It tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world, where humanity has all been wiped out by the machines it created to help them, and the only remnants of humanity are stored in little gingerbread man toys, fabricated from clothing, buttons zips, and any material lying about the house, and designated numbers for each one made as their names, our protagonist is number nine.

It stars the voices of Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) as Nine, Christopher Plummer (Dolores Clairbone) as One, the lovely Jennifer Connelly (A beautiful mind) as Seven, John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Five, Marin Landau (Ed Wood) as Two, and Crispin Glover (Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle) as Six.

We join our protagonist Nine as he awakens to life, without a voice, looking at his make-up consisting of house-hold items, old cloths, and a zipper which he is conscious of opening (which is a little strange, seeing that there is nothing inside), he sees a little talisman with strange objects on it and picks it up, puts it in his body, and goes out onto the world. The world is typical of a post-apocalyptic version, machinery strewn everywhere, and crumbled buildings littering the streets. He happens to bump into Two, who fixes his voice, and in so doing sees the talisman Nine has brought along with him, but just as Two is about to take him to a sanctuary, there are attacked by a malevolent machine, seizing Two and taking him away to it’s lair, along with the much prized talisman.

As Nine tries to figure out how to save his new found friend, he meets others like himself, led by the careful One, and his body guard, who charades Nine for getting himself in trouble, there is a great exchange between Nine and One the voice of experience and survival, with the voice of youth and adventure. Despite One’s warnings, Nine manages to convince Five to join him on a quest to save Two, it seems a daunting prospect, such small beings against a much powerful and stronger malevolent force, on their journey, they find out that the talisman is a lot more powerful than they ever thought, but is there any hope for them or their remnants?

This is a very enjoyable animated feature film, with brilliant scenery throughout, and a gripping storyline equally well suited to children as well as adults, with the suspense beautiful captured especially for an animated movie.

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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 10/10/2009 02:11:00 PM

The story surrounds Jason Tripitikas played by Michael Angarano(24, Will and Grace) being bullied by a gang, and his love of Kung fu movies, which he rents from an elderly Old Hop(Jackie Chang), during one particular night, Old Hop is robbed, and in the event of trying to protect Old Hop, he gets hold of an old staff, which transports him into the realm of the magical Forbidden Kingdom, where an evil Jade Warlord played by well known Kung fu Star Collin Chou. The Jade Warlord has taken over the Forbidden Kingdom while the King of Heaven is away.

This magical kingdom has a select number of Immortals, who cannot be killed except by a jade poison dart. It turns out that there was an immortal a Monkey King(also played by Jet Li), who had been challenged to a duel by the evil Jade Warlord, who was growing increasingly bitter over the favouritism shown to the Monkey King by the King of Heaven, as the King of Heaven left the Forbidden Kingdom into the hands of the Jade Warlord until his return, the Jade Warlord saw the opportunity to end the Monkey King once and for all, by attempting to kill him during the duel, just in time before he is killed the Monkey King freezes into stone, and sends out his magical staff out of the Forbidden Kingdom, and a prophecy was born that one will come that will return the Monkey King’s staff to the rightful owner.

Our young protagonist suddenly finds himself in the Forbidden Kingdom, where he, Lu Yan, his associate Golden Sparrow played by the lovely Yifei Liu and a monk known as The Silent Monk (also played by Jet Li) have to get the staff to the Monkey King, however he is still immortalised in stone, in the lair of the Jade King.

The cinematography gives the impression of being in a fantasy world, where everything is possible.

It has some classic funny moments, especially where Lu Yan is trying to summon rain while the stern faced Silent Monk makes a mockery of his attempt.

This is a great action movie with fantastic comedy moments, and the fans are no doubt clamouring for a sequel.

It again stars Keanu Reeves(Point Break, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) as Neo, Laurence Fishburne(Apocalypse Now) as Morpheus, Carrie Ann Moss(Memento) as Trinity

The war with the A.I. is reaching it’s climax, the last human fortress Zion is under attack by the machines, and unless our protagonists can do something, their life and civilisation will be wiped out.

The antagonist, Agent Smith played by Hugo Weaving(Lord of the rings: The Fellowship of the ring) has somehow managed to get his personality out into the real world, while in the Matrix like a malevolent virus he has taken over everyone, and is waiting for Neo to turn up for their final encounter.

We learn a little about the unfolding in the life of the real world for Morpheus, Neo and Trinity, with people constantly wanting something from Neo in the real world, keeping him away from Trinity more than he would like, to send messages to their loved ones, whose minds haven’t been “unplugged” yet, to constantly protecting his friends and companions from Agents, who like regular software have been given upgrades to combat the threat of Neo. The complicated relationship between Morpheus and his lost love Niobe played by the wife of Will Smith (who was the original choice to play Neo by the Wachowski brothers) Jada-Pinkett Smith is developed a little further.

Less time is given to the other A.I. as was done in the previous sequel, and instead focuses on the main thrust of the story, the war between civilisation and the A.I. and if Neo, Morpheus and Trinity have any say on how it will all end.

The suspense that has been building up for a few years since the original Matrix is well played upon, and the conclusion is a fitting end to the roller coaster of cinematic vision and innovation that hasn’t captured the minds of many movie goers since.

Many saw this final sequel as redeeming some of the disappointments some of the fans saw in the second sequel, and it is not an underestimation to say the Matrix trilogy is to the current I.T. and Internet savvy generation what Star Wars was, to the generation of the late 70’s and 80’s.

The directors Andy and Larry Wachowski better known as the Wachowski brothers have reportedly refused to do any interviews about The Matrix or it’s sequels, possibly to continue and preserve it’s cult status.

As with many sequels, there are never as critically acclaimed or well received by the fans as the originals, and this is no exception. That said for cult fan status it was a long wait, with a superb teaser trailer broadcast during the Super Bowl, that had many fans salivating. This sequel did reveal a little bit more about the composition of the real world our protagonists lived in and the Matrix world the frequented.

In this sequel we are introduced to a whole other A.I. living in the Matrix, Persephone played by the beautiful Monica Bellucci(The brothers Grimm) and her husband Merovingian played by Lambert Wilson(The Lazarus Project, Babylon A.D.), and The Oracle was also revealed as another system of control, unfortunately the original actress Gloria Foster who played The Oracle, died soon after completing her scenes.

Morpheus believing a prophecy told to him by the Oracle, that getting Neo to the source will end the war and set them free from the A.I., along with Trinity try to get Neo to the location of the source, battling some nifty Programs along the way, a pair of them having the ability to move through objects and other people(which is plausible as no one in the Matrix is really flesh and bone, but a kind of simulation).

The Wachowski brothers on the few times they did talk about The Matrix, said they always wanted to make a movie that combined their love of Kung-Fu and the Martial Arts with Science Fiction, and The Matrix captures this beautifully.

The interesting thing about the Matrix and it’s sequels is the hidden meanings littered throughout every scene, going back to look at various scenes again, and reading up about it, the hidden religious references combining key aspects of the world’s major religions is quite interesting, from the “Know thyself” writing when Neo first meets The Oracle to his first encounter with The Oracle’s protector Seraph played by Collin Chou(The Forbidden Kingdom, DOA: Dead or Alive) (apparently The Wachowski brothers tried to get Kung-Fu legend and three times Chinese high kick champion Jet Li to play _ but he declined indicating he didn’t want people to ignore the storyline and focus that he is in the movie)telling Neo “you never truly know anyone until you fight them“.

It stars Keanu Reeves(Point Break, Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure) as Neo/Mr Anderson(apparently Will Smith(Independence Day, I. Robot) was asked by the Wachowski brothers to play Neo, but he declined the role saying he wasn’t mature enough as an actor to carry out the role), an I.T. guy seemingly bored with his existence, he is contacted by the mysterious Morpheus played by Laurence Fishburne(Apocalypse Now), wanted by many for alledgedly terrorist activities.

It turns out that Neo isn’t really living in the real world at all, but under slavery, as he and the rest of humanity are under, being hooked up to a machine, providing life source for A.I(Artificial intelligence) that has taken over the planet over a war with humanity, leaving only a few renegades to continue the war against the A.I.

As Morpheus succinctly puts it “What if you were in a dream you couldn’t wake up from, how would you know what is real and what is not?”.

This all makes sense at this point, because as a prelude to this mind boggling discovery, there was an action sequence, where Trinity played by Carrie-Anne Moss(Memento) runs away from a couple of agents, into a phone box, and whilst she has the ear-piece of the phone to her ears, one of the agents runs down the phone box with a truck, with Trinity’s body nowhere to be found in or around the phone box after this encounter(apparently after showing that ten-minute action sequence to their executive producers, they signed up immediately).

Morpheus has been told a prophecy by the Oracle played by Gloria Foster that he will find The One that will put an end to the slavery and set humanity free from A.I., and he believes Neo is that one, however Neo needs some convincing, especially as Morpheus, Trinity and a host of others take him to see the Oracle, to see what predictions she has in store for him.

During this scene an interesting occurrence takes place, that just separates The Matrix from just another science fiction movie, Neo sees a black cat, and sees the cat again, he mutters to himself “deja vu”, immediately everybody in the entourage tenses up and he is asked what he saw, he relays what he saw, and everyone finds a hiding place, weapons at the ready, with Trinity explaining to Neo that deja vu happens when the A.I. change something in the Matrix, and sure enough the antagonist Agent Smith played magnificently by Hugo Heaving(Lord of the rings: The fellowship of the ring), is just around the corner.

It is a ground-breaking story line coupled with some superb action sequences, with great twists along the way makes for a classic science fiction movie.

It stars Tom Hanks as a prison guard Paul Edgecomb, and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey a mysterious gentle giant of a fellow from the deep south at the turn of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately for John Coffey there has been a murder of two little girls, and when John is found holding on to the two girls and crying, he is assumed the culprit, and he is tried, convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair in the infamous “Green mile” prison.

What some of the people in the town and notably those in the “Green Mile” prison quarters are about to find out, especially the prison guards is that he has the magic of healing, he proves this on a mouse, who has been stomped on by the jail antagonist “Wild Bill” Wharton whose hero is “Wild Bill” Hitchcock and would not tolerate having anyone say a negative word against him, played by Sam Rockwell(Charlie’s Angels). John breathes on the mouse until its tail begins to twitch again with life, but there is an after effect, whenever he heals someone or something, he has to release the bad energy out of himself somehow.

It turns out that the prison warden, Warden Moores played by james Cromwell(L.A. Confidential) has a sick wife Melinda played by Patricia Clarkson (I must say watching her recently in Phoebe in Wonderland she looks exactly the same as she did almost ten years ago), and when John’s healing ability is discovered, after helping Paul with an embarrassing problem, he proposes that John pays a visit to the Warden’s wife, albeit not telling the Warden at all, only the fellow prison guards who all agree to ship him out at night.

Paul believes in his innocence, and in turn so do the other prison guards, Brutus “Brutal” Howell played by the stalwart David Morse(The Negotiator, Twelve Monkeys), Dean Stanton played by Barry Pepper(Saving Private Ryan) who all see John Coffee’s behaviour for themselves and realise he cannot hurt a fly, but is there anything he can do to prevent John Coffee from “riding the light” i.e. the electric chair?

This is a lovely science fiction and fantasy movie, with some unforeseen twists, and viewers will not miss the symbolism of John Coffey whose name is an acronym of Jesus Christ.

It stars Kristen Stewart unrecognisable from The Cake Eaters, as Bella Swan anxious to get away from her erratic hovering mother and new boyfriend as they go on tour, while she moves to a new school as she stays with her father the local sheriff Charlie Swan played by Billy Burke(Untraceable, 24, Party of Five).

We immediately get the father daughter type of relationship Bella has with her father, as Bella voice-overs “The great thing about Charlie is he doesn’t hover” as he shows her her room. In her new school she is introduced to as the new plaything, since she is joining half way through term, and quickly makes friends with amongst others the lovely Jessica Stanley played by Anna Kendrick(her smile is enough to brighten up any room).

As Bella settles in her new surroundings she gets reacquainted with some friends she knew when she was younger and stayed with her father, one being the charming Billy Black played by Gil Birmingham(Body and Soul), there is a particular funny scene where Bella’s father buys an old vehicle from him for her, at first Bella looks at it as a worthless piece of junk, but then realises the potential it could have, and can’t wait to test drive it, while Billy Black mentions to Charlie “I’m down with the kids“.

A few days into her new school she sees the Cullens, and takes a particular fancy to Edward Cullen played wonderfully by Robert Pattison(Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). There is a particular charming scene when they first meet in a class lab, many angst ridden teenager will identify with, having to get along even though they maybe a little bit embarrassed, that particular scene of their first encounter is beautiful shot, and is probably a major reason why many teenagers identify with it.

She finds out there are some rumours going on about the Cullens, and her curiosity gets the better of her, leading to some unexpected consequences.

It is a charming movie right down to the infectious opening soundtrack, and I can’t wait for the sequel.

It stars as usual Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine, Liev Schrieber(Scream, Defiance, looks very much like Balthazar Getty from Brothers and Sisters, for a short while in Series 3 of Brothers and Ssisters Balthazar Getty took a short break, I was thinking for a second maybe he took a short break to make this movie) as his sadistic brother Victor/Sabretooth.

Danny Huston(How to lose friends and alienate people) as the younger William Stryker. Will i Am (the lead singer from the Black Eye Peas, looks very much like Edi Gathegi from Twilight) as John Wraith, the lovely Lynn Collins with her mesmerising blue eyes as Kayla Silverfox, Kevin Durand(Martin Keamy in Lost) as the powerful Fred Dukes. Dominic Monaghan (Charlie Pace in Lost, Merry in Lord of the Rings) as the electronic whizz kid Bolt, Taylor Kitsch as the legendary Remy LeBeau/Gambit. Daniel Henney as the super accurate Agent Zero, and Ryan Reynolds(Blade Trinity) as lightning fast Wade Wilson(all the movies I have seen him in so far he never stops talking, theres a funny scene where this is hinted at).

Wolverine and his brother are recruited into an elite military team sent to Africa for an artefact, and in the process we get introduced to the other mutants and their powers.

The legendary Stan Lee is the executive producer and as any Marvel production the action is non stop.

There is a little scene reminiscent of Superman where Logan is found in a barn by an elderly couple.

Ofcourse we also meet some of the Marvel characters one of my favorites and the one of the least talked about Gambit, played by Taylor Kitsch I for one hope he gets his own spinoff, the action scenes where he polarises objects in his encounter with Wolverine is superb.

Hopefully there will be a further two installments and I can’t wait for more origins for the other Marvel comic characters.

We join our protagonists Claire “Bear” Bennet played by the lovely Hayden
Panetierre(Malcolm in the middle) those lovely clear hazel eyes, and baby soft
cheeks can do no wrong, her foster father Noah Bennet aka “man with the horn
rimmed glasses” played by Jack Coleman(Spawn) who is trying to play it straight
this time with his wife Sandra Bennet played by Ashley Crow(American Dreamz),
Hiro Nakamura(Masi Oka, a local Japanese would be able to tell that he speaks
japanese with a slight accent) with his hilarious sidekick Ando Masahashi(James
Kyson Lee) there is a hilarious segment where Ando has to make a face to keep a
baby quiet, priceless, Mohinder Suresh played by Sendhil Ramamurthy(was in an
episode of Grey’s anatomy, and studied drama in England as part of the Ryal
Shakepeare Society hence the english accent) senator Nathan Petrelli played by
Adrian Pasdar(Carlito’s way, Top Gun), and his difficult relationship with his
younger sibling Peter Petrelli played by Milo Ventimiglia(Rocky Balboa, many may
have seen his father John ventimiglia the chef in the Sopranos) watched over my
their mother Angela Petrelli played by Cristine Rose(almost didn’t recognise her
in He’s just not that into you), the clarificaiton on exactly her powers are
elaborated a little in this series, there is a surprise for mind reader Matt
Parkman played by Greg Grunberg(Mission Impossible 3, Hollow man) in more ways
than one, we also get to meet Micah Sanders again played by Noah Gray-Gabey
whose in for quite a surprise, the Haitian played by Jimmy Jean-Louis(must be
seen in Diary of a tired blackman, he is fluent in five languages, and you can
tell he was a model) meets his nemesis.

This series starts off with a formula that can give powers to anybody, half of the formula was
guarded by Hiro’s father which is now in the charge of Hiro, but you just know
some villain may get their hands on it and it will be up to our protagonists and
their associates to save the world.
There is the usual mix of heroes and villains, and it is always fascinating to
find out what new characters may popup and more imporantly just what their
ability(as Sylar likes to put it) is, and if Sylar(playing the young Spock in
the new Star Trek movie, and I must admit he has an uncanny resemblance to a
young Leonard Nimoy) will finally get his comeuppance, we get to see Elle Bishop
played by Kristin Bell(pretty hilarious in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, particular
in one scene where she attacks the spiritual values of her boyfriend played by
Russell Brand).