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.

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.

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.

You can, I believe, measure the quality of a movie by the lingering memory you have of it. I’ve just been to see the Harry Potter movie, and in no particular order, remember the following,

The rustling and chattering of children, and the distraction caused by it.
The role of Hagrid as played by Robbie Coltrane.
The quality of the acting shown by Harry’s two sidekicks, and the lack of quality in the acting of the guy who player Harry himself.
Deja-vu after having read the book and played the computer game so soon before seeing the film.
The excellent effects.
Alan Rickman for his excellent Snape.

It was ok, good, not bad, fun, enjoyable, but it wasn’t brilliant, it wasn’t astounding, I didn’t leave feeling enthused. I’m not sure why. Go and see it, try and avoid a time when the kids are out, but do go and see it.

Exactly what it said on the tin. More American Pie. If you liked the first one, you should like this one. Not quite as funny, not quite as fresh, but funny, lively, feel-good, and sexy to boot. Same characters, same overall concept, different gags along with the old, and, chicks 🙂 Slow in parts, side-splittingly-funny in others. I’d go and see it again, I think I’ll get in on DVD to match the first one, and I hope it does well. Won’t win any prizes for direction or script, but hell, who cares.

Superb. Go and see it!

A medieval romp through the delicate foliage of true love, honour and courage. This movie has pace, humour [oh the excellent humour], high emotions, on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments, and more. I’m sure there are detractors who will cry ‘oh how predictable’ and ‘oh but where was the twist’. Well to them – tosh.

We got hokum and bunkum by the bucket, and we loved it.

The characters were moving and interesting, the dialog was sharp, the humour had me laughing out loud, and whilst it may have been easy to predict the story and the results, it never detracted for a moment from the entertainment value provided.

Planet of the Apes ran in a straight line and I disliked it as a result; let’s face it, so did this movie, but here it didn’t matter, because we were being dragged along in its wake feeling glorious and enriched.

With a nod and a wink to the excellent Plunkett And Macleane we are given a period fantasy with a modern feel and an updated sound track. The movie opens with the medieval crowd singing Queen’s ‘We will rock you’, and the banquet dance scene includes modern music and dance in a period setting.

Excellent performances all round, but for me, Paul Bettany stood out as Chaucer. Audacity, charisma and an on screen presence which left me wanting more.

So generally, an excellent feel-good movie, entertaining, thrilling, funny, well worth £5.50, and one I will be buying on DVD no doubt. I strongly recommend seeing it.

Hmm, overall, dissapointing is how I would describe this version of the ‘classic’ Planet of the Apes. Just to make it clear, I’ve not seen the original movie properly, nor have I read the book so I didn’t really have any pre-conceptions.

The story plodded along, and felt very linear, there weren’t any real surprises along the way, and I can’t even claim this was because I knew roughly what happened in advance. It was because Tim didn’t put any effort in to hiding or disguising what was going on. That may have been his personal choice of course. The acting was passable, the makeup was rather impressive, I really couldn’t tell what was CGI (was there any?) and what was live-action. But the plodding linear story, oh dear. It had no pace, no feeling of excitement, no feeling of any real danger. There elements which could have really been expanded or investigated further. Perhaps there wasn’t time.

The ending has caused plenty of debate, and I didn’t feel that it worked as well as Tim might have hoped. It makes me wonder about what happened, how things got like that, but it’s a frustrated wondering rather than an interested analytical wondering.

If you get the chance, see it on the big screen if you’ve nothing better to do that evening, because it looks impressive, but don’t go out of your way to do so.

Well, well, well. A mixed bag. No, not Lara, she’s nice.

Want a one line summary? Tomb Raider is an excellent action movie spoiled by long periods of exposition and emotionless dialog.

The director is obviously excellent when it comes to action sequences. The four main sequences are all superb, with the 2nd and 3rd sequences being some of the most exciting action I’ve seen in a film for a while. Not in the same style as The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, or Charlie’s Angels, but more the Die Hard style of action. It’s good. Angelina rocks 🙂

The pace during those action scenes is excellent, the initial pace of the movie is good, but it just dies to a slow crawl after the third action sequence, for far too long. Then, when the last action sequence comes along, it’s not quite enough to lift it back up again.

The story is ok, if you liked the game, you’ll appreciate it, but it’s not terribly impressive, and the threat never felt very real, which meant the point of the thing never felt very right.

Sure, Lara kicks ass, but you have to ask yourself why.

Don’t get me wrong, I was entertained, but I just lost my suspension of disbelief during the dialog, it dragged on too long. More action, less chat would have worked better I think.

I’m glad I went and saw this on the big screen, if you get the chance, go, but don’t expect something quite as good as The Mummy or Mission Impossible. It is however, on a par with The Mummy Returns [which also suffered a little from long exposition] and much better than Mission Impossible II.

I will be buying the DVD.

Oh, and a nice bonus – Lord of the Rings trailer on before the movie – most excellent

Go and see it.

Do not pass go, do not collect your £200, just go and see the movie.

Forget the fact that it’s a kids movie, forget the fact that it’s got astoundingly good computer animation, just enjoy the humour, I haven’t laughed this much in the cinema for a long time.

In a topsy-turvy fantasy faerie world, our out-of-the-ordinary hero, Shrek, rescues an out-of-the-ordinary princess, with the aid of a talking donkey.

Excellent lines, excellent scenes, excellent mickey taking [Disney, Matrix, River Dance, Blues Brothers, the list goes on ….] and just thoroughly entertaining.

Truly something for all the family.

Once you have seen it, come back, and read this phrase again, “the toad!”, and you’ll be chuckling for hours.

I think the only quote I can sum up to reflect my opinion is, “no redeeming features what-so-ever”.

I have a longer opinion, but it boils down to the above.

Oh, and the editing crew needs shooting.