Sunday 13 April 2008

Pathology

Ted Grey (Milo Ventimiglia) gets an opportunity to work in the pathology department of a prestigious hospital analysing dead bodies and finding out how exactly they were killed. When he arrives however he finds himself tangled up with a group of doctors playing a deadly game lead by Jake Gallo (Michael Weston). They kill people in impossible ways and then the others have to figure out how it's done. Ted finds himself tangled in the game to the point of no return and when his fiancee Gwen, (Alyssa Milano) joins him at his new home he desperately wants to find a way out, something he realises is a lot harder than it looks without putting the safety of Gwen in jeapordy.


Te he, it was a fun film to watch if you like the slasher type film. I haven't seen a film like this in quite a while, where it's more about the killing than the 'shock scaring' the heck out of its audience.

It looks into the psyche of the people we put our lives in the hands of and I tell you it fills you with confidence, it also makes you wish more than anything that you never become the kind of person that would not be missed if they die, coz if you were .... watch out!!

It's definately a bloke film I can say that, with enough booze, drugs, sex and death to fill you up till next year, but it's fun. Look past the blood and boobs and you can have a good time watching it!! Pretty amazing and shows how twisted the mind is
considering how dark the storyline is. Good performances from all and enough to make you happy you saw it but quickly forget about it the next day. I shall give it a simple 3 faces.

Friday 11 April 2008

Drillbit Taylor

Wade, Ryan and Jim are three boys who are starting High School for the first time, however within the first day they find themselves the victims of the schools two worst bullies and realise that in order to survive the rest of school they're going to need to employ a bodyguard to protect them from being beaten up. That's where Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) comes in, he's a homeless army deserter who would do anything for an extra buck and sees an advantage to hanging around with these three naive rich kids posing as a professional bodyguard.

Meh, it was ok I guess, there were plenty enough moments that made me laugh and Wilson is his usual self showing nothing more than his usual jokes. Beginning to think that this is all we're going to see him doing and any thoughts I had that he may do something a little bit more challenging and serious like some of the other comic actors (Jim Carey, Will Ferrel) were thrown away when he completely failed to convincingly act any serious emotions in this film.

It is what I like to call my own kind of 'one hit wonder' which is the type of comic film that makes me laugh the first time but I know I will never watch again without getting incredibly bored. It was also waaaay too long, (I checked my watch a good five or six times) and they seemed to drag the storyline (which is the kind that you know how it's going to end in the first 3 seconds) out for a good half hour longer than they should fitting in a lot of pointless scenes that we really could have done without. And as for the love interest, where do I start?? Unbelievable (even for this 'never would happen' storyline) that just shows a female teacher, Lisa (Leslie Mann) who's clearly pent up for sex and adds an extra story line to the film that's not exactly needed.

All in all, if you wanna watch something mundane yet still worthy of a few giggles then go see this but don't expect much, you'll be disappointed if you do.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Awake

Clay Beresford (Hayden Christiansen) is a 22 year old millionaire who is struggling with A. an ongoing heart problem that puts him on the transplant waiting list and B. balancing between the love of his mother (Lena Olin) and his fiancee Sam Lockwood. (Jessica Alba) Things start to look up for him however when his long wait for a heart (due to his rare blood type) finally comes to an end and one is found. The surgery is to be performed by his best friend Dr Jack Harper (Terrence Howard) and everything seems to be going well. That is until the anaesthesia doesn't work and he finds himself in a paralysed state but fully conscious throughout his operation, culminating in a full awareness of the pain and going on's in the operation room during his transplant.

One thing I need to ask as I felt like screaming this all the way through this film, When are people gonna realise that Hayden Christiansen can't act?? I mean come on!! Star wars was bad enough but I figured they must have realised during those films that he was no good therefore he should have been unable to get work after that contract ran out!! But alas no, on we go to see Christiansen in yet another film where he struggles to show emotion and gets his facial expressions totally confused with what is actually going on in the film. Having said all that this is probably the best I've seen him in (doesn't take much) and he did actually surprise me by exceeding my expectations of his acting skills (again this is not much to do) bringing him up to possibly the same level as the Harry Potter trio's performances.

Jessica Alba however did quite well, even if I did spend the whole film thinking that she was waaay too good looking. (yes I think that there is limit to how good looking you should be and she completely oversteps the line) However, something about her never screams out Oscar material and I don't know what it is that holds her back... (not that I could do any better!!)

The film apart from all the above was actually incredibly riveting, I found myself rooted to the spot throughout its entirety and it offered just enough plot turns and excitement to keep me intrigued as to where it was all going to go. I tell you one thing however, if I was ever scared of having an operation before this film that is tripled now after!! Flippin heck!!

The film has doom written all over it from the opening statistics (Every year 1 out of 300 people stay awake during anaesthesia) and followed by Dr Jack Harpers first line about how his friend just died on the table we get anything but a warm fuzzy feeling as to where this is going to go and it definately left me afterwards with an incredibly odd sensation in the pit of my stomach that I still can't explain.

I liked it, it's not ground breaking and they could have done better with some of the cast choices but the storyline keeps your eyes stuck to the screen regardless, will definately be buying the DVD of this one so I will give it a (almost reluctant due to Christiansen) four faces.

Monday 7 April 2008

My Girl

DVD you should watch!!

A film based in the 70's and filmed in 1991 shows Veda Sultinfuss (Anna Chlumsky) as a young girl who is dealing with life living in a funeral parlour. With her mother having died giving birth to her she has grown up with only her father, (Dan Aykroyd) her senile grandmother and her best friend Thomas J (Macaulay Culkin) for company. Throughout the film we see her dealing with a new woman in her fathers life (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her desperate cries of attention for her father to listen to her.

This film is amazing, the one movie I cannot understand why no one seems to have seen when it was so ground breaking to me. I fell in love with Veda's hypochondriac ways and struggle with the 'stepmum' dilemma. This showed Chlumsky in her debut role that looked like she'd been doing it all her life and Culkin in a role a little more challenging than 'Oh my gosh, I'm home alone!!'

The synopsis makes it sound like some sweet little drama that doesn't look like it can amount to much but with atonishing performances from actors all round and a witty narrative that draws you in from scene one, it is definately a must have DVD. I've not yet met a person that didn't watch this film and love it. It's got no huge plot twists and zero special effects (which the latter I am glad about coz quite frankly it wouldn't exactly go with the theme of the film) but it is incredibly addictive and guaranteed, male or female, to make you laugh, cry and get angry with the characters involved.

A film that affected my childhood greatly and will always be a classic in the rest of my adult life I have to give this DVD my first astonishing 5 faces.



Saturday 5 April 2008

27 Dresses


Since Jane Nichols (Katherine Heigl) was a young girl all she's ever known to do is look after her family and friends. Now in her 20's she has found herself at her 26th and 27th wedding as chief bridesmaid and ever the optimist is happy to be there. As the film unfolds we see her boss George (Edward Burns) who she had been madly in love with since she started her job fall for her beautiful sister Tess (Malin Akermen)and when they get engaged she is asked to help organise their wedding as well. All the while Kevin Doyle (James Marsden) a local reporter has spotted her at these weddings and has found himself fascinated with her.

Can anyone say awwww?? If you want a sweet chick flick to curl up to with a cup of hot chocolate (do cinema's sell those?) and your favourite stuffed toy then look no further than this one. First off anyone who used to watch Roswell and then went on to fall in love with Grey's Anatomy will agree with me that Katherine Heigl can do no wrong at the moment, everything she is in she makes a success coz for some reason you just have to love her, even if she is too stupidly gorgeous for her own good and seems to have the bubbly perfect personality to match (judging purely on the roles she's played of course, will need to do more research to confirm) we all seem to love her!!

And then James Marsden actually has landed himself a lead role!! Horraay!! No more playing the other man (X Men, The Notebook, Enchanted, Superman Returns, the list goes on) but actually getting to be the man that scores the girl at the end!! Now when I heard he was going to play this man I was unsure as to whether he was up to the task always used to rejection in on screen love and all but I can happily say that he comes across just lovable and sexy enough to always be in his corner throughout the film!!

With a supporting role from the queen of supporting roles Judy Greer (Elizabethtown, 13 going on 30 and The wedding Planner to name a few) who I personally love and sercretly hope will make to leading lady one day, it is a shiner of a film if you're not expecting anything else other than a smiley and feel good moment!!

Probably one for the girls more than the boys, but as I am a girl I give it a very smitten 4 faces!!

Meet the Spartans


When hearing they were doing a spoof of 300 I was dubious about there being actual humour involved. The trailer didn't exactly send shivers down my spine and all reviews I had read (namely Empire magazine) had panned it royally. So when I went, I was not expecting much at all, in fact I was there ready to laugh at the badness of it.

So you can imagine my delight at being pleasantly surprised, now I would like to add that this is not a particularly amazing film, it is also not hilariously funny, but it does have some good moments. With Carmen Electra as per usual playing the slutty female role and then some may remember Eastenders Sean Maguire playing our male lead, who by the way was pretty funny and managed to down play his character so that he kept it from being too over the top humour that spoofs tend to go for.

There were also some performances from what I was told from my internet obsessed friend Dave, sitting next to me were famous youtube stars that were well known for their impressions, one in particular a woman called Lisa someone or other. Having wrote the above however, I went to find this woman and only found Nicole Parker from madTV who played them, so they are either the same person with different alias's (I do remember something being said about that) or Dave's lying to me, I guess people can find that one out for me.

Anywho, I don't wanna fool anyone into thinking this is a laugh out loud funny film, it isn't though it is enjoyable and easily watched. One comment I heard about it probably sums it up best. It's like a really long Youtube video, it's not particularly amusing but your drawn to watch it to the end anyway. Though some jokes are used for too long (dance off and pushing into the pit) the majority is easy going, and if you're a partiulcarly large internet geek like the two guys I went to see this with then there are lots of little gems for you to enjoy while watching that you're neighbour probably won't get which of course adds the smug factor into watching which is always a good one to have.

So all in all, if you're bored and want something light to watch without much hassle then go and see it, if you actually wanna watch something decent and brain stimulating then proabably give this one a miss!! Your call.

10,000 bc


In (would you believe it) 10,000bc we see a tribe in Egypt surviving the only way they know how through hunting and their faiths in the Gods and prophecies of the future. In this clan we see our hero D'Leh (Steven Strait)grow up wanting to gain honour and win the girl he loves, Evolet (Camilla Belle) all at the same time. When 'four legged demons' (men on horses wearing slipknot type masks) arrive and kidnap half of the clan including his one true love, D'leh goes on a mission to find Evolet and save his tribe. The film then goes on to find our hero and heroine saving the day in very different ways as the whole plot unfolds.

When going to see this film I think your opinion of whether you like it or not is going to be thoroughly based on whether or not you've seen Mel Gibson's Apocolypto.

Although well acted and even well written the enjoyment of this film is ruined and thrown to 'how bored am I?' ville by the fact that it has all the same characteristics, storylines and even characters as Apocolypto only without use of subtitles and set in a slightly earlier era.

The innocence of the film and the simple shots makes this a film all the family can enjoy, it's not too gory and they all manage to keep their clothes on unlike Apocolypto so in it's plus side if you were a kid too young to see Apocolypto then you can see this one and get pretty much the same idea.

Having said that, being someone who saw the previous Mel Gibson film, I was dissapointed and slightly bored in quite a few integral parts of this film, and though it did, just, manage to keep my attention for the duration, I would not be able to sit through it again. An idea that would have worked well had it been original with good directing and a well chosen cast I have to say it lost points in the the plotline so only gets a simple 3 faces from me.