Archive for the ‘Movie reviews’ Category
Mostly reviews of the films I have seen, but sometimes I will post news and rumours that interest me.
The Green Zone
Let's get this out of the way quickly. Yes this is Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, but it's not the Bourne Identity. Not close.
One similarity the two films share is the shaky cam stylings. It's everywhere, even more so than the Bourne films. Thankfully this doesn't bother me at all but I know a couple of people who have issues with motion sickness and I'm pretty sure this would have triggered it rather quickly.
From a factual point of view the ...
The Wolfman
The Wolfman is a remake of a classic horror movie. Re-imagining the story and bringing the special effects bang up to date.
On paper the cast sounds great. Anthony Hopkins rarely disappoints, Benicio Del Toro already looks wolf like, and Hugo Weaving is just plain awesome. However the decision to make Benicio the son of an Englishman, even one who has lived in America, is just strange. His accent never quite seems to go away and I ...
Toy Story 1, 2 and 3
I'll be honest - I'm posting this because I was sent free copies of the recently re-released Toy Story 1 and 2 movies (Blu-Ray and DVD of both films). I was very close to turning it down - I don't like to advertise too much on here - but it's the Toy Story films... 2 of the best examples of animated story telling ever.
The discs themselves have everything and more that you could ...
February Film Reviews
Recently I have been getting back into watching movies. I have a whole stack of them to catch up on and I am now finally reducing the stack. 3 of the films I watched in February were, Kung Fu Panda, The Invention of Lying, and The Soloist. Read the article for mini reviews of each.
Bruno
If I can tell you one thing about Bruno it's this.
Don't watch Bruno on an iPod Touch on the train on the way to work.There's too much to describe in Bruno, it's a whirlwind of cringe inducing moments with a fair amount of male nudity. If you've seen Borat then you know what to expect... only you need to amp up the 'shock' moments.
Sasha Baron-Cohen is clearly going out of his way to cause controversy. He knew ...
Public Enemies
I always think of Michael Mann as making understated action movies. There's action and there's violence, but it never gets in the way of the story.
Public Enemies is his latest offering with Johnny Depp playing the famous mobster John Dillinger. This role is quite unlike Depps normal quirky/ arty/ exaggerated characters. Like the action his performance is understated and realistic - and the change of character works really well for him.
Coraline
Coraline is a stop motion animated movie directed by the same Director as The Nightmare Before Christmas, which meant I instantly assumed that the Director was Tim Burton, and after watching the movie my opinion hadn't changed. Coraline is a very atmospheric, dark film, and it wouldn't have surprised me at all if Tim Burton had directed it - but it turns out he hasn't.
The Director of Coraline is a man called Henry Selick, and the story ...
UP
Pixar have a habit of creating stories and worlds that transcend the age gap. Despite the fact they are animations the stories tap into your emotions, and in many ways are more real than anything filmed with live actors.
Being digitally animated means that you can ignore who the (voice) actors in Pixars films are, and concentrate on the performance and story. It is often easier to project your emotions on to something that isn't real - your own imagination ...
Rocket Boards is a super fast 3D rocket boarding action. My first "commercial" (shareware) product. Didn't do amazingly well but was a good learning experience
Bubble Bomb is a polished update of a game originally built by Warren Marshal (who works at Epic games - developers of Unreal and Gears of War)
My own update of Bubble Bomb, Bubble Blitz was almost a total rewrite adding loads of new features and a shiny new look.
Seths Puzzle Boxes is a puzzle game with a surprisingly enjoyable story line, unfortunately it's quite short so won't take long to complete, but while it lasts is great fun.