Friday 25 January 2008

Toy Story 1, 2, 3-D!

Seems that the release of Toy Story 3 in summer 2010 will be preceded by the first two films being re-released in 3D. Here's the dates you'l get to see your favorite talking toys jumping out at you!!

Toy Story (3-D) - 2nd Oct 2009

Toy Story 2 (3-D) - 12th Feb 2010

Toy Story 3 - 18th Jun 2010

No details on the third movies story yet, but it is being helmed by Lee Unkrich (co-director “Toy Story 2”). So fingers crossed for some more Pixar magic!

Note - these are probably the US release dates.

Read Full Review

Thursday 24 January 2008

NEW BOND FILM TITLE IS......

"Quantum of Solace" Yes that's the new title for the 22nd Bond Film. The title is taken from one of a collection of short stories published by 007 creator Ian Fleming in 1960.

Producers confirmed the title this morning, and apparently showed a minute of already filmed footage to the press!

Not a review, but who cares it's Bond news!

Read Full Review

Saturday 12 January 2008

Charlie Wilson's War

Brilliant cleverly written entertainment.

The fact that I saw this movie was purely chance, I’d seen the trailers and thought it looked ok, nothing that drew me in and said “Wow, me wanna see that here movie cowboy.” Poor Texan joke, sorry. Anyway by some miraculous events, that left me standing outside the cinema with an angry girlfriend and it raining heavily, the only options was get inside and watch a film.

By any account though, this movie is excellent (had I lived in the US and saw this last year it would definitely be in my Top of 2007). The script is very quirky, with a witty sense of humour that allows the “rather serious” story to be told in a heart-felt but very light tone. Some of the more depressing aspects of the story are told with care and consideration though.

Tom Hanks puts in a brilliant performance, I know he’s a huge movie star, but I’ve never really found watching him in anything before hugely entertaining. But here I found him very funny, charming and very likeable.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is also magnificent as a frustrated spy; combined with Hanks the two of them together is hilarious.

Julia Roberts is good, though she’s not really in the film as much as you’d think (this is a Hanks vehicle no question) she does play a crucial role.

So great performances and a very witty script combine to make this film highly recommended.

Oh and I dare you to find any unattractive women in this film, they are all stunning especially Hank entourage of PA’s. Think I need to become a congressman. In Texas. In the 1980’s. “A few problems I can see off the top of my head...”

9.5/10

Read Full Review

Reviews Explaination

It's come to my attention, that a lot of my reviews are generally quite positive or absolutely negative, this is due to the fact I tend to only write about the films I have a passion for. Whether it be outstanding or utter shite. The ok ones, that don't really bother me, probably won't get a mention.

As this is only a hobby (at the moment anyway, any big-wigs care to give me a job? Yes please), I see what I can (and want) and than write about it. When i'm paying for the cinema tickets, i'm not going to watch every bit of tripe just so i can fill up some bandwidth.

So basically it should be a few reviews a week, though don't expect everything that comes out to get a review.

Oh, and one more thing, I live in the UK, so I'll see films generally around the release date over here not the US one. Unless i'm very lucky.

Rx

Read Full Review

Thursday 10 January 2008

Bee Movie

"Insert Bee Reference here"

Okay, when I first saw the teaser trailers (the live action ones) I thought to myself, really? That is not selling the movie to me in the slightest – Jerry Seinfied and Steven Speilberg are both there, and this looks neither funny nor entertaining.

Fortunately these “trailers” in no way represent the final product. This movie is very funny and very entertaining.

Though I was thoroughly enjoying myself whilst watching it, I couldn’t help but think a lot of the jokes may fly over children’s head. The majority of humour is quite dry, witty and cynical (similar to Seinfeld) and even though I was finding every little Bee reference funny. The other people (including children) weren’t laughing out loud.

That’s not to say I was laughing hysterically gasping for air, but I did have a little chuckle to myself for the duration.

Maybe I just saw it with a bad crowd, but I thought this was an enjoyable little pop-corn film. It’s no Ratatouille, but much better than expected.

7/10

Read Full Review

Saturday 5 January 2008

RIPBLADE'S TOP TEN FILMS OF 2007

2007 had the potential to be an amazing year for films (well for sequels anyway), yet frustratingly the majority of these didn’t deliver on the promise of their prequels or their trailers (I’m looking at you Spider-man 3 and Transformers – what the hell happened?!)

If I had predicted this list at the beginning of the year there are certain films that I thought would almost have definitely been at the top of the list, yet due to maybe too much expectation (on my part) or the films just being down-right awful, they don’t even make it into the top 10.

I know some of these movies will be considered mainstream and therefore some art-house critics may feel the urge to disregard this list as I haven’t included any indie efforts. But this is my list and I actually genuinely love some of the great big summer blockbusters, especially from an all-round stand point (looking at special effect, creativity, storytelling, acting, direction, etc).

Anyway enough rambling, here we go!

10. Surf’s Up – though I will have a slight bias due to my love of the subject matter, I did thoroughly enjoy this as an animated film, and thought the documentary style approach gave it an original edge.

9. Super-bad – laughed hysterically and delivered what all good comedies should, real humour, real characters and real situations.

8. POTC – At World’s End – I was a bit disappointed when I saw this in the cinema, having loved part 2 so much, I felt this was a bit lacking in nearly every way despite it’s length! Though a recent viewing on DVD, has changed my opinion significantly and this is now my second favourite in the trilogy and gets it in the top 10!

7. The Simpsons Movie – Maybe not as amazing as expected, due to 18 years of waiting, but as a stand-alone “film-going experience” I laughed constantly for its 80min run-time and in my book that gets it on the list as my favourite comedy of the year.

6. Beowulf – Wonderful, amazing action sequences, good story, complete with engrossing characters and hopefully a step into the 3D future of cinema.

5. American Gangster – loved every minute of this film, never once felt like it was dragging and the whole business model approach to drug dealing in a gangster film really made this stand out to me.

4. 300 – awesome, had been waiting a long time for this. Maybe a bit too much style over substance, but you can’t really complain when it’s this spectacular!

3. I Am Legend – intense action sequence, amazing visuals, Will Smith’s acting went to another level and great direction combined to make one of my favourite films to end the year.

2. Ratatouille – although not Pixar’s best, it wasn’t far off, and that makes any movie deservedly high on my list.

1. Sunshine – Perfect. I love every single aspect of this film, from sound design to acting, from special effects to musicals score. Danny Boyle direction makes this my Top of 2007

So that’s the list for year, unfortunately I didn’t get around to seeing all the films I wanted to see this year so films like 3:10 to Yuma would have probably made it in, but if I didn’t see them I can’t really include them!

Here’s on to 2008, where I have extremely high hopes for The Dark Knight and Wall-e. Fingers crossed, I do not want a repeat of Spider-man 3!

Read Full Review

Lack of Reviews

So, lack of reviews lately due to a lack of Internet access and more importantly a lack of time due to a hectic life. That is all about to change though. New Years resolution for 2008, get lots of reviews up and hopefully start including other bits of random useful movie news! Enjoy.
To kick things off, i'll be posting a top ten list of 2007 (even though i didn't get around to reviewing some of them!!)
Happy New Year.
Rx

Read Full Review