TV / Movie Zone

CC's Review-a-thon

Posted at 12:07PM, Jul. 5, 2007

In this section I will post, once-a-week, a review of a film I have seen in either the cinema or on DVD/Sky etc. Why? Meh, it's a hobby of mine I guess. To get the ball rolling, here are my short, "I didn't have much time left", reviews first.
(All ratings are out of 5)

Movie: Man on Fire
Synopsis: A wave of kidnappings has swept through Mexico, feeding a growing sense of panic…(read more…) among its wealthier citizens, especially parents. In one six-day period, there were twenty-four abductions, leading many to hire bodyguards for their children. Into this world enters John Creasy, a burned-out ex-CIA operative/assassin, who has given up on life. Creasy's friend Rayburn brings him to Mexico City to be a bodyguard to nine-year-old Pita Ramos, daughter of industrialist Samuel Ramos and his wife Lisa. Creasy is not interested in being a bodyguard, especially to a youngster, but for lack of something better to do, he accepts the assignment. Creasy barely tolerates the precocious child and her pestering questions about him and his life. But slowly, she chips away at his seemingly impenetrable exterior, his defenses drop, and he opens up to her. Creasy's new-found purpose in life is shattered when Pita is kidnapped. Despite being mortally wounded during the kidnapping, he vows to kill anyone involved in or profiting from the kidnapping. And no one can stop him.
Cast: Christopher Walken, Dakota Fanning, Denzel Washington, Giancarlo Giannini, Marc Anthony, Radha Mitchell, Rachel Ticotin, Mickey Rourke
Director: Tony Scott
Running Time: 2 hrs. 26 min.
Release Date: Apr 21, 2004
CC says:"Damn good movie. The soundtrack was appropriately haunting and dreamlike in the correct moments, the acting was amazing and the cinematography was sound. I was extremely surprised to see Dakota Fanning in a film which didn't make me want the bad guys…(read more) to shoot her. Normally she annoys the hell out of me, but I'll give credit where credit's due. I don't really need to say much about Denzel - he rocks in all his movies!"
Rating: 4.5

Movie:Lucky Number Slevin
Synopsis: A case of mistaken identity lands Slevin in the middle of a war being plotted by…(read more…) two of New York's most rival crime bosses: The Rabbi and the Boss. Slevin is under constant surveillance by relentless Detective Brikowski as well as the infamous assassin Goodkat, and he finds himself having to hatch his own ingenious plot to get them before they get him.
Cast: Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu
Director: Paul McGuigan
Running Time: 1 hr. 49 min.
Release Date: Apr 07, 2006
CC says:"Absolutely brilliant! Kept me guessing till the end, when everything suddenly made sense in a big reveal. Well executed story, fantastic dialogue, and some surprisingly good acting from Josh Hartnett. Bruce Willis - awesome as ever. Morgan Freeman - legendary as always, coupled with Ben Kingsley even more so. A big shock for me was that Lucy Liu played a believable character, and played it well - I've only ever seen her in Charlie's Angels, (both movies of which were crap), and Kill Bill, (not too taxing on the old acting skills really), so I was pleased to see her pull it off.
Fantastic quote:
Lindsey: What happened to your nose?
Slevin Kelevra: I was using it to break some guy's fist.
Rating: 5.0

Movie:Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Synopsis: After Elizabeth (Keira Knightly), Will (Orlando Bloom), and Captain Barbossa (G…(read more…)eoffrey Rush) rescue Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from the clutches of the Kraken, they must face their foes, Davey Jones (Bill Nighy) and Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander). Beckett, now with control of Jones' heart, forms a dark alliance with him in order to rule the seas and wipe out the last of the Pirates. Now, Jack, Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth, Tia Dalma, and crew must call the Pirate Lords from the four corners of the globe, including the infamous Sao Feng (Chow-Yun Fat), to a gathering that will make their final stand against Beckett, Jones, Norrington, the Flying Dutchman, and the entire East India Trading Company.
Cast: Bill Nighy, Geoffrey Rush, Jack Davenport, Johnny Depp, Jonathan Pryce, Keira Knightley, MacKenzie Crook, Naomie Harris, Orlando Bloom, Stellan Skarsgard, Yun-Fat Chow
Director: Gore Verbinski
Running Time: 2 hrs. 45 min.
Release Date: May 25, 2007
CC says:"Freakin' amazing! The single best Pirates movie - I'll admit it has it's flaws, like Calypso's complete lack of power. I mean, come on, all she did was go big, say something unintelligible, vanish in a cloud of crabs and conjure up a whirlpool! Where was the wrath everyone was going on about? Also, the final battle was awesome, sure, but lack of Kraken was disappointing - it shouldn't have been killed off so easily. Finally, the Pirate Lords and their ships did absolutely bugger all in the final battle - what was the point in them?"
Rating: 4.5

From now on, all my reviews will be in full - I've got more time on my hands.

Posted at 12:07PM, Jul. 5, 2007

Movie: Shrek the Third
Synopsis: When Shrek married Fiona, the last thing he had in mind was becoming the next Ki…(read more…)ng. But when Shrek's father-in-law, King Harold, suddenly croaks, that is exactly what he faces. Unless Shrek (with the help of his trusted companions Donkey and Puss In Boots) can find a suitable King for Far Far Away, the ogre could be stuck with the job. The most promising candidate, Fiona's cousin Artie, an underachieving Medieval high school slacker, proves to be more of a challenge than they bargained for.
Cast: Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris, Antonio Banderas, Antonio Benderas, Cameron Diaz, Cheri Oteri, Eddie Murphy, Eric Idle, Ian McShane, John Cleese, John Krasinski, Julie Andrews, Justin Timberlake, Maya Rudolph, Mike Myers, Rupert Everett
Director: Chris Miller
Running Time: 1 hr. 33 min.
Release Date: May 18, 2007
CC Says:"Not bad but not great. There were few to no laugh-out-loud moments; and I wasn't the only one not laughing! Most of the people in the screening I saw smiled or chuckled, but there was an odd silence as the film progressed. Shrek, the original, was awesome - witty and brutally satirical. Shrek 2 followed the humour of the first, and did so with alacrity - it was even better!
The Third was, in this respect, a huge let down. The characters seemed much more one-dimensional and the new characters were unoriginal and painfully boring - I'm looking at you Arthur Pendragon/Jutsin Timberlake.
The princesses did not get enough lines to develop characters , and seemed much more like filler material to pad out the gap between the sections with Shrek or Charming. The ending of the movie epitomised the whole thing: Weak and anticlimactic. It was wonderfully set up for an all-out melee between the fairytale villains and the heroes, but instead of having a massive brawl, the writers for some inexplicable reason decided to go down the Disney route, with Arthur giving a sickeningly "nice" speech about how they should all just be friends. In the first movie he would have gotten no further than the first sentence - The characters would have all ignored him and fought anyway.
Shrek: "Och, come off it ya wee bazza!!"
The jokes were just not as good as in the other two, and the film itself was a great deal shorter - I have now formed the opinion that Shrek 3 is just a rushed out sequel to make a quick buck, and I can only hope that Shrek 4, (which has been confirmed), will be better, or that it kills the series before the writers really embarrass themselves."
Rating: 2.5

Posted at 12:07PM, Jul. 5, 2007

Movie: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Synopsis: The enigmatic, intergalactic herald, The Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom, before all hope is lost.
Cast: Andre Braugher, Chris Evans, Doug Jones, Gonzalo Menendez, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Chiklis
Director: Tim Story
Running Time: 1 hr. 29 min.
Release Date: Jun 15, 2007
CC Says:"An amusing movie, but I have to agree with the opinion that it was largely over-hyped. The Silver Surfer just oozed "cool" to be fair, and with Laurence Fishburne as the voice that comes as no surprise. The special effects, essential in any comic book movie to make it in any way good, were a tad ropy in places, and at times, such as Reid's dance routine, look a little rushed. However, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece when I went to watch it, just a bit of fun. On that front it delivered in a big way - To their credit, Marvel Studios have tried to do something slightly different with the Fantastic 4 franchise, exploring the team themselves as people rather than just doing another hero story. Lots of moments made me laugh - in fact this film was funnier than Shrek 3 and it's not even a comedy first and foremost! The wedding plot was boring to sum it up - there wasn't enough focus on it to make it seem serious, but there was still too much. I don't know whose bright idea it was to give Alba a peroxide blonde wig, but they should be made to wear that awful thing evermore as punishment - she was fine in the first film idiot! And the blue contact lenses? What the hell?
Jonny Storm's character was rather one-dimensional in this film, as it was in the previous, and I was kinda hoping that he would be made into a much more complete character - the first film centred on the problem of Ben Grimm, so we did not see much of Jonny's inner dissatisfaction with the celebrity lifestyle.
All in all, an enjoyable film, and I wouldn't mind a third at all."
Rating: 4.0