Category Archives: Review

300

Posted on by

While based on a comic, the comic is based on the historical Battle of Thermopylae of 480BC. The battle holds a special place in my heart because David Gemmell used it as the basis for some of the battles in his books. From the moment I heard about the movie I was looking forward to it – and I wasn’t dissapointed. As a cinema going experience, it was superb. As a deep character movie with an intricate plot, it failed, but I never believe it was intended to aim at that target.

The imagery was excellent, the action, pace and direction suit the material and give the whole movie an otherworldly appearance. The characters are easily accessable (which is necessary because of the short time to get to know them) and the dialog clips along and keeps you interested. A movie about a single battle is never going to have much scope for a complex plot but 300 does well with it’s scope and offers a little bit of politics and intrigue to grease the wheels of action.

And it’s the action that drives this movie, the solid unrelenting nature of the Spartans, their charismatic king and their desire to die the glorious death. The cast is good, we get a range of warriors and characters to enjoy, and we get to see some of the best large scale battle scenes in cinema history, without losing any of the personality of the warriors in them. 300 is an excellent action movie, tense battle scenes, interesting characters, and superb visuals.

Storm Front (Jim Butcher)

Posted on by

It’s been a long time since I read and subsequently reviewed a book. That’s mainly because it’s been a long time since I read (or at least, finished) a book. I asked Grete specifically for something that was easy to read and entertaining, and she had no problem recommending the Jim Butcher books, of which Storm Front is the first.

The first thing that struck me about the book is the similarity to the Dirk Gently stuff by Douglas Adams. This isn’t a bad thing, I loved the Dirk Gently books and the Dresden Files (the name of the series for which Storm Front is the first one) felt comfortable almost from the first chapter.

Jim’s writing is clean, tidy and easy to read. The books are detective novels in the classic style with the current popular added theme of the supernatural / magical / mythical world playing a great role. Our hero is Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the phone book. The first person style makes it very easy to get into Harry’s head early and within a few pages we’re already empathising with him and feeling his pain. The pace is good, carrying us through the introduction of the world (modern America) and the principal characters, and into the story all in a fairly short time. We meet pretty archetypical police staff, paranormal magazine reporters, bad guys and people who need the services of magical private investigators.

The story arc is pretty simple, I can’t decide if I was pleased or upset at the lack of major twists. I certainly felt that there was going to be a huge twist at the end, and it never arrived. Having said that I don’t think the story suffered for it, it was unpretentious, and delivered exactly what it set out to do at the start. There was plenty of action, humour and good character interaction. In any first person style work, you spend a lot of time in the head of the main protagonist and so you have to feel something for them, otherwise the story just isn’t going to be worth reading. Harry Dresden is interesting, witty and worth spending time with, so it was no chore to listen to his thoughts and follow the story through his eyes.

It was a fun book, worth reading, and although I don’t think it made me laugh as hard as it could have done, it certainly kept me interested all the way through, and it’s a long while since I actually finished a book as quickly as this one. Worth getting, worth reading, and easily worth the price.

Serenity

Posted on by

First of all let me say, I didn’t watch the TV series (Grete did and loved it). But I really enjoyed the movie. Watched it twice on DVD now (it wasn’t on long enough in the Cinema for us to catch it there), and it’s very entertaining. I find some of the acting a little hammy but then lots of Joss’ stuff is like that I find, and it doesn’t always detract. The characters are fun, the plot arc is short and concise and even without having watched the TV series I think you get enough of the background quickly to enjoy what’s going on.

Effects shots are kept to a minimum and used to enhance the story, the bad guy is cool and not entirely traditional (although elements of him are archetypical he’s a mishmash of several sources), the good guys are fun and interesting and even in the short time the movie runs you build an emotional bond and hence suffer along with them.

Definately one to watch, funny, interesting and pacey. I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar.

Minority Report

Posted on by

Not what I was expecting! The hype I’d seen suggested this was an action movie on a par with Matrix. It’s not, it’s a good sci-fi movie, but it’s not a sci-fi action movie.

There’s action in it of course, but it’s not the focus. I guess I should have known, it being a Philip K. Dick story.

Tom plays a cop in a ‘pre-crime’ unit, using pre-cognitive people who see the future, the cops are able to stop murders before they happen. Things take a turn when Tom’s character is seen commiting a murder in the future. If Tom avoids his apparent fate then how can anyone trust the visions the pre-cogs have of the future? If not, then our hero is in trouble …

There is intrigue, some action, some nice funny moments, some tense moments and a couple of jumping out of your chair moments. Two bits made me feel queasy.

I really needed the loo for the last 20 minutes, which detracted a little, and once I’d worked out ‘who did it’ it was a little hard to stay involved, but it was a good film non-the-less. Tom was excellent, supporting cast was nice, and the overall look was very good.

I felt that as with other short stories by Philip that have been made into full length films, there’s a few things that are just glossed over (they really expect us to believe that 3 pre-cogs and about 20 policemen can prevent all murders in a city this size?), some bits of the story felt as though they’d been shoe-horned in, and I was left feeling that not all of it held together.

Having said that, it’s well worth going and seeing it. It keeps you guessing, keeps you interested, and keeps you entertained. The pace is good.

It’s probably just as good on the small screen, it’s not another Matrix, it is a good come-back for Tom after his recent movies.

Star Wars Episode Two : Attack of the Clones

Posted on by

So, Attack of the Clones. One line summary, “Better than the first one, still holding out in the hope that the third one is excellent”.

Very entertaining movie, if I’m honest, and I do hesitate to say this, more entertaining than Lord of the Rings (not necessarily a better movie, but more entertaining). It had pace, drama, humour and all the elements we expect from a Star Wars movie. Some nice foreshadowing, some nice gentle pokes at the previous movies, light plot, light acting and some excellent action scenes.

If you doubt the impact of computer graphics in movie making, go and see this movie. A good cinema going experience. I will be buying the DVD, and with more enthusiasm than the Phantom Menace.

Blade 2

Posted on by

Aaaargh. Here’s a quick recipe.

How to Ruin A Sequel

  • Take one excellent movie

  • Take one charasmatic actor

  • Overcomplicate the plot

  • Remove chances for Actor to ooze charisma

  • Add pointless elements and silly dialog

  • Pretend the first movie never happened

  • Place in the oven and bake for three years

They did it to Mission Impossible, they did it to Batman, and now they’ve gone and done it to Blade. The first movie was simple and focussed on action and charisma. The sequel is overcomplex (although not that complex), badly edited (I hope, otherwise the script sucked), and lacked all the charisma and chutzpa that made the first Blade rock.

We are to believe that Blade teams up with some vampires, to kill some even nastier vampires. The nastier vampires have nice special effects, gory that is, which we are treated to over and over and over again. Hey, I got it the first time guys. Blade and his Vampire Buddies hunt down and kill the other Vampires. And there’s a twist. No, really, there is. Honestly. Because hunting vampires isn’t enough (even though it was the first time around).

Very dissapointing. They should have just had the Blood Gang (the vampires that Blade teams up with) hunting him down, and him killing them off one or two at a time for 110 minutes, and it would have been far better.

The action scenes are ok, and some of the fights are nice, but they are too few to make this a good action movie. There is an element of horror, but not enough to make this a horror movie. So, it lies in the no-mans-land between horror and action, alone, ignored, and unloved.

A terrible way to honour the original movie.

The Last Boy Scout

Posted on by

Bruce rocks 🙂 Ok, so this movie is violent, and has lots of bad language, but it’s sassy, funny, thrilling, amusing, entertaining, and fun!

Typical early 90’s action movie, with the good guys dealing out as many wise-cracks as they do gunshots, and the bad guys getting wasted often and in increasingly messy ways. The good guys spend more time getting beat-up than they do investigating, and a kid is taken hostage 😉

Bruce is excellent, this is the role he plays best, and while it’s not demanding, his attitude is just excellent to watch. Damon Wayans as the side-kick is cool and entertaining, and ensures he never steals the screen while Bruce is on it.

The DVD cut is fine, although it felt as though there were one or two moments with lip-synching issues. Quality is ok, no added extras, but hell, who needs them when you’ve got Bruce kicking arse!

Dungeons and Dragons (DVD)

Posted on by

Ok, so I thought it was terrible in the cinema. But it’s a genre movie, so I bought the DVD. You know, because. In the past, movies that I didn’t appreciate in the cinema turned out better than I expected on DVD, perhaps the second viewing helped, or the small screen worked better, or because I could do other things and keep myself busy during any slow parts. Anyway, did it make a difference with this movie?

No.

It just sucks. It is pants. The story is terrible, the script is shocking, the acting is worse than terrible. The direction is bad beyond belief. Oh dear it’s just all bad – it makes my eyes hurt. It could have been so good. Do not buy this product – you will regret it.

The Age of Misrule Series (Mark Chadbourn)

Posted on by

Having just finished the third book in this series I felt I should write up a review. At the time of writing, I’ve been struggling with reading. The Harry Potter books may have kickstarted my reading habbit, but before I started those, I’d read the first two in Mark’s Age of Misrule series. Picking up the third one was easy, and it felt good to be back in the world, with Church, Ruth, Laura, Veitch and Sharvi, the five main characters in this modern-world-turned-mythic adventure.

The writing is clean, crisp and easy to read, although Mark has a tendancy to enjoy the word frisson, and he ensures you get to enjoy it too. The characters are believable, and easy to empathise with. The story is well paced, interesting, deep, puzzling in places, and funny in others. I was kept guessing as the final outcome all the way through, and enjoyed it all the more as a result. I certainly felt a frisson each time Church declared ‘he felt there was some deeper meaning, but it was just beyond his grasp’, because I felt the same way during much of the book, that if I just thought hard enough I’d work out where it was going, but I was never able to, and as I said, enjoyed it all the more.

Our protagonists are forced together to help out in a world gone mad, thanks to the ‘return’ of all those things we thought were myth and legend. The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons (the five mentioned above), must fight for a cause, although it’s not clear which one or why, early on, and help the world survive the change that is underway.

Interesting, entertaining, thoughtful, emotional, and well paced. I recommend it, especially if you like your British Mythology.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling)

Posted on by

After the second Harry Potter book, I wasn’t holding out much hope for the third one. I mean, authors usually just get worse, I’ve never seen one have a dip and then recover.

Until now.

[Was that too melodramatic? Sue me 😉 ]

J. K. Rowling pulls herself together and delivers a riveting read, with many of the weaknesses from the second book stamped out. Gone is the totally obvious formula, gone are the long periods of boredom. We have a gripping story about Harry and his friends, and another bunch of new and weird adults. We have touching moments and thrilling scenes. More background history is revealed, and Harry gets to learn more about his past.

Well worth reading, as good as the first one, and ever-so-slightly more mature. Roll on book four.