Reviews

Requiem for a Dream Aronofsky's best in my opinion!! 4/4 stars

Was time once again to watch this awesome film that was directed by Darren Aronofsky. I must say this is one of those movies that i can watch 100 times over and never get sick of it. Tne story of 4 people who are co dependants of different forms...drugs and eating disorders who all find out that after achieving the great highs their is always the crashing lows. Great cast includes the always great Ellen Burstyn (who if you asked me got totally robbed by Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich that year in the Oscars) Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans. Aronofsky never even received a nod for best direction (Which in my opinion is a crime) And this all is backed by an amazing soundtrack by the Kronos Quartet (Another miss at the 73rd Academy Awards).

All these things i have mentioned make this film epic and is yet another reason why Darren Aronofsky remains in my top 10 directors of all time list!

Upon originally seeing the trailer for this (Aside from getting excited as i always do when one of my top 5 fave actors of all time star in something) I thought it would be a total up in the air type film revolving around an epic plane crash. Sure their is an epic crash (Due to the amazing job done by the film crew it looked totally real) however this story revolves about pilot William "Whip" Whitaker (Washington) a divorced heavy drinking/partying who has with that life style surprise surprise a drinking problem. This movie tends more to be about addiction and how it is more a disease then a problem. Kudos to John Goodman who i thought was simply brilliant as Whip's drug dealer Harling (Laughed at how he presented himself you have to see the movie yourself to see why) Aside from that most of the all-star cast did pretty solid acting jobs.

With award season almost under our noses i can definitely see this as being a strong contender with Denzel more than likely garnering yet another statuette for his shelf at home in the best acting dept.

End of Watch One of the better cop films out there. 3/4 stars

Wow!! Yet another well written script from the director who also wrote the script for one of my top 10 all time favorite films 'Traning Day' After not seeing a good 'L.A. crime' movie in awhile i was pleased when i saw the trailer for 'End Of Watch' Finally caught the film and now i will say it holds itself well amongst many of the great cop films of days gone by. Harrowing footage delivered sometimes from video cam really shows the horrors that some of the boys in blue face in South Central L.A. and surrounding areas. The movie wasn't what i thought it would be after seeing the trailer as i thought once again it was a good cop/bad cop story such as what was depicted in 'Training Day' Both of the officers Gyllenhaal and Pena this time mostly uphold the law however in a manner that might be deemed as not so straight by some. Good guys alround don't get me wrong however not the cop i bet the L.A.P.D. like to promote.

I enjoyed this film immensely, and was hit by the wow! factor quite a few times as some of the scenes seem so realistically real at times it seemed like i was watching an episode of Fox's 'Cops'. For those of you that are much like myself this is one cop film not to be missed!

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior The best of the Max films 4/4 stars

One of the best sequels to an original story ever made... Loved the cinematic backdrop to director George Miller's 'post apocalyptic' vision that portrays one thing that might come true in the near future..the fight for gasoline. After losing pretty much his whole world and becoming a 'shell of a man' in 'Mad Max' he now spends his days much like all the other nuclear war survivors and that is searching for food and gas. Now joined by a little dog as a sidekick, he runs into a band of survivors who are in possession of a tanker of gas and drilling cranes. This band constantly are fighting off a band of no do gooders (who resemble a huge punk band of the 80's) lead by the muscular protagonist 'Humungous' (charector looks much like Jason Voorheese on steroids). Anyhow Max decides to help this little band of do gooders move camp to a beach area that they all call paradise.

Fantastic chase scenes (some of the best in my book) great costumes, and all around action make this one of my favourite sequels of all time!

Although not being my fave of the series this edition to the tale is still effective. Set once again in the beautiful backdrop of Australia, director Miller once again sets out to continue the tale of lonely hero Max Rockatansky. I guess i was originally p'eed off due to the fact that this film (I guess much due to the fact that it was more popular within the States) was too Americanized. The original two films were not and aside from Mel Gibson (Max) and Bruce Spence the rest of the cast were virtually unknowns and to me that is why they are so great. This time 'round director Miller decided to cast a big name to go side by side with Gibson (Who at the time was just starting to rocket to super stardom) and that was super '80's pop diva Tina Turner as chief antagonist Aunty Entity.

Although Turner does show us some acting chops which in turn shows off how multi talented she is..this movie falls short of what the original two provided and goes in a new direction, a more western film culture then staying Auzzy something i believe was a mistake. We still get a thrilling car chase (Which is the whole reason i was drawn to this series in the beginning) not bad storyline..the movie just in my opinion falls short somewhere.

Well i know how much i loathed the original so i was very sceptical when i started to watch the reboot. Director Pete Travis must've been one of those people who was intrigued by the Stallone original as i thought if i were a director Judge Dredd would've been the last movie i would re-do. Anyhow the reboot has some qualities that make it superior although the storyline in my mind remains dead. Good eye candy i will admit this time round however the acting is 'B' level. And if you love films with constant gratuitous graphic violence then this is definitely for you. Storyline this time around has the action taking place in the far future 2070 as a new drug named 'Slo-mo' has gripped it's citizens and the head gang of 'The Cursed Earth' (Formally the States) lead by their vicious leader Madeline Madrigal (known by her followers simply as Ma-Ma) have taken over one of the low rent high rises and use it for a manufacturing plant for the drug. After Ma-Ma has three of her own drugged first and then thrown from the high rise to their deaths, Judge Dredd has been called in to investigate with new Judge recruit Cassandra Anderson (Who is also a psychic) who is to be tested here to see if she can make it to a full time Judge.

It's not long before Ma-Ma learns about this and has the building locked down to avoid Dredd and his partner from escaping with one of her own and having him share everything he knows about her drug op to the other judges. The rest of the film tends to remind me of a video game where you have to battle the evil members of the drug cartel till you get to the top to battle the drug king pin herself.

Although better then the original (Didnt take much) i was still not totally captiated by this film at all. It was just so-so in my books.

Sinister Trailer is scarier than the actual product!! 2/4 stars

I guess seeing this in the theatre up on the big screen would make this more scary then it was (I was privileged enough to see a home copy that was lent to me by a friend of mine who gets screeners sent to him) However that being said i would have to say over all the film itself was creepy but i guess i don't scare that easily as i only jumped once or twice (Unlike movies like the Paranormal films where you can find me plastered to the ceiling) the scariest thing about this flick was the soundtrack...plan on looking for a copy of this to buy and play on the next Halloween!

I also have to mention that the storyline here was one of the creepiest i have seen in a while... Ethan Hawke portrays true crime novelist Elison Oswalt who after having a run of bad books moves his family of 4 into a house that the former tenants also a family were hung from a tree (Elison finds the footage from this grisly murder along with other Super 8 murders in his attic) this spurs on his next writing project and gets caught up in watching the films that he has found for his homework. The more films he watches however the more supernatural activity keeps occurring in his new home.

The death of the family that lived there before is still being investigated as the daughter of the family has disappeared something Elison hopes to uncover whilst writing his next book. Investigating this crime puts his family at danger of course.

Overall a very creepy film however light on the scare factor in my opinion.

Had this movie in my collection a while and finally got around to watching it today. One of the best films i have seen on the profession of baseball yet. Kudos to both Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill for stellar acting jobs here. Supporting cast ain't that bad either with realistic jobs done also by Phillip Seymore Thomas (Who has a head coach look down perfectly) But both the acting jobs done by both Pitt and Hill are very believable and a storyline which was incredibly interesting and no you don't even have to enjoy watching the sport to know what's going on as i once heard a woman friend say.

Pitt plays Oakland A's longtime GM and former Mets player Billy Beane. Beane is named the Oakland A's GM and attends all the draft meetings with the look of utmost boredom until one of the other brass pretty much ask him what his problem is he asks each and everyone of them if they know what the current problem is that was surrounding the team. After no one can come up with an answer he tells them that the problem especially with the Yankees is that they spend millions on all star talent who once hired don't do a thing as to where he teaches them to look at the guys who are hard workers and can actually get to the base and that are not asking for much moolah in return.

Little does Beane knows is he will start what is now more or less precedent in baseball today when it comes to acquiring talent from any pro ball roster. He through yet another meeting concerning draft talks he acquires assistant Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) from The Boston Red Sox who adds his own pick and great wisdom to the then 2002 season. A good film overall that can be proudly on display with other great pro baseball film that have occurred.

If you haven't seen Total Recall yet 2012 or the 1990 version then most definitely go with director Paul Verhoeven's original starring Arnold Schwartznegger as the 2012 version is a very poor carbon coby with a few changes that were not made for the better. I myself am incredibly leery on watching reboots of films and Total Recall is the main reason as to why. The updated storyline is crap with the evil Cohagen this time round wanting to issue a force of his created robots on what's left of the 21st century inhabitants on the two colonies left in the world titled the UFB (United federation of Britain) and the colony (Australia) (Stupid idea) . Yep no trip to Mars this time round folks (or like Arnie likes to call it Maaas) In this one director Len Wiseman still used a majority of the same names used in the 1990 version however took a lot of liberties with the story and not necessarily good ones either.

Kudos to both Farrell and Beckinsale for hiding both of their accents but that's all i can congratulate in this film. OK eye candy might give it another vote but that's extremely pushing it.

Argo Affleck's Argo blew me away! 4/4 stars

I had a feeling upon seeing the first trailer for Ben Affleck's 'Argo' mostly due to the story within as i remember as a child still to this day watching in anticipation to the news channel as the 6 hostages were escaping the iron grip of the country Iran. I always new even back then even though at my age and still to this day the Star Wars movie was mostly in my thoughts , that the story of the escaping hostages would make one hell of a movie and thanks to Ben Affleck's directing abilities that far outshine his acting endeavours, we got a brilliantly executed story here, although with a lot of historical inaccuracies, still kept close to what actually went on during that frantic time.

The Iranian hostage crisis took place from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981 444 days in total that ended up with then President Jimmy Carter not being voted in for yet another term in the oval office. The CIA upon hearing that the American embassy had been taken over immediately spoke to their disguise and exfiltration expert Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to figure out a way to get the '6' out of Iran and it's confines before being captured, which unfortunately if happened, would've surely meant the execution of the 6 diplomats as we all know quite well that the United States government do not answer to threats of terrorism...Mendez comes upon with the idea of enlisting a top movie producer and director to fabricate the shooting of a new sci-fi film named Argo that would go head to head with the then debuting sci fi giant 'Star Wars' with principle filming to begin in the deserts of Iran, with the end result being safely and quickly getting the '6' out of country before the Iranian militia get hold of them first.

Apparently a lot of people have voiced their displeasure, mostly Canadians, saying that the film and Affleck didn't show a lot of Canada's participation in this secret mission, making it more of an American deal. Myself a Canadian didn't get bothered at all of this and actually thought that Affleck did a good job (sure their are some or should i say a lot of liberties taken with this story, you know what though? It all = up to be a damn fine edge of your seat political thriller) and Canada got their dues in reality and not those that watched the events unfold on television during those 444 days know that the States were indeed grateful for Canada's participation through to the end. Take it for what it is folks, one of the best films that 2012 has to offer.

This is one book to movie adaptation (Although a cash grab as this story could've been easily told within one movie) that i would love to say what i usually say and that is the book was better but you know what? I can't as the ending gives you more or less the Meyer version that is the book and you get director Bill Condon's version as well that entwine quite well actually. So a two for one type ending is not a bad thing in a movie world that provides so little these days. The film starts pretty much where 'Breaking Dawn Prt 1' left off.. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is dealing with two major life changing things in her life..1..Becoming a newborn vampire and two...becoming a mommy to a baby girl named Renesme (The worst storybook name i have ever seen) who seems to, due to the fact that she is half vampire/half human, have powers of her own such as mind reading and levitation, she also has starting ageing rapidly. So all these things considered she has to still come up with an idea on what to tell her dad Charlie (Billy Burke) who only thinks she is still ill from her and new beau Edward's (Robert Pattinson) 's honeymoon trip. Needless to say a lot has gone on in short time in her life.

The Cullen family thanks to Alice (Ashley Greene) are soon to find out that one of their cousins has seen Bella walking Renesmee, and her powers as she flies up to touch a falling snowflake, the cousin informs the powerful sect The Volturi of this new edition to the Cullen family with inquisitions and questions they all come looking for the Cullens. This sets off Alice and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) to find who they believe is the only other hybrid like Renessmee to hopefully avoid war with the Volturi.

A good ending to a series of films that in my mind were more off then on. Hey at least they ended it properly in my mind. Maybe Condon should've directed the lot?? Who knows?

Watched this with the kids today and i don't know...i'm thinking the best one was the first book to movie adaptation that i liked better anyways. It was OK and my son who reads the books wasn't totally impressed either. Greg our main character is about to chuck the school books and get ready for his summer vacation...you know the hard life of everyday video gaming whilst older brother Roderick sleeps like a bear. That is until dad (Steve Zahn) has something to say about it. This leads Greg in desperation in what to do.. once again using Wimpy buddy Rowley so he gain access to Rowley's mother's pool and day spa club most of all to spend time with new love interest Holly Hills ( Peyton List) which ends him up in a whole heap of trouble especially when older brother aka chief antagonist Roderick ( Devon Bostick) gets wind of it and demands that he will tell his father of his secrets unless Greg also sneaks him in.

Not a bad film and probably a good family film for those that have enjoyed the others in this series however er the movies are running weakly on my son (A fan of the books) and myself so don't think we will be taking in anymore.

Wreck-It Ralph Disney is awesome 3/4 stars

After taking in quite a few animated films with my kids i would have to say this surprised me as i found the others duds and actually quite boring. Great original storyline that has all the bad guys from the 80's era games or 8-bit if you will meeting regularly to share the dark secrets are astonished when the bad guy and main character from The Wrekk-it Ralph game announces that he wants to be a good guy and for once be the one who gets the medal and stands on top of his famed apartment building with the tenants he saved, In Wreck-it Ralph, Ralph destroys the building whilst fix it Felix jumps up and down the building fixing all that Ralph has destroyed both antagonists racing to the top to save the tenants. Felix usually saves the day and stands proudly on top with the tenants as poor Ralph sits angrily at the bottom of the building in a puddle of mud.

Ralph has had enough of this and tells Felix during a 30th anniversary celebratory party that he is done 'wrecking' and is gonna find his medal so he can be the victor for once. this starts the film leading us into something i personally imagined as a teen gamer growing up in the 80's...what it would be like to be inside the game? Ralph jumps from game to game inside an arcade...going through the wires and digital circuitry. True to his name, Ralph wrecks everything and ends up unleashing a evil force onto the gaming world and has top team up with a young 'glitch' racecar driver named Vanellope who was outcast from her car racing game 'Sugar Rush' in order to win the race and defeat the evil so all is well in gaming land yet once again.

Actors lending their vocal talents to the film were John C. Reilly (Ralph), Sarah Silverman (Vanelope) Jane Lynch (Calhoun..who comes from a HD graphic FPS game and whose character was definitely drawn perfect for her) to name a few. Great CGI animation and kudos to Disney for providing a movie that the whole family can enjoy, even someone like me who doesn't really care for this genre of films. It was a very nice change then sitting bored out of mind for 1hr and 30mins.

This to me was like reviewing Brother Bear once again except this time it's the main character's mother who turns into one, a bear that is. Aside from that this film did little and nothing for me but then again i'm not the target audience here, now the target audience (my kids) they both loved it so that's a good thing. Although being no fan myself of this family genre of films, only a few seem to capture my interest, I still look for great storytelling and found the storyline in this flick completely dull although i do have to say anything Scottish always keeps me somewhat entertained. I will say if you have a family and are looking for a movie night movie to watch then select this one however if you are a dad much like myself, who watches these films strictly for the kids only hoping to luck out and enjoy it myself, remember one thing...it's all about the kids!

One thing this Tarantino classic is brilliant for is the script alone. Tarantino is by far the best in the business when it comes to on screen characters and written dialogue! Reservoir Dogs is excellent proof of that and is one of the best casted movies that i can remember in a long time. Chris Penn (rip) who i thought wasn't that great of an actor during his short lived career, however he was brilliant as well. If you have never seen any of Tarantino's work, then i definitely suggest starting here as it will only leave you either wanting more or not. You see you either love Quentin or you don't their doesn't seem to be any in between. I myself before seeing this for the first time (RD was my very first Tarantino film ) did not like to sit through films that were heavy in dialogue as i found them immensely boring. That changed and was only cemented after also viewing his Pulp Fiction (Another character/dialogue enriched film).

For those who have yet to see this cinematic masterpiece let me fill you in a bit. 7 men all hired by crime thief expert Joe Cabot to perform a job on a jewelry store that has according to sources a load of diamonds that just came in from Brazil, after the job goes very badly the men who survived the aftermath shootout with the police were to show up at the rendezvous point. We get three of the men Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) pulling a badly injured Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) who had taken a bullet to his belly who are at the rendezvous point first and let the dialogue roll... All of the men seem to believe that the heist was a setup but have to unfortunately stay put until the arrival of Joe Cabot to tell them further instructions.

Kudos here to Michael Madsen who portrays, most excellently the psychotic Mr. Blonde aka Vic Vega who was definitely my favourite character in the film. This is a movie i can easily watch 1000 times over and over again as it remains as one of the best films i have ever seen!

Savages (2012) There is no same ole same ole about this story 3/4 stars

After reading a lot of reviews slagging director Oliver Stone's latest effort as being unlike his usual work..another wrote that he would stick to his normal style of directing that he is accustomed and known for... I personally have watched all of Stone's films and just wonder what in the hell these people mean by normal style? As far as i can remember each and everyone of Stone's flicks were in a style of their own and not one of them share the same flare...so? Needless to say i thought he did a fantastic job on 'Savages' Actually the only thing i wasn't to keen on was the triangular love affair between the 3 main characters and how the male bff's shared her (in one segment at the same time) sorry that's just a whiff of my old fashionism escaping tis all...Great cast as per usual let's see we got Travolta, Kitsch, Hayek, Del Toro to name a few all exceeding their paid duties as actors. Storyline was great and we even get two versions of the ending (one imaginary one reality) without having to open up the extras of the DVD.

Once again, to myself, we have Oliver Stone's way of storytelling gritty, intelligent, and often brutal but me myself. that's the way i like them to be!

Personally i think that director Marty Scorcese is the king of this genre however will have to admit that Ridley Scott did a fine job here, alleviating from his usual sci-fi genre that he also directs so well. American Gangster is the rags to riches story of former drug king pen during the 70's Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). After being a driver for 15 years for then Harlem king pin Bumpy Johnson (Clarence Williams III) Bumpy dies leaving Lucas to take over his business . In a rather ballsy movie, he decides to eliminate the middle man (the mob) and buy the drugs from the war torn country of Vietnam himself. Now i personally have watched a load of films on drug trade and trafficking, usually finding a majority of them quite cool and somewhat fascinating, however there is nothing cool or fascinating about creating false bottoms and using the coffins of dead soldiers returning home from that dreadful war as ways of getting his product (heroin) into the U.S. in fact that was despicable. The other half of this tale comes to us in the form of broken down do gooder detective Ritchie Roberts (Russell Crowe) A cop who has, aside from a failed marriage, a bad time with his fellow officers after Roberts searches an abandoned vehicle and finding no less then 1 million in cash stowed away in it's trunk turns it in to his precinct as it was 'The decent thing to do'

Robert's upon hearing smidgeons of information about the goings on of Frank Lucas decides to team up with a few of his fellow officers that he can still depend on to spend the rest of the film doing surveillance, wire taps etc to bring Lucas's drug empire to a halt. After watching this film i decided to research a little as i usually do during a real life event flick as to see how much was shinola. From what i read it seems that Scott's team did a pretty good job depicting the events around these two individuals lives however there is of coarse the usual fabrications...this is Hollywood remember? I enjoyed American Gangster immensely and think it deserves to be up on the movie shelf right alongside movies that are already there Goodfellas, The Godfather trilogy and Scarface.

Chernobyl Diaries Do yourself a favour and rent Hills Have Eyes!!!! 0.5/4 stars

Ugh! By far one of the worst movies i have seen. Although the trailer makes it look quite brilliant, i guess that's what they are supposed to do to fill the seats? Casting on this was complete crap, i don't mind casting no names if they are good no names..these people couldn't act their way out of a wet paper bag! Storyline was also complete rubbish. A bunch of kids who are touring through The Soviet Union happily until one of them meets a hack tourist guy who promises to get them into the quarantined area of Chernobyl, so he convinces the rest of the group that i would be fun to see all the broken down homes and buildings. Unfortunately upon getting there some unseen force has removed their distributor cap and adjoining cables so the travel guide 'Uri' can no longer drive them out of there so they are stranded the night. Attacking hungry dogs and people that we cannot see(Cannot see anything that well as this is one of the darkest movies i have ever seen) that seem to want to feast on the gang are some of the things that they go up against.

Once again, the movie is so damn dark it frustrates us the viewers into almost stopping this and saying "Screw it!!" If you want a good , although gory, film that is around the same genre and storyline then by all means rent any of the updated "Hills Have Eyes" films as they are so much better...Leave this one alone as it sucks completely!!!

Prometheus (2012) Puzzling...to say the least!! 2.5/4 stars

OK after seeing this film i guess the synopsis should read... for those that like movies that resemble a 1000 piece puzzle. After seeing this film you will see what i mean as we are shown a lot by director Ridley Scott but not given much in answers which along with the ending leads me to believe that Scott plans to direct a sequel sometime in the future. Hey! If your first venture doesn't make money add loads of plot holes so you will be forced to spend money and see the the next part and so forth and so on. another thing i don't understand is why are people calling this an 'Alien' prequel as it has little and nothing to do with any of the Alien quadrology...OK maybe a little segment in the end that i wont mention in case you haven't already seen this film, needless to say it's the only smidgen of Alien evidence that i caught anyways. Not bad but give us answers next time round Ridley!

AVP: Alien Vs. Predator Surprisingly Good! 3/4 stars

Never had any interest in seeing this upon it's initial theatrical release as i had already saw another monster vs monster movie and thought it sucked...Freddy Vs. Jason so with that god awful movie in mind i had little and no interest in seeing yet another of my two favourite film franchises once again merge and do battle. Bored out of my mind last night flicking through the channels on my satellite i started watching the cut up movie that AMC had to offer on their Kevin Smith hosted Fear Fest (for those that do not know about what this is ...AMC usually air nothing but horror films on the weeks surrounding Halloween) Anyhoo...saw that a Predator marathon of sorts was showing along with Predator 1-2 AVP was on next so i'm it's not like i was doing anything anyhow...sigh...might as well have a look. Well i was surprised none the less on how quickly i got gripped by this movie (it helped a lot that Lance Henriksen co-starred) Although straying from both of the stories that these monsters who were yet to do battle originally came from in their individual franchises, what we get is a pretty impressive new storyline that has the Predators using an anciently buried pyramid in Antartica underneath the ice shelves. It seems many many years ago the Predators, who all the fans like myself know are hunters used to flock to this ancient site to do battle with the aliens that were grown there and those that did were considered amongst themselves to be the ultimate in warriors.

Now after the pyramid was once again re-discovered as a heat blip on a map by a team of researchers who decide to start an expedition and set up camp to start drilling only once arriving to the mapped out site find that someone/thing has already made a massive tunnel down to the pyramid itself, a hole that ceased to exist not 24 hrs ago according to their maps and calculations. Of coarse our band of scientists have to scale down the already made opening and once touching down at the pyramid itself quickly find out that they are not alone down there.

Great battle sequences between the two. I also found director Paul Anderson's vision of what the Predators uniform and battle helmets looked like as a much needed change form the equipment used in both Predator 1-2. Also we get to learn more and see the crab like creatures that pop out of the eggs that the queen lays, you know the ones that attach themselves to whatever crew member they find, faces and where something slides down the unwilling person's mouth laying an egg in it's stomach that grows quite rapidly, then comes crashing out of it's chosen human's chest? Well we see more of that creature's parts as well. Being a fan of both of these franchises like i had previously said...this was needless to say a cool side piece to have along with them. I enjoyed it and am going to now watch AVP Requiem as i have not seen that either.

If this flick is anything it's unpredictable and that's a good thing cause originality these days in ole Hollyweird is extremely rare! I had no idea whatsoever that the events that i was about to see were gonna take place. I love horror films and have seen quite a few strictly for the gore factor (Yes I'm sorta crazy that way i guess?) have seen some that have actually scared the bejesus out of me (Paranormal Activity is one of them) and last but not least hardly any that shocked me, unpredictability wise as this one had. 5 college buds head up to one of their cousin's cabin in the woods. Sure...I know same ol same ol eh? Low and behold we then see a group of what look to be scientists in a lab who seem to be controlling what comes up against the 5 pals whilst up there. They also seem to be laying down bets on the 5 on who will be the first to meet their demise and how they will fall.

Eventually the tables get turned on them however, with thrilling CGI results. I suggest this film for any horror fan who thinks they have seen it all, cause quite frankly they have not.

Sleepy Hollow Re-viewing makes a lot of difference!! 2/4 stars

I used to despise a lot of Tim Burton's movies thinking they were just not my cup of tea in fact i actually found a lot of them quite boring. That however was my views a few years ago and after re-watching Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, which also has Johnny Depp and Tim Burton once again teaming up, it got me thinking that maybe i should give Burton's films another run in the park as most of them i only viewed once anyways. Well the first one that i saw and hated was the movie here in question that being Sleepy Hollow. I knew the general storyline from of coarse having seen it before but also from the timeless Halloween story of Ichobod Crane and The Headless Horseman.

Needless to say this was a ' 2 times a charm' sort of scenario cause i was actually was quite surprised how quickly i got into this film. For those of you who haven't seen it or know nothing of the time old tale in storybooks, Ichobod Crane (Johnny Depp) a very timid (yet always acting braver then thou sort) is sent to the eerie little town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders that have a certain serial killer feel to them as the killer's tag seems to be lopping off of their heads and taking them with him as unusual trophies. Crane is soon to learn that a majority of Hollow's townspeople generally believe the be-headings are result of the famed Headless Horseman. Crane doesn't believe any of this of coarse that until he has a run in with the famed killer himself.

Glad i re watched this as i am now in love with Burton for not only his directing style but also for the fact that his backdrops and sets for the different scenes are so realistic and gloomy (From what i hear a lot of Burton's own Gothic rituals are the reason this is so) He is definitely a master of his craft bringing a lot of age old stories to life through visuals and CGI. I have also noticed he seems to like working with actors that he has used in a lot of his other works as well. A stellar cast included in this one such as Christina Ricci (Who i find personally very underrated) who plays Katrina Van Tassell, Michael Gambon (Baltus Van Tassell) and last but not least(in a non speaking role) the always great Christopher Walken (as the fabled Hessian Horseman) Walken's performance is the best in this film as they have his teeth filed down(not really of course) to emit razor sharp fangs add some eerie contacts in his eye also incorporating his own wild styled hair and the end product is quite a belieavble Horseman (the scenes when his head is on of coarse)

An enjoyable film that just certified that i should be reviewing a lot more of the Burton films i originally had a distaste for!!

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan One of...if not the funniest film of all time! 4/4 stars

By far one of the funniest films i have ever seen! This is such a gem as every time i watch it the end result is always side splitting laughter no matter how many times i have seen it. Sacha in his notorious 'pull no punches' brand of humour is Borat a Kazakstanian reporter, who gets sent to America by the Kazakstanian minster to collect info for his fellow countrymen, which will supposedly give them all a better understanding of the western culture and it's ways. Borat along with his sidekick/producer Azamat (Ken Davitian) arrive in the big apple as to which the duo are soon to learn that their ways and the New Yorkian ways are miles apart! If you are a fan of Cohen's British series 'The Ali G Show' and have never seen this film...what are you waiting for? Warning this film is not for the type of person who is offended easily however definitely for the people who know how