SPIDERMAN 3 Film Review - 18/5/07

Odeon Cinema Chain you need to pull your fingers out over your Concession Stands - You and other cinemas are always bleating on about how much profit you need to make to cover costs by selling your extortinate goodies and believe me it's like having half a lemon jabbed in either eye as the prices charged are eye-watering. £3.40p for a Small Popcorn - Ha! Ha! Now myself I will pay.....But what I would like is for you to actually have something in stock. Not "Oh, we have just run out of Hotdogs" or "We have no buns" maybe "The tomarto sauce is on order" and "The freezing cycle has just started on the drinks machine" as I'm getting fed up with the excuses it's like this every time I go? How can I buy something if your not selling it? After forking out £7.20p for a film ticket I'd be better off waiting for a year and buying it on DVD for the comfort of my own home with it's fully stocked fridge & larder. I would not at all be surprised if ticket sales to the cinema are down - The cost for a family of four is astronomical and having spoken to a number of people most are loathe to go to the flicks at these prices. I think your driving people away and it is going to get worse!

Having watched a run of duff films recently this can also be added to the pile. Overbloated and overly long this packs in far too much romance and Peter Parker when we all want to see the scraps between the bad guys? Venom isn't mentioned but graces this film along with the Sandman and a new Green Goblin. Swathes of this film make absolutely no sense at all after the first two films and the sheer stupidity on show is gob-smacking: At the end of the second film we see the (obviously) new Green Goblin set-up but after a minor head injury that's all forgotten in amnesiaville but Peter Parker doesn't cotton onto this about his "best mate"? Sam Raimi please give it a rest and go and make "Evil Dead 3" properly this time - If you can afford $500,000,000 for this "Spiderman 3" claptrap you should have enough for a decent Evil dead film. The story really is a mess drifting from one scene to another without any sense of where it's going or why? Just as it starts to ratchet everything up a notch it finishes. With a much tighter script and less excess in the Production this could of been great instead it's "Batman & Robin" for 2007. One thing I was impressed with was some of the graphics - The CGI and FX were phenomenal - No wonder it cost so much to make! Peter Parker is now getting on with his life and romance with Mary Jane - BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-YADA-YADA-YADA - Bit of guilt, alien presence, Aunt May & some tears, new Green Goblin, Harry bangs head - happy times for all, watch out the Sandman's about, Parker/Spidey goes off the deep end, Venom, more Sandman, Romance, Big Villains Punch Up, The End.

The new revamped Green Goblin

The Sandman

Venom & Spidey

GRINDHOUSE Film Review - 17/5/07

After the excellent work done on "Sin City" I was hoping for a repeat collaboration between Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino along the lines of "From Dusk To Dawn" unfortunately we end up with another "Kill Bill Parts 1 & 2" with "Grindhouse" which is a dismal mess and flopped in the States. Paying homage to the 70's habit of the double-feature and exploitation in general we get a film from Robert Rodriguez with "Planet Terror" and the flip-side with "Death Proof" from Quentin Tarantino interspersed with some fake trailers, sound dropping out, voices out of sync, cuts, scratches, flickering tapes, missing film reels and just a total hash really! Whilst churning this rubbish out instead of getting on with something original such as the sequel to "Sin City" I feel really is a waste of their time and ours! The cast reads like a who's who of previous Rodriguez/Tarantino guest stars with some new names also cropping up. "Planet Terror" is a typical zombie-fest type of film (and the better of the two) and then "Death Proof" starts off well but falls apart at the end. Nice try lads - It must be great to do anything you want and indulge yourselves all the time with your mates and the Studios money.

FUR: AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS Film Review - 17/5/07

This is a Diane Arbus portrait - Notice how closely the resemblance is between the portrait and the film's poster (below) in style...

Essentially a surrealistic trip through various imaginings of the work of influential photographer Diane Arbus. "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus" shows Kidman's character of Diane Arbus turning her back on her wealthy family and falling in with her enigmatic mentor played by Robert Downey, Jr. who basically introduces her to the seedier side in life of the marginalised people who helped her become one of the most revered & iconic photographers of her time. As a 1950s uptight and repressed wife/assistant to her husband; she breaks barriers through into the sixties and finds her own way in life, ultimately committing suicide in 1971. Starting in 1958 we get an "imagined" and somewhat fanciful tale of desire and repression, spontaneity and expression in a whole catalogue of bizarre and downbeat situations. Feeling like a black & white film (But actually in Colour) this covers the action in front of the camera lens and behind it.

MEMORY Film Review - 17/5/07

Quite a smart (but fairly workmanlike) psychological thriller with an interesting premise. Billy Zane & Tricia Helfer (From TV's revamped "Battlestar Galactica") star in this tale of genetics; as a medical researcher and an artist team up, and end up rooting into a mystery about the genetically stored memories of a serial killer. With the talents of Dennis Hopper & Ann-Margret also in tow a fairly creepy tale is laid out for us to enjoy. Made in 2005 and seemingly slipping under the film radar again, it is only just now from around March 2007 that "Memory" has slowly begun to appear in Cinemas - It is also coming out the end of this month (May 2007) in the US on Region 1 DVD - The reason behind the 2 year wait for release; I am led to believe, was due to a dispute over music rights? Billy Zane's character of Taylor Briggs gets accidentally exposed to a dust in a hospital in Brazil and then strangely re-lives memories from years before he was born - Unfortunately these memories are from a serial killer kidnapping little girls; and who seems to still be doing it, decades later in the present day. So starts a pursuit into finding the killer and stopping them before they carry out any further crimes.

THE FOUNTAIN Film Review - 16/5/07

I can't say I enjoyed this film or even understood it fully; as it is a strangely ethereal mix of pain and loss set across a thousand years or so, with the same characters in different versions of three histories from 16th. Century Spain, the present day and the future in the 26th. Century. A very long film clocking in at a 173 minutes it is visually stunning but raises more questions than it answers? It is hard to follow as it jumps from time to time and trying to get your head round it all just won't happen. I felt at a loss after viewing this creation which reminded me vaguely of the film "Silent Running" another film about loss & redemption. "The Fountain" is a hard film but intelligent - But extremely hard going - You would really need to stick with it. It is also not a film about romance or science fiction - But does have these elements attached to it.

Hugh Jackman & Rachel Weisz head up the cast with Jackman's character in 16th. Century Spain travelling to a Mayan temple in a search for the Tree Of Life, flitting between the present day as a scientist trying to find a cure for his wife's illness, then journeying into the 26th. Century as a futuristic astronaut flying towards a star nebula close to destruction.

NORBIT Film Review - 16/5/07

The film's Tag-line is "Have You Ever Made A Really Big Mistake?" and that should be taken literally. Having seen all the best bits in the Trailer for this movie (which looked fairly funny) actually watching it was a really big mistake! Eddie Murphy plays 3 characters (maybe - it's hard to tell?) and both are really offensive in a film with a real nasty mean streak in a "supposed" comedy....lurching from one unpleasant character to the next I couldn't wait for this tired & trite rubbish to finish. Watching this was about as interesting as sitting in a launderette for 2 hours seeing clothes spinning around in a washing machine. Cliched stereotypes in an aimless comedy saying nothing and leading nowhere packed full of standard fare of the "seen it all before" type and nasty with it. Cuba Gooding, Jnr. & Thandie Newton were wasted on this drivel and obviously had the rent to pay this month otherwise I doubt if they would sink this low?

Eddie Murphy playing Eddie Murphy?

Actors for hire - Low Rates as Bills need paying!

Eddie Murphy playing Eddie Murphy?

Murphy's character grows up as an orphan and ends up married to a grotesque woman (played by Murphy) who later meet's his childhood sweetheart and rebels against his restrictive life. It doesn't get any better!

THE 4400 {3rd. Season} (DVD Review) - 13/5/07

Well with the BBC shoving Dr. Who back a week for Eurovision (Nice to see the contempt is still held there for Sci Fi by the BBC - They nearly bumped it back a couple of weeks earlier because of football as well) I decided to plow straight into Season 3 of "The 4400" which has only taken ten months to appear on Region 1 DVD from the USA. The 4-disc set comprises all of the 12 episodes from this current season and wasn't it a lame and lack-lustre affair! Turning from the original ideas from the first 2 seasons we lose a cast member to a contract dispute so they get killed off, we get all the sub-par X-Files type conspiracy drivel and apart from a good episode with "Blink" it's all pretty ropey and samey. All the major plot points could have been stuck into a two hour TV film inside of being strung out with all the red herrings. Really need the Producers/Writers to buck up their ideas in Season 4 or I can see this falling by the wayside in "cancellation" mode.

SPECIAL FEATURES: 5 Audio Commentaries on selected episodes, 4 dull Featurettes, a really uninspiring Gag Reel and a PDF DVD-ROM feature of the first draft of Episode "Being Tom Baldwin".

Special Features Not Rated or Close Captioned. Widescreen Format Enhanced for 16:9 TVs. Dolby Digital: English 5.1. Surround/English Stereo Surround/Spanish Mono. Subtitles: English/Spanish/ Brazilian Portuguese. CBS/PARAMOUNT 2006/2007. NTSC Colour. Runtime: 9 Hrs. 20 Mins. Rating: US Not Rated/Can 14A. CC. Region 1 (USA). 12271/11111008009/ISBN # 1415730040.

SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM (DVD Review) - 13/5/07

Having read some of the Marquis De Sade which was pretty heavy going I had heard about this film a while back and had not made any further attempts at tracking it down. Reading an article from EMPIRE Film Magazine that just labelled it porn; I felt that couldn't be right, and my opinion on EMPIRE as a neutral film mag has been starting to slide for a while anyway. So onto Ebay I went and got hold of a cheap copy from Greece - Which even had a nice little selection of Special Features in the form of a narrated foreword (written by Pasolini himself), with a four-page Pasolini Bio and a rare posters segment to finish off. Based of the Marquis De Sade's work Director Pier Paolo Pasolini directed his final film in 1975 of "Salo, Or The 120 Days Of Sodom" before shortly being murdered in a suspected cover-up tied to the government. Covering the Nazi-controlled Italian State of Salo in 1944 four high ranking officials kidnap some local youths and proceed to degrade, humiliate and generally sink to the baser depths of morality in an allegory of the state, government, dictatorship and fascism. What an individual will make of it one can only guess as I feel it will affect people in different ways? A trying film for trying times - Which is probably as relevant today as it was then (and still some!) Various versions of the film exist and this one runs for 112 Minutes in Mono Sound. This Greek Version is Region 0 and plays with English Subtitles.