I’m not a huge fan of CGI movies, why? Because they are too fake & though I can see the need for CGI elements in movies I tend to avoid movies that entirely depend on it so it was really refreshing to see this gem. Roald Dahl is behind many great stories such as “Charlie & the chocolate factory” & “the witches” but even though the books are written well their film adaptations are sometimes lacking any real depth, this is not true when it comes to this movie. The jerky movements of the characters are a welcome return to the world of old fashioned animation techniques & the effects are done so well it feels like you can almost reach out & run your fingers through the fur. The attention to detail is utterly fantastic & every few seconds I found my eyes drifting over the different props & backdrops. Perhaps it’s the attention to detail or perhaps its just the simple old school styles of stop motion animation & proper story telling..I don’t know, but Fantastic Mr Fox is & will remain to be one of my all time favourite films. Forget 3D & forget suffocating lashings of CGI infested pictures by Pixar, if you wont to see something both highly entertaining & freshly original treat yourself to this little gem.2012 - “You're telling me that the North Pole is now some where in Wisconsin?”
For some reason this movie actually kind of works, not a story telling level with high class acting but on “omg that looked impressive” kind of way. The story is simple, in the year 2012 the prophecies of an incoming Armageddon are all true & so the human race fight for survival. The acting is terrible & every third line sounds like a bad joke but this really is not the kind of movie you watch for the acting ..or the story. Ok so the world is coming to an end due to natural disasters such as earth quakes, tidal waves, volcanoes & so on.. When such disasters do start happening that’s really when you see what the movie has to offer, the visual effects are really quite stunning ..entirely over the top of course but strangely kind of believable. Cities sink into the sea, boats get obliterated by giant tidal waves & yellow stone park gets wiped out by a enormous volcano. Without going too far into the story I can definitely say that the movie would have been better if they left the last 20mins out, I suppose because it was such a hyped up movie that spent millions to make it was bound to fail. In the end the prophecies themselves by the Mayans & Nostradamus were not followed closely enough to really make the movie that believable & the cast did not fit their roles, that said danny glover as the president of the united states worked but I just couldn’t stand john cusack. Perhaps it will grow on me, perhaps not but this may be a flick worth avoiding.The Fourth Kind - “Please be advised, that some of what you're about to see is extremely disturbing.”
Straight away the movie stated it was based on a true story this of course peaked my interest but the more I looked into it the more I saw how fake it actually was. The story revolves around a psychologist living in an Alaskan town where strange alien like activity is reported. The Dr starts to investigate her patients claims through the medium of hypnosis.. What she finds is disturbing. Ok so the entire story is completely made up but parades itself as factual, blair witch anyone? I liked the blair witch for what it did with such a small budget & even though it did fabricate the truth it still had scares & so does the fourth kind. When the horror element does drop the scenes are genuinely scary & the themes of demonic possession & murder/suicide really did make me squirm. All in all its not a bad movie, the acting is quite admirable, the shocks do get a jump & the story isn’t half bad. If you like Milla Jovovich it might be worth the watch or indeed if you like movies like “fire in the sky” & “communion” this might also appeal to you.The Boondock Saints 2: all saints day - “A .22? Oh you've gotta be kidding me. That's like bringing a knife to a gunfight.”
The first boondocks movie was great, the acting was ace..the action was heavy & the jokes were actually funny, this time around sadly the same cannot be said. 10 years later the saints get framed for the murder of a priest & so they come out of hiding to not only clear their name but to take revenge on the true killer. They return to boston to make things right with guns blazing & tongue in cheek quips at hand but it just doesn’t work. Most of the original cast do return but it just seems like too little too late, I don’t know why exactly but I watched it a few times & I still couldn’t make myself really enjoy it. I suppose my biggest issue with the film was the sidekick they take under their wing, I really didn’t like the character & he kind of annoyed me. The action when it does happen isn’t bad but its no where near as good as the original..perhaps that’s what it got a very limited cinema release. If you are a fan of the original you might get something from this but its still lacking in any real depth. The only saving grace for me was the acting by flannery & reedus, they are great actors & play the roles perfectly but the sidekick really ruined it for me.
