FANTASTIC MR FOX Film Review - 29/3/10

I'm afraid that unless your a particular fan of this type of anachronistic animation then this style won't be for you! Unless you a Film Student interested in this type of work or a child under 10 years old I really can't see an 11 year old really enjoying this - Tastes in animation are so far sophisticated now that this would be classed as a 'has-been'. But don't get me wrong whilst I can happily sit and watch 'Wallace & Gromit' this 'Fantastic Mr Fox' came over jarringly bland and somewhat tasteless despite the hours and hours that must have been put into it's Production; it also has a rather adult line in humour - So not really certain where this is aimed at? Add a talented voice cast with the likes of George Clooney & Meryl Streep and you still have a clunker! Mr Fox has to change his ways after getting caught by the Farmer - Several years later having gone straight he falls back into his fox-stealing habits and this time around the Farmer aims to take him out of play for good!

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2012 (DVD Review) - 29/3/10

Taking numerous ideas from a variety of sources this is no mere earthquake or twister but full-on worldwide scale destruction. Tick list is top priority here: Dog In Danger TICK Kids In Peril TICK Dysfunctional Family TICK Madman No One Believes TICK Scientist Who Has All The Answers TICK and the list goes on. Following the Painting-By-Numbers scenario all the usual scenes are in place: World weary President stands against the coming tide, stand-in father dies untimely death, plucky hero saves the day - You know the sort of thing? And you now what? I loved it - The lashings of emotion and syrup were all in evidence. Even the ending ramps it all up again and watching 'The Making Of' afterwards really shows how seamless some of the SFX is and how well the sets blend in with the locations - I was surprised at just how much setwork really did not look like a set at all! So scientist gets called to India by another scientist and things look a bit serious jump forward 3 years and the planet is going into meltdown literally but Humanity has a plan to save the day but ends on the classic film 'When Worlds Collide' with an ending almost exactly the same showing again that not much has changed and greed will buy you anything. Throw in a Commentary plus an Alternative Ending, Deleted Scenes & a Making Of with a pile of Trailers and there you have it - Sheer class!

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THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS Film Review - 28/3/10

What starts off as an enchanting, breezy fantasy suddenly changes tone halfway through and turns into something very nasty indeed. I would rather fire a nailgun through my foot than watch this unmitigated pile of bollox again! Streaming through a selection of imaginary worlds with bargains with the devil - Is it real? A dream? Someones imagination running riot? Filmed in various derelict London locales the imagery is amazing - If not a touch too much CGI - But the story boringly rambles with no real sense of purpose and no explanation as to what really is happening/maybe happening? Totally frustrated I recall the mess of 'The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen' all over again - When Gilliam gets it right it's fantastic - When he doesn't it's a turgid mess like this! Let us remember Heath Ledger as The Joker and not as Tony from this dreary debacle. Dr. Parnassus gains immortality from The Devil (A great performance from Tom Waits) but as the centuries pass the Devil & Parnassus carry on their gambling game possibly changing reality through the ages.

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LEGION Film Review - 23/3/10

Starting off exceptionally well this spooky tale sets up it's gang of mismatched characters and dumps them in a worn down diner in the middle of the desert - Then wouldn't you know it the apocalypse hits and humanity is lined up for destruction by God sending his Angels to do his bidding. Just as the action ramps up everyone decides to have a get together and discuss their backstories? It's the apocalypse people have you nothing better to do? The occasional flash of brilliance in several scenes throughout the film is dragged down by the slow pacing. Let's face it - With the quality of SFX these days even a TV budget looks good so with a great show like 'Supernatural' this tired movie 'Legion' is the poor man's brother in so many ways! God loses faith with the Human race once more and decides to wipe them from the Earth and start again. The Angel Michael disobeys falls to earth and vows to protect a child that should never have been born - Angels take over other humans and start mass killings - Then the Angel Gabriel is sent to Earth to finish the fight for good - This sounds really terrible now I've read it why did I watch it in the first place?

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FROM PARIS WITH LOVE Film Review - 22/3/10

Let's face it you can see Luc Besson's touch all over this high-octane action movie and he just wrote the story! As a Director himself Besson who has way too many numerous great action films to his name so takes a back seat here and let's the Director Pierre Morel ('The Transporter') trash half of Paris. With leading man John Travolta as an out-of-control Black Ops agent called in to do a job he wades through the bad guys like butter and his sidekick a straitlaced Jonathan Rhys Meyers gets dragged along for the ride. Throw in your usual cliches of terrorists and drugs and massive plotholes and it just doesn't matter! The sheer exuberance of it all rattles along all guns blazing - It's totally ridiculous but endlessly entertaining. Another to add to the BUY LIST on DVD when available!

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NINJA ASSASSIN Film Review - 21/3/10

Quite a number of names attached to this: J. Michael Straczynski (He of the 'Babylon 5' Universe) was writing the Screenplay, we also had the Wachowski brothers and Joel Silver on board as Producers plus Director James McTeigue ('V For Vendetta') throw in a charismatic lead in the form of an actor called Rain and all hell breaks loose! Faces slide off heads sliced through with razor cut blades and you can hear the thhrrrrippp sound whistling through the air as various shuriken throwing stars embed themselves into torsos. Then silence as a flashback takes you into the past and an air of grace settles upon you as the story slowly unfolds. Extremely brutal and extremely violent I haven't seen anything this blood drenched for quite awhile. If you take the story-telling of 'Crying Freeman' 'La Femme Nikita' or 'Brotherhood Of The Wolf' it mixes the violence with a tender love story from the past and then lays out it's vendetta for all to see. Basically a revenge tale it has a blend of genres but follows it's own path. An Interpol Agent working in Berlin comes across information on some high-profile assassinations and the links lead to a clandestine ancient Ninja Clan - Getting too close to the truth the clan send out assassins to silence the leak - But one of their own clan defends the agent setting a drastic chain of events in motion. I for one have already ordered it on DVD.

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G-FORCE (DVD Review) - 15/3/10

Way over the top kiddie friendly action movie featuring CGI talking animals from Jerry Bruckheimer bringing total Transformers type madness to this endearing but boring film. Think 'Mission Impossible' crossed with 'Doctor Doolittle' and you get the picture - A select team of animals in a covert group called G-FORCE go undercover to save the world from a coffee machine or something and Bill Nighy is in it (The film not the coffee machine!) yadda yadda yadda explosion car crash or something - Then I went to bed.

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GHOST WHISPERER {4th. Season} (DVD Review) - 15/3/10

Plowing into this 4th. Season of 'Ghost Whisperer' we immediately lose a character who gets written out badly and a new character written in hastily - Luckily enough this new character has the ability to hear ghosts. We then also charge through this Season with the 'Love Arc' between Jim/Sam and Melinda turning the thumbscrews too wring out every drop of emotion they can until it gets tiresome. The format is starting to get stale and it seems every episode runs the gamut of the previous with a slightly different theme. It's not to say it isn't enjoyable just a bit too samey for my liking. This Season doesn't end on a stupid cliffhanger but starts with a grand premise and becomes very involving until it goes tits up and burns out like a damp squib - Talk about expectations being raised then falling flat! Nice selection of Special Features as usual with a Making Of plus Scoring The Music feature and a highlight feature on the new character this Season. More Webisodes from the net and a Bloopers Reel.

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