Twilight Saga: New Moon

Today I went to see Twilight Saga: New Moon at the Vue Cinema, Festival Place, Basingstoke.

This is the second movie of four in The Twilight Saga, and this time the story continues from where Twilight left off, but this time werewolves have been thrown into the mix.
If you have read the books then you pretty much know what's going to happen, and this movie is a lot closer to the book than the last, but if you haven't I'll try to give you a general gist without giving too much away.

Edward Cullen (a vampire) and Bella Swan (a human) split up and she gets closer to her old friend Jacob Black, who happens to be a werewolf!
Werewolves and vampires do not like each other, but have made an uneasy truce..so all sorts of trouble is starting to brew for Bella as she loves both Edward and Jacob...but Edward will always mean more to her...
Will the star crossed lovers get back together? Will Edward and Jacob end up killing each other?

I really enjoyed this movie a lot more than the previous one, there is more to it, and the cliffhanger ending..roll on the next movie!

Twilight Saga: New Moon is rated 12a and in cinemas now,

Harry Brown

Last night, I went and saw a preview screening of Harry Brown at the Basingstoke Odeon cinema.

The movie is about a man called Harry Brown (played brilliantly by Michael Caine) a ex-serviceman who lives on a run-down housing estate where a gang has taken over the area, and a subway near his home is where they all hang out.

Harry is a quiet man, doesn't like talking about his past, he has lost his daughter and early into the movie he loses his wife who was very ill in hospital. Things then get worse when his friend Leonard gets killed in the subway.

Harry goes through the gang one by one and it gets pretty violent, in one part of the movie Harry grabs one of the kids tied to a chair and tortures them for answers using a length of rubber hose.

The police are also hot on his tail too, DI Alice Frampton suspects him of killing the gang members off.

It's quite a gritty movie, and there was more violence in this than I had expected, but it's not a bad thing as the violence makes the film feel very real.

I was highly impressed with this movie, it was a lot better than I thought it would be, and certainly a must watch movie. I'll give it 8/10

Harry Brown hits UK cinemas on 11th November and is rated 18.

Zombieland

Yesterday, I went and saw Zombieland (15) at Vue Cinema, Festival Place Basingstoke.

Set in America, which the young guy describes as "The United States of Zombieland" and he lives by a hug set of rules...things like be weary of bathrooms and limber up! He meets up with a guy who enjoys killing zombies, and they go on a journey and meet 2 young ladies.

All sorts of funny things happen, and some of the conversations are really funny like:

"I saw Van Halen the other day"

"Yeah, how's he doing?"

"...he's a zombie."

"Oh..."

There is a lot of humor in the film (which I thought might have been a bad thing, but it works really well in the movie) and there are also some sad parts too. Go see this movie, some people may well see this as Americans take on the classic Shaun Of The Dead, but it's good fun and certainly worth a watch....oh yes, and there is a very good cameo in there too!

And after seeing that movie, I really need a Twinkie.....

The Final Destination 3D

This afternoon I went and saw the 3D version of The Final Destination at Vue Cinema, Festival Place, Basingstoke.

I cannot believe how expensive movies are if you want to watch them in 3D!! I think it's wrong that you have to pay the best part of a tenner in the afternoon to see them! Maybe they could do a deal that you get a discount if you bring your own 3D glasses or something!

Anyways, on with my thoughts of the movie.

The movie centers around a group of people who cheat death after a teen forsees that there is going to be a crash on a speedway which would kill them all if they stay....and "Death" is not happy about this, so each person who survived and shouldn't have gets killed off in spectacular ways. Without giving too much away, I think the best ones were in the swimming pool, and the mower!

I also really liked the beginning titles, they are x-rays of bodies being killed, which I'm sure are deaths from the previous 3 movies...nice touch!

I think the 3D was used to kinda good effect, with some of the things "flying out of the screen" but also was nice to have depth for some scenes of the movie.

This is the fourth movie in this franchise and to be honest if you have seen one of these movies you have pretty much seem them all, but saying that it is a good thing that no one has tried "messing with the formula" so that is kinda a good thing...but at the same time as much as this was a good movie to switch the brain off to, I seriously hope that this is The FINAL Destination.

The Final Destination is rated 15 and in cinemas now...oh and you can watch it in 2D if you dont want to pay stupid amounts of money to see it in digital 3D!!!

Oh yes, and I saw a 3D trailer for Avatar..looks good, I think I want to see that!

Julie and Julia

Last night me and Haunted Rock Cake went to a preview screening of the movie Julie and Julia at my local Odeon cinema.

Now before I'd seen any posters or heard any synopsis for this film, for some reason I had a mental image that this movie was about a split personality or something (not sure that would be a good subject for a 12A movie, but hey...) but I'm happy to say that this was not the case, in fact it was something totally different.

The movie is based on 2 true stories, of Julia Child and her story of how she got into cookery (the book is called "My Life In France"), and of blogger Julie Powel who challenges herself to cook every recipe from Julia's first book (Her story is called, oddly enough, "Julie and Julia").

The movie starts in the late 1940s where Julia Child moves to Paris with her husband (who works for the American Embassy) and she wants to find something to keep her occupied. she tries her hand at a few things and then decides she wants to do cooking, and enrolls into the Cordon Bleu class, and is the only woman in the class!

Coming back to almost present day (early 2000's) and we find Julie Powel has moved too, and that she cannot seem to complete everything...she also cooks the best meals from Julia Child's French cookery book when she has the worst days.

Julie decides that she should make a challenge for herself...she is going to to do all the recipes in this book in a year and decides to blog what happens.

The movie chops and changes between the 2 stories and you see the highs and lows in their endeavors and it is great fun to watch, with some sad moments in it as well as some genuinely laugh out loud parts too.

I really liked this movie...in fact the only thing that put a downer on this movie was the extortionate prices for nachos and the rather uncomfortable seating in the cinema...but the movie is a 8/10 and certainly a must have for my DVD collection when released (even though I was almost the only bloke in the screening!)

Julie And Julia is released this week in the UK and is rated 12A

Inglorious Basterds

I went and saw Inglorious Basterds (18) last night with Haunted Rock Cake at the Vue Cinema, Basingstoke.

Inglorious Basterds is about a group of American Jewish soldiers, have great pleasure in killing Nazi soldiers. They are dropped into Nazi occupied France to blow up a cinema when it is showing a Nazi propoganda movie. The Basterds are led by Aldo The Apache (Brad Pitt) and thier trademark after killing a Nazi is to scalp them! It does get a little gory in the movie too (hey, it is a Tarrantino movie, it was bound to happen!!) as you see the scalping and also a German beaten to death (hope I'm not giving too much away saying that!).

The Basterds get in scrapes along the way, but do they get to the cinema and blow it up with all the German dignatries inside?

Baring in mind this is a remake of the 1978 movie Deadly Mission (for more details you could go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076584/) I really enjoyed this movie...action packed with some great funny bits too! I think this movie is one that should be watched by all...and I'll give it 9/10 and can't wait for this to be released on DVD!!!

GI Joe: Rise Of The Cobra

Today, I went to see GI Joe:Rise Of The Cobra...I actually wasn't sure if to watch this or Orphan (which I'm hoping to see sometime next week instead now) so I asked the people of Twitter to choose, and with the votes going 6-1 to GI Joe, I toddled off the the Vue cinema.

The movie is based on the toys that are made by Hasbro that were I think the US equivalent of UK's Action Man.

GI Joe is an elite armed unit who save the World from terrorist threats.
The movie starts with Duke and Ripcord being part of an American army unit who have been given the task getting a weapon to a certain place when they are ambushed, and GI Joe save them. Duke and Ripcord train to become "Joes" and get suits that make them stronger and faster.

Cobra have plans to take over the World using nanotechnology, and only GI Joe have the ability to stop them....do they do it? Does Duke and the team save the day? Go see the movie and find out!

I really enjoyed the movie, and it didn't ruin my memories of playing with these toys when I was younger unlike some (yeah, I mean you Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen!!) but they have left it open for a sequel too, so I'm guessing we could well see that in a year or two...

Ice Age Dawn Of The Dinosaurs...in 3D!!

Was off to the cinema again last night after seeing Cuddle Bunny, and decided to go see Ice Age Dawn Of The Dinosaurs and in 3D!

Before I go into what I thought of the movie I do have a comment about the cost of the movie..while I understand that technology does not come cheap, does this really warrant that the price is almost double the standard ticket in the cinema where I live? If it is a case of supplying the new 3D glasses (which look like shades, except not as cool) then perhaps people who keep their glasses should get a discount or something! It would be a good idea for recycling too!

Anyways...on with the movie.

This is the third installment in this animated movie franchise, and the whole gang is here! Manny and Ellie are expecting a baby, Diego losing the sharpness of his hunting skills, Scrat is still nuts about...well nuts, and Sid...well he's just Sid.

Sid discovers 3 eggs, and he hatches them and gets into trouble with "the herd"....and the mom of the eggs! Sid gets taken away by the mom and it is down to the guys to go and rescue him! On the way they meet Buck, an one-eyed weasel hunts dinosaurs!

The usual insanity and danger happens as they go along on their quest (including almost laughing themselves to death!!)...and Scrat has a love interest too!

Sure, the film is really for kids, but I really enjoyed it, I really liked the previous 2 movies and look forward to getting this movie on DVD when it is released...but I'm guessing it won't be released in 3D on DVD, which is a pity.

The Proposal

Well, I was fortunate enough to score 2 tickets to see The Proposal on Friday for a viewing this morning, and over the weekend it was a frantic dash to find someone to go with me as Cuddle Bunny was unable to go (her mom was a bit shaken up after a car accident that wrote off the car bless her) so eventually I got spud to go with me!

The Proposal is a romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds and is about editor Margaret Tate (Bullock) who is very successful (and a bit power mad) and discovers that she has had her application for her visa denied (she's Canadian) and therefore is going to be deported. She decides that she will set up a marriage between her and her assistant Andrew Paxton(Reynolds)...a quick marriage and few months later a quick divorce...what could go wrong?

Immigration want to make sure that they are not doing this for the wrong reasons (which they are of course) so they both head to Andrew's parent's place in Alaska. They start off hating each other (pretty much) but by the end of the movie as you would expect they are both in love with each other.

The usual situations in this kind of romantic comedy come up, as well as incidents with Andrew's family (especially his kooky Grandmother!), but it the end they face facts and Margaret faces deportation.

I really enjoyed the movie, which surprised me as this is not the kind of film I'd usually go for, Spud said he thought it was a good movie too.

Do they get together in the end? Does immigration "always get their man"? The only way you will find out is if you go and see the movie, which is rated 12A and hits cinemas this Wednesday.

Bruno...

Last night I went to my local Vue cinema and watched Bruno.

I knew that the movie was going to be controversial, after all this was created by the same person that did Borat and Ali G (which, incidentally, I thought were very good characters and the movies/series they were in were great!) but sometimes a person can go too far.

This is what happens in this movie.

Bruno is about Bruno, and homosexual Autrian who at the beginning of the movie heads a fashion show that is most important to all German speaking places in the World...except Germany. After a major faux pas he is ousted from the program and blacklisted from lots of places, so he decides to move to Los Angeles and try and make a name for himself there.

The movie does have some funny moments in it, but it feels to me it was just trying to hard to shock and offend people too much. I for one was no offended by any of it (takes a lot to offend me to be honest) but there was a lot that just was not funny.

Sacha Baron Cohen I feel has crashed and burned with this movie...it's a pity because Borat had as much shock value to it but it was funnier than this...sadly lightening did not strike twice for SBC and I hope he has not plans for new characters soon.

Personally, I think this was better than TransFormers: Revenge Of The Fallen..but only just.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

Today I decided to venture to my local Vue cinema with my friend Haunted Rock Cake (follow her on Twitter...oddly enough her account is @HauntedRockCake) to see TransFormers: Revenge Of The Fallen

Aw man, was that a big BIG mistake...


The movie picks up the story a couple of years after TransFormers, and the American forces have joined forces with the Autobots and are hunting Decepticons all over the globe...during one of the hunts they get a warning that The Fallen will return.

Sam is off to college, it's a new chapter of his life and he discovers he has a shard of the AllSpark, which fills his mind with Cybertronian text. The text in his head will tell him how to get to a machine that will destroy the World if the Decpeticons get to it, and so the race is on between the warring robots to get to the machine. Will the Autobots get there before the Decpeticons? and who is/are "The Fallen"?

I was really looking forward to this movie, seeing more of the robots (seeing the Constructicons was cool!) but I think this was a really bad call. The movie seemed too "jokey" and although the CGI was kinda good it seemed to me that it was all the movie makers were hoping people would take notice of that more than the storyline. The movie also had a lot of John Woo style slo-mo shooting scenes from the robots, which I didn't think was right for this movie either.

Again this movie has left it open for a sequel, which means more money rolling in for Hasbro, and whoever makes the next movie...but I seriously hope this does not happen.

I'm sure that there will be a lot of people that will absolutely love this movie, but me for one I want back the just over 2 hours of my life this atrocity of a movie wasted.

I give this movie 4/10...

The Hangover - Preview Screening

Went to see The Hangover preview screening at the Basingstoke Vue last night...

The movie centres around 4 people who go to Las Vegas for a batchelor party, but when they awake the next day they cannot remember what they did the night before...and to make things worse they have lost the groom!

Slowly but they try to piece together what happened, discovering someone got married, they stole a police car and go to Mike Tyson's place!

Do they find the groom? Will they know what exactly happened? Well, go an see the movie and you will find out!

The film is good fun, some good laughs in there...The Hangover is rated 15 and hits cinemas 11th June.