bomb suit, so as to get comfortable, as he puts it "If I am going to die today I might as well die comfy", even going as far as to throw away his radio as Sanborn constantly tells him that there are "too many eyes" watching them and they have to move.

We get a little glimpse at the difficult problems facing the military in Iraq, attempting to liaison with the local population (there is a charming boy who sells DVDs that has made friends with some of the soldiers; nicknamed Becks; who James gets friendly with over a game of soccer, and the ice is broken over his namesake, Beckham, but the boy states he is much better than Beckham), often meeting language barriers, and at the same time not trying to seem dictatorial, but requiring them to keep at a safe distance while they try and do their job.

The acting in the Hurt Locker is top-notch all the way, and the movie is shot almost documentary style, with close-ups of the soldiers and the mass of emotions they go through during many tense moments. You can see why this is the first movie to have a woman, Kathryn Bigelow winning the Best Director Oscar.

Movie Reviews is constantly updated with good reviews of great movies that are a must see.

Movie Reviews - Black and Blue

2010-04-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the beautiful drama Black and Blue.

It tells the story of Amber, a teen having troubles at home with her mother, a meth addict, and her mother's boyfriend a violent drunk. We meet Amber at a music class, where she seem oblivious to the class, amidst the troubles she is having at home.

Soon afterwards she finds her mother unconscious from taking meth, and while her mother is recuperating in hospital, she is sent to stay with one of her relatives, but not before her teacher says goodbye to her with the gift of a lovely 1930's classic guitar. It turns out the life her relative leads is no different from the life Amber was having with her mother, and in the middle of the night she takes her sole belonging, the 1930's guitar and runs away.

Living on the streets Amber faces some of the dangers prevalent for anyone just made homeless, from the homeless people adamant she doesn't take any of their sleeping spaces, to the dangers often faced by single teens on the streets, fortunately for her she is protected from a terrible attack from some homeless vagrants, by a couple of street musicians she saw early on in the day, one of them notices her guitar and asks her if she can play, she says she can't and walks away. As fate would have it she soon befriends the street singers that helped her and their lead singer, namely Ryan played by Dennis Denicola, Teresa the lead singer of the group, played by another beautiful singer Carolina Hoyos, and Marco, played by Daniel Galo, Teresa notices the guitar she is carrying and asks her to play, she mentions she doesn't really know how to play it, but Teresa insists that this is the condition if she wants to hang around with them; she must play, and as if on cue, she plays a beautiful melody and sings too, to the amazement of all, and no doubt the audience too. Amber is played by the gorgeous and very talented Christine Evans (she has one of those dreamy voices, that is reminiscent of Alanis Morisette).

Amber befriends a local blues singer Billy, played magnificently by Zach Harmon, who she first meets wanting to sell the 1930's classic guitar to him to raise some money, Billy asks why on earth anybody would want to sell such a beautiful instrument, he fixes the loose strings on the guitar and plays a lovely song, and soon afterwards Amber asks him to teach her, which he is only too happy to do, it turns out Amber is looking for that father figure she has missed all her life, and Billy sees her as someone who needs guidance, which he is very happy to give.

Black and Blue is a beautiful tale of hope when all seems lost, both for Amber and her newly found companions. The songs and guitar melodies in Black and Blue are what makes this movie enchanting, and Christine Evans is a very talented singer and guitarist.

Movie Reviews is constantly updated with good reviews of great movies that are a must see.

Movie Reviews - War Eagle Arkansas

2010-04-15T04:43:00.000-07:00

Movie reviews this week looks at the biographical drama War Eagle Arkansas.

This is a fairly recent biographical tale made for the big screen, that tells the story of two boys living in a rural community, War Eagle, Arkansas. The title might elude to it being a war story but it is far from it.

It is a story of a charming disabled boy known affectionately as "Wheels" played brilliantly by Dan McCabe (The Cake Eaters), and his best friend Enoch who has a speech impediment (played impressively well by Luke Grimes [Ryan in Brothers and Sisters]). Enoch lives with his grandfather better known as "Pop", played by the stalwart Brian Dennehy (Gladiator).

Pop is trying to get Enoch a baseball scholarship into one of the best sporting universities around their area, and it soon becomes obvious to the audience that Pop seems to have regretted giving up his dreams of being a major baseball star and staying in War Eagle, and he doesn't want that for Enoch, but you are not quite sure if Enoch dreams are to leave War Eagle.

The friendship of the two boys is so close, that at the first few scenes you automatically assume that they are siblings, spending as much time in each other's company as possible, and Enoch even gets to say the last word to Wheels, after his mother Jessie played by the ever brilliant Mary Kay Place (Adalene Grant in Big Love) gets him ready for bed.

Pop is in charge of the local baseball team, and in his attempt to get Enoch a baseball scholarship, pushes him as best as he can, as he sees it there is nothing in this town, to keep him there. Apart from baseball, there is an allusion to watching wrestling on TV, and one can't miss the obvious focus on Jerry "The King" Lawler, and can see the symbolism he represents as someone who made it out of war Eagle, Arkansas. There is the usual romantic interest as Enoch has the hots for a lovely girl, Abby played by the surprisingly young looking Misti Traya, and there are a few embarrassing moments for Enoch as he summons the courage to ask Abby out, but of course his speech impediment gets in the way, unless Wheels is by his side to speak for him, and in one painful scene, where Enoch tries to do it alone without Wheels, he leaves in a rush, as the words cannot come out and a few of Abby's friends can't help but giggle at his attempt. When he does eventually ask her out, the audience will feel the loneliness and pain Wheels feels, on a life he aspires for but is not realistic of seeing come true.

War Eagle Arkansas, is an endearing movie of two boys, and their friendship as they decide what path their lives are going to take, and they seek advice from the sole preacher at this close knit community, Jack played by James McDaniel (Lt. Arthur Fancy in NYPD Blue).

Movie Reviews is constantly updated with good reviews of great movies that are a must see.

Movie Reviews - The Slammin' Salmon

2010-04-11T02:14:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the comedy The Slammin' Salmon.
The Slammin' Salmon is one of the most craziest comedy movies you will see all year, absolutely hilarious from beginning to end.

It stars Michael Duncan Clarke (The Big Mile) as Cleon "Slammin'" Salmon also known as "The Champ", a retired former heavy weight boxing champion, who has opened a restaurant The Slamming Salmond, where customers are waited on by a very competitive crew of waiters.

The fun begins when Cleon tells the restaurant's manager Rich Ferrente played by Kevin Heffernan (Beerfest), that he owes 20,000 dollars to a Yakuza friend, and Rich must make 20,000 dollars tonight from the restaurant's takings or he will be in for a rollicking.

Rich in his panic conveys to the staff that there will be a prize for the waiter that generates the most cash that night, and competition begins amongst the waiters, Nuts played by the hilarious Jay Chandrasekhar (Beerfest, The Dukes of Hazzard), who normally takes his medication or else he turns into his alter-ego Zongo (and you just know somehow he is going to forget to take his medication), there is an absolute classic scene, where Nuts/Zongo is trying to serve a salmon to one of the customers, but in his mind all the customers at that particular table are cats, he thinks he is lovingly holding the salmon while the cats all feed on it, while he asks "what does it taste like"? But in reality he is forcefully shoving the salmond down the throat of an unfortunate customer.

One of the waiters Connor played by Steve Lemme (Beerfest), used to be the main lead on a TV show CFI Hot Lanta (an obvious parody of CSI: Las Vegas and its spin offs), but he lost his job, and embarrassingly has to go back to waiting tables at The Slamming Salmond, but ofcourse his colleagues especially Guy played by Erik Stolhanske (Beerfest), can't wait for tidbits on others stars in the show, such as Morgan Fairchild who makes a guest appearance as herself.

Mia played by the gorgeous April Bowlby (Two and a half men), is in ballerina school, and aims to win the prize as the waiter able to bring in the most cash, but she is about to get involved in an accident that might ruin her chances entirely. The chef Dave played by Paul Soter (Beerfest), has got his socially awkward twin brother Donnie (also played by Paul Soter) a job as a waiter, and he is also thrust into the competition, but is soon corrupted by Connor, who equally has eyes on the prize, as well as Tara, played by the gorgeous Cobie Smulders (The L Word), a medical student, who along with trying to fight for the prize, has to prevent Nuts from turning into Zongo, by making sure he takes his medication.

The Slammin' Salmond has superb acting, with all the cast in the movie having excellent comedy timing especially Michael Duncan Clarke as the ominous boss, and the movie has great cameos, notably from Sendhil Ramamurty (Dr. Suresh in Heroes) as Marlon Spencer who has brought his girlfriend Samara Dubois played by the gorgeous Oliva Munn; to propose to her, but is about to get into a spot of bother with the engagement ring.

Movie Reviews - Uncertainty

2010-04-09T00:37:00.000-07:00

Movie reviews this week looks at the thriller Uncertainty.

It stars the gorgeous Lynn Collins (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as Kate and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun) as Bobby, two young couple, going about their normal day who decide on the toss of a coin whether to spend 4th of July at the home of one of their parents or together, the movie follows them as they spend it together, when they happen to find a mobile phone at the back of a taxi, against suggestions from Kate to hand the phone over to the driver of the taxi, Bobby refuses, and tries to be the good Samaritan, by calling random numbers on the phone, telling them he happens to have found the phone at the back of a taxi giving his name and personal mobile number, as well as his address, to contact him so he can return the phone.

Soon afterwards someone calls saying they will arrange to pick up the phone from Bobby's location, and that they will be identified in a red shirt, while Bobby says they can identify him as he is wearing a yellow shirt.

It turns out that some shady characters are dead set on getting the phone, and much to Kate, and Bobby's horror, the fellow who came in the red shirt is shot in broad day light, while someone else phones Bobby on the same phone telling them his name is Dmitri claiming that the phone is his and he wants it back.

The young couple flee for their lives, as the assassin scans around looking for who the man in the red shirt came to meet. The first instinct of the couple is to rush over to the nearest police station and report what has happened, and to mention that it has something to do with the phone they found at the back of a taxi. Whilst at the police station they begin searching on the Internet with the names the know in connection with the phone so far, and happen to come upon some information that the phone might contain some financial figures to do with the lottery, and it could be worth several millions in the right hands.

The couple begin to wonder what on earth is so vitally important on the phone that someone is prepared to kill for it, and they decide to send a text message to Dmitri (switching on the phone for a short time as they are worried they may be some kind of trace on it) with an anonymous email account to email them on (so they can check it publicly), where they ask for $500,000 to give back the phone.

At first the man calling himself Dmitri, refuses stating this is his phone, and threatening them, Bobby calmly tells Kate he will pay, while Kate says it doesn't look as if he is prepared to pay, however the last email sent from Dmitri says he will pay, and the young couple set about trying to find a safe location for them to meet.

What sets this movie apart is that it follows two different alternate scenarios, which the viewer sees simultaneously, instead of Kate and Bobby happening to find the phone at the back of a taxi, they alternate scenario is that they visit Kate's parents home to celebrate the 4th of July, where Kate's mother Sylvia played by Assumpta Serna (Henry the VIII) is trying to talk some sense into Kate's sister Sophie played by the gorgeous Olivia Thirlby (Juno), and Bobby tries to impress Kate's mother, father and very close knit family, amidst some interesting news the couple haven't yet found the strength to let Kate's parents know about.

Uncertainty is a very interesting movie of cat and mouse, with superb and energetic performances from the brilliant cast.
Movie Reviews is constantly updated with great reviews of good movies that are a must see.

Movie Reviews - The Blind Side

2010-03-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the Oscar winning biographical drama The Blind Side.
It is an absolutely charming story, of Leigh Anne Tuohy played by the lovely Sandra Bullock (Speed), and the story of her adopted son, and you can see immediately why she won the best actress Oscar.

She plays a conservative mother in a very nice and well-off neighbourhood, who sees Michael Oher played very convincingly by Quinton Aaron, one rainy night walking aimlessly, she asks her husband Sean played by Tim McGraw (Four Christmases), to stop the car, she asks him where he is heading seeing he is just in a t-shirt in the pouring rain, he says he is going to the gym, she asks him again why he is going to the gym, and tells him the gym closed a while back, and for him not to lie to her, he says he is simply going there because it is warm.

Prior to this, we are told the story of how Mike got into the school in the first place. The coach at this Christian school, Burt Cotton played charmingly as always by Ray McKinnon (Randy and the Mob) had been approached by a fellow to allow his son into the school, as well as Mike, the coach sees Mike and the man's son playing basketball and sees the potential of Mike making them famous on a sporting arena, so convinces the board that it is their Christian duty to let him in. However in class Mike seems distant minded, and all the teachers are worried as he seems the slowest in the class, except for one particular teacher Mrs. Bower played the lovely Kim Dickens (Hollow Man) who notices Mike remembers the majority of what the teachers are saying, as he is able to describe in his own words the grasp of what it is they are saying, but may not necessarily write it down as eloquently as they wanted. As all the teachers are discussing Mike's ability one day, wondering if he can write, Mrs. Bower shows them a note that Mike had written that had been thrown in the trash, speaking of his sadness and what the teachers expect of him, to do all the work alone.

Leigh asks where he lives, his parents, or grandparents, Mike shakes his head nonchalantly, and Leigh amazingly takes him to her home, with a mild confrontation with her husband as to how long Mike is going to stay, he asks "This is just for the one night"? Where Leigh nods absentmindedly, but the expression on her face is already thinking of much longer term.

Mike gets along with Leigh's two children, her son S.J. played very impressively by Jae Head, and her daughter Collins played by the adorable Lily Collins, Leigh asks her how she would feel if Mike moved in with them permanently, she nonchalantly agrees, and when Mike is asked how he would feel moving having Leigh and Sean as his legal guardians, he smiles and thought he was already part of the family.

The Blind Side turns out is a very beautiful movie, of acceptance and love that a young man needs, and the struggle one woman faces with social services, her social circles, and the community in trying to make one boy's life better, and what makes this movie even more amazing is this is a true story.

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Movie Reviews - An Education

2010-03-07T04:12:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the charming biographical drama An Education.
It stars the lovely Carey Mulligan (Bleak House) as Jenny, a very bright sixth former, on her way to studying English at Oxford, currently studying her A levels during 1961.
She is pushed by her well meaning father Jack, played with a great deal of melancholy by Alfred Molina (Dr. Octavius in Spider-man 2), and her supportive mother Marjorie, played by Cara Seymour (Hotel Rwanda), you can tell immediately from his demeanor that this is a little biographical if not the entire movie, there is a scene that gives an idea of how far things have changed where Jenny's boyfriend drives up to a black family waiting on the pavement playfully picks up one of the kids and takes them into an apartment, on returning Jenny asks how he knows those "Negroes"?.

As Jenny goes home one day after a cello lesson, a mysterious stranger David played by Peter Saarsgard (Jarhead), offers her a lift, well in fact he offers her cello a lift, saying he is worried such a lovely instrument would be damaged in the rain, and he wouldn't want her to jump in the car with a complete stranger, so she can walk while he drives. As a flirtatious teenager surprised at the attention she agrees, and after a short while walking and talking she enters the car and is dropped promptly at her front door.

He is charming enough, and soon he starts to stop outside of her school, and the inevitable romance commences, at first viewers may be a little perturbed why an older man would want to date a young school girl, but after sometime you do realise David does genuinely care for her. Surprisingly seeing he so well cultured, Jenny's father agrees to the liaison, then of course it is 1961, and he sees his daughter's options are either excelling academically and going to Oxford, or meeting a very wealthy and cultured individual, and being looked after, as he puts it "He wouldn't want you if you were thick".

David somehow manages to convince Jack to allow him to take his daughter on weekend trips, along with his friend Danny played by Dominic Cooper (The History Boys), and his girlfriend Helen played the gorgeous Rosamund Pike (Surrogates, there is a sarcastic scene where all four of them are in Oxford, and Danny mentions the dread of having to suffer for three years here, where Helen agrees, when in actuality Rosamund Pike did go to Oxford), and even to Paris.

Jenny after sometime sees the rigmarole of going to school and studying hard only to find a boring job and be in it for the rest of her life, as too depressing and she confronts her headmistress played by Emma Thompson (I am Legend), after it is found that she is dating an older man; that could interfere with her education. She states during this confrontation that her stance of leading a studious and boring life to get into Oxford only to enter into a studious and boring job for the rest of her life has to be justified, for future students who may have the same questions.

An Education is a brilliant and well made movie, and you can see immediately why it has Oscar nominations protruding throughout, especially for it's main character Jenny played by Carey Mulligan.
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Movie Reviews - Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

2010-02-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the enjoyable teen fantasy Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. Regardless of the strange title of this movie, it follows in the vein of Twilight, as a few teen fantasy movies have tried to emulate since the massive success of Twilight and it's sequel New Moon.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant stars Chris Massoglia as Darren Shan, a well meaning, high achieving teenager, pleasing his parents, and doing well at school, however his best friend Steve played by Josh Hutcherson (Robin William's son in RV) is regarded as bad company for Darren notably by his parents, and he is given an ultimatum after getting in trouble on account of Steve, to never see him again. As with any typical teenager feeling the need to rebel (there is a funny sequence where his father tells him, what is expected of him, college, job, family, repeatedly in that order, until Darren sees himself repeating those words to his own child).

While the two friends are hanging out, a mysterious limo drives by and out of it comes a flyer for a circus show, entitled Cirque Du Freak, hence the title of the movie, Steve as typical as the antagonist in a movie challenges Darren to come with him and attend it. It turns out Steve has a fascination for vampires, while Darren on the other hand has a fascination for spiders. On attending the Cirque Du Freak show, where a parade of circus freaks are shown for the audience's amusement, notably a woman who can regenerate limbs, Corma Limbs played by Jane Krakowski (absolutely hilarious in 30 Rock), and Evra the snake boy, played amusingly by Patrick Fugit, as well as a monkey girl, Rebecca played by the adorable Jessica Carlson, there is a lovely scene where Darren asks her what her "freakishness" is, and she states bluntly she is a monkey girl, pauses for effect and states she has a tail, and stares at him for any hint at ridicule.

While watching one of the performances of a certain Larten Crepsley played charmingly by John C. Reilley (Step Brothers), Steve recognises him from one of his vampire books, and assures Darren he is a vampire, interestingly Larten overhears the two boys and gives them a warning not to spread mindless gossip. Darren on the other hand is fascinated by Larten's spider, and after the show, breaks into his room and steals it; but not before finding Steve pleading with Larten to make him a vampire whilst hidden in the same room. Larten and his friend Gavner Purl played by Willem Dafoe (Spiderman) refuses, and after Larten tests his blood, he quickly spits it out and says Steve has bad blood. It turns out that there are two types of vampires, that have chosen different paths, the Vampaneze who prefer feeding and killing humans, and the others who do not, but prefer to hypnotize them, then feed on them.

Darren takes Larten's spider, and the next day at school, while Steve assumes he is talking to his locker, Steve opens Darren's bag and reveals the spider, which eventually bites Steve. With Steve facing imminent death, Darren goes back to the Cirque Du Freak and asks Larten if he has an antidote for the spider's bite.

A mysterious character called Mr Tiny played by Michael Cerveris (he has one of those faces that seem strangely familiar but not quite sure where), who has the power to bring people back to life, has been looking forward for a conflict between the Vampaneze and the others for sometime, and he sees it in the destiny of the two boys, he would like Darren to join the Vampaneze, but Larten on finding about this, realises that there might be more to the boy than meets the eye, he tests his blood, and agrees to make him a half-vampire, i.e. being able to go out in the sun, and do his errands for him, however Larten's girlfriend Madame Truska played by Salma Hayek (From Dusk Till Dawn [for a second recalling From Dusk Till Dawn one would expect her to be one of the vampires, but here she is a member of the Cirque Du Freak as a fortune-telling bearded lady]), urges Larten not to turn Darren into a vampire, after having a premonition. Darren initially reluctant finally agrees to this in order to save his friend's life. Larten then tells him he can no longer stay with his family and so he must die (or at least give the impression he is dead).

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant is an enjoyable fantasy movie with numerous characters that should be developed even more in a sequel or two, and even though the name might emit tales of horror it is a more a teen romantic fantasy than anything else.

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Movie Reviews - Veronica Decides to Die

2010-02-18T05:40:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the romantic drama Veronica Decides to Die. This is a very well made movie, starring the lovely Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as a young woman Veronica Deklava, in an excellent job, with a great family behind her, who simply decides she wants to commit suicide, she is tired of the route her life is going towards, and is expecting to continue in her job until she meets a man, they get married, later on he has an affair, they have an argument, she forgives him, it happens again, but this time she is too tired to bother to confront him about it - this is how she sees how her life will pan out.

She types a suicide letter for her parents, and takes an overdose of several pills, fortunately for her she doesn't die, but as expected is taken to a psychiatric treatment centre, paid for by her parents, which is headed by Dr. Blake played by David Thewlis (The Big Lebowski, he looks surprisingly similar to David Wenham, Dillios in 300).

When she awakes, Veronika is disappointed her attempt to commit suicide did not succeed, and is dreading having to see her parents and having to explain to them the possible motives behind this suicide attempt; or indeed to deal with the world at large (she works at a bank that is well known in her local community, and an investigative journalist finds out she made a suicide attempt and tracks her down to the treatment centre in order to make a scoop), when she still has the same feelings towards her existence.

Matters are further complicated when she is told the dosage of pills she has taken has caused her to have a heart attack, that resulted in an aneurysm that is getting bigger, and even though her suicide attempt failed, she doesn't have long to live, and there is no way of treating it.

Veronika begins to contemplate on what she would like to do seeing she has a very short time left, at first she is nonchalant on the idea of doing anything while she waits to die, until she meets a fellow psychiatric patient Edward played by Jonathan Tucker (The Black Donnellys), who Blake has been trying for some time to get him to communicate with the people around him (he simply does not talk, and seems to live in a dream world existence, watching nature, insects, and just spending time alone), Blake would consider this his crowning achievement if he can break through Edward's problem.

It turns out that Blake finds out Veronica used to play the piano when she was a child, and strategically places a piano in a place where she cannot miss it. One day she walks past it, possibly feeling bored, she at first tries out the keys of the piano with some random taps, then plays a lovely classical tune, which enchants Edward (who was listening nearby), she notices him watching her playing the piano, and the attraction builds (still with Edward not speaking a word).

As Veronica begins to fall for Edward, it then begins to dawn on her the enormity of what she is going to miss.

Veronica Decides to Die is a very interesting drama, and this movie has solid acting throughout.

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Movie Reviews - As Good As Dead

2010-02-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the dark drama As Good As Dead. This is a very surreal movie starring Cary Elwes (Liar Liar) and the much loved Andie Macdowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) as Ethan Belfrage and Helen Kalahan respectively, it also stars the stalwart Brian Cox (X-Men 2) as Reverend Kalahan.

We join the movie as Reverend Kalahan preaches to his congregation, at first glance it seems just like a normal church service, with the preacher speaking to his congregation about becoming shepherds, but as the camera pans across the audience and the surroundings in the church, you notice Swastikas, and Nazi symbols, not to mention some of the congregation could easily be taken for Neo-Nazis. As Kalahan continues to preach, it pans to his wife, who is looking on admirably, as Kalahan speaks; a member of the congregation gets up, as if the words of Kalahan had triggered something in him, we find out later that he went off and killed several immigrants in a bus, in an unprovoked rampage before shooting himself.

We move forward several years, to Ethan who is entertaining his lovely daughter Sarah played by the adorable Emma Kantor; before being whisked away by her mother Kate, played by Nicole Ansari-Cox. Ethan is facing some problems with his landlord who is trying to evict him, so he can build a new lucrative residential property, but Ethan is determined not to move, and he is prepared for any tactic his landlord will try. Soon after the initial confrontation with his landlord he is paid a visit by two men, he assumes they are with his landlord and doesn't open the door, they come back later and trap Ethan in his flat. They proceed to torture him, while asking him to confess, he desperately tells them he doesn't know what they are talking about, all the while he assumes that his landlord had sent them to force him to relinquish his flat, but it turns out Kalahan, the preacher at the beginning had been killed, soon after the unprovoked rampage by a member of his flock, and these two men; one Jake played by Matt Dallas (The Indian) and the other Aaron (played brilliantly even down to the Southern accent) by Frank Whaley (Swimming with Sharks); are out for revenge, ordered so by Helen, who joins all of them later on.

Ethan is adamant he doesn't know what they are talking about and despite their torture he doesn't deviate from his story, the audience will no doubt feel this is a case of mistaken identity that is about to go horribly wrong, especially when Ethan's lovely next door neighbour Amy played by Jess Weixler is equally bundled in to the shenanigans, and is used as a guinea pig to get Ethan to confess to all that his torturers would like him to confess to, while frighteningly for Ethan his wife and daughter are wondering why he hasn't showed up and may just come to his flat to investigate.

As Good As Dead is a very dark movie, and many will be impressed by the acting abilities of all involved.

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Movie Reviews - A Dog Named Christmas

2010-01-30T03:29:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the wonderful festive movie a Dog named Christmas.

It stars an endearing young man with special needs, Todd played wonderfully by Noel Fisher (Final Destination 2), he has a thing for helping injured animals, and we join the movie as Todd helps a wounded mammal, while being looked upon by a certain dog, who we shall soon get to know a little bit about later on.

Todd goes home to his farm, run by his parents George and Mary Ann McCray, played by the stalwart Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek 2009), and Linda Emond (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) respectively. They run a farm, where George tends to the cows, and Mary tends to the horses, all their children except Todd have left home, but since Todd is special in more ways than one, the parents are extremely protective of Todd.

Todd happens to find out about a local dog shelter that is offering their dogs to a home till Christmas, where upon they can return the dog, Todd excitedly tells his parents about it, only for George to dismiss it, despite Todd's protests. It turns out George has some issues he hasn't quite got round to dealing with yet. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War, and he is still heart broken over losing his beloved dog; he found and took a liking too while in Vietnam. He is aware that the dog shelter run by Hailey, played by the lovely Carrie Ruscheinsky, really would like the adopters, to not just have the dog over Christmas but permanently adopt them too, he want to show Todd that the world isn't as easy going as the warm and affectionate manner the family treats him and he is used to at home (and you can tell the family is affectionate when they all get together for a Christmas meal, and delivering of presents), and he tells Mary that it is about time he starts to learn this.

Eventually after much persuading by Mary he gives in, but is adamant that Todd returns the dog on December the 26th, which he constantly reminds him of, a lesson he hopes to teach Todd about sticking to his word. Todd goes to the dog shelter and after browsing through most of the dogs, he settles on a dog that has just been brought in the previous day, as luck would have it, it turns out it was the same dog watching him while he looked after the injured mammal, Hailey tells him the dog hasn't been named yet, so Todd names him Christmas. Christmas is already trained and Todd can't wait to show the rest of his family the interesting tricks it can do. However there is the inevitable confrontation that faces Todd on having to let go of Christmas after December 25th, or can he possibly convince his immovable father otherwise?

A Dog named Christmas is a lovely family movie, that is endearing and charming at all angles, not just for dog lovers.

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Movie Reviews - The Men Who Stare At Goats

2010-01-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the drama The Men Who Stare At Goats. The title of this movie itself is intriguing as it doesn't give a clue what the movie is about.

It stars Ewan McGregor (the younger Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) as Bob Wilton, a journalist whose wife has just left him for his boss, he is feeling sorry for himself, and contemplates going to Iraq on a hunch after finding out about some psychic division of the U.S. military, he hopes to write about this that will get him recognition, and that doing this will stand him in good stead with his wife, and maybe she can see that he is doing something of major importance, so he can initiate a reconciliation with her. Whilst in Iraq he comes across Lyn Cassady played by the stalwart George Clooney (Ocean's Eleven, Up In The Air). At first glance with the stories Lyn tells Bob, the audience just as Bob, begins to wonder about the mental well being of Lyn.

Lyn constantly refers to himself as being a Jedi, while Bob dismisses it as absurd (I am sure the irony of Ewan McGregor playing a Jedi in the last three Star Wars movies is not lost on the audience). After a while you realise Lyn did indeed work for a special branch of the U.S. military called New Earth Army, led by the charismatic Bill Django played by the legendary Jeff Bridges (Star Man), Bill soon after the Vietnam war tried various aspects of the hippy lifestyle, and is recruited to lead the New Earth Army, where amongst other things the students were taught remote viewing: Being able to tell the exact location of where someone is just by thinking about them, Lyn reveals the military kept goats in an abandoned medical centre, which were used to train soldiers on how to dress a wound, he also reveals his psychic ability was tested on goats, hence the name of the movie.

The New Earth Army had Lyn as its star pupil, and one of Bill's ingenuous techniques was to get his pupils to dance, and even say a little prayer to the Earth for eating its produce, these new age techniques, were found to be a little irritating to one of the other recruits Larry Hooper played by the dependable Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects), who has plans to launch a coup to take over the New Earth Army, not to mention being a little jealous of Lyn for his impressive psychic abilities.

Whilst in Iraq there is a little bit of reality for Bob, when on a journey with Lyn, their car breaks down in the desert, and as luck would have it someone comes along to pick them up, but they are taken as hostages instead, while Lyn calmly states nothing is going to happen to them, at this point the audience will no doubt be wondering just as Bob is, if Lyn has blurred the line between reality and fantasy.

This is an intriguing movie, and you are left wondering just how much of this story does the author himself believe as true. The opening credits does state most of the story in the movie is truer than you would believe, it is an interesting point of view, and regardless of its veracity it is compelling to watch.

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Movie Reviews - Star Trek (2009)

2010-01-20T01:22:00.000-08:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the sci-fi blockbuster Star Trek.
Not a lot of information had been released about this movie except that it tells the story when Spock and Captain James T. Kirk first meet.

At first many assumed this movie laid the background story for the Star Trek series, but after a while you realise this is not quite straight forward, as with the Star Trek universe, with worm holes, black holes, and time travel, anything is possible.

We join the movie when the U.S.S (United Star Ship) Kelvin is attacked by a ruthless Romulan, Captain Nero (at first his features look distinctly like that of Eric Bana [Troy] even with the heavy makeup and surprise surprise, it is him), he demands the captain of the U.S.S Kelvin comes aboard, the Captain Robau played by Faran Tahir (24, the patient with the inoperable brain tumor in Grey's Anatomy) duly complies in the hope of saving his crew, seeing that whatever weapon Nero has on this Romulan ship is more advanced than anything he has seen before.

When his shuttle arrives, he is asked if he knows Ambassador Spock (with a 3D holographic image of Leonard Nimoy circling), he says he is unfamiliar with that name, despite his protests he doesn't stop Nero from his attack.

We next see our young protagonist on an amazing joy ride with a vintage car he has stolen, while being chased by a cop, the cop eventually catches up with him and when asked his name, he states boldly "My name is James Tiberius Kirk".

Several years later the young Kirk is now a young man played by Chris Pine (Smoking Aces) but still a rebel, he comes into a bar containing many Starfleet cadets, and hits on one lovely cadet, Uhura played by the gorgeous Zoe Saldana, a fight ensues, until Captain Pike played by Bruce Greenwood (National Treasure: Book of secrets) puts a stop to it, he encourages Kirk to join Starfleet based on his impressive academic scores, you are not sure if Kirk is in the frame of mind to take his advice, but inevitably he does.

While at Starfleet he makes friends with Dr. McCoy aka Bones played by Karl Urban (The Chronicles of Riddick, with an uncanny mannerism with the original Dr. McCoy played by DeForest Kelly), and Kirk eventually meets a young Spock played by the very talented Zachary Quinto (much better known as Sylar, and who strangely looks eerily like a young Leonard Nimoy), after Kirk breaks Spock's simulated test which no one had even beaten; a Starship being attacked by a number Klingons' birds of prey and the Captain must decide on a course of action when facing certain death, Spock cites Kirk in front of the Starfleet command for cheating, and that the purpose of the test Kirk passed was to accept death and learn fear, however Kirk is adamant that he did not cheat but since he saved the crew he states he duly passed the test. This first altercation sets the scene for the relationship between Kirk and Spock for the rest of the movie, while the ruthless Romulan Nero seeks revenge on a young Spock.

Star Trek is a superb science fiction action movie, and fans of the series will be impressed by the depth of character portrayed in the cast re-enacting characteristics of the beloved original series, from Hikaru Sulu played by John Cho (Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay), and a very impressive Anton Yelchin (Terminator: Salvation) who plays Chekov complete with his Russian accent, the well loved Scotty is played by Simon Pegg (How to make friends and alienate people, Shaun of the dead) with an equally impressive Scottish accent, not to forget that the legendary Leonard Nimoy himself is also in this movie.

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Movie - Terminator Salvation

2010-01-13T07:28:00.000-08:00

This the fourth installment of this well loved science fiction drama.
We join the movie finding Marcus Wright played by Sam Worthington (Hart's war) about to be put to death in a Federal penitentiary, but not before he signs his body over to Cybernet (the precursor to Skynet) headed by Dr. Serena Kogan played by Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club).

We next see him in the year 2013 where he wakes up as if from a long dream, and happens to come across Kyle Reese played by Anton Yelchin (Star Trek), who lets him know that there is serious danger about in the form of various types of machines, terminators, special machine bikes, as well as harvesters, taking humans to some kind of prison, and even underwater machines. This is where we also meet John Connor with the war with the machines well underway. He is already a highly ranked commander in "The Resistance", and the pockets of humanity listening to his broadcasts are already slowing turning their allegiance to him, especially when one of the generals of the Resistance General Ashdown played by the veteran Michael Ironside (Total Recall) has found a new weapon that could turn the war for humanity; by disabling a machine by some kind of electromagnetic pulse however he is bent on winning the war regardless of the human cost. He has given use of the weapon to John Connor and a test outing seems to show that the weapon works.

Unfortunately Kyle Reese is captured along with his quiet associate Star played pretty well by the adorable Jadagrace, and they are placed in a harvester headed to one of Skynet's headquarters, but Marcus escapes. He runs into a female Resistance fighter, Blair Williams who eventually takes him to John Connor, but not before he saves her from some savages, there is a lovely scene where she says she is cold and would like to lie down next to him, she lays her head on his chest and says she hasn't heard a heartbeat in a while, and says his heartbeat is strong really strong, however something very strange is revealed that makes for edge of the seat excitement. Marcus tells John that Kyle Reese has been captured and is headed to Skynet's headquarters, knowing what John already knows of the future, he is adamant to save Kyle regardless of the commands of his superiors which is going to lead to the inevitable confrontation that could divide the entire Resistance.

It stars Christian Bale (Batman Begins) as our eponymous hero, and the gorgeous Moon Bloodgood (that name alone just sounds like she belongs in science fiction [it wouldn't be out of place in one of the Twilight saga], however the name isn't American Indian but Dutch and Korean) as Blair Williams, her character is very similar to that of Jessie Flores played by Stephanie Jacobsen in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

We also get to see a terminator that looks frightening just like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the audience may do a double take if it is really him. Schwarzenegger's trademark phrase is repeated by none other than John Connor in a scene that is nostalgic for the fans.

The movie is as exciting as the previous sequels, with some great scenes and hopefully more sequels are in the pipeline.

Movie - Four Christmases

2010-01-11T03:39:00.000-08:00

This is a lovely holiday season movie, starring the lovely Resse Witherspoon (playing a far different character these days than the affectionate and effervescing young lady in Legally Blonde) as Kate and the hyperactive Vince Vaughn (The Wedding Crashers) as Brad, a couple who would rather spend Christmas vacationing in Fiji than with their families, in fact they make it a ritual during the holidays to go on vacation but to lie to their families that they are involved in a worthy cause (usually charity) that can justify their exclusion during any holiday event.

Over the years their lies about inoculating babies in Burma, or doing some other charity work has always helped them avoid their families for Christmas, but on this particular time as they are waiting at the airport, it turns out all flights have been cancelled because of a bad fog, and a TV crew happens to be interviewing passengers on how they feel about their flights being cancelled during the holiday period, they so happen to come upon Brad and Kate, much to their embarrassment as their phones soon afterwards start ringing; with their respected families saying they have seen them on TV.

Brad and Kate now see they have no choice but to visit all four of their families (Brad's mum and dad played by the stalwart Robert Duvall [The GodFather] as Howard and Sissy Spacek [JFK] as Paula, since they are divorced) and Kate's families (her mum and dad, played by the dependable Jon Voight [Midnight Cowboy] as Creighton and Mary Steenburgen [In The Electric Mist] as Marilyn, who are equally divorced) hence the name Four Christmases.

The first visit is to the home of Brad's father, it turns out his brothers Denver and Dallas played by Jon Favreau (The Break-Up) and Tim McGraw, are UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) type cage fighters (except there are not professional but only upload their fights on youtube), and no sooner are they re-acquainted does Brad finds himself in some bone crunching wrestling moves, it turns out this is the norm, and that Brad's real name is Orlando, which Kate didn't know, she takes him to one side to ask why he didn't feel comfortable with her after three years of a relationship, to reveal this bit about himself, he says he changed his name because he didn't like it, and didn't see a problem. It also turns out that there is a $10 limit to the presents that should be bought for the children, however Brad was unaware of this and bought an Xbox for one of his nephews, while the other nephew has to make do with a torch light, much to the father's embarrassment.

The visit to Kate's family also reveals some of her fears, that for some time the kids around the neighbourhood avoided her because they thought she had cooties, calling her "Cootie Kate", and her passive aggressive older sister Courtney played by the endearing Kristin Chenoweth (RV) reveals these embarrassing secrets.

The visits amongst Brad's and Kate's respective families shows that the couple are not as close to each other as they thought, especially during a game where the partner has to guess what card the other half is holding, without giving out the name, and this prompts Kate especially to reconsider if they are true and comfortable with each other to spend the rest of their lives together.

It is a warm festive movie, the whole family will enjoy.

Movie - Brothers

2010-01-09T03:03:00.000-08:00

This is a very powerful war related drama detailing some of the emotional turmoil that are not touched on when dealing with war, starring Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) and Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) as Tommy and Capt. Sam Cahill respectively, two brothers with Sam a respected member of the army and about to be deployed to Afghanistan, while Tommy is the brother frequently involved with clashes with the law.

We join the movie as Sam leaves for Afghanistan, but not before collecting his brother Tommy from his most recent stint in prison. It turns out Sam is the pride and joy of their father Hank (played by the veteran Sam Shepard [Stealth]) unlike Tommy, who their father regards as a constant disappointment. The relationship between Tommy and their father is elaborated during a birthday meal at Sam's place, prepared by his wife Grace, played by the gorgeous Natalie Portman (still the wonderful actress that first graced our screens in Leon), Tommy tells Grace that the meal is very good, to which his father says "Compared to what...jail"?

Soon after being deployed to Afghanistan, Sam's helicopter is shot down, and the dreaded news is brought to Grace. That same night, Tommy true to form so far, comes to the house drunk, having brought back the keys of Sam's car, as Sam told him to use it whenever he wanted before he left for Afghanistan, only to be told the sad news.

The news of Sam's death brings a change to Tommy, and he tries to make up the gap of a father figure Sam's daughters Maggie and Isabelle, played by Taylor Geare and the wonderfully talented Bailee Madison (Phoebe in Wonderland), when Tommy first came to the house before Sam was deployed to Afghanistan, Isabelle opens the door and tells him that their mother doesn't like him (which she can overhear, and gently scolds her not to say such things, but to be fair Tommy takes it in his stride), but after a while the two girls cannot get enough of their uncle, as he does all the things they like, ice skating, snowball fights, much to the delight of Grace, and it becomes apparent that there is an attraction between Tommy and Grace, but the morality of taking such a relationship further seeing Sam has just been lost in Afghanistan is a stumbling block that neither Grace nor Tommy may be willing to confront, but this is one of the interesting parts of the movie.

For whatever reason Tommy does enjoy coming to pay Grace a visit (and his father does seem to have taken a change towards him, seeing his most treasured son is lost), and uses the opportunity to fix the kitchen, and play with his nieces, but the audience wonders if some spark may happen between the two.

The stellar cast bring out the conflicting emotions well on screen, from the torn brother, and lonely wife, the movie is exciting on how the various conflicting emotions all pans out, as well as the subject matter that is hardly given any preferential treatment when dealing with the war genre.

Up In The Air - Movie

2010-01-07T04:57:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting drama starring the stalwart George Clooney (Ocean's eleven) as Ryan Bingham, whose job is to fire individuals from organisations who have designated Ryan and his company to do this on their behalf. As Ryan gets to travel all over the world he has accumulated a lot of air miles to the point that he gets special reservations, and an assortment of cards entitling him to various incentives due to his air miles accumulation.

Ryan tries to be as sympathetic but yet firm as he tells employees that they have been let go, but his boss Craig Gregory played by Jason Bateman (The Break-up) has brought in Natalie Keener played by the lovely Anna Kendrick (Twilight) a recent Cornell graduate with an interesting software that could mean that staff no longer have to be given the personal touch when they let people know that they have been fired. Ryan is not happy that his personal touch is being replaced by software, but his boss Craig convinces him to take Natalie with him on his visits, to show her the ropes so to speak.

Ryan is also aiming to accumulate enough air miles to get a much sought after gold card, that would mean he had accumulated ten million miles, and will have his name on an airplane wing for his loyalty. While at a bar he comes across Alex Goran played by the lovely Vera Farmiga (Running Scared), who is equally fascinated with loyalty cards. They spend the night, and agree to keep in touch when next they need each other.

Ryan has been away in chasing his dream, that he has neglected his family, where his youngest sister Julie played by the lovely Melanie Lynskey (Coyote Ugly) is getting married, her elder sister Kara played by Amy Morton asks Ryan to take pictures at famous destinations he visits, with a cardboard cut-out of Julie and her groom to be Jim Miller, played by Danny McBride (Tropic Thunder, absolutely hilarious in Pineapple Express), it turns out due to the economic crisis, the couple have suspended any plans for a honeymoon and instead have asked various friends and family who are travelling to take pictures of idyllic destinations with their cardboard cut-out.

During their rounds Ryan's boss Craig, encourages Ryan to let Natalie fire a few people to see how she gets on, and Craig is so impressed by her performance he gives the go ahead for the software to go live, much to Ryan's disapproval.

Ryan sees Natalie as someone who has a lot of growing up to do, while she on the other hand wonders why he is not married, has no children and has no intention of settling down, Ryan calmly explains that this is the life he has chosen and he is OK with it. His philosophy so far will soon come into conflict with his personal desires, as he believes all relationships, belongings, including homes, cars, accessories are all baggage that should be put in a rucksack and discarded, as they weigh an individual down, in fact he gives motivational speeches based on this theory, but during their trip, and visiting his sister who is about to be married he begins some reflections on how his life has panned out, and begins to open up to the possibility that he is lonely, and would like to find someone to spend that loneliness with.

It is an interesting romantic drama, and at the end you realise the early documentary style footage were from genuine reactions from people who had been fired.

Amreeka - Movie

2010-01-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

This is a fascinating drama, shot in a documentary style with excellent performances from the largely unknown cast.

It stars Nisreen Faour as Muna Farah, a single mother living in the Palestinian Territories, working in a bank, and recently divorced from her husband, we meet her as she goes shopping for groceries. She sees a well dressed woman, and she immediately hides from her, we find out later that the well dressed woman is the new woman in the life of her husband, and hence the reason for the furtiveness.

We get to see and commiserate with her life, as she deals with the hours of road checks, to get to and from work, as well as pick up her son Fadi played by Melkar Muallem (he reminds me of Lou Ferrigno of the Incredible Hulk) from his private school, as well as looking after her mother.

Muna's life is about to change, she receives a letter because a visa application to the U.S. when she was still with her husband has been approved, and although Muna is reluctant to go, leaving her elderly mother with her brother, on showing the letter to her son, he encourages her, and she sees this as a new lease of life especially for him, to get away from the hardship of life in the Palestinian Territories.

We get a glimpse of the problems faced by many Palestinians at customs in airports all over the world, because when she arrives, she is asked which country she is a citizen of, she replies that she has no citizenship, the clerk asks her which country she is from, she says she has no country, which the clerk seems amazed, and asks if she is a Palestinian or an Israeli, she says she is from the Palestinian Territories. Prior to this there is a slightly humorous scene when he asks her occupation, and although she speaks English, as well as French and Arabic, she says "Yes we are occupied".

On arriving she is met by her sister Raghda Halaby (played by Hiam Abbass) and her husband Nabeel who has a medical practice, played by Yussuf Abu-Warda.
Unfortunately customs had seized several belongings including a cookie box, which had her entire savings in it, so she arrives with nothing but the two hundred dollars Fadi's uncle gave him as a going away present.

She enrols Fadi at a local high school, and goes about looking for a job, but is soon downcast, as even with a degree she is unable to find suitable work. Fadi on the other hand is having to deal with the usual taunts that he is a suicide bomber from his classmates, while his cousin Salma played by the lovely Alia Shawkat tries her best to get him to fit in.

The movie is set soon after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the audience will feel for the plight of Muna and her sister's family, with undeserved animosity being shown towards them in many areas of their life for simply being Arabs.

It is a lovely movie with superb performances from the stellar cast, that at the end resounds hope.

Movie Reviews - Humble Pie

2009-12-26T04:53:00.000-08:00

This is a very entertaining comedy drama, focusing on Tracy Orbison played by Hubbel Palmer, a very talented poet working at a Walmart type store, but feeling very low on confidence because of his weight.

His weight has brought some friction between him and his mother Agnes, played by Kathleen Quinlan (Scofield's mother in Prison Break). His sister Peggy played by the lovely Mary Lynn Rajskub (24), tries to keep the peace between them, while Tracy just takes whatever his mother says as deserved punishment.

As Tracy day dreams with his poetry, he comes upon a chance meeting to visit a theatre show, where Truman Hope played by William Baldwin (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), plays the lead, Tracy is so mesmerised by Truman's performance, when he finds out that Truman is undertaking an acting class locally, he is eager to sign up, and hopeful for a meeting at the end with Truman.

At work Tracy is promoted to assistant manager by his well meaning boss Mr. Grigoratus, played amicably by Bruce McGil (Time Cop). We get a feeling of the relationship between the two, in the beginning when Mr. Grigoratus tries to set Tracy on a double date with him and his wife, he notes down on a piece of paper to ask his wife if she has any "fat friends". Tracy is also in charge of looking after the new recruit Kendis Coley, played by Vincent Calo (The Guild), Kendis asks Tracy to help him out by pretending to be his father in order to meet the Principal at his school, as he is in trouble, he says the Principal has never met his father and he is from Laos, at first Tracy refuses, but sees that this would be an impressive stunt to pull for his acting credentials, and that it would also get him the friends he craves, so he agrees to do the favour by pretending to be Kendis's father in order to get the Principal at his school to go easy on him. After the stunt, Tracy is so impressed that he stays in character a little longer, equally Kendis's friends are impressed that Tracy was willing to do this for Kendis and pulled it off, and soon become friends with him. Tracy sees this as a window to blossom his acting, and a door into the minds and hearts of the misguided youths, however the leader of the teenage gang Shawn played by Nick Lashaway (The 40 Year Old Virgin), has some ominous plans for Tracy, he indicates this by having Tracy go into the local store and get them some alcohol, when he comes out with the alcohol the teenagers all take it and disperse from him, while Tracy naively asks "I thought this was for your parents"?

It turns out that there is a painful lesson on life for Tracy to learn, and although he is well meaning at most times, he finds out that people are not to be trusted not even Truman, who he idolises at first but finds out he is being used, when he gets tickets to a play for himself and Truman, but on the day Truman turns up with another student from the acting class, and asks Tracy to relinquish his ticket to her. He eventually finds out Truman also has eyes on his sister, much to his despair. The movie also delves into his weight problem, and the possible issues that might have contributed to it, especially from his mother's side.

It is a very well acted drama, and viewers will be impressed by how the issues are tackled.

Movie Reviews The Messenger

2009-12-22T23:59:00.000-08:00

This is a very well made war related drama, following two soldiers who notify relatives of their loved ones who have died in combat.

It stars the stalwart Woody Harrelson (No country for old men, Zombieland) as Captain Tony Stone, who has hand selected Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery, played by the brilliant Ben Foster (Pandorum, Birds of America, Angel in X-men: The Last Stand) to join him on his rounds.

Will has just come back from a deployment in Iraq, where he had three months left for his tour, but he and his platoon were caught up in an IED (Improvised Explosion Device) that has left him with a limp, and constantly needing eye drops for his left eye. We meet Will as he is called in to see his commanding officer, where he is told he is to be assigned to Tony (who is in the room, and a veteran of Operation Desert Storm). His commanding officer says for the job of notifying relatives of the passing of their loved ones, they need someone who is absolutely calm, and they believe he fits the bill, although Will resists that he has no counsellor training, he eventually agrees.

Tony discusses the job and responsibilities of the role, he stipulates there is to be no touching of the relatives, not even a hug, no mincing of their words, use either "dead" or "died", not "gone missing", he tells a story of a woman who was told her son "was no longer with us" and she spent a considerable amount of time thinking that he had defected to the other side. He is given a manual of the rules, and a beeper, that he should respond to at any hour of the day or night.

It turns out apart from his injuries Will had another heavy issue on his heart, that of his girlfriend Kelly played by the lovely Lena Malone (Donnie Darko), who he let go, and is soon to be married to someone else, although they do have some kind of a strange relationship, it turns out as Will puts it he let her go so she wouldn't get any visits from the likes of Tony.

The two soldiers who are at disputes over the interpretation of the rules, and their duties, soon become close, and reveal to each other some of their deepest pain, Tony in his battle with alcoholism, and Will with the pain of his ex.

In amongst this they constantly face up to a barrage of abuse from relatives who have just been told of the terrible news of the passing of their loved ones, and each time you wonder and hope it doesn't escalate into something ominous for the two soldiers, as there is no one else for the relatives to take out their rage, anger and frustration at that precise moment after learning of the death of a loved one than the two soldiers who are unfortunate enough to have brought them the news.

On one occasion, a wife Olivia Pitterson played by the gorgeous Samantha Morton (Minority Report, The Libertine), who had been told of the bad news, does not display the typical reactions Will and Tony have come to expect, she even thanks them for telling her the news, and mentions it must be difficult for them, Will goes back to find out if there is anything she needs, or maybe to determine why she displayed hardly any emotion, and it soon becomes obvious he is falling for her.

It is a very emotionally charged tale, and puts in focus the very difficult job of passing on the terrible news to relatives of members of the army, who have been lost in combat; in a scrutinizing and raw light.

Movie Reviews for Wyvern

2009-12-07T01:18:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting sci-fi drama, about a monster devouring the inhabitants of a small town in Alaska with barely 300 people in it.

It turns out due to man's use of fossil fuels the polar ice caps are melting, which imprisoned mythical creatures from Norse legend The Wyvern, that apparently were created to feast on the dead, but were unsatiated that they moved from the dead to the living, then to all they could find even biting Odin the ruler of Valhalla, hence he banished them to be imprisoned in the polar ice caps for all eternity.

We start off when an unlucky camper enjoying a nice day of fishing cuts his finger on his hook, and walking over to the stream to examine it, his blood drops into the river and moments later the Wyvern, with what looks like the head of a dinosaur, the tail of a snake (a very powerful tail for that matter) and a body with two legs and two wings, makes the hapless man a quick meal.

We then meet some of the people in this idyllic town, Claire played by the lovely Erin Karpluk (Being Erica), who runs the local restaurant everyone congregates to, the local doctor, Dr. David Yates played by David Lewis (White Chicks) who is in love with her, while she only has eyes for Joe Suttner played by Nick Chinlund (Ultraviolet), a drifter who is waiting for an insurance payout for his truck, and holding a very sore heart over the loss of his brother in the same incident. He offers to fix the steps of Claire's restaurant for free, while she offers him breakfast on the house, he politely refuses but she insists that this is the least she can do, we get an idea of how close and friendly everyone is by the fact that some of the customers (if not all of them) don't have to pay for any meals.

Soon afterwards Dr. Yates visits Joe in his caravan, to fix his arm, but really to ask him to lay off Claire as he reckons Joe will be leaving the town as soon as his insurance payout comes through, while Claire and himself will still be in the town, Joe assures the doctor he is not interested in Claire, the doctor apologises and leaves Joe's caravan, but unfortunately he is attacked by the Wyvern, and only his arm is left for the Sheriff, Chief Dawson played by John Shaw (Happy Gilmore) and Joe to discover.

The whole town now faces a desperate race against time to get outside help, relying on General Travis Sherman played by the late Don S. Davis (Stargate SG-1), who previously had tried to get an emergency message to be aired from the town radio station after spotting the creature, but his request was denied by the town's Disc Jockey Hampton played by the lovely Tinsel Korey (The Twilight Saga: New Moon).

When the whole town eventually finds out that there is a monster on the loose, they all face the challenge of contacting help from the outside, and the even more daunting task of what to say to get anyone to believe them.

It is a lovely action thriller very similar in character to Tremors.

Moview Reviews The Ministers

2009-12-06T13:39:00.000-08:00

This is a very well made crime drama starring John Leguizamo as two characters Dante Mendoza and his twin brother Perfecto.

It starts off with a seemingly ordinary day where a cop Alberto Santana played by Benny Nieves and his partner Joe Bruno played by the stalwart Harvey Keitel (Pulp Fiction), have come to wish Alberto's daughter Celeste a happy birthday, as Alberto , his wife Gina played by Diane Venora (The 13th Warrior) and Celeste are walking arm in arm towards Celeste's present, a gunman from nowhere turns up and shoots Alberto point blank, then hands Celeste a pamphlet that reads "A Message from the Lord".

We meet Celeste several years later who is now a police officer and played by the gorgeous Florencia Lozano (One Life to Live, she looks very much like Matt Parkman's wife in Heroes), and whose partner is none other than her father's partner Joe. She is still very bitter at not having caught the murderer of her father, who also at the same time period that her father was killed, killed two businessmen that had committed insurance fraud, where a fire is set to dilapidated buildings in order to collect the insurance money.

In turns out that a similar murder has just taken place with the trademark of "The Ministers" where two armed men wearing a hairy face mask, enter a drug fueled neighbourhood and proceed to shoot all the men they encounter, but leave the women as witnesses, with one of them quoting scripture to her as his partner kills the others.

Celeste is extremely keen on taking the case, much to the despair of her boss, Captain Diaz played by Wanda De Jesus (Blood Work), as well as Joe. Joe on the other hand feels a little guilty for the death of his partner after so many years, and the last thing he would like is for Celeste to put herself in danger, when he has ingrained himself into their family, and considers her his daughter.

Matters come to an interesting twist when one of the twin brothers responsible for killing her father Dante, takes a liking to her and proceeds to charm his way into her life, first by offering to fix her car which has broken down, if she will go out on a date with him, he asks her if she has a jack, she says no, then he says that would mean extra, as in dinner instead of a date, he then asks her if she has a spare tyre, she says no, and he says that could mean dancing and maybe more.

The other twin Perfecto who has the upper hand amongst the two, is still intent on revenge for the harm that has been done to him, while Dante would like to put the past to rest, seeing he is falling for Celeste, but as things go, it is clear things will never be this straight forward.

John Leguizamo is impressive in both roles, playing the more level headed of the twins Dante charmingly, as well as the psychotic and jealous twin Perfecto in equal measure. The suspense will keep the audience at the edge of their seat, on how it all pans out.

Movie reviews Funny Money

2009-12-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

This is a very enjoyable comedy starring the legendary Chevy Chase (Caddyshack II) as Henry Perkins, an accountant who is a little tired of his current financial state.

He happens to come across a briefcase containing five million dollars (after mistaking the briefcase for his own in a train) he realises that the briefcase is not his, and contains this large amount of money while at a pub, and rushes to the toilet to verify the amount. Thinking he deserves some good fortune he takes the case home to his wife Carol, played by the lovely Penelope Ann Miller (Kindergarten Cop), he suspects the case belongs to a criminal organisation who he surmises would have his briefcase with all his details, and suggests to his wife that they go on vacation, permanently. Seeing that it is Friday, Henry reckons the criminal organisation will not be on to him until Monday at least, giving him and his wife enough time to run away to Barcelona.

Unfortunately the case belongs to a member of an European mafia gang, and the unlucky fellow who mistakenly took Henry's case, on bringing it to his leader is shot and dumped in the local river (along with Henry's case but not before the leader of the gang takes his business card with his phone number). As expected the gang are very keen on getting the case back.

Matters get complicated when a plain clothes policeman Genero played by Armand Assante (Gotti) notices Henry at the pub rush into the toilet, and he assumes he goes in there to solicit men, so he follows Henry home to extract some money from him. Henry seeing the policeman assumes this is about the case and pretends he is Henry's brother from Australia, with his neighbours (who have come for lunch) Vic played by Christopher McDonald (Requiem for A Dream) and his wife Virginia played by the lovely Rebecca Wisocky having to play along as Henry's relatives.

Matters get complicated further when another policeman Denis Slater played by the always funny Kevin Sussman (Hitch) comes to the house to ask Carol to come along with him to identify the body of someone who is assumed is her husband, (since he had his briefcase when he was fished from the river), however everyone simply dismisses his request even asking him to make tea, much to his frustration. Henry is forced again to adapt and somehow convince his wife, Genero and the taxi driver, Angel played by Guy Torry (America History X) he has hired to drive him and his wife to the airport; to play along in order not to land him in trouble with the law, all the while the malevolent Mr Big is closing in on Henry's home.

There is a hilarious segment when the leader of the gang, Mr Big played by Zoltan Butuc (Sex Traffic) eventually gets hold of someone when he phones Henry's number (since he took his briefcase with all his details in it, and rightly guessed the other person had theirs), and tries to blurt out "briefcase" when he calls him, much to the amusement of Carol as his accent, believable as it is, adds a very amusing twist to the pronunciation.

It is a genuinely great comedy with superb comedy timing all through, many people will enjoy.

Movie Reviews for The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

2009-12-04T02:29:00.000-08:00

This is a very strange crime drama, starring Nicholas Cage (Next) as Detective Terence McDonagh, investigating the murder of a Senegalese family during Hurricane Katrina.

We meet Terence and his side kick Stevie Pruit played by Val Kilmer (Tombstone) in a prison where a convict is pleading with them to help him get out of the flooding jail he is trapped in, from their ridicule of the plight of the convict, we realise Terence and Stevie are not exactly upright holders of the law. Terence going against his behaviour so far, and facing ruin of his expensive undergarments jumps into the filthy water in what we assume is to save the drowning convict, the scene cuts to Terence at the doctor's where he is told he must be on medication from now on, for injuring his back, Terence asks if he will be on medication for ever, the doctor's facial expressions gives the game away, even though he says there are great advances being made in dealing with such conditions, you realise Terence will have to be on medication for the rest of his life for his bad back; and indeed throughout the rest of the movie he walks with an obvious painful haunch.

It turns out Terence is not only hooked on the prescription medication he is taking for his bad back, but also hooked on a lot more harder drugs, which he gets from anywhere he can, first by stopping party goers and going through their belongings to find any narcotics, and from his girlfriend who is also a prostitute Frankie Donnenfeld, played by Eva Mendes (Hitch).

Despite his indiscretions, Terence doesn't stop being a policeman, and he seems to make amends for his obvious imperfections, by following through with whatever task he has been laden with as an upholder of the law, in this case to find and bring to book the murderer of the Senegalese family.

To aide him bring the main suspect Big Fate (played by Xzibit) to book, he has found a witness Daryl, played by Denzel Whitaker (Forrest Whitaker's son, and Carter in Brothers and Sisters), who he has to protect until the case goes to trial. Unfortunately things are not so straight forward. Frankie has been ripped off by a customer until Terence using his power and reputation as a police officer to get the customer to pay Frankie. It turns out the customer is connected to the mob and they are set to extract the amount he paid as well as "interest", or else Frankie and Terence would be in a heap of trouble.

Added to this, things are not going so well for Frankie, as his behaviour has landed him into being scrutinized by Internal Affairs, which is not helped with his drug addiction.

It is a strange tale of crime and addiction from the point of view of one whose job is to uphold the law, and the question of our protagonist being able to redeem himself seeing he is as criminal as the criminals he chases, is what holds the suspense together.

Movie reviews for The Least of These

2009-12-04T02:13:00.000-08:00

This is a very well acted, drama with Isaiah Washington (Dr. Preston Burke in Grey's Anatomy) as a catholic priest Father Andre James, who has come to a new school with some hidden secrets.

It turns out his predecessor has gone missing without any explanation for quite some time, hence the principal of the school Father William Jennings played by the gravely voiced Robert Loggia (Funny Money) has asked his old friend, Father Andre James to step in and fulfil the previous priest's duties. Father James on the other hand has to impress the priests already there, notably Father Thomas Peters played by the stalwart Bob Gunton (Warden Norden in the Shawshank Redemption), and Father Alfred McKavee played by John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox in Star Trek: Enterprise).

There are the usual antics going on in an all male boarding school, or indeed any school for that matter, bullying, disrespect for their teachers, and looking at indecent magazines. Father James has to run the gauntlet of impressing not just the boys in the school but also his fellow clergymen, and in the midst of this tries to reach out to help one particular boy Parker Remy, played by Jordan Garrett who is a little cut-off from the rest of the boys, and is on medication. Father James would like to know the issues behind this , and would like to help the boy in any way he can. There is a lovely scene where the new priest tries to gain come camaraderie with Parker and the boys in general, he sits at Parker's table during lunch, and asks if the food is any good, Parker replies that it is not, Father James then says food this bad is only good for one thing, and soon afterwards a food fight erupts, with Father James in the midst of it, much to his embarrassment when the other priests walk in on the scene.

There is also a scene that elaborates the problems the boys are going through, with Father James joining in a basketball match where Jason Boyd (played by Andrew Lawrence), the local bully is leading the team, in their jostle for the ball Father James is knocked down, whereupon Jason says they are all fighting to get into the same schools, and to get the same grades, and if anyone is in their way, they get pushed aside.

Isaiah Washington's performance is mesmerising, and he goes deep into the character, blending effortlessly with the prayer rituals, and trying to help the boys at the school, and at the same time trying to defend his actions in front of his superiors and fellow priests.

There is a particularly poignant scene where Father James stays in the room of Parker after Parker asks him to; on account of being scared, on leaving the room the next morning, he is spotted by Father Peters, and brought in front of the Principal, where he is made aware that such actions could be deemed reckless if the press ever got hold of it, and its implied connotations could easily ruin a lifetime's work.

This is one of the first movie of its kind that deals with the difficult and painful subjects of abuse from the point of view of the priests, it is handled respectfully all through.

Movie reviews Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs

2009-12-01T03:53:00.000-08:00

This is lovely animation that is every child's fantasy.

It follows an inventor Flint Lockwood played by Bill Hader (Knocked Up), who has been inventing items no one really wanted, and couldn't find a useful purpose for, such as shoes without shoelaces; that unfortunately he is unable to remove, as well as flying rats, a thought translator for a monkey called Steve; played by Neil Patrick Harris (Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay),which has become his pet and his right-hand man for his projects, as well as a television that walks.

What adds to the hilarity is that all through the movie parts of his inventions make little cameos, the flying rats are never too far away, as well as the walking television.

Flint lives in a small town called Swallow "underneath the A of the Atlantic" that is known for its sardines, its sardines are found everywhere for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the town mayor Shelbourne played by Bruce Campbell (Spider-Man 3) is trying to boost tourism by having a Swallow Sardines theme park complete with the original promoter of Swallow Sardines "Baby Brent" played by Andy Samberg, who has now grown but is still riding on his reputation.

Flint tries to invent a machine that makes food by simply adding water, but his dad Jim played by James Caan (Las Vegas) is tired of his many inventions that have so far served no meaningful purpose, and would like him to give it up to start working with him at the local family shop that sells Swallow Sardines.

Flint agrees to work with his father, but does not concede defeat. At the opening ceremony of Swallow Sardines theme park, he puts the finishing touches to his invention but manages to destroy the theme park in the process, much to the anger of the local policeman Earl Devereaux played by Mr T. (for some strange reason he seems to move around in acrobatics), but as luck would have it, his invention is blown away into the clouds, soon afterwards it starts to rain hamburgers. Everyone is fascinated as to how this came about, especially a news reporter Sam Sparks played by Anna Faris (F.A.Q about time travel) who has just started her new job, and meets Flint. Flint realising his invention works, tells Sam that it was his plan all along (to impress her).

Soon the magic of the movie takes shape with Flint being able to order anything from his base where his device in the clouds causes it to rain said product, be it eggs and ham, bread, toast, any food that can be thought of, is rained down.

The mayor realising the potential of a town that rains food (and getting overly accustomed to it) invites everyone in the world to Swallow, where they can have any food they want, simply rained down from above, he realises this will boost the town's tourism and put Swallow on the map.

Flint's dad on the other hand sees something very wrong with a device that just brings food from the sky, and tells him it doesn't feel natural, unlike his sardine business which has to be manually compressed into a tin, but Flint is caught up in the acceptance of his invention and the super hero status he has now cultivated after years of ridicule, so dismisses any worries with the device.

It has come classic scenes, especially where Flint is trying to get his dad to operate his computer. It is a unique and lovely movie the whole family will enjoy, especially the image of all kinds of food raining down from the sky.

Movie reviews The Butcher

2009-12-01T02:29:00.000-08:00

This is a fascinating crime drama, starring the dependable Eric Roberts (Final Analysis , big brother of Julia Roberts) as Merle Hench, an enforcer for a mob headed by regular on-screen baddie, Robert Davi (License to Kill) playing Murdoch, with an impressive Irish accent.

We meet Merle as he deals with some street punks that have stepped into his territory, however on his return to a meeting with Murdoch and all his henchmen he is reprimanded for not dealing with the punks more forcefully, much to his embarrassment in front of everybody.

Murdoch suggests to Merle about retiring, and using some of the money he has saved up for some kind of pension plan, and to let the "young bloods" take the risks. Merle politely declines the offer, and heads back to his routine, of gambling with a local money lender Larry Cobb played by Keith David (Crash), and flirting with a waitress Jackie played by the gorgeous Irina Bjorklund (even more impressive she is Finnish, with no trace of a dialect), at a bar he frequents who Merle affectionately calls "Dollface". He asks her unexpectedly if she would be willing to leave her life and go on the road with him, she tells him to be careful how he phrases it, because one day she just might.

It just so happens such an opportunity presents itself, Merle gets set up by one of Murdoch's henchmen to rob an establishment that holds money belonging to the Mafia, with Doyle played by Paul Dillon (the Lao speaking manager in one of the episodes of C.S.I.) as their caretaker, as the place is robbed Merle manages to shoot down some of Murdoch's henchmen, this puts him in good favour with Doyle who believes his story that he has been set up. During the ensuring robbery Merle comes upon a bag with several thousands of dollars in it, he takes the cash and makes a proposal to Jackie to run away with him, she says it wouldn't be the most silliest thing she has ever done, but if she didn't she would regret it for the rest of her life, and so she comes along with him.

Jackie suggests to Merle to explain to Doyle that Murdoch was behind his framing, and if he can get Doyle to chase Murdoch for the remainder of the cash that was stolen they would both be able to get away without looking behind their backs. Unfortunately things are not so clear cut, as Doyle had surveillance video footage all around the area when the robbery occurred, and Merle was seen taking a stray bag, which Doyle would like back.

The couple's desperate attempt to flee when they are being pursued by Murdoch and his henchmen, as well as the various interests of the Mafia is what keeps the suspense going, if they can survive to start again, as well as Merle getting over "The Butcher" nickname he has come to hate so much.

As action crime dramas go, this is a very decent movie, we even get to sympathise with our protagonist, although he is in a criminal organisation he simply wants to turn a new leaf.

Movie Reviews Sherman's Way

2009-11-29T05:05:00.000-08:00

This is a well made comedy drama for a journey of self discovery, focusing on a law student Sherman Black played by Michael Shulman who discovers a little about himself and life from a road trip with a two-time Olympian, Palmer played by James LeGros (Ally McBeal).

We meet Sherman with his girlfriend Marcy played by the lovely Lacey Chabert (she has grown quite a lot since the amazing child actress in Party of Five). Marcy has issues with Sherman for not taking charge and making his own decisions, it turns out every aspect of his life is being controlled by his powerful mother Evelyn, played by Donna Murphy (she still looks as ageless as she did with Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Insurrection), she controls which law firm he chooses to do his internship, and is against him spending the summer with Marcy.

Sherman decides to go against the grain and prove to Marcy that he can make decisions for himself, and attempts to ignore his mother's wishes by spending the summer with Marcy, without letting her know, he intends to just turn up at her door step, in the process he happens to bump into another fellow who helps him with his luggage, on both of them reaching Marcy's front door, he is a little surprised to see Marcy kissing the guy, she eventually notices him and while he walks away in a rage, she follows him, but instead of apologising she says "this is what it seems" and tells him she is just trying to explore the different options life has in store for her.

In his anger Sherman decides to go back to the law internship his mother had arranged for him, and hails a driver to give him a lift, and Palmer arrives, fresh from an unfortunate performance at a car dealership, which he left with a classic vehicle nicknamed "The Rooster", it turns out Palmer is estranged from his son, and would like to give him "The Rooster" as a graduation present, except his son graduated three years ago. After a short stop at a dinner, Sherman unfortunately finds out he has lost his wallet getting into Palmer's car, and has no option but to phone his mother for financial assistance, however he takes this opportunity to stand his ground against her demands, and stays with Palmer to prove a point to himself that he can make his own decisions.

The two unlucky individuals find themselves paired together at the home of Palmer's friend D.J., played by Enrico Colantoni (A.I.), and although they seem to be polar opposites; with Sherman intent on keeping a schedule, while Palmer on the other hand would rather take life as it comes, they end up learning from each other. While Palmer's Rooster is being fixed Sherman does some shopping around the town for his supplies, and bumps into the lovely and odd Addy, played by Brooke Nevin (The 4400), they become friendly and Sherman asks her on a date, unfortunately he cannot drive, neither can he swim, and ends up having Palmer drive both of them around, where they end up in a lake, in a very comical scene.

It is a lovely romantic movie, many will enjoy.

Movie Reviews Randy and The Mob

2009-11-28T07:17:00.000-08:00

This is a well made comedy drama, starring Ray McKinnon in two roles as Randy Pearson, a good natured happy go lucky "big shot" who owns a number of businesses, but is currently in a financial mess, and Cecil his twin brother.

Randy happens to borrow money from a loan shark, which unbeknown to him is connected with the Mob. Soon afterwards he starts getting phone calls from a Mob guy, Franco played by Paul Ben-Victor (Tombstone) as to when and how he is going to settle his debt, Randy tries to explain that as hard as he has tried he cannot come up with the money for the debt as well as his increasing debt with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service).

After asking around and finding out that he could be in some serious trouble with the Mafia, Randy contemplates selling one of his businesses to Elmore Culpepper where Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights) does a short cameo.

Surprisingly Franco has a solution to his financial troubles, and that involves sending Tino Armani played surprisingly well by Walton Goggins (unrecognisable from his character in The Shield), to sort out his financial troubles, even so much as to pay off the IRS. On their first meeting Randy is amazed to find out that Tino has the same country dialect as he does, to which Tino responds he never judges people by the pigment in their skin or their dialect. After a while Randy is even more impressed by how seemingly good natured Tino is, and soon all in the small community are besotted by Tino. He even manages to improve the menu on one of Randy's restaurant businesses that had so many people queueing to get in when Randy arrived he automatically assumed there was an incident and that the police had been called. At this stage it should be mentioned Randy has an on-going problem with one of the local law enforcement officers Griff Postell, played by Brent Briscoe (Mulholland Drive) who seems to have it in for him at every opportunity, since Griff blames him for a "whooping" he gave him in the third grade, which many witnessed, but Griff subsequently gave Randy a "whooping" in the sixth grade, but unfortunately no one witnessed it.

As well as trying to solve his financial troubles, Randy has to cope with his wife Charlotte, played by the lovely Lisa Blount (The Accountant) newly acquired Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from dancing lessons she has been giving, which has left her a little depressed, and trying to patch the relationship with his gay twin brother and his partner Bill played by Tim DeKay (The Russell Girl). A relationship Randy has never accepted, much to the annoyance of his twin and his partner.

This is a surprisingly genial comedy drama, and it contains some classic scenes, especially where Randy is on the phone to Franco while at a rubbish tip.

Ray McKinnon is effortlessly adept between the two roles, and it is an entertaining movie many will enjoy.

Movie Reviews The Indian

2009-11-27T02:02:00.000-08:00

This is a very touching drama about the relationship between an estranged father and his attempts to reconcile with his son.

It stars Sal Landi (24, Ugly Betty) as Skip, and his son Danny played by Matt Dallas (Kyle XY).

We meet Skip in a limousine, having a drink, but after a few moments, we see him stay still in apparent discomfort, while two of his companions wonder what is wrong. He is next at the doctor's being told that his liver is failing after years of substance and drug abuse, and at this stage he needs a partial liver transplant from an immediate family member, the doctor asks if he has any children, Skip doesn't answer, but later on Skip looks at a faded picture of Danny, and we realise he does have a son.

We meet Danny who is being cared for by Skip's sister, Carrie played by Jane Higginson (she has incredibly fascinating eyes), since his mother died when he was two. He calls her mum, and treats her as his own mother, however Danny lacks any direction and as Carrie's friend Mona played by Angela Lanza; is constantly telling her, he needs some direction in his life from a father figure. It turns out that Danny had been to a party a few days earlier where he was thrown out as he was not invited, and was simply crashing the party, although to be fair he was minding his own business, but the host realised she didn't know who he was, and so he was subsequently thrown out. In his anger and frustration, he vandalises a nearby shop, but left a vital clue, for the police to track him down.

Prior to this Skip makes an attempt to see his sister and Danny, but his attempts were dismissed by the both of them, as being too little too late. When Danny gets arrested for the vandalism, his bail is set at $50,000. Carrie as a nurse simply cannot afford the bail, and she calls on Skip to provide the bail, as a last gasp opportunity to save Danny from jail, in exchange he gets to spend some time with him as he wants while Carrie relocates to another nursing vacancy. Danny makes a promise to Carrie as a condition of being bailed to agree to go along with whoever is in the house while Carrie relocates for her new nursing vacancy, but the relationship between Skip and Danny is no better than a the beginning of the movie when they met after a long hiatus, with Danny eager to avoid him at every opportunity and Skip desperately trying to find a way into his son's heart. He happens to see in the garage, parts of an old worn out Indian bike, and knowing that at least Danny likes bikes, he decides to to use this as a way into his son's heart by enlisting the help of a father and daughter team, to help him get the parts and fix the bike. The father and daughter team of Ted and Shelby played by Corbin Timbrook and the gorgeous Alison Haislip respectively, have their own issues, with Ted's wife having walked out on him and Shelby. She spends most of the time fixing the parts of the Indian, and inevitably takes a liking to Danny, all the while being watched by Skip.

It is a poignant tale of a father's desperate attempt to save himself which may at the same time be able to repair the fragile relationship with his son and sister.

Movie Reviews for World's Greatest Dad

2009-11-26T05:25:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting dark comedy starring the legendary Robin Williams (RV) as Lance Clayton, a school teacher at a high school his son Kyle played by Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids), also goes to.

From the onset we see the relationship between father and son is not optimum at the best of times, as Lance walks in unexpectedly on Kyle to find him in an embarrassing position with a belt around his neck, Lance panics thinking he is dead, only for Kyle to critique his father for catching him at an anxious moment. Lance is long suffering towards his son, while Kyle on the other hand is rude and obnoxious at every opportunity, case in point when caught with his trousers down he ridicules his father by calling him a homosexual, but Lance fires an equally quick retort saying that he fathered him so he is not a homosexual.

Later on we join Kyle at school, where he continues his behaviour, by making an off-hand rude remark to a girl and is summoned to Principal Anderson's office, played by Geoffrey Pierson (24), along with Lance. It seems Kyle has been getting into trouble at school for quite sometime and is given one last chance.

It becomes obvious that Kyle has no intention of changing, despite Lance trying to participate more in his son's life by trying to involve him in his day to day activities, even though Kyle typically finds a way to resist. On this particular occasion he comes along with his dad on a date with another teacher at the school, Claire played by the lovely Alexie Gilmore (something about her smile just lights up the entire room).

The date didn't go as well as Lance hoped for, because although Lance assumed everything went OK, Kyle on the other hand was busy taking pictures of Claire under the table with his mobile phone. As well as trying to win the affections of Claire from another teacher and basketball coach Mike Lane, played by Henry Simmons (Shark), we find out that Lance is also trying to get established as an author, but all attempts so far have failed, and his frustration is even more apparent as Mike's first time publication to the New York Times is published amidst congratulations from fellow teachers. Lance's frustration is about to come to an end, because something happens that opens up his literature to the world, and the much needed respect, recognition, and romance from Claire are soon at his fingertips.

At times this is sad and poignant. Some of the crude humor fits in well with the scenes, and as usual Robin Williams does a superb job capturing the lonely single parent, desperate to bring his son into line.

Movie Reviews for Pitch Black

2009-11-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

This is a fantastic science fiction movie that served as a template to launch a new action star in Vin Diesel (Saving Private Ryan, something about his voice reminds me of an engine).

He stars as Richard B. Riddick, a no-nonsense convict, who is being transported by an equally rugged bounty hunter William J. Johns played by Cole Hauser (Too Fast Too Furious). The rest of the crew headed by the captain Carolyn Fry, played by the lovely Radha Mitchell (Phone Booth), are all told to steer clear of Riddick as he is considered extremely dangerous, hence the very large bounty on his head, and are told Riddick would sooner take the ship and leave every one stranded if he could, in order to save his skin.

They crash land on an apparently desert planet, with supplies running low, and the crew of the ship made up of an Imam, Abu Al Walid played by Keith David (Crash) and his disciples searching for New Mecca. In a desperate search for water, they happen to come across what looks like trees from a distance but on closer inspection it seems it is the skull of a dead animal almost like a dinosaur. It soon becomes obvious to the rest of crew that there is life on this planet, and eerily, this particular night, an eclipse will occur which would mean the nightlife will come out in search of food, seeking out fresh victims in the crew.

The captain makes a decision that they must all work together if they are to successfully get out of this planet, and that involves freeing Riddick, while Riddick's bounty hunter William keeps a close guard, weapon at the ready in case Riddick tries anything.

Riddick seems to have gotten a fan in the midst of the crew, which could end up ominously for all involved.

In the midst of all this Riddick does have a little advantage over all the other members of the crew, his eyesight is superb in the dark, however he is extremely sensitive to light not unlike the creatures on the planet, and he has to wear some made to order goggles to protect his eyesight. Since Riddick is the only one able to navigate at night when the creatures on the planet are hunting, he is the only one best equipped to gather the equipment needed to fix the ship, so they can all fly out of this dangerous planet, but Riddick seems to only look out for himself, unless Fry can convince him to show some humanity, which is not one of his strong traits.

Movie Review for Step Up 2 The Streets

2009-11-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

This is a modern day re-telling of the age-old tale of the youth rebelling against established authority, in this case a street dancer getting into a prestigious schoo, Maryland School of the Arts (MSA) that doesn't recognise or appreciate her street dancing techniques, and at the same time competing in the much respected street dance tournament known as The Streets.

It stars the gorgeous Briana Evigan (a brilliant classically trained dancer) as Andie, a member of the notorious 410 dance crew, who is staying with her mother's best friend Sarah played by Sonja Sohn (the pregnant doctor in Brothers and Sisters), but having some problems as inevitably teenagers go through, especially since her mother is no longer around.

She is given an ultimatum to either start working hard at school and avoid trouble, or move in with her aunt. Channing Tatum (Fighting, as well as in the prequel Step Up) does a cameo as Tyler Gage, he helps her get a dance audition at the prestigious MSA which is the only way her guardian would allow her to stay if she is at such a prestigious school.

It turns out the 410 crew have been winning the Street Dancing tournaments consecutively for a few years now, and Andie has missed a few practice sessions on account of her enrolment at the prestigious MSA, which she has kept a secret to the rest of the 410 crew, apart from her close friend Felica played by Telisha Shaw.

She faces being thrown out of the 410 crew if the leader Tuck played by Black Thomas finds out that she is putting anything over the 410 crew. She regards the 410 crew as the only family she has ever known, but she also would like to succeed at the prestigious MSA, one of the star pupils Chase Collins played by Robert Hoffman, the brother of the principal Blake Collins (played stoically by another classically trained actor Will Kemp), takes a liking to Andie, and although she resists at first romance is on the cards, that puts her at odds with the 410 crew.

She finds a whole new group of exceptional dancers at the school, but are they all good enough to compete at The Streets?

The dancing is what makes this movie special, everyone is a phenomenal dancer, and the audience can just sit back and enjoy the fantastic art form of street dancing, some of the scenes are already ingrained in popular culture such as the dancing in the rain and Chase placing his hand just over Andie's chest, moving it up and down simulating a pulsating heartbeat. You can tell from the out takes at the end credits, that it was a great deal of fun making such a movie.

Movie Reviews for Christmas Town

2009-11-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

This is a charming-magical movie about the age-old topic of believing in Santa Claus and the magic of Christmas.

It stars the lovely Nicole De Boer (Cube, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as Liz McCann a Real Estate agent who doesn't believe in Christmas but sees it just as any other holiday, and would rather be working.

However she is a single mother to a young Mason played by Gig Morton who is eagerly in the festive spirit. While at work Liz gets a phone call from her father played by Gary Chalk (Stargate SG-1), inviting her and Mason to come along and pay him a visit at Hollyville and celebrate Christmas with him, she initially declines as she remembers her dad never celebrated Christmas.

It so happens that her dad phones again while they are at home, and asks her a second time, Mason happens to be around, and not wanting to dash his hopes she agrees.

On their trip they are unable to find Hollyville, until the car breaks down and Mason spots a reindeer in the woods, Liz doesn't see the reindeer and dismisses it, while she runs after Mason they both see Hollyville lighted up in the midst of all the trees.

On arriving at the town Liz is extremely surprised to find her father working at the local restaurant where everyone seems so happy, she has never seen her father so happy and friendly, and at one point she asks him "Who are you and what have you done to my dad"?

It so happens her father would like to make up for all the years he was never any good at making her happy especially during Christmas, and he would like to make this Christmas special not just for his grandson but for his daughter too.

Mason on the other hand has found some surprising discoveries, the quiet town is home to N.P. Enterprises short for North Pole Enterprises, whose business seems to be transport all over the globe.

There is also the case of a mysterious sleigh the local mechanic is fixing that is considered top secret, and characters that could easily be ascribed to those of elves. Of course Liz finds all this hard to believe, but Mason is eager to prove his mother wrong and make her a believer, while there is potential for some romance for Liz from Kevin (played by Paul Muldoon [Star Ship Troopers], his mannerisms are a lot similar to Rob Lowe), the boss of the diner her father works at.

It is a lovely magical movie the entire family will enjoy.

Movie review for 12 monkeys

2009-11-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

This is a very entertaining futuristic science fiction movie, that has one of the best trailers out there purely for its suspense.

It stars Bruce Willis (Die Hard) as James Cole who has been placed in a psychiatric ward, lead by Kathryn Railly played by the lovely Madeleine Stowe (We were soldiers), in the same ward is Jeffrey Goines played charismatically by Brad Pitt, he simply steals the show in every scene he is in.

Cole tells an unbelieving Kathryn that he is from the future where there are no animals, and a plague has wiped out most of humanity, and his mission is to prevent the first occurrence of the virus that lead to the plague.

However he is constantly taken back to the future for a progress report, which disorientates his thoughts and mindset. It turns out he is a prisoner in the future, and doing this mission will guarantee a pardon.

It seems there are problems sending him back to the correct time line to continue his mission; after being debriefed on how progress on the mission is going. When sent back, in some cases he is several years out of sync with the proposed date he is supposed to be in, with one occurrence landing him in the trenches of the First World War where he is unfortunately shot in the leg.

Of course Kathryn doesn't believe a word he says, and sees him as an advanced delusional schizophrenic, until she happens to look through an archive book of the First World War, and sees a clear picture of James in it, she also happens to have the bullet from World War One in his leg removed and analysed, and she confronts him as to how he came to have a bullet from World War One in his leg.

At this point she begins to believe him, and although James wishes for it not to be true, and that he is still a psychiatric patient (since he prefers this timeline) in a world without a plague, realises he must continue his mission of preventing the plague that has wiped out most of humanity. It becomes a desperate race against time for James and Kathryn to find who is responsible for the plague, the only clue they have to go on is a sect called the Twelve Monkeys that may or may not be responsible for setting off the first instance of the plague.

Movie reviews for Inglourious Basterds

2009-11-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

This is a very strange, often hilarious, alternate scenario of the Second World War. Focusing on the events surrounding a few individuals who aim to bring down the Third Reich, it is directed by Quentin Tarantino of Pulp Fiction notoriety, so don't be surprised if our protagonists are a little sadistic.

It stars Brad Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo Raine, who leads a team of Jewish-Americans, in occupied France launching hit and run missions, that have managed to make them all legendary with the Nazis as the Inglourious Basterds. Their antics have reached the ears of Hitler himself played by Martin Wuttke. He particularly wants to meet one hapless soldier who was let go as an example when his squad was unfortunate enough to encounter them.

We meet the main antagonist Colonel Hans Landa played superbly by Christopher Waltz (Goldeneye) as a Nazi detective nicknamed "the Jew hunter" for his ability to find stowaways.

He and his soldiers approach a farm run by Perrier LaPadite (played by Denis Menochet) and his three daughters, as typical with Quentin Tarantino films, the suspense builds up during the conversations, with a seemingly ordinary and pleasant conversation that after a short while makes the audience realise the stage is being set, and something ominous is about to happen; possibly to Perrier or his family.

During his conversation Perrier eventually gives in and reveals to Hans that there are Jews hidden under the basement, whereby he orders his men to shoot into the basement, however one of the girls hidden in the basement, Shosanna Dreyfus played by the lovely Melanie Laurent, escapes.

We meet her four years later, as she runs a cinema under an assumed name of course, where much to her frustration she is being chased romantically by a German officer Private Frederick Zoller played by Daniel Bruhl, who is instantly recognised wherever he goes for killing several hundred Allied soldiers as a sniper, the audience will no doubt feel a little sorry for the romantic soldier as since we are privy to the secrets Shohannah carries, we can understand immediately that he has a mountain to climb to stand a chance of any romance. He has gotten so much praise that Hitler's number one in command Goebbels, played by Sylvester Groth has made a film about him, starring Private Zoller as himself, and Goebbels after meeting Shosannah wants the venue for their premiere of this movie in her cinema, but not after she bumps into Colonel Hans, responsible for executing her family some four years earlier, fortunately for her he doesn't seem to recognise her, but she and the audience are in two minds if this is a ploy, as when she ran away from the farm she assumed he didn't see her face.

The Inglourious Basterds hear about the cinema event, as well as a British agent Lieutenant Archie Hicox played magnificently by Michael Fassbander (300, Hex), along with a double agent Bridget Von Hammersmark played by the gorgeous Diane Kruger (National Treasure) intend on causing a large amount of casualties during the premiere, that could possibly end the war.

The versatility of the actors in moving from German to English to French and Italian is impressive.

It is a typical Quentin Tarantino movie, lots of blood, and gore that is amusing but thoroughly enjoyable at the same time.

Movie Reviews $5 dollars a day

2009-11-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

This is a charming movie about a street smart con-man and the relationship with his son.

It stars Christopher Walken (his performance in the Deer Hunter still remains legendary) as Nat Parker, who is using the system for his benefit, trying to patch his relationship with his son Ritchie played by Alessandro Nivola (Jurassic Park III).

We meet Ritchie at his place of work and soon we find out he is let go after the manager finds out he has a criminal past, he gets home only to find out his girlfriend Maggie played by the lovely Amanda Peet (The Whole Nine Yards) is leaving him, he happens to find a letter from his father that he had previously put in the trash. We find out that the two are estranged as Ritchie went to jail, taking the fall for a scam his father pulled, where he buys an automobile, replaces the part with junk takes it back to the salesman and gets a replacement saying the car he bought was nothing but junk. It turns out that one time the institution caught on, but his son's name was what was used on the paperwork, so Ritchie spends a considerable amount of time in jail for a crime his father committed, and he is none too pleased with his father about this.

Nat would like to make it up to him, and added the incentive that he is dying of a brain tumor, so Ritchie should come up and see him in an all expenses paid trip to Mexico where there is a new age treatment, that may or may not work, but after a while you realise, Nat simply wants to spend some time with his son.

The relationship between father and son is close, and you can tell immediately whatever bad feelings Ritchie had with his father, you know he can forgive him for anything, even when Ritchie finds out, it was his father who reported him to his place of work, that he had a criminal record, so he can be fired, as an impetus to get him to pay him a visit, as Nat puts it, the job was closing Ritchie in; he was too good for it.

On their road trip, Nat is in his element, with his social awareness able to get him into parties, and get many things for free, as he puts it you can survive on 5 dollars a day, hence the title. There is a brief cameo by Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) as Dolores Jones, who is eternally grateful to Nat for helping her get her Rotary license. It turns out Dolores used to babysit for Ritchie, and Ritchie remembers her fondly as she was his first infatuation, but it seems she only has eyes for his father.

This is a very nice warm feeling of a movie, and Christopher Walken is his usual quirky self.

Movie review for The Open Road

2009-11-12T05:14:00.000-08:00

This is a very enjoyable road trip movie starring the superb Jeff Bridges (Starman) as Kyle Garrett, a baseball legend, who has chosen to live his life away from his wife Katherine played by the lovely Mary Steenburgen (Back to the future part 3) and son Carlton played by Justin Timberlake (Black snake moan).

Matters come to a head, when Katherine is diagnosed with a heart condition that needs surgery, but she will not have the surgery unless her husband comes to pay her a visit. It falls to Carlton to find his father and somehow convince him to turn up so his mother can have the surgery.

He takes along his friend Lucy, played by the lovely Kate Mara (Transsiberian), and together they find Kyle signing autographs, and being charming to all who recognise him as the legendary baseball player he was.

It turns out Carlton has been trying to follow in his father's footsteps, but things are not going so well with him at his team, his coach played by Ted Danson (Friends) does a short cameo, and tells him if he doesn't sort his mind out, someone else will take his place.

Along with trying to convince his absent father, to come along with him; so his wife, and his mother can have the live saving surgery she needs, he also has regrets over breaking off with Lucy, and inevitably Kyle notices the friction between the two of them.

On meeting Kyle again after an approximate four year span, we get a little insight into the relationship between father and son. Kyle is signing autographs and introduces Carlton to a colleague as a fan, but the colleague does a confused look when Carlton purposefully introduces himself as "Carlton... Garrett".

On explaining to Kyle that his wife is sick, and has requested him at her bedside, surprisingly for Carlton his father agrees, and he phones his mother at the airport, telling her he is looking right at him, and that they are coming to see her, much to her joy.

However it turns out things are not so straightforward as Kyle has apparently lost his wallet, and he will not be allowed to board the flight without suitable identification. Lucy suggests they drive instead, and hence the title.

It tells of the broken relationship between a father and a son, and their journey together to fix this in more ways than one, during this road trip.

Movie review for Surrogates

2009-11-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

This is a dark futuristic view of how the world could possibly become, where everyone has a surrogate, a robot with all the features of a human, that is controlled remotely by the owner, with the owner having all their senses interact with whatever the machine is encountering. The owner lives in a virtual world, where the surrogate lives his or her life for him or her, the plausible justification for it of course is that the owner is less at risk from disease and infection, and indeed any harm to their real body, they can virtually go to work, and play, with no worries about their real body, all the toll is taken on the surrogate.

From the opening credits we get introduced to the justification for surrogates, with first a machine where a monkey controls an arm containing a nut with just its mind, to people who are paralysed, controlling robots to do their daily tasks, and people in the army using surrogates for war without any fear of their real bodies being in danger.

Soon Congress signs in to law surrogates for the use in every day lives, but as usual there are objectors to this whole idea of surrogates, the main opponent of this is The Prophet played by Ving Rhames (Pulp fiction), who has set up communes where only humans are allowed. We meet our protagonist, a very young looking Bruce Willis (12 Monkeys) as Tom Greer along with his partner Peters played by the lovely Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black), who are investigating the murder of a surrogate, but in this case, the owner of the surrogate died at the same time the surrogate was destroyed. It turns out that the owner of the surrogate is non other than the son of the inventor of surrogates, Canter played by the dependable James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential).

It seems a weapon has been developed that not only can destroy surrogates, but can at the same time end the life of the operator connected to the surrogate. Tom has personally set himself the task of finding out who murdered Canter's son and getting hold of this deadly weapon, but he has a mountain to climb to get to the bottom of this, with the head of his department Stone played by Boris Kodjoe (Starship Troopers 3 : Marauder), not happy with his tactics, and Tom himself having doubts about the whole idea of surrogates, unlike his wife Maggie played by the gorgeous Rosamund Pike (The Libertine), who prefers this new life than any other, and looking at her surrogate and indeed virtually all of the surrogates, you can see why, as they all look young and flawless, there is a memorable scene where the real Tom comes into his police department and the clerk surrogate looks at him and mutters "you look terrible".

This of course is a warning about how the current state of the Internet could evolve, from people able to do many things online they previously had to do in person, to being able to do their daily tasks from the comfort of their computer.

Movie review for District 9

2009-11-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

This is a very surreal futuristic suspense thriller produced by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy).

It stars an almost all South African cast, with Sharlto Copley in the lead role as Wikus Van De Merwe an NMU (Multinational United) who is in charge of relocating approximately 1 million aliens, whose spaceship has hovered to rest above Johannesburg, the aliens on first contact were all found to be malnourished, sick, and needing shelter.

The problem of course is housing over a million aliens, when the local populace are frightened by their looks, demeanour, and mannerisms as a local indigen paraphrased says "if there were from this planet we would understand but they are not even from this planet", they also have a penchant for cat food, as well as some sudden bursts of anger.

NMU has appointed the happy go lucky Wikus to for see the mass evacuation of these aliens, who the humans have termed "prauns" because they look like prawns.

The story is told in flashback, with several interviews from people who knew Wikus and the mass evacuation operation, you start to wonder what happened to Wikus as they all speak of some ominous event.

It turns out during the mass evacuations NMU had to serve each of the aliens with an evacuation order, where they had to sign, of course most of the aliens do not understand what an evacuation means, and there are violent scuffles, as Wikus accompanied with the mandatory NMU military personnel try to get the aliens to sign the evacuation order, in some cases according to Wikus, the aliens hitting the piece of paper away is counted as an agreement. The real reason of course for the evacuation according to the flashback interviews was to find alien weapons, it turns out the advanced weapons of the aliens are biologically engineered to be operated by them only.

Wikus also takes the opportunity during these evacuation notices to ransack the homes of the aliens looking for anything illegal, during the process he finds an object, he thinks is some kind of gas canister that could be a weapon, so he confiscates it, not before attempting to find out how it works, and getting sprayed in the face by a dark fluid. It turns out the alien who had that object was a little smarter than most of the "prauns" and the canister was needed to operate his shuttle hidden underground, back to the mother ship.

Inevitably Wikus gets involved with a violent "praun", and needs a cast on his left arm, but you notice soon after he is not looking well at all, culminating to him passing out puking black blood at a party, he is rushed to the hospital, and he wakes up alarmingly to find his left arm has adopted the features of a "praun". NMU military whisk him away to their medical facilities, where despite his protestions he is made to operate a series of alien weapons. He is regarded as the very first human and alien hybrid and the military arm of NMU are eager to harvest his organs for bioengineering. However Wikus just wants the alien arm removed, and wants to get back to his wife. He manages to escape, but chances of him going back home are made virtually impossible with all the media reporting malicious rumors about him and the entire NMU military arm looking for him.

He is left with no choice but to go back to the "prauns" he despises, in a desperate bid for help before the metamorphosis is complete.

It is mesmerising viewing, and Wikus captures the desperation of a man about to lose everything to the point of his humanity brilliantly.

It is rare science-fiction film, as it is set in South Africa, but you realise soon after the reasons why, as it parallels victimisation of the "prauns" with apartheid.

Movie review for Ink

2009-11-08T06:58:00.000-08:00

This is a strange surreal science fiction movie that follows beings the rest of the world do not see, but are responsible for our dreams and sometimes nightmares.

We first see some flashbacks of a very busy businessman John played by Chris Kelly, who has just recently divorced from his wife, and spending some time with his daughter Emma played by Quinn Hunchar, he at first is reluctant to play her games, saying her mother is much more suited to it than him, but he relinquishes eventually and joins her in fighting the "invisible monster" who has come to kidnap her.

Later on you realise the game was a foretelling of what is about to happen because there is a monster who does come and kidnap her.

In the evening some interesting beings materialise on the street and all go into peoples' homes, at first you wonder what on earth is happening. Soon after when everybody goes to sleep, and Emma has to appease her grandmother that she is asleep by making some snoring noises, as soon as you see them put their hands on the foreheads of the people whose homes they have come into, and smile, you realise immediately there are responsible for relaxing peaceful dreams, the one responsible for Emma's peaceful dreams, Allel played by the lovely Jennifer Batter was watching in amusement while Emma pretended to be snoring.

After a short while some other beings materialise (Incubi), and with the ominous mood surrounding them it becomes obvious that they are responsible for nightmares.

A short while a being materialises, and goes into the bedroom of the little girl at the beginning, and places his hand on her forehead, she immediately wakes up, or her unconscious wakes up in her dream state (she is still asleep in the real world), several of the good beings materialise and there is an all out battle, where they all try to stop the monster from taking the girl, apparently during the battle as furniture and equipment is destroyed, they all revert back to their original form and place, in the real world, which makes some sense as all this is going on in the dream world.

The monster takes the girl and as perplexed as we all are to the reasons, we eventually find out that he is a "Drifter" called Ink, someone who has died and is wandering this surreal world without a purpose, and wears a hood to cover his scarred form, hoping to take the girl to the leader of the Incubi in other to be one of them.

Meanwhile the beings responsible for good dreams (Storytellers) have asked the help of a blind "Pathfinder" Jacob played by Jeremy Make; to help them locate the girl where Ink has her, he suggests they go into the real world and find her father, that her father holds the key to saving her life, as apparently in the real world she is now in a coma, and if Ink succeeds in taking her to the leader of the nightmare beings she will die in the real world, so Allel, Gabe played by Eme Ikuakor, and Sara played by Shelby Malone venture into the real world but no one can see neither can they affect any physical thing. Another Storyteller Liev played by the lovely Jessica Duffy locates Ink, and after a short battle Ink takes her prisoner and is planning on taking her along with the girl to the leader of the Incubi.

It is a fascinating science fiction storyline, with a fresh twist on this genre, with an equally gripping suspense throughout.

Movie review for Zombieland

2009-11-07T02:21:00.000-08:00

This is a very amusing horror comedy, in the vein of Shaun of the Dead, that focuses on a similar world where everyone or most of the world is a zombie.

We meet Columbus (everyone in the movie calls themselves by places instead of real names) played by Jesse Eisenberg (he has one of those faces you are sure you have seen somewhere but can't quite identify where) who is one of the last surviving humans in the U.S. and has developed a variety of rules to staying alive such as limbering up before going into any vicinity where zombies may be around, keeping his heart fit, and always taking care when at his most vulnerable i.e. when in the toilet.

We also get flashbacks to unfortunate victims who fell to the zombie plague, all through the opening credits,. It turns out Columbus only survived because he kept to himself, and only found out about the plague, when a lovely girl came knocking at his door, complaining that a tramp had sprinted at her, at first she thought he was chasing someone, but when he reached her he bit her. Columbus was more interested that such a lovely girl would be at his door, and was stroking her hair as she fell asleep when inevitably she turned into a zombie and started lunging at him.

Columbus happens to bump into Tallahassee played by Woody Harrelson (No country for old men), there is a amicable stand-off where the pair think each other is a zombie and wait for any hints at humanity before introducing one another. Together they plan on going to Columbia where Columbus has a faint hope his parents may still be alive, as he puts it, he is a loner who didn't appreciate those who cared about him or anyone in particular when the world was OK, but now just seeing a familiar face would make things a lot more easier.

On their way to helping Tallahassee find a Twinky, with Tallahassee's usual antics of antagonising the zombies with loud noises so they come out and get the customary treatment with whatever he happens to have in hand, they bump into two sisters, Wichita played by the gorgeous Emma Stone (The House Bunny) and Little Rock played by the lovely Abigal Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) who luckily are still alive, but trick them into taking their ammunition and their vehicle.

Of course they inevitably meet again, after the car they have stolen from Columbus and Tallahassee breaks down, and are forced on a road trip together, but not before Tallahassee and Columbus find a vehicle containing plenty of ammunition to which Tallahassee says "Thank God for rednecks".

As they pass by Hollywood, Tallahassee decides to take them to the home of a superstar (as he puts it even bigger than Tom Cruise). There is a lovely cameo by Bill Murray (Ghostbusters) playing himself, he happens to dress up as a zombie to fit around, and he even joins them re-enacting scenes from Ghostbusters.

Columbus meanwhile is beginning to fall for Wichita, who equally has trust issues, and Tallahassee is still after that Twinky.

It is a hilarious horror-comedy, many will like instantly.

Movie reviews for 17 Again

2009-11-04T02:42:00.000-08:00

This is a charming fantasy with friends star Matthew Perry, and Zac Efron of High school musical, interchangeably as Mike O'Donnell in the lead roles.

It is a little similar to Big starring Tom Hanks.

We meet Mike 20 years ago about to be signed up to college basketball, but he finds out some news that meant he had to make a choice between his girlfriend Scarlett or his professional dreams.

We fast forward to the present and Mike is a little disappointed in the way his life has turned, as he and his wife Scarlett played by the lovely Leslie Mann (The 40 year old virgin) are facing a divorce, and all Mike can do is reminiscence on how his life could have turned out, in the meantime he crashes at the home of his best friend an extreme dork/geek Ned Gold played hilariously by Thomas Lennon (Reno 911).

Mike happens to bump into a mysterious old man as a janitor played by Brain Doyle-Murray (Bedazzled, looks a little like M.C. Gainey, Tom in Lost), who asks him what he would like to change in his life, he replies if he could go back to high school and do things differently, the Janitor asks him if he is sure, to which to reinforces his wish. Soon afterwards he sees the Janitor leap off a bridge and in the process of trying to save him, finds himself falling down the bridge into a portal, he wakes up in the home of his best friend but inside the body of himself when he was 17.

This is where the fun begins, as he sees this as a chance to be closer to his kids, because he enrols back in his high school, the same high school his kids now go to, Alex and Maggie played by Sterling Knight and Michelle Trachtenberg respectively, there is a funny sequence where he tries to encourage everyone in the class to abstain from sex apart from marriage, whilst not that far away the local troublemaker is kissing his daughter.

He also has to handle his soon to be ex, who finds he looks remarkbly similar to what Mike looked like in high school, when she first meets him as a 17 year old again, she can't help pulling his face like a plasticine, much to the embarrassment of her friend, and Mike takes this chance at trying a reconciliation with his wife (on his older self's behalf of course).

His best friend, Ned who now acts as his father also has fallen for the local school principal, Jane Masterson played by the lovely Melora Hardin (The Office), and he is using all his means to get her to at least agree on a date.

It is a charming fantasy, many will sure to reminiscence about their high school years.

Movie reviews Solo

2009-11-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

This is a lovely movie encompassing sadness, hope and suspense.

It is shot almost as a documentary in the life of one charming Senegalese taxi driver played wonderfully and humanely by Souleymane Sy Savane , who is commonly referred to as Solo.

He is trying to get into flight school, as well as looking after his new wife, adopted daughter and baby on the way.

He happens to come across an elderly gentleman, William played with a great deal of melancholy by Red West (former bodyguard of Elvis) in his cab, who wants him to pick him up on a certain date no questions asked, and take him to "Blow Rock" where he is never coming back all for a considerable amount of money for a taxi driver.

Solo is a little saddened at this, as he says in his country, everybody looks after the elderly, even so much as to put food in their mouths if they have no teeth.

Solo is a little apprehensive, but takes the money, but he is hoping whatever William is planning on doing he can be dissuade him. He reckons he probably just needs a friend to get him to see how much life is worth living, and so Solo takes on the task of being his friend, introducing him to his lovely step daughter Alex played by the adorable Diana Franco Galindo, and his pregnant wife Quiera played by Carmen Leyva who isn't too pleased with Solo bringing in a stranger into the house.

Solo charms his way into the William's life, at least the little he knows of it so far, and tries to get William to reveal a little about himself, any family if any, and the reasons why he would like to go to "Blow Rock" and never want to return, Solo tries to get William introduced to his family, his friends and associates, surprisingly the gentleman does seem cordial and sociable at these moments, but there is a deep sadness in his eyes when alone. Just as the audience begins to believe Solo is making headway it suddenly changes, which keeps the suspense enthralling throughout.

Movie reviews Stardust

2009-11-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

This is a wonderful magical fantasy, with an all star cast narrated by Ian Mckellen (Gandalf in Lord of the Rings).

It stars Charlie Cox as Tristan in the middle century, where there is a wall somewhere in England humans are not supposed to cross, in fact there is a 97 year old man played by David Kelly (Charlie and the chocolate factory) who guards it.

It so happens that Tristan's father Humphrey, played by Nathaniel Parker (Bleak House) 18 years previously had somehow got across from the real world into the fantasy world, and had met a trapped princess, Uma played by the lovely Kate Magowan (Blade 2), they spent the night and 9 months later he was handed a basket containing Tristan.

18 years on in the fantasy world, the king of that kingdom played by the legendary Peter O'Toole (Venus), is facing his death bed, and with his sons he sets a challenge that whosoever can retrieve the fallen star he has just set loose gets to be the new king, all the sons are as ruthless in chasing this just as the king was ruthless against his brothers before he became king, the chief of the king's sons is Septimus played wonderfully by Mark Strong (RocknRolla).

In the real world Tristan is trying to impress the girl of his dreams, Victoria played by the lovely Sienna Miller (Casanova), but she has a suitor she prefers, and even though she enjoys getting Tristan to do things for her, the love is never returned.

Tristan happens to find out from the 97 year old guard that his father had previously crossed the wall, on confronting his father over this, his father tells him the truth, and shows him the items that came along with Tristan in the basket, one a magical Babylon candle that can transport anyone to wherever they are thinking of going, "the fastest way to travel" as Tristan's mother puts it, in the letter she left for him in his basket.

Tristan uses the candle and ends up in the fantasy world, where he happens to encounter the fallen star , which apparently is a person called Yvaine in the form of the lovely Claire Danes (Romeo and Juliet). At first Tristan plans to take the star to Victoria in order to get her to marry him, and although they get on awkwardly at first, the inevitable romance soon blossoms, however there is trouble in the form of Michelle Pfeiffer (The Witches of Eastwick) as Lamia, a desperate witch who along with her sisters wants to eat the Star to maintain their immortality.

It is a wonderfully enchanting movie the whole family will enjoy, and many will be surprised by how enjoyable it is.

Movie Reviews The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

2009-10-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

Movie reviews this week looks at The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard a riotous comedy produced by Will Ferell (Wedding Crashers)

It stars Jeremy Piven (Entourage) as Don Ready, a car sales man that has been brought in by Ben Selleck played by James Brolin (played Ronald Reagan in The Reagans, and father of Josh, he looks remarkably like an older Christian Bale), to help save his business.

Don brings along his team Ving Rhames (Pulp fiction) as Jibby Newsome, David Koechner (Saturday Night Live) as dependable Brent Gage, the lovely Kathryn Hahn (Revolutionary Road) as Babs Merrick.

In his attempt to improve sales they hire a DJ, and advertise the event, and when the day comes Don and his crew are pretty good at delivering at their promises, using every and anything to "Hard sell" people into buying from Selleck's cars.

However things are not as easy going as Don first thought, as there is a competing car lot, owned by Stu Harding played by Alan Thicke (The Trial of Red Riding Hood), whose son Paxton Harding played by Ed Helms (The Hangover) is chasing a music career with his group "The Bigups" and is a fiance to Tammy, daughter of Ben Selleck played by the lovely Jordana Spiro (My Boys).

Will Ferell makes an appearance as McDermott ill fated friend during a time in Alberquerque.

Don finds out that he would like to settle down rather than be on the road all the time, as expected he soon starts falling for Ivy, but seeing she is already engaged to Paxton, his chances are pretty slim.

It has some classic funny moments, notably including Will Ferell and a sky diving jump, and Babs seducing a man into buying a car by tapping into his fantasy. The always on edge Dick Lewiston played by Charles Napier (Austin Powers 2) who seems to talk about his dislike of others has some memorable scenes, the prelude prior to all the employees picking up on the sole "Japanese" employee Teddy Dang, played by Ken Jeong (his scenes in the hilarious The Hangover has to be seen) is memorable simply for the way Dick stares at him, as Don tries to encourage them for the big sell.

Movie reviews Assassination of High School President

2009-10-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

Movie reviews this week looks at the suspense thriller The Assassination of a High School President.

It stars Reece Thompson as Bobby Funke (he constantly has to remind everyone his name is not "funky" but it doesn't stop anyone from calling him that) and the lovely Mischa Barton (St. Trinians) as Francesca Fachini, the girlfriend of the High School President.

Bobby is trying to write a paper for the local school and from it get acceptance into North Western's journalist programme, he first has to get the approval of the head columnist Clara played by Melonie Diaz (Be Kind Rewind) who Bobby also likes, but
not as much as he likes the girlfriend of the High School President Patrick Moore played by Paul Taylor, something about this reminds me of "Bart got a room".

It turns out someone has stolen the entire schools SAT's from the Principal's locker, Principal Kirkpatrick a former war veteran who doesn't waste anytime reminding the students how patriotic it is to fight for one's country, played hilariously by Bruce Willis (Die Hard). He apparently has a list of the usual suspects, and calls them in, including Bobby, Bobby innocently asks the reason why he has been summoned, to which Principal Kirkpatrick says "for chewing gum". Apparently Principal Kirkpatrick is a stickler about gum chewing, there is a funny scene where Bobby is trying to convey some important information to the Principal, but replies after a much heated conversation with "is that gum in your mouth"?

Bobby is given an opportunity to find out who stole the school's SATs by the Principal, and he sees this as his big chance to get into North Western, if he can identify the thief/thieves with a well written story.

Although unrealistic, he takes the role of an investigative journalist, interviewing all the suspects, and they all seem candid, which is a little unrealistic for high school, but that doesn't ruin a great story.

There is a well played scene, where Bobby is interviewing the little sister of the High School President, Chrissy Moore played by Gabrielle Brennan, she tells him she will tell him all of Patrick's secrets if he gets her a unicorn, to which he replies unicorns aren't real, and she makes a scowl pointing at she wants one of the unicorn dolls they are surrounded by.

In his investigations Bobby inevitably gets the attention of the current High School President's girlfriend, and amazing as it seems she falls for him after his article, much to the surprise of all involved, there is a great scene where he asks her what she sees in him, to which she replies she gets the feeling he would still look at her in the same way if there was no school.

He also interviews the Vice-President played by Luke Grimes (Ryan Lafferty in Brothers and Sisters), the half-brother of Francesca, who seems at first to have no problems with Byron going out with his half-sister.

It is an interesting story, focusing on the challenges of high school for acceptance, and getting along with those who are popular. It also has a few unforeseen twists and plots that makes it that little bit more interesting, and Bobby gets to find out that not everything is what it seems.

Movie reviews The Day After Tomorrow

2009-10-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

Movie reviews this week looks at the ecological suspense thriller The Day After Tomorrow with Dennis Quaid (Inner Space) as a climatologist Jack Hall, who for years has been warning the U.S. government and the world in general that its' reliance on fossil fuels is causing a great deal of harm to the planet (a couple of years before Al Gore's Oscar winning An inconvenient truth).

His estimations of a global disaster from global warming which would usher in another ice age, which he predicts as a best guess estimate certainly not in his lifetime, that polar melting with disrupt the North Atlantic current, suddenly escalates to the present, with an ice age hitting the vast majority of America, and Jack in a desperate rush against time to save his son Sam Hall played by Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), who is trapped in New York, which unfortunately is at the epicentre of this ice age.

This is one of the first movies to highlight the environment impact of our reliance on fossil fuels, with several scenes to ponder the potential disaster on our hands, one of these is a helicopter going over Scotland that suddenly just freezes at minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a great scene, where Jack has been telling the scientific community would happen albeit with some scoffing, that the sun would accelerate the rapid decline in temperature to beyond freezing point, immediately freezing structures, and anything that happens to pass within the rays of the sun at that particular time, unfortunately he gets to witness this phenomenon first hand in a desperate race against time to find shelter while everything around him freezes as the sun comes up.

There is also an unforgettable scene as the Tower of Liberty freezes solid.

Not only does he have to breach the bitter cold, he also has to fend off dogs that have gone insane from hunger, looking for anything warm blooded to eat, ergo any humans they can find.

We find out that Jack feels he has let down his son a little, and this journey to find him is something he has to do to make up for their relationship, there is a brilliant conversation at the beginning, where Jack finds out Sam has failed Calculus, and Sam replies he got every question right, and the only reason the lecturer failed him was because he didn't write out the solutions but did it instead in his head, Jack asks him if he told the lecturer, he told him he did, but the lecturer said if he couldn't do it in his head neither could Sam.

Movie Reviews The Taking of Pelham 123

2009-10-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the suspense thriller The Taking of Pelham 123.

It stars Denzel Washington (Training day) as Walter Garber, as he puts it a "lowly public sector employee" looking after the trains that run through the intersections at New York, except this day he didn't know what he was getting himself into when he puts his socks on this morning.

It also stars John Travolta (Pulp fiction) as Ryder , straight out of prison and looking to for some kind of revenge on the City of New York. He and his accomplices Phil Ramos played by Luis Guzman (Traffic) and Bashkim played by Victor Gojcaj manage to hijack Pelham 123, so called because it arrives at Pelham at precisely 1:23 p.m. As Walter's job this day is operating the trains (it turns out he has been demoted penning an investigation if he took a bribe) so it is left to Walter to bargain with Ryder for the lives of the several passengers on board, while Ryder asks the City of New York via it's mayor placed pretty well by James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), it turns out Ryder wants $10 million dollars and one cent after making Walter calculate what the current rate is for the "commodities" on the train, Ryder says he wants $10 million dollars, Walter sarcastically asks him about the one cent, and he says Walter can keep it as a broker's fee.

In comes a special Hostage Negotiator Camonetti played by John Turturro (You don't mess with the Zohan), there is a particular well made scene, where Walter is told he has done a good job, while Camonetti takes over negotiating with Ryder, that leads to some disastrous consequences.

Walter is chased and brought back to negotiating per Ryder's request and as the two get to know a little about each other, Ryder asks why he is doing control work for the trains, Walter explains he has been demoted pending an investigation, what follows is a brilliantly shot scene, where Walter is made to confess in front of the Mayor, his boss, and all his colleagues that he did take the bribe, how he did it and what he used the money for, or else hostages would be killed, at first the audience is not sure if the confession was on the spur of the moment to save lives, but from Walter's expression it seems genuine.

This is a brilliant suspense thriller with the usual twists we have come to expect from movies where hostage negotiation is involved.

Movie reviews 9

2009-10-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the animated feature Nine.

It tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world, where humanity has all been wiped out by the machines it created to help them, and the only remnants of humanity are stored in little gingerbread man toys, fabricated from clothing, buttons zips, and any material lying about the house, and designated numbers for each one made as their names, our protagonist is number nine.

It stars the voices of Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) as Nine, Christopher Plummer (Dolores Clairbone) as One, the lovely Jennifer Connelly (A beautiful mind) as Seven, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Five, Marin Landau (Ed Wood) as Two, and Crispin Glover (Charlie's Angels, Charlie's Angels Full Throttle) as Six.

We join our protagonist Nine as he awakens to life, without a voice, looking at his make-up consisting of house-hold items, old cloths, and a zipper which he is conscious of opening (which is a little strange, seeing that there is nothing inside), he sees a little talisman with strange objects on it and picks it up, puts it in his body, and goes out onto the world. The world is typical of a post-apocalyptic version, machinery strewn everywhere, and crumbled buildings littering the streets. He happens to bump into Two, who fixes his voice, and in so doing sees the talisman Nine has brought along with him, but just as Two is about to take him to a sanctuary, there are attacked by a malevolent machine, seizing Two and taking him away to it's lair, along with the much prized talisman.

As Nine tries to figure out how to save his new found friend, he meets others like himself, led by the careful One, and his body guard, who charades Nine for getting himself in trouble, there is a great exchange between Nine and One the voice of experience and survival, with the voice of youth and adventure. Despite One's warnings, Nine manages to convince Five to join him on a quest to save Two, it seems a daunting prospect, such small beings against a much powerful and stronger malevolent force, on their journey, they find out that the talisman is a lot more powerful than they ever thought, but is there any hope for them or their remnants?

This is a very enjoyable animated feature film, with brilliant scenery throughout, and a gripping storyline equally well suited to children as well as adults, with the suspense beautiful captured especially for an animated movie.

Movie Reviews Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

2009-10-07T23:58:00.000-07:00

Movie Reviews this week looks at the science fiction comedy Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel.

It stars the hilarious Chris O'Doyd (The IT Crowd, something about him reminds me of the sidekick priest in father Ted), as Ray, a science geek, fresh from losing his job, who along with two of his best friends Toby and Pete played by Marc Wooton and Dean Lennox Kelly (Shameless) respectively, are discussing time travel, in their local pub one day as only nerds can.

As Ray goes off to the bar to order three pints, he comes back to his friends and tells them an unbelievable tale of having met a girl at the bar who tells him she is from the future, his friends laugh it off, assuming he is either pulling their leg, or she maybe a local stripper with an American accent. The girl Cassie played by the lovely Anna Faris (Scary Movie) is really from the future, and is here to fix a "Time Leak", apparently in the future agents can go back in time with their bodies hardwired with it's own time machine, and of course the usual rules of not interfering with the future still applies, so strict about going back and interfering in a historical event, that could wipe out several blood lines, such as going back to prevent World War II.

Of course Ray's friends don't believe a single word he says, until one of them, Pete, goes to the toilet, but on returning to the bar sees that everyone in the bar is dead, he runs back to the toilet, comes back out again and apparently he is back at the bar with his friends and everyone is still alive, he tells them the unbelievable story, and although they laugh it off, he suggests that for it to happen to them, i.e. for them to travel in time, they would have to go through the same motions he did, to witness the future, and follows a hilarious scene where they follow his exact movements, even down to the way he shakes his hands after using the toilet. They go back to the bar, apparently not noticing anything odd, until they are almost at their spot in the bar when to their amazement, they see themselves, sitting at the bar only moments earlier, discussing what they were talking about earlier.

From this apparent "Time leak" they try to get back to their own time, meeting Cassie along the way who is trying to fix the time leak, apparently not succeeding each time, on one of their trips to the future, they find that they have been immortalized by humanity, with a huge gravity painting of them at the bar, discussing a very important piece of paper Toby has penned in his many attempts to write a good science fiction script, Hollywood would accept.

It is an enjoyable movie, combining comedy from both sides of the Atlantic many will sure to enjoy.

Movie Reviews for Battle for Terra

2009-10-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

Movie reviews this week looks at the animated feature film Battle for Terra.

This is an enjoyable animation, adults as well as children will enjoy, and as usual, the animation quality is top notch, and knowing how the characters portraying the voices look in real life, you can tell a great deal of attention to detail was done.

The plot of the story is that a peaceful civilisation have wake up one day and find this giant space ship blocking the light of their sun, soon afterwards, the aliens invade their land, capturing several of them, including the father of our heroine.

During this mission, one of the aliens loses control of his aircraft chasing our protagonist Mala Evan voiced by the lovely Evan Rachel Wood( Mickey Rourke's daughter in The Wrestler), in the process he is injured and she takes him to her home to tend to his injuries, and it turns out the alien is a human, i.e. we are the aliens invading another civilisation/planet.

The twist on the frightening alien civilisation taking over our land is unique this time, as we are seeing things from the point of view of the peaceful aliens, who the humans have ear marked to take over and named "Terra".

It turns out Earth is no longer habitable, in fact it's resources have been depleted by man's wanton desire(a stark warning, for global warming), and humanity have already "terraformed" our closest planets, Mars and Venus, but it turns out that the colonies wanted independence, and a war broke out that wiped out all three planets, so the remnants of humanity have been in space looking for a permanent home. The planet nicknamed "Terra" is chosen as adequate, but there is a problem, it's atmosphere is poisonous to humans, and the only solution if humanity is to take over the planet is to convert it's atmosphere to one of oxygen, but that would mean making the atmosphere poisonous to the local indigens.

The unassuming hero for humanity Stewart Stanton voiced by Chris Evans(Push, The Fantastic Four) whose craft was damaged is now faced with the very civilisation he has sent to annihilate. It also stars the voice of Brian Cox(X Men 2, Troy) as a no-nonsense pragmatic General Hemmer, and the voice of Danny Glover(Lethal Weapon, The predator 2) as the leader of the last colony of humanity, President Chen.

The star quality emanating from the voices, do a very good job, passing over the various emotions, desperation, survival, extinction, all themes very relevant in the current era.

Movie review for The forbidden Kingdom

2009-09-25T02:54:00.000-07:00

This is a magical fantasy movie starring Hong Kong Kung fu Legends Jackie Chan, and Jet Li in their first collaboration, Jackie Chan(Police story, Drunken Master, The Myth) plays Old Hop in the real world and Lu Yan in the fantasy Forbidden Kingdom, while Jet Li(Romeo must die, Hero) plays The Monkey King, and also stars as The Silent Monk.

The story surrounds Jason Tripitikas played by Michael Angarano(24, Will and Grace) being bullied by a gang, and his love of Kung fu movies, which he rents from an elderly Old Hop(Jackie Chang), during one particular night, Old Hop is robbed, and in the event of trying to protect Old Hop, he gets hold of an old staff, which transports him into the realm of the magical Forbidden Kingdom, where an evil Jade Warlord played by well known Kung fu Star Collin Chou. The Jade Warlord has taken over the Forbidden Kingdom while the King of Heaven is away.

This magical kingdom has a select number of Immortals, who cannot be killed except by a jade poison dart. It turns out that there was an immortal a Monkey King(also played by Jet Li), who had been challenged to a duel by the evil Jade Warlord, who was growing increasingly bitter over the favouritism shown to the Monkey King by the King of Heaven, as the King of Heaven left the Forbidden Kingdom into the hands of the Jade Warlord until his return, the Jade Warlord saw the opportunity to end the Monkey King once and for all, by attempting to kill him during the duel, just in time before he is killed the Monkey King freezes into stone, and sends out his magical staff out of the Forbidden Kingdom, and a prophecy was born that one will come that will return the Monkey King's staff to the rightful owner.

Our young protagonist suddenly finds himself in the Forbidden Kingdom, where he, Lu Yan, his associate Golden Sparrow played by the lovely Yifei Liu and a monk known as The Silent Monk (also played by Jet Li) have to get the staff to the Monkey King, however he is still immortalised in stone, in the lair of the Jade King.

The cinematography gives the impression of being in a fantasy world, where everything is possible.

It has some classic funny moments, especially where Lu Yan is trying to summon rain while the stern faced Silent Monk makes a mockery of his attempt.

This is a great action movie with fantastic comedy moments, and the fans are no doubt clamouring for a sequel.

Movie review for W

2009-09-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

This is Oliver Stone's(Director of Platoon) biographic on the life of the 43rd President George W. Bush Jr. chronicling his days from Yale through to his presidency, and the Iraq and Afghan wars.

The lead role is played superbly by Josh Brolin(No country for old men), having the Texas accent, and Bush's mannerisms down to a fine art, playing the younger Bush during his time at Yale, and the Grey-haired Bush during his time right up to the conflict in Iraq.

Vice-President Dick Cheney is played superbly by an unrecognisable Richard Dreyfuss(Mr. Holland's Opus) with a very uncanny resemblance, even the mannerisms of grinding his teeth, Condoleeza Rice is played by an unrecognisable Thandie Newton(The pursuit of Happyness, The Chronicles of Riddick), Colin Powell is played impressively by Jeffrey Wright(Shaft, Quantum of Solace), Donald Rumsfeld is played by the veteran Scott Glenn(The patriarch in Brothers and sisters), Paul Wolfowitz is played by Dennis Boutsikaris(The Last Don), Karl Rove is played by the diminutive and brilliant Toby Jones(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) .

We chronicle various aspects of the former President's life, from drilling jobs in Texas, running his own oil company, running a major league team, all seem overshadowed by the deep disappointment Bush Jr. regards in himself, as opposed to his younger brother, who he sees as his father's favourite Governor of Florida Jeb Bush, as seen by his father George W. Bush Sr. played wonderfully by James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential). At times the elder Bush is long suffering towards his son, and other times, does not communicate with him directly, apparently only through notes, as he did when George W. Bush became Governor of Texas.

The conflicts amongst the key participants in the Oval office before the justification of the War in Iraq, notably the friction between Donald Rumsfeld, Vice-President Dick Chenney, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Commander of the Armed Forces Colin Powell, regarding the search for weapons of mass destruction, and following U.N. protocol is well acted. The arrogance of Bush and his dismissal of the U.N. in this regard is believable given press conferences at that time.

Overall this portrayal of George W. Bush Jr. aims to keep a balanced perspective, from his battle with alcohol, and trying to make his own way in the world, without everybody else thinking everything in his life has been handed to him on a silver platter, to his liaison with Laura Bush played by the lovely Elizabeth Banks(Meet Dave), to the much maligned war, where as he puts it, "I am just trying to make the world a better place".

Movie review for The Matrix Revolutions

2009-09-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

The final part of the Matrix trilogy was welcomed as a renovation and worthy conclusion of the ethos of the original Matrix, and did give the trilogy a fitting end the fans were happy about.

It again stars Keanu Reeves(Point Break, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure) as Neo, Laurence Fishburne(Apocalypse Now) as Morpheus, Carrie Ann Moss(Memento) as Trinity

The war with the A.I. is reaching it's climax, the last human fortress Zion is under attack by the machines, and unless our protagonists can do something, their life and civilisation will be wiped out.

The antagonist, Agent Smith played by Hugo Weaving(Lord of the rings: The Fellowship of the ring) has somehow managed to get his personality out into the real world, while in the Matrix like a malevolent virus he has taken over everyone, and is waiting for Neo to turn up for their final encounter.

We learn a little about the unfolding in the life of the real world for Morpheus, Neo and Trinity, with people constantly wanting something from Neo in the real world, keeping him away from Trinity more than he would like, to send messages to their loved ones, whose minds haven't been "unplugged" yet, to constantly protecting his friends and companions from Agents, who like regular software have been given upgrades to combat the threat of Neo. The complicated relationship between Morpheus and his lost love Niobe played by the wife of Will Smith (who was the original choice to play Neo by the Wachowski brothers) Jada-Pinkett Smith is developed a little further.

Less time is given to the other A.I. as was done in the previous sequel, and instead focuses on the main thrust of the story, the war between civilisation and the A.I. and if Neo, Morpheus and Trinity have any say on how it will all end.

The suspense that has been building up for a few years since the original Matrix is well played upon, and the conclusion is a fitting end to the roller coaster of cinematic vision and innovation that hasn't captured the minds of many movie goers since.

Many saw this final sequel as redeeming some of the disappointments some of the fans saw in the second sequel, and it is not an underestimation to say the Matrix trilogy is to the current I.T. and Internet savvy generation what Star Wars was, to the generation of the late 70's and 80's.

Movie review for The Matrix Reloaded

2009-09-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

This is the sequel to The Matrix, again starring Keanue Reeves(Point Break, Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure) as Neo, Laurence Fishburne(Apocalypse Now) as Morpheus, and Carrie Ann Moss(Memento) as Trinity. It was reported Laurence Fishburne, signed up to the sequels without reading the scripts.

The directors Andy and Larry Wachowski better known as the Wachowski brothers have reportedly refused to do any interviews about The Matrix or it's sequels, possibly to continue and preserve it's cult status.

As with many sequels, there are never as critically acclaimed or well received by the fans as the originals, and this is no exception. That said for cult fan status it was a long wait, with a superb teaser trailer broadcast during the Super Bowl, that had many fans salivating. This sequel did reveal a little bit more about the composition of the real world our protagonists lived in and the Matrix world the frequented.

In this sequel we are introduced to a whole other A.I. living in the Matrix, Persephone played by the beautiful Monica Bellucci(The brothers Grimm) and her husband Merovingian played by Lambert Wilson(The Lazarus Project, Babylon A.D.), and The Oracle was also revealed as another system of control, unfortunately the original actress Gloria Foster who played The Oracle, died soon after completing her scenes.

Morpheus believing a prophecy told to him by the Oracle, that getting Neo to the source will end the war and set them free from the A.I., along with Trinity try to get Neo to the location of the source, battling some nifty Programs along the way, a pair of them having the ability to move through objects and other people(which is plausible as no one in the Matrix is really flesh and bone, but a kind of simulation).

The Wachowski brothers on the few times they did talk about The Matrix, said they always wanted to make a movie that combined their love of Kung-Fu and the Martial Arts with Science Fiction, and The Matrix captures this beautifully.

The interesting thing about the Matrix and it's sequels is the hidden meanings littered throughout every scene, going back to look at various scenes again, and reading up about it, the hidden religious references combining key aspects of the world's major religions is quite interesting, from the "Know thyself" writing when Neo first meets The Oracle to his first encounter with The Oracle's protector Seraph played by Collin Chou(The Forbidden Kingdom, DOA: Dead or Alive) (apparently The Wachowski brothers tried to get Kung-Fu legend and three times Chinese high kick champion Jet Li to play _ but he declined indicating he didn't want people to ignore the storyline and focus that he is in the movie)telling Neo "you never truly know anyone until you fight them".

Movie review for The Matrix

2009-09-22T05:59:00.000-07:00

This is a classic science fiction tale that was ground breaking for it's story line and special effects.

It stars Keanu Reeves(Point Break, Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure) as Neo/Mr Anderson(apparently Will Smith(Independence Day, I. Robot) was asked by the Wachowski brothers to play Neo, but he declined the role saying he wasn't mature enough as an actor to carry out the role), an I.T. guy seemingly bored with his existence, he is contacted by the mysterious Morpheus played by Laurence Fishburne(Apocalypse Now), wanted by many for alledgedly terrorist activities.

It turns out that Neo isn't really living in the real world at all, but under slavery, as he and the rest of humanity are under, being hooked up to a machine, providing life source for A.I(Artificial intelligence) that has taken over the planet over a war with humanity, leaving only a few renegades to continue the war against the A.I.

As Morpheus succinctly puts it "What if you were in a dream you couldn't wake up from, how would you know what is real and what is not?".

This all makes sense at this point, because as a prelude to this mind boggling discovery, there was an action sequence, where Trinity played by Carrie-Anne Moss(Memento) runs away from a couple of agents, into a phone box, and whilst she has the ear-piece of the phone to her ears, one of the agents runs down the phone box with a truck, with Trinity's body nowhere to be found in or around the phone box after this encounter(apparently after showing that ten-minute action sequence to their executive producers, they signed up immediately).

Morpheus has been told a prophecy by the Oracle played by Gloria Foster that he will find The One that will put an end to the slavery and set humanity free from A.I., and he believes Neo is that one, however Neo needs some convincing, especially as Morpheus, Trinity and a host of others take him to see the Oracle, to see what predictions she has in store for him.

During this scene an interesting occurrence takes place, that just separates The Matrix from just another science fiction movie, Neo sees a black cat, and sees the cat again, he mutters to himself "deja vu", immediately everybody in the entourage tenses up and he is asked what he saw, he relays what he saw, and everyone finds a hiding place, weapons at the ready, with Trinity explaining to Neo that deja vu happens when the A.I. change something in the Matrix, and sure enough the antagonist Agent Smith played magnificently by Hugo Heaving(Lord of the rings: The fellowship of the ring), is just around the corner.

It is a ground-breaking story line coupled with some superb action sequences, with great twists along the way makes for a classic science fiction movie.

Movie review for The Green mile

2009-09-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is the second movie of the Oscar winner director of the Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont. Again this is based around a prison.

It stars Tom Hanks as a prison guard Paul Edgecomb, and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey a mysterious gentle giant of a fellow from the deep south at the turn of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately for John Coffey there has been a murder of two little girls, and when John is found holding on to the two girls and crying, he is assumed the culprit, and he is tried, convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair in the infamous "Green mile" prison.

What some of the people in the town and notably those in the "Green Mile" prison quarters are about to find out, especially the prison guards is that he has the magic of healing, he proves this on a mouse, who has been stomped on by the jail antagonist "Wild Bill" Wharton whose hero is "Wild Bill" Hitchcock and would not tolerate having anyone say a negative word against him, played by Sam Rockwell(Charlie's Angels). John breathes on the mouse until its tail begins to twitch again with life, but there is an after effect, whenever he heals someone or something, he has to release the bad energy out of himself somehow.

It turns out that the prison warden, Warden Moores played by james Cromwell(L.A. Confidential) has a sick wife Melinda played by Patricia Clarkson (I must say watching her recently in Phoebe in Wonderland she looks exactly the same as she did almost ten years ago), and when John's healing ability is discovered, after helping Paul with an embarrassing problem, he proposes that John pays a visit to the Warden's wife, albeit not telling the Warden at all, only the fellow prison guards who all agree to ship him out at night.

Paul believes in his innocence, and in turn so do the other prison guards, Brutus "Brutal" Howell played by the stalwart David Morse(The Negotiator, Twelve Monkeys), Dean Stanton played by Barry Pepper(Saving Private Ryan) who all see John Coffee's behaviour for themselves and realise he cannot hurt a fly, but is there anything he can do to prevent John Coffee from "riding the light" i.e. the electric chair?

This is a lovely science fiction and fantasy movie, with some unforeseen twists, and viewers will not miss the symbolism of John Coffey whose name is an acronym of Jesus Christ.

Movie review for The Shawshank Redemption

2009-09-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

This classic movie won an Oscar for the first time director Frank Darabont and you can see why.

It is based on a short story "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King, and focuses on the life of a young banker Andy Dufresne played by Tim Robbins(The Player), after being found guilty of the murder of his wife and her male companion.

He protests his innocence, but the judge seeing his demeanour paraphrased, says "you strike me as a particularly cold and remorseless individual... " and sentences him to two life sentences.

Whilst in prison he befriends the local prison smuggler, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding played magnificently(who was nominated and many felt deserved the Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role) by Morgan Freeman. There is a scene that might leave many a little befuddled, as Andy askes Red if he can smuggle in Rita Hayworth, Red replies no problem, narrating that whenever anyone needed anything they came to him, and you are left in two minds on what exactly this means.

It captures the torment of prison, and the prisoners struggles as their humanity is eroded. There is a particular poignant scene played by the late James Whitmore(Give 'em hell Harry) as Brooks Hatlen who has been released into a modern world after fifty years in prison, writing a letter to his friends back in jail, whilst his voice narrates the letter we are shown him struggling to get to grips with the modern world, such as crossing the road to avoid the many motor cars, he hardly ever saw when he was a kid.

Along with having to serve time for a crime he didn't commit Andy also has to help the corrupt warden, Warden Norton played wonderfully by Bob Gunton(The Lazarus Project) siphon money obtained from using the prisoners as cheap workers into private accounts, as well as the Warden's enforcer Captain Hadley played by Clancy Brown(Highlander, Kelvin Inman in Lost) prevent the government from taking huge chunk of tax from his inheritance. While in prison Andy tries to take his mind over the wrongful conviction by focusing on projects such as a prison library, carving out chess pieces, and helping Tommy played by a young Gil Bellows(Ally McBeal) pass his school exams.

This is a well directed movie, with superb performances from all and it is truly a wonderful case of the "indomitable human spirit".

Movie review for Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

2009-09-20T01:33:00.000-07:00

The models at the museum come back to life in this sequel, starring the main characters in the prequel, Ben Stiller(Tropic Thunder) plays Larry Daley again with Jake Cherry playing his son Nick, the fantastic Robin Williams(Good Will Hunting, can adequately handle comedy as well as serious roles) plays Theodore Roosevelt, Owen Wilson(The Wedding Crashers) as the cowboy Jedediah, Steve Coogan as the miniature Roman commander Octavius, Mizuo Peck as Sacajawea.

This time round, the museum is about to be closed, with more interactive virtual tours, and all the models and exhibit are to be shipped to the archives at the Smithsonian, separated from the life-giving tablet, Larry may never see them alive again, while our protagonist Larry is a CEO of his own company and has left the night guard business, by the time Larry tries to put a stop to it, it is already too late and the models and exhibits have already been shipped.

Not one to give up, Larry along with his son, launch an audacious bid to find the exhibits and put a stop to the developments in the museum.

There is a scene reminiscent of the cargo scene in Raider's of the lost Ark, where the exhibits are being loaded in cargoes, and for a second you could almost hear the same theme music, that was played in Raider's of the Lost Ark.

Matters are complicated when Kahmunrah(played by the very talented Hank Azariah [The Simpsons], with an impressive English accent) the brother of Ahkmenrah wants the tablet to unleash his army of the dead and rule over the world.

There is a hilarious scene where Owen Wilson's Jedediah Smith character along with Steve Coogan's Roman Centurion Octavius go around attacking the enemy, by stabbing them with their little knives, it is an amusing scene, as it is shot with a tongue in cheek attempt at the slow motion battle scene in 300, they are going through the same motions, but the effect since they are so tiny is amusing to the audience, as the enemy only feels little nicks on their feet, it is brilliantly shot.

Love interest for Larry is provided by the fabulous Amy Adams(Charlie Wilson's war) who plays Amelia Earhart the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.

Movie review for Night at the Museum

2009-09-20T01:21:00.000-07:00

This is an enjoyable family oriented movie, about a newly recruited museum guard by outgoing guard Gus played by the legendary Mickey Rooney(The Black Stallion), who finds that at night the models, and mannequins come to life, due to a life-giving tablet. Unfortunately they can only be alive up to sunrise, where they go back to their inanimate state, but that is ample time for them to chaos chaos to the museum, with Neanderthals, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Vikings and Huns and other malevolent characters to avoid.

Unfortunately the life giving tablet has fallen into the hands of Ahkmenrah who wants to use it to get out of the confines of the Museum and be able to live outside of it's realms past the sunrise.

Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder) plays Larry Daley the Museum guard with Jake Cherry playing his son Nick, Ricky Gervais(The Office) plays Dr. McPhee the manager of the museum. Rami Malek plays Ahkmenrah, Steve Coogan as the miniature roman Octavius, Owen Wilson(The Wedding Crashers) as the cowboy Jedediah.

The always dependable Robin Williams plays Theodore Roosevelt, constantly on horse back and has his eye for Sacajawea played by the lovely Mizuo Peck.

Larry has to prevent many of the animated characters from causing havoc to the museum, notably a Capuchin monkey called Dexter, and he also has to tolerate one of the workers at the musuem Rebecca, who doesn't take him seriously played by the lovely Carla Gugino(Snake eyes), after constantly having to battle wits with Dexter, Larry is amused when Rebecca the next day describes the Capuchin monkey as one of the most generous creatures.

Movie review for Confessions of a Shopaholic

2009-09-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

This is a nice family oriented romantic comedy starring the lovely red head Isla Fisher(Wedding Crashers, Fiance of the notorious Baron Sasha Cohen more widely known as Ali G. and Borat ).

Isla Fisher plays Rebecca Bloomwood of the title, whose childhood desires has given want to spending more than she really should in adulthood to the desperation of her flatmate and best friend Suze, played by the lovely Krysten Ritter(What happens in Vegas) .

Matters come a pivotal moment for Rebecca when she applies for her dream job at a fashion magazine headed by Alette Naylor played by the brilliant Kristin Scott Thomas(The English Patient) unrecognisable with her French accent, but in the process ends up working as a financial journalist headed by Edgar West played by John Lithgow(3rd Rock from the sun) and run by Luke Brandon played by Hugh Dancy(Blood and Chocolate), the initial first bad impressions aside, Luke gives her a chance, and she proves a hit with her column "The Girl with the green scarf" giving tidbits and common sense approach to spending for all who can't help but use their plastic.

Her column becomes so popular that it is featured on television, and in the midst of all this, a debt collection man has been after Rebecca for some time for obviously some unpaid credit card debt, he happens to turn up at her work place, where Rebecca tells her boss that he is a stalker, he promptly has him thrown out, but the more popular she becomes the closer her gets to confronting her about the unpaid debt, which Suze, and her parents Jane and Graham played by Joan Cusack(Arlington Road, something about her smile just brightens up any scene) and John Goodman(Roseanne, Evan Almighty) have been advising her to do.

Realising that she has to do something about her escalating debts, cheered on by her best friend and flatmate who is soon to be hitched, she joins the equivalent of Alcoholic Anonymous for Shopaholics, but will it be too late before the debt collector exposes her in front of her boss and the media?

Movie reviews Nothing but the truth

2009-09-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

This is a deeply disturbing drama, that is based on true events although a great deal of liberty was taken with the truth, as often happens when movies are made based on such events. Nonetheless this is a deeply engrossing poignant drama.

It stars the superb Kate Beckinsale(Underworld) as Rachel Armstrong, a high flying journalist that has revealed the identity of a CIA agent Erica Van Doren played by Vera Farmiga(Running Scared), the government are none too happy about this, and have a federal prosecutor Patton Dubois played by Matt Dillon(absolutely brilliant in Traffic) in on the case, to get Rachel and her newspaper to reveal their source, he is at first charming to Rachel in a Southern manner, but then begins to place governmental pressure on Rachel and her employers on every area to get them or her to reveal her source, or else face federal indictments that could land her in prison.

As not being able to divulge their sources is key to the openness many journalists are able to benefit with regarding their potential sources, she refuses, backed by her boss Bonnie Benjamin played by Angela Bassett(What's love got to do with it, Malcolm X), and her top notch lawyer Alan Burnside played by Alan Alda(What women want).

Matters come to a crescendo as the CIA operative whose cover had been blown confronts Rachel on a number of occasions to reveal her source, and the strain on her life at work and home is beginning to tell especially with her husband Ray played by David Schwimmer(Friends).

It is brilliant acting all through, and you are never quite ready with the what has been laid out for the finale.

Movie Reviews Bedtime stories

2009-09-16T03:26:00.000-07:00

This is a great family movie, with some hilarious moments all the family will enjoy.

It stars Adam Sadler(Don't mess with the Zohan) as Skeeter Bronson a hotel handyman whose father previously ran the hotel but has been swallowed up by a conglomerate headed by Richard Nottingham played by Barry Griffiths(Venus, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) Skeeter although promised a long time ago by Barry Nottingham that he would manage the hotel on account of his father by Marty played by Jonathan Pryce(Pirates of the Caribbean),, unfortunately that promise has not come to fruition, as well as his manual duties he is looked down upon by the antagonist Kendall played by the dependant Guy Pearce(Death defying acts).

The good news for Skeeter is he gets to babysit his adorable nephew and niece Bobbi and Patrick respectively, played by Laura Ann Kesling and played by Jonathan Morgan Heit who have made a wish, and the wish is whatever story he reads to them somehow some of that story comes to pass, in Skeeter's life.

This is where the uniqueness of this movie comes into play, as you keep wondering what could happen, as does Skeeter when he realises whatever story they make him read come to pass. Things are complicated when the regular baby sitter Jill played by the lovely Keri Russell with very warm eyes(Mission Impossible: III), as inevitably Skeeter starts to fall for her, and she for him albeit his first impressions didn't go down so well, Skeeter hopes to manipulate the bedtime stories to his benefit, but as usual in this realm things never quite go to plan.

It is a great family movie, all will find bits to enjoy.

Movie Reviews Bart got a room

2009-09-15T02:42:00.000-07:00

This is a lovely teen comedy the family will enjoy, it tells the story of a typical teenager Danny Stein played by Steven Kaplan(a young Patrick Dempsey lookalike) preparing for his big prom night, except he hasn't found a girl to go to the prom with, there is the obvious girl he really should go to the prom with, who he has known all his life, they get on well, and even do school projects together, as her sister says "he is practically a brother", with, Camille played by the lovely Alia Shawkat, his entire family and hers think that they should go together, but as most teenage boys he is looking for something a little outside his immediate surroundings, notably a very pretty girl Alice played by Ashley Benson, strangely enough he wants to ask her out to the prom even though he suspects he is just a tease, and even contemplates Camille's sister Gerties(played by the very pretty Katie McClellan) as opposed to herself.

Embarrassingly for her Camille even sends him a letter to take her to the prom, which he lets her down gently that he has the eyes for someone else.

Matters come to a head when the local geek(complete with the big double rimmed glasses) not only has a date for the prom but a room hence the title, much to the shock and amazement of his entire family, his mother played by the lovely Cheryl Hines(Robin William's wife in RV) and his divorced dad complete with a nice looking perm played by the dependable William H. Macy(Boogie Nights), his dad is trying to find a date for himself, and there is a funny sequence where he takes his date to a restaurant along with Danny still asking for advice on if the girl of his dreams should be asked to the prom, based on his father's good natured meaning but awkward in the current circumstances, his date makes an excuse that her toddler needs the bathroom, and notably speeds off in her car, while the two are discussing the issue of Danny's potential prom date.

Mixed with his desire to have his parents reconciled, amidst the new man in his mother's life who is nice enough but his dad although not as rich as him will not have his son's affections taken by another guy.

It is a nice sweet family movie, and you could tell there are aspects of it if not the whole thing biographical.

Movie reviews What happens in Vegas

2009-09-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

This is an absolute riotous comedy helped along by the brilliant performances of the cast.

It stars Ashton Kutcher(Punk'd, Bobby) as Jack Fuller and Cameron Diaz(Charlie's Angels) as Joy McNally, two mis-matched individuals heading off to Las Vegas to forget their troublesome home life, Joy fresh from a break-up from her ex-fiance and Jack just been sacked from his job by none other than his dad Jack Williams Sr. played Treat Williams(The Devil's own)(there is a hilarious sequence where Jack challenges his father to a basketball match in order to keep his job, of course he lot pretty easily too).

Jack and his hilarious sidekick Hater played by the infectious Rob Corddry and Joy and her best friend Tipper played by the lovely Lake Bell find out that they have been mistakenly booked in the same suite. Determined to make the most of it, even though none of them get along at first, they decide to go out for a night to drown their sorrows, but somehow end up getting married in a drunken stupor.

The next day realising the mistake they are eager to call the whole thing off, until Jack's spin at the wheel lands him a fortune, and as you know man and wife are legally obliged to share everything, much to their initial disappointment they are made to live as man and wife for several months by a judge, who doesn't believe in quickie divorces, and beliefs the matrimonial vows should be kept to.

The longer they stay together under the same roof, the inevitable attraction begins, and it turns out to be a very warm romantic comedy.

The camaraderie and sparks between Tipper and Hater steal every scene, and the highlights are the end, is even more hilarious then the whole movie.

Movie reviews Tenderness

2009-09-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

This is a very strange and engrossing movie, starring Russell Crowe(Gladiator), Jon Foster, and a brilliant Sophie Traub(The interpreter).
It tells the story of a recovering psychopath Eric Poole(Jon Foster) having his record exhumed for killing his religious parents, because in his mind, he didn't really do anything, according to the detective who has made him his own special pet project, Detective Cristofuoro(Crowe),
he is addicted to the "tenderness" of the kill, and remembers nothing of the incidents.

Cristofuoro has made Eric his "pet project" partly because he has nothing else of interest in his life, his wife is terminally ill, and stopping Eric is all he looks forward to.

On his release Cristofuoro meets him telling him, he is a psychopath, and will kill again, and they both know this, and he(Cristofuoro) will be watching him to make sure it doesn't happen.

Prior to this meeting we are introduced to the young, often effervescent, typical teenager Lori(Sophie Traub), who is having some problems at home opening up with her mother and her new boyfriend, she finds escape with what seems romantic notions about Eric, and soon after his release makes the trip to go and see him, hiding in his car, as he goes on a road trip, telling his aunt Teresa(Laua Dern, Jurassic Park), he is off to view some colleges.

During the road trip we find out that Lori had met Eric before although he is having problems remembering, there are some well acted tense moments, when you wonder what on earth Lori has got herself into, as Detective Cristofuoro paraphrased would say "he will kill again it is only a matter of time", but the alarming reality for Lori is she knows all about Eric with an angst ridden typical teenager, innocent manner "loves" him, much to his confusion.

We also get an insight on how Eric views people, notable Detective Cristofuoro who he regards "as a small beans cop with a vegetable for a wife", he tells Lori he only has to ask about his wife to "shut him up", she replies that isn't this how people generally are, the look of nonchalance on Eric's visage speaks volumes.

This is a brilliant suspense thriller, and a solid performance from all, the star of the movie notably without a doubt is Sophie Traub and she is sure to be a rising star.

Movie reviews Yes man

2009-09-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

This is another funny Jim Carrey movie(can't say I have ever seen one that wasn't intrinsically hilarious in some way).

The plot is of a tired sales man Carl Allen(Jim Carrey), who happens to wander into a feel good seminar where everybody says "Yes" and accepts whatever life throws at them, any questions, any requirements from anyone for anything just say "Yes" to it. The guru of this new age feel good ground is Terence Bundley played by the superb Terence Stamp(General Zod in Superman returns).

Despite Carl's objections he agrees to Terence's advice to just say yes to absolutely everything for a whole year, no matter how ridiculous it may sound, or strange the request, but as cosmic logic goes(especially in the movies), once he has said yes he can't back out. There is a hilariously funny segment that sums Jim Carrey at his most funniest, having to entertain an elderly lady Tillie played by Fionnula Flanagan, who is surprisingly adept, as I am much more familiar with her as the sullen elder Eloise Hawkings in Lost.

Love interest for Carl is provided by Allison played by the lovely Zooey Deschanel(Live Free or Die, something about her seems very familiar, she has that look of familiarity that you have seen her somewhere but can't quite pin it), the meet in a hilarious segment as Allison's rock group are bumbling around making songs as they go along as Carl somehow becomes a fan as opposed to the other solitary fan in the bar. Allison sees Carl's willingness to say yes to everything as a true rebel, and someone to look up to, and the inevitable romance begins.

It has some absolute classic moments especially the scenes with Carl and Tillie which will go down as one of the scenes of the year for rib tickling laughter.

Movie Reviews for Fighting

2009-09-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is an enjoyable movie and rightly billed as Rocky for a new generation. I must say the music, and cinematography people will instantly recognise the Rocky references, even without being told that this is being billed as Rocky for a new generation.

It stars Channing Tatum(Step up to the streets) as a former college wrestler Shawn McArthur struggling hard to make ends meet in New York after having an altercation with his father/coach of the wrestling team. We meet him as he is struggling to offload a series of books he has no idea are counterfeit, one of the hapless buyers happens to be the gorgeous Zulay Valez (Zulay Henao, S. Darko something about her just reminds me of a cat), from the altercation that occurs with Harvey Boarden(Terrence Howard, Iron man) and some of his associates, Harvey gets the impression Shawn may indeed be just what he is looking for, for an underground fighting campaign, the rates of pay of course are several times more than either of them could make struggling to survive on the unforgiving metropolis that is New York.

Although billed as Rocky for the next generation, there are some testing questions the original Rocky would not have crossed his mind to contemplate, and of course there is the familiar territory of the arch nemesis of a protagonist, the talented wrestler Evan Hailey(Brian J. White The Shield) who happens to have been the catalyst for the original fallout with Shawn's father, as equally Harvey as Shawn's unofficial manager has to face some of the taunts from his comrades who are rolling in the money, notably Martinez(Luiz Guzman, Traffic) Jack Dancing(Roger Guenver Smith, He got game).

You are left wondering if Shawn is going to make it as a underground fighter, and if there is any romantic hope for him and the lovely Zulay equally struggling herself to raise a child on her own, and her troubling grandmother.

It is a enjoyable movie, and I for one hope there is a sequel.

Movie ReviewsThe human contract

2009-09-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

It stars Jason Clarke(Farscape) as Julian Wright as a strategist for a firm, that is about to merge for a 5 billion dollar franchise, where incidentally Julian is about to head the company, from the retiring boss E.J. Winters, played by a grey-haired Ted Danson(Cheers), but there are twists in store for Julian and you soon realise he has a lot of issues to deal with.

We join our protagonist as he is in a bar chatting with a stunning seductress played by Paz Vega who strangely enough is called Michael.

Soon afterwards he happens to bump into Michael again as she heads off to watch Frankenstein at a graveyard. The inevitable affair begins, and although Julian is about to initiate a divorce with his wife, you wonder what on earth happened as they still seem pretty close. Julian's desire for Michael soon begins to get the better of him, from the alpha male fighting for her, to wanting her all for himself, in the midst of well founded worries from his work colleagues, while she turns contemporary views on relationships on it's head, what she regards as some kind of "Human contract" she chooses not to live by.

We never know quite what is going to happen, but as Julian goes from one problem to another notably keeping his sister Rita(played by Jada-Pinkett Smith[The Matrix reloaded]) away from an abusive spouse, you get the feeling this 5 billion dollar merger is at risk of not happening anytime soon.

Something about Michael reminds me of Penelope Cruz, there is that Spanish exotic quality about her, and of course like Cruz she is utterly delectable, and any red blooded male would not resist her charms for long.

It is directed by Jada-Pinkett Smith wife of one of the executive producers, I am sure you have seen one if not several of his movies, whose movies are the highest grossing of all time, the one and only Will Smith, and I must say I find her style of directing captivating to watch.

Movie reviews The great Buck Howard

2009-09-03T03:27:00.000-07:00

The title lead character is played by the superb John Malkovich as the mentalist Buck Howard, you learn early on he hates the name magician, as he believes it dilutes what he does.

It stars Colin Hanks(The House Bunny) as Troy Gable a law undergraduate who is uninterested in his current vocation, and is looking for that spark in life, much to the dismay of his well meaning father. When you first see Colin Hanks there is something strangely familiar about him, and viola in comes Tom hanks and it clicks that they are real life father and son, playing father and son in this movie.

Coincidences places Troy as a personal assistant to Buck Howard, who has a series of peculiarities that has driven his previous assistant Alan Berkman (Adam Scott, Knocked Up) eager to leave in a rage, leaving only Troy, Buck's effervescent manager Gil Bellamy played amicably by Ricky Jay(Redbelt) and the brother and sister team in charge of his venue Kenny played by the hilarious Steve Zahn(Bandidas) and Doreen played by the affectionate Debra Monk(Mrs O'Malley in Grey's Aanatomy) . The audience as well as Troy are left rooting for Buck regardless of his peculiarities and when things don't go as planned you feel it as much as his personal assistant.

It is a lovely movie most will enjoy, and of course the customary love interest is provided by Valeria Brennan played by the superb Emily Blunt(The Devil wears Prada, Something about her eyes reminds me of Bambi).

The character of Buck Howard was based on The Amazing Kesring, who's fantastic mentalist trick the great Buck Howard recreates was never duplicated or revealed.

One of the classic lines in the movie revealing the humor of the Buck Howard, he asks an attendant to get him a glass of water, the attendant points to water already in the room to which Buck replies "That there is distilled water, I am not an iron get me spring water."

Movie reviews The soloist

2009-09-01T00:17:00.000-07:00

This is a well acted melancholy, and gripping biographical tale of the relationship between an investigational journalist and a down and out tramp.

It stars oscar winner Jamie Foxx(Dreamgirls) as Nathaniel Ayers a former student at the prestigious Juilliard school of the arts, but now out on his luck living on the streets which he has chosen to do (apparently Jamie Foxx took a chisel to his perfectly immaculate set of white teeth, to give an authentic look for the tramp, he said he looked at himself in the mirror rehearsing for the role, and said a tramp wouldn't have such a perfect set of teeth. You have to admire the dedication), and Robert Downey Jr.(Iron man, Tropical Thunder) as journalist Steve Lopez.

We first meet Nathaniel as Steve Lopez is feeling a little sorry for himself, his arm in a cast after a previous accident, and simply looking to while the time, he is enchanted, as no doubt the audience by the seemingly well-disposed Nathaniel who sees the beauty even in the busy sidewalk where he plays his battered down violin with a few strings missing. Steve Lopez as many an investigate reporter checks out his story, and indeed confirms he was at the prestigious Julliard school of the arts.

In his attempts to aide Nathaniel settle into a life of normalcy and indeed start playing again in front of a respectable audience, you soon realise Nathaniel is certainly not balanced, and this is where the great acting permeates through, because you are never quite sure where Nathaniel well being is, one minute he is calm relaxed, and sociable, leaving you wonder how he could have got to such debts in the first place, and the next moment, you realise he is not well at all.

There is family for Nathaniel as Steve investigates(and no doubt the audience also wonders about) in the form of his sister Jennifer, played by the lovely Lisa Gay Hamilton(The sum of all fears), but it never deviates from the main thrust of the movie, the relationship between the unstable Nathaniel and the attempts to save him by his new friend Steve Lopez, and you are left on the edge of your seat hoping for the best but not being too optimistic.