Film Reviews by None

While the storyline appears to be fairly conventional at first, this witty comedy surprises the audience with clever twists and a humorous outcome. The basic plot revolves around three old friends, Nick, Kurt and Dale (Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day), who meet on a regular basis to complain about how evil and twisted each of their bosses are (Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston). On a particularly bad day, the idea of doing away with their bosses is so appealing that they begin plotting to have their bosses killed. This leads to several entertaining and funny situations as they realise just how complicated the task is, and consider whether they are actually capable of murder.

The three main actors do a good job of convincing the audience just how much they hate their bosses. They had great chemistry on screen, making their characters quite likable, and the story all the more funnier. The three high-profile actors that play their bosses don't disappoint either. Jennifer Aniston is particularly good in a role that is very different from her usual comedy, and Kevin Spacey was the perfect choice for the worst of the three bosses. The story was well structured with some sharp comedy that's a refreshing change from the usual toilet humour coming out of Hollywood. It is well complimented by good directing and original score.

Overall, Horrible bosses is definitely one of the funnier comedies of the year, and is an entertaining and enjoyable watch.

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An unexpected journey, indeed.

If you expected The Hobbit would turn to be a great movie, you may want to expect the unexpected.

I mean, yes, the title character is masterfully performed by Martin Freeman; Gandalf, Galadriel and the beautiful landscapes are as enjoyable as ever, but that's about it. Oh yeah, there are a few scenic sunsets, too. What's left of the movie (like, the movie itself?!) suffers and seems all too repetitive.

At the root of all this movie's evils is... greed. To near-sighted executives, three movies mean thrice the profit. You can do that with Lord of the Rings, which has three books rich with story and detail. But turning the simpler, younger-audience-oriented story of The Hobbit into three movies is simply overkill. And it shows. The director desperately tries to find more content to fit into the movie. Thus he puts in the movie aspects of the Middle Earth universe not covered in the book. He gives extended screen time to insignificant events (including a 40 minute introduction) and he shamelessly bloats the movie with long, drawn-out fighting scenes, obnoxiously peppered with ridiculously cheap thrills.

There is that "cliffhanger" expression, but here it's obnoxiously literal. The whole movie is a non-stop race of literal cliffhanger moments. To give just an example, imagine a character hanging over a precipice, after having grabbed at the last possible moment, while falling, from another character that hangs himself from Gandalf's staff, that was stretched at the last possible moment towards him, to save him from a deadly fall; Gandalf himself grabbing the branch of a tree that itself hangs horizontally over the precipice, gradually uprooting itself, nestling the other members of Bilbo's party, that hang for dear life after managing to save themselves in that last standing three, which was itself knocked over in a domino effect by a series of falling trees on a thin stretch of land hanging over a precipice, where the warg-riding goblins cornered them, eventually, after a drawn-out chasing and fighting scene. Oh yes and when they all eventually fall from that tree, guess what, the giant eagles appear and catch them, at the last possible moment. That's an actual scene that pretty much sums up the whole movie, in all it's revolting obnoxious abuse of cheesy thrills.

So if you think you can withstand such a revolting insult to your intelligence, then, by all means, go see the movie, there's Bilbo in it, and Gandalf, and Galadriel and beautiful landscapes and scenic sunsets. But, after having watched the LOTR series it seems all too familiar and samey and quite vacuous by comparison. Much overrated in my opinion but still perhaps worth seeing.

A fourth instalment in a patchy series comes out and makes itself the best. Ethan Hunt is back on the case, ready to take part in another mission, that involves nuclear weapons and Russians. What's most important here are the action sequences. Unlike the recent fad of shaky cam and confusing action, Paramount with Brad Bird to direct, only previously familiar with animation films. This is what makes him so successful, you wouldn't be doing shaky cam with animation. Instead, Bird cares about framing and being able to focus on every individual action. The scenes are clear and oh so memorable. Whether it's a humorous prison escape scene or a foot chase through a sandstorm. The best part being the climbing of the tallest building in the world. It really does rack up the tension, and continues to introduce plot complications that must be overcome by a crack team. Although still the point man, Cruise shares a lot of the great action with his co-stars. Peggis the obvious comic relief, but he isn't unimaginable as a field agent. Patton and Renner are both given emotional hooks to give them something to do and focus on between the action. I was also very happy that the film knows it's a fun spoofy spy movie at heart, so we do get outrageous gadgets, the kind that used to make Bond movies fun. Exciting, fun, with enough character moments for the downtime, this is a wonderful action movie that I highly recommend.

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I must say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I've never seen George A. Romero's original made in the 70's, so I held no real expectations except for it to be another boring "horror" Hollywood remake. The storyline and plot actually did keep me interested enough to find out how the whole thing was going to play out. It was all a tad predictable however, most of the scare scenes were predictable, only once did one actually catch me off guard. But this movie, surprisingly enough, wasn't solely built on scares as much as one would think. It is more of a suspense thriller than a fright film, in my opinion.

My main gripes: The abysmal "horror soundtrack" used to accentuate what's supposed to be scary but really isn't all that scary. And the frequency of the "Hey, let's split up and get out of each other's sight" mentality the main characters had, then in the very next scene they are attached at the hip. Some more consistency and realistic characterisation would have been nice. But I guess that's par for the course with this genre. Without wanting to spoil the entire movie for everyone, you do find out very soon in to the movie the source of the "problem," but they still managed to keep it interesting after I got over that disappointment.

All in all, one of the better Hollywood remakes and definitely worth seeing.

I was left feeling pretty disappointed after it's all said and done. My expectations for this were rather high, which I guess was my mistake. They could have done a lot more with this movie, given the premise (even if it's based on a book), but simply failed to do so. All you need to know going in is that a virus wiped out humanity, and Will Smith is the last survivor in New York City circa 2012. I'll give Will credit again for continuing to show why he's one of the best actors in the business. He really did carry the movie. Replace him with anyone else and this is probably the biggest flop of the year. The main problem I had with I Am Legend is it was just too shallow and one-dimensional. They started out with a good routine; Will exploring the city with his dog, trying to stay sane, and find a cure for the virus, while avoiding the mutant, zombie-like, blood-thirsty monsters the virus created. You get some flashbacks that are supposed to help fill in the holes in the plot, but they really weren't all that informative. I get the gist of it, but come on...give me some more info here. Through it all, I still enjoyed the first half. There was some good tension in places, and you get slightly attached to Will's character and struggle. From the second half on it just falls apart. The zombies become more of a joke than scary, and some horribly acted woman shows up and adds nothing. You only have two characters in the whole movie, and they couldn't fully develop them. I also wasn't keen on the ending, as it seemed like they just took the easy way out. Nothing was really explained, it just...happened. It might seem like I am being overly negative here, but the movie wasn't all bad. It was just rather average and vacuous. You can definitely be entertained, but just don't expect much substance.

Outline: Will Smith tries to achieve the goal of getting a high paying job while at the same time providing for his son and hitting rock bottom financially.

This was a feel-good movie. Very inspirational for anyone who is going through tough times. Will Smith does his thing throughout the flick. His acting is top notch and his son Jaden Smith, who plays his son in the movie as well does a good job. You really feel for Will Smith's character as he is trying to take care of his kid. The whole thing seems genuine. When he starts to hit rock bottom while trying to get this "dream job" you really connect with him and go through his sorrows. It was a little long, but that doesn't detract from the overall experience. This is one of those wholesome family flicks you can watch with anyone. Give it a shot..you won't regret it.

It tells the story of how the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forrest Whitaker) came to power; and recruited a seemingly innocent young scottish doctor (James McAvoy) who had just finished his finals to become his personal physician. His physician becomes embroiled in his ruthless regime and strong arms tactics he often carries out on any and all opposition.

Forrest Whitaker perfectly emobies the brutality and paranoia of the man in what is the mosy oscar worthy performance of his career. James McAvoy, still an up and coming actor is perhaps even more brilliant; and should be doing big things in the near future The acting was uniformly strong if you haven't already seen it I strongly urge you to do so.

Let me start off by saying I have not read the book (which this is based on), so my expectations for what this really is was up in the air. That being said, No Country For Old was shaping up to be one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, to end somewhat abruptly with deep symbolism that flew right over my head. The Coen Brothers crafted this masterfully with an incredible cast, great cinematography and atmosphere, pretty ruthless violence (always a plus in my book), and surprisingly a lot of dark humor to keep you engaged from the get-go. Started off simple enough. Guy (Josh Brolin) in Texas comes across a drug deal gone bad to find a load of money and drugs, and a lot of dead bodies. He takes the money, his mistake, because he is then hunted by a psychopathic killer played masterfully by Javier Bardem. I dug the game of cat and mouse. Tommy Lee Jones, an old sheriff, would pop up every now and then to sorta fill in the plot holes. The three of them were great on screen, I can't give them enough props. It was done so well, one thing I noticed is they just used the sheer magnitude of their presence to back the story, as there was no musical score at all in this movie. I liked the feel they were going for. It just made it seem more gritty and real (unusual for me because I love a strong musical score to back scenes along). Everything was pretty linear for about 4/5's of the movie, and I was anxiously anticipating the resolution, but it really just never came. They shifted focus towards the end and to be honest, I was kinda baffled. It went from a linear approach to heavily dialog and symbolism I wasn't anticipating. I like a more straightforward movie, so I didn't put too much thought into what they were trying to go for, but at the risk of spoiling the movie from speculation, I'll just leave it at that. Bits and pieces of brilliance that goes for a twist at the end I didn't connect with. Looking at the title, one could deduce that simply country was getting outta hand, passing by old timers like Tommy Lee, but it still left me with a lot of questions. Maybe the questions were irrelevant, but that wasn't my expectation. All in all, this is definitely worth seeing though. Maybe others will dig what the Coen Brothers were going for at the end. All I can say is..so close to being the years best movie.

Visually this is one of the most incredible films ever made, showing stunning images of the future that have been copied in many so many movies but never really surpassed in its realistic grittiness, with the some of the most interesting, weird, eccentric and cool characters in film history tied together with a thought provoking story; all this tied together to make not just a great science fiction film but a timeless and classic piece of cinema.

Brilliant acting from Ellen Page throughout. This movie was decent but far from brilliant. I like the fact that it's fast paced. There's no time wasted to get right to the center of the film's concept. When she wears her red hooded sweater, sort of suggesting a little red riding hood theme. That was quite a nice touch. Only this time the big bad wolf has met his match. Worth seeing once for lovers of the horror genre.

I thought this movie was pretty clever and entertaining overall. They built up the anticipation for the end a lot, which keeps you interested, but I was somewhat disappointed in the end, as I thought it was going to be something more extravagant the robbers were going after, but it was still a solid ending that makes you think. The robbers in the movie really executed everything perfectly. Good acting probably made this better than what it should have been, but I can't complain. A decent caper movie anyone can enjoy.

During the Vietnam War, German-born Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale), a U.S. fighter pilot, is shot down over Laos and taken captive by enemy soldiers. Interned in a POW camp, he and his fellow prisoners (Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies) endure torture, hunger and illness while they await their chance to escape. Dengler has no intention of sticking around the nightmarish camp, so he begins to dream up an escape plan that takes his fellow prisoners by surprise with its savvy and audacity. Dengler doesn't even know where he is--but he knows with unwavering certainty that he must not stop fighting for his life. As he makes his way into the jungle, his journey will never let up, as it takes him from the bonds of fraternity to the brink of despair, to one of the most remarkable rescues in modern history. I found this movie to be utterly compelling and if you are a fan of this genre it's certain to hold your attention from start to finish!

I consider this to be the greatest of Quentin Tarantino's exploits, Pulp Fiction is an excellent film with multiple plotlines converging and parting at various points through the movie. With great acting from John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, and Ving Rhames, you couldn't ask for a better ensemble cast.

One thing that makes this movie excellent is the dialogue. The characters are hilarious and yet real, which makes this movie have a very high replay value. The rest of the direction is excellent as well, with superb cinematography and great location choices.

Pulp Fiction is unquestionably a classic film and perhaps the greatest movie of the nineties.

Superbad really feels like two movies; there's a "let's go party" story that maturely addresses friendship and then there's an over-the-top, off-putting story about some wacky cops. I really enjoyed the scenes dealing with the two main characters' friendship, but generally disliked any of the hi-jinks with the police. The latter scenes were of an ill-fitting brand of comedy and harshly clashed with any realism. The dialogue is consistently strong but the situational writing is lame and forced. I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing it, but it didn't flow as smoothly as I had hoped I found it to be just a bit too choppy. Great beginning and end, very forgettable middle!

I consider Groundhog Day of its genre (feel-good romantic comedies) to be right up there with old greats such as 'His Girl Friday', 'Adam's Rib' etc... Danny Rubin's & Harold Ramis' witty and intelligent script (despite many improbabilities) keeps the pace of the film going like a train for it's 1 hour 40 minute run-time. Bill Murray steals the show with a stellar, career-topping performance. This is undisputably the best film he has ever acted in, as it exploits fully his abilities as a comedic performer. The rest of the cast is solid through out. This is my personal favourite film of its genre (feel-good, romantic, comedy) by far!! I find the majority of this genre of Hollywood movies to be sickly sweet, corny, tiresome, unoriginal, inferior rehashing of old classics. But I think this film breaks the mould; due to its superb script & perfect performance from Murray! If you haven't already seen it; I strongly urge you to do so IMMEDIATELY!!!!