My Most Exciting Movie Prospect For 2008!!!

Feel free to play the video above that I have managed to embed on this blog!

This is basically the Comic Con preview of the 4th Indiana Jones movie (May 22nd 2008!) It is so great to see Karen Allen back playing Marion Ravenwood.

But what gave me the biggest buzz was hearing Spielberg basically say that he is making another popcorn movie-for us! It has been a while, he has made many worthy and excellent films since the Jurassic Park sequel in 1997, but I love it when he just goes out to entertain.

Spielberg has made my movie going life so entertaining, and I love him for it. I can't wait for this movie, if I wasn't directing a play which opens that same week next year, I would be on a flight to LA!!

The John Williams music, Harrison Ford not looking at all like Homer Simpson! A David Koepp script! Spielberg has his name on my favourite blockbuster of 2007 (Transformers) and now he'll be right there in 2008! Bring on that boulder baby!

Transformers Review

Wow! And double wow! Just got back from watching the best blockbuster of the Summer by far. This film was huge! So many jaw-dropping moments. Transformers was everything I hoped for and more!

In a Summer of mostly disappointing sequels, the film to rule them all, in the blockbuster stakes, is based on a toy! From many years ago!

I can honestly say I have never watched the original cartoon version of Transformers. I think I am just a little too old for it to have infiltrated my childhood. So I cannot really compare or complain about differences between this live action film and the cartoons. I have now learnt about Optimus Prime and Megatron. I now can tell my Autobot from a Deceptecon. I want a bumblebee! It is a testimoney to the effectiveness of the film-makers and these robots that I was moved when one of the Autobots was captured!

There are of course humans in the film and young Shia Lebouf is making a real name for himself. I look forward to him in the hopeful best blockbuster of '08, Indy 4 when he is rumoured to play Indiana Jones son. He is excellent here and helps add some excellent moments of humour into the story. He is certainly someone to watch in the future.

But the biggest accolades must go to the genius's at ILM and Mr Michael Bay. Not since Jurassic Park in'93 have I witnessed true wonder on a cinema screen, seeing events you would never see in real life, played out so convincingly and excitingly. The robots look amazing, and the fights are fantastic. Mr Bay holds everything together incredibly well, the pacing is excellent and there is a good balance between getting to know the characters and watching them involved in near-death occurrences.

This is one of the best blockbusters I've ever seen. Made for the Summer market (you never find Oscar contenders released between May and August, they normally arrive between September and January.) I have to say though, I don't think there should be a sequel. I just can't work out what other story they could tell without it being a re-tread of this film or something less satisfying. This is a great action film and I look forward to seeing it again.

4 and a half transformers out of 5

Shrek The Third Review

Well, I have to say I had very low expectations heading into this film, another third episode of a popular franchise. What with the Empire 2 star review and the trailers looking average at best. But I have to say I was pleasently surprised. I enjoyed this movie!

Usually a trailer will have most of the best bits from the movie, (Die Hard 4, Silver Surfer) but the company producing the trailer for this Shrek movie just seemed to want to show us more of the same and none of the more impressive visuals on offer here.

I certainly enjoyed it as much as the other two movies, and what I love about Shrek is the world the film-makers have created. It all seems familiar and also a pretty cool place to hang out for 90mins.

It is not a hilarious film, only just a comedy really. But it is so well made and the characters so endearing that you sit there with a smile on your face through most of the movie. I am actually looking forward to the already announced Shrek 4, although, maybe it could do with a few more laughs.

Shrek the Third is a logical continuation of the storylines began in the first two movies and shows once again how amazing computer animation can be. To think that my favourite movie magazine (Empire) gave this 2 stars but the plodding, angst ridden latest Harry Potter, 4 stars! What is the reviewing world coming to?!!!

3 and a half donkeys out of 5

Harry Potter And Order Of The Phoenix Review

Oh dear. I was really looking forward to this film. Goblet of Fire was excellent and Prisoner Of Azkaban was a marked improvement over the first two films. But this. It has filler, written all over it. So little happens. There doesn't seem to be any plot to forward the narrative. A lot of teenage angst, and some pretty good acting from Daniel Radcliffe and Gary Oldman.

The effects are good enough, apart from Hagrid's half brother. This was always the weakest book in the series and this shows. J.K. Rowling is untouchable, but she really needs an impartial editor who can prune some of the pages and say something like, "there isn't enough story here to justify so many pages!"

What was exciting about the book was the end battle, but it's hardly there at all! From a making of programme I understand they hired a dance choreographer to help with the finale. Well, there wasn't much choreography in what I saw. Just a mess of swirls and lights. If this script was handed in without a certain wizard's name attached it would never have got made. This film is already making a fortune, but it doesn't deserve to. A lazy script producing a lazy film. Rowling and the film producers can do better, and I hope they do with "Half Blood Prince".

Can we really expect great films (Goblet Of Fire certainly was) when they have five films in a series released in just six years? I know the reason for this is obvious, we don't want an actor in his late twenties playing a teenager but the scripts need a little less reverance to Rowling and more effort into what would actually make a good film. A disappointment in what is turning out to be a fairly disappointing Summer.

2 wands out of 5

Die Hard 4.0 review

I love the Die Hard movies! Great action films alongside Lethal Weapons and Indiana Jones. As far as I am concerned, the order they were made equals the order of merit I would put them in. With the original of course, being the best. So Die Hard 4. Very good. I was wondering if it would "feel" like a Die Hard movie, and it did! Terrorists, Mclane drawn in almost by accident and a family member of his in some sort of close proximity or indeed in jeopardy. Whatever happened to Bonnie Bedella? Who was superb as Mclane's wife in the first two movies, can't remember seeing her since playing Harrison Ford's wife in Presumed Innocent.

I thought the young hacker side-kick was excellent, a good source of frustration and humour. Kevin Smith's cameo was pretty good, his second scene causing me to reminisce about the big policeman Al in the first movie, who also had a brief cameo in the second.

The action was excellent, some great set pieces. Particularly the tunnel, the plane and the elevator shaft. I have to mark down slightly for the anti-climactic ending. The action was so intense up to that point and the way Mclane finishes off the villain was certainly the weakest of the four films by far.

The actor playing the villain has come in for some stick but I thought he did all that was required. He was a computer whizz, not a stunt man. He had some good exchanges with Willis, especially the one when he reveals he has got his daughter, "come on say something funny!" I enjoyed the film very much, and felt the director did a really good job. I know his Underworld films have faced a lot of derision but I remember watching Underworld Evolution knowing Wiseman had got the Die Hard gig and saw his potential, particularly with the helicopter blades ending (if you've seen it you'll know what I mean!)

So a good film, yeah, a little tame, particularly when put up against the others. Almost no blood and swearing. Which is fine, but having spent 6 hours in John Mclane's company from 1988-1995 you know he would say a lot more fruitier one liners than he does in this movie!

I don't think there should be a Die Hard 5:Die Hardest, I mean he's gone from a building, to an airport, to a city, to a country-can Bruce really save the World?! Probably!

So my Die Hard order of merit, would now be-Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Die Hard 4, Die Hard 3.

4 die hards out of 5