Movie Reviews on good movies that are compulsory viewing

This is a dark futuristic view of how the world could possibly become, where everyone has a surrogate, a robot with all the features of a human, that is controlled remotely by the owner, with the owner having all their senses interact with whatever the machine is encountering. The owner lives in a virtual world, where the surrogate lives his or her life for him or her, the plausible justification for it of course is that the owner is less at risk from disease and infection, and indeed any harm to their real body, they can virtually go to work, and play, with no worries about their real body, all the toll is taken on the surrogate.

From the opening credits we get introduced to the justification for surrogates, with first a machine where a monkey controls an arm containing a nut with just its mind, to people who are paralysed, controlling robots to do their daily tasks, and people in the army using surrogates for war without any fear of their real bodies being in danger.

Soon Congress signs in to law surrogates for the use in every day lives, but as usual there are objectors to this whole idea of surrogates, the main opponent of this is The Prophet played by Ving Rhames (Pulp fiction), who has set up communes where only humans are allowed. We meet our protagonist, a very young looking Bruce Willis (12 Monkeys) as Tom Greer along with his partner Peters played by the lovely Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black), who are investigating the murder of a surrogate, but in this case, the owner of the surrogate died at the same time the surrogate was destroyed. It turns out that the owner of the surrogate is non other than the son of the inventor of surrogates, Canter played by the dependable James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential).

It seems a weapon has been developed that not only can destroy surrogates, but can at the same time end the life of the operator connected to the surrogate. Tom has personally set himself the task of finding out who murdered Canter’s son and getting hold of this deadly weapon, but he has a mountain to climb to get to the bottom of this, with the head of his department Stone played by Boris Kodjoe (Starship Troopers 3 : Marauder), not happy with his tactics, and Tom himself having doubts about the whole idea of surrogates, unlike his wife Maggie played by the gorgeous Rosamund Pike (The Libertine), who prefers this new life than any other, and looking at her surrogate and indeed virtually all of the surrogates, you can see why, as they all look young and flawless, there is a memorable scene where the real Tom comes into his police department and the clerk surrogate looks at him and mutters “you look terrible“.

This of course is a warning about how the current state of the Internet could evolve, from people able to do many things online they previously had to do in person, to being able to do their daily tasks from the comfort of their computer.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 11/11/2009 11:04:00 PM

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This is a very surreal futuristic suspense thriller produced by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy).

It stars an almost all South African cast, with Sharlto Copley in the lead role as Wikus Van De Merwe an NMU (Multinational United) who is in charge of relocating approximately 1 million aliens, whose spaceship has hovered to rest above Johannesburg, the aliens on first contact were all found to be malnourished, sick, and needing shelter.

The problem of course is housing over a million aliens, when the local populace are frightened by their looks, demeanour, and mannerisms as a local indigen paraphrased says “if there were from this planet we would understand but they are not even from this planet“, they also have a penchant for cat food, as well as some sudden bursts of anger.

NMU has appointed the happy go lucky Wikus to for see the mass evacuation of these aliens, who the humans have termed “prauns” because they look like prawns.

The story is told in flashback, with several interviews from people who knew Wikus and the mass evacuation operation, you start to wonder what happened to Wikus as they all speak of some ominous event.

It turns out during the mass evacuations NMU had to serve each of the aliens with an evacuation order, where they had to sign, of course most of the aliens do not understand what an evacuation means, and there are violent scuffles, as Wikus accompanied with the mandatory NMU military personnel try to get the aliens to sign the evacuation order, in some cases according to Wikus, the aliens hitting the piece of paper away is counted as an agreement. The real reason of course for the evacuation according to the flashback interviews was to find alien weapons, it turns out the advanced weapons of the aliens are biologically engineered to be operated by them only.

Wikus also takes the opportunity during these evacuation notices to ransack the homes of the aliens looking for anything illegal, during the process he finds an object, he thinks is some kind of gas canister that could be a weapon, so he confiscates it, not before attempting to find out how it works, and getting sprayed in the face by a dark fluid. It turns out the alien who had that object was a little smarter than most of the “prauns” and the canister was needed to operate his shuttle hidden underground, back to the mother ship.

Inevitably Wikus gets involved with a violent “praun”, and needs a cast on his left arm, but you notice soon after he is not looking well at all, culminating to him passing out puking black blood at a party, he is rushed to the hospital, and he wakes up alarmingly to find his left arm has adopted the features of a “praun“. NMU military whisk him away to their medical facilities, where despite his protestions he is made to operate a series of alien weapons. He is regarded as the very first human and alien hybrid and the military arm of NMU are eager to harvest his organs for bioengineering. However Wikus just wants the alien arm removed, and wants to get back to his wife. He manages to escape, but chances of him going back home are made virtually impossible with all the media reporting malicious rumors about him and the entire NMU military arm looking for him.

He is left with no choice but to go back to the “prauns” he despises, in a desperate bid for help before the metamorphosis is complete.

It is mesmerising viewing, and Wikus captures the desperation of a man about to lose everything to the point of his humanity brilliantly.

It is rare science-fiction film, as it is set in South Africa, but you realise soon after the reasons why, as it parallels victimisation of the “prauns” with apartheid.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 11/10/2009 08:58:00 PM

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This is a strange surreal science fiction movie that follows beings the rest of the world do not see, but are responsible for our dreams and sometimes nightmares.

We first see some flashbacks of a very busy businessman John played by Chris Kelly, who has just recently divorced from his wife, and spending some time with his daughter Emma played by Quinn Hunchar, he at first is reluctant to play her games, saying her mother is much more suited to it than him, but he relinquishes eventually and joins her in fighting the “invisible monster” who has come to kidnap her.

Later on you realise the game was a foretelling of what is about to happen because there is a monster who does come and kidnap her.

In the evening some interesting beings materialise on the street and all go into peoples’ homes, at first you wonder what on earth is happening. Soon after when everybody goes to sleep, and Emma has to appease her grandmother that she is asleep by making some snoring noises, as soon as you see them put their hands on the foreheads of the people whose homes they have come into, and smile, you realise immediately there are responsible for relaxing peaceful dreams, the one responsible for Emma’s peaceful dreams, Allel played by the lovely Jennifer Batter was watching in amusement while Emma pretended to be snoring.

After a short while some other beings materialise (Incubi), and with the ominous mood surrounding them it becomes obvious that they are responsible for nightmares.

A short while a being materialises, and goes into the bedroom of the little girl at the beginning, and places his hand on her forehead, she immediately wakes up, or her unconscious wakes up in her dream state (she is still asleep in the real world), several of the good beings materialise and there is an all out battle, where they all try to stop the monster from taking the girl, apparently during the battle as furniture and equipment is destroyed, they all revert back to their original form and place, in the real world, which makes some sense as all this is going on in the dream world.

The monster takes the girl and as perplexed as we all are to the reasons, we eventually find out that he is a “Drifter” called Ink, someone who has died and is wandering this surreal world without a purpose, and wears a hood to cover his scarred form, hoping to take the girl to the leader of the Incubi in other to be one of them.

Meanwhile the beings responsible for good dreams (Storytellers) have asked the help of a blind “Pathfinder” Jacob played by Jeremy Make; to help them locate the girl where Ink has her, he suggests they go into the real world and find her father, that her father holds the key to saving her life, as apparently in the real world she is now in a coma, and if Ink succeeds in taking her to the leader of the nightmare beings she will die in the real world, so Allel, Gabe played by Eme Ikuakor, and Sara played by Shelby Malone venture into the real world but no one can see neither can they affect any physical thing. Another Storyteller Liev played by the lovely Jessica Duffy locates Ink, and after a short battle Ink takes her prisoner and is planning on taking her along with the girl to the leader of the Incubi.

It is a fascinating science fiction storyline, with a fresh twist on this genre, with an equally gripping suspense throughout.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 11/08/2009 06:58:00 AM

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This is a very amusing horror comedy, in the vein of Shaun of the Dead, that focuses on a similar world where everyone or most of the world is a zombie.

We meet Columbus (everyone in the movie calls themselves by places instead of real names) played by Jesse Eisenberg (he has one of those faces you are sure you have seen somewhere but can’t quite identify where) who is one of the last surviving humans in the U.S. and has developed a variety of rules to staying alive such as limbering up before going into any vicinity where zombies may be around, keeping his heart fit, and always taking care when at his most vulnerable i.e. when in the toilet.

We also get flashbacks to unfortunate victims who fell to the zombie plague, all through the opening credits,. It turns out Columbus only survived because he kept to himself, and only found out about the plague, when a lovely girl came knocking at his door, complaining that a tramp had sprinted at her, at first she thought he was chasing someone, but when he reached her he bit her. Columbus was more interested that such a lovely girl would be at his door, and was stroking her hair as she fell asleep when inevitably she turned into a zombie and started lunging at him.

Columbus happens to bump into Tallahassee played by Woody Harrelson (No country for old men), there is a amicable stand-off where the pair think each other is a zombie and wait for any hints at humanity before introducing one another. Together they plan on going to Columbia where Columbus has a faint hope his parents may still be alive, as he puts it, he is a loner who didn’t appreciate those who cared about him or anyone in particular when the world was OK, but now just seeing a familiar face would make things a lot more easier.

On their way to helping Tallahassee find a Twinky, with Tallahassee’s usual antics of antagonising the zombies with loud noises so they come out and get the customary treatment with whatever he happens to have in hand, they bump into two sisters, Wichita played by the gorgeous Emma Stone (The House Bunny) and Little Rock played by the lovely Abigal Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) who luckily are still alive, but trick them into taking their ammunition and their vehicle.

Of course they inevitably meet again, after the car they have stolen from Columbus and Tallahassee breaks down, and are forced on a road trip together, but not before Tallahassee and Columbus find a vehicle containing plenty of ammunition to which Tallahassee says “Thank God for rednecks“.

As they pass by Hollywood, Tallahassee decides to take them to the home of a superstar (as he puts it even bigger than Tom Cruise). There is a lovely cameo by Bill Murray (Ghostbusters) playing himself, he happens to dress up as a zombie to fit around, and he even joins them re-enacting scenes from Ghostbusters.

Columbus meanwhile is beginning to fall for Wichita, who equally has trust issues, and Tallahassee is still after that Twinky.

It is a hilarious horror-comedy, many will like instantly.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 11/07/2009 02:21:00 AM

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This is a charming fantasy with friends star Matthew Perry, and Zac Efron of High school musical, interchangeably as Mike O’Donnell in the lead roles.

It is a little similar to Big starring Tom Hanks.

We meet Mike 20 years ago about to be signed up to college basketball, but he finds out some news that meant he had to make a choice between his girlfriend Scarlett or his professional dreams.

We fast forward to the present and Mike is a little disappointed in the way his life has turned, as he and his wife Scarlett played by the lovely Leslie Mann (The 40 year old virgin) are facing a divorce, and all Mike can do is reminiscence on how his life could have turned out, in the meantime he crashes at the home of his best friend an extreme dork/geek Ned Gold played hilariously by Thomas Lennon (Reno 911).

Mike happens to bump into a mysterious old man as a janitor played by Brain Doyle-Murray (Bedazzled, looks a little like M.C. Gainey, Tom in Lost), who asks him what he would like to change in his life, he replies if he could go back to high school and do things differently, the Janitor asks him if he is sure, to which to reinforces his wish. Soon afterwards he sees the Janitor leap off a bridge and in the process of trying to save him, finds himself falling down the bridge into a portal, he wakes up in the home of his best friend but inside the body of himself when he was 17.

This is where the fun begins, as he sees this as a chance to be closer to his kids, because he enrols back in his high school, the same high school his kids now go to, Alex and Maggie played by Sterling Knight and Michelle Trachtenberg respectively, there is a funny sequence where he tries to encourage everyone in the class to abstain from sex apart from marriage, whilst not that far away the local troublemaker is kissing his daughter.

He also has to handle his soon to be ex, who finds he looks remarkbly similar to what Mike looked like in high school, when she first meets him as a 17 year old again, she can’t help pulling his face like a plasticine, much to the embarrassment of her friend, and Mike takes this chance at trying a reconciliation with his wife (on his older self’s behalf of course).

His best friend, Ned who now acts as his father also has fallen for the local school principal, Jane Masterson played by the lovely Melora Hardin (The Office), and he is using all his means to get her to at least agree on a date.

It is a charming fantasy, many will sure to reminiscence about their high school years.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 11/04/2009 02:42:00 AM

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This is a lovely movie encompassing sadness, hope and suspense.

It is shot almost as a documentary in the life of one charming Senegalese taxi driver played wonderfully and humanely by Souleymane Sy Savane , who is commonly referred to as Solo.

He is trying to get into flight school, as well as looking after his new wife, adopted daughter and baby on the way.

He happens to come across an elderly gentleman, William played with a great deal of melancholy by Red West (former bodyguard of Elvis) in his cab, who wants him to pick him up on a certain date no questions asked, and take him to “Blow Rock” where he is never coming back all for a considerable amount of money for a taxi driver.

Solo is a little saddened at this, as he says in his country, everybody looks after the elderly, even so much as to put food in their mouths if they have no teeth.

Solo is a little apprehensive, but takes the money, but he is hoping whatever William is planning on doing he can be dissuade him. He reckons he probably just needs a friend to get him to see how much life is worth living, and so Solo takes on the task of being his friend, introducing him to his lovely step daughter Alex played by the adorable Diana Franco Galindo, and his pregnant wife Quiera played by Carmen Leyva who isn’t too pleased with Solo bringing in a stranger into the house.

Solo charms his way into the William’s life, at least the little he knows of it so far, and tries to get William to reveal a little about himself, any family if any, and the reasons why he would like to go to “Blow Rock” and never want to return, Solo tries to get William introduced to his family, his friends and associates, surprisingly the gentleman does seem cordial and sociable at these moments, but there is a deep sadness in his eyes when alone. Just as the audience begins to believe Solo is making headway it suddenly changes, which keeps the suspense enthralling throughout.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 11/02/2009 06:48:00 AM

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This is a wonderful magical fantasy, with an all star cast narrated by Ian Mckellen (Gandalf in Lord of the Rings).

It stars Charlie Cox as Tristan in the middle century, where there is a wall somewhere in England humans are not supposed to cross, in fact there is a 97 year old man played by David Kelly (Charlie and the chocolate factory) who guards it.

It so happens that Tristan’s father Humphrey, played by Nathaniel Parker (Bleak House) 18 years previously had somehow got across from the real world into the fantasy world, and had met a trapped princess, Uma played by the lovely Kate Magowan (Blade 2), they spent the night and 9 months later he was handed a basket containing Tristan.

18 years on in the fantasy world, the king of that kingdom played by the legendary Peter O’Toole (Venus), is facing his death bed, and with his sons he sets a challenge that whosoever can retrieve the fallen star he has just set loose gets to be the new king, all the sons are as ruthless in chasing this just as the king was ruthless against his brothers before he became king, the chief of the king’s sons is Septimus played wonderfully by Mark Strong (RocknRolla).

In the real world Tristan is trying to impress the girl of his dreams, Victoria played by the lovely Sienna Miller (Casanova), but she has a suitor she prefers, and even though she enjoys getting Tristan to do things for her, the love is never returned.

Tristan happens to find out from the 97 year old guard that his father had previously crossed the wall, on confronting his father over this, his father tells him the truth, and shows him the items that came along with Tristan in the basket, one a magical Babylon candle that can transport anyone to wherever they are thinking of going, “the fastest way to travel” as Tristan’s mother puts it, in the letter she left for him in his basket.

Tristan uses the candle and ends up in the fantasy world, where he happens to encounter the fallen star , which apparently is a person called Yvaine in the form of the lovely Claire Danes (Romeo and Juliet). At first Tristan plans to take the star to Victoria in order to get her to marry him, and although they get on awkwardly at first, the inevitable romance soon blossoms, however there is trouble in the form of Michelle Pfeiffer (The Witches of Eastwick) as Lamia, a desperate witch who along with her sisters wants to eat the Star to maintain their immortality.

It is a wonderfully enchanting movie the whole family will enjoy, and many will be surprised by how enjoyable it is.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 11/01/2009 04:02:00 PM

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Movie reviews this week looks at The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard a riotous comedy produced by Will Ferell (Wedding Crashers)

It stars Jeremy Piven (Entourage) as Don Ready, a car sales man that has been brought in by Ben Selleck played by James Brolin (played Ronald Reagan in The Reagans, and father of Josh, he looks remarkably like an older Christian Bale), to help save his business.

Don brings along his team Ving Rhames (Pulp fiction) as Jibby Newsome, David Koechner (Saturday Night Live) as dependable Brent Gage, the lovely Kathryn Hahn (Revolutionary Road) as Babs Merrick.

In his attempt to improve sales they hire a DJ, and advertise the event, and when the day comes Don and his crew are pretty good at delivering at their promises, using every and anything to “Hard sell” people into buying from Selleck’s cars.

However things are not as easy going as Don first thought, as there is a competing car lot, owned by Stu Harding played by Alan Thicke (The Trial of Red Riding Hood), whose son Paxton Harding played by Ed Helms (The Hangover) is chasing a music career with his group “The Bigups” and is a fiance to Tammy, daughter of Ben Selleck played by the lovely Jordana Spiro (My Boys).

Will Ferell makes an appearance as McDermott ill fated friend during a time in Alberquerque.

Don finds out that he would like to settle down rather than be on the road all the time, as expected he soon starts falling for Ivy, but seeing she is already engaged to Paxton, his chances are pretty slim.

It has some classic funny moments, notably including Will Ferell and a sky diving jump, and Babs seducing a man into buying a car by tapping into his fantasy. The always on edge Dick Lewiston played by Charles Napier (Austin Powers 2) who seems to talk about his dislike of others has some memorable scenes, the prelude prior to all the employees picking up on the sole “Japanese” employee Teddy Dang, played by Ken Jeong (his scenes in the hilarious The Hangover has to be seen) is memorable simply for the way Dick stares at him, as Don tries to encourage them for the big sell.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 10/31/2009 02:50:00 PM

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Movie reviews this week looks at the suspense thriller The Assassination of a High School President.

It stars Reece Thompson as Bobby Funke (he constantly has to remind everyone his name is not “funky” but it doesn’t stop anyone from calling him that) and the lovely Mischa Barton (St. Trinians) as Francesca Fachini, the girlfriend of the High School President.

Bobby is trying to write a paper for the local school and from it get acceptance into North Western’s journalist programme, he first has to get the approval of the head columnist Clara played by Melonie Diaz (Be Kind Rewind) who Bobby also likes, but
not as much as he likes the girlfriend of the High School President Patrick Moore played by Paul Taylor, something about this reminds me of “Bart got a room“.

It turns out someone has stolen the entire schools SAT’s from the Principal’s locker, Principal Kirkpatrick a former war veteran who doesn’t waste anytime reminding the students how patriotic it is to fight for one’s country, played hilariously by Bruce Willis (Die Hard). He apparently has a list of the usual suspects, and calls them in, including Bobby, Bobby innocently asks the reason why he has been summoned, to which Principal Kirkpatrick says “for chewing gum”. Apparently Principal Kirkpatrick is a stickler about gum chewing, there is a funny scene where Bobby is trying to convey some important information to the Principal, but replies after a much heated conversation with “is that gum in your mouth“?

Bobby is given an opportunity to find out who stole the school’s SATs by the Principal, and he sees this as his big chance to get into North Western, if he can identify the thief/thieves with a well written story.

Although unrealistic, he takes the role of an investigative journalist, interviewing all the suspects, and they all seem candid, which is a little unrealistic for high school, but that doesn’t ruin a great story.

There is a well played scene, where Bobby is interviewing the little sister of the High School President, Chrissy Moore played by Gabrielle Brennan, she tells him she will tell him all of Patrick’s secrets if he gets her a unicorn, to which he replies unicorns aren’t real, and she makes a scowl pointing at she wants one of the unicorn dolls they are surrounded by.

In his investigations Bobby inevitably gets the attention of the current High School President’s girlfriend, and amazing as it seems she falls for him after his article, much to the surprise of all involved, there is a great scene where he asks her what she sees in him, to which she replies she gets the feeling he would still look at her in the same way if there was no school.

He also interviews the Vice-President played by Luke Grimes (Ryan Lafferty in Brothers and Sisters), the half-brother of Francesca, who seems at first to have no problems with Byron going out with his half-sister.

It is an interesting story, focusing on the challenges of high school for acceptance, and getting along with those who are popular. It also has a few unforeseen twists and plots that makes it that little bit more interesting, and Bobby gets to find out that not everything is what it seems.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 10/30/2009 10:24:00 PM

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Movie reviews this week looks at the ecological suspense thriller The Day After Tomorrow with Dennis Quaid (Inner Space) as a climatologist Jack Hall, who for years has been warning the U.S. government and the world in general that its’ reliance on fossil fuels is causing a great deal of harm to the planet (a couple of years before Al Gore’s Oscar winning An inconvenient truth).

His estimations of a global disaster from global warming which would usher in another ice age, which he predicts as a best guess estimate certainly not in his lifetime, that polar melting with disrupt the North Atlantic current, suddenly escalates to the present, with an ice age hitting the vast majority of America, and Jack in a desperate rush against time to save his son Sam Hall played by Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), who is trapped in New York, which unfortunately is at the epicentre of this ice age.

This is one of the first movies to highlight the environment impact of our reliance on fossil fuels, with several scenes to ponder the potential disaster on our hands, one of these is a helicopter going over Scotland that suddenly just freezes at minus 150 degrees Fahrenheit and there is a great scene, where Jack has been telling the scientific community would happen albeit with some scoffing, that the sun would accelerate the rapid decline in temperature to beyond freezing point, immediately freezing structures, and anything that happens to pass within the rays of the sun at that particular time, unfortunately he gets to witness this phenomenon first hand in a desperate race against time to find shelter while everything around him freezes as the sun comes up.

There is also an unforgettable scene as the Tower of Liberty freezes solid.

Not only does he have to breach the bitter cold, he also has to fend off dogs that have gone insane from hunger, looking for anything warm blooded to eat, ergo any humans they can find.

We find out that Jack feels he has let down his son a little, and this journey to find him is something he has to do to make up for their relationship, there is a brilliant conversation at the beginning, where Jack finds out Sam has failed Calculus, and Sam replies he got every question right, and the only reason the lecturer failed him was because he didn’t write out the solutions but did it instead in his head, Jack asks him if he told the lecturer, he told him he did, but the lecturer said if he couldn’t do it in his head neither could Sam.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 10/25/2009 10:37:00 PM

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