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I cannot wait for Kick Ass. That trailer gets me more pumped.. AND it comes out on my birthday. WIN.
 
Ghost

Hmm.. I liked it, it was different, but I don't think it lived up to my expections. Don't get me wrong, it was better than average, the storyline was interesting, and the acting was great, but something just seemed missing to me.

A good way of showing that karma is a bitch, though.

7/10
 
Went to take (the now infamous) 11yearoldsiblingofNeal to see How to train your Dragon yesterday. And all I can say is WOW! Actual WOW!

Totally amazed me beyond all belief, I didn't really know anything about this film and wasn't expecting anything either being Dreamworks - it was just a film to go and see because he wanted to and I'm a kind and loving older brother.

This film totally pisses over ANYTHING Pixar has done to date and rocketed straight to my #1 CGI Animation!

The room was packed and the audience (understandably) was <13 year olds with parent(s). And I must say, I've never seen such a widespread appreciation for a children's film before! The parents awwwww'd, the kids laughed - good fun was had by everyone.

I thought it was genius! Easily the best film of the year so far - and only the 6th film to get a 10/10 from me!
 
Alice in Wonderland- 1933

UH, SCARY! My mom got it for me as one of my Easter basket presents (yes, I still get Easter baskets, yay), and so I put it on just an hour or so ago, not knowing that I'd be traumatized forever after the viewing. No, but seriously, it was made in 1933 so the effects and sets weren't very good, but the costumes are what was terrifying, even my little sister came into my room and quckly went out after seeing the Tweedles dancing around. It didn't really seem to have a storyline, and was just a bunch of nonsense, and though I'm glad I watched it, I don't think I'd watch it again, if only because of how scary it was :p .

I can't really rate it because it's so old, but it was interesting..
 
Watched two films late, late, late last night:

Law Abiding Citizen was quite a good film. It seemed to start out like an extended CSI or American crime/investigation show, but later lost this idea and became quite good. The story was very good, with some complexities and was quite enthralling. It was quite a good film, but by no means amazing.

7.5/10

Adventureland was a film off my list (only as I wanted to see it, not that I needed to see it badly...). It was ok, mildly amusing, and fun to look at all the rides and be geeky. It was by no means a great film, in fact, the plot became a bit sub-sided and boring at times, but the attractive females kept me glued to the screen. It was ok.

6.5/10

EDIT - Upon reflection, my Kick Ass rating has gone up from 8 to 9 :)

Also, this movie looks epic, wouldn't you agree?


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVvuoz2HjwM[/youtube]
 
^It looks good in a sort of... funny, light-hearted way. It'll be good the same way that The Pacifier was good. Really entertaining and a good laugh, but not actually a great film.
 
^It's probably still miles better than some of the **** that gets released...

Pacifier was decent, as was Game Plan... Think it's because the leads didn't mind taking the mick out of themselves...
 
I took Maxi-Minor_Furie with me to see How to Train your Dragon

I will semi-agree with Neal.

It's a brilliant bit of kids entertainment. Everyone enjoyed the film, it was well accomplished and well paced.

However, it's was utterly predictable, formulaic and unchallenging. Within five minutes of the film starting, I'd already mapped the entire story out. There wasn't a single surprise in the entire film.

This is where Pixar excel. For the most part, you don't know quite where the story is going, or what will happen at the end. You're constantly being asked to appraise the situation and are left suspended quite often waiting for resolution.

HTTYD just falls into the very simple plot contrivances we've seen thousands of times before in a kids film. Protagonist fights all odds to become a hero and challenge/change his world. Big fight at the end and a perfunctory sad bit. Compared to this, Avatar looks complex!

As I say though, it's a fantastic bit of entertainment. Some ropey accents here and there, but the individual scenes are generally very nice. The characters engage you and it's all good - you just feel that maybe you've (Lilo) seen it (and) somewhere (Stitch) before...

So yeah, it's an above average, formulaic kids film. Maxi-Minor_Furie enjoyed it, but nowhere near as much as he has enjoyed the majority of Pixar films. So it's good (kept him in his seat), but not great (he rarely laughed out loud or shook with excitement).

8/10 if you're watching it for the kids, 7/10 if you're watching a kids film for you.
 
Because I should probably do a review of it after the third viewing, I saw [snip]Dragon!.

Incredibly enjoyable, beautiful, and the flying sections are far better than Avatar's. The script was surprisingly witty, the score is heaven (LEAD SINGER OF SIGUR RÓS DID THE CREDITS CHOON!!) and my favourite (and the best) Dreamworks animated filum. I suppose I can't say much more than I've seen it 3 times and will be seeing it at least once more :D

Lovely retelling of the Monomyth, for all you narrative-nerds out there (apparently there are a few?(!)). I think it's a good thing if you know what's going to happen, but care about it anyway? Well-trodden stories ftw :p
 
I thought HTTY Dragon had some fantastic visuals, with excellent animation, and was a huge leap forward for Dreamworks towards the quality of Pixar.

I particularly liked the non-verbal communication between Hiccup and Toothless - very hard to get right, and they nailed it! So much better than if they'd made Toothless a "talking dragon" *shudder*.

BUT they failed at an essential hurdle - they decided they were making a "family animation", wimped-out and neutered the delivery. Hence cuddly dragon types, soft Scottish voices for soft Vikings, stereotypical plotting etc. This undermines Hiccup and the impact of the film overall.

Pixar make family films that just happen to be through the medium of animation - they DO NOT settle for making "family animations" (hence the power of WALL-E and Up).

Dreamworks need to make that final step and treat their animated works as films foremost - then they might get even closer to Pixar.

I still enjoyed it though :).
 
Clash of the Titans 3D:

First off I don't know how they can sell this as 3D. It was barely noticeable at all. Only really the first 10 minutes or so and then after that it just seemed like a 2D movie.

The film was alright. Nothing amazing though. The CGI was good but nothing more than what's been done a thousand times before.

It seemed very long and draw out which got kinda boring after a while and after all that the whole climax of the film was over really quickly.
Also during some of the fight scenes you can tell who is who. It's cutting so quickly and it's all blurry so you don't know who got killed or thrown in front of the camera until it finishes and you can have a look at them. You don't really care for the characters either, they all feel so false and the acting is nothing amazing either.

It's alright to probably take kids too as they'll probably think it's 'cool' but as a film it's not really worth seeing that much. But if you do see it in 2D as you'll basically be seeing it in that even if you go to the 3D viewing.
5/10

Also for some reason we got put into one of the smaller screens of the cinema which meant it was packed and we had to pay extra for luxury seats and ended up right in the back corner which meant the whole film was viewed looking sideways. Also sitting next to us we had a kid who kept talking and coughing, a guy on his phone and people walking in and out to go to the loo. It annoys me when people do that in films.
 
I think it's safe to say that Neal exaggerates in his view of How to train your dragon. Furie, however, hits the nail on the head....

How to train your dragon

Now those that know me will know my huge hatred of Dreamworks animations. I thought I'd give this one a go though as Dragons are cool and how can they mess up a film about Dragons?

I think the film is good, an enjoyable fair for kids. Did it make me laugh? No, apart from at the end when some lady burst into tears of laughter at...

The kids metal leg at the end of the film

So, it was her laughter that set me off, not the actual film.

The animation was good and yes it was enjoyable but as mentioned, it is far too predictable and not as good as say...a Pixar film? :p The 3D was actually quite decent though.

Rating: 3.5/5
 
You need to open yourself up (haha) to accept new thing dude. Stop simply slating different things just because, well, because.

The first sentence of your review makes your opinion null and void.
 
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