Movie Reviews.

Movie: Angels and Demons (based on the book of same name by Dan Brown)
Director: Ron Howard
Time: ~140mins
Rating: ***
Genre: Drama/Mystery/Thriller.
Cast: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer (Munich).

Same production crew, writers, directors, producers etc as the DVC. So if you hated the DVC I would recommend you reconsidering going to see this. But for those who loved the DVC and loved A&D as a book, which to me was a far superior piece of litereature, will love this movie. It is set amongst the fabulous Vatican City and Rome with stunning sets and breathtaking scenary.

The plot is basically as the book is, which is pretty good considering there is a lot of detail in Dan Brown's novels, lots of depth and meat to work with. Ron Howard did a good job in working through the material, knowing what parts to really focus on and what to leave out. There were some moments that dragged a little where it didn't need too. I thought the end was a little draggy, as I found with the book, it is a little predictable (well to me anyway).

Overall I couldn't stop staring at Tom Hank's intolerable frown for the first 25 minutes of the movie, it was giving me a migraine. The stunning talent of Zurer was a nice counteracting feature to the constant frown of Tom Hanks. I would have given it 5 stars if they just let things flow a little better, it became a little farsicle in the thrilling aspect where the element of time in the movie was played with so much that things became unrealistic, where in the book I found myself on a constant stream of time.

I think it is a movie I will watch again, maybe as a curl up with a blanky and a cup of tea afternoon DVD. It was a nice bit of escapism!

Thanks for that Karl. Been trying to figure if I should go see that one.

I'm not going into as much detail on here as you did, But the new Star Trek movie. In a word awesome. If you are a hardcore Treky there are lots of little quirky lilnes that refer to the old movies and such, but that are funny just as they are even if you dont get them. Non stop action, and a huge range of random actors. Even Simon Pegg makes an apparence! Legendary.

Story line is good, and finally a movie where the CGI isnt the main feature. Lots of great action and all round fun.

I'd give this a 8/10 stars. Certainly a DVD on the shelf once it comes out.

Have to agree with you Rikki. I saw Star Trek on Saturday night as my husband was hanging out to see it and I was pleasantly surprised, thought it was great. Did you know that Captain Kirk's father at the beginning was Chris Hemsworth who left Home & Away about a year or so ago to try Hollywood and the evil Nero was played by Eric Bana. It was so hard to look at Spock played by Zachary Quinto as he plays the very evil Sylar in Heroes and those eyes can chill you to the bone when he splits people's heads open lol.

There was a big surprise in the movie but I won't give that away. Yep 8/10 from me. Thanks for the heads up on Angels and Demons Karl.

Anyone on here seen Crank with Jason Statham? Because if you liked it, believe me you will love the sequel, Crank 2 High Voltage!!! One of the most deranged but best movies i have seen in ages.

Unfortunately it doesnt come out here till 20th Aug..but i tell you its right out there!

Cool Anthony, how have you seen it? Are you overseas?

No Jake i downloaded it..

Well there we go... See, I can get dumb sometimes

Been wanting to watch Demons and Angels. Unfotunetaley my movie watching has been resulting to downloading the movies LOL. Life as a Mum! My hubby has a somewhat taste for dodgy B-grade movies to which can be quite hilarious or dreadful and the recent "dodgy" movie viewed was Lesbian Vampire Killers.

Great movie for a popcorn night full of laughter of classic Pomy humour and guys some nice eye candy as well. As for the title there isnt any girly action But just complete one liners and laughter. Critcis would give this movie prolly a 1/5 score to which prompts me to watch it more since I would enjoy it, so I would give it a 3/5 for a laugh.

Going to see Terminator Salvation gold class tomorrow night. Has anyone seen it yet? Have free tickets for Angels & Demons so still have to see that

I loved Angels and Demons. It was really good and just the full dramatic time I had at the cinema was great.

Have fun river, I wish I could go to 'Gold Class' lol

Movie: Terminator Salvation
Director: McG
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington
Genre: Action, adventure, sci fi, thriller
Rating: ****

Plot: After Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust, a group of survivors led by John Connor struggles to keep the machines from finishing the job

Action all the way as I expected. Bale and Worthington did a great job. My husband thought that Terminator is going the way of the James Bond movies in making them more real which isn't a bad thing. We both loved the movie. Arnie even made an appearance courtesy of CGI. The dialogue at the end was a bit predictable and maybe a tad corny but all in all a great action film. Comes pretty close to my favourite, Terminator 2 which I've probably seen over 20 times

Hope you get to go to Gold Class one day Power Storm, it's the way to go.

I have heard a lot of fabulous things about Terminator so I am putting that on my to do list!!! Thanks Robyn.

Hey guys/gals!

I highly reccomend the new Transformers Movie (Revenge of the Fallen). It is an action paced movie right throughout and rates a 5/5 for me, IMO better then the first one. So if you liked the first one, you will love the second one!

Thanks Jake I saw the first one and loved it and can't wait to see this one. Will be going next Saturday night. Thanks for the thumbs up. Looks awesome from the previews.

Movie: The Proposal
Director:
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Time: 120 minutes
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds (Just Friends, Definitely Maybe)
Rating: ***

Not much to really review here because if you have seen the previews to this movie, it is pretty much a romantic cliche all the way through.

Margret (Sandra Bullock) is a middle aged, high powered editor of a leading publishing agency in New York city. Her assistant is Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) an aspiring author who has high hopes of one day becoming editor in the firm however getting there is not easy and knows he will have to anything to get there, meaning meeting any demand his boss throws at him

Things take a twist when Margaret is called into a meeting with the directors, where it is revealed there is one thing she cannot control, her VISA expiring. She is told that she is too loose her job and ship back to Canada, the last thing she wants. As Margaret's future seems set in stone, Andrew walks in to pass on a message to the directors, when Margaret realises he is her way out.

From there she announces to the directors of the company that she is to wed Andrew after having a secret relationship for the past '3yrs'. Not totally convincing the directors, she is however given time to take her budding fiance to the immigration offices downtown to announce that she is to marry.

There she meets the cliche egotistical immigraton officer (Denis O'Hare) who turns this movie on it's head when he backs the two aspiring lovers into a corner where they declare that they are to announce to Andrew's family that they are to wed, meaning that the city slick Margaret is off to the cold country of Alaska.

From there the film takes a twist and turn through themes explored in other movies such as '

The devil wears Prada Meet the Parents which is all good fun because both those movies have a natural way of making you laugh at life.

Overall Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds do a good job on a script that is at times a little lack lustre and drawn out. The natural ability of both to evoke chemistry and for the audience to beleive that is quite exceptional.

It is a chick flick however and I must say I enjoyed it, despite the length of the movie.

Watch out for the stripping scene with Sandra Bullock being placed in a 'hair raising' situation and for a few fabulously funny cameos of the great golden girl Betty White.

Fun for a girls night out and for the boys, it is not so bad so if you want some browny points I recommend this one

Star Trek

Star Trek is the eleventh film in the series and the storyline concerns a Romulan captain named Nero played by Eric Bana who wants to exact his revenge on Spock since he fails to save his home world of Romulus, while that goes on we also see the beginnings of a man named James T. Kirk and a ship named Enterprise.

Now here is where I have to go against the grain in regards to the response to this picture: Star Trek to me was a big disappointment, but it was not a total letdown as I did laugh at places, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg and Zoë Saldana are terrific in their roles and the pre credits sequence actually did rise up to the level of emotional depth that Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan had and it also did remind me of “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one” from that film.

But unfortunately the movie as a whole simply didn’t work for me, I thought it was too long, too repetitive with the special effects, wobble cam and snappy one liners and it all just for me at least got to a point where I was like okay, so what, big deal and I honestly don’t care any more.

So in closing, Star Trek scrapes through with a 2 and a half out of 5.

Well you have saved me two hours of my life DE. I was skeptical of the movie and now I will see why!!

Thanks DE!!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the second movie in the Transformers series and this time the Autobots have formed an alliance with a secret division of the US military to weed out any remaining Decepticons after the destruction of the all spark at the end of the first film, but when Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers a shard of it while moving to college, the race is on to find it and set about an ancient prophecy.

Now, I have to say that Revenge of the Fallen was a big letdown overall; don’t get me wrong it was nice to see the return of Frank Welker as Soundwave, who nicely channels Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, a voice I thought I would never hear on the big screen and I loved Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and the fight sequence in the forest with Prime taking on Megatron, Starscream and Grindor all at once is wonderful.

But even with all those positives, sadly I can’t summon up any enthusiasm for this movie as a whole, as it was far too long by at least 45 minutes, I still wish that Welker had been given his rightful place as the voice of Megatron, there was no real through line to the story as it felt scattered and in the end, all it did was signify sound and fury and special effects and lots of money that ended up not having any heart or emotion to it, as even the movie’s best moment comes undone by the end.

As for my final rating, I’m going to give this 2 out of 5 due to the positives above but apart from that, there wasn’t much to this movie at all that warrants an immediate ticket purchase and after last year’s The Dark Knight, this is a real shame.

Just saw Transformers at Knox. Definitely full of action. I'll never look at the pyramids in Egypt in the same light again lol. IMHO I would definitely rate it more than 2 out of 5.

yeah agree with DarkEye for transformers: ROTF
I do like the relationship between megatron and starscream reminded me of the cartoon days, esp. when megatron calls out for starscream when his getting beaten up, goes to show that megatron really does need him
Other than the corny parts and eventual parts of visual rest (which was more likely during the corny parts) lol
I would go 3/5

I'm interested by the views on Transformers on here that it has now warranted me to go and see it. Thanks for the reviews.

But firstly I am off to see Bruno tonight and I think I will be laughing a lot through the movie. Will review later on for all

Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation stars Australian Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, a killer on death row who mysteriously wakes up in 2018, after Skynet has become self aware and wiped out most of the human race, save for a resistance movement led by Michael Ironside and among them, a soldier named John Connor, played by Christian Bale.

And now to be the bearer of bad news, Terminator Salvation is not only awful, but it is also dull and it makes no sense within the context of the story of the future told in James Cameron’s Terminator movies, which were so much better than this because they actually made you give a crap about what’s happening on screen as well as delivering exciting action scenes, which is all this was, non stop action scenes that don’t mean a damn thing.

But that’s not all folks, not only did it remind me of Mad Max 2 with how Wright is portrayed in some scenes as well as in some of the camera angles and lifting a truck chase right out of it but it also reminded me of the feelings I had after watching 2003’s Rise of the Machines, the previous film in the series, for like that film, I was left with overall feelings of bitter disappointment, anger and sadness.

In closing, I have to give this a 1 out of 5, now I’m sorry I really am if the review you have read has undertones of anger in it but this really was that type of cinema experience where you come out of it and you feel sad, angry and disappointed, you’re just far better off spending the time required to watch this film appreciating the company of that special someone, be it a friend, a family member or the person you love and if you do, show them the first two Terminator films instead, you’ll feel much better for it.

Give transformers a go Karl, I reccomend it, and you will either like it or hate it.... Have fun tonight, is that movie R rated (Bruno), damn, that means I cannot see it at the movies, everyone has been telling me it looks real funny!

I want to revive this thread to let you guys know about a new movie I'm really looking forward to: Avatar.

The reason being that it's directed by James Cameron, who made Terminator 1 and 2 and Aliens, it's not out until December but I can't wait to see it.

Sorry if this is slightly off topic but I've added the link to my reviews blog (click on the little globe).