Gone Baby Gone

New to DVD!

Ben Afleck's directoral debut is like no other film you will find, very original!

A little girl is gone missing, our hero must search all of his untoward contacts in order to find her... when he does find the girl it is not in the way that he had expected...

This movie is relentless, it is a drama in the legend of "Good Will Hunting" yet this movie refuse to be a clone and will never resort to being a general "feel-good" movie!

I basically just got this movie because it was exclusive to Blockbuster, and I'm not usually a fan of the Drama genre, as I tend to think of them as an excuse for poor plotline... But this movie is relentless, excellent original storyline!

Crime, Guilt, Family, Love, all to be found in this movie, a wonderful mix of emotions!

Starring Cassey Afleck, Michelle Monaghan, Meg Ryan, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman, A great cast, Ed Harris is particularly good in this movie!

Movie Rating 9/10

Parental Guidance?

Superhero Movie

With the launch of the DVD, I figured I ought to review this great spoof movie!

I enjoyed this movie a lot more than the recent "Disaster Movie" and it's a sure recommend for anyone looking fora good laugh.

The movie is basically a spoof of the Superhero genre as a whole and in particular of Spiderman! extremely funny for a fan of superhero movies!

I was laughing throughout the movie, even on my second viewing! And I rarely find silly jokes funny, but this movie is a pure gem!

I guess I'm giving it a few too many good points, but my only basis of comparison is with Disaster Movie, which really does not kick up much of a fight.

In reality, I can't say much about the movie, but it will certainly attract those that are fans of the superhero genre and also people that are just generally out for a good laugh!

So I'll certainly recommend this movie, but please don't expect anything too intellectual!

Movie Rating: 8.75/10

parental guidance?

Taken

Excellent movie! A king of the revenge/spy genre!

Personally I thought this film was superb, wonderful, and I want to recommend it to anyone reading this blog!

Starring Liam Neeson! I'm a fan of Liam Neeson, I'll tell you straight away so I won't say any more than, that I was really pleased with his acting and that he didn't lat me down at all!

Liam Neeson plays a retired government spy, and when his daughter is taken by woman traffickers he has to hunt them down to prevent his daughter from permanently becoming a whore...

OK, not quite as perverted as it sounds from the synopsis, but it certainly gives you the feel in the movie that there is a lot to be lost if he fails, but also a lot to be gained if he succeeds in retrieving his daughter.

It's an action movie! It does very well at doing that, in fact I'd almost go as far as to say that it's the best action I've ever seen on screen! It's relentless and extremely tense! Certainly a great film if you want fun!

The film was on a very personal level, so you could really get to know the characters and start to love or hate the case may be...

I found the movie extremely exciting, but yet very wholesome too! I have nothing negative to say about this movie, and it seems most other reviewers have given it very favorable reviews too. So... get to your cinema, and go watch it!

Superb!

Movie rating: 9.25/10

parental guidance?

Righteous Kill

When is a kill righteous? When is it not?

The main selling point of this movie is to have Robert DeNero and Al Pacino together in one film: Pacino vs. De Nero. I personally like Al Pacino better, but that doesn't have any bearing on the movie whatsoever. Both actors act very well in the movie, so I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

The story line is extremely good and almost deserves all 5 stars, there is a series of murder cases to unravel, and that is a geat classic story line, DeNero's character is a very likely suspect, how is he going to cover up what he has done?

I liked the movie, and there was just enough action for me, great actors, great cast all round, and I'm sure it can make it's way into being a few people's favorite movie...

But for me, I found it just slightly confusing at times as to what the whole point of the movie was, so not a popcorn movie at any rate, but if you are in the right mood, I'm certainly going to recommend as a fun watch!

In all a great watch!

Movie rating: 8/10

parental guidance?

A few general movie updates!

Del Toro will be co-writing a trilogy of Vampire Novels

There will be a prequel to I am Legend, starring Will Smith

Johnny Depp will star as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming: Alice in Wonderland

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is on it's way

Valkyrie's trailer will be premiering this evening, along with a short documantary about the movie

Seems like there's quite a bit of news recently, so I thought I'd break it to you all in one go! Enjoy!

A Movie Fan's Travel Guide: Spain

Spain is the real place that amazes me in the filming industry. I seem to have an affiliation with a lot of Spanish works!

The Movie of note that comes from Spain is Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth earning 3 Oscars and nominations for yet another 3. This is perhaps what really put Spain in the brightness of the movie world!

After watching Pan's Labyrinth I proceded to watch all of Del Toro's movies, which all became favorites to me, and soon I decided to try out other Spanish film makers, like Baleguero (who makes some really scary horror movies) and Paco Plaza (who is also very good on horror, but has a slightly more fantastical slant to his movies). So I think in reality Spain is the master of the horror and Fantasy genre, but I'm not going to argue that point as I like a lot of other foreign horror!

There are a number of famous acting talents from Spain including Javier Bardem who has recieved acclaim from both Spanish and Enlish speaking roles including his recent: No Country for Old Men.

Another great acting talent from Spain I'd like to draw your attention to Ivana Baquero (Ofelia from Pan's Labyrinth), she has recieved much acclaim from acting in Pan's Labyrinth, and is now just finishing off her first English language role, so expect to see her more often in cinenas over here.

It almost seems as if to be a really successful actor you will have to learn english, but perhaps in the future this will change!

Love Film

I have been persuaded to try out Love Film by a friend. It's a great idea, you have unlimited rentals of DVD's but you are only allowed 3 at a time, it only costs 16 pounds a month so seems a very cost effectual strategy, but I will tell you in future how this goes.

The thing that caught my eyes was that blu-ray dvd's are included in the package, so even if I only borrowed 1 a month, it should be worth it.

More later!

Dante 01

"If there's anything we learn from fairy-tales, it's not that Dragons exist - But that they can be beaten!"

Absolutely superb!

Available on DVD across Europe, sorry rest of the world only imports for you.

From Marc Caro (director of Delicatessen and City of Lost Children) this is a sci-fi fantasy movie that just cannot be missed.

Language: French (with english subtitles)

Caro tells us of a hellish space ship, obitting a planet like hell, where human experimentation is being carried out. It is a fight for freedom. It is a fight to the bitter end. That sets the scene.

Caro tells the story in a classic fantastical way, drawing you in with a beautiful narrative in the opening.

A man with extraordinary powers finds himself on a spaceship where human experimentation is being carried out. The prisoners must fight for their freedom, leaving all their differences behind. But what is stopping them?

Starring Dominique Pinon (in many great wierd French movies)

Movie rating: 9.5/10

The Women

I was dragged out to see this by friends, I'm not one to watch Chick Flicks as a rule... But... I really enjoyed this one, just plain old classic stuff done really well with a good cast!

I must say, one of the things I disliked about The Dark Knight was the lack of a female presence, which was certainly not felt in this movie!

The Story is a remake of a 1939 m0vie, and is basically as the title describes, about women! One Woman's husband is having an affair with another woman, and most of the movie revolves around how to deal with this problem as her friends are all there to give her guidance!

As concerning the emotional side, it seemed to touch all the right chords just at the perfect time.

Really well done movie on a whole, but not quite a classic.

There's enough content there for the thinker, and great laughs, and in parts promotes a wonderful feel-good atmosphere, just the perfect movie if you want one to relax to!

Movie rating: 8.75/10

Parental Guidance?

Tropic Thunder

Ben Stiller's new comedy! Quite good I thought!

Directed by Ben Stiller, starring Ben Stiller Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.

A group of actors go all out to make a film, but the director seemed to be having troubles getting them to act properly... so he devised that the best way to make them act well was to make them really feel the danger, so he puts them in the thick of a war torn country, and let reality make a real actor! But it all goes into disaster when the REAL troubles start!

It is really funny, you will not be let down on that front!

The story-line is surprisingly very good, and will certainly entertain, and even the emotional chords will be touched!

An inconvetional layout to the movie will give it a totally new look, making you feel as if you are experiencing a totally new kind of movie...

But for you to really understand about this movie, you will have to watch it for yourself!

Good watching!

Overall a very good movie, well done Stiller!

Movie rating: 8.25/10

parental guideance?

A Movie Fan's Travel Guide: New Zealand

New Zealand is easily home to the fantasy genre. Lord of the Rings was made and filmed there, the Narnia movies were filmed there, King Kong too, and also The Water Horse, so for someone crazy about fantasy movies, it's the perfect place to go!

There are currently tours being given around New Zealand for anyone the see the scenery used in both the Lord of the Rings and Narnia movies, and in reality, I think it's worth the holiday, there are a number of places that you will still be able to recognise from the movies, but a also a lot that wold be hardly recognisable at all. But to see these places can certainly open your eyes to what effort Peter Jackson and Andrew Adamson went through to create a world so unlike ours, yet still holding a humanly beauty.

In recent times two famous directors have come fron New Zealand:

One is Peter Jackson, the acclaimed director of Lord of the Rings and King Kong. Jackson is currently working with Del Toro in creating the Lord of the Rings prequel: The Hobbit, and is also working with Steven Spielberg in creating a movie trilogy adaptation of the popular "Tintin" graphic novels.

The second famous New Zealand director is Andrew Adamson, director of the Narnia Movies and of the Shrek movies, so a very accomplished director. Adamson will not be directing the third Narnia movie, but will produce, with director Michael Apted at the helm.

As far as actors are concerned, New Zealand has it's fair share but no more. A couple famous acting talents are: Karl Urban (Eomer from Lord of the Rings) and Anna Paquin (Rogue from X-Men)

Blu-ray Update

I mentioned at the beginning of the month that I had moved over to Blu-ray, so just a bit of an update on what I think:

I'm personally very pleased with Blu-ray, the quality is much better, but I wouldn't call it a completely necessary upgrade. Blu-ray is the perfect upgrade for anyone that is CRAZY about movies, but for anyone else, DVD can perform just as well for most movies. In reality most movies don't need the extra speeds that Blu-ray has to offer, being made to be compatible with DVD they tend to make thing optimised for DVD!

• But there are a few points in which Blu-ray excels:

• The initial impression of the movies that I hadn't previously watched have been very good, though it may be just that the movies they pick to go onto Blu-ray are just the better movies...

• Action works really well on Blu-ray as the lens is said to be 4 times faster

• There seems to be more colours on Blu-ray

• This may seem only a little change, but with High Definition it is much easier to see the eyes, which it reality adds another eliment to the movie, as the eyes tell so much about what someone is thinking!

So try to hold off from Blu-ray as long as you can, but if you can't wait, go ahead and buy it, and enjoy it!

A Movie Fan's Travel Guide: China

China is fast becoming a new Hollywood, I have heard people say it's like Hollywood in the 60s but with better graphics!

In China you will have the chance to visit the sets of the popular Chinese movies such as: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Emperor and the Assassin, House of Flying Daggers, Etc.

There are also some great acting talents coming from there too now: Jet Li, Jacki Chan, Zhang Yiyi. it may be possible for you to get a little glimpse as they go about creating their current movies (though most of them would be in Hollywood)

There's no doubt that Hollywood is still the king of movie-making, but China is certainly making a good attempt at taking their place!

Silly Pictures! (Can you guess what they are?)

What on Earth is this? you may be asking... and well you might! but, I'm going to let you guess, they are movie characters, can you guess any of them?

(My blog's hilarious)

(Praps I'm going out of my mind)

(OK I'll probably be better tomorrow)

A Movie Fan's Travel Guide: USA

This is the first of a series of travel guides written for the movie goer... here you will find many things to ammuse you in the country where you plan to go!

USA

This is really the capital of movies... you will find lots to ammuse yourself with. The obvious attractions include Disneyworld and Hollywood itself, quite expensive places to visit, but I understand it' well worth it!

Along with visiting these attractions, you may want to head south and visit a few of the outdoor sets for popular Western movies!

And best of all, if you're really lucky, you might get a glimpse of your favorite actor or actress! A lot of really good acting talents are in the USA, to name a few: Johnny Depp, Will Smith, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Nicholas Cage... And in addition, you may catch a glimpse of your favorite directors: Geaorge Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Etc.

Watch out for more reviews in this series!

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I'd appreciate it if anyone would like to write a guide to their own country... there's no rules, just write something that a movie fan would like... In return I will give you complete credit for the article, and link to your site if you want! An excellent way of advertising, as I intend to make this series widely popular! So any guest bloggers will be an honour!

Eden Lake

Great movie, not your usual horror movie, much more experimental!

A young couple go on holiday to a remote lake and get into a bit of a tangle with a few youths there... The horror starts as the youths become more and more violent!

Excellently brutal film... and in parts gets really scary, and I must say I enjoyed it more than The Strangers.

There's not too much I can really say about it, but if your into horror, this is the movie to watch at the cinemas at the moment!

Movie Rating: 8.75/10

Perental Guideance?

The Strangers

Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman

I think I would be right to say that this is the main reason anyone would set out to watch this movie: To see they favorite acting talents! I went expressly to see Liv Tyler I must admit... and I was not dissapointed, there was enough of Liv to satisfy me at any rate!

A young couple go to live in a nice country house... but like in a lot of horror movies... there was something slightly wrong with the house, Strangers were always knocking on the door, and seemed quite intent on getting in, so the young couple are forced eventually to barricade the house and try to fortify against the mysterious Strangers.

The movie gets pretty tense in parts and should deliver the goods to anyone looking for a nice fright.

Story line isn't anything new, but nevertheless makes a good horror movie. So basically enjoy the movie, enjoy a nice cast, but don't expect anything too experimental!

Parental Guidance?

Movie Rating: 8.25/10

Disaster Movie

Was Disaster Movie really a disaster?

I've heard a few reviews calling Disaster Movie a real disaster... But I'm not going to be quite so harsh... It should really appeal to the geater part of movie goers as it spoofs off most the good movies over the past year!

References to 10,000 BC, Wanted, even Highschool Musical and Hannah Montana make their appearance, not to mention all our Superheros of the year, including: Batman, Iron Man, Hulk, Hancock, and Hellboy. A couple other cool characters make their appearance: Juno and Gizzelle from Enchanted... So really why did this movie not take off so well?

I have only watch one other of their movies: Superhero Movie, so I'm not really one for the comparisons, but I must say this one wasn't quite as good as the previous Superhero Movie... (perhaps there's just too many songs in this movie...)

But I must say I found it quite amusing how they used Hellboy (and Prince Caspian).

So my verdict is: it's a pretty fun watch for someone that's kept up with movies in the past year, but if not... you may find it slightly tedious.

It's funny in parts

too much singing

no storyline to talk of

That just about sums it!

Movie Rating: 6.75/10

Parental Guidance?

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

This film is a pure classic!

Alright, if there's one film that you have to go watch in the cinema, this will be the one... you will be thinking a totally different way when you come out!

The holocaust as seen through the eyes of an innocent 8 year-old German boy, as his father is given care over a concentration camp, he starts to learn the truth about this cruel world!

From the producer of Harry Potter: David Heyman. Starring David Thewlis

As good as you could have expected from a good friend of Guillermo Del Toro, this movie depicts childhood innocence in a much simular fashion as Del Toro did in Pan's Labyrinth, and I must say is so emotional at times, but yet relentlessly cruel...

But I can hardly do justice in writing about it! Two words: Watch IT!

Movie Rating: 9.5/10

The Duchess

"There were three people in her marriage"

Starring every guy's favorite: Keira Knightley! That should be enough to get anyone interested!

Keira plays the Duchess of Devonshire, but there are perhaps a few problems between her and her husband.. which sets the whole tone for the storyline.

A tale of glamour and beauty coupled with betrayal and broken love!

This is a typical BBC (Brittish Broadcasting Corporation) movie, very simular to their previous The Other Boleyn Girl, Classic storyline, perhaps one or two really good actors, but mediocre everything else! So if you want a good storyline, you come to the perfect place!

Set in good Old England, the scenery will dazzle you, and it's certainly a good watch!

I personally enjoyed seeing a lot of Keira Knighley in the movie.. but thought it dragged on just a little too much, but nonetheless, a really good story!

Parental Guidance?

I love the way that she's relly popular in that movie though!

Movie Rating: 8.25/10

Rock 'n' Rolla

RocknRolla

The new Guy Richie movie, every fan of the Brittish gangster movie genre ought to watch this!

... but for me, I found it pretty confusing to start with, despite it's first impression being really good. But I'll certainly give this movie credit for it's excellent climax! (which I'm not going to tell you anything about, as you will have to find out for yourself)

There was some great action although, I would have been happier to have had a bit more, and from what I could tell, the storyline, although quite confusing, was quite good!

Music score was as good as a Rock 'n' Rolla could have wanted! O, and you'll actually find out what a Rock 'n' Rolla is!

Graphics was as good as needed... so all in all, excellent movie if you lke the genre, or if you were out to watch an entertaining movie... Though for me, I think I found it just slightly too intelectual for it's genre! (which I'm sure a lot of you will be really pleased to hear!)

If you go to see it, please tell me what you think!

Enjoy!

Parental guidance?

Movie Rating: 8/10

Johnny Depp rumours are true!

Well it looks like at least one of them is!

It seems as if Michael Caine has leaked out that Johnny Depp will actually be in the third installment of Batman as the Riddler... looks really promising to me... and if you know me well enough, I think you will know that I'll praise basically any film that has Johnny Depp in!

So lets just keep our fingers crossed!

source

Pineapple Express

A real American comedy!

What is the Pineapple Express, it's not a train, and it's not a wind... It's a brand of Marijuana, so that gives you the general idea pf what the story's about!

The story follows a wacky druggie and is wacky drug dealer, proper American comedy with lots of slapstick!

For the guys, there's new hot chick Amber Heard starring as the main guy's girlfriend! and if that was't enough, they've put a really good fight scene in at the end!

There's a lot of funny moments too, so I think you're really going to enjoy this!

parental guidance?

I must say, I wasn't expecting too much from this movie, but was pleasantly surprised!

Movie Rating: 8.5/10

Del Toro's future projects!

I read a really interesting post down at Bloody Disgusting today telling us about all the future movies that Del toro intends to do.

Bloody Disgusting tells us that Del Toro is officially booked up with projects to direct and produce right up until 2017.

Del toro will be spending the next 5 years working on the much awaited Hobbit movies!

Then after that it looks like he's going to be doing a lot of projects for Universal (who published his Hellboy 2 for him)

Here is a list of the projects Del Toro's got going on for him at Universal:

• Frankenstein: Del Toro has always been fascinated with the story of Frankensein, and I must say that I am too. Del Toro feels that the previous productions have not done justice to the Gothic Fantasy element, and thus wants to create somthing better
• Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Another Classic that needs a very thorough adaptation by a director that understands the fantasy and horror genres.
• Slaughterhouse-Five: I really can't say too much about this movie but it's some kind of adaptation of the book bearing the same Name... If you read that article, I'm sure you'll agree with me that it is a little different to a lot of the preceding Del Toro films. Sounds very interesting!
• Drood: This one seems a bit strange to... Some kind of fictional biography about the last years of Charles Dickens' life... Del Toro filming Charles Dickens! (not quite)
• (perhaps) At The Mountains of madness: Del Toro adapted this HP Lovecraft book as a script a while back, and it seems as if Universal would like to finaly make this into a movie with him!
• (perhaps) Hellboy 3 too!: Del Toro is still hoping that Universal will again fund him for a final Hellboy movie, to round off the trilogy, and they have said it is a possibility!

Producing: Universal would also like to employ Det Toro as a producer over those few years, so he's certainly going to have enough work to do!

• Hater: "Universal also has on the horizon an adaptation of David Moody’s apocalyptic novel HATER that del Toro will produce with Mark Johnson but not direct" (Bloody Disgusting)
• Cimson Peak: "a gothic romance spec script by del Toro and his "Mimic" collaborator Matthew Robbins, which del Toro will produce but not direct." (Bloody Disgusting)

There were also a couple other movies that Del Toro was going to do:

• Saturn and The End of Days
• Neil Gaiman's Death: which Del Toro will produce with Neil Gaiman directing, if they can find funding for it!

Well that gives you some insight as to what Del Toro will be doing in the years to come! He's come a long way from being the small time director looking anywhere he can for funding to make Hellboy, to becoming one of Hollywood's most sought-after fantasy/horror directors!

Puppetry

There are a number of practices we use in the filming industry, one is to simply shoot the whole movie with video cameras, which is the bulk of all movies; another is to create computer animations, such as 3D animations (Toy Story, Cars) or Anime (like the Japanese films); Then there's stop-motion animation, which uses some kind of mechanical puppets and take a sequence of photos to create a full moving picture; but what I'm really interested in today is another filming practice which we call Puppetry!

Puppetry is the one practice that I believe will never die... looking at Jim Henson's Labyrinth, I believe that still competes with the graphics and all that we use 20 years later... this movie is 20 years old... and to me it looks as relevant today as any other movie that you will see! Tell me if you think I'm wrong!

These are a couple points in which I believe puppetry excels in:

• You merely have to create the perfect puppet and film it... no messing around with CGI that may or may not look right.
• Puppets are real objects and thus interact correctly with their surroundings, which is very hard to do with CGI

OK, here are a few examples of good puppets:

• Obviously the Muppets immediately spring into mind, there's some pretty good designs amongst them
• Yoda from Star Wars: way better than the new CGI version found in the latter films!
• Treebeard from Lord of the Rings: when they couldn't use CGI for him, they had to go with puppetry, which worked far better!
• All around the original Star Wars trilogy you will find various

Well perhaps Jim Henson's original ideas evolved since then- We now have a variation called Animatronics, which seems very likely to start to take over CGI as first choice in creating creatures. There is an interesting post that will give detail into how animatronics works... read here!

Del Toro has announced that he intends to use animatronics over CGI while adapting The Hobbit, which was widely used in Pan's Labyrinth and caused a stunning effect!

So it seems that puppetry has had a big boost around the time of Star Wars and Labyrinth... and has laid dormant until Del Toro has recently picked it up, proving it's potential in a modern day audience with Pan's Labyrinth... looking forward to more development in the puppetry industry!

Puppetry will never die!

The Oxford Murders

Out now on DVD in the UK and in Spain (sorry just imports for USA and Canada).

Starring John Hurt and Elijah Wood.

The story follows a young American (Wood) who goes to Oxford as a mathmatics student. He is immediately pulled into a murder case with Dr Seldom, his mathmatical hero. Follow them as they try to use mathmatics to uncover a series of murder cases!

I think this movie is great! certainly one for anyone slightly interested in mathmatics. I found it quite simple to understand and I'm not a mathmatician! Enjoy!

Directed by the famous Spanish director: Alex De La Iglesia.

M0vie rating: 9.5/10

Blu-ray

I've finally made to move over to blu-ray, perhaps a little slow for a movie geek, but nevertheless I made the change, and feel much better for doing it!

All the adverts are true! Blu-ray rocks big time! It can read the discs really fast! and the Sound quality will be the best movie sound experience you will ever encounter! Believe me!

Expect a few more posts about Blu-ray in the future, but for now, I think it's the greatest invention in the world!

There is one let-down though... The dvd's are far too expensive to buy (usually about £20-25 each...) so for now it's just the most visual movies that I am going to get on Blu-ray!