Films of 2010

I’m not going to do your normal top 5 which consists of films that have only come out in 2010, but of films that I’ve seen for the first time in 2010, and the winners are:

For best animated film: Toy Story 3.
Other contenders were: Ponyo, Up, Astro Boy

For much praised film I didn’t see until it was on TV: Apocalypto.
Other contenders include: Rabbit Proof Fence, The Damned United.

For comic book movie of the year: Kick-Ass.

For movie I should have watched the previous year: Zombieland.
Only other contender: District 9

And finally in the best new Christopher Nolan film category: Inception

Others films I enjoyed in 2010 include: Moon, Shutter Island, The Expendables, Where the Wild Things are, Avatar.

And the movies that made me hate my eyes this year included: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, The Hurt Locker, the entire Godfather Trilogy, The Unborn, Resident Evil: Degeneration, S. Darko, and Hell Ride.

Alright so it wasn't exactly a list, but it worked, maybe I'll work on it for next year.

Videogame Movies

Since the beginnings of the personnel computer there has been a close link with the world of film and videogames, in the early 80’s we had films like The War Games, which yes was more about hacking and the backlash caused by such a pursuit, but it all boiled down to Matthew Broderick thinking he was playing a game rather than potentially launching nuclear strikes. Later as technology advanced so did the world of video games, and saw the emergence of virtual reality, an arm of gaming which has since been severed, but at the time seemed like the next leap, and spawned its own movie in The Lawnmower man. Where a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan attempts to develop the mind of a man with learning difficulties using VR, with disastrous results, and an even more disastrous sequel.

As movie land dabbled in the world of computers and gaming, video games where becoming more and more of a phenomenon, which today would seem somewhat strange, as videogames are now such a part of everyday life, but as the popularity grow, so did the medias interest in gaming, with various programmes and publications emerging on the subject, as well as programmes dedicated to the two main figureheads of the revolution , Sonic & Mario, both being made into several animated series.
So given the rising popularity of gaming, it was certain sooner or later Hollywood would start to cash in, adapting several of the most popular titles into movies. Starting with Super Mario Bros, starring Bob Hoskins as the moustachioed Italian and the late great Dennis Hooper as his arch enemy King Koopa. The film was released the same time as Jurassic Park, a film most people would consider superior, but to me, seeing them a week apart from each other, thought Mario was the mightier beast, as I honestly found Jurassic Park boring.

Unfortunately the worlds of movies and videogames have never produced the most beautiful of offspring, rather hideous mutations, because after Mario came the adaptation of Streetfighter, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which could have worked if it had decided the kind of movie it wanted to be, failing primarily because it never knew whether to take itself serious or not, whereas it’s anime counterpart took itself wholly seriously and was brilliant as a result. Then we had Mortal Kombat, directed by Paul W S Anderson (who would later direct both Dead or Alive, and the Resident Evil Franchise) a far more successful gaming franchise spewing fourth two movies, and both a live action and a animated series. The first movie worked, but it was the sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation which in my opinion worked much better than the first outing, because it amerced itself fully into the world the game inhabited, rather than to try and base these unrealistic stories in reality, like Mario and Streetfighter, and much like recent comic book movies such as Spiderman.

This initial surge fizzled out somewhat when none of the aforementioned films made much money, but there has still been interest in computerland namely Dead or Alive, which like Mortal Kombat, took the ridiculous and ran with it in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner, and while not being exactly Oscar worthy is at least quite entertaining. Then at the other end of the scale, you have Streetfighter: The Chun-Li story, which I can honestly say is one of the all time worst films it has ever been my mis-pleasure to sit through.

Hollywoods most recent videogame date rape, comes in the form of the Disney backed Prince of Persia, a swash buckling adventure clearly trying suck more milk from the cash cow that was Pirates of the Caribbean, which was by no means a bad film, perfect to wile away a few hours on Sunday afternoon, there are some good action sequences and a story with some interesting ideas, the main problem I have with the film is there is a serious lack of interesting or likeable characters, with the exception of Alfred Molina’s Sheik Amar and his knife throwing comrade (Steve Toussaint) both of whom occupy far to little screen time, Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Atherton are a rather generic bickering hero/princess duo, something much better portrayed by Harrison Ford & Carrie Fisher in Star Wars, and Sir Ben ‘Ghandi’ Kingsley takes on the position of generic villain, in a total what were they thinking role.

The greatest film about a video game, revolves around a made up game, and that movie is Tron. A film of unrivalled imagination, a film which until now was a stand alone work of cinematic art, that was until Tron: Legacy. A sequel almost thirty years in the making, lets hope it doesn’t go the same way as the Lost boys 2: The Tribe.

Marvel

For a long time I’ve been a Marvel fan, growing up watching the various incarnations of Spiderman, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Ironman and X-men on Television, and later getting into comic books as a teenager. So when I first heard that Patrick Stewart was going to play professor Xavier in X-men all those years ago I honestly couldn’t have thought of a better person to play that character, likewise when I heard Robert Downey Jr. was going to take on the role of Tony Stark, I could see no one else playing Ironman, its just one of those rare pieces of perfect casting.
Then in 2008 came Ironman, directed by actor, writer, director Jon Favreau and staring Downey Jr., along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard (who would later be replaced by Don Cheadle, for the sequal, which baffled a lot of people, including Howard, and reasons I can‘t figure out, maybe Cheadles more heroic or something stupid like that) and with the film, Marvels first ever solo outing, set the benchmark for the new wave of Marvel movies.
Ironman 2, although I found it entertaining enough, as a bit of a comic book geek, the inclusion of War Machine, Black Widow, Justin Hammer, Whiplash and S.H.E.I.L.D. appealed to me, the film seems like a bit of a stop gap, enough to keep the character fresh in the public mind, before he appears in the up coming Avengers movie. However the action sequence at Monaco raceway was brilliant comicbook destruction, as well including Favreau as Starks minder, making the scene slightly more impressive as hes directing it while staring, but then again Mel Gibson managed to star in and direct the whole of Braveheart, so maybe its not quite a s impressive as I first thought.
Personally I’m looking forward to the Avengers, a movie master plan from Marvel, which started with the first Ironman movie, and continued with the Edward Norton starring Hulk, with Avenger set ups in both movies, in Ironman with the appearance of Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury, and in Hulk with the cameo of Downey’s Tony Stark. This trend then continued with the discovery of Thor’s hammer, in a post credits Ironman 2, eluding to the next marvel release the Kenneth Branagh helmed Thor.
Thor will no doubt hint at Captain America: The First Avenger, which is set for release sometime after Thor and before The Avengers, which will then feature Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johanson), Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), War Machine (Don Cheadle), and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, replacing Edward Norton).
The Avengers is currently being written, and will also be directed by Joss Whedon, the brain behind the sci-fi/fantasy TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Doll house, as well as the Firefly spin off film Serenity. Whedon as also penned a run of the X-men comics, so is no stranger to the world of Marvel.

Iron Man 2 Trailer (OFFICIAL)

Iron Man 2 Alternate Takes.mp4

THE LOST BOYS - HQ Trailer ( 1987 )

The Lost Boys

Lost boys is and will always be one of the greatest 80’s movies and possibly the best vampire movies ever made. So it would stand to reason that one day, Warner Bros would resurrect the format for a potential franchise, and some 20 years later comes Lost Boys: The Tribe, not a patch on the original, but does have 80’s legend Corey Feldman (The Goonies, Stand by me, Gremlins) reprising his role as Edgar Frog, one of the young vampire slayers of the first outing.
The Tribe had its moments, and a number of nods to the original, which for a fan like myself, was pretty cool. As well as the revelation that Edgar’s brother and fellow hunter has been turned into the undead since we last saw him in The Lost Boys. A revelation that isn’t given any thought till the final moments of the film, when we see Alan Frog speeding along in his blacked out car, and Edgar is visited by Corey Haim, reprising his role as Sam Emerson, who has also been turned.
Then we have the third instalment, Lost Boys: The Thirst, which if it had followed on from the set up left at the end of The Tribe, could have been something special, or at least it had me excited. But alas, it was an even more lame effort than The Tribe. Which sees Edgar teaming up with his vampiric bother Alan, to take down DJ X (I know it sounds horrible already, but despite the rubbish name the premise does get better) who his putting on illegal raves and handing out a new designer drug called The Thirst, which is actually vampire blood, with the aim of creating a vampire army.
The Thirst fails on several accounts but the two major ones, the first being Feldman’s performance, where he seems to have become an even bigger characture of the original role. This is highlighted by the second mistake, the inclusions of clips from the original Lost Boys, acting as Feldman’s flashbacks to a better time (not just for him, but for us too) where both his brother and Sam Emerson, where still human, as it also transpires Emerson had not only been turned, but also killed by Edgar Frog. These moments that I can only assume are supposed to be touching, only show how far we have spiralled down from the first film and how ridiculous Feldman’s characterisation has become.
However these flashbacks also provide one of the best moments of The Thirst. Earlier in the film Edgar, who is on the verge of being evicted, sells his collection of comics, all except his issue of Batman no.14, which we are reminded later through flashback forms the first conversation Sam Emerson has with the Frog brothers. Feldman’s character then visit’s the grave of Emerson, where he places the comic at the graveside in tribute. This is not only an emotional moment for Frog, saying goodbye to his lifelong friend, but it also resonates into real life, where Corey Feldman (Frog) and Corey Haim (Emerson) were also lifelong friends, up until Haim’s sudden death before the films production. What we end up with is a life imitating art moment, with Feldman is also paying tribute to his friend.

Lost Boys 2: The Tribe 2008 trailer

Lost Boys: The Thirst Official Trailer

How The Empire Strikes Back Should Have Ended

Burke & Hare

Burke & hare, a black comedy, is, as the film states from the off ‘..a true story, except for the parts that are not’. Based on the real life serial murders committed by William Burke and William Hare, for the purpose of selling the cadavers to Dr. Robert Knox an anatomy lecturer to dissect for his class of medical students. Featuring Simon Pegg, as Burke, and Andy Serkis, as Hare, with support from Jessica Hynes and Isla Fisher, and appearances from Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, and cameos from Christopher Lee, Paul Whitehouse, Stephan Merchant, Bill Bailey, Reece Shearsmith and British comedy legend Ronnie Corbett. I think the stand out performance for me, was from Serkis, you couldn’t help but love is charming confidence man.
The film is directed by John Landis, his first in 12 years, and who is best known for his comedy collaborations with Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers, which he co-wrote with Aykroyd, as well as directed, Trading Places, Spies Like Us and Blue Brothers 2000), Eddie Murphy (Trading Places, Coming to America, and Beverly Hills cop III), and John Belushi (Animal House, The Blues Brothers). As well as comedy horror An American Werewolf in London, which he both wrote and directed, and the video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which completely revolutionised both MTV and the music video in general. Burke & Hare follows in the Landis tradition of humour and horrors, the giggles and the grotesque , and like many of the Landis stable the heart lies in the classic buddy movie.
Burke & Hare is also the latest release from the revitalised British film institution that is Ealing Studios, following success with Shaun of the Dead, The Descent, Dorian Gray, and the resurrected St. Trinian’s franchise.
Ealing Studios are best known for films produced between 1947 and 1957 dubbed ‘Ealing comedies’ most notably The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and the two Alec Guinness starring turns Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), in which Guinness plays eight different members of the same family, and which appears in BFI’s top 100 British Films and voted number seven in Total film’s best British films poll, and The Ladykillers (1955) also starring Peter Sellers.

BURKE AND HARE TRAILER

Exit Through The Gift Shop - Official Trailer

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Banksy is a mysterious character, a man who goes only my a single name like Madonna or Ghandi, but unlike the aforementioned who’s lifes and identity are well documented and the subject of common knowledge, nobody knows who he is. When I say nobody I talk of the common public, I’m sure his mum knows who he is, but then does she know her son is a world famous graffiti artist. Banksy’s film debut, Exit Through the Gift Shop, is as interesting as the art he creates, the film starts with French man Thierry Guetta, who has a strange obsession of filming everything that he does, and through a visit with his cousin, street artist Invader, ends up documenting the growing street art scene. Starting with his cousin, he ends up following Shepard Fairey, which eventually leads him into the world of Banksy, all under the assumption Guetta is filming for a street art documentary. Guetta eventually ends becoming a street artist, and in turn the subject of the street art documentary he was pretending to make, as Banksy takes the Frenchmen’s footage and turns the camera back on Guetta himself, and his rise as Mr. Brainwash.
Exit through the gift shop has been considered by many as a hoax, some believing it and others not, the main speculation comes from Guetta’s overnight rise to the street art hierarchy, and the fact that he is never seen properly creating any art. But if this a documentary, and not a crafty work of fiction, it has to be the best documentary I’ve seen since Man on Wire, the Oscar winning documentary following Phillippe Petit, an equally mental Frenchmen, and his death defying (and illegal) tightrope walk between the now deceased twin towers. A fixture of interviews, archive footage (filmed by petit and his colleagues), and dramatically shot reconstruction. The film flips between Petit and his associates talking about previous stunts, as well as the preparation and actioning of the twin towers stunt. Its more like a heist movie than a documentary, and the way that Petit recounts every detail of the stunt, captivates you, filling you with a fraction of the excitement he and his team must of felt at the time.

Man On Wire (2008) Official Trailer

Four Lions

Chris Morris is no stranger to controversy, rising to infamy during the nineties with news spoof The Day Today on the BBC, which also saw the first emergence of Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge, and later with current affairs piss take Brasseye on Channel 4, where each episode would follow a particular topic, and dupe celebrities into railing around these fictional causes, such as the awareness campaign for new designer drug Cake. The show also ranks number three on the list of most complaints, for its paedophile special.
Morris recently made is film debut , serving as both director and co writer, with Four Lions. The film follows the story of a group of jihadi Islamist terrorists from sheffield. The film is both hilarious and scary, but not in an Evil Dead 2 kinda way, the humour comes from the idiocy of the terrorists and farcical way in which they go about everything, in much the way the Home Guard did in Dad’s Army. But the scares don’t come from knife wielding maniacs or ravenous zombie hordes, no the scares come during the humdrum daily grind moments, such as the scene where ring leader Omar is sitting at his kitchen table, and openly discussing blowing himself up with his wife and son. Its these scenes that are scary, scary because to these guys this is everyday life, and they truly believe what their doing is right, in the greater good of God. 
But it’s the fact that all of the characters within the group, bar Barry, the white Islamic convert, are all very likable, which brings you to points where your almost routing for them.
The funniest and most thought provoking film of I’ve seen all year.

Also I'd recommend, as follow up reading, The Islamist by Ed Husain, the truestory of Ed's involemnet with extremist islam, what he saw and why he left it behind.

Four Lions Trailer

Andy Serkis

Andy Serkis is a British actor much like Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Damned United) a brilliant, but overlooked figure with leanings towards the portrayal of real people. Where Sheen has played Sir David Frost, Brian Clough, Kenneth Williams and ex-PM Tony Blair, Serkis has taken to characters with a much harder edge. To date Serkis has taken the form of 60’s child killer Ian Brady, Albert Einstein and Blockheads front man Ian Dury.
Dury first came to fame in the late seventies, a punk and lover of language, crippled by childhood polio, a man who never lets his disability stand in his way, who grew up parentless in a home for disabled boys, and despite all his short comings as a husband, lover, father, friend and band mate, hes still somewhat of an inspiration.
And in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (named after Dury‘s biggest hit) Serkis plays him beautifully, and the film is a much to do with Dury’s rise to fame and infamy, as it is with the relationships around him mainly that between his wife Betty, lover Denise and son Baxter. The film also features a plethora of British talent, many in almost blink and you’ll miss them appearances, such as Ray Winstone, Noel Clarke and Mackenzie Crook among others.
Serkis is obviously best known for his motion capture work with Peter Jackson, bringing to life both King Kong and Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He has also recently ventured back into the motion capture realm, with videogame Enslaved.
Enslaved is a new game available on both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, a game with incredible cinematic credentials. Enslaved has been created by Cambridge based Ninja Theory, and takes the form of a remaining of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West (which was also the basis for classic TV series Monkey, and to a lesser extent the Dragonball franchise), and boasts a script from scribe Alex Garland (28 Days Later), a musical score from Mercury prize winner Nitin Sawhney, as well as Serkis portraying main character Monkey via motion capture.
And Serkis’s motion capture days are still stretched out in front of him with roles in The Adventures of Tintin as Tintin’s sidekick Captain Haddock, as Caesar in new Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes and will at some point reprise his roll of Gollum in The Hobbit, once that eventually gets of the ground.

Trailer: Sex & Drugs and Rock & Roll

The Godfather Trilogy

I had never watched the trilogy till recently, one of those things you’ve always meant to get round to watching, but never have. So after a discussion , in which this fact arose, I was leant the boxset, and have now spent the best part of ten hours educating myself.

Part I
Number 2 in the American Film Institute’s 100 years…100movies, a list of the 100 greatest American films ever made, second only to cinema benchmark Citizen Kane.

There’s an episode of Family Guy, in which Peter tells his family that he doesn’t much care for The Godfather, and their all shocked, but I think I have to agree. It may have been a groundbreaking film in 1972, but there isn’t any artistic flare, there maybe an impressive cast Al Pacino, James Cann, Robert Duvall and Marlon Brando, a role for which he won an Oscar, but there isn’t anything special about his, or any of the other performances.
Theres also a lot of pointless material in the film, such as Michael’s time in Scilly, this whole sub-plot as no real relevance to the rest of the story, and just wastes half an hour , as all of a sudden hes back in America, picking up were he left off.
Nevermind the second best American film of all time, its more like the most over-rated film of all time, and certainly one of the biggest disappointments.
　
Part II
This a weird fish, both a prequel and a sequel, making it both brilliant and rubbish at the same time. The Prequel element, which is cut through out the film, focuses on Vito Corleone, his arrival in America, his introduction to the world of crime and eventual rise to crime lord. This section of the film is brilliant, and would have made a superb film in itself. The young Vito being excellently portrayed by Robert De Niro, a role for which he , deservedly, won the Oscar for best Supporting Actor.
Then we have the sequel element, which is frankly as disappointing as the first film. Part II is often called superior to the original, and it’s the prequel/sequel treatment that gives it this edge, because if it was all sequel, I don’t think I could have stomached a third instalment.

Part III
By many this is called the worst of three, or to but it another way ‘the shit one’ , but again I have to disagree with popular consensus, and say that I found this the most entertaining of the lot, don’t get me wrong this is only achieved due to pre-knowledge of all the events that went before it. However the love element between cousins Andy Garcia and Sofia Coppola is almost as laughable as Coppola’s acting, and generally brings not so much as sense of Greek tragedy as Meek tragedy, as we reach the final and Coppola's death,  an ending so blatant, You could see it so far off, that not even Nelson holding the telescope to his bad eye could have missed it.
It does have the classic line ‘just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in’, but now I’m out I staying out .

Terminator - How It Should Have Ended

Inception

Lets face it any film from writer/director Christopher Nolan, the man responsible for the reverse murder mystery of Memento, the new Batman franchise and the brilliance of the one no ones ever heard of The Prestige , was going to worth paying attention to.

Nolan as always has assembled a cast based only on their acting brilliance, rather than on their box-office draw, actors such as Ellen Page (Juno), Tom Hardy (Bronson), Marion Cotillard (Nine), Joseph Gordon-LevittJoseph (500 days of Summer), Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins) and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai). There are also a couple of ‘no way its that guy’ cameos from Tom Beranger (Platoon, and not a lot else worth mentioning) and Pete Postlethwaite, who during the mid 90’s seemed to appear in everything, and who until his cameo in the remake of Clash of the Titans I thought had just dropped off the map, into straight-to-video hell, much like Steve Guttenberg, who during the 80’s seemed to be in everything.

Inception is based around a simple idea, what if people could enter your dreams, and if such a thing was possible there would no doubt be people who would take advantage, and this is where Leonardo DiCaprio comes in. DiCaprio plays a man who, with help, enters peoples minds through their dreams, with the aim of stealing important information from the dreamers own mind. He is then hired by Watanabe to infiltrate the mind of his competitor Murphy, and plant an idea, which will lead Murphy to dissolve his company. For all its sci-fi ideas inception quickly turns into the most spectacular heist movie your ever likely to see, as DiCapro and his team delve deep into Murphy’s consciousness , dreams within dreams.

'Inception' Trailer 2 HD

Cemetery junction

"What do you want to travel for, there’re parts of Reading you ain’t seen yet"

The first feature film from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, it doesn’t disappoint, but then it doesn’t dazzle either, although it is littered with the Gervais/Merchant brand of humour.

The tale of three friends Freddy (Christian Cooke), Bruce (Tom Hughes)& Snork (Jack Doolan) coming of age in Reading circa 1973, Freddy wants to make something of his life, not ending up like his dad (Ricky Gervais) working in a factory all his life, Bruce, who often lets his temper get the better of him, and Snork the obligatory dim-wit who has trouble picking up girls, all pretty formulaic stuff, but its not so much story as the characters that pull you in.

The main trio are all very likable, Freddy’s family are all well meaning, though quite ignorant, his mentor, played by Matthew Goode (Watchmen) is a slimy, arrogant and frankly a bit of a cunt. Then you also have Insurance boss Ralph Fiennes, playing a rather cold and money minded individual, like Scrooge without the chance of redemption, and Emily Watson as his down-trodden wife.

However I think the character of Brian, the café owner, was a mis-judgement on the half of Gervais/Merchant, as he seems like a character that’s escaped the set of Little Britain, seeming quite out of place, while also bringing the film down with him.

The stand out scene for me happens towards the films finale, where Bruce has ended up in a cell yet again for his temper, and Steve Speirs Copper, who has been a great friend to the trio, looses his patience with Bruce and a rather heated dialogue ensues.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYDeHIszUqA

Will Smith

Why does everybody think Will Smith is so great, lets be honest he’s only ever made three excellent films Bad Boys, Independence Day and Ali, but Ali was made almost ten years ago. How long can he possibly run of the back of The Fresh Prince. Apparently Smith turned down the role of Neo in the Matrix to do Wild Wild West, so at least he only made one shit movie, instead of one good movie and two shit sequels. it’s a shame because he is a good actor, Ali was proof of that, and he seems like a nice guy, he just has poor taste and makes bad choices., but then again how long as an audience can we forgive such over-rated boredom fests like Seven Pounds and In the Pursuit of Happyness, or the popcorn slop of Men in Black and Wild Wild West.


Yo, are you ready for us yet, please for fuck sake pump it up prince.

Toy Story 3

This has to be one of the most depressing animations I’ve ever seen, the most depressing being Grave of the Fireflies, the first proper scene after the fantasy flashback intro, sees the toys conducting a similar ‘mission’ to that featured in the previous instalments, but you soon come to realise that the ’mission’ at hand is an effort to get Andy to play with the toys, who have long since been relegated to a chest in the corner, and a mission which ultimately fails. After this quite sad moment we’re treated to a role call of the toys that didn’t make it, and the jumping ship of the soldiers.

Saying that it also has some of the funniest moments of the trilogy, such as Mr. Potato head needing a body and using a tortilla wrap. As well as containing possibly the greatest prison escape ever seen on film, its like Papillon, Shawshank and the Great Escape rolled into one and injected with play-doh

I think the most beautiful moment, which genuinely brought a tear to my eye, is towards the end, after the escape from the day-care centre, and they’ve have ended up at the dump. The toys are heading into the incinerator with no foreseeable chance of escape, Buzz reaches out and grabs Jesse’s hand to comfort her, and with that the rest of the toys follow suite and link hands to face the impending death together.

So in summary this is one of the saddest, funniest, most beautiful, prison escape, coming of age films ever made… about toys.

The Lovely Bones

I really loved this film, and reckon its probably Peter Jackson’s best work since The Frighteners, ‘cause lets face it Lord of the Rings was good, but Return of the King didn’t know when it wanted to end, so did so about 12 times, and King Kong was a fat monkey turd.

Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz are both excellent as the grieving parents, but are not a patch on Stanley Tucci (The Terminal, The Devil wears Prada) who is both creepy and menacing as the child killer, and Susan Sarandon is brilliantly funny as the alcoholic grandmother . But I think where the film excels is in the limbo scenes which are stunning.

It does lose marks though for the end, which isn’t quite as satisfying as you would like, but given that its an adaptation there isn’t a lot Jackson could do about that without pulling a De Vinci Code and rewriting the whole ending , and lets face it that was the main, but not the only, reason it was shit.

Where the Wild Things Are

“CAROL, THAT WAS MY FAVORITE ARM”


When I think back to my childhood there are two books I think of: The Hungry Caterpillar and Where the Wild Things Are, so when I found out Wild Things was being made in to a film, by Spike Jonze no less, I was quite excited by the prospect.

Spike Jonze, legendary music video director and brain behind the cinematic mind twist that is Being John Malkovich, brings us a stunning adaptation of a childhood classic, accompanied with an excellent original soundtrack penned by Karen O, of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

And I’m pleased to say he pulled it off, because lets face it, it could well have been a disaster. Its one of those films that’s so entertaining and original, that I could have happily watched it again straight away., and that I was genuinely thinking about days later.